by Tessa Dawn
“What do you mean?” Nathaniel asked.
Saber looked off into the distance for a moment as if trying to see the right words. “I mean another dimension, a realm parallel to this one, but apart. A place called Mhier.” Before one of the Silivasis could interrupt him again, he explained: “There’s a reason none of us have ever been able to locate anything more than a regional headhunter here or there, a reason why we’ve never been able to ferret out an entire community or civilization of Lycans and exterminate them. It’s because they’re not here. Not the majority of them, anyhow. Not in this dimension.” He sat back in his chair, apparently deep in concentration. “The sorcerers said that Mhier was like, I don’t know, a lost civilization from somewhere back in time, complete with salt mines, slaves, and some pretty gnarly animals. And from what I could garner from Salvatore’s entries in the annals, any Dark Ones that had been taken by the Lycans were long dead, and the challenge of trying to get there was a greater risk than it was worth—it was better to just wait for their periodic attacks and fight them here.”
Marquis exhaled slowly then. “Okay, so no one is going to deny this is important information. Very important information. You should be sharing it with Napolean. Why did you come to us?”
Saber scrubbed his face with his hand and swallowed hard. “Because it affects your family more than most.”
Kagen did not like the sound of that…wherever this was going.
Not one bit.
“How so?” he asked, his heart beginning to beat rapidly with a brash, resounding thud.
“Indeed, how so?” Marquis repeated.
Saber closed his eyes briefly. When he reopened them, they were dark with regret and deathly serious. “Because of a small entry I came across, written as no more than a footnote in the text.”
“Well?” Marquis Silivasi bit out impatiently.
Saber met the Ancient Master Warrior’s stare head-on. “It was the name of a vampire, a slave still living in Mhier, at least at the time of Salvatore’s last entry.”
“And?” Nathaniel Silivasi demanded, his voice growing harsh with anticipation.
“And the name was Keitaro Silivasi.”
Nachari released his hold on Deanna and took two steps back, his stunning features flushing absent of color. He ran a rigid hand through his thick, wavy hair, and shook it out in disbelief. The wizard had only been twenty-one years old when their father disappeared; he had barely had a chance to know him.
Nathaniel’s fangs slowly extended in his mouth, and his eyes burned a deep crimson red; yet he said nothing. For centuries, he had believed Keitaro was still alive, and he had searched from one end of the globe to the other before finally giving up and laying the male’s memory to rest.
Marquis sat back in his chair, far too casually.
His piercing eyes dimmed from deep phantom blue to eerie shark black, the depths going vacant with barely concealed anguish—and rage—and then he began to tremble.
Uncontrollably.
Kagen sat forward on the edge of his seat, watching Marquis carefully, fully expecting him to plunge over the edge of sanity at any moment: Marquis and Keitaro had been the best of friends, bar none. And their father’s loss had affected Marquis more tragically than any of the others, hardening his heart, changing his personality, molding him into the brutal, impassive male he was today. Kagen couldn’t help but wish Ciopori had come with him, that the other females had found someone else to watch their kids, because by the look on Marquis’s stony face, the male was slipping further and further away by the second, perhaps going somewhere from which he would never return.
To Kagen’s immense surprise, the huge male seemed to simply snap out of it. That is, in a truly creepy, five-faces-of-Eve kind of way. It was almost as if another personality had simply taken over for him, run his emotions through a paper-shredder, and discarded them in a bin on the other side, leaving him free to process the information. “That was almost five centuries ago,” Marquis grumbled in irritation. “Even if he was alive then, he’s unlikely to be alive now. Especially if he was surviving as a…a slave.” He stumbled over the last word despite his self-control.
Vanya took a deep breath then. “I don’t believe that to be true, brother-in-law,” she said. “I have reason to believe he might yet be living.”
“What reason, Princess?” Nachari asked, his tone also carefully controlled.
Vanya swallowed hard. “Before I met Saber, I had a dream about him, a dream that vexed me horribly and would not give me a moment’s peace. I dreamed that there was a fire-breathing dragon in the house of Jadon, and that our paths would cross inexorably. In the dream, he always burned me when I approached him; yet I couldn’t stay away. I simply couldn’t. Because he was guarding something so precious, so valuable to the house of Jadon. A treasure. One that had to be returned to the people.” She sat back and sighed. “Last night, I told Saber about the dream, and it sparked his memory. He believes—and I agree—that the treasure he was guarding was not his own return to the house of Jadon, but his knowledge of that single footnote: that marginalized entry. Your father’s name.”
Whatever…whoever…was guarding Marquis Silivasi’s emotions stepped aside. He shot out of his chair like a rocket, fueled by highly combustible energy, ready to launch to the sky, and roared like an angry lion. “Son of a bitch!”
Nathaniel and Nachari immediately flanked him on either side, both males placing a firm hand on his shoulders. “Settle down, Marquis,” Nathaniel warned, alluding to the powerful impact a male vampire’s emotions had on the earth around them. The last thing they wanted was to trigger an electrical storm or create a flash flood.
“Be calm,” Nachari said, immediately weaving an intricate pattern over the male’s head, no doubt some spell or another to catch his rage.
Kagen stood to face Saber then, his own heart practically beating out of his chest. “Do you know where the portal is, the entrance to this…this other dimension?”
Saber shook his head. “No, I never saw that information.”
Nachari shook his head adamantly. “Perhaps not, but if Salvatore Nistor could divine it with his sorcery, then I can find it using wizardry.”
Saber held up his hands in question. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know this: If you guys can find the portal, I can draw you a map of the territory.”
About The Author
Tessa Dawn grew up in Colorado where she developed a deep affinity for the Rocky Mountains. After graduating with a degree in psychology, she worked for several years in criminal justice and mental health before returning to get her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management.
Tessa began writing as a child and composed her first full-length novel at the age of eleven. By the time she graduated high-school, she had a banker’s box full of short-stories and books. Since then, she has published works as diverse as poetry, greeting cards, workbooks for kids with autism, and academic curricula. The Blood Curse Series marks her long-desired return to her creative-writing roots and her first foray into the Dark Fantasy world of vampire fiction.
Tessa currently splits her time between the Colorado suburbs and mountains with her husband, two children, and “one very crazy cat.” She hopes to one day move to the country where she can own horses and what she considers “the most beautiful creature ever created” -- a German Shepherd.
Writing is her bliss.
Books in the Blood Curse Series
Blood Destiny
Blood Awakening
Blood Possession
Blood Shadows
Blood Redemption
Blood Father (Coming Soon…)
If you would like to receive notice of future releases,
please join the author’s mailing list at
www.TessaDawn.Com
Table of Contents
Cover
Cover
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgments
The B
lood Curse
Prologue
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
fifteen
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
nineteen
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
twenty-four
Epilogue
About The Author
Books in the Blood Curse Series
