Endless Days (The Firsts) (26 page)

             
Park turned to her old friend and they embraced.  “Cherise,
mon cherie
.   I cannot believe we meet again surrounded by vampires.  That is why you left…to get away from them.”

             
“Yeah, plans didn’t exactly follow course.  So glad to see you and your father.  Thank you for coming.”

             
Koen walked up to Tamesine, staring at her the entire way.  She stared right back at him with pride and anger.

             
“So, what are we going to do with you?  You show up here after centuries when we thought you dead.  You’ve broken our code.  You’ve harmed a first blood.  One of your own.  Maliciously and intentionally.  And planned to kill him.  It’s punished by death, you know that.”

             
Tamesine shrieked.  “You don’t pass judgment on me, Koen.  What have
you
done to survive these many years!  How are you
so
clean?  I know there was a time…”

             
“There was.”  He glanced at the others.  “Long ago.  I regret anything we ever did even in the extremely distant days when we hurt people.  Ignorance.  Conceit.  But I have never harmed a first blood.  The grievance is unholy.  I will have to call council.”  He turned to his daughter.  “We’ll have to retain her.  I wonder how.”

             
“I don’t think I can keep her frozen.  There are no cells that will hold her?”

             
“That’s my concern.  I really don’t know what she’s capable of.”

             
Tamesine had gone quiet, her eyes closed. 

             
Suddenly Armel Joubert raced forward.  It was so unexpected, no one reacted before he got to Park and stabbed her with a long dagger multiple times in the chest.  She gasped and fell forward on her knees, her arms crossed in front of her as blood began to drip all around her.  At the same moment two things happened.   Koen threw a fireball at Armel, who shrieked and went up into flames.  And Tamesine smiled and disappeared.

             
Koen was on his knees in front of his daughter.

             
“God, Park, let me see.”

             
Her eyes were losing focus.  “It’s okay.  But…I’m dying.  He punctured my heart.  I love you, father.”

             
Crimson stained the plush beneath her as she slid forward into his arms.   She was gone.  But not forever.  A dagger could not kill a first blood.  Unless it could take the head, it could inflict only fatal wounds.   While the stabs were very painful and looked like mortal wounds, Park’s body
would
regenerate and she would be okay.  With time.  It only made it a little less painful for Koen to see his daughter in a pool of her own precious blood.

             
He lifted her and laid her on the long padded bench against the front of the room.   Lifting his head, he scanned the air sightlessly.  He was searching for any remnant of Tamesine.  But she’d reblocked her life force, and was no longer physically anywhere near this location.

             
“We’ve lost her,” he said, leaning over Park.

             
“What!?”  Cherise surged forward.  “But she’s first blood…that wouldn’t kill her!”

             
Koen chuckled.  “No, little human.  Not Park, she’ll be fine.  Tamesine.  She’s gone.  If I ever find her, she’s dead forever.”  He picked Park up in his arms and headed to the door.  “Let’s go.  I want to get her back to your place to heal, David.”

             
David took Cherise’s hand and led her out.  Her eyes lingered only for a split second on the burnt spot in the carpet.  Joubert had earned his fate.  And she was going home.  They were all going home.

As the woman of the household, Katerine took over arrangements.   She settled chambers for Koen and Park, and ordered Jules to prepare his biggest buffet. 

Cherise had spent the entire trip back home in David’s arms.   They hadn’t had a chance to speak yet, but when they arrived back at the house, she pulled loose and stayed with Park to help clean her up and wrap her wounds. 
Katerine brought  loose fitting lightweight pants and a nightshirt for her. 

David had hovered near the doorway the entire time she tended to Park. 

Cherise turned to Koen and thanked him again, let him know she was there if they needed anything during the night, then turned to her quiet vampire.  “David, come with me.”

He glanced at Koen, who gave him a look of sympathy, and followed her out of the room.

“Can we go to your chambers?”

He nodded.  They were quiet all the way down to his protected rooms.  As soon as the door closed behind then, Cherise threw herself into David’s arms.  He held her so tightly she thought he would crack a rib, but she didn’t care.  Both their cheeks were wet when she pulled back and held his face.

He swung her up into his arms.  “I was terrified.  After all we’d been through, to lose you…that was worse than the entire thirty years of torture.”

“I’m so sorry.  It’s
all my fault.  I should have listened.  I’m so arrogant…such a fool…I could have destroyed everything.”

He let her down and caressed her face.  “You’re a brave and incredible woman.  Everything you’ve done has been to help me and the others who are captured.  I am so grateful you are here and well and it’s over.  Well, I pray it’s over.”

“I think it is.  Koen doesn’t think she’ll risk coming back.  She knows your community will find a way to destroy her.  Collectively, you guys are unstoppable.  It’s my fault Tamesine got away.  I should have anticipated her having Armel Joubert blood-bonded and under her control.”

“She’s lucky you were unharmed.  Nothing on this planet…even the most powerful member of my race…would have stopped me from killing her. 
Repeatedly. And then permanently.”

He pulled her close and then vampire-moved them to his bed.

“I just want to hold you,” he told her.

They curled up together, inextricably entwined, souls bonded, bodies merged, in the darkness for a long time.  At one point Cherise got up and pulled off the long tee shirt David slid over her head when they rescued her.

“Make me forget her touch.”

He rolled her ov
er on her stomach and removed his own clothes.  As he straddled her, she could feel his manhood pressing against her buttocks once he leaned down.  He started at her shoulders…bites, gentle, and licks, working his way slowly over her highly sensitive skin from one side to the other.  And then downward.  She knew the curves of her waist were extremely sensitive and he nipped at her until she squealed and begged him to stop.  She was beyond ready for him, but he wasn’t finished.  He continued to her rounded bum, then between the thighs, and between the legs.  No amount of begging made him satisfy her need to be inside him.  He licked the back of her knees and calves, and just as she was ready to struggle against him, to force him to come to her, David rolled off her and turned her over.

Cherise thought he was finally ready to enter her, so she started to climb on top of him, but he gently pushed her back and started on the front.  She protested since she was
very
ready to feel him inside her when he began what was a uniquely vampire move, flicking very quickly back and forth between her nipples with his tongue.  The effect nearly blew her off the bed.  And he still wasn’t finished.

He continued his journey until he reached the point where he slipped her legs apart and settled in.  Cherise moaned immediately, her head thrown back.  It reminded her of a phrase she’d seen somewhere, she couldn’t remember, but it was “
I sing
the body electric
.”  That’s how she felt…like her body was thrumming with electricity…like every wavelength of light was shooting from her.  The bond they had together strengthened each time they were together, creating a connection like she’d never known.  And when she came, the electricity and light shattered from her in an explosion that rocked her deeper than anything in her life.  Sex with this vampire was so far beyond the physical.  She had to make him feel this, so she powered him  beneath her and slid down over him.  He pushed deep, and began to move in and out, so that when she started moving, he groaned and flipped her over.  He took control, but was so ready by the time he got back inside her and felt their bond envelop him, he exploded too. 

They lay unmoving for long minutes afterward.  He stayed inside
her, buried deep, until eventually he slid out.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that.  You were made for me.”

Cherise touched his hair.  She loved the softness between her fingers.  She loved
everything
about him.

“We’re bonded. 
Mated, actually.  Physically, mentally, emotionally, by the universe.  I’ve heard of it before, but, of course, never experienced it.  We’re amazing together, aren’t we?”

“Amazing doesn’t cover it.  But I want to do that every morning before we sleep for the rest of my life.  Cherise, I need to bring you over.  I need to make you vampire.  Because you’re human, I was terrified she would kill you.”

“I…I will have you do that, but not right away.  You do know I live much longer than ordinary humans, right?  We wouldn’t have to do the change for a while.”

“You’re still more vulnerable.”

“Well, yes, that’s true.  I would like Park to help with the conversion.  You don’t know this, but her blood is unique.  It helps a vampire conversion go easily, instead of the week of torturous pain that is typical.  I wouldn’t ask it of her until she is long healed.  I love you, David.  I do want to be with you forever.  I just need a little time.”

He didn’t say anything, but pulled her close and rested his head on hers.  Nothing…nothing…had ever felt
better than this.

For the first twenty four hours, Park threw up blood at intervals throughout the night.  Koen stayed with her.  Bas, her husband, had blown up his mobile for the first few hours, but he was on his way here now.  Even though it was not permanent, a death is hard and leaves damage behind.  Park was a superbly powerful vampire, and Koen wasn’t too worried about physical damage. 
More the emotional effect of experiencing death and rebirth.

Still he kept vigil at her bedside.  He brushed back the thick unruly hair, staring at her face.  This daughter, this miracle…he
thought he’d lost her before he’d ever gotten to know her.  Before she was even born, she’d been ripped from him, and he had come to believe she hadn’t survived.  Then last year he had gone to ask for help from an old friend, and caught a life force he’d never felt before.  If there was ever a belief in providence, this had to be it.

Koen
had been alive well over a thousand years.  A good life, at times, but very, very long.  The past decades had been hard.  He’d been weary, and quite alone…and ready to leave this world for the next.  But on the eve of the day he’d decided this, he’d felt her life force, searching for him…the child he’d thought he’d never know.   Now, his life renewed, he had his daughter back…and a precocious granddaughter that might be the strongest vampire in the world.  And a son-in-law who he would never admit to anyone how much he’d grown to love.  Bas took exceptional care of Park and Cairine.

Park’s eyes opened.  “Father,” she said weakly.  “Did you call Bas?”

“Your little vampire will be here within the hour.  He had to make arrangement for Cari, but he’s on his way now.”

She smiled at his address of Bas as a little vampire.  He was hardly that.  After ingesting her super vamp blood, Bas was only slightly smaller than Koen.  She sighed in relief.  She hurt so much.  Bas
would be able to merge with her and mask some of the pain.

Koen was still watching her.

She choked again and looked up into her father’s eyes, a mirror of her own green ones.   “Dying is hard, comedy is easy.”

Koen laughed.  He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, then took her hand.

“Baby, I wish I hadn’t brought you.”

“You needed me.”

“Always.  But I think I would have been okay alone.”

She looked at him with a twisted smile.  “I don’t think so.  She was trapped and terrified…and she’s incredibly clever.  I’m really glad I
was
here.  I could barely hold her…I’m not sure you could have.  And father, if she ever shows up again, you have to promise me you’ll let me know.”

“I am your father, not you son. 
I
protect
you
, so…”

“No, I’m serious.  You need to let me know.  If she shows up again, she’ll be looking for revenge…against you.  She’ll kill
you.  I can handle her.  Just, you know, without any freaking surprises like this time.”

“I won’t let you be hurt again.”

“Thanks.  I’m not a child, either.”