Protector (15 page)

“Crap!
I’m sorry.  I wasn’t paying attention.”  She says quickly and looks up at the tower of a man.

Strangely he’s not re
ally looking at her directly.  Instead he keeps looking around like he is searching for someone or something, while skimming glances down at her.

Feeling uneasy, she looks around as well
, wondering the distance between them and the club.  If only she could distract this very strange man, she could run as fast as she can back to the club.  She has always been a very fast runner.  She competed countless times in high school and college.  No one could ever beat her.

When she turns her attention back to the man, she sees his midnight eyes piercing straight into her.  The man looks familiar, yet not.  She is locked in his gaze, unable to move.  Her heart begins to pound even harder and her legs are aching to run, but her brain won’t listen.

As if he knows what she is thinking, he grabs her wrist in a blink and forces her into the alley beside them.  She tries to get away but he is too strong for her to fight her way out of his grip.

***

“Dammit!  I have to go after her.”  Alessandro says snapping back to reality.  He swallows his ego and forces his way through the crowd and onto the street in the same direction Anna-Marie took only moments before.

He looks around
, hoping she is standing close by the entrance, obviously feeling embarrassed about what happened.  But as he looks around, she is nowhere to be seen.

As a gust of wind slams into his senses
, it kicks up a stench he knows all too well.

“Rogue!” Alessandro growls and follows the smell like a hound.

With every step he takes, his heart pounds in his chest with an awful dread.  He knows Anna-Marie is out here somewhere, but so is a Rogue.  She couldn’t have gotten far, so why the hell hasn’t he seen her yet.  With every second the dread grows stronger, making his legs carry him faster until he is in a full sprint. 

He continues to follow the scent
, running down the sidewalk until he comes to a sudden stop.  His spine is tingling from adrenaline and anticipation.  He knows he is very close to the Rogue’s location.  The fierceness of the stench tells him that.  He stands still and looks around, hoping that if the Rogue is moving with its lightening speed he will catch a glimpse of it with his trained eye.   As he slowly turns his head to his left he notices a dark alley just behind him a few feet behind him.  He back tracks to stand in the mouth of the alley.  Staring into the darkness, he is certain of what he has to do.

“Of course
, the bastard would be in there,” he says to himself.

Slowly he clings to the wall
, staying close to the shadows so he doesn’t spook the Rogue.  Alessandro is already pissed off because of the night’s events and is more than ready for a release.  He reaches down and pulls his knife from his ankle harness, ignoring the gun strapped to his ankle altogether.

Screw the quick kill.  I want to play with this bastard first
,
he thinks to himself.

Suddenly he hears trembling whimpers a little further ahead.

Dammit!  He has someone in here.  There goes my fun.

He walks a little faster
, trying to be as quiet as he can.

Within seconds a form of a man is becoming clearer.  He lifts his knife in front of him so he can take him out quickly from behind.  Then he sees her.  She is crying through tightly shut eyes, obviously not wanting to see what is about to happen.  She is rightfully terrified.  If she knew what the man really is
, she’d be even more terrified. 

The Rogue shows his sharp yellow teeth as he prepares to dig into his meal for the night.

Dammit!  He is still too far away to stop him,
he thinks to himself. 
I’ve got to do something, now!

“No!” Alessandro yells desperately
.

The Rogue turns around and
Anna-Marie opens her wet eyes at the sound of his voice. 

Her eyes widen as fear sets in even deeper.  Not only is she about to be killed, but so is Alessandro, and it will be all her fault.  Had he not gone after her, he wouldn’t be here now.  The thought makes her cry even harder.

“Alessandro,” she says through her trembling lips.

The confusion becomes amusement as the Rogue smiles his deadly smile at Alessandro as recognition sets in. 

“My, my, aren’t I a lucky one?  Not only do I get to play with this pretty little thing,” he says mockingly as he sniffs Anna-Marie’s hair, not once taking his dark eyes off of Alessandro, “but do I also get to play with a little mutt tonight too?”

“Alessandro, be careful, he, he’s not normal
,” she stutters.

Alessandro snarls with rage.  “If you know what’s best for you, you piece of shit, you will let her go, or I will be the one playing tonight.”

The Rogue laughs mockingly again. “Oh, such a child.  Brother, do you really think you can take me?”

Rage seers through Alessandro.  “I am not your brother!”

The Rogue smiles. “Sure you are.  You and I aren’t much different.  We were both created by the same.”

“No!  You are a Rogue.  I am a Protector.  My father may be of the same species, but never mistake yourself or the one
who made you to ever be the same.”

Anna
-Marie stares between them both, confused.

“Ahh . . .
the infamous Brotherhood. What makes you and your daddy any better than any of us?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that we aren’t huge piece
s of shit.”

“Screw them and screw you
, too, little mutt.”

“Screw with me bloodsucker!  I’m begging you!”

“Alessandro?”

In a flash the Rogue throws
Anna-Marie into the side of a metallic dumpster.  She bounces off of it and slams hard into the side of the brick wall of a building as the Rogue and Alessandro collide.

Before the darkness of unconsciousness consumes her, a very familiar sight appears in her sight.  Not one
, but two, figures fighting in the dark.

11

“Anna-Marie, Anna-Marie honey, open your eyes,” Alessandro says as he pushes her tangled dark mass of hair out of her face and strokes her cheek trying to wake her up.

“Alessandro?” 
Anna-Marie moans softly.

“Yeah, I’m right here.”

“Alessandro, what happened?”  As the words leave her mouth the memories of the evening punches its way into her brain.  “Oh, my God, Alessandro!” she yells as she tries to scramble to her wobbly feet.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

“Where did he go?  What happened?”  She leans back against the alley wall and rubs her achy head.

“He’s gone
, Anna-Marie.”

She looks around for evidence that he was even really there
. “But how?”

“I killed him.”

She jerks her head back in his direction and looks at him, confused, “What?  How?  I saw him, he wasn’t normal. Wait!”  She puts her hands to her mouth and stares at him with even deeper confused eyes.

“Alessandro, what was he talking about?  He sounded like he knew you.”

Alessandro stares at her, speechless. 
She wasn’t supposed to see any of that.  Dammit!  How the hell am I supposed to explain all of this to her?

Anna
-Marie takes her trembling hands away from her mouth and asks, “Alessandro, what was he?”

“Umm
. . . what do you mean?” he stammers.

She looks at him
shocked like he just slapped her.  “Seriously, Alessandro, what the hell was he and how do you know him?  Don’t play dumb with me!”

“
Dammit, Anna-Marie!  What were you doing out here anyway?  You know it’s not safe.”

“Alessandro
, please.”  She feels panicked.  She doesn’t know if she wants to scream or throw up, maybe both.

“Seriously, you wo
uldn’t believe me if I told you,” he says exasperated.

“Don’t tell me what I will or won’t believe.  What I’m hearing is you somehow killed a man that wasn’t quite a man but something else.  How is that possible?”

“Fine!  Can we just go to your place and talk?  I will tell you everything, but not here.”

Anna
-Marie takes a minute to think about this.  Does she really want this man who she thought was her friend, who she just witnessed kill a man, or whatever he was, in her home alone with her, her home that she shared with Dylan? 

“Alessandro, I really don’t
think that is such a good idea,” she finally says.

“Please
, Anna-Marie.  I need to explain to you what you have seen and heard.  Not just what happened tonight, but on other occasions as well.”

Anna
-Marie’s heart leaps in her chest. 
He can’t possibly be talking about the two other attacks I’ve had.  How could he know about them?

Panicked even more now
, she asks, “What are you talking about?”

“Please
, Anna-Marie.  We need to talk, but not out here,” Alessandro says, looking around.  He knows there are ears all around and this will most likely get back to his father.  He needs to cushion this situation with her as much as he can, before everything is completely blown to pieces.

“Fine, but I promise you I will not hesitate to call the police
if I have to.”

“That won’t be necessary, I promise.”

The ride to her apartment is full of tension, very uncomfortable tension.  They are stuck riding together because Anna-Marie rode with Peggy and Alessandro knew Michael was fine on foot.  Neither of them knows what to say.  Anna-Marie tries hard to focus all of her attention on the speeding objects outside of the car window and gets lost in a tornado of thoughts. 

Once they pull up to her building
, she turns to him in shock.  She never once told him where she lives.  He doesn’t seem to notice her stare; he only stares out the front windshield into the darkened night searching for answers that seem unfounded. 

“How do you know where I live?”

Nothing.

“Have you followed me?’

He still doesn’t look at her.  Speechless and confused, she gets out of the car and slams the car door behind her.

This makes Alessandro flinch.

Once inside Anna-Marie’s apartment she throws her purse down on the couch and goes straight to the kitchen for a drink.  That great buzz she had before at the club has worn off to nothing but a slow crawling headache from the night’s events.  She looks at the small selection of assorted bottles of alcohol and says, “Screw it,” and grabs the bottle of Gray Goose Vodka.  After an internal debate she decides to grab not one, but two glasses.  The night has been insane all around and one drink will not do.  She leaves the kitchen with the bottle in one hand and the glasses in the other.  If there was ever a time to drink and try to relax, it was now, and as much as she hated to think it, Alessandro looks like he needs a few, too.

She walks into the
living room where Alessandro is still standing by the door. “You might as well come in already.  I have a feeling you’ll be here for a while.”

Anna
-Marie sits down on the couch and pours her first drink, which she tips back right away.

“Darn it!  It burns
,” Anna-Marie says while fanning herself.

Alessandro smiles and walks over to the couch and sits down beside her.  Without looking at him she hands him his glass and pours them both a drink.  He only stares down at the
deliciously smooth vodka trying to figure out where to start.  Anna-Marie doesn’t wait for him and tips her glass back again.

“Darn it!” she yells again, this time she stomps her foot in unison.  Alessandro smiles
again and reaches over and grabs the bottle from her.  He should be mad at her for being so reckless and even though she is mad at him, he still thinks she is so beautiful.

“Here
, let me hold on to this for a few minutes before you hurt yourself.”

“That’s probably a good idea
,” she says holding her throat.  “Okay, Alessandro, you promised you would tell me everything once we were here so spill.”