Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (15 page)

“It wouldn’t be the first relationship like that I am sure,” he responded looking away from her face. Nicola was beautiful and, if she weren’t a vampire, he would feel safe to move forward; but he was fearful.

Taking a deep breath before releasing it as a sigh, the woman asked, “Why can’t you touch me that way?”

A moment passed as the voran tried to put his fears into words in such a way that didn’t hurt her or become dismissive of the situation. “If a voran is a reaction to vampires and we’re driven to kill them, then what happens if we ever try to make love? My aura blades can kill driven by passion, so can my hands if I try.”

“Your blood gives us life and keeps us from being driven by the need for human deaths and blood,” Nicola countered and she smiled as she added, “There is also safe sex, though I doubt that a vampire can become pregnant. My father isn’t around to pull out a shotgun to force a wedding on you anymore either,” she added trying to laugh at the thought of a ninety-nine year old vampire being considered virgin territory to be forcing a man into marriage.

When he didn’t laugh, Nicola frowned and changed the subject, “You could sleep with her and put her out of her misery. From what you and Charlotte have said, the only way she will stop having these allergic reactions to being away from you is to have sex with you.”

“And you would be alright with that?” he asked in shock. While the man wasn’t even touching on how he felt about it, he was surprised by the vampire’s frank admission. The fact that she hadn’t used the more modern term for such an act was also not lost on him. Using the more clinical version rather than the romantic, gave away her feelings about what the act would be for her.

Looking angry, the woman who only looked like a twenty year old girl admitted through grinding teeth, “Well, I don’t want her to suffer, Nicholas. It is only sex, isn’t it?”

The crucial question, he supposed. While he liked Charlotte and could say he was physically attracted to her as well, that didn’t mean he felt right betraying Nicola. To say it was only sex, cheapened the act and deadened any emotions involved; but saying that it had no meaning other than as medicine for the werewolf was rather hard to believe.

Finally, he countered with what was in his head, “Is it? If you’re saying to be with her because we can’t, is she supposed to be a surrogate for you?”

Sighing as she spread her hands helplessly, the woman replied, “I don’t know, Nicholas. What would you have me say? Do I want you to ignore me for her and be with her? Have I become a cold hearted vampire that can just shove you aside to bed another woman? I...” She stopped in frustration, and asked, “Do we share you? I am your nightly love and she gets you during the day?”

Nick was sick at such questions. He wished that Charlotte could control her feelings and body. Thinking back over the last couple months of harboring the werewolves, he couldn’t think of a time that he had encouraged such feelings; but then again sometimes things just happened. He was a voran in love with a vampire after all. That hardly made sense with what his race was supposed to be either.

Surprising him as the vampire knelt to cross over and straddle his legs, Nicola had a sad look on her face despite a smile. “Well, there is always another way. Make love to me. If your worries are founded, I die. Then there will be nothing holding you back from being able to help Charlotte.”

“Are you crazy?” he asked finding himself being charmed physically by the beautiful blond even as his mind warned him that her words might come true. He wasn’t ready to lose her over such a stupid thing as sex.

Her arm snaked behind her back releasing the catch on her bra, knowing that he would never dare. “This isn’t crazy. If I can’t have you, then I’d rather die trying. Humans say they’d rather die with a smile on their faces, right?

“I want you and I can feel you want me too. This is as private as we’re likely to get, so please take me now.”

Her lips moved to kiss his and he easily responded. It was madness; but as he felt her tears dripping from her eyes onto his cheeks, the man couldn’t help wanting her. They had put their love in stasis out of fear. Now fear was put in stasis as he shifted to place her on her back on the couch.

She reached to pull off his shirt and a single last protest was raised by Nick though it was half hearted, “You know they’re werewolves and can probably hear us.”

“Then they’ll know better than to walk in on us,” she replied slipping out of the last of her lace with his help.

Looking on the glorious, blonde beauty, caution was thrown to the wind. There was no turning back.

Multiple things were discovered over the next two hours. First, the worry of killing or even harming the woman because of what they were was unfounded. Despite their ages, they had each been with very few partners; the physical compatibility was also as good as either had ever found.

Not only did Nicola survive their joining and all that entailed, but the two found that their stamina made the act easy enough to maintain for hours. She could experience both pleasure and pain like a human girl, while keeping their voices from being too raised; Nicola still let out little sounds encouraging him to try harder. They had a feeling the werewolves would hear them even so, but they tried to keep the noise low.

While Nicola’s skin felt cool to the touch reminding him that she was a vampire, his body heated enough for both of them by the time they stopped. It was less that they couldn’t go on longer, than the need to stop before the werewolves began to awake; if they were even still sleeping.

She bit her favorite place on his hand, the flesh between his thumb and forefinger as if she needed to refresh herself with a drink. The vampiress picked up her two pieces of lingerie before standing in her glory before him. She was still teasing him, since they knew that they had to stop.

“I think that I’ll take a shower and get your sweat off of me. You are such a human that way,” she giggled before leaning in to kiss him on the lips. Never bothering to replace the clothing, the vampiress sauntered to the main bathroom and the shower there. She didn’t want to flaunt what they had done at Charlotte. Despite the joy Nicola had in finally making love to Nick, she truly cared for the werewolf as well and didn’t want to hurt her.

As the water ran, Nick replaced his clothes. He needed to change from the long night’s activities so sweat and the lingering scent of her perfume wouldn’t change that need. Finding a smile on his lips, the voran wondered why he had ever hesitated. After the fear left in the wake of her remaining safe, he felt a fool for ever waiting.

They had known each other for decades and he had always had a bit of a weakness for the vampire. Vivian had controlled him for much of that time, even though he knew that he wasn’t in love with his mentor. Still he hadn’t spent as much time with the vampires of Marek’s coven, though they had known each other to a point.

First he had met her as the first woman Marek had turned that he thought he loved. Nicola was only twenty-one and she had met the vampire ready to escape a looming marriage with a man that her parents had arranged for her. Taking a ship to the new world, the girl had applied to a ballet company in New York, the city the vampire and two voran had disappeared into like so many cities and towns before it.

When he had first been introduced to the girl, it had been in a night club by Marek, who was already courting her. New to the country and still speaking broken English, she had latched onto the vampire who could both speak her original language and help her learn the new one. She was pretty and full of life.

Marek had learned of how to sire a vampire from Jake by then. While he hadn’t turned his second in command, the other man had separated from his master after learning more than Marek, who had run after being bitten with little understanding of what he had become. The two met a few years after Jake’s change and had begged Nick to extend the gift on Marek’s new friend.

More than a decade later, Nicola walked into their lives unexpectedly sparking something inside the already old vampire. With the offer of immortality and swept up by the man’s powerful presence, the young woman let herself be turned. She even remained with the ballet for a few years, before she had to give it up or be discovered to be something that she wasn’t aging.

Unfortunately before her ballet career was over, so was their romance. Audrey came into the picture to replace her, but over the decades the two women alternated being loved by their sire, until finally Nicola moved on turning first Derek and then Mike. Still the vampiress couldn’t stay in love with any of them.

The fact brought a slight frown to the man’s face as he wondered how permanent the relationship would be. As fickle as a vampire’s heart could be, Nicola’s in particular, she was loving and passionate for him now.

Then there was Charlotte. Nick wasn’t sure that he was in love with her, though it had taken decades with Nicola, so what was to say that he couldn’t; but should he try? While the vampiress had pushed for him to help her, even should they try would a voran ease a werewolf’s physical conditions as Eric had for his mates?

By the time the sun was beginning to peak at the city from the east over the lake, Nicola had come to him for a last kiss and gone to sleep beside Charlotte in his bed. They could share that, but could they live with sharing him if they had to?

Questions like that made him frown.

Chapter 9- Caught on Camera

He had done his best to be quiet as he hunted for new clothing and took his shower in his bathroom. Still he could guess that Charlotte was already awake, if trying to fight that fact. The werewolf preferred sleeping in to eight or later most days, but sleeping next to a vampire who was likely to be just as awake until the morning sun made her groggy enough to rest, was likely to keep her restless.

Despite trying his best, the dark haired woman was already in the kitchen making coffee by the time he had finished dressing. He had a dress pants and shirt with a suit coat slung over his shoulder by the time the man left his bedroom readying for his day. She wore one of his button up shirts, and hadn’t bothered to use every button. As if to try and entice him once more, Charlotte revealed skin down to her upper stomach.

One thing he noticed immediately after was that the woman was drinking ice water even as her coffee brewed. She looked warm and her forehead had perspiration lightly gathering there while a trickle of moisture rolled down from her collarbone between her breasts virtually unnoticed by the brunette.

“Are you alright, Charlotte?” the man asked with worry.

Giving him a shrug and slight smile, she replied, “Apparently hot flashes are next, even with your clothes and lying in your bed. Being in heat is great.”

Nick chuckled at her sarcasm as he could tell that she wasn’t suffering so much as being slightly annoyed. “Well, as long as you aren’t in pain or worse, then I hope you can suffer through for a bit longer.”

Raising an eyebrow in question, she asked, “Nicola didn’t talk you into taking pity on me then?” The woman moved closer to him and shook her head, “I can smell her on you. I thought she had more of you on her than normal. Well, at least you two can do that now.”

The last was said revealing a bit of her frustration at the situation.

“Have you seen Logan or Kate since yesterday afternoon?” questioned the man slightly shifting the subject, though the pertinence of their solution had some bearing.

“The love birds were definitely trying to solve her problem when Nicola and I first returned home. By the time I needed to go to sleep, they had settled down as well.”

Picking up a cereal box from the counter, the girl started to fan herself.

The cereal inside shifted inside making rattling noises that he tried to ignore as Nick added, “If it works for Kate the way Eric said, maybe he’s right about the timing of the full moon also. It’s less than a week away to at least see if your cycle will end with the first moon.”

Nodding at him, Charlotte agreed saying, “If it doesn’t get any worse than this, or much worse anyway; then waiting for the full moon shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Are you considering what you will do if I do become sick from not following biology?”

“There must be something natural that will end it without finding a mate. I mean there have been enough werewolves as far as I can tell that they can’t be so susceptible to their hormones. Nature must have an answer built into your bodies.

“Dying without a mate or becoming violently ill would hardly help your race to create new werewolves or whatever the plan is behind it. If finding a mate is all that drives your bodies, and it can be disrupted so easily, you would think that there must be some form of reset.”

Charlotte took his hand with her free one and placed it against her forehead. Warm and clammy, for a normal human he would think them sick and try to lower their temperature with aspirin or ice. For the werewolf, the initial touch seemed to react with their skin. Though Nick couldn’t feel her illness, he could feel her warmth and the slight change from his contact.

With a sigh, Charlotte closed her eyes telling him that his touch was working. His other hand he placed in the center of her chest with his fingers touching the base of her neck. This time she shivered slightly and he was certain that he felt her skin adjust with the contact.

Realizing that what she wore wasn’t enough to combat the symptoms, Charlotte unbuttoned the shirt pulling it off and turning her back to him. “It looks like the shirt wasn’t enough. Can you rub my back please?”

At least the woman had worn his shorts as well; he thought and began rubbing her back and arms slowly.

“So why are you all dressed up?” she asked casually as if she wasn’t nearly completely naked in his kitchen.

“I am meeting up with one of my police contacts to canvas a few buildings for their camera records. The feline hunters walked past several cameras, though until I look I won’t know if they crossed the path of one with a good view. I am hoping to discover what they look like in human form and animal as well as their vehicle. Maybe a license will give me an address to find them and discover why they are here.”

“The great detective back to work, is this how you found Lena and us?”

He was about to respond when the girl turned to face him and he pulled his hands back while lifting his eyes to her face. Charlotte placed the shirt on the counter before taking his hands and placing them over her breasts. “Just finish my torso, doctor, and hopefully I won’t need you while you’re out doing your detective work.”

Sighing, Nick had to admit that it would have been an enjoyable task, if his loyalty to Nicola didn’t scream at him to stop; but the vampiress had practically thrown him to the werewolf before changing her mind and taking him for her own last night. Trying not to think about it, he answered her question as his hands slid to her sides as she raised her arms, “Ray and the other two brought me faster than I might have been able to otherwise, but they were just one of the leads I was following. In this case, I have the cameras to start with to find these hunters.”

Footsteps preceded Logan’s crying out, “Whoa!” as he accidentally walked in on the two of them. Kate was right behind him wearing one of her mate’s shirts, though less from the need than Charlotte apparently. The smaller woman swam in the shirt making it look more like a dress on her.

“Have we walked in on something I really don’t want to see?” the werewolf asked averting his eyes, though Kate looked on a moment longer with an amused smile.

Groaning in annoyance, Charlotte complained, “Give me a break, Logan, I woke up with a fever and was overheating. Nick’s rubbing me down to make it go away. He’s not sleeping with me like you two are.”

With her skin feeling much cooler to his touch, Nick pulled away despite her eyes looking like she wanted him to continue longer. Pulling the shirt back on, the girl covered herself without buttoning it as if she were making sure that he didn’t need to rub her down further.

Her brother returned his gaze making sure that it was safe to look as he replied, “I thought maybe you had convinced him from the sounds we heard last night.”

Kate nodded slipping her hand into his looking very content and happy with her situation. Logan glanced to her and smiled, while Charlotte breathed out angrily and replied, “Nicola and Nick finalized their relationship for a couple hours while I tried to sleep. I am simply his patient needing his touch when his clothes aren’t enough like this morning.”

“You finally did it with Nicola? I thought Charlotte had a better chance of getting you to give in than that poor girl. I thought you two were afraid to get together for some reason,” Logan replied bluntly.

“I was afraid of hurting her, since I am a voran and my body could kill a vampire. She was tired of waiting and risked it anyway,” the man revealed more than he thought he ever would, but when the werewolves in the house had all heard them enough to comment it was too late for discretion.

“He didn’t kill me. In fact, we had a lot of fun. Sorry, if we woke you all. We were trying to be quiet,” Nicola’s voice came from behind Kate and Logan without anyone noticing her walking the hall. She was dressed in her red lingerie despite her shower, though Nicola hadn’t worn them for long after all.

Seeing the blonde vampire rubbing her eyes in her lingerie made the two wolves’ eyes widen and Logan commented, “If that was what she was wearing to seduce you, then I can see why it worked.”

Kate elbowed him with a frown, but Nicola merely smiled feeling no shame or embarrassment in what she wore. Like the werewolves, who soon overcame their shyness with the full moon, the vampiress was comfortable in her body and what she wore covered as well as a swimsuit after all.

Her eyes looked tired and Nick could tell that she was fighting the grogginess the sun brought for her kind. The light was on the entry wall opposite the vampire so her skin wouldn’t burn, but it was day time and her kind couldn’t usually hold out for long against the need for sleep.

In spite of her drowsiness, Nicola perked up a little bit and smiled as she replied, “Even this wouldn’t have caused him to take me and make an honest woman out of me. I finally just showed him my breasts and threw myself at him.”

“Lucky you,” Charlotte said trying to have a sense of humor about the other woman getting to have her way. “Even making him touch my breasts and rubbing myself against him hasn’t worn him down for me.”

Sliding past the couple and Nick, the blonde noticed the still unbuttoned shirt sliding her hand under the cloth to touch the other woman brazenly. The vampire’s touch sent a chill into the werewolf cooling her further as Nicola joked, “You let him touch these and he didn’t crack? I am surprised. If he doesn’t give in by the full moon and your condition continues, I would try it again. As pretty as you are, since he is just a man, eventually you will wear him down.”

Charlotte asked in confusion, “You want him to be with me?”

“I was thinking about that. There times even in the Bible that two women shared a man. Didn’t Abraham bed his servant because his wife wanted him to have a child?”

Nick snorted and stated, “And Ishmael and Isaac hated each other so much that their descendants tried to kill each other regularly. Until this day, Israel and the Arabs are still fighting.”

Giving him a frown, Nicola tried again, “I know there were others even so. What I’m saying is that with regular humans it can happen so, even though it isn’t my preference, it can be done. Besides I doubt that I will have to worry about any descendants, being a vampire.” The last was said with a bit of regret and the teasing and joking were gone. She felt Charlotte’s forehead noting a slight fever remaining, but it had lessened enough with both of their touches that it didn’t seem dangerous.

“Well, the sun is up and this little burst of energy is starting to leave me,” the vampire stated covering mouth as she yawned. She turned to kiss Nick on the mouth before retreating to his shared bedroom.

While the other four took the time to eat breakfast, Nick called one of his contacts on the force. By the time he was finished, the meeting at the first building was set. Unless someone had something to hide, there was no need for warrants or other paperwork. They only needed a short window of outside video at a typically unimportant time of night. Most companies should have no trouble with helping the police with an investigation. The cover story would be an investigation of video looking for thieves from a local breaking and entering. Since most companies preferred such criminals as far from them as possible, there should be little to no problem.

He was soon out the door and using his black Escape to drive to meet with the detective. When it was a matter of business, even the vampire kind; he found the SUV to be a good vehicle for blending into the background.

Finding a parking spot was more difficult by day, but he found one and walked to the first building with his notebook and pen in hand.

“So we’re investigating break ins now?” a man’s voice asked from the doorway of the intended start.

Nick smiled at the man. In his forties and wearing a suit and coat that wasn’t flashy as much as businesslike for this work, the detective was a graying black man. They had first met over a decade earlier. Detective Fred Tucker was a confidante and one of a few that understood the truth that much of the darker deeds of the night were enacted by creatures no longer human.

“Well, that is the best cover story I could think of,” the voran greeted and shook his hand. It had been awhile since he had seen the detective, though he tried to keep in touch with those he trusted with the secret. “I thought telling everyone that we had unknown vampire slayers running around might be a little less believable.”

The brown skinned man rubbed his close trimmed head finding a bald spot beginning to widen with a bit of disappointment. He nodded his head in agreement as he replied, “Talking of vampires rarely gets you in the door and is likely to get you thrown in a psychiatric wing, but you have unknown vampire slayers? What does that mean?”

“As stated, we have approximately three who can take out a vampire. They work as a team and have something to do with felines. I think they can transform to use cat like powers.”

Eyes wrinkling in confusion, the detective shook his head. “Some form of were-cat now?”

“That’s why we’re here. They had a bit of a run in with my friends. These are trained hunters using specialized smoke grenades that had silver laced in the mixture. It wasn’t enough to kill, but it stung and had to be designed with vampires in mind.”

“I thought silver bullets were for werewolves,” Fred admitted freely knowing the truth was often different from mythology and tweaking by the media.

“Silver is a metal of purity that can harm or even kill vampires and werewolves both. It attacks the curse or something to that extent. Whether it affects other strange hybrids, I don’t know. I’ve only run into the two types,” Nick confided realizing that for all he knew there could be dozens of hidden races around the world.

The detective shook his head and gestured towards the door. “You are in luck though. There have been a couple break
ins nearby, so I can justify it to the department without raising suspicion.

“You have a specific window of time for these three, I presume.”

Nodding, Nick replied, “Between eleven and one, Marek wasn’t positive on the time, but they had to pass through here around that time.”

Opening the door of the first building, the two men found a manager’s office. It took little to get the older man to let them into their security room holding the footage. With such a small window of camera footage, the manager didn’t even seem to bat an eye at their need.

“We hold forty-eight hours at a time on the hard drive,” he explained as they sat down in front of a panel of screens. Hallways and the front door view were either showing or easily flipped to with his controls. “Since we just downloaded the drive yesterday, we’re right in the middle of another run. You just need the front door camera?”

“Yes, just that one covering 11 PM to 1 AM,” Nick assured him. After watching the manager quickly jump through time with his controller like watching someone playing with a
DVR, Fred asked the man to step outside to assure that they could scan the footage privately.

Acquiescing with barely a raised eyebrow, Nick began to run the footage. It was as boring as expected, but knowing the window of time, at least their search was limited. There was little activity after eleven o’clock and even slightly sped up, Nick’s eyes caught the single movement for the first hour.