Elsbeth cleared her throat of the tears that had gathered there as a reminder of what she had done to him; how she had ruined his life simply by being unable to find the strength to stay away. “Half breeds are not allowed to exist,” she whispered. “They are not always able to control their thirst, and because of this they are looked on in much the same way as wild animals. Uncontrollable, dangerous.”
Thomas whirled around, his face stark with fury. “Then why did your Seethe Mistress allow me to live? If I am such an abomination, why was I not gutted where I stood the moment I stepped into her chamber?”
Elsbeth turned her face away, unable to bear the accusation in his eyes. “She did not choose to share that with me. All I know is that she offered you protection for as long as you chose to live here. But now…”
“She’ll have me killed,” Thomas said flatly. “Slaughtered like a hog by one of her own. Perhaps even by you.” His eyes cooled as she whipped her head back to look at him.
“I would never harm you!” she cried, her voice shrill as panic rose up to grip her throat at the thought of Thomas believing she would ever hurt him intentionally. “I brought you to my home, kept you in seclusion while you healed, hoping that I could help you transition, which you did beautifully. I’ve never seen a full vampire control his thirst as well as you have, never mind a half breed. I brought you to my Mistress so I could show her that, so she could see your potential as a powerful ally, and perhaps even a member of our Seethe.”
“So that is why she asked me about my powers, and subjected me to all those ridiculous tests,” Thomas sneered, his eyes overflowing with accusations as he glared at Elsbeth. “She wanted to assess my strengths and weaknesses so she would face the least amount of resistance when the time came to kill me. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“No!” Even now, with the amount of danger they were in, she felt compelled to protect her Seethe Mistress. “Yes, she wanted to learn of your strengths and weaknesses, but only to find out how you would best be able to serve the Seethe. Half breeds often come with unusual powers, and she wanted to see if you had manifested any because then you might have been invaluable to her. Had your talents not manifested so latently, she would have insisted you become a Seethe member on the spot.”
“So I was just another plaything in her eyes. A shiny bauble for her collection.”
“I only brought you to her for protection.” There was a note of desperation in Elsbeth’s voice as she spread her hands beseechingly. “You have to know that, Thomas. Malachi would have killed you long ago had I secreted you away instead of bringing you to her attention immediately. I wish he had left us alone, to give us more time for you to grow stronger… to come into your powers more fully.”
“And now we are out of time.” Thomas bit out. “Instead of the happily ever we should have gotten, I am now wanted by both sides. If I had to hazard a guess as to my situation, the Lyrians will be out for my blood for killing their members, and your Seethe will be after my head in order to put it on a pike so as to appease the Lyrians and keep the peace treaty from crashing about your pale, bloodless ears. Never mind that I am the wronged party, and that I killed out of self-defense.” He laughed bitterly.
“Thomas.” Elsbeth took a step forward, reaching for him. “I am so sorry.”
“Why didn’t you warn me about any of this? If you had told me sooner about half breeds, about your Mistress’s intentions toward me, about the Lyrian clan, I would have been on guard, ready to expect trouble. Instead you molly-coddled me and allowed me to think I was safe. Instead, I face a death sentence on both sides.” His expression was ice. “And you stand here, perfectly safe, the consequences of your actions having no bearing upon your future.”
“How can you say that?” Elsbeth’s dark eyes shimmered in the candlelight, and Thomas’s heart clenched as a tear slipped down one of her lily-white cheeks. “I have done everything I could to keep you safe, to atone for the mistake I made by allowing myself to get close to you. I’ve exposed myself in ways that you cannot imagine by harboring you in my home, and by choosing to stand by your side instead of stepping aside to allow you to deal with your fate. If I didn’t love you, didn’t care about you, didn’t have your best interests in my heart, do you think I would be telling you all of this now? Don’t you think it would have been much easier to simply hand you over to my Mistress? To keep my house and the protection of my Seethe?”
Elsbeth turned away, unable to bear this conversation anymore, but Thomas stopped her in her tracks with a gentle touch on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said roughly, turning her and pulling her into the warmth of his body. “I’m allowing my anger and helplessness at the situation to cloud my judgment. I have no right to be so selfish, not when you’ve done so much for me. I love you, Elsbeth.”
“I’m sorry, Thomas,” she cried into his chest, her fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as she held him tight. The terrible news she’d given him had swelled his heart with rage, but it was her sobs that broke it, that made him feel like the lowest of men, worse even than Malachi. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen to you. It’s all my fault.”
“Shh,” he soothed, rubbing his hand up and down her back. “It’s all right, Elsbeth. I don’t blame you. It’s my own shortsightedness that led me into Malachi’s trap. If I had listened to you, if I had been more careful, none of this would be happening right now.”
He held her for a long time, burying his face in her hair and inhaling her sweet scent as he allowed her to pour her grief out through her tears. When she had finally stopped trembling, he lifted her chin and kissed her gently.
“It’s time to go now,” he said, pulling away.
She nodded. “Let me get my things.”
He shook his head. “I will go alone. There is no need for you to make an enemy of yourself to the Seethe, and put yourself in all this danger. I am strong enough to fend for myself.”
“After everything I’ve said and done, after everything that has happened, do you really think I could allow you to go off on your own again?” she demanded, and Thomas was taken aback by the fierceness in her tone and eyes. “I have no desire to stay with a Seethe that considers the love of my life to be an enemy.”
Thomas’s heart swelled at her words despite knowing that by refusing to heed his suggestion, she was putting herself in far more danger than she deserved to be in. He opened his mouth, a compelling argument on the tip of his tongue that would make her stay, but all that came out was, “Are you sure?”
She lifted her chin. “I’m coming with you, and nothing you can say or do is going to stop me.”
Thomas lifted a brow. “Do you have an idea of where we should go?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
* * *
They headed out immediately, and Thomas was thankful that tonight was a new moon—it not only meant that the Lyrians would not be at full strength, but it would also provide them more cover, as they would be harder to spot in their dark clothing. They traveled at a dead run with Elsbeth in the lead, knowing they had only but a handful of hours until first light. They stuck to the paths on the outskirts of the forest when they could, and traveled on the dirt road when they couldn’t. Thomas wasn’t sure which was more dangerous—sticking to the forest, where the werewolves lived, or traveling on the open road where anyone could spot them. Elsbeth insisted that they were far from werewolf territory, but Thomas wasn’t sure that guaranteed their safety. From what she had told him, it didn’t seem like the werewolves would wait very long before sending out a manhunt of their own for him.
Elsbeth told him that some miles from here, in mountain country, lived an old vampire named Xander who had served as a mentor to her when she was first turned, before her maker had come to claim her. He had taught her the basics, had introduced her to life as a vampire, and even after she went to live with her maker she still came to him often for advice or simple companionship.
Thomas was leer
y of going to another vampire for help after the way he’d been treated so far by the others. But the way Elsbeth’s face had lit up when she was talking about Xander made him think that perhaps this vampire was different than the others. The feelings he saw in her for this Xander went beyond the respect she had for the Seethe Mistress to affection, perhaps even love.
In any case, Thomas was in no position to refuse the only option that seemed available to them. He had no allies of his own, after all.
They traveled for hours without seeing anyone, but their luck did not hold. Shortly after they’d started one of their forays into the forest, Elsbeth came to a dead stop, and Thomas nearly ran into her.
“What—” he started to ask, but she whirled and clapped a hand over his mouth, her entire body stiff with tension.
“Not a word,” she breathed into his ear, so quietly that he didn’t so much as hear the words as he felt them against the shell of his ear. He became utterly still, just as she had taught him during their many hunting ventures, and as she turned back a slight rustle came to his ears, followed by the sound of a booted foot being carefully placed on the ground. The thick scent of male human wafted on the air towards Thomas’s nostrils, and he had to fight to keep from inhaling sharply through his nose. Despite Elsbeth’s praise of his self-control, Thomas did have his moments. It sickened him whenever he lusted for human blood, but there was nothing to be done. He could only take comfort in the fact that he was still revolted, because if the day ever came where he found it appealing, he would know he was lost.
Another rustle sounded, and then the human stepped from the bushes—a hunter, if the skins he wore and the quiver of arrows on his back were any indication. He held a bow loosely in one hand, half bent over as he studied a set of what Thomas recognized as deer tracks littering the forest floor.
Another scent crept up on him then, and Thomas stiffened—vampire. No, not one vampire. Several. He sorted through the different nuances and counted five. Were they a group?
No.
He lunged forward but Elsbeth caught his arm in an iron grip and dragged him down behind the bushes, where they could see and not be seen. She clamped a hand over his mouth and held him down, and though Thomas struggled with all his might, he could do nothing but watch helplessly as the hunter unwittingly became the hunted.
The vampires materialized out of the shadows—three male and two female— and the hunter straightened, blinking in the dark. “Who are you?” he demanded, nocking an arrow into his bow and pointing it at the nearest vampire.
“Oh, would you look at that,” one of the females tittered, pressing long, curved nails to her lips. “Our food is questioning us. How amusing.”
“Amusing?” the tallest of the males arched a pale brow. “I think not. Silence him, will you?”
“W-what are you all talking about?” the hunter took a step back, his bow steady despite his shaking voice. “Is this a jest?”
“I’m afraid he’s not really the joking type, darling.” The female pouted, her red curls swaying gently in the breeze. “It seems that—OH!”
The redhead stumbled back as an arrow shaft pierced her chest, directly below the collarbone. The other female reached out and steadied her. The hunter nocked another and aimed it at another vampire. “Stay away from me, you monsters!”
“You miserable wretch!” the redhead shrieked. The hunter’s eyes widened as she pulled the arrow from her chest. “You’re mine!”
She fell on him with a snarl of outrage, knocking the bow from his hand and sinking her fangs into his neck. He cried out, and Thomas struggled vainly in Elsbeth’s grip as he watched the man’s face turn stark with pain, and then go slack. The other vampires joined in, each taking a different body part and finding a vein to pierce. Thomas shut his eyes, unable to bear watching—it was bad enough to watch one vampire feast, but this, this was obscene. Almost like an orgy.
Eventually, he heard the rustle of clothing as the five got to their feet. “Time to find our next meal of the night,” one of the males remarked. “And this time, Minerva, you’d be wise to not show mercy unless you’d like another hole in your chest.”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it,” Minerva said, her voice venomously sweet. Thomas heard a very slight whisper that he knew meant they’d returned to the shadows, and were even now flitting from tree to tree, looking for their next victim.
Only when the sounds faded completely did Elsbeth release him. Thomas sprang up as soon as he was free and dashed onto the small path, dropping to his knees beside the lifeless body. His heart clenched with grief and pity for the man, whose eyes stared sightlessly up at the dark canopy of leaves, his pale body riddled with fang punctures in various places. Thomas gripped one of his wrists, searching for a pulse, but he knew it was hopeless. The vampires wouldn’t have left until he was drained.
“Why, Elsbeth?” he choked, forcing the words past the knot of tears and rage in his throat. “Why did you make us sit back and do nothing?”
Elsbeth laid a hand on his shoulder. “You know why,” she said softly, and he could hear the aching sadness in his voice. “They would have slaughtered us all.”
Thomas bit back the slew of bitter words sitting on his tongue and swallowed them like a foul-tasting medicine. There was no point in arguing—Elsbeth was right. Throwing their lives away was pointless, especially for a man they’d never even seen before. Still, as Thomas reached over to close his eyelids, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man. He’d been a true innocent, just trying to live his life.
Like he once had been.
“I’m going to bury him.” He slid his arms underneath the body and prepared to lift it.
Elsbeth tightened her grip on his shoulder. “He’s been drained. If you bury him, he will rise tomorrow night as a newborn.”
Thomas froze. He’d forgotten. “And if I leave him out here on the forest floor?”
“His body will be incinerated by first light.”
Thomas laughed bitterly. “So, he either rises from the grave tomorrow, cursed to drink human blood and never see his family again, or all traces of his body are erased from the Earth so that his family has nothing to bury. His choices are no better than mine.” He closed his eyes a moment and said a prayer for the dead hunter. “I suppose I will just have to leave him here. At least this way he will be able to go to the afterlife, instead of being forced to live a life forced on him by monsters.”
He stood and turned to face Elsbeth, then felt his heart twist with guilt at the stricken expression on her face. “I’m not blaming you,” he said gently, cupping her cheek in his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. But until the day comes when you and I will be able to live in peace together, I’m not sure I’ll be able to let go of the bitterness.”
She nodded, and turned her face into his palm so she could press a kiss against his skin. “I know.”
They stood there for a long while, the moment oddly tender despite the dead body lying mere inches from them, and then moved on.
As they ate up the miles, the terrain changed, so that they were running over flat lands, skirting open villages, the mountains looming directly ahead. Soon they were at the base of the foothills, dashing over rocky terrain, and the air became thinner and colder as they trekked up the mountainside, which was lushly covered in its own woods. Thomas wanted to slow, the combination of the long journey and the thinning air sapping his stamina, but he knew from the tingling in his bones that they had less than an hour until first light, and that for Elsbeth’s sake they couldn’t afford to dawdle.
Just as Thomas was beginning to worry, the forest suddenly parted, revealing a wooden cabin perched on a rocky outcropping near a waterfall. It resembled nothing less than an oasis to the sore-footed Thomas, who dashed straight for the front door.
Elsbeth managed to put herself between Thomas and the house and shot him a warning glance. “Xander doesn’t always take kindly to strangers knocking, especially not so close
to dawn,” she explained to him before turning and lifting her fist to knock.
The door swung open to reveal a tall, powerfully built man wearing vermillion robes. His dark hair was slicked back from his face, his mustache and long, thin beard perfectly trimmed, and his eyes were a piercing blue as they locked on Thomas briefly, then Elsbeth. “Xander also doesn’t appreciate people talking about him as though he couldn’t hear every word.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” Elsbeth cried, throwing her arms around him. She then jumped back hastily, realizing that she might be acting a touch too exuberant since she hadn’t seen Xander in such a long time. “This is Thomas, my… friend. We are in grave danger and are in need of assistance.”
Xander arched a black brow, his laser eyes wandering over to Thomas, who resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. “He doesn’t look like much,” he remarked gruffly, “but my life has been boring of late and I can always use a good tale, at the very least.”
He stepped back and waved one of his arms, the wide sleeves swinging. “Come on in, quickly now, before the sun gets up and we are all roasted to death.”
CHAPTER 8
Amelia rose from her chair as Khan was admitted to the room with his entourage, not necessarily as a show of deference but because sitting when a potential threat entered the room put one at a physical disadvantage. When one was dealing with werewolves, it was not a wise decision to make yourself smaller than they if you were trying to establish yourself as an equal, if not a superior.
Amelia wasn’t certain if the latter was a wise option, but she did not intend to be less than the former.
Darkest Hour (New Adult Paranormal Romance) Page 6
