Blood Life (27 page)

Roman choked on a cooing response, while Alethea, believing herself rude for prying, apologized outright. Devendra opened her eyes and focused them on Alethea. She smiled softly, encouraging Alethea to relax. Roman looked down at the floor.

“Lokee, in a moment of pure insanity, rushed over to Lorien, ripped her from the binds of the bed, tearing the flesh of her wrists and ankles with the force, and strangled her to death. He screamed in her gasping face his love for her as he did so, swearing to avenge her death, to avenge her murderer! He swore this as he committed the act, and all I could do was stand there.

“After he realized he had actually killed her, he dropped her to the floor with a thud and jumped back in absolute horror. Lokee shrieked and backed away from her lifeless form, bumping into me clumsily. He flinched when his body met mine, as if surprised with my presence. When he turned, our eyes met for a brief instant before he turned and flung himself down over her. He collected her body in his arms tenderly, sobbing, and pulled it close to him.

“I watched Lokee rock back and forth with Lorien in his arms. He was completely lost, stroking her hair and speaking to her as if she were only asleep. He told her about the fruit he had brought home for her to eat, and what they would do first to celebrate their freedom from Seth and the news of the child growing strong in her womb.

“No longer able to stand it, I disappeared in my mind, calling to our beloved Mother for guidance. That was when I asked Her to bring Lorien back as a vampire for Lokee; I begged for mercy on my son, to save his crying soul. After all I had witnessed, after seeing in his eyes a shift so great it almost stopped my own preternatural heart from beating, I begged her to assist me!

She refused with warnings and threats of what they would become together. She said, ‘One is easier than the other to rid the vampire world of, but the union could bring about the end of our race.’

“Weary, I returned to my body and took it upon myself to try using my own power to bring her back, convinced that the act would save him from what he had so quickly become. I was blinded by my love and devotion to him.

“He didn’t even see me coming when I sunk my teeth into her ankle. He screamed and held fast to her, trying to protect her from me. I proceeded with tears until my part was complete. I backed away and slumped on the floor exhausted from the effort to revive her life.

“She flinched once, twice, three times before he released her from his hold. We watched as she flopped around on the ground before us like a fish out of water. Blood streamed down her legs as the fetus, who was not retrievable, drained from her body leaving behind nothing but a deformed clump of tissue.

“Lokee looked up at me, then to her as she stopped flopping and lay still in the pool of blood. Her ankle wound closed up before our eyes, her hair grew more lustrous and full, her skin brightened, and her eyes fluttered before opening slowly, revealing amber prisms. She sat up and looked into his face as if for the first time.

“ ‘Lorien?’ he said carefully. She blinked at him before looking down at the heap of bloody tissue next to her feet. Recognizing it as their baby, she reached down and picked it up, pushing it into her mouth like an animal, blood trickling down her porcelain chin. She looked at him with contempt as she devoured the fetus.

“He moved to stop her, but she swung a solid right hook at him, pleased with her new strength. She slipped on the bloody floor as she picked herself up and walked out the door. She never even looked at me.”

The trio sat in reflective silence. Devendra, feeling as though an enormous burden had been lifted from her chest, let out a long, revitalizing sigh.

“What did Lokee do? Did he follow her?” Roman asked.

“No. He left that night, but not after her. He said he could no longer look upon me as a person he loved – that I had ruined his life in every way possible. He told me he hated me and would return one day to destroy me.”

“But how do you know he didn’t go after her?” Alethea asked, bewildered.

“I just knew. I could feel it. She went out and found other rogue vampires who taught her all about the lifestyle and how to survive. She avoided him like the plague. This added to his newfound bitterness and the rest is history.”

“Do you think maybe she has come back now? Maybe she is leading Lokee in his destruction,” Roman suggested, a flickering light dancing in his eyes.

“No, I seriously doubt that. I am pretty sure I would know if she had; Lillith would have warned me of that precarious union.”

“Maybe not, Devendra,” Alethea challenged. “Not if Lillith had been upset with you in the first place.”

“But that could prove to put our race in danger of extinction! Why would She do that? I just don’t think so,” Devendra insisted, clearly unsure of her own words.

“I just know that She warned you not only of carrying Lokee to term, but also of bringing Lorien over. You did both things despite Her warnings.”

Devendra, ashamed of her past choices, could say nothing in her defense. She sat in quiet reflection. Roman rubbed her shoulder.

“I don’t mean to rub it in, please understand that. I am only pointing out the obvious facts,” Alethea offered.

“Yes, I know,” Devendra said.

“But it dawned on me that maybe Lokee believes I am Lorien somehow, or just wants me to be her so badly that he is willing to pretend that I am. Or, worse, maybe Lorien is working with him and they just know, through you, perhaps your thoughts, that I will hold the answer in the end. They definitely wouldn’t want me, a fledgling, to gain the upper hand over them. Both of them,” Alethea argued, feeling a terrible knot of tension develop in her gut. She rubbed her stomach and got up to get water without waiting for a response.

Devendra looked after Alethea and cleared her throat, waiting for her to be out of hearing range. “That is exactly what I’m afraid of,” she whispered, even too low for Roman to hear.

One is easier than the other to rid the vampire world of, but the union could bring the end.

Devendra prayed to Lillith, begging for forgiveness of her choices, but most of all for the strength she needed to put an end to Lokee’s path of destruction—and the ability to forget him as ever being her son. She was torn, but her mind was set. Fate was set. She would kill him, both of them if need be, never looking back, finally making the right choice.

“Death is the great hope of all life;

the desire to expend itself;

to be used and consumed

by its own longing for itself.“

–Bryant H. McGill

Thirty Nine

“You realize that you won’t be at battle against only me?”

Devendra swung around to meet eyes with Lokee, who stood uncomfortably close to her. She felt his hot breath in the air before her. Her hair was still settling from her swift movement, her eyes burned with abhorrence.

He looked deep into her sapphire eyes, attempting with gall to read into her very soul. She smirked, mocking his doggedness.

Turning the color of fiery yellow prisms, Lokee’s eyes silently begged hers to let them in. Several anxious moments passed before he came to terms with defeat and blinked, breaking their intense contact. Devendra was unmoving, except for the curls that deepened at the corners of her mouth.

He was taunting her, teasing the fact that she planned to kill him. He saw the idea as a joke, and enjoyed the fright he had brought to his race. While it was true he held a soft spot in his heart for Devendra, the evil infesting him would not allow him to turn back on his plans to take over the Combined. The Kriestos held too much confidence in his ability to do so; it was no longer a matter of winning. It was the honor of being looked upon as a god—he would become the Father of the Combined, and Lorien, if he located her, would be the Mother. The King and the Queen.

“Why are you here?” Devendra’s chocolately voice cut viciously through his pleasant daydream. He actually included it there: a claw ripped right through the picture in his mind of Lorien and himself doing the waltz in front of a 6-foot-tall fire, laughing and whispering to one another. She ruined it with her jealousy. Her nasty claw ripped right through the image giving him a headache.

He sneered at her like a child before answering. “There will be more than just me,” he announced, relocking their eyes.

“Oh? Is this about Lorien? Will she be lending her gracious hand?”

Uncomfortable silence.

“I bet she’d like to save your life since you saved hers all those years ago, right?” Her face was made of cold, hard porcelain; her eyes burned with fury.

Lokee’s mouth dropped, just a little, before he could contain himself. The sad look that crept over his face did not go unnoticed by Devendra. She crossed her arms, putting her finger to her lips as if in thought. “I have heard a few things here and there. Though, I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit repulsed by the thought of her at your side. After all, she didn’t have any problem leaving you stranded all those years ago, without even so much as a backward glance in your direction. I’ve often wondered when she’d turn up again and suck you in.”

Devendra looked him up and down, walking in a circle around his dwindling form. “You’re WEAK!” she spit harshly. “She only has to apologize to lure you back to her. You haven’t the balls to say no to her. She owns you! You’re pathetic!”

Staggered, Lokee fought to keep his face straight throughout her verbal attack.

Was Lorien back? Did she want to find him? Would he be so easy on her?

“What’s wrong, sonny? Cat got your tongue?” Devendra stood squarely a few feet in front of him, her hands resting delicately on her hips. The sleeves of her silver dress hung elegantly toward the floor; he admired her form for an instant, the thick glossiness of her black hair, the brilliance of her cat eyes. Pushing the thought of complimenting her to the furthest corner of his mind and locking it away tight, he glared at her with as much contempt as he could muster in his moment of weakness.

No. Lorien would pay for her crime against him, but that would wait until they were face-to-face. He wasn’t going to try to contact her; let her come crawling back to him.

He faked a yawn. “I don’t know what you are talking about, darling mother, nor do I care. Do you think I’d still shell out so much bitterness, or even care less about you and your precious Roman and Alethea, had she returned to me?” His canines dug into his bottom lip spilling fresh blood into his mouth. He lifted a hand to wipe at the dribble that escaped his lapping tongue.

Devendra maintained eye contact as she backed toward the door. “You wouldn’t tell me either way. I don’t know why I bother with the possibility.” She couldn’t help but notice his shock and believable pain from the mention of Lorien’s name. His reaction made her think that if Lorien’s soul was back, he did not know it for certain yet. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps Lorien hadn’t returned at all.

He smiled maliciously as he followed her lead to the door. “Maybe I would,” he shrugged, “or maybe you just aren’t strong enough to be sure!”

“Then why are you here? Were you worried about me?”

“Never,” he insisted through his teeth.

She gave him a sarcastic look. “Just leave!” She thrust her hand out the door to express herself more clearly, “or stick around and choose your death.”

“Do you hate me that much,” he said, still standing in the same place.

She stared at him dangerously.

“You act like I’m the traitor here when it was you who went against Lillith!”

In a heartbeat, Devendra lunged for his neck with her hands cupped in the air. Lokee caught her and they tumbled down to the floor. Snapping herself back into control, remembering to wait for the right time to finish him, she broke away from his grasp and brushed herself off. She was breathing heavily from the attack and Lokee looked up at her from the floor.