Chapter 8 - Vampire Kidnapping? Vampnapping?

Evander

"Can I help you?" I asked them casually, feeling like the men in front of me were of no threat to me.

Oddly enough, I couldn't make out their scents. It was almost as if they didn't even have scents. That should have warned me to something suspicious going on, but I figured that whatever happened, I could handle it.

The one holding the gun sneered, aiming the weapon at me. "Come with us and no one gets hurt."

Wow. I smiled, flashing my descended fangs at them. "It's very impolite to point a gun at someone. Lower it first and then we can talk."

"We're not afraid of you, Vampire. Our Lord protects us from the likes of the Devil."

"You must have me mistaken for someone else. I don't know any devils," I answered with a shrug, my hands still in my pockets.

One of the others took a step forward. "Enough games. Follow us."

"Or?" I challenged.

"Or we'll make you."

I chuckled. "A mere gun isn't enough to frighten me. You'll have to excuse me now, I have somewhere I need to be."

I was just about to make my exit when the sound of the gun echoed throughout the alleyway, and a bullet found its way into my leg. I glanced down before raising an eyebrow at the group. "Did you think a piece of metal would be enough to stop me?"

"That isn't just metal, Vampire," the man holding the gun said with a smirk.

I frowned at his comment. What did he mean by-

I think I'm being burned alive.

The pain was indescribable. It ripped through my leg and spread like wildfire in my veins within seconds. I hissed under my breath, trying to contain myself. I couldn't let them see how much I was being affected by whatever the bullet contained. My head was beginning to feel light and my vision was tinged red. A flicker of panic welled up in my chest, but it was stomped down once they started advancing on me. Whatever was going on could wait until I was safely in my apartment.

One of the men lunged at me, but even with my leg feeling like it was about to fall off, I was quicker, reaching out to grab his head and bash it into the nearest wall. The sickening crack followed by his crumpled body falling to the floor wasn't enough for the other three to pause. The man with the gun fired again, the bullet burying into my shoulder blade. Damn it, I'm not nearly as fast as usual. I should've been able to dodge that.

Perhaps I shouldn't have let my arrogance create this unsavory situation. If I'd thought them to be a proper threat, I would've incapacitated one, slipped through gap, and ran with my inhuman speed back to the apartment. It wasn't usually safe to run with vampire speed in public, but it would've been better than this.

The pain increased tenfold and I faltered for a moment when my vision flickered in and out of darkness tinged in red. I wasn't able to catch when one of the men ran at me and sent a very hard punch to my solar plexus. I doubled over with a gasp, my vision going black again.

"Tie him up," I heard the man with the gun bark at the other two.

My strength seemed to leave me in an instant as I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath from the flares of pain radiating throughout my body. This wasn't normal. Whatever was in that bullet wasn't of the mortal realm. There was no other explanation. Vampires were virtually indestructible. There were very few things that could actually cause us harm. A bullet that made me feel like I was being cooked alive wasn't one of those things as far as I knew.

One of the men roughly grabbed my arms, pulling them behind my back. I almost tried to fight back, but the hands suddenly left me. I heard a shout, the gun go off again, and the sickening crunch of bones.

My vision wasn't getting any better, but I was able to make out a pair of heels in front of me. A small smile made its way across my face despite how delirious I felt from the pain. I'd recognize those shoes anywhere.

"Mi Paloma, my poor Evander," she whispered, kneeling down.

I tried to tell her that I was okay, but my throat felt dry and shredded to bits. Instead, I choked, causing her to sigh. "Do not speak. I will take you to your home."

I felt her pick me up and I relaxed in her hold. She always knew how to make me feel safe.

.

.

.

I must've blacked out at some point because I opened my eyes to stare up at the familiar ceiling of my bedroom. My body was still wracked with phantom pains and burns, but I could feel that the bullets had been removed. I also noticed the warmth surrounding me. At first, I attributed it to the blanket tucked around me, but then I noticed the scents of my mates. A quick turn of my head confirmed that they were both nestled up against me, one on each side. Aubrey had his arm wrapped around me protectively and Aaron was positioned with his face buried right in the crook of my shoulder. Why hadn't I noticed him breathing right against my skin?

"Evander."

I looked to the left to greet my savior. "Elvira," I breathed, my voice scratchy.

The woman stood up, brushing away the invisible dirt on her elegant red dress. She walked over, looking at Aaron since he was on that side. "The moment I brought you upstairs, these two began fussing over you. I must've woken them up by accident."

"I'm not surprised," I said with a small laugh.

"You never told me you found mates. Should I not be one of the first you tell? I'm your sire, Evander. Even if you are no longer a fledgling, you are still under my care. I love all of my little doves."

"I'm sorry. It was a recent development and we had other more pressing matters," I explained, feeling guilty.

I hadn't seen my sire in almost a decade. She spent most of her time traveling the world or remaining in Spain, her original home. Elvira was like a mother to me. She'd been the one to turn me over a century ago and took care of me for the first few years so I could learn to control my new body and the sudden bloodlust that was uncontrollable for most fledglings. I was extremely lucky that she had been in town, let alone nearby. "Were you following me?" I asked her, wondering how she'd been able to rescue me.

"No. I stopped by the center and Arlo mentioned you coming by a few minutes ago. I planned on catching up with you when I heard the gun go off."

I was slightly surprised the cops hadn't been called on us. If the humans had heard the gunshot, they would've panicked, right? Perhaps there had been no one around, but it seemed so unlikely.

"You're lucky you just fed. Your body's healing is very slow right now. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't replenished your strength before facing those men," Elvira said, shaking her head slowly.

"I am lucky," I agreed. "But it was my fault I was shot at. I got cocky."

My sire was about to speak again when Aaron shifted around beside me. The werewolf blinked his eyes open, brushing away the hair in his face. He sat up and my eyes immediately went to his exposed skin from my shirt sliding out of place against his slightly smaller frame. I don't know why, but the sudden urge to lean in and take a bite consumed me for a brief moment. I just ate, so I didn't understand why my bloodlust was still so high. Maybe the bullets took more out of me than I first thought.

"Evander," Aaron said, his voice groggy from sleep.

"Yes?"

I found this sleepy Aaron to be kind of cute. Aubrey was always cute, but from what I'd seen of Aaron, he tried his best to come off as the opposite. Maybe it was a werewolf thing. Either way, his efforts seemed to fail half the time. It was strangely endearing.

"Are you okay? You were...bleeding," he said, more awake now.

His brow pinched with worry as he glanced at my shoulder before his eyes trailed down to my leg covered by the blanket.

"I'm much better. Don't worry. You should go back to sleep," I answered.

He shook his head before pushing his hair away from his face again. "No, I don't think I can go back to sleep again."

Now that I got a closer look at him, he seemed to be worried, but not just about me. "What's wrong?"

He sighed, offering a tight smile. "I'll explain later when we meet with my group."

"Evander, you don't plan on leaving your apartment today, do you?" Elvira piped up, her motherly tone making me wince.

"We planned to," I said.

"You need to rest! Your body is not done healing and I think we might need to get you some more blood. I can see how dark your eyes are from here," she explained, shaking her head.

"Where do I get blood, though? I can't go back to the coven center if those people followed me from it," I pointed out.

"I'll bring you a couple of bags," Elvira answered with a wave of her hand. "You need to focus on healing. No going out today."

Aaron sighed. "I'll call my group," he said, sliding out of bed.

"I'm sorry, Aaron," I found myself apologizing.

He shrugged. "No need to apologize. Not your fault some jerkwads decided to try and kidnap you."

He slipped past Elvira to head downstairs, probably to call his group in private. I sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't understand why they decided to attack me. They knew I was a vampire already, too," I spoke up.

"Perhaps they were hunters. You don't usually see them in cities, but they exist," Elvira suggested.

"Maybe. They didn't have any scents. Might be a hunter tactic," I mused.

"Wait, they had no scents?" Elvira echoed.

I turned my head to look at her. Her face was drawn into a worried frown. "Elvira?" I asked, wondering why my sire looked so concerned.

"There was a reason why I was stopping by the center. Some elders gathered today to discuss something," she admitted.

"What do you mean? Is something going on?" I asked.

"In Europe, there have been some reports of agitations amongst some non-human groups, specifically the shifter groups. The...the dragons were involved, as well."

My chest tightened. The dragon shifters were elusive and rarely got involved in the affairs of the non-human world. They opted to stay in their own realm most of the time. Some chose to live among the humans like other groups did, but they were even harder to find. My mind immediately drifted to them. Was that where they went? Europe? Or were they doing something else? I couldn't help but be a little concerned now. "What exactly is going on?" I asked my sire, wanting to know more.

"A group of people we've labeled as fanatics are reported to be attacking shifter groups, but they are all scentless. We've noticed they have focused their attacks on werewolf packs, but they've begun branching out to other shifter communities. Dragons were seen leaving their realm within the same timeframe, too. We don't know what they are doing, or whether they are directly involved in these attacks, but their movements are suspicious nonetheless," Elvira explained.

This wasn't good. This group of fanatics... they sounded like the cult Aaron and his people were dealing with. Was this all somehow connected? I hoped there wasn't any connection between the groups. If so, then this issue was a lot bigger than a few packs in one country; it could mean an inter-species conflict that could reach across the globe.

~~~

Mi Paloma - My Dove

Elvira affectionately calls her vampires her doves or little doves if they're fledglings :)

I'm sorry I'm late again! Geez, I need to get back to my earlier updating time lol. Anyway, next chapter they will finally leave the apartment. I had fun writing in Evander's point of view, but it's time to get back to our favorite beta XD

How do you feel about the events that are occurring? The mysterious men, the dragon sightings, the scentless attackers? Are they connected to the Eye or is there something more going on? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Stay tuned for more insanity and thank you so much for reading!

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