A Mermaid's Ransom

by Joey W. Hill

  "He can," Alexis said firmly. "With the three of you, I couldn't be safer."

  "We go to see the eldest of the vampire kind. Assume nothing." Mina began to etch a circle around them, presumably to transport them to the vampire in question.

  As Alexis retrieved Dante's drawing, locked the car then returned to the circle, she sensed Dante's tension had moved to what lay ahead. She took his hand again, risking that he might pull away. While he didn't, his fingers were tense, unresponsive, his body prepared for the possibility of another threat. It made it all the more critical she go with him.

  You're going to find out more about your kind, Dante. That's a good thing. And I will have faith in you. Try to have faith in yourself.

  It will not be my kind. No species welcomes half-breeds.

  MINA grouped them around her and ordered everyone to grip her arms, Dante and Alexis's hands on her right, David's on her left. Alexis noticed his thumb caressed his mate's elbow, then Mina uttered a short enchantment and the world spun.

  She knew the witch was powerful, but her command of magic was always breathtaking in its effortlessness. While there was the brief sensation of traveling in a tunnel, it was barely a blink of time, before it was over. Alexis swayed, disoriented, as they materialized outside a wrought iron gate.

  "We're at Lady Lyssa's Atlanta home," Mina explained. The gate buzzed, as if someone was watching for their arrival, and she pushed it open, guiding them in. Dusk was drawing in, but the drive was well lit, leading them up a paved, long driveway to a plantation house with graceful columns and stunning roses clustered along the borders and against the foundation of the estate. "She's of royal blood," Mina was continuing, "the last queen of the Far East clan of vampires, and over a thousand years old. I'd be careful of that attitude of yours." She shot Dante a warning glance. "Much as I'd enjoy seeing her knock it out of you, the point is to find out about your mother and background. Her willingness to help can vanish if she's provoked."

  In response, Dante stopped and spun on his heel, bringing Alexis behind him in the same movement. He'd removed the sunglasses for the transport, and now his eyes glowed like embers in the shadows of twilight, light glistening off bared fangs.

  When an ominous pair of growls answered out of the darkness, David put his hands to his daggers and stepped in front of Mina, presenting a solid male front.

  A short command and the growling subsided. A man stepped out of the darkness with two Irish wolfhounds at his heels. Tall and handsome, with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes, his aura, similar to Dante's, told Alexis they were facing a vampire. While he wore jeans and a T-shirt, it was deceptively casual, like Mina's. It would be unwise to overlook the vibrant focus of his eyes, the otherworldly strength emanating from the lean body.

  "You asked to meet with my lady as guests, but your behavior suggests something different," he said, a faint Irish lilt in his voice. Though there were a variety of powers before him, he accurately kept his gaze pinned on Dante as the most unpredictable threat. "I'd take the witch's advice and tone it down, if you have any desire to meet with her."

  "He's new to your ways," Alexis spoke up. But when she moved to stand beside Dante, he blocked her.

  Stay where you are, and do not speak, Alexis.

  "Which is why I gave him the courtesy of the warning," the other vampire replied. He changed his attention to Mina, though he paused for an intrigued assessment of David, particularly the one black and one white wing the angel possessed. "I'm Jacob, Lady Lyssa's servant. We spoke before."

  "I figured." Mina nodded. "She's correct. Dante isn't used to being around your kind . . . or anyone much other than Dark Ones. He's not housebroken."

  "Which means, like the dogs, he won't be permitted into my house until he learns manners." The shadows moved, and materialized into a woman.

  Lex, still getting her mind wrapped around the idea that Lady Lyssa had a vampire as her servant, rather than a human, tilted further on her axis. The woman in front of her had a vampire vibration, but it was like a memory. Something far different and more conspicuous ran through her veins.

  Lex was used to being around powerful entities. Mina was probably the strongest, with her father a close second, close enough she'd always hoped they would never be on opposing battle lines. While the vampire queen was not on par with those two, there was a heady, exotic perfume to the forces that swirled around her that gave Alexis pause. Jacob's energy imprint meshed unexpectedly with them, as if they shared the same power source. Apart, she wouldn't want to anger either of them. Together, she suspected they could have an impact similar to a category five hurricane.

  Aside from the powers of destruction she might harbor, Lyssa had another potent weapon. Long black hair and jade eyes with a hint of Asian ancestry complimented a petite, graceful frame that emitted an overwhelming wave of sensuality. While the two males remained in alert posture, a simmering violence from Dante and calm readiness from David, Alexis picked up an additional attentiveness toward the vampire queen that made her grimace.

  Surprisingly, Lady Lyssa ignored Dante and Alexis, riveted on David instead. Lex remembered how Jacob had paused on his wings, and now her jade eyes focused there as well, only for a more lingering regard. "How amazing," the vampire queen noted at last. "A thousand years, and there is always more to see. I remember the Mountain Battle, of course, and saw your kind then, but there was little time to observe you before you were gone. Would you be offended if I touched one of your wings?"

  Her tone remained as royal and remote as if she'd commanded it, but David shook his head and stepped forward several paces. He stretched out the white one, so it curved forward over his bare shoulder. Alexis noted that the position kept him facing both Jacob and Lyssa. His left hand remained on the hilt of one of his daggers. Jacob noted it as well, for he stepped forward, closer to his lady.

  "I mean her no harm if she does none to me or mine," David said.

  "I would say the same."

  David nodded, the two males apparently in accord. Lex glanced at Dante. He was radiating the most tension of the group. It wasn't hard to understand why. They were surrounded by incredibly potent energies. Dante's might be at a lower decibel, but possessed a far more erratic tempo, which she suspected was why Jacob's regard remained on him, even with a watchful eye on David.

  Lyssa laid her hand on the wing, stroking her finger through the feathers. A look of wonder appeared on her face as she glanced toward Jacob. "You can feel the heat coming from them, the light energy." Drifting down, she followed the feathers to the ends and grazed David's forearm, the silver arm brace he wore there, engraved with praises to the Goddess. The opposite one had a dragon engraving, which Alexis knew was his tribute to Mina. Lyssa cocked her head, as if someone had spoken to her, and her eyes glinted.

  "My mate says I cannot resist touching," she said.

  "Try."

  Mina's voice was every bit as remote as the vampire queen's, but there was a power resonance to it that shuddered through the ground, sending a chill breeze rippling through the trees above them. It shifted Jacob's attention from Dante to Mina instantly. Alexis was so accustomed to Mina's general scariness, it was a surprise to see Jacob had assumed David and Dante were the ones to be reckoned with, overlooking who the strongest force for destruction was in this gathering. Lyssa's gaze had locked with the witch's. After a long, testing moment, she inclined her head with a feral smile and withdrew her hand. Alexis admired her unruffled demeanor.

  "You are most fortunate. Things are not always as they seem." The vampire queen gave David a second, more assessing look. "But then, who holds the reins isn't always about who has the most power, is it?"

  Mina blinked once. "No, it's not. But either one of us is more than capable of curing you of your need to touch."

  The queen laughed then, a silvery sound that whispered along nerve endings and made Alexis think of secret desires, caresses in the dark. "Your power is great, witch, but you cannot have a jewel like
that and not expect him to be desired." She glanced then toward her mate, meeting Jacob's intent blue eyes, her gaze lingering on his serious mouth. "I have no designs on your mate, except for how the pleasure of his body makes me think of the pleasure of the one that belongs to me."

  Now her gaze returned to Dante, and Alexis's stomach tightened with anxiety. "You are vampire, and yet other," she observed. She glanced at Alexis. "And you are his fully marked servant. The form of it is different, because of the Dark One blood. Or perhaps because of what you are."

  Dante shifted, blocking her view, and Lyssa came back to him. "Your face is familiar," she said.

  "We have a drawing of his mother." Alexis spoke up again, but when she tried to move out of Dante's shadow once more, he recaptured her arm, only this time his grip was less controlled, biting into the bone like a bear trap. She gasped, and if she'd held the paper in that hand she would have dropped it.

  "Ease off." The warning came from Jacob and David at the same time. Lyssa stepped forward, but whatever she communicated to Jacob stayed his forward progress. Alexis bit her lip against the pain, trying to control her reaction so things didn't escalate. The challenge from both males had Dante's power rushing to the forefront like an approaching torpedo, alarms blaring louder and faster in her head. Mina might have been correct, that her presence was more detrimental than useful here. The smell of singed flesh told her the collar was working. She wasn't sure if she was more concerned about it hurting Dante, or Mina realizing how little of a deterrent it was to him.

  Lyssa cocked her head, her expression that dispassionate mask that Alexis knew could hide so much. She felt little from the queen but calm readiness, however. "A vampire's servant is his to command, Dante. To punish if he sees fit. But there is a bond there that should never be abused. It is the one constant in a vampire's life. Do you understand me? Of course you don't. But you will." She held out her hand. "You are trying to protect her, but maiming her is not the way to do it. Release her and let her hand me this picture."

  "I want her out of here," Dante hissed at Mina. The witch moved forward another step, so she and David were both close to Dante, close enough to act against him, Alexis realized. They felt the imminent violence from him as she did.

  "You insisted she come along. So did she. Now let go of her, before I take your arm off at the elbow." The witch's voice was frost.

  Dante, they're trying to protect me. That's why they're acting this way. They see you as a threat, because of how you're holding me. Believe me. Please let go of my arm.

  A long pause, and then she heard his grudging response. Very well, but do not move from my side. Agreed?

  Agreed. Please, you really are hurting me.

  His fingers loosened and she drew a steadying breath, cradling the arm against her in the hopes the throbbing might subside. She might have lost her nerve entirely then, but her attention was caught by Jacob's emotions--encouragement and surprising wry commiseration. When she met his direct blue gaze, it was as if he'd said it aloud: Vampires. What can you do with them? The quirk at his lips made him seem almost human. Thank Goddess, it also gave her the necessary fortitude to hand the picture to Lady Lyssa.

  Slim, elegant fingers bedecked with rings took it. Lyssa studied it, her hair falling forward over her shoulder. With the ease of long habit, Jacob came and slid her hair back so it wasn't in her way. As he did, he placed a kiss on her throat, below her ear. Tilting her head away, she gave him that access, murmuring as he straightened and they looked together.

  She looked up at Dante. "I did know your mother. Come inside."

  "SHE was nearly two hundred when she disappeared. Not very old for our kind, just embracing her adult years, really."

  Jacob had taken them to a library, which held a circle of comfortable chairs and an impressive compilation of hundreds of books lining the walls. On the desk, Alexis was bemused to see a small stack of superhero comics. They rested in skewed fashion on top of a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit. Under the desk was a small rubber bear, a toy an infant might use for teething.

  Lyssa sat down in the desk chair and Jacob took a position on the wall behind her, arms crossed. While he wouldn't move in front of his lady, Alexis had the same sense she'd had when David imposed himself between Mina and the male vampire. He was protecting what he considered his to protect, and would do so, even if it cost his life.

  Dante had been directed to take a chair across from the desk. While David stood behind Mina's chair in similar fashion to Jacob, Dante apparently did not want Alexis at his back where he couldn't see her or control her movements. Easing her down to the floor between his knees, he kept a hand on her shoulder there. Lyssa and Jacob did not seem to find that unexpected, but David gave her a quizzical look, confirming that Alexis was all right with the position. She gave him a slight nod.

  Males were strange animals, she knew, and it seemed when a girl was dealing with one closer to his primal roots than others, he became even stranger. The atmosphere wasn't quite as charged in the library as it had been out in the courtyard, but there was still a wariness among the males keeping everyone on alert. They were too far away from the craft room environment of earlier in the day, and suddenly, she'd had enough of it.

  "Lady Lyssa," she said politely, "do you have a child?"

  Lyssa's jade eyes riveted onto her face. Alexis held her gaze until Jacob made a slight noise, gaining her attention and breaking the contact. The intent regard had been unsettling, but more than that, she felt some shift had occurred, possibly not a good one.

  "She doesn't know, my lady," Jacob noted quietly, and Lyssa lifted a shoulder, expression unreadable. He glanced at Alexis, and then at Dante. "Human servants don't meet the gazes of vampires unless invited to do so."

  "Oh. My apologies, my lady," Alexis said, then discovered the difficulty of speaking to someone without looking at them. She recalled Jacob had not seemed concerned when she'd met his gaze earlier, but he was also a vampire serving as another vampire's servant. It was confusing, but from Mina's sharp glance, she realized now was not the time to get mired in speculation.

  "Er . . . was my question inappropriate?" Damn it, unless they could all unbend enough to have a real conversation, this wasn't going to go well.

  "No," Lyssa said at last. "You may look at me, child. It makes me dizzy, your eyes darting all over the place. We have a son." She glanced up at Jacob. "His name is Kane. Right now he is with the majordomo of our estate, Mr. Ingram, probably being allowed to wreak havoc in my rose garden."

  "But you're both--I thought, two vampires couldn't . . ."

  "It's extremely rare, but it does happen. Jacob is a made vampire. We conceived Kane when Jacob was my human servant."

  "I still serve you, my lady," Jacob replied, his hand curved around the back of the chair, fingertips brushing her shoulder. Lex felt the unmistakable bond between them. The vampire queen loved this male with all she was. This, despite the reproving look she sent him.

  "When it suits you."

  His grin loosened the knots in her gut. But before Lex could draw an easy breath, Lyssa returned her attention to Dante. The muscle in his calf was taut beneath Alexis's fingers.

  "Were you old enough to know your mother's name before she died?"

  "She never told me her name. She never named me, either." Dante's impassive expression deepened.

  Lyssa nodded, considering that. "When I knew her, she called herself Lana Devereaux, though I suspected she changed her name. She was a made vampire, sired in the early 1800s. She stayed with her sire for some time and then went on her own path, as vampires often do. She liked to design clothes. Before she was made, she was a seamstress for a royal tailor who took all the credit for her design work. But after she became a vampire and gathered more resources to her, she opened her own dress shop. She was accomplished, intelligent and overly romantic, hence the name. In the early twentieth century, she had a fondness for the cinema."

  Lyssa lifted her hand to intertwin
e with Jacob's. "Lana was in love many times, but she thought she'd found her soul mate in Lord Willingham, who was a vampire overlord in London at the time, and is now a Region Master. Unfortunately, he was torn between two female vampires, one of them being your mother. The other was Eleanor. She kept a female servant whom she shared with Lord Willingham on occasion. When he conceived a child with Eleanor's human servant, his choice was made, for vampire children are so rare they can be considered a compass direction for Fate. He bound himself to Eleanor."

  Alexis looked at Dante. He was staring fixedly at the queen, but he could have been a statue. The tension in him had changed, become something she couldn't define, which she now knew meant he was feeling something he probably didn't understand himself. She tightened her grip on his calf.

  "Lana fell into a deep depression when he rejected her. When she disappeared soon after that, it was assumed she'd chosen to meet the sun." Lyssa passed her free hand over the drawing in an attitude of regret. "Vampires do that at times. Though she was young for such a decision, she was romantically inclined, as I said. It was not improbable. She designed a dress for me, all those years ago. That is how I knew of her. We were not friends, but she spoke during my fittings, as women will, revealing more personal things about herself. It is also my business to know a great deal about many other vampires."

  She angled her attention back to Dante. "Mina has told me things I did not know, and likely did not want to know. About angels and Dark Ones, and rifts in our world. Unlike the humans, we of course did not forget the Mountain Battle, but still we knew little of what had actually happened. While I will say it's useful to have a greater understanding of these matters, the knowledge may bring me more nightmares than comfort. I don't know how your mother was taken by Dark Ones, though her depression likely lowered her guard, made her more vulnerable to predators."

  Lex pictured an elegant woman who would have been besotted with Greta Garbo and Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr. Had she not been taken by Dark Ones, she could have designed their gowns, a fashion designer renowned by Hollywood and fitting into their eccentricities perfectly by only working during night hours.