Safe Hex With a Vampire (8 page)

Tempest let out a frustrated breath and
pushed her hair back.

“You should just braid it,” Aiden said.

The abrupt change of subject threw Tempest
for a loop and she just stared at him for a moment before
responding. “I don’t really know how to braid hair. This is the
first time that I’ve ever had it long and it’s making me crazy. I’m
not sure what possessed me to grow it out. At first, I just didn’t
get around to having it cut and then I figured it was already to my
shoulders so why not try long hair.” She felt silly for babbling
about her hair.

He pointed to the cot. “Sit on the end.”

“Why?” she asked suspiciously.

“I’m going to braid your hair,” he said
simply. “Do you have a ribbon or one of those girlie rubber band
type things?”

She looked at him like he had just sprouted
horns. “You know how to braid hair?”

“I used to braid my mother’s hair,” he
admitted. He seemed a little embarrassed by his own admission. “She
was missing four fingers, stupid witch trials, and it was hard for
her to do it herself.”

“I’ll go get a brush and a hair band,”
Tempest said. She went over to the lab area and rummaged through
her drawers. Luckily, she frequently brought things down with her
and forgot to bring them back up. As a result she now had two
drawers full of forgotten items, and in those drawers she had a
brush and a small hair band. She couldn’t remember bringing either
of them down so they must have been in the drawers for awhile.

“What happened to your parents?” she asked
as she sat at the end of the cot.

Aiden sat behind her and began to braid her
hair. His hands moved at an unnatural speed. “They died in a car
accident a couple of years ago,” he said softly.

“You were really close to both of them?” she
asked.

“Yes.” His hands slowed some. “I’ve never
been very close to the rest of my family. We mostly kept to
ourselves. When my parents died, I went more than a little
crazy.”

Tempest felt the braid when he was done, and
she was impressed. She stood up ready to leave but the sight of him
tugged at her heart. He seemed so alone.

She knew he wouldn’t want her pity, or to
have things left this way. “I’m having trouble figuring out how
someone who was such a mama’s boy that he braided his mother’s hair
could have turned into such a misogynist pig.” Her statement was
made in the most condescending tone she could manage.

He gave her a brilliant smile. “You know
just what to say to make me feel better.”

“Please think about what I said, Aiden.”

“Will you keep me here until I agree?” he
asked.

She shook her head. “I just want to make
sure you’re fully recovered before you leave and I really would
like to ask you some questions.” She locked the door to the cell
and turned toward him. She wanted to apologize but she wasn’t sure
there was a good way to apologize for keeping him prisoner so she
just left.

Claudia stepped away from me and scowled.
“So, you’re already imagining me pregnant with your child.”

“
No, I’m imagining the process of getting
you pregnant,” I admitted with no shame, “In fact that thought
consumes most of my time.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest sent out a silent prayer that this
would be their lucky day. It was mid afternoon. Most of the
attacks had occurred during the day but there were a few scattered
attacks that had happened at night. As always, when hunting she
looked the part of a carefree college student walking alone. She
appeared distracted, wearing ear buds to make it look like she was
listening to music. She had chosen the black wig to fit the victim
profile even better. It wasn’t easy to hide her long blonde hair
under the wig, so she’d added a hat.

Suddenly, Tempest sensed the predator
approaching. It was impossible to miss the waves of aggression in
the air. Hatred and lust blended together. She wasn’t a strong
empath like Ivy, but she easily sensed this monster. She couldn’t
believe that she had mistaken Aiden for this man. Of course, she
had a stronger advantage today.

That’s him!
Ivy’s voice spoke
directly into her mind.
I can see the images of what he wants to
do and what he has done.

Now, all she had to do was lead him into the
trap. She walked into the alley. Many of these alleys were
shortcuts to main streets. It was easy to get distracted and walk
into the wrong one. It was hard to tell that there wasn’t a small
side street until you neared the end.

She heard his footsteps behind her. He made
no attempt to be quiet. She removed the ear buds from her ears and
looked around in feigned confusion.

“This sure ain’t your lucky day, bitch.”
That loud statement held so much venom that it would have
frightened most.

Tempest turned toward her prey and smiled.
The fool still believed that he was the hunter. As if to prove that
evil was easy to hide, the man was truly beautiful. Looking at him
she could understand why she had assumed Aiden was the man they
were seeking. This man stood nearly as tall as Aiden. He obviously
spent a great deal of time working out but he was not as muscular.
Nor was he as masculine. He had an almost feminine beauty that was
only marred by the sinister curl of his full lips. His hair was
completely covered with a stocking cap, and sunglasses masked his
eyes.

“Funny,” she said sweetly, “I’m feeling
pretty lucky right now.”

He advanced on her slowly and waves of
hatred surrounded her. The hand that had been behind his back came
out with a vicious looking knife in it. It made her wonder how
someone managed to conceal a knife that big. It’s not like the guy
was wearing baggy clothes or a bulky jacket. He had on
low rise skinny jeans and a black hoodie.

“If you make one sound, I will cut you so
bad that you’ll wish you were dead.” His threat sounded so calm and
rational that it seemed completely out of place. It sounded as
though he was merely making pleasant conversation. “If you’re a
good little bitch, I’ll let you walk out of here unharmed.” Then he
laughed. “All you have to do is take a walk with me and pretend
you’re my girlfriend. Now doesn’t that sound easy?”

Why did they always say stuff like that?
Well, she supposed it was because women still believed it. No woman
had ever escaped this man unharmed, and some hadn’t even escaped
with their lives.

Tempest gathered the energy from the air
around her and formed it into an invisible ball. She couldn’t
absorb it into her body but for some reason she could manipulate
it. She allowed her own energy to explode out of her like a violent
storm that pressed against the energy in the air. It crashed into
him. His face registered the shock just before he hit the
ground.

Ivy entered the alley, already on the phone.
It wasn’t long before the van pulled up. They quickly loaded the
man into the back, and then secured his hands and feet with duct
tape. Her cousin, Rose, was driving and her cousin, Willow, scooted
into the back to help secure him. Aside from a nasty bump on the
back of his head, he didn’t look very badly injured.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Willow
asked.

“What choice do we have?” Ivy asked her.

Willow let out a sigh and nodded.

Normally, they would have just handed him
over to the police. They had contacts in several law enforcement
agencies that were more than willing to pretend they didn’t know
how the men ended up in their custody, or make up a good cover
story. In areas where they had no local law enforcement contacts
they relied on a friend at the FBI. In this case, they had a
detective at the San Francisco Police Department that was more than
happy to work with them and pretend he didn’t know they had some
extra talents. Tempest knew they were creating a lot of trouble for
their contact but they had no choice.

“I hate it,” Tempest said, “but we have a
chance to help those poor women, and we need to take it.”

After they had him secured, Tempest climbed
into the front seat next to her cousin Rose. Rose and Willow had
been a part of the center from day one, and Tempest loved them.
They just irritated her sometimes. Tempest could tell by the way
that Rose kept looking over at her that today was going to be one
of those irritating days.

“Just say whatever is on your mind,” Tempest
finally told her.

“How long are you planning to keep that
thing in the basement?” Rose asked.

“We’ll have the ceremony tomorrow night,”
Tempest answered, intentionally misunderstanding Rose’s question.
“Until then we’ll keep him confined in the cell in the old barn. In
case you’ve forgotten, the basement is full.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You know what I’m
talking about. That thing we picked up last time.”

“Are you referring to Aiden?” Tempest tried
hard not to let the annoyance seep into her voice.

“Whatever,” Willow added from the backseat.
“We don’t really care what its name is. We just want it out of the
center.”

Tempest blew out a frustrated breath. “I’ve
found out some interesting things about
him
.” She decided
not to share the news that they were related just yet. It might
have been fun to watch their reactions since they were feeling so
superior, but it might be ill advised to give Rose that kind
of shock while she was driving. “I’m actually thinking that he
would be a good sperm donor for me. He’s against the idea now, but
I’m hoping to change his mind.”

Ivy was doing her best to pretend that she
couldn’t hear the conversation.

“Ew!” Rose nearly shouted. “That thing isn’t
even human. It would be like having a baby with a dog or
something.”

“I think a dog would be a better choice,”
Willow added with a snort.

“At least you don’t want to have sex with
it. That would be totally gross,” Rose said with a shudder of
revulsion. “I don’t know how you even managed to touch it to treat
its wounds.”

Tempest was quickly losing her temper. “In
case you’ve failed to notice, we aren’t exactly human either,” she
said as calmly as she could manage. “Human or not, he is probably
the hottest guy I’ve ever met.” Tempest had no idea why she
suddenly felt the need to defend Aiden. All she knew was that the
way she was treating him was wrong and she wouldn’t add to that by
insulting him for what he was.

Rose began to tap the steering wheel with
her fingers as she drove across the Bay Bridge. “If you are feeling
so desperate for a man that you would screw that
thing
, then
I suggest you hit the club and find some relief.” Rose was
practically sneering. “Don’t let your hormones make you scrape the
bottom of the barrel.”

“What I do with Aiden is none of your
business,” Tempest said through her teeth. “Am I making myself
clear?”

“Fine, just go ahead and pollute the gene
pool with that thing,” Willow mumbled from the backseat. “Ow!” she
screeched, and Tempest smiled knowing that it was probably because
Ivy had smacked her in the back of the head.

Thankfully, the rest of the drive back was
blessedly silent.

“
He doesn’t own her,” I grumbled.

“
He may as well,” argued my brother,
Viktor. “You know she can’t leave, and you know that she would not
be scrubbing floors if he had any intention of letting one of us
marry her. Father will never let you have her, Roman. Have you
considered the fact that you might get the girl killed with your
obsession?”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest was exhausted and irritable. Hunting
always took a lot out of her, and the argument with her cousins
hadn’t helped matters at all. She was glad that they had finally
caught the monster, but it wasn’t over yet. They still had a lot of
work to do.

She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to
visit Aiden as soon as they returned but she did. Maybe defending
him to her cousins had made her feel closer to him. Maybe it was
the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss. Whatever
the reason, she was too tired to deny herself. She’d quickly
settled their prisoner into a cell, and let her cousins handle the
rest of the details.

“Did you catch him?” Aiden didn’t even look
up from his sketchbook when he asked the question. His pencil was
moving furiously across the page. He sounded bored, or maybe
distracted. She supposed that she really didn’t know him well
enough to say. His attention was mostly on the drawing. Funny that
she hadn’t even realized he had any artistic talent. Of course, for
all she knew, he could be drawing stick figures.

“Yes,” she said. “At least we were able to
stop one man from torturing women.”

“You really hate men, don’t you?” This time
he did look up at her. “You think we’re all just like him.”

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

“I’ve been trying to figure out why you’re
so hot to have a baby without a man in your life,” he said with a
shrug. “I came to the conclusion that you must have some serious
man hate.”

She hesitated. “I don’t hate men, but I
guess what I do distorts my opinions of them. I’ve seen more
ugliness than good in the last ten years.”

“Not all men are like that,” he said as he
set the sketchpad on the cot.

She gave him a disbelieving look, and walked
into the cell with him. “What about you, Aiden? Are you telling me
that you’re one of the men that a woman can really count on? Are
you saying you’re one of the good men?” Even as she asked the
question, she felt bad about it. She already knew he felt guilty
about his past actions and she was going out of her way to remind
him of them. It was a knee jerk reaction that she regretted.

He shrugged and looked away. “I’m a bastard
and I’m not denying it. I’ve done some things I’m not proud of. You
already know some of it, I’ve also used mind control to get people
to do things they might not have otherwise agreed to. Never sex, in
case you were wondering. Even I would consider that no better than
rape. I never said I was a great guy, I just said not all men are
bad.”