Never Have A Vampire's Baby (19 page)

“Fine, the hand holding was just me fucking with you, but I like being with you, Rita. I want to be near you and it’s not just the sex. I could totally sit around with you before and after it, too,” he said and she could see he was smiling from the corner of her eye. “I could be your boyfriend, you know. I would make a good boyfriend. Despite my obvious sexual skills, I make a mean risotto. You would die if you ate it.”

“This is not the time for this conversation, Asher. Let’s just try to get my family out of trouble and make it to the house in one piece, okay?”

He tried to hold her hand again and she smacked it hard so he jerked it back. Starting the car, they headed back to her parent’s house. All they had to do now was call Grant and give him the map.

The Final Chapter

They pulled up in front of the house and none of the lights were on. Rita opened her car door and closed it quietly and Asher did the same. The house was quiet, too quiet. Something didn’t feel right to Asher. He looked over at Rita and could tell she felt it, too. They moved slowly towards the house. The door was unlocked but not open. They moved inside and split up, walking through all the rooms on the first floor. They met back up in the living room and shook their heads. There wasn’t anyone.

There came a low moan from the basement. It sounded like Rita’s dad. They both moved quickly towards the basement door. Asher put his ear on it and heard Tater’s voice. “Turn him around this way, Larry.”

“Shit, those two giant tool bags are here.”

“Who?” Rita’s eyes were wide and she was shaking a bit. He wished he could help her relax, but he wasn’t sure what they were about to walk into.

“Grant’s men, we’ve got to go give them the map.”

They rushed down the stairs and found a bloody scene. Rita’s dad was hanging from the ceiling with blood streaking down his face, and Greta was close by on the table he’d seen her on when her mother was cleaning her. She was bloody again and she appeared to be asleep or passed out. Rita’s mother was tied up to a chair near the stairs; she looked like she hadn’t been touched. Asher hoped they’d gotten there fast enough where they hadn’t done anything to her.

Larry and Tater looked positively giddy as they stood near Rita’s dad taking turns punching him in the face. Rita tried to rush forward but Asher grabbed her arm and stopped her. He knew the two big bastards were hard to take down, and they needed to think very hard about their actions.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” Asher yelled. “We have the map, look.” He pointed to the map in Rita’s hands. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Grant told us if you hadn’t come back by ten o’clock we should start torturing people.”

Asher saw Rita make her way over to her sister and looked at the clock next to the table. It wasn’t near ten o’clock so the assholes certainly hadn’t listened to their boss on what they should be doing with the family.

“It’s eight o’clock,” Rita said, lightly slapping her sister’s cheeks and whispering her name.

“We got tired of waiting.” Tater laughed long and low.

“Call Grant, you idiots, call him right now.” Asher’s blood ran hot, his fist clenched at his sides, and he felt his fangs come out. He didn’t want to have to try to fight the giant shifters, but he would. Tater looked annoyed but he pulled his phone out.

“Boss, there’s a vampire here wants to talk to you.”

“Grant, why would you let these goons torture this family? I have your map, we have what you wanted.”

“They sometimes do what they want, Asher.” Grant had a smooth voice, he scared Asher just listening to him. “How do I know you haven’t just brought me some fake map to keep your little girlfriend’s family from me?”

“Because we fought skeletons and boulders to get this stupid map; come and see it yourself.”

“Very well, I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Tell those two to stop whatever they’re doing.”

“Grant is on his way and he said you better stop what you’re doing.” Asher pointed at the two big shifters.

Tater glared at him at first and then he smiled, pulling out a pocketknife. He walked over and cut Rita’s dad down before they could say anything. Rita made it to him but they both fell into the floor.

“That was completely unnecessary,” Asher said knowing Tater and Larry literally didn’t care what he said to them. They always had the upper hand because of their size. “What did you do to Greta?”

“We just knocked her out, she’s sleeping,” Larry said and he pointed at Rita’s mom. “Her, we really screwed up.”

“What do you mean? Mom, what’d they do to you?”

“I’m fine, honey,” she said but her voice was weak. “Just a couple of broken ribs.”

Rita moved over to her mother and lifted her shirt up, showing her stomach was one big yellow and black bruise. Asher saw her fists clench and watched as she cracked her neck. She turned on Tater and she jumped on him. Screaming like a banshee, she put her fingers into his eyes and pushed as he spun and tried to throw her off. He succeeded but she jumped on his back and squeezed his throat as hard as she could.

Asher then saw Greta stir from the table, but something was wrong. Her eyes were glowing yellow and she had a very long tail. Slowly, he watched as her skin rippled and sprouted fur and her face transformed into more of a cat. This happened three or four times before her full first shift happened. About the time Tater’s knees hit the ground as he still fought to get Rita off of him, Greta leapt in a full mountain lion form at Larry and took him down. She was biting his neck and Asher panicked. He didn’t think Grant would be happy showing up to his men dead, he might not care about the map if that happened.

***

Rita lost her mind when she saw her mother’s stomach. They’d hurt her and for what? They were bored; now, she almost had the big asshole choked out and there was a mountain lion in the room. He finally fell over and she let go, noticing he was still breathing so she hadn’t killed him.

“Why is there a cat in here?” she asked standing up, her eyes finally focusing after being blurred with rage. The large mountain lion appeared to be eating one of the fat men, and she hoped it was hurting him after what they’d done to her parents.

“That’s your sister, and we need to keep her from killing Larry before Grant takes back the deal.”

Rita couldn’t believe she was a mountain lion, she’d not given much thought to what kind of shifter Greta would be, but for some reason she’d thought smaller.

“Greta!” she yelled and ran over to her.

She tried pulling her off of the howling shifter, but Greta was strong. Asher walked over and tried to help her pull the cat off. Larry rolled around on the floor as the cat was pulled off of him taking a good amount of his shoulder with her. 


“Greta, we have to keep them alive because their boss is coming,” Rita said and petted her sister who growled at her and then jumped up on the table and glared down at her.

“Okay, Mom, I’m going to get you some ice. Asher, check on Dad and see if he needs immediate medical attention.”

She rushed upstairs to get some ice although both her parents were going to the hospital immediately as soon as Grant came and took the map. There was no reason they shouldn’t have the proper medical attention, she’d just say someone broke in and attacked them and she had no idea who.

By the time she was back downstairs, Asher had put her dad in a chair and was giving him a glass of water. She handed her mother the ice.

“You’re going to the hospital as soon as Grant comes. I’m not taking no for an answer, these are bad.”

She helped her mother put the ice against her side and started pacing. This was the worst day she could think of in a very long time. It really made her angry that her family had been targeted just because a gang of thugs misconstrued the situation so badly. They heard Grant’s car pull up outside and heard him enter the house.

“Down here, Boss.” Tater had come to and sat up holding onto his throat. It was turning really red and it gave her a little bit of satisfaction.

He came down the stairs. Compared to his two thugs, Grant was a small man and not that intimidating, but when you knew what he’d done to people, you were afraid. He brought two men with him and stood at the bottom of the stairs, taking in the situation.

“You two children couldn’t wait to play with your toys, shame on both of you.” He talked to the big guys, but Rita got the feeling he didn’t really care what they’d done. It wasn’t like they were going to get into trouble over it. They stood and walked to stand behind their boss. Rita took some pride in the fact that they didn’t look that great. Larry was losing a decent amount of blood and looked pretty pale. She really wished she could kill all of them, but there were far too many big mean guys in the shifter mafia; she’d just be bringing more trouble to her family.

“So, here’s the map, as promised. It will tell you where every vampire is in the city. Now you don’t need Asher’s money.” Rita presented it to him rolled up and still slightly glowing.

He opened it and looked. “Show me where Donte Silas is.” Grant made one of the guys that had come with him hold the map and adjusted his tie as he watched it glow brighter. From the back of the map, Rita could see a little red dot appear and move slowly over the map. Grant pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Yeah, see if that punk Donte is on the corner of Whiteside and Crime Lane. I’ll wait.”

This was the test. He was checking to make sure the map worked. Rita hoped it did, because it was really the last chance they had. After a minute, Grant started to speak again.

“Yeah, okay, kill him. Great. Bye.” He turned to them. “It worked like a charm.”

Rita felt a little guilty they’d just gotten someone killed, but she didn’t want to think about it. Maybe the person was a really bad guy who did bad things to people.

Grant laughed. “That guy owes me five bucks.”

“You’d kill someone over five bucks?”

“No, not just that. He also insulted my mother at dinner. Now, we’re going to let the hunters go, Asher, but you’re coming with us because of what you did to my grandfather.”

So Grant really was a heartless killer and that unsettled her. It made her feel like they still weren’t out of danger plus he was talking about his grandfather. Rita didn’t know about this part of the issue, she looked to Asher for an answer.

“No, that was a trick by these two goons.”

“You should have been able to see right through that crazy bitch, who is also my wife. I also know you’ve been with my daughter, Asher, and that doesn’t fly.”

Rita felt an unwelcome stab of jealousy. She couldn’t care whom he’d been with, but she found herself wondering if it was a recent hookup.

***

Asher cringed, he really thought he’d been sneaky enough with Lorraine that no one would know. That meant Grant had spies in the underground. It made sense he probably had spies everywhere. They’d set him up to fail, the whole time, well at least now Rita and her family would be safe.

“Alright, let’s go.” Asher moved forward and Tater backhanded him to the floor.

“That’s for letting your girlfriend choke me out, you asshole.”

Asher groaned as his body hit the cement of the basement and he realized they were probably going to beat him to death. There wasn’t an easy way out of this. He stood and Larry grabbed him roughly from behind, poking a knife into his back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Rita rushing forward, but he wasn’t sure what she was going to do. He turned to tell her it wasn’t worth it and watched as she blew the glittery powder in Grant’s face and then his two goons, then she moved towards Larry, pushing the powder in his face. They all froze where they were and Asher wiggled out of Larry's grasp.

“See if you can trance them like this, it’s worth a try,” Rita said.

Asher moved quickly to each one. “You’re fine with the hunters, you let Asher go and all this is squashed. Asher also didn’t sleep with Grant’s daughter. Thanks.”

Rita rolled her eyes at him and he dashed up the stairs. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back down at her. “Thanks, Rita.” He paused longer than he should have looking at her and her family and then he ran. He ran out the door and through the woods. There was no way to know if his influence had worked until some time had passed. He ran fast and didn’t stop until he was in his lair and finally he could breathe a sigh of relief, until he saw Lorraine sitting on his bed.

“Nope, you have to go. I just got out of getting in trouble with your dad. You being here is completely putting me in danger all over again.”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what happened between us the other day. You are really good at what you do, sinking your fangs in and using your body.” She moved towards him. “I thought you deserved another taste.”

It was hard to look away from her, she wore another tight dress; this one was red. It matched her red lips perfectly and he found himself thinking of the color of her blood. It was a strange and sexy thought that invaded his whole brain and he had to try and think of Larry’s fat ass to calm his cock down.

She was sex in a living breathing package, gorgeous, and any other time he would have absolutely taken her to bed right then, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Rita, plus he valued his life. She was on him breathing on his neck, one leg thrown up around his waist. It was hard to say no. He could feel his body starting to respond, fangs shooting out. He pushed her gently but firm enough so she backed off. He needed the heat of her body away from his so he could think straight.

“There’s someone else Lorraine. I can’t see you when I’d just be feeling guilty about her.”

It was some truth and some fabrication. There was no way with her gorgeous body and luscious lips he’d be thinking of anyone but Lorraine while he was with her, but he didn’t want Grant to kill him if he’d successfully made him forget.

“That’s noble of you, Asher, but I don’t give up that easily. I’ll be back to seduce you again. Just wait.” She leaned in and kissed him softly, his head swam a bit and the blood lust was strong, but he kept his eyes closed until she was gone. He crashed onto his bed and let sleep take him, knowing it was possible Grant could show up for him at any minute.