Safe Hex With a Vampire (10 page)

“We’re going to leave the cell door and the
door at the top of the stairs unlocked,” one of them said slowly as
though Aiden were too stupid to understand.

Fine, he could play stupid. “Why?” he asked
with wide innocent eyes. Well, as innocent as he could manage.

“So you can escape. It’s totally wrong of
Tempest to keep you here against you will,” the other one
explained.

He almost laughed at the false sincerity in
her voice. “How will I get away from here even with the door open?
I don’t suppose we’re close to a town.”

There was silence. They hadn’t even thought
about that. And they were worried about him contaminating their
gene pool? How could these two be related to Tempest and Ivy? He
smiled into the darkness as he thought about Tempest. Now that was
a smart woman. She would have thought of everything.

One of them finally spoke. “I know! We have
a cabin on the property, about a half mile from the house. I’ll
write down directions to it. There’s a car parked there, and the
keys for it are in the cabin.” She fumbled with her keys as she
removed one from the key ring. “Here’s the key to the cabin,” she
said and set it on the cot.

Aiden wished it wasn’t so dark. He was
tempted to lean over and hit the light just to see if the bimbo
twins looked like he expected them to. He was picturing cute little
blondes with dark roots and long fake nails. He was not above
stereotypes.

One of them handed him a slip of paper with
directions to the cabin, careful not to brush fingers with him.

“Now remember the door at the top of the
stairs will be unlocked,” explained one of the bimbo twins, still
speaking slowly. “You just have to turn the knob and push the door
open.”

Aiden fought hard against the urge to tell
them that he’d been opening doors before their grandparents were
born. He didn’t think the bimbo twins would be amused.

“Can you drive a car?” one of them asked,
sounding worried.

“Yes,” he said with as much patience as he
could manage.

“You have to wait an hour before you leave.
Do you understand?”

“A whole hour?” he feigned distress.

“Yes,” one bimbo twin continued. She
obviously hadn’t caught his sarcasm. “If you don’t Tempest will
find you, and you know how her temper is. For your own safety, wait
an hour.”

“Okay,” he said. “This is so darn nice of
you. You are like angels or something. Golly.”

When he reached out to touch one of them,
they both jumped back quickly. “It’s nothing,” one of them
stammered nervously.

He managed to grab one of their hands and
placed the most disgustingly wet kiss he could manage on it. He
felt the shudder just before the bimbo pulled her hand back and
wiped it on her dress.

“But it is something,” he insisted, trying
his hardest to sound like the idiot they thought he was. “Oh gee!
You are like heroes or something, but I’m scared. Hold me!”

When he sat up and put his arms out they
scurried up the stairs, and out of the room.

He chuckled softy after he heard the door
shut.

This left Aiden in a quandary. He was sure
that Tempest would stay true to her word and take him back in a
couple of days. So he really didn’t need to follow some elaborate
escape plan. He was also pretty sure that Tempest was starting to
like him, and he knew that he liked her. As a result of that, he
was no longer in a big hurry to get away from her. With a sigh he
realized that no matter how she felt, she didn’t think he belonged
in her world. What was the point in staying the extra couple of
days? What kind of idiot stayed around knowing that he was just
going to get rejected?

A smart man would have waited an hour and
headed to the cabin, or he would have gone back to sleep. A smart
man would have realized that the mysterious ceremony was not
something that he needed to see. A smart man would not have been
considering sneaking a peak at that secret ceremony.

Aiden Draksel discovered that he was many
things, but definitely not a smart man. He waited exactly ten
minutes before he headed out of the house in search of his favorite
witch.

Claudia had been very quiet since her talk
with Ursula. I knew that she was disturbed by what Ursula had told
her about my father. That did not surprise me in the least. Satan
would have described my father as a needlessly cruel man. His
finest quality was his love for travel which often kept him away
for months or years at a time.

Excerpt from Roman Draksel's blog

Aiden moved slowly through the house to
avoid running into anyone. He didn’t want to frighten any of the
women staying there. After he walked out the back door of the
house, he closed his eyes and sought the familiar energy. He had
spent enough time with Tempest that he could easily track her.
Actually, he had never been able to track anyone this easily.
Usually, it took a little concentration to find the right thread.
In this case, it was like he was looking at billions of muted
threads and one that was ten times bigger than the others and
flashing like a neon light.

He came to a clearing not far from the
house. There were at least twenty women dressed in dark hooded
robes surrounding a bonfire. They all chanted and danced around the
fire like pagans.

Aiden felt a strange energy in the air,
swirling around him. It was both terrifying and exciting. He wanted
to flee but he was also drawn to it. It hummed along his skin and
occasionally stabbed at him like tiny needles. Now was definitely
the time to run.

It’s too late to run now.
It was a
familiar voice speaking in his head. Fear gripped him.
You
wanted to watch me. Watch me, Aiden.
Tempest had said she
wasn’t a telepath so he wondered how she was communicating with him
now, and he knew without a doubt that she was communicating with
him.

Aiden nearly jumped out of his skin when he
heard a man scream. He wasn’t sure how he had failed to notice the
guy’s presence. The man was hanging from the branch of a tree by
his bound wrists, his feet dangling so that his toes barely touched
the ground. They had stripped off all of his clothes, and the ropes
cut into his wrists causing the blood to trickle down his arms.

Aiden might have pitied him but there was
something sinister about the man, even in this submissive position.
It wasn’t obvious by his physical appearance, it was deeper. He
twisted his body, which caused the ropes to cut into his wrists
more. It was hard to make out his facial expression from this
distance, especially in the lighting, but it was easy to hear the
threats he was hurling at the women.

“Fucking bitches! If I get my hands on you,
I’ll cut you up while you beg for mercy! I’ll make you wish that
you were dead! You’ll suffer for days!” The threats went on and on.
The man seemed oblivious to the fact that these may very well be
his last moments of life. Aiden wondered how he could still believe
his threats had any value.

The women continued to chant, ignoring the
venomous words spewing from the man’s mouth.

What the hell was up with the chanting? He
felt the energy from multiple sources twisting around each other.
He was pretty sure the chanting had nothing to do with it.

That part is all for show,
Tempest
answered in his mind. Again he wondered how she was speaking to him
or hearing his thoughts.

The chanting stopped, and one of the hooded
women moved toward the man. She used a knife to make a small cut on
his arm and then held a silver goblet underneath the wound so that
the blood fell into it. Aiden gazed longingly at that goblet as she
took the hand of one of the hooded women. The woman pushed her hood
back. Even with just the light of the fire Aiden could see that
hideous red scars covered her face. Her hands trembled as she
dropped her robe to the ground and approached the man. She was
young, no more than sixteen years old and as the light hit her
nearly naked body, Aiden thought that he might be sick. Two other
young girls came forward with similar scaring. The other girls were
older, but not by much.

The hooded woman beside the girls spoke to
the man, and Aiden recognized Tempest’s voice. “You are charged
with the rape and torture of twenty three women and children.
You are also charged with the rape and murder of twelve women.” She
held the goblet of blood in the air, and shouted. “I call upon the
healing powers of my ancestors. Take the blood of this sacrifice
and heal these women.”

A blinding light flashed in the air, and
Aiden stood frozen as Tempest stared directly at him. If the voice
in his head hadn’t been convincing enough this was. She knew he was
watching her. She wanted him to watch. Then he heard the voice in
his head again.

Most of it’s just a show, but this part is
real. It’s what our family can do when we combine our talents.

Two other hooded women came forward and they
rubbed the blood onto the scars on the young girls’ faces and
bodies. Not much, just a small amount on each girl.

Tempest and the two other women took the
young girls hands and walked them to the fire. The girls walked
directly into the flames of the bonfire. He could see the flames
dancing around them, and he smelled burning flesh. It was the worst
thing he had ever smelled, and he’d lived in a time when indoor
plumbing wasn’t commonplace. The man screamed out in agony. As the
flames licked against the girls’ skin the man’s flesh burned,
blackening as he begged for mercy, probably the way that his
victims had begged. When he stopped moving altogether, the young
girls emerged from the fire. Their scars were gone.

The women wrapped the young girls in hooded
robes.

After Aiden’s initial awe at what had just
happened passed, terror gripped him. He turned and ran through the
woods, hoping that he was heading toward the cabin. All he knew was
that he had to get away from here. There were no sounds behind him
but he dared a quick look over his shoulder anyway. No one was
there. They were too distracted with their ceremony to follow
him.

When he turned his attention back to where
he was going, Tempest was in front of him with her hood down and
her long hair blowing in the breeze. She looked otherworldly. Her
skin was so pale that she appeared almost ghostly. Her eyes fixed
on him, and he stopped so quickly that he stumbled to his
knees.

“I’m not going to hurt you,’ she said in a
weak voice. She leaned heavily against the trunk of a tree, and her
eyes glazed over a little.

He gave a nervous laugh. “I saw what you did
to that guy back there.”

“It was the only way to cure the girls. The
damage to his body is only temporary, but the girls are healed. At
least they’re healed physically.”

“Is this what you do to the guys you hunt
down?” he asked as he stood and backed away from her slowly.

“No,” she said weakly. “We usually just turn
them over to the police. He was a rare exception to the rule. I
actually hate doing this because his mind is probably too damaged
to stand trial now.”

“He’s alive?” It amazed Aiden that such a
thing was even possible.

She nodded. “As I said, the damage to his
body is only temporary. In a day or two he’ll be healed enough to
hand over to the police.” She slumped forward slightly.

It was then that he noticed how utterly
drained she seemed. That was why he hadn’t noticed her in front of
him. She was weakened almost to a point of unconsciousness so her
energy was muted. It came as no surprise when she collapsed, but he
still barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

For a moment, he just stared at her limp
body as he cradled her against his chest. His fear slowly faded and
gave way to amazement at what she had done. Then he spotted the car
parked just outside of the cabin. He
had
run in the right
direction. His lips curled into a slow smile, as he carried her to
the cabin. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep her there so he
quickly loaded her into the back seat of the car and drove off
whistling.

Claudia reached out and took both of Ana’s
hands in her own. It was truly fascinating to watch. I admit that I
have never, since that day, seen anything like it. Claudia closed
her eyes, and I felt the energy swirling, but it was different this
time. It was soothing and warm.

A sigh of relief escaped Ana’s lips. “Thank
you. I feel much better already.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest couldn’t recall ever feeling this
worn out. The fact that the ceremony had taken a lot out of her
came as no real surprise. They had only done something like this
two other times, and never on this scale. Both times she had been
exhausted but nothing compared to what she felt now. She couldn’t
believe how much trouble she was having just opening her eyes. Last
time, it only took her a few hours of sleep to get her energy back.
She wondered how long she’d been asleep. Honestly, she couldn’t
even recall getting back to the house. She remembered Aiden
watching the ceremony. For some reason it had given her a secret
thrill to have him there. She also remembered the girls being
healed and then things got a little fuzzy.

When she tried to pull her hand down to rub
her eyes, it wouldn’t budge. The other one wouldn’t move either.
Her eyes shot open as alarms went off in her head. Her hands and
feet were tied to bed posts. This was not her bed. She tried to
reach out with her mind to untie herself but she was just too
exhausted.

“Good morning,” Aiden said in an overly
cheerful voice. He was sitting on a chair at the foot of the bed.
He had his bare feet propped up on the footboard and his hands
clasped behind his head. He was only wearing a pair of jeans with
the top button undone. “How did you sleep?”