Darlings of Darkness: A Vampire Anthology Part 136

Blick pointed to J's Bluetooth headset, and then made a few hand signals to J.

Impatiently, J waved his hand in the air. "I'm not sure. G has been acting odd lately. He wants to listen in on every meeting."

J and Blick continued to stare at one another in front of the couch, clearly holding a conversation I was not invited to partic.i.p.ate in.

Since I was being ignored, I cleared my throat to get their attention. "Michael, is he..."

J broke his communication with Blick. He unb.u.t.toned his white long sleeve s.h.i.+rt and rolled up both sleeves. "Michael is going to be fine, my dear. He just needs to rest for a moment."

"Thank G.o.d," I gasped.

J put his hands on his hips and a.s.sessed me with smug annoyance.

Quickly, as if trying to apologize for my actions, I folded his suit jacket neatly and laid it on the armrest of the couch. A light scent of ginger caught my attention, and, closing my eyes, I attempted to remember why that smell seemed familiar.

I felt Blick's weight sink into the couch as he sat by me. "Rayea, we have a lot of things to work on, one being this split personality story you're trying to sell J. You're a vampire. You and your fangs are one in the same." He placed his hand on my shoulder.

Pus.h.i.+ng his arm away, I said, "Don't patronize me. I know that. I'm not an idiot!"

J leaned his left hand on my desk and raised an eyebrow at me in amused contempt. He played with the headset in his right hand, carefully observing me. Even if J had been wearing a T-s.h.i.+rt and shorts like Blick, he still would have revealed an air of authority, a person who demanded instant obedience. His well-groomed appearance in his suit only accentuated the fact. He was a tall, ascetic-looking man with fairly wide shoulders and long arms. His aquiline facial features displayed an inherent strength that set off his extraordinary dark gray-green eyes. Instantly I knew why my father disliked this man so much. He feared and envied his commanding air of self-confidence. J reminded me of a famous actor whose presence you basked in. He was a young version of a Jack Nicholson, a Robert De Niro, or a Clint Eastwood. Instantly I was a fan, but, at the same time, I knew I was out of my league being in his realm.

The voice inside my head added, "And attacking one of his angels was a stupid move. Much less anything else with him."

I shuddered, quickly acknowledging only to myself that I had not regretted either of my actions. My body continued to tingle and quiver. The combination of fabulous s.e.x and blood intake had blown me away. It didn't hurt that Michael was drop-dead gorgeous.

"Okay, maybe I am an idiot," I finally said. "It was a bad idea. He said we were celestial beings and he could stop me at any time. We just got carried away."

"Sounds like we both have some talking to do with our subordinates, Blick. Michael shouldn't be telling you such nonsense, my dear," J qualified. He inclined his head forward. Under the gleam of the room's recessed lighting, I noticed his light brown hair had sandy red highlights.

Blick saw my inquisitive expression at hearing J call me Blick's subordinate. He shook his head at me and tossed me a thought. "Don't go there."

I grumbled to myself and fixed my eyes on the floor.

"Sir, it's not nonsense. She has the spark."

My breath caught in my lungs when I heard Michael's voice come from the hallway. He had been leaning against the door frame, waiting to make an entrance I supposed, or maybe trying to steady his legs so he could walk. He wore one of jackets of Blick's dark green jogging suits and a clean pair of matching pants. I noticed the familiar 'G' logo on the left upper corner of the nylon jacket. It was on all of Blick's athletic wear. The letter was usually white with a single orange lightning bolt through the middle. Sometimes the color of the 'G' logo did vary on his clothing, while the color of the lightning bolt did not. I a.s.sumed it denoted 'The House of G,' but I never made a point of asking Blick if that was the case.

"I find that hard to believe," J said as he sat in my desk chair. He glanced over his shoulder at me. "She's a vampire made in h.e.l.l, Michael. There's no changing that. Just don't let one of us walk in on you guys again. Keep it in the bedroom."

Michael muttered, "Sure," and glanced over at me.

When his gaze became somewhat uncomfortable, I excused myself and fled to a small laundry room across from the kitchen, so I could find a fresh change of clothes, clean myself up, and collect my wits. After hearing J's insult, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

I returned to the living room on a mission. Wearing my brown Nirvana T-s.h.i.+rt that had wings imprinted behind the band's name, a pair of faded blue jeans, and some flip flops, I felt more comfortable to deal with the tension in the room. The lavender soap I had washed my face with was a refres.h.i.+ng change to the metallic smell of Michael's blood. It mixed divinely with the aroma of his manly musk scent. I wanted to close my eyes and just breathe in, remembering our lovemaking.

Balancing my water bottle, a roll of paper towels, and a large container of all-purpose cleaner in my hands, I headed to the couch to busy myself with cleaning off the blood. Michael and Blick stood over J while he sat at my desk, talking into his headset. "Yes, it's relatively simple. Just upload the footage, please. Did you forget how, sir?" He paused for a few moments. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I can wait. Take your time." J clicked the headset he had attached to his ear and ended the call.

Michael asked, "Was that G?"

J nodded.

"What was that about?" Blick continued the mini-investigation.

J shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. He's done it a million times."

All three exchanged glances at one another.

Realizing I had returned, Blick motioned for me to join them.

"I'm fine. I wanna clean up some," I said, bending over to remove the blankets.

"That's got ammonia in it. Don't use that! It'll strip the color out of the leather," Blick insisted.

"Fine," I snapped. Depositing my items on the coffee table, I sank into the couch. The tension in the room had increased.

"I'll have some people come out, Rayea. Don't worry about it! We have more important things to attend to!" he snarled at me telepathically.

"Blick, please stay out of my head right now. I can't deal with it. There's too much testosterone in the room," I snapped.

Turning around in my desk chair, J suddenly became very interested in our conversation. Again he pulled the headset from his ear and placed it on the desk. "Let me get this straight. You and Blick can hear each other's thoughts?" he asked.

Then I heard Blick say the most amazing thing I'd ever heard him say. "No sir, we've just been around each other for so long that we can pick up on each others' actions. She didn't mean that literally."

"You just lied to that man," I tossed the statement to Blick's mind.

"With G acting strange and listening in on us, you think I have a choice? We have to be careful. Cover for me." He raised his right eyebrow and scowled at me.

I laughed lightly and nervously tied my hair into a pony tail, pretending I was amused. "That's true, sir." I giggled like a twelve year old school girl. "Blick's such a papa, and you know how that is..." Letting my voice trail off, I forced a smile on my face. Would J buy it? I wondered.

"Ah yes," he said, quickly losing interest and answering the headset as the call from G came in.

I glared at Blick.

He returned my glare. "This is serious!" This time his thought resounded through my head.

"We need to watch this. G is waiting," J announced.

Instant silence filled the room.

With the headset in his ear, J spoke rapidly to the other person on the call. "Yes, the team's a.s.sembled. I'll call you back when we're done reviewing it. Okay. Talk to you soon." He ended the call, and again removed the headset from his ear and placed it on the desk.

"Well played," Michael said to J.

J arched an eyebrow in response. "Let's see if that gives us some time to figure things out. Everyone ready? G just sent this to me. It's footage of an outbreak." He clicked the Play b.u.t.ton on the video.

Chapter 12.

Zombie Nightmares After viewing the video of a zombie eating a security camera a few too many times, I felt sick to my stomach. "Zombies here." With my head low, I strolled to the kitchen for more holy water. I took my time pouring the liquid into the gla.s.s water bottle and selected a yellow straw this time. Well who cares if this stuff kills me now, I thought.

The voice inside my head offered, "You won't make it out alive against those zombies. They look nasty."

Don't I know it, I responded.

When I returned to the living room, I opted to sit on the couch, facing the group huddled around my computer desk. They were examining every frame of the video, every movement the zombie closest to the camera made, even when he snarled and munched down on the camera, ripping it out of the wall. Michael glanced at me and asked, "Are those the creatures you were dreaming about?"

I nodded emphatically, grabbing my bottle to guzzle more water and wis.h.i.+ng I had the gift of invisibility. My pre-meeting was not going well. Had the pre-meeting started? I wasn't sure actually. Maybe the zombie outbreak had canceled it, and hopefully my meeting with G. I was not looking forward to speaking to that person on the other end of J's Bluetooth headset. I sighed loudly.

J looked over at me, and then Michael. "Excuse me? You've been dreaming about what exactly?"

Setting my water bottle down on the wooden coffee table with a thud, I swallowed hard and stared at the seash.e.l.ls and fish lining the outside of the gla.s.s. Absentmindedly, I began chewing on my lip, remembering the sea dragon sighting I had this morning. I longed to be on the terrace, watching the ocean.

"Rayea, answer him." Lightly, Blick tapped me on the shoulder.

Like a robot, I commenced reporting my nightmares. "Yes, sir. Big, scary green snakes. Huge. The size of buildings. With faces like Father's and Stephanie's. Chasing. Chasing. Chasing. Always chasing me. Then zombies show up. They surround me. I fight and fight and fight. But I can't stop them. They're too strong." I stopped and took a big swig from my water bottle. By their confused expressions, I realized I had been talking rapidly.

J acknowledged my rambling as if he understood it perfectly. He advanced the video forward a few frames. Then he turned to me. "Do your zombies look like this one in this video?"

I already knew the answer, but I respectfully peered at the monitor screen and took note of the monster staring back at me. The human-looking zombie was frozen in a state of rage. His mouth had unhinged itself to separate the front and lower jaws further than any human could do. His grimace was filled with those pointy shark teeth, same as Father's. I knew I was staring into the pit of h.e.l.l looking at that creature's face. "Yes," I muttered. Icy fear tore at my insides.

"Do you think you have any of your father's blood in you still? Or would it be safe to say you've replaced it with your angel blood transfusion?" J's voice rang with a gentle command that I found pleasing, yet deserving of respect.

I continued chewing on my lip because I knew I had drunk a lot of Michael's blood. However, I didn't want to admit that to J. Quietly I said, "Likely it's all gone, sir. I'm clean."

"What would that have to do with these creatures?" Michael stepped away from the desk.

"I'd venture to say that her father has been using his blood flowing in her veins as a tracking device, trying to find her.

I stopped slurping my drink just as Blick grabbed the water bottle and slammed it on the coffee table. "Enough," he snapped.

The energy buzz I had gained from the holy water died in my veins. I was in shock as I processed the meaning of J's words. My eyes widened. "Could Father be here? He followed me?" My voice cracked. "And it's my fault? Those people turned into monsters? It can't be connected!" I pointed a finger at the computer monitor accusingly, fear whirling around in my stomach.

Instantly, Michael and Blick stood at attention, towering over us, and waited for further instructions from J. Their eyes conveyed the fury within them.

J motioned for them to stand down. "Not yet," he said.

They complied and resumed their tense, but relaxed manner. Michael paced a few times to the bay windows and Blick sat on the couch near me, tapping his foot.

Again, J had ignored my questions. I scratched the back of my neck, acting as if I didn't notice.

"Your father has no way in. But a messenger? Perhaps. Or it's a virus that's turning people somehow. I don't know. But I don't like it. We'll have to check it out and contain the situation," J said.

Politely, I raised my eyebrows in acknowledgement, attempting to steady my nerves.

"Have there been any other outbreaks?" Michael delicately asked the question that was on all our minds.

"Not to my knowledge. But we've heard rumors and I have a theory. Here let me show you." J opened his cloud drive on my system. An image on my monitor popped up. He expanded it, so we could all see it.

Red dots on the image of an online map spread from one side of my monitor to the side of the other monitor. I counted four dots total.

"These dots here line up almost in a straight line along the bluffs where we have the training centers." J pointed at the screen. "We've gotten reports of outbreaks, but we haven't found anything. The outbreaks seem to be moving in the direction of the cove where all of the archangels live. The footage of this last one was at Blick's training center earlier."

"About the same time we were here, figuring out how to cure Rayea's sickness," Michael said.

I was amazed at the thrill it gave me when Michael said my name instead of referring to me as 'Vampire.'

"Exactly," J agreed.

"Where are the new recruits?" Michael asked.

"They are missing," J replied flatly. He bent down and compulsively brushed off a piece of lint clinging to his caramel-colored dress shoes.

Yep, I thought to myself, canvas dress shoes. Interesting.

"All those new recruits aren't dead, are they?" Blick's voice died away. I could hear the despair in his tone.

"We don't know. I gave the order to the other archangels to investigate the surrounding areas. We need to figure out what's going on." J turned around in the office chair to study the angels' reactions.

Without needing verbal instructions, Blick and Michael lowered their heads as J quietly spoke a few words of concern for those who were missing. I glanced at their heads bowed and wondered if I should join them.

Blick broke from the huddle and stomped off to the other side of the living room, by the doors leading to the terrace. "I'll kill him," he roared. Suddenly, a loud crash came from the corner.

I turned to see him pulling his fist out of the wall. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"I understand your feelings, Blick. But we don't know who is behind this. It could be someone else," J said.

I interrupted them. "What about the archangels?" I said. "Are they all right?"

Michael and Blick both scoffed at my question and stared at me like I had turned into a zombie.

Defensively, Blick asked from the other side of the room, "Why wouldn't they be?"

Michael nodded his head in agreement.

Recognizing that I had just insulted two seven-foot angels who were obviously very confident in their means to defend themselves, I stated, "I think it's safe to say that when an angel tells you he can't die, you may want to think twice about biting his neck. Right, Michael?"

J smiled at my statement and scratched the outside of his nose. "Good point, my dear." He stretched out his legs and made himself comfortable in my desk chair while his Bluetooth headset flashed a few times on the desk.

Blick returned to stand by Michael at the desk and glared at me as if siding with Michael. "I think it's safe to say that when you see zombies sporting the same shark teeth your father has, it's important for you to speak up. I shouldn't have to do it for you. Right, Rayea?"