by Shania Tyler
He paused at his first button and said, “I didn’t think you wanted that.”
A few hours ago . . . or maybe it had been more than a few hours, she wasn’t sure since she couldn’t tell time in his world . . . but hours ago, she would have agreed with him, but she’d be damned if she let him put his mouth on another woman. Especially after what they’d just done.
“Is this usual?” she asked quietly as she pulled her knees up to block her chest. “For a man to drink from women who are not his wife?”
“No.” His fingers still hadn’t fastened the first button. He still stood there frozen in action as though afraid to move.
As though he were afraid of her.
She wondered at the wall he kept putting between them.
She dropped her legs and slid from the bed, fully aware that Mason was watching her body as she moved. She walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. “Drink of me and wake,” she whispered.
If possible, he slipped into further stillness, but the flash of his eyes was all the indication she needed of his interest. She leaned on her toes and forced his head down to deliver her kiss.
“Drink my blood, Mason.”
He groaned and his hands fell to her waist.
Kelly’s blood began to rush at the understanding of what she was about to do hit her. He’d have to tear into her flesh to reach her blood and she feared there would be pain, but she would not go back.
She stroked his hair, beckoning him to her neck. “Drink, honey.”
His fingers stroked up and down her sides and his mouth rained kisses down her cheek, jaw, and throat. “Pava,” he whispered right before he licked the spot where her pulse beat the swiftest.
Shakily she asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means ‘Fated One.’” And then he struck.
His teeth sunk into her neck, and Kelly felt the blood rush to her lower abdomen. There had been a pinch, but where she’d expected pain, she’d gotten arousal.
Mason’s arms wrapped around her waist, picked her up, and took her back down gently on the bed, all the while never leaving her neck.
Kelly fumbled with his pants as her need climbed. “Oh, my god, you’re never doing this with another woman ever again.”
He chuckled against her throat and helped her undo his pants.
He was naked and in her within seconds.
He stroked once.
Kelly came immediately, falling into sobs of pleasure, and vowed once again that no other woman would ever give him what was hers to give.
* * *
Isabel walked down the hall and turned into the council room to find that of the ten chairs, only four were filled. The fifth seat, and the one at the head of the table, would be taken by her. She sat down and tried to ignore how much the other empty chairs bothered her.
The disrespect.
“Let us begin,” she said to those who’d gathered. “I was told we have news?”
Colester Keller began, his smooth baritone voice calmed Isabel’s agitation considerably. “The body of the spy we sent to Morwen has been reported as found.”
Her irritation returned. “The body?”
Keller’s dark eyes were steady. “He is dead.”
“How do you know?” she asked. “Morwen is more than a month’s ride away and we only sent him a month ago. You couldn’t have possibly—”
“We know,” came the reply from Colester Barna. She shook with age, but her dark eyes were steady on Isabel.
Isabel leaned back in her chair. “I didn’t know you’d begun seeing visions, Barna.” The words were said to put Barna in her place, for it was Isabel who was the House of Milena and had the gift of sight. Barna’s line was House of Heron; she was a Vanisher.
Barna said, “I employ those from her line. They told me what has happened. Also, if you would remember, I own Melina slaves and they forewarned me about sending the spy in the first place. Now, he is dead, as I said would happen.”
Isabel tapped her finger on the table and said, “Well, where are we with the Selected?”
“The Heron slaves have been Selected,” Barna replied. “They are ready to be transported to his temple and blessed.” This was the first Year of Blessing in three hundred years where the vampires were allowing some of the elves to receive their family blessing. They were being called the Selected and many of the elves were looking forward to it. Isabel was sure that some of them thought it would lead to their freedom, but it wouldn’t.
The Selected from most of the houses would receive higher prizes as blood slaves to the wealthiest of the Evaness. The use of their powers would still be blocked by the silver chains they would wear, but it would flow in their blood.
However, those from the Heron line who were granted with the power of Pathfinding would be drained to death, and their blood would be turned into blood keys. The blood keys would allow Isabel and those closest to her to jump easily from one city to the next. All they would have to do is stick the key in a door, turn, and think of where they wished to be. That was the power in Heron’s line.
Three blood keys had been made three centuries ago by the witches the realm employed from Earth. One was stolen by Mason of the House of Seocan; one was burned by Cassuss the moment they’d stepped into his domain using it. The representatives of the Evaness had come to ask for his aid. The dragon’s reply was to melt the key. Then he’d warned them to leave him alone.
Cassuss’s chair was the empty one that sat directly across from Isabel.
His was made of iron and stone, a dominating gray piece of art with twin dragons for chair arms. Isabel was forced to gaze at it every time she came into the room.
Four other major cities in Asea had wanted nothing to do with the Evaness, whether they were vampire or not. They’d all but rejected Isabel and her actions, but she told herself not to let their absence bother her. After all, the Evaness were to rule Asea as a republic, but the more votes cast meant more power for Isabel.
Now, she simply needed the money in order to clear the Rebels.
Colester Malcolm said, “I wanted to rebuild the temple of Seocan as I would like to be my family’s leader; not as a mere formality but with power behind me.” The green eyes that met hers were sharp. “We’re the best trained military, so there is no fear that anyone but I would enter the temple. We could surround the walls and make sure no elves get in to gain the blessing of Illumination.”
“It’s too risky,” Isabel said. “We’ve discussed this, Malcolm, and we thank your family for their sacrifice, but Seocan’s temple will not be resurrected. Just one elf with the gift of light would destroy everything we’ve worked for.”
“There was a time when vampires walked in the light,” Malcolm said.
“Myths,” Isabel quipped back. “However, you are young, so you do not remember the years before the blackness fell. You do not remember the eternal sun that the elves cursed us with in order to try and kill Monrel. You were not there when our population dwindled from millions to barely a handful.”
“But we are stronger now,” Malcolm replied. “Three hundred years without sunlight and the elves will never be what they were. They were weak. There is no need to—”
“Enough,” Isabel said. “We’ll discuss it no more.”
Malcolm frowned and said, “I think you forget that you are not queen here.”
Isabel’s face fell and she said in a monotone, “Of course, I remember. We all work together for the betterment of the realm.” She then turned to rest of those gathered. Colesters Barna, Keller, and Yon. “What say you? Would you risk the safety of the people for one’s blessing?”
The others said nothing.
“I thought not.”
“It is unfair—”
“Malcolm, we once again thank you for her sacrifice, but the answer is no.”
Malcolm sat back in his chair fuming.
“However, if you turn over your cousin, we can discuss further compensation for their sacri
fice. However, you family already has more slaves and land than anyone else. I would think this should be sufficient.”
Malcolm said in a cool tone, “You know very well that if I knew where my cousin was, I would give him to you, but Mason is gone. He’s probably hiding out with Cassuss for all we know.”
That was the theory around Mason’s disappearance. Everyone knew he was a friend of the dragons, which only served to annoy her further. Her eyes fled to the empty chairs again. The king of the giants, the queen of the fairies, and the three divided vampire and elf leaders of Salani, Hatash, and Charka were not there.
And Cassuss. The voice of the dragons.
She was sure they all sat together somewhere . . . mocking her.
She was tired of waiting for things to happen and waiting around while everyone waited for the perfect idea—the most morally sound idea—to appear from thin air before there was any action taken. This was the reason why the Evaness respected Isabel more. She was a woman of action and everyone wanted someone to blame.
They could blame her, yet in the end, all would praise her for making the call that needed to be made.
“I say we send the army into Morwen anyway. We don’t need a spy to confirm what we already know.”
Barna was the first one to object, just as Isabel knew she would. “The Evaness has no right to move in on my nephew’s land without evidence of a crime. From all our reports, Theo’s slaves work hard and he has been nothing but loyal to the realm.”
Keller said, “There are also whispers that his slaves are not slaves at all. That he compensates them handsomely and they have homes and are able to make their own decisions about their lives.”
Barna shrugged. “Whispers. Not proof. If Theo wishes to be a generous master, who are we to stop him?”
“We are the Evaness,” Isabel said. “What would happen if slaves got wind of Theo’s treatment? They would flee their masters and run to be under his protection. And there are rumors of this taking place as well. The amount of gains from the mines have grown in the past year yet he’s only bought an additional slave or two?” She shook her head. “This makes no sense. He is obviously harboring runaways or stealing them. His land is the compound for the Rebellion.”
Barna pursed her thin lips. “My nephew pays his taxes, a tax I might add that is already higher than everyone else’s.”
“He makes the most money,” Isabel reasoned.
Malcolm added, “Is this all about money and power in the end for you? How convenient for you to take over the mines when they are the realm’s bread and butter.”
The room was silent then.
Isabel asked. “What are you accusing me of?”
“Once again,” Malcolm said, leaning back in his chair casually. “Overstepping. You destroy my temple and now have control over my family. Do you wish to do the same to Barna’s line? And then where will it end?” He then turned expertly to Keller and said, “I hear the Urcarian silk your people make is doing very well all over the realm. How soon until Isabel thinks the Rebels are on your lands as well?”
Everyone turned to Isabel and she smiled at Malcolm, seeing his ploy. He was gathering everyone to his side, but to what end?
Isabel remained silent for another minute and then said, “You’re right, Malcolm. We should wait for evidence, we wouldn’t want another accident like the one of Mason’s daughter.”
Some of the bravado left Malcolm at the mention of his second cousin. Isabel and Malcolm were both responsible for the little girl’s death.
“I will visit Theo,” Barna said. “For you are right; we do not need an accident—like that which befell Reena—to come upon Theo’s head.”
Isabel was quick to acquiesce, especially because Barna didn’t need a blood key to quickly travel to Theo’s lands. She could just use a Family Door. The doors were commissioned from sacred family wood and one was placed on every family property, allowing a family to travel between their homes . . . and Theo would not refuse Barna’s presence. Perhaps another relative, but not the aunt who raised him and the only one still keeping him alive.
Barna, to her credit, had suggested doing so the first time, but Isabel had secretly instructed the spy to kill anyone who even looked to be against the realm. Barna would do no such thing.
Everyone left the room and Isabel left the council building and walked down the busy street in Pria, and up the steps that would take her to the Crow residence. Hearing the arguing inside, she didn’t bother to knock and stepped inside.
Crystal and Jane Crow were shouting at one another, just as they’d done for the last three hundred years. Isabel once again was under the impression that humans were not meant to live so long.
But a deal was a deal. They provided the silver from Earth and oversaw the human workers that could work with it without being burned; in exchange, she provided them with dragon blood and left them alive.
But . . . she’d stopped providing the dragon blood to them ten years ago when she saw no further need for the humans. She had the silver. The other human workers were simply paid in diamonds that could be spent on Earth. Isabel had no further use for the Crow family.
Even now, she could tell that Crystal had slightly aged. Her formerly twenty-year-old appearance was now that of a woman in her thirties and the same went for Jane. Once the witches made the final batch of blood keys, they would be of no further use to Isabel or anyone.
She’d probably kill them . . . or drink them dry. She wondered what witches’ blood tasted like. Probably no better than the other humans.
“I want to use the key!” Crystal shouted. “You know I want to go to that concert in Chicago!”
Jane clutched the key to her chest. “But I have a date!”
“With a human?” Crystal laughed without humor. “And pray tell me, sister. How long would that relationship last when you will outlive him for at least another six hundred years?”
Sixty or so years, according to the usual human lifespan. Isabel wished to interject, but didn’t. Instead, she went toward them and held out her hand.
Jane gripped it tighter, but slowly the blaze in her blue eyes lessened and she let the key fall into Isabel’s open hand.
“Who’s in concert?”
Crystal looked at Isabel as though she should already know the answer. “Beyoncé.”
Isabel shook her head. “Neither of you are going anywhere.”
“That’s not fair—”
“Not fair!” Isabel screamed at Jane as heat rushed through her blood. “Your sister is the only reason you still breathe!”
Jane fell to the floor in tears.
Isabel continued, feeling her eyes dilate and her teeth elongate. “You lost the key to that idiot Mason, traded it to him for the pleasure he could offer between your thighs. If it were up to me, you’d never look at another man again!”
Jane was fully screaming and crying then. Her blue eyes were wide. Her face had reddened to her hairline and Isabel felt . . . good.
“I should gouge your eyes out. Surely no one would miss them.” She reached for the woman.
“Isabel,” came the call from the back.
Isabel looked up and watched the general of her army walk in and all her anger vanished.
Ashur, another cousin of Mason’s, did not look much different than the other man. They both had that gorgeous black hair and those stunning green eyes; however, where Mason had the capacity for love, as he had loved his wife and child, Ashur only loved himself.
He was Isabel’s kind of man.
“I’ve an assignment for you,” she told him. They had arranged to meet at the Crow’s house after her council meeting so no one would know she was speaking to him.
“How many men?” Ashur asked.
“Only you three.”
And everyone knew what three Isabel spoke of. While Ashur ran the army at large, he traveled with a small group that could often do a hundred times more damage than an entire army. They were more powerful than
the rest and had accomplished many secret missions for Isabel.
“What’s the target?” Ashur said.
“Morwen. Kill everyone who gets in your way and leave some evidence of treason before you leave. Do this and you can keep any loose diamonds you can carry with you.” She threw him the key.
He caught it instantly and smiled. “I’ve been waiting for this assignment.”
* * *
14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
.
.
.
* * *
He needed her . . . he just wasn’t
sure in what capacity yet.
* * *
.
Kelly put her book down and watched Mason zip back and forth across her bedroom. He’d pose by the fireplace before vanishing and appearing by the table and then he’d be back on the bed, hovering over her, and grinning.
She touched his cheek and caught sight of the ring on her thumb. “Your eyes are still glowing.”
And they were. The shamrock green bordered on neon. It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen, even more strange than his eyes already were, but she’d been surprised to find out that they were strange to him as well.
“This has never happened to me before.”
“No?” she whispered.
He nodded and leaned forward, rubbing his lips against hers. He’d put back on his pants, to get her food whenever she got hungry, but she was still just as unclothed as he’d made her hours ago. Or maybe a day had passed. She wasn’t sure. She still couldn’t understand time in his world, but every minute in it only made her wish to never leave.
“What do you think everyone is saying about us?” she asked him.
He turned over and rested his head on her lap and closed his eyes. Her fingers immediately went to his hair.
“That it’s about time I settled down again. It looks good for more of the leaders of the Rebellion to show some . . . humanity. So far, only Lanzo is wed and now me.”
