Scent of Salvation (Chronicles of Eorthe #1) (7 page)

He ruled this forest and its surrounding lands, but years of experience had taught him good relations worked better with these packs than brute force.

Chaska had the right to take Benic’s drink if he was shifter. But he wasn’t. The bitch had done it on purpose to needle him, trying to get him to lose his temper so he’d appear weak. Vampire Lords were supposed to remain in control at all times. Instead of ripping her head off, he offered Chaska his kindest smile as if she were a simple child. He’d call her a wild beast, but she’d take it as a compliment.

As lord, he could technically cage her. Then he’d lose Inali’s friendship and his fine supply of wine. The trade-off wasn’t worth it.

Chaska lay across the cushions, her taut muscles relaxing.

Benic’s gaze traveled to Kele, sprawled on the rugs like a naughty pup. Thank God shifters didn’t all grow up to be hunters. The young female definitely had been filling out nicely over the last two or three years. With her mother’s beauty and her father’s intelligence, she’d be quite a catch.

Inali sniffed at the stranger next to his daughter and shook his head. “What exactly are you?”

The question snagged Benic’s attention like a baited hook. He leaned forward, studying the reckless female’s slim, plain face and the tangle of brown hair on her head. Dirt smudged her clothes and skin as if she’d rolled across the ground. Who was he to judge another species’ habits? His people fed off the blood of others.

“I am Dr. Susan Barlow, and I’m a human.”

Benic’s slow-beating heart squeezed painfully. “I’ve never heard of your species before, and I’ve been all over the world.” After all these centuries, nature could still surprise him with a new creature to study. He jumped up and down inside his mind, not wanting Chaska observing his excitement. She’d probably kill Susan out of spite. “Where do you come from?”

“From everyone’s reactions, I assume humans are a rarity.” She began to stand, but a low growl emitted from Inali. Kele’s hand shot out and tugged her back to the floor.

Benic swallowed his laugh. The human would receive more than a swat if she didn’t act more submissive. No one met Inali’s stare unless they were high in the pack hierarchy and
no one
ever stood to tower over him. The shifters would consider this human a stray, the lowest in rank, even worse than an omega. Someone without a home or pack—someone who wouldn’t be missed if killed.

“Susan, is it?” Benic offered a reassuring smile, but she cringed. “If you plan on staying with the Payami, you’ll need to be better at playing by their rules.”

Her hands clenched at her sides. “And I can’t play by the rules if no one tells them to me.”

He had wandered the world to add to his collection of blood samples and here appeared a new species, almost on his doorstep. If he was going to get a sample, he’d have to do it soon. With her attitude, she’d be dead by the end of the week.

Inali slipped his finger under her chin. “You’ve never been in contact with shifters before?”

“Never.”

“How is that possible? We populate most of these lands. Wild”—he glanced at Benic—“or otherwise occupied.” Inali sniffed her hands. Benic knew shifters tended to leave temporary scent markers in these areas. The alpha marked him every time he came to visit, warning anyone away from demanding some silly challenge. As Inali passed his nose over her right wrist, he chuckled. “Now I understand Ahote’s involvement.” He slapped the prone male shifter’s injured shoulder. “It’s always commendable to protect your interests.”

The young male sat up. A huge smile spread across his smug, idiotic face. Handsome and charismatic in a more-muscle-than-intellect way, Ahote drove Benic mad. Females threw themselves at the selfish shifter. He didn’t deserve such bounty.

Vampires cherished the few females born to their race. Their male-female ratios were even worse than the shifters’. However, most pack males would experience having a mate of their species at some point in their lives. Vampires males were lucky to even get a glimpse of one their females, let alone bed one.

Inali tapped his daughter on the head. “Kele, return to your room and teach your guest some manners.”

Without question, the alpha’s daughter snatched the human’s hand and pulled her out of the pack room. Benic didn’t miss the longing look the human gave the Apisi alpha hanging from the chains. How interesting.

He hadn’t had a chance to deal with that small pack personally. This offered so many opportunities on political, financial and personal levels. If he were a cat shifter he’d be purring.

Inali glanced at Ahote. “Get out, scamp. No more trouble tonight.” He watched the warrior saunter after the girls before returning to the comforts of the cushions. “Do you need to be so hard on Kele?” he asked his mate.

Chaska picked at the food displayed on the table next to her. “Yes, I do. She needs to learn to fight. We won’t always be around to protect her.” Chaska chewed on a piece of jerky. “Don’t misunderstand me—I’m happy she jumped me and defended that—thing. But why now? What is so important about the human that Kele would risk my wrath?”

“Maybe she’s just tired of you.” Benic grinned and didn’t care if his words hurt. He knew
he
was tired of her. The cruelty of fate astounded him when faced with the fact that a creature like Chaska would be gifted with a family and not him.

Inali laughed. Benic understood the alpha didn’t need to defend his mate since she was more than capable of tearing out throats. He protected her in other ways, like keeping Benic from putting her in chains.

Benic rubbed his chin as he watched Inali gesture for another wineskin. His relationship with the Payami pack was profitable, yet tentative to which alpha ruled. Benic’s life span had outlasted three Payami alphas already. A bond with Kele could be used to strengthen ties with the next generation.

“You still haven’t told me the reason for your unexpected visit, old friend.” The alpha filled a new cup with wine and offered it to him.

“I was returning home when I was blinded by a blue light. It shone in the sky over the forest.” Leaning back into the cushions, Benic took a sip of the fine wine the Payami produced. Benic always kept a stock of the decadent, rich liquid in his cellar. “It’s my duty to investigate such anomalies. What do you know of it?”

The alpha met his gaze, but a slight tic pulled at the corner of his left eye. It wasn’t in shifter nature to lie—they could sniff a fib from miles—but it made them proficient in twisting truths. “We sent some hunters out to investigate. It didn’t happen on our lands.”

Chaska stared at the cushions, picking at non-existent lint and chewing on her snack like it was the tastiest piece of dried leather.

Neither of them fooled him. This day kept getting better and better. First the strange light, then meeting a new species and now these alphas wanted to keep something from him. He’d been playing politics since before their grandparents were pups. This was like taking toys from babes. “Whose land, then?” This forest truly belonged to him by vampire law, the only laws that carried any true force. Inali could delude himself all he wanted. The blue light was a slight curiosity, but the alpha couple’s reaction just made his interest grow tenfold.

Sighing, Inali shrugged. “It was on Temple grounds. Neutral territory. I can’t guarantee your safety there. Not all packs have taken to vampire rule as mine has. There are some who would like your head.”

Benic ground his teeth. “I’m quite aware of my popularity.” Would it be worth risking his three-hundred-and-fourteen-year-old neck to explore the blue light without his warriors? His castle lay a few hours’ ride south of here. By the time he reached it and returned there might be nothing left to investigate. The light had been strong enough to see from the edge of the forest where he’d been riding in the northern region. Had the shifters discovered a new energy, or maybe a weapon? He swirled the wine in his cup as if looking for an answer within its depths.

Inali frowned. “What do you make of the human?”

“I don’t know. There hasn’t been a new species discovered in as long as I can remember.”

“Sorin says she fell from the blue light.”

Benic set his cup on the table before he dropped it. “From inside it?”

The alpha shrugged. “So he says. One should take what an Apisi says with a grain of salt.”

Pursing his lips, he allowed his gaze to wander toward Sorin’s hanging form. “Would you mind if I fed upon the human?” The only way he could learn the truth was by questioning the creature himself.

Chaska made a gagging noise.

“Behave, mate.” Inali grinned. “As long as she consents and you don’t kill her, then it makes no difference to me. Ahote on the other hand…”

Benic rolled his eyes. Ahote’s interest in the human just made her more appetizing. “If he doesn’t want me around the female, he should protect her better.” He rose in one graceful motion.

Strolling up the den’s staircases, he watched the main floor. Night covered the area but his keen eyesight penetrated the darkest shadows. Especially the one concealing Ahote as he drove his cock into some omega female he had pinned to the wall.

Fool. He had enough dominance to obtain a proper mate among the pack’s stronger females, yet he wasted his seed on the submissive, weak ones. Apparently his interest in the human wasn’t that strong; otherwise she’d be the one with her ankles clasped around his hips.

The faint sounds of the female’s climax reached Benic’s ears. He shook his head and grimaced, continuing his journey to Kele’s room. Only one hinge appeared still connected to her door, and splinters bloomed from the frame. He stuck his head past the doorway and pointed at the damage. “Your mother?”

Kele’s eyebrows shot up and she nodded. “I wondered if you’d be able to resist your insatiable curiosity.”

“Three days of hard work for the carpenters to assemble the frame and three seconds for your mother to destroy it.” He traced the sharp break with his finger. The end punctured his skin, and he hissed with pleasure. A precious ruby drop formed on his fingertip and he licked it clean.

“My female parent doesn’t comprehend the work it takes to build things.” An adorable crease formed on her forehead as she frowned at the damage.

Their dislike for her mother was a commonality they’d bonded over ever since she’d been a child. From there a friendship had developed. It wasn’t something he often allowed himself outside his species, but Kele’s sharp wit and intelligence acted as a natural magnet. Now that she’d developed into a stunning adult female, he hoped to convince Kele a more intimate relationship could be possible between them.

“May I come in?” Benic asked.

She gestured for him to enter her modest living space. As the only offspring of the pack’s alphas, Kele should have had more. In any other culture, she would have been a princess. Instead, she still occupied a room meant for a child. Who could understand shifters? He remained by the doorway and nodded to Susan. “Good evening, Dr. Susan Barlow.”

The human female sat on a pallet across the room. Her knees were bent up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. “I thought your kind could only travel at night.” She skipped any kind of social pleasantry. He enjoyed women who could converse with skill, not those who used words bluntly.

He raised an eyebrow and leaned toward her. “Why would we only travel at night?” He approached her and stopped as her eyes went wide. “I never heard that rumor before. Kele?”

The pretty shifter shook her head and joined Susan on the wide pallet.

“The sunlight doesn’t harm you?” The human scooted closer to Kele. Her reaction and questions set his already growing curiosity on fire. The drive for knowledge, to explore new places and discover fantastic things, would always rule him.

“What an odd thing to believe. Does it hurt you?” he asked the human.

She gave him a watery smile. “No.”

Benic could hear the pace of her pulse quicken as he inched toward her. His mouth watered. He hadn’t fed in days, but taking what wasn’t freely offered left a bad aftertaste. He could wait a little longer.

Her blood rushed through her veins. As a new species, it potentially contained unknown hormones and cells with all the possibilities to save his people. He needed a blood sample to study before he allowed his imagination to go wild.

He’d spent the last century taking samples of every species of Eorthe but in the past ten years his interest had waned. His theories had all been tested and proven wrong. Nothing he’d discovered could save his race. And here arrived Susan. He’d lost hope years ago, and his studies had been neglected for far too long.

The human paled, the muscles in her legs tensed as if ready to spring. She kept her gaze focused on him yet clung to Kele.

“You shouldn’t be frightened of me. I don’t attack people. Not like some mothers in this den.” He glanced from Kele to Susan and gave a mental shrug. Susan didn’t mince words, at least not that he’d witnessed. She was a direct creature. Maybe he should just ask? “May I feed from you and get a blood sample, Susan?”

She gripped the collar of her coat closed, her eyes so wide she appeared part owl. “I don’t want to become a vampire.”

He scratched his head and watched the human almost strangle herself with her collar. “You can’t become a vampire from a bite. You’re born as one. Just like shifters or incubi or—where did you get that idea?”