Forbidden Days (The Firsts) (25 page)

The next few weeks would be very, very interesting.

Alvin was pissed.  They were way behind in converting new vampires for his attack on Sebastian.  Shanks wasn’t as motivated as he originally had been, it seemed, so if he wasn’t very careful, Alvin would have to replace him.  Truly, he was getting too arrogant.  Alvin hated arrogance almost as much as Sebastian.  And hubris.  Please, who thought it was okay to consider yourself a god?  Even immortal vampires were little more than humans on steroids that made them
think
they were special.  Alvin already knew they weren’t.   So, if Shanks continued, he’d shut him down.  And here in his sunroom office, used, obviously, only at night, Alvin watched his first vampire convert drop into the seat opposite him with a huge plate of pancakes.

“I like that bitch we got cooking for us.  She fucking rocks this pastry shit!”

He was so coarse!   Alvin closed his eyes. 
Give me strength
, he begged.  “She is a sweet old lady, she is not a bitch.  But yes, she
is
an exceptional cook.”  He watched the young vampire shovel the sticky covered pancakes into his face like he was being timed.  It made Alvin’s own stomach turn.   “Shanks.  Have you started the two converts each between you and the other vampires old enough to do it?”

“Yeah, yeah.  But we lost two more.”   He laughed obnoxiously, snorting, which Alvin found infernally grating.  “These humans…they’re weaklings, man.”

He could feel his jaw tighten.   “Shanks, do you think it might have something to do with you not attending them properly?   Are you not feeding them enough to get the conversion going properly and then making certain they receive regularly feedings to continue the change?  Usually, high failure rates have a cause.  Shanks, are you doing your job?”

“Whoa, whoa, Sire.  Now look, I’m a busy man these days.  I got a lot I’m pulling off for you.  You sayin’ you don’t like how I’m workin’?”

Alvin sighed.   “No. No.  I’m saying I need you to be one hundred percent on it.  All the time.  I have a window, Shanks, and I’m struggling to meet it.  You were my first pick, so I need you to take care of everything quickly.  Are you doing that for me?”

“Yeah, sure.  I guess I could do more.”

“Just…bring me the girl.  Sebastian’s girl.  Can you get her for me?”

“Well, he’s locked down the place now.  I figured when we all went in, no problem.  You sayin’ you want her now?   Before we storm the place?”

“Yes, I would like her now.  I’ve been thinking about it.  She
has
to be something special, to have him lapping after her like a lovesick dog.  He’s never been in love, I’ve ever heard.  So, I want her, as quickly as you can make it so.”

Shanks looked up at him, nodding his head.  Couldn’t speak with his mouth crammed…the final six pancakes on the stack, all at once.  Shanks would do what he needed him to do.   Just…if he didn’t fucking choke to death first.

Alvin rolled his eyes and left the room.

Cherise came to Bas’s room nervously.  She’d never been in his quarters before with him in there.  Only alone, as she arranged for its care and cleaning.   It seemed smaller with him present.   They were alone at first, and although Park was on her way, she was nervous being in the smaller enclosed space with a man who both attracted her and frightened her.  He’d always been fair with her, but she knew he was very powerful, physically, and when he fed, never on her, but was almost always female in the past, he treated them well.   But there was something she could always read that told her he had the potential to be very brutal.  She thought how Park had changed that.  Still, being so close, she was uneasy.

“I brought you here to look at this.  Park’s mother had it and I wanted to know if you know what it is…if you recognize it…and if it means something.”   He held a medallion in his hand hanging from a heavy elaborate chain.

The door slammed open, hitting the wall behind it.  Park was out of breath.

“Sorry, guys, we were working on proper stabbing technique.  Who knew it could be so complicated.  Anyway, I made it.  Hi, Cherise.”

Cherise  lowered her head and nodded, smiled at Park, and then held out her hand to Bas.  “May I see it?”

Park came forward to look, too.  Bas laid it gently in Cherise’s upturned palm.

“What is it?”

Bas walked to just behind her, his hand on her neck, caressing the skin.  “It was in your mother’s possessions.   I asked her what it was.  As usual, she wasn’t much help.  Just said it was a table near her before she escaped, and grabbed it.  She said she thought she might be able to sell it for some money, but realized it could lead him back to her, so she threw it into her bag and never really thought about it again.   But it’s old.  The writing…it’s nothing I’ve ever seen.  Cherise, do you know what it is?  Can you read it?”

She’d been quiet since he laid it in her hand.  Her eyes didn’t leave it, the medallion laying upturned and unmoved since he put it there.  She seemed mesmerized.  Park and Bas watched for a few moments, then Park stepped forward, closer to Cherise.  She could feel the shock and awe in Cherise, knew her heart was pounding.

“What is it?  You know.”

“I do.  This is a Spirit Amulet.  It is rumored to have great power. 
Pardon
.  I am
s’etonner. 
No one I know has ever seen one.  But we know they are very rare and very prized.  Oh, Mr. Bas, he will be wanting this very much.  As much as Ms. Park.  We are in grave danger, as I suspected.  I wonder…”

She stopped, still staring at it.  Park had to prompt her.

“What…what do you wonder?”

Cherise shook her head and frowned.  “I wonder he could not find you just from this.  It must have a very powerful…um…
insigne
…um…it would call to him…   If it is his, I think.   Right at this moment, it pulsates to me…I can feel it burn my hand.  Mr. Bas, if he comes, give this to him right away.  It will be the reason he seeks Park and her mother…to acquire it.”

“But what does it do?  I mean, what
kind
of power would it have?”

“This I do not know.  But it is said this is one of the most powerful things on earth.  We always thought it was a myth.  I fear it, because I do not know it.  Because I can feel something beneath it, something I know I could not control.  It knows it does not belong to me.”

Park was staring at it.  Suddenly she reached out and pulled it from Cherise’s hand.  Almost immediately it began to glow slightly.   Rattling the heavy chain, she pulled it over her head and watched it slide down beneath her shirt.

“It’s mine,” she announced.  “I know it is.  Until I touched it I didn’t know.  But it was meant for me.”  She closed her eyes and lifted her head.  “It’s…ah, Bas, it’s binding me to my ancestry…to the blood.”   She suddenly fell forward and Bas grabbed her and swung her into his arms, then carried her over to the bed.  She looked up at him with a smile, touched his face with her fingertips.

“It’s alright…don’t worry…we’re merging…”

Then she fell back against the pillow, her eyes closed, unconscious.

Bas was terrified.  Was this a weapon?

“Cherise, can you tell?  
Is
she okay?”

Cherise came forward and knelt by the bed, then laid one hand on Park’s chest, the other on her forehead.  Her eyes closed, and her head dropped.  Bas watched her fingers twitch against Park, her breathing calm.

A few moments later, she pushed back and stood up.

“She is.  Okay, I mean.  She was right, the medallion was made for her.  They are built for an individual spirit, and when worn, they merge.  I think…I’m pretty sure…it will strengthen her and the child.  Mr. Bas, I believe it is protection.  It seems to bind her to the powers of the originals, and increase her abilities.  She is a strong woman, a powerful being, sir, and I think we do not need to worry about her anymore.”

“Why is she unconscious?”

“I think the merging is intense, somewhat like the vampire virus merging with a human.   Only I don’t think she will be in pain.  I felt the baby, she is fine.  She is not worried, so we need not be either.  You must have faith, Mr. Bas.”

He looked wrecked.   She could feel him, and knew he was confused, worried, and felt helpless.  An old powerful vampire had serious trouble with all three of those emotions.

Cherise hesitated, then came up to him and put her hands on his forearms.

“She is becoming what she was always meant to be, and that is the best thing for her.   For your child.   But make no mistake, her father, he will come.”

Bas lay next to her the rest of the night, holding her close.  She would respond, roll toward him, wrap her arms around him, sometimes moan, but she wouldn’t wake.  Once he actually tried to get her to do so, but it didn’t happen.   So he tried not to worry, tried to get some rest, with marginal success, and was still holding her when morning came.  He’d had very little rest overnight, and now that morning had arrived, he was more tired than before, so he slipped in closer and fell into the deep sleep that typified a vampire’s day.  Unless something extreme happened, he’d sleep until night again.   And he did. 

As his body accepted it was time to waken, he looked at Park and saw her staring back at him with a smile.

“Hi, gorgeous,” she said quietly.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he repeated back.  “Are you okay?”

“I’m incredible.  Bas, I know who I am.  I know what I want.”  She could feel his worry about that.  “No, no.  I want to be with you, raise our child, and teach her about the world so that she sees it as a happy place.  I want her to feel loved and safe every minute of her life.”  She didn’t have to remind him that it was exactly what she
hadn’t
had.

“So, Bas, we need to find this vampire and destroy him.  I won’t have him threatening my family.”

He couldn’t agree more.  And he couldn’t have loved her more.

144

Chapter Seventeen

Dez stood outside the cell.  He was inside and he was waiting for her.  She could sense him, and although she had tested her telepathy with him, he didn’t seem like he could receive.  There had been no response.  Which surprised her.  Still…it was time to let him come out of the cells.  He was past any conversion issues and had completed the entire cycle.  Too soon, but…   It seemed that was what Park’s blood had done for him, gave him the easiest vampire conversion in the world.  She pushed the door open after deactivating security.

He lay on the pallet she’d set up for herself.  He saw her, rolled over and smiled.  When he stood up, he was wearing absolutely nothing.  Dez just stared, from his wild long pale hair down shoulders that looked carved in stone, to heavily muscled thighs and a generous gift in the groin area.  He was partially erect and just magnificent.  It did take her every ounce of vampire strength of will not to race over, throw him down, get on him and ride him till morning.   He smiled suddenly.  Did he…   Was he reading her…   No.  Probably just painfully obvious he turned her on.  To which she had to deny for the moment.  Bas was waiting for him.

“So look, Zach, we need to get to up to your quarters, cleaned up and at a meeting with the man who rules this stronghold.  His name is Bas.”

Zach frowned.   “Is he the one who took Park?  He’s the one responsible for all of this.  You bet I want to meet him!”

“Whoa, baby vamp.  That isn’t how this works.  Bas has taken excellent care of you…of her…of everyone here.  You will approach him with respect.”

“Not that vampire son of a bitch, who took her from her life and turned her into a vampire.”

“Well, you might want to get your facts straight before you start accusing people of things.  Park is not a vampire.”

He looked shocked.  “Then why did she feed me?”

“She’s something…else.  We’re still working on it.  Meantime, you will calm down.  Bas hasn’t done anything to you except let me save your life.  Don’t make me sorry I did.  Now put your pants on over that…”  she pointed between his legs, “…and come with me!”  His agitation had kept him in an aroused state.

He stared at her for a few moments, then slid the soiled athletic shorts over his thighs.  They’d been huge to start with a few days ago…they were tight now.  He still felt foggy about a lot of what was happening to him.  He tried to hang on to what he thought he knew…but even that was less clear than he thought it should be.  He just remembered Park had been abducted and injured and he was trying to play hero and find her and rescue her.   That was clear.  Everything else…lost behind layers of mist.  But physically, he felt like a god.  He’d noticed when his body began to change, after the illness, and increase in size and bulk.  Like nothing he’d ever been able to accomplish in the gym.  His hair had grown exponentially faster than it ever could and his sexual libido had kicked into over drive.  Which was fortunate, because his privates had not been exempt from the size alteration.  He’d always been well endowed, but now…he was longer and firmer than anyone he’d ever seen.  And it wanted to play.  He succumbed, a couple of times a day, while Dez was sleeping, or at night, when she left, he’d bring himself to climax.  He’d wanted to come inside of her, the glorious amazon that attended him and fed him, but she always refused him.  Even last night, when he broke the chains she said were unbreakable, and came to her.  She’d shut him down, but let him sleep next to her.  Well, his penis had poked at her on and off all night, and that had been
her
fault.

He turned and presented himself to Dez so she could take him to meet the head vampire.  He noticed her looking him up and down as if she were taking inventory.

“You want me to drop these again?” he asked, aware he sounded like a smartass.

She dropped her gaze and walked out.  He waited a second and when she didn’t return for him, he stepped out of the cell for the first time as something more than human.  All he thought was that the tile floor was cold against his feet.