Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

  She was trailing her fingers along Michael’s shoulders, looking William over like she was a starving animal while speaking to me.

  “Quite generous of them don’t you think?”

  There was a pitiful whimpering coming from one of the back bedrooms, it must be from the family whose house this was and from whom she had obviously just fed.

  “Yes,” I said clearing my throat remembering that I needed to fit in, “very generous.”

  “William, how I missed you. It has certainly been too long.”

  The woman came over to William. She was just a few inches shorter than his 6’2” and was incredibly slender. Standing before William she was the perfect height to lean over and kiss him which she tried to do, except he turned away at the last moment giving her his cheek.

  “Monica, I don’t believe you’ve met Gloria yet.”

  She turned giving me an icy glare, “So, this little thing has stolen you away from me?”

  “I don’t remember him ever being yours to steal,” Ana chimed in.

  Michael let out a huge bark of laughter. He had gone back to relax on the couch. “You certainly have a way of making new friends don’t you Gloria.”

  “It would certainly appear that way.”

  I started making my way to the couch opposite of Michael. At least he seemed easier to deal with than Monica.

  “I don’t like this, Michael. How do we know we can trust her? Let me compel her to find out if she had anything to do with Nathaniel’s death.”

  “No, Bastian said they’re on our side, I trust him. Victoria was there; don’t you think she would tell us if it was Gloria that had anything to do with it?”

  I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she couldn’t compel me, but I didn’t want to have to start lying, at least not this early in the game. I was about to step further into the living room when Monica put her hand on my shoulder turning me around to face her. Before I even had a chance to realize what she was doing, I could feel pressure banging on the walls of my psyche.

  “Were you there the night Nathaniel was killed? Do you know who killed him?”

  She pushed the force of her will into me. She must be incredibly old because it’s the only time I was tempted to answer anyone who tried to compel me. I fought against the strain and pushed back at her.

  “The next time you want to know something just ask, but if you’re going to try to compel me you’ll have to do a better job than that.”

  I shook her arm off my shoulder and turned back finally making my way into the living room. Victoria was standing in the corner of the room with a completely expressionless appearance, watching the entire interaction play out before her.

  Behind me I heard Michael yell, “Stop!” I turned just in time to see Monica reaching for me once again. Michael tore across the room at lightning speed taking hold of Monica’s arm ripping it completely out of the socket with a bone crunching snap. He stood over her as she collapsed to her knees clutching her empty shoulder joint in utter agony. Blood was pouring from the gaping hole onto the carpet making a pool of blood surrounding her.

  Michael leaned over Monica his face contorted in rage, “I told you not to compel her and I said I trusted them.”

  He waved her severed arm at her the way an angry owner would wave a stick at a dog. He looked at what he held in his hand and threw it across the room to land in the corner.

  “Should there be a next time, I will tear all your limbs from you a piece at a time, and throw them into the fire until they burn to ash. There will be no reattaching them. There will be no disobeying me. Is that understood?”

  “Y-yes, Master,” she wept at his feet.

  “Is that understood?” Michael yelled into the room. Every vampire that had been there with him previously yelled out at once that they too understood.

  Michael turned to me where I stood frozen with fear as Monica crawled across the floor to retrieve her torn arm. He came over taking both my hands in his smearing Monica’s blood on them as he did it.

  “Are you okay?”

  I glanced over at Monica trying to reattach her arm to her body. She held it to her empty socket as it appeared to stitch itself back together. “Me? I’m fine, that wasn’t . . . umm necessary, really.”

  “But, it was. I don’t tolerate betrayal or insubordination from anyone.”

  “I see--well thanks, I guess. I suppose it’s a good thing that Bastian vouched for me then?” I laughed a little wearily at my bad attempt at humor.

  “It’s a very good thing.”

  “Michael,” William came over taking my waist and leading me to the couch, “why haven’t you returned any of my calls? Things have been in a bit of an uproar since Nathaniel, and it would have been nice to hear from you. A little reassurance that whoever killed him didn’t get to you as well.”

  William cut straight to it didn’t he. I was starting to think it would be a great idea to not piss this guy off any further.

  “Yes,” Ana cut in, “we had to go all the way to New York to find out what was going on. Would you care to fill us in or is Chicago completely ready to go?”

  Oh sweet Lord they are both going to get us killed.

  “Well you two seem just a little bit angry tonight. I have my reasons for keeping quiet, and you’re here now right. Isn’t that all that matters? Besides you apparently are friends with the one person in Chicago I need on my side, so that makes you my new best friends as well.”

  “If you aren’t going to keep us in the loop that means you don’t value what we have to contribute. If that’s the case, Michael, let us know now and we’ll find another city to go work with. Just keep in mind that if we go my child goes with us,” Ana said putting her hand on my shoulder from behind the couch.

  “Your?” Michael looked from me to Ana and back again with a slightly baffled look to his face, “but why aren’t you . . .” obviously meaning with her instead of William.

  “It is none of your damn business the Coven, however, is. Tell us what is going on or we all leave now.”

  Michael gave each of us a hard look appearing to think inwardly about what he was going to do. Before he finally spoke he shot a meaningful look to Victoria, still standing in the corner, who nodded yes.

  “Alright, we have some inside people at the Council. They’ve let us know that the Council is starting to send in covert agents to infiltrate us. They want to discover our plans in an attempt to sabotage them. We haven’t been able to discover any names yet, but we are working on it.”

  “That’s crazy, the Council isn’t that smart,” William scoffed.

  “Well, I thought the same thing until Nathaniel was killed, then I had my doubts. As a matter of fact it isn’t that crazy, considering I have a double agent of my own, working for me supplying the information. Who’s to say that the Council can’t do the same?”

  “So, that’s why you were avoiding us? You thought we were Council spies?”

  “Not you specifically, I went off-line from everyone. If you found your way back to me you have to have a real connection, not a storyline fed by the Council.

  Shows how much he really knows, the idiot.

  “Makes sense, so who’s your inside man at the council?” William asked.

  “Sorry, friend, can’t tell you. I can’t risk that information leaking to anyone.”

  “Hey, don’t worry about it; no offense taken,” William told him with a congenial smile as his hand tightened slightly around mine.

  If Michael was telling the truth then someone at the Council, who knew about Sub-Rosa, was betraying them. If he truly was the only one who knew who the traitor was; then I was the only one who could find out the truth. This meant I was going to have to get very close to him to do that. I would have to subtly compel him bits at a time for it to go unnoticed by him. The only way I could compel him, and be completely sure that others didn’t notice it was to be alone with him. It would be incredibly dangerous for me to do it, but even more so f
or the traitor to remain unknown.

  What in the world were we going to do?

  And was the traitor someone we already knew?

  I had so many questions running through my mind that I couldn’t concentrate on the rest of the night; luckily, it seemed to be pretty non-eventful compared to the first half. William didn’t say much either and just sat by my side nodding at the right time, and saying the obligatory, “yes, sure, no problem.” The four of us eventually began to leave with plans to meet up again in the next few nights. I couldn’t help but feel a huge amount of relief as we neared the door upon our exit. Ana and Victoria had just walked out leaving William and I inside.

  “Gloria?” Michael called after me halting my escape.

  “Yes?” I turned halfway around to face him, not really sure what I would find.

  I was partially expecting to see the monster with his face twisted in a maniacal rage, blood still spattered across his cheeks. Instead I saw the deceiving brown eyes of a man who looked ready to feed the homeless, a man whose full soft lips looked like they could send you to oblivion and beyond. This was the seductive face of an angel that had undoubtedly caused countless women to fall, at least the women who hadn’t seen the demon inside. Michael took several long strides over to me, and gently ran his fingertips along the side on my face. He had a lot of nerve to be doing this with William standing by my side.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that tonight, that isn’t how I normally behave, but she must understand that I protect those I trust. And I trust you.” He lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles once again. “Have a good night; I’ll see you again soon.”

  I didn’t say anything in return and William nudged me out the door and to his bike where we quickly jumped on and sped down the interstate. He was quickly and easily topping speeds over 120 mph and taking corners sharply. I could feel the anger radiating off him like it was heat from a stove. I didn’t know what to say to get him to slow down, to have him stop so we could talk. I just held onto him tighter and pressed my cheek into his back knowing that he would eventually take us home.

  We got there a little over an hour later, but William’s anger hadn’t abated any, if anything it seemed to be worse. We pulled into the drive of the house and Ana and Victoria were standing outside apparently waiting for us. William skidded to a stop and I jumped off the bike and came around to look at William. His eyes were completely blackened over, his fangs were fully revealed at length and he had a feral look to him. He was gripping the throttle of the bike so firmly I could hear it bending. His eyes didn’t seem to be focused on anything.

  “William? Are you okay?”

  He still wouldn’t look at me; he tightened his grip at the sound of my voice snapping the throttle completely off the bike, and tossing it on the ground.

  “You are not going back there. You will not be going near him again.” His voice was so guttural that it sounded nothing like him, he sounded like an animal that had suddenly found its voice.

  “William, look at me. What’s going on?”

  Ana started walking slowly towards us and came to stand next to me. She shot her eyes to Victoria who did the same. They were each standing on either side of me and slowly began lowering their fangs, who did they think they needed to protect me from? William?

  “What’s going on? Someone talk to me!”

  “In William’s mind you belong to him, you’re his. Another vampire challenged that tonight and you didn’t do anything to say otherwise. It would appear that he’s a little upset about it at the moment. We should just let him kill you and make all our lives a little easier,” Victoria answered me in that snotty way of hers.

  “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything tonight.”

  William jumped off the bike and stormed into the garage leaving me standing outside with Ana and Victoria. He wouldn’t even look at me. I could hear things being thrown around and metal scraping across metal from inside the garage.

  “Really? Then how come you smell like another vampire,” she said leaning in and smelling my cheek where Michael brushed his fingers along it, “and you taste like one,” she said running her tongue along my knuckles where he kissed me, “and you committed the greatest sin a vampire can commit . . .” she started saying, but was interrupted as the Range Rover went flying through the roof of the garage landing just feet away from us in the grass. William came out of the garage not bothering to open the door, but knocking it down as he came through it.

  “You let another taste your blood!” William finished for Victoria screaming it into the night air. He looked half-mad; his hands were in angry fists, he was breathing in heavy pants, his eyes were wide open and in a blackened rage, his fangs long and sharp. His anger and hurt didn’t detract from his beauty, however, and I saw the full extent of how much he loved me coming through. If I could only keep him from killing me first.

  “William,” I held up my hands in front of me in a placating gesture and slowly started to walk toward him. Ana put her hand on my shoulder and slowly shook her head no, but I went anyways.

  “I didn’t know. I was trying not to blow our cover. I’m sorry, I didn’t know! After what he did to Monica I was scared to death. I couldn’t have said or done anything after that. I love you William, what would you have had me say to him? Anything I could have said would have pissed him off and instead of him going after Monica it would have been me, is that worth the price of your pride?”

  This seemed to wake him up and he slowly pulled in his fangs as he looked me over. I was scared I was a mess, but he certainly looked worse off than I did. His eyes shifted back to their gorgeous deep brown and he looked at me with the full depth of his love.

  “You could have stopped him.”

  “Yes, and I could have ruined everything. I thought you were more secure than that.”

  I cocked a seductive smile at him, “You know, I can think of one way to get his scent off of me.” I turned and started to make my way into the house without waiting for a reply. It didn’t take long for him to catch up to me, and we both made a run for my over-sized shower.

  As the water for the shower was running, William and I were shedding our clothes, he pulled me into him for a long sensuous kiss. I didn’t want it to end; it felt so right being in his arms. I didn’t want him to feel challenged by Michael.

  “William, about tonight . . .”

  “Let’s forget about it, I’m sorry for reacting the way I did.”

  “No, it’s just that he took that drop of blood from me. I didn’t give it to him. Ana also took my blood from me. You are the only one I have ever freely given my blood to; I want you to realize that means something to me. I love you, and that isn’t going to change.”

  “I love you too,” he said leaning down to plant kisses down the column of my neck.

  He ran his tongue back up it eliciting shivers from me that I felt all the way to the center of my being. I turned my head granting him better access, and whispered into the steamy air from the shower, “Do it, I give it to you.”

  He placed one last gentle kiss on my neck before sinking in his fangs, and drinking of my blood freely given.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I woke to the smell of a campfire, which didn’t make sense because I was in my bed wrapped in my blanket. William was gone from my side, which didn’t make sense either considering we had gone to bed together last night. I was really hoping he wasn’t off being jealous again. If he was it was so getting old. I headed downstairs, not bothering to change out of my pajamas to find out what was going on.

  I found William, Ana and Victoria in the kitchen all standing around looking tense. The smell of burning embers was even stronger the further into the house I got. As I rounded the corner and was able to see the entire kitchen I found Christian sitting at the table leaning over with his head in his hands. I was suddenly filled with alarm at the sight of him looking so distraught.

  “What is it? What’s happened?”

&nb
sp; My eyes began a roving inspection of him to see if he was injured.

  “Are you hurt?” I began patting him down looking for any injuries I couldn’t see.

  “Stop it! I’m fine,” he yelled at me pushing my hands off him stopping my futile attempt to figure out what was going on.

  “It’s you that I should be inspecting for injuries not the other way around,” Christian hastily stood and began pacing the kitchen as he seemed to just be gearing up for his tirade. “Do you have any clue what was going on down here while you slept? Why didn’t you tell me the truth about what I’m really protecting you from? And if Victoria is one of the good guys why did you attack her last night?--you could have killed her!”

  Christian stopped abruptly and touched the small barely discernible scar on Victoria’s breast bone; it wouldn’t even be visible in the next hour. He obviously felt very comfortable touching her and it had my mother’s instincts on full alert.

  “How do you know she didn’t already have that scar Christian?” I asked him cocking my head to the side. “And for a 16-year-old kid that’s an awfully intimate place for you to be touching, don’t you think?”

  “I am not a kid, I turn 17 next week. If I can save your life, all of your lives, then you should at least be willing to admit that I am no longer your little boy. And I know she doesn’t have a scar there because I have seen it before—all of it.”

  William, Ana and Victoria all took a small step backward. I was sure I heard an ‘oh shit’ come from one of them, but right then I couldn’t say from who. Christian, however, held true to form and was not going to back down.

  I stayed where I was unmoving turning only my head to look at Victoria. I don’t know what all she and Christian had done together, and I didn’t want to, but it was apparently more than a goodnight kiss. I still hadn’t uttered a sound, just stared into her eyes as I struggled inwardly not to tear her to shreds for corrupting my son. Tie into that the vampire drive to protect and kill—I was honestly amazed she was still standing. I’m pretty sure she realized it along with everyone else in the room because no one moved or said another word. The only thing I could hear as I tried to calm my overreacting instincts was Christian’s heartbeat increasing the longer I stood there staring at Victoria.