* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Mathew sat with his sunglasses on out on the patio. The rising sun and the hot tea were calming him down.
He was all stirred up, and he didn't know why.
Was it that impending feeling of doom?
Or was it the fact that going into the mistress’s quarters pulled something from him.
The lust was getting harder and harder to ignore.
Yes, he wanted her.
And he was ashamed. The masters trusted him, and that meant that he needed to fight that feeling.
It just wasn’t easy.
Even now, he longed to taste her. Mathew wondered what her blood would feel like pouring over his tongue.
Would it be spicy?
Sweet?
Heavenly?
Or would it send him right to the deepest pit of hell?
He tried to shake the visions forming in his head because he knew better.
This was wrong.
Instead, Mathew focused on the sun cresting over the trees. It astounded him. Something so beautiful was so very dangerous.
Yeah, just like his mistress.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Jolie was floating in the blackness when all of the sudden, the darkness shifted and images shimmered around her. She was afraid, fearing that there would be one more trip down Goethe’s memory lane, but instead, she was walking through their rental home at dawn.
Okay, this was new.
As she looked around, there was a presence near. The tug on her hand drew her attention. At her side was the blonde cherub with green eyes.
“Hello,” said Jolie, as she continued walking through the house.
“Bonjour, Jolie. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Am I dreaming?” asked Jolie, as she approached the first door.
“Yeah, you might call it that, I guess.”
Jolie was getting that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. There were waves of blackness flowing off the messenger. That was something she never felt before from the child.
She warily followed her to the door before it was opened.
“Belle, why are you here? Did our mistress send you to give me a message?”
“You might say that,” she offered.
“What is it? I’m ready.”
“Jolie, I’m sorry for all of this. Please don’t take this personal. Your time is just up.”
“What are you talking about, Belle?”
She motioned toward the first door.
Jolie pushed it open and was horrified by what she saw. In the bed were Clariel and Trina. They were covered in blood. In fact, they were dead. Clariel was staked and Trina was decapitated.
“Oh, my God! What has happened here?”
“Jolie, it’s not a dream,” Belle said helplessly
“Belle, what do you mean it is not a dream?” she asked, running toward Clariel to check on her.
Trina was definitely dead, but Clariel wasn’t quite staked through the heart. She might still have a chance is she moved fast. “This has to be a nightmare!”
“You’re resting in your bed, and this is happening right now. This isn't a dream. It’s real time.”
“You have to be lying!”
“I’m sorry, Jolie.”
She ran from the room, heading toward her mates. If their vampyres were dead, she feared for the men she loved.
Once there, the visual chilled her.
She was indeed still in bed with Jacques and Flynn, but they weren’t alone. Above them was a dark haired woman, hacking at them with a large knife.
It made her sick.
Rage rose in her, but she was helpless to stop it. Most of the intruder’s anger was directly focused on Flynn. He was withstanding the blows in an effort to cover her’s and Jacques’s bodies with his own.
Jolie knew the truth.
Without him acting as a shield, they would be dead. The sickening sound of knife hitting bone and flesh reverberated through the room. Flynn’s blood seeped down the white silk sheets in sick patterns as he fought to keep Jolie alive and under his now battered body.
“Belle, help me! You have to let me save us, please!”
“I can’t. Death has called in their number, and soon Vanth will appear. You’re going to live, Jolie, but they’re not.”
“No! Please help me! It can’t end this way! I can’t watch them die! Take me instead!” she begged.
Then it all began changing.
She was losing that vision to the darkness.
“NO!” she screamed as she was plunged back into the sleep of her people.
Jolie’s last thought was that she’d failed.
Them.
Her family.
Herself.
This was the end.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Mathew knew something was off.
The hallway to his room reeked of copper pennies. While he knew the masters and mistress had been sharing blood, he shouldn’t be able to smell it out here.
That worried him.
Then he heard the gun shot and knew the truth.
He needed to move fast.
Kicking in the door, which led to his mistress’s and masters’ quarters, he was forced to see the worst sight in his life. There stood a woman hacking at the detective as he lay over his mates.
The crazed human was struggling to pull the gun from Flynn’s bloody hand to finish him off.
If she got it, he was dead.
Mathew couldn’t wait. His fangs and claws appeared, and he sprang into action. It was time to protect the people who saved him.
He needed to save her.
At his hiss, the woman turned toward him. When she lifted the gun, firing once into his chest to stop his attack, it didn't deter him. Instead, he slammed into her, riding her body to the ground.
Once there, he began fiercely tearing at her flesh with his claws and fangs. Ignoring her screams of pain, he ended her life. When she stopped moving, Mathew called for Chloe.
“Mathew,” came Flynn’s voice.
He hesitantly moved toward the side of the bed. Mathew was afraid of what he was going to see. When he got there, he was right.
It sickened him.
“Save her,” Flynn begged through a gurgling voice, as he struggled to roll off Jolie’s body.
Mathew wanted to weep. It was evident that his master had taken the brunt of the attack. His naked body was cut, sliced, hacked, and bleeding.
“Is she dead?” he asked, closing his eyes. Flynn prayed he’d saved her and Jacques. If he had to die for them to live, he’d make that sacrifice.
Mathew wasn’t sure.
“Master, don’t move. You’re a mess,” he stated, waiting for Chloe to arrive. She’d know what to do. He was scared shitless.
“How bad?” he asked, trying not to move.
Mathew scanned his body. His back and shoulders were a destroyed, bone showed through flesh. It was obvious that he was trying to heal, but chunks of skin and meat hung from the wounds. Had Flynn been more human, and less them, he’d be dead. “It’s bad, Master,” he admitted.
Mathew glanced over his shoulder at the footfalls.
“Oh God, Detective!” shrieked Mina, as she took in the bloodbath and the damage done to his body.
“We have to wake Jolie, She’s the only one who can help us save him,” said Mathew softly.
Mina placed her hands on Jolie, shoving every ounce of energy into her body. At first she doubted it worked, and then Jolie sat up claws out, as if ready for a battle.
“Flynn,” she hissed rolling to her knees.
He stared at her with dying eyes. “Jolie,” he mouthed, barely hearing his own voice. “I love you.”
Her heart skipped. She’d seen firsthand in her dream how the woman had kept hacking away at him. When a wound would close, she’d get mad and open a new one in anger.
“She used silver too,” Jolie said, noticing that some of the w
ounds wouldn’t heal.
“She was trying to get to you and Jacques,” Mathew said. “Master Flynn wouldn’t let her.”
Jolie was well aware.
“Help me get him off the bed,” she said, pointing at the three people in the room.
“Jolie, we have to hurry. Death is calling,” said Chloe, her eyes beginning to swirl.
“No, Vanth, you can’t have him.”
Jolie wasn’t giving up.
“Flynn’s lost a lot of blood. We have to replace it.”
There was so much anger. Mostly over having to watch him be hurt, but the insult was there over how they had a human in their home, and how Death was trying to steal her soul away. At that moment, she would have willingly changed places with him to take this pain and memory away.
“Mathew, wake Jacques. I’ll take care of Flynn.”
Jolie dropped to the floor so she could be face to face with her mate. Their noses were almost touching. She delicately wiped the blood from his cheek as she pushed his sticky hair from his face. “Oh, Flynn,” she whispered, wanting to cry. She was barely able to recognize his body--it was horribly damaged.
It was all because of her.
“Jolie, I…” He clutched her hand, squeezing as if it were his lifeline. “I’m glad you’re safe. I can rest now.”
“No! You can’t,” she hissed. “You aren’t allowed to go. Shhhh… I’m here, so we’ll be fine, but you have to stay focused on me!”
“Blood,” he whispered. “I need blood. I think I’m dying, Jolie. Everything is black, and I can see…” His words were cut off as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Jolie wanted to weep.
She heard the angry hiss from her mate as he sat up in their bloody bed. “What has happened?” he demanded, looking around.
“Jacques, Flynn is really bad.” She told him everything that had happened, and how their mate sacrificed himself for them.
Jacques moved into action. “He needs blood, and a great deal of it. We must feed, and fast,” he said, coming to her side.
Vanth stepped forward, holding out her hands, feeding both at the same time. Her eyes never left their prone mate. “I can’t hold it off forever, so do what you can,” she stated. Vanth knew it would break her heart to take Flynn, but it was out of her hands now.
Jolie called to her wounded mate, and his eyelids fluttered open at her voice. “Flynn, my love, I need you to feed.”
He waited, mouth open, fangs out, and needing her to move closer. When Jolie lowered herself to be right beside him, Flynn pulled her to his wounded torso and feasted.
He gulped.
Chugged.
And ravenously ate.
Jolie stroked his wounded back as she was locked to his body. “It’s okay, Flynn. You’re not dying on me.”
She wouldn’t let him go.
Slowly, Flynn released her.
“Thank you,” he whispered, closing his eyes.
Jolie glanced up at Jacques. “He needs more blood.”
Immediately, he dropped down beside his mate. “Flynn. You have to drink more. She nearly emptied you.” He wanted to be sick at those words, but the evidence was all over their bedroom and bodies.
Their detective had bled for them.
He opened his eyes. His fangs were gone. “So tired,” he whispered. “Can’t.”
Jolie wanted to panic.
Jacques pulled their mate into his arms and cradled him against his chest. “Look at me!” he ordered.
Flynn submitted. The compulsion was too strong to disobey.
“Feed.”
His body on autopilot, Flynn buried his fangs in Jacques’s throat. He held on to his shoulders as he devoured.
Jolie watched some of the wounds beginning to heal on Flynn’s body. Hers and Jacques’s were already dissipating.
Vanth’s energy had taken care of that.
Turning, she faced the younger vampyre. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes, Mistress.”
Jolie knew there was more death to deal with. She’d seen the dead vampyres in her dreams. “I have to check on Clariel and Trina.”
Flynn kept feeding.
“I’ll keep an eye on our detective,” Jacques stated, still holding their mate to him.
“Thank you.”
As she left the room, Jolie knew Clariel was already awake. She could hear the woman’s sobs. When she opened the door to their room, she found Clariel sitting on the bed and holding Trina’s dead, headless body.
She wailed for Mina.
“Clariel?” Jolie whispered, drawing her attention as she moved toward her tentatively.
Clariel turned her head as Jolie approach. “Someone has killed Trina. She’s gone.”
Jolie noticed the stake was out of Clariel’s body, and her wound was healing. They were lucky both women didn't die.
This was a small miracle.
Jolie wrapped her arms around the two women. One was mourning, the other was beginning to decay as she turned to ash.
Trina was beyond saving.
“I lost my mate,” she whispered over and over again.
“Come to my room,” she stated, trying to remove the vampyre from the gruesome scene.
“No! Trina needs me. I can’t leave her to look like this. She’d want to be pretty.”
Jolie knew that didn't matter now. Trina was only going to look less and less like her as time passed. In an hour, she’d be completely gone.
“You can’t, little one. She’s left us for now. You have to come with me.”
Finally, Clariel released her dead mate. “I love you,” she whispered. “We went through so much, and I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
Jolie’s eyes filled with tears, and she fought to stay composed.
“I don’t know how I’ll make it now.”
Jolie led her away. Once in her room, she called to the other vampyre. “Mathew, please get your mattress. Today, we’re all bunking down in here. I won’t let you out of our sight until we’re home.”
He did what she asked.
Jacques was still holding their mate, but he was staring up at her. “Trina’s dead?”
Jolie nodded.
Mathew returned lugging the mattress. When he rested it in the far corner, he waited to see what his mistress wanted next.
Clariel saw Mathew and went to him. She curled around his body like a wounded animal, and he soothed her by rocking her in his arms. “It’s okay, Clari. It’s okay.”
She sobbed harder.
Jolie helped Jacques move their mate. Mina had stripped the blood stained sheets and placed some thick soft blankets down in their place.
Once on the bed, Flynn opened his eyes.
“Trina is dead?” he asked, having difficult time breathing as tears filled his eyes. He really had a fondness for her, and now she wasn’t with them any longer.
“Unfortunately, she couldn’t be saved,” Jolie whispered. “I’m worried about you, Flynn. How are you feeling?”
“I’m sore, but considering the alternative…” he began, pausing to look over at Mathew. “I don’t think I could have taken anymore, Jolie. Just as I felt the room going gray, I heard Mathew come through the door.”
“What happened, Flynn?”
He told her everything, leaving nothing out.
“Oh, Flynn, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, stroking his hair.
“Mathew came in just as she got my gun. She was going to put a bullet in my brain.”
Jolie kissed him across his less pale face. The blood was working, and Flynn was healing.
They dodged a bullet on this one.
“I’m glad. I couldn’t live without you.” She didn't tell him about her vision.
Now it was time to thank someone else.
“Mathew, come here.” She could feel his fear. Mathew approached her like a dog preparing to be beat, and it broke her heart. As he reached the side of the bed, he crumbled to his knees in submission before
them.
“Mistress, I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.”
She touched his cheek. “What happened?”
He told her about painting, staying up, heading to his bed, and smelling the blood.
“Thank you for what you did. You saved my soul and heart by moving fast. I’ll never be able to thank you.”
He stared at her, not moving.
Jolie touched his chin, and then kissed him delicately on the cheek. “You're our hero.”
He blinked, unsure of what to say.
Before Jolie could add anything else, they heard more sobbing. Clariel was crawling across the floor, dragging herself to them.
“She killed Trina. What am I supposed to do now? I’m alone.”
“You are not alone, Clariel. We’re here for you. This is about being a family. When one of us hurts, we help each other get through it.”
“My mate is gone,” she sobbed uncontrollably.
Flynn had been listening to the wounded vampyre. He was compelled to offer her peace. Rolling to his side, he dropped his legs off the bed. “Come here, little one,” he said.
Immediately, Clariel moved toward him. She practically climbed up the front of his body, clinging like a child.
“I’m sorry, Clariel. We’ll miss Trina too. I loved her and will be lost without her smile,” he whispered into her ear, just letting her hold on to him as the storm brewed. When his eyes met Jolie’s, he saw the regret and pain.
His touch seemed to calm Clariel.
“We’ll get through this, okay?”
She nodded as he left a kiss on her forehead.
“We’ll be here for you. I promise.”
Clariel buried her face in the crook of his neck, taking in the master’s scent. “Yes.”
He held her for a little while before he spoke, “Sunshine, let’s get you into the shower. You’re covered in blood.”
Clariel let him direct her. She couldn’t think, but she trusted him. “Okay, Flynn.”
Jolie called to Chloe, “Take her to my bath and clean her up. Then bring her here to Mathew’s bed. I want her to go to death.”
“Yes, Mistress, as you wish.”
Jolie helped Flynn into their bed and on to his stomach. She waited until Clariel was in the bathroom before she spoke, “I need to know who the hell she is, and how the hell she entered our home.” She pointed at the body of what was left of the intruder lying on the floor.
Dangerous Misery (The Harcourte Vampyre Society Book 3) Page 45