Damn, he needed a relaxing evening, but with his tiny, sick son, and the glower Sarma wore on her face, he doubted he’d find it. He sighed inwardly. Really, what he needed was for his baby to improve and for his heartmate to be happy again. He would take this pounding headache for their health any day.
Ako approached and greeted Reinis with a fist bump but Sarma with a kiss on the back of the hand and a bow of the head. She raised her eyebrows toward Reinis at Ako’s greeting.
“Pleased to meet you, Kundze. Thank you for becoming Auseklis’ mother,” Ako said as he let go of her hand. “Please, follow me.”
They gathered their things and entered the brightly lit manor with Ako. Hip hop, reggae, and pop hits echoed through the marble floored hallways from the ballroom. As Ako led them to their room, the crowd parted allowing them to pass. Many eyes landed on Sarma and the young, murmurs of thanks spoken. Reinis was aware that the news of Auseklis’ birth had spread, but their reaction amazed him. He never expected this.
Ako led them to a corner of the room with plush furniture. They placed noise cancelling headphones on their son’s ears.
“Paldies. I haven’t seen you since the night I met Sarma.” He thanked Ako and clapped him on the back then stuck his chin out at Sarma while he seated her. “Let me bring you a plate of food.”
“No problem, different covens, but you’ve always been like a brother to me. Come, get some dinner for your heartmate,” Ako answered, leading Reinis to the dining room.
Reinis chose a delicious variety of items from the great feast Ako’s coven had prepared. They didn’t need the food, but it was still fun to chow down on an occasional good meal. He had zero desire to eat, but he needed to nourish his love. He then returned to her side, placed the food in Sarma’s hands, and sat next to her.
“You all right?”
“For our situation, yeah. Glad to leave the house. But all this attention, I feel famous or something. It’s a little weird,” she mumbled through a bite of pirags, a bread roll stuffed with bacon and onions.
He rocked his son in a bouncy seat. Auseklis peered up at him like he wanted out of it. “I know. I didn’t expect this at all.”
Vampires of all ages approached and greeted them with formality and expressed gratitude for Auseklis’ birth. Some of the females gave Sarma side-hugs or kisses while the males shook her hand. He appreciated the discretion since she was drop-dead-gorgeous and didn’t want any males close to her.
House of Amber vampires weren’t blood related to his coven or their feud, but sometimes they had become involved and died—of course, for House of the Black Swan. No one took his aunt Dita’s side.
Hundreds of years ago, she’d torn apart their coven. She falsely believed his mother had stolen his father, Rudis, from her. His crazy aunt had some kind of delusion his father had loved her and wanted her as a heartmate. Nothing could be further than the truth, but when his father chose his mother as a heartmate, Dita went crazy and split their coven. To this day, Ako’s coven held a sharp awareness that, at any time, the fight could worsen and drag House of Amber into it.
Sarma removed Auseklis from the chair, secured his blanket, and held him up so the coven members could see him. Some kissed his tiny hand but it relieved Reinis no one mentioned to their face how thin and gray he still remained. He didn’t want to be reminded.
Sarma glanced at Reinis during the conversations. Good thing he spoke English well so he could translate. Her Latvian had improved but their local dialect made it difficult to understand. She held Auseklis the way he loved most, sitting upright. He peered out at the crowd.
He brushed his heartmate’s cheek. “Sarma, I’m going to stretch my legs. I’ll be back in few minutes.”
“I’ll be right here. It’s too noisy over there but go ahead.” Sarma settled against the back of the chair.
Reinis didn’t know many of the vampires, but he went around greeting the few he remembered. Of them, he knew Ako the longest. A famous DJ around Europe, females always wanted to dance with him, and many attendees chatted with him. At least he enjoyed duty, something Reinis liked at first but grew tired of very fast. Day after day, tracking humans down to have sex with them for the sole purpose of perpetuating their species. Most males had to do it and Reinis was glad that when he met Sarma that chapter of his life closed. Ako approached with a pint of beer.
He grinned, taking a swig of his drink. “Too bad we don’t get drunk like your White Swan cousins. Beer tastes good though.” Ako laughed. He looked across the room at Sarma who held Auseklis in one arm and chatted with a young vampire woman. “So how’s life with the heartmate? You don’t miss the good old days?”
“What good old days?” Reinis rolled his eyes.
“You know, getting with a different girl every night.” He flicked his eyebrows up with a glint in his eye.
“Tell you the truth, no, I don’t. I never dreamed someone like Sarma would come into my life. I wouldn’t trade her for all the females in the world.”
“For real? She must be something special. And she made you a beautiful son. He’s supposed to help end the fight between all vampires?” Ako didn’t look back at Sarma.
“That’s what the dreams tell us. But the only thing, Sarma hasn’t adjusted well to becoming a vampire.”
“What do you mean? Like how?” Ako looked across the crowd and sized up a young female in a tight red, slinky dress. She smirked as she walked by, swaying her hips while heading for the bar not far from them.
“Dang, you never stop.” Reinis chuckled. “I’m not sure what it is exactly, but she only drinks the smallest amount of blood possible and she doesn’t want to exchange during our time together.”
Ako grinned and winked at him. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on. Have you explained it to her? Blood exchange is the best thing about being a vampire. Must be weird though. To be human one day, then one of us the next.”
Reinis didn’t want to admit he never tried exchanging blood during sex to his seasoned friend. Until his little heart, Sirsniņa, came into his life, he’d never found someone special enough. “I haven’t had a chance and I don’t want to put that pressure on her. The pregnancy was super tough, the conversion, and now our son being born weak. But don’t say anything.
“I know Auseklis doesn’t look good, but no one really knows he was born small, has trouble eating, and hasn’t moved around like normal babies. I’m only telling you cause we go back,” Reinis whispered the last few sentences in Ako’s ear. With the blaring music, no one would hear.
“That’s a lot to deal with for both of you. Glad you came to the party to get away a bit. You’ve got my word. I won’t tell anyone.”
Reinis checked on Sarma across the room. She gabbed with another female, still, she kept glancing around the room like she searched for him. Or as if she didn’t like it here. Either way, he needed to get back to her soon.
“What about you? How have things been?” Reinis sipped his beer.
“All right. I’m having fun since duty started. The only thing, our family hasn’t been the same since the accident with my mammu. We’ve been kind of…scattered.”
“Sorry to hear that.” He’d heard about Ako’s mother’s death in a car accident six months ago. A death like that was unusual because of their ability to self-heal but the crash was brutal and left her body beyond repair. The tragedy reached international vampire news.
Laima had visited Latgale to assist with the healing but Laura died within a few days. Reinis didn’t want to mention it to Ako, but he heard Imants and Laura, Ako’s parents, had never been real heartmates. They never imprinted each other.
“Did your father come tonight?” Reinis looked around for him and again at Sarma. She sat in an armchair nursing Auseklis with the hand-embroidered shawl his mother gifted them draped over her, still chatting with the same young female.
“I don’t see him right now. Sarma’s pretty gorgeous for someone who used to be human.”
“Didn’t mean it like that. I wouldn’t do that. I’m not that dumb or crazy. It’s just kind of weird she survived the transition so easily. She looks and moves like one of us.”
“It’s cool. Just making sure, man.” Reinis’ face relaxed into a smile. “But yeah, a lot of vampires told me that. I was amazed how well she recovered myself. And happy. When my sister tried to take her out…” He hadn’t thought of Velta in while. Part of him wished he knew where she was. But most of him didn’t care.
“Hey, let’s not talk about this. Go ask your lady to dance. I’ll follow you in a minute. What do you say? We’re at a party.” Ako grinned.
They headed off into the crowd. Reinis handed Auseklis to the young lady and pulled Sarma to the floor. He slid his arms around her waist and brought her flush against his body. Ako jumped on his computer at a table to DJ music. Sarma glanced back at Auseklis who stared at her from the female’s arms. For a moment, Sarma’s beautiful shape, pressed against him, moving to the heavy base of the music carried him back to when he met her.
Brown eyes, sweet and innocent as a doe that she couldn’t keep off him. And his heart had beat so hard, it jammed into his throat. He wanted to ask her to dance that night, take her to a faraway place and bring pleasure to every sensitive, warm place on her body. Back then, he never thought they had a chance to end up together. Not with human and vampire relationships forbidden. Now look at them, together, parents of the most powerful baby in the world. Yet, his stomach still ached. His baby still battled weakness. And Sarma remained so unhappy.
He needed to talk to Sarma about feeding Auseklis drops of her blood. She still hadn’t agreed to it. Meanwhile, he gave Auseklis three drops of his own life substance each sunrise and sunset. After that his eyes had opened, and he began to wiggle around more, but not enough.
Why wouldn’t Sarma tell him what the hang up was? Since she’d been converted, she had expressed feelings of confusion between her old self and the new one. Still, something more seethed deeply inside her. And so far, she’d kept mum.
The problem? If Auseklis didn’t get her blood soon, he’d become malnutritioned and languish. Somehow he needed to impress upon her how important feeding their son was. Without making her feel guilty or causing her to fold from pressure. One way or another, he needed to figure out what her issues were. He didn’t think she was a bad mother. Plus, he didn’t blame her for her confused feelings. Still, things couldn’t remain this way for long.
Auseklis’ life depended on it.
Chapter 5
Reinis swung Sarma around, pulled her into his embrace, and ground his hips against hers. A grin spread across her serious cheeks, and she rubbed against him. For a brief moment, a flirty glint replaced the stern, worried gaze she always wore.
“Es tevi mīlu,” he whispered in her ear, then kissed her below the chin on the fleshy part of her neck. He told her he loved her, and he meant it with all his heart. His incisors grew and his length hardened.
“I want to feed from you, Sarma. I want to exchange our blood while we make love.” He craved it to the marrow of his bones, to come inside her while sucking hard on her neck or shoulder and her doing the same.
She slowed dancing and met his gaze, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t know, Reinis. I don’t know if I can do that. I’m going to get Auseklis.”
Without another word, she dropped his hands and stalked off toward their son. He went limp in his jeans and followed after her. In the same moment, a female wearing a folk outfit approached the microphone. She announced the Jumis ceremony, dedicated to one of their gods, would be held outside.
He didn’t want to confront his heartmate here, but his chest tightened. Something lacked in their relationship because she refused to share in that ritual. And the crazy thing? She had no idea how goddamn good it felt. How he could give her a mind-splitting orgasm when he penetrated her and fed at the same time.
But that didn’t seem to matter to her.
They scooped up Auseklis and everyone filed through the massive wooden front doors into the adjacent field. A huge bonfire burned in the middle of a dirt circle and the crowd gathered around. He stood shoulder to shoulder with her in silence while two elders, a male and a female, cut stalks of wheat and tied them into a bundle to give thanks for the year’s harvest and abundance.
Elders presented a wheat shaft to the female to keep for the following year, and another was buried with a stone laid on top. They believed if they kept the old ways, harmony and goodness would stay with them as a species. He hoped that would come true with the rise of his Morning Star.
After the female finished singing a song about the god Jumis, a small chorus took her place. Reinis turned to Sarma and asked,
“Hey, uh, if you’re not feeling well, it’s no problem. We can go home.” The last thing he wanted was for his heartmate and son to be uncomfortable. Or miserable.
She shook her head and her eyes became glossy. “It’s okay, Reinis. Look at the stars and fire. I don’t want to ruin a good time.”
He gathered Auseklis in his arms and pulled the shawl closer around him. He despised how he upset her. “You’re not ruining anything. I told you when you became my heartmate, you became my everything. Auseklis and you are first above my personal comfort.”
Sarma glanced at him and opened her mouth then shut it when Ako approached with his father. She turned toward the singers who stood near the billowing flames. Imants greeted Reinis with a hug. While speaking in Latvian, Imants asked about Sarma, Auseklis, and Laima. He smiled tightly and kept twisting a Namejs ring on his finger. A special ring they received as males when they became adults.
“Sarma, this is my father Imants Tautmilis.” Ako faced Sarma and addressed her in English.
“Nice to meet you,” Imants greeted her in Latvian. Shadows from the warm light danced on his face. He shook her hand and squinted. “Where are you from, Sarma?”
“San Francisco.”
“And your mother, is she Latvian? You look very Latvian,” Imants continued and stepped closer to Sarma.
She glanced at him as he translated the more complicated statement. Imants’ sapphire eyes shifted between them both as they talked. Prickles crept across his forearms. He analyzed Imants’ thoughts to gauge why he asked the questions, but Imants had his mindguards up and could read nothing.
“My mother is Latvian, but she’s lived in San Francisco my whole life,” Sarma answered through Reinis.
Reinis’ stomach tightened. Imants sure had a lot of questions for her. He wrapped his arm around Sarma’s waist and adjusted Auseklis in his arms. Time to go. He didn’t like the interrogation.
“I’ve been there. I’ve even met some Latvian humans, but you’re not human.” Imants nodded, scanning Sarma. “What’s your mother’s name?”
“Gunita Liepa.” Sarma leaned into Reinis.
“Gunita Liepa?” Imants blinked and he dropped his head to one side. He repeated the name several times, his face tightening as he spoke. “Gunita Liepa.”
“Why do you ask?” Sarma asked slowly.
“And you say she lives in San Francisco. So your mother is a human?” Imants took another step closer to Sarma and pulled on the edge of his blazer.
Reinis’ heartrate jacked up. What was going on? “How do you know her mother is human? Sarma was recently converted. The first in over a hundred years,” Reinis interjected. He lightly placed his hand on Sarma’s shoulder and guided her backward.
Imants’ mouth tensed to a frown. “Meita?” His eyes widened like something shocked him.
Unsure he heard Imants correctly, Reinis tilted his head.
“What did he say, Reinis? What’s going on?”
“Let’s go right, now, Sirsnina.” He tugged on her hand and guided her toward the house. Imants followed after them.
“Wait, Sarma. Is it you?” Imants called after them in Latvian.
Sarma yanked her arm free of Reinis’ grip and spun around toward Imants. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
“We should go, Sarma. I don’t like this situation. I’ll explain later,” Reinis replied. Who the hell did Imants think he was? What did he want to do to Sarma? As if Auseklis sensed the tension, he began to wail.
Reinis nudged her shoulder and glared at Imants.
He stopped in his tracks. “Please, meita, give me a chance.”
“Look, I don’t know who you are, or what you think you’re doing, but you need to get away from us. Right now.”
Ako stepped up next to his father. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Auseklis cried out, louder this time. Reinis tugged on her. “Sarma, we should go inside. I promise, I’ll tell you later. This isn’t a good thing.”
Sarma bounced her sight from her son to Imants, then took the baby in her arms. “Just tell me, what does ‘meita’ mean? I don’t understand. What is he saying?”
Like a broken record, Imants blinked his eyes, reached out for her, and repeated, “Meita?”
Ako shot a scowl at Imants. “What in the world are you doing?”
Coven members gathered around them and blocked their way into the house. They needed to leave. Whatever Imants claimed, it couldn’t be good for Sarma. No way he’d let her remain in harm’s way. But she patted Auseklis on the back and wouldn’t budge.
Reinis shook his head. Was he imagining Imants’ claim? Sarma had been through enough. What was wrong with him? “Is this some kind of sick joke? Sarma, let’s go.”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what he’s saying.”
“Sarmiņa?”
Sarma stepped back, shaking her head, shielding Auseklis with her arms. “Only one person called me that in my life. My father. And I haven’t seen him in over twenty years. Because he’s dead. Reinis, tell me what’s going on. Now.”
Darkness Born: Paranormal Vampire Romance (Immortal Desire Series Book 1.5) Page 3