My mate was correct on all accounts. The nicked artery spurted the blood approximately eighteen to twenty inches and Gareth was adept at moving enough to catch all of it. We repeated the process several times with my neck artery and then several times with Raquel’s. Gareth’s color came back and he looked less haggard. However, the aging process didn’t reverse—at all.
“How do you feel?” I asked him as I licked the open wound on Raquel’s neck to close it.
“Stronger. My power is coming back, but my body feels strange,” he revealed as he stood without a problem.
He tested the strength of the chains. Unfortunately they held him fast. The spell that trapped him screamed of Demon origin to me. We would need a Demon to break it—or possibly a half Demon-half Vampyre.
“There was a debate,” he said as he remembered more from what had happened before he ended up bound and chained. Gareth absently touched at the wounds quickly closing on his head. “The Old Guard is quite unhappy about relinquishing their funds to charity.”
It had been my cousin Astrid’s idea for all of the undead to share their massive fortunes with the humans and their plights. Being that she was a True Immortal of unnatural strength and basically almost impossible to kill, the Vampyres of the world had grudgingly agreed.
“Are they trying to stop it?” Raquel asked.
“You might say that,” Gareth replied as he paced his cage.
“How?” I asked. “Did you go against the Old Guard?”
“I don’t know how… and yes I did,” he claimed. “Although I’ve not yet met the infamous mate of my brother, I happen to agree with Astrid’s edict.”
“Do you think that is why you were put here?” Raquel asked as she paced, unconsciously mimicking her brothers moves.
“Possibly,” he surmised. “But removing me from the picture does very little to end the ordinance.”
“He’s right,” I agreed. “However, we need to start somewhere. Getting you out is paramount. Something else is going on. The blood should have reversed the aging—it didn’t, which leads me to believe the cage has something to do with that part of your problem. Only a Demonic spell could do something so vile.”
“And your plan?” Gareth stopped his pacing and stared at me.
“Hang on for a damned second,” I ground out. “I’m developing it as I pull it out of my ass.”
“Well there’s something to look forward to,” Gareth mumbled as he ran his hands through his hair in agitation.
“Shut up,” Raquel hissed at him. “Unless you have something productive to add… zip it.”
“We need Astrid here,” I stated. “She can most likely break the spell and possibly deal with the old bastards who are having problems with the new law.”
Both Gareth and Raquel stared at me like I’d grown two heads.
“What?”
“As much as I’m looking forward to meeting Ethan’s foul-mouthed and charitable mate, I think your plan has many deadly holes,” Gareth replied. “The Old Guard wants her head. I would assume that’s why Ethan has kept her away from the Angel Summit.”
“Because she’s making them tithe… they want her dead?” I was surprised.
We were a selfish race, but money was something that could be replaced.
“That’s only part of it,” Raquel added. “Her blood relation to Satan and her very young Vampyre age has many distrustful and furious. It’s one of the points I relayed to Ethan when I came to tutor Samuel. Astrid’s safer staying away from the Old Guard and the Summit. The Angels take issue with her too.”
“The Summit with the Angels is not going to be a peaceful little get together like you might assume given those in attendance,” Gareth added.
“Do you have any other facts to back that theory up?” I inquired.
“No, it’s a gut feeling,” he replied. “I do think Astrid will be a major source of consternation there.”
“Holy Hell, does she know any of this?” I asked already knowing the answer. If Astrid knew they were gunning for her, she would step into the fray both with gusto and engulfed in an inferno of sparkling flames.
“Ummm… no,” Raquel said slowly.
“Well, she needs to know,” I said as I imagined Ethan’s reaction to my telling her. It would not be pretty. However, Astrid finding out after the fact could be catastrophic, which would be far worse.
“There’s too much going on here to add flame to that particular fire,” Gareth cut in. “I have a few Demons that owe me favors. If you can go above and get word to one, I can get out of this Hell hole and help figure out what’s going down.”
“Who’s running the Old Guard at the moment?” I asked as a plan hatched in my head that was sure to end badly. I was fairly certain I knew who was in charge of the old sons of bitches, but it wouldn’t do to be wrong. Power tended to change hands often with our race. Aside from the royal family, the factions and allegiances of the undead were in constant motion.
“Vlad,” Gareth said as Raquel audibly gasped and then paled.
Watching my mate carefully I continued to question Gareth. “How’d that happen?”
Vlad had been out of favor for decades. His over-the-top violent tendencies were becoming tiresome and dangerous to the secrecy of our existence.
“Oh you know,” Gareth hissed with disgust. “He impaled a few hundred of the undead and gained a following. Your mating will be a problem for him.”
“What does my mating have to do with him?” I demanded.
“Shall I tell Heathcliff or will you?” Gareth asked his sister.
Raquel glanced at the floor and refused to make eye contact with me.
“Tell me what?” I asked as I took her chin in my hand and forced her gaze to meet mine.
“He wants me as his mate,” she whispered. “He’s knows I’m not his true mate, but he doesn’t care.”
“Why? For your power?” I asked as I tried to contain my irrational fury at any man thinking my mate could be his.
“And for her body. He’s wanted her for centuries,” Gareth supplied.
“Not gonna happen,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “If he so much as looks at you, I’ll behead him and then tear the rest of his body to shreds before he turns to dust.”
“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Gareth shouted with a laugh. “But… in all seriousness, if you want to find out what’s really happening, I’d hide the fact that you’re mated. Let Vlad think he might finally have a chance… he might be useful.”
“No,” Raquel insisted vehemently. “I won’t pretend that.”
Hatred didn’t quite describe the feeling I had for Gareth at the moment. The simple fact that he’d made a good point was enough to make me want to go insane. Vampyres were tricky. Fooling one as old as Vlad would be risky. I paced and tried to work off the need to peel the skin from my body or shout and obliterate the Catacombs with a blast of magic. Gareth was right. The bile that rose to my mouth prevented me from agreeing immediately, but I knew I would consent to the horrific suggestion.
“Gareth’s correct,” I said so softly Raquel had to lean toward me to hear.
“Oh God,” she muttered, crossing her arms in rebellion against the idea. “Are we even sure it’s Vlad behind everything?”
“No. We’re not sure of anything,” I said tightly, trying to divorce my emotional needs from the battle ahead. “All we know is that we need to be as neutral as Switzerland and proceed with caution. I’ll be your… bodyguard.”
The words came out of my mouth like sludge. They disgusted me. However, I refused to let her go in alone.
Raquel blanched, but then nodded unhappily. She was as aware as I was that duty came before anything else. Never had it been this difficult.
“I’ll be alerting Ethan and Astrid to the developments. I would expect them to arrive shortly thereafter… I’ll also be calling on Satan.”
“No fucking way,” Gareth choked out and gaped at me. “You’ll owe him a f
avor.”
“That will be the least of my problems,” I snapped. “I plan to protect what I love and if I have to pay for it… so be it.”
“Sweet Hell on Earth, pun intended—this is going to be ugly.” Gareth chuckled and shook his head, but I caught the admiration for me in his gaze.
I didn’t need his approval or even want it. I wanted to punch a wall with my head, but that would be somewhat counterproductive at the moment. I just wanted to get the party started and get it the Hell over with. Watching my woman pretend she wasn’t mine was going to tear at my soul, but I knew the truth.
She was mine.
I was hers and she was mine for all eternity.
I just prayed it would be enough to keep me sane.
Chapter 15
Let the fireworks begin…
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Astrid shouted. Her four inch high Prada stiletto heels clicked on the highly polished hard wood floor as she stomped around. Sparks covered the upper half of her body and shot around the room like small fiery bullets.
We had transported from the Catacombs to Raquel’s main residence—an enormous villa on the outskirts of Paris. It was difficult for Raquel to leave her brother chained and caged, but in order to free him, we had to leave him. The Summit was taking place several hours from her estate. The location of the meeting was near Mont Saint-Michel in a chateau owned by the Angels.
I’d alerted Ethan and Astrid of the potential problems and they’d transported from the states immediately. They’d left Samuel behind in Kentucky with Venus and a bevy of highly trained guards. However, Venus was probably enough. She was as vicious as she was loyal. Even I was wary of pissing off Venus and I was as deadly as they came. I’d also slipped away and privately contacted Satan. I feared that the call was a tremendous mistake, but I had to start somewhere.
“We don’t have all the facts,” I said as I tried to calm my volatile cousin.
I was certain Raquel liked her home and Astrid was famous for blowing out walls of buildings. Ethan paced in frustrated agitation as Raquel pushed a button on her bracelet. The grand bookcase at the far side of her great room opened silently and revealed an arsenal fit for an army.
I must be all kinds of fucked in the head. The only thought in my brain when I saw it was how sexy it was my girl owned enough weapons to obliterate a small country.
“We don’t have many facts at all,” Ethan corrected my assessment. “Gareth is locked in the Catacombs—aging and possibly dying—and Vlad the bastard is back in charge of the Old Guard. Not a whole lot to go on.”
“And don’t forget they want my ass on a platter,” Astrid added as she honed in on a particularly beautiful sword. “Dude, can I use this?” she asked Raquel.
“Of course you can,” Raquel told her as she removed it from the wall and handed it to her. “But if we walk into the Summit so obviously armed, it might not look good.”
“True,” Astrid agreed as she admired the weapon with child-like glee. “But everyone knows I’m a walking fucking time bomb even without a weapon. I may as well have a little fun with the old assbags.”
“God help us all,” Ethan muttered as his cell phone rang.
Unworried, I watched him answer it. All of our electronics were secure. We’d developed our own networking system long ago and we guarded it closely. We waited as we heard one side of a very terse conversation. When Ethan hung up, he was frowning.
“Who was that?” Astrid demand of her mate as he ran his hands over his face and gnashed his fangs.
“My Father. Apparently Leila, Alexander and Nathan have gone missing now.”
Raquel hissed her displeasure and perused the weapons with deadly intent.
“Well fuck a duck,” Astrid yelled and burned a hole in a priceless rug with her wrath. “What the Hell is going on here? Wait… I know Leila is your sister. Who are Alexander and Nathan?”
“Two of our brothers,” Raquel stated with steel in her voice. “If they’re trapped like Gareth, then they’re also aging and dying.”
“Motive?” Ethan asked his sister.
“Don’t know,” Raquel spat and began to arm herself with smaller guns and knives that were more easily concealed. “Not really caring at the moment. I just want to find who’s behind it and destroy them—permanently.”
And then my dick got hard. I needed to bed my mate soon or I was going to explode.
The unending erection Raquel always caused was now killing me. If she pulled out any more weapons, I was going to jump her in public. Decency be damned.
“The timing is curious,” I said as I chose a few daggers for myself. I turned my back to the group. No need to embarrass myself with my teenage dick. “I don’t believe the disappearances coinciding with the Summit are a coincidence.”
“Neither do I,” Ethan said flatly as Raquel nodded her agreement. “I’m just unsure about what they’re after… and who’s after it.”
“I’d say we start with the Old Guard and figure it out from there,” Raquel said decisively. “Are we paying anyone for intel within the group?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “We have three or four that will talk if the price is right.”
“I’ll put my father on it,” Ethan said as he quickly typed out a text.
“Put Pam on the Angels,” I instructed. “She’s one of them and they’re all terrified of her.”
Pam was the King’s mate and Astrid’s foul mouthed Guardian Angel. She was one in a million. She’d been the favorite of the King’s wives all those many years ago and had been the one who’d lost her life when he’d tried to turn her. The King was devastated for centuries until she came back to him as an Angel. Of course no one would use the word angelic to describe Pam. She was more like an exquisitely beautiful steamroller, with the mouth of a sailor and a heart of gold.
“We have about fifty Vamps from the American Dominion here for the Summit,” I said thinking out loud. “I’m going to contact our control room at the Cressida House to relay the situation and to stay alert. It’s safer and more secure if we have all the intel feeding from one source,” I added. “However, we still have no solid motive.”
Ethan nodded and resumed texting Pam and his father.
“Ahhh, but I think we do have a motive,” Astrid disagreed as she put a few grenades in her pockets. “You all just aren’t paying attention to the right clues.”
“Please enlighten me then, my beautiful mate,” Ethan said as he tucked his phone in his pocket and waited for whatever outlandish reasoning Astrid would alarm us with.
“I read romance novels,” she stated as if that was all we needed to know.
“I know. Heathcliff told me,” Raquel chimed in with a giggle as she slid a particularly evil looking katana into a harness on her back. “I heard animal blood was rank.”
“Tasted like butt,” Astrid confirmed with a wince. “Not that I’ve ever tasted butt or ever will,” she assured us.
Ethan was simply confused.
“What does butt have to do with a motive?” he asked, hanging on to his composure by a thin thread.
“Well, aside from the fact the Old Guards sound like a bunch of gaping assholes… very little,” she informed him with an innocent grin.
I shook my head and grinned. My cousin loved driving her besotted mate to the brink.
“Astrid,” Ethan began tightly.
“Fine,” Astrid huffed. “This is like the stories with awesome ruling families in them—could be the mob or a motorcycle gang or ranchers or sexy billionaires or even Vampyres. You know, all the dudes in the stories are hotter than my Uncle Satan’s underpants and all the gals are totally smokin’ and brilliant.”
“Does this story about your reading preferences have a point?” Ethan asked with more patience than I could have mustered up.
“Yes. Yes it does,” Astrid replied.
“And were you planning on getting to the point, my love?” Ethan inquired.
My wicked cousin lau
ghed joyfully. “Yep. I just wanted to make sure I annoyed you enough first so you would want to spank me later.”
“You have succeeded beyond your hopes,” he replied with a gleam in his eye that made me roll my own.
However, Raquel just laughed and gave me a sly look—which made my damn dick even harder.
“Okay, so there are bad guys and good guys,” Astrid explained. “The bad guys always are coming up with stupid, douchey plans to destroy the good guys. Bad fuckers like to monologue and wear all black. Often times they have very bad breath. Occasionally they have lots of scars and tattoos, but in the motorcycle romances the good guys are all tatted up too. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s good and who’s bad.”
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