Chapter 25

Present Time

Dimitri's Manor

The bloody rain has finally stopped. The late afternoon sun was still bright. Seagulls whirled and dived overhead, then wheeled back to the ocean not fifty yards away. The smell of the sea was strong in the breeze. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Dimitri was awakened from his recurring dream of the past as he blinked so fast to remove the remnant of Lady Morgana's kisses on his lips that it felt like it burned him to death. He had too many regrets, he thought, and associating himself with the witch was one of them.

He turned his eyes onto the gravel drive of his ancestral vacation home, as he breathed in the scent of Blanca from the adjacent room and listened to her heartbeat, and he knew she was still fast asleep. He smiled and stretched his powerful arms in the air, touched his fangs, and sighed. His ancestral vacation home was an old pile of grey stone that had held reign over this section of the southern Irish coast for the past three hundred years. He watched Gabby pull his dark horse up in front of the wide stone portico. A gull flew close to the head of his lead horse, and Gabby laughed aloud at the look of utter outrage in that magnificent animal's eyes.

"It's all right, boy," he heard Gabby mutter at the beast and jumped down from his steps when his massive dogs appeared from nowhere on the gravel drive. "Fuck it! Careful…" Gabby hissed, which made Dimitri smile. Then he turned his head to the small pathway below ground and saw the cook's head and her lad, Mrs. Cromb. Both mother and son were standing there looking at the bays as if they were their own. "Gabby, did you bring me the flour and the baking powder, I ask?" Mrs. Cromb asked. Gabby nodded his head in response, giving him a paper bag from the supermarket while the young lad, Anton, ran after the dogs that made his mother scream after him. "Anton, get your ass back here," she screamed as she stumbled down the small stone path.

Dimitri once again smiled. This was his life, this was his family for generations. Their great-great-grandfathers were his butlers for years, and he considered them as his own, but home was never this amazing when he could hear the relaxed breathing of his mate from the other room.

He watched Gabby rub his gnarled hands together, and then took the horses' reins. "Been good boys, have you?" he said, stroking first Jax and then Ben, feeding them bits of apple as he told them of their bloodlines, all unspoiled for at least a decade. In a blink, Dimitri appeared on Gabby's side, and the old man said, "Jesus, sir, you scared the crap out of me," Dimitri rolled his eyes. "You are getting old, Gabby. Rub them down well, will you? I'll be needing little Ben later."

"Yes, sir."

"They've worked hard today. I wonder why the gulls are so aggressive all of a sudden?"

"I hear there's a storm that's coming, sir," Gabby said and gestured to the cook to leave them be.

"Get me a bloody coffee, Mrs Cromb," Dimitri shouted.

"How about your young guest, s-sir?" Mrs. Cromb shouted back with a hint of tease that made Gabby turn his eyes wide, and Dimitri sneered at him as the old man faked a cough. It was no secret that Dimitri didn't want to talk about it, especially outside the house. He didn't want to repeat what happened at the mansion, where witches were able to penetrate the enchantment that Dimitri had used for years.

"Later, Mrs. Cromb, let her rest, Okay?" He said and breathed in the fresh air while the old woman nodded and shouted for her son to help her with the bags.

"The storm is coming," Dimitri grumbled under his breath.

"We just had a storm, sir. In fact, we have a storm every week, sometimes twice a week, but what bothers me, sir, is our guest… I mean, I didn't mean to intrude on your private life, sir, but why are we hiding here?"

"Morgana is after her, and I don't know why... I'm going to find out. For now, I want you to take care of her. In the evening, I will go find some answers."

"Ok, sir... Anyway, I wondered about the birds in chaos earlier." Gabby nodded as he patted the horses and watched the birds in the sky.

"Well, Gabby, it will be winter soon. Put the two together, and you don't have much reason for perkiness. I know. Maybe it's some rogue werewolf in the mountain behind us, and the gulls don't like the smell of them."

"We haven't had rogues in ten years, sir," the butler said matter-of-factly.

"I know. That's why I need to talk to Alpha Liam about it. It's about time to contact him personally."

"You sound like you're coming down with something, sir."

"I am, Gabby."

"Take better care of yourself. I'll wager you caught it from the witches. They'd better be tucked snugly into their beds as we speak. Those witches are a pain in the ass."

"I know, old man, but I'd never get close enough to that dog to catch him at his den." He replied with his friend, Alpha Liam, the cousin of Barbara, and though the two hated each other, he'd never discovered why. It was apparently a deep, strong hatred of long-standing, a tenacious hatred and abiding, a hatred one couldn't help but admire, but he knew better that they loved each other to death. Maybe it's what a werewolf family was. "Give me Ben, I'll run him down for a while."

"Ok sir, I'll leave you now. Mrs. Cramb might need some hands in the kitchen for supper." Gabby said and left with Jax.

A while later, Dimitri began talking a mile a minute to the bays as he led the horse to the magnificent stables to the north that he and Gabby had enlarged some ten years earlier. The sun was getting low in the west now as the wind was rising. However, it was getting colder. Dimitri sniffed the salty air, breathed in deeply, and then looked again at that wonderful sun, which hadn't shown itself for three days. Then he heard the lad's laugher and the bark of his hound.

He looked up to see the gigantic dog, who should have been inside the house, running hard toward him, his grey livery coat flapping in the breeze while the young lad, Anton, ran after the dog, "Sir… sir, the young miss is awake, s-she is looking for you." He grumbled under his breath, looking toward the mountain, seeing that Dimitri was walking the horse.

"Thank you, Anton but I don't want to have to bury you just yet, take the dog out of my sight. Ben hated him and you know that" he smiled at the young boy who seemed rather on his tail every time he visited them.

The massive hound, however, continued to look up hopefully at Dimitri, a very large, handsome dog who, in all the years he had known him, had never been ill from anything other than drinking too much milk. "Enough, go home now, I'll be there shortly." He motioned to Anton to take the dog with him.

"OK, sir."

The air was still damp from the interminable rain, the breeze off the Channel damp and chilling. He shuddered. "Go," the vampire said again when the young boy stood there and looked at the distant ocean.

"Yes, sir," Anthon said. "Oh, s-sir, I forgot to give you this. It was brought just an hour ago by one of those men who work for your friend, Liam." He handed Dimitri a thin envelope with turned and twisted edges.

Dimitri didn't wait. This had to be it, he thought. It just has to be over now. He tore open the paper and read: 'We thought we had him, but he escaped our net. Sorry, my friend. Keep faith. We'll get the murdering bastard yet. I have someone after him... and guess what? He was after a human who looked like my cousin, Barbara. I will give you enough details later, my friend. Liam.'

"Fuck!" Dimitri muttered. The day turned suddenly and completely black. He looked up and saw only bleak clouds that were filling the sky, turning it a nasty ochre colour. He crushed the paper in his hand. They'd all been so certain, knowing that they'd caught the dreadful bastard who seemed to be at upper hand all the fucking time, and though it was no secret between him and Liam, they had been trying to penetrate Alexander's pack on a covert mission but failed every time, and now, he wanted to smash his fist into something. He turned to see Anton staring at him in fascinated horror. "Go away, Anton. Now."

The young lad ran back up the wide, deep front steps, wondering what horrific news was in the letter he'd happened to snag from the gardener while his mother was in the pantry chastising one of the guys. Well, Dimitri had many things on his mind these days, though Anton couldn't say what any of them were. Maybe it was the woman.

*****

One hour ago.

When Blanca woke up from her afternoon nap and decided to venture into the wilderness at the back of Dimitri's vacation home, it was like a call for her. With sudden courage and some renewed curiosity, she dressed well for her journey. After all, she doesn't want a repeat of what happened in the horse stable. By far, it was embarrassing when Anton laughed his heart out when he slipped into the dirt with her little sandals. So, with a cotton red sweatshirt, and with comfortable overalls, and hiking shoes, she was now ready to embark on the forests. 'Well, nothing could go wrong, right? She was a vampire and a fucking dog at the same time. She was a predator. Nothing could go fucking wrong.

With a water bottle in hand, she started her excursion. Anyway, Dimitri was gone, so now he won't mind her adventure. Besides, she was bored as hell and wanted to see this wood. Nothing could go wrong she thought to herself. After ten minutes of slow walking, she began to enjoy the scenery, the nature that gave her sudden energy, and smiled as she wanted nothing but to explore her new surroundings, almost forgetting many events of her week as she took the path that led through the brushes. However, the landscape was mountainous and beautiful. The woods were thick but not dense with underbrush, just enough for her not to panic when she saw spiders as big as her hands. But sometimes there would be a break in the trees as she carefully moved over a grassy meadow, thick with wildflowers and root crops, and she wondered why she couldn't find any clue about another human being nearby. Well, not that she wanted a companion anyway.

A while later, the sunset scarlet clouds cast elegant shades on the little natural lagoon below, as they chased away the day. Blanca's hand stroked a crooked rock as she reached out to steady herself to look at the beautiful lagoon below, a small ravine, coming to land in a patch of overgrown green grass on a jagged, uneven path down below.

High above, though, a lone bird scanned a wide space of land in search of prey. Its eyes caught sight of an individual striding, unknowingly, towards the lagoon.

It was after she'd been wandering for almost five minutes that she reached the lagoon. Smiling at the amazing view, she smiled at herself for accomplishing such a task as strength, a sense of power and brilliance in the peacefulness surged into her, like she was in a place of serenity even in the outcry of the water, never minding the darkness that was creeping in above the sky. She was bewitched by the magnificent sight.