“I came through a portal to this world, so I am unaware of what city or structure you are talking about. Are you free to come and go from this place?” Shirl had so many questions she wanted to ask. She needed to be careful and get critical information before the woman left.
“There is a structure several miles wide that filters out the sun,” Rosemarie said. “I suppose you could call it a large tarp that allows the vampires to walk outside during the day. The city is a short train ride away. We barter our labor or blood to survive in this parallel universe. There are similar setups throughout the Nightshade world.”
“Can I walk out with you and accompany you to this city?” Shirl asked. She was not optimistic she was going to like the answer, but she had to ask.
“You belong to a vampire. There is no leaving this area without being accompanied by Drake. As I said, you carry his mark. Every woman here belongs to either a single vampire or the collective.”
“What is the collective?” The more information she gathered, the greater chance she had of surviving. She prayed Starc would make it back, but she had to make contingency plans.
“Those who are members of Yorik’s nest are considered the collective,” Rosemarie responded. They finished caring for Chartail’s wounds. The woman covered her with a blanket. “The girls that service the collective do not last long. It is better to catch the eye of a vampire and have him claim you. Then you feed a single vampire.”
“Where do these women come from? You said you offer labor or blood to survive. I cannot imagine anyone would willingly offer their lives, to die in this fashion.”
“Nightshade is at war,” Rosemarie said. “The girls who belong to the collective are those vassals the vampires cannot protect. This world also has three portals. Random people fall through the portal several times a month from different worlds. They provide immediate blood or are used to strengthen the gene pool. Humans in some parts of this world are bred like cattle. Anything to keep the blood flowing and not contaminated.”
A chill ran down Shirl’s body. If Yorik or Drake lost a battle, she and Chartail could be sold to another vampire lord and end up belonging to a collective. Their life expectancy would possibly not be long enough for Starc to return with Yorik’s daughter.
“You do not need to worry, you belong to Drake. Royalty is not involved in this war.” Rosemarie left Shirl, as she pondered the woman’s words. She looked at Chartail, pale from the loss of blood. Shirl sat in the only chair in the small area they occupied. She was not sure how effective she would be, but Shirl would do her best to protect Chartail from further harm. Chartail would not survive another attack.
Shirl woke as two vampires entered their area. Yorik followed closely behind his guards. She stood without thinking, placing herself between Chartail and the master vampire. It might turn out to be a losing cause, but Shirl would not sit by and let Yorik violate Chartail again. Shirl needed to gather what courage she had.
“She has barely recovered from your last attack,” Shirl confronted the master vampire. “Chartail needs more time to garner her strength.” Shirl was extremely nervous, she was afraid she would vomit. Her knees were shaking so bad, she was surprised she was still standing.
Yorik stood in front of Shirl, placing a hand on her throat and the other at the back of her neck. His hands were cold and dry, nothing like Drake’s hands. Rather than being turned on, she was repulsed by Yorik’s touch. He had fury written all over his face.
“I see that Drake has marked you,” Yorik snarled. “That is the only reason you are standing and not dead at my feet. The woman you foolishly try to keep from me belongs body, blood, and soul to me. You will leave now, or I will do to this woman what I would have done to you. I can get my blood from any of the slaves who occupy this harem.”
For some weird reason, Shirl would have stood her ground if the vampire had threatened only her. Since the warning was targeted at Chartail, she had no option but to leave. She was about to exit when Drake entered. Shirl stood back, closer to the bed where a still unconscious Chartail lay.
“Not taking proper care of your new toy, I see,” Drake addressed Yorik. He said those words with no emotion. His face however, showed outrage. “You should learn self-discipline. The woman is a prize and she will be dead before the day is out if you continue.”
Warmth spread through Shirl’s body. She was not sure if it was a reaction to Drake trying to save Chartail or another reason all together. As much as she was repulsed by Yorik, the opposite was true regarding her reaction to the Prince of Vampires.
Yorik left without another word. His guards followed, not daring to look at Drake. He went to Chartail and lifted her wrist. “Her pulse is weak, but steady. Yorik will not return this evening. Your friend will live through the night. Now, my beauty, you owe me a bounty for saving her life.” Unlike the other vampires, Drake’s eyes were clear of the blood lust. However, a different type of lust shown from his eyes.
Shirl followed him without a word. They walked toward the entrance to the small spa area she had originally occupied. Relief spread through her body, there was no bed present. She feared his sexual advances more than she feared his taking her blood. Blood was nourishment, while sex with Drake would be very personal. Starc had told her to do anything it took to survive. Her mind started justifying the act of sex with this vampire would be in the pursuit of saving her life. If she kept telling herself that, maybe she would believe it.
They entered the small spa exactly as it had been when he first touched her. She needed to get her mind off her attraction to him. “Yorik is the master here, but he fears you. One of the servants said you are royalty. What influence do you hold over him?”
Drake smiled, his face appeared to have more color with that simple action. “For a vampire, blood is everything. The life force that pumps throughout my body contains the oldest blood of our kind. We do not have to fight over petty things such as land and fealty, our blood gives us ultimate power.” As he spoke he ran his hands up and down Shirl’s arms. The motion was both distracting and turning her on. Blood was power where Drake was concerned, knowledge was what would ultimately save her. Shirl needed to focus and gather as much information as she could.
“I do not understand. Do you have the ability to set me free, regardless if my friends bring back Yorik’s daughter?” Shirl moved away from the friction his attention caused. She was too hot and wanted this man too much. When had she started thinking of Drake as a man, not a vampire?
Drake moved to once again place her body within his reach. His hands caressed her lower back. “I have claimed you, no harm will come to you if your friends fail in their mission.” Once again she wondered what his claiming meant, if she could ever escape this man. How many had been in her position over the decades. He said his blood was the oldest of their kind.
“How old are you?” Shirl inquired.
“You are from the Ginkgo Terra universe. You could not comprehend how old my blood is. Your species was not standing erect when my master made me. I do not have words to describe how the cosmos created such a creature as him. Such an oddity that would feed off any living thing it could find. Over several millennia his diet changed to the blood that feeds my body today.”
Her life and her story seemed so insignificant compared to the man who stood before her. She had lived twenty-three years. The things he must have seen over that time. It was flattering that one such as he would be interested in her. His eyes drank in her essence, as if he was drinking her blood.
“What happens when my brother and my soul mate deliver the girl? Although you said you have claimed me, will you allow me to leave?” Shirl wondered if she wanted to leave this man. She desired to leave the world Yorik ruled, but not necessarily Drake. If he offered to take her elsewhere, would she choose him over a soul mate she had known for such a short period of time? Alex had a violent reaction to her soul mate
even before they touched. There was no such connection to Starc.
“That, my love, is up to you. You say he is your soul mate, but could that be the case with the reaction you had to me?” Drake ran his tongue along her throat. Her legs were barely holding her up. She had such an all-consuming fire building within her. He must have sensed her weakness as he guided her back to one of the lounges. “I have had more partners than I can remember, with a very few I can actually say I loved. You will join that elite group if you stay.”
“What happened to all the women over the years?” There must have been so many. He was truly immortal. It was likely that one day he would not remember her, as he had forgotten so many of the women in his life.
“Immortality is a curse that most cannot handle. Mortality. The shorter the life span, the more one appreciates what one has before him. Few make it more than several centuries.” Shirl considered his words. She hated being bored, always looking for something to occupy herself.
When the headaches started, all she did was lie around and do nothing. Would life with Drake eventually result in such in-activity, minus the pain? She had been so excited about the possibility of traveling to other worlds. The idea of such travel caused her pulse to react.
Drake gently removed the scabs that had developed over the wound he caused yesterday when he drank from her. His fangs entered her neck once again. He drew her blood into his mouth. His bite still did not hurt. However, she did not feel the thrall take over as it did before. Was he losing his control over her? When he finished he backed up and leaned against the wall.
“I have recently started to live again, Drake. My mother’s crystal will open worlds I did not even hope to dream about. I cannot imagine just lying here, waiting for you to visit. There is a strong attraction to you, but I know it would whither with the life you offer.”
A strange look crossed Drake’s face. It was as if he had come to the realization that what he had hoped would develop between the two of them was lost forever. “Even with the strength of the soul mate bond, I have lost you.”
Shirl did not understand what he was saying. “Starc is my soul mate. There was something else between us which I was helpless to fight.” There was no condemnation in her voice, just the truth.
“I am one of the most powerful vampires you will ever encounter,” Drake continued. “When Starc mentioned the existence of a soul mate connection, I merely leveraged that psychic wave length. Everything you felt should have been exactly what you would have experienced with Starc. There must be something within your bond to him I was not able to recreate.”
Shirl stood mute. He had manipulated her mind, as well as her body. She felt betrayed. All this time she felt guilty about being disloyal to her soul mate, Drake had used that connection and used it for his own gain. Shirl hugged herself as a cold wave of shame engulfed her. Although they had not had sex, she had reacted to his touch. Part of her rationalized what she would have gone though had he not tricked her. However, the greater part of her was angry and close to tears.
Drake placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out her crystals. He walked to her. Drake lifted the necklaces over her head and placed them around her neck. Gently he lifted her hair so the delicate gold chains would not snag. “Let us hope your brother and the mate of your soul are successful on their mission. If he does not become the mate of your heart, you know where you can find me.”
“I am never returning to this hellish world, Drake,” Shirl informed him. The mere thought produced goose bumps along her arm.
`
Drake rubbed her arms. Although the soul mate bond was no longer being manipulated, Shirl did feel something as Drake continued to massage her. She felt it best not to explore her reaction.
“Never is a long time,” Drake responded. “If you return, wear this gem. It will give you free passage within the Nightshade Universe until you are once again at my side.” Drake slipped another necklace around her neck.
Shirl looked in wonder at the blood opal Drake had given her. The stone was primarily black and red with fragments of green at the top. “Opals are water stones. They help ease handling change in one’s life. They enhance memory and decrease confusion. I find it ironic you have given me the love stone, since it was never love you offered.”
“I only offer what I can give, Shirl. I am a man of action, not words.”
He walked toward the exit. “Drake,” Shirl said as her voice broke with emotion, “I have one request of you. When they bring the girl, you will offer her your protection, as you offered it to me. Yorik may be her father, but that does not mean he will not brutalize the poor thing.” The guilt associated with trading her life for the other woman’s would be less burdensome if she knew Drake looked out for her. “You owe me that much. Who knows, maybe she will be the woman you can spend eternity with.”
Drake looked at her with an intensity, drinking in the sight of her. It felt like a goodbye, even though he would continue to protect her as long as she was in this universe. Shirl knew he would no longer try to seduce her. His quest for someone to spend the loneliness of forever with would continue.
He merely nodded and left. Shirl sat on the lounge and pondered where Starc was. Drake’s words about Starc becoming the soul mate of her heart made her long for the man for the first time since their initial touch. Would their coming together be as explosive as what she felt with Drake? The vampire had hijacked what she would have felt for her soul mate for his own benefit. It was clear he had not fully captured what she would ultimately have with her soul mate. She could now only hope that Starc would make Yorik’s deadline.
Chapter 11
Starc took a sip of the caramel colored beverage that Alex said was Shirl’s favorite. The cloying taste of sugar coated his taste buds and he wanted to gag. He watched his brother drain his glass and order another one. Alex had said that taking caffeine with headache medication helped to further relieve tension-type headaches. He decided to chew on herbs and have a shot of alcohol while they waited for Benko Jarlyn to arrive. Darden had immediately contacted Benko with the cell phone he carried when he traveled to Ginkgo Terra. The technology was foreign to him. Anything and everything could be broadcast through communal pathways at home. There was no need for technology that carried voice.
“What is the closest drink to stoak?” Starc asked his brother. Stoak was distilled keen, a drink all three men drank when they went to a bar in the Aster Province. He needed something that would calm his nerves. Benko Jarlyn was taking too long to meet up with them. Time was running out for Shirl.
The waitress dropped off another sugar water. His brother asked the waitress, “Bring him a shot of your house whiskey, please.”
The waitress glanced at Starc and smiled, “Would you like anything to eat?” In the Troyk universe, orders in restaurants were given telepathically. Generally as soon as you ordered your drink, it was immediately delivered to your table. He was not used to waiting, as he did in this world. There was no question, his anxiety regarding Shirl had eliminated any patience he usually possessed.
Darden looked at the three men that shared the table with him. He considered the menu and then ordered something called wings and fried something. Starc could not help glancing toward the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for Benko Jarlyn and his daughter Cassandra. The man was a legend and he would soon meet him. Shirl’s life depended on Benko helping them, as did the future of their universe.
His drink was delivered and Starc drained the glass. The liquid burned as it made its way down his throat. He considered ordering another when a middle-aged man and a young woman entered the bar. Without introductions, he knew who the man was.
Benko Jarlyn did not resemble his father, but the mother who had been a one night stand with the Troyk Prime Ruler. Jeryl Jarlyn had taken his son and raised him in what he hoped would be an image of himself. Like Jeryl, Benko was a mind control
telepath. Unlike his father, he did not feel the gift should be used to manipulate others. When he was barely twenty years old, he staged an unsuccessful rebellion against his father. Benko could no longer tolerate the choices that were taken away from the Troyk populace. Mind control telepaths directed what they purchased, where they lived and how they spent their time. Free will existed only where someone had no doubt regarding what they wanted or if the mind control telepath had no desire to sway opinion. There had been no restrictions over what they influenced, including the act of sex.
Starc examined Benko as he walked toward their table. He had rich brown hair, graying around his temple. The man walked with confidence, as if he owned the establishment. Every woman in the restaurant took note of him as he crossed the room. Benko had a short conversation with the waitress and finally arrived at their table. As he joined them, Starc noticed Benko had light honey brown eyes.
He had been so focused on Benko Jarlyn, he had not noticed the girl who entered with him, until she walked into his brother’s embrace. Cassie Jarlyn was his brother’s soul mate. Like Tarsea and Alex, Darden and Cassie looked like they fit together. Starc had never embraced his soul mate, as his twin was holding Cassandra Jarlyn. He had only held Shirl as terror presented itself before their eyes.
“We have a situation,” Darden said to Benko Jarlyn. He released Cassie and proceeded to introduce the new arrivals to Starc, Tarsea and Cianan. They still did not know where Cianan’s allegiances lay, so Darden provided more information through the warrior link. “I will introduce you as Ben Clark. We do not know if Cianan is loyal to your father. You are simply the father of my girlfriend who knows Chicago.”
“I have procured a small dining room where we can talk in private. The waitress will bring another round of drinks and the food you ordered.” Benko gestured for the group to follow him. Starc left the remains of the soda he had ordered on the table. He could use another whiskey.
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