Free Forbidden Drink by Nicola Claire Page A

night will leave me unconscious for three days. Not a good thing. So, Gregor had been behaving himself. But not tonight it would seem.
    I woke to the cold air of a Wellington evening/early morning and the sounds of a nearby fight. The first thing I realised, after figuring out I had Dream Walked unintentionally, was I didn't have a stake. I hadn't had one nearby when I fell asleep, so I didn't have one now. The second thing I realised, was that I was buck naked and dripping in mandarin smelling bubbles and foam.
    Oh, for the love of Christ, how do I end up in these situations!
    “Lucinda?” It was a whisper, nearby, interspersed with a grunt and the sounds of a fist hitting something solid.
    I spun around to see where Gregor was when he'd said my name and spotted him and about three other vampires and alarmingly a fair bit of vampire dust floating around their feet, fighting for their lives with about a dozen humans, all armed with rudimentary silver stakes. What the hell?
    You called? I sent my thoughts with sarcasm towards him. Gregor can read my thoughts, but only if I send them or shout them in my head. He can't talk back, only Michel can do that, but trust me, reading my thoughts is more than enough trouble.
    I heard Gregor mutter, “Shit!” My foul mouth attitude was rubbing off on him lately. He was just as suave and eloquent as Michel, swearing was a relatively new language skill, courtesy of me. But, it did tell me one thing, he hadn't realised he'd called me to him.
    Well, I was here now, despite being inconveniently naked, they couldn't see me - well Gregor could, kind of. But it was really just a sense of my aura, a sense of me, not really visible, but quite unfortunate all the same - but they needed my help. They were outnumbered and it looked like they'd lost some of their group. Not good.
    I wasn't armed, but then I don't tend to stake humans anyway and I am much stronger than they are, so a little hand to hand combat was called for. I could still kick their butts with my bare - that's very bare - hands and only my sparkling wit and attitude.
    I came up behind one at the back, he was doubled over having obviously felt the cold hard strength of a master vampire and was trying to recover while his friends covered for him. They had cornered Gregor and his kin at the end of a dark brick alley, ironic don't you think? The first time I met Gregor he'd had a Nosferatin cornered at the end of an alley and was tucking in to dinner by the time I arrived. And here he was on the receiving end. I love Karma.
    I tapped the human guy on the shoulder and he spun around to look at who was there. Of course, he couldn't see me, but he could hear me if I talked, so I leaned forward and whispered, loud enough to be heard over the battle raging behind him.
    “It's a bit late to be out brawling, isn't it?”
    “What? Who said that?” His head was scanning the alley back towards Lambton Quay, his eyes wide with fear and uncertainty.
    I'd figured we were in vamp central as soon as I arrived, not far in fact from the club Michel had established recently, to house and occupy his Wellington based vampires. He had been compensated for his investment when the Iunctio threw him out of this city. It was just his ego that had suffered, not his wallet.
    “Look. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, you are human after all,” I said conversationally. “Grab your buds and get outta here. This isn't your fight.”
    He seemed to think about that for a moment, then his whole demeanour changed, a snarl appearing on his somewhat handsome face, ruining the effect of his looks completely.
    “I don't know who the fuck you are, or where the fuck you are, but this is our fight. No vampires in Wellington!” He spat the last, thankfully I was far enough away not to wear it.
    Oh boy. I guess I was meeting the humans against vampire portion of the Windy City's population. Vampires are not known to the larger public, but here and there you have