No Escape From Destiny (22 page)

“The next morning the female woke with a craving for her mate’s blood, and a brand-new set of fangs. From there, there isn’t much about this couple, but others that had human mates found out and began experimenting to see if they, too, could change their mates into vampires. What came of it was that after three blood exchanges, the human was turned into a vampire.

“Most couples lived happily with this and didn’t cause a problem, but as you know there are always a few that feel the need to abuse their power. There were some out there that thought to make their own armies with new vampires that they could control, so they started turning multiple humans. Their goal was to go after the royal family and take over. The royal guards found out and took care of the armies, but something had to be done to stop it from happening again. That is where the law came about that it was illegal and punishable by death to give our blood to humans.”

Now Anstice looked shocked. “You mean that
Nikkos
and Damian could be put to death for giving me their blood?” she asked, covering her mouth.

Adrian laughed behind her. She turned on him and glared. “What’s so funny?”

He tried to wrap her in his arms, but she was clearly having none of that. “Little one,
Nikkos
will be the king of our people someday. Do you really think that anyone would even think about punishing him? Besides, even though it is illegal, it is perfectly acceptable to do anything in one’s power to save the life of their mate.”

“But what about Damian. He’s not my mate?”

Adrian placed his hand on her cheek. “
Cardia Mou,
he is a prince, too. No harm will come to him. I promise.”

Getting back to the conversation,
Nikkos
asked, “Okay, so you said three blood exchanges? Does it have to be three with the same person? Three total, no matter how many people? How much blood does there have to be? Technically, Anstice and I have exchanged blood, but that was only once. So we should be able to do an exchange with
Adrian
without anything happening, right?”

Lucian looked back at the copies he had in his hands. “I really don’t know. The only stories show one vampire exchanging blood with the human. As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything in writing that’s shows more than that. But you also have to remember. You took a lot of blood from her last night. Damian fed her quite a bit, and then from what I understand you fed her more later? With Damian’s blood being as close to yours as it is, it may count as two. We also don’t know if there has to be two actual exchanges or if she just needs to drink our blood three times. There is no real way to find out. I supposed we could do some blood tests to find out if anything has changed with her, but we didn’t take a base sample when you brought her here, so there isn’t anything to compare it to. Also, from what I overheard she is showing some of our traits. Is that correct?”

Nikkos
nodded. “Yes, when I was feeding
Adrian
she seemed to crave my blood, too. Before we realized that she shouldn’t, it was too late. She had already drank my blood. ”

Lucian added, “You also have to remember this story said the female was screaming in pain for hours. Now it may have been from just giving birth, or it may have been the changes that were being made inside her body. You have to be prepared for the fact that this may be very painful if you decide to turn her. I know how mated males can be when their females are in pain. You will have to be able to watch her suffer without being able to do anything about it.”

Nikkos
could feel the waves of fear coming from Anstice, and by looking at Damian, it was taking a toll on him, too. It was time to separate the two of them. Looking to Lucian, he asked, “Can you work with Damian for a little while on how to block others’ emotions? I think I need to go have a long talk with my mates.”

Lucian nodded and went to sit in the chair across from Damian. While he was talking to him,
Nikkos
took Anstice’s and Adrian’s hands and led them from the study. He led them down the hall to their room. He wanted to lead them to the bed but thought better of it. There was a small sitting area in the corner of the room with a black leather sofa. They sat down with Anstice between them.

She was completely silent, her eyes not really focusing on anything. She seemed to be lost inside her mind, trying to sort out everything that she had just learned. She looked at Adrian then
Nikkos
then straight ahead again. “Will I be able to go outside during the day?”

Nikkos
was flabbergasted, of all the questions she could have asked and that was it.
Adrian
whispered to her, “Baby, don’t do this. We won’t do this to you.”

She looked up at him with those steel-gray eyes. “If we don’t exchange blood, I can’t prove to you you’re my mate.”

He took her into his arms and whispered, “Oh, little one, you don’t have to do that for me. I know I’m your mate. I was just being difficult earlier. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to risk you being changed just to prove we are mates.”

She pulled back from his embrace and turned to look at
Nikkos
. “Will I be able to go outside during the day?”

He answered without a hesitation. “I’m not sure. We told you before that some of our kind could be out in sunlight. Adrian and I both can handle the sunlight, so you may be able to, also.”

He knew it made him a bastard for thinking it, but he also knew that they would lose
Adrian
if she didn’t bond with him. He couldn’t help but feel guilty that he wanted to let herself possibly be turned just so he could keep
Adrian
, too. He could see by the look in Anstice’s eyes that she knew they would lose him, and was determined to bond with him no matter if it changed her or not.

She nodded her head and turned back to
Adrian
. “I have something I have to do today, and then tonight you will exchange blood with me and complete our bond.”

Adrian looked her in the eyes. “I can’t ask you to do that for me.”

“You’re not asking, I’m telling you that is what is gonna happen. Unless you don’t want to be mated to me?” The last was said in a whisper as she lowered her head to avoid his stare.

He placed his finger under her chin and raised her to face him. “I want nothing more than to be mated and fully bonded to you.” He looked over her shoulder at
Nikkos
. “And to you.”

Nikkos
sucked in a quick breath. To be fully bonded to a mate, they had to have sex
and
exchange blood. It usually has to be at the same time, but it would work at different times, too. Both just had to occur before the bond was complete. That meant
Adrian
planned on having sex with
Nikkos
.

Nikkos
knew that was where their relationship was headed and wanted it, too. He was just scared. Because of their race’s views on two men being together, no one had ever heard of two men bonding. How exactly was that going to work? Could two men bond with each other? Or would the bonds only be between the female and the two males? Too many questions needed to be answered, and if
Nikkos
thought about it anymore his head was going to explode.

Looking back at Anstice,
Adrian
added, “But we don’t know what will happen if we exchange blood. You could turn into a vampire.”

She looked at
Adrian
with tears in her eyes. “Would you not want me if I was a vampire?”

Adrian
enfolded her into his embrace. “
Cardia mou,
I will always want you. Vampire or human, it doesn’t matter to me. You just need to think of things that you would be giving up if you turned. Going outside during the day would only be part of it. You would have to give up your entire life and move here with us permanently. You would never have contact with any of your friends or family again. And if what Lucian said was true, it may be extremely painful for you to go through the change.”

She just shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal. “I have no family and very few friends, no one that I would miss. Besides, I have already decided that if you two will have me, I want to stay here with you. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I know where I belong, and it is with you and
Nikkos
. And if I’m in pain for a little while, it will be okay to finally belong to you both.”

Adrian
looked on the verge of weeping. “Little one, you have no idea how happy you have made me.” He kissed her gently on the forehead.

Nikkos
interrupted. “You said you have something you need to do today while it is still light out. What do you need to do, baby?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

She took a deep breath and said as fast as she could, “I have to go the cemetery and see my daughter’s grave in the daylight one more time in case I can’t later. She used to love the sunlight, and I want to visit her one more time while the sun is shining before I may not be able to again. Plus, cemeteries at night are just creepy.”

Both males froze and were speechless.
Nikkos
recovered first. “Your daughter’s grave? Baby, why didn’t you tell us you had a daughter? What happened? How old was she?” He was starting to ramble again, and even with the situation Anstice smiled.
He really is cute when he rambles
.

It took Anstice a minute to collect herself before she could start her story. “I met a man when I was twenty and immediately thought I was in love. He was so charming. He made me think that I was his world. We got married after a year of dating, and he immediately wanted children, so I got pregnant. We had a beautiful little girl. Kassandra Ariadne. She was my life.

“Shortly after she was born, he started becoming possessive and wouldn’t let me leave the house unless he was with me or knew where I was. I even had to quit my job that I loved. Which I would have for Kassie, anyway. When Kassandra was about a year and a half old, I took her to the zoo, and we got home a little late. He was there waiting for me. That was the first night I realized how dangerous he was. He waited until after I had cooked dinner and put Kassandra to bed, and then he beat me so bad that he ended up having to take me to the emergency room.

“I had several broken ribs, a fractured arm, and lots of bruises. He told the ER doctors that I had tripped and fallen down the stairs. He told me that if I told them the truth, he would take Kassandra and I would never see her again. Of course I never told a soul the truth. I knew he would make good on his promise. So for six months I kept my mouth shut and did everything he said. The abuse went on, but I kept lying to everyone about the bruises.

“I had contacted a safe house and was all set up to take Kassandra and disappear, but somehow he found out. The night we were going to leave, he came home early. Kassandra was taking a nap. He started screaming at me, and the next thing I knew, he had a gun in his hand. He told me that he knew what I was planning on doing and that I was going to die for disobeying him. I tried to run up the stairs to get to Kassandra, but he shot me in the back on my way to the bedroom. I lost consciousness with him standing over me, laughing.

“I woke up sometime later with my dog,
Ajax
, standing over me, and the entire house was on fire. I tried to get to
Kassandra’s
bedroom, but it was full of flames.
Ajax
dragged me toward the window. It was screwed shut, and there was nothing near me to break it with. I had to use my body to break it. I barely made it out of the house when the fire department and ambulance arrived. I passed out on the front lawn. I woke up a few days later in the hospital. The doctors took the bullet out and saved it for evidence.”

She pulled the bullet fragment that was on her necklace out and looked down at it. She was in another time and place. She didn’t even notice the sobs coming from the males sitting beside her.

“The police came to see me to tell me that they had found the bodies of a man and a small child in the bedroom. Both had been shot before their bodies were burned beyond recognition. They identified my husband from old dental records, but since Kassandra was just two years old, she hadn’t had any X-rays done yet, so they had no way to prove it was her.”