"Lashana, all you need to do is trust your heart, follow your instincts. Steve cares about you. That much is obvious. I've never seen him like this with anyone else. The way he went after those men in the bar last night, I usually expect that sort of thing with Kane and Taker, but Steve was up and moving before your thought even registered with the rest of us. It was really quite amazing."
I closed my eyes, leaned back on the couch trying to sort it all out. I heard the front door open, and knew that the men had returned from their trip to town.
Jim walked over and handed Icey a beautiful blood red rose, pulled her out of her seat, and then sat, curling her up on his lap. She leaned into his shoulder and sighed. She was obviously content in his arms. Kane sat next to Storm, pulled her over and tucked her under his arm. Taker and Jakx curled up together on the other end of the couch. I noticed that there was a spark between them, similar to the one between myself and Austin, and when I grinned at Jakx, she smiled back at me.
Kane interrupted my thoughts when he said, "Lashana, I've been wanting to talk to you since we left the arena last night. What was it that you saw in the corner?"
"Is this something we can discuss in front of Jim? Does he know about any of this?"
Icey looked at me and smiled, "Yes Lashana, Jim knows. I've told him everything that Storm and Jakx told me last night. I figured we'd need his help eventually."
I had been waiting for an opportunity to talk to them about this since my mother had visited me in my dream that morning, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. "I saw the same man that I had seen in my mirror the night before. Kordac'Nols underling."
Taker looked at me, "Do you know who he is? What does he look like?"
"While I was asleep on the plane this morning, Mother came to me. She told me that his name was Gangrel and that he was going to be difficult to defeat."
There was a collective gasp in the room, when they realized that one of their fellow wrestlers was the man that was tracking me. "What else did she say to you Lashana?"
"She said I would need all of my talents and all of my friends to help, including Austin."
"Including me to help with what?" We all jumped and turned to see Austin standing in the living room. I looked at Kane and Taker for help, and they turned and asked him to come in and sit down.
He pulled me up and into his lap and looked to Taker for some answers. I was concerned about what they were going to tell him and expressed this to Kane.
"Kane, I'm not ready for him to know the complete truth about me yet. I don't want him to think I'm some sort of freak and scare him off."
"Relax, Lashana, Taker will only tell him what he absolutely needs to know. And you are NOT a freak, I don't ever want to hear that again."
"Yes, sir! Although I didn't say I was a freak, I said Austin would think that I was."
Taker was beginning to explain to Austin, in loose terms, some of what was going on.
"Austin, Lashana was referring to the situation that brought her to us and made it necessary for her to come to work with us at the WWF. There are certain people who wish her harm, and these people have the unique ability to maintain anonymity and can generally come and go from anywhere, completely unnoticed. We are not exactly sure who they are, or when they will strike."
He wrapped his arms around me a little tighter. "Honey, why didn't you tell me? There's no way in hell that I'm gonna let some a*shole get his hands on you. I'll break them in two if they try."
I snuggled up against his chest and smiled. "I know that you wouldn't let anyone hurt me, but this situation is a little bit different than a couple of thugs in a bar. These people are looking to kill me. The only thing I know for sure is that the man named Gangrel is the leader. Unfortunately, no one can do anything about it until he tries something. There's no proof."
"That little fang-toothed, blood-sucking, SOB. I'll kick his scrawny little a*s all the way back to Transelvania, or where ever the hell he comes from. Is that who you thought you saw last night coming out of the arena? No wonder you looked like you saw a ghost." Austin was getting all worked up, and as endearing as it was to have him defending my honor, I was afraid he might do something and get end up getting hurt.
"Steve," I put my hand on the side of his face, "I want you to promise me that you won't do anything until we have proof that he is the one stalking me. I don't want you to end up getting locked up, or worse."
He looked like he would argue with me momentarily, but when he saw the genuine concern and fear in my eyes, decided against it. "All right, baby. I'll wait. But if he lays so much as on fingernail on you I WILL rip his head straight off his shoulders."
I kissed him briefly and thanked him for understanding. He looked at me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Honey, you sit in my lap and kiss me like that and you're asking for trouble. Don't start something you can't finish."
I laughed and looked at him, giving him a wink and wiggling against him just slightly, enough to let him know I had every intention of finishing what I started. I heard giggling across the room, and looked up to see Jim carrying Icey off and up the stairs to their room. Apparently Steve wasn't the only one interested in finishing what he had started. Steve looked at me and winked, then suggested that we go get a bite to eat.
The other two couples in the room smiled and declined the invitation, but I looked at Steve and said, "So where are you gonna take me for dinner?"
"How bout we head to town and visit one of my favorite steak houses? I think I'm probably gonna need all the energy I can get later and a good steak ought to fuel me up just right. You all get hungry, just help yourselves to whatever you can find in the kitchen."
Everyone laughed when I blushed and he winked at me. I got up to get cleaned up before we went out, and 25 minutes later we were headed out to dinner. Steve boosted me up in his truck and we headed to the restaurant. We were seated immediately, even though there appeared to be about a 30 minute wait. Apparently Steve frequented this place and had a table all his own.
We sat and ate, enjoying medium rare steaks, baked potatoes and salads. The conversation was light and we talked about work and he told me a little about his two little girls from his previous marriage. I could tell by the light in his eyes how much he loved those little girls, and it was nice to know that he didn't harbor any ill feelings toward his ex-wife. After dinner we decided to head to the bar for a couple drinks and maybe some dancing, but as we headed out to the parking lot, I felt that warm glow coming from my pendant. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot and looked around.
Steve looked at me and asked, "What's the matter honey? You hear something?"
I looked at him and he could tell by the look on my face that something was wrong. He walked up and put his arms around me at about the same time that I heard someone call my name behind me. I turned, still in Steve's arms and looked into the face of the underling, Gangrel.
"Well, well, well. Lashana, so we meet face to face for the first time."
Austin started to move me behind him, but I stopped him when I spoke. "Gangrel, I know who you are and I know why you're here, but this is not going to happen here and now. Our battle will happen, but that time and place will be decided by me."
"Just what do you think you can do to stop it from happening right now?" Gangrel leered and I looked around. Suddenly there were about 6 men, surrounding us and I knew there was only one way out of this situation. I also knew that by using my only means of escape, I could potentially lose Austin forever, since there would be no way to explain it, except the full truth.
They started to move in, and Austin's grip loosened around my waist. I knew he was going to release me to defend the both of us, but I knew that if he didn't have a hold of me when I translocated us that I would leave him in the circle alone. There was no real time for me to think about it, only time to act.
"Austin, don't let me go." I felt him react to the fear in my voice, and tighten his arm around me. He was just about to say something, when I closed my eyes and translocated us straight into the living room of his house, shocking not only him, but also the three couples who were now curled up on the couches watching television.
*********
The couples in Austin's living room jumped up out of their chairs, having caught the fear in my mind at about the same instant as we appeared.
Austin had released me the minute that he realized where we were and took two steps back, looking at me like I had grown a second head. Storm, Icey and Jakx were watching him and trying to figure out how to calm him down before he bailed out of the room.
Taker and Kane were trying to get me to tell them what had happened, while I stood there looking back at Austin with sadness in my eyes. I knew that there was no hope for us, he would never understand this. He shook his head and walked over to sit in a chair. I watched him go, wondering what was going through his mind.
"LASHANA!"
I jumped when I heard the tone of Kane's voice. "What?"
"By the gods, woman, I've been trying to get you to answer me since you poofed yourself in here. What happened?"
"Gangrel showed up in the parking lot outside of the restaurant. He surrounded us with six of Kordac'Nols minions and there was no way out but this one. What am I going to do about Austin? He keeps looking at me like I've grown another head."
"We'll just have to explain it all to him, and let him make is own choice. I don't think it's going to take much more that what he's already experienced to convince him of the truth."
"Would somebody PLEASE tell me what the hell just happened here?" I snapped my head around and looked at Austin who was sitting calmly in the chair. We all sat down and tried our best to explain the situation to him. It's really not that easy to tell someone you love that you are not from this realm in time and space. When we finished the explanation, Austin just sat and looked at me. I could tell he was unsure, given the rather abrupt demonstration of the sorts of talents I had, he had no choice to believe us, but he was obviously trying to decide what to do with that information.
"Lashana, this is a lot for a person to deal with all at once. I need some time to absorb all this. I think I'm gonna head on up to bed, and I'll talk with you in the morning." When he said this, my heart started to break, but I knew I had to let him deal with the information in his own way and make his own choice. All I could do was tell him that I understood and hope for the best. I watched him leave the room, shaking his head and rubbing the back of his neck.
I stood and headed out the back door to sit on the porch, unable to sit in the room with the others knowing what I was thinking and feeling and looking at me with pity in their eyes. I was there alone for about 10 minutes, when I heard the screen door behind me open and felt Taker standing behind me.
"You have to trust in him Lashana."
"How can he possible still want to be with me? You saw the look on his face when he saw what I did. He actually looked afraid of me, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is not afraid of ANYTHING."
Taker chuckled, "You startled him, I'll give you that, but I think if you just have a little faith everything will turn out ok.."
I turned and looked at him, he pulled me against him and gave me a comforting hug. "Oh, I hope you're right Taker, I don't know how I lived without him before, and I'm not sure I'll survive without him now."
"You'll be just fine, Lashana. Kane and I will make sure of that. Why don't you head up to bed and get some rest. No point in standing out here moping all night."
"You're right. I am tired, and it's been a really rough night. I think I could use a good nights sleep." He opened the door for me and we headed back into the house. When I got to the living room, I noticed that everyone except Jakx had left the room. When I asked her why, she smiled.
"They figured that you didn't need six pairs of eyes watching your every move when you came back in, so they all went to bed. I was just waiting for Taker to come back in and we are headed in the same direction."
"Oh, I see. I think I'm gonna head up to bed myself. I need some quiet space and some rest. This has been one hell of a day." I headed up the stairs and went into the room that Austin had given me to use while we were here. I changed into my nightshirt, pulled one of my white candles out of my bag, lit it and sat down to meditate. I needed to release the negative energy that had built up since the ordeal in the parking lot and mediation always helps with that. I finished, put out the candle and was getting ready to climb into bed when I heard a knock at the door. I slipped on my robe, and went to open the door, figuring that one of the girls had come to check on me. I was surprised to see Austin standing on the other side of the door.
"Steve?"
"Yeah, it's me. Mind if I come in?"
"No, of course not." I was puzzled and extremely curious about what he wanted to say. I was half afraid he was going to tell me that I needed to get my stuff together and get out of his house. I walked over and sat on the bed, pulling my legs up underneath me. Austin started pacing back and forth across the room at the end of the bed.
"Lashana, I don't know how to say this." I cringed inwardly, expecting him to tell me that he never wanted to see me again, but held my tongue waiting for him to finish. "When I first met you, I felt that there was something special about you. You stole my heart the minute I looked in your eyes."
My eyes got wide and I sat in stunned silence waiting for him to continue. He walked over and sat on the bed facing me. "I won't pretend to understand everything you all told me tonight, but I do know one thing. I can't see any future for me with out you in my life."
"Austin, what are you telling me?" I couldn't keep quiet any longer, my heart was pounding in my ears and I felt tears springing to my eyes. Austin reached out and held my face in his hands. He pulled me toward him and said, "what I'm telling you, my dear, is that I love you, and I don't give a d*mn if you're an alien from Mars, I'm not going to let you out of my life." That said, he lowered his mouth to mine and I felt my heart expand with the power of the absolute and total pleasure of the love that I felt for this man. He wrapped his arms around me and lay me back on the bed. I gave myself to him completely, mind, body and soul, something I had never done with anyone else, including Scotty.
Afterward, we lay there, with his arms wrapped securely around me and I felt totally complete. I had the love I had been looking for and I had my family. The only thing that would make my life better would be to end this problem with the underling Gangrel and get on with the future with Steve.
He rolled onto his side, and looked down at me. "So, tell me, are there any other talents that I need to know about? Or is poofing yourself into and out of places the extent of it."
"Translocating, baby. Poofing sounds so, well, non-technical. Umm, there may be one or two more things that you should know about."
I heard him groan, and laughed. "Are you sure you want to hear about this right now? Haven't you had enough surprises for one night?"
He looked at me and smiled, "I'll tell you what, how 'bout we just deal with the talents that I know of right now…and talk about the rest in the morning." I felt his hands starting to roam my body, sending chills everywhere he touched. I grinned at him and wrapped my arms around his neck pulling to me. "mmm…how bout I show you some talents that hav NOTHING to do with my heritage?" He chuckled, kissed me and we spent the rest of the evening exploring each others 'talents'.
********
"Lashana…"
I woke up, the sunlight streaming in the room and Kane's voice in my head . "Kane, what do you want. What time is it anyway?"
"It's almost noon. You need to get up and come downstairs. There seems to be a problem of sorts."
"What's the matter?"
I heard Storm next, "No one can find Austin. We are worried that Gangrel may have taken him."
I laughed at that, "He's not missing, trust me, he's just fine"
"Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt."
Austin woke up when he heard me laughing. "What's so funny?"
"Everyone is in the living room. They wanted me to come down, they seem to be concerned that you have been kidnapped."
He looked at me, puzzled for a minute, then he groaned. "Is this another one of those 'talents' we were talking about? Let me guess…you can read each other's minds?"
"Yes, darlin, Kane, Taker and the girls and I all have a telekinetic link. That's how I communicate with Kane."
"So, I assume you told them that I'm just fine where I am, and that I don't need to be rescued." He nuzzled my neck and nibbled on my earlobe, sending electric shocks down my spine.
"Yeah, I told them. They apologized for interrupting. We do need to…umm…get up though, it's…uhh….almost noon." I was trying to concentrate, but his hands and mouth were driving me to distraction.
"Baby, I don't think we're going anywhere for at least another hour…and you can tell your buddies in the living room I said so."
*************
True to his word, Austin kept me busy for another solid hour, at which point my stomach started protesting loudly at the lack of nourishment I'd had that morning.
"Steve…"
"Yeah, darlin?"
"Umm, as much as I would LOVE to stay right here in bed with you all day, my stomach has other plans. If I don't eat something soon, I'm gonna starve."
Steve chuckled at that, "Mmmm, I guess we'd better get you something to eat then. Can't have you wasting away. I'd miss you too much."
I rolled out of the bed, jumped into the shower and was dressed before he dragged himself into a seated position on the edge of the bed, groaning. I walked past him, heading for the dresser to grab some earrings and he caught me around the waist and pulled me into his lap.
"Babe, we need to move your stuff into my room today, cause I'm not spending another night in this tiny damn bed when I've got a California King just down the hall."
I kissed him, and said. "Anything you say darlin, anything you say."
He looked at me and asked, "Are you always going to be so agreeable?"
I laughed and hopped up off his lap. "Only when you say things that I approve of…"
"Is that right," I got about three steps away before he caught me around the waist and tossed me on the bed. He pounced on me and proceeded to tickle me until I begged for mercy.
Austin relented and headed into his room to get in the shower and I headed downstairs to the kitchen in search of food. I made a couple sandwiches, grabbed the bag of Doritos out of the cabinet a coke for me and a beer for Steve set them on the tray, heading for the voices I had heard coming from the front porch when I came down the stairs. I ran into Steve as he was headed down from his shower.
"Oh, woman! food and a beer? I knew there was a reason I loved you."
"So you're telling me you love me for my culinary abilities?" I teased
"Among others, yes!." He took the tray from me and I opened the door. Jim and Icey were curled up together in the hammock, Jakx and Taker had made themselves comfortable on one of the rocking chairs and Kane and Storm were sitting on the front steps leaning against the railing. Austin perched himself on the ledge of the railing next to the empty rocking chair that I sat in and we ate our lunch and talked.
"OK, I have some questions about last night, now that I've had a chance to do some thinking."
I felt the vibrational laugh from Kane, "So, thinking is what he calls what you did last night? Never heard it called that before."
Taker and the women laughed out loud and I gave them all a dirty look. Austin looked at me and said, "What did that monster say that was so funny?"
Jim looked at Austin and laughed. "You'll get used to it man. It used to drive me nuts, all of the sudden they'd bust out laughing or get mad and I'd have no idea what was going on. Eventually you just learn to ignore the whole lot of them."
Icey poked him in the ribs, "Ignore the lot of us huh? I don't think so, baby."
Jim returned the poke and in a matter of minutes it had developed into a wrestling contest. They tumbled out of the hammock and Jim landed flat on his back with Icey on top. Storm leaned over, counted three on the porch and we all laughed.
Taker looked at him and smirked, "Hey, Jim, maybe you ought to leave the wrestling to the professionals and stick to security. You just lost to a woman, man."
Jakx thumped him on the arm and he winked and smiled at her. Jim laughed, and looked up and Taker from him prone position beneath Icey. "Taker, do you really think that I mind losing, when I get to lose to her?" We all laughed at that, and Icey finally let Jim up and resettled themselves in the hammock.
Storm looked at Austin and smiled, "You said you had some questions, Steve. What are they."
"Well, first of all, am I correct in assuming that Gangrel doesn't have the poof…I mean translocating abilities that Lashana has."
I smiled and said, "Let me guess, you're wondering why he didn't just follow us back here last night?"
"Yes ma'am, that's exactly what I'm wondering."
"The reason he couldn't follow us is that he didn't know where to go. See, in order to accomplish translocation, you have to have a very specific destination in mind. He didn't know what ours was, so he was unable to follow."
"Hmm, so if we know where he is, and we know what he wants, why don't we just go over there, stomp a mud hole in his a*s and walk it dry?"
Taker responded to that, "Its not that easy Austin. The only one of us that can actually defeat Gangrel is Lashana. She will have to have a one on one battle with him to end this situation."
"So why not last night, he was there and ready to fight. Why did you decide to translocate us back here instead."
"I'm not ready yet. I'm still learning to control my talents, but I don't want him to know that. That is why I told him that I would determine the time and the place of our battle."
"Baby, I don't know if I'm comfortable letting you take on that demon-boy all by yourself. He's a lot stronger than he looks."
Kane did something at that point that I had never seen him do. He pulled out a small electronic box, held it to his throat and spoke:
"Lashana is also stronger than she looks. She will not be alone in this battle, but she will have to strike the final blow to defeat Gangrel. We will all be involved…and there will be others. You must have faith in her ability to succeed or she WILL fail."
Austin, seemingly as stunned as I was, sat quietly for a moment. When he looked at me, he smiled. "You know darlin', I do believe in your ability to succeed. I don't think I ever doubted it. I am however glad to know that I'm not going to have to sit off on the sidelines and watch you go through this. I want to be at your side when you take on this threat."
I walked over so I was standing between his knees. I put my arms around his neck and he wrapped his around my waist. "Baby, there is no place that I would rather have you during this mess, than right by my side the entire time."
With lunch done, I told everyone that I needed to get some work done and headed into the house, grabbed the laptop and files out of the living room and headed up to the bedroom. I settled myself in the middle of the bed and opened the laptop. I flipped through some files in the computer and found the schedule for the next few weeks. I got on the phone with my travel agent and gave them the information to schedule flights and arrange rental cars. I had finished with my work in about an hour and set about working on my other job…practicing my transformation. I chose the shape of a white, longhaired cat this time and in a matter of seconds had assumed the form. I had been in the shape for about 30 seconds when the bedroom door opened and Steve walked in. I laughed inwardly thinking about the reaction he was going to have when he discovered this little 'talent'."
I walked over and purred and rubbed against his leg. He looked down and I sat, staring up at him wagging my tail. He reached down and picked me up, scratching between my ears. "Where did you come from? You certainly are a cute little thing. Lashana, where are you?"
"Uh, Kane…"
"Yeah, Lashana, whats up."
"I think we might have a potential issue here, I am currently in the form of a white cat, being carried around the bedroom by Steve, who is looking for me. I can't exactly transform back to my human form with him holding me this way…it would give him a heart attack"
I heard a chorus of laughter from everyone and Storm told me she was on her way. She came in the door just a few minutes later. "Steve, you looking for Lashana?"
"Yeah, Storm, she said she was going to do some work, and the laptop and files are here, but I don't see her anywhere." She tried really hard to supress her laughter, especially when I purred again and rubbed my head against his chin. "Oh, and do you have any idea where this cat came from? I don't remember seeing her before."
Storm took his arm and smiled. "Steve, I think you probably ought to sit down when I tell you this."
He sat on the edge of the bed, looking concerned. "Did something happen to her, I'll kill Gangrel if he's laid a hand on her."
"No, Steve, believe it or not, you are currently holding Lashana."
He looked at the cat curled up in his lap with disbelieving eyes. "There is no possible way. If it's Lashana, can she understand me when I talk to her?"
"Lashana, can you understand him"
I chuckled, finding this funny in a sick sort of way, "Yes, clear as a bell…"
"Yes, Steve, she can understand you, why."
He picked me up and held me so that we were eye to eye. "Lashana?" I purred and tried to lick his nose, but he had me to far away to reach. "Baby? That really is you isn't it?" I purred again, wiggling to get him to put me down.
"Storm, tell him to put me down and then warn him that I'm gonna change back. I don't want to scare the living daylights out of the poor dear."
"Hey Steve, I think she wants you to put her down so she can change back. I'm going to head back downstairs so you can talk about this together, without an audience." She closed the door behind me, and he set me down in the middle of the bed. I concentrated my energy and in a second I was sitting before him in human form.
"Hi baby…hope that didn't freak you out too much."
He sat there looking at me, stunned speechless momentarily. "Honey, I don't think that anything I ever see will surprise me again. Just tell me one thing. How many more talents do you have?"
I laughed and kissed him. "Honey, I wish I knew, but when I told you this morning that I wasn't ready to fight Gangrel, that was partially because this is all really new to me too. You see, its only been a few weeks that I've known about my heritage. My mother, her name is Purr'Sha, generally gives me information as she thinks I need it, so I don't really know what other talent's I possess."
"Well, baby, I guess all we can do is wait and discover them together…just do me a favor and let me know when you plan to 'practice'. No more surprises, please."
"Why Steve, darlin'" I put my arms around his neck and pulled him to me, "I thought you liked surprises."
"Honey, this kind of surprise you can spring on me anytime you want." And he proceeded to let me 'surprise' him for the next two hours.
*********
When we finally emerged from the room, the house was quiet. Austin took my hand and we headed downstairs to see where everyone went.Return to the Bonfire CONTINUE