Blood Enchanted (Blood Enchanted, Book 1): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series (10 page)

I let a slow breath of air out. Full strength already. After only a few hours post staking near the heart.

Two things. It takes a level one
Sanguis Vitam
vampire
all
his strength and power to recover from an injury like that. And it takes a second level one
Sanguis Vitam
vampire to remove the stake so he can recover at all.

I had both hands full of weapons before the thoughts had completed.

Two level one
Sanguis Vitam
vampires. Not many worked together. Vampires are territorial. Auckland is strange, in that it has several. Every single one of the councillors of the
Iunctio
are level one masters, except my mother. And most would argue her power equals, if not exceeds, that of a level one vamp. The Master of The City, Jett, and Samson, both part of Georgia’s triumvirate, are also level ones. Alain is too. And then there’s visiting vamps, like Uncle Gregor from Wellington, and Sergei and Natalyia, Mama’s vampires of her
Lux Lucis Tribuo
line. A hell of a lot of power for one city. But the Champion, Papa, keeps them all in line.

For Hakan to work closely with another level one vampire is not a given. But also meant he’d not travelled light. And for the Champion not to be aware of their combined presence was impossible.

I suddenly realised Alain had lied to me. Not such a stretch of the imagination.

But that my mother had omitted a few truths as well.

If Papa knew, then Mama knew. And she’d known it when she’d faced off against Ediz.

“Are we alone?” I asked Georgia urgently.

She tilted her face to the sky and sniffed.

“Yes.”

I shook my head. I didn’t believe it. That much power in one location could not be missed.

“Is he alone?” I tried.

“The shifter and the vampire is all I scent,” my friend confirmed. “He is waiting.” Her head cocked to the side again. “He is eager.” She snorted, it sounded too loud in the still night air. “He’s turned on.”

Her red rimmed eyes swept down to me.

“And so are y…”

“OK,” I said in a huff. “Enough of the hound dog routine.” She only laughed. It was loud enough, I was sure, for Hakan and Ediz to hear it inside. I shifted uncomfortably on my feet, feeling the telltale flush of blood sweep my cheeks.

“The plan, Nosferatin?” she asked, putting me out of my misery. But I could have sworn it was her Dark Shadow asking. Not her. I flicked my eyes over her vampire-within, caught the hint of fangs where fangs could not possibly exists, and then the tendril of shadow that reached out towards me.

I shuddered, and took a step sideways, away from Georgia and her fucked in the head inner vamp.

“I’m going to knock on the door,” I announced.

Georgia rolled her eyes. “Such finesse, is it any wonder you’re the Champion’s child?”

My turn to snort.

“Shall I cover the back entrance?” she suggested, a little too eagerly.

“Keep your fangs in check,” I ordered. She smirked. It was hard to tell if her fangs were down. “I want him alive.”

She opened her mouth to offer a comeback and then paused. Her nostrils flaring, making her eyes glow red and a low growl to emit from the back of her throat.

“You’re worried.” Sometimes having a friend who could scent your emotions was a pain in the butt.

“Not for the reasons you think,” I offered.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she demanded,
Sanguis Vitam
wrapping around the command without an ounce of regret.

“Cut that out!” I snapped.

Georgia just laughed. “Seriously,” she purred. “You so need to get laid.”

Then she was gone, into the shadows and ‘round the rear of the property.

Sometimes having a friend who could scent your emotions was brilliant. I’d just thrown a whole hell of a lot of “back the fuck off” at her face. And she’d obliged.

I stretched my neck, flipped my stakes end over end in my palms, and walked towards the front door.

If there’d been tumbleweed rolling across the footpath in front of me, I wouldn’t have been surprised. Silence, thick and cloying hung in the air. I wondered what wards Hakan had placed on this building. How far they reached. If I’d crossed them already.

Sounds were muffled, but I could still hear the scratch of a rodent beneath the porch steps. Smells were cloaked in a layer of something sweet, something fresh, like… ozone.

I stilled on the top step, my senses on high alert. My heart beating a staccato rhythm inside my chest. I reached down deep inside myself, searching for an answer. Trying to get a bead on those twisting ribbons.

Failed.

Ozone equals fairy. A number one rule in our world. Either a portal to
Álfheimr
was nearby, and I wasn’t aware of one in Parnell that still existed. Or coincidence, in this case, was a very bad thing. Georgia had contacts in Faerie. The King of the
Dökkálfa
was considered a close friend. In essence we should have been safe for the fact alone that Georgia was here.

But not all fairies are Dark. Some come from
Ljósálfar
. And nobody knew for sure if they were all still contained.

I spun in a slow circle, my eyes straining to see through the gloom of a half abandoned suburb. My stomach doing somersaults that set my teeth on edge.

I couldn’t be sure, but something said I
was
sure. I was being watched by a Fairy. One who had just arrived through a portal from
Álfheimr
.

Guts & Glory and now Hakan’s front porch.

I pocketed my stakes and pulled my Svante. A move I immediately regretted.

Something shifted in the darkness beyond the property’s border, a flash and a sizzle followed, and then the smell of burned peaches met the frigid air.

Motherfucker!
Ljósálfar!

The door behind me suddenly opened, on well oiled hinges that silently sent me to my doom. And the hot hand of a vampire wrapped around my throat, pulling me across the threshold, and thrusting me hard up against a wall.

Teeth met my neck.

Sword blade met his balls.

And the Dark Shadow stormed through the back door.

T
here was
nothing of Georgia left in the vampire who barrelled down the hall. Red eyes glowing, fangs long and lethal, a growl growing in force from the back of her throat, having reached up from the very depths of her soul.

Primeval. Old. Vampires have been around a long, long time.

Colour streaked in from a side room and smashed into her side, taking her off her feet and through the air. A thunderous crash sounded out as both bodies hit something solid in a room out of sight. Snarls rent the air, tearing and ripping and high pitched hissing. The snap of fangs, the grunt of lost air, the crack of bone shattering.

Georgia had met Ediz.

Soft lips pressed briefly against my throat, reminding me I had my own battle to contend with, and then Hakan pulled back to look down at me.

Silver laced the ice-blue, swirling, entwining, mesmerising. He blinked slowly, inhaled through his nose, nostrils flaring, fangs elongating. They were as long as I’d seen my father’s get. He pressed himself in closer to my body as growls and bangs and crashes sounded out from the other room.

“You brought a friend,” he said, voice low and draped in velvet. “Ediz will be pleased.”

He wanted me to ask, to
demand
he not harm Georgia.

I just smiled and offered a one sided shoulder shrug. “The Dark Shadow was getting hungry.”

He blinked down at my lips, his gaze locked there for too long a time. I breathed as normally as I could manage, thrust up against a wall, a vampire’s hot palm wrapped tightly around my throat, the knowledge that the blade between his legs was doing nothing for his arousal beating a frantic pace inside my head.

My pulse fluttered and his eyes left my lips to stare at my neck.

“I’m impressed,” he said conversationally, as if we both weren’t about to do lethal damage. “You have resources I was not made aware of.”

“And such a long way to come to be disappointed.”

The wall opposite us collapsed in a spray of broken plasterboard, dust and paint chips scattering across the hallway. Ediz reached through the gap that had appeared and wrapped a long clawed hand around Georgia’s jacket, hauling her back through the hole he’d just created.

My heart skipped a beat.

Hakan hadn’t blinked an eyelash during the interruption, his attention, his sole focus was on me. On the rapid beat of my blood.

“I am not disappointed,” he purred.

I sucked in a breath of air and gripped the hilt of my Svante tighter, pressing the blade firmly against the crease at the top of his thigh. He smiled.

“There are better ways to get what you want,” he advised, silver and cyan flashing in his eyes hypnotically.

I forced a grin, shifted the sword slightly, letting my knuckles run down the length of his very impressive erection.

He started chuckling. “You are a delight.”

Frustration gnawed at me, but my gut was silent. As if the ribbons were waiting patiently to see what I’d do. Of all the talents to receive upon maturity, I had to get a malfunctioning one.

Luc.

What had Luc received that had made him seek release - redemption? - in the arena?

“You’re running out of time,” I advised with false bravado. False, because if Alain
had
been watching Hakan, he’d have already been here.

The house rocked as something hit a wall in the room just out of sight. I heard the annoyed growl of Georgia’s vampire and then the high pitched scream of a shifter getting pulverised by the Dark Shadow.

My lips edged up in a more believable smile.

“Do you know what Ediz is?” Hakan asked, not moving away from my blade or my body. His thumb had started stroking the side of my neck, directly above my pulse point.

He didn’t need the contact to know my heart was still racing, but like all vampires he was drawn to the evidence of my distress. Vampires are predators, don’t let the stories fool you. They hunt. They make it look effortless. They know every trick out there to subdue their prey.

His thumb felt soft and alluring. Seductive. The way his eyes flashed beautiful, crisp blues and dazzling, sparkling silvers could steal a girl’s breath away.

Just as well my mother had taught me better.

“Mutant lizard,” I replied, offering a stroke of my knuckles as incentive.

The vampire’s nostrils flaring was the only reaction to the intimate and threatening manoeuvre.

“He is Erbörü,” Hakan replied. “He will not halt now until she is dead.”

“Why?” The word was out before I could stop it. A wisp of a thing, filled with dread and horror. Laced with fear and guilt.

I’d
brought Georgia here. I’d recognised that her Dark Shadow was close to the surface. I should have known better. I should have looked out for my friend.

“Because he has tasted her blood,
hayatim,”
Hakan said softly. “Because he is much like me.”

My eyes met his. The inference obvious in the words alone; I didn’t need to see the resolute look he gave me. I’d let him taste my blood. I’d led the Dark Shadow into a trap. I’d fucked up severely.

So much of what had happened in the past few days was my fault.

Even losing Luc.

Hakan had taken my brother to get to me.

“You are vampyre,” I said in a hiss. “Have you so little control?”

It was a last ditch effort to insult him. Words mean something to a vampire. They carry weight.

But he only smiled. A small, deeply saddened smile.

“I am a Prince of Mhachkay,” he said, stroking my neck as though it would calm me. “I have two hearts. Two souls. And they have chosen.”

Oh, I did not like the sound of that.

“And Ediz?” I asked as a thunderous roar rolled out of the now destroyed room. A chair flew through the air, slamming against the wall I was still held firmly against. The couch followed. Hakan let out a low growl, a crimson hue flashing in his eyes when the wall shook so hard my teeth rattled.

“
Yeter!
” he growled and received a chilling howl in return that became a hiss.

He let a slow breath out and leaned his forehead against mine. It was far too intimate. Even more so than his thumb over my pulse point or his hard pecs pressed against my breasts, or the feel of his straining arousal against my fisted hand around the sword hilt.

“You can end this,” he said, his eyes closed, his nostrils flaring. Scenting me. “You can save her. Save your brother. Save your city.”

I’m not sure which threat did it. I’d like to say all three, but the threat to Georgia had become real, and the threat to Luc had existed for so long now, that it might have been the new threat to my city that won out in the end.

I kept the sword still, fingered a stake at my hip, and reached for my Light.

His fangs sinking into flesh surprised me.

Why? I don’t know.

Maybe it was the ribbons; twisting, turning, entwining inside me. There was no alarm. No warning. No fear. Only a hint of something elusive, something desirable, something like hunger.

He growled low, wrapped his free hand around my sword arm, and squeezed hard. Hard enough to make the Svante clatter to the floorboards.

I whimpered.

Georgia screamed in fury.

And my stake entered Hakan’s side.

I didn’t have time to register the fact that I’d staked him. Again. Nausea rolled through me, thick and saccharine. My body shuddered. And Hakan wrapped his arms around my shoulders, tucked my face into the flat of his chest, and lapped up my blood, ignoring all distractions.

The silver of the stake burned his flesh, soft whorls of smoke rising from where it still resided, tickling my nose. Ediz roared. Hakan growled, the sound becoming a soft purr. And I finally,
finally,
grasped my Light.

Desperation made me reckless. I’d used Dream Walking as a defence twice in the past few hours. Too soon. Too much.

Exhaustion slammed into me, as Georgia’s body flew through the air and landed crumpled in a heap at my side. Hakan fell to the ground at my feet, his fangs pulled from the puncture site before he could lick the wound closed. I staggered, sliding down the wall as I tried to get to Georgia. Hakan appeared beside me; hazy, magnificent in his anger. And Ediz came barrelling out of the room and streaked across the hall.

My vision was fading, but I willed myself to stay awake, to stay conscious, to save Georgia. Bile coated my tongue. Sweat rolled down my spine. Chills started making my teeth chatter, my body trembling in a way I had no hope of controlling. Of stopping. Of beating.

I threw myself between Ediz and Georgia. The effort required making me lose my grip on Hakan’s Dream Walking self. The floorboards came up to meet me, my head spun, the room with it. My hand wrapped around Georgia’s wrist, my back coming to rest at her side.

Ediz let loose the most terrifying sound of rage, and then
Sanguis Vitam
filled the air.

It rushed over my body, stroked soft tendrils down my arm, across my cheek, and encased me - and Georgia - in a protective bubble.

Ediz slammed up against the invisible barrier and bounced right off it.

He shook his head, bared his incredibly long fangs, flexed his claws, and took a step forward, ready to attack again.

“
Yeter!
” Hakan growled. A series of commands in that same foreign language followed. I blinked through spots, breathed through the desperate need to vomit. Panted as though I couldn’t get enough air.

Slowly Ediz backed down, his eyes darting between his master and his prey. And the pathetic excuse of a Nosferatin lying between him and his goal.

Silence followed. A stand-off, except two of the participants were almost out for the count on the floor.

I’d been such a fool to come here. I’d been so blinded by my need to solve my own problems that I’d nearly caused the death of an innocent woman. Of a friend. My life was mine to throw away, but bringing Georgia into this mess, adding her body count to that of Luc, it was idiotic.

My
Sigillum
burned, reminding me I had options.

I closed my eyes, felt defeat wash through me and then lifted a leaden hand to the sleeve of my jacket. It took three tries to get the material to budge, to get the
Sigillum
uncovered. Mint green and lime washed through with magenta and violet. Fear, worry, anger and rage.

Footsteps sounded out beside me. The sharp click of expensive shoes on wood. I flicked open heavy lids and stared into the calm and intrigued face of Hakan Bahar. He was crouched down in front of me, his eyes moving swiftly over my face, my body, my
Sigillum
. He seemed completely at ease, not recovering from the incredulity of a forced Dream Walk, or the loss of control, or even a stake to the side of his chest. No anger marred his perfect features. No reproach or judgement in his steady gaze. No breathlessness hinted at the effort it must have taken for him to rein in his mind-numbingly powerful shifter charge. Just mild curiosity as his eyes landed on my fingers pressing into the centre of my arm. Right above my blazing
Sigillum
.

“What have you done?” he asked in that lilting accent, the rolling of vowels wrapped up in soft velvet. “Who have you called?”

Ordinarily, it would have been Luc. But Luc was missing, so the power that rested in my
Sigillum
would have sought out someone just as close, just as much a part of me as my twin.

“You’re running out of time,” I whispered. “Where’s my brother?”

He lifted his hand, a long finger stretched out to trace the tears that coated my cheek now. Such exhaustion. Such loss. Such defeat.

“Your brother is safe,
hayatim
,” he whispered back. “Safer than you,” he added, and my eyelids closed, my head already nodding understanding.

There wasn’t enough time. Confusion made deciphering Hakan’s meaning difficult, but I’d insulted him today. He wasn’t prepared to let me escape without retribution.

To a vampire, punishment is in the offence. It didn’t matter that his two hearts, his two souls had chosen me. I had offended him.

And there wasn’t time for the
Sigillgum’s
call for help to save me.

“Leave Georgia,” I whispered, the plea a sharp stab in my gut.

He’d won. I wondered briefly, in the self-pity that had invaded my soul, if he’d always win. He was stronger, faster, and more cunning. He was vampyre but he was more.

What was a Mhachkay? What did being a Prince of Mhachkay entail?

His finger stroked down the side of my face, a soft caress through rivers of tears.

I never cried. Never. Why was I crying now?

“Your familiar is safe,” he murmured, his hand wrapping around my cheek, hot palm cupping my face tenderly.

I blinked in reaction to his name for my friend, but understood the error. The Dark Shadow was so much like an animal at times, that it was easy to mistake it for a familiar. But I was no mage, magic might flow through my veins, but it is only that of the Nosferatu, mixed with that of the Nosferatin. I could not wield it like a witch.

Hakan’s lips spread into a soft smile, as if he was reading my mind, reading my doubts. Reading my very soul.

“Everything they have said is true,” he murmured. “Everything.”

I held his gaze, but talking was beyond me. A little longer, and salvation would appear. Tempered with a cold wash of humiliation, and a large dose of heated rage.

My father was going to be pissed.

That’s if Hakan didn’t tear off my head before he got here.

Then Papa would be a tornado.

My lips edged up in a small smile; amusing imagery had always been my downfall.

“
Kan büyülü
,” Hakan said softly, his thumb stroking across the quivering pulse at the base of my neck. “
Kan büyülü,”
he repeated, as though the words were a chant.
Kan büyülü
whispered through my head. Through my heart.

I didn’t understand this call he represented to me. I didn’t understand this restraint he showed when punishment was due. I didn’t understand why Papa wasn’t here already.

“Ediz,” Hakan said, still touching me, still looking into my eyes with bottomless pools of blue. “Get ready,” he murmured.