Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (11 page)

Peering at the half drained glass in her hand, the woman stated, “I’m going to need more of these.”

“If you’re worried over what Nicola will say, then leave it up to me. I can smooth it over so that she’ll realize it isn’t your fault,” the man replied as her perfume came to him sweetly. It was almost too easy to read her thanks to the werewolf’s physiology.

“It’s partly my fault. I’m attracted to you and that’s what caused me to bond on you,” Charlotte said with a shake of her head before draining the second half of her drink. “I knew that you were with Nicola, but I couldn’t help myself.”

Her eyes told him that she was sorry, but the fact that she might be in love with him wasn’t necessarily what she apologized for now. While he had rarely been in love, he knew it from the other side of feeling sorry that he couldn’t love Vivian. His mentor had been his lover for a time, but Nick had never truly felt like he was in love with her, especially the way the movies told him he should be. Hollywood might over glamorize true love and exalt how someone should feel, but the voran had a feeling that what he had felt for Vivian was less true love than giving in to being with someone as uniquely alone as himself.

Gesturing to the waitress standing near the far wall for another drink for Charlotte, he realized that his beer was almost gone as well. Before they received their order, the door to the inner lair opened. Nicola and one of the new additions to the coven, a young man named, Justin, entered through the door. A natural hostess, Nicola waved and greeted a few of those using the VIP section. Since they were here, it was likely that the vampiress would know them enough to be able to greet several by name. Though she seemed to be taking her time, Nicola’s eyes flicked to their table often.

Taking a moment to tell Justin to go check out the main club, the blond haired girl maneuvered towards their table soon after. Nick noted her short, black leather skirt and top cut low with its base barely touching the top of the skirt. Her final touch was a small, black, leather jacket that was designed to only come halfway down her back and accessorized with her favorite black, high heeled boots. Like Charlotte, Nicola appeared ready to try to seduce any males who should dare look her way.

Leaning over him, Nicola moved in for a kiss nearly sitting into his lap. As she pulled back, her face revealed that something wasn’t right. He noted her keen nose sniffing the air before her eyes found Charlotte and narrowed just barely avoiding true anger. “Why have you been kissing my boyfriend?”

She hadn’t pulled any punches and, while Nicola could be tactful as the best politician, there was little in her now. Nick was about to respond when the waitress returned with their second order of drinks.

Pointing towards the door the woman had entered through, Nick suggested, “This involves matters that others shouldn’t hear.”

While personal lives wouldn’t be good to air in front of a crowd either, the vampiress understood that he meant more than that. The three stood and started towards the door, though Charlotte drained her new drink as she did for courage. A single werewolf was walking into the den of a house full of vampires. It was daunting at the best of times and her current condition wasn’t leading her inside with good news to tell.

The door closed behind them and Charlotte took in her new surroundings. A large living room opened onto a kitchen using an island to separate the two spaces. With a dining room area designated by the long table there, the first three areas were hemmed in by a wall with doors on two levels. Open metal stairs led up on either side with the living room revealing all with a ceiling that raised over twenty feet above them.

A fun area far to the left had a pool table and foosball table for the vampires to blow off steam together. Most were born in an era well before video games or even televisions, so common games of skill were more likely to be their forte than something electronic.

Sitting on a couch, a young looking woman sat with two of the men. They were among the youngsters added to the group. Where Marek and his original people were around a century old with their youngest remaining member in her fifties, the new people were all in their early twenties. The men were all either military trained or martial artists, while the women had been scouts for Cyrus and were good looking socialites of the local bar scene.

Nicola had been complaining about the women in particular as they all tried to get along, but as they entered the blond shooed them all out of sight. Realizing something was wrong that they certainly didn’t want to get into the middle of, the three hurried out towards the bar calling their fifth a blond woman to join them from her open room. They were all ready to go out anyway, so only a last warning from Nick, “Don’t bite the patrons”, saw them on their way.

Since the vampiress could smell Charlotte on him from earlier, Nick started cautiously, “We had a new hiccup today.”

“What hiccup makes this wolf kiss you? I smell her all over you and why is her perfume so strong?” Nicola complained.

The other two glanced to each other in surprise. The werewolves who weren’t supposed to be a part of her bonding wouldn’t call her pheromones perfumed and women that would be competition were supposed to have a similar response. Charlotte could smell Kate and vice versa, but for some reason they had said that their scents smelled sweet as well. Eric had no knowledge of the problem, so they were on their own, but a vampire shouldn’t have noticed anymore than a human in theory. Even if one did, they should have a similar reaction to those not needed, but Nicola was telling them that Charlotte smelled like perfume.

“
It’s part of the hiccup,” Nick replied considering where to go with his explanation.

Charlotte, in typical werewolf fashion in large part due to her raging hormones, stated bluntly, “I’m in heat, for lack of a more flattering word. My perfume is my pheromones going crazy.”

Her eyes gauged Nicola’s reaction as she added, “According to Eric, when a female werewolf goes into heat, she is trying to form a bond with the lead wolf; but for some reason my pheromones didn’t try to attract any werewolves.”

The thought sunk in and the normally pale skinned vampire’s cheeks started to turn red. “So what does that mean?”

Sighing at having both women be similarly impulsive, Nick admitted, “Charlotte’s perfume isn’t supposed to affect humans and in theory no vampire should notice either. It’s a way to strengthen the pack. At the moment, she lives in my house with just her brother and I. Since Logan thinks she smells awful...”

“Hey!” Charlotte complained at the remark before realizing that Nicola looked ready to claw her eyes out.

“She obviously won’t see him as a potential mate.”

Edging closer to Nick, the blond haired vampiress looked ready to pounce as she concluded, “You bonded with my Nicky? How could you? I’ve treated you as a friend and now you betray my friendship by trying to take him from me?”

“It isn’t that simple,” Charlotte argued raising her hands in protest. Gone were the words she had said to him earlier of fighting for him, as Nicola’s hurt permeated the craziness of her hormones. “I didn’t know it would happen and I definitely didn’t know it would happen with a human or voran. It isn’t supposed to work like that according to Eric.”

Nicola edged past Nick, who watched waiting for a sign that things were going to become violent. If Nicola were a normal vampire, a showdown between a werewolf and her would be inevitable; but the woman showed restraint as she listened to the unpleasant news.

“So it isn’t supposed to work like this. Then explain to me why I smell him all over you as well?”

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Charlotte answered, “Apparently, if he doesn’t have sex with me, I need his touch on my body or I’ll break into hives and a fever. The itching turns to burning
pain, so I rubbed my clothes on Nick after we realized that the oils on his skin can be transferred to them and do the same as his touch.” She pulled out the small washcloth from her small clutch purse and held it out for Nicola to smell it.

“You figured it out after you made him touch you or forced yourself on him to do so, I assume. How much petting did you need from your new master? Should I just assume the worst and break up with him now?”

Again Charlotte held up her hands even as Nick made to answer in protest. “He rubbed my skin. It was no more than a doctor like touch. I swear we didn’t do anything more than that.” Suddenly the woman’s face turned crestfallen as she admitted, “Well, except I kissed him when I was feeling too full of myself and forgot who I would be hurting.

“You shouldn’t break up with Nick unless there’s another reason. He didn’t do anything other than try to help me; short of what Eric says will make it all go away. I swear it’s the truth, Nicola.”

Nick entered the conversation with other information, “The woman who turned Logan, and in turn Charlotte, is going through the same thing at the same time. She’s in love with Logan and was still with the pack. In only about an hour after talking with Logan and bonding to him, Kate was in a park with hives and a fever. We don’t know what will happen if they’re apart from the ones they bonded with for much longer than that.

“Clothing with my scent that has touched me takes care of the symptoms. We shouldn’t have to go to the extreme. The only real problem is that Eric doesn’t really know how long it lasts or if it will get worse later.”

“So you want me to give you permission to have sex with... her?” Nicola asked quietly turning from the other woman to him. Her face was so calm, that he couldn’t truly read her. Only her words let him know of the anger seething underneath. “You won’t even touch me that way. Am I supposed to be some cold, unfeeling vampire that can just give you away?”

While he could hear her pain, something kept pricking at the back of his mind.  As if he hadn’t just heard a word she said, the voran rubbed his chin as he rested the arm on his right considering something she said earlier.

“She smells like perfume to you?”

Surprise and shock at his response made Nicola finally shout her fury at him, “Didn’t you hear a word I said? How can you ask such a stupid thing?”

“Because it might not be as stupid as you think. Touch her arm. Do it as an experiment, if for no other reason.”

Puffing out a breath of exasperation, the two women moved close enough to touch. Nicola sniffed the air again and said, “Yes, her perfume, or pheromones, or whatever, smell nice though a bit strong. I don’t understand why that matters though.”

Nicola touched her forearm and rubbed from wrist to elbow. Her eyes widened slightly feeling the smooth, warm skin and something else that she couldn’t describe. “That’s... different.”

Nodding with a similar reaction, the werewolf noted the cool touch of the other woman’s hand and shivered. Her skin felt soothed beyond even what she had felt with Nick. While his touch eased her pain and made it go away, Nicola was like a cooling salve added to that rash.

Both women looked at him in confusion and Nicola was the first to ask, “What does this mean?”

As he shook his head, the man replied, “I’m not sure that it’s ever happened before. We’re the right combination of three supernatural creatures meeting that are all in synch, or something to that end. Whether we can end her condition together, I’m not sure.”

A moment passed and Nicola forgot her anger as she found her hand stroking the werewolf’s other arm just to see if the feeling continued. It was a pleasant sensation for her as well. A dangerous proposition came to mind, but Nick was unsure they should test any further. “I wonder what would happen if she took a bath washing off both now?”

Nicola shook her head reproachfully at the man. “You don’t have to do a full scale version of an experiment. Obviously your generation didn’t have schools for science, did it? She can wash off an arm and most likely discover what happens without putting the rest of her at risk.”

Looking almost as disapproving, Charlotte agreed with the blonde happily. The idea of the pain she had experienced earlier wasn’t something she hoped to do again, especially so soon.

They walked over to the sink. There was soap there, so the werewolf could fully remove the oils from her skin. As the warm water ran, she washed off her right arm. The soap worked quickly and Nick could see discomfort wrinkling her eyes to point that tears were beginning again.

“The rest of me is fine, but all it takes is this to create the pain on my arm.”

Nicola looked at him a moment as he held back watching the experiment. Sweat was starting on Charlotte’s forehead with the pain. She began to scratch with her left hand, but then she shook it out adding, “Damn it, my left hand is starting to hurt just as much. Without Nick’s oils the pain comes back right away.”

“And all he has to do is rub your skin?” the vampire nodded at him as if trying to tell him to do it. Though she urged him, the vampire didn’t test her touch either.

“Can you put up with it for a little longer to see what will happen?” he asked. Amazingly, her forearm was already starting to redden with the hives they had witnessed on Kate earlier in the day.

“It hurts, but the pain is localized to those places. How long do we wait? The hives are already there.”

Being merciful as they watched the intended limb continuing to darken, Nick held her left hand restoring his touch to the washed portion of her skin.