Primal Burdens: (The Uruwashi Series #5)

by Christina Moore

  She swallowed visibly. “Pollux used a spell to overpower me and then he abused me and when he was done he forced me to drink another spell and when I awoke in the car with you, I did not know you or where I was, only that I had someplace to go, but not why…”

  He took a moment to meditate past his anger. She’d been hurt again by her kind and worse, she accepted it. “Castor told me that the wonder twins are working for Nastasia, that she’s coming for us.”

  Ash flinched, her eyes full of emotion he didn’t understand. “Na—Nastasia. What else did he say?”

  Tristan frowned at her sudden closed off mien. He knew it all too well. “Nothing—” He stopped short, frowning as his attention was drawn again to the vampires below. “Are they doing what I think they’re doing?”

  Ash didn’t smile but her eyes were shimmering with laughter. “They were fighting just a moment ago, but you know how quickly anger can melt into lust.”

  Tristan shuttered. Yeah, he felt them fighting. He also felt Desmond’s relief when he was let out of the cell and that it’d been Wren in particular who was there. Now, the anger was still there, but the lust was stronger.

  “So much for breaking in our own place.”

  Ash gave way to a smirk. “The smell will dissipate soon enough.”

  Tristan took a moment. Then shook his head. “Um, anyway… yeah. Nastasia. Who is she and why is she after us? Is she working for Mother?” Because that’s all that made sense to him. And regardless of who she was, the fact that she was loaded with powerful pythia spells and commanded two Masters had to mean she was a force. Jesus, he hoped he didn’t have himself another kodaijin foe. Maybe he should have asked Innokentiy to stick around for a while…

  Ash said nothing and Tristan moved closer, touching her knee. “Ash?”

  She looked away but Tristan saw the tears rise in her eyes. “She is someone who never should have been given this life.”

  “Don’t do this, not now. I can’t—” He stopped. How did he make her understand that his fragile human mind, his conscious was on the verge of the abyss and it would only take a tiny push for him to fall and be lost forever? He knew he needed to find a way to deal with all the death before he lost himself or went mad. There was just too much happening all at once.

  “She is…” Ash let out a sigh, putting a hand to her head. “A lost soul. She was too innocent to be made one of us. The transformation changed her more than simply killing her, it broke her mind. And what the transformation didn’t destroy in her, Malik did.”

  “She was one of his?” Tristan remembered Ash telling him once that Malik had a sidekick of sorts, a woman who kept the other women in line. He abused her like the others but she was so wrapped up in her admiration of him, she accepted her fate, even welcomed it. Stockholm at its best.

  “He did not make her, but he claimed her as his own. She beat us as often as Malik did… He twisted her into something—He used her and now she uses these boys.”

  “So, she’s a Master, How old are we talking here?”

  Ash flinched. “She’s only a few decades younger than I.”

  Damn. “So she’s your equal?”

  Ash looked away quickly. She was silent for a long time, staring off into space.

  “Ash?”

  “Maybe she saw herself in these boys,” she said, almost absently to herself. “I bit the one called Pollux… William, is his name.” She looked up, focusing her words on him again. “His twin is Benjamin. They were good boys, growing up in the rough years of America’s colonization. They helped care for their little sisters and do chores around the house without being asked. They were happy children in a hard life… until the night before their sixteenth birthday when a vagrant killed their parents and two little sisters over a few coins and a fresh loaf of bread. And they were to die too if it weren’t for the vampire who’d had his eye on them.”

  “And Nastasia’s this vampire?”

  “No, Tyndareus. He was actually rather gentle and treated them well. He had wanted them, but couldn’t bring himself to take them, not with how happy they were in their family. The thief was the catalyst to push him into taking those boys.”

  “Watch them die as mortals or live forever as vampires.”

  Ash nodded. “Yes. He was kind and ever patient with them. Teaching them to be gentle monsters, how to feed without taking life, but it was too late. The boys allowed themselves to get caught up in the ecstasy of feeding and the kill. They traveled the colonies for a time. The boys would give their Master the slip and run off to kill three, sometimes four or five humans in a night. Not all of them were fed from and most were mutilated.

  “Tyndareus would inevitably clean up the mess after them, scolding them but end up taking them into his bed later, offering them solace that he himself needed. His love for them was so blinding that he couldn’t enforce his word. He suspected his time was coming to an end. Perhaps he brought it upon himself by not killing them when he knew he should have.”

  Tristan frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Ash?” he said so softly he might not have even of said it aloud. Thoughts were starting to spin out of control in his mind as he started to put pieces of a puzzle together that he hadn’t even known he had.

  She was staring off at nothing, her thoughts a hum of energy around her that seemed to touch Tristan.

  “If they were such good kids in life, what happened? I mean, Pollux, he—” Tristan stopped when Ash’s attention snapped to him, her jaw set hard. Yeah, she knew what he did.

  “Humans, they are such weak and tragic creatures. Vampire too, once human, by right are weak and tragic creatures. A stronger mind does not mean an infallible mind. It is…,” she whispered reverently. “Very sad. So many lives were ruined for the selfishness of a single vampire.”

  He leaned forward to touch her hand. She flinched but didn’t pull away. “There’s something more, isn’t there? Something you need to tell me, one last secret?”

  Ash bit into her lip, her eyes widening slightly. She nodded almost unperceivably. “My damning,” she whispered.

  “You know you can trust your secrets with me. Whatever they are.”

  Again, that tiny nod. “Yes, you’re correct.” Ash took in a deep breath as if preparing herself. “I’m not sure how else to put this other than blunt. So here is blunt. Nastasia is—”

  The atmosphere in the whole house shifted, everyone on alert. The pulse of a new presence slammed into Tristan. He felt Wren and Desmond react the same moment Ash did. And then he was letting out a cry of surprise and rushing after her through the atrium and towards the front room. They stopped in the hallway between the atrium and front sitting room, staring at their unwelcomed guest.

  With a low growl of anger, Tristan handed Ash her sword from off his hip then pulled a gun for himself. The plus side of being stateside was that guns were legal, even if Maryland didn’t have a legal conceal policy. More than that, the sound of gun shots in South County usually weren’t a cause for concern. Though, it was late…

  And there sat Pollux at Ash’s piano in a pair of low slung jeans that showed his ass crack. He hadn’t bothered with the talisman tonight, showing off his pale Master complexion.

  A moment later Wren and Desmond came flying up from the basement to join the crowd gawking at Pollux.

  The vampire smiled secretly to himself at his growing audience and started to tinker with the keys, banging out a ditty that seemed familiar to Tristan.

  “Wren?” Tristan said, his voice low and clipped, barely contained anger heating him from the inside out. “Will you go outside to find Castor?”

  “Ye—Yes. Mochiron. Master? Will you accompany?”

  Desmond grunted angrily but they left through the deck slider, leaving Tristan and Ash alone with the mouthy brother.

  Still stabbing at the keys, Pollux said, “Nastasia’s out there too.” He glanced up, smiling at Ash. “Waiting for you.”

  Tristan could feel the unease coming off
Ash. Now, whether it was facing a man who’d raped her or knowing she might have to face a woman that she had strong feelings over, enough that she wouldn’t even tell Tristan what they were, he didn’t know. “Go on,” he said to her, refusing to look away from Pollux. “I got him.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, voice low and breathy.

  Pollux turned his head to grin fangs at them.

  “Yep. I need to have a talk with little Pollux here. Just us boys.”

  Ash nodded and rushed out the open slider into the night. As her presence disappeared, Pollux belted out a little song, banging at the piano.

  “Little bro Cas, Sat on his ass;

  “Eating his juice and cruor;

  “Along came a man, To give him a hand;

  “After a while, Brother said with a smile;

  “Sorry chum, Not your bum—”

  The music cut off and Pollux looked over his shoulder with an enormous grin.

  “I prefer your stash, I’ll just fuck Ash.”

  The roar in Tristan’s ears was his own angry cry. The sofa provided only a small obstacle as he bounded over the back, clearing it. His right foot clipped the coffee table though, and he fell to his knees but was already firing at the vampire.

  He unloaded most of the clip before he realized he was only destroying Ash’s piano bench. He cursed, realizing his error too late and when he tried to turn with the gun, he was kicked from behind. He went sprawling on the area rug. Pollux landed on his back, smashing Tristan’s face into the floor and jerking the gun from his hand. The gun was tossed away and Tristan sighed when it landed across the room, tinging against the fireplace screen. The second gun in his holster was taken and tossed aside with the other.

  His arm was wrenched behind his back and jerked upwards hard enough that his shoulder almost dislocated. Refusing to cry out, Tristan groaned into the rug, getting a whiff of new carpet stink.

  “Now, what to do.” The vampire wiggled where he sat on Tristan’s waist. Tristan tried not to groan in disgust as he felt how happy the vampire was to see him. At least they both had their pants on still.

  Fucking vampires and their libido.

  “I’ve got a few ideas,” Tristan growled as he sent out clear thoughts that involved Pollux’s dismemberment.

  There was a sharp sting on his cheek where Pollux slapped him. “Don’t be so fucking morbid. I was told I can’t bite you, but we can have some erotic fun before I turn you over to Nastasia.” He leaned down, pushing on Tristan’s arm again, taking the breath from him as a sharp sting penetrated his shoulder blade. “We’ve got only a few minutes, big boy. And I like it rough. You’re going to hurt, but it’ll be worth it, I promise.”

  Tristan tested the vampire’s hold again, talking at the same time in hopes of distracting him. “What does Nastasia want with me anyway?”

  Pollux held on with unwavering strength. “Oh, you don’t know?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Tristan could see that the vampire was genuinely surprised that Tristan didn’t know who she was.

  “Wait… You don’t know who she is, do you?”

  With a little curse, Tristan shut up his mind. He meant to after he mentally threatened the kid, but forgot, caught up in panic and pain.

  Pollux laughed and laughed. Too bad his grip never loosened on Tristan’s arm. The muscles in his shoulder were shuddering now as they protested against the strain.

  “Oh my god, this is so perfect.”

  “You know, I’m getting fucking tired of the bullshit. Get on with whatever it is you want already. I’ve got places to be, shit to do.”

  “Ooooh,” he purred close to Tristan’s ear. “You like it up the ass that much?”

  Tristan let out a slow breath. He thought about knocking Pollux in the face with his head, but he risked getting a set of fangs in the back of his skull doing that. So he did what he should have done in the first place and pulled his legs up under him. Pollux wasn’t very big or heavy and yelped when Tristan got up on his knees and one hand.

  With a violent buck that probably looked funny rather than badass, he sent the vampire off him and scrambled up, toddling across the rug towards the fireplace and his gun. He was stopped short by a pair of strong hands on his ankles and was jerked backwards. He cried out angrily, twisting to put his back to the floor and kicked out. Pollux took the hit to his chin but still held on.

  Tristan kicked again and again until the vampire let go. He grabbed his gun and aimed it at Pollux. The vampire only stared at him, blonde colored eyes held open widely. All the playfulness had left his expression and everything under his nose was covered in blood. It dripped on his bare chest, the new rug Ash’d picked out.

  “You’re not playing fair,” the vampire said in soft voice as if Tristan had hurt his feelings by pulling his hair at recess. Then his demeanor shifted abruptly, his expression registering surprise and Pollux shot out of the room.

  “Stop!” Tristan darted after the vampire and stopped when he disappeared outside through the open deck slider. “Goddammit,” he grumbled.

  Rushing into the night, he followed the vampire’s presence. Wherever Ash and the others had gone, they were far past what Tristan could sense and he just hoped that everyone was okay. It was four—five if you counted the fae out in the van—against three. He liked that ratio.

  Following Pollux’s faint presence down the deck stairs to the lower patio, then across the backyard and over the fence, Tristan found himself standing in front of the barn. With a deep frown, he stopped, realizing it wasn’t Pollux inside, but the other one, Castor.

  “Marco!” he called out.

  And just when he thought there’d be no answer, Castor’s dry, nearly monotone voice called out, “Pollo.”

  Despite himself, Tristan smirked. He popped the clip on his gun to check the count, sighed at the four bullets left, and slapped it back into place. He still had the katana and two knives on him, but he hated getting that close with or without orders to not bite the Uruwashi. Jesus, what was that all about anyway?

  Just as he was walked into the barn, he stopped. He noticed the smell on a subconscious level outside, but now, standing in the closed space, air dense and close, he realized what he’d noticed before with a disgusted horror.

  “Jesus Christ, why the fuck are you gonna burn down a perfectly good barn?”

  There was no answer and Tristan rushed down the aisle, searching stall to stall until he found the source.

  “Shit!”

  The fire had already claimed two walls of the end stall and had made embers of the roof that was on the verge of full flames. He spun to find something to put out the flames with and came to a hard stop.

  Castor stood in the middle of the aisle behind him, arms crossed over his chest and looking stoic as ever.

  “Round two,” Tristan muttered under his breath and dove right in. The vampire wasn’t expecting the impulsive response and his eyes widened as Tristan plowed into him, taking the smaller man off his feet.

  Tristan pinned the vampire’s back to a post, his left arm jammed up under Castor’s neck, choking him, the other holding the gun steady to the boy’s head. A head shot could kill fledglings, but it only slowed down a Master. “Why does Nastasia want me?”

  Castor stared unflinchingly into Tristan’s eyes. “You are just a means to an end. To her revenge.”

  Tristan was both surprised that the man answered and the answer itself. Especially if it was the truth. Somehow, he thought it was.

  Seemingly understanding Tristan’s confusion, Castor added, “Hurting you hurts Asta.”

  “And what exactly did Ash do to her?” From what he gathered, Nastasia was the abuser, at Malik’s behest.

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  Everyone else seemed to know who she was and that they wouldn’t tell him was really starting to piss him off. “She’s Mother’s servant,” he guessed sounding really confident despite believing the complete opposite.

  Ca
stor actually frowned. He looked sincere, as if he felt bad for Tristan’s obvious ignorance. “I don’t know this Mother you speak of.” He paused, considering before he added, “Nastasia Moriakos is her mortal name.”

  Tristan’s jaw dropped with a gasp. “Moriakos…?”

  “Nastasia is Asta’s human child and immortal scion.”

  8: This is Not Hell

  THERE were no words. He knew Ash had her secrets, but he always thought that they were small, insignificant in the big order of things. But this, this was huge. How could she hide this from him all this time? Why?

  Then he thought back on their last conversation. When she was talking about the twins and their unfortunate downfall, he felt she was also talking about herself. Now he knew, it seemed so clear now. The twins were to Tyndareus as Nastasia was to her, only worse because Ash made a vampire of her own daughter.

  “I,” he started, at a loss for words. And then, like a switch flipped, they just came pouring out of him, he had no control but every single word was the truth. “I don’t want to kill you. I know about you and your brother, the life you’ve had and I don’t think you really mean to be the way you are. It’s not right to kill you just because you’re a vampire. You deserve a second chance, a chance to be good.”

  Castor studied him for a time, all the while the crack and pop of flames at Tristan’s back making him sweat and shake with anxiety. He wasn’t afraid of fire, but it did hold its own set of unpleasant memories for Tristan. His mom didn’t die from the car crash, it was the fire that came after that took her.

  “You don’t know anything about us.”

  “You don’t think so?” Tristan challenged and let go of the block on his mind. He let the brother hear everything he learned from Ash and how he felt bad for their fate, a fate he understood all the more clearly now that he knew about Nastasia. “You were good kids, Benjamin.”

  The boy flinched at hearing his given name.