Embrace the Night

by Caris Roane

  She was definitely the woman to ask for help and counsel.

  After a time, Vojalie turned toward her. “First, you have what is known as a fire-gift and it’s extremely rare. I haven’t seen it in centuries, in fact, but you have all the hallmarks. I would imagine you find cold water soothing.”

  “Very. But what does this mean?”

  Vojalie shrugged. “It’s no doubt connected to your being a blood rose, but I have a feeling its purpose is specific and will be made known to you within the next few days or weeks even. Although the fact that you saved Jude’s life is a hint all on its own.”

  “So I’m a fiery blood rose.”

  Vojalie smiled. “You could say that.” But her expression soon became serious as she continued, “All nine of the ruling mastyrs have carried an enormous load for centuries. And I’ve been hoping for a long time that something very realm would one day arrive to relieve their suffering. I just never thought it would be the blood rose phenomenon. It has occurred before in our history, but in such distant times that I actually had to look it up in the ancient documents. But these men … they’re so deserving.”

  Hannah sighed. “Jude especially. He’s done so much for his realm, which is one reason I’m as upset as I am. Jude should have a blood rose in his life, just not me. And you know I love realm-folk. I’ve essentially grown up around them, and I’ve known Jude since I was a child.”

  Hannah rubbed what she knew to be a frown between her brows. “What I’m trying to say, is that the way I feel has little to do with Jude and more to do with how much I’d be giving up.”

  “You feel you’d have to give up the Gold Rush.”

  “And my home, my friends, my entire way of life. I’m not ignorant of just how much each of the lives of the current bonded blood roses has changed.”

  Vojalie cocked her head, her eyes narrowing slightly. “I’m wondering though, if there isn’t something more going on here. Is it possible your feelings are cloaked with events from the past? Bad experiences?”

  Hannah could see that Vojalie’s eyes had turned silver, a sure sign of enthrallment, but it didn’t bother Hannah at all. Instead, she found herself telling Vojalie all about her ex, Mark Jackson, and his control issue. “And I know Jude likes things the way he likes them.”

  “Well that he does, as most men do. But it also sounds to me like your ex had a much deeper issue than Jude could possibly have. I believe, and you make take it for what it’s worth, that your Mr. Jackson will one day become an abuser, if not physically then emotionally. I imagine while you were together, he helped you to feel very small about the choices you made for your life.”

  Vojalie had said it exactly right. “As though his were important and mine weren’t.”

  “You were wiser than you knew when you parted company with him.”

  To a degree, Hannah already knew that Vojalie was right. But hearing her suspicions supported out loud helped a lot.

  Vojalie asked, “So, how does Jude feel about what’s happened?”

  “Actually, I’m not sure which of us is more distressed.”

  Vojalie frowned slightly. “I believe he must be thinking about his wife and daughter. You know about them, right? The lovely Naomi and their daughter, Joy?”

  Hannah nodded.

  Vojalie’s silver eyes appeared haunted as she looked into the past. “We were all devastated when we heard the news. Did you know they’d been killed in the small, peach orchard on Jude’s property? On Castle Island?”

  “Yes, but that’s all I really know and I never probed for details.”

  “No, of course not.” Vojalie gave herself a shake. “Now, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable, but there are a few things I must know. You’ve made love with Jude, right?”

  Maybe it was the enthrallment, but Hannah didn’t feel embarrassed, not even a little, as she nodded. The memories came sliding back quickly about what they’d done in the bunkroom. Her cheeks grew warm because she only had to think about Jude and her whole body heated up.

  Vojalie laughed, a bright sound like bells chiming. “You don’t need to say anything more. I can feel your experience. It glows from your entire being.”

  She didn’t know about ‘glow’, but she definitely felt all fired up again.

  “Hannah, this probably won’t help at all, but you are the woman I would wish for Jude, warm and loving, very unselfish. But my opinions aside, what do you need from me?”

  Hannah spoke from her heart. “Can this thing be undone? Do I have to be a blood rose?”

  “I’m afraid that die is cast. Your issue now will be all about the mastyr with whom you bond.”

  Hannah sorted this through in her mind. “But if I don’t bond with Jude or anyone else, I can keep my life as it is.”

  “Theoretically, but as you must already know, the blood rose drive is very powerful.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Vojalie chuckled softly. “But let me ask you, when you’ve reflected on your life, and to me you seem like the kind of woman who would do that often, did anything in particular surface repeatedly as a desired hope or dream?”

  Hannah thought back to the journaling she’d done over the years, even a few of the altered books she’d made pasting in all kinds of things into several old books. “I guess if there had to be a recurring theme it would be a desire to make a difference.”

  “And would being a blood rose make the kind of difference you envision?”

  “In Jude’s world, maybe. But I meant Port Townsend, my world, the human world. Not Kellcasse.”

  “But your world, the one you live in and delight in is at least half-realm. Just because the borders haven’t changed, that doesn’t mean Jude, his Guardsmen and many other realm-folk crossing the access point to Port Townsend haven’t already altered the dynamic in your world.”

  “I suppose you could look at it that way. I just don’t want this. The worst part is I’m told that other mastyrs will come after me if I don’t bond with Jude, and I know that they’re not all as wonderful as he is.”

  “My dear, can you hear what you just said?”

  “You mean the ‘wonderful’ part.”

  “Yes, that bit.”

  “But why wouldn’t I feel that way about Jude? I’ve known him all my life, and I trust and respect him. He’s like family to me.”

  “Did you find it strange, then, to make love with him?”

  The question was deeply personal, but again Hannah didn’t mind. Aside from the fact that enthrallment was in play, she trusted Vojalie.

  Still, the question forced Hannah to pause and to think. Had it bothered her to have sex with Jude?

  She finally shook her head. “I was only troubled because he’s realm, I’m human, and I’ve never seen myself going long-term with a realm-man. But no, it was easy to make love with him. I wasn’t even nervous. The whole experience was amazing and charged with, I’m not sure how to say this, passion, I suppose.”

  “I can sense what your time with Jude meant to you, but I’m also sensing that you’re unaware of the layers of your affection for the mastyr. So let me ask you this: if you’d had this kind of sexual encounter with a human male, what would you be thinking right now?”

  Hannah blinked for a moment, her thoughts becoming perfectly clear. “I would start seeing him, I suppose, then see what happened next, see if we had something real, if we could blend our lives, if it could work.”

  Vojalie nodded and smiled. “And there you have it.”

  Hannah tilted her head. “Vojalie, it can’t be that simple. I mean he’s Jude, it’s the whole blood rose thing, it’s Margetta-the-freak.”

  At that, Vojalie laughed outright. “I have every reason to believe she would hate being spoken of like that.”

  Vojalie then settled her hand on Hannah’s arm. “Try to shift out of the horror you’re feeling and approach this situation as you would if you were dating a human. Be with Jude for a time. The bond is only completed when you
r mating frequencies engage and lock into place, and not a moment before. And that has to be a decision of the will; it can’t be forced.

  “If after a time, you find you can’t tolerate either being with him or being a blood rose, we can address the issue together. For instance, we could devise a number of security measures to protect you from unwanted mastyr attention. How does that sound?”

  Hannah breathed yet another sigh of relief. She’d felt so trapped, unable to see any kind of alternative. But these simple, very workable suggestions eased her. Maybe she was a blood rose, but it didn’t mean that she had to commit body and soul to anyone unless she wanted to.

  As her gaze drifted over the dark stretch of the Strait that led all kinds of ships and smaller craft into Puget Sound, she suddenly felt a sense of impending loss. Kellcasse was a beautiful realm full of canals, waterways, and small lakes all set in lush woodland.

  But Port Townsend was her world, her life. How could she ever leave the Gold Rush to make a life with Jude on Castle Island? The whole prospect seemed impossible.

  ~ ~ ~

  Jude had been to Hannah’s home a few times before and liked the way she’d improved it over the years. The house was essentially a small cottage built on the hillside with a view to the open waters of what he knew to be Admiralty Inlet.

  She’d opened up the walls that separated the living, dining and kitchen to create one larger space. Very nice. And she’d decorated with white, lots of black and dark grays then an occasional shot of pink. She had a piece of carved driftwood on the round, solid wood dining table, but other than that, and a couple of paintings of wooded beaches, she’d chosen against a typical maritime look and feel. No rope-bound tables, anchors, or seagulls in her place. Not even one seashell.

  Her place was modern and charming.

  Even so, his guard-size body seemed to take up too much space, and he thought it a fitting way to describe their present predicament. This vast wave had washed through both their lives, leaving her with unwanted powers, and building within him a lust for her hard to contain because she was a blood rose.

  He’d been one hundred years without the influence of a woman in his life. How could he possibly embrace one now? Forget that he’d made a decision to keep away from long-term relationships. Just what kind of life could he even offer Hannah?

  He had two jobs. He oversaw the day-to-day running of his realm, staying in touch during his waking daylight hours with all the various city and community leaders. And once full dark arrived, he patrolled with his Vampire Guard seven nights a week.

  And Hannah had her bar.

  None of this made sense to him. It would be one thing if his blood rose had been a realm-woman, who knew and understood everything about Kellcasse, his role, and who he was as a vampire. But Hannah owned a bar in Port Townsend and spent every waking minute there. Even on a simple, logical level, how would this even work?

  When Davido moved onto the porch and waved for him to follow, Jude joined him willingly. He’d hoped to have a chance to talk privately with Davido and was grateful when Hannah had invited Vojalie to the roof deck.

  Leaning on the porch railing, the troll smiled up at him, his blue eyes crinkling and the three rolls of his forehead lifting slightly. “So you are the latest mastyr to get struck by lightning, eh?”

  Jude laughed. “Lightning. You’ve described it exactly right.” He leaned his forearms on the railing as well and shifted his gaze out to sea. He liked Davido, one of the ugliest trolls in the Nine Realms. But he was ancient, wise, and had tremendous charisma. If he’d been a vampire, he would have been fierce. But his troll height, at least a foot shorter than Jude’s, had forced him to carve out a different kind of life for himself, one that he wore with grace.

  “I didn’t know until I fed from Hannah, what was really going on. We’d had a mutual attraction for months, but each of us had kept the stops on. Then a wraith-pair showed up at dawn outside the Gold Rush and Hannah saved my life by burning the mated vampire.”

  “Sweet Goddess! You didn’t mention this when we pathed together this morning. How did she burn him?”

  “She’s harnessed fire in a way I’ve never seen before.”

  “My wife will be well-pleased to learn of this. She said she was feverish until you called. Now I understand why.”

  Jude shifted slightly to face him. “What would you do in my shoes? I mean, if I leave her alone, another mastyr is bound to come after her. And the worst ones won’t hesitate to abduct her.”

  Davido left the railing, pivoting toward Jude, as he rubbed his thumb in the valley between the top two ridges of his forehead. “Give her a helluva lot of security, and maybe stick close for the next few days. Nothing is settled until you forge a bond with her. I know this feels sudden, but it seems to me, with what you’ve just told me, that your relationship with Hannah has been building for a long time.”

  “I suppose if you look at it that way.” The sound of laughter drew his attention inside the house. The women had descended, Vojalie elegant and remarkable in a flowing lavender and green casual gown and Hannah in her blue jeans and white shirt.

  At least she was smiling, which was a good sign.

  He couldn’t help turning in her direction like a compass needle drawn to true north. From the time he could remember, he’d thought Hannah beautiful beyond words, especially close up. Her eyes were her best feature, then her full, high cheek-bones, her straight nose, her lips. Or maybe it was her expression, as though lit from within with the sheer joy of life.

  “Try to think of it,” Davido said quietly, “as a problem to be resolved, or even a string of small problems, rather than a massive disaster that needs to be torn asunder.”

  “It feels huge.”

  Davido laughed. “Love always does.”

  But before Jude could counter this completely inaccurate remark about ‘love’, Davido moved swiftly inside. He crossed to his wife and took her hand, kissing her fingers. The old troll seemed to be a great romantic at heart.

  Jude remained by the doorway, watching but not listening. Hannah didn’t know how well she fit into his world, or how comfortable she was with realm-folk. But then she’d been raised in the Gold Rush, and from the first day that the U.S. had opened up official relations with the Nine Realms, her father had welcomed Realm-folk into his bar. Jude had held Hannah when she was born and had seen her through every phase of her life.

  But even from the first, she’d had a real love of life that he’d responded to. Maybe he’d even encouraged her, pushed her to go to college back east, to take a summer and tour Europe, even to spend a month on a sailing ship. He was sure in that time she’d meet a soul like her own and return to Port Townsend with a husband.

  In the end, she’d come back engaged to Mark Jackson, a controlling asshole that had made Jude want to punch his lights out. Jude had never been happier when Hannah dumped his sorry ass. Sell the Gold Rush. What a douche!

  Hannah’s mother had died way too young, when Hannah was only seven. Jude had spent time with her then, as did many of the realm-folk, who saw her as orphaned, even though her father was a loving, involved parent.

  The fact that she’d ended up with realm abilities seemed natural, since Kellcasse, by way of its people, had been such a huge part of her life all these years.

  But how could they possibly make a life together? And maybe more importantly for the immediate future: How was he supposed to keep other mastyr vampires away from her?

  Chapter Four

  When Hannah bid Vojalie and Davido goodnight and watched them vanish, she put a hand to her forehead. She turned to Jude. “It’s one thing to watch you fly, but they just disappeared.”

  “I know,” he said, nodding. “That couple has a helluva lot of power.”

  “I’m so glad they came.”

  “It’s a sound idea to have security for you. I should have thought of it myself, but I was too caught up in the situation to see clearly.” He then told her that one of
his lieutenants, Paul, and another powerful Guardsman, would serve as her bodyguards, whether here in her home or at the bar, or wherever she needed them to be. They had orders to contact Jude at the first sign of the approach of another mastyr vampire, or any other trouble.

  Hannah felt tremendously relieved. She might even be able to relax a little. “Thanks for taking care of this.”

  He frowned. “I only wish I could stay with you, but I need to be out with my Vampire Guard. We still have unanswered questions about the recent massacre in the north, and I’ll be heading out there later tonight to see for myself. Not to mention the two wraith-pairs that actually crossed the Sound earlier at dawn. I need to figure out what’s going on, and the only way I can do that is in Kellcasse.”

  “You have to go, Jude. It’s for the best on every front. I’m sure of that.”

  He drew close and took both her hands in his. “We’ll figure this out for you, Hannah. I want you to be at ease and comfortable despite the changes you’re going through.”

  “Vojalie gave me some hope. She said I’d always be a blood rose, and we could find ways to keep me safe from encroaching mastyr vampires.”

  “Absolutely. Like I said, we’ll keep exploring options and create a security detail that will work for you.” Jude’s frown deepened. He’d never appeared so upset before.

  “What’s wrong?” Hannah felt his unease.

  He shook his head. “I feel like somehow this is my fault. I mean, I’d been dogging your heels, anyway, making every excuse I could to be at the Gold Rush. And now you’re a blood rose.”

  “You can’t blame yourself. I felt the same way. Whatever this is, fundamentally we both felt the same way.”

  Even as Hannah said the words, she felt very strange, like she was in the supply closet all over again and Jude was there watching her. She took a deep breath, trying to settle the butterflies down, but once more her knees felt really weak.