“Joshua!” Vinnie del Marco appeared, his large frame intimidating, his arms folded, his face stern. “Weren’t you given orders? Soldiers get court-martialed for less than this.”
The air was thick with the stench now. Aidan could see that Vinnie felt safe in the garden as he teased the boy, the high wall around them, the security system in full force. He had no perception of the danger lurking so close. Vinnie bent to scratch behind the puppy’s ears.
A rush of wind, sound, and movement displaced Aidan, knocking him sideways as a blurred mass leapt the fence. A furred, powerfully muscled beast hit Vinnie squarely in the chest, its huge gaping jaws going for his throat.
“Run, kid! Get in the house!” Vinnie yelled just before the animal tore open flesh and sinew. Blood sprayed into the air, showering Joshua and the puppy as they stood frozen to the spot.
The boy said one word, whispered it softly like a prayer amid the ugliness. “Alexandria.”
A second animal hurtled over the wall and rushed at Vinnie, and its dripping fangs closed over his leg. With a vicious twist of its massive head, it audibly snapped bone, and Vinnie’s screams filled the air. Rusty charged around the corner, gun in hand, but Joshua was in his line of fire. A third animal sprang from the wall onto his back, teeth clamping tightly around his shoulder.
Aidan could hear Stefan running, but he knew the vampire had laid his trap all too well. The beasts were sacrificial pawns. Stefan would shoot them to save the two men from the crazed animals, but by then the human puppet moving over the wall had scooped up the terrified child and tugged him back over the wall. The air reverberated with gunfire, then with Stefan shouting to his wife.
“Call an ambulance, Marie, and get out here now! I need some help!” Stefan knelt beside Vinnie and tried to clamp the worst of the wounds pumping out the man’s life onto the ground.
“Joshua! Where is Joshua?” Marie cried when she joined him.
“He’s gone,” Stefan reported grimly. “He was taken.” Marie’s sobs faded behind him as Aidan followed the human and child. Joshua was thrown into the trunk of a car, and the puppet walked with the characteristic jerky motions of a vampire-induced trance to the driver’s seat. Aidan streamed in through the open window and hovered, but the puppet could not detect his presence. The vampire could not direct this assault while he lay beneath earth in the daylight hours, but he had implanted his orders into his minions’ minds before he had sought the safety of his lair.
The car swerved along the winding road, the driver drooling and staring vacantly ahead with the gaze of the possessed.
Aidan moved away from the abomination and into the trunk. Joshua lay in a stupor, the left side of his face swelling, his eye already turning black. Tears rolled down to his chin, but his sobs were silent.
Aidan concentrated, calling on all of his strength to communicate silently with the boy. Joshua, I am here with you. I will have you sleep. You will stay asleep until I come for you. When I say to you, “Alexandria needs to see your blue eyes,” you will know it is safe to awaken. Only then will you do so. The mind meld was draining, and he had so little energy during this terrible time of the day. He also needed to cast spells, the most intricate, dangerous ones Gregori had taught him. If the vampire was somehow able to rise before Aidan could return to the boy, it would take a time to unravel the spells, and Joshua would be safe from harm and further trauma in his sleep.
Aidan wove his spells as the car moved northward, toward the mountains. Toward Gregori’s new home, came the unbidden thought.
It couldn’t be Gregori. Aidan wouldn’t believe it. The vampire simply had no idea Gregori was anywhere in the vicinity. It wasn’t Gregori. Gregori was so powerful, he would not need the deceitful tricks, the beasts, the mindless puppet doing his bidding, or even the child. Gregori would need no help. This was not Gregori. Aidan held on to that certainty while he wove the spells. Ancient, binding, dangerous to any who tried to harm the boy.