Alliances (Guardians of White Light, #1) (5 page)

She handed him his bag of blood. “The name’s Jenna.

“All right,
Jenna
.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Mathias and Jenna climbed the stone steps to the entrance of his once glorious home.

“Wow. Looks like you've done pretty well for yourself,“ Jenna commented as her eyes wandered over the property.

A magnificent stone-built Elizabethan mansion towered before her. Including its gardens, it covered more than four acres of land. Unlike many grand homes of the Tudor era, with glass being a luxury and, thus, a statement of wealth and power, there were very few windows. She looked closer and realized that they had been overlaid with brick—a vampire’s necessary modification to such a home. Windows were not friends to the undead.

“It was another life,“ he said somberly as he reached for the brass handles of the heavy oak doors. He pulled back abruptly, lowering his voice to a whisper. “They’re open.”

Jenna joined him by the doors. “You haven't lived here for years. Dozens of squatters could have come and gone in that time.“

“Perhaps,” he said, unsure.

Jenna registered his uncertainty. “You think Immortalia soldiers are here?“

Mathias’ brow furrowed. “I’m not sure.” He slowly slid his broadsword from its sheath at his hip. “It’s been a while since…I’ve been out in the world,” he admitted to her. He was a little rusty; something that he needed to overcome as soon as possible or they’d both be in trouble. He cautiously stepped inside.

Jenna followed him into the massive lobby. It was dark, but she could see just fine. She was used to it. Off to the left was the start of a winding staircase that led up to God knew how many more rooms. She looked down at the floor.
Marble
. Her new ally’s wealth obviously knew no limits. But then, he’d had centuries to amass such a fortune.

Instinctively, she withdrew a stake.

Mathias felt it without needing to see it. An involuntary shiver ran through him. “Put that away.”

“I don’t think so.” There was no way she was going to disarm when there could be intruders—hostile vampires—in the building.

“I don’t want you wielding a stake while you’re walking behind me.”

“I’m holding it low, nowhere near your heart.”

“Holster it for now.”

“No.”

“How much time do you need to draw?”

“I like to have it handy.”

A rush of ice-cold air hit her like a hurricane force wind and suddenly he stood before her, his hand gripping the stake she held. He glowered down at her and a low throaty growl spoke a warning.

“Do you have any idea how much these things hurt?”

“Strangely, no. I’ve never let a vamp stab me with my own stake,” she shot back, looking up at him and matching his agitated glare.

“It takes so much power to wound with this thing. It’s wood and it can only take so much pressure before it breaks. That means, when you drive it deep enough to wound, it
splinters.
You have no idea how agonizing it is to extract every tiny fucking sliver of wood from a wound. And, if you don’t get all of it, the wound won’t heal.”

“Speaking from experience, are you?” she asked, still not prepared to relinquish her primo weapon.

He refused to answer. Instead, she watched as he tightened his grip on the stake, exerting so much pressure that his hand began to shake. She watched in horror as the durable wood started to crack. And then it crumbled in his hands like flour through a sieve.
What the hell?

She let out an involuntary gasp and stepped back.

“Are we clear now, slayer?” he asked, dusting off his hands in front of her.

He watched her move to speak, but the words didn’t come. She just stared at him, incredulous. He stepped into her and his hand brushed her thigh. He felt her flinch at his touch. Their eyes met and the unsettling sensation that had assaulted him back in the parking lot resurfaced.
Touch her
, it beseeched him. There was such power to it, such heat that it arrested his movements for a few seconds. He felt it trying to violate his rational thought. He fought to regain control even as he leaned into her.
Stop!
The mission!
He summoned every ounce of sanity that he could to break the spell. He looked away and gripped the knife in the holster at her thigh. He withdrew it abruptly and placed it in her hand.

He moved away quickly and studied her.
What had just happened
? He cleared his throat. “Wield that instead,” he instructed, reemploying his brusque demeanor.

She glared at him and gritted her teeth to suppress her ire. “Fine.” She didn’t take orders from anyone. He was trying her patience.

He grunted with impatience and turned back around, focusing on the task at hand. They made their way into the next room.

And what a room it was. Huge intricately carved bookcases lined every wall of the massive space. A small bar sat off to the left and a large seating area in front of a fireplace took up the rest of the room. White leather wraparound couches and matching over-sized chairs surrounded a rectangular marble coffee table. She noticed two tall windows at the rear of the room. She looked closer and caught sight of a doorknob, realizing quickly that they were patio doors. Heavy cream curtains covered them, hiding the gardens beyond.

Mathias’ eyes were drawn to the clothing and blankets thrown across the back of one of the couches and the glasses of clotted blood atop the coffee table. He drew closer and reached for a red silk robe that lay crumpled on the floor.

“I warned her not to come here,” he muttered bitterly.

“Who?” Jenna asked, as she continued to scan the room.

“Gabriella.”

“Girlfriend?” she asked over her shoulder as her attention was drawn to something over by the patio doors.
Ashes.

Mathias scoffed at her assumption.

She looked back at him for a second. “I see. One of your groupies.”

Mathias shook his head. Did she have to keep using that terminology?

“Just company.”

“You don’t have to defend yourself to me.”

Mathias caught himself. Was that what he was doing? Defending himself? Gabriella wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the armory. Perhaps he didn’t want a reputation of screwing bimbos plaguing him. Yeah, that had to be it.

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by Jenna calling him to her. He moved to where she knelt over a pile of ashes. She held a folded note.

“Looks like this is what’s left of your girl,” she said, handing him the note.

Mathias eyed the ashes and shook his head. “She was a fool.”

He opened the note and read:

Brother,

The youngling has revealed your true whereabouts. Stand down. Should you fail to do so, Immortalia will come at you full force. No mercy for my enemies. The choice is yours.

S.

Mathias balled up the note and tossed it into the fireplace.

Jenna climbed to her feet. “He doesn’t want you dead,” she said, surprised. “The two of you must have been close.
Brother?
”

Mathias nodded. “Brothers in arms until he created Immortalia. And then…”

Jenna looked at him expectantly. “Go on.”

“We should get going,” he said, scanning the area anxiously. “He has spies everywhere.”

“We will. After you tell me.”

Mathias heaved a heavy sigh and looked down at the dirtied marble floor. “He killed my wife.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know vampires
married
.”

“They don’t.”

Oh my God.
“She was human?”

Mathias cleared his throat and looked at her. “Yes.”

“Human?”

He bristled with annoyance. He’d forgotten how black and white slayers were. They couldn’t comprehend any in between. Vampires were one thing, humans another. They did not mix, at least in their eyes. The battle lines were clear. The fact that this one had initiated their alliance had caused him to assume that she did not see things so narrowly. But her reaction to what he’d just told her seemed to negate that theory.

“It just happened. I loved her. She loved me. It didn’t matter what we were. It never did.”

“Is that why Silas killed her?”

“No. He didn’t approve, but it wasn’t enough reason for him to murder her.”

“Then, what?”

Their eyes met and he couldn’t look away. “There was a child.”

He heard her breath catch in her throat, her eyes widen with disbelief. She adjusted her weight and stared at him, dumbfounded. “That’s impossible. How?”

“She was a scientist. Her research explored the inner workings of the supernatural, chiefly, vampires. It was how we met. Silas had gotten word that a human was meddling with the vampire condition. He was worried that the findings could compromise our species. I tracked her down and went there to—”

“Kill her?” Jenna finished for him.

“Yes,
but
I changed my mind. We became involved.”

“And she discovered a way for you to conceive a child?”

“We kept it a secret, but one of her lab techs betrayed us. He went to Silas. One night, I returned home and found her…ripped apart.”

“Can you still…reproduce?”

He shook his head with bitter sadness. “Not without her research.”

Jenna ran her hands through her hair, disorientated by the information he’d revealed. It was far beyond her vampire expertise. There was so much she didn’t know, even after so many years of hunting them. She knew how to kill her enemy, but that was all.

“How is he still alive?” she asked after a few moments of excruciating silence. “You never tried to take him out for what he did?”

“Once.”

“And?”

“I failed.”

“Your reputation is infamous. Your abilities in battle are legend,” she argued, not buying his explanation.

“I’d been retired from that life for decades. I was no longer the warrior that you’ve read about. I’d lost my thirst for the fight, for spilled blood. My rage was the only thing that fueled my attack that day. But it only got me so far. I managed to escape and Silas spent the next few years searching for me. It’s only been a short time since he gave up—his obsession with subjugating the human world saw to that. It’s all he sees now.”

“I’m sorry about your wife and child,” she told him sincerely.

He shook his head, willing away the painful memories that had surfaced. He didn’t want her pity. He didn’t want anyone’s.

“Let’s head to the armory,” he said, brushing past her towards the basement stairs at the far side of the room.

As soon as he reached them, a rush of adrenaline hit, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand at attention. He whirled around. Jenna had felt it to; she readied her knife, scanning the room. In a fraction of a second it had left her hand. It ripped through the air so fast, that
he
could barely even see it. It plunged into the neck of the vampire that had been preparing to jump her from behind.

He fell back and gripped his neck, choking as he fought to pull out the blade that was embedded so deeply.

Mathias watched as she just reacted without even checking her surroundings and rushed the attacker. Where was her defense? His senses screamed at him and he watched her stiffen a second later as she felt what he did.
Another vampire.
She was in an exposed position.

Jenna spun around, drawing a stake as she went and bracing herself for a brutal attack that she could feel was almost upon her. She was going to have to take a hit or two.

But then the blade of a sword blocked her view.
Mathias
. He swung his broadsword at her attacker in a seemingly effortless motion, decapitating the second vampire in a split second. He eyed Jenna, shaking his head with disapproval. She stared at him, floored that not even a second had passed from her sensing the attack to him taking him out. He was faster than any vampire she had ever crossed paths with.

“Know your surroundings,” he chastised her. “There’s rarely just one. You—” He caught sight of the first attacker struggling to his feet. He pushed past Jenna, making no apologies and gripped the vampire by the collar of his leather hooded trench coat and hauled him off the ground. “Are there more?” he demanded in a low throaty rumble.

He didn’t answer.

Mathias adjusted his grip, digging his fingers into his wounded neck.

The soldier seethed with agony. He looked past Mathias, his eyes drawn to Jenna, “Slayer!” he hissed.

Mathias clocked him across the side of the face with his free arm. The soldier groaned as his head snapped to the side.

“Answer. Now,“ Mathias ordered.