Indigo Vamporium (15 page)

That does it. My temper snaps. “Well I'll get that arrangement adjusted.” I lift his hand and kiss it again, “Promise me you'll be nice to yourself. You can't hold up your family on your own, not yet. Promise me.”

“I promise,” he says, in the determined tone of a young man taking an oath he intends to uphold.

Nodding, I give him a wink, “Call me when you get home so I know you're safe.”

He nods again, “I will.”

Bending, hugging the hunched over boy, I give him a last long squeeze before leaving him to his privacy, moving straight into Venix's path as he strides out of his bathroom.

Without hesitating I blast him with both palms flat to his damp chest, slamming him backwards into the mirror.

“What the hell?! Selene!”

“He's a boy! He's seventeen year's old! What kind of a monster are you?” Rushing him, I punch with all my angelic might into his stomach, doubling him over. Using his own convulsive movement to my advantage I lift my knee with swift brutality so his face meets it.

With my hands in his hair I slam my knee into his nose once more for good measure before releasing him.

“Now you listen to me,” I growl, prowling around his body prone on the bathroom tiles, clutching to his towel as if he has anything worth revealing under it. “This isn't a prison camp! You give these children love, comfort, support! You give them laughter and good memories! You give them a hug when they're afraid, you give them courage and self-esteem, and you give them praise! And if you do not, I will strip your bones of every muscle and feed it to the devils. You hear me?”

Bending down I lift his head by his ear, “DO YOU HEAR ME?”

“Yes! Good god woman, who do you think you are?”

Shoving his head so it smacks the tiles, I bellow, “I'll tell you who I am! I'm your superior you weak little weasel! And let me tell you something else while we're on the subject. You do not keep shunting those children around the planet because you're worried their cover will be blown. You have a brain! Have you ever thought about using it? Get a home asshole! Make it remote, keep it secret, and give them a foundation! And if you don't they'll be in my home by the end of next week. I will strip you of your guardianship in the blink of an eye unless you do right! Got it?”

“Heavens! Yes, fine,” he holds his hands up in surrender.

“There's a reason vampyres have lairs you retarded moron! Why the hell he saw you fit to raise his kids I'll never know, but know this, I'm on your back from here to eternity, I'm watching you, and the next time you screw up I'm going to hand your ego back to you in shards, in a torn paper bag. Got it?”

“Selene, enough, kindly leave my abode until I can get some clothes on.”

I wave my hand, dressing him in an instant, “Nice try, but I'm not stupid. Just because I'm blond doesn't make me half as intellectually challenged as you seem to be. You back off Seithe and Ellindt, you start to behave like a parent who loves and cherishes them or I'll see you buried in the bowels of the underworld, and I'll make sure you get halitosis breath for company. Are we clear?!”

“Yesss,” he hisses, his eyes brighter than a lighthouse beacon.

“This isn't over, Venix. Not by a long shot,” I huff, stepping out of his home, back into mine.

Arelstin, you here?

Yes
, answers softly.

How's Ellie doing?

She's asleep, in my arms.

Smiling at what a good guardian he makes, I nod to myself, heading to the kitchen to pour a drink, thinking to him, S
eithe's hopefully going to be okay. That poor boy has had the weight of everyone's care and worry on his shoulders, and on top of all of that Venix sends him to an insane ocean to hunt for halos,
and
sent him to fight an entire vamporium full of rogue crimisupernals. I could kill him for laying so much on that poor grieving boy's developing shoulders. Seriously Aree, I could kill him.

But you won't.

Ha! Don't be so sure
, I snap back, filling a goblet with bloody wine.

You love him, and love doesn't hurt Selene. Love never hurts.

Chapter 20

Tasmin:

Consciousness slips in and out of my grasp. I feel so heavy, like something's holding me down, or the grim deathdreamer is sitting on my chest, hovering over my face.

Unable to force my eyelids open, I focus on the smell. Someone right here smells like cigarette, strong alcohol or cologne, and peppermint chewing gum.

Immediately I think of Carrie, but for some reason this smells masculine to me. It's warm, oddly intimate, and familiar.

It's so close it's on me, feeding from me, sucking on my lips, searching for the buried secrets in my soul.

Stale cigarette mingling with fresh strong ashtray, the cologne has a hint of nutmeg and marjoram... Leather.

Dust.

Cold dust.

Crumbling musty wet cement.

Rum. Tongue warmed rum exhaled into my mouth like seductive nectar.

Creaking spring.

Familiar hold, warm on my neck, comforting.

*

Seithe:

Hitting the beach with our surfboards tucked under our arms, I spy the guys out on the ocean.

I nod to Jo, “Should we just appear out there and forego paddling out?”

He gives me a gleeful grin, “Okay.”

Agreed, we appirate to thirty feet from the wave walkers, paddling sedately to them.

Kevin and Dave are floating together watching the swells, counting sets, when Kev spies us, “Yo! Dudes!”

Waving frantically with a lot more urgency than I associate with him, I speed my paddling. “What's up?” I ask as we pull aside the duo, sitting upright to lazily bob on the saline surface.

“The cops are looking for you,” Kevin says to me, worry evident.

“Why?” I ask, immediately scanning the beach, looking for the law.

“You were the last person seen with Tasmin before she disappeared.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask Kevin, panic gripping a cold brutal hand around my heart.

David is watching me with sharp scrutiny. “She never made it home from Andi's party and you mysteriously disappeared after punching the daylights out of John.”

Kevin nods, “Oh yaah. John's family are pressing assault charges too. Everyone's looking for you chinas. We've all been questioned about where you live, and like we realized we don't know. This is serious hey, they want your neck in a noose.”

I don't give a damn about John, and ask, “Stuff John. What happened to Tasmin? What the hell man.”

Kevin shrugs, “Her scooter's gone, she never made it home. They want to question you about your whereabouts and all that jazz.”

“Maybe she was in an accident. Did they check the hospitals?” I say, trying not to freak out.

“No accident was reported and she's not in any of the hospitals,” says Dave.

“Guys, I thought I'd pissed her off and she left without me, without saying bye. And then finding John on top of Ellindt completely distracted me. I had to get Ellie home, but Taz hasn't answered any of my messages.”

“So you're like, not guilty?” says Kevin, visibly relaxing.

“Seriously? You guys think I'm a nut job? I'm not into kidnapping.”

Kev laughs lazily, “I tuned them you were a stand up guy, but John and his crowd painted you blacker than black.”

Dave nods, “Yeah, they made you sound violent and unbalanced.”

Sighing, no longer in the mood to surf, I wonder how we're going to get out of this one. “Thanks guys, I appreciate the head's up,” I nod.

Looking at Jowendrhan, I think,
Let's swim further out and lose them. We need to get home.

He shakes Kev's hand by leaning over me, “We're going to paddle out further down the beach. See you guys later.”

“Shot,” nods Kevin, doing the magic handshake with my brother.

I nod to them, lying flat on my board and paddling, waiting for them to lose interest in us and focus on catching waves.

The second they do I grab Jo and space hop us miles out to sea.

Sitting up on my board, I freak out, “She's missing! Kidnapped! I knew something was wrong.”

“Who do you think it is?” he asks, sitting up and looking around.

I follow his example, for safety's sake, as these waters do have predators. That's when I notice the lazy swimming far beneath us of a mammoth white creature that can only be ningen, circling like a guardian angel protecting its territory. Its long arms cut through the water like rotary fan blades shredding paper.

Looking back at Jo, not wanting him to see it, I grip him, “We need to get home.”

Without giving him a chance to object, we vanish, reappearing in the lounge dripping sea water into the carpet, abandoning the boards.

“Venix!” I yell.

“Over here,” grumbles from the study.

Rushing in, I blurt everything, looking to him for guidance on this. I've never been wanted by the police before.

He waves his hand, “Don't worry about it. I can call in a few favors and have the neuri help us out. They can wipe memories.”

Screwing up my eyes, I can smell a missing link in this agenda. “Why would they offer to help us?”

Venix gives me a generic smile, “It has to do with prophecies. Don't you worry about why, just be grateful they can do this, and will.”

“What about Tasmin?” I blurt, unable to squash my worry.

“Did you bite her?”

I shake my head, guiltily breaking eye contact with him.

“Then hopefully she'll eventually think of you, and hopefully say your name. Right now that's our biggest hope for finding her. Until then she could be anywhere, and we can't get to her unless she speaks your name.”

“Why will that work?” I ask, unwilling to tell him about what happened when she did say my name.

“You're half angel. When you bond with a human you have no choice but to respond to their call. It's coded into your spirit.”

I nod, “Get the neuri on this issue fast. I don't want to be the object of a manhunt.”

He stands. “Consider it done,” and he vanishes.

Belatedly I realize he got all the information he needs from my loud thoughts. He knows about John pressing charges for assault. It must be so cool being a mature vampyre. I can't wait to be that badass.

Unable to calm, I jump to the roof, sitting on the tiles, staring out at the day until day turns to twilight, which is swallowed by despairing darkness.

No news, nothing.

*

Tasmin:

Groggy, the sensation of something tracing my neck drags me out of the haze, making me blink in the dim, the flavor of cigarette lingering in my mouth.

I don't smoke.

Awareness slams into me and I brush frantically at what can only be a spider on my skin, squealing, scrambling back, my heart racing, I bang my funny bone against jagged wall, instantly turning my right arm into limp and useless.

With my chest heaving, panic guns my pulse into overdrive. “Hello?” Clearing my parched throat, I try again, without the huskiness, “H-lo?”

Looking around quickly, I'm in a block of unplastered brick, a chamber with very little light, musty dust thick in the air. I can taste it, cloying to my tongue in what tastes like moldy bread.

The black ink at the far end of the room moves, scraping hard heels across concrete in foreboding footfalls, the hulk of a tall person standing there in nothing more than warped black.

“Finally, she wakes.”

His voice rasps, like he's smoked too much and needs a drink too. But it resonates with gravelly familiarity. I know him.

“What do you want?” I stammer, hugging the wall defensively, rubbing my elbow.

His cruel laugh rattles my battered nerves, clanging them in sharp warning. “The eternal question. The answer should be obvious considering your predicament.”

“Ross?”

The shadow stays immobile and silent.

“Ross, is that you?”

He never speaks with any intelligence, so the words he uttered do not match the guy I know.

Boot heels land heavily, filling the small room with jarring thuds, until he's standing in the only pocket of barely available light. Illuminated weakly from above all I can see is a dark hoodie over black jeans.

Oh heck!

“Who are you? What do you want?”

His face is concealed in shadow and he slowly, deliberately, continues his stroll to me, until I have knees inside jeans directly in front of my face.

My heartbeat is jackhammering so fiercely I can barely think.

Leaning his arm on the wall, he stoops, grabbing a fist of my hair and yanking me so it pulls with excruciating stabs, “You're the last one. The very last female to think she's too good for an average guy. Stuck up will be stuck into.”

Unclenching his hand dramatically with open splayed fingers hovering over my face, I'm staring up at the arm obscuring his eyes when his hand whips into action and slams my head in a violent slap. Banged into the wall behind me, the agony pulls a hood of pain over my head, stinging both my face and my cranium.

Tears are running, my breath serrating in horror and fear, scorching my shaking insides with quivering pokers.

Trembling violently, I'm desperate to make sense of it all.

What did I do to him? Where am I? Who is he?

Stooping lower, his hand shadows my face and I flinch automatically, expecting a repeat, trying to think of self-defense moves I've gleaned from movies.

Long fingers slowly trace my cheek, rubbing fingertips over my lips, and he says softly, “I've been waiting for this.”

The invasive hand traces lower, tracking my manic pulse, sinking to the V of my cardigan, and I can't take it, slapping the offensive touch away.

“Body language never lies, yours tells me all I need to know.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” I stammer, blinking furiously, trying to see in the dark.

“If you were a lesser individual, you'd be thinking that the way to stay alive and unharmed is to go along with your abductor's agenda. Keep me happy and you may live. Make me angry and I may kill you. You're female, you have an advantage in that, and yet you didn't rise to the invitation. That means you are exactly what I thought you were, chaste, virginal, pure.... perfect.”