Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (19 page)

“Mama raised me right,” I said. Except for the likely
vampire exposure in my childhood and the fact that I didn’t
remember my real mom. “I’ll want the cuffs back.”

The key was tossed at Malcolm. My exiting limp was pretty sad. At
least Francis and the other pack wolves were behind me. Home was a
ways off. I could handle it. It only took a few blocks for me to
determine that resting would be better. Rolling up my pant leg
revealed a lot more damage than expected.

“Oh, Hell.” I winced, it had been easier to ignore the
damage when I couldn’t see it. A lot easier. The fact that I
walked off at all was amazing.

I rolled up my shirt and looked. My torso was mostly okay. Arms hurt
a little. The muscle strain I had put them through finally kicking
in. My shirt came off very carefully and was bundled up to dab at
various wounds. The damage seemed to be mostly surface ones. I would
have to stay off my legs for a bit or the rips would never stop
bleeding. That made getting home problematic unless I could get a
ride and a lot of extra large band-aids.

Maybe Julianne had a ride. Three calls to her phone later and I
discovered she was either ignoring me or not there.

I had wrestled down a wolf. What the hell had been going through my
mind? This damage was completely deserved. Normal law enforcement
measures involved guns with special ammunition and a pair of pliers.
One to put the silver in, the other to take it out after their
targets were cuffed. The fact that my last wounds had cleared up by
the time I left the forest gave me some hope that my complexion
wouldn’t get any worse from this. A busted nose was enough.

The water fountain and my shirt were put to work trying to clean.
Further searching revealed a few giant gashes on the sides that tore
straight through a good portion of the muscle. I knotted strips of my
shirt around the wounds and put the jacket back on. This would serve
me until real first aid could be applied at home. Sleep was also
desperately needed. My eyesight and mind whittled down to the path
homeward. A path practically glowed in darkness showing me the way.
Turn on this block, cross the street here, take a shortcut through
some school playground.

Along the way, my feet had stopped moving. Someone with slender arms
still carried me forth. When had that happened? My brain was barely
aware of the change in sensation as the speed picked up. Someone was
carrying me along, and it was still towards home.

“Left, down there.” I waved an arm towards a little alley
that I wouldn’t know about on a good day. One that my mind lit
up as a quicker route.

“It’s okay, Jay, relax.” A female voice.

I focused the best I could on the arms holding me. It felt awkward
with her slender frame holding up a bulky man like me. Dark skinned,
and that voice? Must have been Kahina. She had found me and was
carrying me home. Not the first time the woman had come to my rescue.
My eyes focused on the ribbon of purple that covered her wrist. There
is where she had her first bite in the long process to shift to a
vampire. It’s scar would never heal.

Kahina had tried to kill me last time I was this damaged. I panicked
and started fidgeting. Her arms stayed immobile. Vampire strength was
too much to fight for a normal person and even I wasn’t able to
make headway. My head was fuzzy. Perhaps I had lost more than a
little blood.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.” She never had.
Never, except one time. One time without control where she scared me
so thoroughly my self-image shattered. I had run away as a result.

“Stupid, Jay, incredibly stupid,” She said. Tonight had
been as much about reclaiming who I was, as it was about finding
Francis’ money, for his family, to remove his debt. To deal
with Kahina on top of it was unfair.

“You wanted to protect me.” Her words were rapidly
becoming background noise.

Bits of thoughts passed through my brain, then stopped, and faded off
into the mire. Everything got harder to concentrate on. More distance
passed as she carried me. A shimmer of light rising in the east
seemed to indicate dawn was close. Kahina shouldn’t be out in
this, she should be finding a place before daylight overwhelmed her.
Vampires went into a deep coma during the day.

“But who will protect you?”

Such a backward feeling. I was probably half again Kahina’s
weight yet she was lifting me like it was nothing. Then I heard as
much as felt the combination of buttons, metal gates swinging, a
click of my doorknob. Crushed peppermint hung in the air. I was home.
My eyes shut and left me with blackness even darker than the world
outside.

For the first time in four years, I found myself waking up next to a
lifeless body. One listless hand was draped across me. My clothes
were gone. There had also been nightmares of thieves invading my
stash of goods downstairs. Any one of those would have been enough to
make me jump under normal circumstances. I was exhausted, though.

This location was dark but smelled like home. The scent of
long-settled dust and a pleasant stillness had mixed with peppermint.
It felt right. Kahina was out like a light, with the barest hint of a
pulse. Her spirit had fled her body for the day.

Vampire spirits left their physical bodies during the latter stages
of the transformation. Scientist blamed it on an alternate state of
awareness. Religion generally claimed their souls left to be one with
God. Others said they went to repair the harm their kind had done to
the world over the generations.

No one asked for my opinion. My unique tracking sight had made it
pretty clear that their glow of life was absent during the day. It
only returned during sundown. Kahina’s spirit had done just
that when I first tracked her a few weeks ago.

Such thoughts kept me distracted as my legs were checked over. Fresh
wrappings had been carefully bound around them. They soaked up blood
from slowly healing wounds. Kahina must have managed to control
herself or licked me clean. In another time and place might have been
an intriguing experience. As it was, I needed to change quickly and
get some air.

It took a bit of fumbling to get downstairs safely. A new set of
clothing slipped carefully over the bandages. I picked up a giant,
black curtain and brought it back up to my front room. The thick
cloth was hung along ceiling runners to further block out the light.
Kahina would sleep better this way. Not that it was required. She had
never cared about comfort while visiting, but I had, and still did.

My legs itched like mad during the walk across a sunlit parking lot.
Hopefully, that equated to healing. There would probably be some
scarring or infection if the wounds weren’t cleaned again soon.
Julianne might have something to help with that.

I shouldered my way inside. One hand used the wall as a guide to
stumble down the hallway towards Julianne’s bar counter.

“Julie.” I tried to yell out, but half her name got stuck
in my throat. My voice was still dry from waking up. There was also a
growing sense of extreme hunger.

“Jay? Shit, hold on.” There was a scramble in the back
room. A moment later a flushed looking Julianne came out. I didn’t
want to know why her face was red and pulse was racing. The fact that
my mental senses were picking up how she felt was a huge sign towards
my lack of self-control.

“I need some food, drink, anything.” My hunger became
more intense the longer I was awake.

“Alright, hold on.” Her face was still slightly red from
whatever she had been doing. Her shirt was off kilter and there were
red marks on her neck.

“Did I interrupt something?”

“No, it’s alright. I’ll get you some food and
drink, okay?” She said.

“Please.” My head was pounding now. Exactly when was the
last time I had eaten?

“Here.” She got a glass of water. That was hardly the
cure I was hoping for but probably better than my other choices. A
beep echoed through another room. Ribs sat on a plate in front of me
before I noticed time had passed.

I ate it without question then rested my head against the counter as
the food settled.

“Jay, you okay?” Julianne asked. The noise I made in
response could have come out of sheep with a cold. My eyes closed for
what felt like a moment.

“Wake up before you become a permanent bar fixture,” She
said. I mumbled a response. It had only been a few minutes at most.
“What did you say, Jay?”

I tried to sit up and wipe away the drool. “Thought I already
was.” What was the question again?

“For the last few hours, but if you keep lying there you’ll
scare away customers.” Julianne could be heard clicking around
behind the counter. The sound was comforting.

“Sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay, but go back to sleep, tell Kahina I said
thanks for taking care of you.” My brain barely registered the
tone of worry in Julianne’s voice.

Staggering home was hard. The food and weariness were putting me
right back to sleep. What she said finally registered as I approached
my apartment door. How did she know that Kahina had been taking care
of me? Never mind. After a nap those questions might be more
important. I made the final trip downstairs and passed out again.

For a fleeting moment I awoke. There were odd noises elsewhere in the
house. First screaming, then banging, and finally a soft choking sob.
Fatigue prevented me from leaving my downstairs bed. My mind
listened, only half conscious, until finally silence spread through
the building.

I slept. Upon my return to awareness, things were vastly improved. I
didn’t hurt. The wounds on my legs were inspected first. They
seemed to have completely vanished. Maybe I had exaggerated the
damage.

My phone painted a different story. According to the date display, I
had lost another five days in hibernation. This time, the news came
from a digital piece of junk rather than a friend. The hard part was
figuring out how much of that had been the latest nap, or how much
had been after Kahina carried me home.

I took a long steamy shower before daring to risk the journey
upstairs. It helped me survive the brunt of seeing my front room. It
was a wreck, looking like a miniature hurricane had come through
while I was asleep. My weight bench was thrown into the kitchen
counter creating a work of art that would eat my entire deposit. The
couch was broken in half and the windows facing the back were
shattered.

Had Kahina done this? Had someone else broken in? I tried to remember
the noises from my half-awareness. It seemed likely that Kahina had
been mad at being unable to get downstairs. The passageway down was
filled with things designed to drive people off and the floor had its
own surprises.

I carefully passed all the mess and went outside while there was
still daylight. Cleaning could be left for tonight when a readily
available shelter was needed. I wasn’t even going to
contemplate what Julianne would do when she noticed. The fact that my
windows being shattered hadn’t garnered complaints was beyond
me.

Slow cognitive function and wanderings had me halfway down the
street. Restless wasn’t quite the word for it but after being
nearly comatose I needed to get out. Everything nearby needed to be
checked for possible changes. There wasn’t any good reason for
it, really I should be leaving a message for Kahina, talking to
Julianne, or seeing how Daniel was doing. A few hours to myself would
be nice. Just a few moments of peace to help me survive the return to
reality’s nonsense.

In recent days, the park and I had become fairly familiar with each
other. It was a plot of land that had been adopted by an elven clan.
They took pride in remaining true to the original plant life by
keeping anything not native weeded out. Part of Western Sector’s
grants went to them as funding for their care-taking efforts. As a
result, they were legally required to open their parks to the public.

It was a half win for both sides. Humans and other races got a
beautiful place to get away to. Elves got to live in a city yet keep
alive a lot of their older traditions. They replaced arrows through
the eyeball with heavy fines upon littering visitors. Most elves felt
that was even better than outright murder.

I hiked through with no particular goal aside from passing the time.
There were others here, people out with dogs, strollers, mothers
jogging along. The elves had painstakingly made a path that normal
people could follow. For extra, anyone could pay for an elven guide,
there were normally a few near the entrances in the larger parks.
They showed all the unseen paths and great views.

My body was still shaky, but the outdoor air helped distract me. It
was a welcome retreat. I hoped to see Candy somewhere in here. This
park was near her clan. She didn’t seem like the manual labor
type. Not outdoors anyway. That series of thoughts lasted far too
long. Especially considering everything Kahina had just done for me.

The sun was still fairly high. There were more hours to burn before
the cleaning started. Now was a good time to ask Julianne about how
much a repair to the apartment kitchen might cost. Frame damage was
cheaper than pipework, and my home hadn’t flooded. There was
hope I might get off cheap. I walked back towards home only to find
that Julianne wasn’t at the bar. One of the waitresses saw me
and passed me a message. The same one that I could never remember the
name of. Her jet black hair had a feather woven into it.

“She said to come by her house when you woke up.” The
waitress was smirking like I won some sort of favor. From Julianne?
Yeah, that sort of favor was unlikely. She seemed dead set on me and
Kahina as a couple.

“Did she give you an address?” I asked.

“You don’t know it?”

“No, never asked.” Another question I should have asked
in a long string of them.