Fledgling (The Vampire Manifesto, Book Two) (9 page)

“Tell me what it is you’re scared of?” I asked.

Dakota Theia sat down on the bed. She was wearing a pair of burgundy sweat pants and a white tank top. All of it was form fitting. I wondered if that was what she was planning to sleep in or was that just her attire for the day.

“It’s just you and your mom here?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Dakota said. “I’ve never really met my dad before.”

“Any family other than your mom?”

“Nope, it’s just us.”

I frowned. “How solitary.”

“Sooo…” She began. “You’re like Spiderman, right?”

“No.” I said very serenely.

“I just thought with the jumping and all…” She continued.

“I’m not like Spiderman.” I repeated.

“Then uh…” Dakota paused. “Then what are you?”

“Something worse.” I pulled up a chair and situated it directly in front her. “Do you still want to be my friend?”

I held my hand out. Gradually she reached for it, grasping my fingers, pulling me on top of her. She felt like Christmas morning in my arms and as we caressed she placed tender kisses all over my face. I closed my eyes and she kissed my eyelids, each one gently, then she moved on, kissing the tip of my nose, then my cheeks. Her body was flustered, I could feel the heat emanating off it, inviting against my skin. She kissed my lips, hesitant at first, then with more hunger, her appetite surpassing even my own.

She had her fingers in my hair, pulling my head back, her tongue on my neck, her teeth biting my skin. I wanted her more than I wanted any person in my life. More than Connor, more than Ethan even and to…

I rose slowly, Dakota straddling my lap, kissing me. “Wait…” I said. She didn’t of course and it was hard for me to stop kissing her as well. “No…wait.” I repeated again.

“Um…sure.” She said. “Okay.” She sat there, her legs wrapped around my waist, her arms around my neck, her blood scent so strong it was as if it was mine and not hers.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

I wasn’t completely sure. “I don’t know.”

She started to kiss my neck again, but I moved against it. “Do you hear that?” I asked.

Dakota paused to listen. “Hear what?” She said finally.

No, of course she couldn’t hear that Madison, you barely hear it. “Is your mom expecting company?”

“At this hour?” She climbed off my lap, coming to rest next to me, her head on my shoulder. “God no.”

“Well she’s about to get some.” I said. “A lot of it.”

I could hear shuffling across the front lawn. It sounded like there were at least three…wait, make that four of them. They were at the front door now.

Knock Knock.

Dakota looked up. “How did you…”

I positioned a finger over her lips. “Sshh…”

I could hear her mother rousing, getting up from the couch and moving over to the door.

“Who is it?” She called out.

“Ma’am, my name Agent Barcel and I’m with the Homeland Security.” Said the man outside. “Do you mind if I come in to talk?”

She hadn’t opened the door yet. “May I see some identification please?”

Good girl.

“Why are the police here?” Dakota asked.

“They’re not the police.” I replied. “What here.”

I could hear a shuffling outside briefly.

“Thank you.” Mrs. Theia said. “Never can be too careful.” She was opening the front door now.

I made my way towards the bedroom door, opening it slowly, slipping through. I crouched as low to the ground as I could, making my way towards the steps, risking a glance.

Four men were filing into the house. They were attired in dark suits and were all clean-shaven.

“Do you know this girl?” Agent Barcel handed Mrs. Theia a picture. I inhaled suddenly. It was a picture of Dakota and me.

Mrs. Theia looked over the photo. “Well, that one is my daughter.” She pointed to Dakota. “But the other one, I’ve never seen her before. What’s this got to do with Dakota?”

The other three men with scanning the living room while trying not to make it look obvious.

“This photo was taken from a traffic cam earlier tonight.” Barcel explained. “This girl.” He pointed to me in the picture. “We believe that she was abducted not long after this picture was taken.”

Kidnapped? WTF?

Mrs. Theia gasped. “Oh my God.”

“We have witnesses reporting that she was physically forced into a van by an unidentified assailant. Right now we have an Amber alert…”

An Amber alert? How ironic is that?

“…issued in the hopes that we can locate her safely, except we are having a difficult time locating anyone who can identify the victim.” Barcel explained. “Is your daughter home Mrs. Theia? If she could impart any information that could assist our…”

I was back in Dakota’s bedroom. Kidnaped? Forced into a van? Whoever these people are, it’s not Homeland Security. There’s only one individual I know affiliated with the government that would even be searching for my identity...

Colonel Hawking.

“What’s going on?” Dakota asked.

“Bad business.” I replied. “We have to get you and your mom out of here.”

Dakota appeared mystified. “I don’t understand.”

“Those men…” I explained. “…you and your mom are in danger.”

“Dakota!” Mrs. Theia called out. “Can you come down here?”

I grabbed Dakota by her hand. “Whatever those men ask you, just tell them.”

“What do they want?” She was whispering, walking backward towards the door.”

“Dakota!”

“They want me.” I whispered back.

I could tell she didn’t comprehend what was happening as she left the bedroom. I did a slow circle trying to think. If Hawking was here…no, don’t even think about it. I reached for my back pocket, grabbing for my cell phone, except it wasn’t there. It was in my other jeans; I hadn’t switched anything in my pockets over to these. Not that it would work anyhow, not after that tumble I took earlier. I moved back towards the door, creeping along, trying to get a bead on the situation.

Dakota was downstairs now. “Yeah mom, what’s up?”

Mrs. Theia passed her the photo. “These gentlemen are with Homeland Security.” She said. “Do you know this girl?”

Dakota took the photo, giving it a good once over. “Yeah, well, kinda.” She handed the picture back. “Her names Madison.”

“Do you know where she lives?” Barcel asked. “How can I locate her parents?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno.”

“What about her last name?” He questioned.

“I dunno.” She repeated again.

Barcel didn’t seem like he was buying it. “You don’t know her last name?”

“I just met her.” She explained. “Tonight. We walked on the beach, kissed for a little bit…”

“Dakota!” Mrs. Theia didn’t seem to like that last part.

Dakota just rolled her eyes. “Oh please mom, we’ve had this conversation before, get over it already.”

“You just met her tonight.” Barcel repeated. “Right. Of course.” He turned towards one of the other Agents. “Call it in.”

One of the men pulled out a cell and stepped into the kitchen.

“Why are you guys looking for her?” Dakota asked. “She in trouble or something.”

“Or something.” Barcel replied. He looked over to the Agent in the kitchen. “Status report?”

I strained to listen harder; I wanted to hear what they were talking about on the phone, but it was only a sequence of beeps on the other end.

“Everything’s a green light.” The Agent made his way back into the living room. “Just waiting for YBR transport and we should be good to go.”

Something wasn’t right. Where had I heard that term before? YBR transport?

Yellow Brick Road transport…

Barcel pulled out a small handgun and fired once; shooting Mrs. Theia once in the forehead, blood splattering the wall mounted TV behind her. The Agents gun didn’t even make a sound when it was discharged. Dakota turned, watching her mother’s body propel backwards, slamming against the wall, a dark streak of blood following her head as she slid down the wall to the ground. Agent Barcel was turning his weapon on Dakota now…

I was downstairs, my fingers wrapping around Barcel's gun hand as I spun into his body, my back flush against his chest. I forced a change in the weapons direction just as he fired, shooting the Agent on Dakotas left who was closest to the kitchen in the chest. I repositioned his arm again and pulled the trigger, shooting the Agent that was situated just behind her on her right in the throat. I spun away from Barcel, taking the gun with me and fired directly in the center of his head, then turned again and aimed the gun at the last Agent by the door. Everything happened so fast he was still in the process of reaching for his weapon.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” I advised.

Begrudgingly he held his hands up. I moved forward, gun aimed in at his head. I reached into his jacket and pulled his weapon out, tucking it in the small of my back before taking a few steps away.

“Dakota, on me.” I yelled. I risked a quick look, but she was disorientated, frozen in place by the carnage surrounding her. “NOW!” I said a little harsher. She snapped out of her fugue state and was behind me on my right. I could hear her crying. So many people were crying around me today, it seems to be a thing now.

“You.” I called out to the Agent. “You work for Hawking?”

He didn’t say anything.

I fired twice into his left shin, the bone exploding apart as his leg gave way and he crashed into the ground.

“They’re going to have to amputate that.” I said. “Answer my question.”

The Agent was stifling his scream, yet refused to speak.

“No?” I fired twice in his right shin. This time he did scream. “Now you’re in permanent wheelchair, artificial prostatic territory.”

Even after all that he still declined to talk. “Damn, they breed you motherfuckers tough.”

“Madison…” Dakota was calling my name.

“What is it baby?” I asked.

“What are you doing?” She was in shock; I could hear it in her voice. I needed to get her away from all of this, but I had something to do first.

“Not now sweetie, momma bear is working.” I replied

“Um....okay.” She was starting to look around at the dead men on the ground. She turned, her gaze falling on Mrs. Theia. “Mommy…”

I rotated to look at her then a little further to see what she was staring at. “No, no sweetie.” I said. “Eyes up here.”

I pointed at her eyes then to mine.

“Mmkay.” She whimpered.

“Don’t look at that.” I said, pointing at her eyes then to mine again. “Look at me.”

“Everybody is dead.” She murmured. “They’re all dead.”

“Not everybody.” I glanced at the Agent hemorrhaging to death on the floor and then looked at Dakota. “Look at me.”

“Okay.” She slowly met my gaze.

“I don’t want you to be afraid anymore.” I didn’t want to mesmerize her; I didn’t want to force unreal emotions on her.

“You’re never going to be frightened of me.” I said. “I will always be there for you.”

Her eyes were hazed over. “You’ll never leave me.” She said.

“You’ll…” I paused, looking at her, looking at how much I wanted her. She belonged to me now. “You’ll always love me; you’ll only want me and no one else.”

“I’ve always loved you anyway.” She whispered. “From the first moment I met you.”

The Agent was staring at me in revulsion. “Monster.”

I turned to him. “Oh, now you wanna talk?” I shot him once in the upper leg. “Fuck you.”

I turned back to Dakota. “Don’t worry about your mommy, she’s with Jesus now. A better place. Don’t dwell on it. Now go upstairs and pack some clothes.”

Dakota spun around and darted up the stairs.

I turned my attention back to the Agent. “I’m not even at half a clip yet. You still got nothing to say?” The Agent just grunted from the pain he was in, but other than that, he continued with the silent treatment. I pointed the gun at his left hand then at his right. “Which one do you jerk off with?”

I just looked at him, resting in a massively increasing pool of blood. “Why haven’t you bled to death yet?”

I drew up close to the Agent, so we were face to face. “You don’t want to talk to me, fine. I gotta a message for your boss. You tell that prick motherfucker that Palm Coast is my city.” I grabbed his face by the chin. “MY CITY!” I screamed. “You tell him if he comes after me or Dakota again I will find him and I’ll personally slit his goddamn throat myself. You tell him that for me bitch.”

I backed away slowly. “Dakota.” I called out. “Time to go sweetie.”

A few moments later she came bounding down the steps, backpack full of clothes in hand.

“You got everything you need?” I asked.

“Not everything.” She admitted. “But enough.”

“Don’t worry baby, I know a rich dude that likes to spend money on frivolous shit, so it’s okay.” I placed my hand around her waist, ushering her to the door. “Come on lets go.”