Blood Destiny (18 page)

"Well, that was brilliant," Jocelyn quipped.

"Positively," Colette agreed.

Jocelyn sat forward then, encouraging Colette to continue.

Colette looked out the window and sighed. "Well, at the time, the ruler of their people had two twin sons—Jadon and Jaegar. The legend tells that Jadon tried to stop the sacrifices, but Jaegar had become mad with blood-lust, and he refused to give in to his brother's pleas. Eventually, both men were severely punished...cursed by the blood of the dead—"

"The...blood...of the dead?" Jocelyn raised an eyebrow.

Colette nodded. "That's how they became vampires—

cursed with their own blood-lust—forced to feed on blood to survive."

Jocelyn sighed. "This is so not real." She forced herself to focus. "Go on..."

Colette patted her hand. "It was the Curse that stripped them of their ability to produce female children. And it was also the Curse that demanded a perpetual atonement for their sins: the repeated offering of a son as atonement for a daughter."

Jocelyn put her hand to her chest; she was beginning to feel queasy. Something deep in her gut told her to stop the 168

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woman from speaking...stop her before she went too far.

Jocelyn knew that her own fate lay somewhere at the end of this road, and it was like racing forward at a hundred miles per hour through a dark tunnel—a horrible collision awaited at the end.

"Jocelyn?"

She heard Colette calling her name as if from a distance.

"Are you still with me?"

Jocelyn caught a sudden chill and looked back at Colette.

"Yeah, I'm with you. So, how does the...sacrifice...work?" She almost choked on the word.

Colette didn't veer from the path. "A vampire's children are always born in sets of twins," she explained. "Two boys at a time. And out of the first set, one must be...handed over...to the ancient spirits. For the sons of Jaegar, it's the first-born.

For the sons of Jadon, it's the Dark One."

Jocelyn shook her head in disbelief and rubbed her temples. "I don't understand," she whispered.

Colette sighed and her eyebrows creased in concentration.

"The Dark Ones...like Valentine," she began, "they're the descendants of Jaegar, and their twin sons are both born purely evil...everything you ever feared a vampire to be...and then some. But Kristos and Nathaniel are the descendants of Jadon, and parts of the curse were lifted for them. They also have twins, just like the Dark Ones, but only one of the infants is cursed...evil. The other is of the light."

Jocelyn rested her forehead in her hands; they were racing through the tunnel at warp speed now, and the collision was approaching fast. Bracing herself, she chose to get it over 169

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with: "What exactly are you saying, Colette? Please, just cut to the chase."

Colette remained steady as always. She looked Jocelyn directly in the eyes, refusing to blink. "The Blood Moon signals the beginning of the Omen, Jocelyn—the start of the required sacrifice. It only happens when one of the descendants of Jadon has found his destiny, the woman he's meant to fulfill the Curse with. Before the Blood Moon has passed, she will give him twin sons—one born of light, the other of darkness.

And the Dark One must be sacrificed."

And there it was—a five-car pileup—shrapnel flying everywhere.

Jocelyn recoiled, too repulsed to speak. It took a moment for Colette's words to fully sink in, but once they did, she had heard more than enough.

She leapt from her seat, beads of sweat beginning to form in the alcove between her breasts, her shoulders and arms visibly shaking, as something between disbelief and panic began to take her over.

"Then it is the same!" she yelled. "You lied to me! And so did he!"

Colette looked shocked.

"He wants me to breed him a sacrifice. Just like that...thing...in the cave! Exactly like that monster!" She was hysterical now, her voice betraying her panic.

Colette shook her head adamantly. She jumped up, braced Jocelyn by the shoulders, and shook her gently. "Calm down, Jocelyn. If you don't stop screaming, you're going to wake 170

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Nathaniel, and then you'll be having this conversation with him instead of me. Is that what you want?"

The look in the woman's eyes told Jocelyn that Colette was far more afraid of having to face Nathaniel herself than having Jocelyn awaken him.

Colette lowered her voice and loosened her grip on Jocelyn's shoulders. "You are so wrong, Jocelyn. I did not explain this very well, and that's my fault. I apologize. But trust me; Nathaniel doesn't want you...to breed. He wants you because he's already lived an eternity alone. He wants you because in all of his centuries of walking the earth, he's never had anything or anyone to call his own. He wants you because you are his destiny...his partner...the other half of his soul. And yes, you can give him what no one else in the universe ever can or will: a son to love, a family to cherish, and a future worth living. He wants you to love. And he needs you...to live." Colette's voice was thick with conviction.

Jocelyn gulped. "What do you mean, he needs you to live?"

Colette sighed, looking suddenly morose. "Jocelyn, Nathaniel has thirty-days from the night he saw the Blood Moon to hand over the dark child, or he'll be destroyed and no one can stop it or save him. And believe me; his death will make what Dalia went through look like a walk in the park.

It's the Blood Curse. Their legacy. Our legacy. It can't be changed."

Jocelyn's chest constricted and her heart ached. All of a sudden, she couldn't catch her breath. "Is that what happened to Nathaniel's brother?" she asked, her mind 171

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beginning to connect the dots. "He said he was burying his brother yesterday...and that woman in the chamber...she was his brother's wife...." Understanding dawned in her heart like the sun rising over the horizon. "Oh, God."

She sank back down into the seat cushion, the weight on her chest unbearable. "Oh, God."

"Jocelyn? Are you okay?" Colette asked.

Jocelyn's head was spinning. And she was certain she was going to faint: a rare—if not completely unheard of—

occurrence for her. It was simply all too much to take in at once. She was expected to have a child with a man she didn't know. A vampire. No, two children! And to sacrifice one of them, just turn him over to be taken by that evil...mist...she had seen in the cavern. That aberration. And what was all this business about thirty-days?

"Thirty-days!" she exclaimed, as the words finally reached her brain. "That's impossible! Even if I were crazy enough to...no one can have a child in thirty days."

Colette bit her bottom lip; this time, she remained silent.

"What now?" Jocelyn demanded.

Colette shook her head.

"Don't you dare!" Jocelyn shrieked. "You've already told me this much, now tell me the rest!"

"It would be better if Nathaniel—"

"Nathaniel's not a woman!" Jocelyn shouted. She was beginning to lose control, her voice ripe with anger.

"Nathaniel doesn't have to give birth to anything! Colette, what aren't you telling me?"

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Colette grabbed Jocelyn by her forearms this time, pleading with her eyes. "Please calm down, Jocelyn." She looked around nervously. "Nathaniel's going to be so angry with me."

"To hell with him!"

"Jocelyn." Colette spoke with a deliberately soothing voice, the kind one might use to comfort a cornered animal. "Calm down. You're worrying about the wrong things. Trust me; you don't have to give birth to anything. In fact, of all the things you need to come to grips with, that isn't one of them. That part is easy."

"Easy?" Jocelyn was incredulous.

Colette sighed. "When you decide...if you decide...to have children with Nathaniel, the entire process will only take forty-eight hours."

Jocelyn was beyond dazed now; she was positively stupefied. And she fully expected someone to wake her up any moment from the bizarre, fantastical dream she was having. She covered her stomach in an unconscious gesture of protection. "How is that possible?" She stammered the words, terror beginning to take a real grip on her mind.

"Sit down, Jocelyn," Colette ordered, her own face visibly pale.

Jocelyn sat.

"First of all; yes, from the time you decide to have the children, the entire process takes forty-eight hours, but it is not a scary or painful event. Nathaniel will put you in a dream-like state—almost as if you're sleeping—so you won't 173

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feel any of the rapid changes in your body. You will not be frightened or overwhelmed—"

Jocelyn held up her hand in a stop gesture.

That was enough.

She could hear no more.

All at once, Colette became stern and persistent. "In terms of giving birth, you won't. It's that simple." Her voice was firm. "You have seen his power, Jocelyn. You know what he can do—what his kind can do. Among other things, they can dissolve their physical forms, walk through walls, pass through solid objects—that kind of thing. When the time comes, Nathaniel will call your children from you. You won't give birth to your sons, Jocelyn; they will simply dematerialize and pass through the womb when they're summoned by their father. You won't even feel it."

Jocelyn stared up at her like a wide-eyed child listening to an adult weave a fanciful tale about magical creatures and things that go bump in the night. She turned her head to the side and just let the words wash over her like a river of absurdity, gently flowing in one ear...and right back out the other...as it made its way back into the ever expanding land of make-believe, taking all common sense and adult reasoning with it.

She looked around the room, waiting for someone in a sterile white uniform to enter through a back door and haul her off...but not before giving her a heavy injection of some kind of sedative. She pinched herself to make sure she was actually awake: yes, she was still conscious—she could definitely use a sedative.

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"Jocelyn..." Colette whispered, her eyes soft with compassion.

Jocelyn blinked as if all at once re-emerging in the room.

"I'm human, Colette: a different species. How can I have a child with...one of them?"

Colette gently shook her head. "That's enough for one day, Jocelyn. I think—"

"That's right," Jocelyn went on, "you're not human anymore, are you?"

Colette looked away.

"Are you?"

"No."

"Did you...change...before or after you had Kristos's children?"

Colette closed her eyes. "Before." The word was a mere whisper.

Jocelyn sank back in the seat. "Nathaniel has to make me like he is, then?"

"It's the only way," Colette confirmed.

Jocelyn laughed then, almost hysterically. "Oh my God, he's going to turn me into a vampire." She wiped a tear from her eye and gripped her sides, trying to contain her sudden amusement. "Okay, let's see if I have this straight: By the end of the bloody moon, I'm going to dream my way through a two-day pregnancy, and then Nathaniel's going to call our unborn children.... How? On the cell phone?" She cackled like a hyena. "Hey—I know—maybe he could just text them with a BlackBerry." Her voice was rising along with her hysterical laughter. "And all of this so we can pay back a bunch of dead, 175

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pissed-off women before we fly off into the sunset as unholy, blood-sucking creatures of the night—complete with fangs and a bushel of undead children. Have I got that right, Colette?" She slumped over on the bench, clasped her hands over her stomach, and laughed until her sides hurt.

Colette frowned. "Not a bushel of undead children, Jocelyn.

Beautiful, perfect, wonderful children...if you want them.

Children who won't ever get sick or die. Children who will love and honor you probably more than your human children would have...certainly longer...since you will also be immortal. And yes, you will have to go through a short pregnancy and a completely painless childbirth.

"And when it's all said and done, you will have saved the life of an incredible male...one who would willingly die for you. One who will never lie to you or cheat on you. One who will love your children with all of his heart—live for your happiness—and probably save you right back. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty hysterical."

Jocelyn watched as Colette sat back down on the bench beside her. She appeared more frustrated than angry as they both stared out the window in silence. After some time had passed, she spoke again: "Tell me, Jocelyn...do I look like an unholy, blood-sucking creature of the night to you?"

Jocelyn froze then. Uncertain. And a little ashamed.

Colette turned away and walked over to a small built-in row of shelves just outside of a compact butler's pantry. She picked up a delicate, beautifully-framed oil on panel painting and brought it back to the nook.

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"This is Keitaro and Serena Silivasi with their five children," she said, handing the painting to Jocelyn.

"Nathaniel's parents...his family. It was done almost four-hundred and eighty years ago." She pointed to a tall, handsome young man with a brilliant smile and eyes that lit up the canvas; he was standing on the far left side of the painting. "And this is Shelby Silivasi, Nathaniel's youngest brother. The one who was buried yesterday." She took a deep, steadying breath. "Shelby was the kindest person I've ever met—human or vampire. He taught snowboarding at the ski resort, and during his time off, he gave private lessons to kids with disabilities. I don't think I ever saw Shelby without a smile on his face or a kind word on his tongue." She sighed then. "And he had all of eternity ahead of him...." She paused. "Just hold onto this, Jocelyn. Look at it for a while.