Misery (7 page)

“You are unique, we cannot influence you. But I experimented, I can exchange emotions.”

Suddenly she was beginning to wake up. She shook her head and started to scoot away from him. He just reached over and pulled her back to the middle of the bed. “You should not move yet.”

“You have been experimenting on me? How?” She was starting to get mad. It helped cover up the fright.

“Yes.” He just looked at her. He held out a bottle of water to her. How did you argue with a giant who only spoke in short sentences or one word comments?

“How? Show me?”

He looked at her for a long moment. She stared at him with her anger growing. This whole situation was something she had to get control of, find some way to change. She needed to do it pretty quick. She felt some heat in her stomach and it seemed to creep lower.

Had she hurt herself when she fell? She closed her eyes as she felt the heat hit her loins. She gripped the blanket in both hands. Her body began to respond to a tightening in her clit as it swelled and pushed against her tight jeans. She felt a rush. All of a sudden she knew she was going to have a orgasm. She gasped for breath, bringing her knees up. She slipped over that point, one that she had not ridden very often, one she never rode alone. She saw color behind her closed eyes as she fell back. The release finally relaxed her muscles. She let go of the blanket. She lay there feeling the sweat on her body turn cold.

She opened her eyes. He was still just sitting there looking at her. No expression on that stone face.

“What the hell was that?” She lay back exhausted as she rasped out at him.

“What you requested. Proof.”

She just lay back looking at him. This all couldn’t be real. “Don’t do that again.” She glared at him. She didn’t care that he was twice her size
—
she wanted to kick him in the balls.

Chapter Seven

He left her in the bed, knowing she was angry, the red emitting towards him. It was strange that he even enjoyed the anger. He enjoyed any emotion she sent out. He thought it was because he knew others did not receive her emotions. Others might receive her scent, but he was the only one that received her emotions. He had lived without emotions for so long, but now he had hers.

He had meant to give her an emotion that would be something besides anger. Sex was the next thing he had thought of, but it had hit her so solidly that she threw off the sexual emotion like a hot flow of lava. Her scent rolled out into the room between the color of her arousal. Her scent made him feel his own body react. He was not used to having an erection for no reason. In the compound, they had brought the mortal females in. They were already influenced and they were used. Sometimes he did not need one, sometimes after a fight he came in, his erection leading him. No one stopped him until he had grabbed a female and entered her. But what he was feeling now, from the emotion of satisfaction she had thrown out as she climaxed, was different. He wanted to have her push that feeling out as he pushed into her.

He went down to the sidewalk to call his Lord. “Alex, I have much to report.”

“Deck, you caught me at the right time, I am at a point where I can listen, so bring me up to date. Did you get a blood sample?”

“Yes, sire.”

“Good, I will send someone for retrieval. It will be Trump. He is available. You know him. What can you tell me about the female?”

Deck thought carefully. “She is like a warrior. Quick of mind. She knows I am nightwalker and did not panic. She was attacked. I dusted, then cleaned up. I cannot influence but I can emote and receive her emotions.”

* * * *

Alex listened to the short precise words of the loyal servant that he had become to call friend. He listened, interpreting all the report. She was stronger than most mortal females, so she kept herself in shape. She had fought back at one time or another either with strength or mind. She had another nightwalker get on her scent and he attacked her, probably hurt her. Decimus caught the attacker, putting him down in the proper manner. Deck had disposed of all details so no mortal would see any residue. He had gotten the blood that was vital to finding out if her serum reflected what her scent seemed to show.

Now, about the emotions. Deck had come from a horrible background that had been meant to trample the emotions out of the individual. Alex remembered his first trip to the training camp. He had taken Minty.

Minty and he both had a dark side. They were into S&M. But what they saw in the camp turned both their stomachs. It wasn’t only the filth or the injuries. It was the children, the many useless deaths. It was the evidence of the mistreatment in order to remove any feelings of tenderness or love. It was meant to wipe out any tender thought for another. The scars on the bodies of the living warriors were only the ones you could see, the scars on the minds were the dangerous ones that couldn’t be stitched and cleaned.

Then, just as he thought there was no hope for any of these nightwalkers, there was this giant who rose up, taking the silver bullets that were meant as revenge against him. Decimus didn’t know that the bullets wouldn’t have killed Alex. Decimus thought the bullets would kill him as he threw his big body in front of Alex.

So now the nightwalker that had no emotions, had met a female that shared emotions. Alex smiled. Alex heard a noise
—
the phone call was terminated. He looked at the phone with a frown. He hit redial but got voice mail. Trouble.

* * * *

Deck heard the crash of glass behind him. He turned to see the back of a male disappearing into the window on the second floor. Her apartment. He shoved the phone in his pocket. He was up the steps and through the door.

There were two of them. He was all killer, reverting back to the black depth that he was trained to be. He was on the first one, a strong rogue, but not trained as well. The fighting was fast as they spun around each other. He took the rogue down fast, laid him out, not even bothering to dust him, he was so worried about his female.

He blew into the bedroom, but she was in the bathroom. Smart female. The second one was pushing his hand through the door to reach her. She had sent the silver knife through his hand. The rogue was trying to pull the door off its hinges with his other hand. The pain from the silver that was spreading through his body was leaking his strength. Deck was so proud of his warrior female.

Deck stepped forward, gripped the rogue’s head, and twisted it, breaking the neck with a loud snap. The rogue slumped to the floor. Deck ripped him away from the broken door. He looked down, then pulled the silver knife from the rogue’s hand. He raised up, looking through the hole at her.

“Safe to come out now.” No emotion in his voice, no heavy breathing.

She stepped forward, unlocked the damaged door and swung it in, where it hung crooked against the inside wall. She stood leaning against the doorframe, looking down at him as he sat down on his heels, took the small silver knife and plunged it into the heart of the body at her feet. The body turned to dust, then the clothes settled flat. He looked up at her, cleaned the knife on his pants, and held it out to her, handle first.

She stood looking into his eyes for a long moment. It seemed like she saw the glow begin to show in the black depth of those eyes, so she justFinally she reached down and took the knife. She stepped over the mess, went to her bed and sat down.

He walked over to the other figure, pulled a knife from his boot, and turned him into dust.

“Large bags?” He didn’t even look at her as he asked, as he was going through pockets getting wallets and stuff. He ended by picking up two rings.

With just the same lack of emotion in her voice she answered. “Under the kitchen sink.”

He found large plastic garbage bags to hold the clothes, shoes, belts and weapons that was all that was left among the dust. He looked at the weapons
—
these rogues had come for a fight. He approached her carefully.

“Find warm clothes, we leave.” He watched her for a moment, wondering if she would follow him. When she got up and went to her dresser to pull out a sweatshirt, laying the knife down while she dressed, he stepped back and pulled out his phone.

He tapped the first quick dial number. His Lord answered.

“Report.” Alex knew it would have been some problem because Deck had such reverence for him he would never have hung up on him for anything except a life and death situation.

“Attack. Two, fully metal. Too many weapons. We are moving.”

“Head south, call me in two hours. I am sending Trump with additional weapons. I will see that you both get back up. Something is wrong. There has to be more to this than just a nightwalker getting a sniff. We know that a lot of parties have tried to get to my female and Rad’s. The serum they produce is being sought after. We have had some alarming offers with some very high prices thrown on the table. I am going to talk this over with Radames, but the female you are protecting is starting to become extremely important. Keep her safe. Keep her alive.”

“As you require.”

“Decimus, do you still feel emotions from her?”

There was a moment before the large warrior answered.He hesitated, then finally said, “It is stronger.”

“Deck, I owe you a lot. I consider you a part of my family. I grant you anything you request, do you understand?”

Again there was a long pause before the monotone voice answered Alex. “I am grateful.”

He had watched her every movement as he talked. When the call was done, he put the phone in a pocket. He moved forward to help her close her case.

* * * *

She stopped and looked at him. “They didn’t want to take my blood
—
they wanted to kidnap me, right?”

“They would have taken and held you for someone else who wants your blood.”

She nodded her head to show she understood. She took a big shoulder bag, went to the bathroom and put personal items into it. She returned, picked up her cell phone, and held it up for him to see. He nodded an okay, so she dropped it into the bag. He pointed to the little silver knife. She looked at it for a long moment. Who would have thought that a simple letter opener would become so important? She picked it up and slowly dropped it into the bag.

She followed him out, not even bothering to lock up. She let him go first down the stairs but he motioned her to stop just inside the bottom door.

“Wait.” It was not a request.

She had to smile. In this surreal world that she found herself in, this giant of few words made her smile. When she told all of this to the counselor she was going to have to spend hours with, if she lived through this, maybe he would be able to tell her why people made jokes at funerals.

So she waited. She saw the black SUV pull up at the curb. She waited until he jumped out before she left the building. He held the passenger door open and she got in with her big purse. He had taken her bag with him, so hopefully it was in the back. She looked at the clock on the dashboard. Midnight. It was midnight. She was in a black SUV, the radio was playing hard rock music, really hard rock. She thought it was Guns N’ Roses.

They were driving fast although there was still some traffic on the streets. He drove on and got onto a freeway going out of town. Heading south, he merged into the traffic flow. He had just gunned the powerful engine to pull ahead of the traffic when a large vehicle in the next lane pulled over, bumping the side of their SUV.

She let out a sharp yelp, grabbing for the handle over the door. She looked over at the Hummer that was pulling into them again. She saw a small bald guy in the passenger seat, starring at them with anger.

Deck slammed on the brakes. The Hummer flew past before the driver could react. As she saw the Hummer brake lights flash red, Deck was pushing on the gas, hitting the back corner of the huge square vehicle. Turning his wheel left, Deck forced the Hummer to swing around. As it whirled into a spin, it headed for the guard rail on the right hand side. Since they were both traveling in excess of 70 miles per hour, the big heavy vehicle hit the cement rail, flipped over tail-first, took flight, then disappeared.

He continued to drive at the same high speed. They seemed to settle down. She let go of the handhold, tightened her seat belt, and decided it was now okay to sit her purse down between her feet. Somewhere in this whirligig, she began to breathe, sweat pouring out of every crease in her body.

“Who was that? How did they find us? They didn’t look like the others, you know, not large
—
just regular guys.”

“Followed us, my mistake. I did not feel them because they were not Vamps. Mortals who had been subjugated.”

She breathed deeply. She filed this for future information. Finally she looked over at him. “Not afraid that the cops will stop you for speeding?”

He drove on, staring at the road. “No.”

Gee, whiz. Let’s not waste any words. Just go ahead, kill a bunch of people, run someone off the road in a deadly car crash but don’t worry about cops, because I am a Vampire.
So while the regular people are going about their lives, dating, getting married, having kids, going to jobs they hate and paying taxes, there was a whole other world. A world that included nightwalkers with battles, with silver knives. A night with giant men who can save you, but can enter your mind. There were Lords and Councils but even worse, things that wanted your blood.