Halloween Romance: Blood Lovers

Chapter Four

Talk Over Pancakes

"Why didn't you tell anyone what was going on, Dara?"

That was what the boys called her now. It meant "moonless night" or "darkness" in ancient Persian. It was what her brothers called her. It was what her father had called her. But she hadn’t given this upstart cop with a bad attitude permission to call her that at all.

She stared at him with feral eyes like a hungry tigress until the sergeant dropped his gaze. No mortal could meet her eyes for long if she turned up her stare. None.

When he dropped his eyes, she deigned to answer his question with part of the truth.

"He would've hurt the younger ones. We couldn't."

Midnight turned and stared at the younger team members, who sat in a corner playing with their dolls. Butterfly, a little girl of four, was playing with her ballerina doll, Wendy with her ghost rag doll, and Tannis with her little Phantom of the Opera doll. Finn and Wing, best friends age seven and eight, whittled blocks of wood with their pocketknives into figures that already looked vaguely human and still somewhat shapeless.

Metamorphosis, she thought suddenly, and touched the tip of her tongue to her right canine. Transformation.

Dara?

Kai’s voice was gentle and hesitant in her mind, but her heart swelled with pride. What a brilliant creature he was, to pick up telepathy- ‘pathing, as it was called- with such ease. It had only been two days!

"So, you stayed quiet to protect them.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, and though there was no sarcasm in her voice, she somehow managed to mock Sergeant Matthews with her tone, her regal posture, and her glittering jewel-blade eyes.

“Who would you say he hurt the worst?"

The policeman was trying to get a testimony from Team Halloween. Midnight wasn't all too happy with that. Vlad wasn’t a human problem, for all he was so human. He was a Kingdom problem, and needed to be handled by Kingdom people.

“Miss Dara?”

“I did not give you permission to call me that,” she hissed suddenly, slamming one fist down onto the table. “How dare you speak to me with such familiarity.”

“I’m just trying to make sure the bad guys get justice, Ms. Vaperio, that’s all. No need to get hostile-”

"Winter.” Midnight tried not to sample the cop’s thoughts, but he was projecting loud and clear and she was too exhausted and still too drained by Vlad’s vicious, insidious magic to shield herself properly. It was really her, not Winter, that Vlad had hurt the worst, by stealing away her life, her strength, her darkness. “He hurt Winter the most. Her, Finn, and Julian. But, mostly Winter."

"And, what did he do to you, Ms. Wolfe?"

Winter took a minute to gather her thoughts. Then, sighing, she answered. "Have you ever jumped out of a window? No, I didn't think so. Have you ever been assaulted while getting ready for bed? No, I didn't think you'd been. Well, I didn't exactly jump out of a window. I got thrown through a pane of glass out a window. Landed on my back on top of a dumpster four stories below. Once, I missed our lights out time by two minutes, and he beat me with a candlestick."

It would’ve had to have been a candle stick, Midnight thought to herself. Only silver could’ve taken winter down, only the sharpest and purest silver, and how many pipes- his toy of choice when it came to her and Julian- were made out of silver? None. But there were silver candlesticks in the world a-plenty.

She propped her chin on her fist and cast her thoughts toward Kai. She didn’t want to focus on the police sergeant or she’d be tempted to break his neck. She could tell by his thoughts that he didn’t believe their story.

"Did he ever sexually assault any of you girls?"

Midnight held up three fingers.

Winter held up seven.

Mathews stared.

"That was yesterday, by the way," Julian murmured, cracking his knuckles before shoving his long, tawny hair out of his eyes. Mathews' eyes bugged.

"You got to be kiddin' me!"

Midnight shook her head. Mathews decided he ought to change the subject. There was no way he could brush this under the rug, and things were getting awfully uncomfortable.

"What about the little ones? They look awfully scrawny."

"Now, I wonder why that is. Oh, wait, I remember. It was because they had to skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last three and a half days because Vlad made them train," Midnight snarled. "Of course they look scrawny. He starved them half way to death. He likes us skinny so he can tell which rib he's broken that day."

Midnight took a sip of chocolate milk. It cooled her temper. "Sorry. I am slightly stressed today. Can the guys come out here now?"

"Why do you want them here?" He asked suspiciously. The only one there besides the Scream Team was Julie Tate.

"Because, the kids trust them, Mariah and Winter are friends, and I really want Kai here." She gave him a wane smile. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold the fraying leash on her temper.

Dara? Little night? You have need of me?

No, Mithainde, she whispered in her mind. No, I don’t. Just dealing with petty human things. It’s of no immediate consequence to you, brother.

Huh. Mortals. You should come back to the mountains, sister. Be with your own kind.

No, Mithainde. I’ve found my auramdas, and he needs me here.

One of us in the city? And he’s not a Rogue?

No, not one of us. A human. Kai Hiwatari. He’s a brilliant star of a mortal, brother, trust me. He’s my other half, but he needs me here. I will bring him to the mountains when I know the time is right. Until then I must settle for human living.

Good luck with that, sister.

My thanks for your confidences, brother, she hissed sarcastically, and cut the connection.

“I,” she repeated, and this time something in her voice made the hairs of the cop’s arms stand on end. “Want Kai here with me.”

"That's good." Kai murmured from his position behind Midnight. "Because I wanted to be here too."

Kai circled slowly from behind Matthews and took his seat next to Midnight, glancing at her questioningly. She nodded, and he smiled ever so slightly, somewhat of a smirk.

You’re late, Kai, she murmured. He smiled.

You were expecting me too soon, he replied.

Just then, Tannis ran up.

"Hi, Kai!"

She glanced up at him hopefully. He nodded, and she popped up onto his lap. Running his fingers through Tannis's silky curls, he stared at the police officer.

“Do you have a problem? Or did you forget your camera this morning?” Kai demanded, his voice dripping disdain.

"How long have you two known each other?"

"Um. I'd say about three or four days. Why?" Midnight asked curiously.

"Well, you seem pretty close for only four days. Have you ever met before, at a tournament or something?" Mathews inquired.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact, we did. Before I joined Halloween, I used to practice with the Blade Sharks every once in a while. Three or four times a year, I'd go to the warehouse and use their dish. Kai battled me a few times. We never managed to beat each other. But, all we'd do is say, 'Hey, wanna spar with me?' and the other would say, 'Sure, why not?'"

Midnight shrugged.

Mathews gazed at her shrewdly.

"So, you maybe saw each other perhaps once or twice a year, max. For about how long?"

"About an hour, maybe two. But, that'd be the maximum." Kai said.

"Uh-huh. And, why would you want Kai here with you for this if you only hung out only occasionally?"

"We've been hanging out more over the past few days, and the kids seem to really like him. And. he's a nice guy."

Midnight noticed Kai blush a little. Well, she certainly couldn’t tell the policeman the truth about what Kai was- the other half of her soul, the missing piece of her heart, the key to her sanity, her auramdas. He either wouldn’t understand the word, or he would, and that would be even worse, because they’d be totally screwed, because no mortal not in the fold with a blood tie to the People of the Kingdoms should know words of the Blood Tongue, or any of the Tongues.

"Uh-huh.” Matthews sounded skeptical. Midnight touched Kai’s hand beneath the table, and from his touch she gained the strength to burn away all the thoughts in her mind that were not welcome, including Matthews’. “What would you consider a nice guy?"

"I don't know. Um, well… he'd be handsome… always considerate of others, has a cool temper, determined, and very sweet, in his own way."

"And Kai is all these things?"

"Yeah, I guess so." She shrugged again, slightly annoyed. How dare this man question her knowing of Kai? Mortal creature so self assured and condescending…. She tasted the anger and pride in her own mind and ducked her head, sighing silently. She needed to be careful not to fall into that trap, that seductive trap of supposed superiority.

Kai blushed harder because of her words. Dara’s fingertips touched the inside of his wrist, over his pulse, and she felt it speed up and pound at her gentle and oh so innocent caress.

"Has Kai ever... hurt you, Ms. Vaperio?"

Midnight's head shot up, her eyes wide and glittering menace. The flush in Kai's face faded to nothing, and all expression slipped away. She could feel the seething rage in him, however, and felt the heated whispers in his brain from his subconscious (Mazatra! Brujigo! Bastard! Pig! Har kirad nu?! How dare you?!) but he remained expressionless, despite the murderous fury in him.

"You are one sick-minded individual, aren't you!? Kai would never hurt anyone unless he absolutely had to. He most certainly wouldn't hurt me, no matter what!"

"You're so sure of this guy who you maybe don't know as well as you think you do." Mathews murmured.

Midnight sat back. She grinned suddenly, like a gator puling back its scaly lips to bare bright white sharp little teeth. Matthews suddenly gulped and shrank back as her pupils slit to vertical black slices in the glittering, feral gold of her furious gaze. Her entire body seemed to pulse with rage.

"If Kai hit me, I'd tell you. Trust me. He can't hold the kids over my head like Vlad could, because he can't stick them back into some crummy orphanage and beat the snot out of them like Vlad could. So why don't you stick with your criminal, not your witness? Scum, you think you are so intelligent and wise. You do not believe because you feel you must look the other way when innocents come to you for aid. How can you sleep at night, Sergeant, knowing that you let thousands of helpless ones become and remain victims of that vicious evil that is Man?"

Midnight struggled to swallow the urge to leap across the table and rip out this man’s throat. Oh, and she wanted to, sink her jagged teeth into the carotid artery and feel blood flow as he flailed against her and tried to push her back….

Kai could hear pieces of her thoughts, the more human thoughts, and had no trouble ignoring the rising crimson rage that whispered so seductively to his own, Come… rise with me, mate with me, and we may destroy all in our path…. Instead he focused on her thoughts.

How dare this… this scumbag of a cop come and try to hurt Kai!? Kai's a gentle as a lamb in spring time. That's why…. Midnight broke off her thoughts before she wandered into dangerous territory. Kai felt a tickle of curiosity in his brain, but let it lie. Midnight was in no mood to be prodded.

"Well, that's all I have to say. Contact me if you think of anything else."

"Go away." Midnight said casually, as if the cop were far, far beneath her notice. The cop left, and Midnight, emotionally and physically exhausted, laid her head on Kai's shoulder. Kai stiffened, but then relaxed, and laid his cheek on top of her hair. Tannis slipped off his lap and went back to the other children.

Will you be all right?

Yes, she whispered. Yes, I will, with you beside me. Will you remain?

I will always be beside you, Dara. You have my vow.

oo8oo8oo8oo

In the words of JunoMagic:

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