Divine Savior (13 page)

“
I will send a car for you to take you home tonight. Then tomorrow evening, the same car will pick you up again and bring you to me at my estate. You will not run, nor will you evade me, Shade. If you try and defy me, I am someone who you will learn very quickly knows the meaning of the word punishment. We’ve tried it your way. Now we shall do it mine. Until tomorrow, Shade Doe.”
He nearly turned back when he heard her cry, but knew that he needed to let her have her dignity, as well as get Colin home.

~~~

Hours later, when Shade came out of the restaurant, there was indeed a car waiting for her. If you could call the monstrous thing sitting there a car. It also seemed to come equipped with it a very big man who was standing next to it. The Hummer was made to go through snow, which was a good thing since it had started snowing again. There were already seven inches on the ground and if it continued the rate it was currently coming down, there would be another seven before sunrise.

She looked up at the flakes that floated down to the ground; they swirled about as though they were without a care in the world. Shade shivered deep within her coat. Even though she was glad for its protection and warmth, she knew it wouldn’t be warm enough come really deep winter, which was still a month away. Ohio winters were cruel and unforgiving at the best of times. One night it would snow for hours on end only to have the next morning dawn bright and warm, melting it all off again.

She wordlessly made her way into the seat of the car, her body aching and hurting from the beating she had gotten earlier last evening just before she had shown up for work. Shade had tried very hard to keep the moans to herself, but the seat was just too high for her to make it without a groan or two. When the vampire—were all the people she met going to be vamps?—asked her if she needed any help, a simple glare made him step back, his hand turned out to show her that he would not interfere.

It took her a good five minutes to navigate the seat and another couple to manage the seat belt into a locking position. He had left the vehicle running, so it was nice and toasty warm, for which she was grateful.

The pains and the bruises were so worth it, she thought, because they ensured that Brent would be safe soon from his nightmare. She knew that Brent could not go back to his mother’s “care” or Brenda would kill him. The local alpha wolf, Bradley, whom she had met through David Wolff, had agreed to help her get him to safety. Bradley and David were also brothers; brothers of the same blood, not by pack.

Shade had contacted David Wolff the day she was released from the jail. She had met him for coffee at the local Starbucks. He said that he would set up an interview with his brother for her. David assured her that she would have a ride to and from the meeting place and that he would pick her up himself.

Later that same day, he reached out to her mentally to let her know that he would pick her up at the restaurant where she worked. It had startled her at first, his ability to communicate with her, but he told her that she had opened the doorway when she had searched his mind first. The open path, he also told her, was a two-way street if she should ever need him. David also said he would also make sure she got back to wherever she needed to go as well.

The private meeting had gone well. Because of the involvement of one of their own, the wolf that had committed a rape of a human and caused the death of another, Bradley readily agreed to help Shade with Brent and get him into a safe environment. She’d hoped it would go as smoothly as the alpha had seemed to think it would.

An emergency had come up with the police department at the time David was to pick Shade up. He had been called away with a disturbance by a human problem. That was why she had been walking home instead of riding in the nice safe cruiser after her meeting.

Lynne Wolff—and how appropriately named for the vicious creature that she was—the alpha’s mate, had taken exception to Shade contacting her husband. Lynne had gotten it in her head that for some reason Shade was there to take Bradley away. Lynne had attacked Shade,
hidden
as a wolf just as Shade was making her way back to work in the driving snow that night. The she-bitch had torn into Shade’s flesh, biting and tossing her about as if she didn’t weigh anything, which she supposed to a full grown wolf, she had not. Shade had landed hard a couple of times and had lost consciousness briefly more than once. Lynne had probably hoped that when she left, Shade would die. Shade didn’t fight Lynne back. Her temper was very short to begin with. She did not want to have this woman’s death, no matter what she had done to Shade, on her head as well.

Shade only spoke to the driver, Billy Todd, to give him the address of the warehouse she was currently hiding in. She was just too tired and sore to make the effort to make conversation. And she had never been very good at small talk—or any kind of talk for that matter.

The warehouse was about two miles from the place Shade was working. With the snow, it took about an hour to walk to and another to walk home every day. When she needed to go into the city, she tried to get everything at once to cut down on the walking time.

“
My master sent you some food; I have it here for you. It’s still hot. If you’d like something different, I have instructions to stop anywhere you want and get it. Although, I haven’t a clue where that would be, but hey, I’m just the lowly driver.”

She didn’t answer him. She was afraid of crying again if she opened her mouth; the pain was intense and profound. Billy, probably less than a century old, she thought, was polite, but his tone indicated he’d rather be doing anything else at that moment. So would she, she thought with a grimace.

Shade turned her head and looked out the window of moving vehicle. It was pretty, the way the flurries made everything look so clean and surreal. She knew that in a few days, probably less, it would be dirty from the trucks and other cars driving though it on their way to someplace else.

“
Miss?”

“
No. I don’t want it, thank you.” She turned again to watch the snow fall against the house lights as they drove slowly past them. Shade wondered what the people inside would think if they knew what was driving by their house at the moment. She never felt sorry for herself, and brushed angrily at the tear chasing the others down her cheek.

“
Would you like something else then?”

She glanced back at him with a small grin. Okay, now that sounded a bit snarky, but still just this side of polite. “No, thank you.”

“
Okay, then what do you want me to do with this food?” Billy had a tone that said that he was frustrated with her, but still didn’t want to piss anyone off she might know. She simply didn’t care. With a small touch in his mind, Shade found that Billy thought she was a worthless human. Well, that all humans were worthless, she more than the others at the moment because Shade was the closest to him. Well, so did she, but it was not any less insulting for him to think so too. And it wasn’t like she had asked him to “cart her ass around.” She was following orders too, damn it. And her temper flared to life that quickly.

“
You know, Billy, I don’t give a rat’s ass what you do with the food. You can use it to lure your next meal to you for all I give a flying fuck. I don’t want you to cart my ass around anymore than you want to. So if you don’t mind, just take this worthless human to her dwelling, and leave me the fuck alone.”

She hurt, she was hungry, and she was angry. Fuck the whole bloodsucking bunch of them. She wiped furiously at the tears again. Just what she needed, frozen water on her face on top of every other flipping thing that had happened.

The silence in the vehicle stretched for several minutes before Billy spoke again. She could hear the awe in his voice and a little fear. Good.

“
Listen, lady, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it out on you. Really, I’m sorry. Okay?” She could feel that he was indeed sorry and she felt bad that she had taken her pain and frustration out on him, but only just a little.

“
Please, just take me home. I’m okay...just...I just want you to take me home.” She could hear the begging and woefulness in her own voice, but was beyond caring right now. She just wanted to go back to her hidey hole and lay down. Dying sounded preferable to how she was feeling right now.

The rest of the drive was made in silence, each of them seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Billy pulled up in front of the address she had given him. Before Shade could struggle getting out, Billy flashed himself around the front of the vehicle and had her door open before Shade could get the belt undone. Flipping the sack of food onto her lap, he picked her up and carried her to the front opening of the warehouse, almost like a groom carrying a bride over the threshold.

Shade had been so surprised; she stood there when he told her to. When Billy returned with the stack of blankets, he picked her up again and carried her into the building and directly to the hidey hole she had been hiding in.

“
I know, I know, you don’t need anything. But Aaron is my new master, and I’d just as soon not piss him off any more than I get the feeling you did tonight. And man, he was one pissed off vamp when he came in with Lord Colin. I’ll see you tomorrow night, Miss Doe.” With a cheeky grin and a bow, he left her standing next to her sleeping bag.

~
CHAPTER TWELVE~

The next day dawned bright with the sun glinting off the new fallen snow and not a cloud in the clear blue sky. The weather man had gotten it right for a change and had been correct in his predictions. Not only had they gotten an additional nine inches over night, it looked as though there were no plans for any more snow that day either. The total snow now on the ground was eighteen inches.

Shade couldn’t see this, nor the dark Hummer parked outside her building, but she could hear a large engine.

Shade was in no condition to either appreciate or care if there were ninety feet of snow on the ground, or if the sun had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and melted it all off. Spring flowers sprouting up all over the yard beyond would have been a great surprise, but only if she had been able to see and appreciate it. The beating she had taken yesterday had really settled in and pain was her new best friend. She had no idea if one could die while lying still, but she certainly hoped it was possible right now.

The bite marks from the she-wolf were burning and bleeding again; blood was trickling down her back onto her bedding; she could feel the wetness beneath her, soaking the sleeping bag. Her broken ribs were making it difficult for her to breathe deeply much less get up from the floor where she slept. One particular bruise where she had hit a wall with her back had grown to double the size and was hot to the touch. It was not as though she could reach behind her to see it, but it was painful to touch and to roll over onto. Shade needed to either die or get up; she was hard pressed to decide which sounded better because she needed to be to work in forty-five minutes.

Shade felt Duncan’s presence as soon as he entered the building; a quick scan told her his name and that he was here to take her to work at Aaron’s request. Shade really didn’t care, nor did she wonder how Duncan knew her schedule, just that someone was here and hopefully could help her. She hoped she could get Duncan to help her up off the floor. Then maybe she would be able to keep standing without falling on her face, but she doubted it.

She couldn’t tell what Duncan was; he certainly wasn’t a bloodsucker like Colin and Aaron, so hopefully, he would help her. This was only going to work if Shade could communicate with Duncan mentally. She didn’t think shouting for him was would work either, as it would require more lung capacity than she currently had.

“
Mr. Duncan, I need your help if you don’t mind, please.”
Even mentally, she sounded whiny, she thought.

“
It’s just Duncan, miss. And I am at your disposal all day. Would you like the breakfast I’ve brought to you? It’s hot cakes and bacon, I believe they’re called. Miss Penny, the new cook for the house, made them especially for you.”

“
No, oh God, please no. Please, I need...could you come to me, please? I hurt so badly, I can’t...please help me.”
She was sobbing now. She had tried to move on her own and hurt her ribs worse than before. If she didn’t pass out soon, she thought, she was simply going to beg him to kill her quickly when he came up the stairs.

Duncan was not a vampire with vampire speed, but he could move very quickly when he needed to. When he got to Shade’s bedside, she kept insisting over and over to him that all she needed him to do was to just help her up to a standing position. She figured once she got up and got the kinks out, moving would be easier. At least she hoped that it would.

Duncan helped her clumsily, hurting her so badly, the pain was of such magnitude that it pulled her into blackness, just as she had hoped for earlier.

~~~

Duncan felt bad for hurting the young miss. But he knew that without his “help,” Shade wouldn’t allow anyone to assist her beyond what she had asked him to do. He gently laid her back on the soiled bed. He took off his heavy coat and wrapped it as securely as he could around her small frame.

Pulling out his cell phone, Duncan called the only two vampires he knew would be up this late in the early morning. He just hoped they had enough time to get there before his master needed to seek shelter.