The Thrice Marked

by Liddie Cain

  There was a faint hint of Irish brogue now that he had spoken more. I had a feeling that Boston was not his place of birth.

  “Even if I had no control over it, I’m sorry if you lost a friend.”

  “Monroe was not my friend.”

  Mac and Meredith walked out onto the veranda with us before I could respond to Lear, and Meredith walked straight to him. “I’ll have your vow of allegiance now, vampire.”

  Mac closed his eyes and breathed out through his fangs in frustration, “Meredith, just let it be. There is no reason to push this.”

  She turned to him, “Even if it is temporary, I will handle the dominion as I see fit starting with this district.”

  Then she looked back at Lear. “Well? You and the other new one need to make your pledges.”

  Lear slid his gaze to Mac briefly before responding, “I was awarded to Felix for his triumph over Monroe.”

  “I will pledge,” Ryan responded.

  She motioned for him to join her and he walked to her side, but she looked at Mac again. “Everything will be much easier to handle if you would just pledge the district for me. It would pledge all your people to me at once.”

  “No. Felix is not dead.”

  The way she waved her hand in dismissal in front of him snapped a tightly wound string inside of me. “Get out of this house.”

  Her turn toward me was slow and deliberate. I met it with a face ablaze with my anger. “You will not come into my house and act like the fact that my betrothed is missing is insignificant. Get out of this house, go tend another district.”

  Jason had already stepped up beside me and reached for me but Meredith held her hand up and stopped him. “No, it is fine. She fears for him. I didn't mean to make you feel I thought it was insignificant. My attitude comes from the fact that Felix is more powerful than any other archdemon except Devina and there is nothing that could hold him against his will. If he is somewhere else, it is where he has chosen to be.”

  Her eyes lifted and scanned everyone else, “He has left this dominion. It has been given to me. You will give me your allegiance or leave.”

  Then she walked back into the house with Ryan following her. Mac was there to bring me into his arms before the words had even made it to my brain and the tears began to fall. Felix wouldn’t actually stay gone on purpose, would he?

  “Don’t listen to that, Roz. She just wants the dominion.”

  I felt Destiny’s hand touch the back of my hair and smiled against Mac’s shoulder. She spoke to Mac while he held me.

  “I’m sorry about earlier. I’ve lived under Meredith’s rule before. I think you can tell it didn’t go well.”

  “I noticed,” he replied, “Why don’t you and Jason go over to Darby’s house for the night? Lay low, Jason and Sylvia will watch out for you while you repose. I know you need it after that energy drain.”

  “Okay, that should help.”

  The house that Darby and Sylvia lived in was technically my house, but since I lived here full time with Mac most everyone had started calling it Darby’s house. Sylvia still went back and forth because she acted as Mac’s third in command. Jason touched my back and I leaned away from Mac just enough to kiss Jason’s lips lingeringly. Destiny gave me a quick squeeze before they left. I had regained my composure by then.

  Lear still stood to the side but still kept his thoughts to himself. Mac gave him a nod, which Lear returned, then tucked me under his arm. “Things are normally calm here.”

  “I know of Meredith, you don’t need to explain.”

  I felt some of the tension in my head leave. That place where the auras of all the immortals pressed against my thoughts. It was like background noise most of the time, but when one is boiling with anger as Meredith had been earlier it was much more intense. So I knew that she had left and I felt myself relax.

  “She’s gone.”

  Lear must have picked up on it too because he nodded, then lifted his eyebrow when he realized that I had known this without being told. “Impressive.”

  “Goes with the former angel thing,” I responded.

  “You should not stay here while Meredith is here.”

  I blinked at him and then at Mac, who smiled at me guardedly. “I had already thought the same.”

  “But, I live here,” I responded.

  “Devina has given Meredith full control of the dominion, Dove.”

  “You will have no control over which vampires come here, and the ones that are here now-- you have been lucky. Felix had the power and forethought to choose kind ones that would not endanger you,” Lear added.

  “Even before he met you, Dove. When he asked me to be magistrate and I knew I would be around him again, we talked about you. He picked Destiny because he knew she would befriend you. I knew Sylvie and Rose. Meredith will bring in a darker set of vampires and you should consider moving back into your house.”

  I bristled at the idea, but knew that the both made sense. I glanced at Lear. “Thanks for looking out for me tonight even though you don’t really know me.”

  “It was my pleasure.”

  TI laid my hand up on Mac’s chest. “I’d like some time alone with you.”

  “I’d like that too.”

  He took my hand and we walked upstairs to our bedroom. Intimacy had been spotty since Felix had left. I was anxious over him and Mac knew I hadn’t felt like sex lately without me having to tell him. But at that moment there was nothing I wanted more than to feel Mac’s love for me and his skin against mine.

  When the door shut behind him, I turned and brought his lips to mine. He tried to keep it chaste at first since that had been the habit for a few weeks now, but I ate at his mouth with my own and he quickly adapted. His fingers dug into my back as he held me tighter. I ran my tongue between his lips and found that his fangs were out. My kiss had been aggressive enough that my bottom lip was scrapped against one of them.

  The taste of copper spread between us as my blood leaked from my lip. Power spilled out of Mac and into me. He inhaled deeply through his nose. I broke away from the kiss and hastily started jerking clothes off of both of us. There was no chance of sweet and slow when my blood was involved.

  He lifted me into his arms once we were nude and carried me to the bed. Our mouths found each other again and we rolled in a tumble of sheets, pillows and bare skin. I ended up straddling his hips and grinding against him without him being inside of me yet. A low moan sounded in his throat as he gazed up at me.

  “Ride me, Dove.”

  I smiled, slipping my nails down his chest with just enough pressure to leave faint marks and make him shiver against the touch. He grabbed my waist and lifted me just enough that when his hips thrust upward the hard length of him slid inside of me. Both of us cried out. That power rose higher and I felt as if my skin was emitting its own light in the dim room.

  He sat up and buried his face into my chest, wrapping his arms around me. I rose up and down, drawing him out then back inside. His mouth captured my right breast and I gasped. He brought it deeper into his mouth and it was like he was caressing things deeper inside of me. I moaned for him and moved faster, riding his body and that silver glowing power we had created together.

  My fingers dug into his hair and I laid my face on top of his head, inhaling his familiar scent. There was so much of my thought and energy wrapped up in the turmoil around Felix that Mac was often pushed to the side. But here he was, loving me with an unwavering loyalty. He had taught me how solid love could be. I wanted him to have all of me.

  I swept my hair back away from my neck and laid it there in front of his face. He hesitated. We did not share blood during sex normally, but I knew that it was part of him. It was more than food. It was an intimacy for vampires. A bonding that went beyond the act of sex.

  “Are you sure, Dove?”

  “I want you to take all of me, Mac.”

  His lips swept over my neck and I shuddered. He laid a kiss against that quickened puls
e and rubbed his hands up and down my back. I felt power, power that was only his, roll across my mind. It pulled me down into the depths of that dark seduction. Down into a pit of silken sheets and caressing hands. So when his fangs bit into my skin I felt no pain.

  That first suck against my neck was enough to drive me over the edge. I cried out, grinding my hips as I went over that crest of pleasure. He pulled more of my blood down his throat and it made me immediately climax again.

  He came away from my throat a wild and animalistic thing. Those green eyes glowed with the heightened power he had drawn from my body. He shoved me onto my back and grabbed my hips, lifting me as he started to drive himself into me. It was faster than I could comprehend with my mortal mind. His hips were only a blur.

  But he knew how to make it fast without making it too hard. He snarled and pushed it to the very edge of where pleasure would cross into pain. That hint of danger loomed on his face and made me nervous, and excited at the same time.

  We moved, fast enough that when I was suddenly on my hands and knees with him behind me I was dizzy. He entered me again and I cried out. Every thrust lifted my body upward and I gripped the sheets under me. He roughly dragged me backward, slamming himself into me before dragging me sideways across the bed and doing it again.

  Then we were on our sides in a blink with him behind me. He never pulled himself out of me. His hand lifted my leg in the air as he began to pump into me from behind, then his hand slid down to that most sensitive place between my legs and stroked me firmly. His fangs sank down into my neck again as he thrust into me.

  I screamed my pleasure again, bucking back against him. He pulled my blood into his mouth as he came into me, spilling his seed inside of me and feeding from me simultaneously. My vision went grey as that power flared so intensely I could barely breathe.

  We held each other, feeling that power spark over our skin and hum through our veins. I weakly kissed his face. Both of us were beyond words. I knew that he was almost bursting with power at that moment but he kept it firmly contained so he could lay there and hold me.

  Neither of us realized that Meredith watched us through the door with a face marked with rage.

  Chapter 4

  Hugh Draper was waiting for me as I walked into the kitchen the next morning. I wanted to ask him if Joletta had taken him out for a date yet, but the new vampire Ryan was sitting at the kitchen table and I wasn’t close enough to Hugh yet to know if he would be offended if I teased him in front of others. He did know me enough to pour me a glass of iced sweet tea as I came through the door though and I took it with an affectionate smile.

  “Good morning, Hugh.”

  “Good morning, Roz. I need to speak to you about the guest house construction project.”

  The donation program had started being a lot more involved than Mac had imagined. Felix had ended two programs in the neighboring districts and sent those vampires to us to be a part of our feeding schedule because I had a larger pool of volunteers to choose from than they did. It meant that some of the vampires that came through were strangers.

  Vampires could be in the sun but most avoided it because it drained their energy faster so feedings were typically scheduled to happen in the evenings or at night. The donors had the option to stay the night or have someone come pick them up. Sometimes it turned into a sleep over with the vampire they were matched with. Mac monitored the ones that spent extra time with any of the vampires. Sex or drinking blood from a vampire made it easier for them to have control of your mind.

  Like humans, there were good and bad vampires. I knew that I had been lucky so far as Lear had warned last night. Vampires had a much wider capacity for bad when it happened. With having gone public, it was easier for them to remain connected to their humanity since they were allowed to live out around the public now. Some of the older ones had spent hundreds of years isolated away from society and their humanity had faded over time. We had only had mainstream vamps here so far, and I liked making it easier for them to have personal relationships with humans. Maybe it helped them hold onto that humanity even more.

  “Something wrong with the designs?

  “No, the one you and Mac chose is going to work fine. The interior designer needs to be decided on.”

  Ah. I realized why he wanted me to make this call. Joletta had made a bid for the interior design job. She had done the decorating at the spa more than once so I knew she was perfectly capable. I leaned back against the kitchen counter and took a sip of my tea. Arthur, the house manager, made it and he had been taught to do it right. “Do you want Joletta to have the job?”

  “That’s your decision of course.”

  I reached over and touched his arm. It was cool and stiff. Hugh had not fed recently, interesting. “Hugh, if you like her and want her to have the job then I will pick Joletta. She’s a good interior designer. If her coming onto you is weirding her out then I’ll pick someone else.”

  A touch of a smile passed over his lips. “I want her to have the job.”

  I winked at him. He chuckled and gave a little shake of his head. “I’ve never been in the south often. I think you southern women could charm me into anything.”

  “Well, you’re welcome,” I replied with an exaggerated drawl. It made Ryan, Lear and Rose chuckle. I glanced their way and smiled because I hadn’t realized that Lear and Rose had come into the room.

  “I saw the plans for the new guest house. It will be nice,” Rose said.

  “You are expanding?” Lear asked.

  “Yes, we have a large enough donor pool to draw from to support multiple districts. The Imperium was happy to consolidate them into ours and let me take care of it,” I replied.

  Mac and Jason walked in as I was talking. Both of them came over and gave me a quick peck on the lips with Jason lingering to wrap his arms around me from behind as Mac went to sit down at the kitchen table beside Rose. As soon as he sat down though, he stood back up.

  I felt the presence of the Unseelie King and my heart leapt. Mac met my eyes with a meaningful expression, knowing what I was feeling. He motioned for me to follow him. I took Jason’s hand and the three of us walked to Mac’s office where the roving candle stayed.

  Conall was again in his routine royal regalia. His long snow white hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and a delicate black crown that glittered with black stones sat on his head. A cloak that was covered in the same black glittering stones covered the rest of him except for the long black staff he held in his left hand. The staff was topped with the figure of a grey falcon with its wings spread.

  He had two guards standing behind him and Barden beside him. The guards wore black and grey uniforms with the same falcon symbol on the left shoulder. Each had a sword on their hip.

  Barden smiled when he saw me. He was the color of night, his skin and hair the same tone of shadows. His amber panther-like eyes were the only relief of darkness in his appearance unless he smiled. He was not as formally dressed as Conall and his guards; he actually wore modern jeans and light grey shirt.

  I walked up to Conall and held my hand out to him while trying to not look disappointed that they had not brought Felix back with them. He took it, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “It is a pleasure to see you as always, Roz. I wish it was not over such an unhappy situation.”

  “Me too. I’m honored you are here.”

  Barden took my hand as Conall released it. “We have seen Felix.”

  My hand tightened on Barden’s and he patted the back of mine. Mac stood up and touched my shoulders as he spoke to Barden, “Is he injured?”

  “Not that we are aware of. He was spotted in the Neodrach but he was traveling at the time and the scouts lost him. I am confident we will know where he is being hidden soon.”

  “So is he being held against his will?”

  “He was traveling with a Leannán Sí, so very likely. Her name is Maeve. She was cast out of Fairy many centuries ago and has apparently found a way into t
he Neodrach to hide.”

  “When do we leave?” I asked, my voice breathless as my heart flipped around in my chest.

  Barden stepped forward and clasped both of my hands. “I go back today to make preparations. Be ready in two days, perhaps three. The marks you share with Felix and Mac will help guard you against Fairy glamour but you will still need to take precautions. Darby’s mother should be able to help you.”

  “Ariel has ascended to heaven to stay hidden until we need her to help set the other angels free.”

  “Pray to her,” Conall responded. “Have Darby pray for her to send help. Oil from four leaf clovers on your eyelids, ears, hands and foreheads will also work but it is hard to find.”

  “Okay, we can do that. We will be ready.” I pulled out my phone and texted Darby what Conall had suggested while he and Mac continued talking. Ariel had been instrumental in my rescue from Monroe. She had lingered to spend some time with Darby after Felix had left but soon ascended back to the heavens because it would have been suspicious if she had lingered. As far as we knew, Devina still thought that Ariel had been killed in the struggle when my angelic parent’s and Darby and Felix’s dad had been captured.

  The office door opened again and Meredith walked in. She gave proper greetings to Conall and his envoy, but Conall looked uneasy that she was there. Mac had asked me to avoid her as much as possible until I moved back in with Darby so I slipped back out through the office door while they spoke. I lingered in the hallway while I continued to text Darby, figuring that Mac would follow me in a few moments.

  I felt the shift in auras as Barden, Conall and his guards departed. Jason came out of the office and found me. He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine before saying, “I’m going to take you to Darby’s. Let me know when you have everything ready to go.”

  “I have my car here babe, you don’t have to go.”

  “It would make me and Mac feel better if I stuck with you today.”

  “Okay, I can be ready to go in a few minutes.”