by Aja James
“If you admit your feelings, perhaps I can be persuaded to give her back to you,” the voice taunted. “But you can’t do that, can you? Not when you know she’ll never forgive you for the sins of the past.”
Dalair ignored the fission of alarm at the secret truth of the vampire’s words. It wasn’t the time now to dwell on how the bastard knew about his past. He had one single-minded goal—to get Sophia out of here alive.
Dalair pressed his palms flat against the wall, feeling for any crack, and breath of air. Suddenly, he heard a click as the rock beneath his palm depressed and the entire wall began to shift to the left. His crescent blades at the ready, Dalair stepped carefully into the secret passage, drawn inexorably toward a pale light at the end of the tunnel.
As he drew closer he saw the stone table shrouded in a bluish light, and upon that table lay Sophia, dressed head to toe in a long white robe. Standing behind the table was an exquisitely beautiful vampire who beckoned Dalair forth with smiling blood-red lips.
The Paladin’s eagle sight confirmed that the lips were not simply crimson, they were glossy with fresh blood.
Sophia’s blood.
Involuntarily, Dalair lurched forward in a deadly move, but was stopped mid stride by the glint of steel held against Sophia’s throat.
“Wisely done,” the vampire said with approval when Dalair drew back slightly and grew still again, a few feet away from the table. “Another step and my blade might have slipped across her delicate skin as I quivered in fright.”
Dalair’s gaze shifted to the twin puncture marks on Sophia’s neck, already healing but still leaking a few drops of blood. His entire body tensed into a bow as he thought through the ramifications. Had she been turned? Was he too late?
“She is simply resting,” the vampire answered his unspoken thoughts. “No need to panic just yet. I merely sampled a bit of her sweetness. No harm done.”
A guttural growl echoed against the tunnel walls, and Dalair belatedly realized that it came from within himself.
The vampire giggled behind one pale hand at Dalair’s reaction to its words.
And then Dalair held his breath in shock, for the vampire’s face and form began to change, shimmering at the edges with an eerie red glow, until it turned into a ghost from Dalair’s long-buried past.
“Did you miss me?” the vampire said in a melodious woman’s voice, a voice that haunted Dalair’s dreams every single night.
His knees buckling, Dalair staggered back a step and shook his head to clear it. Surely this was a trick. She could not be here when Sophia lay sleeping right in front of him!
The vampire smiled an achingly familiar smile, a smile that was etched in Dalair’s memory for all of eternity. A smile he’d received a hundred times, a thousand times, but that was never meant for him. It had always belonged to another.
And then the face changed again, the figure growing taller and broader until Dalair felt as if he were looking into a mirror, for his reflection stared back at him.
Except the irises were pitch black with red glowing centers instead of his own pale gray.
“Or perhaps you missed this,” his twin said in his voice as it bent toward Sophia, all the while keeping its serpent-like eyes focused on Dalair.
Slowly, the vampire kissed Sophia’s lips, all the while keeping the dagger poised at her throat. As it licked at the seam of her mouth and smiled evilly, Dalair heard the rattle of his own blades as his fists shook and his body strained to attack and tear the bloodsucker to pieces.
“Just tell me how you feel,” his devilish twin murmured, swiping the entire length of its tongue leisurely along Sophia’s cheek. “Give me your deepest, darkest secret and I will let you have her. For now.”
Desperately, Dalair calculated the chances he could take the vampire down without hurting Sophia. Instinctively, he knew that whatever creature stood behind the table was extremely powerful. And old. Millennia older than even Dalair. It was too risky to attack with Sophia so vulnerable. Dalair could not take the gamble.
“Or do you prefer to confess to him,” the vampire said as he transformed once more. “Tell me the truth,” the man said in a clear, crisp tenor. “I will forgive you if you tell me the truth.”
As if his voice was not his own, Dalair surrendered the words he’d never dared utter in the two thousand five hundred years of his existence.
He closed his eyes as the confession poured out, as if he expected to be struck down for his sins right there and then. But when he opened his eyes again, the vampire had disappeared, leaving him alone with Sophia, who continued to sleep soundly upon the illuminated stone table.
Brushing aside the tears that escaped his lids, Dalair scooped her into his arms and strode back through the tunnel, holding her soft warmth a tad too tightly.
This would be the last time, he told himself. He would indulge in the feel and weight of her in his embrace this one last time.
Chapter Nineteen
“If you no longer have need of us, we shall return to the Cove,” the striking leader of the sextet of vampire warriors wearing red satin bands around their necks declared with stately formality.
Aella nodded and bowed in gratitude. The six Chosen warriors that formed the Vampire Queen Jade Cicada’s personal guard had more than evened the odds in the final battle. Their timing and skills had been impeccable. However Seth managed to convince the Queen to send her finest in aid of her sometime enemies was beyond Aella’s ken.
The leader returned the bow with all due respect, but instead of placing right hand flat over heart as was the Pure Ones’ custom, he tapped his chest instead with his right fist twice.
Without further words, he led the two other male and three female vampires away. Moments after their graceful departure, as the dust settled in the catacombs, it was as if they were never there.
Aella surveyed her team and assessed the damage. Though they were wounded and worse for wear, none of them had been poisoned, thank the Goddess; it would only be a matter of time before the flesh wounds healed.
Valerius, however, leaned shakily against a wall, his breath belabored, his skin covered in sweat. In battle, he’d been fearless, flawless, merciless. His enemies would never have guessed he was so weak he could barely stand. But now that the fight was over, as the adrenaline rush subsided, the Fallen warrior could barely lift his head.
Their mission had been a miraculous success. Dalair was in the process of transporting Sophia back to the Shield. Through their ear pieces he’d updated them briefly about her condition—she was safe, whole and soundly asleep.
But the sacrifices…
Aella said a silent prayer for her fallen comrades Leonidas, Alexandros and Orion. For Eveline’s speedy recovery and for Seth’s safe return.
And for Valerius and Rain.
As if conjured by her thoughts, the pattering of racing feet echoed closer from one of the tunnels feeding into the large central arena. A moment later, the Healer herself burst through the entrance, followed closely by Ayelet, who huffed by way of explanation, “Couldn’t keep her back. She insisted on following him here.”
Rain flew to Valerius the moment she saw him, just as his legs could no longer support his weight and he slid heavily down the wall into a half sitting, half lying heap on the ground.
Without a word to the others, Rain concentrated solely on the Protector and held his beloved face between her pale palms. Immediately, she began to transmit healing energy from her palms through his skin.
With his last remaining strength, Valerius swiped aside her hands and speared her with a glare. Furiously, he bit out, “No! I didn’t see you restored to your vitality for you to waste your energy on me now. You know this is futile!”
Ignoring his growl, Rain calmly placed one hand back on his face and thrust something in his fist with the other.
The handkerchief. She’d saved it. Valerius locked his fingers around the precious gift, the one thing that had comforted him, helped him end
ure the past ten years of being so close to his heart’s desires but never close enough. She had given him strength all along, he realized. She’d been healing him since the moment they first met.
And this was how he repaid her. Not even able to Serve out the full course of the Cycle.
Rain pressed both hands against his cheeks again and closed her eyes. Her long, almost completely black hair lifted in a dark halo around her, stretching from roots to their needle-like ends in undulating waves.
“Get her off me!” Valerius barked out to their audience, who stood surrounding them in a semi-circle, watching with breaths held.
No one moved an inch at his command. Ayelet shook her head at him silently. This was between Rain and him. Their friends would not interfere.
Valerius could feel his life force drain, even as Rain sent bursts of energy into his helpless body. His heart had begun to slow, and his lungs could no longer provide the oxygen he needed. He couldn’t feel his limbs, couldn’t lift his hands to stop her, had no more voice to speak. The energy she fed into him was not nearly enough to stem the outflow of his life force.
She was killing herself for a dead man!
All of her zhen had inserted into his pores, some deeper still through his skin into his muscles, and even deeper into his internal organs, forcefully pumping hot white energy into his system, even as his soul was already in the process of lifting away from his corporeal form.
Don’t do this, he silently beseeched her with his mind. Let me go.
Never, she answered him through the connection of their bodies, if you go, then I will go with you.
Don’t do this, he continued to beg her. I am not worth sacrificing your life.
Rain gingerly bent her lips toward his cold, lifeless ones and sealed their mouths in a shatteringly sweet kiss.
You are everything to me, she responded. You are my eternity.
A sudden blast of energy erupted from their bodies, a blindingly bright light radiating outwardly from them in a protective cocoon.
Ayelet and the others had to step back from the expanding orb of light as electrifying sparks shot out from its center, singeing anything and anyone in its way.
Within the center of the cocoon, Rain’s hair slowly began to lose color from inky black to transparent crystal, starting at the needle ends that were inserted into Valerius and gradually up along each silken strand to the roots.
Valerius gasped as his heart began to accelerate and his breath began to quicken. Every nerve felt as if it were on fire, a welcome pain compared to the deathly numbness before.
Meanwhile, Rain’s consciousness began to fade. Her eyelids became too heavy to keep open, and her pulse began to slow. Though she maintained the seal of their mouths, her hands slipped limply from the Protector’s face.
Before long, she was surrounded by a familiar white light. As if in a dream, she heard a woman’s warm, kind voice, one that she had not heard since the last moment of her human life.
“What is it you wish for, my child?” the voice inquired of her. “If you could have anything, be anyone, what is your one true desire in this next life?”
And Rain answered her without hesitation. Whatever the consequences, whatever the sacrifice, she would accept anything and everything if she could have her deepest desire.
For eternity.
*** *** *** ***
Though it was only three in the morning when the Dozen returned to the Shield, it felt like an eon had passed.
Weary and sore, saddened by their losses, but also infused with new hope, especially at Valerius and Rain’s Mating, they each retired to their chambers to rest and recover for the ceremonies that night. First there would be the mourning of their fallen comrades. Then there would be the Mating Ritual and celebration. Many questions remained unanswered, many mysteries unresolved, not the least of which was the fact that their nemesis was still at large.
But there would be time to evaluate, consider and plan. The time now would be dedicated to paying their respects to their friends’ sacrifice as well as the bond of love between two Soul Mates.
Unlike the others, Valerius and Rain slept not a wink, too energized and too joyful to close their eyes. For hours into the first rays of dawn, as reflected upon the ever-changing wall mural of their Enclosure, they made love. Urgently at first, desperately. Then leisurely, languorously. Always passionately.
They washed each other in the shower and thanked the Goddess that the Enclosure had been untouched by the invasion of the previous night, mere hours ago. They fed each other fruits and cheese and laughed and teased like carefree young lovers in the first bloom of youth and innocence. They murmured long hidden feelings and thoughts. And simply listened to each other breathe.
Valerius shuddered in ecstasy as another orgasm jolted through his deliciously aching body, and Rain’s answering release milked him voraciously with her surprisingly strong inner muscles. Hot on the heels of his climax was the rapturous infusion of energy from Rain’s core, as she funneled into him waves of pure spiritual bliss wherever their skin touched, and most of all, where they were intimately joined.
Her long sigh of pleasure sounded like a feline purr, and she nuzzled him affectionately as she burrowed her face into his neck, daintily licking the thick vein in his throat from which she’d fed repeatedly.
“Love you,” she said happily, exuberantly, as if all the floodgates had been opened and she held nothing back. “Have I told you that lately?”
Seventeen times in the past four hours, Valerius reflected. He treasured every word.
“And I you,” he answered without hesitation, stroking his fingers lovingly through her long, white hair.
As he brought a lock of silken tresses before his face, inhaling her faint feminine scent, a pang of regret speared through him. She had relinquished everything for him. Her role as the Healer. Her very Gift. Even her original beauty. She would never grow back her luminous black hair.
“But I have you,” Rain said, reading his thoughts. Now that they were Mated, they shared the mental, emotional and spiritual connection that were reserved only for Soul Mates. “And you are all I’ll ever need or want.”
She took his hand in hers and kissed his knuckles, noticing then that he still wore his Tiger’s Eye Consort ring. When she started to tug it off his finger, Valerius stilled her efforts.
“I’d like to keep it,” he said, entwining their fingers. Pure ones did not exchange matrimonial bands like most humans did during the Mating ceremony. The Phoenix Rite required the token as a declaration to others of their race that a particular male was taken, but only for the duration of the Cycle. To Valerius, however, the ring had come to mean much more.
“It’s a symbol of our joining, that I belong to you. In the beginning it…” he paused to swallow and closed his eyes. Speaking his heart was something in which he had no practice, but this was Rain, he reminded himself. As his Mate, she could read his thoughts, his feelings even more clearly than himself. He wouldn’t be able to hide from her. He didn’t want to any more.
“In the beginning it pained me,” he continued quietly, “it was a constant reminder that I was merely your Consort, that the love I felt was one way.”
Rain stirred at those words, but Valerius squeezed her hand to hear him out. “In the back of my mind was the knowledge that many males have worn this ring in the past and many more would wear it in the future. It… hurt.” He took a shuddering breath and tried to even his breathing. Even the memory of the pain made his heart ache now.
Rain wrapped herself more tightly around him, trying to infuse him with the warmth of her love and devotion. Though it killed her to stay silent, she forced herself to be still, be patient. He needed to speak freely. He was slowly unfettering his heart. Her face in the crook of his neck, she couldn’t see his expression, could only hear his voice, feel his body’s shivers of pain, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed once more.
“I know a few of the past Consorts. I kn
ow what kind of men they were. They were kings, generals, princes, noblemen. I-I was nothing… a…a sex slave.” He inhaled deeply and plunged on before his throat closed up entirely, “But even as such, I didn’t know anything about the act. It was never my choice.” The last he said fiercely, his voice deep and vibrating with anguish, sorrow, and fury.
Tears leaked out of Rain’s closed eyes and ran silently down her cheeks. She bit down on her tongue to keep silent, to prevent the sounds of her shattering heart from escaping.
“I was nothing, and even after eleven years of training,” he all but hissed out the word, “I knew not the first thing about pleasuring a female. I only knew how to receive and inflict pain. I knew that among all of your Consorts, I was the least worthy.”
After a long pause, Valerius whispered, reverence and disbelief in his voice, “But still you chose me. The ring became a symbol of that choice. I…never imagined you could… care for someone like me.” Even now, even after hearing her confession of love for him seventeen times, he could not bring himself to accept it.
In a voice so low and guttural she could barely hear, he said brokenly, “I thought for a while that my blood wasn’t strong enough for you, that maybe it was… contaminated. I thought I was… defective. I feared I would poison you with the demons inside. But for some reason, you seemed to want me—I mean—my Nourishment,” he quickly amended, lest she thought he was too full of himself.
I want you, she shouted in his mind, unable to keep silent at least in that regard. I love you!
Goosebumps rippled across Valerius’ skin as he heard her words in his heart, in his soul. Like a soothing balm, they cooled the feverish wound of his self-doubt.
“And now, I will be the last to wear this ring.” He said it almost as a question, as if he still couldn’t believe the truth of it.
