by Mandy Rosko
“You mustn’t have made it official. You would remember him if you did,” Damon said.
Jackson was pretty sure the guy was talking out of his ass. What did claiming him have to do with the fact that Jackson had been bashed over the head and was having trouble remembering some things?
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” he said, loading the clip he held into the magazine of his Glock. “By the time we find them, my memories of everything should clear up.”
And they would find that pack of bitches, and his memories would come back. Jackson was no head doctor, but he knew enough to know that memory loss was never like how the movies made it out to be. This was temporary.
They’d finally gotten Romulus to talk—they’d made sure of it— and now they knew which direction the wild pack was off in.
Surprise, surprise. They were going to make a try for Canada, where that vampire the whole pack was muttering about had come from.
“You’re right. Let’s get out to the front lawn. I want us all out and running in less than five minutes.”
That sounded like a plan.
The only thing they were waiting on before they ran out to catch the bastards was for everyone to saddle up. Bags of clothes that their wolves could hold in their mouths as they ran needed to be packed, and then they were off. Apparently they had a teleporter coming with them, too. Something like that would be a great asset for finding that wild pack and making sure they were the ones who got to do the whole surprise attack thing.
Jackson was itching to transform and go right now, because even though Damon was trying to ask questions without worrying Jackson, the fact of the matter was that even though he couldn’t fully remember his new mate, the thought of what those wild werewolves could be doing to him right now was putting an ulcer in his gut.
Damon had asked him if Jackson had made the mating official. The only way of doing such a thing was through lovemaking, and though Damon hadn’t elaborated, Jackson got the hint.
If he and this Joey person were mated, really and truly, no turning back, all cards on the table type deal, then he would serve no purpose to the people who took him, and they might very well kill him.
If he hadn’t claimed Joey, then another wolf could attempt to force his hand and make Joey agree to mate with a female alpha to produce cubs. If there were no female alphas in that pack, and none of the males were interested in other males that way, then Joey could still wind up dead.
All this thinking was giving him a headache.
“I’m ready. Let’s get out of here.”
* * * * The werewolves had transformed and were off by dawn. Seth wore a special suit borrowed from Silus to protect him from the sun, and he was following them as quickly as his vampire speed would allow. Ben would have to teleport to keep up with them, something he didn’t really like to do, since, if he teleported in the middle of a tree or shrub, that tended to hurt him, but he would not allow Seth to leave without him, and Jeeps were off limits on the trail they took, so he had no choice.
Cedric had wanted to at least go downstairs and wish them luck, but he was too busy paying homage to the toilet. The blood he drank, mostly hunted and delivered by Silus at this point, was keeping his body functioning, but barely.
He spat into the bowl and rested his arms on the seat of the toilet, putting his head down on them to rest. He couldn’t even keep food down anymore. Not like he was eating much these days anyway.
Something soft touched his back, and Cedric jerked up in surprise. Silus was there, standing straight after placing the blanket over Cedric ’s shoulders. “You were trembling,” he said.
So he was. Maybe it was sitting on this cold tiled floor for the last
half hour.
He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders. “Thanks.” Silus sat on the rim of the bathtub, his knees slightly apart, elbows
on his thighs, and hands clasped together.
Cedric thought he must really look like shit.
“Is there something I can do for you?”
Cedric shook his head.“Kinda wish you weren’t seeing me right
now.”
“Intimacy has more to do with these aspects of a relationship than
with romance or sex.”
Smartass had an answer for everything.
Cedric got to his feet. Silus made a move as though to help him,
but then he held back and allowed Cedric the dignity of walking to the
sink himself to brush his teeth.
It seemed even that was too much effort on his part. Silus had to
grab his arm to steady him before he could fall over.
Cedric quickly rinsed out his mouth and allowed Silus to take him
to their bed, hating that he couldn’t so much as stand on his own two
feet, yet grateful to climb under the covers and just allow his stomach
to settle.
He was vaguely aware of Silus puttering around the room, but he
kept his eyes closed and just tried to stop the room from spinning. He
had to get his one leg out from under the blankets and put his foot
down on the floor. It was a trick he’d learned that helped with the
whole fun room effect whenever he got too drunk, and it turned the
spinning down by at least half. God, he was exhausted, but by now
had figured he wouldn’t be getting much sleep. His body was still
used to being awake during the sunlight hours, but now that he was a
vampire, the urge to hibernate during sunup was damn near killing
him.
Then a blast of sun hit him in the face, and Cedric jumped. No, it was not direct sunlight. Silus had opened the window, but
he had placed a lace curtain in front of the pane to filter out most of
the light. Despite that, it still came into the room, filling up the space
with warmth.
And warm it was, but definitely not enough to burn him where he
lay.
Had Cedric really forgotten how real sunlight felt after so little
time of being out of it?
He wasn’t nervous to have it filling the room as it was. None of it
was direct sunlight, so the threat of catching fire was minimal. He was
still curious, though.
“What are you doing?”
Silus was much more careful about making sure his turtleneck
was covering every inch of skin that it could be stretched out to
without completely tucking it over his head or hands. He quickly
stepped away from the window and crawled into bed with him. He no
longer had the protection Cedric’s blood had once given him. “You still need the sun, yes?”
Cedric looked around the room, noting how bright it was, the
brightest he had ever seen it since coming to live here. Light reflected
off the walls, illuminating everything, creating a sheen in the oak
furniture, and touching Cedric’s face, hands, and leg, all without it
being direct enough to set him alight.
He would probably still end up with a nasty sunburn if he fell
asleep like this, but he didn’t care. He felt like his body was being
given a cold drink of ice water after shriveling up with nothing to
sustain it these last couple of days.
Then he realized, yes, this felt okay. He could survive this amount
of sun and still take what he needed from it. Cedric pushed the heavy
comforter off himself and then struggled to get out of his T-shirt.
Silus helped him with that one, and once he was bare chested, he lay
back in the pillows and let his skin soak up all the light and vitamins it
could from what was coming into the room.
“This is better, I take it?” Silus’s voice sounded hopeful. “Beats the moon.”
&nb
sp; Cedric cracked an eye open, fully aware that while he might enjoy
this, even as he felt his skin get a little too hot, Silus did not need the
sun the way he did. “What about you?”
Silus reached over to the nightstand on his side of the bed and
produced a bottle of sunscreen. Cedric laughed at the sight of it.
Right. Should have guessed.
“I assume that offering you any of the benefits of my lotion will
only hinder any progress you make,” Silus said, still watching Cedric
closely.
He nodded. “Yeah, the whole point is that UV rays are good for
me. Can’t block those off. Just don’t laugh at me when we wake up
and I’m beet red.”
Silus kissed his brow. “I would never think of doing such a thing.” “What made you think of this?”
Silus shrugged. “I had to do something.”
His voice was a little too quiet as he said that. It seemed that,
despite his brave face, he’d been getting scared, too.
Cedric curled around Silus protectively, and for the first time in
what seemed like forever, he was able to drift off.
* * * * Silus watched Cedric sleeping with all the worry of a parent who stood guard over an ill child, and he was starting to notice how often he thought of that analogy as well. Silus had begun keeping watch like this when he first started leaving the windows open during the day, and Cedric did little more than sleep like a cat sprawling in the sun, though Silus was careful, always careful, to be sure that nothing direct entered their bedchamber to burn either of them.
That didn ’t stop it from being so damned hot in here, and for the tenth time in twenty minutes, Silus wiped his damp brow with the handkerchief he kept in his breast pocket.
Cedric had indeed turned a bright color of red without the aid of the sun lotion to protect him from even this trivial amount of sunlight, but that had been the effect of that first day’s worth of sun, and he did not sweat. It almost appeared as though the redness was diminishing. His muscle definition was most assuredly returning to normal, Silus could tell, and the heavy sacks beneath his eyes were nothing more than light shadows. He appeared peaceful.
He certainly seemed well enough, though he slept an awful lot. The thing that bothered Silus was that his internal clock was still off. Even though Cedric was now sleeping a decent eight to ten hours, half of those hours were still during the night, and the other half during the day.
Silus would rest easier if Cedric ’s body would finally stop acting like a sun sprite and become more vampire, and then he would not have to worry about the sunlight killing his lover. Whether from overexposure to it, or not enough, it hardly mattered.
Silus ’s sensitive hearing detected the crunching of gravel, alerting him to the presence of a vehicle outside. He stiffened. There was nobody he was expecting, least of all someone with a car.
Silus looked at Cedric. He had not stirred at the noise, and he continued to sleep. Silus lifted himself from his chair and left the hot furnace that had become his bedchamber to see who had come.
He summoned an omega, one of the few remaining left on the land, and gave explicit instructions to guard the room, monitor the sun, and shut the window if it appeared as though Cedric were uncomfortable. The morning rays of light had already passed by, so Silus needed not concern himself with any direct contact between Cedric and the sunlight.
He left the omega there and proceeded downstairs, dread filling him as one of the female servants, Amanda, rushed to him and met him halfway down with the warning,“My lord, it’s that vampire woman, Lady Varinia.”
Silus ’s blood spiked until everything transformed into a shade of red. The nerve of her!
He rushed to the front door leading to the mud room and peered through the small viewing hole.
Indeed, it was her, and she was alone. Cecil was nowhere in sight. Silus was shocked the man would allow her to come. Perhaps she’d killed him.
No, she could not have. She stepped out of her car and into the sunlight as simply and easily as any human. Or a vampire regularly drinking sun sprite blood.
She headed for the door, and Silus pressed his forehead against the cool wood before yanking it open.
The heat blasted him, but with the position of the sun, the shade of the house itself offered enough protection for him to glare at her.
“You are not welcome here. Get off my land before I have the alphas tear your vehicle to pieces.”
She stopped, and from behind the sleek sunglasses she wore, a delicate black brow popped up. She turned her head about, noting the distinct lack of help on the land compared to the last time she had been here.
“You threaten my vehicle instead of myself,” she began, “because you are perfectly aware my husband will inform the local clans of your presence here, should I not return to him. And there are no alphas remaining on the land, I’ll wager, because by now they have all gone to attempt to retrieve their kin.”
Varinia lifted the sunglasses to sit on top of her sleek head of black hair. Her eyes were soulless. “From the look of it, my lord, I would also say that you no longer have the resistance you once had to sunlight, otherwise you would be out here yourself in the absence of your guards.”
Gods, he hated the bitch.
“What do you want?”
“To speak. To offer my apologies for your loss. Sincere apologies.”
“Good. You have offered them. Begone.”
Varinia rushed forth, her vampire speed greater than what even Silus possessed, and she had her sleek leather boot in the door just as Silus slammed it shut.
Damn her. Bloody fucking damn her! He’d wanted her before for her knowledge in healing, but now that Cedric was showing signs of improvement, the last thing Silus wanted was for her to discover that Cedric had survived. He did not want her to gain anything from her act of betrayal. “Can you not leave a man to mourn in peace?” “I offer myself to you.”
Those words caused Silus to put just a little less pressure against the door. She seemed to breathe easier once her foot was no longer being crushed. Her boot was cracked and ruined.
“Surely you do not think I would take you for a mate?”
“Not that,” said Varinia.“I will offer my body as a payment of a debt, for however long you see fit to use it. I am your servant, my lord.”
Finally, Silus understood her.
This had been another little something he had never personally experienced during his time at his family manor. His father, however, had many people sell themselves to him.
Varinia was not offering herself sexually. She was offering her body for slavery. The vampire equivalent to it, at any rate.
There was no law for it, but it was considered grossly improper for vampires to become slaves to other vampires. Or at all, for that matter. No, Silus’s kind thought too highly of themselves to be forcing others of their own race into slavery.
However, it was not uncommon for vampires to offer themselves to other vampires in payment of outstanding debts. Such trials tended to last twelve months, and rarely more, but Silus could keep her for as long as he thought she owed him.
He hated to admit it, but it had been brave of her to come here and offer herself like this.
In the eyes of vampires, if Silus were to accept her offer, that would rank her at the position of an omega werewolf. Her body would belong to Silus, to use as he saw fit, and Varinia would be forced to obey, like some sort of mindless automaton. He could command her to walk through a bed of fire, and she would have to obey. Her life could be as simple as Amanda’s, cleaning, cooking, and scrubbing, or Silus could force her to cut herself, remove her own eyes, and break her fingers so that she might never practice medicine again. He could use her body as well, most vampires did such things, but Silus would never touch her, and she knew that.
“If I were to accept,” Silus said, folding his
arms and glaring at her like she was the lowliest worm in the grass. “Would I have to expect an angry sun sprite coming after my head in your honor?”
Varinia shook her head.“Cecil knows I’m here. I told him of my actions. He demanded I come to you, or else he would never speak to me again.”
Ah yes, sun sprites did not take mates the way vampires and werewolves did. Sun sprite mating was much the same as human mating. They could marry and divorce ten times in their whole life, and it wouldn’t necessarily mean a thing to them. That permanent connection, the one that truly lasted until death, could be shared between two creatures of differing origins, but could not be proven.
Cedric would never be connected to Silus the way Silus was connected to Cedric. The same for Varinia and Cecil.
If Cedric woke up one day and decided he no longer loved Silus, and that he wished to leave him in favor of someone from his own race, Silus would have no choice but to allow him to go.
For that, Silus would suffer for the rest of his days, even long after Cedric grew old and died.
He pushed those grim thoughts from his head. Cedric was a vampire now, his health was improving, and he’d agreed to marry Silus. Their whole relationship was built on trust. The trust that one did indeed, really, and truly, love the other. It was the only way for them to survive as a pair.
Now, however, Varinia’s match with her mate was in jeopardy. Cecil was threatening to leave her unless she made amends.
Served her right.
“I do not want you here,” Silus said and then hurried on before she could open her mouth and argue. “My alphas, on the other hand, could use all the aid they can get when they track down the wild werewolves who stole their omegas. Medical and combat. Go to them, and put yourself at Damon’s mercy. He will decide what to do with you.”
Varinia’s jaw clenched tight at the dangerous mission she’d been given. Not simply because of the battle she would have to fight, but because there was always the chance that Damon’s pack would tear her into pieces before she even had the chance to explain she was there on Silus’s order.
She didn’t argue. As Silus’s servant, she couldn’t. She bowed stiffly and went back to her car.