“You’re on fire,” he commented coolly. “As a fire elemental can’t you just turn it off?”
“I can’t. Please, please help me. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to kill the people in this city. I never asked to be like this.” She fell to her knees, her strength depleted.
Even on fire, his bride was beautiful and Lucian took a step towards her, uncaring of the fact that he would soon reveal a weakness to his enemies. We’re the only ones left in here, it isn’t as though there are any Malachites around to see this. He sighed. I thought I could just leave her alone until my war was over but judging from what I’ve seen of my bride so far, she’ll probably get herself killed before I can come back for her. No, better to take her now, keeping her safe while keeping her apart from me, that way I can drink her as soon as the Malachites are dealt with. Even if they discover her existence, she’s a fire elemental and judging from this, she can take care of herself. Her skill with a sword is a beautiful thing and her flame, while wild is powerful. Yes, I’ll take her with me tonight.
“Lord Lucian,” Gareth scolded, placing a restraining hand on his arm. “You can’t.”
His dark eyes flashed red in warning and Gareth removed his hand. “I can do whatever I like.” He moved towards her, uncaring of the fire burning all around him, until he stood directly in front of her. Her blue eyes were aglow as she turned to look up at him. “What do you want? How do you expect me to help you?”
“Please, touch me. Take my hand.”
“You’re on fire,” he reminded her.
“I know but please, you have to touch me. I’m begging you. Touch me.”
Lucian looked at the pale skin of his hand, regarding the ligament carefully before turning to look into the tear filled eyes of his bride. The burns will heal after a good feeding. He knelt to be on the same level as she and reaching forward with both hands, he cupped her burning cheek with one hand, taking her hand with the other and intertwining their fingers. She sighed in relief the instant their flesh came into contact, her eyes sliding shut, an expression of immense pleasure coming over her features. The fires died down, those nearest to them, jumping onto her skin and seeping back into her flesh. Lucian watched intrigued as her skin flashed red in the places the fire touched before it paled. To his immense surprise, her flames didn’t burn him, it was only a sensation of pleasant warmth that filled him when their skin met.
Her eyes opened momentarily, the gratitude banked in their depths, stunning Lucian. “Thank you,” she whispered before her eyes closed and her mind slipped away from the realities of the world.
Her body fell forward, sagging weakly against Lucian’s chest. She felt warm against him, residual heat pouring from her soft skin as he stood, lifting her into his arms.
“Lord Lucian,” Russell began, moving to stand beside him. “Isn’t this the woman from the other night?”
He looked over her lightly freckled face, a small smile momentarily softening his hard features. “Yes, she is.”
“Who is she?”
“Would you believe me,” he chuckled, surprising all those around him. Lucian rarely laughed but now the joyous sound was flowing easily from his lips. “Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t know?”
Russell cocked an eyebrow in disbelief, noting the careful way Lucian was cradling her body and remembering the hours he’d spent watching over her prone form even as the sunrise had crept ever closer. It was impossible for Lucian not to know her. Unless… He gasped, understanding quickly dawning. Lucian might not know her but he knew she was his.
“She’s your –”
“Don’t say it,” Lucian hissed coldly, his dark eyes flashed an angry red and Russell’s mouth closed with a resounding snap. Satisfied, Lucian pulled her closer, smiling faintly as she reached instinctively for him, her slender arms wrapping around his neck. “We’re done here,” he commanded.
His bride safe in his arms, Lucian stepped forward trying to reach the exit. The night was still young with ample opportunity for him to find the Malachites and deal with them appropriately but he needed to get her somewhere safe first. A strong hand wrapped itself around his ankle and he looked down to see a woman, Abi, if his bride was correct, trying to stop him from leaving.
“Let go.” His words were cold, delivered with the confidence of someone used to having their orders obeyed. “I said let go.”
“Give her back to us.”
“From what I saw, she didn’t want to go with you,” he replied smoothly.
“She belongs to the fire elementals.”
“Belongs to?” he mused. Sara moaned lightly in her sleep, the arms around his neck tightening as though she could hear what was being said and was depending on him for support. “She’s a person not an object. She doesn’t belong to anyone and even if she did then it most certainly wouldn’t be you.” He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “If she belongs to anyone then it would be me. She’s mine.”
Abigail cursed him as he stood, loathing her body’s temporary weakness. “I will hunt you and kill you and when I do, I’ll take her back with me.”
His eyes glowed red as Lucian allowed her to see the monster that lurked beneath the surface of his skin, hidden by the veneer of civility and softly spoke words. There was a monster within him, one he kept tightly leashed but one that wanted violence, relished the idea of soaking in this woman’s blood, drinking her body dry until there wasn’t a speck of the life sustaining liquid in her. The monster dwelled in only the oldest of the vampires simultaneously making them more powerful while making them more dangerous. Centuries of living tended to have an adverse effect on a vampire’s humanity. With nothing to live for but endless warfare, Lucian’s emotions had suffered, dimming until they were barely visible.
She shrunk back in fear and he let the monster retreat from the surface. “There is a reason people fear the dark, you would do well to learn why. Hunt me if you dare, it’s your funeral.”
He pulled his ankle from her grasp, striding towards the exit and the fresh air it offered but a cowering figure in the doorway caught his attention. “You,” he called.
David’s eyes locked with his leader’s stunned that Lucian had even acknowledge his existence. “Yes my Lord,” he responded, bowing low.
“You came in with this woman.”
“Yes my Lord.”
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t know my Lord.”
Lucian strode outside, certain that David would follow him. He inhaled deeply, sucking air that he strictly speaking didn’t need, into his lungs. “How do you not know her name when you travel with her?”
“Honestly, I know nothing about her. She came to me a few days asking for my help.” Lucian’s eyebrow arched in disbelief. Fire elementals didn’t ask for help. “It’s true my Lord.”
“Continue.”
“She asked me to take her hand. We touched but whatever it was she was hoping would happen didn’t. She ended up burning me and my other two companions before she left. I haven’t seen her for days but tonight she arrived on my doorstep demanding that I take her to you.”
“She never explained why she wanted your help?”
“Never my Lord.”
Strange, he mused.
Outside the tavern, Lucian began to puzzle over the mysterious behaviour of his bride, trying to decide what the best course of action would be. He’d barely spoken more than a few words to the woman and she was already distracting him, making his life more complicated than it should have been. I knew having a bride was going to be trouble, I don’t think I quite knew just how much.
A large white stallion reared up directly in his path and Lucian leapt back, baring his fangs aggressively at the animal. The horse moved closer, whinnying as it approached. It prodded Sara lightly in the side as though trying to rouse her before pushing roughly against Lucian.
“What’s wrong with this animal?” he cursed.
David reached for Lance’s reins, rest
raining the large beast. “The horse is hers. She seemed very attached to him, maybe the feeling is mutual and he’s trying to protect her.”
“From me?”
“It doesn’t know you,” David answered calmly.
“Even so, I don’t have time to be dealing with the peculiar behaviour of a horse.”
“What should I do with it?”
“Bring it to my manor. Russell, you will take him.”
“What will you be doing my Lord,” Russell asked coming to stand beside Lucian.
“I’m going to do what I always do. Deal with the problem. It really shouldn’t be that hard.”
“My Lord,” Gareth began. “It looks like you want to keep her.”
“And what if I do?”
“She’s not one of us.”
“Is that meant to make a difference to me? What I want I get.”
“I understand that my Lord but if you want to keep her you have to realise that she’s not like us. Her needs are different. She’s going to need food, clothes, sunlight.”
“Now you’re just insulting my intelligence. I know all of this but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s coming with me.”
“Of course my Lord.” They both bowed low and Lucian nodded pleased at their submissive behaviour he leapt into the air, his precious cargo held tightly against his chest as he sped back home. As the wind whipped past them, blowing Sara’s red curls into Lucian’s face, he was forced to look down into the sleeping face of his beautiful bride. “I knew the instant I saw you that you were going to be trouble. I’ve got a war to fight you know?” She didn’t respond but he hadn’t expected her to. “I really don’t have time for this. When we get home, I’ll have someone see to your needs. We won’t see each other again until the Malachites are dealt with. It’s for the best.”
Chapter Seven – The Oracle
It took Sara’s sleep addled mind a few moments to realise that her head wasn’t throbbing in agony, so accustomed had she become to the debilitating pain that had wracked her body almost every morning since Seraphina’s episodes had begun. As soon as she realised she wasn’t in pain, she sat bolt upright, her eyes darting around the room wildly trying to discover where she was. One thing was certain, she definitely wasn’t in the forest any longer. Her surroundings were rich, opulent and a far cry from the hard dirt floor and charred tree remains she’d been surrounded by the last few mornings. She clutched the silk sheets, struggling to remember where this place was and how she’d come to be there.
Memories trickled to the front of her mind slowly at first before snowballing out of control. She remembered seeing Abi, trying desperately to persuade her friend to let her go, to let her find the one she knew could save her. She hiccupped remembering Abi’s staunch refusal to listen to her, her willingness to sacrifice her life all for the greater glory of the fire elementals and then she remembered him. Lucian. The vampire who’d saved her once before and had, by the looks of things, done it again. She looked around the room expectantly, hoping to see him. Her heart began to race when she realised he wasn’t in the room with her and she leapt to her feet.
“Shit! Where’s he gone? I need to find him before Seraphina rears her ugly head.”
Dressed only in a long white shift, she moved towards the door, growling angrily when she found the door locked. The brass knob melted easily beneath her heated palm and she rushed out into the corridor intent on finding her vampire. The hallway was dark, no lamps or candles burned and there were no open windows to cast natural light along its length. Now that she had a goal to work towards, she didn’t let the darkness make itself into an obstacle. With a mere thought light sprung from the candles held in brackets along the walls, lighting the formerly dark hall. The deep blue carpet was plush beneath her bare feet but she barely registered the soft sensation so intent was she on finding Lucian. She let her vision shift from colour to heat, searching for the absence of warmth that marked a vampire’s presence. The rooms near hers were a lesson in disappointment filled as they were with human heat.
Groaning in frustration, she walked to the end of the corridor, opening the door to reveal a large curving staircase, gilded with gold. She walked out onto the landing, standing in the centre of the two halves of the staircase. She glanced back at the door she’d emerged from, trying to deduce the next step in her plan. If that corridor was filled with humans then maybe the one opposite is filled vampires. Alone as she was on the dark landing, Sara quickly reasoned that it wasn’t as though she had much of a choice but to search the other hallway. Quickly and silently, she ran into the other corridor, finding only one area where there was a noticeable lack of heat. The door was quickly opened but to her immense shock and dismay the cold body was gone, vanished as though it had never been.
Her eyes slid back to her regular vision, the darkness quickly pressing in on her. Just as she was preparing herself to bring light to the space, a body pressed itself against her back. Warm breaths caressed her cheek as a head came to rest in the curve of her neck. She shivered as arms wrapped themselves around her waist, pulling her body closer to the solid muscle of another’s frame.
“Get off me!” she screamed. “Get off me or I swear, I will burn you into the blackest piece of charcoal you’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“You women confuse me,” the voice purred, breathing softly against her skin. “You can never seem to make up your minds and stick to a decision you’ve made. Just last night you were begging me to touch you, pleading with me for any skin to skin contact and now, when I give it to you, you can’t wait to get away from me. Fine, if that’s the way you want it, I won’t touch you ever again.”
Lucian stepped away from the warmth of her body, struggling to seem calm and unaffected by her presence, her proximity. He’d known the instant she’d stepped into his room, her blood calling to him, demanding he wake and drink deep. She’d moved unknowingly closer to his place of rest and he’d moved, using his supernatural speed to vanish from her line of sight in an instant. He’d had every intention of sneaking out of the door and disappearing, taking off for the day to sleep outside the manor as most of it’s vampiric residents were prone to doing but he’d been drawn to her, unable to resist the call of her body. A frisson of heat had rushed through him when he pulled her soft curves against his frame, her skin so warm against his own that he’d wanted nothing more than to kiss every inch he came into contact with. Pulling away from her had been hard but necessary, just because his body desired her like nothing else, didn’t change the fact that she was a distraction that he couldn’t afford.
“Lucian,” Sara gasped as she turned around to face him.
He was just as beautiful as she remembered and Sara felt her heart speed up in anticipation. She wanted to get closer to him. The feel of his hard body against her own had roused previously banked desires but she restrained herself when she saw the foreboding look on his face.
He smiled faintly, the gesture putting her on edge rather than soothing her frayed nerves. “It seems that I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here. You know who I am but I know absolutely nothing about you, not even your name.”
“It’s Sara,” she rushed.
“Sara,” he purred, rolling the word over his tongue. The simple calling of her name seeming like an intimate endearment when said by his smooth tongue. “Sara?”
“Yes,” she replied quickly.
“What are you doing in my bedroom?”
She stuttered, stunned by his forwardness. “I, I, I was looking for you.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid you might have left, that I’d have to look for you again today.”
“I’m a vampire Sara, I sleep during the day. While you’ve been blissfully unaware of what’s been going on around you, I don’t have that luxury. It’s been a long night and I want to sleep.” Her blood was calling to him and he cursed himself for not having fed the previous night. She was standing before him like a feast to a starving man; he needed to get
her to leave before he did something he’d later regret.
“But I need to talk to you.”
“This manor is mine, I’m not going anywhere. You can wait until tonight.” Until I’ve fed at the very least.
She gnawed her lower lip, biting so hard that the skin broke. “But Lucian, it’s important, a matter of life and death.”
Truer words have never been spoken, he agreed. The smell of her blood in the air was making him desperate with the need to drink her. Soon he would be upon her, consequences be damned. Fangs erupted in his mouth, hard and hungry, and he knew whatever time he had was up. He spun away from her, unwilling for her to see him like this. “Sara, I want you to leave.”
“Lucian…”
“Get out! I’ll talk to you tonight. Leave Sara, leave now!”
His words were harsh, his tone desperate and Sara backed out of the room though she wanted to touch him, hold him close and reassure him. She shook her head trying to dispel the strange thoughts. Where did that come from? I only need his help to keep me alive, what does it matter to me if he’s worried about something? Even to her own ears the words sounded false. There was something about Lucian, something that drew her back to him, made her want to be near him and whatever it was, she had a strange feeling he felt too.
******
Sara, in many ways was the complete opposite of normal fire elementals but in other areas she was exactly as they were and her patience, or more specifically lack thereof, was one of those areas. Patience was for people who weren’t likely to explode in a fiery conflagration of heat, killing all those around them. Patience was for people who weren’t living on borrowed time. In other words, patience was not for her. But since her brief meeting with the dark vampiric Lord, her patience was being pushed to new limits. Day had turned to dusk, dusk to evening and evening to night all with no sign of Lucian, instead she’d been surrounded by giggling women who she supposed were there to help her but instead were only succeeding in bringing out another fiery trait, anger. They seemed intent on asking her pointless questions.
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