Darkened Days (19 page)

“Wait. 
Isn’t he vampire?  He can produce a child? Actually impregnate someone?  As in a pregnancy that results in a fetus that becomes a baby?”

“Wild, isn’t it?  But it’s true. 
Our master is a very special vampire.  And the person he breeds with must be special too.  Those who can do this are really rare.   So much so, that no one in this village has ever met one.  But our master has found one.  A female who is Shoazan.  One who can bring vampire life.  It is said she is his destiny and will mother a new generation.  We were all set to celebrate this momentous event when it turned out she said no.  Another male vampire showed up to claim her.  It’s a tragedy for Ahmose and our people.”

Could it be the little vampire Jacob sought?  The little innocent Star
la?

“Surely this vampire knows she must be with your master.  To bear a true vampire baby? 
Amazing.”

“The Shoazan refused our master.  I cannot even imagine doing so.  He is truly the most magnificent man I have ever seen.”

Crystal looked away, her eyes focusing on the mist in the distance, pale against the dark sky.  She
knew
Azure was talking about Jacob and Starla.  So, the little vampiress was something special after all.

“This female vampire can be impregnated by another vampire?”

“Yes.  No. Not just
any
vampire.   A first blood only.  I can’t tell you more until I am allowed to disclose it to you.”

She didn’t need to.  Crystal had lived with one for
centuries.  A first blood could create a child with Starla.  Jacob couldn’t.  Wow, did this work in her favor.  There wasn’t any way this Ahmose would let Jacob take Starla.   He would be cast out.  And she would be there to pick him up.

She looked back at Azure.

“Let’s get some breakfast.  And then, if you want, I’ll take you back to your house and do you from head to toe.”

It would keep her busy as she waited for this to play out the way that it would.

Azure grinned through the entire breakfast, perhaps the finest buffet Crystal had ever seen.  It was set up outside, four long tables of food and drink.  At least twenty other vampires were positioned on café tables spread out around the food, laughing and eating. 

Just as they finished, Crystal looked up to see Jacob, the first blood she’d met at Xavier’s, and one of the young ones she’d held in the cells.
  They walked up to one of the tables to fill their platters.  She turned away so they wouldn’t see her face.  It wouldn’t do for Jacob to know she was here until she was ready.  She turned to Azure.

“I’ve had enough food for now.   I want to get my hands on you again. Can we go now?”

Nodding excitedly, Azure pushed away from the table. “I can’t wait, either.  Crystal, I hope you can stay.  I really love being with you.”

You love my tongue
, Crystal thought.  But said, “Oh, I love being with you as well.  I’m sure I can and we’ll have a lot of wonderful moments to come.”  She grabbed two of the big sugared donuts and they left, Crystal led them away from the table Jacob was heading toward.  He was wearing a sleeveless tee that showed his beautifully cut arms and pecs.  She glanced in appreciation as they walked away.  Then back to Azure, and once more to Jacob’s huge muscled body. 
That
was the body she wanted to tongue.

Patience,
she told herself.

Starla dined with Ahmose and ten of his closest friends and advisors in his yurt.  More than anything this morning, she wanted to wake up next to Jacob.  But Chione had been right.  This was a time for careful diplomacy and thoughtful actions.  Ahmose would be so disappointed and hurt that she wasn’t staying to be his queen.  As wonderful as he was, it was Jacob she was already half in love with.

Half?
  She shook her head as she forked a huge piece of a flavorful fluffy omelet.
Half?
  More.  Probably crazy in love with him, if she admitted it to herself.  She was having a little trouble with how quickly her feelings had developed, but every nerve in her body fired off when he was around.  Memories popped in her mind of last night and all the intimate things he did to her.  Her toes curled just thinking about where his mouth had been.

Even now, surrounded by a table filled with gorgeous vampires,
most bigger and more powerful than Jacob, all she could think of was him.  When Ahmose leaned over to her to ask her how she enjoyed her breakfast, her first response had been, “huh?”

He was quiet.  Then he smiled slightly and asked the question again.

“I’m sorry, Ahmose.  I was distracted.”

“Care to share?” he asked.

She blushed, she could feel it in the heat of her face and scalp.

“No, it’s okay.  It’s nothing.  So, you are
all
first bloods?”

Everyone nodded.

“That’s impressive.  I bet you get a lot done, what with the strength and magical powers.”

Lame.  She just had no idea what to say to these men.

Ahmose rescued her.

“We do, little one.  To make this community strong and beautiful.  You will love your home here.  I will have a new house built on the hill facing the village so there will be plenty of room for our family.”

Oh, god.  He still assumed she would accept his offer.  It made the task of telling him she was leaving with Jacob much more difficult.  As soon as breakfast finished, she would have to do it.  Clean.  No easy way.  Her refusal would destroy a destiny he was convinced they were meant to share.

She smiled and buried her face in the heaping plate.  After she told him, they would leave immediately.   Couldn’t stay and see the pain she’d caused.  Ahmose was an incredible man.  He deserved the woman and children he believed w
ere destined to be.  She hoped like hell someone wonderful would come along for him very soon.

All three vampires ate third and fourth helpings of the fresh, flavorful, varied food on this breakfast buffet. 

Koen wanted to speak to Ahmose to ask if he could  bring his family sometime to meet the children of the moon.
  And get more background on why they called his own first blood clan children of the sun.   What was the significance of the different clans?  
Were
they different from each other?  A lot of questions. 

He knew the children of the moon would love to meet a first blood child.  His granddaughter Cairine was so special, such a brilliant and beautiful child.  And his daughter Park, the first child born to a first blood in centuries, grown, and more powerful than any first blood he had ever known. 

Except perhaps the psychotic Tamesine.  He shook his head because he didn’t want that nutcase in his mind right now.  Enough going on in there between dealing with this situation with Jacob and Starla, the discovery of an entire clan of first bloods he did not even know existed, and the search for the woman that walked into and out of his life leaving a hole.  It was more than enough, even for a big first blood vampire like himself.  Emotionally, he was feeling raw and ragged.

Jacob finished a very healthy-sized breakfast for two reasons.  It was amazingly good food so it was hard to stop. And he felt sure he was going to need the extra calories for what he would face tonight.  He had no idea what to expect.  But he knew he was fighting for Starla against someone not only physically and magically stronger than him, but also had the back up of this large community.  He was fucked.  Wouldn’t stop him from fighting.  He knew Starla would choose him if she was given the choice.  But he was almost one hundred percent sure she wouldn’t.

He glanced at his own backup.  Koen.  First blood.  Powerful.  Amazing.  Would fight at his side for all that it was worth.  Already had.  And the kid, Henri.  He smiled. 
The pup
.  Fresh blood, and weak because of it.  But he loved Starla.  Jacob had seen that right away.  He’d fight with every last drop of his blood too.  Wasn’t enough with a whole community of first bloods.  Still.  She was worth it.  They would fight.

He’d looked around hoping to see her this morning, but he hadn’t. 
Every moment she was out of his sight he worried.  He had no reason to trust this Ahmose, although Starla insisted he was a good and honorable man.  Jacob fingered his jaw which was finally healed as of this evening.  He didn’t feel inclined to agree.

“Koen, how do you think this is going to go down?  I’d like to get Starla out of here right away.”

Koen scowled, lowered his head, and looked at him sideways.  “You really think it’s going to go that easily?  Sorry, mate.  I agree, I would like to get the fuck out of here, too, but I warn you right now.  It isn’t going to be that easy.  She’s able to breed with a first blood.  I understand how rare and priceless that is.  I’ve done it myself.  Hell, I tried to keep Park’s mother imprisoned until she birthed the child we made together, but she escaped.  I’m not proud of it.  But I’m telling you, Jacob, he isn’t letting her go.  He feels justified, and I can’t say I disagree.   Having said that, I am on your side and I will fight for her.”

Jacob’s jaw was set so hard his teeth were in danger.  When he spoke, Henri though
t he almost heard bone crack.

“He can’t have her.  I won’t let him keep her here against her will.”

Koen was quiet for a moment.

“Well, then,” he said to both Jacob and Henri, his green eyes flashing a first blood glow.  “We fight.  I need some booze.  Where’s that famous South African beer?”

Breakfast finally ended.  Ahmose had been so charming, Starla found it almost impossible to take him aside to speak with him about her circumstance.

“It’s cooler tonight.”  Ahmose turned to Starla.  “A good night for a walk.  May I show you some of the treasures of our country?”

Perfect,
Starla thought. 
A nice walk where we can
be alone and discuss the issue.

“I’d love to.”

He took her outside the protected complex to the waterfalls, to the water’s edge, the prismatic droplets glittering in the brilliance of a moon just slightly less than full.  A moonbow arched gracefully from one section of the multi-point waterfall.

Starla watched Ahmose in the natural light of the moon.  Was he glowing?  A little?

“Ahmose, is it a trick of the light?  Or is your skin glowing?”

“Do you know what my name means?”  

She shook her head.

“It means son of the moon.  There is a merge on and around the full moon when I feel as if I literally absorb its light.  I feel it now.  Surrounded by all that is holy and a part of this world.”

“You are magical yourself.”

Leaning over, the spray wetting her hair and clothes, Starla stared at the colors suspended in air and water.  Her
eyes returned to the dancing moonbow.

“It’s so beautiful.  I guess I’ll never see a rainbow again.”

“I’m afraid not.  You know, of course, the gifts vampire blood brings you are much greater than even the loveliest natural phenomena.”

She turned to him.

Ahmose thought she was radiant there in the light of the moon with mother earth’s kiss on her face. Her skin sparkled and her eyes shined.  His own were glowing with first blood magic, and he was aroused.  He wanted her.  He would have her tonight and his children soon.

“This journey through your country has taught me that.  I was so angry when I was turned against my will.  But now, I am grateful for all the possibilities of an almost unlimited future.  Ahmose, I have enjoyed my time here with you and your people.  I hope I will always be welcome here.”

He was very still.  Then he said, with a slight bow, “Always, my love.”

Now, Starla stilled.  “About that.”  She paused, dreading this moment.

“Ahmose, I can’t stay.  I would love to be your mate and have your children if I weren’t already in love with someone else.  You know that.  I’ve told you.  And I know you would never ask it of me.”

Stiff, he turned and walked away, a few feet, stood staring into the darkness for several long minutes.  Just as she was ready to go to him, he turned back.

“I would not.  Normally.  But this is not a normal moment.  We are destined to be together.  My people have always believed there is a universal order.  That certain things are designed to occur.  The stars guide us, my love, because we are so very small.  The children of the moon belong to the earth, the moon, and sun.  The sky and all above or below us.  We must travel the course we are meant to or chaos consumes us.  I want to make you happy.  I want to love you.  We must follow that star strewn path, little vampire.  You must stay.”

Starla felt tears on her cheeks just before he stepped to her, his gentle fingers brushing them away.

“Star,” he whispered, his voice coarse.  “You would be very happy with me.”

Looking up at him through a watery prism, she saw he was tearing too.