Sapphire Angel (6 page)

"Hello my boy." His father greeted him in Italian. Angelo kept the conversation in his native tongue so the taxi driver hopefully wouldn’t understand what they were saying.

"Hello father, sadly this is not a social call. The Nobles have just captured my Bride."

"
Merda
!
No one knows even the rough location of the Nobles' lair in Melbourne. Tell me what happened; how was she captured?"

"At the airport, we were about to leave for Italy. She went to the bathroom and they grabbed her. Three high level Elders and one low level—a previous lover of hers. They took her in a van. I did manage to get the plate number."

"Very good, see if you can find the registration details of the vehicle. I’ll charter a flight and leave as soon as I can round up a team."

"Thank you, father. Please hurry."

Angelo couldn’t prevent his voice cracking with his emotions.

"You know I will. We will do everything in our power to return her to you. Tell me, have you claimed her yet?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

Angelo couldn’t help getting defensive. His father would surely laugh that his Bride had resisted him.

"I’ll take that as a no. You have nothing to be ashamed of, son, your Bride must be strong to have resisted the natural pull."

"But why did you want to know?"

"Have I ever explained what the Nobles do with the stolen Brides?"

"Only that they use them as bait, to capture and kill their vampires."

"If only it were that simple. A claimed Eternal Bride is a prized possession for the Nobles. For certain, they will capture the vampire, but not to kill him. That would be merciful. No, the vampire is locked away and fed only enough of his Bride’s blood to keep him on the edge of life. But the suffering of the vampire is nothing in comparison to what the Bride endures. Each fertile day, an Elder Noble will plant his seed within her womb. It is how they create such powerful Elders. The stolen Brides are treated like cattle. It is truly cruel and barbaric."

Angelo almost didn’t want to ask, but he had to know, "And what do the unclaimed Brides endure?"

"Ordinarily, one of two things, either they use her as bait to trap and kill you outright, or they will keep her captive until you age to one hundred years."

"You said ordinarily, what other possibilities are there? They won’t use her body like they do the claimed Brides?"

The very thought of his precious Darcy being forced beneath a Noble male had bile rising up his throat.

"No, she is still wholly human so they are honor bound to protect her. She will not be physically harmed. As for what else they can do... If they think she is special in some way, able to breed especially strong Elders, they will try to force you into a trap where you claim her. Then you both will be captured."

Angelo didn’t dare think about that outcome. The only way he would be forced into claiming her would be to save her life. He couldn’t even entertain the thought of his Darcy being grievously injured.

"Father, be honest with me, how many stolen Brides have ever been rescued?"

His father’s sigh came through the phone, "Not many. Not enough. We’ve lost so many good vampires and their Brides over the centuries. But if you can find the location of their hideout, that all changes. We can gather teams and stage a planned attack. We may even be able to rescue all who are held captive."

"Just the thought of her injured in any way... is ripping my soul apart."

"I know, son, I know. We will be there as soon as we can. Gather as much information on the location as you can. Use that van to guide you. Follow the freeway cameras, use satellite. Use whatever you can to locate that hide out. Then we’ll help you rescue your Bride."

"Thank you, Father. Call me when you know your flight details and I’ll meet you at the airport."

He hung up just as the taxi arrived at his apartment building. He paid the driver and slowly made his way to the entrance. He walked through the front door and could do nothing about the tears which began falling. His Eternal Bride was gone, stolen from him. He walked numbly over to the glass wall and stared at the blue liquid in the pool. He could visualize Darcy’s body gliding through the water as she swam and closed his eyes against the memory. He could not fail; he had to get her back. He turned away from the pool and headed to his office where he would start the process of locating his Bride.

Chapter Five

Karl knelt on the floor before the High Elder with his head bowed. Fear shivered through his body. He thought they would be happy. He’d helped capture an Eternal Bride.

"She is unclaimed. How can that be? How long was she with the vampire?"

"Six days, Sire."

Karl could see the High Elder’s feet pace back and forth before him.

"Six days you say... Interesting. She must be strong."

He stopped pacing before him, his shoes stopping in Karl’s field of vision.

"Stand, Noble."

Without wasting a second Karl rose to his feet but kept his head lowered.

"You know this Eternal Bride quite well I understand. It is now your job to soothe her and make her comfortable being around Nobles. She is going to be with us for some time."

"Yes, Sire."

He watched the feet leave his field of vision and waited until he heard a door close before he risked looking up. Guess he wasn’t getting his life back as soon as he’d hoped he would. At least they hadn't killed him.

He left the chamber and headed down the hall to the room where Darcy had been placed. As he approached the door he could hear her sobbing and his chest tightened. He might not love the woman, but after five years with her, he did care deeply for her, and didn’t want to see her hurt. Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door and stepped into the room. She was curled up on the floor in the fetal position. Her body jerked with each sob. He quickly moved over to her, scooped her up off the floor and sat on the bed with her.

"Shhh, Darcy. You’ll be okay."

His voice seemed to get through to her and she shoved him away, hard. She moved over to the top corner of the bed and curled into where the walls met and turned her gaze on him. Her red-rimmed blood shot eyes were shooting daggers at him.

"It will
not
be okay, and this is
all
your fault! You lying, cheating sack of shit!"

Oh boy, how the hell was he going to calm her down and get her used to being around Nobles when she was still this mad with him?

"There are things you don’t understand, Darcy. My life is not my own, and I had no say or choice in anything that has happened."

"So you were just dating me because you were told to? You never even liked me—or cared?"

Karl watched her begin to shake. Oh she was really mad now.

"Calm down, Darcy. Of course I care for you. We spent six years together. I never wanted to see you get hurt, I still don’t."

"So why kidnap me away from Angelo then? Why not just walk away from it all."

"Because they would have killed me, then sent someone else after you. You would still be here in this room. The only difference is that you would have someone you didn’t know explaining this to you because I would be dead."

"My life for yours. You are so selfish. I would never rate my own life over that of someone I cared about."

He sighed, "You’re not hearing me. It wouldn’t have mattered. Even if I sacrificed my life for yours, you still would have been caught and taken."

She wiped her eyes with her hands and sighed heavily, "What do you want, Karl? I’m pretty sure you didn’t come in here just to say hi."

Karl contemplated up how to deal with Darcy. What would work better? Total honesty or sugar coated fantasy? Darcy was a fairly straight up kind of girl so he figured honesty would work best in his favor.

"I’m here to look after you. Make sure your transition into our world is smooth."

"I’m locked in a small windowless room, Karl. How exactly do I 'transition' into that?"

"You’re not going to stay in this room all the time, Darcy. This is just where you’ll sleep. You’re not the only rescued bride here. There are many that live here. If you can calm down, I’ll take you to meet them."

He watched her eye him with a cocked brow. She didn't believe him.

"Honest, cross my heart. There are twenty-six rescued brides here, and twenty vampires. Six of the women are like you, unclaimed."

~ * ~

Twenty-six women! Bloody hell! These bastards needed to be stopped. Darcy was so shocked, she couldn’t say anything in response. She just sat and stared at Karl.

"So, like I said, you will sleep here in this room. I will come and get you in the morning and take you to the main area where all the brides spend their days. I’ll again come for you at the end of the day to bring you back to your room."

Darcy stiffened, "You don’t stay with me do you? I will not have sex with you, Karl. Never again."

"No, Darcy, I don’t stay with you. It’s not allowed for unclaimed brides to have lovers."

Darcy noticed Karl looked sad as he said that. She couldn’t work out why though. He’d enjoyed her so much while in a relationship with her that he’d sought out others. She was also curious why he’d said 'unclaimed brides' instead of 'rescued brides'.

Before she could say anything more, he stood and strode to the door." Okay, Darcy. Let’s go get you settled in with the others."

She refused his outstretched hand and walked out of the room into the hallway to wait for Karl to lead the way. They walked in silence for the entire five minute walk. Karl stopped in front of a large steel door with a scanner on the lock. Using his thumbprint on the sensor he opened it and ushered her through. She froze to the spot as soon as she entered.

She was in a sweatshop. There were rows of industrial sewing machines, all but a few had women working at them. Darcy knew how to sew, kind of. She could hem up her pants but that was about it.

"What is this, Karl?"

"Sorry, Darcy, but you have to work. We can’t afford to keep you all here in the lap of luxury without money."

"Lap of luxury? We have windowless rooms with a bed and a table, and a sweatshop. Which part of that is 'luxury'?" She spoke quietly so she didn’t draw the attention of the other women, but the fury she was feeling was clear in her voice.

Karl just shook his head at her, "You don’t have a choice, Darcy. Just deal with it."

He grabbed her arm and dragged her over to an empty machine, "Sit."

She lowered herself into the seat while trying to combust him with her glare. Macho asshole. Darcy couldn’t believe she ever thought she was in love with this beast of a man. Karl tapped the arm of the woman next to her, "What is your name, bride?"

"Fiona, Sire."

"Fiona, this is Darcy. She’s new and needs to be trained. I’ll leave her in your care."

Darcy watched as he turned and left. She glared a hole into the back of his skull until he left the room.

A hand on her forearm brought her attention back.

"Hi Darcy, I’m Fiona. Do you know how to sew?"

"Umm, only real basic stuff. I don’t know how to thread a machine or anything like that."

"You’ll be fine. Most of what we do is straight stitch. The women who know what they’re doing look after the more technical work."

Darcy watched Fiona grab two pieces of fabric from the box on her right and handed them over to her, "So, today, all we’re doing is sewing these side seams. Put these right sides together and then run them so the edge of the machine’s foot—that metal thing there—is along the edge. These machines are overlockers, so they’ll cut off any material outside the foot’s edge. You don’t want to cut off much or we’ll have to ditch it. Can you handle that? Oh, and there are pins in the pot next to you if you need to pin it together before you sew it."

"Thanks, I’ll be all right."

Darcy put her head down and got to work, trying not to think about how much the next twenty years were going to suck.

What felt like hours later, a bell chimed and Fiona spoke to her, "It’s break time, honey. Come with me and meet the others."

She took Fiona’s outstretched hand and followed her to a small side room where all the other women had gone. She was suddenly the center of attention and felt like a bug under a microscope.

"Ladies! We have a new addition. This is Darcy. It would seem Karl has risen in the ranks and been given the role of her Guardian."

"What do you mean, Guardian?"

"The Elders make a lower rank Noble the Guardian of each of us. They are the ones who lead us around this place like bloody pet horses."

"Oh, okay. Did you know your Guardian before you were taken?"

"No, I don’t think any of us knew them before. Did you know Karl?"

"Um, yeah. We were together for five years. Until I caught the bastard cheating on me, and now I find out he was only with me because I’m an Eternal Bride. The piece of shit never even liked me."