Essence (Nectar 3)

Kyla winced. She reached under the pillow for her dagger, put her robe on, tucked her dagger into the pocket and walked out to the living area.

Tristan’s mother was sitting on the sofa, looking directly at Kyla walking in. She was disheveled-looking but still beautiful. Her long wavy dark hair was loose and she was in jeans, boots, a blue blouse the same colour as her eyes (and Tristan’s eyes) and a navy blue blazer. But her eyes were bloodshot. She had a blood bag in her hand.

Tristan was instantly in front of Kyla, backing her up. Sam had already gone.

“Get back in the bedroom, Kyla,” said Tristan.

“Here,” she handed him the dagger from her pocket.

He accepted it, “Thank you. Back to bed.”

She looked over at Taryn who was staring at her,

“She’s better. She’s better, Tristan? Is she vampire?”

“No, Taryn. Nevermind.”

“Nevermind?” Taryn was clearly offended, “Nevermind?”

“None of your business.”

“My son. My son and it’s none of my business? What’s happening here, Tristan? I need to know what on earth is happening!”

He took two steps back, Kyla pressed behind him with his palm against the small of Kyla’s back. It was his signature protective pose.

“What’s happening here is that I have Kyla back. It doesn’t matter how. But I’m here because I’m in an alliance with the Voitenko family and several other European elders to shut down the bullshit happening here with the royals. Oh, and I’m here because I also found out that Constantin and your father put my father in a pit with a dagger. So he’s in the ground, beside your Uncle Lucian. We’re waking them tomorrow.”

Taryn looked stricken, “What?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Your husband isn’t dead. But now Constantin is,” Tristan replied, then muttered, “Go back to bed, baby. I’ll be there soon.”

Kyla wasn’t moving. She was watching Taryn come completely undone.

Taryn’s hand moved up and covered her mouth and she started to tremble. “Jonathan?” she started to shake as tears started falling.

Tristan went completely stiff.

“Yeah, your husband isn’t dead. Although I don’t know what the fuck he’ll think when he meets you and sees what you’ve become. And stop it. That’s twice you’ve turned on the waterworks for me, Taryn, and that’s twice too much.”

“Stop calling me by my name, Tristan. I am your mother!”

“You know you’re not my mother. You used to be my mother. But you are not her.”

“And whose fault is that?” she hissed.

“Mine,” He said coldly.

Kyla’s reached forward and put her cheek against his back, her arm around his stomach and squeezed as pain lanced through her. That pain was both hers and his.

“Please go to bed, princess. I can’t stomach the idea of her breathing your air.” He let go of her.

She nodded and got up on her toes and kissed the hinge of his jaw and then backed into the bedroom, seeing Taryn’s wet eyes on her, looking filled with pained emotion. She shut the door.

Things were quiet for a few minutes but Kyla didn’t fall back to sleep. There was no way in the world she would be able to.Tristan finally came in, it might’ve been an hour later, maybe more.

“Where is she?” Kyla sat up.

“I took her downstairs, locked her in a bedroom in the dorm. She wants to be there when we open the crypt. She’s a wreck. Never seen her like this.”

Kyla cuddled close.

“Not like her typical vampress hissy fits, either. I don’t know what this is.”

“Thinking her husband has been dead for 35 years and finding out he isn’t? That’s gotta be… rough.”

“Yeah. She never met her father, doesn’t know Lucian.”

“Did Sam find Jackson?” Kyla asked.

Tristan nodded, “Yeah. He’s locked down, too.”

“What was he up to?”

Tristan laughed, “Planning his murder of me so he could have you back.”

“Wh-what?”

“Carrying a torch, apparently. Either stumbled onto the dagger in the empty room or was helping Hunter. Either way, he knew what it was by watching Hunter remove it. Was gonna hunker down for the night with it and figure out how to get to me and take me out.”

“What an idiot. Vampirism hasn’t changed him.”

“So tomorrow oughta be an interesting day,” Tristan said.

“Yeah. Can I be there?”

“Where?”

“At the crypt. The pit, whatever. When you open it.”

“No. No goddamn way!”

“But…”

“Kyla?” he was astounded that she’d even suggest such a thing.

“Let me be there for you.”

“It could be dangerous. No way. My mother, two desecrated and starving vampires, uh uh. Fuck that shit. Besides, rumour is that Lucian killed Sergey’s wife. If that’s what happened, it might not go well. Sergey’s said he can deal but he could go rogue. Rumour has it that Lucian wasn’t on board with the coalition but my father was. But Lucian wasn’t on board with the breeding program either. Adrian said he had a screw loose, was jealous of Alexander so was constantly stirring shit up, undermining things. So those two in that pit together, I don’t even know if they’ll go after one another. We are gonna separate them into the two pits and leave them there with feeders and a week’s worth of blood bags for a few hours and see what happens. We figure out which one, if either, we let out, interrogate, then go from there.”