by L M Adams
I know tears gather in my eyes as I look to Lucien. “How?”
“I went to her rooms after I found that you had gone. In a rage I went to kill her. Tabari caught up to me before I could get to her. But I saw it sitting on her mantel over her fireplace like a trophy. I wanted her to have no part of you. So I took it and told her she was welcome to try and reclaim it from me,” Lucien explains with a cold burning rage still in his eyes.
He may not have saved me, but he would gladly avenge me. I wonder how Tabari was able to keep him from killing her.
“After she broke me...” I start, filled with emotion. “She wore me down until there was nothing left. She let me keep one blade. ‘To cut her meat for her.’ She was so cocky; she knew I’d never be strong enough to lift the blade against her. The other she kept on her mantel and would point it out to her guest as I sliced her meat just perfectly with this one.” I say, rubbing my hand on the pommel of the knife I have strapped to my thigh. The one strapped on my thigh still has the large chunk of spelled diamond in it. They no longer are twins. Sisters instead. Yes sisters.
“I never thought I’d see it again. Thank you, Lucien.” I stand up, walk over to him, bend and kiss him softly on the lips. I turn to go up the stairs.
I catch Tabari nod his head in encouragement to Lucien, out of the corner of my eye. I know my meddlesome brother is coaching Lucien, but did he have to be so obvious? Still it warms my heart to see that Lucien has a true friend. Even if they seem to conspire against me at every turn.
“If you would like to start training with them in the mornings, let me know. I’d like to train with you again.” I hear Lucien’s voice soft and even and a tad bit unsure. He offered, not ordered or commanded.
He’s trying Jae, he really is. You owe him the same at least.
I look to him smiling and respond, “Ok” and continue up the stairs.
I walk past the guest room and see both Peter and Minx sitting on the floor together with a notepad and Tabari’s laptop in front of them. Minx is saying something in rapid Spanish. I don’t even try to figure out what.
I make it to my room and close the door. It’s the first time I realize I’ve been alone in almost two days. I let out a pent-up breath.
I take off my boots and climb on the bed on top of the covers. The man even made my bed this morning. I never make the bed. I lay there for a long time chasing sleep. I roll around changing my position again and again, nothing helps. I have too much anxious energy pent up to catch the sandman right now even if my brain knows I could do with the sleep for tonight’s excursion.
I see my duffle bag along with Jack’s bags, sitting in the corner near my dresser. I abandon the pretense of falling to sleep and get up. I walk over to them, hefting my bag up onto the bed. I make short work of putting everything back into its place. Even the gems and gun I keep in the box under the floor boards in my closet. I put it all back, I guess I’m staying. There’s no need to hide them anymore, but I can’t think of a better place for them.
I look over to the corner and decide what the hell. I drag Jack’s large bags onto the bed. I pull out his clothes hanging some in the closet, putting others in drawers I dump out. In the second bag I’m surprised to find two nine-millimeters, a few boxes of ammunition, some even with silver tips; expensive I know. A few throwing stars with silver edges on them again. So, Jack is a Ninja now?
I find a mahogany box in the bottom of the sack. There’s something that tells me to go no further. I ignore the warning voice and open the box. On the top are two photos. One has a picture of a man I assume is Jack’s father from the similar coloring, standing with two women. The younger is his little sister and the strikingly beautiful woman is his mother, I hazard to guess. They all wear dated clothing, circa late 19th century. The pictures are aged, I wonder how they don’t crumble in my hand.
Vampires can have children, true purebloods anyway. They are allowed to grow human slow to a certain age and then are transformed into the undead. It’s telling that Jack had waited so late to complete the blood rite, the latest I’ve heard of a vampire waiting is twenty-five. Maybe he had doubts about becoming one of the undead?
I place the top photo aside. The second photo is of Jack standing with a beautiful woman with brunette hair. This photo is a bit newer, it’s even in color. The clothing they wear places it mid nineteen-hundreds, perhaps?
Jack is obviously happy and in love. I look down at the photo for a long time. Jealousy filling my heart. What would I give to make him smile like that?
Everything.
I make up my mind to see him free of all of this, including me. Even if it’s the last thing I do. Maybe this woman, whoever she is, is still waiting for him. Maybe he can have a chance to smile like he is in the picture again. I place that photo to the side as well.
There’s a large black bag in the bottom. I open it up and pour the contents into my hand. It’s a small fortune in gems: diamonds in all shades, rubies, sapphires no bigger than my pinky nail, but the quality is the best I’ve seen.
I would think he’d stolen them if a signet ring hadn’t fallen out with the gems. It has his name engraved on the inside so I know it’s his. It has an emblem I’m not familiar with. But I know what it means. He’s royalty or at least close to it. He’s from a powerful Blood Line, noble birth.
“Oh Jack, what has the world done to you?”
I hurry to put everything back, but for some reason I linger over the photo of Jack and the young woman. I flip it over. There’s writing on the back, obviously female. ‘No matter the time, no matter the distance, our blood intertwined.’
Jack walks in with me holding the photo. I look up. I know I have a ‘hands in the cookie jar’ look on my face. but tears are in my eyes.
“Ariella is her name, Ari for short.” Jack says without reproach in his voice.
I look back down at the photo, “You love her.” Not a question, a statement of fact.
“Yes, once I loved her very much, enough to defy my parents and hers.” He says this with a small smile, not all sad. There are still happy memories there for him.
“What happened?” I ask as I trace his face in the picture with my finger tip. His hair was long whenever this was taken.
“We were in love. Fated in the stars to be together.” He laughs a full laugh. “We were young and full of life. Our parents encouraged us being together, it was a smart match, as my mother said.”
“So, if they weren’t against it what went wrong?” I ask.
“We wanted to stay human. Love is an emotion; vampires lose the ability to feel after a time, and compassion, with no soul. My parents respect and protect each other, most of the time. But there is no love, not the kind of love you need a soul to give, to feel.” Jack says reaching over and taking the photo from me.
“They wouldn’t allow it?”
“No, I’m the head of a very old Blood Line, as she is. We were supposed to marry, have children, and become undead. Nothing else would do. We both fought it for years on end. She loved riding,” he smiles at the memory. “I’d just bought her a chestnut mare, well-tempered but proud and gorgeous.” Just like Ari, I think, but don’t say.
“We were riding in the glen near my father’s estate like we’ve done hundreds of times, thousands of times. We leap the first fence easily, the graceful muscles of the chestnut mare carrying Ari over the fence smoothly, her laughing wildly. How could I have known the next jump she’d fall from the horse breaking her back?” He looks to me with pain-filled eyes. He’d bought her the mare; he feels responsible.
“She begged me to let her go on to the Night Lands with her soul. To just let her go. I couldn’t, Jae, I couldn’t do it. She screamed and railed as I brought her limp body back to the house. I had my father complete the blood rites, making her a true vampire, forcing her to be something she never wanted to be.”
“I wanted to be turned with her; my father refused, it was decided I’d have my children with another suitabl
e vampire woman, before I made my change. I just needed to pick an acceptable woman to have them and presto, little baby Jacks terrorizing the world.” I notice he keeps making light of the conversation to hide the hurt. I laugh because the thought is amusing, but I say nothing. Letting the story come out as it will.
“Late one night Ari came to me, she wasn’t strong enough to be in the sun yet, she told me then she had been pregnant.” I can see the effort of him trying to hold it together, to make his voice even, to not let me see the hurt that still lives there.
“I took everything from her with that stupid horse, her humanity, her soul, her child, and her ability to ever have any.” He looks to me with pain-filled eyes, still haunted with the question; both man and supernatural touched by despair ask at some point, why me?
“I should have protected her, protected my child. But I failed. What kind of man deserves to have a child after that? How could I?” He clears his throat, his voice is close to normal again, “I couldn’t let her walk the world without a soul, have to go through that without me. So, I was turned the very same night.”
“I thought your father forbade it?” I ask softly.
He nods his head. “Which is why I walked into his study and blew my brains out. Let me die or turn me, it was his choice. I woke as a vampire three days later. My mother turned me; my father was going to let me die.”
“I still married Ari. With all things considered, my life was still a happy one. Until the coldness began to seep into both of our hearts.” He takes the picture and places it back into the mahogany box.
“We found that power play, S and M, whatever you want to call it, between us did something to stave off the emptiness. Pain and pleasure became one in the same. If we contained the pain to things of the flesh, it allowed our hearts to find pleasure in each other again. We would alternate years. One year she would be the dominant and I’d be the submissive, and vice versa. It only lasted for so long, almost a hundred years actually, breaks in between of course. But we would always gravitate back to each other.”
I say in a whisper “‘No matter the time, no matter the distance, our blood intertwined.’”
He nods his head. “We started to become vicious with one another, bitterness that one of us would leave, bitterness that one of us would come back, bitterness that we couldn’t seem to move on, bitterness that we weren’t what we once were and unable to become something new, unable to make the transition to the undead lovers. Until fear that we would kill each other in play made us stop. I was getting ready to end it all. I’d become an evil man over the years, done evil things, Jaevia. I just wanted peace.”
“What happened then? It’s been a long time, not that I want you to kill yourself.” I add hurriedly.
“My father, greedy for power, was part of some wild scheme to kill Valentine and a number of other Blood Masters and Mistresses. After he was caught, he could have accepted the second death and left me to rule our line. But the older the vampire, the more they fear and yet yearn for death. When we rejoin our souls in Vayrá, our sins and the guilt of what we’ve done weigh us down in shackles of misery until we repay our debt to the universe. Until we find a way to re-balance the negative energy with positive deeds. The longer we are on earth the worse it will be for us in Vayrá. A vampire cannot live without sin, without pain, without death. So I understand him not wanting to meet his second death. I’m not even surprised he was willing to give me to her. I’d broken tradition, from father to first son. My sister has a son; and through him our line has continued to procreate. The rule of our line will pass to him. So my only use is to keep Valentine and the others from killing my father.”
“You were her price for not killing him?” I ask in a quiet voice.
“Yes, to not kill him and to not kill my family, which is the foremost reason I said yes. I divorced Ariella and said goodbye. I’ve been Valentine’s slave since. It was only supposed to be for twenty years, but Valentine has a way about her. She owns me, Jaevia, until the Blood King calls me to Vayrá.” He adds with a shrug and closes the box, taking it from my hands.
“Jack, you still have a chance. To be free. I can deal with Valentine. You still could try to fix things with Ariella.” I say grabbing his hand. Why else would he save the photo? There was something still there, I just know it.
“Maybe someday I’ll want that freedom. But not tonight.” He lets go of my hand standing up and places the box atop of the dresser.
“Not tonight,” I answer.
And here I was thinking my life was shit, from prince to slave. My beautiful Jack, your life is shit. What had he told me? He is twisted and ugly inside. Serving, accepting pain was the only way he’d found to hold on to his humanity. There has to be a better way.
“Madame Valentine let you keep those things?” I ask curious as to why she would. She meant to take him for life.
He turns to me, “Even vampires remember love, Jaevia.” He leaves the room as quietly as he’d come.
Chapter Twenty
My idiot brother
I try to shake my melancholy mood. I think I would have stayed in my room staring at the ceiling if my stomach hadn’t growled, repeatedly, angrily. I leave my cocoon of safety and go in search of food. I have no idea how I’m supposed to feed all of these people. I’m not cooking for six and I’m definitely not doing the dishes afterwards.
I walk down the stairs, the living room is empty but I hear movement and thumping coming from the basement. I make my way to the kitchen and down the steep stairs. I find the boy band cleaning up the basement. Well, Lucien and Peter are cleaning up. Jack is trying to explain what Egg Foo Yung is to Tabari. The man has probably never ordered from a Chinese carryout in his life.
“And they pour gravy all over it?” Tabari asks with bewilderment in his voice.
“Yes,” Jack answers. “It’s pretty good.”
The Kindred keeps track of the fashion and technological trends of the human world, even the speech and slang to help us blend when we come to the human world. But I know they don’t have lessons on how to order from a Chinese carryout in the curriculum.
I’d had great delight in ordering everything off the menu one item a night for more than a month. Both the kid that delivers it and the one that takes my order, know me very well. There’s a horrible fee for delivering after dark, it is the fringe after all. But I always pay it happily plus a generous tip. It helps that I live in one of the nicer parts of the fringe. I really lucked out finding Minx as a roommate. She owns the house, although, I have no earthly idea what she does for a living and the rent she charges me is peanuts compared to other places in this area.
I sit on the stairs watching Lucien carry boxes and stacking them in one corner. His muscles bulge under the cream polo shirt as he goes about his task. I have no idea what’s in the boxes. I’ve never really spent any time down here. Peter has a broom and is stirring up more dust than he’s sweeping up.
“What would you like, Jae?” Jack asks me.
“Um, rice noodles with chicken, shrimp and the spicy peanut sauce.” I order my favorite, getting up and taking the menu from his hand. I walk over to Lucien standing close to him.
“What about you?” I ask him. His entire body is stiff. My beast is nervous. I guess it is weird for me to not be throwing things at his head and screaming.
“Whatever you think I’ll like, Jae.” He looks down at me; I lick my lips inviting him. He bends and kisses me softly. He doesn’t take advantage he just straightens and goes back his task.
Why now am I so familiar with him? Maybe because he has returned my knife. Maybe because he is strong enough to give me back a piece of myself that I was not strong enough to take. Maybe because I’m starting to grow up and finally learning how to accept help when I need it. Maybe I’m learning how to accept that help with thanks. Maybe Jack is teaching me the beauty in giving without me knowing it. Or maybe watching Lucien move around all day has made me lust for him again. The things he did to
me in the forest remind me that my body still wants him very much. Yeah, I think that answer fits a little better. The beast is epic in bed. I think with a small smile to myself.
I walk over towards Jack, “Make that three orders of the rice noodles and a few eggrolls to go around. Make sure you tell them to put plenty duck sauce in the bag.” Lucien is a large man; he can eat two servings easily.
“Duck sauce?” comes Tabari’s question. Jack tries to explain it’s not made from actual ducks. But there’s a look of bewilderment on Tabari’s face.
“Then why call it duck sauce?”
The strongest Magi of our generation is about to get a lesson about Chinese carryout from a vampire royal blood slave in the basement of a rogue daemon. No, I correct myself, in the basement of a Grigori Daemon Kindred. I close my eyes, letting a small bit of warmth flow through me at the thought. I’m not alone anymore.
“Minx thought it would be a good idea to clean up the basement for Lucien and Tabari. She said just because they are living here doesn’t mean they can occupy the living room.” Peter walks over to me with the broom in his hand. I notice he has on sweat pants. I wonder where he’s gotten them from.
“Yeah, good idea. Tabari said he was looking for an apartment. But I think he wants to stay close. I don’t think he likes the thought of being in the human world alone,” I say.
“You did it,” Peter replies simply.
“True but it was out of necessity, not because I wanted to. Minx has solved the necessity of him finding a place by offering the basement. So he’ll go without the convenience of his own space to stay close. It’s our way,” I answer.
The Kindred find our power in numbers. But it’s more than that. Most living things seek out their own kind; for procreation, for protection, for comfort. Supernaturals are no different in that way.
“Yeah, well, if I’m stuck here, I get the spare bedroom. I’m not living in a basement. I need to put in a leave of absence at work. I also would like to get a change of clothes or two. Jack gave me the sweats, but I draw the line at wearing another man’s underwear and I’m on day two with these puppies.” Peter looks down at himself with disgust and then to me.