Julija’s eyes fluttered shut, her torso toppled to one side. “I slept with you. Forget me and don’t look for me.” He rearranged her memories, then adjusted her body so she wouldn’t wake with a crooked neck.
After he flicked off the light with his mind, he headed for the only known place that would make him feel close to Sirsniņa.
~ * ~
Clouds gathered above in the night sky, and thunder rolled in the distance as Reinis drove to the edge of the Daugava River. He parked the car and rushed to the walkway above the sloping bank. As he reached the concrete path, he welcomed the cleansing drops that pelted his skin. There would be no way the woman from the club would be near the river, but a part of him willed it to be so. Of course, she wasn’t there. His heart sank.
One hand gripped the metal railing as he glanced over the dark, swirling water. He yearned to find her. A request to the Latvian Vampire Police Department, LVPD, might help but would also tip them off. He tried to remember any detail that could lead him to her. Again, he wished he had taken her blood to track her scent. An acrid stench of burnt cigarettes crept into his nose. Reinis sniffed the air. The odor stung his nostrils. Only the blood of his enemies stank like that. Before turning around, he already sensed who stood behind him. Great. First Velta, now this one.
“Nice to see you cousin,” Gatis announced, an edge to his tone.
Experience taught Reinis that his cousin preferred to rip his neck out than play Mr. Nice Guy. Reinis was 200 years old with Gatis trailing 50 years behind.
Reinis swiveled around. “You know it's never nice to see me. I don't know why you bother.” Not now. Not what he needed. He rested his back against the metal railing. Why the hell was Gatis here? Pupils contracted, Reinis gripped the rail, his knuckles stone white from the pressure he applied to the cold metal.
Gatis only appeared when he wanted something, and it could end in a fight. Typically, Reinis walked away, but tonight he’d kill him for fun.
“You don’t look so good.” Gatis sauntered up, stopped a few feet away, and jerked his chin toward him.
Reinis remained silent. Gatis was a blond, pretty boy, with a softer face than Reinis’ angled features. Though a few inches shorter than Reinis’ 6 foot 2 inches, Gatis was known to draw out a knife and suddenly stab Reinis. So far, Reinis had been fortunate. All of his past wounds had healed, but one day, Gatis might get his aim right, and stab him in the heart. Reinis had only one advantage—Gatis inherited his mother Dita’s inability to heal rapidly. And like her, the veins around Gatis’ eyes tinged gray when hungry or angry. The more famished or enraged he became, the darker they got. Right now, they were tar black.
“Don’t look so good yourself. You should feed. You have something to say to me? Speak.”
Gatis stepped closer. “She’s arrived,” Gatis smirked. “We’ll find her first.” He always wore a suit with no tie, buttoned-up dress shirt, and leather shoes.
Reinis combed Gatis’ mind, but he couldn’t access what Gatis was referring to. He had pulled up his defenses, and his thoughts were impenetrable.
“No idea what you're talking about.” Reinis side-glanced around at the scenery, aware it ticked Gatis off when he ignored him. Under the calm veneer, Reinis’ mind bounced between flattening Gatis and finding Sirsniņa. Still, he concentrated on the river as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Oh yes, you do. She's the one, and we're already on it.” Gatis advanced. Face to face with his cousin, Gatis’ teeth grew, and his pupils became pinpricks. The marked veins around his temples spread downward into his upper cheeks. Opening his arms, Gatis puffed his chest out and studied his cousin.
With slow breaths in and out, Reinis eased his face, and tipped back his shoulders, managing to pull himself together. Reinis sensed Gatis’ urge to shove him over the rail. He didn't budge. His exhausted mind didn’t piece together what the implications of Gatis’ words meant. At the moment, he didn’t give a damn.
Reinis shoved a strand of black hair out of his eyes. “Go ahead. Push me over. Better yet, end of conversation.”
Gatis backed away, pacing. A shade of doubt came over his face.
Reinis sensed that Gatis’ rash emotions had gotten the better of him—that he’d revealed a secret he shouldn’t have. Was it that someone had arrived? What the hell did that even mean?
Gatis froze and faced his cousin again. “Good idea. End of conversation.”
“Why don't you bother someone who cares?” Reinis snarled then walked toward the car.
“You will care,” Gatis shouted after him.
“Doubt I'll ever be concerned about anything you talk about, Gatis. Ar labunakti.” Good night.
Reinis hopped in the car. Out of Gatis’ sight, he stopped controlling his impulses. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but not from his rival. His heart buffeted against his sternum. Limbs trembled with weakness. He slammed his hand on the steering wheel. Duty couldn’t be his life for eternity. The only way out was to join with a heartmate for life, which meant new responsibilities. He’d rather swim naked in an icy lake.
He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. Gatis was up to something. No doubt, he wanted to draw Reinis into the White Swan coven’s chaos. He analyzed the conversation and recapped Gatis’ words. She’s arrived. We found her. As the phrase rolled through his distracted mind, it finally occurred to him what Gatis was referring to.
The Dream Ceremony.
Several years back, the House of the Black Swan elders performed a ritual hoping to find a way to end the wars between covens. “The power will come through a baby boy—his name, Auseklis—the morning star. Born through a special woman,” the elders said as they pulled themselves back from the dream.
Whichever vampire impregnated the woman would bring strength to their coven’s lineage. Not interested in ending the hostility, Gatis’ coven, House of the White Swan wanted the child for their own power.
She’s arrived. We found her.
Gatis must know who she is.
Suddenly the car felt hot and cramped. He yanked at his t-shirt collar and opened the car door a crack. If Gatis reached her first, and Auseklis arrived through the White Swan line, they would use the child to form an alliance and take control of all of their kind. The end of vampires for sure.
His head sank onto the steering wheel. Everything ached and for the thousandth time that day, his insides screamed to find an emergency exit from his life. Gatis’ news was the last thing he needed.
But it was happening. Reinis was certain of that now. He hadn’t seen the blonde enemies in a long time, and then this week the twins had appeared out of nowhere. He needed to check in with Laima, his cast-iron mother. Strong to the center of her being, she survived hundreds of years of darkness, invasion, and slaughter.
Reinis remembered the day the slayers executed his father, the love of her life. He came home to the one and only time he’d seen his mother sobbing. Seven-year-old Velta cowered under the kitchen table while Laima stammered about what had happened. Shaking with rage, Reinis demolished the furniture in his bedroom. He vowed to shield his family from harm so they would never endure such an act again. No matter what he was doing, if they needed him, he dropped everything including duty to be at their side.
Feelings for Sirsniņa were a death wish.
Chapter 5
Dita sank her teeth into a rat, sucking its life until it no longer wiggled. She hadn’t wanted to leave her manor in days. Didn’t want to deal with finding a human. Nor did she have time with so much on her mind. Besides, these rodents fed her baser nature, honing the wimpy, predator skills she had left. She had one last chance to fix things. To regain her power.
She chucked the carcass into a metal bin then turned off the light, leaving the cave. Her special room where she kept her small animals, and locked her children up for weeks when they failed her. She sighed. Most of the time they disappointed her. But she kept them around. Had to. Who else would help her scrape her broken coven ba
ck together?
After closing the door, she hovered up the stairs, her satin, black gown swiping the ground as she flew up to the first floor of her manor. Her three failures waited above. Hopefully, to bring good news for once.
She surveyed them while licking her lips. Gatis stood beside his brother and sister. Fear rose off him like gasoline vapors, and she drew it into her blood, feeding herself off the dread that twisted his insides. The sharp emotion tasted almost as good as blood. His head hung down, eyes, planted on the cracked, marble floor, hands folded obediently on his stomach. How cute. He tried so hard not to show his terror of her. She basked in this fleeting moment of the image of her three babies, standing alert but still.
“So good of you to join us, Gatis.” Dita flicked a strand of long, blond hair over her shoulder.
During their private meetings, she didn’t invite the few scattered cousins that still belonged to her coven. She trusted no one, including Gatis and his siblings, yet she had no choice but to depend on them to further her plans.
“Speak. Spit it out.” Dita clasped her hands.
“Reinis has no clue about her.”
“How does he not know?” Her question sounded more like a demand.
“Duty probably had him distracted. Māte, something bothered him,” Gatis smirked, calling Dita, mother, in Latvian.
“What?”
“He was agitated.”
“And I suppose with your pathetic skills you couldn’t search his mind to find out why?” Her hair flared as she dropped down to the ground with a thud and angled toward them. She yanked at the silver chain she wore around her neck.
“Never mind. I already know the answer.” Like her, he could barely read minds, that’s why. She charged them like an enraged bull, her nostrils flaring. Heat curled around her eyes and down her cheeks. Her veins must be turning black. Huffing, she stopped short of their faces, and whispered, “Incompetent fools. I regret the day you were born. You must find her.”
She combed her fingers through Ilze’s hair, caressing her cheek with a long, pointed fingernail. “You understand?” A tight smile twitched over her lips.
“Yes, Māte. I understand.” Ilze didn’t look up at her. Her daughter knew better.
Dita approached a table that stood against the wall. She picked up a folder and removed a printed photograph. “This is the picture of the bestower our coven hacked from Black Swan’s computer system.” Dita glared at them as she passed it around. “She plans to be in Jurmala. Take this copy with you.” The beach resort, an hour outside of Riga, would be packed this time of year.
Ilze took the photo and shared it with Andis.
“Find her. Your lives depend on it.”
~ * ~
Alone now, with her hand pressed to the glass, Dita stared out the window and soaked in the cold—sucking it through her pores, into her marrow—to renew her vitality. Could it be true Reinis didn’t know about the arrival of the woman seen in the dreams? How could he have missed it? She’d sent her twin nieces after the bestower but so far neither had reported back to her. Strange.
She paced the empty manor. Her home was falling apart. Outside, the white façade was crumbled, pieces were missing from the stucco walls, and vines grew over the building. Her stone, white swan statues, stood, dingy and chipped. By all appearances, a passerby would assume it was abandoned, but this place remained her only home.
Bitterness clawed at her heart. Her sister, Laima damned her to loneliness after betraying her. It was over five hundred years ago, but the treachery still stung. Her sister knew Dita loved Rudis, yet she stole him away. Destroyed her trust. Rudis promised Dita his love. They were planning a joining ceremony. And then, he was gone, found in Laima’s arms. The bitch Laima took Rudis as her heartmate. A stream of rage spilled through her. No one ever touched Dita’s heart the same. And she would never forgive Laima. Never. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she destroyed Laima.
Dita’s hatred for Laima divided the family to this day.
The two branches of the family split, each forming their own hierarchy with eight elders leading. Dita pined to be the head of both Latvian covens to form the Dark League, an alliance to conquer Europe, then she’d move onto other continents. Long divided by war, vampires needed unification, and puny humans by nature required a ruler. But alone she didn’t have the strength. She needed the youngling Auseklis. Her malice sapped her preternatural abilities and every offspring born in her coven shared her feeble traits. Her sight, hearing, and ability to heal were compromised. She couldn’t control or read minds like she had before.
In the House of the White Swan, out of eight elders, Dita led alone since her last brother, Aldis disappeared. The House of the Black Swan had killed several of Dita’s elders. She had eliminated several others when they attempted to replace her authority by tearing their hearts out with her bare hands to ensure they would never gain power.
Dita could hardly believe she was in this situation. Having to depend on her children gnawed at her, but what choice did she have? She couldn’t impregnate the target. The challenges piled up like rocks in a quarry, but they never daunted Dita. If she had to spend the rest of eternity picking off her enemies, she would. One by one.
Chapter 6
A shadow blocked the sun, stealing the heat away. On edge and jittery, Sarma kept her eyes closed and rolled onto her side. She tried to relax in a bikini on the fine, white sandy beach of Jurmala. Again, light brightened her inner eyelids. Sarma focused on the lull of the Baltic Sea’s waves, but GQ’s face invaded her mind again. As she replayed the moments before his face soured, the shadow once again covered the sun. She grunted. Every sip of warmth felt precious this far north.
People laughed and chatted in Latvian.
“Marita, what’d they say?” Sarma sat up and shaded her eyes with a hand to get a better view. A woman and two guys stood close by. Marita fidgeted around on her towel.
A blonde woman with a ponytail stared down at them. A brief smirk flashed across her face, quickly replaced by a grin.
“They're asking if they can join us.” Marita sat up smiling.
“Am I wearing a welcome mat on my forehead?” Sarma sighed. The strangers interrupted her sunbathing, and her fantasies of him.
“Relax for once. They can tell we aren't from here. They just want to say hi.”
Wearing shorts with no shirts, the guys sat down before either of the sunbathers had a chance to answer. Sarma and Marita's eyes met—make yourself at home.
“This is Andis, Pavils, and I'm Ilze.” Ilze giggled, speaking Latvian.
Her laughter sounded canned. “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak Latvian,” Sarma replied in English. She marveled at their fit, muscular builds and couldn’t help thinking how many beautiful people they’d met on the trip.
“My apologies. My name is Ilze, and this is Andis and Pavils.” Ilze spoke in English this time.
Andis stared at Sarma. He had a blond flattop and a mega tan. Silent, he offered her a beer.
She shook her head. “Nē, paldies.” No thanks.
Marita accepted and cracked it open. Sarma couldn’t help noticing the provocative smile Marita flashed at Andis, who darted his eyes away. What about her boyfriend back home?
Ilze slipped back to speaking Latvian. As she listened, Sarma couldn’t shake a sense that something was peculiar about them. She couldn’t identify what it was.
Athletic but slim, at 5 foot 10, Sarma stretched her long legs out in front. Andis watched her move, starting at her painted, turquoise toenails, all the way up her curvy body.
He reached her face, grinned and asked in English, “What brings you to Latvia?”
Marita explained they were Latvians visiting from California.
The conversation switched back into Latvian with Marita engrossed in the conversation. They drank several more beers and laughed. Sarma accepted a beer and drank several swallows eyeing the sand to lie down again, her mind swimming in repeated memories abo
ut GQ. Before tilting back, she couldn’t help but notice Andis gulp his drink. He smiled at her with a gaze that morphed into an intense stare.
Sarma had zero interest in Andis, but suddenly, it was impossible to turn away from his eyes. A fuzzy sensation infiltrated her. Within seconds, she experienced an unexpected draw to him. A complete relaxation swept through her. She skated on the drowsiness. Had someone spoken? Was someone whispering? A pervading need compelled her to kiss his lips. She didn’t want to. Yet she did. What was happening? She felt hostage to sensations that weren’t hers.
A pair of women ran up and busted in on their conversation. One of them chirped in in Latvian, “You going to come back and play?”
Whatever occurred between Andis and her snapped like a tether as soon as the women interrupted and broke his focus. Sarma turned to Ilze who translated, inviting the girls to join them in a game of volleyball. They sounded friendly, so Sarma didn’t understand why Ilze shot them a sharp glare. Relieved for the invitation, Sarma stood up—still a bit loopy—and slowly headed toward the volleyball net. The game was a good excuse to get away from Andis’ weird hold over her.
Sarma sat the first game out. Why was she so taken with Andis? She had no attraction to him, yet for those few moments, he’d caught her in a murky web. She’d made so many poor decisions lately. Was this another instance of her choosing to do something she didn’t want to do—because of someone else’s wishes?
Marita had clumsy skills, especially compared to the strangers who maneuvered with grace, every movement effortless. Sarma joined in the second game, playing opposite Andis and Pavils. The way they gawked at her made her nervous. Although her intuition clamored to her to leave, she didn’t think Marita wanted to go and didn’t want to ruin things for her. Once again, she tried to focus on the game. Afterwards, the group invited them to open-faced sandwiches, chips, and drinks.
Forbidden Darkness (Immortal Desire Series Book 1) Page 4