She took a deep breath. “I’m okay, I’m sorry I’ve been having those a lot.” Three in one day, she tried to not dwell on it.
“It’s a common reaction when it comes to the blindfold for you. Sometimes you receive it fine, other times it throws you into a panic.” He sat her on her feet and took her hand. “Come. Our guest is here.”
Guest, as if they were having dinner. He led her out of her room and into the hall. She tried to pay attention to the turns, but gave up because it made her head hurt. The air seemed to change when they entered the foyer. Lucius tensed beside her and let go of her hand. Her grounding. She tried not to reach out for him, as she found her usual place on the floor. Her upper body draped on his lap, something that should have been demeaning, but the touch gave her the grounding she needed when blinded.
“They sent an underling to deliver a message.” Lucius sounded less than pleased, Tegan could almost hear a snarl in his voice. Who was he talking about? She thought this was a formal meeting, not a message delivery.
“They didn’t want to send anyone stronger, in case you saw it as a threat. Not to mention, I’m disposable, they are worried you will kill the messenger.” It was a male voice, a bit husky, but not one familiar to her. He had a hint of an accent, but nothing to tell her his place of origin.
Lucius shifted beside her. “Hand it over then leave. If they believe that then you do not want to be here for my reaction.”
Yes, leave, so she could take the blindfold off. She curled her toes trying to feel the floor beneath her, something, anything to make it feel like she wasn’t floating in the middle of nowhere. She heard the man go through the door without another word. Lucius took her blindfold off and she relaxed.
“Who sent it?” She tried to keep the demand out of her voice, but she had a feeling she already knew.
Lucius held up a round, shiny thing and she remembered the movies she’d watched in the media center. Lucius started down the hall towards the said room. “The Circle.”
She tried to keep her anger under control. “Why are they sending you a message?”
“More specifically, Markus.”
The name made her ill, but she continued to follow him. “You made me dress up for an informal meeting, you blinded me—“
“Because we have to keep up the charade Tegan, it’s what keeps you safe.” Lucius pushed through the door and went straight to the player.
She resisted the urge to smack him. “Obviously not. Look what happened to me.” She growled. “I’m missing so many memories, how do we know—“ her words died in her throat as the screen lit up.
An image of her laying on a cold gray floor flickered to life. A sheen of perspiration covered her body as she visibly shook. The sound of her trying to vomit came through the speakers. She frowned, trying to remember when this took place. She was acting as if she’d been...
“Poisoned,” Lucius whispered, his voice careful. “That’s the only thing you react to that way.”
Her body started shaking and she sat down. Nothing could make her take her gaze from the screen. Markus walked into the cell and kicked her on to her stomach. He stepped on her back. Tegan’s face turned to the camera, giving them a clear view of her face. Her eyes had been sewn shut. Instinctively she raised her hand to her eyelids, the bumps that had been there were long gone now.
“That monster,” Lucius snarled and she could feel his anger leaking.
She took his hand. “Turn it off.”
“There’s a reason he sent this.” Lucius patted her hand. “Leave the room if you can’t handle it.”
That wasn’t an option, because he would need her to calm him down, but the panic started to consume her. She was going to be sick as Markus spoke.
"You know what I want Tegan, you can stop this torture with two simple words."
She watched as she tried to call for Lucius, physically calling out master. Lucius started to shake.
“Please, sir, turn it off.” Her voice cracked and she knew tears were in the corner of her eyes. How could she sit here and watch this? How could she forget this?
"He can't save you Tegan, he doesn't even know where you are. As we speak he is losing his sanity because he cannot contact you. He knows that he tried to protect you, but failed. Lucius has abandoned you." Markus laughed.
He’d been lying of course...
"Never...he would never..." Tegan cringed as more pressure came down on her back.
Markus’ laugh came through the speakers and he knelt next to her. "You've been gone for more than two months, Tegan. Have you felt him? At all?"
"No."
"Then he has left you." Markus snapped. "Two words, Tegan, that is it. Just tell me what you are to the Father. Your connection and the torture from these demons will end."
Tegan closed her eyes, knowing what was coming next. Her greatest fear...
“Blood whore.” She sobbed.
“True words, Tegan.”
Her whole body jerked in pain, but the words were clear. “Blood Human to the Father.”
She’d betrayed him. She’d betrayed Lucius. Her panic took over and she dropped to her knees in front of Lucius. “Master, I didn’t mean to, please....I...the torture...” Yet, she felt like she was making excuses, a child in trouble trying to talk her way out. She’d gone through torture twice, yet the second time she’d cracked and not remembered it.
Lucius bent down and wrapped his arms around her. Calm, instantly calm and the lack of anger scared her. He should have been furious, punished her, done anything but comfort her.
“You went through so much, you make me proud, my human.” He whispered, but his comfort didn’t ease her guilt.
She pushed away from him and hung her head. “I betrayed you, the one secret I had to keep no matter what, and Markus got it.”
“After two months of torture, ten times worse than what you went through before. You fought him Tegan. Now the only question is, what did he do with the information?” Lucius didn’t move away from her, but didn’t attempt to pull her back into his arms.
She didn’t want to think about that, if she’d been right about betraying him, than the other theory she had must have been true as well. “I...I need some air.”
“Tegan, I don’t want you—“
“Alone. I need to be alone. No you, no Kaden, no one.” She stood on shaky legs and darted out of the media room. She needed to clear her mind. To her surprise, Lucius didn’t stop her, didn’t appear in front of the doorway leading outside. Was it because he respected her wish or because he was angry with her?
The moment the freezing mountain air hit her lungs she felt like she could breath again. The panic eased, taking the edge off the churning in her stomach. She took a few steps out in the snow and took in the falling flakes in the moonlight. Shivering, she found herself wanting to turn back in already, but she wasn’t willing to face her master, no...watching the snow was too peaceful to leave at this moment.
She continued to walk through the falling snow. With her arms wrapped around her she felt a little bit warmer and could ignore the fact that she had no idea where she was going. Something crunched behind her and she paused a familiar hum and tingle went down her spin and she knew who appeared. She darted back towards the manor, following her own steps in the snow and opening her connection to reach out to Lucius. He’d feel her panic and come, he had to.
A vampire appeared in front of her, one she’d seen very few times, but one she knew well. Terror froze her in her steps as she looked upon the Father. His black hair was smoothed back and his olive skin looked flawless. He towered over her as he stepped up and cupped her face. The moment he touched her the link to Lucius closed, but she couldn’t move away. Fear. That’s all she could feel.
“Tegan,” she’d always hated the way he said her name, it rolled off his tongue in his strange accent and made her shiver and cringe. “You are not allowed to gaze upon me.”
The command in his voice made her shut her
eyes out of terror of feeling his punishment. This couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t be real. Her stomach churned as he forced her head to the side and brushed a thumb across her pounding pulse.
Something in the wood shifted and the touch of the Father disappeared. She could breath again.
“Tegan.”
She opened her eyes at Kaden’s voice and the demon came from the trees to her left. “I...I thought I told Lucius I wanted to be alone.” Though she was grateful he’d shown up, she wasn’t sure if the Father had been an illusion or not.
“He said he felt you panic, but didn’t want to come after you himself. Something about the meeting and a video.” Kaden held up an extra jacket. “I figured you probably ran out without one.”
She took the offered jacket and pulled it on. “The video was of me being tortured and betraying Lucius.” Her master. “Kaden?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you see anyone else out here? Sense anyone?” She zipped her jacket up and looked into the night. Was it possible that she had imagined it?
Kaden wrapped his arm around her. “To be honest? I thought I sensed something extremely powerful, but the moment I felt it, it was gone.” He kissed her cheek and started to guide her back to the mansion.
She looked over her shoulder and counted the pairs of footprints. Three.
Chapter Five
Kaden convinced Tegan to take a hot shower then crawl into bed for the night. He used the promise of taking her to the cemetery and the apartment during the day, and it worked. She was settling into sleep when he settled into the chair in her room. An overstuffed chair with an ottoman, he imagined she used when she read. Lucius had felt the same power and demanded Kaden not leave Tegan’s side, not even while she remained in the manor. Kaden had tried to question, but the vampire refused to answer.
Kaden had his own way of finding answers. He watched the steady rise and fall of Tegan’s breathing as she slept and smiled. “I’ll see you soon, my sweet.” He leaned back and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to claim him.
Tegan stood in a middle of what looked to some kind of temple. Strange colored stone created the floor under her feet and the walls. In front of her a vampire stood tall and terrifying, his black hair pulled back in a tight braid, cotton pants hung from his hips, the white a stark contrast against his skin. In a flash, the Tegan he knew disappeared, replaced by one with dark hair and blue eyes and he frowned. It was still her, still his mate, with the same body and facial features, but her hair and eyes...
Another vampire approached her and shoved her to the ground onto her knees. A woman came up and drew a circle in kohl around Tegan. Chanting filled the room and while the older vampire stood and watched, light flooded around Tegan and she screamed. The sound pierced Kaden’s heart. She was in pain, pure pain. The door to the room opened and another human rushed to the circle, the moment he touched the light Tegan’s screams stopped, but a vampire pulled the man away and the pain started again.
The man’s features had changed now. His black hair now white and his eyes red, and Kaden knew this must be her brother. He collapsed to the ground and the witch looked to the vampire. “He will die unless you change him. Without him the girl will be impossible to control.”
Tegan’s screams died down, but the light still blocked her from Kaden’s view.
The scene changed and now the Tegan he knew lay on the floor, shaking. The vampire approached her and pulled her to her knees by a handful of hair. “Cover her eyes, she is not worthy to look upon me. She is nothing but food and a whore, meant only to serve me.”
Kaden swore her eyes met his gaze before someone wrapped a black piece of fabric around her head. That’s where it originated, not with the rumors about her being a dream weaver. Tegan’s brother stirred and stood, fangs showed as he snarled. His eyes locked on to his sister.
The vampire holding Tegan laughed. “Let him feed off her.” He threw Tegan forward and Zaaren rushed to her in a starving rage and sank fangs into her. As a new vampire, he was willing to take what blood he could get and tore into her collarbone. Tegan cried out and tried to fight him, calling his name out and trying to appeal to his human side, but he refused to budge.
“This was the start of my life.” Tegan appeared next to him. “I haven’t dreamt about it in a long time.”
Kaden pressed his lips together. “This was so long ago, I’m surprised that you can remember it.”
“I don’t remember much from that time, mostly just the painful events.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to see this. You shouldn’t be here.”
Kaden took her hand and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, we all have our pasts. That is not who you are anymore, not what you are.”
The dream flashed to Tegan being pinned to the floor of a crypt of some sort with the same vampire on her, but then it was gone. Tegan sighed. “That vampire, that is the Father. I am his property, his whore, his food.” Tegan pulled her hand away from him. “No matter how strong I seem, I cannot forget that.”
He would show her, he had to show her, she was so much more. “Tegan,” the dream started to crumble around them and he cursed her tendency to sleep in short stints.
Tegan forced herself to sleep on and off until the afternoon. She was getting used to Kaden appearing in her dreams, but she never liked where they took her and what he learned. There were things he never should have known about, like her origins. She hated the idea that he got a glimpse of what she was, even if he didn’t know exactly what the Father turned her into. By afternoon she was starving and ready to do something other than hang around the mansion. She’d sent Kaden to get food while she dressed. He’d promised the night before that they could go back to her apartment. That seemed where most of the answers lay.
The demon knocked then walked in with another woman following him. Tegan frowned, feeling something familiar about her. Her brown bobbed hair and glasses flared a memory. Something about a television being shattered because of men, one of them being Coran and one she couldn’t recall a name for. She tried to recall the woman’s name, but nothing came to her. She let out a frustrated sigh, but before she could speak the woman gave her a tight hug.
Tegan tried not to let panic take over as she breathed through it and patted the woman’s back in an awkward hug. “I’m sorry, but—“
“I know, Coran told me. You don’t remember anything, but I wanted to come and see you myself. I’m Renee.”
Renee, Coran’s new mate and the woman hugged her as if they were sisters. “I’m surprised he’ll let you near me.”
“I told him you wouldn’t hurt me.” Renee gave her a gentle smile. “We are... well, were close, when you could remember.” A concerned looked crossed her face. “You used to say that it was because I reminded you of what being human was.”
Tegan felt a pang of guilt. She wanted to remember, she felt that this woman was important to her. “Wish I could remember, because right now all I remember is being a—“
“Don’t dwell.” Renee cut her off. “Don’t worry, you’ll remember and until then we’ll start from square one.”
Kaden cleared his throat. “Not that I’m not all for happy reunions, but Tegan needs to eat and we need to go if we’re going to drive to the apartment this time.”
“Demon portal is fine.” Tegan grumbled and sat down in her oversized chair. Her back still pulled a bit in pain, the subtle reminder that she still carried some wounds.
Kaden shrugged. “Okay, then. Either way eat up.”
Renee smiled. “Coran’s out in the great room waiting for me anyways. He didn’t want me to stay long.”
“Because I hate him.” Tegan shrugged. “I’m sorry, but right now with what I can remember...”
Renee nodded. “I know, I know what he did to you.” She gave one more smile before she left the room.
Tegan sighed and looked down at the salad Kaden gave her. She knew she was hungry, but nothing sounded appetizing.
“Just
a few bites.” Kaden urged. “Promise, you’ll feel a little better after you eat. We’ll make a pit stop for something else after if the salad isn’t appetizing.”
Something else. She shook her head and ate some. This time she managed to eat half the meal and not just a couple bites. “Okay, let’s go. I want to see if maybe I kept a journal or something, anything that can help with these memories.” She needed to get them back to see what happened after that video. To see if the Father was actually back or if her imagination was running wild. She hadn’t mentioned it to Kaden in fear she was going insane.
Kaden smiled. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Here’s hoping you were a person who liked to keep track of things.” He waved his hand and summoned a portal. “Shall we, my lady?”
His words sent chills through her as if there was a hidden meaning behind them. Him claiming her as his. She took his hand and closed her eyes, allowing him to take her through. After the sick feeling faded, she opened her eyes and looked around to see where he had brought her. A cafe and the aroma of coffee hit her senses and she couldn’t help but smile.
“You used to stop here every night before returning to the manor. It’s open twenty-four hours a day and they make fantastic coffee.”
Tegan nodded. “The corner table by the window.”
“Exactly, you’d sit there, drink your coffee and then turn in for the day.” Kaden smiled. “Come on, let’s get you a mocha and we’ll get you to the apartment.”
She gave a happy sigh and the two of them went in and got coffee before Kaden used a portal to take her to the apartment.
Her apartment. Not Lucius’, not Zaaren’s. Hers. She sat down on the bed and sighed.
Kaden sat next to her. “We can stay here for a while if you’d like. I know Lucius wants you back before dark, but I can tell you’re more at ease here.”
“Because there’s no pressure. No Lucius looking over my shoulder, no obligations to act as a bound human, and no reasons to hide.” She took her sunglasses off.
Kaden took her hand and kissed it. “The hiding originated with the Father, why did Lucius continue it?”
Dark War Chronicles Box Set One Page 53