Andrei is instantly by my side, trying stop me. “Not a chance, Father.”
“Silence,” I bellow as both Raphael and Matthias also rush to me.
The room stills before I nod my head to all of them. “Ambrose will be joining the family within the minute.”
Lifting my wrist closer to Ambrose’s mouth, I say, “Drink from your new father.”
“She’ll disappear if I do. You would order me to sleep, to lose what is left,” Ambrose whispers.
“Never, but this may help you heal enough to find her again,” I say just as quietly.
Shaking his head, I see tears flowing down Ambrose’s cheeks. “I don’t remember her voice.”
“Then let this quicken your healing and freshen your mind.”
I’m so very tired already from last night’s events. My body aches and my soul feels as if it’s finally beginning to shred its last pieces.
This may very well be the last thing I’ll ever do if I don’t get Chloe back tonight.
Taking my wrist into his hands, Ambrose raises it to his mouth. “I just wanted to dance but the poison turned to dust.”
I feel his teeth slowly sink into my skin. It’s been a few centuries since I’ve allowed others to drink from me as Ambrose does. It always feels like I’m a mother feeding her child when it’s done this way.
He drinks roughly at first, his body demanding the enriched blood of his kind. But eventually he slows, drinking gently and swaying on his feet.
Once Ambrose has fallen into a stupor, I nod my head at Raphael, and he darts over, carefully detaching Ambrose from me.
I motion for Raphael to put him in one of the two double beds.
“Asher,” Andrei rumbles deep in his chest, “that was very rash. Just because it worked on Raphael….”
Shrugging my shoulders, I walk over to the corner of my bed. “It’s the only way we have of keeping him on our side. Not that I believe he would have betrayed us.”
Matthias shifts quickly to the door when we all hear a couple of large SUVs entering the parking lot.
Looking out the window, he smiles at whatever he sees. “Food’s here.”
Fourteen
Asher
Memories that are not my own swirl through my dreams. Emotions war through stages of grief I don’t rightly understand.
My own hurts and desires though seem to push against the flow. Push to soothe and comfort the deep aching sadness that surrounds my very being.
Shaking.
The world is shaking me away from my eternal mission to end her sadness. To protect her from all that seeks to rip us apart.
A roar crashes through my skull, the sound as loud as an erupting volcano.
My body surges upward, every muscle tense and ready for whatever is coming to destroy my soul.
My eyes though only see my children surrounding me, no threat beyond my own making.
Andrei is the first to move towards me, his steps slow but deliberate. “Calm, Father, there’s no danger here.”
Looking around, I can feel my fangs bared, my hands ready to shred any threats.
I must look like a half-starved, bloodcrazed fiend. It’s in all their eyes… they’re waiting to see if I’ve gone feral.
Gone into the insanity that comes before death.
Checking the window, I see that light still shines behind the curtains, but I have no sense of how much time has passed.
“What happened?” I rasp out, my throat raw from the emotions I vocalized. “Why am I awake?”
“With all your thrashing around, I’m surprised you didn’t wake up before Raphael touched you,” Matthias says with a grunt. “You’ve been in a fevered state for the last six hours, Asher.”
“Yes, you’ve quite ruined my plans of protecting my new family,” Ambrose singsongs as he begins to do a circle around the room. His arms rigidly moving in some farce of a dance.
Side-eyeing Ambrose, I grunt to Raphael, “What’s happened?”
If I step away from the torturous dreams that plagued my sleep for long enough, perhaps I’ll forget the fear I felt ripping at my core. She fears me as much as she longs for me, and it kills me to think she might reject me. Just the possibility of it is too much to bear.
“One of Dav’s men called,” Raphael says, and crosses his arms across his chest. “They found a hunter approaching Chloe’s home.”
A hunter?
Here in this city?
Coincidences are all too often not a coincidence, they’re a plan. Finding a hunter in this city at this moment in time?
Not impossible, but it smells like something connected to me. To Chloe.
“Where’s the hunter at?” I ask.
“On the way here.” Raphael moves to the window, opening the curtains enough to show the light of day.
Moving to the window with him, I look out and see that the sun is in its last hour before dusk.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Matthias asks from behind me.
Raphael nods his head. “I want to know the same.”