by Scott, Helen
"He was just surprised. Give him a minute to catch up and get to know you. He already worships the ground you walk on, any disdain you felt coming from him was probably for the Academy or the Masters." His hand reached for my own, twining our fingers together before he brought it to his lips for a kiss. "I promise, no one thinks any less of you because of the life you were born into."
I sighed as his lips brushed my knuckles and a hunger awoke within me. I tried to tamp it down, but it was growing rapidly the longer we stayed in contact. His scent seemed to wrap around me, making me want to burrow into him, or run off to the mountains and never come back. I extracted my hand from his with a tight smile, as I pushed the hunger down. I'd never been so ravenous before, so needy.
"Didn't fancy pants have a case he wanted to talk to us about?" I asked, hoping to distract myself from the sensations that were trying to overwhelm my body.
He nodded. “It’s a bitch of a case too.”
I frowned at that and pulled away from him, anxiously rubbing my hands together as I processed why the Enforcer would give his rogue Brotherhood a nasty case. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“He spoke in depth with you about it?”
“We had time to kill while you were out of it, Chella,” he explained with a shrug, and inside, I felt so warm because of the nickname they’d given me. “We were all out working on it while you were resting.”
“You left two behind to guard me?” I inquired, even though I knew the answer. My lips curved at the memory of how my two walkers had awoken me. Talk about fate that my unbonded mates would be the ones who brought me out of whatever haze I’d been drowning in.
“Of course. Gideon wanted to leave three behind, but Cade said we didn’t deserve you if we couldn’t guard you in pairs.”
I snickered. “I’m sure that went down well.”
“Yeah. Like a couple of red hot pokers in the ass.” He rubbed his chin as he crossed his legs at the ankle, and sank back onto his elbows so he was leaning back against the lounger. He looked so chilled, so relaxed, that I had to smile again. Barclay was one of those kinds of people who always looked laidback wherever he was. Even on the manic drive criss-crossing our way over the damn country, he’d splayed out like he was laying back on a feather bed.
About to tease him, I stiffened when I felt the air charge. My eyes closed of their own volition, my nostrils flared as I processed his scent, and when he spoke, my ears felt like they were throbbing at the husky note in his voice.
My reactions to all the men in this house were strong. Most humans would never understand the kind of connection we shared. And though the power of the link was almost level between them—something that, in all honesty, surprised me—what stunned me the most, was the difference of the texture between what I felt for Darius and what I felt for my men where the links between us were concerned.
It wasn’t stronger or weaker, deeper or more fragile. It was just different.
And different wasn’t something I particularly wanted to appreciate at that moment.
“Leave us, Barclay,” he commanded, immediately putting me on edge.
“He isn’t your peon here,” I snarled at him, my head whipping to the side as I glowered at him.
When his jaw turned to granite, his eyes turning flinty, I just cocked a brow at him.
“Apologies, Barclay. Please, would you let me speak with Marcella alone for a moment?”
My shifter mate cleared his throat, but there was amusement in his eyes as he grinned at me, before ducking out of the conversation and heading back to his breakfast.
Keiran and Barclay were the peacemakers. I’d come to see that over the past few weeks in their company, and that was because, by nature, they were restful. But more than that, they were also not as antagonistic as Raven, Cade, and Gideon. Well, Gideon wasn’t exactly antagonistic, but he was aggressive. Not playful like Barclay, or soothing like Keiran.
Silence fell when the door closed behind him with a sharp clatter, and I turned back to face the pool. Resting my elbows on my knees, I stared out into the distance once more, wondering how he could make me so angry, and yet, something about him called to me. There was no denying it. No hiding from it.
His scent.
Maker.
His scent… It was like I knew it. Had scented it before. But that made no sense. No sense at all. Or did it? Matings between pursangs weren’t supposed to make sense. That I knew as well as I knew my name.
When he took a seat by my side, I didn’t bother to stiffen up. I’d expected him to come after me. He was overly old, overly dominant, and overly accustomed to being in charge not to want me to bow to his wishes.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, however.
I’d been bowing to too many people since the start of my life. No more. No goddamn more.
“I want to apologize—”
“Don’t bother,” I cut him off, not even looking at him. “If you don’t mean it, it’s nothing to me.”
He released a hiss that was pure Vampire. “You’re not even giving me a chance.”
“Not when you look at me like I’m a piece of shit, no,” I snarled at him, my own Vampire coming to life in the face of his.
My statement had him rearing back like I’d slapped him. “Piece of shit?” He gaped at me, his eyes flaring wide in bewilderment. “Why the hell do you think I’m looking at you like you’re a piece of shit?”
“Because you are?”
“No, Marcella, I’m most definitely not.” He released a heavy sigh. “You know how rare this connection is.”
“Well aware, yes.”
“Then, why—”
“Because I’m hardly ideal, am I?”
“You’re fucking perfect to a man who’s been starving for more than a thousand years,” he rasped.
“You haven’t been starving.”
“Haven’t I? Walk a day in my shoes, Marcella,” he grunted, and ran a hand through his hair. It mussed the perfection of the style, but I preferred it like that. It wasn’t perfect now—long hair should never be perfect—yet his was, and he looked so goddamn pristine in his suit with the diamond cufflinks that winked and glittered in the sunlight, I wasn’t sure how he even did that. It was damn hot, and he looked like he was sitting in a chiller. “In fact, I take that back. I wouldn’t want you to.”
My throat tightened. “I don’t understand.” I didn’t. He’d looked at me like he’d hated me the morning we’d met. And my past? It wasn’t exactly cookie-cutter.
“What’s to understand?” he whispered. “You’re my mate.”
“I know.”
“Why are you fighting this then?”
My jaw clenched. “You’re not something I anticipated.”
“And you think you are? I’ve lived without you for a very long time, inamorata. You’re a gift from the Maker I don’t deserve, but I’ll take you anyway.”
I jumped to my feet, not comfortable with this line of conversation. He didn’t make a move from the sun lounger he’d sat on, and I knew that was because I wasn’t trying to retreat. I just needed to work off this energy coursing through me. I felt his eyes on me, felt him watch me like I was a documentary and my movements were a tale he wanted to understand.
“There are things they’ll never understand about you,” he stated softly, quietly.
In-fucking-sidiously.
Damn him.
Damn him.
“Don’t do that,” I snapped. “Don’t try to put space between them and me.” And that was the issue, I realized. That was the source of my agitation, my need to put distance between this man and me.
“You’re concerned that the link with me will lessen the bond with them?”
I felt my connection with each man and knew it was strong. Incredibly powerful. And with each male I bonded myself to, it grew stronger, all the more ferocious. I couldn’t even comprehend what would happen when Gideon claimed me. Maker.
Yet the pu
rsang connection was our kind’s version of a fairytale.
“They don’t deserve this,” was all I said. “They don’t deserve to be second-best.”
“And they won’t be.”
I sniffed. “Even if that was the truth, you’d always treat them as lesser because, not only are you old as hell, you’re their boss.”
“But where you’re concerned, I’m not on top,” he grunted. “You’ve no idea how difficult that is for me, but I understand that, in the grand scheme of things, I’m a wildcard.”
“Have you ever loved someone before?” I asked quietly, my pacing coming to a halt as I stared at him, wanting to know the answer with a need that surprised me.
Darius tilted his head to the side. “Is this a trick question?”
“No.”
My blunt retort had him laughing slightly. “Well, that told me, then.” Blowing out a breath, he continued, “No. I haven’t. I never allowed myself to.”
I wasn’t sure if that relieved me or upset me. “I’d been hoping to use that as a comparison.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” He sounded put out, when I was the one who should be.
How could a man live so long and not fall in love with someone? How was that even possible? And what the hell did that say about him?
“I love them.” Three words, one sentiment, something I hadn’t even shared with the men themselves.
“I know.” It wasn’t bitter, more resigned.
“They don’t,” I said with a faint laugh. “I barely know them, but something in them calls to me. They’re each tied to me in a way I can’t describe, and I don’t want them to feel less.”
“Look, Marcella,” he burst out, getting to his feet in an explosive movement I recognized as truly pursang. Not even Gideon, who the others said was the most Vampiric, moved that fast. In the blink of an eye, he was on the lounger and the next, his hands were holding my arms firmly, not enough to hurt, but enough to keep me in place. “I’m not trying to weaken your bond with them. You don’t have to defend your connection, and you don’t have to shield it from me. It’s there and it’s yours. I understand that.”
My throat tightened. “Before—”
“Before I was a male who’d just discovered the impossible,” he breathed. “I’ve lived through countless civilizations without you, Marcella, and I never expected to discover you were the pain in the ass Sixth who had wrecked all my damn plans for that Brotherhood in there.”
It was my turn to stare at him. “What do you mean?”
He grimaced. “Three walkers on a Brotherhood is rare enough. A druid? A shifter?” He shook his head. “That’s more than rare.”
“Why?”
“Because of a dream I once had.”
Whatever I’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that. “A dream?”
“Yes. My mother had the Sight.”
My mouth formed a perfect ‘O,’ until I shook my head in bemusement. “She had the Sight? T-That’s unheard of.”
“Perhaps, but it’s true. I didn’t inherit much of the talent but, every now and then, I catch a glimpse of something.”
Intrigued, I leaned into him. “What did you see?”
“Something that’s coming to pass as we speak.”
12
Marcella
Darius had the Sight, the one gift that every family head would kill for, but somehow I doubted anyone knew. If they did, he'd be locked up in a compound while they tried, usually in vain, to trigger his visions. Since he wasn't, I was guessing myself and maybe his biological mother were the only ones who knew, especially if what he claimed was true, that he'd never fallen in love before.
"What's coming to pass as we speak, oh spooky one?" I asked, when he didn't immediately elaborate.
"A war, if we can't stop it. Some of the triggers have already been pulled, but not all. Before we can deal with that though, we need to deal with this case. The President's grandson was killed in a bank robbery gone wrong. The assailants were on a drug called Kronos, it alters—"
"Time?" I guessed.
He gave a slight nod. "The perception of it, yes."
"No one could come up with a more original name, huh?" Sometimes pursangs were way too damn predictable.
He chuckled. "I wasn't in charge of picking the name. It's not even our family that designed the drug, but it is made from pursang blood."
I tried to listen to his words and read the emotions that were coming through the bond at the same time. It was challenging, but I figured if I could get used to it from the get go, then it would come in handy later. What I hadn't expected was to find that he was nervous. Agitated. Worried. Especially when there wasn't an ounce of it showing in his body language.
"What's wrong?" I probed, my tone a little too sharp.
"Nothing, other than humans dying because of a drug we made."
"Bullshit. Lie to me again and you'll lose what little trust you were gaining from me." I crossed my arms over my chest, as I leaned back against the adobe wall that surrounded the pool area of the backyard.
Darius's eyes were dark as they watched me, not a hint of silver in sight. He looked like he was deciding whether or not to trust me, with whatever it was that was making him feel so anxious. "It's my family's squire. Her daughter was on sabbatical and we think she's become mixed up with the drug. If she doesn't return to the fold, it could cripple our family. Maximus could fall because of the secrets she knows, the secrets that the whole council would gladly use as weapons against us, especially the Malectos and the Larabys."
I knew from all the research I had done into this life I was supposed to be leading, along with my parents’ bond, that the squire was a lifetime position which was passed down from generation to generation. Their whole lives were devoted to assisting Vampire families, something that only paused when they took a sabbatical. Since Darius's current squire was alive and well, the incoming generation was allowed to go and enjoy their lives until they had to return to the fold. Sometimes they had twenty or thirty years to go out and do whatever they wanted on the family's dime, sometimes they had more, sometimes less. It all depended on how the family treated the current squire, the squire's health, and the type of life they had.
What Darius was worried about was reasonable, a squire, even one who had only been through training and gone on sabbatical, was privy to the most intimate of family secrets. They knew all the inner workings for each family, and if a squire ever didn't want to return to the fold? Well, they could never outrun a family by themselves.
In all the history books I'd read over the years, I'd only ever seen a few cases of a squire defecting to another family. Needless to say that was enough to cause a war, in and of itself. The family that lost the squire would generally stop at nothing until the body of said squire had been presented to them. The name of the squire was then struck from all books and records but one, so they remained anonymous and held no glory in death. The one record that still held their name was a book of dishonor, those who had betrayed their families, those who fought for humans instead of Vampires when those situations arose, that kind of thing. If your name was in that book, then it was guaranteed that it was there because of one shameful action or another.
"So, we find your missing apprentice squire. She leads us to the drug runners. We take them out. President's vengeance is appeased. Done."
"You make it sound so easy, Mate, when I know it won't be, not in the least, because one of the drug runners, as you say, is a council member's son." His mouth was set in a grim line.
For just a moment, I felt the weight of the years he carried with him. It was immense, unfathomable. I could feel the push and pull of time, the way the years waged war on him, and yet he still stood, like a sentry, keeping watch over the Maximus family. The truth of the matter was, his watch ended years ago, but he couldn't stand the boredom that came with not having a job, a role, to fulfill. Darius was a workaholic and was more dedicated to his family than anyone I'd ever seen, even Lil
y fucking Addams.
I got all of this in a matter of seconds from the bond between us. All I could think about was, what he got from me through the bond. Could he sense my need for love and family, and to be cared for? Could he tell I was terrified of them finding out more about my past and not wanting me? Or could he tell that I was just as confused and overwhelmed by all of this as he was?
The way he'd called me mate… it was possessive, fierce, and held a promise in his tone of nights that would never end and would be filled with pleasure and, most of all, love. I wasn't sure which made me more nervous if I was honest, the thought of bedding this ancient being who could probably snap me like a twig if he wanted, or the fact that the emotions between us were already beyond complicated, and we'd only just met.
"All we have to do is take it one step at a time and figure it out," I said.
I wasn't sure whether it was because I'd been able to sense his emotions and felt like I had a secret window into what he was actually feeling, or whether it was the mate bond or me being a sap, but Darius looked so tired and alone sitting on the lounger. I couldn't take it. It tore at my heart that one of the men who was bound to me was hurting, but I didn't know the cause of the pain.
There hadn't been a lot of distance between us to begin with, but I closed it now, dropping to my knees in front of him and taking his hands in my own. "Whatever we need to do to find your squire, we will get it done. This might be our first case together as a unit, but it's not our first time dealing with unexpected circumstances. We will conquer and overcome. The Maximus family will be safe, you'll be safe."
He snorted at the last part, but his dark eyes were serious as they watched my own. "I'm not worried about my safety, little one. I'm worried about yours. This isn't the Academy anymore. This is the real world, and you'll see things you can never unsee, you might do things that go against your very nature, and that makes me nervous for you."
He thought I was a child? Someone who needed to be coddled? That I didn't already know there was evil in the world? I pulled my hands back to myself and stood, placing distance between us once again. "Do you think I'm some pursang princess that's never had a tough day in her life?" I hissed at him, as my own anger turned into a storm raging within me, one the conduit happily fed.