A Brush of Her Skin (The Reglashien Book 1)

by April Zyon

  She moved forward and pointed to the sandwich she wanted and asked for a bottle of water as well. Paying she shifted, her wig and cloak thankfully hiding her identity well, she turned again and saw the two men that had been arguing. A frown on her face, she looked at the men. “Excuse me, please?” She wanted to get to the tables that had been set out for people to eat at; she already had one in mind, hidden in the shadows and it would put her back to the wall. It had been perfect, but these men were blocking her path.

  “I’m certain that you gentlemen have festivities to get to so please allow me to pass?”

  They seemed to share a look before they each stepped to the side, creating a gap between them for her to pass through. As she went past she could feel them each sliding a finger on her arm. She dropped the sandwich, but it was saved by the one on her left, the Lycan.

  “Well, well, well,” he said, his voice deep enough to resonate through her body. “I hate to say it Tremayne, but I was right.”

  “You do not hate saying it,” the other, Tremayne obviously, said with a glare over her head.

  “Yeah, you’re right, I don’t,” the Lycan chuckled softly.

  “What-” Jett looked at the men, both of them eyeing her like a decadent delight, “-was that?” She whispered and swallowed, hard. She had never in the world felt anything at all like that before. The shock raced from her very core and outward. It had been- wow, it had been an amazing feeling. One that left her panties wet, which was decidedly an odd sensation.

  “Who are you?” She asked and accepted the sandwich back from the Lycan. “And what was that?” Again, the question came out again because she couldn’t seem to help herself. Jesus H. how in the hell did that happen?

  Carver moved a step closer to her and lifted her empty hand in his. “Carver Travis Wilks,” he said bending slightly to kiss her fingers. “The large, imposing, pale wonder is Prince Tremayne of the House van Moor. And that jolt of energy you just felt was the first step of mating. The marking if you will,” he explained.

  Tremayne had moved closer and was lifting her other hand, taking the water bottle from her slack fingers. “Enchante,” he said pressing a kiss to her fingers. “Would you grace us with your name?” he asked. Carver’s attention went to her as they waited, hoping to learn who their mate was.

  Oh hell. She had heard of the House van Moor. Shit, shit and double shit. “Valeria,” she whispered. “Valeria Jett.” Close, just no cigar. “The marking of a mating.” Oh hell. She had so not even come close to thinking that she would run into anyone, let alone a freaking mate. “Oh God.” She was so screwed. Hell’s bells she was so freaking damn screwed.

  “I think I should go and sit down. I’m hungry.” Which was true. She had pleaded a migraine which was why everyone had left her alone for the day. “I haven’t eaten all day, so I really want to eat my sandwich please.” Oh hell. What the freak was she going to do?!

  They both nodded before guiding her towards a table, fully in shadows. She would have thought they’d read her mind, but they seemed to have chosen the spot for other reasons. Which, given the looks they turned on their surroundings and the various people close by, likely was strategic. They got her settled and then sat across from her, too close.

  “Why didn’t you eat today?” the Lycan, Carver, asked her in a curious tone.

  “I had other things to do.” Which was the truth, just not the full truth. “I’m not abused or mistreated.” She was just a canary trapped in a gilded cage was all. “I live with my father.” She told them as she took a bite of the sandwich. “My mother passed two years ago; I had been living with her. She was human.” And her father wasn’t. “But I’m sure that you already know that since you both likely already know that I’m not fully human either.”

  “I will be honest.” She took another bite and a drink. “I know nothing of the Reglashien, at all. All that I know is that it’s a great honor for the Vampire Nation to be holding it.” She shrugged. “But since I grew up on the human side of things I have no idea the significance of mating.”

  The men shared a look before Tremayne leaned in. “The Reglashien is only held every two hundred years. During the twenty-four hours that it’s held is the only time that those of non-human heritage can find their mates. Because of the birthing laws that regulate our numbers, it’s all that’s required. During the hours of the Reglashien, the Gods matchup males and females they know will be good for and to one another. Perfect matches, nothing can break a match once the spark occurs. A touch skin to skin is all that is required for the spark to ignite.”

  Carver was nodding and took up when Tremayne paused. “The spark will only continue to grow into full-blown desire. Emotions, desires, and needs will build until the mating is consummated. And it has to be consummated within the twenty-four hours or insanity will start to eat away at all parties until our minds are nothing more than our most basic instincts and needs.”

  Oh boy. “And if something happens that stops it?” she asked as she took another bite of the sandwich. She knew she was already beginning to feel the need for him, the desire for both men. “And how would you know that I would be the one for you both?” she asked quietly. “Because I am just one person.” She licked her lips. “And I’m a half-blood.” Oh, she was so much more than a half-blood. She was the King’s one and only freaking God blessed daughter. Son of a bitch!

  “Half or full blood, it makes no difference,” Carver said quietly. “But if it’s interrupted- same end result. Drooling, slobbering and generally just off the wall insanity. If the mating isn’t completed, we’re literally taken out of the game, permanently. It’s a safety feature the Gods put into place so that there are no mistakes made. We either mate, or we eventually die when we tear ourselves apart from the inside out.”

  “As to how we knew,” Tremayne shrugged. Then he frowned slightly, “I honestly don’t know. It was an awareness for me, a knowing on some molecular level. As for him,” he waved a hand towards Carver, “I couldn’t say.”

  “Actually, and I’m sure this will stun you, blondie, it was the same. A level of awareness that had my entire being and the wolf tuning into her. From there, it was catching her scent and finding her again.”

  “And what happens if I have already been forced into a marriage?” She hated it, but she knew that her father was working on marrying her off to one of his highest and most loyal men. Power hungry as always. “Because of me being of a certain age, at least that's what my father says, do I have to do as he demands, or can I choose instead to accept this pairing?” She wanted to know what all of her options were. “And how can you be sure that you would be able to stand against the man that impregnated my mother?”

  “Mating rights overrule marriage; even if one party is in a marriage, the mating nulls and voids it immediately. As to the rest,” Carver looked to Tremayne. “He’s got half the Vampire Nation thinking he’s the golden goose, so they’ll do whatever he wants pretty much. And Lycan’s are always down for a good, old fashioned rumble. All I would have to do is put out the invite and pretty much every wolf would be here in ten minutes flat. Beyond that, the Gods would never permit the marriage to take place, and they would step in to ensure your father did nothing foolish.”

  Tremayne was watching her, closely. “We may want to send out the invitations for the battle now,” he said.

  “Why?” Carver shot him a stunned look.

  “Because I know who she is and who her father is,” the Vampire’s words fell like an axe at an execution.

  She went pale. All of the blood drained from her face. No. No, it wasn't possible. There was no way that he could know. She had on a wig which covered all of her hair, the bangs of the wig covered her eyes, so there was no way that he knew who she was. “I very seriously doubt that you would know who my father is.” HA! Every vampire in existence knew who her father was. But none knew about her, thank the Gods.

  “But would a mating- would I, be wor
th fighting for? I don’t think so. I seriously doubt that your brethren would feel the same as you do.”

  Chapter Four

  Carver’s head spun around so fast to stare at her he was amazed it didn’t just keep on spinning. Tremayne knew who their little mate was? And he was saying to call in the troops? Oh boy, this was so not good. “Who is she?” he asked quietly. “And how serious were you about calling in the troops?”

  “Dead serious,” Tremayne said in a tone just as soft as his had been. “She’s King Alistair Ferdinand Jemar’s only child. She’s the Princess of the entire Vampire Nation and set to wed His Royal Highness, the biggest dickwad on the planet, Tomlin Viktor Shamus the Third.”

  Carver let out a whistle; even he knew who that prick was. “Just to confirm here, Vamp boy, that’s the same Prince who orders his men to their deaths while he sits in the back munching on the wenches?”

  “Yes.”

  “The same Prince who, the last time someone actually got close enough to take his head, ran off screaming like a little girl? No offense,” he said to her with a wince.

  “Yes.”

  “Fuck me,” Carver leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “You definitely dodged a bullet there, Princess.”

  “Oh, he’s even worse than that,” Jett whispered. “But how did you know?” she asked the Vampire. “How did you know who I was? No one knows about me. No one. I’m his only heir, so he’s kept my existence even more closely guarded than he guards his gold.” And everyone knew how the King guarded his wealth. “I lived with humans and with my mother until she died. When he brought me here, it was to a home that was hidden by magic, one that only very, very few guards actually knew of. So how? How did you know who I was?”

  “Yeah, how did you know?” Carver shot Tremayne a look.

  “Wasn’t that hard, not once this popped out.” With a move faster than she could track Tremayne snagged a lock of her hair. Her real hair. “There’s only a very rare few that have this hair and they are all of Royal blood. Since I know all the other Royal’s, I had to take a guess. That and this,” he let her hair go and caught up her hand. Tapping the soft skin between thumb and finger he tipped it towards Carver. “That mark there, looks like a broken heart and is only in King Jemar’s lineage. I didn’t see it until she pulled her gloves off to eat but, once she did, it’s like a neon light.”

  She was surprised; she had never once believed that something as small as the mark on her hand would give her away. She licked her lips and nodded. “I snuck away from my protective guard,” she admitted. “Please don’t let anyone hear you.” She pulled her gloves back on quickly and tucked her hair back up once more. “They will kill you before even coming close to asking a question. Believe me on this,” she whispered. “I don’t want them to kill you before I’ve even had a chance to get to know you.” And they would. No matter what this man said, she knew without a doubt that her father and most especially the bastard of a man she was betrothed to, would kill these men without hesitation.

  Tremayne and Carver shared a look that she would swear was a passage of information. For two men who seemed not to like one another much, it was a little strange. But maybe, on this, they were on the same wavelength. “They can definitely try,” Tremayne said leaning back in his chair. “But since I trained the lot of them and I never share all my secrets, it would definitely be an attempt and nothing more. Plus,” he waved towards Carver slightly. “With the mutt here, the odds would be quite even. While I question his hygienic practices, daily I might add, he fights amazingly well and with a swiftness that easily matches a Vampire.”

  “Aww,” Carver leaned in and batted his lashes at Tremayne. “That actually sounded like a compliment, fangzilla.”

  “Please quit breathing on me, furball,” Tremayne leaned away as far as he could.

  Growling softly Carver gave a yip before laughing at the shocked look on Tremayne’s face. Leaning back in his seat he shook his head. “Dude, you seriously need to get a funny bone. You are the reason most humans are under the misconception that Vampires are the undead.”

  Jett shook her head. “Jett. Jett Valeria Jemar is my name.” She had given them a mix-up of her true name, but now that the cat was out of the bag it was time that they knew the truth. “I figure if you boys are going to have some long battles ahead, you might as well know the real me.” She sighed and cracked her neck by tilting her head slightly. “So what happens now?” she asked softly. “Between the three of us? You obviously don’t like each other, so where do we go from here?”

  “It’s not that we don’t like one another,” Carver said. Tremayne gave a snort that earned him a dirty look. “Shut up before we find out if you can come back from the dead, would you. Geez,” he muttered shaking his head. “We have the sort of relationship that would basically label us as frenemies. He’s a prick, and I’m lovable,” he blinked his lashes at her. He was playing, teasing her even.

  “I am not a prick; I happen to have something you may require a dictionary for, mutt. It’s called grooming, culture, and etiquette.”

  “Says the guy that keeps calling me a mutt,” Carver rolled his eyes so she could see him. “In all seriousness, though,” he leaned in, the smile gone now. “We only ever get one chance to mate. Neither of us would ever do anything to jeopardize that. While we may take swipes at one another, frequently probably, you would always be our top priority. Your health and happiness would be placed above our own always. It’s how a mating is, or should be.”

  Tremayne shifted in his chair slightly as Carver looked pissed off. Then the Vampire did the oddest thing and put a hand on the wolf’s shoulder. “You are not either of them Carver, let it go. You won’t make those mistakes.”

  Cracking his neck, Carver nodded and then shrugged his shoulder, loosening the hold on it. “None of the touchy-feely, Tremayne, you’re way creepier when you’re being nice, go back to being snarky please.” While the words were harsh the small hint of desperation in the words carried more weight. Whatever was going on, Carver didn’t want sympathy of any kind, even from his best frenemy it seemed.

  “So then, since that part is out of the way-” She took another deep and calming breath. “How and when do we break it to my father about us being mated? Before or after we do the whole bonding thing?” And how the hell did that happen? “And this will probably sound very, very dumb but how do we claim each other?” she asked softly.

  “Bite,” both men said. Then, both of them grinned and snickered. Carver, she figured would, but Tremayne caught her off guard with that show of humor.

  Sobering, Tremayne shrugged, “A Lycan’s bite is the mating mark and a Vampire takes and gives blood to bond with his chosen mate. The intimate part, sexual relations we’ll say, is just an added level that creates and strengthens the bond.”

  “Seriously? The intimate part?” Carver shook his head. “You really need to work on your delivery, so it doesn’t sound so, oh, I don’t know, boring! What stuffy here is trying to say and failing miserably at is, we have sex, bite, and viola, mated. It’s not really too difficult or complicated. Part of the whole process is that the female of the mating automatically starts preparing from the first of the markings. It starts a chemical and physical reaction in her body that allows her to take her mate or, as in our case, mates.”

  “And we tell your father after the fact,” Tremayne added in. “Hopefully hours after the fact. Many, many hours after.” That had Carver nodding rapidly and looking a bit like a bobble head.

  “Okay,” Jett whispered and nibbled her lower lip. She saw both of them looking at her lips and smiled. “So we do this. But,” Her face blushed with color, her chin dipped, and she whispered words that they barely caught. “I’ve never been intimate before so how do we all three work together?”

  “Well,” Carver cleared his throat. “That’s a bit of an interesting dilemma. And yet, highly exciting all at the same time. Uh,” she heard a chair creak and
peeked up to see him shifting in his seat. “I think we’ll start with how much you know about sex and go from there. So, since you lived in the human realm, you have all the basic’s down, right? Tab A into slot B, and so forth?” His cheeks were bright red, and Tremayne appeared to find a piece of lint on his jacket extremely fascinating as he snickered.

  “Yes, the basics I know. I have seen porno’s before. I have even played with toys, but no one has ever, well.” She shrugged. “No one ever did it for me, if that makes sense. Not one male that I met in the human realm even came close to making my panties damp let alone as wet as they are right now just sitting here with you.” Which was the honest to God truth. “At first, I thought it was because I was a halfling but then I came here and met some of daddy’s guards and they did nothing for me either. I was starting to think I was broken.”

  “Toys?” Carver croaked out. His eyes were big, glazed and he appeared to be having trouble breathing.

  Tremayne licked his lips and let out a rough breath. “Well, that would be because they are not your mates. Only your mate or mates can access that primal part of your body. The part that turns you on, that kicks your sex drive into high gear and has you wanting. The initial marking, where we touched you, started the process. It will get stronger over the hours and, should we continue touching you, push it even more. Basically, for this to work, we would take you front and back, in your pussy and your anus, bite you and you would reciprocate with a bite to each of us. This would then complete the bonding and, when we all came, cement it permanently.”

  She fanned herself. She couldn’t help it. “That sounds very, very hot.” Blunt, she shouldn’t have blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. “Wow,” she whispered. “And how do I bite whoever is behind me? And how do you choose who goes where?” She had a plethora of questions, but she knew instinctively that they would ensure she knew all she needed to know. “So the question now is, where do we go? I don’t think this is exactly the best place to have a conversation, especially once my father’s guards realize I’m missing. They will begin to look for me.”