Key to Redemption

by Talia Gryphon

  Sputtering, she couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say. Perrin felt his heart melt a little at her discomfort. A blond beauty, intelligent, capable, so strong, yet so vulnerable, Gillian was a study in contradictions. Relinquishing control was completely foreign to her. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her, just to tease her, copying what he had just witnessed. Seeing that it had backfired, he was instantly sorry.

  “Forgive me, Gillian. I thought only to tease you a little, not harm you or humiliate you.”

  Glaring at him, she found her wits. “You didn’t hurt or humiliate me, Perrin, it was just unexpected, that’s all.”

  Her index finger poked him in the chest. “However, if you’re one of those people who are interested in S and M, I will have to find you another therapist for that segment of your therapy.”

  In order to avoid another hour or two explaining sadomasochistic sexuality to him, Gillian referred him to the library in the guesthouse. It was much smaller than the castle’s but fairly well stocked. He could damn well look it up, or they could provide him with a computer for research . . . maybe not. Exposure to sex via the Internet might just put his tender sensibilities into shock.

  As she stalked back to the castle, her temper cooled. At least she hadn’t yelled at him. Then she managed another epiphany, impressing herself since her brain felt like oatmeal and her body tender and sensitive all over. Perrin truly was an innocent.

  He had all the needs and desires of a healthy male adult but none of the knowledge or skill. She had to remind herself that he had grown up essentially alone with no media, no contact, no observations, nothing to study that wasn’t related to music, the arts or stagecraft. Growing up in the Victorian era had been hard on people, who were exposed to only general relationship knowledge.

  Perrin hadn’t been just sheltered; he’d been completely isolated until his first “angel” had come into his life and piqued his curiosity. Even then, with only the limited information base he had to rely on, he couldn’t act on any of his impulses or feelings. Being as skittish as he was, he’d avoided anything related to what he couldn’t have. Sex. Love. Lovemaking. Anything in the realm of a stimulating nature he had shied away from, believing there was no point in inducing desire for what could never be his.

  Great Cronus, and he was how old? Over a hundred a fifty years old and still a virgin. Holy Mother Hera, it was unbelievable.

  Sighing, she knew she needed to process with Helmut and keep her perspective. Patience was what Perrin needed, that and a healthy dose of experimentation. Deep in thought, she wasn’t paying attention again and was startled to hear her name in a familiar black velvet voice. Damn, she was getting entirely too comfortable around this environment. No place was completely safe. Forgetting that could get her very dead. Reminding herself to be more attentive to surroundings was easy after she jumped at the sound of her name.

  “Gillian?”

  Aleksei. Great. Now the horror was complete. “Yeah, what do you need, Aleksei?” Clearly she wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Perrin’s sexuality aura apparently had lingering aftereffects because she wanted a very cold shower and a very quiet room.

  Icy gray eyes took in every detail even in the darkness. Gillian was disheveled, her lips were puffy and swollen, her clothing rumpled and she looked tired. There was a familiar stomp in her step that was concerning to him. Anger swelled without warning inside the Vampire Lord’s being and he started for her to confirm that she was undamaged from her encounter with the one in his guesthouse. He damn well didn’t like this, but he would make sure that she did her job without being harmed or upset. If that male had hurt her, patient or not, he would pay for it.

  “Come here, piccola, let me see that you are all right.”

  She waved him off. “I’m fine, Aleksei, really. I’m just very worn out.” Suddenly she realized there was no familiar weight on her hip. The sword and gloves were at Perrin’s. Lovely. They could stay there until tomorrow.

  Catching up with her, he stopped her, his hand on her shoulder as he perused her up and down. “Truly, he did not hurt you?”

  Several undiplomatic phrases were on her tongue as she felt the light brush of his mind on hers and hit “Delete” on what she was going to say. It was faster just to tell him and have it done with. Carefully segmenting the last few hours, she opened enough for him to see that Perrin hadn’t hurt her in any way. Aleksei didn’t need to know the details, just the facts. The fact was, she was fine. Just doing my job, Your Excellency.

  Shit, he caught that thought and an eyebrow rose. “I am not your lord or your master, Gillian. Please do not make light of my concern for my lover and . . .” He stumbled over the word girlfriend.

  This was not the time or the place to have this conversation that she’d been avoiding, but there wasn’t going to be any good time.

  “I have been your lover and I was your girlfriend. I know you’ve apologized for what you said, and I forgive you for that. But, Aleksei, we waited nearly two years, then moved really fast into a very intense relationship. I just want to take a couple of steps back, that’s all. Really get to know each other before we get into full-blown commitment mode. Do you understand?”

  “You are breaking up with me?” He wasn’t insulted; he was stunned and stared at her in disbelief.

  “See, when you say things like ‘breaking up,’ it sounds so silly coming from a Vampire Lord who is as erudite and concise in formal speaking as you are.

  “We are on a break, Aleksei. Just a break. I don’t want you to go away; I don’t want to leave. I just want some space right now so I can get everything sorted out in my mind. I know that’s selfish of me, but I need some time here. Are you okay with that or do you want to tell me to go to hell and to forget it?”

  Tanis’s voice suddenly rippled through his mind. “Shut up. For the love of God, Aleksei. Just. Shut. Up. Do not say another word except ‘All right, Gillian.’ ”

  With supreme effort Aleksei said exactly that. “All right, Gillian.”

  Suspicious, she looked at him carefully. “Just like that? No fighting, no arguments?”

  “Just like that,” he agreed. “I want you to be happy, dolcezza . Whether with me or not, I want you happy.”

  Because he couldn’t help it, he embraced her, holding her as tightly as he dared, inhaling her lovely scent of snowy clover and sunlit meadow. And Perrin. The man’s scent was all over her, but Aleksei couldn’t smell sex. She hadn’t made love with him yet. For a thousand reasons, he was relieved for the moment.

  Her voice came muffled from his chest. “I am not unhappy with you, Aleksei. I am confused and scared to death. I do love you, at least I think I do, but I need to really know that this is my idea too.”

  Kissing her hair, he stroked her back. “I love you, piccola , and I am sure of that. I will continue with my life as intertwined with yours as it is and hope that your road will lead you back to me.”

  “Bravo, brother. I did not know you were capable of such sensitivity.” Tanis again.

  “Shut up, Tanis.”

  This is the fucking night that never ends, Gillian thought crossly. Either that or she was caught in a goddamn time warp of some kind; she would look at her watch and discover it was still eight o’clock, and she’d be off to visit Perrin again for another night of idiot former bosses, gross misunderstandings with a patient, Vampiric relationship discussions in the moonlight and now this.

  Cue X-Files music was the first thing Gillian could rationally sort out from her thoughts. She couldn’t remember ever being this tired. All she’d wanted to do since leaving Aleksei on the path was to come in, get some coffee, read a few minutes then fall into a blissfully unconscious state where there were no demands on her time. But no. The truth was in here. In the library. Right smack in front of her.

  “Gillian!”

  Luis Clemente, formerly Captain Clemente, Pilot USMC and recruiting poster Vampire cover model, rose from his place on the couch beside, who the hell was
that anyway? Gillian couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen him before or not. Shit, she couldn’t remember her own name right then, let alone whether or not she’d met someone.

  Luis smushed her in a hearty embrace, dangerously wobbling the hot coffee she carried. He looked terrific. Six feet of bronze-skinned, built-like-a-brick-house, obsidian-eyed Puerto Rican Vampire. His hair was longer, she noticed. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been spelled asleep to travel via coffin to Dionysus in Greece to see if the Greek Lord could salvage his mind from Dracula.

  Luis had been another kidnap victim with Tanis, but not being a Master, he had truly suffered at Dracula’s hands. Finding out he was a “plant” while in the midst of their rescue excursion to Russia had been a very unpleasant turn of events. Luis had slashed his throat in an attempt at suicide, willing himself to die rather than harm anyone on their team.

  Funny thing about Vampires—even a slashed throat won’t take them out completely if they’re at full strength and mentally healthy. Luis had been weakened by torturous draining and what amounted to mental rape. But Dracula, his tormenter, had seriously miscalculated Luis’s level of loyalty and honor. Some of it was innate, Luis was just an outstanding guy; some was courtesy of the code and the measure of the USMC; and some of it was because Luis loved his friends more than he feared Dracula.

  The handsome Vampire released her enough to look at her. “You okay, muñeca de bebé?” He was a little taken aback that Gillian wasn’t more surprised or at least happier to see him.

  Standing on tiptoe, she kissed his cheek, pressing him warmly in a one-armed hug to keep from jiggling the hot coffee over both of them. “Luis, I am delighted to see you whole, hale and hearty. I am whipped, so if my enthusiasm seems lacking, it’s because I don’t have the energy left to do anything except crawl into bed and die.”

  “Everything is all right, though?”

  “Yes,” she affirmed, “everything is fine, and I really will be all bouncy about this tomorrow evening. Now why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” She turned back to the blond man on the couch, who rose and came toward them.

  “Gillian Key, this is Oscar Gray.” Luis remained at her side as his guest came forward. Gillian felt the cool empathic pulse of power that always registered on her radar as being from a Master Vampire.

  “Oscar, I am always pleased to meet a friend of Luis’s.” She smiled as warmly as she could manage and shook his slender, pale hand, looking him over as she did so. Striking was the word that came to Gillian’s mind. Soft beauty cloaked him, almost ethereal. She’d never heard of a Vampire Fey or Sidhe, and Elves simply couldn’t contract either the Vampire or Lycanthrope viruses, but he looked like he hadn’t been a full-blooded Human before his rebirth.

  “How charming, Dr. Key.” His voice was pure upper-class Brit. “Luis has expressed great admiration for you and your profession, and I have looked forward to meeting you.”

  Oscar’s smile was genuine and she couldn’t pick up any deception from him. The crystal-clear starry blue eyes sparkled with warmth, complementing the shimmering blond hair the curled lightly at the edge of his collar and around his neck. His eyebrows were dark, but his hair was obviously naturally blond, usually interpreted as a genetic signature of a mixed blood.

  “Thanks and please call me ‘Gillian.’ ” Gillian wanted to cut this short and crash. “Look, I’m really glad you’re here, Luis and Oscar, but I am just wiped out.”

  Keeping her arm around Luis’s waist, she gestured with her coffee hand into the library, where they had been sitting. “Let’s go in there for just a moment, Luis. A lot has happened while you’ve been away, and I promise one of us will explain everything to you tomorrow evening. Right now, I need you both to sign something.”

  She set her cup down, moved to Aleksei’s large desk and riffled around until she found two confidentiality forms for the Rachlav Institute of Paramortal Healing. “If you would both read this over and sign them, we’ll keep everybody’s ass out of hot water with legal issues.”

  The Vampires took the documents and read them. Gillian fished out a pen from the top drawer and handed it to Luis.

  “You and Daed are running a nut house for crazy Paramortals?” Luis laughed.

  Gillian didn’t want to strangle Luis, not on his first night back, so she settled for sarcasm. “Yup. That’s why I’m having you sign a committal form by making it appear like a standard confidentiality agreement.”

  Luis laughed harder, but he signed. “I’m sorry, this is just an interesting surprise.”

  “No problem.” Gillian sighed. “I’m trying to be witty, but my synapses aren’t all firing at the moment.”

  Oscar took the pen from Luis. “I think this is a smashing idea, truly! We have needed something like this in our world. The Humans have help everywhere at their fingertips while we have quietly suffered our neuroses, psychoses, phobias and obsessions.”

  Signing, he handed the pen back to her. “Brava, Gillian, for being brave enough to offer help so openly to all of our kind.” He bowed formally to her.

  Oh boy, Gillian thought, another pretentious asshole. Just what we needed more of. Aloud, she said, “Thank you, Oscar, we are all very happy Count Rachlav has offered his family home as our sanctuary.”

  “Sanctuary?” Oscar purred. “What an interesting choice of terminology, yet how well you put it.”

  “Haven, refuge, safe harbor,” she countered, not liking his tone and feeling a sudden cool twist in the atmosphere. “I don’t like the word asylum, do you?”

  “I was referring more to the avoidance of the word retreat . It is a retreat, after all, from the world at large, or perhaps from someone.” Oscar was smiling broadly, showing perfect dentition.

  “ ‘Never retreat, never surrender.’ Haven’t you seen Galaxy Quest?” Gill shot back with a chilly grin that clearly said, Do not fuck with me tonight or I will skewer you. “Actually the quote is ‘Never give up, never surrender,’ but some people think of retreating as giving up. Retreat is just gathering strength for a new attempt.”

  Without waiting for a response, she hugged Luis, retrieved her coffee and excused herself. “Now if you gentlemen will forgive me, my bed awaits.” Then she hurried off, grumbling to herself about ostentatious Vampires.

  While Gillian was dealing with the castle’s newest guests and trying to sleep after torquing Perrin’s mind, Aleksei and Tanis were engaging in the first of four exchanges, hopefully to divest Tanis of Dracula’s spoor and influence. Both of them would be vulnerable during this time so Aleksei had asked Trocar to watch over them. The Dark Elf liked Tanis well enough, but his opinion of the Vampire Lord was about on the same level as a goblin or troll. He agreed only because Gillian would be supremely pissed if anything permanent happened to Aleksei.

  They met in the family crypt beneath the castle. Ironic to say the least, Trocar thought as he lounged atop a marble sarcophagus, back to the wall, long legs stretched out and crossed in front of him. A full wizard of the Grael, he was fascinated by what was about to occur. Vampiric magic was foreign to Elves of any variety since they couldn’t contract the virus. Once in a while a single Elf might have dealings with a single Vampire, but as a rule, there was little reason for them to communicate.

  Trocar knew the steps logistically, but he had never seen a Vampire feed before. The fact that these two were brothers made it just slightly twisted. It was for a good cause, certainly, but it wouldn’t make it any less weird to see these two stunning specimens of sex-on-a-stick Vampires in what amounted to a lovers’ embrace. The Grael propped one leg up and rested his arm on his bent knee, watching the show, a sword, stiletto and garrote next to him on the marble slab.

  Aleksei wasn’t fond of Trocar after finding him in bed, holding Gillian’s breast as she slept. Gillian had confirmed that they weren’t lovers and that, yes, Trocar was just that kind of instigating shit to do something like that knowing Aleksei was about to arrive. The two of them had maintained a lev
el of nearly obsequious politeness that made one and all around them susceptible to diplomacy-induced toothaches.

  Tanis stood in all his male Vampire glory three feet away from Trocar’s perch. Aleksei came around and stood behind him. He was taller so he got to decide positioning. After confirming that Tanis was hell-bent to go through with this, he moved his brother’s hair aside, leaned him back against that muscular chest and bit down. Tanis gasped audibly as Aleksei’s fangs sank home.

  Vampiric feeding was almost always accompanied by a glamour of some kind. It was like standard equipment on a car. They all had it, but with some of them it just worked better and sexier. Without it, feeding could be torturous, even cruel. It was not a good feeling when someone with inch-long fangs nailed you in your carotid artery without glamour to shield you from what he was actually doing.

  Vampires used it when they fed, or word would have gotten around that it seriously sucked to be bitten and the donor dance cards would have been empty. When it was employed, the prey or victim, depending on your perspective, experienced the equivalent of speedy foreplay with a shattering climax at the end.

  Since Tanis was his brother and Aleksei didn’t care to do anything that would remotely bring sexual feelings into the situation, he didn’t use glamour and Tanis felt the bite keenly. Every pressurized suction from Aleksei’s mouth was excruciating, but it had to be done. They had regularly supplied each other with blood, generally via a proffered wrist. However, with this exchange, the volume and speed were what was important, so the neck was it.

  Holding his brother in an iron grasp, Aleksei drained him as fast and fully as he could. Tanis was taking a risk, but so was he. Vampires had notoriously efficient survival skills. They could appear dead as a doornail then pop up like a macabre jack-in-the-box, rip your throat out, gulp your blood, then be back to fighting strength quick as you could wonder why there were red raindrops falling on your shoes.