The Vampire's Favorite

by V. R. Cumming

  Eric huffed out a breathy laugh. “It’s a little late for the risk.”

  “Don’t risk yourselves anymore,” Marco corrected gruffly. “Stick together.”

  Like we hadn’t already been doing that.

  Marco opened the door and stepped over the threshold into the darkened hallway beyond.

  Eric stiffened beside me, his breath so still, it scarcely moved his chest.

  “You ok?” I asked.

  Nightmarish pain flooded into me through our bond. I staggered to the side, hand held to the throbbing agony piercing my skull. Fuck. Where had that come from?

  It’s everything, Eric’s mind whispered. Everything he did to me, everything that happened to us in there. Don’t let it happen again.

  Stark terror threaded through the simple, childlike plea. I could’ve kicked myself for not realizing sooner how hard it must be for Eric to face the stone room again, and with it, the suffering he’d endured under Oriana’s care.

  Because she’d seen me first and resented him having me.

  I closed my eyes and bowed my head, unmindful of the scattered battles still being waged at my back. It was my fault Eric had been hurt, my fault Mike had been forced into testing me. My fault Di had resorted to destroying us, my fault Anna Grace had been kidnapped.

  Every bit of this was on my shoulders.

  I didn’t know how I could’ve stopped it, but I should’ve. I should’ve dug deeper into the reasons behind Mike’s interest in me. I hadn’t been a naïve teenager, dazzled by the attention of an attractive older man. I’d been enough of a man then to know what I was getting into sexually. I should’ve been man enough to figure out the rest before my life careened out of control and landed us where we were now.

  I could’ve done something back then, anything, and I hadn’t. I hadn’t thought beyond the tempest of sensual need consuming me. My dick had ruled my life, and because of that, people I loved had gotten hurt.

  Gentle hands cupped my face, and Eric said, “This isn’t your fault, Jason. You couldn’t have known what Oriana was up to. Even if you had, you were too young to do anything about it.”

  I opened my eyes and gazed down at the man who’d captured such a huge chunk of my heart, miserable over the harm inflicted on him because of me. “I should’ve—”

  “No, Jase. Don’t assume blame for something you didn’t do.” His hands dropped to his sides and he stepped back, his gaze on the doorway looming ahead of us. “Anna Grace is in there. I can feel her. She’s waiting for us.”

  Not for much longer. I heaved in a long breath, exhaled it slowly, and with it as much of my inner turmoil as I could. Anna Grace needed me now. I could wallow in guilt later. “Let’s go.”

  We entered the hallway side by side and followed it to the stone room. Marco was standing with his back to us at the juncture of the hall and the room, his feet planted wide, his empty hands dangling. Eric and I stepped up to him, one to either side, and what little hope I’d mustered winked out.

  Fen was standing on the far side of the room, one hand wrapped around Anna Grace’s sturdy throat, the other pressing the tip of a knife into her temple.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  A single drop of blood slid down Anna Grace’s cheek. She stood stock still in Fen’s grip, her expression blank, like she’d retreated so far into herself, she couldn’t feel him hurting her anymore.

  My heart stuttered in my chest. Sweet God in Heaven. What had that bastard done to her?

  “Where’s your mistress?” Marco demanded.

  “Safe, interloper.” Fen’s hand tightened on the knife and another drop of blood welled out of the cut in Anna Grace’s temple. “You’d be Marco, that half-get’s unnatural kin.”

  “I am,” Marco said mildly, “the favorite of Elizabet, mistress of the Southern territories, and the protector of Eric, a loyal ally of the queen. Release the girl and I’ll kill you quickly.”

  Fen threw back his head and laughed. “What kind of threat is that? You’ll never reach me before I damage the girl beyond repair.”

  “I won’t,” Marco agreed. “But he will.”

  My bond with Eric blew wide open, wrenching my strength out of me in a gushing torrent. I gasped and staggered to the side, and collapsed into the hallway’s cold wall, trembling as my vision dimmed and wavered.

  Over the roar of energy passing between us, I dimly heard Eric in my mind. Call your wolf, Adonis.

  Instinctively, I reached into myself and plucked the strings tying me to Tangi, and was yanked out of reality into the cool forest he preferred. Our feet hit the open trail, his padded wolf’s paws, mine bare and human, and the evergreen pine welcomed us into its heart.

  I’m coming, brother.

  A moist nose prodded the palm of my hand, jarring part of me back into a present overlapping the sanctuary created in Tangi’s spirit. I forced my eyes open and witnessed each of them, melded into one confusing diorama. The stone room was there, and not. Hardy pines grew through its walls, shedding needles onto a black dirt gathered in the shape of a multitude of flat rocks. Sunlight filtered through the trees’ majestic limbs around the round roof capping the stone room.

  In the heart of this blended scene stood Eric, his eyes blazing black coals in his narrow, pale face, his body glowing so strongly, light spilled outward, forming an odd halo around him. Fen stood opposite him, his hand shaking around the hilt of the knife no longer dug into my sister’s skin, and Anna Grace had transformed from the stocky little girl I’d always loved into a pearlescent light in human form.

  Sorrow soared through me, in and around the open links connecting me to my lover and my wolf. There was no doubt now what Anna Grace was, who she was destined to become, and I mourned the loss of the childhood she should’ve known. Fun and laughter. Tea parties and softball games, and the love of a boy, just one to hold her hand. Just one to capture her heart.

  If ever I’d believed she could still have a normal life, it died the moment I saw her true spirit. She was destined for no ordinary existence, just as Eric was never meant to be mortal.

  He cocked his head to the side, smiling gently. “Oriana is through the storage door, Marco, beyond the secret exit hidden behind a wall of whips. Remy will meet you on the other side of the tunnel. Will he be enough?”

  “We’ll make do.” Marco cupped a hand around Eric’s nape, caressing him as a lover would. “Draw from me if you need it.”

  “I have mine to call,” Eric said, and Marco nodded, as if Eric’s words made perfect sense.

  Me? I hadn’t a fucking clue.

  My legs buckled and I slid to the floor, narrowly missing landing on Tangi’s furry body. He crawled into my lap and lay there, tense as a dry board. In the forest beyond him, werewolves gathered one by one, some as wolves, others human, their animal spirits superimposed over their hairless features.

  Marco slipped away, disappearing into a bark covered arch on the edge of my vision.

  Eric held out a hand toward Fen, palm up, elegant fingers extended. “She is of mine, Fen. What you do to her, I shall return to you tenfold.”

  “I could…” Fen gasped and lost his hold on the knife. It clattered onto the floor, a surreal strike of metal against stone that was no longer stone. “Trade. You for her.”

  “All right. Me for her.”

  Eric glided forward, trailing streams of light behind him. Each writhed and thinned, tangling into the ethereal world we were immersed in. One, arm thick and bright as sunlight, ended in me and others stretched and arched into the distance beyond my sight. I glanced down and stifled a gasp. Light arced between me and Tangi, flickering in the dim forest air, and from him, extended into the werewolves congregating around us.

  Mine to call. Now I understood.

  Eric stopped in front of Fen and held out his arms, and Oriana’s favorite released Anna Grace into them. She sagged against him, limp as a rag doll, her eyes unseeing. Eric laid her gently on the black, stone-shaped dirt, crooning softly to her
. Her eyes slid shut as she drifted into sleep, and the light she had been dimmed and became a little girl again.

  Eric stood slowly and touched a single fingertip to Fen’s chest, over the favorite’s heart. “You served your mistress well, Fen of the Nine Branches.”

  “I served my mistress well,” Fen murmured. “I want to cut you now. I want to fuck you so hard.”

  “You will never again hurt me.” The words were gentle, a truth no less harsh for their feather light weight. “Your mistress has abandoned you, Fen. Whom do you serve?”

  “I serve…” Fen’s sharp eyebrows slowly lowered into flat slashes above the untamed ruthlessness shining from his eyes. “I serve my master. Can I fuck you now, master?”

  “No, Fen. You will never do that again.” Sweat popped out on Eric’s forehead and the finger he’d held steady against Fen’s chest slipped a notch. “He’s trying to fight back. I can’t…hold him…forever.”

  I scraped up enough energy to voice what I knew was right. “Kill him.”

  “Not my…” Eric’s breath gushed out of him on a harsh sigh, and what he no longer had the strength to say floated into my mind. Others have more right to decide Fen’s fate. He managed to croak out a single word. “Tangi?”

  The wolf sprawled across my lap lifted its head, ears rotated forward. I released my grip on his fur, allowing him to decide on his own. Stay with me and let Eric take care of Fen, or cross the stone room and do it himself.

  It must not’ve been a hard decision to make. As soon as I let go, Tangi bounded away from me, leaping high into the cool forest air. Light sparkled and fizzed around him, bursting free as he shifted from one form to another, and landed fully human. He stood slowly, his head held high. “I am not a vampire, bound by your laws.”

  “No,” Eric gritted out.

  His finger slipped again, and Fen shook his head and stumbled backward. The light bouncing between me and Eric brightened, sapping another measure of my strength. Whatever Eric was doing with it worked. Fen collapsed onto his knees, slumping next to the metal rings that had once held my lover.

  Tangi strode forward, his nude body lithe as he wound between broad tree trunks through the lush undergrowth lining the path across the stone room. He bent beside Anna Grace, kissed her forehead tenderly, then stepped over her and picked up the knife Fen had dropped. “This man has wronged my pack. I claim the right of vengeance over him and his.”

  A howl erupted from the werewolves, many voices blended into a singular, righteous note echoing against pine and stone. Eric released his hold on Fen, cutting off his ties to the ones he’d called, and energy rebounded into me.

  Not enough. I was shaken to my core, too weak to move from my slouch against the wall. Eric wasn’t much better off. He staggered to the side, a quivering, amorphous light slowly fading into gloom, siphoned of the staggering amount of will it had taken to control the much older pet.

  Tangi stepped into the void Eric left behind, knife held high. He grabbed Fen’s hair and forced his head back. “This is for my mother, sister to Alden, the alpha of the territory stolen by your mistress.”

  Tangi’s muscles bunched and the knife swung down, slashing a straight line along Fen’s cheek. Fen stared unblinking up at the young werewolf, wild eyes muted. I don’t know if Eric still had some influence over him or if Fen’s will had simply crumbled under the onslaught of so much focused fury. He held still as Tangi repeated name after name and deed after deed, and the knife sliced through the favorite’s blood-slicked flesh, peeling it away from muscle and bone.

  Eric stumbled to Anna Grace and fell beside her, then dragged her close, tucking her face against his chest. Protecting her, as he hadn’t been able to protect our beloved Emily. One sister had been saved, and for now, it was enough.

  We remained in that odd blend of forest and stone room for a long time while Tangi administered wolf justice. At some point, Paolo and other pets came in. Kyle, maybe Bon. I really didn’t know. The flash of a steel blade coated with blood obscured everything else. And I was too sapped to care. Somebody shoved a wrist against my mouth, somebody else carried Eric and Anna Grace away from the bloody mess Tangi was making of Fen. People and other came and went.

  Marco and Remy dragged a furious Oriana in near the end of Fen’s punishment, and that finally penetrated my consciousness, breaking the spell weaving reality and wolf together. The forest wavered and winked out, and the stone room came fully into view, dragging cold, hard reality with it.

  Fen was a silent mass of oozing tissue. His skin lay in grisly curlicues on the floor intermingled with the remnants of his clothes. Blood coated Tangi’s tanned skin except, oddly enough, his tattoo. Its black lines contrasted starkly with the deep red of Fen’s blood.

  And his hand rose and fell in a regular rhythm, carving his wrath into his enemy’s flesh.

  As was his right.

  The werewolves were there. At least I hadn’t imagined that. They’d taken up sentinel near Tangi, close enough to witness, far enough away to avoid most of the splatter. Alden squatted at the front of the pack, a stolid hunk overseeing Tangi’s work.

  Judge, jury, and executioner, or as Tangi would put it, vengeance.

  Marco held Oriana while Remy chained her to one of the metal rings circling the stone room, then stalked across it and bent low over Eric and Anna Grace. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Didn’t really need to. I could feel Marco’s blood dripping into Eric’s mouth, restoring lost essence. I could feel desire stirring in my lover, a side effect of feeding. I could still feel everything he was, everything he’d been, everything he could be.

  As gently as I could, I eased completely out of the bond. Eric needed his rest. So did I. The important work had been done and that was all that mattered for now.

  I mustered what strength I’d regained and crawled along the edge of the round wall, carefully placing my palms against the worn rock. Marco was taking care of Eric, freeing me to do the same for Anna Grace. She needed her family now. She needed to be safe again.

  I collapsed beside her and pried her away from Eric, turning her over, sheltering her as he had with her face hidden in my chest. Her fingers dug into a hole in my shirt, brushing bare skin. A sob shook her shoulders, one and then another, and the trickle of her tears became an endless wave washing us both clean of Oriana’s harm.

  I called Ma and Pop as soon as I could talk somebody into bringing me a phone and promised them I’d bring Anna Grace home the next day. She was out of it, lost in her head, hopefully nowhere near the horrors she’d been dragged through. We could deal with that, with Paolo’s help. We could deal with anything now that my baby sister was safe.

  As soon as we settled Anna Grace into a bedroom, I started going through Oriana’s personal effects searching for mine and Eric’s rings. We finally found them hidden away in a secret closet where she’d stored dozens of other items we figured were trophies taken from her many victims. I scrubbed our rings good, then slipped them into a pocket for safe keeping.

  Sometime between the start of the battle and its end, Carl Landis disappeared. It raised a whole lot of meh in me. I mean, yeah, he’d kidnapped my sister and all but hand-delivered her to the worst vampire in the Midwest, but he’d also helped rescue her. As long as he stayed away from me and mine, he could do whatever he wanted. And if he didn’t, he’d learn the hard way exactly how tenacious I could be.

  Remy assumed control of Oriana’s mansion during the course of that long night. What was left of her stable was reorganized. Those pets who’d participated fully in her misdeeds were sentenced to an unspecified punishment I assumed was in accordance with Vampyr law. The rest were divided between Remy, Trilly, and a couple of weaker vampires I didn’t know.

  Amos was among the latter group of pets. I didn’t talk to him, but Eric did, and what he relayed shocked me to the bone. Marco had apparently recruited Amos and planted him in Oriana’s stable as soon as it became clear that I would be Eric’s favorite. It was
Amos Marco had met when he’d visited my parents’ house that first time, Amos who had unobtrusively helped Kyle whisk me and Eric to safety, Amos who had set the charges around the wall and blown them exactly when Marco had needed him to.

  We were sitting beside Anna Grace in a spare bedroom far removed from the stone room when Eric detailed Amos’ role in the events leading up to that moment. In an odd way, it made sense. Marco was, I think, still counting on Eric to protect Elizabet on Marco’s death, and if I knew anything about the favorite, it was that he would give his life for the woman he loved. Inserting a spy into Oriana’s camp was small potatoes by comparison, but thank God for Marco’s foresight. Who knows what would’ve happened if Amos hadn’t been there, quietly lending a hand where he could.

  Oriana was led outside an hour before daybreak the next day. Remy shackled her to stakes spread across a sand wash in the middle of an open space in her back yard. What was left of Fen was shoveled up and dumped around her. He’d died sometime during Tangi’s punishment, though when, nobody really knew. I guess nobody wanted to take a chance on a simple burial, on the off chance Fen might somehow resurrect himself.

  God forbid that monster have free reign again.

  I left Anna Grace in bed under the care of two of the werewolves while everybody else congregated under the densely woven limbs of hardwoods growing around the sand wash, well out of sunlight’s reach.

  The sun broke over the horizon, slowly casting its rays along the earth. Light inched toward Oriana’s bare feet. She watched it come for her, struggling against the tight bands circling her wrists and ankles.

  An oily tendril slithered around my mind and burst into it, carrying her voice into me. There’s still time, Jason. You could save me, become my right hand as Fen could never be, and together, we could rule this land.

  Eric clamped a hand over my wrist and surged into me, shoving that harpy bitch out of my mind. His face turned toward mine, tilting up like a sunflower seeking its star, and gazed at me out of eyes blackened by the cold man’s presence. You are mine, Adonis, only and ever. None will ever claim you again.