Solenne hesitantly sat down in the seat and looked up at Sion. He nodded as if to tell her that’s where she belonged and began to present the information Kali had found in her research.
“Gentleman, Kali figured out why Solenne’s blood is so appealing to that Archon. You’re no ordinary vampire, Solenne. You’re a descendant of Idolas, just like the rest of us. While you may not be a Son of Navarus, you’re as powerful a vampire as we are. More, actually.”
“More?” she asked in a shocked voice. “Sion, you and Kali have made some mistake. I’m not a descendant of Idolas.”
“You are as much as the rest of us here are. Kali traced your lineage and found the connection. And what makes you even more unique and powerful in our world is that you’re a female descendant of Idolas. Solenne, your blood is powerful, and that’s why the Archons synthesized it to create Bliss.”
Looking down the table, Sion saw that once again he’d shocked his fellow Sons. Saint in particular looked stunned at the news.
Terek spoke up first. “So are you saying Solenne is chosen like us?”
Sion looked down at her and shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s what I’m saying. What we know is that this is the reason that Archon wanted her blood. From what Kali said, even as a human, Solenne was special.”
“How about that?” Dante said as he clapped his hands together. “I always knew you were something pretty special, Solenne, but I had no idea you were one of us.”
She shook her head and frowned. “I’m not one of you, Dante. You guys are Sons of Navarus. I’m just a vampire whose blood tastes different than everyone else’s. That’s all.”
Sion saw she didn’t want to accept who she really was, but he couldn’t let her think she wasn’t someone special to them in their fight against those who’d enslave the entire vampire race.
“Solenne, your work with the doctors is going to help us save millions of our kind who’ve gotten trapped by what the Archons did with your blood. Only you can do that. You’re the key to that solution.”
“Hey, Saint!” Dante said, breaking the serious moment. “Maybe you should begin training with Solenne now. We’re going to need all the help we can get when the time comes.”
Saint’s expression told everyone at the table that Sion’s news was the last thing he wanted to hear, but when he spoke, even Dante understood his true feelings. “Solenne isn’t training for anything. She’s my wife, not a Son or a warrior to be thrown against the legions of Archons and their minions.”
He stormed out without a glance at anyone, including Solenne, and as she rose to follow him, she mumbled her apologies. “I’m sorry everyone. Sion, please tell Kali thanks for all she’s doing.”
The room fell silent, and each man avoided the gazes of those around him because none of them could know what Saint and Solenne were going through. He’d just gotten her back and now their lives had been changed once again in one fell swoop.
Ten
Declan’s long legs made it almost impossible to catch up to him, so Solenne began to run before he reached the exit and stormed off to only God knows where. When he was like this, she didn’t know if he left if he’d ever return.
These days, even the mere mention of the Archons or why Marc Verrater prized her blood so much made her husband enraged, and she feared it was only a matter of time before he snapped and stopped fighting the urge to kill the Archon he hated so much. Solenne didn’t care about what happened with Verrater. All she cared about was Declan and what living with all that hatred was doing to him.
“Declan! Wait! Talk to me!” she yelled after him.
He slowed his pace enough for her to catch up, but even as she began talking, he kept his eyes straight ahead, refusing to discuss what had just happened. Jumping in front of him, she pressed her hands to his chest to stop him and saw the pain in his dark eyes.
“Please stop, Declan. We need to talk about this.”
Setting his jaw, he looked down at her and shook his head. “I can’t talk about this, Solenne. I just want to get the fuck out of here.”
“Fine, but don’t run away from me. We can go back to the house and shut out the entire world if you want. Just don’t shut me out.”
God, she hated seeing him like this.
He stared down at her and slowly nodded his head. “Let’s go. I need to leave here.”
Solenne took his hand and brought it to her lips in a kiss. “Okay. We can go wherever you want. I’m right here with you, right?”
He didn’t respond, instead almost pushing her out of the way as he left the building. She wanted to believe they could discuss the bombshell Sion had dropped on them all when Declan calmed down, but at the rate he was going, there didn’t seem to be any calming down in the near future.
They walked the few blocks home in silence. Solenne wished she knew the right words to say to make her husband happy again, but one thought filled her mind. What if the horrible things Marc Verrater did to her had made it impossible for them to ever be happy again?
Declan stormed through the front door and up the stairs and Solenne followed him, desperate to say something to make this whole mess go away. Every moment he acted like this made her feel as if he hated her as much as he hated the Archon.
She found him sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over and his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of his anger. His hands shook as he balled them into fists.
Without even looking up, he said, “It’s not a good time to talk, Solenne.”
“We need to get this out in the open, Declan. We can’t keep not talking about this.”
Shaking his head, he mumbled, “I can’t talk about this anymore. I’m sick of talking.”
She knelt in front of him and stared up into those eyes that used to look at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the world. “Don’t do this. Please. Don’t let this tear us apart. I can’t live this life without you by my side. I lost you for nearly a century. I can’t lose you again.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I can’t think of anything but what he did. It haunts me in my sleep and fills my mind with so much hatred from the moment I open my eyes every night. I want to kill him. I want to kill him for what he did to you. Can you understand that?”
She cradled his face and kissed him sweetly on the lips, trying to show him no matter what Verrater did that she was right there with him, the woman he’d always loved and who loved him more than anything else in the world. He avoided looking at her, though, shutting his eyes.
“Declan, we can get through this. There’s help out there for us to figure out how to deal with this. But don’t shut me out. I’m begging you. Every second you stay behind that wall of anger, I feel like you hate me for being raped.”
At the sound of that word, he stood up and pushed her away. “Don’t say that! I can’t stand it when you say that!”
Solenne sat on the floor and lowered her head, more ashamed than ever before for what Marc Verrater had done to her. Quietly, she said into the room around them, “Rape. I was raped. Marc raped me, and every minute you act like this about it is like he gets to rape me all over again.”
Declan remained silent, and when Solenne looked up, she saw nothing but the same rage she’d seen since the moment she admitted what Marc had done to her. He stared at her for a long moment and then turned away to storm out of the room and leave her there alone to deal with everything wrong between them.
She couldn’t go on like this. He might not be able to talk about what was happening to them, but she had to or she’d lose her mind from the guilt and sadness. Determined to do whatever necessary to save their marriage, she took off after him.
Declan stood on the patio with his arms folded staring up at the night sky. His whole body tensed up as she approached him from behind, but she wouldn’t be deterred. They were worth fighting for.
“I want to talk about this, Declan. I refuse to let this ruin us.”
He didn’t look at her, but she saw his m
outh turn down in a deep frown. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded like he’d lost everything he’d ever loved in the world.
“I can’t forget and I can’t forgive. I’m stuck in some kind of limbo and I know I’m hurting you. I’m sorry, Solenne. The thought of him doing what he did to you is killing me.”
She took him in her arms and held him tightly to her, feeling the misery in every inch of his body. Closing her eyes, she listened to his heart beating and reminded herself that no matter what they were going through, they’d endured almost a hundred years apart and still found their way back to one another.
They would be able to get through this too.
She stood there holding him and waited for him to wrap his arms around her. Stubborn even in love, he finally hugged her close and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Sighing so his entire body sagged against her, he whispered, “I don’t know how to handle this, Solenne. It’s tearing me up inside, and I don’t know how to stop it.”
“I need you to let it go or we’re never going to be happy again. He’ll have won, Declan.”
“I can’t let it go. There’s only one way this is going to go away. It’s either him or me.”
He pulled away from her and began walking toward the front door. Before he did anything rash, she had to stop him. Grabbing his arm, she spun him around to face her and shook her head. “No! He’ll stake you as easily as say your name. He doesn’t care about his fellow vampires.”
“Either do I anymore, Solenne. I can’t live in the same world as him knowing what he did to you,” he said in a voice so full of rage it made her want to recoil in fear.
She couldn’t let fear make her weak, though. She had to stop him from doing this.
“Declan, please, I’m begging you. Let this go!”
She saw in his eyes that was an impossibility. He was too far gone, consumed by the need for revenge, and nothing she could say would change that.
But she had to try.
“Declan, if you love me, you won’t leave and put yourself at risk. We lost each other for a century and you promised you’d never let that happen again.”
His expression hardened. “I have to do this, Solenne. You’ll either be here when I return or not.”
“What? You just decide you’re going to risk your life and I have no say at all?”
Rage exploded out of him, and for the first time ever, he truly frightened her. “I can’t go on like this! He goes or I do. There’s nothing in between! Now let me go, and I hope more than you can ever know you’re here when I get back.”
Declan threw the door open, slamming it against the wall, and stormed out, leaving Solenne standing there unable to control her emotions anymore. Breaking down, she closed the door and buried her face in her hands. After losing the man she loved once, she’d sworn she’d never let that happen again, but now he was gone. This time he’d left willingly, and she worried she might never see him again.
She had to stop him, but how? She couldn’t do it, but she thought she might know who could. Calling the one Son with almost as much rage inside him as Declan, she hoped their connection through Teagan would be enough to get him to help.
Minutes later, Solenne opened the door to see Vasilije standing in front of her as a result of her call. Never close to him because he’d always been a son of a bitch, she hoped that part of him that had been holding in all those feelings about losing the woman he loved would be willing to fight with her husband to save his life.
Vasilije sat down beside her and took no time in asking what she wanted from him. “What do you need, Solenne?”
“I need you to be the kind of male you’ve always been.”
He arched one black eyebrow and stared at her with a piercing blue stare. “The kind of male I’ve always been?”
“I need the Vasilije who would kill someone as soon as look at them. The vampire who doesn’t give a damn about anyone but those he loves.”
“I’m intrigued. I thought those were the things you hated most about me.”
“They were, but for my purposes now, they’re the exact traits I need.”
Vasilije leaned back and narrowed his gaze. “Where’s Saint? Why aren’t you asking him for help?”
Solenne took a deep breath and began to explain. “He’s gone after Verrater, Vasilije. He can’t get past what that monster did to me, and it’s tearing him up inside in addition to tearing us apart. I know you’ve never cared much for me, and I admit I’ve never much liked you either, but I need the vampire you used to be to stand by him and hopefully bring him back to me.”
In a flash, the Romanian changed to the male she used to know and stood to leave. “Where can he find the Archon?”
“Corsica. He’s at Archon Headquarters there, but you have to hurry. Declan isn’t thinking clearly, and they’ll catch him and kill him before he can even get close to Verrater.”
“Okay.”
Solenne stood up surprised. “Just like that? I was worried I’d have to convince you.”
Vasilije smiled his nicest smile and shook his head. “Saint helped me when my vampires were being targeted. I won’t ever forget that. I owe him for all those lives he helped me save. No matter what he or you need, I’ll do everything in my power to help you. I’ll find him, and I’ll bring him back, but if we can kill that fucker Verrater, I’m not going to stop him, Solenne.”
“Just bring him home, Vasilije. That’s all I ask. Whatever happens to Marc Verrater means nothing to me. I just want my husband back.”
He left, and Solenne tried to remember a time when the happiness she and Declan shared wasn’t tainted by the outside world. So much of their history was colored by the actions of others that had ended up hurting them. There was one moment in all the years they’d known each other that stood out as a beacon of hope, though. The first night of their honeymoon.
Solenne leaned back as the hot water in the tub sloshed around them and felt Declan’s muscular chest press against her. She loved when they were like this—quiet, peaceful, and together after all those years apart. At times, she’d almost given up hope that one day they’d find their way back to each other, instead kept apart by the lie that Teagan had made her swear to. If she hadn’t believed he truly would kill his own brother over her, she would have moved heaven and earth to find Declan again.
“Why are you so quiet?” he whispered next to her ear.
“Just thinking.”
“About what? How incredible this honeymoon is going to be if we ever leave this tub?” he teased.
“No. I was thinking about all those years we lost because of a lie.”
“Solenne, don’t. We aren’t about regrets anymore, remember?”
She looked back at him and smiled. “That’s a pretty positive thought coming from you, my dear husband.”
“It is,” he said with one of his sexy Irish grins. “Quite uncharacteristic of me, I must say.”
Solenne didn’t mean to darken the moment, but she had to know how he could possibly not look back with regret. “I can’t help but think what if. What if we hadn’t lost all those years, Declan? What if we’d been allowed to be together back then?”
He pushed her damp hair away from her face and pressed his lips to her ear. “Shhhh. We can’t go back and change what happened. All we can do is be thankful we finally found each other again.”
She felt him tighten his arms around her, making her feel safe and secure, but she couldn’t help wish she’d never had to lose him. “How are we ever going to make up for all that lost time?”
“We’re vampires. We live a long time. A century is just a blip on the screen, remember?”
Solenne turned in his hold and kissed him gently on the lips. “I’ve only been a vampire for just about a century, just like you.”
“Then we can say we got to avoid those awkward first years together and jumped to the good part.”
“Okay. You’ve convinced me with your power of positive thinking,” she joked,
secretly wishing she could feel that way.
They sat there silently pressed up against one another until she asked in a quiet voice, “Are you happy, Declan?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You never wanted to be a vampire, and all those years of only being with human women…”
His palm cradled her jaw as he turned her head to face him. Looking into her eyes, he said the words she longed to hear. “I may never have wanted to be a vampire, but I’m happy because I’m with you. As for the human females, they were just my attempt to forget you. Obviously, none of them worked.”
“Good.”
“What about you? Are you happy?” he asked as drew his finger across the back of her neck where she wore his mark.
She lowered her head, loving the feel of his fingertip tracing the design he picked out to symbolize their love. “I am,” she whispered. “I wish we hadn’t lost all that time, but finally, I’m happy with the man I love. The way it was meant to be.”
Declan softly pressed his lips to spot where his mark showed her to be his mate and kissed the skin reverently. “The way it was meant to be.”
They’d been separated by jealousy and hatred, but love had bridged the gap of all those years. For Solenne, losing Declan had never meant not loving him. No man—human or vampire—had ever been able to take his place, and while she didn’t like the idea of him with anyone else, she understood why he lived the way he did for all those years.
If she could have brought herself to feel anything for another, she would have just for the brief respite it would have given her from the awful loneliness. But that’s not who she was. Being with another male, even her sire, would have been a betrayal, and she couldn’t bear the thought of Declan thinking she’d turned her back on him more than he already had.
It was bad enough he thought she left him once. She didn’t want him to ever think she would do that again.
She turned to face him, sending water splashing over the sides of the bathtub. Straddling his hips, she pressed her body to his and kissed him as he slid his hands down her back. “Aren’t these old claw foot tubs great?”
Blood Craving Page 10