VAMPIRE:Vampire Guardian Series: Paranormal Mystery Vampire Alpha Male Romance (New Adult Contemporary Paranormal Royalty Fantasy Romance Collection))

by Rachel S. William

  “Right, sure.” Said Soljen, still in a daze.

  As he walked away, Jamesson came over to Mariska with a grin on his face, “you know,” he said, “I never get tired of watching you do that to people.”

  Mariska laughed with her old friend, “I just hope I didn’t wait too long to do it.”

  Soljen walked back over to them and spoke as he shook his head, “well, it looked like you have saved the day Mariska. The taltos are splitting their forces. They are focusing on taking out those with magical powers and also working to keep the boats pushed out to shore. They are a lot stronger than the people in the ship; it looks like we might actually win this battle, thanks to you.” He said.

  Mariska started to blush; she didn’t like to be the center of attention. As her mother and father joined them on the wall overlooking the landscape, Soljen filled them in on what had just happened. Both Apardia and Roje were surprised at the amount of mental strength that they had. Mariska watched her mother’s eyes flick knowingly to her daughter’s womb but she said nothing about the baby and for that, Mariska was very grateful. She had enough on her plate; she didn’t need to deal with the thought that she had a vampire prince’s son growing in her stomach too.

  “Look,” said Soljen, pointing out to the boats.

  Each time one attempted to make landfall, a layer of ice pushed them backward. They were pushed far enough out that they couldn’t get to the shore without seeking to swim across. One young man had finally grown frustrated enough with waiting that he jumped overboard and into the frigid waters. It wasn’t a sight that Mariska wanted to watch, but she felt she must. As quickly as his body went under the water, a thick layer of ice covered the broken layer once again, and the poor man was trapped underneath.

  “Wow, I guess we know who not to piss off.” Muttered Jamesson.

  “It had to be done.” Said Soljen grimly.

  “If I am not needed, I think I will take a nap for a bit. The past few days have drained me I’m afraid.” Said Mariska, hoping that no one would try and stop her. She needed some time alone to gather her thoughts.

  Soljen nodded his head, and Mariska turned to leave. She was thankful that none of her family nor her friend attempted to follow her. She had bigger problems to worry about than just the invasion.

  Chapter Four

  For the next several days Mariska watched the struggle between the supernatural on the boat and their own forces. She helped as much as she could by predicting outcomes and heading off different options the enemy was contemplating. On the third day, the ships started to move away from the coast. The move made everyone elated but also wary.

  “Why would they leave?” Mariska wondered out loud.

  She didn’t have time to think about why they were leaving, though. As she headed down to the kitchen with her mother, the world started to spin. The last thing that Mariska remembered before passing out was hearing her mother scream. Mariska wasn’t awake, but she could feel the world around her. She heard Daemons voice, but it didn’t sound like he normally did. His voice was cold and cruel. It took her several minutes to understand that he wasn’t speaking to her. She was listening in on a conversation from far away.

  “You’ll never win; vampires are meant to be at the top of the food chain, not living as equals.” Said Yelda.

  “That’s where your wrong, your death will bring an end to the battle; our people will continue to live in peace with others.” Replied Daemon.

  Yelda laughed, “even after I am gone, I will be replaced by a dozen more. Just because you do not see them, do not assume that they aren’t there. Vampires, werewolves, taltos, we are many. You think you can live forever in a world of peace but how is that possible when not everyone wants your peace.” He said.

  Mariska could feel the pain now that Yelda was in; she wondered if it wasn’t some sort of supernatural connection from when he had poisoned her. He was bleeding out, and it was a very slow process. She wondered what could kill a vampire and what could do it so slowly too.

  “Goodbye Yelda, your threats don’t matter anymore.” Said Daemon.

  Like someone was ripping out her heart, she felt the pain of the weapon Daemon was using as it drove through Yelda’s heart.

  Mariska screamed in agony, and she heard Demons voice from somewhere outside tide her body. He was begging her to wake up; she could hear the fear in his voice. It took all her power, but she was finally able to open her eyes. She was safely in the castle in a large and or age bed. Masterful paintings covered the walls.

  “Oh god, where am I?” she asked

  “It’s okay honey; you’re in my quarters. You passed out on the steps” said Daemon his voice was full of concern. “They don’t know why. I am sure Elso know something, but she won’t tell me what’s going on.”

  “Oh god, how long have I been asleep?” she asked as she sat up in the large and plush bed.

  “Three days,” he murmured.

  “Oh my god!” she yelled, stunned.

  Her voice carried further than she had anticipated and within a few minute she heard a familiar and booming voice outside the door. She smiled and nodded her head to Daemon. He opened the door, and Jamesson walked through along with her mother and father. For the next half an hour she heard them talk about everything that had happened while she had been asleep.

  Daemon had returned yesterday; he had defeated Yelda. Mariska had already known this, but she didn’t want to alarm anyone with her newfound abilities. Apparently it had been a short battle. Yelda had left his fortress completely unarmed while his taltos and he watched the fight from the safety of the castle.

  “What happened to the taltos?” asked Mariska.

  It was common knowledge that killing a taltos was like killing the last animal of a species. It was like killing a part of god himself. As she asked, all eyes turned to Elso. The taltos looked far frailer than Mariska had ever seen her. She took a mental note of the fact that Jamesson had his arm placed protectively around her waist and looked at her with a great deal of concern.

  “I had no choice but to dispatch him.” Said Elso, her voice was full of sadness and remorse.

  Mariska sucked in a breath in shock.

  “I am deeply sorry for your loss then Elso,” said Mariska, knowing that for a taltos to kill another taltos was a horrible sin and a burden Elso would be forced to live with for many years to come.

  “Thank you, I understand that you were rather brave while here alone?” said Elso, desperate to change the subject.

  Mariska started to blush, “I wouldn’t call it brave. I just did what didn’t to be done.”

  As the group talked, daemon moved around to the other side of the bed and laid down. The act was strangely intimate and out of character for Daemon. Mariska made a strange face and politely asked the group if they could be alone. After her family had left and Jamesson followed, Elso lingered behind. Something dark in her eyes.

  “Mariska, would you mind helping me?” she asked as she walked around the bed to where her prince was laying.

  “Sure” replied Mariska, confused.

  Elso lifted the prince onto his side and asked Mariska to hold him. She gladly obliged, now she could see the princes color was fading quickly from his face, something was wrong.

  “Oh my god.” Said Mariska in shock. Elso moved Daemons shirt up to reveal a dark wound with a small puncture in the center.

  “It’s as I thought, Yelda pierced him before the prince was able to subdue him. It looks like it's poisoned.” Said Elso grimly.

  “You’re the most powerful being on earth, surly there is something that you can do?” said Mariska, her voice full of concern.

  “This poison was not born from nature, nor is it used outside of his castle. I have no defense against it. There is one way it can be removed, but it will take time.” Said Elso.

  “For the love of god then, do it!” said Mariska.

  “It’s nothing that I can do, and finding someone who can, will b
e difficult. If we are able to find someone who has survived this poison before, they can drain the wound and take the poison into themselves and thorn then, they will have a far better chance of survival than our young prince.” Said Elso.

  Mariska looked down to her hands. She knew that it would be almost impossible to find anyone who had survived or escaped from Yelda’s cruel grasp. However, finding someone who had been poisoned for torture then let go, that would be easy since Mariska was just that person.

  “Would you give us some time please?” asked Mariska

  Elso looked at her curiously but nodded her head and left.

  Mariska didn’t even have to think about what she was going to do. She rose to the door and pushed the heavy lock into place. Elso had left Daemon over on his side. Now Mariska looked down at the wound where the poison was killing the man that she was growing to love and the father of her unborn child. She closed her eyes and put her mouth on the wound.

  The taste shot through her ten times worse than the poison had before. She knew it was working, almost instantly Daemons skin became warmer to touch. She felt the pain reach her heart as she heard the vampire take a sharp breath and come back to the world of the living. As the pain coursed through her body, she heard Elso pounding on the door and Daemon calling her name. Her sight began to fade in and out.

  As the bedroom disappeared into blackness, other rooms started to take shape. She could see Daemon and his life before he found her. She saw her own frame running from the building where she took her finals at weeks ago. For the first time, she felt what Daemon had felt when he first saw her. His heart stopped, his chest became heavy. He saw her like most men would look at Elso, a taltos of unmeasurable beauty. He wanted her almost instantly.

  Mariska felt tears coming to her eyes when she realized that he had loved her from that very first moment. From the time she was cruel to him and pushed him away. Even when she ran from him to the village, still he had loved her. When the thought he was going to die, moments before she sucked the poison from him, still his only thoughts had been for how much he cared about her and his pain that she would never know.

  Mariska knew now, though; she understood his unfathomable love for her, and she knew that he would be a better father than any man had even been before. Praying that it wasn’t too late, she focused all her attention on returning to the castles and her prince. She couldn’t move because of the pain. Still, she had enough life left in her to tell Daemon one last thing.

  “Daemon, I’m pregnant,” She said.

  The last thing she remembered seeing was Daemons face once again going white.

  Chapter Five

  It was like watching a movie, but she felt everything as it happened, except it was more. Mariska could hear Daemons thoughts. Daemon rolled her onto her back and screamed for Elso. In an act that she had never before seen, Deon waved his hand at the door, and the bolt moved at his command. If she could move or talk, she would look at him in shock. She didn’t know that vampires could possess magical abilities. Elso burst through the door. Immediately she ran her hands over Mariska. Mariska could feel the taltos magic trying to feel out the poison; it felt like someone sticking a hot iron into an already festering wound.

  “She took the poison into herself!” said Elso in shock. “Why didn’t you tell me she had been tainted by Yelda’s drug before?”

  Daemon shot her a seething look, “you’re the one who's supposed to be psychic!”

  “I can’t see all things at once Daemon.” Said Elso.

  Her voice was laced with concern. She could never have known what Mariska was going to do. Elso paced the room frantically. She had never before been in a situation where she didn’t have the upper hand; she’d always before been prepared.

  “I must consult with the others,” she said as she stormed from the room.

  She hadn’t given Daemon a chance to argue with her. As she left the room, Daemon looked at the door, stunned. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had spent his entire life searching for a love like the one he had found with Mariska, and now it was all in jeopardy. Daemon went to Mariska, he laid on the bed by her side and stroked her hair as he spoke.

  “You foolish girl, why would you do something like this?” he said softly to her, “you are brave and arrogant and wonderful. I need you to be okay. I need you to come back to me.”

  She felt the tear run down his cheek as he wrapped her in a tight embrace. She couldn’t leave him; the poison was burning through her body, but she wouldn’t let it conquer her. She needed to find a way to force it out and get back to Daemon. It was proving very hard though to focus on her body when the distractions continued to come in. As soon as Daemon had finished talking, the door flew open and in burst her parents. Daemon relived what had happened to them, and Mariska watched in her frozen state as her mother berated Demon for allowing Mariska to fall ill.

  She wanted to jump up and defend him, to tell her mother that it had nothing to do with Daemon but she was trapped. Frozen and helpless, she had to watch as Daemon went through the same torture with first her mother, then her father, then Jamesson. Finally, after what felt like forever, Elso returned with several of the other taltos following closely behind.

  “I believe we have found several possible solutions,” she said.

  As she spoke, she set down several large books on the table at the end of the room.

  “Sir, ma'am, if you wouldn’t mind, though, some of these things are secrets that have been kept for a thousand years. I need to ask you to leave. I will make sure you are kept apprised of anything that is going to happen, and we will make no decisions without you here.” Said Elso.

  Apardia and Roje nodded and left the room with Jamesson. Daemon looked to Elso in confusion. Their knowledge and that of the keepers were no secrets. Anyone was free to use it as long as they did so for good and not to harm others.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Elso began to speak nervously. “I need you to understand Daemon; I am going to give you every choice we have, do not take your anger out on me. While I can predict what you are going to say, I still need to give you the freedom to make that decision.”

  “Okay?” Replied Daemon.

  “It is possible, that if we were able to terminate the fetus, we could save Mariska. She would be perfectly fine actually. I believe that it is the baby that had caused the dramatic change in her. Because of its vampire DNA, it's reacting to the poison the way that you or any undead would, the way that Yelda intended for it to work, with death. It was never meant to kill humans, only to cause them a great amount of suffering.” Said Elso.

  Daemon sat back down on the bed in shock. “So I can save Mariska, but the baby would die?”

  Elso nodded her head.

  Mariska was screaming in her head, but she still couldn’t move. She did not want her baby to die! She would not let them kill her precious child growing inside of her. She needed Daemon to know that it was not a choice. With all of her power, Mariska closed down her mind to everything but Daemon. She channeled all of her energy into communicating with him. One word, over and over; no. She prayed at she thought the word; she didn’t want her unborn child to die, if her child were murdered, she would never forgive Elso or Daemon. She would dedicate her life to make sure theirs ended.

  Mariska watched Daemon in her mind's eye; she could see the confusion on his face, and then the realization that it was her communicating. He jerked his head back to her and smiled. Taking her limp hand in his, he smiled for the first time that day.

  “No.,” said Daemon out loud.

  Elso looked at him in surprise, it hadn't been the response she had foreseen. She had seen anger and hurt, depression and rage but not this. She had foreseen him saying yes, the child's life ending and Daemon going to a dark place before returning to rule their kingdom.

  He could see from the look on her face that she hadn't anticipated the respond. The look amused him; it wasn’t very often that
he could catch Elso off her guard.

  “I can hear Mariska, Elso. I can't explain it, but she is in there, and she knows what's going on. She doesn’t want our baby to die.” Said Daemon, his eyes filled with love.

  Elso couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She would need to look into what was going on between them later on. Right now, though, she had to put her amazement on hold and find another solution to the problem at hand.

  “Alright, we may be able to do what we were going to do with you. Her human body had slowed the process of the poison. We may still be able to find someone who can withdraw the poison from her body.” Said Elso.

  “Its worth a try, at least, we can send someone out to look while we attempt other avenues right?” said Daemon. He was more intent than ever to save them both now.

  “Alright,” said Elso, she rang for a servant. When the young woman arrived, Elso spoke to her, “find me Soljen.”

  A few minutes later, the captain of the guard entered the room.

  “Ah, Soljen, we have an imperative mission for you. As you can see, our wonderful Mariska is sick. She had been poisoned by a very rare thing, a poison that only Yelda knew the cure for. We need to find a survivor Soljen, someone who has taken the poison in its entirety and lived. Mariska is only alive now in part because she had taken the poison in before. Can you do this Soljen? Can you find someone who had survived? My instinct is telling me that you may know how to find someone.” Said Elso, eyeing the guard.

  “Permission to speak freely my lord?” asked Soljen, addressing Daemon.

  “Of course my old friend.” Replied Daemon with warm affection. Soljen had been his guard and friend for over eighty years.

  Soljen began to speak. “When I was a young human, I followed a beautiful woman into the heart of Egypt. She was enchanting. I fell in love with her the moment that I saw her and to my delight, she felt the same way. She was so enchanting that I didn’t notice when months of my life had gone missing from my mind, and I woke chained to a castle wall. The woman had been the daughter of Janjin, Yelda’s father. When he discovered one of his children had fallen in love with a human, he had her executed.