The next morning Zach was waiting in the dojo. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the sparring mat. This was his day off, yet here he was waiting. He'd have waited all day if need be. Zenah was supposed to be here at ten, and that only gave her ten minutes to get there. But he knew she'd be there. To him, it was a bedrock certainty, so he just waited.
"Still mind, still body." He whispered to the walls. He was stripped to the waist, only his gee pants on, he was naked from the waist up. His sword was across his lap, still in its scabbard.
He drew his breath through his nose, held it for a few seconds, then let it out of his mouth. Slowly he felt the tension leave his body until he was relaxed from head to toe. In an explosion of motion, he launched himself off the floor. His blade found his hand, and he began to go through an intricate set of forms. Up high, down low, kicks, blocks, his body was in constant motion. In the subdued light of his studio, he worked himself until his body glistened with sweat.
As his gyrations and spins brought him to face the front windows, he caught sight of Zenah, her face plastered against the window. With her was a woman he didn't recognize, yet even with a fleeting glance he knew she was her mother. The resemblance was so close they could have been twins, except for the fact that her mother looked a couple decades older.
Zach continued with his workout. He was running through a new kata that he'd been working on. The last move was a flourish into a three sixty spin until he slammed his blade onto the mat.
The door opened with a slight creek but he didn't turn, he didn't need to. He could hear two sets of feet slip into the room, making so little noise that only one such as he could have heard it.
"Mom, I'd like to introduce you to Zachariah, but I don't think he'd mind if you called him Zach."
"Not at all, ma'am." Zach stood to his full height, turned and bowed to Zenah's mother. "It is an honor to meet you." He took her hand, raised it and kissed the back.
"Your daughter is most extraordinary. She has picked up the style I teach very quickly." Zenah walked over to him and whispered.
"She knows about us."
Zach's eyes went from her to her mother and back again.
"She does, and she isn't trying to kill me? Why isn't she trying to kill me?"
"Because young man." Mary walked over to him until she was standing right in front of him. "You've given something to my daughter that I've waited to see her entire life."
"And that is?" Zach asked after waiting for several seconds for her to continue.
"Peace, she's more at peace now than anytime since she hit adulthood." A smile split her warm face. "That and the fact that she couldn't take her eyes off you, or her tongue off the glass all the while that you were doing that thing you did with your sword."
Zach flushed. "Thanks, I'm glad I could be of help." He bowed slightly and received an elbow from Zenah.
"You've been more than helpful, and if you don't want me to have a heart attack, please warn me before you do something like that again." She nodded to his sword, which he still clutched in his hand.
"Whatever do you mean? You're an upstanding, virtuous young lady. Your mind shouldn't be on such things." Zach whispered, a sly smile quirking the corners of this mouth.
"An extremely horny young lady, so watch yourself or get down to business."
"I can hear you, both." Mary rolled her eyes even as they sparkled at their playful banter.
"Now as for you two. When am I going to get a grandchild?" She went straight to the point.
"Now I know where you get it from." Zach smiled at Zenah.
"Mom, how is that going to happen..." Before she could continue, her mom interrupted.
"If you don't know by now, I must have dropped the ball in your education."
"Ha, ha, that's not what I meant. What I meant was..."
"I know what you meant. If you two did anything, there would be no way Zenah could return to the den without everyone knowing what you did, and who you did it with. In that way you are correct. But I can tell both of you want to..."
"MOM!" Zenah yelled, her face flushing crimson.
"Well, you do. So how are you going to handle it? Your father is not going to be happy about this. None of the men of the den are, they'll want to kill him regardless of the treaty."
"I know, but what can we do? I can't trust myself around him, I have all these feelings, desires that are pushing me into his arms." Zenah turned, slowly her hand moved up until she traced a finger across his chest. Shaking her head, she pulled her hand down with difficulty.
"See what I mean."
"You could always move out of the den?" Her mother offered.
"What? Dad would kill me. Sure, some of the guys have moved out, but he would never allow me to move out, ever." Zenah began to pace the floor.
"He would if I told him you could. He may be a little over the top about a lot of things, but he knows what side his bread is butter on. I'm sure I could convince him to let you move o..." As one, all three of their heads lifted, and they all inhaled.
"What have you got?" Zach asked, knowing their noses were better than his.
"It was there for a second, now it's gone." Any answered in clipped words.
"But it smelled like vampire." Zenah completed for her mother.
"It's a good bet they know you're here." Zach said, tightening his grip on his blade.
"But it's the middle of the day. They wouldn't dare come here in broad daylight."
"Oh, but they would if our target was worth the effort." A voice called from just outside the door.
Seconds later, the door blew inward in shards of wood.
Zach ran to the far door and yanked it open. "Get in, we'll hold them here, out in that room we'll get cut to pieces."
"Oh, I like that idea," the voice grew a head, then a body as the vampire waltzed through the open doorway. "The cutting you to pieces part, that is. Her voice grew cold, lost all of its humanity. "You killed my master. He turned me over three hundred years ago and you ended him. I just thought I'd return the favor."
"In broad daylight? I hope you brought your sunblock." Zach shot back.
"Can you use sai's?" He risked a quick glance over his back at Zenah.
"What are sai's?"
"Long daggers with curved cross guards. There's a pair of them just behind you inside that room on the wall to your left." Zenah poked her head in the room, spotted the sai's on the wall.
Grabbing the weapons, she was back at Zach's shoulder in a heartbeat.
"I don't need sunblock, I brought back up." With another splintering of wood, the back door caved in and the sound of three more sets of feet running through.
"We have more company coming." Zach screamed. "Get on the phone and get us some back up. You guys always have at least four of your warriors in this city all the time. Call them, now!"
"But Zach, they'll think you've had something to do with this." Zenah's voice rose in pitch as she watched the three newcomers rush into the room and flank the woman.
"If we don't get back up, that will be the least of our worries, now do it!"
"Stay in this doorway, if anything gets past me, kill it." He gave Zenah's hand a squeeze and dove out into the room.
"As you wish."
Hitting the floor he did a forward roll and came to his feet, blade extended. In a lighting fast move the vampire to his right rushed in and with a sidekick knocked the blade far to the right, enabling the others to get past it.
Instantly the blows fell fast and hard. Covering up, he took most of them on his arms and legs yet some got through. That was when, threw a hail of flying fists and feet, he heard it for the first time. An inhuman snarl, feral and wild, it lifted the hairs on the back of his neck, set his teeth on edge. Then over his head he saw a shadow pass.
"You will not take him from me!" His ears picked up the hiss before he comprehended its source.
Zenah had launched herself at all four vampires, forcing them off of him with the strength of her reckless charge.
Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, Zach's blade bit deep into the neck of the nearest undead. Its head, now separated from the body, rolled the full length of the room to fetch up against the far wall. The others realized their peril in an eye blink and disengaged from Zenah to deal with what they perceived as the greater threat. They were wrong.
Turning to face Zach, the nearest vampire to Zenah went down in a ball of flashing blades and snarling sound.
"You will not take him from me." She brought both sais high, plunging them again and again through the creature's head.
With only two left Zenah and Zach went back to back, spinning in a tight circle they worked to keep the two remaining vampires in front of them.
"Your kind will not survive what is coming. You might have had a chance before this," it pointed at the two of them. "But now, you'll never have the strength."
The women's long flowing blonde hair whipped behind her as she turned towards the door. It was while she was turning that the front glass shattered inward and four large men hurtled into the room. In seconds, the second vampire was dead. They weren't fast enough however to prevent the female from slipping out through the same way they came in.
Before he knew what was happening, Zach found himself on the mat, both arms wrenched behind his back, a knee on his spine.
"Don't move, cat, you're coming with us." Were the last words he heard before his world went black.
216Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtui3BZioz
