Taboo (A Tale of the Talhari Book 1)

by Heather Elizabeth King

  Alaric motioned everyone toward the stairs, waiting for her. His hand on the small of her back sent a shiver through her body despite the fact that she was furious with him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I want you to be careful. I don’t mind admitting that I’m happy for your enhanced abilities and strength, right now. You may need them.”

  There was so much she wanted to say to that, but she knew now wasn’t the time. She’d have to wait. And she hated waiting.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sydney sat on the fourth floor of the library, staring out the window at the distant mountains. Inside she was surrounded by books. Four stories of books. Ancient books, new books, books on history, books on religion, books on folklore, books on magic, there was an entire floor dedicated to the occult. But as amazing as this library was, she was distracted. Too distracted to pay attention to the old manuscript in front of her. It was an ancient grimoire, but she had yet to open it. She wanted to know what was going on. What had they found out, if anything?

  Outside the world seemed so ordinary. How could everything seem so normal when her entire world had flipped upside down? Was it really only a few days ago when Cora had been killed?

  Cora was gone, she’d met Alaric and started an affair, she wasn’t human anymore, and now she was on the verge of joining an ancient order of vampires who weren’t legitimate vampires because they didn’t actually kill anyone. Last week everything was normal, then one night she and her best friend chose the wrong time to go for a walk and now both of their lives had been changed forever.

  Because of Saul.

  Regardless of who in the motherhouse was working with Saul, Saul was the one who’d done this. He was the one who was responsible. They could search the house all they wanted, but it wouldn’t solve anything. Saul was the key.

  Suddenly, she knew what she had to do.

  Back in her bedroom she took off the cross Trina had given her and settled on the bed. There was still time before they met in the war room. She’d debated a few minutes on whether or not this was a good idea, but in the end she saw that it was her only option. Saul was the key.

  She laid back on the pillows, marveled at how fluffy they were. It was like laying on a cloud. Or at least how she imagined laying on a cloud might feel.

  She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. Tried to make herself relax. But the pressure of trying to make herself fall asleep was making her too tense to fall asleep.

  Sighing, she rolled onto her stomach and tried again.

  She nearly cried out when something—fingers—fluttered slowly down her spine.

  She opened her eyes. Slowly she rolled onto her back then sat up and looked around. She wasn’t in the motherhouse anymore.

  Saul lay beside her, chest bare. Those cold blue eyes fixed on her face, his lips pursed, as though he’d been moments from bending to her and giving her a kiss. A velvety coverlet covered them, but it had either slid to just past his hips or he had artfully set it there. The effect was precisely what he wanted. The sight of him, the curve of his hip, drew her eyes, as did the trail of curly black hair running from the center of his abdomen down under the covers. One thigh lay exposed. The muscles bunched and tightened as he rolled toward her. She was, quite suddenly, breathless.

  He was beautiful. She tried not to look at him, but he drew her. She couldn’t seem to look away. And the thought of his blood put her in a near swoon.

  “Saul,” she said, surprised by the breathlessness of her voice.

  He stared at her, those fathomless eyes seeing into her soul.

  “Saul,” she said again, suddenly wanting his name on her lips, “you’re here.”

  “I can be anywhere I choose to be.”

  “Did I call you?”

  “I am your sire, I know what you desire.”

  She tried to clear her head, but being around Saul was like being intoxicated. She had to focus.

  “I know your secret,” she said.

  This made him smile. “What secret is that?”

  “About your creatures. You’re army. Some of them are Talhari. Or at least they used to be Talhari.”

  “That’s no secret. At least not for me. Nobody was smart enough to figure it out. Until you.”

  “I’m sure it’s a secret to someone. Whoever in the Talhari is helping you, for example.”

  “You know who I am, what I am, yet you assume I need help.”

  “Yes.”

  “No, I don’t.” He moistened his lower lip with a tongue, then went on. “Embeds, those little psychic connectors, how they make the Talhari crazy. With embed implants they have no choice but to murder and once they murder they are outcast.” His grin turned sinister.

  “They’ve begun inserting the embeds?” she asked.

  “They’ve been inserting embeds. What do you think Dr. Giles does down there all day long? And not just on the Talhari.”

  Sydney’s mouth went dry. “He’s using undesirables?”

  “This is why they’re all just a little different. Some can speak, some cannot. Some have muzzles, some have mouths, but they all have embeds.”

  “But they weren’t supposed to start implanting embeds yet. Alaric—”

  “Enough talk,” he announced. He slid an arm around her waist, pulling her close. So close she could smell the sweet, musky scent of him. It was a delectable aroma that reminded her of the taste of him.

  He pressed her into the bed beneath him. She couldn’t muster up enough desire to struggle against him. She wanted this. She wanted his blood.

  She knew the bite would come before she felt his teeth on her throat, felt his lips soft against her skin.

  “You are mine,” he said, then drank from her.

  Her back arched as he drew from her, the pressure far too intense.

  He sucked from her until she was weak and once again lay helpless beneath him.

  Now, she thought. Now he’d give her his blood.

  “You want to taste me,” he said into her ears.

  She nodded. “Please.” She knew she’d lost all control, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  She had to stop this. She knew she had to stop this.

  Instead, she stared up at him, waiting for the moment. But instead of slicing his own throat, he sat up. The absence of his body made her cry out. Then, from the other side of the room a door opened and footsteps sounded.

  She tried to sit up, but couldn’t. She was too weak from the blood loss.

  A man came into view. Not as tall as Saul, but dark haired, with wide brown eyes and a countenance that told Sydney he couldn’t have been more than twenty. He was naked as the day he was born and, most disturbing of all, he was climbing onto the bed with them. He crawled toward her, stopped so he hovered above her. His naked thigh brushed against hers.

  It was warm.

  He must have been human.

  He smelled wonderfully of apples and spice and every good thing she’d ever eaten.

  “Take him,” Saul said, gently. “Consider him a gift. After that we can talk more about this secret of mine.”

  She looked from Saul to the boy, then back to Saul. “What do you mean?”

  “Have him.”

  The boy arched forward, displaying his neck for her. Almost instantly her face grew hot. Something was happening in her mouth. Her canines, they were lengthening for the kill. And the hunger. The hunger was too much.

  The throat was so close, and the fragrance of him.

  She thought of Lavinia then. And of Alaric having to kill her. Of Alaric going into the flames with her.

  Drawing on the little reserves she had, she shoved the boy as hard as she could, forgetting he was human and she was not.

  Even though she was weak, the boy catapulted across the room, slammed into the far wall and slid to the floor in a heap.

  “Oh no,” she said, terrified she’d killed him.

 
From the corner of her eye she saw Saul rise. His normally beautiful countenance seemed to have twisted into something grotesque. His fangs flared over his lower lip, his eyes were blood red, and talons lengthened from the beds of his fingernails.

  And he was coming for her.

  “You dare defy me!” he yelled.

  “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

  He moved forward, hands reaching out for her.

  Her eyes popped open. She looked to the left and right.

  She was back at the motherhouse.

  Saul was gone.

  She looked around the room again, too scared to believe he was really gone. But there was no sign of him. And he hadn’t followed her back. He might be able to pull her from her dreams and transport her wherever he wished, but he couldn’t follow her into wakefulness.

  She struggled to a sitting position. He’d drained her almost completely, but she wasn’t human now and didn’t think she had to fear death. Hunger and discomfort, yes, but that was all.

  He’d nearly killed her at the end, she was convinced of that, but the trip hadn’t been a bust. She knew he’d been creating an army with Talhari and undesirables. He’d said he hadn’t had a contact at the motherhouse, but someone had to know what was going on. Figuring out who wasn’t too hard. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but to her thinking it could only be one person. She had to get her energy up so she could tell the others.

  She slid the cross back over her head, then lifted the phone on the nightstand and ordered a bottle of blood be brought to her. It felt surreal to be doing such a thing, but she supposed this is what life in the motherhouse meant. If she’d been home and this happened she had no idea what she would have done. How to deal with such hunger. She would have been a danger to everyone in her neighborhood.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She was seated at the dining room table of the war room. Trina was to her left, Joshua to her right. Rhonda sat across from her, Paul between Rhonda and Trina, and Alaric paced. Every few minutes he looked down at his watch.

  “Where is she?” He said for the fourth or fifth time. Sydney wasn’t sure, she’d lost count.

  “She’ll be here as soon as she can get here,” Rhonda said, beginning to show signs of impatience herself.

  “Why don’t you tell us now?” This was another phrase Alaric had repeated more than once.

  “What I have to say won’t take long.” Sydney sipped at her coffee. The blood had rejuvenated her, as she knew it would. She didn’t need the coffee, but oddly, she still enjoyed the taste.

  The door to the war room opened and the SG entered. Once again, Sydney admired her fashion sense. Today she came donned in a wool skirt, tights and knee-high boots. She looked like she should be the head of some fashion magazine, not a coven of vampires.

  “What is so urgent?” she asked, walking to Alaric.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. He nodded to Sydney. “Can you tell us now?”

  Sydney pushed back from the table and turned her chair so she was facing the two of them. “The Talhari who react poorly to the embeds, who murder despite the law, what do you do to them?”

  The SG stared at Sydney, a fine crease forming between her eyebrows. Slowly, she grabbed a chair and settled into it. “We sedate them and put them down.”

  Alaric turned on her. “You’ve begun inserting embeds?” he demanded. “When?”

  “For quite some time,” Sydney answered for the SG. “And if they don’t respond well you kill them?”

  “Yes.” The SG tented her fingers and rested her chin on them.

  “All of them?”

  Here, she paused. “Why do you ask?”

  Alaric stepped closer to where she sat, face grim. “With all due respect, please answer the question.”

  The SG looked at everyone at the table, then at Alaric. “Those who respond poorly are put down. That has always been the plan. At present we’ve stopped the embed program. The response wasn’t what we were hoping for.”

  “They were all violent, weren’t they?” Sydney asked, “And their bloodlust was stronger than normal?”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Did you put down all of the Talhari who received embeds?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “And what of the other prisoners who Dr. Giles tested on?”

  Paul rocketed to his feet. “What is she saying?”

  Alaric looked at Sydney. “That’s not funny, Sydney.”

  “I’m not joking,” Sydney said. “This explains why none of the creatures look exactly alike.” She snorted. “It was like walking into the Island of Doctor Moreau out there. You didn’t wonder why that was, any of you? It’s because testing was done on many different types of undesirables.”

  By now, Joshua too was on his feet. “Is this true?”

  The SG stared ahead at the far wall.

  “Is this true!”

  “Yes!” she shouted. “Yes, it’s true. We didn’t want to risk too many of our kind. Once the first trials showed the uncontrollable blood lust we switched to testing on undesirables. And why not? We have cells full of them.”

  “You put advanced technology—” Alaric turned away and paced. He was too angry to speak.

  “Advanced technology into the minds of our enemies,” Paul finished.

  “The embed program had to move forward. This was the only way.”

  “And who decided this?” Alaric demanded.

  The SG sat back in her seat and exhaled heavily. “The elders.”

  Alaric whirled on her. “So motherhouses all over the world are doing the same thing? Do you have any idea what a catastrophe this is? How in danger the elders have put the entire world?”

  “Saul is here in Lynchburg,” Sydney interrupted. “So perhaps nobody else has our problem.”

  “For now. And how does Saul fit into all of this?”

  “There was a breach,” the SG said.

  “A breach?” Paul asked, incredulous.

  “How many escaped?” Sydney asked.

  Sighing, the SG looked at her. “Two dozen.”

  The table erupted, everyone talking at once. Alaric had to slam his fists on the table for a good thirty seconds before order was restored.

  “Two dozen blood thirsty Talhari and undesirables escaped after receiving embeds and nobody thought to tell me?”

  “We were tracking them. We had the situation under control.”

  “Under control? These are the creatures who have been running rampant throughout the city. Twenty-four people may be dead.” He slammed the table again. “Or worse. How can we know that they’re not out there multiplying? I cannot believe nobody thought to tell me. And you know what we’ve been facing out there.”

  “I thought it was under control,” the SG said.

  “Where did the Talhari subjects come from?” Sydney interrupted. “Were they from other motherhouses? I ask because nobody has said anything about missing friends.”

  The SG straightened in her seat. “This was a trial testing. We couldn’t insert embeds into any of our own—”

  “You used the newly turned?” Alaric said. For a moment, he sputtered. “How could this kind of testing be done on novices? There’d be no way to predict how they’d react.”

  “We couldn’t risk our own,” she said again. “There are vampires in Lynchburg. True bloodsuckers who kill without regard for human life. We’ve watched and we’ve—”

  “You took their victims,” Joshua said.

  “We saved their lives.” The SG sounded defensive. “Without us they would have died. We brought them to the motherhouse and restored them. We gave them blood and looked after them.”

  “Two dozen escaped,” Trina said. “Two dozen.”

  Rhonda looked from Trina to the SG. “This is something that has been in the works for a while. How long have you been collecting bloodsucker kills?”

  “Seven months,” the SG said. “In that time we’ve monitored the subjects, weede
d out those with violent tendencies. We did nothing lightly.”

  Alaric dragged a hand through his hair. “Yet two dozen escaped.”

  “That’s not all,” Sydney said. “You believed you did what you did in secret. You thought nobody knew you were collecting bloodsucker kills, but your activities didn’t go unnoticed.”

  “What do you mean?” the SG demanded.

  “Saul knew. I don’t know how soon he knew, for all we know he could have had a plant among the newly turned. When they escaped, he was ready. I think he was the cause of the breach.”

  “And he’s told them to satiate their bloodlust,” said Alaric. “That’s why so many people have been murdered. The first kill is Saul’s objective. Their transfer from Talhari to bloodsucker. You gave him a ready-made army.”

  “But why?” the SG said. “Saul is timeless, why worry about our embed test subjects?”

  “I think Saul means to take the Talhari down,” Sydney said.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was close to two in the morning and Sydney was exhausted. They’d spent the last four hours making sure the motherhouse was secure. Knowing attack was coming put them on high alert. Basement windows and doors were bolted and fortified as well as all windows and doors to the outside. Some of the creatures had wings, after all.

  She stood at Alaric’s door. Knocked softly. She’d been going over how she’d start this conversation all day. Now that the moment was at hand, she was tempted to slink off and return to her bedroom.

  But she refused to do that. Alaric had pushed and she’d started to feel something for him. She hadn’t felt anything for anyone in a long time. She owed it to herself to see what this was and if it could go anywhere. She thought, without the intrusion of Saul and Alaric’s memory of Lavinia, it would have.

  Alaric opened his bedroom door, then stood at the entrance, staring at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I think we should talk.”

  He didn’t move, he didn’t motion for her to enter. “About what?”

  Meeting his eyes, she set her hands on her hips. “I don’t deserve this. At the very least you owe me an opportunity to say what’s on my mind.”