Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (46 page)

Her eyes were frightened and at first she appeared unable to speak.

In the lull, Sami moved over to sit on the other side of him from Lena. The girl looked a little more wide awake, but yawned even so. Pulling up her legs, the younger girl with her short, blonde hair contemplated Geni waiting with Nick and the others.

“If you say that you believe me, and that you have seen vampires? Are you a vampire, Nick?”

He laughed along with Nicola and Charlotte, who knew better and were used to people having to get used to the supernatural being real. “No, I am not a vampire. You’ve seen me go about my business during the day, Geni. If movies are even partially correct, you know vampires don’t do well in sunlight.”

The girl’s eyes suddenly flicked between Nicola and Sami. “Are they...?”

Nicola said soothingly, “Geni, Nick is trying to be subtle, but there is no subtle way to tell people that something like vampires and werewolves exist. If you aren’t going to freak out, we can explain things to you; but you need to promise that such information doesn’t leave this apartment.”

Fear seeped into the blonde’s eyes and her knuckles turned white as she gripped the arms of the chair. Sami shook her head and said, “I know I am new here and all, but if you don’t just come out and say it; she’s just going to get more scared.”

Looking at Geni, the young girl said very seriously, “I was kidnapped by a vampire nearly three weeks ago. Nick saved me from where I was dying in a sewer. The reason I am staying with him is because he can keep vampires from being all.... serial
killery and stuff.

“I’ve never bitten anyone. Well, except for Nick because his blood is special.”

“You’ve bitten him?” Geni was aghast at the information.

Waving her hands before her, the teenage vampire shook her head and added, “I don’t have to anymore. When he found me, a vampire had nearly killed me the night before... well, he actually did kill me, except vampire blood got into me. That way, when I did die, then it was just like going to sleep and I woke up a vampire, I guess.

“Now all I need are a couple drops of his blood in my milk in the morning and I am good. No, biting or killing, I swear.”

“Ugh, I clean those dishes!” the blonde complained, before realizing that she was trivializing what Sami had just told her. “So you’re a vampire, but you’re awake. I thought they couldn’t take the sun.”

Sami looked over the back of the chair and spied the sunlight on the wall. Raising her hand, the sunlight splashed on her arm and hand. “We can’t take it forever, but it mostly makes us tired. I’m told that we can burn if we’re exposed long enough,” she finished as the girl dropped her hand. Shaking it out, she added, “Stings a little.”

Looking at Nicola the girl asked, “Does that mean Nicola is a club owner who sleeps by day or is she a vampire also?”

“Both,” Nicola replied with a smile.

Looking around the room, she took Nicola’s confession as just one of many things she should be surprised by, but now it seemed kind of obvious if the rest was true. She looked at Charlotte and the woman shrugged, “I’m a werewolf, so are Logan and Kate; but it’s a long story.”

“Why are you telling me all of this now?” Geni asked as tears started to form in her eyes. “Are you going to kill me or am I going to become a vampire?”

“You won’t become a vampire, because Lena gave you some of her blood. She is a voran like me,” Nick answered leaning forward slightly. “I’ve know you for nine months and we’ve always been good friends, right? I dropped everything and found Lena for you, before I knew she was like me. Friends don’t kill each other over secrets in my world.”

“What is a voran? I’ve never heard of them,” Geni said trying to be calm while just focusing on Nick’s face. Feeling the stares of vampires and a werewolf, the girl was on the verge of making her lose her mind, and only the calm of her boss and friend was holding her together.

“Vorans are humans that can’t be turned into werewolves or vampires. Our blood is not only resistant, but can stop their blood from changing humans into them. Sami only turned because I found her too late. Once they’ve turned, my blood can keep them from going insane for blood. Most vampires turn into animals only wanting blood when they’re hungry. Some control their thirst and then there are ones like Nicola and Sami who can use just a little voran blood to be almost completely human.

“Sami would have been one of those who could control their thirst, but I brought her with me after finding her and giving her some of my blood. She’s never attacked anyone for blood or hurt anyone. Nicola’s been a vampire for almost eighty years and never killed a human.”

“So they’re ‘tame’ vampires?”

Nicola rolled her eyes hating the term, but Sami giggled, “Does that make me your pet or your ward?”

Bumping her with his shoulder to push her away jokingly, he replied in distraction, “A pet wouldn’t be such a pain.”

The girl stuck her tongue out playfully, before they realized everyone was looking.

Nick looked at Geni and said, “With Nicola’s coven of vampires, we hunt dangerous strays and have heard of these reapers only recently from other vampire hunters. We have been looking for them and I warned Lena not to try fighting one because they seem to be stronger and faster than normal vampires.

“Luckily she managed to kill it, though she nearly died as well. If Logan didn’t live so close and she was a voran, you probably both would have died. You might have come back as a vampire, but Lena would have just died. She can’t turn into a vampire or werewolf.”

“Werewolves tried to I assure you, even the pack leader,” Charlotte interjected as Lena nodded at the woman. They were friends, even when the others were mistreating her by leaving the unknown voran in the cage in the basement of their house. Charlotte had taken care of her when they witnessed Lena kill her first vampire in that basement.

Taking a deep breath, Geni tried to calm herself and asked, “Now what?”

Shrugs seemed to come as one from around the room. Nick replied calmly, “Things continue as they have been, but now you know to watch out especially at night. There are vampires out there, but we keep killing them to keep their numbers from growing.”

“If you are afraid that you can’t keep it secret, I can compel you not to say anything to anyone else about it with my glamour,” Nicola suggested gently.

Geni shook her head still looking at Nick. “You said Nicola has been a vampire nearly eighty years, but never killed a human. You say that like you were there, which would make sense if she’s used voran blood. How old are you, Nick?”

“The vampire that turned Nicola and I met on a steamship in 1901, when he bit me. We discovered that my blood could help him with just a few drops. I was probably twenty-one then so I am one hundred thirty one now, I think.”

Sami whistled next to him and teased, “Oh, you are
sooo oooold.”

Tickling her side made the girl squirm and fall off of the couch onto the floor only protesting, “Hey, no fair!” after she was out of easy reach.

“As you can see, they’re just people like you. Vampires and werewolves have some physical differences and some of them are influenced by the moon or sun, there are good ones and bad just like humans.

“Sami’s as normal a teenage girl as you’ll find. She just has a disease that makes her tired by day and need a little blood to stay normal, just like someone with anemia, save they take blood in transfusions. A vampire doesn’t need a needle and tube to take what they need.”

Lena sighed next to him and said, “Well, if you’re done giving away all your secrets, can someone help me study for my exams. If I don’t get some help, I am going to fail.”

Waving her over to the kitchen, Charlotte nodded appearing ready to help.

Geni stood up with her book bag and joined the other two appearing slightly pale but much calmer. Nick got up giving Sami a hand up from where she sat on the floor, before the two joined Nicola by the entry to the hallway.

Nicola said quietly, “Do you think that she will need coaxing?”

Shaking his head, Nick replied, “No, she’s a good kid. I don’t think she’ll say anything.”

Sami asked, “Do you think they want me to try helping them with college exams?”

The younger vampire’s eyes looked like she was fighting the sun now, but she was wide awake. “Go to bed. I can help them as much with preparing. You two go ahead.”

Nicola raised an eyebrow and asked, “Tuck me in?”

Sami sighed, “You know I’m fifteen and know what that is code for, right?”

Giving the girl a gentle shove towards her room, they followed her into the hallway as Nick heard the three women preparing to study.

Chapter 26- The Hornet’s Nest

The rain had come. Before the teams could trace the reaper back to his lair, the first rainfall had washed the trail away. Though April had its share of showers, May was as likely to bring spring rain as the previous month in Illinois. After a long winter, the plants had been ready to grow, but the ground was still saturated and flooding occurred quite often over the next couple weeks. The water in the sewers played to their favor for revealing those lost in the furniture store basement.

As newspapers reported finding the first body, it was soon followed by several more. The water and rats had been blamed for the ravaged bodies, but to Nick’s mind it was the fact that they weren’t found in the furniture store area that helped keep the true story from being discovered.

Before they knew it, the next full moon was upon them and, despite the too frequent rain; the werewolves would need to find a place to run. Logan, who had been borrowing Nick’s Escape, came to pick him and Charlotte up for the change. Kate and Logan were still too cash poor to arrange to buy something of their own, and he had three vehicles so it didn’t bother the voran to share. The Escape was also his least expensive car, and the easiest to part with.

“Can I come along?” Sami asked curiously as Nick and Charlotte grabbed a couple backpacks.

He shook his head and replied, “We still aren’t sure if Charlotte is over her condition from the last full moon. I’m only going along to make sure that she’s ok.

“You hang out with Nicola. She’s talked about taking you shopping and to the club, so you two should have fun.”

The elder blonde haired vampire nodded to Sami with a smile. Her eyes betrayed that she didn’t love the idea of being stuck babysitting; though Nick wondered if Nicola simply didn’t enjoy the idea that if Charlotte wasn’t over being in heat, the last solution had been sex with the pretty brunette. Since Sami had come into their lives he had less alone time with Nicola, so she might be jealous of Charlotte getting to have an excuse to be alone with him.

Looking like she was ready to pout, Sami flopped into a chair with her lower lip sticking out as she tried to make him feel guilty. “Ah, but I wanted to see them change into wolves. Going out with Nicola’s usually fun, but Charlotte never changes so I thought it would be cool.”

Charlotte made a face of disgust and retorted, “It isn’t fun to watch the change and I wish that I didn’t have to do it; but at least it only comes roughly once a month.”

Sami gave a dramatic sigh, but the girl gave it up as Logan and Kate came in letting them know that it was time to go.

It had rained the day before, but as they drove under gray skies, it had held off on anymore moisture for the full moon.

“Do you turn if the moon can’t be seen?” Nick questioned noting the sky.

Logan nodded, “We usually force the turn earlier, just to take advantage of the night longer; but if it doesn’t show by midnight the wolf will still come out anyway.”

“I always hated pushing it early,” Charlotte said from the back seat and was joined in a nod of agreement from Kate. The two women were often of a similar mind when it came to being werewolves. Logan also had been on the outside of the main pack, whose individuals in general seemed to relish the power and savagery of becoming wolves.

Logan mused in a different way, “I wonder if Eric picked out a different preserve for this month’s run?”

“Raina called me yesterday worried over it. She didn’t want to run with Eric’s pack and is joining us, if you don’t mind,” Nick said having only mentioned it to Charlotte, who had given her approval. “She doesn’t want to be a part of a group that plans to kill animals since her career is in preserving the forests, including deer.”

Shaking his head, Logan voiced why, “They approve hunting to thin the deer population when it grows out of hand, don’t they, and it is sanctioned by the rangers?”

“It doesn’t mean that she participates,” Charlotte chided her brother and it was Nick’s thinking as well.

Arriving at the little path into the woods, they spotted another SUV and Raina got out as they pulled in behind it. She waved seeing Nick and Logan in the front seat.

“Thanks for letting me come,” the woman dressed in a simple pair of shorts, blouse and sandals greeted as the four exited the Escape. Her eyes looked questioning as she asked, “You sure that we have to do this every full moon?”

Charlotte replied, “I don’t like it either, but if you don’t take a run in the woods you become more anxious during the rest of the time between full moons. Just letting the wolf out in a cage or room can be problematic if you live near any other houses. The wolf tends to like to howl and does it even more when trapped inside.”