The chill that Gena had been feeling settled like a stone in her stomach. “My dream,” she said.
“Your nightmare,” corrected Marcus.
“Your men killed her and everyone at her convent,” Gena said as a statement and not a question.
“Kirill’s son, Nicolas, told me a convent had been attacked, but I didn’t get there in time. When I reached the convent, Mary had been dead for hours.”
Gena felt a tear roll down her cheek. So much needless destruction of life. Her heart also ached for Marcus. He’d found his greatest love, only to have her murdered just days after first meeting. As sad as it was, she still didn’t understand why she was seeing it in her sleep. “What does this have to do with me?”
“I never knew this until tonight, but Mary wasn’t fully mortal. Her mother was what you know of as an angel.”
Gena scoffed. “Angel?”
Marcus nodded. “They’re agents of an all-powerful being. He has many names, but the most common now is God. Their job is to make sure destiny unfolds as it’s supposed to, but they are limited to what they can do. People have free will that cannot be tampered with, so all they can do is influence.
“This angel met a mortal she felt was so worthy, she decided to bear his child so his line would live on, even though this was forbidden. When the child was born, the child could be raised with mortals, having no memory of its true parentage, or she could be raised among the angels, never knowing the love mortals could give. Angels feel emotions, but they are much more muted than a human’s or even a vampire’s, for that matter.”
Gena just stared blankly at him. “Seriously? Angels?”
“Seriously,” he said, not an ounce of humor on his face. “This angel took her daughter to be raised at a respectable convent. When Mary was murdered, her mother returned to her and gathered her soul until she could find another, safer, body for her daughter.”
Suddenly, Gena knew exactly where this was going. She shook her head. “No.”
“She found a perfectly normal family in the twenty-first century to raise her baby again. One with loving parents and good jobs to make sure the child was always comfortable and enough love to make sure the child was always happy.”
“I am not half angel!” yelled Gena.
“But things went wrong again. This body was murdered too. Instead of repeating her mistake again, instead of finding a third body for her daughter, the angel made her daughter a better body. An immortal one that couldn’t die.”
Gena pushed Marcus away and turned to leave. As soon as she’d finished turning, Marcus was already in front of her. “I’m not your dead girlfriend!”
He put gentle hands on her shoulders. His grip didn’t hurt, but he didn’t seem as if he’d let her leave any time soon. “I saw your mother tonight.”
Gena narrowed her eyes at him. “You’d better be talking about my human mother.”
“She sent you to me to keep you safe and to help you transition from human to immortal.”
This was all too much for her to take. “She couldn’t talk to me herself? Her daughter is murdered and her life is completely fucked over and she can’t even show her face?”
“She’s forbidden. She was even pulled from me after only minutes. She wants to be with you, but she cannot. That’s why she is giving you the best bodyguard imaginable. The one who has already had to live through your death.”
That gave Gena pause. She yanked herself back and away from Marcus’s grip. “You understand I’m not Mary, right? We are not just going to magically fall in love like you did with her. I’m no nun.”
Marcus shook his head. “I don’t think you’re the same, and I don’t expect you to be anything like her. But,” he added, “despite your differences, I was drawn to you the moment I first saw you walk into Vlad’s room at Fang, and I know you were drawn to me. I’m not saying we’re going to be together forever and I’m not going to get down on one knee and declare my everlasting devotion. However, I wanted you before I knew you were connected to Mary in any way and I still want you now. If you say you don’t feel the same, you’re lying.”
Gena couldn’t respond. She could not say she didn’t want him. Every time he was in the same room as her, all she could think about was how to get them both naked on the nearest flat surface. But wanting to sleep with someone and finding out that he’d been your lover in a previous life were completely different things.
“This is just too weird for me,” she whispered.
“I can understand that,” said Marcus. “This would be strange for anyone. Tonight will be the worst. Then tomorrow, it will still be fucked up, but the shock will start to wear off. In a week, you’ll start to get used to the idea that you are half angel. Then in a month, you will start joking about it every time you think anything slightly naughty.”
Gena saw the slight twinkle in his eye as he said the last word. “Well, I did die a week ago,” she said. “So far I’m handling that rather well.”
She saw him release a pent-up breath at her statement. “Amazingly well,” he agreed.
She looked around her at the fabulous building they stood in. “That still doesn’t make you my permanent bodyguard,” she said.
“I don’t know about that. Us supernatural beings tend to stick together. We maintain our own circles, but we still stay close.”
“I get the impression there aren’t a lot of angels or half angels around here,” she pointed out.
“No, but you are friends with one of the most powerful vampires,” said Marcus. “I’ll see to it that all vampires accept you as their own.”
Gena was touched he considered her a friend but was skeptical of his words. “The only problem is that all your people hate you.”
“That’s just temporary.”
“Are you worried about the rebels crashing the party here?” she asked.
“Extremely worried,” he said. Not very comforting. “The men I met with said they were planning something that was happening in the next few days, but would not give me more details. I slipped the guard at the entryway a note warning everyone to be on highest alert.”
Gena frowned. She hadn’t seen any note. “You think beefed-up security is going to protect you from vampire terrorists?”
“We’re not exactly weak. I’m hoping Ironheart will be able to work security, but I have been unable to make contact since my exile. Hopefully Aleksander will get my message and make the necessary arrangements.”
“Ironheart?” Gena laughed. “I’m sure he thought that name was scary, but I don’t think it works.”
Marcus smiled at that. “Don’t like it? It’s a recent name change. It comes from the phrase hooker with a heart of gold.” At Gena’s questioning expression, Marcus continued. “Ironheart is a woman. She was a prostitute in 1800s France. She is exceptionally beautiful and was rather good at it, even while she despised all men.
“Her beauty caught the attention of a vampire who became obsessed with her. He locked her in a room and turned her against her will. After careful plotting, she killed him and took control of all his assets. It’s rather exceptional for a newly turned human to be able to kill a vampire, let alone a pure born. That’s only the beginning of her reputation.
“As turned vampires need to feed off other vampires, she set off to turn her own small army. Now they wander the world, still punishing the men who deserve it. If you have enough cash, she will work private security, but it involves lots of cash.”
“Something tells me the vampire king has lots of cash,” commented Gena. “But if he’s king, why can’t he just order her to work security?”
Marcus appeared to choose his words carefully. “Ironheart is not loyal to any king. She considers herself loyal to herself and her crew. That being said, she does respect Aleksander and his policies and she has supported his decisions so far.”
“You think Aleksander is afraid of her?” She wondered what kind of vampire could strike fear into the heart of the king.
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“Let’s just say Aleksander would not have his throne if he hadn’t had her support throughout his rule.”
Gena nodded in apprehension. “Remind me to be nice to her if we ever meet.”
“Will do,” agreed Marcus.
As he started to lead her from the beautiful, glass-enclosed restaurant, she gave one last lingering sweep of the room. “Do we really have to leave so soon?”
“Though it’s reasonable I would check on the progress of the building, it’s best if we leave quickly.”
Gena could see his point, but she still gazed wistfully at the splendor of the room they were leaving.
“It’s so romantic up there,” she said. “Lots of babies are going to be conceived in this building.” The idea made her pause. “Vampires can have babies, right? You said you were pure born.”
Marcus nodded. “Babies are very possible. They just take a lot of work, as ovulation only occurs once every few years, and during pregnancy, the mother has to make sure she is very well fed. Miscarriage is very common as well, so it’s usually a long process.”
Gena couldn’t imagine the pain of waiting so long to conceive only to lose the child. “Can half angels have children?” she asked, not expecting him to know.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know any other half angels.”
Gena would give anything to question her “other” mother at this moment.
Before they could continue their conversation, the doors opened. At the exit to the building, there were now three guards. One of them seemed very relaxed while the other two seemed pissed off at something.
Gena was trying to piece together what that something was when their angry glances settled on Marcus. Oh yes, Marcus was a traitor. It made sense they would want him gone.
“Are you finished yet?” asked one of the angry guards in a curt voice.
Marcus said nothing to the man but did narrow his eyes at the vampire. Gena never wanted to find herself on the receiving end of one of Marcus’s angry glares.
The amount of heated looks being tossed around the lobby was overwhelming. She averted her gaze and noticed the more relaxed guard. He leaned nonchalantly against the wall next to the doors and looked at Marcus and her with light interest. She wondered why he was so different from the other two.
As Marcus and she left the building, his gaze followed them. As his neck turned, Gena saw the edge of a tattoo poke out from his collar but didn’t have a good enough view to make out what it was.
Marcus and Gena walked in silence. The car was parked right down the street, but Gena enjoyed the walk. It was surprisingly peaceful, considering Marcus’s irritation at the way he was treated. It had to be hard to know that all of his people believed he committed a crime he was innocent of.
Her thoughts kept going back to the relaxed guard. Gena asked, “Do you have any tattoos?”
The question seemed to startle Marcus out of deep thought. “What did you ask?”
She immediately felt stupid for asking the question. He was obviously dealing with serious shit. What did it matter if he had any tattoos? “It was nothing,” she assured softly.
She could tell Marcus was about to ask her what she’d said again but before he had a chance, he was knocked at least ten feet away from her. She screamed and reached for him, but she was pushed in the opposite direction by the same unseen force.
Gena landed painfully on her side, but the force of her fall still caused her to roll twice before her battered body came to a stop. As she tried to get her arms under her, she heard sounds of a struggle from behind her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
These weren’t the sounds of a normal fistfight, though. There were gruesome sounds of flesh on flesh, along with the strangest growling noises coming from the vampires fighting, almost as if there were three dogs trying to kill each other.
Gena finally stood up and observed the horrific scene. Three vampires were attacking Marcus. Two held him back while one landed punch after punch to his face and stomach. Gena knew how strong Marcus was and she could only imagine how much those punches had to hurt.
As much pain as he was in, Marcus didn’t go down without a fight. All of his attackers had serious injuries of their own, though the worse, by far, was the damage caused to the arm of one of the assailants holding Marcus.
The arm containing Marcus seemed fine, but the unoccupied one hung onto the rest of his body by only a thread, or, rather, a tendon in this case. The sight made Gena gag, but the bastard deserved it for what he was doing.
The logical part of her mind told her to turn and run, but she knew she could never abandon Marcus. Besides, she was immortal now. Right?
Trying not to be completely idiotic, she took a few precious seconds to think clearly. They were vampires. She knew how to kill a vampire. Destroy the head or heart, but that was easier said than done.
She had a dagger and a handgun loaded with silver bullets in her purse. The dagger would make it easier to destroy the heart, but she had no desire to get close enough to use it. Gun it was.
Her purse had rolled away from her after she was pushed, and she reached for it as discreetly as possible. Apparently humans didn’t pose much of a threat because no one seemed to notice she was up and moving.
When the purse was in her hands, she found the comforting cold feel of the handgun. She ran her fingers over the cold metal until she found the safety and clicked the small piece of steel over. Taking a calming breath that didn’t stop her shaking, she moved forward.
As she approached the cluster of vampires, her heart started to beat uncontrollably as the fear attempted to take over. Every time the fear climbed up her throat, the main assailant would land another blow on Marcus and her breaking heart would give her even more resolve.
When she was about ten feet away, she shouted, “Stop it!”
Well, that got everyone’s attention. Four shocked faces looked her way. All of them had fangs bared and cold, black eyes stared at her. Marcus might’ve been even more surprised than the other three that she stuck around.
“What the hell are you doing to him?” she asked, unable to keep the anger from her voice.
The assailant looked her way and she tightened her grasp on the gun that was still hidden in her purse. Instead of answering her, the main assailant made eye contact with her. As she stared into his eyes, some of her fears eased. “You don’t want to be around this traitor,” he said in a calming voice. “You want to go home and have no memory of anything after you and this traitorous fuck left the tower.”
The strange trance his eyes had put on her dropped like a stone. These were not even rebels attacking. These were just vigilantes trying to get revenge. Part of her wanted to scream at them that Marcus was innocent, but she knew she couldn’t blow his cover. So she had to fight back.
The next three seconds seemed to play in slow motion. As she brought the gun up, she flashed back to standing in her kitchen. Ryan stood over her, blocking her way out. She had the knife in her hand and raised it to attack. She should have gone for the neck. He would have been dead in seconds and she would never have been murdered.
Her hesitation had caused her death. She couldn’t hesitate now. With ice in her veins, powered by the hottest anger she’d ever felt, the gun was up and her arm was locked.
Without a pause, she fired. She took only fractions of a second between each round, and she alternated all three shots between the three vampires who surrounded Marcus.
She aimed for their hearts. She knew if she got one or two bullets through the heart they would die, but she didn’t have that much faith in her aim.
After the fifteenth and last round was fired, she braced herself for the attack. As she saw a blur of motion move toward her, she prepared to die again. Instead of pain, two hard arms closed around her and held her close. Her arms went around Marcus in a heartbeat as she finally allowed herself to see what she’d done.
All three vampires withered in pain on the pavement, now wet
with a mixture of their and Marcus’s blood. They all appeared to still be alive, but none were in good condition. Marcus also looked to the three. “I’m sure the police heard the gunfire,” he said in a calm voice Gena couldn’t have imagined possible under the circumstances. “I would suggest you drag your sorry asses out of here before they arrive. Be sure to tell everyone how a human almost killed you.”
Gena smiled at that last verbal blow as she looked to Marcus, but her smile immediately faded at the sight of his badly beaten body.
“You need help,” she said.
Marcus looked as if he was about to argue, but he didn’t protest the supporting arm she wrapped around his waist. She saw him wince as his weight was transferred to her. Her heart broke all over again for him. She was certain he had broken ribs, and any movement had to be agonizing. They hobbled together until they reached the entrance to the parking garage where they'd parked.
Marcus wanted to keep walking, but Gena refused to let him go any farther. She pulled him into the doorway of the garage, giving them coverage from any cars and people passing by. “You need to feed,” she said matter-of-factly.
Marcus shook his head, where one cheekbone had swollen to the size of a golf ball. It was big enough that his left eye could no longer open. He told her vampires healed quickly, but she needed it to go faster. “I have blood at the penthouse,” he wheezed out.
“You have blood right here,” she pointed out.
He was still resistant. “This won’t kill me. I just need to make it to the car.”
“You’re in pain,” she said softly. She pushed a bloody strand of hair away from his eyes. “Let me help you. Please.”
He shook his head at her suggestion. Gena tried really hard to let herself respect his wishes. She knew powerful men did not always appreciate help when it was offered, and she also knew from their previous conversations that the injuries, though probably fatal for a human, would not kill him.
Daring Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 2) Page 14
