Calm, serene, I keep the penitentiary of my hold on his leg tight while I electrocute him with the pleasurable energy exchange. It's a carnal and spiritual rule, we cannot take anything without giving back more than we take.
Closing my eyes, I trickle the angelfire inside me into him, and a hoarse groan is muffled by my bed linen. But it's so loud I know he's now as high on paranormal ambrosia as I am.
Looking up his body, I note the way his hair is feathered across my white pillows, his hands tightly fisted into the one which buries his face. The tension slowly leaves his body and he sags, panting heavily when he turns his face aside, staring dreamily out the window into the sanctuary of the night.
His lids are heavy and the scent of his skin and pheromones saturate the air of my haven.
Reluctant, I carefully end my bite, pulling out of his body and losing the delicious sound of twin heartbeats in my hearing.
Crawling up onto my bed, I curl around him, holding him, pressing soft kisses down his vertebrae.
“Crivens. I dinnae think that was possible.”
His voice comes out as a slur, and I know the apex he just underwent has completely drained his energy. In the next thirty-three seconds he'll be asleep.
Pleased, I sit up, taking my time removing his combat boots and straightening his jeans so they are no longer bunched. Fetching the blanket off the chair at the window, I return, spreading it out so that he's covered, then crawling back under it to cuddle up against him. With my cheek pressed between his shoulder blades, I close my eyes and appreciate the sturdy strength of his heartbeat.
Entwined, my arm wrapped over his waist, I sleep for the first time in two weeks, lulled into the interdimension by the possessive hand holding mine in slumber.
Chapter 21
Ellindt:
After two hours, restlessness pricks my eyelids open and I stare at the melancholic shadows clinging to the ceiling.
I need to work off this energy. What we have has made me so excited, yet at the same time the dread of leaving so soon is building within.
I can't lie here, I'm going back.
Still fully clothed, I sneak out from under the blanket, waving my hand and redressing him in his shirt. He might get cold without me. Standing at the foot of the bed I blow him a kiss to catch in his dream, and vanish.
The hot redolence of the Vamporium chases succulence up my olfactory nerve, filling my sinuses with the sweet smell of cherry and caramel melting in a furnace.
Instant relaxation claims my tense muscles while I stroll to the dance floor. I have energy to burn, and burn it I shall.
Closing my eyes against the foreboding chamber hiding all manner of supernal creature, I think about my future while I sway to the cosmic beat of the universe. We're in the great womb of creation and only some of us can hear it – or feel it.
The rock pulsates with the atomic dance of quarks and photons, revisiting the galactic synapses blasting neuron fire across dark space with nebulae, quasars, and the neurtrinos which move faster than the speed of light.
We appreciate them because we see the threads which make up the weave of the material planes. We look inside atoms and see the vast empty space within, they're angel bells which resonate loudly with oscillating energy. Shaking ecstasy into the mirage the people on earth see and accept as solid, real, reality. All that empty space is simply for resonance, without the vibration the atom cannot gives the 3
dimension the appearance of solid.
Nothing is solid, nothing is permanent, all of it, all around us, it's just light, frequencies, and energy. That energy is no more alive than down here where the environment mirrors our reality, we are light, the world is light, the galaxies are light, all floating on an ethereal duvet of buzzing energy which cages it clustered together in stasis.
Reengaging my gaze on the deep and high ceilinged cavern, I wonder why we live in hiding. Why are we so ashamed of what we are? We're not afraid of humans, so why do we hide from them?
When I grow up I'm going to open clubs above ground for us. I refuse to hide. Our goal is to meet humans, so why aren't we integrating with them? Why haven't we set up a den which cultivates interspecies interaction? I am going to change this world. I'm going to start a chain where vampyres can meet with human singles, helping us attain our goal of redemption. Every vampyre deserves to meet a Doug. We all deserve to know the peaceful happiness he's bestowed on me.
Love sets us free, so why have the guardians made it as hard as vampirically possible for us to mingle with the mortal? It makes no sense.
*
Arelstin:
Keeping a watchful eye on my charge, her innate superiority still amazes me.
Without any conscious effort she moves as subtly as a blue flame dancing across gas, igniting the blood of every male she passes.
And she wonders why we have to guard her. She's in endless danger, constantly, since the day she came into this world. She's Arch-born, one of the highest in the echelon, her father was a creator in his own right, and every one of the legion beneath his control lust after her. They need that power so tightly coiled inside her, and yet as the mightiest of them all I'm left to covet and guard what will never be mine.
Her power, if I could tap into it I could change the world, but I must be patient. They are only aware of the tiniest portion of their potential, and that is prudent. If they truly knew their own power they could annihilate this planet in a breath.
They've been kept ignorant but some of us still remember. And that is why I live looking over my shoulder for Zarak. He knows it, and I know it. Arsay is his superior and has so far been my ally, keeping the demon Zarak on his best behavior. We have different approaches, he wants to free Ellindt through pain, I want to free her through love.
The irony is that sometimes love hurts too, when it has a valuable lesson to impart on a young impressionable mind. It's too dangerous for her to be alone here without her brothers. They are her protection against the hunters of the night.
Selene is so distracted with her boytoy she isn't even aware Ellindt has slipped out of the house, back into our realm.
Roderick was absolutely correct when he labelled Ellie noctiluca. We do shine by night. We cannot hide our inner radiance, the glory of the first spills through our pores when we sleep, when we drop our guard. She's young, she hasn't mastered absolute control yet. She longs for the freedom of maturity, and by then I'd better have her fully under my influence or this planet will be seduced by her.
She's more dangerous than she will ever comprehend. And now I have to prevent her from ever receiving redemption.
Venix is on his way, he's sent Zarak to prevent her from escaping. Tomorrow she is going home. She doesn't know it yet, but if she knew what we knew she wouldn't want redemption. We need her immortal, and Douglas MacLeod has made her crave mortality more than she craves acceptance and safety.
Oh Ellie, I'm sorry it has to be this way. We just can't let you endanger us all by giving your infinite power to a man. Your own kind need you far too much.
We need you to stay immortal, eternal, a power source we can harness. When the Slakax come, we'll free you. Until then little one, you are ours.
Zarak wants to remove the issue by taking out Douglas. What is he thinking? It's much safer to remove Ellie from him than it is to disturb the chain of light by killing Douglas.
Sighing heavily, I step out of my cloak of shade, striding across the Vamporium to the dance floor, glaring my wrath at the circling predators eyeing out my ward.
Clasping both hands on her arms I transport us immediately to the Staircase, icy wind snapping jaws hungrily around us.
“Arelstin! What the hell man? Leave me alone!” she yells, yanking herself free.
“Ellindt, stop.” It's a command and she's still too naïve to know her own power, so mine restrains her.
She scowls up at me with petulant sterling eyes. “What?”
Giving her my manipulative smile, I wrap her aura in my energy, closing her into the vibration of ecstasy, “I've come to warn you.”
“Of what?”
“You will be forced to leave here tomorrow afternoon at thirty-three minutes past three. Say your goodbyes, do whatever you have to do, because Venix is making sure you leave this time.”
“Why?! I've done nothing wrong. Why is he persecuting me? I've found my key, he's at home in my bed, and I'm not going until he unlocks my prison and sets me free!”
“Listen to me, we'll find a way. Selene has already spoken to Venix about letting you come back for the winter solstice. If we're really fortunate he'll let you come back for the blood moon. But Ellie, don't waste time, you have only a few hours left with Douglas, make them count.”
The sky is tingeing with the first hint of daybreak even though we now stand under an umbrella of imminent rain.
She sighs, looking out over all of Glencoe, and I can see the light bleeding out of her in desperation.
Every time we hurt her a piece of her leaks out, and it kills me to witness it.
I'm so sorry that we have to hurt you for our greater good. One day I promise I'll restore you, and return you to this place, to this time, and I won't let any of them interfere. But that time is not now. Now you have to return.
Wrapping my arm around the diminutive vampress, I step off the rocky shelf and back into Selene's hidden garden.
Zarak blocks the path up the steps, his eyes burning up and bottoming out with rage.
“Ellindt,” he says, and I'm impressed with the restraint he's employing to keep his voice smooth as sunshine silk.
*
Ellindt:
I react with all the agony and outrage I have festering around my heart. It's unjust and cruel and it makes them all monsters.
Rushing him, I slam into the solid demon wall and start blasting him with my angelfire. Becoming a floodlight of pain I smash light into him again and again, kicking, yelling and bellowing, tears burning my eyes.
“Why? I hate you! I HATE YOU!”
And it only makes it worse that he just stands there and takes it, until I run out of energy and anger.
“Hate is as good as love. It takes a lot of obsessive thought to hate someone,” he says in a flat voice.
Stomping three paces back I glare up at the condescending jerk, “How dare you threaten Douglas's life?! How dare you!”
“You are too young Ellindt. You're not ready yet–”
“Who are you to decide when I'm ready? This is all your fault! You exposed us all and somehow I'm getting the blame! I will never forget this!”
The pit of despair engulfs me, galvanizing my resolve, and I walk right up to him, staring all the way up his towering body to his black hole eyes, sneering in a whisper, “I will never forget what you've done to me. I will never ever forgive you for this.”
The only movement to betray he has any feelings at all is the tick of his jaw while he stares emptiness back at me.
“Ellindt?” calls from behind him.
“I can't get in Selene! The goons are herding me to my demise,” I yell hysterically to her, trying to see around Zarak, but he steps into my path again.
“Let her go, Zarak,” she orders softly behind him.
“She has twelve hours. I have my orders,” he says in his velvet baritone, turning to smile gently at my aunt.
Oh hello? What the hell don't I know about those two?
“I'll be there too,” says Arelstin across the sudden quiet. When I turn to look at him he gives me a conspiratorial wink, “To make sure there's fair play.”
“Whatever,” I grumble, so angry with both of them for endlessly ruining my life. I'm happy here. Why can't they leave me alone? Happiness is a state of bliss which changes the entire planet and how it works, and yet they're just like politicians who can't stop interfering in foreign affairs, they stick their noses where it's unwelcome and they end up causing friction and misery.
Stuff them all! When I grow up I'm going to make all these supernatural powers know that a woman waits until she's strong enough to fight back. I have forever, and I now have a vendetta in my blood which has stained my DNA with pain. One day you'll all remember what you've done. When you're happy I'm going to blast into the realm of power and rip it from you!
I'll never forget and I'll make them both pay for this.
Marching up the stairs and into the house, I only inhale when the door closes on the dawn and I'm alone with my aunt.
“Come on, let's go hide in the kitchen.” She wraps her arm around me and starts walking me to the warmest room in her home. “I think you could use a big mug of comfort.”
“What I need is to be left alone with Doug.”
“Where is he?” she coos as we cross the threshold into the lemon room.
“Upstairs. Don't freak out, nothing happened.”
Smirking, she waves her hand to produce a ball of energy which she breaks over my head, “I wish I could say the same. But I can't.”
Chapter 22
Ellindt:
Sitting on opposite ends of the dining table, I ask her, “How come the Vamporium mist is red?”
Selene looks at me with an expressionless face. I have never ever witnessed her deadpan before, and to say it alarms me is an understatement.
Tapping a nail against the table top, she looks miles away when she says, “What is the greatest evil of all?”
“Greed,” I say without hesitation.
“Pride. The ego of an evil man is the most dangerous thing to walk this earth.”
I'm not following her train of thought at all. What does this have to do with the crimson breath?
Sitting back heavily in her chair, clasping her hands together on the wood, she says, “In history, conquering armies were particularly cruel. They weren't just satisfied with claiming land they had no right to, they also needed to destroy the dignity of the people who inhabited that land.”