The Ornament

Chapter Four



regori watched, feeling helpless as Kaylee used G the Taser on her attacker. She had known she would share in the shock and her courage made him proud. He’d always known she was no victim, even after he saw her headless body. She had put up a fight, of that he never had a doubt.

He tied the two humans up and removed all memory of where they had been and whom they had seen. These two would never tell the group of slayers his Kaylee had somehow returned from the dead.

Looking down at his beloved Kaylee, he thanked all that was good that she had returned to him even as he wondered how she managed to do so. How had she risen from the dead? As much as he would like to think it a Christmas miracle, he knew better. The only magic in their world was that of the creatures who kept themselves hidden from the humans in an effort to survive.


After wiping the intruders’ memories clean, 20

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they carried them to the garage and dumped them into the trunk of Kaylee’s car.

“Let’s go.” Gregori strode around to the driver’s side and climbed in.

He waited for her to get into the passenger seat, then pressed the button on the garage door opener.

“When did that get installed?” Kaylee turned around in her seat to watch the door open with a frown.

“I have no idea. It has always been so.” He rested his arm on the back of her seat, turned and started to back out of the small garage. “I can only say that I am glad that you have the garage. It gave us the cover we needed to get the fanatics in your trunk.”

“Where are we taking them?”

He watched as Kaylee nervously peered through her window into the night. Snow covered the sidewalks and roads and it continued to fall in large, fat flakes as they slowly rode down her street, the snow crunching beneath the tires.

“We will take them to the council where they will receive a fair trial.”

“Hmm… Will they really get a fair trial? After all, these are the same people who admitted to wanting all vampires dead. How fair could they really be?”

“They will receive a trial that is much more 21

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impartial than any type of hearing they give our kind.”

Gregori pulled out onto the highway quickly, the car fishtailing on the icy road as they made their way out of town. “I must get them to the tribunal and you to safety as soon as possible. Try not to be frightened,” he said when she grabbed the oh crap handle above her door.

“Yeah, that’s easy for you to say.”

“It is easy to say. How fair do you think your trial was?” He shook his head, then turned his gaze toward her for a moment. “I can’t believe you’re here. That you’re back.” His eyes actually burned and he thought he might give in to tears.

Gregori shook his head. He couldn’t afford to show weakness, even to Kaylee. Not now.

“It must be some kind of Christmas miracle. I can’t believe that you are here, talking to me. That you have fed me once again, your blood making me stronger than I have ever been this past year.” He turned to stare back through the windshield. “Put your seatbelt on. I don’t want anything to happen to you in case someone should go looking for our prisoners and notice your car is gone. They have members on the police force. It would take very little effort for them to find us.” Gregori reached across the vehicle and took her hand in his. “I love you. I have loved you since the day we met and I will continue to love you until 22

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the day we die.” He squeezed her fingers as he steered the car with his other hand onto another highway heading west.

He drove toward the council meeting place, knowing the men in the trunk stood little chance of surviving this night. They would receive a fair trial as he said, but still, their prospects were dim.

His people were not a vindictive lot, but they must end the killing of their people. What was it about human fanaticism that allowed them to kill at will? How could they live with themselves after killing innocent women and children? It was obvious they suffered from some sort of illness.

The tribunal merely ended their suffering.

Something dinged in front of him. “What was that?”

“It sounded like one of the warning alarms.

We’re either overheating, low on oil or low on gas.” Kaylee leaned over to look, her hair brushing his arm.

Gregori inhaled deeply. He couldn’t help it. She always smelled of peaches and raspberries. He had sorely missed the strange but heady mixture this last year.

“Crap. We’re low on gas. We’ll have to stop and get some.”

He peered through the rearview mirror and sighed. He wasn’t certain, but he thought he saw someone following them. It was difficult to tell.

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With the traffic and people passing or entering the highway via the entrance ramps, any of the cars back there could be tailing them and he wouldn’t know. “We’ll have to pull off for gas then.”

“What if our two…visitors wake up? They could make noise and cause trouble for us.” Kaylee bit her lip. The action made his muscles clench. “I’d hate to have to try to explain them to the local police.”

“We wouldn’t. I would simply erase the memories of anyone close enough to hear them.”

“Oh.” She looked a bit surprised as well as wary. “I hadn’t thought of that. Do you do purge memories very often?”

“No.” He took the next exit. The sign on the side of the road boasted that it had three gas stations. He would pick the one with the least amount of business and fill up there. He had no other choice. They were out of options. Cars needed gas, that’s all there was to it. “I will choose a station with little or no business. The less I have to tamper with human minds, the better.” He failed to mention that the more he tampered with their minds, the weaker he would become and he needed every bit of his strength to keep her safe.

“I never thought about you being able to erase memories.”

“That is understandable. Since I don’t do it very 24

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often, I don’t think on it much either.” Crossing her arms, she gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Have you ever messed with my mind?”

“No. I have never done so with you.” He sighed at her skeptical glare. He could feel her distrust of him as though it were a tangible thing. “I swear, my heart, I have never felt the need to tamper with your memories.”

“That’s good to know.” She took a deep breath and turned to look through her window. “I don’t know if I could trust you if I found out you did something like that without my consent.” Gregori pulled into a gas station and parked next to a pump. “I will pump the gas, you stay in the car.” He wanted to keep her safe. He needed to keep her safe. He wasn’t sure by which miracle she managed to return from the dead, but he was not taking any chances with her life this time around. He didn’t add that in the car, she made a much smaller target.

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