Nicolas: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (14 page)

“Janis?” Dee and Lorali walked up to her, looking at her arms.

“No burns. How could that be?”

Janis looked at them with excitement. She could have a different life. She could go places. Sit in a movie theatre. Go out to lunch. Hold a real job if she wanted one. She could ride the bus! She always wondered what it was like to ride a bus with jostling people. Now she could find out.

She did a dance of happiness. She could have a life. She could leave Nicolas to explore the world. Her sudden happiness disappeared.

“Did Nicolas bite you?”

“No, why would he do that?” Janis frowned at Dee and Lorali.

“No reason.”

“He did give me a bracelet I can’t see, but helps to keep my location from being detected.”

They nodded.

“Maybe we should call him to let him know what happened.” Dee looked at Janis then Lorali.

“Why would we do that, Dee? I can finally go shopping and mix and mingle with people. He can poke and prod me later.” Her cheeks burned red as she said the last, thinking of how she wanted to be poked and prodded.

“Do you sense danger?” Janis asked Lorali and then added Dee in with a look.

Both women shook their heads.

“Then I’m going shopping. Who’s coming with me?” With a laugh they took off, never seeing the all too human male who stopped arguing with his girlfriend on his cell to watch them.

Janis almost skipped into the first store, looking for short sleeved shirts and skirts and dresses to show off her skin. They went from store to store until she came across Stephanie’s, a world class hair dresser. It said so on the sign. She ran into the shop that accepted walk-ins. She never had her hair cut professionally before.

“Hi.” Janis said, approaching the woman at the counter. “I was wondering if you had space for a walk-in.”

She glanced at Lorali and Dee standing behind her, and then turned again to the woman at the counter.”

“Stephanie?” The woman at the counter addressed an older woman sitting in one of the chairs who happened to be staring at her.

“Come here, dear.” Stephanie called her over. “It’s lucky for you I happen to be here today, as well as free. You’re desperately in need of my services. Sit, I’ll make your pretty face beautiful.”

Janis didn’t care what Stephanie would do. All she wanted was to like it in the end.

Getting her hair washed was incredible. Stephanie had the fingers of a talented masseuse and Janis’s scalp felt amazing afterwards. The cut and blow dry excited her. She sat there and talked with Lorali and Dee, finding out what they did for Dare Security.

The plucking of her eyebrows made her nervous, but she endured after Stephanie told her it was a must. Finally, her hair was styled and her eyebrows plucked and even makeup had been applied. Now was her time to look into the mirror.

She took one look at herself and turned to see who was standing behind her. The space was empty. She looked at the mirror again, unable to believe her eyes. She looked good, maybe even amazing.

“You made me look beautiful.” She hugged Stephanie on impulse, still waiting for pain that never came.

“You were always beautiful. You just needed a little help to let it show.”

Her hair was layered around her shoulders, flowing soft and free with no frizz. Her eyebrows were smooth and defined, model worthy. The plum lipstick she wore enhanced her eyes and brought out a little color in her pale skin.

She turned to Dee and Lorali. “Wait until Nicolas sees me. He’ll think I’m beautiful!”

“He already thinks you’re beautiful.” Dee gave her a smile.

They paid the bill and left.

“Can we put the bags in the car and go back into the mall for a little while.”

“You just want to make all the men green with jealousy.” Lorali gave her a smile. “Let’s do it.”

They made quick work of stowing the bags away in the car and re-entering the mall.

There was a band about to perform at the other end of the mall, so they walked towards it. The crowd of people got larger as they neared the band.

Janis picked up the pace, wanting to be in the crowd.

“Janis, no.” Lorali screamed trying to get her to stop, but it was too late. She’d disappeared into the crowd.

“We have to get her.” Dee tried to run after her.

Lorali grabbed her hand, stopping her. “We won’t enter that crowd unless you hold onto my hand. Consider me your sister, best friend or lover, but don’t let go. Understand”

“Got it.”

They went into the crowd together. It seemed entirely too large for a band that was playing at the mall. The crowd was thick and moving through it was difficult. They kept going, shouting for Janis. Dee managed to get her cell phone out with one hand and call Janis. It rang and rang. It was only when the crowd settled down that they heard it ringing on the floor.

With a look of horror, they left the crowd to inform the brothers what happened.

“How could I have let this happen?” Lorali asked. They stood towards the back of the mall where the deliveries were made as they waited for the brothers to show up. As they waited for Nicolas.

“It’s not your fault. Neither of us knew she’d take off like that. I think she was just so happy to be what she thought of as normal, she forgot she still needed to be careful.” Dee replied.

The brothers walked out of a delivery bay and made their way to them.

“What happened?” Nicolas asked, looking at both of them.

Lorali explained in quick concise sentences with Dee adding extra tidbits when needed.

“Do you think the Created was here?” Ash asked, doing a thorough scan of the surroundings.

“I picked up no sign of the Created at all.”

“Neither did I.” Dee added, supporting Lorali.

“Then she wasn’t taken by him. So it had to be the humans after her that managed to grab her.

“Nothing else happened?” Aran asked.

“Only the male who bumped into Janis when we were in the food court.” Dee added.

They told them about the male and Janis’s reaction to the fact she wasn’t burned.

“Where did you last see her?” Nicolas asked moving towards the location Dee pointed him in.

“Ash.”

“On it,” he responded to Aran’s silent command.

Sergey and Niko were talking to their mates looking for any detail they may have missed.

Nicolas stood in the crowd with unseeing eyes as he searched for the faintest scent of Janis. Taking his time, he picked up her trail. He moved from the crowd into a storefront that had a space available sign on the front. Walking through the unlocked door her scent assaulted him. He followed it until he ended up at the docking bay. The last traces of her scent faded away as he stepped into the fresh air.

“Did you find anything?” Lorali asked quietly as Nicolas rejoined them.

“They took her through the empty storefront and out their docking bay. I picked up two other scents, male heavy with sweat. They had a vehicle waiting. There were fresh tires tracks in a puddle of oil.” He tightened his fist fighting down the urge to take the mall apart piece by piece.

“Ash, what did you find?” He had gone to look over the security tapes. The coverage wasn’t as comprehensive as he thought it should be, but he got a few answers.

“The main assailant was in the crowd listening to the concert. It didn’t look like he came prepared to capture her. I believe Janis happened to be in the wrong place. He wrapped her arms around her like a lover, she struggled and even screamed but no one was paying attention with the large crowd and the loud music. The second assailant came out of the empty storefront Nicolas pointed out. He hit her stopping her struggles.”

The fingernails on Nicolas’s hands became claws before they retreated. He turned to leave.

“Ash, did you get a picture of the assailants,” Nicolas asked much too calmly.

“They are on Hale’s computer waiting for him to run a facial recognition program.”

“Hale?”

He pulled out his modified phone and tapped into his computer. “The program is running. It may take some time.”

“How much time?” Aran asked, watching Nicolas come to a slow boil.

“Anywhere from one hour to several days.”

“I will tap into the cameras at the stop lights to see if I can spot our kidnapper.”

Nicolas shook his head in agreement. “Hale, write a program to lock onto the bracelet Janis is wearing. Every minute she is with them brings her one step closer to death.”

Nicolas left the mall on foot on the off chance he would pick up her alluring scent.

**********

Janis struggled in the back of a van with no windows. It had been embarrassingly easy for them to abduct her. She’d been so thrilled at the possibility of being normal, she forgot she was still at risk.

As she rolled around the van trying to get the ropes off of her hands and the tape off of her mouth to scream, she decided being normal was overrated.

Her common sense should’ve told her to wait for Lorali and Dee, but her new love for music propelled her to the front of the massive crowd and into the arms of the man who had been on his cell phone.

She estimated the van came to a stop after about thirty minutes. Then the back door was opened. Standing before her was her childhood doctor with a terrifying smile on his face.

Chapter Eighteen

Dr. Young stood in front of the van doors with a look on his face that made her shiver. There was no way she could mistake him for anyone else. He was older with a head full of white hair and his once firm cheeks were sagging, probably from telling so many lies. In the end, it was the look of evil in his eyes that confirmed his identity.

Janis started scooting towards the front of the van. She didn’t know what he was planning, but she knew it didn’t bode well for her.

“Bring her to the lab.” He spoke to someone she couldn’t see.

The doctor turned and walked away, but two big men took his place. The shiver in her body became more pronounced as they stared at her.

“You don’t have to do this. You could let me go. I would be forever grateful.”

“We would be forever dead,” one of the men said, climbing into the van.

He reached for her arm and she began to scream hoping someone would hear her and investigate. She flung her body around as much as possible before one of his big hands connected with her jaw.

“You scream, you get hit.”

She bit her bottom lip and stifled the scream of terror wanting to burst out of her. Her jaw throbbed. It might be broken, not that she had time to worry about such a minor injury.

The man grabbed her arm and forcibly dragged her out of the back of the van. She looked back and forth between the men, only to notice they were twins. She looked away from them, seeking a way of escape. There were several doors around the supply bay they were in. All, except one, was closed. She was willing to bet they were locked too.

“Where are you taking me?” She grimaced as she felt the pain in the side of her face as she talked. She moved her jaw again, assuring herself it wasn’t broken.

“My boyfriend will make it worth your while to let me go. I bet he could even make it so you can disappear without the doctor ever finding you.”

“You mean that alien trash you hooked up with? What makes you think he could do anything for us?”

She wanted to rip them a new one for talking about Nicolas, but for now she needed to find a way out. She at least needed to find a way to stay alive until he found her. She never doubted he would find her.

“How can you work for Doctor Young? He is evil.”

“He’s also our father.”

Her mouth gaped open. They looked nothing like the doctor. It was hard for her to picture him with children. It was even harder for her to imagine some woman allowed him between her legs.

“What did he do? Grow the two of you in test tubes?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

She tried to say something, but her mouth moved like a fish flapping around and gasping for water.

They grabbed onto her, one on either side of her body, hands under her armpits. How she wished she hadn’t shaved them, that very morning. Then they pushed her towards an open door, ignoring her pleas for mercy and leniency.

Not looking at her, they shoved her out of the cargo bay and down several sterile white hallways. The doors were shut and no one else seemed to be around. They came to a corridor with only one door dragging her in they stopped to address the doctor.

“Where do you want her?”

Dr. Young motioned with his head to a table in the center of the room. They lifted her and deposited her there before turning to leave the room.

“Lovely children,” Janis said. She’d rather deal with them any day, as long as she didn’t have to deal with their father.

“Yes they are. I’m very proud of them.”

She would’ve rolled her eyes and made a smart comment, but she still had dreams of getting out of there alive. One way or another.

“I guess you’re going to tell me why you abducted me. I get teary eyed and plead for my life, while you, the villain, get an unfamiliar ache in your chest and decide to let me live.”

“Well, you have one part right.” He finally lifted his head up from the computer screens he’d been studying when she was brought in.

“Welcome to my lab.”

She swung her head around.

It was a lab with lots of equipment; she noticed the test tubes were arranged in nice neat rows. He wasn’t a slob and his lab showed it. He was also dangerous and his lab showed that too. There were instruments of torture lying around.

Her heart, that she’d been trying to keep calm, went into overdrive as she saw a sharp curved knife on an instrument table, along with a pair of forceps that had sharp spikes on them. Dr. Young was more than dangerous, he was insane.

He walked over to a row of syringes and retrieved two before crossing the floor to her.

“I think we will start with blood samples.”

“Those syringes will hold a lot of blood.”

“I know.” He gave her a smile that made her stomach sour as he prepared her arm.

“You may want to hold still. The more you move, the more painful it will be.”