Her chin hit the wooden frame and her skull ached, sending deep throbbing waves through her body. Amber kicked him in the chest. When he stumbled away from her, she broke for freedom again. It was no use. He lunged at her, knocking both her and the couch over backwards.
She landed awkwardly with it, her legs in the air and her back on the floor. He was on top of her in an instant, painfully twisting her arms and pinning her wrists to the floor.
“You shouldn’t fight me,” he whispered with a smile, his red eyes burning into hers and his bloodied fangs showing between his lips as he spoke. She shook at the sight of them. He had been at her throat and could have bitten her and drained her dry. As it was, he had taken enough blood that she was close to collapse. But he had been Kearn then. She was sure of it. He lowered his face to hers and his smile widened. “You’re mine now. You said you were.”
Amber struggled against him but it was no use. “I’ll never be yours. I’m Kearn’s.”
The man laughed. “The Venator?”
His grip on her wrists tightened and she cried out when it felt as though her bones would break.
“He won’t give you what you need.” The man smiled slyly. She wasn’t going to believe him. He was just trying to hurt her and make her his. Well, it wasn’t going to happen. She believed everything Kearn had said to her. “The Venator wants nothing to do with you… a human… a Noble vampire could never feel anything for a human.”
She wouldn’t believe that. Kearn felt something for her. It wasn’t an act just so she would become a vampire. She had felt it in his blood. He wasn’t like the other vampires. He loved her and he wanted to be with her. That was why he wanted to turn her. It was because he needed her, and he couldn’t live without her.
“How would you know?” she whispered, feeling defiant.
The man grinned. “Because I am one.”
Amber fought him again. He pinned her arms so she kneed him in the groin. He growled and struck her hard, sending her head spinning, her brain rattling around it from the force of the blow. It took her a moment to get her vision back.
“The Venator thinks only of duty. His duty to defeat me, and his duty to strengthen his bloodline. He told you his past, yes? His only point in life was to increase the numbers of his family. Why else would he want to make you a vampire?”
“Because he loves me.”
The sight of his fangs when he laughed unnerved her. He could have bitten her and she would have believed that it was Kearn. She wouldn’t have known until it was too late.
“Loves you?” His expression turned deadly serious. “His only feeling towards you is lust… lust caused by your blood.”
Amber grimaced when he yanked her hands above her head and pinned them with one of his. He lowered his free hand, skimming it down her arm, and settled it over her right breast for a moment before moving it to rest over her heart.
“Pitter patter… pitter patter… is it fear or thoughts of the Venator that stirs you so?” His red gaze fell to his hand and his look turned to fascination. “It makes beautiful music. Just as it did the night we danced. You wanted to be in my arms then… and you wanted it again tonight. You want me.”
“I want Kearn.” She glared at him. “You disgust me.”
His eyes darkened and then he smiled again, cruel this time, his lips compressed into a thin line.
“Your body wasn’t saying that a moment ago.”
“You were Kearn then... I swear... I don’t know how the hell you did it, but you looked like him.”
She glanced around, trying to find a way to escape. There was only the one door. Could she reach it before he caught her? Could she even get him off her? His grip on her wrists was so tight that she wanted to cry. Her gaze met his again and, for a moment, he was Kearn.
She couldn’t bring herself to believe that he could change his appearance and look like Kearn. It seemed incredible even when she had witnessed it with her own eyes. Did her blood give him this power, or was this something the man had always been able to do? He had looked precisely like Kearn, had even sounded and felt like him. It must have been easy for him to get onto the Savernake estate and kidnap her. He had fooled her.
How long had he looked like him?
Her heart pounded at the memory of last night and making love to Kearn. She was sure that he had been the real one. The man must have used Kearn going out to meet the archduke as his opportunity to seize her, which meant he had known about it.
Had the man been waiting for this opportunity to capture her?
Had he orchestrated the whole thing?
Amber stared into his vivid red eyes and fear gripped her heart, squeezing it tight in her chest. Just what did he have planned? He had been toying with them from the moment she had met Kearn. The false lead at the club, the ball, the attack on the apartment so he could take Kearn’s blood from the other Venator. It had all been part of the man’s plan and Kearn had done exactly what he had wanted.
She willed her heart to slow. Hunger rose within her, a thirst for blood so strong that it sickened her. The man’s feelings. They were all dark now, black thoughts that chilled her. He wanted her blood, but more than that, he wanted Kearn. Why? She had to find out.
She tried to read his blood but the connection severed.
“Now now,” the man said with another broad smile. “If you really want to know what will happen to the Venator, and in turn yourself, you only have to ask, Lover.”
She shivered at the use of that word. She wasn’t going to become this man’s lover.
Her mind reasoned that he had her blood and she was weak. If he sought to control her, she wouldn’t have any choice in the matter. She was his slave now. The vision of her bound and bleeding flashed across her mind. It would be as Kearn had said. He would drain her until she was close to death and then control her to make her eat and rest, so he could bleed her again.
Unless Kearn could save her.
Her blood reached out to him but she couldn’t feel him. Was it distance stopping her or something else? The man smiled cruelly, darkness in his eyes. He was stopping her, using her blood to close the connection to Kearn. Kearn would sense the loss of connection and return to the lodge and discover her gone. He would search for her. Wouldn’t he?
“You want him to come here.” She held the man’s red gaze and realised that Kearn was about to do exactly as he had planned again.
“I want to make him pay for the things that he’s done.” He slid his hand over her chest to her neck and wrapped his fingers around it.
“Why?” She squeezed the word out, her throat tight at the thought of him hurting her.
“I will make the whole of the Savernake family pay… I will tear them down and end Kearn’s line.” His gaze was distant, fixed on her throat and his fingers.
Amber frowned. “What has he ever done to you?”
The man’s hand shook and she sensed something in him. Anger. Bitterness. An evil so dark that she severed the connection herself, afraid of it.
“He took my future from me, and I will take his from him… starting with you.” His cold tone rang with the hatred she had felt in him.
Amber’s eyes widened and she didn’t want to believe what had dawned on her. Kearn had taken this man’s future. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. It would break Kearn and his suffering would be eternal, just as he felt it should be, if he discovered the true identity of the man he had been chasing for three years.
The man he had to kill.
She shook her head. It would destroy him.
“Kyran,” she whispered, her voice full of the shock and dismay in her heart.
His image changed, his red eyes fading into blue and his long black hair shortening into soft spikes that swept across this forehead. She stared up at Kyran, unable to believe what she was seeing. His jaw tensed.
“Now you’ve gone and done it, Lover.”
There was a dull pulse deep in her mind and the world disappeared.
Archduke Pendragon handed the vial to Kearn, his face a mask of darkness. “The man who gave me this seemed quite intent on selling the blood it contained.”
Kearn uncapped it and drew a deep breath. It was definitely his blood. He could smell Amber’s in it.
“I refused his offer, of course.” Archduke Pendragon reclined in the gilt chair in the grand reception room. He crossed his legs and his look hardened as he stared at the blood in Kearn’s hand.
The room was empty save Kearn and the archduke, although guards waited in the first reception room beyond the closed doors. Whatever the archduke was going to tell him, he didn’t want their families finding out.
“What did he want?” Kearn lowered the blood to his side. The glass was warm under his fingers and the scent of Amber lingered in the air. He wanted to be back with her at the lodge, wrapped in her arms and making love to her again. His precious Amber. Soon he would bring her into his world and make her his without a doubt. She would wear his marks and be with him forever.
“He desired my strength and wished to gain me as an ally.” Archduke Pendragon stood and walked down the steps of the wide stage to come level with Kearn. There was worry in his eyes but Kearn couldn’t sense his feelings.
In fact, he couldn’t sense anyone’s. Even Amber’s were gone from his blood.
That unnerved him, increasing his desire to return to her a hundredfold. Perhaps it was the distance making it difficult to sense her or she was in a deep sleep. Perhaps the man had come and captured her.
His heart beat hard at that thought. No. The man wouldn’t have made it through the gates. The security around the estate was tight, with regular patrols day and night. There was no way he could pass through undetected. The only people allowed into the grounds were those of the Savernake line, expected visitors, or human delivery people.
Amber would be safe enough at the lodge.
“When I refused, he became violent. He threatened me.”
“Threatened you?” Kearn said.
Archduke Pendragon glared at the blood in Kearn’s hand. “He said that he would end the Pendragon line and his house would take their place and rule.”
“What house?” Kearn clutched the vial, eager to hear if the archduke knew. Archduke Pendragon was old and powerful enough to know the rarer Noble houses. Perhaps the man was from one of them, or from overseas, and that was why Kearn didn’t know him.
The archduke looked troubled. “The man was hiding his true identity.”
“He was wearing a mask?” The female Venator had said the same thing. The man had worn a mask over his eyes when he had attacked her.
Archduke Pendragon shook his head. “Not a mask as we wear at balls, young Venator. He wore the mask of illusion, and it was powerful.”
“Illusion,” Kearn breathed, surprised to hear him say it. It was a rare ability, often only appearing once every ten generations. He had never met a vampire who possessed it.
“Yes, a very potent power that only a few bloodlines have mastered.” The troubled look in the archduke’s eyes increased. Kearn felt his reluctance. It was frightening to be able to sense something in the archduke. The feeling would have to be strong enough that his age couldn’t deny those around him the ability to detect it.
“Which bloodlines?”
“Pendragon, Montagu and… Savernake.”
Kearn took a step back and his senses reached out through the building, searching for a sign of the man. He had never heard of a Savernake possessing the ability to cast illusions.
“I sense dark times ahead, young Venator, if the man cannot be stopped.” Archduke Pendragon placed his hand on Kearn’s shoulder. It was heavy and Kearn felt the weight of his words on his heart. It was his responsibility to stop the man and he would do just that. “My refusal angered him greatly. He will seek to harm my bloodline and I fear that with such strong Source Blood as the female possesses, even I will be no match for him.”
A shiver danced down Kearn’s spine.
The archduke was right. If the man had enough of Amber’s blood, he would become a living god. No one would be able to stop him. He would destroy the Pendragon bloodline.
But how was Kearn supposed to find him? His enemy had the power of illusion. He could mask his appearance and it had to be the reason why the Sovereignty had been unable to determine who he was all this time. They couldn’t see through the illusion either.
Kearn thought of the people he had met. Any one of them could have been the man and he wouldn’t have known it. Just how many times had they come close to him? His illusion could be constant to some. He could always look different to the Sovereignty or certain people. It was a powerful technique indeed, but Kearn wasn’t about to let him take Amber.
“Return to the Pendragon estate and fortify it. I will try to get word to the other Venators and will join you there shortly,” Kearn said.
The man had given him a location and he wasn’t going to disappoint him. He was sure that together they could defeat him. Not even a god could stand against the combined strength of Pendragon and the Venators.
He turned and left the reception room, striding down the gallery towards the main entrance. He had to get Amber and then get word to the Sovereignty about what they were up against.
His arm burned and pain rolled up it, engulfing it from fingertip to shoulder. His fingers tensed and the vial smashed, the broken glass cutting into his right hand. Each wound closed instantly, erased by the power of the Sovereignty. He gripped his arm close to his chest and gritted his teeth against the pain.
Not now.
He had to get to Amber first.
Kearn took a step forwards and the world became cold around him. He cursed the sight of the long dark grey hall and its massive stone arches, and strode towards the brightly lit altar, determined to get the Sovereignty to send him back to the estate straight away so he could make sure that Amber was safe.
“We have a problem.” He halted in front of the crescent moon shaped pool that curved around the steps where the nine white-clad Sovereigns stood.
“A problem indeed,” the one in the middle said and indicated the black pool.
Kearn saw Amber with himself in it. He was kneeling in front of her while she sat on a dark couch, her face pale. He touched her cheek and affection shone in her eyes. That never happened.
He looked at the Sovereigns as it hit him.
The man had her.
“The human female has at last identified the man you seek.” The Sovereign’s white veil shifted with the words. She glowed ethereally under the light streaming down from above.
Amber had?
He growled and his heart clenched when he saw the man feeding from Amber’s neck. He couldn’t have bitten her. Amber belonged to him and no one else. The man couldn’t have taken her from him.
“A woman will do a lot for love, it seems.”
Kearn growled at the Sovereigns now. Why hadn’t they called him sooner? This had clearly already happened. They had watched events unfold and then called him only once they had known who the man was. They had used Amber. How far would they have allowed it to go before calling him? Would they have let her die?
His fangs extended and his eyes switched.
“You dare to threaten us, Venator?” All nine Sovereigns spoke at once, their combined voices echoing around the grand hall.
He roared.
“It is not us who should feel your anger, Savernake, but that of your enemy.” The Sovereign in the middle waved her hand towards the pool again and his attention fell there.
Amber’s words drifted up to him, her belief in him touching his heart and her love for him consolidating his need for her. She fought the man and he listened to everything they said, searching for a sign of the man’s identity. Amber’s expression changed to one of shock and then she said something that turned Kearn’s insides and sent a wave of disbelief crashing over him.
She called the man Kyra
n.
And in that moment, the illusion lifted to reveal his brother.
His flesh and blood.
His own brother.
Kearn shook his head, unable to believe what he was seeing. It burned his chest and wrenched his gut to know that his enemy was Kyran. He stared at him, still unable to understand what was happening before his eyes. Kyran hated him for what he had done but they had started to move past it. They had grown closer these past few years and not once had his brother shown a sign of being the man he was after. He had been supportive of him and kind towards Amber. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t believe it. Perhaps this was only another illusion. The Sovereignty had no proof. They watched everyone on their list. Surely, they would have known before now that it was Kyran.
“We know what you are thinking, Venator.”
He didn’t doubt they did. They knew everything.
Everything but the fact his brother was his mark.
How was it possible they hadn’t known?
“We do not have the power to see through an illusion. Your brother has been wise to us. He never once changed form while we were watching him. Tonight, he revealed himself to us and we saw through the veil to the man beneath.”
“What does that mean?” Kearn knew in his heart exactly what it meant, but he wanted to hear the Sovereigns admit that they were as fallible as the demons and humans.
“Your brother had been destined for the role of Venator.” The one in the middle stepped forwards so her reflection appeared in the crescent moon pool, hovering around the frozen image of his brother. Kearn stared at him, trying to grasp everything that had happened and wondering how long Kyran had been fooling the Sovereignty. “He can sense when we are watching him. It is a gift given to the eldest male child of a Venator, so they are conscious of us and behave accordingly so they will be worthy of the position we will grant them.”
“Only Kyran used it against you.” Kearn glared at them and clenched his fists, anger rolling through him. “This is all my fault. My brother would never have done such a thing had he achieved his dream and became a Venator. No. This is all your fault… you did this on purpose. You wanted to hurt my brother and drive him to despair so he had little choice but to succumb to his desire.”
Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) Page 29
