To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (79 page)

Pain exploded at the back of my skull but I managed to pull myself up so I could look into Luka’s eyes. “Luka?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer, his red-rimmed eyes more feral now, yet somewhere in it there was terror, too.

I could hear more jaws snapping, swords clashing, but still some grief-stricken Caros managed to get us, trying to pull me off Luka but I held on to him with all my might.

“Please,” I sobbed, doing my best not to let go. “Please, please, don’t hurt him.”

“Vampire lover! Kill her, too!”

The words acted like a trigger, channeling their fury to me. I should be scared, but I wasn’t. All I could feel was gladness.

“Luka, please, if you understand me just a little, please save yourself.” It was the last words I could whisper to him before the crowd dragged me off him. I screamed, struggling against their hold, doing my best to keep sight of Luka.

I got pushed down, stomped upon, and scratched, but I only cried harder when I could no longer see Luka.

“Caylie!”

I thought I heard Luka calling for me. As I closed my eyes, I missed the way Luka, seemingly bursting with a thousand Caros’ strength, was frantically throwing everyone away in search for me.

“Caylie!”

Strong arms tenderly lifted me up. I forced my eyes to open and found myself gazing at Luka. His face was ravaged with fear, scratches all over his skin, but it was the most beautiful sight. And then I saw it—

“Luka? Your eyes,” I whispered.

Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe. But I could have sworn I saw one of his eyes turned violet while another remained red-rimmed.

“Are you ready to go to the courtroom?” Catherine asked quietly, her face pale but her gaze resolute as she finished helping me change into the spare of clothes she had brought with her, a white high-collared dress that I knew my mother had deliberately selected to highlight my innocence.

My mom was not a former army wife for nothing.

“I’m ready when you guys are.” My injuries would have been severe for a human but not for Caro standards. Just one bag of blood transfused to my system and I was starting to heal, although my head still ached and I kept dreaming of being dragged away from Luka while an angry mob killed him.

“I’m proud of you, sweetheart,” William murmured as he carried me to a waiting wheelchair.

Tears pricked my eyes, and I flushed at the way he and Catherine were gazing at me.

The stares were inevitable the moment we left the spare bedroom the Brethren had lent to us. It was embarrassing, being a Caro and having to be wheeled but there was no escaping it. The knee I had injured during the ambush had been broken again, and so it was taking longer to heal this time.

The courtroom was quiet when my father pushed the doors open so Catherine could wheel me in. Heads swiveled towards our direction before many of them just as quickly looked away. I knew then who had hurt Luka and me.

Our courtroom was fashioned after gladiator arenas, but the rows of seats surrounding the procedural court below were ornately decorated, their gilded armrests and padded cushions resembling seats in Austrian opera theaters more than the bare assembly benches in Rome.

I kept my head bowed as my parents wheeled me to the front, unable to move my chair myself since the crushed bones in my hands hadn’t fully healed as well.

Catherine rolled me down the side plank before parking my chair within one of the inner seating areas, its curtains hiding me from prying eyes while I still maintained a perfect view of the proceedings.

The same judge who granted leniency to Luka was back in his seat, and he had just finished reciting the newest information to be added in the review of Luka’s case. “For our first witness, let the Invisa Julianna speak.”

It was the Invisa who reviewed my case, and it was my first time to hear her name. She threw the hood of her robe back as she came to the podium, and everyone in the courtroom gasped, marveling at her ethereal-like beauty. I fell back, stunned when I saw Julianna possessing the same amethyst eyes that Luka had.

And one of them was red-rimmed, the mark of a half-vampire.

“My name is Julianna and I descend from the line of Prince Kairos, the fallen twin. For centuries, our line had kept secret our half-vampire lineage, fearing condemnation and the worst that fears fed by paranoia and evil could bring. Over two decades ago, some of our beloved kin were stolen, never to be found again. We searched them to no avail, and the only thing we had learned was that a Sceleri with a battalion of Vidange to command had wanted to use our women to give birth to an army of half-vampires.”

“It was then we decided to join forces with the Brethren for together we may have hope of finding our lost kin. Luka Georgiades is one of us, born to Maria Anglovski, adopted by the late Kristoff and Eleonor Georgiades. To have our genes is a curse and a blessing. A half-vampire’s strength is twice that of the strongest Caros, but such power requires sacrifice. We must turn fully into a vampire…”

Her gaze found mine.

“…and then we must find it in ourselves to turn back. Once we have completed this cycle, there is no longer any possibility for us to turn unless we make the choice to lose our souls once more.”

I waited for her to speak more about the other part of the legend, of how being around the one you love could turn you vampire if it was unrequited, of how a vampire could be born from so many kinds of seeds of self-destruction.

But she did not.

The Invisa pulled her hood back up, curtsying to the judge before walking away at a steady pace.

“To defend himself against accusations of treason, we call forth Luka Georgiades.”

The collective gasp from the crowd was deafening, almost laughable if not for the memories of having many Caros from the same crowd trying to hurt Luka. The crowd gasped again when Luka walked out one of the tunneled entryways of the procedural court, and this time I inhaled sharply with them.

Luka had always been dazzling to look at, but this time he was…magnificent. There wasn’t a single cut on his skin. He was impeccably dressed; no one who was unaware of what happened earlier would ever guess that he had turned vampire and had almost been made a victim of a mob killing.

I didn’t know if I wanted to look at him or not, but I did know my heart hurt when he chose not to, instead looking directly at the crowd as he addressed the assembly of Caros waiting for him to speak with bated breath.

“My name is Luka Georgiades and I am the Knight Patron of the Brethren Army.”

My eyes flew to William in shock, but he did not appear surprised like almost the entire race of Caros was. The Knight Patron served as liaison between the Army and the Morteia, a secret position never to be revealed unless in dire consequences, a position that could only be earned if the Caro had proven eligible to join the Morteia but had chosen not to.

“I stand in charge for treason for which I was first unable to defend myself against. I beg your pardon for this.” Luka bowed deeply, his courtesy making many of the Caros cringe.

When he straightened, the polite smile had disappeared from his lips. A red rim had also encircled his left eye, and it was our first time to see Luka as the half-vampire he had always been.

“But now I ask for the court’s consent to present my case.”

The judge nodded. “Consent granted.”

The silence that followed was so thick it would not have been an exaggeration for our heightened hearing to distinguish even the footfall of tiny ants. Instead of speaking, Luka simply took out something from his pocket and dropped it. Sapphire beads clattered to the ground, breaking the silence that enveloped the courtroom.

Oh God of Caros, how could it be?

A scuffle erupted from the crowd, followed by several shouts and the sound of a man being subdued. In moments, Brethren guards had brought to court a panicky and sniveling Jeff Kirk, who was thrown to the ground in front Luka.

“This individual has betrayed our race to vampires. He had given my betrothed—”

My head spun at what he had called me.

“—Caylie Sonora a sapphire bracelet in which a tracker had been implanted, which was then used to determine the location of our hideout. Evidence found in his lodging by the Brethren guards has established his involvement with the Screamless Massacres.”

Violent rumblings rose from the crowd and I tensed, wondering if I was about to face an unreasonable mob of Caros once again.

Luka raised his hand. “But we will not condemn him like he had condemned our kin. We will not violate the laws that the Brethren stands for the way he has violated them. We will prove to the world that we are far from the base creatures that vampires are by giving this man a fair trial. And when he is proven guilty, we will hand him to our reviewers for sentencing.”

Luka raised his gaze to the crowd, proud and challenging, waiting for anyone to speak against him.

“We will avenge our dead. We, the Brethren, will not rest until we avenge the innocent lives that have been taken from us. But we will not make the same mistakes again. We will not blame the blameless and hurt the weak. But we will be relentless against those who deserve our enmity.”

The red rim around his eye burned bright, like a bloody sun we found ourselves drawn to.

In a hard voice that rung clearly of command, Luka said in a hard voice, “We are the brightest children of the Night, and forever we must shine.”

The applause was inevitable and I would have clapped as hard as everyone did if my hands had healed properly for it. But all I could do was sob. A shadow fell over me and without looking up, I said shakily, “Luka.”

I sensed Luka crouching down before slowly tucking my hair behind my ears and gently tipping my chin up so our eyes could meet.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I whispered when all he did was stare at me.

“Because I don’t know what to say,” he said rawly. “What you did…” His fingers clenched and unclenched. “Caylie, I love you. I have always loved you. And for all the times that I caused you pain, know that it was always to keep you safe and happy.” He swallowed, and seeing Luka so nervous was heartbreaking. “Y-you believe me, don’t you?”

“Yes.” I cried harder as I said the words and I bent down to kiss his lips, my tears mingling once again with our kiss. “Yes, yes, yes.”

* * * *

That night, I lay in Luka’s arms, the rules of Caro courtship allowing us to share one bed once we had set the date for our union. It was quite far off, but that was only a technicality and a chance to let us enjoy ourselves.

“Why didn’t you defend yourself from the very start?” We were both dressed for sleep, but I was still wide awake, my mind racing with questions.

“I was hoping to flush him out and get more secrets from him.”

“Then why did you choose to speak now? Or have you gotten everything from him already?” I couldn’t help tracing his collarbone as I spoke, wanting to touch him constantly to assure myself that he was real, he was here, and he was mine.

Luka caught my fingers and kissed them one by one. “Because now all I cared was getting to your side as quickly as I could.”

“But what about the information he still had? The Brethren—”

“—could go to hell,” Luka finished calmly. His eyes burned bright. “You are the most important thing to me, Caylie. You always have been.”

I gave him a tremulous smile. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“That you consider the Brethren my mistress?” he asked, deadpanned.

I laughed, and being able to do so with Luka now made me giddier. I rose up and moved on top of him to kiss his lips. “I can’t believe I’m here with you,” I whispered.

He threaded his fingers through my hair, his violet eyes glued to the movement like it was something so fantastic. “I can,” Luka said quietly. “It was what I always dreamt of, the only thing that kept me sane.”

His words reminded me of something Emilia said and I asked hesitantly, “How did you survive it? Because when the change started for me, there were so many times I could easily turn. But you…you
didn’t
turn. Emilia Moretti said it required a sacrifice.”

Luka nodded.

“You don’t want to tell me?”

He expelled a painful breath. “It’s not that, but I just don’t see the point of you knowing. It’s over—”