Fated for Forever [Kindred of Arkadia 3] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (5 page)

first our eyes darken, then they are able to turn red with anger. Eventually if a vampire lives long enough

their eyes will change color with deep emotions. I know of only one other whose eyes can shift to a

different color than red, and that is Mikhail. He is the closest of anyone in the coven to my age.” Gabriel ran

a hand softly up and down Ashby’s side.

“So the older you get your eyes turn into mood rings?” Ashby giggled.

“It doesn’t sound as impressive when you put it like that, but yes, our age determines a lot of our

abilities. Only a vampire who is over a thousand years old is able to turn a human. I have set up a law that

any request for a human to be turned has to go through the council, usually only cases of human mates are

approved.” Gabriel leaned forward and kissed his mate’s shoulder. Ashby turned his head to smile up at

him.

“What else can you do?” His smile was infectious.

“I am the oldest of my race, there isn’t much I cannot do,
mon ange
.” Gabriel took advantage of

Ashby’s turned head and captured his lips. Ashby returned his kiss then pulled back.

“So you have to be a thousand years old to turn a human, when you’re really old your eyes become like

mood rings, and over time you acquire powerful abilities.”

“Yes and we’re extremely protective and possessive of our mates. Marching through time alone can

destroy your humanity. Having a mate makes you want to do better, to be better for them. I know that I

could not face eternity without you. I cannot go back to being alone.” Gabriel pulled Ashby even tighter

against his body.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere. I may be small, but I’m scrappy.” Ashby gave him a goofy grin.

“I’ll love you for forever.” Gabriel firmly wrapped his arms around his mate and closed his eyes.

“Always,” Ashby replied yawning.

Gabriel fell asleep holding his mate and for the first time in centuries did not suffer the nightmares from

his past.

Chapter 4

Ashby woke the next morning and stretched. He had the bed to himself. Gabriel had gotten up an hour

ago to go downstairs and see how the club had done during the night. He had kissed him senseless and then

promised to return as soon as he could. He smiled as he felt sore in certain places and recalled the three

additional times that Gabriel had taken him during the night. He reached up and touched the twin puncture

holes on his neck and sighed happily. He couldn’t believe that he was claimed and mated. He had to call

Nic! Grinning, he leaned over and dangled off the side of the bed as he rummaged in his pants pockets

from where they were dropped the night before. Humming he dialed Nic’s number.

“Hello? Ashby? You alive?” Nic asked answering his phone.

“Yes and I’m claimed!” Ashby fell back onto the mattress.

“Congratulations! Is he treating you OK?” Nic asked.

“Yes, he’s a perfect gentleman and extremely considerate of me. I couldn’t have asked for a better mate.

He’s downstairs now checking on the club. I’m about to head down there, I’m starving. Do you think they

have food?” Ashby chewed on his lower lip.

“Older vampires don’t need to feed or eat much but are known to intake more food and blood after they

are mated,” Nic said, as if he were reading out of a manual.

“How did you know that?” Ashby asked curiously.

“Rebecca had me look into vampires when we realized Gabriel was really serious about you so we

would know what to expect. There’s a book about vampires in the town archives that she loaned me. There

is a lot of good information in here. You should borrow it. It can tell you all about your prince, he’s

mentioned all over the place in the history section,” Nic explained.

“Like what?” Ashby asked.

“Did you know your prince hobnobbed with royalty in France during the Renaissance period and a

number of paintings from the most famous artists supposedly use him as a model?” Nic said and Ashby

heard the clankings of a tea pot in the background.

“He’s certainly gorgeous enough to be in paintings, anything else?” Ashby asked.

“Evidently he’s the one that organized the current vampire council when he got tired of ruling over all

of them. He is one of the oldest vampires who hasn’t turned feral, most of them turned centuries ago when

they couldn’t find a mate, but Gabriel outlasted them all,” Nic said.

“He must have been so lonely,” Ashby said quietly.

“Yeah, which means he will definitely take care of my best friend the way he deserves,” Nic laughed.

“How’s Rebecca doing?” Ashby asked and heard Nic groan.

“She’s moping around missing you. We’re all bonded, but she has the closest connection to you. We’re

trying to keep her out of trouble, but she misses you little buddy,” Nic said.

“Tell her that I send my love and that she’s going to adore Gabriel. I can’t wait for them to really get to

know each other, it should be interesting.” Ashby smiled and Nic laughed.

“What will be interesting will be watching Aleks’s reaction to them becoming friends,” Nic said and

Ashby giggled.

“Is she still trying to carry around her gun?”

“Yeah, she’s still mad at the way he talked down to her during the gun safety lessons he gave her. He

might be out of the doghouse by the time the baby is born,” Nic said.

“Ohh, that reminds me. I’ll see if Gabriel wants to go shopping. I bet they have a ton of baby stuff in

Brighton,” Ashby said excitedly.

“If you see a decent rocking chair small enough for her can you pick it up for me? She has the one from

Ma, but her feet don’t hit the floor and she’s too polite to say it’s uncomfortable,” Nic asked.

“Sure. I’m going for more clothes, my godson will have to have the best outfits.” Ashby grinned. He

couldn’t wait to hold the little guy.

“He will be my nephew too,” Nic reminded him and Ashby smiled.

“My godson and your nephew, which we’ll have to kidnap from Kate, Rian, Damian and Liam.” Ashby

cracked up.

“We called dibs when we first found out she was pregnant, there’s nothing they can do,” Nic said.

“Can you call dibs on an unborn baby?”

“I don’t know, but if I don’t know, then they definitely don’t know,” Nic said.

“I get first dibs, though, since I got morning sickness. Most of the time the Inner Court bond is fun.

However I don’t appreciate being nauseous randomly throughout the day. I don’t know how women do it.”

“OK, I agree to that. That morning sickness is no joke.” Nic said.

Ashby shuddered. He didn’t know how women lived through pregnancy, he was never happier to be a

man. “OK, I’m going to head downstairs to look for some food. Miss you guys.”

“Miss you, too. Call us later.”

“I will! Bye.” Ashby hung up the phone.

He smiled and jumped out of bed. He raced over to the bathroom and washed up. Humming, he went

back to the master bedroom and picked his clothes up off the floor and got dressed. He looked in the mirror

and grimaced. He looked like he was going home after a one-night stand in his club clothes. He went to the

closet and pulled out one of Gabriel’s button-down shirts. Smiling, he put the slate-gray designer shirt on

over his blue tank top. When he looked down he laughed. It looked like he was wearing a dress as

Gabriel’s shirt hit him mid-thigh.

He shrugged and walked out of Gabriel’s apartment and down two flights of stairs to the VIP floor.

When he looked over the balcony he could see the club was empty. The lights were dim and no one was in

sight. He stood quietly and perked up his ears, and after a second or two he picked up the sound of voices.

He loved being a fennec fox some days. The superior hearing was one of the only perks of his animal.

He walked back to the stairs and went back up a single flight until he found himself on the level that

looked like it held business offices. He followed the sound of the voices until he reached a conference

room. When he peeked his head inside, he smiled. His mate stood at the head of a long cherry conference

table speaking to a room full of men who ranged in ages and appearances. When Gabriel’s eyes shifted a

fraction and saw Ashby he paused in speaking and everyone turned to look at him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Ashby said softly. Using vampiric speed Gabriel was standing in

front of him and taking his hands.

“You could never interrupt,
mon ange,
we were just finishing up the staff meeting. This is actually the

perfect time to introduce you to some of my coven members,” Gabriel said, leaning forward and placing a

soft kiss on his lips. Ashby sighed happily and allowed Gabriel to pull him into the room.

“Gentlemen, this is my mate, Ashby Fairfax. He is to be protected at all costs,” Gabriel said in a stern,

almost cold voice. Ashby’s mouth dropped and he elbowed Gabriel in the ribs.

“Ow. Angel, what was that for?” Gabriel looked bewildered.

“You sounded mean. And if you order them to protect me like that it’s like you’re expecting them to

place my life above their own. I’ll never make friends!” Ashby said lowly out of the corner of his mouth.

Gabriel just stared at him in shock.

“I don’t think I have ever heard anyone chastise our prince before,” one man whispered.

“I did once. He didn’t live,” another replied.

“To clarify, Ashby, we will place your life above our own since you are our prince’s mate and therefore

that makes you his consort. If anything were to happen to you, we could lose our prince, and that would

not be acceptable. He is the driving force that has kept our people civilized and progressing forward.

Without him I fear chaos would ensue,” a dark-haired man explained and stood. He gave a short bow

before continuing.

“My name is Roman, I am the acting second-in-command. I assist Gabriel at night in running the club

and manage the finances. We meet every morning so that the night shift can hand off to the day shift

concerning issues with the club. The day shift is responsible for cleaning and restocking the club, making

arrangements for vendor deliveries and watching over those who sleep during the day. We hold a similar

meeting in the evening so that the day shift can prep the night on anything that we have coming up for the

evening. The night shift runs the club’s evening activities,” he said then pointed to his right.

“You may remember Bryn and Radek. They are our two most empathetic vampires in our coven so they

are responsible for guarding the doors and screening people as they come in. Every vampire is empathetic

to some degree. It helped us in the days when we had to feed on humans, to allow us to adjust to their

moods so that they would not become frightened. Bryn and Radek are the best at it.” The blond Bryn

smiled and waved and the surly looking Radek just nodded his head.

“The man on the other side of Bryn is Noel. He is the general manager and he keeps the wheels of this

place turning.” The auburn-haired man smiled widely and waved. Ashby smiled back as the introductions

kept coming.

“Then there are David and Daniel, the twins. Stay away from them, far away from them. They are

nothing but trouble,” Roman said, scowling at the two smaller red-haired men. His left eye began to twitch.

“Who, us?” they both asked in unison. Roman sighed.

“Yes. More trouble than the entire coven combined. Though, you are good in designing and managing

our web presence and keeping our network secure, so I guess it’s not a total loss.” Roman rubbed his

forehead. Ashby had a feeling that those two small, red-haired, sprite-like men drove the acting second-in-

command out of his mind. He turned to the twins and winked. Roman groaned.

“Next is Baptista. He is in charge of security and manages Larry, Moe, and Curly over there,” he said,

pointing to the three giant-like men standing against the wall. Each man turned to Roman and growled.

Baptista grinned from the table and stood. He was huge, standing at least six feet eight inches tall and broad

enough he barely fit in the conference chair. He had a shaved head and goatee and unlike most of the men

in the room, he looked to be in his early forties. He epitomized the term ‘bad boy’. Ashby was immediately

reminded of his friend Mojo back in Arkadia.

“I don’t know how you have managed to keep them from killing you, Roman,” Gabriel said.

“It’s my bubbly personality, sir,” Roman said straight-faced. Ashby giggled.

“Baptista, pick either
Lauri
,
Montana
or
Kurt
to replace you, I am reassigning you to act as Ashby’s

protector.” Gabriel emphasized the correct names. Ashby scowled.

“I don’t need a babysitter, Gabriel, I’m a grown man,” he protested. Gabriel raised a dark elegant

eyebrow and smiled.

“I know you are a grown man,
mon ange
.” His voice was low and seductive. Ashby’s mind went blank.

Gabriel turned back around and kept talking.

“The rest of you let the others know that Ashby is of the utmost importance,” he said, leveling a look at