Back to sarcastic and malicious, Eric thought, relieved he had broken Jonathan’s possessive aggression.
“She was immune and healed instantly. I put her to sleep before she asked any questions.” With a sigh, he brushed his hands through his hair. “I needed time to think.”
Eric expected a snarky response. None came. Jonathan stared at a spot on the bed as though deep in thought.
“I saw the pictures,” Eric said. “I suppose that was your intent. Did you see any signs, Master Jonathan?”
“Irregularities that I’m not at liberty to discuss.”
Silence lapsed between them for a while. Jonathan focused on Eric and spoke first, his voice serious for the first time that night. “She may be more important than the elders initially thought.”
“What do they want with her?” Eric demanded.
With hooded eyes, Jonathan shook his head slowly.
“Answer me! How long have they known?”
“Longer than you.”
Eric switched tactics. “How did you get her away from David?”
Jonathan shot a pointed stare at the sleeping woman.
“Humans are quite easy to manipulate, as you know. Even more so when they are unstable. Why haven’t you asked why he took her at all?”
Eric studied him. Jonathan wanted to share something, but could not volunteer it unless asked the right question. Eric knew this mini game well enough to cheat and win. Jonathan hated disinterest and always countered by viciously revealing too much, so Eric feigned boredom, tapping his foot and blowing his breath out over his lip.
As expected, the corner of Jonathan’s mouth curled into a snarl. Crinkles cut lines across his forehead and his eyes narrowed. “Fine. See how this strikes you. Lucien ordered her removal from your presence. I needed to distract you, and the ‘accident’ did the trick. The elders are quite interested in her.”
The force of that blow hadn’t been expected. Violent tremors shook Eric’s body as he growled, “You killed Andrew and Felicia just to take her away for their interest?”
Yawning in mock delight to celebrate regaining control, Jonathan replied simply, “I am not permitted to take from the flock.”
Eric’s anger threatened to burst. “You could have influenced David!”
“I am not permitted to influence what is not already there.”
Eric fought for breath over the lump forming in his throat. He couldn’t speak. Jonathan had betrayed him repeatedly, but never like this. Never in a way that risked Eric’s eternal hatred, thereby ending Jonathan’s dream of serving the High Council together side by side. He had bitterly promised not to touch Andrew and Eric had believed him.
“You lying son of a bitch. David is not of the flock!” Eric snarled, rising from the bed and bearing his growing fangs as he took a step toward Jonathan.
“Oh come now, you don’t want to wake her. How tragic—her uncle not only kidnapped her, but also killed her parents? Would you really inflict that pain? Or, better yet, maybe she’d see me here with you and wonder about your motives. And just when you had regained her trust, too.” Jonathan flashed a fiendish smile and straightened to take Eric’s attack; however, his words forced Eric to pause.
Crossing the room, Jonathan flicked his eyes up at Eric in an offended manner and spat, “I did not kill your precious human.”
Eric grabbed his arm tightly as he passed by, but Jonathan ripped free and sat on the bed. Jonathan’s eyes deliberately drifted from the necklace dangling on the vanity to Paresh’s face. “I must admit that she makes me feel things I’ve never felt before.”
Fear raced through Eric’s body when he realized Paresh wasn’t wearing the cross. It flared into his aura and prompted a rare chuckle from Jonathan.
“I do what Lucien orders, you know that,” Jonathan said, petting Paresh’s head softly. “We all do, for he acts only in the interest of furthering the Vampiric Nation. If you would ever return with me, you would learn that firsthand.”
“I don’t give a damn about the Vampiric Nation! What does the High Council want with her?” Eric demanded.
Jonathan gave a flippant wave of his hand. “I am merely their eyes. I have been ordered to observe and not interfere with the plan in motion.”
“What plan?” Eric stood over him, watching curiously, as Jonathan stroked Paresh’s hair.
Jonathan offered a sly smile and wagged his finger at him. “If I told you that, I’d be interfering. Believe me, it’s nothing you can’t handle.”
Following a heavy sigh and long pause, Eric quietly replied, “This may be just another game to you, but she means more to me than you could possibly understand—more than I even thought possible. Give me real answers and I promise to return with you after she is safe.”
“So you would pay your debt to me in exchange for a favor?” Jonathan half laughed, but looked down at Paresh with thoughtful eyes. “Their interest encompasses both of you, actually. Time allows them to observe you—that’s why they haven’t demanded your presence or sent the hunters after you. But time passes for her so they had to interfere. I had strict orders to make her life as ordinary as possible and not to influence her normal human development. David would have killed her, too, if not for my intervention. I put her into the care of a motherly trustee—”
“Lydia. You massacred Paresh’s photos to erase her existence,” Eric muttered. The FBI would find no trace of the governess. Vampire masters protected their servants before altering them in exchange for their devotion. As Eric had learned, living comfortably within the Realm of Man necessitated human assistance. He’d never used official trustees, choosing instead to handpick trustworthy assistants with good hearts, such as Molly, who had no desire to join the ranks of the eternal.
“Consider it a scientific experiment. I provided a safe and controlled environment for her to grow—”
“Under lock and key with her uncle plotting her death?” Eric interrupted, dragging Jonathan from the bed.
“She never knew that!” Jonathan growled. “Do I really need to remind you who actually saved her life? Because I don’t recall seeing you there.”
Eric let him go and watched with sullen eyes as Jonathan returned to his seat and resituated his jacket. Leaning against a bedpost, Eric reluctantly admitted, “I came to terms with my failure years ago, Brother, but... I am thankful that you kept her safe when I couldn’t.”
Jonathan resumed stroking Paresh’s hair. “I had nothing to do with the plot to kill her parents. That was David’s revenge—planned long before I received my orders. I knew she would survive the crash. He only took her because I manipulated him into believing she was special, in a different way. I am the sole reason she is still alive.”
Eric was silent, his wounds and grief reopened. He hadn’t thought it possible to hate David even more. “How is Simon connected to David and how deeply is he involved?”
“Simon is an isolated pawn. David found him homeless, sniveling, and drunk in an alley years before he sent him here. His powers of persuasion and manipulation are rather admirable for a human I must say—just ask the man who died in that crash.” A glimmer of darkness flashed in Jonathan’s eyes.
Eric clenched his jaw and returned a look of warning. Jonathan held his hand up in concession. “Simon is merely an informant and is wholly insignificant.” Jonathan sighed. “I have not enjoyed this assignment—too much human interaction for my taste—and I had to live with women. Do you have any idea what that is like? Human women?” He flicked his eyes toward the ceiling and sighed again. “Of course you do. Well, I must say that I’m rather surprised you allowed that one to get so close to the family in the first place. Simon is not of the flock.”
“Not all who have fallen from the flock are bad people,” Eric said. “But, regardless of his ignorance, Simon must have suspected the crash was no accident, yet he stood by in silence. I will deal with him in time.”
“Ah yes. You will ‘deal’ with him.” Jonathan snorted. “I s
uppose you will throw him to that police chief you tote around instead of devouring him like a wolf. Pitiful.”
“Don’t judge me too quickly. I live in their world and play by their rules, but I am not one of them. I don’t know what I will do.”
A slight smile turned up Jonathan’s lips. He glanced away without commenting. After a few seconds, he looked up and grinned. “Do you see what she does to me? If I didn’t know better, I’d say I feel love when I’m in her presence.”
“That’s not possible. Only those in the grace of God can feel love.” Eric was supposedly the only vampiric exception, but he had rarely seen Jonathan in a good mood and never like this. Paresh’s essence seemed to affect him greatly.
“Hmmm, we watched a movie together every week,” Jonathan said. “She likes monster movies, particularly the black and white films from early last century. You know the ones, Béla Lugosi and the lot. She adores him by the way, and wrote a report on his life for Lydia years ago.”
Jonathan’s smile grew, revealing elongated canines that never completely receded and were one of few ways to differentiate between true bloods and altered vampires. “She has a special affinity for vampire flicks. And the real thing, apparently.”
To imagine Jonathan living such a normal life, sitting in a movie theater watching vampire fiction surrounded by humans, was inconceivable. Eric stared at him as though he had never seen him before. He was rarely this chatty and never this casual. Jonathan did not reminisce, he was never pleasant, and he would never caress a woman—human or vampire.
Wiping away his dubious expression, Eric decided to test Jonathan’s generosity. “Why did the High Council order you to take her?”
Jonathan glanced at Eric with deliberate eyes and clasped his hands in his lap. “They believe the prophecy may be coming true.”
Eric went rigid. That was not the reason he had expected. If the High Council truly suspected Paresh as their fabled savior, the Servator, they would not allow any harm to come to her.
Jonathan rose from the bed and stood beside Eric. They watched Paresh sleep in silence.
Eventually, Jonathan quipped, “What is that saying? A dead man tells no tales? Well here’s a truth—she would have died here with or without her uncle’s assistance. She was changing slowly over time and would have stopped aging. The High Council banned child vampires long ago. There were two orders on the table. Kill her or intervene.”
Swallowing the new lump forming in his throat, Eric said, “Don’t play the role of saint as though it excuses what you’ve done. You could have told me.” Eric glared at Jonathan trying hard not to let his own guilt eat at him. He had started all of this the night she was born, and Andrew had died because of it. “What does David have planned?”
Jonathan tilted his head back and shot Eric a furtive look. “He believes that he can become a vampire if he bleeds her to death and drinks her blood, which will therefore grant him enough power to complete his revenge by killing you.”
“And why does David believe that absurd idea?”
“I told you already. Humans are easy to manipulate, especially when they are unstable. He’s hardly traveling the road of the real world and believes everything I tell him. He had already figured out that you were involved in her ‘miracle birth,’ so I built on that and voilà! I told him that the combination of her faith-based delivery and the blood of a demon created a potent mixture not meant for this world. And that since your blood mixed with hers, only those in her bloodline were affected, leaving one, lone, person to tap into that power.” He stretched out the last sentence with a dark grin and waved his hand flippantly. “So I have an overactive imagination. I had to have a bit of fun with that one. He has no idea how it really works and it’s no less believable than the fact that you and I actually exist. It worked to get him to entertain the idea of keeping her alive. His lust for revenge and money took care of the rest.”
Eric held back an incredulous laugh. Even he sometimes had trouble believing human gullibility. “That’s so ridiculous. How does he expect to accomplish this or get the estate? There’s no way I would allow any of it to happen.”
“Truth really doesn’t matter when dealing with a madman. All I needed was tangibility. I have no interest in his financial affairs. Besides, I doubt that’s really his main objective. I don’t have to tell you he’s a sick man, though I suppose saying so means a lot coming from someone such as myself.” Jonathan gave another dismissive wave of his hand and began pacing between the bed and the door. “I only use him as a puppet because I must. She is off limits to me—to you, as well. I cannot believe that you, especially, bit a member of the flock. I thought she’d be safe with you.”
“That’s no longer your concern, is it?” Eric’s guilt stole the edge from his words, so he cleared his throat and returned the focus to David. “I suppose it doesn’t matter to him that he’s wanted by the federal government for kidnapping her? Not to mention the fact that he murdered her parents and premeditated her death, or that I’ll kill him the moment I see him. He hasn’t forgotten that, has he?”
“You truly aren’t as human as you pretend to be, Brother. If you saw life though our eyes more often, you’d be enlightened.” Jonathan stood at the window. “David has no idea how powerful you are. Why do you make me repeat myself so much? It’s really nothing you can’t handle. Besides, he is not of the flock. Do with him what you want. I have orders not to interfere.”
“She said only you could take her from the gated community—you kept her shielded from view, so no one could see her, which means David knows what you are.”
“Of course he does,” Jonathan said with a smirk. “After watching you slave away as his brother’s ‘guardian,’ David knew exactly what I was when he met me. He’s honestly thought all this time that he’s had control over me.”
Jonathan laughed. “If that were true, she never would have left the house. I couldn’t expect her to develop normally living in a cage. I ‘convinced’ him to let me take her out. The risks were low since there are so terribly few humans that I cannot influence. You know this, just as well as I.” Jonathan untied the crimson bow at his nape and threaded his fingers through his long copper hair.
“Why does he trust you so much?” Eric asked suspiciously.
“All David ever wanted is what his brother had... which makes two of us, I suppose, since he had you,” Jonathan said softly with an insinuative glance. Before Eric could respond, Jonathan faced the window again. “Yes, yes, I know. Andrew was platonic. How could I possibly forget?”
“Do we really need to argue about this? You know quite well that I don’t—”
“David willingly invited me into his circle,” Jonathan interrupted, his tone growing sarcastic as he gathered his hair and yanked the ribbon into a tight knot. “Happy to have a vampire to call his very own.” He made a disgusted noise. “As if he has any clue as to just who I am.”
He huffed. “Anyway, assuming control from that point was quite effortless. He may have wanted your sole attention then, but now David blames you for destroying his life and wants you dead.”
Jonathan turned and stared at him, wearing a smug expression. “Well. I’ve told you quite a bit tonight. Don’t be fooled. I’m only feeling generous because of her effect. This has nothing to do with your attempt to bargain for information. As tempted as I am to accept your offer, I have my orders. That’s not how the elders want you, but know that when they want you, you will go... or the Shadow Hounds will drag you in.”
Chapter Nine: The Vampiric High Council of Elders
Snowblood Square, Arc of True Blood,
Treuter Mountains
J une in the Arctic Circle meant the sun barely rose higher than thirty degrees and never set. Another month and a half would pass before dusk would touch the island and even longer before night would fall. Even though the arctic desert teemed with life—sea birds, seals, polar bears, and roaming herds of muskoxen—all attempts at human settlement had faile
d due to harsh winds and subzero temperatures, which made Devon Island the ideal location for the High Council’s chambers.
In recent years, scientists had begun researching the Haughton Impact Crater, formed over twenty million years ago. The environment mimicked that of Mars, so the summer months were quite active with experiments. Additionally, adventurers viewed the Truelove River and the coasts, the Jones Sound, and the Svedrup Glacier on island treks. The High Council only tolerated the increased human activity because the island always quieted by winter.
All of the domes, from the Arc of True Blood to the Arc of Ebony Stars in Siberia, sat within the Arctic Circle, hidden away by cloaking technologies far beyond the human mind. The Arc of True Blood had been built around the time Leif Eriksson settled L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, and in the thousand years that had passed, no elder had left its sanctity. They determined the fate of the Nation and the death of even one could throw the race into chaos. Only true bloods selected for service or the few held in high esteem by the elders could live there.
Such prestige made the arc a sought after vacation spot. The elders granted permits to true bloods for Winter Solitude, an annual festival that celebrated ninety days of darkness over their capitol. The normally opaque walls would fade to crystal to display haunting ribbons of the aurora borealis and a blanket of shining stars that made the ice and snow shine.
The High Council generally denied access to anyone of human origin, but the arch elder had a special interest in Eric. The other elders had not known of Eric’s existence until Jonathan told the arch elder about Paresh’s birth. Given the ramifications, his master had convened the full panel—who, upon hearing Jonathan’s report, were angered to learn that secrets had been kept from them for well over a century. However, time constraints forced their attention from Eric to the more pressing issue of Paresh. By the meeting’s end, as usual, Jonathan’s orders had come from the arch elder, the only man he reported to and obeyed.
The Arrival (Children of the Morning Star Book 1) Page 14