Crimson Dawn (3 page)

In our early seventies, society threw Tristan and me together because of the social standings of both of our families. I was the media's darling, Vampire Princess, and he was the rebellious youngest grandson of the region's Master Vampire. Our fathers thought it would be good PR for both families.

For twenty years, I played the dutiful daughter and stayed with Tristan no matter what type of trouble he got himself into repeatedly. After a while, I began joining him on his escapades. Blood orgies that went overboard and ended up in donor deaths, missing people wherever we went on holidays, the blood rape of lower Vampires, were normal occurrences during the course of our relationship. I overlooked them all because I had grown to love him and some small part of me believed I could change him. I thought if I stayed by his side, some of my decency would rub off on him. Instead, it was the complete opposite.

The final straw came on the night of our engagement party. After all our family and friends had gone home, Tristan brought me a wine glass of blood and a gift box to celebrate. He didn't tell me the blood was from a Human baby, a baby that he had gift-wrapped and given to me so I could finish it later. It broke my heart and took me to a level of self-loathing I never thought possible.

The next day I had all of my things moved into one of the guest homes on my family's estate, and I went out of my way to make sure we never crossed paths again. To my surprise, my father backed me in my decision. Tristan never tried to win me back. That was six years ago. The time I spent with him remains the greatest mistake of my life.

I was so lost in thought I didn't hear Irulan enter my room. Her hands on my shoulders brought me out of my daze. "I thought you were going to sleep.” Irulan looked over my shoulders, reached down, and snatched the file away from me. "You've got plenty of time to deal with this when you get to work," she turned me around in my chair. The look on her face was extremely serious, "You're too close to this mark, Valeria. I want you to turn it down."

Irulan was the only person outside of Valerian that knew the things I'd done while I was with Tristan. I expected her to try to stop me. "Ire you know I can't do that. I took this job knowing that, sooner or later, Tristan's antics were going to cause us to cross paths. I can't run away from this.” I stood and walked over to my bed. No, we don't sleep in coffins...anymore. Maybe playing with the pillows would distract her and she'd drop the subject.

"You can't dismiss me that easily. I was there - remember? I helped pick up the pieces that put Val back together again."

I nodded in agreement, "Yes you did. So you, of all people, should know how important this could be for me. It'll give me closure, Irulan."

She flipped through the folder, "There are things you don't know about Tristan, things your father doesn't have in this neat little file. There've been rumors among the Fae.” She tossed the folder in the trash, "If even half of them are true, then he's changed, Val. He's even more twisted and sadistic, but now he's stronger. He's grown powerful in ways I can't even begin to describe.”

Somehow, that didn't surprise me. Tristan was always power hungry, most vamps were. Irulan cupped my face in her hands and looked into my eyes with her own full of emotions that I couldn't quite read. "If he hurts you again, I'll kill him, Val. don't make me a murderer.” Irulan's bright green eyes began to glow with power. "I don't want you near him. You’re going to have to get closure some other way."

If my assignment was Tristan as a mark, nothing was going to stop me from doing my job. "Innocent people are either dying or being turned against their will. You’re asking me to ignore that. Come on, Ire, you know me better than that."

Irulan dropped her hands, "That's what I thought.”. She turned, headed for the door, and then stopped. She spoke to me with her back turned, "I've been your best friend since you were a child, Val. I've stood by watching you make mistakes knowing that’s what was happening, but I let you make them because that was the only way you would learn - the only way you would become a woman."

Irulan turned to face me with tears in her eyes, "Tristan was different, I knew the moment your father announced his plans for the two of you that he had no place in your life, but I kept my reservations to myself. I kept quiet, and he almost broke you.” Irulan pulled the door open, "I love you, Val, more than you know. I won’t make the same mistake twice when it comes to you. If you're hell bent on taking him as a mark, I'll do what I have to do to keep you safe."

She was gone before my brain could process exactly what she was trying to say, and my body was screaming for rest so I didn't put much thought into it. If this was my morning, I was scared to think about what my night would be like. Unfortunately for me, I found out sooner, rather than later.

******

Why is it that the moment you fall into a good sleep, the phone rings and pulls you out of your happy place?” Valeria speaking. This had better be good, Marcus."

"You can be sure that anytime I call you it's for a damn good reason," Marcus Daniels’ deep voice resonated through the line. Aside from being my Commanding Officer in the Sentinel Division of the CMS, he also happens to be the Alpha of this region’s Werewolf pack and the uncle of one of my closest friends.

"Come on, Marcus, give me a break. It's barely three o'clock in the afternoon. You know I don't get up until eight.” I heard a low growl and smiled. As an Alpha, Marcus wasn’t used to anyone challenging him. He growled a lot around me for some reason.

"Today you get up at three, Valley-girl, the department heads are gathering for an emergency meeting.”

"Shit on top of damn, here it comes."

I barely whispered the words, but Marcus picked up on them, "Here what comes? Do you know what this is?”

Crap. Note to self, Weres have excellent hearing. "No, Marcus, I don't know anything. I'm aggravated because of my interrupted sleep, and if whatever is going on involves the big wigs, then I'm not going to be able to weasel in a few more hours. That's all."

"Are you sure that's all?” The doubt laced through Marcus' voice made me want to slap myself for that slip of the tongue.

"I'm positive. Now would you tell me what's so damn important that you cut my sleep cycle short by five full hours? I'm sure they have meetings all the time. What makes this one an emergency?"

Marcus' growl got even louder as my smile got even wider. I loved pushing his buttons. "You're one of the top Vampire Sentinels we've got. Considering the nature of the mark on this case, you might as well be in on the briefing from jump. Odds are it's going to you anyway."

'Nature of the mark' meant vamp. The CMS usually preferred us to handle our own considering their strained relationship with the Vampire High Council. I guess they figure if you send a vamp to kill a vamp then it wouldn't cause that much of a problem. "What about Priest or Fields, either of them..."

Marcus cut me short, "Neither of them is Lifeborn, much less Pureblood, but you are. Listen, Valeria, I give you a lot of slack because of Thade and the fact that you're good at what you do. Now isn't one of those times. Get showered and dressed. Then get your ass into headquarters."

He had to be joking. As far as he knew it was entirely too early for me to come out. "Come on, Marcus, you're being unreasonable now. The sun..."

"You know that doesn’t mean shit to you at this time of the day, and so do I. Play that card with someone else. You've got two hours, that's it.” Marcus hung up before I could argue any further. How in the hell did Marcus find out about my limits? No one, not even Irulan or Valerian knew the full extent of my sun tolerance.

As far as they knew, I had to be in by nine at the latest and couldn't go out until after six. In truth, I could tolerate the sunlight up until about eleven o'clock and could go out again after three. I just had to increase my blood intake a little.

I keep my limits to myself because if my father knew about them he'd find some way to use them to his advantage. I wanted to stay off his radar, but this case threatened to put me right in the middle of it permanently.

I got up and pulled my work clothes out of the closet - black leather pants, black cotton tee, and a black leather bolero. It might seem ostentatious and stereotypical, but leather holds up in fights. Time to shower.

I made it in and out of the shower and was halfway dressed before Irulan poked her head into the bathroom. "Kinda early for you to be out of bed, don't you think, Valeria? It's barely three forty-five."

I shrugged my shoulders and slipped on my bra. "Really, I thought it was closer to five. Can you fasten this for me?"

She stepped closer, took the ends of the bra in her hands, and just stood there. I looked back into the mirror and frowned. She had this faraway look in her eyes as she stared at my back.

“
Are you alright?" I asked her, unsure if I read her face right. I’d seen the look before when she brought home her bimbos, but that couldn’t be right. She had no reason to look at me like that.

Irulan shook her head and reached forward, letting the back of her hand brush against my skin as hooked my bra. Tingles traveled down my spine, but I ignored them. . .

She let the elastic pop my back as she pushed her way by me to take a seat on the edge of my tub. "I’m fine, and don't be a smart ass, Youngster. I hope you're not planning to go out this early."

I pulled my shirt on, tucked it in, and slipped into my jacket before I looked down at her. "If you must know, Ire, I'm heading into the office just a wee bit ahead of schedule,” holding two fingers up to emphasize the word 'wee'.. "Marcus called and didn't leave me much of a choice." I ran my fingers through my damp hair and headed for my ordnance vault with Irulan hot on my heels.

"You've finally lost it, Valeria. You’re going to let this case drive you to a bright, shining grave. You can't go out now, it's too early, and Marcus knows better than to ask you to do such a thing."

I threw open the doors to my vault. "He knew exactly what he was doing, Ire. How, I don't know yet, but I'll find out when I get to the CMS.” I began pulling out an assortment of daggers and strapped them to various body parts. I hate guns, they seem too impersonal to me. "The department heads are convening for an emergency meeting, no doubt to discuss the kill order. Marcus wants me there."

Irulan snatched my katana from my hands before I could secure its sheath to my back. "Enlighten me. Exactly how are you planning to get there, Val?"

Someone once said 'actions speak louder than words', so I went to the nearest window and tore down the heavy black drapes that we kept covering it. Sunlight came beaming into the living room at the exact second Irulan blasted me with an energy bolt sending me flying across the room. .

"Valeria! What the fuck do you think you're trying to prove?" She was on me and had me covered in the drapes so fast she didn't even notice that the sun had no effect on me at all.

I yelled for her to let me up, but the bulky material muffled my voice, so we ended up wrestling across the floor for five minutes before I could finally get free of her. "Damn it Irulan, if you'd stop fussing and trying to protect me you'd see I don't need protection.” I leapt up with agility that far surpassed any cat and darted over to the window before she could hit me again. The look on her face was priceless.

"I don't get it...I mean how...how long have... Shit Val, you're standing in afternoon sunlight."

I straightened my clothes and headed for my car. "That's what I was trying to show you before you blasted my ass halfway to kingdom come. Now I've got less than an hour to find something to eat and make it into the office.” Traffic was a bitch at this time of the day. To make it on time, I was going to have to drive like a madwoman.

Irulan blew by me and slammed my car door, "I told you earlier, don't try to brush me off. Before you leave this house, explain to me what just happened in there."

Looked like the only way I was getting past her was to tell her the truth. "To be honest, I don't know how it happened, Irulan, just when.” The searching look in her eyes edged me on. "That morning I didn't make it home in time, after the burns started healing, I don't know - I just felt different."

Just like Vampires, if they weren't careful, Faeries eyes gave their every emotion away. Irulan's usually bright green eyes clouded over and swirled with hurt and anger. "You knew all this time, and you didn't say a word to me? I thought we were closer than that, Val."

Damn it, I didn't have time for this now. "Listen, Ire, I'm not making light of the situation, and we'll talk about this later, but right now I've really got to go. I think I've pushed it as far as I can with Marcus. I don't want to piss him off by being late."