Blood & Amber Eyes: A Craving Crimson World Story

by Kate Bonham

  “Gypsies?”

  He nodded. “Yes, that is the human word for them. She grew up in quite a strict family, a strong family, and when she fell in love with me, a little rebellion of hers, they banned her from seeing me. It was quite the love affair we had, until my father found out and married me to someone who’d been trying to get me to settle down with her for a long time.”

  “She loves you?”

  “Never,” he said. “But a royal doesn’t tend to have a choice when it comes to love. We marry and mate with the purest of bloodlines.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “We don’t really know any different,” he said. “I would like to teach you about our laws, and about what we are, if you’d allow me?”

  I nodded. “I know a little bit, but I’d love to know more. I just…well, I don’t know if you know but I have a stepfather.”

  “Bram has told me.”

  “He’s missing.”

  Hallec frowned, and it seemed absolutely genuine. “Do you know where he’s gone or where he was last seen?” he asked.

  “No, he wouldn’t just take off, no matter what people say. He’s not that guy, he all but raised me while my mother was lost in the bottle.”

  “I can help you find him,” he said. “I would wish to shake this man’s hand for raising such a brave, and beautiful young woman.”

  “You’re not jealous?”

  Hallec smiled. “No, although it would have been nice to know you were alive, still, I am glad you didn’t have to be raised in the Blackmaw way.”

  “Does that make my last name Blackmaw?” I asked. I must have had a funny look on my face because he laughed.

  “Technically yes, but you can keep your current name if you please.”

  “Let’s see how we go,” I said.

  “Fair enough. Have you shifted yet?” he asked me, standing up again and putting his hands in his pockets.

  “No,” I said. “I’ve never shifted, but I get really hungry, my temper can flare suddenly and I want to rip people’s faces off. I also run really hot.”

  “Okay,” he said. “That’s good, it means you have control. Let’s get to finding your stepfather. What’s his name?”

  “Bastien. Bastien Delacroix.”

  “That name sounds very familiar,” he said, the frown returning. “What is he?”

  “A Watcher.”

  “Has he upset an Alchemist?”

  “I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound like something he would do.”

  “Let’s get Bram in here and we can start trying to find him.”

  I nodded. “Thank you, f—father.”

  Hallec gave me a look of…pride, maybe?

  “I’ll earn the name, Mae, I promise.”

  “You’re not as scary as people led me to believe. Why are people scared of your family?” I asked him.

  “I’m not like them. I’m not brutal, but they believe they are the better bloodline and they act it. I don’t want them to lure you in, you deserve so much more than what they can offer you.”

  I nodded. “I trust you, somehow, I trust you.

  He smiled, put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly.

  Bram

  Two weeks later

  Hal was exactly as I remembered him. Brave, strong and incredibly worried about what his family were up to. He’d used his family’s Alchemist to track Mae here, which meant the rest of his family would know about her by now surely. He’d done more harm than good, and we needed to protect her. He sat across from me in my study, his head in his hands as he tried to figure out how to hide her away from them.

  Hal’s uncle Orphax was a council elder, yet he’d been linked to some of the most gregarious deaths in the lycanthrope world. An elder was not meant to partake in family matters once they took the oath, but Orphax was never one to listen to rules. His brother, Hal’s father, Fenneck, was no different, although as King of the Blackmaw, he was a little more brutal. It had been him who had killed the last Evermane family and delighted in the fact. Sometimes I wondered how Hallec could have ever been born to such a man.

  “We need to find this stepfather of hers,” he said, after a very long silence. “Perhaps we can get her chasing some false leads, always on the run, until we can neutralize the threat.”

  “Are you talking about removing the King and the Elder?” I asked, sitting forward. “There are grave consequences for this decision.”

  “Not if done right,” he said. “Leave no trace, there are people who are loyal to me.”

  “You’re asking them to sacrifice themselves for you,” I said.

  “I will reward their families generously,” he said. “Bram, this is the only way.”

  “I want to protect her as well, but this is ludicrous. Even I know this won’t go the way you want. We can figure out another way.”

  “I’ll be King eventually,” he said, sitting back in the chair.

  “And how do you want to start out your reign? This is who they are, not you. If you go down this path, you’ll be one of them, from this day until your last day.”

  “Then tell me an alternative,” he said. “But if there are none by midnight, I’ll be forced to take it. I’ve failed that girl long enough; I won’t let my family be the cause of her end.”

  He stood up and moved from the room. It was hard for me to see him go through such a change of heart, but I could see he was only doing what was best for Mae. He’d known her a mere few hours and yet he was in full protective dad mode which was rare for lycans. I knew they didn’t raise their young, yet Hal had always been different. It was the reason why he didn’t get along with his brutal family, and the reason we had been friends all those years ago.

  I owed him this, he’d saved my skin decades ago, and now he needed me to save his. Moving from my study, I headed down to Mae’s room. She was lying on top of the covers, her eyes aimed out at the window.

  “Won’t you turn to dust if you go into sunlight?” she asked.

  I smiled at her naivety. “Not quite. Come with me.”

  She jumped off the bed and took my hand as I led her down the stairs and toward the back of the castle. We came out into the forests in my backyard, which was not the territory of Ferenc’s pack. The sun shone through the treetops, lighting the forest up to show all of the creatures who lived here.

  “I thought you guys couldn’t handle the sun?” she asked me.

  “Newlings can’t, but Ancients and Trueborns can. It’s mildly annoying is all, but I will not catch on fire as you have clearly seen in movies.”

  She looked at me, sheepishly, which made me laugh. I took her through the forests, pointing out certain animals only native to Romania, and watched as she delighted in the views from mountaintops. I brought her to the cave where I’d stayed not long after I’d escaped my creator’s clutches and hidden away for years.

  “You really stayed in here? What did you eat?”

  “Hikers.”

  “Truly?” she asked, clearly horrified.

  “I had no choice,” I told her. “I never killed them, simply fed and left. Now, we have blood banks who cater to our needs.”

  “How did you get the castle?”

  “It was abandoned and looked a trifle less than occupiable,” I smiled at the memory. “So, I found the owner and he offered it to me for a price, of course.”

  “And now you own it.”

  “I do.”

  Mae was smiling at me, before her gaze caught onto something behind me and her expression changed. Her smile dropped instantly.

  “Who’s that?” she asked.

  I turned, only to see through a clearing that I had more visitors at my door. I looked closely, thankfully I had zoom vision with my Nosferatu gifts, and saw the insignia on the door of the car.

  Shit.

  The Blackmaw King.

  “Mae, I need you to stay here. Stay in the cave until I come back, okay?”

  “Who is it?”

  “An old
enemy, and I can’t risk your life. Please, listen to me, stay here. I will come back for you when it is safe.”

  She wanted to argue, I could see it in her eyes, but she nodded and headed into the cave. I raced down the mountainside and toward my castle.

  Fenneck wasn’t known for his patience, but thankfully Mae was safe. Hallec on the other hand may not be.

  Five

  Bram

  “King Fenneck,” I said, coming into the foyer from the back. “How unexpected.”

  “Is my arrival so unexpected, nosferatu?” he asked with the common sneer of his face. “I know my son is here, where is he?”

  “I’ll call for him,” I said, moving to the staircase.

  “You can also call down the whore I know he’s seeing behind his wife’s back.”

  I stopped where I was. Fenneck assumed the reason Hallec had tracked using the Alchemist was for Amabelle. Mae could yet be safe. I raced up to see him only to have him readying himself with weapons.

  “Hal,” I said, moving to stop him. “Listen to me, listen carefully. Fenneck believes you tracked here for Amabelle, not for Mae.”

  Hallec was surprised, but not altogether, unhappy about it. “Well she was here; we could use this to keep Mae safe.”

  “She is safe with Ferenc’s pack for now,” I said. “Leave now with Fenneck and promise never to disrespect your wife again and you may save Mae the fate of the Blackmaw name.”

  Hallec removed his weapons, keeping only his twin blades strapped to his ankles, and headed downstairs. By now, Fenneck’s advisor and guard were standing behind him, looking rather impatient.

  “Father,” Hallec said, gravely. “What brings you here?”

  “Enough of this folly, Hallec,” he said, sternly. “You will return home to your wife, do you understand?”

  Hallec paused. “Yes.”

  “Come now.”

  Hallec turned to me, gave me a knowing look which I knew meant to protect Mae, and walked down to the car. Just as they were about to get in, I saw someone running up the driveway.

  No. Not now.

  Amabelle ran for us with ferocity, her human legs bringing her as far as they could. Hallec froze, unsure what to do. He hadn’t seen Amabelle yet. Ferenc had taken her before they could see each other. When she was close enough, the look on her face was evident. The love was still there.

  And Hallec wore an identical expression.

  One that told Fenneck that she had not been the reason he’d come to Romania. It clicked for him, and he slammed the car door shut.

  “What the hell is going on here?” he bellowed. “If not for the whore, then who did you track here?”

  “For her, father,” Hallec tried but his voice wasn’t convincing. He was still frightened of his father’s rage, just like he had been all those years ago. Fenneck moved to Amabelle with speed, clasping her by the throat and holding her in the air. She struggled to breathe as Hallec jumped to action.

  “Let her go!” Hallec yelled. I could feel the tension in the air as Hallec’s anger took over. His hands began to buck as the transformation began.

  “Hal!” I yelled out. “Not now, you could hurt Amabelle.”

  That put a stop in the transformation, and Hallec took a few deep breaths regaining his composure.

  “Let her down, King Fenneck!” I yelled over to him. “She is a guest of this house and under my protection. Remember the laws.”

  Fenneck knew the customs and he knew if he hurt her after I’d given her sanctuary, he’d have to answer to the tribunal. He let her go and she crashed to the ground with a thud. Hallec ran to her, picking her up and pulling her back to the house.

  “You believe this will stop me from getting her killed,” Fenneck laughed. “Believe me, Nosferatu, I will have this entire castle burned if it means killing the weakness in my family.”

  “Come back tomorrow,” I offered. “We can sit down and talk it over. Perhaps acting with civility is what this calls for.”

  “I will find who you tracked here, son. I will find her, and I will kill her.”

  I felt my own rage bubble to the surface at the mere mention of someone hurting Mae, but I kept my own anger in check until his car disappeared down the drive.

  Hallec was checking Amabelle for signs of injury, and I felt like I was perhaps in the wrong place.

  “Where is Mae?” she asked, her voice croaky.

  “I’ll get her,” I said. “She’s hiding away for now.”

  “No,” Hallec said. “It’s best if she stays hidden. Stay with her, and protect her, please. I will stay here and see if I can call on anyone to aid me. Father will not back down; you know this as well as I.”

  I nodded. “I know. Call Ferenc, his pack will help protect you.”

  He nodded and I headed back up to the cave, praying she was still there.

  Mae

  When Bram walked in through the cave entrance a short time after he’d left me here, I felt relief flood through me.

  “Is the coast clear?” I asked him.

  He looked grim. Not at all like someone who had gotten rid of a pesky guest. “Not quite, we’ll have to stay here a little longer.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Let’s just stay here,” he told me. “Tell me more about your stepfather.”

  “I don’t like it when people withhold the truth from me, Bram.”

  He closed his eyes briefly, knowing he needed to tell me, because I know it had everything to do with me.

  “Your grandfather followed your father here,” I told her. “He thought at first it was because he was chasing your mother, but then well, let’s just say he figured it was something else. He doesn’t know who you are, or that there is a child, but he knows Hal is keeping a secret and he intends to find out.”

  “Is he still down there?”

  “No, he’s gone, but we aren’t going to be safe forever.”

  I sat back onto the old mattress with a thud. “This is all my fault because I went looking for Bastien.”

  “No,” Bram said, sitting next to me. “It’s not your fault. You were born because of a true love partnership, one that was forbidden which means you will probably always have to prove yourself to someone. You went looking for Bastien because you love him, he raised you, and that makes you a good person.”

  “I wish, sometimes, that maybe he met someone better than my mom. She wasn’t so nice to him all the time, and when Ferenc took us into that hidden tunnel, she said he wasn’t such a nice guy. I wanted to hit her so bad for that.”

  “She did?” he asked me. “She said that about her husband?”

  “Yeah, but he’s never been hard on her ever even when she’d disappear for days on end on a binge.”

  “Did he have children of his own?”

  “No,” I told him. “I never understood why, but I guess it has something to do with the drama with his own family.”

  “Do you know what happened with them?”

  “No, he never wanted to talk about it with me.”

  I was bummed when I thought about that, Bastien knew everything about me. He’d even known when I had skipped school, and when I’d been suspended for smoking behind the sheds. Not once had he raised his voice to me, but the look of disapproval was worse than any verbal beating.

  “I miss him,” I said softly.

  “Of course, you do,” Bram said, taking me under his arm and pulled me close to his body. “Soon enough this trouble with Fenneck will be dealt with and we can focus on finding him again.”

  “That’d be great.”

  ◆◆◆

  A chill crept across my skin as the sun disappeared from outside of the cave. I shivered a little, which had Bram hugging me tighter.

  “I have a blanket somewhere in here,” he said, getting up.

  “You needed a blanket?” I asked him, hugging my arms and rubbing them for heat. “I didn’t think Nosferatu felt the cold.”

  “We don’t, but I needed somet
hing to keep the brightness out,” he told me. “Here it is.”

  He pulled it out of a box and dusted it off. I wrapped it around me, and instantly felt my goosebumps disappear.

  “The rain’s coming,” Bram said. “It’s going to get colder tonight.”

  Almost as if it were on cue, the rain started to fall over the trees below us. I moved over to the cave entrance and looked out at the darkening sky. It was light enough to see the rain, the view was breathtaking. Bram came up behind me, and we stood there just watching the rain get heavier and heavier.

  “Are you going to be okay when it gets completely dark?” he asked me. “It’ll be twice as cold as now and I only have that one blanket up here.”

  “Well there is one way to stay warm,” I said, my heart hammering in my chest as I turned to him. He looked at me, confusion at first, then the sudden realization hit. His eyes shifted to my lips which I slowly licked and pulled the lower lip in between my teeth.

  “Mae…”

  “Come on,” I said, turning to him completely. “I see the way you look at me, and I know, because I look at you the same way. I’ve never really felt such a strong attraction to someone before, it’s almost scary.”

  “So, shouldn’t you be running from me?” he asked, moving back, putting distance between us. “We are different species.”

  “So,” I replied, moving toward him. “Do I look like someone who runs from danger?”

  “Maybe you should,” he said, putting more distance between us.

  “Why are you so scared?” I asked.

  I could see the look in his eyes. He wanted me as much as I wanted him, although it kind of felt like I was bargaining with him. I didn’t want to force him but damn, it was so tempting to have him naked and underneath me. It was exactly what I needed to clear my head and keep me warm.

  “Believe me, Mae, you don’t want this.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned back to the cave entrance. “Whatever.”

  Within seconds, I felt my body being flung around to face him, his eyes dark red and stormy, and a gruff sound coming from him as he pulled me to him and claimed my mouth with his own. I felt all the air leave my chest as I wound my arms around his neck, my tongue tangling with his own as he lifted me up. My legs wound around his waist, and instantly, I felt hotter than I ever had before. My skin was on fire as I pulled the blanket from my shoulders and let it drop around us. Bram pushed me up against the cave wall, the jagged rocks sticking into my back at odd angles, but I didn’t care; instead I invited the pain as his hands made quick work of my bra underneath my shirt. Before I could even make a move to remove the shirt, both shirt and bra were off my arms before he claimed my mouth again. I could feel the throbbing in between my legs take over as his hands ran up and down my back, oddly his skin was rough, not at all what I would imagine from a nobleman. I was pulling at his shirt, feeling it loosen in my hands, I realized he’d undone his buttons at his Nosferatu-speed, and I rolled the sleeves down his arms and threw it to the side of the cave. His chest was marbled, pure, stone abs underneath my fingertips. I ran a fingertip over his chiseled six-pack, feeling every indent, every intake of breath as I admired what could only be the outcome of hours of keeping himself fit.