"Perfect," I grouched as rain beat down on my head and Fang walked up to me. "Just flipping perfect." I turned to him, giving him my patented you are so dead look and putting my hands on my hips. "What a lovely home you have, Fang. I haven't seen anything this impressive since the Shining." The sarcasm dripped off my tongue heavier than the rain dripped off my nose and I tossed him another look that was full of stakes, silver bullets and holy water.
Courtanya, who was the smartest one of the bunch for deciding to remain in the car, leaned out the window and crooked her finger up and down. "Redrum. Redrum. Redrum," she said in a deep, raspy voice, giggling like she belonged here.
"That's it!" I threw my hands up in the air and headed for Gizmo. "I'm out of here."
These vampires knew about as much about pop culture as I knew about calculous, but for some cosmic reason, Bubbles knew the one line in the ONE movie that freaked me out so bad when I was a kid, I lived under my bed for almost a solid year. I didn't need Sylvia Browne predicting it was a huge sign from beyond telling me I needed to get my drenched butt out of there before somebody or something pulled out an axe.
"Hold up, Red."
I barely had my hand on the door handle when Fang stopped me. Of course, like that wasn't at all predictable. What wasn't so predictable, was the way his touch warmed me even though I was so cold I was pretty sure Chilly Willy could use my pootang as an igloo.
"Save it, Fang," I warned him as I yanked my hand away from his as the entire contents of the Arctic Ocean continued to dump on our heads. Immediately the heat disappeared and I could feel my lips turning blue...all of them. "There is no way you are going to get me stay in there." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder with one hand and tried to pry my hair off my face with the other. My new dripping wet hooker look wasn't improving my mood, nor was the fact Fang's eyes were suddenly superglued to my breasts. My nipples to be exact, which were about to slice through my leather bustier like two dueling Benihana chef knives. I could probably skewer some shrimp shish kebab with those suckers.
"It's not what it looks like," he said, wiping his own soaked locks out of his face. And lord help me, I ogled his titties too.
"No?" I turned and sarcastically looked at the looming building behind us as lightening silhouetted it against the night sky. "I don't know what it looks like to you, but to me it looks a lot like oh hell no."
"Remember the cabin?"
"Yesssssss," I drew out the S for two reasons. One...I had no idea where he was going with this and two...it was fun to be able to pronounce an S again.
"The cabin was all an illusion."
"So?"
He blew out a frustrated breath. "Work with me, Red. The cabin was a cover for what laid underneath it. Remember? Nice underground penthouse?" He pointed towards the asylum. "The same goes here. This façade is to keep the humans out by playing to their superstitions and fears. I guarantee you there is nothing for you to worry about inside." He gently pried my hand off the handle and brought it to his lips, skimming them over my knuckles. "And it's a hell of a lot dryer."
"Dryer?" As soon as his lips hit my skin, I forgot my own damn name. Let alone what we had been talking about. Seriously, around him I needed to start taking notes.
"Yes...dryer, moya solnishka," he murmured huskily. His icy eyes glowed with an intense heat and I gulped as his strong arms curled around my waist and pulled me to his rock-hard chest. The tank top he was wearing was plastered against it, contouring to every sculpted inch of him and did little to hide anything from my fingertips which traced each carved line reverently.
Despite standing under Mother Nature's equivalent of cold shower glacial enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, I could feel his arousal, hot and substantial burning through the scrap of leather which was my mini skirt. No shrinkage problems for Fang.
"Is that Russian for bitch?" I asked, my voice trembling and husky. My tongue suddenly dry even though I was standing under a waterfall of rain. Normally, I would have chastised myself for my behavior, but for some odd reason, I no longer cared. I didn't care about the rain. I didn't care about the freaky ass insane asylum. All there was in this moment was me and him. The deeper he drew me in with those magnificent eyes of his, the more willing I was to go. Nothing else existed outside of this perfect bubble.
Loud gagging noises came from inside of Gizmo and...just like that...the moment ended, snapping me back to my conscious self. I quickly remembered there was more than the bubble encircling us...and funnily enough, I called her Bubbles. She was just the slap back to reality I needed. Dragging myself away from his tempting torso, I self-consciously tugged my skirt down again and tried to swipe my hair away from my face.
"Well...alrighty then." I said, because, frankly, I totally didn't have anything else to say. Turning away from him and yanking open the door to Gizmo with hands that still shook and had nothing to do with being cold, I started to pull out my purse. Peeking at him over my shoulder, I could see the smug look on his face. Drat! So much for my putting distance between the two of us. I laid my forehead against the cool metal of Gizmo's roof wishing someone would just stake me now and get it over with before I continued to make any more of a fool of myself.
Within a few minutes, the three of us were slogging through the mud and walking up to the front door of probably the most haunted building in America. Taking an unsteady breath, I walked through the weathered, wooden front doors, which surprisingly enough...still had all its windows intact. The sound of them opening though was enough to make your ears bleed.
Our feet crunched on top of years of dirt, debris and chunks of fallen plaster. The once white arched entranceway was discolored with mold, grime and a fair amount of graffiti. The smell was dank and filled with a musty odor that made my nose wrinkle. Nervously, I looked around at the surroundings. Though it was pitch black, I had no problem seeing the decomposing room with my vampy vision. Although, right about now I think it would have been better to not be able to see things so clearly. It was rather barren except for rusty wheelchairs and a few shredded chairs. The stuffing and springs erupting from the depths of the cushions like the intestines of a bloated cadaver.
"Charming," I muttered as a shiver of fear and dread snaked up my spine. It was right about now I started thinking about the choices in my life that had lead me to this moment. Because let me tell you, I had to have made some seriously bad life choices to be willingly standing in the middle of a dark, abandoned insane asylum on a stormy night.
"The humans treated their mentally sick little better than animals," Fang said with a large amount of scorn. "The ghosts they fear from this building is from their own repressed guilt."
"Says the vampire whose Elders house a full torture chamber still in use," I snorted.
Ignoring me, he walked over to the front desk and rounded the corner of it. Lifting the receiver of a telephone that was old enough to be housed in the Smithsonian, he dialed a number. As he hung up, the rusted gates of an ancient elevator opened. The cobwebs stretching over the opening, parted and now hung like drapes on either side.
Fang indicated we should step in, but as I approached the spooky contraption...my inner Cowardly Lion roared to life. "Aren't there any stairs?" I asked, peeking inside what was little more than a box in a corroded and tarnished cage. It didn't look like it would support the weight of a mouse, let alone the three of us.
"Trust me, Red. It's safer than it looks." He wrapped his arm around me, offering me the security of his embrace. Too bad it wasn't working.
"She is still clinging to her impractical human side," Courtanya said, giving me a critical once over before she stepped inside. Apparently, the nice, quiet Bubbles had been replaced with the snarky one sometime during the trip from the car to now.
"Look at you all excited to join the heathens," I snapped back.
She merely shrugged a shoulder. "I follow my King."
"Aren't you the little trooper," I mumbled as I reluctantly followed her in. After all, if she could do it, then so could I. But as the screeching doors closed behind Fang, I was suddenly regretting my decision to be brave and a small whimper worked its way up my throat.
He hit a lever and with a bone jarring crunching noise and jerk, the cage began its decent into God only knew where. I had to admit, after the initial startup, the thing ran remarkably smoothly and to my great relief didn't send us crashing down to the bottom of the shaft in a mangled tangle of dead bodies.
The elevator finally came to stop with only a slight lurch and then the door slid soundlessly open to reveal a pristine room constructed of gleaming white plastered walls, marbled floors and a gorgeous wooden ceiling inlaid with intricate geometric shapes. My mouth fell open on a whispered. "Wow."
"I told you," Fang said. "You're safe here, Melanie." And for once, I actually kind of believed him because nobody in their right mind would have ever thought something so beautiful would be hidden under something so gruesome.
"What about Druilla and Nico-lame?"
"They have no idea this exists." He placed his palm against my back and guided me down the long corridor stretching and winding in front of us.
"How do they not know? They seem to know everything."
"The compound and guard who live here have always been the dirty little secret of the Colony. The people who support the Elders refuse to speak of it until the need for them is required. They know how to get in contact with us when necessary, but they prefer for us to stay swept under the rug." He shrugged a shoulder and stopped outside a set of glass doors. "They have never seen it crucial to know where we live."
"You keep saying we." My brow dropped to a frown. "I thought you were a part of the Colony." I looked up at him. "Are you part of the guard now?"
He looked down at me in that strange way of his that made my toes tingle. "I have always been a mediator between the two divisions. But, this is my home." He ran his knuckles down the side of my face and smiled. "Now...it is your home too." Placing his palm against a panel straight out of Area 51, the doors slid open and he guided me into a room which could have been NASA's mission control.
There were monitors, computers and control panels galore...oh my. Things whirred, flashed, buzzed, bleeped...it was enough to give any computer geek a chubby. Seriously, if I had the right equipment, I would be needing a colder shower than the one I was still dripping from. My fingers practically twitched to push a button or flip a switch.
As if sensing my childish delight with anything flashing and shiny, Fang grabbed my hand and pulled me further into the room where a man in a rolling chair swiveled around to face us.
"Drake, dude! We were just about to send out a rescue party," he said, getting up and strolling over to us to clamp Fang's hand in his.
When he smiled, a full set of white teeth gleamed down at me and, of course, two of them were as long and pointy as Fang's. He had sun-bleached, choppy blonde hair which hung down and brushed the collar of his shirt. He was tall, lean and looked like he should have a surf board tucked under one arm. Though he was big, he was built more like a swimmer...long and trim. He seemed friendly enough, but what really sealed the deal for me was his Bart Simpson cowabunga shirt. Finally! A vampire who knew the classics.
"It was a close call, but we managed to get here," Fang said as they shook hands and thumped each other on the back. Turning to me, he said, "This is Saxon. Saxon...this is Melanie Wagner."
Two crisp, blue eyes moved to me. And I am not talking your plain old run of the mill blue. These reminded me of the sun glinting off the Caribbean. Not that I had actually been there, but I'd seen it on TV and let me tell you, it was sad comparison when looking into vibrant peepers of this guy.
It was then I noticed the room seemed to grow...quieter. Looking past Saxon, I spotted several other people in the room. Three of them bigger than the rest and I immediately assumed they must be more "brothers". One was dressed in tailored slacks with a silk shirt and was sitting with his legs crossed and hands steepled in front of him. His dark gaze was hard to read and his face was completely blank. Not a single bit of emotion could be detected from him. I bet he would make one hell of a poker player, I thought as I nervously skirted my eyes to the other two.
One of them was dressed similarly to the way Fang had been when he first showed up on my doorstep. All in leather from head to toe and was leaning casually against the wall. Though something about the vibe he was giving off told me the relax pose was only a ruse. He could be across the room and ripping my throat out in a matter of seconds. The third sitting at a console was dressed in a black t-shirt and leather pants. His fingers hovered above the keyboard as glittering eyes narrowed in my direction and his lips curled into a slight snarl.
"So you are the chemically enhanced vamp that has all the Elders shaking in their corsets," Saxon said, bringing my attention back to him. His eyes roamed over me from the tip of my head all the way down to my red, sad pumps. When his gaze finally met mine again, he smiled broadly. "Cool. Nice to meet you, Melanie," he said, holding out a hand.
For once, I didn't see any judgement or disgust...just a genuine warm greeting. I blew out the breath I hadn't even realized I had been holding. At least I had one brother on my side.
"Hi," I said, grinning back at him as we shook. "People call me Mel."
"Where's Lucien?" Fang growled, drawing me closer to his side.
Saxon removed his hand from mine quickly and raised his eyebrows at Fang. "He's out patrolling with Tallon," he said, giving Fang a curious look.
Before I could ask what was going on, the man who had been sitting in the chair approached, His smoldering whiskey colored eyes quickly assessed me and a small grin graced his full lips to where I could barely make out a hint of fang. There was an unmistakable sense of danger lurking beneath his immaculate attire as if the two guns strapped to his side wasn't enough. Nervously, I pressed closer to Fang. My sole ally in a room of bulky menace. I felt as if I was under some kind of test and trust me...I never did well on tests.
"I'm Sinclair, Melanie. Welcome to the compound," he rumbled in a deeply accented voice, holding out a well-groomed hand to me. It wasn't anything I could put my finger on, but it hinted of something old...of a time long forgotten.
"Thank you," I managed to stutter as I shakily shook it. I wanted to correct him on my name, but something told me he would never use it. No...he practically oozed propriety. From the top of his slicked back dark hair to the tips of his polished shoes.
Taking my hand, he slowly brought it to his face and for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss it, but instead...he sniffed me. His eyes widened and glowed amber, before dropping it and turning his narrowed gaze to Fang.
"You have mated her?" he asked, his voice loud and disbelieving.
"Uh...," I raised a finger to interrupt and ask what the hell he was talking about.
"Mated?" Saxon said, his mouth dropping open. He too leaned in and gave me a sniff. "Holy shit, dude! You've bonded with her?"
Bonded? Mated?? My eyes bounced from one man to the other as the words continued to spin through my head making me dizzy. Bonded? Mated? As in...married? I gulped and swayed on my feet.
"Yes," Fang said, his statement firm as if he dared anyone to question him. "She is my Queen."
"What!" I could actually feel my eyes bulge as all the blood drained from my face.
Courtanya let out a dismayed gasp, but other than that you could have heard a pin drop. Well...you could certainly hear me drop as I collapsed in a heap on the white marbled floor as my head exploded from shock.
Vaguely I could hear several things at once... Fang calling my name, Bubbles screaming in denial...people running. But the one thing that stood out before the blackness took me was Sinclair's voice.
"This is the one you have chosen to be eternally bonded with?"
"Yes," Fang growled.
"Dude, good luck with that."
Author's Note:
Holy matrimony on a pogo stick! Mel is mated? How in the world is Fang going to explain this and will Mel listen? Stay tuned to find out!
I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of FANGED and if you like it, you will consider giving it a vote. I love hearing from you and comments are always appreciated. If you don't see any updates here, feel free to check out my other stories Bending Steele, When Roses Collide and Steal You Away.
Then next scheduled update for this book is August 26th.
As always, thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
K