by Alice Wade
Lainey could not help but moan as his lips caressed her and enticed her to open her mouth to allow him entry. When he was granted permission, he plunged deep with his tongue, tasting her sweet taste and savored each flavor her emotions produced. Kaen resisted no more and ravaged her, the force of his kiss drawing blood at the corner of her lip, which he licked away with a smile before capturing her mouth once more in a passionate embrace.
Lainey felt lost. She floated outside herself as everything she knew to be faded from her awareness and all that remained was Kaen.
* * * *
Talon approached the wall and touched it tenderly. “Aren’t you afraid of the sunlight?” Dace asked as he watched the first rays of light break the horizon. Not that he cared for the elegant vampire, but at the moment, Talon was his only chance of getting Lainey back alive.
“Rubbish,” Talon remarked with a smirk and returned to his searching the wall.
“Really?” Dace turned to the elven vampire in surprise. “You can walk among the living?”
“Of course. All that myth is there to toy with you humans. I’m quite normal.”
Talon suddenly flinched and hung his head, curling his longer fingers into a fist along the stone wall of the dungeon.
“What?” Dace saw the reaction.
“Damn it!” He slapped the wall. “We’re too late for Lainey. He’s claimed her,” he whispered and then looked at the man sideways with regret. “I’m sorry.”
It took Dace a moment to realize what he meant. His breath left his body in a whoosh. “No.” He staggered backwards and dropped to his knees. Images of Lainey laughing flashed before his tear-filled eyes. He couldn’t be too late. He couldn’t. Dace tried to take a deep breath, but found he couldn’t. Life without Lainey was pointless and now he was faced with just that. Why bother? He sank down further and hung his head between his knees while the grief of losing his love rolled through him like a storm.
Because he vaguely recalled the emotions of the living, Talon gave the man his space and respected his grief. He only hoped that what they recovered was sane enough to learn and be tamed, but he had no qualms about putting her down. There were enough rabid vampires running around, this castle was proof of that. Talon could feel the feral beings below, hundreds of them, crazed from being kept from the warm food that their newfound senses could register above. Those beings he would eliminate without regret.
With a sigh, Talon shook his head. Newborn vampires were a nuisance.
“Are you ready?” he asked gruffly. “It’s time to get my mate.”
“But not mine,” Dace whispered as he climbed to his feet.
Talon whirled around and pinned him to the wall, blue eyes chilly and long white fangs bared. Dace had no warning before Talon choked him. A bone chilling terror came close to having him release his bowels, but Dace realized Talon wouldn’t kill him. That alone calmed Dace enough to thrash against Talon’s pinching hold on his throat. The elven vampire stared Dace in the eye with his chilling cold blue eyes, and Dace realized something right then and there. Talon was terrifying when he unleashed his vampire. This was what Lainey was now.
“You will not give up on her yet,” he snarled. Talon released him and stalked off. Dace rubbed his raw throat and watched the vampire, caught between anger and confusion. “Is this what I have to look forward to? Why do you care anyway? Your mate is like you already.”
Dace felt Talon’s cold stare from fifty feet away. There was something which triggered that reaction and Dace wanted to know what. Talon just proved he was unpredictable and irrational, and this entire escapade began to feel idiotic. Was Dace insane for following this vampire into the heart of the Dûr Falas coven? Would Talon just hand him over once he collected Kailani? Now that was an interesting thought. He continued to rub his neck as he evaluated the elven vampire. With a chortling snort, he decided he was the insane one, not the other way around. If there was a slight chance Talon was wrong, he wanted to know he did everything he could to save Lainey. That was what made him insane. He clung to a hope that his betrothed would not be ruined when he pulled her out.
Dace turned away from Talon as reality crashed down. What if Talon was right and she were converted? Could he deal with that? A wave of revulsion colored his thoughts as he decided, no, he couldn’t. She would be a monster, a freak. He couldn’t live that way.
Talon prowled the fifty paces back to Dace’s side, doing his best to remain in control. The conflicting emotions of disgust and depression filling Dace’s mind angered him. At the moment the disgust enraged Talon to the point of a killing rage and he wasn’t sure he trusted himself not to kill Dace just to put the man out of his misery.
He stopped a few feet away and stared dangerously. “What is so wrong with being a vampire anyway?” Talon was not to be mistaken for what he was—a killer—and he closed the distance by staking towards Dace with malice. “We are not beasts! We are civilized, leaving you weaker humans alone for the most part. Why do you have such revulsion for my kind?” he roared with his fangs bared.
“Right. Really civilized, Talon. I can see that now, how silly of me.” Dace replied with mirth as he shrank away from the elf. “You’re harmless.”
Talon ground his teeth in frustration. The muscles in his jaw clearly showed the tension but he didn’t reply immediately. It was a good thing he held his peace, for it allowed him to calm down until he finally saw the humor in this scene. He really wasn’t being civilized in the least bit. “My apologies. I have a short temper when it comes to prejudice about my kind. I’ve been exiled for a similar hate and I just don’t understand it.”
Dace turned his back in anger while he’d waited for Talon’s reply. Now that he had, he slowly faced the elf and exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry for your situation, but I can’t help how I feel Talon. I struggle with being here with you right now.” Dace paused, running his hands through his shaggy hair, “My parents were killed many years ago by a rogue vampire coven and I’ve hated your kind ever since.”
The confession was something he didn’t talk about to anyone other than Lainey. It had happened when he was old enough to fend for himself, and struggled on his own until he eventually got his apprenticeship with the blacksmith. Now he was faced with breaking into a dungeon to save the woman he loves…who is now the very creature he detested.
Talon stepped forward compassionately, seeing the conflict rolling across Dace’s face, “Don’t give up on her yet. If we can get to her in time, there may just be enough of her mind to salvage. Not all vampires are like what harmed your parents. Those are the kind Kai and I hunt down. Just like with you humans, there are good and bad; am I wrong?”
Dace frowned, but nodded in agreement.
“If we succeed, you can have a long life together. Isn’t that what you want?”
“I wanted a long life with Lainey. I have no idea what I’m going to find in there. I’m not convinced I can live with a vampire.”
“Who’s being civilized now, eh? Maybe I had this wrong when I approached you. Maybe I turned to the wrong human for help. Would you rather sacrifice Lainey and you can go on your merry way? I have no qualms about that. My goal is my mate.” Talon challenged. His anger was growing again.
Sacrifice Lainey? Pain flared through Dace’s heart at the thought of just abandoning her. He would rather she live out her life without him, but at least he’d help give her a chance to be free. “No.”
“Then shut off this negativity. Now, if you bring that into this, she will be destroyed. Are we clear?”
Dace snorted.
Talon challenged Dace directly. He pushed right up into his face, “She needs you,” he hissed, “You will be her beacon when we break in and then during her recovery. You can walk away all you want after she is safe and secure. If you can’t do that Dace, walk away now and I’ll leave her down there to die. M
ake up your mind.”
Dace was torn. He’d known what killed his parents and the hate he harbored was deep rooted. He wasn’t sure he could do this. Even for Lainey. He glanced back at Talon who watched him speculatively through those chilling blue eyes and sighed, “I can’t leave her to die. I love her.”
Talon’s temper was on the edge, but he was glad Dace made the right choice. “I don’t understand your aversion to this, though. Regardless of your past. Vampires and humans have lived side by side for centuries, peacefully for the most part. Rarely do we interact with humans unless we are hunting. Those of us who are civilized leave our food source untouched and alive when we are full.”
Dace shuddered at that reference. “Humans have always hated your kind, regardless if we’ve enjoyed a peaceful existence. Vampires are something to fear and we consider your blood tainted, foul, and evil.” His hand clinched into a fist, but he never removed his eyes off of Talon.
Talon evaluated the stone wall again for weakness while Dace worked out his demons. He knew this was difficult, his own father made the same ignorant decision. Condemn those you love because you don’t understand. If he could get him to avoid making a similar catastrophic decision, he would. “So, now that the woman you love is one of my kind, you can’t love her anymore?”
Dace hung his head. He didn’t speak for a moment but when he raised his chin to look at Talon, tears ran freely down his cheeks. “I love Lainey,” he paused, “but I don’t know if I can love a vampire. She was my reason for wanting to better our situation. She was the reason I got up in the morning and lived this dreary life day in and day out. Now what? Will she be a psychotic killer? Will she murder everyone in our camp because we don’t know how to control her? I don’t have an answer for you right now. All I know is I can’t leave her down there and I’m conflicted with what comes next.”
Because Dace stared straight ahead as he spoke, he missed Talon’s eyes squinting in confusion. Talon would never understand humans. “If you loved her, you’d fight for her.”
Dace’s nostrils flared, “You’ve quite the reputation for someone standing here lecturing to me about love. Your name alone has been used to scare kids and keep young woman at home.” Dace checked his tone before he angered the now calm vampire. He didn’t want to encounter the lethal side again.
Talon snickered, turning away from his evaluation of the wall. “You know, I started those nasty little stories myself. Ingenious, I might add. I wanted people to leave us alone. I wanted only Kailani and nothing else, so I lied.” He shrugged. “Each town I entered, I dropped those stories and implanted violent memories to help them along. They worked rather well.” Talon sobered and leaned towards Dace seriously, “I don’t particularly like your kind either, but that is not preventing me from wanting to help you save your woman.”
“You needed my help with the Dûr Falas, it wasn’t to help Lainey. Don’t lie to me now. Let’s just get this underway. My heart is conflicted and I’m not settled on what will happen later, agreed? I just don’t know if I can watch the woman I love suck blood as her dinner.” He felt his anger rising again and it wasn’t directed at Talon. He blamed Lainey for this situation and he wasn’t sure how he was going to get through this once he saw here again. He wasn’t sure he could forgive her.
Talon was perturbed by this reaction but knew he needed to get his mate and soon. Now that he could feel her, he wanted her back.
“Enough of this. You are wasting my time with these conflicted feelings.” Talon challenged with an accusing glare.
Dace stood there in shock.
Talon was done with this conversation. “Kailani is below and I need to get to her.” With one last look at Dace, he approached the wall and placed both hands on the stone in concentration. Slowly the wall shook sending a shower of debris to fall on them as a seam appeared, widening enough for a man of Talon’s height and weight to slip into sideways. Around them the ground still trembled from the splitting of the wall, choking them both with the smell of dust. Talon was shrouded in the cloud, but looked back over his shoulder. “Coming?” he asked, his voice drifting out of the large crack.
Dace was still in shock. Talon had just opened a crack in the thick stone wall, wide enough to walk through. He was apprehensive about approaching. Irrational thoughts of being trapped in the stone pressed at him to not step inside. He swallowed.
“Dace,” Talon’s voice seduced him away from his dark thoughts and Dace followed him through the crack in the outer wall of the dungeon.
* * * *
Quade was taken hours before. His screams haunted Kailani as she cried in a heap on the floor. Why she came to care about those two humans she would never know, but care, she did.
Because Quade allowed her to feed from his arm, she could track his heartbeat anywhere in the city. She could also link with his mind. That was how she knew they took him to a room with a wicked table in the center. Kai immediately knew this as Ondre’s favorite work room. Usually when she was led past on her visits to Kaen, the floor was slick with blood and the corner piled with the slain. Knowing this was Quade’s fate, she decided to give him something as payment for his help earlier. She absorbed his pain and suffering while they killed an innocent man. It was the least she could do.
Kailani screamed while Quade was cut, quartered and dissected by King Ondre. Quade realized what she’d done, and clung to her mental presence as they tortured his soul. She just couldn’t let him be alone in his final moments, and her interference held him in a state of numbness while the king and his beasts did their best to break him. He resisted all the way to the very end, never divulging the location of the renegade camp and never giving into their torture. He was stoic through the end.
Right before his heart beat its last, Ondre stepped back and presented his experiment to the vampires. Kai couldn’t tell what was going on anymore because Quade was nearly unconscious, but she knew the vampires were about to gorge themselves.
She shared his mind while he screamed in pain as they dined on his shed blood. His heart was already so weak that he wasn’t alive for long. Thanks to Ondre, it wasn’t much of a meal.
She cared for his soul as it finally fled his body, freed of the pain and torment. She said a silent good-bye to the man who hated her yet gave what he could to help her anyway. Once it was over, she released the pain she’d carried and crumpled to the floor. Only then did she allow herself to cry for him.
* * * *
The most amazing scent awoke Lainey. It tickled her noise and caused a slight pain in her throat. She wiggled her nose as if she were about to sneeze, then froze as she heard a deep chuckle off to her side.
A drum beat in her head, pounding so loudly that it hurt. “What is that?” She moaned as again was assaulted by the scent.
“My heart,” Kaen said amused.
They were lying together in the bed he’d moved her to earlier and he shifted in order to look down at her. His scar pulled his face into a grimace, causing her to shudder but she didn’t cringe away. Memories of their night caused her to blush, even though there wasn’t any human blood left in her veins. She remembered how since he turned her, he had enjoyed the journey her body made while leaving her human ties behind. Part of her mind regretted how they made love in heated, frantic passion. But Lainey matched his burning need pace for pace until she finally collapsed in his arms, exhausted.
“Your heart?” she slowly uncovered her ears from her cupped hands. “How can that be?”
“Our hearts beat as any other, Lainey. Our blood is just a not the same, no longer human.”
Lainey rolled over onto her side and covered her head with the blanket. Oh no, what happened! She still felt the intense love for Dace, but whenever Kaen touched her, she was under his control, and he knew it.
“Yes, you are mine now.” He enjoyed the internal conflicts she experienced.
It was all pointless, but the fall was so fun to watch.
“Oh, Vasila! What have I done?” Lainey moaned and rolled away to curl into a ball. Kaen followed and spooned her tight to his body. Try as she might to stifle it, a soft moan escaped when their bodies touched.
“You made the right choice. This was much more enjoyable than torture,” he whispered. “You were mine either way.”
Her only response was to cry silently while he held her. “Sleep; it’s been a long night, and you still need to finish the conversion. One more time and we should be done.” He only heard the weeping from the grief that claimed her, but he knew she could no longer resist him. His blood now ran in her veins. If he called, she was bound to answer.
Seeing her vulnerability stoked his fire, and Kaen quickly determined sleep would wait. “Come to me,” he said so quietly she almost didn’t respond. He added a mental nudge to ensure she obeyed though. “Let us complete this.”
With little resistance, Lainey rolled over and accepted his tender caresses as he kissed along her chin and down her neck, pausing to smell the last remnants of human blood flowing in her veins. It was very faint now; the change was almost complete.
Kaen turned them over, careful not to crush her beneath his weight. He knew at this point that it was unlikely, but he still showed caution. He dove deeply within her depths once more to complete the final stage of her conversion and the sounds of his attentions filled the room as Lainey once more lost herself in the insatiable pull of her vampire creator.
* * * *
It took Dace a few minutes to realize that he was walking through a rip in the outer wall of the dungeon. He cast a nervous glance back and the narrow slit in the wall that for all intents and purposes should not be there. The slit was like a tear in the stone and ripped straight through the wall of the dungeon. Stone at least twenty feet thick was jagged as if Talon literally ripped the stone apart creating a space for them to tread.
