Dawn Rising

"You're not being fair," Lucien grumbled.

"Neither are you. None of this is very fair now is it?" Alex said, stomping down hard on the instep of his foot. With a grumble and a sucked in curse, he released her arm. "How did you expect me to react?"

Lucien cried out in surprise and let go of her arm. "What the hell?" He hobbled on one foot. His steps gingerly and tender from the pain. He'd heal. But, damn. Did she have to get violent?

" It wasn't bad enough to find out that you have been pretending to be dead for all these years. Now to find out that my parents knew. That Janine knew and nobody bothered to tell me. You drink human blood. You drank from them." Alex crossed her arms, shivering against the cold of the oncoming dark.

"Is that what you're mad about?" Lucien stared at her, confused. "I do what I have to do to live. Just like everybody else does. Just like you do Alex. Do you enjoy meat? I bet you don't think about where it came from when it is on your plate do you? Something died so that you could eat. In actuality, you're the killer. Not me.

"Tell me Alex, deep down you knew what I ate from the minute you found out what I was. What's this really about? My diet isn't the real issue here is it." Lucien huffed in irritation at the shocked expression on Alex's face. What did she think? That he'd back down? Apologize for what he was? Why would he? He saved lives everyday. Maybe he should take her to the cattle farm down the road to get his point across. Just exactly where did she think that roast her mom served for dinner came from? "What's really bothering you?"

"Lots of things," Alex mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. She wasn't afraid of Lucien. But, the white points of his fangs peeking out from beneath his upper lip were a little intimidating. She hadn't noticed them before now. But, of course, Lucien was a master at hiding what he was. He'd been hiding from her for the last twelve years. Hell, before yesterday, she hadn't even known, would have never guessed he wasn't human. Determined not to let him win. She turned her back to him and scrambled through the dense underbrush ahead of her.

"What else Alex? Lets put it all on the table." Lucien resumed pace beside her. He let her have the lead. It wasn't like she was going anywhere. Or if she tried, she wouldn't get far. The woods were crawling with his brothers. They were trying their best to keep a discreet distance. Give the illusion of privacy. Not that it was possible. The worst thing about being a Son was that there were no secrets. Everyone knew everything.

"I don't know what to think, what to believe anymore. Pretend friendships. Faked deaths. I thought I was falling for Luke. But, it was you. And what's worse, I can hear your thoughts. I have seen through your eyes. I don't understand any of it. I just don't know anymore. I don't know what's real and what's a lie." Alex wiped away a tear as it rolled down her cheek. She stopped and turned, looking at him with questioning that demanded answers.

"I should be repulsed by what you are. I should be running away from you. Instead, I'm drawn deeper and deeper to it. I'm jealous of Janine and what you've done with her. I'm jealous of the bond you have with my parents. And I shouldn't be. You drink blood. But, the only thing I can think of is how badly I want it to be mine. Why doesn't that thought bother me more than it does?"

Lucien gathered Alex up, a strong arm thrown around her waist and pulled her tightly against the line of his body. She was jealous. He had to admit the thought of it tickled him and stroked his ego. Alex wanted him, in all ways. This was no moment for male gloating. He tamped down on his pride. And stuffed his inflated ego in his hip pocket. "I'm sorry. I should have tried harder to explain it to you." He ran his fingers through the soft, silky, strands of her hair.

"I know. I wasn't ready to listen." Alex sighed. She rubbed her cheek against the soft, faded cotton of his t-shirt, feeling the warmth of his body beneath it. "I thought vampires were cold. You're warm. You've got to tell me Lucien. Tell me everything." She looked up into his eyes, pleading.

"Let's go someplace private." He took her hand in his and led her away from the dirt road she'd stumbled onto and up into the woods. Soon after he'd turned. Desperate for the illusion of privacy, he'd built his own wigwa in the heart of the trees. There they could talk uninterrupted.

Chapter 29

Alex walked through the door Lucien held wide for her. She looked about with admiration on her face. The wigwa was no more than a one-room shack in the middle of the woods. Roughly hewn together from limbs, mud, and stones from a nearby creek, simple in its construction. Its furnishings were as simple as the structure. Woven rugs scattered on a dirt floor. A meager pile of blankets sealed in plastic to keep them safe from the elements. And a tiny window covered with dried, woven reeds for a curtain. "Wow, no wonder you were able to build the wigwa at the museum so fast. This is amazing."

"Why, thank you." Lucien said, beaming at her praise. He lit a small fire in the makeshift fireplace in the corner of the room and settled close to Alex, wrapping a blanket tightly around her shoulders. This was his private place. The place he came to when he wanted to be alone. Only now, he was glad he had her here to share it with.

"Please, talk to me." Alex pleaded, snuggling close to Lucien's warmth. The spring air had a chill to it, now that the gray light of twilight had settled over the woods. The blanket was a soft, woven wool in a burst of primary colors. The fire's tiny flames cast an array of dancing shadows on the rough walls. She felt like there was no one in the world but Lucien and she. Surrounded by the quiet of the woods, warmed by a primitive fire, sheltered by the trees themselves.

Lucien explained the legends of the Sons. He told Alex stories about the Great Warrior and how Kokumthena, the Grandmother, had transformed him from a mortal man into the father of a great race. He took his time with the tale. And held nothing back.

Alex listened intently to the story with her eyes closed tightly. She could imagine a powerful, strong, warrior, leading the front lines, defending his people and his lands. Lucien was patient with her. He must have heard the stories a thousand times. Yet, he didn't grow weary from the telling of the tale. His voice never faltered.

"How did my parents get involved?" Alex asked, curiosity finally getting the better of her. Her mom and dad hardly seemed like the type.

This was the part Lucien wished he could skip. How and why her parents got involved wasn't his story to tell. He kept the explanation brief. It would sound better coming from them than from him. Alexander and Leigh kept their involvement a secret from their daughter. She was only beginning to understand. The night of the accident, her parents were forced to make a choice, for her. If they had withheld the treatment that had saved her life, she would have died.

"Who was the vampire that saved my life?" Alex asked. She didn't remember much about that night, only the pain, terrible, terrible pain.

"The same one who turned me." Lucien replied. "The Great Father."

"Why would he care if I lived or died?" Alex shivered as she asked the question. She couldn't understand why an immortal would give of himself to save her, a human destined to die eventually.

"I only know what I have been told. I don't remember much at all. The change is very painful and I was so out of it." Lucien squeezed Alex tightly to chase off the memory. "The only explanation that I was given was that it was Ka tet."

"Fate?" Alex whispered. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know." Lucien shrugged. It wasn't wise to question fate, only to have the wisdom to accept it. He kissed Alex on the top of her head. "Your head is swimming with questions. I've answered them the best that I can."

Alex nodded, "Yeah. Its still a lot to grasp." Gingerly, she picked at a fuzzy on the blanket, rolling the little ball between her fingers. "Lucien, if you could save me, why'd you bring me back here?"

Lucien frowned at the question. Alex was smart. Saving the right question for the right time. This was one he didn't look forward to answering. "Alex, you could have died. I gave you enough blood to keep you alive. But, not enough blood to risk turning you. You deserve to have every choice possible. I love you too much to take that away. If your heart had stopped beating, just for a second while I was giving you my blood. It could have happened."

Alex shivered despite the warmth of the blanket. She'd seen herself through Lucien's eyes, the blood and the pain. "But you said that the night of the accident I was almost dead and vampire blood saved my life. I don't understand."

Lucien pulled Alex closer, close as possible and wrapped his arms tighter around her body. She shivered violently, as if a chill wind had passed right through her. "The Great Father has been doing this a lot longer than I have. He knows what he's doing. I'm only bullshitting my way through it. You have no idea how fragile the balance between life and death is."

"Lucien, what about the rogue. Did you catch him?" Alex didn't want to think about that man and his fangs. She couldn't imagine the Sons hadn't found him and put an end to him. She didn't like death. The thought of smashing a fly made her queasy. But, that son of a bitch deserved a stake through the very center of his black heart.

"No. He's old, Alex. Vampires don't live to get that old by accident. He's smart. Alex, you're going to have to stay here until we get him. He's a rogue. Do you understand what that means?"

"I guess I don't." Alex's fingers went to the spot on her neck where the bastard had bitten her. The flesh was smooth and whole. She didn't even have the slightest hint of a bruise on her skin. But, she'd never forget the spot. To her, even though the flesh might not look different. It was marred, permanently.

"Alex, he won't stop. You're in his head now. Rogues don't leave their victims alive. He'll hunt you, eventually. Maybe not right away, because we're watching. Use your thoughts as a trail to lead him straight to you. And once he finds you. He'll watch and he'll wait until the time is right. And then he will come after you to finish what he started."

Alex digested Lucien's news. She was trapped here. Unless the Sons got that rogue, her life in the city was over, her job at the museum, gone. Her apartment wasn't much. But, it was home. Her job didn't pay well. But, she'd poured her heart and soul into it. And poof, just like the accident, in a heartbeat her life had changed. "You have to kill him."

"Well, that is the plan," Lucien said through gritted teeth. The thought of Alex in danger didn't sit well with him. The thought of anyone in danger didn't do a thing to ease his anger. There were still all those missing people in the city. And nothing but blind leads and cold trails to follow.

"Lucien, are we safe here? For all you know the rogue could already be here, watching." Alex's heart pounded anxiously in her chest. They were isolated out here. Alone in the woods with nothing but a blanket and a fire, hardly the weapons needed to kill a vampire.

Lucien tousled Alex hair reassuringly, "We're fine. My Brothers are in the woods keeping watch. You've never been so well protected."

Alex exhaled a relieved sigh. She'd worked so hard to gain her independence from her parents. Not that she didn't love them and enjoy visits home. But, she was twenty-eight, far too old to run back to mommy and daddy because the boogieman in her nightmares was real. Her confinement under Leigh and Alexander's watchful eye was only temporary. She'd be back in the city before she knew it. She didn't know much about the rest of Lucien's brothers. But, she had absolute faith in him. "So, we can stay longer?"

"As long as you like."

Chapter 30

Janine paced the length of the floors. She'd gone out of her way to be helpful without much success. Her offer to help Leigh with the mountain of dirty dishes from supper ended up with her getting shooed out of the kitchen. Next, she'd wandered into the barn hopeful that Alexander might have something useful for her to do. No such luck there. The barn was his hideout. A dusty, filthy man cave piled with broken furniture, spare parts from things that had long since outlived their purpose, and sundry half finished projects he was planning to get around to completing, someday. He hadn't even bothered to shoo her out. He'd simply grunted at her request and returned to his puttering as if she weren't even there.

By nine o'clock her hosts had gone to bed, leaving her to her own devices, desperate for something to keep her occupied. She'd tried to lose herself in a little TV. But, this far in the boonies there was no cable and the reception on the ancient, rusted, antenna bolted to the roof was sketchy at best. Her iPhone didn't work out here in the sticks, no wi-fi for it to connect to. She was too restless to concentrate on repairing her damaged fingernails. And Alex didn't have much of a selection to choose from anyway. Most of it so old the polish had dried in the bottom of the bottles. And the only reading material she could find consisted of a crocheting magazine and a dog-eared newspaper from last week.

With a deep sigh of resignation, knowing if she went to bed, she'd toss and turn all night, Janine sank onto the porch swing to stare out into the dark. The chain made light, high pitched squeaky noises as she swung. The air was chilly, almost cold, this early in the spring. And she shivered in the sweatshirt she'd borrowed from Alex's closet. Irritated by the constant squeal of rusty metal against rusty metal, she got off the swing and paced the yard to burn off some excess energy.

It was pitch dark out here. Night wrapped around her like a velvet blanket. The floodlight affixed to the barn shone a circle of white light that barely penetrated the blackness. Uncomfortable with the quiet and the darkness, Janine paced a path in front of the house. It was creepy, being out here alone. Her imagination did nothing to ease her nerves. Thanks to her last boyfriend, a real piece of work, she'd been forced to endure every slasher movie ever made. The woods were full of things she didn't want to think about. Didn't every teenage blood and gore horror flick start out like this, a girl alone in the dark?

Great now she was freaked out. At this rate, she'd never fall asleep. But, it beat the hell out of thinking about Alex though. Her parents had seemed the least bit alarmed their daughter bolted from the kitchen table out into the woods with Lucien on her heels. They'd simply turned back to their peas and mashed potatoes like nothing had happened. Maybe they were used to Alex's unpredictable outbursts. And it wasn't like Alex didn't have a right to be a little over the top at this point. Hours later, Alex still hadn't returned home and her parents were tucked into bed like everything was normal. Maybe, for around here, it was. Janine couldn't help worrying over her best friend. If they still were best friends. After what she'd done, she wasn't so sure.

Dew from the tender shoots of spring grass soaked Janine's tennis shoes. Her feet made a soft whisper through the damp blades as she paced the length of the front yard. She wasn't about to stray too far from the safety of the house. Nope, the country life was not for her. She preferred the hustle and bustle of the city, the constant light and noise, to the darkness and quiet that seemed to be boxing her in on all sides. She was stuck here though, ordered to stay for her own safety. Besides, no matter what the condition of their friendship, she couldn't leave Alex.

From the dark cover of trees, Patrick watched Janine pace in circles. Her mental signature was one of exhaustion, worry, and sheer nervous energy. She'd fed Lucien and refused the Shaman's tonic to restore her strength. Stubborn girl. He'd come back from the city with empty hands. Another team had gone in to take his place. Lucien had ordered him back here, where he could do nothing but watch and wait. He needed to get back into the city where he could do some good. But, more for him than any of his brothers, the city with all its nameless, faceless, inhabitants posed a particular danger. The best tracker the Sons had and he was grounded for the time being. Useless, because of the threat he posed.

Patrick resented it. Even though Lucien was right. He still resented the inference that he couldn't control himself. Through narrowed eyes, nostrils flaring at her scent, he trailed Janine's movements. The hunter was always with him. Waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. Yes, that was the problem. And since every one of his brothers had a direct link to his brain, hardwired for the thrill of the chase, they all knew it. Better than anyone, he understood the life of a rogue because he'd lived it.

That was then, a distant once upon a time that was certainly not a fairy tale. This was now. He was not a killer. Although, Janine moved like prey unaware, unassuming, and completely oblivious to the danger that lurked in the shadows. He had no interest in the hunt. He'd been the prey too. At one time, the Sons had hunted him. Following the trail of drained corpses and utter destruction he left in his wake.

Patrick never understood why the Great Father had spared his life. At the time, he wouldn't have considered himself worth saving. He was grateful for it though. Grateful that there was another way to live. And he'd dedicated himself to paying back the life the Great Father had rescued from the gutter so long ago. Making himself worthy of the tile of honor the Great Father had given him. He'd never stop trying to pay back the favor.

Patrick easily found the synapses in Janine's brain. Mostly her skull was filled with air anyway, so it wasn't that hard. Maybe he felt sorry for her. After all, like him, she'd made choices and often they weren't easy. He could help her out. One of his inane talents was the power of suggestion. He didn't question where the ability came from. It came in handy sometimes. Child's play, really. Lock onto a mental signature, do a little digging in the gray matter, and whisper an idea. "Sleep."

Janine was suddenly so tired. Her eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them, pulling them closed. She stumbled clumsily on her feet. Her mind was so calm. Every worry, every thought felt like it had been washed out to sea, carried by a current to some distant shore where she didn't have to think about them anymore. Her limbs drooped heavily. Vampires, the thought crossed her mind. Only a vampire could do this little trick. And there was only one who could do it so efficiently. Patrick. Lost to the oblivion of his suggestion her body sagged and her mind went blank.

Patrick caught Janine before she hit the ground. A little part of him was tempted to let her fall. Let her wake up in the morning covered with dew like a lawn ornament. He didn't like her. But, he wasn't that cruel. She had her uses, the main one coursing through her veins. Without her...he didn't want to think about what might happen to him. She didn't weigh much, light as a feather, limp as a doll, in his arms. He could feel the firefight in her head as she struggled against his suggestion. She couldn't resist. Already her mind was calming, drifting to the world of dreams. He carried her up to the porch and into the house. A cocky smile stretched across his mouth.

He stretched her out across the twin bed and relieved her of her shoes. Gently, tugging a cover over her shoulders, he tucked the ends under her chin. Without all the garish makeup she looked a lot better, younger, innocent even. With her skin free of the perfumes, she smelled fresh and summery, not at all bad. She could pass for pretty, maybe beautiful. Stripped bare of the concoctions women were so fond of.