by K. L. Kreig
“So, let’s start with your skills.”
Easy enough. “Okay. I am what’s known as a reaper. I have the ability to take the powers of other vampires as my own, but only if they use them against me. I can also negate any power they try to use against me, but then I can’t procure it. So I have to be selective about the skills that I reap because if I can’t absorb it quickly enough, it could be deadly to me.”
She sat there stunned, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times before she finally whispered, “Wow.”
Rom had never really thought too much about his skills. He was born with them, had them his whole life and yes, they were mighty useful, but he’d be a liar if he didn’t admit that his mate’s look of awe was ego boosting.
“So, what kinds of things can you do?”
“I have many skills. Too many to count, but I can bend any element on Earth to my will. Fire, water, air. I can also manipulate anything in the physical or mental state.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, if I want to cause pain, I can. If I want to make someone fall to their knees in emotional agony, I can.”
“Can you do those things to me?”
Rising from his chair, he walked around the table and pulled her up into his arms. “No, beauty. Vampires cannot use their skills against their mates.” If they could, he was sure his father would have used them against his mother long ago. Instead his father used physical, verbal and emotional abuse as his weapons of choice. The simple, but effective, tools that humans also use against one another.
“And your father has the same powers?”
She was very intuitive. “Yes and no. We have similarly matched skills.”
She stepped back, leaning against the back of the couch. “But you can beat him, if it comes to that. Right?”
“I must.” There was no other choice.
“You visited him recently. Why?”
He needed to be much more careful with his words around her. One little slip up and she’d already caught it. “I had some … business that I needed to discuss with him.”
“But what could be that important to cause you to seek him out after over six hundred years of avoiding him?”
You.
How could he ever make her understand? How could he possibly tell her he’d loved another before her? That she was meant to be here today instead of Sarah, but the Fates had decided differently. It would crush her.
“Sarah …”
A resigned look on her face, she chose to let it go, whispering instead, “I’m scared.” Her soft caramel eyes were bright with unshed tears.
Fuck. So was he. For the first time in his life, he was petrified. And he had no one to blame for this predicament but himself. He’d questioned fate and by doing so, he’d put both his and Sarah’s life in jeopardy. He never should have set foot on that godforsaken continent.
“All will be fine, Sarah.” It had to be. He would settle for no other option. “But I do have things I need to do and I can’t take you with me.”
“But—”
“But nothing. Sarah, yes, as my bonded mate you’re stronger than you were yesterday, but you are years away from being able to use the full strength of your power. And I need all my wits about me where I’m going. I can’t do that if I’m worried about you.”
She nodded her head against his chest. “How long will you be gone?”
“Hopefully no more than two or three days.”
“Do I have to stay here by myself?”
“No beauty. I’ll speak to Dev, but I’m sure you can stay with him and Kate. But Jareth and Elliot will also accompany you.”
“Okay.” She gripped him tighter. “You’d better make sure you don’t get yourself killed or I swear I will spend all of eternity haunting your ghostly ass.”
He chuckled. “You’re something else, Sarah.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” she retorted.
Sarah had so many amazing facets to her personality. He only hoped he had hundreds of years to uncover every single one of them.
Chapter 42
Rom
He turned the flash drive over and over in his hands. Distraction was fatal and he couldn’t afford it. He needed to pull his head out of his ass and focus on the tasks at hand for the next few days.
Kill Xavier.
Kill his father.
In that order.
And the sooner, the fucking better. He was tired of this cloud of doom hanging over him, threatening the happiness that had eluded him so long.
“I found some rather disturbing developments at the last compound,” Geoffrey stated.
Rom waited for him to continue. It was after one a.m. and he wanted nothing more than to return to Sarah, crawl in bed with her and hold her in his arms all night long.
“The children appear to be growing at an alarming rate.”
Well, that got his attention. “Explain.”
Geoffrey got a faraway look in his eyes. “They keep these vamps locked up like fucking animals in cages from the time they are born until their last blooding. Even the babes. No touch, no comfort, no love. I had no idea until I stumbled across these last two compounds. I mean, of course I knew how the older ones were treated, but when you’re raising monsters, you have to cage the beast until he’s housebroken. But I swear I didn’t know about the babes.”
“You’re making no sense.”
He sighed heavily. “As you know, after the lords raided Xavier a century ago, he significantly diversified his operation, more than I even realized. All of the compounds I’ve been to have babes to adult vamps, so it was quite by accident that I discovered he had other compounds for just newborn babes. I found two such locations this week. My intent was a quick in and out to get records, a count of heads and a blueprint of the compound. But when I was downloading the data on the flash drive, I noticed that the birth records and charts do not match at all with normal growth patterns. At first, I thought that something was just wrong with the documentation, so I took a look for myself.
“Fuck. Babes, that were born just weeks, are the size of toddlers. I saw a two-year old who looked like a ten-year old. I’ve been suspicious over the last few years that something wasn’t quite right, because kids were becoming adults so quickly, so I thought maybe more women were kidnapped than I knew about, but never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this. Xavier does a lot of shit behind my back, some of it I find out about, some obviously I don’t. He’s harder to keep up with than two-bit whore.”
“How does it work?”
“I don’t know exactly. Hopefully, some of the records I took will help. But I need to talk to the researchers. Give me a day or two, tops.”
Rom thought back to the rogues they’d come across during the last raid on Xavier. They were definitely larger and more powerful than he’d seen before. Too much so for them to be normal vamps. During the heat of battle, he hadn’t given it too terribly much thought and of course he’d been otherwise occupied since then, but he should have considered this. And what exactly did it mean? Of course, all adult rogues would have to be destroyed, but was there any chance to save the young ones and give them a better life or did they need to be destroyed as well? That thought made him surprisingly melancholy.
“How is it you didn’t know about this until now?” Rom knew Geoffrey was telling the truth, but something wasn’t adding up.
“I think I may have pieced together a system that Xavier’s been using to give just enough information, but not all, to any one vamp. Each compound works in seclusion from the others so there is no chance of duplicity. From what I’ve been able to uncover, I believe there are several of these “babes only” locations. I’ve found five. There may be more. I have some more recon to do before I’m sure exactly what he’s doing, but what’s clear is that not one person is privy to everything. Including me.”
“Are the kids salvageable?”
Geoffrey scrubbed his hand over his chin. “Perhaps
some of the very young ones. I really don’t know. Who the fuck knows what kind of chemicals may have been pumped into their tiny bodies by the time we rescue them? The vamps coming out of these compounds are ruthless, heartless killing machines. They all need wiped out.”
“Would you put yourself into that category?”
Geoffrey laughed. “Of course. But I won’t go down easy.”
“I would expect no less.” Rom hadn’t decided whether Geoffrey should live or die at the end of this mission. He fell squarely into the ruthless killing machine category, but he also knew that this life had been forced on Geoffrey and he had attempted to right his wrongs.
Geoffrey leaned back in his chair, balancing precariously on the back two legs. “I want to talk about your father.”
“Good for me that I don’t give a flying fuck what you want. We’ll meet again here in three days’ time. Keep your burner on in case I need to reach you earlier.” Rom stood to leave, throwing a twenty on the table for his untouched beer.
“I want to offer my services.”
He laughed loudly, drawing attention from the humans surrounding them, but they all quickly shifted their attention away when he looked around the room. Most humans weren’t dumb. They knew a predator in their midst when they saw one.
“And what makes you think I’m in need of your services, vampire?”
“Your friend seems genuinely worried about you.”
“She needn’t be.” Rom shifted around the table to leave.
“I would like to repay you for saving my life. And then we’re even,” Geoffrey stated flatly.
“You assume that I intend to let you live after we’re through with this business endeavor. You put Damian’s mate in danger. Both he and Devon want your head on a fucking stake.”
“But I also saved her life. And Devon’s mate’s life.”
And my mate, he thought, but Geoffrey didn’t know that, and he wasn’t about to tell him, or let him anywhere near Sarah for that matter.
Rom always relied on his own skill and it was a tough pill to swallow to think he’d have to rely on anyone or anything else, but even he knew when to shove aside his pride and ego and call in reinforcements. He’d been wracking his brain to figure out how he was going to kill his father without killing himself in the process, and if Geoffrey could be useful to that end, he’d take the stupid fuck up on his offer.
“I’ll consider it. Should you live through the coming battle, that is.”
Geoffrey nodded once.
And with that, he exited the bar, flashing back to Dev’s estate.
“I need you to look at this and have a summary ready by tomorrow afternoon,” Rom said as he passed off the flash drive to Circo.
“Yes, my lord.”
“There may be a lot of information on that and there have been some new medical developments that we don’t have time to dive into right now. By morning I need compound layouts, human and vampire headcount at each facility and the like. Tomorrow evening we have a meeting at eleven thirty to review all intelligence we have so far. I expect you there with a full report.”
“Of course, my lord.”
Rom turned to head to the room where Sarah was sleeping, but Circo’s statement had him turning back.
“Just so you know, my lord, I intend to make the trip to Romania with you.” Rom had planned to have Circo stay back and take care of Sarah. He trusted his staff implicitly, but no one more so than Circo. Sarah was by far the most precious thing to him and he would not leave her vulnerable.
“That sounded suspiciously like a command coming from someone who is under mine.” Rom took orders from no one and no one dared to do so, except now maybe Sarah. Surprisingly, the thought of that didn’t bristle him like it would have a few days ago.
Circo’s face remained impassive. “You, and now your mate’s, life is my priority. You need me and I will not let you head into the mouth of the lion’s den alone. If you take that as me commanding you, then I guess that’s what it is. But I won’t take no for an answer.”
Laughing, Rom said, “Have a death wish, Circo?”
“No, my lord. But I have no death wish for you either.”
Well … shit.
“I have no fucking idea why I put up with you,” Rom grumbled, turning on his heels to head to his mate so he could climb in bed and hold her until dawn.
“You love my sunny disposition, my killer smile and my mad research skills. Oh, and the fact that I’m the only one with balls enough to stand up to you,” Circo called after him.
That was true. Other than the lords, Circo had been the only one to ever verbally challenge Rom and get away with it unscathed. That is until a warm honey-eyed, curvy vixen caught his eye across a dining room table a few weeks ago. Now, he was challenged on a daily basis and had a feeling that he would be every day for the rest of his life. He looked forward to every second of it.
With anyone else that would be enough to get his powers flaring to life, but when Sarah did it, the only thing flaring … was his cock. Which it was doing right now at the thought of lying next to her sleek, naked body.
Screw holding her until morning. He was going to be buried inside her sweet heat for hours instead.
Chapter 43
Sarah
Two men—no, vampires—who looked like strikingly like Rom were talking in hushed tones in the corner, but she heard every word as clearly as if they were being whispered in her ear.
“She will find him.”
“She can’t be trusted.”
“She can, father. She hasn’t seen him since he left over six hundred years ago. She has no allegiance to him now.”
“She’d better not. Or it will be her head.”
“What will you do once he returns?”
“Give him an ultimatum, like I should have done long ago. Rejoin our family, our life, and restore his, and my, honor and live. Do not, and die.”
Who the hell were these people? Was this Rom’s father? And did that make the other Rom’s brother? He hadn’t mentioned that he even had a brother. Why did he look and feel so familiar? The physical resemblance that he, in particular, bore to Rom was eerie and a funny feeling sat hard in the pit of her stomach.
“He will not.”
“Then he will die.”
“We need to know what powers he has gained, father, so we are victorious. I’ve heard he is very powerful.”
“He won’t kill me. If he kills me, he kills his mother and he hasn’t had the balls to do that in over six hundred years. But even if he thinks he can, we have your secret weapon, do we not Taiven?”
Taiven’s smile was evil, but there was something else underlying. Something Sarah couldn’t quite decipher. Something that was good. Why did she feel like she knew this vampire already? Malevolence rolled off the other vampire in almost visible, potent waves that made her sick, but that same vibe was not present in Taiven. His evilness was a shroud, a cover-up, but it was so evident to Sarah she didn’t understand why the other vampire couldn’t recognize it.
“When is she to report?” the man, whom Taiven called father, asked.
“She is due home tomorrow with an update. Romaric has remained elusive for all these years, so I suspect it may take some time to locate him.”
“For the sake of her own life, she’d better hope her search bears fruit. What of our other project?”
Sarah noticed a visible change in Taiven at that question. He was barely able to control his rage. Again, this was so clear to her, but the other vampire seemed completely oblivious.
“Another shipment is due within the week.”
“Good. Good. I would like to sample the wares this time. Make sure they are … untainted.”
A sneer crossed Taiven’s face. “They won’t be untainted if you sample them.”
Anger rolled off the other vampire. “You think to deny me?”
“I do believe that I am in charge of this aspect of our business, father.”
S
uddenly an unknown force hurled Taiven across the room and held him pinned high against the stone wall. He wailed in obvious agony.
“I do believe you have forgotten your place, Taiven,” the other vampire stated flatly.
As quickly as Taiven was held to the wall, he was released and now lay panting on the floor.
“I’ll expect you to personally escort me.” He turned and walked away without waiting for a response.
Taiven stood, brushed himself off and shifted his eyes directly to hers. Sarah sucked in a breath, fear permeating every single muscle. His heated gaze traveled slowly over her, lingering on the swell of her breasts, almost as if he knew her intimately. Something niggled in the back of her brain that made her very uncomfortable. Something she didn’t want to examine too closely. She was dreaming, she knew it, and while she could see people in her dreams, they didn’t really “see” her, per se, like what was happening now. This was just as real as if she were standing in the flesh before him. And she knew he wouldn’t forget their conversation, like everyone else before him.
Wake up, wake up, wake up, she chanted. Over the last few months, Kate had helped Sarah tremendously to have control of her dreams, but waking at will wasn’t one she could master. The dream ended when it ended, and not a second before.
“Yes, dreamwalker. I see you. And I’ve been waiting for you. Sarah.”
Holy balls. He knew her name?
“Yes, I know who you are, Sarah. I’ve been watching over you since you were born. You are Romaric’s new lovely mate.” She didn’t miss his eyes as they moved to the intricate mating mark wrapped around her left thumb or the flare of jealousy that was quickly gone. “Lucky him.”
Gulp. That nagging sensation picked up speed, refusing to be ignored. The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach intensified. Had it been him all along instead of Rom?
“I need to meet with my brother.”
“Who’s your brother?” She knew exactly who he was referring to, but they’d never mentioned Rom’s name so she wasn’t about to.
“Don’t play dumb, Sarah. You’re far above that.”
