Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (41 page)

“Nicola and Audrey act like they are better than us and Marek’s too busy trying to hunt stray vampires to really pay attention to the club or what we’re doing for him there,” she complained.

Vicki listened to her friend’s thoughts and worried where it was taking her. For a blonde, Lenora really acted more like a red head than she did. Being a lot more cautious, Vicki was afraid of leaving the Lair, especially for good. She felt safe there and, unlike her friend, the red head got along well with the others. Her room was nice and Marek had given them money to decorate them as they liked.

It felt a little odd that they were in the rooms of vampires who had died fighting Cyrus, the elder vampire; whose army had also turned the women.
Vicki felt somewhat of a visitor if just because the losses had been so recently felt by the coven. That wasn’t the coven’s fault and she couldn’t say any of them hadn’t tried to welcome them warmly; but Lenora seemed fixated on Nicola and, in her absence, Audrey. She wanted to be the most important woman in the coven; but even Vicki, who was equally new to Marek’s clan, knew that joining a group that had been together decades would require building trust and relationships. They could hardly expect to walk in and run the show.

Lenora didn’t see it that way. She had been a sorority president and had been the queen of her castle. Leaving college, the young woman used her connections to get a good job; but enjoyed her evenings and weekends. The two had met before being thrown together by Cyrus and been friends, but now they were still in need of one another. Vicki was quieter and watched people feeling them out and Lenora was certainly beginning to rub some of the coven in the wrong way.

“You would rather be alone than stay in the coven?” Vicki asked speaking just loud enough to be heard over the music blaring. Being vampires made it easier to hear even through the noise.

Shrugging her shoulders once more, the girl said, “We don’t have to be alone. We could find a few people and turn them or maybe find a couple vampires to join us. I think I could get Justin to come with us also.”

Justin had been a martial artist and teacher at a gym. Thinking he would be a good protector for the pair of vampires, who had no idea of how to really fight; Vicki simply nodded. Though she was still reluctant to leave Marek’s protection, the redhead wasn’t sure leaving was a bad idea. There was just one major problem, “We won’t have Nick’s blood to keep us normal. How will we survive without it?”

Giving her a smug look, she looked over her friend’s shoulder and curled her finger enticing one of a few men watching the beautiful women. When the man dressed in a t-shirt and jeans walked over, Vicki thought he was good looking and must work out to have the kinds of lean muscle he had. He leaned closer to speak to Lenora and she turned her head as if to speak in his ear. Instead the blonde’s fangs came out tapping a little of the man’s blood. It was brief and he didn’t struggle.

Before he moved away too quickly, the blonde seductress pierced the tip of her finger with her fang drawing a little of her blood. She pressed it to the little holes she had created. Moving close to lick away both his blood and hers, the little wounds were already healed over and hard to see any damage.

Wiping her lips, Lenora winked at the man and said, “Thanks, sweetie, now why don’t you go buy us a couple more of these?”

He wandered to the bar saying nothing and Lenora glanced to her friend. “We taste a little and clean up after ourselves so no one notices. The boys buy us drinks and life goes on as usual.”

Vicki had to admit that it had been smooth. If she hadn’t known better, the red head doubted she would have caught the move in the crowded room. Lenora added, “Sneak a boy to the bathroom or once
we have a place of our own we can take them home, have a little fun and drink before sending them on their way.”

“It’s easy to do with Nick’s blood taking the edge off, but I remember the call of blood being a lot stronger. I couldn’t eat anything else either, and I like eating normal food,” pouted the red head still unsure of the idea. They had it easy and they were relatively spoiled from it. Certainly Vicki was comfortable in the Lair. Both her home and a place to socialize, they could sample liquor and men equally if they wanted.

The blonde sniffed in derision and retorted, “Then stay there and be an employee of Marek. Maybe he’ll officially make you a bartender or hostess. That might be to your liking. Take orders from Audrey and Nicola, I don’t care.”

Showing hurt and a fear of being abandoned by her only truly close friend in the Lair, despite being friendly with the rest of the house; Vicki finally shook her head and asked, “But how will we get a place as good as the Lair? We’ll need money to set up a place, won’t we?”

“I have an idea about that too,” Lenora said smugly keeping her plan to herself. “We don’t have to leave right away. I’ll work on it, but we should go out like this more often. Maybe we can take Justin or the other new guys with us.

“They can do their looking for vampires while escorting us and be less noticeable, right?” Lenora questioned rhetorically still smiling at her ingenuity.

The girls talked on and found a few guys to dance or buy them drinks; but that was the last they spoke of the matter. Vicki hoped it was just idle talk and tried to enjoy her night out. It had been awhile since she had left the Lair and it was nice to get out once in awhile.

Chapter 23- Cleaning Day

The sounds of Sponge Bob played from the TV while Nick tried to concentrate on his laptop. With Sami sitting cross legged in her cotton shorts and pink t-shirt eating milk and cereal beside him, it was certainly a change having a young teenager in the house. She was glued to the TV and virtually ignored him until the commercials, and then the girl liked to talk with him about anything and everything.

Nicola had spent a little time reading a book though she often looked over at him as if wishing that she could be alone with her boyfriend. One of the best things to come from Charlotte’s condition had been taking their relationship to the next level. For Nick being with Charlotte, even if it was at the same time as the vampire; was also quite enjoyable.

With the addition of Sami, who was on the same time table as Nicola; that kind of alone time was now going to require more arranging. He liked having the girl here, but there were obviously drawbacks and the growing pains of getting used to a second vampire being around would take time to work through.

It was daylight before he knew it and the two vampires were still awake by the time Charlotte wandered into the living room. She smiled seeing Sami looking just like any other teenage girl watching television and eating cereal for a snack. Even her slightly pale complexion hardly marked her as a vampire as much as a girl who had been in school for the winter and rarely spent time outside getting a tan.

The werewolf was still getting her coffee when Nick heard the key in the door. He had been so wrapped up in his studies and trying to ignore the vampires that he had missed the feeling of Geni and Lena coming up the building with the elevator.

“Cleaning day,” he remarked making the other women all look at him in surprise before hearing the door open. As they walked into the stares of three women, one of which was a stranger, the college girls looked up in surprise.

Geni noted the teenage girl sitting beside the man on the couch eating her cereal and joked, “What do you collect girls now, Nicky? Every time we come here it seems like another one shows up.”

While they shared a laugh, Lena tilted her head curiously. She could tell that the new girl was a vampire, though she felt like a muddled form of vampire and voran as well; since she had never fed on a human other than Nick.

Ignoring her look, Nick introduced the girls, “Lena and Geni, this is Sami. She had some issues come up at home and her family asked me to look after her. Sami, this is Geni my friend and house cleaner. The dark haired girl with her college books is our friend, Lena, who had an unusual time this year as well.”

Lena was a smart girl and understood that he was hardly telling them the whole truth, though it was a modified version of it at least. While she might be blond, Geni was smart enough to be able to tell that there were certainly things left unmentioned, but it wasn’t her job to pry. “So more people to clean up after, Nicky?”

Another pair of presences walked from the hallway drawing Geni’s eyes and Logan said, “It might get easier pretty soon. Kate and I have leads on new jobs and a place to live, so we can get out of your hair. You might need the room, if Sami’s going to be here for awhile.”

Being talked about, Sami answered, “Charlotte volunteered to tutor me, since I can’t go to school right now. She’s going to home school me.”

Her brother looked at his sister looking only slightly surprised as he commented, “Well, if anyone here could get you through high school courses as a teacher, it would be my sister.”

Lena followed up on that idea and said, “I actually have homework that she might be able to help me with or maybe a combination of Charlotte and Nick, since he seems to find so much on the internet.”

Nodding at the dark haired girl, Nick figured that she must have something to talk to him about in particular. Though she most likely did have homework, as the girl continued to work on catching up on her courses before the end of the semester; Lena likely brought it as an excuse.

Geni sighed and said sarcastically, “You all enjoy yourselves and I’ll get started with the bedroom and master bath, if that’s all right.”

Getting up from her chair, Nicola said, “I’ll give you a hand. Nick’s been pushed out of his bed as we rotate between those of us who work at night needing to sleep during the day and normal people sleeping at night. I’ll help you pull the bedding and see if I can get some of the girls’ clothing put away.”

She gave a smile to the pretty vampire, who she knew was also Nick’s girlfriend; though Geni still wondered what was going on between him and Charlotte. In discussions with Lena, she had sided with Nicola thinking the two made such a nice couple. While Lena knew about the supernatural side of the creatures in the apartment, her guess was as uninformed as Geni about his dating life.

As the two moved down the hallway to his bedroom, Lena moved to sit next to him on the opposite side from Sami. “Nick, is there something going on that I should know about? You have another vampire, who doesn’t seem like a normal vampire, and there have been a number of strange things happening around the campus and Chicago that have even made it onto the news.”

“I’ve barely had time to see any news lately. What has been said?”

The dark haired girl pushed a lock of hair resting on her cheek over her ear as if needing it moved to hear better, though she was the one about to speak. “There have been stories of people disappearing in unusual amounts from the west side of the city all the way to the university. The news has even put up some of the missing persons on the television.

“I thought I saw her face on there even,” Lena stated pointing across him to the little blonde beside him.

“I made the news?” Sami said in surprise but added with a grin, “Well, I was found and my parents know it, so that’s one down.”

Tilting her head to size up the girl, the apprentice voran asked, “Isn’t she kind of young for a vampire? Most of those seem to be turned in their twenties for some reason, or at least they look older. Is she still in high school?”

“Did the news mention an abandoned store on the near west side and any bodies or disturbances there yet?” he asked appearing to have ignored the question.

At the shake of her head, Nick continued, “A new type of vampire hunter appeared and I made contact with them to the point that they called me for a raid on a nest of vampires there. We found all the vampires dead and drained of their blood as well as their human victims treated the same way. The vampire hunters believe these are a new nasty type of vampires called reapers. They hunt down other vampires as well as humans for their blood.

“When they kill they leave the drained corpses, or at least these did, which makes them even more dangerous because humans could stumble across them.

“We attacked the store around noon and found them all dead from the night before. While a few did escape the slaughter through a drain in the floor, Sami was the only one left alive.”

“Technically, I died,” the girl with the pixie cut said trying to be helpful. “I just managed to absorb or swallow some vampire blood. So what are you then?”

“Lena’s like me, a voran,” Nick replied offhandedly.

The brunette frowned as her brown eyes looked at him again. “Wouldn’t she be considered a stray?”

“I’ve always tried to use my blood to counteract the curse when I could save someone before they turned. Sami hadn’t taken anyone’s blood and even resisted biting me when I told her to. That’s a rare thing. You know most vampires are controlled by their thirst for blood.”

Again the dark haired college girl looked around Nick and asked, “How old are you anyway?”

“Fifteen, I was a sophomore, before the jerk kidnapped me on the way home. Go figure, my assignment was done and I never got to turn it in,” the little blonde gave a short laugh.

Charlotte moved to sit in one of the chairs across from them and added, “Well, telling your teacher it was eaten by a vampire would have been a new excuse.”