Sorcerer: Betrayal: Power of Air (Book 4) (8 page)

Friday, June 10
^th
, 2016, 9:02 PM

I had never been that bothered by the idea of vampires
feeding on blood.  It wasn’t like the movies.  Old vampires hardly had to feed
at all, maybe once a year.  Even newborn vampires only fed every few days and
were quickly weened to weekly within a few months.  I wasn’t sure exactly why
that was, but I knew they had the power of air in them, it was what made their
bodies faster and stronger, it made their minds sharper, and it gave them the
power to mesmerize.

Probably the most notable attribute was the constant healing
that ran through their body, staving off all disease, aging, and even healing
wounds quickly.  A newborn could heal a small wound in just a day, completely
gone.  An old vampire, over a thousand years in age, would heal a mortal wound
in seconds.

That part was obvious, as they aged, they could draw more
power, making them faster and more durable.  My best guess was my own
experience, using the power of air to speed up my body fatigued me.  Perhaps
blood was needed to offset that, otherwise despite the healing the vampire body
would eventually consume itself.  But… that was just a guess.  It also bore the
question why the older more powerful ones didn’t need more blood, perhaps their
body changed or simply became accustomed to the power.  I didn’t know.

The truth was, despite examining a vampire, I had no idea
where they got their air power from, or how they got it.  It was all automatic,
so even Diana hadn’t been able to tell me that.

When vampires feed, their target enjoys benefits as well. 
Vampires only feed about as much as a blood donation at the red cross, so there
was very little danger toward a human because of it.  The only exception to
that of course, was a rogue vampire who enjoyed causing pain or even death. 
The other benefit humans received was a temporary connection to the vampire’s
healing.  The wounds from the bite would clear quickly, and it would even heal
other physical scrapes or discomforts elsewhere on the body.

In short, unless a vampire was a sadistic bastard, feeding
was actually beneficial and the human would be much healthier after.  As a
result, I’d never been fussed about vampires feeding at their club, Spirits. 
It seemed to work out just fine, it was dark, they could mesmerize their
victims to forget, it ensured the humans had a good time, and the other humans
couldn’t sense anything wrong in the dim light while having fun drinking and
dancing.

No harm no foul right?

Except when I checked on my family this latest time, right
after nine, I discovered my underage cousin Amy, who was more like a sister to
me, wasn’t at her best friend’s house at a sleepover as she had told my aunt. 
Nope, she was dancing away at Spirits having a good old time.

Suddenly, vampire feeding didn’t seem that beneficial to
me.  The idea of a vampire feeding on my, I’ll say it again, underage cousin,
pissed me off to no end.  Of all the damned clubs in Chicago to sneak off to,
she had to go to that one?  The one good thing was she had the under twenty-one
bracelet on so she wasn’t drinking.  But still, she shouldn’t have got in the
place at all being under eighteen, not just under the drinking age of twenty-one.

It wasn’t exactly hypocritical, there was a sensuous element
to a vampire feeding, and I really hated that idea right now.  I knew she was
probably safe, and I was just being an overprotective big brother, but she’d
also lied to get there.

Truth be told, I was more concerned about the human element
in the club, rather than the vampires.  But the idea of either of those
elements taking advantage of my cousin had me rather angry.  My heart picked up
speed as I thought of all the things that could happen to her, and I tried to
calm it down fast, but of course Sierra heard it, and scented my surge of anger
and worry.

“What’s wrong?”

I cleared my throat which had gone dry, “Amy’s at Spirits.”

Sierra shook her head and sighed, “You want to go drag her
home?”

I frowned, I very much did.

“What do you think?  I mean, sneaking off to a club at the
age of sixteen is what teen girls do right?  I can’t shelter her from life, and
so far she really isn’t in danger.  I’m just having nightmares about a vampire
taking more than blood from her, or some dirt bag with a date rape drug trying
to ply her with drinks.  I know that’s not really all that likely.”

She shrugged, “You can’t wrap her with bubble wrap and
protect her from everything.  There’s a line though.”

I nodded, “That’s the problem.  Last year I wouldn’t have
hesitated.  But she’s at the age she needs to go out and learn those lessons,
she needs to make her own mistakes so she can grow and learn.  But, is she too
young for where she is?  She’s not drinking, at least, not that I can tell. 
And she’s only dancing with her friends, right now anyway.”

Sierra shook her head, “I think you’re trying to
overcompensate.  She’s two years too young to be allowed in the club, even with
a non-alcohol band on.  Maybe she has a false identification?”

When I didn’t respond she winked and stood up, “Be right
back.”

I asked, “Where are you going?”

She grinned, “To put on a clubbing dress of course.  If you
just show up in jeans and a t-shirt how will you explain why you’re there.  You
should change too.”

I stood and followed her to our bedroom, she was right, I
needed to bust Amy, even if she’d hate me for it…

I had two issues.  One, Sierra looked amazing in her little
black dress, I could hardly take my eyes off of her even though I was
intimately familiar with what lay underneath.  Two, I was about to bring a
werewolf to a vampire club.  They weren’t exactly sworn enemies, but vampires
saw themselves as above werewolves, which of course pissed off werewolves.  It
was part of the air and earth thing again, but more than that, vampires didn’t
age at all, while werewolves aged slowly.  And although a werewolf was well
matched against a vampire under a hundred, the vampires outstripped a
werewolf’s power by far once they got above two hundred or so.

Except when they faced a pack and their combined magic that
is, especially with a mystic present.  A strong mystic could dampen a vampire’s
powers, and enhance her pack’s.  Even the alpha alone could draw on their pack
to become stronger.

Werewolves on the other hand, were contemptuous of the
divisiveness of covens, that vampires had to prey on humans to survive at all,
and of course saw themselves as better since they were born what they were.  A
true race, rather than a human taken and changed into something else.

As I said, it was partly earth and air, but it was more than
that as well, which kept the two races apart.

Hopefully I was borrowing trouble where there was none, but
I wouldn’t bet on it.  I got the idea Sierra was coming along with me as much
to tweak noses as be in my company.

Sierra didn’t have any problems picking out the first issue
with her sense of smell.  Heck, the whole house probably knew by now what
effect she was having on me in that sinfully sexy dress, but I knew none of
them would care, or at least only see it as a positive.  I was giving serious
thought to having a night out with my mate if she wore more dresses like that. 
Plus, I realized just hanging around the pack house all the time might be
taking her for granted.

She was mine, her wolf had chosen me, but that wasn’t
license for me to not work on our relationship was it?

She smiled at me as if
she
was the one that had won
something, she loved having that effect on me, but there was also a tinge of
amusement there.

Her voice was smoky and very warm, “You can unwrap me later
love, focus on Amy.  We won’t be there long, just long enough to get her out of
there.  Although, you could probably talk me into a dance or two.”

There was a glint in her eyes that told me it was more than
just about having fun together, or even tweaking the nose of some vampires, which
was there too, but it was also about claiming me as her mate blatantly, in
front of the vampires whom I had suddenly gained a small bit of authority
over.  I was hardly going to object.  I was hers just as much as she was mine.

I used remote viewing to scope out the area, and then moved
us to a place just a block away from the club while making us invisible, which
didn’t have any nearby humans, and was shaded very darkly.  I was being
cautious, and double checked with my air power for people within a hundred and
fifty feet of me, and anything in the shape of a camera to make sure it wasn’t
pointed our way, before dropping our invisibility.

When we walked in the loud music thrummed in my chest and
made it impossible to hear anything else.  I felt Sierra tighten her grip on my
arm, and realized her hearing would be much more sensitive.  How the hell did
the vampires deal with it?  I thought they had sensitive hearing as well.

She looked at me gratefully as I shielded our ears, only
allowing half the decibels to reach our ear drums, and we strolled out onto the
dance floor.  She was so graceful and seductive as she started to move to the
music, that I almost forgot why we were there.  We got a few glances from the
humans out on the floor as we danced around, trying to accidentally bump into
my cousin.  We also drew a few ugly looks from some of the vampires. 

I was surprised, until I figured out they probably didn’t
recognize me.  They might have been listening to stories and rumors, but they’d
never met me yet.  I found it odd actually that no one had passed around a
photo, or even seen me on the news.  Vampires…

I realized Amy probably wouldn’t buy the coincidence, not
completely.  She didn’t know about my world, but she did believe I was psychic,
and it wouldn’t be the first time I reigned in one of her ill-conceived ideas. 
I almost laughed when Sierra practically ran right into her.

I of course, gave her my best disapproving big brother gaze
when she looked at me.  I ignored all her friends who had guilty looks on their
faces, but not Amy, she looked rebellious.

“Outside,” my words were swallowed by the music, but I was
sure she got it by my lip movement, and the thumb I pointed toward the
entrance.

She shook her head and kept dancing stubbornly, even though
her friends were standing still.  Maybe I could have planned it better, but I
reached out and grabbed her hand, and started moving toward the front.  She
pulled away halfheartedly, but didn’t want to make a scene any more than I did.

That’s when a vampire got in my face and said loudly, “Let
her go, she doesn’t want to go with you.”

Then the damned blood sucker actually checked her out like
she was a side of beef on display.  I firmly reminded myself not to kill the
nice vampire in public.  After all, outside of the look for all I knew he was
coming to her rescue from some abusive boyfriend.  Yeah, the one chivalrous
vampire in the city and he had to be here.  Chivalrous leering vampire I
reminded myself, no need to give him too much credit.

Sierra stepped in front of me and said something I couldn’t
hear, and then Amy pulled as hard as she could and wrenched her hand from mine,
and started walking away after glaring at me.  Her friends looked half
apologetic and half worried, but just shrugged, and followed Amy back onto the
dance floor.  The subtle approach was a complete failure.  The idea of reaching
out to bamboozle her and her friends to simply leave was distasteful, though it
sounded much easier.  Plus, she wouldn’t learn anything that way.

I was wondering how to rectify this situation when I was
suddenly bracketed by two very large vampires quite menacingly.  It seemed to
be going from bad to worse.

One of them said, “It’s time for you to leave, now.”

I was starting to get frustrated, it shouldn’t have been
this hard to collect Amy.

I opened my mouth and said, “I’m Ben…”

I didn’t get it all out, apparently he wasn’t interested in
who I was.  He grabbed for my arm and shoulder, I assume to subdue me with my
arm locked behind my back and walk me out.  Problem is, his left hand slid over
my elemental air shield and his right hand couldn’t get a hold of my arm.  As a
result he lost his balance and fell into me and went sideways.

He was a vampire though, so he didn’t go down, but he did
need to hop a few times to regain his balance, and now he looked really pissed
off.  Sierra was still having a standoff with vamp one, and vamp three seeing
vamp two almost fall, decided it was a good idea to try and tackle me.  There
was a loud crack of bone as if he’d tried to tackle me shielded, the equivalent
of a brick wall, and he fell to the ground with a scream.

He was young, it would take him hours to heal.  I closed my
eyes a moment, reaching for patience.  So far all I’d done is stand there.

Aitheria’s tinkling laughter was in my mind as she enjoyed
the show from my shoulder, the traitor.

I’d have thought the fact they couldn’t touch me might have
clued them in, but I could feel the vampires in the club all moving our way,
aware that the bouncers had run into a sticky problem.  I was still hoping for
a peaceful ending, if someone would just
talk
to me.  But then of
course, they crossed the line.  Vampire number one reached out and grabbed
Sierra’s arm while looking at me with warning.

Big mistake.  And I didn’t mean
my
reaction.

I winced as Sierra clocked him in the throat with her free
hand, and then kicked him where he lives.  Vampire one fell to the ground as
two got up.  Three was still writhing on the floor and we were being slowly
surrounded by four through twelve.  This was getting bad, it was my first day
on the job and I was going to incite a fight in a public place that would risk
exposure.