Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 3 (13 page)

"Yeah well," The last one
exclaimed, "More money for us!"

The reaction to his
statement was surprising.

The others either laughed
softly or murmured, "Oh yeah," under their breath.

The left one now said, "Hey
guys I don't mean to be rude but do you mind if we hurry up and get
out of here."

"What's your
hurry?"

The left one shrugged and
said, "It's just I got plans tonight."

"That's all?"

"Well there is that," he
added, "And I really don't like holding onto this chick longer than
I have to. She smells really weird and she is kind of
heavy."

He gave a small grunt to
illustrate his reasoning.

The others all laughed
before agreeing. One at a time, they shuffled out of the shop not
noticing the unconscious African American girl lying underneath the
oily rags.

How long have I been out?
Melina thought as she rubbed her head. She then tried to sit up,
but doing so made her head throb with even more pain. It was as she
instinctively placed her hand on the sore spot of her head that she
remembered what had happened.

She had followed Aradia,
they had talked, they had been attacked, and then...

Melina's head shot up as she
started to yell. "Aradia. Aradia!"

Jumping up from the oil
rags, she dashed around the shop calling out Aradia's
name.

When she received no
response, she realized what had happened: Aradia had been
kidnapped!

As if in a trance of shock,
Melina ran out of the shop, and into the icy cold winter wind. As
she raced down the empty dark streets, she started yelling for
help, "Help! Help! Help me someone! It's Aradia! They got her! They
got Aradia!"

Aradia knew that by now, she
should get used to it, but still she could not help but wish
whenever she was kidnapped she would not wake up with a splitting
headache! Rubbing her head all over, she slowly tried to stand up
only to realize she was in a cage.

"Well this is new," She
muttered.

"Actually, I think it's kind
of appropriate," said a voice from behind her.

Aradia turned around to face
him, already knowing who it was going to be. "Holden."

They were located in
something that looked a lot like a bar or club where Holden lounged
on a stool, smiling at her.

"Wassup sugar?" he greeted
her.

"You mean besides your
inflated ego? No idea," Aradia muttered.

Holden threw his head back
and laughed.

"No wonder so many guys are
after you. You are so cute."

"No offense," said Aradia
more clearly. "But that's not much of a compliment coming from an
abusive tyrannical husband who made his ex-wife miscarry his own
child!"

Holden suddenly stopped
laughing and smiling. Slowly and in a tense silence, he pulled out
a cigarette, a lighter, and lit it up. Flicking the lighter closed
and after taking one long puff, he looked up at Aradia.

"You don't know anything,"
was all he finally said.

Aradia laughed and said, "I
know you don't force someone into marrying you when you know they
don't love you. Most of all, I know a real husband let alone a real
man would not beat his wife!"

Holden muttered bitterly, "I
don't have to justify my actions to you."

"Good," Aradia snapped,
"Because I don't think there is justification in them."

Holden opened his mouth to
say something, but Aradia cut him off. "But enough about your
character flaws dude! Let's talk about what the hell I am doing
here and what do you want?"

Holden chuckled murmuring,
"You are something I tell you what."

"Like I said," Aradia
snapped, "What the hell am I doing here and what do you
want?"

He chuckled again. "Are you
familiar with the concept of prisoner exchange?"

"Not really. Why?" Aradia
asked.

Shocked at the sudden
bluntness of her answer, Holden nevertheless replied, "The idea is
I take someone prisoner and ask to trade my prisoner for
theirs."

"But we don't have a
prisoner!" Aradia protested.

"No, but you do have my
wife," Holden said smirking.

Finally realizing where he
was going with this, Aradia scowled. "You are sick."

"Yeah well at least I am not
the one in the cage," Holden smirked.

"Open this door and you will
be!" snapped Aradia.

"Which is why it's staying
closed," He chuckled before shoving himself off the stool, and
stretching his arms behind his head.

He then turned to
leave.

Aradia scowled, longing to
say something to his retreating back.

However, just as soon as
Holden almost turned the corner, he turned back to look at her. He
then leaned against the door, still staring at her.

For a while, Aradia put up
with his scrutiny until finally she snapped at him rudely,
"What?"

"It's a shame," Holden said
softly in a seductive tone. "Having to trade you for
Brenna..."

"Don't you want Brenna?"
Aradia asked confused.

"I do," he snapped, "What I
mean is it's a shame that I have to trade you for her because in
all honesty you are both pretty hot. It's a shame I can't keep you
both but ah well what you are going to do?"

Aradia didn't know why, but
there was something in his tone that warned her the 'prisoner
exchange' concept was going to end up being a lot more complicated
than it was intended to be.

Melina did not know how long
she had been running and screaming; ignoring the bitter cold and
icy mud that splattered all over her clothes. All she did know was
ever since she had left the shop she had continued to run into the
streets of Salem. Her first thought had been to use her cell phone,
and call 911 but then she had remembered that she had left it at
home! She knew she should have run home to get it, but there was no
guarantee that Aradia's parents would even be there and if they
were not there Melina could not get into the house! But most of
all, Melina argued with herself, even if I did call 911 who the
hell would believe me when I tell them that a group of werewolves
have kidnapped my sister?

Melina was too scared to
notice that for the first time she had thought of Aradia as her
sister. However, that did not distract her from continuing her
running into the streets of Salem silently praying to God that not
only would she find help soon but also Aradia would be okay in the
mean time. So far, she had seen and found no one who would help her
and her arms and legs began to go numb from the cold!

She grumbled to herself, "If
I live through this night I swear to God I will never wear a mini
skirt in the winter again!"

Although ever since the
'incident' Roy had not spoken to Melina he could still recognize
her scent anywhere so even though it was bitter cold, windy and
frosty, and he was busy washing dishes Roy could smell Melina
running towards the diner. Without a second thought, Roy dropped
the dishes he was currently washing, dashed over the counter, and
ran into the street. Sure enough, there was Melina running towards
him her eyes wide like a hunted deer, and her legs looking frozen
from the cold.

"Melina!" Roy cried out,
"What's wrong? What happened to you?"

Too tired from running and
too cold to explain, Melina collapsed into Roy's arms. Quickly, he
swept her up and dashed back into the diner. Grabbing the nearest
coat, he threw it around Melina, and began to rub it all over her
like a towel.

"Melina, Melina!" Roy cried
out again, "Melina! What is it? What's wrong?"

After heaving huge gulps of
air, Melina finally managed to gasp, "Aradia! Aradia! They got
Aradia!" before she passed out in Roy's arms.

"It must be Holden! Only he
would do such a thing!" Brenna cried out while slamming her fist
into her palm.

Shortly after finding
Melina, Roy had called the others to meet at the diner rather than
the club. He knew how cold she was, and did not want to move her.
At the same time, he wanted to get help for Aradia so he had
compromised and in a few short seconds Dax, Xan, Ginevra,
Domitilla, Lamont, and Tristan showed up. Al and D were already
there and waiting.

They both nodded agreeing
with Brenna while Roy asked, "So what do we do?"

To this, however, no one had
anything to say not even Dax who was staring at the ground.
Although he gave no sign of it, Dax was extremely worried about
Aradia. It had been bad enough when Henry had kidnapped her, but
for it to happen yet again with Holden. It made Dax feel like
breaking down in front of everyone and crying. Ironically, it was
while he was lamenting over this familiar situation that Dax
thought about Tristan's arguments for Aradia choosing a consort. He
began to see the logic in it. If she had a consort from a certain
hidden race, she would undoubtedly have people who would be willing
to protect her at any cost. No one would then dare to kidnap
her.

Although Dax's heart said,
otherwise he knew that there was no guarantee that Aradia would
choose him. Worst of all, there was no guarantee that he could
protect her either. After all, he argued with himself, I could not
protect my mother so what makes me think I can protect the love of
my life?

He didn't have time to dwell
on this though because Tristan started calling out, "Hey Dax! Earth
to Dax! Come in Dax!"

"What?" he said
abruptly.

Everyone stared at him and
trying to disguise their looks of disgust but Tristan continued
with his questions. "Look man you figured out where Aradia was last
time. How about doing the same thing twice?"

Dax sighed
heavily.

There was a stunned silence
in the room before Tristan snapped after Dax's explanation, "What
do you mean some strange vampire told you where she was
before?"

"Did I stutter mate?" Dax
grumbled.

Tristan groaned before
raking his hand through his hair and muttering, "So what are we
going to do?"

No one said anything for a
while.

Thankfully, Al proposed a
plan. "Well chances are Holden is still in Salem. He couldn't get
that far with Aradia without anyone recognizing or smelling
her."

"That helps us how?" Tristan
asked sneeringly.

Al groaned and said, "It
helps us in figuring out where to look. Aradia is probably still in
Salem and all we have to do is spread out and look for
her!"

A few awkward silent moments
passed before everyone agreed with Al's plan.

"Wait!" Brenna interrupted,
"One of should stick around and wait to see if Holden contacts
us!"

"Why don't you do that?"
Tristan pointed out.

No one argued and so
everyone shuffled out of the diner intent on going through with
Al's plans.

"Aren't you coming Roy?" Al
asked his brother who was still hovering over a sleeping
Melina.

Like the time when Aradia
had caught him dancing with Melina, Roy looked unbearably
uncomfortable. His gaze swept a couple of times from the door where
his brother stood and the sleeping woman still wrapped up in the
jacket.

Finally, Roy sighed heavily.
"I will drop off Melina at her house first and then I will join you
guys."

He then picked Melina up,
and made his way to the parking lot. Al sighed heavily as he
followed Roy out. Soon the only people who remained in the diner
were Brenna and Xan.

However, Brenna was not
aware that was Xan was still here.

At least not until he said,
"Don't think I don't know what you are up to baby."

Brenna spun around,
startled. "What do you mean Xan?"

Xan sighed and explained,
"The reason you volunteered to stay behind is you plan to go find
Holden and hand yourself over in exchange for Aradia."

Brenna tried to brush away
such a suggestion with a laugh and shrug, but Xan kept staring at
her until finally she reluctantly admitted his accuracy in
predicting her actions.

"It's for the best Xan,"
Brenna argued, "Aradia is the last witch. We can't afford to lose
her."

"Not because of her
political status I mean," Brenna added quickly to counter Xan's
disdainful expression. "But because...I mean look at all the good
she has done for Salem. Hell if it wasn't for Aradia we ever would
have even met!"

Xan raised his eyebrows in
surprise while Brenna smiled and added, "So in a way Xan it was
Aradia who brought us together. We owe our love to her!"

Xan did not say anything but
he did sigh before asking, "Do you know where Holden
is?"

Reluctantly, Brenna nodded.
"He called me an hour ago, and told me to meet him at this address
in an hour."