Defeat the Darkness (Hearts of Darkness) (20 page)

If he couldn’t convince her to take more time off at least he could bully her into more tests. He had to find out more about the mutation in her blood.

Chapter 25 Training

One week later, Sang-froid Estate, St. Loupe Parrish

Before dawn and after sunset Dylan worked with Jackson and Kyle practicing an ancient form of Tai Chi. After the evening ritual, Kyle hunted the swamps as the jaguar to build his strength and Jackson joined the wolf pack for more training.

The late afternoons, Kyle trained with Dylan in the weight room. The gym in the lower level of the estate was better equipped than any he’d seen. The Olympic sized pool, hot tub, steam room and sauna rivaled the best anywhere. Kyle noted Dylan apparently took training seriously.

Although he was significantly stronger in his jaguar form, training as a human built muscle more effectively. He flexed his biceps, which were now twice their normal size, and checked out his torso. He’d packed on some bulk since he’d arrived.

Kyle wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and repositioned the weights before he tested their weight. They felt like nothing to him now compared to when he’d first started working out. He was gaining ground fast. Kyle added extra plates to the bar and lifted. Good. He felt the difference. He had a lot of ground to cover before he completed his transition and training. Stasis would begin any day now.

“How long before I complete my transition?” he asked Dylan.

“There’s no way of telling. It’s different for different people.” Dylan picked up the other set of barbells and pumped them as if they were feather-light. He pumped so fast Kyle couldn’t make out the plates.

“Take advantage of this time to build yourself up physically.”

Kyle never saw anyone work out with Dylan’s vengeance. He claimed he worked out for the pleasure—but Kyle suspected it was more. The truth was Dylan needed a way to derive those near-death-experience endorphins he used to get after a good battle. Swords and axes weren’t weapons of choice anymore, and he claimed guns just didn’t give him the same rush—too impersonal. Although he claimed to be a leader, appreciative of the finer things in life, the mercenary warrior mentality he’d once had was still evident. If his body hadn’t changed in over three hundred years, then neither had his need for action. He seemed to enjoy his workouts, especially the ones Kyle knew he did in private.

Last week, Kyle accidently intruded. He observed Dylan swinging a battleax, beheading, and gutting a straw soldier in his private garden. He moved like a dancer, all grace and power, effortlessly wielding the weapons and an old beat up shield in rapid choreographed actions until he was nothing more than a blur of motion. When he finished, he glanced over at Kyle and said, grinning broadly, “With a bit more practice you can take the dummy’s place.”

Kyle shook his head, “Never. You’re too good for the likes of me. I’d never be foolish enough to take you on at your own game. Now let me stalk you out in the swamp and it might be a slightly more even match.”

Dylan tossed Kyle his broadsword. Even with his added muscle and strength, the thing weighed a ton and Dylan wielded it as if it weighed little or nothing.

He wondered, “You think I’ll ever be able to function or adjust to this life as easily as you and Victor have?”

Dylan took a swig from the flask filled with his favorite blood type. “Ask yourself that question later. In three hundred years see how you feel.”

“Point taken.”

“If you develop strength in your weakest state, then when you shift into the jaguar, you’ll be many times stronger. Look how well you’re doing. When you emerge from stasis you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

“I hope so.”

Stasis was the time when new vampires went to ground to finish their metamorphosis. Dylan likened it to a caterpillar going
into a chrysalis and coming out as a butterfly. Kyle wondered what he’d be when he emerged.

“Is something wrong?” Dylan asked.

“No, nothing. Just tired.”

“There’s not much time left before you go into stasis. Don’t forget you’re building muscle for eternity.”

“Yeah. I got the drift.” Kyle puffed out a breath and returned to his weights.

Dylan didn’t break a sweat while Kyle grunted, breathing like a locomotive chugging uphill. At times like this, when his tolerance was being tested, his vision narrowed and the light in the room grew brighter. If it was either his jaguar or vampire testing his control, his peripheral vision usually broadened. Since Kyle hadn’t finished his transition, he hadn’t reached his full potential—not with his vampire powers. Thank goodness, the demon powers hadn’t begun to manifest, either.

He took a few deep breaths and cleared his mind of negative thoughts the way Salazar taught him and focused on the work out. The more strength, control, and power he accumulated before he entered stasis, the stronger he would be when he emerged. And if he had an eternity to deal with the likes of Amyra, he’d need every bit of power he could muster.

~~~~

Until Kyle learned to control his blood lust, Dylan suggested he stay away from contact with most humans. Fortunately, the estate was well out of town and isolated. So far, the few people Kyle had met weren’t what he exactly would call human. The downside was he hadn’t been able to feed without Dylan’s help. Soon he’d have to face the process by himself. Until he completed his transition, human blood from the vein was the one way for him to progress. Dylan provided the humans and Kyle practiced erasing their memories. Although he was never at a loss for volunteers, one day Kyle would have to handle the hunt and learn how to wield the vampire art of persuasion on his own.

Between human volunteers, Kyle used bagged blood to control his vampire bloodlust, but for strength, the jaguar inside him needed the hunt. Deep in the dark, desolate swamps, he shifted
alone, and nightly hunted everything from swamp deer to gators. Even then, he avoided straying too far from the estate and always stayed within the Parrish. He didn’t know how long it would be before he could risk going near humans on his own, let alone visiting the old neighborhood where he and Shelby had lived.

There would be no point opening that old wound. Besides, there was too much to learn from Dylan and his friends before he risked being on his own. During the time he spent with them, he grew stronger both mentally and physically. He even developed new friendships within the local community. A few of the werewolves and most of the vampires provided him with support and advice. Despite their help, losing Shelby and his old life had emotionally crushed him. The depression settled like a dark mourning veil. Working out was one way to suppress the anger.

“You know how I promised to fill you in on Niccolai’s story? Now might be a good time.”

“Why now? Am I broadcasting my thoughts again?”

“No. I’m still blocking them when you get like this.”

“Like what?” Kyle hadn’t realized he was so transparent. Being back in the New Orleans vicinity intensified his black moods. Sometimes the darkness rose like the demon lurking within him.

Dylan tilted his head in question. “You think I haven’t noticed your moods?”

Kyle sensed the evil like a distant hum in the back of his mind whenever frustration or anger got the best of him. Leaving Guatemala hadn’t changed anything. Just because the demon hadn’t manifested itself didn’t mean it wasn’t there threatening to engulf his humanity. Dylan probably sensed it too.

“What does it matter? Nothing can change what I’ve become.”

“Kyle, listen to me. Perhaps you can come to understand why you’re feeling so dark.”

“It’s the demon—”

“Don’t be so certain to blame the feelings on something you haven’t seen, yet. Let me tell you about Nicci while we work out today. Maybe you’ll discover it’s something else.”

“I’m all ears.” Kyle gave him a half-hearted grin.

Dylan shook his head and started his story.

“Niccolai Xenos is one of the oldest living vampires. He doesn’t share much about the ancients, but he is notably trustworthy. After living thousands of years, he discovered the natural born vampires were becoming sterile. The only way to continue the species was to create new vampires from other supernatural species.”

“I can’t believe there are so many other species. Are all the created vampires descendants of some other species with supernatural DNA?” Victor already had told Kyle about how the transition worked.

“Yes. There are more beings with the potential than we believed. Apparently, the chromosome doesn’t have to be on a dominant gene. In fact, from the studies I’ve read, it’s more than likely found on a recessive gene. Which is why we don’t see the change coming. Most of us have no idea our ancestors had special abilities.”

“What about you? Did you know?”

Dylan’s expression grew distant. “Yes. My father was a descendant of the berserkers and my mother had fae blood. By the time I encountered Nicci, I knew what I was.”

“Berserker? Fae?” Kyle sat down hard on the workout bench. “What the hell is a berserker?”

Dylan walked to the storage compartment where the bagged blood was stored and took out two bags. He tossed one to Kyle, fed, and waited before getting to the point. “You know. You’ve seen them in movies.”

“The huge, crazy-ass warriors wielding hammers and battle-axes?”

“Yes. We can review my past one day in gory detail if you’d like. All that aside, you need to understand more about what you are. For the most part, vampires are a promiscuous lot. We live a long time and sex is associated with feeding. But mating is different. Vampires mate for life when they discover their soul mate. If their soul mate dies, the vampire’s grief is so overwhelming, he or she goes insane. The remedy is for the vampire to go to ground until his mind heals. Unfortunately, it takes some a very long time to find a soul mate. Some never do. The older the vampire, the longer it takes to heal.”

“Niccolai is grieving for Jackson’s mother?”

“Yes.” Dylan sat down on the weight bench and gazed at nothing. “I believe he foresaw all this. I don’t know how, but before he turned me, we sensed a connection between us. I swore my allegiance to him and we both knew I’d never let him down.”

That made sense. Dylan was just that kind of guy. “What does this have to do with my moodiness?”

“Don’t you know? Haven’t you sensed it? I believe the reason you are so disturbed by what is happening is because Shelby’s your soul mate—”

“No—”

“Yes. Sorry, Kyle. You’re reacting like a vampire who hasn’t claimed his soul mate. It won’t affect you as badly because you’re new and haven’t fully bonded with her as a vampire, but nevertheless, you’re suffering from denying her. It’s better to face the situation than wonder about it.”

“Say you’re right,” he said, knowing Dylan was precisely right, “what if we never bond?”

“You’ll be a surly son-of-a-bitch to be around. Worse than you are now.” Dylan laughed. “I might have to skewer you on my broadsword every now and again if you piss me off, but you’ll live.”

“Dylan? Have you ever—?”

“No. I haven’t found a soul mate. I’ve been in love and lust plenty over the long years, but a soul mate I have not encountered, yet.”

“Probably just as well, given the potential for pain.”

He chuckled. “I’ve been told the pain is worth enduring for millennia, so great is the pleasure of a soul mate bond.”

Kyle shook his head. “In my case, it can never be. I would never expose Shelby to this dark side, and if I ever weakened, and succumbed to the soul mate bond, I would inevitably lose her and find myself in the same predicament Niccolai is in now.”

“True. I thought you should know. It should be an informed choice.”

“Consider me informed. My choice is to keep her out of this.”

~~~~

When Kyle could, he volunteered at the clinic in the Parrish. If he couldn’t go back to his old life, there was still plenty he could do for the locals. His new specialty was rapidly becoming supernatural health care.

The next week, Dylan brought in more human donors than usual. Kyle mastered controlling his hunger and erasing their memories when he was through feeding. There were still many finer points to learn about his abilities from Dylan and a wolf shifter named Garr when he discovered he harbored another ability.

Garr, the wolf who was in charge of Jackson’s training, agreed to help Kyle out, including him in Jackson’s lessons with a few other younger wolves. While Dylan researched Kyle’s family tree, Garr taught him how shifting worked.

During the last few nights, the jaguar retreated during practice. Lately, the cat refused to surface around the wolves. He felt the jaguar stubbornly retreat to the back of his mind, hissing like a wet cat. Last night, after a few failed efforts at coaxing the jaguar to the surface, Kyle’s jaw elongated and his vision changed. He began shifting and the cat inside his head screamed. His body started the bone cracking pain but the cat stayed behind. He dropped to his knees, ordering the cat to stop holding back. But as all cats do, he ignored him.

The battle was almost as painful as his first shift. He was definitely shifting, but into what? When the pain eased, he stood and shook, glaring out at the pack from behind his eyes. A howl rang out in the night, and Kyle suddenly realized it came from him.