“Everything’s there,” she told me. Then her voice became wistful. “This life is nothing like I thought it would be when Freddie promised me forever. Stupid girl that I was, I fell for him hard. He offered me the Covenant…eternal life or death. I picked eternal life and he used me for a year, taught me nothing, and then he walked away. Now, I’m running and hiding, trying to keep this eternal life. Kind of silly, don’t you think?” Her face looked at me sadly for a moment, and then she shrugged her shoulders.
“Covenant?” I questioned.
“Marcus offered you the choice of life or death before you were turned, didn’t he?”
“Oh…yeah,” I lied. He’d offered me the choice of becoming a drone, or a fully functional vampire. He hadn’t offered me death, because he knew I would have taken it.
“Okay it’s getting late. You were out longer than we expected. We should start getting ready,” Trisha said.
“What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to blindfold you, and then we’re going to dump you in front of your building,” she explained.
“Bad plan,” I said immediately. “There’s surveillance all around it. Marcus would have your vehicle tracked down before you even turned the block. You’re going to have to drop me about five blocks away. I’ll just have to make a run for it.”
“The sun is still up. Are you crazy?” she cried.
“You want to wait until the sun goes down? He’ll have those black soldiers out in full force,” I warned her. “Just give me plenty of water and lots of sun block.”
“You love to run,” she observed.
“Truth be told, I fucking hate it. But I’m good at it when I have to be, and it comes in handy sometimes…like when dealing with you guys.”
“Oh, I remember hearing a rumor going around that you took off and left Freddie and the crew standing in your dust.”
“That was blind panic,” I laughed.
“No, it means you’ve got survival skills. You’re good at it. Marcus taught you well,” Trisha said, offering the Berretta back to me.
“I had those skills before I met him,” I said, taking the gun from her.
“They will serve you well in your role as an assassin.”
“I’m not an assassin,” I told her vehemently.
“But you’re a Du Bussey now. It’s what they are. That’s why your House is unofficially called the House of Assassins. They mainly work for the High Council, but they do take on side contracts. Well that’s what the rumors are.” She looked at me, quirking her brows. “I thought you would have known this, you’re constantly at his side.”
I grimaced at her comment. Constantly at his side? Well, I guess that was better than her saying, “You’re always flat on your back underneath him.” But disregarding that, what she had just said about Marcus’s House was something important, something I knew nothing about. My head thumped just thinking about it.
Shade? Come on pretty kitty, talk to me.
Xavier, are you all right?
I was so relieved to hear her voice purring through my head.
Yes. I’m fine. Thanks for asking.
Everyone is worried. He is about to go ballistic. Claudius has an Ouija board thing laying here on the floor with me. I’m supposed to tell them when you contact me.
Well, wasn’t that clever of him.
Don’t tell him anything, at least not yet. You can tell him when I’m a little closer to home. What…What do you know about the Covenant?
I chewed on my bottom lip nervously as I waited for her to answer.
It’s a sacred canon law for the vampires. You cannot turn a human who hasn’t been offered the choice.
My stomach muscles clenched at her news.
What happens if other vampires find out that the Covenant wasn’t offered?
Not a pleasant thing. Both the master and the fledgling are put to death.
What? Why would they punish the fledgling?
It is not considered a punishment, Xavier. They call it Mercy.
Oh dear God. So aside from Armanita wanting to make me into a target by declaring me Lord Emperor, the rest of the Vampire Nation was now going to be hunting me and Marcus down for breaking a cardinal law. My headache just got a headache. I took the sunglasses off and rubbed at my tired eyes before taking a deep breath.
Okay Shade, I’ve moving out. I’ll call you in a bit.
Trisha was looking at me. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“What makes you think I’m doing anything?” I replied, blinking and putting an innocent expression on my face. Well I tried to. It’s never worked in the past and…It obviously wasn’t going to work now.
“You kind of glazed over for a few seconds,” she said, flicking a finger across my nose, indicting my eyes.
“I made a private phone call. I was talking to a friend. She’s been worried,” I admitted.
“You House types have all sorts of skills we don’t have,” Trisha said ruefully before leaving the room for a moment and coming back in with a pillowcase. “Lose the hat. It’s Ritchie’s favourite,” she told me.
“Tough,” I said, taking it off and shaking out my hair. “I’m not running in the sun without a hat or my shades on.”
Tucking the glasses in the shirt pocket, I folded the cap up and stuck it in the waistband at the back of my pants, just as Trisha tried putting the pillowcase over my head. She was too small to reach though, so I had to pull it on myself. Then with my hands on her shoulders, she led me out of the room and to freedom.
Her skin was soft and warm under my fingers. It has been so long since I touched a woman. The feel of her flesh was much more delicate than Marcus’s, and I couldn’t help myself letting my hands caress her gently.
“Stop it!” she chided, slapping at my wandering hands.
I stopped it, snatching back my hands quickly as she grabbed me by the wrist, tugging me forward by my arm the rest of the way.
We made it to a waiting van, and I stubbed my shin as I climbed in blindly. Holy crap, that hurt.
“You’re sort of a klutz, aren’t you,” Trisha said laughingly as she dragged me down to sit on the floor beside her. Then she shocked me by pulling up my pant leg and touching my bare calf. “What do you do, wax?” she asked, amazed. Everywhere she touched sent tingles through me. I stiffened for a moment, thinking it was the beginning of a Flame but no, it was something else. Why was I reacting to a woman? I’m gay, right? All that soul-searching I did, had it been for nothing?
“That’s me, the original hairless wonder,” I laughed back weakly, just as the van went around a corner a little too fast, and we both toppled over, Trisha ending up on top of me and making no move to get off.
“Marcus makes you lay back and think of the Nation, doesn’t he?” she said softly. “You’re so submissive. That’s kind of a turn-on actually…especially with you being so gorgeous.”
Rolling up the hem of the pillowcase, Trisha teased me with a kiss. Her lips were so soft and gentle. I raised my hand to make her stop, and she caught my wrist, pushing it down to the floor of the van. I could have easily pulled away from her, but I didn’t. I lay there and allowed her tongue to flick along my mouth, and when I opened to her invitation, she took the opportunity to show me a thing or two about French kissing.
“Trisha…Trisha! I said we’re here. Get off him,” barked a voice from the front seat.
Pulling her tongue from my mouth reluctantly, Trisha yanked the pillowcase off my head. Her eyes were dark gray with desire, and I probably had my slut look on too.
Shuffling away from her I sat up, looking down at myself guiltily. What the hell was I doing? I could smell her scent on me. Oh fuck, oh shit.
“What’s wrong, you seemed to enjoy it,” Trisha said, noticing the distressed look on my face.
“Marcus is going to beat the living shit out of me,” I answered glumly, ducking my head for a moment and trying to get my emotions under control. I’d actually gotten a slight arou
sal from her kissing, and now I was panicking.
“You’re kidding? Oh my God, you’re not kidding! Xavier, I’m so sorry. I’ve wanted to do that ever since I saw you in a magazine.” She moved towards, and I scurried back. “I…wait a minute.”
I sat watching, wondering what she was up to as she crawled into the front of the van and rummaged around in the glove-box compartment. Finally she found what she’d been looking for, and she held up a pair of handcuffs triumphantly.
Coming back to me she unclasped a chain from her neck, and sliding the key to the cuffs onto it, she then reached out and hooked the chain around my neck before snapping the cuffs comfortably around my wrists.
“You were a prisoner. You couldn’t do anything about it,” she said, brushing my loose hair back from eyes, taking a few strands and bringing them to her nose. “Vanilla cake. Who would have thought it would be so sexy? Why couldn’t we have met when we were human?” she pondered.
“You wouldn’t have looked at me twice,” I told her as she reached behind me for Ritchie’s hat.
“Are you sure?” she asked, pulling my hair through the back of the hat and setting it low on my forehead.
“Positive. I was not a nice person.”
“You’re still not a nice person,” she retorted, pulling out my shades. “You shot six of my friends, remember?”
“Yeah, but back then, I wouldn’t have felt sorry for doing it,” I said.
She set my sunglasses in place and then leaned in and set up another brief round of international negotiations between our mouths.
Once we had broken apart, I took a glance out of the window. The driver had stopped the van in the only shade available, which was a good six blocks to the manor. I’d have to run those six blocks in blinding sunlight. Damn. I didn’t know if I could do this.
Trisha read my mind. “It’s too far,” she stressed. “Do you think you could do a running leap from the van from maybe two blocks away?”
“Three,” I bartered, squinting out through the front windshield. “The cameras will pick you up at two blocks. Keep the door open, and I’ll tell you how fast to go.”
Trish ordered the driver to move in closer, and I tried to contact the Hellcat.
Shade?
Where the hell are you, Xavier? Marcus isn’t going to wait any longer.
I’m about three blocks from the manor, and chances are the security gate is down. I’m running to you in direct sunlight. I need you to get that gate up.
What? Are you stupid?
Gate. Up. Now!
Will do.
Standing in the open doorway of the van, I looked down at the sidewalk as we drove along, watching it carefully, trying to gauge the speed. “Slower…Slower. Okay, keep it at this. And drive away normally when you head out, don’t call attention to yourselves,” I said to the vampire who was at the wheel.
Three…Two…One…
“You got my cell number, call next time you want a favor,” I called back to Trisha. And then I jumped.
My feet hit the sidewalk at full speed, and I had to run with the momentum of my body. I was silently grateful that I was still upright. That was all I needed, to trip and fall on my face. My bound hands were throwing my balance off a little, but not enough to bring me down. The sun was going to do that though, if I didn’t hurry. I’d only been out in it for a few seconds, and already I’d started to feel like a burger under a heat lamp.
One block down.
Come on, you can do this…One foot in front of the other…Keep going, keep running…Sweet dreams…
Two blocks down.
Get up. You are not going to die out here.
Get up? I don’t even remember going down, and yet here I was, sprawled out near the end of the last block. Get up. Twenty feet, that’s all you have left to cover…twenty feet.
I don’t know how I did it, but suddenly I was at the manor…and the gate was still down.
Shade? Shade, where are you?
The gate should be open.
It’s not…I’m fucked…It’s so hot out here.
The closed gate suddenly started to move behind me, and as I fell over sideways, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm, dragging me underneath the lower edge and out of reach of the sunlight. It felt blessedly cool as Marcus caught me under my armpits and hauled me back well away from the gate. Every inch of my flesh seemed to be burning, even the parts that hadn’t been exposed to the sun.
From the tightness of his jaw, I could tell that Marcus was absolutely furious. But then he stood me up and gave me the bear hug of my life, letting me go and catching my head in his hands to give me a bruising kiss before telling me exactly the worry he had gone through.
As he did so, I tilted my head sideways and fanged him. I didn’t ask his permission, I just drank until the burning sensation stopped.
Marcus’s nose had been buried in my hair. Now, he stilled, and his body stiffened. I could tell that he had discovered the lingering scent of another vampire…a female vampire at that.
I pulled my head back, trying to gently extract my fangs from his throat. But he shoved me away from him and my extended teeth tore at the puncture wounds in his neck.
“I was worried about you all day long, and you were out fucking?” he snarled as he flung my body hard against the garage wall.
I tried to get to my feet and run away from him, but he moved too fast to avoid. His hand was around my neck, pinning me against the wall, and I grabbed at his forearm frantically with my cuffed wrists, pulling at him until he finally noticed them and loosened his grip. But he still kept me where I was, bringing his nose in close to me and snuffling through my hair, my neck and clothes.
“I’ll kill them,” he declared.
This wasn’t how I wanted to approach this.
“No. You’ve done enough killing. Leave them alone.”
“They took you from a public place. I have to hunt them to ground.”
“They just wanted to talk,” I told him.
Marcus wiped at my neck with his tongue. “This scent marker is not an indication of just wanting to talk. Did this female try to claim you?”
“She wanted the model, Sex. Not me.”
“You are Sex,” Marcus purred.
“I thought I was more than that for you, Marcus,” I said, my tone injured. “Or am I just a cheap lay?”
He slapped me so hard that I lost consciousness for a moment. I certainly don’t remember falling, but when I was able to focus again, I found myself on my hands and knees, looking up at him. His brown eyes were clear. There weren’t any signs of vampiric anger or Flame in them, which meant he had struck me of his own free will. He’d done it because that was what he wanted to do.
“What the hell is going on here?” Claudius’s irate voice rang out loudly, as he stood at the entryway door. He had probably been wondering what was taking us so long and had come to see if everything was alright, only to be greeted by the scene in front of him…“Xavier ran through three blocks of sunlight to get to you, Marcus, and this is how you repay his love?”
“He has another’s scent on him,” Marcus answered sullenly.
“Yet, here he is in front of you,” Claudius pointed out.
I checked my jaw, and it cracked painfully for a few seconds before it felt right. Moving to stand up, I found that I couldn’t get to my feet. My balance was off, and my ears were ringing. My vision was blurry as well.
Reaching for the wall to help steady myself, my hand missed it, and I batted uselessly at midair for a few moments until Claudius came over and pulled me to my feet, his hands resting on my shoulders until the world stopped spinning around me. I think I had a concussion.
Claudius noticed the key hanging around my neck, and taking it off, he opened the cuffs, gathering my bruised wrists into his hands and gently massaging them for me.
“I am sorry, Xavier,” Marcus said, running his fingers down over his drawn face, emitting the long sigh he had been holding. “I was
concerned about you. There you were, lying in the sun. I thought I was too late.”
He raised his hand out and stepped towards me. I tried not to, but I flinched, taking one step back away from him. Claudius saw this, and letting go of my hands, he positioned himself between us.
Marcus stopped, his hand dropping down at his side. “I am sorry, Xavier. I was just so worried. Please, say something.”
I picked the most hurtful thing that I could.
“Covenant.”
He blanched, understanding that I knew what he should have done. “Xavier…”
“Save it, Marcus. I’m not feeling up to anyone’s Mercy today, especially yours,” I said hotly, rubbing at my bruised face. Then, turning from him, I headed into the entryway, where I staggered and bounced my way along the walls.
My cheek was aching. But besides the shock of having Marcus slap me down hard and quick, there was also the sharp stabbing of hurt in my heart. Marcus hadn’t even taken a moment to let me try and explain things. He had judged me wrongly…so brutally.
Something was broken in my face. My ears were still ringing, and my legs were weak. And I needed more blood. I managed to stumble three more steps before my knees gave out.
Thankfully, I was caught before I hit the ground. Black hair, as dark as night, swung over me as Claudius caught me up in his arms. I glanced back over his shoulder as he carried me, to see the big, brown-haired vampire standing there, staring out into the bright light of the day. Did Marcus even care that he had smacked me down hard? He used to pull his punches.
“I have you now, my son.” Claudius lulled softly as he tightened his arms around me in a hug of support.
What the hell does it mean, when the resident psychopath loves and cares for you more than your own lover?
Fuck, I’m never going to be happy, am I?
To be continued in the upcoming novel, Cinder.
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Cethe by Becca Abbott
Cake: A Blood Nation Novel (Volume 1) Page 42