The Slayers Ch. 08

"Jian Bo? Are you certain?"

"The attack was witnessed," Troy replied. "Unfortunately my source didn't see who ordered the attack but I believe that it is the same vampire that controls the rogue that killed the human woman."

"He couldn't have known who he was attacking," Xavier replied. "I have reports of increased slayer activity- I am assuming that Cherie has informed you?"

"She has through my investigator," Troy replied. "But do you realize what's going to happen? By morning the city will be swarming with slayers. That means that the chances of them finding that rogue who killed the female slayer's sister increases exponentially. You also might be interested in knowing who Jian Bo's mate is."

"The murdered human woman's sister," Xavier replied with dread. "They won't let this go even if we find and kill the lower rogue that killed her. It will be open hunting season on all of us. Troy- it isn't the rogue that we need to be concentrating on; it's his master. If we want to come out of this relatively intact, we have to offer the slayers something and that rogue won't be enough."

"I agree and I believe that it's time to bring in the smaller clans. We will need everyone that we can get. Do you concur?"

"I concur," Xavier replied. "They will also serve as acceptable losses. I'll call them and arrange for a meeting at Phillips- is tonight good for you?"

"The sooner the better," Troy replied.

Xavier hung up his mind no longer on Carmen. He picked up the phone and called Cherie. There had been no further mention of the originals and he wondered what that meant. Ephraim could have been mistaken, but he didn't think so. Cherie answered on the first ring.

"What do you know?" he asked without greeting her.

"Good day to you too," Cherie said. "What specifically are you referring to?"

"Have you found out anything about the originals?" Xavier asked impatiently.

"Not a word which leads me to believe that your source was mistaken," Cherie replied. "It's difficult for some of us to know one when we see one so how could a human tell?"

"Maybe," Xavier replied, "but my gut is telling me that he's right. What of the human detective?"

"There isn't much there," Cherie replied choosing her words carefully. "He lives alone and was married at one time. I saw the photos in his home the night he left."

"Does the woman still live?" Xavier asked thinking to use her as leverage.

"No, she died several years ago... I found the newspaper clippings in a photo album."

"Did you find anything useful?" Xavier asked frustrated.

"No," Cherie replied neglecting to mention that she knew who the other human male with Jack was or that she knew where they had gone. She found the deed to the small storefront during her search for information.

"There was no clue as to where he and the other male went?"

"No," Cherie lied.

When Xavier paused, she thought that he knew that she was lying. She breathed a sigh of relief when he started speaking again.

"Some of our focus has changed," he said.

"You have got to be kidding," she said when Xavier told her about Jian Bo and the attacks.

"I wish I were," Xavier replied. "We need to find out who was behind that attack and hand him over to the slayers," he continued. "It's the only way that we'll come out of this intact. The lesser rogue who killed the slayers sister is probably already dead so don't waste your time looking for him. Troy has already started trying to find out where the clan leaders of the other territories are."

"What do you want me to do?" Cherie asked.

"Concentrate all of your efforts on finding out who this vampire is," Xavier replied. "Hire as many investigators as you need. Our very survival could depend on this."

"What about the human detective and his friend?" She asked.

"They aren't important at the moment," Xavier replied. "If you have anyone watching them, call them off. We'll have to rely on our sources at the police station for any pertinent information about them. I want to be notified of any information that you find about this vampire and I don't care what the time of day is. In fact, take this number down."

Cherie committed the number to memory and hung up relieved that Jack was of the line of fire for the moment. Then she made another decision- she just didn't know how to go about making it happen.

***

Colt wandered the streets looking for a human that met his master's criteria. They had to be connected and there could be no children. That part of the instructions soothed him. There was a part of him that would have found a way to disobey had he been ordered to harm a child. He stayed to the shadows and eventually ended up at his favorite place- the park. There were families everywhere enjoying the spring evening. He knew that he should leave and complete his mission, but he was in no hurry. He hadn't been given a time frame that he could recall and he loved the sound of children laughing and even crying. It always touched something deep inside of him. Something that was always just out of his reach.

He hid behind a tree and watched as a boy who couldn't have been more than ten played ball with a younger boy.

"Remember what I told you," he was saying. "Daddy always told me to relax my arm..."

Colt jolted. There was something about those words that sounded very vaguely familiar. Suddenly a baseball landed beside the tree. He looked at it and frowned. He bent down, picked it up and examined it. The ball had 'x' marks as a guide to where the fingers should go. Instinctively, he placed his fingers on the marks. He was so distracted that he didn't notice that the older boy was standing in front of him looking up at him. He jumped when he heard the boy speak with a question in his voice.

"Daddy?"

Colt's head snapped up from the ball and fastened onto the face of the little boy who was intently looking up at him intently.

"Daddy..."

Colt stared at the boy trying to place him. Apparently the boy was mistaking him for someone else.

"Neal who are you talking to?" A striking blond woman asked as she rapidly approached them.

"Mom! Hurry! It's daddy!"

At those words Colt took off at a dead run still holding on to the baseball. He was long gone by the time the woman reached the boy. He found an old vacant grocery store and huddled in a corner trying to collect his thoughts- what remained of them. The boy had called him daddy. It meant that he had been right. He did have children but was the boy his? He looked at the baseball, and again placed his fingers where the 'x' was. The ball felt foreign but familiar to his big hands. All thoughts of his instructions were gone as he held the ball and struggled to remember who he was and what he had been.

Surely he hadn't always been a killer...or had he? His head began to pound as he made a conscious effort to remember his past. As the pain in his head increased, he held on tighter to the ball. Suddenly, the ball was crushed and Colt's head exploded in exquisite pain. Instead of driving him even further into madness, it gave him a few moments of clarity.

That boy was his son. So was the other boy. The woman had been his wife. He had not been a bad person and before he had become what he was, he had never harmed anyone. Tears ran down Colt's face as he heard the boy's voice in his head calling him daddy.

He jerked when another voice intruded. His master.

"Colt-have you done as I have commanded you?"

He held the crushed baseball in his hand and then held it tight to his chest where his heart was.

"Colt- you will do as I command," the voice said again.

This time there was coldness to it that he had never heard before. Colt crushed the baseball tighter to his chest and tried to ignore the voice. If he could just hold out until morning... if he could just ...

"NOW!" the voice screamed in his head.

Colt dropped the ball and grabbed his head ignoring the rivets of dark, warm blood that ran from his ears and nose. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the angry, high pitched sound of his master's voice.

"YOU WILL GO NOW!" his master screeched inside of his head.

"Please master..." was all that Colt got out before another spasm of pain stronger than the last one filled not only his head, but his entire body. He took one hand away from his head and blindly reached for the crushed baseball. Finding it, he picked it up, held it to his chest and for the first time since he had been turned; defied his master.

"No."

For a moment there was no response. Then Colt screamed as pain again ripped through his body beginning with his head. His screams grew in volume and intensity as the pain that felt like hot fire made its way down his body. His last conscious thought was of the little boy that had called him daddy. A moment later, he was nothing more than a pile of ashes.

*****

Colt's master ranted and raved like a lunatic. Never in his entire life had he been defied by one of his lower rogue. If it happened once, it could happen again. The question was what had triggered the rebellion? It didn't matter that he was going to destroy Colt anyway. It was the principle of the thing. A small part of him urged him to leave the city and to return when guards were down but he had been planning this for too long to walk away.

There was something else to consider. He wanted Jian Bo's mate. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since the fight. It had nothing to do with wanting her as a mate although he could do worse. He wanted to experiment. Could she conceive a child with him?

He pushed thoughts of Brittney aside and concentrated on the matter at hand. He was now regretting killing Colt before he completed his mission. He would have to send someone else. He made his choice and contacted her. He listened carefully to her response hoping that he didn't hear any of the defiance that he heard from Colt. Satisfied that she would do as she was told, the master tossed out the memory of Colt as if he was nothing more than trash.

The next item on his agenda was the alliance between Troy Cross and Xavier Dubois. What had prompted it? The two vampires hated each other but yet they were working together. After thinking about it, he realized that the death of the human woman had been the beginning of it. They had figured out that the rogue had come from neither of them.

"Shit," he spat out as he realized that his plan was falling apart. But even so, he wasn't ready to give up. He returned to his room, climbed into his coffin and waited to hear from the rogue that he had sent to commit murder.

******

Brittney woke up with a start. She had been dreaming that she was in a fight with the lower rogue. Her face was wet with tears that she didn't understand at first. Then she remembered. She had killed someone. Not someone she reminded herself; something that had at one time been human. After a moment she realized that she wasn't crying because she had killed it- she had to in order to protect her and Jian. She was crying because she didn't know if it had been the one that killed Amanda. At that moment she decided that they all had killed her. If that one hadn't, another one would have. They along with those that controlled them were the enemy even if they hadn't been the ones to do the actual killing. She hated all rogue.

Jian lay quietly with his arms around her knowing that she would talk when she was ready. That time didn't come until after lunch and it wasn't about the rogue or the fight.

"When are we going back to work?" she asked as she put away the last of the lunch dishes.

"Are you ready to return?" Jian asked somewhat surprised by the question.

"No, but I need some sense of normalcy," Brittney replied. "My whole world has been turned on its ear and I need to feel normal."

Jian understood and even agreed to a point. He wondered if she was ready to hear the whispers and comments. Her emotions were still raw from losing her sister, mating with him and the taking of a life.

"I understand but I think that we need more time ..."

"Jian," Brittney said cutting him off. "I need to go back to work. I need to think about something else than Amanda and Paul. I need to think about something besides this new world that I find myself in. I know that we're going to be the topic of many conversations, but that will pass. Can we please go back to work?"

Jian thought about it and agreed under a few conditions.

"You must never go anywhere alone," he said holding up a hand to silence her when she started to speak. "You must give me a chance to get people in place to help me protect you and before you say it, I am aware that you are quite capable of protecting yourself. However, I still insist on extra protection."

Seeing that she wasn't going to get him to budge, Brittney agreed to his terms. They would return to work by the middle of the week. After lunch they trained with their weapons and then went for a run. When they returned, the answering machine was blinking.

*****

Carmen walked around the house listening to every conversation that she could. Unfortunately, none of the conversations contained any information that would be useful. Xavier made sure that the house staff watched their tongues by making them witness the deaths of the security guards who had agreed to help her by keeping silent. The one guard that survived was assigned to her care. She hated him and did everything that she could to provoke her into hitting her. When that didn't work, she tried seducing him knowing that both of them would be killed.

"Are you serious?" he asked laughing. "I wouldn't fuck a human woman if my life was threatened. Your kind are amongst the ugliest beings that I have ever seen!"

Realizing that she was stuck, Carmen decided that it was time to find a way to kill the monster that called himself her mate. However, she did have one concern. Xavier had released his ugly seed inside of her whenever he had the chance. Sometimes it was several times a day. The day always ended and began with him being inside of her filling her womb with his monster seed in the hopes of a pregnancy. She had no way of knowing if things worked the same as they did in human pregnancies. In order to find out, she had to talk to one of the female monsters.

She waited until she knew that Xavier was gone before approaching whom she decided was the most approachable of the female staff.

"Hey you," she said to the woman who couldn't have been more than twenty-five in human years.

"Yes Mistress?" the woman asked without looking up from what she was doing.

"I've got a question for you and before you get all upset it has nothing to do with that thing that you call master. Well it does but not in the way that you're thinking."

"Mistress should be more careful in how she talks about the master," the woman called Ginny said.

"Whatever," Carmen replied. "I have a question for you- do you have any brats?"

"Brats Mistress? Do you mean children?"

"Baby monsters... babies if you want to call them that," Carmen replied.

"No Mistress, I haven't been given that opportunity. Why do you ask?"

Carmen looked around to see who was listening and saw only Raymond. She was going to tell him to get lost but saved her breath.

"How does one of you know if you're pregnant?" Carmen asked. "Do you have a monthly cycle or something?"

"We ourselves don't know," Ginny replied with a smile.

"What do you mean that you don't know?" Carmen asked. "Don't you have morning sickness? Don't your tits get sore?"

"We only know when we are pregnant because our mates tell us. They have an enhanced sense of smell and hearing that we as females don't have. You will also know by the way you are treated. Master will become kinder and more protective of you. He will always be at your side and will be the one to deliver the child when the time comes."

"Are you fucking serious?" Carmen asked as she thought about Xavier being by her side twenty-four hours a day. "How long do the pregnancies last?"

"Not much longer than a human pregnancy... a month longer is all," Ginny replied still not looking at her.

"What about miscarriages?" Carmen asked her medical background showing.

"Miscarriages? They never happen. But mistress, when the child is born there will be a big party where his name will be revealed."

"His?" Carmen asked.

"Yes Mistress, all children are born male. The females of our kind are made."

"So there are no females born like the men?" Carmen asked.

"Well, a long time ago there were," Ginny replied. "After a while the number of female births dwindled down to zero. That's why I appear human to you."

Carmen digested the information and decided to think about it later. What she wanted to know if there was any way in which to prevent pregnancy but couldn't ask. She would have to find out on her own. The good thing was that she wasn't pregnant. Xavier's treatment of her hadn't changed and she was certain that he wouldn't hesitate to tell her if she was indeed pregnant.

She left the woman to her work and went back to her room closely followed by Raymond.

"You think that you're so smart don't you?" he sneered. "I know why you were asking those questions and I know what you're thinking. There is no way in which to prevent a pregnancy and there is no way in which to terminate it once it happens. Nature has ensured the survival of our male children."

"Has it?" Carmen calmly asked. "There is a first time for everything. Who knows? Maybe your master carries the gene that will give him a female child... what would he do then? Kill her? Deny that she exists? Here is my wish... If I do happen to get pregnant by that abomination, I hope to god that it's a female. I hope that she is born with every power that he has magnified. I will bond with her and together we would kill not only him, but all of you..."

Of all the things that could have triggered his rage, Carmen hadn't expected this. Raymond's hands were suddenly around her neck and she was lifted from the floor. Instead of struggling, she stilled willing him with her eyes to kill her. Just as quickly as it happened, it was over. Raymond dropped her to the floor and walked away.

******

Xavier found a distraught Raymond in his office and knew the reason for his upset. Word of what had happened between him and Carmen had reached him. What surprised him was that the vampire was in his office waiting for him instead of being summoned.

"Tell me what happened," Xavier said as he sat down.

"She committed blasphemy!" Raymond exclaimed. "She wished a female child upon you! She said that she and it would bond and kill you! I beg your forgiveness for laying hands on her, but it was more than I could bear."

Xavier was in a quandary. Protocol dictated that Raymond be punished by death because he laid hands on Carmen but he knew his mate. That was exactly what she hoped Raymond would do.

"You came to me of your own free will," Xavier said after a moment. "That means a great deal to me. However, as you are aware, protocol dictates that you die. I am going to waive that rule because I know my mate. You will have to be punished; there is no getting around that."

"I understand sire, thank you sire," the grateful vampire said. "I will accept whatever punishment that you determine to be adequate for my error in judgment."

"You are to continue to guard my mate," Xavier replied.

"Sire?"

"You have been the only one that has always been honest with me as far as what happens with her is concerned. You know her, know her tricks and you won't make the same mistake again. Now... I want you to pick someone out to befriend her but who will remain loyal to me. I want to know everything that talk about and every question that she asks."