Court of Frost and Embers (The Pair Bond Chronicles Book 1)

by Leeann M. Shane

  “Don’t,” Maxell warned sharply. “Do not go there.”

  “What if you didn’t have me? Hmm? What then? What if you were ten more minutes out than you were? She would have overheated.”

  “I do have you, Masters. And we weren’t out too far. Everything’s fine.”

  “Nothing is fine!” Masters growled. My vision faded in and out. He tipped a vial into my mouth and the fever elixir slid down my throat.

  “Mmm,” I mumbled sleepily, swallowing. “Pineapples.”

  “Good girl, drink up.” Masters stood. “Take her upstairs. She needs to sleep it off.”

  “Masters.”

  “Take care of your pair bond, Maxell.” Masters’ tone was final and sharper than I’d ever heard it.

  Maxell sighed and then I was being lifted, my body temperature quickly draining. I nuzzled against him.

  His cool lips pressed to my ear. “Rest, Emmie.”

  I was able to open my eyes long enough to find that I was in his room on his leather couch. I fought the exhaustion long enough to find what I was looking for.

  The Pair Bond Chronicles was where we’d left it.

  “Can I have my book now?”

  Maxell walked over to it and picked it up, gritting his teeth against the heaviness of carrying our bond all by himself. He set it on the table beside me and disappeared for a second, returning with a pillow wrapped in a teal pillowcase and a matching blanket. He draped it over me and lifted my head, placing the pillow under my head.

  “Don’t leave,” I mumbled, unable to keep my eyes open any longer. I felt myself sink into the couch.

  A second before I lost my head, I felt him stretch out behind me. “Never,” he whispered quietly, sending me into a deep, promise-filled sleep.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I was having a nightmare.

  Maxell stood on the edge of a cliff stained of ash. At his back was a furious, roaring fire. It was straight out of hell. Waters made of lava flowed below, smoke billowing in the air. The stench of sulfur burned my nose; every breath felt like it was coming from the bottom of my lungs. Terror, heartbreak, and resolve showcased on his handsome, brutal face.

  Before him were five figures draped in charcoal hued robes. Their hoods were down, and I knew without a doubt that they were vampires. Some of them had long hair, and some of them had the coldest eyes; none of them looked anything like Maxell or Masters, whom were vampires in their own right, but more human than any human I’d ever met. You didn’t have to have a beating heart to feel.

  I was on my knees, a vampire the size of a giant towering over me. I fought with all my might, but it was useless; as useless as it was, I fought even then. In my dream, what I felt for Maxell was bone deep, intrinsic, soul-stealing; he was fundamental to my existence. I was afraid down to the bottom of my being.

  “Cast him,” one of the hooded figures said, with an unemotional flick of his hand.

  A horde of giants like the one holding me down ran for Maxell.

  I screamed, down to my soul. I screamed because I’d never say anything that mattered if he wasn’t there to hear it. I screamed because my heart was shattering. I screamed because without him, I was no longer a galaxy. Not even the stars or sky would want me. What was a galaxy without a star?

  “Emmie!” he bellowed, careening backward into the river of fire. His eyes, minty and chocolaty, caught mine.

  I sobbed so hard, my ribs cracked under the pressure. I’d never felt heartbreak so intense that it broke my insides. “Maxell.” I reached for him, but the giant stopped me.

  “No need for you both to die,” the giant said, bored, as if the fact that he’d just killed my reason to live was of no consequence to him.

  Maxell’s body burned within seconds. Catching fire and turning into ash. My fingers dug into the ashy crag we were on. I felt parts of me perish. All the parts that mattered. “Maxell!”

  “Emmie, stop. Emmie, wake up!” his voice ordered.

  My eyes flew open. I was flailing on his leather sofa back in his room. He was alive. He was there. I blinked the hot tears from my eyes and flung myself at him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist and I held him to me with all my might, sobbing into his shirt. “You’re alive. Oh, you’re alive.” I kissed his neck, all over his neck, and even his ear and his cheek. I inhaled his scent and I held it in because my heart was still cracking.

  “In theory,” he murmured, rubbing my back. His touch was cautious. His other hand hung at his side.

  I pulled back, hardly able to see him with my eyes leaking tears. I blinked them away, but more came. He gazed at me, leery. I probably sounded crazy and looked worse. “I had a nightmare. You… got hurt.” I couldn’t articulate what I’d seen. I didn’t even want to put it to words.

  His other arm came around me. His expression relaxed, but his body was still and hesitant. “Must’ve been from the fever.”

  He was probably right. But I couldn’t shake the heartbreak or the terror. It clung to me, and if I tried hard enough, I could still smell the sulfur in the air. I gazed into his eyes. They were soft and sweet and dangerous and lovely all in one. They delved into mine deeply, so deep I could feel him seeing parts of me I had never even gotten to know. “Don’t die, okay?”

  He smiled at me and leaned close, pressing his forehead to mine. “Too late.”

  “You know what I mean.” I touched the hair at the nape of his neck. It fell against my fingers like the softest silk.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said, his mouth so near mine the chill of his lips kissed the heat clinging to mine.

  “Ahem.”

  We both turned toward the sound. Masters had a glass of the fever elixir in his hand and an odd expression on his face. He almost looked mad, or worried, or both. I didn’t know.

  “I think it’s best you have your dose early this morning.”

  Maxell released me.

  But I was still wrapped around him. My legs around his waist, my arms around his shoulders.

  Maxell smirked at me.

  Blushing from my toes to my hairline, I disengaged my hold and pushed to my feet. “Sorry. I had a nightmare,” I explained to Masters, who hadn’t asked and was now trying to stop the smile in his eyes from showing on his lips. “Shut up.” I snatched the glass from him and chugged it down, glad to find that it still tasted like pineapples. “It tastes good. Thank you.”

  He nodded, taking the glass back. “I’m glad you enjoy it. The longer you spend around Maxell, the more doses you’ll need. I’ll need to make a trip for more windmint soon.”

  “By yourself?” He was angry. Something had really upset him between the last time I’d seen him and today. It couldn’t possibly be my fever, could it? He knew that was going to happen. Perhaps he knew what was going to happen better than anyone. Maybe that’s why he was upset.

  “Reowna will accompany me.”

  “So will I,” Maxell volunteered. “And since we can’t leave Emmie alone, she’ll come too.”

  Masters snorted. “Absolutely not.”

  “Why not?” I asked, wounded that he didn’t want me to come along.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “For one, you’re human. It’ll take a barter of all barters to get you into the fae realm. For another, it’ll take an even larger barter to get you out. Furthermore, you’re susceptible to injury and manipulation, and being around fairies will get you both.”

  “Is there a river of fire and mountains of ash in the fae realm?” I wondered with forced casualness.

  His gaze narrowed further on mine. “Why do you ask?”

  “Is there?”

  “Seeing as how the faes are children of the elements, I imagine there’s nothing but the sort in the Fire Court.”

  I blanched, glancing at Maxell, who was watching us both with an unreadable expression on his face. Without meaning to, I saw him falling into the river of fire and I flinched, turning back to Masters. “Never mind. We’ll both stay home.”
>
  “Why, Emmie?” Masters asked quietly. “What was your nightmare about?”

  I laughed it off. “I’m not Reowna. I do not have visions.”

  “You might,” he said forcefully, “tell me, please.”

  “No.” I ground my teeth together.

  “Please.”

  “No!” I growled. “Don’t make me relive that again. It was just a nightmare.”

  “Tell him,” Maxell urged. “I don’t mind.”

  “I do.”

  “Can you tell me then?” Masters suggested, giving Maxell a look. “Go for a run. You haven’t taken a breath in hours.”

  Maxell gave us both his palms in defeat. “I’ll be back in an hour.” He bent to press a kiss to my cheek, whispering in my ear. “Stop crying. I’m fine.”

  He jetted out of the room and I knew the moment he was gone because I felt his absence. I frowned at the feeling, rubbing at my chest.

  Masters motioned for me to follow him out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. “It’s part of being a pair bond. They know you miss them because the entire time they’re gone, they miss you too.”

  I hugged myself. “That seems obsessive.”

  He smiled to himself. “Love can be.”

  “You don’t seem to mind.”

  He glanced at me, letting me see everything in his pale blue eyes. I felt like I was in on something I hadn’t been before. “I don’t. And I don’t even have to ask to know that you don’t mind it any more than I do. One of the beautiful things about being bonded is that there is no wondering or guessing. We can feel as much as we want and as deeply as we wish because they will, too. Would we anyway? Probably. But it’s deeply lovely to know that what we feel is reciprocated. Human relationships can’t always say that.” He pulled out a chair at the table. “Eat.”

  I gave the feast before me a cursory glance. French toast mountains and strawberry fields. I immediately reached for the hot chocolate, chugging it down. I sighed when he sat down next to me. “I don’t want to tell you what I saw.”

  “You don’t need to. Reowna can see your dreams. All you have to do is let her into your subconscious.”

  She appeared at my side, dressed in a soft peach dress. She was barefoot. Her red hair was styled in waves and she looked every part the ethereal goddess. I felt frumpy and tired in her presence. To ignore it, I stuffed a forkful of French toast into my mouth. It worked fine for me.

  “Sounds easy enough,” I grumbled, taking another sip of hot chocolate as they waited patiently. My hands shook around my mug and I set it down, turning to her. “It was just a dream, wasn’t it?”

  She didn’t answer me. She gazed deeply into my eyes. “Let me into your mind. The part where dreams and hopes and fears come from.”

  “Can you read my thoughts?”

  “No.”

  I sighed in relief, making her smile. I wasn’t sure what to do other than to open the door on my nightmare. I knew the moment she was seeing it because abject horror twisted her features. Behind me, Masters swallowed hard. “Tell me that was just a nightmare.” I grabbed her shoulder tops once she sat back, silent and eyes faraway. “Tell me.”

  Her eyes cut back to mine. “Did you talk to Maxell about anything that was in your nightmare?”

  “No…”

  “Then I can’t explain how you had a dream of The Immortal Society condemning Maxell to death in the Pyres.”

  Masters stumbled back. That was my first true sign that something horrific was happening. Vampires had superior balance. But Masters was clinging to the countertop, unable to keep himself upright. I saw his mind turn over, work at record speed. He fixed the top of his tie, the rest hidden beneath his double-breasted vest, as if that would put his thoughts back together.

  He moved to crouch down beside me. He took my hand and waited for me to meet his eyes. “Emmie, I need you to do me a favor. Describe your dream setting in detail.”

  The insistent pressure of the hold he had on my hand also lay in his eyes. I did my best to describe what I saw. Once I had, he glanced at his pair bond. “How could this happen?”

  “Maybe awakening the bond in her also awakened other things,” Reowna contemplated out loud.

  “Was it The Immortal Society you saw?” His tone was so hesitant and weak, as if the words alone would spin chaos.

  She inclined her head just once.

  “Did you see their faces?”

  “Five of the Pures.”

  “Five?” Masters gasped. “What could Maxell have possibly done to warrant the wrath of the Pure Bloodline?”

  “I don’t know,” Reowna answered, a small divot appearing between her brows. “But I need time to open myself to his future.” Another divot appeared, this one deeper. “I’ve never been wrong before. I saw his future. It was…” She glanced at me and a sad smile lifted her lips. “Beautiful.”

  “Maybe they tampered with your vision.”

  Reowna’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “Or maybe they tampered with hers.” They both stared at me closely, trying to see through me. I squirmed uncomfortably. I was no longer hungry. Sensing that, Reowna forced a smile upon her face. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  Uh-huh. Sure. Nothing. “I’m not stupid, Reowna.”

  “We’re not implying anything of the sort,” Masters admonished, rising. “We are curious however, how you dreamed of something you know nothing about.”

  “Maybe Maxell told me something about what I saw. Maybe it’s like symbolism.”

  “Maxell knows very little about The Immortal Society. Even less about their ways. And nothing about the Pyres. He couldn’t have said anything to influence such thoughts.”

  Reowna wouldn’t stop staring at me.

  “What?” I demanded.

  “You are special,” she said, gazing lovingly at me. “I bet you’ve lived a very safe, lonely and unimpressive life.”

  I frowned. “You could say that,” I mumbled dryly. “Don’t flatter me or anything.”

  “But that was flattering. I see you in my visions, Emmie. I don’t see things by mistake or desire. I see things that matter to me. We will be close. And you will be undoubtedly special. Your dream is just the beginning.” She waved a hand at the table. “Please eat. You need your strength to fall in love.”

  I gawked after them. They’d left without explaining anything. Unsure what I should do, I did the only thing I could. I ate until I couldn’t anymore, and then I helped clean up the leftovers. I found a plethora of glass containers and put all the remnants of breakfast away and then I cleaned the kitchen until it shone. I opened the fridge to start putting the food away and stumbled back in shock.

  The refrigerator was massive. The right door yawned open. The main shelving of the fridge itself was chocked full of human food.

  The entire door, however, was filled with glass bottles topped with wide gold lids. Row after row. And each bottle was filled with a viscous red liquid.

  “Blood,” I whispered, the red bottles glowing sinisterly. I gulped, disliking the shock and fear I felt trying to slither in. Most of my reaction bothered me. It wasn’t human blood, or even animal blood. It was synthetic. It was how Maxell ate. How Masters and Reowna ate as well. It wasn’t a big deal. It was simply new to me. That’s all.

  I reached for one, the cold blood so thick it barely sloshed around in the glass bottle. I looked around, determined I was still alone, and twisted the cap off, taking a sniff.

  My stomach lurched. It smelled like the real thing. Like dirt and metal and copper. I didn’t realize I hated the smell of blood until it was in my nose, working its way down to my nerves, twisting them.

  “It’s rude to play with people’s food. A vampire’s nonetheless.”

  I yelped, the bottle flying out of my hand. I tried to catch it, but I was too slow.

  Maxell shot over to where I was so fast I hadn’t even been able to see which direction he came from before he was there, bottle in hand, bloody mess averted.

>   “I don’t have to hide this part of me from you, right?” he checked with me, eyes intense as he brought the bottle to his lips, waiting for my answer.

  “Of course not.” I held his eyes, let him see that I meant it when I said that.

  He brought the bottle the rest of the way to his lips and I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he drained the bottle in four huge gulps. When he brought it away, a drop of blood smeared across his bottom lip. He licked it away, set the bottle down, and then grabbed another, draining it. He walked both bottles over, washed them out, and then set them in a rack beside the sink. There were at least ten other bottles drying beside them. And then he turned to me, expression humorous and relieved.

  “What’s it taste like?” I wondered.

  He fought his smile, even if it glimmered in his eyes. “Blood. I think. I’ve never actually tasted enough human blood to compare it to—other than the occasional bloody lip playing football—but Masters said it tastes so much like the real thing, he’s convinced he can convince most of the vampire world to try it.”

  “Then what?”

  “If vampires have an alternative form of sustenance, then what is there for humans to be afraid of? We’re no different than a diabetic who requires insulin—if we have what we need, we can be who we truly want to be, instead of controlled by our bloodlust.”

  I gaped at him. “Is that Masters’ goal? To what? Out the entire vampire world and reintroduce them into the human world?”

  “Ah, if only,” said a dreamy voice. Masters went over to the fridge and plucked out a bottle of blood. “Wouldn’t that be splendid if it were that easy?”

  I frowned. I couldn’t imagine it. Like not at all. No way would the entire world wake up tomorrow and be okay that vampires existed. It would cause severe anarchy. An all-out war. I imagined the headlines.

  VAMPIRES EXIST! HOARD ALL THE GARLIC!

  Masters chuckled at me. “Relax, Emmie. No. I have no plans to create a war against the humans. If we were interested in that, we would have done so. Plus, a move that huge isn’t up to me. The Immortal Society would dispatch anyone who even tried. Maxell’s still so close to his humanity dreaming is still possible.”