SHADOWLOVE--STALKERS (34 page)

She knew she had Clara, WB, and Pentim’s two bodyguards, plus the ten vampires to deal with. Running would never work. She needed stealth. She needed cunning. She needed the training she had in her to be able to kill at least five of Pentim’s vampires before she escaped. She would have to do it quietly—somehow get each alone and snap their necks before plunging her ‘special knife’ into their dead hearts. Thank goodness she had her knife with her.

“I only wish we could return to our home in Italy to conduct the ceremony.” Pentim sighed heavily after these words and flicked a finger at the wide-open, foul-smelling bedroom. He led her to a door equipped with a hanging chain and a combination lock. “But I don’t want to travel with you until you are turned.” He smiled wickedly. “Not that I don’t trust you, daughter.”

Shawna wanted to upchuck. She controlled the nausea and made her plans, amazed that she had any. “Of course, Father.” The words flowed with her most winning smile. “You are quite right.” Then, as though she were conceding, she added, “You are so much more than I had anticipated that I find myself almost wishing I hadn’t run.”

His ego inflated, and she realized he was too pleased to hear the lie in her words. He opened the door of what she imagined had been a walk-in closet and gently pushed her inside. “I will leave you here until the ceremony.”

She heard him snap the locks and chain into place and smiled.
First mistake, Pentim!
Clearly
, she thought to herself,
you have forgotten that I am a witch
…

Her magic would open the locks, release the chain. All she needed was timing!

* * *

Chad had shifted them to an empty room on the second floor. There they waited as they heard Pentim’s crew arriving with Shawna. They knew that Pentim would lock Shawna somewhere inside the old house, and the plan was to get to her and get her to safety first.

Hurriedly and without interruption they searched all the rooms on that floor and came up empty. Chad went into his mind and tried to connect with Shawna through the tattoo on her neck; he felt that she was below, on the first floor.

Silently he motioned to Damon, and they stealthy descended the wide, worn wooden steps to the lower level. It creaked terribly, but no one came to investigate. They came to a long and narrow hallway. They knew Pentim and the other vampires had gathered in the front parlor.

Once again Chad reached for Shawna in his mind, and this time, he knew she was near. He motioned for Damon to follow him as he led them down the back hallway. A door opened evidently to some storage room, and two vampires carrying ceremonial robes came out.

Their first reaction when they saw Chad and Damon was surprise. Their second was to snarl and release low-volume animal sounds as they dove into attack.

It all happened so quickly and with such ease that Damon leaned against the wall to observe. Chad put up his hand and chanted as simultaneously he withdrew his sword from its shoulder sheath at his back.

With one flowing and gracefully bold movement he sliced air. One vampire’s head fell and rolled as the matching body collapsed to the floor in a heap of blood.

The other male vampire backed away, but Chad had anticipated this and was already on him, once more slicing through the air and separating the creature’s head from his body.

He turned to Damon and grinned. “Two down.”

“It looks as though you were right and
won’
t
need me.” Damon laughed.

“Oh but I will. Distraction is always necessary when there are numbers to combat.”

On cue, another vampire evidently had been drawn to the sound of a scuffle and had come upon his fallen bloody brethren. He growled loudly in rage.

* * *

Shawna heard Chad’s voice, and her heart began pounding. Chad was here, but there was someone with him. When she heard clearly that it was Damon, she laughed out loud and chanted for the door to slam open.
Timing!

She stepped into the hallway, and Chad saw her and was distracted for the moment. The vampire charged him, and Shawna screamed, “No…” She put up her wrists and clanked the silver cuffs together to produce a blinding light.

The male vampire became disoriented as he put up his arm to shield his eyes and back away from the offending brightness.

Damon grumbled, “Shawna…tone it down…it has an effect on me as well.”

“Oh, sorry,” she said and parted her wrists.

The vampire saw her and lunged towards her. Bad mistake! Chad released a death cry and went after him.
Another head rolled.

“Oh yuck….” Shawna wrinkled her nose and looked away from the blood that splattered and covered the walls.

Damon and Chad exchanged glances and laughed, both now fully in the spirit of destruction. Chad grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him. “You little fool—how could you think…?”

“Fool? Yes, fool to believe you loved me.”

“Why, because some girl threw herself at me?”

“Because I saw you kissing her!”

“I wasn’t…
if you had stayed long enough you would have seen me pull out of her arms. If you had stayed you would have known the truth of it.”

“Do you two mind?”
Damon drew their attention to their audience.

There were four very angry looking vampires standing in the central hall between the two parlors.

“Oh-oh…” Shawna breathed heavily on the words.

“Damon—
keep her safe
,”
Chad roared as he stepped slowly forward and waited for the vamps to make a move. He wanted them to come to him.

Shawna realized that she had to help. She couldn’t get into position. There would be no surprising any of them, so no snapping of necks. There was only one way she could help. She pulled out her switchblade but didn’t click it open as she waited.

“Damon…” she said softly. “Draw them towards you…”

He looked at her and then at what she held in her hand and released a low whistle.

“Right you are.” He turned to the two vampires already moving towards them and said in a loud aside to Chad, “They are chicken shits. Too afraid to come after us…”

That drew their fire. Two of them charged like angry bulls, all power, no finesse. Chad worked the one, and even as he did his magic and downed yet another vamp, the other was charging at Damon, who nicely side-stepped, allowing Shawna to wield her sharp, locust wood blade. In the throat…quickly she pulled it out and then shoved it hard into the heart.

“Two down—two more ahead.” Damon grinned at Chad.

“I thought I told you to keep Shawna safe.”

“Look at her—she managed to do that all on her own.”

Chad smiled proudly and called to her, “Stay out of harm’s way, lass,
for me
.”

“Too late,” she shouted back.

Pentim was there, full of fury and something else. Shawna saw it in his dark amber eyes—fear. She realized that he had never seen his vampires taken in such quick fashion. He was trapped in an emotion he had not experienced to this extreme for a very long time.

Damon had not even lifted a finger yet, and Shawna knew that he was a force on his own. Pentim knew what was coming…

Clara came into the hall, and all at once Pentim grabbed her and shouted at Damon. “I will kill this one myself, Damon. Are you willing to see that happen?”

“Who is she?” Chad asked softly of Damon.

“A friend…”

The next thing that happened went down so quickly that the vampires started scrambling to escape, afraid now that they were in over their heads. Chad shifted, took Clara, and shifted her back to Damon. “Here…” he said as he turned. “I am for Pentim.”

Pentim was already out by the car, with WB beside him and asking, “
What is he
?
Why is he after you, Pentim—is this all because of the bitch?”

Pentim couldn’t answer. He was gauging his options as Chad stepped out of a black hole and stood, sword raised high.

Chad glanced at WB, and his voice was thunderous. “Call
my woman
by any name ever again, and you won’t live to see another nightfall!”

WB backed up, hands up. “No offense…it’s what I call all women.”

“She isn’t one of them. She is mine,” Chad said, turning to Pentim. “I want you to know why you are going to die.”

“Let’s discuss the options…” Pentim attempted reason.

“You have none. You are the reason I was robbed of my mother. You set a newbie on her, and in the end she died an awful death.” He brought the sword across Pentim’s middle, spilling his blood and his guts. Pentim dropped to his knees.

“I wanted your death to be torturous, but now, I haven’t the time. I have another life waiting for me.” Chad’s sword seemed to move in slow motion as the war cry he made released all the pent-up loathing and hurt he had felt for so many years.

WB watched Pentim’s head roll down the roadside until it slid into a rut. He turned to Chad and waited.

Chad looked at him. “Do you think you can clean up this mess and get out of my town?”

“I can.”

“Then do it.”

He gave WB his back and found Shawna racing towards him. He sheathed the sword at his back, and she jumped onto him, wrapping legs around his middle and arms around his neck. She cried into his shoulder, “He is dead. You killed him.”

“And how do you feel about it, Shawna?”

“I am not conflicted…about it—about him. I feel…relief. All I can feel right now is that it is over…”

“And me…” He kissed her head, her ears, her nose, her cheeks and growled, “Don’t you ever run away from me like that ever again…
ever. Ye will never have a reason lass—I vow it.”

She laughed. “Don’t you let any old girlfriends kiss you like that one did, and I won’t.”

“Deal.” He smiled softly. “Now, where is Damon?”

She let her legs slip to the concrete, where she planted her feet firmly on the ground, but she held onto him still as she answered, “Making his peace with Clara—inside.” Shawna’s voice was soft and sad.

“Come on. I want to take you home, but first I want to talk to Damon.”

Epilogue

FREE OF PENTIM’S threatening shadow, Shawna and Chad decided to travel together. Chad began each month giving her the essence of the Blood Orchard and praying that not only would it wean her off the pig’s blood, but that it would make her immortal as well.
Only time would tell
.

They returned to Darby Gray in the fall because they had made the decision to wed.

The wedding was a simple affair, and Darby Gray was opened to all the villagers. Both the bride’s and the groom’s families were in attendance. The band played the kind of music that wouldn’t allow anyone to sit it out, and it was a joyous night.

Damon was there for the evening reception and took them aside to give them news.

“It doesn’t pay to be kind or fair,” Damon said in aside to the happy couple. “We are headed for trouble.”

“What?”

“WB—we should not have let him live. He is gathering some of the more powerful clans, creating newbies, and it can only mean one thing…”

“If he stands against us, it is trouble he will have, no us.” Chad grimaced.

“Hmmm.” Shawna nodded. “I agree. Trouble for he—not for we three. I am a poet.” She was not going to allow any worries about the future to interrupt the joy of her wedding night. She offered her glass of champagne to Damon with a silly grin.

He smiled back at her. “It thins the blood.”

She laughed out loud and got on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Her husband pulled her back into his arms. “That is enough, Shawna.” This only set her giggles off once more.

Damon smiled warmly at her and then sighed. “There is also talk about a new slayer who has cropped up. She seems intent on bringing down the number of vampires.”

“So, stay out of her way,” Chad flipped at him.

Damon glared. “As though a slayer could be a match for me.” He shook his head over the notion. “That isn’t it. Apparently, she is set on getting one particular vamp…and that vamp is a friend of mine working on a problem for me. I can’t allow the slayer to destroy her.”

“Then don’t, Damon—don’t, and if you need us, we’ll be there,” Shawna said softly.

He smiled at Shawna and then eyed Chad for a long moment before quietly saying, “One more thing—your grandmother and father should be told.”

“And what should they be told, English?”

“Good ole Drac has been suddenly putting out feelers. He is looking for a woman named Elizabeth. I heard tell that he thinks her to be over one thousand years old…”

“And what has he discovered?”

“Nothing yet, my friend—
nothing yet
.”

Later that evening, they watched Damon drive off, and Chad turned to his bride and remarked, “I have seen Damon in a vision with the slayer he spoke of.”