Black Magic Rose (24 page)

He’d stopped eating hundreds of years ago. Most vampires only ate to fit in. He didn’t even bother with that anymore. Now he’d have no choice. It was very clear he needed to do whatever he could to help her acclimate. Eating food was probably going to be expected.
 

He rubbed his eyes. How had this happened?
 

He finished his coffee, scrubbed the pot, coffee grounds basket and mug and replaced everything. Then he swigged a couple mouthfuls of cherry juice from the bottle in the fridge before he finished dressing.
 

Sofia must train. She must learn to defend herself. Their lives depended on her ability to hold her own. Dragomir unlocked his weapons chamber. He chuckled. Pantry—weapons chamber. Pretty much the same thing in his mind.

After gathering several stakes and knives of different lengths he headed down the hall to see the blacksmith.

“Congratulations, man.” Dice laughed. “Who’d have thought you’d take the leap?” The blacksmith greeted Dragomir with genuine happiness. “Welcome to the club.”

Dragomir nodded. Apparently, Dice hadn’t heard about how he joined the club or the welcome would have been much cooler.
 

Dragomir nodded. “My blades need honing. As well as these stakes.” He laid the weapons on the table.

“Ah, training her already. No time to keep her soft, enjoy her a bit?” Dice grinned.
 

“No. She’s too weak. She must learn to defend herself.” Dragomir forced the memory of her writhing in his arms last night from his mind. There was no time for any of that. She’d never acquiesce, never offer, never even consider making love to him. He’d have to enjoy helping her become indestructible. That’s the only way he was going to find his pleasure.
 

“Ah, sometimes they are more fun to wrestle anyway.” Dice laughed. “Are you training her on the stake already?” He held one in each hand, gripping them like a warrior, ready to plunge them deep. “It might be a little too early in your bond to teach this technique.” A look of concern flashed on the blacksmith’s face. “They do tend to question our righteousness while we train them. You are training her hard enough to handle combat, should she be ambushed. Yes?”

Dragomir hadn’t thought about the fact that she’d question his motives for existing more than she already had. She didn’t trust him at all. How could she possibly trust him less? Maybe teaching her the specifics for dispatching a vampire should be delayed. Maybe they’d stick with self-defense. “Eventually, I will train her on the stake, but first the basics.” He inspected one of his swords again before handing it to Dice. “Sharpen it. I haven’t used it in many years.”
 

The blacksmith nodded. “Has she mastered hand-to-hand combat?”

“No. We have only begun to train.” Dragomir added two more knives and six stakes from under his coat to the pile. “Sharpen them all.” Hand-to-hand combat? He stifled a laugh. She could barely remain standing in an argument never mind if anyone touched her.
 

She was defenseless and foolish. She challenged werewolves, literally argued with them when she’d already angered them to the point of shifting in front of her. How many women did that? Couldn’t have been many. She was going to get herself killed. He needed to call upstairs, make sure she hadn’t pissed anyone off yet today.

“You worry.” Dice turned a dial and the sharpening stone began to spin.
 

“She’s human.” And she had no ability to think rationally. He closed his eyes. How could he train rational thought? Impossible.

Dice nodded. “So was Jade.” He ran his hand along the sword then held it out in front of him, staring down the blade. “That was sixty something years ago now.” He placed the sword on the anvil and grabbed his hammer.

Dragomir remembered. Dice and Jade had been in love. She chose to be turned on their honeymoon. Then Dice trained her—when she was much less fragile.

“She’ll turn.” Dice banged the hammer against the sword several times then flipped it over and worked the other side.
 

Dragomir knew better. Sofia wouldn’t turn. She could barely stand the thought of being in the same building as vampires. She was not about to become one.
 

The sound of the metal being held against the sharpening stone drowned away Dragomir’s thoughts. He watched sparks shoot from between the sword and the stone.
 

“Did she sleep well today?” Dice grinned. “Does she still sleep, my friend?” His voice dipped and he gave a hearty laugh.

Dragomir could not say. He still could not sense Sofia. His best guess was that she’d slept well enough for the few hours he’d rested. He knew she needed complete sleep. It was the reason he slept—to give her mind time to relax, to stop racing, to stop thinking about what she’d done.
 

“I’d say she rested just fine.”
 

“Ah, your bond strengthens. I kept Jade in bed the first full week of our joining. By the time we came home our bond was so tight I couldn’t bear to have her out of my arms for more than an hour.” He laughed again. “And she wasn’t for several months.”
 

With each rest period they shared together the bond between them would strengthen. If they lay together, touching, caring for each other, it would seal to a strength nothing in the world, not time or man or death could destroy. He sighed. It was going to take a lifetime for it to become a true bond, forged by something more than words and a blood exchange, if that ever happened.
 

She’d married him, but that didn’t mean she liked him. She’d even dropped her guard twice and drove his desire to fever pitch, but that didn’t mean she wanted him. Would she ever learn to love him? Could she?

“I’ll be back in a few hours to get these.” Dragomir left Dice to work.
 

“Two hours, tops,” Dice called after him. “Go. Enjoy your mate while I work.”

Dragomir prowled the halls for a bit before going to see Jankin. Enjoy his mate? The idea of it was superb. The reality was hell.
 

The halls were quiet. The sun was still too high in the sky for most vampires to wake. But Dragomir had long ago established his ability to stay awake in these hours. He’d spent many a long day thinking. And it appeared he’d spend many more worrying.
 

He hadn’t seen Jankin since the ritual, and he didn’t really want to see him now, but he knew they needed to talk.
 

He knocked on the office door.
 

“Come.”

The room was dark, lit only by the computer screen. Dragomir closed the door behind him and walked through the outer room to Jankin’s office.
 

“How was she?” Jankin looked older. His more than nine hundred years seemed to be taking a toll. Tired eyes. Sagging cheeks.
 

“She cried. A great deal.” Why should Dragomir pretend she wasn’t unhappy? He wouldn’t. If he had to watch his mate’s misery, Jankin would, too.
 

It was Jankin’s fault they were in this predicament.
 

Jankin nodded. “No surprise.”
 

Dragomir couldn’t disagree. When he thought about it logically, it was no surprise. But it still hurt.
 

“What’s the report from the front?” Dragomir asked. He watched Jankin. The way the vampire moved was slow, deliberate. The burden he carried seemed greater today than in all these long years since Sofia’s birth.
 

“There is movement. Orion and Pax found evidence of a fortress just over the town line at one of the local farms. In Exeter. Vampires and wolves.”
 

“Still active? Or is it abandoned?” Dragomir’s hands ached. A battle was coming. He felt it, wanted to be a part of it.
 

“Active. Wolves come and go from the area in large numbers. They’ve scented only four or five vamps.”

“Sounds like a possible daytime attack. When will our wolves be ready?” Dragomir had seen this in Norway. A small contingent attacked when they thought the vampires slept. Bas Dubh wasn’t prepared for the wolves The Alliance had trained or for the master vampires to awaken their progeny. Vampires fought below the ground all day long. It had been a good battle.
 

“Not soon enough. We have the weaker wolves, left behind by Bas Dubh. The ones he thought would die.” Jankin’s gaze never left the computer screen. “Laurent believes Joachim had known about the assault for months.”
 

“Has he unlocked any details—the timing?”

Jankin shook his head. “Still working the new wolves. Laurent will get it.”

Dragomir stood. “How has her day been? Any arguments with Rick or have the wolves taken her under their wings?” He dreaded having to undo whatever Fergus and Rick did. They weren’t the type to happily accept this new development. Sofia’s ability to understand the wolves would likely be a sore issue for quite some time. He had no doubts they’d already begun to make her believe he was some villain for making her drink vampire blood without a bond. Osgar was less of a worry, but he knew even Osgar could not understand the situation.

“She hasn’t arrived to work yet. Osgar’s been at her house all day.”

“Blasted woman!” Hearing that she’d not arrived at the stronghold unleashed the pent-up rage Dragomir had managed to control. “She’s not safe outside this building. Doesn’t she understand why she must come here?” He slammed his hands on the desk. “You should have told her years ago.” His face was only inches from Jankin’s. “How did you expect to get away with this?”

“When it happened, I did not think about the consequences. I only knew I could not let her die.” Jankin glanced up slowly, fangs already descended, eyes glowing.
 

“You brought me here for this sole purpose, didn’t you? Guarding her was a cover. A lie. You wanted me to take the fall for you.” Unable to keep the disgust out of his words, Dragomir faced Jankin.
 

“She needed a strong guard, someone she could trust.” Jankin’s eyebrow darted up. “Someone I could trust.”

Dragomir dropped his head and glared at the desk. Jankin was a genius. Dragomir would never tell, would have died with the secret last night. All to protect The Alliance. To protect humanity.
 

His head snapped up. “You will tell her the truth. Then she will decide.” Dragomir would not force her to live a lie. She would learn what really happened. Then if she chose not to honor their bond, he would understand. He wouldn’t let her go, not alone, not without someone to protect her, but he wouldn’t force her to stay.
 

“What good would it do? You’ve seen how she reacts. She’ll run. Do you want her out there without you, without me?” Jankin stared up at Dragomir. His eyes were no longer glowing, nor were they green. They’d faded to a near black color.
 

“Guilt? Is that what I see?” Dragomir’s mouth ticked to the left. “Who’d have known guilt would overcome you?”

“I know what I’ve done. I know the burden you both carry. There’s no way to undo the past. You must help her live with this.” Jankin turned back to the computer.
 

“You will tell her. When the time is right, you will confess.” Dragomir would hold Jankin to this, if it was the last thing he did.

“If that is the price you believe I should pay, so be it, old friend. But I ask you, how can a man be angry with the vampire who gave him his mate?”

“She’s only my mate by force. She didn’t choose.” Dragomir turned from Jankin, unwilling to watch as the man he’d trusted more than any other tried to twist this truth.

“No one mates by choice. They only think they do. True mates are born to each other. There’s only one for each. No other will do. Can you sense her?”

Dragomir shook his head. “What are you saying?”
 

“She is your mate because creation says she is, not because of me or circumstance.” Jankin removed his cuff links and rolled up his sleeves. “She was born to be with you. Had I not saved her, you’d have lived your existence alone.” Jankin sat back. His stare bore into Dragomir. “You can’t sense her because you are not bound to each other. It’s a cruel joke of love. And it will drive you mad if you don’t mate her.”

“How could you have known we were fated?
Did
you know?”
 

Jankin shook his head. “I cannot lie. I did not know. I only knew I could not lose her. And as the world has changed, I knew she needed the best to keep her safe, but I did not know she was your mate.”
 

“She can hardly stand me. She refuses me access to her house, doesn’t even speak to me unless she has to. She is not happy.” Dragomir couldn’t stand hearing the words come out of his own mouth. His mate hated him.
 

“Not every mating is easy. Not every mate is consciously willing. Some are stubborn, refuse to see what their soul knows is right. Mating is like marriage. It takes work.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Bright sunlight streamed through Sofia’s bedroom window. She grumbled and pulled her blanket up over her head.
 

Tick.