Blood Enthralled (Blood Enchanted, Book Three): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series

by Nicola Claire

  The Parisian Nosferatin laughed.

  “Say hello to your house for me,” Mama added.

  “I will.”

  She turned toward me and reached for both of my hands. She held them between us, thumbs brushing over my knuckles.

  “My beautiful girl,” she whispered. “Come home.”

  “My home is in Istanbul now.”

  “Adrianople,” Hakan corrected.

  OK, then. Adrianople.

  Mama spared him a brief glance but returned her attention to me. I felt like I was basking in sunlight.

  “Your father needs you.”

  “Hasn’t he asked enough of me by now?” I automatically growled in reply.

  When would I learn?

  Mama smiled. It was nostalgic and familiar all at once.

  “I feel walls rattling,” she said. “Dust and mortar falls all around. The dragon paces and his garden burns. Something is happening in Auckland.”

  “Is it Papa? Is he hurt?”

  “He is furious.” She leaned in and placed her lips to my ear. “And deeply satisfied.”

  I pulled back and scowled at her. What would make my father furious and satisfied at the same time?

  Mama held my gaze.

  “This has been five hundred years in the making,” she murmured.

  I sucked in a breath of air and then my mother was gone. My hands were empty. The room remained silent.

  Five hundred years in the making.

  The Mhachkay were storming the Iunctio.

  “I have to go back,” I said, and Hakan roared his disquiet.

  14

  The Boogeyman Under His Bed

  Zahra woke up before either Luc or Alain did. Yves had left some time ago, and I’d been pacing for the past hour. Whatever was happening in Auckland, I had to hope the combined power of the Iunctio was holding it off.

  I wouldn’t leave my brother, and Hakan wouldn’t leave his cousin.

  If we had to fight the Kral and what was left of the Mhachkay, we’d need both of them to back us.

  But looking at Luc right now, I wasn’t sure that was a given. How would he act when he woke up? Who would he be with all that black inside him?

  Zahra groaned and lifted a shaking hand to her forehead. Hakan strode across the room and crouched down beside her.

  “Canım,” he said softly. “You did it.”

  The witch blinked open blurry looking eyes and then glanced down at my brother lying out on cushions beside her. There hadn’t been much in the house, but Georgia and Samson had gone foraging outside. I thought perhaps they’d needed a moment alone to regroup.

  I’d thought perhaps they’d not return. But they came back with blankets and cushions for our injured, and food for me and my brother.

  I hadn’t been able to stomach it, and Luc was still out cold on the dusty floor.

  Zahra finally waking was promising, however. I silently urged Luc to shake off whatever ailed him and come back to the land of the living.

  So close. We were so close. Somehow I wouldn’t believe we’d succeeded until I heard my brother’s voice, saw it on his face, in his eyes.

  “Argh,” Zahra groaned. “My head.”

  “Do you need blood?” Hakan asked.

  She said nothing. Her eyes were all for Lucien.

  “He is mine,” she said finally.

  “Yes. You have entwined his blood,” Hakan agreed. “But not the vampire’s.”

  Zahra looked across the space between them and Alain.

  “He is his kindred,” she said, and I finally stopped pacing behind them.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “They are still joined,” she said.

  “But Luc’s entwined with you, as well?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How’s that even possible?”

  “I do not know,” she admitted. “I was hoping the entwining would break the kindred joining.” She cocked her head. “But somehow I have made it into something else.”

  “What else?” I demanded.

  Hakan pushed smoothly to his feet and moved to my side. He didn’t touch me. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t even look at me in warning. But the heat of him calmed me enough to suck in a breath of air, and for my mind to register, I’d placed my hands on my stakes and was about to draw them.

  If I staked Zahra would Luc die? Would Alain?

  “This is unexpected,” the Black Witch said. “I have no explanation.”

  Great. We’d expected them to change but to this? I rubbed two hands over my face trying to think.

  “Neither is Dark,” I offered.

  “I sense the Black,” Zahra murmured. The way she said ‘Black’ made it sound like a sentient being deserving a capital letter in its title. “Lucien’s is familiar. The vampire’s is not.”

  She looked up at me and shook her head. “I cannot explain it correctly, Kafinefendi,” she said. “But your brother is safe for now.”

  The ‘for now’ didn’t soothe me. But I realised there was nothing I could do about it. Until we knew more, I had nothing to battle. Luc was safe. His Dark was gone. I couldn’t sense any Light. But his Dark was gone. That was something.

  Lucien made a sound, then, letting out a sigh. Slowly he opened his eyes and stared at nothing. Then he jerked upright, coming to a fighting stance in a heartbeat, his eyes flaring black and then settling into a smokey colour. It suited him, even if I missed the hazel.

  “Hey,” I said. I almost snorted. ‘Hey’ seemed so trivial. So pathetic.

  “Hey, El,” he said in reply and smiled.

  I blinked back tears and felt myself sinking to the floor. Hakan reached out and guided my body down, so I wouldn’t end up splattered against the floorboards.

  Luc’s smile fell. His eyes landed on Alain.

  He blinked. Blinked again. And then said, “I feel something. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “It is the kindred joining,” Zahra said from beside him.

  Luc suddenly scrambled away from her. “Who the hell are you?” he snapped.

  There was no hero worship there. Just good old Nosferatin wariness. I was proud.

  “Zahra Bahar,” Zahra said.

  “Lucien Durand,” my brother replied because there was never a time like the present to remember your manners.

  I snorted.

  “What?” Luc demanded.

  “You’re still you,” I said.

  “Who else would I be?” he asked.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t tell him. There’d be time, or not, to explain what had happened. What we’d fought. How much we’d lost. The sacrifices I’d been prepared to make on his behalf.

  “Hey, kid,” Georgia suddenly said.

  “Shit,” Luc muttered. “Not you too, Nothus.”

  “You think I’d miss out on all this fun?” she enquired.

  “I think I’m missing out on something here,” Luc mumbled.

  His eyes landed on Hakan. A staring match ensued.

  I tapped Hakan on the arm. He ignored me.

  “Ah, guys,” I said.

  Neither replied. Smoke filled Luc’s eyes. Silver laced Hakan’s. Sanguis Vitam swelled. I expected Light to follow, but only Blackness engulfed my brother.

  Luc’s fangs slipped out and down. He frowned. Then carefully licked them.

  “Fuck,” he said.

  “It’ll be OK,” I offered.

  “Fuck!” he said again with much more gusto.

  No one had anything decent to offer in reply. ‘Fuck’ seemed like a good epithet.

  “Please don’t tell me I drink blood now,” Luc muttered.

  “Are you thirsty?” I asked.

  Something stirred in his eyes, and then he was looking at Zahra. The Black Witch scowled.

  “No,” she said.

  “Why not?” my brother asked with his signature melt-the-ladies-knickers-off smile. “I’ll make it worth your while.” He winked at her.

  She fondled the hilt of her s
word; it looked suggestive. Hakan snorted. Had he heard that thought?

  I smiled. Luc glanced back at me.

  “OK, sis,” he said. “What the fuck? Start talking.”

  “Zahra is Mhachkay,” I explained. “So is Hakan.”

  “Mhachkay? I don’t know any Mhachkay.”

  I sighed; rubbed my face and then got myself comfortable on an overstuffed cushion. We didn’t have time for this, but arriving in Auckland to face off against the Kral without adequately preparing my brother seemed unwise. I stared across the room at Alain. He still slept the blissful sleep of the unconscious, but he needed to hear this, too.

  I blasted him with my Light.

  He yelped.

  Fangs down, eyes bled to cyan and turquoise, he snapped his teeth at me and said, “That was uncalled for, Bébé.”

  Son of a…

  I blasted him again and made sure it freaking hurt.

  He hissed, puffed up his chest, Sanguis Vitam started to rise.

  Hakan stepped between us and growled; the sound bounced off the walls and settled somewhere up in the rafters.

  “Be very careful how you address my wife,” he told the spymaster.

  “Your wife?” Alain exclaimed and then remembered himself. A blank mask fell into place.

  “Hakan Bahar,” I said waving at my vampire. “My Entwined.”

  “This just gets better and better,” Luc offered and smirked.

  “Zahra Bahar,” I told him, waving at the Black Witch. “Your Entwined.”

  “What?” my brother said.

  “Lucien is my kindred,” Alain said on a low, threatening growl.

  “In a manner of speaking,” I muttered.

  I sensed the moment Alain decided this was all a threat; to him, to his kindred Nosferatin. To their lives.

  I sent out my Light and wrapped him up in it. Before he even had a chance to twitch a finger, I had him Dream Walking outside of his body.

  His corporeal form collapsed to the floor. The Nosferatu all looked at the unconscious vampire and then looked back at me, alarmed. Georgia and Luc just sighed.

  “Hubba-hubba,” said the Dark Shadow as she took in Alain Dupont in all his ghostly naked glory. “He works out.”

  “El!” Luc chastised. “You know how much he hates that.”

  “He was about to do a runner,” I told him. “And take you with him,” I added. “I have not chased you halfway across Faerie, halfway around the goddess-damned world, and halfway to hell and back to have that sanctimonious prick steal you out from under me.”

  Luc stared at me for a long time and then pushed up and walked toward me. Kneeling down in front of me, he said, “It’s OK, sis. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. At least, not until you tell me what the fuck is going on.” He offered a goofy grin to soften his words. “Dupont will watch himself.” He looked toward where the vampire snapped and snarled in ghostly silence. “Won’t you, old chap?” Luc said. “You’ll be a good little spymaster.”

  “Since when do you tease your idol?” I asked.

  “Since he was destined to become your kindred.”

  That shocked me. Luc had always worshipped the ground Alain walked on. Had he been jealous? Jealousy wasn’t something Lucien did. His heart was built big. Big enough to handle sharing his precious golden god of a vampire with his twin sister.

  “I was never going to join with him, Luc,” I said.

  “Not for want of Papa trying.”

  “Papa had a plan,” I said. “He just didn’t want Alain to know it.”

  Luc arched his brow. “Or us,” he said.

  “Yeah, that too. But that’s just Papa. Secrets and machinations are his forte.”

  Luc sighed. “He had a plan, huh?”

  “The Mhachkay,” I said.

  He looked at Zahra and Hakan.

  “And who are the Mhachkay exactly, El?”

  I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath of air and then said, “The vampires who killed Neagoe Basarab.”

  “Ah, shit,” my brother muttered. “You don’t say? No wonder Papa got his undies in a bunch.”

  “They’ve been imprisoned for five hundred years,” I said.

  Luc looked back at me and said nothing.

  “They broke out when we came into our powers.”

  Still nothing.

  “They’ve entwined Enchanted before. Joining doesn’t save us. Only entwining does.”

  He looked back at Zahra. “She saved my life?” He talked as if she couldn’t hear him, but the Black Witch was watching and listening to his every word.

  “Yes. As Hakan saved mine.”

  “Then why do I feel like Alain is my kindred?”

  “Because you joined with him in Álfheimr.”

  It was clear he’d not retained any memories of the time he’d passed as Dark. Perhaps that was for the best. But it left gaps in his knowledge. And knowledge was power.

  “This is fucked up,” he muttered.

  There was nothing I could say to that.

  “The Mhachkay have a King,” I said. “A Kral.”

  “Kral means King; got it,” he said.

  I’d forgotten he wouldn’t understand Turkish until he had sex with his Entwined partner. I made sure not to look at the witch when I thought that even if I did feel my cheeks pink.

  “Their Kral was promised the first Enchanted to be born after their confinement,” I continued.

  He spun back around to stare at me.

  “If Papa and Uncle Gregor and the Ambrosia hadn’t hidden our powers upon birth,” I continued, “they would have woken much sooner. Our twenty-fifth birthday fucked that all up.”

  “Nosferatin maturity,” he said.

  I nodded. “The Kral still believes he’s entitled to the firstborn.”

  “That’s me.”

  I nodded again, feeling sick to my stomach.

  “Zahra entwined your blood with hers, but unlike a kindred joining, another Mhachkay could break that connection and steal you for themselves.”

  “What do they get out of entwining?” he asked.

  Luc had always been quick to ask the right questions. It was all that time he’d spent hanging around Alain, I was sure. Political savvy was in Lucien’s blood; Alain had just honed it into a finely tuned weapon he could use. And still, Lucien had worshipped the vampire.

  I looked up at Hakan. I’d never thought to ask. What did the Mhachkay get out of this? How had I not thought to ask?

  Kindred Nosferatu double their powers upon joining. Kindred Nosferatin got to live long lives.

  I knew what we got out of entwining. Again long lives, almost indestructible lives according to Hakan; as long as he lived, I’d live. End of story.

  But what did the Mhachkay get?

  Hakan stared back at me, ice-blue mixing with silver and becoming something divine.

  And then he opened himself up to me, and I saw heaven. I saw wonderment and calmness, focus and balance. I saw power and peace, loyalty and safety. I saw fire and ice, cold and heat. Comfort and challenge. I saw impossibilities become reality. Fantasy made real. I saw the world stretched out before him and the anticipation and excitement it would bring.

  I saw life.

  The Mhachkay are like any other vampyre; they get old and can become tired. Day in and day out, living eternally through each bleak night took its toll on a vampyre. If they didn’t find a mate to balance them, a cause to light a fire inside, they stagnated; they slowed down until they lived an existence that some would find abhorrent.

  Life, but not as we know it.

  A Mhachkay entwined with an Enchanted, however, never had to fear such an ignoble death. Such an inglorious life.

  They never had to fear growing tired and old and stagnant. We breathed a wealth of emotions and desires back into their world. We grounded them. We challenged them. In essence, we gave them a different type of eternal life.

  “Wow,” I said.

  Hakan smiled and inclined his head
.

  “Kan büyülü,” he said. And for the first time, it sounded like a prayer.

  “Kan büyülü,” Zahra repeated, her eyes all for my brother. Her Entwined.

  He stared at her and swallowed thickly.

  “We give them a life worth living,” I whispered.

  “I see that,” my brother whispered in reply.

  No one said anything for a moment, and then Zahra stepped forward.

  “My Kafinefendi has spoken the truth, Dolaşık,” she said. Entwined. “But there is more.”

  Luc looked at the Black Witch and nodded.

  “I can’t feel my Light,” he said. His voice had been strong and steady.

  I knew better. The realisation he couldn’t touch his Nosferatin Light had rocked him to his core.

  I saw something flicker across Zahra’s face. There one second gone the next. Something full of grief and guilt. She felt responsible for that lack of Light. She was working hard not to show it.

  “I do not know where it has gone or whether it will one day return,” she admitted. “I am not like my brethren.”

  “No,” Luc murmured, looking at Hakan again. He turned back to the Black Witch. “You’re more powerful,” he said.

  Hakan crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.

  My Savaşçı did not like Luc’s assessment.

  Zahra smiled. “My power is different from his, yes. But in some ways, he is more powerful.”

  “I don’t see it,” Luc offered, dismissing Hakan in one simple breath. “Your power is potent.”

  Zahra’s lips twitched. “But in this case, it has done something I do not understand. You are my Entwined. The vampire is not.”

  Luc looked at Alain floating in the air.

  “You’re stronger, El,” he said quietly. “You don’t even look tired.”

  I realised I wasn’t; holding a vampire in a forced Dream Walk and I didn’t feel weakened like I had done in the past. I felt…quite fine.

  I huffed out a surprised breath.

  “I don’t see his Light,” Luc eventually said.

  “Yes,” Zahra agreed. “And I have no explanation.”

  Great. A mystery. What had my mother said to Yves? Mysteries are good for the soul? I could do without this one. But right now, we didn’t have time to figure it all out.

  The Iunctio waited. Auckland waited. Papa and Mama and our family waited.