Hunted (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 2)

by Shei Darksbane

  “It’s okay, Am. I’m just thinking about it.” I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

  Amorie seemed to relax. “You do not have to decide right now. We can consider it. I only thought that perhaps it would be easier on both of us. You would not have to worry about fighting so hard with your wolf over Raelya, and I would be able to comfort my Miralina.”

  “It’s reasonable, and I shouldn’t have a problem with the idea.”

  “But you do?”

  I sighed. “Not really. I’m just afraid.”

  Amorie squeezed me gently. “What are you afraid of, ma chérie?”

  “Oh nothing really. Nothing I have any right to be afraid of. It’s just… the last person I dated… well, she left her marks. That’s all.” I swallowed hard.

  Amorie held me tighter. “Oh, Dakota, of course you have a right to be afraid of being hurt again. There is nothing unreasonable about that.” She kissed my cheek tenderly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I considered that briefly then shook my head. “Not particularly. Not unless you just want to know history.”

  Amorie kissed my cheek again. “I would adore to know more about my little wolf.”

  I nodded and decided to keep it brief. “Her name was Rhiannon. Her mom was a big Stevie Nicks fan, if you couldn’t guess. I called her Rhi.” I closed my eyes and reluctantly allowed my thoughts to wander back. “She was…” Beautiful, said memory. But considering the woman curled around me at the moment, I couldn’t agree, not really. Pretty, said distance. I couldn’t deny that. But heartache had other words for her. I decided to do my best to remember her fairly.

  “At the time, she was beautiful, funny, smart… I met her at Knoxville U when I was a freshman. We ran into each other in the cafeteria, and I asked her about her tattoos. She had so many; turned out, she was a tattoo artist. She was studying liberal arts. I hung out with her at lunch a few times, and I had it bad. She surprised me when she asked me out. I hadn’t even known if she was interested, you know?”

  Amorie stroked my hair softly as I spoke. She knew how to keep me feeling safe and warm. It helped the story come out less painfully, for which I was grateful.

  “I jumped at the chance to date her; I’d never had a serious girlfriend. I mean I’d wanted to, obviously, but it’s hard being a lesbian in Tennessee. You never know who you can trust and who you can’t. Anyway, it got pretty serious pretty fast. And it was great. We made it to a year, and I was… so in love with her.” I took a deep quavering breath as heartache reminded memory that it hadn’t all been so wonderful.

  Amorie went on petting my hair and I found her hand with mine. I needed her comfort for the rest of the tale.

  “Then she met Sascha and things started going down hill.”

  Amorie frowned and sucked air through her teeth. “She met another girl?”

  I shook my head. “No, Sascha was a boy. He was German.”

  Amorie blinked. “Oh.” She laughed softly. “America has ruined me. I once would not have assumed…”

  I grinned at her. “Yeah well, you win some, you lose some. Anyway, Sascha was also a tattoo artist, and she met him when she started applying for apprenticeships at the local shops. He was only a couple of years older than her, and he accepted her for her apprenticeship so she could work on getting her license. At first it wasn’t bad. They were getting to know each other and Sascha seemed like a nice guy. But it slowly went from Sascha coming over to hang out with Rhi and me after work to Rhi going off to hang out with Sascha instead.”

  Amorie frowned sympathetically. “She was cheating on you. This is why you’re so sensitive about fidelity?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know if she was or not. I figure she was. But it doesn’t really matter anymore. Long story short, she left me for the guy, some hard words were exchanged in the end, and she broke my heart.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t think it made me more sensitive; I always believed in being faithful, honestly. I guess, now I just know how much it hurts for someone to abuse your trust like that. So I don’t ever want to do that to someone else. Especially, not to you.”

  Amorie smiled at me softly. “I would still say that it made you more sensitive to the matter.”

  “Okay, maybe a little.” I smiled at her in return for a few seconds, then heartache and memory ganged up to tug me back into the past. I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “She really hurt me. I admit that. But it was more the things she said when she left me than just what she did.”

  Amorie tilted her head. “Oh?”

  “I think I could have accepted that she met someone else and wanted to move on. But when she left me it wasn’t pretty. Rhi had a hell of a mouth on her, and when she decided to turn it on someone to hurt them, her words were razor sharp.”

  “What did she say to you?” Amorie’s voice came out coolly and hard-edged.

  I smiled at the protectiveness I read in that tone. “She said she wasn’t a lesbian, that I was just her ‘college experiment’. Claimed that our relationship had never been as deep or as meaningful as it actually was.” I swallowed hard and pride asked heartache to fuck off. “Just pretty much threw everything we had down the drain like so much garbage and flipped on the disposal. I mean, I could accept that it was over, but… it really hurt that she wanted so badly to destroy all the good things we’d had.” I met Amorie’s eyes again, and there was a hard darkness in her expression.

  “So, this Rhiannon. She still lives around here, no?”

  I blinked and tilted my head. “What are you getting at?”

  Amorie put on a perfectly fake smile. “Oh, nothing. Just wondering what became of her.”

  I playfully edged away from her. “She got her license and went to work at Sascha’s shop.”

  “And she is still there, no?”

  “Why do you want to, know?” I mimicked Amorie’s inflection, teasing with the homophone.

  Amusement touched Amorie’s eyes. “Oh, because you know, there are only so many tattoo parlors in Knoxville. It would not be difficult to figure out which one is hers.”

  I frowned. “What are you thinking, Am?”

  “Oh nothing.” Amorie lied. “Just that if you want, I could burn her shop down for you.”

  I laughed. “No, Amorie. I don’t want you to burn her shop down.” Amorie’s expression was not humorous. It was very serious actually. I blinked. “I mean, seriously, Amorie. Don’t mess with her. Just let it go.”

  Amorie raised an eyebrow seriously. “I do not like how she treated you. I would love to pay her back for it.”

  I shook my head emphatically. “Amorie, no. Please. Respect my wishes on this. I don’t want you to hurt her. I just want to finish this conversation and then forget about her again. It’s in the past, and I want it to stay there.”

  Amorie sighed and nodded, running the backs of her fingers across my cheek softly. “As you wish, mon amour. I will abstain from delivering vengeance on your behalf.” She smiled deviously. “But if you ever change your mind…”

  I kissed her. “I will let you know. Just don’t hold your—”

  Amorie grinned at me.

  “Ahem. Just don’t count on it.”

  Amorie laughed and kissed me again. “Silly little wolf.”

  I smiled, nuzzling my head in against her shoulder. “But you love me.”

  Amorie nuzzled my forehead softly. “That I do.”

  I felt my stomach tightening again as Amorie’s gesture reminded me of Raelya. “We should try the thing.”

  Amorie tilted her head. “The thing?”

  I nodded. “The open relationship thing.”

  Amorie squeezed me gently. “Are you sure you will be comfortable with it?”

  I shook my head. “Not sure. But it makes sense, doesn’t it? We’d both be happier. And it’s not like sex is really the most important thing in a relationship.”

  Amorie nodded. “There are far more important things.”

  I nod
ded. “And if we don’t like it—”

  “If either of us should change our mind, we can call it off immediately.”

  I nodded again. “Right. So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t give it a try.”

  Amorie smiled at me playfully. “You sound as if you are trying to convince yourself, Dakota.”

  I laughed. “Maybe I am.” I suddenly grinned. Amorie’s eyes sparkled as if she detected my incoming joke. “I mean, I’ve tried Amorie, but I’ve never tried poly-Amorie.”

  Amorie erupted into tinkling laughter, pulling me tightly against her chest. I giggled into her hair as she held me close. We found each other’s mouths and spent our breath wisely.

  Amorie stroked my hair back from my face as the giggles finally tired themselves out. “Come now, let us speak of happier things.”

  I grinned at her. “That sounds like a plan. So what about you? What’s your backstory?”

  Amorie’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “My backstory?”

  “Yeah, your backstory. I know you’re from France; I figured that out by myself. So tell me about the life and times of Amorie the vampire.”

  Amorie laughed softly. “You are right, of course. I was born in France—”

  “In the middle ages?” I grinned.

  “Amorie shook her head. “It was over two centuries ago. I was born to a poor family in the country. We had a farm—”

  “Woah, you grew up on a farm? You?” I pointedly eyed her up and down, then shook my head with playful disbelief.

  Amorie smirked. “I did indeed, but it was never my idea.”

  I laughed. “Sorry, go on.”

  Amorie smiled at me warmly. “My life did not begin until I met with my mistress, Dreena Black. I still remember much of the fates of my mortal sisters, long ago... Married off at young ages, or their beauty was stripped from them by long years of hard toil, working the lands.” She laid her head back and gazed up at the ceiling. I laced my hand with hers and rested back against her shoulder, listening to her story. “It is perhaps ironic, but the saying always comes to mind: ‘There, but for the grace of god, go I.’”

  “Dreena happened through our lands while I was still rather young. She seemed, to my eyes, surely a princess, or something of the sort, royalty in a grand carriage with many attendants. Whatever happened to cause her to look out the window and see me in those fields... well, suffice to say that without that fortune, I would not be here today. She saw something in me, even in that glimpse, that she wanted to preserve, to keep. And she did just that.”

  I pictured a beautiful, young Amorie standing in a field of crops, hoeing at the ground as a carriage came to a stop nearby. The beautiful red-haired woman from Amorie’s phone peeked out as Amorie looked up, dressed in simple clothes, her hair bound in a cloth. My vivid imagination ran away with the scene, and I pictured her cheek smudged with dirt for good measure.

  “The world was torn by war at the time, as you may recall. The American Revolution had begun by the time I was ten, though we would not feel the repercussions of it for many years still. However, the French Revolution began about the time I was turned. We were still in the area, despite having traveled all around eastern Europe as she was beginning to educate me. And that's when war caught up to us.”

  I blinked as the idyllic farm scene was scattered by old war-movie bomb sound effects and dusty clouds poofing up in the background. I sighed and glanced up at Amorie. “Wait, but what happened when she first found you? I mean, you kinda skipped from her appearing at your house to years later. How did you end up being turned? How did she even talk you into going with her? Why’d you skip all of that?”

  She smiled, with perhaps a touch of sadness. “Because, ma chérie, that's how the memory goes.” She brushed her fingers gently against my hair. “In the grand scheme of things, my mortal lifespan passed quickly, and I only reached maturity once it was gone. It was not hard for her to talk me into departing with her, or even into allowing her to turn me. A life of riches, of power, of adventure and knowledge? With the most beautiful woman I had ever seen beside me? Grubbing in the ground for turnips could hardly compare, glamorous though it might have been.” She smirked at me.

  I laughed. “Man, I hate turnips. In that case, I guess I’d have chosen the pretty girl too. So what about your family? Was it hard to leave them?”

  “My parents were not so hard to leave. Devout Christians both, my father made no secret of his feelings about having so many female children, and my mother was barely a presence at all, most times.” She squeezed my hand. “It was not as if I did not care for them, my mother at least. I believe she loved me, in her own way. But, in the end, others have meant far more to me, had more impact on who I became, and I am the better for it.”

  “What about your sisters?” I squeezed her hand.

  “My sisters... I cared for them, but I could not deny myself my future in protest of their circumstances. Dreena did not see in them what she saw in me, and I was not willing to lose the opportunity put before me.”

  “I don’t blame you.” I pulled her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles softly. “Did you ever see them again?”

  “I eventually visited them again, years later. Tracked them down, helped them toward better lives. I did what I could for them. Then I let them go.”

  I squeezed her hand tightly, then rolled to the side and hugged her instead. “So you went with Dreena and she turned you and you all lived happily ever after. Except there were wars. I imagine the wars weren’t so great.”

  Amorie nodded thoughtfully. “War can indeed be terrible, ma chérie. Our part in it was small, really, in the grand scheme of things. Dreena intended to keep us out of it entirely at first, but it did not work out as planned. The Templar used the cover of the French Revolution and the overthrowing of the nobility to hunt and kill many vampires of noble lineage in and around France, even wiping out the entirety of one bloodline. My mistress has never cared much for the Templar.”

  “Yeah, I’m not a fan either. Two of ten, would not hug.”

  Amorie laughed brightly, filling the room with the melodic sound of her happiness. I flashed her a grin, but anger flared deep down as I recalled Raelya’s poor wrists. She squeezed my hand again as if sensing my agitation. “In our case, my mistress responded by waging war on the Templar right back, mostly by herself. She kept me safely out of the way, except where appropriate for… educational purposes.”

  “Good for her.” I muttered irritably. The wolf had stirred uneasily, then settled back down just as quickly, which I felt was somewhat odd. I’d gotten used to her being more active than she had been tonight.

  “Mmhmm. My mistress began by using the same cover of the revolution to kill Christian priests by the dozen. An act which immediately alerted and drew the attention of the Templar. Once she had their attention, she then turned the slaughter on them instead, killing hundreds at least.

  I whistled. “That’s pretty scary, Am. Did you know? I mean about the priests? They were innocent, right?”

  Amorie laughed softly. “Ma chérie, there are few people who are truly innocent. The truth is, they would kill us if they could. If they knew.”

  I chewed at my lip a little, considering that. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea, but I had to admit that I had no idea how dangerous those priests had been to the vampires of the times either. I’d heard some scary things about witch hunts, the Inquisition and the like, and if anything, people were just as scary as any monster I’d ever heard of. Besides, Amorie had a point. “If one vampire could kill hundreds of Templar, no wonder they wanted to kill the vampires off.”

  “The scene was quite different before my Mistress came. The Templar would hunt us during the day, and in our lairs with fire and light and emblems of Christ, then retire to their sanctified strongholds. My mistress, however, is not so easily hunted nor deterred. As I am much more than an average vampire, my mistress is far more than I. They fear her, you know?”

  I g
lanced up to meet her eyes. “Good for her.” I repeated with feeling. “I’m new to this, but crazy assholes running around murdering innocent people for being different has always been one of my buttons. Go figure.” If there was one thing I’d learned so far from my education on the supernatural world, it was that people were people, and monsters were monsters, and their “species” had little to do with it.

  “They have propagated human ignorance, repressed science, murdered Fae children… I am not fond of the Templar at all. However, we must keep in mind that it is an organization made up of individuals, and that blanket of sins should not, perhaps, fall upon all of them. Remember the one you met while abroad recently?”

  “Yeah. And she seemed pretty cool. But she had also left them for being crazy assholes. She said they’d lost sight of their cause. I wonder how someone who feels that way could have gotten involved with them in the first place if they’ve been at this for centuries.”

  “It is not always so clear, Dakota. They defend humanity; they save lives. Perhaps it is not so easy to see their crimes from the inside. I do not know.”

  The wolf stirred again as I grumbled irritably. “Yeah… I get ya.” I wanted to leave off the topic so I searched quickly for another question to redirect the conversation with. “So, Amorie is a pretty name. You know what’s funny? We’ve been dating for weeks and you’ve never even told me your last name.”

  Amorie laughed softly. “Because I do not have one, ma chérie.”

  I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Did they not do surnames back then? I mean, I was pretty sure they did surnames back then. Marie Antoinette. Louie the Eighth. Those are surnames, right?”

  Amorie laughed again and poked my nose. “Silly wolf.” She smiled at me quietly for a moment. “I am pleased you assumed Amorie to be my real name.”

  I blinked. “It’s not?”

  “Of course not. It was given to me by my mistress. She named me for what she saw in me. My mortal parents were not so imaginative.”

  I grinned mischievously. “Ah, named you something dumb and you hated it?”

  Amorie looked amused. “Something like that. My old name—”