by Eve Newton
I hear his voice, a low, urgent whisper and the blood rushes to my face. He is conspiring again behind my back. If he is with Aria, I am going to slaughter the pair of them where they stand!
I am about to push open the door when I hear another man’s voice.
Cahl.
He is talking in the same urgent tone as Draven and now I lose all my anger as the intrigue sets in.
“…weakness,” he says.
“Weakness?” Draven repeats in disbelief.
“That is how I can best describe it,” Cahl says.
My mouth drops open in shock and I lean closer.
“I don’t think I understand,” Draven says. “What you did out there to Edric’s men was pretty impressive. I only wish I’d had the chance to take him down.”
“I am still more powerful than you can fathom,” Cahl says. “But, by my own sense, I know something is missing.”
“The sword?” Draven asks.
“Yes,” Cahl answers. “Without it, I am less. My powers will start to wane, the longer I am disconnected from it.”
“I can’t risk giving it back to you. That thing has the ability to kill all of us, even you,” Draven says with regret.
“I am aware,” Cahl says. “But it makes no difference. Once the Jurisdiction learns of my defection, I will lose the ability to wield the sword. They will ensure the disconnection is permanent.”
“Do you think that has already happened?” Draven asks in a serious tone.
“It is possible,” Cahl says.
“What then?” Draven asks.
“I will lose my ability to spend eternity here,” Cahl says.
“You mean you will be mortal here?” Draven asks in surprise.
“Yes,” Cahl says. “I will age and die, like your mother.”
“Shit,” Draven breathes. “Does Aria know?”
“No!” Cahl says, forcefully. “She cannot know. Not yet. Not until you have completed the ritual.”
I hear Draven slap Cahl on the shoulder. “She won’t hear it from me, but you need to tell her. Soon. I get the feeling your poker face is pretty damn bad.”
“Poker face?” Cahl asks.
“It means you are a bad liar,” Draven explains with a chuckle.
“Yes, lies are evil,” he spits out.
“Then you need to figure out a way to tell her.”
“How?” he asks mournfully and my heart goes out to him. “She is just starting to trust me. How am I supposed to shatter that and tell her I will die long before she does?”
“I don’t know,” Draven says. “But you have to tell her, sooner rather than later.”
I bite my lip and debate with myself if Aria should know about this right now. She is like me, keeping her heart closed off to protect herself. If she learns of this after she has fallen in too deep, I don’t like to think of the consequences.
“Ember?” Draven suddenly calls out and my cover is blown.
“Yes,” I say, pushing the door open with a bright smile.
“Everything okay?” he asks as I go to him and wrap my arms around him.
“Just great,” I reply, casting my gaze at Cahl. He looks so full of sorrow as he leaves us that I can’t bear to be the one to bust this can of worms wide open.
I will keep quiet and hope that he tells Aria soon.
Chapter 22
~Ember~
“So, what was that about?” I ask, retaining my air of suspicion in the hopes that Draven actually tells me the truth. I’m not expecting it, though, and rightly so.
“Nothing,” he says. “Just guy talk, you know?” he adds with a shrug.
“No, I don’t know,” I point out and he just smiles that gorgeous, mouthwatering smile at me and it works on my traitorous body. I light up like a bloody Christmas tree and lean in for a deep kiss.
“I am so lucky,” he murmurs against my lips, before he carries on his exploration of my mouth with his tongue. His hands go to my breasts underneath the silky top and he tweaks my nipples hard. I moan into his mouth and wrap my leg around him.
“Now?” he asks with an arched eyebrow.
“Now,” I demand, not giving a damn if anyone walks into the dining room and sees us at it on the table.
“You are such a naughty girl,” he whispers, his words causing me to shiver in his arms.
He pulls down my shorts and they drop in a silken heap to the floor. He’s on me then, pushing me back to the table and nestling himself in between my legs. He fumbles with his pants and I help him out, needing him inside me before I wither up and die.
Shit! I am falling too deep. Way too deep. I need to have him, all of him, all of the time. I need his very soul to touch whatever is deep inside me, so that we can spend eternity together as we were meant to. I feel it now. I feel it in this very moment as he penetrates me, not only my body, but my heart. He is ‘the one’ that women across the ages have talked about.
Shit. Fuck.
I cry out as he slams into me, the hard wood biting into my flesh. “More!” I scream at him. “More, Draven, I need everything you’ve got!”
“Oh, fuck, baby,” he groans in my ear, screwing me even harder as I beg him. “I can’t get enough of you.” He drags me down the table, skewering me onto his cock so deep I can feel his long strokes hit my womb.
“Yes!” I scream. “Harder!”
“Fuck!” he roars and pulls out of me, spinning me around so quickly I don’t get to feel the disappointment of our bodies splitting back into two separate beings. He lifts my hips and thrusts his cock into me from behind, ramming me forcefully. I keep my balance with my hands on the table, but my elbows are shaking with my desire and I let them give way, so that I am plastered cheek-to-wood against the table. I feel the shudder of my orgasm as it shakes my entire body, clutching at Draven’s cock as if to never let it go.
“Oh, Ems,” he cries, digging his fingers further into my hips, making me yelp. “Fuck, yes.” He rams into me one last time and he is done, shooting his load into me with jerk after jerk of his hips.
I am a vampire. I have unnatural strength and stamina, but right now I am sweating profusely with our efforts, panting like a bitch in heat.
Draven covers my body with his, laying his chest to my back, crushing me into the dining table where the Coven will gather to eat not long from now. It makes me giggle and Draven, knowing my thoughts somehow, laughs too.
“Better get the polish out,” he jokes. “There’s probably your butt print on here somewhere.”
“Along with my tit prints,” I retort. “Get off me.” I wiggle underneath him, but it only serves to rile him up some more.
“Another round? My, my, you are a vampire vixen, aren’t you?” he says, the desire in his voice making him slightly hoarse.
We both turn quickly as we hear a noise by the doorway.
We jump apart as we see a man’s back retreating. I recognize him instantly as Jacob and I cringe. Did he watch this entire show, or just walk in on us now and decide to take the high road and leave? I tie my robe up tightly with a grimace at Draven, whose face has gone so dark it is slightly terrifying.
“You know it meant nothing, right?” I ask him cautiously.
“It makes no difference,” he says shortly. “His dick has still been where it shouldn’t have.”
I bite my lip, intending to take all the blame, I mean it was me who jumped him and maybe Draven needs to know that, but I don’t get a chance to. Draven suddenly wipes the darkness from his features and smiles down at me. He takes my hands and says, “We should do this séance now.”
“Oh,” I say, taken aback. “We’re still doing that? I thought Cahl told us everything?” I wrinkle up my brow. I am not into ghost chasing and seeing my mom is just going to creep me out, even though I am still not convinced about Cahl’s story. I know my visions. I have had them for a couple of centuries, not just about this, but about everything. I trust them. They are the only thing I have ever trusted. Until now.
“We still need to call on them, we need some insight. This is a big thing we are about to do, Ember. A call to arms against the Jurisdiction. I don’t know about you, but I think we need all the help we can get.”
His serious face makes me feel a bit stupid for questioning him. Of course we bloody need all the help we can get. We are only three and they are many, many, many. A legion of soldiers sworn to fight to the death for their cause. Suddenly, I don’t feel very confident at all about our chances.
Draven must see the doubt pass across my face because he cups it and then kisses me. “We will prevail, my sweet vampire. I know this for a fact.”
“How can you know that?” I whisper to him.
“Because there isn’t a chance in hell that I am going to lose you now that I have found you. Simple as that,” he whispers back and my eyes fill with tears—to my absolute horror!
But Draven doesn’t mock me, or laugh at my weakness. He leans down to kiss my tears away and then he slaps my rear lightly and says, “Go and get Aria, she will want in on this.”
“Okay,” I mumble, still choked up about the depth of Draven’s feelings for me, and conversely, mine for him.
“Oh, and sweetness?” Draven calls after me. I spin around and he adds, “Get dressed. I don’t want you meeting my mom in that sexy negligee.” He bursts out laughing as I glance down at myself in dismay. I hadn’t even thought about it, preoccupied was I with other matters.
“Sure thing,” I say and sashay away with a swing of my hips, just to give him something to look at as I walk away.
***
Twenty minutes later, I am showered and dressed and pushing my abject hunger to the side—making a mental note to go and find blood sooner rather than later—I go off in search of Aria. I find her in her assigned bedroom, thankfully fully clothed and pacing like a caged wolf.
“Draven is going to do the séance,” I say without bothering with pleasantries. “We are needed downstairs.”
“Well, I’m not freaked out at all. Thanks for asking, though,” Aria retorts, but I ignore her. I am nervous. I don’t know how I am supposed to act around my mother now that I am about to meet her face-to-face. Will she even want to see me, or will she only see Edric when she looks at me? I bear his features more than I would like, damn him.
“It’s okay. I’m nervous too,” Aria mutters as we head down the stairs, guided by candlelight in the now darkened mansion.
I start to scoff at her, but then disguise it as a cough. She revealed her true feelings and that is a fucking first. I won’t mock her for it.
“It will be weird for you,” I say, not knowing what else to add. I am not good with sympathy, or empathy, for that matter. They are emotions that I have never had time for.
“Yeah,” she says, after she gives me a hard glare.
We keep walking in the uncomfortable silence and I pause in the drawing room.
“Where is he?” Aria asks, hands on hips.
I close my eyes and take in a deep breath. “This way,” I say, opening them again and heading towards a door that I never even noticed before. Aria follows me as I push open the door and peer into the gloom. My vampire night vision makes out a spiral stone staircase that leads down into, what I can only assume, is a dungeon. ‘Basement’ is really not the word I would go for in this gothic style mansion.
“Fantastic,” Aria mumbles under her breath as I take a step forward and then down. I can see perfectly fine without the need for torches, as I am sure Aria can, but it would have been nice of Draven to add some to make it less creepy.
Down, down, down we go and eventually we reach the bottom and are shown the way by the slight flickering shadows coming from around the corner. We approach, with caution, and see Draven and Cahl standing on the outskirts of a large circle etched out in the stone with what looks like black coal, and lit, black candles placed at the five points of a pentacle.
I feel a cool shiver pass over the back of my neck and I turn around quickly, rubbing it. Aria gives me a strange look and abandons my side for her man.
I would be wise to do the same. Precious few things scare me in this world, but ghosts are one of them. They are odd, unnatural, and they can float through walls to scare the bejesus out of you when you are chained up in a dungeon by your father….
“Ahem.” I clear my throat, not wanting those memories to surface right now. I slip my hand into Draven’s and he gives it a quick squeeze before he takes his back. I stand there like a spare part as Aria and Cahl get all cuddly (something tells me Cahl hasn’t come clean yet), wishing that I had someone to cling to, but Draven needs his hands free to start the spell.
There is complete silence as we watch him.
He is uttering words in a language long since dead and it sends a chill over me. I sense Aria’s uneasiness as well and find a slight comfort in it. At least I am not the only one.
Suddenly, the flames on the black candles scattered around the room, flare up into pillars of fire and I cringe, shying away from the heat into a small corner. Now, I like the stone wall at my back. It gives me comfort from the magic that Draven is currently channeling through himself. It is a shimmer of raw power, visibly hovering around him. His hands are outstretched and he is muttering some words in Latin. His dark hair lifts off his shoulders as the breeze turns into a tornado. It lashes through the small room, causing Aria and Cahl to separate and take cover in the remaining corners. I crouch down, holding my hand up against the force of power.
“Draven!” I cry out as I see his face constrict, but he ignores me and carries on with his spell.
Just as suddenly, the wind dies down and the next thing I know, I am being hauled to my feet by some invisible force and dragged across to where Draven is standing. He is holding an athame in one hand now and as he keeps his other hand outstretched over the pentacle, he slashes his palm with the athame. The blood drops slowly onto the floor, making my stomach grumble. I should have made time to feed as I am so close to licking it off the floor. Draven’s hand on my wrist draws my eyes away from the blood droplets and he quickly turns my hand over and does the same to me, squeezing my fist in his to draw out the blood quicker. Aria catches on and holds out her palm for Draven to complete the spell.
He steps back, taking my hand as Cahl takes Aria’s.
And then we wait.
***
This dungeon room is completely silent; I can’t even hear the others breathing. It is eerie and it is making my vampire go slightly nuts. It is taking everything I have not to scrape at the walls with my claws in my agitation, as I used to do as a child. I am about to suggest that the spell didn’t work when a flicker appears over the pentacle. And then another. And then another.
I hear Aria gasp, recognizing her own mother instantly as Draven tenses up next to me. I am the last one to see my mother. The woman that I never knew and that my father killed because of me.
Shit. I have no idea what I am supposed to do right now. My mouth goes dry and I hang back as Aria races forward.
“Don’t break the circle,” Draven calls after her and she hauls to a stop, just on the edge.
“Mom!” she cries and holds her hand up in front of one of the most gorgeous women I have ever laid eyes on.
“Oh, Aria,” Alessandra says, also holding her hand up.
I look at Draven and swallow. He is staring at his mother, so choked up that he can’t speak.
“My boy,” Orna whispers and holds out her hand.
I watch as Draven holds his up to hers in the same manner as Aria.
“Ember,” Traela, my mother, says to me hesitantly, and I look back at her. She is smiling at me and I return it with a shy one of my own. I feel so out of place here, I have no idea what to say to her. “You have grown into such a beautiful woman,” she says to me.
I look down, knowing that she must see the similarities between Edric and me. “I look like him,” I blurt out. In my peripheral vision I can see Aria stop her hushed conversati
on with her mother to gape at me, but she slams her mouth shut when I turn and glare at her.
“Yes, you do,” Traela says, with an amused little laugh. “But so much prettier.”
“Thank you,” I say stiffly, standing with my hands in front of me like a child.
“Your father never taught you to accept a compliment graciously?” she asks me sharply, but her anger isn’t directed towards me.
“He never taught me anything,” I reply, keeping up my cold tone. “All he did was order me about, lock me up when I misbehaved and try to steal my power for himself at every chance he got.”
“Ember,” Draven says quietly and I realize that I had raised my voice in my anger. He places his hand on my shoulder and I instantly feel myself relax. It’s like he has a magic touch or something. I snort at the irony of that to a querying look from him.
“Sorry,” I say back to my mother awkwardly. “I have issues.”
“So do I,” she answers dryly, indicating her wispy form that is floating above the ground.
“This spell will not last very long,” Cahl suddenly announces. “Say what you need to say.” He extends a smile towards Alessandra, who returns it with a big beam.
“I am so glad you and my daughter found your way to one another,” she says. “Eventually.”
“Same for you, Draven,” Orna says with a slight reprimand in her voice. “I told you about the vampire many moons ago. Why did you not seek her out sooner?”
“How do you know that I didn’t?” Draven asks archly.
Orna gives me a searching look that makes my skin crawl. “There is love here, but it is new. You aren’t yet connected how you should be. Have you fed from him yet?”
I step back, startled at the very rude question. “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I stammer, mortified, as Aria tries and fails to stifle her snort of laughter.
