Sarim's Scent (10 page)

“Is something wrong?” Victoria asked. Ivan had stopped with her bags and was staring across the driveway at something. She couldn’t see who or what it was. She stepped closer to Ivan and peered in the direction he was looking. “That’s the man who was watching me at the mall,” she said, her voice beginning to rise with fear. “What is he doing here? Did he follow me?”

She heard Ivan issue a sharp curse.

“Go inside and let me handle this.”

Before Victoria could ask him what was wrong, she felt herself being pushed in the direction of Ivan’s home. She watched in horror as her stalker started toward them. Victoria began to move and nearly stumbled as Ivan pushed her harder toward the apartment. Nearly losing her balance, she regained her step and heard the strange man shout in their direction.

“Khafil, face me instead of running like a coward!”

She paused, eyes wide at the barely contained violence in the man’s voice.

“Who is Khafil?” she asked, looking from Ivan to the man who was still staring at them and walking in their direction.

She was about to repeat her question as Ivan ignored her and turned toward the approaching stranger.

The man stopped in front of them. Victoria eyed him cautiously. It was indeed the same man from the mall. He was handsome in an Old World sort of way. He looked like a refined gentleman. However the expression on his face was not of refinement. He was furious, and his eyes were chillingly cold. He looked like a dangerous creature, capable of killing. Unconsciously, she took a step back. What did he want with them, and why was he calling Ivan Khafil?

“You bastard!” The stranger looked at Ivan, then at her. “I see you have found my heir first, you faithless dog.” The hair on the back of Victoria’s neck stood up at the vehemence in his voice. “What are your plans with her?”

“That is none of your concern now.”

Victoria’s heart jumped at Ivan’s harsh reply. Something told her this was not good as she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “None of my concern?” the man raged. “You have made my heir your whore and you tell me it is none of my concern. How dare you!”

“The Imvuras will let you know what we have decided to do with your heir,” came Ivan’s calm reply. He was acting like the man was a pesky fly bothering him.

“The Imvuras, which would mean Zanhoden is behind this.” The man’s voice became colder. “I should have known the son of a bitch was involved, but no matter. The heir may be used but she is still my property as I am the father. Since she is unclaimed, she goes with me.”

He turned his cold gaze to Victoria. She flinched at the harsh stare. “Come with me.”

Victoria took another step back. “Who are you and what do you want with me?”

He gave a humorless laugh. His eyes locked with Ivan’s. “I am your father. My name is Sarim. Under Taalib Duma law, you belong to me. I don’t care to know what Khafil has been doing with you, but it is over. Now let’s go.”

Her father? She stopped listening after he said those words. This cold, frightening man was the father she had been searching for. She looked at him closely, remembering her mother’s words. He did indeed fit her mother’s description of being tall with a caramel complexion. He was a little over six feet and he still had the close haircut. His lips were full. He also had the mole beside his mouth and high cheekbones. She looked between him and Ivan.

“Why does he keep calling you Khafil, Ivan?” She glanced back and forth between the two, trying to understand what was going on. Tension and violence hovered in the air around them.

Sarim stared at her, before turning cold glare at Khafil.

“Ivan.” Sarim gave another mirthless laugh before turning back to her. “Is that another one of your identities? You’ve defiled my heir and haven’t had the balls to reveal who you really are.”

Victoria watched as Sarim closed his eyes in an obvious effort to control himself. His body was actually vibrating with anger.

“His name is indeed Khafil. He is supposedly my loyal protector. Instead he is a faithless dog with no honor.”

Victoria’s eyes widened. “His name is Khafil?”

She turned to the man in question with wide, unbelieving eyes.

“Ivan, please tell me he is lying,” she begged and swallowed back the vomit about to erupt from her stomach. When he did not answer her immediately, her voice rose hysterically. “Answer me, dammit!”

She watched Ivan shoot Sarim a hate--filled look and knew the answer to her question. Sarim returned Ivan’s stare with equal hatred and with a smile on his face.

“He lied to you,” Sarim answered. “He used you to get to me. He knew you were my heir, and he knew I had been searching for you for months.”

A desperate, “No” escaped from Victoria’s lips, even though it felt true.

“Yes,” Sarim continued. “He knew I needed an heir to keep the Drumhani Chair in the Soga Brotherhood.” He turned to Khafil with blazing eyes. “Tell her the truth. Have enough respect to enlighten us both of your true identity. You owe us that much.”

Victoria watched as the face of the man she knew as Ivan became hard as a cold mask fell into place. Her heart dropped and pain ripped through her heart as she tried to catch her breath. Coldness ran through her body as she realized what some part of her already understood. Sarim was telling the truth.

The man she knew as Ivan, who she thought she loved as Ivan, turned to face her, looking for the first time like someone she didn’t recognize.

“He is right. My name is Khafil.”

A rushing sound filled in her ears and she swayed. She saw “Khafil” reach out to steady her.

“Don’t touch me,” she whispered, feeling sick. She stepped away from him and Sarim. She took a deep breath and tried not to throw up in front of them, further embarrassing herself. She would not fall apart in front of him. Despite the pain of her heart breaking, she forced herself to look into the bastard’s lying face.

“Did you know Sarim, my father,”—she almost choked on the words—“was searching for me?”

“Yes.”

Unable to stop it, Victoria turned around and vomited on the pavement, her body recoiling against the fact she had been cruelly used and deceived.

She heard Khafil let out a string of curses. “Is this what you wanted? Are you satisfied now?” he asked the man claiming to be her father.

Sarim chuckled, sounding pleased.

Victoria’s heart stopped at Khafil’s next words. “My name is Khafil, Visdan and only son to Zanhoden. My father and the Imvura Brotherhood send their warmest regards. It has been an extreme pleasure to take care of your heir.”

Another round of vomit erupted from her stomach. She cringed at the coldness in his voice. How could this be the same man who made love to her last night? She wiped her mouth and sat down on the curb as Sarim gave a chilling laugh.

“You have no honor, you traitorous bastard! You have been serving in my house, spying on me for your bastard of a father this whole time. You usurp my heir and seduce her in the name of your father. How dare you! I will make sure you both rot in hell for this.”

“I owe one such as you no honor or allegiance.” He spat on the ground. “You are unfit to serve as leader of the Taalib Dumas. You judge me and my father when you have the honor of a mongrel.”

Sarim turned his attention back to her. Feeling empty and weak, she continued to sit on the curb in silence as she watched the two biggest bastards in her life rip into each other.

“This is neither the time nor the place for us to continue this conversation.” He paused as he continued to stare at Victoria. “I will take my heir and find a proper and suitable husband for her, despite the fact she reeks of your half-breed scent.”

He started toward her. Victoria looked up and through the haze of anguish, realized what Sarim’s intentions were. She stared at him in horror and gathered her last remaining strength to either run or fight. Being one man’s fool was enough. She had to get away from both of them.

Before she could stand up, Khafil stepped in front of her, blocking Sarim’s path.

“You will do no such thing.”

“You dare keep my heir as your slut!” Sarim raged incredulously.

“I have claimed her as my own. According to Taalib Duma laws, she is mine and under my protection until I indicate otherwise.”

“You will regret this,” were Sarim’s final words as she covered her mouth in shock as he dematerialized away.

Victoria sat in the car, her mind numb as Khafil drove her to a nearby hotel. She didn’t feel the soft comfortable leather seat. She had to get away from him and her father. This should have been one of her moments of triumph, a chance to put her plans into action to make the bastard father of hers pay for his actions against her mother and her. Instead she had become the pawn. She felt sick with disgust at herself when she thought of how she had fallen like a ripe plum into Khafil’s hands. He didn’t even have to work hard to seduce her. She probably dropped her panties quicker than he expected. He had lied to her from day one. She’d always thought of him as her best friend and closest confidant. She had told him all of her secrets. He knew her inside and out. She gave a bitter laugh. God, she was so pathetically easy. She was the biggest fool since her mother. In this case, the apple indeed hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

She thought of the man named Sarim who had told her he was her father. She’d figured out beforehand he was an unfeeling bastard. He’d exceeded her expectations. He was royally pissed because Khafil had got to her first before he had a chance to use her for his own plans. She was no more to him than a means to an end. He didn’t even care about her or that he had finally met his unknown daughter, who had been looking for so long. However, the real cold-hearted bastard was in the car with her. He had methodically played a role for years, first as her childhood friend and now as her lover. What kind of people were they? What did they call themselves? Taalib Dumas? She wanted no part of them or their sick games. She closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

What a twisted mess. Waking up, Victoria stretched and looked over at the stranger driving the car. A fresh wave of anger made her cheeks hot. She could not believe Ivan had done this to her. Her eyes watered again. She shut her eyelids, forcing back the tears. She dared any drops to escape her eyes. She would not give him the satisfaction of thinking she was an emotional wreck right now. Which she was, but she would be damned if he knew it. What was she going to do? She had nowhere to go.

“We need to talk.” Khafil interrupted her thoughts as he pulled the car to a stop in the parking lot of a ritzy-looking hotel.

“Not now,” Victoria said, unlocking the door and placing her hand on the doorknob, intending to get out of the car and away from him.

The door locked and she felt herself physically pushed back into her seat. Eyes wide, she stared at Khafil, who hadn’t moved and was staring ahead.

“Yes, now.” He turned, sighing. “I know you hate me, and you have every right to hate me. But there are things you must know, must understand before you leave tonight.”

She continued to watch the people enter and leave the swooshing doors of the hotel.

“What things?”

“You are a member of our world.”

She bristled and replied hotly. “I don’t want to be a member of any world where people lie and deceive on a regular basis like it’s nothing.” Her eyes watered again, and she cursed hotly under her breath for displaying emotion in front of him.

“How could you?” she asked in a pain-racked voice. She took a deep breath, trying to regain control over the hurt. “How could you look me in the eye day after day, make love to me, and lie the whole time?”

“If you would please just let me explain,” he began.

“No”, she interrupted. “I’ve been listening to you long enough.”

She took a deep breath and pushed the pain and hurt away to a different part of her mind. She needed answers and she needed to be in control to focus and ask the right questions. She turned to look at Khafil, closing her eyes against the hurt looking at his perfect lying face brought. She opened her eyes again to find him staring at her. At first glance he looked cold and aloof, but she saw the tightening around his eyes. As she studied him, she also noticed he was tired. Could he really be sorry about his lies and deceit? Looking at him and remembering their history, it was hard to believe he felt nothing for her. The way they’d made love had to be based on some type of real feelings, didn’t it? Then she remembered the look on Khafil’s face when he laughed at Sarim and said “I won.” She was a pawn to him and nothing more. “I have questions and need answers,” she started. “You owe me answers. I need to know the truth.”

Khafil nodded. “You’re right. I owe you.”

She took another deep breath, ignoring the pain from hearing his soft velvet words. After this was over, she would move on. Khafil would become part of her past. It would take strength, but she would move on. She couldn’t continue to be around him knowing how he lied to her day after day. He had hurt her in ways she didn’t comprehend. It felt like she was in a state of mourning. There was no joy, no happiness inside her right now. She felt empty. But she would get through this conversation and hopefully never have to see his lying face again.

“What are you really? You and the guy, my father, Sarim, kept saying Taalib Dumas. What does that mean?”

Her questions were met with silence. Victoria thought he wasn’t going to answer her. Anger built inside her, and she was about to explode when he finally responded.

“We are called Taalib Dumas.” Turning, she stared at him when he said the word we. Holding her gaze captive, he continued. “Taalib Dumas are vampires whose forefathers came from Africa.”

“So you kill people and suck their blood?”

“It’s against our laws to arbitrarily kill humans,” he answered.

“So how do you get blood? I mean, you do need blood to survive, right?”

“Yes, we do need blood, but we have vancanes,” he answered her silent question. “A vancane is an underground freezer where
humans are kept in a semi-frozen state until we need to feed.”

A vision of people standing frozen solid in rows in a walk-in freezer, blank empty expressions on their frozen faces, caused her still weak stomach to lurch with disgust. Ignoring the disturbing image, she continued questioning him.

“How do you get the humans to place in these vacakanes?”
Do I really want to know this?
“Vacanes,” he corrected. “They are mainly homeless people and criminals.”

“Where do you get off stealing people like that? Not only is it sick and cruel, those people don’t deserve that,” she said, appalled. “God, you’re sick!”

“I can understand your disgust, but consider the alternative. It’s either take humans no one would notice or we hunt all of mankind. We have to stay under the radar.”

She had no reply to the comment. “I’ve never had a taste for blood. Well, maybe rare and medium rare meat but not the urge to go and suck the life out of someone.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “You wouldn’t have to since you are half human. You would have some of our traits, like excellent night vision and sensitivity to bright sunlight.” Victoria turned away from his intense stare. She didn’t want to acknowledge the accuracy of his assessment. “How did the Taalib Dumas get here in America?” She couldn’t believe she was asking such a question.

He chuckled. “The same way every other Black person did. Our forefathers came over on the slave ships.”

“But if they were vampires, how did they get caught?” None of this made any sense.

“It’s a little complicated.”

“I’m listening.”

“Okay.” Khafil rubbed his head. “The Soga, your father’s tribe, is the only vampire tribe of African descent not eliminated through assimilation or blood diseases. They are descendants of the Soganta tribe of Africa. The Soganta were one of the original vampiric tribes of Africa.”

“What happened to the other vampire tribes?” Victoria interrupted.

“They were eliminated by the local human tribes. As legend has it, Sarim’s ancestor, Hanit, fled from Egypt as the last remaining Soganta member. The Sogantas were wiped out after slave capturers discovered they were responsible for the strange deaths of other captured slaves. His brothers were desperate for nourishment and fed off human slaves.”

Khafil stopped and stared at her. Taking a deep breath, she nodded for him to continue.

“As the story goes, Hanit watched eleven of his brothers get beheaded by the humans, and knew he was next. So, he spoke an ancient
chant to summon the Darvan Gods.”

“Who are they?” she asked.

“They are our ruling council-our Gods. Think of them as a group of three Gods like Zeus and they rule, protect us, and punish us.”

“Okay,” she murmured.

“So Hanit performed the chant correctly and the Darvan Gods delivered him from his impending doom. This ensured our lineage wouldn’t die.”

“What did they do to save him?” she asked, deciding to humor him by pretending interest in this vampire legend. If she was thinking about something else, she could forget about the hurt and lies this man had dealt her.

“The Gods answered. It’s said a burst of light went off in Hanit’s face. The next thing he knew, he was on a slave ship headed toward the thirteen colonies. While he was on the ship, your father’s ancestor found his mate and they established the Sogantas here in the United States.”

“Are the Sogantas the only vampire tribe in this country?”

“No, but Hanit and his mate’s descendants started other tribes. Like the one I belong to, the Imvuras.”

Victoria nodded. “So your tribe and my father’s are at war with each other?”

“Not war exactly. I’ll admit there is no love lost between us. Your father and my father have a long, tumultuous history. Your father’s tribe, The Sogantas, don’t particularly care for us either because our ancestors were rumored to be the Anglo-vaxens, a white vampire sect, who raped slaves.” He paused. “Pure African ancestry is revered among our kind.”

Deciding she had enough of the history lessons, Victoria asked a question that had been plaguing her. “Is it true my father wants control of the Taalib Dumas?”

Khafil gave a stiff nod.

“And how would he get control?” Victoria asked, already sensing his answer, but needing Khafil to confirm it.

He stared ahead for a moment before answering her. “Since Sarim had no known descendants, he was in danger of losing his position. Since he knows about you, he can continue leading the Taalib Dumas. If he died, the chair would not rule the council until you either ...”

“Either what?” She had a bad feeling about the answer.

“Until you married a Taalib Duma or had a Taalib Duma child.”

“Which is what my father had planned for me, correct?”

“Yes,” Khafil admitted. “He had a Soganta picked up to marry you and get you pregnant.”

“How disgusting!” Victoria actually thought she was going to throw up again. “I can’t believe he actually thought I would marry someone I didn’t know and let him get me pregnant.”

“Your cooperation was really not required,” Khafil quietly added.

Victoria laughed bitterly. “You are absolutely right. All his handpicked groom had to do was lie to me about his identity, seduce me, and have unprotected sex with me.” She turned, facing him, letting him see her disgust. “Just like you did, right?”

“I admit I didn’t handle the situation well.”

“You’re damn right you didn’t handle the situation well. You could have told me the truth at any time but you didn’t.” She fumed, ignoring the wave of fresh pain and anger. “You chose to lie and continue your charade. I don’t know who makes me sicker. My father for what he planned, or you for what you actually did.”

Anger streamed unchecked though her. She had the violent urge to hit something.

“I’m the prize brood mare in a sick, twisted vampire nation.” She turned her hurt-filled gaze on him.

“How could you?” she repeated the earlier question.

She watched as the cold mask fell back on his face.

“I had no choice.”

Victoria reached over and slapped him. Hard. Satisfaction filled her when his head snapped back and a red handprint appeared on his cheek.

“I do have a choice, you bastard. I choose not to have anything to do with you or my father.”

Khafil muttered through a clenched jaw, “That’s not possible at this point.”

“What do you mean that’s not possible?” She was fumbling with the door lock again trying to get out. Jumping and causing a scene was preferable to dealing with this craziness. She had had enough of this conversation and enough of Khafil.

Unable to open the door, she unfastened her seat belt and began wildly beating on the window. “Let me out of this fucking car,” she raged.

“I can’t do that until I finish telling you everything.”

“What else could there be?” she asked angrily.

Looking at him, she noticed his nostrils were flared. Her handprint on his cheek added to the wild, untamed vibe in the air. Victoria could actually feel the fury pulsing through him. She was unprepared for the words that came out of his mouth.

“You’re my mate.”

Shock filled her.

“I’m your what?” she asked in disbelief.

“My mate,” he repeated.

“Your mate. Are you crazy? If this is your idea of a joke, you can ...”

“It’s not.” He gave a weary sigh. “I know right now I’m not your idea of Prince Charming, but truthfully, I am your mate.”

Victoria heard the seriousness in his tone and saw it etched on his face. “You’re not joking, are you?”

Khafil shook his head.

“My mate?” she asked, shaking her head, puzzled.

“Yes. Call me your present from the Darvan Gods.” He gave a short, humorless laugh. Putting a fist in her mouth, Victoria attempted to stifle her sob. A wounded animal sound trickled out, followed by several more before great racking sobs poured from her. Silent tremors shook her body. Minutes passed. It took several deep breaths before she was able to calm down. Her sobs grew softer and softer until they stopped.

“Victoria.”

Ignoring him, she wiped the tears from her face.

Thinking she could ignore it all and hold a conversation with this lying dog was a mistake. She couldn’t do this right now.
I have to get away from him.
Exhaustion hit her as a yawn escaped her. She was mentally and emotionally tired.

What had started as a gorgeous day full of promise had turned into a nightmare of gigantic proportions. Instead of ending the day with the man she knew as Ivan, she found her whole relationship with him had been a lie. Her father wanted to use her as a breeding machine and he wasn’t really human at all, just as she had always suspected. He was part of some African-descended vampire race. Hell, she was too, for that matter.

She wanted this day to be over. She needed to be by herself to rest, think, and grieve. Grieve for what could have been, should have been with the man she thought was
the one
, her soul mate.

Starting at the sound of the doors unlocking, she came back to the present.

“Let’s get you a room,” Khafil said quietly.

Opening the door quickly, she grabbed her bag and attempted to go inside the hotel before he could stop her. She jumped when he appeared in front of the doors just as she reached them. Angrily she stepped back away from his extended hand.

“Can you please just leave me alone?”

He dropped his hand. “At least let me pay for your room.”