“Bishop King,” Silus greeted, his shorter stature making him appear like a bug next to the bishop. “Jonas sent me down to inform you that Cain has agreed to go willingly into the council’s custody.”
Larissa tried to stifle the objections screaming in her mind, but still a small whimper escaped. The bishop stared at her disapprovingly. “This female seems to disagree with your intentions.” There was no warmth to his voice, no sign of compassion on his face. “Perhaps you should take her away so we can complete our business without hindrance.”
Larissa lowered her head. She did not want to leave. She wanted to stay with Cain and protect him any way she could. She knew Bishop King took niddertrechticha plesseer in punishing others.
A cold hand gripped her chin and tipped her face toward the purpling sky. The bishop scowled at her. “I take no pleasure, vile or otherwise, in punishment. Our laws are here for our own safety, and they must be abided without question. Watch your thoughts, child. I do not take well to blasphemous ideas. We will have order.”
“I am not a child,” she hissed, tugging her chin from his pinching fingers. Silus’s grip tightened on her arm.
“I am your elder and your bishop. You will provide me the respect I deserve or find yourself before the council yourself, young lady.”
“Another innocent found guilty for crimes they cannot control, Bishop,” she sneered as those within hearing gasped.
The bishop’s jaw ticked. “Someone take this brat and leave here before I have her hauled away with her brother.”
Larissa struggled as Silus pulled her toward the far barn. She yelled for Cain as the crowd closed around him. She could not leave him. She might never see him again. He was her brother. He was her only friend!
By the time they reached the barn, she was in complete hysterics. The hot tears running down her cheek made the slap of Silus’s palm all the more sharp. She quieted her wailing to a whimper.
“You will get a hold of yourself this instant, Larissa, or so help me God we will leave now, and I will not let you out of the house for the next fortnight.”
The cool evening air suddenly turned chilling. She was still weak from giving Cain so much blood. Her mind seemed cloudy, and her face stung. Silus was furious with her. She wanted to fight back, but her anger was more directed to the pious narcissist that was their bishop. Her brother, oh, her poor Cain. The pain became too much, and she seemed to fall under some spell. Her body suddenly felt numb, all of her thoughts washing away into the shadows.
Silus continued to lecture her, his voice terse and each word laced with disgrace as he regaled her with how others would surely see her atrocious behavior. She wobbled slightly on her feet, and he plopped her onto a barrel. She sat staring over his shoulders into the gaping door of the barn where something sparkled from the shadows. He pressed his wrist to her mouth and gave her an exasperated command to feed. She did so numbly as her eyes focused on the sparkling object within the barn. The more she focused and the more Silus’s blood replenished her senses the clearer she could see.
What had seemed something magical only moments ago, now seemed ordinary and disappointing. The glint she had seen passed from the moon was only the reflection from Adam’s truck. It was only a truck, and her brother was gone. Just a truck.
Chapter 26
Anna awakened to the sense of being rocked. She had been moved to the bed. Gracie stood anxiously in the far, shadowed corner of the room, prepared to defend Anna against her brother if she must. Adam’s soothing voice and arms wrapped around her.
“She is not making any sense,” Gracie told Adam. “Her thoughts are jumbled. She thinks Cain is dead and fears you are lost to her as well.”
“No, Ainsicht, I am here. I am calm now. I promise you. Please look at me. Please.”
“She hears you, but it isn’t making sense. She’s in shock. Adam, you cut her.”
“I know.”
“She needs blood. Either that or she needs to see a doctor.”
“Help me remove these clothes.”
Anna was shifted about as her apron and dress were peeled away from her limbs. Her arm stung.
“I cannot heal her with my blood until she has bonded with me.”
“Then she needs to see a doctor, Adam. How do you expect to explain such a wound? Her flesh is flayed wider than any kitchen knife could do. You must make up your mind fast. Too much shock is not good for her condition.”
“Condition?” he repeated.
“Yes, Annalise is with child. I felt it this morning while I was getting her dressed.”
The pained cry that filled the room penetrated Anna’s haze.
* * * *
Adam’s grief for the pain he had caused her, his disgust in his lack of control, the jeopardy he’d placed her in, ran through his body like acid. “I am a monster.”
“No, Adam, you are a male. You only did what you did because you thought Cain was endangering your mate.”
“And you do not?”
“No. From what I can glean from Anna’s mind, he did no such thing. He told her he wanted her but would never have her because you already own her heart. She loves you, Adam, but so does Cain. He had made a deal with Father to simply say good-bye to Anna and then surrender himself to the council peacefully.”
Adam looked toward the shattered window. “Perhaps I should turn myself in as well.”
“Perhaps,” Gracie said with a touch of censure. “But right now you have more important decisions to make. What will it be, Adam? Will you give her your blood, or shall I send for a doctor?”
He sighed. “Does she still want to mate with me? I will not sentence her to a life of regret.”
Gracie looked at Anna. Her small hand pressed over her disheveled hair. “She does. Adam, it may not change her if you simply offer your own blood and do not take any of hers in return. Heal her, and if she is better we can go on with the ceremony as planned.”
He nodded. “Go tell the others what has happened. Make sure that the council has removed Cain from the premises and see to Mother. If there is time, find Anna a new blue dress.”
“Yes, Adam.”
“And Gracie…” She turned at her brother’s words. “Thank you.”
As the door closed, Adam laid his mate carefully upon the bed. Her head turned, and she faced the wall. Her eyes were opened and stared into nothing. “Ainsicht, you must be strong. Hate me always for what I have done to you, but remain strong for our child that grows in your womb.” He brushed her hair away from her face, his fingers catching on one piece shorter than all the rest. He had not noticed the shorn lock before that moment. He sighed and brought his wrist to his mouth. Once he had opened his wrist, he turned her head and pressed his vein to her lips. “Please drink, my love.”
There was no revulsion in her expression. Complete and utter trust had her sipping from his wrist. He watched as shades of pink faded from the wound on her arm and returned to a healthy lily-white glow. After a few minutes, she lethargically turned her head away, and Adam licked his wrist closed.
He inspected her arm. The skin seemed to be pulling tighter and working its way back together slowly, but days faster than any doctor could have supplied. He brushed a soft finger over Anna’s hairline. She was so fragile.
“I am so sorry, ainsicht. I cannot wait until this day is over and I am thinking clearly again. That is…that is if you will still have me.”
She turned and gazed up at him, her eyes still a bit haunted. “Once we bond and I am irrevocably your mate, we will need to have a talk about Cain.”
His brother’s name scorched the air between them. “Anna, Cain is now in the custody of the council.”
“I know where he is.”
He did not like the censure in her voice. “He was touching you. He was alone with you. I trusted my father to look after you, and he let that animal into our room.”
“That animal is your brother, and he protected me while you were incensed beyond reason.”<
br />
“I was incensed because—”
“I do not want to talk about it now. Like I said, we will discuss it when there is no chance of you going crazy again.”
He hung his head shamefully. “You are right. Gracie will return soon with a new dress for you. Anna, I truly am sorry.”
“I know.”
She turned away again, and it was as if he had wounded her in some way his blood could not heal. When Gracie returned with fresh clothing, he excused himself to find his father.
His mother and father were in their private bedroom. Adam knocked lightly and was told to enter. His mother sat at the end of the bed with her face in her palms. His father sat beside her, his arm over her shoulders and his other hand rubbing her knee as he tried to calm her. He had done this.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to say that Anna is dressing, and we are planning on going through with the ceremony tonight.”
Jonas looked at his son, a thousand words skipping across his tongue, but none fitting enough to be said. Abilene brushed her cheeks vigorously with her palm and stood. Her apron was stained with rusted shades of red, Cain’s blood.
“Mother—”
She held up a hand to silence him. She raised her chin to face him, but would not meet his gaze. “I will be down in a few moments. I do this for Annalise. She does not deserve what she has been through this day, nor do I. I understand that the consequences of being called and still unmated are beginning to set in, but Cain is my son as much as you are. I hope you never have to see your children suffer the way I did today.”
Before he could apologize, Abilene briskly walked out the door. His father gave a disappointed shake of his head. “Adam, you cannot expect her to be altogether pleasant with you for some time. Tomorrow I will appeal to Bishop King for mercy on your brother’s behalf. Perhaps there is time before any hasty decisions are made. Cain went peacefully enough. He only asked that they put him in a cell and leave him with the clothes on his back and the personal items in his pockets. So long as he remains calm and does not create problems for the guards, I believe we could perhaps find a solution that we can all live with.”
* * * *
Anna sat in the chair by the broken window. Gracie had helped her dress in silence. She even took the time to shake the wrinkles out of her delicate apron and mend a button that had come loose. Before she finished tidying Anna’s hair in a much simpler bun, Anna had asked the two questions to which she needed answers. Was Cain dead and was she, in fact, pregnant? Gracie had assured her Cain was alive, but under the custody of the elders. She then told her that, yes, she was pregnant. Anna made a vow in that moment that if her firstborn was a male, he would not carry the name of his father, but the name of his uncle.
After Anna had suffered quite enough primping and pruning, she asked Gracie for some privacy. Her mood had mellowed since the morning. It seemed a hundred hours passed. She needed to think and decide once and for all if she was doing the right thing.
Her past life seemed some distant memory. She could hardly recall the color of Kyle’s eyes or the exact shade of blue her apartment had been painted. She wondered if over time she would forget bigger things like how to drive a car. Soon the Steaming Turd would be towed away and sent to some chop shop or automobile graveyard. How sad was it that imagining her car alone in a scrap yard was her biggest regret about leaving her past.
She had no life to go back to. Here was where she was needed. Seeing Adam lose control again did not frighten her, it merely showed her how necessary she was to his salvation. They were running out of time, and if Anna left, she had nowhere to run. No one needed her like she was needed here.
She looked down at her proud buttons and smiled. She was not losing herself, simply readjusting her priorities. First she would marry Adam and complete the bonding. She had no fear of dying. Rachel had told her there was no feeling, only peace and then a resurrection. Once she was turned and no longer a fragile human being, she would find this safe house where Cain had been sent and plead with the elders to keep him alive. Anna had not come here with faith in God, but she was changing. She believed there had to be a reason for the two of them being called to her. She could not allow Cain to die in that cell.
And then there was Abilene. Once Cain was safe, she would spend the rest of her life making it up to Abilene. She was the only mother Anna had. She had given her buttons. Anna never wanted to see Abilene suffer the way she had today. Anna could live for centuries and knew she would never forget the sound of her cries for her sons.
And that left Adam and the baby. Had it only been a couple of weeks since Adam found her? So many changes in so little time. It was as if Anna could not recall who she was a week ago. There was no anchor to her past, only Adam, her anchor to the future. She needed him in a way she could not describe. It was more than an obsession. It was love. She remembered Cain making accusations that others would pray for her children to be like Adam. He did not realize she would be one of those people making those prayers. There was nothing wrong with her. Simply put, Adam was better.
Anna had a peculiar stirring within her mind and sensed Adam. In the next moment the door opened and he was there. Without facing him she said, “I felt you.”
“It is my blood mixing with yours.”
“Am I changing?”
“Not yet. I need to drink from you at the same time. It must be an exchange in order to dilute your human cells. Are you ready?”
She stood and faced him. He stepped toward her, and the guilt still ravishing his lovely face tore another layer of muscle from her heart. “Adam, I have no regret in making you my husband. I still want eternity with you. Eawichkeit.”
A slow smile split his face. “You are speaking Dutch.”
“Yes. I’d like it if you taught me. Your mother gave us a German Bible. Perhaps that will help me learn. I never was good at other languages, but I’m pretty sure that I could learn the basics by at least our fiftieth anniversary.”
He kissed her forehead. “Let us get to it then. There is much work to be done.”
* * * *
An Amish wedding was nothing like the English kind. Of course there were vows exchanged, but aside from the most general similarities were the extreme differences. The first being that Anna was getting married on a Tuesday, which she was told, other than Thursday, was the best day for weddings among the Amish communities. Although there were no flowers in her hair or hands, there were flowers set out on various windows and steps. There was no scent coming off the blooms however. Or if there was, Anna could not smell it. The only thing she could smell was celery. The green plant was in every dish that would be served after the ceremony, but it was mostly in the air.
When Adam first led her out of the house, they were greeted with a droning noise Anna later recognized as male voices. They sung Christian hymns, but sung them so slowly and often in different dialects, Anna could not make any sense of it at all. The tempo of the voices gave her a sense of foreboding as if she were walking to the gallows rather than down the aisle. It was at this point she became slightly looshtich, as Adam put it. She could not stifle her giggles and had to pull on Adam’s hand until she gained control and was capable of entering the house without making a fool of herself or their traditions. He waited patiently even when it seemed Anna’s control would never return.
They slowly walked across the meadow toward the new house. It was magnificent, white siding with black shutters and a large wraparound porch. It was everything Adam had said it would be. The gift of such a home was so humbling, Anna no longer had to fight her giggles. She now had to do battle against the tears prickling her eyes.
She declared herself hopeless as they climbed the front porch and saw all the guests awaiting them from the inside. It was not the guests who broke her resolve, it was the moment the singing voices stopped and Gracie stepped forward and began to sing “In My Life” by The Beatles. The tune was one that Anna had never heard the song sung to, but
the lyrics were still the same.
Adam held her arm as tears blurred the faces of others looking upon them. Gracie’s angelic voice echoed through the house, pulling Adam and Annalise closer to their future. Women cried while men frowned at the unfamiliar lyrics. Anna gave a watery chuckle imagining what Gracie would sing after discovering Anna’s radio. When they reached the simple table set up as an altar, Gracie finished on a note that went right to Anna’s soul. What a priceless wedding gift.
As Grace took her seat, a tall man with a darker complexion stood and gave her a severe look. “Thank you, Grace,” he said in a heavily accented baritone that did not sound the least bit appreciative. Gracie smiled proudly as if undeterred by this man’s displeasure. This must be the infamous Bishop Eleazar King. He turned and faced Anna.
“What is your full name child?”
She swallowed and cleared the tears from her throat. “Annalise Erin Snow.”
“And are you here of your own free will, Annalise Erin Snow?”
“I am.”
“You have agreed to bond with Adam Hartzler as God has charged you?”
The word charged made Anna stiffen. “I have agreed to bond with Adam because I love him.”
The bishop gave a sardonic nod and stated, “Today we shall celebrate the union of Annalise Erin Snow and Adam Hartzler.” He then went into a sermon and a reading from the Bible.
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in the manner of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit—just as you were called to the one that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gifts. Therefore it says: ‘When he ascends on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.’”
Called to Order [The Order of Vampyres 1] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 32