Something tugged at me. Something familiar and yet so Dark. Something that mirrored me. That matched me in its opposites. That completed a part of me I hadn’t even realised was missing.
“Luc,” I whispered, making the sounds of the room rush back in as if I’d been inside a bubble and speaking had burst it. I could hear my mother’s heartbeat. I could hear the odd, stilted breath of a vampire. I could hear the sounds of footsteps but no one was moving.
“Cut your palm, Éliane,” Alain murmured.
I looked into the eyes of the vampire beside me. My betrothed kindred. My father’s spy master. The one being Papa trusted above all others, save my mother.
The footsteps got closer. The pull on my heart, on my soul, on my Light grew stronger. I made a sound. Half whimper, half cry of relief. The Ambrosia smiled.
And Luc appeared at my side, reaching for the knife and flinging it wide.
Gasps sounded out. Sanguis Vitam filled the air. Alain shouted something. My mother screamed in surprise. And Papa’s voice boomed out, bouncing around the room as though magnified.
“Stop!”
I realised the command was laced in Sanguis Vitam. More Sanguis Vitam than my father alone possessed. He was pulling on the combined power of the Iunctio, and it slowly dawned on me that he was using that power to contain them. Halt them in their tracks. To stop them from attacking my brother.
I turned to look at my twin, my heart falling. Tears filling my eyes, my chest aching. So Dark. So not him. So not Lucien; the fun loving, wise cracking, adventure seeking brother I had known. So Dark.
The moment stood suspended. The Iunctio and their guards held in place by the will of my father. My mother shifted a step and Luc growled. A vampire growl. An anger-filled sound.
So Dark.
“Luc,” my mother whispered, hurt and worry mixing with shock and fear.
“Son,” Papa said, his voice almost cracking.
My eyes darted between them, between my brother and my father. Had he known? Did he know this would happen? Was this why he hadn’t gone after Luc, because Dark consumed him?
No. My father was a hard man, necessity made him that way, but he loved my brother. He loved us both. And Michel Durand would walk on burning coals to save either of us from Darkness.
“Luc,” I said softly. My brother’s gaze turned to me and momentarily softened. He reached out a hand, as though to grasp mine, and then writhed in pain, his limbs contorting, revealing the battle he fought to maintain control of his body.
“Oh, Luc,” I whispered, automatically reaching out to him with my Light.
He stilled. Hung his head and breathed raggedly. My Light holding him up, taking some of the weight off his shoulders.
So much Darkness. Had Hakan done this? The vampire I had thought was my equal?
“I need you,” my brother managed to whisper, the effort it cost him was obvious. Sweat beaded his brow, his fists clenched beside bunched thighs. He panted for breath as though suffocating. “He needs you,” he added, twisting his face in a parody of the incredibly handsome man he’d become.
“Who does?” I asked, the room silent. Whether from my father’s influence or not, I couldn’t tell. My concentration was all for my brother.
“Bey Hakan Bahar,” he said, as though the vampire deserved the title.
“You’ve escaped him,” I started, excitement cursing through me. “We can help you.”
He shook his head. “Only the Mhachkay can help me now.”
“No,” I argued. “You’re here. He’s not. Please, Luc!”
“El,” he murmured, wrapping an overheated hand around my arm, above my Sigillum. I glanced down at his own arm, his own mark, noting for the first time that it was colourless.
Oh, Goddess. What did that mean?
“El,” my brother said more forcefully. “How do you think I got here?”
My eyes met the deep brown of my brother’s, at once so familiar and warm to me, yet they had changed. I saw the pain he was suffering. The fear that the Dark was winning. The hope when he looked in my face.
“What do you need?” I asked without hesitation.
“Together,” he said between clenched teeth, fighting, fighting, fighting. He was constantly fighting the Dark that had taken possession. My heart bled. “Together you can fix this. Please.”
Together? Did he mean me and Hakan? Me and the Mhachkay?
I started shaking my head and Papa moved. Just a step. Just a little closer.
Luc growled again, his body twisting, his grip on my arm almost breaking the bone beneath.
“Papa,” I said, half in question, half in warning. What did I do?
So Dark.
This changed everything.
“You once told me that family was all that mattered,” I said, my eyes finding and holding those of my father’s. His vampire stared back; I wasn’t even sure if Michel Durand was there to listen. “That a vampire’s line, his family, was all that kept him sane. In check. Safe.”
The dragon nodded.
“Luc is my family.”
“No,” Mama cried, Papa reached out instantly and wrapped an arm about her before she could run to us. She thrummed with Light, but he had the combined power of the Iunctio. And he was her kindred. She lost the battle, slumping against his chest and sobbing.
I swallowed thickly, feeling the pressure of Luc’s call, the pressure of the Darkness.
“He needs me,” I whispered. Here was my choice. Here was my power.
It was easy, really. Luc was the better part of me. I would not let him suffer. I would not let him down. I would die for my brother. I would sacrifice everything to keep him alive and full of Light.
I turned to face him, stared at the Darkness head on. I wasn’t sure if Hakan had done this, and now couldn’t contain what he’d created. I wasn’t sure if this was simply a well thought out trap. But I knew my brother, and what stood before me was a shadow, thick and dark and black.
Go, Papa’s voice sounded out inside my head. Help your brother, he said, the words wrenched from deep within him. You are the Blood Enchanted, he whispered, as though it was getting harder to reach inside my mind. You are my most prized accomplishment. Go, the word whispered inside my head.
I took a step toward Luc, feeling the rightness of the decision, even as I felt unsure of what lay ahead. Even as I doubted I could break through that much Darkness and free my brother. Even as I questioned whose side Hakan Bahar was on.
Who was the enemy here? Who was I fighting?
Hakan? The enchanted blood that coursed through Luc’s and my veins, gifting me with Light and him with Darkness? Something other? Something parasitic?
The Light Fey had broken loose. Alain was more than my father realised. And Hakan Bahar, an awoken Prince of Mhachkay, awaited.
I grasped my brother’s hand, let the ribbons inside guide me and glanced over my shoulder.
My eyes met Alain’s, fighting my father’s hold over him. Fighting to get to me. He was frantic. Like he’d been frantic at Travis’ when the Light Fey had captured me. He slowly, laboriously, lifted one hand in the air between us, reaching out for something that had never been his to take.
And I wondered who was playing whom. Alain, the steadfast, loyal spy master. Or the prince of a long thought dead Empire, intricately woven with the history of my father.
As the room disappeared around me and a familiar bedroom scene coalesced before my eyes, I realised one more thing. It had been too easy. He’d let us walk away. Why?
What could make my father stand immobile, holding back the councillors and my mother, and Alain? Fear? Or something else? Calculation?
Survive at all costs. But his survival or ours?
Was there one more player in this twisted game?
I stood in the middle of Hakan Bahar’s bedroom, lost, confused, more alone than I’d ever truly been. The enormous bed still lay in disarray as if sending a message. The rumpled placement of the sheets a hint of
what was to come. I refused to be kowtowed.
I turned, noticing my brother had disappeared, a cold tendril of fear unfurling inside me, and met the silver and ice-blue eyes of the Bey.
And I knew that I was in serious trouble when he purred, “Hello, Nosferatin,” as Sanguis Vitam curled around my body like liquid lightning.
And, suddenly, I was spinning, like the ribbons, like my Sigillum, like the world I’d once thought I’d known so very well. So intimately.
Oh, how wrong had I been?
I knew nothing. This was a new world, a new battle. A different arena from any I had ever seen. And the vampire before me held all the answers.
I was determined to get them. Even as I spun. Even as the stake slipped free from my grasp. Even as the ribbons inside exalted. I was determined.
But, then, so was he. An awoken Prince of the Mhachkay. My equal in every way. The only vampire ever to have somehow claimed the deepest most elusive part of me.
As I connected with his chest, his arms wrapping around my frame in sinful welcome, and looked up into the depths of his stunning blue eyes, I knew. He was it.
He was… The One.
Goddess, help me.
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Mixed Blessing: Preview
Read on for the first chapter in book one of the Mixed Blessing Mystery Series: Mixed Blessing
Hunger
Hunger licked through me like the flames of Hell; potent and deadly. It had been six days since I last heeded the call. Three days too long. But an eternity too short. I swallowed past the increasing amount of saliva in my mouth and ran my tongue over my too long fangs. Willing them to retract.
Not now. Not here. I promised the Dark Shadow I would feed. But, not from those I worked with. Not here in this place I called home. I'd find a dark alley with some low-life jerk selling drugs to the desperate, then the fire would quieten. Then the Dark Shadow would retreat. Then I could pretend it was all a dream.
Or a nightmare. They are one and the same to me.
My break was nearly over, soon I'd have to face the throngs of humanity on the clubroom floor. Watch the pulses underneath their sweat soaked skin. Smell their life, their blood and fight the urge to strike. I don't hunt at Sensations. Apart from the fact my boss would slice me in two if I did, you just don't dine at work. It's bad for business. I'd have to hunt on the way home and considering my shift doesn't finish until four, the only food left available on the streets is either drunk or stoned.
My face twisted in a grimace at the impending task ahead. I hated what I had become. The only saving grace was that I was good at killing too. Being what I am, meant living a life bridging two worlds. Half one thing, half another. A hybrid, a mixture of two creatures that shouldn't have ever existed. I may have craved blood on a semi-regular basis, but I also never ventured out without my stake. A gift from Lucinda. The only thing I took readily from her. The rest: the advice, the offered help, the kindness, she could keep. I was not a charity case to experiment on. To ease her conscience. I was not here to make her sleep better at night.
If she thought I wasn't capable of killing her, then she wasn't as good at this game as she made out.
I took a deep breath in and squared my shoulders. Then checked myself in the staffroom mirror. Doug, my boss, insists we all wear black. I never used to wear black. I was more of a yellow and green kind of girl. But Sensations has a black dress code for staff. It doesn't matter what you wear as long as it is black. I rebel sometimes. Wear bright coloured bangles, a necklace with a bright logo hanging down between my breasts. Or, like today, bright yellow happy faces hanging from my earrings. They make me gag, but I can tell they have an even bigger effect on Doug and Jett.
Doug runs the bar, he's OK, in a quiet head down kind of way. But Jett scares the hell out of me. He's the Master of the City and you can feel it. I know when he is in the room. I know when he is close. My whole body tingles with the power of his office. The urge to bow and scrape undeniable. Well almost. I fight it. Like I fight Doug. And Lucinda. And Samson. I fight them all, but they put up with me, because Lucinda has told them to. I don't know quite what sort of hold she has over the vampires in this city, but it's big and powerful. It's not that they fear her, it's something else. Something deeper. I don't get it. I don't really want to.
I undid my pony tail and ran my hands through my long blonde, wavy hair. Pulling it back into a tidy tail, fastening it high up on my head. Even tied up it came well past my shoulders. I liked my hair tied back when wearing earrings I needed noticed. The happy faces dangled merrily against my jaw. I studied my face. Pale white. I didn't normally get a tan in summer, but even if I had tanned in the past, I was turned in the middle of winter. A winter that had followed on from a very wet and uninspiring summer the year before. So, no tan, just a translucent white that coupled with my platinum blonde hair made me look almost albino.
My eyes didn't help. Normally a cerulean blue, when hungry the red creeps in from the edges, tingeing them a strange unnatural purple. At the moment they would be more red than purple, but contact lenses put paid to that. Now they were nothing more than a boring dark, dark blue. You can't hide red with lighter colours, so I have to go dark. It's a tell I hate. Doug knows when I haven't fed for a while, because my eyes are suddenly dark blue instead of light.
I swiped my lips with a bright red lipstick. The colour would draw attention to my full lips and away from my tell-tail eyes. Usually I like people noticing my eyes. They're big and bright and I have been told, beautiful. But no one likes blood-shot eyes, so bright red lips it is.
Brushing my black tank top down and adjusting my black skin tight jeans I pasted a smile on my face and pushed open the staffroom door.
The smell of humans engulfed me and made me suck in an unnecessary breath of air. I paused and struck my hand out against the wall to stop myself from collapsing. I felt so weak in the face of all that life force. So tiny compared to the enormous size of humanity. A fly to be swatted away. A bug to be crushed under a rubber soled boot. I licked my lips, undoubtedly removing some of my well placed lipstick, then shook my head to clear the pounding of heartbeats that had taken up residence in there.
I needed to feed. I needed blood. My eyes closed as I forced those thoughts aside and straightened up to my full height; five foot eight inches, out of heels. I could do this. I could last another two hours in Hell and then break free of the devil's hold for a little longer.
I'd have to sell a little more of my soul to do it. But what's my soul worth in the light of all those innocents?
I pushed the remaining door open that led to the clubroom floor. The thumping music filled my ears immediately, clashing with the heartbeats for a moment and then winning the war. I started humming along to the song: Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling, sinking myself into the music and not the call of the blood.
I could do this. Just two hours more. I could cope.
The first human in my face was young. Maybe only just legal in an establishment like this. Being New Zealand, the legal age for drinking alcohol was eighteen. He looked like he might still be in school. Last year before hitting college. Last fling with his best mates, out on the town at the infamous Sensations. Living life on the wild side.
I breathed through my mouth. I don't need to breathe, I'm undead. Well, half of me is. But, the Norms notice if your chest fails to rise, your pulse fails to beat at
the side of your neck. If you fail to blink. It took a full month for me to master the practice of pretend living. The older vamps do it in their sleep. I don't think I do. I don't know. I haven't had someone sleep beside me through the day, since I turned, to tell me otherwise.
I smiled at his innocent, beguiling face. A small smattering of dark stubble brushed his cheeks and jaw, making him seem more cute, than rugged. He didn't carry himself like a man who had seen a bit of the world. His innocence permeated the air between us. His life force, his blood, screamed victim. Prey. It would be so easy to glaze him. To draw him in. To lure him into my web and then feast until he was no more.
So easy.
Yet another reason why I wear contact lenses when I am so hungry. You can't glaze past the silicone hydro-gel. There'd be no on-the-spot hunting here. I couldn't satisfy my Dark Shadow's urge. It would have to wait until I disrobe from this shell I wear. Leave Sensations, remove the lenses, open myself up to the Dark. A transformation as beautiful and horrendous as a butterfly from a chrysalis.
“What can I get you to drink?” I asked, ramping up the smile a bit. If I could dazzle him with my pearly whites, then he wouldn't notice the wrongness of my eyes.
“Jim Beam and Coke.” Ah, a wannabe. Not quite one of the big boys, but giving it an honest go.
I poured him a triple. If he lasted the next two hours I might just allow myself to hunt him home.
He handed over his money, holding onto the note a little longer than necessary. My lips finally made a believable smile. You're mine, they said. He smiled back already trapped in my web and going nowhere fast.
I turned to the cash register and noticed Doug watching me from the other end of the bar. He knew, but he wouldn't say anything, as long as I started the hunt outside of Sensations's door. I didn't meet his eyes. I knew what they would show. Relief. Relief that I was playing at being a good little vampire at last. That I was willing to feed again.
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