Pulse of Heroes (57 page)

“I want to go home!” Haden imitated
Michelle’s voice sarcastically. “No one is driving you anywhere
before sunrise. You’re acting like a little girl, it’s very
unflattering.” When Michelle returned from the bathroom Haden was
checking the laptop again. She walked over to the table but he
lowered the screen shut. “Do you do this all the time, ask
questions after questions? No wonder Elliot couldn’t deal with you
anymore. You’re driving me crazy and you haven’t even been here for
24 hours yet.” Michelle was beyond hurt, feeling a large lump
building in the back of her throat. Why would he say such mean
things to her? She was only asking what anybody else would. She lay
back down in bed and curled up in a fetal position as far away as
possible from where he had been earlier.

Haden definitely had a mean streak in him and
she didn’t like that at all, although he could also be very kind at
times. Was this what it was like to be involved with a grown up?
Did she have to deal with the bad to get the good? Elliot was never
mean to her like that. He was kind and gentle and she missed him.
What the heck was she doing here, and how did she get herself into
this mess? Haden climbed back into the bed and wrapped his large
body around hers. Michelle tried to curl her body inward even more.
He kissed her neck and laughed when she told him not to. “I’m not
going to bite and suck your blood just because we’re in
Transylvania,” he said. “There’s still no such thing as vampires.”
Haden rolled her up on top of him. “What do I see here? He ran his
finger along a tear track and tasted it. “Yes, salty little tears.
What a pity I don’t suck those either.” Haden lowered Michelle’s
face against his bare chest and stroked her hair. “All this is
going to be over in a few hours and you can go home, I promise. But
that would make me rather sad. I like you.” He told Michelle that
once she understood that everything he was doing was for the
greater good, she just might think about staying after all.
“Wouldn’t you like to live in a place like this? I haven’t even
shown you the rest of the house, or the swimming pool, or the
horses.” Haden held Michelle’s tiny hand and for a second she
curled her fingers around his. Why was she so weak, she wondered?
Was it because his scent was filling her nostrils, or was it his
heartbeat that was reminding her of the way she felt the night
before? Michelle let go of his hand and rolled off him.

“I don’t know why you keep fighting it?”
Haden said in a neutral voice.

“I’m not fighting anything. You need to stop
pretending you know what’s going on in my head,” Michelle said more
strongly. Haden laughed and told her she was bluffing. He asked her
if Elliot had never discussed how attuned they were to the human
body. Michelle didn’t understand. She knew that their type couldn’t
read minds. But Haden told her that it’s not her mind that he could
read, but rather her body.

“When we’re physically close to someone we
sense more than just their temperature or heart rate. We sense
their hormone levels. Humans do too, but nothing compared to us.
You see, every time you and Elliot messed around he knew exactly
how much you wanted him or not, so if you tried to act shy and pull
away from him, he knew you were playing games.” Michelle thought
about the many times she had wished Elliot’s hands were all over
her, and how badly she wanted to feel his weight on top of hers.
How embarrassing! Why did he act so innocent with her? It was all a
lie. Michelle became distraught at this latest revelation, and
Haden told her that he could sense her cortisol level rising as
fast as her blood pressure. “You are stressed and your sugar levels
are going up. I have upset you again. I didn’t mean to, I was only
being honest as always. I bet that if you let me hold you and kiss
you right now you’ll feel better.” Michelle was too embarrassed to
admit that he was right. She wanted him to take her in his arms and
kiss her while she felt his warm touch. “Ask me,” he taunted her.
“Go ahead, just say the words, will you please kiss me,” he
whispered to her with his breath on her face. But Michelle could
tell that he just wanted her to beg for him. She had only begged
once in her life, and that was when she pleaded with Elliot not to
leave her. Haden took Michelle’s hand and his eyes began glowing
brighter. She immediately felt the familiar rush of warm sensations
spreading throughout her body. Elliot used to do that to her and
she loved it. But now she was fighting it with all her might. “Say
it, Michelle. Just ask me real nice. You are a very strong girl, I
admit that.” Michelle was so dizzy that she had to close her
eyes.

“You’re not being fair. I don’t want to say
it,” she slurred. Haden held Michelle by her waist and she couldn’t
take it anymore. “Just do it already. Kiss me,” she blurted out in
anger and defeat. But Haden didn’t kiss her, and instead jumped off
the bed leaving Michelle an emotional mess.

“Now you know your place. I’ve had enough of
your little girl games. We’ll finish this business later, you and
I, but I’ve got more important things to deal with right now.”
Haden quickly got dressed and slipped out the door while Michelle
thought of every name in the book to call him.

Elliot’s eyes were bloodshot. He hadn’t
closed them in three days, not even to let them rest. And his
facial expression hadn’t changed much either. There was a constant
humming in his ears and a feeling in his stomach that was something
between excitement and nausea. He might have felt all those things
and more, but his absolute focus championed over them. No one was
going to say anything to him because there was nothing to say. Each
of them had lived through many loses and no amount of sympathy or
encouragement was going to help the situation. Truth was that their
type didn’t need to sleep the way humans do, and under these
circumstances sleep just wasn’t an option. Elliot spent hours
thinking about what it was that Hadeno wanted from him. Why was it
such a big deal that Elliot bring him the tablet himself? Maybe
Hadeno didn’t think anybody else knew where it was, or if Elliot
sent it with someone else there would be no guaranteeing its
authenticity. Why Michelle? Why did Hadeno have to result to
kidnapping an innocent girl who knew nothing about such things?
Elliot tried not to think about Michelle’s state of mind; he only
hoped that she was unharmed. When Devin called Rion from Paris
while they were in-between flights, Rion told him that Michelle was
not helping the situation and that was all he was going to say.
When Devin relayed that information to Elliot he was at a complete
loss. What was she thinking? Elliot tried to put himself in
Michelle’s shoes. It had been three weeks since he had last seen
her, and not a day had gone by that he didn’t wonder how she was
doing. But there had been so much to do, and it wasn’t until they
received the photo that they had figured out that Hadeno was behind
everything, including the murders of their friends.

When the black Range Rover pulled into the
small driveway Mikoto thought that Haneul had returned without the
mattresses, but when he stepped out of the house he saw Devin in
the driver’s seat with Elliot next to him. “You look like crap,”
Mikoto said to Elliot, patting him on the back.

“Yeah, nice seeing you too, Mikoto,” Elliot
replied, smiling for the first time in weeks. Ando and Mikoto were
introduced just as Haneul pulled up in the other Range Rover, and
they all headed into the house, each carrying several heavy bags
and suitcases. The first thing they did was clear off the large
dining room table and carefully lay out all the weapons they had
gathered. Ando had his hammer axe and his Hrotti sword, and Devin
lay out his fist held dagger, a throwing star with several blades,
and a short sword. Elliot had only his personal bone-handled dagger
and he felt quite inadequate without his sword. Rion was to bring
him a replacement sword and his short spring spear. Haneul brought
out his Baekje dragon ring pommel sword, although he favored his
Buyeo dagger with its elaborate carved stone handle because he
excelled in close body combat.

Mikoto walked around the table smiling. “Not
bad for a bunch of old guys.” He then reached into his own bag, and
pulled out what looked like a beautiful hand held fan. Elliot
leaned over to get a closer look, while Devin joked that he was
jealous that Mikoto didn’t bring one for him too.

“What is this? Are you planning to fan the
guy to death?” Ando added, laughing. Only Elliot didn’t laugh.
Mikoto handed him the fan and Elliot spread its leaves open to
reveal a beautiful scene depicting a young Japanese woman in royal
garb sitting beneath a blossoming tree and feeding two swans in a
pond; one black and the other white. But the fan wasn’t made out of
rice paper or bamboo; it was made out of thin sheets of metal and
when Elliot ran his fingers along the edge they bled
immediately.

“I wouldn’t do that too deep my friend,”
Mikoto said, taking the fan back and collapsing it closed. “It’s
made out of the same alloy as the others.” Elliot’s eyes grew wide
and bright as he licked the blood off his fingers.

When Ando saw Rion’s smirking face enter
through the front door he asked what had gotten into him? Rion
replied that it was good to be the king.

“For a day or two, maybe three tops. After
that, I say it’s a nightmare,” was Ando’s reply.

Everyone was inside the house besides Elliot
who hadn’t spoken to Rion since he had slammed the phone down on
him, as Rion’s demeanor had unnerved him. While everyone got
settled inside, Rion went outside to speak to Elliot alone, and
when he saw his condition he realized that Elliot was seriously
hurting. Elliot thanked him for going to look for Michelle at the
festival, and for lending him his sword. He told him that he needed
to know what was going on with Michelle, and asked him not to spare
him any details because he could handle anything as long as she was
unharmed. Rion sat down and put his legs up on the stone table. He
cracked open a Romanian beer and took a deep gulp.

“Michelle is fine. I don’t think he’s harming
her per se, but she was definitely drugged when I saw her.” Elliot
felt his hands clenching into fists and he knew his eyes were
glowing.

“What else?” he asked, trying to maintain a
calm voice. Rion took another sip.

“Hadeno is still the same ass I remember him
to be, and unfortunately for you, Michelle seems to be pretty
smitten with him.” Elliot took in a deep breath and felt the back
of his teeth grinding against one another. Rion continued to tell
Elliot that he obviously didn’t know what goes on in any woman’s
mind, but Michelle was acting as if she thought the whole thing was
some sort of a game.

“The problem is that Hadeno is not playing,
and he is very well aware of Michelle’s state of mind. I wouldn’t
put it past him to have already taken advantage of the situation,
to put it mildly. Although she would be a willing victim, if that
makes any sense.” Elliot nodded and asked if Michelle knew that he
was on his way, but Rion told him he didn’t think she had believed
him.

“Why would she?” Elliot asked bitterly. “It
was wrong of me to leave her like that.” Rion wasn’t going to say
anything. He had already told Elliot what he thought, and it didn’t
need repeating.

“She’s trying to get back at you that she’s
with another one of our kind. She’s smart enough to know that you
wouldn’t feel threatened by a high school boy, so now she’s with
the dark prince Casanova himself. And from looking at you right
now, I would say the little girl is succeeding.” Rion finished the
rest of his beer in a long gulp, smashed the can against the stone
table, and walked back into the house. Elliot’s anger was peaking
again, and not knowing what else to do, he started attacking the
stone table, punching it over and over again until he realized that
the rest of the guys were all outside staring at him.

“I’m heading over there! I can’t just sit
here, waiting for what? If Hadeno wants me then I’ll come to him,
but he’ll regret the day that his bitch mother gave birth to
him!”

Rion protested, “If he sees any of us there,
he threatened to hurt her.”

“That son of a…” Elliot began, but Ando cut
him off saying, “He most likely just wants you to rush there in
urgency. If he does hurt her, what else would he have to bargain
with? He wants the tablet right?”

“What if she doesn’t want to come with you?”
Mikoto asked. “If Rion is right and she likes him, she might turn
on us instead.”

“She’ll come with me. I’ll convince her. She
loves me, that I am sure of.”

“Lets hope you’re right,” Rion said.

“She is a good girl,” Haneul agreed, and so
did Devin. Elliot was enthused by his friends’ support; now all
they needed to do was come up with a plan.

It was bright outside, and Michelle reached
for another glass of water. She noticed some sediment in the bottom
of the glass and dipped her finger in it; gritty, yellowish white
powder. When she poured the water out of the vase she saw the same
sediment there as well. Haden was drugging her! No wonder she was
sleeping so much and couldn’t remember everything. She needed to
get out of there. She washed her face in cold water, hoping that
that would help with the grogginess. As she returned to the bedroom
she caught an image of herself in the mirror. She looked awful, and
the dress she was wearing - she guessed Haden must have put it on
her while she was passed out - was much too long for her and
dragged on the floor. She bunched up the corner of the skirt and
tied it in a knot to shorten it. She had no idea where her clothes
were, but at least she found her shoes and put them on. She put her
ear up against the door to see if she could hear anything from
outside, but after waiting a few seconds and hearing only silence
she turned the door handle and shoved. The door didn’t swing open.
She had pretty much expected that, but didn’t realize that the idea
of being locked in would cause her such panic. That bastard had
bolted it from the outside. What if no one besides him knew that
she was there? Michelle began banging on the door and calling for
anyone to let her out. She probably did that for ten minutes
straight, but gave up because her fists were bruised. Michelle’s
breathing was shallow and irregular. Was she having an anxiety
attack? Her head was spinning from the lack of oxygen so she tried
to calm herself down and told herself to think logically about the
situation. Haden was obviously a jerk, but he wasn’t going to leave
her there to starve to death. For God’s sake, he had kissed her
only a few hours ago and brought her food to eat. Michelle walked
over to the window and realized that it was covered with black iron
bars. She tried her luck in the bathroom, but the windows there
were all the same. The only one that didn’t seem to have any bars
was the giant round stained glass window above the bathtub. But
that window was at least 20 feet above the floor. There was no way
on earth she could ever reach such a height.