Aidan’s eyes widened and his body became tense, which was his immediate reaction from learning about yet another living weapon that was right under his nose. His silence unnerved Emma, making her wish she could hear what was going on inside his brain.
“Don’t kill her,” Emma said, assuming that was what he was thinking. “She’s Zachariah’s.”
He blinked once and glared at her, not responding to her statement.
“Think about it, Aidan,” she pleaded. “Not only do we have one living weapon, but we have two. Declan won’t expect it.”
His face softened, but just slightly as he thought about that bit of information. He turned his head toward the door where Kelly emerged from bringing the cases into the house. She had a sudden jolt of bravery and began to walk right up to the tall, muscular, and rugged vampire that was standing right before her. To say he was intimidating was an understatement—all he needed was a kilt and a sword and he’d be a match for William Wallace. She glanced at Emma, who subtly nodded her head, indicating that she had told him that she was a living weapon.
She wasn’t her usual, bubbly self; instead she was reserved as she walked up to him with her hand extended. “Hello, I’m Kelly,” she introduced herself.
Aidan looked down at her hand, subtly examining it for any cuts. He reached out his hand with uncertainty and slowly grasped hers in a handshake. “I’m Aidan,” he simply said.
“Emma has told me about you, it’s nice to meet you in the flesh,” she replied, remaining polite. She knew what his reaction toward Todd was a year ago and she feared he might try to do the same to her. She sensed his apprehension and added, “I’m on your side. I want to take Declan down just as much as you do. I’m here to help you, not hurt you.” She wasn’t sure if that was the correct statement to convince him to spare her life, but her words were sincere. However, she had to remind herself that he thought she was with Zachariah and not to mention Todd as a possible love interest.
Aidan listened to her heartbeat, noticing it remained steady when she spoke. He believed that her declaration was true, but added a warning for safe measure. “One step out of line…” he growled, nearing his face to hers and pointing a finger at her.
He didn’t need to finish his sentence, she knew what he meant. “I won’t let you, Zachariah, or any of you down,” she affirmed with her head held high. She tried to absorb the fact that she was standing there speaking with the oldest vampire in the world, making promises she hoped she could live up to.
He slowly nodded, “You should train with Todd; I’m teaching him techniques that will be very useful if it comes to a battle.”
“I’d like that, I can use all the help I can get,” she replied with a confident smile.
“We’re taking a short break, but will resume in a while. I hope you’re not a delicate kind of girl because you won’t be dealing with delicate creatures. They can and will take you down if you let them,” he said.
“And that’s where you come in,” she replied, noting her confidence in him.
Chapter 11
A short time later there was a knock at the front door once again. The vampires in the parlor simultaneously took in a deep breath through their noses to identify who it was.
“Thomas,” they all said in unison and laughed.
Aidan opened the door and Thomas chuckled, “You all chanting my name?” He was flanked by his second-in-command, Tiffany, who seemed nervous this time at the Manor. She had never been in a battle situation before, so she wasn’t sure what to expect.
Emma invited them both into the parlor to meet their latest additions. She announced specifically to Todd and Kelly, “This is Thomas, the King of Africa and his second-in-command, Tiffany. They join us from Cape Town.” She then revealed that both Todd and Kelly were living weapons, much to the surprise of their new guests.
Todd and Kelly both approached to greet them, however Thomas and Tiffany were afraid to touch them. They left their empty hands awkwardly extended, waiting for the two vampires to reciprocate, but they didn’t.
“Unless you plan on eating their hands, it’s okay to touch them,” Emma stated, nearly laughing at their reaction.
They both turned to her with doubt, but she flicked her hand, encouraging them to be polite to the living weapons. They obliged at a snail’s pace, almost waiting for the unthinkable to happen the minute their skin touched. Of course, it didn’t.
“Good to meet you,” they said as they delicately shook the living weapons’ hands.
They sat down to get acquainted and Emma presented each with a glass of blood, but they hesitated after they took them from her hands. They were afraid after what had happened to the Queen of Asia.
“Relax, nothing has been tainted with bad blood,” Emma said. To prove it, she took a sip from each of their glasses and showed them that they wouldn’t drop dead.
They began to let their guard down little by little as they spoke with Kelly and Todd—frightened, yet fascinated by them. Todd had been living with vampires for a year now and he found it strange that these strong, frightening creatures were actually petrified of him.
“Most living weapons go through their whole lives never knowing what they are unless they are unfortunate enough to come face-to-face with a vampire,” Thomas said before taking another drink. “You all might not be as rare as we thought, even though Aidan’s life mission was to eradicate the living weapons one-by-one.”
“Used to be my life’s mission…” Aidan corrected.
“Are you still thinking about coming out?” Thomas asked. The Kings and Queens had been discussing for some time about coming out into the open and revealing that vampires exist.
“I am. And once this is all over I’d like to discuss it further since we’re all going to be here,” Aidan replied.
A while later Cassie, the Queen of Australia and her second-in-command, Michael arrived. She was less fearful of the living weapons standing before her and was fairly intrigued by them. Kelly and Todd instantly liked her and her straight-forward, no nonsense personality. She said everything as it was, no beating around the bush or sugar-coating.
“Kelly, why the hell would you choose to stick around this mess if you didn’t have to? None of us knew who you are, let alone what you are,” Cassie said.
She turned to Zachariah, her make believe boyfriend, and replied, “Because I love him. And I’ve grown to love all these people—I wouldn’t want something to happen to them and have that on my conscience. If I have the power to help the good guys, I’m going to.”
Zachariah, being the performer that he was, playfully batted his eyelashes at her, “Aw, so sweet of you to go into battle for me, my Pookie Bear.” He walked over to her and flung his arm around her, planting noisy kisses on her cheek.
“Okay…” Cassandra said, weirded out by the public display of affection and pet names.
Mackenzie rolled her eyes, disgusted by Zachariah’s behavior with Kelly. She felt a twinge of jealousy considering she had just been in his bed earlier and wondered if his human girlfriend knew. Did she care that he slept with other vampires? She doubted it; Kelly looked too wholesome to approve of him having an extracurricular love life. Of course, she had no idea it was all an act.
Shortly thereafter James, the King of Asia and Franklin, the King of South America arrived. Since James was a new king, he brought on his best friend, Alejandro as his second-in-command. He was less conservative and more outgoing than James, which was a great balance between the two. They had met through Kumiko when Alejandro was one of her boy toys. Alejandro was frequently at their residence and the two became best friends, even after Kumiko was done with him.
Franklin was still as confident as ever and had no second-in-command, bringing just himself, a fedora, and a suitcase to the Manor. He boldly strutted in through the door, his energy radiating from every pore on his body. He had a knack for drawing people in; everyone wanted to be around him due to his positivity and endless charisma.
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“What’s going on, baby girl?” He exclaimed, pulling Emma into a hug.
She was always happy to see him and hugged him back tightly. “Oh, things could be better, but we’ll get through this!”
“So, where is this living weapon? I have never met one before,” he said, clasping his hands and eager to meet such a legend. He had no fear, instead he was fascinated.
“Well, if you’re excited about one living weapon,” Emma started as she showed him the way to Todd. “You’re gonna love that we have two. Franklin, this is Todd and Kelly.”
“Oh wow!” He exclaimed, not attempting to hide his enthusiasm. “It’s okay to touch you, right?” He asked before shaking their hands.
Out of all the Royals they had met, Kelly and Todd liked Franklin the most. His positive energy was contagious and he treated them like they were equals—not to be feared, not to be killed, but regular people.
After the group took some time to get acquainted in the parlor, the apprehensive Royals were finally becoming comfortable around Todd and Kelly. Neither had ever experienced the feeling of people being uneasy around them based simply on what they were.
“We need a plan of action and Todd came up with a brilliant idea today,” Aidan spoke to the group. He explained Todd’s idea of each of them having a bag of blood-filled water balloons strapped to them while they were in battle. Everyone agreed that it was an excellent idea and Zachariah offered to run to the nearest twenty-four hour store that night to pick up balloons and bags.
Aidan continued on and told them the idea of everyone being armed with a dagger or sword as well. Their plan was to stab their enemy to temporarily disable them and then smash the water balloon onto the opponent’s mouth while they were down. Todd made another suggestion of all the vampires wearing surgical masks over their mouths so that none of the blood splashed up and accidentally killed one of them. Aidan was growing slightly fonder of Todd with each suggestion.
“You two ready to go back outside and train?” Aidan asked, wanting to get more preparation in before it got too late for you humans. “Once we get you used to fighting me, I’m going to have a few more of us come at you as well. Any volunteers?”
“I’m in,” Franklin raised his glass in the air.
“Me too,” Zachariah responded.
Alejandro and James agreed to help make their training a bit more challenging as well.
“I’ll do it, too,” Emma said.
“Are you sure?” Todd asked her, surprised by her offer. “I don’t want to have to fight you!”
“That’s fine, you can just let me whoop you then,” Emma slyly replied. “Just so you both know, don’t be afraid of hurting us. We have a high tolerance for pain.”
Aidan tipped his head back and took the last swig of blood from his glass before getting up and leading the living weapons outside. Emma and Zachariah excused themselves to go to the little room beyond the kitchen where they stored weapons. They didn’t have a reason to use them in well over a century, and even then it had been a false alarm. They had more than enough daggers that had been collected over the years, three swords, and a crossbow.
Zachariah took a sword down from where it hung on the wall and played around with it, twirling it in his hand, steadying it, then pretending to stab an imaginary person. While Emma was bent over and rummaging for more treasures, she asked Zachariah to collect the daggers and help her carry them to the parlor. Instead, he turned the sword and playfully poked the side of her butt cheek with the tip. She spun around faster than he could react, shoving him up again the wall with her hand while holding a dagger to his neck with the other.
“Ow,” she said, glaring at him with rage.
Zachariah was startled and apologetic, “I’m sorry! I was just fooling around!”
She remained motionless for a moment, but could no longer hold a straight face and burst into laughter. “You ass!” She exclaimed while rubbing her behind after letting go of him.
“Oh my gosh, I thought you were serious!” He laughed. “I was afraid to tell you to lighten up!”
“Come on, goofball, help me carry all these to the parlor. Everyone can take their pick,” she said as she placed daggers into their appropriate holsters.
They brought everything into the parlor and placed the weapons on the floor in the center of the room, encouraging their guests to each pick one or two. Each of them examined the daggers and swords, feeling which ones felt the most comfortable in their hands.
Emma peeked out the window to see how things were progressing with the training. Todd’s performance was excellent while fighting off Aidan, clearly ready to begin taking on some others. Kelly still had a lot of work to do and Emma feared she may not be ready in time. She had never been in a fight in her entire life, but now she was being thrown into a supernatural battle. She was awkward, weak, and quite frankly, girly.
Emma, knowing Aidan could hear her through the window, stated, “I’m going to come out with the others around the back, sneak into the forest, and surprise attack Todd.” She didn’t want to startle Aidan by having several vampires come flying out from the woods.
He slightly nodded, just enough for her to notice and continued to work with Kelly while Todd practiced defense moves on his own.
Emma turned to the others and said with a wicked grin, “Volunteers! It’s showtime. Follow me.”
Zachariah, Franklin, James, and Alejandro followed her through the house and out the back door, creeping into the woods and around to the front, remaining unseen.
“One at a time for now,” she said. “I’ll go first.” She propelled herself from the hidden safety of the trees and ran at full speed toward Todd.
Within less than a second he saw a blur coming toward him and prepared to defend himself. He bent his knees and leaned slightly forward, bracing himself for impact. As Emma approached him she slowed just enough so that she wouldn’t hurt him when they hit. She crashed into him, attempting to grab him, but instead he ducked down, then jolted upward, flinging her over his shoulder into the air. The moment her feet hit the ground he was already there pretending to stab her in the heart.
His eyes widened when he saw that it was Emma and felt a moment of guilt for pretending to hurt her.
“Emma!” He gasped.
“You really can’t hurt me,” she said before he could continue. She looked beyond his shoulder and pointed, “Don’t let yourself get distracted…”
He flung himself around just as Franklin jumped in the air, ready to attack from above. Todd instinctively reached his arm up as if he was stabbing him in the gut. He felt the force crush his hand, which made him shout profanities, but not before he mimicked smashing a blood balloon to Franklin’s mouth.
“Another one bites the dust,” Franklin said as he got up.
Todd was grasping onto his hand, which was throbbing with pain. He knew it was badly injured as he could hardly move it. He muttered some more colorful words under his breath while pacing in a circle.
“Are you hurt, Todd?” Emma asked with concern.
“My hand is messed up,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Here,” she said before she bit into her wrist. “Drink, it’ll heal.”
He took her wrist and put it to his mouth without hesitation, knowing it would alleviate the agony in his hand. It didn’t take much to make the pain fade away—once he was able to move his fingers he stopped drinking, knowing it would be enough.
Aidan had left Kelly to practice on her own for a moment while he walked over to Emma and Todd to quietly talk. “If she survives this, it will be a miracle,” he muttered. “She needs to be faster, more agile.”
“Well, we can only hope for the best,” Emma bluntly stated as she folded her arms and shrugged her shoulders. “How about Todd here?”
“My gosh, he’s amazing,” Aidan replied, shaking his head in disbelief. “This kid picked up techniques so fast; he’s so graceful, yet powerful. I’m not worried about him, I really th
ink he’ll come out of this with no problem.” Aidan clasped his hand onto Todd’s shoulder, lightly shaking him with approval. Todd never thought that he would see the day that he and Aidan were on such great terms.
“Kelly,” Emma called, waving her over. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Emma asked, wincing a bit.
Kelly thought for a moment, looked at Todd, then replied, “Yes, I can do it.”
“If something happens to you, I don’t think I could forgive myself,” Todd admitted. “It’s because of me that you’re here. You’re in this mess because of me.”
“True, but it is my choice to stay. Just like you, I wouldn’t be able to shake the awful feelings if something happened to you…to any of you,” she replied as she remembered she was supposed to be Zachariah’s girl. “I’ll do anything to ensure that Zachariah is safe.”
“Oh geez, I forgot them in the woods!” Emma exclaimed, waiving her hands at Zachariah, James, and Alejandro who were still hiding in the forest.
After they rejoined them on the grass, Kelly and Todd mentioned that they were hungry and ready for a break. Zachariah announced that he was going to go to the store and pick up water balloons, surgical masks, and bags that they could strap on their sides. They all disbanded for the night as it was getting late and Aidan didn’t want to wear out the living weapons. They needed all the strength they could get.
Kelly and Todd were in the kitchen making some chicken breasts and steamed vegetables for dinner. Once the chicken was in the oven and the vegetable in the steamer, they sat down at the kitchen table. It was the first time they had found themselves alone all day, which made Kelly’s heart flutter a bit.
“Todd, I wanted to talk to you…about us,” Kelly sheepishly said.
He threw his finger in front of his mouth, pursing his lips, and widening his eyes. He replied so the vampires in the parlor could hear, “We’ll be okay out there, don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” As he spoke he grabbed his phone and opened his email, composing a new message that read, The vamps can hear everything throughout the house. You’re with Zachariah for all they know!
The Living Weapon (Davenport Manor Book 2) Page 16
