by Lucy Lyons
I let Nicholas order my meal as a peace offering. He couldn’t eat human food anymore, but when we had opened that thread of metaphysical energy that connected us, he could taste food through me. I shuddered to think what he shared with Jeremy. The leader of the were-rats was a decent enough guy, but the rats hunted, just like mythological wolves did.
In fact, they’d been hunting for wolves or any other kind of shapeshifter since before they met us. In their world, there were always rumors of a were-lion sighting, or a wolf. Jeremy had told me about Kelpie sightings off the coast of Ireland. Nicholas had instantly infused their search with his nearly limitless financial resources and his network of vampire spies. He thought that if he could summon the rats and have the same kind of master/servant connection that we had, he might be able to add other animals to that power base.
But the other master vampires, at least the ones in North America, hadn’t appreciated his sudden power boost. They’d sent emissaries, then spies, and finally assassins to all three of us, and so far, we were still standing, but for how much longer?
“So, what’s changed?” I asked again when he didn’t answer me.
“I’ve been sent a warning by the council. They’ll be paying me a visit sometime soon. I am to show them what I’ve accomplished with my servants.” My mouth opened in a round “O” of surprise and I didn’t respond for a minute.
“Well, shit.”
“As succinct as usual, tiny huntress,” he smiled grimly at me and I slowly blew out a measured breath.
“I can’t just leave the Venatores. So much is happening there that I haven’t told you. If I left, it might be the excuse some of the hunters are looking for to start a war.” I twisted my fingers together in my lap and took a few breaths in, using the technique I’d learned to combat my childhood anxiety.
“Seattle is considered neutral ground and the Venatores are here to officiate. I will invite them. Hopefully, by then we’ll have an additional increase to our shared power and no one will have to die.”
Appetite gone, I stared at the first course as the server placed it in front of me. Even Nicholas no longer seemed to care for our game and requested the check before they could bring anything else to the table. Every day brought a never-ending drizzle of trouble in my life with the Venatores. “Some time soon,” I thought to myself, “the monotony of that drizzle is bound to be broken by a deluge.”
Chapter 2
Nicholas assured me he hadn’t been followed, so we drove to the waterfront and walked hand in hand along the concrete path that followed the shoreline. I tried to let go of everything but him for just that moment: a respite from the otherwise endless antagonism we suffered from our people.
The vampires who belonged to Nicholas loved his new power, but hated that he had to stoop to associating with a near-human metaphysical witch to get it. The rat-king hadn’t mentioned how he was being treated, but the last time I’d checked in with him, his entire pack was taking martial arts classes and getting their concealed carry permits. I wholeheartedly agreed with the mandatory training, and had gone as far as asking the Venatores if there was any way we could help them protect themselves.
So, we walked without talking, and I tried and failed to stop thinking about our people and the storm clouds on the horizon. Nicholas tightened his hold on my hand and I jumped, and then colored as he chuckled at my inattention. His skin was so cool on mine; it seemed to steal the warmth from me. I stopped dead and met his eyes, pressing his hands to my chest.
“Your hands are cold.” It made him seem distant, more vampire, less human. Sometimes, it was harder than others to accept what he really was. He raised his eyebrows at me and nodded.
“Is this the first that you’ve noticed? Because they’ve been cold for a very long time now.”
I rolled my eyes and gave him a dirty look.
“No, I mean, right now, they’re colder than usual. Like you didn’t feed.”
He shrugged and tugged me along as he kept walking.
“I know you don’t like it, so I only take the bare minimum that I must to survive. It’s less enjoyable, but I hope it proves to you that you are everything I desire and, in most things, I’m willing to sacrifice much for your happiness.”
I rubbed my jaw, and ran my fingers down to my throat.
“You go without food to show me that if I bind myself to you, you’ll go easy on the juice to assuage my ‘hunter sensibilities’?” I asked. “I think it’s time you take me hunting with you.” Even in the low light of the distant street lamp I could see his eyebrows raise sharply.
“You want to watch me feed.” He made it a statement, but I nodded to the affirmative.
“You watch me eat all the time. I already know if I leave the society and join you, not only will my life be forfeit, but there will be plenty of things I’ll have to come to terms with that you haven’t shown me yet.” I shuddered, thinking of his brother, Vittorio, chained in a coffin somewhere deep beneath the ground, where even the vampires couldn’t hear him scream.
“You would hunt with me and watch me feed? Seriously?” I rolled my eyes at him and he scoffed. “Okay. Would you be more comfortable with a female, or a male?” I felt my eyes get big and tried to look nonchalant.
“Does it matter?”
“It depends on which is more troublesome to you, watching me kiss a woman’s neck, or a man’s. To me, there is no difference. I am with you, so I hunt for food only.” I chewed my lip and considered what he said.
“I think it would bother me a lot more to see you kissing a woman. I know you prefer female lovers, so I can more easily see a man as just food.”
“You’d get jealous of me feeding off another female?” I was looking out at the dark ripples on the ocean, but I could hear him smiling as he spoke.
“You’ve fed on me, remember? I know exactly what it feels like when you roll your… your victim and how they feel after.”
“And yet, you turn me down,” he complained and I managed a wry smile.
“I also know what’s at stake for me, if I don’t turn you down,” I reminded him. His power climbed for a moment, a sign of his frustration with me, but he reined it in before I had to ask.
He took my hand again and we continued our walk along the shore, the smell of the sea more potent as the tide went out and left behind all manner of sea creatures and kelp to rot on the beach until the waves washed back in. I didn’t know if he was seriously considering my request, or if I had said too much and made him decide not to let me see that side of him.
We had just reached the end of the walkway and turned to go back, when I noticed a man by himself climbing the stairs ahead of us that lead down to the beach. I didn’t say anything, but Nicholas paused for a moment, and then sped his walking pace just enough so that we would intercept the man between the path and the beach.
Nicholas held my hand tighter and pulled me along until I was almost jogging to keep up with his longer stride, but he didn’t seem to notice. He slowed abruptly at the stairs and turned to go down, motioning me ahead of him politely. I smiled at the man as we met on a wide landing halfway down. I stepped to the side near some viewers that overlooked the ocean and the lighthouse in the distance and watched out of the corner of my eye as Nicholas put a hand out to the man.
Without hesitation, the man shook the vampire’s hand and I gaped at the subtle magic that he was using to manipulate the man. He said something to him and the guy turned and smiled at me, then walked towards me, while Nicholas followed close behind. He greeted me and reached out to shake my hand. Automatically, I clasped it in mine just as Nicholas leaned in behind him and pushed his head to the side as he struck, lightning fast.
My heart jumped to my throat and I tried to pull away, but a circle of power closed as Nicholas bit and I could feel the man’s fear and ecstasy, as well as Nicholas’ satisfaction and bliss as the blood flowed over his tongue. Only, because of our connection, it was our tongue coated in that red copper flui
d. Our throat that convulsed, swallowing the precious red liquid as the man who clung to me moaned with pleasure.
I yanked my hand out of his, despite his fingernails that were digging into my skin, and reveled in the clarity that the pain gave me. I glanced down at my hand and the deep red gouges already filling with blood and my heart pounded like a jackrabbit in a cage. The man made another sound of pleasure and I glanced up at Nicholas. He was sealing the wound with his tongue, licking the holes closed and wiping the last bit of blood off the man’s neck with a thumb, which he then sucked clean.
The man stumbled away from us, turned in the direction he’d been heading by Nicholas, who murmured something to him that I didn’t hear. But I felt the power that closed over us with a nearly audible “snap” and an electrical impulse shot through me into the ground at my feet.
“There. He won’t remember a thing. At the very worst, he’ll have a headache in the morning and a craving for red meat.” Nicholas didn’t ask what I thought, or how I felt about what I’d just witnessed. He stood defiantly before me, waiting for me to rail on him, or scream at him. I could feel his fear of rejection, which surprised me the most. That this creature, with his midnight emerald eyes and chiseled features would think I could reject him was laughable.
Instead, I reassured him the only way I could think of. Feeling him feed had been arousing, almost to the point where I would’ve done anything he asked, just to feel that pleasure peak. I kissed his mouth and poured all that desperate need into him. Immediately, he picked me up and sat me on the steel railing and pressed himself against me as he deftly slipped his tongue into my mouth. It took a certain amount of skill to French kiss a vampire without getting nicked. But in that moment, I threw caution to the wind and embraced the sharp pain as he drew fresh blood in my mouth to mingle with the blood of his feeding.
His hands roamed over me and I shivered as they settled under the hem of my shirt, pushing it up over my navel so he could wrap his hands around my waist. Although they were still cool, feeding had brought new warmth to his callused fingers and, in turn, his touch kindled a new fire in me.
I pulled away from him with a gasp and pushed him back with both hands as I tried to catch my breath. I knew it was too much to think that a centuries old male had never been intimate with anyone even after millennia of living and loving others. However, I had not been, and when my need for his touch leapt the boundaries of my personal knowledge, I realized what I was feeling was his need and desire.
“I think I need a little room to breathe, before I make a fool out of myself,” I laughed shakily. His hands were still on my waist, his thumb pads barely brushing my skin as he softly stroked me into a frenzy. “Stop, Nicholas. I need you to not touch me right now.” I felt his frustration as he backed off and paced the length of the landing in front of me.
“You are becoming an insufferable tease, Caroline,” he hissed. I didn’t blame him for being angry. I had come on to him, then slammed on the brakes. Again.
“C’mon, Nicholas, you were in my head. I was thinking things that have never occurred to me before, that I wouldn’t know how to do. You need to stay out of my head, if you want us to have a physical relationship.” He scoffed and dismissed me with a flick of his wrist.
“This is how it will always be with you. You don’t care that I’m lonely for you. How could you, when you can’t even work up compassion for the danger to any of our lives?”
“The first time I’m with a man, I want to feel it as me, Nicholas. I couldn’t care less if you understand or agree with that.” I started up the concrete stairs. He didn’t follow, which was just fine with me. I needed a little space to digest what I was feeling. Watching him feed had been amazing and, for lack of a better understanding, erotic. I knew he wasn’t discriminate when he was away from me. He fed on whoever offered themselves to him.
He fed on women and they felt exactly the way I’d felt minutes before. If he’d thought it was difficult getting me to leave the Venatores before, he was in for a real shock. Jealousy like I’d never known before slammed into my gut and made my stomach cramp up. David had made me feel that way, back when he was my best friend and I hadn’t known he was a succubus. Nicholas was too, but I knew it going in, and I hated myself for still falling prey to his ‘other’ power.
I was at the car before I realized Nicholas had beaten me there and was sitting in the driver’s seat, waiting for me. Thankfully, he didn’t try to hold my door or touch me when I got in. We rode in a much less companionable silence than before, until he reached a Cliffside lookout and rolled to a stop overlooking the Alki lighthouse.
“Do you hate me, for what you’ve seen?” I closed my eyes and silently cursed.
“No. Not even a little.” I groaned and rubbed my face with my hands. “I hate your ability to seduce. I hate it so much, that for me, it gets in the way of how I feel, sometimes.” He was quiet for a long time. I wondered if this was the moment the entire Venatores society seemed to be waiting for: the moment when vampire and the witch broke up, so they’d both be easier to kill.
“I didn’t intend for you to get caught up in my emotions, Caroline. I’m so careful, but with you, I lose control. I touch you and I’m consumed with the thought of having you with me always.” He leaned back in his seat and glanced over at me sideways. “I don’t rape, Caroline. If I followed through with those feelings and made women give themselves to me, it would be no better than drugging them.” I scoffed.
“Yeah. Tell that to the Venatores Council, who failed to even slow David down when I filed charges against him.” Nicholas took my hand and held my fingers to his lips.
“I don’t feed because it bothers you. I haven’t touched a woman since we met, because it would bother me.” He placed my hand on his thigh and smiled at me, charming me not with his vampire powers or ‘magic’, but with his sincere desire to be with me. He couldn’t help who or what he was. He’d been cursed with vampire powers when he tried to save the woman he loved from the monster who turned him and his brother.
He was still a manipulator and I knew he’d think twice if he had to choose between his power or me. His people depended on that power to survive and not be victimized by bigger, badder monsters. The only way to truly keep them safe, was to be the biggest and baddest there was. I was his ace card. No vampire outside their elders were permitted to have human servants with power of their own.
“The entire council of elders is going to be in Seattle?” I asked, referring to his earlier comments.
“Did that just sink in?” I pursed my lips and nodded. “Sort of. I’ve had other things on my mind.” I glanced at him and sighed. “I have to go warn my elders so they don’t turn around and blame me when the boogey man rolls into town and starts draining all our lovely emo and goth kids dry.”
Unfortunately, my people were just as biased against my relationship with the rats as they were against vampires. After all, it was a were-rat who had gruesomely murdered seven people (at least) and tried to start an all-out war between the vampires and all of the hunter societies. The only reason we’d been able to stop it, was that the rat in question was also a Venatores. That made it a lot harder for me to ask them to help me protect the shifters.
“Whatever came of your, what did you call it?” he asked, reading my mind as always.
“The sting. Um, we found a few more dissidents who had been collaborating with the Exsanguis Terreat hunters. They went to Rome with Dominique to answer for their plans to hit Seattle General and then to go wipe out the local blood banks.”
“That would have caused humans to die.”
“Yup, but it would also have forced vampires who refuse to feed on humans to start stalking humans again.” I sighed. The sting operation had been a near disaster and good people had gotten killed. Loyalty versus the law wasn’t as cut and dried within the Venatores as I’d always thought.
“That would have given them what they needed to declare open hunting season on vampires,
” Nicholas scoffed. “I hope you don’t wonder why I want you to come with me. Who are they going to hunt once we’re extinct?”
“The more immediate problem is if the Vampire council comes to Seattle, it’s a coin toss whether the Venatores will step in, or simply kill whoever’s left when the vampires are done killing each other,” I reminded him, and we fell into uneasy silence.
I missed most of the drive home, lost in thought. If I could be sure that leaving wouldn’t bring more harm than good, I might have gone with Nicholas. I wanted to go, and I felt ready to branch out from the Library of Watchers where I was stationed.
But, the Venatores had intended to be my masters. But, I only served because it was what I was raised to. Cardinal Parelini had chastised me in our last interview that no one could serve two masters. All my life, I’d been told to change my nature and fight who I was, to become a proper servant to the Venatores. I’d replied that we no longer lived in a caste system that required a slave class. He hadn’t been amused. I wasn’t meant to have a master at all, Venatores or vampire.
My feelings for Nicholas were growing stronger by the day. Every time he visited me in my dreams or made his clandestine trips to see me, it became more difficult to imagine my life without him. But, after years of being the student then apprentice, servant wasn’t a part I played well. Nicholas and the Venatores alike were more afraid of my growing power without a tether. It only made me want my freedom more.
Chapter 3
I had Nicholas park a few blocks from the compound and made him push the seat back all the way. He drew me into his lap and kissed me while I held my palm over his heart. His heart rate was strong and steady, and when we kissed, I thrilled that it sped up, racing in time with mine.