Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) (25 page)

“Maman
had a stroke. I think it was all the stress. She loved Sierra like… like she was her own. She came up nearly every weekend when the baby was still… alive. Anyway. The last thing I said to her before her stroke was… leave me alone. Your daughter is dead, or something to that effect. I had to put her in a home after the stroke and I don’t know if she even knew who I was. I wasn’t in any shape to care for her myself. Guilt on top of guilt.

“While I was in town I started to check into freakish animal attacks in peoples homes. I found a few acc
ounts that didn’t add up. People being attacked and then their corpses going missing. I followed every lead on every story that I could. Something in my gut told me that it just wasn’t right, what happened to my family. I found a guy living in a cabin down in Alabama and he was a paranoid mess. His son got bit by what he said was a wolf. He told me that the wolves had attacked their place and the only thing that saved him was his son hitting one of them with an axe. But the wolf bit him. He said that his son up and ran straight into the woods after the wolves. He said he never saw him again, but that he heard this howling late into the next two nights.

“There hadn’t been wolves in the area in some years. He said he thought it was his son singing to him.
I brushed up on the local legends before I made my way into the Savannahs. I caught sight of something one night. I thought it was a dog at first and I set out a chicken I had roasted. I took up a spot in a tree and waited most of the night. It wasn’t a dog though… and it wasn’t after any chicken.

“I tried to shoot it and it ripped me out of the tree. As it bit into my chest I thought to myself… finally, I am going to be with my family. Then the beast was flaming above me and falling to the ground. A tall sort of nerdy looking man came to stand over me holding a rifle. He stayed with me through the fever and the hysteria while I changed. I just wanted to die but I didn’t.

“Bateman told me all the gifts I had inherited and I fought against it at first. He invited me to the compound, introduced me to another hunter. I nearly killed the other hunter the urge was so strong to rip his head off. He gave me my first bike and told me that I was meant to guard the eastern seaboard. Suddenly, I was supposed to be a part of some grand team of protectors out to save the human race, but all I could think was that something in my blood had drawn them to me… to my family.

“
I ran. I tried every way I could to kill myself. I cut myself, I starved myself, I drowned myself, and with each failure I felt a little more of myself slip away. Soon I realized what Bateman said about me no longer eating food was very true, because even though I hadn’t eaten one morsel of food in weeks, I wasn’t hungry for it. I could smell the creatures in the Savannah. Their blood called to me. I refused to take any blood though and turned to stone right there with little cover. I was burned and baked over and over again every day and I knew that I was in hell.”

She was quiet then as she thought back over those long days and nights. It had been hell. She listened to the pounding of Jerry’s he
art, the soft sounds of the desert outside settling in for the night. And suddenly there was a silence in her soul. She had been so angry for so long that she didn’t even recognize it anymore, but right now… it was better.

“Do you want
to tell me something about her?” he asked, his voice rumbling through his chest.

She thought back to the time before.
For the first time she smiled to think of her baby. The pain was still keen but somehow, sharing it with him made it easier to bear. Bateman said that Jerry’s power as a balance didn’t affect her, but she felt so comfortable with him. It was like she could tell him anything. She laughed an ironic laugh.

“
I was so scared when I was pregnant. I knew that I would love my baby, but I had always been such a free spirit and tough. I didn’t know if I would make a good mother. I didn’t know if I would give her the things she needed. I have no siblings, and I had very little reason to handle babies before she came, and I was so young.

“When she came though…
oh, ma petite bebe… the moment she was born I just knew. She looked up at me with the biggest most beautiful brown eyes I ever seen in my life. Everyone in the hospital just fell in love with her and Thomas was so proud. To see his face when he looked down at that little girl was to see my own heart reflected. With Sierra you couldn’t help but to love and take care of her. She just wrapped you all up in her sweetness.

“She was never a shy girl. She ran before she walked. I remember when she got her first two teeth. She was so proud. She would dole out these big double toothed grins for anyone who cared to look her way and smart… she spoke French bout as well as she spoke English. I never used any of that fancy make your baby smarter tools either. I just let
her be herself and she was sunshine and happiness all day.

“Not that she was perfect. She had her temper tantrums
, but even those would make me laugh because she was so cute while she was doin’ it. I suppose me and her papa may have spoiled her rotten had things gone differently.”

Al reached up a
nd stroked the smooth skin of Jerry’s chest.

“She must have been a real treat,” he s
aid softly.

“She was… yes she was.”

“The poem on your back?”

“My maman
… she was a writer in her younger days and she wrote that poem. I made them inscribe the whole thing on the tombstone. It’s still there.”

“So they are in
Texas then?”

“Oui
. I pay an additional fee to be sure that the grounds man takes extra care to clean up the graves at least twice a month. They usually only do it once a month but I want to make sure that they are always taken care of. I guess I’ll be around to make sure they are.”

Jerry lifted her face so he could look
into her eyes. His soul communicated the love he felt for her. He felt her pain as keenly as if it was his own and it made her heart swell. She closed her eyes as his lips met hers.

This time when he made love to her it wasn’t rushed. He took his time to explore every inch
of her body and then some. When he was finished he did it all over again. When he finally entered her after she had taken a deep draw on his neck once again, it was something more than anything they had done before. It was earth shattering. It was soul shattering. She knew with a certainty that it had to be final.

“
Bonne nuit, ma chérie,” she whispered her good night as they drifted off curled up inside each others arms.

Chapter Fifteen

Al watched him sleeping on his stomach. His hair was tousled and his casted arm hung over the side of the bed. He was sleeping soundly as he should after all that they had been through. He was bruised from car accidents, crazed wolves, and a near rape, and then her marathon ravishment as it went on through the entire night. This morning he had to be sleeping the deepest sleep of his life. He looked so at peace.

She sighed as she pulled out the syringe. He trusted her so completely that she felt her heart break for him. He would never understand, but thanks to Bateman he would never have to. She went forward and before he could make a protest the needle slid into the side of his neck, deposited its drug, and slid just as easily out. She didn’t think he even stirred to wake. She dropped the needle to her side and backed into a corner where she slid to the floor and sat staring at him for a moment. A tear broke free without her meaning it to.

Who
ever he would be when he woke up, he would never be her Jerry again. He would never remember anything they had been through together. They were just never meant to be. And it was the most depressing thing she’d had to face in a long time. He had given her so much and what had she given him? If she had given him anything he wouldn’t remember it.

There was a tap at the door. After a few minutes the light tap came again. She
swiped away the tears and was shaking as she approached the door to throw it open. Bateman stood there with a sedate non-threatening look on his face. It was good for him that he did so. because she didn’t need much excuse to knock someone’s teeth in at the moment. She held the empty needle out to him.

“My bike is packed,” she said.

He nodded as he handed the needle off to Karen Stone. She was the new mentor in training and quit a pretty thing at that. Al wondered how many hunters would try to have their way with her. She looked back to Bateman.

“Are you sure you don’t want
to be a part of the debriefing?” Bateman asked.

She shook her head vehemently. “I think… the emotions between us were too strong. Let’s just stick to the story.”

Bateman nodded. He snapped his fingers and a few men came down the hall with a gurney. “We’ll take care of him then.”

It took everything in her not to
go to Jerry and protect him from them all. Reluctantly Al nodded as she pushed past Bateman into the hall. She didn’t look back into the room at the man that she would love with a passion for the rest of her life. He would be safe here and so much safer without her. It was time to move on. She took the leather duster offered to her by one of the servants in the garage. They always replaced any damaged clothes or gear. She put on her sun glasses, kicked her bike to life and sped out of the garage at a speed that made a few of the others move quickly out of her way.

Before she left Vegas she found a tattoo parlor and had one more name added to her list. She stopped at the edge of town. The desert seemed to stretch on for miles and miles but for the first time… she didn’t feel so lost any more. A hint of something whispered to her on the breeze and she smiled as she felt her eyes turn. They were still out there and she was still the one chosen to fight them. She took off at top speed on her way east and to a new fight.

*                            *                            *

Jerry woke up slowly. He felt like he was moving under water. He reached out to the space beside him but there was no one there. There was supposed to be someone there… wasn’t there? Where was he?

“Nice to have you back soldier.” A nurse approached his bed. There was a bank of beds to the right and left of him. “We were worried you might not come out of it.”

“Out of what? Where am I?
” he asked putting his hand to his aching head.

She tsked with concern as she sat on the bed next to him. She pulled out a little light and checked his eyes and then his pulse. “You are in
Bagdad.”

“Bagdad, as in
Iraq’s Bagdad?”

“Yes.”

He blinked as he tried to recall traveling to Bagdad. “How did I get here?” he asked. She looked at his file and shook her head.

“The file says you were here to help the Iraqi police force. You’
re unit was on its way back from a patrol when your convoy was bombed by a road side bomb.”

“But…” he shook his head. This wasn’t making any sense.

“Maybe it would be better for you to get debriefed. I’m sure they’ll be sending you state side because of your amnesia.”

His brain was so fuzzy. When had he joined the
military? He knew of the program they had where experienced cops could go to Iraq to help in their efforts to bring the people under control, to train Iraqi police, but he couldn’t have signed up for it. He was not in the military. She made to rise but he grabbed her arm.

“No. Wait. Please. There is something I am supposed to remember… was there…
was there… did someone save me… a woman?” he asked as catches of a woman, a very beautiful woman with violet eyes, flashed through his mind.

The
pretty blond nurse looked down on him with pity as she removed his hand from her arm. “There were a few casualties in your unit. I think I’ll let your military liaison debrief you about anything specific,” she said as she hurried away.

He sank back into his pillows. Something inside of him cried out. He needed to remember. He had to remember… her. He strained at his fuzzy mind but nothing would come to him clearly. He wanted to weep with what he had forgotten, but he didn’t understand why. A man with a manila f
older approached. He was a well bred, tall, and somewhat lean looking man.

If he was
in the military, it had been a long time since he’d had to do any grunt work. He looked like he could possibly be dangerous if he set his mind to it, but more so intellectually than physically. Perhaps he was the son of some wealthy person who had bought his son an officers spot through West Point and other avenues meant to give rich people with political aspirations a military record. He pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

“Hello Jerry,” he said in a smooth
cultured tone. The tone spoke of someone accustomed to being in charge.

“Who are you?
” he asked. The man looked down his nose as if he was above answering menial questions asked by lower classed beings, but he answered in a falsely pleasant tone anyway.

“
Collin Bateman. I work with the VA. Your unit leader has already been reassigned and I am to handle your debriefing. It appears you have amnesia?”

Jerry tried hard to think of anything that had happened to him recently. Very little came. He had been drug through the mud by his ex-wife and had put out applications to various police departments. He hadn’t been making much headway because of Cherish’s father.

“I was… applying to different police departments. I guess… I couldn’t get a job so I joined the military and then got into the police program and… we were in some type of accident.”

The man nodded as he made notes.
Jerry wondered why he got the feeling that this mysterious man who claimed to be head of the VA wanted him to spill out this line of bullshit. He felt suddenly as if he was being directed by the man, but if it meant he could stay and figure out what had happened… to her.

“It seems like you are regaining some of your memories. You should be cleared to head back to the states where you can start your
therapy. We should be able to-”

“There was a woman,” he interrupted.

“Excuse me.” The man looked up from his notes, his deep blue eyes piercing. Apparently Jerry was not supposed to remember this part, but he had to find out as much about her as possible.

“There was a woman… she saved my life I think… I…” he shook his head and concentrated. He had to remember.

Bateman pushed up his spectacles, which Jerry suspected he didn’t really need, before he opened the manila folder. He shuffled through a few papers and then photos before he pulled out a picture of a woman dressed in combat gear. He held it out to Jerry. Jerry’s heart sped up as he took the photo and something in his heart got tight. She was so damn beautiful with her smooth mocha skin and whiskey colored eyes. There was something in those eyes… some secret. He closed his eyes.

“Where is she?
” he asked softly.

“She was part of your transport… I’m sorry but she didn’t make it.”

He felt as if someone had just ripped his heart from his chest. He suddenly felt so lost that it frightened him. His mind told him he didn’t even know this woman but something in his heart told him he did.

“I… we were…”

“Though it is against military policy, inquiries were made. Your unit leader did report that the two of you were rumored to be an item,” Bateman supplied. So that was it. The military didn’t want a scandal over the relationship.

Jerry swallowed as he
touched her face in the picture. “Friends,” he threw out quickly to negate the rumors. His heart said they were more than friends but no one else need know that if it meant he could get more information about her. “Where is the… body?”

“S
he’s already made it state side,” Bateman answered softly as if he truly regretted her loss. That at least made Jerry feel a little better about the man. Bateman paused as if waiting for Jerry to say something.

“Her mother… she had a stroke. She has no sisters
or brothers,” Jerry added. The knowledge came from a place that was beyond his understanding. The man sitting in front of him went completely still for an instant before he looked down and made more notes.

“Do you recall anything else?
” he asked.

“She… had a husband
and a child. They… died. You should burry her near them,” he supplied with a certainty.

The man looked over the top o
f his spectacles at Jerry. “Anything else?”

“She… hated liquorish candy,” he said with a sad smile. “She loved chocolate and hard liquor. She was
so drop dead gorgeous that it was a shame for her to act so tough all the time. I think… I think she had a motorcycle. Yes. I’m sure… and she loved to wear leather. Where’s her motorcycle?”

“Stateside,” Bateman
replied quickly. “Is that all you can recall?”

“She saved my life over and over. If someone killed her… then I need to stay here and make sure that I’m part of the unit that gets them.” There was a deadly hint in his voice that even he didn’t recognize.

“That’s the wrong attitude to have soldier. We are not here for-”

“I understand that. It’s just…” he looked at the photograph again.

“But you’ve had massive trauma to your head and-”

“I remember most of what happened. I’m ready to go back out there.
You need people, I want to be here.”

The man looked him over with a critical eye. “We will give you some time here with a therapist and see if we can g
et you combat ready again. That cast should be ready to come off at weeks end. It was only a hairline fracture. You’ll only have a few weeks you understand, then you either go state side or back on the street. No argument.”

Jerry nodded and was grateful.
He looked at the photo. Someone had taken her away before he’d ever had his chance to love her the way she needed. They had ended something special and he would be sure that they paid for it.

The man put his hand out for the photo but Jerry clutched it tighter. Taking the hint the wiry man stood and headed off towards the nurse that had first come to his side. She walked off with the VA guy and they had their heads together as if discussing something very serious. Probably some type of plan for getting him back in shape.

*

“So are you ever going to tell them?”

Bateman looked at the lovely blond Karen Stone. She was so young and so niave. Every mentor that had ever been born had been born unassuming and plain looking. It was a necessity for them to stay unnoticed and under the radar. So when the beacon discovered Karen it had rocked the mentor community. She had her own talents. A beautiful woman opened doors that any of the wiry hairy or heavily unattractive mentors might have had more trouble opening, and no one would look at her and think that she was deadly or dangerous.

She looked as soft as a kitten with her peach colored skin and bright blue eyes. She would undoubtedly enjoy an eas
ier hundred and fifty years than he did. He sighed inwardly. One hundred and ten years he had walked the earth and he loved his work. He loved his knowledge. He wasn’t ready to give it up. He hated training his own replacement, especially when she was so damn pretty and kept trying to get under his skin.

When they rounded the corner he took her stethoscope and threw it to the
nurse’s station. “No,” he answered curtly.

“But… the legend says
that the protector and the balance… does Alicia even know that she is a protector as well as a hunter?”

Bateman shook his head. “You are going to have to learn that there are some things that the hunters are on a need to know basis about.”