Reining In (The Network)

REINING IN
by Dawn Judd

"Reining Ind
by Dawn Judd
Copyright © 2009 Dawn Judd
All rights reserved
Kindle Edition (January 2010)
This is a work of fiction. The content within is the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, real or fictional, is purely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior express written permission by the author.
www.dawnjudd.com
ISBN 978-0-577-08261-2

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Alicia and Michelle, without whom I could not have finished this book. Thank you both for letting me bounce my ideas off you and encouraging me to finish the story. Without you both, I might have given up long ago.
I want to thank my daughters, Nikita and Natasha, whose excitement was contagious. You have been the inspiration for most everything I have done in my life, but you have made an extra effort to keep me on track with this one. I love you both!
I would also like to thank my daughter's friends who were subjected to extreme temperatures and hours of boredome while we waited for someone to come fix my flat tire; all to get that one picture. You guys made the cover. Thank you! You should be very proud of yourselves.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank my husband, Jeremy. You have showed so much faith in my abilities and have encouraged me on every endeavor. We have and always will be a team.

Khalida
Origin - Arabic
Meaning - Imorrtal, Deathless

Chapter One

It was an extraordinarily beautiful day; the kind of day that most people enjoy. Not that I didn't like the sun myself; truly, I did. However, I preferred the evenings to the bright sunny days. Today was different, though. I had plans today, and the bright sun and cool breezes were perfect for what I had in mind.

As I stood in the window of my bedroom, the multitude of prisms hanging from almost invisible threads caught my eye, and I smiled as the thousands of tiny fractured rainbows danced across my skin. There were a few things I liked about the day that the night didn’t hold for me. Moments like these always made me smile. The myths humans had about my kind were often misled; this one especially. Not once in my five thousand years had I ever burst into flames just from standing in direct sunlight. I giggled at the thought.

It was a joke amongst my kind. Not that I spent a lot of time with my kind. Vampires were rare in these parts, and those who were close by rarely crossed my path. I was dangerous, even to my own species. Don’t get me wrong. I am not vicious, just dangerous. Being one of the oldest living vampires also makes me one of the most powerful. Even vampires fear what they do not know, and therefore, they stayed away from me as much as possible.

This was not much of a concern to me, though. I preferred humans to vampires anyway. They were less complicated, and generally did not pose a threat to my existence. Usually. I did have to be careful not to expose myself. Obviously I wouldn’t want to go around announcing to the world of humans what I was. Not all their myths were wrong. And the shoot first, ask questions later mentality of today’s society would’ve meant the death of me, were I ever discovered.

There were those who knew, however. In fact, I had created an entire empire around those people. The Network. A group of people scattered throughout the world, whose sole purpose in life was to make sure that the rest of the world did not discover my secret. They worked for me. They knew who I was, and they made sure no one else did. If I had to sum them all up in one word, the only one I could think of would be family.

The person I was going to meet today was not part of the network. However, he was just as much part of my family as any of them were. Raymond was my very best friend. I had met him when he was a child; maybe five or six. He had been playing near a river when I found him. There was no one else with him, which was alarming, to say the least. Later, I would find out that he had wandered off on his own, and gotten lost in the woods surrounding the river.

I had been watching him for some time, amused at his laughter. I had been hunting, and would’ve normally been irritated with the distraction, something about the sound of his laughter brought out a maternal instinct, and so I stayed longer than I would have. It happened so suddenly that it took a minute for me to realize what I had just witnessed.

The boy suddenly fell from the log he had been perched upon, hitting his head on the way down. When he surfaced, he was face down in the water, and not moving. The current started to carry him away, and I had to act quickly, or he would be lost forever. I swam to him as quickly as I could, pulling him to shore.

He was not injured badly, just unconscious from the hit to his head, but he surely would’ve drowned had I not pulled him out. I waited for him to come around. When he did, I asked where his parents were. I knew the little town, so I ran there as fast as I could.

I should’ve been more careful not to expose what I was to him, but the urgency to get him to safety won out. I covered the four miles to the little town in a matter of minutes, and immediately took him to the nearest home. I left as quickly as possible when I knew that he was safe. I didn’t want to be there when it suddenly occurred to someone that I had gotten him to the town so quickly.

I had assumed that would be the end of that whole ordeal, but decades later, I would find out otherwise. The brief moments I had spent with the boy had made a lasting impression on him. My image was burned into his memory forever. And so, when by some unbelievable coincidence, when he and I would once again meet, he would remember me. Of course I would look exactly as he remembered me, right down to the tiny scar above my left eye.

Before I could even register the look on his face, he had grabbed my hand, tears in his eyes. What might have been a terrifying moment to most, as they realized they had just met a living, breathing vampire, was actually the moment he’d waited for his whole life. To him, I was some kind of angel, who had brought him back from the dead; not some monster, who fed off of his kind. For the next several decades, he would be my closest friend and truly the first member of my family.

Raymond’s home was a modest, one bedroom bungalow. It was a tiny little white house with blue trim, and white picket fence. He even had a pink flamingo in the front yard. As I pulled into his driveway, I saw him peek through the curtains, and I smiled. I enjoyed my time with Raymond. He was as much a mystery to me as I was to him. I was barely 19 years old when my mortal life came to an end. I would remain that way for the rest of my existence. Raymond was an old man now, in his nineties. I had never experienced what it was like to age, and he was equally fascinated with the fact that I would never age. We would spend hours asking each other questions, contemplating the meaning of life.

Quite often, it saddened me to see him age, knowing that one day he would be gone, and I would lose my dearest friend. More than once, I offered him immortality; something I rarely did. Being immortal was hard. I didn’t want to condemn anyone to that fate. But I also didn’t want to lose my friend forever. Each time he had refused, though. He had been married, before our reunion, and sadly, his wife Lillian had passed away.

Raymond believed he would be reunited with her some day. I knew nothing of the afterlife, having never been a part of it, so I could not argue with him. I could never take away his hope of being with the woman he loved once more. It would be enough for me to have had his friendship for so many years, and I would spend the rest of his days answering his many questions, and cherishing the friendship we had. Before I could raise my hand to knock on the door, it flew open, and there was that toothy grin that I lived for.

“Khalida, my dear, you are early!” he scolded me, trying not to laugh.

“Raymond, how many times do I have to tell you, just call me Khallie?”

“About as many times as I have to tell you to call me Ray. So where are we going today?”

I just smiled, hooked my arm though his and led him down the steps. Once I got him settled into the car, I ran back to lock up his house. Soon we were on our way.

“So, where are we going?” he asked, once more.

“It’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait and see.” I knew he would be disappointed. Raymond hated when I kept secrets from him. But it was something I had been planning for a while, and I didn’t want to ruin it. So I kept quiet, and giggled under my breath when he pretended to pout. That only lasted a minute, though, as his never-ending curiosity got the better of him.

“So what can we talk about today?” he asked, with that upbeat voice I loved so much.

“I don’t know, Raymond, what do you want to hear about?” I had told him so many stories, it was hard to remember what I had and hadn’t told him. Truly, my life was one big adventure. I had been there when the pyramids were built; I had traveled the world and had experienced some of the most notable events in history; I had met many people who had made the history books; and I had even captained a pirate ship, once. Raymond loved to pick my brain, looking for a new story; one he hadn’t heard yet.

“Were you there? In Boston?” he asked. “Were you there for the tea-party?” I laughed.

“No. I wasn’t in the Americas at that time. I thought you knew that.” He frowned, searching his memory banks and then looked up.

“Port Royal, right?”

“Not that year, no. China, I think. Perhaps Mongolia. I don’t know exactly. Certainly not America.”

Rather than get discouraged, he moved on. “Why were you in China?” he asked.

“I was…. hiding.” I hated to admit that. There were things I didn’t tell anyone, not even Raymond. I knew he would want me to elaborate, and I wasn’t willing to let that conversation ruin the day, so I changed the subject quickly.

“How was your dinner with Beatrice?” I asked, innocently. Raymond shot a frustrated look at me. Busted. He knew I was changing the subject on purpose. Fortunately for me, he liked to talk about Beatrice. She was his new flame, so to speak. He had invited her to dine with him several times, and she finally accepted, much to his delight. He babbled on and on about her, and their dinner date. I smiled as he continued. He was like a high school kid, describing his first date with his dream girl.

When he didn’t notice the sign leading into his childhood town, I realized he was concentrating harder than I thought. I silently giggled again. His enthusiasm was his most endearing feature. It wasn’t until we had drove completely through town, and I made the turn towards the river, that Raymond suddenly looked up, puzzled by our surroundings. Whatever question he had suddenly come up with was quickly replaced by another.

“Where are we going, Khalida?” His confusion only made me giggle once more. Although it had been nearly 90 years since that fateful day, I was sure once we made the clearing, he would know where we were. Of course, the road was enough to throw him off. There had not even been a trail here, that first day.

As the car came to a stop, Raymond looked around. Slowly, a sense of familiarity settled on his face. The meadow was the same. The log, the one he had fallen from, was still there, jutting out into the water, weathered with age, but still there. Much had changed since the last time we had been here. But there was so much more that had not changed. He stood there, for a long time, taking it in. When he finally turned to me, I could see tears in his eyes.

“It’s been so long. Yet it seems just like yesterday!” He turned again, and I could hear him catch his breath. “So this is the big surprise?” It was more a statement than a question, but I felt impelled to answer him.

“This was the spot where both our lives were changed forever. It was important to me… No, it was vital that we see this spot one more time, together, before….” My voice caught. I couldn’t make myself say the words. I knew what was coming, and I knew it wouldn’t be long now. I couldn’t lie to myself any longer. Raymond was an old man, and though he tried to hide it, I knew his health was failing him. I didn’t know how much longer he would be here.

He had heard the pain in my voice, and as quickly as an old man could, he stepped over and grabbed my hand. He took my chin in his hand and smiled. Hot tears slid down over my pale cheeks. I had not cried many times in my lifetime. I had never had a real family before Raymond, even when I was mortal. He was all things to me: My child, my brother, my father, my grandfather, my friend. I knew without a doubt that he would leave a hole that could never be filled again.

“Please don’t cry, dear Khalida. I’m not afraid of dying. You know that. I’ve had a good life, and thanks to you, I’ve lived more in my years than most people ever will. I have no complaints.”

“Oh, Raymond. I am so selfish. It’s not even you I am crying for. It’s me. I will miss you! I will always miss you. For me, there is no end, and you will be gone to me forever!!”

He just pulled me close to him, because by now I was sobbing. How could I lose control like this? I had never felt this way before, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t make myself stop. Poor Raymond. Here he was, facing his own mortality, and he was stuck here, trying to console a sobbing, blubbering vampire. I would’ve found it almost humorous if it weren’t so tragic.