by Heaton, F E
“You both fought valiantly to protect your bloodline and those of these lords and ladies,” Tynan said and Vivek looked beyond him to the gathered high-ranking vampires.
All of the lords and ladies other than Timur had survived and the medics were tending to them. Lady Prophecy was sitting in the middle of the ruined entrance hall, resting her head against Lord Valentine’s chest, and Lord Venturi remained nearby, speaking to the Tenebrae Law Keeper and the six watchmen who had guarded them. Lincoln was tending to Lady Lilith, licking the cuts on her arms and hands. Lady Rosea was talking to her Chosen Son, standing close to Lilith and Lincoln, and smiled as Lord Hyperion and Commander Winter joined them.
“I have some... business... to attend to so I will not be able to carry out the task that I would normally be responsible for in the aftermath of a battle. Since you have both proven yourself worthy of more responsibility, and since you don’t seem to be able to contain your smirk in my presence, I have decided that I will inflict the first of my tedious tasks on you.” Tynan smiled grimly.
Vivek had the horrible feeling that it would be the first of many but he wouldn’t complain, no matter how irritating they were or how tedious, because no amount of bad could erase how good that moment with Sophis in the maze had been. He would do it all again in a heartbeat, regardless of the punishment that awaited him afterwards. Tynan slapped a hand down on both his and Sophis’s shoulders.
“You two are in charge of the clean up.”
Vivek looked out over the extensive lawn of the mansion grounds at all the bodies and all the damage.
It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 21
Vivek had never felt so tired. Even with the help of every guard, servant and werewolf who were fit enough for service, it still took until long past midnight to dispose of all the bodies, collect all the weapons, and hose down the grass. The hose had been Sophis’s idea. The scent of so much blood had been driving her crazy with a need to feed and she had said that she’d had to do something or she was going to end up biting him again. That had been more than a little appealing to him, but disobeying the orders of their lord was different from temporarily forgetting those of their commander.
He looked back at the house. Several guards had set to work covering the wrecked wall of the entrance hall with thick black sheets of tarpaulin. In the low light of the moon, it looked as though there was a hole right through the mansion. Lights warmed the windows of most of the first floor and the ground floor.
One of the Watchmen who had come out to help clean up had mentioned that the ladies and lords had asked for the orchestra to be set up again in the ballroom. Vivek couldn’t believe that they still wanted to continue the masquerade. The hunters were gone, those who had escaped numbering less than a handful, and even they wouldn’t survive the night. The Law Keepers had taken some of the Watchmen and werewolves into the city to track them down and question them, which Vivek knew meant they would kill them and bring back their corpses for questioning when they turned.
A large male werewolf tossed the last of the hunters’ bodies onto the pyre and grunted before walking away. Vivek took it to mean that he was done and heading back to the mansion for new orders. Regardless of how some of the lords and ladies felt about their furry friends, Vivek still wasn’t convinced that allowing them the same standing and rights as vampires was a good idea.
“I think we’re done.” Sophis wiped the back of her hand across her face, smudging the blood there.
Vivek took her hand, linked their fingers, and led her back to the house, his steps weary. The whole house seemed to be in a sombre mood as they entered through a flap in the tarpaulin. Servants were clearing the rubble and glass away and washing down the walls and the staircase. The orchestra had set up in the ballroom, but no one else was in there.
Lady Prophecy rounded the top of the mahogany staircase, her black gown suiting the atmosphere in the mansion. The darkness of it made her skin look like moonlight, so pale and delicate.
“You are not well enough,” Lord Valentine’s voice boomed around the entrance hall and she paused one step down on the staircase and looked over her shoulder. The tall dark haired man appeared behind her, his expression one of exasperation, and sighed as he touched her cheek. Her skin was paler than his. “Are you really insisting on this?”
She nodded.
“Then at least take my arm for support.” He moved past her and held his left one out to her. She looped hers around it and slowly descended the stairs, her steps careful.
Lord Valentine was wearing all black too, and so were the rest of the high-ranked vampires as they came out from the reception rooms around him.
Tynan came up from the basement, his black ball attire hugging his broad frame.
“Are you really going to go ahead with the masquerade?” Sophis said and then added, “My lord.”
Tynan smiled but it looked weary to Vivek. “No. Not the masquerade.”
Lady Prophecy reached the bottom of the staircase and held up her hand. “The dance will be for all to attend, no matter your rank or species. We hold it in remembrance of those who gave their lives in our fight against the hunters and to show that we will not allow them to interfere with our lives and that we will never fear them. We shall wear no masks, we shall not hide our faces, and we shall not bow to the laws tonight. We are all vampires and werewolves, and our strength is not in numbers as it is with the hunters, but in working as one to protect our species. Let us embrace that and honour the fallen by vowing that from this night forth we will live as one and will fight as one.”
Was this what the lords and ladies had been discussing during the hours since the fight had ended? No one had ever tried to unite the seven pure bloodlines before, let alone tried to unite vampires and werewolves. It would be a hard fight to bring the families into line and erase the hatred that had been bred into them and it would be years if not decades before the bloodlines no longer warred with each other. Could they really manage it?
Vivek looked at the gathered lords and ladies, at the determination and resolve on their faces, and realised that with the rising danger of the enhanced hunters, such a desperate move might just save them all. It was time to unite against a common enemy.
With the seven pure bloodlines of Europe acting together, and with the assistance of the werewolves, the hunters wouldn’t stand a chance.
They would wipe Europe clean of the foul aberrations and restore harmony to their world.
Vivek pressed his right hand to his chest in unison with Sophis and bowed his head as Lady Prophecy walked past him, her hand on Lord Valentine’s arm, and led the way into the ballroom. Servants dashed down into the basement, their excited chatter clearing the gloom from the air, no doubt intending to find their best dresses and make themselves up for the ball. Guards followed them and others headed upwards to their rooms on the second floor. Aides brought in by the other bloodlines disappeared from the balcony at the top of the staircase, all of them clearly intending to dress and come down to the dance.
He kept hold of Sophis’s hand as she went to head for the stairs, stopping her. She looked back with a frown and he turned and led her out of the mansion again and walked to his left with her, heading along the front and then around to the rear of the elegant palatial building. Her frown lifted when she saw the maze and her eyes met his.
“I want to keep you all to myself this time,” he whispered and brushed his thumb across her cheek, clearing away a dark streak of blood.
Neither of them were dressed for a ball but he didn’t care. She was beautiful just as she was. It didn’t stop her from slipping her hand free when they neared the fountain at the head of the manicured garden around the maze. She bent over the pool of the fountain and washed her face and neck, drying it on the sleeve of her ruined black jacket. She tugged the band out of her long dark hair, twisted the lengths around and tied it in a loose knot at the back of her head.
Her frown was back when
she looked across at him and he sighed, went to the fountain, and scrubbed the blood off his face. He ran his hands into his hair, preening the unruly dark lengths back, and Sophis stepped up to him. She tiptoed, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and then teased him by starting to slip her hand into his and snatching it away before he could grasp it.
She smiled, turned and ran along the gravel towards the maze. Vivek pursued her, not in the mood for games tonight. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her everything that was on his mind, wanted to bathe in her beauty and the knowledge that she was safe and unharmed, and that the fight was over.
He chased her through the twisting yew corridors of the maze and caught her when they reached the centre, turning her and pulling her into his arms. She settled against him and then smiled when he took hold of her left hand with his right and slid his left arm around her waist. The orchestra played a slow waltz in the distance and Vivek turned with her, leading her around the open area at the middle of the maze. Sophis smiled up at him the whole time, her dark eyes beguiling and the moon turning her skin white.
She took her hand from his and slid them both up his chest to settle around his neck. Vivek closed his eyes and lowered his mouth to hers, claiming her lips in a slow kiss that warmed him down to his core and chased away his weariness and his lingering fear from the battle. Sophis was safe now, locked tight in his arms, and he would keep her here for as long as she would let him.
“It feels better without a mask,” he murmured against her mouth and she smiled. “It feels real.”
She pressed a solitary kiss to his lips and then pulled away and looked deep into his eyes. Her fingers stroked the damp hair at the back of his head, pushing through the short lengths.
“I’m glad it was you. When we met afterwards in the garden and I said all those things... I felt terrible. I realised that I still felt something for you, and that you felt something for me too. I didn’t know what to do then. I wasn’t sure whether to look for the man or look for you... so I did neither... and fate brought me to you, and then you kissed me and I knew it was you I had danced with.”
“I did not mean for things to go as far as they did that night. You know that, don’t you?”
She nodded and then lowered her gaze to his chest. “I know. I didn’t give you a chance to explain. I wanted a moment of fantasy. I wanted someone to look at me with desire, as though I was the most beautiful woman in the room, or the world... I wanted to know what Lady Lilith and Lady Prophecy felt whenever their mate looked at them like that... and then you danced with me and you were looking at me with so much hunger in your eyes, were saying all the right things, and it swept me along.”
Vivek smiled, ran his fingertips down the line of her jaw to her chin, and tilted her head up. She kept her gaze locked on his chest and his smile widened over how shy she looked now when she had been so bold last night. Perhaps he could make her bold again.
“It wasn’t a moment of fantasy, Sophis. It wasn’t make-believe,” he said and her gaze crept higher, reaching his jaw. “I meant every look and every word. You were the most beautiful woman at the ball... are the most beautiful woman in the world... and I need you more than anything. I crave you, hunger for you... want you. I love you.”
Sophis bit her lip and looked to her right. The open collar of her black jacket pulled away from her neck, revealing the bite marks on the left side of her throat. He sighed and brushed his fingers over them, and she shivered beneath the touch.
“This is real,” he whispered and she looked at him at last, her brown eyes round and full of need. It wasn’t passion in them but rather a desire to hear him say more, a hunger for reassurance. He couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t made things easy and hadn’t exactly been a shining example of a man in love over the past decade. She needed proof so she could chase the past from her heart and believe in him and he would give it to her. “I cannot promise that things between us will be easy, or that we won’t fight at times, but I can promise you that I love you... I love you so much that it drives me crazy... it makes me do stupid things... but I am trying harder to be a good man for you, one who knows the right responses to his feelings and makes you feel loved and cherished. This is real, and I will prove it to you every night until you believe it is more than a fantasy... and that it is more than fleeting.”
He stroked the two puncture marks on her throat and stared at them.
“I love you so much that I promise myself to you, eternally, and I will seal it with a kiss when the time is right... because I cannot live without you and need to be able to feel you, to know you are safe, and to sense when you need me so I can be there for you, fighting at your side... protecting you, because I love you. I will make you my mate if you consent to it.”
Her eyes widened and her lips parted. Her shock ran through his fingers where they rested on her throat and he smiled at her to show her that he was telling the truth. He would wait until she was ready and then he would claim her and bond with her, and he would spend the rest of his life with her at his side.
She stared at him, unblinking, her shock not subsiding.
He let slip a fragment of a mirthless laugh. “Say something?”
He felt as though he had laid his heart on the line and she was going to grab it, squeeze it and puncture it with her claws. Had he misjudged the depth of her feelings? Was he rushing her? He had said that he wouldn’t claim her until she was ready. It might be one year or one hundred. He didn’t care how long it took her to decide that she wanted to be his mate. He just wanted her to know that he was serious about her and that he would claim her one day.
A hint of a smile curved the corners of her lips and the shock left her eyes, replaced by warmth that brightened them.
“You are cruel.” He dipped his head and dropped a kiss on the marks on her throat. “You tease me when I am a man on the verge of insanity.”
Sophis wrapped her arms around him and cradled him close to her. He kissed her neck, savouring the taste of her skin and her scent, and licked the marks.
“One day?” she whispered.
“One day.” He drew back and swept his fingers across her cheek, staring down into her eyes. “I will make you mine, and I will dance with you again at a masquerade, and you will know what it is like to be deeply loved and cherished. I will be a terrible mate and won’t let any male even look at you, let alone touch you.”
She frowned. “And I will not let any woman do the same to you.”
He liked the sound of that.
He didn’t want any other woman in his life.
He only wanted Sophis.
As his lover for now, and as his mate one day.
It was both a day he couldn’t wait for and a day that would be worth the wait.
The start of their forever.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Felicity Heaton writes passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series she writes as F E Heaton or any of her stand alone vampire romance books she writes as Felicity Heaton. Or if you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try Felicity Heaton’s new Vampire Erotic Theatre series.
In 2011, four of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews, Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews, and many of her releases received five star reviews from numerous web
sites.
To see her other novels, visit: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
If you have enjoyed this story, please take a moment to contact the author at [email protected] or to post a review of the book online
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PARANORMAL ROMANCE BOOKS BY FELICITY HEATON
Stories in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series by Felicity Heaton
Covet
Crave
Seduce – out June 23rd 2012
Enslave – out August 4th 2012
Stories in the Her Angel series by Felicity Heaton
Her Dark Angel
Her Fallen Angel
Her Warrior Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Her Demonic Angel – out September 15th 2012
Stories in the Vampires Realm series by F E Heaton
Prophecy: Child of Light
Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea
Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising
Eternity: The Beginning (free short story available at the VR website: www.vampiresrealm.com)
Spellbound
Reunion
Seventh Circle
Winter's Kiss
Hunter's Moon
Masquerade
Stand alone paranormal romance novels by Felicity Heaton
Love Immortal
Ascension
Forbidden Blood
Heart of Darkness