Dominion 4 - Ascendance (17 page)

Timothy came back in and paused, seeing the two vampires in the kitchen. Maybe he wasn’t used to being this close to them. Finally he moved and took the seat at the end of the counter, several feet away from the vampires.

“Need any help with anything?” he asked me.

I shook my head, mashed up the cauliflower and potatoes, and mixed the cheesy broccoli topping before dishing up a plate for each of us. The look on Timothy’s face when I set the dish in front of him said he didn’t get to eat well very often. I set my own dinner down and began cutting the chicken into small bites. The colors of the cheese and peppers made it bright, and when I tasted it the flavor came through rich and spicy.

“Sorry,” I said when he didn’t touch his food. “I should have asked if there was something you didn’t like.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve just never had anyone cook for me like this. It looks great.” Timothy dug into the chicken, then covered a broccoli floret in potato before stuffing it into his mouth.

Gabe threw me an amused smile. Sam seemed to be dozing in his chair. I glanced back to my plate and had to pause. Had I eaten all that already? Over half my chicken was gone. Maybe I was hungrier than I thought since I didn’t remember eating more than a piece of it, and I still felt far from satisfied.

A red blur passed the edge of my sight again. I looked up, searching the room for more movement. If fairies were going to be hanging around, I’d have to get used to them. No one else seemed to notice anything, and after a few minutes I went back to my food, only to find the rest of the chicken gone. No way had I eaten that without knowing it.

I pushed a cheese-covered broccoli floret to the chicken side of my plate and watched intently. Nothing. Dammit. At least I’d made more chicken. Dishing myself up another piece and cutting it in a hurry, I figured I’d keep an eye on it this time, no matter what kept flying around me.

The blur landed when I pretended to be looking away. He snatched up a piece of chicken and swallowed it whole. “Holy crap!” I cried.

Gabe, Sam, and Timothy all appeared startled. “What?” Gabe asked.

“There’s a fairy eating my chicken!” Why had I figured they’d be vegetarians? Just because they looked bug-like from a distance didn’t mean they fed on plants. A lot of creatures were carnivorous.

Gabe didn’t look surprised at all. A smile tugged the corners of his lips, but he went back to his research. Sam and Timothy still looked at me like I was crazy. I wondered why the creature wasn’t attacking Timothy’s food, but he was bent very protectively over his plate. Then I remembered the mint plant Gabe had given me. I had fresh mint in the fridge. Pulling out a sprig, I left it beside my plate and waited.

Finally the rushing blur stopped. It landed in the mint, rolled around a bit, then lay there. The long cinnamoncolored hair and copper skin told me nothing about whether it was a boy or a girl, but it could be Red. I picked up a small piece of chicken and offered it to the creature, who eyed me warily with its overaccentuated expression.

It took the piece carefully, then stuffed it in a mouth that became momentarily larger than its head. I blinked at it and brought my face closer to the fairy’s level, wondering if it would talk to me. Instead of speaking, I thought,
Who are you?
hoping it would hear me.
Are you the red-haired man from my dreams?

I held out another piece of meat for it. Again it vanished inside that impossibly small creature. Before I could move my hand, it bit me. I yelped in surprise. Sam’s eyes turned dark and hungry at the smell of blood. Gabe grabbed his arm to keep him from moving. Timothy sat frozen in his seat, eyes as wide as saucers, waiting for whatever disaster was to come.

Sam’s struggle played on his face. I could almost see in his eyes that he wanted to leap across the counter and rip a hole in my throat. He shuddered, turned, and headed toward the front door. Gabe glanced at me but followed him slowly.

“Be safe,” I told them. Once the door slammed shut in the distance, Timothy sucked in a deep breath. I patted his hand. “Sam’s working on it, but he’s only a few weeks old, vampire-wise.”

“I get it. I’ve just never been that close.”

The little red chicken thief had vanished again. I wondered vaguely if it was my red-haired friend. Did that mean he was safe? “I think I’m going to call him Bryar,” I told Timothy.

“Who?”

“The fairy I keep seeing in my dreams. I searched all the briars in the yard because that’s where I last saw him. He said they took the names humans give them. Plus he keeps biting me, so it’s almost like he has thorns.”

“What do they look like? Is there any in here now?” His eyes darted around the room, looking large enough to pop out of his head. I wondered if he’d take my suggestion and get some therapy for what the Ascendance had done to him.

“Small, kind of bug-like at first. I think they can change how you perceive them.” I grabbed Gabe’s computer and turned it my way. He had a page open that talked about fairy glamour and illusions. He’d bookmarked a half-dozen pages for me to read, but I had a lot more than just fairies to learn about. “Do you have a copy of the Ascendance Code that Luca was talking about?”

“Yeah. They will e-mail out a new one with the changes in it within twenty-four hours. Things happen fast in the Ascendance.”

I nodded and took my plate to the sink to clean up. “Lily’s okay?”
“Yeah. It’s hard seeing her so shook up. I remember when I was little and Dorien was killed. I think I was six at the time. Lily came home and found me alone; Dad left as always. But she wrapped her arms around me and just cried for hours. I didn’t know what to do. The idea that Dorien had been put to death really didn’t make sense to me, being that little and all.”

A lump formed in my throat, and tears blurred my vision. Dammit. “Jamie won’t talk about it either. I think he watched.”

Timothy shivered. “How awful. Dorien had been good to me. Whenever he got back from spending time with Jamie, he doted on me for days. Bought me gifts, took me places, read me bedtime stories. He was more my dad in those years than Charles ever was.”

I ground my palms into my eyes, trying to will away the tears. My life would have been so much different if my father hadn’t died before I was born. My mother would have been kinder, more loving. I would have had someone who took me places and hugged me like I mattered. The years at military school probably wouldn’t have happened.

Timothy touched my back lightly. I hadn’t even heard him move. “I’m sorry, Seiran. I didn’t mean to upset you.” “It’s okay,” I managed to say. “I just can’t control it sometimes, the emotions.”

He laughed. “I think that’s normal. They call it being human.” He put his dishes in the washer and helped put away the rest of the leftovers. “I’m going to keep working on the curtains. You look tired. Get some sleep.”

I sighed, but nodded and headed toward the stairs, feeling soul weary again. Who knew learning about the past could hurt so much?

The bed was cold without Gabe in it, so I rolled myself up in all the blankets like a sausage, left the bathroom light on, and closed my eyes. Sometimes letting the real world go for a while could sort out the troubles in my head. I would talk to Lily tomorrow about doing my interview early. I missed Jamie, Kelly, Hanna, and even my mom. I longed to sleep in my own bed, cook in my kitchen, and run the indoor track when my head got too full of crap. It was time to go home. Sleep took me with that thought.

Chapter 19

B
ACK
in the glowing garden, the peace had returned. Something lingered just on the edge of the giant flowers, darkness rolling in with the weight of a nasty storm. A hand clasped mine, bringing not only warmth but worry and my red-haired friend.

“I’m so happy to see you, Bryar.” I yanked him into a tight hug. He hesitated for a second before finally returning my embrace.

“Bryar?” he asked.

“You’re kind of prickly sometimes.” I held up the thumb he’d bitten twice now. “And you bite.”
His eyes met mine with an intensity that made me want to turn away. “You really give me a name?”

“Don’t you want one?” I shuffled my feet and looked away from him, searching the clouds for answers I didn’t yet have. “I want you to have the freedom you long for. If you don’t like the name, you don’t have to take it.”

“And if I accept it?”

Was he asking for more? Somehow I felt like I was still disappointing him. “I don’t know what you want from me. I thought you wanted me to give you a name.”

“Bryar is a good name.”

 

“And we can call you Ry for short.” The silence between us stretched a few awkward minutes. “Or not, I guess.” He laughed. “Bryar it is, and Ry is fine. I accept with honor.”

“Why do I feel like I just did more than give you a name?”
Ry gave me one last quick hug. “Because you’re oddly smarter than you should be.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” But the world faded into a dreamless sleep, which refreshed me though I slept only a few hours before Gabe settling in beside me woke me up. “What time is it?” I asked.

“Just after midnight.”
“You’re back early.”

He kissed my hair, fingers running through it. I’d forgotten how much of an obsession he’d had with the length before Sam cut it. “Timothy said he upset you. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. He just talked about my dad. I guess I didn’t realize that he was older than me.” Or that he’d known my father. He made me realize that it was time. “I want to go home.”

“To Minnesota, you mean.”

“Yes. To Jamie and Kelly and Hanna and my mom and my condo. Everything.”
“Even if it’s cold and the earth is sleeping?”

“Yes. I just have to talk to Lily first and do my interview for the MI position, then we can leave.”

 

“What about the house? The ring?”

I sighed because I truly didn’t know. Nothing was ever really that cut and dry. I didn’t want to get rid of the house because of the memories. My father had a ton of spells mentioned in his journals that could be perfected just by moving from room to room. The partial spells were all easily finished by adding my own words. Dorien Merth had been a very smart man. Most witches feared creating their own spells. He enjoyed it, even used the house as a way to experiment with his creations.

Yet the evil of what had been done on the property wouldn’t be easily erased, and that gave me pause for keeping the house.

Gabe looked away and said, “We need to talk.” Those words never preceded good times. “Okay. Is this where you tell me, ‘It’s not me, it’s you’?”

“God, no. I need to explain why I was so mad. I need to stop being a hypocrite and telling you to talk to me when I haven’t shared everything with you.” He let me lay my head on his chest. “There’s no easy way to say this. One of the TriMega has gone rogue. He’s after me, and through me, you. It’s likely he is the one you invited in by accident. Tresler said he was last seen in California. That’s why I was so furious when you came here alone.”

“I thought the vampire I invited in was Max.”

Gabe shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense why he would introduce himself if he was already in your house. I’ve never met Maxwell Hart, but I’ve heard of him. He’s powerful, but not with illusions. Nicholas Galloway, however, is a master of illusion.”

“He’s the Tri-Mega guy?”

 

“Yes. Tresler called me directly when I filed the paperwork to establish a nest. He warned me of Galloway.”

I listened to Gabe’s heartbeat and wondered what it all meant. The politics of vampires were still so far beyond me. They didn’t have a set rule book other than a few basics, which seemed like a bad idea for the world’s most deadly predators. “He didn’t do anything to me, though, if it was Galloway in the house. He had plenty of opportunity to hurt me. What does he have against you, anyway?”

“There are rumors that I am more powerful than him. Establishing a growing nest would increase that power. And then there’s having you as my focus. No vampire has ever been bound to a Pillar before. So Tresler suspects that Galloway fears I will challenge him. However, vampires are rarely direct. So maybe he’s not after me at all. Maybe he’s looking for something else. I don’t know. Tresler probably does but isn’t going to share, because he likes to watch us all flounder around.”

“Does he know that Max makes you look like a baby vampire when it comes to power?”

 

“Really?”

“The guy radiates power like Tresler did.” I thought back to our first meeting and the second at the ring. “And it was like he was holding back. He said he’s not a witch, but he felt as powerful as a high-level witch.”

“Hmm.” Gabe rubbed my shoulder and back for a little bit, lost in thought. He was still so much better at choosing what he shared through our bond than I was. Finally he said, “I have never heard anything negative about him, but if he has that kind of power, I’m surprised he hasn’t taken out Galloway already.”

“Maybe he’s not interested. You don’t care for politics. Maybe he’s the same way. Does creating rules and being a boogeyman for vampires sound appealing to you?”

“No. Sounds like a lot of unwanted work.”

 

“So are you really going to start recruiting vampires?

Making vampires?” Did that mean I’d see even less of him? “Recruiting, yes. Making new ones, no. I’ve called a few

I’ve made in the past. They’ll be moving up to the Cities to help with establishing the nest.” He kissed me on the cheek, then the tip of my nose, and across to my other cheek. “I find there are more important things to do than look after new vampires.” His cock ground into my thigh and he slipped his knee between my legs. “There’s this guy I’m sort of hung up on, and he’s kind of high maintenance, but he’s so fucking hot, I just want to pound him into the wall. Can’t do that with baby vampires everywhere.”

“Who might this guy be?” I licked the outline of his lips and nipped the lower one.

“A certain brunet. You might know him. He has these soulful blue eyes, silky hair, and skin like moonlight. Then there’s this smile of his.” He sighed deeply and kissed my forehead. “The world makes sense every time I see that smile, and nothing else matters. Wish I could see it more often.”

I didn’t bother fighting the smile that split my face. He always made me feel like the most important person in the universe. My heart ran up and down a crazy rollercoaster when I was with Gabe. But all those swings around treacherous corners, races down impossible cliffs, and journeys to incredible heights were so much better than the years of self-destructive loneliness I had lived.