Hope and Vengeance: Saa Thalarr, book 1

by Connie Suttle

"You're joking?" I'd just broken a promise I'd made to myself not to speak to her.

  "I'm not joking. My kind can't lie. If you'd stayed, or asked Lion appropriate questions, you might know a lot more than you do now. I've heard older vampires are more stubborn than jackasses. Now I know it's true."

  "Did you just call me a jackass?"

  "Yeah." She sipped the protein drink she'd pulled from the refrigerator before nodding her head. "I did call you a jackass. Jackass." She walked toward her bedroom without a backward glance.

  "Adam," Joey hissed. "She's saved your ass. Three times. If you knew," he said.

  "If I knew what? This changes nothing."

  "I've been asked to set up another e-mail account for you," Joey ducked his head. "It's done, and I can get rid of the old one anytime you want."

  "You should get a new phone, too," Dragon said, walking into the kitchen. "If I were you, I'd cut all ties with your sire."

  "Because?" I snapped.

  "Because it's the prudent thing to do." I blinked. I'd only seen Merrill once, and he walked into the safe house basement as if he owned it, followed by a hazel-eyed, brown-haired man who was taller than I. I blinked again. Merrill has jet-black hair, piercing blue eyes and a commanding way about him that brooks no argument.

  "What the hell?" I began.

  "Hello, Father," Joey said, and went to hug Merrill.

  * * *

  "There's a reason for the subterfuge," Joey attempted to explain later. "I know the Council's records say Timerius turned me, but that's not true."

  "I keep hearing that word—subterfuge. I tire of it," I huffed. I felt betrayed a second time.

  "I don't wish to interfere with your relationship with my youngest," Merrill frowned. "It has done him a world of good."

  At that moment, I wished I were old enough—and strong enough—to tell Merrill to go to hell. I couldn't. Instead, I kept my features in a smooth vampire mask while seething on the inside. Anna had lied. Joey had lied. The world was crumbling about me and I had nothing in my arsenal to fight back.

  * * *

  "We're moving. They know where you are. Leave your phone behind—that's how they're tracking you," Merrill informed me after I returned from a very long walk in the dark. If anyone—or anything had thought to accost me during that walk, they would have died.

  "What about Joey's phone?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at Merrill.

  "Non-traceable." Joey waggled it at me. "I got you one, too."

  "Won't this brand us rogues with the Council?" I demanded, my voice rough with anger.

  "Let me handle that," Merrill said.

  "Adam, I know you don't trust me anymore," she blinked sky-blue eyes at me. "But they're coming. We have to go."

  "Why do you trust them?" I turned back to Merrill.

  "They're the only ones you can trust right now," Merrill's voice and eyes were hard. "We're all dead if we don't get out now."

  "What about my things?" I pointed to my bedroom.

  "Everything except your laptop and phone is already moved," she sighed. "Joey transferred necessary files to a new laptop and wiped the old one—with help from Pheligar. Nobody will be able to use it again."

  "I liked my laptop," I snapped.

  "It's been bugged," Joey said. "The Council supplied the equipment, remember?"

  "This is untenable," I rubbed my forehead. If I'd been human at that moment, I'd have had a migraine.

  "They know your every move, and have, since you've been connected," Merrill said. "It's time you left them behind—until this is sorted. There's something else, too."

  "What's that?"

  "I remove all compulsion from you."

  I'll admit to staring at Merrill as if he were a lunatic—until the compulsion drained from my mind. I felt as if I'd been freed from nearly three centuries of chains weighting me down.

  "What the bloody hell?" I blinked at the older vampire.

  "I can't remove your sire's compulsion. There are only two things that might accomplish that." Merrill turned away and walked toward the steps leading to the ground floor. "We don't have much time. Don't make me place compulsion on you to come along quietly."

  * * *

  "Where are we going?" I asked, begrudging every word I was forced to speak. The words were hissed through my teeth, since I regretted having to speak to anyone.

  "Into the hills, for now. Kiarra and Griffin say there's unfinished business here." Dragon, who drove a van with Joey's and my belongings stuffed in the back, answered my question. Lion and I rode with him, while Joey, Merrill and she rode in a separate van with the one called Griffin. The rental was left behind at the safe house.

  Halfway to our destination, the neighborhood containing the safe house exploded in a fireball behind us. I settled myself uncomfortable in my seat after that. Something was happening; I just had no idea what it was.

  * * *

  "The windows are blocked, so you'll be safe. I have to say, Adam, you're not the man I thought you were."

  She stood inside my assigned bedroom, blinking at me in half-anger, half-confusion. My new quarters were in a large house in a relatively new subdivision located outside Las Vegas. Lion, Dragon, Merrill and Griffin had taken the house next door, leaving Joey, her and me in this one. I had no idea how they'd managed to take over these homes, but decided not to ask.

  "You're not the woman I thought you were," I responded, my voice cold. Somewhere, what was left of my heart was weeping—reeling from this unwelcome revelation. I didn't feel right, either, but there was no way to explain it. I'd never been so willing to give my love, and it was all a lie.

  "Touché," she sighed. "Let me know if you need anything. We'll likely need your help come sundown." With that, she left my bedroom, closing the door behind her. With an unhappy sigh, I lifted my bag onto the bed and began to unpack.

  * * *

  Kiarra's Journal

  "You know it's compulsion from his sire, Kee."

  "I don't care." I refused to look at Lion, though I knew he was speaking the truth. How could one vampire turn love off in another? It made absolutely no sense.

  "I know your past. I know this is hard for you. There's a way around this, if you'll stop being stubborn."

  "He has to cooperate, and in this condition, he won't. I don't want him to, either. It'll be almost like trading one compulsion for another, and I won't have anybody unless they want it—of their own free will."

  "This is crazy." Lion rubbed a large hand over his face before turning dark eyes in my direction. "Look at me, Kee. Somewhere inside that rigid vampire is a man who loves you. You can't handle that. Admit it."

  "I don't want to talk about it." I didn't, but he was right. I wasn't sure how to handle any of this, and things weren't going well on any other quarter, either. Seldom did the enemy make his presence known so openly. This defied all logic, and I was too exhausted to go Looking for a cause. If I were honest, I'd admit—at least to myself—that I needed Adam's care and support at the moment. I didn't have it and he couldn't give it.

  "I don't want to bring up the subject of Joey again, but," Lion said.

  "Lion, leave it, all right?"

  "For now." He stalked out of my bedroom, leaving it feeling as cold and empty as my heart.

  * * *

  "Where are we going?" I asked. I walked into the media room an hour after sundown, where it looked as if the others were preparing for war.

  "This is a war," Lion said. "We have body armor for you, if you want it. Joey is already wearing his."

  "We're going to Nelson," she informed me, strapping a blade in a sheath to her back.

  "Formerly known as Eldorado?" I began. "What the bloody hell is out there?"

  "Actually, we're stopping before we get to Nelson. We think the spawn are holed up in the mountains north and east of Nelson," Dragon said.

  "You think? You don't know?" Yes, my temper was certainly evident in my voice.

  "It's as close as you can ge
t to certainty," Merrill snapped. "Stop being an idiot and get ready to go."

  "Come on, it'll be like an attack of zombies. For real," Joey said. He wore his body armor over a T-shirt and jeans and seemed excited to be going.

  "Whatever you do, don't let anything get close enough to bite," Lion warned. "I've never seen a vampire bitten so I don't know what the result might be, but I don't want to take any chances."

  "I'll be fine," I muttered. The body armor I accepted, however. In my line of work, it always paid to be cautious.

  * * *

  "This is the middle of nowhere," Joey muttered, looking about us. We'd pulled off highway 165 and parked both vehicles in a ravine, hiding them from view. I noticed he'd gotten closer to me after we'd left the SUVs behind. Not closer to his sire—closer to me.

  That meant something, even to my increasingly addled mind. Reaching out, I pulled him to me in a quick hug before letting him go. Yes, my mind felt clouded, and I couldn't explain that. During our trip, I'd begun to feel strange. The feeling had persisted and grown stronger as we approached our target.

  I might have called it fear or at least trepidation, but something appeared to be blocking both emotions. That in itself unnerved me, but I determined to shut it out of my mind and concentrate on the work at hand.

  We were spawn hunting. Not waiting for them to come to us as they'd done before; this time, we were initiating the attack. I still didn't understand how Dragon and the others knew where they might be, but I was determined to do my part.

  "Stay sharp," Merrill warned me softly. "This isn't the first time I've hunted spawn." He was old enough to have seen them before. I filed that away in my mind.

  Kiarra says there are several washes in the area that flood whenever it rains hard, Joey silently informed me. Glancing up, I saw clouds building over our heads at too rapid a rate.

  Shouldn't we get out of this ravine, then? I smell rain coming, I returned.

  "Get out of the ravine," the one called Griffin ordered. All of us scrambled for higher ground the moment clouds burst over our heads.

  Chapter 8

  I hate fighting in the rain, but this was no ordinary rain. It came so hard and heavy it was difficult to see the enemy, who fell on us the moment we scrambled out of the ravine. We had a difficult enough time fighting spawn, but that worsened when they were joined by rogue werewolves and vampires.

  Yes, vampires had joined this fight, and I had little time to wonder at the fact that they fought alongside werewolves. Instead, my claws were bloodied from decapitating werewolves, and covered in spawn debris when they dusted, spraying their particles on anything nearby.

  Rain continued to fall, turning spawn dust to black sludge on skin and clothing. Eventually, we gathered in a ring, conserving our energy to fight anything that approached us. "Don't let them breach the circle," Dragon shouted as a vampire almost got past Joey. He didn't have two centuries of fighting experience, as I did.

  Merrill—I'd never seen another vampire fight as he did—with the exception, perhaps, of Gavin Montegue. "More coming," she shouted. I jerked my mind away from its wanderings and decapitated the spawn before me, who still looked very, very human. Thunder rumbled over our heads and heavier rain fell. The ravine behind us was overflowing, threatening one side of our fighting circle.

  "Two steps to the east," Dragon shouted. His voice from the beginning held the timbre of command. Somewhere, somehow, he'd done this before. The spawn attacking us now were freshly turned; I could see and smell it on them. An occasional vampire thought to hide among them, but they couldn't fool any of us. My sleeves were tattered from slashes by enemy claws that nearly reached my skin on several occasions.

  "Pull in tighter," Dragon yelled at us. "This is their last attack."

  I had no time to pay attention to the allies about me; I only had time and energy to devote to what confronted me. With heavy rain still falling, I couldn't see past the spawn before me. We'd had no way to gauge the enemy's numbers by sight, so Dragon had to be using another sense to determine the size of their army.

  How long had the enemy been making spawn? Where were they coming from? I'd not heard any reports of so many missing, although I did see several who were dressed for the desert—in another country.

  "Last wave," Dragon said. I could hear the weariness in his voice as he made the call. With claws that felt as heavy as iron, I removed the head of a young boy. Perhaps fourteen, he was too young to die. Too young to be spawn. The enemy was ruthless in its selection of humans.

  One more came. An old man. Perhaps the youth's grandfather—they bore some resemblance. I killed him before he could sink his teeth into my arm, the blackness of his death spraying me with dark slop the rain couldn't wash away.

  A soggy thump sounded nearby. Joey had fallen to the ground in a heap. Had he been forced to decapitate a child? That would cause damage, I knew. "Joey?" I struggled to walk toward him—the driving rain continued to fall as I dropped to my knees beside his body.

  He shook in my arms as I wrapped him in the tightest embrace I could. "I don't want to be a vampire anymore," he wept.

  "Joey, hush, now. We have to get you home," I soothed. He'd been so young when turned. Barely twenty-two, he'd never been exposed to things of this nature. Death hadn't touched him at that age. While he didn't mind killing criminals as a vampire, I knew he would suffer at the taking of an apparent innocent.

  "Joey, he dusted. He wasn't human any longer. He'd have killed you, if you hadn't done what you did." She knelt on his other side, brushing wet hair away from his face with gentle fingers. "Let Adam help you up, and we'll get you home."

  Ripped clothing, spawn sludge, mud, blood, even, covered us as we drove home. I held Joey in the back seat of the SUV, while Lion drove and she sat in the passenger seat.

  Joey was content to huddle against me. At least the tears had stopped. Vampires can cry—their tears are nearly clear, as they are blood serum and not blood, as so many might think. We'll get you in the shower when we get back, I sent to him.

  You need it, too. Joey sat up and wiped his forehead with fingers that only shook slightly. Thanks, Adam. I was tired, and the kid—couldn't have been more than twelve.

  Tough job, I agreed. But he wasn't human, just as she said. You did well, son. Don't ever think otherwise.

  Yeah. He was too weary to argue.

  "It's a ploy, kid," Lion tossed over his shoulder. "They send in those we might hesitate to kill, and the hesitation is what will kill you."

  "They do this?" Joey croaked. "Intentionally?"

  "Yeah. Don't let it worry you. It only looked like a child. That wasn't a child any longer."

  "This is nuts." Joey shook his head and stared through the vehicle window as mountains and desert flew past us. We were headed toward the new safe house, as quickly as safety and the speed limits would allow.

  If I hadn't been so tired, I might have wondered at what waited for us when we pulled into the driveway. I recognized him—Rodney, a vampire and one of Joey's on-again, off-again lovers, stood next to the garage door. Instead, I shook Joey, who'd gone into an almost-doze.

  "Joey, Rodney's here. Were you expecting him?" I asked.

  "Huh? Rodney?" Joey peered through my window, attempting to make out the form of his lover.

  "He's here," I repeated. "Is he supposed to be?" I imagined I'd be forced to place compulsion, but it looked as if Joey had invited Rodney earlier. I couldn't imagine that he'd have found us any other way.

  "Wait," she said as Joey tumbled out of the SUV before I could stop him. The horror unfolded in slow motion as I opened my door the same time she opened hers, and both of us rushed forward.

  Too late. We were too late. Rodney's claws nearly swiped Joey's head from his shoulders before I could reach him. I might have screamed. I intended to, anyway. My claws were out, but she'd gotten there before me.

  Rodney's head rolled down the driveway while his body dropped where he'd stood. I didn't think to wond
er at the shining blade that appeared in her hand—her sword was in the back of the SUV.

  Then, stunned and falling to my knees, I watched as she dropped beside Joey, placed her forehead against his and a hand against the wound in his neck. Unable to speak or plead for Joey's life, I gaped as she began to glow softly.

  Merrill knelt beside me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "If there's any way, she'll save him," he whispered reverently.

  * * *

  "Are they dead?" I asked when she fell over half an hour later.

  "No." Dragon knelt on my other side. "She's just drained. She gave most of the life force she had left to our young man. If we're lucky, she'll wake tomorrow. In the meantime, we need to give Joey blood, get him clean and in bed."

  "I'll take care of Kiarra," Merrill offered.

  "You do that," Dragon agreed.

  At that moment, I couldn't begin to describe the feelings of jealousy that swept over me. No, I couldn't approach her—something prevented it. I didn't want Merrill to touch her, however, so I growled at him.

  "Hold on," Dragon blinked dark, enigmatic eyes before nodding in my direction. "Griffin, take Merrill inside. It's time we took care of this nonsense."

  "What nonsense?" I asked, beginning to worry as Dragon settled on the concrete in front of me, sitting cross-legged on the rain-soaked surface. He and I were still covered in sludge and mud, although his sludge was mixed with a bit of his blood.

  "Come," he motioned for me to lean forward. I leaned backward instead.

  "Come." His hand gripped my neck and he pulled my head forward until my forehead rested against his.

  Now, he spoke in my mind, we'll get rid of that poison your sire has planted.

  What? I'd sent mindspeech before I could stop myself. How? was my second question, although it failed to convey the true question—how was he mindspeaking me?

  Here. Not only could I hear him, a vision appeared in my mind. A glowing, purple knot throbbed inside my brain. This is what I see, he sent. I'm about to destroy it, he added. Say now if you want that thing to remain inside you.

  I don't, I responded immediately.

  Good.