by Ashley Ladd
“They may not recognise us from afar and raise arms.”
Again, Nikolai had to keep from shaking his head. “Then announce our arrival.”
Robert did as bade, the clear tones echoing through the encroaching darkness. A most jealous sky dweller, the moon pushed the sun out of the firmament and a curtain fell over the land.
Robert slung his horn across his shoulder. “’Tis treacherous to make our horses ride in the dark. They may chance upon peril.”
Nikolai waved off his worries. “I oft ride through the night…”
“Prithee, I wish you would not. If thy dear father were still here, he’d put an end to thy nocturnal roaming. ‘Tisn’t safe. All manner of wicked beast and cutpurse wander the night.”
His mind roved to the comely maiden he hoped to see again. He wondered that a lone woman braved the perils of night, and he worried about her safety. For her sake, he’d have to bring a halt to this and ensconce her in the safety of his keep.
Chapter Two
Determined to fulfil her destiny, to eradicate the world of the vermin pestilence, Kes avoided her family and anything that could deflect her mission. She pulled on her boots, her cape and brushed her hair away from her face. When she stepped into the night, the soft breeze coasted along the nape of her neck and tugged at her to play. But tonight wasn’t one for frolic. Tonight was Nikolai’s last on Earth.
It was all she could do to keep her fangs from peeking out. They were thirsty for his blood.
Tingles of desire coursed through her as she thought about the tang of first, fresh blood, of how it energised her, and she wondered anew how her father could have survived off-world for hundreds of years without a fresh supply and how synthesised blood could sustain them.
Holding out her arms, she spread herself thin on the wind and transformed into a bat. Then she flew into the night to seek her prey. She spied many hapless humans wondering about as if inviting her kind, and she snickered at their folly for travelling alone in the dark, but tonight they’d nothing to fear from her. Only Nikolai did.
Finally, she spied him approaching a peasant’s farm with a weak old man who would afford him little protection, but she didn’t approach. Neither did she take her gaze off the pair. The whoosh of their horses’ picking their way through rush grasses sounded loud in her ears.
She could hear their blood pounding, in particular Nikolai’s, so strong, so fresh in his veins, and her fangs protruded further. Her nostrils flared at the acrid scent of blood, and she worked herself into a frenzy. Delicious tingles shot through her veins, akin to the moment before orgasm, and her pussy clenched. So many times when drinking from her donors, willing or not, she came with a mighty force that made her moan with ecstasy. Then so many times, she’d repaid them in wild, abandoned sex for giving of their life blood.
Her gaze roamed unabashedly down Nikolai’s long, virile length. He was powerful and lithe for a human, almost a match for her father. He’d make a good bed partner…
Bed partner?
Disgusted at the turn of her thoughts, she spat and cursed herself. The last thing she wanted was to take the beast to her bed. She shouldn’t entertain the taste of his blood for should she lose her mind in the passion, she could be the one to turn him.
Her gut recoiled, and she swore at herself. Dmitri was right. This was too dangerous. Her hatred could work against them. She wasn’t rational.
Furious, she knew she should remove herself from temptation, that she should put herself under lock and key until Dmitri had administered his own brand of justice, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.
It was as if she were watching one of the moving pictures her parents had salvaged from their ship in slow motion. She knew what she should do, but her body refused to cooperate.
Ever watching and listening, she crept under the shadows of the excessively slanted fir trees on the far side of the farmhouse’s crumbling walls. Creeping ivy and thorny bushes also served to make for a good spot to hide.
“Good day to thee, Father,” Nikolai greeted the ragged peasant who eyed him with trepidation. “We come to make sure thy family is well.”
The sturdy peasant wiped his brow and pointed to his cottage. “You are a Godsend, Noble Sir. Our young lad will perish without help.” He turned and called out, “Come hither, Mistress Goodwife, with the lad.”
A portly woman struggled to carry a boy of about seven or eight to the waiting men. She eyed them with fear. “I crave your pardon, but what does thy Noble Sir want with the lad?”
Nikolai held out his arms then scooped a small, limp body onto his lap.
The woman cried out and bowed before them, “If it please you, do not take our young lad. He be all we have.”
Another man took her in his arms and lent comfort. “Be quiet, ungrateful mother. Milord brings our only hope.”
“Pray do not worry, I shall carry him to the castle for care,” Nikolai said.
The man looked up to Nikolai. “Grammercy, milord. May God go with you, and may you bring back the poppet safe. His name be Grigori. Forever shall we be in your debt.”
Nikolai nodded as his steed pranced and neighed. “We shall see thee anon.”
“As you will, Noble Sir,” the lad’s father said and reverently bowed beside his wife. “Fare thee well.”
Kes frowned. Surely, she’d misheard. This wasn’t the same Nikolai of her nightmares. The man before her wasn’t a monster.
Her heart threatened to soften, and she silently cursed herself. She couldn’t afford to go soft any more than she could afford to let loose in a blood frenzy.
Questions attacked her afresh. Was this the same Nikolai responsible for Earth’s demise? Could her family be mistaken? Could this be the wrong human?
Or if it was the right human, could she blame him for his future sins that hadn’t occurred, that wouldn’t happen for another eight hundred years?
She wasn’t a philosophical person and hated these dilemmas. She wasn’t one to devote heavy thinking to a topic. Like her mother before her, she was a born soldier, a taker of action and not one to ponder long over problems.
But this problem was out of the ordinary and so she wallowed in a quagmire of doubt.
Mesmerised, Kes shape-shifted back into a bat and drifted closer. She felt as if she were being pulled nearer, as if she’d no choice but to learn more. When the thought came unbidden that the fiend was bewitching her, she spat out her distaste.
Never!
She had to be assured she had the right man.
Another thought came unbidden that made her do a double take. What if this was the father or grandfather of the Nikolai that had committed the atrocity? Or worse, what if he was the son or grandson and their Nikolai was hiding, preparing to do the damage?
What if their Nikolai hadn’t been born yet? That wouldn’t be as irreparable since this man’s death would prevent the birth of the mass destroyer. Yet, could she assassinate an innocent man?
Should that matter? Her kind took human life daily.
She wanted to scream and let out a high pitch wail.
She should just take the man tonight and be done with it.
Only…the longer she watched him tend so gently to the child, the more she felt her desire ebb. As inhuman as she prided herself on being, she’d a weak spot for children, the elderly and the helpless. Perhaps she’d inherited it from her father who had always been odd for a vampire, just the opposite of the heartless Nikolai. She certainly hadn’t inherited it from her mother who had been a military commander. Kes might resemble Zanna, aspire to be like her, but inside she was her father’s daughter, something that was often more curse than blessing.
She narrowed her eyes and continued to follow Nikolai under the cloak of the deepening cloud cover.
Nikolai’s aide glanced up at her with a scowl creasing the already deep crevices of his weathered face. “My lord, have you noted that creature following us? It is as if it is watching us. The peasants claim they�
��re not really bats…”
Nikolai tossed him an annoyed look. “Not in front of the child. That’s all superstitious nonsense anyway, born of ignorance and over-fertile imaginations. Take no heed of it. We’ll soon be back at the castle.”
Kes wondered how the Lord would feel when she revealed herself, when he saw for his own eyes her transformation from bat to vampire. She rather longed to witness the look of terror in his eyes and wondered if it could even approach the mass terror the people of earth felt as he’d murdered them. To her chagrin, she knew nothing she could do would come close. No punishment could begin to befit the crime.
* * * *
Back at the castle, Nikolai stayed with the young lad as he commanded the barber to use all his power to spare the boy’s life. He couldn’t push away the look of utter terror the child’s mother had cast upon him as he’d ridden away with her son. He couldn’t disappoint his people. This child, his parents and his people were his responsibility. He got down on bended knee and prayed for the child’s life to be saved. “Spare him, thou Father. Spare thy people. Help us.”
Instead, he felt a presence, dark and menacing and he frowned. This wasn’t his Maker, but an unnameable terror. It was all he could do to stop himself from visibly shivering.
“My God, save us.” He sensed rather than knew whatever it was had come for him, not for the lad, and he took leave of the chamber. He didn’t want the child involved. He whispered to Robert on his way out, “Call to arms several strong men. Position half to guard the lad and half to my chamber. Go forth!”
Robert gulped but nodded, and his old legs scurried off, his boots shuffling against the cold stone of the castle floor. “Aye, milord.”
Nikolai kept glancing over his shoulder but saw not so much as a shadow. Still, he felt the presence. It grew stronger as did his apprehension. He paused and called out, “Show thyself.”
No answer came, and he made his way to his chambers. He frowned that his elite guard hadn’t yet come so he drew his sword and held it before him as he entered his room.
The presence permeated his chamber, and he was about to back out and leave, fearing he’d made a mistake when the door flung shut and bolted behind him.
His eyes widened and his heart hammered against his ribs as he whirled about. “Pray tell, what do you want of me?”
A feminine voice, devoid of emotion, cut through the chill air. “You.”
Taken aback, not expecting the evil to be feminine, he dropped his sword a notch. “What do you want of me? Where are you?”
The good-faced mistress he’d caught spying on him emerged as if from an invisible mist, in black masculine garb and a flowing cape. Unlike in his dreams, her eyes were icy cold, and the set of her lips was grim. “Right here.”
He couldn’t believe what was before his eyes. People didn’t appear out of nowhere. “What manner of being are you? A witch? A sorceress?” He was unsure what to think.
A cold smile lurked on her lips. She stepped closer, her cape billowing around her slight form. “Neither.”
“Then what are you?” How could he have thought this woman not perilous? Menace radiated from her, and he took two steps back and lifted his sword. “Stay back, Mistress. My guard soon comes. Leave now, or they will take you into their custody.”
The woman laughed in his face and circled him. With great disdain, she regarded him from head to toe. She licked her finger then slid it along the tip of his sword. When the weapon drew blood, she stared at her injury then sucked her finger quite suggestively. “Impressive, but you don’t scare me.”
Fascinated against his will, his cock flexed, and he wondered what manner of woman would be so bold? Why did she seem so threatening and so beautiful all at once? “Why do you wish to scare me?”
She thrust out her breasts and put her hands on her slim hips, so sensual he sucked in a breath. He wondered why she bewitched him as all the while he entertained doubts about her.
If possible, her gaze became more derogatory. She made a moue of her beautiful lips. “Why did you murder millions of innocent people? Why did you try to kill my family?”
Sure now the woman was suffering from a brain malady, Nikolai blinked. What a shame for someone so beautiful to be so ill. His pulse racing, he thought hard. He’d not murdered a soul in cold blood, but he’d led his knights into battle. N’er, however, had they put to death a woman, child or old man. N’er had they annihilated an entire town. “I am innocent of the charges you put to me. I am not responsible for such atrocities.”
She stood taller and hissed, and the cords in her neck tightened. Her eyes narrowed, becoming inhuman. “My family doesn’t lie. You destroyed the entire planet.”
The planet?
She was addled. He looked at his feet then out the window to the far reaches of the horizon, dim under the moonlight but very much there. “You speak in riddles. The ground lies solid beneath our feet. It has not disappeared.”
She snarled. “You haven’t done it—yet. But you will. It’s marked in the historical archives.”
“Yet?” His brows creased. What nonsense tumbled from her tongue?
When fangs protruded from her lips, he jumped back in shock. “You…you art a—”
“Blood sucker?” She ventured closer, her steps assured and sexy. Her voice lowered to a husky whisper. “Night stalker? Vampire?”
He gulped. Try as hard as he might, he could not rip his gaze from her. He’d heard about these creatures but had never laid eyes on one. He hadn’t expected them to be so beauteous, to excite while bringing fright. He wondered if she’d hexed him.
She passed by his sword as if she thought nothing of its deadly power, and she drew her finger down his jaw to his lips. In a breathy voice, she whispered in his ear, “Guilty. Just like you.”
That awoke him from his stupor, and quivering with fright, he pierced her with his sword.
For a moment, she looked down surprised at the weapon piercing her gut then she chuckled and pulled it out. She held it before her and regarded it with a mixture of distaste and amusement. “Your toy can’t harm me, foolish human. You are still weak and pathetic. You are mortal.”
“As opposed to ‘immortal’?”
She nodded. “I will not let you become immortal. I will not let you destroy our people, our planet, our—”
“Kes! Go home before your father finds out you’re here,” a second female voice bellowed from across the room.
Startled again, Nikolai glanced behind him. He’d not heard anyone else enter. Another comely blonde also garbed in all black stood proud and unrelenting.
“Mother! You followed me? You better than anyone know what a vile fiend he is, what he will do to us. Let me finish him,” Kes pleaded.
Even as his blood iced over, he watched with morbid fascination.
“You dare argue with me? Your queen and mother? You will do as I say, young lady.”
Kes’ lovely face crumpled, and she hissed. “I can’t believe you people. You profess to want him dead, but you refuse to do the deed. At least, let me do it if you’re too impotent.”
Her mother scowled. “Leave now before you force me to deal more strictly with you.”
“Yes, mother,” Kes said with reverberating sarcasm the likes of which Nikolai had never heard.
To his further shock, the younger woman splayed her arms wide, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone and a bat flapped its wings as it flew out his window, shrieking in an extremely high and infuriated pitch. As if she’d been a figment of his imagination, the other woman was already gone.
His knights stormed the door. They looked about as if perplexed then Robert who took up the rear asked, “Are you well, milord? Strange sounds came from your chamber, but we could not gain entry. Something held us at bay.”
Nikolai strode to the window and peered out into the star-drenched night, looking for the winged mammal. All he saw was the moonlit land, parched and dying. There was no sign of the two women. “I am well
…for now,” he added under his breath. He wondered how to protect himself from an immortal creature with mystical powers.
* * * *
Dmitri paced before Kes, his hands linked behind his back, his fangs fully extended, his eyes blacker than the dead of night. He rounded on her and hissed. “You dare disobey me! You are to stay away from Nikolai at all costs. I forbid you to go near him.”
Kes reeled, and she thrust out her chin. “I wouldn’t have to if you took action. You’ve been talking about him my entire life yet you’ve done nothing. I don’t think you plan to do anything about him.”
Zanna put a hand on her elbow as if trying to warn her to back off, but Kes shook her off as her heart cried for the doomed world.
“I lead the family! I am your father! You will obey me.” He marched over and towered above her. “Do you understand? Do I have your allegiance or not?”
As much as she adored her father, as loyal as she was to him, the words stuck in her throat. He was wrong about this.
Dmitri’s face suffused a darker red, and his eyes glowed to match. “Do you?”
Zanna kicked her ankle. “Answer him, dear.”
“Yes, father,” she finally choked out. “I hear and understand. Are you happy?”
Dmitri flung back his head and howled. “Happy? How can I be happy when you’re obsessed with our worst enemy? When you defy my every word? When you put yourself and our entire family at risk?”
Confused, she stared at him. “But he’s not a vampire yet. What danger does he pose now?”
“There’s other danger that lurks in the dark of night. You shouldn’t travel alone.” Zanna stood and joined her husband. She linked her fingers through his. “We don’t want to see our only daughter harmed. The thought is unthinkable.”
Kes dared a human family to be more smothering. She was relieved that the dawn approached and she stifled a yawn. “Good day. I’m going to rest now.” Eager to escape, she slipped from the room and into her private bedroom underground, safe from the sun.