The Rise of House Valdis

by Naomi Valkyrie

  When his teeth sink into my arm, it pulls up memories of when we were initially forming our relationship. We loved each other so much then. We are both so fucked up emotionally now that I wonder if we will ever get back to that place. When he finally lets me go, I can tell he is still in pain, but not anywhere near how it was before.

  “Thank you, Matthew. I would like you to leave now. I don’t want you to see me like this. I don’t even know how you can stand to look at me. Maybe you were right not to want to be involved with me again.”

  “No! You don’t get to have a pity party and send me away because you are ashamed of what you did. I spent the last that few days in here watching over you because I love you, damn it. Am I angry that you made a reckless decision? Hell yes! But this isn’t all on you. If I hadn’t been such an ass, maybe we could have worked things out already and wouldn’t be in this mess. We’re both as much to blame for how this has played out, so cut the crap. We’re going to figure a way out of this fucked up situation with Kage, and then you and I are going to do what we planned to do years ago and figure everything else out as we go along.”

  His eyes meet mine with an intensity that pierces right to my soul as the seriousness of what I have said sinks in.

  “You would blood bond to me, even after all of this?”

  “Of course, you asshat. I love you.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  Xenobia

  After reprimanding the two men, who were acting like children, I felt like a third wheel. I’d step out, but I am gleaning information that I need to consider from their conversation. I had a small sliver of hope that we might get a visit from Master Kage and he would move along after he realized that I had nothing to do with Javier going missing. Now that I know just how important Javier was to him, I don’t think we’re going to get that luxury. This means, once again, the girls are in danger. They will become targets just by association. Being human, they have no way to defend themselves against a preternatural being, which complicates this even more.

  My attention is redirected to what is being said when I hear Matthew getting louder. For a second I think I might have to step back in and calm the situation, but he gets quiet again. The energy in the room has shifted from the angst that was permeating it before to one of intense love mixed with a bit of old-fashioned lust. This is confirmed when Onyx makes a declaration of wanting to take Matthew to bed. Why am I in this room again? Oh, right, dangerous vampire hunting us down.

  “Matthew! That’s it! You are a genius!” Onyx’s unexpected shout startles me enough that I jump a little. As bad as he’s feeling, I wouldn’t think he had the energy to expend.

  “Thanks. Glad you realize that.” Matthew is smirking. I’m glad they are starting to heal things between them.

  “Okay, okay, smartass. No, I mean the blood bond. The only way you and I have to buy ourselves some time to come up with a way out of this situation is being blood bound to someone. If you are blood bound to me, Kage cannot touch you without going through me. Since I’m in the crosshairs now as well, we would both have to be blood bound to someone. It isn’t common for a vampire to agree to be recipient of a bind. Usually they are the ones binding, but I’m willing to do it to protect you. If that is the only way we can come through this and be together, I will gladly do it.”

  I get a sinking feeling when they both look over at me. “What makes you even think any of this is a good idea? I’m not a vampire. I barely know anything about the preternatural creatures roaming this earth. How am I supposed to defend you against a Master vampire? What about the girls, how am I supposed to take care of them and defend you at the same time?” I think I might be moving toward an honest-to-goodness anxiety attack. I didn’t even know I could have those.

  “Relax, Xenobia. Breathe. We can bind the girls too.” Onyx is perfectly serious about this.

  “Are you out of your mind! We can’t risk it. Me sharing blood with Mercy is what changed her. I won’t ask them to take that chance.”

  “Given the choice between the possibility of gaining powers and certain death, you don’t think they would risk it?”

  Damn Onyx and his logic. “But why me? You could bind to someone else.”

  “You know damn well those girls will only trust you with something like this. You are the only person Matthew and I can trust right now.”

  “Chi! You could bond with Chi.” I’m grasping at straws now. I don’t even know if Chi can bind someone. What the hell is happening to my life!

  “Chi? You mean the guy that had his mouth all over you the other night? No way.”

  “Matthew, this is no time for pettiness.”

  “I’m not going to bind myself to someone I don’t even know. Why would you even ask me to do that?”

  “Well, you don’t know me all that well either.”

  “Yes, but you and I have already established that we have a connection. And I know that some part of you is beginning to care about me.” Well, he’s got me there. Even though I have been maintaining a fair amount of distance, I do care about him.

  “I’m scared.” Saying that out loud drives reality home. I haven’t been this terrified since I was a child. With everything I endured, I learned quickly that showing fear would get me killed. Eventually I stopped begin afraid and just became angry. Coming to Earth had given me a chance to start over, to learn how to feel other emotions again. Right now, I’m not sure that is a good thing.

  I know where this fear is coming from. I couldn’t save Urd, even though I tried to. There were just too many things working against us. What if I do this and everyone ends up dead anyway? I may be emotionally distant in many ways, but I’ve grown to care about the girls and Matthew. I don’t want to lose what I’ve built so far.

  “Well, so am I,” Onyx said, “but the thought of Matthew dying scares me more than being bound, so I’m choosing to do it anyway!”

  Onyx is committed to Matthew. I’ll give him that. The question is, am I that committed to saving everyone involved in this? Can I live with it if there is a chance we could win this and I don’t take it?

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  Matt

  Xenobia keeps grasping at other options, but I know this is the best one. We’ll be stronger together. I know she knows it too. She’s starting to wear down to acceptance, we need to wait her out. We go back and forth about it for several more minutes before I see the resigned look in her eyes. It has to be her. She’s something Kage has never encountered before. He won’t be able to anticipate her power. I’m pretty sure she has powers none of us have ever even seen.

  “Ok. I’ll do it. At least it will give us a fighting chance.”

  I help Onyx out of bed, and he leans on me to keep upright. It is a mite unsettling for a usually strong vampire to appear so weak. Apparently, even perfection has its weak spots. Best to remember that just because we can live forever doesn’t mean we can’t die.

  “Since you and I both have fangs meant to carry fluids, we can bite each other. You and I will have to open a vein for Matthew to drink from. Before you bite us, use the binding words we spoke about.” It’s taking a lot of energy for him to be on his feet, but he’s giving directions as if nothing is wrong. Xenobia takes Onyx from me and lets him lean into her.

  “You ready?” Onyx nods. “Here goes nothing.”

  Xenobia brushes Onyx’s hair to the side, and her fangs extend. “With power and blood, I eternally bind you to me.” Her fangs sink into Onyx as his sink into her. It strikes me that, in spite of the reason for this happening, it is a beautiful moment. Onyx is doing this for me, sacrificing his freedom, for me. In a way, Xenobia is sacrificing her freedom too. She’s allowing two people to be tied to her for eternity, neither of which she knows very well at all, to more effectively protect the humans that trust her. Eternity is a long time, I hope that they do not resent me for this later.

  With their binding complete, Onyx sits down on the bed. He’s looking a lot better than he did before
. The binding must already be increasing his power. Xenobia bites into her wrist and blood blossoms up. I guess it’s my turn. I take hold of her wrist as she says the words over me. Her fangs bite into me as I draw blood from her. Other than a quick burst of what feels like an electrical shock, I don’t feel any different. But the binding must be complete with us as well because she draws back and tugs her wrist from me.

  “See, the sky didn’t fall, and the world didn’t end.” Onyx is obviously trying to lighten the situation, but Xenobia is in no mood for it based on the burning look she’s giving him. He shrugs and turns his gaze to me.

  “We might not be able to do a blood binding together now that we are both connected to Xen, but I still would exchange a blood promise with you if you let me.” I nod, and he walks to me. I can’t find words right now. After all of this time, we are finally going to be together. I’m afraid to say anything for fear it will all disappear. The place where Xen bit him on the neck is still open enough for me to get blood from him so I lean in.

  As he leans in close, he breathes words only meant for me. “With trust and love I join with you.” I feel his fangs break my skin and draw blood as I take his. What should be a euphoric moment is interrupted by a surge of power that throws all three of us across the room in different directions.

  ***

  “Son of a bitch!”

  “What the hell!”

  “Will you two stop shouting!” I can’t focus because I can hear them both and it feels like echoes at full volume inside my skull. I’m about to ask them if they are okay when a pain shoots through my head and it feels as if someone is stabbing my brain with an icepick. A sudden flood of images flashes before me. Xenobia as a child. The things she endured on her home world, the murder of her friend and her killing the men who did it. Image after image flows through me. Then it stops so abruptly that it makes me gasp. But, unfortunately that short few seconds is all of the reprieve I am going to get because I am slammed with images again, this time of Onyx. His birth as a vampire. Him nearly starving. The two of us together. Him holding the body of my sister. The life of addiction. The abuse at the hands of his previous Master. At some point I realize the images have stopped and I am crying. They have both experienced so much pain, had to endure so much abuse. I don’t know how either of them stayed sane.

  “It’s ok, baby, we’re here.” Onyx pulls me into his arms, and I feel Xen wrap around the other side of me. There is nothing like a first-hand look at the nightmare past that someone has lived through to start breaking down the walls between you.

  “What the hell was that?” I ask when I have collected myself enough to speak.

  “I have no idea. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.”

  “I am assuming you both had the visions too.”

  “Yes. That shouldn’t be possible, and this seems to be something even deeper than blood bonding. Looks like you’re stuck with me now, Matthew.” Despite the fact that we all just had our skulls nearly split open from visions a minute ago, he’s wearing the biggest smile I have ever seen.

  I hate to wipe the smile off his face, but I want to trade it with a kiss. Even though we’ve got a vengeful vampire to deal with, I am going to take a minute to enjoy this bonding. After a deep and thorough kiss, Onyx pulls away slowly. “Don’t start things we can’t finish right now, you tease.”

  I pretend to pout, but then I feel Xenobia shift beside me, and I realize that this is completely unfair to her. She’s just made a decision that might save us all, and I have basically ignored her. Turning to her I take in her unusual beauty. I really want us to have something deeper and more meaningful than a bonding created out of necessity. Taking a huge chance of incurring her wrath, I put my hands on either side of her face and kiss her just as thoroughly.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Xenobia

  Normally I would drop a man for being so forward, but the bond and the visions have left my heart wide open. I have seen parts of Matthew that no one else knows about, well, except for Onyx. For just a minute I immerse myself in the emotional vulnerability this situation has created. No holding on to the pain, heartache, and anger I’d carried around for most of my life…such freedom. Only one other time in my life have I felt such relief, and I don’t think or speak about it.

  Matthew finally breaks the kiss and puts his forehead to mine. “Thank you, Xen.”

  We’ve got an eternity together that could be full of moments like this, full freedom and intimacy. Just consciously thinking that thought causes my walls to go back up. The thought of being that open leaves the potential for devastation. Damn you, Universe! I was doing just fine until you threw all of this crap at me. Now I’m floundering as I realize just how lonely I’ve been.

  “Don’t do that; don’t shut me out.” I hear the plea in Matthew’s voice, but I can’t deal with this anymore right now. We’ve got serious business to attend to, and I can’t afford the distraction. Classic avoidance, I know, but based in fact. We need to get out in front of this vampire situation.

  “We’ve got a situation to deal with, and we can’t get distracted.” I can see the hurt on Matthew’s face, but I can’t let myself feel bad, I need to focus. “Onyx, are you certain it is safe to do the blood binding with a human? We need to give the girls the option if it helps keep them safe, but I don’t want to take anymore risks than I have to.”

  “It’s safe. I’ve never heard of the binding itself harming a human.”

  I pace around the room thinking over the seriousness of binding that many people to me. It seems unfair to ask the girls to bind to me for the rest of their life. Onyx and Matthew chose this and knew exactly what they were doing, and the girls are all so new to this. They just found out I’m not human and they handled that well, but would this put them over the edge? At that moment I am struck with inspiration.

  “Of course! I don’t have to do the complete binding with them; I just need to give them my blood. That was all I did with Mercy, and she got powers. I didn’t drink her blood; I just removed the poison from the drugs.” I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before. With Matthew and Onyx the bonding is a calculated power play to throw the vampire off-kilter. Our powers will be stronger together, and mine will be completely unexpected. If I give the girls my blood and they develop powers, they still have a way to defend themselves if they choose not to do the binding. It gives them another choice, maybe not much of one, but at least they won’t be tied to me indefinitely if they don’t want to be.

  “And you don’t think you giving them your blood is a risk?” Onyx looks at me with curiosity.

  “Well, it worked with Mercy, even if it was not what I intended at the time. At least I have evidence that it can work. If they want to do the binding after, I’ll give them that choice. But I don’t want it to be their only choice.”

  Onyx didn’t have anything to say back to that, so I decide I need to discuss this with everyone before I lose my nerve. Making my way to the door I realize that they are not following. “Are you coming or not?”

  “Yes, mistress,” Onyx says as he winks at Matthew and gives me an exaggerated bow. I have to hide a smirk. Best not to encourage him.

  Jackass.

  ***

  Onyx, Matthew, and I are standing in front of the girls, who currently are struggling to pick their jaws up off the floor.

  “Oh my god! You can’t be serious! He’s a vampire!” Sylvia finally exclaims, waffling between shock and overwhelming curiosity.

  “Yes, I am a vampire. But I’m a good one, ask Maggie,” Onyx says as he winks at Maggie. For the second time ever, I see Maggie blush. Oi vey! This is what they are focused on right now. I slap Onyx on the belly and give him a stern look thinking it is time for him to knock off the levity.

  “I’m just trying to keep things from getting too heavy, relax.”

  “You heard that! I didn’t even say it out loud.” Apparently, we share more than I thought. Although now tha
t I think about it, this presented itself earlier when we were all having the flood of visions. I remember Matthew telling us to stop shouting, but neither of us had said anything out loud. There is going to be a serious learning curve with all of this. We can’t hear each other all of the time. It is going to take practice to figure out how to hone this to keep it from becoming an intrusion.

  “As entertaining as this is, can we please focus. We have no idea what our time table is, so we need to be prepared sooner rather than later. When we only had Javier to contend with, even though I was worried, I was pretty sure we would come out of it okay. Now, we’ve got to deal with a powerful master vampire, and I have no idea what to expect. This is as new to me as it is to you. That’s why Matthew and Onyx are here; they’re going to help us. And, each of you has a choice to make.”

  The levity that had previously been in the room dwindles as the women begin mentally weighing their options. Mercy sits silently observing the whole situation. She has it easier than the rest of them; she already has powers.

  “So, our options are pretty much run, and hope we aren’t followed, or take your blood and get powers we’ve got to learn how to control,” Maggie reiterates.

  “Yes, unfortunately. When we started over here on our own, creating our own lives, I never imagined it would play out like this. I just wanted to help you get away from the life Javier imposed on you. Now it seems that I’ve just thrown you into another impossible situation.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening. The whole thing is so utterly unbelievable. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would think you all were crazy,” Sylvia mumbles.

  “I know how you feel. I just found out that there are beings who can fly. I didn’t think that was at all possible,” I say, trying to reassure them that I can relate to their experience.

  “Wait. Fly?” Sylvia’s eyes grow even wider than before.