by C. L. Quinn
He wouldn’t hurt her. But he could not let her contact the family. There was only one place for her, and eventually he hoped she would understand. Cherise was his sister, he’d take good care of her, while they checked out her skills. Back at the compound. In her own nicely dressed private cell in his facility.
Cherise would be his next test subject.
It was time. Cherise was ready, and Gunnar let her know, so was David. Katerine was with him now, so she slipped a light long sweater over her jeans and turtleneck and headed down. She was breathing deeply, trying to instill calm internally so she could guide David on this quest. It was going to be very, very painful.
As she entered the hallway leading to his room, she slowed her step. This outcome would affect many lives. Stopping, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. A hand on her shoulder made her look around. Katerine.
“Come on, baby. Let’s find out what’s really in David’s heart. You may have noticed, I have strong empathic skills, as well. I plan to journey with both of you, help you where I can.”
“Three minds merged? I’ve never done that before. But, since he’s a first blood, and I’m not, that might be a good thing. You can do things I cannot.”
“That’s very true. But you are a true empath, and you’re in love with him. I can’t imagine a stronger power. Come on, it will be okay.”
Katerine wrapped her arms around Cherise and they entered the bedchamber together.
David was sitting on the plush couch that lined one edge of an alcove. It was a lovely little sitting area with soft candles for illumination. He had a huge stemmed glass in his hand and smiled up at her foggily.
“You’re drunk,” Cherise said as she approached him.
“Damn right. You’re going to lead me to a nightmare that made me bury my life. I knew I needed anesthesia. Come on, Cherise, please, let’s get this over with.”
“I agree. Okay, well, we all need to be close to each other. I need to be able to touch you. The floor?”
Katerine nodded and easily slid a huge glass table aside and took a seat. David rolled his eyes, downed the remaining half of the glass and slid onto the floor, too. Cherise took her place in the triangle.
“Okay. I’ll do all the work. All you two need to do is clear your minds. I can help, but you’ll both have to relax completely and let me in.”
She reached for them, her palms facing up, then closed her eyes. They placed their hands in hers, and did the same.
“Try to see a white room. Nothing but white, nothing in there, nothing moving, no sound. Just…nothing.”
Cherise had never worked like this with two powerful minds connected to hers, but she felt them blow into hers like hurricanes from two directions. They nearly overwhelmed her, but she reached deep inside, and pulled from a power she had never known she had. She could no longer feel her own body. Her mind had jumped completely to David’s and journeyed deep into his past, to when he was…a child. He had been born vampire. He sat crying, waiting for someone to come, and then she saw what had happened. His mother was dead, killed in some kind of attack. His mother was human. The toddler was filthy, no way to know how long he’d been alone. Vampire David would never have remembered this moment from so young in his life…except now that it had been shown to him. They’d moved too far from where she wanted them…further than she’d ever taken a subject. It had to be Katerine’s influence…her power, that carried their minds beyond their goal.
Cherise took control and moved them forward, past years, past decades, past centuries, until the point where she found his fracture begin. With a real world moan, she swept them up with her and journeyed to the moment he was abducted. Images flew by too quickly, they couldn’t really focus on anything, but then they began to rotate, swirling around in the center of their mind’s eyes, and they landed, in a dream-like world where David was attached to a huge solid metal cross, so heavy he couldn’t pull loose. It was positioned in the middle of a room, but one wall faced a rising sun and there were no doors between him and the cool air…and the light from the sun that was only minutes away. Six people waited in the back of the room while David begged them to close the doors and pull the heavy curtains he saw on each side of the opening.
One of the people stepped toward him. Armel Joubert, much younger, actually quite handsome.
“Shut up, vampire. You’re so powerful, break free.” And then he laughed and moved toward the open doorways to grab a seat and place himself in front of David.
“Yeah, I want to watch every second, vampire.”
When the sun came, the pain entered David, Cherise, and Katerine simultaneously, and although their bodies were safe in David’s room, they felt the searing unspeakable pain of burning at a cellular level to just before death. And then someone pulled the curtains and blocked the light. The pain only worsened, so Cherise pulled them away.
Images rolled by, reacquainting David with the events that took him to the ultimate fracture. Endless attacks, shredded skin, stabbing, gunshots…serious faces of “researchers” watching and recording his healing.
Sexual assaults by violent men whose idea of sex included deviance, obscene penetrations, and group rape. That had not been a part of the research. In the background, barely obscured, Cherise could see Joubert smiling. He’d rented David’s body for money to vicious men off the books…unknown to the project. By the smile she witnessed, Cherise knew money was the lesser motivator…he got off on hurting the vampire as much as possible.
The ultraviolent research was the worst. Repeatedly submitted to burn and heal sessions made the proud vampire beg for mercy that would never come. Cherise and Katerine could feel the pain every time they tortured him in the journey too.
The sex attacks and torture had continued relentlessly for over ten years when his mind broke and retreated to a dark place to find solace and peace. He couldn’t bear the pain, sensory deprivation, and humiliation he had been subjected to. His power was gone and could not protect him. He let himself disappear.
In the remaining twenty years, he responded very little to any stimulus except pain, and even then it was at the apex of the hurt only, and then he moved back into his mental cave to wait until the pain subsided…to wait for it to come again. He’d stopped hoping, stopped waiting for rescue, stopped dreaming. A first blood could reach out to other first bloods, and yet he had not been able to do it. He didn’t know why…but no one ever came. Eventually, he closed up so tightly nothing could get to him anymore. Eventually, he left the self and dropped into a metal chasm from which he rarely emerged. Self- defense through destruction of self. His mind wandered and his body waned. They fed him, barely, only a little blood, animal blood, and calorie amounts too small to sustain health in a vampire.
And although he’d long ago stopped dreaming, as the time approached just before he was released, one night, he was suddenly infused with an image in sleep…a dream…a woman…beautiful. An angel, he thought. She was smiling at him, laughing, took his hand and pulled him toward a light that did not burn. He wanted to go with her, to be with her, more than anything in his life. She turned to look at him as she ran barefoot through a field of flowers in the sunlight. He was afraid to follow.
Cherise and Katerine, locked in the dream with him, felt a shock. The woman in David Patric’s dream, while he was still in the research facility far from Colorado, was Cherise. They had never met before he was brought here. How the hell…?
And instantly Cherise knew the answer. Her brother had placed her image there. He was meant to need her. And while they were shocked at the brutality of what those monsters had done to him all those years…this hit Cherise so hard, she almost pulled away. But Katerine held her true, and together, they began to weave their mental threads to tie David to his own past…to help him heal from the assaults. Katerine took over for a while and led him backward through a tour of his own life with her. Cherise could feel him reconnecting…memories sweet, joy and happiness. Tragedy and losses t
hrough the years, and natural healing with time. Moving forward away from the pain…relearning who he was…who he knew and loved.
They helped him disentangle his mind from the place he’d gone to protect himself. He felt safe in there not knowing any detail of David Patric’s life. Because David Patric was a pathetic creature, a prisoner, weak and damaged…he couldn’t be that person. Their combined powers let him know he was safe again…he could come home.
Cherise tried desperately to keep her feelings out of this journey. She was in love with this man, and it hurt to hurt him. She was grateful Katerine had been there to stabilize them. Her own empathic ability was compromised due to her bonded attachment to David. She got pulled into the darkness with him, and nearly didn’t make it out to help guide him out. Katerine had formed a third in a lifeline, pulling Cherise out while she pulled David out. His mind was damaged, but the fracture was sealed. His reconnection with his spirit amulet added its own power and they all emerged as if shot from a cannon out of the mental landscape that defined David’s hell for the past thirty years. And back to this moment in this place.
The three huddled together, hands clutched tightly, heads against each other.
Cherise was the first to rouse. She pulled back and blinked hard, cleared her vision, and forced her mind to sharpen. Where were they? Oh. In David’s rooms. Katerine was sitting up now and looked at Cherise. She turned her head sideways and blinked, then smiled.
“Well that was a bit of hell,” she said in the understatement of the century. “I can’t believe he made it through that.”
Cherise leaned in to help David, who was just coming conscious. Her eyes were filled with love as she wrapped her hands around his face.
“He’s a remarkable man,” she said to Katerine, who nodded. His eyes opened and he saw Cherise smile at him.
“Angel,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said to him, because she was, having seen the dream sent to him. “Come to me, David. Come back to your life.”
He let her and Katerine pull him up onto the huge pillowed couch. Disoriented, his eyes struggled for focus. He stared at Katerine, then back to Cherise. Then to Katerine and stayed there.
“Katerine, my darling. Are you alright? It’s been so long. Have you been okay? I didn’t leave by choice, baby.”
Cherise watched his eyes lock on Katerine, and felt the breath go out of her body.
He got up, went to Katerine, and pulled her to him. She let him.
“I never meant to leave you alone all that time. Have you been okay?”
Katerine had tears in her eyes. She was in love with Gunnar, but this was the man she had loved for a very, very long time. And he was home now. He was really David, not the stranger who wandered in suddenly a week ago with no memory of her or their life together.
“Baby. David, I’ve been okay. But I’ve missed you. Terribly.” And she kissed him. Gently, but deeper than a friend would.
Cherise looked away. It was as she expected, what she feared. He remembered Katerine and loved her as he had before. She got up and left the room.
David glanced at the door as Cherise closed it behind her, then back at Katerine.
“David, do you remember what you feel for her? Baby, do you still love her?” Katerine asked. “You can tell me the truth.”
He stared at her for a few moments, then touched her cheek.
“I don’t want to hurt you. You know how much I love you. But…I need her. I am in love with her like I don’t think I’ve ever been in my life. I’m sorry.”
It surprised him when she smiled happily. “You know how much I love you, too. But you’ve been gone a long time.”
Like Cherise, he got it immediately. “You’re with someone else.” He sighed. In relief? She couldn’t tell. Suddenly it struck him, memories rushing in. “Gunnar. He should be older. He’s drinking from you. You’re with Gunnar.”
She nodded her head. “I was upset and lonely when you disappeared. We searched for you for years, but no one could find you. Any sign of you. It was like you never existed. Years later, we found we were attracted to each other. We fell in love, David. But I think you’re okay with us, right? You belong with Cherise now.”
“Completely. It doesn’t diminish what we had together, though, please understand that.”
“No, it doesn’t. I can’t imagine a time when we wouldn’t love each other and want to be in each other’s life. But the way you feel for your little empath…that’s what I feel for Gunnar.”
“Then I am happy for you both.” He touched her face again. “I missed you so much for years after they took me. Your face and laugh kept me sane. Until I couldn’t do it anymore and I let myself fall apart. In spite of the fact that we are both in love with someone else…I’m extremely happy to see you again.”
She hugged him, tightly, and they didn’t let go for several minutes. Then Katerine pushed him back, wiping the streaming tears away.
“You better go get your girl. She has the wrong idea that you don’t want her anymore.”
“That will never happen.”
Katerine shoved him. “Go tell her, you big idiot.”
At the end of the long hall, Cherise waited in an obscenely over-padded chair, her head about to explode and her heart about to stop. She knew she should just go up to her room, but she couldn’t see well through the ridiculous wall of tears that kept filling up her eyes. Okay, she wanted him well again, and he was. That he wanted his old life back with the woman he loved didn’t surprise her. It was time to collect Leo and head home. Her job was done. She’d say goodbye to him, but wanted a chance to compose herself first.
As she stepped on the first stair, she felt him. He was behind her. So she turned, and as she did so, felt her feet leave the floor. He’d lifted her off the ground and into his arms.
“You don’t get away that easily, angel. I love Katerine. I always will. But I am in love with you. I’m never letting you leave me, Cherise.”
She was so stunned, she just kept looking at him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she buried her head against him. She couldn’t have spoken for anything in the world at that moment. Shocked, relieved, terrified, elated…all at once. She was afraid to believe he was here, and holding her, and that he really loved her. She felt soft hands on her hair, caressing her head. Katerine, who gave her a kiss on the back of her head.
“Told you, little empath. It’s all going to be okay. For all of us. David is well again, and I have a party to prepare, so I will leave you two to speak about things to come. Welcome home, David.” Katerine leaned in and whispered in Cherise’s ear. “Welcome home, little empath.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cherise barely felt David carry her back down the hall to his rooms. After the incredibly intense, emotion-filled night, she didn’t know if she could stand anything else at all. Her mind, her body, her spirit…they were all exhausted. The fact that she had cried so much tonight was proof enough that she was completely shot. All that really mattered to her at this moment was that she was in David’s arms, and there was a chance they were going to be together. She just didn’t know if she could trust anything right now.
He carried her to the big bed and gently tried to lay her on the covers, but her arms didn’t move from around his neck.
“Baby, I’m not leaving you. But if you’ll let go, I’ll get in with you,” he told her.
She nodded and let go, allowing her body to drop easily onto the satin coverlet. David lifted her up gently and pulled the coverlet down. He slid in beside her and pulled her up next to him.
“We’re all spent. Let’s get some rest and we’ll talk more tomorrow night.” He kissed her forehead. “I want you to know how much I love you. I meant it when I said that, although I love Katerine, you are the one I want to spend the rest of my considerably long life with. I am in love with you like I have never been in my life before. I told you that once, and you couldn’t believe me then. Believe me now. I know who I am, and I
know what I want. So, you better just know that for the rest of your life, I’m your mate. It’s that simple. It better be what you want, Cherise, because I can’t live without you.”
He loved her. They could have a life together. She still couldn’t speak, still didn’t completely trust that it was all okay, but she pushed in tight against him and curled up in his arms. Tomorrow, tomorrow, she would be the strong capable woman she knew she was. Tonight, she would be David Patric’s love, and know that when she opened her eyes again, he would still be there and there would be a future for them together. Exhaustion and drained emotions claimed them both quickly.
In another part of the household, the second resident first blood vampire came up behind an unsuspecting human man who was getting ready to check nightly patrols before he took his rest. He felt a soft hand move down his back and into his jeans, slip around the waistband and then into the front, further, until they wrapped around the girth of his manhood. He closed his eyes.
“Is it alright? Is he well? Is he going to kill me?”
“I belong to you, and I always will. David is in bed right now with the love of his life. I think that’s where you ought to be, too.”
Gunnar swung around and trapped the naughty vampire against a heavy table and pushed her down. He crawled on top of her and slid his body against her. He knew this perfect body so well that if he never saw any light again, he would remember every curve, the color of her skin, the dusty rose of her nipples, every detail of this woman, forever. Had David Patric decided he loved Katerine, and wanted her back with him, Gunnar knew he’d go to the ends of this world to keep her with him. He sighed in relief, and let moisture fill up his eyes. Yeah, he was a softie. But he loved deeply, and with that came a passion and joy that carried with it emotions that often overwhelmed.