Immortal Echoes (Haunting Echoes Book 2)

by Caethes Faron

  He gave her hand a squeeze. “Arrange it.” Michael couldn’t wait to see the look on Lawrence’s face when he saw what he had become.

  * * *

  Being in Paris as a vampire was strange. The bustle of the city overwhelmed Michael’s heightened senses. All around him were people full of delicious blood. All he wanted to do was feed, but a little bit of pride welled inside him at being able to resist the temptation.

  He sensed Lawrence before he saw him. For a moment, Michael wondered if one of the reasons he had never liked Lawrence as a human was due to some unconscious sense that the man wasn’t mortal. The idea was ridiculous, but Michael couldn’t help entertaining it.

  Meg and Liam had gone around another way and crouched unseen in an alley. Amaia and Michael approached Lawrence directly. The sight of Lawrence’s short stature, bald head, gray mustache and goatee, and pockmarked face stirred Michael’s hatred. He wanted nothing more than to smash that head into the street, to see it break open and bleed. He’d leave Lawrence like that for a while before detaching his head. Of course, none of that would actually happen. If Michael was going to kill Lawrence, he’d have to take the opportunity when it came and do it quickly.

  “Don’t even think it. He’d kill you, and then I’d die.”

  It was about the only thing Amaia could have said to stop Michael from attacking.

  A flicker of surprise crossed Lawrence’s face when he saw Michael. He’d be able to sense that Michael was now a vampire. He wished Amaia didn’t hold remnants of affection for Lawrence. He felt confident that together they could easily kill him.

  When they stopped, Michael positioned himself slightly in front of Amaia, so his shoulder blocked her from being an easy target. It took every bit of self-control he could muster to keep from crouching in a defensive stance. It would draw unnecessary attention and could potentially provoke an attack.

  “Hello, Lawrence.” Amaia’s cold voice rang out above the noise of the city.

  Lawrence made no reply. He simply stared at Amaia.

  “Speak aloud or not at all.” Amaia’s firm voice commanded obedience. Not only was speaking aloud respectful to Michael, but it would also mean Meg and Liam could hear.

  Lawrence had underestimated Michael’s connection to Amaia. She would never keep anything from him. Lawrence had been right to fear Michael’s presence in her life. He didn’t know when Lawrence would accept that he had lost the battle for her loyalty. Michael would always come out ahead of anyone else, of that he was sure.

  “I see that you have turned Michael. I had thought he would never commit to you that way. To think, all of this trouble could have been avoided if he’d just agreed to become a vampire sooner.”

  Michael knew better than to let Lawrence’s words affect him. The man was a master manipulator. Still, his words held some truth, although they were never destined to be one happy family.

  “The only thing that could have prevented the situation we’re in now would have been your honesty from the beginning.” Amaia’s firm tone inspired pride in Michael. He knew standing up to Lawrence had to be difficult for her. To hear her speak now, it’d be next to impossible to know that she had been Lawrence’s loyal daughter. She’d loved him like a father, but none of that warmth was present.

  “Well there’s no use going over the past. I come bearing good news. Zenas would like me to extend an invitation for you to rejoin the cl—”

  “No.”

  “But my dear, everything can be as it was. You were well liked and respected in the clan. Zenas thought of you as a daughter.”

  “Not many fathers order their daughter’s death.”

  “He was upset. Understandably so. But you’ve seen how he can forgive. He’s forgiven me for my fair share of trespasses against our laws. The invitation does, of course, extend to your mate as well. No one desires to see you separated from each other.”

  “You have my answer. You’ve also seen that Michael is indeed a vampire now. Zenas didn’t sire me, so I wasn’t a true member of his clan. Since Michael’s transformation, I am no longer afoul of our laws. There’s no reason for there to be any hostility between us. Deliver that message to Zenas.”

  Michael heard both her fear and surety. He didn’t know if his understanding came through her aura or through their bond, but he tried to send soothing feelings back, even though he wasn’t calm either. His whole body vibrated with the coiled tension that prevented him from ripping Lawrence’s head off, or at least trying to.

  “I will present your case to Zenas and let you know what he says.”

  “Do it now.”

  “No, this sort of thing would really be better handled in person. That way I can plead your case. You know how hard it is for Zenas to deny me when I make a proper showing.”

  Michael didn’t want to let him get away. If Lawrence left, there was no telling when they might see him again, if ever. Michael didn’t want to be caught unawares by him in the future.

  “You know you won’t be happy with him forever, Amaia. You were never meant to settle down. You’ve always needed to spread your legs for someone new.”

  Amaia grabbed Michael’s arm, aborting his attack. His other arm still swung out, but it didn’t come close to hitting its mark.

  “Tsk, tsk. He does have a temper, doesn’t he? No self-control at all. I always knew he wasn’t worthy of you.”

  “Leave now, Lawrence, before I let him kill you.”

  “Please, stay. I’d love the chance to rip your head from your shoulders.” Michael bent his knees a little more, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation.

  “I see my work here is done. No matter Zenas’s answer, you won’t last long. Out-of-control vampires are always put down in the end. It’s a shame you’ll have to follow him, Amaia. You could have been great, the mother of a new race.” Lawrence nodded and left so quickly it seemed he had disappeared.

  Amaia released Michael’s arm. He saw spots of blood where her nails had been.

  “I’m sorry. They’ll heal.”

  “No, I should be thanking you. I would have done something foolish.”

  “Foolish, but highly enjoyable.”

  Meg and Liam emerged from their hiding spot. “We can track him if you like. Michael and I can kill him outside the city.”

  “No, thank you, Liam. It’d be obvious who did it, and the last thing we need is another reason to draw Zenas’s ire.”

  “I don’t believe for a minute that Lawrence is going to petition on our behalf.”

  “Neither do I. Lawrence doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit himself. My guess is he’s planning to have you killed on the hope that I won’t follow, given my lack of remorse over killing you the first time and the fact that I’ve never followed you into death before. It’s not much of a gamble for him. If he can’t have me exclusively, he’d rather I was dead.”

  “I’m relieved to hear you admit as much. I worried you might believe him and let him suck you into his games again. I know he’s a weakness for you.”

  “Yes, he is, and he’s the one who taught me to abhor weakness. He only ever pretended to love me because I was useful to him. Now that I’ve experienced the real thing, it’s easy to tell the difference. He’s desperate. It’s the only reason he’d bet on me valuing my bond with him as my sire over my bond with my mate. I doubt things have fared well for him in the clan.”

  “It’d be a shame to let Zenas have the fun of killing him.”

  “Oh, I don’t think his time’s up yet. Lawrence has an uncanny ability to survive.”

  “Enough of all this talk. What’s done is done. We should go eat,” Meg said.

  “Yes, that’s a good idea. Thanks, Meg. It was easier knowing you and Liam were near.” Amaia nodded her appreciation.

  “If you ask me, you should have let Michael kill him and been done with the whole thing.”

  “Then it’s good no one asked you, dear.” Meg patted Liam’s arm and led the way out of the city.<
br />
  “Someday, I will kill him.”

  “I know.”

  “Will you be able to forgive me?”

  “I already have.”

  Chapter 18

  All of Michael’s senses came alive in the rain. He’d smelled it before it even started. The scent blew in, heralding the arrival of storm clouds. When the first fat raindrops fell, he’d not only felt the wet drop, he’d felt the splash, the crawl of it on his skin. When he stuck his tongue out to catch one, he tasted every bit of earth contained within the water. The sunlight split in each droplet of water, and colors exploded, as if prisms poured from the sky. The beat of the rain on the earth, and later on the roof of the cottage where he’d retreated with the others, played a steady backdrop to the whistle of wind rustling the tree leaves. Such a simple act of nature provided an ethereal experience.

  He cuddled with Amaia on the sofa while Meg sat on the floor in the corner, wrapped in Liam’s arms. Michael had wanted to stay outside to experience the storm, but the others didn’t see the novelty in getting soaked.

  “Have you heard anything from Lawrence yet?” Meg asked.

  “No. He’s going to contemplate his next step carefully. He won’t make a move until it’s the right time and it serves him.”

  Michael kissed her neck. He hated talking about Lawrence, hated that he was in Amaia’s head, that she had to wait for some kind of answer that would come unbidden into her mind. “We know Zenas isn’t going to change his mind about us. Even if he were, Lawrence would talk him out of it. He won’t let us get away with defying him. There was only ever one way this was going to end.”

  “Michael’s right. I’ve never liked Lawrence,” Meg said.

  “I’m glad I’m not the only one. I love you, sweetheart, but you had terrible judgment where he was concerned.” Michael smiled and kissed his mate’s hair.

  “Well, you’d better be grateful for it. If I hadn’t been taken in by him and trained as a courtesan, I would have never met you.”

  “You’re right. I should be grateful. I’ll forego the torture and just kill him.”

  “Did he really think he was going to overthrow Zenas?” Liam asked.

  “Yes, I especially liked the part where he called you a mother,” Michael teased.

  Amaia mock shuddered. “I’d assumed he knew better. The thought of children is abhorrent. I don’t even want to sire any other vampires.”

  “Good. I want you all to myself.”

  “Do you think he’s still going to try to move forward with his master-race plans?” Meg asked.

  “I wouldn’t doubt that he’s been looking for another mortal who has a natural aptitude for energies to turn. He hasn’t been successful. If he had, he wouldn’t have offered me back my position. He hasn’t given up his dream of creating a race of vampires with a higher sensitivity and ability with energies.”

  “The whole thing seems stupid to me. People worry too much about others. Whatever happened to just living your life and being happy?”

  “I agree with Liam. All you need is a good mate and a good feeding ground. Why be tied down by anything else?” Michael was discovering that he and Liam had a lot more in common than he had initially thought.

  “The clans just complicate things. We’d all be better off if they disbanded and we killed anyone who tried to form one,” Liam said. A cold flame lit his blue eyes, the only sign of the steely emotion that lurked behind his gruff voice.

  “The clans will never disappear. They have too much power. There will always be someone like Lawrence or Zenas or Ezekial who can’t resist the allure of power. Zenas disdains humans, but he has this compulsive need to feel in charge of their politics.” Amaia spoke as if she understood that part of Zenas.

  Michael shook his head. “The whole idea of evolving the vampire race is repulsive. There’s no reason for it.”

  “He wants power, to have an entire clan linked to him that can influence the very emotions of humans.”

  “He’d never be able to keep it together. Vampires with that kind of power couldn’t be trusted to remain loyal,” Liam said.

  “I think he was counting on the sire bond for that. Obviously, children wander from their sires once they mate, but it’s rare for one to turn completely. I think that’s why I upset him so much. He hasn’t just lost me; he’s lost the crux for his entire life’s ambitions.” Amaia appeared nonchalant. Her position amongst vampires never seemed to interest her. It was so separate from the life she shared with Michael. He still marveled that she didn’t exaggerate. Her words were based in fact, not arrogance.

  “So what are we going to do if Lawrence says that Zenas doesn’t care and still wants you dead?” Meg asked.

  “Which is what will happen.” Liam spoke with the same certainty Michael felt.

  “Michael and I will have to run.”

  “No. No more running. This has become ridiculous.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment, Liam. No one wants to turn and fight more than I do, but I have to keep Amaia safe. We can’t take on a whole clan by ourselves.”

  “You won’t be by yourselves. Besides, it won’t be the whole clan. We’ve seen this before. All of his children will want the price on your head, and they’ll get pissy about their territories, ensuring that you’ll only ever have two vampires at most to face. We can easily beat those odds. If we move together, there’s no reason we can’t live a reasonably normal life.”

  “Are you suggesting we form our own clan, Liam?” Michael quirked an eyebrow at the man he was coming to view more as a brother than an acquaintance.

  Liam smiled. “Yes, I suppose I am. Besides, we’re tainted by association. There’s no guarantee we won’t be targeted. I prefer our odds together.”

  “Excellent! Our own little family.” Meg appeared radiant at the thought, and Michael felt Amaia’s joy at the plan, though she would never express such feelings in words.

  The pitter-patter of the rain had ceased. All that remained was the steady drip of water from the trees. Michael nudged Amaia. “Come on. Let’s go outside. The threat of getting drenched is gone, and I want to see what it looks like.” Few things excited him as much as discovering how his new vision saw previously mundane sights.

  “Are you two joining us?” Amaia asked as she and Michael made their way to the door.

  “No, go on ahead.”

  “Yes, it’s about time we get to fuck on a bed again.” Liam lifted Meg to her feet and headed for the bedroom.

  Michael laughed. Liam had a point. He and Amaia had been monopolizing the bedroom. “Enjoy it.” Michael pulled Amaia from the cottage. He had no problem fucking her out in nature, wet or not.

  Chapter 19

  Amaia watched Michael peer through a droplet of water that hung suspended from one of his eyelashes. She lay beside him under a pine tree. It’d rained off and on over the last few days. He’d finally convinced her to mate with him in it. Amaia didn’t enjoy getting dirty even though she had tolerated it while on the run, but he had wanted to experience sex in the rain. It had been worth a little dirt to see Michael experience the sensation of raindrops on his skin at the same time they fucked. It’d been a unique experience for her as well.

  Rays of sunshine broke through the branches, splitting through the rain clinging to the needles. She tried to remember what it was like to see something similar for the first time as a vampire. Reaching back into her mortal memories, she found she didn’t have one of simply looking at a raindrop in any detail. So few of her mortal memories were worth examining.

  “Do you ever think about the night we made that blood oath?” Amaia broke the silence. As the mortal Jocelyn, she had drawn a dagger across the fate line on her right palm and vowed to always love Michael, to come to him whenever he wanted her. Michael had reciprocated, and they’d sealed their vow with blood.

  “Yes, quite often.” Michael kept staring at the raindrop.

  “When I entered my transformation sleep, I noticed something.
I could taste a hint of my blood in yours. I had convinced myself that I only imagined it. How could I discern the taste of different blood so quickly? And I’d just had my own blood fed back to me by Lawrence. I probably simply tasted a trace of it that had been left behind. Now, though, I wonder if that’s been the cause of our strange bond.”

  Michael turned his head to look at her, dislodging the raindrop. “I thought that oath might have had something to do with it. It makes a strange sort of sense, certainly more than any other possible explanation.”

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter now. The world is as it should be.” She’d waited so long to be able to say that, to feel the rightness of her life in her bones.

  “Yes, it is. That’s not going to change, no matter what happens with Lawrence and Zenas. We’ll be together from now on.”

  A familiar energy approached.

  “Meg’s coming. You might want to get dressed.” They currently wore only their underclothes.

  “I know. I’ve ceased caring about our state of undress. If Meg or Liam insist on intruding, then they’ll just have to deal with it. Besides, there’s not enough of our clothing left to do a decent job of covering our underclothes. We’ll need to go shopping soon.”

  Amaia hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything he’d said after the first two words. “How?”

  “How what?”

  “You said you already knew that Meg’s on her way.”

  “I can feel her.”

  “You can tell that it’s her though? Not just an energy approaching?” She spoke aloud, as if that would help her make sense of this new development.

  “Of course. It’s clearly vampire, and her aura is different from Liam’s.” He said it as if he were stating the obvious.

  “Michael, that’s extraordinary.”

  “What’s extraordinary?” Meg leaned against a nearby tree.

  “Michael could distinguish your energy.”