by Sam Destiny
“When did you talk to him?” He had been there only a few minutes and Kaden hadn’t been gone that long. The total silence of the house barely registered with him.
“On the way to get your supplies. Everyone’s supposed to stay away from here and her.”
Jaden liked that. A lot.
“Why do you work with someone called Red?”
Relief poured through Jaden like fresh blood as Maya opened her eyes.
“I’m out, man. I’ll wait in the common room,” Kaden whispered and then left.
“What happened? I talked to Lara and then…” She tried to sit up, but Jaden stopped her.
“Just rest for a little bit. You hit your head and I don’t know how hard.” He went through her hair, realizing how soft it was under his hands.
She only shook her head, fear in her eyes.
“I hit my head? How? I mean, I was just walking and … I keep stumbling or falling…” Her uneasiness made even him itchy.
“I think you are just exhausted. I mean, you slept forever at my house, already proving that you needed it badly. And then your little stunt at the front steps…” He tried to make her smile, but failed miserably.
“It’s not exhaustion,” she whispered so low he had to listen hard to catch her words.
“What do you mean?” And why was an icy cold grabbing him at her somber expression? When Maya tried to sit up another time he let her, not moving back at all. He knew he was in her personal space, but for some reason he needed to be close to her.
“Something’s very wrong with my body,” Maya whispered, looking down at her hands. “One moment my reflexes are more than human and the next I can barely walk. My eyes are … I think…” She was trembling hard, closing said eyes. Jaden couldn’t stop the reflex to frame her face. Would that burning ever stop?
“Listen, Cupcake, I’m not Lex. I can’t read thoughts, so please, talk.”
“I think I have a tumor,” she sobbed, a tear rolling down her cheek. Jaden almost laughed, resting his forehead against hers.
“You don’t. We can smell sickness. I could smell a cold if you had it. And you, sweetness, are as healthy as a horse,” he promised and she leaned into him, almost as if she wanted to hide.
“Then you should blindfold me, take me to the desert and leave me there. If I’m not sick, I’m totally screwed. I’d rather deal with this myself than … you know, pull anyone into it. Jaden ... Lara said something about me being an Origin. What is that supposed to mean? I don’t have a husband. I don’t even have a boyfriend.”
Jaden felt as if all air was taken from his lungs. If Lara had felt it, it was true and that meant…
“Jaden? An explanation, please? I think I deserve it.” Maya asked again. “She said something about a mate, but it can’t be just that, right?”
He took a deep breath, wondering how best to explain this topic. “Besides her I’ve never met an Origin. Every hundred years an Origin Queen comes of age, starting a new generation of Morningstars or Hellraise. A Queen always is a child born to a vampire and its partner.”
“Aren’t they all born to a vampire and its partner?” she asked and he scratched his head, grinning in embarrassment.
“I never really bothered with the specifics, so I’m not the best for explaining this, but I’ll try. What do you know about vampires?” She pulled up her knees, looking breakable and young while shrugging.
“I know they need blood, they turn around twenty-five and if any of them bite me it burns them like acid,” she whispered, her voice haunted by memories. Again he wondered what had made her run.
“You know, if Lara is right, the last part makes sense. An Origin can only feed her true mate. If anyone tries to bite one of them, more than a few sips will kill that vampire. Colbin says that this is the knowledge that lets him sleep better because no one can own his female. And mates won’t die because the blood exchange keeps them frozen in time, if I understand that right.” His blood would keep her frozen and her blood could feed only him. He was glad about that because the thought of someone else on her neck made him livid.
“Because you usually have one vamp in the pairing,” she concluded and Jaden nodded, being pulled from his thoughts.
“So, once you find your mate the two of them complete their bond, meaning they exchange blood while…” Did he blush? Jaden hadn’t blushed in decades and that made him turn just another shade of red.
“Having sex, you mean?” she asked, winking.
“Yeah, a tattoo will appear upon…” Origin, tattoo, mate… Did he really think telling her all this was a good idea? Pointing out that she was his could definitely cause her to freak out.
“Like the one you have on your back? The one you got from those cheap women? Weren’t you supposed to be out to find them anyways?”
Right. She had caught that whiff and she definitely remembered too well what had been said before.
“Yeah, but you collapsed and now you need a short intro into vamp-history.”
She gave him a smile and he couldn’t help but notice that she tugged on his heartstrings. Before he could think about it, he found himself leaning in to press his lips fully against hers. It made his blood boil and his back burn where she edged herself even more into his skin. Once he pulled back, his fangs clearly showed between his lips. Meeting Maya’s eyes he waited for the fear he expected, but all he could see was curiosity. She reached out, touching his fangs, almost breaking the skin of her fingertip with their sharp points.
He grabbed her hand, keeping her from tempting him with her blood.
“So anyways. That tattoo is unique; saying something about either you or your Origin … mate in your case. This will only work though if the Origin Queen has been turned immortal by then." He hadn’t released her hand and Maya moved closer.
“Will work? Will work how?” she wanted to know.
“If the Queen is not immortal, neither will be the mated Origins. No matter what, they will be dead by the age of thirty.” The latest, but he wasn’t ready to tell her that just yet. “It doesn’t matter if you are a vampire, werewolf or human. They will all die. And the unions won’t create babies.”
She slowly nodded. “It’s nature’s way of controlling your population, huh?” He never had thought about it this way, but he guessed she was right.
“So … three years from now I’ll definitely be dead?” Her voice was fragile, and Jaden still could hear that she wasn’t afraid. She just accepted that as a fact. Truth was he had never bothered with the specifics because for him finding his Origin had seemed impossible. It was a bother at best and a disaster at worst. Why would you burden yourself with someone to care for when every day you ran the risk of hurting them on the deepest level possible just by fulfilling your job? Dying in the line of duty wasn’t unheard of and that meant she’d end up heartbroken. Besides, his heart and soul belonged to the Morningstar Order.
A mate just wasn’t in his cards.
“I’m sure we’ll find the Queen before that,” he promised, not being able to tell her the real story: Only seldom Origins reached the age of thirty and finding a Queen was close to impossible. They rarely made it out of their childhood.
“How about I don’t focus on my impending death just yet and we think of something else instead. You have a million vampires out there without anyone knowing? And what’s the difference between a Morningstar and a Hell… What did you call them? Besides them being evil?”
“Hellraise. And no, we aren’t that many out there. Vampires live in covens all over the world. Morningstars more than Hellraise. We try to control the population, regulating births and making sure that one family only gets one child. It’s hard on the parents, but none of them are ready to bring a monster into that world. Only the first-born will be good vampires, meaning Morningstar. They are strong enough to control their feeding impulses, otherwise they’ll go wild and … every child born to a couple after its first one will become a Hellraise. They can’t resist the blood
and eventually will not stop to consider who might see them during a meal.” He made a face, thinking that meal totally wasn’t the right word because there was no pleasant sit-down for them or the victims.
“Anyways, our race is called Morningstar because a child can only be conceived in the hour before sunrise, the hour of the Morning Star.”
“That’s beautiful and poetic,” she whispered and Jaden shrugged it off. It was just something he took for granted.
“Once the Hellraise children turn rogue, or wild as you’d say, they need more and more blood. The more Hellraise we have…”
“The more they raise hell on earth. Got it,” she concluded and he nodded.
“The lust for blood makes them insane and that’s where we come in. We go out and end them.” Harsh words, he could tell by the expression on her face, but second nature to him. This was life, and death was unfortunately part of it. She yawned and he got up, glad for an excuse to get a little break from her. She just swamped his body with things he never had wanted to feel about anyone but his brothers in arms: He wanted to protect her, care for her and make sure she’d never be unwell. Besides that, something dangerously close to gentleness and love swept through him every time her purple eyes met his gaze. It was a mix he definitely wasn’t keen on feeling.
“That was enough for now. You have a lot to think about and Colbin needs to see me, so…” He just shrugged while she suddenly grabbed the side of her head as if a migraine was attacking her. And maybe it was. He wouldn’t be surprised if her head felt like exploding due to all this new info.
“It’s gonna be okay, Cupcake.” She didn’t react to his words and he left, taking a deep breath after exiting her room.
This truly was a mess.
Jaden went to seek out his brother before meeting with their leader, but he found his best friend instead. He took any excuse he could to avoid meeting Colbin. He wasn’t afraid of him, but Jaden feared what he might hear. A private meeting with the first generation Morningstar was never a tea party.
“You look like hell,” Ryder announced, his emerald eyes shining with mischief. Jaden just glared at him, making Ryder laugh.
“I tell ya, women are unnecessary, annoying and just too much work. Kaden says she’s your mate anyways. How did that happen?”
“Kaden has a pretty big mouth,” Jaden growled. “I just picked up a girl for a quick fuck and see where it got me? If I’d have known then…” He made a show to point out how little he wanted Maya. “And for the record, if I can get rid of her she’ll definitely be out of my hair. She’s nothing like the women I usually go for.”
Ryder wriggled his eyebrows. “Not tall and blond?” he wanted to know and Jaden shook his head.
“Maya is tiny and … Ry?” His best friend had turned from teasing macho to dead serious in a matter of seconds.
“Matt said she has purple eyes. You say her name is Maya. We are in trouble. Let’s go and find Colbin. Trust me, Jay, she won’t be in your hair much longer.”
Jaden reached out, grabbing his best friend as he tried to walk away. He didn’t like the tone Ryder had used, or the things he implied. Yes, he didn’t want to be tied to her because it meant worrying about her and needing to care for her, but he sure as hell didn’t want her gone in the sense Ryder was insinuating.
“Hold on, buddy. I meant I want to ship her off to Hawaii, knowing she’s safe and bored there, not that she needs to lie with the worms.”
Ryder had the decency to look truly sorry. “Not gonna happen, dude,” he whispered, knocking on the big double doors that marked the entry to their leader’s private quarters.
“Enter,” Colbin commanded from inside, making the doors open just with a thought.
Lara stood at his side, looking pale and yet truly happy, while Colbin looked as grave as they came.
“How is she?”
“Resting,” Jaden said with a curt nod and Colbin acknowledged his words with a deep breath.
“We need to kill her as soon as we can,” Ryder said, his voice breaking. Jaden went ice cold at his words, wanting to rip him apart even though he was his best friend. He knew Ryder was a good fighter and a deadly enemy, but he never had thought his best friend would kill innocents like Maya.
“For what reason? You haven’t even met her yet! I mean, I don’t wanna be responsible for her, but I sure as hell won’t allow anyone to kill her just because she was unfortunate enough to run into me,” Jaden forced out, trying hard not to growl. He wanted to shake his best friend until he made sense again.
Colbin looked at them as if he couldn’t decide what to say first. Finally he focused on Ryder.
“Killing her won’t go onto anyone’s account. She’ll die soon anyways if…”
“What?”
Even though Ryder had suggested her death just mere seconds ago he paled visibly at Colbin’s words.
“How?”
Wasn’t that the question Jaden was supposed to ask? He was bonded to her, not Ryder. And he still didn’t want her dead, no matter what.
“She’ll die if she’s not turned. Her body shows all the signs, right? I never bothered with the specifics of that whole changing business, but she said something about her vision changing and her hearing being influenced, too, and then…” Jaden shook his head. “Colbin, how does this Origin business work?”
“It’s a slow death. She’s changing and needs blood if she’s a normal vamp. As an Origin she needs her partner’s blood or her body simply will give in. Hunger pangs that nothing can ease; thirst that won’t go away and she’ll feel ice cold no matter how hot it is. It’s not pretty,” Ryder explained before Colbin even had taken a breath.
“You saw it before,” Lara whispered and Jaden saw how his best friend nodded gravely. He noticed, too, how Ryder made fists at his side just to keep himself from shaking.
“I saw both versions … vampire and Origin. I saw vampire dying because she didn’t get blood and an Origin because the guy she belonged to refused to give her his blood. They knew there wouldn’t be off-spring and they didn’t…” He looked like a ghost and Jaden wondered what he was missing here.
If anyone knew Ryder’s story, it was Colbin, but even their leader seemed shocked into silence.
“That vamp, if you were there, why didn’t you help her?” Jaden heard the anger in Lara’s voice, could see it in the tight lines of her beautiful face.
Ryder turned away, but not too soon for Jaden to notice the haunted look in his eyes.
“She was my sister. She didn’t want to turn into what our mom was. She didn’t want to become a monster, so I didn’t help her. I just stayed by her side so she knew she wasn’t alone,” Ryder whispered, but Jaden knew that only his supernatural hearing had made him pick the words up at all.
“A Hellraise with two kids. That must be close to a wonder,” Lara remarked and Jaden knew that Hellraise barely had enough control to conceive one child, let alone more.
“Five. I had four siblings,” Ryder admitted, drawing a gasp from the rest of the little group.
“Impossible,” Jaden mumbled when no one else did.
“I wish. My mother is pretty sane for an insane person and my father is devoted to her. After I joined the Order I went and tried to kill her, but…” Ryder didn’t even need to finish. Jaden couldn’t imagine going out to kill his parents, no matter what they had done.
“You’ve been with us for more than fifty years and you never mentioned any siblings. I assume they are all dead?” Colbin asked, his tone deep with authority. He wouldn’t be happy about a warrior knowingly leaving monsters to roam even if they were his family.
In the case of Ryder not being able to kill them, at least the Order should have kept an eye on them to prevent the worst.
“I thought so. I met their last child about ten years ago for the last time. Before that she was so little, so innocent, so sweet … I just couldn’t do anything and I knew no one else would be able to, either. Ten years ago I tried again a
nd … she didn’t know who I was or what she was. A Morningstar family had taken her in when she had been about three or so. She thought she was human. Still did when I met her again. I couldn’t do it, so I sent someone else. Obviously he couldn’t do it, either,” Ryder explained, his look apologetic and yet heartbroken. Jaden could see he was mourning the sister he never had spent much time with.
“We get it, it’s not so easy to kill someone even if you know what they’ll do,” Jaden snapped, feeling more agitated by the minute. “Look, Ry, I’m sorry, I truly am, but we came here because we had more pressing matters at hand. If what you said in the beginning is true, then I need to … we need to do something for Maya.” He was the only one who could turn her, he realized.
“Tell me, Jaden, Maya and you, is there something we need to know?” Colbin asked, his tone implying that he already knew. Ryder vibrated with anger next to Jaden and it made him nervous.
“You two don’t get it,” his best friend growled, but Jaden decided to ignore him.
“You know, so don’t try that bullshit on me. What do I do?” Jaden felt desperate suddenly, hoping he didn’t sound like it. “I mean, what do we do? We can’t let her die here, can we?”
“No one is turning her, dammit! Maya is my sister! If we turn her, we doom her!”
Never in his life had Jaden felt as if he needed to sit down, but now a chair appeared to be the best thing on earth.
“Matt was supposed to do her in before she did things she might come to regret, but she was the sweetest girl and … no matter what though, we can’t turn her! If you still do it, I’m gonna kill her myself.” Tears of anger were in Ryder’s eyes, but Jaden could tell that he was serious. He would do whatever was necessary.
And so would Jaden.
“You won’t touch her, Ryder,” Jaden said, the low threat coming out loud and clear nonetheless.
“You don’t get it, Jay,” Ryder pleaded, but Jaden only wanted to strangle him.
“Shut it, both of you! Jaden, would you be ready to fulfill the bond? To turn her?”