My Dear Readers,
Disclaimer:
What I write is fiction/fantasy/fairy tales for adults. None of my characters are real, no one was injured during the production of my stories and just like on T.V., they all get up when the scene is over, have a beer, remove the makeup and go home, ready to return in the next chapter, all the boo boos healed.
Some spelling and grammatical errors are mine however some are intentional. Which is witch I leave as an exercise for those anal enough to care.
Votes and comments are as always gratefully received. E-mail will get personnel response if you remember to leave me a return e-mail address.
Enjoy.
Dom Woolf
A Night's Tale
Chapter 05: Revenge takes time
Lynn listened to the cussing and banging, the grumps and slamming of doors for three hours before she had just plain had enough. She went out in the living room of the shared apartment and looked at the total shambles in amazement.
Papers and file folders or the remains of what were her neat and once orderly files and folders now lay strewn across the remains of the pretty coffee table and most of the living room floor. The coffee table was mostly a much shattered piece of firewood. One of the overstuffed chairs was going to need to be restuffed and there were several new holes in doors and walls that had not been in evidence when she went to bed some hours earlier.
"Either someone had some very rough sex or there is a pissed off vampire bouncing off the walls."
Heather lifted her head from her knees; she had been sitting on the floor in a corner of the ruined living room arms wrapped around her legs.
"I am both pissed and frustrated."
"There is some good news." Lynn gave a sardonic smile. The disappearances seem to have stopped. I mean there hasn't been another family gone missing in the entire south west in the last three months.
"Not since the family we were protecting was taken right out from under our noses." Heather groused.
"Ahh yeah, since then." Lynn shrugged. "We have done everything we can do. None of the families have turned up alive or dead. The cops don't have a clue. We haven't found any more matches for the girls and you haven't been able to make contact with the elves. I still feel weird saying that.
"That's another thing that is frustrating me." Heather stood up and began collecting the shredded pieces of the living room. Lynn went out to the kitchen for a broom and dustpan and several large trash bags.
"Well according to what you told me earlier. You haven't seen an elf tribe in a long time, over a hundred years I think you said."
"It's been at least that long. But I put out the word to some others I know and the last time anyone has seen an elf tribe was just prior to world war two."
"So that's what? Sixty five years or so. Maybe they went the way of the dodo. Extinct." Lynn stopped and thought still holding the broom and dustpan and the garbage bags.
Heather walked over and dumped the load of trash she had been holding at Lynn's feet. Lynn seemed not to notice; then as if she was coming back from a long ways away, "What if that's why the changelings were being raised by humans?"
"To protect them?"
"Maybe if the tribes were almost gone, it was the only way to insure their safety."
Heather stopped. "The question is from what? From who? And why take the entire family, why not just the girls?"
Lynn shook her head. "I don't know. I am trying to imagine what would have caused them to place their children with humans and another thing why just the girl children?"
Heather looked over at the computers, virtually the only things in the room not trashed. "Do we know it's just the girls?"
Lynn nodded as she dropped the cleaning supplies and headed for the computers. "We ran the same program adjusted for males. Not only did we not get any hits we didn't find a single match. No fey looking boys in a family of wasps or he men. I even ran through the adoption files for the entire southwest."
"Just girls. Why?"
Three nights later after constant badgering from Lynn, they put aside their seemingly unsolvable riddle and went clubbing. Lynn found her capacity for drink had gone way up as well as her need for food. Oh she could get drunk for about twenty minutes. Her metabolism was so high it burned off the alcohol in very little time. She and Heather spent a week or so a few months back going around to some of the rougher bars and getting into drinking contests with themselves as the prize. They made a ton of money and got into a couple of free for all knock down drag out fights. They had a ball.
Lynn noted that even though Heather started out not really enjoying the nightclubs by one o'clock she was flushed, of course that might have had something to do with the really cute stud she had stepped outside with (for a smoke) and the fact that he didn't return when she did.
Heather was not above getting a little blood donation from guys that wanted to do the whole grope and kiss thing in some dark corner. She never hurt them just took a little nibble, which Lynn knew could be orgasmic and which left her dates happy but exhausted.
Lynn headed for the booth the girls had been camped in when the smell hit her senses and set off every alarm she had. She froze in place and drew in a deep breath. Her nostrils flaring as if she was sniffing coke, the woman followed the scent like a bloodhound.
Seconds later she ran through the crowd, slipping through holes between people that were barely there.
"Heather, your not gonna believe what I just found! Our missing girl is here, in this club, right this minute."
Heather just stared up at her friend, her mouth hanging open as if she was watching a person who suddenly sprouted two heads.
"Mara Anis is in this club? How? Where?"
"I haven't seen her but I swear it's her scent and it's coming from that private V.I.P. area in the back." Heather was always careful not to do vamp moves in public, but suddenly she was beside Lynn dragging her through the crowd towards the designated privacy booths.
Two large hulks stood in front of the entrance and both reached for Heather as she attempted to walk past. Heather moved just fast enough to slip their clutches and pushed through the curtain they guarded. Both turned to make a second attempt and Lynn caught them behind their knees, dropping them both in a pile on the floor as she went past.
The curtain opened up on an opulent appointed room with cushions and comfy chairs scattered everywhere. Seated at the center of the room on a sofa only large enough for three was a dark suited man with the most elegant hairdo Lynn had ever seen on a male. Dark almost blue black hair framed a smooth and aristocratic face and piercing brown eyes, eyes that tracked the two women as they walked in and dismissed them in the same glance.
Seated on each side of the dark man were two almost identical girls wearing complimentary outfits that showed a lot of their nearly naked bodies off in a way that was both sexy and a little obscene. Neither girl so much as looked up as Heather came to a stop directly in front of the threesome.
Other bodyguards were closing in and Lynn ignored the confrontation turning to deal with the hired help.
The man on the sofa clapped his hands once and waved off the tide of muscle beginning to surround the area.
He looked almost bored as he glanced at Heather standing before him.
"What may I do to help the guardian of Las Vegas?"
The question surprised both Heather, who hated that moniker and Lynn who had never heard Heathers role defined in such a way. It also made Lynn take a much closer look at the man seated in the center of the room as if he had done something truly remarkable.
"First you can explain how you know me, second you can tell me who the hell you are and finally you can tell me about these underage females you have enthralled."
The man smiled but the smile never reached his eyes. "You are Heather Cross, so that must be your pet. I am Alexandru, Alexandru cel Bun and these are my pets. Come, sit. I am being a poor host. Sit and have a drink." He waved to an empty couch across from his.
Heather flounced down on the couch, but Lynn stayed standing; prowling the area behind the couch watching everything.
"I happen to know these girls are not legal age to be drinking. I also know they and their families are reported as missing, so I'll ask again, how and why are these girls here and where are their families?"
"I believe each of my pets has a legal document showing them to be over the legal age." Again the smile on his face didn't reach the hard pitiless eyes that constantly watched Heather and Lynn. "As you can see them, it is obvious that they are not missing. Unfortunately their families got involved in a blood feud, a very old one. In any war between two powerful factions there are always unintended casualties. I am afraid the families were just a few of many that died for being on the losing side."
Heather sat stunned. Eight families, mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers dead. "Why?" Lynn froze when she heard Alexandru's statement but her claws began to form.
