I had just grabbed a pair of black leather pants and unzipped the jeans I had on when I heard a big sigh.
Nightshade lay at the door, her front paws crossed over in front of her and her head resting there on them. Her great golden eyes were staring at me.
Don’t mind me. I’ve seen naked vampires before.
“So have I. But that doesn’t mean I want to be looked at. Avert thine eyes, Nightshade. I’m running late.” I watched and waited until she closed her eyes, letting out another big sigh.
Jeez, the things you’ve done, who would think that you would be such a prude as regards showing a little flesh.
I tossed off the jeans and pulled on the leather pants before putting the silk shirt on. I started doing all the buttons up and then stopped, remembering how Frederick had done it. So I unbuttoned them again, leaving just the crucial one holding the edges together. Then I sat down to pull on my socks and runners.
I don’t think so.
Nightshade took my running shoe from right out of my hand.
I looked inside your mind, remember. This is an upscale exclusive photo shoot. Dress shoes and trouser socks. Oh, and nice shirt, by the way. It picks up the highlights in your hair.
“Aren’t you just a kitten? How would you know about such stuff?”
I am older than you think, my Lord Emperor. When my physical form dies, I just wait until another Hellcat is ready to be born, and I come back to serve. I have never had to serve an Emperor before. You are not what I expected.
“Is that good or bad?” I couldn’t help asking.
I thought that the Lord Emperor…
“Would know his ass from a hole in the ground? I’m seven days old, and I’ve only been awake for four of them. But I got fang control at least. Don’t take that away from me,” I protested, forcing my feet into a pair of dress shoes and standing up, posing. “How’s this?”
You clean up good, kid. It’s no wonder you don’t know anything, looking like you do. That’s why you’ve probably been on your back or bent over a table most of the time.
My teeth snapped together, biting back a retort when that red tail of hers swiped at my jaw.
That is actually a compliment, by the way.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten, and then repeated it, slower.
Your grandfather is getting antsy. I think we better go.
“You’re coming with me?”
Wherever you go, my Lord Emperor, I go. I shall be the first to enter the room. I will kill for you. I will die for you. You are my reason for being.
I think my eyes must have bugged out of my head.
I know that your mind was under trauma when you performed our bonding ceremony, and so I have been gentle with you. But you have to start getting strong again now, to understand what being a Hellcat’s companion is.
I received another cat tail swipe to the back of the head.
You’re not alone anymore, Xavier. Now, get moving.
Clattering down the stairs, I met Claudius at the bottom. He was perfectly polished as usual in a dove grey suit, cream dress shirt and forest green tie. Standing beside him in my outfit, I looked like a high-priced gigolo.
“Nice coat,” he complimented graciously before saying, “Here, Marcus left this for you.” He handed me a wallet and a cell phone. I flipped open the wallet to the I.D. section and read, Xavier Du Bussey. Wow! When we actually get mated, I won’t even have to change my name.
Nightshade came padding silkily down the stairs, her eyes on me.
Sarcasm and bitterness does not become you, my Lord Emperor.
“I’m entitled to wallow.”
You’ve wallowed for three days. Get over it.
I noticed Claudius looking at me, an uncomfortable expression on his face. “You don’t actually hear anything but me answering, right?” I noted.
“It is a little disconcerting to hear you indulging in a one-way conversation,” he admitted. “But come, let us go.”
“Master Xavier I am…” A hurrying Chesterton came to a sudden stop, and he had a glazed look in his eyes as he stared at my almost-bare chest.
This one would have you bent over the table.
“Shut up.”
No, he would have you on the table on your back so he could watch your pretty face as he…
“I said shut up!”
“Sir?” Chesterton appeared nonplussed, and he flushed deep red.
“Uh, can I get a blood pack to go?” I said, trying to quickly alleviate the situation. Chesterton gave me a slight bow and then scurried off to wherever it is that he scurries. I felt Nightshade’s tail wrap around my leg, and looking down at her I saw that she was staring back up at me, her eyes filled with innocence and devotion.
“Stop it,” I chided gently. “I don’t need everyone thinking I’m a nutbar.”
You don’t have to say anything out loud you know. You can use Silent Speak. Do you know how to use Silent Speak? Have you heard of it?
I shook my head.
I was only kidding when I said you spent all your time on your back. But that is what you have been doing, isn’t it? Get in the car. Just get in the car.
She started walking toward the opened hallway, and as she moved past me I got the tail to the back of the head again. “That hurts!” I complained, rubbing the sore spot.
Well, stop being a vampire’s love slave and start learning how to become the Emperor. Now, quit whining, and get in the car.
Jeez, this was just like arguing with Shayne. Tentatively touching my fingertips to the welt growing on the back of my head, I recalled how my sister would call me names and push me around. But, woe betide anyone else trying it. I wondered if it were the same for the Hellcat. “Hey Shade,” I called to her.
Not my name.
“Sure it is, it’s just shorter,” I answered, getting a look back from her in return that spoke volumes.
Chesterton appeared again, and Claudius took a travel mug from the tray the butler carried. They spoke for a moment, and then the tall, thin man bowed and stepped back a pace as Claudius got into the car that was waiting. I climbed in after him, sinking into the deep leather seats of the new limo.
“Here you are,” Claudius said, handing me the mug of warm blood. “Chesterton told me that he added an essence he thought you might like. What that means, I do not really know.”
Shade slunk her way into the car and pushed herself up on the seat between us, putting her back legs over Claudius’s lap and resting her head on my thigh. She was really, really heavy.
“Can you be a smaller cat?” I complained. “We all can’t fit on this seat with you lounging like that.”
Shade lifted her head, yawned, and then placed her head back in my lap. And then she shrank. Within moments there was a sleepy, little kitten curled up next to me, purring herself to sleep. What a big fake, I thought.
I heard that.
Sitting more comfortably now, I took a sip of the blood and wham…I got an instant hard-on. Claudius must have heard me gasp in surprise.
“What is it?” he asked.
I raised the mug to my nose and took a sniff. It smelled of an apple orchard. “It’s Marcus,” I said simply.
“Apparently so,” Claudius smirked, and I caught the glance that he made towards my crotch. “Are you going to Flame?” he inquired.
I silently checked myself out before shaking my head. “No.”
“You have not had another Flame since that erotic dancing. That was more than five days ago. You must be starving. Aside from your first kill, we have not taken you hunting. That is something that we must address.”
I signed and took a deep breath. “I saw something a few days back, in Marcus’s mind. It would explain a lot about last year. I mean…”
“Just ask me your question, Xavier,” Claudius urged.
Playing with the handle of the mug, I asked, “Is Marcus into discipline? Or does he simply like being on the receiving end of pain?”
Claud
ius sat upright in his seat, more than a little shocked by my question. “You saw this, you say?” he asked cautiously.
I felt my face turn red. I didn’t know why I should feel embarrassed; after all, Claudius has been in every part of me.
“We were…uh…messing around, and Marcus was trying to engage my mind. He was in my head, manipulating my emotions, and I tried to force him out. Next thing I know, I’m in a fog, and through this mist I could see that you had Marcus tied up to some rafters and you were whipping him and…” I swallowed tensely. “It looked like you didn’t want to do it to him.”
Claudius looked out of the window with a sad expression on his face. “Marcus’s human father set that preference in him long before I came on the scene,” he began, letting out a long sigh. “Back then, parents used to cherish the eldest son. They kept the second son well looked after, just in case something happened to the first. The third son was of no consequence to them.”
Shade shifted in her sleep, and I absentmindedly stroked her fur as Claudius continued with his story.
“Marcus was a third son, and his kin had trained him to be the family whore. His two brothers could burn off their sexual energies, and this way there was no fear of sudden pregnancies or unwanted heirs popping up to lay claim to the family fortune. Marcus was mistreated and miserable. What they had made him caused him to be scorned by other members of his family, their friends, and anyone else who knew what his position was in the household. They did not even give him a name. They simply called him Bastard, even though he wasn’t one.”
I frowned, suddenly understanding a little better Marcus’s upset reaction at being called a “horny bastard” by me. But, how was I to know that I was walking on the broken shards of his psyche? He’s never talked about himself with me, ever.
“When I first met Marcus, he was ten years old,” Claudius revealed. “I was doing business with his father for my House. As a bargaining chip, they offered the boy to me. Considering that he was still a little young, was growing very quickly, and was becoming a handful, I declined their offer. It is a decision I have regretted over the following years. Marcus might have been different now, if I had taken him into my care at that time.”
I stopped stroking Nightshade to press a hand upon Claudius’s, but he was lost in his tale.
“The next time I had business with his father, Marcus was twelve. He was as big as a youth five years his elder, and this time when offered, I bought him for an exorbitant price and have never regretted a penny of it. I took him on as my son, my only son…my cherished eldest. And when he was old enough, I turned him like he had been begging me to do ever since he finally came to trust and believe that I truly loved and cherished him.”
Claudius turned back from the window, and the pride he held for his big vampire son was easy to read in his eyes. “Look what he became. Almost without any help from me, he has risen to be the rank of Master in one of the biggest territories in this new country. He has achieved so much. But there were things done to him in his past that he cannot overcome. I gave him a name, I changed his life, and I let him grow into the valued person he should have always been. But since the day of his birth, he has been abused in one form or another, and finally I realized that they had damaged his core. To him now, pain is a representation of love.”
“But surely your love has changed him?” I asked.
“His family taught him early in his life that when they abused him it was really their way of saying that they loved him,” Claudius sneered. “I could never overcome that wicked training. It is so deeply rooted inside of him that I cannot pluck it out. And when I realized that Marcus had healed as much as he ever could, I went back and slaughtered his family line, showing mercy only to the few small children who were innocent of any crimes against my son, putting them out for secret adoption. I was determined that there would be no more victims in that family.”
I gave a small gasp, and Claudius looked at me, catching my look of disbelief.
“You are from a family of Hunters. You know yourself that your parents would take out an entire coven, even though it might be only one who was causing mayhem. Your parents looked at you when you were born and knew that you did not have a Hunter’s heart, and yet they let you go your own way. They did not make you into a slave.”
He turned and looked out of the window again, at the passing scenery, though I had a feeling that Claudius wasn’t seeing the buildings we were driving past.
“He kept your existence a secret for a year. He has never kept anything from me before,” he mused. Then, turning to me, he said, “Marcus did unspeakable things to you when you were still a human, did he not?”
Now it was my turn to look out of the window, and I drank a little more of my mug o’ Marcus as I did so. I still had a hard-on, and there was no Flame in sight, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to continue drinking. As I hadn’t replied to Claudius’s first question, he asked me another.
“You understand, now, what he was saying to you when he did all those terrible things?”
I nodded, saying, “‘I do this because I love you’. I hope you made his father linger and experience the same pain he put Marcus through.”
“Edward was a masochist. He enjoyed physical pain too much, so I killed him last, to give him the mental anguish of seeing that his line was erased forever.”
That statement in itself was a little too telling for me at this moment. I was still feeling a little strange because of Marcus’s mind fuck, and I let my hands tighten around the mug I held as I whispered, “And the beatings you dish out to him?”
“Marcus will come to me for them mostly when he needs reassurance. He will bring his own whip, and he asks me to love him. I beat him until he collapses, and then I get to hold him as I want him to be held and cherished. He should be coming to you for that reassurance now. But can you love him, Xavier, as he feels he deserves to be loved?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted honestly.
“When did he start doing…things to you? Was it after the stabbing?” I nodded. “To Marcus, you declared your love first, and he has been saying it back to you ever since then. I think he realizes now though, that his way of loving is not yours.”
Now, this was a Catch-22 emotional landmine for me to have to face. Did I love the man who left me laying in my own blood and drool? The simple answer was: Yes. So what the hell does that make me?
“Where is he?” I asked.
“He’s out cleaning his Territory,” was my answer.
“Cleaning? As in bad mafia movie cliché?”
“I have never seen him so angry,” Claudius told me. “And I am sorry to say it, but Marcus did not care about Darius or the car. He was like a madman when you were not to be found. He drove the city, searching for you for hours. And when he found you in that police station, and he brought you home, he was so distraught. The only reason you hadn’t come back yourself was because no one had bothered to tell you where you lived, and he was very upset with himself about that. You did not call him, because you had neither the telephone number nor any money. You were hunted all across town through daylight and all because some upstart group wanted official status and recognition in the eyes of the Council.”
A cold hand of fear clenched my stomach muscles. “What is he really doing, Claudius?”
“The next time we see Marcus, there will be no covens. Anywhere.”
“Is he banishing them?” I knew exactly what the answer was going to be even before Claudius opened his mouth.
“No, he is killing them. Every single one, as is his right as Master of the Territory.”
Oh God. Marcus was out killing in the name of love. He was out murdering people in my name. I hugged my mug of blood close to my chest and breathed in the scent that is uniquely his. Marcus.
The limousine pulled up at the Joker’s Wilde store. Every light was on, and Frederick bounced out of the entrance to greet us as the car came to a stop.
Claudius ope
ned the door and got out. I made a move to follow him, but Shade stretched and stretched until I was pinned under the full weight of her red panther form once again.
If Marcus ever tries to touch you without your consent, I will kill him.
She shivered, and her coat shifted to darkest black as she hopped out of the car and sat waiting for me.
I glanced over at the store. It looked like there was a party going on in there. I had thought it was going to be maybe ten people, tops. There were at least two dozen more people just standing outside the door because they couldn’t get in.
The things I’ll do for free silk bowling shirts, I thought wryly as I plastered on a fake smile and climbed out of the limo.
Twenty
Fractured
Frederick came running up, one hand extended out towards me, the other wrapped around a black travel mug. I clutched my own mug tighter to my chest, taking his hand and squeezing it as hard as I could. His mouth shape changed from a warm smile to a surprised “Oh”.
“Frederick, what the fuck is going on?” I hissed at him through my teeth, letting him know I wasn’t happy at the situation.
“I’ll explain…after you let go of my hand,” he said, holding his bruised appendage in front of him and flexing his fingers, working the blood back into them once I let go.
“Start talking, or I’m getting back in the limo,” I warned.
“Most of this is Marcus’s doing,” he told me. “Ever since word of the attack got out and Marcus started cleaning up the territory because of it, well…everyone wants to see you. I swear, I personally only told a few people about the shoot, outside of the crew. All these people are here for you.”
“News flash, Frederick,” I snapped. “I am not a model. I don’t know what I have to do. I’m here simply because I owe you, nothing else.”
“It will be alright. The shoot is set up in the basement. Crew only,” Frederick said, trying to pacify me. “Shouldn’t that be red?” he asked, looking down at the cat by my side
Cake: A Blood Nation Novel (Volume 1) Page 27