Days of Innocence

by C. L. Quinn

  Chione and Donovan had hugged their son and wished him well. No one was more in tune with the living planet than the two chosen to guide the guardians of the earth someday. They understood Talib’s need to touch her soul.

  Two nights later, Ahmose set Shani on a patch of grass just off the edge of one of the highest waterfalls. It had always been his favorite retreat in the days when life tended to overwhelm him on occasion. Of recent, his daughter had taken over the spot and he granted it to her willingly. He still flinched when he thought about her disability, but he knew it wasn’t permanent. Still, he could see her pain and it went right to his own heart.

  “Are you sure you want to stay up here that long? I’ll have to go to rest within the next two hours. Drango won’t be able to come for you for three.”

  “I’ll be fine, Father. I need to meditate and reconnect with my own spirit. It’s a bit fragile these days.”

  “Shani, baby…”

  “Father, no. I’m okay, but if you start getting emotional, I won’t be. So go down and spend some time with your mate.”

  “Mal’s in Cairo tonight.”

  “Oh, well, good for her. Then go get some me-time. God knows in this village that can be tough.”

  “All right, but if you want to come down before the sun arrives, you must call me.”

  “I will. Good day, and rest well.”

  “Be good to yourself.”

  “Sure.”

  She wasn’t. Not lately. Once he was gone, she brooded and let herself feel sorry for herself. Her friends and siblings were off to see the world and here she sat alone atop the same waterfall she’d sat atop since she was a toddler.

  “You’re a sad little woman,” she remarked out loud.

  “At least you’re an honest one,” a voice behind her commented.

  “Uh, oh, caught in a maudlin self-pity party. Hi, Mother.”

  Starla dropped down beside her daughter.

  “I want you to look out over this landscape and really see its beauty. You aren’t mobile right now, but you will be again. So let yourself appreciate this place. Shani, you’ll be gone just like the others when the time comes, and you’ll miss your home.”

  “I know that. I’m just…” Trailing off, Shani did as her mother asked. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful places on earth. “Mom, why is life so tough?”

  “It’s so we appreciate the good things. We need the struggle to understand how good it is when its good. There’s an old saying that you only know the highest high when you’ve known the lowest low. Sweetheart, your highs are coming.”

  “Oh. Then I have a lot of goodness coming.”

  “You do, baby.”

  Moments of silence fell naturally between them until Shani looked into her mother’s eyes. “I’ve fallen for someone.”

  Starla took a deep breath. “I sensed something.”

  “Why are men so difficult?”

  “You’re asking me? Look what I went through with your father and my mate? They practically killed each other. And the answer to your question is the same. So that you really appreciate them when things finally fall into place.” After another pause, Starla cleared her throat. “So are you going to tell me who he is?”

  “He wouldn’t have me. I offered myself to him on a plate and he spat me out.”

  “I can’t believe that, my daughter.”

  “As good as. The truth is, he’s a good man. He says that he is not worthy of me.”

  “Now that’s more likely.”

  “It’s bullshit.”

  “It is. If you have fallen for him, he’s worthy. So, uh, his name would be…?”

  “You know him. Koen’s guard for the guardians.”

  Starla leaned back, her arms around her knees. “Ah. The devilishly sexy Rodney he brought back from New York when you were a baby.”

  “It was unexpected. I’d hurt my foot on the beach and he carried me back. I don’t know, but the moment I felt his arms around me, something inside me responded to him.”

  “I recognize the emotion. My attraction to Jacob was unwanted and instantaneous. Well, I guess you have to convince him he’s wrong.”

  “Not now, not until I’m whole again.”

  “Shani, don’t put your life on hold for this. Remember, too, that sometimes, the feelings are right, but the timing is not. Life is what happens to you while you’re waiting around for other things to happen. Or something like that. You have limited mobility right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do many of the things you want to. Call Brigitte and tell her you want to come to Boston. Join the girls. Do the things you want to do. Rodney will still be there when you’re ready, I promise you.”

  “You really think I can manage like this?”

  “I know you can.”

  “Huh. You may be right. Um, yeah, I think I will.”

  “Splendid. I’ll have the plane ready. Now, the sun is up in about 40 minutes, so you better let me give you a ride back down.”

  “Yeah, I think so. Mother, you’re also right about the fact that, no matter where any of us go, this will always be home.”

  “Never forget that.”

  IN DUBAI

  “Holy hell, Mac! Your father would shit a brick if he saw the speeds you get!”

  “Wouldn’t he! Man, that was awesome! You gotta try it, Eras.”

  “No, I’m next.” Eras and Mac watched Caedmon as he reached for a helmet.

  “Caed, I promised your mother I’d look out for you.”

  “I know, Mac, and I appreciate it. If you really want to look out for me, don’t treat me like an invalid. I’m not anymore.”

  “Hey, I know that, but if you got hurt…”

  “I won’t. Even if I did, we are all here for the same thing. To taste life before we become creatures of the night. I might have had a rough start, but, for whatever reason, I’m well now, and I’ve just as much right as you two to take the ride.”

  Eras stretched his arms wide. “The man has a point. Okay, sure. But have you driven at speeds like this before?”

  “Shit, guys, none of us have. Mac, yeah, you’re the best driver I’ve ever seen, but now I want to try my chops.”

  “Okay, strap on and strap in.”

  Caedmon’s grin disappeared under the metallic blue helmet he’d chosen. “How’s Rev for a nickname?”

  Mac shook his head. “Just keep it on the track, Rev.”

  Eras leaned against the railing as he watched Mac help Caedmon into the high-speed roadster he’d rented for this run. Once the car moved slowly from the parking space onto the track, Mac leaned beside him.

  “I think I’ll always worry about him.”

  “I get it. I’m feeling the same way right now about my sister Shani.” Eras’s eyes stayed on the track. “So how’s yours?”

  “Cari? She’s great. You know that house in the Rocky mountains that creep took her to? She’s staying there. She told my parents that the silence and beauty there let her think and she’s in love with it. My father arranged to buy the place from Jackson.”

  “Jackson, eh? That was a wild surprise. Humans, joining us in our fight? What if they’re long dead by then?”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works. Mom and Eillia said they talked to Chione a few weeks ago, and she said the universe will protect those it needs.”

  “So, they’ll become vampire?”

  “I can’t imagine that. I mean, it’s supposed to be humans fighting with us, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  Caedmon pulled onto the track, his engine firing, revving, until he let it go and it surged forward to begin its lap.

  Eras watched, but his attention was elsewhere. “So, Mac, what’s the address of that house in the mountains?”

  IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

  “Rodney, come with me.” Koen grabbed a bottle of Johnnie Walker and headed out of the villa.

  Ready to settle in for the night, Rodney laid his book aside and followed him. The ni
ght was almost balmy, warm air finally arriving to stay.

  Shoeless, both men hit the sand and lingered.

  “Damn, that feels good.” Koen took a long draw on the bottle and handed it to Rodney. Continuing closer to the shoreline, he glanced up as Rodney came alongside him.

  “What did you need, sir?”

  “Rodney, I told you several weeks ago that we needed to talk.”

  “I recall.”

  “We were discussing the fact that the original reason I brought you here is no longer necessary.”

  Was this it? Koen sending him back to the U.S. to finish his insignificant life? If that was so, he wasn’t losing a job, he was losing a family. He couldn’t speak, so he just nodded. He’d thought that he and Koen had built something special all these years, but he realized that it was likely just his aspiration for a connection that he’d never have. He admitted he was an unrepentant dreamer.

  “So you don’t actually have a job. While my daughter is pregnant again, and I would love to have you there to see to the baby’s protection while we sleep, it’s not much of a job.”

  Koen stopped and turned. “Rodney, when I met you in New York, I felt a connection to you I’ve never felt before. In spite of your history in criminal pursuits, I saw the honest man within. I gave you my trust, and you’ve never let me down.”

  “I hope not, sir. You gave me a reason, a purpose, to live.”

  “Now that the job is done, you are free to resume your life however you would like to. But Rodney, I want you to know that this will always be your home. You’ve become like a son to me, and I can’t imagine ever seeing you go and never come back. You belong here, with me, with us, with your family. I hope you feel the same way.”

  Now, as much as he wanted to, Rodney couldn’t speak. Feel the same way?

  Reaching for the bottle, he looked up into Koen’s eyes then, and words were unnecessary. Koen clapped a hand on Rodney’s shoulder, hesitated, then pulled him close to give him a tight hug.

  “This is my home, sir. From that first moment, I knew where I was meant to be.”

  “I did too. If and when you’re ready, I would like to make you vampire.”

  “I would be honored, sir. But perhaps after Park’s child is grown? I would like to take care of her until then.”

  “Okay.”

  They continued the stroll down the beach. Koen finished off the bottle of Scotch. “I’m happy you’re staying. Well, until that little Shani comes for you someday.”

  Rodney sighed. He’d forgotten Koen knew. Fuck.

  IN THE COLORADO ROCKIES

  Cairine had discovered that the sunset from the edge of a wide horseshoe-shaped ridge rivaled her beloved sunrise in France. Golden tones competed for reds in the sky as they threatened to swallow the sinking sun.

  Sipping a hot cocoa, she scanned the horizon. She’d never felt more at peace or more like herself. She had no doubt that she was precisely where she needed to be right now.

  When a twig cracked behind her, Cairine twisted to see what caused it.

  “Hey, Care.”

  What the hell? Eras? Here? Why?

  “Um, hi. What…uh, what are you doing here?”

  Kicking off his shoes, he dropped beside her, close enough that she could feel the heat of his thigh through his jeans.

  “I wanted some company.”

  “Weren’t you going to Dubai with my brother and Caed?”

  “I did.” Eras turned to look at her face, illuminated by the deep magentas of the sun’s final rays. She looked like perfection. “They weren’t the company I wanted.”

  He stood then, and pulled her up with him. “Cairine, I’ve had sex quite a few times over the past several years. The act is spectacular. But since I saw you again, barely dressed on your beach, I haven’t been able to think of anything else. If I’m right, you haven’t been with anyone yet.”

  Arrogant. To think she had never had sex when he’d had it many times. It wasn’t for the lack of choices.

  “What makes you think that?”

  Taking her face in his hands, Eras watched her tongue wrap around her lips. “Because I know your father and your grandfather. And I know you. Casual sex isn’t in your vocabulary. Not yet, anyway. Cari, I want to be the first man to touch you. I want to be the one you remember when all others are gone. It seemed to me that you might feel the same way. I don’t think I’m mistaken, am I?

  “No. I’ve met plenty of attractive men, though, Eras, so don’t think I’ve waited around for you.”

  “I wouldn’t presume.”

  “Yes you would.”

  Eras laughed. “You do know me well. I guess the question now is, would you want me to be your first lover?”

  He was rubbing his thumbs over her cheekbones. His touch and that indefinably sensual scent tore through her belly and centered itself between her legs. Her breasts ached and her nipples rubbed her sweater. God, yes, she wanted him to be her first lover. First? Right now, she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to be with anyone else.

  Lifting up, she touched her lips to his, and their indecision broke. Eras had her in his arms, striding toward the house.

  “No,” Cairine whispered. “Here, now, against the earth. It seems right.”

  “It does seem right. I can see that if I’m not careful, you’ll hold sway over me for the rest of my life.”

  “No promises. Just introduce me to lovemaking, Eras. We have a long life ahead to discover the rest.”

  Setting her on her feet, she stepped away from him, just enough to see him in the fading light.

  “Undress.” A simple command. Eras smiled as she crossed her arms to watch.

  First, he peeled away the plaid shirt he’d let Caedmon talk him into. Eight buttons and it slid over wide shoulders to flutter to the ground. Then, he unsnapped his jeans, slid the zipper down and peeled them off too. He hadn’t worn underwear.

  Locked on his body, Cairine began to quiver as she watched Eras’s body, human, but strong and powerful, heavy muscles that made her respond immediately, revealed, as his shirt dropped to the grass. When he pulled his jeans over his hips, his erect cock slid free of the denim, and her eyes stayed there. Seconds later, she moved closer and curled her fingers around the full hard organ.

  “This is what all the excitement is about?” she whispered.

  He nodded. “It’s what I do with it that matters. Your turn.”

  Unwilling to let him go, she turned her back to him so that he could unzip her sweater dress and shook it off one shoulder and then the next. She turned back to him to slide her hand up and down his penis as he moved close to slip his fingertips along the edge of her high-cut satin panties.

  “Come with me.” Leading her to a thick patch of grass, he lifted her, laid her down, and slid the panties off.

  “First, I have to make sure you’re ready.”

  “Show me how.”

  His body covering hers, he moved up to kiss her lips, a deep kiss born of passion, something new to him too. Moving lower, he bit and licked her breasts, the nipples standing at attention, ready for him, begging for him. When he finally reached her core, his tongue hot, he nipped around the area until he buried it inside her. Cairine’s body lifted, her hands in his hair, a scream on her lips.

  Sex had been about orgasm and satisfaction, but with Cari, it was different…it was connection and a deep need to share the pleasure.

  “Cari,” he whispered. “I may have had sex before, but you’re still my first.”

  She lowered her head to let it drop into the warm grass. This, yes, this was what she’d sought when she left home, the life she needed, the experience she would never forget, the moment when she felt most human. To share that with Eras, who’d she’d had a crush on for a decade, was all she could possibly have hoped for.

  Where the future took them, she couldn’t know. But life is about being in the moment, in the now, and being fully present for each tiny point in time.

  God, was she
present!

  Minutes later when Eras raised himself and entered her, her body lifted again, reaching for him. It was everything she expected it to be and more. She’d told him no promises and she meant it. This was perfect, exactly as it should be.

  Tomorrow would come, but now, oh, now, this…!

  Soon, the Grand Destiny arrives. In the next story, we spin forward in time, just over a century, to a new world.

  You’ve travelled the path with us for such a great journey, come with us once again as the First Blood children, vampires now for many years, find their place in it all, and hopefully help the Mother Earth survive for new generations of her diverse, incredible life; human, animal, and beyond.

  We are not finished with the stories of the First Bloods! I hope to always be able to bring you their tales. If you have a few moments to leave a review, you’d be surprised at how important it is to the series. Its success is gauged by the number of reviews. Hopefully, you enjoyed the book and are inclined to do so.

  Thank you for traveling with me again.

  Charlie Quinn