by D. R. Rosier
We were a couple of hours south of Dallas, and I was absolutely bored out of my mind. With the extra energy I couldn’t even nap. Of course, I was supposed to be keeping my eye out for an ambush, but the road was mostly empty, and I hadn’t felt a song in my range outside of the passing cars for a good forty-five minutes now.
I was also questioning my life choices which is unlike me. I liked my job, I was good at it, maybe not the best, but I got it done. That hadn’t really changed, but the fact that I even had the job, being a requirement of some oath Brent gave wasn’t sitting well with me. Still, I enjoyed it, shouldn’t that be enough? I loved everything about it really, not only bringing in the sick bastards who needed to be in jail, or protecting people from assassins, it was also about the challenge of it, the way it made my heart pound and my blood sing.
The question was, had I really earned it? Or was it merely a handy way for Brent to keep an eye on me.
The dragon thing actually didn’t bother me too much, half a dragon was apparently no dragon at all, and it would have no impact on my life outside of having another secret to keep. My father couldn’t associate with me, so it was almost as if nothing was different there at all. I’d figure it out.
The last thing that was a little weird to me was I was fairly calm about it all. Just how much of my anger and bitchiness had simply been because I’d starved myself, only fed on energy once a week. I wish I’d have figured this out ages ago. Don’t get me wrong, I still wouldn’t suffer fools, but the small stuff didn’t seem to bug me all that much anymore.
I turned my head slightly, Harold was still studying the notes the other mage sent him on his tablet and had been pretty quiet so far, although he had glanced up at me a number of times the last couple of hours. He seemed as shy as he was genius, and I admit I was more curious about him than I’d usually be in a client, or heck, even a male for that matter. It was all about the fact he was immune to my siren’s charms, but not at all immune to my womanly ones.
There were still a few details of this trip to be figured out, so I decided to break the silence.
I grabbed a water bottle and took a sip.
“Harold, we have reservations at the Holiday inn, did you want to check in and get an early start tomorrow, or?” my question trailed off.
Harold looked up at me with a confused look on his face, I thought he must have not heard me being absorbed in his research, but he answered a few seconds later.
“Actually, could we go straight to the site? I’d like to at least get my own look at the outside door and cast a few probing spells, it will give me something to study tonight.”
I exchanged a quick glance with Lisa, who shrugged almost imperceptibly.
“That works, we should get there a little after five I think, or closer to six if we stop for lunch. That’ll give us at least an hour of daylight.”
He smiled at me as if I’d given him a gift. Didn’t he understand he was kind of in charge? We were just the hired muscle after all. He looked dressed for field work at least, no robes this time. He had on a pair of blue jeans, and a light pullover collared shirt. The clothes weren’t that tight, but they were tight enough to see he was more in shape than I’d suspected under those shapeless robes.
Lisa added, “We should shoot for the later time, both of you need to eat.”
My traitorous stomach growled, and Lisa just smirked at me.
That was another recent change thanks to my relationship with Lisa. With my new boundless energy, stronger magic, faster and stronger body, and no sleep, it all meant I was burning up a lot more calories than I used to. I considered the energy bars in my backpack, but they were more for emergencies than a meal replacement.
“I suppose I could eat,” I turned my head, “Any preferences Harold?”
Harold frowned, “Anything with meat is fine Mel. The protein helps me maintain my magic.”
We chatted for a bit more, until we pulled off the road for lunch.
The rest of the way south I tried to relax while being watchful at the same time, especially when we went through Austin, and around San Antonio where we switched over to interstate thirty-seven down to Corpus Christi. It was a long drive, my ass was a little numb by the time we got there, and I had to walk it off before I even considered letting Harold out of the car, much to Lisa amusement.
Still, it was better than reporting I’d lost my client because I had a cramp in my ass.
The dig site was about fifteen miles down the coast from the city, and only about a half mile from the gulf just east of Alazan Bay and west of North Padre island. There were a couple of security guards there, a large tent, and a hole in the ground. I couldn’t see the door from the angle I was at, and I didn’t feel any songs hiding nearby either. We called it all clear and let him out.
As for being so close to the ocean for the first time, the songs were much easier to pick out, and stronger. I couldn’t prove it, but to me it felt like the songs weren’t louder here, it was my magic that was much stronger. I could hear the call of the sea so clearly, a symphony of songs that drew me to it. I felt both more powerful, and insignificant. More powerful because I felt free, and I felt lessened because I felt so insignificant in comparison to what was out there. Right now I was trying to focus on my job, and I could sort my feelings out later.
With a simple exchanged glance, I let Lisa take point and I slid behind Harold. I already knew there was no danger, but that was no reason to become sloppy, or ignore the book. Honestly, half the job was doing things automatically, without needing to think about it. If we didn’t do it right all the time, it would be a good way to form bad habits, and screw up when it really counted.
There was a wide sloping ramp into the pit, instead of a ladder, and we walked down. The picture really hadn’t done it justice, I could feel the lock and protection wards guarding the door like pins and needles on my skin. The sigil design of the wards on the door had a certain alien beauty to them, but of course I had no idea what they meant. There were more of the designs on the pillars next to the doors.
I wanted to watch him work, but I turned around and covered our backs while I listened with my magic for any approaching life forms or beings, not that I had to concentrate on them at all, it came easily so close to the ocean. If anything I had to suppress it a little or I’d be overwhelmed.
Harold grunted, “I’ll need a few minutes.”
“Take your time,” Lisa replied.
Harold put down his own protective circle outside the ward. I wasn’t sure why he needed it, maybe to block out the wards energy so it wouldn’t affect his own spell while he read the wards. It was just a guess though, and I wasn’t inclined to ask.
I almost grinned when Lisa shot me a look of surprise, when the meek mage turned into all confidence and power, as he stood taller and his sonorous voice filled the pit. It took about fifteen minutes, and he looked thoughtful as he dismissed the circle. That was all he needed to get started on an analysis, so we left the site for the hotel.
We got connecting rooms, and opened that connecting door so we would hear if anyone tried to break into his room. Courtesy of my new ability to never sleep, I was on night duty. We ordered room service and ate in the rooms, Harold was pretty focused on the results of his spell, which gave Lisa and I a modicum of privacy to talk. It was also the first time that we couldn’t make love since that first night together, and it wasn’t because of the privacy issue, we just didn’t want to fill out a report explaining our client died because I had my tongue inside of Lisa, no matter how unlikely that was.
When Harold turned in for the night, Lisa got in bed as well, although she turned to me and asked in a low voice, “How much do you know about vampire history?”
I frowned and replied in kind, “Not much more than the average person. I know about vampires, fast, fairly strong, stronger in darkness, blood to survive, head or heart to kill. The origin of the first vampire is highly debated as well.”
Vampires weren
’t undead, their hearts beat slower, and their bodies were remade from human by the magic in the blood. Drinking blood was how the magic was maintained.
She shook her head, “I mean history, a few hundred years ago history.”
I shrugged, “I know a few basics. There was some upheaval at that time wasn’t there?”
She nodded and seemed to look through me, “Civilization started thousands of years ago for the humans. Queens, emperors, kings, all that. At first vampires were solitary, and at that time the humans thought of us as demons, evil creatures, and hunted us down. Very successfully.
“And before you ask, no, I’m not that old. My point is only the smartest and most cunning of us survived that first culling, and we formed our own government. Much like the humans at the time, we chose a monarchy type ruler, the strongest of us becoming king.”
I nodded, “That changed to a council a few hundred years ago right?”
“Yes, it did, but not easily. The king or queen was always strongest. Some gave up on life after so long, others were dethroned by force or treachery. Regardless, when the human kings and emperors started to lose their power during the many revolutions around the world, and where communism, democracy and other governments took its place, a number of vampires felt we should evolve along with them.
“Of course, the king of the time, Adam, didn’t agree.”
She looked up in my eyes as if to measure my response to her next statement.
“I was a little over twelve hundred at that time, and the head of Adam’s personal guard.”
I was speechless for a moment. That old was very old for a vampire, despite the fact they could technically live forever, most vampires didn’t get past the age of four hundred for one reason or another. Suicide because they can’t go on, or a simple accident, or violence usually caught up to them before then.
The name Annalise hit me like a bucket of ice water as well, I hadn’t made the connection the other day, and would have discounted it if I had. Annalise the butcher, Annalise the betrayer, those titles were what the history books called her. My mind rejected the idea, it didn’t seem possible, and all I saw in her eyes right now was vulnerability, sorrow, and love, for me.
I also knew there had to be another side to the story and wanted to hear it.
“What happened?” I whispered.
She smiled sadly when I took her hand, “Adam was a good king, strong, not cruel but firm. He was also younger than I was by almost six hundred years, I had no interest in ruling, I never have. At first, covens approached him about creating a council, to share rule with him. Much like a constitutional monarchy. He feared vampires were too independent for that, too ambitious. So he said no.
“Then word reached us of a coven preaching sedition, and that we needed to follow the humans example. They weren’t interested in fair rule, for Adam at the time wasn’t a bad ruler at all, they simply wanted power. I was dispatched with a few other guards and we silenced that coven, permanently. Of course, that was his first mistake, and they became martyrs.
“It didn’t happen all at once of course, he did the best he could. But after fifty years of constantly suppressing seditious activity, and a few outright rebellions, Adam started to lose his mind. At the time, I was becoming less and less sure of our course of action; I’d killed a lot of my own kind in those fifty years.”
She focused on me and looked at me with pain in her eyes, “I could see the writing on the wall, eventually it was going to happen, the world had evolved. I had seen it before, Adam was stuck in the past, refused to change with the world around him. That’s why most vampires don’t live much past four hundred, they refuse to change. I tried to talk to him about it, convince him he can fight revolutions but the world was undergoing an evolutionary change, you can’t fight evolution. That’s when he lost it, and accused me of joining his enemies and called me traitor. He ordered the rest of the guards to attack me, and joined them.”
I squeezed her hand. I could guess the rest of the story from there. She’d killed them all, and fled, taken a new name, and started a new life. It would have been self-defense, which isn’t how history recorded things. According to the histories, after Annalise assassinated the king, the only ones strong enough to take control had been the ones wanting to form a council.
Of course, it sounded like less of an assassination, than self-defense to me, taking down a raving lunatic she’d shown nothing but loyalty too. No wonder she hated guarding people and didn’t do those jobs very often, the last one she’d guarded faithfully turned on her in the end.
I kissed her softly, and then held her. She seemed a little relieved I hadn’t run the other way, and I held her in my arms, until she fell asleep…
Chapter 13
“He’s got it bad for you, you know?” Lisa said suggestively.
We’d taken showers before dawn, and just finished a room service breakfast. Harold was taking a shower now so we had a few minutes of privacy.
I raised an eyebrow, “I noticed the interest.”
She smiled at me a bit wickedly, “I could scent it on him, I could also scent it’s not entirely one sided.”
I shrugged, “He’s intriguing, mostly because he’s immune to me, but I’m yours.”
She snickered, “So his cute ass has nothing to do with it?”
Maybe a little bit… Yes.
I shook my head, “It doesn’t matter.”
She sighed, moved closer to me, and caressed my face. I was caught by her warm doe eyes.
“You are mine, for as long as you’ll have me, but I don’t mind sharing.”
I raised an eyebrow, and she teased me, “Come now Mel, you’re much too slutty to give up cock.”
I tried to spank her, but she effortlessly danced out of reach.
“Why are you teasing me?”
She smiled, “Who said I was teasing? Okay, yes, I’m teasing a little bit, but I’m also serious. I wouldn’t mind sharing you with Harold, as long as I get to participate. No running off or around on each other, I’m entirely too possessive and jealous for that, but a third person in our bed to make things spicier on occasion?”
“So your saying you don’t want to give up cock either?”
She snorted a laugh, “Maybe, but I know you, and your nature, and I love you. It will keep things… good I think. We’re very good together, but we could have more. Just think about it, he is kind of cute.”
I was speechless for a moment, and then I grabbed her by the hair and kissed her passionately.
When we broke the kiss she said, “Wow, maybe I should be jealous if you’re that excited about it.”
I shook my head, “The kiss wasn’t for the threesome idea, and I love you too. Are you sure about that though?”
She nodded, “I’ve been around a long time, as long as you love me, respect me, and don’t do it behind my back, I’ll be happy. The key is to find more fun together, and do it in mutual joy and closeness, and not just to find fun elsewhere. If that makes sense?”
I nodded slowly, and kissed her forehead, “I’ll think about it. The idea of the three of us in bed together kind of turns me on, but I need to think it through first.”
She asked curiously with a touch of concern, “So how are you doing so close to the ocean?”
I shrugged, “It’s easier to hear the songs of the lives around me, and nature. In fact, it would be very easy to get lost in the songs here I think, I need to make an effort not to listen, instead of the other way around. It’s not too bad though, as long as I’m careful.”
We heard the shower turn off, and a few minutes later Harold came out in a pair of jeans and a casual button shirt. I put on my weapons, sword, a couple of boot daggers, a shorter sword on my hip, and my two guns, one loaded with iron, the other silver. I also had several throwing knives secreted around my body and concealed in my clothes, which was a pair of black jeans, a light blue clingy shirt, and a leather halter top.
Lisa was similarly dressed, an
d armed, and I got into work mode as we left the hotel rooms, and headed out to the dig site.
On the drive over I asked, “So did you work anything out last night?”
Harold grunted thoughtfully, “A bit. I learned enough to take down the ward, or at least to get the door to open, I don’t want to completely disable it yet. As for how it’s still powered after three millennia I’m not sure, it has tendrils feeding it from another spell deeper under the ground. After we get the door open, we’ll have to do some exploring to find it. Hopefully finding that second spell will shed some light on the discovery.”
Lisa asked, “Any clues what may be past that door or the origins of the place?”
Harold shook his head, even though only I could see him right now.
“No, the inscriptions are all magic based, designed to keep people out unless they’ve been keyed to the wards. There was nothing to indicate what’s in there.”
It only took a few more minutes to get to the site. I felt two new songs, but it was just a different set of guards from last night. No one else was close to the site, and Lisa and I gave the all clear after just a few seconds of verifying that with the eyeballs, and Lisa’s sensitive nose.
The pit, and door, seemed very much the same to me. Harold took a moment to study the circle he’d made in the dirt, and repaired a few lines before stepping inside and closing it. He chanted in his sonorous voice, obviously full of confidence in what he was doing while Lisa and I kept an eye out for attacks. It didn’t take him long, just a few minutes later I heard the grinding sound of stone against stone, and I turned around in time to see Harold open and dismiss his circle. I moved quickly near him before we went inside. I turned around when I heard the stone move again, and my gut tightened a bit when it closed.
Harold spoke a few words, and the walls started to glow with a gentle blue light. We were inside some antechamber, and there were drawings and depictions on the walls that looked similar to hieroglyphics. For all I knew, that’s what they were, unfortunately I didn’t have a clue how to read it. There was a wall painting as well, one of a bloody battle with elves, humans, mages, and a few races that looked to be straight from hell. One of them had the body of a spider below the head and torso of a human. Another looked short, red, and very bulky, most wielding axes.
