I pushed the photo back further away from myself with a flick of my fingernail. “You’re four days too late. Edward is dead.”
“Edward, tell me what happened to you. I’m willing to listen.”
How many times was he going to call me that? I shook my head at him, pulling my heels back up on the chair and resting my head back on my knees.
Come and get me, Marcus. Please.
“Edward?”
“Leave me alone.”
There was a knock on the door. It opened and a dark-haired woman stuck her head into the room. “He made bail,” she said.
“Did you see who paid it?” I asked urgently, lifting my head up, blinking her into focus.
“Yeah,” she said, frowning at me. I had a feeling that she didn’t hold prostitution in high regard. Forget the fact that I would be considered a hustler or would that be a punk? Stay on target.
“Was he over six feet tall, long, brown hair, big brown eyes, and wearing a color palette of browns?”
She shook her head. “Probably about just under the six-foot mark, short, brown hair, looked like really dark eyes from where I was. And he badly needed a shave and for his clothes to be washed.”
I shook my head determinedly. “I’m not going with him,” I declared.
“Why not?” she asked obviously puzzled.
I looked at the detective. “That suspicious car the arresting officers mentioned following me…he was driving it.”
Nolan jumped to his feet. “Alert the front desk. Edward, stay here.”
The woman raced back out of the room, and Nolan stood protectively in front of the closed door. My eyes ached. Why weren’t they getting any better? I’m a vampire now, shouldn’t I be healing quicker? Actually, my eyes were hurting worse than the other aches I had on my chest and shoulder. I think I needed to drink more blood. There was that familiar fang tingle in my mouth. I snapped my jaws shut and lowered my forehead back to my knees.
“My name is Sex. If you’re going to talk to me, I’d rather you use it,” I said peevishly. “Actually, we’re done talking. Just…leave.”
Nolan walked across to me, and grabbing the photo, he pushed it back in front of me, tapping at the image of my old podgy face. “How can you go from being a respected computer programmer, to a prostitute?”
“It’s not as easy as you think,” I muttered under my breath.
There was a knock at the door and it opened again to the woman, who was slightly out of breath. “Sorry sir, the suspect fled.”
“Thanks,” Nolan responded, pacing around behind me until she left. “Edward, you know you left a lot of people hurt when you disappeared. You shouldn’t do that to family.”
I reacted like a five-year-old. I clamped my hands over my ears.
Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. Where the fuck are you?
Then I felt it. A calming wind that was ruffling through my thoughts like warm water. And then, in my head I heard…
Language, Little One.
“Marcus?” I jumped to my feet, startling the daylights out of Nolan. “Marcus!” His voice had spoken to me in my mind, and though I could tell he was a little annoyed, the strongest emotion from him was evident relief.
“Edward, please sit down, you’re hurting your wrist,” Nolan said.
“It’s Marcus!” I cried. Tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t believe how happy I was just to hear his voice. “Where are you?” I called out.
Shush. It will be a while until I get to you. But I will not leave you.
“Who is Marcus?”
“What?” I was jerked back to the awareness of where I was as I felt a hand drop on my shoulder. I twisted around in the detective’s hold, pinching my trapped flesh hard between the cuff and my wrist as the chair scraped across the floor. Ow.
Nolan took the back of the chair in his hands and effectively pinned me where I stood. “You called out for Marcus. Who is he?” he demanded to know. It didn’t matter if I told him. Once Marcus got here, he would do his mind trick and I would be out of here.
“He’s the holder of my heart,” I replied.
“He’s your lover?”
“Yes.” My eyes didn’t seem to be hurting as much, now that I had the moisture of tears washing them.
“Known this Marcus long?”
“Some days it feels like forever.”
“About a year?”
“Yeah.”
“Edward, I’ve called your parents.” Nolan dropped his bombshell and pushed the chair back, waiting until I weakly flopped down onto it before moving around the table and taking his own seat across from me. “I called them when I originally got a match with your fingerprints. They should be here anytime now.”
I jumped back up, accidentally knocking the chair with the backs of my knees. I wasn’t steady on my feet as it was, but I hadn’t meant to topple over as the chair flipped onto its side. Damn it. My wrist throbbed as the handcuff pinched me again.
“Why did you do that? Do you realize that you’ve just wasted everything I’ve done to keep them out of danger? Do you have any idea the hell I went through to keep them safe? And now…Oh dear God.”
I didn’t know how serious I came across to him as I laid there on the floor, but I knew I couldn’t see my family. They wouldn’t give me time to explain what had happened. I scrambled to my knees.
“You’ve got to let me go. Didn’t that other guy pay my bail? He did, didn’t he? I could go now, there’s nothing to stop me.”
“Edward…what’s wrong?”
“I’m going. Uncuff me.” I pulled on the chain.
“Your family sounded so relieved on the phone. They have been searching for you since you disappeared.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t let them find me. They wouldn’t understand!”
“Because they don’t know you’re gay?”
I snapped him a sharp look. “Getting fucked by a man is the least of my problems, detective. Now, are you going to uncuff me, or am I going to have to break the chain?”
Nolan made no movement to do anything, so I wrenched my arm hard and snapped the links of the cuffs. He jumped to his feet in surprise.
Stay!
At my unspoken order he just stood there, standing still as I got to my feet and hurried for the door. But just as I reached for the handle the door pushed open and in walked my older sister, Shayne.
One look into her hazel eyes showed her emotions ranging, moving from unmitigated joy, to shocking realization, and ending with deadly resolve. Oh God, she knows what I am, I thought as everything that I had repressed suddenly hit me hard in the blink of an eye. Not just Marcus and his boot camp hell, but everything that had happened to me while I’d been growing up.
When I was I young, I had thought my life was normal. Mom and Dad went to work, killing or capturing things that the rest of the world didn’t believe existed. And then, after they came home and washed the blood from off their hands, we’d all sit down for dinner at night. It was something that my family did every day. I thought everyone’s parents did the same until I went to school and then realized that everything we did was actually a secret. I got tired of the double life I had to lead,and the disappointments. I wanted to be normal just like the rest of the world. So when I was able to, I’d walked away and wilfully ignored all that my family stood for. They were the pillars of a secret society that dealt with things that went bump in the night and had razor sharp fangs. That, now, was me.
Mom and Dad crowded in around Shayne, and it didn’t take long for them to come to the same conclusion after looking at me that I wasn’t their innocent, little baby boy any more. I watched in horror as my father raised an arm skyward, his lips casting a spell of containment. Both Mom and Shayne grabbed at their waists, drawing short swords out from underneath their coats, neither one of them taking their eyes off of me. I raised my empty hands up in a weak attempt at a defence.
“I’m sorry!” I sobbed, biting back a scream and falling to my knees as
a sharp pain tore up my spine. The red wings of the emperor emerged, ripping through the back of my tight metallic shirt, rending the material apart and leaving it as nothing more than rags. Armanita had been right; their appearance hadn’t caused me to bleed this time, but it still fucking hurt.
I’d barely caught a breath when I saw a movement to the left of me. Instinctively I threw up my arm, just as Shayne slashed at me. One of my wings flicked out and slapped down across her forearm, knocking the weapon out of her hand. Mom stood beside Dad, the silver blade she was holding shining in her hand as she stared at me.
“Sigmund…Why?”
Climbing to my feet, my wings fluttered slightly, showing my agitation. They were pulling me off balance, and I ended up staggering back to the table and holding onto it for support.
“I got greedy at work,” I shamefully admitted. “I stole some stuff and I got caught, and I was supposed to be killed. The hit man was supposed to kill you guys too. Instead he let us live because…”
“You’re a vampire’s plaything?” Shayne’s words were spoken in a neutral tone. Not good. She was truly pissed when she went neutral.
“I was for a while,” I answered. “But now I’m his mate.”
I felt Dad’s eyes boring into me. “Edward.” His one single breathy sigh told me everything about his disappointment.
“If it wasn’t for Marcus, I would have died last year,” I exclaimed.
“Marcus? As in Marcus Du Bussey, Master of the Territory?” Mom’s voice wasn’t as calm as Shayne’s, which I felt was a good thing.
“Yes, Ma’am.” My mind was racing. Du Bussey? His last name was Du Bussey? What was that, French?
“My son, my baby boy, is the mate to the most powerful vampire in this city? And the wings?”
“Make me part of the Royal blood line?” I said sheepishly.
“What?” Shayne moved toward Mom and Dad, her sword back in her hand. “Are you trying to tell me that you, the snotty-nosed brat that you are, are in line for the vampire’s throne?”
Dad cocked his head to the side as he looked at me. “I thought that the only way to make a blue blood was to give birth naturally? A bite shouldn’t have done that.”
“Unless the biter is a blue gene carrier,” Shayne returned easily.
“Still, it is a documented fact that to make a true blue blood, two blue gene carriers have to procreate,” Dad told her. “A bite would only produce a High Red blood, but that offspring would remain a blue gene carrier.”
I stood there stunned as Dad and Shayne kept up their dialogue about how I couldn’t exist. My wings shivered continuously, sounding like dried leaves blowing softly in the wind.
“Baby girl, Sigmund is the Lord Emperor of the Vampires.” I looked at Mom, stunned at how proud she seemed. “Our lineage is old and ancient, Sigmund,” she said, turning her attention to me, “and if you had studied it like you were supposed to, instead of messing with that computer of yours, you would have known that our family, the matriarchal side, have been the carriers of the Blue Line for centuries. It’s that Line which makes it possible for the women to become Hunters. We Xaviers don’t have sons. You were the first male born in almost four hundred years. I knew that something dramatic would happen to you. The stars where aligned perfectly the night you were conceived, weren’t they, dear?” I glanced over as Dad nodded. “But I never expected this. Come here, baby boy.”
I flicked a wing out across her path as she stepped towards me, her arms outstretched. “I’m a new vampire. I have absolutely no control over my fangs. I haven’t eaten enough,” I warned her.
“I can see that, my son. Look at you…nothing but skin and bones. And your eyes are all better. You can see!” She stroked my wing briefly and then gently pushed it out of her way.
I always remembered her as being taller than me. Maybe because she’d still been larger than me before my eyesight started to fade, and I’d been forced to see the world through inch thick glasses. As she hugged me now, her head fell under my chin, and her hands stroked my back calmingly, the way she’d always done whenever I was upset.
“You’re too skinny, and those clothes make you look cheap,” she chastised sharply, before her voice turned softer. “You disappeared, and we couldn’t find out anything about what had happened to you. Any information about you just vanished as if you’d never existed. But I knew you were still alive. A mother always knows these things. I’m so glad that you’re safe.” She buried her face in my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, hugging her tight. I’d thought I’d never see her again.
“What are you being sent to jail for little bro?” There was wryness in Shayne’s tone of voice when she asked her question, and I knew she was mocking me. I felt my face color up.
“Prostitution.”
Shayne slid her sword back into its sheath. “If you hadn’t blushed, I would have had to do some smack down on ya.” She gave an awkward smile. “I’m glad you’re alive, even if you are now a bloodsucking fiend.”
“Royalty, baby girl, he’s royalty,” Mom corrected as she squeezed me tight. My wings came around and mimicked my hug on her.
“Oh pardon me, royal, bloodsucking fiend,” Shayne said sarcastically, walking towards me. “Cool wings. Can I have a feather?” She yanked one out. I winced, and my eyes welled up, just as if she had pulled out a nose hair. She twirled the feather innocently in her fingers. “Hey, I asked.” I gave her a fake smile. Shayne saw it and grinned. “Mom, you want one?”
Three missing feathers later, and Dad finally lowered the containment spell he’d had on me, my ears popping as if we had changed elevation suddenly. My wings had by now folded back into a resting position, I think mainly out of self-preservation because they were out of range of Shayne’s feather-plucking fingers.
Dad clasped Mom on the shoulder, and then reached out and caught me around the back of the head. He stepped up close and touched my forehead with his own.
“Du Bussey took you by force, didn’t he, son? He raped you and messed with your mind until you started to like it. He reset your sexual preference.”
“Dad…” I looked over at Mom. I didn’t want her going medieval on Marcus, mainly because I knew she would win. But Marcus hadn’t reset my sexual preference; he’d simply made me face it. Still, coming out as being a homosexual to my parents was a whole bigger deal to me than coming out as a vampire.
“Did he hurt you?”
I so did not want to be talking to anyone about this, much less my father while my mother and big sister were within hearing distance. I lowered my voice to a quiet whisper.
“In the beginning, but not since…”
“Since what?” Mom’s voice was sharp, picking up on my hesitation. I’d forgotten how good her hearing was.
“Since I stabbed him,” I confessed.
Dad caught me up in a bear hug. “That’s my boy, Edward. And if he ever tries to hurt you again, you call me and I’ll have your mother come down and teach him some manners.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Thank God you’re alive,” he said, grinning as he mussed my hair. Then he frowned and looked pointedly at the long ponytail that was hanging down my back. “You might want to think about getting a hair cut, Lord Emperor Edward.”
“It’s Lord Emperor Xavier,” I corrected.
“Did you hear that Ma? He’s Lord Emperor Xavier,” Shayne teased as she reached out and touched the ruby stud sitting in my ear. “This is his isn’t it?” I nodded. “Oh little bro, I knew you were going to be trouble the day you came home from the hospital.” She leaned in to me. “You know, if you are going to be claiming the throne then you’re going to have to top him. It won’t do the vampire nation any good to have a uke ruler.”
“Shayne!” I gasped, my blush returning tenfold. Big sisters have no boundaries, even if you are the would-be lord of the monsters.
“My sentiments are with Dad,” she continued. “If that vampire hurts you, I’ll be hunting h
im too, you tell him that.” She had that unnatural hunter’s gleam in her eyes when she said that. “And you better be a good vampire. I don’t want my granddaughters having to stake you. Can you fly, or are those just for show?” She flicked her hand over my feathers.
“I’m supposed to be able to. But I need to practice.”
“You can use the barn,” Dad suggested helpfully.
Mom came over, giving me another hug. “Yes, that’s a good idea. Come on Sunday to use it, and bring your boyfriend with you to dinner,” she said smiling. Then she slapped me, hard. “That’s for not calling home,” she pouted.
Ow. I hadn’t had access to a phone. Hm, maybe she didn’t need to know that. “I thought I was protecting you,” I cried.
“Shayne and I protect the members of this family. It has been this way for centuries. The women are the Hunters.”
“Yes ma’am.”
She gently kissed the red handprint that was no doubt staining my face. “It’s 3:00pm. The days are getting shorter, so there should be some shade outside for you now,” she said.
The door opened inward again, and I just stood there, with my wings exposed, wondering who was entering this time. And when I saw who it was, I actually felt my heart skip a beat.
Marcus!
He winced at my involuntary scream as he stepped in the room, shutting the door quickly behind him. He looked at the gathered assembly momentarily, and then the Hunter scent hit him. His eyes flared red and he positioned himself between me and what he took to be perceived danger, hip-checking me back onto the table before I had a chance to say anything.
“Marcus!” I yelled out. “Meet my parents, and my sister.”
I brought a wing up and wrapped it around his shoulder, using it to drag him back to me, to get him out of reach of my sister’s short sword that had almost magically re-appeared again in her hand.
“Parents?” The hint of red sheen in Marcus’s eyes faded, and he straightened up from his defensive posture. “Hunters? You are from a family of Hunters? And how did you get that mark on your cheek, Xavier?” His own palm pressed softly over the heat on my face.
Cake: A Blood Nation Novel (Volume 1) Page 24