Broken Heart 03 Because Your Vampire Said So (8 page)

The knife pressed against my throat. The demon’s poison burned my flesh.

“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop it now!”

To my utter shock, he removed the knife.

“What are you doing?” Durga snapped. “How dare you listen to a Turn-blood over your own mistress!”

“I … must … obey … her,” the demon managed between clenched teeth. “She … has … your … magic.”

Whoa. Wait. Her magic? Oh my God. I had gotten her power.

Wide-eyed, Durga stared at me. I wasn’t gonna give her the opportunity to do me in. Of course, she was a little busy holding off my would-be rescuers.

“Let me go, Andhaka,” I demanded.

He dropped me like a stone. Ji-mo-ney! It was working!

“Give me the knife.”

He handed the silver dagger to me, his eyes filled with hatred.

“Stop obeying that Turn-blood,” Durga screeched.

Power pulsed through me. It was as though an electrical switch had been flipped. I felt as if I were outside of my own body, observing a more powerful, ancient vampire.

I pressed the knife against Durga’s throat. “How do you like it?”

“Mistress!”

I pointed at Andhaka without looking at him. “Go to hell. Never return.”

Durga’s skin started to burn, but her eyes showed no fear. She was too much of an Ancient to reveal such a human emotion. “You’ve banished my favorite slave,” she said softly. “For that, you will pay.”

She jerked away from me. Before I could stop her, she sparkled away. Damn Ancients and their disappearing acts.

Gabriel reached me first. He yanked the knife out of my hand and tossed it away. He held me tightly, pressing kisses into my hair.

For a long moment, no one said anything.

Patrick was the first to break the eerie silence. “We should all get to the compound.”

Gabriel and I parted, holding hands as we turned to face the others.

“Even us outlaws?” asked Arin.

Patrick nodded.

“It’s safer for us here,” said Arin. “Prophecy or not, most vampires and lycans do not welcome us.”

“Patsy?”

I knew what Patrick was asking. It was time for me to go to the compound. My son was there. As much as Zerina hated those who ran this town and who ruled the vampires, she’d done the best thing for Wilson. I owed her.

“Patricia.” Gabriel imbued my name with anguish, with regret. I felt an answering pain in my own heart, but I quelled it. I wouldn’t fall into this trap again. He needed me? Well, I didn’t need him. I didn’t need anyone. I’d learned the hard way how to stand on my own two feet.

Gabriel released my hand and I moved away from him. Anguish shimmered in his eyes. My life had been ripped apart all over again, but this time there was no rebuilding it from the ashes.

“Please,” he murmured. “Please.”

Y’know, for a second there I almost caved. I actually entertained the idea of throwing myself into Gabriel’s arms and telling Patrick to take a flying leap. See, that’s what is so bad about lust. It makes you do stupid things.

“I can’t stay here, Gabriel. I can’t accept … that I’m part of some prophecy. That I’m destined to be with you. I run my own life.” Because I was a coward, I whirled around and walked to Patrick.

He sheathed his swords. I accepted his embrace and put my head against his shoulder, refusing to look back. He wrapped his arms around me.

Having your atoms dissembled and rearranged was a strange sensation. Y’know how when your leg falls asleep and you get that heavy prickling sensation? It’s like that, only a thousand times worse.

The minute we arrived wherever it was, I nearly fell over. We were in the main section of the new Broken Heart library, which was located in the compound. My first impression was endless shelves filled with lots of books. We were near a long wooden table obviously used for studying. Chairs were scattered around it randomly and books lay in careless stacks across its surface.

“Where’s my son?” I croaked.

“Mom!” He bolted down the aisle and I opened my arms to him. Wilson grabbed me and held me tightly. My shirt got wet with his tears, and man alive, I wanted to cry, too. Instead, I let Wilson weep for the both of us.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said. “I thought he was going to kill you.”

“I’m okay,” I said. “I’ll never abandon you, Wil. Never.”

He nodded. “I know, Mom.”

“Wil, honey,” said Jessica gently, “we need to talk to your mom.”

Wilson stopped hugging me, but as he turned around to face Jess, he shook his head. “No. I’m not leaving.”

“Just for a little while,” she said. “I’ll take you to where the other kids are staying. Tamara’s there.”

The mention of Tamara got Wilson’s interest. He had a sorta crush on her, even though she had a vampire-hunting boyfriend named Durriken. He only popped into town every now and again, though.

“Mom?”

I nodded to him. “You go on now. I’ll see you soon.”

He kissed my cheek, his eyes filled with apologies I knew he couldn’t say. It was okay, though. We’d hit a turning point in our relationship. I guess I could thank Gabriel for that blessing.

I looked at the others who waited around the table. Jessica had taken Wilson to the other kids, which left Patrick and Ruadan. His expression was grim. He pointed to a chair. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I want to do.” I dropped into the chair. “I take it that Koschei’s causing hell again.”

Patrick nodded. “You were right, Patsy. We set a trap. We let it be known the next Council meeting would be held here. We tried to get everyone into the compound.” He looked at me with brows raised. I shrugged. “And we bulked up our security. We believed we had prepared for the worst.”

“Apparently not,” offered Lorcan as he joined us at the long table. His wife, Eva, was with him. She smiled at me and waved. I was glad to see her. She was nice to talk to, even though she liked to use ten-dollar words. Jessica rounded the bookshelf and took her place next to Patrick.

“Lia and Durga decided to go to the dark side,” I said. “You didn’t count on that.”

“No,” admitted Ruadan. “We didn’t count on a lot of things.”

“Do they have the Taint?” I asked.

Patrick looked confused and Lorcan horrified. He shared a look with his wife, then asked, “The Taint?”

“No,” said Ruadan. “Impossible.”

“Does it matter?” I pressed. “We have the cure, right?”

At one of the many meetings the Consortium liked to convene, they had announced that a cure was imminent, thanks to Lorcan using himself as a guinea pig. Then they’d never released it or said another word about it. Probably because of the shape-shifting side effects. But I wanted to hear the truth from my friends.

“Royal lycan blood from live donors kills the Taint,” I said. Huh. I guess I had paid attention to Dr. Michaels’ dry and uninteresting lecture.

“That’s what we said, yes.” Lorcan grimaced. He glanced at his father and Ruadan nodded sharply.

“Based on our results with Faustus, we believed we had the cure within our grasp. We’ve been trying to synthetically replicate the original blood donations, but we haven’t been able to do so.”

“Whatever cure you cooked up relies on the real blood,” I surmised. Hey, not bad for a blonde, right? “And that means there’s no way to make enough antidotes for all the Tainted vampires—at least not quickly.”

Lorcan nodded. Ever since he and Eva hooked up, he’d ditched the all-black look and was more prone to smiling. Not that I spent all that much time with them. They liked books and getting into debates about word origins, which I found boring as hell.

“But there is also a side effect. A big one,” he said. “It’s why no one after Faustus was given the cure.”

I already knew this part, thanks to Gabriel. Anger pulsed through me. I’d been lied to by these people. It made no never mind to me if hybrids existed. If Gabriel had been ostracized because he shared their condition, I understood his rage.

Lorcan stepped away from the table and into the aisle. Before my astonished gaze, his body started to change. His clothes ripped and fell away in tatters as his human form crumpled and elongated and sprouted fur. After a few minutes, I was staring at his new shape.

He was a lycanthrope.

I stared at him. “Yeah, that’s a side effect, all right.”

Lorcan barked his agreement, then padded down the aisle out of sight. My gaze went to Eva. She’d had the Taint, too, and been cured. She nodded. “I can do it, too. The ability manifests within two months of the blood transfusion. “

“You can see why we’re reluctant to give the cure to every Tainted vampire,” said Lorcan as he rounded the tall bookshelf and smiled. I was relieved to see him clothed again.

“There’s a big difference when the blood is taken from live, royal lycans,” said Ruadan. “Dead blood from any lycan caused the mutations. “

After the first crazy—and now dead—leader of the Wraiths had experimented on Tainted vampires, he’d created a creature caught between vampire and lycanthrope—a big, hairy monster that walked on two legs and still had the vampire disease.

“Well, if Lor and Eva can do it and nobody’s trying to kill them,” I said, “then why is Gabriel running for his life?” My gaze shifted to Patrick. “Why can’t we offer him and his friends protection? “

“Those are excellent questions,” said Eva. Her gaze bounced between the men. Lorcan flinched. Apparently, his wife had already brought up this concern. “Gabriel was born a lycan-vampire. He has the capabilities of lycanthropes and vampires, without the physiological repercussions.”

“You mean they’re not undead, but can still do what we can do?”

She nodded. “I’ve been researching it for months. Once I started shifting, I wanted to know everything I could.”

“A stóirín,” said Lorcan in a low voice. “We’ve already discussed this issue.”

“No, I’ve talked about it and you stubbornly refuse to consider that I’m right.” Eva glowered at him. I saw Eva’s gaze on me. “What was Gabriel like?”

That was a loaded question I couldn’t begin to answer. Handsome. Sexy. Murderous.

“I think the loup de sang may be the solution to the lycanthrope’s fertility problems,” she said.

“Eva—”

“No!” She moved away from her husband and walked to where I was sitting on the edge of the table. “Patsy’s in this up to her neck. She deserves to know.”

From the pile on the table, she chose a large, thick book and opened it. When she found the section she wanted, she pointed to the top of the elaborately decorated page.

Hell, I mostly read magazines, not having the patience or the attention span for a whole novel. This piece of literature seemed important (and short), so I leaned over and read it.

Legend of the Moon Goddess and Her Sons

Long ago when men still believed in magic and honored its Makers, the Goddess of the Moon often visited Earth. Of all Earth’s creatures, she loved wolves the best, and to them she gave her blessings and protections.

The Goddess wanted children, so she took her wolf form and mated with an alpha named Tark. He was a fierce warrior, a loyal protector, and a skilled hunter.

These were the qualities she wanted for her sons.

Under the full moon, she gave birth to twins. The firstborn was a wolf of black. And the second, a wolf of gray.

Her older son had the ability to turn from human to wolf. However, her second born could assume his wolf nature only on the night of the full moon.

The Black Wolf became a warrior even greater than his own father. He became a loyal protector of his kind; his battle prowess was legendary.

The Gray Wolf became a hunter so skilled that he could use any manner of weapon and he could track any of Earth’s animals. He learned to hide his true nature so that he could live among humans.

The Moon Goddess’ sons grew lonely. They wanted wives and families. The Goddess offered her firstborn a beautiful female wolf, which she gave the ability to shift into human.

To her second born, the Goddess gave a beautiful female human. Since her son assumed his wolf form only during the full moon, she gave his mate the same ability.

This is the story told from father to son, mother to daughter, of the lycanthrope heritage. Some are full-bloods, shifting whenever they need, and others, the Roma, shifting only on the full moon.

“The full-bloods are dying out, Patsy,” said Eva. “Damian did something no full-blood had done before—he mated with a Roma. Their children were the hope that Black Wolf’s line wouldn’t die. But after his wife was killed, he discovered that the babies were mutated. He forbade any more unions between full-bloods and the Roma.”

It took me a while to assimilate all this information. I still felt like shit and now, I also felt horribly sad. I began to understand why Damian and other lycans loathed Gabriel. He represented their greatest fears. He wasn’t lycan or vampire, but both. Eva was right. Gabriel might very well be the answer to their infertility problems.

My world started to spin. Closing my eyes made it worse, so I opened them again and pressed a hand against my roiling stomach.

“Does a wolfie marriage work like a vampire’s? “ I asked. “You know, is there a time limit? And if one dies, does the other one share the same fate?”

“Most lycans mate for life. If their spouse dies, they will not. Some mate again. Others live out the remainder of their lives alone,” she said. “But one thing remains the same—the full-bloods aren’t reproducing. Even if a female lycan becomes pregnant, she will be lucky if she has two babies. And of those, she will be lucky if even one lives to its first year. Damian believed that all hope for the werewolves was lost … which is why he courted a Roma bride.”

“The prophecy says something about the dual-natured,” I said. “This new ruler is supposed to save the wolfies? Maybe Gabriel is part of the prophecy.”

“Except that he’s not,” interrupted Ruadan. “The oracle remained vague about how she will help the lycans, but it certainly gives our guardians reason to help the prophecy along.”

Jessica returned. The others started talking amongst themselves and I zoned out. This was the longest night ever.

“Enough,” said Ruadan, ending whatever debate was raging.

“Dad …” This entreaty came from Patrick. “There are ten Broken Heart Turn-bloods.”

“Nine, since the oracle pinpointed a female.”

Patrick’s gaze flicked to me. “Arin said that Patsy was the foretold ruler.”

“What?” Ruadan studied me, frowning. He looked as disbelieving as his son had earlier. Well, wasn’t that a pip? Patrick had thrown me to the wolves, so to speak, to wrest his wife out of their teeth. Nice.

“Not that I’m interested in being your leader, but it’d be nice if you wouldn’t act that surprised at the possibility.”

Patrick looked at Jessica. I’d been told that bound vampires could speak to each other telepathically. Jessica told me once that Patrick and Lorcan could talk to each other that way, too.

“She can do the fire thing,” said Jessica.

“And the demon thing,” added Patrick. “Andhaka released her just because she demanded it.”

Ruadan stared at me, his silver eyes filled with secrets. “Is it true you can wield fire?”

He put his hand on my shoulder and I lifted mine to cover his. The moment my skin touched his, a jolt of electric heat rolled right through me. The power of the surge nearly knocked me out of the chair.

Strangely, Ruadan didn’t seem to notice.

The silence was thick. I looked around at them all and saw the shock and concern in each of their faces.

“I just did it one time,” I said, feeling defensive.

“Try again,” Ruadan said.

“No!” Lorcan and Eva shouted together. They looked sheepish, but Eva gestured at the bookshelves. “It’s too flammable in here.”

“I’ll make sure the fire is extinguished,” said a new voice. The man was dressed in Armani. The brown pinstripe enhanced his olive skin and amber eyes. He had the tall, lean build of a runner. He wore his curly brown hair short, which complemented his classic Italian looks. A platinum Rolex gleamed from his left wrist. The gold ring on his right pinky featured a two-carat, square-cut diamond. In one hand he held a large glass.

He twitched his fingers over it and two strands of water emerged. He created a square, a circle, and a triangle. Then the water splashed back into its cup.

“So your Family power is making water dance?” I asked.

“His name is Velthur,” said Ruadan. “He’s one of the seven Ancients.”

Velthur grinned. “I can do a lot more, Patsy. If it’s liquid, then I can control it.”

“So, show us your skills,” said Jessica.

I really didn’t want to try starting a fire or calling a demon. I wished I could do the flash-outta -here thing or even fly. I closed my eyes, trying to gain some perspective. Yeah, wouldn’t it be great if I could just float away?

“Um … Patsy?”

Jessica’s voice sounded farther away. I opened my eyes and found myself looking down at my friends. I was floating and I was close to the ceiling. “Hey! How do I get down?”

“You think about it,” called up Ruadan.

I was too panicked to think about anything but falling. So, that’s what I did. I screamed and flailed my arms. Luckily for me, Ruadan was faster, and he managed to grab hold of me before I splattered all over the library floor.

I returned to my chair and held on to the armrests. Maybe flying wasn’t such a great Family power.

“How did you do that?” asked Ruadan.

“You must’ve transferred your power when you touched me or I touched you.”

“You touched Lia and Durga, too?”

I nodded. “I felt this … electrical surge.”

“She has four Family powers,” said Velthur. He walked to me, leaned down, and gripped my shoulder. Zip-zap. Heat raced through me and once again, I felt as if I’d been electrified.

Velthur stepped back and held out the cup of water. “Go on,” he said.

“Go on and what?”

“Make the water dance.”

If thought was the key to controlling the powers of the Ancients, then I should be able to think about the water taking shape, and it would. I looked at the cup and imagined the water inside rising up and forming a heart.

The liquid wiggled up like a clear snake, then swooped into the heart. It shimmered there, until I released it. The water splashed back into the cup.

“Holy shit,” said Jessica. She looked as shocked as I felt. “Patsy’s the freaking queen.”

“Whoopee,” I said.

“Atta girl.” Ruadan patted me on the shoulder.

“We should get to the shelter,” said Lorcan. “It’ll be dawn soon.”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll stay here a few minutes, “ I said. I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around the truth. I was the new ruler. And if I was the queen of the Vedere prophecy, then the outlaw was surely Gabriel.

“That’s either faith or bullshit,” I muttered.

“The compound is shielded by Wiccan spells,” said Patrick, “but we don’t know how long they’ll last against an extended attack. There are only three entrances into the shelter.”

I switched my attention to Patrick. Yeah. Why give an enemy too many opportunities to breach security?

“Across the courtyard are the Consortium’s headquarters. Get to the basement. Go to the far back wall. You’ll see what to do next.”

“Okay dokay.”

Everyone told me good-bye, and I was glad to be alone. I really did want some time to think and figure out what to do next. With my home and business gone, it was probably time to admit I needed to move into the compound. As much as I hated what it represented, it would be the safest place for my son.

Wait a minute. What was I thinking? The leaders of the vampires and lycans weren’t gonna just let me waltz in and take over. Maybe Broken Heart wasn’t any safer for me and Wil than it was for Gabriel. Jeez! Wasn’t there an instruction manual or something?

“Patricia.”

Shocked, I looked up into the gold gaze of Gabriel. It was as if by thinking about him, I had conjured him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.” He walked to me and knelt by my chair, his hands resting on my thighs. “The compound is not without its weaknesses. “ His fingers stroked my jeans. “Are you all right?”

“Dandy.” The urge to control myself didn’t last long. I rose from my chair, shoving him over. He fell on his ass, staring up at me. Then he jumped to his feet.

His gold eyes flashed with anger and he growled. I went lust-hot at that low rumble. Oo-wee! I wanted to jump his bones. Just rip off his clothes and lick him. He saw that need in me, too.

“I’m just me, Patsy the hair dresser.” I wanted to believe it, I really did.

I stalked toward Gabriel with every intention of walloping him. Why had he followed me here? I was furious with him. With myself. Mostly, I was pissed off because I wanted to be wanted for me. Just for me. Not for what I could do or what I represented. Admitting that to myself was hard. Sometimes, the truth hurt. A lot.

I got close enough to poke him in the chest. Gabriel leaned forward and I swore he was sniffing me. “You are glorious when you’re mad,” he whispered. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me snug against him. “I want you,” he said in a low voice. “I can’t stop thinking about you. You’re in my head, in my heart.”

His words weren’t slick or charming. They were raw, real. If I’d had a working heart, it would’ve been trying to hammer out of my chest.

“Gabriel …”

He kissed me. More like his lips conquered mine. I wrested my hands out of his grip and wrapped my arms around his neck. His tongue thrust inside my mouth, and electric lust zapped me.

God, the man made me hot.

He pulled away, his gaze dark with desire. “Admit that you’re mine.”