by Ava Walsh
Each nightfall, before he’d go about his business and Kendra’d go to sleep, they spent some time making love, learning each other, and talking about the things that had happened to her during the day. He would spend some time teaching her about his culture and customs, familiarizing her with his people. Kendra, in turn, began setting her alarm to about two hours before sunrise, and they’d share a meal, talk about how his night went, and end up making love against each time, falling asleep holding each other tight. Kendra would wake up again later in the morning and resume her work with Anais, and though the sporadic new sleeping schedule took a toll on her, she brushed it off as a temporary inconvenience.
“It’ll get better once the Great Gathering is over and done with,” she’d tell him, and he knew she was right.
Because, to their shock and relief, they had finally found out the cause of the disease.
It happened but a day before the guests would begin to arrive. The night had barely fallen and he’d awakened early, as usual, only to see Kendra sitting on the bed next to him, her hair unkempt and her face tired but ecstatic.
“It’s genetic,” she told him, each word heavy with enthusiasm. “It’s artificial and genetic.”
It took Sebastien, still woozy from sleep, a few moments to realize what she was talking about... and, when he did, the realization hit him like a hammer to the head. “Are you telling me someone actually designed this goddamned thing specifically for us?” he demanded, his tone harsh, but where a lesser woman would turn defensive, thinking he was blaming the messenger for the bad news, she took it as it was – disgust at the orchestrator of the tragedy – and simply continued.
“Not you,” she said, “We ran the tests all day, and the same sequence of alleles kept repeating over and over again, so we cross-referenced all the names in the lab results and in Beauchamp’s reports... and guess what?” Eyes wide, she grinned victoriously. “All of the victims had one of the slaves your mother brought with her when she ran off to marry your father in their ancestry.”
Now that was news.
As he quickly got dressed, Kendra told him all about their findings. They could not pinpoint the exact moment of the original infection, but because several of the infected remembering seeing odd, shallow cuts that took a little longer to heal than they should have after that night at last year’s Gathering, they suspected that Sebastien’s first instinct was right. It seemed likely the Mississippi Clan engineered what was pretty much a genetic time bomb and, after their offer of marital alliance was rejected, purposefully infected as many people from the Louisiana clan as they could as revenge for every sin they felt Sebastien’s Clan and his family had committed against them.
“I don’t know if it was a design flaw,” Kendra explained, “Or if they made the disease require a specific set of circumstances to prevent it from spreading too fast and revealing their trap too soon, but the disease needed both the person who drank the blood and the donor to share those specific recessive genes in order to activate.” Her brow furrowed a bit. “It was a monstrous thing to do... but, also... kind of brilliant,” she admitted, though she clearly felt morally conflicted about admiring something so foul.
“It is,” he nodded. “Both of those things.” He knew she was not looking for his approval, but also that she wouldn’t feel nearly as bad about understanding the kind of talent and hard work it took to devise such a scheme if he showed her that he understood it too.
Unfortunately, a cure did not seem possible. “We could screen everyone for the reagents,” Anais told him. “And give them a list of people they should not feed or feed on under any circumstances, but that’s it. Those already infected... they’re lost.” She cried then, inconsolable, and he held her close until she was able to function again. The news broke his heart for the people they were going to lose, but there was nothing to do for them but make their last days as comfortable as possible.
Breaking the news to his father was a task Sebastien took on himself. Baptiste Roche, the Clan King of Louisiana, had woken up several times during the past week and seemed mighty pleased with Kendra. “She’ll keep you on your toes, that one,” he told his son, pride and joy in his voice. “But it’ll just make you love her more.”
Grinning, Sebastien nodded in agreement. He already knew the world would be a bleak place without Kendra in it, and he couldn’t wait to formally make her his Queen. They’d begun the preparations for the Bonding rite, one which would tie their life-forces together and make it so that they aged and grew old at the same pace. Vampire couples didn’t need to bother with that, the longevity of their relationships all but set in stone, but mixed couples chose to undergo it even though it mean the vampire of the pair was looking at a shortened life span. To Sebastien, like many other vampires before him, this did not seem like such a large sacrifice. He wanted to spend his life with Kendra, no matter how long or short – and she felt the same, as evidenced by the fact that all he needed to do to convince her to go through with it with him was tell her what the end result was.
“Don’t worry about me,” Baptiste told Sebastien, when his son told him about the results of his investigation and his sister’s work. “I’ve had a good, long life, I was lucky enough to Bond twice, and I raised a worthy heir to the Clan Throne. I’d be greedy to ask for more.” The only request his father had was to make the Mississippi bastards pay.
And tonight, the main eve of the Grand Gathering, hosted by their own Clan Home, was the perfect night to do it.
Chapter Nine
Kendra sat next to Sebastien, introduced to the representatives of the North American vampire Clans as his Bonded mate and future wife, and watched the final confrontation unravel. As they expected, when Sebastien rose and made their accusations about the Clan King of Mississippi, his maternal uncle, the snide bastard had the gall to claim innocence. It was a good thing they had come well prepared – and with a special gem up their sleeve to reveal only after all other proof was presented.
It was one hell of a process, reminding her more of a courtroom drama than anything else, only more boring. If she had not been deeply invested in the entire ordeal, she would’ve been a little bored. But, things being as they were, she listened and observed intently, both the accused and their audience, who mainly remained on the sidelines, refusing to take anyone’s side until they had heard everything that both parties had to say.
It annoyed her, but she couldn’t blame them – most of their evidence was circumstantial, and Kendra was not sure it would hold up in a human court of law.
But their ace was not something that could be contented – or ignored.
Their ace was a collection of CCTV images, released to them by the police after several days of negotiations and, finally, threats of a lawsuit. They were a little grainy, but in full color, and showed a large red pickup truck stalking and then deliberately hitting the car of one Dr. Keith Duquesne, husband of the Louisiana Clan King’s daughter, and a scientist just a few steps away from discovering the full extent of the Mississippi Clan’s crime.
Two of the photos were particularly interesting because one of them clearly caught the license plate of the truck – and the other the face of the driver.
The truck was registered to the Mississippi Clan King.
The driver was his dhampir nephew.
Upon that reveal, all hell broke loose, and the members of the Mississippi Clan attempted to flee, but the rest of the vampires quickly rounded them up.
As Kendra learned, the vampire justice system could be a little drawn out when it came to presenting evidence, but once they were sure they had convicted the responsible party, the punishment came quickly and brutally.
The final decision was unanimous - the Mississippi Clan was no more. The scheming Clan King and all those suspected of involvement in his revenge plans were executed. The remaining Clan members were to be absorbed into other, bigger clans, to live their lives in peace and free of persecution.
It was not someth
ing Kendra wished to see happen again. She knew the wrongdoers had to be punished, but this was a little too much for her to take all at once. Sebastien seemed to understand, and put no pressure on her whatsoever, giving her his quiet presence and support to lean on.
She had to admit, it was a good feeling. Kendra was proud of her strength, but it was nice to know she didn’t have to be strong all the time anymore. She had someone she could rest with and know she would be safe and loved, no matter how strange the way that love came to be was.
With Sebastien at her side, she knew she could survive anything and come out a winner.
Epilogue
Three weeks later, she stood barefoot and dressed in red in the center of the Clan Home back lawn with Sebastien, also barefoot but dressed in dark green, facing each other as they waited for the Clan Priestess to perform the Bonding rite. The elder vampire woman, in elaborate formal robes, suddenly looked at Kendra and proclaimed with a huge smile on her wrinkled face, “You’re pregnant.”
Shocked by the statement, Kendra looked at Sebastien, who seemed just as confused as she was, and then back to the Priestess.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked, and the woman laughed.
“You’re pregnant, child! I can smell the change on you!” The Priestess confirmed her diagnosis, much to the loud joy of everyone present.
Kendra looked at the man who, by the end of this night, would be her husband. He was the only person other than herself who wasn’t cheering, but the smile on his face spoke more of how happy the news made him than all the noise everyone else was making.
“Is she for real?” she asked him, skeptical, and wondering if she’d be criticized for it, but Sebastien just laughed.
“She’s for real,” he confirmed, nodding. “She’s trained to sense such subtle changes. No one else could’ve possibly caught it, not until way longer into the pregnancy.”
Still a little dazed by the revelation, Kendra looked down to her stomach... and then back to the Priestess because a terrifying thought crossed her mind. “The baby... the rite, will it harm it?” she asked, almost frantic, remembering too many stories in which mixing magic and pregnancy resulted in tragedy, but the old woman just smiled and patter her shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” she assured Kendra. “It might be uncomfortable for you, but the baby will be just fine. It’s too small for the rite to affect it. It’s just a cluster of cells waiting to grow into a son or daughter.”
That calmed her well enough, but she still felt an enormous amount of excitement and anxiety mixed together.
A baby.
She was going to have a baby.
She was getting married, doing strange and inexplicable things to her body to make her life as long as her vampire husband’s was, and she was going to have their baby.
If someone had told her all this a month ago, she would’ve had them committed in less than an hour.
Yet it had all happened, and was no less real than the life she was about to leave behind.
Sebastien took her hands in his and smiled that special, warm smiled reserved just for her.
“Ready?” he asked, and Kendra felt her heart overflow with love and hope for the future that lay ahead.
She smiled back and entwined her fingers with his.
“Ready.”
*****
THE END
Bonus Book 14: The Vampire Prince's Harem
By: T.S. Ryder
Description
A curvy witch ready for love PLUS a hot vampire prince with a bitter heart PLUS a Harem in the dungeons of the vampire Fort
Born to filthy rich, stuck-up, self-centered parents, Lola is a young witch who has been deprived of affection all her life. After a childhood spent seeking love and pandering to her preening mother, it never occurred to her that she could be special to someone.
When her mother shuns her completely after her father’s death, Lola returns to work to get busy and forget everything. A quick make-out session with a hot stranger is just what she needs.
Valnoir is a 300-year-old vampire prince who has lost his zest for life. When the King announces his concern over the blood supply at the Fort, Valnoir signs up for a simple task. But he’s in for a surprise.
When he executes the task, Lola catches him red-handed and Valnoir ends up kidnapping her, locking her into the Harem. But his attempt to break her fails. As does her determination not to fall for him.
Their chemistry can’t be denied, but they also annoy each other immensely. Both of them get way more than they bargained for, more than they can handle. And as if that isn’t enough, Lola has a gift that the vampires need desperately.
Will Lola accept the task the vampires want her to perform or try to escape? Does she even want to leave, especially when a little surprise announces itself? Can Lola and Valnoir overcome their differences and love each other?
Chapter One - Lola
Saturday
It is seven in the morning when I wake up, exhausted and famished. It is true what they say about grief making you hungry. I tiptoe down the stairs, my feet cold on the stainless steel. While making breakfast and coffee, I find the day’s mail on the kitchen counter, carefully sorted into stacks: condolence cards and letters, bills, personal mail and tabloids. On top of one stack is a copy of People magazine. A photo of my mother is on the front page under the headline Mayumi May bids farewell to husband. At the bottom is a subheading, highlighted in yellow: Exclusive pictures inside.
For a moment I pause and question whether it is my mom who makes everything about herself, or whether it is the media. The answer comes to me immediately: it is my mom. She’s always insisted that I call her ‘mother’. It’s funny how the death of my father and his funeral have turned into a media spectacle, just like everything else in my life, with the spotlight on my mother. The tabloid hasn’t even bothered mentioning the name of my father, as if it doesn’t really matter who my mother was married to. I turn to the exclusive photos inside and read the details about my mother’s elegant Giovanni mourning dress that had been custom designed for the event. I don’t feel any revulsion or disgust. Growing up in this family I have gotten used to it. Everything in my life was artificial, including my father, Richard Windsor: he was distantly related to the royal family through his mother, and for obvious reasons he’d taken up her last name.
After breakfast, I join my mother in the living room. She is sitting on the Ron Arid stainless steel sofa — the most expensive sofa in the world, although I don’t know how anyone can stand to sit on it — with her ankles and knees together, legs slanted to the side and her hands resting in her lap. Her face is impassive, but even without any expression her Japanese heritage lends it an impressive look. She looks stunning, as if she were posing for a photoshoot. I can’t tell whether she is grieving or not, because it’s not the first time I’ve seen this look on her face. This is her usual look, her equilibrium state. But given that my father got cremated yesterday, I decide to be sympathetic.
“It’s going to be okay, mother,” I say. “I’ll be here for as long as you need me.” I get up to join her on her metal sofa when she finally speaks, looking straight at me.
“Don’t get up, I’m fine. I told you the day before, there’s no need for you to stay. I mean it, and I would like to be alone,” she says in her heavily Japanese-accented English. She gets up, her Jimmy Choos clacking on the black marble floor, picks up a cigar from a box on the mantel, lights it and returns to her place. She takes a casual puff, then says, “Lola, I’d like you to leave when you’re done grieving.”
She makes it sound like she is doing me a favor by letting me stay. In a moment of grief, I’d mistaken my mother for a person — my mistake. I find it funny how she pronounces my name. She always says it like ‘Law-lah.’ Other than that, her English is perfect, a combination of a beautiful accent and elite haughtiness. Her chocolate-brown eyes are filled with the disdain that she really feels for everyone. She truly believes she is super
ior, and she never tries to hide her dislike for me.
Her dislike for me is a result of things beyond our control. We come from a long line of witches, and since the witchy genes (or whatever it is that allows us to do magic) skip one generation, I ended up a witch and she didn’t. That is something she holds against me, even though the non-witchy generation gets the ability to predict the future. It was partly how she’d become so successful, but she would never admit it. Being an actor, a former top model, a philanthropist, one of New York’s elite and a trophy wife to my business tycoon father had thrust us all into the limelight. She publicly maintained that she wanted to keep her personal life personal and her only child out of the spotlight, but in truth, she just didn’t want any attention focused on me. Her personal life is, and has always been, very public otherwise.
While I got the witchy gene, I didn’t get her size-zero genes. We look more like sisters than mother and daughter, and she is the beautiful one. Growing up in her shadow had been difficult, and she made it harder by always excluding me from things. Even when we had parties at our place, she made sure that I stayed in my room. It was awful having the people I had massive crushes on, singers and divas who topped the charts, actors and actresses who played superheroes, across the hall from me when the closest I could get to them was looking at the pictures that made it to the tabloids the next day.
My parents didn’t really raise me or play any part in my life growing up, aside from paying for the live-in nanny and my college. My mother made a point of donating her designer dresses and shoes, reminding me constantly, “You should lose weight if you want these. It would be a disgrace to the designer if you wore them the way you are.”
