The Man Behind the Vampire (The Silver Series)

by Samantha Bates

  "Hey D" watching Darius stop dead, and look around until he found him was amusing. The smile widened on Darius' face before dropping,.

  "Mitch why are you here, has something happened to the pack, or Mary, please not Mary." He stopped smiling as he saw the terror pass along Darius' face,

  "Cool it bro, she is fine, pack is fine. I am here with a message from Destiny. It's time to go home."

  Shaking his head, Darius started back towards the cabin "I can't, I need to do this."

  "She said that the person you are looking for is back home."

  "Mary?"

  "Mary is fine, but we need to go and apparently you need to look into your past to see the truth."

  "How do we get back?" Mitch looked up to the sky before sighing, "train, plane, boat, fuck knows."

  Chapter 31

  As Mary left the shop she wasn’t surprised to see Ice waiting for her, since Darius had left there was always someone waiting to drive her home. Home was no longer above the shop; she had remained in Darius' house. It seemed the right place to be but it was empty and lonely without him.

  When he had first left, she spent the first few weeks slouching around, she was sad, lonely and her heart physically ached. The pack had been great at pulling her out of the house, she met so many new people all of whom loved Darius, but when they were gone she was lost again.

  Three weeks after he left, she was slumped in her PJ's in front of the TV, when the vampire man Vlad popped into the room, scaring the bejeezas out of her. Dressed in a dark charcoal coloured suit, briefcase in hand, blond hair tied back, he looked like he had just stepped out of a board room.

  "I have been waiting for your call; Darius wanted me to talk to you about the blood bonding."

  "Well he is not here is he? I want him to tell me."

  Vlad sat down, although he looked uncomfortable on the recliner "the reason he asked me to was so that you would have an unbiased understanding of all it entails."

  As Mary shrugged her shoulders, Vlad stiffened "I am somewhat alarmed by your nonchalance. I assumed you cared for him as much as he you. However if that were the case then you would be prepared for his return."

  "Excuse me, and if he doesn’t return what then?" her tone had started as annoyed with his insult and then to agony at the thought of him not returning.

  "Then you grieve" and with that he was gone again, but she couldn’t get the thoughts out of her head. The next day she decided he had a point, making the phone call and admitting that, was another thing.

  He sent a driver to pick her up; the windows were too dark for her to see where they were going. But when she arrived at Vlads house she was amazed by the sheer richness and elegance of the place. In parts it was totally modern, in other it was like stepping into a different era. An actual real life butler showed her in and served her tea and cakes.

  "I see you are looking better than yesterday" his voice was rich and elegant, his pronunciation perfect.

  She blushed "I am thank you for kicking my butt; I was feeling slightly sorry for myself."

  "I understand this must be hard for you, but Darius is a very strong vampire he will not fall easily. In his absence, he wanted you to have time to think about what being bonded to a vampire will be like."

  "It doesn’t matter what it will be like, I want to be bonded with him" in that she was sure.

  "Well if you do, you need to accept that he will no longer feed from anyone but you."

  This hadn’t occurred to Mary "but won’t I become addicted to the high?"

  "No you won't, that doesn’t happen when you are bonded. You will not want to be away from each other for long, the sense of loss will overwhelm you."

  Okay she could deal with that, in fact it sounded pretty much how she felt now "he will continue to be over bearing and over protective."

  Continue to be "Darius isn’t."

  Vlad laughed "I apologise I assumed he would be, well he will be. Your life will follow his."

  "He is kind, thoughtful, understanding, giving, sweet and funny" she was remembering all of the things he had done to make her feel like this. She felt the tears come, she couldn’t stop them. Vlad however decided to overlook them.

  "As I said, your life will follow his."

  "What does that mean?" she wiped her eyes before she faced him.

  "Your lives will be linked, you will no longer age and your appearance will remain the same. You will watch your human loved ones past into the next life."

  That gave her pause, mainly because of her parents. She couldn’t imagine a world without them. Could she really do this?

  "Um other than that, the rest sounds okay. Why couldn’t Darius tell me all of this?"

  "I think I was meant to scare you?"

  "You haven’t. But you haven’t told me, how we do this blood bond thingy?”

  By the time she left, she actually quite liked Vlad. It transpired that he had Ben had set up some sort of agreement that would make sure she was kept safe for Darius.

  Chapter 32

  She was coming out of Haven today; he would be able to see Leila. His stomach was in turmoil, what if she no longer wanted him around. Talking on the phone was alright, but not the same as seeing someone.

  Over these past few months he felt like he knew her, in a way he had never known anyone before. In fact he no longer planned to kill Darius; it would only make Leila sad. He knew Darius was gone, but he also knew people were waiting for him to return. Thinking about it, he wanted Leila to come away with him if she wanted to; he wanted to leave all the bad memories behind for both of them. For the first time in centuries he wanted to move forward, not backward.

  She had given him the address of the house, the Haven had arranged for her to stay there, while she got her life on track. On the outskirts of the city it was secluded but close to a large suburb. From the outside it looked non-descript and hard to see from the road. He listened from the attic as a car pulled into the driveway, resisting the urge to look out. He had expected them earlier, but when she phoned him she said there was a change in the plan. Leila knew he would be there, he had told her last night that he had checked to see how secure it was. He had only arrived back in the city last night. From the job in England he went to Poland revelling in the space to think clearly, taking longer than he expected to decide what was happening in his head and heart, Leila had managed to get under his skin and he hadn’t liked it.

  He listened as the car door opened and heard Leila talking to a female; he was surprised to hear it was the one from the bookstore. He heard them come into the house, but when he heard the next voice all of his emotions hit him, firstly the hurt, but then anger and rage welled up. She had betrayed him, the hurt turned into rage and he slowly moved the hatch, and slid down onto the first floor. Now he would kill them all.

  Chapter 33

  Mary was laid on the couch somewhat sleepy, she had spent another night tossing and turning, not being able to settle. Her dreams were filled with Darius, and although at first it made her feel closer to him, now she couldn’t get him out of her head. When the hand touched her, and she opened her eyes to find Darius knelt in front of her, she closed her eyes and groaned again.

  "Please get out of my dreams, I can't take it anymore. I miss you too much."

  It didn’t work; the hand stroked her face, she blinked back the tears, they seemed endless some days.

  "It's not a dream sweetheart" taking a deep breath, Mary focussed on opening her eyes, expecting the image to fade as always. It didn’t, he kissed her lips, she pushed him away, he wasn’t expecting it and fell backwards, as his head hit the coffee table and he cursed she jumped up.

  "Oh my god, it's not a dream, you're real" she straddled him and kissed him hard, really hard. He returned the kiss and slipped his tongue in her mouth. She stopped kissing him and lifted her head; clenching her fist she hit him in the chest.

  "Hey what was that for?" he was rubbing his chest from the impact even though it did
not hurt

  "What was that for, I am assuming you travelled back into a time where they had no phones?"

  Looking confused Darius replied "no."

  "then that’s why"

  "Sweet Mary, I love you so much" this time she didn’t break the kiss. He carried her up to the bedroom, standing her up he kissed her, and she started pulling at his clothes as he did hers. When they were naked, he stopped to stare at her before stroking her face, down to her breasts, as his hand went lower she stopped him.

  "You're back for good right?"

  "I am, whatever I need to face I do it here, with you and my family beside me." She moved away to the dresser, pulling the knife out of its sheath, she watched him watching her.

  "I am sorry for not phoning, really I am" his eyes had strayed to the sharp knife, Mary laughed.

  "You silly man" lifting her hand she sliced downwards, with her blood dripping, the red in his eyes enflamed, she took his hand and sliced downwards, he knew what she meant to do, his eyes widened in surprise.

  "Are you sure?"

  "Completely, I have never wanted something more in my life" with the blood on their hands, she took his in hers.

  "With the blood of my hand, I give you my heart, with my heart, I give you my soul. When you live so shall I, when you die I will follow. From this day forth we are together as one."

  As their blood mixed, she felt warmth spread through her, she knew it would work. Vlad had explained to her, that a blood bond sounded easy, but it would only work if their bodies and souls were meant to connect. She knew Darius was hers, and had never questioned whether it would work.

  As he kissed his way down her body, he stopped on his knees.

  "I have missed you so much, the sight, the touch, the feel and the taste of you. I want to taste you again Mary" as he kissed the juncture of her thighs she sighed.

  This is how it was meant to be. Spreading her legs she let him taste her and when she was spent, she let him lay her on the bed and enter her. She revelled in his body, in the feel of him inside her, pounding into her, claiming her as his and when they were both close, she tilted her head.

  "Not from there today" he bent his head and pierced her breast, where he drank his fill while they both came together. Later that day, they celebrated his return with the pack. As angry as Ben was with him, he was happier to see him return. This time though, there would be no secrets, he handed his memoirs to Ben.

  "You deserve to know everything about me" he watched the pride in Ben's eyes.

  "I don’t need to know" he knew Ben trusted him.

  "I want you to."

  And so Ben took the memoirs, Darius would wait for the questions, he had no doubt there would be many. It was liberating, he was finally shedding his past, and he just needed to work out the last bit of the puzzle.

  He watched Imogen make her way over to him, she hugged him hard.

  "It's good to have you back; Haven is running short on visitors so I need you to find me some. Laughing at her, he saw how true Imogen's words were; over half of the residents had been people he had brought in. He had never thought of it like that before.

  "Give me time"

  "Speaking of residents, Leila is moving out tomorrow. I think it would be good if you helped her. She has missed you; she speaks about you a lot."

  "I would love to" Darius felt a burst of joy at how far Leila had come, the opportunities she would have.

  Chapter 34

  As Darius and Mary stood in the hall of Leila's new home, well it would be for the next 6 months or so, he sensed someone in the house, someone strong, someone familiar and very dangerous.

  "Mary, Leila, go out to the car and leave now."

  The voice that followed, chilled him "oh I don’t think so, do you little brother."

  Turning in complete shock, he faced Philippe "Philippe, what are you doing here?"

  While Darius was in shock, Philippe showed no surprise. He hadn’t seen Leila move away from him, but when Philippe grabbed her by the throat, and pulled her against him, his anger came back. He was back in the kitchen looking at maman, Charmaine and Emily.

  "Mary leave"

  "No" he should have guessed she wouldn’t go, why the hell had he brought her with him.

  "Would you like to know why I am here? For you brother, it took me centuries to find you, you always were a slippery bastard. But I finally found you in Spain, with the wolves. I have to say I was impressed. It took me a while to find you here and then you left, but I knew you would return."

  "It was you, all of those times, it was you? I thought it was Jeffrey" he was almost talking to himself, trying to digest all of this, while looking for a strategy to free Leila.

  "That bastard, he's more elusive than a goddamn ghost, but shit so are you. No brother it has always been me."

  Jeffrey was dead, not looking for him, it was almost too much to take in "please let Leila go, this is between us Philippe."

  "She betrayed me" Darius could hear anger in his voice, but he could also hear pain.

  Leila's voice was squeaky as she tried to protest.

  "How, she doesn’t know you Philippe, how could she betray you?"

  "I actually cared for her, listened to all of her Darius is good, Darius is kind, and wouldn’t hurt a flea. Now you can tell her how wrong she is, tell her what you did" Philippe was spitting the words, his voice in a rage, but by now, so was he.

  "Tell her what Philippe, how you killed my wife and child, ripped into the throat of our mother, drained our baby sister. Is that what you want her to know?" Darius threw the accusation with his voice.

  "How dare you, I killed none of them, I found you bent over your dead wife, sword in hand. The same sword that killed our father" he threw Leila to one side; Mary pulled her out of the way.

  Darius ran at him, "you liar, you bastard. I found them and you came back to finish off."

  They were hitting each other, the rage of years gone by forcing them to punish each other; they were bleeding, grappling on the floor, head butting, exchanging insults. Lamps were knocked over, walls cracked by the force of them hitting walls.

  "Of course I did, I was taking them into the castle, the bastard had nailed the doors and windows from the outside, trapping them inside."

  Darius stopped; he was astride Philippe, fist in the air "what?"

  "You dumb bastard, I came to get them out. Emily had gone into labour; I needed to get the horses to move them. I hurried before father awoke, but when I came in I found you bent over Emily."

  Darius moved off Philippe, to the floor, "what? I thought, when I saw you come in, I thought you had come back to finish the job with father."

  All the rage fell away; he could see the truth in Philippe eyes, "why have you been coming to kill me Philippe?"

  "I thought you did it, I thought the blood lust was too much, and then I knew you were hunting me and decided to kill you first, I kind of like living."

  He dropped his head into his hands, "what now?"

  It was Mary who made the decision "now you get off your butts, and stop squabbling like children."

  He saw Leila shaking, Darius stood and moved towards her "don’t touch her" Looking back at Philippe, the steel in his words.

  "Excuse me?"

  "Why Leila, why did you betray me" Philippe stepped closer.

  "Don’t go near her Philippe, she has been hurt enough already. I don’t know what you think she has done, she doesn’t even know you."

  He watched Philippe look to him, and then Leila, "you truly don’t know do you?"

  Darius shook his head "know what?"

  As Philippe sighed, he moved closer to Leila, he went to step in the way, but Mary grabbed his arm,

  "He doesn’t know does he Leila, he doesn’t know that I am a stupid man to jump to conclusions, about the only woman I have loved in centuries, no forever. Can you forgive me?"

  He watched in astonishment as Leila looked up "do you really love me?"

 
Philippe nodded as Leila fell into his arms. He really did not understand what the hell was going on. But maybe he now had time to find out, taking a breath he headed to the door, he needed fresh air. As he stepped out of the door, he felt pain, in his chest near his heart, a burning searing through him. The intensity propelled him backward; the shock had him stumbling back in through the door. Looking down he saw an arrow sticking out of his chest, a note attached.

  Mary ran to him, propping him up, he wasn’t hurt as such. Philippe did not hesitate as he pulled the arrow out, but the burning continued.