Chapter 5 #2
Confused when they seemed to be ignoring one another, he kept to the other side of the street so that they’d not see him.
Once, when he nearly went to the woman who was standing alone, one of the men went to her, and he thought it was Rance.
It took him five minutes of waiting to see if they were a couple or not.
Damn it. They weren’t making things easy on him at all.
Then, as one, they got into their cars and left.
None of them had come to the place in the woman’s car, so he had no way of knowing which one was her.
This was all his brother’s fault, and he was going to make him pay for it.
After they left, he went to the burn site and looked around for a scent.
When he’d gone to the place where the woman had been standing alone, he got a powerful scent of something, but it wasn’t magic.
He didn’t know what it was, but it had a stench on it that made him sick to his stomach.
The longer he stood in one place, the sicker he got until he had to throw up.
With nothing on his stomach but wine, he was ill for five minutes before bile came up from his belly, making him sicker by the minute.
He wondered what it could be and decided that he didn’t care.
He wanted nothing to do with the stench.
Going back to his lair, he laid down. It was that, or he was going to pass out.
As it was now, he could barely stand without being dizzy.
Not even changing his clothing helped; the smell followed him everywhere.
When he had to rest, he didn’t even like laying in his bed; the smell had somehow gotten into his home and around his bed.
Finally, he ended up resting on the floor of the cave while his belly still rebelled.
Whatever was going on, he was going to blame it on those six people he’d seen today.
Now all he had to do was get better, and he’d search them out.
When he woke up, he still carried the smell with him.
Not understanding where it had come from, he took off his shoes and set them outside.
When that didn’t help, he tried everything else he could think of, but all it did was—the nudge to his mind had him pausing.
There was no ignoring the call from the person who had contacted him.
“It is I, your king, Brewster Smith. I command you to come to me immediately.” He said that he had a problem and wasn’t going to be able to make it anytime soon. “I didn’t ask you to come to me; I commanded it. Make your way to me beginning now, or I shall have to come to you.”
“Good luck finding me. I’ve been working on my lair for decades.
” The laughter startled him, and he decided that he didn’t have time for this.
“If you’re so set on coming to me, then try that.
As I said, I’ve been working on keeping people out of my business for too long to let some pussy ass try and find me now. I’m busy.”
The entire cave shook enough that the walls came down around him.
The bed was ruined, and his dressers, stuffed full of clothing, were smashed.
As he ran out of the cave, more walls came down, and he knew he’d never be able to enter his domain again.
Even as he left the mouth of his home, a great stone came from the top, blocking his entrance for now and forever.
“Now you have time. Come to me immediately, or I shall come to you. And you don’t want that to happen. I have commanded it, and so it will be.” He started to protest once again, but the ground beneath him shook a bit more, and he fell on his ass. “Immediately.”
~*~
If asked, Brew wouldn’t have thought that he’d had that much power.
All he’d meant to do was throw the man off his feet and be done with it.
But once he decided he didn’t want to play around with the man anymore, his power seemed to come to him in great waves.
Sitting down with a glass of wine in front of him.
Brew looked at his dear friend Rance and asked him what he wanted to do now.
“Not piss you off is one thing I’m going to work very hard in not doing. Did you mean to do that?” He said that once he started, it was like he couldn’t stop. “Good thing to know. You’ve no idea what you can do when you’re pissed. I don’t think that’s a good thing, Brew.”
“No. But when I thought of him standing there while the flames were burning her house down, masturbating, my temper got the better of me. Do you suppose that he does that? Sets fires to houses and jerks off as they burn?” He said that it sounded like something he’d do.
“He’s a sick fuck, you know that, don’t you? ”
“What I know is that he’s sick about something. Did you see in his mind before you started your show of power?” He said that he knew what his plan for Kimber was. “Is it bad?”
“He plans to flay her alive while you watch. He doesn’t know what she means to you or that she’s your mate, but his only concern is that you’ve been hanging out with her and he doesn’t want you to have her.
” Rance started pacing the room, and he let him.
Knowing the kind of power that he had made him slightly ill.
He looked at Rance when he stopped pacing.
“You know, I’ve heard of his work before.
About ten years ago, a family of five was killed the same way.
I don’t remember what the circumstances were that made him do it, but it couldn’t have been that much.
Some slight that he felt they’d done to him. ”
“There’s more.” He sat down and looked at him. Brew didn’t want to tell him, but he knew that he had to do something. “Also, he thinks you have no power or magic. You have more magic than I do…thought I did. You should read his mind.”
“I’ve not reached out to him in decades. I’d have to search for the link.” Brew told him that it would be well worth it. “What are you not telling me? Something important that I should know about him?”
“Yes. He’s had the ‘‘council under his thumb for some time. He’s also lost some of his vampirical powers. He can’t hold shadows, nor can he change his clothing at will.
” He asked what else. “He can only show his fangs when he’s ready to feed.
And the person that he feeds off of, their wounds will seal even if he doesn’t do it.
That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t kill them anyway, but those might prove to be important sometime.
He has no ability to tell what a person is.
I’m not sure why that’s going to be something that they did to him.
Not even when he feeds from them can he tell what they are.
Also, he had plans to go to the council to have them reverse the punishment that he’d had given him.
He might well have done it too if they hadn’t been fired by me. ”
“There’s more?” He nodded. “Just tell me. I’m on pins and needles waiting for you to tell me in bits and pieces.”
“He killed your parents. I don’t know how he was able to do that, but he practiced his ability to flay a person on them.
The council knew about it, too. One more thing that I have to talk to them about.
He’s killed every person or thing that he’s fed from as well.
His death toll is higher than that of any other vampire that lives right now. ”
“You’re kidding me.” He said that he’d not joke about something like that. “So he’s been murdering humans and shifters, I assume, for as long as he’s been able to feed.”
“Yes.” When he left it there, he thought about the other things that David had done.
He’d been murdering children in their beds, killing animals that meant no harm to him.
But his worst crime to date was killing his parents.
That was a big law that he’d broken, and there was no way that he should have been able to live after the council found out about it.
“I’m going to take him to task when he gets here. ”
“Do you think he’ll come here?” He said that he’d better. “I don’t know why, but I think he’s going to avoid you pretty much like he has every other law that we have for our kind. He doesn’t strike me as a man who has any qualms about doing what he wants when he wants to.”
For some reason, he believed he might be right.
So far, rules hadn’t meant shit to him, and that kind of scared him a bit.
Not that he thought the man was more powerful than him, but he might come after his Calla Lily and harm her.
If he did that, then all bets were off, and he was going to be one dead vampire.
He was going to kill him anyway, the rules of their kind said that he must, but he could worry about his wife if—
“I’m going to have to talk to Kimber about him.
He’s not going to wait around before finding her and trying to kill her.
And if he tries to flay her, which you said is in his mind, her being immortal will not go well for her.
She’ll not die, no matter what he does with her, unless he removes her head.
And since he doesn’t have the ability to tell what she is, then he’ll hurt her badly before he’s finished with her.
” Brew said he’d not thought of that when he was telling him about that inability.
“It’s all I can think about. He’s going to die if he tries to feed from her.
He’s going to die anyway, but if he feeds from her, being his step-sister-in-law, he’s going to be poisoned. ”
“It would be better if you were to bond with her as soon as possible.” He said that he’d talk to her about it.
“She’s going to have to understand that her very life depends on her having more power than he does.
She might already, but we’ll have no way of knowing until he comes for her. And by then it might be too late.”