Beneath the Shadows of Evil... Treasured

by Jolynn Raymond

  “Are we done for the night then, Master? Dawn will be breaking within the hour.”

  “Yes, I’ve instructed Jakab to hold counsel with the Commander before finding the men a dark place to sleep. Go tell them they are to finish feeding so they can move out as soon as Jakab returns. I need to take care of something before going back.”

  “Is he near, Master?” Then question startled Mikhal. He had no wish to be so transparent when it came to his yearnings for Mikhalen.

  “Mikhalen is always near, but never so close that I can see him face to face. My son is swift and wise. It seems he is craftier than me.”

  “He grew up at the knee of his father.”

  “So he did. I would be proud if it didn’t mean I could never have him in my grasp. Make sure all the minions are bedded down and no trace of us is evident before you rest.”

  His men took their refuge in the root cellars of burned out inns or the ramshackle ruins of barns or cottages. There wasn’t much reason for anyone to examine the places they slept very carefully, but they couldn’t be too careful. The only thing that could stop their march of terror through the enemy camps was death by sunlight, and as long as they were cautious, that wouldn’t happen. Their horses remained with the Commander by day, and were retrieved when needed. This way there was no trace of the vampires who slept wherever they bedded down. Commander Dobo knew that Mikhal and his minions were their best weapon in the war against the invading Turks and so strengthened their pact by helping to protect them while the killing sun shone.

  “Good luck to you in your search, Master. All will be done as you have asked.” Mikhal didn’t reply, and so the minion simply turned and walked away. He knew his Master was made desolate by his endless pursuit of young Mikhalen, yet also knew there was nothing to be done to assist him, nor was any offering of help appreciated. Lord Arcos had made his desire for the minions to stay out of his search for Mikhalen quite clear when they had first set out to do battle over a year ago.

  When he was alone once more, Mikhal raised his head to scent the air and focused on the blood tie that would help him locate Mikhalen. If the boy let down his guard just once, Mikhal knew he could find him. He was certain there were times when his son was made unaware of all but his demon’s needs. He couldn’t be cautious of his father while he was raping, murdering, and terrorizing. Those times however, had never coincided with the times Mikhal was searching for him. As master of the minions he led, he had to keep them focused and careful, lest they be found and killed while asleep. His time was not always his own, he had responsibilities to the minions and to his country.

  Mikhal was their leader, and though each minion could easily take care of themselves; they had chosen to stay with him and fight the war in his way, therefore he owed them decisions made with a clear head, not one jumbled by constant thoughts of a boy who didn’t want to be found. Their night’s work was done now, so he could turn his thoughts to other matters. This time was his, and he made the best of it each day in the hour before dawn.

  The scent of his son was faint, made muddy by the blood and death that lay all around him. Still, it was enough to know where to start. Mikhal turned towards where he felt the boy, and started to track him, then stopped cold when a feeling of foreboding slammed into him. Something was terribly wrong with Alliana. They were separated by miles and miles, but the raw fear she felt found him nonetheless, and knifed straight to his heart.

  “Alliana!” Her name didn’t pass his lips, no word was spoken, and yet he screamed out to her all the same. Once more the fear hit him, and once more he let it pour through him, trying to comprehend the meaning though he knew it wouldn’t work that way. When nothing more came from his mate, he reached out for his daughter but felt nothing. The faint tingles that bonded them were there, but no terror, no distress. His girl was okay; she wasn’t what was making her mother so scared. That at least was some consolation, but the raw panic that had first come to him lingered in his very being.

  He raced to catch up with Kristof. He needed to get his mount and tell the minions they’d now be on their own. Mikhal was done with the war, and done with the son who refused to be found. Alliana needed him. She had been filled with fear, the kind of fear that was so terrifying it emanated from her soul, and even though she seemed to be fine now, Mikhal wouldn’t simply let it go. It had been far too long since he’d seen and held his wife. It was time to go home. Be that to the Gypsy camp or to the castle, it didn’t matter.

  Once mounted, Mikhal raced against the coming dawn. His feeling of foreboding hadn’t subsided though the stark fear that raced along his blood tie with Alliana had quieted. Home was where his mate was, and he intended to find her as quickly as he could. He knew he had at most a half hour before he’d be forced to take cover, but the knowledge didn’t slow him. Not yet, not now. Rest wouldn’t come easy no matter where he lay, so he was determined to put more miles behind him. He cursed the vulnerability that made it imperative he stop at daylight in his mad race towards his mate.

  As his horse’s hooves pounded the hard packed earth beneath him, a second set of hoof beats penetrated the veil of worry that lay over him like a shroud. Mikhal lift his head and turned, cursing the man who would steal the valuable time left before sunrise; then froze in shock as he realized the one who pursued him was his son. All the time he had spent feeling for the boy, scenting for him, chasing the tie that bound them together, had disappeared in his crazed need to get to Alliana. The child he had sought was now chasing him down, and he’d been completely unaware. Now, as much as he was thrilled to be reunited, he cursed his son’s timing. He’d spent a year searching for the boy, and now that he needed to ride as though his life depended on it, here was his wayward child.

  Mikhal reined in his horse, turning its head so it faced the way he had come. Mikhalen rode to where he’d stopped, then reined in his own mount and sat face to face with his father for the first time in over a year. Mikhalen’s eyes were hard as he returned the stare of his father, but then softened as joy replaced the shocked look on Mikhal’s face. A deep feeling of remorse now overshadowed the fierce desire to avoid his father at all costs, the desire that had driven him to stay one step ahead of Mikhal. Looking at his father now, seeing the look of love that was free of judgment, only made Mikhalen regret all the time he’d spent away.

  “Mika… I’ve missed you. Are you well son?” That was it. No accusations, no reprimands, no heavy-handed dominance. It wasn’t the reunion Mikhalen had imagined. While it was true his father’s eyes swept over him taking in the blood that stained his clothes and face, the fresh scratches left on his cheek from the woman he’d just taken and slaughtered, how ragged his clothing was, Mikhal didn’t look at him with scorn or take him to task for running away.

  “This life is what I hungered after. I’m free now.” Mikhalen’s chin rose a bit at his declaration, showing defiance and indicating he wouldn’t back down if challenged. While it was true the master vampire before him was his father, no one, not even the man who sired him, was going to force him to return to a life of unrequited need and the agony it caused him.

  Mikhal only nodded. Though it had been a long time since his inner beast had done battle with the man inside him, Mikhal did remember what a struggle it was to tame his demon in deference to the love he felt for Alliana. The sky behind Mikhalen was taking on the first faint colors of the coming sunrise, and the sight of it cut through the shock of seeing his son. Regardless of the fact that he had hunted the boy before him each day they had been apart, it wasn’t what was important now.

  “Something is wrong with your mother. There isn’t time for this now. Come home with me, Mika. We can make this work.” The fear Mikhal saw in his son’s eyes let Mikhal know that despite giving in to the beast inside him, Mikhalen did indeed still care about his human mother.

  “Have they been attacked?”

  “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I felt her fear.”

  “Katia?”

/>   “She’s alive. Your mother isn’t mourning her. Mika, we have to go, if not towards home, then to shelter.” Part of Mikhal despaired the loss of miles he could have put behind him if not for Mikhalen, and the boy was well aware of it. His father’s impatience made it clear that if he had to choose between his mate and his son, Mikhal would choose Alliana. That was as it should be, but it drove home the fact that Mikhalen could never be the man his father wished him to be. He would never love a human so fiercely, nor put one above anything else. He was a primal beast, a demon that lived for the self-gratification found in blood and terror.

  “I can’t go with you. The castle isn’t home to me; it’s a prison. Nothing has changed. If anything, this time away has made my beast hungrier, not tamer. If I go back you’ll want me to be what I am not, and I can’t do that. Not for maman, and not for you.”

  The raw pain at Mikhalen’s refusal cut Mikhal to the core as grief washed over him. He knew for certain that the demon that once felt only bloodlust and had no use for emotions other than manic joy in the face of other’s agony was truly gone. The fact that he would have to leave the child he’d missed so dearly broke his once cold heart. He was a man, not a monster, for no demon would feel such heartache.

  “She might need you, Mika. Knowing you are lost to her will break her heart. Come with me.”

  Mikhalen steeled himself against what he now thought of as useless human emotions. He held his head up high and shook it slowly. He couldn’t go home, not anymore. “It will hurt maman more to see me as I am than to miss the boy I was. Look at me father, and tell me whom you see? It certainly isn’t my mother. I have no golden hair, nor sweet smile. I imagine I look more like my Aunt Marishka, especially with blood smeared across my face.”

  “You are of me.”

  “Not all of you. Not the part that learned to feel for the humans who are mere cattle in my eyes. We are meant to slaughter them, not embrace them.”

  “There can be a balance.”

  “I WANT NO BALANCE!”

  “Mika…”

  “No. I’ve found the life I want. There is nothing for me at the castle but a life of lies. I love maman, I do, but it isn’t enough. If I go back, my demon will fight and claw its way out until I set it free. It is better you tell maman I was killed than for her to be witness to my beast reveling in whatever heinous act I commit.”

  Mikhal looked at the sky and knew there was nothing he could say to make Mikhalen change his mind. Perhaps when the boy was older the desire to be with his family would override his primal needs.

  “I won’t tell her you were slain, that would break her heart. You will always have a place at home, and I hope someday you’ll want it.” Mikhal wanted to embrace his wild boy child, but knew such affection wouldn’t be welcomed. The last shreds of the child who had wanted and needed his parents affection had disappeared in the year spent answering the call of his beast.

  “Take care of yourself, Mika. We love you.” Mikhal turned his horse’s head back towards home and slapped the reins upon its neck, urging the horse forward once again. He had precious little time before dawn, and he needed to put distance between himself and Mikhalen before the sun’s rays came over the horizon. It would make it easier to leave him behind when night fell once more. His son could take care of himself and had made his choice. It was time to let him be and to return home to his mate. Something was wrong, and he would not allow Alliana to face the trouble alone.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Much like Lucian, Alliana prayed, wept, and stayed close to the side of her dear friend. She avoided Katia, much to the girl’s annoyance, but was loathe being close to her baby girl because of the time she spent near Natalya. Katia railed at her maman each night when they sat for dinner, Katia and Emillian at one end of the long trestle table, Alliana at the other. She refused to touch the girl or allow her to come in contact with Natalya, so dinner with the vast divide of the table between them was as close as they could be.

  Alliana was grateful to have Emillian with them. He held her wayward daughter in check with wisdom that defied his age. Be it love or a touch of fear, Katia obeyed him, and that was all that mattered. Not that Alliana condoned beating her child, but Katia was a handful, and Emillian had somehow learned to keep hold of her reins.

  They had been put in the north wing of the castle, far away from the sick serfs and Natalya, and though Katia fussed that they had to rattle around in the big castle with no one to talk to and nothing to do, her maman and husband hushed her at every turn. It wasn’t that she missed having servants, Katia was never really the lady of the castle type, and that was part of the problem. At the Gypsy camp there were always things that needed to be done. No one had idle hands. They all worked together to do the chores that were never ending, but at the castle, especially when she wasn’t allowed to interact with anyone but Emillian, she was bored and frustrated.

  “Maman, I wish to work in Natalya’s medicinal chambers. There are books and herbs, recipes to learn about. I wish to look at her book of shadows. I know my magic is strong, but Aunt Natalya is strong in her own right. There are things I can learn.”

  “Katia, we have taken to burning the clothing and bedding of those who are sick and no one is allowed into the south wing except for the minions and Rowen. Thalia has stopped her efforts in healing as well, and now tends to only Natalya. All of it has been in an effort to stop whatever this is, and it appears to be working. We have gone two days without any new cases. The seclusion seems to be working. I cannot allow you to move about in the area of the castle where Natalya has all her things.”

  Katia began to sputter but Emillian put a hand on her arm. “Listen to your maman.”

  “It’s not that I wish you unhappy, and I truly wish we had a spell to heal the sick and stop the dying, but if there was such a thing your aunt would have used it. She made the elixir, and it was the best she could do to help.”

  “Aunt Natalya is not like me, our magic differs. You can’t say for certain that I won’t find something that will help. I can do things Aunt Natalya could never do.”

  “Katia, if you become ill your father will never forgive me.”

  “Then again I will ask you why you brought me with you?” There was a sharp edge to her voice that Alliana had never heard before, and Alliana didn’t really blame her. Katia was struggling to be useful against the death that surrounded them.

  “Maman, the herbs in the elixir are just that, herbs. I have magick maman, real, strong magick. I can help. Let me go to Natalya’s chambers. I need to see her books. Didn’t you say she was writing down everything since this all began?”

  “Yes, it is all recorded. Natalya has kept careful notes on everything over the years.”

  “They are notes I need to see. I need to be in her chambers. It’s there I can mix potions; there I can read all her books and logs, there I can concoct a spell. Please don’t say no. Let me help maman. I could find a spell to save everyone.

  “Magick has consequences, Katia.”

  “Yes! Yes it does, it will have the consequence of keeping Natalya from dying. Anything is worth stopping this sickness. I will take the consequences. The alternative is losing her forever. What’s to stop us all from becoming sick over time? Isn’t that a horrid consequence, maman?”

  “Lady Alliana, come quickly. Lady Natalya can’t breathe. She’s coughing and gasping for air.”

  Alliana and Katia rose together, followed closely by Emillian who held Katia by the arm, determined to keep his wife away from her sick aunt.

  “Is Lucian with her?”

  “Yes. He is... crazed. Please come quick. We thought perhaps she was improving, but then all of a sudden the coughing started. She fights to breathe.”

  “Maman! Please. If you won’t permit me to go to her then let me go to her magick chamber. You have to let me see the books. Please, maman.”

  “Katia, not now.”

  “You will keep me from everything that will let me
help.”

  “Your maman is keeping you safe.”

  Katia turned on her husband, desperation making her crazed. She fought to pull away, clawing at the hand that held her. Emillian wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close, gathering up her hands in his.

  “No! Maman, please, my magick can help.” Katia’s cries fell on deaf ears for her mother was already to the top of the stairs. It was clear her maman had no time for her, but it sounded as if Natalya was dying. Katia was filled with even more fury when she saw she’d been dismissed. She twisted and fought her husband’s hold, then went limp in his arms and reached for the amulet that always hung around her neck.

  Emillian saw her intent and pulled her hand tight to his chest, making it impossible for Katia do as she wanted. “You’ll not resort to magick, wife.”

  “You forbid me to use the magickal books and forbid me to use my powers as well. What would you have me do? I was given these powers for a reason, and yet you insist on keeping me from helping my aunt. Let me go.”

  The flames rose in the hearth, and a gust of wind rushed through the great hall, both a testament to Katia’s anger and frustration.

  “Katia, I forbid you to...”

  “Please, both of you stop.” Thalia looked stricken by the battle taking place between Katia and her husband. She knew her next words wouldn’t be taken well, but she had been sent by Lucian and was determined to do as he asked.

  “Master Lucian says you are to come now, Katia.” Emillian’s hold loosened but he didn’t release her as he looked from the servant to his wife.

  “Husband you will not keep me from my uncle. Release me.”

  Though he didn’t like it, Emillian did as she asked. He was a guest here, and Lucian was the Lord in attendance. If he was summoning Katia, her mother was probably aware of it as well. He let Katia go. She ran to the staircase, and then took them two at a time. Finally she was going to be allowed to help. That or... She wouldn’t think of the latter. Natalya would live; she had to.