Ravenswood

Chpt.6

Here's chapter six of this series, one that continues to put a different, more science fiction spin on the age-old vampire myth.

Because it's science fiction there are aliens, good ones and bad ones, and yes, the good ones are here to stand against those who would suppress the more fragile human race. You got a tease in chapter five, there's more to come. Maura finds herself challenged as Jason begins to flirt with her. Of course, this leads to more trouble for both of them.

Actually, this story is rather PG when it comes to sex, offering the reader more the suggestion than a play-by-play, there is, however, a lot of action to keep you occupied.

This chapter could be rated PG-13 for action, but I still like to caution my readers. I hope you enjoy it, leave a comment once you've read it. Good feedback is the lifeblood of any writer...dreamweaver594.

6- MAURA'S FLIGHT

It was late in the afternoon before Jason and Maura returned laden with groceries. As Jason pulled the last of the grocery bags from the trunk of his car Maura grinned. "This really is a lot of stuff."

"Now that the both of us are living in the same place I can't keep a pauper's pantry anymore. Here take these bags and I'll get the rest." He grabbed several sacks and followed her up the stairs. "You know, we need to work on getting you legal so you can collect your back pay." He stopped at his apartment door and fussed with his keys. "I know a few friends who might be able to help."

As he opened the door of the apartment a loud crash came from the guest room. "Hey! Who the hell has been sleeping in my room?" A tall woman with fiery red hair and wearing a long grey coat stepped into the bedroom doorway. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips.

"Hello to you too, Lisa, and you know full well that is not your room. It's been my guest room up until recently." Jason walked towards the kitchen and lifted several bags of groceries onto the island counter. Maura stuck to him like glue, lifting her sacks up to join his. "I have a new roommate now. Lisa, this is Maura. Maura, this is Lisa."

Lisa eyed Maura carefully. She stared into Maura's eyes for a moment then her eyes got big and she moved into a fighting stance. She shouted. "Jason! She's..."

"...My girlfriend, exactly." He interrupted her and moved to stand directly between Lisa and Maura.

Maura peeked from behind Jason's back. "Look, I don't want to cause any trouble..." Damn, this girl is dangerous.

"It's no trouble at all." Jason held his smile through clenched teeth. "Lisa just needs to check in with her grandmother from time to time to keep up with the news when she's been a-way-y."

Lisa glared at Jason. Then grabbed her communicator from her purse and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the front door along the way. Jason beamed at Maura and started to put some of the perishable items in the refrigerator. Outside, Lisa began what sounded like a very heated argument. A few moments later Lisa opened the front door with a bang and Maura jumped behind Jason. But Lisa took no notice of her as she stomped over to the couch, and sat down in a huff. She crossed her arms and stared at Jason and Maura with a pout firmly planted on her lips

.

"Don't pout Lisa, you know it never works with me." Maura and Jason continued to put the groceries away. Maura managed to keep Jason between her and Lisa as they moved. Jason turned to Maura with a wry smile. He held up his hand with his little finger extended. "She has her boyfriend, Carl, wrapped around her little finger. One pout and he melts like butter, the poor guy."

"Humph," snapped Lisa with her arms folded tighter and a pout that continued to grow.

Maura looked around Jason to Lisa and smiled. "Sometimes that's the only way to make them behave."

Lisa continued to sit with her arms folded tightly across her chest. She snuck a sideways glance at Maura. A subtle smile began to creep across her face; she tried hard to not make eye contact with either of them. "Jason, I like your new girlfriend. You can keep her."

Maura emerged from behind Jason. "Even if she's a Terrian?"

Jason bellowed a hearty laugh. "Ohhh, I'm definitely going to keep her if she can handle you, Lisa!"

"Yeah, about that," Lisa turned to Jason. "Care to explain?"

Jason sat down next to Lisa and brought her up to date. Throughout the story Lisa watched Maura intently as she put the rest of the can goods in the cupboard. She watched the way she moved, the expressions on her face. When Jason finished the story Lisa let out a soft "Wow." She looked at Maura for a moment in silence. Then a twisted smile crossed her face, "You know, Jason has always been dumb at math."

"Very funny, Lisa." He pushed her back into the pillows on the couch. "I knew you'd like her. Come on, let's order carry-out."

The next morning Maura awoke with Lisa staring intently into her face. "Eh, good morning?" Maura quickly drew the covers under her nose.

Lisa leaned over the bed and rested her chin in her hand looking intently into Maura's eyes. "You love him don't you?"

"If this is how your family wakes people up in the morning I'm going to have to lock my door from now on." Maura sat up and gathered the covers about her tighter.

Lisa sat on the corner of the bed and leaned forward. "Maura, you do love him don't you?"

"Yes, damn it." Maura felt her face get warm. "But I don't know anything about him, or you, or your grandmother, or anybody! It's crazy. I'm crazy. This whole thing is crazy! A month ago he was just the guy who sat in front of me in math class. Next, marauders are trying to drag me back to Terrus. And then Jason's car, which, by the way, is insane, whisks me to your grandmother. And, just two days ago I'm standing in a bathrobe in your grandmother's cottage with half the village gaping at me! And I still don't know what to think! "

"Yeah, that is kind of crazy." Lisa chuckled as she leaned back and gazed out the window. "When I spoke with Grandmother last night she told me about her meeting with you. She said that you were different from all the others of your kind. She also said that she trusts you. And I can clearly see that Jason does."

Maura began to emerge from beneath the covers. "He does?"

"Oh yes, he does."

"But you don't."

"I don't know...maybe...yeah...sort of. All my life I've heard the stories; I've seen the battle scars. You're the first Terrian I've ever known or ever seen." Lisa's face was a mask of confusion and frustration. "And now you're Jason's girlfriend?"

Maura emerged even further. "Yeah, I know! It's crazy! See what I mean!"

"Well, welcome to being in love," Lisa said as her expression dissolved into a winsome smile. "I've been there myself a couple of times. It turns your whole world upside down. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Does he know you love him?"

Maura shook her head. "No. At least I don't think so. Oh, I don't know, maybe? You care deeply for him don't you?"

"In so many ways he such a little boy, I don't want him to be hurt."

"Nor do I." Maura brought the covers up to her nose. "To think, I had to travel from another world to find him. Oh damn, I said that out loud didn't I?" She covered her mouth as her face flushed crimson. "You must think I'm a total idiot."

Lisa laughed whole heartily, just like Jason. "No I don't, and I do like that we're going to be friends."

Maura popped out of the covers. "Really? I'd like that too."

"Maura?" Jason knocked on her door. "Are you up?" He opened the door a little and found Lisa sitting on Maura's bed. "Oh, did I interrupt something?"

"Just girl talk." Lisa stood up and gathered her coat from a nearby chair.

Maura sat up and turned to her. "Do you have to go?"

Lisa sighed. "Yes, sorry." Then she turned to Jason. "I talked to Grandmother again this morning. There has been some trouble in the north. They need me now." She smiled and kissed Jason on the cheek. "But I'll be back soon."

Jason pulled her into a big bear hug.

She pushed back from his embrace and poked him in the chest. "Next time you get to sleep on the couch, buster." She turned to Maura with a wink. "Maura, don't spoil him, make him clean his own room at least."

"I will, I promise." Maura watched her pull on her long grey coat and walk briskly out of the room trailed by her mane of fiery red hair.

"See you both soon," she shouted from the living room. They heard the apartment door close with a slam and she was gone.

"Wow."

Jason stood watching her walk down the steps from the front apartment window. "She's a whirlwind isn't she?"

Maura nodded as she turned to the window. Outside, the sunlight filtered through the tree leaves and now she's made another friend. What a crazy world this was.

Maura's life settled into a new normal with Jason as a roommate. She continued to work in the library vaults, repairing broken books and restocking the ones pulled from their places on the shelves. She missed her talks with Natasha and thought of her often. She hoped the problems she faced at home weren't too difficult.

For her, living with someone as carefree as Jason seemed almost idyllic compared to her life on Terrus. A new semester brought a new class; she took her first literature class followed by plans to take a general history course in the summer. The literature course was a challenge, mostly because of the language, she continued to stumble over big and obtuse words, but her days were filled with newfound excitement as she learned about this world from more complicated points of view.

Maura treasured her time with Jason more and more. On the weekends he would take her on 'little adventures' as he called them. Trips to see and learn about things in the human world. Museums held the most fascination for her. They were like time capsules that delighted her to no end.

"I heard from Lisa this afternoon." Jason said as he finished chopping some vegetables and tossed them into a pot to make a stew. "She said she can't make it down this weekend but she's hoping to visit next week."

"That's great." Maura stood in the bathroom drying her hair with a towel. "We need to look for something nicer to sleep on in the living room. I saw something online; it was a bed that turns into a couch. Hmm, what's it called? A fu-um..."

"A futon?"

"That's it." She stepped to the bedroom door, still holding her hairbrush. "Not as lumpy as that thing." She pointed to the couch then she returned to the mirror in her bathroom.

Jason walked to the bathroom doorway and smiled at her. "So I don't have to sleep on that lumpy sofa you mean?"

"Exactly," Maura replied to his reflection in the mirror with a coy smile.

"You might let me share your bed when Lisa visits." Jason gathered Maura into his arms and kissed her neck. "I am your boyfriend after all."

Maura smirked then worry etched across her face. Jason's caresses were exactly what she wanted but at the same time, what she feared her reaction to him would be. Would she lose control? Would she hurt him? She had to find a way to dissuade him. "Fat chance, as Mrs. Warren, the librarian, likes to say."

But he persisted. Jason began to kiss her collarbone and Maura was reacted exactly as she feared. His kisses were so warm and passionate, her heart rate was climbing, and she quickly was loosing control.

"Stop Jason...oh that tickles...no, not there...stop!" Maura began to squirm beneath his kisses

.

He was arousing deep and passionate feelings in her, emotions she feared because of what might happen if her blood began to surge.

He didn't listen to her, his caress became more insistent.

She reached the tipping point as desire exploded in her body and her arousal ascended. Her breathing became ragged as she felt the daggers in her mouth extended to taste the blood that pulsed in his throat. Her resistance to the bloodlust was weakening by the second.

She turned to him, her face a mask of lust and desire. She was losing control. He continued to nuzzle her neck, moving slowly down to her collarbone. She wanted to savor him. She couldn't...but she wanted too...desperately.

Wait! The charm. It's gone. If she lost herself she could kill him. She continued to struggle with her emotions. But the cravings were becoming so intense. "No!"

She pushed him away, sending him crashing across the room. He fell against a chest of drawers and slumped to the floor unconscious. She moved to him in a blur and felt for a pulse. It was there, but he was out cold.

"Damn it." She knelt down and held him in her arms. She kissed him softly. "Jason, I can't be with you anymore; not like this. When you kiss me I...I can't control myself and I'm afraid I might kill you."

Maura stood at the apartment door before she turned to leave. "I'm so sorry, Jason."

Jason moaned and rubbed his neck. "Maura?" He mumbled softly. "Oww...shit, my shoulder hurts."

She grimaced then turned and dashed down the building stairs.

Maura moved swiftly across the neighborhood towards the college campus. The library vaults were a place of solitude for her; she needed to get away and think. Her heart ached at the thought of leaving him but she didn't believe she had a choice.

Several blocks away, the campus was quiet this late at night with nobody around. In a hurry and upset, the distraction of nearly biting Jason clouded her instincts and she became reckless and unaware of her surroundings.

Maura punched the entry code on the automated lock and opened the side door of the library building. She walked briskly across the office lobby and descended the back stairs, two steps at a time. She needed a place to think.

She found a change of clothes and not much else. "Damn it." She realized at that moment that she'd left her backpack and blade at Jason's. Tears began to stream from her eyes. Pull yourself together, Earth has made you soft. You have to do this. Suddenly, she heard a 'snap' followed by the pinprick of a needle, and it all went black.

Maura's vision became a haze of steps and walls as she felt the sensation of being carried up stairs. She knew this feeling. She had been drugged before. It was probably the same stuff they used on Terrus while her father was being tortured. Her vision was blurry but she could make out the forms of two men carrying her up the stairs. They must have followed her there. She was so caught up in avoiding Jason she didn't hear them approach. Her vision was blurry and blackness faded in and out.

"The drug acted quickly." The first of the two abductors said as he pocketed a small injection device. He struggled as he held on to her while opening the door to the lobby.

"She won't be any problem." The second abductor said as he pulled the dart from her neck. "It was too easy, like taking sweets from infants. Stupid woman."

They paused for a moment in the lobby area. Maura's blurred vision and fuzzy mind drifted in and out of consciousness. Her abductors pulled her across the lobby floor towards the outside door.

"D'liache will be happy." The first man said as he pushed open the outside door and tugged Maura's limp body outside. "They may even make us rich." He paused. "Very rich."

Across the way, a blurry image of Jason stood waving a club; his stance was defiant. The two men who carried a semi-conscious Maura between them paused as they exited a side door to the library.

"Take your hands off her!" He swung the club menacingly and advanced several steps. "I said put her down!"

The two men holding Maura leered at Jason. "Stupid human, don't interfere if you value your life," Hasic hissed. A glint of fangs flared in the moonlight.

"I don't know, Hasic, these humans aren't of much value beyond food. Let's see if his blood is sweet or bitter." The second of the two abductors dropped Maura's arm and began to advance quickly on Jason.

"No Taroq, we must leave now!" Hasic hissed.

Taroq, his fangs fully extended as he glanced back at his partner, began to move in a blur towards Jason. But Jason was quicker than he anticipated. He sidestepped Taroq's attack, swinging the bat as the marauder passed him. He caught him behind the head with a crunching blow that sent the assassin rolling across the grass.

Jason stood a moment and then moved towards Taroq to finish him. Hasic dropped Maura and rushed to kick Jason from behind. He slammed Jason down hard; his face smacked against the walkway.

"Argh," Maura moaned. Left alone and still reeling from the drugs that coursed through her body, she struggled to stand. "What's happening?"

"Get up you fool," snarled Hasic as he turned back to Maura. "She's nearly conscious. We need to leave now."

Rubbing the back of his head, Taroq moved towards Jason; his face filled with rage.

Hasic pulled on Taroq's shirt. "Leave him, fool. Come on." Hasic shoved him towards their captive's tangle of arms and legs. "She's beginning to come out of it faster than she should."

The two men picked up their prize as a still fuzzy image of Jason stood up slowly and turned towards them. He held out his hands and yelled. "I said leave her alone!"

In an instant, two large balls of red fire sprung from his hands and seared across the distance between him and the two abductors.

In a flash, her captors were gone. A wisp of smoke and a small pile of blackened ash were all that remained. Maura, free from her captors support, slumped between the two scorch marks on the ground with a groan.

Jason stumbled over to Maura, her face a tangled mass of hair and dried grass. He knelt down and used the back of his hands to brush her hair aside. He gently kissed her on the forehead. "Let's go home Maura."

"Okay," she mumbled. "Jason...my body aches."

"It's okay, Maura, you're safe now." He picked her up in his arms and walked slowly across the campus toward his apartment.

As Maura's eyes opened and began to focus, the blurry image of someone hovered above her. She tried to sit up but only struggled against their restraining arms. "What happened? Where am I?" Thoughts of Jason and her two abductors flooded back into her mind.

Lisa turned briefly to someone sitting nearby. "It looks like the effects of the drug are wearing off."

Maura rubbed her head and groaned. "Lisa? Is that you? Where am I?" Vera stood up and helped Lisa push Maura gently back into her pillows. "Vera?" She searched both faces. "Where's Jason?"

Vera bent down and smiled. "You're in your bedroom, dear. Don't worry, he's safe. He's sleeping next door." She moved to Maura's bedroom door. "I'll go check on him now." She slipped quietly out of the room.

Maura searched Lisa's face. "Is he okay? What's wrong with him?"

"He'll be fine." Lisa adjusted her pillows and tucked her bedcovers around her. "He just has some burns to his hands, that's all. He'll heal soon."

Maura leaned up on one elbow. "Burns?"

Lisa nodded. "Merlin's Fire is a powerful force, but if you don't know how to handle it, it can be a bit unwieldy. And the power it consumes can leave a body weak. But he was still strong enough to carry you home. With a little rest he'll be fine."

"I need to see him." Maura attempted to get up again but her vision was still blurry and her head kept spinning. "Help me, please."

"Not yet, rest a bit more, okay? He's in good hands. Grandmother is with him. You can see him as soon as you can focus. That stuff they shot into you was really powerful. It'll take time to wear off."

"What happened?"

"Well it appears that you two had a fight and you ran off into the arms of a couple of thugs from your world." Lisa's tone became stern. "Grandmother told you to be more careful."

Maura turned away from Lisa, her face felt warm. She was embarrassed to admit it but she lost control. "It wasn't a fight. He was kissing me and I was losing myself. I wanted to bite him. I couldn't control my urges. I was afraid of what I might do. I didn't want to hurt him." Tears began to slide across her cheeks. "Oh Lisa, all I seem to do is bring him pain!"