Vampires Seduction #1 (The Paranormal Town Romance Series) (6 page)

Emil shouted, "You bastard! I will kill you! Do
you hear me? I will snap off your damn head and burn your body!"

Haasinholf
shook his head slowly from side to side. "Perhaps I shall leave you behind
that wall forever, Emil. That's certainly what you deserve. Or maybe leave you
there just a few hundred years." He put his Fedora on his head. The gutter
dent on the top of the hat looked crisp and the front snapped down smartly over
his attentive hazel eyes, and the back popped up,
just so
, stylishly. "But dear Emil, if you remember me, even
vaguely from our sordid past, I am a gentleman and I would never kill you in
front of a lady, nor would I
cause
her any more distress
than she has already endured while being entertained by a vampire." He
sniffed into the air, raising his nose just slightly, as an Aristocrat is born
to do.

"Shall we go now, dear
Anca
?
There is so much preparation before the celebration tonight. I am sure you are
relieved that
Zucar
Kendlesmith
will no longer be your groom." He walked over to her and crooked his arm
for her to take it. She did not.
"Now dear.
I can
make you come, you know that." He chortled. "Look at poor Emil there
locked in by an invisible wall. I am the most powerful wizard in the world, you
know." He winked at her.

She shrieked at him, "You are crazy if you
think I will go with you!" She moved abruptly toward him and gave him a
forceful shove with both of her hands and he tottered a bit backwards. He
didn't seem so powerful now! She ran past him and then felt a shock in her
temples. She froze with one foot in the air ready to step again. Her face was a
macabre mask of terror. Her eyes were wide and glassy, her mouth twisted in a
grimace of fear, her forehead furrowed with lines of fret.

He turned slowly and looked at her body frozen in
midair. He shook his head slowly, "
Anca
,
Anca
,
Anca
. The thing is, you
see, a vampire should not fornicate with a human. It's just not done. I am sure
Emil has his reasons for needing you, don't you Emil? We all have our reasons
for needing a human, including me. Now that the safety wall has been lifted
around Lompoc,
Zucar
Kendlesmith
is not the only warlock left in the world. He WAS the only warlock in this
little town."
Haasinholf
touched her hair and
slid his hand down her back. She could not recoil from his touch; she was
frozen, as if she had been chiseled out of stone. "But now, this little
town of Lompoc is open to the world." He grinned. "I have come to
rescue you." He walked slowly around to the front of her.
"Power.
It's an amazing thing. There is the power of
the mind and then, as you can see, my little one, I have the power of the mind
AND the power of a wizard." He ran his finger over her lips.
"
Mmm
, delicious.
All
mine."

As soon as he was done speaking the candle went out
and the room became instantly as black as a coffin's interior.

There was a sound like a speeding train, as soon as
Haasinholf
heard
it,
he prepared
himself for the worst. He covered himself with a shield, not knowing what to
expect. The wind in the chamber was icy as it whirl-pooled around
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
until he,
too, was frozen in place as the ice around his shield. Even his thin lips were
sealed shut and an icicle was forming on his dripping nose. Inside his frozen
prison his thoughts raced. Once again I have out-smarted you, Gunnar
Laenas
Sulla. My shield is impermeable! This ice means
nothing to me! Ha! You fool! It can melt, but it won't ever touch me! He wanted
to laugh at the folly of the blood-sucking animal, but his laughter echoed only
in his mind.

The candle flickered once again and illuminated the
chamber with its dancing glow. Gunnar's massive shadow reflected on the chamber
wall. His eyes were crimson and seemed to burn into the suspended frozen body
of
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
,
and yet, the ice on the wizard's body did not melt.

"We all have powers,
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
." His voice was booming. "All I
had to do was
take
all the moisture out of the room
and whirl it around you and freeze it.
A simple task for a
vampire."
The wizard's body may have been temporarily locked in,
but his thoughts were definitely not frozen. He thought,
The
vampire will suffer for this! He should have killed me with the water, not
frozen it around me. My shield will protect me.
But the
question
remaines
, "Why did he allow me to live?
He could have poured the water on me."
Grendlekin's
thoughts surged over each other. Ha! The fool didn't even think it through! He
was too enraptured by his
Anca
! Vampires have never
been the smartest rodents flying through the night sky!

Gunnar looked beyond the wizard at the statue of
Anca
. How graceful she looked with her hair sprayed out
behind her, and her toe poised in the air to take a step. He turned and saw
Emil with his entire body slammed against an imaginary wall, his arms above his
head,
his
palms flat against the invisible blockade.
"And look at you, Emil, can't leave you for a moment in charge and look
what happens." He placed his arms around the statue of
Anca
and moved her closer to both of them. "Unfortunately, I am powerless to
remove the spell on either of you. I will have to leave you here and go get
some help." He ran his fingers along the stone hair of
Anca
.
It looked like chiseled copper. He touched her cheek and saw a glistening tear
immobile on her cheek like a clear candle drip gone cold and solid when the
flame is gone. "I promise I will return." He touched her tear with
the back of his index finger. The teardrop did not move with his touch. "I
have to go. I don't know how long I can keep
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
suspended in ice." The wizard
continued to laugh in his mind at Gunnar's words.
Stupid
fool.
I have my shield and nothing can destroy me! I am
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
! He longed
to bellow at him,
This
simple parlor trick will end
soon and then
Anca
will be mine. The vampire's powers
can never compare to mine! Gunnar was gone in an explosion of whirling light.

Anca's
thoughts continued to whirl in her head as she stood suspended in rock. It had
now been almost twenty-four hours since her parents had been buried. She sensed
that she was in some kind of ghastly plot. It all appeared so contrived, even
their untimely deaths. Or maybe she just wanted to believe that it was a murder
plot, to ease some of her pain. Who dies of a disease from a rodent? They did.
It was just incredulous.

She wished that Gunnar had placed her so that she
could see Emil, but instead her eyes were on that sinister bastard. He still
had on his green Fedora and his cane was still looped over the crook of his
arm. He didn't appear so menacing when he was frozen in ice. She wondered if it
would be possible for him to perish if the ice melted quickly and he was
surrounded by water. He did say that water could kill him.
Water
or fire.
She would love to see him burn!

Emil watched her in silence. If that obstinate
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
hadn't come
in, she would have been his forever. He stared at the wizard. That was a clever
trick that Gunnar had pulled. The guy was just a frozen as
Anca
,
the only difference being that
Anca
was in stone and
the wizard could melt, although Emil had no idea that the wizard had had time
to prepare himself with a shield for protection. The vampires had definitely
under-estimated the old wizard's powers! Now if only he could be just as clever
as Gunnar and figure out how to bring down the barrier. He wanted to comfort
her, he knew she could hear him, but what could he say?

In the distance he heard the thudding of footsteps,
people running, coming toward the chamber. "Hello!" He called out.
"We're in here!"

Two men and two women entered the chamber. One was
short and squatty with a rough unkempt beard, the other not much taller, but
his face was hairless. His most prominent feature was his elongated pointed
nose and burly back covered with wild black hair matching the mat of tangled
black hair on his chest.
Behind them stood the two women.
Both of the women were covered with tattoos of wild animals—miniature leopards,
cheetahs, lions. One of the women had her hair tied back with a leopard skin
print bandanna. Their eyelids glittered heavily with blue eye shadow. One of
them wore cut off shorts with holes exposing one of her buttock, and a rip
where her vagina was. Raw edges of denim string fringe dangled against her tan
thighs. The other woman had on a leather brown skirt. Both of them were
barefoot.

One of the men, the squatty one, spoke first.
"What’s going on here? Who are you people?" His eyes jumped from
Anca
, to the wizard, and then to Emil.

Emil was calm, "I was going to ask the same of
you." As always, he was being coy, even though he was suspended behind a
glass barrier. He continued. "This isn't exactly YOUR territory. Do you
know where you are?"

"We do.
Our winter den."
Emil thought he heard the man almost growl as he spoke.

"Your den?"
Emil laughed, "I hardly think so. There are over 100 vampires that inhabit
these caverns." He laughed again, "These are their hidden sleeping
quarters during the day, although I guess the word
hidden
is debatable now, isn't it?" The man with the feral
black hair moved forward as if to challenge Emil.

He leaned into the invisible barrier. He said
bluntly, "We dispersed them."

Emil also leaned into the glass wall as his fangs
appeared. "Dispersed them? There is no way your little group could
disperse 100 vampires! Who are you?"

The squatty one answered, "I am
Andraste
, he is
Ludolf
, and those
two women are
Epona
and
Alda
.
We are not a
little group.
An entire
pack is waiting at the mouth of the caverns for us to reappear. We were
actually just passing through, but then I picked up your scent."

Emil spoke slowly and deliberately, "Okay,
Andraste
,
Ludolf
,
Epona
and
Alda
, you need to be
leaving now."

Ludolf
grinned, "Looks to me like you are in no position to be giving orders,
vampire. Who are you?"

Emil backed away from the glass, keeping his eyes
steadily on them, "I am Emil
Marii
."

They had obviously not heard of him. He could tell
as they gave each other a glance and shrugged their shoulders. The two women
pointed at his fangs and giggled together. He clicked them immediately back
into his mouth and moved away from the invisible barrier.

"What happened to you and why are you behind a
barrier? Who are these two statues?
Andraste
pointed to
Anca
and
Haasinholf
Grendlekin
.

"She is with me. Her name is
Anca
. The other one is an evil wizard from some other
country who seeped into Lompoc when the barrier went down." Emil put his
hands on the invisible shield. "That damn wizard sealed me in here."

Andraste
walked slowly around
Anca
and then ponderously around
the wizard. He put his hand on his hair-covered chin, rubbing the hair smooth.
Emil noticed that
Andraste
wore a ring with an
insignia of an animal.
Andraste
came closer to the
transparent barrier. "How do we know you are telling us the truth, Emil
Marii
? We haven't seen any signs that the barrier around
Lompoc is down. We have lived here 200 years and no one has ever ventured into
Lompoc that we didn't want to welcome. The witches have been great at keeping
us sealed from hunters on the outside. Maybe it is YOU who are the
trespasser." He leaned forward and locked onto Emil's eyes.
Andraste
then walked in a circle again around the women,
the statues and landed right back where he started.

"Listen, please, it's the truth. I am Emil
Marii
and I have lived here for 200 years also." Emil
didn't mind a little pleading when it served him well. "Do you know how to
undo the spell of rocks or barriers?" Perhaps Emil wasn't so good at
begging, but he knew that he had to appeal to them and hope that vampires
weren't on their list of enemies.

"Yes, an angry wizard on the loose could
definitely be a problem." It seemed as if a light had suddenly lit up
Andraste's
eyes. A green glow emitted from them. "
Alda
might know a spell. She is a half-breed," he
motioned to
Alda
to step forward. "
Alda
, do you know anything about spells of glass walls or
rock people?"