They couldn"t reason beyond the beatings of their hearts, the pounding need of their fevered flesh. Jaden suddenly tensed, s.h.i.+vers racking her body in violent completion. She screamed, clutching at his strong shoulders, throwing her head back, straining beautifully beneath him. Tyr couldn"t resist the call of her taut, quivering body. He too yelled in dominate pleasure as he thrust himself hard a last time only to release his seed within her.
When the final spasms of pa.s.sion died into soft quakes, Tyr fell against her sweat laden body. Jaden"s breath gasped loudly under him, bringing him pleasure at her breathless recovery. Both of them trembled in unison, completely sated. For the barest of moments, they were completely free and neither of them felt quite as alone.
Jaden sighed in her sleep as she drifted in peaceful dreams. Her limbs were heavy and calm. She could feel a breeze moving tantalizingly over her skin and the strange, uneven texture of gra.s.s beneath it. She could detect the warmth of the sun s.h.i.+ning brightly on her face, kissing her warmed flesh. In the distance a bird sang a cheerful summer song.
A cheerful song she thought skeptically. A frown marred deeply on her brow as anger seeped in. A bird!
Her eyes popped open. Jaden sat up from her gra.s.sy bed in trepidation. Before her was a land blanketed with rolling gra.s.ses and swaying weeds. Beneath her was the cus.h.i.+oned bed of a field. The perfumed scent of wildflowers wafted on the temperate wind, their color dotting the ground all around her. It was daytime. The sun was bright--too bright for an old vampire to venture into-- and she was alone.
Darting to her feet, Jaden spun in circles. A forest stood nearby, no sign of fences or roads or people. In the distance, she thought she heard the hooves of horses, but the sound was so faint she couldn"t be sure. Tyr was nowhere to be found. Had he let her go?
Did he decide she was innocent and that was that? Did he abandon her in the middle of Norway without a word?
Anger at being discarded like a cheap wh.o.r.e bubbled inside of her. Her fists balled in outrage until she realized that something wasn"t quite right. She wasn"t in the mountains, and what the devil was she wearing!
Looking down in amazement, she saw a long, heavy gown of dark blue. Beneath the gown was an undertunic of cream, tightly fitted to her frame. Tiny b.u.t.tons decorated up the length of the tight, long sleeves. The skirts constricted her legs as she tried to move beneath the unfamiliar weight of the c.u.mbersome dress. The dark blue overtunic gown hung open at the sleeves, arcing like a giant tank top beneath her armpit to her hips. Gold embroidery laid thick over the square neckline and hems and a gold cord draped around her fitted waist, swinging as she moved to touch just below the knee.
Looking around, she felt a fluttering at her neck. Thinking it to be a bug, she wrinkled her nose and jumped to the air. She frantically swatted the dangerous creature away. Instead of smas.h.i.+ng an insect, she managed to tear a wimple and veil from over her face. They fluttered to the ground, discarded. Taking a deep breath, she jumped again as the overly long lengths of her hair blew into her vision. The ends reached a good distance past her waist.
"Uh," she said, trying to clear the long locks from her mouth and eyes. Finally, managing to tame the wild tresses back, she held them to the nape of her neck in a fierce grip. She instantly looked around for a knife so she could cut them off.
"Tyr!" she screeched.
"Yea, m"lady," he bowed gallantly. Jaden spun around to face him. He wore a black turtle neck and his matching pants. "Don"t you like the open field? Very medieval, is it not?"
Jaden gasped, staring at him in the sunlight. The rays. .h.i.t upon his face, making his pale skin glow with life. His hair radiated as if on fire. The daylight gave texture to his lips, red from within by the help of her blood. When he smiled, she saw that his fangs were not as sharp.
Jaden swallowed, remembering all too well how he felt next to her. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s felt swollen. She wanted to kiss him, to hold him, make love to him again in this d.a.m.ned field. But he was an enemy and now that the fevered need of their bodies was tempered back to a reasonable pitch, it was time they faced what they must.
"It is not," she belatedly growled, doing her best to ignore his playful mood. "It looks like any other field. And how come you get to wear that and I am stuck in this? And why aren"t you dead from the sunlight?" Tyr cleared his throat, his eyes grinning unabashedly. He almost seemed disappointed by her last question. His gaze moved with a rekindling of longing over her form. He liked her as she was, missed seeing woman as she was now before him--feminine and yet strong. As she had slept next to him, he couldn"t find rest. He had stared at her until the overwhelming urge to see her in sunlight prevailed over him. This was the only way he ever could.
"My apologies," he shrugged, none too apologetic. "It is my mind. I tend to put things as I want them. And you did say you wished you could see this time. Well that dress is part of it."
"I meant the battles, Tyr, not these pre-feminism torture devices. What is with all this blasted hair? And what the devil was on my head?"
"I could take the clothes off," he offered, his eyes turning naughtily up and down her slender frame. He enjoyed her in the dress, the tight fitted waist, the feminine neckline that hugged so perfectly across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, pus.h.i.+ng them up for ample display.
However, he could also tell she was uncomfortable in it.
"If I have to wear something, make it battle gear," she said, grinning impishly as she warmed to the idea. She rubbed her hands thoughtfully, as she added, "And give me a giant sword."
Tyr nodded, mildly disappointed. In a blink, her arms became slanted down in armor. Beneath the press of unexpected metal, Jaden hollered in surprise as she fell backwards, weighted down. She landed with a thud in the cus.h.i.+oning of gra.s.s. A sword dropped from her hand, falling softly beside her. Tyr chuckled and leaned over her. His hands threaded behind his back as he gave her an innocent grin.
With a huff, Jaden pushed the face plate of the helmet up from her eyes. She could feel her body was completely naked under the metal. The dress was gone. Glaring at him with feigned anger, she growled, "Get me out of this nightmare, Tyr. I don"t like being in your mind. And I think you should know that you aren"t the least bit funny."
Tyr shrugged, his look disagreeing with her.
"Come on," she urged, threatened by the softness in him. "Take me back."
"You"ll have to give me a kiss first."
Jaden pursed her lips together in mock defiance. Tyr fell to his knees. Leaning over, he didn"t give her time to protest as he pushed his lips to hers. Jaden laughed lightly and instantly melted, remembering the all too recent, familiar feel of him. The armor seemed to melt from her skin, replaced by his hand on the curve of her hip. Just as swiftly, he pulled away.
"Open," he commanded her softly.
Jaden moaned, opening her eyes as if from a dream. Wearily, she yawned asking, "Did that happen?"
Tyr nodded and responded quietly, "I told you I would show you."
"But all I saw was trees," she pouted. Suddenly, she realized she was laying naked beside him in full view. She sat up on the bed, remembering herself. Feeling a twinge in her inner thigh, she glanced down. A bruise formed around two puncture marks where he had bit her. She got up from the bed. A sickening dread overcame her with shame.
"Would you like to go somewhere else?" he offered roguishly. "Come lay down, I"ll show you a castle. Sometimes the knighted men can be convinced into fighting."
"No, thanks, I"ll stay in this century for now." Under her breath, she added, "I don"t like you having that kind of control."
Tyr watched Jaden shrug into her clothing. His good humor went with her nakedness. He felt her stiffening up towards him and was helpless to stop it."Come back and lay down," he urged quietly, his gaze watchful and unrevealing. "I can heal that bruise for you."
"Ah, no, I shouldn"t. In fact, we need to get a few things straight."
He said nothing. Jaden finished pulling up her jeans and turned to him. She winced at the pain in her leg.
Weakly, she said, "That is to say we shouldn"t have done this and it won"t be happening again. You are a vampire and I am a dhampir. It"s wrong."
"Do you never grow tired of that song?" he murmured menacingly. She felt the mild wave of displeasure her words caused him. A brow rose over his unyielding blue eyes. Jaden couldn"t deal with his emotions at the moment. She did her best to block them and he tried to keep them from her. Her mind reeled, tipping back and forth in near hysteria. Her heart thudded at a dangerous pace.
She endeavored to remain completely calm, but it was hard.
"We are enemies," she said, mostly to remind herself. She erased the kindness of his expressions from her mind. It was easy, staring at the icy mask he now presented her. Her voice did not rise, but became fevered, as she said, "The truce is gone and there is nothing we could ever do to get it back. We made a mistake, one that we won"t make again. We are enemies! This isn"t right. It should never have happened!"
Tyr stayed quiet, his head c.o.c.ked to the side as he studied her.
"Don"t look at me like that! You know what I say is true!" she hissed, a part of her nearing hysteria. Tyr knew the emotion in her kind well, but it was the first sense of it he had gotten from her. Growing frustrated, she charged, "Don"t forget why you have brought me here. You have your duty and I have mine. Every moment is a test. Even now I can feel you judging me. Well, it won"t work. If anything, I am good at my job. My flesh may be weak, but my will is strong."
"Then are you admitting to the crimes for which your uncle stands accused. You know of what he has done?" Tyr sat before her completely naked, his body in easy repose. He was unashamed of himself, despite the unnerved way her disconcerting eyes tried too hard not to look at him. If this was the way she wanted it, then so be it. "You are admitting it?"
Blinking heavily, Jaden realized he was livid.
"No," she said in confusion. She tried to focus. Maybe if she gave him something, he would return the favor. Afterward she could work her way out of the mess she was in. "I found something, but.... I don"t know. I couldn"t read it. Can"t you tell me what it is you think Mack has done? Just tell me and let me go. I"ll ask him about it myself. I"ll find out the truth. Let me deal with it."
Tyr eyed her carefully. He ignored the insult of her rejection for the moment. Lowering his jaw, he questioned, "What did you find?"
Jaden"s gaze turned wide. All softness was gone from his tone. By looking at his stony features, she couldn"t tell anything had pa.s.sed between them. She detected a bit of crimson near his male s.e.x. It echoed the taste of his blood in her mouth. What had she done?
Jaden hastened to her bag. Then, a sudden doubt crept into her mind. He had used her. He had been h.o.r.n.y and she was closest thing available to slake his l.u.s.t and she had put up a pitiful, weak fight. She shuddered violently. He wasn"t her friend. He was her jailer. There could be no truce in this war.
Her hand hesitated as it touched the book. As an alternative, she grabbed the yellowed piece of paper she"d discovered in her mother"s box. With a heavy heart, she pulled it out and went back out into the room to discover Tyr was completely dressed.
With trembling fingers, she lied, "I looked around like you suggested and this was all that I found."
Tyr reached out. Her look stopped him.
"If I show you this, then you must share with me what you know also," she decreed.Tyr nodded firmly. He took the paper from her with steady fingers. Inside he seethed at her indifferent dismissal of him. She used him to get what she wanted and now she was done with him. A wall went up between them, neither of them facing the feelings that tried to surface. It was easier to concentrate on work and it was definitely easier to their natures to fight.
"I can"t read it." Her body fluttered with insecurities and doubt. She waited for a tender sentiment and found only hardness. Her body was still loose with the pleasure his gave her. "I don"t understand the words. I"m not even sure what language it is in."
"Gaelic," he answered. Scanning the paper, he frowned.
"Where did you get this?"
"In a box next to a picture of my mother." Chills ran over her. "What is it? Can you tell me?"
"It"s an incantation of the old magic to get a female human pregnant with a vampire baby. It explains how your mother got pregnant. These were supposed to be destroyed long ago. The only known copy was traced to a French family of witches in the fourteenth century. It was a.s.sumed their copy was lost to time."
"My uncle"s tutor was French. Maybe she gave it to him. He said she was like a mother to him," Jaden offered, trying to sound confident. She swayed on her feet. She couldn"t believe that Mack knew all these years how it was she was born. By all research, it should never have been possible and he told her that he didn"t know. She remembered asking him endlessly as a young girl, searching for answers to her past.
"It makes sense," Tyr mumbled, lost in thought. "Mack must have discovered Bhaltair and Rhona were lovers and used this incantation on them."
Jaden paled, turning white to hear her father"s name said out loud and from Tyr"s precise lips. Her stomach folded in on itself, twisting into horrible knots. Her mind flashed, flooding her with memories of his death. The torrent of emotion and regret hit her like a mace. In her current state of insecurity the rush was hard to fathom.
Gulping, she said, "Maybe it was not Mack who used it. Maybe he only found it later and kept it."
"No," Tyr denied absently. His finger ran over the words. "This particular recipe calls for the blood of a human brother and MacNaughton would"ve had to perform the ceremony."
"Oh," Jaden breathed, growing nauseous.
"Bhaltair already made known his intent to turn Rhona to be with him to the council," the dark knight continued, beginning to pace as he pieced the puzzle together. "And Rhona was most willing until she got pregnant. They must have decided that she would wait and bear the child because if she was a vampire the child would never exist. You would never exist."
Tyr turned triumphantly to Jaden, a large part of his puzzle solved. The council had debated for years how it was Bhaltair got the human woman pregnant. Charts of cosmic alignment had been pondered over, Rhona"s diet, her lineage. All came to nothing.
Jaden swayed on her feet. Tyr, in his preoccupation, didn"t notice.
"But your mother was killed when you were only a year," he said.
"And she was never turned," Jaden offered insipidly. "Her death was an accident. She fell off a horse."
"She was stabbed," Tyr debated, his brow furrowing as he absently disputed Jaden"s claim. "I"ve seen the official report of the body from the investigating vampire"s own file. I was sent to see what would happen to the dhampir child. You were given to your uncle. But why would Mack need you? It doesn"t make sense."
Jaden"s eyes clouded. She couldn"t get Bhaltair"s face from her mind. She couldn"t focus past the lies her uncle had told her. For when she looked at Tyr, she knew he spoke the truth."Something"s missing from the story, though," Tyr mused. His eyes scanned the paper. He was lost in deep thought. "Mack took you away, trained you. For awhile you were lost to us, even Bhaltair. He pet.i.tioned the council for help several times. When we finally located you, you were full grown. Bhaltair tried to approach you once, I"m told."
"Yes," Jaden said, remembering the man who stood before her, arms open wide, a smile across his undead face. She remembered every detail of the encounter, every heated word. Oh, how she hated him then. How she despised him for her existence! "I sent him away. I told him I never wanted to see him again."
"Yes, he came back to Europe and spoke on your behalf to the tribal council. Due to your upbringing, they had decided to kill you if you didn"t accept your father"s offer to join him. He begged them to give you another chance. They granted his request to wait a few years so that your anger was given time to lessen. Then, this past spring, he went back over to meet with you and--"
"I killed him," she whispered. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She always regretted that night she sent her father away.
She always prayed he"d come back for her, take her away with him. Her dreams had been answered--only she botched them.
Tyr"s face snapped sharply to hers, seeing the pale line of her ashen features. Tears welled up in her gaze, dripping softly over the edge. She swayed, sinking to the floor.
"That is my crime, isn"t it?" she questioned in a growing daze. She had known all along. She had waited for someone to come and punish her and here he was. Staring blankly at the floor, she began sinking into the abyss of insanity. The punishment was a grand one. He made her live to face it. He refused to kill her for it. She could no longer live with what happened. The memory haunted her dreams. She saw her father"s face, disappearing into ash, blowing over her skin. It covered her flesh until she was made to scrub it from every crevice of her body and hack it out of her lungs. It had taken weeks of showers until she was satisfied the ash was gone and even then, she could still see it on her if she looked hard enough.
Mumbling to herself, she rocked. "You were supposed to kill me. I went to you so you could kill me. You were supposed to be young. I made sure of it. A young one can"t sense me. That is what Mack says. A young one is perfect. He doesn"t know it"s me.
He"ll kill me and then it will be over. A young one won"t report it. He won"t know to. No one will ever know. I"ll die undisturbed.
No one will ever know."
Tyr felt the slipping of her reason. It was the curse of the dhampir. One small thing and they could snap. Only what she confessed to was no small thing. She had murdered her own father--a father that had changed his undead life around because of her existence, a father who refused to kill even the smallest of insects as he waited for his daughter to grow. Setting his mouth in a tight line, Tyr went to her. He couldn"t stand to feel her pain, her deeply wounding shame. Duty warred within him. He wasn"t meant to comfort the guilty. He was meant to watch her and discover the truth and when he had her confession, once he knew the truth, he was to take her to be punished.
Glancing at him, she grimaced in confusion, "You"re old."
"Jaden!" Tyr growled, taking her about the shoulders and roughly shaking her. Her head snapped back and forth. Emotion and duty clashed inside of him. She wasn"t responding. His voice was low, harsh, as he yelled at her. "d.a.m.n it, Jaden! Come back!"
Tyr raised his hand as if to backhand her. He hesitated. A frown conquered his face. His hand turned into a clenched fist. He couldn"t strike her. Easing his grip on her shoulders, he pulled her into his embrace. Stroking her hair, he cradled her into his arms.
He ignored her repeated rambling about their first meeting in the alleyway.
Jaden settled into his comforting embrace, her words drifted to an incoherent mumble before stopping. Tyr lifted her jaw, forcing her blank eyes to look at him. She stared past him, through him. Seeing her lips so close to his, he leaned down to gently kiss her.
"It"s all right, Jaden," he whispered into her mouth, as he soothingly touched her. His mind delved into hers, leading her back to him. His thumb worked over her face, brus.h.i.+ng aside her tears.
Jaden felt the movement on her mouth, the tugging in her mind that urged her out of the stupor she fell into. Her fingers twitched, clinging onto the enfolding comfort of a warm chest. Tyr"s nearness engulfed her. His steady strength was a balm that stung her soul. She didn"t deserve his kindness. Her mind jolted to awareness. She pulled away from him with a gasp.
Her eyes clear, her mind once more her own, she recoiled from him. Tyr had no choice but to release his hold. It tore at his chest to see her so broken. Hot tears poured anew down her face, staining her cheek.
Vehemently, Jaden demanded, "Dispense your justice, Tyr. Kill the murderer. It is what your people believed, is it not--an eye for an eye, a life for a life? Do what you were sent to do, Tyr. Finish me. I plead guilty."
Chapter Ten.
Time rolled by slowly in the cave home. Jaden slept throughout the day in Tyr"s bed, keeping with his vampiric schedule. Tyr rested on his couch, leaving her alone in his room. During the long nights, they didn"t speak. Silence was marred only by the subtle shuffle of Jaden"s feet, the crinkling page from some old book Tyr read, and most predominately by the popping wood burning in the fireplace.
After Jaden"s plea for death was again denied, Tyr carried her protesting body to the bed. Her anger at his refusal lasted only a moment before he drifted his hand before her face and forced her into a deep sleep.
He had then sat across from her, watching her in her slumber. He examined the soft glow of orange on her skin as it faded to becoming shades of darkness. And when she finally awoke, he was still there watching. She"d hardly spoken since. The part of her soul that glistened normally in her expressive eyes was dead.
Jaden suppressed a yawn, staring blankly at the licking flames. Nothing seemed to catch her attention, but in truth, she felt herself most inclined to stare at the little arrangements of history nestled into Tyr"s walls. Her mind reeled with her past, her uncertain future, her confusion over her captor and his motives. He had seen her in her weakest moment, the point where her fragile sanity broke into a thousand gla.s.s shards. No one had ever seen her brought low. She was mortified that it had been him. He now knew her weakness. The question was would he exploit it? Sighing again, deep and long, she closed her eyes.