Authors: Nadja Notariani
“
Pardon my indiscretion, then, ancient. I mean you no disrespect.”
Cael took a liking to the vampire, his apology uncontrived, genuine. They’d met before. But his brother, Ewan, who Cael remembered well from younger, wilder days, had done all the talking. Eagen was assertive, but respectful when circumstance demanded it of him.
Smart.
Cael respected smarts. Whether street wise or book learned, knowing how to play a situation was more important than anything else. Eagen had the gift in spades, it seemed.
“
Verra well,” Cael replied, never taking his eyes from the younger vampire. “What is this message ye have for me? I trust Rowan is well?”
“
She is. There is a matter of grave danger to you and your half-born she insisted I speak with you about. Is this a good place?”
“
Of course,” Cael replied. “Relay yer message.”
Eagen retold the story of Rowan’s accidental enlightenment in the library of Fife House, Cael absorbing it all with a confident expression and occasional nod.
“
Rowan was most disturbed by the mention of the vampire named Gwendolyn,” Eagen explained to Cael. “She wanted me to warn you. From what she could make out, Gwendolyn seeks your half-born’s family.”
“
Gwendolyn,” Cael uttered, a jaded expression crossing his face at the she-vampire’s mention. “If she is involved there’s trouble to be made. The woman is a black-widow if ever there was one.”
“
There’s something else,” Eagen added, a grave inflection to his voice. “The family has been missing for two days now.”
Ice ran through Cael’s veins at the revelation. Immediately he determined to bury the thought until Paige had recovered fully from her ordeal. Her voice from the other room confirmed what he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. Fully bonded to him, having his blood in her veins along with the powerful blood of her grandmother, Catrionia, Paige would be a powerful vampire, indeed.
“
Cael!” the frightened voice barely reached his ears.
Casting a glance at Eagen Garrow, Cael communicated much with the vampire.
“
Wait here, Eagen. I may have further need of ye.”
“
At your service, Maccinnis.”
Cael strode into the bedroom, hurrying to Paige who was sitting in the bed, her green eyes not yet back to their normal luminosity. Dark circles ringed them.
“
Ye canna push yerself, Paige. Ye are weak yet.”
“
My sisters. My aunt. They are in the hands of vampires.” The acknowledgment left her in little more than a whisper. “I see it, Cael.”
“
What do ye mean, lass?” Cael wondered.
Had she heard him at all, or was she dreaming it?
“
Both,” she murmured. “I was dreaming. Then when I heard you and the other vampire, I woke up to tell you that it was real.”
“
Ye may have a gift, or gifts, that we doona not yet know about. But ye must be careful. It could be a trick used by another vampire.”
“
Why would they do that?”
She lay back against the pillows, sitting up having taken all her energy.
“
To get ye to reveal yerself while ye are still weak, lass. I have cloaked ye well, but other ancients may be able to unravel my enchantments with enough time.”
“
What are we going to do?” she asked.
“
We aren’t going to do anything. Ye will rest. I will look into what’s goin’ on. Promise me ye will abide my wishes until ye are recovered.”
“
Whatever you say,” Paige replied dreamily, unable to keep her eyes open any longer.
Fatigue had won out with a little help from Cael’s thrall. Soon, it would have no effect on her other than as a mutual heightening of shared experience, but for now, with her so weak, he employed it wisely. Paige needed to regain her strength before they were forced into an encounter with hostile vampires.
Cael cursed.
He’d assumed once she was changed, they’d be left alone. He’d thought wrong. Returning to the sitting room, Cael found Eagen waiting patiently.
“
Thank you for waiting,” Cael offered his gratitude.
“
Gladly, Maccinnis. Is there aught I can carry back to Rowan?”
“
Tell her where I am. Tell her to jump at least twice before coming so as not to leave a trail for other vampires to follow. Tell her I need help. These are verra old vampires we’re dealing with, one a Council member.”
“
I have one question for you, Maccinnis.”
“
What is it, Eagen Garrow?”
“
How far are you willing to take this? This could shake the foundations of vampire leadership, Maccinnis.”
“
Aye, Garrow. It could. To keep Paige safe, I will take this as far as I need to.”
“
Are you willing to stick around for the aftermath?”
Cael looked directly into the younger vampire’s eyes.
“
Meaning?”
“
Many vampires are ready for a change in leadership, Maccinnis. The old ways aren’t working. Corruption abounds. Injustice is done. But stability is needed. If we expose a Council member, are you willing to take the seat?” A pregnant pause filled the space between the two vampires. “It is where you belong. You are the oldest Maccinnis, and therefore the rightful Council seat holder.”
“
Ye doona know what ye say!” Cael struggled to hold his temper. “The Council has no real power anymore. It is the corruption of the Coven leaders that hurts lesser vampires. The Council is naught but a figurehead.”
“
We could change that with control of the Council, Cael. If you replace Coven leaders, change will follow.”
Cael considered the vampire’s suggestion.
“
I will think on it. And I will approach Malcolm of Clan Gaunson.”
“
Why him?” Eagen wondered aloud.
“
Because he fathered my Paige.”
Eagen smirked. Perhaps not all the Council members were completely out of touch with reality. It was useful information his brother would like hearing.
*
Pilar Michaels hadn’t eaten in what felt like ages. The first day, Malcolm had hand fed her fruit and breads. Since then he’d offered her only himself. Each night he’d come to her, drinking and taking her over and over until the dawn. Without the thirst she’d not had the urge to drink from him. Tonight was different. Awakening.
Hunger for him consumed every thought, her body desperate in her need. Thirst for his blood taunted her, and she ran her tongue over the now sharp fangs aching in her jaw.
When will you come to me?
“
I am here,” his voice startled her.
He was alongside her. It was unnatural. Pilar didn’t care.
Reaching for him, his splendor more than she thought to withstand, Pilar gasped when he caught her arms and rolled her on top of his body, his hardness pressing against her belly instantly.
“
You are ready, my sweet. Take, and live alongside me.”
She found his mouth as he finished speaking, exploring him hungrily. Down his body she licked and tasted, his cock jumping against her in anticipation. She returned to his neck. To what she wanted. Rubbing herself along his length, she scraped her teeth on his neck, readying to puncture his vein and taste what her throat begged her do. She hesitated, afraid of the newness, of the otherness of the act she yearned to commit.
Malcolm’s strong hands grasped her hips and lifted her above his thickness, pushing inside her, groaning savagely as he stretched her. She moaned in delirious ecstasy, sinking her teeth as pleasure rolled through her. Spicy and warm, his flavor exploded upon her tongue. The sensuality of being bitten caused him to buck beneath her, hurtling Pilar into sweet release. Coming around his thickness, rocking her hips in time with the waves of pleasure while drawing his blood into her mouth in sensual pulls, Pilar collapsed on top of him, entirely spent, fully satisfied. She left his vein, instinctively swirling her tongue over the wound to seal it off.
Malcolm rolled them, still buried inside her, and began the ancient rhythm of pleasure, thrusting untamed, opening her vein and drinking freely. Pleasure burst again, her contractions bringing him along with her to fulfillment. They lay together, Malcolm kissing her lips, her face and her breasts, alternately sucking on her peaked nipples, drawing soft moans of newly building pleasure from her before sinking his teeth deeply.
Her sharp cry stilled him, delight and pain no longer discernible in the first moment of the bite, euphoria flooding through her as she rocked her hips, drawing him deeper still within her.
Take your pleasure, my love, and drink again. You need strength for your journey.
She obeyed, drinking until she could take no more as he rode her through wave after wave of pleasure. When he poured his essence into her again and his groans of pleasure subsided, Malcolm whispered near her ear.
“
Do not leave the red road. Listen, for my voice will guide you. Call to me; I will hear. You must come back to me.”
Malcolm, I’ve no desire to leave you. What are you talking about?
His gaze, intense and burning, found hers.
You must walk over the Netherworld, my sweet. Do not veer from the path. Awaken and spend eternity with me.
“
Malcolm,” she rasped. “I feel…”
“
Hurry back to me, Pilar. I cannot lose you.”
Burning heat scorched her. Darkness and fire whirled on all sides. It was terrifying and painful and lonely. Falling and falling, yet no scream of fear would escape her throat. Then stillness. The veiled world took shape before her eyes, foreign and distant outside the reddish path beneath her feet.
Walk, Pilar.
She commanded her feet to move once, and then again.
Don’t stop until you see Malcolm again.
The path stretched before her endlessly, but Pilar concentrated only on putting one foot in front of the other, looking directly in front of herself. Myths and legends told of a physical journey across the Netherworld that changelings had to survive, but she’d always dismissed them as nothing more than fairy tales, thinking the Awakening only a spiritual trek rather than physical. Her life now depended on traversing this realm successfully. Dirt and rock crunched beneath her footfalls in unnatural echoes as she journeyed the red road, her heart beating out the tattoo of her lover’s name.
Malcolm. Malcolm. Malcolm.
*
Cael materialized in the foyer of the great home. Instantly the steward appeared, politely inquiring of his business and whether he had an appointment. Rather than impressing him, it reinforced his beliefs of how out of touch from the mainstream vampire world the Council members were.
“
I have no appointment. Tell Malcolm of Clan Gaunson that Cael of Clan Maccinnis is here. He willna refuse to see me.”
The white haired steward left him standing in the foyer, no invitation to sit in one of the elaborately decorated rooms offered. He would have refused it, but the insult to his person was noted. A grin crossed his face as he considered the old steward’s slight a moment more. The man was vampire, yet he chose to walk about in an old man’s body. That was dedication. Cael bet that when off duty, the steward projected an image quite different.
Shunning the extravagance surrounding him, Cael stood with hands clasped behind his back, neither showing expression nor gazing about the beautiful surroundings. He would not be seduced by the wealth of this home. A taunting voice surfaced in his thoughts.
You have the same wealth. You simply haven’t bought things to show it off. All vampires eventually acquire wealth. It is the natural progression of long life. Why do you disdain the bounty you have been afforded?
Because I will not be like my father.
The truth of the thought railed in his mind. Cael judged because of his feelings toward his own father. That was the reason behind his refusal to embrace opulence. He feared becoming like the man who sired him. In that moment, Cael confronted the prejudices he’d been carrying around for years.
Greed and avarice had ruled his father’s heart, power and position his mother’s. As a child he’d been relegated to the care of nannies and then sent to boarding schools for children of elite vampires while his parents traveled and socialized, building their power base and garnering support for his father’s political career. It had all come crumbling down when his parents lost everything in their failed bid for power. Even then, instead of coming home and caring for him, their own son, quietly in their home, they had chosen the dawn rather than face the consequences of their coup attempt.
It was at school that Cael had met Alden, and later Alden’s father, David. He’d found purpose and peace with Alden’s family, learning the trade he continued to practice yet today – woodworking - under the tutelage of David of Clan Gaunson. Alden remained his closest friend through the millennia. Besides Alden, Cael had gained only one other close friend, Rowan. It was because of her warning he was here at the home of another ancient, Malcolm of Clan Gaunson.
“
You will be received, Cael of Clan Maccinnis,” the steward interrupted his memories. “Come this way.”