“Tristan and Kara are out on the terrace getting some fresh air.”
Ascher’s body stiffened.
A tiny woman with shoulder length black curls and bright, brown eyes approached them. She gave Shauna a warm smile then batted her eyes at Ascher.
“This is my cousin, Lucy, and she will fix you anything you want to eat,” he assured. “Don’t forget to come down after you’re done.”
Ascher turned her face up, gave her a short kiss and sent her down the hall.
* * * *
Ascher and Quinn were the first to arrive to the hall. They sat at the large table, opposite one another, waiting for the others.
Quinn smirked. “I was surprised to see Shauna here today.”
“Not as surprised as I am.”
“What’s this about her sister?”
“Her parents were on the morning news. They haven’t seen Katy for three weeks now. Shauna hasn’t seen her since Ursula was in the bar that night.” He gave his brother a suspicious glance. “You guys forgot to remove the ‘Forever Love’ painting from the wall.”
“You didn’t give us a lot of time. What was her reaction?”
“She thought it was beautiful. She even got the meaning of it. I think it’s time for me to tell her. Lies already broke us apart, and I can’t continue keeping this from her.”
“Father won’t approve.”
“What won’t I approve of?” Jonas’s voice boomed, as he walked into the great hall.
Ascher and Quinn sat silent. Neither of them wanted to say it.
Quinn finally said the words. “Ascher is going to tell Shauna about us.”
Jonas paused. “And you’re sure about her?”
Ascher took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. “Absolutely.”
Tristan and Kara joined them, their expressions painted with intrigue.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Father?”
“What are you talking about, Ascher?”
“I’ve quickened. It happened two weeks ago at her apartment. This is why I’m so sure that I love her and she loves me.”
Quinn and Jonas gasped.
Kara and Tristan exchanged knowing smirks.
Jonas shot Tristan a dirty glance. “I didn’t tell you because I believed you’d seal to Ursula.”
Ascher ground his fingers into the table, attempting to contain his rage. “That isn’t why I called this meeting. Gabe sealed to Ursula a week ago. I lifted it from his mind this morning. Shauna’s sister is missing and I can’t be sure, but my gut tells me that Ursula and her clan are behind it.”
“And Gabe would allow that to happen?” Tristan asked.
“Of course he would,” Kara growled. “He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
“I’ve tried channeling Ursula, but she’s blocking me. Her rage is proving to be a great asset, enabling her to thwart my channels.”
“She has to be pretty angry to block you,” Quinn teased.
“Can you channel any of them? What about the sister?” Jonas asked.
Ascher shook his head. “After I lifted the information about the sealing, everything went blank. It’s as if they know about the deficiencies in my gifts. Like they’re in my mind and can see which switches can be turned off.”
Jonas’s face glowered as he pounded his fist on the table, knocking a chunk of wood across the room. His eyes burned blood red as he shouted, “Gabriel!”
Tristan, ever the optimist, never wanted to see the bad in anyone. His face puzzled with disbelief. “Gabe wouldn’t do that. He’d never betray his blood.”
“That no good—” Quinn growled.
Ascher shot him a quick subliminal and shouted, “Calm down, Quinn!”
Jonas’s face turned to stone, his red eyes flashing as they swept the room. He jarred himself to a stand and hovered above the table—his way of calming down.
The others continued talking, ever mindful of their father’s sour disposition. The seething growls and constant teeth grinding made it hard to ignore.
“When are you going to tell her?” Tristan asked.
“Tonight. I’m taking her to Laurel Pointe.”
“Zach mentioned wanting to come up from Atlanta. Maybe that might be a good idea, just in case.”
Kara’s face dropped. “We’re going to war, aren’t we?”
Tristan hugged her into him. “I don’t think it can be avoided. Ascher quickened and Shauna’s going to be a part of our family. We have to protect her and rescuing her sister is a part of protecting her.”
Silence and tension blanketed the room until a knock came on the door.
“Who is it?” Quinn asked.
Shauna’s tiny voice barely penetrated the heavy door. “It’s Shauna. Lucy said you’d be in here.”
Ascher glimpsed his hovering father and shot him a quick subliminal. Jonas drifted down and back into his seat. “Father,” Ascher whispered. “Are your eyes okay?”
Jonas opened them, revealing two perfect blue orbs.
A sigh of relief left Ascher’s lips. He backed to the door, checking that everyone appeared normal.
When the door opened, Shauna rushed into his arms.
“Did Lucy treat you well?” Ascher asked, smiling adoringly.
“She did.”
“And you’re pleased?”
“Yes.”
He grabbed her hand. “Come meet my family.” He turned to the table, pointing each one out. “Tristan and Quinn, you already know.”
They smiled and waved.
“This is Kara. She’s Tristan’s wife.”
“Hello,” Kara managed to mutter in a strangled voice.
“This is my father, Jonas Rousseau.”
Jonas smiled. “Hello, Shauna. It’s nice to finally meet the woman Ascher has told us so many wonderful things about.”
Shauna beamed.
“Get out of here, youngsters. Go have fun!” Jonas advised. “We’ll keep you up to date when we know anything.”
Ascher pulled her into the hall. “Would you like to go on that tour now?”
Shauna’s face puzzled. “That was weird.”
“Weird?”
“Your sister in law has the same eyes as you and your brothers. Matter of fact, everyone surrounding you has those strange eyes. I thought it was a weird family trait, but Kara has them too and she isn’t a blood relation.”
Ascher laughed off her suspicious statement. “I don’t see it. Maybe the lighting was bad in the hall. It is dark in there.”
“Your father is quite handsome. You favor him a lot.”
“Everyone says that, but I don’t see it. We’ll have to get you contacts for those eyes of yours.”
Shauna was becoming suspicious and before he ruined things with more lies, he’d tell her the truth.
Eleven ~ Dark Offerings
Romania
Katy sat on the filthy dirt floor of some unknown room with no windows. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there—she’d been in and out of consciousness and her watch had long since stopped telling time. It was only good as a flashlight now, but the light was so dim that it was hardly good for that.
Pain rang in her head. Was it a migraine? It couldn’t be. She had the occasional headache when she forced herself to run an extra mile on an empty stomach. This was far worse than any head discomfort she’d experienced. The deep pulsing caused her vision to halo. Her clammy palm ran over a forehead dotted with moisture. When she brought her hand to her face, the dim light revealed fingers spotted with red—she’d reopened an old cut while she slept.
“Help!” she shouted. “Someone please help me. Hello, can anyone hear me?”
Katy squinted hoping to make out a new marking or some small detail she may have missed before, but the stench of damp, putrid air clouded her vision and brought the nausea to her throat. Nothing had changed. Using her watch as a mini flashlight, she shined it around the torturous tomb attempting to inspect her surroundings.
The
gray cemented walls were marked. Someone was there before her. It reminded her of prison movies, the inmates marking their days of incarceration with lines on the wall. Something flashed against the watch light as her eyes swept the room a second time. She attempted to raise herself up but pain shot through her left leg, throwing her back down.
“Someone please help? I can’t walk. Why are you doing this to me?”
Applying gentle pressure to her leg, she used the wall to steady herself. After shifting her weight to the right leg, she hobbled over to the shiny object against the wall and gasped loudly.
The object was a pocket watch that stopped ticking long ago. The soot covering it rendered it unreadable. She rubbed the face, loosening some of the grime before blowing it away. It was a man’s watch and looked to be very old, possibly turn of the twentieth century. She flipped it over. There was an inscription.
To Jonathan, Love Always Sharon
A new wave of nausea twisted her stomach.
Jonathan was most likely dead. Panic gripped her as she thought about her family. She was famished, her mouth arid as if it were stuffed with cotton. She could just imagine how good a cold glass of water would taste.
Sifting through a pile of rocks again, she attempted to ascertain her whereabouts. Her shaky hand scribbled on the wall—her name, the year and a desperate plea for help. She knew it would do no good, but she had to try.
She couldn’t give up.
A squeaking came from the opposite side of the room. She shined her watch light over in the direction of the noise. The light reflected off the beady eyes of a huge rat, perched atop a mound of dingy blankets. The ghastly rodent was busy chewing, its sharp teeth gnawing with portentous purpose.
Aghast, Katy screamed.
The lumpy mound wasn’t just a collection of blankets stuffed in a corner. The hungry rodent was hastily consuming what looked like a finger.
Terrorized, she screamed again.
The doorknob clicked and slowly turned. A pale hand crept around the heavy door with a matching body following. It was a woman; her greeting was a wicked and sinister smile. “So, you’re awake...good for you,” she greeted with a foreign accent sifting along her words. “I didn’t think you’d wake up. That just means we’ll have more fun.”
“Please. I haven’t done anything wrong. My sister has to be looking for me. Let me go and I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”
The pale visitor laughed. “I can’t let you go. Where’s the fun in that? I want Shauna to come looking for you.”
“You know my sister?”
“Unfortunately, I know her and her new boyfriend.”
“Please don’t hurt my sister,” Katy cried. “She’s all I have.”
The pale woman seemed to take pleasure in her desperation. “I have to admit, I was very displeased when I realized that I took the wrong sister. You both look and smell so much alike, but when life throws you lemons—you make lemonade.”
Katy sobbed.
“Don’t cry, young one. Your suffering will be brief. I’ll see to it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to take care of. I’ll be back to see you again.” She walked over to the door and opened it before glancing back.
Katy whimpered, “Please just let me go. I don’t even know who you are.”
The woman smiled. “I’m Ursula and you’re Katy. Now that the introductions have been made, I’ll be going.” She flashed her red glare and uttered, “You try to hang in there. The game won’t be as much fun if you die.”
Katy screamed as her mind registered the stranger’s crimson gaze. The door clanged shut after her, causing a chill to run up Katy’s spine. She wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. She sat, rocking herself against the wall as the shock set in.
* * * *
After the failed sealing, Ursula had confined herself to her chambers, refusing to communicate with anyone. Her father came up three times a day begging to see her, but she refused. A vow of hunger left her barely able to function, while her future loomed non-existent.
The human took everything.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Ursula stared at a picture of Ascher and her, taken two years ago at her coronation. That night changed her existence. She’d met Ascher for the first time at the ball. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. Immortally unique, he’d been a perfect gentleman and they'd danced late into the night.
His beating heart amazed her. After almost two centuries, she’d grown indifferent to the sound. She couldn’t remember what her own sounded like and she’d learned to tune out the hearts of the humans she saw. She could sit for hours, her hand on Ascher’s chest, feeling it pulse out a perfectly unchallenged rhythm. Her life revolved around him and his distinctive differences.
Believing old Klaus’s prediction, she gave herself to him that first night. They made love in the very bed she now wept in, grieving their end. They made love hundreds of times. Sex was a silly and curious past time for them. He was her first, so she had no one to compare him to, but she was sure that she’d never find another like him. The temperature of his warm skin was pleasurably different.
Ursula traced her hand across their picture. His youthful face was astounding, the eyes much like any vampire but still holding an unusual light within them. She attributed that to his human side. The faint flush that adorned his cheeks was one of the most beautiful things about him.
She recalled that same face the last time she’d seen him. It was colder, distant, his eyes dead and drained of compassion for her. The only flush was in his crimson colored eyes. It was the first time she’d witnessed them flash red. Ascher had looked at the human with such love and adoration, an amorous sparkle exuding from the very depths of him. He'd never looked at Ursula that way. She couldn’t compete with that. The human was warm, deliciously scented and had the physical capability to bear children.
Ursula knew she should be over Ascher by now, but she wasn’t. Sharing a bed with Gabriel was hardly a concession. Sex with him was barbaric, so different than it was with Ascher. They may have looked alike, but Gabe’s skin was just as cold as any vampire’s—absolutely no warmth. His forced kisses did nothing for her. She missed Ascher—the touch of his skin, the gentle way he’d made love to her—but her body wasn’t what her half-blooded ex wanted.
With a venomous screech, she slung the crystal frame across the room, shattering it into tiny pieces. A low growl lurched from her throat. He’d be making love to her soon. Surely, he wanted to. How would he get that close without wanting to take a bite out of her? Ursula knew that she definitely would. She hated the human and loathed the very ground that she walked on, but more than anything else she was just plain jealous.
Looking back, things had been bad for a while, but she refused to face the fact. A year ago, he became distant, spacing out their visits and preferring to stay in a separate chamber when he did visit. The frequency of the phone calls lessened, but she could still reach him. Finally, three months ago, he skipped their visit and neglected to return her many calls. Ursula's heart hadn’t beaten for centuries, but she was heartbroken. She loved Ascher and wanted him back, but the human was in the way.
Clive called for a truce immediately after the sealing. What a wimp. If he wasn’t going to do anything to avenge the wrongs done to her, she would. She already had a plan in place. Ascher couldn’t make love to the human if she wasn’t around. What better way to draw her than to use her little sister as bait. A sinister satisfaction filled her cold, heartless soul. If she had to suffer, she wouldn’t be the only one!
* * * *
Katy huddled in the corner of the dark room, her joints aching from close confinement and lack of exercise. Her clothing heavily soiled and saturated with dirt and excrement, she never left the small room and her golden complexion paled from lack of sunlight.
Ursula came once a day bringing meager rations disguised as nourishment. Katy ate to survive, even though the food was repulsive. Some days, she wished to die,
seeking out things to get the job done. She knew it was a mortal sin, but death would at least mean that she’d be free of the misery that pulsed through her body. The crooked bone in her leg was healing, and she could put weight on it but now walked with a limp. The familiar clang of the heavy door startled her. She glanced up, through weary eyes to see a dark figure floating toward her. This figure was different—much taller and sturdy in build.
“Huh--help me.” She struggled to speak, her parched and sore throat hindering her from saying much.
The dark figure sniffed then reached out to touch her.
His touch was cold, and Katy could tell that he was no different from the woman. Was he there to finish her? Death was good and she would welcome it. If she were going to die, she at least wanted to look her killer in the eye. She peered up and saw the same pale eyes as Ascher and Ursula. Her hand smoothed against his wintry face as she whispered, “Please kill me. I can’t take anymore. I’m tired and hungry and…” She glanced down at her tattered clothing. “Please help me, just kill me.”
A deep growl came from his mouth as he stared down into her eyes. “What is your name, child?”
“K-Katy.”
“I’m Gabriel.”
She now recognized the pale eyes that she’d seen when she met Ascher. He was just as gorgeous. “You’re my sister’s boss...Ascher’s brother,” she managed to speak before she fainted.
* * * *
Gabe swept Katy up, carrying her out of the hellhole she’d inhabited, shielding her face from the bright light funneling into the hallway. He carried her to Clive’s office, bursting through the door with such brute force that it flew open, ripping from its hinges.
Clive was alone, a pile of papers and documents scattered on the table in front of him. He looked up. “You can’t just go around here breaking things!”
“You think I give a damn about that door?” Gabe muttered. “I don’t suppose any of those books are the covenants?”
Clive startled. “Where did she come from?”
“I found her in the cellar, and she's been there a long time. Don’t you know who she is?”
Clive’s face shrouded with confusion.
The Progeny (The Progeny Series) Page 12