Taken in the Night

by Tara Fox Hall

  By Stephen’s tone, he thought he was delivering crushing news, but I wasn’t devastated. I’d had one child with a man I loved. That would have to be enough.

  “There must be something you can suggest,” Danial demanded. “Sar has made my dream come true. I will not accept her cost for that was to lose one of her own.”

  I turned to him in surprise. He was more upset than I’d ever seen him, tears in his eyes.

  “Danial, it’s okay,” I said gently. “I don’t blame you.”

  “I blame myself,” he said, anguished.

  “You must accept it,” Stephen said. “Whatever you intended, that’s what happened.”

  “Isn’t there anything we can do?” Danial said desperately, looking hopefully at Stephen. “There must be something you know we can try.”

  “Sar has healed as well as she was able.” Stephen looked at Danial angrily. “She has healed too well, in fact.”

  I looked at Stephen in confusion. “What?”

  “What are you saying?” Danial said slowly.

  “Sarelle can take off her collar, can’t she?” Stephen said.

  “Yes,” Danial replied. “We discovered she could do so right when Elle was born, a few years ago—”

  “A few years ago?” Stephen yelled. “You never thought to mention that to me?”

  “Talk plainly,” Danial rasped, his eyes completely red. “What are you getting at?”

  “Didn’t you ever wonder why she could?” Stephen said, exasperated.

  “We thought it was his blood, the blood he took from me, and the blood he’d given me to heal the wounds,” I said.

  “It was his blood,” Stephen said, glancing at me. “That’s why you can take off the collar. There was a reason I asked him not to take your blood while you were pregnant.”

  “Will you say it already, before I shake it out of you?” Danial growled.

  “Danial, you have been with Sar for a year and a half now. You are taking her blood regularly and giving her yours to heal her. You were having sex, too. What did you think was going to happen?”

  Danial’s face went white. “She hasn’t had enough,” he whispered. “I was careful to space out our times together. I have given her my blood only a very few times, just to heal her worst wounds and drunk none of hers for the past year—”

  “That doesn’t matter. Your other bodily fluids are getting into her systems on a regular basis. That is all it takes, given enough time.”

  “Will you both tell me what you’re talking about?” I said loudly.

  Stephen looked at me, resigned. “He’s turning you, Sar.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “What?” I screamed, suddenly panicked.

  “He’s turning you into a vampire. That’s the only reason you didn’t bleed to death having Theoron. The scratches he inflicted healed a lot faster than a normal human could heal them. I suspected that when you delivered, but the blood test confirmed it.”

  “Can it be reversed?” I said, scared.

  “You aren’t a vampire yet, but you’re really close, according to your blood levels of the virus. That is why the choker responds to you so well. Moreover, it’s his choker and he would be your sire.”

  “That isn’t true,” Danial protested. “My brother has turned women. Even as vampire, they are unable to unfasten their collars themselves.”

  “He’s turned women wearing other vampire’s chokers at those vampire’s requests,” Stephen retorted. “To my knowledge he’s never turned a woman wearing his own. Sar’s tainted blood has a very similar arrangement your choker recognizes, because the virus in her all came from you.”

  “If you’re right, what can we do?” Danial said.

  “I don’t want to be a vampire,” I said desperately

  “Then no more biting her, or unprotected sex. Especially no more giving her your blood, Danial, not for any reason,” Stephen said, putting emphasis on the word “any”.

  So basically, no more being with Danial. I shot him an anguished look.

  “If we don’t stop,” Danial said brokenly, “how long would we have?”

  “A couple of weeks,” Stephen said flatly. “Maybe more or less.”

  Danial sighed. “What do you suggest?”

  “Sarelle needs to get away from you, Danial. Frankly, if you live together and sleep in the same bed, you are going to want to be together. At this point, all it will take is a couple more times of being with each other for her to turn.”

  “For how long?” Danial asked quickly.

  “At least a few months, if not more. Time enough to see if her blood will go back to normal or not.”

  “What if it doesn’t?” Danial growled, suddenly furious. “What if we spend months apart and she’s still partly turned? I don’t want to be without her for one day, much less months.”

  “Do you want to take the chance you’ll turn her accidentally?” Stephen said quietly.

  “No.” Danial closed his eyes and kissed my hand. “No, I don’t.”

  I found my voice. “Why did this happen now?” I yelled at Stephen. “We were intimate every night for months the first time we were together. He took my blood and gave me his—”

  “That was before he drank Devlin’s blood,” Stephen said. “Devlin’s blood was powerful. It made Danial’s blood more potent. He could make vampires where he couldn’t before. That’s the difference.”

  I closed my eyes. Finally, when we were happy and things were going okay, this had to happen.

  Danial gathered me to him and hugged me. “Can Sar get up and walk around now, or do you still suggest bed rest?”

  “She’s healed. She should take it easy, but normal activity, like walking is fine.”

  “Thank you,” Danial said, pushing Stephen from the room. He turned to me. “Sar, please get dressed.” Then he left.

  Hurriedly, I dressed. When I emerged from the room, Terian was waiting for me.

  “Danial said you were healed,” he said, curious, “but he was very upset. What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing,” I lied. “Stephen said I’d probably have no more children.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Terian said, clearly horrified.

  “Don’t be,” I said, shrugging. “I’ve got two kids and that’s enough. I’d really like to go home.”

  Terian nodded and followed me out. Danial was waiting behind the wheel. Terian gave him an odd look, but didn’t say anything as he got into the passenger seat in front. I slipped into the back seat.

  No one spoke on the trip home. I barely noticed the trip because I was so consumed by my thoughts.

  Danial and I could be together and not exchange blood. We’d done it the entire time we’d been trying for Theoron and more than half of the time that I’d been pregnant. We’d had a lot of unprotected sex then, and now we would have to use condoms. Maybe it was the sex and not the blood that brought me to the edge of the precipice upon which I found myself standing.

  Maybe this was why there were no dhamphirs before now. There had been no way around the Lust, no way of stopping it besides the biting and bloodletting. How many vampires could have been near a woman behaving as I had and acted with Danial’s restraint? Something told me the number was low. How much more blood would Danial and I have needed to share to turn me? By Stephen’s tone, not very much.

  “Sar, we’re home,” Terian said.

  I come back to myself. Terian was holding the door open for me. Danial was nowhere in sight.

  “Female vampires are sterile, too, right?”

  Terian gave me a curious look. “Yes, of course. Something in the vampire virus causes sterility.”

  If I’d turned, I would have lost the baby when I changed. “Can female vampires take the potion?”

  “No,” Terian said, giving me an odd look. “From what I’ve read, their entire reproductive system shuts down, outside of menstruation. There’s no potion existing capable of restarting it because it’s so much more complex than a man
’s or that can keep it going for the nine months necessary to grow a child.”

  I had walked a fine line having Theoron. I hadn’t realized how fine it had been until now.

  “Danial went inside,” Terian added. “He said he’d be right back.”

  Terian’s previous words sank in. “Female vampires have their periods forever?”

  He nodded. “If they’re turned before menopause, yes.”

  I shuddered at the thought and got out of the car. “It’s probably good I don’t know any, then. They’ve got to be miserable.”

  Terian laughed as we walked to the door. “Some of them have surgery to remove their reproductive organs. It wasn’t an option until a few decades ago, but it can be done now.”

  I didn’t reply.

  “I’m glad you’re home,” Suri said, giving me a hug. “Do you want something to eat?”

  Home, but would it be for much longer?

  “Sar?”

  “No, thanks,” I said quickly. “I’m heading in to shower.”

  “Do it fast,” Suri replied. “Everyone will be here in another hour for your celebration. Cia is getting Elle and Theoron ready right now.”

  I nodded, not really listening and went into the bedroom. I started the water and took off my clothes, then stepped under the spray.

  It was the first week of May now and summer was coming. I could always go back to my house for the summer. I’d be alone, but what other option was there?

  I quickly washed my hair, loving the feeling of being clean. A bad snarl made me grimace, and I spent the next few minutes working out the tangled mass.

  It was as long now as it had been when I oathed to Danial, down to my hips. I was all for being sexy, but there was a limit to how much time every day I was willing to devote to my hair. Maybe it was time to go short again...

  Danial’s arms went around me. “Are you okay?” he said softly.

  “No,” I said honestly. “I’m afraid of you turning me. I’m afraid of having to leave you. I don’t know what to do. I’m pissed off we finally seem to be making it work and now this had to happen.”

  “I’m sorry for the part I played in this, Sar. You know I didn’t do this on purpose, right?”

  I turned in his arms and hugged him. “Of course,” I said, putting my arms around his neck and kissing him.

  The kiss deepened and in a moment, he had me against the shower wall, kissing me hard, his tongue sliding into my mouth. His erection pressed to my belly. It had been almost six months of no sex. Now I was healed, it was just him and me, and I remembered with vivid clarity just how good he could be.

  “I want you,” I whispered urgently.

  He helped me out of the shower quickly. “Dry off. I’ll meet you in bed.”

  I dried sporadically, put some conditioner in my hair quickly, then ran into the bedroom. Danial was waiting for me on the bed, a condom already in place. A second later, he was on me, easing inside. He felt wonderful, and I shifted my hips to help him. Inflamed with passion, we sought each other’s flesh with abandon, cries of eagerness permeating the air. Before long, our orgasms broke over us, and we came screaming together.

  He squeezed my body close to his, holding it tightly. “I don’t want you to go, Sar,” he said, breathing rapidly. “I’ll do whatever I have to, but say you won’t go.”

  “I won’t go,” I said softly.

  Danial’s face relaxed into that soft look of his I loved so much. He rolled off me, threw away the condom, and crawled back beside me.

  “I’m so relieved,” he whispered. “I was worried—”

  Terian knocked on the door.

  “What is it?” Danial said, in the voice of a man who was in the middle of something important.

  “In case you two forgot, there’s a party waiting for you out here.”

  I blushed red, thinking of all those people outside the door listening to me screaming my head off.

  Danial was not embarrassed in the least. “We’ll be right out.”

  We got dressed in a few minutes. I was still too big around the middle to wear my jeans, so I settled for some maternity leggings and a large shirt. I’d just had a baby. I was not going for vixen just yet. Maybe in a few weeks, when I had a chance to do some walking.

  Danial took my hand and escorted me out into the great room. The guards were all there, including Aran Jr. Everyone was milling about, drinking and eating.

  Aran came up to me. “Hi, Sar.” He leaned in close. “Suri has broken up with Ivan, and he and Demetri are friends again. Thought you should know.”

  “What about Suri?” She hadn’t looked upset earlier.

  “Suri is taking some time alone, at least, that is the phrase Cia used. She’s pulling guard duty tonight, running solo.”

  “Good. I didn’t want to see any of them leave.”

  Cia came up and hugged me and then proudly showed me her son who was just learning to walk. Aran Jr. was handsome already like his father. He had Cia’s blond hair, but Aran’s eyes, though they were a little darker than his father’s. One by one, the rest of the foxes came up to me, saying they were happy I was better. It was wonderful to feel all the love in the room and to know they all cared so much for me.

  Elle ran up to me, looking bigger already than she had the last time I saw her. I hugged her hard, as she practically squeezed the life out of me. “Mom, I missed you. They wouldn’t let me see you, because you were sleeping.”

  “I’m all better now though,” I said, hugging her. “I love you, Elle.”

  “I love you, too,” she said, hugging me back. “Thank you for giving me a brother. I love Theo.”

  When she said those words, all the noise around me seemed to stop. A tremor passed through me. I felt alone suddenly in the midst of the party with Theo’s ghost.

  “I need some air,” I said to Cia. “Keep an eye on Elle?”

  “Sure,” she said.

  I walked out onto the front porch, closing the door on the noise inside. Slowly, I walked from the front to the side of the house and back. For a few moments, I stood there looking into the black trees.

  I should have asked Danial to name our baby something else. Theo had been gone almost two years. Yet only I had to hear his name, and I remembered everything he’d been to me.

  Danial had done so much for me. We’d had a child together. Yet I was here at the party for our baby, missing my lover of two years ago and not thinking of Danial at all. Guilt overwhelmed me.

  It was warm now. It would be time to plant soon. Maybe I should leave because I didn’t deserve Danial, Theoron, or this good life.

  “Sar, are you okay?”

  I turned. Terian was coming toward me.

  “No,” I admitted. “I miss Theo. I hadn’t realized how it would feel to hear his name again.”

  “Sar, that’s normal. You loved him.”

  I didn’t mention the turning scare to him. He’d tell me to leave before I turned, but he hadn’t seen Danial’s face. “I should just ask everyone to call the baby Theoron.”

  “Sar,” Terian said seriously, then abruptly went quiet.

  I looked at him, waiting for him to finish.

  Footsteps came up the deck slowly, each footfall deliberately loud. Terian and I both turned.

  “It’s touching,” a cold, sarcastic voice said “You’re still good friends after all these years.”

  Devlin emerged from the shadows, walking closer. He looked as ruthless and gorgeous as he had more than a year ago.

  “The party’s inside,” Terian said, stepping closer to me.

  “The hostess is out here,” Devlin replied evenly. “Go inside if you want to.”

  Terian didn’t move or reply.

  I’d known I’d have to see Devlin eventually. I was just lucky he’d stayed away so long. “Why are you here?”

  “To see my nephew, of course,” Devlin said with a grin, his golden eyes shining.

  “Come in then,” I said reluctantly, moving past
him.

  Devlin reached out and stopped me. “Wait, please.”

  I braced myself, sure he was going to say something nasty about Theo or me.

  “These are for you,” he said, handing me two dozen fire and ice roses with a large silver bow.

  My jaw hit the floor. “Thanks,” I said finally, taking them.

  “Sar, I wanted to tell you I’m sorry for what happened before, with you and me.”

  “For trying to kill me, you mean?” I said charmingly. “For scaring the hell out of me, hurting me, and leaving the scar on my neck I’m wearing right now?”

  “For past transgressions en masse,” he said politely. “I know what you went through to have this child with my brother. I know what Theoron means to him. It means a great deal to me to have a new immediate relative, much less a nephew, something I thought I’d never live to see if I lasted another thousand years.” He went to one knee. “I have been a bastard, but even worse, I’ve been an utter fool.” He lowered his eyes. “Forgive me.”

  I didn’t want to. I didn’t want his flowers, beautiful though they might be.

  Devlin didn’t move from his position. I debated leaving him here and dropping the flowers at his feet. What stopped me was the truth in his words. Theoron was his nephew. Devlin was my baby’s uncle, his only living relation on Danial’s side. If something happened to Danial and I, who would take care of Theoron until he was grown? Who else would be qualified as Devlin was, who would know firsthand what a vampire needed to live?

  “You aren’t a thousand,” I said softly. “Danial’s only four hundred plus.”

  “True, though some nights it feels that way,” Devlin said with a smirk.

  “This looks familiar,” Terian said scathingly. “You on your knees.”

  Devlin gave him a faint smile. “Maybe so.” He turned back to me. “I do this out of respect for you, not him. Let us heal the animosity between us.”

  “Why?” I asked warily.

  “I’d like to visit with my brother and nephew as often as my schedule permits. Danial forbade me from coming here and said you had to give permission. I ask for that permission now. If you wish not to be present when I visit, I’ll do my best to stay out of your sight.”