Decebal grunted and turned to point at Dakota. “Now, let’s figure out how we are going to get you and your Nishon together.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Nimo groaned in agony and curled tighter into a ball, sweating profusely as he prayed for death or for the pain to stop. Zay sat on his bed next to him, gently wiping him with a cold washcloth, softly humming a song that Nimo didn’t know and it took every ounce of patience he possessed to not tell his own son to shut up. He was battling a migraine and every noise, from Zay humming, to the air conditioner, to Lucas softly making soup in the kitchen sounded about two hundred times louder.
He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and could tell by the slight step-glide, step-glide, that it was Dietrick, who walked with an uneven gait after being horribly gay bashed by his family when he was thirteen. His hip and leg hadn’t healed properly so he walked with a slight limp. The doctors wanted him to walk with a cane, which Dietrick absolutely refused to do, so instead he limped.
Nimo looked up and smiled weakly when Dietrick stopped in the doorway and held up a bag from the pharmacy.
“I’ve got drugs,” he said softly.
“Thank God,” Nimo said, as he pushed up into a sitting position.
“Daddy. You need the doctuh,” Zay said. It was the same thing he’d been saying for the last twenty-four hours, for days before that he’d been remarkably quiet as Nimo had been slowly getting sicker. Nimo was pretty sure he was just coming down with the flu, some strange strain that made him feel as if his insides were being ripped out, but Zay insisted Nimo needed to go to the hospital.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital, baby,” Nimo reassured his son, reaching out to touch him. “I just need to take some medicine and get some sleep and I’ll feel much better.”
“Nuh-uh,” Zay said, shaking his head. “You need Doctuh Dakotuh.”
Nimo coughed as he looked at his son, pain lancing through him at the man’s name. He grabbed his stomach. It felt as if he’d been socked there, and Nimo held his stomach, leaning over the edge of the bed retching, struggling not to vomit.
When Dietrick touched him to soothe him, Nimo’s back arched and he gasped when Dietrick was thrown across the room into the wall.
“Dietrick!” Nimo called out. He crawled off the bed, towards his friend, growing weaker with each second. Halfway across the room, his limbs gave out and he collapsed face first into the floor.
“Holy fuck! What the hell was that, Nimo?” Dietrick asked seconds later.
“Don’t know,” Nimo admitted, talking into the carpet of his bedroom floor. “I think that damn vampire doctor put a curse on me.”
“Okay, now you’re talking delusional.” Dietrick started walking towards him and Nimo held up a hand.
“Don’t come any closer!” Nimo commanded him. “I don’t want you to get hurt again.” He waved his hand. “I’m not sure why you can’t touch me, but you can’t. Apparently, only Zay can. Let him. Zay, come here.”
“But…” Dietrick started, but his words were cut off by the sound of pounding on Nimo’s front door.
“Daddy, the doctuhs awe heyuh,” Zay said.
“What?” Nimo asked.
“The doctuhs,” Zay said before he took off running. Nimo wanted to call him back but he didn’t have the energy to do so. When the door opened, he felt a surge of something fill him and he was able to shove himself up onto his knees.
“Daddy! Doctuh Dakotuh is heyuh!” Zay called out seconds before he led a group of men into Nimo’s bedroom, carrying Dakota in their arms. Nimo gasped and pushed himself up onto his shaky legs.
“What happened?” he asked.
One of the men, he would guess was Dakota’s father because while he looked like the other men, he appeared much older than the rest of them, turned and stared directly at Nimo.
“You are my son’s sufletul pereche,” he said. No sooner were those words out of his mouth than two of the men dropped Dakota to the bed and seemed as if they were dragged by some magnetic force towards Lucas and Dietrick who both stood in Nimo’s bedroom. They both smiled and stammered out introductions and Nimo would have thought it was adorable if he weren’t so concerned about Dakota. “And apparently your friends belong to two of my other sons.”
“I thought Lucas and Dietrick were your uncles,” one of the men said softly, not taking his eyes off of Dietrick’s face, even though he spoke to Zay who stood in the middle of the room.
“They awe. Daddy said that they adopted us when our blood family gave us up,” Zay said.
Nimo waved his hand. “Can someone please tell me what the frack is going on?” He glanced over at Dakota—no, Dr. Dakota Sevion—on the bed and realized that he was starting to feel a little better than he had only minutes before. He didn’t want to ask himself why that was, but his body, that had been wracked with pain for a week, was relieved.
“I am Decebal Sevion, Dakotavitch’s father. You are his mate, his sufletul pereche. In our world, the mate bond begins as soon as a vampire comes into contact with their sufletul pereche. They have two weeks to complete the bond or the vampire will die of thirst,” Decebal said.
“But it’s only been a week!” Nimo protested.
“Indeed it has been. But you see, your son is a forziq. He is special. He has gifts that make him both a blessing and a curse to the paranormal community. He has the ability to see and smell vampires, rogues and werewolves. He can also see mated pairs, which means he can help people find the ones that they are fated to be with. This is a special thing for us,” Decebal said. Nimo looked at his son in amazement. “But in ancient times, there were those who used their gifts for evil, for monetary gain and for sport.”
Nimo nodded. He could see that. There were so many people out there who didn’t use their talents and their gifts to make the world a better place but for greed. People like that had always disgusted him.
“These forziqs started wars and battles in families, covens, packs, countries. Your history books are rife with them. They are incorrect in why many of them started, or the true purpose behind many of them, but this is neither here nor there. One of the biggest decisions that the Council of Paranormal Elders came to was to eliminate all forziqs when they were discovered.”
Nimo’s blood ran cold and he raced over to Zay and grabbed him, swinging him up into his arms. “If you try to hurt my son, I will kill you. I don’t care if you are some kind of undead monster. I will gut you.”
Decebal chuckled. “Dakotavitch was right. You have great fire and strength. That is good. You will need it. Worry not, my son. We will not harm you nor little Isaiah. You see, as my son’s sufletul pereche, you are considered my son as well, which makes your son, my first and so far, my only grandson. I will protect the both of you with my life.”
Nimo’s eyebrows rose at the man’s words. “But why?”
“Because, my son, you are blood.”
Nimo shook his head. “That doesn’t mean anything. It didn’t matter to my parents.”
Decebal tsked. “Some of you humans are fickle creatures. You do not understand how truly strong the bond of family is supposed to be. It is supposed to be unbreakable. Unshakeable. The foundation of family is so strong it can bear the weight of anything that life places upon it. The walls of a family’s home are to be so impenetrable that not even an atomic bomb has any impact. But so many of the families I see humans claim are conditional, even the ones that they are born into. This is not so for vampires. The blood bond cannot be broken in life. Not even death can sever the bond. Only intent can do that, and even then, the bond remains in some capacity. It shifts to make room for a new bond to be formed but it is still there.”
Nimo’s eyes filled with unshed tears and he looked at Dakota then, lying on his bed, his skin, which was once bronzed and healthy, looking pale and sallow. He swallowed back the cry of dismay and stepped forward.
“What happened to him?” he asked softly. He wanted to touch the other man but he re
sisted the urge at the last minute, even though every cell in his body trembled with the need to do so.
“This is what happens to a vampire when their sufletul pereche denies their blood bond. The vampire experiences periods of rage, then moments of extreme weakness and extreme thirst, until they slip into a coma, then they die from the thirst. Because of Isaiah being a forziq and the fact that vampires blood bond with every member of a sufletul pereche’s immediate family, their parents, their siblings and their children, the blood bond between you and Dakotavitch is exaggerated. So where this would have normally taken two weeks with any of my other sons, it has only taken one week with him.”
Nimo’s eyes widened. “He’s dead?” he asked softly.
Decebal shook his head. “No. He’s merely in a coma, but he is dying, little one. The bond needs to be completed between you or he will die. I know that he tried to keep your full identity from me so that I would not bring him here and you would not feel guilted into this decision. It is why his brothers also waited so long before bringing him to you to see if you would try to find him, but he is my son, and you were made for him as he was made for you and I do not want to lose him.”
Nimo gulped. “I-I don’t know. I don’t even know what this all means. I don’t know what it means to be a-a whatever it is.”
One of Dakota’s brothers walked over to him and stood in front of him. He gestured toward Dakota and smiled. “Nishon, are you gay?”
Nimo’s eyes widened. “That’s a little personal, don’t you think?”
“This is important. A matter of life and death and my brother’s life hangs in the balance, I think the time for social niceties and all of that bullshit can take a backseat right now.”
Nimo swallowed and nodded. “Yes, I am.”
Zay whispered in his ear, “Daddy, he said one of the wuhds on the list.”
“I’m sorry, little Isaiah, I’ll try to watch what I say, okay?”
Zay nodded.
“My name is Jersey,” the man introduced himself. “Being a sufletul pereche to a vampire is one of the greatest things in the world and I’m not just saying that because I want you to save my brother’s life. Dakota will never be able to cheat on you. He will be incapable of doing so.”
Nimo’s eyebrows rose at that information. “Really?”
Jersey nodded. “Truly. He…” Jersey paused and gestured towards Zay. “Perhaps it would be best if the little one didn’t hear this?”
Nimo looked at Zay, wondering what it was that the… vampire, could possibly be getting ready to say to him that his son couldn’t hear and he nodded. “Zay? Baby? Airplane.”
Zay sighed in disappointment and stuck his fingers in his ears and started to hum, something Nimo had taught him to do whenever they’d been on an airplane and been about to take off so that he wouldn’t be afraid of the sound of the plane taking off. It came in handy whenever Nimo was talking to his friends and they wanted to say something that Zay was too young to hear. Zay didn’t like it, but it was effective. Nimo looked back at Jersey and nodded for him to continue.
“Dakota won’t be able to even get an erection with anyone else but you. No matter how much porn he watches, who he looks at, or what they try with him, he won’t even be turned on unless he’s around you, looking at you, or smelling you. He won’t even get a boner. He will be completely faithful. He will protect you and Isaiah until he draws his last breath. You, Isaiah and your entire family will be guarded not only by Dakota but by the entire Sevion family and as you can see, we’re some pretty big guys and even though our mother and our three sisters aren’t here, they’re pretty fierce too.”
“You have sisters?” Nimo asked.
Jersey smiled. “Yeah, but they’re young. Daciana is only sixteen, Oana is eight, and Tatiana is four. Unfortunately they won’t be able to keep the Sevion name going and all of us are gay or think we’re bisexual, like Colorado, so…”
Nimo chuckled. “That must suck if all of your sufletul pereches are males.”
Jersey nodded. “Your lifeline will be extended to that of Dakota’s so you’ll live as long as he will, you won’t have to sit and watch him die or worry about sitting and watching him die or vice versa. And it’s the same with Isaiah. While his lifeline isn’t extended to Dakota’s, it’s a lot longer than it once was, or it will be once you bond with Dakota. You’ll be a lot stronger than you already are, you’ll heal faster, so will Isaiah, because Dakota’s blood will help you to do that. You’ll be able to mindspeak with Dakota as well once you bond with him. You know, talk to each other in your heads, I hear it’s extremely intimate and amazing.”
Nimo nodded as he listened to Jersey explain things to him and he could definitely see the benefits of bonding to Dakota. But there was one very big thing he was leaving out and it was the most important one.
“What about love?” he asked. “This is all a fate thing, right? Fate determined that I was perfect for Dakota and he was perfect for me but it didn’t determine that he would love me or that I would love him. What about that?” Nimo realized his legs were no longer trembling with the effort to hold him upright and he wondered if it was his proximity to Dakota. If his pain was lessening just by being close to Dakota, was it happening for Dakota as well? Or was it different for the vampire? He wanted to smack his head then. Of course it was. Dakota’s family had pretty much told him just as much. Dakota needed his blood. He needed them to consummate their mating in order for him to be well. In order for him to not… die. And Nimo really didn’t want him to die.
Jersey rose to his full height and Nimo found himself straining to look up at the man, he had to be at least seven feet tall and he glanced over at Decebal who smiled softly at Nimo. He patted Jersey on his shoulder and stepped in front of Nimo. Decebal was the same height as Jersey, broad shouldered, with more gray than black in his long, straight black hair. His face was unwrinkled and he appeared distinguished. Like he could be in his late sixties and he clearly took very good care of himself. Nimo found himself wondering if Dakota would resemble his father when he got older, because the man looked very good.
“That’s all up to you, little one. You and Dakota. Fate doesn’t promise love. Fate promises that love has a chance, that’s all. It is up to those involved that love grows where Fate has planted the seed.”
Nimo nodded and cast an eye over at Dakota. The big man seemed to be barely breathing and Nimo found that he was trying to breathe for him. It was very unnerving. Breathe you stupid vampire, if Fate brought you to me so we could possibly find love, I’m not going to spit in its face.
“So what do I have to do?”
§ § §
Dakota was distantly aware of his mouth being opened. He wasn’t sure what a coma was like for everyone else but for him it was like a halfway state of being asleep and awake at the same time. He’d been in a deep sleep just days before when his brothers had told his father that they would try to find Nishon’s address.
He’d thought he would be able to accept Nishon’s rejection. Days before he’d slipped into the coma or the “deep sleep” and his brothers had gone to find Nishon’s address, Dakota had gone to work and had been fine. He’d been performing a surgery on a young woman who’d gotten a homemade dildo, made of condom wrappers around a remote control, lodged in her anus, and was just finishing up when he’d grown lightheaded. He’d had to ask for one of the interns to finish and had barely made it the conference room where he’d contacted his brothers before he’d slipped into the coma.
He’d spent days where he’d been lost in the darkness calling out for Nishon, surrounded by his scent, his throat dry as he became thirstier and thirstier. The harried voices of his brothers, sisters, and his parents had surrounded him for days before he’d finally become aware of the faintest whiff of his sufletul pereche. It had grown stronger and stronger before his nose had begun to twitch and his mind had begun to clear. It wasn’t enough to bring him out of the somn adânc but it was enough to make him awa
re of the moment when Nishon asked what he needed to do to bond them together.
Dakota’s heart began to pound in his chest with anticipation and he wished he could shout for joy, but his body was just a lump of flesh lying on Nishon’s bed.
“You will need to slice your wrist and hold it over Dakotavitch’s mouth. His body will take care of the rest. If any of us makes the cut, the bond will not snap into place,” Decebal stated.
Dakota wanted to protect his sufletul pereche from inflicting any pain on himself but while he yelled at his body to move and tried with all his might to get off the bed, nothing happened. Not even his eyes moved.
“Take Zay out of the room, please Lucas,” Nishon said.
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