Endless Days (The Firsts) (15 page)

Well,
it was not like he hadn’t wanted to do the project with full disclosure.  But he knew his sister, she would have refused.  And more than that, she would have come down on him like Thor’s hammer.  It was
her
fucking fault! 

She was, by far, the most powerful one of any of the family, and she chose to live an innocuous little life in an unremarkable little
village with unremarkable people doing common work.  What a waste!  He had the same heritage, same abilities, but everyone had always known…Cherise was much more powerful than any of them.  He’d wanted to force her to use those powers to monitor how it worked, how much she could do.  He knew she would be damaged by his project, and he was sorry for that, but science sometimes required sacrifice. 

He was building a database of supernatural beings, a new anthropological catalogue. 
It would represent species that had been on this planet for millennia and never known.  He felt it was time to take supernaturals mainstream.  Be recognized for their contributions.  Most supernatural beings had squatting rights to this planet long before humans crawled about on its surface.  He thought they deserved recognition, acknowledgement, and praise for their contributions to life on this planet.  Supernaturals were a superior life form to humans.  And although he enjoyed a good fuck by a hot looking woman, he had little other use for them.  Well, servitude.

And now, his painstakingly built team had let him down.   Several of those were supernaturals.  Didier walked over and squatted down to survey the remains of his state of the art computer tablet.  Damn!   That had been stupid!!  It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford another, that was
never a problem…but it had some irreplaceable photos on it.  He would have to contact his computer guy and have him take a look and see what could be salvaged.  Pushing backward, he let himself drop back on the thick carpet that covered the entire floor of the room that was over two thousand square feet.  Rubbing his forehead, he acknowledged to himself that it had been cruel to do this to his sister.   If anyone else in the family knew what he was up to…it wouldn’t go well for him.

Armel had his security team with him.  He intended to kill Patric.  It was the only finale he would accept after the past three decades.  First, he truly did not think the arrogant vampire
deserved
to live.  Then, and more important, he knew Patric would come after him…eventually.  He knew he would never be safe unless the tortured and tormented vampire was dead…really dead…
morte.  
  So, that was the goal.  He couldn’t pull it off alone.  Luckily, he wasn’t.   He’d always known that winners aligned themselves with power.   Didier thought
he
was that power.   Hardly.  Didier believed he was the one who controlled
her.
  He did not know that Armel had made a deal with her, too.  Didier Devereaux was a fool.  You’d think
he
would know crazy when he saw it.   And she was completely insane.   Didier thought he had her under control.    But Armel knew what it took to “control” someone who left reality behind.   David Patric would die, Cherise would be his, and the insane first blood who had worked with Didier from the beginning of the project would never know she’d just been his magical tool.  He tried not to act too prideful, but he was just that fucking good.

Didier needed to see Cherise. 
To explain.  Go do some damage control before the other siblings found out about his projects.  They’d be pissed…more than… he had to stop it.  Chances were high that they would banish him.   That couldn’t happen.  Empaths needed the familial connections to maintain power and sanity.  Although Cherise had isolated herself in America this past year, she had always been linked to her heritage through family.  If she had been cut off, which is what happened if you were banished, she would eventually have lost her abilities and become as useless as a stone.  He didn’t want to hurt his sister…in spite of all of this, he did love her, but if it came down to him or her, well…  Sacrifices had to be made.  He would not become useless.  It shocked him when he received her text a few minutes ago that simply said, “
I know what you’re doing and I’m going to stop you.  You are no longer my brother.”

He pulled out his mobile and pressed a speed dial.  When a man answered, he glanced at the time.

“Matthieu, I need the jet ready by tonight.  What?  Yes, yes, just four passengers…myself and my security team.  Make sure there is plenty of bourbon.”

He liked bourbon.  And there was never a time he needed liquid courage more than now, when he would shortly confront his sister about his betrayal. How the hell was he going to make her understand?  And when she wouldn’t?  How the hell was he going to stop her from telling what she knew?  How was he going to give the order to terminate her?

Son of a bitch!  Lauren wanted desperately to
not
know what the IT guy found on an old recording.   A video message sent to Didier from Armel.  He’d been packing up and found the embedded message, and being curious, he’d decrypted it.  A message that surprised him enough to bring it to Lauren.  And god she wished he hadn’t.   Armel, telling Didier that he needed to contact someone named Tamesine.  Armel had been terrified.  This Tamesine was on a rampage, angry, or something, and Didier needed to speak with her immediately.  Then he’d said something that shocked her and the IT guy.  He’d said, “I knew it was a mistake to begin this with a first blood.  We can’t trust her.  She has her own agenda.   Didier, you need to fix this or she’ll kill us all.”    A first blood was behind this, somehow. 
A first blood!
  That’s how they got David. 

From her window on the bus, just outside of Las Vegas, Lauren knew.
She had to let Patric know.  She had to warn Cherise.  She had to go to Reykjavik today.

Leo was a wreck, but Cherise was proud of how well he was holding it together.  His fuzzy reddish hair was quite moist, his face redder than usual, and he was fidgeting badly as they waited for their rental car.  As soon as they got away from the airport into open air, he improved immediately.  It wasn’t just the flying that upset the elves...they instinctively hated
any  enclosure…they were nature’s most intense claustrophobics.  They lived in houses that had access to outdoors at any moment.  Sort of like Cherise, who lived much of the year with her large sliding glass door open to the back of her house.  Yes, she often got nighttime visitors, four footed, but she had never had any problems.  They respected her and she respected them. 

She let herself think again about who David Patric really was.  He was a stunning man who had once been very powerful,
and would be again.  Yeah.  There was no chance he didn’t already have someone significant in his life. 

R
eady for any inevitability, aware she would survive the heartbreak, she let herself forget what she would soon face, and enjoy the landscape.  Iceland was the country of the gods…unsurpassed pristine waters, skies of perfect cerulean blue, otherworldly terrains, and a mostly temperate climate.  The earth bubbled beneath its ground, sending hot water and steam to power the surface.  At night, the excited electron sky sent ribbons of brilliant colors writhing into pitch black, where every star got to show its brightest face. 
Umm
, she thought,
I could love it here
.

It was mid-afternoon, so they knew Kav would be asleep.  As they approached the little
town just outside of his home, they stopped at a café to get something to eat.  Cherise assumed it was going to be intense after he saw them, and she really didn’t want to do that on an empty stomach.  It was as they walked into the café that she felt like she’d been hit in the gut.  She suddenly felt him.  Kav.  David.  And more than that.  Her presence had awakened him, and she knew he felt her, too.

“He knows I’m here,” Cherise told Leo as they took a seat.  “I didn’t think he’d notice if he was asleep.  I was wrong.”

“Fine.  That saves us trying to gain entrance to his home.  You know it will be well fortified.  Well, he can’t come to us.  Do you want to go to him?”

“No.  We need something to eat.  He’ll wait.  He’s certainly not going anywhere.”

So they grabbed some menus and considered what they would like.  Leo was actually quite an amusing companion, a side of him she’d never had a chance to discover.  He kept her laughing throughout the meal.  He told her why so many elves were in American now.  They were
not
indigenous to the country.

“Our children.
  That’s why we all came to America and spread out.  We wanted our children to have greater choices in their lives and not be in service to those who thought they could rule us because they were bigger, or stronger, or more powerful.  We’ve been happy there.”

Cherise sighed.  “So was I.”

“I’m sorry I brought him to you.  I didn’t realize what it would do to your life.”

“No.”  She sighed again and smiled at him.  “No, you did the right thing. He would have never recovered if I hadn’t been there for him.  I just wish I hadn’t…well…bonded with him.”

“You mean mated with him?”

“Almost, but no.
  I
wish
that were all it was.  We actually never…well, we never got to that point.”

Leo looked surprised.  “But I could see your connection.  He…”

Cherise waved her hand.  “I know, I know.  We should have, but he left before I realized I was already bonded enough that it didn’t matter.  A bond is kind of like in the animal world when a species mates for life…like wolves.  That’s what it’s like for an empath.  So even if he already has a lover here, I won’t be able to move on to anyone else…ever.”

Dropping back against the seat, Leo looked shocked.

“It’s okay,” Cherise assured him.  “I never intended to bond with anyone anyway.  Kav just…sort of happened.  I’ll be fine.  Once I learn to live without him.”

Suddenly she lifted her head and looked around.  There was something…what was it…?  Leo followed her gaze and began to search as well.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know…something…I feel…a link to someone…I can’t identify who, but it has to be someone I already know.”  She didn’t see anyone she knew.
“He…or she…has to be close.”

“You can’t tell?  But you could with Kav.”

“Yes, but I’m bonded with him.  It is the strongest link possible for an empath.  Unbreakable.  And it only gets deeper with time.  But other life forces, even family, I only feel the essence, not the individual.  I don’t see…   Ah, it is impossible.  If it is someone I know, they will reveal themselves.  Unless…”

Leo saw her face flush.

“Unless it is Didier.  My brother who is
not
my brother anymore.  He would be foolish to have followed me here.  If he did, Leo, it bodes badly for Kav.  And for us.  I think…we should hurry.”

They did.  The remaining food was scarfed down, the check paid, and they were back on the road in ten minutes.  As they gained
distance from the diner, Cherise had less a sense of the presence.  Whoever it was had not followed them…yet.  But her sense of trouble was strong.  Kav was in danger.  If she could just get to him, and unlock his powers, they might be safe.  They no longer needed GPS.  Her link with Kav led her to him. 

His home was incredible, as she knew it would be.  The first vampires had been here a long time.  They were obscenely wealthy and usually lived in optimum luxury, cubed. 
Huge, looked like it covered an acre of land, low, with the wide low pitched roof typical of Icelandic architecture.  She knew it had to be built partially underground, since summers in Iceland had sun almost around the clock.  A vampire would have to have a very safe place to live during those months.

As they approached the door of the mansion in snow, a large man with long blonde hair was already standing at an open door.  He stepped out to intercept the car.

“You are Cherise.  Welcome to CastleRock.  Would you please step inside?  I will arrange for your car to be returned to the airport.”

She and Leo got out of the car hesitantly, both of them carrying their small bags and coats in their hands.  She turned to the blonde man.

“Please keep the car here.  We may not be staying long.”

He nodded.

The nippy air snapped at her bare skin, but as soon as she got near the door, the interior temperature curled out and warmed her up instantly.  Oh, that was nice.  Iceland had an abundance of geothermal energy, which kept homes very cozy in winter.

Closing the door tightly, and after engaging an alarm system, the blonde giant turned toward her and Leo.

“I am Gunnar.  I manage daylight security for Mr. Patric.”  He turned to Cherise.  “He is waiting for you in his underground chambers.  Then he turned to Leo.  “He would like you to wait in your rooms.  So, if you both would follow me.”