Shackled to the Night, page 19
“Emily,” he rasped, “are you certain?”
She nodded. He could see it in her eyes that she wanted it, that she had no second thoughts. She then turned her head, pushed her glorious hair aside, revealing her beautiful skin, the long line of her neck. And there, below that pure skin was the pretty vein that pumped her life-blood. It seemed to be calling him, beckoning him.
He began moving inside her again as he watched that wondrous vein pulse. She moaned, and grabbed his head, dragging his mouth to her throat. He nipped the area gently, and then she held to him more tightly.
Her breathing quickened, and she whispered, “Thaddeus, please. Do it.”
And he did. He heard Emily gasp and felt her body go still at the puncture, and then she groaned in pleasure and began to move beneath him once again, holding his head to her neck.
Her blood was sweet and pure and the most blissful thing to ever touch his tongue, so different from any other woman he had drank from. He felt the energy in her blood surge through him, giving him strength and satisfaction in every cell of his body. The more he drank, the more urgent the sex became. Not just for him, but for Emily as well. He found himself bucking into her, her nails scoring his back.
“Oh my God, Thaddeus!” Emily whispered, her hands grabbing his ass trying to bring him deeper. And he was more than happy to oblige. His hips thrust harder, driving himself into her slick sex.
And then she came. He felt her tight walls squeezing and contracting around him, her body seizing up, trying to arch off the bed under his immense weight. Her hands grabbed his hair, and it felt like she may just pull this stuff right off his skull.
He couldn’t stay latched to her neck; the movement was too wild, to intense. He was afraid he would rip her throat open if he didn’t disengage. He kissed the punctures closed and looked at Emily. She was reeling from her release, her breath coming in short bursts.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. Her piercing green stare once again went straight to his soul. What he saw in those eyes was pure love. Love for him, love for them being together. That thought sent his own orgasm slamming into the tip of his cock like his back had just been pummeled with a baseball bat, releasing again and again inside of her as he whispered her name.
Chapter 31
Thaddeus hung up the phone. He had just talked to Cy who announced he would be arriving in Reno the next night. Cy also informed him that he had contacted their brother Rohan and had asked him to come and help out with the missing kids. More boots in the dirt meant more ground covered, and hopefully a quick end to the mess. It looked like it was going to be one big family reunion in a few days.
Emily had been surprised at the revelation that there was another brother. She had thought it had just been Aiden and Cy, and when he told her there were six more, her eyes just about popped out of her head. He couldn’t help but smile recalling the look on her face.
Thaddeus felt a slight shift in the air as he stared at the map of Reno up on the wall. He looked around, thinking that maybe someone had come into the room without him realizing it. Nope, all alone. He looked around the corner to the Great Room where Emily was busy in the kitchen making coffee, and Mark was lounging on the couch reading the latest edition of Easy Riders, a magazine devoted to motorcycles, and judging by the half-naked woman on the cover, it also dabbled in soft porn. Just before dawn, Thaddeus had taken the boys out to feed, so they were still in bed even though the sun had set a couple of hours ago. He went back to the computer and checked the security monitoring system. Nothing. The hairs on the back of his neck did a little shimmy. He rolled his head and looked up as he heard Emily come into the room with two large mugs of coffee.
“Nothing from Aiden yet?” she asked, sitting down on his lap and handing him his mug.
He shook his head. He wasn’t too worried about Aiden not making it home. The brother had disappeared for more than ten years, so one night didn’t sound off any alarm bells. Besides, Robert was under this roof, and Aiden would be back for him.
“He probably got a good lead at the strip club and didn’t have time to make it home before dawn.”
Emily took a sip of her coffee and nuzzled her head into the crook of Thaddeus’s neck. “Where will he stay?” she asked.
Thaddeus thought of the times when he and Aiden had been trapped by dawn and they had to get creative on where they would spend the daylight hours. They had spent the day in caves, in the trunk of cars, and one time they broke into a funeral home and spent the night in caskets in the basement. That was definitely a little creepy.
“He’ll figure something out,” Thaddeus said as he played with her hair. “He’s quite resourceful.”
They sat in silence for a moment, each taking sips of their coffee. They were down to a couple of hours together, and neither of them was happy about it. Thaddeus let his hand run up to her neck where he gently ran his fingers over the bite mark he had left. He closed the puncture, but kept the actual mark there. When female vampires existed and there were mated vampire couples, a male would often mark the female with a bite mark on her neck so that others would know the female was taken. It was like taking a rubber stamp and plastering MINE across the female’s skin. But Emily wasn’t his, and could never be his.
“Damn,” he whispered, rubbing his face.
“My feelings exactly,” she murmured into his throat. He wrapped his arms around her and they sat in silence.
And then Thaddeus felt it again. A shift in the air, almost as if someone had left a window open and a frigid breeze had invited itself in. Again, it was slight, but it made his whole body tense.
Emily sat up. “What is it?” she asked.
Mark came to the door. “Did you feel that?” he asked.
Thaddeus nodded and lifted Emily off of him.
The breeze came again, this time colder. Emily looked at the two of them, oblivious to it. “What is going on?” she asked again. “Is something wrong with the boys? What is it?”
The fear that traveled up Thaddeus’s spine almost rendered him immobile. Almost. He began to push Emily out the door, practically running over Mark as he did so. Then he began talking.
“Emily, go into my bedroom and lock the door. Then get into the closet, and lock that. It’s a steel door, and the lock is a little tricky, but just yank it to the left. Do not, I repeat, do not, come out unless I personally come and get you.”
Emily tripped as she was pushed, and Thaddeus caught her by the arm and walked across the room so fast she began to run.
“Thaddeus,” she said, but he kept dragging her toward the door that led to the bedrooms. She yanked her arm away from him and stopped.
“Thaddeus!” she practically yelled. He stopped and looked back at her. Stark determination blazed in his eyes. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.
“We don’t have time,” he said sternly.
“No you don’t,” a dark voice said. The cadence was slow and snake like, and Emily stared at Thaddeus wide-eyed. As she pivoted to find out where it had come from, Thaddeus stepped closer to her, looking around the room. Just then the boys came bursting into the room, asking what was going on, talking about how the air felt weird to them.
And then she appeared.
A shimmering black form stood in the middle of the room. The figure was draped in a black cloak, the facial features hidden in the shadows of the hood. Thaddeus immediately stood in front of Emily. Fuck no. He was just a couple of hours away from taking Emily and Brandon to the airport. He cursed himself for being selfish and putting Emily and Brandon on the late flight. He should have had them gone at sunset. There was no way that his mother was going to take her down now. No way. He would die before he watched that happen.
Emily gasped as a long white bony hand lifted the hood to reveal what was underneath. A long, pale face with sharp features stared at her, the large dark eyes as black as coal. Emily’s grabbed the back of his shirt. “Oh my God,” she whispered.”
Thaddeus locked eyes with his mother and didn’t say anything.
“Son,” she hissed. “I came to you with important news, information that must be dealt with by my sons, the soldiers of the race, The Council’s Dark Forces.”
Thaddeus kept quiet, the tension in the room becoming palpable.
The figure looked around the room, taking in the two boys and the angel that stood in front of them, guarding them. She turned back to Thaddeus.
“However, now as I process all that is in your home, I find my mind confused,” she said. “Frankly, my son, I am weak, and don’t have the energy flowing through me, nor the interest in those over there,” she motioned to Mark and the boys. “I am waiting for you to put forth to my ears that the human woman behind you is for your nourishment on this night.”
Thaddeus thought about going with the lie that yes, Emily was dinner. And he was sure that his mother would know his words lacked the truth in them. So he said nothing.
“Have you lost your tongue, Thaddeus?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
“Please, let your words of truth ring to my ears,” she hissed.
Thaddeus clenched his jaw and remained silent.
“Ah,” she said into the silence. “Your lack of answer is your answer. She must die, or have her mind erased, Thaddeus. I must confess, my disappointment in you is great. Of all my sons, I believed you would uphold The Behavior Doctrine. We, The Council, created it to keep our race alive, and here you stand before me with complete disregard of our work.”
“Don’t you hurt my mom!” Brandon yelled, struggling to get away from Mark’s hold on him. He bared his fangs at the female vampire, then hissed at her. She glanced at him and hissed back. Brandon’s eyes went wide, and he went still in Mark’s arms.
“Your Behavior Doctrine is antiquated, Rusalka,” Thaddeus said in a strong voice. “In case you hit your head on a rock in that cave of yours, your dumb fucking doctrine is not saving the vampire race, it is driving us into extinction. A few hundred more years, and your precious race won’t exist any longer because of your rules. Think about that, Mom. And as for the female behind me, you are going to have to step over my cold dead body to get to her. I won’t allow any harm to come to anyone in this room.”
Rusalka said nothing. She just lifted her hand toward Thaddeus, and he fell to the floor at Emily’s feet, his body jerking and writhing in pain.
“Human,” Rusalka said, “his blood is heating as it courses through his veins. It will eventually rupture his heart, killing him, but not before he begins to burn from the inside out. As you can see, the process is very painful, and it is slow to progress. He’ll be in pain for many hours, and it will only get worse as time goes on.”
Emily dropped to her knees, her hands shaking over Thaddeus, not sure what to do to help him. Finally, she just gently moved his head into her lap and wrapped herself around his huge shoulders.
Emily glared up at the aberration in front of her. “How can you do this to your own son?” she demanded, anger coursing through her body.
“Watch your mouth, human,” Rusalka hissed. She raised her hand again, and Thaddeus’s body bowed off the floor in torment.
“Stop it!” Emily yelled. “Stop it, you bitch!” She looked down at Thaddeus.
He met her eyes and formed the word “no” on his lips.
“Hmmm,” Rusalka murmured as she began to walk around the room. Emily watched her, transfixed on the fact that she could see through the vision in front of her to the kitchen, and yet it was causing so much pain to Thaddeus. How in the world could that be? It was just one more thing in Thaddeus’s world she didn’t fully understand.
“If you want it to stop,” she said, her eyes boring into Emily, “then you must give your life if you wish him to live. Do you give your life to save his?”
Emily felt as if her heart stopped. She had to die so that Thaddeus could live? What evil. Only pure evil would manufacture a situation such as this.
She looked down at Thaddeus. His eyes were bulging and red, with tears running out the edges. “No,” he whispered to her.
“Human,” the female vampire hissed. “Your answer must come forth now.”
Emily looked up at the creature, her heart gripped with fear, her mind in a rage. She glanced over at Brandon who was being held back by Mark. His wide green eyes were shrouded in terror, his small arm reaching out for her. She shut her eyes and tried to be logical.
If she gave her life for Thaddeus’s, she knew in her heart that Thaddeus would take care of Brandon as a father should. She also knew that he was far better equipped to raise Brandon than she was. But Brandon would be devastated by her death. She hated to do that to her son, and God knew she would miss him with a ferocious ache, but her link to Brandon’s world couldn’t be destroyed. Brandon needed Thaddeus. He needed to be a part of the world where he belonged. She couldn’t give him what he needed.
She hated that she had been put in the situation, forced to make such a cruel choice, and felt a seething hate toward the heinous creature who did this to the male she loved, to her son, to her. She gazed down at Thaddeus’s face. It was red and twisted in pain. She couldn’t bear to watch a minute longer, and as her and Thaddeus locked eyes, she made her decision, her resolve set.
“Don’t you dare …” he whispered through gritted teeth.
She opened her mouth to give to horrid creature an answer.
Chapter 32
She came out of nowhere. Her pure ethereal presence a stark contradiction to the evil vampire wrapped in black.
She stood almost six feet tall in a white gown that fell to the floor, her hair colored white for the snow of winter, green for the new growth of spring, red for the full blooms of summer, and a deep, rich brown for the transitions of fall. It cascaded around her shoulders and fell to her hips.
She was utterly beautiful. Her rose bud mouth smiled, her soft orange eyes glowing as she took in the scene. No one moved, and the room went silent except for Thaddeus’s gasps of pain. The being before them commanded the presence of all in the room. Even Thaddeus, contorting in the throngs of pain, had his eyes riveted to her.
“Mark,” she said, her voice sounding like wind chimes. “You serve us well.”
Emily looked up from Thaddeus to Mark. “Mark, please get the boys out of here!” she yelled.
Mark looked at the ghost of beauty in the middle of the room, and she nodded once. He smiled at her, revealing that he was utterly confident in the magnificent splendor who had sucked the air out of the room and was letting it back in at her own will.
As Mark left with the boys, the woman scanned the people before her. Thaddeus, in pain, yet ready to die for Emily. Emily, sick at her very heart’s core at the pain she had brought to Thaddeus, but the spirit in the white gown could detect anger simmering just below the surface in Emily. And that was good, the ethereal beauty thought, because if this earthly human were going to survive in the vampire world, then she would need to be strong. Showing anger in the face of total annihilation definitely showed strength.
She nodded once to Rusalka of The Council.
“What are you doing here?” the vampire hissed in her feral way.
The female is so unattractive, the woman thought, but The Creator had bequeathed the creature to this earth, and it was her job to watch over it, even if her preferential treatment was to erase the vile creature from complete existence. The generations to follow the horrible creature, though, they were a magnificent. It was rare for different species of the earth to mate, and even rarer for them to have such beautiful offspring.
“I have come forth to intervene in this travesty,” the woman chimed, “and you will now release the male from his pain.” Her gaze didn’t hold the female vampire’s. She expected and received compliance to her request. Her stare took all in the room in, skipping over the female vampire. Just because The Creator had made the creature didn’t mean she had to like it, nor look at it. She didn’t like crocodiles or snakes either, but she watched over them.
“The solider of the Dark Forces has broken the Behavior Doctrine of The Council. The female now knows of our species and he refuses to erase her memories. Both should be eliminated. These are the rules,” Rusalka said forcefully.
The ethereal woman looked back at the female vampire, unable to withhold the disgust from her face. “No,” she said, “the human woman holds the key to the future of your race, and I cannot allow you to destroy her, or yourselves.”
In fact, The Council’s rules and the actions taken to enforce the Behavior Doctrine had almost brought the vampire race to a tragic end. Because of the vampire nature being rigidly unbending and starkly stubborn, once decisions had been made and rules had been set, they had almost sent themselves into extinction.
She looked on as Emily helped Thaddeus to his feet. The woman protectively wrapped her arms around the male and looked as though she would never let go.
“Excuse me?” Rusalka hissed.
Such ugliness, even in the voice, thought the ethereal being, her eyes not wavering from the human. What in the world had The Creator been thinking when he established the species on Earth?
“You shall cease your conversation,” the woman said, holding her hand up in Rusalka’s general direction, her voice carrying throughout the room, echoing on the walls. She then floated over the floor toward Emily and Thaddeus.
As she stood in front of them, Emily stood a little taller, almost meeting her in the eye.
“Who are you?” Emily whispered. The unearthly figure threw her head back and laughed. Her laughter was silent, but it felt like a breeze blowing through the room. “Forgive me, child,” the celestial being said. “I am Mother Nature.”
She watched as Emily processed what she had said, and laughed again at the shock on her face.
Mother Nature moved forward and placed her hand on Thaddeus’s forehead. She took the leftovers of the pain into her own body and relief flooded his face. She then held her hands above Emily’s lower belly. She smiled broadly, please with what she felt, and her gaze met the human’s green eyes.
