Cursed (14 page)

“Can you feel any kind of noticeable increase in pressure in your head when we’re around?”

She looked at each of them in turn, a dubious expression on her face. “Nothing I’m aware of, no.”

That in itself was very interesting. Every pre-trans and vampire felt that pressure when another vampire was around. If she felt nothing but was still Aware of them...

“How well do you know your parents?”

She frowned at the blonde, seeming not to like where his thoughts were headed. “They were both human, I assure you.”

Knox paused in his grilling. “Were? They’re dead?”

She nodded, a brief flash of grief passing over her eyes. “About two years ago. A car crash.”

“I’m sorry,” Knox said and paused before going on. “But I’ve got to ask. Do you look like them?”

“You mean was I swapped at birth? Did my mother have an affair?” She ran a frustrated hand through her dark hair, sending a wave of air his way. “Fuck. I don’t know. Anything is possible, but I don’t think so….”

Her words faded out as her intoxicating scent hit him. The intensity of desire that shot through him took him by surprise and had his pupils expanding and an erection straining against his leathers within an instant. Trying not to breathe too deeply, he clamped down on the urge to take her on the floor right now and only dimly heard her reply that she did look like both of her parents.

An agonized moan drew all of their attention to the couch where Katarina stirred. It seemed he wasn’t the only one affected by Sienna’s fresh burst of fragrance.

Quick on his feet, Knox darted over to Katarina and bit into his wrist just as her mouth opened in a snarl, fangs extended. The blonde got his wrist to her mouth just as her eyes opened, black as night, and focused on Sienna with a hunger he knew all too well.

His sister latched onto Knox, unaware or unconcerned that she was feeding from a half-breed. No full-blood worth the pedigree would have done the same if they’d been in their right mind, but, Katarina had always been accepting of the human race, so perhaps half-breeds weren’t as distasteful to her as they were to the majority of full-bloods.

Her eyes lingered on Sienna the entire time she fed and he wondered with a faint hope whether his desire for the human’s blood might be more a question of the strength of his lineage and not necessarily his required diet. To Sienna’s credit, she didn’t show any fear, even though he could smell a faint tinge of it mixed with her sweet scent.

Finally, after a minute or two, when Katarina was no longer a starving, mindless beast, she pushed Knox’s wrist away as if it were a snake.

Perhaps she wasn’t as accepting as he’d previously thought?

“You’re welcome,” Knox said dryly, not taking the rejection too personally.

His sister looked up at the blonde, her expression guarded. “Don’t ever do that again.” Whether she referred to him feeding her his blood or draining her in the first place, one could only guess.

She had yet to look at Greyvian. It seemed to him that she was avoiding it.

“So what’s with the human?” Katarina asked, slowly sitting up, her gaze going back to Sienna with only slightly less of a predatory stare than a moment ago. “Why is she Aware, and why does she smell so god-damned good?”

“Her name is Sienna,” Knox replied. “And we don’t know.”

Katarina’s eyes darted over to Greyvian for a quick moment and then settled once again on Sienna, perhaps the safest option given the company she was in. “How come my brother hasn’t eaten her already?”

Knox snorted a laugh and dropped down onto the couch beside her. “Maybe you should ask him?”

Katarina drew in a steadying breath and then finally met his eyes, the flash of emotions that crossed her face too quick to measure.

“You look good,” she said after a long moment of silence. “Healthy. Still killing humans then?”

Memories of the last time they’d spoken flashed into his mind; the pain at her rejection came with it.

“It’s unavoidable,” he replied, keeping his tone neutral.

“Humph.” Looking around the apartment, she folded her arms against her body, hugging herself, her body language not as confident as her tone of voice would have her portrayed. “Where’s the pre-trans?”

“That’s not your concern.”

Her eyes swung back to his, expression troubled. “Father won’t be happy that you procreated.”

He’d been trying not to think about that.

“No. I expect not,” he replied.

“Was it consensual?”

Why did everyone seem to ask that? Like the only way he could ever have sex was by force?

Deciding not to dignify the question with an answer, he simply stared down at his sister until she looked away. As her gaze fell upon Knox, and then Lucas, she seemed to decide they were a safer point of conversation.

“What are you two doing here, anyway?”

“We’re the ones who found Jacob,” Knox replied.

Katarina’s eyebrows lifted in surprise and she turned her large brown eyes on Greyvian again.

“Found? Had he been hiding from you?” She looked from one face to the other and then narrowed her eyes at him. “You didn’t know about him, did you?”

She laughed suddenly, the sound more mocking than anything. “That’s precious! You knock some poor human up and then leave her to the consequences. Although… I have to say… I’m not surprised she didn’t tell you. Monsters don’t really make for good fathers.”

Sienna bristled beside him, her back straightening and arms unfolding as she came to his defence.

“He’s not a monster,” she said, eyes like blue fire.

A flicker of some emotion stirred in his gut at the heat in her voice, but he tried not to acknowledge it.

Katarina laughed harshly. “Oh, really? What would you call a mass murderer then? A warm, fuzzy humanitarian? I don’t think so. He kills people, honey. He’s a rational being of theoretically high intelligence that is absolutely capable of making a decision not to do it, but he still does it, doesn’t he?”

Sienna frowned down at his sister, holding on to her opinion with tooth and nail. “You’d rather he starve?”

When Katarina replied, it was to him that she directed her response. “I loved you more than anyone, you know that, but that all changed when you started killing innocent people. My answer to that question still stands. I’d rather you were dead than a murderer.”

8

The Netherlands, early 1600s.

Katarina could not believe her father. He had to be mistaken. Greyvian could not be responsible for the deaths of all those humans. Not her brother. Not her sweet Greyvian whom she had spent many hours talking with about the wondrous things the human race were capable of. While it was true that full-blooded vampires were meant to dislike humans for their covetous nature and past misdeeds, she simply couldn’t believe that they were all the same. Yes, some of them were capable of monstrous deeds, but their numbers were few and far between. In her experience, humans were not that different from her. They loved their family, they enjoyed the arts, they sang—some of them like angels—they laughed, they cried. For the most part, they were decent creatures.

So it was incomprehensible that her father should tell them all that Greyvian had massacred an entire village of humans. That last Kobus had seen him, he had been covered in their blood, his eyes black as night, his entire demeanour lacking in remorse. The brother she had helped onto a wagon a week ago in the hopes of asking a human to donate to him some of their blood could not have killed so many.

It simply couldn’t be.

Yet, a few nights later when he suddenly appeared at her bedroom door looking like a man instead of the frail boy she remembered, she had to face the possibility.

“Greyvian?” she questioned in a small voice, clutching her blanket to her chest. “What have you done?”

Greyvian came into the room, quietly closing her door, his expression excited as he turned to her and rushed to her bedside. His now large frame was clothed in shirt and hose that she recognised as belonging to her father. The garments were slightly too large for his lean frame, but she could clearly see that his limbs now held more muscle than she had ever seen on his previously emaciated frame.

“You were right, Katarina!” he whispered with an excited grin, being careful not to wake the family. “Human blood was the answer!”

Swallowing past a sudden constriction in her throat, she saw that his normally pale grey eyes were indeed as her father had described—black as night. “What have you done?” she whispered again.

Her brother frowned at her, the joy slowly fading from his eyes. “You sound like Father,” he said petulantly—a tone she had never heard from him before.

No matter how bad his hunger had gotten over the years, how much pain it had caused him, Greyvian had never before acted like a victim, never before bemoaned his existence and what he had done to deserve the starvation, accepting it instead with a stoic wisdom that Katarina had always admired in him. Now, to see this expression on his face was disturbing.

Her brother had changed.

“Father tells us all that you have decimated an entire village of humans,” she whispered, not so that she would be unheard but because she could not affect a stronger voice. “Please tell me that he is mistaken.”

Greyvian scowled at her and stood, pacing the room erratically. Unused to seeing such a vile expression on his face, she gaped up at him and truly realised for the first time that her father had been telling the truth. Her brother had killed over a hundred humans. What was worse, they’d been humans she had felt a connection to, humans that she had been fond of.

And she had sent him to them.

“Father would rather see me starve than be healthy, strong, as the rest of you are!” Greyvian growled, continuing to pace the room.

“Greyvian, no,” she moaned. “You were supposed to take a little from a willing donor! Not devour an entire village!”

Her brother slashed his hand angrily—as if the deaths were of no concern to him. “Don’t I deserve a life? Don’t I deserve to be healthy? What does it matter if a few humans die by my hand? They would have died within a handful of years anyway.”

Katarina gasped in horror. He really felt no remorse, didn’t he? Just as her father had tried to tell her.

“Greyvian! How can you say that? Humans are as deserving of life as any other living creature on this planet! As deserving as you, as deserving as me! It is not for you to decide who lives and who dies.”

Greyvian stopped his pacing and stood absolutely still, staring at her with an expression so cold that it chilled her to the core. “The Gods made it my decision when they gave me this curse!” he replied harshly, his voice as cold as his glare.

Katarina covered her ears and shook her head. She couldn’t believe this was her brother speaking. What had become of him? He was a monster.

“I would rather you were dead than a murderer!” she shouted at him, unable to look at him any longer.

Greyvian said nothing in reply and when she finally looked up, he was gone.

Katarina hadn’t seen Greyvian since that night so long ago, but she had heard plenty of rumours about him. In the beginning, it was tales of how many villages he had single-handedly wiped out, the number of humans increasing dramatically over the decades until it was in the thousands. Her father and brothers had hunted him for over a century but had never been able to find him. In the end, they had been content to spread the word whenever they could and allow others to attempt the job if and when they came across him.

The reports coming back from all over the world were the same; whenever an attempt was made, Greyvian inevitably seemed to slip away, leaving the occasional fatality behind. More often than not those that made the attempt were severely wounded.

Much like Michael and Jeremy, the two full-bloods who claimed to have come across him outside this very apartment building just last night. The two of them had managed to close each other’s wounds, but the damage would take a while to completely repair. She had the feeling that their egos would take longer.

Looking at her brother now, she could see why nobody had been successful. He was built like a fighter; wide shoulders, narrow waist, muscular—more so than when she’d seen him last. It seemed that centuries of blood and an active lifestyle had filled him out. But it wasn’t necessarily his physique that showed his power. It was the control he exuded; the control of his expression, the control of his body, the control of his emotions (if he did indeed still feel any).

It seemed that ever since that day so long ago, since his first taste of human blood, her brother had become a cold-blooded killer.

Her father would have been so proud. Greyvian would have made a great assassin to add to his collection—if it hadn’t been for his human diet, that is.

Kobus’s problem that day he found Greyvian hadn’t been for the humans his son had killed; he was in fact quite happy about that. What bothered him, was that Greyvian hadn’t just killed them: he’d done it by drinking their blood; and, worse, he had prospered from it.

Nothing was more abhorrent to her father than a human.

The fact that one of his sons needed their blood was a constant torment to him—even now. To this day, her father couldn’t forget about it. Whenever there was mention of Greyvian, his face would darken and he would become instantly furious.

Looking at her brother, she wondered if he knew the specifics of why their father wanted him dead, or if he even cared. From the lack of expression on Greyvian’s face, she had the feeling that her brother cared for very little.

“How can you rather your own brother dead?” the human asked, seemingly upset by Katarina’s moral values.

She frowned at the female, wondering why she was defending her brother even though she obviously knew he was a murderer. As her eyes flicked from one to the other, she finally realised how close they were standing to each other.

“You’ve got the hots for him, haven’t you?!”

Sienna blushed scarlet but didn’t back down. “So what if I have? That doesn’t change the fact that he has a right to quality of life just like everyone else.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Katarina asked incredulously. “You’re defending a murderer! What if he’d killed your parents? Your friends? Would you defend him then?”

That seemed to hit home. The human’s face paled and she looked up at Greyvian’s impassive expression like she was seeing him for the first time.

Good. The human would do well to remember that he could easily kill her too.

Satisfied that she’d made her point, she turned her head to look at Knox, since he was the one to drain her and drag her into hell in the first place.

“I assume I’m a prisoner here?”

The blonde nodded, his intelligent green eyes sparkling with humour.

God, he was annoying. And yet, incredibly attractive. She felt a slight flush of heat spread through her body at the memory of him feeding at her neck, never mind feeding her his blood, and had to struggle to maintain her irritation with him.

“For how long?”

He shrugged and exchanged a look with her brother. “Until Jacob transitions.”

“And then?” she asked, looking at the human.

They all knew what it would mean if the rest of the full-blood nation found out about her Awareness.

Knox deferred to Greyvian, who thought about it for a good long time before answering. “And then you may leave.”

She was incredulous. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” he replied.

She looked at the human again and then back at Greyvian. “Father will want to know about her. He will want her dead.”

Greyvian’s pale eyes were ice cold as he delivered the killing blow. “Then her life is in your hands, is it not?”

Bastard! She fumed at his guile and her own stupidity. Revealing the fact that she still cared about the human race had been her undoing.

“Why bother keeping me here then if you’re so sure I won’t say anything?” she challenged. “Why not let me go now?”

“Because it is entirely possible that Jacob will also require human blood and as you so eloquently put it, you’d sooner I was dead than a murderer. I can’t have you telling Father about him just yet.”

Damn it. Foiled once again by her own words. Maybe she should just shut up?

Not possible.

“Why would I bother?” she asked, irritated beyond measure. “The transition will more than likely kill him anyway.”

“What?!” Sienna shrieked, glaring at Knox. “What the hell does she mean by that? You said that he’d be fine!”

Katarina laughed, more out of spite than amusement of any kind. “They didn’t tell you? That’s priceless!”

“Do you trust me?” Knox asked the female, his normally amused expression calm, but serious at the same time.

Surprisingly, the human nodded without hesitation. “Yes.”

“Then believe me. It’s not an issue.”

Katarina frowned, her expression mirroring that of the human’s. How could it not be an issue? Ever since half-breeds had first come into existence, their chances of survival were slim to none. How could Knox now profess so confidently that it wasn’t an issue? What did the half-breed know that the rest of the vampire nation did not? Did it have something to do with the rumours that half-breed sightings seemed to be multiplying at an ever-increasing rate?

Strangely, it was her brother who explained it to them.

“When a half-breed transitions without help he has only a twenty-five percent chance of survival. If he ingests the blood of another half-breed during the crucial stage, his chances increase to about fifty/fifty. If a full-blooded vampire aids the transition, the chances increase a little more.” When he looked at the human, his pale eyes were a soft grey, almost warm; reminding Katarina of the Greyvian she used to know. “My blood has worked every time.”

Every time? So he wasn’t here simply because Jacob was his son? He had helped enough to know that it worked every time? Greyvian, the human-killer, the remorseless monster that had come into her room one night spouting that he had the right to decide who lived and who died?

“You’re helping them transition?” she asked, a nagging suspicion in the back of her mind. “How long has this been going on?”

“About a century,” Knox replied when it was clear Greyvian wasn’t going to.

A century. How many half-breeds were there now? There were many that she knew who would be ready to kill Greyvian for this alone, regardless of his human diet. Half-breeds were seen as less than human to many of the full-blood nation.

“Why?” she asked her brother. “So you can further your God complex in deciding who lives and who dies? Or to stick it to those that hunt you by perpetuating the abomination of a half-breed population?”

“I have my reasons,” Greyvian replied, his expression completely closed and unreadable. She had the feeling that he would provide no more answer than that, no matter how hard she wanted to push.

*  *  *

Sienna was confused. About many things. Her attraction to a serial killer, her defence of said serial killer, but most recently, about the very existence of half-breeds.

“By your words, the majority of vampires hate humans,” she said to Katarina. “So isn’t the very existence of a half-breed a bit of a contradiction?”

“Oh, they’re hated, believe me,” Katarina replied, seeming quite disgusted by the fact. “But there are enough vampires that don’t, and along the way they have procreated with a human—or two. Then there are those who like to show their hatred by raping women, no matter the consequences.” Her gaze drifted to Greyvian as she spoke and then snapped back to Sienna when he simply returned her accusing stare without comment.