Scion's Freedom (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

She stepped out of the room, crooked her finger at the door, and swung it closed. A heavy clicking sound told them the locks had been set. David tried the handle. The lock popped free, allowing the door to open. He shut it again and reapplied the locks.

David looked at the wall clock, comparing it to his wrist watch. “It’s another hour till sunrise. What do we do until then?”

“I think we need to talk,” Cassy said with a tired sigh and sat down on the bed.

“What was the phrase you used? ‘Uh-oh. That’s not good.’ Never has a woman uttered those words without something unpleasant following them,” David said, resigned to whatever may come next.

“I overheard your conversation in the hideout. Why didn’t you tell me you suspected my family? Don’t you think I have a right to know?” Cassy sat on the bed watching him.

He squeezed his eyes tight and laid a hand on his forehead. He began to pace the floor. He started to say something and stopped. More pacing and another false start followed. Finally, he stopped and got down on his knees in front of her. He took her hands in his and pulled them to his chest.

“I’m glad you know. It made me sick to keep it from you. I think it would have, bonded or not. I’m falling in love with you. There’s no explanation for it and no excuse for keeping secrets. It would have hurt your feelings or made you mad at me. So, I kept it from you.

“I knew my grandfather was a witch, but men don’t, as a rule, have active powers. I never thought I could be anything more than a human. I wasn’t brought up around magic. My mother couldn’t really do much, and she died when I was young. My grandparents brought me up human, until Gramps disappeared. Grams died a few years later. I don’t know who my father is, what he is or was, as the case may be. They never told me, if they knew.

“To join the unit, I had to submit to a DNA test. It showed he wasn’t entirely human, but there was no indication he was a witch. I was mixed enough they didn’t care and let me join.

“Cap sent me to retrieve you at your apartment. I was supposed to bring you to the station. He said you needed police protection and was setting it up. Then when everything went so haywire, he told me to hang onto you at my house. He didn’t know about the emergency hiding place my grandfather had built until I called needing transportation.

“I don’t want to hurt you or cause you anymore trouble. I don’t, but I don’t want to be parted from you either. You should have called your father. I should have made you the second I found out about the note. I didn’t know who he was, but he could have protected you better than I have,” David admitted.

He seemed sad and hung his head, still holding her hands against his chest. She could feel the hard, fast pounding. It was like a bass drum under her hands.

“You should have told me Father and Max were suspects,” she reprimanded. “I’m not a child. I’m over two hundred years old and from a family whose members have done far worse than anything you can imagine. My grandfather wasn’t called Vlad the Impaler for no reason! Father took part in some very bloody battles of his own. A cousin of mine served three men their own genitals for dinner for raping his half-human daughter before beheading their families while they watched! My sister-in-law is a cousin of Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. What could you have shown me worse than that?”

“I know you’re not a child. You’re an amazing woman. You’ve rescued me more times than I have you. You were the damsel in distress and the knight in shining armor at the same time. It’s hardly fair, you know. A guy likes to feel he’s needed,” he finished.

Cassy took a deep breath. As long as they were confessing, she might as well tell him.

“These witches aren’t here to give advice to wayward vampires. There is an agreement between the two groups. The Burning Times left their numbers too low to sustain their population. Made vampires can’t reproduce. The magic freezes them in time. There were only four born clans, but one of those was destroyed in 1918. We agreed to help each other by blending humans, witches, and vampires several centuries ago. The program provides the proper traits to each side. That’s what Cap meant by the bloodline meaning everything. The Draculs have been the ruling clan since the beginning. My mother was created just for him. The man I refused to marry was bred just for me, but I will not be a walking womb. I’ve never met him or seen his picture. They tried selling me on the idea of a daytime protector. He was vampire enough to produce the right kind of children with me but not enough to be full vampire himself. Chances are your grandfather was a part of the process, too, and was allowed to walk away when he or your mother didn’t play by the rules. It happens,” she confessed.

David stared at her in stunned silence. “I was some experiment gone wrong? You mean somewhere in this house is a genetics lab?”

“No, you’re not an experiment, potential breeding stock, maybe, but not an experiment. These days they do use a lab. In the good old days, they played matchmaker and let nature take its course. My brother and his wife have been unable to conceive. It doesn’t always pan out. The nursery complex is separate from the house,” she added. “They converted the old shopping village behind the estate to living quarters. The main house here is more or less an office and home to the council members.”

Light began creeping into the room from the large windows. A centurion passed by on the balcony outside the room. Cassy went to the window to pull the heavy curtains. The mountains spread out before her were taking on their blue-tinted hue for the day. It made her wish she did not need to go to bed. The room darkened as the fabric closed. Gone was the beautiful vista, but so was the light.

As they undressed David asked, “Why are the guards armed? I thought you said witches don’t need weapons.”

“They are very young and just beginning their training. This is used as a first assignment for most of them. They have weapons because they don’t know enough magic, or their magic isn’t strong enough to use at a great distance. The more advanced guards patrol the perimeter and the nursery complex behind the main house,” she said, crawling into bed. “No one expects danger to get this far inside the perimeter.”

“Do you think Cap is all right?” He pulled the covers up over them. They rolled to face each other.

“I’m sure he is fine. I don’t know why they would send him to his room like that. It is odd, even for them. There must be something about him they sense. I’m sure they will let him out when they find nothing wrong with him. Is he a mix-breed, too?”

“No. His tests came back human. The unit wanted people they thought would be neutral in supernatural politics, human. Turns out it didn’t matter. The victims and criminals are supernatural, but humans are on their payrolls. I don’t see how we are any better than the regular police,” he said with disgust.

His emotions carried over to her. She was beginning to feel his frustration. The bond was binding them closer. She knew before long, they would share feelings across the metaphysical tie. She needed a distraction.

Pulling one leg over top of his hip and snuggling in closer to his body, Cassy tried to have as much bare skin touch as she could. It worked. David hugged her tight. The energy flowing over their skin felt warm, contented, and happy. She could feel the sun sapping her powers, but the bond left her with calm comfort. He kissed the top of her head and played with her long braid until she drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

“David, get up,” a male voice whispered in a hiss. A hard prod to his shoulder brought him out of sleep. The hiss had seemed like part of a dream. It was Cap with a finger pressed to his lips giving David a shushing hand signal. Cap went quietly to the door and waved for David to follow him.

Squinting at the clock on the night stand, David knew it was eleven. Cassy would not be up for hours yet. Cap made the gesture to follow him once more and eased out of the door.

David slipped on his pants and shoulder holster. It was uncomfortable without a shirt to act as a buffer. He did not want to keep Cap waiting. Something must have been very important or very wrong.

Out in the hall, Cap whispered, “Down the hall is a secret passage to the library below. We’ll talk alone there. Everyone seems to be in bed.”

David glanced down the hall. The centurion-style guards were gone. The entire second floor was perfectly silent. He went with Cap to the end of the hall. A panel in the wall swung forward to reveal a narrow spiraled stairwell.

“Where does this go?” David asked.

“It comes out behind the library fireplace,” Cap answered and took off. It was very dark, but David managed to keep up.

Cap popped the latch and opened the panel door at the bottom. He stood back to allow David to exit the stairwell before locking it back into place.

“Now, what is so important? When did they take the guards off your door? Why did they put them there to begin with?”

Cap gave him an evil grin and clapped his hands twice. One of the guards appeared out of thin air to David’s left. Before he could do anything more than gasp at being surprised, she hit him with a solid right-hook.

David reeled and fell. He was unprepared to take a blow and equally unprepared to break his fall properly. Several items on a small table scattered as it toppled over with him.

“What was that for? We’ve been friends for years. What’s with the ambush?” David was confused and angry.

“Did you think I was going to stand back and watch you screw that stuck-up bitch? Elsa, proceed.”

The blonde woman who looked nineteen years old kicked David in the guts. His air rushed out in a groaned guff. He felt as if he was being picked up by the head, but she didn’t lean over. Instead, she stood in front of him holding one hand out before her. She was levitating him. The other hand punched forward. A wave of energy issued from her. It sent David flying backward into a bookshelf. He hit his forehead on the metal and wooden ladder attached to a rail system. Blood stung his left eye. Laughter filled the room around him. The chilly tone tied David’s stomach into knots.

“You aren’t who you pretended to be all these years,” David managed to rasp. “Who are you really?” The idea of being lied to and used by this man sickened and angered him even more.

“I send you on a simple assignment, half-breed. And you couldn’t even do that. All you had to do was bring her to me and leave. I could have handled everything on the down low. But, no, you had to go sticking your dick in her. Was she a good lay? Humm?”

The look on Cap’s face distorted his features. David would not have guessed this was the same man he had served with for years. The knot in his stomach gave another hard twist. This imposter intended to hurt Cassy. During the day, she would be nearly helpless, an easy target. David mustered his strength to stand. He reached for his gun.

Another energy pulse slammed into him. He rose in the air high enough to hit the bottom of the upper floor’s walkway. He crashed back down to the floor and went up again. The second hit dazed him. He landed on the floor hard. The last thing he heard was Cap.

“Don’t worry, lover boy. I’ll be back to finish with you later.” Spit hit him in the face. The room swam in a swirl of colors before going dark.

* * * *

The sound of glass breaking and shouting woke her. Someone was pounding on the door. She reached for David, but he was gone. She looked around. He wasn’t in the room. Cassy scrambled for her clothes. She could feel his distress but could not tell where it came from. The bond was not yet strong enough. The door burst open as she buttoned her pants. She expected David, but it was Cap.

He shouted, “Forget the shoes! There’s a fire! Forget everything! We have to get out!”

“Where is David? We can’t leave him!” She saw David’s shirt and shoes on the floor. His pants were missing. So was his shoulder holster. His Browning lay on the nightstand, but the .45 was gone.

Cap grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door. He was a lot stronger than she remembered. She left the room with him. The hall guards were gone. David was not here, either. Cassy worried he might not know there was a problem.

“We have to evacuate the building. We’ll meet up outside! Now, get moving!” They ran the length of the hall before coming into a bright, sun-filled area. Cassy skittered to a halt to avoid the open space. Cap gave her a sharp jerk. She stumbled forward and dropped to her knees when the sunlight hit her. The pain was like knives stabbing at her from all sides. She could not breathe enough to scream. On all fours, she tried to get back into the shadows of the guest rooms hallway. Cap grabbed her by her braid, dragging her to the spiral staircase. She could feel her skin starting to sting and smolder. At last, she was able to gasp and gulped down as much air as she could. It was like drinking the sunbeams. Jagged glass might as well have gone into her lungs. The rays sapped what physical strength she had. She was like a child dragged screaming by its mother.

The open stairwell allowed the radiant sun to fill the entire entrance hall. The sunken indoor courtyard luminesced with brilliant filtered light below. There was nowhere to go, no way to hide. Her only hope was to get back up the stairs or into the darker dining hall beyond the palm lined court.

Cassy grabbed the railing and attempted to get her legs back under her. It was hard to do with each stair falling away one after another. No sooner would her foot find purchase than Cap drug her further down, causing her to stumble again. The scene replayed over and over until they were halfway down. She managed to get a knee on the stair above and a foot on the one below. Before she could get balanced on the handrail, another jerk pitched her forward.