The door finally clicked shut and Alric closed his eyes, tracking their movement through the building as they moved to the apartment on the floor above. Pain radiated through his chest as he stumbled over to his desk, leaned heavily on it as he gulped in ragged breaths and that calm he’d been seeking felt even further away. But he needed to regain his composure before he stepped out of the office. Mrs Walterson might have gone home for the evening, but there were still others in the building who were working – vampires, humans and wolves – that Alric couldn’t risk seeing him in such a vulnerable state. The rumours that it would spark had the potential to destabilise his seat of power in Silverdale and with the threat of this new group of young dhampyres, any descension within the city’s hierarchies would only give them a chance to make further inroads.
Rendering it down to a dull ache, Alric straightened and walked to the door just as it opened to reveal Skylhr. It wasn’t all that much of a surprise that Albie had called him in to drive Alric back to the mansion.
Chapter Fourteen
The fog in his mind, the urge to bite lessened the further he got from Alric, but it wasn’t any better as a sharp pain in his chest replaced it instead. But he just needed to suck it up and deal with it while he processed everything Alric had finally admitted was happening to him... that hee was becoming a dhampyre; becoming one whether he wanted to or not. Alric’s cowardice, selfishness had stolen that choice from Eden and there was nothing he could do to change it now. He needed to accept this new reality - one where he craved blood like it was the only drink worth filling his glass with – or destroy himself and Alric in the process. Emotionally at least.
Fated lovers. Eden had wanted to laugh at the idea when Alric had mentioned it, not wanting to believe such a thing could be true. He was changing his mind now, as the tearing sensation in his chest grew stronger, harsher the further from Alric he got. It was as though his heart was trying to escape and make its own way back to the vampire. Stepping into Alric’s apartment brought some relief, his scent calming him with every breath in he took and the ritual’s he’d read about; the connection created between a vampire and the human the turned could no longer be dismissed as an author’s fantastical whim.
But he was still missing something. Alric had remained vague about his parentage and deflected Eden’s attempts to learn more after he’d stated that he was born vampire. None of the textbooks Eden had read mentioned anything about vampires being born, especially to another vampire while others theorised over whether a human female could be impregnated, giving birth to a creature that was of both worlds – dhampyres. Except that’s what Alric said Eden would soon become and unless he was about to go through a dramatic physical change, he couldn’t see how it could be true. The books that was. Except that wasn’t the part of Alric’s annoyingly vague statement that bugged him, slumping onto the couch and groaning.
“I can imagine it’s quite the trip to find out,” Albie said, chuckling as he walked over to him with a bottle water. Eden didn’t feel like water, much preferring the scent of the wine in Albie’s glass, or what the heavy bouquet of the pinot noir was trying to hide. It smelt delicious, though not as tantalising as Alric’s. “That once you’ve been turned you can have children.”
“I’ll be able to do what now?” He stared at Albie in confusion, not wanting to believe what he’d heard was true. There was no way it could be. He stroked his abdomen trying to imagine just how it would even work.
Albie stumbled, a curious look flickering over his face like he’d expected Eden to know what he was talking about. “Child bearing in Vampire Society isn’t the sole domain of women... hell there are very few women in our society to start with – vampire born that is. They are rare, precious and powerful. In some societies they are revered, and in others they are vilified... but I don’t want to get into that now. It’s also not just the domain of those vampire born either, with dhampyres able to bear children.
“It’s always amusing to watch you humans try and wrap your heads around that fact. Like you can readily accept every other change being turned wrought on your body, but the development of a womb is considered impossible. Too caught up in genderising roles and refusing to accept that not all species inhabiting this earth procreate the same way - okay some of those species you humans only believe to be fairy tales, but they are real – and of those that are sentient, only you humans have the one-gender gives birth thing.”
Eden tipped his head back, covered his eyes with his hands and giggled. Laughter bubbled out of him in uncontrollable waves and shook his body hard. It still didn’t seem real. A dream that his lust-addled, sleep deprived brain had dreamt up one night after he’d collapsed over his textbooks.
Albie cursed, the glass in his hand fell to the ground, smashing on the tiled floor. “You didn’t know? Alric hadn’t told you, warned you that you could get pregnant once turned? And I’d told him to do that weeks ago,” he muttered voice disappearing a little as he knelt to clean the mess of blood and glass up.
“Nope. News to me. Though I can’t say he wasn’t going to... today. Weeks ago, would have been appreciated along with learning about all this-” gesturing at the fangs in his mouth. “-it might have been easier to accept if I knew what was coming... that it could happen this way. I knew if I wanted to stay with Alric, then I’d need to become a vamp-dhampyre. None of what is happening to me is written about in any of the books I’ve studied.”
“That change thing, I don’t really get it, though I’ve seen plenty of dhampyre struggle with it fated lovers or not. Like Alric, I was born vampire.”
“Oh good. So, glad to know I’m not alone in this.” He rubbed at his chest as the sharp pain intensified.
His attempt to hide his pained wince failed as Albie snorted and mumbled something about needing to make a phone call to check where Alric was. He’d already figured that the pain had something to do with his proximity to Alric, or lack of, but he hadn’t known that it was going to be this intense. Pushing himself off the couch, grabbing the back of it for a second as he breathed through another breath-stealing twinge before staggering to the kitchen where Albie stood watching him. “Did you know it would be like this? Did Alric?”
“Of course, he did,” Albie snapped back. “And he’s suffering as much as you are... No, it’s worse for Alric because he’s waited so damned long for you... watched over you until you were old enough. This pain your feeling? That’s always been with him, a slow burning ache that he kept hidden from everyone. And you? You’ve only known him for two months.”
“Then why did he agree to it?” His body screamed in agony and Alric’s lingering scent in the apartment no longer took the edge off it. If anything, Eden was beginning to think it was making it worse.
“Because you asked for it. You wanted time to think or whatever and Alric decided that now was the best fucking time to do the right thing. The Heavens and the Fates both know that I tried my damnedest to get him to tell you all about this weeks ago, but he was too stubborn. Maybe if he had, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” Angry words delivered with the pained concern of friendship that Eden might have found pleasure in if he hadn’t been missing the same comradery with his own friends who hadn’t seen in weeks. May never see again, because how did one explain that you were now a dhampyre and could now become pregnant.
And how could he acknowledge Alric’s pain when his own was crippling. Eden grabbed at the kitchen counter, a pained groan slipping from his lips as his legs refused to hold him upright. It was as though his organs had decided to play a round of duck duck goose; racing around inside of him, ripping themselves loose in the process as they rushed to find a new place in his body to sit.
Laughter ripped from his throat; a derisive, resigned sound that had Albie rushing to his side and grabbing a hold of him. Of course, it felt like that. His body was literally reorganising itself to make room – if Albie was to be believed – for an organ he never thought would appear in his body. But the
n again, it wasn’t as though Eden could think of himself as human. Not vampire either. Caught somewhere painfully in between.
“I think I’m done thinking. Not that there is anything to think about... it’s not like I can yell stop and this overwhelming, unbelievable situation will screech to a halt or let me turn everything back to the way it was.” There was no rewind button on life. What was done, was done and Eden would have to deal with it... and he was going to have plenty of time to do just that.
Albie’s relief poured off him in heavy waves as he pulled out his phone once more and fired off a message to someone. Eden didn’t know who, almost didn’t care as the game of duck duck goose started another round, but this time it felt like all the participants were wearing heels. Pain radiated through him and the rest of the world began to disappear into a foggy haze that he almost missed Albie mutter, “Thank the heavens for that. And it only took you an hour,” before he lifted Eden up and carried him out of the apartment.
Chapter Fifteen
Alric gritted his teeth at the searing pain shooting through him. Breathed deep and tried to push past it knowing the worst was yet to come. The longer he was apart from Eden - distance and time – the greater his suffering would be. Twenty minutes had elapsed, the mansion’s boundaries were in sight yet Alric was ready to tell Skylhr to turn around and head back to the centre of the city just to alleviate his suffering. Not that Skylhr would have done it; he understood better than Alric did what was happening to Eden and the importance of everything being prepared for the final stages of Eden’s turning.
Driving through the wrought iron gates that still felt new to Alric despite having stood at the entrance to the property for the last one hundred years, Skylhr headed for the rear of the mansion. The long driveway swept around the large three storey mansion with its foreboding gothic architecture and sixty odd rooms that for the most part remained empty. A prop for the humans who passed by it every day as they headed to the university unaware that its occupants lived beneath the ground in a sprawling complex that had been built over the last thousand years.
What looked like barren grassland in fact hid five levels of living quarters and medical facilities for the Silverdale Coven as well as entrances to tunnels that stretched right into the heart of the older parts of the city, with many more being created or extended to reach the area’s inhabited by non-coven members who might still need access to the facilities offered by the coven. One of the tunnels destinations, Alric looked forward to showing Eden as it came out beneath the university library. Three floors below it in fact as he’d first need to go through the extensive coven library Alric had put together as his own collection of books and manuscripts continued to grow, the oldest one being fifteen hundred years old.
Alric reached to open the car door but faltered, clutching at his chest again. The pain was excruciating, unlike anything he’d experienced before, and he’d been stabbed, lanced, shot at, and singed by fire after being attacked by an angry mob outside of Prague during the 14th Century, armed with torches and flaming arrows. That had been days of pain; skin blackened and peeling which had made it harder to get his hands on enough blood to speed up the healing process. Though maybe it had been Albie’s laughter as his skin came off in charred lumps that had been unbearable, considering it was Albie’s carelessness that had seen them chased from the village in the first place.
“Sir?” Skylhr asked, concern dripping off the question as he opened the vehicle door; the one Alric had unfortunately slumped against. “I’ve got you-” quick hands grabbing him before he hit the ground and helped him to remain upright. “-now where do we need to go?”
“Third floor down. There should be a suite of rooms already prepared.” Skylhr nodded. It wasn’t Alric’s private suite of rooms that he’d directed Skylhr to take him to, but the ones specifically used during the turning of humans; a large bedroom, an attached bathroom and another room where their special guests were being kept. “And Skylhr, we’re not at the office, you don’t have to call me Sir.” Smiling weakly.
“Your Lord Highness, then.”
“Don’t be daft... I hated hearing that title associated with my name a hundred years after I received it... and that’s more than five hundred years before you joined us, Skylhr. And this isn’t-” wincing as another wave of pain slammed into him and Alric hoped Eden’s thinking didn’t take too long. “-the first time I’ve told you to call me Alric, or Drayton if you must. How many years is it going to take you?”
“Maybe another hundred years, Sir.” Skylhr smirked, ushering him into the elevator and pushing the button as Alric slumped heavily against the cold metal wall.
He was beginning to regret giving Eden twelve hours to think it over, the pain in his chest, the slicing sensation that travelled along his limbs and the lethargy taking hold were happening faster than expected. Way to fast. All of it. None of it was following the timeline other vampires had noted down when turning their fated lovers. But maybe his calculations were off because he hadn’t factored in the twenty-five years of waiting for Eden, even if he had tried to keep his distance.
The elevator doors opened, and he wanted to wave off Skylhr’s continued assistance but there was no way Alric could have managed to stagger the short distance to the room by himself. Collapsing into a chair in the room, head spinning as though he’d gone two weeks without feeding, and seriously considered asking Albie to bring Eden here whether he’d done thinking or not. Phone rested uneasily in his hand while his fingers tapped against the screen, Eden must be suffering too, but he’d made a promise and Alric was loathed to break it. But he didn’t know how much longer they still had before the pain took on a dangerous edge.
Breathed out in relief as the decision was taken from him; his phone buzzed with a message from Albie: On our way. Eden not looking good.
Twenty minutes later Alric heard them arrive. Hard not to miss the panicked gasps of those lounging around the floor eager to meet the new member of the coven – one they’d heard plenty about over the years - and the angry shouts of Albie as he tried to push his way through them. He wanted to stand, to greet them at the door but Alric’s body had weakened further and not even being close to Eden helped.
“Skylhr,” he yelled weakly, the dhampyre appearing through the door ahead of Albie who was carrying Eden. “I need you to help me onto the bed. I’m not strong enough to hold Eden here.” He was barely capable of standing at all, leaning heavily on Skylhr to walk the short distance from where he sat to the bed. Kicked off his shoes and clambered onto it, hazarding a glance at Eden. Alric didn’t need to look to know how bad things had deteriorated, but he still hated what he saw: Eden limp in Albie’s arms; faint whimpers mixed with the desperate growls of hunger escaping his lips the only sign that Eden was still conscious.
“This is progressing fast, Alric. Way too fast. I don’t like it,” Albie stated as he helped manoeuvre Eden until he was nestled safely against Alric’s chest.
“I know. But everything will be fine once he feeds.” His mind cleared with Eden’s presence, but his lethargy remained. Eden wasn’t the only one who needed to feed. “Now, leave,” he growled, barely holding back the urge to kill Skylhr and Albie as the need to protect Eden intensified. It didn’t matter that Alric wouldn’t have the strength to do it, he still bared his teeth and let out a long rumbling snarl until the pair fled the room.
He stared at the door a few seconds longer, wanting to make sure that they weren’t about to return even though Alric had heard the lock engaging. Satisfied, he turned his attention back to Eden who was moving on instinct, nuzzling at Alric’s neck, scraping his fangs across it but he didn’t have the strength to bite. Alric ran his fingers along Eden’s jaw, brushed them over his lips and nudged at them until Eden’s mouth fell open. He slipped a finger inside and pressed it against one of Eden’s fangs until it sunk into his flesh and drew blood, keeping it there until Eden’s ability to suck grew stronger. Smiled at the angry snarl that ripped i
ts way up Eden’s throat when Alric removed it.
“Come on, Eden. Bite me. Feed from me,” he murmured guiding Eden’s mouth back to his neck, groaning as Eden’s fangs sunk in and the growls were replaced by satisfied slurping sounds before sinking his own fangs into Eden.
His lethargy, dizziness all began to disappear with the first drops of Eden’s blood entering his system. The fragile bond that had begun to tear under the strain of separation began to mend, the heaviness in his chest lifting and the devastating sorrow that had threatened to destroy Alric evaporated as the bond grew stronger, filling him with warmth and joy. He lifted his head, blood dripping from his fangs and tugged at Eden, bringing their lips together and kissed.
“Feeling better, Eden?” brushing his thumbs over Eden’s check bones and marvelling at the beautiful shade of violet his eyes had become. Hunger still hung in them, a desperate need to feed that couldn’t be quenched by his drinking Alric’s blood alone. He slipped off the bed and led Eden toward a door on the far side of the room. “Ready to hunt?”
Chapter Sixteen
Eden groaned, rolled away from the furnace that was the body next to him. Body next to him? He shot up, head spinning a little as he turned to stare at who was lying next to him, Alric Drayton and tried to remember how they’d gotten here. Chewed on his lip as he realised that he had only vague recollections of the last few hours – twelve at most – were hidden beneath a foggy red haze. He remembered turning up at Alric’s office... staring at him like he was a delicious platter of food... the ache of his gums and the fangs that descended every time Alric drew too close.
Finding His Eden Page 7
