The Lunar Secret (The Ayla St. John Chronicles Book 3)

by C. J. Pinard

  “Ayla,” Kellan said, a hint of a warning in his voice. But when I looked into his ridiculously handsome face, I could see he was fighting a smile.

  I ignored him and looked at the driver. “Phil, you look like a Spike or maybe a Bull. And you, Maury—” I began.

  “It’s Maurice, not Maury, there’s a huge difference,” he replied defensively in a deep baritone voice, shaking his head.

  I waved my hand. “Regardless, you look like a Bugsy… or perhaps a Mace.”

  “Enough, child,” I heard Kellan say without moving his lips.

  “Bite me, K,” I said aloud, then quickly regretted my poor choice in words.

  The two in the front chuckled.

  “Or not,” I murmured.

  “We’re here,” Phil said, turning into the large driveway. He stopped and waited for the large, wrought-iron gate to move out of the way and allow us access.

  He parked the SUV into a gigantic detached garage, and after it was closed, we walked a few feet into the house.

  Phil and Maurice went their separate ways once we were inside with the door locked, both disappearing down different hallways. Kellan took my hand and led me to yet another hallway and I quickly recognized it as the one that led to his room. By the time we reached it, I was glad we hadn’t run into Jeffrey. I couldn’t get the visions of him munching on lilies out of my head.

  Once he’d closed the door, he locked it and faced me. I looked up into his face and without warning, he used his supernatural speed to move me around and pin me to the door. He had an unmistakable hunger in his eyes that I was sure matched my own.

  “I haven’t seen you in weeks, little wolf. Why is that?” he asked against my lips.

  He was making me crazy. I just wanted him to kiss me, undress me… devour me. Not ask me rhetorical questions.

  “Because you never called me. I’ve been around,” I replied, breathless as I stared into his glittering blue eyes.

  “I don’t think I’ve your number, love, or I would have rang you for sure,” he replied, his gaze drifting to my lips as he spoke. Then he lifted my hand to his mouth. He sniffed and then licked the inside of my wrist where my pulse was pounding wildly.

  “Exactly,” I whispered back. “We’ll have to rectify that. But later. You need to get naked first.”

  He laughed at my brazen demand and picked me up quickly. He then blitzed to the bed and tossed me down. My leather pants, tank top, and heeled boots were off within a blink of an eye. His black dress shirt, red tie, slacks, and expensive loafers were also off in record time.

  Kellan kissed me like he was starving and I was trembling in anticipation for him to devour me. He broke the kiss and trailed his wet mouth down my chin and to my neck. When his fangs pierced the soft flesh on my neck, I shuddered uncontrollably and moaned out his name.

  He wasted no time entering me, and we spent the next hour keeping the entire house awake with our breathy screams and groans of pleasure.

  Chapter 17

  I looked at the bedside clock and saw it was nearly four a.m. I was, for some reason, awake now. I looked over at the sexy vampire lying asleep next to me wearing nothing but a sheet covering his lower half. Those naughty hipbones were barely visible above the sheet, and I couldn’t resist running my fingertips lightly over them.

  “Fancy my sex lines?” I heard him ask a couple minutes later.

  My eyes widened and I laughed. “Oh yeah. And where did you hear that?”

  He chuckled back at me. “A drunk girl at the club lifted Maurice’s shirt and told him he had nice sex lines. He had to explain it to me.”

  I giggled before leaning down and kissing his right hipbone. “Well you have nice ones too.”

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, pulling me to his chest. It felt hard and cool against my warm cheek.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I am, actually.”

  He stroked my long hair. “I haven’t cooked in, well… forever, but I can try to make you something.”

  I sat up and smiled at him. “Nah, it’s okay. I will see what you have in that kitchen and make it myself. I know Jeffrey’s not a vampire, so I’m sure you have food in there.”

  I slid off the bed and went into the adjoining bathroom to clean myself up a little. As I walked back into the room, I picked up Kellan’s black dress shirt and slipped it on, and rolled up the sleeves. It went down to my mid-thigh.

  “Sexy as sin,” Kellan said as he buttoned up his pants and left himself bare from the waist up.

  We kissed all the way to the kitchen. When we arrived, Kellan said, “Lights,” and the recessed lights turned on.

  “Cool,” I said, smiling at his fancy voice-activated lights. I went to the fridge and opened it up. I found a carton of eggs and some cheese. I totally made myself at home by pouring a glass of juice. I then rummaged around until I found a pan. “You give Jeff the night off?” I asked.

  He nodded. “You sure know your way around a kitchen.” He was leaning against the island with his arms folded across his chest, and an amused look on his face. His black hair was tousled from our little romp and his toned and defined arms were flexing as he stood there. He had never looked sexier.

  “Damn.”

  He grinned. “Damn yourself.”

  Crap! I cursed myself. The comment was about him, not for him!

  I shook my head and said, “Stop distracting me, I’m hungry. Finish telling me your story.”

  He frowned, and I felt bad, but I wanted him to keep talking.

  “Or not,” I said, cracking two eggs into a white ceramic bowl. “I just wanted to hear more of what happened to you.”

  “Okay,” he replied. “Where did I leave off last time?”

  I thought for only a few seconds, and replied. “You drained the human girl in the bedroom.”

  Kellan sucked in a breath and nodded. “That’s right. The poor lass was dead because of me. Because that dirty arsehole decided to turn me into this. I dropped her body and cried out as grief engulfed me again. I screamed at the man as he stood and smiled at my pain. Then he told me something like, ‘You really must stop blubbering like a child every time someone dies. You need to toughen up if you want to survive in this life.’

  “I looked up at him and whispered, ‘Well, I’ll be dead before the sun sets. If you don’t do it, I will.’ Then he laughed and shook his head. ‘No, young fisherman, you cannot take your own life. It’s not possible.’

  “Of course I had no idea what he was talking about, but after the way I had drunk the girl’s blood and it had made me feel better, combined with how good it had tasted, I knew this man was the devil himself, and he had turned me into a demon. I assumed I was already dead at that point, and that I was in some kind of purgatory or perhaps hell itself.”

  I bit down on my lip and whipped the eggs with some water and salt and pepper. After adding a little butter to the pan, I poured the eggs in and folded them around the pan with a wooden spoon I’d found in a nearby drawer. “Go on.”

  Kellan watched what I was doing, and then continued. “The man, whose name I learned was Edgar, along with his female companion, kept me locked in that room day and night until I was surely about to go mad. I would scream and yell. I would cry out for my family, grieve that I never got to properly bury them or say goodbye. I don’t know for how many days or weeks he left me in there, but one day he came for me and told me to get up and follow him. Of course I did. I suffering from brain fever, and dying of thirst once again.

  “Once we left the house, he and the woman led me as we walked through a dense forest until we reached a village. I did not recognize it, nor did anyone in the village look familiar to me. I briefly wondered how far we were from Whitby, as I could not see or smell the river. In fact, the only thing I could smell were the humans as their blood called to me. I gripped my throat as Edgar and his companion led me into a tavern, the patrons staring at us. ‘Take your pick, Kellan,’ he said quietly to me.

  “I was confused and info
rmed him my name was Matthew and asked him why he had called me Kellan. He grinned and told me the name meant to wail and cry, and as I had ‘continuously bawled and screamed like a woman for days on end’, he thought the name was appropriate. Of course it made me angry and I told him, ‘I won’t be called that, nor will I be ordered around by you any longer, Edgar.’

  “He laughed again and said, ‘You’ll be by my side until I tire of you. Just like Genevieve.’ He looked at his companion and wrapped his long, pale finger around a stray dark curl that had fallen from her bun. She smiled at him and it made me sick.

  “I looked around the crowded tavern as drunks got rowdier, whores were looking to make some quick money, and others just sat quietly. Raucous music played from a small folk band in the corner. It was the first time I’d been out of that house in God knows how long, and all I wanted was to leave and get far away from Edgar and that town. I didn’t know where I would go, for I knew there was no way I could go back to Whitby, as I was sure by now the entire village thought I had killed Amelie and the baby since I had disappeared. I vowed to get away from Edgar, and knew I had to get into his good graces so he would begin to trust me. Once I gained his trust, I would kill his companion, Genevieve, and then him, in that order. It wouldn’t bring back my family, but I would be ridding the world of his evil.”

  I dumped the cooked eggs onto a plate and rummaged through the cabinets until I found some hot sauce. Kellan made a face when the smell hit him, and I grinned as I threw a couple dashes of it onto the steaming eggs.

  “So if that asshole gave you that name, why did you keep it? Why not go back to Matthew?” I asked before blowing on the food so I could eat it.

  “Unfortunately, it literally took me years to get close enough to Edgar to kill him. The name had grown on me by then. Nobody else had it, and I learned later on that it didn’t mean to wail and cry at all, but just meant slim and fair, and as I was both of those things after being turned, I kept it.”

  “So you did it? You killed Edgar, the guy who sired you?” I asked, totally enraptured in his story now.

  He shook his head. “I don’t like that term. It indicates some sort of loyalty or that respect is expected. I have none for him.”

  I set my fork down. “Have? He’s still alive? And also, killing my sire was pretty freakin’ awesome.”

  Kellan laughed. “Yes, I remember. And no, he’s no longer alive. I spent many years in that town Edgar had brought me to, which I eventually learned was called Danby, and I eventually befriended the town doctor. The old doctor had no idea what I was, but what he did know, was that my blood could heal just about anything. He never asked questions, I just let him draw blood from my arm once a month. He kept it stocked for illnesses he could not cure. After months of this, I called in a favor. I asked him for a very strong sedative, and he handed over a small draft of it, no questions asked.

  “It had taken me almost four full years to gain the trust of Edgar and Genevieve. There were times I could have run away and just left, but where would I go? I knew I would forever walk the Earth, miserable and seeking revenge if I didn’t end his evil life. I also knew he would come looking for me, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my days looking over my shoulder. It was bad enough that WANTED posters had appeared in our little town with my face on them, wanted for questioning in connection to the murders of my wife and son. When those showed up in town, that was the final straw. I knew it was time for me to leave. It was then I asked the doctor for the sedative. I used it on them that very night.”

  My eyes widened as I finished off the last of my eggs. “Oh, my God. Then what happened?” I set the bowl in the sink and rinsed it without taking my eyes from Kellan.

  He grinned. “I prepared cups of brandy wine I had told them I had purchased in town from the local winemaker. And it was true, I had purchased about a pint of it. I poured half the liquor into the cup, and filled the rest with the sedative. It had a distinct odor, but so did the liquor, and I knew they wouldn’t ask questions. And they didn’t. After finishing the drink, they both fell to the ground in a deep sleeplike state. I wasted no time decapitating Genevieve. My plan was going to be to leave her corpse there for him to see when he awoke, and once he saw her, I would stab him through the heart with a wooden stake just so I could see the fear in his eyes as he died.

  “You have to understand that during that time, there was a lot of vampire hysteria. It had bled over from the previous century when there were rumors of corpses rising from the dead and attacking their family members. So I had heard townsfolk discuss the making of wooden stakes, as they were thought to be the only thing that could kill a night demon. I obviously know now that isn’t true. With that being said, unfortunately, Edgar never awoke. I waited for what seemed like hours until I could wait no longer, as I knew the sun would be up soon. So, I drove the stake through his heart and he didn’t even flinch. I wondered if he had already been dead from the powerful sedative—that is, until I watched his body crumble to ash.”

  I cocked my head to the side as I sipped my orange juice. “Genevieve’s body didn’t turn to ash when you cut her head off?”

  He grinned at me. “No, she wasn’t a vampire. She was a witch. I realized years later she was why I could never escape from the room when they would lock me inside. She must have spelled my bedroom door, as it would not open unless she made it so. She could also walk in the sun, so I knew early on.”

  “Wow. So, you were home-free after that, huh? Where did you go?” I asked, hoisting myself up onto the kitchen island and sitting on it, my bare legs dangling off the side. I fingered a pink rose set in a vase with eleven others set next to the sink.

  Kellan shook his head. “I wish. Unfortunately, as I was removing the stake from his chest, the front door flew open and his brother came inside and saw what I’d done. He had barely caught Edgar’s body intact before it crumbled. ‘What did you do?’ he roared and went to what was left of his brother, running his fingers through his ash and clothing while howling in grief.

  “I didn’t respond, I just snatched up the small satchel I had packed and used my super speed to disappear from the house. I hadn’t known at the time that was his brother, but when he quickly caught up to me in the forest as I began to dig a hole I could sleep in for the upcoming daytime, I found out soon enough. I fought him as he dragged me back to the small house. I couldn’t spend another night there, and knew the man was going to kill me. He was bigger and stronger than me. He tossed me onto Genevieve’s corpse and told me I was going to pay for what I had done to them. I quickly explained what Edgar had done to my wife and son, and that he had never explained why he’d done it, except to say that he needed more vampire companions and that I was young and strong and would do. I told him how I had been their prisoner for years.

  “The brother, who I later learned was named Malcolm, shook his head and told me his brother had always been unstable, but that he hadn’t deserved death. I watched as he reached into the pocket of Genevieve’s dress and pulled out a small journal no bigger than his hand. He began to thumb through it, and looked at me. ‘You are the one she refers to as Kellan?’ I nodded slightly. He closed the book. ‘Kellan, my brother was made a vampire at a very young age. I was a bit older than he, but there was a big difference between us. You see, Edgar’s mother had been just a poor peasant woman our father used to pass the time with, but my mum was a witch. I can wield a spell with the skill of any experienced warlock, as her blood runs strong in my veins. Once I was made into a vampire, I gained even more strength.’ He looked down at the ash and clothing that was once his brother. ‘I will admit Edgar had developed an evil streak after he was turned, and it had gotten worse as time went on.’ He shook his head, and then looked at me. ‘But I cannot forgive what you have done here.’ He opened the book and began to chant in Latin, and I became very afraid. I had seen what witches could do as they were burned at the stake when I was human. I tried to get up, but Malcolm put his hand on my shou
lder and forced me to sit. After he was done chanting, the flames of the candles illuminating the small house roared high temporarily, startling me, and then they went back to their small flickerings. He opened his eyes, and with something between sadness mixed with excitement, he said, ‘I am going to let you live, young Kellan, but in exchange for your crimes against my brother and his companion, you will owe me two hundred years of servitude, after which time you will be free to go.”

  Chapter 18

  I felt like I was watching a movie as I listened to Kellan speak. As much as I’d come to accept the supernatural world, there were just some things that still seemed so surreal. The fact that this man—this vampire—was so incredibly old, but at times came off as a regular, twenty-something guy, was nothing short of mind-blowing. How had he stayed sane all this time? I would surely go crazy if I had to live for hundreds of years.

  But more importantly, the story he’d just told me was hard to absorb. I wasn’t stupid, I knew Linden was the Malcolm character in his story, and in fact, I could distinctly remember Karina mentioning him, too. Her brothers had been searching for Malcolm, as he had killed their maker also. I knew it wasn’t uncommon for immortals to change their name over the years, just as Kellan had once been Matthew. It explained so much, but I couldn’t let on that I knew about Malcolm. So I pretended to pick at the nonexistent dirt under my long nails.

  “So, that’s who you work for still? This Malcolm guy?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yes, but not for much longer. I really do loathe the man.”

  I looked up into Kellan’s handsome face. “So, how old were you when all of this happened? In human years, I mean.”

  He broke my gaze and stared absently at the pink roses. “Well, I had been twenty-two when I married Amelie, and our son was born a year later, when I was twenty-three, and that was the year I was turned. I was with Edgar for four years, which would have made me twenty-seven when I killed him and the spell was placed. I was born in eighteen-oh-eight, so it was the year eighteen-thirty-five when I became this. So I have a mere seventeen years until I am free from the spell.”