Family Secrets (Young Adult Edition) (Davenport Manor (Young Adult Edition)) (27 page)

They both silently obliged with Emma
seated in the middle and angling her body toward Aidan. Never in
her immortal life had she felt so defiant against him, she didn’t
think it was possible.

“Emma, you truly love this human,
don’t you?” Aidan questioned with a fascinated
curiosity.

“I do,” Emma answered steadily, filled
with warning.

“And Todd, you love her as well?
Knowing that she is the most dangerous predatory species on
Earth?”

“I don’t see her as a dangerous
predator and yes, I do love her,” Todd answered with confidence as
he took her hand.

After over a thousand years of walking
the Earth, Aidan had plenty of practice reading humans’ body
language. He could see that Todd felt a unity with Emma, even
though they no longer of the same species. He took a moment to
examine the two of them, eyeing them somewhat suspiciously as he
didn’t understand how they could care for each other the way that
they did.

“We’re going to put your devotion to
the test, my friend,” he said to Todd menacingly.

“We?” Emma asked
sarcastically.

“We,” he sternly replied. “I have
never allowed a living weapon to continue living, however I have
never been faced with a situation quite like this. I do believe
this can be used to our advantage.” He leaned back into the couch,
spreading his arms across the back and the side and resting his
ankle on top of his knee.

Emma’s suspicions were confirmed, she
knew exactly what Aidan was up to. “Go on,” she urged.

“I have never heard of a
vampire/living weapon romance in all my years. Emma, you have your
very own living weapon that I’m sure will not turn on you. I think
it would be essential for us…for
you
…to have that kind of power.”
Aidan explained, his eyes sparkling with supremacy. “Only one
vampire in the history of time has had their own weapon, this is a
rare occurrence.

“And how can I trust that you won’t
hunt him down and kill him once he goes home?” Emma
asked.

“Home?” Aidan mockingly
laughed. “He
is
home. He will have to live here from now on.”

Todd sputtered out questions,
completely surprised with Aidan’s response. While he had no qualms
about living in such a magnificent place, it would be difficult for
him to permanently leave London as he had never considered that
before. He also wondered just what this arrangement would entail,
how different his life would be, and for how long.

“It would be for the rest of your
life,” Aidan said.

“
And if I
don’t?”

“
Then, I will kill you.
You have to realize that we are not the only vampires that know
what you are. Even if I allowed you to return to London unharmed,
who’s to say that one of the other vampires wouldn’t take you out?
Or that they would tell another and word would spread? I’m not the
only hunter out there. Then, of course, you have to consider that
one of them might not kill you, but overtake you and keep you in
their own possession…like my own maker once did.”

“How did that work out for him?” Todd
questioned.

“Let’s just say that I wasn’t King
until my maker died…” Aidan responded with a raised
eyebrow.

“King?” Todd asked and looked to
Emma.

“Yeah, Aidan, I only gave
him need-to-know information. He didn’t know
you
were a King,” she said through
clenched teeth. She turned to Todd and said, “Remember how I told
you that the King of Europe was ancient? Well, Aidan is who I was
talking about.”

Todd’s eyes widened in both surprise
and fear. Not only was he dealing with a bossy, ancient vampire,
but an ancient vampire who happened to be extremely powerful within
their world.

“I remember you said that the rest of
the Kings and Queens were all offspring of the King of Europe…”
Todd said skeptically.

Aidan chuckled, completely amused by
Todd’s lack of knowledge about the situation he was in. He knew so
much, yet so little.

“Why are you laughing?” Todd asked him
with a cold glare.

“You are privileged to be
sitting in the same room as us, Todd,” Aidan bellowed, spreading
his arms wide, still laughing. “And yet, you have no clue how
fortunate you are, especially that you are a living weapon and
still breathing at this point.” Aidan manically turned serious, “I
don’t leave a living weapon still standing for more than a second.
You have no idea the kind of romantic luck you have…falling
for
her
, of all
vampires.”

“What are you getting at, Aidan?” Todd
asked, becoming impatient.

“I never told him, Aidan,” Emma said
quietly.

“Told me what?” He asked, turning
toward her.

“You will be very well protected here,
Todd. All the guards around the property are immortals…they work
for me,” she replied.

“
Work
for you?” Aidan said in mock
surprise. “More like they
serve
their Queen.”

Emma became fidgety, nervous because
she withheld a big piece of information about herself from Todd yet
again. She never thought she would have to tell him just how
powerful she was.

“Queen?” Todd said in barely a
whisper.

Emma sat up straight, proudly
affirming her title, “I’m the Vampire Queen of North America.
Zachariah is my second-in-command…the Prince. I have held this
title since 1816. Aidan turned me for the sole purpose of creating
a Queen for the region.”

Todd rubbed his face and shook his
head. He groaned into his hands, “Oh my gosh, what in the heck did
I get myself into?”

Aidan stood up from the couch and
said, “I’ll leave you to discuss the arrangements. It sounds like
the others are preparing drinks and I’m feeling a bit parched…” He
gave Emma a slight, regal bow and left the room.

Chapter 17

Emma took a moment to let Todd gather
his thoughts as she knew his mind was running wild. Life as he knew
it was about to change.

He finally spoke with urgency, “Tell
me everything now, I deserve to know.”

She nodded, “Yes, you do. I want to
start by telling you how sorry I am. By pursuing you I have ruined
all chances for you to live a normal, human life. I’m so sorry for
that and hope you’ll be able to forgive me.”

“You don’t need to apologize, neither
of us knew that I was this living weapon thing. I don’t blame you
entirely. But, I don’t want to be kept in the dark anymore, either.
Since I’m apparently going to be living here under your protection,
I think I deserve to know the truth.”

“I’ll start with Aidan’s story…his
maker was the very first vampire to ever exist and he ruled over
all vampires. Back then they didn’t have kings and queens; he was
it. Word had spread that there were rare humans whose blood would
kill a vampire and over time, vampires realized their only defense
against them was that they couldn’t charm them. That’s why we charm
someone before we feed on them.

“Since that was the only way to kill
us without a battle, Aidan’s maker became power-hungry and wanted
to have a living weapon of her own. She found one and held the
living weapon captive for several years, using him to kill vampires
who posed a threat to her. She was brutal, vicious, and had little
regard for human life and tried to teach Aidan her way of living.
But, even though he was a warrior in his human life, he couldn’t
stand her ruthlessness. She killed whomever she wanted…old, young,
men, women, and even children. It sickened him. We don’t need to
kill our victims to survive, we just need to drink some of their
blood and his maker knew that. She was pure evil and enjoyed the
pain she caused to humankind. Unfortunately for Aidan and all
vampires, she was the top dog and no one was about to ruffle her
feathers.

“In 1810, Aidan grew tired of her ways
after spending over a thousand years watching her cause so much
pain and misery to the human race. However, she trusted him since
he was her very first offspring…he is the second oldest vampire of
all time. With cooperation from her living weapon she was holding
captive, he took a small amount of the weapon’s blood and combined
it into a glass of untainted blood. He promised the weapon freedom
as long as he never spoke of their secret and as far as I know,
they both kept their word.”

“So, what happened to Aidan’s maker?
Did he get her to drink the blood?” Todd asked, completely immersed
into the story.

Emma nodded, “Like I said, Aidan’s
maker completely trusted him. So, when he presented a glass of
blood to her and had one for himself, she thought nothing of it,
and drank. That was the end of her. Aidan doesn’t speak much about
it because, no matter how disgusted he was by her behavior, she was
still his maker and he was devoted to her.

“After her ultimate death,
Aidan assumed the position of King of all vampires since he was
next in line as an heir. However, he had his hands full and had set
out to change the way vampires behaved. He alone couldn’t control
the amount of rogues that walked the Earth and was in need of help
in his authority. For the next several years he scoured every
country, every continent, looking for vampires to bring on as his
back-up, but none were suitable to his liking. He ultimately
decided to create his own offspring, to train us the way
he
wanted, to rank with
him as vampire royalty. I was the first; he liked my free spirit
and the fact that I was an adult, yet had no husband or children to
leave behind. He stayed here for a year, teaching me how to be a
vampire, his rules, and ultimately introduced me to the world as
the Queen of North America. I may carry a lot of guilt over the
things I have done in my past and sadness from losing my human
life…but, Aidan was right when he made me. I was born to be a
vampire.”

Emma blinked her eyes and returned to
the present time after visiting the past.

“So, Aidan isn’t as bad as I thought
he was?” Todd asked.

With a soft smile she replied, “No,
he’s not, he’s actually quite good compared to others. He does have
a dose of humanity in him, but in the end, he is still a vampire
and a bit old fashioned.”

“I have to tell you thank you…for
defending for me tonight. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around
the fact that you protect me and not vice-versa. I’m not good at
being a damsel in distress,” he laughed.

“You’re welcome, love. I couldn’t let
anything happen to you and I will always protect you. I have
mastered the art of defense over the years, it’s what I live
for.”

“So, what happens now? What does all
this mean for me?” Todd knew that it was going to be so much more
than just being under protection at the Manor. He was well aware
that if it came down to it, he would be used as a weapon against
other vampires.

“Well, we’ll prepare everything for
you to move in, cover the government legalities and such,” she
replied as she tried to think of the things they would need to do
to get him officially moved quickly. “I can send a few of my guards
to go to London and bring your things.”

“What about family and friends? Will I
be able to have visitors?”

“Of course! But, you just can’t tell
them the reason why you’re here. You can just tell them that we
fell in love and I asked you to move in, I suppose.”

Todd paused and gazed at her, since he
couldn’t be charmed into falling out of love with her. “And what
about us?” He quietly asked.

She touched his face, “We’ll cross
that bridge when we have to. You just have to understand
something…I am not human. I don’t have the same morals as humans do
and it is not in my nature to be monogamous, if you’re picking up
what I’m putting down…”

“I am,” he answered. He knew that
jealous times were ahead of him, that she would be with someone
else and there would be nothing he could do about it. He blankly
stared at the floor and said, “I’ll always love you,
though.”

She ran her fingers through his wavy,
messy hair and turned his head to look back at her. Her seductive
eyes invited him back to her as a lover, not as a captive. She
leaned in and gently kissed his warm lips, a welcome contrast from
her cold ones. “Me, too. And I think we need to push all this
living weapon talk aside for now and finish what we started
earlier.”

He pulled her onto him, straddling his
lap, and kissed her hard. “I couldn’t agree more,” he breathed,
grabbing onto her hips. “Just one thing…”

“What?” She asked, stopping all
motions.

“Don’t bite me,” he
smirked.