Scent of a Vampire (7 page)

When did I become like one of those stupid girls in the horror movies?

Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens

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"I'm glad to see your awake Miss Sherman." The bad guy on my right said.

How the heck did he know I'm awake? "What do you want with me? And how do you know my name?"

"We know everything about you Miss Sherman. Probably more than you know about yourself."

Crap. I didn't like the sound of that.

"Well you know then that I am no one special. I am divorced, work at a hospital, and have about $3,700 in my bank account."

What he said next made goose bumps rise on my arms.

"We know you are a Sensay. We also know you are about to, if you have not already, come into your powers. We know you have met with the vampires. We know you are important to our cause."

It hit me then who these guys were. Alex and Roberto were for real. I am a Sensay. They really are vampires. There are other species in the world and there are good guys and bad guys. But who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? I felt on the verge of losing my mind. I was on overload. I opened my mouth and sputtered nonsense. "I'm not a freaking Sensay. Let me out of this car now. I swear I'm going to call the cops on you nut jobs. All of you, goddamn vampires and secret scientists." I started to scream. "LET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING CAR NOW!"

The quiet bad guy on my left turned around on his seat and backhanded me across my face so hard that my head snapped back.

A sharp pain exploded in my head and I smelled the blood before I could taste it in my mouth.

In my shock, I couldn't help but think how weird that was.

"You didn't have to hit her."

"Yes I did. I can't stand when a woman screeches like that."

Bad guy on the right said. "Miss Sherman, do not act up again or we will be forced to gag you."

At my dazed look he said, "Do you understand?"

All I could do was shake my head in a slight nod. The pain was unbelievable. It felt as if I might have a concussion. Bad guy on the left must have been a former boxer or something.

Bad guy on the right continued on, "Let me tell you about the group I work for. We have been around for over a thousand years. We are the Guardians for the pure way of life. The way life was meant to be by our one true Creator." His eyes seemed to glaze over and he had a look of rapture on his face that scared the crap out of me. He continued, "There are beings out there Miss Sherman that don't belong on this planet. They are abominations. They are un-pure and evil. Vile disgusting creatures that, if united, could have the power to destroy humankind. It is
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our duty, no our privilege, to wipe these evolved ones off the face of the earth."

This guy was completely nuts! Abominations? Un-pure? I needed to get away from these guys.

They were fanatics.

"Ummm, well, okay. I see where you would be concerned and all. But I'm confused. If I am one of those Sensay thingys, then wouldn't that make me an abomination too?" Bad guy on the right gave me a smile and said, "Yes, you are. But from time to time we recruit some of the evolved to help us out."

He gestured to bad guy on the left and said, "Ted there is not your average male specimen. Ted is what is known as a Troll."

I felt the hysterical laughter bubbling up inside me. "A troll? Come on. Like living under the bridge, and naked little fuzzy headed doll type troll?"

Ted obviously did not like my comparisons because he leaned over and grabbed me by the hair and said, "Just let me kill her. I don't care if she's a Sensay or not. We don't fucking need her."

"Leave her alone. You know we need her. She is the chosen one." Bad guy on the right snapped.

Ted let my hair go, but not before he gave it a hard yank.

"Owww." I cried rubbing my head.

"Please forgive my partner Miss Sherman. Trolls have a tendency to be lacking any manners.

But they are excellent kidnappers and that is why we have engaged his services this evening.

This is not how we wanted to introduce ourselves.

"We could have done this with much more civility but for the interference of those bloodsuckers."

"What is it you think I can do for you anyway? Before tonight I never even heard of any of this crap." Bad guy on the right said, "Miss Sherman, you have just begun to experience your abilities. With proper training you will become a lethal tracker and hunter. I have to say that I'm surprised your parents didn't start your training before this."

"My parents? What do my parents have to do with this?"

"Ahhh, you have been kept in the dark about your heritage I see." He said in an irritating voice

"Someone in your family tree was of Native American ancestry I assume?"

"Yeah, my great grandmother was Native American. So what?"

"Hmmmm. I would say Iroquois judging by your birth name of Orenda."

I gasped, "How do you know my real name?" He gave me, what I swear to God was a movie
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villain smile, but did not say anything. The confusion inside my head was becoming a tangible thing. Part of my brain seemed to not be able to process any more bizarre information. I didn't want to ask any more questions because I didn't want any more answers I couldn't handle. So I sat there in a daze and just listened.

He continued, "You are a unique species Orenda. Your parents must have known about your gift because they named you Orenda, which means magic power in Iroquois.

"We have been foretold by great oracles of your coming. We have been waiting for you. A Sensay is only born every few hundred years, that is how rare a treasure you are but not only that, you are destined to be the greatest of all Sensays. You were quite difficult to find. We began looking for you years ago by going through birth records and looking for names that might lead us to you. When the name Orenda Seneca came up, we began the search for you."

"But my name is Orenda Sherman. Not Seneca."

"Is it really?" he questioned. I just stared at him like he or I or both of us had somehow been transported into the twilight zone. I could even hear the theme song playing in my head. "do ...

do.. do.. do..do ..do do do do."

Somehow I found the courage to say, "What the hell are you trying to say. Can't you just say it?" He had the nerve to smile before he said, "Okay. Your real name is Orenda Seneca. You were born to Magnolia and Jay Seneca on May 28, 1979. Your great grandmother was an Iroquois tribal elder named Orenda Onatah.

"Which it may interest you to know means magic power of the earth. You also may be interested to know it is from your great grandmother that you have inherited your Sensay abilities from."

I interrupted with, "I don't believe you. My parents wouldn't keep this from me. They are the most honest people I've ever known. You're lying."

His next words chilled me to the bone. "Why don't we take a little trip to upstate New York and ask them. Let's see what's the name of the city your parents live in? Ahhh yes, Buffalo, Maple Lane right?" He laughed. "So middle America, the perfect place to blend in and raise a daughter in a nice normal setting."

I didn't want to believe him but he knew too much and I had a feeling what he was telling was true.

"Okay, say I believe your bullshit. What do you want from me? I have just discovered this other world that I didn't even know existed until tonight."

Had it really only been tonight? Jeez. This night seemed never ending and I felt tired.

"Well, first I want you to come with me willingly and listen to what we have to tell you. Your
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cooperation will make all of this much easier. We want you to work with us, develop your unique abilities to hunt and track these monsters that live among us."

"And when I hunt and track these so called monsters, what do I do when I find them? Do I turn them over to you and your friends?"

He looked at me with the coldest pair of eyes that I'd ever seen. "No. We want you to kill them." I gasped and held a hand over my racing heart. "You're kidding, right? I can't kill someone. You're crazy if you think I can."

"No, I am defiantly not crazy Miss Seneca. I know you will cooperate with us and do everything we ask of you. I know this because we have your parents." I felt every cell in my body react in shock to his words. The blood drained from my head until I felt dizzy. The air left my lungs in a great big whoosh, which made me start to hyperventilate. The adrenaline rushing into my nervous system made my heart pound and my legs turn to jelly. I opened my mouth but nothing but a gurgle came out. I heard a loud thud on the roof of the car, followed by what appeared to be an arm punching through the roof. In the next instant the freaking roof of the car was being pulled back like a damn can of sardines.

Finally a scream erupted from deep in my chest as the arm reached down and pulled me up to face what had to be the devil himself.

I continued to scream as I was forced to wrap my arms around the devil holding me, because he jumped off the roof of the moving car. With me about twenty feet in the air, the only thought that came into my head was that tomorrow I would probably have a sore throat from screaming so long and loud. Which given the circumstances, like being kidnapped twice in one night, a sore throat should not be on the top of my worry list. Maybe this was what it felt like when your mind snapped I thought.

We landed with a hard thud and I finally looked up so I could say when I got to heaven I looked the devil in the eye and didn't back down.

My legs almost buckled when I found myself looking into a gorgeous pair of ice blue eyes.

"Roberto! How did you find me?"

"Not now piccolina. We need to hurry. Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight. We are going to make a run for it."

"A run for it?" I repeated stupidly but did as he said when I saw the car doors opening on the mangled car and bad guy on the right and Ted the troll thingy came leaping out.

"Run, yes, let's make a run for it, NOW!" Roberto picked me up and started running at an
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amazing speed. We had to be going at least twenty miles per hour. I buried my head in Roberto's neck after looking forward once and seeing trees that were way too close for my comfort.

Roberto must have amazing eyesight to be able to navigate through the forest at speeds like this.

After running for about fifteen minutes, Roberto slowed to a walk but did not let me down "We need to keep moving so they can't catch up with us, but I think we're safe enough to walk now."

"If that's the case then you can let me down now." I whispered. For some reason the stillness of the forest made me feel like I had to whisper.

Roberto chuckled, "I rather like you in my arms, piccolina." I liked it there too and since that thought scared me, I began to wiggle to be let down.

"Let me down!"

With a long melodramatic sigh, he loosened his grip and let me slide down the length of his body. The sensations that flooded my body were heavenly as my breasts rubbed against his hard chest and my pelvis came in contact with the huge bulge in his tight jeans.

I tilted my head back so that I could look at his face. I expected to look into those blue eyes I knew from our previous experience, darkened to a deeper blue when he was aroused, but his eyes were tightly shut and he had a grimace on his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" I asked, a little out of breath.

"No," he bit out a little harshly. I took a little step back and he opened his eyes and must have seen the hurt look on my face because he said.

"Piccolina, you didn't hurt me. I'm in agony because carrying you in my arms has made me so hard for you I'm aching."

"Oh, ahem, I see." I stuttered. I had to admit it made me feel all warm inside. I could get this hot, sexy man to ache for me. I started to give him a shy little smile when it hit me that the reason he was so hot and hard for me was because I'm some kind of sexual magnet. They didn't really want to make love to me; they wanted to have hot and heavy sex with a Sensay.

I stiffened and turned before saying, "Don't we need to keep moving? I don't want to get caught by those guys again."

Roberto looked like he was going to say something but changed his mind when he asked, "Did they hurt you piccolina? If they hurt you I will go back right now and kill them."

"Well, the troll guy smacked me upside my head and that hurt like hell. But other than that,
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no." Roberto grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him. "Did you say troll?"

"Yes, the bad guy on my right told me that the bad guy on my left was a troll named Ted. Why?

Besides
being
a freaking troll what does that have to do with anything?" Roberto looked like he was ready to go back and kill someone for sure now. "It means these guys are serious. Trolls are highly volatile and not easy to control. They are natural born kidnappers. That the Guardians went to a troll to kidnap you means they mean business. The troll won't stop.

He will be coming after you until either he has you or you're dead."

"Are you saying that the fairy tale stories of trolls living under bridges and kidnapping babies and replacing them with changelings is true?"

"Yes, I'm afraid you've found yourself in a whole new world Olivia, one where fairy tales have a grain of truth to them and nightmares are often real."

We had begun walking again when suddenly I stopped in my tracks and began to shake, "Oh my God Roberto! They have my parents. They told me they have my parents!" How could I have forgotten that?

Roberto wrapped his arms around my shaking body. "Its okay piccolina. We will take care of this. Now tell me everything the Guardians told you in that car." I told him everything, about how they knew about me and how they found me. How they knew more about my family than I did. When I finally finished he muttered,