RYKER

 

It took a lot to surprise Ryker. The last time had been when he met a vampire with a guardian angel. That surprised him. Before that, it had been decades.

And now, the girl sleeping in his arms was surprising him. She was human, without a doubt. Her blood called him like only a human’s could—the sweet and salty scent of her skin and the music of her heartbeat, faster than it should be, but that was expected with anemia. He had experienced that more times than he wished to admit.

But what he hadn’t experienced was a human immune to his hypnosis. All humans fell under his spell when he demanded something of them, but this girl didn’t. He had asked for her arm, but she pulled away. When he demanded it, she fled further. The challenge of a human who he couldn’t hypnotize stirred something buried deep inside him. Even better was a human woman who didn’t immediately throw herself at him. He would have chuckled out loud in delight if he hadn’t been so disciplined.

But she still came with him without his power over her. She chose him, Ryker the vampire, the killer, the man. As soon as he stepped out of the ER room, she had passed out in his arms. The warmth of her body brought back memories he didn’t want to relive—especially not here, in Dubuque.

He didn’t get close to humans. Sure, he fed from them, but he let them be. Surrounded himself with his own kind. Humans were too fragile and always ended up dead, or severely hurt, like this girl in his arms. She was lucky to be alive, with an out-of-control vampire in town. Lucky to survive the attack. Lucky she only had anemia.

But now I’m taking her with me, putting her at further risk.

As Ryker approached the ER’s exit, he stopped. Where would he take this fragile creature? She wanted to go home. He owed her that for coming with him. For the bit of trust she gave him.

The woman behind the desk pushed her glasses down her nose. “Is she okay?” And then a smile when she looked up at Ryker’s face.

Ryker unleashed his hypnosis power. “She’s fine. She’s tired, and I need her address to take her home. Her name is Miss Adams, and she was just down the hall in room eight.”

“Yes,” the receptionist frantically typed, eager to provide him with whatever information he demanded. “Aliza Adams lives at 902 Hickory. Apartment A. She has paperwork to sign before she leaves.”

“You should sign it for her. She’s going home. Thank you for the address.” Ryker said, letting go of his powers and turning toward the exit.

He’d take her home, let her sleep, and when she woke, he’d get the information he needed. He’d find that rogue vampire and end it before his memories from the last time he was in Dubuque took over. Before the Blood Board sent Frank. Before anymore humans died.

If it even was a vampire attack.

She had the signs: cuts along the carotid and radial arteries and severe anemia. He needed to get some place private to examine her wounds to confirm.

Once outside, he slipped out of his coat and wrapped it around her tiny body. He found the silver SUV he rented in the parking garage and laid Aliza across the backseat, brushing the black hair from her pale face, chuckling. Adams was a great last name for her, since she appeared like she’d fit right into The Addams Family TV show. Perhaps Wednesday was her cousin. He wondered if her personality was the same. Maybe if she wasn’t anemic, her cheeks would be peach and full of color.

Wanting to examine the wound, he reached down to pull off the bandage on her neck, but as soon as he gave the tape a tug, she stirred. Ryker stepped back, bumping into the car behind him, causing it to crunch.

“You okay?” a man asked from behind.

Ryker spun around. “Fine. Leave,” he demanded, allowing the red glow to come to his eyes.

The man shuffled away, bumping into a trashcan on his way out of the parking structure. Ryker sighed and turned back to the girl, fingers on the tape once again. A little tug and deep wrinkles formed across her forehead as her eyebrows narrowed, causing his hand to halt in quiet anticipation. When the look of fear disappeared, and a smile grew on her sleeping lips, he pulled away.

He could wait. There was no reason to disrupt her dreams.

Maybe her anemia affected his hypnosis. You’d think in the past three hundred years, he’d have encountered that before, but he’d wait for the answer.

What he had developed over time was patience. He’d get her home, then demand some answers.

Ryker tucked Aliza safely in his backseat, then slipped behind the wheel and started the engine. Before he even left the parking structure, he found himself tipping down the rearview mirror to get a glimpse of the young woman’s contented smile.

A tingle of excitement filled his chest. It had been so long since he was unsure of an outcome. A human immune to his powers. Immune to his charm.

He schooled the smile from his own lips and pushed the pedal to the floor, pulling the SUV out of the structure and onto the expressway.

 

ALIZA

 

“Aliza, can I carry you inside your home?”

Home.

It sounded so good. So comforting.

“Aliza. I need your permission. Please wake up.” The voice was a lullaby. Deep and almost musical. Calming. “Can I enter your home?”

She pried an eye open to see her apartment door. Oh, did she want to get inside. “Sure,” she mumbled before falling asleep once again, allowing a beautiful memory of her father to fill her head. The day they watched Wicked on Broadway. Well, not exactly Broadway, as they could never afford that, but they had dressed up. It was the only time she had seen her dad in a tux.

She remembered the rose he had held for her at the bottom of the stairs in their old house as he led her to a fancy sushi dinner set up on their living room coffee table. The TV played a bootlegged version of Wicked. It was one of the most memorable nights of her teenage years and one of many great events that happened in her old family home. Unfortunately, when her father died a year later, all the new memories stopped, leaving her with old ones. Old memories that she slowly forgot, one by one.

Her dreams replayed other events at the house. Of her first kiss on the front porch. Of the car she and her father restored in their garage. Of sneaking out her bedroom window, crawling down the roof, and jumping from the second floor to go out one Halloween.

Her dreams contented her as she grasped to hang on to the memories. They were a safe place where nobody threatened to tear them down. To destroy what little she had left.

“Aliza, you have to wake up. You’ve been sleeping for so long.” The voice was familiar, but Aliza couldn’t place it.

Her head still throbbed, and she tried to remember what had happened. Slowly, last night’s events came back. As ridiculous as it was, she had gone down to her old neighborhood and snuck into her old house, planning one final stay there before it was destroyed. She would wait for the demolition company to show up and hopefully, the police chief came too. She’d try one last time to convince him not to demolish the house. If they only knew how special the old home was. She had saved enough money to buy it, but the city condemned the house instead, saying the cost of fixing the asbestos was beyond its value.

When darkness had fallen last night, she had been so cold, continuously flexing her fingers and toes in her sleeping bag. She had pulled the top over her head and thought she had heard the squeak of a door.

“Wake up,” that familiar voice spoke again, but she drifted back into her memories.

Her heart had pounded inside her sleeping bag, and she lay still, snuggling into the corner of her old bedroom.

Footsteps creaked on the old floorboards and a language she didn’t understand chanted softly from the hallway…but she could never forget the voice.

“Aliza. I need to get going.”

She flung her eyes open to the man from last night pacing in front of her. She blinked her surroundings into focus. His ash brown hair was loose, draping over his shoulders. She twisted her head to the familiar room.

He had taken her home. Laid her on her sofa.

How much of this was a dream? She’d had a glass or two of wine in her old house last night, had she gone out for more? Had she run into this guy and brought him here? Her hands flicked down to her thighs, her leggings were still on. She flung her hands up to ensure her shirt was there, too.

“We didn’t sleep together,” he said.

Could he read her mind? Her body tensed, trying to put the pieces together.

He continued, “I brought you home, but I need to get going. It’s almost sunlight.”

“You brought me home?” she croaked, attempting to swallow and wet her throat.

“I didn’t have much of a choice.” He pulled his hair away from his face. “You fell asleep in my arms.”

Memories of the hospital returned. Of how much she needed to leave. Of this man, Ryker, who pretended to be her uncle, and helped her get out. “How’d you know where I lived?” She scooted up on the couch, feeling that dizziness from last night return.

The man stopped and dropped into the oversized chair beside the sofa. He leaned forward, placing his forearms against his thighs. “The hospital gave me your address.”

Why would they do that? “I thought all that was protected information.” Was this man a threat? He appeared docile—even caring and truly concerned.

“Obviously, not that protected. I have some questions for you, but we must hurry. I need to sleep.”

Questions?

What was she doing with this man in her apartment? He had brought her home, and she was grateful, but it was time for him to leave. Her chest constricted at the sudden thought of being alone. She nodded at his request to ask questions.

When his eyes flashed red, all the events of last night came crashing back. She pushed them away, turning her head toward the window.

“Look at me.” He enunciated each word, and Aliza thought she noted an accent that wasn’t there before.

She glanced back to the red eyes and turned back toward the window.  This was all a dream. It had to be.

The man kept talking. “How’d you end up in the hospital?”

“You waste no time, do you?” Aliza wrapped her arms around her torso. “Why does it matter?”

A low rumble erupted from his chest, almost resembling a growl. Aliza turned to watch his face, but it was smooth and calm, comforting perhaps. She expected him to argue with her abruptness, but instead, he paused, leaned back into the chair, and simply watched her. Instead of the eerie, nearly glowing red eyes, they now showed a beautiful light amber color. His hand rose to rub his chin and a small smile, gentle smile formed on his lips.

She suddenly felt very small. “Stop it. You’re making me nervous.” She rubbed the skin beneath her eyes. “I look like a raccoon, right? I didn’t take my makeup off last night.”

“Don’t worry. You look beautiful. I cleaned your makeup off when I rebandaged your wounds. It was all over me after I picked you up from the hospital.” He glanced down to his plaid shirt, showing a black smudge from her mascara.

“You rebandaged my wounds?” Her hand jumped to her neck.

“The blood had soaked through.”

She pulled her legs under her on the sofa. “Okay, before I answer your questions, let’s talk about you. Who are you and why’d you help me get home?”

“You needed assistance, and I have some questions. We can call it even once you help me out.”

“And then you’ll leave?” A twinge of fear grew in Aliza’s stomach, thinking of her empty apartment. The loneliness she had yesterday that drove her back to her family home to relive her childhood for the last time. Today of all days, the day her family home was being torn down, she didn’t want to be alone. Never thought she’d feel this alone.

Ryker sat up straight. “If that’s what you want. Yes. I’ll leave.”

Aliza laid down on her sofa again. What if when she fell asleep, she was attacked again? What if that woman came back for her? Would it help to have someone else in the house? “I’m not feeling quite right. You’ll have to ask me questions later today when I have more energy.”

“But I have to leave!” The man threw his hands into the air, then gestured toward the window. “It’s morning, and I spent all night here!”

“Do you have somewhere important to be?”

Ryker jammed his hands into his front pockets. “Nowhere particular. I just need to rest, and you delayed me enough that I won’t make it to my hotel before…my pre-arranged check-in time.”

Aliza waved her hand toward her spare room. “Well, if all you need to do is sleep, there’s a pull-out sofa bed in there. Close the curtains and take a nap. We can talk when I’m feeling better. Consider it a thank-you for getting me home.”

The man stared at her, eyebrows narrowing and fine creases forming around his eyes.

Aliza laid her arm over her forehead, trying to get rid of the throbbing in her head. “Don’t worry. There’s a lock on the door. I won’t take advantage of you or anything.”

“Take advantage of me?” He smiled, then turned away toward the window. The darkness was quickly disappearing. “Fine.” He stood, scooping a blanket off the floor. With a grand motion, he laid it out on top of Aliza before stalking to the spare room.

Aliza called to him, right before he shut the door, “And be careful. I own a gun.” When the door clicked shut, Aliza slowly stood and used the furniture to make her way to her own bedroom. Once inside, she locked her door and flopped on her bed, closing her eyes and wishing herself back to sleep. A few hours of sleep, and she’d feel better.

She’d have the strength to visit her old home one last time.