"Maybe Barry can tell us who betrayed him," Caitlin suggested desperately. "Can’t we wait for what he has to say before we condemn Randolf?" What was it that bothered her so much? And what was it Randolf said had?Zendedari held her close. "No one wants it to be Randolf, little red hair, and you can be assured no one will act without certain proof."Caitlin knew he was seeking to reassure her, even as he believed implicitly that her father was the betrayer. Some part of her knew it to be true. Away from Randolf, she was able to see things more clearly. He wasn’t just a man confused and tormented by her mother’s death. He could be a calculating, cold killer.She closed her eyes, unable to face where her thoughts were going. Zendedari could not be the one to take Randolf’s life. He just couldn’t. Warmth flooded her mind, and his arm tightened protectively around her.There is no need for me to hunt Randolf should he prove to be the vampire preying on our people. The others can take car
Caitlin watched Zendedari, feeling suddenly proud of him. He might not be able to bear her touching another man yet, but he didn’t like himself very much for it. And she could sense his determination to save Barry. She knew he could not bring himself to lie to her in order to make himself look good in her eyes. He didn’t try to hide his darker side from her but rather wanted her to find a way to love him in spite of it.And she did. She might not understand, but she loved all of him. He didn’t run from the things he had to do. He faced the demon in himself every day. It had all happened so fast, one thing after the other. She had taken a long time to assimilate all the information, but the one consistent thing was the way He was with her. He was honest about everything, even his terrible need of her.Barry groaned, bringing her attention to the men bending over him.Kendalf was as still as a statue, his concentration completely on the ravaged body. Zendedari was forcing his wrist to
Caitlin cried out as Zendedari’s teeth sank deep, as his body surged into hers, as the friction grew and colors danced. Her tongue stroked across his chest, and she caught at him for an anchor as he took them soaring into the night.Zendedari’s arms wrapped her tightly, his body penetrated hers deeply, his muscles welded to hers so perfectly, minds and hearts met like halves of the same whole. It was impossible to tell where one started and the other left off.He caught her mouth in his, sharing their life force as they fell over the edge and tumbled through time and space.Caitlin lay spent in his arms, aware of nothing but the beauty and peace of their surroundings. The earth beneath her felt welcoming and soft, the curving tunnel above like a sanctuary for them. Zendedari’s body, muscled and hard, was a welcome anchor in the turbulent storm of their lovemaking. For once, her hunger was sated. In the heat of the moment she had fed well, taking what He so freely offered. She realiz
Caitlin smiled up at Zendedari. I can see it is dangerous. Now, why would I want to do something that is obviously going to get me in big trouble?"His hand stroked her waist, traced each rib under her satin skin. He could feel her tremble in answer."Because I want you to. Because you want to please me."Caitlin laughed out loud, her eyebrows winging upward. "Oh, really? That’s what I want to do?" He nodded solemnly. "Above all else."She moved away from him, deliberately enticing him. "I see. I didn’t know that. Thank you for pointing it out.""You are welcome," he countered gravely, his eyes following her every movement. She was graceful and seductive, a siren beckoning him to follow. His body stirred, and ruefully he decided the pools might be a safer place to watch her. He entered the nearest hot springs, wincing as the bubbles added to the sensation of fingers stroking his sensitive skin.Her taunting laughter followed him, brushing provocatively at his nerve endings with the
Zendedari stirred languidly. He didn’t want to move, but hunger was growing, and he needed nourishment desperately. He had to sustain Caitlin, Barry, and his own healing body. He would have to feed often to keep up with the demand. He carefully unwound his body from Caitlin’s. She moaned softly, and her long eyelashes lifted."You can’t possibly want more." He had made love to her often and thoroughly throughout the last few hours. She wasn’t altogether certain she could move.He ran a teasing finger down her flat stomach. "I always want more. Insatiable is the word." He sighed and reluctantly stood and stretched. "I want you to stay here while I go feed. You will be safe."One eyebrow lifted. "How do you know that? Don’t all of your kind now of this place? I should go with you." She wanted to keep him safe from any harm. If Randolf was the vampire, he hated Zen above all others.Zendedari made certain no expression showed on his face. Caitlin had the illusion she was still taking car
Zendedari hastily broke the connection of their minds. Caitlin persisted in thinking him at risk. It simply did not occur to her, even after what she had experienced with him, what she had witnessed, that he could be the aggressor in the upcoming battle. That he might welcome the battle with his betrayer. That he would enjoy it. For all her knowledge of him, she still could not take in that he was a predator by nature. If that was what it took for her to accept their relationship, he was willing for the knowledge to come to her in slow stages.To him, that was the beauty of a lifemate’s bond. Everything was there for the taking, but it was up to the partner to do what they wanted with it all. Zendedari knew he would fly to the moon and haul it down for her, walk on water or swim through hot lava if that was what it took to make her happy. She was his life, and they had centuries to get to know one another properly. She did not need to confront his killer instincts with- her every wa
Zendedari made his way outside into the cool night air. The wind tugged at his clothing, raked at his long hair. A lone wolf howled, endlessly calling for a mate. The sound caught at him, touched a spot in him, and he lifted his head and crooned softly into the night. The wolf was wandering far from its companions, alone, an outcast to those who did not understand its predatory natureA sound alerted him, a mere rustle in the underbrush, but it was enough to draw his mind away from the wolf and back to the enemy stalking him. He lowered his body into a crouch, centering himself for the attack. When he turned his head, Randolf moved out into the open. He was smeared with blood, his fangs exposed, his eyes red-rimmed, and his nails long, clawed tips. His skin, flushed from his recent kills, was stretched taut against his skull so that he had the look of death clinging to him."I knew you would leave your bride to feast upon the humans. You could not resist when blood was there for the
Zendedari retaliated without conscious thought, raking his own talons down the vampire’s face.Randolf screamed with pain, a cry of fear and hatred. But Zendedari kept at him, whirling in and out of visibility, inflicting lacerations across the vampire’s chest to drain him of his strength. He kept his mind firmly from Caitlin. He could not think she was in danger, that this savage fight could somehow affect her. The joy in him increased until his mind and body were alive with power. The vampire fell back under his onslaught. With one last desperate attempt to turn the battle in his favor, Randolf disappeared, fled to the tree line, calling on the sky to do his bidding.A bolt of lightning slammed to earth, scorching the area close to Zendedari’s body, singeing the tips of his hair. A second bolt hit the precise spot where the He had been standing, but Zen was already overhead, high in the trees above Randolf. Wings beat the air strongly as he launched himself.Randolf screamed as the
When they clambered to the surface of the ground, away from the lab, the girls breathed in relief, freed from the nightmares they had been subjected to for years. It was then that Olivera took a blood bag from the polythene in her arms, feeling better in the night hair, and took a sip, wary of how the blood would taste. She had heard Jacob talking about the heady feeling, worse if it came from an ancient. But it still hadn’t prepared her for the kick of pleasure. She found herself moaning as she greedily drank the blood, until she drained the bag. When she was done, she looked at the others. They were staring at her with unexplainable emotions on their faces. At least it wasn’t disgust. Olivera thought with a shrug, before handing the bag over to Miriam. When her friend hesitated in collecting it, she piqued an eyebrow. “You want to do the dismantling of the structure, without alerting the soldiers?” Miriam huffed, and took the bag. As much as she had great magic, she didn’t want
The first thing Olivera saw when she stepped into the hole where the passageway stopped was the largeness of the space, which could contain more than five thousand people. Then she saw the tubes, the boiling liquids and the lab rats. A modern lab.‘Where are you?’ She asked the girl, needing to get out of here; it was making her nauseous. Ten more minutes here, and she might be vomiting all over the place. And there was the fact that she didn’t know when the soldiers would be waking up. ‘At the far end of the cave…’Olivera nodded as if the girl was speaking to her physically. And gesturing with her head, for Miriam to follow her, she sauntered toward the end of the hall, making sure not to look at the tubes housing different organs and parts of an organism. What the hell! She screamed mentally when she saw a full brain at a table which looked like a butchering table. “Oh, my god…what are they doing here?” She heard Miriam ask beside her and sighed. Whose brain was that? A human
Miriam’s heart pounded erratically as she followed Olivera, who seemed very confident on what she was doing, and on where she was going. Three times she thought of grabbing Olivera and walking away from the region, but she also knew it would have been a futile attempt. Her friend’s mind was already made up. She watched as the latter walked past the last barrack, and stopped by a pole, the only pole in the backyard. Behind it were the gates towering them. They have come to a dead end. “Olivera, there is nothing here? Are you sure this girl is real?” Olivera gave Miriam no answer, instead she concentrated on looking around her, waiting for the signal. When she got nothing, she traced the vibration residue, touching the girl’s mind. A jerk in her mind path told her that the girl was surprised she had breached her mind guards. But should she be surprised? Or was something else at play here? ‘Where next should I go?’ She continued, because she knew she was at the right place, that t
“How are we getting past that?” Olivera asked Miriam as they came to stand before a huge gate that towered many feet over them. She could now see why Miriam had wanted the journey to be done in the privacy of the night. As much as she could see—as they had zapped to this point—this area wasn’t open to the city dwellers, only to the special few. She looked around her again. Barracks with soldiers sleeping within. None was even standing guard at the gates. She didn’t believe such a thing would exist at this time. City gates. Where did it lead? She piqued an eyebrow when Miriam smirked. What was the latter thinking? “As if you don’t already know…which other way, if not by mist…there is no way I am climbing that. I don’t think I am ready to fly with you above it…” Miriam spoke, covering the distance between them, and wrapping her arms around Olivera, her mouth fixed in a pout. Olivera shook her head, yet unable to stop the smile that cascaded her lips. It seemed that her friend was g
A knock woke Olivera up from her deep slumber. After bathing and eating off the snacks she had bought earlier in the day, from the shops in the new city, she had fallen like a log of wood to the bed, and hadn’t even stirred after that. Still groggy from the smooth sleep, she let her hand search for her phone which was the only thing that had gone to bed with her, should Miriam call for her. She peered at the screen. It was one in the morning. It was time then. She yawned like a hyena, causing Miriam to chuckle from behind the door. The chuckle dissipated the remaining fog fostering around her head. Taking a deep breath in, she stood up from the bed, flung a sheet around her naked body, and walked to the door. When she opened it, she saw that Miriam was alone, and carrying a tray of steaming food. “You are a lifesaver.” She muttered, opening the door wider for her friend to come in; the rumbling sounds that emitted from her stomach in agreement with her. Miriam chuckled again, an
“Where are we heading next?” Olivera asked Miriam immediately they stepped out of the borders of the town, into a city sprawling with people. After they had left the males who had tried to detain them because of her eating habits, they had walked to the largest building in the town, because if Clooney was a big name, it was probably because the man was rich. They hadn’t been right in their deduction, but they had at least gotten away from the unsettling males. Olivera had taken her friend behind the building, and had quickly switched to her mist form, turning Miriam into the same, and together they had zapped the remainder of the city without stopping, till they were out of it, till they were in a new one which looked more modernized than the previous. She looked at Miriam, who was staring at the city with artificial skylights, and wondered if her friend had ever been here before. “I never get over the culture shock, you know, seeing the drabness of the town we just left. The cont
What now? Olivera thought, looking at the six males that couldn’t be a year older than twenty five years old. What were they doing in front of her? “State your names, and what you are doing in this town…” The male, slightly in front of the others, spoke with a steel voice, causing Olivera and Miriam to exchange furtive glances. What was going on?There was a minute hesitation before Olivera spoke. “I am Darcy. My friend is Lilian. Who are you?” She patted herself mentally for names well cooked and delivered. Darcy and Lilian? How had she come up with those seemingly true names? She watched the male that had just spoken, looked to his comrades behind him, and judged that he was the leader of this small group. Were they the police? She looked at them again. They didn’t look like the police. Vigilantes? Maybe. But why were there vigilantes in the town? She kept a seal on her thoughts when the male returned her attention to her. “My name is Luke, and these are my associates. Our job is
“We will kill him right?” Miriam asked, as they stepped out of the camp, and turned around to look at it again, reliving what they had seen in there. “We need to. He is evil. Why will a sane man work with a vampire? Is he crazy?” Olivera just couldn’t understand the foolishness, no matter how much she tried. Why would one make a deal with an almost eternal wickedness? Had he no fear for his life, for his family? “I think he is crazy. Evil-y crazy. But that’s by the way. What are we going to do now?” Olivera looked around the camp, and spat in disgust. “We will burn it down. We will burn it until it’s nothing but dust. We will eradicate this curse from the face of the earth.” Miriam couldn’t agree less, but then she remembered that the ancients might have use for the materials in there. Olivera, having sensed the latter’s thoughts, shook her head. “They won’t be needing it. I’ve already transferred the necessary details to Raul, and Jacob. They can take it up from there. The mater
“Do you think anyone is in there?” Olivera asked Miriam, immediately she shifted to human self. Miriam looked at her clothed self and smiled. “Seems you have gotten the best hang of shifting, and still keeping your clothes on.” Olivera shrugged her shoulders. “There was no other choice. I can’t keep going up and down with my clothes in my hands or mouth. Since I’m part ancient, I have to improvise.” She took in a deep breath, inhaling the air tainted with magic and something else. “This place is tainted with magic. You smell it?” She shook off the imaginary dirt on her clothes, just in case, whilst waiting for Miriam’s reply. When she looked up, her friend was smiling. “What’s tickling your fancy? I don’t think my question has that much prowess…” Miriam cackled. “I never thought riding on a wolf would be so exhilarating. If I had known, I would have befriended a werewolf, and snagged rides every week at least. It’s quite freeing and therapeutic.” Olivera nodded. It was just as