by A C Warneke
“Malorie,” he protested. His hand came up and covered hers, the pleasure of his touch almost making her forget her plan. But she wanted to know. “It’s not a good idea.”
“Trust me.” A faint smile curved her lips as she said the words. How remarkable it would be to have this powerful man trust her.
Holding her eyes for a long moment, he gently took her hand in his, bringing her wrist to his mouth. Moist heat warmed the delicate skin a heartbeat before there was a pinch of pain and then intense pleasure. She wanted to close her eyes but she was fascinated by the look of rapture on Feryn’s face as he drank her blood, his eyelids heavy. Her chest rose and fell with each rapid breath and it took all of her will power to breathe, “Stop.”
Slowly, he opened his eyes and she had to inhale sharply at the swirling depths of… of… life that danced within. Still holding her gaze, he brought his own wrist up to his mouth and bit down. Lost in the moment, she almost didn’t realize he had pressed his bleeding arm to hers. Memories and emotions rushed through her – his memories and emotions; too many to comprehend any of them. She let herself fall into them, concentrating on Varick. Her body slumped against his as she remembered and she felt his strong arms go around her before she was in his head, his memories.
The low lying fog swirled around him as he walked through the warm night, the smell of rain heavy in the air. He approached the old Victorian house with no small measure of loathing. It was like all of the other houses Taella’s vampires had set up in various college towns across the country, only this one had his son on the inside. As much as he loved Varick, he didn’t always understand what his son was thinking. And taking up residency amongst vampires was right up there at the top of crazy notions Varick had gotten stuck in his head.
The sounds of loud music and boisterous laughter spilled out of the open windows, making Feryn cringe; there were so many humans in there, so much temptation for the vampires. That was another thing he did not understand, this apparent death wish by so many humans. It seemed the entire race was on a collision course with self-induced extinction; why should he care whether or not one of the paths was to be a vampire’s dinner?
He had to turn to the side as he entered since a pair of drunken co-eds was in the process of mating right in the door way. Grinding his molars together, he made his way up the stairs, trying to ignore the flagrant sucking of blood and shameless couplings between the vampires and humans. He could only shake his head in antipathy as he saw a vampire use mind control to make the human puppets preform acts of such depravity, such debauchery; it could only come from the heads of a creature that had too much time and not enough worries. It was a toss-up to which group was responsible for any of it, human or vampire.
It gave him little comfort that the humans that were being fed upon, that had already been bled, looked at him with some reverence as he passed. With a long-suffering sigh, he pushed the bedroom door open and saw his son on the bed with a pack of females, all human. Varick was sucking at the neck of one female while another was bobbing her head between his thighs. Yet another stroked over his naked torso and a forth was kissing his throat.
Feryn remembered what it was like to be so young and couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t the vampires mind that you’re plundering their pets?”
“Father!” he gasped, his cheeks turning red as he struggled to free himself from the mass of naked limbs and nubile bodies. As soon as he extracted himself, he stood before his father, his spine straight and his bearing proud, despite his lack of clothes. He had to discourage one or two of the girls but he did so as discretely and kindly as possible.
“Come,” Feryn said, nodding his head towards the door to a private chamber. “Let us have a talk. I can wait until you’re dressed.”
Leaving his blushing son, Feryn smiled, making his way to the private chamber at the top of the floor, the room Taella kept for visiting Aradians. Taella did a remarkable job of keeping the smell of sex and stale beer out of the chamber and while he waited, Feryn poured himself a brandy and sat back in the sumptuous, leather chair. He had to hand it Taella for her selection in furnishings and alcohol; he could almost forgive her for her penchant for vampires.
“Father,” Varick said, scrambling into his shirt as he entered the room. Searching Feryn’s face for answers and finding nothing there, he asked, “Why did you want to see me?”
“I think you know,” Feryn said, a smile playing about his lips as he studied his son over the top of his glass. Varick had really grown into a remarkable man; more powerful than the boy perhaps realized and still so in awe of the world around him, even after four hundred and fifty years. An up swell of paternal pride filled Feryn and he had to restrain himself from taking his boy into his arms and hugging him tightly.
“I know you don’t trust them but these vampires are different,” Varick opened with the familiar volley. “I promise you, father, we could exist in peace if we got the other vampires to follow the… code Taella’s vampires abide by.”
“You’re a fool to believe vampires can be so easily controlled,” Feryn said with a smile to take the sting out of the worlds. His son was perhaps a bit naïve but he was not a fool. “We allow the vampires to exist until they become a nuisance, and then we cull out the more… violent ones.”
“But there has to be more to this life than simply… watching; I want more,” Varick pressed, the passion of his convictions burning in his emerald eyes. Plopping down in the chair next to Feryn’s, Varick continued, “Vampires can live amongst humans and remain undetected; they can survive without killing the donor.”
“And how do they explain the blood loss, son?” Feryn asked, amusement lacing his voice.
“The humans chalk it up to too much alcohol,” Varick said with a graceful shrug. “You would be amazed at how much can be blamed on drinking too much.”
“And the degradation of those humans out there?” Feryn popped an eye brow, waiting to see how his son would respond; Varick always had a soft spot for humans.
“Taella says she has to let her vampires have a little fun and if no one gets hurt,” Varick let his words trailed off, obviously having a difficult time justifying the behavior in question. With a heavy sigh, he added lamely, “They’re college kids; it’s expected of them to engage in questionable behaviors; they call it experimenting. The vampires just let them experiment a little further outside of their comfort zone.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Feryn murmured dubiously, unable to hide his amusement and concern. “And what about you? In all of the years you have spent amongst Taella’s vampires, have you grown so jaded, then?”
“I haven’t,” Varick protested, gazing into the flames of the fire.
“Let the boy be,” Taella purred, sauntering into the room wearing a black silk dress that was painted onto her body. She moved with the predatory grace of an Aradian but there was something even more elemental about her, something primal and powerful. Her eyes were surprisingly bright for someone so enamored of vampires. “He’s only having a little fun; or have you forgotten what it was like to be so young?”
Feryn choked out a brief laugh at her words as she draped herself across his son’s lap, her arms wrapping around Varick’s neck. He tilted his head to the side, watching the interesting play of emotions on Varick’s face: unease, anticipation, hunger. What kind of fire was his son playing with?
The memory changed and Feryn was standing beneath a full moon, his heart thrashing unbearably hard in his chest. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath and he knew, to the very depths of his body, that something was wrong. His son.
Wildly, he tried focusing on Varick but couldn’t get a reading, a signal. Balling his hands into fists, he concentrated on Taella, forcing breaths into his oxygen starved lungs as he stepped through the Netherspace. He arrived at the latest addition to Taella’s vampire nests moments later, frantic to reach his son.
Bursting through the door of her private chambers, he rushed, “Where is…. Oh, God.�
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Taella held the limp body of his son, blood spilling out of the gaping wound in his chest, the gash along his throat. The color had been leached out of Varick’s face and there was no life left in him at all. He ignored Taella as she looked up at him with tears streaming down her face, “Feryn, your son.”
With an anguished cry, Feryn fell to the ground, gathering his child up into his arms and cradling the boy to his chest. Ignoring the blood that stained his hands, he rocked his son, unable to accept what he was seeing with his own eyes. Raising his head, he glared at Taella with all of the agony in his heart, “How could you let this happen?”
“It wasn’t me,” she protested fiercely. “It was those Blade Soldiers; a group of them came in and started killing my vampires. One of them mistook your son for a vampire and staked him.”
“That wouldn’t have killed him,” Feryn argued, absent-mindedly stroking the blood-soaked hair off Varick’s cool cheek. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he struggled to fathom the depths of sorrow he was experiencing.
“The man seemed to know something was different about your son,” Taella continued, not quite meeting Varick’s eyes. “By the time I managed to dispatch the monsters attacking me, it was too late; the bastard had held his sword in Varick’s throat, cutting off the blood supply long enough for him... for him to die.”
“No,” the word came out with barely a sound as Feryn’s heart shattered into a million pieces.
“My vampires weren’t a threat, he should have been safe here,” Taella choked out, her beautiful face ravaged by tears. “But those monsters made no distinction between my harmless darlings and the vamp-mad Aradians’ beasts; if they didn’t make such a menace of themselves, Varick would still be alive.”
Feryn was lost within his grief, barely hearing a word Taella was saying; knowing only that the predatory vampires had caused his son’s death. Taella’s voice continued to echo in his head, the only thing making sense in the maelstrom of his grief. “It’s because of vampires that take human lives that Varick died; annihilate the cause and there will be no more war.”
“No!” Feryn wailed once more, closing his eyes as he held his son. If the other Aradians could not control their abominations, he would. With every ounce of pain he felt, with every tear he shed, or would ever shed, he felt the power building within him. Power coursed through his veins, surging and crashing against the walls, spilling into his muscles and bones and tendons. He screamed once more, “No!
As the anguish became too much, he released it into the world, destroying every vampire that had ever taken a human life, that had made it so there was a need for humans to create soldiers to protect themselves. Power blazed around him as he took his madness out on the abominations that caused his son’s death.
He could feel the tainted energy of thousands of vampires being scrubbed from the earth, the collapse of vamp-mad Aradians as their power abruptly disappeared. He opened his eyes and looked at Taella, knowing that she had an army of vampires….
“Not my vampires, Feryn,” Taella whispered. “Varick wouldn’t have wanted innocents to suffer needlessly.”
“They are not innocent.” His voice was guttural and strange. At her pleading look, he made the decision to let them live; his son would have wanted it that way.
As he returned to his body, the rage-fueled power fading away, he bent his head and kissed his son’s cold forehead, not knowing how he was going to live without him. Not knowing how he was going to let him go….
Malorie gasped as she opened her eyes and looked up at Feryn, loving him and in awe of him. He wavered before her and she realized that she was looking at him through her tears. Bringing her hand up to her face, she felt the wetness of her cheeks and realized that she was still crying. Feryn’s fingers moved over her skin, concern etched upon his face, “What’s wrong?”
“I was there,” she gasped, scrubbing her hands over her face to remove the evidence of her tears. It didn’t seem to matter how hard she wiped or how quickly, the tears kept coming.
“Mommy? Are you okay?” Hearing Toby’s voice only made her cry harder. Wrapping her arms around her son, she hugged him tightly, wishing to always keep him safe, to always keep him near. His arms moved around her neck and she was sobbing against his head.
“Malorie,” Feryn murmured, panic edging into his voice. His hand pressed against her back, sending warmth deep into her skin. “Sweetheart, tell me what’s wrong.”
It was impossible to speak; all she could do was shake her head and cry. Feryn was trying so hard to comfort her but everything he did only made the tears worse. Finally, he gave up trying to coax her into speaking and simply brought her head to his chest and stroked her hair. The strong, steady beat of his heart was a balm to her wounded soul and she felt herself returning to normal. If she would ever be normal….
“I’m okay,” she panted a few minutes later, her head aching from crying so hard. She felt so foolish for succumbing to tears over a virtual stranger when she hadn’t even cried that hard for Jack. And then she felt guilty for realizing her shortcomings. But so much had happened after Jack’s death, not the least of which was the birth of Toby. After Toby was born, there hadn’t been any time to mourn….
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Feryn holding Malorie, Malorie holding Toby and Toby waiting patiently to return to the miniature garden he was creating. Letting out an embarrassed laugh, Malorie let her son go and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, avoiding Feryn’s searching gaze as he continued to hold her. “Tell me what that was about, Malorie.”
“It’s complicated,” she fudged, weighing the risks of telling him what had just happened and how it had happened. She kept her cheek pressed against his chest, gathering strength from his presence. It was so peaceful being in his arms, as if he could protect her from the monsters she had been battling for as long as she could remember. How could she help but love a man who loved his child so much? She would love him with everything until the end because everything ended.
If there ever came a time for her to be passed on to the next Aradian, she’d take Toby and find a way to escape. They’d disappear and once they established a covert base of operations, she would send a rescue party for her father. She would make a new life for them, something quiet and anonymous. They could live somewhere that would be nearly impossible to find…. It was going to be difficult, but she would survive; of course she would survive.
“Can you tell me what was the purpose of the blood?” he asked softly, his fingers slowly moving through her tangled hair, soothing and wonderful. It was going to be excruciating to give him up but she didn’t have a choice; it would kill her to stay if he turned his back on her. She just had to learn how to live without her heart. But she wanted her moment with him; she wanted to shower him with the love that threatened to pull her under.
Releasing the breath she had been holding, she took the leap, and whispered, “Um, I can sort of… experience your memories when we exchange blood.”
He was silent for a long, long time and Malorie was almost hoping he hadn’t heard her confession. She tilted her head back and took a peak at his face, faltering at the baffled and slightly disturbed expression he wore. “Feryn?”
“Breeders are not capable of sharing memories.” He spoke in a cold, incredulous voice. He bent his head and looked at her. “Very few Aradians are even capable of it. How….”
She shrugged her shoulders, snuggling back into his chest; she had hardly slept at all these past few days and sharing Feryn’s most devastating memory was taking its toll. Her eye lids were getting so heavy and she felt like she could fall asleep right where she was, that Feryn would keep her safe. But, more importantly, that he would keep Toby safe.
“Malorie,” his voice was urgent and her eyes popped open. “How did you do it?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, yawning so hard her jaw popped. “It just sort of happens when our blood mixes.”
He wrappe
d his hands around her shoulders and pushed her away from his warm body, his eyes scanning her face. A mixture of uncertainty and dread filled his gaze, “That is how you knew about me and my brother….”
She nodded; perhaps he was in awe of her now; that would be an interesting change. They were silent for a long time, thoughts and memories twirling around in her head. If she had been in Feryn’s place, she would have taken her revenge on the man responsible; but then, she was a bit blood thirsty when it came to protecting her child. With a scowl, she asked, “Why didn’t you simply kill the person responsible for your son’s death?”
“Despite what you may believe, I do not kill humans, no matter how deserving.” Though he smiled reluctantly, his eyes still held so much sorrow as he continued to examine her, searching for God knew what. “Perhaps I would have if I had had the power. But the man didn’t get away; Taella’s vamps took care of him soon afterwards.”
His words brought a flash of memory, jolting her out of her lassitude, of Jack proudly exclaiming, “I staked the vamp that got away.” And it all made horrible sense; Jack’s triumphant grin, his intense love making that night, his possessiveness. He had been a man obsessed, making love to her over and over, so careful of her rounded belly but determined to claim her. “Tell me you want me. Mal; tell me that you love me, tell me that I am the only one; the only one.”
He made her watch the two of them in the mirror as he kneeled behind her, his hands on her belly, his burning gaze holding hers in the reflection. “You’re mine, Mal; you belong to me.” Lovingly tracing the scars on her swollen stomach with the pads of his fingers, he growled possessively, “This is our child, Mal. Yours and mine.”
But the oddest comment came when he had worn himself out and lay sprawled next to her, gently squeezing her hand with his, “From now on, you won’t dream of any more vampires; you will dream of me, Mal; only me.”
