Darkened Days (24 page)

Starla had
few clothes.  And Eillia loved to shop.  There were several little local places where they could find wonderful garments for Starla, so a few days later they headed out, with Daniel as escort, to pick up some things.  Eillia was just too close to delivery to let her out of his sight.

Jacob stayed behind to talk with Bas about security issues with the new villa that was still under construction.   As Bas’s first lieutenant, it was Jacob’s job to oversee security.  It felt wrong to let Starla out of his sight for a day, but he knew he needed to.  If they were to build a life here, they couldn’t be afraid.  Still, he worried the entire time.  She hadn’t had the best luck out there as vampire.
  And even though he trusted Daniel completely, he knew there were a lot of things still dangerous in the cities for vampires.

When Eillia called the household and told Koen they were going on to Paris for another day, Jacob paced, pissed that he hadn’t already chained that girl to his side.

When they returned the next day, Jacob grabbed Starla and yanked her down the stairs.  Pulling the doors shut to his apartment, he pulled her into his arms.

“That is too fucking long!”

“Jake it was just two days.”

“It was still too fucking long.  I missed you.  I couldn’t sleep yesterday at all.”

“Ah, baby.”

He held her, just held her, for several long minutes, inhaled her scent and touched her skin.  She’d never been missed like that before.  Could there be a greater evidence
of how much they loved?  How badly they needed each other?  How they belonged together?

Bags and boxes of clothes and shoes were left abandoned on the couch in the living area while Jacob proved to Starla exactly how much he missed her. 

Above the villa, hidden in brush, surrounded by flowers that made a colorful camouflage, Ahmose watched the villa with the overly annoying Crystal by his side.  He still didn’t want to do this.  He still felt he
had
to.  Through every preparation he’d convinced himself it was going to be fine.  Although after spending two days in Crystal’s company, he felt sorry for Jacob.  She was obnoxious, pedantic, and quite frankly, a bore.  But this was in motion and even the small voice that kept telling him it was a mistake had been quiet for the past two days.

Ahmose cast his magic, a little weaker because the moon was not at its fullest, but strong enough to do what he needed it to do.  Make the household sleep.  Crystal stood beside him with a grin that almost made him stop.  He wondered what lurked in her mind, and he knew it wasn’t pure.  But he had cast himself on this course, and he needed his children.  So he finished the spell and looked at the excited woman at his side.

“It is done.  You can take him.  Be cautious and quick.  Do not disturb anyone you pass.  The magic is tenuous and a first blood may be able to break through if disturbed.  Remember to touch objects around the bed.  It will leave your impression and they will know it was you.  I cannot be implicated.”

“I know.  I told you, I’ll take the hit.  I don’t care, they’ll never find me.  As long as you help me maintain my freezing ability, I can keep him away.”

“I accepted the deal.  It will be done.  Please go now.”

Crystal didn’t even respond.  She was just gone.

Ahmose wanted to accompany her.  He wanted to see Starla.  But he did not want to risk his presence being felt in the household.  Objects can echo a life force, especially something as prescient as a first blood’s home.  So he stayed.

It was dawn.  Too light for vampires, but children of the moon could tolerate brief daylight.  And he could protect
Crystal and Jacob too, briefly.  That’s how they would pull this off.  She would be gone with him for hours before anyone would know.

Moments later, Crystal appeared beside h
im with Jacob over her shoulder, wrapped in a blanket.

She was winded, more out of elation and excitement than activity.

“I have him!”   She laid him carefully on the ground and pulled the blanket back.

“He’s so beautiful,” she whispered in awe.

Ahmose thought he might throw up.

Instead, he leaned down and touched Jacob’s chest.  He interfered with Jacob’s life
force so he would be invisible to anyone else.  Now, none of the children of the sun would be able to find him.  He’d already done the same to Crystal.

Then he turned to Crystal and although she was not first blood and did not have a spirit amulet, she had the ability to assimilate the first blood talent of freezing.  He’d given her blood over the past two days and would give her a last taste now.

“This will only work for about six months,” he reminded her.

“That’s okay. I’m sure it will be long enough.”

“All right.  Let’s do it.”  He dropped down on the cool grass.  Crystal struck hard and fast.  Tore a little in her greediness for the blood of a first.  He was past caring.  He was sick at heart for doing this and felt he deserved the brutal feeding.  After several long minutes, she wasn’t quitting on her own.

He didn’t like her. 
He didn’t trust her.  And he thought eventually he would have to rescue Jacob.  After his children were born.  For now, though, he didn’t trust Crystal not to betray him, so once she finished and bundled Jacob up, placed him in a nondescript van, he went back to her.

“
Thank you for this,” she told him, an unwelcome hand on his shoulder.   “It was the right choice for everyone.  You deserve your children.  And officially, I had him first.  She kind of took him from me.”

Ahmose knew that wasn’t true.   Still, it was done.  He touched her forehead, looked into her eyes, and wiped her memory of his involvement.   Also any recall of his community or Africa.

It was over.  Jacob was gone from Starla’s life.  He knew she would find her way back to him.

He returned home to wait.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The sun dropped from a cloudless day and Koen’s household began to rouse.

Eillia had to have Daniel help her roll out of bed, laughing.  He knew she’d counted down every day since Cherise had told her when their child would be born.

“Two more days,” she said, confirming he was right.

Daniel swung her up into his arms and carried her to the bathroom, not because she couldn’t walk, but because he wanted his hands on her.

“Sweetie, I am going to lounge in that bed for three days non-stop after this little guy shows up.  I can’t wait to sleep on my belly again.”

Daniel nodded.  That was
not
the thing he couldn’t wait to do after the child was born.  Eillia felt his heightened sexual response as she dropped her nightgown.

“Soon, my darling.  It will be sweeter for the wait.”

He groaned. 
Said the woman who wasn’t sporting a
painful hard-on.

She stepped beneath the rushing waterfall of showerheads and he watched her.  He couldn’t wait for their child to be born, but he couldn’t imagine not seeing the beautiful shape of his wife with their son nestled inside her in that softly rounded belly.  He came forward and dropped on his knees to fit his hands over the mound and kiss it gently.

“I’m going to miss this.”

Eillia sighed.

“I will too.  In a thousand years of living, I have never known love like this.”  Then she put her hands on Daniel’s face.  “Or this.”

She drew Daniel up and kissed him, too.

Her hand moved downward and slipped around his penis. 

“Now, what can we do about this?”

In the breakfast room, Koen already had a heaping plate and was digging in.  Eillia came in with Daniel, who seated her and went up to fill two platter-plates.

A moment later, Starla hurried through the doors, still in the pale rose nightdress she usually wore to bed.  Koen noticed the nipples pressing through the thin fabric, thought how lucky Jacob was, and how pissed he would be that Koen saw her like this.

“Hi, everyone.  Hey, any of you guys know where Jacob is?  I’ve never awakened without him
beside me, but this morning, I just woke up, and he wasn’t there.”

Koen shook his head.  “I am not aware of any appointments.  You gu
ys?”

Daniel and Eillia shook their heads.

“I’m sure he’s close by.  Or he went to Bas’s villa. He still handles most of the security.”

“But he would let me know.  This doesn’t feel right.”

Eillia lifted her head, her eyes closed.  She was silent for several minutes.  Then she pushed back from the table and walked slowly down the stairs to Jacob and Starla’s basement rooms.  She paused before the door, entered, moved around the bed, lightly brushing her hand across the area, then stood in the middle of the room with her eyes closed again.

When she opened them moments late
r, she sighed.

“Starla’s right.  He’s gone.  Someone took him. 
That one that had him before.  She has him again.”

Starla fell to her knees.  “I had an awful feeling about this.  It’s as if something wants me to be unhappy.  Like fate says I don’t deserve this.  And Jacob is paying the
price because he makes me happier than anything in my life.”

Eillia moved forward.

“You feel like you’re being punished for refusing to stay with Ahmose.”

Starla nodded.  She couldn’t speak, tears began to flow like the waterfalls in Zambia.

Daniel was on the phone to Koen’s security team.  He looked down at Eillia on the floor with Starla, and up at Koen near the patio doorway.

“Nothing on security cameras.  She has to have had help.  There’s no trace.”

Eillia nodded.

“There’s a trace.  In here. That’s how I know it was her. 
She left impressions in the room.  It’s a touch skill and hard to use, but I feel her presence.  She was alone.  At least in here.”

“Well, someone blanked all surveillance.  And none of the team recall
s seeing anyone or anything.  She could have compelled some of them, but not the ones she didn’t see.  And how the hell did she pull it off during daylight?”

Koen looked at Eillia.

“I do not know.  That should have been impossible.  Although we know she can use some first blood abilities, even I couldn’t travel through daylight.  Doesn’t matter.  There is no chance in hell she’ll get away with this.  Jacob is no lightweight himself, and we know he’ll fight her every second.  We’ll bring him home.”

“It’s my fault.  I have
to start searching right now. Koen, Eillia, how do I start?  Are any of your first blood talents going to help me with this?”

“We’ll do everything we can, you know that.  Jacob is family.  So are you, sweetie.”  Eillia hugged her again.

Koen snapped his cell phone closed and dropped it into a pocket.

“Bas is on his way over.  That man is a bulldog.  Jacob has been with him for
over two hundred years. That bitch has no chance.”

“When we find her, we stop her forever, I don’t care what it takes,” Starla stated clearly, tamping the tears down.  She stood up, and helped Eillia up. 

“Thank you.  Sorry for the breakdown.  Won’t happen again.”

Every fucking part of his body hurt.  That’s how Jacob woke.  Pain a vampire wasn’t used to.

He finally opened his eyes that felt like they’d been glued shut to see a log timber roof. 
Where was he?
  No place he recognized.  He turned his head forcibly, and that hurt too.

God, no.  He was on a bed, and beside him, the red-lipped she-devil.  How the hell did
she
get him again?  His head, eyes and mouth were the only thing he could move. 
Fuck!

She was asleep, actually looked sweet and innocent curled up next to him.  But he was here, taken against his will, so yeah,
not sweet, not innocent
.

What was his last memory?  Falling asleep with Starla in his arms.  Oh, god, she’d be so worried when she couldn’t find him.  He had to get back to her as quickly as possible.  This bitch would not keep him this time.

He saw her eyelids flutter.  She was waking.  Seconds later, she looked into his eyes and smiled.

“Jacob.  Hi, gorgeous.  How are you feeling?”

Like this was just another normal night. 
She really
was fucking nuts!

“How did I get here, Crystal?”  He tried to sound calm, reasonable, because she was volatile.  And obviously really obsessed since she’d recaptured him.

“I’m clever.  And I love you.  I didn’t get a chance to tell you that before.”

“You don’t love me.  You don’t
know
me.”

“I do.” 

She rolled over and kissed him.  He felt her hand at his crotch.  As he suspected, he was naked.  And she was tugging on him.  
Déjà vu all over the fuck again
.

“Just curious.  How did you pull this off?  I was in a first blood’s protected residence.”

She stared at him with a smile.  And he could see her eyes were blank.  Had she been compelled?  But she snapped out of it.

“I told you.  I’m clever.”

Crystal moaned.

“I wish I could ride you right now.  But I can’t unfreeze you until I’ve made you understand
that we are meant to be together.  I don’t think it’ll take long.  I can be very, very persuasive.”

She leaned in close to his face, still tugging on his cock.

“And I am really good in bed.  Here, let me show you.”

She slipped down lower on the bed and had his cock in her mouth before he knew what she was doing.  Jacob stopped her.

“Whoa, whoa, Crystal.  Don’t.  What happens when I come, but because I’m frozen, it doesn’t work right?  You could hurt me.”

She tilted her head.  “You think it won’t work right?”

“How could it?  I’m frozen.  Probably that function is too.  If you want to do that, I think you’ll have to unfreeze me.”

Crystal thought about it.

“I see you may be right.  But I’m not unfreezing you.  I know you can’t be trusted yet.  We’ll wait.  It’ll be worth it.”

Jacob
sighed in relief.  At least he kept her from touching him.  He had no problem with a good blow, but not from her.  He hadn’t personally had much interaction with Tamesine when she was dangerously crazy, but he felt as if Crystal was roaming in the same ball park.  Except now Tamesine was still crazy, just not dangerously so.  Crystal definitely was.  He wasn’t sure at all that she might not be willing to kill Starla to keep him with her.  Or kill him so he would never leave.

He would have to proceed cautiously.  But he would fucking proceed the hell out of here as soon as he could. 
And see if Xavier wanted to deal with Crystal to stop her permanently.

Crystal rolled off the bed, naked, and did a pirouette.

“Nice stuff, right?” 

He had to admit she had a good body.  Full high breasts, slim belly, long legs.  He wasn’t an idiot, he knew he had to play her game.

“Gorgeous,” he said, stroking her enormous psychotic ego.

“Just give me some time and we’ll make love like you’ve never had before.  I know you’ve been with that little vampire.  A mature man like you with a baby vamp.  She can’t satisfy you.”

He desperately wanted to tell her how satisfied he was.   Enough to commit the rest of his long life to her.  This wasn’t the time, though.  Defending Starla’s worth would only make her jealous and possibly attack Starla. 

Crystal just nodded slightly and kept looking straight ahead to the closed door.

“I have a spelled cell here in the bottom level of this chalet.  Like the one at Xavier’s.   So don’t try to get out.  You can’t.  It’s beautiful here in the mountains.  You’ll love it.  I put the cell near long windows so you can see out.  Jacob, give me a chance to show you how amazing we’ll be together.”

He didn’t say anything, jus
t gave her a pained smile.  It was the best he could do.

“He isn’t anywhere,” Bas said, coming back into the room.  “I can’t find a trace.  I checked with Xavier and he hasn’t found the crazy bitch yet.”

Sick to her stomach, Starla felt like she was going to throw up even though she hadn’t eaten anything. Eillia had her arms around her, but nothing made her feel better.  Jacob was missing, that’s all that mattered.

Eillia had tried a blood trace like they had done with Starla, but no results.  She knew something was wrong with that.

“How are we going to find him?”

“I don’t know.  But we will.”  Bas dropped beside her.  “We have good security teams on this, the best.  We
will
find Jacob.”

Tamesine ran into second meal the next night.  Frantic, her long hair wild, no shoes, she called out to Koen, who was trying to get Starla to eat, which had been impossible for the past two days since Jacob was taken.

“He’s coming!”

Then she disappeared.

Koen called Park and hurried upstairs with Starla.

Eillia lay in her huge bed with Daniel sitting close holding her hands over her belly.  She moaned loudly as  they entered.

Daniel looked up.

“Shit, she told you?  I didn’t know if she would.  Good.  Did you call Park?”

“I did,” Koen assured him.  “She’s on her way right now.  So, he’s on his way, too, eh?”

Starla came to the other side of the bed and gently got on.
  Her eyes drifted to the beautiful disheveled blonde at the back of the room.  She would swear the blonde and Windari were the same woman.  They were identical and she wondered if they were related.  Was that possible? 

Starla shook her head and turned back to Eillia.

“Lia, you’re going to have the baby now.” Not new news, she was just so thrilled for her dearest friend.

“I know.  Crazy, isn’t it?  It hurts. Like a normal human birth.  I don’t get it, but I guess it’s universal.  Childbirth has a price.  Ohhh…”

Another contraction brought a long groan.

Park swept in a few minutes later, Bas behind her.

“Hi, this looks familiar,” she said, having borne Cairine just a year earlier.

While labor was very much like a normal human labor, the birth went quickly, and the perfect little baby boy arrived within three hours of the first contraction on an easy slide.