The Valkyrie Read online

  Gregory’s hand shot off of me. He cried out as his weight was ripped away from me. I put my hands on the floor and pushed off to stand up. No pain. I made a mental note to keep a bottle-of-Gregorios next to my bed at all times for pain relief. He was cuter than a bottle of aspirin that much was for sure. Besides, every time he touched me I wanted to sink into his arms, so I could get used to having him around.

  I stood and turned. Torin held Gregory with one hand. Gregory’s head was slumped down. I made a movement to run to him.

  "Who to choose? Who to choose?" Sive said. I looked behind me. She stood there holding Payton in front of her. She had his head tipped back. I looked at his neck. He had bite marks covering the length of it. The vomit rose up, as the realization of them having Payton since the night at my house hit me. I had no doubt that he’d been tortured. I scanned the rest of his body. It was only then that I noticed that he was naked. Sive pulled his head back further, and opened her fanged mouth wide.

  "Don’t, please!" I screamed out. "He’s a doctor. He saves people... Please don’t do this to him, he’s a good man." Her green eyes locked on me. She was enjoying hearing me beg. I promised myself right then and there that I would kill that bitch. I glanced back at Torin. Gregory’s body was still limp in his hand. I didn’t have time to marvel at Torin’s inhuman strength. I looked back at Payton and took a step toward him.

  "So you’ve made your decision then?" Sive asked. I looked at Payton’s body. His skin no longer held the same deep tan color it had. My first thought was blood loss. My second was to the phone call I’d gotten from him--the one where he invited me down to the mill, and where he wanted to know if he was "still welcome in my home." Guytano had needed me to invite him in and he was a vampire. I looked Payton’s body over, and found what I was looking for. Bite marks lined his inner thighs. He was one of them now. I had no doubt about it. Gregory wasn’t and I wasn’t willing to let them have him. I spun around and went at Torin. He put his hand up to block my body. I swung my foot out and managed to hit his knee.

  Gregory’s body fell down on me. I put my hands up to catch him but the force of him hitting me sent us both falling to the floor. I scrambled to get out from under him. I managed to get in a seated position. I cradled him on my lap and looked up Torin. He didn’t look pleased.

  "Tell me witch, why did you pick the magic man?" Sive asked. I didn’t take my eyes off of Torin. He was only two feet away from us. I’d seen how fast vampires can be. He was well within killing distance.

  "I picked the magic man..." I stopped and stroked Gregory’s head. He stiffened under my touch and touched my leg. He was okay, but not moving. Smart man indeed. "I picked him because he still had a soul to save." I turned to look at Payton. "That’s not my Payton anymore."

  Payton’s eyes fluttered open and he hissed at me. There was something very snake-like in his demeanor. He moved with fluidness that humans do not possess. I looked for signs of the Payton Sullivan I knew. All I found was his shell. I closed my eyes to try to stop the tears from flowing. I failed. Gregory’s finger rubbed the side of my leg harder. I leaned into him and cradled him in my arms tight.

  "Guytano," Gregory whispered to me. I couldn’t help myself. My head shot up and I looked wildly around the old mill. Sive’s laughter echoed around us, and I could hear Payton’s snarls. I couldn’t look at him like that. I couldn’t remember him as a monster. I looked up at Torin. His green eyes softened.

  "Why are you not happy with my gift?" he asked. He looked genuinely hurt. It took me a minute to realize that the gift he was referring to was Payton. He had grand illusions of us being together and his ‘gift’ to me was Payton. In a warped way, it made sense. He found someone that I trusted and had feelings for and brought him over. I was suddenly angry with myself for following Guytano into the mill in the first place. I should have minded my own business. Payton and I would be living together right now, not doing this. We’d most likely be at a show or dinner together right now enjoying each others company. No, no I had tried to play the hero, and look where it had gotten me.

  "Guytano," I said his name with disgust.

  "Ha! You think your precious little Guytano will come and save you," Sive said. I was beginning to see that she had a way of sounding condescending with little to no effort. "He is long gone. He is a coward. He ran from my Mistress long ago. He hid among the living, so she could not punish him without fear of the human’s finding out about her. He has found protection with the others like him--the ones that think that they can make a life for themselves with mortals. They will soon see that the mortals will reject them and that they are no longer welcome with their own kind." She laughed. It sent a chill up my spine. "No, I do not think Guytano will help you now. No, not unless he and his companions can have the movie rights."

  A loud clapping noise came from the far end of the mill floor. Everyone but Gregory turned to see the source of the noise. There, dancing along the shadows of the room was Guytano. He was dressed like a gothic hit man. He looked like he’d been dipped in leather. The long trench coat sealed the deal. He was truly a superstar and I hated him. Every ounce of me wanted to tear his throat out. He brought this on us. It was his longstanding fight with Torin that brought them here, and now the Payton I knew was dead.

  "Very lovely speech, Sive," Guytano said. He continued to clap softly as he spoke. "Did you just make that up, or was it borrowed? I truly hope that your not repeating the Mistress verbatim again, it is so like you to not form an original thought."

  I watched her face harden. She hated Guytano more than I did at the moment. I wondered what her reasoning for it was. My guess was that she was a scorned lover, but hey, what did I know? "The Mistress is on her way. When she arrives you will pay for your disloyalty. She will wipe that arrogant look from your face."

  Guytano looked at Payton, then to Gregory and me. "I think it is you who will pay tonight, not I," he said, as Sive hissed at him. Torin lunged over the top of us and toward Guytano. Gregory looked up at me.

  "They’ll kill him," he said softly.

  "He’s already dead."

  "That’s not how you really feel. When your mind is clear, you’ll regret this."

  No, it wasn’t how I really felt. I knew that the psycho-twins would be the end of Guytano and a minute ago I wanted to kill him myself. No matter how angry I got at him, no matter how much I blamed him for what happened, he didn’t deserve what they would give him. I pushed Gregory up from me. He stood without a problem. He was a fast healer that much was for sure. He put his foot out and kicked a wooden crate. Pieces of it flew out. He caught two stakes in midair and tossed me one.

  "Do you know what to do with that?" he asked.

  I looked down at the wooden weapon in my hand. Part of me wanted to drop it and run. In some deep recess of my mind that was one of the worst weapons to see your opponent have. The sane part of me, the one that was having trouble finding the surface lately, knew exactly what to do with it. I nodded at Gregory. He winked at me and looked over toward the now fighting vampires.

  "Play nice boys and girls," he said. I had to laugh a little when I saw the look on Sive’s face. It was when Payton stepped out that my laugh died away. My heart shattered into a million pieces. My feelings for him ran deeper than I thought.

  "I can’t kill him," I said, weakly.

  "Then go," Gregory said.

  I thought about dropping my stake and leaving. I thought about running as far away from the fabulous life of Guytano, mega-Hollywood-hunk, as I could, and then I thought about Payton. He’d always been so caring and had dedicated his life to saving people. He would not have wanted me to leave him like this. He wouldn’t want to be a monster. I gripped the stake tightly in my hand. I walked toward the vampires. Dark shadows flew out at Gregory and me. We ducked down, narrowly avoiding being struck. I turned and looked around. The mill was now crawling with dozens of vampires. I backed up into Gregory.

  "Looks like the party started early," Greg
ory said.

  "Any ideas?"

  "Yeah, don’t fall on the pointy end of the stake, and try not to get your neck snapped or bitten," he said. I laughed. Humor was the only thing that was keeping me from screaming, so I went with it. "You take the ugly one."

  I looked around. None of them looked remotely human. "So, what you’re saying is I have to fight them all?"

  This time it was Gregory’s turn to laugh. "One, two, three!"

  We both took off forward. It took everything in me to run full force at a group of vampires. My eyes locked on one with reddish brown hair and fangs the size of quarters. I think it was a she; it had breasts. She looked at me and lunged toward me. I let my body do what came naturally. I’d learned fighting Guytano that I had some skill when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and I was guessing that being a Valkyrie had something to do with that.

  Bringing the stake up, I stepped to the left. The she-vamp kept coming at me and her own body weight forced the wood straight into her heart. I expected her to go poof, but she didn’t. She did, however, fall to the floor with my only weapon still deep within her chest. I looked up and found myself face to face with an even uglier vampire. Great.

  The new vamp was an odd grey color. His brown hair was cut close to his head. Several gold earrings lined his ears. He was dressed like he was ready to walk down a runway, but his face looked more like roadkill at the moment. He snarled at me. The thick scent of blood hung from his breath. I fanned the air before my face and plugged my nose with my other hand. "Did something die in there or have you just given up on mouthwash? Wait, let me guess, you’ve stopped drinking blood and started eating roadkill." He pulled back from me and looked down. I took this opportunity to punch him in the jaw. My hand cracked. His head tipped back, I went to try another repeat performance of my hand through the chest heart removal. I shoved my right hand at his heart. This time I didn’t break his skin, but was pretty sure I broke at least two of my fingers.

  "Try not to call up any magic." Gregory’s labored voice came to me. He was trying to hold a conversation with me while he beat the crap out of vampires. Surprisingly enough, he was doing pretty well. He’d amassed quite the little pile of dead vampires around him and was still going strong.

  I cried out and pulled my hand back to my body. "No worries there."

  "It’s a good thing, ’cause the more magic we call the more the supernatural critters will show up," he said, over the sound of the fighting.

  I took another swing at the vampire. I missed. It grabbed me by my neck. I clawed at his hand, trying to get him to release me. No air was moving into my lungs. I was expending too much energy struggling with him, so I stopped. My vision blurred from lack of oxygen. I pulled my foot back and brought it hard into his most prized possession. I had no time to brace myself. He let go of me, and I plummeted to the floor. I fought to take a breath.

  "Oh joy, oh joy! I am happy that I came to see the show. I would have been most upset if I would have missed it," a heavily accented feminine voice said. The vampires around me backed away. Their attentions were no longer on killing me so much as they were on staring at the newest arrival. As I rubbed my sore throat I turned to see the source of the silence. I had to blink twice, I didn’t believe my eyes.

  "Camille," I let her name fall from my lips. She spun on her three inch white high heels and looked at me. Her white pantsuit was a far cry from the naked pile of bodies I’d dreamt of her in, but it was her all the same. Her blond head of curls framed her delicate face. Eyes of green stared out at me and I could see her try to register who I was. Her head moved back and forth slowly.

  A ruckus from her left caught her attention. She turned and looked as Torin held Guytano’s head back. Sive was standing before him with a small knife out. Guytano’s chest was sliced open in two different spots that I could see, but with the amount of blood running down him I was betting those weren’t his only wounds. I watched as Sive plunged the knife deep into Guytano’s throat. I gasped.

  "Enough!" Camille ordered.

  Both Torin and Sive played the part of the obedient children. Sive pulled the knife from Guytano’s neck and Torin held him up to keep him from falling. I watched as blood dripped down Guytano. His eyes met mine. He was still alive, or whatever it was that he called himself. He looked back at Camille. It was easy to see the terror in his dark black eyes.

  Camille walked toward me. She was being flanked by twin beauties. Both men were just a little taller than me, naked, and wearing studded collars. The girl knew how to travel, if you were into that sort of thing. I staggered to my feet and looked at her. I got the sense that she was powerful, but I was not afraid of her. I’d seen her at her worst. I’d been privy to the night she was made.

  "No, it cannot be," she said, sounding astonished. "You are gone. You are dead. I saw you die, I saw..." She appeared before me, and her tiny hand came out to touch my cheek. I didn’t move away. I let her touch me. Her icy cold hand rubbed across my skin. "You are warm," she said, as she pulled her hand away.

  "Leave her out of this, Camille. It is me that you are after, not her." Guytano said. His voice was hoarse. Torin was still holding him up. From where I stood, it looked like he was even trying to stop some of Guy’s bleeding. I wondered if Torin would have been on the bad guy’s side had his sister not been insane.

  Camille turned to Guytano. "Yes, I will admit that my intentions were to bring you back with me and to make you beg for my forgiveness ... but now," she looked at me, "now, I am most curious as to how you came to know this woman."

  Guytano looked at me. "Valerie?"

  "Valerie?" Camille asked. She tipped her head back and laughed. "Oh, my how you do bear a remarkable resemblance to someone I once knew. Your warm skin should have told me that you could not be who I thought you were." She waived her hand back toward Guytano. "Since you have nothing to hold my interest here, let us go. Take him!"

  "Camille, the unblemished one," I said, never once wavering. "You were a poor man’s whore when I found you, and now you’re a sadistic bitch. My how you’ve grown. It’s interesting to see you running the show. You were always such a follower."

  She stopped and stared at me. "No ... it cannot be."

  Gregory walked forward. His shirt was soaked in blood. I expected that some of it was indeed his. He seemed okay, so I didn’t panic, yet. When Camille saw him she backed away from me. "I watched you, magic-man, run your sword through her chest. I watched you slay her... I watched ... no. She was powerful, but even she could not survive that."

  I looked at Gregory. He tipped his head down slightly and he nodded. He was confirming what she said was true. He had indeed stuck a sword through my chest. He took another step toward me, but kept his eye on Camille.

  "I had no idea that you were watching," Gregory said to Camille. Something registered across his face. "You, you were the one responsible... All these years I thought that it was...."

  "Me," a deep voice said.

  I looked to my left and watched as one of the sexiest men I’ve ever seen walked toward me. His six foot tall muscled body was covered in designer clothing. The red mesh short-sleeve shirt he wore showed off his muscular arms. His black dress pants were definitely tailor made. I rescanned the length of him. I ended up on his squared face. He had a face that commanded respect and made you look at his full lips. His skin was so pale, yet it had an edge of creaminess. A head of wavy black curls that hung to mid-back and matched his eyes perfectly.

  "Lucha, how nice to see you," Camille said.

  I glanced at Guytano. He had looked scared of Camille. He looked at Lucha like he was the Devil himself. It’s never good when the vampires are scared of something, too. Gregory moved his body toward me and took a protective stance in front of me. "Yes, Lucha, I thought that you were the one who slaughtered the villagers. I received word that it was under attack. When I found you there wandering the streets, I thought that you were the one who masterminded Valerie’s death."

&nbs
p; Lucha looked at Gregory. His eyes were hard for a moment and then softened as he looked past Gregorios to me. He took a step toward me and I moved closer to Gregory’s back. I look like a scared child and that was pretty close to how I felt. Lucha stopped coming toward me and set his attentions back on Gregory.

  "I, too, received word that the villagers were under attack. I came to find my sweet Linnea and to stop the senseless killing. When I saw you carrying her dead body, I vowed then and there to kill any human that I came into contact with." He looked at me and tipped his head in shame. "To hide her from me for over a hundred years is quite a feet, Gregorios. I knew that your kind were powerful. I had no idea just how powerful they truly were," Lucha said, his face full of pain. It tore at my gut to see him hurting and I wasn’t sure why.

  A hundred years? How could Gregorios hide me for that long? Gregory’s hand came behind him. He touched my waist and pulled me to him. I didn’t fight him.

  "Five years," he said, barely above a whisper.

  "Pardon me?"

  "You heard me Lucha, I said five years. That’s how long I’ve kept her hidden from you, not a hundred. I thought you were the one who..." He turned and looked at Camille before he finished. "I thought you were the one who set Valerie up. She told me before she died that she’d been summoned to the village when she’d heard that you’d gone crazy and were slaughtering innocents. I’d been told that it was a female who was on the killing rampage, so it was obvious someone tipped me off in the hopes that I’d kill Valerie. I assumed that someone was you. I thought that you’d tired of her and were moving onto to that one," he said, pointing at Camille.

  Camille came forward. "No, Lucha. It is not Linnea. She is called Valerie. She is not our..."

  Lucha’s hand shot up. Camille fell silent. "You have always been of simple mind. You know that Valentino’s children were renamed. His reasons varied. Even you, Camille, were given a fresh start. That is what she tried to give you, isn’t it? But I do believe that Linnea is her true name, so I am not sure how she came to be called Valerie. But I would know her anywhere, regardless of her name." He looked at me for an answer. "Do you have any insight into the matter?"