The Dominion Series Complete Collection

by Lund, S. E.

  “Yes,” he says with a chuckle. “Identical twins for identical twins. They didn’t really like sharing Marguerite, although it gave her immense pleasure. They wanted one for each of them. A fighter who could help Julien with his quest and a crusader who could help Michel save souls.”

  “What happened when they learned that there was only one of me?”

  Soren smiles and stands up as well, straightening his clothes, running his hands down his suit jacket. “They drew straws. Julien won.”

  “Really?”

  “I wanted them to share you, but they were against that,” Soren says with a dramatic sigh. “They decided to be grown men about it and leave it up to chance. Straws it was. Michel lost. He was supposed to let you go, but he couldn’t help himself. He became involved in your life while Julien was out fighting dragons, and he became attached to the idea of having you for himself. He fought so hard, Eve, to deny himself, but in the end, he was weak.”

  “You enjoy it.”

  “I do. I love it. I think it’s a fair payback for what he did to my Marguerite.”

  “Why didn’t you bring her back to life the way you did the man in the Amman bombing?”

  “Timing is everything when it comes to resurrection, Eve. She was burnt to a crisp. All I could do was gather up her ashes and the few bone fragments that remained. Luckily, the hip bone is so dense that it’s hard to burn except in a furnace. That was how I resurrected Marguerite as Gabrielle. She’s sweet, but she’s not my beautiful Viking princess.”

  “And so you’re going to torture Michel and Julien for eternity?”

  “Maybe,” Soren says and tilts his head to the side. “I’m not going to let them forget what they did. I could have created someone else, and not involved them at all, someone with all your attributes, with your talents, and given you to the guild to train, but it was sweet payback to see them both fall in love with you. Oh, Eve,” he says and rubs his hands together in glee. “To see them jockey for position in your heart and in your bed. It was so satisfying. Julien was so pleased that I took Michel from you for that brief time. He tried to fight his desire for you, but inside he knew he’d fail. He held out for so long and then you went to him and offered yourself just like I told him you would. He was sooo happy.”

  I frown. From my journal, I learned that Soren made Michel stay in Pittsburgh in payment for resurrecting Julien after he was staked. I eventually slept with Julien and fell in love with him. Then, Michel returned and he and I were once more reunited.

  I loved Michel first. I thought I’d never see him again, because it sounded like Soren would keep him away for a lifetime. Julien looked so much like Michel…

  Soren was playing us all even back then.

  “Michel and Julien knew they’d eventually have to share you. They didn’t like it, but that’s the way fate works. Best laid plans, and all.”

  I shake my head. I want to go back to my rooms and lie down, throw a cover over my head against the light and escape reality.

  “You can’t escape reality, Eve,” Soren says, reading my mind again. “You have to accept it, and go with the flow.” He makes a wave motion with his hand and laughs at my frown.

  “Go to Michel. Give the poor man a crumb, for God’s sake.”

  I turn on my heel to leave the room, my mellow mood quickly dissipating into a sense of gloominess.

  “I’m through with Michel,” I say, as much to myself as to Soren.

  “So you keep saying, but I think the lady doth protest too much…”

  I make a face but don’t give him the pleasure of seeing my disapproval. I go to the door and before I can get my hand on the doorknob, he clears his throat.

  “Eve, you can’t escape this fate. Accept it, and be satisfied that in the end, it will be you who is responsible for saving humankind from Dominion. You’ll be the one who helps eradicate vampirism. That’s quite a legacy. Sleeping with Michel and Julien at the same time is a small price to pay.”

  I turn to face him. “I won’t do it,” I say. “No matter what.”

  He shrugs as if he doesn’t really believe me. “Suit yourself. You won’t get Julien back until you give in.”

  “Give in to what?” I say, standing in the open doorway. I know I should just go and not engage Soren any longer, but I can’t help myself.

  “To your own desires,” he says.

  “I chose Julien,” I say, determined to fight him. He thinks he knows my heart, but he’s wrong. “Michel lost me when he lied to me time and time again. I can’t forgive him for lying continuously. A woman can only take so many lies and then you reach the breaking point. It doesn’t matter why Michel lied. What matters is that he chose lies over the truth.”

  “Yes, but that’s such an easy choice to make, Eve. Julien’s been there for you from the start, waiting in the wings, biding his time…He’s done everything you’ve asked of him, except tell you what you really needed to know. Because he can’t tell you that.”

  “Not his fault,” I say defiantly. “You and Michel all manipulate him, compel him, make him do things he wouldn’t do of his own choice.”

  “That’s completely true, but here’s something that’ll freak your little mind out. What would be his own choice? Would he even be with you, if it weren’t for me?” He glances up from his glass of blood, the slightest smile on his lips.

  What does he mean… Is he trying to suggest…?

  “Don’t play mind games with me,” I say, unwilling to let him think I’m upset at what he’s said. “Julien loves me. I can tell. You’re interfering with him, preventing him from being with me until I help you raise all the Twelve.”

  “If that gets you through the night,” Soren says, waving his hand at me dismissively. “You’ll never know, will you?”

  I despise him. He doesn’t deserve to be a god…

  “Oh, Eve,” he says from across the room when I turn to leave. “Who does? In the end, all that matters is that a god has the power necessary or not. I will have the power. You’ll help me if you want your Julien back. If you want to stop the plague. If you want to eradicate vampirism.”

  I don’t look back, for I don’t want to see his self-satisfied grin. Instead, I leave the room, closing the door behind me.

  * * *

  Instead of returning to my rooms, I walk around the perimeter of the compound, needing the fresh air to calm me down. Soren can make me so angry that I lose my senses. It does me no good to argue with him. He enjoys it. What I should do is comply and maybe I’ll learn more about his plans if he gets no resistance from me.

  After a complete circuit, which takes about five minutes, I sit on the low stone retaining wall outside the rear door and watch the clouds scudding past. I want the plague to stop and the sooner the better. I want to eradicate vampirism and it looks as if Soren has cracked the code on that, but whatever he does makes the vampire die. Only Soren can resurrect them. Will he pick and choose who he resurrects? There are hundreds of thousands of vampires… Unless he has some kind of mass release process that will spread the antidote around the world, targeting bloodlines like he tried earlier, it’ll take a very long time to get rid of vampirism.

  Whatever the case, I have to expect that it will benefit him, give him more power, so he can rule as a god the way he wants.

  When I return to my rooms, Soren is just leaving. A guard accompanies him and he catches sight of me as I round the corner.

  “Eve,” he says, smiling. “I was just looking for you. I want to do some resurrecting tonight. Procel awaits. Prepare yourself. Meet me in the entry at eight.”

  I nod, but I’m not pleased. Inside my rooms, Julien is waiting for me, sitting on the couch, his arms spread over the back. He looks happy to see me and pats the couch.

  “Come and sit with me,” he says. “You look like you need a back rub.”

  I approach him, and despite needing his touch, the suggestion that Julien is acting completely under compulsion and may not even want me, nags t
he edge of my mind.

  “I’m fine,” I say, not wanting to be duped. “What did you and Soren speak about?”

  “Sit,” Julien says once more.

  I do, sitting about a foot away from him. He moves closer and pulls me into his arms. “That’s better,” he says, and brushes hair back from my cheek. He leans in and kisses me then buries his face in the crook of my neck, his breath tickling me and at the same time, sending a thrill of desire through my body.

  I can’t help but think of what Soren said to me and now Julien’s touch is no longer welcome. It’s suspect. I lie beneath him while he searches my body with his hands and mouth, kissing my face, my chin, my jaw, then down to his bite mark, while his hand slides down my body to cup a breast, tweak my nipple and then slip between my thighs, to cup my mound. My thighs do not part like they usually would and my eyes are open.

  I can’t help it. I can’t stop this thought from driving me crazy.

  Did you do this, you bastard?

  But of course, he won’t tell me. This is Soren’s way of showing me that he’s in control. Of everything.

  I sigh and tears fill my eyes. Julien’s touch is cold to me now and he must sense it for he rises up and stares in my eyes for a moment.

  “Eve…” he whispers, his breath a bit ragged from desire.

  “I can’t,” I manage, squeezing my eyes shut so that I don’t have to look in his face and see his expression for I no longer believe it.

  “What’s the matter? Why can’t you?”

  When I don’t respond, and instead, roll out from under his warmth, my arms wrapped around my body, he takes hold of me and forces me to face him.

  “Tell me what’s the matter? I need to know!”

  I wipe my eyes and look in his. He’s frowning, his brow furrowed, his blue eyes, usually so good-natured and loving, are dark.

  “Soren made me doubt you,” I say and sniff like a child. “He suggested that you may not even really love me and that you’ve been compelled to believe you do. Now, I don’t know what to believe.”

  He shakes his head, and takes in a deep breath. “I love you, Eve. I do with all my heart. How can you doubt me?”

  “Because I know he’s compelled you before. How can I know what’s the result of compulsion and what’s the result of your true feelings?”

  He sits in silence for a moment, and I know he has to admit that what I say is true. “I don’t know what to say,” he says finally, his voice low and sounding defeated. “I only know what I feel, here,” he says and puts his fist against his chest. “I love you, Eve. At this moment, that’s all I know. Who knows whether it’s because of Soren or because of me? I can’t know. Neither can you.”

  “Unless Soren completely erases all his compulsion. Then I’d know.”

  He shakes his head. “How could you trust him? He might say he’s eradicated all his compulsion, but can you believe him? In the end, you have to go with what’s here, now.”

  He pulls me onto his lap, and brushes tears from my cheeks. “I’m here, now. I want you. I love you. Enjoy what we have while we can. Who knows what might happen tomorrow?”

  My gaze moves over his face, at the strong jaw covered in a thin dusting of stubble, the soft full mouth, the dark arched brows, the blue blue eyes that seem to pierce right into my heart.

  “Even if he made you love me?”

  “You’ll never know for sure,” he says. “So don’t even think about it again. That’s all you can do.”

  I sigh and melt into his body, needing to feel his strength around me. I love Julien. That much I know is true. I love him deeply and totally. If Soren has forced him to think he loves me, it was no doubt to make Michel jealous.

  I hate that I’m a pawn like this, in Soren and Blackstone’s game of power, but there’s nothing I can do to know for certain that Julien loves me on his own volition or under Soren’s.

  “You’re right,” I say finally. “I can’t ever know. No matter what he says now, I’ll never know the truth. If he says he compelled you, it might be to hurt me. If he says he doesn’t, it might be to appease me.”

  He runs his fingers down my cheek. “That’s right. Just love me, Eve. I’ll love you back. That’s all we ever really have.”

  And so I do. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, deeply. I relish in the feel of his warmth against me, the sound of his breathing, heavy now with desire, and the feel of his tongue against mine, hungry for me.

  I let him lay me down across the couch and his weight on top of me is so reassuring, and his erection hard against my belly tells me that whether Soren made him love me or whether he loves me on his own, he desires me. He needs me right now.

  I need him.

  For the next hour, we delight each other with our bodies, our moans and sighs joining together as our senses do until there is only one body and one mind.

  I don’t care whether Julien is truly mine or if he’s Soren’s creature.

  It doesn’t matter anymore. I need Julien and love him. As long as he wants to be with me, as long as he seems to want me, I won’t hold back.

  If that’s what Soren wants, so be it.

  It’s what I want and need as well.

  Chapter 113

  We lie together, our bodies damp with exertion, our limbs entwined. My head is on his shoulder, my thigh thrown possessively over his, my hand on his abdomen, running over his muscles. He’s a perfect specimen of a man, so strong and well-developed. He’s beautiful in his vampire paleness.

  “I have to help Soren tonight, to resurrect Procel,” I say, not looking forward to what lies ahead. “I needed some good brain endorphins to help me get through the evening.”

  We lie together for the afternoon, and speak in soft voices about what will happen and what lies in store for us. Finally, when I see the time, I get up and go to the washroom, have a quick wash and stare at myself in the mirror. I look tired and need some blood to get me through the evening. I’ll be sharing blood with Soren and Kael as part of the ceremony and their blood is so powerful, I won’t need anything for a while. But right now, I need some to feel better about tonight.

  I go into the other room and see Julien lying on the couch, his arm behind his head, his muscles so nicely on display. He really is such a beautiful man…

  I bend down to kiss him and then go to the sideboard for a glass of blood. It’s preserved so it has that bitter taste, but it goes down fast and the warmth distracts me from the deeds I have to do tonight. I stand in front of my wardrobe and select the white gown that Soren made me wear the last time. He wants the crowd to see me as some kind of high priestess and so I have to look the part.

  I pull it on and then return to the bathroom to do my hair, piling it on top of my head the way Michel suggested the last time I did this.

  It’s when I’m finishing my hair that I hear a commotion and peek out the bathroom door.

  Soren bursts into the room followed by guards dressed in full regalia.

  “Where’s Michel?” he says, alarm in his voice. “Is he with you?”

  I frown and enter the living room. Julien has pulled on his jeans and stands bare chested before Soren, his feet bare, his hands on his hips.

  “I haven’t seen him since earlier,” Julien says. He glances at me. I shake my head.

  “I haven’t seen him either.”

  I feel Soren probing my mind.

  I haven’t seen him. Honest.

  Soren comes right over to me, his face red, his brow furrowed. He grabs me around the neck and lifts me up as if I weigh nothing.

  “Tell me where he is!” he shouts, and I swear I see murder in his eyes. His hand grips my throat, squeezing so hard it hurts and I can’t breathe.

  “Stop,” I manage to grunt despite his grip on my throat.

  “Tell me where he is!”

  I feel him probing my mind again, furious that I won’t tell him where Michel is.

  “If you’ve developed a way to block me, I’ll kill you
,” he says, his voice low and menacing. I feel him search my memories of the last hours and he sees everything that’s happened. He sees me go to Michel, he sees me return to Julien and us making love.

  He shakes me, and by now, I’m starting to black out, my vision narrowing, sparkles in the periphery of my vision. I’m sure he’s going to kill me.

  “I’ll kill you,” he says, spittle coming out of his mouth he’s so enraged. “I’ll start over again. I don’t care. If you’ve found a way to block me, you’re of no use and I’ll kill you with a thought.”

  I know he could do it, and I grip his hands, trying to pry them loose before I black out completely.

  Julien comes over and tries to pull Soren’s hands away from my neck, but he can’t. Soren is too strong. I feel as if my windpipe will break, and tears are running down my cheeks as I gasp and can’t get any air inside my lungs.

  Before I black out, he lets go and I slide to the floor. My throat is crushed, and I struggle to breathe, but soon, my vampire healing abilities start to work, and under my fingers, I feel my throat start to open, the bruising start to heal.

  In a moment, as Julien kneels over me, pouring blood into my open mouth to help the process along, I start to recover.

  I take in long gasping breaths, my vision returning to normal. The pain starts to recede and I look over Julien’s shoulder at Soren, who stands watching, his hands on his hips, his expression dark.

  Of course I can’t block Soren. I have no idea where Michel has gone. The last I saw of him was when I went into his room and kissed him.

  It’s then that I realize that Soren can’t read Michel’s mind. If he could, he would have known where Michel is.

  Soren can’t read Michel’s mind!

  That realization fills me with a mixture of glee and dread. So, all along, Soren couldn’t read Michel’s mind… They must have been right about Soren – he can’t read Michel’s mind – or maybe my mother’s. Or my brother’s.

  But he can read my mind and I wonder if it was sharing blood with him? But Michel shared blood with him as well…

  My mind whirls with this new information and I feel darkness from Soren, as if his anger could reach right out and strangle me from across the room.