Consequences (Blood of Pharaohs Book 1)

by Mairsile

  “I know you think that you’re in love with her, but—”

  “It’s because I am in love with her that I have to help her.”

  “What I’m saying is that even love can’t help her right now. She has to fight her demons by herself, and if you go to her, you could make things much worse. What if she hurt you in a fit of rage? Would you be able to look at her the same way? Would she be able to live with herself afterward?”

  Lilah shook her head. “That’s not going to happen, Dad. She won’t hurt me. She saved me.”

  His cheeks turned red with anger as he bellowed, “Get your head out of your ass and hear what I’m saying. There are some things you cannot control no matter how in love you think you are, and a deranged vampire is at the top of the list.”

  Lilah sulked for a minute, trying to think of a rebuttal, frustrated when she couldn’t. “I’m going to check on the horses. I’ll be back in a little while,” she said, standing up and leaving her untouched banana and soda sitting on the table.

  “Lilah,” Leonard said so softly that Lilah had to turn to hear him. “She told me that she didn’t want you to see her that way.”

  Fresh tears stung her eyes as she walked out of the room.

  Chapter Nineteen

  November 13, 2016

  da Polenta Villa, Zermatt, Switzerland

  Nikki sat on the balcony, oblivious to the cold, counting as the church bell down in the valley tolled six times. The sun had finally slipped behind the Matterhorn, bathing the sky in a soft orange glow that silhouetted the magnificent, majestic mountain covered in snow. Nikki would never tire of seeing such beauty – the browns, oranges, and blues of the mountain range, the demanding presence of the iconic peak, and the pure, sweet air that even someone who didn’t have to inhale would do so just to experience it.

  The da Polenta villa sat on a mountainside above Zermatt, Switzerland, a beautiful hamlet nestled in the Pennine Alps. The small tourist town had approximately 5,800 residents year round and almost double that amount during tourist season. A town so proud of the beauty surrounding it that it did away with combustion-engine cars so as not to spoil the sweet crisp air or the spectacular view. In the morning, before the tourists prepared for a day of skiing or mountain climbing, the bakery would be baking loaves of bread, and when they sliced through the crunchy crust to the soft, fluffy, buttery bread underneath, the adventurers would follow the sweet smell right to their doorsteps.

  Nikki had not gotten to experience any of what Zermatt or the Alps had to offer. When she was at the villa the first time, she was already pretty much insane and hadn’t realized where she was at. This time, though she had become quick to anger for no apparent reason, she still had her faculties about her... for the moment. She had set the rules with her two guards while they flew to Switzerland. Neither of the men knew Nikki, nor she them, but they knew she was the favorite daughter of their sire, Ludovico, and that was good enough for them.

  Remembering what a hard time she had given Vince, Nikki explained to the guards what to expect and how not to fall for her tricks. She had their assurances that no human would be brought to the villa under any circumstances, and that they would not come near her with the scent of a human on their clothes or their breath. The smell of humans set her off so violently last time that she almost killed one before Vince could stop her. Akin to blood lust, when mixed with insanity, she had the strength of ten men and the will to kill without forethought.

  Nikki shuddered at the memory and took another sip of blood from her wine glass. At least this time around she could feed on the balcony of a prodigious villa and enjoy the magnificent view. But her respite was short lived when her thoughts returned to Lilah. She so desperately wanted to call her just to hear the sound of her voice, but there were no telephones at the villa, no computers either. There was nothing much in the way of modern technology, or for that matter, modern living.

  Most villas in Zermatt were modern, two-story houses with wall to wall windows. But the da Polenta villa was older, more rustic, with fewer windows. When it was built in the 1800s, electricity had not made its way to the village so there wasn’t much need for windows that an immortal could only look out of during the night. Beulah did add a few windows a century ago when she had indoor plumbing put in.

  Beulah also modernized the bunker after Nikki stayed there the first time. When Vince told her that Nikki’s screaming echoed through the mountains, she took everything out and had the walls soundproofed with padding. Not only would it mute the sound outside the room, but it would prevent bruising when Nikki became violent.

  From the moment Nikki left the ranch, she had not been alone. Even now, one of her two guards watched her from inside the villa. At the first sign of anything strange, they would lock her up, as per her instructions, so for the moment, she relished the serenity that she knew could not last.

  “Lilah?” she said as if she stood in front of her. “I love you, Lilah Rose.”

  “I love you, too, Nikki. Come to me.”

  Nikki looked around but she wasn’t there. Her mind was beginning to play tricks on her. “Damn it!” She heard a whooshing sound coming from down the mountain and then a young woman with jet black hair and a pixie face floated up and hovered near the balcony.

  “I had to see for myself,” she said in a lilting voice.

  “Who the hell are you?” Nikki barked, standing up immediately, grabbing for her sword, only to remember it wasn’t there. Her guards took it away before she boarded the jet.

  “I could say that I’m a figment of your crazy imagination, but where’s the fun in that, darling?”

  Nikki’s guard came running out, his hands on fire with his element, and although he weighed three hundred pounds, the Air vampire simply picked him up and tossed him down the mountainside. As she sat, as if on a cloud, manipulating the wind at will, she pulled water from Lake Riffelsee and sent it cascading through the villa, washing out the other man on its waves. She also sent him careening down the mountainside.

  “There. Now we can chat.”

  In spite of herself, Nikki couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. It wasn’t a sane laugh. “Hello, Irinushka.”

  “Hello, darling. Let’s go for a ride, shall we?” She curved the air, bending and caressing it until it formed a set of stairs with the last step ending at Nikki’s feet. She didn’t move.

  “Kill me now, if that’s what you’re after. You’d be doing me a favor,” Nikki said, arching her head up to meet Irinushka’s eyes.

  “I don’t think so, darling. You are a pawn in my chess game and it’s time for my next move.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Oh, you precious little girl.” Irinushka tilted her head back and laughed. “Why do you think you’re here, silly?”

  “I think you probably already know why, so stop playing games and get on with it,” Nikki demanded. Frustration at not being able to hear her thoughts was mixing with her anger at her teasing and fear of her growing insanity. A precarious combination of lethal proportions.

  She floated closer and smiled at her. “You are my marionette, darling, and I controlled your every move. And the fun part is, I’m not done with you yet.”

  A moment of clarity washed over Nikki. “Look, bitch. Do what you came to do, or leave me be, because I promise you, I will kill you the first chance I get.”

  “Yes, yes. Kill me, kill me, kill me if you can,” she giggled as she sang. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that in the 3357 years I’ve been alive, I’d be rich beyond measure. Oh, wait. I am rich.” She tilted her head and winked at her. “Oops, never mind.”

  Nikki had never met any immortal that old, and under different circumstances, she would have been impressed. But this woman was clearly intellectually insane. Thick strands of her long, jet black hair floated in the air, looking very much like Medusa. Her ebony eyes shone bright, radiated from behind by the pulsating energies of the five elements she
possessed. Her face, stark white in contrast to her Egyptian origins, was oval shaped, with pronounced hollow cheeks and very thin lips. Flat chested and thin boned, she looked fragile, almost brittle, like a China doll. Nikki knew that she was anything but fragile.

  Changing her approach, Nikki asked, “So, you’re not originally from Russia, are you? I sense an Egyptian aura, and a little bit of an Indian inflection in your Russian accent.”

  “Very good, little girl. I have lived thousands of years in many countries, but my favorites were India and my birth country, Egypt.”

  “And I’m sure in your long life you’ve learned many things. Like how to possess all five elements.”

  “Clever girl. Do you fear my abilities, or is that jealousy I hear?”

  Nikki shook her head and laughed. “Neither. I pity you.”

  Her anger was instant, her retribution swift. She grabbed Nikki up in the wind and threw her, like a missile, toward the sky. Compelled to scream, Nikki was not in fear for her life, but in suffering multiply broken bones all at the same time. But as she descended at an accelerated speed, her hands reactively blocking her face as if that would protect her when she hit the earth, Irinushka skillfully manipulated the wind to catch her and then sat her back down on the balcony.

  “I grow tired of playing with you, little girl. Your juice ain’t worth a squeeze,” Irinushka said and turned to leave.

  Nikki held out her hand. “No, wait. Tell me why you let me live?”

  “For her,” she stated, and disappeared into the night sky.

  “Who?” Nikki pulled at her hair. “Who, damn it!”

  Chapter Twenty

  November 14, 2016

  da Polenta Ranch, Texas

  The house was full again, with the return of Dorothea and the ranch hands, but Lilah felt all alone. She spent her waking hours with the horses, especially the colt, trying to distract herself from her own thoughts. Thoughts of death, of love, of things tangible yet untouchable. Thoughts of Nikki. She had accepted that Nikki didn’t want her to see her in a weakened mental state, but that didn’t stop Lilah from longing for her, from needing to know that she was all right. She felt a joining like none she had ever felt before. Stronger than love, more possessive and all consuming. As if Nikki had infused her with her essence, her dynamism. It flowed in her veins like energy and when she thought of her in her weakest moments, it overwhelmed her heart. The feeling was so strong that at first she thought she had turned her into a vampire, and even checked her teeth for fangs once or twice.

  When she was able to sleep, she was at peace. Nikki was there, in her dreams. Dreams that were becoming more real to her than her convoluted reality. Dreams where they made love and held each other as the crashing tide of orgasmic energy burst from their souls. It was so real that Lilah woke up completely exhausted even as the last tingles shuddered through her loins.

  Normally, she would talk to Dorothea about personal things that she couldn’t work out by herself, but because her turmoil was immortal related, she confided in Beulah, who had been hovering over her ever since that night.

  “What was it like for you, Beulah, when Nikki brought you back from the dead?” Lilah asked, tucking her legs under her on the couch in the living room. It was after midnight on another sleepless night but this time she sought conversation.

  “Do you mean what it felt like, because I don’t remember being dead,” Beulah replied, a curious look on her face. “Do you?”

  “No. I remember waking up in my bed, wondering why I was sleeping in the middle of the day.” Lilah swallowed and, like her father always taught her, just blurted out what she really wanted to know. “Okay. Here goes. Am I a vampire now?”

  Beulah chuckled but then realized that she was serious. “No, honey lamb. You are not a vampire. Why? Would you like to be?”

  “No! Um, I mean, no, thank you. I don’t think that I would,” she responded with a shiver.

  “Then what made you think that you were?”

  Lilah stared into the fireplace, finding comfort in the cracking sounds of the wood burning. All the immortal leaders, except for Cristaldo, had left the day before, returning to their domains, and Ludovico, Cristaldo, and her father were outside. Dorothea had retired for the evening, so it was just Beulah and Lilah in the living room.

  “It’s a feeling I get. Like I know she’s not here, but it feels like I could reach out and touch her.”

  “I understand. I had a very strong connection with Nikki for years after she revived me. But those feelings, for me, have faded with time.”

  Lilah didn’t want them to fade.

  “Did you know that I can hear Nikki’s thoughts when she’s nearby?” Beulah asked.

  “Wow, really? That’s so cool. I wish I could hear her thoughts now, just to know she’s all right.”

  “You might be able to when she comes back,” Beulah suggested. “When she revived me, I was still a human, and I heard her thoughts. I was completely terrified. Afraid that I had gone crazy.”

  “I’m afraid I am crazy now, which is completely uncouth, considering what Nikki must be going through.”

  Beulah chuckled. “It takes some time to get used to the fact that you were dead. You were dead for five or six minutes. It took Nikki a little longer to pull you back.”

  Lilah thought she was going to be sick to her stomach. The thought of lying on the ground, dead, just made her queasy. Where had she gone between death and revival?

  “Beulah, you probably know that I’m in love with Nikki, and apparently have been for a number of years.”

  “Yes, she told me that she took the memory away to protect you. I informed her that she was wrong to have done so.”

  “Thank you for that. I told her the same thing.”

  Beulah tilted her head slightly, searching for the right words to use. “Lilah. What do you see coming out of this relationship with Nikki?”

  “Oh… I don’t know. I mean, I want to build a life with her, you know, get married, settle down…” Lilah chucked. “Okay, that’s lame.”

  “Yes, but not the way you’re thinking. Nikki can’t go out in the sun with you, and she can’t grow old with you. If you don’t want to be turned, you will have to give up a lot to be with her.”

  Lilah frowned, her forehead creased with confusion.

  “You must consider all of that before you commit your heart to her.”

  “Too late. I hear what you’re saying, but it’s already too late, Beulah. I still don’t remember her from before, but when I dream now, it’s always about us. Happy and in love. My dreams are so real, as if it really happened.”

  Beulah nodded. “It may have. Now, I have no way to know for sure, but she might have transferred some of her own memories to you when she was reviving you. In case she…”

  “In case she… what? Beulah?” Lilah felt a sudden chill run across her heart. “In case she can’t regain her sanity?”

  Beulah smiled weakly and nodded.

  “No!” Lilah jumped up from the couch and walked over to the fireplace. “No, I don’t believe that. I won’t believe that.”

  “She’s young, and very strong, mentally and physically. I’m sure she can survive this. But each time a Spirit revives someone, they pay a heavy price that can have long-term consequences.”

  “I wish she had just let me die,” Lilah muttered under her breath.

  Beulah quickly rose from the couch and went to her. Putting her hand on Lilah’s shoulder, she gave it a soft squeeze. “Oh, no, honey lamb,” she cajoled. “Don’t ever wish that. As much as you mean to her, do you think she could have just let you die?”

  “She means as much to me, Beulah. And I don’t care what kind of shape she’s in, I have to go to her. I have to help her. Please, Beulah. Please help me.”

  “I didn’t want to tell you this because you have so much to deal with right now, but we don’t know where Nikki is at the moment.”

  “How is that possible? I thought she had g
uards and was locked up or something?”

  “Her guards told Ludovico that an Air immortal paid Nikki a visit the first night she was there, and she tossed them over the mountain. By the time they got back to the house, Nikki was gone. We think it was Irinushka who took her or maybe just scared her away, but we don’t know why, or why she let her live. That doesn’t seem like something she would do, given the carnage she caused at the ranch.”

  Lilah’s eyes lit up, a smile cautiously curled along her lips. “Do you think she’s trying to come back here? Trying to come back to me?”

  “It’s impossible.” Lilah’s face fell, but Beulah pressed on. “I’m sorry, honey lamb, but in her emotional state, how would she be able to function long enough to buy a plane ticket and check through customs? Vince told me how violent Nikki became the time she saved me.”

  Lilah walked back to the couch and slumped down on the cushion.

  Beulah looked at her with understanding. “But I assure you that we are monitoring the trains, airports and police stations. We’ll find her, don’t you worry.”

  “My heart aches for her, Beulah,” Lilah said, dabbing at a tear. “She’s out there all alone. Probably scared and desperate. There has to be something I can do to help her.”

  “All you can do is be patient and trust that I will do everything in my power to find her and keep her safe.”

  “And the minute, the second, you hear something, you’ll let me know?” Lilah pleaded.

  “Yes, of course.”

  *

  Lilah had fallen asleep on the couch, and Beulah covered her with an afghan before retiring to her suite to write some letters. This time, the dream Lilah was having didn’t include Nikki; it included a monster with grotesque fangs who was holding a giant knife in his hands. She woke with a start, just as he was about to strike, and gasped for air. Sitting up for a moment, gathering her focus, she decided to go check on the mare and her colt again. She slipped on her boots and grabbed her jacket from the coat rack in the foyer.