Protector (27 page)

Finally she opens her eyes into tiny slits.

“Alessandro, are you really here?” she asks.

“Yes
, Anna-Marie, I’m right here.  You’re safe now.”

“I thought they killed you.”  She cries even harder at the thought. 

He pulls her up closer to him and hugs her as deep as he can.  Her body is weak and frail so she can’t cling to him the way she so desperately wants to.  No matter how much her brain screams, her limbs won’t work.

“Alessandro, I can’t move.”

He pulls her away to arms length to look her over.  She isn’t bleeding anywhere that would show evidence of a wound that would cause the paralysis.

“Okay
, Bella, don’t worry.  I’ll carry you.”

Gently he picks her up off of the bed and carries her out of the room.  She never saw what this place looked like before.
As she looks around now into open doorways as Alessandro carries her through the tight hallway, she is shocked to see that it looks more like a war zone rather than a place she would find in her beautiful town.  Everywhere she looks she sees blood and bullet holes and an occasional body randomly scattered about. 

“Don’t look
.  We’ll be out in a few minutes,” Alessandro says.  But she is unable to close her eyes.  She has seen nothing but darkness for so long, it’s the last thing she cares to see again.

Once out of the hall
, she sees a group of men appearing very much like proud noble warriors after a battle, standing in wait with blood smeared on their clothes.  All of them are staring at her, which makes her feel nervous and insecure.  Among the group is the man, Michael, who had found her.  He isn’t looking at her but rather glaring at Alessandro, but Alessandro doesn’t seem to notice. 

“Alessandro, we must get her to the manor now so Jesse can check her out
,” says one of the men. 

“Is everything clear here?” Alessandro asks back.

“Son, what little may have gotten away is not that important right now,” he says and looks back down at Anna-Marie and smiles.  “We will find them later.”

Son
?  She thinks to herself and looks back up at Alessandro’s serious face before turning back to the hulk of a man who would be fitting more as Alessandro’s brother, rather than his father.  His stature is a few inches taller than Alessandro, his build larger, but there is an air about him that says, “Don’t mess with me,” but also prestigious at the same time.

He nods to his father and carries her outside to the waiting car.

“Here you go,” he says as he sets her on the cool tan leather in the front seat of the car.  It’s not his Porsche, but rather a sleek black Lexus. 

“Just sit here for one minute.  I have to go back inside for a second, okay?”

“No, Alessandro!  Please don’t leave me,” Anna-Marie cries as she feels panic course through her body at the thought of being alone again.

“I’ll only be a minute.
  I promise.”

He kisses her on her dry cracked lips and locks her door before he closes it.

Alone in the car, she begins to get nervous.  After everything she has been through, the last thing she wants is to be alone.  As seconds pass, she franticly starts looking around, feeling completely paranoid now.  She feels like she is being watched, but she doesn’t know from where.

She scans the grounds, but doesn’t see anything but darkness, so she looks back up at the warehouse.  Silhouetted by the enormous full moon,
Anna-Marie sees a man standing on the roof of the warehouse staring down at her.  She leans closer to the glass to get a better look at the man.

She studies his illuminated face.  Her heart begins to pound in her chest even harder.  Her muscles are still tight and tingling, but they seem to be getting better.

She slowly and clumsily moves her arm onto the door handle and squeezes hard on the handle.  After two tries, the door finally comes open.  Slowly she lifts her right leg, then the left, and helps them to the ground outside of the car.  She grips the side of the car and lifts herself out of the car.  Standing up, she supports herself with the side of the car and looks harder at the man on the roof. 

She can see his features even better now.  He is staring down at her with serious
, sad eyes,  eyes she would know anywhere.  She leans against the car and slowly walks around it to get an even closer look.

Barely hanging on now to any sense of reality
, she lets go of the car and takes a few wobbly steps in his direction, then stands up straighter.

“Dylan?”

19

As soon as Alessandro’s feet hit the gravel walkway
, his heart stops in his chest.  He runs to Anna-Marie as fast as he can, where she is lying on the ground a few feet from the car.  “Anna-Marie!” he yells.  He knells down beside her and pulls her in his lap and brushes the wild hair from her face.  “Anna-Marie, honey, wake up.”

Slowly her eyes flutter open, “Alessandro?”

“Yes, I’m right here.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.  When I came back out I saw you on the ground.  What were you doing out of the car?”

“I don’t know
,” she says then rubs her head and looks around.  Suddenly her eyes shoot up toward the warehouse window, but she sees nothing.  Confused, she searches around desperately trying to find him.

“Here
, come on.  Let’s get you up off the ground and back into the car.”

Without a word
, he wraps his arm around her waist and helps her up.  She doesn’t have a lot of strength after all that she has been through and has to lean on him for support.  Slowly they make it back to the car.  With one last look up at the rooftop, she gets in and closes the door.

The ride back to the manor is made in total silence. 
Anna-Marie has too much on her mind that she has to work out.

I must have been seeing things
,
she thinks to herself.
There’s no way that was Dylan.  I saw him that night.  He was dead.  I watched him get buried.  And then there’s the mixed vampire thing.  How am I going to tell Alessandro this, knowing how he and his people hate the Mixed Breeds?

She bites her lower lip and looks over at Alessandro.  His intense dark almond eyes look so serious and guarded as he stares at the road ahead.

He looks so sad.  Is it possible that he has aged since the last time I saw him?
she thinks to herself.

Slowly he turns in her direction and notices her stare.  He gives her a forced smile and she gives one back before she turns away to look out the window.

A few minutes later they pull up to a massive set of iron gates at the manors entrance.  Anna-Marie cranes her neck to look out of the windshield at the top of the gate and its intricate patterns of swirls.  They look every bit like flowing iron wind. 

Alessandro waves at the camera and types in a code which makes the huge gates swing open.  It takes what seems like minutes to drive down the curvy driveway that is eclipsed by rows of blooming dogwood trees. 
Anna-Marie stares out of the window in silence at the wonders of this grand estate.  Unfortunately, it is too dark to see too much, but the blackened sky doesn’t stop her from trying.

Anna
-Marie is speechless as Alessandro drives through a circle driveway and parks in front of one of the biggest houses Anna-Marie has ever seen.  She doesn’t make a move to get out of the car, but instead stares at the prestigious house.  The longer she stares at it the more she finds herself recognizing the architecture.  It is an almost exact replica of the plantation house. 

Anna
-Marie turns to Alessandro in surprise than back up at the house.  “Oh, my goodness, Alessandro, is this yours?”

“Yes, this is where I live, but it’s not just mine.”

Anna-Marie could have gotten whiplash from turning her head so fast in his direction.  “What do you mean, it’s not just yours?”

“Well
, the Brotherhood owns houses all over the world.  We move all around, spending time in each for a few years to make sure everything is going okay in the area before moving on to the next one. There are members and families that stay in one place among society, but my group, the Brotherhood, travels in a pack.  There are seven warriors and seven Protectors in my pack.  There are also two females that live here.  They are the wives of two of the members.”

Alessandro notices the tension in
Anna-Marie’s expression.  “I know it is strange for you, but I promise, you are very safe here.”

Anna
-Marie nods her head in understanding. 

She holds her breath when they reach the door, anticipating what may lay behind it.  Her only real contact with a vampire has been wit
h Rogue.  The fear still remains in her mind that these creatures live off of the life force of humans.  How can someone like that be trusted?  Good or bad, to her the line is still undefined, especially after her ordeal.

She grabs Alessandro’s hand as they pass
over the threshold of the expansive mansion. 

“Oh
, my goodness, Alessandro!  It’s so much more beautiful than I thought it would be.”

Alessandro laughs, “What did you expect, coffins?”

“Umm . . . no.  I don’t really know what I expected.”

The view from the foyer is a grand sight to be seen.  It’s not old and stuffy looking like you would expect with most old mansions
.  Actually, it’s quite the opposite.

There is a typical grand staircase straight ahead leading to the upper levels
; but instead of wood railings, the old wood has been replaced by something that looks like thick black steel.  To the right of the foyer is a sitting area with a massive widescreen television and an incredible black marble fireplace.  Even the furniture is a plush black leather material.  On the left side of the foyer there is a dining room with a kingly medieval table.  The kitchen appears to be on the far side of the dining room past double swinging doors.

“Come on, I’ll show you to my quarters.”  Alessandro squeezes her hand and helps her climb the stairs to the third floor.  They come to a halt at the last door on the hall
.  Alessandro slowly opens the door and stands to the side to let her in first.  The sight from the doorway is of pure destruction.

She has to step over a destroyed canopy before she can get in the room.  Shocked, she turns around to face Alessandro.  The look on his face says he is just as shocked. 

“Alessandro, what happened?” she asks slowly.

“I had an accident.” 

She looks around at the room.  “Must have been a big one.”

He finally steps into the room from the hall and lifts the canopy up out of their way. 

Anna-Marie looks around the room in awe.  Despite the destruction, this whole experience, from the time they entered the heavenly gates to this moment, has been surreal.  His quarter, as he calls it, is almost as big as her apartment.

On one wall is a huge king size bed that looks like a fluffy black cloud rather than a bed, with what appears to be a shiny black velvet blanket resting on top.  Beside the bed is another plush black leather chair like the ones in the sitting area downstairs, which is facing a massive flat screen television that is so big it covers half of the wall. 
Anna-Marie can’t help but to laugh to herself at the appearance of such a cliché of pure manliness.

“I’ll fix it later.  You should rest now.”

She turns to face him.  “Alessandro, all I’ve done is rest.  What I really want right now is a hot bath and some clean clothes,” she says and looks down at the dirty, torn clothes she has had on since she was taken.

“How long have I been gone
, anyway?”

“Four days.”

“Wow, it felt like much longer.”

As if he is looking at her for the first time
, he realizes once again just how much he loves this woman standing before him.  The past four days have felt like a lifetime for him, too.  He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and says to Anna-Marie, “Of course, I’m sure a bath and fresh clothes would make you feel much better.  Can you stay right here for a minute while I go downstairs and get some clothes and bath products from one of the wives?”

“Yes
, and I promise not to move this time,” she says and smiles at him.

He smiles back
, then turns to leave the room. 

Alessandro runs down the stairs taking two steps at a time.  He doesn’t want to leave her alone for too long.