Kindred Souls: Entire Series Books 1 - 5

by Bree Branigan

  Still, he needed to believe that this could work. That their kiss, as she left the room to meet up with Antoni and Elise downstairs, was not the last that they would share. He needed to believe she’d be back, victorious, and that it would be enough somehow for them to stay. To be here with their people so that he could get the training he deserved.

  Nora felt that belief. It was a solid, nurturing love she could hold on to. It never seemed naïve, just hopeful. And they could use all the hope they could get.

  Chapter 38

  Private transportation had been arranged for the occasion. It was usually reserved for elders and what they liked to call diplomatic journeys, but everyone had agreed that this one time, it would be better to just allow Nora, Antoni and Elise to travel fast and travel safely. A couple of human escorts had been assigned to ensure the plane was secured during the seventeen-hour flight to Johannesburg.

  The plane had been built especially for them so that even during those daylight hours, someone would have to know the code to unlock the window shades for them to be in any danger. They would arrive late at night and go pay their respects to the coven. If they weren’t incinerated upon sight, they could agree to meet the next night and negotiate the details of their arrangement. It wasn’t the best of plans, but it was the best they had, and they were running with it. Sometimes “a plan” was all that you could ask for and it was better than sitting there empty-handed.

  “So, do you really think they would be able to do it?”

  Antoni had been holding back a thousand questions since the night of the great reveal. He didn’t want to risk not being brought along if either of them should find his curiosity annoying, but trapped here, with sixteen hours to go, it had been impossible to resist another second without asking at least the one thing he wanted to know the most. Did they really think they were en route to saving Marcel? And what was the plan, really?

  Octavia and Lena had been unsure about his involvement at all. It really didn’t matter that he had been right about going to find Nora. He kept proving that he was impulsive and, when it came to Marcel, he was entirely reckless. Entirely careless. Elise and Nora were loyal to their maker, but Antoni had always seemed to belong to him in ways that the other two could never fully understand.

  “It’s not really about whether or not they would be able to do it,” Elise answered, staring at the closed window shade as if she could stare out into the sun.

  “What do you mean?” Antoni couldn’t keep the panic from creeping into his voice.

  “What she means is that it’s more a matter of whether or not they will be interested in helping us.” Nora spoke matter-of-factly.

  “Me.” Tears sprang to Elise’s eyes as her head flopped back into the seat. She closed her eyes and blew out a gust of air.

  “Elise…” Antoni leaned toward her. He grasped her wrist. She stiffened.

  “Would you two just stop that?” Nora felt snappish, tense, nervous.

  “I’m sorry.” Elise spoke in barely a whisper.

  “Just tell me what the fuck is going on. Were the two of you really that involved?” Antoni could not give up.

  “We existed in peace for a year, Tone…” Elise’s voice was low, thin.

  Never had this woman sounded so small. Never in hundreds and hundreds of years together, of knowing and supporting each other, had Antoni seen her acting like this.

  “What do you mean?” His voice was becoming shrill.

  “I mean you don’t remember it, but you know her. You know them all. You knew about us and helped us lie our way through it up until Marcel found out. You lied to Marcel for us.”

  “What are you talking about?” He stared at her, wide-eyed, and then looked at Nora. “What is she talking about?”

  “You just got it,” Elise kept talking, her eyes never turning back to them, her face heavy with something that looked a lot like agony. “You saw how much we loved each other and you were furious,” she laughed. “God, you were completely livid, but you got it and you helped us meet and helped me spend my nights there and get out of my duties and into duties that would get me closer to her.”

  “What is she talking about, Nora?” Antoni jerked his head toward Nora, looking entreatingly into her eyes.

  “Just listen to her,” Nora said, leaning further down in one of the big comfortable chairs lining the private jet.

  “I am listening to her, but she’s not making sense.” Antoni was practically screaming.

  Elise continued, as if speaking to herself. “When Marcel found out the leaders of the witch’s coven were summoned into town. He met up with them. He didn’t want to risk our elders finding out about us, what we had been doing, so it was determined that the clan’s memories, the whole year spent building a balance between our two kinds, would be turned into something different. Into times of hostilities. We were so close to becoming day-walkers, everyone was so excited we couldn’t just leave the space blank…”

  “So Aine changed it all, with the help of the coven, and then they left. Only Marcel and Elise were meant to remember according to the arrangement but…” Nora continued.

  “But I begged Aine to give me Nora… to just let me lean on her.”

  Antoni was speechless. He hated the idea of having been manipulated by witches. Even if they were witches he allegedly liked. As much as he wanted to be indignant about this whole thing, he couldn’t. The tears streaming down Elise’s face made it impossible for him to ignore just how painful it must have been. How much she must have loved that witch.

  “Aine offered to wipe the slate clean for her, too, but she couldn’t do it,” Nora explained when she realized Elise couldn’t do it herself. “She agreed, but they couldn’t stay and that was the last time they saw each other. Her coven knows that they were forced out of town because of their recklessness and our clan was made to think we are mortal enemies.”

  “How long has it been?” Antoni asked.

  Elise closed her eyes.

  “It’s been thirty years,” Nora interrupted again. “They haven’t heard or spoken to each other in thirty years.”

  Sure, for them it may not have seemed like a particularly shocking amount of time. But Aine was no longer that young twenty-year-old who had never seen much other than what this beautiful, seductive, dark vampire showed her. A whole adult life-time stood between her and Elise and now, as they got closer, Elise became more and more worried about what she would find when they got there.

  “Is she still alive?” Antoni asked, breaking a long silence.

  “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 39

  “I could kill the three of you with a snap of my fingers…”

  That voice. Elise would have recognized it any place, any time, no matter how many years stood between them. No matter how much thicker, graver, it sounded. How different. It almost gave her a visual of the woman she would find when she turned around; a woman that had been just a kid when they knew each other. A grown up. All that wide-eyed wonder and excitement transformed into experience and know-how. Into power.

  “Aine.” Elise’s voice quavered a little, but she was determined to remain strong.

  Nora stood still, her hand reaching for Antoni’s, keeping it low. As if trying to tell him not to make any sudden motions while Elise and this woman were talking.

  It hadn’t been a surprise to any of them to find that the coven was housed in a beautiful house, not entirely unlike theirs. The surprise had come with how easy it had been to get to it and ask for audience, almost as if they had been expected.

  Still, Aine’s words hadn’t exactly been welcoming. “What the fuck are you three doing here?”

  “We need your help…” Nora instantly regretted stepping into fill in the blanks.

  “Can we talk?” Elise looked nervous, uncertain as she turned around to look at Aine for the first time in thirty years. Like a little girl trying to speak to a grown-up. She knew this witch could make her vanish in ways far worse
than fire.

  Thirty years of nights dreaming of this woman had not prepared Elise for this moment. For the beautiful dark skin and the way time had only managed to make the witch more stunning. She had long, dark curls, still the color of night. The lines of a life well-lived life were carved into the corners of her eyes in a manner that made them smile even though she wasn’t.

  Elise couldn’t help feeling inadequate in her unchanging nature. She was the same woman. The styles of time were still similar enough for her to remain the same dark leather-clad vampiress she had been all those years ago when they first found each other. When Elise was assigned to show Aine around town in an effort to make a lasting bond between their two groups. A lasting bond that had been ruined when the two had stopped feigning disinterest. Stopped ignoring the chemistry that would ultimately break their hearts.

  “Please.” All the love and longing she felt was distinctly engraved on Elise’s face.

  If Aine had been shaken by Elise’s presence, she was good at hiding it. Her eyes went from Nora to Antoni to Elise, regarding them coolly before turning to her two escorts and nodding her head.

  “Follow me.”

  Nora was about to protest when Elise shook her head. This was something she needed to do on her own. This was something she needed to talk out and see through, even if both Antoni and Nora thought there were more important things to discuss.

  Without another word, she left them standing there and began to follow Aine down the long hall into what Elise assumed was an office.

  What she found instead was a bedroom, a four-post bed, the decorations on the walls and general design of the room making her realize that it wasn’t just a bedroom, it was Aine’s. Before she could say anything she heard the door close. A tug on the back of her shirt spun her around. Then Aine caught her face in those impossibly warm hands and pulled her into a kiss. Kissed her with those soft, full lips that had always burned through her.

  She still tasted like her Aine. Still tasted like that exciting young woman she had loved all those years ago and, secretly, all those years since.

  Surprise melted into compliance as they began to take each other’s clothes off, unwrapping each other with years of anticipation fuelling their hungry fingers. Elise unbuttoned the long line of small beads that kept Aine’s purple silk gown fitted against her otherwise naked body, the magic in her making her body glow more than it ever had before. It made her want to drink from her, taste her like she had in the past. This was different, though. They were different. They were other people rediscovering each other’s bodies urgently, and Elise arched and moaned against that red-hot touch.

  She had forgotten how fucking good it felt to be touched by a human this way. The way their arousal, their hot skin, burned holes that the cold familiarity of vampiric glow could never compare to. No matter how many charms it had on its own.

  The two tumbled wordlessly, letting their bodies close the distance all those years had breached between them.

  Aine was not worried about the changes her body had gone through and she stretched and posed for Elise as they stumbled back onto her bed, still kissing. Touching. Moaning as she felt those dexterous hands tug on her panties, get them out of the way, and then press up against her hot, wet cunt. Her hips desperately rising to meet each caress, urging her on.

  Neither of them spoke.

  Elise knew that Aine was holding back, trying not to beg her to use another finger, to go faster. To fuck her. Trying not to plead with her the way she had before. She, similarly, stayed quiet. Moaned and groaned against her skin, but tried not to speak a word. Not to talk to her. Not to break the spell of their bodies moving in waves that brought them closer each time.

  It wasn’t what Elise had been expecting, but as Aine used sunlit hands to burn her wrists down back against the mattress, her cries were all pleasure and surprise. All delight. All fucking gladness.

  Aine pulled at her ear-lobe with her teeth, her nipples grazing Elise’s own. Her groin ground against Elise, causing her to writhe and moan. Aine raised herself to look deeply into her eyes. The way she looked at her made Elise dizzy with excitement. Still she didn’t speak. All the words Elise wanted to say were in her eyes, looking up at her lover.

  Silky fingers trailed against the hollow of her throat and down between her breasts. Elise’s eyes fluttered closed, and she gave herself up completely. She felt Aine’s hands move across her smooth belly, passing over her shaven mound and downward. She gasped as those fingers plucked her clit. Taking it between her thumb and index finger, Aine rolled her clit until she whimpered, feeling a jolt of electricity burning a clear path of desire up her belly and through her limbs.

  Aine moved downward, her luscious, delicate lips kissing and sucking and worshipping every inch of Elise; glorying in her. Her lips grazed her thighs, her calves, her feet, and slowly, tantalizingly, she moved upward again.

  Elise shuddered as Aine’s loving tongue hit her clit, swirling and flickering. Elise could feel her long, thick hair brushing her thighs. And she was jolted into action. Arching her body, she pushed herself into Aine, relishing the sensation in her cunt. Guttural grunts escaped her lips as she twisted her body to caress Aine’s brawny back and buttocks. The bed creaked as the two women moved into a 69 position. The air was alive with passion. Covered in the sheen of sweat, their bodies glistened as they loved one another once again. Finally, they erupted in spasms as their delicious orgasms wracked their bodies.

  Whatever was to happen next, Elise had been with the woman of her dreams one more time. She had kissed her hard, fucked her roughly, and orgasmed a handful of times before collapsing. Panting. Her lips bruised. Her mind too hot and bothered to answer with anything but the truth when Aine started questioning her about their intentions and plans.

  Chapter 40

  They sat in a dimly lit room, decorated in modern style with gleaming hardwood floors and low-slung furniture.

  “You want them to do what?” Antoni’s mouth hung open.

  “Replace Ben with you,” Nora said simply, as if what she was asking was the most routine procedure of them all.

  Nora hadn’t asked Elise, but she had to believe that the fact that their audience with the coven’s leaders had come around in less than two nights after their arrival, had something to do with her being an extraordinary fuck. Not only that, but instead of being incinerated upon site, the three of them were currently guests under the protection of Lady Aine, who had in their time apart grown into the most powerful witch in their coven.

  “What are you talking about? What do you mean replace Ben?” Antoni jumped to his feet, facing his two clan-members, his fists clenched.

  Nora spoke calmly, despite her racing heart. “Marcel’s head knows Ben is there so we can’t just make him disappear, leave a void that would only make Marcel…”

  “Incomplete,” Aine interrupted from her seat opposite them, flanked by three other witches on each side, only slightly less powerful than her and far more inclined to set them on fire at the slightest provocation. Her council. “What I don’t understand is what we will be getting out of this.”

  Elise looked a little hurt, but she understood. She knew that this was business even as she felt her heart drop to her feet.

  “Our elders are prepared to negotiate our previous arrangement, admit the truth about the whole thing.” Elise spoke, her voice quavering slightly.

  “But that would mean…” Aine’s cool shattered, if only for a few beats. A few breaths until she regained it.

  “Yes,” Elise nodded from her place at Nora’s side, her hands clasped behind her, her stance one of a soldier. Always alert. “I am prepared to deal with the consequences for my transgressions on the rules observed by my clan.”

  “But you could die…”

  Nora cleared her throat. “We are hoping it won’t have to come to that,” she spoke softly. “We are hoping that this, helping save our leader, will make our elders grant an unprecedented pardon. We b
elieve that it’s time to put all of this behind us; make everybody’s lives what we have always wanted them to be. You could tap into our town’s source of power and we could resume a peaceful existence without having to lose the man that has made us the least sanguinary vampire clan in history. We can’t do it without Marcel.”

  “You mean it can actually be done?” Antoni asked, still incredulous.

  Elise continued. “He won’t forget about Ben, but it will be just a memory. You will take his place as his kindred. It’ll be hard on you, on your psyche, but if you are willing to risk it, the two of you will be connected forever.”

  “And Ben will be gone,” Nora said.

  “Yes, Marcel will be completely free of Ben,” added Elise.

  “So what’s the catch?” Antoni wondered.

  “There’s no catch,” Aine shook her head. “Everything Ben knew about Marcel you will know; your mind is either strong enough to handle all the new information or it isn’t.”