Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (36 page)

Quickly, she tried scuttling up the
stairs. Korrigan grabbed Aradia's foot, and pulled her down to face
him.

Shaking with anger, he practically
screamed, "Why are you afraid of me? Why are you trying to run
away? Huh? Why? Why?"

He raised his arm above his head,
ready to strike her, and Aradia threw up her hands in an
instinctive attempt to protect herself. Luckily, the arm he brought
down was the one that held the bouquet of red roses. Therefore, all
he did was smash it on her head and scatter the petals around her
like soft red glass. Korrigan, however, was still instantly hit by
a wave of remorse.

He quickly dropped to his knees in
front of her. "Oh God I am so sorry Aradia! I did not mean to do
that! I swear to God! I won't hurt you! I promise! After all, I
love you and I would never hurt the woman I love."

"Love me?" Aradia shrieked sounding
incredulous. "Love me? How can you love me? You barely know
me!"

"But you are a witch like me!"
Korrigan argued, "A fellow pureblooded witch. Finding out you exist
has made feel so happy because I no longer feel so
alone!"

He stopped, but only to sigh
deeply. "Do you have any idea what it is like seeing your entire
race wiped out and not being able to save them? How horrible it is
to virtually the last of your kind for more than three hundred
years? No matter whom I got close to vampire or not, no one
understood how lonely I was. But then I saw you..."

After a few tense minutes passed,
he slowly raised his head from the lap to look at Aradia. He then
placed his hand upon her cheek, and drew her closer to
him.

"I saw you and realized you are
just as lonely as I am. Think about it Aradia! We are the last of
our kind! We deserve to be together. We must be
together!"

Aradia was stunned for she had
never seen anyone like this. Looking into Henry's eyes, she saw his
feelings of despair and isolation. She knew he was crazy, but she
felt so sorry for him. She had felt lonely for a long time, but she
could see that he had felt it longer!

"Don't you understand? Nothing good
can come from not being with people of your own kind! To each it's
own am I right? Just as vampires deserve to be with other vampires,
we witches only deserve to be with other witches! Therefore, you
and I deserve to be together forever! Can't you see
that?"

Separate but equal, Aradia thought
to herself bitterly.

She tore her face out of his grasp.
"No! Forget it! Forget it! I won't go with you! Never!"

"Goddammit!" Korrigan shouted at
the top of his lungs, and backhanded her against the
wall.

Aradia was instantly knocked her
out cold while Korrigan stood up screaming, "For Christ's Sake! Why
can't I make you understand?"

Seeing his poor wounded Aradia
laying limply on the stairs, however, made his anger quickly drain
away.

"I feel so sorry for you my
beloved," Korrigan cooed to her.

He dropped the now ruined bouquet
onto the floor, picked Aradia up, and threw her over his
shoulder.

He kept talking to her as he hauled
her out of her house, and walked down to his car. "All these
horrible things have happened to you. All of sudden you have
enormous responsibilities in addition to being alone. You poor,
poor little thing."

He sighed before speaking again in
a tender whisper. "But it is alright now my love. I will take care
of everything. I will protect you from now on, don't you worry
about it."

He then patted her bottom, and
tossed her into his car.

"Rai!" Dax screamed as soon as he
got to her house. "Rai! Rai! Aradia! Where are you?"

He dashed up the stairs of the
walkway only to pause once he saw the front door lying completely
broken off its hinges.

"Oh dear god!" he whispered
painfully, "Oh please god no!"

He ran in, and searched the whole
house.

"Aradia! Where are you?" He yelled
every second that he did not find her. He was hopeful, at first,
for none of her clothes or things had been taken and the house and
furniture were still intact. Surely if Aradia had been attacked she
would have put one hell of a fight, Dax concluded to himself.
Slowly, however, that hope began to crumble when he found no trace
of her.

Finally, he found the rose petals
on the staircase lying as invisible, and yet as ominous as drops of
blood. Dax dropped to his knees, clutched the rose petals in his
hands, and pressed them to his nose. He breathed in their scent,
and recognized Aradia. For one brief minute, he was blissfully
happy, but then the sharp smell of a familiar foul odor hit his
senses as well.

Dax now felt the juices of the
petals slowly drain into his hands as he clenched his
fists.

He then threw his head back in a
fit of agony and cried out, "Aradia!"

Chapter
Thirty

Aradia did not know how long she
had been out, but what she did know was her head hurt like hell! As
her eyes began drift open, she started to remember what had
happened to her. She then quickly tried to struggle only to
discover that she had been bound thickly with ropes. Aradia opened
her eyes fully, her head still aching, and observed her
surroundings. She was tied to a red felt chair, in a glamorous
manor, next to a long brown dining table, and currently being
stared at by a strange dark haired vampire.

"My," he said smiling, "Don't you
smell nice."

"Wish I could return the
compliment," Aradia muttered bitterly.

He scowled at her.

Korrigan jumped up from where he
was finishing tying her legs to the chair, and waved him away. "Get
away from her she is mine!"

The other vampire stumbled back in
annoyance.

Korrigan then knelt by Aradia's
side and cooed, "Ignore him sweet thing. He's just the concubine of
the head of all the vampire clans here in Pennsylvania. Hell in all
honesty, he is more like the goddamn house keeper than a concubine,
he cannot do anything to you."

"Concubine..." Aradia said
slowly.

She then turned and observed his
fancy clothes, his slicked back hair, and his heavily perfumed
scent. "I see."

The vampire glared at her darkly
and said, "Saucy little bitch aren't you?"

"Look who's talking," Aradia
snapped.

To her surprise, he chuckled as if
he thought her impertinence was cute.

He then bent down to stare right
into her eyes and playfully whispered, "Who’s a pretty, sexy,
sweet, saucy little girl? Huh? Who?"

"Who needs a breath mint? Huh? You
do!" Aradia snapped.

Korrigan laughed. "Told you she was
sassy!"

Aradia turned her head intending to
yell at him when all of sudden she heard a door open. Someone is
coming, Aradia realized once she recognized the sound of shoes. She
eagerly turned her head hoping to God that it was Dax and Roy
coming to rescue her. It was an old, heavily wrinkled, and silver
haired vampire that walked in followed by two others. One was a
gorgeous brunette female, and the other a blonde male.

Aradia stared at the blonde through
narrowed eyes, and almost instantly she shouted. "I recognize
you!"

Saul had hoped that his warning to
Dax had not been in vain. Alas, once he walked into the house, and
saw Aradia strapped to a chair he knew otherwise. In response to
Aradia's outburst, he tried to look casual by rubbing the remaining
blood off his lips. Korrigan instantly stood up, and glared
menacingly at Saul.

"What does she mean?" he
demanded.

Saul stared at Aradia, her eyes
filled with her silent pleas.

After a few tense seconds, he shook
his head and said, "No idea."

He then turned on his heel to walk
up the winding staircase.

Aradia stared after him, not
believing her bad luck. She did not know why he and his dark haired
ponytailed friend had been staring at her in school, but reflecting
upon the gravity of her situation she had had hoped that it was
because he was a secret ally. Seeing him walk away, leaving her to
an impending doom quickly helped to dash such hopes.

Now what am I going to do? Aradia
thought as she saw Korrigan leering at her.

The older vampire wrinkled his nose
and pointed at her. "What's this?"

Korrigan stood between her, and the
older looking vampire. "Don't you remember what my brothers
discussed with you? About offering us sanctuary?"

The older looking vampire
nodded.

"Still does not explain her
though," he argued.

Korrigan sighed. "This woman is the
last witch and my brothers and I have acquired her. We have worked
very hard to liberate her from the clutches of the hidden in Salem
so now she belongs to us, and wants to be with me!"

"The fact that she's strapped to
the chair should indicate how grateful she is to be 'liberated' so
to speak," the concubine vampire said snickering.

Korrigan whipped around and said,
"She's mine understand? All we need is a couple of nights here to
wait for my brothers. Okay?"

The older vampire stared past him
to Aradia who feebly hoped that even he did not know her he would
help her.

The older vampire merely shrugged.
"Whatever."

He then threaded his arm around the
woman's waist, and led her into the back room.

Aradia felt her heart drop into the
bowels of her stomach.

Korrigan turned to the concubine
vampire and asked, "So can we help ourselves to one of the guest’s
rooms?"

The concubine vampire glanced at
Aradia, and then back to Korrigan.

A few seconds later, he snickered
and grabbed an apple from the bowl in the middle of the dining
table.

As he walked past Korrigan, and
munching the apple greedily, he whispered into Henry's ear. "Try
not to damage anything while the two of you are consummating your
love."

"Including her." He added with one
more glance at Aradia.

In one last attempt to escape,
Aradia used every bit of strength she could possibly muster to
break free from her bonds and ran towards the door. Almost as if he
sensed her course of action, Korrigan caught her by the feet
causing her to fall hard on to the marble floor. Aradia ignored the
throbbing pain in her knees, and still tried to scramble to the
door. Korrigan dragged her to him, ignoring the screeching of her
fingernails.

"Isn't she great?" he shouted to
the other vampires watching.

Acting like her struggling, biting,
screaming obscenities did not faze him one bit; Korrigan carried
Aradia up the stairs. He then found the nearest bedroom, and
slammed the door.

Saul had watched from his bedroom
across the hall the entire time Aradia had struggled in Korrigan's
arms.

He had ignored her screams of,
"Dax, help me! Roy, Mom, Dad, anybody! Save me!"

He now heard the scraping, and
moving of furniture accompanied by various smashes and crashes of
objects. Saul then slammed the door loudly. After spotting a
window, he raced to it, pushed open the window, and transformed
into his bat form.

Chapter
Thirty-One

Aradia's parents had contacted the
human police, the Amber alert, America's most wanted, and everyone
in the whole town of Salem. Yet they were still beside themselves
with worry because they had found no clues, or anything that could
indicate where Aradia had been taken.

Her father, although it was obvious
that he wanted to break down and cry, helped with the investigation
as best as he could. He talked to everyone Aradia knew, human and
hidden, trying to gather information.

Her mother, who also been giving
the impression of fighting back the urge to sob and yell out for
her child like no tomorrow, had took to the streets showing around
Aradia's picture. They asked around to see if anyone had seen the
McAlester brothers or if anyone knew where the McAlester brothers
lived. They did eventually find the McAlester's lair, and had
gotten access to their school papers but even those had turned out
to be dead ends. The lair had been cleaned out, leaving nothing
behind, and the school papers had turned out to be forged. Aradia's
parents, however, did not give up.

The entire time everyone had been
searching or worrying Dax had been sitting alone in the woods right
under the tree where the branch where he and Aradia had kissed on
had broken. Roy criticized him before he went to the woods for not
helping and said it was further proof that Dax did not give a damn
about Aradia. Dax hardly heard him for he was too filled with
self-loathing to even care.

As the hours ticked by, Dax buried
his face in his hands and shook his head.

"How?" he finally muttered through
gritted teeth. "How could have I been so stupid? Of course, it was
trap! Of course, they lured us away so they could capture Aradia!
How could I have not seen that! How? How?"