by A C Warneke
Had Taella been afflicted even then? Just how powerful was she, to be able to disguise the depths of her power, her infection?
Feryn should have killed all of the vampires, not just the ones that killed a human.
“Hmm,” Taella murmured, continuing to examine Malorie. “Perhaps he has shared his blood with you?”
Despite her attempt to let nothing show, Malorie felt the heat of her blush spread across her cheeks as she remembered the sensuality of having Feryn bite her wrist and then his own; the pleasure as his blood mingled with hers. She inwardly cringed when Taella threw her head back and laughed with wicked glee, clapping her hands together. “Oh, this is precious! The saintly Feryn sharing his blood with a human?”
She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye as she looked at Malorie with something akin to pity, “He’ll never change you, you know.”
“It’s not something I want.”
“Come,” she chided with a knowing grin. “All humans want to live forever; that’s why they are so eager to give themselves to vampires; it’s why you are here with us now.”
“That’s not true.” Malorie felt the heat rising in her face, Jiro’s earlier caution echoing at an inappropriate time. She was here to create something, but it wasn’t vampires.
“Well, if Feryn refuses to do the deed I will.” Taella sounded quite pleased wither herself. “I simply love new recruits and I think you will make a fine vampire.”
“I’d kill myself before I became a vampire,” Malorie vowed, her hands clenching into painfully tight fists. If her son wasn’t sitting there, she would have taken her chances and punched the beautiful viper in the face.
Taella laughed at that, genuinely amused by such a declaration. “Why, you sound just like those awful Blade Soldiers….” She stopped mid-laugh and looked at Malorie with narrowed eyes. “My gods, you are one of them, aren’t you? You are a Blade Soldier; where on earth did Feryn ever find you?”
Without waiting for a reply, Taella smiled to herself, “I once had a Blade Soldier. He was simply delightful and the only human I had even the tiniest smidgen of respect. Until the very end he was loyal to his precious wife….” In a deeper voice, she mocked, “‘I can’t betray my Mal; I love her… I love Malorie.’
“His tears were so poignant.” She sighed as a fond smile tipped her lips. “His blood was so delicious, so wholesome.”
Her words were a dagger to Malorie’s soul and she was left speechless. Hearing how he had remained devoted until the end nearly shattered her; if she moved, she would fall apart and that would be suicide in front of Taella.
After a long while, the silence became oppressive and she turned her head; Taella was studying her with a speculative look. Her voice dropped to a throaty whisper, “Maybe now that you understand the passion of a vampire’s embrace you won’t be so quick to draw your sword. Perhaps next time you encounter a vampire you will show mercy.”
“Vampires are not the same as Aradians,” Malorie bit out, tears welling in her eyes because she moved too soon. Guilt clawed at her gut as she thought about her husband and what he had suffered at the hands of this creature; how could she love an Aradian when they were capable of so much devastation? “And they deserve no mercy.”
“Foolish words for a foolish human. You’ll turn and you’ll see; nothing else will matter to you, not even the brat.” Taella’s lips curved upwards into her amused smile once more as she leaned forward and looked past Malorie, taking in Toby for the first time. Malorie heard the sharp intake of breath as Taella saw a miniature image of Jack staring back. Without conscious thought, Malorie put her body between her son and danger, blocking Taella’s view and fearing it was too late.
The smile disappeared from Taella’s face as she widened her eyes and stared at Malorie with mild surprise, “Perhaps he will convert you after all. You suffer from such… conviction for a human; I think he would wish to retain that passion indefinitely.”
Malorie was shaking her head no but Taella continued, her words snaking through the anguish that had taken up residency inside of her. “Ever since his son was taken from him he has found little enjoyment in this life; in fact, I feared he was going to choose to move on to the next plane before his time but that has changed since he found you.
“You best be careful, pet,” she warned benevolently. “You may turn into a hated vampire yet and poor St. Feryn will come crashing down to earth.”
“Why do you hate him?” Malorie asked softly, foolishly, the words catching in her throat as thoughts of Jack and Feryn waged war in her head, her heart.
“I don’t hate the man. He is the leader of the Aradians; of course I don’t hate him.” She looked away, introspection softening her face. “He simply holds such animosity towards vampires. They are our creations, our children, and yet he would deny us that simple joy but I don’t hate him.”
Standing up, she smoothed her hands over the front of her immaculate dress and gave Malorie one last considering look. “I must go. Give my regards to Feryn; let him know that I wish him the best in his… chaste life and that I hope he doesn’t suffer unduly because of you.”
She sauntered away, appearing to have no concerns at all when Malorie knew her devious mind was putting the pieces together. Malorie had seen the gleam in the woman’s eyes as she looked at Toby and the sense of unease and malice within her grew. She wasn’t safe there; she had to convince Feryn to find them a place where they would be safe from Taella and her vampires, whether he remained in her life or not.
“She scares me, mommy,” Toby whispered once Taella had disappeared around a large tree. He scooted over and slid his tiny hand into hers, his little body shaking. Gathering her son up in her arms, she settled him on her lap and held him, gently rocking him as she stared off in the direction Taella had wandered.
“She scares me, too, baby,” Malorie whispered.
She was surrounded by danger, both seen and unseen, and the only person she felt safest with was also the biggest threat of all. And he was nowhere to be found. Deep down, she knew that had she been in any real danger, he would have come to her aide, appearing from out of midair as he stepped through the Netherspace. She knew that even if he couldn’t forgive her he would keep her safe. And a person who was powerful enough to bend the laws of physics certainly had nothing to fear from a mere human.
Breeder.
Whatever.
Her father should have trusted her with the truth of their history long before she was bit. He should have prepared her with everything he knew about Aradians and Breeders, even if his own knowledge was incomplete.
No, she couldn’t blame her father, not really; he was kept in the dark just as much as she was. The person who deserved her anger was her grandfather, for not explaining the attraction, the pull, between a Breeder and an Aradian. How was her father to know? He had been just a baby when he was taken from the Breeder village and he was raised far, far away from Aradian influence. And then abandoned nearly four hundred years later, with no more knowledge of his true nature than the little he told Malorie.
Poor Gustav. It was her grandfather’s fault for not preparing them better but it was her fault her father was a captive. How she wished she could see him and make sure he was all right. They were never going to willingly let him go; while she could only have one child at a time, he would be able to impregnate many, many women. And even if only a few bore Breeders, that would be more Breeders than existed now, more opportunities for Breeders to be born. For female Breeders to be born.
In the back of her mind, she wondered what accounted for her father’s extraordinarily long life span, why he looked like a man in his prime, in his late twenties. It wasn’t natural, given that Feryn had never told her a Breeder’s lifespan was any different than a human’s. And it was only recently that she learned that she was anything other than human; obviously her father was unique in that he was still alive after four and a half centuries.
Was her lifespan also significan
tly increased or was it only the males that were granted longer lives? Could she have many lifetimes with Feryn or would she grow old and die while he remained forever young and devastatingly handsome? And what of their children, should she actually conceive? If she didn’t share her father’s long life, would they eventually forget the woman who bore them?
Would Toby forget her, should he live a thousand years? Was there to be nothing left of her?
Pressing her lips against Toby’s temple, she inhaled deeply, taking the innocent scent of her son deep into her soul and cleansing out the darkness. If she did nothing else, she was going to save her father and her son.
Chapter 10
This was getting ridiculous; how many more days was Feryn going to ignore her? She had exhausted Toby by taking him on so many walks but she had had too much energy to sit and enjoy the extensive library that was available to her. And even though Jiro was keeping his distance from her, he was still hovering, preventing her from spending the necessary time with the security system to deactivate it properly.
If Feryn refused to talk to her, she was going to hunt him down and make him talk to her; she couldn’t stay cooped up in her room for an eternity while he dealt with his anger. Ever since Jiro had told her about how she was affecting the males, she had grown increasingly uneasy being so exposed; she was starting to feel uncomfortable going very far from the protection of Feryn’s room.
She just needed a few minutes to herself, to take a breath and not have to think and plot and scheme and worry. Luckily, there was a perfect spot just a few feet outside of Feryn’s patio doors, an old-fashioned wooden swing that hung from an enormous tree. It was big enough for two so she would be able to relax, stretch out a bit, in the fresh, twilight air. She’d be able to breathe. Punching in the new code to Feryn’s alarm, she locked Toby in the suite while he slept for the night.
It had been nearly two weeks since she had last spoken with Feryn and she had come to the conclusion that he had lied about never letting her go and when there was a… an inconvenience to him, he realized that it wasn’t worth the effort. It was not easy for Malorie to accept, since her nights continued to be filled with dreams of his love making with a few odd fragments of Feryn’s memories thrown in, things that gave her a little bit of insight into the Aradian mind. Into Feryn’s mind.
She had seen glimpses of so many things that were out there that she never even knew existed, from the different species of vampires to demons and angels to freaking fairies. And Feryn had dealt with them all, carving out a respectable niche for the Aradians he led. He was beyond remarkable and she was a simple, twenty-five year old soldier. How could she help but be in awe of him?
And he was old, ancient, really; though she was beginning to realize time moved differently for his kind. It wasn’t exactly linear, she knew that, but it was too complex for her human mind to comprehend. Perhaps in time she would begin to understand, but that time wasn’t now. He had experienced so much history; she was nothing but a moment in infinite time and he was infinite time.
One moment was all she could ever really hope for; if she lived a normal life span that would be all she had anyway. If she shared her father’s life span… she couldn’t even allow herself to think along those lines because it would be living on time that wasn’t necessarily hers to live. She might not live for hundreds of years; she might only live for eighty. Or she could die in a few weeks.
“What have we here?” a deep, velvety voice asked as the swing shifted and someone joined her on the wide seat. She felt the warmth of a man’s skin as he leaned over and pressed his nose into the curve of her neck, breathing deeply. Jerking her head away, she continued to ignore the intruder as he let out a low hum of arousal. Her body stiffened at the sound: an Aradian male. She was so screwed, and not in a good way. “You smell delicious; no wonder why Feryn couldn’t resist having you while we were babysitting the vampires.”
Bemused, she looked over her shoulder and saw the auburn haired Aradian that had been at the mall a lifetime ago. Royce or Royle or something. Narrowing her eyes, she shot him her best glare, which only made his smile widen. He lowered his chin and looked at her with what she assumed was meant to be a seductive smolder that simply annoyed her. His liquid gold eyes were molten as he inched closer, pressing his hot body against hers on the suddenly much smaller swing.
He brushed his fingers over the vein in her throat and she felt… nothing. There was simply nothing there, no interest, no attraction, no spark. She would have expected to feel something, being that she was a Breeder and he was an Aradian, at least that’s what Jiro implied; though, she hadn’t been attracted to Jiro either. It was becoming more and more obvious that she wasn’t like the Breeders that had come before. Perhaps it had something to do with her father’s and grandfather’s long, long lives.
Or maybe it was simply Feryn; no other Aradian would do.
She rolled her shoulder to dislodge his hand but he seemed to take it as an invitation. “Give us a taste, love.”
Before she could tell him no, his hand was around her neck and his teeth were at her throat. There was a slight pinch and then he was drinking. He had moved so fast, she hadn’t been prepared. Instinctively, she thrust her elbow into his sternum, dislodging his fangs from her neck. Standing up, she glared at the man who was now gaping at her, his lips stained crimson.
“My gods,” he breathed, reverently touching his fingertips to the drop of blood that clung to his bottom lip. “What are you?”
She should have expected his next move, but even if she had been prepared, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him. Between one heartbeat and the next, she was on her back on the soft grass and he was covering her with his solid body, his teeth once more buried in her throat. If he wanted, he could mark her and then take her and she would be powerless to stop him. Pushing desperately against his shoulders, she cried, “Stop!”
And just as quickly as he attacked, he was gone, landing with a bone breaking thud several feet away. Feryn’s familiar voice came out in a low, protective growl, “I said no one was to touch her.”
“Forgive me,” Royce or Royle said, never taking his eyes from Malorie as she awkwardly sat up and placed her hand over her bleeding throat. The auburn haired Aradian fell forward onto his hands and knees and started to crawl towards her but stopped when a low growl emanated from Feryn’s throat. Lustfully, Royce or Royle groaned, “She’s still bleeding and you haven’t been tending to her; she’s unmarked.”
Tautly, Feryn kneeled down next to Malorie and clumsily turned her head to the side. But his lips were soft as he tenderly stroked his tongue over the wounds. She had to struggle to keep her eyes from sliding close as the familiar heat swept through her. Sitting back on his heels, he looked at her with such naked longing and hunger in his eyes she wanted to weep. Cradling the back of her head, he rasped, “Are you all right?”
She could only nod, feeling a strange lassitude wash over her; Feryn had returned. Keeping his eyes on her, he growled, “Leave, Royle.”
“What is she?” the man asked in wonder, ignoring the palpable warning in Feryn’s voice, his posture.
“Mine.” Feryn held her eyes as he said that one word and she felt her heart emerge from its suffocating cocoon and take flight. It was a ridiculous organ anyway.
Standing up, ignoring Royle, his voice gentled as he held out his hand to her. “Come.”
Without hesitating, she slid her hand into his and felt like she was coming home. He pulled her to her feet then wrapped an arm around her waist as he led her back to his rooms. “Forgive me for putting you in that position.”
“Mmm,” she murmured, leaning into his strength and being able to breathe once again. When did he become her oxygen? “Where have you been?”
“Nowhere,” he said softly, shaking his head as they reached the door. He punched in some numbers and nothing happened. He repeated the process and frowned when the same thing happened; or didn’t happen. Turning his head,
he simply looked at Malorie and arched a single eyebrow.
Coming out of her daze with a self-conscious smile, Malorie stepped forward and punched in the new code and the two of them entered the rooms that had been her home for nearly a month. Looking over her shoulder, she sheepishly admitted, “I wasn’t sure who had your passcode and I wanted to make sure nothing happened to Toby.”
“You hacked into my security system?” His lips pursed in disbelief but his eyes glimmered with amusement. At her nod, he smirked, “And the retinal scanners?”
“I changed those, too,” she shrugged, dismissing the impressive skill easily. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to disable the locks to get to my father….”
“He’s in a compound in Europe, far from this place,” Feryn replied with a slight smile, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “It was decided that it would be wiser to keep the two males far apart in case there was a breach of our security. It seems our biggest threat came from you.”
The smile disappeared from his face as he studied her, memorizing every detail of her face. The seriousness of his expression worried her; she didn’t know what it meant; only that it wasn’t good. “It’s too dangerous for you to remain here; you saw what happened with Royle, and I trust him with my life.”
“Then you’ll find a place where we can be together?” she asked pathetically, tears filling her eyes as she understood what he was saying before the words passed his lips.
“I’m letting you go,” he said, closing the distance between them and cupping her face in his broad palm. His expression was stoic, but his eyes betrayed the depth of sorrow he was feeling. Brushing his thumb over her lower lip, his voice dropped to a whisper, “You and your son.”
“What?” Even though she had been expecting it, it was difficult to hear.