Essence (Nectar 3)

“The next time he wakes, it’ll be because I wake him, so I can end him,” Tristan said.

“He and I have a long history. One with plenty of reason for me to want to watch you kill him. I hope you’ll allow me to observe.” Sergey’s eyes got a sickening glint in them. Tristan got a similar expression on his face.

Kyla shuddered.

The oven dinged and she watched Sam remove cellophane and then slide the pizza in.

“See that? The cellophane come off first, Sasha.”

Sasha balled up a serviette and tossed it at him.

“She learned that the hard way the other day.”

Kyla giggled.

“Kyla and I need to go,” said Tristan.

She knew he wanted away from this madness.

“Meet for breakfast?” Sasha invited, “And then we can see about Kyle?”

“Wait, what? Shouldn’t we do it now? Maybe that’s why he’s in pain. Maybe we can stop the pain?”

“We should wait. Talk things out first. There’s a lot here to contend with. Sasha needs to make this decision.” Tristan tried to lead her toward the door.

She stopped and put her hand on his chest. “But he’s been asleep for two years. He’s hurting. He---”

“Baby, one more day. Let’s go.” He was saying ‘let’s go’ aloud but he was also communicating non-verbally that he needed the heck outta there right then so she agreed.

“Fine. Tristan and I will cook at the house you lent us. Meet us there at nine?”

“I hope it’s not a lend,” Sasha said, “And he’s okay. I’ve got his pain under control. I think Tristan’s right. We should sleep on this, talk more in the morning.”

I hope he’s okay.

And she hoped it wasn’t a lend, as well.She thought this but didn’t say it. She knew Tristan read that. He gave her a look and was giving off emotion she couldn’t quite translate.

“But you are going to wake him tomorrow?” Kyla asked Sasha.

“I’m going to try. I have a lot of mixed emotions about this though, Kyla. I didn’t know I did that to him. I didn’t know or… I can’t say I wouldn’t have done it. I was a nightmare after I was turned. But I mean---I didn’t mean to inadvertently make him my enchanted pet. I really didn’t. I knew about the matching up process for the breeding program for bloodlines but I was on a ‘need to know’ basis and I didn’t know all this. Never did I think I’d done that to Kyle.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand,” Kyla said, “I mean, based on what you’ve said about him.”

“I’m not sure he will,” Sasha’s expression dropped.

“Are the effects the same on a male enchanted pet as a female?” Kyla asked Sergey.

“He’s bonded so he’ll want to feed her, though he won’t be very cognizant of the want. The bond isn’t as strong when a female vampire bonds a male to her as when a male vampire bonds with a female human, but there is a connection. It’s not the same as the mutual binding but the connection is there.”

“Will he be mesmerized? Because I wasn’t. I was still very driven to feed Tristan. I had withdrawals. I started to feel things more sharply but I wasn’t catatonic.”

“I heard that you were lucid and that lucidity is likely what made Tristan bond with you in the way that he did. If you’d been mesmerized it might’ve played out differently. But your brother will be mesmerized. He was mesmerized with vampires before Sasha fed from him so I suspect that’ll be the same. The only way around that is if he’s turned. If he’s turned, their bond breaks but then his blood also changes. If she turns him, he’ll be mated to her the way you are with Tristan so that’s not recommended unless you two have that sort of relationship, Sasha, one where you want to mate for life. Kyla, it appears, from the research with Adrian’s notes that Sasha shared with me, that you’ve got the lion’s share of the vamp DNA and that’s probably why you were lucid. A vampire marriage results in lucidity as well. It’s rare for it to be the case beforehand. My mother wasn’t lucid until she fed on my father’s blood. It altered the nature of their relationship, obviously. The same happened with me and my wife.”

Kyla blinked and her mouth dropped, “So, it was just him who made the decision for them to have that kind of bond?”

“Yes.”

“And you with your wife?”

“The same. I saw what I wanted in her and decided I wanted her lucid, wanted her to be only mine. She had enough vampire in her bloodline for it to work.”

“So you chose her. She didn’t have a say.”

“Correct.”

“So I guess you’re not as evolved as I initially thought. You saw what you wanted and just took it.”

Sergey chuckled, “I’m an alpha male royal vampire. Through and through. But I wanted her, specifically.”