I let a little of my Light flow out around me. I really didn't need to make this a command. I could tell Samson's heart from where I sat and it was pure and full of love for the girl. But, Nut had made her my responsibility and love can fracture and fall apart. If it did and I was not here to stand up to the plate if Samson chose to walk away, then Nut would not be happy. Keeping my goddess happy was of particular importance to me.
My Light wrapped around us both and I let it wrap around Gigi as well, then with as much of my Light and life force that I could muster, I commanded, “You will protect her and watch over her. Guide her when you can. She is as much of my line as you are. You will treat her as such, by my command.”
The Light in the room dissipated and Samson slipped off his chair to kneel on the floor before me. His fist across his chest, he bowed his head and answered in a slightly breathless voice, “By your will, so be it, Mistress.”
I leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. We were in that position when Aliath walked in. He stood inside the door and watched us. A tray of food and drink in his hands. After a few seconds he crossed the floor and placed the tray beside me. I looked up into his eyes, which seemed to be assessing me like he was prone to do of late.
“I thought you might be hungry, Lucinda.” He inclined his head and backed out of the room without another word.
Samson dragged himself back to his armchair and collapsed into the padded seat. “That was strange,” he said, still trying to catch his breath after my Light inflicting command. I knew he was talking about the fairy, not the effects of my wayward behaving Light.
“Yeah. Do you think it's poisoned?” I asked, as I picked over the sandwiches and biscuits and fruit juice he had prepared.
“Nah,” Samson replied with a crooked smile. “I think he actually cares.”
I scoffed. “Not in this lifetime.”
Samson shrugged, but didn't add anything further. Despite the thought of poison, I still ate the entire tray full of food. Hungrier than I had even realised, it all tasted absolutely divine.
If I had thought Gigi's rising would happen slowly, with some sort of warning, I was sorely disappointed. One minute we were all quiet. Samson alone with his thoughts. Me finishing off the food Aliath had delivered. And Gigi restful in vampire comatose sleep. Then the next minute, she was sitting upright in the bed, a loud and low growl slipping from her drawn back lips. And in less than a heartbeat she was on me, her fangs deep in the side of my neck.
Now, I am a Nosferatin. I don't normally get caught by the fang to the neck. I have a vast amount of vampire hunter mojo. Some I was born with, others I inherited through the Prophesy I am part of. All of which should not have allowed a brand, spanking new vampire to get the drop on me. But she had.
Samson was on us in the next second, trying to pry her loose. The sting of her bite was excruciating, she hadn't tempered it at all. But, I wasn't holding it against her, she probably didn't know she could, or even know how. Not that I was thinking of much, as the pain was making me start to whimper and cry and struggle futilely beneath her too powerful hold.
She was strong. All that Sanguis Vitam swilling in the air around us. The glow from her red eyes obvious as it reflected off the wall to our side. She didn't worry at the bite, but with some sort of innate sense of rightness, just sucked cleanly from the side of my neck. She'd stopped growling too, as soon as my blood hit her tongue. Her whole body relaxing against me, firm and in control but not nearly as ravaging as I had expected her to be.
I pushed past the pain of each draw of my blood and said as clearly and loudly as I could, “It's all right, Samson, let her feed.”
He hesitated, his eyes on mine and when he saw I was serious, neither influenced by a glaze nor light headed from lack of blood, he sat back on his heels and watched. His own fangs well down from the sight of a vampire feeding and the smell of my blood in the air. I kept my eyes on his, using him as an anchor in the room and tried not to wince as Gigi continued to feed without pause.
After what felt like an eternity, but I was sure was only thirty seconds, as I had started counting in my head near the start, I patted Gigi on the back and said, “That's enough.”
She didn't stop, didn't flinch, didn't show any acknowledgement of my request.
“Gigi, you've fed. Now stop!”
Still nothing, no pause.
I didn't bother to tell Samson to get back, if he was in the room he'd get some sort of collateral effect of my Light. Distance would make no difference. I just gathered my Light within and then with a further command to stop, blasted the vampire above me.
Gigi flew back across the room and landed in a heap against the side of the bed. Samson went sailing backwards, but not quite as forcefully and came to rest against the far wall. Both looked completely sated and definitely a little dazed. I felt the trickle of warm blood slide down my neck and instinctively reached up to stem the flow. Trying to move was impossible, Gigi had sucked hard at my vein. Thirty seconds or there about was normally not a long feed, but her force of suction had meant I was depleted more than I had thought I was.
I lay there panting on the floor aware that blood was still seeping out between my fingers and onto the carpet at my back.
“Samson,” I whispered. “I can't stop the blood.”
I heard him try to move, but in my desperate haste to stop Gigi feeding and with the distraction of the pain, I had not tempered my Light at all. Both he and Gigi had received the full effects of my power and the after effects as well. After a few failed attempts to get to my side Samson lay back down and called out in a breathless and husky, but otherwise loud voice, “Sergei!”
Within seconds Sergei was in the room. A quick glance around told him everything he needed to know and then he was beside me, lifting me up in his arms and his tongue came down and sealed the wounds. A low growl came from the back of his throat at the taste of my blood on his tongue. I could feel him tensing, hesitating and then as though he was no longer in control of his motions, but still fighting them all the same, he jerkily leant down and proceeded to clean the rest of the blood off my neck. One slow, wet and warm lick after another.
“OK. That was a little creepy,” I managed in a shaky voice when I was sure he had licked me entirely clean and was thinking he'd just continue to lick elsewhere in case he'd missed a drop of blood or two.
“Mistress?” he purred. “Did you want me to stop?”
Well, duh. “Yes, please.”
He pulled back and gently lay me on the floor and then turned his attention to Samson and the newly awakened vampire. The growl came back from deep within his throat as his eyes locked with the now light blue of Gigi's. She was watching him with a mixture of fear, awe and disgust.
“You harmed my mistress,” he said in a very even and low voice.
“I didn't mean to,” she replied quickly and then licked some blood off her lips and growled too. The sound making her startle and jump.
I sat up gingerly, my hand going to my head in the hope it would stop the spinning. It didn't, but I felt better than lying flat on my back on the floor.
“It's OK, Sergei. Thanks for your help, but leave us please.”
“Are you sure, Mistress? This one is strong, for a newly risen vampire.” Gigi squeaked at the word vampire and tried to shuffle further under the bed.
“Yes, I'm sure. Samson and I will handle this.”
Reluctantly, I could tell, Sergei stood and left the room without replying. His lack of words said more than he could ever have spoken aloud.
I concentrated on breathing for a while and when I was sure the room wouldn't tip dared a glance at the young woman now wrapped up in a duvet from the bed. Her vampire signature was Dark, but she was definitely a Nosferatin. As such she should have been full of Light. I tried to find it, I sought, I attempted to read her aura. But, still there was more Dark than Light. Damn.
“Gigi, my name is Lucinda Monk. This is my house. You
know Samson.” I indicated Samson and her eyes flicked to him, widened slightly with recognition and then darted away back to me. Jeez this was not easy. “OK, you probably want answers. So, here's how it is,” I took a breath in and forged ahead. “Vampires exist.” I waited for a cry of alarm, but when I got nothing, went on. “You have been turned by a vampire who we do not know. Samson and I found you and tried to keep you alive. In doing so, you are not only a vampire, called a Nosferatu, but also a vampire hunter, or Nosferatin. You're kind of both.”
I stopped then, because really, how much could the poor girl take in one hit?
She on the other hand sat very still. Vampire still. She wasn't breathing or blinking. And her pulse was motionless at her neck. I waited for something, some form of acknowledgement of what I had said, but nothing came. Samson shifted uneasily at my side.
“I am a Nosferatin, a born vampire hunter," I went on. "Samson is a Nosferatu, a vampire. You're a bit like him and a bit like me, but here's where I don't know what to tell you, Gigi, because this has never happened before. I don't know what it will mean for you. I have no idea how this will work. You obviously crave blood like a vampire...” I reached up automatically to touch where she had fed from my neck. “But, how much of the Nosferatin you have in you, I don't know. All I know is I recognise you as my kin.”
“I recognise you too,” she said in a too quiet voice. Then her eyes darted to my neck and the pulse fluttering just beneath the skin, letting us all know she was attracted to the blood as well.
“We're here to help you, Gigi,” I forged on. “We're your friends. We'll do whatever is needed to help you through this, to come to terms with it and move on. Samson will teach you about being a vampire. And I will teach you about being a vampire hunter. It will all be OK.”
I had no idea if it was going to be, but I was damned sure I wasn't going to let her see my doubt or confusion right now. She needed unconditional support. She needed to know she had friends to count on. I was only hoping her friendship with Samson would stretch to include me.
Gigi licked her lips and then turned her head unnaturally slowly towards Samson. “I knew you were different,” she whispered.
“I'm sorry,” he said. “I wanted to tell you everything. I was going to, but then Luce returned from South America and well, it was kind of a family crisis, that's why I made you leave.”
Oh, now I kinda felt like a third wheel. This seemed too personal, too private for my ears. I wished I could just get up and leave them to it, but I had to make sure Gigi was all right.
Her gaze returned to me with an eerie amount of knowledge. More than she should possibly have.
“Why are you helping me? You hunt vampires, right? Shouldn't you be hunting me?”
“Not all vampires are evil,” I told her. “Samson's not.” I didn't say, that at the moment her Dark made her seem so very evil, though. “Besides, you're part Nosferatin too. Part of what makes me, who I am.”
She stared for a few more minutes and I don't know what it was that I saw, but I knew she didn't trust me. That she doubted my reasons for being here at all. I was betting she was doubting Samson's as well. I couldn't blame her. And part of me was glad she had a natural protection such as that. If she didn't trust those around her at first glance, she might just be able to keep herself safe. For a while anyway.
“We believe that most vampires won't be able to tell you are a Nothus, that you're a mix of Nosferatin and Nosferatu," I said. "I think it would be best to keep it that way. You appear like a vampire and they must believe that you are only that. For your own safety.”
She frowned slightly, creating delicate lines across her pale skin. It was actually a relief when she spoke again and asked, in her whisper, quiet voice, “Can I please talk to Samson alone.”
I stood and smiled as kindly as I could down at her and then walked from the room. The door shut softly behind me and I took a deep breath in to help stave off the swirl of the world that had threatened to topple me as soon as I had got up off the floor. Bracing myself with an arm against the wall several feet down the cluttered and nearly destroyed hallway, I didn't feel him arrive.
Amusing really, considering I had just left that room last night and was practically standing in exactly the same spot where he had tried to catch me before. A warm hand covering my mouth and a firm arm around my stomach was the first indication I was in trouble.
I initially sought out Sergei, but he was too far away to help, down in the cellar. And Aliath was nowhere to be seen. Panic set in, then the world was tilting, then swirling and then shifting as I flowed through space.
And now I was nowhere near my house in St. Helier's Bay, but instead on black sand watching moonlit waves crash violently against the shore.
Chapter 31
The Chase
“Piha Beach?” I asked in a surprisingly even voice.
“For some reason I cannot manage further, elska. But here is far enough away.”
Lutin stood several feet in front of me, hands in pockets of tan coloured trousers, his white T-shirt catching the light of the moon. His short, spiky blonde hair topping his head and the vivid green of his eyes capturing my gaze. I forcefully pulled mine away and wrapped my Light around me in a shield. What I wouldn't give for Sergei or Nataliya to be here.
“What now?” I asked, loud enough to be heard above the West Coast crash of waves.
“Now, we stay one step ahead of your Dökkálfa Grey Lord captor, until I am strong enough to return us to the Ljósálfar Court.”
I let a breath of air out at the realisation he wasn't joking. That he honestly believed I had been held against my will by Aliath and would return willingly with him, Lutin, to Álfheimr. It was preposterous. Ludicrous. But I didn't dare correct him, for fear of angering him.
He cocked his head as he watched me. “You look tired, elska.” Then after a moment's thought a smile curved the edges of his lips. “Are you with child?”
I felt the bottom of my stomach fall out from beneath me and instinctively placed a hand on my belly to stop the roll of nausea inside. Lutin mistook my movement for one of confirmation. My hand not soothing my upset stomach, but cradling the babe within. His face beamed as he took the steps necessary to close the distance between us.
“I will take good care of you and our child, elska. You shall want for nothing on our return to Álfheimr.” I was too in shock to stop him, as his arms wrapped around my body and held me dear.
All I managed was a murmured, "Pregnant?" My words spoken aloud, but meant only for me, and filled with incredulity. I couldn't be pregnant, we hadn't had sex. Although Lutin thought we had, it had been a charade created by Michel's Sanguis Vitam. Nothing more. But still, something left me feeling nauseous. I couldn't put my finger on it, but part of me was actually scared Lutin was correct.
And if he was... My mind frantically tried to count back days, but time spent in Álfheimr had passed differently here on Earth. And the toing and froing made it impossible for me to tell if I couldn't in fact be pregnant or not.
And then I mentally snorted at how ridiculous that idea was for more than just one reason. I was a Nosferatin, the first born in my family. I didn't carry the gene, I was it. And because of that I could not have children of my own. My role in life was not to parent, but to protect. To fight the Dark and keep the innocents safe. Had I have had a younger sister or brother, they would have carried on the Nosferatin line, not me.
But, despite that knowledge, I still felt ill. Despite all of the myriad reasons that made it illogical to think I was pregnant. What if somehow Lutin was right.
"The kvángask," he whispered against my neck in answer to my question. "His Light to her Light, mixed together through scared rite, will create longed-for life. I knew you were different, elska. I just knew it. And now you have fulfilled the prophesy as I had only dreamed to hope."
Lutin's lips began moving over the skin on my neck. Delicate kisses pressed gently up the side of my cheek.
His hot breath in contrast to the cooler air on the beach. I was numb with shock. Memories of reading that fey prophesy in an old leather bound tome in Citysider's safe house months ago came crashing back in. Overlaid with the memory of the kvángask and Lutin's mother saying those exact words before it all began. Even Lutin had voiced them after we had shared Light. Dear Goddess, could this be true?
“I want to take you right now. Right here." His voice broke my near paralytic stance. "To celebrate the life we have created together.” His body pressed firmly against mine and there was no denying his intention. I realised I'd started panting, a desperate effort to get air in my lungs and clear my head. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. I could not let this happen again.
I was just about to push back against him, gathering my Light automatically within, when there was a loud crack, a flash of light and Aliath stood beside us on the beach. The split second I took to register this fact was longer than Lutin needed to respond. He simply pushed me back, away from the Grey Lord and through another split in the air.
That unusual wash of lights and sounds and space around us flooded over me and then we came out onto another beach. This one with white sand and gentle waves. A long length of coast disappearing in a slight curve behind Lutin's back. I glanced around for Aliath, recognising the beach we were now on. Lutin was hopping from coast to coast, but not making much distance at all. Piha had been west of Auckland, Orewa was north and east.
I doubled over as a wave of nausea rocked through me. Fairy travel never sat nicely on my stomach, but the sudden shift with loss of blood from Gigi's feed made me weak at the knees and bile rise up my throat.
“Oh, elska,” Lutin said as he stroked my back while I tried not vomit at my feet. “Have you been suffering badly with the pregnancy? We have remedies which will ease your time.”
Idiot, was all I could think as I struggled to keep Aliath's earlier sandwiches and biscuits down.
Shadow's Light Page 35