Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (106 page)

“I don’t think so. No, I have no family, no sisters. You’re mistaken.” Maddy began backing away from her, towards Kyle. Towards where she knew she would be safe.

“No, you were to be watched and cared for until such time that it was safe.” The woman, the goddess walked toward her as she spoke. “It is nearly that time, Madison Shelby Harm, time for you to be released from the bonded of magic that has held you safe until now.”

“Maybe you should sit down and tell us what you mean,” Aaron stood up. Maddy felt the room expanded and suddenly knew it was magic. Strong and powerful it seemed to come alive in the room. She looked over at Aaron and knew that it was coming from him. 

“Maddy, please sit with Kyle,” Aaron said softly but with a bite of anger. “Mel, Savannah, you know how I feel about things like this brought to my home. I would very much appreciate it if when you bring magic into my home, you’d let me know in advance. Perhaps you’d like to explain this to us all?” 

“I contacted Morrigan just after you told me about her grandmothers cross,” Mel said with as much hostility in her voice. “It seems that Maddy has been missing since she was three. Her grandmother, the woman assigned to care for her was to leave her keep and never let anyone find them until Maddy reached the age of maturity.” Mel motioned for Morrigan to have a seat and then took one herself.

“No, she was my grandmother,” Maddy said. She didn’t like where this was going. “You make her sound as if she was a sitter, she was more than that. Much, much more. I loved her.”

“Of course you did.” Morrigan went on to explain. “She had been caring for you since birth. There were twins born to your mother, you and your brother. You were born second, the seventh daughter of hers, as she was the seventh and so forth back. Your father, a man who fooled us all, killed your mother just after your brother was born. You should have died with her, still in the womb, but you were birthed, whisked away and hidden with a spell to keep you safe.”

“But I don’t understand. Why? Why now? Why did I need to be hidden, who cares what happened back then?” She let Kyle put his arms around her glad for the comfort.

“Because I have been waiting for you for millenniums, Madison Shelby Harm, you are the hope of all fairies, the next in line to take my place. On the date of your majority, you will become all, be all that I am and more. You must make a choice, the right choice to come with me, it’s time to—”

“No,” she shouted. “No, I don’t want to be whatever. I want you to go, I want…there’s been a mistake. You’ve got the wrong person. I’m just me, nothing special.” 

She was panicking, she could feel her heart pounding, her head was light and she felt dizzy. She was afraid too. Afraid that what these people were telling her was true, that she’d been taken away from her family because they’d been—

“You bear my mark, Madison Shelby H—”

“Stop calling me that,” Maddy shouted again. “I’m just Maddy. I’m nobody. And you’re wrong. I don’t have a mark, not even a birth mark. You’ve got the wrong person.”

“She doesn’t have a mark. I’ve seen her, her skin is flawless.” Kyle held her tighter now, and she could feel his comfort like it was a favorite shirt, worn jeans and comfy socks.

Morrigan reached forward and said, “If you believe that I have the wrong girl, then you’ll let me touch you. Once I do, the mark that I have given you through your mother will show itself or it won’t. If it does not then you are correct, and I have the wrong woman. But if it does then you’ll let me explain, all right?”

Maddy looked at the outstretched hand, inches from her arm. She looked over her shoulder to Kyle and searched his face for a clue what to do. There was nothing, he was leaving this up to her. She looked back at the woman who held the key to everything she was and would be or nothing but a mistake. She nodded once and felt the hand close over her arm.

Flashes of her life passed in seconds. Her birth was first. The pain of it, struggling to live while the woman who had carried her inside of her breathed no more. Her flight in a warm blanket, bundled in someone’s arms, tight and close. Learning to walk, and then run. Climbing the tree in front of a small cottage where she had fallen and broken her arm. The lessons on how not to bring attention to herself, and then college going into law instead of majoring in general fine arts as her grandmother wanted, and her disappointment. The dreams, she’d had them as a child too, many times she would wake up screaming and crying to be comforted by Grammie. All of this passed in seconds, each hitting her mind like a slap.

The burning began next, the searing pain in her shoulder. She didn’t have to look or to be told what it meant. It was the mark, the mark Morrigan had told her she had. The one her Grammie told her was there, but wasn’t to ever be talked about.

“Maddy? Are you all right?” Sara had come forward. “Maddy, honey, are you all right? I can feel your magic now. Please. Please tell me your al—“

“I’m…I think I’m gonna be sick.” She jumped up and with her hand over her mouth ran to the bathroom. After closing and locking the door she sat in front of the toilet and threw up everything on her belly, then the dry heaves began, leaving her weak and drained. Once they subsided she lay on the cool tile floor and rested. She couldn’t think, didn’t want to, she just laid there.

“Madison, honey, are you all right? Let me in, I need to see you.” H
e had gently entered her mind, but she could still feel him close, maybe as close as the bathroom door. She didn’t have the energy to look and see, much less let him in.

“I’m all right. I’ve just had…I’m all right, I just need a few more minutes. Tell her she was right, the mark is over my right shoulder, I can feel it now.” S
he could still feel him close, and wanted to let him in, to have him hold her, but she knew if she did that, she’d fall apart, so she just waited. “
I’m sorry Kyle. I swear to you I didn’t know.”

“Baby, do you think I care? I love you, Madison. I need you. Please believe that. I’m here for you, everyone is here for you.”

He would be too she thought, no matter what because he needed her. Didn’t he tell her before that now that they had mated, bonded completely, he couldn’t feed from anyone else, he’d die without her? She was his food.

She needed to get away, she needed to think. Looking around the tiny room she spied a small window and wondered if the fall would kill her and worse yet, did she care if it did. Standing as quietly as she could she opened the window and peered out, then down. She just had to come up to the second floor didn’t she? 

Taking a deep breath she threw her legs over the sill and sat there for a few seconds then dropped. It seemed to take forever, but as soon as she hit the ground she rolled and tumbled as she had been taught in self-defense classes. She lay there for a full minute trying to catch her breath and take a quick inventory of her body. She was fine, but she would probably be sore tomorrow. She stood up and keeping out of the window light, ran to the wooded area behind the house.

She’d been running for about ten minutes when she realized they could probably track her. Hadn’t she read somewhere about how once a vampire took your blood they could follow you everywhere. 

“Shit, shit, and double shit!”
Oh well
, she thought,
no help for it now
and she kept running. When she’d got to the high fence she nearly sobbed with relief until she realized the stupid thing was humming. Electricity ran through it, and according to the little sign she found just before she threw a stick at it to test it, there were one hundred and twenty thousand volts going through it. Even she knew that would probably sting just a little, “Well duh, you think?”

The forest suddenly got very still, no birds, insects or leaves were making any sound. That’s when she heard the noise. It was large, very large and coming at her fast. The hair on the back of her neck and on her arms stood and her skin prickled. She thought about hiding, running again, but couldn’t make her feet move. It was as if they were stuck to the ground. She turned her head around slowly and faced whatever it was, ready to be run down, or rescued. She could almost hope it was a rescue.

It stopped just out of her line of sight, but she knew deep within her heart that it wasn’t Kyle or any of the rest of them. It seems Patcalus had come, he had waited long enough.

“Hello my dear, I’ve come for you, you are minessss. You will alwayssss be mine.” S
he fainted just before he got close enough for her to see him. A black void swallowed her up. 

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kyle had felt her leave the bathroom, he didn’t get alarmed, he knew that the grounds were well covered and there were wolf pack always roaming the area. He left the mansion just as she had reached the forest, thinking to give her time to cool off. A lot had been thrown at her and she would need time to adjust, to take it all in. It was when she got scared that he began to run, her fear pouring into him as though it were his own.

“Aaron, she’s…Something’s wrong. She’s afraid, something is chasing her. I can’t get her to open to me, help me.”
 

Kyle knew that Aaron would come and bring the others; he only hoped it wasn’t too late. When she lost conciseness, he stopped cold, he had felt no pain, only terror, absolute terror.

Scenting the air he found her and followed it. Before he got much further than ten feet, he scented the wolf, and then another. They weren’t pack, but wild animals. Wild animals not from the pack he’d come to know. These had been tainted with magic, black magic.

They attacked him as one. He had nearly overcome them both when two more joined them and they took him down. Tearing and pulling at his body they overpowered Kyle and held him immobile. He thought they’d kill him but they didn’t they simply waited.

Kyle couldn’t move. The larger wolf was at his throat, teeth and canines deep in the flesh. Two others held his wrist in the same manner, their teeth deep into the skin, just a small nip from tearing out the vein and the precious blood pumping through there. He needed to contact Aaron, to warn him.

“Hello vamp.” The man leaned over to where Kyle could see him. “I see my animals have found something for dinner. I wouldn’t move around too much. They are under the impression that to kill you would be a feast.”

The man was huge, Kyle thought, bigger than him by a good thirty pounds and two inches. When the man grabbed his chin and jerked his face first one way then the other Kyle had the impression of insanity though where that thought had come from was anyone’s guess. 

“Ah, the mate. Good.” The man reached behind him and that’s when Kyle saw the blade seconds before he plunged it into his chest. Before he slipped completely away, he heard him say “Bring him.”

Kyle woke in a room lying on what felt like a tilted table. He was weak and bleeding, the blade, he could tell that it was silver now, was still imbedded into his chest. His wrist and legs were strapped to the table with silver bands. When he moved his leg, the pain told him that there were more wounds there as well. He was being bled. Bled slowly and soon, with the blades and the wounds he’d be dead.

He looked around the room trying to see into the darkened corners and could see that nothing was there. He couldn’t see behind him, but could hear a faint of panting sound behind him. Reaching out mentally he found that one of the wolves were in the room with him, but nothing else. Reaching further he hit a wall. If there was anything beyond the immediate room, Kyle couldn’t penetrate it. Trying again and failing he figured he was in a lead room.

He thought of Maddy and where she could be. He hoped that she was still on the grounds, that someone had found her and she was now inside, safe. But he kept coming back to the comment made just before he blacked out,
‘the mate’
. Whoever took him knew that he was Maddy’s mate.

“Yes I do,” the large man said just as a door opened behind him. “But you won’t be for much longer. I plan to have her and let you watch while I do. You should not have taken what didn’t belong to you vamp. She was promised to me.”

“Fuck you. She’s my mate and has been since the fates made it so.” Brave words he thought. Now if only he could get up and take care of the man.

“Fate has nothing to do with this. She will be my breed mare, and have me my son. He will be the strongest being alive,” he snarled at Kyle with a twist of the silver blade. “With her pure magic and my black, my child will have so much power we will be able to rule all kingdoms. We will rule the worlds he and I, in this realm and beyond.”

“Where is she? What have you done with her? I want to see her right now.” Kyle jerked against his bonds, tearing and opening the wounds, making them bleed more, the blood flow stronger.

“Demands? Demands lying as you are?” The man threw back his head and laughed without mirth, it was cold and harsh. Kyle saw the wolf in the corner pull himself tighter against the wall and whimper. “I will show you my mate because I deem it so, not you. She has proven…difficult. I’ve had to put her in her place. So don’t be alarmed by the blood. She’ll learn to do as I say or she’ll get much worst.”

The man walked over to the wall at the end of Kyle’s feet and pushed against something. Kyle heard something heavy slide and the room brightened considerably. The man was at his head before the sliding mechanism was completely still. He jerked Kyle’s head up by his hair and pushed him forward. 

“She can’t hear you,” he whispered in Kyle’s ear. “But if you’d like I can let you hear her. Her whimpering and simpering is quite nerve wracking, if you ask me.” He reached down and pushed another button and sound filled the room. 

She was crying, sobbing really. Kyle could see she was covered in blood. Her clothes were torn nearly off of her. 

Maddy had been chained to the ceiling of the room, her arms pulled tight up over her head. There was another chain around her waist that held her to the wall, her legs were spread and shackled to the floor by leather straps that had cut into her skin, blood pooling at her feet. By some command that Kyle could not hear, a man stepped forward. A man Kyle knew. Robert Button was in the room with Maddy, and he was in league with the monster. He yanked Maddy’s head up and pointed it to the window so that the man and Kyle had a full view of the damage done to her face. 

She had been beaten, and beaten badly. Even through the window, Kyle could see that her nose was broken as was her left cheek shattered. Her left eye was hanging out of the socket and blood still poured from the gaping wound. Her jaw was also broken, the mandible hanging lax and without purpose. Her ear was nearly torn from her head. Kyle’s heart hurt, his true love was so badly hurt and there was nothing he could do.

“Oh baby, oh my poor baby,” Kyle sobbed. “Why? Why would you do this to her? She’s done nothing wrong.”

Kyle could feel the tears on his own face. He tried to break free of his bonds but all he managed to do was tear at his body, the silver making digging into his muscle and bone. Kyle’s heart breaking for her. 

“Why? Because she refuses me, the ungrateful bitch. Keeps talking about free willies or some other such nonsense. I don’t want to have to rape her, taint our sons conception, but I will if she doesn’t give in soon. Once she is carrying my seed, then I will let her heal long enough to deliver. But, I can’t wait much longer, she is ripe now. I will not be put off.” He dropped Kyle’s head and he immediately felt the darkness swallowing him up.

He woke again sometime later, weaker than he had been in his entire life. He wasn’t going to live much longer with the silver in him and without blood to repair the damage. His first thought, however was of Maddy and if she had given in or had she died. He hoped that she would have given in. He would rather see her live then dead. She could survive without him, but he could not without her didn’t want to live without her actually. He knew that without her blood, he would die and if she was, then he didn’t care anyway.

“There you are” the man said as soon as Kyle opened his eyes. “I thought you’d never wake this time. I have a surprise for you vamp, the lovely and damaged mate” 

The wall between them was open, he could see her clearly now and Kyle could feel her weakness sharp. But the man was talking again, he voice sounded so reasonable, like he was used to getting what he wanted.

“You will make her give in to me, or I’ll hurt her while you lay there watching. She is too stubborn for her own good. Now, tell her, tell her to give me what I want, or I swear I’ll hurt her again.” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head up. “Tell her vamp. Tell her to do what I say.”

“Mad…” Kyle started to beg her to give him what he wanted but he felt her in his mind. She moved without thought to being gentle but with urgency.

“Don’t! Don’t say my name. Without our names, he has no power.” 

Before Kyle could respond to her the man back handed her, blood poured from the already broken skin of her face. 

“You will not give him advice,” he told her calmly. “If you do that again, I will simply kill him, rape you and have done with it. I am sorely tempted to take you here and now as he watches, but I don’t want to have to do that. You will give in to me girl, give into me or he will die.” Kyle noticed that Maddy wasn’t listening, that with the blow he had rendered her unconscious again. 

Listening deep he could tell that her heart was slow, and that soon, very soon it would stop altogether. Her breaths were shallow and fast, panting almost. He could also tell that she had all but two ribs broken and that her kidneys and liver had been abused so badly that they had shut down. Her legs and both of her arms had also been broken. Kyle could feel her will to live slipping away as quickly as her life was.

He needed to save her, reaching into her mind, he found a small spark and touched it, tried to stoke it as one would a spark to a flame.

“Love, call for her. Call for her to come to you. Please baby, call for her.” K
yle felt the second blade slide into him before his saw it, then the third and fourth. The man was killing him. “
Call for her love, I’m dying anyway.” A
nd he slipped away again.