Darkened Days (7 page)

They’d lowered the lights to announce daytime, although it was hardly necessary for vampires.   They had a strong sense of diurnal patterns.  A vampire would begin to feel fatigue as night ended, their body ready for rest.  It seemed to be a built-in gauge, as it attended to safety for someone who could not walk in daylight.  

Jacob had always been able to sleep anywhere almost any time.   But here his mind would not rest.  He was worried about Starla.  As he’d searched for her the
past few months, he’d been concerned.  But after last night, after holding her in his arms, his attachment was stronger and he couldn’t stop worrying about where she was and how she was being treated.  It made him furious to imagine they put her in a cell with males.  Vampire nature being what it was, and specifically these
young
vampires, they would have her service their sexual needs. 

He’d sworn to himself last night after he realized what must have been happening to her that he would not allow her to be hurt again.  And now he couldn’t be there to protect her.  He’d tried several times to deflect the magics protecting these cells, but nothing worked.

Now, trying to rest, hungry and worried, Jacob considered if this first blood was justified in his extreme treatment of the cadre.  Yes, they’d broken some rules.  But they were babes, and it didn’t appear an older vampire was around to teach them the way of life.  So, were they dangerous, or just uninformed?  Did the first blood have the right to unilaterally decide to imprison a large group of vampires?  With no surveillance, obviously, or they would have known Jacob was not part of the cadre.  And should never have been taken, let alone imprisoned.  So he was pissed at being separated from Starla, and only slightly less pissed that he had been detained at all.  When his jailer came next he would demand to see her boss.

Rolling over,
he tried to close his eyes and sleep.  Closing his eyes had been easy.  Sleep eluded him all day long until just before sunset, when he felt his eyes give way, close tight, and he blanked out.

Someone was touching him. 
He woke to fingers trailing down his chest.  When his eyes finally agreed to open, he looked up to see Crystal in the cell with him, on her knees beside his prone body, caressing his skin aggressively.  She lifted her eyes from her own hands to meet his red-rimmed eyes.

“You
are
delicious.  What is your name?”

“Jacob Ward.  I live with Koen and Eillia in the Orientales.  You’re with a first blood vampire.  I imagine those names are familiar.”

“Hm.  Yes, I’ve met them.  Long ago.  Eillia lived here in Paris.  But she’s dead.  Has been for over a year.  Would you care to try to come up with a different story?”

All the time she spoke, she kept moving her hand over his abs and lower.

He tried to pull back but found he couldn’t move again. 
What the fuck?

“You’re not first blood,” he said.  It was a statement of fact.

She nodded.  “You’re right.  I’m not.”

“Is he nearby, then?”

“No.  I told you.  He doesn’t dirty his hands with this stuff.”

“Then how am I frozen?”

“It’s me.  You see…”  She paused and let her fingers slide beneath the waistband of his jeans.  He could feel the response, almost automatic for a male vampire, to the stimulation.  It didn’t mean she turned him on.  It meant his body loved the touch.

“Sorry.  Distracted.  Jacob Ward, I
am
just like you, although I have a few centuries on you.  But a normal vampire routinely drinking the blood of a first often gets some of that vampire’s innate abilities.  He stopped the entire cadre in its tracks, you included.  I couldn’t do that.  But one vampire.  Yes, I have assimilated that ability.  It’s how I can come and go from these cells without worry that you will split my skull and leave.  I can tell you are more powerful than I am.  Well, physically, I mean.  So, I have to keep you like this for everyone’s safety.”   Now she was drawing little circles around the top of his jeans.

“You don’t mind me doing this, do you?”

Actually, he sure the fuck did.  But telling her that wouldn’t be his wisest choice.

“”Um,
no, it’s good.”  Suddenly she had the button undone and the zipper opened completely.   Jacob never wore underwear so he was fully exposed to her eyes and busy fingers.

She lifted him out of the denim and ran her nails along his length.  His cock liked that and filled, the length exploding in her hands as she kneaded him and then leaned in to lick the head.

Even frozen, Jacob’s body jerked.

“It’s not that I object to this, but don’t you think you need to have your boss contact Koen so you can see I’m not involved with this cadre?”

“No.  Not right now.”  She leaned in again to run her tongue up him.  He dropped his head back and closed his eyes.  This freezing skill was a bitch!  He was helpless for the first time in his life and the rage inside him was building to an inferno.  He did not want to have sex with this woman.  But she could control whatever part of him she wanted and he had no choice.

She groaned and got on top of him.  But she was still fully dressed and just rode against him.  When she leaned forward she saw his neck and pulled back.

“Someone has fed on you recently.  Who was it?  One of the little girls?”

“No.  I told you, I’m not a member of that group.  Please.  Contact Koen.  He’ll clear this up.”

“I don’t think so.  You’ve already shown you’re a liar.  Eillia has been dead a long time now, so if you claim you live with her, your information is outdated.  Good try, though.  I’m not doing anything to you that I bet you haven’t done to those girls you turned against their will.  It’s a shame.  You are easily the hottest man I’ve seen in a long time.  And yet, you are obviously morally corrupt.  And abusive.  Several of those girls have already told me they’ve been used for sex.  And they woke up burning with the change without ever being given the chance to say no.  Sick!  Sick of you!  So, if you get some of it back here right now, think how those girls felt when you stole their lives.”

Crystal moved forward quickly and yanked his jeans completely off him. 
She stood over him smiling.

“Well, well, well.  You are incredible nude.  I think I’ll leave you like this. Let you see what it’s like to feel exposed and used.  Anyway, it’s a crime to cover that body.  I can’t promise I won’t be back to exact a little
karmic justice on that.”  She pointed to his cock.  The bastard organ was still engorged.

Jacob drew a deep breath.  This couldn’t have been much uglier.  He understood her point if he had really done the things she thought he had.  But he hadn’t. 
Apparently he wasn’t going to get the chance to prove it anytime soon.  He was afraid to ask about Starla.  So, he tried to ask around her.

“Look, I know you think I’m a monster.  I hope you give me a chance to pr
ove I’m not.  However, I wonder.  Are the girls okay?  Did you keep them separate from the males?  I know you don’t believe me, but they are the ones who abused them.”

“You’re right.  I don’t believe you.  But they
are
safe.  You’ll get your meal later.”

She left the cell, and with a hand motion he did not recognize, she’d renewed the first bloods lock.  He could finally move, though, so he hurried to the door.

“Are you going to contact Koen?”

“Don’t see the point in disturbing a first blood.  They aren’t exactly easy going.”

“Please.  Crystal.  You have to get this.  I’m here to rescue one of the girls abducted a few months ago by these newbies.  And I’m very close to a group of first blood vampires who would really be pissed at my treatment.  So, to protect yourself, ask your boss.  Koen
will
vouch for me.”

She kept her eyes on his face for a few moments, then let them drift down to his fullness.

“I’ll return,” was all she said and disappeared.

Jacob dropped back onto the floor again as he thought about another phrase like hers.  The iconic, “I’ll be back” in the Terminator movies.  It didn’t bode well for anyone.

He noticed a balled-up blanket in the corner of the cell and pulled it over his privates.  Just the night before he had been looking out the full length window in Eillia’s apartment and remarking about how he had no trouble with being naked.  This was a different kind of naked.  This was exposed like he’d never felt before.  He just prayed she would listen to him so Koen or Bas could come get him and Starla out of there.

Cairine sat beside Eillia with her head against her belly.  Eillia had become accustomed to this odd communication.  She knew the two first blood children were linking because she could feel them connect.   Unexpectedly, she was outside the link.  She had no idea what transpired between them.  But it was good, because her unborn child was very, very happy when Cairine touched Eillia. 

She laid her hand on Cairine’s soft strawberry blonde curls, tugging at one of them, long and thick for a child only a little over a year now.

Park, Cairine’s mother, wandered in with a huge bowl of chocolate chip ice cream.  Cairine looked up and saw the bowl, kissed Eillia on the belly and toddled over to her mother to make sure she got her share.  She was very human still.  A first blood vampire child would live and grow much like any ordinary human child until they reached maturity, which could vary from person to person by several years.  Once they reached maturity, the
vampire genome would kick in and merge with the first blood’s spirit amulet, an ancient amulet every first blood wore lifelong to guide and channel their abilities.  For now, though, she was just an advanced human child overly interested in her mother’s late night snack.

“Oh, I spoil her, don’t I?”  Park said to Eillia as she passed the spoon to her daughter.

“You bet your life you do.  I do too.  Wait until this little gentleman arrives.  They’ll own us.”

“They already do.  I have no idea what will happen when these two get together in a few months.  But I suspect their combined power will blow us away.  Could you even have imagined when we met that within two
years we would have children that we could never have imagined and be living these lives?”

“With all our abilities, and as many years as I’ve lived, these paths would never have occurred to me.  That we have come together and we have both created these incredible children cannot be coincidence.  I think there is a design here somewhere.  What is happening with these extraordinary first bloods, I think this was meant to be.  Call it destiny, fate, whatever…these children have a purpose.  I am so grateful for every second of this journey.”

Cairine looked up suddenly, the spoon stilled, her eyes commanded the attention of both women.  The little girl smiled, and Eillia could see the future in those eyes.

CHAPTER FIVE

The son of a bitch! 
Sure he was worried about her!
 
Sure he was her protector!
  As long as it was easy.  As long as he
himself
didn’t face any trouble.  Starla tried to keep her mind off Jacob, who was gone.

The entire cadre
would be released following two lengthy sessions with the sour-faced bitch that walked the concrete jail halls as if she were God.  It had been made clear to them.  A specific set of rules and expectations.  If they didn’t follow them, their vampire life would be over.  Judgment would be swift and irreversible. 

They were to split up.  No more than three living in one place at any given time.  They would not convert anyone else without permission for the next one hundred years.  Blood meals would be taken carefully from trusted blood-bonds or compels who were left alive and wiped after the experience.  Secrecy was not an option.  The vampire community survived as nothing more than legend for thousands of years.  And would remain so.  At any cost.  The cadre understood this.  Even Malice and Marina.

Starla asked the red-lipped woman where Jacob was.  The woman smiled tolerantly.

“Oh, that one?  We let hi
m go right after you got here.  We warned him about his actions. He left very quickly and said he was sorry he had ever gotten involved with you guys.  Smart man.”

At that moment the blood in Starla’s veins pooled in her chest, squeezing her heart into stone.  She’d let down her guard and let him in.  And he had abandoned her.

“Oh,” she said lamely and turned away from the cell door.  As her legs came out from under her, she collapsed on the hard floor.  He’d left her.  After his gentle, concerned manner and the promise he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her, he’d left her abandoned in a barred cell with no support system at all.  Well.
Wasn’t he just a hero, after
all?

She threw her head back against the concrete wall too hard, and was rewarded with sudden splinters of light, sharp pain, and sticky hair.  She was bleeding.  It didn’t matter.  Starla knew she was bleeding more on the inside.

Damn it!  Damn it! 
She’d let herself believe him.  To believe
in
him!  But it was all postulating and convenience.  Now, with her group in trouble with whatever-the-fuck-he-was vampire, he took off to protect himself.

Never
again, she told herself.  Never, never-the-fuck again.  She was on her own.  More now than before.  Because now she didn’t even have the cadre.

And she couldn’t stay with Henri.  He
would stay with her but since she couldn’t return that love, it wasn’t fair to him.  Plus, she was through having sex with vampires just for the sake of sex.  She was ready to find someone to share this new life with.  Until then, celibacy.

So, when
they were released, she and Henri reached the outskirts of the city and stopped in a parking lot outside a fast food restaurant where she turned to Henri and gave him a long hug.

“Henri, you have been such a wonderful friend.  But I think we must part ways now.  You know he wants us to stay away from cluster
s that can be suspicious to humans.  I think you need to stay with some of the group.  You’ve been with them so long.”

“No, no,
chérie.
   I will stay with you.  We can travel.  Anywhere in the world we want.”

“No, Henri.  Look,”
She pushed back and hiked up on the hood of an old pickup truck.  She made sure he was paying attention.

“I love you.  I do.  You’re a good man.  I would be a fool not to want to travel the world with you.  But Henri, I am not
in
love with you.  Not the way you are with me.  I don’t think that’s a surprise to you.  You deserve to be with someone who can give you everything.”

“Star, I am happy with you.  With what we have.  I do not want anyone or anything else.”

“You will.  Because here’s the thing.  I’m done with sex.  Until I can be with someone I am in love with, I’m done.  As a vampire, I know how hard it will be.  I couldn’t put you through that.  You don’t want that life.”

“No.  But I want
you
.  Why can you not love me?”

“I do, Henri!  You must know that!  But like I would love a brother.  I don’t know why it is like that, but I cannot change how I feel.  It isn’t that fiery, all-consuming passionate love I think we are both looking for.”

“I feel that for you.”

She shook her head.  “But you shouldn’t. 
There is a great love waiting for you out there in that world you want to explore, my dear friend.  I would be the worst friend ever to get in your way.”

He was silent.  And turned away.  Starla had nothing else to say to him, so they remained speechless for several long minutes when he turned back to her.

“If you believe this is so.  If you believe my great love is out there in the world waiting for me, then how about this? We go together.  We travel.  We find our fiery loves together.  This way, we are not alone.  We have each other’s backs.
Oui?
  A good plan.”

She looked at him, from his tear-filled dark eyes to his stiff body.  Was she ready to say goodbye to him?  No.

Could they pull this off?

“You think you can maintain a platonic relationship with me?”

He paused before he answered, too happily, “
Sans doute
.”

Without doubt
.  Starla saw the pained squint.  It would be difficult for him.  But she wanted to try.

“You’re lying.  But I want to give it a shot.  I love being with you.  You’ve been my anchor through all of this.  My best friend.  So, pinkie swear, we will be just good buddies looking for adventure.  And if love comes along for either of us,
c’est formidable.  Oui?”

Henri smiled, that glorious all-out
joie de vivre
smile she’d come to love.

So even in the darkest times, there was light.   It was something Starla would come to embrace through her journeys ahead.

He felt like someone had bashed his head in.  Pain was not common for vampires, and certainly not headaches.  But Jacob had a mother of one.  And he still had only the shabby blanket to cover himself.  It had been two days since he saw Crystal the psychotic jailer.  A large dopey kid brought him a bag of rank blood and a huge bowl of some nasty stew twice each night.  And that was his entire interaction.  He hoped like hell she would eventually contact Koen, but he suspected she wouldn’t.   Too much time had passed. They would have come for him.  Bas wouldn’t have let anything stop him.

He wanted to ask about Starla, but his instincts told him it wasn’t wise.  So he bided his time.  He figured he was smart enough, eventually, to get out of this on his own.  He just hoped like hell it wasn’t going to take too much longer.  The stew wasn’t cutting it for nutrition, his ass hurt from the hard floor, and he kind of wanted to get a pair of pants.

No one liked it when Koen was upset.  The big man had an even temper these days, but when it blew, the household staff scattered like scared children.  His family rolled their eyes as he rampaged.  But this time, everyone agreed he was right.

“What the fuck is going on with these abductions?  Jacob is a well-seasoned vampire.  He couldn’t have been taken easily.  It had to have been this cadre downtown Paris.  Eillia, what do you know about them?”

“Practically nothing, Koen.  Jacob spoke with a friend in Paris who told him about a group of young vampires tearing up holy hell.  She’s blood-bonded to Xavier.  She told him they’ve been converting people against their will.  He went to check it out.  We have to start there.
  I’ll call him.”

“Good.  I’ll call right now.  What’s the number?”

“Good heavens, Koen.  I said I would call him!  I know you don’t want to with your history.  You stay here and work with the builders.  I miss Paris.  I think Tamesine will be alright if I go in to search for Jacob for a few days.”

Daniel stepped up.

“I don’t know.  She seems a little unsettled lately.  You might want to just let me and Koen go.”

“I’m tired of feeling useless, baby.  All I do is sit around and worry about Starla.  And now Jacob.”

“I think you’re too far along to be doing much traveling.  Plus, I really am very worried about Tamesine.  She’s just too volatile.”

Bas entered the room slipping his cell into his pocket.

“I heard that.  I agree with Daniel.  Tamesine’s still  uneasy.  I’ll go.”

“No.  You and Park are just finishing your villa.  You guys are paranoid about Tamesine.  I know her now.  She’s okay.”

Eillia shook her head and let her eyes wander between the three large men in the room.  Three vampires.  Koen, a first blood she’d known for millennia.  Bas, she’d held as a dear friend for over two hundred years.  And Daniel.  The mate and father of a child she had never expected to have.  They were magnificent men.

“Eillia…” Daniel started to say, but she cut him off.

“Who do you see when you look at her now?  She’s as volatile as her puppies.”

Daniel winced.  “It’s a look in her eyes
.  Just, not friendly.”

Eillia laughed.

“She isn’t looking at you with hostility, Daniel.  She’s looking at you with interest.  She finds you attractive.  It’s okay. So do I.”

“Babe, that’s just all sorts of wrong.  She scares the shit out of me.”

“Oh, sweetie, you were still human when you had your problem with her.  You’re a big strong vampire now.  Get past it.”

“I still don’t like the fact that she’
s in the room right next to us.”

“She’s connected to our son
, and to me through him.  She’s not a threat anymore.  Actually, she thinks you’re one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen.  And that’s through a lot of years, so it’s quite a compliment.”

“I still don’t trust her.  But I trust you.  So, whatever you want, I support it.”

“Good.  Because I’m going with you to Paris.”

Daniel nodded and turned away, headed out of the house. 
You bet your ass he didn’t trust that crazy first blood that had some kind of weird connection to his unborn
son.
 

He kept his guard up anytime she was with his family.  He would defend them with his last breath if she ever tried to hurt them, even though he k
new she was much more powerful than he would ever be. He still remembered her fingers on his package several months back when she was full-on crazy, planning to eat him and fuck him before killing him.  He couldn’t imagine ever trusting her or liking her like his wife had been able to.

He trusted Eillia with every fiber of his being.  He believed her when she said
Tamesine would never hurt them now.  But he couldn’t get beyond their past when she raised her pale blue eyes and stared at him.  His new skill included some of Eillia’s empathic abilities and he still got an odd, uneasy vibe from her. 

But Eillia mattered most of all. And their baby, nestled safely inside Eillia’s warm belly.  He understood what
Tamesine felt when she connected with the boy who was not yet born to the world.  Daniel had done so also.  Amazed, he’d cried the first time he “felt” the rare and beautiful gift of a first blood child that he had been able to create with Eillia.  Only two other first blood children were known to have been born to this generation of first bloods.

The mission now was to find the two missing people.  Jacob, who had been with the family for over
two centuries and a young waitress Eillia had special feelings for.  He would be forever grateful for the events that led them from so much tragedy through healing to love. 

Daniel went back inside up to the large suite of apartments they had on the fourth floor of Koen’s villa in southern
France.   His very pregnant wife tucked some clothing into a small duffle bag and looked up when he entered.  He thought she became more beautiful each day. 

How the hell could perfection become even more perfect?

“Hey, sweetie, could you go next door and tell Tamesine I need to see her?”

“Really?” he asked, wincing.

Eillia came forward and took his face in her hands.

“Daniel, you may as well get used to her.  She’s going to be in our lives for a very long time. You have to forgive her.”

“I
do
forgive her.  Just can’t seem to
forget
how she nearly killed us.”

“It’s part of our world, Daniel, that things change through all the years.  Things fall apart
so they can come back together.  People change, for better or worse.  We adapt.  And we move forth in whatever direction it takes us.  So. Husband.  Go get her for me, thank you.”