Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) (12 page)

The
Rakshashai
roared. Everyone stopped and looked at him. “We have plans to make. What’s been done is done, but the Brotherhood is our priority.” The creature stood tall, taking command of the argument. He put a furry paw on Penny’s shoulder.

Penny nervously ran her fingers through her hair. Thomas, the car can be replaced,” She said walking slowly towards the angry vampire.

“I know, I know,” he said, calming down. “I was just worried about you. And you’re lucky I was right here or The Master may have eaten you.”

Penny looked over at the cat again. He didn’t show any signs of a smile or joking. He was a very serious creature.

“I know you like to protect us,” Penny said, laying her head on Thomas’s shoulder. Thomas suddenly shoved her away and covered his nose.

“You’re bleeding,” Thomas said
, t
aking another step away from her.

“Yeah, all this blood is making me a little…woozy too,” Charli said,
as
she ran into the forest.

“Let us go back to the Master’s cave and I will heal your wounds,” Thomas’s banshee said, appearing from nowhere like a
djiin
. Penny wondered where she had come from. The last time she had seen her, they were back in Ireland.

“How in the world?”
Penny said, lipping toward to
hideous
, ghost-like woman.

“
Banshees are
teleporters
,” Morrigan
replied, putting an arm around Penny.

Lorelei supported Charles as they followed the vampires and the
Rakshashai
back through the forest to the creature’s home. Penny looked back at the Master again. He had to of the largest scimitars resting by his side, nestled underneath a large black cloak. He wore a military uniform that was speckled with sharp knives and throwing stars. Penny would not want to be on the other side from a creature like this. The Brotherhood was in a world of hurt when they were attacked.

Penny sat in the underground lair of the Master, as everyone kept calling him, surrounded by many different nonhuman creatures. To her left was Morrigan and to her right was Lorelei. Thomas stood in the center of the group pacing back and forth.

“We’re waiting for just a few more,” Thomas said, nervously looking at his watch.

A puff of smoke suddenly started trailing out of Charles’s ear. Penny giggled as Charles tried to wave it away. The smoke grew and coagulated into the solid gray form of their djinn friend. Penny smiled. He was always the jokester.

“Good Morning,” the djinn said with a wide smile. “Seems like a good day to start plotting against evil humans.”

“Good morning djinn,” Thomas said, looking at his watch again. “We’re still expecting two more.”

“Are the goblins coming?” Penny said, hoping to see the crazy, hyper creatures again and thank them for the delicious homemade salsa.

“No, but I suspect that they are listening in on our conversation,” Thomas said, taking out the cell phone that they gave him. “We traded Brotherhood surveillance for goblin surveillance. 

“Oh, well George, t
hanks for snacks. Those chocolate cakes were wonderful,” Penny said. She shifted uncomfortably as the djinn looked at her. She didn’t know what he had in mind, but she had already learned the hard way that
djinn, even when they are on your side, can pack a mean punch. Penny smiled politely back.

“Sorry we’re a little late, but this place is in the middle of nowhere,” a vampire said walking into the room. He was followed by
a
werewolf. “Luckily everyone together has quite the pungent smell.”
Another v
ampire entered into the group as well.

“So we’re all here,” Thomas said. He motioned for the
three
latecomers to take a seat
i
n the circle. Now, I don’t want to divulge the whole plan to everyone. I kind of want to keep the plan separated in case something goes wrong.”

“I can’t imagine one of us betraying the others to the Brotherhood,” the vampire said.

“
Herschel
, it isn’t about betraying, it’s about capture,” Thomas said. “Some of these things are dangerous.”

“Oh, well I guess that makes some sense,” Herschel said.

“Especially considering that part of the plan requires some of you to be taken captive,” Thomas said, looking at Charles. “Unfortunately, Charles, you have the most painful and uncomfortable job in the group.
You need to gain freer access to the sanctuary.
To make it look more
convincing that you are on their side, we will make it look like we attacked you and killed Penny and Lorelei.”

“Right, we already talked about this,” Charles said. “I have memorized the list of things that I need to do, even though some of them make no sense to me.”

“Good, now, Herschel, you need to take Charles back to the UK and you two need to beat the crap out of each other,” Thomas said. He thr
e
w a bag at Charles.
“Penny’s blood.
Smear it all over Herschel and yourself before the Brotherhood arrives on scene.”

“Where did you get my blood?” Penny asked.

“I’ve been collecting it over the last couple days,” Thomas said. He quickly moved on with the instructions. “Get your story straight down to the detail. Make sure that you are in the process of beating the crap out of Herschel when they arrive, so they can collect both of you. Make sure, Charles that you initiate the call to the Brotherhood.”

“Goodness sakes bro, you give enough orders yet? Or can the vampire and I get on out of here and beat each other up?” Charles stood up. He offered his hand to the new vampire. Herschel, who looked much more like what Penny thought a vampire should look like, grabbed Charles’s
hand
and heartily shook it.

“Nice to be working with you D
efector,” Herschel said with a calm, but excited tone. His dark dreads
hung around his perfectly chiseled face. Penny couldn’t help but stare at him. He was just gorgeous with his rock, hard body. Thomas glared at her. Penny quickly looked down and Lorelei giggled.

“Come on, he’s got the body of Hercules,” Lorelei said, openly ogling the new vampire. Charles glared at Lorelei, trying to turn on his jealous look, but it did no good. Lorelei was right. Herschel was a prime vampire specimen.

“How about we get out of here before the best looking guys of each species make the females in the room swoon,” Herschel
said
, heading out of the room.

Penny rolled her eyes and looked back at Thomas. He was silently laughing.
Penny glared at him this time.

“Alright, now that the pretty boys are gone,” Thomas turned back to the rest of the group, “The warriors can get to work. Penny,” Thomas looked at his girlfriend.

“I’m a warrior?” Penny laughed.

“Well, no, you are going to go with the Morrigan. You need to lay very low for the next couple days. You’ll be working with the banshees. Get to know their abilities and weaknesses.” Thomas reached into his pack. “I have here a packet containing your instructions. The banshees will be able to teleport you when the time comes.”

“It will take all of us and it will not be comfortable for you, dear,” Morrigan said to Penny.

Penny nodded and took the
packet from Thomas’s hands. “I’ll miss you,” she said, planting a kiss on his lips.

Thomas put his arms around her waist
and pulled her in for a longer kiss. “You
be
careful, okay?” Thomas smoothed Penny’s shorter hair away from her face. “I’m doing this for you, so you better come out unscathed on the other side.”

“Okay,” Penny said. She pulled away from Thomas and she and Morrigan exited the underground cave.

Penny was curious to know what was going to happen with the rest of the races left down there. She was pretty sure that the rest, the werewolves, the
Rakshashai
,
djinn
and the
Nixen
were going to be the offensive team and the brunt of the attack. Charles and Herschel were going to be the Trojan horses
,
and she and Morrigan were going to be the defensive end.

****

Charles heard voices blurred in the background. The last punch from Herschel when the Brotherhood arrived was quite the doozy. It had knocked him out cold. Charles liked Herschel. The two had immediately hit it off. He got along with Herschel much better than he did his brother. He and Thomas had always had a hard time getting along.

Way to go to make it seem realistic, Charles thought. He tried to move his head, but it throbbed so much he thought that he might just rest a little while longer.

As he moved more into consciousness he heard two agents talking.

“It’s Penny’s blood,” one of them, a woman, said. “It was in the vampire’s blood stream and it was all over him and Charles.

“What do you think happened?’ The man asked. “Do you think that he wants to come back on his own accord?”

“Well, he was also very overprotective of Penny,” the woman said. She paused for a minute. Charles heard some papers ruffling in the background. “It’s hard to say for sure, but all bets are off if something happened to Penny and Charles’s brother was behind it.”

Charles smiled inside. Their plan was working already. When he felt better he would alert them and then his questioning would begin.

“Did you get anything from the vampire?” the woman asked.

“Some. J
ust that Charles and the Brotherhood is pathetic and that he’s going to take the Brotherhood down,” the man said and then laughed. “You know typical vampire bravado. He did say something interesting about another person that he and Charles’s siblings finished off.
Something about
Charles’s
girlfriend.”

“I doubt that whoever it was, was really Charles’s girlfriend
. He probably never got over that girl
,” the woman replied. “I think maybe Penny was seduced by Charles’s brother. What was his name again?”

“Thomas,” the man said.

“Oh yes, well, Thomas seduced Penny. She wasn’t far along enough in her training to resist the charm of a vampire. Perhaps Charles went along just to protect her.”

Charles chuckled again.
Thomas, charm?
Seduction?
That was about the funniest thing he had ever heard. Charles knew that it was Penny who had seduced Thomas.

“Well, whatever the case, he can’t go about free just because he’s back,” the man said.

“Agreed,” the woman said. “But I think that perhaps we should go easy on him. If he is back because Penny was killed by his family, we can have our best fighter back if we play our cards right.”

Charles’s head continued to throb and it was beginning to be hard for him to continue to stay awake and listen to their conversation. He had heard everything that he really needed to know though. Hopefully in another couple hours he would be ready to go. The Brotherhood had a date with his really pissed off big brother. He didn’t want to keep them waiting.

****

Penny
lay
down on the bed in the creaking, ancient shack. It was the only shelter that the banshees were able to come up with on such a short notice. She needed to lay down after her trip back from India with Morrigan. Several more banshees had appeared after they had left the Master’s dwelling place. In the blink of an eye Penny was back in Ireland. But her stomach felt
quesy
and her head felt like it was still back in India.

She had no idea how long she had been asleep when someone knocked on the door of the shack.

“Come in,” Penny said, sitting up. Her stomach had settled and her head felt mostly in place again. But she was beginning to get a little hungry.

“Did you rest well?” A beautiful young woman with raven hair said walking into the room.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” penny said,
“I
was
expecting
someone else.”

“Penny, it is I, Morrigan,” the woman said. Penny looked at the woman confused. Morrigan was a hideous and spooky hag. “W
e
can shift between apparition, hag, and beauty.”

“Oh,” Penny said. She look
ed
at Morrigan again.

“I brought you some bread and broth,” Morrigan said, pulling a stale loaf of bread from her long cloak. “We don’t have much food. We don’t eat.”

“That’s okay,” Penny said, grabbing the bread and the skin of broth. “So
y
our
shifting thing
…
.”

“Does this form bother you?”

“No, no, just which do you prefer?” Penny asked biting into the bread.

“I actually prefer a raven,” Morrigan said. “If you know Celtic mythology, it is what I am associated with the most.”