Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (40 page)

As the surprise wore off and their conversation with Nick made them more at ease as they questioned his words, her mother rubbed her arm and legs noting, “Sami, your skin feels very cool. Do you want a sweater?”

Shaking her head, she smiled at her mother and nodded towards Nick. The gesture succeeded in moving their eyes back to him and the voran moved to the next level of breaking the news to them that their beloved daughter and sister had been turned into a vampire.

“My team made an assault on an abandoned store that we believed held more than just your daughter’s kidnapper. We attacked at noon and found no survivors upon entering. There had been another attack in the night. The men and women involved with your daughter’s kidnapping and subsequent treatment were either killed or disappeared down a shaft into the sewers to escape their attackers.”

Her father jumped up from his chair across from the couch, a spot Nick believed the man had taken to avoid crying before the others, but where he could look on his rescued daughter in bliss. “You mean they might be out there still? They might come for Sami again?”

Shaking his head, Nick replied, “Sami is safe from those men now.”

“But you just said...”

Holding up his hand, Nick continued, “We covered the first floor and found a few more kidnappers all killed and drained of their blood in a strange way, as if there was a normal one, I suppose. The second floor had only a couple more and one of their victims also drained of blood. Flesh was torn like by animals and all three were dead.”

Faces were turning white as he told his horror story.

“In the basement was far worse. Blood and the dead were everywhere. This second faction had made sure no one was left alive or so they thought. They are little more than animals in the way they act. Following scent and tracks, they missed a shaft hidden by furniture. When I went down the hole, I found a large chamber attached to the sewer. It was about thirty feet from the basement to the floor of the chamber and this is the room I found your daughter inside.”

Voices were raised to deliberate with one another and tears were in many of their eyes. The story was frightening and he wasn’t painting a bright picture, and yet his words hardly did the scene justice. His words also made her mother, Sarah say in amazement,
“Such a long way down. How did you climb so far, Sami? How did you sneak away from such a scary thing in the first place?”

Sami took that part of the story stoically and said, “I followed the man who had bit me and sucked on my blood. I could barely walk, so I crawled to find an opening under some furniture to hide. He and a few others disappeared down the hole. I fell down the shaft and don’t remember anymore until Nick appeared with a flashlight to find me.”

Nick noticed her voice seemed devoid of passion as if the girl had tried to separate herself from those events to prevent breaking down again. The words sent her mother to checking her head for bumps.

“You don’t have any bumps on your head. It’s a miracle that you didn’t kill yourself in that fall. God must have been watching over our little Sami,” Sarah said about her daughter’s experience. Tears had been flowing down her cheeks since they arrived. Nick could have sworn the flood increased at the thought.

Her father, Paul, said to Nick, “Such an unlikely spot. How did you manage to get down there, young man? Were you a spelunker in a past life?”

“I just jumped,” he stated with a smile which made the family laugh in spite of the gruesome stories. Continuing he asked, “Have you heard the myths of how a vampire is created?”

Her elder brother, Daniel, leaned back in disgust and complained, “This stuff again? No, why don’t you tell us?”

“There are several ways that have been believed to create vampires: evil men coming back because they couldn’t rest, burials done incorrectly or spirits returning to infest the dead. Some stories say that ingesting vampire blood before dying will bring back someone as a vampire even.

“Now I have dealt with many things supernatural in my life, and no matter what people may think, these existences held in stories have some base in truth. I also know that not every person cursed to such a change is evil or a killer.”

The boys and father all stood from their seats angrily scolding him, but they didn’t seem to know why. Her second brother looked ready to punch him and asked, “Are you trying to say that Sami is some sort of vampire now? She’s fine and sitting right there!”

Her mother felt her daughter’s cold skin again and thought aloud, “I invited her inside!”

Nick looked at the woman who suddenly pulled away from the girl she was so happy to see only moments before. “Not inviting a vampire inside doesn’t actually stop them, Mrs.
Polcyn. I’ve been a vampire hunter for longer than you would believe and killed many of them. Don’t worry about your daughter suddenly killing you.”

The family’s eyes all started to move to Sami, who sat still on the edge of the couch with her back straight, a picture of a polite young girl. She looked to Nick in worry, but the voran wasn’t done yet.

Neither was her father as he complained aloud, “Sarah you’re just imagining things. He is spinning a story and you are falling for his lies.”

“But, Paul, she is so cold,” the woman said in fear.

The room was split between the two factions now, those who feared the truth and those who refused it. Her father looked ready to attack Nick and force him to stop talking, but the voran wasn’t worried about him. The ones afraid were his biggest worry.

Nick drew their attention again as he said, “Your daughter has a problem. She has unique needs and we came here for two reasons. First, we wanted to let you know that she is still alive. Second, I want you to sign over guardianship to me. She needs help that you can’t give her.”

Her father finally snapped and through a punch at the voran. Nick caught his hand effortlessly and lowered it for the man. His eldest son fearing for his father lunged, but was intercepted by Nicola, though the voran was more than capable of stopping him without harming him as well. Moving at speed beyond human and noticeably so before the accumulated family, Nicola caught his arms and set him back on heels stopping his momentum. She bared her fangs at the boy as he started to question what had happened.

“Stop it,” the vampire said calmly. It was no glamour, just a voice of reason, where reason was beginning to disappear.

“Vampires!” the aunt screamed and turned to run, though to where no one really knew.

Charlotte stopped her by grabbing her arm and the woman looked at the brunette in awe and asked, “What are you?”

“A werewolf, it’s a long, sad story; so don’t ask,” she said giving Nick a look as she added, “What now Nick?”

Sami stood and moved to her mother gripping her shoulders and looked the elder woman in the eyes and said, “When I fell down the shaft I had lost a lot of blood, mama.” She revealed the fading bite marks on her arms as she released her mother. Pulling the neck of the shirt away to reveal the nearly healed bites on her neck, Sami continued, “Nick said that the floor of the basement flows to the shaft I fell through and that both human and vampire blood trickled down onto me. It probably got into the holes in my arms or maybe some got in my mouth before I fell to put their blood in me before I died. I thought that I had barely survived the fall, but I must have died.

“Nick found me in a pile of garbage where I tried to hide. I was nearly dead, but he made me bite his hand and drink a little blood. He saved me by giving up some of his blood, and then carried me out of there; but I’m different and can’t stay here with you.

“We didn’t want you to wonder and cry over me. Nick let me come back to let you know that I survived. He wants me to finish high school, but I can’t go to a school during the day; so can you sign the
form he brought to make him my guardian? Nicola, Charlotte and Nick will take care of me. He can keep me from needing to hurt people.”

“And what kind of monster is he?” Sarah breathed numbly to her daughter.

Nick said simply, “I am a voran. We can’t be turned into vampires or werewolves and hunt monsters to kill them. A few drops of my blood can keep her nearly human, but it can’t reverse the curse. The sun will make her tired and irritate her skin, though she wouldn’t die from it easily; but she can eat and live like a human being for the most part, just in the night.”

Nicola stared the men down as she stated, “We came hoping that you all could handle the truth and keep her secret. Revealing vampires and werewolves to the world is not likely to end very well for anyone. We will keep hunting the killers, keeping people safe and ignorant; but we need to know if you will help us to protect her.”

Her father frowned and asked, “You are saying that she isn’t a monster, correct?”

Nicola had already withdrawn her fangs and she shook her head, “I’ve never killed a human with Nick’s blood to keep me sane. A few drops of his blood every few days
keeps me human, though I still have these cool vampire abilities like speed and strength.

“Like he said, sunlight makes me tired, but I can stay up if I really want to and it really only itches beyond that.

“The only things I kill are evil vampires, though I mainly leave that up to Nick and the scouting squads most of the time.”

She finished with an award winning smile and stepped back to stand next to Nick. “I am so close to human that I love Nick. He’s my boyfriend, but being what we are, we have incredible stamina. I mean the sex... the sex is...”

Nick’s hand covered the blonde’s mouth and he shook his head saying, “No, that’s private, so no more of that talk.”

The humor caused the men in particular to start to laugh before they realized that they had been afraid and ready to attack the creatures. Nick released the vampire and she mouthed something to the boys to make them grin, who suddenly remembered that Nicola was a beautiful girl. Their father was a little less smitten, but he couldn’t help smiling.

Moving towards Nick, Paul asked, “So what do we need to do?”

The four stayed with the family for quite awhile as tensions eased. Nick knew that Nicola managed to set a single glamour on them, however. The vampiress had been subtle catching them singly or even a few together. She merely reinforced that the family forgot about their daughter being a vampire to the point that they wouldn’t talk of it. They still knew that she was different and could even grasp that she was a vampire; but a block for discussing it outside of these few made it impossible to say more than Sami had gone to stay with someone who would help her after her difficult time.

Stress from telling her family and having them turn on her for a small time had caused Sami’s fangs to protrude. Even her mother had to laugh at how small hers were compared to Nicola’s. Like a baby vampire, Sami’s teeth didn’t seem capable of growing very long. Helping her and even showing the family how a little of his blood helped set her right as she suckled from his hand a moment making her fangs retreat; Nick thought that it helped settle their worries for the girl even more.

Her mother Sarah asked, “Isn’t that dangerous to have her draining your blood?”

Nick shook his head. “My blood tends to fill them quickly. Some, like Nicola, tend to bite to be coy more than to feed. Your daughter didn’t want to feed to stay alive when I found her, but I made her
take enough to gain her strength back. I heal quickly, so a little extra blood taken doesn’t take long to regenerate.”

Sami looked from him to her mother looking sheepish and added, “I’m still new. Nicola said that new vampires need to take more of his blood the first day or two before they don’t need it very often. When he tells me to stop, I can.”

Nick nodded and said, “Your daughter has more control than I’ve ever seen in a new vampire. We hunt killers all the time that have to feed and can’t resist the hunger. Sami isn’t like that at all.”

By the time, they left the house it had been a few hours. Assurances that she would try and call regularly to check in with her parents, as well as visit when she could,
made them feel better. Nick wasn’t sure how often the girl should return, but with such excellent control he thought she could visit safely even without him.

Lenora found being a vampire very advantageous. While she had rarely needed to buy her own drink in a bar since she was a teen sneaking in with a fake I.D., with the ability to glamour it wasn’t even a challenge.

Gazing at a particularly cute boy talking with his girlfriend, she caught his eyes and said, “Buy us a drink?”

Nodding in a slight daze, the young man waved the bartender to his end of the bar, where the girls ordered a couple drinks. As he parted with his credit card, his girlfriend parted in a huff. Vicki shook her head as they found a table near the dance floor and said, “That was pretty mean of you. If that was his girlfriend, he’s not going to even know what he did wrong after you glamoured him.”

The blonde shrugged. Both vampires were in show stopping dresses that revealed a lot of leg and cleavage. They were being noticed by other men and Vicki knew they would have had offers without Lenora’s toying with the man.

Lenora tapped her chin looking thoughtfully at the humans dancing, drinking and generally having a good time. “You know we could have something like this. Then we wouldn’t have to listen to those bossy vampires.