"Do you want me, or sick revenge against Dmitri?" Not that she flattered herself. If he merely wanted her, he could have snapped her neck easily by now, or turned her. Revenge burned brightly in him, and the disease was ugly, mutating into worse and worse nightmares.
"Both. Dmitri will be vanquished once and for all, but not before he witnesses the rebirth of my queen."
The muted light of her cabin faded into impenetrable light. Only Nikolai’s erratic heartbeat and heavy breathing broke through the oppressive darkness. "What a pity you humans haven’t advanced more in the three hundred years we’ve been gone. We’d rather hoped for more of a challenge. After all, you are our parent race."
"Demon spawn," she hissed.
"Ah, yes. We were blessed by the demons so that we would no longer suffer your inherent weaknesses."
"Why then do you want a weak human for your queen? Why not choose a superior--partner?" She couldn’t bring herself to voice such a vile word as mate in context to him.
Her eyes began to grow used to the darkness so that she could make out his shadowy form. "How dare a mere human female question me!" he bellowed, his voice reverberating through the chamber.
Then his sinister chuckle rent the air as his tension ebbed. "I find your boldness refreshing. I tire of simpering females. I enjoy a challenge."
Challenge? "It’s a lost cause."
Harsh hands clamped around her throat and a menacing voice whispered huskily in her ear. "It’s because of Dmitri isn’t it? He’s poisoned you against me again."
No sprang to her lips, but was that the entire truth? "I--our world--has no use for vampires. Leave us in peace. As you say, we’re your parents."
The monster’s hands loosened fractionally when he laughed uproariously. "I no longer take commands from anyone. Especially not from humans, parents or otherwise."
"What is your obsession with Earth?"
"Aside from the fact that it’s our birthright? Or that human blood is the sweetest, most nourishing to be found throughout the galaxy?"
She nodded, refusing to shiver when his menu-like description horrified her. "Besides that," she said dryly.
"Sweet revenge. Your ancestors tried to murder us, drove us from our homes, and shot us into deep space. In their lingo, we’re royally pissed off!"
So her ancestors had angered their mortal enemies and her generation should really be fearful now? If her ancestors hadn’t banished them, her generation would never have been born. At least not as humans.
* * * *
"The captain’s missing!"
Dmitri sucked in his breath and spread himself thin on the air as the human soldiers advanced. Following them, he listened intently, cursing himself for leaving Zanna unguarded. He should have assigned some of his men to watch over her but he hadn’t expected Nikolai to strike during her waking hours.
"Damnit!" A string of muttered curses rent the hallway as a tall lanky man with patched hair bent over a prone body. "He’s barely breathing--vampire bites…."
Dmitri edged closer, the scent of fresh blood making him tingle.
Curses sprang to his lips. The bite pattern on the man’s neck belonged to Nikolai. The fiend liked to mark his victims in this hideous, unmistakable fashion.
They transported the injured man to the medics. "Oliver’s nowhere to be found." The lanky soldier rose, revealing the insignia of a commander.
The ensign accompanying the commander stopped before a splattering of blood staining the floor. He aimed a tricorder at it and scowled. "Oliver’s blood."
"One guess where Oliver is." Lightning flashed through the commander’s eyes as he stabbed at his com badge. "Red alert all decks. Apprehend Captain Edwards and Lieutenant Oliver upon sight. Shoot to stun. Repeat. Shoot to stun Captain Edwards and Lieutenant Oliver on sight. I, Commander Jabesh, am assuming command."
"Vampires?" the ensign shuddered and stepped away from the blood. "So primitive."
The commander sneered and nodded. "No doubt. Now that I’m in charge, we’ll attack. This is what weakness spawns."
"But the High Council has to approve acts of aggression."
The commander snorted. "The high council’s been worthless. If left to them, we’ll all become the living dead. "This calls for defense so I don’t need their approval.
Dmitri had heard enough. He blinked back to his bridge, his fangs bursting through his gums. "Battle stations. Prepare for attack."
"Shields up." Sacha crossed over to him. "What are your orders, Sire?"
Dmitri wasn’t ready for his crew to know about Zanna. Since his crew’s super-sensitive hearing would pick up on anything he said, no matter how low he said anything, he said, "In my quarters." To his security officer, he ordered, "Take the bridge. Tell me if they so much as hiccup."
Chafing, Dmitri blinked to his chambers. Soon as Sacha materialized beside him he faced his Number Two. "I’m leaving you in charge. Nikolai’s taken Zanna--Tanya."
"It’s probably too late…" Sacha’s steady gaze pierced him as he linked his hands behind his back.
He didn’t want to hear that, couldn’t give up hope. Suppressing a growl, Dmitri grated his teeth. Although he dreamed of Zanna being vampire so they could spend every joyful moment of eternity together, he couldn’t allow her to become one of Carpathia’s minions. She was his lifemate, not Nikolai’s. "I can’t think that. I’m not giving up on her."
Sacha rocked back on his heels. "But your people. Earth. More’s at stake…."
No one had to remind him of his duty! The rage boiling inside him exploded and then deflated just as quickly. "I love her. Her eternity’s threatened."
"As it is for us all."
"This isn’t up for debate. Take charge. If it looks hopeless, get our people the hell out."
"Where shall we go? What about you?"
"I’m expendable." Dmitri raked his finger through his hair. "Slip into Earth’s past. You take command."
Sacha’s brow creased. "Perhaps we should go there now."
Dmitri sank into his chair. "Perhaps… We shall explore this possibility more. First, we have to rescue Zanna."
"At the expense of our two civilizations?"
Put that way, Dmitri felt very selfish. "I can’t leave her at that worm’s mercy. I’ll go by myself. You take command."
"It’s suicide. Surely Nikolai is using her as bait, waiting for you."
"Then I shouldn’t keep him waiting, should I? I’ve never been an impolite guest, so I’m not going to start now."
Sacha shook his head. "This isn’t a matter to take lightly, Sire."
"I take this very seriously. Nikolai knew this would be a fight to the death when he kidnapped her."
"That’s a very significant phrase--‘to the death’. Tanya’s been reincarnated before, she’ll be reincarnated again."
Dmitri knew this could be the last time, and most certainly would be if he didn’t risk everything to save her. "I have no choice but to try and save her.
"Patch me into the human command post," Dmitri roared, glaring at his Number One. "Now!" He gathered his sharpest sword intent on beheading the deadliest predator since Count Dracula.
"As you wish, Sire." Sacha called to the communications officer, "Get us a line to Earth Command. Now! We’ll be on the bridge in one minute."
Dmitri and Sacha blinked to the bridge and asked in one breath, "Have you hailed them?"
"Got them, Sire!" The lieutenant turned to the command screen. "I have introduced you, Sire. You will be speaking to Admiral Nova Edwards, Admiral of Unified Earth Defenses."
Zanna’s mother.
Dmitri bowed to the woman in the admiral’s uniform. "May I dispense with formalities?" He didn’t wait for her response but forged ahead. "Our mutual enemy has your commander, Zanna Edwards, in his capture. I may still be able to save her if I can get aboard his ship. We do not have your ability to transport ship to ship." Orbing on the astral plane was not the same thing and this time, he could not accomplish h
is mission in a dream state.
Admiral Edwards jumped to her feet and paced, her gaunt face draining of all color. "They have my daughter? Give me the coordinates and I will transport her here."
Dmitri frowned. "We do not have that knowledge but you must since your soldiers transported onto our vessel. But it would be better if I was to go there alone."
"Negative. I think I’m better suited to protect my daughter than a vampire." The admiral turned to her aid and murmured to him, "Find her and transport her to the hospital."
The man nodded and typed in a sequence of commands.
Dmitri wanted to scream at the woman’s ignorance and prejudice. He watched as twinkling stardust solidified into two bodies in the admiral’s chambers. Zanna’s and Nikolai’s hulking form bent over his love’s limp, bloody form.
Dmitri’s heart broke when Zanna whimpered and writhed beneath the monster, trying ineffectually to shove him away. "Mother." She held out her hand to her. Then she stared up into the communication screen. "I remember. I love you, Dmitri. I’m so sorry. I so wanted to be with you."
Dmitri counted three sets of bite marks on Zanna’s throat, all Nikolai’s.
"You are mine!" Nikolai roared, insanity trilling in his voice. He sliced his hand and tried to drip his blood onto her lips. "I told you that you will die before I let him have you."
Dmitri lifted his head and howled his pain, his heart shattering. Then he marched to the screen and spoke to Zanna’s mother. "Transport me there, Admiral. Let me be with her. I’m the only one who can stop him and save her."
To Zanna, he said, "Hold on, sweetheart. Don’t drink his blood no matter what. Keep your lips tightly shut." If Zanna drank of the vampire’s blood, she would embrace their world becoming one of them. He did not wish that on her much as he longed to keep her at his side for eternity.
He felt a strange sensation and materialized into the Earth command post. "She’ll never be yours, Nikolai."
Nikolai turned, a wicked grin on his bloody lips. "Wrong as usual, Lion. You’re too late."
With another howl, Dmitri lifted his sword and hurled it at Nikolai, cutting off his head in a fit of insane rage.
Rushing to Zanna’s side, he kicked the monster’s body out of his path. Cradling her in his arms, he cleansed Nikolai’s blood from her lips and then lowered a kiss to her mouth. Against it he murmured, fighting back acid tears stinging his eyes, "I’m sorry I let you down again. I never wanted this to happen."
She coughed and shook her head weakly. "No," she said with a raspy breath. "I want to stay with you. You can make it happen."
"No daughter!" Her mother knelt by her side and stroked wisps of damp hair from her forehead. "Don’t damn your eternal soul."
"We have to go back. Prevent this massacre, the first war…" Zanna’s voice was a ragged whisper.
"Are you sure, darlin’?" Dmitri had longed to hear these words for millennia, but not at such expense.
Zanna swallowed hard and looked up at him, love blazing in her eyes. "Positive. It’s the only way."
"But Zanna, you know it’s better to die a temporal death than to subject yourself to living hell…" Tears flowed from her mother’s eyes and she aimed a laser at Zanna. "I can’t let you do this. Even if I have to shoot you myself."
"You don’t want to shoot me, Mother," Zanna said, pathos in her voice. She raised soulful eyes to her. "Does he look damned, Mother? He has a good soul. He has more soul and more humanity than anyone I know. I long to spend eternal life at his side. I want us to coexist peacefully on our world." She broke into coughing spasms, her body arching against his. Her time ran alarmingly short.
Her mother’s hand wavered. "You don’t know what you ask. Your mind is muddled. I do this for your good, your eternal well-being."
Zanna licked her cracked lips, her strength clearly waning. Gasping for breath, her eyes cloudy, she struggled to speak. "We can travel… back in time. Change… history. Prevent this. I have to… do this to save… our people."
The admiral nodded, and lowered her weapon to the ground. "Am I able to go with you? Can a human travel through time?"
"I can make it so," Dmitri said, moving the weapon out of harm’s way, breathing a sigh of relief.
Zanna turned her gaze on Dmitri and raised her hand to cup his cheek. "I tried so very hard to deny it, but I love you. I am in my right mind and I make the choice to be with you, and to make this sacrifice for all the people of Earth. Make me into a vampire."
When he hesitated, she said in a stronger voice. "Now, before it’s too late."
Dmitri lowered her gently to the floor and bent over her. His fangs protruded and he bit her creamy neck and drank of her blood. Then he sliced his finger and rubbed it against her lips. "Drink of my blood. Become my eternal mate."
She gazed deeply into his eyes and opened her mouth. She licked the blood from his finger, swirling her tongue around it. Closing her eyes, she took it into her mouth and sucked on it, moaning deeply.
Slowly, she opened her eyelids and they glowed red. Vitality returned to her and she sat up and kissed him hard on the lips. "I’m one with you now. Will you have me?"
"Forever, lifemate. Is that long enough?"
She smiled up at him and then licked his neck with a long sweep of her tongue.
Shivers of delight raced down his spine. Joy flooded his heart, matching that glowing in her eyes. He gathered her close to his heart, smiling into his lifemate’s beautiful eyes. "Not nearly long enough, my love."
Sacha put his hand over his mouth and cleared his throat discreetly. "We must go now, Sire. Do we take the humans onboard this vessel with us? I fear they are all that remain of Earth’s population. The Carpathians have destroyed all the other ships and blown up the planet. They have turned their sites on this vessel and will be within firing range shortly."
Fierce pain shattered Zanna’s heart. "Earth’s destroyed? Our people are all dead?"
Dmitri drew her against his swiftly hammering heart and stroked her hair. "If Sacha reports this, it must be so. But I promise you with my last breath that we’ll change that. We’ll make the world a better place and Nikolai and his breed won’t be allowed to spawn."
Zanna tilted her head back and gazed into his eyes. "So how far back do we have to go in time?"
"Before the Egyptians ruled Mesopotamia, when the first vampires first appeared. We can stay sequestered, watch over Earth until the signs appear."
"We’re the aliens that visited ancient Earth! Does that mean that Earth was destined to be destroyed?"
"I don’t know what it means, darlin’. But this time, we’ll make sure it ends better. We’ve got this much right. The rest will fall into place."
Dmitri looked at her mother. "Can you transport all of us back to my ship? We must travel together to ensure we land in the same place and time."
Admiral Edwards nodded. "Prepare to transport now. I suggest we take supplies. Ancient Mesopotamia was quite inhospitable. Can you project those?"
"No. Just humanoids. But we’ll manage. We’re a resilient bunch."
Zanna slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. "That we are. Together, we’re going to save the world."
Dmitri smiled down at his lifemate, proud of her transformation, not just into a vampire, but into the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. She possessed a heart of platinum.
The End
Eternal Damnation Page 9