Birth of Jaiden (32 page)

“
Fine, fine, I’m ready,
then.”

Immediately, Damion started
instructing her. “You know that you can’t use any telepathy; you
have to close your mind to everything. If you don’t, they will pick
up your thoughts. When you get out,
then
use it to find us. We can’t stay here.”

“
I’m not stupid,
Damion.”

Michael took her wrinkled
hand into his callused one. “We can’t even take you to find the
entrance; they might have surveillance.”

“
I know that.” She spat
out. “Just let me go get this done.”

She yanked her hand away
from him. With those as her last words, she stalked off into the
forest.

“
Well,” Damion said. “We
probably have a long wait ahead of us. Most likely all day so we
should find a place to hide our vehicles.”

“
Yeah,” Michael said. “I
have a bad feeling about this area; I think they will be watching
it if it’s the only way in.”

Damion nodded. “You’re
right; we need to get out of here. We’re going to have to drive all
the way up this road until we find a place to turn
around.”

Michael raised his
eyebrows. “I think I’m just going to back them into the trees to
turn around. I doubt there is a space big enough to turn these
things around, anyway.”

“
Let’s just go back out to
the main road and park them there. That’s probably far
enough.”

“
Let’s do it,
then.”

After quite a difficult
time of turning the semis around, they drove them and the hummers
back out near the main road.

When they had parked and
stood next to their vehicles once more, Alex felt Danielle’s hand
on his shoulder.

“
You and Chris are going
to have to wait in the trucks, just to make sure that no sunlight
will get to you.”

Alex shrugged like he
didn’t care even though he did. “I figured.”

That was the last thing he
wanted to do, sit around and talk with the vampire slayers all day;
and he certainly wasn’t going to sleep.

“
It’s just safer that
way,” she told him.

Again, he shrugged. “I
know that.”

Suddenly, Chris was beside him.
“Wait a minute, what?” He pointed at the trucks. “We have to wait
in
there
all day?”

Alex nodded.

“
No, I’m not doing it; I
don’t care what all of you say. I don’t know those people and they
don’t know me.”

“
There is nowhere else for
you to go,” Danielle told him.

“
Damn it.
” Chris cursed.

Alex rolled his eyes at
Chris. “Let’s just do it.”

Surprised, Chris snapped
toward Alex. “Alex, since when did you become such a socialite? I
don’t want to.”

Alex sighed. “Chris, it’s
true. We don’t have any other choice and we should be happy that we
have a place to go at all.”

“
Damn it
.” Chris swore again. “Fine, but
don’t think for a second that I’m happy about this.”

“
Don’t worry,” Danielle
told him.

“
Yeah,
ok
.” Chris blew her off as he marched toward
the semi.

Alex shrugged his
shoulders and followed.

Once in the back of the
semi, he stood next to Chris as they both stared in awe at what
they saw.

There were several bunks,
some of which were nicely made and some that weren’t. There were
two desks that were cluttered with all kinds of unrecognizable
gadgets. Computers with glowing monitors also took up some of the
space.

Alex began to feel
uncomfortable as he realized that six vampire slayers who were
lounging in various spots were staring at them.

“
Hi,” Chris said
loudly.

A blond woman with a very
butch haircut and a sleeveless tee shirt stood with her hand
extended. “Hi, I’m Jackie.”

Alex watched as Chris took
her hand and shook it.

“
Chris,” he told
her.

She turned to Alex and
shook his hand too.

“
I’m Alex. They told us to
come in here,” he blurted out nervously.

“
We know.” She smiled at
him. “Don’t worry, come on.” She waved her hand

“
You can use any of the
beds that you want to.”

Boy, what a sweet voice for
such a butch looking lady
, he thought.

“
Thank you,” he said as he
ignored the stares of the others and went to a bottom bunk to sit.
Chris followed closely behind and sat on the one directly across
from him.

Jackie took her seat at
one of the desks, and then, they all sat in silence. It seemed that
the other slayers had no interest in trying to make conversation
with them. As a matter of fact, it looked to Alex like they were
just as happy about them being there as they were.

“
So,” Chris said. “Do you
come here often?”

He pulled his legs up
Indian style on the bed and rested his chin on his
hands.

Alex sighed and lowered his
head.
Oh
Christopher, always a comedian. Why?

One of the larger men held a
book about ancient legends and lowered it when he said to Chris,
“You don’t have to make conversation, man. We are all here for the
same thing so go to sleep and get rested so that we can get our
guy.
Ok
.”

Without waiting for an
answer, he returned to his reading.

Alex watched graciously as
Christopher only raised his eyebrows and stretched out on his
bunk.

Alex did the same and
rested his head on top of the pillow. It was true; they needed
their rest for the night ahead of them. It would be pretty bold of
them to try anything while the rest of the council was outside. So,
it was probably safe to sleep.

He glanced over at Chris,
who lay there with his eyes wide open, staring at the bunk above
him. Then, he turned onto his side away from the eyes of the
slayers and prayed silently.

Lord, please give us the
strength to do this. Protect Victoria from the evil within the
mountain and, when our time comes as well, help us to do your
bidding to do whatever it is that you need us to do. Keep Jaiden,
Isabella and Stewart safe in the arms of the enemy. I will fight
for them and I will fight for you
.

Alex didn’t end his prayer
properly but just let his eyes close. Slumber enveloped him
peacefully.

34

Victoria shed her clothes
as soon as she felt sure she had put enough distance between the
rest of them and herself. Then, as quickly as her aged and weakened
legs would take her, she searched for the entrance.

As much as she wanted to,
she could not stop the raging flood of thoughts that spun round
endlessly in her head. She was doing something she hadn’t done for
many years. Long ago, when she had had curves and perky breasts, it
had been no problem. But she was old and taking off your clothes
wasn’t something you looked forward to. Even invisibility couldn’t
stop self-consciousness.

Still, she could feel the
slight lust of excitement.

She knew that no one would
be able to see her so she directed her worries to the imbeciles
outside. Most likely they were moving about, screaming and
shouting, making themselves perfect targets.

Quietly, making her steps
light so as to keep the twigs and such from snapping loudly, she
followed the circumference of the mountain. It wasn’t long before
she heard low voices. The entrance was heavily guarded by several
human men.

The entrance was not well
hidden; in fact, it was downright visible. A massive set of stone
doors, with strange markings etched into them, along with the
guards were her only obstacles.

The guards she knew she
could fool; it was getting through those gigantic doors that
concerned her. There was absolutely no way she was able to pass
through without having to open them, which in turn would alert the
guards.

It looked as if she had to
wait for someone to open them.

Damn, that could take
forever
.

With no other choice, she
waited. Softly, she moved toward where the guards stood chatting
and stood right between them, in front of the doors.

She felt utterly
uncomfortable as she stood there naked in front of several human
men, listening to their talk about insignificant things.

Hours passed. Victoria’s legs
began to ache from lack of movement.
They are never going to open the damn
doors
, she
thought.
And
these guards, they can just talk of nothingness all
day
.

The anticipated sunlight
finally made its appearance and filtered beautifully through the
trees. Victoria felt goosebumps rising up the length of her bare
skin and couldn’t decide if it was from the chill in the air or
something else.

Finally, she heard echos
coming from within the doors.

Thank God
.

The doors were heaved open
by more humans, who were also armed like the ones she stood
with.

Ah, shift
change
, she
thought while she quickly slipped inside.

Once inside, she was not
surprised to find that the passages were a labyrinth of
caves.
Man-made
, she thought as she ran her hands over the damp walls,
searching for pockets and crevices just as she had been
instructed.

There were many turns and
stairways that she inspected while she slowly crept through the
passages. Every now and then, a passing guard wandered by as they
patrolled the caves and caused her to stop and hold her breath
until they were far out of sight.

Somewhere far below her,
she could hear screaming. Too many screams, small ones, deep ones,
long ones. She wanted to cover her ears and block them out.
Instinct did bring her palms to her ears but that still didn’t
quiet the awful screams.

She found a spiraling
stone stairway that led down. Step by step, the howling got louder
and louder. Each step closer, she wished with all her heart that
she could do something for those trapped people. It was almost more
than she could bear knowing that they were going to leave those
people to die.

Finally, at the bottom,
she looked around her and found that she was only faced with more
doors and caves.

Victoria cursed inwardly
and chose to go left, the cave with the least doors. Once she stood
in front of the first wooden doorway, she knew she was forced to
use her magic. She had wanted to avoid it at all costs but there
was no way she was going to see inside all of those rooms if she
had to wait for each door to be opened.

In a whisper, Victoria
performed a spell to shield her magic from the enemy. “A touch of
magic I shall use, in turn we face too much to lose, blind our
enemy’s ears and eyes from what magic I shall rise, I call my
powers within, the powers around, I will our secret not to be
found.”

Victoria had closed her
eyes and felt the whirl of magic that could almost be compared to
ecstasy. When she opened them, there was no evidence of a spell.
Everything was exactly the same. It would prove itself
later.

She turned to the door and
faced it completely; then, she raised her hands slightly and put
her palms flat against it. There was no spell, no chants for her to
say that time, only the melding of her mind with magic.

Again, she felt her body
fill with warmth, felt the tingling in her belly that made her toes
want to curl. The door glimmered with light for a moment and took
the shape of a substance much like water, with an aura of white
diamonds.

Victoria smiled with
triumph and looked through the watery waves of doorway into the
room. There was nothing. It was bare. The next room proved the
same. But the third time is always a charm.

The third was all the way
at the end of the cave, the last door. Behind it was yet another
stairway leading down. Cautiously, after she had looked around to
make sure no one was watching the door, she quietly opened it and
went down.

She felt the presence of
the guards before she could see them. They were human, less able to
sense her. A glance around the corner showed her that they stood
silently guarding an open archway without a door. Luckily, though,
it was a large archway and she would be able to simply slip right
through.

Then, she heard a precious
sound, a baby’s cry.

Jaiden
.

She was in there, Jaiden
was in there and there would be nothing she could do. As much as
she wanted to, it was an intelligence reconnaissance
only.

Oh, please God, keep her
safe
,
Victoria prayed.

She also prayed silently
for the lightness of her feet as she crept toward the guards. Both
of them were leaning back on the wall of each side of the archway.
One had his arms crossed. The other, a rather small man for a human
guard, was tapping his foot and whispering words to a
song.