Darkness Falls

by A C Warneke

  “Yeah and the fact that he’s done it to at least a dozen beautiful women in the time since you joined me,” he said, a slight smile playing at his lips as he kept his eyes focused on the route he was taking.

  “You’re making that up,” she said, scowling at him for being so cruel. In the dark, Malorie had no idea where they were. She just knew that the sounds of carnal drums were fading and the warm air was filled with the scent of the ocean and not sex. “I mean, I didn’t see him at all.”

  “There is a different bond between an Aradian and his child and an Aradian and the woman he loves,” Varick told her, glancing at her briefly before continuing. “There is a telepathic bond between me and my father, Malorie. I can see what he sees, and to a certain extent, feel what he feels.”

  Malorie’s eyes shot to his in horror at the implications of his admission, “Please tell me that you stay out of his head when he’s intimate with a woman.”

  “That’s hardly an issue since he hasn’t been with anyone since we’ve returned,” Varick said with a chuckle. “But you don’t have to worry. I put a mental barrier up when things get to a certain point, usually well before intercourse occurs, because he’s my dad and… yuck.”

  Malorie let out a horrified laugh at that. Licking her lips, she felt the question that was plaguing her boiling up within her and before she could stop herself, she blurted, “He hasn’t been with anyone else but has he, um, been excited by anyone else?”

  Laughing out loud, Varick wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his thin body. She half-expected him to rub his knuckles against the top of her head but he just held her against him. She was able to feel his ribs through the thin layer of clothing that he wore. It hurt to feel the evidence of his captivity but she refused to say anything, not when he was laughing.

  “Just you, my friend,” he assured her, turning another corner and coming upon the warmly lit glow of a small mansion that was well away from the festivities. “And that’s pretty much a continuous problem for him, which just fuels his anger and frustration.”

  “At least I’m not the only one suffering,” she grumbled, as they slowed their steps and she finally took in the beautiful exterior. Lazily sprawled across the grounds, at least three stories tall and a hundred feet wide, the mansion was white with pillars and tons of windows. If it was smaller, it would have looked like a cottage in a romantic fairy tale, with climbing ivy and sparkling fairy lights and a massive yard with plenty of trees for scaling or setting up a hammock.

  “We’re not on the same island, are we?” she said dumbly, wondering how she knew they had moved but not understanding why she wasn’t sick. Looking up at Varick, she saw his amusement as he shook his head no. “How?”

  “There are corridors between the islands that we use,” he explained, though it wasn’t a helpful explanation. At her bewildered look, he continued, “Because the islands are close together, it was simply easier to create… shortcuts.”

  “Like Netherspace?”

  “Hmm,” he hemmed, screwing up his face in thought. “The short cuts are more stable but, yes, they’re similar to Netherspace, only they are permanent corridors. Not all Aradians are aware of their existence and only a few know of all of them, so it’s a huge honor that I’m showing you this one.”

  She smirked, “Because I have just so many people I could tell.”

  “You never know,” he grimaced as a dark expression flitted across his face. Taking her hand, he pulled her forward but she held back. When he looked at her, he arched an eyebrow in silent question.

  Staring at the house, she softly asked, “Are there hundreds of women in there?”

  “No,” he laughed, tugging at her hand until she stumbled forward a step. When it became apparent that she wasn’t going any further until he answered her unspoken question, he heaved a sigh, “There are only twenty-two women expecting your father’s children, Malorie. He escaped before he could impregnate more.”

  She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that so few babies had been conceived or still angry that Gustav had been captured at all. Blinking, she looked up at Varick, her lover’s son, her father’s half-brother. “You do know that our relationship is seriously fucked up, don’t you?”

  “You do realize that you’re not human, don’t you?” he countered, tugging at her hand once more. “There is no blood between us, Malorie, not a single drop.”

  “I know,” she said softly, pushing the words past her tight throat. “Logically, I know, but it still bothers me.”

  “If we had grown up together then it might be weird,” he conceded. “But we didn’t. I grew up four hundred years ago and you were born barely a quarter century ago. If anything, the age gap between you and my dad should weird you out, not the convoluted ties that bind us all together.”

  “Well, the age gap has reared its head a few times,” she admitted softly, taking a step towards the house. “But I think it’s more of an issue for Feryn than it is for me because he looks like a healthy, thirty-year-old male yet he’s the one who keeps reminding me how young I am.”

  “You are young… very young,” Varick teased, dragging her the rest of the way through the immaculate grounds to the arched doorway that towered over her. Before she could come up with a suitable retort, he pushed the door open. “Welcome to the doll house.”

  With a grin, he pulled her into the massive building and she felt her jaw drop to the floor. Gleaming, pale pink marble and a soaring ceiling with a massive crystal chandelier greeted her. Curving staircases flanked the entry, leading to the second floor and a gallery that was sporadically dotted with a dozen doors. A second floor was above that, with the same number of doors.

  “Each door enters into a suite for each expecting mother,” Varick explained in a soft voice. “Every room has several rooms for the women’s personal use, including a private bathroom with full amenities, from hot tubs to walk in showers with multiple shower heads to heated towel racks. There is a full staff that fulfills every whim and desire of the women and a communal kitchen with several professional chefs on hand to ensure they eat well.”

  Stepping away from Varick, Malorie spun in a slow circle, trying to take everything in and unable to do so. “Do you think it wise to indulge them to such an extent?”

  “Feryn doesn’t want them to ever regret their choice to become mothers,” he explained. With a shrug of his slender shoulders, he looked around at the obscene luxury. “He figures it’s better to smother them with wealth so they’ll never realize that it is still a cage.”

  Her eyes flew to his because this was the first time she felt she had an ally in regards to the women and their unborn children and their fate. He smiled in commiseration, “A cage is still a cage, no matter how beautiful.”

  Those had been her words a lifetime ago. Now, she was bound to Feryn but he had also given her the means to leave, even after she had betrayed his trust by freeing her brother.

  “Anyway, the girls seem happy,” Varick continued. “At least there have been no complaints. A few are taking advantage of our vast repository of information, effectively getting a college degree while they’re baking their babies.”

  “Will their degrees have any weight to them or will they just be a pretty piece of paper to hang on the wall?” Malorie asked, curious even as doors started to open and heads peeked out. A redhead, a couple of blonds and a few brunettes, stepped out of their rooms, brilliant smiles on their faces as they saw Varick.

  “They’re accredited,” he said, turning to the girls with a tight smile on his lips. Realizing how difficult this was for him, she instinctively took his hand in hers to offer silent support. How was he going to help out with the program if he was obviously uncomfortable around the girls? “Girls, I’d like you to meet Malorie Sinclair, a… friend of Gustav.”

  It was strange that he was introducing her as Gustav’s friend rather than his daughter but she wasn’t going to question him in front of the pack of giggling fem
ales. A few of the girls offered warm, welcoming smiles while one or two openly sneered. The rest were more reserved, waiting to pass judgment on the new girl until they knew whether or not she was a threat. Or competition.

  Well, in a way, Malorie could be a threat or she could be their salvation, depending on how everything played out. God, she didn’t want to play this game anymore. She didn’t want to be responsible for the continuation of an entire alien race and she didn’t want to be at odds with Feryn. Forcing a smile, she met the eyes of each girl, “It’s nice to meet all of you.”

  All of the women looked fantastic, glowing with impending motherhood and nary a dark circle beneath any of their eyes. Their flimsy gowns barely concealed their feminine charms and Malorie wondered if it was as much of a hardship for her father as she had been imagining. Each girl was gorgeous, making Malorie feel even more out of place amongst the Aradians and their human pets. The slightly swollen bellies were the only indications that the girls were expecting. How did they manage to look so beautiful when Malorie looked like death on her best days? Maybe in a month or two, when she was as far along as these ladies, she’d be glowing, too.

  “Who do you belong to?” one of the girls asked, her blue eyes dropping to the extravagant mark that wrapped around Mal’s torso and thigh.

  “Um, Feryn,” Malorie said, looking to Varick to see if it was okay for her to mention that little fact. He nodded his head with a slight smile and she let out the breath she had been holding. Looking back at the girls, she noticed that none of them bore any marks and was relieved that the Aradians weren’t staking their claims before the children were even born.

  “We were just about to watch a movie in the theatre,” one of the blonds said, a perky little thing with big, brown eyes. She smiled up at Varick, furiously batting her eyelashes to get his attention. Unfortunately, Varick looked faintly green.

  “Actually, this was only a quick meet and greet because I have begged Varick to show me the rest of the facilities around here,” Malorie said before Varick could figure out a polite way of extricating himself from the group of beautiful girls. Bowing her head and hoping she looked contrite, she said, “I’m really sorry to drag him away but it is important. Otherwise I’m sure he would love to stay.”

  “Of course,” the girl said, visibly disappointed that the handsome Varick wasn’t going to be hanging around.

  Pulling his hand, Malorie led him back through the sea of bodies, pushing past the few who tried to block them. Once they were outside, she heard Varick exhale, “Thank you. I forget how flirtatious they get when I come here without my father.”

  “We do have things to discuss, though, so don’t think I’m letting you out of my sight just yet,” she told him with a smile, still leading him away from the building. Her smile turned to a grimace as she looked around and realized she had no way of knowing where the doors to the portals were or how to open them or how to travel through them. “Um, can you take us to a lab or something?”

  He looked at her as if she might have gone a little insane but he nodded, holding out his hand to lead the way. Before she knew it, they were standing in front of a new building and the faint sounds of drums once again permeated the air. She hadn’t felt anything, hadn’t seen anything, and it disturbed her on a level she didn’t know she possessed.

  “How did we go through the corridor without actually going through anything?”

  “I’m an Aradian,” he explained, smiling broadly. “We see the minute fluctuations of the corridors and we know how to pass through them.”

  “So it’s not something I can learn?”

  He chuckled, “Not even a little bit.”

  “That bites,” she grumbled, pulling the door to the building open and stepping into the darkness. As the door closed behind her, the lights came on, flooding the sterile halls with florescent light, giving it the appearance of a hospital or an insane asylum. Looking over her shoulder to make sure Varick followed, she explained, “Apparently my blood can heal a vampire and Jiro ran a few tests but lately he has been avoiding me even more assiduously than Feryn, if you can imagine. I was thinking that you could run the tests. I mean, if you want. I trust you a hell of a lot more than Jiro when it comes to jabbing me with a needle and taking my blood.”

  When she was met with silence, she turned around to see Varick staring at her with a look of wonder and bewilderment on his face. Tilting her head to the side, she frowned, “What?”

  “No wonder why my father is fascinated by you,” he murmured, closing the distance between them until she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “You just keep pushing forward all of the time, don’t you?”

  “No,” she denied because most of the time she had no idea what she was doing.

  Shaking his head, he reached past her to push a door open, making her stumble into the room behind her. Once again, lights flooded the space, revealing a well-equipped laboratory. He grinned down at her, unrepentant for almost making her fall. “I would have caught you, you know.”

  “Sure,” she agreed, briefly wondering what tests he was going to run and hoping he didn’t plan on taking too much blood. “Let’s do this.”

  Chapter 13

  On the way back to her apartments, rubbing the pit of her elbow where Varick had stuck the needle, Malorie studiously ignored the lingering guests. There were more slow kisses and even slower movements though the festivities seemed to be continuing unabated. She was fairly certain no one had headed home yet.

  She had left Varick at the lab, absorbed in his work. He would have been okay if she had stayed but she was growing tired and hungry and since the baby was behaving, she figured it was a good time to grab a bite to eat and then head to bed. Walking through the sultry night, she could feel Feryn’s eyes on her but she knew that if she looked around she wouldn’t see him. It was time to try a different tactic.

  “Feryn,” she said softly, warily. “You’re being foolish and stubborn.”

  “And you prefer the company of my son,” he whispered, his body suddenly behind hers, his lips near her ear. Warmth wrapped around her and she melted against him, needing this moment. His arms came around her and he was holding her in a loose embrace but it wasn’t enough. Wanting more, needing more, she gripped his wrists and tightened his hold on her, holding him against her.

  “Yes,” she confirmed, feeling the jealousy radiate off him in waves as he stiffened behind her. He tried to push her away but she didn’t relax her hold. Closing her eyes, she pretended that everything between them was all right, at least for a moment, and she refused to let him go. “Because he talks with me even when I know he’d prefer being alone. He doesn’t ignore me.”

  “You love him,” he hissed, struggling to free himself from her hold. No longer willing to hold him against his will, she let him go, missing the heat of his body immediately.

  “Jesus Christ,” she swore, spinning around and facing him. He was backing away from her but she didn’t let him get far, matching him step for step and letting him see her anger and frustration. “You ignore me for days on end, leaving me to suffer with morning sickness by myself, and yet you have the audacity to act like a barbarian because I have a friend in this place out of time?”

  “You’ve had a bond with him for far longer than you’ve had a bond with me….”

  She put her hand over his mouth to stop him before he said something he would regret. “Okay, unlike you, with your brooding and pig headedness, I’m going to explain myself but it’s only going to be this once so pay attention: you’re my mate and I have no desire to be with anyone else, no matter how frustrated I am with you. So, get rid of whatever is eating away at your ego because it’s not warranted. Furthermore, there could never be anything between Varick and me because he’s my fucking uncle.”

  Feryn’s eyes widened and she could see the relief melting the green shards of ice but she didn’t remove her hand to let him speak. “Yes, it freaks me out but I’m dealing. Now, I just want
to grab some food and go to sleep so if there is anything else you want to fret about, please let it go until tomorrow.”

  “Malorie,” he rasped, his breath hot against her fingers.

  Ignoring him because now she was pissed, she turned around and walked away. In a few minutes, a few hours, he’d remember that he was still furious about her half-brother and any truce they made would be lost in an instant. If she were lying in his arms when it happened, the rejection would be too much.

  Yet, if she were to turn around and look at him she would be lost so she walked away without a backwards glance. By the time she reached her rooms, she realized she was being just as foolish and stubborn as Feryn. Unless they figured out a way to live with one another, they were both going to be miserable.

  Grabbing her phone from the night stand, she looked at it, expecting to see the same nothingness that had been there for weeks. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she saw that she had missed a call and that she had a message. Plopping onto the bed, she called her voice mail, wondering if she was going to hear her brother’s voice or her father’s.

  “Malorie.” Her father. At the sound of his voice, her chest clenched and then her heart started fluttering madly. “I’ll answer the phone.”

  Adrenaline flooded her, making her sick and excited and scared. She had been in far worse situations that a little phone call shouldn’t have affected her at all but her heart was racing like she was facing off against a horde of vampires and she didn’t have a weapon. With shaking hands, she called the number back, hoping against hope that her father would finally pick up the phone.

  “Malorie,” he murmured, his familiar voice making her heart ache in her chest with how much she had missed him. Tears threatened to spill over but she wasn’t going to let him know that she was crying. In a low voice, he murmured, “I should have known you wouldn’t give up.”

  “I’m your daughter,” she managed to ground out through clenched teeth. Concentrating on her breathing, she closed her eyes and continued, “Of course I’d never give up. But there is a situation that you need to know about….”