by Quinn Loftis
“I’m not saying you do. But, perhaps, a little diplomacy can go a long way for future endeavors.”
“I hate it when you’re logical and calm.” She held up her hand before he could respond. “But one of us needs to be and we both know it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”
“Fair enough,” he said as he turned her to face him. “Now, we have both served where we are needed. The rest of the night is ours. You can’t save the entire human race tonight.”
“What can I save?” Peri asked with a raised brow.
“Me. I am in need of your saving,” Lucian said in his deep voice. The cheesy line would have sounded ridiculous from anyone but him.
“Are you trying to write for those Hallmark cards again? Because that was vomit-worthy,” she teased him.
“Perhaps, but it worked,” he told her as he pulled her deeper into the forest.
Peri rolled her eyes. Yes, it had worked. But she wasn’t about to admit it. Instead, she followed her mate and let him pull them into the cover of the trees, away from all that was demanding of their time. She let him pull her into his arms and surrendered to his healing touch. In truth, Peri needed saving just as much as her mate, if not more.
Sincaro, master of the Phoenix coven or king of the coven, as some of his people called him, paced restlessly in his chamber as he squeezed the phone to his ear. “We have a problem,” he said into the phone. He had to loosen his grip when he heard the device begin to creak under the pressure.
“What problem?” Cain, the Ontario coven master, asked.
“The fae kind,” Sincaro answered. “They were in my city.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Three high fae were in my city all at the same time. It means something.”
There was silence on the other end for several minutes before the other man responded. “I’ve had pixies in my territories and hunting grounds.”
The older vampire growled. “Why are you just now telling me this? I should have been notified immediately.”
“I’m dealing with it,” Cain snarled back. “Your coven may be the largest, but that does not make you the leader of mine or any other.”
“Perhaps not, but I am the oldest, and that does make me the leader of any who cannot defeat me. Know your place, Cain, or I will end you. We need to deal with this immediately. If the fae find out how we’ve been able to hide all of these centuries, things could get very ugly.”
“You mean ugly as in mangy, snarly ugly?”
“The wolves are the last thing we need sniffing around. Kill any pixies you come across, regardless of whether or not you get any information from them.”
“What about the fae?” Cain asked him.
“I will deal with the fae. It will take someone nearly as old as me to take them out. I’ll make some calls.” Sincaro disconnected the call without another word.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and nearly threw something when the door to his chambers opened. “What?” he snapped.
“You asked me to notify you when your dinner was ready,” the female vampire responded.
Sincaro breathed out a sigh. “Ah, yes. Thank you. Bring her in.” He felt his teeth growing as he began to anticipate what was to come. The only time he had any peace was when he was feeding the monster inside of him, and the only thing that satisfied it was blood.
He turned around slowly as he heard the door open and close again. Her scent filled the air like a fragrant buffet. She was pretty enough, but his kind didn’t care about looks. There was nothing sexual when they fed, contrary to the popular fiction that humans loved to read. Vampires had no desire to couple with their food any more than a human would want to couple with the cow they were turning into hamburgers. No, humans were strictly food, nothing more.
Sincaro stared at the young woman. She’d been feeding him for many, many years now. And as long as the fae, pixies, and wolves minded their own business, she would continue to do so.
“Come here,” he told her, knowing she would obey. She hated him, but she also feared him, and that’s what guaranteed her obedience. She walked toward him, her shoulders held back and her chin lifted stubbornly even after all these years. She was a strong female and, no doubt, would have been an asset to her race. But, she’d practically fallen in his lap and he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
As she stopped before him he reached out with his hand and tilted her chin to the side to inspect her neck. The wounds healed supernaturally fast, so he didn’t have to change the locations of his feedings very often. He preferred the neck because of the larger vein, but he could feed from the wrist if needed—it just took a little longer. When he saw that there were no signs of puncture wounds on her skin, Sincaro struck as fast as a snake, sinking his fangs deep into her neck. He heard and felt the satisfied pop of the vein as it was punctured and then tasted the flood of warm iron as it filled his mouth.
Bethany had been with him since she was a child. She was strong and she wasn’t fully human, which meant she was able to withstand a larger drain than others. It was one of the many reasons he enjoyed having her for his meal. Sincaro drank until he began to feel her weaken and then finally released her. She swayed on her feet and he knew that the only thing keeping her standing was pride.
“It’s too bad you are not a female of my race,” he purred to her. “You would have made a fine queen. I’m sure those of your race would agree with me that you are a strong female. In our world, only the strong survive.”
Her jaw clenched in obvious rage and he chuckled. “Why does my comment anger you?”
“I am human,” she bit out. “Even if I wasn’t, I would never be anything like you.”
“Yes, you are human, but that is not all you are. How many times must we go over this? I do grow tired of your stubbornness.” He let out an exasperated sigh as he pulled a kerchief from his pocket and wiped his mouth. He then wiped the blood from her neck and ignored the way she flinched away from him.
“One day, if you live long enough, perhaps, I will be able to prove to you exactly what you are. Then again, your kind might very well be hunting me and mine at this very moment, so you might get to meet your relatives sooner rather than later. Though you should know one thing, now that you have been tainted for years by the bite of a vampire, they will not want you. No male would ever take you as his own and the humans would never understand or accept what you are. So you see, you are better off here with me.”
“If what you say is true, then you alone are the source of all my troubles. You alone would cause my rejection. You are the one who tainted me. You are the one who continually says I am not human. You are the one who ruined me,” the female growled at him.
His hand flew out before he had time to curb it and connected with her cheek. She flew across the room and crashed into the opposite wall. Had she been fully human, the blow would have shattered her cheekbone.
“Unthankful whelp,” he snarled at her. “You are only alive because I say you can live. Do not forget who holds the fate of your life.”
She pushed herself up slowly from the wall and spit out a mouthful of blood. Such a waste, Sincaro thought at the sight of it.
“This isn’t a life. This is a miserable existence and I’d rather be dead.”
“Perhaps, I will grow tired of your disrespect and you may get your wish.” He made a motion for her to leave. “Get out. We’ll see if your attitude has changed after a few days in the maze.” Her eyes widened and fear began to roll off of her. “Not so brave now are we?” he smirked.
She exited through the door and back into the care of the female vamp who’d dropped her off.
“Take her to the maze,” Sincaro called out to the vamp. He would check on the female in a few days and see if she’d learned to keep her impudence to herself.
With his hunger sated, Sincaro could once again focus on the problem of Perizada, Alston, and Nissa, the three high fae that had been in his territory. It w
as a problem that was going to have to be remedied very, very quickly.
He wasn’t as familiar with Alston or Nissa, but Perizada, she was one he knew all too well. Though it had been a very long time since their last encounter, he still had the souvenir she’d left on his chest just over his heart.
“Maybe it’s time for a little payback, Perizada of the fae,” he said into the empty room as a wicked grin spread across his face
Bethany shuttered as the door slammed closed behind her. The absolute darkness wrapped around her body, stealing her breath and every bit of sight she had. If she had ever wondered what it was like to be blind, she’d found out by being down here. Her breathing sounded unusually loud to her ears as all other noises were shut out. She knew she was deep beneath the ground, the cool, moist air made that clear. But how deep, that was a question to which she didn’t know the answer and, honestly, she didn’t know if she wanted to. It wasn’t her first time in the hell that the vampires so affectionately called the maze. She’d been in it many, many times but no matter how many times she visited, the fear never abated. Even though Bethany knew exactly what was hunting her, knew that she would get no sleep as long as she was down here, she was still terrified.
Her head snapped around when she heard the low growl she’d come to dread. She fought the instinctual urge to immediately sprint away from the sound. She knew that fleeing only urged the creature on. Instead, she began to back away in the opposite direction. Her feet moved slowly as, step by step, she put space between her and the monster hunting her. Bethany heard scratching along the walls and cringed at the awful sound. She’d seen the claws that made this noise and knew them to be at least three or more inches long. Like all the times before, her eyes were trying to give her something to see, but there just wasn’t any light for them to draw on. The one time she had seen anything at all, it had been because she’d come face-to-face with the beast and his glowing eyes lit up the area in front of her like a neon sign. She decided then that she preferred to not be able to see.
Her hands ran along the cold walls, guiding her back. When her left hand suddenly met air, Bethany knew that she’d come to the first turn. She eased her body to the right as she began to back her way down the new corridor. The growl came again and the nails against the walls continued to grate. Despite the cool air around her, sweat was beginning to form on Bethany’s neck and back.
“Don’t lose your cool, Bethygirl,” she told herself, using the nickname her father had called her. She remembered him calling her that, but it had been so long ago that she no longer remembered the sound of his voice. She pushed that thought away before it could take root and bring emotions that didn’t need to be clouding her focus.
She remembered another corridor just ahead, and, just as she was about to turn down it, she heard another growl. Her breath froze in her lungs. This one was coming from the wrong direction.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath as she continued backing down the corridor, skipping the turn she normally took. She passed several more turns before finally taking a left. Her feet had turned her around and she was now walking forward as her hands continued to guide her along the wall. These walls didn’t feel familiar, as odd as that sounded. She’d been in the maze so many times over the years that her hands had practically memorized the texture of the walls. But the walls she was touching now were not ones she’d ever touched before.
So they’d added a second beast and made the maze larger. Bully for them, she thought to herself. Perhaps, they thought two monsters would be double the fun. Regardless of the vampires’ reason for upping the terror factor of the maze, Bethany now had two creatures she would have to evade for the duration of her time down here. She paused on that thought. Why did she have to evade them? She’d told the vampire king that she’d rather be dead than continue her miserable existence—the existence she’d endured since she was seven years old. For eleven years she’d been the sickos’ food source, and there were many times, as she was lead to his chambers, she’d prayed that it would be the time he finally drain her completely. But he never did. She thought the only way she could die would be by his fangs on his terms. A smile spread across her face as Bethany realized that she had another option and it was death on her terms—sort of.
Naturally, at the thought of allowing the beasts to catch her, the survival instinct that was inside every living being lunged forward. There was a part of her that didn’t want to die. She wanted a chance to have a life. She wanted to get away from the monsters and forget all about the world that Sincaro had exposed her to. She wanted to build her own life. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to have children because of all that she’d been through, but she at least wanted her own place, to be able to pick her own meals, and to even decide when she needed to use the bathroom. But she didn’t think that day was ever going to come.
“What’s the point in continuing to fight if I’m never leaving?” she asked the darkness. Bethany took several deep breaths as she allowed herself to come to terms with her decision. She was going to die. She was going to choose to end her miserable existence and finally have peace. Though there was a natural instinct to fight for her life, she pushed it away as she heard the beasts getting closer. Any second they would be upon her. She closed her eyes and stood rigidly in the middle of the corridor, dropping her hands to her side. She heard the growling and clawing moving closer. She faced the direction of the sound and waited.
Long lost memories, covered in dust in the corners of her mind, suddenly came barreling to the forefront of her consciousness. She remembered her mother and her kind eyes. She remembered her father and his playful demeanor. She thought about the bedroom she had not seen in eleven years and remembered lying in bed staring at the stars through her window. Then her thoughts shifted to all the things she would never have. She’d never finish high school, go to college, or get married and have a family. She would never experience having a child or being a mom. She would never love and grow old with a man she’d given her heart to. She would never look into his eyes and see that he’d given his heart to her as well. All of those things had been stolen from her by the vampires. The only thing she could ever have was peace.
When the growling got closer she opened her eyes and saw two sets of the yellow, glowing eyes. They moved slowly toward her and the closer they got, the more she was able to see. The large beasts looked like an unnatural combination of two apex predators. The huge creatures walked on all fours, moving like wolves, but had the round boulder sized heads of grizzly bears. They were terrifying, and yet they would be her salvation.
She closed her eyes once again and felt their hot breath on her face. Bethany readied herself for the claws and fangs that would soon pierce her skin. The creatures roared in unison, and the girl jumped violently and fell back, striking her head on the hard ground. Just before the darkness swallowed her, she heard a beautiful voice speak into her mind.
“I am sorry, my child, but it is not yet your time. There is much for you to do in this life and many people who will love you. You must endure a little longer.” The voice faded along with her consciousness.
Chapter 7
“I keep thinking that at some point I will no longer be surprised by anything in this world that Jacque, Jen, and I have found ourselves in. But then, as if the universe is laughing at me, it blows my mind again. ~Sally
Jen clapped her hands once as she followed her mate into Vasile’s office. “Please tell me that we’re going to let the pregnant chick chase after vampires. I’m dying to see her waddle along while holding a stake.”
“Thanks for that,” Jacque retorted.
“It’s what I do, Red,” Jen said with a wink.
Jen didn’t miss the tight look on Fane’s face. It was very obvious that he was totally not on board with his prego mate hunting vampires.
“I’ve decided to leave it up to the mated pairs when it comes to who will be traveling to the US,” Vasile
announced.
Jen could tell by the looks on Jacque and Sally’s faces that they were just as surprised as her, especially since Jacque carried his first grandchild.
Peri materialized in the center of the room. “Good, everyone is here,” she said as she looked around the room. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Vasile made a motion for the fae to continue. Jen folded her arms across her chest as she waited to hear Peri’s news. She attempted to brace herself for whatever horror the fae might reveal.
“Alston, Nissa, and I visited Phoenix last night. Turns out that Phoenix is the location of the largest vampire coven in North America.”
“How do you know?” Decebel asked.
“The pixies have been helping us out. They’ve been tracking disappearances across the country. Phoenix has the largest number of missing children in the US,” Peri explained.
“So is that where we’re headed first?” Sally asked, earning her a frown from her mate.
Jen nearly snorted at the scowl on the handsome bartender’s face. This was going to be fun, she decided. Driving her mate crazy was one of her favorite things. Getting to watch her two besties drive their own mates insane was just icing on the cake.
“At first that is what we thought,” Peri agreed. “But then we realized that we couldn’t just go in and declare a war on a coven of that size without revealing ourselves to the humans. It was decided that the best option would be to drive our enemy out of hiding. We will start by taking out the smaller covens. My bet is that since Phoenix has the largest coven they probably have the oldest and most powerful king as well. He’s not going to stand by while his people are being killed off, especially not by me and the wolves.”
“Sounds like you’ve run across this king before,” Costin pointed out.
Peri shrugged. “I’ve been alive a very long time. There are very few supernaturals that I am not acquainted with in some way or another.”
