19
And Realised It Had All Been A Lie
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” I chanted, frantically trying to dig through the fallen rubble with my bare hands. What had Alain been thinking? Attempting a joining when I was cut off from my light.
“Nosferatin, we must leave,” the Dark Shadow instructed from beside me.
“Help me dig!” I shouted.
“There is no digging through this, little one,” it said.
I kept pulling rock after rock away and pushing them aside. Only to have more tumble down and fill the space I’d just created.
“Luc’s in there,” I said, my voice cracking.
“Your brother is beyond help,” the Erbörü said.
I spun around and connected my bare foot with his jaw, managing to slice my skin on his serrated teeth. Blood dripped on the dirt outside the blocked cave entrance. I stared down at it, my body shaking, my breaths panting, my heart broken.
“Hayatim,” Hakan murmured. “We have been noticed.” He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. Such vast quantities of Dark could not exist without setting off Ljósálfar wards. I glanced up at the dark sky. The fat moon illuminating the land as though pure sunshine.
With a steadying breath, I returned my attention to the rock fall.
Hakan stepped closer. At least he was holding his own weight. My blood had done him wonders, even if his skin was still pallid and his cheeks still looked somewhat hollow.
“Éliane,” he said, his voice a soft rumble. “Would you sacrifice your life for a lost cause?”
“It’s not a lost cause. They’re in there!” I ground out. “Luc could have thrown up a protective bubble. Hell, Alain could have done the same with his Sanguis Vitam.”
“The vampire’s Sanguis Vitam was otherwise occupied,” Hakan said levelly. “And your brother,” he added, “wields only Dark. Dark does not protect, hayatim.” Dark destroys.
“I’m not leaving him here,” I argued defiantly.
“Then you will die with him. And your father will wage war on Álfheimr.”
“Only on the Ljósálfar and they are leaderless.”
“He will wage war on every single fairy,” Hakan said resolutely. “He is vampyre. And the Fey will be held responsible for his children’s deaths.”
I’d like to think my father was more diplomatic than that. A master strategist. But punishment to a vampire is in the offence. If both Luc and I die here in Faerie, Faerie as a whole will get the blame. It wouldn’t even be considered irrational by the Iunctio. Simply the vampire way.
But leaving Luc to his fate beneath a tonne of rock went against everything inside me. Even went against the ribbons twisting and turning and knotting in my stomach.
What do I do? I asked them silently.
Save your brother, they said and continued to tangle.
I leant down to lift another rock up off the pile, and Hakan placed a hand on my arm.
“There is another way,” he murmured. I didn’t have my Light so I couldn’t see one. Removing every single fallen rock by hand seemed the only viable option.
I lifted up the rock I had been reaching for and threw it away.
“So stubborn,” he murmured. “So full of fire.” His eyes blazed cyan and turquoise, lighting up the small crevice the cave was in.
“Then get out of my way,” I snarled.
I thought he would. I’d hurled the demand at him with everything I had. No Light, of course, to back it up, and had I had it, I might well have considered making him Dream Walk out of my way. But I didn’t have my Light, so all I’d used was my anger.
I had enough of that, though, to move the mountain.
But it didn't move the Mhachkay.
“There was water inside the cave, was there not?” he asked.
I paused, as I reached down to grab the next rock. “Yes,” I bit out.
“The water must exit somewhere,” he offered.
I spun around and searched for Goran; he was keeping an eye on the skies, watching out for those winged creatures. So far none had returned, but they would. Hakan was right. That much Dark released in a land that worked with only Light would have set off every ward within a hundred mile radius.
The Ljósálfar would be coming.
“Goran,” I called. The Hyrða turned to looked at me, green eyes glinting.
“Yes, Enchanted?” he said.
I suppressed the urge to correct his name for me; now wasn’t the time for semantics.
“Did you find a waterway further up? One that could have come from inside that cave?”
“There were many. Most of them small,” the fairy said. “But one was big enough.”
He’d been paying attention. I liked that in a guard. Only when it suited my purposes, of course.
I took one last look at the blocked entrance to the cave and then forced myself to walk away. It was hard. I knew Luc was just beyond that rockfall. If I could shift enough, I could get back inside. Instead, I was heading toward what could generously be called a pipe dream. The pool, from what little I had seen, had been small. The waterfall not much more than a trickle. The flow of water out of the cave would have been gentle. Could it have provided Alain and Luc an escape?
Would they have taken it?
So much Dark. So little Light.
So much power.
“He was strong before,” I said as we marched toward what I hoped would be an exit.
Hakan knew of whom I was talking. “I felt his Sanguis Vitam swell,” he remarked.
“When Alain tested our kindred joining,” I started, only to receive a low growl from the Mhachkay Prince. I ignored it. “My Sigillum spun all manner of colours.”
“Power,” Hakan murmured. He knew the significance of my parents’ mark. What it meant when it swirled so many vibrant colours. When we’d first met, the Mhachkay had only a vague idea. He'd even interpreted my Sigillum incorrectly. We’d only known each other a short amount of time, but no one could say Hakan Bahar wasn’t observant.
It was a strange feeling thinking he’d paid such close attention. Not just to me, I was sure, but also to Luc. It had been Luc he’d claimed as his arena prize at the beginning. When he’d beaten my brother in a hand-to-hand battle and taken Luc as payment for my brother’s debt to him. I wasn’t naive enough to believe Hakan’s attention was purely due to his desire for me. But there was no denying we had a connection, either.
I’d fought it at first. But I’d felt it. And once I choose a path, I commit to it. I’d chosen to follow my brother, to leave Auckland with Hakan.
I was committed. For better or worse.
And Luc had joined with Alain, and Alain who had already been a formidable Sanguis Vitam wielder had now doubled his powers.
“I’ll have to tell Papa,” I said. I wasn’t sure if the statement referred to Luc’s loss or Alain’s gain. “At least,” I added, “if Luc escaped the cave,” - I could think of no other outcome; I wouldn’t entertain one - “he’ll survive on return to Earth.”
“The joining is unstable,” Hakan said quietly.
I stopped walking mid-stride and turned to look him in the eye. “Explain!”
The Dark Shadow glided closer. The Erbörü stalked it. Goran watched the skies.
And the Fey moon hung low on the horizon, bathing Álfheimr in ghostly white.
Hakan Bahar lowered his chin, his hair falling across his brow, his eyes watching me from beneath slitted lids.
“Enchanted,” he said. My name? Or an explanation?
“What about it?”
“There have been others,” he murmured. Other Kan Büyülü? That’s why they had a word for it, I guessed.
“Where? When?” I demanded.
“Many moons ago.” I noticed he didn’t say where.
“How many?”
“Centuries.”
I stared the Mhachkay down.
“Where did these Enchanted come from, vampire?”
Hakan smil
ed. Like any Nosferatu, he liked his prey to fight back.
I held my ground. Aware I was being hunted. Hakan Bahar would hunt me for the rest of my life.
A shiver raced down my spine.
“My people call you Günaha. Temptation.” That sounded about right. I smirked. Hakan raised an eyebrow. “What is a temptation, Éliane? Only that which we should not desire.”
I had a very bad feeling about this.
“Why not?” I asked.
His hand came up and cupped my cheek. A calloused thumb stroked over my jaw. I locked my knees and lifted my chin. His thumb slipped beneath it, then with his forefinger, he gripped my chin tightly. Keeping me still; tipping me up for his swirling cyan and silver eyes.
“So much power,” he murmured. “So much magic. Such uncontrolled delight.”
“I’m controlled,” I hissed, my heart beating frantically.
“And should we join,” he said, ignoring my outburst, “what of your kindred powers?”
“I’ve already got them.”
“Have you?”
What? I panted for breath, as I racked my brain for answers. When a kindred Nosferatin joins with a kindred Nosferatu, they come into their kindred powers. They have to have reached maturity first, though; twenty-five years old. But once they join, they gain immortality, a symbiotic relationship with their kindred vampire, and their preordained powers.
Luc and I had gained our powers on our twenty-fifth birthday. No joining required.
“What’s happened to Luc?” I whispered.
“I do not know,” Hakan said carefully. His beautiful eyes held mine for a suspended moment. And then he said, “Our kind do not join with Enchanted.”
I felt the world disappear in a swirling white-washed haze around me. Just Hakan and I and no possibility of breath. I blinked up at the vampire I had planned to join with.
And realised it had all been a lie.
20
Try That Again, Vampire, And I Will Slice Off Your Balls
“We need to move. Now,” Goran said, stalking up to Hakan and me, and breaking the moment. I struggled to breathe as Hakan reluctantly withdrew his hand from under my chin.
The Mhachkay stepped back, his brightly coloured eyes holding mine. He didn’t look away but owned his deception.
He’d led me to believe he was my kindred vampire. He’d tested our kindred compatibility when we’d first met. I’d spun for him. A Nosferatin fighting style that now made complete sense. I’d wanted him. My body had wanted him, but part of me had doubted. So I had spun toward him as if to strike.
The dropping of my stake mid-spin had confused me, of course. If I was attacking, shouldn’t I have been staking the vampire? It confused me still. If I was never to be joined with Hakan, why did I not stake him when he posed a threat?
Testing our kindred compatibility without invitation was a direct threat. And yet, although I’d spun, my body had refused to attack.
I wondered now if that had to do with the Mhachkay refusing to join with an Enchanted. He hadn’t been a threat. Only a tease. A liar.
I wanted to ask. I wanted to demand. Why am I here, then? Why am I here with you? But Goran pushed past us and started striding up the deep cut between the rock walls we were in, and the Dark Shadow and Erbörü moved to follow.
A screech sounded overhead. Against the bulbous moon, the silhouette of spread wings stood out. I took one last look at Hakan and trailed behind the others.
“We’re being hunted,” Ediz said.
“You are. I am not,” the Dark Shadow replied.
“Oh, it hunts you too, vampire.”
“I am not just a vampire.”
“Irrelevant. Your mutant genes are still food for its belly.”
“It will choke on your fur,” she snapped.
“It’ll enjoying playing with you,” the shifter snarled.
“Enough!” Goran muttered. “There is more than one. I am certain we shall all be dinner.”
Reassuring thought.
Hakan walked beside me, close enough to feel his warmth. He had a shirt tied around his waist. It covered his most intriguing parts but left his butt cheeks bare. The fool that I was slowed down enough to stare.
I shouldn’t have been lusting after him. My body betrayed me at every turn. I gripped the Kilij more tightly. Then stuffed the telling weapon back in its scabbard and withdrew my Svante sword.
I am the daughter of the Prophesied.
Not a Mhachklay’s play thing.
A growl emitted from the back of my throat. I swallowed it down before it got too loud.
The sound of water trickling caught my ear. I sped up, passing the lying Mhachkay, and pushed my way to the front of our group. A small stream emerged from beneath the rocky mountain. Not nearly big enough to provide an escape route for two full grown men. I jumped over it and began running.
The others kept pace. Even Hakan, who despite my blood - and Goddess did I wish I hadn’t fed it to him - was still too pale for a vampire born in the Ottoman Empire.
I realised that the Enchanted he had spoken of had to have come from there. The Ottoman Empire hadn’t existed for over a century. But it’d been founded toward the end of the 13th.
Where were the Enchanted now? Who had conceived them? How had they done so without the aid of our Goddess? Nut had helped in the creation of Luc’s and my births. Had she done so for someone else before now?
I shook my head, leaping over another small stream. My bare feet kicking up crystallised dirt when they landed on the other side. I kept running. Feeling hunted by more than just birds.
If the Mhachkay would not join with an Enchanted Nosferatin, then how had my predecessors survived?
My chest hurt. The ribbons twisted in sympathy. I swallowed past a dry throat.
Was this all for nothing? Would I die and Luc become crazy? So much power. So much magic, Hakan had said. So unstable. So volatile.
I’d felt Lucien’s Dark. I’d felt Alain’s Sanguis Vitam rise in answer. The power they both wielded was evident now. The mountain collapsing after they joined only proved Hakan’s story.
Maybe it would be better if Luc and Alain hadn’t survived.
A sob left me on that traitorous thought. I gripped my Svante sword tighter. Thumped the hilt of it into my chest, futilely trying to assuage the agony I felt.
Nothing worked.
I almost stopped running. What was the point?
My growl this time could not be silenced.
I am a Durand. I am a Nosferatin. We don’t quit. We don’t stop fighting. We never give up.
Damn it! I was going to help my brother, and if it meant I had to find another vampire to join with in order to survive, then I would.
Half of me is Nosferatu. And a Nosferatu will do anything to survive.
Survive at all costs. That was their motto.
Thank you, Papa.
I skidded to a stop at the edge of a wide river. The amount of water pouring out from under the mountain far exceeding what would have been in that pool inside the cave.
“It’s bigger,” Goran said unnecessarily. We could all see the new damage to the side of the mountain.
“Their power did this,” Ediz murmured. “Phenomenal.” I scowled at him.
“Can you sense them?” Hakan asked. The scowl turned into a growl then. The Dark Shadow smirked, crossing its arms over its chest and watching with unveiled delight.
“It would help, Hanımefendi,” Ediz said, trying to placate me.
Trying and monumentally failing. Hanımefendi? Was he kidding me? He called me that now?
“What the fuck does Hanımefendi mean?” I snarled.
Ediz took a step back, realising his mistake immediately. Smart boy. I stalked him. The Dark Shadow laughed.
“Tell me,” I demanded the Erbörü. “Tell me if you wish to live.”
The Dark Shadow stilled. Goran stopped exploring the banks of the river to watch.
Hakan stepped forward.<
br />
“Hanımefendi means ‘consort’,” he said, shooting Ediz a narrowed eyed look.
“And why’s the shifter calling me that?” I asked, my Svante swinging to point tip first at Hakan.
Hakan casually reached up and gripped the blade, then pushed it aside and walked toward me. Blood dropped from his palm where he had grasped the wickedly sharp sword. He ignored it. His eyes only for me. Cyan and turquoise mixed with silver and white. Mesmerising.
I brought the sword back, lowering it, so it could slip between his legs.
“You should be used to this,” I said as the blade came to rest against his balls.
Hakan smiled but stopped his progression toward me. He was close enough, though, for it to count.
I breathed through my mouth, ignoring that alluring scent of oregano and mint and sea salt. There was more in there, but I cut it off. Hakan Bahar’s signature scent was one of the most complicated I’d ever encountered.
And one of the most addictive.
I shifted the sword. Hakan didn’t even bat an eye.
“Would you deny us our future pleasures, consort?” he asked.
I shook my head at him; he was batshit crazy.
“I have a sword to your balls,” I pointed out, exasperation coating my words. “I am not your consort, dickhead.”
He laughed. Actually laughed.
“Kan büyülü,” he said, still chuckling, “you are mine.”
“And when I die?” I demanded. “Am I yours then?”
“I shall not let you die.”
“You can’t stop this.” No, wait. “You won’t stop this.”
“Is that what you believe?” Hakan asked. “That I would risk everything to reach you before the others, only to let you pass from this life?”
I shrugged my shoulders, jostling the sword in the process. Win-win. “Allowing me to join seems like a no-no for your kind,” I said. “That’s why you took us both. Luc and me. You couldn’t risk either of us joining.” He’d roared in the cave if I remembered rightly. When Alain joined with Luc, Hakan had roared in anger.
I hadn’t realised why.
Now I knew.
Hakan stared at me, his gaze so intense I almost looked away. But I’d faced down a vampire or two in my time. I knew how to hold their gaze without actually looking in their eyes. When vampires can glaze you to do their bidding at any time, it pays to develop a go-around.
Blood Entwined (Blood Enchanted, Book 2): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series Page 11