The men tensed up. Each of them was protective of their youngest sibling.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Send someone else out to get food,” Robert ordered.
Her small hands went to her hips and Adam saw the fight within her.
“Ever since the wolves made their presence known, fear is running riot in the streets. Most people who used to work for us are gone and the few remaining are busy on guard watch.”
“I don’t like you being alone,” Mary said.
“Look, what good will it do for us all to starve to death?” Rose glanced at each one in turn. Adam had an unsettled feeling in his stomach, but if it was him, he’d have gone for the food alone. They may be vampires, but they survived on a combined diet of natural food and blood.
“Let her go and get some food,” Katie interjected. “The wolves are lying low. She’ll come to no harm.”
The witch had too much of an opinion for her own good.
Again, the men looked like they wanted to argue, but Rose wouldn’t let them. Instead she turned to all the men and laid kisses on their cheeks. “I’ll be back soon.”
Rose left the room and the room went silent.
“Great, now she’ll probably go and get herself killed,” Jason finally said. His brother was starting to have a bad attitude about everything. “Where is the fucking death controller?”
“Don’t call her names,” Adam warned, going to Poppy’s defence.
“Have you already got into her pants, big brother? She doesn’t look like your sort.”
In that moment, Adam didn’t see his brother—he saw a vicious enemy. Pushing away from the wall, he stormed over to Jason. In one quick movement his hand was around the man’s neck. “Who taught you to be disrespectful?”
“Stop it,” their mother called.
“When you started taking one of the opposition,” his brother spat.
Seeing red, Adam lashed out and slammed his fist against Jason’s face. Screaming erupted around them as Jason hit back.
Adam welcomed the pain. It was a relief. He heard the calls and orders from his family, but he refused to listen. For too long he’d listened to his youngest brother’s insults. It was about time he was shown how to respect the people around him.
“What’s up, fuck face? Our women got too much of a nice face for you?” He didn’t know what had got into his younger brother and right now he didn’t care. The disrespect for Poppy—a woman far braver than this slippery weasel—was too much to bear. Baring his teeth, he lunged at his brother, taking him down.
He remembered each one of her scars as he fought with his fist, defending her honour and most of all defending the woman he cared about. At that thought, Adam stalled in his attack.
Woman you care for? How can that be possible? You don’t even know her. Yeah, your body comes alive whenever you’re around her and when you part you spend the time wishing you were together…
Jason grabbed his throat and squeezed.
“Enough!” A flash of light erupted and Adam was thrown out of the double doors onto the marble floor before the stairwell. Jason was flung against the sharp-edged bookcase.
Katie stood in the centre of the room, her hands out, looking deadly. “You two are being unfair. I admire you for sticking up for Poppy, but it doesn’t take away the fact that she is a necromancer and you don’t know anything about her.”
“We didn’t know anything about you and we still took you in!” Adam shouted, getting to his knees.
“I’m not someone who can control the dead.”
“From where I’m kneeling, I think you’ve got a much better shot at it than she does.”
Katie shrugged. “Either way, caution is needed.” Done with him, Katie turned to Jason. Since she’d been reborn, Katie had taken it upon herself to be the voice of reason. The witch’s true role was to always find a balance in the magic. She was still learning, but if that outburst was anything to go by, she was one fast learner.
Jason was getting to his feet when suddenly his fingers clawed at an invisible force around his neck.
“You, on the other hand, are becoming unruly and a problem. One I don’t like, and I’ve been ordered to deal with you.”
“Stay out of my business!” Jason yelled.
“Wrong answer.” Katie unleashed the full power within her and Adam watched dumbstruck as Jason began to wilt before his eyes.
William, seeing the change in his woman, charged to her side and broke the connection, throwing her to the floor. They lay gasping in a heap while Jason peered at the witch, terrified.
“What the fuck is going on?” Robert was crowding around the situation.
“A confusion enchantment,” Katie answered, coughing. Her hair—which had been starting to turn back to a lovely chestnut brown—was now white again. His sister-in-law would have a constant change of hair colour whenever she used too much magic.
“What? An enchantment placed by a witch?” William asked.
“No. Too powerful and it acts more like a defence mechanism. It makes the most vulnerable and weak in the room act on their insecurities then harnesses them until a reaction occurs, causing a type of confusion.”
Adam didn’t want to analyse why his youngest brother had been the target.
“Who could perform this type of magic?” Robert began with the questions.
“It’s not performed. It’s more like a spell that has been wrapped around him for some time, kind of like a cloak he never takes off. It has to be centuries old, even to the point where no one knows what is happening.”
Centuries old?
There was only one person whom he knew was centuries old.
“Poppy!” Adam didn’t give them time to ask questions. Poppy was in danger and something was going wrong. In minutes he was at her door. He went to open it, but the doorknob wouldn’t budge. Throwing his whole weight behind the wood, he charged. Adam bounced off while the door stayed firm and intact.
“Poppy!” he yelled. Adam continued to charge at the door in an attempt to open it.
William was the first to get there. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I can’t get through!” he yelled, applying as much pressure as possible. It wouldn’t budge.
“We’ll try together.” William put his hand on his shoulder and together they charged the door. Nothing happened.
“Let me try,” Katie said, running up behind them. Unlike the two brothers, she stood in front of the door and shot bolts of fire and light out of her hands.
“Stop it, Katie,” William ordered.
“I’ve got to get in.” Adam pressed a hand to the door. Poppy was in there and he had to protect her.
Chapter Two
The air was still and silent. Poppy opened her eyes and whimpered. Pain erupted in her head and her body ached all over. Her arms were like lead and her legs felt like they’d never been used before.
Her gown was white with streaks of red crimson. Not her usual black dress. Her blood stained the white fabric. Her hair was black and lay down one shoulder.
“It takes a while to adjust,” a voice spoke to her left. She looked around her. The scene was washed in grey. No colour, no light or dark—a simple blankness with no emotion.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t attempt to move right now. You feel, yet struggle in this desolate place.” A figure, obscured by a cloak similar to the one she wore in the real world walked forward.
Poppy lay down and looked up at nothing.
“Where am I?” she asked again.
“You should know.”
“I’ve never been here.”
“You have not visited, but you have. You will never know what truly happens until you learn to accept who you are and what you are.”
“Okay, you know you can use contractions, right?”
Poppy was struck across the face.
No pain, nothing.
It was as if this place had been cut off fr
om any emotion.
“Open your eyes, Poppy.”
Strange, I thought I had.
Poppy opened her eyes and gazed at a woman, so beautiful and calm.
“How do you feel now?” she asked.
Poppy tested her body and found no aches or pains.
“I’m fine.”
“You must accept.”
“Please, tell me where I am,” she begged.
A mirror appeared before her. “Mirrors are so useful. I imagine when humans made them, they had no idea of the multiple uses they had for people higher than themselves.”
Whoever this woman was, Poppy didn’t like her. Glancing in the mirror, she saw her body slumped to the ground.
“How can a mirror be used like this?”
“What makes necromancers so great and so deadly is their ability to produce the same artefacts found in only three places.” The woman stood behind her.
“What are you talking about?”
“This is a mirror that sees on the other side. Heaven, hell and limbo each own an exact replica.”
“Why do you have one?”
“As there is only one heaven, hell and limbo, there is also only one necromancer. You, Poppy, are the only one of your kind, as they were all hunted to extinction,” the woman said. She spoke slowly, each word pronounced and not rushed.
“But, in that case, wouldn’t witches and other beings have them too?”
The woman gave a snort of disgust. “They multiply and spread like a disease. Mirrors such as these only show themselves to the rarest of creatures. Nothing but a true necromancer can possess one of these. Witches and other things have their own weapons they make to protect themselves. This is a lifeline to protect you.”
Poppy rolled her eyes.
“Who are you?”
“Take a look at me and open your eyes. Only someone true and pure can visit this place. A calling has been made, Poppy, and the men who awakened your necromancer power saw this day. You must act.”
Poppy recalled the day with disdain. For centuries she’d lived with a calling. Alone, cursed to be so forever. “I didn’t choose this.”
“It doesn’t matter. Your time has come and in a few weeks you’re going to have to make a choice. Look at me, Poppy.”
She turned from the mirror and stared at the beautiful woman. No recognition at all.
“I don’t know you.”
“Open your eyes and your brain.”
Would she be punished for killing this woman?
“A necromancer doesn’t kill until necessary.”
I’m feeling it’s necessary, right now.
She stared into the woman’s eyes and did what was asked of her. The spark flew in her brain and woke her up.
“No, it can’t be.”
“Yes, it is.”
Poppy took a step back and circled the room. She couldn’t breathe. Life was unfair and she couldn’t accept this. Her life had been a constant nonstop of decisions, changes and choices.
“Calm down, Poppy. If you don’t, when you wake you’ll be in terrible danger.”
“No. I can’t do this.”
“You know what you have to do. This will start the end.”
Poppy screamed. The first bit of true emotion. The sound vibrated off the walls, shattering the blankness. At least the outburst answered one of her questions. This place could only survive without the true onset of feeling.
Great to know I come from a long line of unfeeling bastards.
Another scream, the sound agonising to her ears, and the fantasy world crumbled.
She woke up in her room. A sound tore from her throat.
* * * *
Adam heard the screams and determination took over. Nothing would hold him back. He thought of Poppy and rammed the door. In two pushes it crashed open. Poppy lay on the floor, her shirt open, scars marring her chest and every part of her skin visible around the dress she always wore. A high-pitched scream erupted out of throat.
He rushed to her side, not caring what his family thought.
A fountain of red blood gushed from her mouth. Her chest had criss-cross lines smeared with red. She lay on her back, choking. Acting on instinct alone, he took her in his arms and forced the liquid that was stopping her from breathing out of her mouth.
The stuff smelt bitter and acrid to him. He pulled her long hair from her face while she spewed over his leg.
There was a coldness that spread through her and Adam scented a change. Panic set in and before he could think about what he was doing Adam tore open his wrist and pressed it over her mouth. “Take my blood,” he said.
She shook him off and pulled out of his arms, rejecting what he had to offer.
“Stop being stubborn.”
“Adam, give her a second,” William said from the doorway.
He couldn’t cope with seeing her in pain. She lay back and a cry sprang forth out of her mouth. Adam had to cover his ears to keep himself from trying to force-feed her his blood, the only source of medication he knew how to use.
“Please,” she begged the sky.
He moved away and watched her bleeding. There was a look of utter concentration on her face, followed swiftly by the sudden red glaze of her eyes.
A shadow loomed over her.
She closed her eyes and within seconds—before his very eyes—the blood soaked back inside her body. He crawled away, freaked out by what he was witnessing. The blood on the carpet absorbed back into her skin until she lay on a pristine white carpet, gasping for breath one second then settling down.
“What the fuck?” Jason, who had finally managed to make it upstairs, voiced everyone’s opinion.
Chapter Three
Rose walked the short distance to the supermarket. After spending most of her life in the house where she had grown up, she didn’t want to be cramped inside a metal vehicle when she finally got outside.
She gazed up at the twinkling stars. They looked so calm and serene. Did they have as many troubles as she and her family did? Sighing in exasperation, she realised she could do nothing to help her family’s cause. How could a vampire who wasn’t even a proper normal vampire help against a pack of howling, bloodthirsty wolves?
Twenty minutes later she entered the blaring fake light of the supermarket. She grabbed a trolley and started for the fruit and vegetable section. A beautiful red and yellow pepper went into her cart, followed by avocado, celery and onions. The men in her family preferred meals with lots of meat, but she couldn’t stomach any type of animal. For Rose, having a constant supply of fresh produce was essential. Once the small section of the separated part of the trolley was filled with enough vegetables to keep her going for a week, she moved to the fruits.
For most of her life Rose had tried not to think of the problems she caused her family. Ever since she was little, she’d been different. When she ate meat or drank blood, she’d begin to cough up her own blood or become undeniably weak. After seeing the doctor who specialised in vampire anatomy, he’d concluded she was allergic and that with time and full maturity no problem would remain. She’d spent a good deal of her young years a vegetarian.
At the age of twenty-one—her eternal age—she’d transformed completely into an adult vampire. Drinking blood from her first human—which should have been a truly electrifying experience as her brothers said—had left her cold. The blood from the human had had adverse effects on her body. It had sent her into seizures, shaking and screaming for hours until finally the blood had left her system. In no time at all it had become apparent—shocking the hell out of the doctor and her parents—that Rose Valentine was the first official vegetarian vampire. The thought baffled her even now.
She was a vampire who couldn’t drink human or animal blood. But if she went without blood, she weakened. To try to help the starvation she ate often, every two hours, and the little blood she did have needed to be taken with pure prune juice and to come from a vegan source. Another factor—she could drink the dilut
ed blood from a glass but never directly from a human.
How scary did that make her? If she decided to go on a rampage she’d have to corner the human and get them to leak their own blood into a glass before she could even sip it. Pitiful.
She reached out to take a lemon only to encounter a hand—a warm, human male hand.
Rose glanced to her right and into the most beautiful cerulean eyes she’d ever seen. She jerked her hand away as a blush spread through her cheeks. No one had ever paid any attention to her before, but the man smiled at her.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“Don’t be sorry. You’re a woman with good taste. The other lemons look a little shrivelled,” he said.
The sound of his voice made her blush and her nipples responded. Warmth settled in the pit of her stomach and grew. Rose glanced around at the other paying customers and, seeing no threat present, she smiled back at him.
“Now, two things are special about you. A girl who can pick decent fruit and who has the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen.”
He was a charmer.
A giggle erupted from her. “Does that line work?”
“You hurt me.” The mystery man placed a hand over his heart, his light banter easing her worry. “See, I knew I’d charm you,” he teased.
“You did and…thank you.” Rose handed him the lemon and moved her trolley away. If she didn’t hurry, her brothers would pitch a fit.
“Hey, you don’t have to leave so early.”
“Early? It’s dark and late.” She used the lateness of the night to her advantage even if in her world it was still early morning.
“Well, maybe we can be trolley buddies?”
Rose glanced at his trolley and smiled. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I just want to shop…” She trailed off, not wanting to upset him.
“Hey, sorry if I offended you but I can’t seem to leave a gorgeous woman like you alone.”
For once a man was interested in her, and all she had done was shoot him down.
“Look, I’m sorry. I’m not use to this,” she admitted.
“Are you for real? Not used to men talking to you? You are a beautiful woman.”
The Valentines Page 23