I would not let him take her force. I called her a bitch. She turned and looked at me, her dark green eyes glaring at me. "I have searched for you for many years. I didn’t believe the rumors, but I see now that they were true." Her face was soft, her voice was hard. She was a stunningly beautiful woman on the outside. I got the feeling she was anything but that on the inside.
I looked up at her. She made no attempt to move any closer to me. She raised her hand towards the wall and it opened. Giovanni walked through it. I looked at him, dressed all in black. He wore leather boots that had small, shiny metal buckles on them. He walked up to her and put his arm around her waist. She let him pull her close, their faces met, and they kissed each other with a hot passion. He pulled away and stepped back.
"I think the child is afraid of us, Giovanni," she said, looking at me. "She was not too afraid of me to come seeking mortality."
She was the Queen, Sorcha. At least I finally knew who I dealt with. It didn’t really help me any, it only confirmed the fact that I was screwed. I looked at Pallo. Kerrigan, my father, had told me that Sorcha had gone behind his back and granted my wish. Pallo had never mentioned this to me, so I assumed he heard it for the first time. He looked at me with questioning eyes. I nodded ‘yes’. He closed his eyes as if in pain.
"You have no right to be here. Your immortality belongs to me, and I will have it back," she said. She turned and looked at Giovanni. "Would you like to do the honors? You did enjoy them so the last time, did you not?"
The last time? I remembered the vision of me being chained to a wall surrounded by vampires. I could not make out the face of the one with the long hair, the one in charge. It had been him. He’d been the one to organize the feeding. I scrambled back on the floor. I came to Pallo’s feet and could go no further. I looked up at him, chained to the wall. It was the wall I had been chained to in my memory. I pushed myself up and got to my knees.
Giovanni walked towards me. "It hardly seems as fun, now that she’s no longer mortal."
How could he be helping her? He saved my life. He promised me. A thought came to my head.
"Giovanni," I said softly. He stared at me with black eyes, stared through me. "Giovanni, you made me a promise," I said, looking back at Pallo.
Sorcha stepped forward. "What is the whore going on about now?"
"She is correct, my Queen, I did make her a promise," he said, looking down at me. "I promised that Pallo would not be killed."
The Queen threw her head back, sending blonde hair flying all around her as she laughed. "Oh, Giovanni, I warned you not to touch her. I told you that something was different about her, something powerful lurked beneath the surface." She turned and looked at me. "You are quite a piece of work. You managed to save a life before it was in jeopardy." She looked at Giovanni again. "Kill her, have all the fun you want with her. I know you and so many others enjoyed her the last time around."
Pallo snarled. I looked up at him. His face had changed, twisted. He looked demonic again. He looked evil. His black eyes were fixed on Giovanni. I could smell how badly he wanted to kill him. I could also sense something soaking up the negative power in the room. I turned--it was Sorcha. She fed off negativity, she fed off hate.
I reached my hand up and touched Pallo’s leg gently. I used his leg to help me stand. I hobbled on my left foot, trying to avoid bearing weight on the right one. I looked at him. He looked like a monster. The Pallo I had known was not there, he was hidden beneath the surface. I could sense him there. I leaned forward and put my lips on his cheek. He snarled and turned his face quickly. At first I thought he would rip my head off with his mouth, then I realized he was going to kiss me. I put my mouth on his. His fangs pressed against my tongue. I put my hand around to the back of his head and pushed my mouth onto his harder. I felt his face softening. I looked at him. He was back.
"She’s feeding off your hate. Don’t make her any stronger," I said to him. He nodded.
"Oh, you are a smart little whore, now aren’t you?" Sorcha yelled. "Giovanni, kill her!"
Giovanni looked at Sorcha. I could not read his face. "My Queen, you said…"
"I know what I said. Now kill her!"
"But, you said that I was to scare her away from here that I was to keep her from…"
Sorcha threw her hand at him and sent him flying backwards. I felt a little bad for the guy. He stuck up for me, but let’s face it, he deserved that. Sorcha walked towards me.
"Mother!" Caleb shouted appearing in the room. I didn’t see him come in and I didn’t care how he got there. All I cared about was the fact that he just called that bitch Mom.
I looked at him. He was dressed in a pair of black dress pants and a white silk, puffy-sleeved shirt. He wore black dress shoes. His hair was pulled back from his face. He stood there, looking at Sorcha with anger in his eyes.
"Caleb," she said and walked to him. "Oh, my precious Caleb. I have missed you so." She turned and looked at me. "It is because of her that you left. It is because of her that you have not returned here in over two hundred years." She lashed her power out at me. I fell back into Pallo’s body hard, and slid to the floor.
Caleb made a move to come to me. She lashed out at him and knocked him to his knees. He looked up at her stunned. "Mother, why do you hate Gwen so much?"
"She was and will always be a whore. She was not faithful to you. You loved her and she hurt you. Getting pregnant by a human boy," she said, looking at Pallo, then laughing. "Or should I say, what used to be a human boy. She was to marry you, yet she fucked so many other men. I have never in my life met anyone…"
"Quite like yourself," Caleb said, standing up slowly.
Sorcha walked to him and put her hand on his face. "My son, I am a Queen. I cannot control my desires. A hundred men could not satisfy me. It has always been the way. Noble blood flows through my veins and I am a woman, which is why I am this way. Darling, you know this." She stroked his cheek. He fought not to pull away. Did he really hate his own mother that much? "She is not of Noble blood. She is just a common faerie whore."
"Mother!" Caleb shouted at her, "I love her, and I won’t allow you to speak of her this way."
She started laughing from the gut now. I had the urge to shake. It felt like spiders were crawling all over me. If I could have reached my hair I would have, just to brush her laugh away. "She does not love you my son, she loves that beast behind her." She pointed at Pallo.
I looked up at Caleb. I could have denied that I had feelings for Pallo. I could have looked into his eyes of green, and swore that I would only ever love him. I couldn’t bring myself to do this. It was a lie, even he knew that.
"I know," Caleb said softly. "But Mother, she loves me as well. I know this."
Sorcha looked at me, and then lashed out at me again. I screamed out in pain as what felt like a lead weight crashed into my head. My ears were ringing for a minute. I had to blink to be able to focus. "Whores are not for loving, Caleb, they are for fucking. This seems to escape you."
"Yeah, so I’ve heard," I said, dryly. I couldn’t help but look up at Pallo chained to the wall when I said this.
"Silence!" Sorcha screamed at me. Another blast of her power hit me in the back of the head again. The pain was so great I could not even scream out. I just laid there, letting my eyes roll back in my head. My jaw had tightened and I opened my mouth involuntarily. I could feel Sorcha’s power building up around me. Pallo’s rage spilled over my body. He hated her, and she fed off of that hate. I tried to reach out to him, but my hands went to my head instead. I clutched it, hoping to ease the pressure. Sorcha’s sinister laugh filled the room again.
"Mother, no!" Caleb screamed and ran to my side. He lifted my head slowly into his lap. His power encompassed me. He protected me from his own mother. She had already struck him down once. Helping me could cost him his life. He held me gently in his hands. He bent down over me. He kissed my head. I could no longer see Sorcha behind him, which was fine by me. He looke
d down at me and closed his eyes. He exhaled slowly. He held my hand tightly and spoke to her again. "If you kill her, you will destroy the one chance I have at happiness. You will kill my chance at having a child of my own."
"What is this?" She asked.
"She responded to me. We are a match," he said, holding my hand.
"This was not always so. What has changed?"
He shook his head. "I don’t know, Mother. I just know that I love her, and that together we could produce a child," he said, looking straight at her.
"You are a fool, Caleb. You have fallen for a whore. The elders will never allow her to sit next to you on the throne. You are a Prince. You must mate with someone of royal blood. She is just a nobody little whore, she is…"
"She is my daughter." Kerrigan’s loud voice filled the room. "And I am sure that the elders will find that to be acceptable."
"Daddy!" I cried out his name like I was a child. I was so happy to hear him I didn’t care.
Caleb and Pallo looked down at me. They were both wearing the same look of shock on their faces. I tried to smile, but my head hurt too much.
"No! You are not to be here, you left! I thought you had died." Sorcha said.
"No, you hoped I had died, Sorcha. Let us not pretend. You have no love for me."
I heard Sorcha’s voice again. "That is not true, I have much lo… I have much lo--" God, she couldn’t even get the words out. She must really hate my father. "Kerrigan, you cannot be serious about the girl being yours. I didn’t think you could father children."
Caleb’s body tightened. I tried to imagine what it must have been like, growing up with a sociopath for a mother. I couldn’t. My human mother, the one who raised me, had been kind, she’d been wonderful.
"I have always been able to sire children. I was just extremely careful with whom I chose to do so. I took you as my head counselor because of my fondness for your son. Caleb will make a good King someday, I have always known this. You were part of the package. I had to take you to get him," he said. She gasped. She really did think highly of herself. "I am still the King here, and I will not tolerate you harming my daughter. Leave her be or I will destroy you."
"I am ruler now. You have no power here, Kerrigan. You cannot walk in after almost thirty years and reclaim your throne. It will not be that easy!" she screamed at my father.
"Really?" he asked, and looked hard at her. Her green eyes grew wide as she gripped her throat. He choked her without even touching her. She pulled at her beautiful white neck--eyes widened in terror, and then looked to Caleb.
"Kerrigan, please," Caleb said softly.
Kerrigan stopped choking her and looked at Caleb. "I allow her to live because of your love for my daughter and my fondness of you. That is the only reason."
Caleb nodded. He wasn’t going to press the issue with him. My father turned his attention to Pallo.
"You, Pallo…Do you love my daughter as well?" he asked.
Pallo’s face turned up. "Yes," he said. I would have thought he would’ve had more to offer on the matter.
"Is it true that you were to be father to my grandchild?" Kerrigan said to Pallo.
Pallo fought back tears. "Yes, but they…"
My father raised his hand in the air. He motioned for Pallo not to speak. He didn’t want to hear that his own pregnant daughter had been killed by orders of his lead counselor. He didn’t want to hear all the gory details of me being tortured and fed to crazy vampires. He walked towards me. Caleb slid aside for him. He bent down and kissed my head. The pain stopped instantly. My vision cleared. He’d taken my pain away, just as he’d done for me when I was hit by the drunk driver as a child. He really was going to be a father to me this time around, and he had proven it by taking a twenty-five year hiatus to oversee my needs. I cried.
"Do not cry, my little princess. Do not cry. I will not allow anything to happen to you again. I have two able and willing protectors for you now, as well," he said, looking at Caleb and Pallo.
Kerrigan looked at Pallo’s chains. They broke loose. He fell from the wall and almost on top of me. He looked at me and smiled. Caleb looked down at me as well.
"I should have known you two were related, you have his stubborn streak," Caleb said, and looked up at my father. My father smiled at him.
"Do I have your word that the two of you will keep her safe? That you will protect her with your own lives, if need be?"
Caleb spoke first. "I would have given my life for her, even without her being your daughter. I love her."
"Yes, as would I," Pallo said.
"Then go! I have work to attend to here." He looked to Sorcha, who backed into the corner.
"Are you going to kill her?" Caleb asked quietly. I could see the pain in his eyes. Sorcha was an evil woman, but she was still his mother.
My father reached a hand out and touched Caleb. "No, I think I shall rather enjoy her having to squirm at my side for all eternity," he said, laughing.
Caleb smiled and nodded at him, the tension eased from his body. He bent down and scooped me up in his arms. Pallo walked close by our side. I turned and looked in the corner of the room where Giovanni had been. There was nothing.
"Giovanni?" I asked.
"He disappeared before Caleb came in," Pallo said. "He knew that if Caleb was to see him, he would surely die."
Caleb nodded. "Yeah, I went looking for him earlier. I had every intention of killing him."
I was relieved. Caleb hadn’t been going to kill Pallo, after all. He’d been going after Giovanni. "I thought you were going after Pallo."
Caleb laughed. "Now I understand why you were fighting with me."
We all started laughing as we walked out.
Epilogue
I did try to return to my apartment. It was destroyed. I had to give it up. It was for the best, though. I’ve been staying at the farmhouse until I can find a new place in the city. It was hard, at first, commuting back and forth for work. Ken solved my problem by suggesting I try telecommunication. It worked out great--except for the fact neither Caleb nor Pallo knew anything about computers or fax machines, so getting their help hooking stuff up was out of the question. Things are different with Ken and me now. He distanced himself from me. He’s dating someone else now. I think her name is Beth. She was Realtor that had helped Ken and I house hunt. She seems nice. I have to admit that I’m a little jealous of her. I still love Ken.
Caleb moved in the farmhouse with me. We are getting along well. He’s quite the little handyman. He has made it his mission to fix the place up. It’s funny to think about having a Prince working on your plumbing, but he seems to be enjoying himself. He cut his hours back, now he only hunts things down a few days a week. While he’s gone, he makes someone stay with me. Usually it’s either James or Caradoc. They like to come up and spend time with me. We rent movies and hang out. They are like two of my girlfriends now. I rarely see Pallo. He stays away from me as much as he can. I’m okay with that right now. I don’t trust my feelings for him--hell, I’m not even sure if I trust him.
I haven’t heard anything of Giovanni’s whereabouts as of yet. I know that I haven’t seen the last of him. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Part of me cared for him once, and I don’t know if he destroyed that or not.
As for my father, he has regained his throne. I had no doubt that he would. He’s managed to force Sorcha to stand by his side. That’s the best revenge a person could ask for. He has kept a tight lid on the fact that I’m his daughter. I think he fears for my life. Too many people would like to have a shot at the throne. Killing me would increase their chances of getting it. My father feels more secure knowing Caleb is with me. He keeps hinting that he would like a grandchild. I keep telling him that we are nowhere near that stage of the game yet.
I went on birth control. I had to see a Si doctor for it. Caleb was disappointed at first, but he’s getting used to the idea of spending adult time together first. He keeps asking me how I feel about Pa
llo, and I keep telling him that I don’t know. He is a good man, he loves me, and I know that I love him. I hope that is enough.
The End
An UNEDITED excerpt from Immortal Ops by Mandy M. Roth, coming in June to NCP!
I’m done with friends, I’m done with dating, I’m done with everyone, Peren thought to herself as she walked down the side of the highway. What the hell had possessed her to come out? She’d been doing just fine holed up in her tiny apartment. She was even angrier that she’d let Melanie drive. Peren had a perfectly good Saab waiting for her at home. She wasn’t one to flaunt her money; she tried, in fact, to hide it whenever possible, but a ride home would have been worth the hassle of everyone knowing she was loaded.
"Hey…wait up."
She froze and looked down the darkened road. She was miles from town and alone. She wasn’t sure how much distance she’d put between her and the bar. She cursed softly and prepared her body to react, if need be, with violence. She’d grown up being trained in martial arts. The only child of a wealthy man who had wanted a son equaled a hell of a good roundhouse kick.
She turned slowly and prepared to strike. The ebony-haired man from the bar chased after her. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow. He was a persistent bastard, she’d give him that much. His black shirt rose slightly in the wind as he ran to her, exposing his toned abdomen. Damn, the guy must do at least a hundred sit-ups a day. That could only mean one thing…he’s an ass.
* * * *
Lukian slowed his pace and read her, finding himself mildly amused with her opinion of him in the process. She was definitely attracted to him, but found him to be like most men in her life, an ass. Reading her thoughts was easy for him. Most humans weren’t too difficult for him to eavesdrop on, but this Peren was like an open book to him. That caught him a little off guard.
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