Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (37 page)

"Does it matter now?" asked a voice
from behind him.

Dax instantly recognized it, and
slammed him into a tree.

"You!" he growled, "I should have
known you were in on it!"

"Hello?" the blonde vampire managed
to croak despite Dax's arm pressing against his throat. "How could
I have been on it? I tried to warn you remember?"

To this, Dax had to agree and
reluctantly let him go.

He tried to hold back his
shuddering sobs until all he could mutter was in a pain-filled
voice. "But Aradia...Aradia!"

"She's safe," Saul said to Dax
sounding as nonchalant as a priest announcing the morning
mass.

Dax's head shot up.
"What?"

"Well," Saul admitted reluctantly
with a shrug. "She is not entirely safe, but she is alive and
unharmed for the moment."

"Where?" Dax practically shrieked
as he pinned Saul against the tree again!

"In Pennsylvania, in the head of
the entire vampire clan leader's house," Saul replied
quickly.

Dax looked ecstatic, but then his
common sense kicked in. "How do I know you are not lying to
me?"

"You don't, but can you really take
that chance?" Saul snapped.

After taking his hands off Saul,
Dax quickly asked, "Anything else I should know?"

"Yeah," Saul said to him,
"Hurry!"

Korrigan, after finishing tying the
last knot on the bedpost, stood up and looked down at Aradia. She
was now dressed in light pink and black lingerie dress and staring
up at him fearfully.

"Do you like the dress?" Korrigan
asked.

Aradia glanced down at herself, and
then up at him.

"Let me put it this way," she
finally said, "I have worn socks that were less tacky than this
shit!"

Korrigan ignored her comment, and
crawled onto the bed. "Whenever I close my eyes, I see you. I can
feel your warm flesh pressed against my own cold one."

He then ran his hands down her arms
that were also bounded by thick ropes to the bed's
headboard.

"I feel you pressed against me,
your body perfectly fitting mine, and your heart..." he trailed off
and laid his head against her chest making Aradia squirm
uncomfortably.

Korrigan did not notice this
either.

He merely sighed and said, "I can
hear your heartbeat moving rhythmically like music."

"God! Where do you get this crap?
Off the back of a trashy romance novel?" Aradia snapped at
him.

Korrigan looked up at her, and laid
his chin deliberately in the middle of her cleavage. Aradia
expected him to be pissed at her insult, but amazingly, he just
sighed. "God, you have the most beautiful mouth."

I would have preferred him being
angry, Aradia thought.

When his lips were two inches away
from hers, a beeping sound was heard.

"What's that?” Korrigan
asked.

"My cell phone," Aradia said, "I
must have put it in my pajama bottoms when I was home."

Korrigan stood and then saw her
clothes in a pile.

Aradia exhale at the sudden relief
of Henry's weight off her.

He picked up the phone, and said,
"You have a text message! It says Aradia love are you
alright?"

Korrigan now looked confused, but
more so after he saw the sender's name. "Who's Dax?"

Aradia's frightened expression
changed to disbelief.

He stalks me this long, she thought
bitterly, and he does not even know that I am involved with
someone.

Well not anymore, Aradia added
sadly.

Almost immediately, Korrigan leapt
upon her, grabbed her neck, and dug his claws into her
throat.

"If I find out you have been
cheating on me," he snarled, "I will rip your throat out I swear to
God!"

Aradia thought fast. "Dax's
my...my...science partner! We were supposed to work on a project
together today!"

"Oh," Korrigan released his death
grip on Aradia's neck who then started to gasp out long desperate
breaths.

Korrigan tapped the phone lightly
against his chin. "So what do you want me to tell him?"

"Huh?" Aradia asked.

"You know to let him know you are
alright," Korrigan explained.

But I am not alright you twit,
Aradia thought angrily, I am being held against my will by a madman
whose going to do God knows what to me.

Surprisingly, Korrigan did not
react or give any impression that he read her mind. His expression
stayed blank, and awaited her instructions.

"Tell him," Aradia said to
Korrigan. "That I don't feel so good so I can't make it tonight,
but not to worry we can meet again some other day to discuss
finishing our project and everything will be alright."

Korrigan nodded happily, and
quickly tapped the message into her cell phone.

He then turned, and threw it right
out the window!

"No more interruptions," he said
clapping and rubbing his hands.

Aradia gulped and stared at the
newly broken window thinking tragically to herself, my
phone.

"Now," Korrigan said smiling
dangerously as he advanced towards her, "Where were we?"

It took only Dax ten minutes to
round up everyone at Aradia's nightclub. The reaction to the latest
news of Aradia's welfare was very mixed.

"Thank God," Roy whooped, "She's
alright!"

"Poor Aradia," Ginevra cried out,
"She must be being held captive by one those awful McAlester
brothers!"

"How can you trust this guy?"
Lamont demanded, "For all we know, he could be leading us into
another trap!"

"Figures vampires would beat us to
claiming the last witch," Tristan grumbled while Titania
nodded.

Suddenly, Dax's cell phone went
off.

As he dove into his pocket, he
heard someone mutter, "How disrespectful is he? Leaving his phone
on while his girlfriend is missing?"

Dax shrugged off the insult, and
read the text. His jaw dropped when he saw it was from
Aradia!

"If we trace where this message
came from, we can find where she is exactly!" Dax exclaimed as he
brandished the phone victoriously.

The whole place went eerily
silent.

"I guess old age really does make
one wiser," Tristan remarked.

Ross then grabbed the phone, and
said he would get the trace done in a matter of minutes. His wife
following at his heels, he then walked out of the club.

"So what do we do now?” Roy
demanded of Dax.

"First," Dax stated, "We find the
two other McAlester brothers. We have to make sure that not only
will they not be able to help their brother, but that once we save
Aradia they will never trouble her again! Then we will rescue
Aradia! Is that okay with everyone?"

No one objected to Dax's plan so he
eagerly turned on his heel, motioned for everyone to
follow

"It's nice to know you are finally
stepping up to the plate," Roy stated after shifting into his
werewolf form.

Dax neither heard nor replied to
Roy's comment. Only one thought occupied his mind: finding Aradia
and saving her.

Aradia sniffled tearfully as she
stared down at her plate. If her hunger was not enough to make her
cry, the indignation of sitting at a table surrounded by male
vampires when she was still wearing the skanky lingerie sure as
hell was. Not to mention the horrid memories of her recent rape
lingered in her mind like polluted water! Yet somehow, Aradia
managed to prevent herself from sobbing.

However, restraining her cries did
not make the memories of Henry's rape go away. As she stared at her
plate, her mind began to wander, and she remembered what had
happened. She remembered the struggling, the screaming, and
fighting she had done when Korrigan had raped her. He had
constantly force his mouth upon her, kissed her, bit her, all the
while ignoring her pleas, and screams for him to stop.

She had been forced to watch as he
undid his belt, and force himself into her then scream bloody
murder when he actually did the deed. Aradia was a virgin so she
had never felt intercourse before. All she really knew about sex
was stuff she had watched on TV. It did not mention how much it
might hurt her. When Korrigan had violated her, she had felt like
she was being stabbed repeatedly. She felt no joy, no passion, and
no pleasure. All she had felt was shame, and horror, but most of
all she had felt pain.

When Korrigan was done, he had
gotten up as casually as waking up from a nap. He grinned at her
while she had crouched into a ball shaking from the shock of it.
She had felt like she was dead from the inside out, and had wanted
to take a shower in a vain psychological attempt to wash away what
Korrigan had done to her. After asking this, Korrigan had suggested
they shower together, which forced Aradia to reconsider.

So with no shower and the memory of
her violation still fresh in her mind and the feeling of what
Korrigan had done still felt on her body, Aradia had been escorted
downstairs. The entire time Korrigan had held her hand, and looked
around to everyone. The way he was smirking was as if he was
silently saying, "Look at me! I just had sex with the last
witch!"

Korrigan had gotten some blood from
the fridge and noticed Aradia sitting, shaking, and staring down at
her plate.

"Why are crying?" he demanded
angrily, "Who is it? Who made you cry? I'll kill him, I swear to
God!"

Aradia shook her head, and
explained feebly. "No Korrigan, it is not that! It's just that I am
hungry so I asked for some food but they brought me
this."

She pointed to the roses that lay
on her plate.

Korrigan looked perplexed as he
asked, "Yeah so?"

Aradia groaned, and marveled for
probably the hundredth time at the strangeness of vampire
behavior.

"You were human once remember?"
Aradia snapped, "Humans don't eat flowers! Or at least I
don't!"

Korrigan smacked himself in the
head, grabbed the plate, and then threw it at the nearest
vampire.

"What are you idiots? Go get her
some real food! Like McDonalds or something!” He shouted as the
vampire ducked and scrambled away.

He then looked at the three
remaining vampires, and started yelling at them as well. "Go on get
out of here! She does not want anyone of you! She wants to be with
me! She is mine!"

As soon as the other vampires
scuttled away, Korrigan looked back at her.

He sighed as he said, "God, do have
any idea how sexy you look right now?"

Fear ran down Aradia's spine as he
slowly began walking towards her.

"We need to talk," Aradia said
quickly, who was desperate to avoid another violation of her
person.

Korrigan stopped, and began to look
like he was in anguish.

"Don't say that," he said, "When
women say things like that nothing good ever happens."

Aradia continued despite his
protest. "Korrigan, you have to understand I am not vampire. It's
true I am a hidden, but I still need human things."

"Such as?" Korrigan
asked.

"Food, sleep, but most of all,"
Aradia said looking down at herself. "Normal clothes!"

Korrigan did not say anything. He
just stood there staring at Aradia who braced herself for his
reaction.

Finally, Korrigan said, "You're
right."

"Say what?" Aradia asked,
completely shocked.

"You may not be human, but you
still need human things," Korrigan observed, "But I can change
that."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Aradia
asked, her shock now replaced with fear.

"You may be a hidden witch, but you
still have many human traits. However, if you weren't human anymore
you would not need human stuffs anymore so with that in
mind."

Korrigan paused to kneel before
her. "Aradia, will you be my vampire bride?"

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Aradia's parents had completed the
trace of the text message from Aradia's phone to Dax's, and printed
out a map to the address. By the time they had done this, Xan,
Ginevra, Domitilla, and Tristan along with some of Tristan's royal
guards had already captured Dunc and Tavis McAlester. They had
thought about torturing them for the location of Aradia, but after
the trace was complete, they found no need. That only left one
thing as a possible fate for the two of them. As Dax stood over the
two McAlester brothers, he held in his hand a sword from his
father's private collection. Dunc and Tavis kneeled in front of
him, bound and shaking. Dax knew that this was the only way, but he
could still not stop himself from hesitating.

"I will give you one last chance,"
Dax finally said to the two of them.