The Dominion Series Complete Collection

by Lund, S. E.

  He turns back to his last fresh roll and eats it without looking at me as if that's his final answer. I sit and stew for a moment, knowing that I can't accept that. I can't stand by while Soren and his servants prepare to take power.

  I say nothing in reply, sticking to my plan. I don't want this sour feeling between us. I want to enjoy Michel while I can. Just the two of us alone.

  It will be time to leave this little haven he's created soon enough.

  * * *

  We go for our nightly walk on the beach, Michel's arm around my shoulders. While the days are still warm, they're getting shorter and it's already dark when we walk along the shore. There's a half-moon and its light glows on the surf. The sky is clear and the Milky Way is a long dusty arc in the sky above us. The exercise will invigorate me, make my mind clear for a while before my feed.

  Now is when I most want to talk to Michel about Dominion, press him for more details, but I bite my tongue and wait. When we get back to the cottage, my stomach is already full of butterflies, thinking of our feed and what I want to happen. I've been planning this for a few days, giving Michel some time to calm down about me wanting to relive his memory of my mother's death. Tonight, I want him to drink my blood as I drink his. It will maximize our connection, and when he's under the influence of my blood, I'll see if I can find his memory of my mother's death.

  That's my plan. I think I've been successful in keeping it from him, for if he knows, he doesn't show it.

  We both know what happens next when we arrive back at the cottage. I go to the bathroom and start the water for a nice warm bath. I pour in some of the bath salts Michel had prepared that contain my perfume. There are no words between us as we undress and step into the tub. Michel sits across from me, his pale skin so beautiful in the soft overhead light. Michel takes one of my feet and washes it with some soap.

  It tickles me a bit and I can't help but giggle.

  "Oh, your feet are ticklish, are they?' he says, a devilish grin on his face. "Now I know a surefire way to make you smile and show me your dimples."

  I try to pull my foot away, because I can barely stand him touching the sensitive bottom. "Don't, Michel!" I laugh when he refuses and continues to wash it. Then, when it's rinsed of soap, he starts to suck my toes.

  I hold my breath because I'm torn between the eroticism of it and how his touch still tickles. I don't know whether to groan or giggle.

  "You have such nice toes, Eve," he says, and tongues my baby toe, sucking it briefly before slipping his tongue between it and its neighbor. He kisses the bottom of my foot and then my ankle and calf. I know where this is leading.

  "Oh, God," I say, and close my eyes. "I'm ready right now."

  "I know you are," he says. "You've always been so responsive. Have I said that I love that about you? Despite everything that happened to you, you haven't shut off."

  I open my eyes and look at him. Despite everything that's happened to me. Of course, he means Thompson. He means my mother's death. He means everything that's happened since we met.

  He pulls me over to him so that I lie on top of him in the bath, my arms around his neck and I can't help remembering a journal entry where I was in a tub in Julien's warehouse, lying just like this.

  "I wish it had been you who killed Thompson," I say and tuck his hair behind his ear.

  "I had so many plans to be your first in everything, to be your champion, and yet I find my brother replaced me in them all."

  "You gave me to him like some spoil of war," I say, unable to keep a tiny bit of hurt from my voice despite the fact that I have no memory of it, just the words written in the pages of my journal.

  "I had no other choice. It was Julien or Soren."

  "Julien could never replace you," I say. "He admitted it to me. All I'd ever be to him is a good fuck."

  "He did care for you," Michel says, frowning. "In his way."

  "Then, was he at least upset to think I was dead?"

  "He was," he says, glancing away from my face. "Upset. Yes. But you've read your journal. He's glib. He thinks life is a big game. A joke."

  "I think he was upset because he thought I was supposed to be his Adept, not yours."

  Michel shrugs. "Let's not talk about him. He's moved on and so must we. Now," he says and moves my hair from my neck.

  I smile at him, a thrill going through my body when he kisses my neck. He makes that throat sound and pulls me close, kissing my cheeks, one after the other.

  "Temptress," he says and helps me up.

  Then he pulls me to the bed and we roll together in the bedsheets, losing ourselves in each other's touch.

  When he finally bites my neck and drinks my blood, the pain is sharp and bright as his teeth break my skin. It makes my back arch, pressing my body against his, but it also clears my mind.

  In that moment, when he's drinking my blood and his blood is in me, we connect so deeply, our minds and bodies almost fusing as one. I search his mind when he's in so deeply, he's lost all control. I find the memory, and in this moment of time standing still, I relive it.

  He can't stop me.

  * * *

  "You're going to keep your mouth shut, Michel. I don't care what you think. If she doesn't comply, she dies."

  Soren holds Michel's chin in his hand, using his powers to force Michel's compliance. Michel's helpless to resist.

  They enter my mother's laboratory. It's a Tuesday evening just before Christmas. She's working late on a report and has me with her, because my father is practicing with the Boston Chamber Orchestra. Soren goes right into my mother's lab. Michel peeks in the office and sees me sitting there on the floor by her desk, old issues of National Geographic spread out beside me. Soren has no idea I'm here, so intent on getting to my mother that he fails to notice my scent but Michel can't miss it.

  "Hello, Eve," he whispers. "You stay here. Your mother has some business to attend to. I'll be back in a minute. Do you understand?"

  I nod, and barely acknowledge him, more interested in what I'm reading than my mother's visitors. He follows Soren into the laboratory where my mother sits at a desk, going over a report, checking results.

  Soren already has my mother by the throat, and it's clear when Michel enters, that she's refusing him. Soren leans closer to my mother, his face next to hers, and she looks determined, as if nothing could make her comply.

  He raises his hand and slaps her across the face. The blow makes her head jerk back, knocking her face to the side. Blood dribbles out of the corner of her mouth.

  "Stop!" Michel says, lunging at Soren, but the larger man merely grabs Michel by the head and compels him once more.

  "You're going to stand there and say nothing. Do you understand?"

  Michel is helpless to refuse him. "I'm going to stand here and say nothing."

  "Good."

  Soren goes over to my mother and strokes her cheek. "Poor Natalia," he says. "Mean old monster going to hurt you because you won't comply. How much pain do you think you can take? Shall I use a closed fist this time?"

  "You'll do what you want," my mother says. "Don't hurt Eve."

  "She's mine now. You made your choice."

  Soren turns to Michel. "Kill her," he says. "Drink her blood. Then find the whelp and send her to one of our families."

  Michel steps back, shaking his head.

  "No," he says, his voice breaking. "Don't make me do this. She's my friend."

  Soren takes Michel's face in his hand. "Drink her blood until she's dead like a good servant."

  Michel is helpless to refuse him once again, his mind blank. He goes to my mother and takes her in his arms. He's doing things without knowing what he's doing and can't stop. Soren's compulsion is too powerful.

  "Protect her," my mother whispers in his ear. "Give her a new life. Don't let her be like me."

  "I can hear you," Soren says, his voice impatient. "That's enough goodbyes, you two. Do it, Michel. I'll be waiting in the car."

  Soren
leaves the room.

  * * *

  When Michel's finished, when my mother's heart stops, he comes out of the trance-like state he's been in. Grief overwhelms him – how many humans has he killed for Soren over the centuries?

  Too many to count.

  He lays her down on the floor, hatred for Soren growing to such a great degree, he feels as if he'll explode. Then he sees me standing in the doorway, my face white. He wipes his chin and his hand comes back stained red, my mother's blood is covering it.

  My eyes are huge. "What did you do to my mother?"

  He stands helpless, wiping his face while I run to her, my hands on the wound on her neck as I try in vain to stop the bleeding but it's too late. I turn to him, my eyes wet. "You killed her!"

  He pulls me off my mother's lifeless body and makes a split-second decision. He removes a small ampoule from his pocket. Inside is a new drug that destroys all memories for names and faces and events for the past day. It was meant for my mother if she agreed to comply with Soren and turn over her research, so she wouldn't remember in case the Council decided to evaluate her. Instead, he uses it on me so I won't remember seeing my mother's dead body, or remember seeing him with blood on his mouth. He could try to compel me, but Soren could always make him reverse the effect, and Michel doesn't ever want me to remember this moment.

  I won't remember seeing him or Soren in the office. I won't even remember waking up that morning, excited because Christmas is only a few days away. He breaks the tip off the ampoule and forces it between my lips. I grimace at the taste, try to spit it out, struggling in his arms, but he holds his hand over my mouth.

  I can't help but swallow.

  "There, there, Eve," he says, his voice soft. "It will all be over soon. You'll forget everything and start a new life."

  After a moment, I stop struggling as the drug takes effect – the drug that will wipe my memory of the events of the past twenty-four hours.

  Michel leaves me by my mother's dead body, unwilling to let Soren know I was here, calling the SCU's EMS team as he leaves the building so I'll be found soon. He wants to ensure I get medical treatment because the drug is so new. It's only after he escapes Soren's watchful eye hours later that Michel learns the drug was too powerful for a child of my size. It eats away at my longer-term memory. It almost kills me, causing my brain to swell, affecting my breathing so that I'm intubated.

  He visits me in the hospital and makes a vow then and there that he'll hide me from Soren and this life as my mother begged. He'll do whatever he can to prevent me from being brought into this world of vampire hunters and Adepts. He owes it to my mother, whose trust he couldn't help but betray.

  He vows that he'll kill Soren one day if it's the only thing he does before he dies.

  Chapter 54

  "A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years."

  Rupert Brooke

  * * *

  "Eve, no…"

  Michel pulls out of the stupor he was in from my blood, but it's too late. In that strange suspension of time I experience, I'm able to relive the entire memory, even though in reality only a few seconds pass. I see enough to know that he killed my mother. That it was him who made me forget, not my own weak mind.

  "You killed her.” I struggle beneath him, but he holds me firm. I stop fighting him and stare up at him, my vision blurry. “You killed my mother. But how…” I search his face. "I read you in the SCU that time I was tested. I saw your last kill…"

  "I'm so sorry," he says, panic in his voice.

  "But my journal says I read you, when you drank my blood that first time, and I almost died. I thought Soren killed my mother."

  He shakes his head.

  "Tell me!"

  Finally, he closes his eyes and exhales heavily. "I'm eight hundred years old. I know how to block someone. Control what they see."

  Numbness fills me, my body tingling as if I'm going to faint. "Have you ever once told me the truth?"

  Again, I struggle beneath him, my horror growing with each minute.

  “Eve,” Michel says. “It wasn't me. It was Soren's compulsion. I would never kill your mother. You must see that from the memory!"

  I can't even look at him, turning my head away, my emotions starting to choke me. He tries desperately to turn my face back, but I keep my eyes closed. Even his attempt to release some kind of calming hormone fails to comfort me.

  "Let me go."

  "No," he says, "not until you understand."

  "How can I ever understand?"

  He finally rolls off me and I crawl away from him. I run to the bathroom and kneel down to vomit in the toilet. He follows me and stands over me, holding my hair as I retch.

  When I'm finished, I turn around and push him away. "Leave me alone!"

  "No," he says and lifts me up, using his superior power to restrain me. His expression is almost desperate but also angry. He presses me against the wall, taking my face in his hands and I’m powerless to stop him.

  “I didn’t kill her, ” he says. "Soren did. I was just his weapon."

  “Don’t,” I say. "How can I be with you knowing this?"

  “Eve, don't do this,” he says and turns my face back. “You're not thinking straight. You must understand I was compelled to do it."

  "You were with him."

  "I was trying to find a way to stop him."

  "I'm leaving."

  "I won't let you," he says. "I’ve paid such a high price for you. For all of this.” He waves his hand to the cottage, pointing outside to the ocean. “I can’t have you misunderstand. I can’t have you hate me.” He presses his body against mine and his voice is almost a whisper. “I can’t bear it.”

  A rush of something like Nirvana floods through me and it's so intense, I can’t keep my eyes open. All my anger and sadness dissipate and I feel nothing. When I open my eyes again, I’m staring into his blue ones, and his eyes are wet.

  “Eve, I love you. I think I’ve loved you since I saw you perform on stage in London. I know that sounds wrong, but you can’t know what it’s like to watch mortals being born, growing up, growing old and dying. For eight centuries I’ve watched while the mortals I’ve known have died. I’ve tried to give you up, but I can’t.” He sighs and leans his arm on the wall, pressing his forehead to mine. “I just can’t. I gave up everything to save you. Don't misunderstand what happened.”

  He takes in a ragged breath and runs his finger along my bottom lip, his mind searching mine for any shred of understanding.

  “You also gave me that drug to make me forget but it made me forget too much," I say, "and I almost died."

  He closes his eyes. "I was trying to prevent you from being traumatized by what happened."

  "You mean remembering that it was you who killed her,” I say.

  “Eve,” he says, frustration in his voice. "Let me explain…"

  “Stop,” I say and hold up my hand. “I’ve heard enough. I don’t want to hear any more. I can barely stand to look at you.”

  I cover my eyes, trying to regain control over my emotions, for whatever he’s done to me is wearing off.

  “I’m going back to my parents’ cottage and try to figure all of this out. When you're ready to tell me only the truth, all of it, you can come to me.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “I need to be away from you so I can think for myself.”

  He shakes his head. “You’re not leaving me.”

  “I am. The only reason I didn't leave you when I first learned that you lied to me was because you had me so wrapped around your little finger.”

  "You want the truth?" he says and I can hear in his voice just how close he is to losing control. "I never had you wrapped around my little finger. If I had, none of this would have happened. If anything, it was the other way around. I could never refuse you. You wanted me, Eve, and I gave in to you despite my better judgment. That's the truth."

  "You gave in to me?" I'm unable to
comprehend what he means. "Are you saying you didn’t want me?”

  “No,” he says and I can hear frustration in his voice. “No. I wanted you. God, I wanted you. But I didn’t want you to be in this world of ours. If you had to be, I wanted to give you the choice. I wanted you to be free to choose. You did. You chose me.”

  “That's the biggest lie of all. All you ever talked about was me obeying you. Giving in to you and your need for control."

  "It's the truth. You just don't understand. You've always had the power, Eve."

  I shake my head and turn away. "It's the other way around. You're the powerful vampire angel. I'm just a mortal."

  He shakes his head. "Eve, I want you. To have you, I'll do whatever you want. I’ll give you whatever you need. Whatever you need. But what you think you need and what you really need are two different things." He takes my hand and something sweet rushes through me. "It's always been that way with you." He moves even closer, his fingers brushing against my cheek. He looks in my eyes. "You don’t know what you want because you’re fighting for your life, every moment of your life. You’re so afraid to stop fighting and listen to your heart."

  I shake my head, for it doesn't make sense.

  "I really want to be equal."

  "You really want me," he says, his voice soft. "I know it." He wraps his arm around my shoulders and presses his forehead against mine. "You want to sit on my lap with my arms around you. You want me to protect you. You want to be safe, completely safe for once. You want to be absolved of guilt for what Thompson did to you." He closes his eyes. "I can make you feel safe. I can make you feel alive. That’s what all this is about. That’s why I’ve done everything that I have – so you can finally be safe. All you have to do is just let me take care of your every need. Your every desire."

  "Surrender to you."

  He opens his eyes. "Surrender to yourself, Eve."

  I'm so confused by his words, my mind shuts down.