“Are you going to tell me or not?” She teased.
“Tell.” I murmured against her lips before launching into my story. This woman could have launched a thousand ships in her day, but tonight she was mine. “It’s from a witch.” I leave out my relationship with said witch, because now isn’t the time to share I was married before, especially not to the witch who casted this spell. It was several hundred years ago, both literally and figuratively and rehashing the past didn’t serve a purpose. Aileen was dead. Burned at the stake and I felt nothing, not even remorse for how she got herself there once Dorian got involved.
“A real witch?” Jane’s intrigue lightened the mood bringing me back from the dark memories.
“Yes. There are plenty of supernatural beings in the world, but for our purposes let’s stick with witches, werewolves, and vampires. Two of the deadliest things that go bump in the night.”
“Gotcha.”
“For our purposes, the witch is able to use a binding spell that allows for vampires to walk in the daylight. My witch…” I cleared my throat. “The witch in question made a specific tattoo that she transferred to her quarry. A permanent mark that grants daylight abilities.”
“For example a vampire.”
“Exactly. Such a good little student you are.” I tweaked her nose.
“Condescending and arrogant.” She murmured.
I shrugged. “Older and wiser.”
“Still an egomaniac.”
“Anyway, each tattoo had variations. Spells are individual and learned over time. Just like a witch’s grimoire the incantations are slightly different.”
“So a rising sun.” Jane explored beyond my tattoo and traced her fingers over my skin.
“You’re teasing little one.”
“I’m sure you could compel me to stop if you really wanted me too.”
“Yeah, as much as I’d like that, it’s not what I do.”
“Never?”
It was a good thing I wasn’t looking at Jane when she asked me never. How did I lie to her? Again? Her life would have been so much different had she died and not lived that night. Tonight would have never been on the table and my brother, my lying scheming brother would have never brought her back to me.
“Bash?”
I turned to look at her. I listened to the fragile beat of her heart, the way her eyes went soft and dilated with arousal, or fear. Heck, she should be fearful of me.
Smiling I reached for her hands and held them in my own, and then I lied.
“No. Never.”
Her brow furrowed and she pulled away slightly. “Odd.” She murmured.
“What’s odd?” I felt the thumping inside my dead empty chest. She made me feel so many things I’d been denied of feeling for so long. Hate. Love. And now the very fear of losing her because I knew she knew. How could she not know?
“Nothing. I’m tired. Lay with me?” She laid back on the bedding and padded the space next to her.
“Of course, lamb.” We rooted in the bedding until we were comfortable. Her head on my chest and my hands weaving in and out of her hair until she stilled in slumber leaving me to contemplate how I could kill my brother for doing this.
15
The first cut is the deepest.
JANE
He lied to me.
Bash was lying and I didn’t know why. How could he look me in the eye and say he’d never compelled me? His hands moved through my hair and I focused on breathing slowly to mimic sleep. I had to get out of here, but I didn’t know how to trick a vampire as old and as strong as Bash.
“I know you’re still awake my love. I know you don’t believe me. I’ll tell you what happened the night we met, but not tonight. Please just give me one last night where I don’t have to hold the truth like a burning coal in my hand.”
He cupped my cheek pulling me in closer. His eyes tracked mine as I fell deeper under his spell. “My beautiful, frail human. Do you understand that you’d be trading the opportunity for a handful of years of happiness for a cold eternal existence? No warmth, no love and all for an itching hunger that never abates.”
Nodding, I said, “I know.” I did know, and still I wanted it with his lies.
“I’d given this decision so much thought and I wonder how you haven’t gotten up and left me stark raving mad from all of this.” He waved his hand in the air.
“I guess because you calm the ache in my heart.” I rubbed that terrible spot that plagued me. “I know you were lying to me earlier and I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you tell me, just tell me whatever it is.”
Bash swallowed and placed his fingertips over my temples.
“I didn’t want to lie, but it seemed so much easier.”
“The truth is hard, but it’s worth it don’t you think?” I cupped his hands to the sides of my head and closed my eyes letting him do whatever it was he needed to do. I felt warmth and then pain, so much pain as if my life had drained away or bled out if the memories I saw were real. I’d reached the part of my terrible dreams where he slid the knife out of my chest and pain made sense. I didn’t have time to process the rest because the bedroom door burst open and Dorian prowled inside a little crazed, and pacing back and forth. A dagger in his hand dripping with black liquid was aimed my heart.
“Dorian, what are you doing here?”
“I can’t watch you do this a third time.” He said wildly brandishing the dagger. Bash looked at me and then at the door that led toward the bathroom suite. He wanted me to run inside and lock myself away. I couldn’t do it. I’d just gotten him and if Dorian was crazy enough to kill him, I would die with him.
“Brother, what have I said about playing with your food?” Dorian cocked his head stepping closer.
“You took my wife and then Aileen. I won’t let you take Jane.” Bash held his arms wide to protect me. I wrapped the sheet around my body and crawled up to my knees in bed.
“You mean the bitch who turned us and then the witch who branded us?”
“You benefited greatly from the daylight marking.” Bash tried to talk sense into him but it wasn’t working.
“Ah, and there’s the picky eater now. How does your fair lamb taste?”
“Do not speak her name.” Bash slammed him into wall using his speed to attack him quickly. The wall dented and a painting crashed to the floor. I would have cared it was an original Monet if not for the weapons being brandished.
“Careful, such anger will leave you with an upset stomach.” Dorian continued his taunts and push Bash backward. The force knocked him to the bed and I fell from knees to all fours.
“Is this what it’s supposed to be? A fight to the death? You’re no match for me. Younger. Weaker. Less.” Bash snarled.
Dorian entertained the thought for a moment before coming back at Bash.
“Why don’t you tell her the truth, dear brother?”
“What is he talking about, Bash? What haven’t you told me?” I implored for either of them to tell me what was going on. The violence between them made the room swell and my head hurt. “Bash, whatever it is, tell me.” I begged him reaching for his shoulder when he gently pushed me back behind him.
He refused to look at me. “I will not burden her with my problems.”
Dorian chuckled and the sound was like cackling crows.
“I hardly call killing her a problem.” He said.
“We’re bonded. You’re right. I can feel it.” Bash punched his chest with his fist and I felt it too, the connection between us was stronger and growing.
“Because you love her? Oh please.”
Dorian dismissed the claim but I listened for it. I listened for the slightest hesitation, for the lie that would tell me otherwise but it never came. Bash was telling the truth as he spoke.
“I do lover her.” He turned to look at me. “I love her with every fiber of my being.” He grabbed me and kissed me soundly as Dorian rushed us simultaneously, the blade raised in his hand.
Bash put his hand out and Dorian frozen blade in the air struggling. Our lips parted and I raised my hand with Bash and concentrated on the fact that Dorian would have killed us. I twisted my mind around the blade and pushed back with all the mental energy I possessed.
Dorian yelled, “You know the strongest foundations are not built with love.”
“With what then?” Bash asked his only surviving blood until me.
“Merciful lies.” Dorian hissed and I cranked up my thoughts and forced him to drive the blade home, right into his own chest.
16
All’s well that ends well.
BASH
The psychic energy in the room caused a seismic implosion pulling wallpaper and curtains clean off the wall. Luckily, Jane fell back on the bed, but she seized immediately going through the damn change at the worst time possible. Dorian was possibly dying by his own hand, with a little push from the two of us, and I didn’t have time to mourn him.
“Jane!” I scooped her up in my arms and hurried downstairs to my study, to the blue sofa she first laid on in my house.
“Bash.” He weak moan gutted me. I loved this woman with all I had. I would have taken Dorian’s blade if it would have taken the pain from her in this moment.
“This isn’t how this is supposed to be.” I pushed back her sweaty hair and kissed her lips that were slowly cooling.
“Tell me how you envisioned my last days.”
I snorted. “Oh my lamb. You’re not dying. This is transition.”
“Transition?”
“Yes, you’re becoming a vampire.”
“I’m not dying?”
I kissed her lips, her cheeks, her nose. “Of course not. I claimed you so Dorian couldn’t hurt you. You’re mine forever.”
“Are you sure Dorian is gone?”
“Colder than stone, at least for now, I promise.” I’d check on him later, once I knew for certain Jane would be okay.
“I thought this would be different when I said yes to you. I think I expected a ring and flowers.” Jane had no idea I’d give her the world. I’d take to Italy to see the art masters, I’d take her to my home in Greece and while babies weren’t in the cards for us, I had a whole village that needed tending. I had good people managing my olive and lemon groves. Perhaps it was finally time to come home.
“Consider this a marriage proposal for eternity.” I half laughed and half cried unsure what emotion I should have been tapping into. My ennui was definitely gone, but I was out of practice.
“Will I get to wear a dress?” I watched her body heal itself from within. Her gorgeous hair grew in thicker, shiny, and longer. Her skin grew porcelain and the tiny scar under her hairline vanished. It was as if she was being reborn into steel covered with silk.
“You can have a dress with a mile-long train if you choose.” Loving Jane was easy. Mastering her materialistic requests even easier with my resources at hand.
“Promise me one thing, Bash.” She asked clutching onto me.
“Anything.”
“Put Dorian to rest. Let him go.”
We both looked up and then at each other hearing the faint, but undeniable inhale and exhale. I shook my head not wanting to know what he’d hatched or who he’d bribed to help him.
“Let him go.”
“As you wish, my little lamb with the heart of gold.”
Epilogue
This ain’t no olive branch.
DORIAN
I woke with the pain of a thousand suns lancing my body. Each pebble beneath my flesh cut me into ribbons. But…this was the way of jealous brothers. Remove the threat. Kill the competition. I didn’t blame Bash in whole as this was a game we played with each other for centuries. I’d merely forgotten that he bored of it when I convinced his wife to turn me and then cast her out into the sun when I found her unfaithful. He’d forgiven me in time, but not after I stole his Scottish beauty Aileen. I supposed third times a charm for my death sentence when I tried to take Jane out of the equation. Lovely Jane, who was anything but plain or ordinary.
He’d learned to jump start his heart again and in doing so firmly forged the wedge between us leaving me alone.
He’d never know that the blade I planned to use wasn’t actually poisoned, just a long acting mystical paralytic, or perhaps he did know and this was punishment. The shit should have worn off by now, but it hadn’t in the least and that began to concern me. Perhaps, Sebastián, finally tired of me. I merely wanted her to slumber for fifty years or so until I was sure she was worthy of him. Damn witch I used had the antidote, and I sadly did not.
“Bash!” I bellowed choking on my dry throat barely able to life my head above my chest laying there. He’s chosen my cell wisely dumping my near corpse in the ray of light hoping I’d burn up and cease being the problem he’d always seen me as.
My arms were bound in silver chain, not because it would hold me, no the poisoned dagger Jane thrust into me made sure I was weak enough for the bindings. They clanked together like tinkling bells and I closed my eyes imagining myself back at French court with Leo and Sara dancing and drinking the night away.
“Bash!” I screamed and struggled, but not a soul came. The breeze carried the faint scent of olives and lemons reminding me of simpler times. While I couldn’t see through the window, I knew my brother had at least brought me home. High in the hills surrounded by the dirt of our people before we’d been turned and forced to live this life. There was a time all we wanted was a plot of land to sow and a good woman to cook the food we provided. I’d seen too many plagues, famines, and wars to know the cycle would sadly repeat itself and oh what I might have given for just one turn on this Earth and no more.
“Sebastián!” I hollered broken and defeated.
No sound resonated back. Bars on the window casted shadows, his magic sealed my sounds within. It would take close to fifty years for my body to wither, and disintegrate into a mummified thing. There was no heart to stop beating and my artificial warmth ended with the sun changing positions. No. I’d never get out of here and leave this place. Sebastián Knight made sure of that. Bash the brother had the grace to give me this cell in which my thoughts would murder my sanity. My resentments would grow and bloom into nothing. No one was coming to save me, supernatural or otherwise.
I laid there on the floor starring at the concrete and wood beams. My body fought with itself to let go, succumb to the numbness. Night fell and with it a strange scurrying in the dark. My ears honed in on the sound until my lips smiled a wicked grin. The rats had come and with it, my one chance to survive.
One by one the vermin gathered, one by one, I drank them dry tricking them to come close to my face where I could snap my teeth into their furry bodies. Days passed, weeks passed, until one night I woke with a different kind of hunger. It was the kind of hunger that told me the poison had passed through my system. I clenched my fists and swelled my skin snapping the silver chains. The door would pose another problem, but I’d already begun to hear the sounds of workers return to the house to tend the fields. I drank whatever passed my way in the cell collecting carcasses until the smell permeated with the stench of death. No one might be able to hear me, but sooner or later the smell would permeate the house above and so I waited and waited.
I found out her name was Anastasia, in Greek, it meant resurrection, and with her blood I was reborn. I’d kept her compelled and alive for a week going back and forth to the kitchens for food and to return as my dessert. At first, I covered her body with bites in my desperation. When my mind cleared, I was more choosey in how I fed drinking in long pulls that had me grasping for breath and her for life, or what was left of it when I finished with her.
On many nights, she’d beg for her life, and in my anger, I ignored her pleas. She had dark hair with riotous curls, and startling green eyes that reminded me of the olive branches on the property. I don’t know if it was my compulsion or her curiosity that kept her coming back each time I released h
er. I was weak and the fear in her eyes was a heady aphrodisiac.
I’d let my brother have this one lifetime with Jane. He’d realize soon enough he should have staked me in the sun. I’d been jealous of the love he cultivated in not one, but three women. I wanted it and I tried stealing it. It worked until her. His bonded mate. As much as I would hate Jane for pulling us apart, eternity was a long time to play these games.
I looked down at the woman I bled dry wondering if I could have what my brother and Jane had with my own. Call it personal growth or the second coming of Christ, but when I felt the faint pulse of Anastasia’s heart flutter, I bit into my hand and cupped the bloody palm to her lips no longer wishing to live this life alone as a complete parasite.
“Come baby girl, drink up.” I cooed massaging her throat to take the thick rusty liquid into her body. She sputtered and sprayed me at first unwilling to take my gift. The bond wasn’t a hundred percent solidified until I fucked her and shared blood but this was a start. I already felt her connection to me untangling like a knotted ribbon weaving with mine and growing stronger.
“Shhhh. You have to be a good girl and get this in you. It’s the only way.” I held her tight and continued to force feed her.
“Please.” She mumbled choking and wheezing turning her face into my chest. I liked that and caressed her head holding her close feeling her warmth become mine.
“I know you’re scared. I’m not a good man, I’m not a very good vampire either, but you’re mine now, forever.” I kissed the top of her head and rocked her to sleep. Yes, she’d make a very good companion and when I was strong enough, I’d carve our names into one of the trees outside for generations to see. Anastasia and Dorian until death or sunlight do tear us apart.
Wicked Love Page 52
