Scent of a Vampire (11 page)

Page 54 of 172

I didn't want to bring it up but felt that we should clear some things up. "What about Alex?"

Roberto sighed, "I know I am breaking some rules here but he cannot have you. I won't let him touch you again Olivia."

"I don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want to lead him on. I let him kiss me and at the time I wanted more." I was ashamed to admit.

He stopped me and made me look at him, "Olivia, don't be ashamed of who you are. You haven't learned to control your powers yet and what you felt was natural between a man and woman. But I will be the only one who will teach you from now on. Agreed?"

Looking at his handsome face I swear I would agree to anything he asked me. Holy crap I wanted this man every minute of every day. All I could say was, "Yes." We started walking again and Roberto said, "We will be at the bog soon. I need to hunt before we go in. There are more animals out here. While I do that you should rest for a bit and take care of any business. You should probably eat one of those energy bars until I can provide you with a decent meal. My friend should be able to help us out with that."

"I'm a little scared to be out here in the dark. Can I come with you?"

Roberto came over to me and lifted my chin up to look at him. "You will be fine Olivia. Here is your first lesson. Close your eyes."

I felt skeptical but did as he said.

"Now, clear your mind. Reach out with your mind to the world around you. What do you hear Olivia?" I did my best to relax and clear my mind. With my eyes closed, I tried picturing what the forest looked like around us. All of a sudden I heard a rustling in a bush, some small animal that was scurrying back and forth, possibly a chipmunk. I heard the soft rustle of leaves as the wind moved them across the forest floor. Somewhere in the distance I heard what sounded like an animal lapping at water. I opened my eyes and gave Roberto a wide smile.

"That was amazing!"

Roberto smiled back at me and kissed my forehead, "That is just the tip of the iceberg piccolina.

Soon you will learn how to strengthen your abilities and mold them into a powerful gift."

"How do you know so much about a Sensay's powers?"

"It is the same for anyone who has abilities. I needed to learn how to fine-tune my own gifts just the same as you. Of course living as long as I have, you have a lot of time to practice honing your skills. As a young pup, my father would take me out into the night and have me listen to the sounds of the world around us.

"At first it was so overwhelming that I wanted to run away, but my father would be stern with me and help me focus on one sound at a time. That is what I just did with you. It is all about
Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens

Page 55 of 172

using your mind to focus on your abilities." I looked at him anxiously. "Will you teach me?" He tilted my head up and brushed a soft kiss across my lips and said in a husky voice, "I will teach you many things mia cara."

I shivered and he laughed. "But right now I will feed and you will take care of your needs. There is a small stream a few hundred yards straight ahead. The water is good to drink. I will meet you there in half an hour. If you need me for any reason, just yell, I will hear you. I'm not going far."

He gave me another quick kiss and walked in the opposite direction. I was smiling to myself as I walked ahead to find the stream. I found the stream easily enough because I stepped in it.

Damn, I would be glad when I developed my better sense of sight. It was a nice evening for early May but I had a feeling walking around with a wet shoe was going to make it feel a lot colder tonight. Well, there was nothing I could do about it. I found a nearby bush and took care of business and went back to the stream to drink some of the water. I sat there listening to the sounds of the night. I opened one of the power bars and started eating, while I closed my eyes and tried to do as Roberto taught me and focus on one sound at a time. Cool, I thought to myself. I think I could hear an owl hooting in the distance. I wondered if it would be possible to hear Roberto on his hunt. Out loud I said, "Ummm, I wonder if that's even ethical." I jumped out of my skin when a strange voice answered,

"Don't care nothin' about ethical. I prefer my women immoral."

I opened my eyes and my heart stopped when I looked into a pair of red glowing eyes.

I opened my mouth to scream my head off and he clamped a hand over my mouth. It was hard to make out any features on him because you couldn't focus on anything other than the red glowing eyes. He reached into his jacket and took out a cloth of some sort and tied it around my mouth. There went any hope of screaming for Roberto. I got an impression he was tall as he bent over and picked me up because it seemed that I was pretty high up in the air when he hoisted me over his shoulder like a freaking sack of potatoes.

He began walking away from the stream at an easy pace. I could only hope Roberto came back early and when he didn't see me he'd start tracking us. All I knew was that DAMNIT I was getting really tired of getting kidnapped. I tried to wiggle hoping maybe he'd drop me and I could make a run for it. I knew the likelihood was almost nil but I was desperate. I stopped wiggling when he put a hand on my wiggling behind and began to rub and make some grunts that kind of scared me. He moved his other hand down and I so didn't want to know what he was doing. We were walking for a while when he stopped and dumped me into a boat. Since my hands weren't tied, I scrambled at the bottom of the boat to find something to hit him with.

I felt something that felt like a paddle and grabbed it, stood up and swung with all of my might.

The creature caught it in with his hand. "So you fancy a game of cricket, do you? Or maybe you like to play rough. Were you a bad girl?"

Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens

Page 56 of 172

He laughed when I sat back down fast.

"No, well don't worry luv, I'm not into that." He looked at me with a serious expression. "That is unless you are because I've never had a Sensay before and ummm, I'm not sure what will get your juices flowing so to speak and it's been a while since I had a woman that just about anything will get my juices flowing right now."

He came closer and as he did the moonlight struck his face and I sucked in a deep breath because he was gorgeous. He had long dark hair that hung in his face, giving him a dangerous look, high cheekbones, a chin that was chiseled out of marble and a full pouty lower lip. He had to stand close to seven feet. He was wearing jeans and a bulky coat, despite the rather warm evening. The only thing that distracted from his good looks was those eerie red eyes. He reached down and pulled up a rope and knelt down in front of me. "I wish I didn't have to tie you up but I don't think I can trust you to stay put. But maybe you like being tied up. You are a Sensay after all. The legends say that you go wild when you're excited."

He grabbed my arms and swung me around and began to tie my arms behind my back. He seemed to have a sort of fetish with my backside because he started rubbing me there again.

"You have a great ass" I began to shake. Sure that this creature was going to rape me when I heard, "Leeds you crazy bastard, you better take your hands off of my woman right now or I will be forced to kill you. And I hate it when I have to kill a friend."

I sagged forward with my relief and immediately Roberto was beside me picking me up.

"What the hell Leeds? You tied and gagged her?"

"Hey don't blame me Valente, I didn't know she was your woman. She was just sitting back there by the stream all alone. Why the hell would you leave your woman unprotected like that?"

Roberto untied my hands and I ripped the gag from my mouth. "He was going to rape me!"

Roberto took a step toward Leeds and Leeds said, "Bloody hell, I was not going to rape her. I have never had to rape a woman in my entire two hundred and seventy four years." Roberto and I looked pointedly to the rather huge bulge in his pants.

"Awww, hell yeah, she got me excited. Look at her. She is hot. But I wasn't going to rape her. I fully intended to take her back to my cabin and seduce her." He said without a trace of remorse.

When I realized that he and Roberto knew each other and that he wasn't going to rape me, I could forgive him for his rude behavior.

"You think I'm hot?" I asked.

Roberto looked at me like I had lost my mind. "He was going to seduce you. And he was groping you. I should kill him for that alone."

Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens

Page 57 of 172

I looked at Roberto's face and realized he was barely able to control his rage. I went over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him hard. "He was going to try and seduce me and when he groped me, I felt nothing but repulsion."

My words must have seeped into his mind because I felt the tension leave his body and he hugged me back. Leeds made it worse again by saying, "Repulsion? Ohhh luv, you're joking right?"

When he realized I was serious he said, "You have to let me try and seduce you. No one has ever turned me down. I am good at it I swear. I have made ladies cry and beg for more of my huge cock."

"Enough!! Leeds. I am losing my patience. Olivia is my woman and you will remember that."

Leeds looked like he was going to argue but then with a last regretful look at me turned and said with a shrug, "All right Valente but just wait until she disparages your manhood and see what you do."

I almost felt sorry for Leeds; almost.

With a chuckle Roberto lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed it. "Olivia is constantly disparaging my manhood but I find it rather enjoyable to have to prove it to her, over and over again."

Despite the tingle that went up my arm, I pulled it away and said, "You boys are beginning to get on my last nerve. Is that all you think about? Sex? And so what if I'm a Sensay and the slightest touch causes me to be on fire? You guys act like I'm the only female on earth that can have orgasm after orgasm and lose control when I get excited."

Both men were staring straight ahead with a glazed look on their faces. And to top it off Leeds was once again rubbing the front of his pants. I probably should have toned that down. I am not used to being looked at as a sex object so it's hard to remember that men are lusting after me.

"Oh snap out of it. I'm hungry." I complained. Roberto was the first to recover, "Of course.

Leeds we were actually looking for you to lend us a hand. It seems the Guardians are after Olivia. They kidnapped her yesterday and they are claming that they have her parents. We are trying to get to Buffalo where her parents live. Somehow, they knew where we were and set the safe house on fire. Luckily, they aren't aware that being as old as I am that I can rise slightly prior to sunset."

Ahhh, I had wondered about that, but with our bout of lust and then the firebomb and all it had slipped my mind to ask Roberto about it.

Leeds was still staring straight ahead without the slightest indication that he had heard anything Roberto said. I started to say something and Roberto stopped me. "Give him a minute"

Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens

Page 58 of 172

Leeds finally came to and said, "Sure, I hate those bastards more than you can know. Take a seat and we'll go to my place."

Leeds untied the boat and pushed us off before jumping in and getting out the oars. He began rowing and humming softly what I swear sounded a lot like the theme to Benny Hill.

Roberto and I sat at the opposite end of the boat and I leaned over to him and whispered in his ear, "There is definitely something off with Leeds." Roberto whispered back into my ear. "Oh yeah, he's a little off all right but he's an okay sort. I do know we can trust him. I sometimes come out here to hunt and get some alone time. I met Leeds about ten years ago and we respect each other."

"Aren't you afraid about him being so unstable?" I had to ask as I watched Leeds muttering to himself.

"Not really. I've never seen him hurt anything." We listened as Leeds continued muttering.

Roberto added, "At least not yet," as we heard him mutter, "Kill em all ... all dead."

I scooted a little closer to Roberto and he put his arm around me. It could have been a very romantic moment but for the eerie mist rolling across the swamp and the psychopath rowing the boat.

A short time later we came up to a stretch of land. With the moon still shining I could make out a small dock that Leeds rowed up to. Roberto jumped out and Leeds threw him a rope to secure the boat. When he finished, he helped me out. Leeds jumped out behind me.

He asked Roberto to give him a hand with some boxes. I wondered what he was carrying in.

Maybe it was dead animal skins or some kind of sadistic tools, like knives and chains or maybe even weird torture contraptions like in that movie where they make people decide to cut their own appendages off. I backed up as far as I could and let him pass by me.

Was Roberto crazy trusting this lunatic? I was getting more nervous by the minute, wondering what kind of place he was leading us to. After a few minutes, we came through a thicket of trees and there was a clearing with the most beautiful stone cottage in the middle. It looked like a postcard of a lovely English cottage complete with flower garden. This couldn't be where Leeds lived. In my mind I pictured a charming old couple living here. The woman tended to her garden and the man chopped wood for the cold nights. I wondered where Leeds had buried their bodies. Leeds opened the door and switched on a light. He stepped aside to let us pass.

Surprisingly, the inside was as nice as the outside. The hardwood floors were rich and shiny.

The leather sofa looked comfy and well taken care of. There was a large stone fireplace on one wall. On the opposite wall there was, of all things, a large flat screen television. Leeds went through a door with his boxes and Roberto followed. Not knowing what to do, I followed along.

We entered a bright cheery kitchen that had a large refrigerator, a double stove and a lovely antique oak table in the center. Roberto and Leeds put their boxes on the table. They were full of food! Fresh fruit and vegetables. Sacks of flour and sugar. I laughed out loud when I saw
Scent of a Vampire – Jude Stephens