Mistwalker (11 page)

“Now, now, little one.” Razor sharp teeth flashed in the darkness. “Do not worry; we will take good care of your mother.”

Those teeth.

The dream shifted.

Simone and her mother hurried through the dark streets into the cold night air. Her mother kept saying, “Hurry, baby. Run! Don’t stop, don’t stop. Oh God, don’t stop.” Then her mother disappeared, and Simone spun around, terrified. “Where are you?” she shouted.

Laughter echoed. From where, she couldn’t say.
“My mother?”

A woman’s laugh hurt her ears. “Yes, we have her.”

“I want to see.”

The scene shifted again, and agony exploded against Simone’s jaw.
Oh!
She slammed against a brick wall. Her head smashed through glass, and the shards cut into her face. Her body ached.

“Not if we force her to forget.”

A large shard pinned her shoulders. She couldn’t move. Her neck was stuck halfway, caught all the way in this tortured darkness. Wet warmth dribbled under the collar of her school shirt, slipping down her spine, the back of her legs. Static crackled in her ears.

“Can’t Master use an extra female?” a man’s voice asked.

“Maybe. He doesn’t need this one. She’s bleeding too much.”

“I’ll wipe her mind.”

“We
both
will. I don’t want anyone to know about this.”

Simone closed her eyes then, and the darkness was soft. Like her mother’s hugs.
The comfort of her bed.

Someone chuckled. “You really are cold blooded about getting what you want.”

A hard slap cracked against Simone’s cheek. The glass sliced in deeper. Something wet and thick tore at the base of her skull, and she whimpered.

“Open your eyes.”

Her lashes flickered open then, seeing not only the dream, but certain death. The faces of her attackers were blacked out. She couldn’t focus, yet she was so caught, so trapped.

“You are about to die.”

She screamed—deep bellied and high-pitched.

“You will forget everything about us.”

“Not remember at all,”
the other voice said.

She shrieked, struggling against the hold of the glass.

A growl escaped. “Shut up!”

Simone quietened, but shards sliced deeper into her arms and body. Fire burned her skin. Hands pushed against her. She flew, and then darkness turned to pain.

She’d landed.

Simone gasped and reared up from her perch in the cave, dragging air into her lungs. Nausea exploded inside her stomach, and she clutched her sides.

She crawled from the cave, her arms and legs shaking uncontrollably. Cold sweat bathed her skin. She couldn’t stop shaking, and she vomited up the blood she’d drunk earlier. It tasted bitter. She lost track of time trying to get her breathing under control.

Her dream finally revealed a missing piece of the puzzle, showing why she couldn’t remember her attackers when the police had asked after her surgery. Why she’d never dreamed of their faces or her mother’s murder. The reason she needed a plate to protect her brain, and why no one had ever found any clues to her mother’s disappearance. Vampires had attacked them, and then they’d somehow wiped Simone’s mind. They used the power that Juliun
had tried to use on her when she first met him. She’d been hypnotised to forget.

What ha
d they done with her mother? Simone gritted her teeth, a terrifying coldness surging through her veins, but it wasn’t as icy as the purpose raging in her heart.

Chapter Fifteen

“Holy shit, girl.” Vinnie’s eyebrows rose up to his almost bald hairline. “You’ve got blood all over you. Get in here.”

Simone entered the small candlelit alcove and smiled.
“Hello to you too, Vinnie.”

He slammed the door shut behind her. “What in hell happened to your face?”

She glanced at the reddish-brown stains on her hands and clenched her fists. She couldn’t tell him that she stopped off at the supermarket to suck back on some steaks.

“It’s not so bad. And definitely not mine. I need to call in a favour, though, and I guess I could do with a shower.”

“You guess.”
He nodded to the corridor. “Go right on ahead. Bathroom’s down the hall, second door on the right.”

“Thanks.” She sighed with relief and padded into the bathroom, then shut the door behind her.

She rested the hessian bag on the sink, carefully avoiding looking into the mirror and dragged her jeans and underwear down her legs. With blood stained fingers, she shrugged the moist cotton from her shoulders, then tossed all the clothes onto the shower stall floor before turning on the taps. Pink water swirled down the drain.

“Don’t get up to any mischief without me,” she shouted over the running water.

“Wouldn’t dare,” Vinnie’s amused voice floated back to her. “Take your time, sweetheart. Spare clothes are in the room across the hall if you need them.”

Hot water streamed over her skin, and she soaped away the
remnants of her meal in the cave. She dried herself with haste, feeling better for being clean and hung her wet clothes over the towel rail to dry.

She darted across the hallway with a towel wrapped around her. A pair of black jeans and pink cable knit jumper awaited her in the spare room. A surge of thankfulness for her friends made her smile. Simone returned to the living room feeling refreshed and guilty. She hated the idea of dragging more of her friends into her troubles, but she didn’t know who else to turn to. A quiet enveloped the space, and her vocal chords seized. What must Vinnie think with her bursting back in his life? Should she disappear again?

“I wonder how a slip of a girl can get past my security. Ritzy and Zola haven’t even woken, but I can wait. What you need, sweetheart?” He played solitaire on the scrubbed kitchen table; a croissant nestled on a plain white saucer by his side. “Must be serious.”

“Weapons.”
The word dropped from her lips.

“Uh-huh.” He looked up, his brown gaze trained on her face.
“Figured that. What we talking about?”

“Semi-automatic.
And a crossbow.”

“Not that, although you know I love it when you talk dirty.” His shrewd grin was evident as he flipped a card.
“Always distracting. What kind of trouble are you in?”

She sighed and sat down at the table. His voice was a deep soothing rasp, and she wanted to confess all but couldn’t. He would be in too much danger. She was risking his life by coming here.

The brown lights sharpened and steadied in his eyes. His gaze moved from her face back down to the cards. That silent regard would be her undoing. “I wondered where you’d disappeared to, though I thought you’d be here sooner. You know I’m going to help you?”

She shuffled a hand through her thick, wet hair. “This is…” She shook her head. “You can’t want to get mixed up in this. I only need some firepower.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at her across the small table. “You’re calling it in. Tell me.”

She stared at him in desperation. “I can’t,” she pleaded. “Trust me on this.”

His jaw firmed, and he rolled his shoulders. “I do trust you, but I can’t stand to think someone’s hurting you, so you better put me out of my misery.”

“No one’s hurting me, Vinnie.” She smiled. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t blink. “Bullshit.
Bullshit
. You can’t lie to me to save yourself.” He stood and led the way down the hall before pulling out his cell phone. He rang someone then pressed against a section of the wall, and a soft click sounded, then the wall opened. He leaned against the opposite wall, and pulled the false door open further. His figure disappeared into the darkness. “Come on in, sweetheart.”

She put out a tentative foot into the darkness and landed on a step. She continued down and arrived at a long platform with a steel door similar to a high security bank vault.

He peered into a spyhole. A red line swept up and down his eye. A long beeping sound echoed. He pressed his thumb to a pad and typed in a combination on the lock with his other hand. The solid door unlocked and opened with a sigh of precision.

An overhead light flooded the small basement, illuminating guns and ammo lined up against the walls. Boxes and cases were stacked in towers by the shelves, and in the corner Kevlar vests filled a row of shelves. The air smelled stale and metallic.

“Welcome to my world,” he said.

“I had no idea your operation was this big?” She turned to him curiously.

He looked down at her with quiet regard. “The less you know about it the better.”

She nodded.
True.

He sauntered to a shelf and laid a case on the steel work bench. “There’s a Glock here.” He pulled out the gun. “It can switch from single fire, semi or fully automatic.” He cocked it and slid in a magazine. “It’s yours.”

She tilted her head and gazed at him. “You’re the embodiment of a woman’s dreams, you know that?”

He laughed, his gaze running along the shelves. “Bet you say that to all the lads.
Got more magazines.” He walked over to the back wall and tossed her a box. She caught it easily, and a grin split his face. “Two, you said?”

“Yep.”

“Any requests?”

She would probably need more firepower than regular bullets to protect herself and Tammy from these bloodsuckers. She aimed the gun at an imaginary vamp. “A gun for exploding rounds.” She tucked the Glock into the back of her jeans.

His eyes widened, but he turned back and surveyed the shelves. “Mmm…I know you could handle more, but how about we stick with a Smith & Wesson .44 revolver?” He strode across the room and hefted down a heavy case from a shelf. “The four inch barrel is compact enough to hide under your jacket and nasty enough to blow a hole in anything you want.”

“Perfect.” Her voice was low and casual.

He collected few more boxes of magazines and explosive rounds, a shoulder holster and a Kevlar vest. “I don’t have a crossbow, but I’ll put in the order immediately. Cash?”

She looked down at the money in his hand. There had to be at least a couple of grand folded up between his fingers. She glanced up at him, and he stared at her with that familiar piercing intensity.

“You’re the best friend a girl could have. All debts repaid.” She nodded. That was the end of it.

He smiled to soften the memory. “I’d like to think my life was worth more than a couple of guns and three large.”

They stood there in silence, and she remembered how she’d been hired as a bodyguard for a foreign dignitary when they’d come under fire. Vinnie had been the one to supply the guns to the rebels to stop their village from being destroyed, but hiding behind the all-terrain vehicles, she caught a rare glimpse of life in his eyes. He hadn’t expected them to start shooting. A bullet hole leaked blood down his thigh, and he’d pushed an Uzi toward her in the dirt. Ready to give up his life to save hers.

“Take it and get the hell out of here,” he’d said, loudly. “They were supposed to use them on the terrorists invading their villages.”

She’d leaned her head down the side of the vehicle and saw the gun pointed at them, and another at the fuel tank.

“Up.” One hand on his upper arm, another on his leg, she’d crouched in the dirt and hefted him onto her shoulder. Her muscles screamed, but she’d gritted her teeth and kept moving.

He groaned, his gun firing behind her while she pulled out her Glock and killed the insurgents. Her boss had left her there while he escaped, and she couldn’t do that to another person. There were some things she didn’t wish on anyone.

She jolted when Vinnie nudged her back with the boxes. “Hey, you okay? You look lost in thought. Want some dinner?”

“I’m fine.” She turned and faced him. “Don’t talk about food. I’m not hungry.”

He frowned, his eyes narrowing. “You sick?”

“I ate before I came.”

His eyebrows rose at that. “Are you going to tell me how you got past my dogs and the cameras?”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about your security, Vinnie. If I know you, it’s tight.” She picked up a case and two boxes with ease, and then left the vault to climb upstairs. She only hoped any replays on the cameras wouldn’t show her appearing from nothing.

He punched in more numbers into the key lock, and the door swung shut behind them.
“Except for a gorgeous, long-legged redhead who can sneak right up to my front door. What other hidden talents do you have?” he asked, humorously.

She laughed, walking back the way they’d come. She deposited the weapons on the kitchen counter and made room for the ones in his arms. “I’m safe.”

“Know that.” His voice was gruff. “There’s space here if you need to bunk up for the night.”

“I appreciate the help.” She could smell his blood; a musky, heady scent and tiny points sharpened, then slid out of her gums. She turned away, focused on quelling her hunger. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all this. How’s the job?”