Revenant

by Janet Jones

  She put the last of her things away in the wardrobe and joined him in the doorway. “You can come in, if you want to. I don't bite."

  Ellory winced again. “Actually, I'd best be going. I have work to do, and you need to sleep."

  "You write your music at night?"

  He couldn't resist. “I seem to be at my best after dark."

  He didn't miss her blush. She bent hastily to slip off her sneakers. One of her socks had a hole in it. He stared at the pink toe peeking out at him and touched his tongue to his upper lip. He was actually salivating. Time to go. Now.

  He pushed himself away from the wall and turned to leave. “Sleep tight, Talisen."

  "Ellory?"

  Halting, he beat down his hunger and hoped it didn't show when he looked back at her.

  He watched her bite her lip and struggle with her pride. She finally managed to spit it out, though he lost her gaze to the floor again. “Do you have to go right now?"

  Willpower be damned.

  He stepped across the threshold. His soulful sprite retreated to the hearth, pushed a chair closer to the fire for him and patted its seat. Sitting down in the rocker close by, Talisen drew her knees up to her chin and watched him with a patient smile as he sat down.

  "Meet me for breakfast in the morning?” she asked.

  The firelight played with the highlights in her hair. It mesmerized him. He closed his fingers around the arms of his chair until he felt the wood dint and softened his voice, making it irresistible. He knew the honey the human heart craved, the spell of comfort and safety. “You'll sleep late tomorrow. I'll come by in the evening."

  She rested her cheek on one knee and looked at him through drooping eyelids. “I never sleep late."

  "Tomorrow you will.” He added a mental nudge to ease her into slumber. “You should go to bed, now."

  "Well ... alright ... but don't get the idea this is my usual protocol with someone I've only just met.” She yawned and sighed contentedly, unaware of how beautiful she was, how much he wanted to.... “You're family, so it's okay."

  A point to bear in mind. Ellory turned his gaze on the fire. “Go on to bed. I'll stay for a bit."

  "That's really sweet of you, Ellory."

  Yes, Ellory, that's oh so sweet. The sarcasm in Meical's thought-voice stung in every nerve. Congratulations on your newfound contraband. She's the choicest of prey, innocence wrapped in the body of a goddess, and with a life force like hers—now that you've singled her out—she'll have our kind flocking to her door the minute you turn your back. With any luck, you'll actually survive that kind of notoriety, though it's doubtful she will. Or did you think of that before you reverted to a brainless whelp?

  Ellory caught back a growl. Stop bellyaching. I'll mark her as mine. They won't touch her. They won't dare.

  And then what? Erase it all from her mind? Replace it with a cock-and-bull story about your mortal demise? Oh, but then you'd have to hang around for the rest of her days, just to be sure no one enlightens her about the truth—like Dylan, for instance. In case you've forgotten, he doesn't give a damn about the Law of the Mark. Seeing as how he's entrenched in the good graces of our new neighbors, and we aren't, I'd say you'd better be making long-term plans for your new morsel.

  Point taken, Meical. I'll keep a close eye on Talisen. She'll be safe here at the inn. She's well within my sanctum boundary, and not even Dylan will poach that far.

  Ellory, think about what you're doing. I know you'll see reason. Meical withdrew from their thought-path.

  See reason? All Ellory could see at the moment was Talisen climbing into the four poster and being swallowed by covers. All he could think about was climbing in after her.

  He'd done all that was needed for the moment. He didn't need to linger. Not here, of all places. If he didn't leave now, he wouldn't.

  The minute her head touched the pillow, he pushed at her mind with the drugging comfort he could give. Her eyes closed, but he knew she wasn't asleep yet.

  "Thank you for everything, Ellory,” she murmured. “Promise you'll let me pay you back for this."

  It would be so easy. He was practiced at laying humans bare. To feed on her would be exquisite. To feel her respond, as humans couldn't help but do, to the Kiss....

  He rose and walked slowly to the end of the bed. “What if I asked you for something precious to you, something difficult to give up?"

  She opened her eyes, bright green and glistening from the enthrallment he'd cast over her. A drowsy smile tugged at her soft mouth. “Try me."

  His fangs unsheathed completely, and he turned his head aside to hide them.

  What was the truth worth to Talisen?

  It was a fool's question. She wouldn't believe what had really become of her precious captain. And if she did, she'd wish him a stake through his heart.

  Just like any other human.

  He squelched a growl, trying to exhale his lust and hunger. He would mark Talisen when it became necessary. Not before. But he would see an end to her curiosity about him, here and now.

  Ellory opened his eyes to find Talisen's face inches away. Her mouth closed over his, soft and insistent. He let it happen, just let go, and wrapped his arms around her, even though he knew she didn't know what was happening.

  She mouthed her way over his jaw and down his throat, moving against him until he felt every curve of her through the woolen nightgown. He savored her kiss, dancing in the light of her soul and soaking up the warmth in her.

  Ellory Benedikt, what the devil are you doing to yourself?

  Ellory tore his mouth from Talisen's and dragged in a breath. Damn it, Meical, what are you tonight? A jack-in-the-box?

  Just thought you'd like to know that fledgling you asked me to look after is attracting too much attention. You'd best tend to her soon.

  Ellory closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing. I'm just leaving.

  I rejoice to hear it.

  Shut up, Meical.

  Meical's laugh faded into the darkness.

  Ellory swept around the side of the bed and eased Talisen down into the covers, shushing her softly when she tried to keep kissing him. “You're going to sleep, Talisen. Right now. And you won't remember this. Understand?"

  She shook her head. “No. I need you. I need you so bad."

  He wrapped her in a drowsy compulsion so inescapable it made her gasp. “You will forget this happened. You will sleep. When you wake up, you'll realize you've found out what you wanted to know about Captain Benedikt. He ... he...."

  Ellory blanched with the effort to say the words, to dispel her curiosity about him forever. No more questions to make his neighbors nervous and threaten his fledglings's safety.

  But he couldn't. For the first time in two hundred and fifteen years, a human cared about what had become of him.

  Where was the harm in indulging her a while longer? She'd know the truth soon enough—and then she'd wish she didn't.

  Talisen rolled away from him, curled into a tight ball, and started sniffling. He knew that wasn't her true nature. She was a Rudyard, through and through, a lioness who hid her fears from predators like him. If not for his hypnotic enthrallment, she'd never show her tears like this.

  Ellory said gently, “Talisen, if you go to sleep now, you'll dream. You'll dream about your Captain all night long."

  Her sniffling stopped. She was listening.

  He knelt by the bed and tucked the covers more securely around her, lowering his voice to a lulling whisper. “He'll take you out to sea with him and show you beautiful places you've never dreamed of. You'll live a lifetime in your dreams tonight. With him. He'll be everything you need him to be. And when you wake in the morning, you'll feel safe, and you'll know ... this night of dreams was as precious to him as it was to you."

  He watched her body relax and probed her mind. The sweet world of her dreams beckoned him. He could make it so real for her. She'd feel the soft touch of the sea wind on her face, hear the lap of every
moonlit wave, enjoy the smell of polished wood, red wine, and leather in his candlelit cabin ... take comfort in the warmth and softness of his bed....

  But that was an indulgence that would only make things more difficult for both of them.

  Ellory rose, and with one last look at her, let himself out quietly, locking the door behind him.

  Even though no locks could keep her safe from him.

  * * * *

  Ellory let the night wind carry him over the wooded hills, caught a gust that took him higher, and then descended to a weathered overhang atop Mount Battie. He stood in the drizzle, filling his lungs with the wet night air and listening to the preternatural heartbeats of his kind. The night wind sang to him of their goings and comings, deeds and misdeeds.

  It was time to check on his fledglings. Closing his eyes, he scanned their favorite hunting grounds and detected their presence at a movie theater in town. He grinned. They'd stuffed themselves and were lounging in the back row, as absorbed in the movie as the humans around them, some of whom were sleeping off the effects of his children's voracious appetites.

  Reassured that they were safe, he turned his attention to the task at hand. The trespasser.

  It took him only a moment to find her. Hers was the erratic heartbeat of the newborn vampire, and she was sick with hunger. He snatched at her frenzied thoughts. In human terms, she was about sixteen. Not a local. He could glean no description of her creator from her memory. She'd been set upon by a vampire up north last night, brought here by another, and tonight, passed off to a third. No choice. No explanation. Only brutality, then abandonment.

  Ellory dilated his pupils until the woodland area below him could conceal nothing from him. There. A staggering blur of yellow hair and pink sneakers on the edge of a clearing. He launched himself into the night sky and landed flat-footed in the wet grass to intercept her.

  He waited until she saw him, gave her a second to realize the inevitable, and with a silent command, stopped her in her tracks. She screamed when her legs buckled beneath her. She rolled into a sobbing, shuddering heap.

  He circled her slowly. How far into her transformation was she? Her soiled clothing smelled of human offal and death. Her body had rid itself of all that was human and now quickened with all that was vampire. She stared at him, wide-eyed with terror, until a hard pain wracked her body, and she screamed.

  Ellory went to her and held her, enveloping her in a mind-drugging daze until the spasm passed. If she didn't feed soon, she'd die. But she deserved a choice.

  "Don't hurt me!” she moaned.

  He smoothed her matted hair out of her eyes. “Do you remember what your name is?"

  "Jenny. I think."

  "All right, Jenny, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to help you, but you have to decide how I'm going to do that."

  He filled her mind with an image of the choice he was offering her. He made it very clear what she was, what she would always be, if she chose to live on. The powers that were hers. The limitations. The darkness. The loss of the sun.

  Ellory tried to give her an image of the light that waited for her if she chose death, but it was difficult for him to envision it himself. The best he could do was describe it as a warm, safe haven that was within her reach, where she would never be hurt or frightened again.

  He waited for her to make her decision, ready to take her life painlessly or open a vein in his wrist and finish what her creator had started.

  She shuddered and gasped, “I want to stay."

  "Then you will. These hard few hours will run their course, and you won't have to face them alone."

  Ellory sat against a tree, drew her back against him, rolled up his sleeve and bit his wrist. Letting the blood flow for a moment, he pressed the wound to her mouth and whispered to her. She found the flow with her tongue, lapped once, twice, and moaned. A second later she found the vein and clung to him, suckling hard.

  Caressing her head, he exhaled a soundless sigh. “Look around you, Jenny. See how beautiful nighttime is. You can be part of it in a way you never could as a human."

  She nuzzled his wrist, biting harder. Her thought-voice was barely a sigh in his mind. Nothing's as good as this. I'll never get enough.

  He laughed softly and laid his head back against the tree, savoring the contentment of the moment. Presently he felt her mouth slow, pucker, and loosen. He smiled. She was sound asleep, with her fledgling canines already in evidence and still nipping into his flesh.

  What she needed now was a safe place to weather the night. Her stupor wouldn't last long. She'd wake up just as famished and terrified as she'd been a moment ago, but she wouldn't be alone. Running his hand under Jenny's chin, he freed his wrist from her fangs, licked his wound until it healed and called to his children.

  They were there in seconds, supple shades stepping out of the darkness, crowding close, their faces tender with concern.

  "This is Jenny,” he said. “She's had a hard coming-over. Her creator abandoned her."

  Ellory's little Brit, Georgina, a golden-haired vampiress with the body of a ten-year-old, reached down and touched Jenny's face gently. She filled her high, nasally voice with all the clout of her one hundred and fifty years of survival. “Right then. First thing she needs is a bath. Let's go, girls."

  Adrienne and Delfina took Jenny from Ellory and supported her between them.

  When Ellory stood up, the world tilted away from him, and he swayed on his feet.

  Christophe reached to steady him. “You gave her too much."

  "No more than I'd give you. I'll replenish myself and come home to feed her again shortly. She has a grueling night ahead."

  "We've fed well. Let us nurse her."

  "It's too dangerous. She won't be herself tonight."

  He watched his children examine their new sister. He was so proud of them. They had compassion that was rare among his kind.

  Even Meinrad, just in his sixth year as a vampire, was capable of clemency toward his prey. He took too many risks and had to work at self-control, but even now, he was—

  Nowhere to be seen.

  Ellory growled. “As usual, we seem to be missing someone. How many times have I told you? Stay together!"

  Christophe sighed. “He was with us earlier, but—"

  "Not Sartori's club again? He knows I've forbidden you to go there."

  Adrienne shrugged. “It's neutral ground. We aren't trespassing. Where's the harm?"

  Ellory dismissed her remark with a wave of his hand. “Sartori isn't careful about his clientele, human or vampire."

  Georgina's ethereal laugh interrupted his rant. “Oh, get over it, Ellory. He's a novelty, that's all. A human who knows what we are and caters to our needs? What fledgling wouldn't want to see that?"

  "Sartori can't be trusted,” Ellory warned. “That's how accidents happen to pigheaded, snaggle-toothed fledglings like Meinrad who think they're invincible!"

  "I'll go get him,” offered Christophe.

  Ellory shook his head. “I want all of you safe at home for the rest of the night. Just because Jenny's creator abandoned her doesn't mean he won't want her back when he realizes she's run away."

  The fledglings nodded and, holding Jenny close, they shimmered out of sight, taking her with them.

  Ellory scented prey close at hand and moved swiftly in that direction, calling on Meical as he did so.

  Meical's laughter resounded in his mind. I'm on my way to Sartori's now. I'll bring the rascal home.

  If he's not dead already.

  You can't save them all.

  Ellory snarled in response. He spotted his quarry ahead of him on the path, a jogger out for a late-night run, and caught up with him in a single lunge.

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  Chapter Three

  Talisen stretched languidly and rolled onto her stomach, nestling into her pillow as though it were the man himself. Her Captain.

  What a dream. Miles of moonlight and ocean arou
nd them. Not another soul in the world. A huge gale caught up with them, but they weathered it together. She could still hear the storm.

  Talisen blinked, opened her eyes in the shadowy room and listened. Yes, she could hear it all right. Rain and wind assailed her windows as though they weren't content to stay outside.

  She squinted at the bright red numbers of the alarm clock on her bedside table and gasped. Sitting up, she snatched up the clock, stared at it, and set it down with a thump. Four o'clock in the afternoon?

  She reached for the phone on the bedside table and rang the desk. Jeff Gerard answered.

  "Good morning, Jeff. This is Talisen Davies in the Captain's Suite. Has Ellory Benedikt left a message for me?"

  "He left a note for you just before sunup,” the boy replied, “but asked us not to give it to you till you woke up."

  "So, he hasn't called or come by?"

  "No. Mom's coming up with your note."

  "Thanks."

  No sooner had Talisen hung up than she heard a knock at her door. She put on her robe, gave herself a quick look-over in the full-length mirror and opened the door.

  Mrs. Gerard's eyes twinkled as she shifted her stack of folded linens to her other arm and held up a gray parchment envelope. “I'm supposed to give this to you myself."

  Talisen smiled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Thanks. May I have Ellory's phone number, too?"

  "According to Mr. Benedikt, you're supposed to have whatever you ask for. Here, hold these for me, would you?” She handed the linens to Talisen, whipped a pen from behind her ear and scribbled the number on the back of Ellory's envelope. “But his number's unlisted, so don't give it to anyone else, or we'll both be in trouble. Hungry?"

  "No, but I could sure use some coffee."

  "I'm supposed to feed you, sweetie. I'll have Jeff bring up a tray for you."

  Talisen thanked her again, handed the sheets back to her and took the note. Closing her door, she opened the envelope slowly. It smelled like him. Sand, shore grass, wet rocks and miles of ocean. Or was that her dream coming back to her?