Captiva Captive

by Scott, Talyn

  “You’re not taking her. I don’t need any Habalines to protect what is mine. I most certainly didn’t ask them to run interference.”

  “You told me you hadn’t heard from your brother,” Bane said accusatorily. “When did that change? Or did it ever? I realize lies are commonplace with your kind, though. Everyone does.”

  Sixten didn’t have to answer squat. “We need to get down to brass, Beta. The real reason you want Blythe.”

  “I told you she is of our blood.”

  “Bullshit,” Sixten hissed, long and guttural. “She’s leverage to get to my brother through me, and you can’t own up to it. God, do I look that stupid?” He pointed a finger at his intruders. “It’s beyond your kind to use a female for any gains in the immortal world, yet you decide to stoop with mine.”

  “It’s truth,” he replied, looking Six straight in the eyes. “Blythe’s bloodline is of consequence to our pack.”

  Of consequence, Sixten thought, but not necessarily of their blood as he’d tried to make it sound. Any idiot would know that they were beyond an impasse. Animalistic strain crackled around them. Sixten gripped the railing in an attempt to hold himself still. He could feel the weight of their tension eating up the night air, transforming his land into a battleground in which many would die. Problem was, one could easily get to Blythe while he was engaged with five horrendous beasts.

  With that in mind, he scented another, though he couldn’t detect the source – definitely not the roving Habalines. His vampire side focused its attention on the other. His body released the Species, honing itself into nearly seven feet of graceful, deadly muscle. Sixten felt his bones sharpen. Above his protruding cheekbones, his irises flared, eating up all white until his signature ice-green completely took over into vampiric flares. Ones matching the Weres celestial blues, power against power, but his were solid green. All glowed dangerously yet remained deceptively beautiful. Just as any true hunter needed them to be.

  He moved with the lethal confidence of a predator, yet tinged with an edge of cautiousness. Since he now understood this was a complete setup. But Sixten refused to ask the Habalines for help. He sure didn’t want to owe them anything, nor did he want the Weres coming to the wrong conclusion about his relationship with the shifters. And short of calling the werewolves on their impending ambush and lunging forward with battle-ready gusto, he decided to play along, granting them the illusion of control.

  Only, that is, until he figured out what to do to keep Blythe safely tucked away.

  “Six, what’s going on?”

  This really couldn’t be happening. A night destined for lovemaking was piling up with ever-increasing absurdity. Sixten turned and yelled at Blythe, “What part of ‘wait here’ confuses you?”

  “You…,” she stammered, turning in a slow circle around him, “do have f-fangs.” He watched her wobble, but standing between her and the werewolves won precedence over scooping her up. After turning and taking in the appearances of their unwelcomed guests, she looked like she was going to retch on the spot. He moved in front of her again, staring down at the beasts that refused to reassemble to a more human state.

  “Is…that Rock back there?”

  “In the flesh.” Sixten couldn’t call back the Species unless the beasts came out of mid-trans around Blythe. “Charming, isn’t he?” He steadily turned his head, keeping the five in his peripheral vision as he warned her, “Go inside. I will be there shortly.”

  “You’re a …,” she whispered over a strange gurgling sound, “a…what?”

  “Blythe,” Sixten exploded. “Inside! Now!”

  “Blythe,” Rock interrupted, taking advantage of the distraction to move closer. “I want you to come with me, sweetheart.” He beckoned her with his large hands. “Come on down the steps. You’ll be fine.”

  Sixten punched his fists through the railing, sending wooden spikes the beast’s way. “Keep the fuck away from her!” Blythe clutched her stomach, went to her knees and heaved.

  Rock laughed at Sixten. It wasn’t a pleasant laugh or a gesture of compatible humanity. Beasts had no humanity. They weren’t human. It was a warning from the belly of his beast. “Expect to keep her by force? With your mixed-breeding, she has a choice you know.”

  “Expect to live by staying here and threatening to take what is mine?”

  “What mixed-breeding?” she whispered slowly, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

  Sixten didn’t answer her, but simply pulled her to him. She’d put on his shirt and he yanked it down where it had ridden up. After tightening his forearm under her heavy breasts, he said, “And as you can see, she’s not enthralled. Not that it should matter to you.”

  Bane smiled slyly, while staring up at Sixten and Blythe with shining, immortal eyes. “She matters to many of us.”

  Sixten kissed the top of Blythe’s head. By the sound of her heartbeat, she was going to pass out soon. He could put her back to sleep, but decided he would do so only if she were to go into shock. He forced himself to hold back. She had to see the world in which she truly belonged…with him.

  He mentally summoned Maestru. The Coven Master appeared within seconds. Obviously, he was watching from a distance, waiting to intervene. But it wasn’t the strange scent or power Sixten had recognized earlier. That was something entirely different, and wholly unwelcome. But he had no other choice than to put that investigation on hold, for now. That is, until he heard her next words.

  “Something’s coming for me.”

  Qudir and Kash misted in on the deck. Never once considering Sixten took them as threats. Right now, by their stance, they stood brothers-n-arms, beside him in his hour of need.

  “What’s coming for you, angel?” She flinched when she saw Sixten’s claws.

  Bane stepped too close.

  “Fuck off, dog!” Kash hissed. “He doesn’t have to prove shit to you. You breached his territory. Leave or I take your head.”

  Sixten forced Blythe to look at him, pushing her chin up with his knuckle, careful of his claws. “Tell me. What’s happening?”

  “I feel attached to something…and it’s pulling me.”

  Sixten mentally directed Qudir, asking for a small favor. What he needed was to stop all of this bickering, so he and Blythe could find the underlying cause of her strange new senses – together. Qudir misted inside the house.

  “He poofs in and out like a genie,” she whimpered in his arms.

  “You should see him when he’s showing off,” Kash said matter-of-factly, though he didn’t take his eyes of the werewolves. “It’s your reality, Blythe. One that you aren’t familiar with, though you’ve been exposed to it all your life.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to you, angel,” Sixten soothed her while shooting ocular daggers at the wolves.

  “What are you?” she turned and asked Rock. “I thought…I thought we were friends. We grew up together.”

  “If we weren’t friends,” Rock replied calmly, “I wouldn’t be here.”

  Kash spouted off, “No one needs a friend like you, especially her.” He tilted his spikey head Blythe’s way.

  Qudir reappeared with an alabaster box. Instead of giving it to Sixten, he presented it to Maestru. Maestru turned to Sixten, flashing a pleasant smile, though disingenuous. “Are you presenting this formally? I might remind you that once you prove the validity of this claim, it is something you can never take back, no matter what she asks…or feels.”

  “Her feelings are to matter now?” Sixten asked. “When the desires of these beasts press on her and she thinks something comes for her?”

  “Don’t,” Rock warned, “even think about pushing her into this.”

  “Aren’t we all born selfishly cruel?” Sixten hissed, baring his long fangs high above Blythe’s head. “You are the worst offender, Rock,” he spat through his teeth, “leather, chains, and humans, oh my.”

  “Has nothing to do with her.” Rock lunged but his pack mates held him back - smart move on
their part.

  “It has everything to do with her,” Kash interrupted. “You seek any reason to mistrust us, all in an effort to keep her away from Sixten, but you’re not giving us a true reason to listen. Besides, I don’t think she would be amiable to being shared.” Kash nodded. “How many would she have to take with your kind? Three or more? All at one time?”

  Despite Kash’s well-proven points, Sixten had to move things along. His friend had a tendency to provoke the werewolves rather outrageously, and the more keyed-up he was with the Species, the worse the situation became.

  “Enough,” Sixten interrupted; now holding Blythe’s entire weight in his arms since her knees buckled. She still hadn’t passed out, yet her body was thinking about it. “We were presenting the validity of my claim, even though I shouldn’t have to prove it to another species. Kash, please, take Blythe inside.” At that moment, Kash was the only vampire he trusted with her. She protested feebly, smacking him a few times on the biceps as he lifted her, causing Kash’s mouth to quirk around the corners.

  Maestru had the box open; lifting out a neatly cut section of the beach blanket he’d kept with Blythe’s virgin blood smeared on it. All vampiric blood ceremonies held a form of blood exchange. And an exchange with a human virgin was the equivalent of a human marriage, but in vampire terms, it was a blood oath that could never, ever be broken. He’d provided for her for years, no matter what Anthony had done with the money, so he’d held up most of his end of the blood oath.

  Maestru didn’t look happy. “You are claiming a bride,” he pushed, watching him with a curious fascination.

  “He is mixed-blood,” Rock protested. “He can’t have or claim a true bride.”

  “No…he is of our Coven and has the rights all vampires do. He stakes a claim,” Maestru said and inhaled deeply over the blanket, “and proves its legitimacy. I recognize this blood to be hers.” He took another deep breath. “Blythe Giarrusso’s innocence was spilled here.” He pushed the box into Sixten’s hands. “No one has a better claim than Sixten Kovac. He owns her body and soul. She owns him body and soul. It is done.”

  The words resounded in Sixten, as if the heavens had opened up on this dark night and pushed a light into his soul that no one could take away. The words could never be taken back, not after a Coven Master as powerful as Maestru said them before other immortal witnesses. Sixten found it almost impossible to speak over the emotional lump in his throat, but he did anyway, “Get off my property, werewolves, and stay away from my wife.”

  They reluctantly misted away, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think they were giving up. And they confirmed it with every threat they could spew before they misted away. After the shakedown in Scotland, he doubted vampire laws meant much to the beasts anymore, so they would try to carry out their vicious promises. Sixten said, “Sorry to dissuade your plan, Maestru.”

  Qudir looked between the two. “Plan?”

  “You may have backed me up here, Qudir,” Sixten said without gratitude. “However, I’m hard-pressed to forgive you for holding my mate’s life against me. Forcing me to accept that fucking ambassadorship, which we all know is a guise to pit brother against brother, overpowering the shifters until they once again become nothing. You don’t want me as an ambassador, you want me as a warrior, a Vojak, pure and simple. Where were you earlier tonight, then? Not backing up your fellow Vojak, that’s for sure.” He felt a trembling underfoot, as if something powerful was moving. “And if it were up to you, I wouldn’t have gotten to her in time. You would let the werewolves have her. So I would have to come crawling for the Coven’s help, sealing my fate with an eternal pledge to fight for the race instead of this temporary ambassadorship. We all know vampires require payment for everything they do for another. It’s duplicitous at best.” He held up a hand when Qudir started to argue. “One day, when you find she who is yours, maybe you’ll understand that vicious drive to protect your mate at all costs.”

  “And you,” Sixten said, turning to Maestru, “I would appreciate it if you clarified your intentions. I know you put Blythe under Ryan’s ownership to dangle her over me, force me to come back to the Vojaks, but this whole setup is past immoral. It reeks of the forbidden.”

  Maestru inclined his head. “You’re right about that, Six. I would do anything to get you back, including a force of hand. I never led you to believe otherwise. But, for the most part, I put her under Ryan’s protection to keep her hidden from the Lovci,” he admitted only now. “They’re in a mad hunt to replace those stolen Donors, which I now understand that you’re aware of your wife’s desperate situation. So as far as forbidden goes, yes, I’ve breached the forbidden when I didn’t report her and kept her for my returning Vojak.”

  Meaning he could still easily report her if Sixten didn’t do as he said. “I take this as a threat.”

  “Coercion at its worst, Six.” Qudir interrupted and then raised a brow. “If Blythe is a Donor, you know what that does to a Species or the Undead – she’s addictive.” He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Considering that, it’s stupid to stay here, especially since we don’t know what the beasts are all about when it comes to her. Come home with us.”

  “The sanctuary isn’t set up for females.”

  “The others won’t touch her,” Maestru said assuredly. “Qudir will make sure of it.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Six,” Qudir’s calm voice contradicted the venom in his black eyes, “she’ll be fine with us. We will adjust. She’ll adjust.”

  Maestru placed both hands on Sixten’s shoulders. “As far as your brother is concerned, I understand that you confirmed Rave is still digging pits under other species, trying to take down what he thinks is still a threat to his race.”

  “All immortals are still a threat to his race,” Sixten contended.

  “And Habalines are fanatics when it comes to vengeance,” Maestru tilted his head as if listening to something far away. “No matter what your other half is, we still accept you as whole. Can you say the same about your brother?”

  No he couldn’t, especially after Rave’s actions had taken Blythe away from him for more than eight years. There was no justification found in that – only cruelty. “I can’t say anything positive about my brother.”

  Maestru inclined his head. “We’ll be expecting you shortly, then.”

  Chapter 15

  “He has purple eyes.”

  “I know, angel,” Sixten said softly.

  “No, Six. I mean…really purple,” Blythe hiccupped and Kash brought another sip of water to her lips. “Like someone colored them with a crayon.”

  Kash was bewildered, studying her in turn. “Most humans think I’m hot.”

  “Humans…,” she muttered.

  Sixten curled his arm around her. “Take deep breaths, Blythe.”

  Kash nodded to the side door. “I’ve fed earlier, so I’ll stay. Summon me when you’re ready.”

  “Thanks.”

  “He fed? Who says fed?”

  “Vampires do.” Her throat was constricting. “Let’s go upstairs, moja láska.” He delicately scooped her and carried her up an impressive double staircase that lined the stately foyer. Blythe knew that if he had it his way, he’d carry her everywhere, preferably when they were both naked. “We have a lot to discuss,” he told her.

  Damn straight they did.

  When they arrived back in the master bedroom, Sixten gently placed her on the gossamer-lined bed, but she decided the chaise next to the door – the exit - was a better choice. So she moved. He raised a golden brow, but that was the extent of his protests. “You’re really a vampire?” She tried to scoot backwards on the chaise, but her knees gave out, effectively planting her on the other side with her ass on the floor.

  He came down on his haunches in front of her, but didn’t lift a finger to touch her trembling body. “Half vampire,” he answered. “What I’m not, is someone you should be afraid of.”

  She tried to swallow, but her th
roat wouldn’t work. “I saw you out there…and the others. I’m afraid of you all – very afraid. Hell, I should be afraid to walk down the street in broad daylight.”

  “No,” he said with utter conviction. “Only those who think they can take you from me should be afraid.”

  “Just leave me alone.” She pleaded, biting her lip, “For good this time.”

  “If I could…nah, I still wouldn’t,” he said honestly. “I love you desperately. And you cannot hide from one like me. By your scent, you want me. By the light in your eyes, you still love me, Blythe. I feel it. I felt it when I joined with you through sex.”

  “Maybe, but how can that matter when I don’t really know you as I thought I did? You’ve been lying to me all along. You hide under a pretense of…I don’t know what.” She ran fingers through her dark hair, twisting it absently. “But it’s not honesty. You’ve never been honest with me, have you? What world do we live in where…things threaten…things?”

  “Humans threaten one another constantly – kill, too.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “When you see what I am and what I come from, you’ll understand why my ways are so different from yours.” He shrugged. “I don’t have human instincts. No one fully immortal does. We only learn by watching humans, assimilating to blend into society.”

  “You’ve always fooled me…even in bed, right?”

  “The times we’ve made love were beautiful and sexy and hot, but I held back the ‘true’ me every time – not emotionally, but physically. In that very elemental way, I’ve always protected you from what would…frighten you.” he swallowed thickly. “I understand this will take some time, but you’ll feel comfortable with me again.”

  “Stay away from me, and I’ll feel comfortable right away.”

  “So we’re on the same page, accept that I’m not staying away, and you’re not leaving.”

  “I can leave.”

  “No, you can’t,” he said with so much confidence it chilled her skin. “We are one.”

  Utter determination tightened his stance, so instead of arguing, she asked, “Is this all fake?” She lifted a shaking hand and gestured towards him. “Do you really look like this…when you’re not…big…and fiery-eyed...and fangy?”