The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

“Why will she be different?” Vlad asked. He had seen a few Turnings, but there was something different here . . . some kind of underlying force that he had never experienced before.

“Because of me.” Sadie left it at that, motioning for Melissa’s still form. Mary lifted her lover, staring at that face that would now be young forever. She kissed Melissa’s cool lips then handed her to Sadie, and the vampire and vampire-to-be lay low in the grave.

“I want Dazza,” Sadie directed to Vlad. “I want his head on a pike for what he did, and I want Frost. You know that Dazza wouldn’t have done this alone. Somehow he found out that we had the papers.” A look of panic crossed her face, but before she could speak —

“I’ll find Terrance and warn him,” Vlad said. “If this is the way they want to play now, then that’s the way we’ll play it.”

Looking at him, Sadie didn’t see the weak and spineless wolf she’d accused him of being earlier. He was alpha. He was a warrior, and the moon blessed him with its light. She smiled at him, the lay to rest next to Melissa, her mouth near the girl’s neck. By providing blood over the course of the day, she could give the girl a jump-start on her new life.

Mary lay a blanket over their bodies before Vlad covered them up with about six inches of soil. Neither of them saw Sadie skin jumping under the blanket as shovelfuls of dirt landed on the two women. After a few minutes, the women were secured in their resting place.

“I will stay with them,” Mary whispered. “The sun has no effect on me. When they wake, Melissa may call for vengeance,” the wraith replied, her whisper escalated into a growl, “and for once, I will be happy to answer it.”

Vlad pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “There’s going to be trouble,” he said. “Turning a vamp without authorization could mean death for both the old and new vamp if the authorities find out. If we can’t trace this back to Frost, he’ll be the one to make the decision. But I’ll buy us some time,” he said, flipping the phone open and turning it on. “Anya? Yeah, things are bad. Find Ivan and put him on. I need the pack’s help with something.”

————— ————–

Close to sundown . . .

————— ————–

Sadie had gotten very little actual rest. When she was afraid, her heart began beating as an involuntary reflex, and the sound of it had kept her awake. She wanted out of the ground and to feel clean air against her skin. She could feel the draw of darkness approaching, and that comforted her somewhat.

Over the last ten hours, she had periodically given Melissa injections of blood while drawing out some of the woman’s decaying mortal blood. Melissa would not have the time to come into her powers the way most vampires did. She would already have enemies.

Melissa’s body shifted and the girl groaned lightly. The sun was setting, and she was being born anew from the earth.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, her voice filling the tiny amount of air they had available to them. “It’s all right. Don’t panic. You’re one of us now,” she continued to croon, willing her voice to be calm and exerting her presence, feeling the girl’s body relax next to her. “You’re my child and my friend, and you are safe we me for now.”

“I . . . remember,” Melissa gasped, the last of the oxygen in her lungs escaping. She would never need it there again. “I remember what happened.” She could feel Sadie’s body against hers. “You Turned me. I didn’t think . . . why?”

“I couldn’t let you go,” Sadie replied. “Mary wouldn’t survive. I could never forgive myself for letting them –”

“Dazza!” Melissa shouted. “He hit me!” The previous night’s events came rushing back to her. “I was on my way to the were meeting. You were right,” she whispered heatedly. “It was a Turning schedule and . . . and the list of people they’re planning on Turning –” She stopped when she heard Sadie chuckle. “What?”

“You’re a tenacious bitch, you know that?” Sadie replied. “You just died, and you’re still doing math in your head.” Then she remembered that she needed to tell Melissa the truth. She felt the earth shift above them. Someone was coming. “Melissa, I need you to listen and I’m begging you, do as I ask.” The desperation in her voice almost choked her.

“What?” Mel was actually surprised that she was clear headed. New vampires were supposed to be disoriented, and she wondered if it was Sadie’s presence that had made the difference.

“You know how you’ve been wanting to hear my whole story? Well I’m going to tell you, but not right now. There’s not enough time.”

Mel was more than a little scared now. “What does that have to do –”

“You’re not going to be like other new vamps. You’ll be stronger than some vampires much older than you. Don’t let anyone but me drink your blood. Don’t even let Mary bite you until I’ve explained everything. I’m serious Melissa. You don’t know what’s running through your veins.”

“Are you . . . some kind of experiment? Some vampire grown in a lab or –”

“Just trust me,” Sadie replied. The cover was being lifted above them. “For now . . . welcome to the darkworld.”

The two women looked up, the night-sky draped overhead where just moments earlier, dirt had been.

“It’s beautiful,” Melissa murmured, her irises expanding to take in more light than she ever could have before.

Sadie had been told that a new vamps first look at the stars was like glimpsing heaven. For her, it had been something else entirely. For her, it had been hell. But let Melissa have her moment where her blood sang in a non-beating heart and where the sky itself held unparalleled promise. Melissa was now immortal.

Then Sadie noticed that, along with Mary and Vlad, there were several unfamiliar faces looking down. She thought she recognized a few of them from the were gathering. She stood up, and saw a dozen or so werewolves nearby. They all looked unnerved at being so close to a wraith, but yet here they were. They were briefly distracted as Mary descended on Melissa, embracing her dark lover like a dream that she thought had been lost. Sadie’s gaze drifted back to Vlad.

He was standing there in tactical riot gear, and even Sadie would’ve been afraid to tangle with him. He was so alpha that it filled her senses, and she could only imagine what it must feel like to the other weres.

“You took control of the pack, didn’t you?” she whispered.

Vlad nodded. “I fought Ivan, but it was mostly ceremonial. He bowed out and now he’s my second.” His face was unreadable to Sadie.

“Why –”

“Because I’m tired of the vamps around here thinking they can get away with anything,” Vlad growled.

“Are you here as a pack leader or a cop?” she asked.

“Both. We crashed the vamp party and arrested Dazza. There was some big brass there, Sadie,” he said, looking angry. “I saw both our senators, at least one congressman. Judges –”

“That’s what I was going to tell you!” Mel said. “Almost everyone that’s going to be Turned on Halloween is big time, including Senator Trefauld!”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Sadie’s eyes shot open. Senator Trefauld was the chair of the Senate’s Darkworlder Oversight Committee. He was instrumental in controlling the allowable Turn rates in the United States. Normally this position wasn’t allowed to be held by a non-human.

“He just got re-elected didn’t he? He’s got five and a half years.”

Vlad growled. “There’s a bunch of ways to get rid of him, but not until he’d done a lot of damage.”

Melissa finally released her embrace on Mary, but the two women kept their hands clasped. “Like increasing the number of vampires that you’re allowed to create or . . . Sadie, you . . . Are you going to be in trouble? For Turning me?”

Sadie felt cold. “I don’t know. Technically, I should’ve been allowed a bunch of Turns by now by vampire law, but you’re always supposed to petition the council. If the council felt that I made an unwise decision, you could be killed and I could be killed or imprisoned. And if Frost was behind Dazza’s attack, you can guess how that vote is going to go.” She looked from Mary to Melissa. “I’d advise planning to get out of the country. The rules down in Mexico aren’t nearly as strict.” She looked at Vlad. “Unless the law stops you.”

Vlad shook his head. “Justice should be hard and swift, but not blind. I just called in my boys to keep everyone away until you were back up and on your feet. But what about you? As an Arbiter –”

“As an Arbiter, I’ll stand by my actions.”

“But that means that even if Frost shows ‘mercy,’ that the Bureau could still put you in jail for a long damn time.”

“It’s not fair!” Melissa said.

“No, it isn’t. But I’ll do whatever I need to in order to keep you safe.”

Vlad looked grim. He hated this. He’d exert whatever influence he could with the pack and the police department, but the Arbiter Bureau was way over his paygrade. “Sadie, New Plymouth is surrounded by cops from other districts and there’s a rep from the mayor’s office. In other words, from Frost. We got nothing to pin him on, and Dazza isn’t talking. He’s all lawyered up. They know about Melissa. I have no frickin’ idea how, but they know. And Frost is furious about us screwing up his announcement ceremony.”

“Breaks my heart,” Sadie said. Her life was fucked up beyond all recognition right now, so she wasn’t too concerned about Frost’s feelings.

“Arbiter,” came a quite voice from behind her. She spun and looked. “Devlin?”

She hadn’t seen Devlin since his special assignment to the mayor. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you the mayor’s rep?”

The young officer nodded. His gazed became transfixed on Melissa, who seemed to glow with her newfound power. She glared at him, using her normal stoic gaze as a weapon until he looked away. “They thought I would be the only one you might actually talk to. Lord Frost is mad, just like Officer Koloff said.” He looked down. “You really think that Frost was behind this?”