Whatever It Takes (5 page)

My fingers pecked away at the keyboard as I tried not to scream in frustration. Back in high school I flunked typing, it was quite possibly because I had feared the biker nun who taught it. To even graduate from 11
th
grade I had to take it in summer school, but then I had a wonderfully awful idea and convinced a very good friend of mine to complete the summer classes for me. The teacher was a fill in so they wouldn’t know it wasn’t me taking the class. Besides, she didn’t hesitate to comply as soon as she realized I would be more than happy to hook her up with the star quarterback of our football team. Mind you, it’s not something I’m proud of but at least I passed that damned class. So right now I was wishing I’d taken the class myself, instead of banging my head against the keyboard.

I’ve been at this computer for two hours, between my crappy typing skills, the number of ways you could word a phrase in Google and the crackpots on the net, I’ve gotten nowhere. And I mean fast! From the meager amount of research I’ve done it appears there are a lot of different opinions on this prophecy. Many of which are Art Bell worthy. Some are just so lame you can’t even imagine where these ideas came from to begin with.

Although several sites claimed the prophecy dates back to just before the fall of man, no one can tell you an exact date. Then there’s another majority that say it has something to do with the prophecies of Nostradamus. If you asked me, there was a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. That was if you thought the Antichrist and the End Times were nothing.

Being raised in a Pentecostal home, by a preacher who was in the field of soul saving, it was hard not to believe that the Armageddon was just around the corner. All you really had to do was turn on the news. Abuse, violence, sex and murder they were all signs of the coming of the Antichrist. It was a herald of things to come and only a fool could or would miss it.

The Armageddon would just have to take a backseat for now. I needed to focus on getting info that might help me somehow save Sabine. Right now the rest of the world could burn down around me, she was all that mattered and somehow she was linked to this prophecy, or else Lord Slade wouldn’t have mentioned it. So I surfed on looking for answers. Hoping that someone out there knew what the hell this prophecy was all about.

Each website I visited had my curiosity growing in leaps and bounds. It was all so Area 51 and men in black that I was looking for a bowl of popcorn. Every page I clicked upon seemed to give me contradicting information. It was as if someone or something didn’t want people to know the truth. Had anyone ever heard of the freedom of information act? If so then why when there were so many pages about this prophecy had I not even seen the prophecy itself yet?

As misleading as most sites were, they all agreed on one thing this prophecy dated back to way before written history. Excluding of course that one crackpot, who claimed Nostradamus foretold of the Son of Perdition and its link to the missing Daughters of Eve.

If the Daughters of Eve part was true I was in some deep crap. Most people speculated that female Indigo children were somehow related to the first woman. That our ancestors were actually the first children born to Adam and Eve, before the serpent ever tempted them. All of it was only speculation in my opinion.

It seemed Fink was right, since I still could not find the prophecy itself. Although the net was littered with all sorts of information, from what movie star forgot to wear underwear, to the cute kitten videos that went viral, there still didn’t seem to be one damn site that listed the prophecy. At least out of the 200 I’ve been to already.

My ire was rising the more I surfed. If Josef or the Quiet Man would have told me what I wanted to know, I wouldn’t be sitting here wasting my time. But they had to go all top-secret on me. Which they should have known would only make me search harder for an answer. Had no one ever taught them not to deny a woman answers; because everyone knows if there was an answer she’d find it.

I was determined to find the entire prophecy before I had to go meet with Priest. Then just as soon as I had the werewolf collared, I’d confront Josef. But only Josef, the Quiet Man bore no meaning in my life, as he so plainly reminded me. Josef, on the other hand said he wanted to be a part of my life but was keeping me out of the loop and that would not endear him to me. No matter how you cut it, omission was still a lie, at least in my book.

As my mind wandered my eyes scanned another Google page trying to find something, anything that would help me figure all of this out. When right there on the thirtieth search page was: S.O.P. the ultimate End Times page. I kid you not, that was the name of the page. Clicking on the link I wondered if curiosity really did kill the cat and then I wondered if at this point I even cared anymore?

The page popped up before I had time to second-guess myself. Without warning creepy organ music begin to blare from my laptop. I rolled my eyes hoping this wasn’t just another poser pretending to know something. What I won’t put up with for the truth! To my surprise down at the bottom of the homepage, in big blood red Gothic font was a prophecy. Who knew if it was the real one or not, but at this point something was better than nothing.

The Son of Perdition:

Between the veil she waits, for the dark one to claim his mate.

This shall be the mark of his handmaid, she is powerful from a babe.

You will know her by her small sizing, her ability to calm the beast when the Bad Moon’s rising.

A vampire she’ll awaken, though she’ll never bring her lost loved one back to the living. The High Lord will find her, with the Devil’s blessing he’ll bind her.

Only to bring to fruition, the Son of Perdition.

What, just what? Did Fink and the rest of them really think this prophecy was talking about me? Even if they did believe this crap, they were hiding it from me. How could anyone take care of themselves if they didn’t know what was coming at them? Whatever they thought, they could just forget it. They were wrong, dead wrong. Sure and denial was really a river in Egypt.

“Okay, just think Dara. You need to look at this rationally.” I also needed to stop talking to myself, but at this point why split hairs?

If they thought I was the key to this prophecy, it would explain a lot. Especially, why Kristoff had such a sadistic obsession with me. Then there was the whole reward for bringing me to him alive. Ten million dollars was a little excessive if you asked me. I mean I was just a lowly Inbetween; didn’t a big bad vampire gang lord have bigger fish to fry? It was useless to even talk about him wanting to bring me in alive, because let’s face it, I’d never let him take me alive and we both knew it. Besides if I ever came face to face with that low-rent vampire, one of us would not survive.

All of this had me wondering which demon High Lord was gunning for me. It also made me wonder just what the hell Kristoff was being paid for his trouble. It had to be a pretty big chunk of cash. Or maybe whoever hired him was offering him a sexy mail-order bride of Frankenstein. Well, whatever he was getting to hand me over it was something big. Because everyone knew that if it wasn’t worth his while Kristoff normally didn’t get his hands dirty. At this point in time no one’s hands could be dirtier. After all he had hunted me from when I was ten, going so far as to kill my grandfather right in front of me. So yeah, I would have to say he was in pretty deep right about now.

Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves I reread the prophecy. Powerful from a babe, nope not me. I was twenty-six in mortal years and still couldn’t control my empathic abilities. Let’s face it, if I had ever been powerful as a child I wouldn’t have lost my grandfather and my grandma would be here instead of in hiding somewhere. I just didn’t see anything in this prophecy that could apply to me after me not fulfilling that one stipulation. If I was so strong then everyone around me wouldn’t be treating me with kid gloves.

I wasn’t some three-year-old in need of protecting from the bogeyman in the closet. I’d learned long ago that the monsters you needed to fear never really hid in the dark of shadows, they were always out in the light were you could see them. It made it so much easier for them to feed on your fears.

All of this conjecture lead me to the last part of the prophecy that could not even be true. Not if I lived for a million years and believe me an Indigo Child was long lived. The prophecy stated that the one who was the key would be able to awaken a vampire. After what Kristoff put me through as a child, vampires were more likely to top my most likely to stake list than my hot romance one. Besides, that list was just recently topped by one very overprotective werewolf.

Heaving a long suffering sigh, I turned off my laptop and headed toward the bed. I had to find a way out of this. Absently, I twirled the charm bracelet I always wore on my left wrist. It had been a gift from my grandfather when I was just a little girl. I had only started wearing it at thirteen, but since then I never took it off. It kept grandpa close to me and eased my fears. Cause if my grandfather was here he’d know just what to do. Quietly I let my tears fall, hoping that it would wash away the feeling of doom that the prophecy had filled me with.

Raising my puffy, red rimmed eyes from the pillow I looked at the clock that rested on my nightstand. One p.m., still hours before we were to meet Priest, yet hours since I last read the prophecy that seemed to seal my fate. Getting up I resolved to not wallow in self-pity, it never did solve anything before and wouldn’t now. If I was the one the prophecy spoke about I would just deal with it when the time came. Only problem was I felt the time was coming faster than I expected. Right now though I couldn’t worry about it, all I could do was focus on saving Sabine.

I figured a hot shower would help me to relax. I hoped it would somehow ready me for whatever the Nocturns had planned for me, maybe ease the ache in my ribs. I knew their pow-wows and they had nothing to do with tea and biscuits; more along the lines of blood sacrifices and orgies. So whatever they had planned, I knew I wouldn’t like it.

See Kristoff has had a sick fixation with me since I was ten, maybe younger, who really knew anymore. Until recently only Kristoff had known why. Now I had a sneaking suspicion as to why and I plan to confront him with the truth tonight; because believe whatever you want, he would be there tonight. Sabine had been just a means to an end. Tonight would be it, one way or another. It was either the vamp or the breather and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Kristoff had known that Vicktor would call me in if his daughter had gone missing. Whatever the rest of the Mythos thought of me, the head of the Council thought highly of me, despite my past and bloodline. Most of the beings in the world of the Mythos look down on me because I was a breather with a glitch that made me an Indigo Child, Vicktor never did. Maybe he pitied me, because he knew I had lost a loved one and still bore the gaping wound of a heart that refused to heal.

These thoughts had my memories beckoning me like a Willow-o’-the-wisp and just like any unwary traveler I followed where they lead. If I wasn’t careful I would be treading in deep and dangerous waters. There were some things, some memories that were better off forgotten. Mine starring Kristoff the Cruel were definitely in that category.

Whenever I remember that spring day when my life changed I want to scream my rage to the heavens. In one fleeting moment my life went from joy and laughter to heartache and a driving need for vengeance. I will never escape the memory of Kristoff’s cold red eyes lighting with excitement as he slowly drained my grandfather’s life as I stood by and watched. As if my pain and suffering fed his power.

To dispel the dark that threatened my soul I flicked on the light in the bathroom. Catching a look at myself in the mirror I winced. Next to the beauty of the mother-of-pearl tiled bathroom I looked like a street urchin. Dried mud was still caked over most of my skin and hair, as I hadn’t yet wash off from my run through the Moors. I hadn’t had the time or the inclination before as I was trying to find out what was being hidden from me.

Moving away from the mirror, I reached into the shower stall and turned on the water. I slowly stripped as I waited for it to heat up. My body shivered not from cold, but from the memory of Kristoff’s deep red eyes. Another shudder filled me at the memory of his sadistic smile, the one he wore as he stole the last of my grandfather’s life. Stepping under the hot spray, my shivers began to subside. With a shower puff full of pomegranate body wash, I tried to scrub the memories from my skin. When the water finally began to run cold and my skin was raw from scrubbing, I put the puff aside.

Turning the water off I watched it rinse my heartache down the drain. There was no time for living in the past. It was nothing more than a boneyard anyway; a place where the skeletal hands of your past regrets reach out from the ground to ensnare you. No matter how fervently I prayed or wished I could not go back in time, I would never be able to change the past. It didn’t matter how many victims I saved, or how many bad guys I put behind bars. What’s done was done and gone forever.

With a steadying breath, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy bath sheet around myself; drying my hair as I walked back into my too spacious room. The plush violet carpet tickled my bare toes as I moved toward the bed. With my head down I hadn’t realized I had company. My mind was in too much turmoil to feel the tenor of another’s mind.

“Need help?” Josef’s voice was husky with desire.

A small yelp left my lips as the towel in my hand dropped to the floor. Jumpy? Me? Never. After all I only had a half-crazed Mythos mafia kingpin gunning for me. I wasn’t even going to guess what Kristoff would to do me once he did get me in his clutches. A shudder ran through my body at the thought. I shook my head to clear away any stray thoughts of Kristoff and raised my eyes to meet Josef’s.

There he stood across the room in all his ego-filled glory. If I was being honest I’d say he looked good. Perhaps, the best he has looked the entire time he had been dogging me, downright edible. But I was still pissed at him, so admitting I had the hots for him wasn’t going to happen. At least if I could help it.

With an annoyed huff I snatched the towel from where it had landed on the soft violet rug. “I’m a big girl so I can manage just fine. Thank you.”

Wearily, like a deer being hunted, I watched as he pushed off the closed door. Josef stalked toward me every inch the predator he was, hunger lit his deep sapphire eyes. Crap, I forgot I was in nothing more than a towel. Backpedaling, I made it to the bathroom door before he was on me. He ended up pressing himself into me, caging me between a rock and a hard place and yes the pun was definitely intended.

His fingers trailed down my bare arm, leaving fire in their wake. “Come, Dara. I won’t bite, unless you want me to.” I stiffened at his innuendo and Josef chuckled. “ Let me dry your hair.”

The heady scent of sandalwood filled my senses and before I knew what I was doing, or why I had been angry with him, I turned to face him. I handed Josef the towel without resistance not even realizing what I was agreeing to. He wanted to care for me and for a reason I couldn’t place, I wanted him to as well.

He tugged on my hand, leading me to the large four poster and I followed like some obedient puppy. When he was situated and comfortable he pulled me down between his thighs. Slowly, he rubbed my hair dry with the towel. All the while I squirmed, worried about just how little I had on. Josef pushed my hair to the side and I stiffened. His large hands clasped my shoulders and with his thumbs he began to knead the muscles there.

“You are so tense. There is no need to fear me, Dara. I only want to see to your needs.”

I wanted to tell him there was more to my fear than he thought. I feared the fact that I wanted him, like I have never wanted any other man. That he was the type of man you could lose yourself in and that was not what I wanted, or what I needed right now. I wanted to tell him I feared I was about to go to fulfill a prophecy he’d help keep hidden from me, but for some reason I just couldn’t find the words.

“Trust me.” His voice sounded sincere, but how could I be sure?

A whimper passed my lips as his breath ghosted over my neck. He made it all sound so easy, as if giving into him wouldn’t mean that I was giving up who I was. Who I had fought so hard to become, it would all disappear in a heartbeat if I allowed this to go any further. His wolf would demand complete obedience and I would be compelled to give it.

Josef’s hands pushed the towel lower on my back. He was crossing a fine line but right now I couldn’t even think straight. The only thing I knew was that my body was responding to him in ways I didn’t think possible. My mind warred with my building desire. Trying to remind me why this was a bad idea, but my body knew that this might be the only chance I had with him.

Doing this was wrong, he’d put Sabine in harm’s way. Before Josef could disarm me all together I stood, putting enough space between us so I could think clearly. So I could find my willpower and remember that there was a little girl who needed saving. Instead of a selfish werewolf that wanted to claim someone he had no right to. Yep, I’d just keep telling myself that and maybe it would work.

Waving my hand between us I whispered, “This cannot happen.”

He stood; grabbing me and pulling me flush against him. Josef leaned forward his lips brushing the column of my throat as he spoke. “Stop fighting this. Can’t you feel how badly I need you?”

He pushed his manhood against me, causing my breath to hitch. Yes, his need was definitely evident. That thought brought a whole new set of fears to the forefront. Josef was no small man, not in any respect. There was no way we’d fit. Before I could answer him or pull away, he scrapped his incisors across my pulse point. A breathy moan left my lips as my hands gripped his broad shoulders for balance. Once more the fragrance of sandalwood was rising off of him, causing a wave of desire to wash over me.

“I can smell your desire, little one. You cannot deny this anymore than I can.”

Josef had pulled back enough to look me in the eyes. His pupils had completely overrun his iris, letting me know that the beast was lurking just under the surface. A beast I was sure I didn’t want to meet because there was no way to defeat it. I hate a fight I have no chance of winning and if I was honest with myself I wouldn’t even try to win this one.

Looking at his stark need I could see my own reflected there. Ah hell, there really was no way for me to fight this. He was right, for the last couple of days I’d fought my need for him and it had been agonizing. Intense, like the pain of an addict trying not to take that next hit. Now, with certain death looming I figured why not indulge. After facing Kristoff later tonight, I might not be around for another chance like this.

He must have seen the war going on behind my eyes, because before I could answer him, his lips crashed down on mine. An electric current raced from my lips throughout my body, setting my nerve endings on fire.

Josef’s free hand tugged the towel from my body, baring my sensitive skin to the cool room. Never one to miss an opportunity he cupped my now bare breast. The rough feeling of his palm against my soft flesh pulled a gasp from my lips. His tongue plundered my mouth, causing me to tilt my head back. Deepening the kiss, giving myself over to him, his mouth was demanding. Searing his claim on me. Leaving all other men lacking in my eyes.

“Dara, I need you.”

Boldness gripped me at his confession and I cupped him through the soft fabric of his jeans. Josef growled at the contact and thrust himself forward into my hand. The sight of him so wild with lust was my undoing. I wasn’t innocent, not by any stretch of the imagination. But never in my uncomfortable fumblings had I seen such a look of hunger on a man’s face. It had me feeling powerful, desirable even.

I continued to stroke him, as I whispered, “What do you need?” For extra effect I licked the hollow of his throat.

Josef gripped my ass and lifted me off my feet. I threw my hands about his neck and my legs around his waist. He turned and dropped us onto the bed. Now the fabric of his jeans was brushing against my bare sensitive sex. I arched against him, trying to produce just the right amount of friction. Mewling in defeat when he shifted just beyond my reach, a teasing smile tugging at his lips.