Chapter Two
Water, Blood, and Roses
Kai forced his tense muscles to relax as he allowed the steaming water to rush over his naked body as he stood in the large shower. Sighing and leaning back against the ceramic wall, he slid down to the floor and sat there, his knees drawn up to his muscular chest. His eyebrows knit together in concentration, and he ignored the water dripping down his forehead from his soaking wet hair. He had a harder time ignoring the water dripping onto the tip of his hard cock, but he managed to ignore it. He needed to think. He was very, very worried.
He hadn't liked what he found in the police reports. Vladim Rasputin Tepees was his name. Apparently, crime had been his game until recently, when he became the manager of the end year Holiday teams, such as Team Christmas and it's captain duo, Angel and Christina, or Halloween's two captains, Winter and Midnight. The guy's reputation had Kai worried for the Scream Team's members, especially the little one who had thanked him, the little ghost-girl. That's what the announcers called her.
After leaving the stadium, Kenny had insisted on renting the video recordings of all the Scream Team's matches. They could only find a few, but they had learned a lot about the members of Team Halloween. One thing was that even though the man called Vladim Tepees was the manager, Midnight called all the shots with the team. No one listened to him without asking Midnight first.
The team was mostly little kids: a set of twins, Butterfly and Finn, and Finn's best friend, Wing; the ghost girl, Tannis, and her friend Wendy. There were the older boys: Julian Savage and his twin, Aidan, and their three friends, Aubrey, Quinn, and Ash. There were the girls: Midnight, Winter, and Jeshika. Then, there were the others, the occasional team mates who came and went as they pleased: Gabriel Daratrazanoff, four girls, Sarah Vida, Ravyn Arun, Caryn Smoke, and Deirdre Mayfair; the Irish twins, Tempest and Shea, and the a set of fraternal twins, Talan and Jaxxon. And of course, there was Vlad.
Kai quit rerunning his impressions of the team and went back to thinking of Midnight, that beautiful, haunting creature, with her strange, gorgeous eyes and long, raven hair, her perfect body and sensual voice. Were the rumors true? Could they possibly be true? But that was absolutely ridiculous. Vampires weren't real.
Kai kept thinking, though, of her as that mysterious Vampire Princess. It didn't matter how dumb it seemed. He didn't care. She was his Lady of the Night, the Vampire Princess. She fitted the part. She was… she was… his Auramdas. Yeah, his Auramdas. Whatever that was.
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"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Vlad practically shrieked at the "Vampire Princess." His face was beet red, his jugular vein and carotid artery bulging from his neck. A vein throbbed disgustingly at his temple. Spit flew from his mouth.
'I hope that vein bursts, and you die. I hate you.' Midnight thought. A dark bruise was forming on her cheek, and her lips were split, bruised and puffy. Tannis was crying, a scared look on her face. Wendy kept her sheltered under her red bathrobe, both of them clad in pink nightshirts. The little girls kept their faces hidden from view, as Midnight had taught them. Their fear always only served to enrage Vlad further.
"Nothing, sir." Midnight replied softly, her voice dripping with obvious loathing. She sat up from where she lay sprawled on the floor. "I was simply scoping out the other team." Midnight tried to stand, but Vlad simply slapped her across the face again, knocking her to the floor with a thud. His unnatural strength frightened her. He'd taken that strength from her, from the blood he drained from her every night.
Julian tried to rush him, but as Wendy and Tannis held him back, Vlad clocked him in the left temple, and with one hit knocked him unconscious to the floor. He then turned back to Midnight.
"Scoping out the other team, huh? Little liar!" He grabbed her by the hair, hauling her up. He threw her against the wall, where she then slid to the floor in a boneless heap. "You little… street tramp! Get over here!" Midnight, rising shakily to her feet, walked towards him very slowly, as if approaching a rabid dog. If she tried to stop him from having his way, he'd hurt the little ones. She wasn't strong enough anymore to prevent it either, so she couldn't allow it. She wouldn't allow it.
Her defiance must have shone in her huge blue eyes, because the large, supernaturally powerful man grabbed her roughly by her vulnerable, slender throat, squeezing hard, his merciless grip leaving painful, dark bruises. She saw stars and tried to draw a breath, gasping. A haze of red descended upon her vision, and she started to lose consciousness. Weak as a human, that's what she was, weak as a human… Then, abruptly, he let her go. She collapsed to the floor, gulping huge lungfuls of air as her vision continued to swim. Her heart was thundering against her ribs with the force of a sledgehammer. She was weak as a goddamn human. That's what she was.
"Come with me, you disgusting, little slut." He whispered venomously, sadistically. His black-brown eyes were shining with anticipation. Midnight's stomach churned as she stood. She swayed on her feet, glanced at the maniacal look in his eyes, and shook her head. He knocked her backward onto the narrow game bed with a vicious backhand. She gathered her robe about her when it fell open. Vlad grinned. To the girls, he snarled, "Go to your room. Take that bag of shit with you." The two little girls dragged the semiconscious Julian into their room and quickly shut the door. Midnight tried to sit up, tried to sprint from the bed, but he moved with supernatural speed and shoved her back, pinning her to the bed. He quickly tied her wrists and ankles to the bedposts, leaving her open, vulnerable. Every time she tried to struggle, he socked her hard in the stomach, winding her completely.
"Pretty little thing, aren't you… you filthy, little harlot! Little Harlotta, come out and play."
"Get the Hell of me, you disgusting human scum, get off… NO!" She choked as his hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing, his fingers biting into the soft, vulnerable flesh of her throat. She whimpered as he whispered, "Pretty little Harlotta… pretty little whore." His hands slid down from her throat towards her breasts. His mouth crashed down on hers, and he gave her a disgusting, slimy kiss, shoving his tongue into her mouth. She bit down as hard as she could, severing the tip.
Vlad roared and flailed backward, falling off the narrow bed. Midnight, just to be vindictive, swallowed the wriggling piece of tongue clutched between her teeth. Vlad stood slowly, eyes wide and filled with terrible hate. He undid his belt and slipped it from the loops, snapping it. He raised his arm, and brought it down. The belt buckle smacked against her legs, then her stomach, up and down her body, over and over, roaring for her to give in and scream, beg for mercy.
Midnight gave a silent plea to her bitbeast, and Vlad was yanked back, with Stauss choking off his air. The Dunpeal gazed at his queen, then at her bruised, bleeding wrists and ankles tied to the bedposts. Under his blazing crimson gaze, the knots undid themselves and released Midnight.
She leaned over the side of the bed and spit, then wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her robe. Her lip was bleeding profusely, and her eyes were watering, tearing with anger and disgust. She hated Vlad. She hated him! Still, she nodded to her dear Stauss, and he reluctantly released Vlad. It was against the laws of her People to kill him without first presenting him to the Council of Queens, or at least the Dark City Council. Damn him for that!
"Stay away from me." She snarled, baring her razor sharp teeth. "Just stay the fuck away!"
She bolted into her room and slammed the door, gasping for breath. On her pillow was a single red rose, a splash of crimson against the white. The note attached by a red sating ribbon read, "to the fairest Blader of them all, Snow White, from Phoenix." She remembered Kai whispering something about skin white as snow when they had been 'pathing to each other. He hadn't meant to, but being so inexperienced, she had heard the stray thought in her Auramdas's mind And Draanzer was a Phoenix beast.
She held the rose to her breast, close to her heart, slid down the wall, and wept as if her heart were breaking. She knew then that she would need Kai's help.