Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) (23 page)

Jerry’s mother
shook her hand. “Sarah Cayman. I’m guessing you are the woman that has been stirring up all the trouble.”

“
Non. At least not most recently.”

Sarah’s fa
ce screwed up with distaste. “If that cancerous leach can be called a woman. That woman has been a source of never ending trouble for my poor Jerry. I never thought that she would go to this extreme.”

“Damn! No signal,
” Chief Hernandez cursed from where he paced with his sleek razor phone. The thing looked pitifully small in his hand.

Al sat up
and her eyes shone with excitement. Her phone. “Jerry has my phone!”

She shot to her feet and went to the Chief snatching his phone from him. “Hey,” he objected. She cursed as she looked at
the signal strength. “Come. We must get out of here. My boss can probably track my phone.”

“Wh
o the hell do you think you are?” Chief Hernandez said as he marched right up to Al and put an accusatory finger in her face. She narrowed her eyes.

“You are the one who started this mess. I know you had something to do with it.”

“Victor,” Sarah said in a disapproving tone. “You can’t very well blame this poor girl. She tried to defend Jerry. Cherish is the one.”

Sarah Cayman put a soothing arm over Al’s shoulders and turned to lead her away
, all the while clucking over the marks that were left on Al’s throat. Al wanted to both laugh and cry. What was it about these Caymans? One or the other of them was always trying to take care of her.

“I’m going to get him back,” she said softly to Sarah. There was hurt and confusion written all over Sarah’s face as she nodded.

“You bet your ass you are going to get him back. You are the one-” Victor didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence before Sarah turned on him.

“Our mother would be turning over in her grave to hear you using that type of language towards a female, have you no shame. You hurt this woman’s honor and you break your sister’s heart! Has your temper gotten so far away from you that you fo
rget yourself?”

Victor
had the sense to look abashed as he turned his gaze intently to the toes of his boots. He mumbled an apology and Al had the urge to alternately laugh and feel sorry for him.

“Now. I think there is something that you should know if you are going to get involved in this,” Sarah said turning her gaze back to Al.

“Sarah,” Victor growled. Sarah sent him a sharp look but this time he returned her scorn. “She is not from the people, she hasn’t the right to-”

“I think she has plenty of right. She stands there bleeding and bruised. She deserves a few answers.”

“What are you talking about?” Al asked. Victor huffed a breath as he raked his fingers through his hair.

“She shouldn’t be involved,” he growled once again as he turned and started to pace.

“Jerry was born with the mark of the people,” Sarah said simply.

“Do we really have to do this here? Can’t we walk and talk at the sa
me time. What if they come back?” Victor asked in exasperation. Sarah shrugged and moved forward, taking Al’s arm as they began the hike out of the woods.

“What mark was he born with?
” Al asked.

“He was born with the w
aya symbol.”

Victor
growled again as he moved swiftly past them and tried to set a quicker pace to prevent conversation. Sarah ignored him and her sure footfalls told Al that she was a woman who was familiar with the woods.

“What is a w
aya?”

“It is Cherokee for wolf.”

Al felt a shiver pass through her at the older woman’s words. Apparently Bateman and his group were not the only people to know something about the wolves. Of course they wouldn’t be. “But I never saw a mark,” she said contemplatively.

Sarah looked
thoughtful as well. “It’s hard to miss it.” They took their time to make their way over a fallen tree. “It’s a birthmark on his left wrist.”

Al sighed. It figured. “He has a cast on his left arm.”

“So I noticed. Apparently a lot has happened while I’ve been away,” Sarah said casting an accusing glance towards her brother.

“I can feel you looking at me. Don’t look at me like that. The boy can’t be stopped once he sets his mind on something and he’s had his mind set on her ever since she blew into town on her damn… urr darn motorcycle,”
Victor said hitching a thumb towards Al.

“Why are you leading us through the hardest trail
Victor? You know how to find a better path than this,” Sarah scolded as she made her way through some thistles. Al helped her as much as she would allow.

Victor
cursed under his breath and took a moment to look up at the trees and get a better read on the land. He chose a new trail that made it easier for them all.

“So, what does it mean, the mark?”

“It’s all hocus pocus and fairy dust if you ask me,” Victor said as he led the way.

“Don’t mind him, he never fully embraced the heritage. He’s so absorbed in his own thick headedness that he can’t see the forest for the trees,” Sarah snapped. “Anyway, the people believe that there are men that have the power to walk as wolves under the moonlight. They are very powerful men and though they could be noble, these men are swayed by the darkness. They do not walk with the true spirit of the waya, they are unnatural creatures that were born of greed and dark intentions.

“The legend says that there is once in a thousand harvest moons born a man that has the power to control the ill spirits, to bring them to peace. It is said that this man has the power to choose between continuing the generations of the wicked or the ability to bring it to an end. It is his choice, though he will need help and protection to fulfill his destiny. We are to be the protectors of the chosen one, but as the generations have come and gone and the heritage has melded with this new age, some no longer believe.”

“I didn’t say I don’t believe,”
Victor objected as he broke a branch to clear the way.

“Well you certainly haven’t been watching him the way I told you to. I go on one va
cation in thirty two years and-”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not the only one in that stupid club. You weren’t jumping all over Peggy Sue or
Dell! They are elders in the club, not me.”

“I will
get to them in due time. I was too busy being kidnapped from my own home to call a meeting, but as soon as we get back… Anyways. My mother told us the moment Jerry was born with the mark that the creator had decided that we were to be the protectors. and that others would come when the job got too big. And here you are.”

“She’s the help! She’s the help. Since she came around he’s been drug off into the woods by wild animals, he’s been in a car accident, he has a cast, he has stitches… You’re lucky he’s still in one piece and we are not even sure that he’s still in one piece. And don’t think I’m fooled! There is something more going on here with Cherish and
she
knows what it is!”

Sarah looked over at her and winked. “Maybe she does. Bu
t while you are trying to pinpoint my son for his choice in women, remind me again how you got out here?”

Victor
sputtered as he picked up his pace and his face turned even redder. “That is not important here,” he said angrily.

Sarah nodded and said off to the side, “He showed up in his good suit with flowers and a picnic basket.”

“Tonya. I was supposed to be meeting Tonya! They probably have her locked up somewhere!”

“That or she has been fooling you the entire time and you fell for it, walking around looking like a love sick puppy. Poor Lana. She must be mortified. She has been waiting for you all t
hese years and you go off with-”

“Sarah please! That is not what is important here. She is lying,” he said pointing a finger at Alicia who was doing her best to keep from laughing in his face.

“No,
that
is not what is important right now.”

“Oh, so we give her all our information and she gives us none!”

Sarah shook her head yet again. “The forest for the trees like I said,” she said to Al. Al decided in that moment that she liked Jerry’s family very much. No wonder he was so calm in such odd situations growing up with funny people like this.

Chapter Thirteen

Jerry turned his head and looked at the clothes that were neatly piled beside him. He shivered on the damp cement floor and had the urge to loose his stomach. He pulled at one hand but it was useless. They had him chained spread eagle on the ground. He wasn’t sure where he was. He was in a building in a basement. They had taken him to a car and tied his hands and eyes
before bringing him here. He hadn’t heard the sounds of a city outside when they were bringing him in, so they must still be in the woods.

He wondered if Cherish had kept her promise t
o leave his family alone. “Good morning. I have something for you.”

Jerry turned his head and shock coursed his entire body. He couldn’t have been more shocked if an electric wire had fallen from the sky and fried him crispy. Tonya Mahan stepped up and sat a tray beside him.

“I have a bit of food for you and some juice,” she said with a pleasant smile as if he weren’t naked and bound to the floor. She produced a cup with a straw and held it near his lips.

“Tonya,” he whispered. She sighed and shook her head.

“Yes. Your deductive skills are astounding, now drink up.”

“But… you’re my uncle’s secretary. How… Are
you one of them?” he asked feeling blind sided. He never thought Cherish was a wolf, hell hadn’t known about any of this, but Tonya… she was such a good person. She had life and vitality in her eyes. She was a sweet sweet woman. How could she be one of them?

“Someone had to keep an eye on you when you left Cherish. We couldn’t just let you get away and no, I am not a wolf.”

“Then why-”

“I’m a witch darling boy. I’m a witch and these wolves… they can give me immortality
.”

Jerry laughed as he let his head fall against the cold cement floor. “Tony
a… if they bite you… You won’t-” He stopped himself. It was clear by the gleam in her eyes that they had truly convinced her that she was going to be immortal and nothing he could say would sway her.

“Why are you here
?” he asked at last.

“Well I have a spell on you to help your scent reach more wolves. I am drawing them here to help protect you. If you just do what they say, impregnate as many as you can, I think they will let you go too.”

“Thank you Misses Mahan. I think that we can take it from this point. Night is nearly upon us. Perform your spell for the evening.”

“I thought you said that it was finished now,” Tonya said in a soft subservient voice.

“Yes. And you have performed well, but we still need to complete the task. This will be the last time and then one of the others can take you to your reward,” Cherish said with a beautiful smile. The smile never reached her eyes.

“Okay. Just be sure you give him some juice and food. Keep his strength up and take care of him. That’s the way to get a
man to do what you want him to.” Tonya sent a worried glance over her shoulder towards Jerry.

“They are tricking you
, Tonya,” Jerry said in a near whisper.

“Just do what they say,” Tonya said to him yet again.

“They are tricking you, Tonya! You are never going to get out of here alive,” he yelled out loud this time. Tonya’s brow furrowed in thought before she looked back to Cherish.

“Are you sure he’ll be all right? I mean we should have brought some
blankets or something to-”

“He’ll be fine,” Cherish barked. Then she lightened her tone again. “Please. We need to get started.”

Tonya shrugged and headed up the stairs. Jerry hated that she had betrayed them and his uncle. He hated that he couldn’t do anything at all to help her either. She was lost.

Cherish tsked when the door was closed. “Stupid fool. But she is right about one thing.
You are going to need your strength,” she said as she sank graciously to the floor beside him. He turned from her. She was only wearing a thin silk robe and her nipples were clearly defined beneath the soft material.

“Oh come now. We kept our end of the bargain. You are not going to have a hunger strike on me are you? I would hate to send a few of the men back to your family.”

Jerry allowed his mouth to fall open and she put some oatmeal in. When he had taken a few bites he refused more.

“Well… suit yourself. It is going to be a long day. I
think Tonya had the right idea. She just thought you might like a little strength before we get started.”

“What, rape is e
asier to take on a full stomach?” he asked ironically.

Cherish shook her head as she stood and slipped the robe form her shoulders. “See that’s your problem. How can a woman rape a man? A real man would be happy for this. You. You are like a woman,” she admonished as she put one foot on either side of his hips.

There was no doubting that she was gorgeous. She had a slender body a supermodel would envy, but there was no real give to her beauty. She was beautiful like a statue was beautiful. It was as if she was carved from marble at times for all the warmth she gave. Not like Al. No defiantly not like the vivacious, warm, caring angel he had come to love.
He growled in frustration as he struggled against his bonds. He wanted no part of this.

“Ohhh. You going to hit me again? That was the only time in our entire marriage that you were like a real man to me. I think I like you angry. You should get angrier, it will turn me on.
”

“Fuck you
and what turns you on,” he cursed her.

She took that opportunity to lift her breasts as she looked down on him seductively. There was no denying that she was beautiful, and that his body responded to her, but there was something in her eyes that he hadn’t really noticed before. Maybe he had noticed but he had decided that he could change it in her. There was a slightly dead look in her eyes, as if she were tired of this life.

“How old are you?” he asked at last.

“Right around… eight hundred or so I suppose.
It is time for me to have children. This body feels old and I’m tired of living. If you will do what you are supposed to then there will be more of us and maybe I can let go of this fight.”

“Why do you care if there are more of you if you are not sticking around afterward?”

“I’ll be around. I will go back into the others. The only way for me to rest is if they take me back into them. I have to strengthen the people. You are going to help me do that.”

“What? Help you die? Gladly. As for the re
st I don’t care if you all rot-”

His words were cut off as she went to her knees over him. He tried to move away but she grabbed his hips and held him still. He forced himself to ignore her body. He thought about the most unattractive things that he could. His Aunt Gilda
’s arm fat, his mother naked, his Uncle Victor naked, old women. Cherish was, after all, eight hundred years old. No amount of thinking about naked geriatric people could have kept him from stiffening up when she pushed herself down and wrapped her mouth around him. He had to force his pulse to slow.

He struggled to breath evenly and not let his blood rush to that region. “No,” he cried as she used her tongue to do wicked things to him. “I don’t want you. I don’t want to father your children. You are disgusting. You are disgusting!
”

She came
up then and looked at him. He wanted to be anywhere else. Her eyes were blood red and her teeth looked unnaturally sharp. “You will weather you want to or not,” she said in a voice that was not her own. Her voice was hollow and evil. This effectively ended all blood flow to the sensitive flesh she crouched over.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and her face returned to normal, her playful smile returning. “I’m sorry. You made me loose my
temper there for a moment. Let us see if we can change your mood a bit shall we? Come,” she shouted towards the stair case. The door opened again. Several women entered the room. He got a sinking feeling in his gut as they surrounded him. Each one in turn dropped her robe and he shook his head.

This should be a letter to penthouse. He had to be the unluckiest son of a bitch alive. There were tits and ass everywhere and he didn’t want one of them. Gang rapped by a group of women that could be
International super models.

“I said no,” he screamed as he struggled to buck Cherish off him.

“Yes, that’s the way to get started,” she said as she fell over him and rubbed her center against him. She was slick and ready. Hands began to grope him and a feminine mouth closed over his nipple. He flung his head from side to side and tried to concentrate, tried to fight them, but then another tongue laved at his other nipple and his fingers and toes. He rose against his will and then Cherish was there, riding him.

He had no control but he would hold out as long as possible. After a few minutes she looked down at him. “You never went this long before. You can’t last forever though. Let’s see how long. Then Tara and
Lena are going to have a go with you. Then Brittany, Alba and Bema, and then Stacie, and you will wish that you had eaten by the time we are through with you,” she said as the women pressed in closer to him, a pile of flesh.

He wanted to cry out, to push them off, but there was no help for him. He was finished. It would only be so long. He felt himself rushing towards the precipice already. He struggled against it, but it was like swimming against the flow of a river.

“I said no,” he yelled helplessly.

*
                            *                            *

The helicopter whipped
her hair around her head and Al eyed Bateman across the seat from her. He was looking at her like he wanted to rip her throat out. He had old money written all over him. He wore wire rimmed spectacles and his golden blond hair was combed back from his face. He wore a salmon colored Izod shirt and white slacks with brown loafers. He was the very definition of a well bred man of refinement, but Al knew better. She had seen him in action and new how very deadly he could be.

His frame suggested that he might be weak
, but he was a black belt in tae kwon do, ji jitsu, kung fu, and any other kind of fu she could think of. As a mentor he was also gifted with the ability to heal freakishly fast, and the bite of the wolf wouldn’t change him, but he was not immortal. A thing that had been like a bee in his bonnet for as long as she had known him. He said that he would live a hundred and fifty years but no more.

“I already said that I was sorry,” she snapped as she turned to look out the door. There were a few helicopters flying beside theirs. Each one contained a hunter. She could feel them, feel the need to rip their heads off and spit down their necks.

“You had him. You had him and you were on your way to me. You disobeyed orders dear girl. You brought him here and delivered him into their hands and now we’ve had to spend half a years travel budget to get helicopters, fuel them, buy permission to fly in US air space, hire pilots, leave the rest of the world unprotected from the wolves, and all for what! So you could make him feel better about his family? You’ve put thousands of innocents at risk for this one!”

“Damn right,” she snapped as she looked at him
, her eyes purpling.

He nodded and sat back. He dusted a fleck of imaginary dust from his polo shirt. He held his automatic assault rifle in one hand as he did so, the muscled tendons in his arm flexing as he did so.

“We’re almost there,” the pilot told them and Bateman nodded.

“Alicia. I don’t know what you think will come from
this infatuation you have but-”

“I wi
ll leave him,” she said quietly.

“I beg your pardon.”

“Merde! I said that I will leave him with you when this whole thing is over. I am not stupid. Of course we are not going to ride off into the sunset on my motorcycle. I am going to make sure that he is alive and safe within the compound… and then I am going to give him the needle.
D’accord
. I am going to ride off and do what I was born to do after he is safe, so you can shove your comments up your stiff-”

“Now now. No need for that. I’m just saying this could have all been
done already. If you had just-”

“Had just let his family die? Do you think that would be something that he wouldn’t remember? Do you think he could wake up tomorrow and you tell him his whole family is dead and he won’
t fight you to go back there any way? Who is being naive now,
conasse
? He would have never stayed in the compound with you if that were the case. This was bound to come to a head and I made it happen a little faster. Now I am going to kill that bitch as dead as dead can get, and get on with the rest of my existence. He’ll be dead in another eighty years or so anyway, if that long, so all I have to do is stay away that long.”

Her heart felt heavy to hear her own words. She looked away from him again.

“Al…” Batemen went silent again. There was nothing that could be said, but she was glad to at least hear the regret in his voice. It made her feel that much less burdened.

“We’re he
re,” the pilot announced. Alicia grabbed her rifle and turned to the open door. She jumped without waiting for them to get any closer to the ground.