Colton's Dilemma (Shadow Breeds) (5 page)

Colton’s eyes lifted up, towards the second floor.  It shouldn’t take him more than an hour.

But he didn’t want to leave her.  Not right now.  He shook his head, “No.  I’m fine.  I’ll wait until she’s asleep and then I’ll go.”

Hansen shot him a look.  He wanted to say something to Colton, but he didn’t.  He didn’t because he owed Colton.  He owed him everything.   Colton had saved him, saved him from himself, over three hundred years ago.  And that was a debt that he felt would never be repaid, not as long as he was alive.

Colton looked a little concerned as he studied Hansen.  Finally he said, “It’s almost time for you, isn’t it?  We’re coming up on a year, right?”

Hansen squeezed his eyes shut
.  He still hated this part of himself, but at least it was controlled now.  Thanks to Colton, he could control it.  You see, Hansen was what was known, in modern terminology, as a Devourer.  He stole people’s life essence, not their blood.  That was how he survived and was made immortal.  In every other way he was human except for the fact that he was over three hundred years old.  When Colton had first found him, Hansen had just been made, well, just - as in about fifty years before.  He had been made and then his maker had abandoned him without any training or anything.  So for fifty years he roamed the countryside taking every life essence he could, thinking that that’s what he needed to survive.  Young, old, male, female – he didn’t discriminate because he thought he needed it – and he was going insane because of it, he was becoming a monster.  Until Colton saved him.  Colton found him when Hansen tried to take Colton’s life essence.  Colton had laughed at first, “Young man, don’t you know what I am?” he had said.  Hansen replied, “No, and I don’t give a damn,” and had lunged at him again.  In an instant, Hansen had been flipped around so that his back was pressed to Colton’s chest.  Colton’s hands were squeezed around his neck.  And then he felt Colton’s breath on his neck, felt his fangs scrape the skin but not pierce it.  Hansen’s eyes went wide and he stopped breathing.  “I could drain you in ten seconds.  Do you know what I am now?”

Hansen’s
Adams apple bounced on Colton’s fingers as he swallowed hard.  He nodded and managed a raspy, “Yes.”

“You need to learn some self-control, young man.  And some manners.  Would you like me to teach you?” Colton had said.

Hansen knew instantly that he would learn so much from this vampire.  He barely hesitated before he nodded and said, “please.”

They had been together ever since.  Teacher and pupil to the end.

Hansen looked at Colton and tilted his head to the side.  He finally wanted to ask the one question that he had never asked before, “Why didn’t you drain me that night, Sir?  The night that you met me, why didn’t you kill me?”

Colton looked surprised at first, then he smiled, “Finally getting around to asking that, huh Hansen?  Okay, truthfully?  I’ve tasted a few
Devourers in my life.  Your blood is, how shall I put this, pretty f-in’ nasty,” he said grinning as he walked out of the kitchen.  Colton smiled when he heard Hansen mumble, “liar,” as he walked up the stairs.  Yeah, he was a liar.  Hansen knew him too well.

He knocked lightly on the door.  “Come in,” she said from the other side.  He smiled as he walked in and saw her furrowed brow as she studied what was on the computer screen.  She looked simply adorable.  “Did you order your things?”

“Huh?  Oh, yeah, I did.  I’m looking for missing persons articles in newspapers right now.”

Colton pulled his phone out of his pocket.  He knew his credit card account was linked to his email, so he would have an email confirmation of the order in his inbox.  He brought it up on his phone.  “Eighty-three dollars?  That’s all you spent?
”

“What?  Oh, well, yeah, I don’t need much,” she whispered.

He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the order on his phone as he spoke, “Miss, two t-shirts, one pair of jeans, one bra and one pair of panties?  That’s it?  Look, not to be blunt here, but what about feminine pads, tampons, shampoo, deodorant?  And that foot will take about six weeks to heal.  If your memory doesn’t come back before then, then you will be staying here that entire time.  Do you really think that one set of under garments is going to be enough for six weeks?  And one pair of pants?  What are you going to wear when everything is being washed?  And what are you going to sleep in?”

She blushed as she stared at him, “Oh,” she mumbled.

He moved a little closer so that he was sitting next to her on the bed, “Let’s place another order, shall we?”

She watched him for a few seconds.  “You’re not going to let me say no, are you?”

He shook his head, “Nope.”

Thirty minutes later – after trying to argue with him at every turn
- (“I don’t need a dozen pairs of underwear”, “Oh, come on, four yoga pants?” “Slippers?  Seriously?  I do not need slippers.”) - she finally clicked on the ‘confirm order’ button.

“God, you are as stubborn as a mule.  Do you always get your way?” she said.

He smiled with a playful glint in his eye, “Usually.”

“Somebody’s going to have to do something about that,” she mumbled, smiling.  She sighed and closed the laptop.

“Something wrong?” he said.

She shook her head, “No.  I’m just tired of looking at this thing.”

“Haven’t found anything yet?”

“Nope,” she said then she turned and looked at him, “Since I might have to be here awhile, I think I’d like to know a few things about you.”

“Like?”

“Like, is there a Misses Colton Renner?”

“No.”

“Girlfriend?”

“No.”

“So you’re gay?  You and Hansen are a couple?” she asked, although she really felt that this one wasn’t true.  She felt it in her gut.

Colton laughed.  “No. We’re not a couple. Not sexually anyways.  I suppose in every other way we could be seen that way – I mean we’re always together and we finish each other’s sentences.  But friendship is as far as it goes.”

“So why do you live out here, in the middle of nowhere?   Are you agoraphobic?”

“Me?  Afraid of people? Hardly,” he said.

“Shy?” she said.

“A little, I suppose.”

“Are you a serial killer?”

Colton’s head whipped around, “What?  Really? What do you think?  Do you think I’m a serial killer?”

She stared at him for a minute, “No. I don’t think so.  But I’m guessing you wouldn’t tell me if you were.”

“No.  I probably wouldn’t.”

Suddenly a wolf howled in the distance – and
Miss screamed.

Colton was wrapping her arms around her before her next breath.  “Shhhh, it’s okay
, Miss.  It’s okay.  Nothing is going to hurt you, I promise.”

She dug her fingers into his arm as she tried to get herself under control.  She had never had a panic attack in her life – and she didn’t like it.

After about fifteen minutes, her crying into his chest began to quiet down.  She tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes as she said, “I’m sorry.  I’ve never been afraid of w…www…wwwolves before.  I don’t know what came over me.”

“You were being chased by wolves when you came to my house, Miss.  I’m sure that has something to do with it.”

“I was being chased by wolves?  What the hell was I doing out in the woods?” then she suddenly got a surprised look on her face, “A house!  A white house with a green door!  I have something to do with a white house with a green door and a sign out front.  But I can’t see what the sign says.  I wonder if that’s where I work?  Or maybe it’s where I live?  Wait!  I remember that sign.  It says “Annie’s Place”  Is that me?  Is my name Annie?  I don’t know.  Why can’t I remember if my name is Annie or not?”

“Calm down.  You’re trying to force it.  It won’t come back that way.  You have to relax.
It’ll come to you.  I promise,” he said as her sobs started again.

Colton automatically reached his arm around her shoulders.  Her head came down onto his thighs as she cried.  He caressed her hair as he tried to soothe her fears, “Shhhh.  It’ll be okay.  I promise.”

She cried until she had no more tears left and then she drifted off to sleep.  Colton continued to caress her hair, even as Hansen quietly poked his head in the room and whispered, “Dinner for her, sir?”

Colton shook his head and whispered, “She’s too tired tonight.  Let her sleep.  You can fix her breakfast in the morning.”
“And dinner for you, Sir?” Hansen said, giving Colton that ‘you have to go feed tonight’ look.

Colton nodded his head, “I will.  As soon as she’s in a deep sleep, I’ll slip out.”

Hansen gave him a ‘make sure you go or I’ll have to come back up here’ look.

“I’ll go.  I promise.  Now go
to bed.  That’s an order,” Colton said, smiling.  Hansen quietly closed the door behind him.  Colton stayed for another two hours – longer than he planned, but he wanted to make sure she was sound asleep.  When she rolled off of his lap and did an adorable snort in her sleep, he knew that was his chance.  He grabbed his coat and was out the door and on the way to town within thirty seconds.  He ran – it was faster than driving – covering the twenty three miles into town in a few minutes.  He was hanging around in the alley outside one of the local seedy bars for only a few minutes before his first inebriated snack stumbled out.  Colton’s diet for half a century now had been drunk men.  He preferred not to tempt himself by feeding on women.  As the drunk man braced himself against the alley wall, pulled his cock out of his pants and began urinating against the wall, Colton made his move.  He stepped behind the man and in one swift move Colton’s fangs sunk into the man’s neck while his hand pressed against the man’s forehead – erasing his memory as he drank.  The man never knew that anything was happening other than he was peeing on the wall.  As the man shook the last few drops, Colton licked the wounds, closing them – and then stepped back into the shadows – waiting for his next taste.  This was how his feedings went – five or six in a night was usually enough. 

As his fourth victim stumbled into the alley, Colton stepped up behind him and began to drink.  After only a few seconds though, he suddenly felt something yank on his shoulder.  His head spun around, fist up, ready to strike – but there was no
one there.  The man grunted behind him so Colton turned back around and continued feeding and wiping his memory.  Again, the hard yank on his shoulder – this one nearly knocking him to his feet.  He licked the man’s wounds – closing them – released the dazed man from his grasp and stepped back in the shadows to watch.  Nothing.  He saw nothing.  Nobody was there.  Yet something had definitely pulled on him.  Suddenly he was lurched forward into the middle of the alley, startling a couple walking by.  What the hell was going on?  What invisible thing was pulling him?  Suddenly it dawned on him that he had felt this before – a few nights ago when the girl was in the woods in front of his home.  He knew without a doubt then that she had woken up at his home and that she needed him right then.  She needed him and that need was trying to pull him to her.  But that wasn’t possible – not with a vampire.  At least not that he had ever heard of – and he had heard it all in his eight hundred-freaking-odd years on this earth.  “What the hell are you?” he mumbled as he began running towards his home.

             
He burst through the door just as Hansen was halfway up the stairs.   He had heard her screams when he was still a few miles away.  He mumbled, “Go back to bed, Hansen.  I’ve got this,” as he dashed past him up the stairs, dropping his coat along the way.  He stopped just outside the door to take a deep breath and smooth his hair down – knowing that he would then walk into the room looking exactly as he had when he was in there with her before she fell asleep.  By the time he put his hand on the doorknob, the screaming stopped.  He pushed open had the door, and gasped – she wasn’t in his bed….and the window was open.  He frantically looked around the room for her.  He checked the bathroom, under the bed and then began to get a sick feeling in his stomach as he slowly walked towards the open window.  He stared out towards the woods as despair began to wash over him, “Please tell me you didn’t go,” he whispered into the night.

“You left me,” came a shaky voice to his right.

He spun around and stared towards the closet.  Should he tell her the truth?  He didn’t want her to be any more frightened than she already was, “I was just downstairs, taking care of a few things, Miss.  I’m sorry it scared you.  I didn’t realize you’d wake up.”

“I woke up because you left me.  You leave, I don’t feel safe.  I don’t feel safe, I have nightmares.  That’s how it goes,” she said, still sounding angry.

He took a few hesitant steps towards the closet.  He still couldn’t see her in it. She must be tucked back in the far corner.  “Miss?  Please come out.”

“I can’t,” she said.

“You can’t?  Or you won’t?”

“I can’t,” she whispered, and he could actually
hear
the blush that filled her cheeks.

“Miss, what do you mean you can’t?” he said as his own heartbeat quickened.

“Why aren’t you answering my question?” he said.

“
Because I’m embarrassed,” she said.