by Aja James
© Copyright by Aja James 2018
Dear Reader:
I hope you will enjoy the fourth installment of the Pure Ones saga on the following pages (Book #7 in Pure/ Dark Series). You will soon see that much more is yet to come.
Every story has many points of view, many different interpretations and versions of the truth. So what about the perspective from the Dark Ones’ POV? Find out in Dark Longing, Book 2. And meet Seth and Jade for the first time in Book 1, Pure Healing.
Email me at [email protected] to find out more. And follow me on https://www.facebook.com/AjaJamesAuthor and https://aja-james.blog/. I will have free chapters, behind the scenes and other goodies on the Pure/ Dark Ones series.
I love hearing from you!
Enjoy!
Aja James
Table of Contents
Glossary
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Other Books in the Pure/ Dark Ones series:
Glossary of Characters
Glossary
Awakening: test of courage and strength of spirit which leads to the subject, who possesses a Pure soul, coming into his/her Gift, a supernatural power, if he/she passes the test.
Blood-Contract: Contract by which a human Consents to surrender his/her blood (and sometimes soul) to a vampire for a promise in return that the vampire must fulfill. The vampire has the choice to accept or reject the Contract. Upon acceptance, he/she must fulfill the bargain or risk retribution from the unfulfilled human soul in the form of a curse. See also Consent.
Blooded Mate: the chosen partner for each Dark One. Once the Bond is formed between two Dark Ones, it cannot be broken unless a third party has prior claim of blood or flesh. The third party can elicit a Challenge to one of the Bonded Dark Ones to obtain rights to the other. The Challenge is fought to the death.
Save in the case of a successful Challenge, the Bond cannot be broken except through death. Attempts to break the Bond by one or the other Mate will end in death or madness or something worse, depending on the depth and strength of the Bond in question.
Blooded Mates do not need to take the blood and souls of others to survive. However, they must take blood and sex from each other on a regular basis, else they will weaken and eventually go mad and/or die.
Bonding Ritual: symbolic ceremony whereby a Pure One pledges his/her devotion to his/her Eternal Mate, or when the Healer unites with his/her Consort. The binding pledge, delivered by the Master of Ceremonies, contains the following verses:
In Darkness and Light, in Life and Death
Two souls will join to share One Path
With heart and mind, and every breath
You become each other’s present and past
What the future holds only the Goddess can see
Paved by the choices you both shall make
Step by step toward your Destiny
In Bond Eternal that none shall break
Cardinal Rule: Sacred Law number three, thou shalt not engage in sexual intercourse with someone who is not thy Eternal Mate. See Sacred Laws.
The Chosen: six royal guards of the New York-based Vampire Queen, Jade Cicada.
Consent: a human’s willing agreement to surrender his/her blood (and sometimes soul) to a vampire.
The Circlet: five royal inner council members of the Pure Queen.
Cove: base of the New York-based vampire hive, with dominion over the New England territories in the U.S.
Dark Goddess: supernatural being who is credited with the creation of the Dark Ones. She is a deity to which Dark Ones pray. It is unclear how or whether she is related to the Pure Ones’ Goddess. See also The Goddess.
Dark Laws: One, thou shalt protect the Universal Balance to which all souls contribute. Two, thou shalt maintain the secrecy of the Race. Three, thou shalt not take an innocent’s blood, life, or soul without Consent.
Dark One: supernatural being who prefers to live in the night and who gathers energy and prolongs his/her life by feeding off the blood, and sometimes souls, of others. Dark Ones are born, not made. Sometimes confused with the term vampire.
Decline: condition in which, or process of, a Pure-Ones’ life force depletes after he/she Falls in love but does not receive equal love in return. The Pure One weakens and his/her body slowly, painfully breaks down over the course of thirty days, leading ultimately to death unless his/her love is returned in equal measure.
The Dozen: see Royal Zodiac.
Ecliptic Scrolls: events past, recorded by the Keeper of the Dark Ones.
Ecliptic Prophesies: events in the future as foretold by the Oracle of the Dark Ones.
The Elite: six royal personal guards of the Pure Queen.
Eternal Mate: the destined partner to a given Pure soul. Each soul only has one mate across time, across various incarnations of life. Quotation from the Zodiac Scrolls describing the bond: “His body is the Nourishment of life. Her energy is the Sustenance of soul.”
Gift: supernatural power bestowed upon Pure Ones by the Goddess. Usually an enhanced physical or mental ability such as telekinesis, superhuman strength and telepathy. True Blood Dark Ones also possess powerful Gifts. See True Blood.
The Goddess: supernatural being who is credited with the creation of the Pure Ones. She is a deity to which Pure Ones devote themselves. She protects the Universal Balance.
The Great War: circa 2190 B.C., the Pure Ones who had been enslaved by the Dark Ones rebelled against their oppressors en masse. At the end of countless years of bloodshed, the Pure Ones ultimately regained their freedom, and the Dark Ones’ empire lay in ruins with the members of the Royal Hive scattered to the ends of the earth.
Hive: society of vampires with a matriarch, the Queen, at the head.
Horde: small groups of vampires with no Queen, typically composed of Rogues who band together for ease of hunting.
Nourishment: the strength that Mated Dark Ones take from each other’s blood and body through sexual intercourse. Once Mated, they will no longer need others’ blood to survive, only that from each other. Sexual intercourse is required to make the Nourishment sustaining.
Nourishment is also what Pure males provide their females as Eternal Mates. See Eternal Mate.
Pure One: supernatural being who is eternally youthful, typically endowed with heightened senses or powers called the Gift. In possession of a pure soul and blessed with more than one chance at life by the Goddess, chosen as one of Her immortal race that defends the Universal Balance.
Rogue: lone vampire who does not belong to an organized vampire society or Hive.
The Royal Zodiac: twelve-member collective of the Elite, the Circlet and the Queen of the Pure Ones.
Sacred Laws (Pure Ones): One, thou shalt protect the purity, innocence and goodness of humankind and the Universal Balance to which all souls contribute. Two, thou shalt maintain the secrecy of the Race. And three, thou shalt not engage in sexual intercourse with someone who is not thy Eternal Mate. Also known as the Cardinal Rule.
Shield: referred to as the base of the Royal Zodiac, wherever it may be. Not necessarily a physical location.
Sustenance: the strength that Mated Pure-Males take from the Pure-females’ spirit. Once Mated, the Pure-male becomes depend
ent upon the Pure-female for sustaining his life. If his Mate dies before him, he too will perish. In equal exchange, the Pure-male provides Nourishment. See Nourishment.
True Blood: a vampire born of Dark parents. See also Dark One.
Vampire: supernatural being who prefers to live in the night and who gathers energy and prolongs his/her life by feeding off the blood, and sometimes souls, of others. Contrary to prevalent beliefs (see Book 1: Pure Healing), vampires are both made and born. Some vampires are Pure Ones who have chosen Darkness rather than death after they break the Cardinal Rule. Some are humans turned by other vampires. Some are True Bloods that are born of a vampire mother or father, more accurately called Dark Ones.
Zodiac Prophesies: events yet to come, foretold by the Seer of the Pure Ones through the Orb of Prophesies.
Zodiac Scrolls: events past, recorded by the Scribe of the Pure Ones.
Prologue
Darkness is in all of us.
Just as there is light, hope and joy, there are those shuttered spaces in our souls, those whispers in the seething night, yawning chasms of blackness and doubt.
Hate. Envy. Vengefulness.
Violence. Pain. Bleakness.
And then there’s love.
You’d think that love should be all that is good and pure, warm and comforting.
It’s that breathless first kiss with your childhood crush. It’s the dizzying heights of passion and pleasure when the one you want mirrors your giddy, uncontainable desire in their eyes.
It’s the rapid, thunderous beat of your heart when they finally embrace you, and the ecstasy and heat of their body imprint on yours for all time.
Inside, outside, everywhere around you. Your intimate knowledge of their touch, the softness of their lips, the fiery possession of their body redefining everything you thought you knew…
You’d be wrong.
Love is also dark and resentful, scathing and violent.
Love can move mountains, cross the seven seas, they say. Love can inspire you to accomplish great feats of courage, strength and selfless sacrifice.
And yet.
Love can also destroy empires, raze entire civilizations, incinerate the world around you into ashes as black as your heart and as bleak as your soul when the one you love betrays you.
Or in my previous incarnation’s case—when the one you were too cowardly to admit you loved is violently killed trying to save you.
And you were the one to send him to his doom.
It’s strange, having all of my memories back for all the incarnations that I have lived. Talk about multiple personality disorder. How about multiple lives disorder?
I am Sophia Victoria St. James, Queen of the Pure Ones in modern day New York City, where we have relocated the Shield several months ago. The second relocation in three years.
I was also Ninti Melammu, the first Pure Queen from the ancient Akkadian empire over four thousand years ago.
And…I was a human princess during the Persian Empire, stupidly in love with the wrong prince.
Can you imagine the mangled memories running through my twenty-year-old mind? Memories that span many lifetimes and lives, across many cultures and times.
I’ve never had headaches before. But now I have splitting ones, like Zeus is throwing thunderbolts at my skull for target practice.
And then there’s the overwhelming tides of emotion that crash through me in their most undiluted, intense extremes.
I’m rather in awe of Ninti and wonder how I could possibly have her soul. But now it all makes sense why the Pure Ones have been searching for me—for her—for so long.
She was a true leader. Selfless, loving, strong. With a wondrous power to inspire and move legions.
The complete opposite of my current incarnation, in other words.
I hate the Persian princess. Almost as much as I fear her. Because she is me, too, after all.
Where Ninti is bright, shining light, the princess has the capacity for ravaging darkness. She destroyed everything around her, razed the world and everyone in it literally to the ground.
And she is me.
They are all me.
Now I know what the creature and its Mistress, Medusa, wanted with me: to trigger my Awakening.
Now, I’m a ticking time bomb.
And forget the hydrogen bomb. Forget chemical and viral warfare. Even the Apocalypse pales in comparison to what I’m capable of.
Now I know, also, why my enemies brought on my Awakening in the manner that they did it.
The loss of Dalair will kill me. Just as it did before.
But not before I take countless lives with me into the void.
Enough.
Dwelling on the imminent danger of mass destruction won’t help anything. I need to find a way to defuse the bomb, and try my best to avoid any triggers that might set it off. Well…set me off.
Like Dalair dying, for example.
I don’t know where he is, how he is, but I do know in my heart, in my blood, that he’s alive. Let’s hope he stays that way until we find him and bring him back.
Meanwhile, I’m doing everything I can to somehow contain my potential for mass murder.
I’m three months away from graduating college. Over this past semester, I’ve taken as many classes related to ancient civilizations as I can, especially those pertaining to ancient Persia. All of them are remote courses requiring only research papers given that Harvard is in Cambridge, MA, and I now live in NYC.
At the same time, I’m poring over the Zodiac Scrolls and Prophesies every chance I get, with help from Eveline, the Pure Ones’ Seer and temporary Scribe. (Though temporary is a relative term, because she’s been owning that responsibility since the last Scribe perished three years ago).
There must be a way to push back the darkness, defuse it, encapsulate it. But you can never totally remove it.
Darkness is in all of us.
Even the most stalwart, innocent, courageous, and true.
A child can be persuaded to steal. A lawful citizen can be incited to violence.
A monk can be seduced to forsake his vows.
And sometimes…sometimes…
When darkness unfurls in the quiet night, whispering and tempting and insidiously alluring—
I ache to embrace it.
Chapter One
3 years ago, New York City, NY
They called him the “Monk.”
They, being the countless friends, comrades and allies he’d made over the three-thousand-some years of his existence as a reborn Pure One.
Seth Tremaine was privately amused at the moniker, often used in positive regard, for all of his closest compatriots knew that when Seth had been human, he’d been deeply in love with his lady wife.
He was amused because “Monk” implied that he denied himself pleasure, didn’t have lascivious thoughts and desires, so devoted was he to his long-dead human wife. The title connoted prudishness and strict reservation when it came to matters of the flesh.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Anyone who knew anything about ancient Egypt, from whence Seth’s human incarnation hailed, would appreciate that Egyptians were shockingly free, even compared to the Greeks and Romans, in the expression and act of sex. Not much was taboo as far as sex was concerned in ancient Egyptian society.
Except for adultery, which resulted in severe punishments like whipping and mutilation, worse for the woman than the man.
Unattached couples explored sexual pleasures at an early age. More serious lovers might live together for a “trial marriage” before taking the leap. Divorce was not uncommon and not usually frowned upon. And contraception was probably invented in ancient Egypt, what with the amount of sex couples had, in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
When it came to sexual appetite, Seth was as far from his unearned moniker as a male could possibly be.
While he’d loved, respected and admired his human wife, having grown up wit
h her into adulthood, their families being close as well, their bed sport had not fully satisfied him, though he’d always made certain to satisfy her.
He needed…more.
Presently, Seth followed two strikingly attractive females in form-fitting white tuxedos through a hidden corridor leading to a high-security elevator that could have blended completely into the interior walls of the Chrysler Building had one not known it was there.
Seth was not attracted.
Perhaps that was why his friends crowned him with his moniker.
Since his resurrection as a Pure One, he never showed interest in finding a Mate. Which was extremely strange because the most difficult part of being a Pure One was that you had to abide by the Cardinal Rule: no sexual intercourse with anyone but your Eternal Mate.
If you did have sex with the wrong person who did not return your love in equal measure, you’d die an excruciating death within thirty days.
Hence, it behooved unattached Pure Ones who wished to indulge in one of the greatest pleasures in life to find their better half as soon as humanly possible.
Imagine having blue balls for thousands of years!
Not so in Seth’s case.
He’d simply never been tempted.
Not his heart, not his mind. And he had enough control of his body to tamp down basic biological urges. Or satisfy them expediently with his left and right fists.
Once inside the narrow space with his two accompaniments, Seth looked neither to his left nor to his right, keeping his gaze straight ahead.
He did notice, however, that there were no buttons and no floor signals on the inside of the elevator, just shiny, unmarked steel casing surrounding the passengers on all sides with three overhead halogen lights. And no one had made any movement or sound, yet the elevator began climbing up as soon as the single sliding door closed before its three occupants.
