Scent of a Vampire (30 page)

"Turn down that small road up ahead." I said weakly. Alex was at the end of this road. I felt like what was left of his life force was pulling me down the road.

Roberto turned down the road and picked up speed. He came to stop at a high gate.

"Is this it Olivia?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's in there and I think he's dying Roberto. He's lost so much blood."

Roberto reached over and pulled me into his arms, "I will not let anything happen to you piccolina. Every one of these bastards will die before you do, that is a promise. I want you to stay here. I'll leave Cristoforo here to protect you. But I want you to take this."

Roberto pulled a gun out of his leather jacket. I shook my head no, remembering how it felt to shoot Evan back at my parents' house.

"Take it. You probably won't need it but it will make me feel better. Please cara?"

Reluctantly, I took the gun. "Can Juan stay with me instead of Cristoforo? I'm afraid with the gun, I may be tempted to shoot him when he opens his mouth." I weakly quipped.

Roberto smiled at me, "Okay, I don't want to have to tell my parents my girlfriend shot my brother."

"Thanks. Now you better hurry. Alex is not going to last much longer."

Roberto kissed me, "When this is over piccolina, we are going to take a trip somewhere. Just the two of us. No Janel. No Alex. No Juan, no one but you and me and I'm going to love you from sunset to sunrise."

"I love you Roberto. Be careful. Don't get hurt, you will need all of your body parts in good working order in order fulfill your promises." I kissed him back with everything I had, which wasn't too much.

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"I love you Olivia, stay right here by Juan's side. Okay?" I nodded and Roberto got out of the car to talk to Juan, Cristoforo and Mark. Juan did not look too happy to be left behind to babysit me. He opened the car door and got in.

"I'm sorry Juan. I know you wanted to go in and rescue Alex. It's just I feel more comfortable with you than Cristoforo."

When Juan didn't answer, I asked him, "How long have you known Alex and Roberto?"

Juan smiled, "I met Alex in Tijuana in 1973, I believe. Sometimes we vampires forget years. We are much better with decades."

I had never asked how old Juan was, "When were you born?"

Juan laughed, "I'm not sure. I was born sometime in the early seventeenth century."

Trying to keep my mind off of Roberto and Alex I asked him, "How come you don't know your birth year?" Juan shrugged, "There were not many records kept back then."

Beginning to really get interested I asked, "What about your parents? Wouldn't they know when you were born?"

"I never knew my parents." Juan said stoically.

"Ohhh, I'm sorry Juan. If I'm not prying too much, who raised you?"

"Well Chica, I was in an orphanage until I was eight years old or so when a family adopted me."

At the smile on my face Juan said, "It was not a family like you knew chica. It was a living hell until the day I ran away."

"Awww, Juan I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been really rough on you."

Juan laughed. "Rough? Well hell, precious little Sensay. I'd guess it was 'rough' if that's what you would call being forced into selling your body so your so-called family would let you eat.

You will never know what pain is until you've been forced to let people violate your body with anything, anyway they wanted. I used to pray one of them would kill me so it would stop."

I was horrified by what he was saying. "My God Juan. I'm sorry."

Juan kept talking as if he didn't hear me. "I lived like that a long time, until a missionary and his family found me and took me in. I liked them. In the beginning they were good to me. Strict but very good."

Juan looked at me and asked me, "Did Roberto ever tell you what it's like when your blood hunger begins?" I shook my head no.

"It usually starts to kick in right around puberty. I had no idea what was happening to me. I had
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no family like other vampires to show them how to hunt and when to know it was time to stop feeding. The Montero's who took me in never knew what happened. One minute I had been asleep in my bed and the next I was draining them.

"When I came out of my hunger phase, I stared in horror at the Montero's in their bed with their throats ripped out. The worse was the image of Isabel. She had only been two years old."

As I recoiled from Juan in horror, he ran a hand over his eyes and sighed, "I ran from the house that day. For the next year I killed many people as I fed from them. Then one day in Mexico City I was in an alley feeding from a prostitute and a man spotted me. I was going to rip his throat out and drain him when his words stopped me.

"'I know what you are son. I know you hunger for blood. I can help you control that hunger and become strong. No one will ever be able to hurt you or have power over you.' I decided to trust him and followed him to his home. He took me in and taught me how to control myself. He also taught me how to defend myself. He made me the man I am today." Juan finished with pride in his voice.

At last, a happy ending. I was so glad for Juan. He was a good guy and deserved to have peace in his life after what he had been through. I reached over and took his hand to show him how I admired him for all he had overcome.

"Was the man a vampire?" I asked. Juan squeezed my hand tight in his. "No, he was a Guardian."

I tried to pry my hand from Juan's but he squeezed it tighter.

"Owww, let me go!" I cried.

"Hmmm, let me think about it. Umm, how about no?" Juan opened the car door and dragged me outside.

"Why are you doing this Juan? I thought you were Alex's friend?"

"I am Alex's friend. I made sure to become friends with as many other vampires as I could. Then I feed information to my real friends."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You are crazy! You know what these Guardians are capable of. Why would you help them to destroy your own kind?"

"Why? Why, you ask? I will tell you chica. It's because we are abominations. You, me, and everyone who walks this planet that is not human; not made in the image of our Creator. We are nature's mistakes. And what do you do when you make a mistake? You make it right. That's
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what we are doing. We are making the world right again. Back to the way it was meant to be, pure." He had a glazed look on his face, close to rapture.

Knowing I couldn't reason with madness, I tried again to tug my hand free.

Juan twisted my arm behind my back and whispered in my ear, "You are the biggest mistake of all. You are the prophecy we have been waiting for. But since you will not work with us, you will have to be destroyed. It is a pity. They were going to let me fuck you too. You would have liked that Olivia. Women have told me how good I am at it."

"Roberto will kill you for this. He will not let you walk away." I spat at him.

"Oh, but he will not know I killed you. I will be hurt and bleeding. I will tell him how we were ambushed and how I bravely fought off ten men before they got me down and then killed you.

He will praise me for my heroics in trying to save you." He smiled to himself.

"You are nuts. No, you are insane." I said, really worried now because you can't negotiate with someone who was insane. But I tried anyway, "Maybe we can make a deal Juan. What if I agree to go inside with you? Maybe I can take another look at what you guys stand for. I may have made my decision in haste."

"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?" Juan screamed at me.

"No ... nnno I don't Juan. I think you had a tough time of it as a kid and..."

Juan laughed, "You know nothing chica." He twisted my arm and I screamed from the pain. I wasn't sure if he broke it or if it was just because of my Sensay crap. I tried to reach into the pocket of my jacket to get the gun Roberto had given me, when Juan jerked my hand back and grabbed the gun. "Ahhh, you weren't going to shoot me were you chica?" He twisted my arm until I heard a snap and I screamed and almost passed out from the excruciating pain. Juan pulled me off to the side of the road and flung me down on the ground.

"I wish I had more time to play with you but I need to get everything in order before your boyfriend comes back." As I lay there waiting for him to kill me, my life flashed before my eyes.

They always say that in the movies and in books; but it really did happen to me. I pictured my parents laughing with me at the playground, the dog we had when I was in grade school, me getting second place at a track meet in high school, the day I met Janel in a crowded lecture room, my wedding day to jerk off Brian, me bumping into Alex in the lobby of the Platza del la Viva, Roberto's face as he moved inside me and told me he loved me. My whole life, filled with people I loved and who loved me back. It was a good life. I closed my eyes as Juan bent over me and placed his hands around my neck. One last image came to mind. The silver wolf. Bullet. My wolf. His teeth were bared. His hair standing up.

I could feel the tenseness as he coiled his body to attack. The rage built up inside him. I could feel it building in my own body. It transferred from Bullet to me somehow and I felt it surge through my body.

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No longer feeling weak and hurt, I brought my knee up as hard as I could and made direct contact with Juan's crotch. He yelped in pain but lunged forward to grab me by the hair.

Remembering my training from Mark and Andy, I went for Juan's eyes and managed to scratch and gouge enough to have him let go of my hair. As soon as he did, I used the palm of my hand to smash into his nose, which I heard make a crunching sound. He bent over in pain and that's when I ran. I didn't run far when he jumped on me and took me down. The air was knocked from me and I thrashed around on the ground in a panic. He slapped me across the face and I tasted blood in the back of my throat.

"You fucking bitch. I wish I had time to make you suffer." He spat.

As I tried to buck him off of me, my hand closed around a palm sized jagged rock. With all of the force I could muster I smashed it against his skull. Once again I heard a cracking sound. He tilted his head back in a painful roar and when he did I could see the side of his head caved in. Still he didn't fall. Damn vampire.

"Fuck you, you bloodsucking asshole." I screamed at him. Juan bared his fangs to bite me and I brought up the rock and smashed it against his head again and again, until he at last fell to the ground his head a mangled bloody mess. I was covered in blood. Juan's blood and mine. I turned quickly with the rock raised in my hand when I heard the sound of someone running towards me.

"Olivia!? Dio Mio!" Roberto said as he gathered me in his arms while glancing down at Juan. For some reason I was afraid he would be angry with me for what I'd done so I tried to explain. "I didn't want to hurt him, but he was trying to kill me. He was working with the Guardians."

"Shhh, its okay piccolina, tell me what happened."

"He had such an awful life Roberto. Terrible things were done to him as a child. The Guardians found him and helped him. He was brainwashed into believing he was unnatural and he should help the Guardians scourge the earth of the evolved. He has been helping them for centuries."

"Bastardo, I had a feeling they had someone on the inside. I wouldn't have guessed that it was Juan though. Thank God Alexander knew something was wrong."

"Oh my God, where is Alex? Is he okay?"

"I'm okay baby."

I turned and saw Cristoforo helping Alex walk towards us. I ran to him and threw my arms around him crying. We both said, "Owww." and laughed. Alex looked remarkably good for all he had been through. He held me at arms length and looked at me. "Your hair has silver in it. I like it. And your arm is broken. I don't like that. What happened baby?" I explained to him about Juan working for the Guardians. Alex looked pained and put his arm around me, "I'm sorry baby, thank God it was just your arm. Juan is a vicious fighter."

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Roberto came over and stood between us. "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt Olivia?"

"It's just a broken arm. I will go to the hospital tomorrow. Right now we should probably get going before the bad guys get here."

"Mark is coming now. What should we do with the piece of trash over there?" Cristoforo asked.

We all turned as Mark walked up. "Everything is set. We have five minutes."

Wow, that was the most I heard Mark speak. Roberto took charge, "Okay, everyone get into the cars. And I'll take care of Juan."

Alex looked over at Juan lying on the ground. "Rot in hell traitor."

Cristoforo put Alex in the second car and went back to help Roberto.

I didn't want to leave Alex yet so I got in the backseat beside him, "Alex, I'm so sorry for leaving you." I began to cry. "I was worried about my parents and wasn't thinking about what could happen to you."

Alex pulled my head onto his broad chest. "I know Olivia. It's okay. I, more than anyone, understand how you feel. You did what you had to do. Cristoforo told me about your parents.

Baby, I am so sorry. How are you? Are you okay?" I cried harder because he was worried about me. With everything he had been through, he was still putting me first. Roberto opened the door with a scowl on his face,

"Piccolina, what are you doing in here?"

"I want to ride with Alex. I need to make sure he's okay."

"He's okay. He is a vampire and will heal fast." Alex made a show of moaning as he moved on the seat. I had to smile, which made Roberto's scowl deepen.

"Why don't you drive this car? That way we can all be together."

"All together. How nice." Roberto said, "Okay, but you will sit up front with me Olivia. It's only a couple of hours back to the safe house. We should be able to manage until then." I winked at Alex but moved up front to sit beside Roberto. Alex slumped back in the seat, still weak from his ordeal. Roberto turned the car around and headed back the way we had come. I held onto the seat as Roberto was driving fast, scary fast.