Set To Start (Morningstars)

by Destiny, Sam

  “You are all pale and sick,” he mumbled, brushing his thumb over her lip. Almost instantly, a flush worked its way over her cheeks. She wanted his lips where his thumb was. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I wouldn’t be happy to hear about you and other guys no matter how long ago that is,” he admitted and finally some of the pressure on her chest eased.

  “Are you worried about her or about what it could mean for your brother?” she asked, hoping to clarify where the change in him came from.

  “She’s is a human and breakable. Whenever I left she was asleep, but you don’t know Jaden. You haven’t seen him with the vampire women in the last months,” he mumbled, thinking to the months he and she already had been an item. Freezing all over, she moved off his lap.

  “Have you … always shared with him?” she asked and he ground his teeth together, making his jaw strain.

  Getting up, he grabbed her shoulders, making sure she met his eyes.

  “I haven’t slept with any other woman since I met you,” he pointed out, accentuating every spoken word with a gentle squeeze of his fingers. “I’m just tagging along because … I worry he’s going to kill someone.” The break in-between his words made her curious. There was something he wasn’t saying and it made her shake her head. “What?” he instantly asked, alarmed.

  “Nothing,” she lied, swallowing. She had no idea what it was, but suddenly it couldn’t be clearer that Kaden and she didn’t belong together. Even while he was holding her, he was holding back.

  “So, that girl …” She didn’t even know why she returned to that subject.

  “She’s human, I am certain, and yet Jaden is different. He’s more intense when it comes to her. I know though that I need to tell Colbin about her. She is … special, I guess. I didn’t even see her and yet, her scent was unique.”

  “Unique? As in she wasn’t showered?” she tried to joke, but he just shook his head, contemplating.

  “No, it was sweet, a hint of vanilla and berries. Raspberries. I’ve never known a person who smelled so … eatable. It’s like you are biting into a warm cupcake.” He sounded fascinated and more than just a little hooked.

  “Her blood tempts you?” she wanted to know and he shook his head.

  “No, trust me, that’s not it. I’m just curious because I’ve never met anyone like that. Jaden claims she has supernatural reactions.”

  “What do I smell like?” she asked, knowing that vampires had a much better nose.

  “You smell like you. It always depends on the lotion you use. I like the violet one the most. It gives you a flowery smell.”

  “No smell that’s unique to me?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Finally his face fell, as if he realized whom he was talking to and what he was saying.

  “You smell amazing, Cia. I love being with you, and whenever I go home I love to carry that scent with me. Jaden asked me about it simply because I couldn’t get myself to shower. Hey, I’m here with you, aren’t I?” he asked, cupping her cheek. As much as she wanted to lean into the touch, she couldn’t.

  “Actually you aren’t. I just can’t figure out if you are mentally with her or your brother … or both.” He stepped back, regret on his face. She just couldn’t decide if he regretted that he had made her feel this way or if he regretted acting that way.

  “He’s my twin. Anything that happens to him impacts me directly one way or the other,” he admitted, at least easing her mind a little. He was thinking about what this meant to them as twins instead of thinking about her.

  She placed her hand above his heart, feeling the beating only faintly as it knocked against her hand in a steady rhythm.

  “How about you get back to Jaden and that girl and once that situation is sorted, you’ll come and see me?” she asked and he took a deep breath, obviously searching for something to say. She stopped him with her finger on his lips. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. Just make sure that next time you get here, you’ll be here,” she whispered and then stepped away. It hurt her that he didn’t even try to hold onto her.

  “Bye, Ciarda, I’ll make it up to you,” he promised and then left. Cia didn’t think long before raiding her closet, dressing as elegant as she could. She needed someone to talk to, and the only person understanding her and that crazy world was her mother. Now Cia only hoped she’d be happy to see her.

  Cia knocked on the door that once used to be the entryway to her home. A lady opened, only a servant she didn’t know and one who obviously didn’t know her, either.

  “Yes?” she asked, sounding polite and yet annoyed. Checking her watch, she realized they most likely were getting ready to have dinner.

  It was weird for Cia to be thinking of it being dinner when morning was drawing closer.

  “I’m here to see Joanna,” she said politely, remembering her high-class-manners. “Please, if you could ask her for a moment of her time. It’s Ciarda.”

  The woman told her to wait a moment and then closed the door. She wasn’t even asked to wait in the foyer. What the hell?

  It took about thirty seconds and the huge door was torn open.

  “Mary, I cannot believe you made her wait outside. I … we’ll deal with that later. Make sure the table has just one more place set,” her mother fussed, then she turned to Cia, tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

  Cia hadn’t realized how much she had missed coming here until she felt hot streaks running down her cheeks, too.

  “Mom,” she all but sobbed, falling around the other woman’s neck. Her hug was reciprocated and there was no better place on earth. It made Cia want to bawl her eyes out for having been strong way too long and staying away.

  Her mother led her inside, never once letting go of her, and she loved it.

  “Bernard! Bernard! Come and see,” her mother called out and her father stepped to the parapet on the top floor.

  “Cia!” It wasn’t more than a gasp, but the next second he had pulled her in his arms too, holding her tightly. “We wanted to respect your wish, but we hoped every day that you’d return…”

  How had she ever thought she should and could stay away from her parents? It had been a lie she had told herself for too long.

  “I was sure that I didn’t belong to the night any longer and nothing has changed about me…” She gave her parents a moment to listen to the silence that sure was filled with her heartbeat for them. Their somber expressions let her know all she needed to know. “Anyways, if we needed any more proof that I wasn’t an Origin, vampires can take my blood.”

  “That’s why you are here,” her mother stated while her father furrowed his brows.

  “You were attacked?” he asked and blood colored her cheeks. ‘Attacked’ is one way to describe it, she thought.

  “Attacked definitely, but not the way you think, Bernard,” her mother grinned, taking her arm. “Come on, I think this calls for a woman-to-woman talk.”

  “I … don’t … oh,” her father mumbled and even more blood shot into Cia’s cheeks. Something passed between her mother and her father, then his features softened. “Dinner will be ready in half an hour. You’ll stay, right, Cia?”

  She instantly nodded, needing the feeling of being home.

  Following her mother, they walked up the stairs and then entered what used to be her room … and still looked the same.

  “You didn’t change a thing,” she whispered, touching her comforter-covered bed.

  “Well, we did take the dust off everything,” her mother grinned and Cia had to laugh. At home she hadn’t been exactly the cleanest person, especially since she had hated servants going through her stuff, but now she missed having someone that cleaned for her.

  She touched the blush-colored comforter, looking at the slightly darker walls. Her whole room had been done up like a little girl’s room, but while it had pissed her off to no end when she had been living there, she now wanted to throw herself on the bed and cry her eyes out.

  Her m
other hadn’t even taken down the black posters of one human hard-metal-band or the other, and so she took a deep breath, starting forward to take them down while telling her mother, who sat down on the window seat, what had happened.

  “I started to work two jobs so I could buy myself a house, always hoping that one day I’d meet a guy who’d just blow me away. I was hoping that by pretending I came from their world, I’d eventually become fully human – with a husband, a house, and kids. I thought I was happy with what I was doing, but then he stepped into my life.”

  She paused, turning to her mother before going over to the next poster. “In my defense, I’ve been living among humans for so long that I didn’t realize what he was. Of course, he only came at night, but I have to be honest, I was thinking he had a girlfriend somewhere.”

  “You’d sleep with another woman’s man, daughter?” her mother scolded her and she turned to her, a plea for understanding on her face.

  “I’ve never met anyone like him, Mom. The way he looked at me, I thought I could have the world. That was, until I started to tell him that I love him and he just kissed me as an answer. Again, I thought there was another girl, until he got extremely mad, telling me that I wouldn’t understand.” She snorted, crunching up another poster into a paper ball.

  “But there wasn’t,” her mother offered.

  “No,” Cia admitted. “One day a woman walked in at my work place and told me that he can’t give me what I want to have because he is promised in some way.” She could still picture that woman with a clarity that confused her. “It took until the end of my shift for me to realize what she was saying. What he was.”

  “You found a vampire. From all the people walking this city, one of ours blew you away?” her mother inquired gently and finally Cia turned to her.

  “More than that; a Morningstar warrior found me, not just any vampire.”

  Her mother got up, coming over to thoughtfully touch the places where before poster had covered a floral wallpaper. Cia wondered what her mother was thinking, but she refrained from asking.

  “I am guessing that this is not the end of the story,” her mother finally said, turning to her. “A happy relationship wouldn’t bring you to that door. Then again, if you aren’t Origin and he could bite you, he is still unbound. Are you waiting for him to find the girl?”

  “I was ready to change everything for him, Mom. I stopped working at the daycare center because I thought that if I kept a nightly schedule, he and I had better chances. After all, there isn’t a Queen and even if he’d find some girl, how long would his Origin survive? I could live…”

  “Shut up.”

  Cia stared at her mother as if she had been slapped. Her mother never spoke like that, especially not to her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You have no idea what it does to a person to find their true mate, daughter, or you would never ever suggest what you do. Usually, a mate already is fiercely loyal to his Origin. I cannot imagine how it’ll be for a warrior. Their sense of duty is even deeper ingrained in them and even if he only gets to spend just a few months with her, you’ll never be able to touch him the way you did before he met anyone. Do not degrade yourself like that, and more importantly, do not wish on your warrior to find his Origin only to lose her again. The man you get back after will not be the same as the man you’ve known before.” There was a quite intensity in her mother’s voice that Cia had never heard before. It was as if just the thought of losing her mate scared her enough to almost burst from the room and find him.

  “I want to be his true mate,” Cia finally admitted, tears in her eyes.

  “I doubt that you are, but I know where you are coming from,” her mother soothed her, gently cupping her cheek. “As long as he hasn’t found her, you can be all that and more for him.”

  “I think I’m already losing him, because there was a girl that entered his brother’s life.”

  “His brother’s life?” her mother asked, tone incredulous.

  “They are twins.”

  “Jaden and Kaden,” her mother mused. “They are damn handsome, those boys,” she smiled and Cia picked up a brow.

  “Mom, what’s with the language today?” she asked and her mother winked.

  “After you left, I needed a new passion. And I found that TV shows can be quite entertaining,” her mother winked and then sobered again. “Which of the twins it is you consider yours?”

  It shouldn’t surprise her at all that her mother knew the twins or any of the warriors for that matter. Her mother was well known in the vampire society since she dealt a lot with those Origins that were abused in their own household. Her mother was always at the Morning Star Police Office, which most likely was the place where she had met all of the fighters.

  “Kaden.”

  Her mother nodded with a smile. “Seems he’s seen as the twin more down to earth, more connected to his heart while Jaden, his brother, is more the little soldier Colbin, their leader, needs and looks for. If the girl entered his brother’s life though, why should that interfere with what you have?”

  “He was absent when he was there, talking about how incredibly that girl had smelled. He hadn’t even seen her and yet I had the feeling he was back with his brother and that girl.”

  “The twins are very protective of each other, and someone special always changes the dynamics. I bet he’s just worried what it’ll mean for their relationship.”

  Cia shrugged, taking a deep breath.

  “Mom, what does Dad smell to you like?” She knew her father’s perfume. It was one with pine needles and some wooden essence.

  “Your father smells to me like a clear stream in the early morning hours. There’s something wild about him, something that has nothing to do with his perfume. He smells best to me when he gets out of the shower and hadn’t used any shower gel or lotion. It’s clear and mouth-watering in a way,” her mother explained, ending her sentence with a dreamy sigh.

  “He smells eatable to you, doesn’t he?”

  Her mother laughed. “Not quite the word I would have used, but if I’d be thirsty, he probably could be the only one quenching that thirst.”

  Cia slowly nodded, wanting to say something when her mother cocked her head.

  “Dinner is ready. Your dad just placed the last fork on the table,” she reported and Cia felt like crying right away again. She missed those special powers.

  “I wish I could do that,” she sighed.

  “It still wouldn’t make you the right one for him if you are not meant to be,” her mother said gently, obviously knowing exactly where that wish originated.

  Cia couldn’t help but walk over and hug her tight.

  “Right now I am no longer sure where I am meant to be,” she mumbled and her mother patted her back.

  “Time will tell, sweetie, time will tell. Now, let’s have dinner. Go and wash up.”

  Cia shook her head with a smile. Even though by now she looked older than her mother – thanks to the humanity – she still felt like a little girl around her.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” she grinned, following her mother for a night that felt more normal than any night had in the past.

  Kaden was still worrying his bottom lip when he opened the front door; freezing the moment the raspberry-vanilla-smell hit his nose more prominent than before, and just then he spotted the couple on the sofa.

  “Hey there, Cupcake,” he grinned, watching how a very turned on Jaden pushed her off his lap, getting up so he could stand in Kaden’s line of sight, not that he needed that. His mind had taken in enough of her to know that she was a beauty: brown hair that fell past her shoulders, not as skinny as Jaden usually picked them and definitely rather on the small side.

  “Why is everyone calling me that?” she snapped, coming to stand next to his twin. She had violet eyes that sparked with quite fury, then though she only stared.

  Jaden had forgotten to mention his twin, he guessed. He gave her a smile.

  “I
’ve always been the more handsome one,” he winked, her expression softening the slightly. If he wouldn’t have looked that closely, he might have missed it. “And we call you that because you smell like one. What’s your name?” he wanted to know.

  “She won’t tell,” Jaden growled. His twin’s expression darkened, if that was still possible.

  “Maya,” Cupcake said at the same time, giving him the tiniest of smiles.

  Kaden couldn’t help but watch her. She looked breakable, but that added only to her appeal, or so he thought.

  “Get the fuck out, Kaden,” Jaden snarled, looking ready to attack him. Finally Kaden remembered that he had promised he’d stay away from that girl and was supposed to tell his brother that Colbin wanted to see him – and her. All the emotions playing over his twin’s face scared him though. There was something so intense about Jaden, Kaden wasn’t sure he had ever seen that in him.

  “Colbin wants to see you,” he finally said, keeping his eyes steady on Jaden.

  “Can’t, got something else to do,” Jaden replied curtly.

  “More likely someone else,” Kaden teased, unable to keep his eyes on his twin. The girl blushed deeply. “Don’t mess with Colbin anymore, Jaden. He’s mad enough. Besides, you need to bring her.”

  “Bring me where?” She certainly had spunk, but something about the way she looked at him made him wonder what she had been through.

  “Stay out of it, Cupcake,” Jaden pleaded and Kaden stared at him, wondering if Jaden even knew that his voice had gone all soft. Maya raised her hand, placing it on his twin’s back. A ripple went through his brother’s body and Jaden looked as if he wanted to close his eyes.

  Her touch though was a strong contrast to her words. “I can take care of myself, vampire,” she hissed, her purple eyes going dark, then they focus on him and Kaden could barely contain a grin, before her words had a chance to fully settle in. “Fine, big boy, bring me to this Colbin,” she added.