Master for Tonight (18 page)

She heard another scuffling sound and
screamed as an arm snaked down, trying to grab the door handle. The
hand slipped several times due to the slickness from the rain.
Screaming, Kate slammed the brakes and watched as a body flew off
her car to land several yards away. Her panic froze her in place,
unable to move or make a decision, as the wiper blades moved left
and right.

Lightning cracked across the sky as Kate
glimpsed a tall blonde woman dressed, head to toe, in red. Her chin
was tipped down, eyes fixed on Kate and filled with
malevolence.

In a blink, her door was ripped from its
hinges and thrown across the road. Too late, Kate’s foot slammed
towards the accelerator, slipping, as the woman grabbed her,
ripping the seat belt away with one hand.

“You, bitch!”

The woman tore Kate from the car. Kate’s
head snapped back and forth in quick succession as the woman held
her off the ground and shook her violently until she stopped making
any sounds. The woman tossed her to the side of the road, and Kate
watched sideways as she stalked through puddles to stand over her.
Kate tried to move, but couldn’t. Her breathing was labored as her
lips moved, trying to form sound, before the woman flipped her
over. The rain pelted down onto her face and into her eyes.

“You can’t have him! He’s mine!”

Kate’s agonized scream filled the night as
the woman brought a heavy, spiked heel down into her palm. Kate
grabbed the woman’s ankle with her other hand, pushing and pulling
at her, as the woman sunk the heel deeper into the center of her
hand.

“No! Please!” Kate begged as her skin broke
and blood poured from the wound.

Over the thunder, she heard the crack of her
skin and felt the heel slip between the bones of her palm, the tip
grinding against her until her skin split on the other side, and it
hit against the asphalt.

“Stop! Please! You’re killing me!”

“That’s the point, bitch! Look at you! What
could he possibly see in you?”

The woman smiled down at the suffering she
inflicted as she twisted her heel, forcing the bones and tendons to
jut out from Kate’s palm, before kicking her in the stomach. She
skidded against the rough road, the gritty surface like coarse
sandpaper against the skin of her arms and face. Kate landed in the
bushes lining the outside of the road. The brambles tangled in her
hair, clothes, and skin. Her body was soaked from the rain, and she
began coughing up blood onto her white t-shirt, plastered to her.
She couldn’t raise her head. Kate hacked and mumbled incoherently
as she tried to plead for her life.

“You are nothing! Not compared to me!” The
woman walked over to the bush.

“I…don’t…know…what…” Kate managed to choke
out. Her tears began to mix with the blood running off her chin.
She was dying. She knew it. Something inside her was broken and
bleeding, other than the ribs that pushed against her side. Her
lungs burned as they filled with more than air. It seemed as if
there would be no one to save her, and she would die not knowing
who killed her or why.

“And now, the best part.” The woman clapped
her hands before glancing back at Kate. “Stupid whore! Are you
listening to me?” The woman grabbed a bunch of Kate’s hair, pulling
her head back to expose her throat. Some of her hair ripped out in
the process, but she no longer felt pain. She was beginning to
drift, and sagged deeper into the brambles and branches.

“I’m going to drain you dry and feed you to
him!” She laughed, swiping her fingers around Kate’s mouth and
sucking it. “I’m really going to enjoy this! The irony of it all!
Yes, it’s sad, you’re going to die, blah, blah, blah… But it’s for
the best. He still holds to you and lies to me. I know this. He
thought me a fool.”

The woman licked her neck. Her tongue slid
over her wet skin, and Kate saw fangs punch out of her gums. Kate
shook in terror at the curses and the plan whispered in her ear
before her vision faded to black.

The sound of preternatural steps running on
the asphalt brought Evangeline’s head up sharply.

“Evangeline! Release her! Now!” Reese stood
a few yards away.

“Why should I?” she shouted at him
defiantly. “She wants what is mine. Julian will not abandon me like
my Maker did. I will not allow it. I made him for me. I made him to
be with me always.”

“She doesn’t remember anything, Evangeline.
Julian wiped her memory as you ordered. She doesn’t want anything
that belongs to you! Let her go. Now.”

“Why are you here, trying to save her? How
do you know anything about her?”

Reese didn’t respond, looking at Kate’s limp
body. Her breathing was very shallow, and red bubbles came out of
her mouth.

“Lies! All lies, he told me! She dies
tonight!” Evangeline sunk her teeth into Kate’s neck, and she shook
her head, ripping open a bloody hole. Kate’s skin shredded and
blood sprayed into Evangeline’s mouth. Blood spurted out in time
with Kate’s heartbeat.

Reese was on Evangeline in an instant.
Wedging his body between hers and Kate’s, he pulled Evangeline’s
teeth out of Kate, pushing her back until he was able to backhand
her away from them both. The impact drove her up in the air, into
the trees across the road.

He opened his wrist quickly, letting his
blood trickle onto Kate’s neck, until he was tackled to the ground
by Evangeline. She snapped at him, trying to rip out his jugular
and incapacitate him. He blocked her easily with one arm at her
neck, grabbed her by her hair, and flipped her over, sitting on her
body. She seethed underneath him as he pinned her arms with his
knees.

“I will destroy you for this!”

He took both her wrists in one of his hands,
forcing them over her head. Pulling a silver Bowie knife from his
boot, he drove it into her sternum. Using it to carry her to a
nearby tree, he pressed her against the trunk, removed the knife,
and stabbed below her clavicle and into the wood as she screamed
and tried to fight. He made quick work of pinning her other side
with another blade.

“You are truly delusional if you think your
paltry strength could destroy me.” He backhanded her again and spat
onto her face. “You are an embarrassment to our species. You have
spent your entire existence in bitterness. Instead of taking
opportunities to learn and grow, you remained in ignorance. You
could have joined with another who truly cared for you, but you
chose to turn a man who despised you and does still. Rather than
releasing him and allowing him any happiness in this life, you
tethered him to you on a short leash. Julian is not your pet. He’s
a man and should have been treated like one. Yes, your Maker
wronged you, but your actions are equally, if not more, ruthless.
Julian is ready and able to put you down, Evangeline. As am I. He’s
requested the pleasure, which is the sole reason you still
exist.”

Attending to Kate again, he bit into his
wrist, placing it to her neck. He held her head back gently and
bled into her wound until the worst of the neck injuries had healed
enough to transport her. A thud sounded behind them as Evangeline
worked one of the blades loose, and it hit the ground.

“We have to go now, Kate. I’m getting you
help. Stay with me, girl. Stay with me. You can’t die. Not in my
arms.”

He raced with her towards the lights of the
city, pushing the accelerator to the floor.

*

Reese stood anxiously outside the door of
the emergency room, listening to the medical orders barked from the
doctors, to the nurses attending Kate. He heard the erratic beeps
of the heart monitor as they worked to stabilize her condition.

“My friend, Kate Collins! Where is she?”

Reese heard Mazzie at the ER intake desk,
and walked to the front area to get her.

“Mazzie. Over here,” he said, holding his
hand out to her.

“Reese! My God! What the hell happened? Is
she okay?” Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

“Let’s go sit down and talk.” He took her
hand in his and began walking to the door.

She pulled her hand away. “No! I want to see
her! Is she dead, and you’re scared to tell me?”

He turned to her, lowering his voice in an
attempt to calm her. “You can’t see her until she’s out of surgery
and stabilized.”

“Surgery?” She clutched his arm.

“Mazzie, please. Let’s sit. I can’t stay
much longer.”

She nodded her agreement, and they went
outside and found a small, covered garden area with iron benches.
Insects flew around the ground lanterns in a mad frenzy.

“I was on my way to Kate’s to check up on
her. She didn’t know I was coming over. Like you, I am also
concerned about her well-being. I saw her car on the side of the
road and found her being attacked by a vicious animal. I was armed,
as I always am. I got it off of her and away from her. I brought
her here.” He paused to gauge her reaction before continuing. “Her
injuries are serious. It tore her neck open, and there was quite a
lot of blood loss. The doctors haven’t come out of the ER to
provide any update, but I believe they will soon. I know they will
save her.”

“Oh, my God!” she wailed, and held herself,
rocking back and forth. “No. No. No. No. This isn’t happening.”

Tears flowed down Mazzie’s cheeks, and Reese
wrapped an arm around her, holding her while she cried. The sound
of her grieving voice was enough to cause Reese to wipe his eyes.
He massaged the back of her head with two fingers, soothing her.
After a long while, her cries lessened and she shifted away from
him.

“Tell me again, she’s going to be okay.”

“She will.” He released her and stood,
watching as she turned away to blow her nose, and then turned back.
“I have to go, but I want you to text me any changes in her
condition. Got it?”

“Okay. I will.” She took several breaths to
both calm and strengthen herself before standing. Her gritty wall
of toughness shielded the tender woman beneath, once again. “I’m
good. Go.”

As she made her way back into the hospital,
shoulders back and head high, Reese watched her in respect before
making the dire call to Julian.

“Get out of that house right now and meet
me. Kate was attacked by Evangeline. I was able to stop her, but
Kate is in the hospital. Meet me at mile marker 33.”

Julian shouted, “What the fuck happened,
Reese? Never mind. I’m going to the hospital.”

“Julian, listen to me. Kate is going into
surgery. You need to meet me.”

“Will she live?”

“The doctors have not indicated anything to
the contrary. Now go! You’re wasting valuable time.”

Julian was seeing his nightmare made real.
As he ran with vampire speed, his thoughts were filled with his
stupidity and recklessness which put his love near death. Her
broken body was being cut open on a metal slab that very moment as
surgeons put her back together, her heart pumping to keep her
there, alive, on the Earth. Because of him, she was clinging to
life. Because of his overwhelming love and lust for her. Reese had
told him the state she was in mentally, as well. The sadness,
melancholy, and confusion she was controlled by. Her mind was too
strong to accept the memory-wipe, as he suspected it would be. The
internal pressure to regain herself was slowly killing her.

As the mile marker came into view, he again
determined to make everything up to her. To make it right. To
destroy Evangeline. To love Kate if she would have him.

He found Reese placing his blades back in
the sheaths in his boots. If the silver stung him, he showed no
indication.

“Julian.”

“Tell me, and then I’m going to her.” He
picked up the seat belt from the mud and held it out to Reese.

“Kate left her usual routine, and I caught
up with her after I fed. This is something I hadn’t anticipated.
Her leaving the house. She never goes anywhere unless Mazzie forces
her.” Clasping Julian’s shoulder, he said, “I am sorry, my
friend.”

Julian nodded. “I appreciate the urge to
fall on your sword as was done in your day, but the guilt lies with
me, and me alone.” He clenched the seat belt in his hand. “She must
have been so scared, Reese. Tell me what happened.”

As Reese explained what had occurred, Julian
fell to his hands and knees, mentally experiencing each horrific
detail. He clutched his stomach, retching the bloody contents of it
onto the muddy ground. When the heaves passed, he remained on his
hands and knees, staring into an abyss of his making.

“You’re sure Kate will live?”

“I had hoped my blood healed the gravest
wounds which had caused the most blood loss. Everything happened so
quickly, Julian. I had to make a choice between getting Kate
medical attention immediately, or risking another fight with
Evangeline, which would delay getting Kate help. Taking Kate to a
hospital also assures a modicum of security, as she’s monitored
while there. The medical personnel seemed capable enough, and I
have to believe they will save her.” Reese warned as he pulled
Julian up to standing, “Evangeline knows everything now.”

“And now I am as strong as she, on her own
blood. I will destroy her.”

“Show me, then. Show me this strength you
have. Take me on.”

Julian turned to leave. “There’s no time. I
need to go to her.”

“You will not be allowed in, and you cannot
make a scene. You cannot influence them all. I will know her
condition as soon as Mazzie does. She is at the hospital, waiting
for an update.” He walked to Julian and thumped his chest with his
own. “Use this time. Use your anger. Imagine I’m your Maker. Show
me what you can do. Take me on, Julian. No holds barred.”

The violence in Julian screamed to be
released. “I was known as a crafty scrapper in my day,” Julian
cautioned as he warmed up his arms in circles. Ready to kill
anything in his path, he expected to easily defeat his aged
friend.