Sapphire Angel

by Khloe Wren

  "I know, father. I just—I just miss her and need her back."

  His father squeezed his shoulder once more before releasing his hold completely to allow Angelo a much needed moment to himself.

  ~ * ~

  Karl was nervous. He’d never had much to do with the Elders but since losing and then kidnapping Darcy, he’d not been outside the Elders’ main compound. It had been five days since he’d arrived with Darcy, and this morning after he’d escorted her down to the main area, he’d been summoned here to this meeting. Karl hadn’t had a clue as to what went on inside these walls before today. The fact the Elders 'bred' with the claimed brides came as a shock. The fact they wanted to lay a trap for Angelo that would have him claim Darcy before they caught him, so they could breed with her had his blood simmering. He’d spent six years with Darcy and cared for her. This last week of escorting her back and forth to her room had cemented his feelings for her. She was a strong woman and even though she was facing up to twenty years locked in this place, she was still holding her head high and doing what she had to do.

  "Karl, you will be needed for this to work."

  "Yes, Sire. Whatever you need of me."

  "You will escort Darcy tonight as usual, but you will not return her to her room. You will bring her to the garage. The van will be ready. You will get in the back with her and keep her calm, if you cannot, she will be restrained. From there you will follow the direction of the Elders. Do you understand?"

  "Yes Sire."

  "Leave us now."

  With his head bowed, Karl backed out into the hallway and headed back to his own room. How the hell had he ended up in the middle of all this? He thought back to his childhood, to his father explaining how being a Noble was important, vital to protect the human race against the vampires. He had no memory of ever having a mother—now he knew why. His father would have raped a claimed bride, then ripped him away from her after birth. It was a cruel barbaric practice, one he couldn’t quite get his brain to process.

  He most definitely couldn’t allow Darcy to be treated the same way, especially after her own mother had abandoned her. It would tear Darcy apart to even think her child might feel like she'd abandoned him or her on purpose. She’d never cope having a child ripped from her. She shouldn't have to survive having one taken from her.

  He began to go over all the information he had about the plans for tonight. It wasn’t much unfortunately. He tried to work out how he could help free Darcy, before she was injured. Should he tell her what he knew? No, that wouldn’t end well. She’d give herself away and then he’d be removed from being her Guardian. What to do, what to do?

  He was still pacing his room when the bell chimed to tell him it was time to go fetch Darcy. Taking a deep breath and straightening his spine, he headed out of his room and toward Darcy.

  He opened the door to the brides’ workroom and found Darcy with her head down, concentrating on her sewing.

  "Darcy, it’s time. Leave what you are doing and come with me now."

  ~ * ~

  Darcy lifted her foot from the machine’s pedal and looked up at Karl with a frown. Something was different tonight, his words where short and hard. She slowly stood from her chair and before she could move, she was wrapped in a tight hug.

  "I don’t know what, but something is going to happen tonight. Stay strong, and have faith. Your vampire will come for you. I love you, Darcy."

  Sharon’s whispered words both warmed her soul and froze her heart, "I love you too. Mum. If he comes for me; if I get free, I will come back for you. I promise."

  Her mother patted her cheek and with tears in her eyes kissed her forehead. Blinking back her own tears she turned back to Karl, who now had a quizzical look on his face as his gaze went between her and her mother. She followed him out into the hallway where they began the walk back toward her room.

  "What was that all about?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "You and the other bride, what did she say to you?"

  "Oh, nothing important. We’ve spent a lot of time together for nearly a week, a bond forming is only natural."

  "I guess you’re right."

  Darcy slowed her pace as they walked past the hallway that led to her room.

  "Karl, where are we going?"

  Without saying a word, he grabbed her arm tightly and kept her moving up the hallway. She began to get worried and tried to free her arm, but his grip tightened.

  "Karl, you’re scaring me. What's going on?"

  Just as she started to really panic, Karl dragged her through a door into a large garage where the windowless van awaited them.

  Karl grabbed both her upper arms and forced her into the rear of the van. He followed her and pushed her down into a seat where she was quickly buckled in. She looked up to Karl and caught his gaze. The pain and desperation she saw there confused her. What the hell is going on?

  The sudden rumble of the engine made her jerk with surprise. She didn’t bother with any more questions. It was quite clear Karl had no intentions of answering her. The three other men in the back with them didn’t look any friendlier. In fact, they all gave her the creeps. All of them kept running their eyes over her body, lingering on her breasts and between her thighs. She swallowed against the bile that rose in her throat at the thought of any of these men touching her like that. She was Angelo's. She would have no other. Ever again.

  After what felt like forever, but was quite probably only twenty minutes, the van stopped and Karl was instructed to 'remove her'. Karl unbuckled her seat belt and helped her out of the back of the vehicle. Once on the ground, Karl held her upper arms in a strong firm grip. The other three men all climbed out after them, each one brushing past her body, touching her breasts, as they went. Her body shivered with disgust, and she swallowed more bile down, ordering her body not to throw up.

  A moment later she was being pushed forward toward a strong looking gum tree. Its trunk split into two near the ground, each trunk was about as thick as her torso. As she got closer, it became clear the tree was her destination. Karl turned her around and backed her against the tree, pressing his body into hers. She shivered with revulsion again, unable to believe she ever let this bastard touch her.

  She felt her arms being pulled behind her and felt the roughness of rope over her wrists. Her body tensed and she pulled her arms hard. She would not be tied up and left helpless against these bastards. She couldn’t get her arms free with Karl holding them back as they were secured with rope around the tree behind her. She started to scream and yell. After her hands were bound, Karl stepped back from her. The sorrow in his eyes gave her a moment of pause, but she soon got over it. She kicked out at him as hard as she could. He grunted and fell to the ground, cupping his balls as he fell. She smirked at him as he writhed on the ground. Let that be a lesson to any of these fools who thought she’d go quietly to the slaughter.

  "Tsk, tsk, that is not very ladylike at all, Darcy."

  The robed Noble’s voice was mocking, like he was scolding a small child. Her blood heated further as her fury increased.

  "Well, tying me to tree in the middle of a golf course isn’t very gentlemanly, so I guess we're even. Let. Me. Go."

  "Not just yet, pet, but soon."

  Darcy frowned at him, what the hell was he talking about? She watched as he bent to grab Karl by the arm and drag him back over to the van, and roughly shove him into the back.

  A movement to her right caught her attention and she swung her head back to see what it was. A moment too late. Her eyes went wide as she watched helplessly as a sharp knife slid deep into her upper thigh, the pain seared through her body and clouded her vision. She screamed out her pain as she felt the warm flow of blood run down her leg. He must have cut her artery.

  She was going to bleed out. Within minutes she started to feel faint and she slumped against the tree, with her last ounce of strength she screamed out, "Angelo! I’ll love you forever!" The darkness swallowed her and
she knew no more.

  ~ * ~

  Angelo hissed through his clenched jaw. Darcy had been hurt. He was still at least a mile away and he’d just heard her screamed declaration. His sweet Bride must think she was dying to utter such words. Considering she was with the Nobles, she most likely was.

  "Let me go. I have to go to her now. I will not stand here as she dies!"

  His father moved to position himself before him. He had three vampires holding him back, "None of us will allow you to go anywhere, until you calm down and start thinking with a level head. What would the point be in saving her, only to get caught and have her forced into breeding Nobles? Calm. Down."

  Angelo knew his father spoke the truth, but damn it. His Darcy was dying! He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. His eyes flew open as he bared his fangs.

  "I can smell her blood. I will do my best to follow the plan, but I must get to her. I will not allow her to die, father."

  With a grim smile, his father stepped back.

  The others released him and he sped across the grass toward the smell of his Eternal Bride’s blood. As he drew closer, he slowed and all thirteen of their team stopped around him.

  "I will rescue my Bride. You all need to circle around and take out all the Nobles in the area. They are stupid enough to think I would come alone."

  He didn’t wait for a reply but instead used his supernatural speed to rush over to his Darcy. The sight of her made his heart bleed. She was tied to a tree. She had slumped into a heap at the base, her arms pulled back at an uncomfortable looking angle. The hilt of a knife protruded from her right thigh and her precious blood continued to rush from around the blade.

  He ripped the shirt from his body and tore two wide strips from it, tossing the rest away he moved to remove the knife. Sliding the knife free he quickly applied one strip wadded up to the wound as he wrapped the other around her leg as tightly and as many times as he could. Once he tied it off he looked up at her ghost white face.

  His beautiful Bride.

  Tears pricked his eyes and he did nothing to stop them from falling. His heart and soul lay before him, near death. He picked up the knife and cut the ropes binding her wrists; collected her in his arms and ran with every ounce of his supernatural strength to the waiting vehicles they had left.

  As he opened the back door to lay her in, his father came up beside him.

  "Get in with her. I’ll drive."

  Angelo’s knees weakened as gratitude for his father’s perfect timing washed over him. He climbed in and kept Darcy on his lap, cradling her against his chest.

  "You may want to claim her, son. I can hear her heart and it’s not sounding very good. I know you want to get her to your apartment first, but I don’t believe you have the time."

  Angelo sighed, he could hear her rapidly weakening heart rate too.

  "I know, father. I wanted her to make the decision, to tell me she agreed. I don’t want to force this on her."

  "Boy, your mother and I raised you to use your brain—start using it! With, what she believed to be her final breath, she screamed to the world she’d love you forever. I take that as acceptance, don’t you?"

  His father’s words warmed his heart. Angelo knew he was right.

  He brushed her hair away from her now pale white throat and watched her pulse flutter, stop then flutter again. He was running out of time. He lowered his mouth to her neck, whispering his eternal love for her before baring his fangs and sinking them into her soft flesh.

  He groaned at her taste, she was exquisite. She tasted better than the finest wine, richer than the best quality dark chocolate money could buy. He drew pulls on her vein, three, four, five times, before he withdrew his fangs and licked the wounds closed. He then bit into his wrist, pumping his fist so the blood began to flow. He gently opened her mouth and pressed his open wound against her lips, allowing his blood to slide down her throat where it would be absorbed into her system. Healing her, binding them together. At the first tingle through his leg, he withdrew his wrist and licked closed his wound.

  A moment later a burning pain ripped through his thigh, he cried out from the agony. Damn, what Darcy was going through! He was suddenly very glad she was unconscious, for this pain—which he now felt as though it was his own—was almost enough to render him unconscious too.

  For the rest of the drive home he panted through the pain, watching his Darcy as her color slowly began to return to her skin. By the time his father pulled up in front of their apartment building, she was breathing easily, her thigh was nearly completely healed and her skin was looking a healthy pink color. With renewed strength gained from the knowledge his Eternal Bride was safe and claimed, he lifted her and carried her up to the apartment. He glanced at his father in the lift as they ascended.

  "Thank you."

  His father smiled at him, "No problem, son. You go take care of her. I’ll find another place to lay my head today."

  Angelo smiled back at his father, he was so full of emotion he had no words. As the doors slid open and they both climbed out, his father turned to walk away but stopped a moment, "She is beautiful, and I’m so glad we rescued her. It would have destroyed me to see you lose her, or worse, to see both of you lost."

  Before Angelo could say a word, his father turned and walked away from them.

  Darcy began to stir against him, nuzzling her nose against his bare chest. He smiled as he carried her to their apartment. Today was going to be a good day. And once she was fully healed, he was going to claim her properly and fully.

  Chapter Seven

  Karl lay slumped in the back of the van, taking deep breaths in through his nose and out of his mouth, trying vainly to get through the pain currently radiating from his groin. How the hell was he going to help her when she kicked him in the balls hard enough he might actually need surgery to retrieve them? He winced as he tried to move, he dragged himself to the back of the van so he could watch what was happening with Darcy.

  He had known they intended to hurt her bad enough she would be on the brink of death. His mind still raced with how he could possibly help save her, as he watched the Elder to her right run a knife deep into her upper thigh, Darcy’s ear piercing scream made him cringe as his heart ached for her.

  The bright red blood rushing from her body was all he could see. Barely able to breathe through the pain, he watched as she rapidly lost her color and slumped back against the tree, head hanging forward. He watched her chest rise with a deep breath before she raised her head to yell into the night sky her love for Angelo. A sudden sharp stab of jealousy ripped through him. He’d spent six years with Darcy. How dare she now call another man’s name?

  The moment she dropped unconscious to the ground all thoughts of jealously disappeared. He finally found the energy to move, his personal pain forgotten. He wrapped his hand around the edge of the van to haul himself out when a hooded elder blocked his path.

  "Where do you think you’re going?"

  Karl just looked at him, what could he say?

  "Yeah, I thought so. You need to stay here, and away from her."

  "She’s dying, what good is she to any of us dead?"

  "He’ll come. Her vampire will save her. She needs to be near death to force him to claim her."

  Karl didn’t give him time to continue. He had heard enough. He tried to push past the much larger man, but didn’t get far. A moment later he was on his back on the floor of the van, while his head was still smarting from a smack against the floor. His hands were bound and raised above his head. He watched helplessly as he was tied to the anchor point on the back of the rear seat. Damn it he was really stuffed now.

  As soon as he was tied, the Elder left the van and Karl looked over to see what was taking place. He needed to know she hadn’t died while he was being restrained. He sucked in a shocked breath as he saw Angelo with her, wrapping her wounded leg in strips of his shirt. A blur of movement caught his eye, he swung his head to watch as on
e of the Elders near the van was pulled silently behind a tree. The others couldn’t see, but from his angle he scored a front row seat as the vampire swiped a blade across the Elder’s throat. Karl watched in silence, mesmerized by the macabre sight of the slow death of the man now lying on the ground twitching as blood gushed from his neck.

  When the Elder on the ground stopped moving, Karl finally managed to tear his gaze away. He glanced around at the other Elders, doing a quick head count. They had come in two vans. Three Elders travelled with him and Darcy, so he could assume there were five in the other van. That meant, there should be seven Elders still standing. He could only count five. He helplessly watched as two more were taken silently. These were more fortunate than the first. Their deaths were quick as the vampires efficiently broke their necks. The two snaps reached his ears as the limp bodies fell quietly to the ground. Wincing, he turned his attention back to Darcy. Angelo was cutting the rope binding her wrists and scooping her up. With his entire focus on Darcy, Angelo didn’t see the Elder coming up behind him with the syringe.

  Karl took in as deep a breath as he could, preparing to yell out to warn them when his breath stopped in his throat. He watched as three vampires came behind the Elder, one grabbing each hand and arm, while the third grabbed a fist full of his hair and forced him to watch Angelo escaping with Darcy. He could hear the Elder’s growl as a fourth vampire came at his front with a large knife. With the night air being so still, Karl was able to clearly hear the vampire’s words.

  "You bastards stole my mother, imprisoned my father. Let your last sight before dying be watching Angelo leave with his rescued Bride, and know this, we know where you hide, and we will rescue all the others before this is over. Nobles will be no more."

  Karl’s heart began to race as he watched the knife disappear into the Elder’s abdomen and slide through his flesh up to his throat. He watched as the vampires dropped him to the ground and walk away. Karl closed his eyes and laid his head back, playing possum. Hoping the vampires wouldn’t see him as a threat in need of killing.