Blood Enchanted (Blood Enchanted, Book 1): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series (13 page)

I struggled to put weight on my foot with the next step, making Hakan have to pull me closer or lose me to the dirt on the floor.

“Alain?” I said again, this time searching.

“Yes, Dupont,” Hakan confirmed, his voice offering a low growl on Alain’s surname.

“Working with
you
?”

“Éliane,” he said, frustration coating his tone. “Be quiet.”

Right. I blinked into the searingly bright sunlight of
Álfheimr
. Colours burst to light around us. Rich, vibrant, dazzling. The sky seemed too big. The earth too round. The trees too high. The mountains that surrounded us too majestic. My breath whooshed out of me, my eyes frantically blinking, trying to get everything into focus. But clarity of vision wasn’t the problem. Faerie was. Too much for the human eye.

I wasn’t quite human, though, so the effects lasted only a few seconds. Enough to steal my breath, freeze my limbs and numb my mind. Until Hakan’s
Sanguis Vitam
rushed through me.

Soothing, calming, caring, protecting.

I pushed back with my Light automatically; a playful swat, a nudge to get him to back off, and received a blindingly bright flash of pain across my eyes. I doubled over, retched unsuccessfully, and then collapsed to my knees on the rough ground. Stones dug into my skin, bringing me back to myself and the sickening sensation that I was cut-off from my Light.

My mother had told me about this. A
Ljósálfar
ability to contain Light. They are Light Fey. Their Light calls to ours. But when she’d suffered that indignity, she’d worn a band. Similar to the bands we wear in the arena to contain our magic in a fight. So similar, I suddenly realised where that ability had come from. Where that magic had come from.

Álfheimr.

I searched my wrists for a band now, but none existed. I pulled up both overlong sleeves of Hakan’s crisp white shirt and stared at the paleness of my
Sigillum
for a moment. For a second, I felt lost, and then Hakan’s hand slipped under my arm, lifting me up off the ground and returning focus.

“I can’t reach my Light,” I said, numbly.

“I know,” was the only reply he gave. “We need to go farther. The wards are extensive, they carry on for quite some time.”

“That far?” I murmured, realising the enormity of what lay ahead. I was too depleted. I was unarmed. And Alain was fighting a Light Fairy who could best him at any time and return.

I scoffed internally at that. Alain Dupont was a level one
Sanguis Vitam
vampire, with enhanced powers even my father didn’t know about. Plus, Papa had said he was coming. Alain would not be alone for long.

“When my father gets here, you’ll have to run,” I said, snorting softly at the imagery.

“Your father?”

“He said he was coming.”

Hakan stopped in his tracks and looked around, as if Papa was about to pop up from behind one of the lush bushes that lined the mountain pass.

My stomach flopped. The ribbons tangling. He wasn’t working with my father.

“Are you even working with Alain?” I demanded.

“Yes,” he said, snapping the word off at the end to show his disgruntlement. He began walking again, half lifting, half pushing, half carrying me.

I snorted again at all the halves.

“What’s wrong with me?” I said, distractedly. Nothing was remotely funny about any of this.

“The ward. It is designed to disorientate you, should you attempt to flee the cave.”

“But not you?” I said, spinning ‘round in his grasp, as though my feet wanted to head back to the cavern and nowhere else.

He growled low in the back of his throat, a sound I found impossibly attractive, and then swung me up in his arms. My cheek rested against naked flesh and I let out a sigh.

“The ward is doing other things to me,” he mumbled quietly.

“Like what?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“No, go on. I dare you.”

“Éliane,” Hakan chided softly.

“Double dare you.”

He let out a quiet huff of air. “You are not at all as I expected.”

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” I said as my finger traced over a well-defined pec, nail scratching dark skin, making a trail of goosebumps flare up in its wake. Mesmerising.

“Goddess help me,” Hakan said, deadpan.

And then he stopped. Let out a long breath of air and lowered me to the ground.

“What is it?” I said, turning around and crouching slightly. A fighting stance I hadn’t even realised I’d assumed until right then. I glanced down at my bare feet, covered in fairy dust, waited for the snort of laughter at that ridiculous thought that should have followed. But it didn’t come.

“We’re outside the wards,” I said, straightening up, realising we hadn’t stopped because of a threat. My eyes found Hakan’s.

Blue, silver, cyan, bright lightning flashed in his eyes.

“Yes.” The word was laced with a type of hunger I knew only too well.

I swallowed under his intense stare.

“What now?” I asked, knowing already I was going to regret the answer.

“I needed blood to get here,” he said, his voice a couple of octaves lower than usual. “Blood connected to you to find you. Blood as powerful as you to break the wards that bound you.”

“You’ve found me,” I replied steadily, recognising a hungry vampire when I saw one. A
hunting
vampire when faced with one. “And we’re outside the wards,” I added for good measure.

“We are still in
Álfheimr
,” he growled. “Still in
Ljósálfar
.”

I held his steady gaze, not feeling quite as steady myself anymore. There was something about this vampire that called to me. Something primal and powerful. Something laced in magic.

“Alain will have caught the fairy,” I offered, hoping
that
was what had Hakan so on edge; the return of the Fey who had held me captive. Who had fed from my Light and
Sigillum
.

He shook his head. “There are no open portals in
Ljósálfar.
” The words landed between us softly. Like snow falling on the petals of a flower.

Hakan and Alain - if they were actually working together, and I could only assume they were, no Light Fey had turned up to halt us in our attempt to escape - had not been aided by my father.

But I’d heard him. In a Dream Visit. Like the Dream Visits he’d given me as a child. Where he let me see how much he cared for me. Where he threw me in the air and caught me in strong, capable arms. Where he showered me with love and affection, the type of things a daughter needs and wants. The type of things the Champion of the
Iunctio
cannot be seen doing, at all.

Papa was coming, I was sure of it. But Alain and Hakan had got here first. Papa would have opened the portals in
Ljósálfar
. Alain and Hakan had used the power of my brother’s blood to storm Faerie.

I closed my eyes and then had a thought. “If we leave via whatever method you manage with my blood, then how does Alain leave?”

“He doesn’t,” Hakan said with brutal honesty. “Not until he reaches the border of
Dökkálfa
.”

Alain would have known this. He would be chasing or luring the Light Fey who had captured me towards Dark Fey lands. Once there he would be fine, but as I looked out over the lush and too vivid horizon, I recognised just how far inside
Ljósálfar
we were.

“He drew the short straw,” I murmured to myself, humbled and surprised at his sacrifice. How long would it take him to get there? How much danger would he be in until then?

“He drew the only straw available to him,” Hakan replied, stepping closer. “For only a Mhachkay can walk between worlds.”

Hakan was my ride out of here. Alain was the distraction. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Then Hakan’s hot breath met the side of my neck, the light touch of his fingers brushed my cheek, my jaw, my lips, and then trailed a hot path down to my collarbone.

“One bite,” he husked. “One drop. That’s all.”

One slice in the palm of our hands. One moment for our blood to mix.

One bite. One drop. That’s all.

I shivered. He growled. And then his arms wrapped around me, crushing me in his embrace, as hot lips sealed over my rapidly beating pulse, and his fangs entered the side of my neck.

I
’ve been bitten before
, of course. I’m no blood virgin. Hakan had even managed to get fang to neck once. But not like this. Not unhurried, outside of a confrontation. Not with my permission.

The giving of blood and taking of blood is a very necessary but sacred thing for a vampire. They need blood to survive. It’s their only source of food, if you discount single malt whisky, that is. But it is also that which gives them life. Power.

Kindred joinings are sealed with blood. The combining of blood via clasped palms. But they are also sealed with a bite. Not all joinings are intimate; Alain’s and mine wouldn’t be. At least, I didn’t think it would be, but I really wasn’t sure about that anymore. And it was just one more thing I didn’t want to think about.

Not with Hakan’s fangs in my neck, his tongue lapping at my blood, and the low, decidedly sexy growl vibrating through his body into mine. He clasped my shoulders, pressing me firmly against all that deliciously, hot, smooth skin, and drank my blood down like an exotic wine.

It was sensual without being obviously so. He didn’t feel me up. He didn’t cup my butt or press his thigh between my legs. He didn’t need to. He could simply let me feel what he was feeling, let the desire that raged through him wash into me.

Until I wasn’t sure whether it was his lust or mine that made me moan. Whether it was my images of us naked and sweaty, rolling around a sheet crumpled bed, sweat coating our skin, nails scratching, teeth biting, lips kissing, bodies melding… or all him. He groaned, his hands clasping me tighter, pulling me closer, but not moving from their rigid hold of my upper arms.

My
Sigillum
blazed, already replenished outside the cave’s wards, already giving away too much of my fucking emotions through the thin fabric of Hakan’s shirt. I moaned, arching my back, giving him better access to my neck, to my body, to me.

He only took the blood. I was left feeling frustrated, and strangely inadequate, until all thought of rejection left my mind as his fangs slipped free, and his tongue slowly licked the wound closed, and our surroundings came into better focus.

He was breathless. And shaking. His grip almost painful on my arms. And for a moment I wasn’t sure whether he could move, could think, could act. Whether he realised he’d brought us somewhere that matched the images to perfection, that had only recently stormed through my head. A large stately bed, the dark sheets crumpled, thick curtains closed over floor to ceiling windows, plush carpet soft beneath my feet, the smell of his signature scent all around me; surrounding me, filling me, making it impossible not to play those images of us over and over inside my head.

Oregano, mint, a crisp breeze off a salty ocean, sunlight and olive oil. Tulips. It was the most complicated signature scent I had ever encountered, but somehow it worked. And somehow it called to me. Spoke to me in a language I didn’t comprehend but my body understood regardless.

I pushed back against his hard, wide chest and placed some much needed space between us. I needed to think clearly. I needed to figure out where I was, how to get to my father, how to let him know Alain was in
Ljósálfar
in danger. I needed to find Luc. End this.

Get as far away from this mysterious, alluring,
dangerous
vampire as I could.

I lifted my eyes to his. He was watching me. A blue so vivid mixed with a silver so bright danced in swirls inside heavy lidded eyes. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, a fine layer of perspiration coated his caramel coloured skin. I wanted to lick my lips.

I stood frozen.

“Where are we?” I asked, infinitely relieved that my voice was steady.

“My home,” Hakan replied in equally steady tones.

I inhaled deeply through my nose, trying valiantly to ignore his signature scent which seemed to have expanded, wrapped around me, invaded every inch of my soul. I pushed past it, searching for clues, searching for something I could use against him. Something I could give my father, that we could use to find Luc.

“He isn’t here,” Hakan said, as if he’d read my mind and knew I was thinking of my brother. “This is my sanctuary.” I held his gaze and saw the message there.

No one came here. Not even Ediz. And yet this is what he’d shown me in those intimate moments when he’d been drinking my blood. This is where he brought me, when he broke the
Ljósálfar
wards.

Intentionally? I couldn’t tell. Nothing this vampire did made sense.

I shook my head, looked around the plush room we were standing in, realising it was also the same place I’d been called to back in the wharves, and then brought my attention back to Hakan.

“What now?” I could try to run, but my guess was we were in Turkey, in what used to be the Ottoman Empire. Eastern Europe, a world away from New Zealand. I might as well have been back in
Álfheimr
.

If I could find a Ley Line, I could get back to Auckland before it was too late for Alain. I could throw myself on the mercy of my father, ask for his help, like I should have asked for his help right from the start. Tell him everything.

The
Sigillum
. The ribbons of colour. The growing fear that there was more to come. More talents. More power. I knew what he would demand. I knew the price I’d have to pay. It’s why I’d been hiding from it all. It’s why I’d run
from
Papa and not
to
him.

He would insist I join with Alain. Not later. Not maybe. But now.

I stared into the blindingly blue eyes of the vampire before me, felt the ribbons twist and churn inside my gut, and knew I’d agree.

This - whatever
this
was between Hakan and me - was danger. A risk that even I wasn’t prepared to take.

“Do you want to help your brother?” Hakan asked, bringing everything back into vivid clarity.

My freedom of choice didn’t matter.

My desires or wants were irrelevant.

Luc needed me.

“Where is he?” I asked, the game shifting. The battle coming to a head. This was it.

“Choose me.”

I should have laughed; it
was
funny. How many people wanted my power but not me? There aren't that many Nosferatins. We’re definitely outnumbered. But I wasn’t merely a born vampire hunter, was I? Joining with me could bring far more for the kindred vampire than my power. Joining with me could mean anything.

Even for Luc could I do it?

“No.” The word was resolute. Hakan didn’t even blink.

“So you will join with your father’s spy master? You will bow to the Champion’s will and feed his empire?”

I let out a frustrated breath of air.

“And you think your demands are any better?” I growled. “You think capturing my brother and holding him over my head like the blade of a guillotine is better than what my father asks? At least my father is protecting me. Alain Dupont would do anything for Papa.”

Hakan looked at me with what I could only call pity.

It rocked me to my core.

Papa loved me. I knew he did. He loved me, maybe not as much as he loved Mama - it was a different kind of love - but he loved me more than any other being in the universe.

Survive at all costs
. A vampire’s number one motto.

Papa is vampyre. He loved me, but being vampyre came first.

I couldn’t breathe. For a second, I thought I was drowning. Then Luc’s face flashed before my eyes. Laughing and open, carefree and mischievous. Devilish in that debonair way of his. He understood me. He
got
me. He always did. When there was nowhere left to turn to, no one left to confide in, no place I could truly call home anymore… there was always Luc.

I loved my parents. I admired and respected them both. Occasionally, I might have feared my father, but no more than the fear a child has when she has done wrong.

Wanting control over my destiny was not wrong.

But allowing me that control was not my father’s to give.

Destiny was destiny. But where would my destiny lead?

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” I finally admitted. “But I refuse to be forced into anything.”

Hakan stared at me, that impassive mask vampires wear hiding his thoughts with ease. And then he nodded. One short nod of his head. I thought that was it. I thought we were done. The battle won with words not fists.

I was so far out of the loop.

“Then your brother is truly lost.”

Luc. That’s what it came down to. My twin. The other half of me. He is my mirror image. Smooth where I am rough. Humble where I am arrogant. Kind where I am hard. Loving where I am lethal. Luc is the better half of us. The more deserving. The one who should be free to choose.

“Why have you not joined with Luc?” I suddenly demanded. Attraction aside, joinings need not be intimate.

Hakan raised an imperious eyebrow at me. But didn’t reply in words. Instead his gaze drifted down my body, a heated touch without shifting a limb.

His answer was obvious and also a little too contrived.

I was missing something.

What now? Where did this leave me? If I agreed to join with Hakan, how could I ensure my brother’s safety? Once joined, I couldn’t kill Hakan, unless I was prepared to die myself. Symbiotic is the kindred relationship. If one dies, so does the other.

But I might be able to control him.

I knew so little of the Mhachkay. I snorted internally. I knew fuck all. But my father knew something. I needed to get home to Auckland, I needed to face Papa, and demand answers.

I let out a slow breath of air.

“OK,” I said. Hakan cocked his head, eyes narrowing. “I’ll do it.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But only if you let me speak to my father first.”

Now it was his turn to snort. Out loud.

“Do you think so little of me,
hayatim
?”

“What does that even mean?” I demanded, frustration gnawing at me, making me snap. This was useless. I was trapped. Just as much as Luc was.

And all because of this vampire.

“Sweetheart,” he said, watching me closely for a reaction.
Hayatim
meant sweetheart? I huffed incredulously. Sarcastic son of a bitch.

“Very original,” I sneered. He shrugged a shoulder, bringing my focus reluctantly back to his near nakedness.

Enough. I had to decide.

Risk Luc’s safety a little longer.

Or sacrifice myself on the slim hope Hakan would honour our bargain.

I knew little of the Mhachkay, but I’d learned a thing or two about this vampire who’d invaded my life.

He hadn’t harmed me, or taken advantage of my numerous weakened states, when he could have.

He’d not once attacked my family. My father.

If the Mhachkay were as powerful and influential as I was beginning to suspect, why hadn’t he done either of those things? He wanted me. He wanted my power through a kindred joining. He clearly despised my father, shared a history with him of some sort. Could that history be the key? Was he bound by an ancient accord?

It was a risk. But I am the risk taker in my family. Luc is steady. I am volatile.

And something told me, something twisting and turning in a flash of bright colours deep down inside, that this would work. That I could do it. Take the risk. Break the rules. Reach out with my Light.

I felt it there, thrumming. Returned to me as soon as we’d walked outside the Fairy’s wards.

So much at chance. So many players. Could I do this?

Wait for me, Luc
.

I spun across the small space between us, the ribbons excitedly dancing and turning inside. A flash of muted colours in a vividly colourful room. A splash of power entwining with a surge of
Sanguis Vitam
. Like met like.

But he’d been expecting it. He’d been waiting for my move. He knew me better than I knew myself. But I would not yield. I would not.

We smashed together. Bones creaking, breath exploding from straining lungs. Growls rent the peaceful aura of his bedroom. His teeth grazed my skin, so recently healed. My fingers scraped down his chest, muscles quivering. His eyes blazed cyan, silver and a bright white as close to lightning as I’d ever seen. Mesmerising. I redoubled my efforts. Light bound his wrists, his chest, tightening. And then with a roar and a ripple of muscles my hold slipped.

He was so much stronger than I’d realised. Just as determined as me not to lose.

I relished the challenge. I savoured the battle. This was no arena. There would be no applause at the conclusion. No chance to soak up victory in front of an adoring crowd. No coins lining my pocket at the end of a successful night.

No band containing my magic.

I had no sword. But I had my wits, my fists, and my body.

And I had my Light.

Part of me hails from my mother. Her Light is the brightest in the world. Mine and Luc’s come a close second. He’d not bettered this vampire. But then, when he’d faced him, he’d have been banded for the fight.

I was not.

I spun and danced. Hakan met me move for move in a dazzling display of subtle beauty. Our limbs entwined. Our breaths mingled. It was more of an enchantment than a battle. He lured me with such finesse. I tempted him with equal panache. We were so well matched it made my chest ache.

And as his fangs found purchase, and my Light swelled to a crescendo of brilliant, bright white, we exploded in a symphony of colours. Breathless, mindless, limbless. Two hearts. Two souls.

One drop of blood.

One blast of Light.

The room exploded. And all I heard was Hakan’s low, sexy laugh.

This is not over
,
hayatim,
he purred inside my head.
You are not safe
, he added, making me frown. As far as threats went, it was lacking.

And then he ramped up the menace factor by growling,
And you are already mine
.

Light burst apart, the world split in two, and with a crack of thunder which had more to do with my light than his Mhachkay ability to walk worlds, at a guess, I landed in a dishevelled heap on a cold marble floor in the middle of the
Iunctio’s
council room.