Colonel Seeders' Mail Order Bride, Hank

16 Michelle and Hank

She rushed up the stairs, heaving for air when she finally climbed into the craft. Biting her thumb nail, she waited for the door to close before turning to Hank.

"Are you going to fly around a bit to try to lose him? I really do not want anyone else in my head."

Without answering, he started up the craft and took off, straight up into the clouds, instead of left or right like a normal craft would have. Clouds surrounded them, leaving trails of water as they moved slowly to the left, according to the movements of his hands on the lever.

Something beeped on a small screen in front of Hank and suddenly she was pressed back in her seat. She moved first left as he quickly pulled on the lever and then right. When he pulled back sharply, they dove out of the clouds. Her breathing quickened as the river below them sped closer. She gripped her seat and squeezed her eyes shut, turning her head to the side.

A loud splash and everything went dark. Hank's seat creaked and squeaked as he moved around, clicking a bunch of buttons. The whining sound around them grew louder and then something moved over the windows, shutting out the last bit of light. Her ears popped when it all went silent around her, except for Hank clicking more buttons.

"Something tells me this is not a normal hovercraft," Michelle said.

Hawk grabbed her hand and pressed the other to his lips, before tapping his head. "Dad did some upgrades," he said mentally. "We look like seaweed, but they can still hear us if we make a noise."

She moved to the back to sit by Hawk and held onto his hand. How long would they have to stay that way?

"Just until they leave. We have enough air for thirty minutes. After that we won't be able to get out of the water. Dad knows what he's doing."

A while later, Hank flicked a few switches and turned to them. "He's gone. We should still be careful though. He could be watching for us."

The covers moved away from the windows and then they sped through the water for a while before shooting back up into the air. Two minutes later, they settled down between the same trees they left from.

***

Hank:

***

Hank told them to wait and went out to inspect the area. Red footsteps led to the house, but they also led away and he could not sense anyone nearby. Sure that no one remained, he led Michelle and Hawk into the house and checked that all the windows and doors were closed, before allowing them to head up to their rooms.

Hawk tried to ease up the tension in the house, by suggesting the all camp out in the empty living room to watch a few movies together. Hank used sheets to cover the windows, made a few snacks - toasted sandwiches and sliced fruit - and then brought down the spare mattresses from Xander and Matteo's bedrooms.

The peace and quiet lasted for three hours, just before the third movie ended before a blizzard blew in unexpectedly, sending branches and snow through the windows.

"Hawk, go wait by the switch and pull it as soon as we have the branches away from the windows," Hank shouted.

Michelle ran to the kitchen, while he tugged at half a tree that got lodged in the living room window.

By the time they cleared all the windows and Hawk pulled the switch to close the house down with the metal shutters, they all stood huddled together, shivering. Michelle stood rubbing her hands over Hawk's trying to warm him up. Her lips were blue and she could hardly stand up straight, so Hank ran to the living room, pulled open the gate over the fire place and blasted the wood inside with his dragon fire. He did the same in all the bedrooms and then ran back down to turn on the stove, but she stopped him.

"The fire places is enough. Anyway, with the power outage, I doubt the stove will work unless it's a gas stove. In which case you will fill the place with gas and you have fires going in each room."

He took a step away from the stove. It did in fact work with gas.

He collected the plates from the living room and dragged the mattresses closer to the fireplace. He led Michelle to the living room after realising that she did not have their perfect vision. Hawk came back with blankets for all of them, and they sat listening to the wind howling outside of the house, feeding the fire every few minutes.

It did not take long, before she leaned against his shoulder and fell asleep. At first he didn't dare to move, but then wondered if her neck might get hurt, so he readjusted himself so that she could sleep against his chest. Hawk curled up next to him and fell asleep with his head on Hank's lap.

This he could get used to. If only she would stay.

Footsteps ran over the roof. Hawk stirred, but did not wake. Hank held his breath, listening to the slap of feet against the alloy sheets that covered his house. Bare feet. No Trachtarian could survive the cold of the blizzards. The few outsiders that lived among them, either married to a dragon or family of someone that married a dragon, could not fly, so they would not be able to get up that high. Hank knew of only one creature that could survive the cold and fly up on a roof, more like jump up.

Vampires.

The cold could not kill something that was already dead.

If it was a vampire, their footprints would leave a blue residue instead of red, so someone, alive, had been to his house. He would need to call Sebastian to inform him that they knew about Michelle, or where she was. That could go two ways. Sebastian could tell him to change her to cover her smell, or come and get her. He could not let either happen, not until she was ready. If Sebastian just suggested taking her away, he would harm his one and only friend.

No one was going to touch his mate. No one!