The Man Behind the Vampire (The Silver Series)

by Samantha Bates

  Darius had haunted his dreams for centuries and he had known that this one man could destroy him. He didn’t like waiting around so he decided to turn the tables and started hunting him.

  Chapter 25

  Mary was tired, so tired but she couldn’t stop now, she had to know what happened to him.

  My first wakening as a vampire was not pretty, I was tired, and hungry, so very hungry and my head felt like a herd of horses had trampled on it.

  Before I really had conscious thought something was thrust into my arms, it was like giving dinner to a starving man. With no thought I ripped into the GIFT, it was only when I was sated that I looked down at what I had torn into. She was kind of pretty, with blonde hair, and blue eyes. I expected her to be horrified but she just lay in my lap. Looking at me with a dreamy expression on that I knew was lust.

  "Thank you sir" was her reply which turned my stomach. I was horrified; it was like I had cheated on Emily. Pushing her away I jumped up and made a run for the door bt my father stood in front of it,

  "Not so fast son" he stood in front of the door stopping me from leaving, I could feel the strength coursing through my body.

  "Don’t bother I am stronger than you and if you try it believe me I will make you sorry."

  I stepped back, not sure what to do, Philippe grabbed my arm "hey Darrell settle down, look I wasn’t too happy when it happened to me but once I got used to it, I found it’s actually great."

  I pushed him off "Emily? She must be frantic."

  "Seriously, do you think I would let her worry, no she thinks you are meeting with one of the lords and will be back in a few days."

  "Oh and what do you think she is going to think when she finds out what you two have done to me.”Turning to my brother and farther I had to ask “you have always been a bastard, but you Philippe, why?"

  I watched his face fall, could see the anguish "I wanted you with me, together we are good, I hated not being able to talk to you about this. I wanted you to understand." Here is I was stood in my old home, my life completely changed. Looking at the old furniture, the disarray of the place I groaned.

  I stood looking at these two men, my family, "you selfish bastards, you have taken me away from my wife, my child, oh god my child. Did either of you think about maman and Charmaine, did you?" I was moving between shouting and complete desperation.

  "Oh grow up Darrell, act like a man for once in your life." That was it I was furious, with a roar I rushed my father, knocking him backwards, the table fell under our combined weight. I pummelled him, well until Philippe pulled me off. My father was bleeding but it wasn’t enough, the anger still coursing through my veins. Lifting the bar across the door, I pulled it open and went into the night.

  I didn’t go far, I didn’t have to, I knew where I was going, rightly or wrongly I had to see her, see she was fine. I stood outside the door to my house for a while before Emily stepped out. I heard her gasp in fright until she saw me.

  "Darrell thank the gods you are home, I know Philippe told me not to worry but you didn’t even say goodbye. What happened is anything wrong?"

  Where did he start, she started to sit with him, but her growing belly was restricting her, "no stay there, let me come to you" he helped her sit at a chair in the kitchen.

  Sitting next to her, I wrapped my arms around her small body. I had never felt so unsure of myself. She moved to nestle into him, moving her hair I was so startled to find I could smell her freshly washed hair. I could feel her blood running through her body, her pulse pounding near my ear. Then my incisors elongated and I knew, I was thinking about biting into my heavily pregnant wife.

  Pushing her away I moved to the doorway, "Everything is fine Emily, I don’t want you to worry. Um I need to go away from a few days but I was thinking why don’t you visit your family in England, why don’t you take maman and Charmaine with you?" I would do anything to get them away from me, away to safety.

  I was clutching at straws I wanted them away from Philippe and my father; I didn’t know what else to suggest. I couldn’t even convince them to go back to Ms Lilly’s; Philippe had already proven to me that wouldn’t protect them.

  "Emily I need to tell you something, Philippe he's different now, and he made me different too. But I don’t want to hurt you, oh god. That’s why I need to go away for a while, I need to get control. But promise me something, do not leave the house at night while I am not here, promise me." I was pleading with her, unsurprisingly Emily had no idea what to say or do.

  "In fact get maman and Charmaine, pack some things and I will see you to town, yes that will probably safer."

  "Darrell, stop you are scaring me, what is happening, I don’t understand" the fear was etched across her face. The candle in the house glowing behind her made her look somehow ethereal.

  Maman came into the room, "what is all of this noise about, Darrell you are back. Maybe you can make your wife rest, it is not good…."

  She came towards me, she went to kiss my cheek, I could smell her blood, it seemed to call to me, and to my disgust my mouth salivated. Involuntarily my fangs lengthened, maman saw, her horrified expression still haunts me to this day. Cursing in her French, she ran to her room and returned with a crucifix. By now Emily was crying.

  "Please I don’t understand."

  "Emily, listen to maman, let her protect you, I am so sorry" Maman was getting angry.

  "My Darrell, how could this happen to my son, Philippe where is he? If you hurt him"

  I couldn’t protect them, if they didn’t know about Philippe and father they wouldn’t know to fear them.

  Chapter 26

  Mary woke to the smell of omelettes; Darius had brought her breakfast in bed: coffee, omelette, juice and a rose. Smiling at him she could see the tension coiled round his body. She had so many questions but she didn’t want to press him, if he wanted to talk about it, he wouldn’t have given her the books. The book, where was it, turning she found it on the dresser. She must have fallen asleep reading it last night or this morning.

  "This smells great, I'm starving."

  "It’s not a lot. It’s Beth's graduation party tonight."

  Taking a forkful of omelette she moaned in delight "I forgot about that, it's at Silver's isn’t it?"

  The Silver Pack inc. was a thriving business, owning multiple bars, a construction company and the Silver nightclub. Mary had forgotten about Beth's graduation, Lucky was so excited; Beth was her eldest daughter and was today graduating from Cornell University after graduating top of her class in some sort of business development degree.

  "Damn I haven’t had time to get her a present. Shit the shop I completely forgot."

  "Don’t worry it's all taken care of, Max and Shania are at the shop and I have a thousand dollar gift card from both of us. Ben and Lucky are giving her an one month trip to Europe as a graduation gift so she can buy clothes."

  "The girl practically owns a shop's worth of clothes already, she will love it."

  The man was a god, mmm "before I forget and tell me if this is too soon, but my folks would like to meet you" she waited for the protests, the excuses, the it's too soon, instead she got.

  "Okay" he answered like she had just asked him to pop to the shops for milk, not like she had asked him to meet her parents.

  "What?" clearly the shock was evident on her face. "I am nearly 800 years old; I am past being scared by parents, besides I would like to see the people that created you."

  "Are you really too old not to worry?" laughing he kissed her nose.

  He pondered this "you would think so but no, however I will worry about it closer to the time. After dinner I have to go to work, will you be okay with me not here. If not you can stay at Lucky’s."

  "As long as you leave the third book somewhere for me to find I will have enough to occupy myself."

  "About last night, do you mind if we don’t mention it to anyone here. They will only worry, and I need to get everything clear in my head b
efore I speak to them." She could understand that, so she nodded mid mouthful.

  She climbed out of the bed, heading to the shower; Darius grabbed her round the waist and pulled her in for a long hot kiss. She still managed a shower, just not on her own. It was probably the longest and most exciting shower she had ever had. They stopped by her place so she could get changed and put on some make up, when she had packed her bag the night before she hasn’t been thinking of a party.

  Looking in her wardrobe she couldn’t decide what to wear, seeing a hint of sky blue towards the back she pulled out the dress. God she forgot about this, another impulsive buy after Sarah had convinced her it looked good. When she got it home she had lost the courage to wear it in public so she stuffed it at the back for a rainy day. Well said rainy day had arrived.

  As she put it on and looked in the mirror she nearly took it off. Although it had a high neck, there was no back, cut quite tight to her figure she was surprised to see there were no bulges, there was however a lot of leg, ending just above her knees it wasn’t overly short but the split down one side was definitely high. Quickly adding heels and jewellery she raced out of her bedroom before she could change her mind.

  "Jesus Mary, you look….wow turn around. Stunning, I love that dress although right now I have visions of removing it." His eyes were bulging; she liked him looking at her like that.

  "Behave" as they locked up, and headed onto the street, she stopped deciding to have a bit of fun. "Although I have to say I think you are going to like the lacy black and red thong I am wearing." She couldn’t help laughing at him as he just stopped in the street staring at her.

  "I think I left something in your apartment we should go back" he was gently tugging at her hand.

  "I don’t think so."

  They made it to Silver's slightly late, but it didn’t seem like anyone noticed. They mix of the crowd was interesting, clearly Beth had a lot of her friends there, many of the pack had come, including a few people they both knew.

  The boys and other children were not there, due to them being way too young. Lucky had 4 daughters of her own before she met Ben. Their father Phil was sort of missing, he had been hurt in a fight when his then insane girlfriend's lover killed him. The Goddess of Destiny had saved him only to take him from the girl's lives. They hadn’t seen him in years now but he wrote to them weekly. Then Lucky and Ben had triplets, all boys and very sweet. Everyone found them to be a handful but not Mary, for her they were lovely. She read them stories of castles and knights, at 5 nearly 6 years old they had just reached the age where they get really excited at a good story.

  Darius watched Lucky nudge Mary and enjoyed seeing the blush come over her cheeks. He knew they were whispering about him, humans seemed to forget the superior hearing of vampires. Unfortunately his hearing was not good enough to hear above the pulsing din of the music. He was however surprised when Vlad arrived, he and Ben were good friends but he rarely joined them for social gatherings. He had always kept himself too distant, not many people knew anything about Vlad's personal life.

  Darius knew he would have to leave, he also knew he would miss this; they had been like family to him for over 200 years. Without even knowing it the pack had provided him comfort and safety. He saw Vlad make his way over to him, when Ben left him to greet his parents.

  "Any further on your little problem Darius?"

  With a weary sigh he shook his head, "not really, so far I have managed to track him to Europe but he left there decades ago. It will take me a couple more days to get more information."

  Vlad was watching him, "the offer of help still stands, I can also assure you the Silver Pack will be unhappy that you have not let them help, Ben will take it personally."

  "I know" But Darius had made a promise centuries ago, never to put anyone he cared for at risk again.

  Beth came over to join them, "hey princess, congratulations, you must be so proud." She looked lovely, wearing a silver and black diamonte dress, well dress was an exaggeration as it came maybe two inches lower than her bottom. He saw Vlad sneak a look at her long legs.

  He was surprised Ben had let her leave the house in the dress. "How did you get out of the house wearing only a top?" Beth just looked at him and laughed.

  "I didn’t, when I left the house I had trousers underneath, by the time I lost them it was too late for Ben to do anything" as her laugh rang out he shook his head.

  "How was the graduation?" Although Vlad was with them, he said nothing.

  "I am just pleased it is over, I am ready to join the real world. In fact I have decided that I am not going to move back home, I am looking for an apartment in the City."

  "Have you told your mom that?"

  Beth laughed and Daius was startled to find that Vlad was following the conversation "I told her today, she took it better than Ben, considering he is not my dad he is very protective. He seems to forget that I am an adult, hell I have been living with my boyfriend for the last three months" choking on his drink Darius started coughing.

  "Does Ben know that?" she shrugged.

  "A man always wants to protect what he holds close" Vlad was looking sternly at Beth, it didn’t seem to faze Beth, in fact she smiled sweetly before continuing.

  "And is this boyfriend joining us tonight?" That would be interesting, the wolf pack were protective of all females.

  "Yes he will but be good, Ben had promised no-one will say or do anything stupid" he caught a flash of anger on her face, but ever the hostess she swallowed it with a big smile.

  "Would I?" Yes I would, if he's an ass. Darius had no doubt there would be a line to get to any man who hurt any of the girls.

  Listening to the music he watched Mary dancing with Imogen, Sarah and Lucky. Vlad was chatting to Beth, or was it the other way around? Wow he was struggling to take his eyes off Mary, she looked great every time he saw her but tonight she took that to a whole new level. Darius had seen a couple of men looking at Mary, one couldn’t have been older than 22, she was certainly drawing the crowds. He wasn’t concerned; he knew he was the one taking her home tonight.

  Darius wandered the room checking for any problems, any sign of gate crashers, he had seen several of Vlad's Elite doing the same thing including Imogen as she approached him.

  "Hey Imogen, is Celia here, I haven’t seen her yet."

  Imogen pointed out her sister, there was a few years between them but when their parents had died Imogen had taken on the care of Celia.

  "Darius, I want you to know that if I can help in any way let me know."

  It took him a minute to work out how Imogen knew, it was hard to remember that as part vampire and part pack, Imogen ran between both groups. She was a fully-fledged member of Vlad Elite Vampires, but before she joined them she was pack.

  When Imogen was attacked by vampires, her link with Theo had turned her into something of a hybrid which had quite rightly scared the hell out of her. Now she was a vampire, but when angered she took on some features of a wolf. As she grew into her new skills she had turned into an impressively strong, and talented vampire/wolf and was highly thought of among vampires. In fact they actually named her the White Assassin, due to her long white hair which had been dark brown before the change.

  "Thanks Imogen, the thing is I don’t…."

  "I know you don’t want pack to know, Vlad told me that and so I will keep that confidence. I don’t like it though and when the pack find out they will be furious. But know this Darius if I think you are in danger and the pack is needed, I will break that confidence, okay?"

  "Okay"

  "Good you are too good a friend for me to allow something to happen to you, Theo would never forgive you and neither would I if you let anything happen" she kissed his cheek and left going over to pull Theo onto the dance floor, Darius laughed as he watched Theo try to pull away.

  "I never thought I would see the day when a female dragged Theo onto a dance floor" he heard Ben's voice behind him.

  Laugh
ing his friend joined him at his side, "hold that thought Ben; he is not quite there yet."

  They both laughed as they watched Theo stand on a dance floor and not move. With his huge frame, and tattoos decorating one side of his face and neck he stood out in any crowd but on a dance floor you couldn’t miss him.

  "You want to tell me what's going on with you and Mary; you have been watching her for most of the night?"

  "She's pretty great, she makes me feel….i don’t know what she makes me feel, but I like it."

  Ben clapped him on the back "pleased for you Darius, so now you want to tell me what's bugging you?"

  Sometimes he was certain Ben had some of Lucky's empathy skills, he was just too damn perceptive. He knew there was no point in lying, Ben knew him too well, he just didn’t have to give him the whole truth.