Pulse of Heroes (58 page)

Defeated, Michelle walked back out to the
bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering what her next
move should be. Her aunt was surely expecting her to arrive back
home soon. If she didn’t, her parents would be calling the police
when they got back from Austria. But where would they search? And
what if they did find her? They would also find out that she spent
the night not with Marika, but with a guy instead. They would never
believe her that she didn’t actually do anything; they would look
down on her. Michelle wished she could just close her eyes and
rewind time, maybe to before she decided to climb over that stupid
wall at
Hekademos
. “Oh Elliot,” she said with a sigh,
wishing that he would appear out of thin air. He would make
everything all right. How she longed to see his beautiful eyes. A
tear rolled down Michelle’s cheek. After what she did with Haden,
Elliot would never want her back. She wouldn’t want herself back
either. Elliot would be disgusted by her cheap behavior. She was no
longer the same girl he met; she could feel it. When Michelle
thought about the wonderful times she had spent with Elliot, those
memories seemed like they were light years away. That girl was a
different Michelle; she was happy and calm, and always went with
what her heart told her. Now, she didn’t even know who she was.

Elliot sat on the couch across from the large
table nervously opening and retracting his spring-loaded short
spear for what seemed like hours. His mind wandered to when Yael, a
young woman he was very much sweet on, had given it back to him
after killing Sisera. Yael was already married, although sometimes
he would still come visit her. But nothing had ever developed of
their feelings for one another because Elliot was not the type to
disrespect another man by taking his wife. Back then, the
Israelites were at war with their brothers the Canaanites,
constantly fighting over land. Yael had become scared since the
fighting had moved closer to her home, and because she was alone
much of the time and had no means of protection, Elliot left the
short spear with her just as he and Kahl went to join Deborah’s
ranks; she was an amazing woman who led her people better than any
man had up until then.

Elliot wondered if Michelle had the same
resolve as Yael. She was twenty years old when she brought victory
to her people by her simple act of courage. Could Michelle have
done the same? He feared not. Michelle was somewhere laid out in
the lion’s den, and she had no idea that she was sleeping with the
enemy.

The sound of the cell phone roused Elliot
from his far-away thoughts. It was Xander, calling from California.
After a brief exchange, Elliot hung up the phone and stood by the
table in silence. His breathing began to speed up and his eyes
changed hues, alerting Rion.

“Who was that?” Rion asked. Everyone was
waiting on Elliot to speak.

“Francesca is dead,” Elliot said, looking at
Rion. Rion’s face showed no emotion but Elliot knew he was
distraught because he did his long double blink, something that
Elliot picked up on every time Rion was sad.

“How?” Rion asked after a moment of
silence.

“We were just there less than 48 hours ago,
and you told me she seemed fine,” Devin added, looking at Elliot in
confusion.

Elliot told them that Mr. Meyer found her
when he went to deliver her groceries. She was lying on the floor,
still in her nightgown. The coroner said that she seemed to have
died of a mild heart attack which was not uncommon for someone her
age, but after talking to Mr. Meyers himself, Xander thought it
strange that Francesca’s wedding photo album was laid out open on
the floor right next to her body. What’s more, one of the photos
was missing. Xander knew about the photograph of Elliot at the
wedding, and although he didn’t see which photo was missing from
the album, he had a strong suspicion that that was the one. He
assumed that Hadeno’s men must have found out about Francesca
through somebody in town. Maybe Hadeno had not trusted Rion’s words
about Elliot being on his way.

Elliot felt horrible and his jaw tightened.
An innocent, lovely woman was now dead because of him. “This has to
stop!” Elliot yelled, pounding his fists against the table. The
waiting was driving him crazy. What if Michelle was next? Elliot
agreed with everyone that he shouldn’t drive out to Alba Iulia
until dusk. Problem was that it was summertime and the sun didn’t
set until around 9:00 PM. He still had four hours to go. Devin
walked to where Elliot stood and put an arm around his friend. “We
must have led them to her,” Elliot said in a sad beaten voice.
“We’re a curse on people.”

Michelle heard a quiet knock on the bedroom
door, then heard someone trying to open it. She couldn’t have been
more grateful to get the hell out of there. But after a few tries
from the outside the door still didn’t budge. Michelle asked
thorough the crack who it was and Vilna answered in a whisper.
“It’s locked from the outside and I don’t have a key. But don’t be
scared. I’ll find a way to get it from him.”

Michelle didn’t know if she should believe
anything that Vilna said anymore. She’d had a lot of time to think
about the situation and she couldn’t help but conclude that Vilna
was guilty for her imprisonment.

“You lied to me and I trusted you. And now
I’m stuck here, thanks to you,” Michelle said to her in a quiet but
angry voice.

Vilna didn’t answer right away and Michelle
thought that she had left. But then Vilna told her that she didn’t
mean for any of this to happen. “It was true. In the beginning I
made friends with you because my brother asked me to. But after
that I really like you, and he promised me that he wouldn’t do
anything to hurt you. He swore to me on my mother’s grave.”

Michelle found Vilna’s words empty. “And him
locking me in here like this is not hurting me? He didn’t do this
by mistake, did he now?”

“I’m sorry, Michelle. No. But once Elliot
comes he’ll let you go. He told me he wouldn’t touch you…”

“Ha!” Michelle said, but then realized that
it wasn’t as if she had completely resisted Haden's advances, so
she didn’t say anything else. Vilna’s voice cracked a bit and she
coughed. “Are you ok?” Michelle asked her.

“Yes… I just cried so much and screamed. My
voice is going. My brother said he didn’t kill Adi, but he can send
his friends to do it. He sometimes does very bad things. And I hate
him a lot.”

Great, Michelle thought to herself. Now she
was locked in a killer’s bedroom.

“What does he want from Elliot anyway?”
Michelle yelled angrily.

“I don’t know. He told me that after this he
would never do anything bad ever again. He said that he was going
to fix everything.”

Michelle couldn’t believe what she was
hearing, “What do you mean bad? Is he going to hurt Elliot? Even if
he gives him the tablet?” Michelle’s voice was shaking.

“What tablet?” Vilna asked, sighing. “This
has something to do with some woman,” Vilna explained.

“What makes your brother so sure that Elliot
will come for me anyway? I haven’t seen him in almost a month.”
Michelle thought about kissing Haden in front of Rion. Surely Rion
had told him about that by now. There was no way that Elliot would
stand for the way she had acted. “I don’t think he’s coming,
Vilna,” she said sadly. “He has no reason to. Not now.” Michelle’s
voice cracked.

Vilna understood that her brother had seduced
Michelle. He had tons of other women around; why Michelle too?

“My brother is a pig, and you know his type.
They have special power over people. Elliot is the same as him. He
will understand that it’s not your fault.”

Michelle heard a sound approaching from
further down the hallway. “I have to go. Hadeno’s back.” Michelle
heard Vilna’s footsteps scurrying across the living room and
dreaded facing Haden again.

“Well hello there, princess of the tower,”
Haden said to Michelle who was back in bed reading one of his art
magazines.

“Why did you lock me in here like this? I was
very scared,” Michelle asked innocently.

“I did it for your own safety. We wouldn’t
want anything bad to happen to you, right?” he said, placing a
large sack on his desk and then walking over to see which book
Michelle was looking at.

“My aunt is expecting me to be home and…”

Haden shook his head, “No, she’s not. I
called her myself and told her that you’ll be staying for dinner,
and a movie, and that you’re going horseback riding tomorrow. I did
tell you I have beautiful horses? One of my studs fetches 20,000
dollars for each successful insemination. And considering he takes
after me, it’s like free money in the bank. I’m sure you’ll want to
see him.”

Michelle felt ill. “You’re gross,” she said
in disgust.

“Oh, by the way, your parents say hello and
they bought you some special watch in Austria.” Haden had her
aunt’s phone number in his cell phone; the guy thought of
everything.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the
sack while Haden took off his shoes and lay on the bed next to her,
his arms folded behind his head.

“That is a beautiful surprise. A gift I got
for myself.” Haden sat up next to Michelle on the bed and smiled.
“You can look at it if you want. But be careful. It’s very
sharp.”

Michelle jumped off the bed as soon as she
felt Haden’s elbow touch hers. He could tell that she was acting
differently, but then again she had just been locked in the room
for a few hours so it was normal; she’d be back to her old self
soon.

“I know about what you want,” she said,
opening the sack.

Haden looked at her more intently, “Do you
now?”

“Yes,” she answered without revealing any
emotion, “but I’m not going to tell you.” Just as Michelle pulled a
beautiful, wide, shiny sword out of the sack; Haden appeared right
behind her and startled her. She dropped the heavy sword, trying to
catch it in midair, but the only thing she managed to do was cut
one of her fingers, which immediately began bleeding.

“Now look what you’ve done to yourself. See
why you should listen to me? It’s for your own good.” Haden grabbed
Michelle’s finger and sucked the blood away. She winced in pain
while he examined it and told her that she was lucky she didn’t
sever it entirely. He then scolded her to stop squirming while he
put direct pressure on the cut. Haden’s eyes began to change colors
and a few second’s later he let go of her finger and it wasn’t
bleeding anymore. “Pretty neat, huh? If you treat me nicer I just
might help you with the pain, too. I bet Elliot showed you that
trick already?” he said in a taunting voice, while picking the
beautiful sword up off the ground.

“I know you’ve been giving me something in
the water.”

“That’s for your own good too. You have way
too much angst,” Haden laughed.

“What do you want with him?” Michelle asked,
obviously not amused by his teasing.

“Why so serious? I thought you told me that
you already know what I want,” he said, looking at the sword and
watching the light from the window bounce off its shiny surface and
reflect onto the opposite wall.

“You want to get him back for running off
with your girl. It’s some stupid male revenge thing.” Haden
laughed, telling her that he was impressed because he didn’t think
of her as direct karma for what Elliot did, but now that she
pointed it out it made things that much better. Haden looked at
Michelle’s dry blood on the sword.

“A little blood is nothing to worry about. It
has seen more than a few drops, if you know what I mean.” Michelle
ignored him.

“I still love Elliot. I know that now and I
want to know if you’re planning to hurt him.” Haden angrily placed
the sword back in the sack, telling her that matters between their
kind had nothing to do with humans and that he owed her nothing. He
grabbed her cheeks in one hand, forcing her to look him in the
eyes.

“You are the cute little mouse and he’s the
big ugly tomcat. That’s all you need to know. And now you say you
love this cat, do you? That’s the problem with you females. You
lie, lie and lie some more. If Elliot saw the way you want me, if
he saw you rolling around naked on the bed with me, do you think
he’ll agree with you, that you love him?”

“But I do. I feel it, I miss him,” she
whispered.

“Love, my dear, is not something that you
have experienced, nor will you ever, because it doesn’t exist.”

“You made me do it! All of it!” she yelled at
him in frustration.

“Nice excuse. You think I didn’t feel your
heart beat faster when I took the wine glass from your hand back in
my penthouse? I didn’t do anything to you. So don’t you ever accuse
me of something I didn’t do! You came to me, your body doesn’t lie,
it can’t.” Michelle yelled back at him that he was the ultimate
liar because he acted like he was interested in her just to trap
her.

Haden laughed. “You’re very hot when you’re
angry, do you know that? It’s like you have a little woman inside
of you trying to fight her way out,” he said, pushing his
forefinger into the middle of Michelle’s chest. “Besides, the way I
see it, Elliot found something worthy in you. Maybe I was curious
in the beginning,”

“But I’m still right, you never liked me at
all,” Michelle said, a lot more hurt than she wanted to be.

“Of course I like you. I like many women.
That doesn’t stop me from liking one more. Consider it like this:
if Elliot’s a tomcat, think of me as a, um…” Haden looked up at the
half lion half man creatures in the oil painting above his bed, “a
lion… with a much more ferocious appetite. Your problem is that you
have had no training and you haven’t made peace with your own
desires, and that’s never too much fun in the sack.” He winked at
her. “You’re more trouble than you’re worth and I have no patience
to be your teacher at the moment.” In a more serious tone, Haden
told her that the quicker she gets the ‘love’ idea out of her head,
the more she’ll be able to enjoy her life. “It’s all just a bunch
of hormones flooding your brain. How do you think I was able to
make you beg for me?” Michelle turned away from him. “I recreated
the concoction of hormones that flood people’s bodies when they
think they are in love, which is basically lust. Might I remind you
that I did it just to prove a point? Your life is very short. By
the time you have any understanding about anything, nature takes
its toll and will reduce you to a wrinkly ugly old prune and then
one day it’s over. So enjoy your youth, I’m just trying to help
you, you should be grateful.”