Eternal Seduction (30 page)

“Shut up, Raze.”

“Ooh. No old style ‘hold your tongue, wench’? You must have it bad if you’re going to modern dialect. You only do that when you don’t think before you talk, which isn’t often, just so you know.”

He rubbed a hand down his face. Considering that ordering Raze away rarely worked, which she’d proven by dragging Craig to his feet even though he’d asked her to keep her distance, he thought it best to answer her childish question. “Yes, if you must know, I find myself missing Logan. However, from what Trinity tells me, she’s doing very well and is even excelling in her training.”

“Which I’m sure just tickles your naughty bits,” she playfully growled.

Truthfully, knowing Logan was far surpassing even his Father’s expectations tickled Kerestyan in more than the places Raze had mentioned. The knowledge filled him with such a strong sense of pride and contentment, he found his beast quick to lash out any time those feelings were disturbed.

He also found it difficult to believe Logan had only been gone a week, and even more difficult to accept he cared so much for a woman he’d only known for the span of ten days.

Don’t question the past, revel in the future.
Kerestyan smiled at the thought. How many times had his mind whispered those words? He’d heard the quiet whisper the night he became a vampire and had heeded the same wisdom ever since.

All he could do was hope Logan wanted a place in his future. Trinity mentioned during her brief report that Logan had admitted to missing him, but had also shared the feeling was foreign and she didn’t appreciate it very much.

He’d give the woman two hundred years if that’s what it took for her to realize she cared about him as much as he cared for her. Immortality, while he’d never claim it was a perfect existence, offered all within its dark tendrils the luxury of time.

And considering his advanced age, not only did he intend to be around for another ten thousand years, but he had every intention of dragging Logan right along with him, even if she kicked and screamed the entire way.

The insistent snap of Raze’s fingers brought Kerestyan back to the present. “Earth to Space Leech. Does it tickle you or not?”

Kerestyan frowned. Such odd names she seemed to pluck out of thin air. “Yes, it pleases me. It also sounds as though Trinity intends to release her in a few days time.”

Her lavender eyes opened wide. “Really? Damn, she must be doing well then. If there’s one thing I know about your Daddy, he doesn’t let anyone out of the Walls of Dread until they’re ready.”

Kerestyan nodded at her compliment with a dash of insult. “There’s a distinct reason why no Paladin blade has ever tasted Nelek blood.”

“Don’t pick at me,” she warned. She circled her head with a finger, pointing out the golden halo still shimmering around her body. “You know damn well if I was born in the same generation as Lord Evil, I’d skewer him.”

He didn’t even bother correcting her on his Father’s name this time. “Truthfully, I’m glad you weren’t.”

She arched a brow, which boasted yet another new piercing. “Why?”

He smiled. “Because then you’d be a threat to me, and in good conscience I couldn’t allow you to work here, which means you wouldn’t have the money to put so many holes in your body.”

She patted the blade resting in her lap. “I can put a hole in your body if you’d like. Or perhaps you’d like me to carve Logan’s name into your chest?” She licked her finger and made a hissing noise as she touched her own chest. “Wouldn’t that be a sexy way to show her you care?”

“I’d much prefer should you need to use that blade on anyone, it be Craig.”

“If only I could.” She sighed a wistful note. “As tempting as your scenario sounded, you know I won’t lie to kill him. The minute I start pulling those kinds of treacherous, backstabbing maneuvers, I become no better than your kind.” She raised a hand and bowed her colorful head. “No offense, Lord Kerestyan.”

“None taken.” He stared past her at the French doors leading to the dark streets of New York City.
His
city. If there was one trait every vampire seemed to acquire upon being turned, it was the capacity for treachery in some form.

He turned his attention back to Raze. “Have your team keep an eye on Craig and his group. I have an odd feeling it’s only a matter of time until he commits to some kind of purposeful action we won’t be able to ignore.”

Day 9 of Servio Training

Nelek Castle

“What are the rules?”

Logan ducked Trinity’s leg as it came at her face. “No attacking each other in the castle. No killing each other period.” She jumped back to avoid a leather clad knee to the gut. “Don’t do anything that interferes with or compromises a Nelek’s influence or control over a person or a city. Love and loved ones are never to be used as weapons.” She smiled as she leaned back just as Trinity’s fist whizzed by her face. “And the unspoken but most important rule, carry Midol to counteract the moodiest of the Nelek Children.”

Trinity ceased her assault and smiled wide. “Very, very nice. At least you have the defense part of combat down. Now, follow me.”

Logan did as instructed when Trinity turned and headed for the doors leading to the main hall. “Where are we going?”

“To the enchanting Nelek library. I have one last morsel of information to feed you before I release you back into the wild.”

Logan stopped and stared at Trinity’s lace covered back. The vampiress had better not be messing with her. “You’re sending me back to New York? Today? Or is this a morsel that takes three days to explain?”

She didn’t turn around. “Yes, today, but you’ll only get there slower if you don’t move your feet.” She snapped her fingers over her shoulder. “Chop, chop, my little servant.”

Logan couldn’t help but smile. The excitement coursing through every cell in her body made it easy to catch up with Trinity’s long strides. “You’re not playing a joke on me, are you?”

“No,” she snapped, sounding almost offended. “I know how hard you’ve been working and I know exactly why. I’m not about to dangle Kerestyan in front of you like a carrot. See number four on the rules of Nelek Decorum.”

Logan rolled her eyes. “I
care
about him. I’m not ready to start tossing around the L-word.”

“You call the warm feeling in your chest right now whatever makes you comfortable and I’ll call it what it really is. In the meantime, I need your brain focused on what I’m about to show you, got it?”

She ignored Trinity’s reference to knowing how she felt, which she didn’t, and nodded. She’d pay attention to whatever the Dominatrix wanted as long as it put her on a train back to New York. “Got it.”

She smiled as the clicking of claws against stone filled the air as they passed Stefan’s chamber. Only a few seconds passed before she felt a cold nose and warm tongue nuzzle into her hand.

Unless she was in combat training, Syn had maintained his position at her side, day and night. He’d even found it necessary to sleep next to her in Kerestyan’s bed and snuggle up against her as if he were trying to fill his Master’s shoes.

She reached out and scratched the top of his head. He also snored like a banshee and had a bad habit of rolling over on her, which she hoped weren’t traits he and Kerestyan shared.

Well, at least the snoring part. If Kerestyan wanted to roll over on top of her, she wasn’t sure she’d put up much of a fight.

While she couldn’t claim to love the man, over the last week she’d come to accept she cared about him. And for her, the realization had been rather difficult considering she hadn’t cared about anyone but herself for a long, long time.

“Here we go!” Trinity exclaimed as she pushed open two heavy wooden doors. “This is the most complete library of information about supernatural creatures, our societies, and true history that the world has ever known. Or not known, depending on who you are.”

As Logan stepped into the room, her mouth gaped open. She’d expected a lot of books when Trinity said library, but nothing like this. Twice the size of a football field and easily three stories tall, the room was wall to wall books. And for what didn’t fit on the walls, free standing shelves created a maze at either end of the huge room, breaking only for the dozen tables and chairs positioned in the center.

She followed Trinity through the twists and turns leading to the far right wall where the bookshelves in the center separated to allow space for a mural. A dozen panels roughly six feet by two feet hung in a row, and while each was painted with a different scene, together they created what appeared to be a timeline.

Trinity stopped in front of the first panel on the left then spun on her heel. “Personally, I don’t think you need to know this, but Dad holds strong to the notion you have to know your past before you can find your future. So, keeping in mind I’m only doing this because he insisted, pay attention. I’m gonna move fast, okay?”

Logan nodded. Fast worked for her. She was certain there was a lot to learn from the paintings, but the tingles still racing inside her wanted to get back to New York as quickly as possible. “Okay.”

Trinity pointed to the blurry, golden image of what appeared to be a man. “This is Aligon, the being most humans worship as God, Allah, Buddha or whatever name each religion uses. Much as they believe, he created the earth. He’s a Celestial, which is a heavenly body comprised of the purest magics in the universe.”

She splayed her index and middle fingers between two figures, a young man and a young woman, who both stood in front of Aligon. Long hair flowed past the woman’s shoulders, painted in every earth tone Logan had ever seen. She wore a blue robe as bright as the sky, and her strikingly beautiful face was drawn in a smile.

The man’s hair was long as well, but was pitch black and framed a glowing white face. Dressed in black robes, his eyes were an odd silvery color and his lips formed an angry line.

“This is Semeliel, Aligon’s daughter, and Levanael, his son. They’re twins. The opposite kind as you can probably see, and they’re very important to this story.”

Trinity stepped over to the next panel, which depicted Aligon setting the earth in his children’s outstretched hands. “Aligon gave the world to his kids as a gift then told them to use their magics to make it reflect the best of themselves. Semeliel gave the world the sun and flowers and trees and all the good stuff. Levanael gave the world the moon and created mountains and fire and ice and all the not so good stuff. When the kids were finished messing with things, Aligon was so happy, he created humans to inhabit the earth his brats had done so well with.” She stared over at the next panel then huffed out an irritated breath. “Screw it.”

Logan didn’t have much choice but to follow when the obviously peeved vampiress snatched up her arm and dragged her back so they could see the entire mural. “I take it you don’t like giving this lesson?”

Trinity shook her head and released Logan’s elbow. “No,” she grumbled. “This story pisses me off every time someone brings it up.” She clapped her hands. “So for the rest of it, we’re gonna rock the Cliff Note’s version. Agreed?”

When Logan nodded, Trinity crossed her arms over her chest and gave the mural a disgusted glare. “Once humans got dropped into the mix, the twins couldn’t leave well enough alone. They kept adding little perks here and there. Like Sem, who gave the humans animals to live with. But Lev didn’t like the way the humans loved his sister’s animals, so he gave man the desire to kill animals for food, clothing and whatever else they could do with the pieces. At that point, Sem got ultra pissed and banished her brother from the world when her sun was in the sky, to which Lev responded by casting her out when his moon was in the sky.

“Everything was fine until a group of human farmers got mad when bad weather ruined their crops. So,” she rolled her eyes then stared up at the ceiling, “they looked up at the sky and said, ‘Why the hell do you hate us?’ Lev heard their cries and, lo and behold, six farmers ended up at his feet. They promised to worship him if he gave them some of his magic, so he accepted the deal, named his new followers the Children of Shadow, and then sent them back to their human tribe where they wreaked havoc on their hunter rivals.

“Six hunters turned around a little later and committed the same stupid action the farmers did. They stared up at the sky and said, ‘What the fuck?’ Only this time Sem heard them, then did the same thing her brother had done. She packed their little bodies full of magic, named her followers the Children of Dawn,” she finally stopped looking at the ceiling and shook one of her fists, “and then sent her hunters back to unite the tribe. Can you guess what happened?”

Logan laughed out loud. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this was leading. “Um, they stared a war?”

Trinity nodded rather emphatically. “Fuck yes, they did. The tribe split into three factions. Children of Dawn, Children of Shadow, and all the humans who refused to take sides were called Innocents. Now,” she ran over to the fifth panel, which depicted Semeliel standing with her six chosen on one side and Levanael standing with his six on the other, then pointed to one follower on each side, “these two, who picked opposite sides…were married!” She flicked the follower standing on Semeliel’s side. “And this chick was pregnant!” She returned to Logan and smiled. “Remember that little tidbit. It’ll be important at the end of my rant.”

Logan nodded at her. “I got it. Carry on.”

“Okay. So, where were we?” Trinity sucked in a deep breath. “Oh, yeah, the tribe is at war. Basically, there are conflicting reports on which twin acted first, but I was taught it was Levanael who struck the first blow. He was so livid his followers hadn’t conquered the whole of the tribe that he cursed the Children of Dawn to become half-kin to the beasts they loved so much. Semeliel turned around and cursed her brother’s followers to be forever denied the sun. Lev responded by cursing Sem’s kids to always fight with each other the way animals do, and then Sem removed Lev’s kids ability to subsist off of anything the land provided, including animals.”