“I accept your terms,” he whispered.
“Well that is good to hear,” Valkyrine said happily. “And don’t worry, boys,” she added. “I will protect you from my mother. After all, if she was furious with you for bedding me once, just imagine how tickled she’ll be when she finds out you’ll be bedding me for the rest of eternity . . .”
BOOK FOUR: CONVERTED
Chapter 1
“Valkyrine, listen to reason. The earth needs an Evening Star. Your place is in the heavens with me, not here in this shack.”
Saule wrung her hands under the table even as she struggled to keep her voice even and her face composed. Across the room, her daughter Valkyrine stalked back and forth, anger practically vibrating underneath her skin. Her once meek meita was no longer the golden skinned flower maiden with the pink flush in her cheeks and the sparkle in her blue eyes. Her skin had grown darker, more of a reflection of her hyena-form, complete with feline irises and hair that flowed in wild brown waves past her shoulders. She looked like an Amazon, strong and unyielding. Saule’s heart clenched as she watched her offspring. How had she ever let their relationship dissolve into such animosity?
“Reason? You want me to see reason? I am not the one being unreasonable here, mother. You’re the one who’s been making deals with the Unseelie.” She stopped her pacing for a moment to arch an eyebrow at her mother. “How did that work for you, by the way?”
A rush of heat filled Saule’s cheeks at the memory of what had happened in the Unseelie sithen and she cursed herself for blushing. It was true that she may have reacted a bit hastily when she contacted the Queen of Air and Darkness. After all, even a deity should be cautious when dealing with that particular fey and her . . . tempestuous unpredictable mood-swings. In truth, Saule should be grateful that she’d gotten off with just Aldric’s erotic punishment and the delivery of two vampires. Dubheasa could easily have demanded more for the use of her sithen. And her “entertainments” were legendary . . .
“I did what I thought I had to do,” she ground out, using her anger to hide her embarrassment. “I believed you had been raped and I was mad with fury and the desire to make the men responsible pay.” She narrowed her eyes. “That was, of course, before I knew that you had planned the whole thing.” She shook her head. “You sought out my enemy, a man who used his dying breath to curse my name, and dedicated his afterlife to my destruction.”
A wicked smile split Valkyrine’s face. “And can you blame me, mother? After all, you sampled Aldric’s’ considerable talents for yourself after Dubheasa trussed you up like a turkey. Was he not worth it?” She tilted her head. “Oh, wait, of course you would think so. After all, that is why you took him home with you, is it not? Have the nights been a little cold for the sun goddess? Did you bring Aldric to Sky Mountain to keep you warm?”
“How dare you!” Saule gasped, anger making her voice hoarse. An image of Aldric, green eyes flashing with malice as his strong hands played over her naked body, flickered into her mind and she cursed the wet heat the rushed down her body. “You will not speak to me that way. I am your mother and you will show me some respect.”
“Do not lecture me about propriety!” Valkyrine screamed. “You sent Anton and Kurt to seduce me and force me back into the form that you want for me. The great sun goddess, mother to all, sent two vampires to her poor little daughter’s bed. Tell me, did you think me a whore, or did you intend for them to rape me?”
“I saw how much you enjoyed your new form when I came to tell you I had captured the men who assaulted you,” Saule snapped, shame sharpening her words. “And you did take them directly to bed, didn’t you?”
The last sentence nearly made her gasp at her own audacity, but Saule fiercely fought to keep her face from showing anything but conviction. She could not let Valkyrine see how bothered she was by her own actions, not when her daughter was so bent on making her suffer.
Valkyrine stared at her and crossed her arms. “And I loved it, mother! I’m going to keep them forever--just as you’re keeping Aldric.”
Saule grabbed her hair and shot up from her seat, squeezing her eyes shut as anger burst like a geyser inside of her. Her daughter was driving her mad, scraping away at her sanity until she feared there would be nothing left.
“You have no idea what you put me through,” she forced through clenched teeth. “When you came up with your little plan to become a vieschtitsa, you counted on the fact that I would not be able to see or hear you at night. You knew I would worry when you didn’t return to the heavens, knew that I would think you had gotten stuck on earth when you kept your mortal form past sunset.” She dropped her hands and opened her eyes to look at Valkyrine, letting her daughter see the pain she’d caused her. “Valkyrine, why did you do that to me?” she asked quietly. “I believed I’d failed to protect you. I believed you’d been raped.”
Her voice broke a little on the last word. Valkyrine frowned and looked away, just a hint of shame coloring her defiant anger.
“You left me no choice,” she said stiffly. “I am not just the Evening Star. I am a person and I deserve to be free to make my own choices.”
Saule stared at her daughter. Valkyrine stood there, back straight, eyes sharp and unapologetic. The scent of blood tinged the air and Saule knew it came from her daughter. Did her daughter not even bother to wash the gore from her hair after her wicked nights with her vampires?
“You used to bring light to your people,” she said softly. “Now you spend your time in hedonistic pursuits of pleasure. You care for no one, but yourself.” She shook her head and turned away. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Without waiting for a response, Saule fled the shack her daughter called home and ran to her chariot. Her horses stamped their feet, throwing back their heads and rolling their eyes as if spooked by their mistress’ distress. Saule didn’t allow herself to look back as she flicked the reins and sent her horses rushing into the air.
Pain born of sadness weighed down Saule’s shoulders even as her mortal form burned away. The light was fading from the sky. If she’d stayed much longer she would have been trapped in mortal form until whichever deity carried the sun over this country returned with their bright weight in the morning. Her mind flew ahead to her beloved Lithuania, resting in darkness now. It was almost time for her to take up the Lithuanian sun and carry it across the sky. There would be little time for sleep.
Saule looked down on the land, feeling it was safe now that her daughter’s new home was out of view. Below her trees stretched their branches out to her and animals nodded at her passing. Even here in this foreign land, the creatures recognized her warmth. When had her daughter stopped feeling that warmth?
“Oh, Valkyrine,” she whispered, the threat of tears burning behind her eyes. “When did I lose you?”
It seemed like an eternity before Sky Mountain rose in her vision. The mountain peak vanished into the clouds, the light from above muted by the billowy white formations. Even at night they looked silver, glowing from the kiss of the sun above them.
Urging her horses higher, Saule passed through the clouds. A glorious rush of light greeted her as she beheld her golden home on the mountain top. The glittering red apples of her orchard winked at her and the sparkling blue stream winding through the trees beckoned. A small smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. Whatever her troubles, it was always good to be home.
A chill raced down her back as the last of the clouds drifted past her shoulders and Saule frowned. She hadn’t noticed it until now, but something was amiss. A sensation of something sticky, like thick tar, slid down her back. It was as if something had been clinging to her and had fallen off as the light of her home reached it.
Distracted and distressed, Saule practically fell out of her chariot as her horses’ hooves clattered to a stop on Sky Mountain. She caught the smooth copper side just in time to keep from landing on her knees. A nagging feeling grew stronger.
There was a darkne
ss somewhere near her daughter. The insidious presence clung to her skin like humidity, making her rub her arms to rid herself of memory of the sensation. Now that she’d noticed it, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it sooner. Her emotions surrounding Valkyrine must be truly out of control for something like this to slip past her defenses.
Saule frowned. Surely her daughter had to feel it? Vieschtitsa or not, Valkyrine still had the blood of the sun in her veins. A darkness like this would send a chill down her spine, would prickle at the edge of her awareness. Yet Valkyrine had seemed completely at ease in her forest home. More at home than Saule had seen her in a long time.
“How could I have lost you so completely?” she whispered.
An image of Aldric rose up in her mind, his fangs flashing just before they buried themselves in her daughter’s neck. Saule squeezed her eyes shut against her imagination’s cruelty. She tried to summon her anger, the fury she had felt when she first realized what the vampire had done. The rage had been glorious, igniting her warrior spirit and sending her crashing down to earth in mortal form, prepared to make him and his comrades pay for their crime.
Oh, how she’d planned to make them suffer. It wasn’t until she’d had them all in her clutches, when she’d gone to Valkyrine and offered her sweet daughter the chance to get revenge on the men who had sullied her, that she’d learned the truth--Valkyrine had sought them out. Her little lamb had called the wolf to her door. Saule forced her eyes open despite the betrayal that stung her. She could not hide from her trouble. The earth needed the sun.
A soft whinny caught her attention and she raised her face to see one of her horses looking back at her. Its soft dewy eyes watched her with innocent curiosity.
“Anger is easier than pain,” she told the horse. Its ears flicked forward. Then it snorted and shook it head, its mane flying back and forth. Saule chuckled. “Even my horse argues with me now?”
Grateful for the moment of brevity, Saule struggled out from under the weight of her problems. Straightening her spine, she set about releasing her horses from their harnesses. It was a job Valkyrine used to do, back when she’d been a meita. Saule’s other daughters had stepped forward and offered to take over, but Saule had gently turned them down. This had once been Valkyrine’s favorite thing to do and doing it herself now made it easier for Saule to remember the good times.
Saule smiled as she fetched the brush, returning to draw it down her horse’s smooth neck. The water from the stream trickled over it’s muscles, quivering from the day’s exertion. She took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of horse musk and apple blossoms. All around her, bright red apples gleamed in the sun. She plucked one off a low hanging branch and fed it to her horse, her heart swelling with affection as it whinnied and nuzzled her shoulder in gratitude.
“Such a good boy,” she murmured, scratching behind its jaw.
“Shall I take over for you, mistress?”
Like a bolt of lightening ending a picnic, Aldric’s deep voice brought an abrupt halt to Saule’s pleasant mood. She wilted slightly against her horse’s flank.
“I have had a difficult day, Aldric,” she said calmly, her voice muffled by her horse’s pelt. “I do not have the energy to deal with you right now.” She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. “Also, your anger makes the horses jittery.” She kept her eyes on the brush as she drew it over the equine’s sleek body. “I will do this. Please return to the temple.”
“Of course, whatever you wish, mistress.”
Saule gritted her teeth, closing her eyes as she tried to grasp the ends of her already rapidly fraying patience. “I have asked you not to call me that.”
“May I leave the mountain and return to the earth?”
“No.”
“Then I am a slave. And a slave must always know how to properly address his mistress.”
Anger boiled up like a geyser inside her, fueled by a thousand insults and a million scathing looks. Saule poured the pain Valkyrine had inflicted on her into the anger, relishing the momentary freedom from her suffering.
“You continue to push me, scorning my kindness,” she ground out. Gathering her fury to her like a weapon, she whirled around, ready to hurl it at the man who’d caused her nothing but grief for over two centuries. “You--”
The words died on her tongue. Aldric’s gaze flickered back to her face, anger lighting his eyes, but it was too late. She’d caught the look.
Whenever she turned her back, whenever he thought she wasn’t looking, the look would steal across his features. His green eyes would grow darker as his gaze roamed over her face and body. The harsh lines of his face would soften as his hatred melted into the other side of the coin . . .
How had she ever been so blind as to not see it? All his years of service to her, of devoting his time, energy, and body to her . . . and she’d never seen that look, never known what it meant. Saule’s heart constricted, the threat of tears tingling behind her eyes. He loved her--had loved her. It was different now, twisted by pain, anger, and fear, but it was still there. Beyond her reach.
It’s a trick, she told herself firmly. He is manipulating you, stealing your anger and trying to find a weak spot so he can have the revenge that consumes him. Whatever love he might have felt died long ago.
“Why do you stare at me like that?” Aldric snapped. “Are you evaluating me? Deciding which of your friends would like a new slave?”
His words barely registered. Saule’s mind was remembering the Aldric who had existed before the vampire. The man who had loved her. It was always that memory that kept her from giving him the punishment he so richly deserved.
“You have been a thorn in my side for centuries,” she said softly, almost absent mindedly. “Every time I turned around, you were cursing my name, killing someone and throwing their blood to the skies to remind me that it was my hands that should have been dripping with their life’s fluids. I let all the blasphemy go unpunished. You were in pain and I believed you would work your way through it.”
She shook her head., anger flickering in her veins like electric sparks. “Then you took my daughter from me. When I came to the Unseelie sithen to wait for you, I was so angry. For the first time in hundreds of years, I thought of you and I felt rage instead of guilt, instead of pain. It felt good to be angry with you, Aldric.”
She stepped closer to him, watching doubt rise through the anger on his face. For the millionth time since she’d brought him here, Saule grabbed on to a glimmer of hope.
“I tried to hold on to that anger after I brought you here. It protected me against your hateful words and dirty looks. But every once in a while I get a glimpse of the man you once were, the man I hope you can be again.” She looked deep into his eyes, searching for some sign that she was reaching him. “My anger is fading, Aldric.”
Aldric barked out a laugh, his green eyes as cold at the icy waters of the sea. “Why is your anger fading?”
She shook her head sadly as her hopes were dashed yet again. “Why isn’t yours?”
The tension on Aldric’s face seemed to shimmer like heat over hot stone. Then right before her eyes Saule watched with shock as it began to leak away. The frost that seemed to perpetually cloud his eyes slowly melted, revealing hot emerald pools. His gaze burned into her face and something in that look made her pulse quicken. He swayed forward, stepping closer to her until he was only a hair’s breadth away. The heat from his flesh stilled her breath in her throat and sent wet heat rushing down her body.
This is madness. She tried to force her feet to step back, but her mind pelted her with memories of what Aldric’s hands had felt like on her body, what his hot hard flesh had felt like sliding between her thighs. The fact that his previous seduction had been motivated by a desire for vengeance, and not by love, in no way lessened the effect it had on her senses. Her body remembered him . . . and it wanted him back.
He trailed his hand across the side of her face, cradling her jaw. Frustrated w
ith her own weakness, but unable to resist her body’s desperate urging, Saule closed her eyes. Maybe, just maybe, she had reached him. Seconds later his lips slid over hers.
The kiss started slowly, almost delicately. Aldric pressed his mouth against hers, his tongue teasing her lips to request entry. She parted them willingly, moaning as his tongue delved into the depths of her mouth. He tasted of apples, a sharp contrast to the coppery tang of blood that had haunted her senses during their last tryst.
The sound falling from her lips seemed to egg him on and she gasped as his arms closed like iron bands around her waist. Electricity crackled down her spine as her nerves came alive under his touch. The kiss grew harder, more demanding. He raised one hand to the back of her head, holding her still as he plundered her mouth.
Saule pressed her breasts to his chest, trying to ease the ache that had crept into her nipples. She could almost feel the press of fangs against her flesh as her mind tormented her with the memories of pleasure he’d already given her. Part of her was sorry she’d made him human. She wanted to feel his bite again . . .
Revenge in Vein, The Complete Series Page 13