Into Death's Arms (14 page)

    “Yes
. I’m sure,
” she sighed still looking into his eyes. He dropped his human suit. I choked down a scream. His eyes glowed neon as he gazed down at m
y best friend and he looked hungry. My heart thundered.
She seemed to be having the same problem but not in the same
way
I was.
She looked back up at him
,
and she looked hungry too.

    His fangs were pressed against his lower lip. He dragged her closer to his body. “Laurna,” he breathed
reverently like a prayer
.

    “Yes,” she sighed again. They were not going to kiss. My
oh so normal
best fri
end would ne
ver kiss a monster. H
e leaned down and took her mouth with his.
He kissed her hungrily. Y
ou know the kind of kiss that you see people indulge in and you just have to turn away because it’s just to intimate to view?
She
slid a hand into his hair
,
clenching him to her. He withdrew from her
and she pulled him back. “More,
” s
he hissed.

    He pulled back. Thank God. “My love
.” O
h no
,
there was no my love
. H
e was a
Vamp
ire
. T
hey did not love humans
;
they ate
humans.
“Y
our
food is getting cold. You need to eat.” He looked
concerned. T
his had to be the craziest dream ever.
Vamp
ires
concerned over whether or not their victims had taken time to
eat.
Yeah, I
had lost
it.

   
Laurna
looked up at him through her blond lashes. “Do you
have a microwave?” S
he reached for the first button
ed button on his shirt
.  His response was completely nonv
erbal. He nodded
his head like a bob
b
le head doll. She unbuttoned a
nother button. “I’ll heat it up,
”
h
er voice was breathy like she’d been running a marathon. No, no, no, my mind screamed
. T
his was so not happening.

    She unbuttoned the last button and ran her hand down his smooth chest.
All the while, she was
looking up at him with those hungry eyes.
He ripped the sh
irt from his body. “I like that,” h
e said
as he slid his massive arms around her again and buried his face in her throat.
She moaned in complete abandon.
He was biting her, t
aking her blood
. S
he was going to die!

      I woke screaming.  My limbs were still uncooperative. I managed to grab my cell phone. I di
aled her number and got the generic this
number
is no longer in service message!
No!  I struggled to breath. I hung up and stared blankly at the phone. I had a text message. I clicked it out of habit. It was a phone number. I dialed. It rang.
“Laurna
,
”
c
ame a voice from the other side.

     I took several steadying breaths. “Laurna,” I repeated at her.

     “Mace
, is that you?
”
she sounded worried but not at all scared
. I
f she was with a
Vamp
ire
and he’d just bitten her
,
she would be scared
,
right?

     “Tell me your okay,
” I
begged
still gulping air.

     “Yeah,
” she said.

     I sobbed with relief. “I had a nightmare. A
Vamp
had you. It wa
s awful. I thought I’d lost you,
” I stammered.
All my life I’d known
that she was weaker than me, s
maller than me, more vulnerable
,
but I’d never really understood what that meant until tonight.

    I heard her stifle a giggle. “Oh h
one
y, I’m fine.” Softer I heard, “S
top it
.
I’m talking to Mace.”

    “Who are you with?
” I asked. She had said
she was going home
,
hadn’t she?

    “Ashley
, you remember Ashley
, don’t you?
” she asked.

   No I didn’t
,
but I wasn’t going to admit that. I tended to forget Laurna’s friends about ten minutes after I met them. I was not a people person
.
“You’re okay then.
” I asked rather than answer her question.

    “I’m fine. Listen Mace it’s no wonder you’re having nightmares after what you went through today. For a bit, I thought you were a goner. Don’t sweat it. If I had your day
,
not only would I be having nightmares but I doubt very m
uch I could sleep at all,
” s
he sounded concerned. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

   I nodded at the phone then remembered she couldn’t hear my head rattle. “Yeah, night Laurna
. D
on’t worry about me.” I was sorry I had interrupted her time with her friend.

    “You sure,
” her tone said she was having fun
,
but she’d ditch this Ashley girl if I needed her to.

      The thought made me feel better
,
but I
didn’t want to ruin her fun. “Yes.
I’m okay
. H
ave fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hung up so she couldn’t argue with me. She needed to have some fun.
One of us did.

     I fell back asleep
,
but it was a fitful sleep.  I dreamt of
Vamp
ires
luring their victims into a false sense of security.  Sweet lies and smiling faces as they bent over the unaware to take their blood from their bodies. So much worse were the ones wi
llingly submitting
,
wanting to be
bitten, believing tha
t the
Vamp
ires
cared for them
. And
t
he bodies of these fools being l
eft where they had fallen
…
some were thrown carelessly into nearb
y refuse bins. People were not trash
!

   
I dreamt of
Shifters
, myths called them werewolves. They were men and women who could change their shape becoming an animal, most often a preditor. They could also take an intermediary form the man-wolf thing from the movies, and though they wore the shape of man most of the time they were truly animals. I dreamt of them
changing shape to tear through a small city in South America.
The air was hot enough to make my lungs feel scorched.
Children cowering in basements while their parents died screaming above
,
trying t
o
protect them. One beast tormented
an old woman. He would leap in, scratch her just enough to draw blood, and leap back again. Each time
he allowed
her to think she m
ight actually be able to hurt it
with the big kitchen knife she held in her grasp.
I could hear t
he wet sound her body made when it finally fell to the ground.
A
young Ao in the village
was
dragged from the small church.
The clergy tried their damndest to protect him
,
but in the
end,
they fell
just as the others had.
The half men half animals
held
him
and forced
him to watch as the other inhabitants of the village whimpered and died. He wept, too young to do anything else. Just before
dawn,
one of the beasts drew a claw along his small throat. They all loped away laughing.
It was horrible.

    
I dreamt of
Dream-walkers
standing over their vi
ctims while they slept sneaking into their homes
to feed on their fears. 
One girl dreamt of snakes slithering and nipping as she tried helplessly to dodge them. A man stood on a rooftop looking down over the city shaking in fear, falling almost weightlessly from the great height the air leaving his lungs, snuffing him like a candle long before the hard impact of the cold cement below.

    
I dreamt of so muc
h more.
I woke in a cold sweat, weeping. Deanna sat next to my bed. She held out a glass.
“Drink
,
”
s
he ordered.
I did as I was told. T
o shaken to do anything else.
It burned go
ing down. I coughed. She smiled.
“The first night I thought I was going mad.
”

   
“The Ao,”
I whispered. She nodded
her head understanding.

    
 
The sympa
thy on her face was terrible. “Not all of us get
it;
it’s rare, rarer for an AoLi.  When I heard you whimpering
in your sleep
,
I knew you’d gotten the power of precog.
I have it. Iris had it as well
,
but we
dream it
too
late to do anything about it.
It’s a very useful power
. Once you know where the monsters
are
,
it’s easier to find them,
but it takes some getting used to.
” She paused as if caught in some internal struggle then so very softly she said, “
I want you to see something else.” She touched my forehead
,
and I felt like I’d been mule kicked
. M
y head hit the
headboard hard
.  I lost consciousness again.

   
This dream was different
. I
t had a less substantial quality to it.
I saw my mother
. S
he was so beautiful.
She was sitting in a hospital bed. She wore one of those little hospital gowns.
In her
arms,
she held a tiny bundle. “Promise me Caden.
Promise y
ou won’t let them take our baby,
”
s
he sounded desperate.
Her
blue
eyes looked panicked. She was scared on what should have been a pleasant occasion.

   My father looked down at her love shining through his eyes in a way I could not remember eve
r seeing. “Never my love.
Macyn is ours
.
I will give her to no one.” A pounding sound shook the room.
My mother cringed away from the sound. The little bundle in her arms began to wail.
My father opened the door and stepped through it.
He radiated menace.
A small round-
face
d
priest stood before him.
I had to say the little guy had fortitude
.
I would have made some excuse and backed the hell out if my father had turned that look on me.

     He bowed slightly.
He didn’t look scared
,
he looked smug.
“Greeting
s
AoD. C
ongratulations on the birth of the
new Ao.
I have come to take
her to her new
home.
” He smiled benevolently.
The smile
didn’t reach
his eyes.

    My father nodded
one sharp shake of the head
. “The AoLi and I have decided to ke
ep our child.” He stated firmly
. H
is mouth set in a grim line. I knew that look
. T
hat was the same look I got every time I
’d asked for a puppy. The pudgy
priest wasn’t going to be getting his way.
I never did and I was a lot cuter.

   The fat
man
blinked in disbelief.
He looked up at my father in shock.
“It is…
” he started
hesitantly then picked up steam.
“With all due respect AoD
,
it is not done
. T
he child goes to the church.
The council will not allow this.
”
He narrowed his eyes at my father as if that look could hurt him.
The council was the governing force of our kind. To deny them was often tantamount to a death sentence.