Shattered Days (The Firsts Book 7)

by C. L. Quinn

  Her final orgasm with him… Tears threatened as she slid against his skin, a need to ride him again already, and laid beside of him. They both were breathing hard, satisfied and sleepy.

  “That was incredible. Good thing we’re in bed, I’m spent,” he said, and kissed her forehead as he held her, Tamesine’s back against his chest, his cock nestled between her buttocks.

  “Yes, I couldn’t move now if I tried, either.”

  “May I stay?”

  Pressing against him, she pulled one of his arms tighter against her breasts.

  “Yes, please.”

  They fell asleep, nearly every part their bodies touching. After dreamless sleep, Tamesine lay awake three hours later and just let herself feel him.

  She nearly fell back asleep when someone knocked at her door. Who the hell? She couldn’t imagine anyone out this early, before sunrise. Unless it was vampire.

  As she approached the door, she could feel his life force.

  Oh. The first blood. Ahmose, from Africa. From where she had lived with her sister. She didn’t have any memory of him from those days.

  As she opened the door, she was struck again by how magnificent he was. Bigger than most vampires, he filled the doorway.

  “Tamesine, I am Ahmose.”

  “I know who you are. Why are you here?”

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay. Also, I am on the trail of our traitors.”

  “You plan to capture Lamont and Claude?”

  “I will not capture them.”

  Death, then, she thought, grateful.

  “I wish you luck then. You’re aware that Lamont has talents?”

  “I am. It still shocks me that he has been able to accomplish what he has. We must stop him.”

  “I agree. Did you…do you need my help?”

  “Are you engaged in something right now?”

  “I…”

  She glanced back into the apartment. Ahmose understood.

  “I need nothing. Please, stay and rest.” He paused, then spoke again. “Tamesine. I just want to make certain that you are aware you are always welcome in the colony. You belong there, it’s your home.”

  Tamesine shook her head. “No, not for centuries. I have a new family now, and while I appreciate the invitation, I must decline.”

  “Understood. Just, be aware that you are always welcome.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “All right, I’ll go then. Be careful until these men are captured.”

  “I will, Ahmose. And thank you for rescuing Marc.”

  “The human, yes. You are welcome.”

  Ahmose bowed and was gone.

  Tamesine shook her head as she closed the door. When her memories returned, she wondered what kind of relationship she’d had with him. She would find out very soon. When they woke tonight, she would travel her path, set Marc properly on his, and go home.

  IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

  Eillia answered her cell phone, perched on one ear while she rinsed off Caedmon’s hair. The boy hated his baths, but he was behaving right now.

  “Tamesine,” she said. “How is it going?”

  “Quite well. The dream-walk with Marc to help him reconcile with the events in Afghanistan worked well. I think he’s going to be all right.”

  “Wonderful, Tam! And how about you?”

  “Tonight. I’m a little shaken.”

  “Oh, sweetie, you’ll be fine. He’ll be there for you, won’t he?”

  “He will. We need to do this together, it’s destined. But I’m coming home after we finish. Does Koen need his jet back yet?”

  “No. He doesn’t plan to go anywhere for some time. Alisa is finally home from Africa and they haven’t left their chambers. Much. He’s also paranoid about security now. I think he’s revamping everything so that this kidnapping can’t happen again.”

  “I agree with him.”

  “I do, too. But I don’t want him to make us prisoners, either. Were you serious, when you said you were coming right home? Will you bring Marc?”

  The silence answered Eillia’s query.

  “It’s just…he doesn’t belong to me. He lost his normal life when the war changed him, but now he has a chance to get it back.” Tamesine paused. “There was a girl.”

  “Oh. And you think he wants to be with her?”

  “I think he should have a chance to find out. They were together when he left. Who knows what might have happened if he’d never gone to war. They might have four children, a mortgage, and steady day-to-day jobs by now.”

  “Ugh. Sounds awful.”

  “Sounds normal, and that’s what he wants. I hope he gets them. Anyway, I’m sending him home before I fly back. If Koen needs the plane, let me know.”

  “I will. Tam, are you okay?”

  After a long silence, Tamesine said, simply, “I will be,” then let Eillia know she would be back in two days.

  Eillia dropped the now wet cell phone and lifted Caedmon out of his bath, wrapped in a plush bath towel.

  “Do me a favor, buddy. Don’t grow up.”

  “Too late, my love.”

  The voice came from behind her, as Daniel entered the big bathroom and knelt beside of her.

  “Hey, baby.”

  “Tamesine called. She’s coming home. I don’t know what to expect. Tonight, she’s going to take a spirit walk with Marc.”

  “Can’t be any crazier than she was.”

  Eillia started to splash him with the bath water when Caedmon did it first.

  “Stop, Daddy,” he said.

  Daniel winced. “You three are going to continue to gang up on me, aren’t you? Okay, she seems a lot better. And yeah, I admit, she’s kind of grown on me. I hope it goes well and she comes home. I’ve missed her too.”

  Tamesine’s puppies had the run of the house now, and they bounded into the bathroom. Caedmon giggled and Eillia let him down to run after them.

  “God, baby, what are we in for?” Daniel commented as he watched the cherubic child chase the happy dogs.

  Eillia shook her head. “Magic like we’ve never seen before. Kids their age aren’t able to do what Caedmon and Cairine did in Tasmania. They won’t be fully merged with their spirit amulets until maturity, so they don’t have access to their true powers until then. But these two, they’re something we’ve never seen before. Already, they’re frighteningly powerful. You made a comment once that Tamesine’s powers scared you because she had child-like reactions to the world.”

  Eillia paused as she watched her child freeze one of the pups so he could catch it.

  Daniel blew a low whistle. “I didn’t know he could do that yet.”

  “I know they have an important destiny in the future of this world. It’s going to be up to us to make sure they are prepared. Ahmose called these children the Guardians of the Mother. I guess we’re the guardians of the Guardians.”

  “Shit. I think I need to lie down.”

  “Before you do, go tell your son to let the dog go.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  “Ready?”

  Marc nodded.

  Tamesine slipped out of her dress and crawled into the bed next to Marc. She took his face into her hands.

  “My journey may be hard for you sometimes. You’ll see things no human has ever seen. I know part of my past and it’s ugly. You don’t need to do anything other than to be there for me. Hold me if I need it. Make me watch, don’t let me pull out. I need to know where I’ve been in order to move forward, just as you did. There’s something…”

  She stopped, then began again. “We believe I have a child. I have no memory of it at all, but there was an event that seems to indicate that I must have been pregnant at one point.”

  “Wow. Okay. I won’t leave you, you know that. Come here.” He pulled her to him and curled around her body.

  “You’re safe with me. I’ll see you inside our dream.”

  She didn’t want to do this. More than anything, she wanted to be wel
l, but this was such a price to pay. There would be a lot of anguish, and she would live through it again. But the choice was made. Sighing, she settled against Marc’s big, warm body. At least the universe had chosen to be kind to her. Thank you for giving me this beautiful man to guide me.

  Marc touched her arm from behind.

  “Tam, we’re here.”

  “I see. I didn’t get a sunrise.”

  They both looked out at the landscape of this dream.

  No, there was no sun at all. A pitch black sky with a full moon glistening off of a gently rolling sea was no less astonishing.

  “I’m a child of the moon, I guess that’s why. The universe has its moments, I’ll admit that. They gave me you, and I’ll be forever grateful.”

  “They gave us each other. We belong together, Tam. It’s going to be okay, you told me that before you took me into my life, and it was.”

  Abruptly, the peaceful night scene dissolved, as Marc felt dizzy once more and his vision blurred out. This time he had no idea where he was going or what he would see.

  Waterfalls. A row of them, roaring, beautiful, a prismatic rainbow curving down into a chasm, brought by a full moon. It was night, and Marc knew they weren’t in Kansas anymore.

  “It’s Africa. What is now called the Victoria Falls. Many centuries ago.” Pointing to the right, Tamesine’s voice caught. “There. That’s me, and the twin sister you saw once in the dream. Her name is Windari.”

  Marc looked to where she pointed and saw two beautiful blonde women walking along a trail. They were naked, and he could see they were almost identical. Yet he knew which one was Tamesine, because her smile was warm and real. The other one, the sister, her eyes were cold and although she, too, smiled, he could see it wasn’t genuine.

  “You’re stunning together,” he said, because they were.

  “My turn,” Tamesine said to Windari, and ran for the edge of the cliff, leaped, elegantly, and dived into the water. It had to be a fifty foot drop, but there had been no fear or hesitation.

  Windari stood on the edge and watched, her smile gone, her eyes even harder.

  A splash below let her know that Tamesine had sliced easily into the water.

  “Your turn, my darling sister,” Windari sneered. “It seems like it’s always your turn.”

  Windari kicked a large rock over the edge of the cliff to travel the same path as Tamesine. It didn’t matter to her if it hit her sister.

  Marc looked at Tam, shocked. “She’s jealous.”

  Tam nodded. “Yes, it turns out she was. Homicidally. She thought that she had to share her beauty and power with me, with her sister, and she couldn’t live with that.”

  Marc watched a single tear escape her right eye.

  “She kills me, shortly. I remember now, Marc, how much I loved her. I would have died for her willingly, except that she murdered me. I can’t believe she hated me that much. She was my world.”

  The scene before them changed again. Still in the same timeframe, Windari walked lazily through an archaic village. She wore a rough-sown dress and corded sandals like Marc had only seen in movies set in ancient times. The houses were cut into hillsides, sparse crops adjacent planted in tidy rows, and he could hear the sea somewhere nearby.

  Tamesine came out of one of the houses, smiling, retying a coarse fabric around her waist.

  She ran to catch up to Windari.

  “He is such a nice lad. I think I would like to stay here a little longer. Can we wait to return home? There is just something special about him.”

  Windari scowled. “He is just a rutting human. A blood meal and a cock.”

  “No, sister, he is more than just a lay.”

  “He wets you, sister, that is all. He has a wicked tongue, I daresay.”

  “Do not be mean, Windari.” Tamesine took her sister’s arm and tugged her along.

  “We must find you a big local lad. I like these northern islands. We can have a lot of fun here. This boy’s blood is exceptional, so let us find one for you, too.”

  “Then we will stay, sister. Come, I would show you the cliffs to the northernmost part of this island. It is truly breathtaking and I would not wish you to miss it.”

  “I would love to see it with you, Windy.”

  Windy. An endearment for someone who shared her blood, family, someone with whom she should have had an unbreakable bond.

  “This is where it happens,” Tamesine whispered.

  “Where what happens?” Marc asked.

  “Watch,” was all Tamesine could say, and reached for him, her hand tightened on his, crushing his fingers. He suddenly realized what she meant and didn’t complain.

  “I love these moors! Look at that sea, ferocious, angry! Perhaps we should stay even longer.”

  “Whatever you want, Tam. I intend to please you, of course. Like everyone else.” Windari spat on the ground.

  Tamesine saw her face and came over to her.

  “Windari, are you all right? Have I done something to upset you?”

  “No. No, you just walk around wearing my face, and apparently better than I do, because everyone seems to gravitate to you. Do you know, I actually heard one of the men in the village the other day say that you were prettier than I? We are identical!”

  “I do not agree, Windari. I think you are much lovelier than I ever was.”

  “Really? Well, others do not think so. Do you wish to know what I think? I think you have my beauty and my magic. Conceived in the same womb at the same time, all that should have been mine was split to provide for you. I should have it all. You are just a leech, sister, stealing what is not yours to have.”

  “Windari! I had no idea you felt this way. I would give you all of my beauty if I could. I do not need it. I just need you, my sister.”

  “Well, I do not need you!”

  Windari turned away, the winds strong on the cliffside that night, her cape flapping furiously behind her. She climbed higher, the wind increasing with the altitude. Her sister was calling for her, but Tamesine’s voice was lost to the wind.

  Stopped, Windari waited at the summit of the cliff, the frigid air invigorating. She had something to do, something terrible, and she prayed she would have the strength.

  Rocks crunched underfoot as Tamesine came alongside Windari.

  “Windy, I cannot believe I have angered you so. Please, let us go to the village and work this out. I love you, sister.”

  Windari spun around, a flash of silver announced her intention, but Tamesine did not see it in time. The blade found its target, Tamesine’s throat cut deep, sliced through to the bone, nicked it, and severed the arteries that carried life.

  “I…” Windari yelled, as she slammed a foot into Tamesine’s back, crushing her backbone. “Don’t. Want. You!” Finishing the statement, she completed her ugly task.

  Windari snapped Tamesine’s neck, the combination equivalent to a beheading, and it was a final death for even a first blood vampire. Lying on the ground, bleeding out, broken beyond all hope, Tamesine still looked beautiful to Windari.

  “Whore,” she said softly, and used the knife one last time to slice a cross into each of Tamesine’s cheeks before she picked up her body.

  Marc stood transfixed, locked on what he witnessed. An act so horrible, he couldn’t believe it happened. He watched Windari hold Tamesine’s shattered remains in an embrace. Tears streamed suddenly from her eyes.

  “I am so sorry, my sister, my blood. But there is only room for one. I pray you find peace.”

  She pitched the body into a deep hole she’d found earlier in the week.

  The deed was done.

  Marc watched Tamesine’s face as she watched her sister wipe away tears and carefully hike back down off of the cliff where she had murdered Tamesine.

  Then Tamesine fell to her knees, a steady flow of tears falling from her eyes. “That…” she said on a sob, as she tried to mop up her own tears. Her eyes moved to Marc’s, and she saw that he was crying t
oo.

  “That…was what I…I didn’t think I could…watch.”

  “Nothing makes that right. I am so sorry that happened to you, my love. Your sister was sick, you know that?”

  Tamesine was out of words. She nodded, because she did know that Windari was crazy, but it still didn’t salve the pain of having someone you love brutally murder you.

  Was there a way to get over that?

  “Tam,” Marc said gently, his arms supporting her. “How are you still alive? She was certain she’d killed you forever.”

  “She did. But there was something she did not know, something I did not know either. I was pregnant. I was carrying a first blood child, and we have recently discovered that a Shoazan, which is someone who can carry a vampire baby, is pretty much invincible. The baby, the fates, whatever it is, protects the mother, the vessel carrying that child. I survived sure death. Windari did not know that.”

  “What happened then?”

  As if cued, the scene changed again, months later apparently, because a now healthy, and very pregnant, Tamesine lay on a tufted cot, her legs open, and she was screaming.

  “The child,” Tamesine said, standing again, Marc at her side.

  An elderly woman with few teeth was helping with the birth, and she looked between Tamesine’s shaking legs.

  “It is time, lassie. Push, now. Push with all yer might and dinna stop. The bairn is ready,” the woman told her, reaching for a scrap of cloth that was anything but clean.

  Tamesine pushed, screaming, her arms clutching out to the sides but found nothing to hold on to.

  Moments later, a bright pink baby slipped out, and the old woman began wiping it down vigorously with the cloth.

  “She dinna cry, lass, but she looks right to me. Ye’ve a daughter, dearie.”

  Tamesine turned to Marc. “A girl. I had a girl.”

  He looked confused. “You didn’t know?”