Running in Fear: Ghost Warrior (12 page)

Lissa gasped, and glanced up at him. He nodded. “She is right, we are all quintessence. I didn’t realize it until just a little earlier.”

Adonis moved up to Lissa’s other side, and kissed her cheek. “We all felt it, when Nikola bonded with you.”

“I’m going to leave you now, for the night. I will bring your family tomorrow morning, since I’m sure they are resting right now. You four go and enjoy the night. Just think about what I have offered, please.” Isabel moved into her mate’s arms and disappeared.

“Damn, that’s a lot to take in.” Adonis glanced at him, and he nodded.

“Well, for tonight let’s just concentrate on the run. We can discuss everything else later. The others wait for us outside.” Nikola opened the door, and Adonis led Lissa down to the back porch.

He followed behind, watching as everyone fell into place, Pierre beside Castor, and Nikola behind all of his mates, protecting them. He smiled when Lissa glanced back at him, and winked. “Guess I can’t be called your little slave anymore, can I?” She dashed for the door, but he was there first.

Nikola grabbed at her, and lifted her up into the air, she laughed. “You will always be our little love slave.” Hearing her laugh, brought a peace to him.

“Are you two coming or not?” Rory yelled from outside, he tossed Lissa over his shoulder, and pushed through the door grinning.

“Awe isn’t that cute, the love birds have bonded, finally.” Tug rolled his eyes, and shifted, stretching.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, wolf boy.” Nikola lowered Lissa to her feet, and kissed her nose. “Make sure you stay with us. We’re not sure what’s out there.”

Lissa kissed his chest. “Yes Sir.” She saluted him, and shifted before him. Her coat was a dark blond color and he knelt in front of her.

“Even in wolf form, you are beautiful.” Adonis and Pierre shifted, as did Dominic and Blair who took off into the air. Cecil and Shelly were the only other females who would run tonight. While the nine males surrounded the three females, all of them took off exploring the dimensions of the island.

Lissa ran in between Cecil and Shelly, while all the men surrounded them. At first, it had taken her a little while to get used to being a wolf, but both Adonis and Pierre had been there helping her. Even now, they watched her closely, making sure she didn’t out do it. The sky above still swirled, flickers of different colors lit the island, as they scoped out the land. One thing she had noticed was that this was no longer an island, but had grown to be a massive piece of land that went on and on. Some of the land was rocky, while other parts were thick with some sort of forest, which she had never seen before, but with time she would explore.

They were in one such forest now, moving slowly as Lissa examined the plants around her. She nosed around the ground, and shifted as she bent to pick up a handful of dark bluish, green soil. The new plants were also on a different pathway to her then those on Earth, as she moved to the new vegetation. Lissa glanced up at a large tree, when Cecil and Shelly shifted, and stood next to her. She nodded to the tree and the fruit. “We’ll be able to eat that. I don’t know what it’ll taste like, but from what the plants are telling me, it’s edible for us. Nikola, can you send about ten of those back to the kitchen for us?”

Nikola laughed. “You do know you can also do that?” he teased her and sent the fruit back to the house.

Lissa moved about ten feet to a flower, and kneeled next to it. “I forgot, plus I’m having more fun right now.” The flower was a bright white, with yellow stripes on it. She dug into the soil and pulled the wild vegetable out of the ground. It was watermelon shaped, but the vegetable skin was rough and a black. “Cecil, this is some kind of vegetable we can work later. They are all this big, if not bigger, from what I am told. There are seeds inside we can use to plant more if we want to. We can send a few of these also.” She smiled as four of them disappeared from the ground around them.

Lissa closed her eyes, when she heard the sound of a soft drip off to her left, something sweet. Her new friend ran to her, and rubbed against her. “Yes, it’s good to see you too, Sal.” She laughed, and made her way towards a large bush, but stopped before approaching it.

Nikola and Adonis circled the bush, watching the night insects come and go. “Don’t get too close to the insects. I believe they are like the human bee, but also like the mosquito.” Nikola slowly moved up to the hole in the bush, and pushed his hand into the hole. “Yep, they bite too.” He withdrew his hand, which was covered in blue goo. He sniffed it, and then licked it. “Umm, well worth getting bitten.” He laughed as he moved to her, Cecil, and Shelly letting them taste.

“Wow, the things I can do with that. It’s a mixture of chocolate, toffee, and caramel rolled into one. Can we get more?” Cecil pleaded with Tug and Rory.

Lissa glanced at the bite on Nikola’s arm. Sal came over with an orange, green cactus type-leaf in his mouth. She took the stem -like leaf, and broke it open. An orange puss-like substance came out. “Sal believes this will help with the bite.” Lissa took a small portion of the juice and smeared it on his now swollen bite.

Nikola leaned down, and kissed her forehead. “It’s cool, and does take the sting out. Thank you, Sal.” Remi came over, and took the root-type leaf out of her hand, studying it.

“It looks like our Aloe plant. We should take this back to have Granger take a look at it. He’s studied most medical plants.”

Lissa nodded. “From what I gather there are a number of different medical plants around here.” She sighed, and glanced out further inland. “There is so much to explore, but yet we have so much to do to help Earth.”

Adonis hugged her from behind. “We can only take one day at a time. Come, we have to start heading back.”

On the way back, Lissa listened to the night, as everyone around her tried to catch everything they could in their new world. They listened for the sound of animals, or and looked for different animals. Insects flew all around, minding their own business. They broke through the clearing, and she stretched her body. She sniffed the air when Castor nudged her with his nose.

Lissa shifted, her dress once more covering her body. “You didn’t cover me in the woods?” She teased Nikola, as she slugged him in the arm, going up the stairs to see Jaycee and Leda sitting on the swing, talking.

“Hey lady, I thought you would be sound asleep by now.” Lissa hopped on the wooden railing.

Leda shook her head. “Na, too wired, plus I wanted to have another round of that carrot cake that we didn’t get to finish.” She nodded to Jaycee. “Found this one in the kitchen, grabbing a piece for herself, so we came out here to enjoy the night air.”

Dane snorted. “She had more than cake.” He patted Jaycee’s stomach.

Lissa laughed glancing down at her stomach. “If you are that big with three, I dread to see what I’m going to look like when I’m that far along with four.”

Pierre picked her up and licked up her neck, making her squirm in his arms. “Pierre, stop.” She giggled, and tried to get down.

“You will look beautiful carrying our children.” Castor yelled from the ground, as he walked around the porch.

“What are you doing?” Lissa slipped away from Pierre’s grasp, laughing, and ran down the stairs after Castor. She watched as he glanced out at the roses. “My mother and father are buried there. I just wanted to make sure that the family’s gravesite was still intact.”

Lissa twined her hand in his. “Show me. Maybe one day when it’s safe we can go to my parents’ gravesite. I’d like to visit them again. They might be gone, but when I used to visit them, I could have sworn they were there with me.” She pulled him towards the old iron fence that surrounded the old cemetery. There had to be over fifty graves, all very old, except for one.

She moved over to the newest grave, and brushed away the dirt. “Rachel Iceshard, born 1950 died 1999.” Lissa glanced at Castor as he knelt down next to her, and ran his hand over the grave.

“My daughter, Granger’s twin. She was murdered. We never did find her killer.” His voice distant, Castor stood, and moved to an older mausoleum. “This is where my folks rest. It seems like so long ago that I lost my father. My mother died giving birth to my sister, and my father was the one who raised us.”

Lissa moved to his side when she glanced behind her. Granger and Suzanne stood at the entrance to the gravesite. “I can still hear Rachel’s laugh.” Granger led Suzanne to their side, holding onto her.

“Nikola has told us what Queen Isabel has offered to all of you. I’ll miss you if you go, but I can promise you this, father, I won’t wait so long next time to come to visit. We have a lot to make up for, and I, for one, will not let you slip away from me.” Granger pulled his father into a hug.

A tear slipped down her cheek. Lissa knew the relationship between father and son had been strained, but now it seemed as if it would slowly grow stronger. Suzanne moved next to her. “So, how are you doing, Mom?” she teased, as she reached to tear off the vines from around the door, but stopped when she glanced back at Lissa with a questioning look.

Lissa laughed. “Hey watch it, I’m not that old.” The vines slowly crept off the crypt door.

“You’re still older than me. Hell I was turned over a month ago.” Suzanne smiled at her, and they moved towards the back of the graveyard looking at all of the markers, Castor’s decendents going back over six hundred years.

Lissa tripped over a small raised mound, but Suzanne grabbed onto her, preventing her fall. “Now I know that was not there. Thanks!” Lissa frowned and glanced down at the ground. The soil still wet from that rain earlier, slowly started to fall into a hole, which grew larger and larger.

“Um Lissa, are your plants doing that, because if they’re not I’m so not into the scary movie crap.” Suzanne squeezed her arm as both Castor, and Granger, pulled them back away from the hole, which was now reaching some of the graves.

Nikola appeared next to them in a flash, grabbing onto her hand and Suzanne’s. One minute they were outside, the next inside the kitchen again. “Okay, this is getting to be a bit old. What the hell is going on now?” Suzanne demanded, glaring at Dominic and Blair who just got back from their trip.

She turned and glanced up at Nikola. “They were coming alive again, weren’t they? They would have stayed in the ground, but we woke them up, because they’re after us?”

He nodded and disappeared, as she fell into the kitchen chair next to Suzanne, who had gone a nice shade of white. “I so hate zombies. I don’t want to fight zombies.” She glanced at her then at Dominic, who shook his head, and laughed.

“You’ll fight the Bloods and other vampires, but zombies scare you? You’re a dragon Suzanne, you can fry them.” Dominic teased her, but rubbed her shoulders, to ease the tension out of her.

Jaycee, Leda, Shelly, and Cecil came laughing into the room, and stopped noticing Suzanne’s color. “What happened now?”

“Zombies, graveyard.” Suzanne mumbled, and Jaycee shivered as did Leda.

Leda moved to her side, sitting down. “She’s kidding right? It’s just a Halloween thing, to scare us all before the dance?”

Lissa taped her fingers on the table, and shook her head “What’s so stupid, is that a bunch of bones can’t do much of anything. I mean, if they had some meat on their bodies, but to bring back dead folks, where there is nothing to them, is just stupid.” Lissa snarled. “Do these idiots really think we’re that stupid? That we can’t protect ourselves from those things?”

Castor and Granger came into the kitchen, black ash on their boots, clothes and hands. Lissa got up and went to Castor, but he waved her off. “I need a shower. You don’t need this stuff on you, Lissa.”

Both Suzanne and Lissa stood, and watched as father and son went off to clean the rest of their family’s remains off of them. “I so feel like hunting? Does anyone else feel like going hunting, because tonight would be the perfect night?” Lissa turned to Cecil and Shelly, who both nodded.

“It’s about time to pay our respects to these men, who keep asking for our attention. I mean it’s only polite. I’m sure Hombre del Diablo, is dying for some attention. Plus, I forgot my notebook.” Lissa closed her eyes, and visualized the outfit she loved to wear when she was fighting. If Adonis and Pierre could do this right away, then so could she.

Her skin tingled and warmed, Lissa glanced down and smiled. “I can so get used to this.” She glanced up, just as Nikola appeared next to her.

He glanced at her attire, and raised his eyebrow. “Going somewhere?”

“Actually, yes we were,” Suzanne said, a small bit of flame shot out of her mouth. “We have decided that tonight is a girl’s night, even though Jaycee won’t be able to come with us. She and Marsha can work from here. You could say we have dates that can’t be ignored anymore, isn’t that right ladies?” Suzanne announced grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, and downing it.

Lissa grinned, and put on her long black leather gloves. “Yep, sure do. We can’t keep the men waiting, now can we? Cecil, Shelly, anything particular you care to wear tonight? Oh and Suzanne, don’t worry, I’ll dress you when we reach there. I see that nice little bow you want, and it will be waiting for you.”

Nikola leaned back against the counter, as the other men came into the room all except Granger and Castor. Dominic glanced at him, then at his mate. “What’s going on?”

Lissa changed Cecil’s and Shelly’s clothes, when the image of what they wanted appeared in her head. She laughed as both of them checked their outfits, and found their weapons ready to go. “Well, we should be go? Don’t wait up.” She teased.

Suzanne nodded, and attempted to leave the room, when she ran into an invisible wall, or force field. She would have fallen if Dominic hadn’t caught her. “What the hell did you guys do now?” Suzanne glared at Dominic, then at Nikola.

She slowly turned, and glanced at Nikola. “You did this didn’t you? Release us Nikola. We are not helpless creatures. We can fight as good as anyone.”

Nikola, slowly uncrossed his arms, and stepped in front of her. His eyes were ablaze with anger. “Do you really believe we would allow any of you off this land, when you are finally safe here?” Nikola grabbed onto her shoulders, and shook her.

“What in the world would possess you to leave the security of this place, to purposely antagonize our enemy? You have everything you could possibly want,” he demanded.

Lissa waited till he was finished shaking her, and pealed his fingers off her shoulders. “This has nothing, I repeat nothing, to do with wanting anything. I am tired of being hurt, and now my new family was hurt. It is my right to finish what started so long ago. I don’t want to have to continually be looking over my shoulder, to see if something is coming after me.” She sighed, and reached up, brushing a piece of his hair out of his face.

“Nikola, all my life I have had my loved ones stolen from me, or they have been hurt. No more…” She glanced down at the ground. “The look on Castor’s face when he came back after having to destroy his family…was too much.” Lissa glanced up, anger like she never known rose inside her. “I have to do this, Nikola.”

“Hmmp, we all have to. You men take turns leaving to help others, while we sit here, but we are tired of it. We know these things that are after us. We’ve lived with them for years, had to deal with their sick minds day in and day out. Well, today we fight back, and if it gives us a little piece of mind in the process, than so be it.”

All three women had slowly moved closer to her, keeping the men distracted with their words. Lissa had already figured a way out of the house. All she needed was the women close enough so that she could take them all with her to the mainland. Just one more, gotcha.

Lissa had done it, All four of them were now standing in the gardens of the old estate, hidden from everyone’s view. She handed Suzanne the bow she wanted, and drew her knives, her guns in her black boots.

“We don’t have much time before the men are here. The main bunch we want are in the dining room, with a few of the stray servants, and it’s not good. Are we ready?” They all nodded, and slowly crept towards the main house, and the dining room. The main house had been completely trashed and was now full of broken furniture and paintings, which only drove her anger higher.