Vampires, Magic, and Monsters - Page 11

He was so distracted that when he heard a knock on his door, it startled him. At first, he simply stared at the door, and then came another. It wasn’t an urgent knock, just a couple of soft taps, but he wasn’t expecting anyone and no one buzzed him from downstairs.

After a couple more seconds the knocking came again whoever they were they weren’t giving up. Slowly, as if he had a premonition as to the danger hanging in the air, Neal approached the door. Just as he was about to look through the peep hole the door burst inward knocking him backward onto the floor he yelled for help as three goons rushed him.

CHAPTER SIX

Everything happened so fast that Alistar reacted on instinct. He was in the living room in less than a second upon hearing the upheaval and Neal’s cry for help. Seeing his adored on the floor and three fucking vampires attacking him, Alistar went full-on assassin. Alistar grabbed the two large ones, pulling them away from Neal, and very quickly had them together on their knees and dying. He was trained in death, and he could deliver it swiftly and painfully.

The third tried to escape, but he wasn’t fast enough. Alistar slammed the door shut and bent the man backward in half, staring into his eyes the whole time as he questioned him with a dagger pressed against his throat. Alistar remained deadly calm, and the man looked resolved to his impending fate. Neal moved away, crawling to the back wall well away from the bodies and the mayhem.

“Who are you, and why are you here?” Alistar demanded.

“He was supposed to be alone.” That infuriated Alistar.

“Who the hell are you?” He tightened his hold, bending him further and hearing the bones cracking. “Why do you bother my adored?” That had the man reacting and looking shocked.

“He’s your adored?” Alistar nodded and again tightened his hold.

“Why do you want him?” The man shook his head, not willing to say more, and Alistar was losing patience.

“You can’t save him. She will come for him.” That statement resulted in Alistar ripping his throat out. He dropped the man to the floor and looked back over his shoulder to see his adored cowering against the far wall. He wiped the dagger clean and stuck it back into his boot. He then stepped over the carnage and walked toward Neal, who was staring wide-eyed at him.

“Who were they?” He asked, his voice strained and breathless.

“Miscreants, lowlifes not worth your concern.” Alistar worried for his sensitive lover. He didn’t regret killing them, but he regretted doing it in front of Neal.

“I know the one in the suit and tie the smaller one by the door.” He commented slowly.

“So do I,” Alistar told him. “He’s the rogue that escaped from the dry cleaner. He was part of that mess.”

“He was at the dry cleaner?” Neal was startled and looked confused by the information.

“Yes.”

“I know him as Maxwell. He works for my former boss, Mrs. Ball. I don’t know what his title is, but he was with her a lot. I thought maybe he was a companion of sorts.” Alistar reached out his hand to Neal, who took it, and Alistar helped him to his feet. Neal wasn’t ready to step away from the wall yet. The bloodshed in the room was keeping him back.

Alistar put in a call for a cleaner and notified Von of what had taken place. Neal held his hand and his arm and kept his face averted. “Let’s get you a coat and get out of here. I have people coming to take care of this and when they’re done you’ll never know anything happened.” Neal looked at him incredulously and comically so.

“I’ll know.” He said. “I don’t ever want to come back here, Alistar.”

“You don’t have to, baby.” He bent and kissed him on the forehead. “I want to take you to my place. I live in an apartment in the coven house in Belmont. It’s a nice place you’ll like it.”

“Agincourt has their offices there. It’s exclusive and elite, and only Agincourt people live there or are allowed in the area.” Alistar understood that Neal was still in shock and not thinking clearly.

“It’s the coven headquarters, which is why it’s exclusive and private. Agincourt, in many ways, is used as a cover for the Coven. This will all become clear to you as you integrate.” Alistar got Neal’s coat for him, put it on, and then navigated him out the door and down to the sidewalk below. Neal held tight to him, and Alistar was cursing himself for killing those bastard vampires in front of him.

“Do not mourn those beasts. They would have killed you or brought you to someone else who would have killed you. Their intentions were vicious and cruel.” Alistar walked him over to where he’d parked and just held him for a few minutes, letting him calm down and get his bearings.

“They were vampires, Maxwell was a vampire.” He mumbled.

“Yes.”

“They’re all members of the Kilconnor Coven.”

“I don’t know Maxwell. He is not a member, but as you know, the Ball family are all members. She and her husband are not a Fated pair. They do not have the bond that Fated pairs like you and I enjoy, and they no longer live together, from what I understand.” Alistar did not keep up with social gossip, but the separation resulted in a financial issue involving the bank, so he remembered their breakup. It also drove home to a lot of vampires the importance of waiting for your Fated love because nothing else would do, and nothing else would last.

“She had a lot of humans working for her.” Neal seemed to be rambling, but that observation was important.

“Are you sure of that?” Alistar asked and carefully moved Neal into his car and buckled him in.