Anita’s P.O.V
I walked back out to my Jeep with Micah and Merle on my tail. They had agreed to come, no problem. Merle was annoyed at how someone would dare try to take his Nimir-Ra. It was not allowed, as he so eloquently put it.
I unlocked the Jeep by pressing the little button on the key chain. No convertible for me tonight. I was at work. I slid in the drivers door and Micah slid in the passenger door. I was getting tired of work.
Its not that I didn’t enjoy it, I was getting pissed off with it, with Bert, with the constant battles I have to go through to get someone to listen to me.
Question; why didn’t I just quit?
Answer; I didn’t know.
But I did now.
I opened the little compartment on the passenger side and took my phone out. No missed calls. I really shouldn't keep leaving it in there. I kept forgetting I had it. I flipped down the front and dialled in Animators Inc.’s number from memory.
“Good evening, Animators Inc. Craig speaking, how can I help?” Craig’s voice floated over the phone. Micah was watching me with a puzzled look on his face
“Hey Craig, It’s Anita. Is Bert free?” I asked.
“urm...Yes, he is. Shall I put you through?” He asked.
“Yes, please”
Silence, then Bert’s voice.
“What’s happened now, Anita?” He knew me so well. He sounded pissed.
“Nothing. I’m on my way to my first appointment now, as a matter of fact”
“Then what’s wrong?” He now sounded pissed and suspicious.
“I’m quitting” Putting it blatantly
Silence and then
“WHAT! you can’t quit, why do you want to quit? What’s happened, Anita?” He sounded like he was having a heart attack. I’d had to move the phone away from my ear. Micah started to laugh. Merle didn’t. He leaned against my seat, a slight frown playing on his face.
“I’ve had enough, Bert, I want out ” I told him.
“No, you can’t Anita, I wont accept your resignation, I wont” He said. Now I was pissed
“Well, your gonna fucking well have to, cuz I’m throwing it at you” I said and flipped the phone off.
I started the engine. Micah was still laughing.
“what are you laughing at” I asked Micah as i pulled out of the car park.
“You
and your way with words. I think your boss, or should I say EX boss, is
going to have a heart attack” He said, a smile still on his lips.
“I like Anita’s way with words” Merles voice floated over from the back. Well. I was glad someone did.
Jean-Claude’s P.O.V
I watched from the shadows as Anita, Micah and Merle got into Anita’s Jeep. I had a very bad feeling. Something wasn’t quite right tonight. I felt as though the air was closing in, as though getting ready for something to happen.
I felt Asher come up behind me before he put his hands on my shoulders. As soon as he touched me, I felt a little calmer. I relaxed a little, but that didn’t stop the feeling, the itch between my shoulder blades didn’t ease.
All of a sudden, I felt light headed, I closed my eyes. It was another vision. Anita lying on a stone floor. She was wearing a black dress. She was dead. I got closer somehow, and looked into her face. It was covered. I looked down her body. There was a hole in her chest. Someone had taken her heart.
I gasped. Someone whispered through my mind
“This
is what will happen if you fight it, Jean-Claude. She will die and you
will be left alone” The voice said.
“Jean-Claude!” Asher was calling me. I didn’t believe the voice. I could taste that the voice was lying. I also had a slight idea about who the voice could belong to. I couldn’t tell Asher. He would have hysterics.
“I must get to Guilty Pleasures, Asher. I shall call for you later. We need to talk” I said and I took to the air before he could say anything else. I had to get this sorted and fast.
Chapter
14
Asher’s P.O.V
I walked in to the living room and went straight over to the phone. When Philippe,
Jean-Claude's twin brother, took Anita on Padma’s orders, Belle and the Traveller had told me to contact them if anything out of the ordinary happened again. When I’d asked ‘ why? ’ they wouldn’t tell me. They had probably known that this would happen and they probably knew who it was. If they told me, we might just be able to save Anita and Jean-Claude in time.
I still didn’t understand why Belle cared. I had always thought that she hated
Jean-Claude and I for leaving her, and I though she hated Anita even more for having the two of us. I didn’t think there was one vampire in this world she would protect us from. Had I been wrong? We’d soon find out.
I dialled the number they had left. I wasn’t to good at using modern technology, but phones we’re alright.
“Bonjour ?” A voice floated over the phone I didn’t recognise
“Bonjour, I’m looking for Belle Morte or The Traveller. Are they available?” I asked in English because I could tell who ever answered the phone was not to good at French. The Accent was wrong.
“May I ask who is calling?” I was right. I couldn't pick up their immediate accent, but it wasn’t French.
“It is Asher”
“Thank you”
Silence on the other end of the phone. How long would it take for one of them to get there?
“Asher, what is happening?” Belle’s voice floated over the phone
“ There’s a problem. Jean-Claude and Anita have both been receiving visions, dreams. Jean-Claude has been getting letters and there is a contract out for someone to capture him alive. Also, one of our vampires has gone missing. We found blood in her coffin”
I decided to tell Belle everything. If she knew who this was, she needed to know everything. I hadn’t told Jean-Claude or Anita what Belle and the Traveller had said. I didn’t think that they needed to know. I wasn’t so sure now.
“How long has this been going on?” She asked.
“Almost four day’s now ”
“Does Jean-Claude have any idea’s about who it could be?” Now that I wasn’t sure of
“I’m not sure. They seem to be falling apart, Jean-Claude and Anita. I’m not sure what to do or who it is myself” I told her.
I had a sudden thought. It could be Belle. How did she know something like this would happen? Why had she told me to call her if anything happened? To find out weather the plan was working? Mon Dieu, what have I done?
“Does Jean-Claude know that you are phoning me?”
“No” He should have though
“Asher, I can feel something in the air tonight. A tightness. Its as though some great power is getting ready to do something. I need to know if I can come to St. Louis” She said.
I didn’t know what to do. As Jean-Claude’s lieutenant, his second, I could make decisions like this, if I thought the need for it. If Belle was telling the truth and didn’t have anything to do with it, then the need for a decision was there.
“I know you doubt me, Asher, but do you doubt your old friend, the Traveller?” She went, then a second voice came over the phone.
“Asher, listen to me” He sounded in a hurry. “You must give us permission to come to
St. Louis. Something is happening. We can all feel a great tension in the air. Do not tell me you cannot feel it”
“I can”
“We think its Casspian” Oh Mon Dieu
“It cannot be” I hoped beyond hope it wasn’t. The first letter Jean-Claude received ran through my head
“I’m finally coming for her in person” Casspian was coming after Anita.
“He’s coming after Anita , he’s coming for her”
“Asher, can we come into St. Louis?” The Traveller asked again
“Yes”
I said and I put down the phone. I had to get to Jean-Claude.
Chapter
15
Anita’s P.O.V
I had just finished my only zombie appointment of the night. Bert had phoned me back and told me to just the first one and come into work tomorrow to talk to him. I didn’t want to, but he’d been so damn reasonable, I couldn’t say no with out sounding stupid. I didn’t even know why I wanted to quit. But, then again, I didn’t even know if I wanted to stay. I was so confused.
The cemetery was dark. I had just raised a child of 8, that had been murdered. She had been raped and beaten, but no one knew who by. The police said that there was a very good chance she got a look at who it was.
I turned out it was her father. Her father had raped and murdered her, then put her in the empty park behind her house. I had nearly cried when she told us about the last thing she seen and felt. I might have been a cruel bitch sometimes, but I couldn’t stand to see children hurt. There was something about children with me.
Her father hadn’t come tonight, told his wife he was over come with grief and couldn’t bare to see her again. He had tried to drop the investigation behind his wife's back, but she had found out and told them to go ahead. I hope they got the bastard and cut his fucking dick off when they did.
The little girl’s mother, Karen, had burst into tears and had collapsed in to her fathers arms. It had seriously brought me down. How could a father do that to a child? The little girl had known she was dead. She had grabbed my hand and asked me to put her back to sleep. I didn’t even ask if it was O.K to do so. I just did it.
I felt Micah approaching before he started to massage my shoulders. I stood up straighter. All of the police had left, lights blazing, going after the father. Its was just us left.
“Don’t think about it, Anita. With out you, they would never had known who it was” He said, voice soft.
Of course, even thought he and Merle had stayed a little way away they had heard everything. We had to tell the police that they were my body guards, Merle had nearly lost it, so they let them stay.
I felt Micah turn me round and his hands went to my thighs. He lifted me in the air started to swing me round. I laughed and smiled. Micah and I had become close. I enjoyed his company, and I think I was starting to fall for him. But I would never love him as much as Jean-Claude. At least, I didn’t think I would.
He put me on the floor in front of him and looked in my eyes. His face went serious.
“What’s happened, Anita? Other than hearing what we’ve just heard. What has you so upset?” He asked
I hadn’t told Micah the whole story. He just knew someone was after Jean-Claude. He didn’t know someone was threatening me, too. I looked at him and sighed. I had to tell him. Knowing my luck, if I didn’t, it would probably come up and bite me on the ass.
“Someone is sending letters to Jean-Claude, saying their coming for me. I’m having real wired dreams and I feel ill” I told him. No need to go into to details. Micah was like me, only needed to know the basics.
“It would have helped if you had told us that before” Merle’s voice. He was standing behind me.
“I didn’t think you needed to know ” I turned to face him, anger beginning to rise.
“How am I supposed to protect my Nimir-Ra, when I don’t know she needs protecting?” A small smile forming on his lips.
I smiled and hugged Micah. He put his face into my neck and breathed along my collar bone.
“Lets go and pack” He said.
“O.K”
He let me go and I picked my stuff up. Micah grabbed my hand and they walked me between them back to the car. They both suddenly sniffed.
“What?” Was all I had time to ask, when we were rushed from all sides. I went for my gun, but I was air born and on the floor, spots dancing in front of my eyes
I felt something pierce my skin. A needle. It hurt. I was struggling and it had ripped my skin. I screamed because it was the only thing I could do. Two different leopard cries answered my scream. Why had Micah and Merle changed? Or had they made them change?
My face was flat to the floor and I couldn’t see through the spots and darkness that was eating away at me. The last thing I heard before I was completely taken in by the darkness was;
“Don’t you dare hurt her!” I hoped they wouldn’t.
Chapter
16
CHAPTER NOT; The vampire is supposed to remind you of Orlando Bloom as Legolas. lol I Love him! Couldn’t help my self !
Anita’s P.O.V
I woke, lying on my back. It was completely dark. I knew I was in a small space. I could tell by the air. My head was pounding. I tried sitting up and bumped my head after rising about 5 inches. I moved my hands and felt them trapped, held own.
I tried to move my legs. They were free but not much use. I had to calm my self down, I had to think. What happened? How did I end up like this?
The cemetery. That was the last thing I remember. I was in the cemetery with Micah and Merle. Then we were attacked. I was held down and knocked out with something. Breathe, Anita. breathe.
Jean-Claude.
I opened the marks to Jean-Claude, but I couldn’t reach him. Why was he blocking me? I pushed and pushed, but didn’t have the energy. I knew one thing, It wasn’t him blocking me, and I wasn’t blocking him. Someone else was blocking both of us from the other.
I felt myself start to panic. Calm, Anita, think calm. I concentrated on my breathing, but the lid was so close to my face, I could feel my breath on my skin. I felt like a wasn’t getting enough air, yet I could feel my own on my skin.
Why was I frightened of closed spaces? I could face vampires, wereanimals of all kinds, every monster you could think of, but I had trouble with closed in spaces. One little accident had left me frightened of being closed in. Claustrophobia, isn’t it a wonderful thing?
I started to scream. Hopefully, someone would get fed up of hearing it and come and get me out. But because I was screaming so much, I wasn’t breathing properly. I tried to catch my breath but couldn’t. I was hyperventilating. All that was coming out now was muffled sobs.
I coughed and tried to calm down, but because I was hyperventilating, I was just making my self worse. I could never calm myself down after I’d started.
The lid finally opened and I was lifted out, while still relearning how to breath. I couldn’t quite get it right and I was making things worse still. I had to close my eyes against the light. I was put on my feet, but they wouldn’t hold. My knees went and who ever got me out, had to catch me to keep me from falling.
I felt arms around me. They had laid me down. I could barely see and someone was whispering to me in a language I didn’t understand. I couldn't pick up on anything they said or the accent
I suddenly felt calmer and my breath evened out. I opened my eyes, and the spots got fewer and far between. I looked around me. I was in a coffin room. More to the point, I was in the coffin room under the Circus of the Damned. What the fuck?
I looked at the person who’s arms I was lying in. My God, was the first thing that came to mind. He was young. Younger than me, well, in looks anyway. He had almost bleach blond hair, that looked to natural to be died. He had the darkest brown, which managed not to look black eyes, I’d ever scene. You didn’t normally find brown eyed, blond haired people.
They were normal, nothing special about them, apart from the weight of years they held. He was so old. Not as old as Oliver, but he must have been getting on just over half a million now. He had an angular face. His smile small and condescending.
A sudden thought crossed my mind. He looked like an actor. I couldn’t think of the actors name. Or even if he was an actor. I narrowed my eyes. He laughed suddenly, and a weight was lifted off my mind. He’d forced himself into my mind. My eyes went wide. How had he done that?
“You will never have to worry about anything ever again now, Mein Geliebter” He said.
What the fuck did that mean?
He tried to help me walk, but when my legs wouldn’t co-operate, he lifted me up and walked back towards the coffin. I started to struggle in his arms
“I am not going back in there” I said.
He dropped my legs and made me look him. He controlled my body with my arms.
“I am not going to put you back in the coffin. I know of your fear of closed spaces” He said.
I frowned. How had he known that?
“I know everything about, Anita. Probably more than you know about yourself”
Now what did that mean?
Chapter 17
Anita’s
P.O.V
We had moved from the coffin room to the living room. I hadn't seen any one. I kept trying to reach out to Jean-Claude and Richard, but I couldn’t. Someone was stopping me from contacting them. How, was something I would love to Know.
What had happened? I couldn’t see any of Jean-Claude’s vampires, or any one else for that matter. What had happened to Micah? We were defiantly in the circus, I knew that much. Anger, frustration and worry was taking over now, though. The thought of what could have happened to Jean-Claude, Micah and everyone else was making me physically feel sick.
I had most of my own strength back now. I could walk on my own, which was a blessing. I didn’t want this person, who ever, what ever he was, touching me. I had walked in front of him to the living room.
I was now sitting on the couch, in front of the fire. Who ever this was, had moved in and made him self right at home. I hope he didn’t get too comfortable.
“Where’s
Jean-Claude?” I asked finally.
The man was standing, leaning with one arm against the fire place. He’d had the same condescending smile on his face for the past 20 minutes. It was beginning to really annoy me. I wanted to shake him, but I didn’t want to piss him off. Call it a hunch, but I was betting when he got angry, he got very angry.
“Where is Jean-Claude?” I asked again, stretching out each word.
He turned his head to look at me. I fought not to squirm under that gaze. It wasn’t hard. Every time he avoided my question, I got more worried about Jean-Claude.
“Your Jean-Claude, is safe, and unharmed, have no fear ” Him saying the last made me worry even more.
What was going on? And what did he mean when he said I would never have to worry again? I could feel the beginning of a huge headache coming.
“What do you want?...I want to see Jean-Claude. I need to know he’s OK ” I said. I wanted to be away from this man who ever he was.
I was thinking about running and stood up, just about to do it, when he appeared in front of me, holding my arms.
“You are not going anywhere Mein Geliebter. I want to explain everything to you” He said, his eyes were locked on mine.
He gently pushed me back down on to the couch and sat next to me. What did he think he was doing? He got closer to me and I could feel nervousness radiating off him. Why was he nervous?
“I firstly need to introduce my self. I am Casspian. I doubt of weather you would have heard of me?” It was more of a question than a statement. I answered truthfully for once. I doubt it would have cost me anything. If it did, well, you live and learn.
“No I haven't heard of you. Why would I have heard of you?” I asked. He was trying to get closer to me. I couldn’t back away, as I was leaning against the arm of the sofa.
He sat right next to me and took my chin gently in his hands. He hadn’t tried to hurt me so far. But that could always change. I didn’t move a muscle. I was frightened if did, he would hurt me to keep still.
“Havn’t you ever wondered why so many people have tried to take you, convert you, infect you over the years?” He was looking dead in my eyes.
Huh?
Chapter 18
Anita’s P.O.V
What the fuck was he on about? The people who had tried to do those things, did it because I was trying to kill them. There were all dead now, either myself, Jean-Claude or Edward had seen to that. What was he on about.
I let my puzzlement show in my eyes, show in the way I held my facial features. I truly had no clue as to what he was on about, and I wouldn’t be happy until I knew Jean-Claude was O.K. I wouldn’t rest until I had at least seen him.
“I think I had better start from the beginning” He said. He released me and stood up. he walked back to lean against the mantle.
“I am a very old friend of the earthmovers” He said. Oh God, hear we go again. I felt my face drop before I could school my emotions. He looked at me and laughed.
“I am not hear to avenge his death. I believe that it was the only thing that could have stopped his plan. However, if I knew he was going to come after you, I would have killed him myself” He said.
Now I was confused.
“I dont understand. What are you talking about?” I asked him.
“Im talking about you. I have watched you and got to know you for a very long time. I first noticed you when your mother died” He said, walking back over to me. He knelt in front of me.
“If you had anything to do with my mothers death, I will kill you” I said. I felt my self go cold. I went to that place I had started to call my second home. The place where I could kill in cold blood.
“I honestly had nothing to do with your mothers death, but when you found out she was dead, you released alot of power and I needed to know what it was. When I seen it was this little girl, I got curious, and began to watch you” He said. He took my hand.
“You
grew up so fast and became so powerful. I knew I had to have you. Then,
when you went to college, you met that boy. I wanted to kill him for what
he did ” I looked at him. This was the fucking twilight zone, and as usual,
I was smack bang in the middle of it all.