Refugee (The Captive Series Book 3) (24 page)

When he opened his eyes to look at her,
he was surprised to find her watching him with a look of absolute
love that nearly shattered him. She unwrapped her arms from his
waist and ever so slowly pulled the hair back from her neck. Marks
from his other feeding were still visible upon her porcelain skin.
He pulled her shirt slowly down to reveal the nearly invisible
marks from the first time he’d fed from her. His fingers brushed
over it as she pressed against him, her breasts firm against his
chest.

“Do you remember this?” His voice was
tense.

“How could I forget?”

“I almost killed you that
night.”

“Braith…”

“Yet you continue to give yourself to
me.”

“I love you.”

“Is it so simple then?”

“Yes. This is not an easy
life.”

It wasn’t, but he hadn’t once wished
that he was back in that hideous palace with its vast supply of
blood and every imaginable luxury. He would wade through a thousand
swamps before he ever let her go again. “And I wouldn’t change a
thing,” he whispered against her cheek.

“Why?”

“Because I love you.”

“Is it so simple then?”

He smiled back at her.
“Yes.”

“Good.”

She silently guided his head to her
neck. His fingers slid up the back of her shirt to press flat
against the slender curve of her back. A faint whimper escaped her,
goose bumps broke out across her skin. He bypassed the marks on her
neck to rest his lips gently against the first bite he had placed
upon her; the first time he had marked her as his.

She moaned when he bit into her,
reopening the wounds that had bound them irrevocably to each other.
She slumped against him as the rest of the world faded
away.

CHAPTER 15

Aria looked up from the shirt she had
been sewing as Jack stepped into the room. She hated sewing, she’d
stabbed herself numerous times already, but she needed the shirt.
She swore as she jabbed herself again and stuck her wounded finger
in her mouth.

Jack quirked an eyebrow at her. “You’re
not very good at that.”

“I know,” she mumbled. He rocked slowly
back on his heels as he folded his hands behind him. She frowned as
she dropped the shirt down. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to speak with you.”

“Ok.”

“Not here. Take a walk with
me?”

She wasn’t sure why he would want to
take a walk, there was no one around. “Uh yeah, sure.”

Placing the shirt on top of the table,
she climbed to her feet and followed him as he led the way out of
the house. Braith had gone with Gideon, Xavier, her father, and
Daniel to meet with the rebels her father had gathered to fight, to
look over the supplies they’d accrued, and to do some hunting. Aria
had opted to stay behind, she was tired, and she thought that
perhaps it would be a chance for Braith to bond with her family. He
hadn’t liked it in the beginning, but Jack and Ashby had agreed to
stay behind.

Ashby was standing by the woods when
they emerged from the house. Remorse radiated from his eyes as he
fell into step beside them. She glanced between the two of them,
suddenly feeling very small and vulnerable. Why hadn’t she grabbed
her bow? She shook off the crazy thought. This was Jack and Ashby,
they wouldn’t hurt her.

“What’s going on?” Neither of them
answered her. Aria became aware of the pounding of her pulse in her
ears. “Jack?” She was ashamed of the tremor in her
voice.

“Just going for a walk Aria, we have to
talk.”

“About what?” He didn’t answer her. She
stopped abruptly, refusing to take one more step until she received
some answers. “About what?” she demanded.

“The lake is just ahead,
ok?”

Aria bristled at his placating tone.
She almost refused to move further, almost turned around and walked
away. She was certain she didn’t want to hear what they had to say.
She knew she couldn’t run away though. “Fine,” she
relented.

Aria fell back as Jack led the way to a
pristine lake. She stood for a moment, taking in the scene before
her as it spread out in a glimmering array of sunshine and blue.
Something inside of her chest eased, she took a deep breath,
inhaling the fresh scent of the crisp water. Forgetting all about
Jack and Ashby, she took a step closer to the water. She itched to
dive into it, to swim out as far as she could and simply
be.

The clearing of Jack’s throat alerted
her to the fact that was not going to happen. Sighing impatiently,
Aria turned to him. “What do you want to talk to me
about?”

Jack and Ashby exchanged a look, but it
was Jack that spoke. “Braith.”

Aria folded her arms over her chest as
she studied them both. Ashby could barely meet her gaze; his eyes
darted continuously away from her as if he were ashamed. There was
a hollow pit in her stomach; it felt as if a rock had settled in
there. She could barely breathe anymore. No, she definitely was not
going to like this. “Perhaps you should talk to him
then.”

“I’ve tried, and so have Ashby, and
Gideon. He needs to lead Aria.”

Her heart hammered, coldness was
seeping into her bones, stealing into her soul. “He does,” she
agreed.

Jack shifted nervously. “You know I
love you Aria, I think of you like a sister.”

“Just say it Jack.”

“You have to let him go.” She felt as
if she’d been punched in the gut. She had braced herself for those
words, had even suspected they were coming, but they still knocked
the air from her. She was unable to stay upright as she rested her
hand on a tree and leaned against it. “Aria…”

She held up a hand to stall him. She
needed a moment, just one moment to gather her thoughts and hold
back her tears. She’d suspected all along, no she’d known, that
this was a distinct possibility. That in the end, she would have to
give him up, that she would have to leave him, again. She just
wasn’t ready to hear it confirmed by someone else.

Ashby, looking to soothe her reached
for her shoulder. She pushed his hand away, unable to take his pity
at the moment. “Braith feels that when this is over he can simply
walk away. That he can take you, disappear, and never look back. He
thinks that he can leave Gideon, Ashby, or even I in charge. We
know that he can’t, and I think you know it too.”

Aria lifted her head. She had to blink
away the tears burning her eyes to focus upon him. “Our family line
is the strongest, it always has been. Our bloodline has been traced
back to the first vampire, it is the only line that can claim such
a feat, and actually prove that it’s true. It wasn’t often that our
line wasn’t ruling, and as you’ve witnessed, even the most powerful
vampires on our side have turned to Braith as a leader.”

She stared silently at the lake, felt
the rough bark of the tree beneath her hand. She needed these
things to connect her, to join her to the earth. She felt
completely disconnected right now, disjointed and broken. “Since
the moment he was born it was expected that Braith would rise to
power if our father died. He’s been groomed for such an endeavor,
trained for it; he is the one that can control the chaos that will
follow the dethroning of our father. Even those within the palace,
the non-aristocrats will follow him, because that’s what they
expected to do for the past nine hundred years. Nine hundred years
Aria, that is how long it has been accepted that Braith would
eventually rule.

“They won’t follow me in the same way,
and to be honest I can’t control them the way that Braith will be
able to. It’s not in me, it never has been. They will look to
destroy me in a way that they will not look to destroy Braith. Nor
will they follow Ashby. He’s not a part of our line and even if he
marries Melinda, they will not accept him, and Melinda isn’t strong
enough to rule. Gideon is Braith’s other option. But Gideon has
been gone for a hundred years, and he has no tie to our line. He’s
not even a part of the second most powerful family, he is simply
older than the rest of us, only a mere fifty years younger than
Braith.”

They spoke of fifty years as if it were
nothing; to her it was a lifetime. “Xavier? Saul?” she managed to
choke out. “Calista or Barnaby?”

“Xavier is a record keeper; he prefers
to loiter in the shadows. Most see Saul as weak due to his defect,
and the others are mere children. The oldest is Barnaby and he’s
barely three hundred. They can’t take control.”

“The second most powerful…”

“My mother’s line,” Jack said flatly.
“My father had all of them destroyed in order to ensure they would
no longer be a threat. He also decimated the third, fourth, and
sixth in line. He eradicated any one he deemed a possible
threat.”

“The fifth?”

“Gideon.” The lump in her throat was
threatening to choke her. “Ashby is part of the seventh, as is his
cousin who has remained in the palace. He has stepped into what
should have been Ashby’s role, assuming power as my father’s second
in command.”

Ashby scowled, showing some emotion
other than pity for the first time. “Coward,” he
muttered.

“I’m sure Braith understands this,” she
whispered.

“He does understand it,” Jack
confirmed. “But to him, you are the only thing that matters. He’s
stubborn Aria, he thinks that the vampire lines will accept one of
us in place of him, as will the people, but he’s wrong.”

She didn’t realize she was crying until
a drop landed upon her hand. She wiped the tears hastily away,
hating herself for crying in front of them. “We can’t convince him
to let you go, and we can’t convince him to try and change you. Our
people might accept you then; it’s a rare feat for a human to
survive the change. They may not embrace you with open arms after,
but they won’t deny you either, and the ones that did would be
few.

“He is unwilling to realize these
facts, but you need to.” A sob escaped her. She shoved her fist
into her mouth, trying to stifle her cries as something inside of
her began to break. “It’s for the greater good Aria. Think of the
people, your people that will be freed. The future generations that
will never know the fear and oppression that you have known. Think
of the fact that they will not know starvation, filth, and
enslavement as you have known it; as Max has known it.”

Max, oh Max. His time as a blood slave
had destroyed him. It had taken a proud, vibrant man and turned him
into someone filled with hate and bitterness. It had broken him, as
it had broken so many others before they were mercifully destroyed.
Then there were the ones that never made it to blood slave status.
She recalled the boy she’d been captured with, so young and
vulnerable. He’d been selected for death.

“Oh.” Her legs gave out; she slid
limply to the forest floor. “Oh.”

“He believes that he can make
everything alright in the end. It’s not possible Aria.” Jack’s tone
had become softer, she could hear the ragged pain in it, but it was
nothing compared to the anguish savaging her soul. “We need for you
to agree to leave him when this war is over.”

She knew it was the right thing to do,
she knew it was the best thing for everyone involved, even if it
destroyed her and Braith. But even so, hope flared hotly through
her as she realized something. “But that’s not possible!” she
blurted. “He can track me anywhere, his blood is in me; we are
bound in that way. Ashby said I’m his bloodlink, that we can’t live
without each other.”

“You have started the bond, but it’s
not complete, is it?”

“No, but…”

“As long as you don’t allow it to be
completely forged there is a chance that the bloodlink will not
destroy either of you. As for his blood in your system, we’re
hoping that if you don’t accept it again his blood will thin out
and eventually leave your system.”

“I was gone from the palace for over a
month and he still found me.”

Jack and Ashby exchanged a look. “We
think that if another vampire’s blood is added to your system, most
likely mine, it may dilute his enough so that he won’t be able to
track you for long, if at all.”

She recoiled; revulsion filled her,
nausea surged up her throat at the mere thought. She was shaking
her head no when Jack bent and grabbed hold of her shoulders.
“Aria…”

“He’ll die without me,” she groaned.
She didn’t add she would die without him, she was dying now, and
though she would continue to move through her days, she knew she
would never live again, not without him.

“Maybe not, if the bond isn’t
completely forged.”

The noise that escaped her was
guttural. “He went berserk when I left him last time.”

“We hope that having so many lives in
his hands will help to keep him in control. He didn’t have that
responsibility before. No matter how upset and furious he is, we’re
hoping that the good in him will win out because of
that.”

“That’s a lot of hoping.”

“It’s all we have, and one day, you
will die Aria. Your death may sever whatever bond remains between
you at the time, freeing him.”