A continuation of the first part of my short story about the Dalton Family. Part 1 can be found here http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/04/a-daltons-short-story.html
There was nothing quite like celebratory burgers with her
brothers, especially when she was vegetarian. Finding a half decent veggie
burger in any place was hard, but in a rinky dink town like this one, it was
next to impossible. The road life made her nutrition choices slightly more
difficult than average, most motels didn’t have a place to cook and fast food
wasn’t the kindest to vegetarians, not to mention the fact that hunting didn’t
exactly pay well, or at all for that matter. Day to day they made it by on
their inheritance (which had not been very much and practically extinct) and
running successful credit card scams. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but
it was how they lived. It was their job to protect people where they couldn’t
protect themselves, even if it meant struggling to get by. Sitting there
watching her brothers as they scarfed down the meat like wild dogs she wrinkled
her nose slightly in disgust. “Alright while you too savagely enjoy yourselves
I’m finding a bar” she muttered standing up from the booth and slipping outside
before either of them could utter a protest. They had stopped by the motel
before eating to wash off the vampire blood. The general public didn’t take
kindly to strangers covered in blood, while the motel didn’t seem to be able to
tell the difference. She knew that they'd passed a bar on the way and the only
thing she'd wanted to do was get a drink. The life was hard for anyone but when
you kept losing the people you cared about, it suddenly become that much more
difficult to deal with. She knew her brothers hated when she went out alone,
deemed her 'prey' for guys and all she could do was roll her eyes at the idea.
She was trained to a military grade and beyond with all sorts of tricks up her
sleeve to blindside someone, she knew that it was really a lot less about her
safety and a lot more fear of her getting a date. Over protective didn't even begin to describe
her big brothers. Over baring or smothering perhaps were better terms. Since
had been 8 years old they'd never spent even a day apart, they'd been stuck in
the same car, the same room. Privacy was just not a world that entered into the
Dalton vocabulary not matter how much she desperately craved it. Twenty-two,
she was twenty-two years old and never been on a real date, it was pathetic
really but at this point she had accepted that it was just her life. She knew
James was in the same boat and it brought her a bit of comfort at least to know
she wasn't completely alone. Jake, did not have the same problem, being the
oldest he pretty much did what he wanted to do and somehow seemed to find girls
around every corner, they didn't seem to be intimidated by his siblings the way
the way the guys were of her brothers, he got around so much in fact she
wouldn't have been surprised to find they'd left a little Dalton running around
somewhere along the way. Double-standard was a word she liked to throw around a
lot in his face but it didn't matter how much she fought she still never seemed
to find a minute alone except brief moments like this one.
It was fine, truly she knew dating wasn't really a feasible
option for her lifestyle anyway. She was never in one place long enough and she
risked her life every second of the day, dragging someone else through that was
just unrealistic and cruel, something Jake apparently didn't seem to care
about, not that she would exactly call what he did dating. Moving quickly
through the street she kicked her worn cowboy boot at something shiny on the
ground before she stopped suddenly and stared at it for a moment. At first
glance she'd thought it was nothing but a quarter on the ground but as she
looked closer she realized it was a ring, a very distinctive one at that. The
intricate designs on the band clicked something in her memory. The words were
in Latin Tenebris resurrexerit
Darkness Resurrected and she felt her throat begin to tighten as the memories
started to flow. Tenebris resurrexerit,
she had studied it, the saying of a demonic secret society that relished in
creating whole communities of demons, controlling the outcomes of society
through powerful leaders. The Fratres Mortis, brothers of death, were infamous
but they were long thought to be extinct. Throughout history theory and
speculation fluttered around the great and vicious rulers, all under the
control of demonic possession and no one any wiser than the next. As she
reached for it a voice suddenly stopped her.
"Touch that only if you have a death wish" the
voice came from the Alley to her left and she moved to her feet again quickly
just in time to counter an attack. He made the mistake of grabbing her arm
which only gave her the advantage. She flipped herself around and bent to swing
her leg behind his knocking him down to the ground. She rested her knee on his
chest her arm bent placing pressure on his neck holding him into place.
"Don't touch me" she said simply. She didn't like
it and her reflexive instincts always kicked into high gear. Her green eyes
stared at him intently looking for some tell-tale sign of supernatural but
there was nothing. A puzzled look passed through her eyes as she loosened her
hold on him just slightly. "You're human..." she said surprise
obvious in her voice, she hadn't expected that.
"Yeah-" he coughed clearly trying to catch his
breath from having been slammed hard on the ground. "But clearly you're
not" he said a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he spoke and also a hint of
an accent, he was British. The accent had caught her off guard for just a
moment but she quickly snapped back into hunter most. She pressed her arm down
harder on his throat maybe he'd be less of a smart ass if he had even more
trouble breathing.
"Where did you get that ring?" she demanded, it
wasn't just a general possession someone carried around with them, and judging
but how easily she'd dominated him she had serious doubts about his status as a
hunter, at least a decent one that would know anything about the Fratres
Mortis.
"Bought it at a thrift shop" he said and she
pressed her knee down harder now and watched as he winced. "Okay- Okay lay
off will you.... you're a charmer you know that" he added sarcasm still
evident but she didn't really care what he thought, she was far more concerned
about how he had ended up in possession of something she'd only even seen in
old photographs and paintings. As she let her guard down slightly she actually
took in the appearance of the guy. He was about her age, maybe a little older
but the similarities between them stopped there. His eyes were dark, black
nearly and if she couldn't clearly have seen the difference between the pupil
and the iris she might have suspected he was possessed his hair, black as night
hung long around his face just above his shoulders. His skin was darker, but
not like hers her fair skin, even at its best tan was nothing more than a
gentle glow, his olive skin suggested a hint of Spanish background, a faint
hint perhaps but it was definitely there. "Are you going to let me up or
just check me out all night?" he asked and it pulled her attention back
quickly.
"Don't flatter yourself" she muttered but part of
her couldn't deny the fact that she had been slightly checking him out even
just a little bit, but the comment had still caught her off guard. "I'll
let you up when you answer my question" she added and for a moment they
just stared at each other waiting to see if the other would give in, if there
was one thing about Amalia Elizabeth Dalton, it was that she almost never, gave
in.
"Do we have to talk about it here?" he asked
"on the ground?" No, she supposed they didn't but letting him up
risked the chance that he would grab the ring and run, and a ring like that in
the wrong hands was a dangerous artifact.
"No, but I'll tell you one thing, if you so much as
think of running; I'll shoot you"
No comments:
Post a Comment