“I can see why Jachin would find you intriguing. You show absolutely no fear.”
Mira’s comment drew her attention. “I do?” Ariel rubbed the soap on the sponge. The warm water felt so good, and the scent of jasmine and roses floating in the air further lulled her.
“He can be a fierce man. He’d like that about you,” Mira continued.
Ariel pondered the female vampire’s observation about her and doubted Jachin would view her the same way. “What was so funny in what I said about Jachin a minute ago?” Ariel asked as she slid the sponge down her chest, washing away the sweat and dirt.
Mira shrugged. “You were very accurate in your assessment of Jachin. I was laughing because you called him my lover.”
Surprised, Ariel dropped the sponge in the water and her gaze locked on the perfect hourglass curves of Mira’s petite frame. “You’ve never been lovers?”
Mira cast her a devilish look over her shoulder right before streams of water dumped on Ariel’s head. “No, silly. Jachin is my brother.”
Ariel swiped the water away in time to see the bath sponge fall back into the water from above her head. She jerked her gaze to Mira, frowning at the woman’s telekinetic mischief with the sponge. Mira snickered and put her back to Ariel once more. “But I thought…well, the things you said to Vlad sounded like you and Jachin—”
“Once my brother left, Vlad took it upon himself to be my protector. Let’s just say Vlad’s idea of a protector and mine are very different.” Deep hurt reflected in Mira’s somber tone.
Based on Vlad’s earlier comments and now Mira’s, Ariel realized the bastard must’ve violated the woman. She felt like a jerk for inadvertently bringing up a painful subject. “I’m so sorry, Mira. I—”
Mira slid a half smile her way. “It’s okay. You meant no harm.” Her smile faded and her blue eyes turned to steel as she faced away once more. “Vlad caught me off guard only once. It’ll never happen again. After Jachin left, I had to grow up. I blamed my brother at first, but I know he wouldn’t have left if he’d had a choice.”
Ariel’s heart pounded. Finally she could find out what Jachin would never tell her. As she began to massage the soap in her wet hair, she asked, “Why did your brother leave the Sanguinas?”
Mira sighed. “Jachin had an affair with Braeden’s girlfriend.”
“That got him kicked out of the clan?” Ariel asked in shock.
“You have to know Braeden’s ego to understand how this could happen.”
“I don’t get it. If Braeden wanted this woman, why didn’t he just marry her and be done with it?” Ariel gulped before she asked the last question. “Is it because she wanted Jachin instead?”
“All Vivian ever wanted was Braeden. That wasn’t the problem. The prophecy was.”
“The prophecy?” Now Ariel was completely confused. She quickly dunked her head under the water to wash out the soapsuds.
Mira turned to face her. “My understanding is you wrote a book about vampires. In this book you detail a prophecy where the leader of the vampires mates with a human, right?”
Ariel slowly nodded as every piece of the puzzle started falling in place, even the answer as to why Jachin had kept his distance from her. He’d screwed up once with Vivian, getting himself banished from his clan. “Are you saying that the reason Braeden couldn’t mate with Vivian was because, as the leader of the vampires, he was bound to fulfill the prophecy?”
“Enter human author, Ariel Swanson.”
As the full impact of Mira’s last statement sank in, Ariel began to understand Jachin’s dogged belief in the prophecy. In a twisted sort of way, she respected him for never giving up, even when he had to have faced certain death being forced to live among humans with poisoned blood. How had he survived?
If only her own life weren’t hanging in the balance as part of the package. She hadn’t asked to play an integral role in the Sanguinas’ survival. She wasn’t the human who would mate with the vampire leader. It was just a made-up, fictional prophecy anyway.
“You have to help me, Mira. I’m not the human to fulfill this prophecy. All I did was write a book—a fictional novel.”
Sympathetic understanding filled the vampire’s gaze. She walked over to a cabinet and opened it. “Did you not write a prophecy that was known only among Sanguinas word for word in your novel?”
According to Jachin, she had. Ariel grudgingly nodded.
“Didn’t you also describe our home, our sanctuary, exactly as it stands?”
“But I didn’t write about the mine we went through to get here. My vampires just lived deep in the woods,” Ariel argued.
When the woman raised a doubtful eyebrow, a sinking sensation bottomed out in Ariel’s stomach.
“I’m not tough, Mira. I’m terrified of vampires. I always have been ever since they slaughtered my entire family. I knew the vampires would come for me, too. That’s why I wrote that book—to help me conquer my fear.”
“I’m sorry about your family, Ariel.” Mira turned and retrieved a thick blue towel for her. As she held out the towel, Ariel quickly stepped out of the tub and into the material’s warmth. After she wrapped the towel around Ariel, Mira continued, “Since we can’t change the past, facing one’s fear is usually the best way to overcome it. Becoming Braeden’s mate will be a new beginning for all of us.”
Ariel dug her toes into the high-piled burgundy bath rug underneath her feet. Despite the towel’s warmth, she shivered uncontrollably. Mira ran her warm hands down Ariel’s arms, displacing the chill bumps that had formed. “It’s going to be all right. My brother lived and breathed the prophecy. I trust him with my life.”
“But he left you!” Ariel cried, desperate for the woman to understand from her point of view.
Mira’s optimistic expression shifted to one of deep hurt. “That was cruel.”
Ariel’s heart went out to the one vampire who’d treated her more like a friend than an inferior. Impulsively she wrapped her arms around the petite woman, hugging her close. Tears filled her eyes at her untenable predicament. “I’m sorry, Mira. I’m just so frightened. I don’t want this.”
Mira squeezed her tight, then ran a calming hand down Ariel’s long wet hair. “Life has a strange way of forcing you down paths you’d never thought you’d have the strength to walk. Despite your claims to the contrary, you radiate a strong inner power. I promise I’ll be here for you, always.” Setting Ariel away, she sniffed back her own tears. “Now come on, I’ll feed you before I get you dressed and ready for Braeden.”
“You have food?” Ariel asked, pulling back.
Mira laughed. “Yes, Sanguinas do eat…well, fruits and vegetables anyway. Growing our own produce was the best way to remain completely under the radar these past twenty-five years.”
Jachin stood in front of the second fake rock wall inside the abandoned mine. As far as the Sanguinas’ guards knew, he was still banished. He hoped at least one of the guards on the other side of the wall still believed in the prophecy. He didn’t want to have to kill any more of his kind. As it was, due to malnourishment, very few women had been able to conceive since the sickness. With vampires taking blood from each other, their numbers had to have dwindled even more over the past decade.
Jachin rolled his head from shoulder to shoulder, easing the tension within him. Taking a deep breath, he mentally prepared for the battle ahead and pushed the hidden palm-size rock inward, twisting a quarter turn until the wall began to slide out of his way.
Talek and Darel pointed their machine guns his way.
“I didn’t think you’d have the balls to come back here. How the hell did you survive on your own all these years?” Darel demanded with grudging respect.
“Dying wasn’t an option.” Jachin stepped through the entrance. As the wall closed behind him, he continued, “Which one of you is going to have to be carried out of here tonight?”
The guards glanced at each other and then burst out laughing. While they wer
e distracted, Jachin struck. He pulled the knife tucked in his belt and grabbed Darel, holding the sharp tip next to the guard’s jugular.
Tensing his arm muscle, Jachin used his grip on the knife’s handle for leverage. He yanked Darel backward until the vampire’s spine slammed against the rock wall.
When Jachin faced Talek, the other guard’s fingers tightened around his weapon as if he were preparing to fire. “I refused to die after I was banished and I refuse to die now. My belief in the prophecy has never wavered, Talek. Has yours?”
Darel dropped his weapon and his claws extended from his fingertips as he tried to pull Jachin’s hand and the knife from his neck. Separating himself from the pain Darel inflicted, Jachin kept his hold tight and his eyes locked with Talek’s. The metallic scent of his own blood filled the air while tension ebbed between them.
Darel chose that moment to attack. He hit Jachin’s arm holding the knife, managing to lower it but not dislodge it. Instead the recoil buried the blade into Darel’s collarbone.
Furious with the vampire for his stupidity, Jachin hissed as the man moaned, “Stay put.”
“Things are not as they once were,” Talek said.
Talek’s inability to look him in the eye knocked Jachin in the gut. Had they all given up? “Don’t you want a better life?” Jachin asked, playing on Talek’s conscience. “The Sanguinas are barely living, former shadows of their old selves. All I want is to ensure Braeden follows through with the prophecy for the sake of our future.”
“Our future? You are no longer a part of this clan,” Talek snarled.
Jachin narrowed his gaze. “I’ve lived separate from my people for ten years and yet I still held on to my beliefs. Won’t you consider the possibility that I only have the best interests of the Sanguinas at heart?”
Talek’s blond eyebrows rose in skepticism. “You say this while you have a knife buried in Darel.”
Warm blood dripped over Jachin’s hand, stinging the gashes Darel had caused. The guard’s hands had fallen away. Even though he hadn’t intended to stab Darel, Jachin wasn’t going to allow Talek to distract him from his goal. “He’ll live, but will you be able to live with yourself if you don’t allow me a chance to convince Braeden that the human woman will play a role in our destiny?”
“She’s here. Braeden…will follow through.”
Jachin jumped on the hesitation. “You’re not convinced. I hear it in your voice. Has Braeden moved away from the prophecy these past ten years?”
“He never speaks of it. Many who believed in the past have given up.”
Jachin’s concern for Ariel spiked. His gaze narrowed. “I must speak to Braeden.”
Talek gave him a firm nod, but he didn’t lower his gun. “Bring Darel.”
Jachin turned his attention to the guard he had pinned to the wall. Darel had passed out, and only Jachin’s strength and the knife held him up.
Withdrawing the blade from the man’s flesh, Jachin caught the vampire’s limp body before he fell to the ground. Sliding the bloody blade behind his belt, he lowered Darel to the ground and squatted, assessing the gaping wound.
He gripped the back of Darel’s neck to support him as he lowered his mouth to the man’s wound.
“Don’t take his blood!” the tense guard ordered behind him.
“Shut up, Talek!” he grumbled before he swiped his tongue along the bloody hole.
When he sat back on his haunches and watched with satisfaction as the wound began to close, awe filled Talek’s voice. “How’d you do that? We haven’t been able to heal wounds that fast for several years now.”
His clan’s situation was worse than Jachin thought. While it was true, going without food these past couple of days had weakened his powers, he didn’t realize just how much Roach’s synthesized blood had kept his abilities from diluting overall until that very moment. The old man’s disappearance knotted his stomach. Had Roach died because he’d helped Jachin?
Jachin lifted Darel’s limp body in his arms and met Talek’s curious gaze. “Let’s go.”
As Jachin exited the woods and approached his old home, Darel’s weight suddenly felt heavier in his arms. Jachin’s heart constricted at the Sanguina manor’s rundown appearance. Thick ivy crept along the castle’s walls, while moss covered several of the gargoyles, giving the place a sinister, evil ambience instead of the powerful, rich presence it had once held. Along with their loss of hope for a brighter future, did his people no longer take pride in their home?
He felt the weight of condemning gazes staring down at him from the windows above, sensed the resentment at his return, but he refused to look up. Fury seethed inside him. They didn’t need to see bitterness and anger reflected in his gaze. As the heavy wood door opened, Jachin swallowed his disappointment.
What the Sanguinas needed was someone willing to fight for their future, and he damned well planned to make sure Braeden followed through with the prophecy.
Thoughts of Ariel tugged at his conscience. Was she frightened? Had the Sanguinas who’d taken her treated her with the respect she deserved as their leader’s destined mate?
His gut twisted when he thought of Ariel with Braeden, but he shoved the guilt and his own selfish desires to the back of his mind. His clan needed hope. The beautiful human, with her unflappable inner strength, her unfailing willfulness in the face of adversity, and her admirable capacity for compassion, was the perfect role model.
Ariel had written about vampires with lives and hopes and dreams. Once she spent some time with them, she’d realize her fictional story represented a future for the Sanguinas—a future she had the power to shape. More than just a new beginning for the Sanguinas, Ariel’s qualities represented everything the vampires had secretly wished for but had never truly attained.
Humanity.
Ariel walked beside Mira, trying not to visibly shake even though she trembled inside. As she headed down a long, wide hall toward a set of heavy wooden doors, her new soft-soled shoes made no sound on the stone floor. Men and women lined the walls on either side of the hall, openly staring at her. Some gazes spewed hatred while others were full of open curiosity.
What were they all thinking? What did their leader, Braeden, plan to do to her? Her chest tightened and many questions flew through her mind.
Ariel was wearing a red chiffon floor-length skirt made of several separate panels that swirled in and around her legs as she walked. Over the skirt she wore a gold long-sleeved hip-length jacket that buttoned tight at her waist and under her breasts. Red silk thread created an intricate border pattern along the deep vee neckline, while cutouts exposed fair skin at the curve of her shoulders. Mira had spent considerable time on Ariel’s hair, pinning the bulk of it up. Once she’d curled tendrils around Ariel’s neck, she’d placed an intricately designed ruby-and-diamond circlet on top of her hair as a final touch.
As guards opened the heavy wooden doors, Ariel’s resolve faltered at the indrawn, sucking noise the movement created. She was being sucked into the one place she feared the most—a den of vampires ready to drain the life out of her. Mira’s hand touched the small of Ariel’s back and she ushered her forward into a huge room with marble columns lining either side.
Even though Ariel trembled deep inside, she refused to let anyone see the depth of her turmoil. Squaring her shoulders, she put one foot in front of the other. A man with short, dark hair and assessing eyes stood in a formal black suit in the middle of the room, his hands folded behind his back.
By the deferential way the other vampires lined the edges of the hall, giving him space, he had to be Braeden. Ariel swallowed her growing panic with a painful gulp as she headed toward him.
A tall, narrow-faced woman with long, straight black hair separated from the crowd and stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Her dark brown eyes slitted in hatred right before she backhanded Ariel.
Pain exploded across Ariel’s mouth and dizziness roared through her head from the woman’s vicious attack.
If it weren’t for Mira’s hand suddenly supporting her upper back, she’d have slammed to the floor from the power of the woman’s blow.
“Keep your distance, Vivian,” Mira barked right before the tall woman flew into the crowd of people as if an invisible force had knocked her backward.
Once several vampires set her on her feet, Vivian smoothed her long, formal black dress and zeroed her gaze on Mira. “Stay out of this.”
Ariel wiped the trickle of blood that spread across her throbbing lip. She was about to tell the bitch she could have the man when Vivian snarled and leapt across the room toward her, deadly claws and fangs extended.
Right before the woman reached her, a dark blur came from behind Ariel. A man grabbed Vivian in midair, gripping the vampire’s upper arms. Jachin spoke in a harsh tone as he set her on the ground. “Would you destroy the Sanguinas’ chance for a future for your own selfish gains, Vivian?”
“The prophecy is a farce, ramblings of a delusional man meant to give us hope during bleak times.” She peered around his broad shoulder at Ariel, her gaze narrowed in anger. “She’s nothing more than spoiled food.”
Murmurs spread through the group of vampires and Ariel’s heart thudded. The female vampire would’ve shredded her to pieces, yet Braeden hadn’t tried to stop her.
His inaction spoke volumes to her.
“You were wrong, Jachin. Your leader doesn’t want this.” Every eye in the room turned to Ariel, and the crowd quieted down until she heard her own rapid breathing.
“Don’t you dare speak for me,” a man’s voice snarled in her ear. Braeden had moved so fast she never saw him coming. He grabbed Ariel’s arm and hauled her to his side as he addressed Jachin, scowling his displeasure.
“What are you doing back here? How did you get past the guards?”
Jachin set Vivian away and faced Braeden, his gray T-shirt covered in blood. His jaw ticced when his gaze locked on the man’s hand around Ariel’s arm. Ariel noted the bloody wounds on his hand. Was all that blood his?
Scions: Resurrection Page 15
