Blood Domination (Blood Destiny #4)

by Connie Suttle

  "It is only the once," he repeated gently. I was crying. "Hush, my little love," I was wrapped up in his arms, which were now their normal color. "The Thifilathi must be satisfied in the claiming. I will not hurt you again. The loving will be gentle and careful, and only if you wish it, from now on." I blinked up at his angelic face, the hurt and betrayal showing on my face as more tears fell.

  "When the High Demon claims his mate, he spends the rest of his life apologizing for the pain of it," he said, wiping tears from my cheeks and then kissing them away.

  "Is that what you are?" I almost sobbed on the words.

  "No, avilepha. The High Demons were made in my image." Kifirin kissed me one last time before placing fingers against my forehead and sending me to sleep.

  * * *

  "Ilaisaane, we have evidence that you were seen with Xenides," Wlodek toyed with his favorite pen. Ilaisaane sat before Wlodek, chains on her wrists. Merrill, Gavin, Flavio and Radomir were also in the room. Ilaisaane had been lured in on the pretext of judging a human companion. She had come to the holding facility, along with Flavio, whom she thought would be judging along with her. She was placed under compulsion by Merrill, whose power was stronger, even, than Saxom's had ever been. She'd heard of King Vampires but had never suspected that one actually existed. Until now.

  "I saw him," her words were unwilling, but Merrill had commanded that she tell Wlodek all she knew concerning the vampire. "He wants Lissa very badly." She couldn't keep the contempt from her voice.

  "You voted against her, as I remember," Wlodek said casually.

  "That little bitch—she should have been killed," Ilaisaane spat. "No female should hold those abilities, especially one so young and stupid."

  "And yet she told me that I should keep an eye on you," Merrill interjected. Lissa had told him that the dark-haired woman should be watched, along with two males, Cecil and Nestor. She hadn't known their names, but she'd described where they sat. Merrill thought Lissa was suspicious of all the members who'd voted against her, until he realized that she hadn't included Jarl in that list. He'd also voted against her. Lissa was certainly correct where Ilaisaane was concerned.

  "You sound jealous," Wlodek observed.

  "I am. Those abilities should have been given to someone deserving, who could use them effectively."

  "Xenides wants her for those abilities, doesn't he?" Wlodek continued.

  "Of course. He can get sex anywhere." Gavin growled at Ilaisaane's words.

  "What have you told Xenides?"

  "I told him that Merrill was her surrogate sire and that Merrill's home was near here. I didn't know the exact location, so I couldn't give him that. He and two siblings, Julius and Quentin, are now looking. I hope they find you soon," she snarled at Merrill.

  "Charles!" Wlodek shouted. Charles appeared in the doorway quickly. He had his laptop balanced on one hand and was already typing in the names with the other.

  "The only Julius and Quentin are listed as Corvinus' turns, Honored One."

  "Are those the ones?" Wlodek turned to Ilaisaane.

  "Saxom was clever, wasn't he?" Ilaisaane laughed softly. "Of course those are the ones."

  "What was your relationship with Saxom?"

  "He taught me, after he killed my sire," Ilaisaane said. "We were lovers for a while, but he was obsessed with someone else. Someone he couldn't have. That blonde bitch you had in the cave four years ago." Merrill growled this time. Ilaisaane shrank back a little.

  * * *

  "Do you know how to use one of these?" Tony unboxed one of the crossbows he'd purchased. The arrows were wood; he'd taken a page from the books of the enemy when they'd first appeared in New Mexico. He also had portable flamethrowers shipped in. This was the way a werewolf or a human could fight a vampire.

  "I haven't seen one of these in a while," Paul picked up the crossbow and bent the bowstring back, locking it in place. He placed one of the wooden arrows in the arrow groove and pointed it toward the wall. Tony had gotten them to a shooting range to practice. Paul pointed the crossbow at a paper target and pulled the trigger, hitting the outline of the man on the left side of the chest.

  "Not bad for someone a hundred and twenty, now is it?" Paul grinned. Tony's cell rang. Deryn and Paul both listened in.

  "Those two have been asking around in Chatham," Tony's spy told him over the phone.

  "You know to stay far away from them," Tony gave the warning yet again.

  "Of course. They're at the Cock and Pig Pub, right now. We're about to drive on past, they just walked into the place."

  "We can be there in fifteen minutes," Tony snapped the cell shut. "Bro, you know how to use this?" He tossed the flamethrower to Deryn.

  "I'll figure it out on the way," Deryn grinned. They ran toward the car. Paul drove, Tony made another call. Charles answered and handed the phone off to Wlodek.

  "Do you have someone in the Chatham area? Those two vampires are in the Cock and Pig Pub in Chatham, according to my sources," Tony informed Wlodek.

  "Russell is nearby," Charles offered—he'd heard what Tony said.

  "Get him on the phone," Wlodek ordered curtly. Merrill handed his cell over; Charles punched in the numbers. Russell answered right away.

  "Are you anywhere near Chatham?" Charles asked Russell.

  "About twenty minutes away," Russell replied.

  "We may need you as backup," Charles informed him. "Two of Xenides' siblings—Julius and Quentin—are there, according to our sources. Anthony Hancock and two werewolves are on their way now."

  "We've got someone coming to assist," Wlodek informed Tony. "Do not confuse him with the other two."

  "Not a problem, I have photographs of the two I want," Tony replied and cut off the communication.

  "Look, there it is," Deryn pointed out the pub so Paul pulled over to the side of the street quickly.

  "I wish Lissa were here," Tony grumbled.

  "Just hold the bloody thing behind your back," Paul instructed, as Tony loaded the crossbow before stuffing several more arrows in a deep pocket of his trench coat.

  "Who do you think you're talking to, here?" Tony grumbled. "I'm ex special ops, you know."

  "Then straighten up and act like it," Paul said, walking across the cobblestone street toward the pub.

  Only two humans sat at the bar, their backs turned to Tony, Deryn and Paul as they entered. Julius and Quentin sat in a corner booth near the back. Deryn grinned and held the flamethrower behind him as best he could while Paul jerked his crossbow up and fired, hitting Julius square in the chest with a wooden dart. Julius began to jerk and spasm in the booth, attempting to pull the bolt out of his torso. Quentin lurched from his seat, fangs and claws out. Deryn fired the flamethrower and Tony added a dart in Quentin's chest when Deryn shut off the flames. Quentin dropped to the tiles, still burning. The humans at the bar, along with the bartender, hit the floor.

  * * *

  "Honored One, I only had to place compulsion on three humans; they think a smoking incident caused the fire damage," Russell grinned as he spoke with the Head of the Council. Russell was walking toward his car; he'd gotten the human and the two werewolves away already. "Julius and Quentin didn't even have time to blink, I'm sure. I got the bartender to sweep up and dispose of the ash, I have the clothing." Russell tossed the singed apparel into the back seat of his car before climbing into the driver's seat.

  "Is there identification?"

  "Yes, but some of it is charred a bit."

  "As expected," Wlodek agreed. "Bring it. We're at the holding facility." Russell agreed and terminated the call.

  * * *

  My neck ached when I woke and it was difficult getting out of bed. I didn't remember getting myself into it, to be honest. Kifirin must have done it. I wanted to have a talk with him. Well, a yelling session might be closer to the truth. He'd put his teeth in my neck. What the hell was that about? I'd acted as if I was drunk the night before and, like a fool, had allowed him to do as
he pleased. I walked into the bathroom across the hall and used a hand mirror to check the back of my neck—sure enough there were four large red dots, spaced about three inches apart on both sides of my neck. Kifirin had called them claiming marks. Maybe I should reciprocate. The schmuck.

  I hunched over a bit as I walked through the rain to Dragon's dojo—he was finishing up when I came in to clean. "Hey, Dragon," I gave him a quick hug before going to get my dust mop and sweep the wood floors.

  "Lissa, if you had been in my army when I was Warlord on Falchan, I would have slept better," Dragon grinned and let me go.

  "Warlord, huh?" I smiled back at him. "Was it good to be you?"

  "Sometimes. When Crane and Pheran Tiger weren't chewing on me."

  "Dude, those two must be something. I wouldn't want to chew on you and I'm a vampire." That caused him to laugh—something that didn't happen often. Dragon had his shirt off and all his tattoos gleamed with sweat; he'd been working out again. He grabbed a shirt from his office and slipped it on. He was hungry, he informed me, and wanted to get something to eat before going home for the evening. I told him I'd lock up as he was leaving.

  "Is the proprietor still in?" A man walked in the door about five minutes after Dragon left. I hadn't made it to the front door to lock up and now somebody was there. Cursing mentally, I set my dust mop aside and went to talk to the man.

  "No, sorry. He left earlier," I told the guy. He was around five-ten or so, with very short hair that was nearly black and a three-pronged tattoo beneath his left eye. The scent of him was what held me, though, and I worked desperately to school my face into the vampire non-expression. "Would you like to leave a message?"

  Dragon, I sent, we may have trouble. I went to find some paper when the man said that he would like to leave a message. I wouldn't have done anything, and been content just to let him go out the door and on his way, if he hadn't tried to place compulsion on me after writing out the message.

  "You will make sure your employer is here tomorrow evening; I wish to speak to him personally," the man said. The compulsion was the slimiest I'd ever had to deal with, and it just slid off like all the others.

  "Of course, sir," I moved forward to take the message, slicing his head off with my claws before the fucker could even blink.

  No, I hadn't expected him to dust in humanoid form but he did, just as much as if he'd been the giant serpent he could change into. And the worst part? Even though I'd known he was Ra'Ak, he wasn't the one I'd first seen in the meadow, eating the priests. I was pounded and blasted against the back wall when the guy turned to dust, his fist-sized particles rocketing outward at a tremendous rate of speed. It's a good thing I automatically went to mist in about a blink; otherwise, I would likely have died. Dragon came running in only a moment later as I was picking myself up off the floor. The rest of the dojo looked like a hurricane had swept through it.

  "Are you all right? What happened?" Dragon demanded immediately.

  "One of your Ra'Ak friends," I replied, working to get my breath back. "I surprised him by relieving him of his head."

  "He wasn't in serpent form?"

  "No." I dusted my butt off; I was covered in all kinds of debris. "And he wasn't the one I saw in the meadow, either." Dragon's shocked look caused me to stop trying to clean myself off for a moment.

  "You're sure?" Dragon asked after a while.

  "Yeah. Different scents," I tapped my nose. "Here, he left this note for you and then tried to place compulsion on me to get you to be here tomorrow night to meet with him." Dragon took the note from me; I still held it in my right hand.

  "That one thought you might be what you are," Pheligar appeared at Dragon's side, peering over his shoulder at the note.

  "Do you think he told his other scaly friend?" I asked, coming over to stand next to Dragon, too. I had to stand on tiptoe, a little, just to look at the note. It was requesting a meeting for business purposes. Well, business was going to be a big fight, in my opinion; I'd just beaten him to the punch. Or the claw, as it were.

  "They seldom share information such as this," Pheligar said, looking around at the mess in Dragon's dojo. "It is a coup for one of their kind to destroy a Saa Thalarr. He would gain much honor from his Prince had he been successful. Lock the door, little one. I will take care of this."

  That night, I got to see a little of what the Larentii are capable of doing. Pheligar barely waved a finger and things were whole and complete again. He cleaned everything up with half a thought. Those wizards in children's novels might have been impressed, even—I certainly was.

  "Little one, we will speak of this night again, when the assignment is over," Pheligar informed me, laying his hand on the top of my head before disappearing just as swiftly as he'd appeared in the beginning.

  "Come on home, I want Karzac to look you over," Dragon said, pulling me out the door. "Did you get hit by any of the debris?"

  "Maybe a little, but I went to mist pretty fast and the rest just sailed right through. Of course it probably turned to mist while it was going through, but it rematerialized once it got past me."

  "That is quite the talent you have," Dragon said as we made our way home.

  Dragon had a sandwich while Karzac checked me over. There were a few bruises, the worst one on my ribs on the right side. A big chunk had caught me there.

  "What are these?" Karzac found Kifirin's bite marks.

  "I'm going to smack Kifirin," I grumbled. "He put his teeth in my neck."

  Dragon was there so fast I barely saw him move. And he started cursing. I later learned it was in Falchani, his native language.

  "Only High Demons do this!" Dragon was shouting.

  "He said he wasn't a High Demon," I looked into Dragon's dark eyes. "He said the High Demons were made in his image."

  "There is nothing to be done about it now," Pheligar was back and looking at my neck himself. "Finish the assignment. We will sort this out later."

  "Sort what out later?" I asked, but Pheligar was already gone again. Dragon was rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. Karzac went to fix that.

  * * *

  Pheligar stood next to Griffin and both faced Belen, whose race was held in such secrecy that none could speak its name. The Saa Thalarr had dubbed his kind the Nameless Ones, so they could be distinguished from their subordinates, nicknamed the Powers That Be for the same reason. Thorsten, of the Powers That Be, stood not far from Belen. Pheligar and Griffin both had requested the audience with Belen and Thorsten had no choice but to allow it.

  "She actually said Kifirin?" Belen stared at Pheligar. Belen didn't often resort to corporeality, but it helped when dealing with the others.

  "Yes," Pheligar nodded respectfully to Belen. "I have Looked for myself and it is true. The High Lord of the Dark Worlds is awake."

  "Not awake now. He has come back on the timeline. He wakes in the future," Thorsten offered.

  "Regardless, he is awake," Belen said. "Time has no meaning to us, as you well know."

  "He did this so he can take action to rein in his creations," Griffin snorted.

  "How is that?" Thorsten glared at Griffin. Thorsten supervised the Saa Thalarr and their Larentii Liaison, Pheligar. He and Griffin had clashed on more than one occasion.

  "When he created the Dark Worlds, as you were creating the Worlds of Light to keep the balance," Griffin said, "Kifirin's rules as he laid them down were that he would not interfere with those worlds. And he has held to that, much to our regret. He slept for a time, we all know that, and the Ra'Ak took all the Dark Worlds down, except for the High Demons' planet. The Ra'Ak are afraid to approach it. Now, Kifirin is awake and attempting to deal with this situation in the only way he can without breaking his rules and his word. One of the laws governing the Dark Worlds is that of mate protection. If he uses the excuse that he is protecting his mate, which is now Lissa," Griffin grimaced at that admission, "then he can do almost anything. And since she is from this side of the universes, he ca
n come and protect her here, as well."

  "But should he ever take her to the darker worlds, she will not be able to return," Thorsten folded arms over his chest. Belen looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

  "No. That will not be," Belen said. Griffin heaved a huge sigh of relief. Belen glanced at the oldest of the Saa Thalarr, who was now retired. "What are you holding back?" Belen asked. A small smile played around Griffin's mouth as he explained fully and in detail, just what it was he had held back for a while.

  * * *

  "So, back again to cause trouble?" I was throwing more rocks into the river, wondering how long it would take—and how many rocks—to impede the river's progress toward the ocean. Kifirin had appeared at my side, sitting down next to me on the river's grassy bank. It was late fall on Refizan; the grass was nearly dead, its brown length pliable and beaten down from recent rains.

  "My claiming marks are quite lovely," Kifirin observed, first thing. "Did you see how straight and evenly spaced they are? I had no wish to mar your beauty." He touched the nape of my neck with gentle fingers.

  "That'll go over so well with Gavin, when I explain it to him like that," I muttered sarcastically.

  "Avilepha, that will not be a problem. Not with me."

  "Yeah? You may not be jealous, but Gavin is. In the worst possible way."

  "I will take care of that," Kifirin informed me.

  "You're not going to hurt him, are you?" I was just about to leave him sitting there alone; my anger was rising.

  "Love, sit down," Kifirin had his hands on my hips and was not only sitting me down but also pulling me against his side at the same time. "Your lover is in no danger. Not from me. Anyone who cares for you will also receive my care."

  "You really don't care that Gavin exists and that I'm engaged to him? That is so bizarre," I huffed.