“Second generation vampires? What are those?” Telman asks.
Chex snorts, shocked. “You haven’t heard of them? They were feeding off of us regular vampires. Wiped out the Olympus coven, Kilimanjaro…”
“That’s huge!” Telman exclaims cutting him off. “That’s what? Ten thousand vamps?”
“Thirty-seven thousand, five hundred and two to be exact,” Chex says. He scowls curiously. “Where the hell have you been that you didn’t know this?”
“Everywhere but the Earth. Mainly the kark forest. We’ve lived there for a while.”
No wonder the trees recognized the hymn of gratitude and protected me from the Mtknv. I glance over at Na’ta but she’s focused on following the discussion between the two Selells.
“They’re no longer an issue, the sisters and their vamps,” Telman grins cynically, “Well, I thought they did what was smart and killed them but they’re in Tetra.”
There’s a short moment of thoughtful silence. We are all very comfortable as we sit to dine with each other. I catch Na’ta studying my neck and when we lock eyes, she turns quickly to face Telman.
“We’re going in for The Scepter of Gant,” she says to him.
“Is it because we have more firepower this time?” he asks.
“Wait,” Chex says, sounding astonished by what he just heard. “What do you mean by ‘this time’? You two tried to take it before?”
“Of course” Na’ta breathes, sounding smug. Her top lip is curled in that way that agitates me. I know she’s about to do something dangerous whenever she does that. “We heard the Mtknv were raided, so we decided to…”
“Take it back,” Telman finishes for her. “But we almost got ourselves killed. We didn’t know they had the eye. They saw us - well me - coming.” He shows the same smug smile Na’ta is displaying. “So we’re going back in?”
Out of nowhere, Chex lets out the loudest laugh. Whatever amuses him is not only a mystery to me, but to Na’ta and Telman as well.
“They must drive you nuts, Babe,” he says, rubbing his hand gently on my back. His touch feels divine. “He’s just like her!”
I can only shrug because I can’t even begin to verbally convey how true that is. Just as Chex and Na’ta had a shaky beginning, so did Telman and I.
“I make her bat-shit crazy,” Telman laughs before taking one big bite of ci’ke. “But now she loves me, right Ad’ru?” He winks at me.
“Very much so, Telman,” I say with a smile. I think I’m blushing. We’ve come a long way and now I like him very much.
“I know you want me to keep my hands off of your sister, but it’s hard when she does that!” Chex’s eyes are gleaming as he gazes at me.
“Try,” Na’ta snaps. “And, while you’re at it, could you stop calling her ‘babe’? It’s just…” she pauses to think of the right word, “…weird.”
“Na’ta - silence,” I say, commanding it from her. “You respect what we have, as I respect what you have with Telman.” Chex squeezes my hand. I know it’s his way of thanking me for finally defending our love to her.
She shrugs nonchalantly.
“Yeah Babe; Adore’s got a point,” Telman says, surprisingly in support of me. He normally lets us squabble and pretends as if he’s not paying attention to us.
“Okay,” she snaps. “I get it.” She aims a finger at me. “But you better be there when I call you. It’s our pact; remember that.”
“We’ll both be there,” Chex says, speaking before I can.
“And vice versa,” Telman adds.
“Good.” Chex kisses my knuckles. “Now that we got that out of the way, Telman,” - and I like how he pronounces his name, like Telman is a word in a beautiful song - “You’ve got speed and I need you to carry me into Ol with these two,” he says tilting his head in the direction of Na’ta and me.
“You got it,” Telman replies without debate. He’s so different from Na’ta in that regard. He doesn’t like to quarrel.
“One more thing: what about the bat people who we’re feeding off of you? Where the hell did they come from?”
“The blood slugs?”
“Is that what they’re called?”
Telman glances at Na’ta. “That’s what we call them. They’re from the swamps of Glooms, not Earth. You can take one guess how they got here.”
“Exgesis,” Chex replies wearing a disgusted snarl.
“The one and only. And as you saw, they like blood. Vampire, human, or animal - it doesn’t matter. And they have no cut off point. They’ll drink you dry and do it slow. It hurts like hell.” He cringes, recalling the agony. “By the time you got there, I was in so much in pain that I just blacked out and begged death to hurry up and get on with it.”
“That bastard,” Na’ta curses under her breath. “He was going to kill you? That wasn’t part of our deal.”
Telman sniffs cynically. “Reefer brought me a message from Exgesis before he threw me in with the blood slugs. He said thanks for getting him what he wanted; the deal is off because we’re not making it easy for him.”
“What did he get that he wanted? Isn’t Gia still in Tetra?” Chex asks.
“Wait,” I close my eyes and sigh gravely. All eyes are on me, waiting for me to reveal what I’m thinking. “Your bargain was to release Gia. That happens if we enter Ol through Tetra and, according to the Aarap and Magnificent Star, it’s our safest way in. But not only that, he knew you could get the medallion and we would need it to get into the Tarantula!”
“He set this all up,” Chex says.
“So what to do we do?” I ask him. “Do we give up on our quest?”
“Father said we’re supposed to get the scepter,” Na’ta reminds me.
“Well if Father said it…” Telman says sarcastically.
Na’ta gives him a look. “Shit,” Na’ta finally hisses under her breath. “I have to contend with Gia Scoralini again.” Her scowl intensifies and Telman turns away from her.
“But you made the deal,” I remind her. “You knew you would have to contend with her anyway.”
Now she turns her scowl to me. I’m not backing down from her nasty look, but as the holder of the light, I can’t help notice the sudden change in the atmosphere. I quickly turn to look outside. “Look - the sun has fully risen,” I whisper in wonderment.
Suddenly it’s extremely bright out and this room is heating up. Then tinted glass automatically slides down the opened wall.
“This is a strange place,” Na’ta mutters, observing nearly blinding brightness beyond the glass.
“That’s why we work in the cities at night,” Magnificent Star says.
We all turn to see her standing on the wide threshold of this room.
“The hub is closed until after sundown. Make yourselves comfortable here, but I advise you not to go out into the city while the sun is up.”
I rise to my feet. “But we’re ready to go into Dag. We can’t wait. You must open the gateway for us,” I plead.
Chex stands up beside me. I believe it’s in support.
Magnificent Star’s eyes dart back and forth between the two of us. “I’m sorry,” she says sadly, “We do not operate power during daylight.”
We all watch in disappointment as Magnificent Star turns her back and makes an exit.
“Let’s just finish eating,” Telman says, and then playfully tugs Na’ta’s arm, “Then we’ll do what we came here to do.” He lifts his eyebrows suggestively at her.
A time existed when I wouldn’t have understood what he means. It’s difficult to picture Na’ta and Telman engaging in the same acts of sex that Chex and I have engaged in. I saw a slice of what it may look like at the cure pod.
“Ah,” Na’ta says eyeing me while wearing a wry grin, “You starting to feel my pain, I see.”
“What’s wrong with you two!” Telman’s voice booms. “You’re hot and sexy! You need to be…um….” he circles his hand like a conductor as he holds on to the “um” in se
arch of the perfect word.
“But I’m not hot,” I say, because the temperature of the room is perfect.
They all erupt in laughter.
“So Chex,” Na’ta coolly starts, grinning at him. I can tell by her tone of voice that she’s simply changing the subject and, more than that, she’s about probe Chex for information. “Weren’t you the one who wiped out Gung-ho?” She winks at Telman and it appears that he’s no longer interested in sex with Na’ta either. He is now eager to hear what Chex has to say.
“Maybe.” He’s flashing teeth. “Maybe not.”
“Come on Chex,” Na’ta begs while smirking. “I let you poke my sister, don’t I…”
“Is that so?” Chex says dismissively.
Telman turns all of his attention on me. “These vampires, Adore. There were about fifty of them and they figured that they could turn children and drink them like humans.”
I gasp, horrified at such information.
“But someone wiped them out, and anybody who ever knew about kid-cocktailing - that’s what they called it.” He turns back to Chex. “Admit it Chex, it was you.” He looks back and forth between us. “It’ll impress Adore.”
“It will?” Chex asks, suggestively raising his eyebrows at me in a sultry manner.
I can’t help but simper under the power of his gaze.
“Alright; it’s true.” His acknowledgement is lackluster.
“I knew it!” Na’ta shouts, pointing a finger at Telman.
And for a very long time Chex, Na’ta, and Telman share stories about all the bad Selells they have encountered over time. It’s funny how they look for commonalities. I remain quiet as I watch and listen. I’ve never seen Na’ta like this. It seems the more the conversation deepens, the more affectionate she becomes toward Telman.
She nudges Telman in the chest because she’s very close to him now and he has his arm around her shoulder. “Felix sent us into the World Bank in Beijing. We had to get a ring. That’s what we do; we recover shit for my father.”
I flinch, taken aback. “You do?” I did not expect to hear her say this.
She mutters something to herself, cursing under her breath.
“Was that to be a secret?” I ask because she’s behaving as if she has made a mistake by divulging the information.
Everyone at the table is surprised by my outburst, even Na’ta, who is just watching me with wide eyes but is saying nothing. I want her to speak.
“I worry about you, all the time. I thought you were living your life carelessly and putting it in danger for the fun of it!”
“Well, then you should calm down Adore, because I do that too!” She’s on the edge of her seat and leaning across the table toward me. “You know what…” I have awakened the beast. She’s ready to spar and so am I. “You talk a lot of shit…”
“Can you stop saying that?” I say, cringing, “That word makes me uncomfortable.”
“Why? You don’t even know what it means.”
“It means bodily excrement,” I say with my teeth clenched as I lean across the table and face off with her.
“Like I was saying, you talk all of that…” She pauses and then rolls her eyes, “… stuff, but you are judgmental Adore. You judge me all the time!” she whines, stabbing herself in the chest with a finger.
“I don’t judge you, Na’ta,” I sigh. But then I remember that Chex leveled the same accusation against me earlier. I turn to look at him because now I’m out of words.
“Hey,” he gently lifts me to my feet. “Let’s go rest.”
Na’ta is watching us with wide eyes. Telman is glaring out the window, shaking his head, no less disappointed that one of our spats ended the conversation with Chex.
“We’ll see you at sundown,” Chex says as he leads me out of the room, down the hall, and to our bed.
Keeping his eyes on my face, Chex gently pulls one of my boots off, and then the other, and guides me down on the bed to lie behind me as he hugs me into him.
“Your sister is high voltage,” he finally says.
“I don’t know what that means.”
He chuckles against me and guides my hair over the front of my shoulder to kiss the back of my neck.
“It means she sucks up a lot of energy.” He pulls me in closer to him. “She really made you angry, didn’t she? I never saw you worked up like that. I thought you were going to zap her with your light.”
I sniff a little chuckle just remembering how many times in the past I’ve tried that. “She’s too quick,” I admit.
Chex’s laugh sounds delicious in my ear.
“She’s the only sister that I’m close to,” I say after it falls silent again. It’s easy to admit what I always keep locked inside of me to Chex.
I shift to flip around and Chex loosens his grip on me so that I can face him. He kisses me gently on the lips and then gently slides a hand down the side of my face. “But don’t be alarmed if we spend too much time together. We usually, eventually, get to this point. Father says it’s because we’re fire and ice, except he doesn’t know which one of us is the fire or the ice.”
We silently stare into each other’s eyes. There’s a question I want to ask him but I’m not sure I should.
“What do you want to know Ad’ru?” he says, and for a moment I wonder if he somehow has a power of the mind.
I hesitate, but ask anyway. “As a human, even a Selell, you have free will. Why have you made the choices that you’ve made?”
“I’ve made a lot of choices; which ones are you referring to?”
I hesitate. “You will not think I’m being critical if I say it?”
“No.”
“You’ve killed a lot of Selells, and I realize that they were influenced by the evil and intending to harm others, but you didn’t know that you were of Gogulon until recently.”
His expression hardens. I fidget under his glare. I can see him contemplating whether he should respond to my questioning. I’m relieved when he parts his lips to speak.
“My mother was a peasant and my father was the king. He ordered my death from the day I was born and I’ve been trying to survive the sword ever since.” He reaches over to smooth the crinkle out of my eyebrows. “So many questions my emerald-eyed beauty,” he breathes as if he’s captivated by the way I’m looking at him. “I learned how to kill men in iron suits, men who were twice my size, by the time I was six years old.”
“Learn? Who taught you?” I ask.
“My mother was big on fucking, not marrying—she was born way before her time. But she was involved with Remus Maddix. He was the assassin who was charged by the King’s decree to kill me. He was hell-bent on doing just that until he fell into lust with my mother. Because…” He hesitates and I can see the veil of disgrace shape his expression, “… she was a siren.”
Now it’s my turn to reach out and touch his face and bring him comfort. “Do not be ashamed, Chex. A siren is not created by the ambitions of the ek’et’ru.”
He looks even more conflicted as he ponders what I just said.
“Well,” he says, but stops to clear the catch in his throat. “Maddix taught me how to fight. When I was six, I killed my first mercenary. He was a man. I had a boy’s strength but slayed him because I was faster and smarter.”
“And what happened to Remus Maddix?” I ask because I’m utterly enthralled by this story of Chex’s past.
“He’s still around.”
“Is he a…”
“Vampire? Yes.”
I flip onto my back and gaze up at the ceiling. I can’t picture Chex as a boy during the days before his first kill, but I can imagine him as a tiny human male, handling a dagger and killing a man.
“And what happened to your father, the king?” I turn to gaze at him and he’s studying me curiously.
“I didn’t kill him if that’s what you think. Actually, I became an assassin for him but he didn’t know who I was.”
I can’t imagine Felix Benel
not knowing who I am, or issuing a command to have my sisters or me murdered. Suddenly I feel Chex’s finger smoothing out my eyebrows again.
“What are you thinking,” he asks.
“How harsh and barbaric your father was for trying to have you killed.”
“You said you didn’t judge,” he says.
“I do not.”
“He wasn’t harsh or barbaric Ad’ru; the rules that governed him were. Once the Romans called themselves Catholics, sane men became fools.”
“Catholicism, that’s religion?”
“The mother of them all.”
“Is that why you don’t believe in the Creator?”
“Bingo.”
“Oh, I see…”
“Hey,” he says, grinning. “I don’t have to tell you what bingo means!”
I chuckle. “I may be new but I’m not slow. You’ve used the word before, and I referenced the context.”
“Smart, beautiful, sexy…” he scoots closer to me, slips his hand under my shirt, up my sternum until he’s caressing one of my breasts, “And doesn’t like the word ‘shit.’ Do you want me to stop saying it? Because I’ll try, but shit, your skin is so soft.” He lifts my shirt all the way up and sucks gently on the nipple that he’s already made sensitive. “And when I’m inside of you, shit it feels so damn good,” he seductively whispers.
“I like the word,” I spastically croak. “Um, when you use it that way.”
“That’s what I needed to hear because I can’t stop myself from saying it.”
“I don’t want you to, or Na’ta either. I was angry with her and sometimes I say the wrong things when I’m incensed.”
“Enough talking,” he commands. I look down at myself because once again Chex has slipped off my pants at a remarkable speed. “Take off your shirt,” he demands.
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