by Danica Avet
“So, they’d kidnap someone and hold them against their will?” Lucian nodded. Ruby tapped her chin softly, her eyes studying him. “They’d promise no harm would come to their captive and guarantee safe passage?” Lucian nodded again, though he was starting to get a bad feeling about her questions. “They’d humiliate and shame anyone who didn’t share their sentiments?”
Lucian knew where this was going and was determined to put a stop to it. “I am not like the Eturi,” he swore viciously. “The Veilerian Council follows a very strict code of conduct that won’t allow us to harm─”
“Which you did anyway!” she retaliated, jumping to her feet. Standing in front of him with her feet braced apart and hands on her hips, she reminded Lucian of a warrior woman. “You don’t follow any code other than one you make up in your mind, Lucian. I would have listened to your side of the argument and decided whether or not to come with you, but you gave me no choice! I am a neutral party. I have no stake in either the Veil or the Eturi, but you seem to think only the Veil should use my skills.”
She walked away from him in disgust, picking up the book that had fallen on the floor. “Do you know what this book says about Chieftains?” she asked softly. She carried the book over to the sofa and sat back down. Opening the pages, she flipped through them before finding her spot.
“Neither good nor evil, the Chieftains’ main concern is the survival of all. They were gifted with the powers to choose kings, queens, alphas, and masters, yet no other gift has been abused more than theirs. Instead of being revered by the community, they were hounded, tortured, killed, all for the sake of family tradition. Because of the mass persecution Chieftains suffered through the centuries, there are very few left and, even now, their powers grow stronger, for the strength of all ten Chieftain Lines condensed into the remaining few. The power of their magic, combined with the numerous losses they have faced over the years, has ensured that the new generations of Chieftains are stronger than ever, though they are also more pursued than ever.
Traditionally, Chieftains seek no shelter from anyone barring Oracles, for they too are neutral. The neutrality of the Chieftain is the most important key to their powers. To shift that balance would begin a shift in the entire community, whether it be Veilerian or Eturian. It has been long theorized that a Chieftain who sways to the good or evil will bring about the end of the world for pure good cannot survive without pure evil…”’
Ruby looked back up at him. “By holding me here, you’re upsetting the balance.”
Lucian frowned into space, ignoring the pleading look in her eyes. Logically, he knew what she was saying was true. Chieftains weren’t meant to belong to any particular group. They were traditionally nomads, traveling from region to region, dispensing their expertise. The loss of so many Chieftains through the centuries meant they were needed more than ever, and Ruby was the last one.
She was asking the impossible, he thought. Even if he hadn’t wanted her so damn much, he would never leave a newly transitioned Veilerian to the greedy, grasping general populous of the Veil. If she were left unguarded in the world, the Eturi, Malachi, would find her and use her for their purposes. He ignored the twinge of conscience reminding him that he and the Council were doing the same thing, though they called it for the greater good.
“You have to let me go, or there will be consequences that no one will want to suffer,” Ruby said with eerie composure.
* * * *
Ruby waited in vain for Lucian to concede her point. Without another word to her, he got up, mumbled something about needing to get some rest and asked her to follow him upstairs.
Knowing that arguing with him would be useless, Ruby went to her room and stared at the ceiling for hours. If she could just make him see her need to be independent and free was as strong as his need to fulfill his duties as the Oculum-se, then they could work with a strong foundation of respect. As it was Lucian saw her only as a female, a former human female he wanted to bed, who also happened to be the Chieftain.
She sighed and curled under the covers. Her first full day on the job hadn’t turned out as well as she would’ve hoped. She’d managed to get herself kidnapped by a sexy, overprotective vampire, but she could cope. She’d just have to work on him.
Ruby instinctively knew having Lucian on her side would help her more than pushing him away. And since he hadn’t any indication of when he would let her go, she had time to work with. She needed to use that time to learn more about her new world and try to convince Lucian her new position was not something she would be taking for granted.
Chapter Thirteen
Ruby had been certain she wouldn’t get a bit of sleep, but surprisingly, she slept the entire night through for the first time since this whole mess began. She woke up the next evening and lay there staring at the ceiling.
How had it come to this? She’d actually slept in a vampire’s house and hadn’t feared being eaten. She let out a muffled laugh. Not that she would’ve minded. Lucian was hot with a capital H.
A knock sounded at the door. “You up?”
Speak of the vampire, she thought with a snicker. “Yeah,” she called back.
There was a short silence. “I’ll pick up something to eat. Please don’t leave the house, Chieftain.”
Ruby snorted to herself. “Sure, sure.” Not like she had anywhere to go anyway, she thought. Lucian had sounded so desperately worried she was going to hightail it out of here it’d almost made her heart melt.
Of course he’s worried you’re going to run, she told herself as she jumped out of bed, heading to the bathroom. He wants to be sure he can turn you over to Council, and he can’t do that if you run again.
Her good mood dissipating like morning fog, Ruby grumbled her way through her ablutions, making a face at the wall where the mirror should be. Glad he hadn’t taken the soaps and shampoos from the bathroom, she had a quick shower, hurrying through her scrubbing in case he came back early.
She went downstairs, determined to get back to the books Lucian was just as determined to steer her away from. Poking around in the closet beneath the stairs, she found a box of old textbooks with Lucian’s name in them. Wondering exactly where he’d gone to school, Ruby dragged the box to the den, and settled in for a good long read.
She had no idea how much time passed, but she heard Lucian come in, his voice calling for her. Ruby rolled her eyes as he let out another semi-frantic bellow.
“What?” she shouted back at him, refusing to get up. The vampire had no manners, she thought with a huff.
He appeared in the doorway, his eyes going from half-wild to calm. Uh huh, she thought with a smirk. He thought she’d run anyway. Teach him to jump to conclusions about her.
“I brought some food back,” he said as though he hadn’t just torn through the house like a whirlwind.
“Are you eating?” Ruby asked him, wondering if vampires ate at all or if they were strictly liquid diet beings.
His luscious lips curved into a smirk, drawing Ruby’s gaze to them. “Yeah, I’m eating.”
Ruby shrugged as though she could care less and fought her way out of the sofa. It was so comfortable it just sucked you in, and getting out was nearly impossible. Once out of the cushions, she trailed Lucian to the kitchen.
She’d guessed right, she thought as they took seats at the island. This was where most of the meals were taken and she was glad for that. The dining room was intimidating.
Lucian pulled out a couple of Styrofoam containers of steaming food that smelled so good Ruby’s stomach rumbled with the first whiff. He shot her an almost shy grin, but said nothing about her stomach’s announcement.
“I hope you like lasagna,” he said, pushing a plate in front of her and tearing a bottle of water off a plastic ring. “I don’t cook much, so while I was out hunting, I thought I’d pick up Gino’s.”
“Hunting?” Ruby asked as she dug into her lasagna. It was good. She inhaled it, not caring if her manners seemed poor to h
im. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was!
Lucian didn’t appear to notice as he was consuming his food just as fast. “Yeah.”
“So vampires do drink blood?” she asked once she came up for air. Deciding maybe she should show she wasn’t totally lacking in manners, she patted her lips with a napkin, turning to watch Lucian eat.
He nodded, his mouth full. He waited until he’d swallowed before answering. “Vampires do feed on blood, but it isn’t our sole means of nutrition. We need blood, but mostly we need the natural chemicals in blood to survive.”
“What natural chemicals?”
He shrugged. “Endorphins, adrenaline, the rest of the gang. We don’t produce enough of our own, so taking it from our human donors enable us to stay on an even keel.”
“An even keel?” Ruby asked, feeling like a parrot.
Lucian flushed a bit. “Well, without the blood and the chemicals, we become weaker, more emotionally unstable.”
Ruby thought about that for a long moment. She tried to imagine an emotionally unstable vampire and shuddered at the idea. They were very strong and fast. If they weren’t on the straight and narrow…
Lucian nodded as though reading her mind. “Most vampires regulate their feeding carefully. We don’t need to feed every night, but if we want to stay in top form, we do.”
“What about sunlight? Is that a myth?”
He pierced her with an appraising glance. “Why?”
Ruby rolled her eyes, sitting back in her stool to glare at him. “You told me I could ask you anything I wanted,” she complained.
“Fine, fine,” he mumbled. “No, it isn’t a myth. We don’t burst into flames right away or anything, but the longer we’re in the sun, the weaker we become until finally we die.”
Ruby studied him skeptically, taking in his sun kissed skin.
He grinned at her. “Okay, here’s the deal. Every race has two stepping stones until they reach full strength. The first is their immortality. Each race physically matures anywhere between their late teens to mid-thirties,” he explained, leaning forward on the island. “The second transition is different for each race and can range anywhere between their forties or hundreds of years in some cases. Before that age, everyone is almost identical. No magic, no special abilities or drawbacks, except for heightened senses, which is a survival skill.”
She frowned at him, trying to figure it out. “There are two ages of maturity?” she asked, puzzled.
Connor shrugged. “Think of it like humans consider eighteen year olds to be adults, but they still have to wait until they’re twenty-one to do any of the good stuff. It’s only after the second transition they come into their powers. Vampires are called fledglings before the transition. We don’t drink blood, and we aren’t allergic to the sun. We’re also helpless. Most parents hire Sentinels for their children until they reach transition.”
“Wow,” she mumbled, trying to imagine being helpless one day and a predator the next. “When do vampires reach transition?”
Lucian shrugged his wide shoulders, scooping up his last bite of lasagna. “It depends. Most vampires reach their first transition by twenty-five. Some transition a lot earlier, others a lot later. The second transition is closer to a hundred years before it kicks in. We don’t know what causes it. We just know it happens.”
“When did you reach your transition?” she asked, suddenly curious about him.
He sat back, thinking. “The first was at thirty-two, the second was at ninety-three.”
“And how old are you now?”
“Two hundred and eighty-five,” he answered with a grin.
Ruby gaped at him. She figured vampires lived long lives, but nearly three hundred years? “How old do vampires get?”
He laughed. “I’m a baby compared to some of them. My parents are over five hundred years old.” He sobered.
Ruby nodded, unsure how to keep the conversation going. She felt comfortable talking with him. He laughed a lot, and that was something she could appreciate.
Lucian hopped to his feet to clear the island. He threw their containers away and wiped down the cabinets. It was such a domestic thing for someone as dangerous as him to do that she stared a bit. It’d also been so long since she’d been in the presence of a man for such an extended amount of time, she felt tongue-tied.
“Can I ask you something?” he suddenly said, leaning over the island towards her.
“Sure,” she answered a bit uncertain. It wasn’t like she’d led an exciting life. There had been no Sentinels to keep her safe, no transition to look forward to.
“Why did you become a hermit?” he asked, his eyes intent on her face.
Ruby could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. He would ask that question, she thought sourly even while she knew it was an honest inquiry. Better to just yank the Band-Aid off instead of pick at it, she told herself.
“As you can see, I’m not exactly a small woman. When I was a teenager, I was bigger and stronger than most everyone in my class. I trusted the wrong boy, gave him my virginity, and nearly killed him when he hurt me,” she answered him in an even tone as her finger traced a pattern on the granite top of the island. “His parents sued my dad, and things went from bad to worse. Every time I even looked at someone wrong, their parents would threaten to sue, and eventually Dad had nothing left to sue for. I decided I wouldn’t humiliate him anymore and dropped out of school. I haven’t left my land since then. Well, until Julius did this,” she said, waving a hand at her face.
Ruby dared to peek at Lucian and saw he was studying her closely, as though trying to see through her. His eyes weren’t hard, but compassionate. She stiffened.
“Don’t pity me,” she grit out.
“I don’t pity you,” he assured her as he stood up again. “I’m just trying to picture you as a teenager. I’d have been all over you like white on rice.”
“Yeah, right,” she snorted, getting off her stool to head back to the den.
She didn’t get far because he grabbed the hem of her sweatshirt, towing her back towards him. Ruby’s breath caught in her throat as her body came flush against his. With one soft touch against her jaw, he tilted her face up to look at him. His green eyes were hot, yet tender.
“I think you’re a beautiful woman, Ruby. You were probably a beautiful girl, and that boy didn’t know what to do with you when you became passionate.” His finger stroked her cheek gently. “Did he hurt you?” he asked with concern.
Ruby felt her cheeks go beet red. “I was a virgin, for crying out loud. I wasn’t really expecting it to hurt. I didn’t have anyone to ask about stuff like that. It was just me and my dad since I was little and he wasn’t going to sit me down and tell me it hurts the first time. Dan sure as hell wasn’t going to tell me either, so I was surprised. When I get surprised, I fight.”
Lucian’s face softened again, a grin pulling at his mouth. “What did you do to him?”
Ruby tried to concentrate on his words, but the back and forth motion of his finger on her skin distracted her. “Uh, broken ribs, jaw, and fractured arm.”
“Is that all?” he asked, his voice tinged with amusement.
She blushed harder. “I pulled out a big patch of his hair.”
He laughed heartily, bussing her cheek. “Priceless. I bet he never touched another girl again.”
Ruby frowned. “I don’t know. When I was still going to school, he was awful to me.”
Lucian gave her a quick squeeze before letting her go. They wandered back to the den, nestling into the sofa. It was so relaxing, Ruby thought, to sit next to him and just be quiet. She was so used to her own company, she didn’t feel the need to fill the air with conversation, and apparently Lucian shared her sentiment.
They watched a couple of episodes of Dirty Jobs with Ruby making gagging noises when something grossed her out. Lucian just laughed.
“Are Veilerians immortal?” she asked during a commercial break.
Lucian paused in
the act of sweeping his hair into a ponytail. Those green eyes flicked over to her before being veiled by his eyelashes. “No one is truly immortal. Some races live longer than others, but in the end everyone dies.”
She nodded, thinking about Julius. He’d seemed to be in good shape until he passed his power over to her. Maybe he’d known his time was up.
“Did you know Julius?” Ruby posed the question softly.
“I was on his trail for the last twenty-five years. Before that, I’d met him once or twice. He was the last of his line. The last of all Chieftains.”
“How did they all, you know,” Ruby began not wanting to sound mercenary, but needing to know what happened to them. “How did they die?”
Lucian shrugged. “No one’s entirely sure. All we know is that over the last hundred and fifty years, they began dying off. Some of the councilors believe many of the radical leaders are trying to do away with all Chieftains because they worry their positions will be usurped.”
“What do you think?”
Lucian sat back, lacing his hands behind his head as he stared at the television. “I don’t know what to think, but I have a feeling Malachi has something to do with their deaths. The Chieftains began dwindling shortly after the Eturi were set up, so there has to be a connection.”
Ruby didn’t say anything, just stared into space. Since her transition, she’d felt like she was missing something. Her Instinct hadn’t let out a peep lately, but there was something demanding her attention. She felt a slight pressure in her mind, but the vague memory was shoved away by her conscious mind.
Chapter Fourteen
Lucian pretended to watch television although he studied Ruby out the corner of his eye. She looked adorably rumpled in the sweats she’d found in her room. He liked knowing she was wearing his clothing. The primitive male inside him beat his chest and wanted to roar. Stupid Alpha male tendencies.
