The Arrival (Children of the Morning Star Book 1)

by Kastie Pavlik

  He slid his key into the lock and opened the door for Paresh. He closed the door behind them and grabbed hold of her waist, pulling her close for a lingering, loving kiss. Lifting his lips with some reluctance, he said, “You haven’t eaten much. I know it’s been a long day, but how about if you and Molly grab a bite? I’d like to go for a run in the woods.”

  Paresh absently traced a button of his shirt with her finger. “I’ll be fine here while you’re out.” She sounded exhausted. “It’s getting late and I’m not really that hungry.”

  “I didn’t think you’d want to be alone, so I called her when I ran back to the car. She’s already on her way. If you really don’t want to go, I’ll call her back. I don’t want you to feel like she’s babysitting you.”

  Resting her palm against his chest, Paresh sighed. “I don’t feel that way. I know you’re worried about me. Besides, I’m used to having people around. It’s fine, really. I like Molly,” she said. “To be honest, you’re probably right. I would be a bit jumpy here alone. Especially with Jonathan and my uncle out there.” She leaned back in his arms and shuddered involuntarily as she glanced at the window.

  Alarm prickled at Eric’s neck until he realized she had meant that generally. He slid his hand beneath her cross and smoothed his thumb over it. “Don’t take this off and you’ll be fine as far as Jonathan’s concerned, and don’t worry about the rest. Maybe getting out of here to a public place with Molly will help take your mind off of everything.” He dropped the holy trinket.

  Nodding in agreement, she covered the cross with her hand and turned away toward the hall. “It’s cooled off a bit outside. I’m going to put on something warmer.”

  Fighting the urge to follow her, Eric took his satchel into the bathroom to remove his contacts and change. Afterward, as he sat on the hearth and laced his shoes, he heard Molly’s car pull up by the carriage house and Paresh returned wearing jeans and a lightweight, pale blue sweater. Her eyes swept over his simple black t-shirt and track pants with a soft, appreciative gaze.

  As he stood, she approached and slid delicate fingers over his abdomen, tracing the muscle beneath the cotton. Focused solely on her movements, she missed the intensity behind his glasses burning hotter with each subtle caress. The stronger her attraction grew, the more intoxicating her aura became.

  Closing his eyes in the face of fraying control, he rubbed his hands along her arms, breathing slowly and deliberately. The air between them never moved, and yet her lips were against his in an instant, warm and soft, and stealing away his will power.

  He was silently grateful for Molly’s timing when she knocked. He was on the verge of losing himself in Paresh and forgetting about Jonathan. He pressed his mouth against hers once more. With a seductive smile, he whispered, “Perhaps later we can see where this leads us.”

  With pink tinged cheeks, Paresh turned away to answer the door. Eric followed and greeted Molly with thanks for coming to his aid yet again. He walked them to her car and told Molly to call his cell phone on the way back.

  When her car disappeared beyond his sight, he turned and contemplated the clearing, feeling for Jonathan’s presence. The sun had descended behind the trees, staining the deepening blue sky above the canopy a shade of deep persimmon. Like boats sailing calm waters along the path of the sinking sun, the clouds, with fiery hot magenta peaks and rich indigo valleys, had crept to hang directly overhead. An embedded silhouette, Sunset Grove’s shadowy core was darker than the deepest coal.

  The familiar prickle strengthened as he faced south. He set off in a paced jog, rounding the cottage and crossing several hundred yards to the tree line. He ran onto the worn path, his eyes automatically adjusting to the dimmed surroundings. Jogging through the woods was a frequent release he enjoyed, particularly at night. But not this night. Not when it ended with Jonathan.

  The surrounding twilight held no sound except for the thud of his feet pounding the dirt. Still, he knew Jonathan was there, ahead of him, lurking and waiting in the unnatural silence. His presence was far too obvious to ignore and the menacing essence grew thicker the farther south he ran. Eric cautiously scrutinized the open area ahead of him before entering the mammoth silver maple’s clearing.

  The instant he stepped off the path, his body tensed in alarm. Drenched with hostility, the air assailed his senses, attacking him before he could erect a protective barrier with his aura. He stumbled away, back into the woods, to escape its grasp.

  Jonathan had dealt the first blow and destroyed Eric’s final thread of patience, releasing fury-filled adrenaline. It surged throughout his body, overloading his senses and thrusting him into a raging bloodlust.

  His body morphed into his inhuman alter ego—the hunter with razor sharp, dagger-like nails, ferocious fangs, and heightened night vision that tainted everything the shade of blood. The insurmountable pressure pushing his teeth drove him to salivate like a starving wild beast. His dilated pupils became deep pools of black death edged by a sliver of icy blue and veins so swollen no white remained. They darted quickly over the area, searching for his elusive assailant.

  He clenched his fists so tightly he drove his nails into his palms and spilled blood onto the dirt. He issued a guttural growl into the clearing. His aura strengthened with violent intensity, spewing forth an invisible miasma that enveloped him like a sheath, capable of not only defending against Jonathan’s venomous essence, but also penetrating it to attack on its own.

  His eyes snapped up as Jonathan emerged from the other side of the clearing looking similarly monstrous and bearing his fangs. Jonathan wasn’t wearing either of his pins. Breathing heavily with a weighted pit in his chest, Eric kicked off his shoes and reentered the clearing.

  “This is what I’ve wanted to see,” Jonathan smirked. He briefly flinched as Eric’s powerful emanation struck him. “Impressive.”

  With a snarling war cry, Eric lunged across the field, hands and fingers extended like the claws of an eagle swooping down on his prey. However, his target had talons of his own and a temper to match. Malice filled Jonathan’s face as he mimicked Eric’s motions, darting toward him with deadly intent. At the moment of impact, their gnarled hands bore straight down, slicing through skin and muscle as they penetrated each other’s shoulders.

  Both grimaced through the searing pain, yet neither withdrew. They dug further, driven by their anger and the natural urge to maim. Deadlocked, they glared at each other, snarling and growling like the animals they had become. The negative energy they ejected fused with the air and created a potent mixture capable of driving a human insane with one breath.

  Eric twisted to the side and brought his bare foot forcefully down on Jonathan’s knee, kicking it back to knock him off balance. Jonathan staggered away, his fist lashing out at Eric’s jaw and landing with enough force to make him take a few steps back. They circled and regarded each other warily, each waiting for the other to strike next.

  “What the hell do you want, Jonathan?” Eric growled in an unearthly voice that barely resembled his own. They both glistened with sticky moisture and the scent of freshly spilt blood hung thickly around them, driving their thirst closer to the beast’s territory.

  “I’ve been ordered to bring you in.” Jonathan spat the grim response, but did not make a move toward Eric. Instead, Eric saw him struggling to contain himself, backing away from that pivotal point where he would turn into the instinctual killing machine of days long past.

  “That’s not going to happen.” Eric lowered his face and shot a challenging look over the rim of his glasses. The hunter’s eyes saw everything in varying hues of crimson, spurring an inhuman desire for bloodshed. The same yearning reflected back to him in his brother’s eyes.

  Suddenly Jonathan lunged at him with a funereal yell, slamming his fists into Eric’s body as he drove him back against the tree. He impaled Eric’s chest with his fingers, narrowly missing his heart as his nails extended, and held him pinned against the aged bark with a surge of stre
ngth. “I do not want to kill you,” Jonathan seethed, his face less than an inch away.

  Fire burned his chest, but Eric remained defiant. Blood filled his lungs, bubbled up his throat, and oozed from his mouth as a steady stream of scarlet. He grabbed Jonathan’s arms with a clasp so tight it would snap human bones, and slowly pulled the flesh and bone weapons out of his body. “That’s good, because you can’t.”

  With a hateful sneer, Jonathan scoffed. “Do not delude yourself with false securities. The conditions of the treaty only apply to the hunter within us. That apotrope around your neck will not protect you from the beast’s rage and neither will He. Lucien has requested your presence at any cost. If you push me over that edge, I’ll forfeit my soul and tear you into pieces for the VaSH to pick up and reassemble before him. That is a testament to the Vampiric Nation’s loyalty.”

  “Ah! So you took your pins off to forsake your allegiance. Do you really think that will prevent your actions from putting your whole race at risk?” Smugly calm and deliberately provoking, Eric laughed. “How do you suppose Lucien will feel when he must behead you for killing a member of the flock? Will he feel anything at all... even then?”

  As his words visibly bit at Jonathan, Eric’s lips curled into a dark snarl. “Consider this a battle to the death that you can’t win. Either I kill you, or you kill me and Lucien kills you.”

  Eric laughed, an evil sound that resounded off the trees. “Guess that means I win.”

  Jonathan’s face contorted with fury and malice, but his eyes betrayed an underlying misery. “Do you think he gives such an order lightly? Lucien has deemed you worthy of my life. Even if you defeat me, others will come. He’ll send all of the VaSH squadrons after you if necessary. Come with me, now!”

  “So that is how he rewards such fierce loyalty to his lifelong companion? And you expect me to believe the VaSH are strong enough to win where you, their championed Second Born, has failed?” Eric asked in an icy voice. The wounds in his chest had closed and the blood streaming from his mouth had tapered to a trickle. “You picked the wrong day to do this. I’m not going anywhere with you. Or them. What about her?”

  Jonathan pressed more weight into his attack. His arms began to slide through Eric’s grasp toward his chest once more. With discernible effort, Eric pulled Jonathan’s arms out to the sides and let go. Jonathan plunged furiously into the wood and Eric kicked his legs out and slid down in freefall, slivers of bark splintering off into his back. He caught his feet and shouldered Jonathan’s abdomen, and then kicked off the tree with all his might.

  They crashed into the ground yards away. The force of Eric’s momentum knocked the wind from Jonathan. He gasped for breath as Eric rolled off and got to his feet. With air returning to his lungs, Jonathan jumped up and retorted angrily, “She is no longer worthy of their concern.”

  “I’m not going with you when David is on his way to kill her!” Careful not to break eye contact, Eric shook his head and demanded through his teeth, “Why now?”

  Once again, Jonathan lunged at him, piercing through Eric’s shoulders as he drove him back, screaming, “Because those are my orders!” His mouth clamped down on Eric’s throat, his teeth violently tearing into his skin. The savage move caught Eric off guard. His head cracked against the maple’s rigid bark with a sickening sound.

  Even with the intent to kill, the bite's effect was euphoric. Eric exhaled involuntary pleasure, temporarily helpless as he battled within himself for control while Jonathan drained away his life force.

  He heard distant ringing. His cell phone. Molly and Paresh had not stayed away as long as he had hoped. He desperately focused on the sound and wrenched Jonathan’s head to the side, ripping him free of his neck with a spray of blood that splattered the side of Jonathan’s face and left a gaping hole in wake of his attack. Weakened and dizzy, Eric clawed at Jonathan’s throat, slippery with blood, and barely held his second attack at bay.

  The ringing stopped.

  Jonathan’s tongue slowly slid along his garnet stained lips as he peered at Eric with intense, smug eyes. “I have waited so long to taste you again,” he whispered with a seductive sneer. “And her blood makes it even sweeter.”

  Without a word, Eric let go and furiously charged forward with a forceful head-butt that sent Jonathan reeling backward. As he advanced in pursuit, he felt the wound in his neck, glancing briefly at the blood dripping from his fingers after he pulled them away.

  He grabbed Jonathan’s throat with one hand and punched him with the other, his cheekbone absorbing enough energy to shatter steel. The powerful blow left a dent in Jonathan’s face and crushed Eric’s knuckles. “I warned you that if you ever did that again, I’d break your teeth off! Do you think they’ll grow back?” Eric growled in disgust, shoving Jonathan to the ground. “What the hell has gotten into you?”

  With barely enough energy to stand, Eric ignored the pain radiating from his hand. The injury had already begun to repair itself, though at a slower pace due to his depleted state. He staggered back a few steps in case Jonathan decided to lunge again.

  Jonathan’s facial structure had also started to regenerate, but he remained unresponsive. He seemed oddly stunned, similar to a drugged human, as he lay sprawled on the grass.

  Jonathan sat up and rested an outstretched arm over his knee, shaking his head in a daze as though trying to get his bearing. Keeping a wary eye on him, Eric pulled out his phone and called Molly.

  Straining to level his voice when she answered, he instructed, “Turn away from Paresh now so she can’t see your face. I’ve hit a slight snag. Tell her I got farther away than I intended and I’ll be back soon. Stay inside with the doors and windows closed and locked, but don’t alarm her. Understand?” He didn’t wait for confirmation before sliding the phone back into his pocket.

  Facing Jonathan in exasperation, Eric pointed to the north. “She is your savior! Why are they throwing her away?”

  Jonathan’s eyes were vacant as he stared ahead and answered in a breathless voice, “Ours. She is our savior—you forget what you are. No one argues with Lucien, not even me. I will not question his decision. He wants you.”

  “I never forget what I am. You seem to forget that I am not like you.” Eric glared at Jonathan for several long moments before sighing in frustration. “I have never done anything to warrant Lucien’s attention. The fact that I gave her life means nothing. It’s no different from what you did when you altered me.”

  Jonathan shot him an annoyed look. “You don’t think that was special? The very fact that you exist warrants his attention. I created you. You have a soul. You can feel love. You live a successful life in the Realm of Man, among them.” He waved off in the direction of town.

  “Do you really think those humans don’t know what you are? How many of them knew you when you reared Daniel? When you went to law school with Andrew? When you rallied every one of them to search this forest looking for her? Some of them may even remember you from Joshua’s days.

  “They wonder. They suspect. They know. They accept you and say nothing. You are what the true bloods have desired to be for nearly two thousand years. How is that not special? You’re a vampire, but you’re a member of the flock. An outstanding achievement.”

  “It’s not as great as you may think, Jonathan. I hear their whispers, what they say. Sure, most have no ill will toward me, but I have a steady stream of people marching into my office asking questions they have no right to ask. I may not care much about your laws, but I do care about exposure, and even though I have yet to meet a human I can’t handle, I know my days in the public eye at the firm are quickly expiring. If Andrew hadn’t desired to keep a low profile, I never could have been this successful.

  “And you know I constantly battle my emotions. You talk about how great it is when all you want is to exploit it and destroy the part of me that won’t conform to your ideals. The human I was before has never been able to meld with the vampire you created. For the longest
time I didn’t care which side won, as long as I wasn’t in constant turmoil. Well, I’m finally at peace and she made it happen. Cry heresy if you want, but Lucien is wrong.”

  At a loss for a response, Jonathan shrugged. Pangs of compassion tugged at Eric’s heart. Even though love eluded him, Jonathan did feel betrayal and Lucien’s cold orders had obviously struck through his chest like a sword. He and Eric had shared a stormy and at times lurid history, but like a human family, they shared an eternal bond by blood. Eric could not ignore that.

  His patience began to return as he contemplated Jonathan and shook his head. He sat across from him with his legs outstretched and leaned back on his palms. “I don’t understand you. Why would you just throw your life away, fighting me, because of his orders? Surely, any threat I pose doesn’t warrant such a sacrifice. Why not just send the hunters after me in the first place?”

  “You see us as cold-hearted creatures that care only for ourselves. Perhaps that is mostly true, but you do not understand the nature of my existence. I would do anything Lucien asked of me.” Jonathan blew the breath from his lungs and stared at the sky. For a time, he was quiet.

  Jonathan’s impassive gaze fell upon Eric as their bodies slowly began to resemble humans rather than bloodthirsty demons and the negative energy surrounding them diffused. Finally, Jonathan said, “I needed to know what you are capable of.” He wiped his face with the back of his hand and eyed the smear Eric’s blood left on his skin as though the substance was foreign to him.

  With his vision returning to its normal nighttime acuity, Eric shook his head once more and made a slight, perturbed noise as he looked down the trail. “Let me deal with David and ensure her safety. Then I’ll go willingly, I promise. If they can’t wait for that, then send the damn VaSH hunters. Fighting will get us nowhere but dead, and I’ll feel less guilty killing them.” He stood, ripped off his shredded t-shirt, and tossed it at Jonathan. “Get rid of that for me. And don’t you dare ever bite me again.”