The Warrior Read online

  As he led Teodora back to the medical bay, he motioned for her to stay back as he approached Alicia with as much caution as a lion tamer at the circus, minus the chair and whip. “Youngling, ah know ye don’t want tae, but ye huv tae rest. The Commander willnae like that ah’m no taking care o’his ‘Sweetcheeks’...” It was a gamble using that word – the word Xavier used to taunt/flirt with Alicia, but he needed to get through to her somehow.

  Alicia’s head snapped up in the direction of where Shuggie’s voice came from, her eyes were squinting as she seethed out, “Hugh…You are my best friend but if you ever call me Sweetcheeks again I will fucking shoot your balls off!” Just as quick as she looked up, her head turned and lowered to look back down at Xavier.

  “I will rest when he wakes up. I can’t have him being alone now can I? Just bring me some blood bags and I’ll be fine. Thank you for your concern Hugh, but really, I am doing excellent.”

  “He’s no alone, youngling, the Doc’s here...” Without warning, Shuggie scooped the exhausted Alicia into his arms, discretely slipping the charm bracelet from her wrist and as he passed by Teodora, dropped it into the pocket of her coat, nodding to her.

  Laying Alicia down he said, “Nae arguments, youngling. Sleep, then ye kin feed an only then kin ye go back tae yer vigil.” As he tucked her too tightly under the blankets, and stood watching Alicia he added, “He wud kill me if anything were tae happen tae ye, so dae this fur me.” Shuggie was an expert at emotional blackmail.

  “I’m not doing it for you! I’m doing it for hi…” Alicia didn’t finish the rest of her sentence as she passed out cold from exhaustion.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The bright sun shone like a laser through the gap in the curtains, as the wind blew softly through the open windows. Martinez rolled over onto his side and groaned loudly, waking up the leggy blonde that was sprawled out like a starfish next to him, drool unattractively dripping from the corner of her bruised mouth. Clutching his side, he slowly sat up, head bowed and feet planted on the ground. Without turning he snarled at his companion, “What the hell are you doing still here – take the fucking money and get out.”

  Barely noticing the blonde leave, he padded through to the bathroom, lining up his breakfast and snorting the white powder whilst the spray of the shower behind him fogged up the mirror. “Fucking Greek and his whore think they’ve gotten away with this? The Belcastros might be dead, but there is a new dawn rising. This means war.”

  A week had passed since the sabotage in Mexico. Martinez and a few of Belcastro’s guards had managed to escape, although not unscathed. Belcastro and the rest? All dust – blown to smithereens in the explosions following the execution of the Old Man. Luckily for Martinez, he now had the keys to the kingdom – knew all the Old Man’s offshore accounts, contacts and where all the bodies were buried. All he needed to do was convince the other Families that he was more wily and ruthless than Belcastro, and he could take over all of the business interests – and become a Don in his own right.

  The first thing Martinez had done was get the hell out of Mexico. The second thing was to drain the Belcastro accounts and liquidate his assets. He was going to war and needed funds. Martinez figured it was the least the Old Man could do for him, all things considered. He had one shot at the big time and he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stand in his way.

  * * * *

  Standing with his back to the room, Valentin Baranovsky’s back stiffened as he was told the news.

  His beloved daughter had been missing for over three months, and all leads that they had were now cold. The body of her best friend, Vladlina, had been fished out of the River Volga two weeks ago – disfigured by more than just the bloating and being eaten by fish. The post mortem had described in grisly detail exactly what had been done to her, and Valentin Baranovsky could not even contemplate what he would do if he found out his Petra had suffered the same fate.

  Fixing the cufflinks on his over starched white shirt, Valentin Baranovsky turned around. His scarred face still made even the most hardened men shrink back, but they had learned not to show it. To do so would mean death.

  “I want Petra found, and I want the men who took her brought to me.” The Russians nodded and needed no further instructions. They had been given the same orders for twenty weeks now. As they herded out of Baranovsky’s room, the leader of the group, Yury, consulted with his trusted sidekick Pavel.

  “We need to hire ‘The Greek’ Yury.” It was apparent that Pavel didn’t want any of the others to hear him.

  “Agreed,” Yury answered grimly, leaving Pavel in the hallway to inform the others of the plan. They needed an outsider’s help. A mercenary who was almost legendary, but who came at a cost. The price of their heads staying firmly on their shoulders was worth it if he could help find Baranovsky’s daughter and lead them to the kidnappers.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Bother! This cannot be correct…” Teodora had to step away from the blood samples that she was testing. Alicia had agreed to give a sample of her blood after some coaxing from Shuggie. The Doctor had also removed a few droplets from the vial that Alicia wore as a charm on her antique bracelet before Shuggie had slipped it back onto the unknowing vampire’s wrist. Locking her laboratory room up, Teodora then made the rounds on her patients and checked in on her staff before making her way to intensive care.

  There was no improvement with the Commander but no deterioration either. She was a Surgeon and there was only so much she could do medically. Alicia talking to Xavier was helping, of that she was sure. She had yet to have a proper conversation with the vampire who effectively killed a great man, but that could wait. It was business for now. Satisfied everyone was where they were meant to be, she picked up her small bag that she had packed earlier that morning with a light snack.

  It was nightfall. Her favourite time, as her Warrior would be awake and be able to move around outside freely without the fear of the sun. Teodora pulled on her lightweight hooded top over her scrubs and made her way outside for fresh air. Her shift was about over. Well she was on call twenty-four hours a day, but it would soon be time to retire to her quarters for the evening. Before she did, though, she was hoping Shuggie would be up and about.

  “Ye’ll catch yer death, lass.” Wrapping one of his huge arms around the neck of Teodora, Shuggie pulled her to him for a second before letting her go. “How’re ye faring?” He was worried about her…he always worried about her, but this time it was different. This was a new territory for them. The Commander had been injured numerous times in the past, but he’d never been brain dead or in a coma. He’d never actually been out of commission for this long and it was a heavy burden on both of their shoulders.

  Teodora let out a loud giggle as she felt a strong arm embrace her. She slowly turned around and looked up. “Oh gosh Warrior, you startled me, yes! How am I? I’m puzzled – but enough of that, how ‘wis yer’ death sleep?” She giggled louder as she tried out her Scottish accent.

  “Dinnae gie up the day job!” Laughing with her as she tried to mimic him, he nudged her playfully with his shoulder as they started to walk and talk. “Ah slept like the dead.” Grinning, he turned to look at her. The moon was silhouetting her tall, athletic body – and her olive skin was smooth as silk and flawless. Clearing his throat and turning away from her, aware that he had been staring, he continued, “So wit has ye puzzled, lass?”

  Just as Teodora was about to answer Shuggie, they both stilled when they heard the nurse screaming for her, quickly followed by Alicia’s frantic orders. Shuggie’s brow creased. “Shite – wit’s wrong now?”

  * * * *

  Xavier felt his body being sucked down a vacuum at an accelerated rate. Sensations were flooding him and he had started to feel again. His body jolted on the gurney violently before settling back down.

  A few moments later, the nurse entered the bay. She checked the machines that were keeping Commander Raige in stasis. She changed the empty bag
s of saline and fluids, and then looked at the chart which measured his brain activity and vitals. Almost dropping the charts, she gave a quick look over the huge body that lay on the gurney – the patient’s lower calves and feet were practically dangling off of the end of it. Her eyes then darted back to the readings. At first, she tried to shout but her voice cracked and the only noise that came out was a strangled squeak. The second attempt was more successful, and she hollered for Doctor Valdez at the top of her lungs.

  Making her way along the corridor from the gym, Alicia’s slow walk quickly turned into a full speed run as she heard shouting coming from the intensive care unit. Racing up to the nurse who looked like she had seen a ghost, Alicia ripped the plastic clipboard from her hands as she read over the vitals sheet, her own roaring quickly drowned out that of the nurse’s.

  “Hugh! Get your fucking ass in here now!” Dismissing the nurse from the bay, Alicia rushed over to Xavier’s bed where he lay motionless. “Come on, you fucking Prick! Open your goddamn eyes.”

  Grabbing Teodora’s hand Shuggie flashed them back to the medical bay. As Teodora rushed over to Xavier, Shuggie took Alicia by the shoulders. “Wit’s aw the commotion, youngling? Are ye hurt?”

  “Hurt? Am I hurt?” Alicia was seething as she shrugged Shuggie’s large hands off her shoulders. “You promised me he would not be left alone! He fucking had brain activity and I wasn’t here beside him because you assured me that if I slept, one of us would be here with him!”

  Alicia’s finger was prodding into Shuggie’s abdomen as she thought of ways to skilfully harm him in her head. He was her best friend, her confidante – but she felt that he had let her down and it was a feeling she did not like one little bit.

  “Alicia…” Shuggie’s tone was low as he stood taking the full force of the little vampire’s fury, “...Xavier is in a coma – we huv already spoken oan this. There’s been no change, ye huv tae accept that.” As he turned to seek backup from Teodora, he noticed that her glasses were low on her nose and her forehead was creased. She was concentrating on the chart she held in her hands. “Doc? Wit is it?”

  Doctor Valdez gave a slight nod of her head, which her staff knew was the order to leave the bay. Only then did she raise her head fully to be met with two pairs of eyes trained on her.

  “Commander Raige has spikings on his charts, yes, very large ones in fact.” As she hooked the chart to the end of the bed, her five foot seven inch frame turned to address Shuggie and Alicia.

  “I do not want any hopes being raised by this but this is a very good sign – however I have to prepare you both. If he awakes, Commander Raige will not be the man we once knew, Alicia. We cannot know what damage your blood has done.”

  Blood was thundering in his ears, agonising pins and needles spiking over his whole body – nerves raw and muscles in knots. Xavier Raige lay helpless on the gurney unable to communicate. His eyes wouldn’t open and mouth wouldn’t move. He was aware of others around him – but even the oxygen that was now filling his lungs was burning him from the inside out. Another seizure took hold of him and his body contorted violently, making his spine arch off of the gurney and threatened to spill him off of it. His head was thrown back, stretching his neck and his limbs were shaking uncontrollably. And still, he couldn’t wake up.

  “What’s happening to him? Duck a fuck did you see that? He’s fucking dying! Do what he pays you to do Dory and fucking save him!” Alicia had moved slightly away from the bed as she watched his large body convulse and shake.

  “Clear the room of all non-medical personnel now!” Teodora hit the red button and the within seconds the room was full of Medical staff. Machines were being rolled over to the bed as Shuggie picked Alicia up, threw her over his shoulder and marched them out of the room.

  Xavier was in the middle of a war with his own body, and he was going on the offensive. His brain was trying to gain control over his movements, but his limbs and motor neurons had joined forces against it. The more he tried to advance, the heavier the defences were put up in front of him. As this battle was ongoing, his outward body was forcibly thrashing against the gurney.

  Suddenly there was a sickening succession of cracks that ricocheted through the medical bay – all coming from Xavier’s direction. His fibulas were piercing out of his skin, elbow joints were contorted backwards and his shoulders were ripping themselves out of their sockets. The discs in Xavier’s spine crushed together and the bones in his face crumpled inwards making him look as though he’d hit a wall at one hundred miles per hour. His skin was shredded, and his internal organs were exposed. His involuntary thrashing had turned him awkwardly onto his belly, and as the snapping and breaking of bones continued, he looked like a failed vaudevillian contortionist. Every muscle, nerve, sinew, bone and cell in his body was being ripped apart and altering. And still, Xavier couldn’t wake up.

  Never in the whole of her career had Teodora witnessed what she was now seeing. A Surgeon of – until moments ago – all things Supernatural. Now? Now she wasn’t sure what she was dealing with. Did she leave the patient and go and go run tests on his blood or did she stay with Xavier and try to do something? It took only seconds for her to make her decision and she turned to ask a nurse to go and fetch Lieutenant MacAndrew. Teodora took a blood sample and raced off to her laboratory to check.

  Once in the lab, Teodora's eyes widened as she watched the four droplets of blood on the petri dish mutate. “Oh my gosh, what am I seeing? This cannot be…”

  * * * *

  As Teodora ran past them, Shuggie had to keep a stranglehold on Alicia to keep her from going back into the bay. He could see what was happening to his Commander, but luckily the little vampire could not. What she lacked in height, she made up in sheer power however – and as he tried to control her, the pair looked like a mismatched WWE wrestling tag-team.

  “Will ye calm the fuck doon youngling?! This isnae helpin’ him or you!”

  “Fuck this shit, I need my Madre.” Alicia, held in a death grip in Shuggie’s arms, managed to calm herself down enough so she could flash to her parent’s grave in Italy.

  When she got there she collapsed into a heap on the grass and finally, the flood gates of tears opened as she sat, her heart breaking.

  * * * *

  Xavier’s wolf was howling as it ripped through his human body. His mortality was being replaced – by immortality. Ironically, it had taken ‘death’ to change a lifetime of being the ‘runt’ of his father’s pack – unable to change, to claim his true destiny. Xavier was now shape shifting. His wolf was rising and pushing through and nothing was going to stop it. It had been awakened the moment that Xavier had set eyes on Alicia Carberletti, and it had been advancing ever since her blood had mixed with Xavier’s own. Nothing would stand in the way of his wolf claiming what was his. Nothing.

  Panting heavily, the creature lay on its side on the floor of the medical bay. The greyish brown fur was matted with blood and other bodily fluids, and instinctively it forced itself up on all fours, and started licking itself clean. Sight, sound, taste and feel – all senses were exaggerated. As his tail tucked between his hind legs, he kept his body low to the ground. The wolf was five feet high and six feet long, and his eyes were piercing neon green.

  Xavier sighed. His eyes were open at last.

  “Thank fuck for that,” he thought “Now where the fuck is everybody? Nice to see they all cared so damn much. Not even a bunch of fucking flowers.” Snorting he gave himself a shake and started padding about the medical bay, wondering if a fight had broken out while he had been out for the count – he reckoned that would explain why no one was in here with him, at least. All thoughts were suppressed when he stood stock still. “Sweetcheeks...what if she’s been injured in this fight?” He had to find her.

  * * * *

  Teodora raced back along the corridor. She was so focused on getting back to her patient with the findings of the blood work that she wasn’t paying attention and connected with so
mething hard. Looking up, she was met with a white faced Shuggie.

  “Lieutenant, what is the problem here?”

  As she looked around, it was then the she realised, all staff where in the corridor with the same expressions on their faces.

  “Would someone explain why you are all out here?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Valentin Baranovsky was a self–made man. An Oligarch with influence both in business and politics, he had done well from the turmoil of the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990’s. He had two loves in his life – his power, and his daughter. In that order. He wasn’t the tallest or most handsome of men, standing at five feet seven, with thinning blonde hair and grey eyes. His features mirrored his personality – harsh. Slight of build, he tended towards dressing to impress. He was rarely out of a suit and tie, and wore specially made built-up shoes to give him a slight height difference and as well as to mask the slight limp he had since birth.

  As he listened to Yury over the speakerphone, he cursed in his native Southern Russian dialect then cut the line dead. His men had just informed him that they had decided to hire an outside contractor – ‘The Greek’ – to help in the search for his daughter, but were having trouble sourcing him. Commander Xavier Raige a.k.a. ‘The Greek’ had carried out work for his former business associate Snr Belcastro, whose reputation was enviable. It seemed that The Greek had gone to ground after the attack on the Belcastros and it was heavily rumoured that he was behind the murders. That was of no consequence or concern to Valentin Baranovsky. The Greek was the best at what he did, and he needed the best. His beloved Petra was missing and he wanted her back home, safe. If Yury was having difficulty carrying out his orders, he would be easily replaced. He was merely a commodity, after all.