Darkness Falls (22 page)

She was never going to understand the mercurial Aradians, especially Jiro who ran so hot and cold she was afraid of getting blisters from frost bite. As long as he treated her son well, she wasn’t too concerned about what he thought about her. Whether he liked her or hated her, which changed on a moment to moment basis, didn’t matter and she wouldn’t dwell on it. Warily, Malorie eyed Jiro, wishing he hadn’t figured it out so quickly. “How?”

“Your blood,” he said with a wicked grin. His eyes moved to Feryn with undisguised glee, “Imagine it, brother, a cure for vampirism. We just need to figure out how much blood….”

“No,” Feryn bit out, his eyes hard and implacable as he glared at his brother.

A slight frown marred Jiro’s face but he continued on, addressing Malorie now, “If your blood can bring a vampire back to life, what will it do to a human?”

“No,” Feryn repeated more firmly. He tore Malorie from Jiro’s arms and put a protective arm around her shoulders as he glared fiercely at his brother.

“The possibilities are intriguing,” Jiro continued, unaffected by Feryn’s cold fury. His silver-green eyes burned with enthusiasm as he faced Malorie. “For incentive, you have to consider the possibility that Breeder blood could be the magical cure the humans have been searching for generations.”

Malorie had to admit that she was curious and she was mad enough at Feryn to entertain the possibility, if just to tweak his arrogance. But she knew enough to know her blood in a human could be a disaster. “What if it’s dangerous? What if my blood acts like a mutating agent in humans or what if it awakens long-dormant DNA that was never meant to be awakened?”

Jiro’s smile grew as Malorie considered his words without dismissing them out of hand. “Humans are expendable, Malorie.”

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she glared at Jiro, “That doesn’t entice me to help you.”

He looked ashamed but she knew it was an act since he truly believed humans
were
expendable. But he wanted her cooperation because Feryn was not as enthusiastic about testing her blood as Jiro was. “We could limit the tests to vampires.”

Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she considered the possibility of a world without vampires, at least a world where there was a cure for vampirism. “How much blood do you think it will take?”

“We’d start with a few pints….”

“You two are determined to ignore me,” Feryn interrupted with cool frustration.

“Oh, please,” Jiro grunted, rolling his eyes. “If she wasn’t yours, you’d be the first one to stick needles in her to figure out what made her tick, how her blood worked.”

“That is true,” Malorie said softly, almost to herself, tugging at her lip in thoughtful contemplation. She could use this as a bargaining chip to free her brother, to keep Jack’s secret safe….

“We now have this male Breeder in his prime and in a few months, more will be born,” Jiro murmured, almost as if he read her thoughts. Her head shot up and he was studying her with quiet intensity, as if waiting to see her reaction.

Holding his eyes, her emotions warring inside of her, she swallowed because it wasn’t just Hunter anymore. “How many women are pregnant with my father’s children?”

Jiro’s grin grew wicked as his eyes gleamed, “Not as many as we had hoped for and we don’t have a guarantee that any of them will be Breeders. Even if they’re all Breeders it will be years before we can draw their blood for tests. But we have you and now the young male and the sooner we get to work the sooner we can end vampires once and for all.”

Slowly, she looked up at Feryn, “How many?”

Feryn’s jaw was taut as he desperately tried not to answer. “He was able to impregnate two dozen girls before he escaped.”

Malorie’s jaw dropped open at the answer, since her father had only been in captivity for two weeks at most. All of those innocent lives…. She wondered if Feryn was using his unique counting system, which underestimated the numbers by at least half. If that’s the case, then there could be forty-eight babies within the year…. No, forty-nine.

Pressing a hand against her stomach, her mind whirled with endless logistics. Who was going to stand up for the new batch of Breeders? What about the children who were not Breeders? Stepping out of Feryn’s arms, she paced a few steps away, her eyes moving between the sullen teenager and her son. “All of the Breeder-born Aradians will be cousins.”

Jiro snorted, “Like that’s an issue.” Glancing at him over her shoulder, he shook with quiet laughter and she knew he was laughing at her. “Aradians don’t sleep with one another and we don’t feed from each other.”

Her brows drew together in a fierce frown because something pinged in the back of her head, a fragment of a dream she had after the vampire attack, a fleeting image that vanished as soon as the sun had spilled into her room and across her face. “So you need humans.”

“To fuck?” Jiro asked with humor. “Hell, yes. As many and as often as possible.”

“I don’t understand any of you,” she breathed, glancing briefly at Feryn, unable to bear the stoic resolve in his green eyes. How could she love a man who could be so heartless? Except she knew he wasn’t heartless and, in fact, he loved too deeply. His love was all-consuming and devastating and wonderful. Her insides were twisted up in confusion and doubts and anger. Softly, she murmured, “If, as you say, we’re the future of your people then treat us with a little goddamned respect.”

Jiro’s lips pursed as he tried not to laugh but his sparkling eyes gave him away even before he started chuckling. “Oh, Malorie. How can I respect something that is barely a blip in the grand scheme of things?”

“Has your brother not told you?” Cocking her head to the side, she smiled sweetly even as her eyes burned, “My father is four hundred and fifty years old. We’re not so short lived anymore.”

Jiro’s eyes widened as his jaw fell open. The pleasure of besting him was mixed with wretched unease at giving such a huge secret away. Jiro watched her with renewed interest and she was sick with the realization that she gave him more ammunition to use against her. How was he going to deal with the knowledge that the Breeders had the potential to live as long as an Aradian? Her only consolation was the fact that Feryn would have told his brother, eventually.

“Not a word,” she bit out, turning around to face Hunter, whom she had momentarily forgotten about. His face was ashen and his eyes were glossy and renewed guilt surged up through her veins. Cautiously, she approached the car but he didn’t seem to hear her. She opened the door and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hunter? Are you alr….”

Her words were cut off as a horrible scream came from Hunter’s mouth and his flailing arms clipped her on her jaw. Everything happened in a blur as she went flying backwards, as Hunter scrambled out of the car and tried to run, as Jiro tackled the poor boy to the ground. Feryn’s arms were around her and he was smoothing his palm over her stinging jaw as he panted, “Are you okay?”

Her brain was having difficulty processing what was happening and Jiro easily subdued the panicked boy and the two of them disappeared. Blinking, she came to and found herself staring at Feryn’s concerned face. Clearing her throat, ignoring the dull ache along her jaw, she asked, “What’s going to happen to him?”

His lips pressed together in a hard line as his tender strokes slowed. “We’ll give him a few days to… settle and then we will slowly introduce him to our female guests.”

She would do whatever was necessary to protect Jack, Hunter and her unborn brothers and sisters. Closing her eyes, she rasped, “Leave Hunter and the new Breeders alone and you can have some of my blood to experiment with. After the baby is born you can have as much as you want.”

“No, Malorie,” Feryn said sternly.

“I can handle it,” she murmured, watching her son play. He was so innocent and she no longer knew how to protect him.

“I’m sure you can,” Feryn reluctantly agreed, placing a hand over her stomach. He bent his head and nuzzled her ear, “But I don’t want any harm to come to you or to our child.”

Even as furious as she was with him, she still loved him, still hungered for him. His nearness, the warmth of his breath against her neck, made her body tremble. Pushing her unwanted desire down, she fortified her resolve to save her brother and return him to his home, no matter what the cost. Stiffly, pushing away from Feryn and keeping her back to him, she walked over to Toby and knelt down, “You ready to head back to our rooms?”

Standing up and wiping his dirty hands on his even dirtier shorts, he nodded his head and held his hand out to her. With a smile, she wrapped her fingers around his tiny, grubby hand and felt the familiar swelling of love in her chest. Instead of standing, she pulled him into her arms and hugged him, “I’ve missed you, little one.”

His arms wrapped around her neck as he hugged her back, “I missed you, too, mommy.”

Holding him in her arms, she stood up and realized how heavy he was getting, how fast he was growing up. Facing Feryn, she murmured, “We’re ready to head back.”

With a solemn nod, he held out his hand to the car that was gleaming in the sunlight. It was still too new and shiny but it was a ride and she had too much to think about. Her brother was freaking out and she didn’t know how to help him and now Jiro knew the Breeders were no longer just a blip on the radar, though she wasn’t certain how long their new lifespan was. Her father was four hundred and fifty years old even though he looked about twenty-five but he was the first of the new Breeders so there was no telling, not really.

“Don’t worry about it,” Feryn murmured as he slid into the driver’s seat while she was strapping Toby into the back seat.

“Worry about what?” she asked dispassionately, hoping the fluttering of her pulse didn’t give her unease away. Climbing into the passenger’s seat, she closed the door and shrugged with feigned nonchalance, “It’s not as if Jiro can really do anything with the information. In fact, I’m surprised you hadn’t told him yet.”

“I’m sure I would have gotten around to it eventually,” he said lightly, watching her carefully.

Glancing at him from beneath her lashes, seeing the laughter in his beautiful eyes, she tried to stay mad at him but found it nearly impossible. That didn’t mean she couldn’t let him worry for a while longer. “I want to be in charge of the Breeder program.”

His lips parted but he didn’t say anything right away. Starting the car, he took a breath before asking, “What would your intentions be? Do you hope to free all of the babies that are born?”

She hadn’t thought of that but now that he brought it up…. Feryn’s laugh of disbelief made her frown, “What’s wrong with that plan?”

“I’m sure the mothers would have something to say about it.”

Tilting her head to the side, she looked at him, studying his arrogant profile, and wondered about his words. “You’ll let the mothers raise them?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “It’s not what we’ve done in the past but I’ve seen how you are with your son and if a mother wishes to remain with her child we will allow it.”

“You’ll
allow
it,” she repeated dryly, her lips pressed together in a flat line.

“When you have lived as long as I have you learn to protect what is most precious,” he ground out, glancing at her before returning his attention to the road. “Humans are so fragile, Malorie, and they insist on being reckless and irresponsible and….”

“Inventive and they dare to live.” Twisting in her seat so she was facing him, she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to continue digging a hole.

A flush colored his cheeks as he grimaced, “I’m still learning, Malorie. You have to have patience with me.”

Her lips quirked upwards in a slight smile as she leaned across the car and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, “I love you, Feryn.”

Without taking his eyes off the road, he grinned, “I love you, too.”

“So,” she said, moistening her lips with her tongue. “Does this mean you’ll put me in charge of the program?”

Laughing, he took her hand in his and entwined their fingers, “We have some time to consider it.”

“Fair enough,” she said, satisfied that he was bending a little. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she murmured, “You can’t keep my brother here against his will, Feryn.”

“What would you have me do?” he asked softly in resignation. “There are so few Breeders and so many Aradians and the boy can serve a great purpose.”

“At least give him the choice.”

“He no longer exists in his old world,” he gently reminded her, making her stomach clench in sorrow and anger. “Here he will be treated as a treasured… guest.”

“You were going to say pet,” she growled.

Swallowing, he nodded his head once, “Yes.”

He was trying but, damn, it was difficult to deal with this. “Give him the choice.”

“I can’t,” he bit out, pressing his lips together in a thin line as he gazed at her with frustration and affection. “I already give you too much, Malorie. I cannot give you this.”

“Fuck.”

Chapter 9