Taming the Heart (Creatures of the Night Book 2) (22 page)

“There are few real witches. Like us a witch must be born and it is very rare. A lot of people dabble in it, but the average dabbler would not achieve the power of a real witch if they lived a thousand years. All the studying in the world can not make you something you were not destined to be.”

She sighed and leaned against the door. She was tired but she didn’t want to leave him out here all alone. They didn’t have to wait long. She felt the death drawing closer and her nails got longer as her night vision became clearer. She turned inside and went to the stash she had seen him uncover. There were knives but there were more guns. She looked down at her wardrobe.

She wanted to pull some regular clothes on but her distended belly would make any of the pants he had bought for her obsolete. She pulled out a bandolier filled with knives and strapped it on over her nightgown before she picked up a big silver revolver like the one he had made her practice with. She checked the magazine to be sure that it was filled and then loaded it again. There was nowhere for her to put extra magazines so she just made her way back to the door.

Braden snarled as he looked back at her. Her heart jumped into her throat to see his face. It was hardly even human. It was completely feline. She was nearly scared but she suddenly understood why he had held this side of himself back from her as much as possible. She saw the warring emotions on his face. She forced her pace to be normal as she faced him with squared shoulders.

“Go back inside!”

“And be left in the dark as another person I love is snatched away into the night, I don’t think so.”

His face normaled out some as he stared at her in open mouth wonder for a moment. “What did you-“

“You heard me. I’ll stay here at your back but I’m not going to hide inside like a coward while the man I love faces this alone.”

There. She had said it. He knew. She didn’t expect him to say it back and she wasn’t fishing for it. She just thought he should know. His head suddenly snapped back towards the woods and she felt her fangs descend as a slimy ugly nearly human looking creature stepped from the trees. Her breath caught in her throat as her world turned upside down for a moment. The creature nearly had human features beneath its fur. It looked like… She grabbed her heart as it turned over in her chest. Dear God it was Katie!

She saw Braden lift the barrel of the gun and take aim at her. She knew that she should just let him pull that trigger, but her body moved against her will. She crashed into him just as he would have pulled the trigger. He cursed as he fell to the ground. He found his footing again and started towards Katie. Miranda ran after him and struck him hard as he would have shot her sister again.

“Miranda. It isn’t her!”

“I don’t care,” she said as she rushed towards Katie.

She was horrified as she halted in front of her sister. It was as if an alien had sprouted her sister’s face like the pods in the Little Shop of Horrors. Katie bore her teeth as slime oozed from them and Miranda had the overwhelming desire to kill her and end her stench forever. But that face. Katie loomed over her and was about to grab her when Braden sacked her middle and they both went crashing to the ground.

“No,” she screamed.

Miranda heard Braden’s growl of pain as Katie bit down hard on his jugular. Blood spurted from Braden’s neck but the Katie monster held him in a bear hug and was about to bite down again when Miranda jumped on her back and easily snapped her neck. The lumbering creature dropped Braden and fell to the ground snapping and snarling. Braden freed himself from her grasp and took aim with the hand gun he’d pulled from his shoulder holster when another creature burst from the tree line ready to spring on Miranda.

Before Miranda could swing her gun that way Braden switched his aim and took the thing down. Suddenly the trees rumbled and a dozen more of them over took them. Miranda took two before they reached her but they had hands on her before she had a chance to think another thought and they ripped the gun from her hand.

A few wolves cried out in pain where they had tried to grab her and the knives strapped across her chest sliced into their slimy sinewy fingers. There were so many rushing forward and the faces looked so similar. Would she recognize Katie again? Would she be the one that brought her sister down? The animals began to drag her off into the woods before she came to her senses.

If she didn’t fight back, they would kill her, they would kill Braden, they would kill the baby. That last thought sent her into action. The dream of the cute little chubby cheeked baby sitting alone and vulnerable on the porch came back to her mind and the protective instincts were renewed again within her. It was the same as it had been in her dream only this was real.

“No one is going to touch this baby,” she growled as she grabbed a knife and began slicing any place a wolfy finger or limb touched her. She felt like something in her slammed into overdrive as she fought them off.

She was a tiny ball of fury and soon enough the creatures backed away from her, missing limbs or digits, parts of them on fire. They stood as if they were waiting for her to make a move. She let her eyes wander as her body stayed poised to attack. Her heart leapt three notches as she saw a flash of red erupt from the center of a circle of wolves not far away from her.

It took her brain a moment to process the fact that what she had seen was a chunk of flesh being handed out of the center of the pile. That was the place she had last seen Braden.

“No,” she screamed again as anguish crashed into her chest. She launched forward, knives flying and hitting their mark with extreme precision. As they observed many of their brethren falling in screaming horrified agony, the wolves retreated to the trees. She saw their glowing eyes watching her warily as she raced to Braden.

His eyes were closed. One of the wolves had taken his glorious ponytail as a trophy, taking pieces of the scalp along with the ponytail, exposing his skull in a ghastly sickening way. His shirt was torn and she had to look away from his stomach. She was fairly certain that the wounds to his stomach were serious and that the wolves had taken a few of his organs. She felt sick and tears gathered in her eyes, but now was not the time to be faint of heart. She had seen him heal himself from wounds like this, but the amount of blood that was pumping out of his neck where her sister had severed his jugular had to be stealing his healing strength away.

She waved thoughts of her sister, Braden’s wounds, and her queasiness to the side. She reached down, grabbed his arm and pulled him across the parking lot. She dragged him into their room and barely got him inside when she sensed the next attack. She grabbed a gun from Braden’s belt and whirled around ready to shoot. She was drawn up short when she saw the Katie monster standing there breathing hard. Tears swam in her eyes as her hand shook. The desire was so strong inside her to pull the trigger, to end the evil that stood before her but… The eyes weren’t quite red yet. They still looked sort of blue and her nose… it was not yet a snout like the other wolves had. It was the cute little pert nose that she had known since the first time she had held the little sprite in her arms. All on the body of a slimy disgusting creature that was nothing more than a killing machine.

A tear escaped Miranda’s eye and tracked slowly down her face as she bore her fangs. Braden was right. There was no right or wrong side in this. There was only the fight. Her throat began to close as the pressure began to build on the trigger.

“Please,” she hissed as she looked at her sister. Why was she just standing there? “Run,” she pleaded. She waited but Katie just stood there, breathing hard and grinning stupidly with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

“She can not run.”

Miranda was stunned as she took aim at this new threat. It was the day walker from the desert. “You,” she growled, her finger more ready to pull the trigger as anger blossomed and exploded at the sight of the man.

“Are you surprised my pet?”

Unable to resist, she pulled the trigger and blasted a hole right in the center of his chest. She couldn’t wait to see him burst into flame. He howled and carried on as if he were about to fall, but after a moment it became apparent to her that he was mocking her. His howls of pain turned into peels of laughter. When he was finished he wiped away an unshed tear as the hole closed and turned into a solid chest again.

“Feel better? Darling girl. Someone should have explained to you that we can not die this way. Anyhow. I digress. You will learn at a later date I think the way to be even the slightest match for me. So now. Let us get back to the issue at hand. Here we have your dear sweet and innocent sister,” he said as he stroked Katie with long boney fingers.

His hand came away covered in slime. He made a face, wiped the slim on his shirt and then went on. “And there we have a thousand year old hunter who, if the rounding of your belly is any indication, you have fallen madly in love with.” He put a hand to his forehead for dramatic effect. Miranda was less than impressed. When he saw the look on her face he chuckled a bit and went on.

“So let us make this game very interesting.”

He came around Katie and approached. All Miranda could do was blade herself in such a way as to block the door and defend her baby at the same time. She looked up at him defiantly. He ran one boney finger delicately along the side of her face before she turned her face from him.

“What do you want,” she hissed.

He stood close to her a moment longer before he backed away enough for her to breathe again. “Well, if we started doing what I wanted you, that bastard child, and your boyfriend over there would be the main course for supper tonight.” The Katie monster made a sound as if she were in agreement with that idea and Miranda felt more tears rise to her eyes. She had never hated her weepy nature more than at this moment. “But like I said before. This not my show. So I am to mess with your head a bit.”

He waited for her to look at him again, and when she did the gleam in his eyes was enough to make her sick. “Now. As I was saying. We have a slim few options for you this evening. A. You can feed your lover to your sister and I can give her a day walker to speed her along to becoming a day walker. She will be one of us but at least she won’t look like this anymore. Option B. If you shoot her right now, between the eyes, I will leave you and your lover alone for the time being. Option C. You come with me, we leave him here untouched and your sister runs off into the woods, living to bite another day, or night actually. The choice is yours, but this offer expires in thirty seconds.”

He looked at his wrist where a watch should be, but where no watch was, and waited. Miranda took aim at her sister, putting the sights right between her eyes. Katie just stood there, watching, waiting. Miranda’s hand shook as tears spilled from her eyes.

“Will you hurt my baby,” she asked as she let the gun drop to her side.

“We will keep you alive as long as possible. That is the only guarantee I am willing to make at this moment.”

She looked over at Braden who looked dead for all appearances sake. It was still a good hour until dawn and if she left him, even if Katie took off running into the woods, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t come back for him once she left. He would be left open to attack. She swiftly brought the gun back up and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Katie right between the eyes. Katie didn’t even have a moment to look bewildered or scared before her face burst into flames.

Miranda fell to her knees as the body hit the cold pavement and burst into flames. The stench filled her nostrils and Miranda couldn’t hold back any more. She heaved all over the day walkers shoes. He jumped back but not quick enough for his boots not to be covered in regurgitation. He snarled at her but she didn’t care at the moment. It was a while before she scooted back and sat against the inside of the open door shaking, the gun clutched in her lap.

The man whistled. “I didn’t see that coming. Bravo to you. You have just bought yourselves another twenty four hours. But make no mistake my sweet. There is nowhere you can hide where we won’t be coming for you.”

“Why are you doing this,” she choked out on a sob.

“Why not,” he said smugly as he shrugged. She wanted to hit him in the face, to pound him senseless. Before she could get her legs under her again, he was gone. She looked at the burning pile that had once been her sister and felt it the moment that the other creatures receded off into the distance.

The silence that was left behind was overwhelming. The only sounds that filled the silent predawn air was the crackling sound of the burning body that would soon be nothing more than ash, which would eventually float away on the wind and then there would be nothing left of the sweet and funny little girl that she had known and loved. It was the most tragic moment of her life.

The baby chose that moment to move inside of her like a fluttering butterfly. She put a hand over her stomach and allowed herself to cry for a little while, and when she was finished, she pulled herself to her feet, shut the door and went to Braden.

Chapter Thirteen

Alicia Pool lifted her nose to the wind as emotion slammed her deep in the chest. She had to pull her motorcycle to the side of the highway and parked her bike. The pain hit her again, deep and resounding. Something wasn’t right. She flipped open her cell phone and sent off a text. She waited as she rubbed at her chest and the feeling of dread continued to swamp her senses. Soon her cell phone vibrated. She hit the receive button and waited until the real time photo of Jerry came into the screen.

He was sitting in a restaurant drinking a beer at the bar, alone. Safe. She was relieved but the dread wouldn’t leave her alone. Something was happening. She sampled the air again, inhaling, pulling the air deep inside of her. She could smell it all the way to her bone marrow. Someone was in trouble. She was on the border of her territory. She was in DC and Braden’s territory started just above this.

She narrowed her senses and tried to feel him. Her heart froze as she realized that she barely could feel him. That old son of a bitch was in some kind of trouble. With all the explosions and the web page being down, it was hard for any of them to contact each other. She called Alaric to get the number from him.

“What the hell is going on? Wolves are running this way in droves?”

Alicia shook her head. “I don’t know. They said there could only be one balance and he is not on this continent. I already checked.”

“The word out is that the day walkers are behind the attacks. Do you think they could be drawing the wolves out like this?”

“They’ve done it before. Anyways. I’m going to call Old Frost Bite and see what’s going on.”

“Call me if you need back up.”

“As if I would call you. All you males are useless,” she teased.

“Bite me Creole,” he growled back playfully.

She dialed the number he had given to her, saving it before she sent it through. The line was picked up but all she could hear was silent tear fall.

“Hello,” she said urgently.

The sniffling and crying subsided for a moment. “Who is this,” the shaky female voice asked.

“Is this Kitten Hunter? You’re the human hunter they were talking about?”

There was more crying and nose blowing and if Alicia could have reached through the phone line she would have shaken some sense into the woman. So much for women being the stronger of the species.

“Are you a hunter?” the woman finally managed.

“I am. I am Alicia and I protect the territory just below Braden’s. I called because-“

Suddenly her words were drowned out by the woman’s excited babbling. Alicia could only catch the words Braden, Day Walker’s and killed her sister. Anything beyond that was lost in the flood of words. She felt like a kid waiting for the loop to open on a double Dutch rope. Finally she was able to jump in.

“So what you’re saying is you need my help.”

“Please. Please help me. They are coming back in twenty hours and I am bound to fall asleep before then. The baby makes me-“

“The what,” Alicia roared into the phone. She had an infant with her? What was Braden thinking and why hadn’t they mentioned that in the web posts.

“I don’t know how it happened but we are pregnant and I-“

“Who is pregnant?”

“I am.”

“And who is the father?”

“Braden is.”

Alicia could only blink as she shook her head back and forth. After her time with Jerry she had asked. The mentor had assured her that no hunter could ever become pregnant. “That’s impossible. There must be a mistake.”

“That’s what Braden keeps saying but I’ve never been with anyone else and while Mary might have had an immaculate conception, I don’t think that’s the story in my case. So are you going to come?”

“Don’t move. I will be there before the night fall.”

“I’ll give you the name off the hotel where-“

“I don’t need it. I will feel for you. Just hang in there.”

Alicia hung up the phone, kicked the bike to life and sped off to the north, her heart pounding, her brain turning over with the ideas. She had specifically asked Bateman after Jerry had left if it was possible for her to become pregnant. He had assured her that it wasn’t. It had been another regret of hers, that she hadn’t allowed Jerry inside of her without protection. Now she saw that it may have been wiser than she’d originally thought and that there were maybe things Bateman didn’t know or that he wasn’t telling her.

*                            *                            *

Miranda watched Braden where he laid, his chest barely moving the blankets. She had gotten the kit from his truck and sewn him up the best that she could. There were things about being a hunter she still wasn’t sure about like how much of you the wolves had to eat before your soul joined their darkness. She had a few crying jags over the horrible thing she’d had to do to her own sister. It upset her so badly that she’d been sick. Her sickness was followed quickly by more guilt and worry.

After she was sick again, she made a small puncture to her wrist and let it drain into Braden’s mouth until the wound wouldn’t bleed any more. The blood had only gone down because it had nowhere else to go. He wasn’t swallowing, wasn’t moving, and was barely breathing. For all intents and purposes, he was dead. She had bandaged his neck and head but wet blood was still marring the white cloth.

She had seen him heal almost instantly from having his face nearly blown off, but now it seemed like he wasn’t healing at even a human pace. She had been forced to cover up the bandages over his stomach with the blanket. Her sutures were sloppy. She had done the best she could. It wasn’t like she could waltz into the emergency room and hand him over.

They would balk over the fact that most of his insides were missing. Then if they started to grow back, well then he would just be on the six o’clock news. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t like that too well. She bit at her fingernails. A habit that she had lost several years ago, but now seemed as good a time as any to start again, and contemplated what was to come this evening. Alicia had said that she was coming, but what if she didn’t get here in time.

Miranda was so bone weary that it was by sheer force of will that she kept her eyes open at all. Soon the sun would be setting and she had watched earlier today as another couple had checked into the motel. So tonight there would be that couple and the night watchman to consider. She didn’t think that he would fall for the same ploy twice. He was bound to think that she was some kid playing on the phone if she tried to do what Braden had. Her father had always said that she wasn’t very good at telling a lie.

She stood up and paced the floor consumed with worry, grief, guilt, anxiety, doubt, and fear. If only Braden would heal and wake up. Her heightened senses told her that the sun was rapidly descending. She closed her eyes and shut out the world for a moment. She pushed thoughts of her sister, of her ruined life, of her possibly dying lover out of her head. When she could find a center she said a silent prayer before she walked over to the table, strapped on a few bandoliers of knives, a few snap on holsters to Braden’s belt which she had snapped around her nightgown, her tennis shoes, and Braden’s long trench coat. He had made a few modifications so she was able to carry more weapons and ammo inside the jacket.

She braided her hair, which had grown past her waist, into a single long braid and tied it with one of Braden’s hair ties. She grabbed a glass filled with the bagged blood she had found in the refrigerator and downed it in one gulp. The baby seemed content with that and settled into the center of her body. Taking a fortifying breath, she zipped up her jacket and strode towards the door. She caught sight of herself in the floor length mirror inside the closet that stood open beside the door.

Braden was so right. Becoming a hunter had done something to her. Where she had once been all softness and frizzy things, now she appeared sleek as steel, as hard as stone. She thought again of her sister and felt the now familiar ache in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t know why this had happened to them, but she had been entrusted with this job. Katie was gone, but Katie had been gone long before that beast in her body had shown up to the motel parking lot outside. Her Katie had disappeared from existence the second she had been drug from the minivan that fateful night a month ago. The monster that had shown up here was willing to destroy people, to eat people, and that monster had nothing to do with the Katie she had raised and loved.

The Katie she had known would probably be cheering from the rafters to see Miranda now. She would be her biggest fan and if Miranda and the other hunters didn’t do their jobs, then Katie would never make it to that grand cheering section in the sky. Perhaps one day, the fight would end, and they would all be free of this cycle. Miranda wanted to see Katie again one day, the real Katie, and she would do all in her power to make sure that happened.

She spared one last glance for Braden who looked pale in his healing death like state. She wanted to kiss him again, to reassure herself that he was alive, but none of them would be alive for very long if she didn’t get out there and do her job. She stepped out into the night air. She popped the ear buds of Braden’s IPod into her ears. She had been surprised to find the music player in his coat pocket, and even more astonished at his choice in tunes. He carried some classical, some R and B and a lot of pop.

She turned to
Let’s Get it Started
by the Black Eye Peas and ran swiftly towards the tree line. The sun was sinking fast and she only had so mach time to draw the creatures away from Braden and from the innocents whose lives could be ruined by the creatures bite.

*                            *                            *

Braden emerged from his mind in stages. First he recognized how low he was on blood and how slowly his heart was pumping. Then he became aware of Mira’s blood sitting unused in his stomach. It was like a bright light in the deteriorating center of his body. He entered the blood and let the euphoria of its healing freshness wash over every bruised and broken part of his body. The wolves had done a lot of damage after he had passed out.

In fact, as many organs as he was missing, he would guess that they were well on their way to eating him whole. Why had they stopped?
Miranda.
Her name was like a balm to his soul. He hurried to heal himself before he opened his eyes. He was lying in the hotel room’s bed. He sat up and felt a pinching pain. He reached down beneath the cover, ripped off the blood soaked bandage that had covered him, and pulled at the sutures that peaked from the now healed skin. The skin bled again but only for a moment.

Miranda must have given him a lot of blood. He threw back the covers to find that she had left him in a clean pair of briefs. His clothes must have been ruined in the attack and she had done her best to make him comfortable. Love swelled in his breast like a river. He couldn’t recall the last time someone had cared for him in such a way. He was usually the one in charge in these situations. He had been so close to giving up before she had come along and now it scared him to think how close the creatures had been to completing their mission. Miranda had to have saved him.

He swung his legs to the side of the bed and reached for his hair tie. It was then he realized the strangest thing of all. His head felt… weird. He stood and went to the mirror that covered the back of the closet door. He pulled the bandage from his head and gasped. He reached up a hand to confirm what his eyes saw. His long golden mane… was gone. He blinked as he touched the shorn locks. He had not cut his hair in so long… he did not even know what he looked like without it.

He looked somehow more… dangerous. He looked the way he felt as his eyes turned cold as ice. He turned from his image in the mirror and headed towards the bathroom. He sensed before he got there, however, that she was not there. He ripped the bloodied bandage off his neck and called her name. Rage and panic seized his insides. She wasn’t anywhere in this room. She was out there in the cold fighting the creatures all alone. What if something happened to her? What if something happened to the baby?

He hurried to pull on some clothes and felt like he had been hit in the middle of his stomach to find his jacket missing. She had loaded up and she meant business. Her hot pink wheel chair sat glaringly vacant in the corner. She was barely out of training and she thought she was going to go out there and fight them all by herself. He felt love and anger for her selflessness. Well, he wouldn’t let her get herself killed. Not on his watch. He strapped a few automatic weapons on, his large hunting knife, and a bandolier of flash grenades before he went to the door.

The frame had been cracked were the wolf had slammed it open last night, and it was doubly cracked now as he pulled it open and didn’t bother to close it. He headed into the night like a flash on the wind.

*                            *                            *

It didn’t take Miranda long to find what she was looking for. They were coming for her. She felt them before she saw them and she was ready for them this time. She made her way towards a moon lit clearing and waited low on her heels. The red glowing eyes appeared at the edge of the clearing, surrounding her completely. She felt razor sharp as she recalled again what she’d had to do last night.