Reunion (11 page)

He broke the kiss and held both of her cheeks in his hands. When he drew back, he was looking at her with so much emotion that she wanted to look away. He held her steady, forcing her to look at him.

“Lubov moya,” he whispered and she melted into the pool of warmth inside her.

She smiled and caught his hands, bringing them away from her face and holding them.

Looking into his eyes, there were so many things she wanted to say to him, but she couldn’t find a voice for any of them. She smiled at him a moment longer and then turned, leading him from the room.

When they reached the small laboratory in the basement where Eduard had taken the body, the others were already discussing the findings so far. She stepped up to the stainless steel table where Eduard was studying a slide of blood under a microscope and then stared at the little machine beside it. She didn’t understand any of it. In his time as a human, Eduard had been passionate about science. In her time as a human, she had been taught to run a household and catch a husband.

She looked at Jascha where he stood by the door. He looked awkward and out of place, not a part of this group but an outsider. She signalled for him to join her, not wanting him to feel as though she had abandoned him. She needed his strength too.

Eduard looked at her and she leaned her backside against the table. She told him everything that had happened down to the very last detail. He frowned a few times, and made the odd remark to Vincent and Balthazar. She tried to keep her attention away from Jascha but her eyes kept straying to him, her hand itching to be in his again, to feel his slim fingers closed tightly around it, reassuring her.

She was glad that Daemon wasn’t here. Of all the Law Keepers, he was the one she most expected to cause trouble about her relationship with Jascha. Natyla would understand her need for love because she suspected that the Nocens Law Keeper had a lover of her own. The lord of Serge’s bloodline, Hyperion, was an advocate of love, regardless of the law, and she knew that in some small way, Serge shared his master’s view.

“Your child is strong and courageous,” Eduard said with a nod of respect in Jascha’s direction. “He deserves recognition for his help.”

She tensed when Jascha stepped forwards.

“I did not do it for recognition,” he said, thick Russian accent making his words sound proud and true.

All three Law Keepers looked at Jascha and then at her and then back again. She took a deep breath and stepped forwards towards Jascha, her hand sliding easily into his and her fingers curling around it, confirming their suspicion for them.

She looked at all of them, waiting for one of them to speak or give her a look that said they didn’t approve of what she was doing. None of them gave an outward sign of disapproval and she was surprised when Eduard smiled.

“The humans have done something to this man,” he said, pointing towards the body on the operating table in the middle of the room. “His blood is different, more like ours.”

“We suspected that someone has been playing god to give the humans an advantage in their fight against us,” she said.

He nodded. “They are unravelling our secrets and must be stopped. We cannot tolerate such disobedience. We must discover the source of this change and destroy all evidence.”

There was a general murmur of agreement. She glanced at the window and closed her eyes as the sun called to her. She was still tired and sore from the fight with the hunter and Jascha needed his rest. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and smiled shyly when she found he was staring at her. Well, he needed rest amongst other things. They did have a lot of catching up to do.

Leading him towards the door, she paused when she reached it and looked back at the room. She thought about what had happened and while she was glad to finally be back with the man that she loved, she couldn’t be happy about the circumstances that had brought them back together.

“I am tired and Jascha must rest to heal his injuries,” she said and Eduard stood, nodding in understanding. “Wake me if you discover how the change in this human has happened. When night falls and we have more evidence, we must contact our comrades and then we must warn the bloodlines.”

She looked at Vincent and Balthazar, her eyes lingering on him longest of all. In his eyes was something she hadn’t seen before.

A trace of fear.

She held Jascha’s hand tighter, needing to feel the connection and know he was there with her. She needed the comfort as she contemplated what she was about to say. It was something everyone here knew, but no one wanted to voice.

“We must warn all vampires that a new breed of hunter has awoken.”

They stared at her.

Marise looked at Jascha, knowing that the times ahead of them were going to be dangerous and lives were going to be lost, and thankful that he would be with her through it all. She would do all in her power to protect him, and she knew in her heart that he would do everything he could to defend her. They would stand together to the very end and into eternity beyond.

Taking a deep breath, she turned back to the room, finding everyone still waiting for her to finally say what was on all of their minds, to name the fear inside all of them.

She straightened out her uniform and stood tall at the same time as her comrades.

“The time has come... sooner than expected. Our duty is written in blood. We must uphold the law and protect the bloodlines. We must see with clear eyes and heart.”

The fight ahead was going to be long and hard, but she would face it with Jascha at her side and her comrades at her back. Together they would eliminate this threat to their species.

“The humans have become dangerous.”

She took a deep breath and pushed the words out.

“A new war has begun.”

The End

B
lood.

No matter where she looked, Lilith couldn’t escape it. It spotted his face and arched over his jaw from the wound on his throat. It seeped into his damp blond hair, darkening the whole side of his head. Turning away, she swallowed her desire to be sick and stared at the ground. Crimson coated the grass until it glistened under the harsh sodium streetlight on the cemetery path. The acrid smell thickened the air, filled her nostrils and choked her lungs. Cold stole through her, rising up from her knees where they pressed into the wet dirt close to his body, chilling her as it swept towards her soul.

“Jackson!” Her frantic patting of his cheek did nothing to rouse him. Her rough, erratic breathing and the thundering beat of her heart filled her ears as she stared down at him. Panic consumed her. “Jackson, don’t you die on me, Jackson.”

His eyes opened, igniting a spark of hope inside her. The darkness of despair extinguished it when they closed lazily again a second later.

She was losing him.

“Jackson.” Lilith patted his cheek again, faster this time, a constant drumming that matched her pulse. Her other hand pressed the wad of material harder against the wound. Sticky, warm blood coated her fingers, sickening her. “Don’t give up. I won’t lose you!”

He convulsed and his face contorted into a look of sheer agony. A thin line of darkest red crept from the corner of his lips. Lilith held him down, restraining him in the hope of stopping him from killing himself by moving, and her eyes widened as the crimson trail eased down towards his ear.

Everything became still.

Her ears rang with it, with the numb and icy cold filling her, sending sweeps of shivers over her skin as what was happening finally sunk in.

This was no way to feel, so drained of life and welcoming death with open arms, watching for it. Not when the creature that had done this was still nearby.

Waiting.

Lilith focused again, searching for it while applying more pressure to the wound on Jackson’s throat. Was it to stem the flow of blood, or the flow of hope as it left her?

There was no way she could save him.

He was pale now, barely breathing. Tears blurred her eyes, hot against her cold face. Not five minutes ago, he’d been so full of life, full of jokes that had always annoyed her for some reason. Funny how it could disappear so quickly. You thought you were strong, indestructible. In reality you were as fragile as a butterfly when faced with one of them—one of the pure bloodlines.

A low laugh sent a shudder through her.

She knew what it found so amusing.

Jackson was dead.

Lilith closed her eyes, touched his cheek as a goodbye and prayed that he had found a better place on the other side.

Picking herself up, she shut down the side of her that said to throw herself over his body and cry her heart out for him, and for her own loss. She had a job to do. He’d understand. It had been his job too.

She stood and stared down at him. The world seemed strangely blue and quiet. Cold. He looked peaceful lying there on the grass, darkness shrouding his body while the streetlight crowned his head in golden light.

Almost angelic.

Her gaze fell to her hands as she brought them out in front of her, palms facing the heavens. She frowned at the dark liquid coating them and then at the torn sleeve of her shirt. So much blood but she felt nothing as she stared at it. This was no time for mourning. She could do that later. Right now, she had business to attend to.

She wiped her hands on her black combat trousers and then retrieved her wooden stake from the grass.

A breeze.

A sigh.

The world blurred as she turned on a pinpoint and blocked the vampire’s attack.

It grinned at her, teeth sharp and eyes bright, challenging her to make a move. She knew what it wanted. It wanted her to run, or scream, or at least give it a good fight before it finally killed her. It was playing with her.

Well, she wasn’t about to play with it.

This man, this thing, was going to die for what it had done to Jackson.

It turned and the streetlights caught its eyes, making them flash like mother of pearl. She gave no quarter, turning with it and keeping their arms locked. Its weight pressed against her and she pushed back, her eyes never leaving its. It could throw her if it wanted to. It was far stronger than she was.

That smile it wore wasn’t fading. It was beginning to unnerve her. It curved the vampire’s face, cutting across it in a sinful line that exposed the points of its bloodied teeth. Jackson hadn’t stood a chance.

She didn’t stand a chance.

Neither of them had ever fought one of the pure bloods. Those that did rarely survived to tell the tale. She’d never heard of anyone managing to kill one.

Before she could blink, it had disappeared and she stumbled forwards from the release of pressure against her. She turned sharply in all directions, panic guiding her movements, and then forced herself to slow down. Her senses reached outwards into the inky night, desperate to locate the vampire so it couldn’t attack without her noticing.

The early spring breeze tousled her honey hair, sending a shiver dancing down her spine as its cold fingers worked their way under the hem of her black shirt and into her collar. When she faced Jackson, she sniffed back her tears and tried not to look at him. This was no time to lose focus, or she’d be joining him in the afterlife.

Something shifted.

She tensed and then relaxed when it didn’t move again.

The graveyard was quiet. Too quiet.

It could only mean one thing. The vampire was stalking her. It had slipped into the shadows to watch her. She could feel its eyes on her, touching her, studying her. It was looking for a weak spot, a momentary drop in her defences when it could slip in and kill her with a single move. Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone at that thought and she steadied her breathing in an attempt to slow it down. Panic made her hands shake and her body threatened to join them.

Her fingers flexed around the stake several times. It did nothing to soothe her nerves as she’d hoped. If she didn’t calm down and regain her focus, she didn’t stand a chance. The vampire would be able to sense her fear. It would drive it on. It would make it hungrier for her blood. She had to do all she could to maintain control and a steady heartbeat. Only then would she have the slightest chance of killing before she was killed.

Doubts crept in at the corners of her mind, sending the edges of her thoughts black and sinister. She pushed them away, not wanting the distraction that the memory of seeing Jackson killed was bringing, and not wanting to lose her concentration by imagining herself suffering a similar fate.

No one, not a human and definitely not a vampire, was going to bite her neck.

Ever.

She frowned into the distance where the darkness swallowed the trees and nothing but the night reigned. She had nothing to fear. An elite hunter had no fear.

Her training had been the same as Jackson’s and the rest of her company, except she’d always excelled where they had merely passed. She’d taken the rank of elite hunter three years earlier than expected. She was one of only a handful to hold that title.

She could defeat this vampire.

She would win.

She had a gift.

Her eyes rolled closed and she released her breath, emptying herself. Her hands came up in front of her, close to her chest, her stake held steady in her right and her left joining it. Her heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her blood rushed through her veins. There was such strength in it if only she’d be brave enough to embrace it.

Her soul surrendered to the call of the night.

The world blackened.

Lilith didn’t need to see the change to know it happened. Everything felt different. The air tasted metallic, like blood. The rising of her instincts made her senses razor-sharp and sent painful throbs down her spine from her aching head.

She could only hold this for seconds or she’d fall into the darkness she could feel encroaching at the corners of her soul.