by Tarisa Marie
I eventually turn around and smile softly at Kade. “I’m actually surprised they left me with you,” I tell him honestly.
He smirks sexily. “They didn’t really have much of a choice,” he replies, then his expression becomes serious. “They don’t trust me, but they trust that I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe.”
“I think they like you more than they let on,” I admit truthfully.
Kade shrugs. “They have the instinct to hate vampires and it’s drilled into them their whole lives. I know I loathed vampires when I was Bryxx, even now I loathe them still. I can’t blame them for hating me or not trusting me, because if we switched places, and they were the vampires, I’d hate them.”
I think he’s wrong about them hating him, but I don’t argue, truth is, he knows them better than I do.
“Thank you,” I say, and wrap my arms around him tightly.
“For what?” he asks, a smirk appearing on his lips. He hugs me back.
“For keeping me safe and for letting my brother and Kai lock you up and...” I trail off recalling Kade’s behavior, the sight of him almost losing control. A demon, yes. Terrifying but that’s not the emotion that’s strongest when I think about that situation. I feel sad for him. A small sob escapes me before I can stop it.
He holds me tighter. “No need to thank me. I’m sorry you had to see that, but you needed to none the less.”
I have to agree but I stay quiet.
“Did it scare you?” he asks absentmindedly.
I debate lying but instead I state, “Yes, it did.”
“Are you afraid of me?” he asks, his grip loosening on me slightly.
I shake my head into his chest. “No.”
“Good, because I’ll never hurt you,” he promises.
“Checkers?” I ask simply, a few days ago he promised to show me some new tricks after he beat me in a matter of only a few moves.
He lets out a grisly laugh. “Alright. You set up while I grab some whiskey from the pantry. I need a drink now that those two are finally gone.”
“They annoyed you that much?” I ask in amusement.
Kade sighs. “No, I enjoyed kicking their asses over and over again actually, but I do like to be alone with you more.”
“Why don’t you set up the checker board while I get the whiskey? You’ll probably have the board done up by the time I get to the pantry,” I remind him and release him from the hug.
“Deal,” he agrees and then he’s gone.
I roll my eyes. I wish I could do that.
After playing four rounds of checkers, all in his favor, I’m thoroughly unimpressed with my skill level which is strongly lacking. He doesn’t seem to get bored of kicking my ass though, much like how he found beating up Daniel and Kai amusing. I decide he either likes teaching or he likes winning or maybe both.
“You’re getting better,” he reassures me to no avail.
“I think I’m getting worse,” I inform him and flick a checker across the board at him. He stops it mid slide with his index finger and then takes a sip of his whiskey.
“Donna should be here soon.” His voice is casual, but I sense a hint of hope in it. I realize that he must be getting hungry. He hasn’t had anything to drink since the cow, which he says barely touched his thirst, and before that the last he had was when he left the Bryxx community.
I swallow and take a sip of my own whiskey to think about my words. I reply. “How are you feeling?”
He bristles. “I’m getting edgy.” He takes another gulp then swirls his glass around. “This helps take the edge off.”
“When is she supposed to come?” I question him, trying not to sound concerned.
He glances to the calendar on the wall. “She was supposed to start yesterday.”
I raise my brows in surprise. “What if she doesn’t come?”
He sighs. “If she doesn’t come before tomorrow morning I will have to figure something out. Maybe we will take a drive to town tomorrow morning and do our own grocery shopping, or we will take a backroad drive to a neighbor’s.”
I smile softly even though the thought is a bit sickening. He’s going to drive to the neighbors, knock on their door and bite them? “Alright. Did you try calling her?”
“No answer,” he heaves and taps his fingers on the table.
“Did you do a background check on this lady?” I wonder curiously.
He nods. “Yes, but she has terminal cancer and now I’m afraid something bad might have happened to her.”
My eyes bulge. “You hired a lady with terminal cancer to feed from?”
“It’s not quite what you think. I hired her because of her cancer because I thought if she came around every couple days and I took a little from her then healed her, I might be able to cure her cancer over time.”
“Your blood can heal diseases?” I’m not sure why I’m surprised by this.
He gets up and pours himself another full glass of whiskey. “I don’t know. I thought it was worth a try though.”
“Why do you care about her cancer?” I hope I don’t sound rude.
Kade sits back down and leans against the back of his chair. “I’ve never not cared about others. It doesn’t matter what species they are. If they’re good people, they have my acceptance. I am not prejudiced. Henry once told me that even bad people should be greatly respected in some way because they are the protagonists of their own stories. No one is born bad. Life makes us swing that way sometimes.”
I don’t respond but instead I finish my drink slowly and we sit in a comfortable silence for a while.
“Will you tell me more about how you became a vampire? I know Daniel said you were attacked by whole group of them, but is there more?” I’m not sure why I find myself thinking about this but ever since Daniel skimmed over it it’s been on my mind.
Kade sets his glass down with a clunk. “I was out guarding as usual. Although I had the skill to be a level black, my father wouldn’t let me do anything higher than an orange and that was only on occasion. Usually, I was a blue. On that particular day, I was working as an orange level though. Vampires don’t usually make it past the first line of defense, but they do now and again and it’s not usually a big deal. This time though, it was the biggest vampire attack we’ve ever had, a lot got through and they were after me, specifically. I’d killed a lot of vampires and in some ways, I was famous—royalty that wasn’t protected within the walls of the Bryxx community. All the vampires wanted to kill me as a sort of scapegoat for all the shit the Bryxx has ever done to them or I don’t know why exactly, but they all came at me before the others even noticed they were around. No one had been radioed that vampires got through because the first line of defense was still fighting more. By the time my colleagues got to me, the vampires had torn me apart, drained me dry, then one of them forced me to drink her blood as a final fuck you. Why wouldn’t they turn me, a royal Bryxx, into what I loathed and let my own people kill me? It sent a message alright,” he relays to me solemnly. He takes a big gulp before continuing. “My colleagues were trained to kill the infected on the spot, but because I was who I was, they hesitated and informed the council first. My dad wasn’t in, and thankfully so, or he would’ve been the first contacted and I know he’d have ordered them to kill me right there.”
I grit my teeth, my mind escaping into his story.
“Instead, it was Henry who took the call for my dad. He ordered two black levels to bring me into the cell room under the courthouse. Henry met me down there but everything that happened in those next few hours is a blur. I was in pain from the transformation and my thirst was increasing. When the transformation was done, Henry gave me a bag of Bryxx blood. I wouldn’t drink it even though every part of me wanted to devour it. I forced myself to throw it back at him.” He chuckles sadly. “Eventually my will power snapped, and I drank the blood which made me feel a lot better, but I was still in so much pain, overwhelmed by the new thirst I had. It never fully
goes away. Henry told me that I’d be going to trial which surprised me because I was pretty sure I was a dead man, and to be honest, I wanted to die.”
Kade rubs his hand over his prickly chin. “I went to trial and after taking some pointers from Henry, who saved my life, the council voted, and I wasn’t killed...as you know. Henry promised that within a year he’d train my self-control so well that I could be sent out to fight demons for the Bryxx. I was forced to live in a dungeon-like place near Henry’s home with shackles and the whole bit for two months while guarded by four black levels. Now and again he’d release the black levels and come in and teach me control. He thought it’d take me a year to leave the dungeon and be able to be around the Bryxx again without incident, but within two months he let me out of the dungeon and presented my self-control to the council. I passed, and the council was surprised by the lack of encouragement I needed to go off and fight for them. They bribed me with Bryxx blood. When I completed a mission, I could drink.”
He seems to become frustrated suddenly. “I continued to live with Henry when I was around, and he let me start staying in his home with him unbeknownst to the rest of the council. I helped take care of his farm and I did whatever they asked of me, but I was miserable and as soon as I was alone, with no one to stop me, I went out to the dungeon with one of Henry’s guns and I shot myself in the head. It didn’t kill me because it wasn’t a silver bullet. Henry had known I would try to kill myself somehow and left fake silver bullets out in his house. He found me soon after and shackled me again so I wouldn’t hurt myself. He spent an entire night telling me all the reasons that I should keep fighting. He saved my life a second time.”
Instead of being too shocked to speak like I normally get, I gasp and my hand flies up to cover my gaping mouth. “You tried to commit suicide?” I ask for clarification, not believing his words.
He nods. “I’d become the very thing I spent my whole life killing. Henry gave me a new perspective and shared some of his own experiences. Henry taught me how to sense vampires instinctively, a trait that I’d repressed along with my ability to move quicker than Bryxx speed. I wanted so much to not be a vampire that I repressed my nature and only caused myself more pain. I practiced sensing vampires for two weeks before I got the hang of it. I returned to Henry’s after a mission and I realized why Henry was so quick to lend me a hand. I sensed what he was, and I didn’t believe it at first, but I learnt that Henry was a vampire too, he’s been masquerading as a Bryxx for centuries unnoticed.”
“The councilman?” I ask in disbelief.
He nods with a small smile on his lips. “In the years since, he’s taught me much more than my father did my whole life. He is to me, my true dad. The dad I never had. As a boy, Henry was always abrupt with me, but once he learnt I’d been secretly training, and once I saved my dad’s life and I started working in the guard, he grew softer with me. I think he thought I was just another entitled royal brat but later he learnt that I was nothing like the other royals. If Henry hadn’t been there for me, I’d have been killed, there’s no doubt about it. I wouldn’t have even made it off the ground that day I was attacked.”
“And that’s why you trust him so much.” It’s not a question. It’s obvious.
Kade finishes his drink and is about to pour another when his gaze moves quickly from the near empty bottle to the window next to the table. It’s dark outside and I can’t even see across the yard. My heart races. Is something out there? Should I duck down? What is it?
“What is it?” I ask in a rush, realizing that I’ve been holding my breath.
His gaze flicks back to me, looking unconcerned. “Probably nothing.”
“Probably?” I ask him, my voice cracking.
“I’m probably just hungry and imagining things. I thought I smelt blood come through the window with that gust of wind, Bryxx blood.”
Bryxx? What Bryxx would be out here? The wind blows again, harder this time. A storm must be coming.
Kade draws his eye brows together.
“Is it from the barn, Kai’s blood?” I ask hopefully.
“It’s not old, dried up blood. It’s fresh.”
Not good, I tell myself. I let him feel the situation out, not wanting to distract him.
“Stay here,” he instructs and leaves through the back door in a blur.
My first instinct is to move away from the window. I don’t know why, maybe I’m concerned someone will watch me through it or maybe that someone will leap through it, though why wouldn’t they just use the front door? Really, the window shouldn’t be a concern right now, but I move away from it anyway and stand up from my chair, pacing the kitchen.
When Kade returns only a few seconds later, he sets a medium sized black cooler on the table and opens it. Then he pulls out not one, but ten bags of blood surrounded by ice. Then he pulls out a plastic bag with a piece of paper in it. He opens it and unfolds it. He reads it out loud, a harsh wrinkle forming on his forehead. “Kade, for taking care of my sister. We knew you wouldn’t accept it if we offered it before we left, so we compelled the nurse at the hospital to drive it after work to the edge of the farm where you would find it. In case you don’t see us for a while. I hope this helps you not eat my sister, vamp. It’s the least we could do. Thanks again, Daniel and Kai.”
Kade unblinkingly sets the letter down and then slowly sits down in his chair at the table. He almost looks as if he’s shocked. He rests his forehead in his hands.
“I told you they don’t hate you,” I remind him. “They didn’t have to do this.”
He lifts his head up and I almost think I see tears forming in his eyes before he blinks them away. “I know.” His voice cracks. “I never would’ve expected this.”
I lift up one of the bags carefully in my hands, knowing how precious it is to him and not wanting to break the bag open somehow. I inspect it momentarily before getting queasy and then I hand it to him, placing it in front of him on the table.
“How long will this last?” I ask him, unsure.
He swallows and clears his throat before answering. “I can freeze it, if you don’t mind it being in the freezer. This is enough for three months at least, maybe even four.”
The reality of how much this helps him really sets in when I remember him telling me how much more satiating Bryxx blood is and how it numbs the pain from the thirst longer and more fully. This will also save him from having to find someone to feed from every day or two in the future.
“You can definitely put it in the freezer,” I assure him, did he really think I’d oppose that?
He picks up the bag I set in front of him and lifts it up, the thankfulness of the gift pushing into the back of his mind as his thirst starts to take over. I see it in his eyes as they flicker red like that day in the barn. His breathing catches and then he closes his eyes and gathers himself also like I watched him do in the barn.
“Aren’t you going to have it? You’ve been tense all afternoon and don’t think I haven’t noticed it’s been getting worse quickly, you’ve been drinking alcohol like it’s water.”
“Not near you,” he answers sternly. “I will do it outside in the barn.”
As much as I really don’t want to see him drink blood and as much as it disturbs me, I need to get used to it and I want him to feel comfortable around me. It’s who he is. I eat around him, and he should be able to eat around me as well.
“I don’t mind,” I promise him. “We can play another game of checkers while you drink, if you want to.”
I’m startled by his thunderous laugh. “May, I can’t really focus on much else when I’m drinking. I won’t be able to play checkers while I drink. I have excellent self-control, yes, but not enough where I can sit at the table and sip at a cup of blood. I only wish it were that simple.”
I realize that I’ve only ever seen him smell blood. If his reaction is that strong to the smell of it, what would his reaction be to the actual taste? “I guess I didn’t think about that.
I want to watch. I need to know all of you eventually, right? Why not now?”
He grimaces. “It’s not as simple as that, May. Maybe if it were human blood and I were more in control, but this is powerful stuff, this will likely cause me to black out for a while and it’s not safe for you to be around me if that happens.”
“I thought you wouldn’t hurt me?” I ask. “No matter what.”
“I won’t, not on purpose, but I’m not about to risk blacking out, smelling you, and attacking you. Vampires usually bond with other vampires, not humans with divinely scented blood. This hasn’t been tested before and you’re not about to be the guinea pig.”
I decide not to argue. He would know best and I surely don’t want to die, as sure as I am that he won’t hurt me. “Fine.”
“Will you come tie me up in the barn please? I don’t have much control left in me, May. I’m starving.” For the first time since I’ve known Kade he seems to truly be panicking. His eyes flash red again and he grits his teeth.
“Tie you up?” I question.
He nods. “I’m going to black out and want to drink any blood I can smell when I run out. You have to keep me tied up for at least an hour so I have time to calm down after.”
“What if a vampire comes during that time?” I challenge. “I’ll be dead.”
He groans and seems to writhe in his chair. “Shut the barn door and lock it. It’s vampire proof.”
“What? You built the barn?” I ask him, knowing I should be asking this later.
He manages a small grin. “No, Henry had it hauled in from one of his properties just below the border. He’s an investor, has probably hundreds of properties. It’s custom made. How is it that you rambling off questions is somehow distracting me from losing my mind? You’ll be the death of me, May, I swear to god.” His accent is thick when he says this, thicker than normal.
The urgency in his expression stirs panic in my gut. What am I doing? He’s right. “Okay, let’s go.” I run towards the barn and by the time I get there he already has one of his arms in a shackle. Sensing his rising urgency, I clip the other hand into the other shackle and then quickly snap both of his feet in. He has me use a small key to lock each of the four cuffs and then he has me drop the hook in the roof that holds his hands separated at his sides. His arms are then free to move around, this will allow him to hold the bag.