Birth of Jaiden (10 page)

She slept hard through the
night but awoke when of the dim light of morning sun shone into the
small room that she occupied.

Slowly, she got up and
staggered to the bathroom where she looked into the mirror while
she put tooth paste on her tooth brush.

“
Let’s do it,” she said to
her reflection and viciously shoved her toothbrush into her
mouth.

After a fifteen minute
shower, she put on black leather pants, a sexy red tank top,
slipped a huge silver chain belt over the perfectly tight pants,
and then donned a pair of black high heeled boots. She chose to
wear her long red hair down and flowing. The clothes she chose were
not normally her style and she felt very uncomfortable in them, but
she had to appear as if she was one of them. She only hoped she
looked like a vampire slayer and not a hooker.

Last, she slid on her
black leather coat which ended about mid thigh, and headed out of
the door. She hailed a cab and gave the driver her destination. She
had him let her out about a block from where she actually needed to
be and walked the rest of the way.

A man with frumpy blond
hair and a rough face loitered in front of the building where she
was supposed to be. He wore blue jeans and a parka. The building
happened to be a large two story ware house which looked
abandoned.

“
You Deanna?” the man
asked her as she approached. His voice sounded older than he
looked.

“
Yes.”

“
Follow me, then.” He
moved toward the side entrance.

Deanna was hesitant. She
knew a man was supposed to meet her outside the address that she
had, but it still seemed as if she were walking into some kind of
trap.

The man turned to
her.

“
You coming?” he asked
impatiently.

She knew it was all or
nothing on her mission and, in any case, her magic would protect
her, so Deanna followed him silently.

They passed through a
metal door and into a room with a ton of junk lying around: pieces
of wood with nails sticking out, all kinds of garbage and even a
few dead rats here and there.

Deanna tried to hide her
disgust at the smell. Once they had passed through the smelly room,
they walked through a few empty rooms, dirty but empty. Then, the
man turned up a narrow staircase which had several broken, caved in
steps.

She navigated the
staircase with extra carefully because of her high heels. When they
reached the top of the stairway and were finally facing the top
level of the warehouse, Deanna was surprised to see that it was the
complete opposite of the bottom floor.

The top level consisted of
mostly one large room. The floor was very shiny hard wood. A lot of
exercise and weight machines occupied one section and a large mat
covered the center of the floor. A variety of weapons, such as
guns, swords, bows, and stakes, were shelved and hung near the
mat.

People, mostly men, formed
a ring around the mat and watched a man and woman fight. All of
them chanted and cheered as the couple beat the snot out of each
other. On the other end of the room, three men threw stakes into
the hearts of plastic vampires.

Deanna realized it was the
training area for the slayers. The others whom she had met had not
let her see anyone but the guy in charge, so that was new to
her.

“
This way.”

The man who was leading
her motioned her in the direction of the stake throwers. He led her
to a door which had no window and rapped two times on
it.

“
Bring her in,” a gravelly
voice hollered.

The man opened the door
and held it open so Deanna could slip past him. It was a small
office with a desk and two metal folding chairs, one in front and
one behind. The chair behind the desk was occupied by a very large
black man who wore no shirt. His head was shaved bald and scars
covered his head as well as his chest.

“
Come in,” he said and
motioned Deanna to a chair. “Would you like some
coffee?”

“
Yes, that would be
great,” Deanna answered as she sat down in the folding chair. He
got up to pour the coffee and she saw that he had a pair of sweat
pants on. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved about that or not. It
wouldn’t have been bad to see him in a pair of nice fitting jeans
that showed off a toned rear end.

“
You can go.” He waved to
the man at the door who immediately turned and shut the door behind
him. “Sorry about him, he doesn’t talk much.”

“
It’s ok, I wasn’t
offended.”

He handed her the
coffee.

“
So Deanna, I am
Michael.”

“
It’s nice to meet you,
Michael.” She appraised Michael’s muscular chest and arms with her
eyes.

“
Well now,” he sat back
down in his chair, “so you tell us that you want to go after
Malcolm.”

“
Yes, that’s right. I
already have been to see two other bands of slayers and they have
agreed to take part.”

“
What makes you think this
time will be different from the other times we have gone after
him?” Michael’s voice was not sarcastic, only honestly
curious.

Deanna explained her plan,
or at least that part of it which was supposed to be known. “The
number of slayers taking part will hopefully be large. It will be
like an army instead of small groups hunting him.”

“
If I understood
correctly, Malcolm can’t even be found right now. How do you
propose that we find him?”

“
We have people taking
care of that right now.”

“
What people?”

“
My people,” she simply
told him.

“
And how, may I ask, are
they doing that?”

“
That’s
confidential.”

“
Oh, I see how it’s going
to be.” He nodded his head. “Don’t’ worry, Deanna; we have our
secrets as well.”

Deanna couldn’t tell if
that was some kind of threat. It didn’t sound like a threat and he
didn’t look threatening to her, yet the actual words sounded
somewhat like it.

“
You are entitled to your
confidentiality, just as we are,” she responded.

He nodded again and
smiled. “Well, aside from all that, we are going to have to take
you up on your offer.”

Deanna smiled.
“Great.”

Michael put his hand up.
“But none of my people will do a thing until we know the whole plan
and are informed. I will not send them into something like this
blind.”

This time Deanna nodded.
“Completely understandable, I wouldn’t either.”

Michael rummaged around on
his desk until he found a pen.

“
I’m going to give you my
cell number and you can call me when you have a plan sketched out.”
He wrote his number on what looked like the back of a bill
envelope. “Until then, we will continue with our training like we
usually do.” He passed her the envelope.

She accepted it, folded it
in half, and slipped it into the pocket of her jacket. “All right,
we will definitely be in touch soon.” She nodded and rose to
go.

“
Wait.” Michael stepped in
front of her and she sat back down a little too quickly. “I just
want to know why your people would send you out as a
representative. It seems a little dangerous for a woman when there
are men who could go in your place.”

Deanna’s eyes flashed with
anger. There was nothing he could have said which could have riled
her up more than a sexist remark.

“
Well,
Michael,
not that it’s any of your business,
but I can take care of myself.”

He raised an eyebrow.
“That so? I wouldn’t send any of our women out alone to meet other
bands of slayers.”

“
Well, maybe your women
can’t take care of themselves as well as I can.” Deanna stood and
reached for the doorknob. “Next time you want to be a sexist, you
can do it to someone else because you only get one chance with me.”
She yanked the door open.

Michael looked satisfied with
Deanna’s demeanor. “
Now
you’re acting like a slayer. Before, you seemed a little
too feminine to be a slayer.”

“
Like I said before, it’s
none of your business how feminine I am, and it sounds to me like
you need to concentrate on your own women.” A grunt of disgust
escaped from her throat as she stepped away from him.

He stopped her again. “How
‘bout having a little fun before you leave?”

She turned slowly to face
him. He appeared to hide a smile, by the way his lips were
twitching.

“
What do you mean?” she
asked cautiously.

“
How about we try some
hand to hand combat, you and me?”

She breathed a sigh of
relief. Her first thoughts had been that he tried a sexual advance.
But then, nervousness kicked in. He wanted to fight her! And there
was nothing she could do about it; she couldn’t decline.

“
What, some kind of
test?”

He grinned. “You could
call it that…or you could just call it fun like we do.”

Deanna was thankful that
part of her training as a witch included knowing a combination of
martial arts and street fighting.

“
Fine, I
accept.”

“
Let’s go.” Michael led
her out to the mat. “Ok, everyone off the mat,” he
ordered.

The slayers that were
gathered there turned to look at them while the two slayers on the
mat got up and joined the group. Their stares made Deanna
nervous.

Michael addressed the
group. “This is Deanna; she and I are going to have a little match
here.”

One of the slayers
hollered out to Michael, “Don’t you think you should start her off
a little easier?”

Michael did not take his
eyes off Deanna as he answered, “She fights vampires every day. I
think she should be able to hold her own.”

Deanna could read it in
his eyes that he knew she was not a slayer, but she also knew she
needed to continue the ruse. She removed her coat and handed it to
Michael before she walked out onto the mat.

“
I’m waiting, Michael,”
she said in a sugar saturated voice.

He gave the coat to
someone else and met her in the middle of the mat.

She couldn’t believe she
was in a vampire slayer training area about to fight a huge scar
covered black man. When Michael came toward her, Deanna drew in a
deep breath.

She was ready for him. He
moved quickly and forcefully; an arm swung toward her. Deanna
grabbed his arm and hung on. At the same time, she kicked him in
the chest with her heel.

Then she let go of his arm
and, at the same time, she threw a fierce punch at his cheekbone.
Michael wasn’t fazed. He reacted and returned her punch with one
that connected into her stomach.

Deanna, however,
was
fazed. But, the
pain only made her angry. She moved in for another kick and threw
her leg up high. The heel of her boot met with his chin and stunned
him.

She saw him waver and
snatched the opportunity; she went down toward the mat, threw her
leg out again while keeping herself steady with her arms and
forcefully swept her leg across the mat, pummeling both his
legs.

Michael went down hard but
was up again before Deanna could get into a full standing position.
He lunged at her and took her down with him.

She lay under this large
man panting heavily, and tried to catch her breath again. But
still, she would not give up. She wrapped her legs around his waist
and somehow managed to roll him over till she was on top of him.
His huge hand moved up, covered her face and pushed it painfully
backward.

The crowd around them
chanted and cheered as they had for the other previous couple on
the mat.

Deanna repeatedly threw
punches at his face with her right hand. Quick, tight jabs. Michael
rolled her the around like she had done to him and then threw a
solid punch at her face.

The left side of her face
felt like it was going to explode. She forced her eye open and saw
a blurry Michael staring at her. She knew he thought she was done.
Somehow, her long legs found their way up and around his neck. She
pulled downward and flipped him onto his back, then grabbed his
throat with her right hand and planted her knee into his
groin.

Michael growled and
grabbed himself.

“
You cheat,” he said
through clenched teeth. He rolled over onto his side while Deanna
stood.

“
I do what I have to do to
survive.” She blew a mass of red hair out of her face.

Michael swung his leg out
quickly and knocked her face first into the mat. He moved swiftly
and sat on top of her back. Then, he grabbed a fist full of her
hair and brought his lips to her ear.

“
Who are you?”

“
Does it matter?” she
whispered back. “We are both after the same thing and we need your
help.”