“Aww, thanks Jed. I really do like you, you’re so sweet. But I’m afraid my father will kill you.” Cera’s sweet smile curdled. “It has to be that way. Or people will find out we’re here. Once father’s got my magic back though, and cured me from the demon poison, maybe I can convince him to take you with us. But no, he probably wouldn’t like that.”
“But Elijah does know how to get your magic back,” he said quickly. “That’s why we’re here. We came to tell you the good news. Let me out of these chains and we’ll go find Elijah and Joelle. Yeah?”
“Really? That means I… wait,” Cera said, suddenly suspicious. “What if you’re bad once we’ve found them? I don’t like being tricked.”
“I won’t be bad, I promise. Then, after we’ve found them, we’ll all go back to Veneseron, yeah? It’ll be just like it used to be. All you have to do is get me out of here and I’ll make sure the Masters let you back into Veneseron.”
Cera hesitated. Jed held his breath as her hand slowly went to her pocket, pulling out a set of keys.
“But,” she paused. “I can’t betray Daddy. He’s looked after me all this time. He even gave me a pet imp from the city, because I was so homesick. But he was naughty, so I had to strangle him. It was fun though. For me, not him.
“You can’t betray Daddy, but it’s okay screwing over three thousand Venators instead? That makes sense.” Jed said before he could help himself.
Cera’s face contorted to rage as she struck him viciously, raking her fingernail across his cheek.
“Don’t be mean to me,” she sulked. “Or I’ll have to kill you as well.”
“Wait.” The thought came to him. “Don’t you want to see Evan again?”
Cera’s face lit up suddenly.
“He’s missed you terribly,” Jed continued.
“Has he said anything about me?”
“Yeah, he hasn’t stopped talking about you.”
“Oh I knew it,” Cera’s smile stretched from ear to ear, but then it melted suddenly. “But wait, Evan did something bad. I- I can’t remember. I, I think he killed my friend Kurrlan, didn’t he? I can never forgive him if he did.”
Bloody Rueda. Whenever he appeared to be getting somewhere with her, her mood swings, memory loss, or just general insanity got in the way.
“No, no, he definitely didn’t,” he began, but Cera wasn’t listening. She leaned in and, to his shock, caressed his shirt. “Evan doesn’t matter. It was always you I liked, not him.”
“Sorry, but I don’t go for nutters.”
“What?” she snapped mood changing erratically again.
Jed changed tack, an idea coming to him.
“I meant me too. I’ve always liked you Cera. I just didn’t want to hurt Evan’s feelings.”
“Really?” Cera giggled.
“Yeah, I used to daydream about kissing you,” he said, staring deeply into her eyes. “It’s okay, you don’t have to betray your father by untying me. But…if I have to die, can I at least have a goodbye kiss?”
“Oh, Jed. I never knew you felt this way,” Cera said breathlessly. “Of course.”
She leaned in close, her lips coming down to his. When their faces were inches apart, Jed struck suddenly, head-butting her.
Cera grunted and fell on top of him, knocked out.
“Bloody hell,” Jed panted. Shocked at what he’d done. He felt guilty, but knew it was his only chance of escape. Once he found the others, he’d see if they could take Cera back to the Fortress with them. Maybe there was a chance Vanderain could cure her insanity.
Quickly, before she woke up, he bent down and picked up the keys she held in her hands with his mouth. He then turned and spat the keys over his shoulder, so they landed on top of his tied hands. Then he got to work untying himself.
Chapter 43- The Evil Adonis and the Woeful Werepanther
“And who are these sexy newcomers?” Nalia purred, gazing at Lok and Tyrell. “I thought Arantay was treat enough, but now you’ve brought a dark and a gold option too.”
She was the first of the vampires to greet them as they returned to the church.
The vampires were playing cards and drinking wine at their giant table again. Nalia swept toward them at once, whilst the other vampires barely acknowledged their arrival.
Cazantian regarded them over the rim of his glass. “Still alive then? I half expected Vore to send us your remains in a body bag.”
“Who’s this charming fellow?” Lok smirked, although his eyes flashed.
“I’m a valuable ally,” said Cazantian, “what are you?”
“We’re the reinforcement Venators,” said Lyella. “Can’t you tell by the armour? Stupid.”
Lok chuckled. “Speaking of, we should cover our armour up, we sort of stick out. Maybe the bloodsuckers have some clothes for us. You’d look great in a corset, babe.” He winked at Lyella.
“Silence.” Malian interrupted them all as he entered the room, arriving from Hallia’s bell tower. “Our sire sensed a great commotion, and much anger. I take it your talk of peace fell on death ears?”
“We actually seemed to be getting through to Vore,” said Brooke. “But then one of his wolves went berserk, just like Andon, and everything fell apart.”
“That is most unfortunate,” Malian cursed. “Hallia has said your new companions are also welcome here, but she has not given up on forging an alliance with Vore.”
“Cool,” Lok yawned. “I’m shattered. You got a free bedroom?”
“Not exactly,” said Nalia. “We all share the crypts for our sleep. I can show you where if you-”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Lyella tartly.
As the others continued to talk, Arantay turned to Tyrell, muttering “can I borrow your Holophone?”
“Sure.” Tyrell fished it out and passed over the device.
“Why are you calling Veneseron?” Brooke asked, following Arantay as he left the church and back out into the night air.
“About you actually,” Tay said, moving round the side of the church and out of sight.
“I knew it.” She kept following him. “You’re going to ask them to send me back, aren’t you? You glarqing traitor.”
Arantay looked up at her in shock, his eyes meeting hers for the first time in a long time.
“What,” she continued, “you’re shocked that I’m angry at you, considering you’re treating me like a child, or a bumbling idiot. It’s my choice and I decide I’m seeing this mission out until the end.”
“But it’s-”
“Don’t, tell me it’s too dangerous,” she said, snatching the Holophone from his hands. “I’ve been in enough danger already, and I’ve survived haven’t I?”
“Barely,” Arantay breathed. She saw fear on his face for some strange reason.”
“When I…when I saw Selina almost cut your throat open. That was too close. I can’t let anything like that happen to you again. I don’t know what I’d do if you died out here.”
The strength of his words sent a warm shiver down her spine but she ignored it. She tried to ignore the way his silky scarlet hair fell across his shoulders and the way his crimson eyes stared back at her, the cat-like pupils piercing her own. She tried not to think about the way she felt every time he touched her. Even as she thought it, his porcelain hand came to rest on her arm. The touch of their flesh was electric, magnetic.
“I’m-I’m sorry, but it’s not your choice to make, Tay. You aren’t my protector,” she whispered. “Thank you, though… for caring.”
“I- are you sure?” He breathed back, his mouth so close that she felt the warmth of his breath. It was a luxurious scent, indescribable and delicious.
“I wouldn’t want you to stay here, just because you think I’d be angry or disappointed if you returned to Veneseron. There’d be no shame in it, Venators are always being pulled out of missions when the situation changes.”
“No, I’m sure. This is our mission. We were trusted with it. We can
finish it, stop any war from happening. I know it seems hard now, considering what went down tonight. But I believe in us.”
Her arm began to tingle where he held it. It was cold, but nowhere near as cold as Cazantian’s touch had been. Vampiric blood did flow in Arantay’s veins but so did so much more.
The frown on Arantay angelic face disappeared, and he nodded slowly. “You’re strong Brooke, and brave. Sorry, I was wrong to assume you aren’t ready for this. You’ve been just a part of this mission than I have. More, now that I think about it. I’ve messed up too many times already. Maybe I should be calling Veneseron to get them to send me back,” he laughed weakly.
“No,” she said, reaching up and cupping his cheek in her hand. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“But I- the first time we met Andon, he got the better of me. He could’ve killed you then. And next with the Rakarn. I haven’t looked after you at all.”
“And I told you, you don’t need to be looking after me,” she replied. “I can do it myself, like I can make choices for myself.”
Then she made another choice, leaning in and acting on her impulses, claiming his mouth with her own.
He kissed her back, hard. Wrapping a hand in her hair and deepening the kiss. His other hand came to rest on her lower back, she felt like she could feel his touch through her armour. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins and set her aflame, she wished for nothing more than to be able to melt into his beautiful, inhuman embrace.
It was something she’d never experienced; she lost herself in his arms. Brooke had almost forgotten how good it felt when his lips touched hers.
Then he was gone. The moment passed and he was stepping away. They stared at each other in shocked silence, both breathing heavily.
“I-” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Arantay looked down at himself, confused. “This can’t happen.” His gaze flicked back to her. “Its not that I don’t like you.” He seemed to be looking for the right words.
“Its not you it’s me right? Is that what you want to say?”
His face was an image of sorrow. “I’m so sorry, Brooke. But you’d get hurt in the end. You must understand that. Yes, I am attracted to you but it would be selfish of me to be with you for years, only to leave you in the end. That’s if you didn’t die before that.”
“Yeah I get it.” She expressed her anger instead of the horrible pain she felt. “You’re an Immortal, you’re not human, you never have been. Forget we ever kissed.”
He nodded, perhaps sensing her pain, but with no way to comfort her.
*
The predators arose, indolent from their daytime slumber. Pale lids parted to reveal scarlet eyes that latched hungrily to the humans in their presence as the vampires returned to the main hall.
Brooke had slept on one of the sofas again, feeling too uncomfortable down in the crypt. Lok, Tyrell and Lyella had slept down there on bedrolls which Jack had kindly arranged for them. The bedrolls were surrounded by coffins, however. It was all a bit too creepy for Brooke.
She and the three Arch-Realmers were eating breakfast when the coven awoke. Brooke had realised with a morbid humour that she’d adopted a vampire’s sleeping pattern recently. Regardless, they were up well before the moroi and were tucking into the food the young vampire, Jack had bought last night.
Three of the four Venators them stared about them uncomfortably, whereas Lok sprawled across a divan, smiling like an imp. He gazed about the church pleasantly, raising a hand to ruffle his flaxen hair absent-mindedly. The others sat, tensing. Lyella haughty and imperious, Tyrell modestly.
“Oh will you lot sit down and relax, they won’t bite,” Lok snorted.
“Unless you offer,” Nalia added, taking the seat beside Tyrell, gazing at his biceps and licking her lips.
Cazantian wore a smirk identical to Nalia’s, as he sat beside Brooke. He inhaled deeply. “Hmm, you smell exquisite, dear.”
Fortunately, Brooke had finished her breakfast and stood up quickly, planning on making an excuse to go outside the church, but Lok called over to her.
Lok patted the space beside him. “Come here a second.”
As Brooke walked over, she saw Lyella shoot her a look that could kill. She ignored the other girl and sat down on the divan next to Lok. The vampires had provided the three new Arch-Realmers with their own clothes. Lok had stripped his armour off and wore a pair of snug white jeans, complete with an immaculate white shirt. The buttons were halfway undone and showed off his pale-gold chest.
“So, how are you finding your first mission?”
“It’s- it’s interesting at least.” Was all she could say.
“I remember my first mission.” Lok reminisced. “I killed a dozen demons by the end of it. I remember how exhilarated I felt then, now, it’s second nature.”
“Weren’t you at all scared?” Brooke remembered him back in the werewolf fight, how he’d laughed maniacally as he fought. “You seem fearless.”
“Fear is a wasted emotion,” Lok declared. “I’ve never had much time for it.”
“That doesn’t really make sense,” she said.
He ran a hand through his ash-blond locks again. “Put it this way. I don’t think I’ve ever feared anything, even as a small child. It goes back to what I told you before, how being Venator just seemed right, part of my destiny. It came easily to me, and now I embrace every single thing about it.”
“I feel the same way,” Brooke said. “About training at least, and my friends there. The jury is still out on missions themselves though. I’ve almost died about three times already.”
“Ah, but that’s part of the fun,” Lok grinned. “What is life if we can’t risk it now and again?”
Brooke wasn’t sure if she agreed with this philosophy either. Lok appeared to have extreme views on a variety of topics.
“Do you know what though?” Lok lowered his voice as he spoke to her. “I’ve only encountered the Dark-Venators twice out of all my quests. What was it like? Arantay wasn’t very forthcoming when I asked him about it.”
“It was terrifying,” Brooke replied, not bothering to pretend to be brave. “I hated them within moments of meeting them.” She shuddered, the faces of Selina, Rath and Ragul flashing in her mind. “I just don’t understand how they can be that way. They’re so close to us. We’re all Realmers, but they, they’ve joined the demons, treat them like cute puppies and stuff. I-I just can’t wrap my head around it.”
“You’re right,” Lok whispered. “We aren’t all that different to Rakarn at all.”
“Well, no, I didn’t mean it like that.” She tried to vocalise her thoughts. “I meant that I can’t understand why they’d purposefully want to cause war and the deaths of innocent people. The Rakarn are always letting demons into civilised realms, knowing that the demons will feed on whoever they find first. I mean, how can Dark-Venators live with themselves.”
Lok’s easy humour had evaporated; he looked thoughtful. “Yeah, I can’t understand it either. But haven’t you ever thought about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I found you didn’t I?” Lok said. “But what if I didn’t recruit you? What if the Rakarn had sensed your sorcery first? They’d have taken you to Velkarath, not Veneseron.”
In truth, the thought had never occurred to her, but now Lok mentioned it, it left her horrified.
“That would be… terrible,” she struggled to find the words. “I wouldn’t go along with it, they couldn’t force me to cause wars, or unleash monsters on people.”
“Then they’d kill you,” Lok said simply. “Or force you. They torture trainees at Velkarath, break them down. Break their minds, to rebuild them the way they want. You’ve got to feel sorry for the Rakarn really.”
“Maybe some of them,” Brooke said slowly. “The ones who are just normal kids, definitely. But I can’t imagine Selina and other Rakarn ever had to be convinced to do such evil things.”
Lok smiled then. “Yeah, I know Selina well, she loves being a Rakarn.”
“You know her?”
Lok hesitated. “Uh…well, I used too. But I’ve only met her once.”
Brooke frowned. “Then why did you say you know her well?”
“Okay, honestly,” Lok whispered, “I remember her when she was at Veneseron. I was only a Novice then, but I kinda’… admired her from afar.”
“You had a crush on her,” Brooke guessed. Typical Lok.
“Hey, I didn’t realise how evil she’d turn out to be.” Lok grinned. “But yeah, then I met her again, right here in London actually. Me, Tyrell and Lyella helped stop Selina and some other Rakarn letting a pack of demons loose. The Rakarn actually managed to get the demons on a train, where they did kill some people, but we slaughtered the demons before they could kill en masse.”
Brooke shook her head. “See, that’s what I mean, how can they work with demons like that?” She thought back to how Selina had said she wanted to take Brooke back with her to Velkarath, before she tried to kill her, that was.
“I think I would let them kill me at Velkarath, rather than join them,” she said.
Lok chuckled. “I wouldn’t, I’d pretend to be one of them. Gain their trust, and then strike when they least suspect it. Kill ‘em in their beds or something.”
His words made her feel a little nauseous. “I don’t know if I could kill someone when they’re sleeping.”
“Even if it would save the countless other lives if you did?” Lok shot back.
“You’re right,” she admitted. “I just… killing monsters is one thing, but humans…”
“Well, let’s hope you don’t ever have to make that choice,” Lok said. “Although, it looks like we may have to kill some enraged werewolves soon.”
“No,” she said. “I know we can make the pack see that the Rakarn are behind it all. There has to be a way.”
“I admire you’re optimism.” Lok grinned mischievously at her.
She gazed back at his heart shaped face. His large brown eyes were warm and inviting. Lok’s face just didn’t suit his daredevil personality. It was an innocent face, youthful, yet experienced, boyish, but somehow still hard and finely sculpted.
Moonlight War- Act II (The Realmers Book 3) Page 17
