Misery (3 page)

He lay still as the medic worked on him, but he never moved his eyes off his Lord. He memorized each word
—
he would play them over and over later.

“Some of the talents you won’t realize you have until you need to call on them then, surprise, something extra comes out. When you meet the female, you will recognize her due to the blood. Be very careful, very respectful, as she is the mate of a very powerful nightwalker and he is very protective. You read me about the female?”

He knew about possessions. He nodded his head.

“Good. Now, since you are no longer like your brothers, I am taking you with me. I’m making you one of my personal family. If this doesn’t suit you, later you can tell me what you would prefer to do. Understand? You are free to decide.”

He reached out and grabbed the wrist of the Lord.

“My life now is to serve you, Lord, in whatever way you ask.” His voice was weak, but everyone in the room heard the words. He got well, working to regain his strength. Then he became the Lord’s shadow.

Chapter Three

Misty and her sister, Minty, were in the New Orleans home of Radames, the enforcer and Misty’s mate. Actually they were in an attached underground building that housed laboratories. One of the glassed-in temperature-controlled rooms held state of the art computers along with Internet research stations.

The two women had been spending hours tracing their own beginnings, trying hopelessly to find any lead as to their birth, or their parents or who they actually were.

Although they knew due to DNA tests that they were related, they weren’t sure that they were sisters. The current thought was that they had the same mother but different fathers.

That information didn’t lead to any of the three parents. It was still hidden behind the fact that they had been among five children dropped off on the same day at an orphanage, by unknown sources.

What was even stranger was that the two women were a different breed from mortals. They were also different from nightwalkers, but as yet it hadn’t been discovered exactly what they were. Both women had found mates among nightwalkers. Fortunately, the males had been the strongest in the breed, so the women were well protected. They needed protection, because all nightwalkers wanted their blood. It healed nightwalkers, but more important, it made Vampires stronger, giving them talents that took centuries to develop. One dose of the blood from either female could jump start a new talent in a younger nightwalker.

They had traced a third woman, perhaps another sister. They followed her carefully through the rough systems that both of them had been forced to endure. So now they found that there were three female children turned in on the same day, all dressed in blue, from a baby to a child of about three. Each had a card with only one word on it. Misty, Minty, and now the third, Misery.

“Okay, I have found her. She is in South Dakota, working for an IT company. We need to get someone to protect her. We need to get a blood sample to make sure it is the same one and that she is related. We don’t want to scare the hell out of a mortal that just happened to be an orphan, but not one of us.” Misty finished her speech and looked over at her sister.

“Alex is due in today,” Minty responded. “I will ask him to send someone who can be trusted to watch her. Of course she is one of us
—
look, IT, she does IT. We all are drawn to computers and tech work. We need someone who is strong enough to protect her, in case there are nightwalkers sniffing around her.”

So after meeting her beautiful mate and his usual entourage as a Council Lord, after taking care of their dark side, something they didn’t share with others, she told him about Misery. She stressed the need for the blood sample, but also protection.

He smiled down at her as they went up to join everyone in the main room. The home of Radames was on a lake. It featured a lot of glass, special glass so that everyone could be comfortable. The older the nightwalker, the less they were affected by sunlight. But the serum in the sisters’ blood also helped them adapt to the rays. Because Rad had so many visitors, he kept his house in a mode that would make it hospitable to all.

When they entered, Rad was getting an update by phone from Marco, his servant and friend. Rad was halfway around the world, but had placed the running of his many businesses into his servant’s hands. Misty sat by Marco, handing him papers as needed.

* * * *

Deck, Alex’s shadow, was leaning against a wall by the stairway that led to the front door, like one of the statues that flanked the stairway. Alex looked over at the large muscular man. There was no more emotion showing on him than on the marble of the carvings. No one was coming in unexpected to his liege while he was by the Lord’s side. He thought the man needed some action. He knew the nightwalker worked out daily, but he was always on Alex’s heels. Riding in the car, a plane, behind his chair in the conference room at Council meetings. Yep, the nightwalker needed an assignment.

Alex listened and spoke into the speaker. “Rad, my brother, the women that have been put into our lives to make sure we don’t rest peacefully seem to think they have found another to add to their number.”

There was silence on the other end. Finally Rad’s deep voice spoke with humor. “I think they are trying to build their own army just so they can boss us around. Well, you know the drill, my brother, see that it gets taken care of properly. But choose wisely
—
look what happened to the last two protectors.”

Alex looked over at his female. He didn’t even smile. Radames had been sent out to find and protect Misty. Rad had ended up bonded to her. Misty had asked Alex to go to Minty, once she had been located. Misty wasn’t aware that Alex had a dark secret, but Alex went and he discovered Minty also had a dark secret. They became bonded.

Alex sat back, thinking about the situation. Could there be some special guiding hand behind bringing the right nightwalkers to the right sisters? That didn’t seem possible, but he knew the Gods were always up to strange tricks. He had first thought that the ideal warrior to send would be Decimus. The nightwalker needed to get out. Deck needed to release some of that tension that he locked up so carefully under that unreadable face.

Still, maybe he should look around at his choices. He knew that the only sexual partners this unbending Vamp had been allowed when in the camp were mortals who had been influenced. This was so there would be no response. The women just lay there and spread their legs, and would be drained later. He was trained by pain not to have feelings. What would happen to the stone in his chest if he protected the female and she put a crack in it?

But Decimus was stronger than any nightwalker out there on the streets. He also was loyal to a fault. If Alex told him to watch and protect the female, that was what he would do. He would protect her through earthquakes, tornadoes, and hordes of rogues. So let the gods play their games.

“Decimus.”

The big man stood up immediately. “Yes, my Lord.”

“I have a very special important assignment for you.”

Chapter Four

He had observed her for three months. He knew he had been careful, so he was surprised that she knew someone was watching her. He got close until he saw something strange. There was a nightwalker moving through the mall. He wasn’t even looking at her
—
he walked by her. Then the crowd bumped her into him.

The nightwalker flinched, turned, immediately emitted a telltale change in his eyes. Someone else nudged Deck. He got control but he immediately followed her, moving closer and closer.

Decimus was surprised by the reaction of the Vamp. He didn’t look like a rogue, he just looked like a civilian. Yet he had been drawn to the female. He was moving in, each step bringing him closer to the female. Decimus decided that to protect her he needed to move alongside her.

She left the mall and walked to the parking lot. Her follower was right behind her, moving from shadow to shadow, waiting for her to be alone. Her follower had her where he wanted. He started to step forward. Decimus attacked in that moment.

except there was a large weight on his shoulder. He was flung around but he came up to fight. The civilian Vamp was down on the ground too fast. He knew several important items all at once. He was not a trained warrior and he was looking up at one of the elite. He was dust.

Decimus held the broken nightwalker down, looking around to see if anyone had seen them. They were between a van and an SUV, within deep shadows. There was no one to see. The female was already in the safety of her car.

He knelt down and placed the silver knife against the chest of the nightwalker lying without moving on the dark pavement.

“Why did you follow her?” His voice was low, without inflection or emotion.

“Her smell, I needed more.” He produced a small smile and pushed his chest against the knife. Decimus didn’t hesitate, but drove it in with a sharp clean cut, then sat in the dust. He waited a moment, then picked up the ring, pulled the items out of the clothes and gathered the clothes to take to a trashcan.

He thought about the comment of the nightwalker for several days of watching her. Watching her was easy, as she had a routine that she did not vary in her personal life. He could appreciate that. If he had a personal life, he would want it to be a neat routine. Finally he knew he had to find out what that Vamp had died for. He needed to expose himself in order to get close enough to see if there was something different about her.

So he had caught the apple. When she stood, she was so close that if he had moved an inch they would touch. Instead he took a deep breath. That was when he knew he had made a big mistake
—
he had to report to his Lord. He would have his Lord pull him off the assignment, because he thought that he had just failed. Actually he wasn’t sure what he had done.

Normally he made a daily report to an answering machine that belonged to Lord Alex’s mate, Minty. But this time he had pulled his cell phone out as he stood in the shadows across from her apartment. He had waited until after he saw the lights go out, then hit the quick dial to reach Lord Alex direct.

“Decimus, is there a problem?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Decimus, I have requested you to call me Alex. Oh never mind. Is the problem immediate?”

“No, Lord, umm, Alex, sir.”

“Good, I am a little busy right now. I will call you back in one hour.”

So he had stood unmoving against the building in the shadows, watching the windows on the second floor across the street. In one hour the phone had vibrated in his hand and he flipped it open.

“Sire.”

“Okay, what seems to be the problem?”

“Lord Alex, I fear I have disobeyed. I have done something I should not have done. There has been a result I do not feel pleasant about, so I feel I need to be removed from this assignment.”

There was a long silence on the other end. “Deck, I had an assignment like yours once
—
tell me what happened. This female is important to us.”

“I have exposed myself to her, once by accident. But once on purpose.”

“First of all, there hasn’t been a prohibition about exposing yourself, so I don’t see a problem yet.”

“There was no emergency, no need to expose myself. It was based on another nightwalker I dusted because he was moving on her.”

“I am still waiting to hear a problem.”

“Lord Alex, she smells. Fuck. I should not have done that. The smell is in my mind.” Deck waited through another long silence.

Finally Alex spoke again. “Okay, this could put her in danger from other nightwalkers. How close did you have to get before you could observe this odor?”

Deck hesitated, but it was important to be honest. He must give the complete information, so he continued. “Almost touching. The nightwalker had bumped her. When I tested, I was an inch away, and I also touched her when we put the apples away.”

“Apples? Never mind, let’s stay on track. This is what we were afraid of, why she needs protection. It is why I have you on the job. I can’t trust anyone else. Let me talk to my mate, but I think she and Misty will need you to get a sample of blood. You might find this difficult, because we find females like her can’t be influenced. Until I get back with you on this, see if you can get into a situation to try an influence. You know you are strong now. If you can’t, she is safe from other nightwalkers. No need to report in until you hear from me.”

He went back to watching her, making sure she did not see him again. He knew she was aware of being watched. He saw her turn suddenly, scanning the crowd. He saw her get off a crowded bus when people pushed in too close to her. He watched as she rode home with her partner more often than normal, almost every night. She was being very careful. She had her food delivered instead of stopping at the QuickMart.

This made his job easier
—
not that he wanted it easier. He was getting so restless. He was fighting a demon he didn’t understand. He wanted to get a taste of that smell again. He wanted to kill someone. He wanted to smash his fists into someone who was threatening her. He wanted rogues to come out in droves, to stand in the middle of the street and be covered in gore. He wanted to not think about her smell.