Joe Vampire: Compelled

Vampires. As far as I’m concerned, they can all go to hell.

If I’d been told a week ago I’d be traveling to Spain via private jet, I’d have rolled my eyes. If I’d been told that I’d meet a handsome stranger who would change my life forever, I’d have rolled my eyes and laughed. If I’d been told said stranger would be a vampire and that trip to Spain would be to most certainly meet my untimely death, I’d have done all of the above and probably called a sanitarium.

I was wishing someone would have told me.

My name is Dawn, and up until a week ago, I was nothing more than an average twenty-something. I had an apartment, a roommate, was in between jobs, and was generally just trying to figure things out.

Then I met Joe.

Joe, the vampire.

Now, I was on a private jet owned by another vampire, traveling to Spain and to uncertainty. Joe had said Lisandro was after him. That he thought Joe had information about a lost vampire King. Joe had told me to leave him and save myself, but that just wasn’t who I was. I didn’t walk away from friends like that, even when it was the wiser thing to do.

It was almost funny how life could go from mundane to horrifying.

I hadn’t felt the plane touch down or heard the hissed whispers from the others as we maneuvered through the tarmac. It was just a testament to how exhausted I was. Fighting evil vampire lords could do that to a person.

I’d been run ragged, drained of blood, beaten and yet somehow, I was still alive. Joe said it was because of the vampire blood he’d shared with me. It also allowed him to communicate with me through dreams and, if he concentrated, telepathically, though it was a lot less clear.

“Dawn. Dawn, wake up. Something’s happening.” Joe’s voice was close and warm in my ear. I didn’t wake up slowly with the weight of dreaming still tugging at my eyelids. My body jolted up as if I’d been stung. My neck ached, but more from sleeping with it craned than the bite wounds I’d received earlier. I’d slept on and off for most of the flight, which was probably a good thing. The less interaction I had to have with evil bloodsuckers the better.

For a moment I was disoriented. Unsure of where I was, surrounded by unfamiliar sounds and smells. Even the quiet hum of the plane had hushed and my ears were struggling to adjust to the shift in atmosphere. Joe gave my hand a gentle squeeze. His skin was cool but not cold. I’d felt it when he’d been at his weakest. It had been cold and almost stiff. The stuff of lifeless bodies. This was not like that. This was just cool fingertips surrounding my smaller hand in a soft embrace.

I focused on the vampire sitting next to me. He was still strikingly handsome, despite his disheveled appearance. His dark hair was a kind of controlled chaos atop his sculpted face. His eyes were the brightest of blues. So much so that they were like pale fire against the dark frame of his eyelashes. He could steal the very breath from my lips and I found that I was usually eager to let him. I had no explanation for it really. I’d barely known him a week and yet the connection I felt toward him was something that went deeper than a casual fling.

“Dawn?” He said my name again and I blinked a few times. Apparently, I was still in a daze.

“Where are we?” I asked and my voice was hoarse and tired.

“We’ve landed.” He stated flatly, but there was a thread of something else in his voice.

“Something’s not right. Someone’s here and Lisandro’s panicked.”

Lisandro, panicked? Was that even possible? The vampire who had come to bring Joe back by whatever means necessary had never struck me as the sort to panic. He was calm and always in control. If he’d lost that, then something was very, very wrong. I didn’t want to know what could make Lisandro nervous. He was bad enough. Whatever was capable of getting him to panic had to be the stuff of nightmares.

“Who is it?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck in a feeble attempt to massage the kink from it.

“I have a guess, but I hope I’m wrong.” He murmured, his eyes scanning the narrow plane. I followed his gaze but there wasn’t much to see. It was the nicest plane I’d ever been on. Not that I’d done a lot of flying in my lifetime, but I’d certainly never been on a private jet before. The aisles seemed uncharacteristically spacious. The sparse seats were pale, cream leather and they were wide and plush. I knew there was a cabin in the rear of the plane where the vampires had spent most of the flight. Apparently, they weren’t that worried about Joe or me escaping. I guess that meant vampires couldn’t fly.

“If you value your piteous existence, you will find a way to stall them!” Lisandro’s cultured voice hissed through the main cabin. He passed us in a huff, a cell phone in his hand, and brought the spicy scent of his cologne with him. His hair was uncharacteristically out of its short ponytail and the dark curls were bouncing wildly around his strong jawline. He paused for a moment to glance back at Joe and me and the look in his eyes made me shrink down into the seat. “I will kill her before they can help you, Joseph!” Lisandro growled and moved toward the front of the plane. In his wake, two other vampires approached, one I recognized as Liliana, Lisandro’s lieutenant. The other held a set of handcuffs.

“We’re aware they can’t hold you, Joseph, but know that if you break the bonds or attempt to escape, we will kill the girl.” Liliana’s sultry, Spanish accent rolled from her full lips like sweet poison. She gestured for Joe to stand and sidestepped to make room for him. He gave my hand a last squeeze before rising from the plush leather. His eyes were fixed on Liliana’s as he allowed the other vampire to cuff his hands securely behind his back. “Grab her.” She sneered and turned on her stiletto-heeled boots toward the front of the plane.

I started to stand but the muscled oaf of a man that had cuffed Joe reached across the seats and jerked me to my feet. “Move!” He snarled and yanked me out into the aisle.

“C’mon, you don’t have to do that to her.” Joe’s brow pinched in frustration but I knew he was powerless to help me.

“I said, move!” The larger vampire pushed Joe right between his shoulder blades and Joe stumbled forward. I felt his hand clench around my bicep as he led me in the direction he’d pushed Joe. He was squeezing tight enough to bruise, but I’d had a lot worse happen in the last twelve hours. A bruise was kind by comparison.

I could hear yelling coming from the front of the plane and the scent of fresh air wafted into the narrow aircraft. The door was open and most of Lisandro’s people were already off the plane. I couldn’t make out everything that was being said, but there was something about a car.

“I don’t care, just keep them from the tarmac!” Lisandro’s voice rose above the whistle of air rushing into the plane. The vampire holding me gave Joe another shove to usher him out before dragging me down the stairs. I stumbled, but his death grip on my bicep kept me from eating pavement, though not without twisting my arm until my shoulder burned. I cried out and Joe spun around.

“Let her go!” He snarled but the larger vampire just chuckled and jerked me closer.

“You going to make me? Oh please do.” Pain seared through my shoulder and across my back. I wondered if my arm had been pulled from the socket but I did my best to keep the hurt from my face. Joe was on edge, but if he lost it now I had no doubts that Liliana would keep her word.

Joe’s irises darkened like ink spreading in a sea of blue until it spilled into the whites of his eyes and his fangs sharpened in his mouth. He took a step toward the vampire holding me but Liliana was faster. She was just suddenly standing between us, her hand extended to clasp firmly around my throat. I gasped wordlessly and Joe hesitated. The black shrank out of his eyes as he visibly reminded himself of what was at stake.

“Liliana!” Lisandro’s voice boomed over the roar of the wind surrounding us. “Why are you still standing there? Get them into the cars! Now!” He had a phone half up to his ear and his eyes were ever scanning the other end of the tarmac. The airport seemed empty, at least compared to every airport I’d been to. Then again, I’d never been on a private plane. I wasn’t even sure if they landed where commercial plans did. Hell, I wasn’t even certain of where we were.

The female vampire released her hold on my throat and snapped her fingers. At once, everyone who had been standing around lurched into motion. There were two black vehicles sitting idle a few yards away and I was tugged along in their general direction.

“Now, don’t tell me you were planning on leaving without proper introductions?” A voice I didn’t recognize carried over the torrential gusts of wind and Lisandro stilled. “You wouldn’t be trying to run with your shiny new cargo, now would you?” The voice sounded like it was behind us but I couldn’t exactly turn around and look with the big Brutus at my back. I could, however, see Lisandro school his expression from something that resembled blind fury to an amiable smile before he spun to face whomever it was that had spoken.

“William. Of course not. We were just exhausted from our long journey and were eager to be on our way home. I would have brought Joseph to the Avatars as soon as we were settled.” Lisandro called out over the roar of the wind.

Where had this guy come from? The plane? We hadn’t moved that far and the plane was the only thing directly behind us. Had he been waiting in the outlying tree line for the plane to land? Was he the person Lisandro had been worried about? I so wanted to turn around and see but that didn’t seem to be a possibility at the moment.

“I’m not here for Joseph, as you’re well aware.” The voice sounded smug, but not the way Joe’s usually did. There was no playfulness to this sort of smugness. No, this was something with a deadly edge to it and Lisandro heard it too.

“I don’t follow you, William. Joseph is who you’ve come for.” Lisandro made it a statement as if he were trying to convince not only the William guy, but himself.

“Sure, Cadeyrn would like a word with Joseph, but he’s not nearly as important as the girl. Now, let us have a look at her.” His accent was heavy, like a character from Oliver Twist.

Lisandro opened his mouth and closed it. His eyes darted from the man behind us to me and back again. He gave a faint nod to the vampire at my back and the pressure on my arm increased as we turned around. The breeze gusted once more and whipped my hair away and across my face as we spun. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see, but it was not what was waiting for me when I had fully turned around.

The man, William, was indeed behind us because he was standing on top of the plane. If I’d had any reservations about whether he was a vampire or not, they were gone the instant I turned around. It was hard to make out details about him in the thick of night. How do you know if a person is tall or short when they are standing on top of a plane?

He wasn’t blonde and his hair was cropped and neat, but that was about as much as I could tell. His skin was light and he seemed thin, but not malnourished so much as lanky. So, perhaps he was tall after all? He was wearing what appeared to be a three piece suit minus the jacket and tie. The slacks were tailored close around his trim waist and long legs. The shirt was tucked in and partially covered by a slim vest. He wore the long sleeves of the button-down rolled up and the top two buttons at the collar undone. There was a mischief about him that I couldn’t put my finger on. I wasn’t sure if it was there twinkling in his eyes or hiding somewhere deep in his broad, encompassing smile.

“There she is.” He beamed at me and I swallowed hard. He didn’t look at me the way the other vampires sometimes did. There wasn’t any hunger in his eyes. Just a keen interest, as if I were something he’d like to split open and inspect rather than eat. I watched him leap down from the plane and land easily on the pavement with barely a bend of the knees. I’d have said he glided down, but that didn’t seem quite right either. There was a grace there that made it seem almost as if the very air bent to cushion his movements.

He crossed the yards we’d put between ourselves and the aircraft and came to a stop less than two feet from me. I resisted the urge to shift back but failed and that flinch earned me a wide grin from the new vampire. This close, I could tell he was tall, taller than Joe even. His eyes were a green that wanted to be blue and his hair was tawny like an old penny. His jaw looked carved from alabaster and his cheekbones were high and easily seen. His nose held an aristocratic lilt to it and his mouth, while holding back an intensely large, brilliant smile, was comprised of thin, pressed lips.

“Let’s have a look at you.” He took another step and reached out. I drew back but there was nowhere to go except into the wide chest of the vampire holding me. The new vampire reached out with a long hand, his slender fingers tossing back some loose strands of my hair over my shoulder. “Bit ordinary for a magical vessel, if you ask me.” He tilted his head a little to the side as he looked me over and I stifled a shiver in the brisk autumn air.

“You are mistaken, William. She is nothing magical. Just a simple human brought along as collateral for Joseph.” Lisandro lied. Even to me, it sounded like a lie. “He cares for this one. She was a means of acquiring his cooperation. I know how the Archon’s detest messy affairs.” Lisandro slipped up beside us and reached for my arm. The brute holding me let go at almost the same time Lisandro’s hand touched my sleeve. “Now, if there’s nothing else, we’ll take our leave.”

“Oh you’ll be taking your leave alright, but Joseph and the girl will be staying.” His accent seemed clearer now. Something closer to Irish with growling Rs and missing Gs. It was a harsh juxtaposition to Lisandro’s purring Spanish.

Lisandro’s hand dropped away and his face transformed from the forced, friendly smile into something ugly. “You would take them both? Prizes I alone obtained? To what end?” Lisandro demanded.

“That’s not a thing you should concern yourself with. Now run along.” William seemed to dismiss Lisandro with a flick of his wrist. He never took his gaze off me. Not showing the slightest concern for Lisandro or any of his people. Even though there was only one of him and several of them, no one made a move to oppose him.

“And who is going to make me? You, William? You’re a child!” Lisandro suddenly snarled. The hair at the nape of my neck bristled and I knew that if I looked over at the Spanish vampire his eyes would be black, empty pits.

William flicked another loose strand of my hair back and gave a little wink. “Oh, I’m not going to make you. I won’t have to.” He was grinning wildly. It was a dazzling smile, but something about William unnerved the hell out of me. I’d have said it was because he was a vampire if I wasn’t surrounded by them.

“You cannot have her. I am head of a house. You…you are just,”

“Ambassador to the Fel.” William finished for him. “And who acknowledges your house besides yourself? You’re not an Archon, Lisandro, and I dare say you never will be.”

Lisandro lunged and there was a flash of light and heat as fire erupted right in front of him. The Spaniard shrank back from the sudden swell of flame with a hiss of rage. William’s grin had grown even wider if that was possible. His long hand outstretched, fingers curling playfully in the air as liquid fire dripped from his palm. My eyes were glued wide open, like my mouth, as I stared at the creature just a foot away from me. I could feel the heat from the flames. They were real and looked almost alive in the vampire’s slender fingers. Joe had told me about vampires who had control over the elements. Powerful vampires who were more like witches than the undead. I had never really expected to meet any of them, but it seemed one was standing right in front of me.

“Oh look,” William chuckled. The fire was slowly extinguishing from his hand. “The Cavalry has arrived.” That Joker grin was back on his face, if it ever left, and his eyes drew my attention to a large SUV speeding up the tarmac. William turned his attention back on Lisandro as the imposing vehicle slowed to a stop a few yards away. “Perhaps you’d like to take your grievances up with Reid? I’m sure he’d be more than happy to deliver your message to Cadeyrn.” William’s voice was full of mockery as if this was all little more than a game to him, and maybe that’s all this was. A show.

“This isn’t over.” Lisandro hissed and I heard movement behind me. There was the distinct sound of car doors being shut and the quiet scuff of shoes against the pavement.

“Oh, I sincerely hope not.” William teased. I risked a glance back just as the large vampire that had once held me kicked Joe in the back. Joe stumbled towards us, his balance and knees giving at the end so that he fell into a kneel just behind me.

“There’s no need to kneel before me, Joseph.” William laughed. There was a screech of tires as Lisandro and his entourage sped away. I turned my head to look back at Joe just as he was climbing back to his feet. The look on his face was less than encouraging. I wasn’t sure if he knew this William or what was going on exactly, but I did know that William had made Lisandro leave and that we were still alive. That had to count for something. This had to be better than staying with Lisandro. Right?

“Thank…thank you.” I choked, my throat a little hoarse from screaming not twelve hours before. Some water might have helped, but Lisandro had been less than accommodating on the plane. I was surprised we’d been allowed to fly in the main cabin and not beneath the plane with the luggage.

The new vampire focused his easy stare on me and his thin lips spread out into an amused smile. “Oh, don’t be thanking me yet.” He cautioned and there was something there in his voice that turned my blood to ice. A promise. A threat. He hadn’t been here to save us. William was here for something else.

“You said, Reid,” Joe spoke suddenly. He took a few steps to stand beside me and William’s eyes followed him.

“Indeed, I did.”

“I want to talk to him.” Joe didn’t make it a request so much as a demand. So, he knew at least one of these people? Was Reid a friend of his? Was he here to help?

“You can talk with him all you like, Joseph, though, I can’t promise he’ll talk back.” William teased, and I didn’t understand the joke.

“What do you…” Joe started, but William was looking at something else. He’d swiveled to stare into the direction the SUV had come from. I followed his gaze but it was difficult to see in the darkness of the tarmac. The vehicle had stopped a few yards from the plane but I couldn’t see anyone inside. I hadn’t heard anyone get out of a car either, but that hardly seemed to matter if we were talking about vampires. They could have slipped right up behind me without ever making a sound, but if they had eluded Joe, well, that was a different sort of nightmare.

Then Joe made a little sound, a sharp inhale before he cursed under his breath, “Fuck!” I squinted to see through the darkness, but there was nothing, at least, nothing human eyes could have seen. Then, something, a glint in the dark, a shimmer of movement, and Joe made a rough sound. I spun to look at him and two men held him fast, one on each arm. They were large by human standards. Their chests were wide, their arms swollen with muscle, their necks thick to the point of becoming lost to their shoulders. They wore all black. Tee shirts stretched thin against their mass, dress slacks fitted to a trim waist. They were both taller than Joe by more than a few inches. One was bald. His head a pale, smooth sheen. The other had hair the color of raw honey pulled back into a tight braid that fell between his shoulder blades. Their eyes were black and there was no denying they were vampires. No human, no matter their strength, could have held Joe like that.

“Joe!” I cried out when William’s slender hand wrapped around my wrist.

“I wouldn’t worry about him so much.” The slim vampire spun me away from Joe and toward the darkness where the SUV was parked. He held my wrists and positioned himself at my back.

“Let her go!” Joe growled from behind us. “She’s not what you think she is! Cadeyrn’s wrong!” I could hear him struggling against his captors.

“That may be true, Joseph. Though, if you’re so intent on her surviving…you’d better pray he’s not.” William chuckled.

I stared out at that blackness as Joe thrashed and raged behind me. I saw another glint in the darkness and then another. I heard whispering echoing out of the night but couldn’t make out the voices or the words. Then a small, slippered foot slid into the light. Her legs were covered in white tights and her gown was edged with pale lace. The dress looked more like a nightgown but I knew it was simply the style. A very old style. Though, she couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen. Her skin was like porcelain, her hair was as white as her dress and cascaded down in soft, loose curls to her shoulders, but her eyes, her eyes were as dark and black as the gloom she’d emerged from.

“She will break over the sky on a bird of cold steel…” The girl’s voice quivered with the tinny echo of power. It was similar to how I’d heard Joe’s voice sound whenever he was trying to compel someone.

“…and a beast will bow before her rise…” Another voice, a boy’s this time, chimed in to pick up where the girl’s trailed off. He emerged much the same way that she had and looked to be about the same age. His white hair was cropped like a young boys and covered by a tweed newsboy hat. His clothes were pale creams and browns and looked like a boy’s school uniform from a hundred years ago. They both looked like something out of a photograph or a museum or Children of the Damned, and they made my skin crawl.

The boy came to stand next to the girl and the resemblance was eerie, though he was a few inches taller than her. He slid his hand into hers and they laced their fingers together before tilting their heads to the side in unison. I actually took a step back and felt the press of William’s body behind me. There was nowhere to run, even if I wanted to, and after seeing the creepy tweens, I wanted to, but not as much as I did a moment later.

The growl was soft, rolling and deep. It was almost a purr of sound that spread out from somewhere near the SUV. It drove deep into my chest and rattled my spine the way a bass line at a concert could. Every hair on my arms stood on end and the nape of my neck tingled with that inexplicable sensation of fear. I heard the scuff of nails against the pavement as that growl grew closer. Then, I saw the sheen of a black nose come into the light before the rest of the massive wolf stepped out of the darkness.

I actually gasped and backpedaled but William’s immovable body was there and I slipped in my panic. The pavement was hard and cold against my tailbone but I hardly noticed as I stared down the largest wolf I’d ever seen. My arms were outstretched above my head where the vampire blocking my escape held my wrists firm. There was no twisting free, no running away, nothing to do but watch the creature as it came into full view.

It was huge.

I’d seen wolves in zoos before, but they might as well have been puppies compared to this one. It was probably more in scale with a bear than a dog of any kind. Though, there was no mistaking the coloring or shape as anything other than a wolf. The pale, yellow eyes staring down a long muzzle. Fur the color of ash and wood blended together in a distinct pattern. Though it was the curl around its mouth as it exposed its razor sharp teeth in a snarl that said undeniably, it was indeed a wolf.

“Reid!” Joe cried out suddenly. “Don’t! Don’t do this! She doesn’t belong here! Let her go! Reid!” I could hear him struggling. I could hear his boots scuffing against the pavement behind me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the beast ahead of me.

Reid.

The wolf. He was the wolf!

“Oh god!” I choked, my voice cracked and breathless.

“Nope, not quite,” William said above me. “Though I’m sure he’d take it as a compliment.” The vampire chuckled, enjoying the show.

“What the fuck!” I cried out, finding my voice enough to carry.

“…a beast will bow...” The young boy said suddenly.

“…a girl will break…” The girl echoed after him.

“…a beast will bow...”

“…a girl will break…” They repeated, tilting their heads from side to side in perfect tandem. I wasn’t sure what was scarier. The giant wolf or the hell children.

“It seems they’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. Should be interesting.” William commented.

“What the fuck!” I repeated.

“Well, see, there’s this little prophecy. The twins here saw your coming and believe if you are who Cadeyrn hopes you are, then you will be able to command Reid here to, well, not to eat you.” William explained.

My breathing was coming faster, threatening hyperventilation. I could feel the fine tremble beginning in my arms and down my spine. I was going to start crying soon and wasn’t sure if I would be able to stop. How in the hell was I supposed to convince a dire wolf not to eat me?

“H-how?” I stammered.

“How should I know?” William scoffed. “Tell him to heel?” He was laughing to himself and Joe was shouting behind me. The twins were repeating something over and over, but I couldn’t hear anything they said. I couldn’t focus on any of them. The world had boiled down to one singular thing. The snarling beast ahead of me. He’d lowered his head down and his haunches were coiled tight like a spring ready to snap. He was about to charge me. Joe was trapped and I was helpless. I’d thought Lisandro was as bad as it got. I’d thought maybe this William person was here to rescue us somehow. I was so fucking wrong.

The wolf lunged and I screamed. It raced toward me faster than I could follow. Its legs were a blur, its teeth gnashing the air as it came at me with death in its eyes. I cried out. I screamed. Incoherent things. Begging, pleading, praying, cursing, but it didn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. It was going to kill me.

“Please, please!” I screamed, heels digging into the pavement as I struggled against William. I tried to twist my wrists free, thrashed and bucked in a feeble attempt to break away. Tears poured down my cheeks. “Please stop! Heel, please! No, no, no! Don’t kill me!” He was just feet away and I screamed out his name as I closed my eyes against the wolf’s last, deadly lunge. “Reid, stop!”

I waited for the pain. The sensation of teeth piercing through my skin, decimating tissue and muscle and bone until a vital nerve was severed and I slipped into oblivion. I braced for it until my body ached, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes one at a time. I’d turned my face away from the coming onslaught, but it never came. The wolf never attacked. He’d stopped just inches away. He was close enough that I could have stroked his head. I could feel his breath on my skin. I could smell the musk of his fur. I could see that his eyes held several shades of yellow and gold and were darkest around the pupil.

He was beautiful.

I opened my mouth, maybe to speak, maybe to scream, but no sound came out and suddenly the great wolf lowered his head. He made a sound, like a groan or a whine. He put his front paws out as if he were going to lay down and nestled his head down until his nose touched the pavement. It looked like a bow, as if wolves could do something like that.

“…and a beast will bow…” The twins stated simultaneously. “…Zari-Semu...” The twins repeated the strange words over and over again. I had no idea what they were saying.

“Jesus Christ.” Joe breathed but I barely heard him. My vision was blurring. There was darkness eating away at my peripheral. I still couldn’t seem to breathe in a full breath. There was a wolf bowing in front of me and I was surrounded by vampires in a strange country. I almost welcomed the darkness as it consumed my sight and I let that warm emptiness take me.