Island of the Gods

by C. M. Kane

She felt his hand lifting her hair and stopped herself from flinching in surprise, wondering what in Hades name he doing now? And why was he so close to her again?

  ‘So why?’ he repeated, his voice a little rougher.

  She turned to face him again and instantly knew she’d just made a huge mistake. He still held her hair and was watching her with a strange intensity. Oh crap, she thought. In over your head Tae. Way over your head. He stared at her mouth and she noticed his pulse again, instinctively she knew it had sped up.

  ‘I want an end to the pain I feel,’ she said shakily as she tried desperately to stick to the script she had worked out in her mind, ‘to the emptiness and confusion, to all the anger. This is the fastest route I can think of, so I’m taking it.’

  Jadens pupils expanded and he softly pulled her hair, and her face, toward his.

  ‘Hey Tae. I’m not interrupting am I?’

  Tae gasped, shocked at the unexpected interruption. ‘Trevor?’Jaden dropped her hair and turned angrily to the tall blonde boy who stood no more than a dozen feet from them, a half terrified, half defiant look on his face. Before Jaden could tell Trevor to take a hike, she smiled and said quickly. ‘Of course you’re not. You know you’re always welcome here. I was just answering some questions the Lieutenant had for me. Are we finished?’ she said, looking back at him as she walked toward Trevor.

  ‘For the moment,’ he replied curtly, before swinging around and striding into her neighbour’s property and around the side of the house.

  They heard a whine as the turbo of a jumper engaged. A sleek black craft rose slowly into the air and flew away toward Thortown, gathering speed as it gained altitude.

  Trevor looked at her with concern. ‘What was that all about? Was he trying to take you against your will again?’

  Yeah, ‘take me’ alright. She had caught a glimpse of what his body wanted before he had left. Thank the gods for Trevor she thought. ‘It’s okay Trevor, but thanks for coming when you did.’ She smiled at him. ‘That was extraordinarily brave of you, you know, you’re going to make a great warrior.’

  Trevor’s chest puffed out. ‘No problems Tae. Look, I wanted to say something to you earlier today.’ She went to say something but he stopped her. ‘No, let me speak please I need to say this, it’s important. I’m really sorry about what I said the other week, and especially for trying to hit you. I deserved more than I got, and I hope you know I feel really ashamed of myself. I didn’t mean it Tae, I swear to the gods, I just couldn’t think straight. Jase, well, he meant more to me than you think.’ He blushed furiously.

  ‘You were lovers?’ she asked, surprising him.

  ‘You know?’ He turned an even deeper shade of crimson.

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘but I could feel something more between you, if that makes sense.’

  He smiled sadly. ‘Yeah, you two always had that weird twin thing going on. But it’s not the reason why I was so upset. Tae, he never said goodbye, no note, nothing! He just left me. I know it’s no excuse, but I couldn’t handle it. He was my first, I thought we meant something to each other. It took me a while to realise that they did the same to you, and that if I feel like this, then you must feel even worse. It’s why you chose the Island isn’t it?’

  Tae sighed deeply. ‘Partly. Let’s just say I have a lot going on right about now. I need you to know it means the world to me that you care enough to come tell me about you and Jase, and to apologise. Thanks Trevor.’ She walked over to him and hugged him fiercely. In an effort to hold back the sudden onset of tears that his confession had brought to her eyes she buried her head against his chest. Sometimes she forgot that others were affected by what happened, and that the world – and all its pain - didn’t revolve around just her. ‘Look, I gotta go get changed and do some training. I have an important appointment in a week’s time.’ She said with a weak smile as she let go and pushed away from him.

  Trevor held her shoulders and looked down at her. ‘If you need any help, Tae, anything at all, whether it’s a practice partner … a bodyguard,’ he added with a grin, ‘just call me okay? Don’t forget.’

  ‘I won’t.’ She smiled then hurried to the front door to unlock it before she started blubbering. Gods be damned, a hugger and a freaking crier, what the hell is wrong with me?

  Trevor called out again just as she reached the door. ‘Hey, Tae, I meant to tell you,’ she turned back and he was smiling, looking her up and down, ‘you look damn fine girl.’ He then whistled and grinned lasciviously at her while wiggling his eyebrows.

  She couldn’t help but laugh, after curtseying she blew him a kiss, winked and went inside to the peace of her bedroom. After everything that had just happened she needed to talk to Brohan. Tomorrow she thought. Better to leave Valaria a chance to sink her fangs into him for the afternoon. After all, she’s somehow made me look as pretty as Jason for the first time in my life, and for that miracle alone Valaria definitely deserved a treat.

  After changing into shorts and a t-shirt, she unpinned her hair and put it in a pony-tail, then she set out for a light jog. She needed fresh air, and she also needed to get her emotions back under control. Getting herself firmly back into her training was the only thing she could think of to centre her careening thoughts.

  By four o’clock she was tired and sweaty, but feeling a little better with herself. Despite her near blunder with Jaden things had turned out well, thanks to Trevor’s intervention. As she was walking past the training oval on her way home she noticed Brohan and Valaria sitting in the shade of his wide verandah. Well no time like the present she thought and wandered over.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been training.’ Valaria said, alarmed. ‘Honey, you can take a day off to relax you know.’

  Tae, as usual, decided to be direct, so with-out any preamble she simply announced, ‘I had a visitor when I arrived home, Jaden was waiting for me.’

  Brohan shot to his feet with a curse, ‘That son of a bitch! You’re alright?’ he asked, scanning her for any injuries. ‘What did the bastard want?’

  ‘Well, after putting his hand around my throat, ever so gently, he wanted to know why I nominated for the Island. So I told him about Jase and Mum going and not even leaving me a note. I even had tears in my eyes when I told him about the whole twin connection thing and my abandonment issues.’

  Brohan looked at her hopefully. ‘Did he buy it? I’m sorry I almost lost my temper at the Gathering, but I had to stop him. It looked like he was going to drag you away otherwise.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, ‘and he would have. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you did for me.’ She smiled. ‘The good news is I think he bought it. Well he seemed to, he left anyway.’ She chewed her lip as she remembered what else had occurred.

  ‘What?’ Brohan frowned at her sudden nervousness. ‘Did something else happen? Did he attack you?’ He immediately started looking for injuries again.

  ‘No he didn’t attack me.’ She bit her lip and looked at her feet guiltily. ‘I think he was going to try to kiss me.’

  ‘What!’Brohan shouted in outrage, before quickly lowering his voice again. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Well I’m not completely sure, I haven’t got a whole lot of experience in these things, but he was holding my hair and looking at my lips, and he had this really intense look on his face. He had just started to pull me toward him when Trevor turned up, so if that means what I think it means, then yeah.’

  Brohan cursed softly and was about to say more when Valaria interrupted, a strangely intense look on her face. ‘Was there anything else, Tae? Please, tell me everything that happened, and don’t leave out anything, no matter how trivial it may seem.’

  Tae looked over at her with a mixture of curiosity and embarrassment ‘Well, as he was leaving I noticed he had a, well, you know …’

  ‘Erection’ Valaria filled in the blank when Tae hesitated.

  ‘Yeah,’ she muttered turning beet red. Valaria pursed her lips in thoug
ht. ‘Did anything else happen? Anything strange you haven’t told us about?’

  Brohan was frowning at Valaria as Tae thought back to her impromptu meeting with Jaden. Finally she said ‘Only that I noticed his pulse had sped up.’

  ‘You noticed his pulse …’ Valaria’s eyes narrowed as she leant forward. ‘And how did you feel about that? Think sweetie.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Tae said thoughtfully. ‘A bit weird I guess. I caught myself leaning into him watching it, but I pulled away,’ she added quickly, feeling shame and discomfit that she might have been unconsciously coming on to a killer and kidnapper.

  Valaria leant back closed her eyes and exhaled heavily. ‘Damn it! Of all the inconvenient times for it to happen, why does it have to be now?’ She pinched the skin on the bridge of her nose and massaged it gently.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Brohan and Tae said together, facing her.

  ‘Is there something wrong with me? Did he do something to me?’ Tae asked.

  ‘Okay, calm down both of you, let’s go inside and we’ll talk.’ Valaria sighed and rose to her feet as she looked at Tae with an apologetic half smile. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you Tae, well apart from the fact that you have a smidgen of Vampire blood. Now come inside, I need to tell you a story about you and your brothers’ true conception.’ Without another word she turned and walked indoors.

  After casting shocked unbelieving looks at one another, Tae and Brohan followed her. Valaria dragged Brohan’s chair around to face the couch and sat down, while Brohan and Tae plonked themselves down on the couch and silently waited for her to tell them both what the hell she was talking about.

  ‘Where to begin?’ she murmured to herself then looked up. ‘My brother Tamuer and I were born to House Salesh on Salernis. You can’t imagine the scandal this caused at the time. For such an old much-revered house, to have one of its sons, and an outstanding warrior at that, pledge himself to a human weapons tech from the battleship Kydomois was unheard of.

  To say we weren’t ever made to feel welcome by the rest of the ‘family,’ is a bit of an understatement. Humans are generally regarded as weak and fit only for food by most of the Warrior Caste Vampires, especially in the older houses. And here we were, twin human Vampire half-breeds. Truthfully though, apart from the mild contempt they showed Tamuer and me, we had a surprisingly good childhood. That’s because pretty much tried to ignore our existence, which kind of gave us free reign to have some fun and explore, whereas a close eye was always kept on others of pure blood in the family. I think Tamuer joined the Warrior Caste in the hope of earning some sort of approval from our grandfather, and to prove our worth to him, when he would have been much better suited to being a pleasure giver.’

  She gazed at Tae. ‘Everybody Tamuer met loved him, he was very much like Jason in that respect. He could charm the birds from the trees if he wished.’ She sighed. ‘I swear he broke a thousand hearts by the time he met your mother.’

  Tae’s eyes widened at the implication.

  ‘Yes sweetie. I’m afraid that makes me your aunt.’ She smiled and continued. ‘He was already seeing someone at the time he and Kresley met, and I honestly believe he cared for him too.’

  ‘Him?’ muttered Tae.

  ‘Yes Tae, him. Personality wasn’t the only thing he had in common with your brother. Tamuer was attracted to both men and women, and he had met Steven three months before he met your mother.’

  Tae’s hand went to her mouth involuntarily as the shock of Valaria’s words sunk in. ‘Oh Hades no - No!’

  Valaria continued to hold Tae’s eyes with her own. ‘And yes, that would be the man you think of as your father.’ She held up her palm before Tae could say a word. ‘Please let me finish Tae, you need to hear the whole story. I didn’t know Steven well but I think he was a good man. He was totally obsessed with Tamuer of course, so when Tamuer met and fell in love with Kresley, Steven was devastated. He did everything he could think of to get Tamuer to stay with him, he even suggested they all live together, but Tamuer had made his choice, he would be faithful to the person he loved.’

  The story of the hair beads her mother had given to her flashed into Tae’s mind, along with the dreamy look her mother had had on her face when she had mentioned the handsome young warrior who had given them to her. ‘He chose mum?’ Tae asked.

  ‘Yes, Tamuer loved her deeply, never doubt that Tae. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, they were very happy, until the day Tamuer got a summons to a war on Salernis.’

  Tae made a small choking noise but she continued to stare fixedly at Valaria.

  Valaria took a deep breath and continued. ‘Hera had approved an application for war between House Salesh and House Morn, which had been requested by our grandfather.’ she said bitterly. ‘It seemed that he had heard of Tamuer living with a human which, in his eyes, was degrading House Salesh once more. After his summons Tamuer had two weeks left with Kresley before he would have to return home. Kresley was due for her next injection of Avet.’

  What’s Avet asked Tae in confusion.

  ‘It’s what all pleasure givers use to prevent conception, we have an injection once every five years. When an injection is due we usually refrain from all sexual contact for a month, so there aren’t any little surprises. Anyway, I guess she miscalculated, or just didn’t care, because when she went to receive it the following week and they pre-tested her, she was already nine days pregnant. She came to me for advice and I said she should tell Tamuer immediately, before he shipped out. As you know, the laws are very strict on birthing rights, only married people may apply for an exemption if they accidently become pregnant, and obviously the authorities now knew because of the pre-testing.’

  Tae looked as though she wanted to say something but bit her lip instead and kept quiet.

  ‘From what she told me, Tamuer was ecstatic, until he realised he could never get permission to marry her before he left. In desperation he turned to the one person he thought might help him, he asked Steven to marry her instead, that way, hopefully, no-one would make her terminate the pregnancy while he was gone.’

  ‘And he agreed’ Tae said quietly.

  Valaria nodded. ‘It was only supposed to be until he returned, and as I said, Steven would have done anything for Tamuer. I think he saw this as his last chance to win back Tamuer’s love. Kresley agreed with the plan. She had no choice, she needed to be married immediately or she would have to have an abortion, that’s the law. She knew a marriage between two people with good incomes would be approved swiftly, and an exemption for the unplanned pregnancy should be granted as they had no other children between them. So three days after Tamuer left they were married. Nineteen days after that, the news of Tamuer’s death reached me.’

  Tae felt tears spring to her eyes at her unknown father’s death.

  Valaria laughed bitterly. ‘My grandfather was actually proud that his grandson had died a warrior’s death. It added more prestige to the house’s name. Our mother never recovered and died not long after, although by that time she was in her sixties. After getting special permission I quit my caste and joined the House of Aphrodite. I then told my Grandfather I would call myself Valaria of House Salesh, and hump any human that crossed my path if anyone from House Salesh ever came near me again. My father was shocked at my actions but sided with Grandfather. Apparently they took me at my word and I’ve never heard from them since, thank the gods.’

  Tae nodded in fierce approval at what Valaria had done as she continued listening to her story.

  ‘After a couple of years I followed Steven and Kresley here, Steven was now working at the nearby chemical plant and had shifted the family to Jaxburg. I admit I was surprised that they kept the marriage going, but to his credit, Steven stayed true to his word, he never left, and Kresley put all her efforts into being a mother. I had hoped things might get better now he had Tamuer’s children to love. They each saw to their personal needs in Ballan where there were two male pleasure gi
vers, and he was helping to raise Tamuer’s children with Kresley in Jaxburg. Their lives settled into a routine.’

  Tae made a derisive humphing sound at that but said nothing more.

  Valaria smiled a little at the sound then continued. ‘They were well respected and looked up to, especially as Kresley had worked at the House of Aphrodite in Thortown. Everyone seemed to think it was such a love match, because she had married someone so far beneath her status, and for a while they seemed to be doing okay. Unfortunately, the older you and Jase got, the worse Stevens drinking and bitterness became. I think he convinced himself that Tamuer had tricked him into marrying Kresley, and now he was trapped.’

  Tae was outraged at this, because her father had chosen this life for himself. She and Jason were the innocent pawns in all of their parent’s manoeuvrings. They were the ones that had been kept in the dark to their true parentage all their lives. She blinked and pushed aside her mounting anger as she listened to Valaria continue her story.

  ‘You see, while Jase has all the charm and grace of Tamuer he favours Kresley more in looks. You,’ she said looking directly at Tae ‘have grown to look more and more like your father with each passing year. I think you remind Steven of everything he lost, and of things he doesn’t want to admit to or examine too closely.’ She smiled sadly. ‘On the other hand, you do seem to have inherited your grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s predilection for strategic battle command, which might be amusing if it weren’t so insufferably sad.’

  Tae opened her mouth to say something before losing her train of thought, after a deep calming breath she said. ‘So what does this mean for me?’ She paused. ‘Being one-quarter Vampire I mean. Will I be creeping about biting people now?’ She giggled a little hysterically at that.

  Valaria frowned. ‘I’m not really sure. Obviously sunlight doesn’t bother you, so that’s a plus, but a Vampire’s blood-instincts don’t usually kick in until sexual maturity. With males that’s anywhere between twelve and seventeen, with females usually fourteen to eighteen. From your explanation of what occurred with Jaden, I’m afraid it sounds as if you’re just reaching your sexual maturity. It also means that although you probably won’t need blood.’ She turned to Brohan reassuring him at his worried look. ‘I honestly don’t see it being an issue on the Island.’ She turned back to Tae. ‘You might enjoy the taste and pleasure you feel when you bite someone. Trust me when I say that it can be a’ she paused, closing her eyes and smiling slightly, ‘a highly intoxicating experience. Especially if you’re with a person you desire. Once you hit full sexual maturity you will also need to start having sex. Our kind does not do well when we try to deny any of our basic needs.’