BloodGifted (25 page)

Chapter 20

Departure

ALEC

I raced up the
kitchen steps and through the house pausing just outside the closed reception room door as I glimpsed Laura, leaning against the car, deep in conversation with Judith. Out of respect, I didn’t eavesdrop. The expression on her face gave nothing away.

I knocked on the door and walked in.

Sommers gave me a curt nod as I entered.

Luc t
urned from the window where he must have been watching his wife and daughter. ‘Matthew, there is a possibility Laura could be in danger.’

Sommers’
s head swivelled toward him. ‘In what way?’

‘There are some among our kind
who covet Alec’s position.’ Luc glanced in my direction before continuing. ‘My daughter’s bloodline is unique. It enables my kind to daywalk and there are those who are envious enough to attempt to take her for themselves.’

‘Does she know?’

‘I explained it to her last night,’ I said. ‘We believed she’d be safe after the Ritual. Now we’re not so sure, so we’re playing it safe. We have two men posted outside her flat for tonight, and until I can arrange a female of our own kind to stay with her inside, you’ll have to do that.’

He gave me a little
smile. ‘I’ve already slept over on several occasions. She won’t be particularly surprised if I suggest it tonight.’

T
hat callous remark made me see red.

‘T
his time it’ll be different,’ Luc said. ‘Under no circumstances are you to sleep with her. You’ve been told the consequences should Laura conceive a child. Contraception does not work on a Bloodgifted and condoms are unreliable. You must not take that risk.’ Luc’s eyes lightened and he bared his fangs. ‘Should I smell you on her in an intimate way, I will kill you!’

Sommer
s blanched and the fear that emanated from him turned to terror when the door behind me opened and Jake and Cal entered. They said nothing, but stood still as sentries on either side of the door. Sommers must have felt trapped, for he reached for his gun.

‘There’s no need for that.’ I snatched it from him before he could loosen it from the holster. ‘Calm down. You’ve nothing to fear from us. We have a common aim here, and that’s to protect Laura.’

‘You’re all monsters!’ Fear radiated from him, and coupled with anger and aggression, it placed him in a dangerous position. In a closed room full of vampires, he gave off the scent of prey—with the promise of a hunt and a feed.

Jake and Cal’s
nostrils flared. They took a step forward and I warned them back with a snarl.

‘Alec, get him out of here!’ Luc said.

I dragged Sommers
from the room, down the entrance hallway and out of the house. Once outside, he began to recover and shook himself free. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead.

‘If not for her, I’d come back and burn this place down with all of you in it!’

‘That’s the second time you’ve threatened me, Sommers. It’s a nasty habit with you.’

He
looked at me with abject hatred and his breath came in gasps.

‘Calm down
and I’ll let you have your gun back. I don’t want you accidently shooting someone!’

‘Bastard!’

He glanced toward his car where Laura and Judith stood talking, composed himself and held out his hand. I handed back his gun.

‘Take her home,’ I told him. ‘We’ll follow at a distance.’

Chapter 21

Decisions

LAURA

As Matt wove through the city traffic, my emotions were in a whirl. Alec’s face kept surfacing in my mind and try as I might, I couldn’t dislodge it. Even more annoying was the knowledge that some perverse thing in me had responded to his kisses and that particular something wanted more.

Matt
had been pale as the proverbial ghost when he’d left the house, which made me wonder what Luc had said to him. And now, he kept glancing in the rear-view vision mirror.

‘Is something the matter?’

‘What?’

‘You
keep looking in the mirror.’

‘
Just habit.’

‘Okay.’ He never did that before. What
did
Luc say to him?

After that, Matt remained
strangely silent. When we pulled up outside my apartment he cut the engine and turned to face me. Even in the car’s dim light I could see the vein in his temple pulsing. I started to chew on my lower lip.

‘Laura—’ he hesitated ‘—
we need to talk.’

Funny,
the effect those five little words can have. One moment all is fine with the world and the next it’s crumbling around your ears, and from the hollow note in Matt’s voice, I knew it was going to be the latter. He’d had time to think and maybe reassess what he’d said earlier. Was this going to be his break-up speech?

I took a deep breath and rea
died myself for the inevitable, although nothing would alleviate the pain of it. I nodded so he wouldn’t hear the catch in my throat as tears already threatened.

‘I
never told you, but the day we met I kept trying to spot a ring on your hand, sure some lucky guy already had you. When I answered a question from one of the kids in your class I looked at you. The smile you gave me turned my inside… you know.’

He leaned o
ver and smoothed the hair off my face. ‘You brushed your hair back off your forehead and I checked out your finger. No ring. I thanked my lucky stars. When you asked us to stay for morning tea my throat dried up. Where I got the courage to ask you out that night I still don’t know and when you accepted I thought I was the luckiest man alive. I went back to the station in a delirium, useless for the rest of that day. All I could think of was you.’

I blinked. It
wasn’t what I expected. ‘You were so patient with the kids, I liked you straight off and nothing has changed for me.’

‘It has for me.’

No words could have hurt more. A punch in the stomach would have been kinder. I swallowed. ‘You’re breaking up with me?’

Matt frowned. ‘What put that idea into your head?’

I blinked, again. What was going on? ‘But, you said… you don’t feel the same…’

He took me by the shoulders. ‘Laura,
I love you! And tonight Lebrettan did everything possible to scare the shit out of me and make me leave you. But all it did was confirm my feelings for you, and I’m determined to get you as far from them as possible.’

‘They’re my family, Matt! And
besides, where could we go where they wouldn’t find us? Be realistic! It just isn’t possible unless we live six months in Alaska and six months in Antarctica in the midnight sun, perhaps?’

‘Maybe we could—
’

‘Matt stop, please!’ I pulled out of his grip and turned to open the door.

‘Let’s talk about this inside.’

I agreed, not because I feared the dark
—Alec said I was safe from any abduction attempts, for now—but we needed to discuss this further. I had no intention of leaving, but I eventually wanted kids and with Matt that would be nigh impossible without continuing the family curse. The thought of our child being vampire food filled me with horror and I would do anything to prevent it. But Matt knew that. We really needed to talk this out.

I was
preoccupied with these thoughts when I inserted the key into the lock. At that moment the Serpent Ring glared up at me—and its eyes were black. Too late I recognised the danger sign, and as the lock clicked open I nearly fell when the door was wrenched open from the inside. Something grabbed me and I screamed.

A blow struck
the side of my head
,
hard enough for me to see lights and send me sprawling onto the hard, wooden floor.

Chapter 22

When Things Go Wrong

A
LEC

I stood at the window and watched the dust billow up from Sommers’
s car as it headed for the front gate. For some reason I had an uneasy feeling. I didn’t sense the presence of any other of the Brethren, apart from present company. The Serpent Ring glowed a comforting red, so there was no hint of danger nearby. Laura was well guarded, yet my scalp prickled.

Just i
n case the house was being watched, I’d decided to leave two minutes later.

‘So
you
drive to Laura’s block of flats, park
your
car somewhere out of sight and watch and wait? Is that the great plan?’ Jake asked.

‘S
imple and stupid!’ Cal was comfortably settled in a deep-blue velvet lounge chair, his long legs stretched out in front on him.

‘Y
ou have a better idea?’ I could always rely on Cal to give me a direct and undiluted opinion.

‘Alec,’ Jake said, ‘that’s exactly what they’ll be expecting you to do
.’

‘You’re not g
oing anywhere without one of us and that‘s not negotiable,’ Cal said. ‘But on the other hand,’ he considered, ‘we could all be worrying for nothing. It hasn’t happened in four hundred years, nor was an attempt made on Judith. Why Laura, and why now?’ he asked.

As one voice we answered him. ‘Maris!’

‘Bloody woman!’ he growled.

I turned back to the window. Laura and Sommers were temporarily on their own, at least till they got to Laura’s flat. What if they were attacked on route? Could
he handle a vampire attack? Even with a gun he was one weak mortal and our kind have never feared humans. His gun would be useless against them. He couldn’t defend her against one, let alone two vampires. What had I been thinking leaving her alone with him, even for a short period?

‘Alec, what’s wrong?’ Luc asked.

‘We should have stayed close. Sommers can’t possibly protect her from a Brethren attack. All they need to do is waylay them on route and take her.’

‘What, in
traffic? People everywhere?’ Cal asked.

‘No,
near her flat. The streets there are quiet and dark. Less people around.’

‘A
ren’t Sam and Terens on guard duty again tonight?’

‘Has anyone heard from them?’ I asked.

Jake and Cal looked at each other and shook their heads. ‘I thought they checked in with you, Luc,’ Jake said.

Luc swore. ‘Alec, get going. I’ll get the swords from the gym and catch you up!’

Without another word I ran out the front door and into my car.

‘No you don’t, mate,’ Jake cried. ‘Not without us.’ He and Cal shot into the back seat just as I opened up full throttle and
my tyres screeched over the gravel.

‘You
think they’ll try something?’ Cal asked.

I g
lanced at my ring. The serpent’s eyes were slowly turning black. ‘She’s in danger.’

‘How do you know?’ Jake asked.

‘The Ring. Look!’ I lifted my fisted hand.

‘Shit!’ Cal exclaimed.
From the rear view mirror I saw him dig his mobile out of his pocket, press a button and listen a while before giving up. He tried again with another number. I knew what he doing—trying to reach Sam or Terens. ‘Damn! Nothing.’

A niggling image from the c
eremony on Monday night now made sense to me. ‘Her scent,’ I said. ‘That’s why Douglas danced with her—to get her scent! Didn’t make sense to me at the time, so I ignored it.’ I slapped my forehead. ‘I let her dance with him, even placed her hand in his; gave them what they wanted, so they could follow her scent to where she lives and lie in wait!’

I berated
myself while negotiating the sharp turns down New South Head Road.

‘Oh, hell,’ Jake exclaimed. ‘Look, if it’s any co
nsolation, none of us caught that either. They were masking well.’

‘No, you had your suspicions last night and you were right, Jake. I damn well should have done something about it. Letting her go alone w
ith Sommers like that was irresponsible.’

‘Hey, you think he would have let you do otherwise? She’s his girl, Alec and
he
wants to protect her.’

Whether he’s capable or not
, I felt like saying, but I let it go. It had been my stupid mistake in the first place.

For a Tuesday ni
ght, the traffic was ridiculously heavy. On top of that, we seemed to catch every red light between Vaucluse and Balmain. We needed to get there before them, but at this rate it wasn’t looking good.

I glanced
in the rear view mirror to see Luc’s champagne-coloured BMW close behind us. Jean was with him. I could hear him talking on the mobile to Marcus Antonius informing him of events.

I drove
through the city, down George Street and up the Western Distributor hoping we wouldn’t come across a police patrol car, but there was no way to avoid the red-light cameras located at just about every intersection. We sped over the Anzac Bridge and zigzagged through the traffic to get to Victoria Road, which for once, ran smoothly at peak hour. It was usually gridlocked. I turned right into Darling Street and dodged a few startled pedestrians ambling across the road.

Som
mers’s car was parked in front of her building. It was empty. I tore out of my car just as Luc skidded his to a halt behind me and raced to Laura’s flat. The others were right on my heels. I could sense humans all around me in the building, but no blood drinkers. A faint heartbeat came from Laura’s flat, but it wasn’t hers. The door was ajar and Sommers’s body lay face down on the timber floor. His gun lay nearby, not fired. There was no smell of gunpowder, only the scent of blood. Much of it was smeared along the doorframe and down along the floor.

I crouched by the
prostrate form. A deep laceration on the right side of his head bled profusely. He must have been slammed into the doorframe, as I could smell his blood, not Laura’s. She wasn’t here and for a moment I was torn between following her scent, or doing my duty as a doctor.

Whoever had
taken Laura wouldn’t harm her—the blood in her veins was too precious. But I couldn’t let myself dwell on that at the moment. Ignoring the enticing scent of his fresh blood, I concentrated on the man’s injuries while Luc and Jean ran through the flat in search of Laura.

‘She’s not here. They took her,’ Jean said vehemently
, and his eyes began to change.

‘Mmmmm, he smells good.
’ Cal’s fangs slid out.

‘No.’ I gave
him a warning look. He returned it with a challenging stare of his own, then recovered and his fangs retracted.

‘Sorry. B
etter if I go and scout outside.’ He disappeared into the night.

I bent back down to Sommers while the others fanned out through the unit trying to detect traces of a recognisable scent, and
one that could be followed back to its source.

‘Luc, throw me that towel will you?’ He was
leaning out the kitchen window, scanning and sniffing the air and a towel was draped over a chair beside him.

He threw it to me.
I caught it, pressed it around Sommers’s head wound to stem the blood flow and took out my mobile phone. After calling for an ambulance, I checked for any other injuries. His shoulder had been dislocated, so I popped it back into place. He would wake up very sore. There was the real possibility he could have a fractured skull as well as a serious concussion. Only a CT scan would determine whether he had any underlying brain injury. The sooner he got to hospital the better.

I turned his body around
and placed him in the recovery position. It would make him comfortable till the paramedics arrived. Whoever took Laura would have regarded a human like Sommers as dispensable. The only thing that saved him was that they must have sensed us coming and hadn’t had time to feed.

I became
aware of another scent on him, one I’d been taught to recognise and avoid. I searched his pockets and pulled out a small box. It contained six bullets made of the substance most deadly to my kind—white oak.

Son-of-a-bitch! Th
ey weren’t in his possession Saturday morning. Sometime between then and now he must have made the decision to kill us. Why else would he be carrying them?

Sommers stirred. He was regaining cons
ciousness. ‘Laur-a,’ he groaned and attempted to sit up. I pushed him back down.

‘Lay still,
you’ve been seriously injured. I’ve called the ambulance.’

He did as I ask
ed and closed his eyes. ‘They—took her. I—couldn’t stop them…’

‘I know. There was nothing you could have done.’

His pulse was steady and his eyes closed again. My medical oath was the only thing that held me back from taking his life. How easy it would be and Laura would believe he’d been killed trying to protect her. End of the Sommers problem. Instead, I made a snap decision.

‘Open your eyes, Sommers. Look at me.’ Slowly, he did so
and I projected my will into his. ‘When you wake again, you will have no memory of Laura Dantonville, nor Lucien Lebrettan nor Alec Munro. Those names and faces will be strange to you as will the knowledge of vampires in this city. You will have no memory of any events before July this year.’ Satisfied my mesmerisation was successful, I told him to sleep.

His eyes closed and once again he lost consciousness.
Every now and then I checked by pressing down hard on his fingernail, but he didn’t respond to the painful stimulus. I pulled out his mobile phone and erased all images of Laura, then wiped my fingerprints clean with my handkerchief before placing it back in his pocket.

I
kept the deadly bullets.

Cal came back in with
a sword in each hand. ‘Found these in the bushes.’

They belonged to Sam and Terens.
Dried blood was smeared on both, but it wasn’t theirs; we had the scent of Laura’s kidnappers.

‘From the
smell of the blood, I’d say they were taken just before sunrise,’ he said.

‘How many
did you sense outside?’

‘At least eight
. Our guys put up a hell of a fight judging by these.’ He raised both swords in the air.

‘
They came here right after the Ritual,’ Luc said. ‘The other three must have come just after sunset and laid in wait.’

‘We’ll get her back, Luc,’ Jake promised.

When the paramedics arrived I gave them a quick briefing, passed them my card and watched them carry Sommers out.

I then handed Luc the white oak bulle
ts I’d found in Sommers’s pocket and his eyes widened. ‘Fils de salope!’

‘Said the same thing myself.
’

‘Why didn’t you kill him?’

Jake and Cal both swore when they saw what Luc held.

‘
And make him a hero in Laura’s eyes?’ I shook my head. ‘Oh no! I mesmerised him instead—wiped away all trace of us and Laura from his memory.’

He pursed his lips.
‘I hope you did the right thing.’

I hoped so, too.
Now it was time to go hunting.