Endless Days (The Firsts) (22 page)

He shrugged.  “Get used to it, sweetheart.  This is how I’m waking you for the rest of your life.”

It sounded so good to know they could have a future together.   That all the pain and problems were finally resolved.   She kissed him so deeply, he nearly came right there.

His mobile chimed and
she groaned.  No one would bother him unless it was important.

“I’m sorry…just give me a moment.”  He reached for the offensively chiming little box and flipped it on speaker.

“What?” he said, sharply, his hand moving down Cherise’s leg.

“David.” 
Bryn.  He remembered Bryn’s voice.  “I wouldn’t do this, but it can’t wait.  We have a serious problem.  We need you two in the diner right away.”

Cherise moaned again, this time in frustration.  Nope.  Problems not resolved.  She rolled out of bed.

“I need to visit the loo.  Just…let’s go.  It sounds like we need to go.”

David laid there watching her walk away, shedding her clothes as she went.  Before she reached the bathroom door, she dropped her underwear and turned to look at him.  Now it was his turn to groan.  He reached down to hold his heavy penis.  What was he going to do with this?

A few moments later when Cherise came out of the bathroom he lunged at her.

“We’ll go, but I need a little help first with this.”

She looked down and smiled.

“Yeah, I have a solution.”

They were going to be just a little later meeting Bryn and Katerine in the dining room.

They were smiling when they came into the busy dining room.  Cherise grinned as Bryn did the thumbs up gesture to her.  When David noticed, he frowned and she gave him the “don’t even” glance.  As they moved toward their table, Cherise noticed a blonde woman beside Katerine.  She moved forward quickly, worried.

“Lauren?  What are you doing here?” 
Yes
, she thought,
something is definitely fucked up
.  Lauren should have evaporated by now…be somewhere else….not here.

“Hi.  Yeah, I know.  I didn’t expect to be here, either.  But I found something that I had to tell you about.  If you’d had a cell, I could have called you.  But…”

“I’ll get one, I promise.  What’s happening?  What made you risk coming here?”

“One of my guys found a message and brought it to me.   A first blood is behind all of this.”

Katerine spoke.  “Yes, it’s now far more dangerous.  For all of us.  There should never be a first blood willing to harm another.  You vampires, sure, you’re savages, but one of us…never.”

Bryn looked up.  “Hey!  Well, you kind of got a point.  Still, it appears there’s enough of the crazy to go around.”

David stared at Bryn, then walked over and grabbed him.   This was the first meeting of the old friends since David remembered who he was.  The hug was tight and close.  When they pulled back, David gave him a playful slap on the cheek.

“Sorry for the slug.  But you were holding my woman’s hand.”

“I get it.  I was.  But I didn’t know that at the time, did I?   All’s forgiven and I’m glad you’re together.  Your ex filled me in about it in the dead center of my sleep.”

David kept his arm on Bryn’s, but he turned to look at the new arrival.  Lauren, nervous, stared at him.   “So, what the hell does this woman mean?  Is there a first blood after me?”

Katerine answered.  “No, David, a first blood has already
had
you.  I haven’t heard the whole deal, but we were just feeding her.  Now that we’re all here, I think it’s time for some truths.”

“Then let
me
start.”  Everyone looked back at Cherise, startled.

“Someone has to start with the truth.  You’re right Katerine, it’s the only way we’re going to unravel this mess.  Probably the only way we’re going to survive.”   She took a deep breath and moved more centrally, so everyone could hear her.  “I think everyone here knows about David’s abduction.  No one could find him for thirty plus years he was missing.  I wondered why he couldn’t just reach out to some other first with his life force and let them know where he was.  I thought it might be because he was fractured from his life force.   But last night, during a merging session, we found out that didn’t happen for at least ten years
after
he was captured.  Now we know.  A first blood can block their own life force so no other can read it.  Apparently, they can block the life force of another first blood.  This other one must have done that.  Someone knew it had to be done, or he would have been rescued immediately.

Well, I’m an empath.   
Le rattacher
…a connector between the species, human and demon, vampire, elf, hybrids, whatever type of life.  I help all species interrelate.  I can move into a soul and help heal.  It’s why David was brought to me.  What you don’t know…what I myself did not know until recently…was that my own brother is in charge of the entire project that researched and tortured David.”

Everyone was quiet as she turned to him.  “I’m sorry, David.  This is all new to me, too.  You were meant to come to me to heal.  He was also researching
my
abilities.  We were
both
test subjects.”  She faced the others again.  “Anyway, when David left me to come home, this woman, Lauren, came to me.  She had been part of the project.”

Heads swung sharply in her direction as Lauren thought,
I’m going to die horribly
.

“Don’t blame her.  She’s trying to help.  She led me to you, David.  Otherwise, I would never have been able to find you.  She’s a friend, guys.  So whatever she came to tell us, we better listen.  That’s all I have to say.  Lauren, go ahead.”

A room full of vampires, Lauren thought.  Well, it could be worse.  She stood up.

“C
herise is right.  I’ve been involved with this project just long enough to know it was wrong.  They just don’t
let
you quit.  But I had to let her know what they were doing.  To her.  To him.”  She glanced at Cherise.  “I’m glad you’re back together.”

Cherise smiled softly.  “Thank you.  Go on.”

“One of my tech guys found a deleted message, but recoverable, on an old hard drive while we were shutting down the project in Colorado.  It was from the project administrator, Armel Joubert, to the man who ran the entire thing, Didier Devereaux.  He was upset because he thought they couldn’t trust a first blood who was working with them.  He mentioned her by name…Tamesine.  Which means you have a far greater threat than just humans.  I think she was wholly responsible for David’s capture and incapacitation.  I agree with Cherise that she had to have blocked him.”   She gestured toward David.

“Can you imagine humans overpowering
him
?”

“Aw, I could take him.”  Bryn grinned from his seat.  He was listening, but he was also polishing off the remains of the buffet.

“Well, yes, but he was severely damaged emotionally as well as physically.”  She turned to David directly.  “But I still believe it was
her
influence that kept you prisoner, sir.  I want to take this moment to apologize for my involvement.”

He stared back at her.  “I remember you. 
With a white lab coat and a clipboard.  I asked you for water, often, and you gave it to me.  The man, Joubert.  The asshole.  He hated you.”

“Yep.
  You remember me.  He really did.”

“Details ar
e fuzzy, but they’re coming back in pieces.  Yeah, you were there.  But I don’t remember you having a hand in the torture.”

“No. 
God, no.  But I don’t feel good about my involvement either.  I wish I could have helped you.   Or some of the others.”

David sat down and took a sip from Bryn’s cup.  It was bourbon and felt good going down.

“That’s right.  There were other prisoners.  Other species.  Tell me, where was this facility located?  Can you get us there?”

“David…”  Katerine began.

“If they are still there…if they still have captives…I’m going back.  I’m stopping them.”

“Commendable.  I’m with you on that.  Except, what about this first blood?  We need to find out about
her
first.”

Bryn was full of bourbon and starting to feel it.

“I think the best way is to go in and clean out the shite that hurt David.  Get the others out.  Kill the motherfuckers that did this.  I think then the first blood will come out.  What do ya think David?”

“I agree.  It’s a plan.”

Cherise touched his arm.

“I don’t know.  You’ve just come through healing.  If you go back…if you’re faced with that place, those people, I’m not sure you’ll stay okay.  It might be best to send an army instead.”

“Baby, we’re the fucking army!  Cherise, this is extremely personal.  But I won’t let them keep others like they did me.  They’re done.  And that fucking rat, Joubert…I’m going to kill him.”

Katerine stood.  “I’ll go
, too.  You two need back up.  We’ll be powerful enough for anything that comes.”

Lauren threw her hands in the air.  “You don’t know what the other first
blood can do.  What if she’s more powerful than two first bloods?  You need to do some recon first.”

Bryn pointed to Lauren.

“The odd one speaks the truth.  Ya make sense, lassie.  How do we go about it?”

Bryn’s brogue was thicker.  David walked over to him and reached into the pocket of a satchel next to his chair.  He knew Bryn well.  Now that he could remember him.  Bryn grabbed for the large bottle of bourbon now in David’s hands.

“You’ve had enough, if we’re going on attack.  I need you sober or you can’t go.”

“You’re not remembering, David.  I fight
better
when I’m drunk.”

“No, I remember.  You
think
you fight better when you’re drunk.  Anyway, I need you on my left, Katerine on my right.  We’ll take the place with barely more than a whisper.”  He turned back to Lauren.

“Can you get us
anything
at all about the first blood?”

She shook her head.  “I’m a traitor to them.  Armel would have me killed instantly.”

“I might be able to,” Cherise said from behind them.  They turned to see what she meant.

“My brother.
  He’s buried in this up to his eyebrows.  He’s pissed at me…he betrayed me…but he might still open up with me.  If I play it right.”

David was already shaking his head no.  “You…I won’t risk.   You…stay here under protection.”

Cherise gave him a look of surprise.  “We haven’t been over this enough yet…you still don’t get that you don’t control me.  I have a stake in this too.  He’s my own blood…and he betrayed me.  I will see this through and get the information you need.  Katerine, will you help me?”  Cherise turned to David and kissed him.  “I’m going to call him.  Can I use your mobile?”

He nodded. 
Yeah, he bloody well knew he couldn’t control
her.
  But he could lock her up.

After she left the room with Katerine, he turned to Bryn.  “She’s
not
going.” 

Bryn just smiled.

Katerine stopped Cherise on the stairs.

“I agree with David.  Your brother is too dangerous.  We can do this, without you taking this risk.  Two first bloods against one…we’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know what she can do.  All of you have different abilities.  What if she has something you can’t fight?  No.  You need to know.  Actually, you need to get to her before you take on the humans.  Before I call my brother, I want to check in with another first blood.  You know Koen, don’t you?”

Katerine smiled.  “I’ll say I do.  He’s…delicious.  I haven’t seen him in centuries.  Why do you ask?”

“I want to see if he has any information on this Tamesine.”

“Ah, good idea.  You have a current number?”

“I do.  We…fought together last year.  I’m close with his daughter.”

Katerine pulled back.  “He has a daughter?  Remarkable.  Well, if anyone could do it, he could.  He’s extremely powerful.”

David’s mobile was in his room, so they grabbed it and took a seat on the huge couch.  Cherise dialed quickly and set it on speaker for Katerine.

“
Bonjour
”  a soft voice filled the air when the call connected.

“Park,
il est Cherise
, 
comment ca va
?”

“Cherise,
mon cherie, nous sommes tours bien!”

“
Anglais, s’il vous plait.
  I have a friend here with me.”

“Of course.
  How are you my friend?”

“I’m well.  We have a question for your father.  Is he around?”

“Just beside me.  You need to get here and see Cairine, she is growing so quickly.  She’s barely a baby anymore.”