Shadow's Light

by Nicola Claire

  He just smiled at my discomfort. “I have the taufr, I can see you. All of you.” His eyes trialled the length of me, taking in my short black mini skirt and tight fitting black Tee. As well as the fitted jacket that hid my stakes and knife.

  I forced myself not to squirm under his gaze. After all, it was not sexual in the slightest. How had I missed that before? I shook my head. Avery knew how to play the game and I was thinking he had hidden this side of him from more than just me in the past. He knew how to act to get what he wanted. He'd played me, that was for sure.

  “This won't take long, Ms. Monk,” he offered, shifting slightly as the effects of the guy's attention were starting to take their toll.

  “Maybe I'll come back when you're finished,” I said a little stiffly. I told myself my reaction was not because the person sucking on his member was a guy and not a girl. But, I wasn't entirely sure. This had been one hell of a surprise.

  “We need to reconnect," he said, not hiding his breathlessness at what was happening below the waist at all. "It's been three days. If we do not do it now we will both be weak. And as you are Dream Walking, you cannot come back again for another twenty-four hours or risk being out cold for three days. Are you prepared to weaken yourself that much?”

  “Then tell him to leave,” I instructed, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “You have Walked into my house unannounced. You work around me.”

  I glared at him for a moment. This was my own fault, I should have phoned first. I should have expected he would do something like this. Payback is a bitch and all that. Well, I would learn from my mistakes. I am nothing if not adaptable. But, that didn't solve my current predicament. Walking out would gain me nothing except admit my discomfort and fall right into his trap.

  I lifted my chin in defiance and walked up to the edge of his bed. It would only take a moment of contact. My hand on his arm or shoulder for a few seconds to allow the connection to reseal. His amused smile greeted me from his semi reclined position on the bed. He didn't say anything, just let the sounds of the guy sucking fill the air.

  I shook my head. “You're a real arsehole, you know that.” I reached out to touch his shoulder and he moved as quick as a snake.

  The next thing I knew, I was across his chest, his arms wrapped around me and his fangs deep in my neck. Fucking arsehole!

  Ma douce? Are you all right? Michel's startled voice rang out in my head.

  No, I was definitely not all right. I had a master vampire attached to my throat and he was draining me at an alarming rate, infusing me with his lust and desire all the while getting his rocks off - with a guy - at the same time! I was so far removed from 'all right', it wasn't funny.

  Ah, I see, came Michel's low, but controlled growl in my mind. Can I try something?

  I had no idea what Michel was talking about, but as I was struggling to reach my stake or knife successfully and Avery was close to orgasming all over me and the poor human dude at his crotch. I had to go with what was on offer.

  Sure, fire away, I said letting my thoughts find their way to Michel. It was getting harder and harder to think straight. Although I was pretty sure I knew what Avery was doing. Making me so depleted I would either be unable to Walk back to my body immediately and therefore prove his dominion over me, or if I did manage it, I would be a wreck when I got there.

  I felt Michel's Dragon before I saw him. The familiar warmth of his fiery breath. The rasp of his scales against my skin. The sense of his power washing over us all. The promise of his protection. And underneath it all, his undying love for me. To be a vampire's mate you had to have won the vampire-within over. Somehow I had won this majestic, powerful, magical creature's heart. As well as Michel's.

  How he was doing it, I didn't know, but he was wreathed in my Light and I hadn't even felt it being used. Somehow the Dragon had tapped into my Light through the new connection Nut had given Michel and me. Somehow he was able to use that connection to reach my Light and bring not just me, but Avery as well, into Michel's mind. We were in his garden, greens and pinks and reds everywhere. The sound of a water falling from a fountain, the sun gently warming us all from above.

  Michel's Dragon had been able to bring me to him - inside Michel's mind - before, but now he could also bring Avery. It was the Dream Walk, I was sure. This realm I exist in when a phantom Walking the world, was similar as that which the Dragon lived in too. By using my Light, he'd be able to bring not only me, but anyone I was with when Dream Walking, into Michel's mind.

  I was impressed. But Avery was not.

  He was frantically turning around and around, crouched, ready to fight. His eyes full of only jade, his fangs down, a snarl slipping from his curled lips. He had no idea how he had gotten here and I was betting, from the look of him, he was freaking out. The Dragon stood beside me, towering over me, looking at me with such love and then it flicked its gaze to Avery and fire spilled from its nose. The magenta eyes that had held me captive turned black, with licks of flames around the edges.

  It reached out a clawed hand, ran the tips tenderly down my cheek and then flicked them out in a movement too fast for my eyes to comprehend. By the time his claws were back at the side of his body, blood had only just begun to spill from Avery's cheek where the Dragon had slashed. A gruesome series of gouges, three side by side.

  Avery cried out in alarm and pain, a vampire hiss filling the air.

  The dragon turned from me and loomed over Avery waiting for him to realise he was there. It didn't take long. Avery stopped cursing, stopped moving and paled.

  “What. The. Fuck?” He gasped out, maybe he hadn't noticed the Dragon until then - too concerned with the change of scenery. He sure as hell noticed him now though.

  I will say this only once, Avery. The Dragon's voice in our heads was not Michel's, it was Darker, raspier and altogether more chilling. There was also no hint of French in there at all. If you attempt to harm my mate again, I will harm you. There are ways of making death seem welcome. I know them all.

  I didn't doubt that the Dragon did know all the ways to make a man beg for death. There was something ancient and knowledgeable in those dark, dark eyes. Something that Avery recognised.

  I don't know everything there is to know about vampires. About how they branched off from the Nosferatin to become the Nosferatu. People say they had to sell their soul to the God of Darkness. But I have never heard of a God of Darkness, nor do I believe vampires do not have souls. But something, all those centuries ago, happened to make vampires Darker than me. Something that this Dragon was part of.

  I watched as Avery nodded very slowly accepting the Dragon's threat. Then the Dragon walked toward me, surprisingly smoothly. Not as though it had a hunched back with large dark green scales crinkling in protest. Or as though its wings felt hindered by the abundant plant life in the garden around us.

  I should have been scared. I should have been terrified of those sharp claws on its hands and feet, of the sharp teeth I could see. I should have been scared, but I wasn't. I smiled up at it, making it snort a puff of smoke from its nose and took the offered clawed hand it presented me. It pulled me up with ease and cradled me in its arms, then slowly, keeping eye contact with me so I wouldn't startle, it lowered its head to my neck and flicked out a long rough tongue to seal Avery's bite marks. I hadn't even realised they were still not closed.

  I heard Avery make a strangled sound, but I was already trapped in the Dragon's gaze.

  Sleep, my sweet little one, he purred in my mind. Sleep.

  I woke up back in my body Michel cradling me to his chest, but otherwise not there. As had previously happened, he would be out for three hours now. I had briefly wondered if that would change, with the new use of my Light. But it obviously hadn't. I brushed a hand down his cheek, shifted a few strands of hair, and then snuggled my face into his neck to wait. All thoughts of Avery gone from my mind. I was back, with Michel. All was, once again, fine.

  I did sleep. It had be
en exhausting facing Avery and with everything that had been happening, the Dragon's instructions to sleep easily took hold. It was Michel's voice that woke me.

  “It worked,” Michel whispered, into the darkened room. It had been daylight when I settled in to Dream Walk, now the shutters were up and the stars shone outside the window. Michel hadn't put a light on, so the room was quite dark. “He told me it would.”

  “Your Dragon?” I asked.

  “He said he could help you. I didn't think he'd actually be able to pull Avery into his garden too.”

  “Did you... I don't know, sense or see what he was doing?” Last time Michel had not been able to. He'd woken unaware of what had transpired.

  “Yes. I could see it all, feel it all. I have no idea why, but he is a part of me." I could only assume Michel's new ability to be aware of what the dragon-within did, was tied into the Dragon using my Light. "He is also separate though. Like all vampyre, my demon-within has a mind of its own. It is capable of independent thought. But it is not capable of existing without me. Nor I without it.”

  I reached up and stroked his cheek. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”

  “You really do love my Dragon too?” Michel asked, dumbfounded.

  “I love all of you, Michel. Every part. The good, the bad, the Light, the Dark. The vampire and the man. I love it all.”

  He smiled down at me. “Just as well then, because I think the Dragon was rather taken with being able to assist you on your Dream Walk. He's going to insist on keeping an eye on you whenever you Walk again and pulling you out if needed.”

  I laughed, “Don't go getting any ideas of smothering me those scales and claws of your yours. Once in a while maybe, but not every Dream Walk.”

  Michel gave me a look of mock shock, then wrapped me up in his arms. “Would I smother you, ma douce?” he asked, mischievously.

  I just laughed at him, what else could I do?

  But, the light moment was swamped in unwanted shadows, as the Dream Walk to Avery brought back his words to me at the Palais. “If you are not on my side, you are therefore my enemy. Do not get in my way. I don't play by the rules, Ms. Monk, and I know where all your loved ones live.”

  Had we just made a formidable enemy in Avery Rousseau?

  My new joined kindred Nosferatu, a member of the Iunctio council. A Dark vampire, the Plucking Pervert. After everything that Michel and I had been through, were we about to face more?

  I hoped not, I really did. But I doubted that hope and as such, I'd always stay on guard.

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  Read on for the first chapter in book seven of the Kindred Series: Entwined With The Dark.

  London

  The twang of a dagger embedding deep into the wall two inches from my right ear sent adrenaline coursing through me. As if there hadn't already been enough! I didn't have time to glare at the culprit before stale, rotten, hot breath washed over my face and a grimy, long-nailed hand grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and threw me across the room.

  I landed hard, but not as hard as the boot to my ribs which followed. I jumped up and back as quickly as a cat getting attacked by a water hose. I think I may have hissed like one too, but despite my feline grace the rogue was coming in for a second attempt at throttling me. I already had bruises around my throat from his last attack, I was determined not to suffer that indignity again.

  I struck out a hand and forced him back with my Light, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as it sounds. Although having seen Avery just last night to reinforce the joining, I was already beginning to tire. Two days too soon. I shouldn't have been suffering from weakness yet, but my state of mind wasn't helping. I really believe attitude had a lot to do with my current predicament. Attitude and Arthur Pencarrow.

  I didn't take that thought through to completion before the rogue pounced again. Spittle from his slack mouth splattered across my face, my hands came up to his chest and held his fangs away from my neck, but shaking was beginning to make an appearance in my limbs. I'm strong, but my strength was failing me. I muttered a few choice curses under my breath and then watched in horror as another silver dagger flashed through the dim moonlight in the factory we were in.

  The knife glanced off the rogue's shoulder and I had to twist my face away suddenly or wear the sharp edge across my cheek.

  "Do you mind!" I shouted above the roar of anger from the rogue.

  "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" came the whimpering reply.

  "If you're going to take out the vampire, don't throw a knife when I'm so close! Stake the bastard!" The woman couldn't throw straight for shit.

  "I... I... I can't," came Marie's stuttering reply.

  I rolled over with the rogue, ignoring my partner's pathetic excuses, trying to get the upper hand. The rogue decided he didn't want to let me, so continued to roll us over until he was on top. The consequent battle for supremacy meant we rolled half a dozen times until we hit the far wall, neither of us gaining an inch on the other.

  For a slavering, crazy, fanger he was pretty good.

  But I am better.

  Another bolt of Light, a groan at the corresponding washed-out feeling, and he was flying through the air and landing with a satisfying crunch against a pillar. I wasn't so quick to my feet this time, but determination mixed with stubbornness has its advantages. I made it upright in time to see the rogue advancing on Marie. Who promptly threw her stake then shrieked and bolted in the other direction.

  Bloody hell, why me? I didn't ask for this. I am too busy fulfilling my roles as the Prophesied to play babysitter to a newbie Nosferatin with confidence issues. But, London had rules. Rules Arthur Pencarrow insisted I adhere to. I was having difficulty seeing it his way. Especially at times like this. Maybe I was being a little too precious. I have quite a reputation, I'd like to think it hadn't gone to my head though. But, it's hard not to feel self-important when you are the Prophesied. The one Nosferatin destined to balance the Dark with the Light.

  I took a few steps towards them, realised I'd be too late and so shouted, "Hey, fanger! Pick on someone your own size!" Which, in itself, was a laugh. Marie’s about my size, five foot four inches, trim and fit, and the fanger was twice that.

  He turned slowly, like a clockwork robot, his movements jerky but precise. I had a bad feeling he was just holding on to his sanity. Any minute now he'd go ballistic. I needed to put an end to this now.

  He growled, low and long. I held my breath, fingered my stake and muttered encouragingly under my breath, "Come on, come on."

  Then he flashed to the stairwell and headed up to the next floor.

  "Damn!" I started running after him determined not to let him get away. The destruction he could cause on a busy London night would be phenomenal. I couldn't see where Marie had gone, but it wasn't anywhere near the vampire. And I knew, it wouldn't be anywhere near where I needed her either.

  Once again I questioned why my life had to be so bloody difficult. I hated this. I hated having to hunt in teams as per Arthur's instructions or London's rules. I knew why Arthur had teamed me with Marie though. Apart from being the only other female Nosferatin currently based in London, he felt I may have been able to help Marie come out of her shell. That was debatable, from tonight's experience. And to think, I could have had this hunt over and done with half an hour ago, if not for the distraction and total incompetence of Marie. Hell, I could have been working on my To Kill List, which currently consisted of the Fairy Queen of the Dökkálfa and the Champion of the Iunctio. But instead I was chasing a rogue in a dingy abandoned factory, bruised
and battered, and huffing like an old lady from exhaustion.

  I was so going to make this rogue pay. Then I'd have words with Arthur Pencarrow, self appointed leader of the London Nosferatins.

  I skidded to a stop on the first floor and took in the rogue down the far end, cornered. No exits - if you discounted the barred, dirty windows. The only way out was past me and I wasn't going to let him even reach the stairwell, let alone use it again. I could have used Marie's help, it would have been enough for her to block this exit, she wouldn't have had to get close to the vamp again. But right now Marie was hiding in a curled up ball of enormous fear, with a new potential life-long damaged psyche, courtesy of this evening's events. While I battled the rogue on the first floor alone.

  That was OK, I liked to handle things alone. I'd deal with Marie's phobias later. First the rogue.

  In a flash I was in front of him, my stake grazing the side of his face as he hurled himself at me, fangs down, red glow to his eyes. I had no idea what colour they used to be, they'd bled all natural hues and gone straight for frightful blood red. He was both hungry - having had his dinner disturbed - and quite clearly mad. Most rogues don't make it to that bat-shit crazy stage, they get dealt with by a hunter like me before then, but this one had most definitely slipped through the cracks. He'd bypassed blood-lusted and deadly, and gone straight for utterly insane. That ballistic I'd been fearing, had arrived.

  Not a problem, he'd officially met his match, I had my game face back on. I didn't plan on toying with him, it was not my usual style. Although I have been known to take longer than necessary in the past to slide the stake home, those episodes had been under strained circumstances. I'd come a long way since then. I watched him gather his balance as he flew past my stake and then I spun out in pursuit before his momentum had stopped. Spin fighting is something I was attempting to teach Marie. So far it had elicited only bruises for her and a headache for me. I wondered whether poor scaredy-cat Marie had any natural balance at all.