Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (30 page)

“I’m fine,” I
said shakily.  “At least, I think I’m fine.”  I sighed.  “I really don’t know
what I feel right now.”

Actually, I was
freaking terrified, but mostly of myself.  I had no idea what would have
happened if they hadn’t been able to stop my little rampage.  And my attackers
had been
human
.  Of all the dangers I had encountered in the last few
months, I had never expected it would be humans attacking me.  Or that I would
attack back.  I swallowed, feeling sick.

I was startled
to see tears standing in Ailis’s eyes.  “I’m so sorry that we weren’t there to
protect you,” she said hoarsely.  “I’m just concerned...” she trailed off and
took a deep breath before continuing.  “Christian said that the man, the one
who… well, he said you’d been abused.”  Her pretty eyes met mine.  “I was raped
when I was young.”  I stared, wide-eyed at her blunt revelation.  I had often
wondered about her past, but was hesitant to ask.

Ailis sat back,
nodding slightly.  “It was before I was turned, when I was still a human.”  She
glanced at me and I nodded in encouragement.

“I was born a
peasant, and I was a woman.  My life was worth less than the wheat that grew in
our fields,” she stated simply. “I was walking back from the fields one evening
when I accidentally ran across a group of soldiers.  They had been drinking all
afternoon, by the looks of it.”

She folded her
hands in her lap and stared at the wall, her gaze going distant with memory. 
“I tried to get away, but I just wasn’t strong enough.  They brutalized me
-every one of them.  I was a virgin.  They did things to me that I couldn’t
even imagine.  Then they left me for dead.  They threw me away like a piece of
trash along the roadside.”

Tears were
standing in her beautiful dove gray eyes, and she dashed them away absently
with the back of her hand.  “I was fading in and out of consciousness.  I heard
a horse approaching, and raised voices some way off.  Then I heard men
screaming.  I drifted off, but when I came to again it was quiet.  The soldiers
were gone, and there were a pair of cool, gentle hands on my shoulders.”

She smiled
wryly.  “The sun was just slipping out of sight and the twilight had a golden
glow.  He looked like an angel with those yellow curls, and I thought that he
must be there to take me to heaven.  I knew I was dying, I didn’t even hurt
anymore.”

She nodded at my
dawning disbelief.  “Dominic.  He’d been returning from an errand for the king
when he happened on the soldiers, who were bragging about what they had done. 
He slaughtered them.  Every last one.”  She shrugged, un-moved by the gruesome
facts- not that I blamed her.  “I think he was fed up with cleaning up the
king’s messes all the time, so it wasn’t really about me.  But I blamed myself
for a long time, even though I was glad they were dead.”

He had
apparently resigned himself to cleaning up the mess and went in search of the
Ailis in order to dispose of the body.  But when he found her, she was still
clinging to life.  The men had damaged her internally, and she was dying even
as he gazed down at her, a crumpled flower trampled along the roadside.

“For some
reason, he couldn’t let me die,” she said softly.  “He has never told me why to
this day.  I know for a fact that he hates women, and even more so back then
when he had just gotten free of his maker.  I think maybe he was lonely.”

She shrugged in
wonder before continuing.  “So he turned me.  He began the process right there
on the roadside and took me to live with him.  By that time he had been serving
kings for years.”  She smiled a little in memory.  “We had a little stone house
with a gated yard, and a couple of honest to God servants.  That took a while
to sink in- that I didn’t have to
work
anymore.”

 I stared at her
in wonder.  I had no idea that Dominic had been the one to turn Ailis.  I’d
thought them just acquaintances.  I had assumed that Argenou was her master.  I
had a feeling that was significant in some way, but at the moment, I just
couldn’t bring myself to care about vampire politics.

“When I realized
what I had become, I wanted to die,” she said quietly.  “I was badly
traumatized by the rape- by my murder.  And even though those men were evil, I
felt responsible for their deaths.  Dominic saved me, in more ways than one. 
He was twisted and warped and abused by the queen, but he somehow kept that
part of his life away from me.  He never made a single sexual advance toward
me, though he brought a constant stream of beautiful young men to our house for
us to feed on- footmen, and menservants, and vassals for the king.  Eventually
I healed.  But if it hadn’t been for him, I would have killed myself a second
time.  I tried, repeatedly, but Dominic was always there to stop me.  He showed
me that I was no longer at the mercy of men-that I was more powerful than any of
them.”  She gave me a direct look.  “He promised me it would get better.  And
it did.”

I looked down at
my hands, thinking about what she had said, and why.  She was telling me that
it would get better.  She was showing me that she had lived through much, much
worse and was fine.  And that it was normal to feel guilty for the death of my
tormentor.

I hugged her
impulsively, whispering into her hair.  “Ailis, I’m so sorry.”

She released
me.  “You shouldn’t be feeling sorry for me.  It was a very long time ago,” she
said softly, “in another life.”  She laughed, genuinely this time, if with a
note of sadness.  “And look at me now.  I wouldn’t have missed out on this life
if it spared me pain in that one.”

I nodded in
understanding.  I had been feeling like I’d lost something ever since we left
that basement.  Now I understood what it was, not just my control over my
powers, but my innocence, my perspective on life.  I was beginning to
understand just how screwed up things could be.  There were monsters out roaming
the world; and yet, it was my own kind that had hurt me.  A little piece of me
had died when I gained that knowledge.

I twitched my
shoulders uncomfortably.  Ailis was still able to shed tears over her
experience hundreds of years later, but here I was, emotionless.  Maybe I
should be feeling more than I was.  In all actuality it was the kidnapping and
physical violence that had affected me the worst.  For some reason I never
really looked at sex the way most humans would.  So the man had done something
gross to me.  I washed it away with my bath water.  My lack of emotional
response to the whole incident was unsettling.  The worst part though, was what
I’d done in retaliation.  I had no idea I could lose myself like that.  And
it
had felt so good
.

“Ailis,” I said
seriously.  “I’m not going to try to kill myself.”  I shrugged.  “What’s really
scary is that I almost killed everyone in that room.  Maybe even you and
Christian.”

Speak of the
devil.  Christian padded softly into the living room, barefoot and with his
unbound hair floating about him like a cloak.  For a moment I could see how not
human he was.  How essentially ancient and
other
.  Ailis glanced at him
and said, “She’s going to be fine.”

He just smiled. 
This wasn’t news to him.  As an alpha, he had probably seen what abused and
broken looked like.  And it wasn’t me.  Not this time.  Not quite.  I rubbed my
temples.  My head was still pounding, even after my hot bath, and I felt
exhausted.  I glanced up at him meekly, wondering if he would see me
differently now that he knew what I was capable of.

“Thanks for
helping me,” I said softly.

He lifted a
shoulder in a half-shrug.  “I am sorry that we took so long to find you.  I
could hear you calling me, but it was weak at first.”

Ailis grinned.  “You
should have seen us Mya, driving around town in circles while he listened to
something only he could hear.  Thank God the cops didn’t pull us over for
speeding.”

Christian
chuckled and winked at me.  “I was not exactly calm and collected.”  Ailis rolled
her eyes and snorted.

He pulled up an
arm chair, scooting it up to sit facing me.  Leaning forward, he took my hands
in his, his giant mitts completely engulfing mine.  “You scared me,” he said
bluntly.

I nodded,
looking down.  “I scared myself,” I whispered.  I shivered at the memory of my
black hands.  “The power felt so good,” I said, glancing at Ailis.  I imagined
it was close to what she must feel when she was in vampire mode.  She nodded in
understanding.

“I don’t know
what came over me,” I said, fearful.  “I’m never going to learn to control this
and I’m afraid I won’t be able to live with myself if I…if I...”  I paused,
struggling to keep myself from flying off the handle.  “It’s getting stronger,”
I whispered haltingly.  I looked at them both earnestly.  “What if I hurt one
of you?  I could never live with myself.”

Ailis shrugged. 
“We choose to be with you, Mya.  The responsibility for any harm you could ever
do is ours.”

Christian
nodded.  “You will learn control,” he said softly.  “You are getting stronger
every day.”  He let go of my hands and sat back.  “It took me years to be able
to control my wolf.”

I nodded and the
pain pulsed in my head.  I stifled a moan and rubbed my temples. Christian
leaned forward once more.  “Headache again?” he asked in concern. 

I merely nodded
without opening my eyes. “They seem to be getting worse,” I said through
clenched teeth.  The headaches seemed to be more intense the more I tried to
use my abilities.  Maybe my weak human body just wasn’t able to channel this
much power.

He brushed my
hair back from my face and Ailis rubbed my arm consolingly.  “How long has this
one lasted?”  Christian had been tracking my headaches, thinking that they had
something to do with my developing powers.  I had to admit, I think he was
right.

 I sighed. 
“Since the day after you left, I think.  But using my power…maybe I’m having a
stroke.”  The pain was blinding.

He stood and my
eyes flew open as he scooped me up off the couch without warning.  “Come with
me and I will make it better.”  He had never been timid.

I blushed and
Ailis smiled enviously over his shoulder.  “I guess I know when I’m not
wanted,” she said wryly as she left to go inspect our house for stray cult
members. 

Christian was
right.  He tucked me in bed, curling his big, warm body around me so that I
felt safe and loved.  Then he sent his power dancing gently over me.  The
headache eased immediately, and I drifted off to sleep.

I sighed and
stretched out my legs.  Leaning back against the picnic table, I turned my face
to the rising sun.  I covered a jaw-popping yawn.  My life had fallen into its
usual routine again, minus the night shift.  I found that Christian was right. 
I bounced back from my abduction faster than I had thought anyone could.  I
only had one rough night.

I had a
nightmare that faded with waking, leaving me with a sense of fear and images of
blood and violence.  Christian had sensed me waking.  He pulled me to him and
fitted himself to my body.  I had expected him to make love to me then, knowing
that he could easily erase those memories from my mind, but he hadn’t.  Instead
he had begun to sing, his soft, deep bass rumbling through me, relaxing away
all my fear.  I couldn’t understand the words, and I guessed that I was probably
hearing a language at least a thousand years old.  It sounded like a lullaby.

“Did your mother
sing you to sleep when you were little?”  I asked sleepily.

He stopped for a
moment, chuckling in surprise at my question.  “Yes,” he said slowly.  “I don’t
have many memories of her, but this.”

He had told me
once that his mother was human, but that she was different.  In their time she
had been called a witch.  I got the feeling she and Henry had been estranged,
but that Christian was very fond of his mother.  I tried to picture the sort of
woman who had created my giant wolf, and failed utterly.  It didn’t seem
possible that he had ever been a child.  It was completely conceivable that he
had always just been.  Like a mountain or a river.

He began singing
again, surrounding me with his sturdy, solid presence, and I drifted off
peacefully, thinking it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.  After
that, the weeks had passed and I was nightmare free.  Thinking about it now
only gave me a vague sense of anger that people could be so misguided.

The screen door
banged and Christian and Ailis made their way across the yard to where I sat. 
This week was the moon ceremony, which would reach its climax tonight.  Thus,
my being awake before the sun was up- and on my day off, too.  Christian and I
were leaving on foot, at the crack of dawn, to climb up into the hills and meet
his pack for the gathering.  I was looking forward to the fresh air and
exercise, although I was still apprehensive about how I would be greeted.

Ailis hugged me
briefly and winked.  “Have fun,” she said wickedly.

I turned away,
blushing.  I had been duly warned that I was to leave my human sensibilities at
the door.  I knew Ailis was jealous.  She would be dying to hear all the
details when I got back.  I shouldered my tiny backpack and stifled a yawn as I
started off with Christian at my side.  He had only allowed me to bring some
water and a snack for the trip up the hill.  He said that the whole point was
to be one with nature and that I would be well provided for.