by A C Warneke
He released his grip on her and doubled over, spewing invectives at her. The Aradian laughed, obviously delighted with the exchange. “I see that there is no loyalty between husband and wife. And all of this time my pet has been pining away for his darling spouse. How long do you think you’ll be able to hold a grudge once you’re one of mine?”
“Go to hell,” Malorie growled. She gathered moisture in her mouth and spat a large wad at the bitch. It splattered across her exquisite face, giving Malorie a brief moment of satisfaction. The feeling quickly disappeared when the vamps holding her arms twisted them painfully behind her back. One of them grabbed her hair and yanked it hard, exposing her neck to the vile creatures. The Aradian’s look of horror faded as she wiped the spit from her face and closed the distance between them.
The corners of Taella’s lush lips curved upwards as she glided closer to Malorie, the venom blazing in her unnaturally brilliant blue eyes. Her hand raked across Malorie’s belly and tears fell unheeded down Mal’s face. Her baby….
But instead of excruciating pain of having her stomach ripped open, she only felt the cool night air fondling her skin through the shredded shirt. Her eyes shot open and she met Taella’s disbelieving eyes. As Malorie watched, the malice was rapidly replaced with unholy fear as the Aradian stared at the iridescent pattern dancing gracefully across her stomach and disappearing into her cargo pants. “He’s marked you? And so… so extravagantly?”
Malorie’s smile was grim, “Oops; it looks as if he has something worth losing after all.”
Taella’s eyes were bulging with terror as she paced the ground in front of Malorie, her finger tapping nervously over her lips and she mumbled incoherently. Then she paused, turning to Malorie with a slow, cruel smile. Closing the gap between them once more, she ran her fingers through Malorie’s hair, in a cruel mockery of a lover’s caress. “I think I will still allow you to be converted; of course, I will not be the one to do it.
“When he sees your lifeless body he will once again destroy all of the vampires in his grief.” She glanced around at her creations, a moment of regret in her eyes at the knowledge that they were about to be destroyed. She didn’t give any indication that she was going to suffer, which didn’t make any sense….
Sighing, Taella shrugged her slender shoulders and turned back to Malorie, “It will destroy him when your body implodes along with the others.”
“I’ll already be dead,” Malorie spat.
“And then, I think, I will go after Toby,” Taella continued, nodding to herself as she discussed her plans. She ignored Malorie’s anguished cries as she continued to taunt, “He will be all alone in the world, with both of his parents having been killed by Feryn. Of course I will let him grow up, until he is sixteen. I think sixteen is the perfect age to become a vampire.”
A guttural scream broke from Malorie’s throat making the Aradian’s smile widen. Vehemently, Malorie cried, “If you convert me, I swear to God I’ll kill you.”
“Tsk tsk,” the woman scolded. “If I die, so will you.”
“It’s a price I’m willing to pay,” Malorie vowed darkly.
“Jack, make her one of us,” the Aradian said, taking a step away from Malorie and then another and another. If Malorie hadn’t been watching closely, she might have missed the glimmer of fear that flashed behind the mocking eyes.
“I won’t be able to fuck her,” he complained, tugging at his impacted dick.
The Aradian waved her hand, her backwards retreat quickening, “Have Felix help; he’s always eager to get into a girl’s pants.”
“What’s your rush?” Malorie asked, numb to what was going to happen to her. Holding the Aradian’s eyes, she smiled, “Afraid to stick around?”
The woman laughed but there was fear in her eyes. “I have no need to get my hands dirty since I have no intention of turning you myself.” She turned to Jack and her smile returned, “In fact, I think you should have Travis convert her.”
“Travis is barely old enough to bite!” Jack complained. “She’ll be more animal than vamp, if he doesn’t kill her.”
“Then make sure he doesn’t kill her,” the Aradian ground out.
“But….” Jack looked at her with a mixture of bewilderment and devotion.
“You’ll still be able to have your fun with her,” the Aradian said, turning around now and talking over her shoulder. “And she’ll be less trouble when she is one of us.”
“I don’t want to do it,” a muscle-bound vamp raised his hands in the air and stepped back, his pale eyes wide and afraid in his head. “There’s something… sparkling about that girl that is… wrong.”
No one seemed to pay any attention to the protesting vamp and as Taella disappeared from her sight, Malorie turned back to Jack. “Jack, please; I’m begging you; don’t do this. Either kill me or let me go.”
He shook his head though there was no remorse. “I’m afraid I can’t let you go; I’ve waited too long to have you by my side once again. The only thing I can do for you is change you myself.”
“What difference does it make?” she cried in despair.
“I’m powerful,” he said proudly. “Lady Taella converted me herself and she lets me feed off her more than any of her other vampires.”
Desperate to buy some time before she was killed or converted, Malorie blurted, “You don’t have to do this, Jack; she’s just using you.”
He ignored her, closing the distance between then and pushing her hair away from her neck. His dull brown eyes moved over her face and he smiled tenderly, “I’ll make this quick.”
“Don’t; please don’t.” Her voice fractured as she pleaded with him.
Bending his head, he took a deep breath from the curve of her neck, groaning in desire. “You’ve always smelled so delicious, Mal. I would spend hours watching you sleep, just to be near you; just to breathe you in.
“I remember when you would get out of the shower,” he smiled to himself and she could see remnants of the Jack she knew. “You always blushed when you saw me standing there but you would drop the towel and let me look my fill until I couldn’t bear anymore and I had to have you and we made love where we were standing. God, I’ve missed you.”
“She’s left you to die.” It wasn’t her husband standing in front of her; it wasn’t Jack. It was just a cruel monster wearing Jack’s body, remembering Jack’s life. It wasn’t Jack.
“Why are you fighting this, Mal?” Drawing the moisture from her cheeks, he looked down at her, his dull eyes still glistening with love. “Let me do this for you. Once you’re a vampire, we’ll be together forever.”
“Jack,” she breathed, sadness consuming her, pushing out the fear of dying. If she became a vamp, she had faith that it wouldn’t be for long; either Feryn would kill her when he finally showed up or she would take out the merciless Aradian who betrayed her own people, or she would die trying. “She killed you.”
“No,” he protested fervently, reaching up and trailing a cool finger along her cheek, “No, you’ll see.”
Malorie closed her eyes. She never should have gone to the mall on Christmas Eve; if she had just headed home, none of this would be happening. She could be enjoying the temporary peace with her son and father, working in the nursery, maybe even think about a more permanent home. Even if it meant never having met Feryn, she wished she hadn’t gone to the mall.
They were bearing her back to the hard ground and her only hope was that Jack would take too much blood and inadvertently kill her. Maybe if she had met Feryn under different circumstances it would have worked out. Granted, she couldn’t imagine ever just randomly running into an Aradian but it could have happened. Maybe he would have visited the nursery for… God, there was no reason for him to visit the nursery.
She hoped he would take care of Toby, protect her son from her if necessary, if she ever came after him to bring him over, to keep him by her side. She could only hope that enough of herself would remain to fuel her need to kill the
Aradian bitch first.
A cold, dead weight covered her body and Jack whispered, “Open your eyes.”
She wondered if Feryn would miss her once she was gone. She hoped he knew that she loved him; she wished she had had a chance to tell him. He had to know; he swept into her life and changed everything, teaching her so much about herself, both good and bad. A future with him would have been full of passion, both in the bedroom and out of it. Ultimately, she would have been happy, even on the days she would have wanted to kill him for his bull-headedness.
She loved him.
“Open your eyes,” Jack growled again.
Slowly, her lids opened and she saw the boy she had once loved. It had been an immature love, nothing like what she had with Feryn. Perhaps, in time, it would have grown into more but he had been so young when he was taken from her. She wished she could reach up and touch his face. Softly, she whispered, “I forgive you, Jack. I’m so sorry that it has come to this.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at her, not sure what to make of her. She wasn’t the same girl he knew; that girl had been young and desperate, a fighter. His expression hardened once more, “I don’t need your forgiveness.”
Then he bent his head and sunk his teeth into her neck, forcing a cry from her lungs. Twisting her body, feeling it ripping her throat, she squeezed her eyes shut and cried, “Please stop! Please don’t do this! Jack!”
Excitement filled the air as the other vamps smelled her blood; even after the destruction they were still getting off on her conversion. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she felt her blood rushing through her body to her throat, to Jack’s mouth. It wasn’t nearly as erotic as when Feryn drank of her; it was cold and dark. True death.
Her legs were buzzing, her fingers were stiff, and her head was pounding hollowly. She was going to die because Jack didn’t seem to be able to stop. God, she wished she would have been able to see her child one last time, to let Toby know how very much she loved him; she wished she could have told Feryn how much she loved him. Maybe he knew. It didn’t matter anymore; she was floating above her body, warm, weightless.
She was finally at peace….
She was thrust back into her cold body as a flash of light illuminated the back of her eye lids, and then the weight of her vampire husband was gone. Silence descended and the blood lust that burned the air had disappeared. She opened one eye a crack and saw that the rest of the vamps were all gone.
She was lying in the middle of the deserted street wondering what had just happened. Lethargically, she brought her hand up to her neck and felt the slick blood pulsing from her wound. Jack didn’t take enough to kill her and he didn’t give her any of his blood but she was still bleeding pretty heavily. Wasn’t there supposed to be an enzyme in their spit to slow the bleeding down once they were finished drinking? Maybe they only released it once they were done. Maybe she was going to bleed to death after all.
A harsh laugh escaped at the thought; by some miracle she was saved only to bleed to death because she was saved too soon. Or too late. She wasn’t sure. It would have been nice if the vamps had disappeared before biting her.
Where did the vamps go?
Footsteps pounded towards her and she managed to turn her head enough to the side to see large, black boots approaching. A man fell to his knees next to her and she had to warn him. “It was Taella; she killed your son, not Jack. Taella.”
“Shh,” he whispered, his hands moving over her body, his fingertips pressing against her throat.
“But… Taella,” she said. Or tried to say; no sound came out of her mouth and she was too tired to try again.
“Oh, gods,” he cried, gathering her up into his arms and cradling her against his broad chest. His familiar scent washed over her and his heart pounded against her ear; it was the most wonderful sound in the world. There was a world of difference between the cold dead vamps and this, her warm, living Aradian. His fingers moved over her face, her neck. “I’m going to finish it.”
Malorie nodded, knowing that he had to kill her; it was the only way. Licking her lips, she forced her eyes to stay open, “I love you.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time but then his hot mouth moved over her throat and she felt the strong pull of his sucking, the rough rasp of his tongue. Her body shivered in pleasure and she had the brief thought that it was insane to desire him, to want to have sex with him, while he was killing her.
Unable to fight any longer, she let her eyes drift shut, falling into the blackness.
Chapter 17
Feryn stared out the window, replaying his earlier conversation with Malorie, feeling the strangest ache in his chest. Perhaps there was a reason Aradians did not fall in love; it was not a comfortable emotion. Absently, he rubbed the tender spot, picturing Malorie in his head, the tears that glistened on her eyelashes as she looked at him and begged him to go.
She was so young, even in human years. It was hard to fathom that he could love such a creature but he did. Desperately. He would give anything to see her smile, even carve out his own heart should she wish it. Gods, it had torn him apart to let her go. If he had to do it a second time, he would have to join the original Aradians on the next plane of existence and hope that memories of her didn’t follow him.
When he had walked through her memories, he had wanted to crucify every monster that had hurt her, both human and vampire. But that had been tame compared to what he wanted to do to that… boy she married. Every time that little prick touched her, Feryn had wanted to rip the boy’s fingernails off. When the boy made love to her, he went insane with jealousy, especially when the boy took his own pleasure without giving any in return. As much as the infant loved her, he was still very much a child.
It was not without some shame that Feryn felt an overwhelming sense of joy when she admitted that it was her young husband she was forgetting. As difficult as it was to believe that he had failed in changing her memories, it pleased him that she hadn’t forgotten him. After everything, he couldn’t seem to remember his reasons for sending her away in the first place; reflecting back, they were inconsequential and he had been a fool.
A blind idiot of a fool who almost threw away one of the best things that had ever been given to him.
It was extraordinarily obvious that there was something very unique and wonderful about Malorie Sinclair; she was unlike any of the Breeders that had come before in her abilities and her effect on him. He had never witnessed a Breeder with her talent with plants and it had taken his breath away when she had thrust her hands into the nearly dead greenery during their first interview and the thing came roaring back to life. In fact, only a few drops of her blood had created the lush garden she had puttered in while she was living amongst the humans.
And then there was her talent of sharing his memories; he still didn’t understand how she was capable of doing something that should have been impossible for a Breeder and nearly impossible for Breeder-born Aradians. It was a skill that had taken him hundreds of years to master and she simply... did it. He was certain she had untapped power that even she was unaware of; he was looking forward to discovering all of her secrets.
Most miraculously, she was going to be giving him another child. Words could not express the depths of his joy when he thought about the small being that grew in her womb; the little Aradian that was the best of both of them.
Even without the child he would have gone after her; he had started to disintegrate the moment he had taken her memories. By the time he had set her up in the human village, he was barely recognizable as Feryn. Without the child, he might have lasted another month, two at most, but he would have gone after her. The child was just an excuse to reclaim her sooner.
Who was he kidding? He would have been there in a matter of days. Every day that she had been gone, he had played a game: to see how long he could last before he had to check in on her. The first day he made it all of twenty hours; the second eighteen. By the end of the firs
t week, he was watching her just about every moment of the day and all through the night, wishing he knew what she was thinking, what she was saying.
And in those moments when she had spent time chatting with Jiro, he was twisted up inside with envy because Jiro could talk to her, see her, breathe her in.
He was surprised he had lasted as long as he did.
He would give her the time that she needed but he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. If necessary he would be on her doorstep every day, prepared to seduce her, cajole her, plead with her if it came down to it. He would do anything….
An overwhelming, soul crushing terror brought him to his knees; he could hardly breathe. Spikes of frost slashed through his body and his skin was on fire.
Malorie! Something was very, very wrong – he could feel her heart racing in his chest, the terror that was clawing its way through her belly.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on her as he stepped through the Netherspace only to come up against a block on the other side. Desperate to get to his heart, he slammed his fist against the invisible wall only to have it bounce off. Whoever was terrifying Malorie was very powerful; he or she had put up an effective force field; he was going to have to find a way to break through and pray that he didn’t arrive too late.
After only a few minutes that had seemed an eternity, he felt a sort of strange calmness wash over Malorie and he cried out in alarm; she was coming to peace with herself and her fate. Frantically he began to force his body through the dense space, ignoring the pressure on his cells; if he didn’t get to her soon, it wouldn’t matter if he joined his predecessors earlier than he would have wanted; this life would be empty without her in it.
