Warrior Rising (19 page)

“Alive and fighting, as of two hours ago. They gave me this address and told me to ask for you.”

“Come on in.” Jimmy stepped back into the library, leaving the front door open.

Kevin hesitated. What waited beyond those doors? He hitched his shoulders and walked forward. Shit, what did he have to lose?

He walked into the library, looked around cautiously trying to place the exits, the potential traps, the blind spots, and then he followed Jimmy to the east side of the main room and a door that opened onto a small interior conference room. He kept one hand on his dagger. The other was ready to draw the shotgun. Overhead lights illuminated the room but there were no windows. That in itself was alarming. He looked around, he studied those gathered there — men who were studying him just as intensely — and drew in a deep breath.

“Holy shit.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“You drink only from me,” Luca ordered.

She should’ve learned by now not to argue with him, but she had not. “You need all your strength. I can’t…”

“At this point, you would likely kill any human you attempted to feed from.” His argument was based on fact, and was delivered in that way. Luca didn’t lose his temper, he was a master of control. “Not feeding would drive you to the point where you’d not be able to resist the humans in our ranks, and there’s no way to know what damage such severe hunger might do to the baby.”

It was not Chloe’s imagination that her strong, capable, two-thousand-year-old lover almost choked on the word
baby
. He was not unaffected by her condition.
Their
condition, if she were being honest.

He had not said so, but he knew she was worried. About her, about the child. How could she tell him that she was sure everything would be fine? She couldn’t explain how she knew, why she was so certain.

So far, he had been her only food source, but it made sense to at least consider looking elsewhere for blood. A non-fighting human; a stranger; another vampire. Not that she wanted to bite into anyone else, but she was afraid if she continued feeding from Luca she’d weaken him. He didn’t agree, but it made sense to her. She was stronger than she’d been even days ago. She was learning control, more every day. Wouldn’t someone else do as well as Luca when feeding time came?

It was his argument concerning the health of their child that made her give in. She did as he instructed, drinking, working very hard to maintain control as she took what she needed from Luca’s wrist. He stroked her hair as she fed.

This time he did not tell her when to stop. She stopped on her own, even though she wanted more. Even though a part of her wanted it all. She wondered if that hunger, that intense craving, would ever abate. Surely it would. How else could she survive? No. How else would those around her survive?

Not for the first time, she thought of her parents. She should’ve called, but what could she say? Would she ever see them again? Atlanta was safe, at least for now while the fight was focused here in D.C. As safe as anywhere else in the world, in any case. It was impossible to know where small pockets of rebel vampire attacks might’ve popped up.

She’d call her parents in a day or two. Where was her cell phone, anyway? So many ordinary things had been left behind. There had been a time when she would not have allowed her phone to go dead, much less be misplaced.

As much as she wanted to believe that the war was contained, that Atlanta and other places were safe, she did not. Not really. Maybe if not for the dreams...

She wasn't sure if the dreams were a part of her transition to vampire or if they came from the baby, somehow. Anything was possible. All she knew was that they were not ordinary dreams. There was a touch of reality in them. Horrifying reality.

A plumber and his wife in some rural location. Mike, that was his name. His own daughter had been turned, and his last sight had been… unthinkable.

A young girl in New York, the victim of a musician vampire and her own infatuation. For a while she had been thrilled, and then she had been shocked. Surprised. Dead.

These and so many others were human victims who had done nothing to deserve their bloody end. Nothing but to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was nothing she could do for them, or for others like them.

She and Luca had a small reading room to themselves, at least for a while. Luca sat in a fat chair, and she perched on his lap.

His wrist healed before her eyes.

“Do you remember when we went to see Ahron?” he asked.

Chloe shuddered. “Ugh, how could I forget? That dude is hideous.”

Luca did not agree or disagree. “When we arrived, he welcomed the three of us. At the time, I thought he sensed Indikaiya.”

“So did I. Do you think…” The baby. Had Ahron known, even then, that she was carrying Luca’s child? That thought gave her a chill. They were trying to keep the baby’s existence a secret, until they knew more. If Ahron had somehow sensed it… who else might have done the same? She was not yet fully up to speed on the abilities of vampires. All she knew was that they varied greatly.

Luca pulled her close for a kiss, but they had not gotten in nearly enough kissing when the door opened and Jimmy walked in. He was not surprised or embarrassed to find them in a rather compromising and intensely personal position. There was no time for such niceties.

“Duncan is asking for you, Luca. It’s about tonight.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Jimmy nodded, to Luca and then to Chloe, before closing the door behind him.

Luca sighed. “Being remembered is a pain in the ass. Everyone wants something from me.”

She touched the enchanted ring he wore. “Eventually, you will be able to remove this, if you wish.”

He caught her eye, and she saw a glimpse — just a glimpse — of the fear he felt. Not for the world, not for the kindred. For her. For what was coming for them. She had changed, the world had changed, but the power in his eyes remained much the same.

“Will I?” he asked. “Will the baby remember me? As we travel, we’ll have the issue of you being remembered while I am not. There are too many unknowns.”

He didn’t say more, but the darkening of his attitude spoke volumes. One of the unknowns was their own survival.

Finally!

Nevada grabbed the stone she’d been concentrating on, ran for the door, threw it open on an empty second story hallway, and shouted at the top of her lungs. “Rurik!” She didn’t wait for him to come to her, but hustled down the stairs and into the main room of the library.

He was running toward her, frowning, hand on the hilt of the sword that hung at his side. “What’s wrong?”

Her wide smile must’ve eased his worry, because suddenly he stopped moving forward. He dropped his hand, and his expression shifted from one of concern to puzzlement.

“Nothing is wrong,” she said. She kept moving, and they met near what had once been the check-out desk. A library. A haven. Her home, for now. Nevada tipped her head back and looked Rurik in the eye. She was so excited that she could do this for him! Well, for all of them, but mostly for him.

“You are flushed,” he said, still a bit concerned about her outburst.

“Of course I’m flushed!” Nevada took a deep breath. It was time to explain. “I didn’t tell anyone what I was working on, because I wasn’t sure it would go anywhere. I still have so much to learn about this witch business. Anyway, when my family escaped from the mansion, I cast a temporary protection spell around them. I didn’t trust the vampires to really let them go, the way they said they would.” Trusting vampires was something she still had a hard time with. “That spell was a temporary thing. I knew it wouldn’t last. Since I finished the sanctuary spell and the doodad for Luca, I’ve been thinking. What if I could come up with a longer lasting protection spell for the soldiers who are on our side?”

“For the humans among us?”

“Warriors, too,” Nevada said. “I thought maybe I could start with you.”

Rurik smiled at her. Surely he didn’t intend for that smile to be more than a little condescending. It was. “I need no protection beyond my sword.”

Really? She had worked herself silly to get this done, and he didn’t want it? “It’s not like this spell makes you invincible, or anything. It’ll just give you an edge.”

“I don’t…”

“It can’t hurt, and it might help.” So much for gratitude!

He continued to argue with her. “I’m sure Jimmy and…”

Enough was enough. “Maybe you can’t be killed, but I’m not ready for you to be yanked back into whatever world you come from.” She slapped the clenched fist which grasped the stone to his wide, hard chest, quickly whispering the words that were necessary. She now understood that language as if she’d been speaking it since birth. The words were a part of her. Her heritage. Her gift.

She felt the spell form and slip into Rurik. She saw it, in a flash of sparkling green. Maybe he felt it, too, because he flinched. A little.

Spell cast, she dropped her hand and took a step back. She wondered if Rurik would be angry, but anger wasn’t the emotion she saw in his eyes.

“You care about me,” he said, his voice low.

Nevada felt the heat of a blush in her cheeks. “Well, yes.”

“You wish to protect me in whatever way you can.”

She wanted to protect everyone, but if she had to choose just one person to cast this spell on, it would be Rurik. “Yes,” she whispered.

“I care for you, too.” With that, he wrapped one long arm around her waist, pulled her in, and pressed his mouth to hers.

Nevada had been kissed, but it had been a very long time. And she had never been kissed like this. The world went away. She felt the kiss to her toes.

Toes which were no longer touching the floor, since Rurik had lifted her with that one, strong arm. Nevada wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. He moaned, deep in his throat.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. She didn’t want this kiss to stop.

“Get a room, you two.”

Their mouths separated, but Rurik did not put her down. She dangled in his arms, warm and snug and safe. Nevada looked beyond Rurik’s shoulder to a grinning Jimmy.

“You’d better be nice to me,” she said, still reeling from the kiss. She tried to hide her intense reaction, as she teased the first human among their ranks. Rurik’s conduit. His blood.

“Why’s that?” Jimmy asked.

Rurik placed Nevada on her feet and looked directly into her eyes. In those eyes was a promise of more. She wanted more. She wanted it all. And she was willing to wait, but seriously, she didn’t want to have to wait long. If she had learned nothing else from this vampire apocalypse, it was that every day was precious. And that every day could be the last.

“Show him,” Rurik said. “Show Jimmy what you have done.”

She did.

Sorin didn’t always sleep deeply, but for the past few hours, he had. He’d slept hard, with Indikaiya in the bed beside him.

She was not a cuddler. Just as well, since he wasn’t, either. Tempted as he had been to wake her before leaving the bed, he had done her the courtesy of easing away with nothing more than a very gentle raking of his fingers across her back.

He stood in the shower with hot water pounding his body. The timing was off, but he could stand to eat again. War took a lot out of a man, no matter what species that man might be. He was hungry, but he didn’t dare take another drop from Indikaiya.

Could a Warrior be turned? Could a Warrior and a vampire bond? He doubted it, but he couldn’t be sure. Not that she would ever take his blood, and it took an exchange of blood for a human to be turned. Then again, Indikaiya wasn’t human any more than he was. She was more. She was amazing.

Not that he would tell her so.

He’d realized all along that this revolution would bring great change to his life. It was a cosmic joke that the change was not at all what he’d expected. All this time he’d wanted to open the eyes of the blind, and yet it was his own eyes that had been opened. Everything around him looked different.

The world had not yet changed, not in the way he had imagined it would, but he had. Whether or not it was for the better… the truth was, no one had ever made him want to be a better man. No one but her.

He should’ve been surprised when Indikaiya joined him in the shower, but he wasn’t. Not really. She’d unbraided her hair, which fell like a wavy waterfall across her shoulder. Gorgeous. Sadly it was clear that she was here to bathe, not to play. She’d grabbed a washcloth on her way in.

She moved close enough to him to place her face in the hot spray, closing her eyes and sighing in delight. Sorin watched the water wash over her face and down her body, and he was hard again.

He wanted to take her away from this war and spend a week, a month, a
year
, making love. Just the two of them. No swords, no battles… no clothes.

But that was not possible. All they had was this too-short interlude. A moment. A reprieve that would not last nearly long enough. He intended to make the best of it.

“Have you ever had sex in a shower?” he asked, easing her around to face him. Her eyes opened. She was wary, but that wasn’t new.

“I have not.”

“Care to give it a try?”

Lucky for him, Indikaiya was not averse to trying new things.

Chloe was no longer growing larger and more obviously pregnant every day. Instead, it seemed that with every
minute
that passed, the child inside her grew.

How was this possible? She’d been hiding her condition with loose fitting clothing, but that wouldn’t last much longer. She couldn’t possibly be more than a few weeks along, if that.

Luca was… well, she would not use the word
alarmed
to describe him, not ever. He was forever in control, and nothing threw him off balance. But the very existence of the baby they had made puzzled him.

After his two thousand years of existence, she still managed to surprise him. That fact seemed to both please and annoy him.

He wanted to take her away, and if he insisted, that would happen soon. She loved him and he was her maker. That didn’t mean she had no choice but to obey, but it added another layer to their relationship. Lover, maker, master, father of her child. Husband? Might as well be. No bond could possibly go deeper than the one they had.