by Brenna Lyons
Bearing Armen
Brenna Lyons
Release date 6/29/2009
Published by Phaze Books
Also by Brenna Lyons
Black Sail
Conquest
Mama’s Tales
The Last of Fion’s Daughters
The Color of Love
We Shall Live Again
Phaze in Verse
“The Fire God’s Woman”
from Coming Together: Under Fire
Last Chance for Love
Fates Magic
Rites of Mating
In Her Ladyship’s Service
Matchmaker’s Misery
Animal Instincts
Night Warriors
Will of the Stone
This is an explicit and erotic novel
intended for the enjoyment
of adult readers. Please keep
out of the hands of children.
www.Phaze.com
Bearing Armen
Night Warriors Series:
Warriors Book Three
BRENNA LYONS
Bearing Armen copyright 2004-5, 2009 by Brenna Lyons
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Phaze Production
Phaze Books
6470A Glenway Avenue, #109
Cincinnati, OH 45211-5222
Phaze is an imprint of Mundania Press, LLC.
To order additional copies of this book, contact:
[email protected]
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Cover art © 2009 Kendra Egert
Edited by Kathryn Lively
eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-60659-154-3
First Phaze Edition – July, 2009
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Table of Contents
James: Armen and Dangerous
Michelle: Devon’s Price
Melissa: Heart of A Warrior
Scott: The Blade Chaser’s Son
Alyssa: The Warrior’s Widow
Crystal: Daddy’s Little Girl
To the little loves of our lives.
To Beth, who’s always wanted a Warrior of her own. I promised you James, and I always keep my word.
To all the ladies and gents of Ebh’s list and the Weyr Live. You’re my first ‘writing home.’
To open communication and a happy family.
My husband, a most worthy man, who has proven himself over and over again.
Glossary of Warrior Terms
Beast- Beasts are what humans erroneously refer to as vampires. The stories humans tell are obviously not correct, but you can’t expect a human to get everything right.
Blutjagd- The “blood hunt.” Warriors crave battle with the beasts, as the beasts crave blood. Warriors are tied to beasts in that they sense many of the beasts’ special powers. A Warrior can feel the use of coercion, feeding, and other controls of humans. They also feel other Warriors engaged in Blutjagd, the death of beasts and Warriors in their range, and the presence of nearby beasts that are not fully ghosted. Rigorous battle training will quell the Blutjagd for short periods of time.
Elder- One of the original beasts, the Stone stealers who were damned for their crimes against the Stone and the Warriors. The elders are gifted with powers turned beasts are not, including the ability to reproduce with a Blutjagdfrau, the ability to turn other beasts, and the inability to be killed by anyone but a Warrior.
Endspiel- The point in printing when a Warrior must either seal printing or go insane. A Warrior who feels printing may not progress should break printing long before this point. Note that they are rarely smart enough to do so.
Fluch- The Warrior’s curse, passed from father to son or daughter. The Fluch may be removed from a daughter but never a son. If the Fluch is not removed in the Zeremonie der Freiheit by the time the menses begin or the Zeremonie des Schutzes is performed before freeing, the daughter is cursed to become Blutjagdfrau, a female Warrior. Because elders target Blutjagdfrau as mates, Warrior fathers will go to any lengths to free a daughter not marked by the Stone.
Ghosting- A talent that both beasts and Cursed Warriors learn to harness. Ghosting can hide the physical form of Cursed Warriors or beasts and all they hold or carry from each other and humans. In a lesser strength, it can “blur” the image of the user so that humans do not note the passage in particular but still see a person there, which avoids accidental collisions. Even a ghosted beast cannot hide uses of power that a Warrior can track. Warriors sometimes ghost in tandem to remain visible to each other but not other Warriors or beasts.
Krankheit- The “sealing sickness.” In the final stage of the transformation between human and Cursed Warrior, at or about the sixteenth birthday in males and a year after the start of menses in females, the sickness strikes. The young Warrior will suffer nausea, vomiting, a high fever, disorientation, dizziness, and may become incoherent. It is usually the only time in a Warrior’s life that he or she becomes ill, save morning sickness in a Blutjagdfrau.
Printing- Like imprinting, a Warrior becomes tied to his mate for life. He cannot choose another if she’s lost, cannot be unfaithful while she lives, and cannot ever divorce or otherwise dissolve the union. A printed Warrior is the most stable of men, unless his mate or children are endangered or lost. Then he will suffer the printing madness and may have to be killed by his house. Likewise, a Warrior who breaks printing, even early printing, will suffer for it. A Warrior who breaks printing too close to Endspiel will face the madness.
Veriel- The Mad Elder. The Destroyer of Lives. The Mad Deceiver, who led the traitors and freed the elders from the Stone. The most hated and hunted of all the beasts. Fixated on one woman, he would destroy the world to own her. At least, that’s what the stories say of him.
Warriors- Also called Cursed Warriors, Krieger der Nacht, Soldat der Nacht, or Sons of the Stone. The Warriors were an ancient race of protectors who spawned the beasts and now are driven to hunt their former brothers to extinction.
James: Armen and Dangerous
Tarot: Nine of Pentacles
Tarot Card: Nine of Pentacles
The Nine of Pentacles is the perfect card for Beth Havens. She is a woman accustomed to relying on herself and depending on the meager resources she has to support her two daughters alone. A widow left with twin infants to raise, Beth doesn’t have much, not even family to depend on. She resists depending on others, which makes dealing with the free-spending James Armen just a little hard to swallow.
It’s also a card of discipline and self-control, of sacrifice to reach a goal and pursuing something better for yourself. Beth lives for the day when their lives will be better. She has a timeline in mind to make this happen, and she has a plan in mind to get there. She will sacrifice everything from every pleasure of her own and even her health to reach that goal in the long run.
Beth is a woman of high moral fiber. She takes only what she must t
o survive. She’s gracious, even when she is turning you down. She resists the appearance of impropriety as much as the actual acts. Every move she makes is weighed: what it will gain her and her girls against the moral implications, and she willingly, though painfully, turns down any avenue that she deems a morally empty venture.
Little does she know that her usual methods will have to bend just a bit to reach what she really wants in life.
Chapter One
Thursday, November 30, 1978
“Damn it,” James Armen grumbled, staring at the hamburger in his hand in longing. “Is it too damned much to ask to get a meal in?”
The sense of a beast nearby was eclipsed by the sense of its coercion of a victim.
“Apparently so.” He took one bite, tossing the rest over his shoulder, knowing the rodents of the city, scurrying and flying alike, would finish it off.
The beast wasn’t far. James made the distance in a few short minutes. He swallowed a sigh at the sight of the woman, enthralled, unbuttoning her coat slowly while the beast watched. It was a disgusting thing to order her to do, especially if it intended to let her keep the memories of this degradation.
However, the fact that the beast was sloppy, completely engrossed in his play to the exclusion of all else, would aid in James’s job. He unsheathed his sacred weapon and took the beast’s heart in annoyance, cleaning his blade on its foul clothing before letting it fall, his eyes watering at the stench of beast blood.
“I gave up my dinner for a waste of skin like you,” he growled, unghosting. Now he’d have to return home and properly clean his blade, or he’d smell faintly like a beast all night long. The damned thing hadn’t even had the decency to give him a fight to take the edge off his need to hunt. A kill without battle was almost worse than no kill at all.
“Oh, God.”
He turned to the victim, sheathing his weapon before she could see it clearly. As he’d expected, she was pulling her coat shut, shaking, confused.
“Are you all right?” he asked, leading her away gently.
“What...what happened?” she managed thickly, looking back at the body they’d left behind.
“He was robbing you,” James lied. “He had a knife and—”
“No. He had fangs and...and glowing eyes.”
He winced. “If you tell someone that, you know they won’t believe you.”
She stopped cold, but her eyes didn’t challenge him as he expected. She fumbled her watch up, her pale face draining of all remaining color. She turned, swearing softly.
“What is it?” he asked. “Can I help?” James didn’t question his reason for offering that. It was a weakness most Armens shared, the knight-like inability to leave a woman in need to fend for herself.
“No.” She sobbed, pushing his hands away. She ran full out, crying.
“Damn this.” James fought his natural inclinations, then gave into them, gritting his teeth and loping after her.
The woman darted from alley to street to backstreet. James could have caught her easily, but he didn’t want to stop her; he wanted to find out what made her cry...and solve it. That’s what Armens did.
Finally, she stopped at a row house and knocked, stifling her tears.
The door opened, and an old woman scowled at her. “You’re late, Beth.”
“Yes, I know. I... Oh, Alice.”
“Come in. They’re waiting to go.”
James furrowed his brow, sliding silently toward them, ghosting. The women disappeared inside. What was Beth late for? Who was waiting for her? And why would these people make her frantic?
* * * *
Beth Havens wiped at her cheeks roughly, managing a tight smile as Melissa waved her hands from her seat in the playpen. She reached down and picked her up, hugging her younger daughter by an hour to her chest, avoiding Alice’s eyes. Beth knew what she’d see there.
“You can’t keep doing this,” Alice stated.
“It will never—”
“Happen again. I know. How many times have you told me that, Beth?”
Her heart sank. Please... I need this sitter. No one else reliable will watch the girls for a price I can afford. Beth lifted Melissa’s coat from the corner of the playpen and slipped it on.
Beside her, Alice did the same for Michelle. “I had plans tonight.”
“Oh, God. I am so—”
“Sorry. I know.”
“You know I—”
“Don’t usually have the misfortune of coinciding with my schedule. You did tonight.” She set Michelle in the double stroller, placing her hands on her ample hips.
“You know—” Beth began.
“I know you need this arrangement. I know it’s been difficult for you to keep house and home together since Ethan died. I know you don’t mean to inconvenience me, but you have more than once.”
Beth held her breath, praying that Alice wouldn’t send her packing.
“It can’t continue this way.”
“I guarantee—”
“You’ll guarantee me this. Every time you’re late, there will be a five dollar late fee.”
Breathing became difficult. Beth pulled the bonnets from her pocket, trying to fathom how she could possibly arrange never to owe that fee.
“Starting now.”
Beth turned to her, sick at the thought of paying it this week. Rent was due, and the cabinets were nearly bare.
“I mean it, Beth. If you don’t have the late fee by Monday morning, don’t bring the girls back.”
“Alice—”
“End of subject.”
Beth bit back tears at that. There was no way she could come up with another five dollars in her weekly budget. There was nothing else she could give up and still have food and an apartment. But without childcare, she would lose her job. There had to be some way to convince Alice.
What? Are you planning on telling her that you’re late, because a vampire attacked you? The man who’d saved her had been right; no one would believe that.
A knock at the door interrupted her inner argument. Alice marched to it and opened it.
Beth’s heart seemed to stop beating, and she barely noted Melissa patting at her shoulder. Her mystery man was standing in the doorway—a wad of money in his hand.
Alice looked from him to Beth and back again. “May I help you...” she asked, hinting for an introduction Beth wasn’t capable of giving.
“James, ma’am,” he offered.
She shot a hard look at Beth, but what answer could Beth possibly give? She didn’t know this man, and the only thing she did know about him, that he’d killed a vampire, would hardly sound sane.
He didn’t hesitate. “It’s my fault Beth is late,” he lied. “I...caused her extra work. Please, take this.” He pushed the money at Alice again, his expression pained.
Alice stared at the money in shock. “It’s too much,” she breathed.
It was too much. The bill on top was a ten, and even if the rest were ones, it wasn’t small change he was handing over.
“I’ve inconvenienced you, and I’ve inconvenienced Beth. Please. Look on it as a bonus for your fine work.” James tucked the bills into her hand, staring at Beth and Melissa.
Michelle made a grumbling sound of complaint and bounced in the stroller, no doubt a warning that it should be moving and she’d be happier if it were doing so. He locked on the movement, rounding Alice and striding toward her, his eyes wide in wonder.
Michelle turned to him, waving her fist his way. James crouched to her level, and she touched his face. Beth held her breath, biting back hysterical laughter as he kissed her daughter’s wrist.
* * * *
James reached out and took the bonnet from Beth’s hand, settling it on the little girl’s head, covering her blonde curls, chuckling as she fought the process. Twins! He could barely comprehend how lucky she was to have two precious baby girls. They were beautiful babies.
A few moments’ delay, and I would have orphaned them. I con
sidered ignoring their need for a damned hamburger! He swallowed a cry of dismay at that thought. It was the truth. Ani help him, he’d honestly considered taking the time to eat at the risk of this woman and her children.
Never again. He touched the baby’s chubby cheek, managing an honest smile as she honored him with one of her own. “I’ll see you home,” he assured her.
“That’s really not—”
He snapped his gaze to Beth and the other baby, rising to his feet slowly. She took a deep breath, meeting his eyes steadily. James lifted the child from her arms, untangling the baby’s fist from her mother’s shoulder-length, slightly-darker than honey hair. He strapped her into the stroller behind her sister, topping off the job with the second bonnet.
Then he smiled at the sitter. “Good night, Alice.”
The silver-haired woman straightened her dress with a blush. “And to you.”
James rolled the stroller onto the front porch.
Behind him, Alice whispered to Beth, “That man is one you grab onto and hold tight, dear.”
He smiled at that, lifting the stroller down the single step to the sidewalk. Why couldn’t he pursue this? Not that I have much of a choice with my family history. Armens are fond of saving the ladies in distress and bringing them home as mates.
If Beth were willing, he could have more than he’d ever dreamed of. Few Warriors were lucky enough to have a daughter, and two were unheard of, even when they adopted daughters in.
His smile faded at the sight of Beth, her amber eyes assessing him. She wouldn’t be easy to court. She was a sensible woman. On the surface, his life wouldn’t seem a sensible choice.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she began cautiously.