by Ariel Marie
“How is it that humans do not know that vampires exist?” he asked, trailing his hand down her back, making it hard for her to concentrate.
“Very few humans know of vampires. Humans aren’t ready to know of the supernatural world. It would cause a worldwide panic and probably start a war.”
“Humans are smart—”
“It has been tried before,” she cut him off. “And without much success. A very long time ago, around the eleventh century, vampires made their presence known. It caused massive chaos. Vampires were hunted down much like what the witches went through. Many lives were lost, so we have remained hidden from the human world since.”
“So what about the necromancers?”
“If you are sure the guy was dead and he walked out of that building that can only be the work of necromancers. They have the power to awaken the dead to do their bidding. We have to tell Nicu.”
“A vampire princess,” he said looking down at her, trailing his fingers down her arm.
“Yes, I am,” she groaned. “My brothers are not going to be happy.”
“Why? What do they have to do with what’s between you and me?”
“My brothers and father would prefer for me to be with a vampire and not a human,” she said looking down, slightly ashamed. “They feel that a human is not strong enough to protect me. They can be a little overbearing.”
“What do you think?” His eyes were serious as he waited for her answer.
“I do not want to leave you. As long as you want me around, I will be with you,” she said softly running her hands through his hair. She was certain that he was her Fated Mate and she was not going anywhere as long as he wanted her.
Their eyes connected and she could feel the pull to mate with him, to bind herself to him. She knew that if he left her, it would be the death of her. Being human, he wouldn’t understand the magnitude of what was happening between them. She would not force it on him. She needed to speak with her mother; she would know what Nadira should do.
There was a banging at the front door. Cooper cursed rolling off the bed, jumping into his discarded sweatpants. The banging started up again.
“Who the hell is that?” Cooper asked, while grabbing his gun from the nightstand. He walked out of the bedroom. The sound of wood cracking could be heard from the living room. Shouting and curses filled the air. She scurried off the bed, wrapping herself in the bed sheet before running down the hallway. She came to an abrupt stop at the entranceway to the living room.
“Stop!” she screamed, causing everyone in the room to pause.
Cooper had Teague pinned to the wall with his gun under Teague’s chin. Toma was behind Cooper with a dagger to his throat
“Nadira!” Teague growled looking at her, his fangs descended as he turned his attention back to Cooper. She straightened up to her full height, gripping the sheet even tighter.
“Get off him!” she demanded.
“What the hell have you done, Nadira?” Toma asked eyeballing her sheet.
“Do you really want details?” She raised an eyebrow. Both her brothers looked at her with their mouths open. She was not sure what had gotten into her. Sauciness usually was not her forte.
“I can only imagine, not that I want to,” Toma said, tightening his grip on Cooper’s neck.
“Să mergem de colegul meu,” she said softly in their native language. Toma looked to her sharply. Let go of my mate.
“Esti sigur?” Toma asked. Are you sure? She nodded her head. He glanced to Teague before turning back to her. “Ai luat sângele lui?” Have you taken his blood?
“Nu,” she responded. No. “Please let him go,” she switched to English. Toma backed away from Cooper, who in turn backed away from Teague. Cooper walked over to her, standing in front of her. She reached up to touch his face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked over his shoulder at her brothers. “Brothers?” he asked, turning back to her.
“Yes,” she answered, moving to stand in front of him. Both of her brothers’ faces were filled with hostility towards Cooper.
“You need to come home, Nadira,” Teague said.
“I know,” she nodded. “He comes with us.”
“No,” Toma snapped, his eyes locked on Cooper. “He’s safer away from you.”
“He needs to talk to Nicu. He has information to share,” she said. Cooper wrapped his arms around her from behind, eliciting glares from both brothers. She automatically leaned back into his warm embrace.
“What type of information?” Toma asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
“The necromancers. They are raising the dead.”
10
~Cooper~
The drive to the Olaru home took about thirty minutes. It had to be the longest thirty minutes of Cooper’s life. Both of Nadira’s brothers kept shooting daggers at him. This was not how he would have wanted to meet members of her family. Last night was the best night of his life. He had never wanted a woman with the intensity that he wanted Nadira. She was like an aphrodisiac. He couldn’t get enough of her last night. Three times he had her and that was still not enough.
They arrived at the Olaru estate. Cooper had been down this road before, but had never actually seen the house. Nadira quickly ushered him up to her living quarters once they were in the house so she could change her clothes.
He looked up as the door to her dressing room opened. She had jumped in the shower once they got to her home. Before leaving his apartment, he was able to grab a bag of clean clothes before they whisked him and Nadira away.
His breath caught in his throat as she stepped out of the dressing room, closing the door behind her. Her thick hair had a braid running across the front while the back flowed down her back. Her curvy body was draped in a rosy pink wraparound dress that tied on the side, stopping just above her knees. Her small feet were encased in gold-heeled sandals. He cleared his throat standing as she came over to him.
He had a hard time understanding what this was between them. Their relationship was moving fast but he was not going to complain. Hearing her say that she was a vampire would have shocked him before, but now, it didn’t matter. She did not fit what he would have assumed a vampire looked like or acted. He still had so many questions to ask her whenever they got the time to be alone again.
She smiled at him as he reached for her. He just couldn’t keep his hands off her. He backed her up against the closed door, covering her mouth with his. He had to get another taste of her. He took advantage of her gasp, slipping his tongue in to get a taste of her. Her small hands gripped his shirt as he angled his head to deepen the kiss.
“Cooper,” she gasped, breaking away. “We have to go; my brother will be waiting for us and he is not one we should leave waiting.”
“Lead the way, Princess,” he said, placing a chaste kiss on her lips. She grabbed his hand, leading him out of her living quarters and through the massive mansion. She paused outside of a set of double doors that he assumed was her brother’s office.
“I just want to warn you,” she said looking up at him with concern in her blue eyes. “My brothers can be assholes, intimidating—”
“It’s okay. I can handle them,” he said, holding up his hand as she tried to argue. He was a little insulted that she thought him to be a weakling. He may not be a vampire but it took a lot to intimidate Cooper. If there hadn’t been two of them in his living room, Cooper would have been able to take on at least one of her vampire brothers.
She nodded her head and pushed the door open. He stood up to his full height, knowing that her brothers would be judging him from the minute he walked through the door. He followed her into a masculine office with an oversized desk, chairs, a few plush couches, and bookcases filled with many leather-bound books.
Four large men sat around the room. Cooper assumed they were Nadira’s brothers.
The largest of the brothers stood up from behind the massive desk. He stood about six and a hal
f feet with jet-black hair and the same eyes as Nadira. “How, Nadira?” the large vampire asked.
“How what, Nicu?” Nadira responded softly, coming to stop in the middle of the room. Cooper moved to stand next to her. He didn’t want the vampires to think he was hiding behind their little sister.
“How is it you erased his memory but yet, you were found at his house?” Nicu asked, his deep voice rumbled as he spoke. The other vampires in the room became still, waiting for her answer.
“Fate,” her one-word answer caused Nicu to look at Cooper.
Cooper stiffened, refusing to look away from the piercing blue eyes of the Commander of the Dark Shadows. He had dealt with plenty of alpha personalities — drug dealers, murderers, and politicians. He wasn’t going to be intimidated by a vampire. He met the vampire’s glare head on.
“Nicu, please. We don’t have time for your ‘I am alpha, who is more dominating,’ stare off,” Nadira’s soft voice broke the silence of the room. Nicu and Cooper’s stare off captured all the other vampires’ attention in the room. Nicu turned his icy glare to Nadira, who stepped back automatically.
“What happened last night, Nadira?” Nicu asked her. “Please tell me how is it that you and Cyran were chased down, you were almost snatched from the car while Cyran was unconscious, then you disappear into the middle of the night without a word?” Nicu’s voice didn’t rise. It remained calm, quiet, and even Cooper noticed goose bumps appearing on his arms.
“Well, I didn’t think—” she started.
“Of course you didn’t think! Adrian tells me he told you of the threat, but yet you felt the need to leave with a human right after almost being snatched,” Nicu hissed.
“Where is Cyran?” she asked, looking around.
“He is being dealt with,” Nicu snapped.
“But he didn’t—” she tried to argue.
“He lost you; he failed to protect you so he is being punished,” Nicu said, cutting her off.
“You can’t do that?” she cried out.
“I can’t? I am the Commander of the Dark Shadows and protecting you is my job. He accepted his punishment,” Nicu’s hard stare was obvious enough to keep her from trying to continue to argue.
“Snatched? What threat?” Cooper demanded, cutting into the argument. She didn’t tell him all of what happened last night. Matter of fact, they didn’t even discuss anything before he had his tongue down her throat, in between her legs, on her breast, and every other nook and cranny of her body. He felt ashamed for not even thinking to ask her what happened last night. He was too busy letting his cock do the thinking. He looked at her and saw her glaring at the brother who must be Adrian.
“Has my sister told you what we are?” Nicu asked.
“Yeah, she did,” Cooper responded, looking around the room, taking in her brothers. Three of the vampires, all have black hair while one had the same dark brown with golden streaks as Nadira. All of their eyes were on him and Nadira. “What threat?”
“Our enemy has targeted our sister. They are going to try to use her to get back at the vampire nation,” Nicu said, while walking around his desk, sitting down in the chair. “So you see why we were all pissed when we could not find her. We were ready to tear this city apart to find her.”
“Our sister means the world to us. We would do anything to keep her safe,” the vampire named Adrian said.
“We would not hesitate to burn this city down if it meant getting our sister back,” the other black-haired vampire said.
“So, she told you she was born a vampire? That we are all vampires,” Nicu asked.
“Yes, she told me that. She also told me about the Dark Shadows and that I need to share with you what I’ve witnessed,” Cooper said looking each of the large men in their eyes. He refused to back down. He got the sense from them that he was not their favorite. He just didn’t know if it was because he was human or that their sister was found coming from his bedroom dressed in nothing but a bed sheet.
“What is it that you have seen?” Adrian asked.
“It might be better if you start from the beginning,” Nadira suggested softly, holding onto Cooper’s arm. “I think they need to hear about everything.”
* * *
~Nicu~
The human detective told them of his current investigation. Bodies were found dead with no signs of trauma, yet drained of their blood. Someone was setting up the vampires to be discovered. Finding two small puncture holes on the necks of dead humans would point the direction of the murders to vampires. If humans knew to look close enough, or even open their eyes to the obvious, vampires might just get discovered and Nicu refused to allow that to happen. He would go to extreme measures, without a second thought, to ensure the vampire race remained secluded.
Nevertheless, Nicu knew that this was a message from the necromancers. Only they had the power to drain a human of their energy, take their souls, and then raise them from the dead later when they had a need for them. Draining blood from the victims was just the red herring.
As the human spoke, Nicu assessed him. He guessed the human would be considered handsome; he was tall, built, and could actually blend in with his brothers. The way he stood as if to protect Nadira from them, four vampire warriors earned him a little respect with Nicu. Even the way the human held his stare, not backing down, impressed Nicu. Not many vampires or human men could hold his icy stare.
As the eldest Olaru offspring, Nicu took protecting the vampire race very seriously, especially his little sister. He would not even blink twice to kill to protect her. The necromancers were growing bolder. Their King, Sodan, made demands for Nadira to mate with his son, Xalak, as a peace treaty. They would go to war, before they would allow Nadira to mate with a necro. The king had refused to negotiate Nadira in any way. The necros had been in hiding for a half a century. Something drew them out. Why were they letting the vampires know that they were killing and raising the dead?
“Where are the bodies of the other dead?” Nicu asked, cutting Cooper off.
“They are still in the medical examiner’s office,” Cooper said from the couch.
Nicu observed how close Nadira was sitting next to the human. The human’s arm was around her as if shielding her. Why would Fate choose a human as a mate for Nadira? A scowl found its way to his face. Humans were not as strong as vampires were and had no powers. As a human, he would not live as long as Nadira, surely she knew that. When vampires mated, they became bound. Should one mate die, the other would follow soon after, usually from a broken heart. The only way Cooper and Nadira would spend eternity together would be for him to become a vampire himself.
“We need to move the bodies,” Adrian said. “There’s no telling when the necros will raise the others.”
“Have you told anyone what you saw?” Toma asked from the window seat.
“My partner watched the video with me; we showed the M.E. because he didn’t believe us and our captain knows. We all agreed not to tell anyone else yet. My partner wrote up a report stating that the body was just taken.”
“Good, it would lead to mass hysteria if people knew the dead could come back to life,” Teague grumbled.
“Can you get us the bodies? We have a containment facility that can house them when and if the necros raise them,” Nicu said, noticing that Nadira was starting to look a little pale. “When was the last time you fed, Nadira?” She looked up sharply. She glanced at Cooper before turning her gaze to Nicu. Nicu pushed a button on his desk, signaling for the house staff.
“Ummm… it’s been about three days,” she said shyly, not looking up. Curses filled the room. Vampires could go a few days between feeding, but they would become weak. Most vampires tried to feed at least once a day or every other. They didn’t need much blood to survive. Nicu himself had even pushed it to a week and a half before and found himself weak as a small child. Three days for their sister, who was not a trained warrior, was too long.
“You know you shouldn’t go that
long, Naddy,” Teague said angrily. “What if they would have taken you? You would grow weak quicker!”
“De ce nu te hrănesc din om?” Nicu asked her, switching over to their native language. Why did you not feed from the human?
“Nu am vrut să -l sperii,” she responded in their native language. I did not want to scare him away.
There was a knock at the door. Watson, the family butler, entered the room. The graying butler nodded his head to everyone. He raised an eyebrow at the human in the room when his gaze reached Nicu.
Watson was one of the most trusted members of the house staff. The King hired him on ninety years ago when he was human. One night, eighty years ago, the Olaru mansion was under attack and Watson was fatally wounded. The king himself turned Watson into a vampire that night. ‘Friends and trustworthy staff are hard to come by’, the king had said. Watson had sworn to forever serve their family for saving his life.
“You called for me, my Prince?” Watson asked.
“Yes, please bring Nadira her slujitor sânge,” Nicu said. Blood servant.
“I’ll be fine. Just bring me a glass from the fridge!” Nadira said quickly looking to Watson. Watson paused before leaving the room, glancing at Nicu.
“The slujitor sânge please,” Nicu said. Watson nodded before leaving the room. She needed fresh blood, not the chilled blood that the house kept around when they were too busy to get nourishment from a live donor. Blood from the source would immediately give her back her strength. In order to save the blood servants and keep them healthy and safe, the Olaru clan would go out and hunt down new donors.
The blood servants, or slujitor sânge, were willing humans. These humans were dedicated to their vampires. All of the Olaru blood servants were with the family willingly. Most of them were saved by a member of the Olaru family and willingly donated. They were provided room, shelter, and were paid quite handsomely. They all held official jobs as members of the Olaru staff.