In the Beginning... (12 page)

But it wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. This man
had taken her from her home with every intention of keeping her
prisoner here forever. What if Rand and Uncle Jason never found
them? What if her family thought she and the others were all dead?
These men obviously had the means to ensure that she and Josey,
Mal, and Emily were never found. What would they do then?

That thought kept reverberating through
Mickey’s head. What would she do if help never came? How long would
he be content to keep his promise not to touch her? Or would she
truly develop a case of Stockholm Syndrome?

What if she just wasn’t strong enough to
resist him after so much time had passed?

She wiped a tear away as she pulled back the
wine-colored silk that covered his bed.

What was she going to do?

Mickey pulled the blankets over herself, but
knew she wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon. The book beckoned, and
she grabbed it. Ran her fingers over the gold etched on the
cover.

She opened it to the first
page of writing, surprised to see it was hand written. A journal.
Was it his? Who else’s would it be in his private office? The first
line immediately caught her attention. It
was
in English. Just like she’d known
it would be. How old was it?

My dearest little love,

How I have longed for you. More so today
than any other...A good friend was lost to me this day when he lost
his own mate. They had been together only six short years. She and
the babe both gone, and my friend chose not to continue his
existence. I cannot blame him. Were it you, I would not wish to
live another day, either...

Mickey continued reading,
wondering again if it was
his.
The book went on to chronicle the author’s life,
starting at around what she estimated the mid-1600s. The author was
an intelligent man, she could easily see that. She couldn’t
pinpoint his age, but if what the vampire Theo had told her, the
author could be hundreds of years old. How long did a Dardaptoan
live?

Mickey paused her reading as she finally
admitted to herself that she was extremely curious about this
species that she’d never even imagined existed. Was it because she
was starting to believe him when he’d said she was now like
him?

What did that mean for her? How could she go
home to her own life, knowing she’d need to drink blood in order to
live? What if she became like one of the vampires she’d seen in
movies or in the books she’d read? Was there some truth to those
myths? Myth began in fact, in many cases.

She closed her eyes and
forced herself to take deep breaths, to push the sense of panic
away again. Her hands tightened on the book and she forced herself
to keep reading. Several pages in she found another reference to
the author’s
Rajni
.

My dearest little love,

The Goddess spoke to me
again last night in dreams. Told me to stay strong, that one day I
would find you. Told me that you had yet to be born, and wouldn’t
be until well after the time man steps foot on the moon...but She
has yet to tell me just when that will be. The humans that live
near me are so primitive at times. Their science is only now just
beginning. Travel to the moon is far from now.
You
are so far from now. How am I to
stay resolute? How can the Goddess ask such of me?

His longing for the woman he wrote to was so
deeply imbedded into the words. Mickey almost hurt for him.

What
would
it be like to know that you had
one person, just one special being on the earth, who was meant for
only you?

She’d never dated anyone past a first date or
two. Not since she was sixteen and barely beginning to date. Not
since the day Mallory had been attacked. She’d been too afraid to.
Too untrusting. After her sister’s attack, she’d done research into
rape, and how to help her sister heal. The statistics of women
attacked by men they knew had terrified her.

What she’d read had scared her to the point
that she’d struggled to trust men at all. Instead, she’d focused on
her education. Focused on trying to understand why people did the
things they did to each other. She’d kept that focus primary in her
goals, and once her internship with the legal department at Taniss
Industries was completed in a few months, she’d planned on finding
a position with a law firm nearby.

Mickey had always dreamed
about finding a man who would love her, a man she could trust. A
man she could make a life with. Someone she could be happy
with. What would it have been like if she’d
known
someone like that would be out there
someday, just for her?

She probably would have been even more
selective in who she spent her time with. As it was, she’d spent
most of her free time with her cousin Josey. Less than six months
separated them, and they’d lived next door to each other their
entire lives. Gone to school together, played together every day,
everything.

For a moment Mickey wanted to do nothing but
run to her cousin and best friend and just cling to her. But Josey
was somewhere in this damned hotel, with that monster who’d hurt
her. And he had hurt her; Mickey had easily seen the bruises on her
cousin’s wrists and neck. They’d hurt all of them—Mal, Josey, and
Emily. They’d all had bruises.

Except for Mickey.
He
had only hurt her when
he’d changed her to be like him. Why was he so much gentler than
the others?

She read a bit more, until exhaustion
overtook her. Her dreams were filled with strange images of
vampires and the one who’d taken her. The next time she woke, she
had the book clutched to her chest and could just see the outline
of him where he slept on the couch. Her heart rate settled back
into an even rhythm as she stared at him. She placed the book on
the nightstand as one thought occurred to her.

The vampire had kept his word.

He was just as courteous to her the next
morning when she woke as he’d been the day before. It had her
disconcerted. Was he always like that?

He’d even offered her a choice—accompany him
while he sat in court all day or spend the day with her
cousins.

She’d chosen her cousins, but admitted to
herself the idea of watching the law proceedings did intrigue her.
If she hadn’t been with him unwillingly...

The sitting room he’d led her to was one
she’d seen the day before. He told her it was for her and her
cousins’ exclusive use. Mal and Em were already in the room.

Theo kissed her forehead, the gesture
startling her at how quick it happened. “Enjoy your time with your
family, my dearest little love. I will probably be tied up for most
of the day. We have several different cases on the docket for
today. I’ll return to you around five-ish. If you need anything,
push that button right there. It will bring Haneam. She will help
you in whatever you need.”

Mickey didn’t know what else do or say, so
she nodded and thanked him.

When he was gone, she dropped to the couch.
Her sister hugged her. “Oh, Mal...”

“I know. Pretty mucked up, isn’t it?” Mal’s
arms were tight around her, and Mickey returned the embrace for a
moment. She’d always gone to her sister for comfort.

“So what are we going to do?” Emily asked. “I
can’t just see us staying here for the rest of our lives.”

“But we can’t go home. The damned beast put
it very bluntly. We can’t be around the rest of our family without
presenting serious danger,” Mal said. “At least not for a
while.”

“We’ll have to figure out something.” Emily
stood and paced around the room, stopping beside the window that
overlooked the gardens. “They truly believe that we are supposed to
be here with them. They all can’t be crazy.”

“Do you think they are right about
Grandfather?” Mickey whispered the question that she’d refused to
think about since the Dardaptoans had first told them why they’d
been taken.

“Would it surprise me?” Mal joined Emily at
the window. She looked over her shoulder at Mickey. “Not at all. We
all know Grandfather is a bastard. Why would this be any different?
I guess the real question is whether these creatures are bigger
monsters than Grandfather. And if not, what are we going to do
next?”

“Mark time until Rand and Uncle Jason find
us.” Mickey knew that was what they had to do. That was really the
only option. This place was locked up tighter than any fortress or
prison. Until someone came to get them, or these Dardaptoans agreed
to free them, they were not going to get anywhere. She understood
how that would frustrate Emily and Mallory. The two were used to
taking action, to leading the rest of their siblings and cousins
through different situations. But they couldn’t do that now. “We
need to cooperate as much as possible, not cause problems. Not make
these people angry for any reason.”

“We know Rand is coming for us,” Mallory
added. “I think—as much as it burns me to admit it—that Mickey is
right. We have to play nice if we are to ever get off of this
playground.”

Mickey was the last one to leave the sitting
room. The king and Aodhan came for Emily and Mallory together.
Mickey didn’t want to let them go, didn’t want to be alone again.
But what could she do?

So she hugged her sister and cousin and then
curled up on the couch. Her hand landed on the journal. It had
slipped behind the sofa pillow sometime earlier. Now it was if it
was just waiting for her to pick it up again.

She had nothing else to do but wait for Theo
to come for her. She didn’t feel comfortable exploring the hotel on
her own. Not with all these strange people watching her. She opened
to the entry she’d finished the night before.

My dearest little love,

The days, years, without
you, are growing more bleak. My sight is lessening every day, as
the visions the Goddess grants me come more frequently. Today
I
saw
the deaths of
more of my friends, yet I can do nothing about these visions. It is
not the Goddess’s way for me to interfere. Sometimes I wonder what
the purpose of these visions are.

Are they just to hurt me, to cause me pain
as I am forced to do nothing for the ones that I love?

I apologize, my love; I do not wish to
burden you with these things. It is my job to protect you and love
you, not to sadden your heart...

What would
it be like to know what was going to happen to
someone, but be unable to do anything about it? What if she’d known
her aunt was going to die? Or had known what was going to happen to
her sister eight years ago? What if she’d known and been unable to
help them at all?

That would be horrible.

Mickey continued to read until he came for
her an hour later.

She hurriedly closed the book and slipped it
into the deep pocket on the loose pants she wore. She watched his
face for a moment, trying to gauge his mood.

He looked...sad. Defeated. He bowed to her,
then wrapped his fingers around her elbow. Drew them down her arm
to her hand. She’d noticed he’d done that before. Because he was
blind? Did he see her at all? She studied his eyes, but couldn’t
tell. “Do you see me at all?”

Surprise hit his face. “I
can see your shadow, where you are standing with the light behind
you. I cannot see the color of your eyes, or the color of your
hair. But I know how tall you are, and how you feel against me.
I
know
you have
green eyes and red gold hair. And that your body pleases me. I have
had visions of you in the past and that tells me what you look
like. But what you look like does not matter to me. You are the
woman the Goddess chose for me and I will love and care for you
always, and would even if you were not as beautiful as you
are.”

Heat hit her cheeks. What was she supposed to
say to that? “Have you always been blind? I need glasses, but
nothing major.”

He tugged at her hand, leading her from the
sitting room. “No. For ones of my family, we made a pact with the
Goddess over three thousand years ago. She gave us the gift of
precognition. But all know that any gift of that nature must come
with a price. Everything worth value must.”

“And your vision was that
price? For your
entire
family? That sounds pretty excessive.”

“It does. But most in my
family have had great gifts. My youngest sister is a remarkable
healer, though she is but fifty years. Her sight has already begun
to leave. But we all are taught that that is the price of being
gifted. My brother also heals, and his sight is barely enough for
him to drive a vehicle under your laws—with aid from spectacles.
Only
our
children
will not have such a burden.”

Mickey’s eyes widened. Was he saying... “We
won’t have children together! You’ve kidnapped me.”

“I did not mean to mention
it so quickly, so soon. You and I will
have
children. I have seen as such.”

“How many, then? And when? Boys or girls?
Tell me something that will make me believe.”

He hesitated. What would her response be if
he told her the truth? What human woman would react positively to
learning that eleven children were in her future over the next
seventy years?

“Well?”

“Our first will be born
within the year. She will have your hair and my eyes. And will
never
lose her sight, despite having great
gifts. We will name her after your mother’s mother. Your
grandmother’s middle name. You’ve always wanted to use it for a
girl child.
Calanthia.
We will call her Lannie. She will have many more siblings
through the years. Mostly girls, though we will have several sons
to bedevil us.” Truth. There would always be truth between them. No
matter how difficult it was, he would ensure honesty was the basis
of their marriage.