Turn: The Kresova Vampire Harems: Aurora

by Graceley Knox

  Fae.

  “You will tell me where it is.”

  “I will not.”

  She nods her head, and the vampire pulls one of the woman’s arms up in back of her body and the woman screams.

  “I can have him rip your arm off, you know.” Morana drawls the words slowly.

  “Do it, you foul creation. I won’t do one thing to add to your power.”

  The male vampire twists the woman’s arm again, and it looks as if he would twist it out of her socket. But an older woman with the same red hair and green eyes steps from the darkness.

  She throws a metal thing, a ring, at Morana’s feet.

  “Take it, and go,” the older woman says.

  ‘Mother, no!” screams the woman. “We’re supposed to be its guardians.”

  “Sush child. The Ring of Brigit will do her little good, eventually.”

  “It will protect me,” Morana argues. In her greed, she rushes to pick up the ring and puts it on her finger.

  “Yes, the Fae, the Aeos Si smiths who forged this ring wrought in it the power to protect, to confound enemies, and to shroud intentions. But it was intended for the pure of heart, which you are not. One day a person pure of heart will take it from you and the ring will work against you.”

  “You are a foolish half-Fae who doesn’t understand objects of power. It is a thing, nothing more. It cannot make choices on who to serve.” Morgana smiled her evil smile and made a purring sound from her throat. “I feel its power even now.”

  “Come on, Anna,” said the woman. “We are leaving now.”

  “No, you are not,” Morana sneers.

  “I beg your leave.” The older woman grabs hold of her daughter and pitches a small glass bottle from her hand. I cover my face as an explosion rocks the cave.

  I blink my eyes open, landing back into the here and now and welcoming arms breaking my fall.

  “Aura!” Lucian shouts my name and I look up into his concerned face. Around us Reina, Row and Lil’ Pattie stare at me.

  “Are you okay? We couldn’t shake you out of that trance, or whatever it was.” Reina bites her lip, her fear palpable as she looks me over from head to toe.

  “I’m more than okay,” I say, smiling. “I know how to weaken Morana’s power.”

  Chapter 2

  Lucian clicks his cell phone off with a grimace. “I can’t go.”

  “What?”

  “That was Erica. She wants to tell the family about our broken engagement. There’s a party in a couple of days, and she wants me there so we can present a united front.”

  “Does this have to be now?” I almost whine because I can’t face what I will do next without Carver, or him, by my side.

  “Someone started rumors about her and her research assistant. She needs to get it cleared up before he ends up on the wrong end of someone’s fangs.”

  My stomach churns uneasily. I don’t want to be the cause of someone’s death for my selfishness, but what we plan to do is uncharted waters for me. Lil’ Patti helped by tracking down the name of the person who sent Mama Lisette the hexed Tarot card and let us know who it was. When I asked yesterday how she did that, Lil’ Patti grinned a wide, yellow smile.

  “You dona wanna know, Dria,” she cackled. “It involved chicken entrails.”

  I’m a vampire and drink blood, but Lil’ Patti picking through a soup of chicken guts for her answers skeeves me out.

  “You’re right,” I admit despite my own fears.

  But we all decide to follow up on this lead, even if Lucian can’t be with us. We need to find out if the person who sent the Tarot card has information on how to find the ring, and then how to destroy it.

  Just call me Frodo, bitches.

  Now, Row is on the phone checking on the limo that’s taking us to the airport. It skewers me that Lucian is not making this trip with us.

  Not that it’s his fault. Both of their conservative families insisted on the match, and Lucian and Erica are old enough as vampires to live in times when arranged marriages were the thing. When Lucian and I met and found our fates intertwined, it caused a huge problem.

  If he tries to get out of the engagement, it would mean a bloody family feud.

  And since no one does bloody like vampires, Lucian had kept avoiding me until he’d been forced to step up as my protector. And with Carver MIA and from the visions I had, imprisoned by that bitch Morana, I need Lucian by my side.

  Lucian takes my hand and pulls me close, hugging me tight to his chest. His erection pressing into my hip also speaks volumes.

  “Seems as though you’ll miss me,” I wink up at him. “And when I get back, we will have a long talk about priorities.”

  “When you get back, you will be my priority,” he kisses my forehead. “No discussion needed.”

  “That’s what I like to hear,” I whisper the words in his ear and trace my tongue over the outer shell. I am hungry in all ways for Lucian.

  “Hey!” Reina bounces into my bedroom, interrupting us unapologetically.

  “They have a thing now, Reina. It’s called a knock, and it’s applied to the door to announce your presence.”

  Reina smiles at me wickedly and steps back to knock on the door.

  “Hi! The limo is here. Time to get rolling. Lift off in, oh, three hours. Chop. Chop.” She claps her hands and makes a shooing motion at Lucian.

  “We have a few minutes.” He runs a hand down my neck calling forth a long path of goosebumps, “You’re taking one of my company jets.”

  I’m almost tempted to give in and have Reina excuse us, but she jumps head first into our conversation.

  “Dude, I don’t care.” Reina leans onto her hip, “Row explained flight windows, and by the time we get to the airport and through Customs we’ll be cutting it short. I’m surprised you rich people don’t have better ways to get in and out of the country.”

  “We do,” Lucian drops a peck to my cheek, resigning himself to the fact that our goodbye will be a tame one. “We call them private airports, but there isn’t one around to accommodate this size jet.” He raises a brow at her, “And we are taking this type of jet why exactly Reina?”

  Reina huffs. “Because we are pretending to be the crew for a corporate shipment to fly under Morana’s radar.”

  “That’s right,” says Lucian. He snaps into business mode with surprising swiftness.

  “Just what are we shipping?” I ask curiously.

  “Poodles.” Lucian retorts with a straight face.

  I snicker. “Stop.” I laugh harder when his expression doesn’t change. “Poodles?”

  “No, I’m serious. The plane will transport several champion poodles to overseas breeders.”

  “He’s forgetting,” says Row coming to the door, “The Irish Setters and Wolfhounds that are making the flight too. Which is why the plane is stopping in Ireland.”

  “There is money in shipping dogs?”

  “I do it for my investors. Many of them enjoy the breeding game.”

  “Ah, an added value investment banker,” I drawl seductively.

  Reina claps her hands again. “No time for temptation. Let’s go.”

  “When did you become my mother?”

  “When you became an immortal sex queen. Someone has to look out for your best interests.”

  “I am not a sex queen,” I protest.

  “Says the woman with two lovers and on the hunt for the third.”

  “I’m supposed to have a harem.” I pout at her dramatically.

  “Don’t think I’m not keeping a harem book.”

  “A what now?”

  Lucian laughs. “I think you’ll get frustrated in that endeavor quickly, Reina. It will be hard to keep up with us when we all get together.”

  “Hard?” I wiggle my brows.

  “Difficult.” He says with a wince as he grabs the handles of my luggage. Reina reaches for Lucian’s.

  “Leave it. I can’t go with you.”

  “What?”
Reina looks between us, confusion written on her face.

  “He and the ex-fiancé have to straighten the score with their families before they skewer her human lover.”

  “Oh! I want a front row seat!”

  “Don’t we all, but you aren’t deserting me a second time. It’s Ireland or bust.”

  “Damn it. You ruin all the fun.”

  Lil’ Patti, with an uncanny sense of supernatural timing, stands on the sidewalk outside of the apartment building, waiting for us.

  Reina leans in to whisper, “Dude. Anyone else freaked out that she shows up just as were leaving?”

  I shush her and follow the walkway until I’m standing a few feet from her. “Yes, Lil’ Patti?” I’m learning to respect all voodoo priestesses big time, but Lil’ Patti seems a cut above.

  “This man you are seeking is a fallen Aeos, a fallen god.”

  “You didn’t know this before?”

  “It took me some time to reach through his veils. He’s very powerful, Dria, and can get furious. Look!” She lifts her right hand to reveal it wrapped in a bandage. “Burnt my skin, he did, from thousands of miles away just because I looked at him. Be extremely careful.”

  Lucian stands behind me, and I look over my shoulder to gauge his reaction. He’s stone-faced most times, but I’m learning to read past this. His eyes are lined with concern.

  “Don’t worry, Lucian. I’ve got this. I have to. Carver depends on me.”

  “Aura, keep a tight lid on your emotions when you meet this Aeos. Ancients like these amplify an opponent’s emotions to use them as a weapon.” He stares at me pointedly, and I turn my head away. I’ve been skidding all over the track since I lost Carver, between anxiety and rage with few happy places in between.

  “I understand, emotions in check, sir.”

  The trunk of the limo thuds shut, and I look to see the luggage nowhere in sight. Row now stands at the limo door waiting for us to get in. Damn, that vamp was fast.

  “If I can only get you to say ‘sir’ in the bedroom.” Lucian winks and gives me a quick kiss.

  “Geez,” Reina says as she and Row climb into the limo. “Get a room—later. Let’s go, oh mighty, sex queen.”

  “Call me if you need anything,” Lucian says as he releases me from his arms.

  “I will.” I climb into the limo, waving at him as I do.

  Reina pulls the door shut and signals the driver to pull away from the curb.

  “I don’t know when you are more ridiculous. When you’re with Carver or Lucian?” She taps a finger on her lips, pretending to ponder the question seriously.

  “Jealous, bitch?”

  “Naw,” she replies as she snuggles under Row’s arm. “I’m human. This guy wears me out plenty.”

  “Ew! TMI.”

  “I can’t imagine two or three vampire lovers. Talk about all night loving.”

  “Ssh,” Row chuckles as he kisses the top of her head. “As you know, vampire passions run deep. You can’t fault her for them.”

  “I suppose not.” She sighs dramatically and then they smooch, totally oblivious to my presence.

  I stare out the window and watch New York dissolve into long highways that bring us to the airport. Because it is a private plane, we avoid the crush of people flying commercial, but we still have to stand for inspection by Customs. I’m amazed when the Customs officer comes to the plane, but Row wears a bored expression as if he’s done this hundreds of times.

  The man looks at our passports, stamps them and tells us we can board the plane. Then he disappears into the cargo portion, and we wait for the all clear. Row paces and looks at his watch.

  “Is there a problem?” I ask, not sure why he’s so agitated.

  “The inspection should be finished by now.”

  Row walks into to the pilot’s cabin, and then comes back a couple of minutes later less tense. “The pilot says they take extra time with animal shipments because people try to smuggle exotic animals.”

  We are all aware that every minute we stay in one place we suffer a greater risk of attack from one of Morana’s agents. My gut tightens to think one or more of her La Tieur, her assassins, could be tracking us. I also worry for Lucian, separated from us and walking into a potential family disaster. One need not be a vampire assassin to wreak death and destruction. An ordinary vampire would do, especially if you are a vampire from a family as old as Lucian’s and his ex-fiancée’s.

  I wonder what Lucian’s family will think of me when we meet. How will they feel when they find their son is one of three lovers of prophesied vampire queen? I can imagine the tight faces and the uneasy smiles. Things can get weird in the vamp life, but this vampire queen with a fated harem seems to be on the fringes even for vampires.

  The whine of hydraulics reverberates through the large jet, and I take it as a good sign. Row relaxes further too and goes to check out the bar at the back of the cabin. He then opens the door there, smiles and beckons Reina to check out that cabin with him.

  This cabin is larger than my old living room, and the seats are all leather and recline. It is a level of luxury I am not accustomed to and something I’d like to enjoy with the men important to me. But neither of them are here.

  Reina and Row are making unmistakable noises of passion, and I sit miserably by myself as the plane picks up speed as it rattles and shakes when it lifts off. It climbs higher, and I look down on the ground below as it recedes and ceases to be a place of people moving from place to place.

  Now it is a fixed background of green and dots for houses and moving trucks. I am as removed from earth now as I am from being human. For the first time, it strikes me how utterly alone and foreign I am in the world to which I was born.

  Chapter 3

  Row is grim as we drive to the final address we tracked down for the Aeos that sent the spell-casted Tarot card to Mama Lisette.

  We’ve wasted three days here in Ireland trying to find the Aeos. The wily fallen god had delivered the hexed card through a chain of a people before it left the Emerald Isle and he’d certainly led us on a merry fucking chase. We ended up in Kivanra Cinn Mhara, a charming village on the coast of southwest Ireland, and damn if I didn’t want to spend time exploring it. But we had no time because we were on a mission and the devil, or at least the La Tieur, are on our heels.

  The last person we’d contacted refused to confirm the name we sussed out to this point, Leander.

  Just, Leander. No last name. How very Cher of him.

  The man before me, Seamus McLachlan, was the last person in possession of the card before the Aeos. He scowls at my question.

  “Why should I tell ‘ya, lass. That one is trouble all around, and you best stay away.”

  “I wouldn’t come all the way from America if it wasn’t important. Lives are on the line.”

  Seamus scoffs and retreats into his cottage. I look to Reina, “Now what?”

  “Let me try.” Reina pushes through the door and talks to the old man. Minutes later she exits waving a piece of paper triumphantly before Row scowls at her.

  “How exactly did you get that?”

  “Oh for crying out loud,” Reina throws her head back, “I didn’t have enough time blow him for it , Row, if that’s what you’re implying. You should know that better than anyone.”

  “What did he say?” I ask.

  “Do a good deed,” she grouses as we get back into the car.

  “I’m not so sure about this.” Row frowns. “Everyone we’ve talked to has been skittish, afraid even, of this Aeos. He's dangerous. Remember Lil’ Patti’s hand?”

  “I think you’re right. We should drop Reina off at the guest house first.”

  “Oh no you don’t, bitch! You are not leaving me behind.”

  “And I won’t leave her unguarded.” Row adds.

  “Fine,” I huff. “We’ll all go.”

  The countryside in Ireland seems barren punctuated with large stretches of lonely land tufted with wild green grasses
bound by long stones walls that go everywhere and nowhere. When we pull up to the GPS’d address we obtained, we find a broken down church staring out over the sea. The atmosphere is sad and desolate as if anything that lived here held on to the edge of life. Barely.

  Reina shivers as the wind whips through us, mirroring my feelings. Who would live in this place?

  A peeved-as-hell fallen god who lost everything, apparently.

  “You stay here,” I point at Reina.

  “No way, girlfriend. I told you. I go where you go.”

  I shake my head. This is not negotiable. “No. Whatever he or she is, this Aeos has shown us it’s dangerous. And Row, stay with her.”

  “No,” says Row stubbornly.

  “Look, take care of my best friend, or, or I’ll—” What threat I could make that didn’t make me seem like an idiot?

  Row shakes his head, and I can't tell if I ticked him off or made him laugh secretly. He did, however, pull out a plain paper bag with something long and heavy in it.

  “You can’t approach an old being without an offering,” he explains.

  “Is that where you went when we checked in to the guest house?” Reina asks.

  “Yes. I thought it was best to prepare for the encounter.”

  I reach in and draw out a bottle of Jameson whiskey. Reina whistles in appreciation.“That’s a five hundred dollar bottle.”

  “Yes. It was the most expensive bottle the village shop had. I hope it will do. It’s a pity they didn’t have a bottle of Teeling.”

  “What’s that?” She stares at Row with a new appreciation, as if he was the most sophisticated man she’s ever met.

  “A whiskey that sells for about eighteen hundred dollars a pop.”

  “A five hundred dollar bottle darn well better do.” I say, “Well, here goes nothing.”

  “Aura,” Row holds out a hand, stopping me in my tracks.