by Pace, Pepper
“He only says that he wishes to see you; the Council member of sector 7; The Land of the Happy Feeling.”
I gave Paul a curious look. No one but us used that name for our territory and certainly no human that wasn’t connected to us should ever know this much information about us—about me. The Land of the Happy Feeling was my homage to my humanity and a tribute to a time when listening to old R&B music such as Frankie Beverly and Maze sent me to a happy place. But no one but ‘us’ knew that.
“Which one?” Ran asked. Simione came forward and pointed to the image of a man with olive colored skin and straight dark hair. He stood very still where others sat or milled around impatient for their disputes to be heard. The one thing that stood out is that this human didn’t seem the least bit afraid of being the only ‘food’ in a roomful of unknown Vampires. The other members of my inner circle crowded in to get sight of the image on the monitor.
Ran stroked his chin. “I don’t recognize him.”
Paul straightened. “I’ll go-“
“No,” Ran placed a hand on his shoulder. “You stay with Kim and the others. Simione you stay here too. I’ll sniff him out. He’s not coming back here until I know who he is and what he wants.” He gave me a quick look before walking out the door. “I’ll open my mind to you, Kim.” And then he was gone before I could open my mouth.
Paul returned to stand by my side and we all watched the monitor as Ran materialized into the living room. Though I couldn’t hear the happenings in the room I clearly heard Ran’s thoughts.
“You wish an audience with my Mistress?”
I could see by the monitor that the dark haired man appeared relaxed as he took a moment to regard my First Lieutenant.
“If your Mistress is Kim Russell, then I do.”
“Kinninsky,” Ran corrected.
The man’s posture stiffened subtly and I could sense that he was completely without fear—or he was just that good of an actor. He inclined his head and relaxed once again.
I quickly shared the exchange with the others and Ran continued. “What is your business with my Mistress?”
“The matter is of a…delicate and personal nature that can only be shared with her and those who SHE would wish to share it with.” And then he said no more.
I noted that the others in the room regarded the exchange curiously but even the more rambunctious of my minion made no attempt to flex their muscles and just observed with equal curiosity.
Ran seemed surprised by the human’s response. He glanced at the monitor and quirked up a brow, seeming a bit amused, but only allowed it to flash at us briefly before his professional demeanor returned. “He’s a cocky little bastard but I don’t sense even an ounce of-“
What happened next happened fast and was hard to understand. I saw the stranger glance at the monitor and then Ran swung his head to the man in surprise and a moment later the stranger collapsed.
It wasn’t the type of collapse where you swoon and black out. No. It was as if he…was just no longer alive. He dropped like a rock and Ran caught him in a movement that was so swift that I couldn’t even understand how he could have ever even known it was about to happen. One moment they were both standing there and then the next he was supporting the man’s unconscious body with one arm. He deposited him to a nearby chaise while others in the room stood in alarm at what had just happened.
“What the … ?” Paul muttered.
And then Ran just left him without a second look. He glanced at the monitor again but this time there was a strange…blankness to his expression. He left the room through the door instead of just flashing himself back to the meeting chambers. A moment later he swept open the door.
“Ran, what happened?” My face was etched in confusion. Ran stood in the doorway. He stared at me without moving. He didn’t even release the doorknob. Paul moved with concern towards him.
“Are you okay?”
Ran’s eyes instantly moved from mine to Paul. His lip curled and he hissed. Paul stopped and raised his head slightly. I could see him scenting the air. Jason did the same and then so did Tyler. Tyler stepped forward quickly and placed her hand on Ran and I barely had time to squeak out a warning. Ran could not withstand religious objects! Her touch would maim him!
I took in the way that Ran followed her movements—he could have stepped away from her or flashed out of the room. He didn’t. He just stood there as she grasped his wrist.
“What--?” I asked in confusion. He wasn’t burning. He didn’t appear to feel any pain …
“That is not Ran,” Paul responded with narrowed eyes.
My heart leaped to life in my chest and Ran’s eyes swung back to me. A half smirk tilted his lip upward.
“Hello, my love.”
My knees weakened. I had to put my hands on the top of the desk just to stop myself from dropping to the floor.
“A-Alexis?”
Chapter 8
A low growl issued from deep within Paul’s chest. I felt as if I was moving underwater and the world had slowed. I saw everything with a clarity that I hadn’t felt since taking blood from someone so powerful that to feed from him was almost unheard of. It was the feeling I had experienced after taking a feeding from Alexis.
Paul’s Wolf was coming forward and I knew what chaos that would create. The Wolf wouldn’t stop. The Wolf wouldn’t listen because the Wolf would just go into protective mode.
I turned to Paul and did something that I hadn’t done in ages. When his eyes met mine I gave him a suggestion. I know it’s mind rape when you do that without permission but I had to curtail the impending chaos.
“Calm, baby. Don’t change. Do. Not. Change.”
He sucked in a breath and gave me a hard look before returning his attention to Ran…Alexis.
Ran watched with a calm sense of unconcern. Well…of course. If Paul’s Wolf destroyed Ran’s body then Alexis would just hop into someone else’s.
“Ran is still in there! Don’t hurt him.” This I proclaimed to everyone.
Ran’s brow quirked upward. “Thank you my love, but no one is in this body but me.” Fear gripped me at the meaning behind his words.
“Where’s Ran?” My voice was thin in fear for my friend and First Lieutenant. I couldn’t even imagine losing Ran—losing someone else that I cared for was just not an option.
Ran’s warm brown eyes that were now controlled by Alexis moved from mine to the monitor and he gave a slight head gesture in that direction. “I learned a new trick. It seems that I do not have to share control of a human’s body the way I do with that of the Neratomay. I also discovered that as long as there is an empty vessel I can…push a Neratomay out of the way and into it.”
My eyes moved to the monitor and the form of the unconscious human. Ran was the human…
“Mistress Kim!” Simione said. “The minion are vying for possession of the human!”
Shit! Three Master Vampires were flexing teeth and muscle for the right to feed from or own the human—I mean Ran!
“Simione! Bring him to me!” I demanded.
Simione was instantly gone and I could see that he had flashed himself into the room. I could hear his loud angry voice from where I stood.
“She says no!”
“Why? He’s unclaimed-“ I heard someone say angrily, most certainly one of my more courageous Master Vampires.
“He is hers.”
The thirsty Vampire backed down but I could see him grumbling as he retreated.
“Dismiss them all. We’re done.”
They weren’t pleased at having wasted most of their night only to be dismissed without a resolution to their issues. But for now I didn’t care. I am the Master—not them. Hell, they are lucky that I do this much and don’t jam a spiked silver heel into their heart over their petty squabbling.
Simione lifted the unconscious body of the human. As he was unable to flash in and out with anything other than a Vampire, he carried him easily back to the chambers.
<
br /> I looked at Alexis who was still staring at me. “Is Ran going to be okay?”
“Well he certainly isn’t going to meet his final death because of it.” Alexis clasped his hands behind him in a move that reminded me of my Alexis … I mean the one that inhabited the body that I was familiar with. Alexis shrugged. “Perhaps if something happens to the human vessel. That I do not know. I took great care with this one. I did not remember how easily damaged humans are.”
I frowned at those words.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Paul asked with a low menacing growl.
Yes, that was the question of the moment. He had given me one hundred years! I still had 98…no, 97 precious years to live and to love whomever I wanted before he claimed me as his. I looked at Paul who hunched glowering at Alexis. He didn’t know about this arrangement. He didn’t know that I had agreed to be with Alexis exclusively when he was released from his imprisonment somewhere deep in the Middle East. There was a time when I had cried over the fact that I wouldn’t be with him for an entire century. And now I was married to my best friend and we were raising a baby together. Now I had a family and … what if Paul did live as long as another one hundred years? What if I wanted …
Before I could even think the thoughts, and before Alexis answered, Simione entered the room carrying the unconscious man in his arms.
“Is he okay?” Sam asked. She was the only human that dared to speak and I remembered that is one of the reasons that I had chosen her. She had not been abused by a cruel Master and then allowed to bloom again. She would have no memory of the pain that a very strong Vampire could inflict. Unfortunately I did … and I worried not for myself but for my family.
Alexis responded to her question while choosing to ignore Paul’s for the moment. “He is alive. He simply needs to figure out how to animate this body. He must learn to realize that he is in control.”
The human twitched and a moment later his eyes opened. I clutched my leather chair indicating that Simione should sit him in it and he did. Ran still just lay flopped back like a rag doll though he did blink—a little too much.
“He is strong,” Alexis said. “He will figure it out I believe. Maybe most would not but he will.”
I trusted Simione, but he wasn’t my core family and so I dismissed him. After he left, I saw that Paul still glared at Alexis.
“Why are you here?” Paul bit out again. “Why are you doing this? You’re not taking Kim-” His arm went around me possessively and it scared me. If Alexis got angry then bad things would happen.
“I am not here to take Kim—though she was my mate while you were no where to be found—seeking a means to your own end somewhere in the old world is what I understand.”
Paul’s body jerked and I heard his grunt of discomfort. His eyes squeezed momentarily and when they opened they were the Wolf’s. Only the Wolf couldn’t come out and it was…hurting Paul; I was hurting Paul. But I could not allow him to release the Wolf!
Jason became anxious. Paul was his pack leader and his loyalty was torn between the two of us. I noticed that neither he nor Tyler would meet my eyes in fear that I would mind rape them too. They wanted to retain their ability to turn into their Wolf but at least they wouldn’t allow their emotions to interfere and so I didn’t restrict their ability. I didn’t question where my loyalties lied, I just knew that I couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to either of these men.
I clutched Paul’s hand. His eyes swept over me and he didn’t look happy that I had basically stunted him. His hand didn’t squeeze lovingly over my own as it usually would and so a moment later I released it.
“I am not here to claim possession of her,” Alexis’ voice was stern for the first time. “I am here to warn her.”
~***~
Ran’s hand flopped and Sam caught him before he slid out of the chair, propping him back up.
“Warn me?” The first thing I thought of was Athena. Did she hate me again? She could annihilate me with little more than a thought, and was bound in a silver lined tomb for the next two hundred-fifty years for doing just that to an Elder that had attacked me in a jealous rage and that Alexis had created false memories with in order to throw Athena’s scent off the night of passion that he had shared with me. It later turned out that Athena was anything but angry with me. She wanted to possess Alexis and me both.
When I rejected her advances she had been pretty damn pissed and Alexis took control of my body and mollified her.
I did not want that one for an enemy.
“Athena-?”
He broke his gaze with me to look around the chambers. “This room smells of death.” He glanced at Jason and Tyler. “And I do not trust your Wolves.”
“They won’t hurt you-“
His lip curled. “That I know. I do not trust them.”
“Kim,” Tyler said warily. “I’m not leaving your side.”
“Hell no,” Jason growled with yellowed eyes. His focus was completely on Alexis. They moved slowly and flanked me; Tyler on the right and Jason on the left. Their eyes did not leave Alexis. Well, they obviously didn’t trust him either.
I sighed. This was getting us nowhere. “Alexis. No games. Please.” I begged.
Paul stiffened again, his narrowed eyes focused on Alexis as if he was prey. And of course that is how the Wolf Pack was treating Alexis. They were in position to take him down.
“Are you here to hurt me?”
A subtle tension released from Alexis. “No.” I could see him let down his guard as he rubbed his hands through Ran’s slicked back hair. He looked at his sticky hands in surprise and then made to wipe them against his shirt—only there was no shirt, just imitation chain mail. For a moment he looked like a little kid that had something on his hand that he couldn’t decide how to get rid of.
It was one of those moments that lightened my heart towards him and I had to force myself not to react; not to feel joy, not to smile at Alexis as he acclimated himself into another’s body, because that other body belonged to someone that I happened to care a great deal about.
Finally he looked away and rubbed his hand against his leather-clad thigh. “Your people may stay. If you trust them, then that is good enough.”
Ran’s right leg kicked out and I looked behind me at him. His face was twitching like a person with a severe tick. His hands drummed along the armrest.
“Alexis will you please give him his body back.”
“No. That does not serve my purposes. But the human vessel will need to eat and urinate soon. It urinates quite often.” His expression was thoughtful.
“I’ll take care of that.” Sam hurried out of the room and I guessed to the kitchen for food. Even though the large manor remained unoccupied we kept it fully stocked because once a week when we had meetings the ladies often stayed over and even if they didn’t, holding meetings took up most of the night so we needed to keep it loaded with food, beverages and snacks.
Karen and Mara moved into action to help Ran as he tried to learn how to control the body he now possessed, however The Wolf Pack’s attention never once waivered. Alexis took a seat in one of the chairs intended for our minion as they supported their case.
“There are events taking place in the Old World, events that have been masked from the humans and therefore not apparent to those in the New World. The lines of communication have always been closed between the two worlds.”
I knew his words were true. The Old World Neratomay didn’t trust American Vampires. Yep, even in the Vampire world America didn’t always get respect. They thought we were young and troublesome with our high profile Vampire wars and continuing battles. Wars like those between the Bloods and the Crips were actually two rival Vampire factions. And of course there were those hits on notorious and high profile human blood donors that didn’t die from their impossible wounds. One such case was where a famous rapper had been shot several times and still lived. That incident was heard by an Elder level tribunal and the rapp
er was forced to give up his fame and to live in the underground where he still turned out some pretty important music ... but wasn’t allowed to share it with the world as punishment for failing to be inconspicuous.
Alexis teepeed his hands. “Even at the Elder level the snub exists for those of us that serve on New World Councils. Some care more than others. Malarias would be one of those that cares.”
I frowned at the mention of Malarias.
“But that is merely one part of the problem. The real problem are the Werewolves that have been attacking Vampires all across Europe and now Asia.”
For the first time Paul, Tyler and Jason’s attention waivered from Alexis as they looked at each other.”
“There are … others?” Paul asked tightly.
“Many others.” Alexis replied. “They may not be as close knit as we Neratomay-“ He glanced at me, “Pardon me, my love, Vampires—however that seems to have changed after the slaughter of a certain small, yet powerful Wolf Pack at the hands of a band of Vampires.” Alexis’ calm demeanor hardened as he eyed Paul. “The unsanctioned attack and slaughter of an entire Wolf Pack.”
“But they attacked first!” I said. Sam returned then holding a bowl of soup. She hesitated before focusing on Ran and going to his aid.
“They were responsible for the killing of several Vampires. Important Vampires.” Tyler spoke, “Not to mention the … the attack of humans that were included in the Vampire family.” My teeth clenched at the reminder of what she and Jason had suffered at the hands of those Werewolves—and that was not even factoring in what had happened to Monica.
Alexis’ eyes fell on hers. “You have been involved in the Vampire Nation long enough that I do not have to remind you that rules exist that cannot be broken even if it is for a ‘good reason’.” He actually did air quotes! Good God, he’s been around too many human resources—which meant me.
“What rule?” I asked. “I don’t know of a rule that says I can’t kick some Werewolf ass! And besides every Vampire that I’ve ever asked claimed never to even know of the existence of Werewolves! So how can there be a rule-?”