Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“But know this. If you hide a part of yourself from her, especially this big of a part, then you will never be able to get as close as you want to her.” said Moran.
“Yes, sir.” said Ivan. Moran smiled tenderly and then looked over at Mathias and Amelia, who gave him appreciative looks and smiled warmly back.
Then Moran looked about the room and leaned a little backward onto the couch. “What a lovely home. This one is much grander than your last. And with its darker wood stains and colors, it seems to fit you better.” he said and grinned at Mathias and Amelia.
“Aubrey, you seem to outdo yourself with each try.” Moran smiled at her and she beamed.
“Thank you. I try.” she said playfully and Moran chuckled.
Connelly looked over at Alister, who was sitting in one of the darker corners of the cluster. He could tell that Alister could take this idle chatter no longer. Mira was beside him, but though she seemed as fed up with it as he was, Connelly could feel she was willing to wait until it was finished to talk. She was a bit more polite than he was. Sometimes.
Connelly looked back at Alister and saw in his face that he was about to pop. So, trying to keep him from exploding, Connelly used his gift and lessened Alister’s anger. As soon as Connelly felt Alister’s anger start to fall, Alister’s eyes shot to him. Even though Alister’s eyes were angry, they would suddenly become calm when Connelly made him calm, but then go back to being angry when Alister realized what was happening.
Connelly heard a muffled laugh beside him and saw Ivan covering his mouth and looking at Alister struggle. Alister seemed to become even angrier at that, but Connelly just made him slap himself in the face. Alister made a grunt at the sting and everyone looked at him for a second and at that moment, Connelly let go of his controls. Alister, having full control of himself now, sat there with his eyes enraged, but managed to hide that it was about Connelly.
“Okay, now that we’re through talking about the girls, can we please get back to our other problem concerning Rudi?” Alister sat up as he spoke, looking at Moran, Amelia, and Mathias.
Moran looked at him for a second longer and then said, “Yes well, Rudi is indeed with us.” Moran looked down and sighed stressfully.
“What should we do?” Aubrey asked, looking at Moran.
“Do you know if he’s followed you here?” asked Vincent, also looking at Moran.
“I don’t know if he’s followed me here, but I don’t think so. The most likely thing is that he has gone to gather allies. It’s not his style to make an immediate hit as soon as he gets somewhere. No, he will be waiting and watching for a while.” Moran said, looking at them all.
“How long to do think we have?” asked Mira.
“It really depends on how far he has to go to gather his followers. Then after he has his followers, he’ll spend some time gathering information about everything. Altogether I’d give us a few weeks, month, month and a half.” Moran looked morosely at them all.
“Okay. So he could be anywhere at any time. That means we can’t rule out anything. And that means the school.” Alister said, looking around.
“Not only that, but he could have his cronies anywhere so we have to be extra careful because we don’t know what these guys look like.” Mira added and Alister nodded.
As these things were being said, Connelly had the most feared thought creep into his mind. Kota was in imminent danger. Not only did she know him and his family and was close to them, she also smelled like them. She had his scent all over her, so heavily in fact, that her human scent was almost obscured. Rudi or one of his followers could follow Kota’s scent, thinking she was one of Connelly’s family, and when they found out she wasn’t a vampire… Connelly’s thoughts trailed off to a picture that brought on chills.
“They can smell her.” he said. Everyone looked at him and waited for him to explain.
“Kota and Sue have mine and Ivan’s scent all over them. They smell like one of us, and that means that when those guys smell the girls, they’ll think they’re one of us.” Connelly’s voice got tight with panic and he looked at Moran.
“What do we do?” he asked, both him and Ivan looking at Moran with desperation in their eyes.
“You need as much help as you can get. You know, when I first arrived, I smelled the oddest thing. It wasn’t a very prominent smell, but a subtle hint of something different in amongst the human scent. In fact, it was so subtle and similar to the human’s scent, I had almost missed it.” Moran looked at them all as he said this.
“It was the smell of a slayer.” said Alister.
“A what?” asked Moran, looking at him in confusion.
“A vampire slayer.” Alister elaborated, looking at him.
“Yes, we’ve seen him, but he seems to be a loner. He either doesn’t know he’s one of them or he’s left it behind him.” said Mira.
“Or he’s very new to it and doesn’t really know anything yet.” Aubrey added.
“I say he doesn’t know. I mean he doesn’t seem to understand why we were skirting around him.” Alister said, but then he reluctantly added, “But he may be new to it too. That’s always a possibility.”
“Well, whether he knows what he is or not, we need to try and keep him as close to the girls as possible so when none of you can be with them, you know they’ll be safe.” said Moran.
“But he’s only one slayer.” Connelly argued.
“Yes, but I doubt Rudi has come into contact with one of these since he’s always been deep into his country. So, when he detects something different than what he’s used to, he’ll lay low for a while and see what the new threat is. And that will give us even more time.” Moran explained. He looked at all of them in turn and then stood.
“Now, enough talk of morbid things. I not only came here to see things through, but to visit. Now, Mathias, Amelia, I would love it if you would give me a tour of the house.” Moran said the last part pleasantly and smiled.
“Of course.” said Amelia, standing and smiling. Connelly felt that she was especially happy the conversation had ended. She, Moran, and Mathias then left the room talking about the floors and varnishes.
Connelly looked at his siblings and saw that Alister was annoyed that the conversation was cut short, in his opinion. Mira stood and tugged on Alister’s arm for him to follow her and they walked out the door.
“They’re going to set perimeters.” Ivan said, seeing Connelly looking after them. But then he added in Connelly’s head, And Alister wants to talk to her. Connelly nodded and looked at Aubrey and Vincent. Aubrey seemed scared and Vincent held her tightly and securely in his arms.
“I’m scared for Kota and Sue.” she said. “I really like them a lot and I don’t think I could handle it if something happened to them.” She looked at Connelly worriedly.
“Well, we’ll need all of your help to keep them safe. We’ll need to make sure that either one or two of you are with them in each of their classes. We need to try and keep them guarded at all times, just in case something happens.” Connelly said. He looked at Aubrey and she nodded, Vincent also nodding behind her.
“Like Ivan said, they’re family.” Vincent said and smiled at the twins. He then stood and he and Aubrey walked up the stairs.
As soon as they were gone, Connelly dropped his head into his hands and sighed. What was he going to do? How was he going to keep Kota protected night and day?