Caitlin whispered something against his pulse, something soft and sighing that invaded his body and left him hungry for her intimate touch. He covered his moan of urgent need as her teeth sank into his neck. Hot flames danced through his bloodstream, darted along his muscles and nerves. His hands found her waist, her back, cradled her head to him. His body needed to sate itself with hers. Never had the heat been so burning and the need so great.Kendalf’s teeth tore at his own wrist. His mind merged with Enoch’s , and together they forced Raven’s reluctant compliance. She was still a fledging, a mere quarter of a century old, yet she was already strong. It took both of them to force her to feed from other than Enoch. She resisted for a moment.For our child, little one, Enoch whispered softly, lovingly, bending her will to his.You must do this for our child.Kendalf added his own reinforcement.I have never asked anything of you, Raven, of our friendship. This I ask.Raven pushed do
Zendedari tried to use his newfound powers to search his memory for the time Enoch had brought Raven over. Enoch, too, had done so without her consent, without her knowledge of the existence of their kind. He had done it hastily, to save her life, and none of them, even Enoch, had known if it would work. Raven had been forced to learn a new way of life.A slight sound sent him whirling around to face Kendalf, who staggered away from Raven’s body. Caitlin slumped down beside the woman and didn’t move. The two healers appeared drained and nearly helpless."You have need of blood," Zendedari said to Kendalf. "You gave Raven too much.""She had need," Kendalf answered wearily. He stretched out on the floor, one arm flung over his eyes to protect them."Allow me to provide for you. I have fed well this day," Zendedari offered formally. The sun was climbing steadily despite the severity of the storm."I thank you, Zendedari, but I am just too damn tired. This is Enoch’s old cabin. Find out
Caitlin became aware of a voice. She lay silently, not certain where she was. For a moment it seemed as if everything was some far-off echo of a nightmare. But when she studied her surroundings, she knew she was in an underground chamber. Beside her, Raven lay like death. Someone had scattered earth and sweet-smelling herbs over her body.Cautiously, testing her strength, She sat up and shoved impatiently at the hair spilling around her face. Her arm was sore and stung in so many places that it seemed like one massive ache. She touched her shoulder, and her hand came away sticky with blood and dirt. Wincing at the contact, She bent to examine Raven.There seemed to be no pulse, no heartbeat. Her face was white and serene, very beautiful. Caitlin sighed. She looked the way Zendedari had every time he went to sleep. Unable to do anything for the other woman, She stood up and stretched. She felt uneasy without Zendedari and wanted to reach out to him, but she knew instinctively that he
Everything seemed so hazy to Caitlin, her mind confused and sluggish. Randolf was stalking her now, following her every backward movement with a forward one, bending his head closer toward her throat. She should allow him to feed, shouldn’t she? Even if she wasn’t Maggie, she was his daughter, and he was so alone and tormented. She could feel his hot breath on her neck, his will pushing at hers, his hunger beating at both of them. She didn’t want this. What was happening to her that she was standing so still, waiting for him to take her blood, when every cell in her body shrieked at her to ran?Caitlin! God, love, get away from him. I do not know what he is doing, but you are in danger. Do not let him take your blood.Zendedari’s voice was strong in her mind.She leapt away then, putting distance between herself and the tall, handsome man. "You’re scaring me." As always when emotions threatened her, she forced her brain to take over, find a way out for her. "I don’t know what to be
Zendedari regarded the older man with black, empty eyes. "Do you challenge me?"Caitlin gasped. Zen and her father? She pressed both hands to her head. She couldn’t stand this confrontation, being fought over like some dog’s bone. She didn’t even know what was true and what wasn’t anymore.Yes, you do, little red hair. He is attempting to bewitch you. He thought me occupied with Barry. He thought he could lure you from the safety of us.Zendedari attempted to reassure her. She was fighting to stay calm, but She had suffered far too much trauma in the last few days. Zendedari was certain Randolf had not only planned for that but also counted on it to sway her.Randolf’s smile was calm."I would not wish to cause Maggie any further grief. But be warned, dark one, you would be hunted and destroyed if Enoch were not your brother. You have deceived and hurt this woman I love, and I will not allow you to get away with it. But I would not be the cause of her further distress."Zendedari bar
Kendalf was an impressive figure. Caitlin watched him as he knelt beside Raven, his entire attention seemed to be concentrated on the woman lying so still. "Have you attended to Caitlin’s injuries?" The soft inquiry startled Caitlin. He addressed Zendedari, asking the male, as was his irritating way."The wounds are closing," Zendedari assured him.Randolf drew Caitlin alone into the woods. He is the betrayer, healer. I walked away from him because he is linked to Caitlin. He could make her feel whatever I did to him. He is very dangerous. I cannot be the one to bring him to justice. Caitlin would never forgive me."Don’t do that, Zen," Caitlin said with a little bite in her voice. She was exasperated with him. "I know you’re talking to Kendalf. If you have something to say, say it out loud so that I can hear you. You think Randolf is the vampire, don’t you?"The thought was in her mind also, and it made her feel disloyal. She knew something was wrong with Randolf; perhaps Maggie’s
"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
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