Discovery

by Thianna Durston

  “But—” Aaron pulled out of his arms.

  “Aaron, didn’t you listen? They are reborn as the undead. They are born fighting and if they survive against another vampyr, it shows their strength is immense. To get where Kimil and Vinishad are, they are some of the strongest of their kind. And even the weakest vampyr are already stronger than we are,” he said succinctly. “As part human, as still somewhat alive. We. Are. Weaker.”

  “But, wait…” Aaron couldn’t stop himself from pacing, even though they were outside, and it felt a little strange. “How did you get away from them before?”

  “Ingenuity and speed. And the fact I have a brain and know how to use it. Vampyr fight on brute strength. Their focus is death. Always has been, always will be.”

  “So we create a little ingenuity of our own.” Stopping in his pacing, he looked Jaret in the eye. “I think it’s time to look in that safe of Davis’s. Maybe there’s information on defeating vampyr.”

  Several expressions crossed the other man’s face before he smiled. “I like that. First, let’s go into town.”

  Confused at the change of topic, Aaron stared at him. “Why?”

  “Because we only have a few days to figure this out, which means we need to read during the day. To be at our best strength, we need to drink the best blood.”

  “Lion’s aren’t the best?” Aaron asked with interest. The blood he’d had so far had made him feel so good that he hadn’t realized some was better than others.

  “No, animal blood will do in a pinch, but to be at our best, we need human blood.”

  “No.” Aaron knew at some point human blood would be brought up and had already made his decision on it. “I won’t kill humans just to stay alive.”

  “Aaron! They’re our food source.”

  “No.”

  “Remember how good you felt the first two times I gave you some of the blood from my flask?”

  “Yes,” Aaron said slowly, feeling he knew where this was going and didn’t really want to hear it.

  “It was human blood. That’s why you almost instantly started feeling better.”

  “But animal blood is doing just fine.”

  “We aren’t fighting vampyr. Yet.”

  Wincing, Aaron shook his head. “I know you’ve been around for a long time and see no problem with drinking human blood. But I do. I’m sorry, Jaret. I’ve decided. No humans are going to die to give my body sustenance. If I have to, I’ll bleed our own stock before they go to slaughter.”

  “Aaron—”

  “I’ve decided, Jaret. It’s one of the ways I’m trying to make peace with what I am. It’s how it has to be.”

  Jaret looked as though he wanted to argue, but finally he nodded. “Fine. But we do need an influx of blood if we’re going to stay up tomorrow reading.” Lifting his head, he inhaled. Aaron followed his lead, but there were so many scents he stopped due to how overpowering it all was. “There is a pack of wolves south. Let’s go.”

  Aaron knew his companion wasn’t happy with his choice, but it wasn’t one Aaron planned to hedge on. Drinking from humans felt as though he was drinking from his own cousins and that was just wrong. Besides, as a drakyl he was part human. Keeping that humanity felt important to him. Of course, Jaret was a humane individual. He always killed their animals before feeding, never letting them panic. Shaking his head, he focused on their run toward the wolves. These were things he might have to rethink in a hundred or so years. For now, humans were not food.

  *****

  By the time they got back to the homestead, each of them having drank down two wolves a piece, the sky was beginning to lighten.

  “You two are cutting it close.”

  Startled at the voice, Aaron looked up as he entered the living room. Will sat on one of the sofas, watching him. “Close?” Aaron asked.

  “Yeah. You’ve been out all night. Find anything?”

  Tension that had spiked the moment he heard Will’s voice, lowered. Good. The kid didn’t realize they were extremely different.

  “Yeah,” Jaret answered when he didn’t. “Two guys who are out to prove something.”

  “Only two?” Will scoffed. “You and Aaron’ll take them out.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said, though he looked pained as he spoke. No doubt, Jaret was thinking they would not succeed.

  “No prob. I’m starting breakfast. But, uh…” He grimaced. “Davis coughed all night. I checked on him a couple times and there was blood on the pillow. Aaron, I—” He gulped, all of his bravado disappearing as worry took its place. “Is he dying?”

  “Yes,” Aaron said in as kind of a tone as he could. “Davis won’t be with us for long.”

  The poor kid’s eyes watered and his lips quivered. “You can’t…I mean, you two can’t fix him or something?”

  Confused, Aaron shook his head. “There’s nothing to be done. He’s lived a good life and his spirit is ready to move on.”

  “Think about it this way,” Jaret offered in a soft voice, placing his hand on Will’s shoulder. “He’ll be watching over the ranch and you.”

  That brought a snort. “Great. Just what I needed. Having Uncle Davis see everything I do.” He opened his mouth as if to say something else and then shrugged. “Okay, I’m gonna make scrambled eggs. I shouldn’t be able to screw that up.” Turning, he walked away from them toward the kitchen, his usual bounce gone.

  “He knows more than he lets on,” Jaret said in a low voice.

  “He’s always been able to figure things out before anyone else. Plus, Will adores Davis, probably more than any of us except for me.” Aaron’s voice broke and he shook his head. “This place is gonna feel strange without him.”

  “Come on. Let’s check on your uncle and change his bed so he’s at least not lying in blood.” Something in Jaret’s tone told Aaron there was more he had to say, but he figured he’d hear about it later.

  It wasn’t too much of a surprise when there was no reply to his knock. After all, if he’d been coughing most of the night, he was probably sleeping. However, Aaron was not prepared for what he found when he opened the door. Jaret’s hand grasped his arms even as the scene in front of him took hold.

  Besides the blood stains on his pillow and cheeks, Aaron’s uncle actually looked at peace. His eyes were shut, his mouth in an almost smile. However, his chest wasn’t moving.

  Davis Drakyl was gone.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jaret found himself at a loss. Following Aaron into the room, he instantly smelled death, but having his partner drop to his knees and sob…He didn’t know what to do. Kneeling, he wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close as the man cried with no shame over the loss of his father-figure. Knowing the sobs might attract the attention of others in the house, he used his foot to push the door closed. There would be time to tell the others. For now, he wanted Aaron to have a few minutes to mourn the man lying on the bed.

  As he watched his love cry for the loss of his dear uncle, Jaret reflected that he had never loved anyone like that. Not that he could remember. Of course he had human parents, but he didn’t remember them. Nor did he remember the name of the drakyl who found him and forced blood into his face to get him to change. The act he remembered. Not the individual.

  To love someone so much that this kind of loss came from it…it was almost too much to fathom. Though he knew if Aaron were to die, he would not survive the loss. They were joined and that was that.

  A soft knock came at the door and Aaron drew in a shaggy breath. “Just a moment,” he called out, struggling to get to his feet. Jaret rose with him, keeping his hands on Aaron’s upper arms.

  “Would you like me to tell them?” he asked, trying to save Aaron the pain.

  “No. I’ll tell them. Please, just stay with me.”

  “Of course.”

  Taking a few more breaths, probably to steady himself, Aaron finally turned toward the door. He reached out and opened it and they both lo
oked at Will who stood there with a tray in his hands, noxious smelling coffee in a chipped mug and a plate of undercooked eggs along with half an orange sitting on top. He looked at Aaron and his expression changed from expectant to sad and as his tears flowed, Jaret yanked the tray out of his hands while Aaron jerked him forward into a hug.

  It was a trying morning.

  None of the cousins could do much besides huddle in or near Davis’s bedroom, hanging on to one another for support. Jaret felt like an odd man out, except that every time he tried to leave them to their grief, either Aaron or Will asked him to stay.

  “We’ll need to get everything done,” Jeffrey said at one point. “Doctor called. Sherriff…”

  “I can do that,” Jaret said, wanting to do something.

  “And we need to have a private service,” Conner insisted. “None of the people around here loved Davis. He doesn’t need some hangers on who just want to be seen at someone’s funeral to prove something or other.”

  “What about extended family?” Stephan asked. “We know they’re out there.”

  “Nobody’s been to the ranch since Will arrived. Just us,” Aaron insisted.

  Finally given the green light to do something, Jaret took the folder with Davis’s will and the ranch trust out into the living room.

  “Here, use my phone.” Will had followed him out.

  “Thanks. How are you doing?” It rather surprised him that he cared. He’d never become attached to anyone before and found himself with feeling affection for all the men in this house. Including the one who just died.

  He shrugged. “Don’t know. Even though we knew it had to happen sometime, I still didn’t expect it for years. Davis was a great guy.”

  “I know.” Of course, Jaret only knew they felt that way but it seemed to be the thing to say. Plus, he had raised Aaron and Jaret’s partner was an amazing man. Anyone who had raised such a fantastic individual had to be something special.

  “Are you and Aaron gonna stay?”

  “We aren’t going to leave you guys with all this.”

  “No. I mean…after the funeral and all the wahoo going on, are you two leaving or are you staying here?”

  He wanted to assure the younger man, but didn’t feel as though he could make that kind of promise. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it. But I think Aaron’s pretty attached to the land here. And it’s growing on me,” he added.

  Will gave him a watery smile. “I hope you do. You’ve made Aaron happy and I like having you around.”

  “Thanks, Will.” With a nod, the younger man left and joined his cousins back in the tiny bedroom.

  Thankfully all the phone numbers were on top of the pile in the folder and in less than an hour, he’d made the important calls. The doctor and sheriff would be out within an hour and hopefully they would be okayed to lay the man to rest tonight. In this heat with a decaying body, it needed to be done quickly. They could have a wake later in the week, preferably after their interaction with the vampyr, though since he wasn’t sure of success, he wondered if they shouldn’t do it before.

  The next three days were exceptionally busy. Burying Davis was the easiest part. They had a small family gravesite a few miles away. He and Aaron dug the grave and after laying his cloth-covered body inside it, each of the cousins said a goodbye to their uncle. Afterward, they buried him under six feet of dirt. It was simple, powerful, and in Jaret’s mind, fitting for a man who had lived almost his entire life on this land to become a part of it forever.

  Nights were mostly spent finding and drinking down predators. The days dealt with legal shit he really didn’t want to deal with, but attorneys swamped the ranch the day after Davis’s death. Aaron shone through it all. Even though it had to be heart-wrenching for him, he dealt with each one, assuring them he was the new trustee and that the ranch was in good hands. Each morning, he sent his cousins out to work—mostly to get them out of the way of the onslaught—and every evening, he welcomed them home with a good, hot meal.

  Will brought home pictures of Vessy Ridge every evening. The two vampyr were intent on this happening. They were so sure of their success. Each new message taunted Jaret with how many hours he had left to breathe before they let the sun eat him up. First, though, they promised to make him watch Aaron die.

  Over his dead body. Since Davis’s death, the inner leader had burst out in Aaron and he ran the ranch with a firm hand. But he knew nothing about fighting vampyr. Jaret did. And he planned on, if it was their end, of making sure their enemies paid for it, too. For one thing, he didn’t want them coming down and killing the other five. Somehow he knew the bastards would turn at least one of the young men, or try, and that was unimaginable. Of course, he wasn’t even sure if a drakyl could turn into a vampyr.

  “You’re sure about this?” Aaron asked quietly as the last lawyer finished up the newest trust paperwork.

  “We should be prepared,” Jaret answered just as inaudibly. “If something happens to us this weekend, it needs to be legally in Jeffrey and Conner’s hands.”

  With a nod, Aaron quickly read through the paperwork and signed it. Now, no matter what happened, a Drakyl would carry on this ranch. They had found five names of supposedly living relatives and after listing all of Aaron’s cousins as successive trustee, he had added the five men to the list as well.

  Everything was now in place. Now, they just needed to feed before the fight. It would be Friday or Saturday night, Jaret was sure. After all, this was the new moon, the time when vampyr were at their most powerful.

  All of the cattle and horses had been herded closer to the homestead, just like they would normally do in the winter. Aaron insisted that all of his cousins get home well in advance of nightfall and while Conner had rolled his eyes, all five of them had made it home before five.

  Will, usually the most talkative, was quiet when he returned. He ate his meal, along with his cousins, but didn’t say a word. Slowly, the other four grew just as quiet and the expectancy in the air was tangible.

  “When’s it gonna happen?” Stephan asked, looking between Aaron and Jaret, who sat together at the head of the table.

  Even though they hadn’t discussed the coming fight, it wasn’t surprising that everyone knew of it. There weren’t a lot of secrets in this house.

  “Tonight or tomorrow,” Jaret replied.

  “Tonight,” Will said, his voice shaking. He slid his phone over and Jaret looked at the picture. Images of the seven of them were roughly painted on the surface of the ridge. He and Aaron had stakes where their hearts would be. Blood poured out of the necks of the rest of them.

  “Fuck,” Aaron whispered, looking at the image. “Subtle they are not.”

  “I wanna help,” Will said, his voice stronger. Looking up, Jaret saw his jaw tense, his eyes snapping between the two of them. “I know I’m no good in a fight, not against you, let alone them. But I’m smart.”

  “Smart helps only in the planning. Once the fight starts, it’s living on one’s wits.”

  “Then let me help with the planning,” he cried desperately. “We just lost Davis. We’re not going to lose you, too!”

  Aaron placed a hand on Jaret’s knee, stalling him from trying to explain, once again, how their helping would actually be a hindrance. If he was continually worried about their safety, his mind wouldn’t be on the fight. “What have you got in mind?”

  The other four watched, their gazes just as intense as Will’s. “Well, you know I like gadgets, right? I went looking at Davis’s old shed, looking for some tools we could use. And guess what I found?” he asked in excitement. “A flame thrower.”

  “A what?” both Aaron and Jaret asked.

  “A flame thrower. It works off gas, which we have quite a bit of. You could take it with you and if those guys get rough, set them on fire.”

  “Great idea!” Conner said, nodding his head. “Goodbye, enemy. Hello, freshly fried corpse.”

  “Conner!” Aaron said sharply, bri
nging another eye-roll from his cousin.

  “Aaron, we know what you’re battling. So give it a rest.”

  “What do you mean you know?” Several times, Jaret got the feeling Will knew there was something different about him and the boy definitely had a wild imagination.

  “Come on,” Will said, grinning sheepishly. “Bloodless animals. No dead stock. Stakes through the heart? Plus, you two stick to the night and I’ve seen some of your clothing. Covered in blood and yet neither of you have a mark on you.”

  “Yeah, and since you’ve arrived, Jaret, Aaron’s healthy again,” Jeffrey offered. “He hasn’t been healthy in years and yet, look at him!” He waved toward the man sitting at Jaret’s side. “You saved him.”

  “I’m not some kind of superhero.”

  “No, you’re a vampyr.”

  Startled at the word, Jaret’s lips pulled back a bit and his fangs tried to descend. He fought them back. “I am not a vampyr,” he said in a cold voice. To his surprise, Aaron started to laugh. Turning, he glared at the man, which just made him laugh harder.

  “Will,” he said, chuckling almost giddily, “you have no idea you’ve just handed Jaret the largest insult possible.”

  Will’s face went white and then gray. “I’m wrong? Damn. I was sure…”

  Suddenly, the ludicrousness of the situation made Jaret chuckle as well. Will wasn’t rejecting him, neither were the others. And yet they thought he was the worst creature on the planet. “First,” he said dryly, “I am not a vampyr. Vampyr are evil and undead. I am a drakyl.”

  “Well, of course, you’re one of us,” Adam said, flushing a little. “Any partner of Aaron’s belongs with us.” Of all of them, Adam spoke to him the least, always seeming uncomfortable in his presence. Was this why?

  “Okay, first, a drakyl is…” He growled making the crazy teenagers around him grin. The boys weren’t taking this serious enough. “A drakyl is a man who…who…” Jaret stalled, unsure of how to describe it.

  “We’re only part vampyr,” Aaron offered, earning another glare from Jaret. He wasn’t part vampyr. “The Drakyl name comes from the fact we have descended from a long line of drakyl.”