by Marie Dry
“At least it’s over quickly,” she said.
“Full vampires take longer. I do not need blood to survive, I can take it to track you, or if I need a sudden infusion of strength.” He hesitated. “Vampires spend their whole lives controlling their thirst. The movies doesn’t come close to showing the terrible thirst vampires have to control daily.”
“I can’t imagine living like that,” she said.
“Not draining their prey is a matter of pride to them. Unlike in the movies, vampires who take blood and leave their victims dead are considered not worthy of the name vampire. Those that fail to control their bloodlust are condemned and ostracized for it.”
“That’s not how I thought vampire society would be.”
“In vampire culture, drinking a human dry is considered a sign of being base born. The only being they consider lower is a half pint.”
“They’re idiots if they won’t accept you,” she said and kissed his chest.
He gathered her against him, her back against his front, his arms securely around her. “Go to sleep, Sabrina, even if it’s just for an hour or so. I’ll hold you safe.”
She was sleepy, and she did feel safe with his arms securely around her. “This doesn’t mean I forgive you. I still hate you.” They both knew it was a lie. He’d planted his compulsion so deep in her mind that she’d go to her grave loving him.
“I know,” he said quietly.
Sabrina woke, feeling groggy, to see the sun going down. It had been a strange day, taking Mikaela to the gargoyles, visiting werewolves, and making love with the husband who was not her husband. The husband who wasn’t in bed anymore. She sat up, half afraid he’d abandoned her to handle all the weirdness alone. He stood in the doorway, scrolling down the screen of his phone with his thumb.
“Get ready, we have a dinner to attend,” he said quietly.
She briefly closed her eyes. “Another victim?”
“The daughter of our hosts has been acting strange.”
“Why do they all fixate on you? It doesn’t make sense, not if they are as dead inside as you said.”
“I have ancient blood. I suspect it calls to them after they’ve been in contact with the drogge.” He frowned at the phone and straightened. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
With a sigh, she got up, bathed, dressed, and did her hair and make-up.
His face tightened when he saw her struggling down the stairs. He appeared next to her and then she felt that rushing sensation and they stood outside next to the car. He paused and scanned the street before walking to the car and depositing her inside. She’d noticed him constantly scanning their environment lately.
“No Samuel tonight?”
“He’s investigating something for me.”
When they arrived at the door of their hosts, Sabrina drew back her shoulders and lifted her chin. She clenched her hands and prepared to face the pitying faces.
“If they think I’m chasing women and not valuing you, you will be safer,” he said.
She nodded.
He stepped closer to her and, taking her hand gently in his, placed it on his arm. They were greeted at the door by their hosts. When the daughter honed in on Mark, Sabrina moved away and searched for a quiet spot.
After dinner she made her excuses, pretending to go to the ladies room. She smiled at the people she passed, ignoring the pitying glances sent her way. Word had travel fast about the way Mark acted.
She found a small sitting room and sank down in one of the chairs. She’d have preferred to find a spot on the veranda, but Mark had said it would be too easy for their enemies to get to her if she went outside. She could see everyone talking, laughing, and taking drinks from gleaming trays. How many of these glamorous people were something other? She amused herself trying to guess who could be werewolves and faeries and gargoyles. And, of course, vampires.
The air around her shifted and shadows seemed to intensify. She stiffened. The air had the same dangerous vibrations than when Mark was around.
She heard a voice she thought she’d never hear again. “Why is the most beautiful woman at the party sitting all alone?” the voice, that couldn’t be, asked with humor and underlying sadness. The sadness had been present since the day her cousin Jennifer died.
Sabrina staggered to her feet to see the face of the man, she knew to be dead, standing a few feet away.
“Christopher?” He’d left soon after Jennifer died and she never thought she’d see him again. Then she’d heard he’d died as well, and she’d believed the rumor because she’d been convinced he died of a broken heart.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“But you’re dead.” Her voice was weak and thread, and she felt dizziness for a moment.
“Actually, the rumors of my death has been greatly exaggerated,” he said with dark humor. “I always wanted to say that in this suave James Bond voice, but I don’t think I quite pulled it off.”
He stepped into the faint light shining from above, and Sabrina froze in horror.
His eyes had the same glow as Mark’s and, for just a moment, she’d seen fangs. That would explain why the air felt different, threatening, a moment before. Did the universe curse her somehow? For the sin of living quietly and devoting her time to her patchwork, did the Universe decide to punish her with creatures she didn’t want to know existed?
“How dare you assume Christopher’s form, you creature?” She was outraged. Christopher was family. The man who made her cousin smile.
“It’s me, Sabrina. I am not impersonating myself.” He gave a soft laugh. “What a strange conversation to have.”
“Please tell me this is not true. Please let me be hallucinating,” she said aloud.
“Why? Why would you want me to be an illusion, Sabrina?”
“You’re one, too.” She stumbled back from him and fell. She landed back in her chair with him hunkering down in front of her. “Stay away from me.”
He placed his hands on her knees and smiled at her with what she was sure he thought was a reassuring smile. “Sabrina, I’m still your friend. I don’t know how you know what I am, but be assured I mean you no harm. I could never harm Jennifer’s cousin.”
He touched her face with a tender hand and she flinched.
“I came back because I felt your distress. You were crying out for help and never would I ignore a cry of help from you.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head for a moment. “You were important to her, and I loved her more than life itself. Anyone she loved I would love and protect forever.”
Sabrina didn’t know what to think. This was Christopher. The man her cousin loved more than her own life. “What happened to you? I thought you’d died.”
“I loved her.” His eyes glowed amber--not backlit ice like Mark’s--a hot volcanic glow. “I wanted to kill that truck driver.”
“It wasn’t his fault.”
He opened and closed his hands--an angry gesture she’d seen Mark make as well. “I know, it was only the thought of what she would’ve thought of such actions that stopped me.”
“Oh, Christopher.” She couldn’t bear his unadulterated grief.
“I knew if I didn’t go to ground, it was only a matter of time before I killed an innocent.”
Sabrina wiped her eyes with a short vicious swipe. “Didn’t it occur to you that I needed you? The two of you were the only family I had left in the world.”
He pressed her hands so hard she winced, and he immediately eased his grip. “I was selfish in my grief. I would still be sleeping if I didn’t feel you needed me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I don’t know where to--”
“Get the hell away from my wife.” Mark’s furious voice had Christopher spinning around. “Christopher?”
For the first time since the day they met, Mark seemed uncertain--since the day I thought we met, she corrected herself.
“You?” Christopher frowned at Mark. “I thought you were in the States.”
She re
ally shouldn’t be surprised that they knew each other.
“You were killed after you were led into a trap by a woman.” Mark dragged a shaking hand through his short hair. “A blue-eyed woman with long black hair from the house of Kleinhans.”
Mark’s voice was strange. As if he had to force the words out.
Suddenly it all made sense. She’d wondered how Mark had found her, how he would know she could be used against the drogge. “You came to find Christopher and found me, the cousin of the woman he was going to marry. Then somehow you realized you could use me against the drogge.”
Chapter 11
The silence pulsed with their emotions as Sabrina and Mark stared at each other. “Just once, I’d like to feel as if I’m the most important thing in your life,” she growled. “Maybe it’s selfish of me, but wouldn’t it be nice if the man who claims to be my husband, told me he could never face giving me up to monsters?”
Some emotion, anguish or desperation or both, flashed in his gaze. “Sabrina, you have no concept of the evil of the drogge. What they will do to this town.”
“The drogge are stirring again?” Christopher asked.
“Yes, have you heard about the women disappearing?”
“That’s the drogge? I should’ve known.” Christopher swore long and fluently and Sabrina had to admire his inventiveness.
“I heard you’d died. Couldn’t find a trace of you,” Mark said.
Sabrina heard real emotion, caring. She’d sensed friendship when he dealt with the werewolves, hatred when he talked to the gargoyles. With Christopher, she sensed a strong bond, almost as if they were brothers.
“That’s nonsense. I simply went to ground in a cavern with minerals that protected me from being detected by you or anyone else.” Christopher looked intently at Mark, as if trying to read his mind. Could they communicate without words? “What did you do, Mark? Why did she say you wanted to use her to get the drogge?”
Both of them turned to look at her.
“Why did you call out, Sabrina? I heard you all the way in the cave.” Christopher’s voice was a soft threat. “What did he do to you?”
“You misunderstood. I’m mad at Mark for messing with my mind, but I called out when I was kidnapped by your fellow gargoyles.”
Christopher frowned at her. “I’m not a gargoyle.”
“He’s a vampire,” Mark said.
She’d thought maybe he was half vampire, half gargoyle like Mark. Especially since Mark didn’t seem to get along with either the gargoyles or the vampires.
Christopher turned to Mark. “I came back because I realized the only surviving relative of the woman I loved needed me.” He stopped speaking and stared at Mark. “Why didn’t you protect her?”
“Thailog thought I wanted to take his crown. And he was fishing, trying to see why I was here,” Mark said with the scorn of someone disdaining the mere idea of wearing a crown.
“You’ve gotta love the various nations’ love of their crowns,” Christopher said with a twisted smile.
“I found Sabrina when I came looking for you. Shortly after I heard about the disappearances, and when I met her I realized--”
“What did you do to her, Mark? If you’ve hurt her--”
“I was going to use her as bait to catch the drogge, to draw them out into the open once I’ve found their lair.”
“Was?”
“There has to be a different way.” The desperation in Mark’s voice scared Sabrina. Mark visibly pulled himself together. “Why did you go to ground without letting me know?”
“Losing Jennifer was the worst thing that I ever had to face.”
“Sabrina’s cousin?”
“Yes.”
“We’d agreed the previous night to become engaged. I was going to give her my blood and she would’ve lived with me for as long as we wished to stay alive.” He looked up, agony burned on his face. “She wanted to do it immediately, and I said she deserved a romantic night with all the trappings. Because of me she’s dead.”
Sabrina cupped his cheek in her hand. “You couldn’t have known what would happen. It’s not your fault Christopher.”
He shuddered, sheer agony in his eyes, and then he visibly shut it down.
Mark drew her hand away from Christopher. “You don’t touch another man.”
She glared up at him. “I thought he was dead. He’s the man my cousin loved. That makes him family, and I’ll touch him as much as I want. And try to remember that you have no right to dictate who I can and cannot touch.”
“Uh, Sabrina, our ways are different,” Christopher said.
She threw up her hands. “Fine, I won’t try to give you some sympathy. Does anyone else but me remember that Mark and I are not married?”
“We need to talk, but not here,” Mark said.
“Christopher,” Sabrina said.
He turned to her and looked at her with those blue eyes that used to gaze at Jennifer with such love.
She swallowed the pain. “Why don’t you come to dinner tomorrow night and we can talk about all this without any unwanted attention?”
If Mark was to be believed, the drogge had eyes and ears everywhere.
Both men drew in sharp breaths and Christopher actually stumbled away from her. Mark emitted really scary growling sounds. His wings briefly appeared, and she braced for someone to see it and start screaming like that woman did at the party at Jo’s house.
“Sabrina, I would’ve loved that, but our people don’t allow single men to enter the homes of married women. It would only cause trouble.” Christopher bowed to her, a deep courteous movement, and then simply disappeared.
Mark held his hand out to her. “Let’s go.”
Without a word, she got up and limped over to the door. When he took her elbow to assist her, she flinched away from him. “We’re not married, remember? So, Christopher can come for dinner tomorrow night. It will not violate any of your laws.”
She thought she saw Mark flinch, but she didn’t care. She was done.
On the way back home, they were quiet. She’d made love with him that afternoon. Again. The way they talked about her, as if she was really his wife, as if he felt possessive toward her, maybe even caring, had cut deep.
She walked to the stairs, but stopped and glared at him when he appeared before her. “Get out of my way.”
“We have to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Has it been that terrible being married to me?” he asked, as if it was important to him that she enjoyed their fake marriage.
“No, it was terrible waking up one day and realizing my whole life was a lie, realizing the husband I thought loved me saw me as a convenient tool to draw out his enemy.”
“I am an enforcer, what Thailog call a hunter. We have only one duty and that is hunting the drogge.” One moment they were on the stairs, the next they were in the living room.
“Let me go. I want to go to bed. I’m tired of talking about this. Talking will change nothing.”
He tightened his hold on her, as if he was afraid she’d disappear if he didn’t hold onto her. “I said before that I didn’t know what Kratos wants. Well, I lied.”
“Gee, that’s a surprise.”
He gave her a look, obviously not impressed with her sarcasm. “He wants to destroy the world, and he can do it. The drogge are like his disciples. They are powerful, but their powers are nothing next to his.”
“Surely there’s a way to stop this Kratos person.” She had her doubts about one person causing the end of the world through one sacrifice, but obviously he believed it was possible. “How exactly would one man cause the end of the world?”
“Hunters have tried for centuries to stop him and have died in the attempt.” He let her go and paced away from her then turned back to pin her with that ice-blue gaze. “No one knows how the sacrifice works.” His hands balled into fists and he paced again. “He took my mother.”
Sabrina stumbled
over to him and saw anguish in his eyes, as if her limp hurt him somehow. “I’m so sorry, Mark. What happened?”
“It was a long time ago. She obviously wasn’t the right woman for the sacrifice. All we found of her was pieces on an altar.”
Sabrina put her arms around him and held on with her head on his chest. She couldn’t imagine having to go through something like that. To lose your mother in such a horrific way.
He took her arms in a painful hold, his gaze like a flame on her skin. “I promised I’d do anything in my power to stop him. I’ve been chasing him for a long time, and I won’t stop until I’ve killed him.”
“Mark, I can understand that you want to find him and kill him. But being this obsessed will only harm you.”
He stared down at her. “He’s in this city because he sensed you, Sabrina. He might not know where you are or who you are, but eventually the drogge will find you. The only way to keep you safe is to find a way to kill him.”
“Please tell me you have a way to stop him. That you have a plan.”
“You were my plan, Sabrina. I was going to have a powerful mage put a spell on you that would turn the sacrifice on Kratos. That should’ve weakened him enough for me to end him.”
She stumbled back, sat down heavily on the couch. “You planned to do that to me? Living with me, making love to me, and messing with my mind to make me love you.”
“The world will end, Sabrina. I know you don’t believe it, but the world will end if he gets to make his sacrifice with the right woman. And you are the right woman. Your mental powers are growing daily.” He clutched the back of his neck. “If I use you to catch him, you may die, if I don’t, he will find you anyway, and we all die.”
“Why are you so sure he’ll find me? Couldn’t we just go far away where he won’t sense me?”
“Do you think we didn’t try to hide my mother from him? He sensed her, moved from continent to continent to find her.”
“How old were you when he took her?”
“Twenty. We’d been trying to kill him and hiding her for ten years by then.” His blind belief that Kratos could not be stopped made sense now. Kratos had been his nemesis since he was a child. He’d killed his mother. To Mark, Kratos had to be larger than life. He stopped his pacing and came to sit next to her. “I will face him and try to take his head. It’s been done before, but it grew back. A hunter two centuries ago tried fire, his ashes regenerated.”
