Sian smiled at her before looking up at Eli. “Please tell me you don’t intend to take her out of here in only a nightgown.”
Eli shrugged. “She’s frightened enough of me without me doing things to her clothes. Besides, it’s not like she can catch a cold, Sian. She’ll be fine.”
Sian laughed as Renee straightened angrily, preparing to correct Eli on his assumption of her fear and awe of him. She held out the bundle to Renee. It contained jeans and a sweater. “I brought this for you. Come on, I’ll talk to you while you get dressed. I might not see you again for a while, and I’d like to get to know you a little before Diego finds me and has a fit.”
Renee started to follow Sian but Eli didn’t release her arm. She looked up to see him staring intently at Sian. “I am her sire, Sian. Do you understand?”
Sian’s eyebrows rose but she nodded. “Of course,” she agreed. She held out a hand to Renee. “Come on, you must be freezing.”
Renee finally noticed she’d lost the blanket at some point and shivered even though she hadn’t noticed the cold before now. The sweater the woman had pressed on her suddenly looked very inviting and she followed Sian into the sage bedroom.
Sian straightened the rumpled covers as Renee quickly pulled on the clothes she’d brought. “You’ll be fine, you know,” she said as Renee dressed. “It’s frightening being a fledgling sometimes, I know, but I promise it gets better.”
Renee shuddered as she tugged the sweater over her head. “I don’t see how it could get worse,” she muttered under her breath. Sian laughed and Renee blushed when she realized the other woman had heard her. She looked up and met Sian’s crystal eyes. “Why will Diego have a fit when he finds out you’re here?” she asked.
Sian’s smile faded. “Well, you’re in a fragile state right now,” she said slowly. “You’re not fully healed and you don’t know your vampire powers or your new strength yet. You might…you might hurt someone without meaning to.”
Renee watched her eyes as she spoke. Where they had been clear as perfectly cut aquamarine a moment ago, now they were clouded and uncomfortable. She knew Sian was lying, she just didn’t know why. “Is it Eli?” she asked. “Do they not get along or something?”
Sian waved a hand to dismiss her concern, but Renee noticed she was trying not to fidget as she thought about her answer. “Well, I’m not sure Eli actually gets along with anyone.”
“Why not?” Renee pressed, ignoring Sian’s obvious discomfort with the subject. The woman was a terrible liar and had the answers Renee needed. She didn’t feel the least bit guilty about interrogating her. “What’s wrong with him?”
Sian looked decidedly nervous now. Talking about Eli clearly wasn’t what she’d had in mind when she’d suggested this chat. “Nothing’s wrong with him,” she replied quickly. “He’s just old—very, very old. No one even knows how old. And he’s powerful, amazingly powerful. He scares some people.”
“He scares you,” Renee observed. Sian shrugged but Renee noticed she didn’t deny it. “Is that why your bondmate wants me gone? What is a bondmate, anyway?”
“A bondmate is like a spouse, but there’s much more to it,” Sian said, but her avoidance of Renee’s first question didn’t go unnoticed. She held up her arm and Renee saw a band around her forearm, something like a tattoo. The pattern of strange runes was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. “This is the mark of my bond with Diego. If you bond, you’ll wear something similar.”
“Diego made you a vampire?”
Sian laughed and shook her head. “No, that’s forbidden.” Seeing Renee’s confusion, Sian explained, “The relationship between sire and fledgling is like a parent and child. It’s against all our laws for a vampire to transform a human in order to make a mate. A fledgling is vulnerable to older vampires. Your sire is supposed to be like your parent, someone to protect you and teach you, without expecting something in return.”
“Sian.” The other woman looked up at the note in Renee’s voice. Renee waited until she was sure she had Sian’s full attention. “Should I be afraid of Eli?”
Sian shook her head at once, and her eyes were clear again as she answered. “No, of course not. Didn’t you understand what I said? He’s here to guide you and teach you, and defend you until you can defend yourself. Listen to him, do what he says, and you’ll be fine.”
Renee was about to ask what Eli might need to defend her from but her question died in her throat as shouts erupted from the other side of the door. She spun around, heart pounding, but Sian was already moving toward the door.
“Looks like Diego’s found me,” Sian said lightly. She touched Renee on the shoulder as she passed. “You might want to stay in here until he’s gone, all right?”
Before Renee could ask why, the door flew open, revealing a tall, enraged vampire glaring into the room. He bared his fangs viciously at Renee and his unnatural cat-like green eyes blazed with fury. Renee stumbled back, terrified, but Sian went to him without hesitation.
She grabbed him around the waist and stopped him from barging into the room. “Diego, don’t,” she said firmly. “She’s harmless. You don’t need to scare her to death.”
Diego wrapped an arm around Sian and pointed menacingly at Renee as his mate restrained him. “Come near her again and I swear by all I hold dear I’ll kill you,” he snarled. Renee couldn’t take a breath as terror squeezed her lungs.
Then Eli was there, moving with such speed it seemed like he’d appeared out of thin air in front of Renee. “Enough, Diego. Your bondmate is fine and we’re leaving, as you wished.”
A terrifying growl came from Diego’s throat, and Renee fought not to cower behind Eli. Regardless of her anger at him, she was very glad Eli was between her and the furious vampire. “Don’t bring her back,” Diego ground out. “You may be blind, Eli, but I know what she is. I’ll kill her if she comes near Sian again.”
Eli felt Renee frozen with fear behind his back and his eyes narrowed. “If your intention is to teach her to hate the League, you’re going about it perfectly,” he said in Spanish, and his voice was even more terrible than Diego’s. “She is my fledgling and I will defend her if need be. You don’t want to fight me, Diego. Get hold of yourself. She didn’t seek Sian out and after this I doubt she’ll dare to so much as look at her again.”
“Good,” Diego snapped before turning and pulling Sian out of the room with him.
Eli turned when they were gone, forcing his fangs and claws to retract. Renee looked up at him with wide eyes.
“He hates me,” she whispered. “Why? What did you say to him?”
He sighed. “He doesn’t know you,” he replied, knowing it was no answer at all. He had nothing else to give her. “We need to go.”
“Go where?”
He led her to the window and opened it. “Give me your hand.”
Renee slipped her much smaller hand into his but looked doubtfully from him to the open window. “You’re not about to transform into a bat or something, are you?”
Her fingers laced through his with a trust he was certain he didn’t deserve. He tried to remember the last time someone had touched him without hesitation and couldn’t. Hell, he hardly remembered the last time he’d allowed someone to touch him, period. “I don’t believe I’ve ever been a bat,” he replied, grinning in an attempt to ease the lingering tension. “But I guess that’s as good a form as any. Ready?”
She yanked her hand back. “No, absolutely not!”
He laughed. “All right, what would you prefer?”
“A car!”
Eli shook his head. “Unimaginative,” he said, then captured her hand again and pulled her straight out the window before she had a chance to protest again.
Renee saw the ground rising up and winced in anticipation of impact, but it never came. When she finally managed to open her eyes, she gasped at the sight of the city rolling away beneath her. If she’d had any lingering doubts he truly was what he claimed to be, this was more
than enough to banish them, and she grabbed Eli in panic.
At least, she attempted to grab him, but she didn’t seem to have any arms. “Please tell me I’m not a bat!” she tried to shout, but no sound came out. Instead the words echoed soundlessly in her head.
She heard his reply the same way. Mist, he said in tones of unmistakable amusement. You didn’t seem wild about the bat idea. I thought you might like this better.
Only then did the sensations her nerves reported make sense. She felt light, her body tingling all over, and she felt strangely enclosed by something.
Me, Eli replied, obviously picking up her thoughts. I’m around you, guiding you. Relax. This trip is my treat.
Some treat, she thought, even though her fear was fading as a rush of exhilaration replaced it. His low laugh made her wish she had an elbow to use on him, although she’d probably break her arm if she tried it. The man was solid muscle, hard as a rock. She gazed in wonder at the lights of the city sparkling in the night. It was beautiful and she loved her new vision which let her appreciate every last detail of it.
But suddenly something caught her attention. It was nothing she could put her finger on, and yet something down below called to her. Something she wanted—no, needed. She concentrated, trying to figure out what enticed her.
Almost at once Eli circled down as though he were following the prompting of her senses.
What is it? she asked him as the feeling strengthened.
They came to a halt in a darkened doorway on the kind of street no sane person would be on after dark. Renee’s entire body shivered as she returned to her normal form. Eli shimmered into being beside her. “Follow your senses,” he told her.
Renee took a step and suddenly remembered she wore no shoes. It hadn’t crossed her mind when she’d changed clothes in the bedroom, but now that she was faced with the dirty street, her bare feet seemed very important. She turned to protest to Eli, but he gave her a little smile.
“Nothing can cut you unless you allow it,” he said, obviously reading her hesitation.
“Like you and the mirror?”
“Exactly.”
Renee looked back at the street and squared her shoulders before stepping out. Almost at once something sharp pricked her foot and she winced, feeling a shard of broken glass cut into the pad of her big toe. She leaned against the wall and glared at Eli as she lifted her foot to pluck the glass out. “Liar.”
Eli shook his head. “You weren’t trying,” he replied, touching her toe and healing the little cut. “Now try again, but this time, know your feet are impermeable. Don’t think it. Believe it.”
Renee rolled her eyes and put her foot back down. “Seems like it’d be easier to just give me some shoes,” she grumbled. “The man can turn me into mist, but he can’t give me shoes.” He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting. “Oh, fine,” she snapped, walking out into the street again and imagining her feet were encased in sturdy, thick-soled shoes.
She managed to make it half a block without cutting herself again, but she wasn’t sure if her accomplishment was a triumph of her “powers” or simply the result of careful walking. Either way, she felt closer to whatever had tempted her as they’d flown overhead.
She turned the corner to look down an alley and suddenly recoiled. “Oh, no, you don’t,” she protested, taking a step back and colliding with Eli. “No way!”
He steadied her and nodded at the vagrant sleeping a few yards away in the mouth of the alley. “You’re hungry. I didn’t choose this place, you did. You sensed him as we flew, felt his helplessness. Easy prey. As I said, instinct takes over when you need it.” His dark gaze captured hers and she couldn’t make herself look away. “Now do what you need to do.”
Visions of bending over the vagrant’s neck, sinking her fangs deep and drinking her fill, swamped her mind. Her hunger surged, a burning in her veins. Relief was right in front of her. For a moment, she actually wanted to bite him and sate her terrible need.
Renee shook her head violently and forced the images away. “I can’t!”
Eli stepped forward, herding her into the alley. She forgot her protective illusion and winced as something else sharp pierced the sole of her foot, but Eli didn’t even pause until they stood beside the sleeping man. “You have to,” he told her firmly. “Do you want to starve?”
She looked at the vagrant and shuddered. Something inside her awakened and urged her to go to him, something untamed and animalistic. She pressed her hand to her mouth, ashamed to realize she was salivating, and was stunned to feel the slight bulges beneath her lips of fangs she hadn’t even known she had. She opened her mouth and touched them with her tongue, her fingertip. The razor-sharp tip pricked her finger and the sudden aroma of blood overwhelmed her.
“He won’t fight,” Eli murmured in her ear. “You won’t harm him, merely take a little blood. He’ll simply think he has a hangover when he awakens. Go, little one, and do what you know you have to do.”
Something in his voice was impossible to resist. She stepped forward with a little sob, hating him for turning her into a monster even as the other wild part of her gloried at the thought of sinking her new fangs into a defenseless throat. Unable to resist Eli’s persuasion and her own hunger, Renee fell to her knees beside the sleeping vagrant and drank.
Eli watched her carefully, using his own powers to keep the man quiet and unknowing, ready to intervene in an instant if necessary. She was stubborn. He’d had to use a fairly strong compulsion on her to make her do what should have come naturally.
Strange. A new fledgling should have no resistance to compulsion, especially his.
He hated having to force her to do this so soon after her transition, but there was no other way. A sire usually fed his fledgling from his own wrist or throat for at least a few days, but Eli couldn’t do that. If Renee was to feed, she would have to learn to take her prey herself. All he could do for her was to make sure they didn’t struggle and awaken her animal instincts, or worse, trigger the Outcast curse and send her into a blood frenzy.
He knew the exact moment she’d taken as much from this man as he was able to give. He went to her side and grasped her shoulders. “Enough,” he said firmly.
She tried to shove him away and he pulled her back. She bared her fangs at him but he didn’t let her go back to her feasting. “Enough,” he repeated. “You don’t want to hurt him. Remember, little one, never kill.”
The bloodlust was slow in fading from her eyes. When it did, she looked up at him in horror and covered her mouth with a hand.
“It’s all right,” he said reassuringly. “You didn’t harm him.”
“I would have,” she whispered, looking down at the still-motionless form in dismay. “I would have kept on until—until there was nothing more to take.”
“You will learn control.” Any starving fledgling would have done the same, he told himself, crushing down the alarm he felt at her words. It doesn’t mean anything. “And your hunger will not always be as sharp as it is tonight. Come, follow your senses again and find another. You haven’t fed enough and you’re not completely healed. You need to be at full strength.”
She shook her head, tears shimmering on her lashes. “No more. I can’t do it again. I just can’t.”
And he knew she’d reached the breaking point. She’d absorbed as much of her new world as she could handle in one night. She was strong and spirited, but pushing her further would only cause her pain. “All right, little one. I’ll take you home.”
He transformed them into mist again and glided with her, feeling her dismay as they approached the largest cemetery in the city. I was hoping sleeping in a coffin on the soil of your homeland was a myth, she said in his mind, and he admired her attempt at humor even though she was feeling overwhelmed.
It is, he reassured her. Otherwise he would be one very weary vampire. But I find this a very convenient place to live. No one ever comes calling, no matter what they’re selling.
<
br /> Renee didn’t have time to think of a retort before Eli dove from the sky, speeding straight toward a rocky outcropping in the center of the cemetery. The fine fissure in the rock wasn’t visible until they were almost upon it. Although he sensed the trip through was an experience in claustrophobia she wasn’t eager to repeat, she was considerably calmer than he’d expected when he brought them back to their solid forms in his entryway far beneath the surface. “Home sweet home.”
Renee visibly gathered herself before looking around, obviously dreading what she’d see when she did, expecting perhaps a damp, dirty cave. He might have laughed at anyone else, but he was well aware of how weary and confused she was. Instead he stood silently and let her become accustomed to his home. He waited for her reaction with a strange feeling of nervousness.
No one had ever seen his home before.
He’d lived here for centuries, since before the oldest inhabitants of the cemetery had even been born. He’d hollowed it out of the granite bedrock himself and filled it with every luxury imaginable, expanding whenever he’d run out of room rather than getting rid of anything. The result was a vast underground mansion, a plush home unknown to anyone save himself and now this poor, exhausted fledgling he’d adopted.
She looked back at him. “It’s lovely.”
A warm glow of pride unexpectedly suffused him. It was odd to feel like this about her simple praise. “But you’re too tired for anything but bed,” he finished for her. “We’ll do the grand tour tomorrow. This way.”
He led her down the hall, past the engraved granite archways leading into the main den and enormous library. Candles flared to light as they passed. They turned a corner and paused in front of a hand-carved oak door. He opened it for her and stepped back. This had once been his room before he’d tired of it and created another. “I’m next door should you need me. Try to get some rest.”
She stepped through and closed the door gently behind her before turning to really look at the room. Renee’s eyes widened when she saw the plush bedroom and she bit her lip hard to keep from throwing the door open again and thanking Eli.
Amelia Elias - [Guardian's League 02] - Outcast Page 4