Defender's Blood Alex's Destiny (An Urban Fantasy) (2 page)

“
If you do not answer me in ten seconds I am dialling 999!” At that she pulled her phone from her jeans pocket and held it up between them like a shield.

“
Okay okay I will answer your questions, but right now I have to concentrate on driving these bloody back roads to get us both to safety. Jeez there are no lights. With all these bends even my eyesight’s having trouble. How the hell does anyone get around here without crashing all the time? Yeah right, sorry, you have questions but really this is not the time. I WILL give you answers just please be patient and believe me when I say I am here to help you. I will not harm you and I will make damn sure nobody or nothing else will hurt you, Alexina!”

Chapter 2

Alex was struck dumb, no easy feat in her case. This stranger knew her name? How? Why? What the hell was going on?

All these thoughts and more were running through her mind at a zillion miles an hour. She tried to calm herself and kept her phone in her hand, just in case.

She had no idea what had happened in the woods but when trees start talking to you, well, then, you just have to realise it’s something BIG.

She looked at this person who had somehow ‘moved’ her quite some distance in the blink of an eye and tried to work out if he was in fact a threat to her.

He certainly looked dangerous, but he didn’t make her feel as if she was in danger, if that made sense? Nope, it didn’t. Okay, she thought, have a good hard look and what do you see?

Well, what she saw was … well … just astounding, yup astounding was the word that came to mind. He was obviously taller than her, jeez, everyone was taller than her.

He seemed to be rock solid, well he had felt that way when he had picked her up. He was sooooo good looking with his jet black hair in that messy style lots of guys were going for these days.

Wonder how long it takes him to do his hair in the morning, she thought. WHAT? I am seriously thinking about his morning hair routine, seriously, after what just happened? She gave herself a very hard mental kick in the ass.

“So do you think you could slow down a bit?” she asked. “The way you’re driving round these winding roads is making me feel sick again and I don’t want to mess up this nice car of yours,” she told him.

“
Yes okay I can slow down a bit, I think we should be safe for a while,” Zach said.

“
So, just who or what the hell are you and what is going on?” she said quietly. Zach turned his head and looked at Alexina, the look just about curled her toes.

Once again she berated herself – for God’s sake woman, you are not a teenager and you don’t even know this guy. But jeez his eyes were the most amazing steel grey she had ever seen. They were completely out of this world – at this she realised his mouth was moving and she tried to tune back in.

“Well Alexina, my name is Zachariah but everyone calls me Zach. I know you go by Alex but your full name is so much nicer, so Alexina is what I will call you. What I am is a Vampire,” he told her waiting on her reaction.

Her mind reeled, no, this can’t be true, well she knew they were out there, everyone did, but they kept very off the radar, so to speak, and as far as she knew there were very few in the UK and fewer still in Scotland.

“Well I wasn’t expecting that answer,” she whispered. “Are you going to hurt me?” she asked him, with visions of the old Dracula movies coming to mind.

“
No Alexina, I am not going to hurt you. I am here to help you, keep you safe,” Zach replied in a soft tone.

Alex was finding it difficult to form words.

Finally she spoke. “From what though?” She noticed that she had said ‘what’ rather than who and this surprised her. She took a deep breath and continued “I have no idea what’s happening.”

Zach was glancing between her and the road ahead – once more she saw his lips moving. “Okay, I will give you the information I have to hand. I work for the Supernaturals Council and my job is usually to round up what we call Supers – that’s a collective term used to cover anything Supernatural from a Vampire to Witches, who have gone off the reservation so to speak.”

"What? Shit, I've heard of that Council thingy – there was something on TV about it ages ago but I thought it was all baloney! I mean Vampires, Witches – that's stuff out of books and films! I never really thought I would come across one of them." Alex's mind was whirling around and she was more than a little astonished. She was sitting in a car with a freaking Vampire!

“
It's all real Alexina, very real. If it weren’t for the Council there would be a hell of a lot of humans being killed or used for other means, none of which would be pleasant. It’s our job to hunt those who do wrong down, after all, the human world doesn’t have anything even close to being strong enough to deal with them.” Zach gave her a smile and turned his attention back to the dark road ahead.

At this Alex realised that he was talking with a slight American accent. “You’re not from around here, are you?” she said ruefully.

“No I’m not, I’m stationed out of our headquarters in the US,” he answered.

She looked taken aback and responded with an incredulous tone, “The US, you mean the USA, as in America? That’s pretty far for you to come, isn’t it?”

She waited on him talking again, just to hear his voice. She really liked his voice.

Zach answered her question. “Yup, as in America. I travel wherever I am needed and right now I am needed to keep you safe. From what, we are not sure, but we know that you are in extreme danger and I am the one that is going to keep you from harm.”

She tried to take this in, was she dreaming? She wasn’t sure but she was a practical person and she decided to at least hear him out. After all, what happened in the woods was real, scary, but real.

“
So just where are we going? You do realise that my car is back in that car park? I will need it for work tomorrow.” Her voice was getting stronger and her tone was one of impatience.

She waited on his response to this, it may not be important to him but her old wreck was hers and she did need it for work.

“Sorry but you won’t be going to work, not tomorrow and probably not for a while. My orders are to get you to Headquarters as soon as possible. So I am taking …”

She cut him off mid-sentence.

“What? No no no, I need to go to work, I can’t just not go, I need my salary to survive, I’m not rich, I can’t lose my job!” Her voice rose until she was nearly shouting.

“
Alexina, please calm down. You are in danger and not the sort of danger you can call the local police to take care of. You have to come with me. You WILL be coming with me. I WILL keep you safe, I have to,” he retaliated. His tone was forceful and one that usually got no arguments, from anyone.

“
Why?” she cried.

“
Why what?” Zach asked.

“
You said, ‘I will keep you safe, I have to’, why?”

“
Because I do,” was all he could come up with.

*****

Zach was bewildered as he tried to sort through the conversation and his visceral reaction to Alexina. He was confused as he had really never felt like this before, and his ‘before’ was a very, very long time.

He had had what he called little dalliances with other Supers. Usually she-Wolves as they were highly sexed and he loved their stamina. However, he had not once ever fallen in love. Or felt more than a passing attraction for any female, Super or human, so he was unfamiliar with the reaction to this female that he was feeling.

For goodness’ sake, he told himself, he had only just met this woman. What was so special about her? He didn’t know.

*****

Alex was very quiet as she tried to get all this into her brain and process what was happening. Okay so he had said she was in danger – from what and why?

She tried to think of ever coming into contact with anything or anyone ‘Super’, as Zach called it, that may have led to this. But no, she just knew that she hadn’t.

So, what? Did he expect her to just GO with him?

Apparently so. Would she? When she thought about this man, Zach he had said was his name, she didn’t know him, but she was absolutely certain that he had saved her life in the woods.

She had no idea what was there but she had known in her gut it was there to hurt her. So, would she go with him? Hell yes. Well after she had spoken to her Aunt Mary that was.

She didn’t want to, at worst die, at best be hurt. So she would go with him and try to find out as quickly as possible how to stop this ‘thing’ and then get back to her normal, boring job working in IT in a bank.

“So Batman, where are we going?” She tried to make a joke of it as she was actually terrified and trying desperately not to show that to this stranger.

She was a bit of a control freak and at this moment she was in control of nothing, so that scared her. Scared her a lot.

“
Batman? I am not a Batman, I am a Vampire, did you not understand?”

She laughed, actually laughed, it was a lovely sound. “Yea I understood you, it’s just a saying, you know, Batman from the comics? Batman and Robin? No? You don’t get it do you?” She looked at his befuddled expression. Nope he didn’t get it, he was a strange one.

Then she laughed all the more as she thought – a strange one? Yes of course he was, he was a feckin’ Vampire.

When she had stopped laughing Zach responded. "Of course I know of the comics and I think I've even seen one of those Batman movies but I don't understand why you brought it up, so sorry no I didn't get that, but the answer to your question on where we are going is quite simply – to a safe place. Until I can make arrangements for the jet to be ready. Once it is I will take you to Headquarters to see what the next step is.”

Alex just stared at him with her mouth hanging open. Jet? Did he just say jet? You have GOT to be kidding, she thought. He was getting a jet?

“
Uhm did you just say jet? As in aircraft? You have a jet at your disposal? Are you having a laugh?” she asked incredulously.

Again Zach tried to be all business as he answered, he wasn’t sure it was working though. “No I am not, as you put it, ‘having a laugh’ – another of your little sayings? The company jet is always at my disposal when I am on an assignment. I can ‘move’ as you found out earlier. However, the other players in the case usually do not have that ability so the jet is always available.”

“Wait, I can’t go on a jet with you to America,” she cried and Zach glanced over. “I don’t have my passport with me, or my toothbrush or anything!”

“
That’s okay, we can get it later once your place has been cleansed and made safe. However, even if we could not retrieve it that would not have been a problem – believe me.”

Cleansed, what the heck was he talking about?

So she asked him and Zach replied in a quieter tone. “We will have our Witches completely cleanse your property and the surrounding area and then put wards up to stop anything coming at us whilst we are there. It will keep you from harm, Alexina.”

She opened her mouth and the first thing in her head popped out. “Oh right, of course that’s just a normal night, you know, getting Witches round for a little party,” she retorted sarcastically.

Zach looked at her trying to figure out this human. She certainly had a weird way with words. He pressed a button on the console and Alex heard the ringing of a phone and then a gruff “Hello.”

“
Zach here, I’m coming to you now with Alexina, can you make sure the place is warded please?”

“
Already done,” said the other person.

Zach continued “Good, you have her home address, can you please send the appropriate people to cleanse and ward it? We will be going there to pick up a few things before flying later tonight.”

Alex was stunned. Tonight, oh my God this was real, she thought. I am going on a plane to America with someone I don’t even know.

Her mind was swirling and she didn’t even hear the rest of the conversation. When Zach stopped talking and there was silence in the car she realised that he had finished the call.

He was looking at her with an expression she couldn’t figure out and she was sure she was looking at him with total shock. “It will be alright, you are safe with me,” he told her, but at this moment she didn’t feel safe,
even although Zach didn't make her uneasy the thing in the woods definitely did
.
She didn’t know what she was feeling but safe was not the word she would use, no way.

She looked out her window and saw the countryside fly past. Although Zach had slowed down a bit he was still driving pretty fast and they were getting closer to the city. It wouldn’t be long until they reached Glasgow and she didn’t have a clue as to where exactly they were going.

Her panic started to rise to the surface again and she realised she was hyperventilating and feeling light-headed. She jumped in her seat when she felt Zach’s hand on hers in her lap.

Where his skin touched hers there was a tingle. A weird feeling but she didn’t know if he had felt it too? He gave a squeeze. “Please try to relax, I know this must all be rather scary for you but you are in the best possible hands with us.”

“So you say, but I don’t know you. You could be some crazy eejit for all I know.” She gasped, trying to breathe normally.

Zach again looked at her as if she was speaking Latin. “Eejit? What the blazes is an eejit?” he asked.

“Eejit, you know idiot, its a Scottish thing. Like ‘you barmy eejit’? No? How long have you been in Scotland? Have you not heard it before?” Alex tried to explain to Zach the meaning but he wasn’t getting it, not at all.

“
Sorry Alexina, I have not heard that before but I take your word for it for what the meaning is. It’s quite difficult to follow your talk sometimes. I’ve only been here for a few days this time but nobody has called me an eejit before.”