The Brethren Of Tavish [Vampire Coven Book 1] (12 page)

Mercy was playing with his chest hairs. “Do you
think I’m cruel? Do you think I would hurt women?”

“No, never, you have
not been cruel to me.
The women I have seen look happy not afraid. Kia has been
here only a month and told me she is happier here than she was with her own
family. She told me Perrin has grown and gained weight and she is certain it’s
because of Ryker. Kia says she loves Ryker, too. The old man I talked of was
said to be terrified. He was all broken up inside, beaten. There was no way he
could ever have escaped from here to go back to the polar caps. It would be
much too far. I believe you when you say it wasn’t you. What was that other
vampire’s name again?”

Tavish kissed her forehead regaling in the fact
she was so smart. “There is a vampire, Remo, who is almost as old as I am. He
is the one who killed your family. He may have spotted Ursus and followed her.
It’s why the old man may have thought she was helping another.”

“I like Ursus,” Mercy said and yawned. “I like
your vampire men too.”

“I think tomorrow I will introduce you to a few
other vampires you need to meet and stay away from,” Tavish said.

“Stay away from, why?”

“You’ll see. But like Perrin and the others you
need to be taught your boundaries.”

Tavish kissed her goodnight. Mercy cuddled into
the safety of his arms.

Chapter 6

Mercy plastered herself to Tavish’s side.
Earlier that morning, Tavish had walked her to a huge fence. He told her it surrounded
his coven. He explained to her the area it stretched around was massive. Beyond
were three more covens Tavish told her he allowed to reside in his territory.
Each was defined by the large fence. Each was patrolled by vampires of Tavish’s
choice. All swore fealty to him. Each coven was allowed twelve vampires and no
more—all were male. No one was allowed to be turned without his authority.
Tavish was overseer of the humans in each coven. The other vampires treated
their humans the way Tavish did. It was law. The fence was twenty feet high, a
foot thick and made of a thick silver substance that looked harder than solid
ice. Mercy had no idea how Perrin had ever gotten around this.

Before her stood what Tavish called a
silverback gorilla. She was beautiful—and enormous. The creature was Mercy’s
height and about six hundred pounds. To Mercy, she looked like a hybrid furry
human. The gorilla was fascinating and seemed to find Mercy equally
fascinating.

“Lucile, this is my little human cub, and she
is not to be harmed,” Tavish was saying.

Lucile’s eyes glowed bright white. Long yellow
fangs hung almost to her chin. Mercy wanted to run. For a second she looked up
at Tavish and swallowed hard when she noted his glowing eyes. Mercy inched
farther behind him. Next, Tavish turned to her. His eyes went back to pale
blue.

“You must never leave the safety of the walls,
little cub,” he lectured. “Lucile has a fondness for human females and
children; my other Anivamps do not always hold them in the same regard.”

“Others?”
Mercy whispered. There
were more?

Mercy almost screamed when a massive creature
Tavish said was a white tiger emerged from the foliage. Lucile grunted and
climbed a tree, but she didn’t move away.

“This is Druid,” Tavish said.

The tiger roared at them, exposing its
formidable teeth and Tavish hissed. Both of their large fangs looked menacing.
The tiger moved off, growling deep within his throat. Mercy thought she might
wet herself. Next, a white wolf appeared. Mercy had seen the pelt of an animal
like this before. It was more beautiful alive than dead, but a great deal more
ominous. The wolf, also white-eyed, dropped his head and snarled. Fangs hung
past his chin. Tavish snarled louder. Mercy was shaking so badly she knew if
Tavish didn’t have his arm wrapped around her, she would have fallen. Tavish
called the wolf Lovel. The next creature to appear Tavish called a wild boar
and told her its name was Rhino.

Once Mercy had seen his Anivamps, she swore she
would never run. In fact, she repeated it over and over until Tavish shushed
her. Tavish looked convinced. He flew back over the wall with her. Mercy clung
to him; she buried her face into his chest. She had a terrible thought and
began sobbing. Tavish cupped her chin and forced her to look at him.

“What is it?” he asked. “They have been ordered
not to harm you, little cub.”

“When my time comes don’t let them, Tavish; oh
don’t let them—”

“I would never feed any live, loyal servant of
mine to those creatures,” he said.

His words made her shiver. Now she understood
why everyone obeyed so well. Just the thought of being turned over to these
creatures was terrifying. Mercy knew each individual had been introduced to
Tavish’s monsters. She wondered how many nightmares she would suffer from.

“The Anivamps were created three hundred years
ago when I first started to build my utopia. I knew the ice age was inevitable.
All of the signs were there.” Tavish held her hand as they walked along the
fence perimeter.

“How did you know?”

“I was born near the end of the last ice age.
Vast, open heated plains, floods.
Massive
icebergs.
Severe weather extremes.
Climate changes.
Extinction of some animals, others that
thrived, and some that adapted. It was unavoidable. Each solar storm worsening
was a sure sign in the early twenty-first century. Throughout the years, humans
had learned from the last one to adapt. This one, the humans were too
‘advanced’ to learn to adapt. They saw the signs but because of too many
scientific speculations, the world went on its merry way. Who was right?
More doomsday sayers?

“It’s hard to move forward when you’re thrust
back repeatedly. You’re instinct is to fight for the familiar. It’s easier to
be primitive man and creep along when there haven’t been such high standards of
living to compare to. When I was born, change in humans was fought tooth and
nail. New ideas were met with suspicion and fear. If someone had strange ways,
they were killed or cast out. Humans were susceptible to mass hysteria. I’ve
known of vampires who couldn’t adapt and have gone crazy with the inability to
change.

“I’ll tell you about the Salem witch trials
sometime. Humans are still highly susceptible to mass hysteria. You were born under
it.
Makes me wonder who the evolved one in man’s evolution actually
was.
Primitive man, who went on regardless but slowly, or or modern day
man, who chooses not to continue.

“This took time to build,” Tavish said with a
hand sweep of the vast area. “I began collecting humans long before the actual
ice age struck. It was easy enough. A few went missing during a tornado in one
country, a few in a tsunami in another.
Earthquake in yet
another area, avalanches and hurricanes.
Even sunken
ships.
They were presumed dead. I gave them life.”

Mercy gasped. He must be thousands and
thousands of years old. The idea made her head spin. “You must know
everything,” she whispered in awe.

Tavish’s look was tender. “You would be
surprised what I still have yet to learn, little cub. As the world changes,
ideas change, new ones are formed. My father and I flew around the world just
so he could show me people can’t fall off if they travel too far.”

Mercy was confused.
“Your
father?
But you said vampires can’t have children.”

“My father chose to have a child. He loved my
mother and asked her to breed with a man of his choice; she loved my father
very much and was eager. When I was born, my father declared me his son to his
coven. I was raised as his son. My mother was turned as her reward. I was
turned at twenty-eight. It was one of the happiest days of my life.”

“What happened to your real father?”

“My vampire father was my real father. Once he
turned me I was his by blood. More of Galf’s blood runs through my veins than
the sperm donor’s. When a vampire bites a human our fluids mix. We take them
inside of us. We learn who they are, what they are. I have no idea what became
of the human man who mated with my mother. She was an amazing woman.”

“What happened to your family?”

“They were murdered.”

“Like mine,” Mercy said feeling sympathy for
the both of them.

“My father would never have killed my mother. He
sacrificed his life for me,” Tavish snarled. “Never compare your murdering
bastard father to mine.”

Mercy was taken aback at his fury towards her.
“He was terrified of his family facing the unknown. My father thought he was
saving her.”

“By killing her?” he snapped. “Do you
understand how stupid that sounds?”

“I’m not stupid. It was the way I was raised;
it was the way my father was raised. He loved us; his way was just different
than yours,” Mercy whispered, hurt and confused, and she turned to walk away
from him.

Tavish gripped her arm and spun her around. He
pulled her to his chest. “I’m sorry, little cub. It’s just that I haven’t
spoken about my family in over a century and never with a human.”

“I know why you call me, little cub,” Mercy
said, feeling sad.

“I already told you before. It’s because when I
found you—”

“No, it’s because if you say my name, you make
me real. I won’t be an object if I have a name. Like Perrin. She was given no
name so she could be ignored, ostracized. You can’t ignore me and have no
intention of doing so, so you do what’s second best and give me a name that’s
not real. I can be an object to you but nothing more.”

“It’s not that. I have no trouble saying
Perrin’s name or Kia’s.”

Mercy tilted her head. He looked embarrassed.
“Then what?
Is there something about my name you don’t like?
You said it suited me.”

“I have only twice in thousands of years spoken
your name out loud. Both were on the day I brought you home.”

“Mercy?” she thought about it for a second. She
started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re afraid to say ‘mercy.’”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Then say my name.” Her arms crossed over her
chest.

Tavish scowled. “What’s wrong with an
endearment?”

“Little cub is an endearment?”

“Yes.” He sounded petulant.

“Saying my name won’t make you weak. It’s just
a name.”

“It’s more than that to me when I was never
shown any.”

Mercy placed her hand on his arm in
understanding, now feeling contrite. Immediately, she remembered his family was
murdered. How hard it must have been with no home. At least she had him.
And for his loss to happen so long ago.
How many vampires
walked the earth then?
Certainly not many more than humans.

“It’s all right if you call me little cub.
You’ve shown me a great deal of mercy.”

“I have a great deal more to show you.”

Mercy shuddered.
“More
Anivamps?”

“No,” he said and chuckled. “You were born a
child of the ice. Come and see more of my world and tell me if you like it.”

“I like what I’ve seen so far. Even your
hybrids are interesting.
Scary, but interesting.”

Tavish circled his arm around her waist.
Mercy’s breath caught as they took to the pale blue sky. The air was sweet when
void of ice cold. It was exhilarating, magical. A bird’s eye view of the entire
compound was shown to her. People waved from beneath them. Children laughed and
ran after them. Mercy had never had a more special day.

From the air, she could see everything for
miles. She could see the people below, including the irritating woman named Tanya
who was gazing up at them. She looked furious. Mercy didn’t care, the woman was
boorish. Soon enough, they were away from her and Mercy saw large pools of
water. She begged Tavish to show them to her.

Tavish landed by one. The water was a beautiful
green and blue. Mercy stuck her foot in. It was warm. She squealed when Tavish
raced past her
naked,
and dived head first into the
water, making it ripple. He came up splashing her. Mercy laughed.

“Join me,” Tavish said. He was standing a few
feet from her.

“In there?”

“Swim with me.”

“What’s swim?”

Tavish grinned and began rising from the water.
“I’ll teach you, little cub. I’ll teach you to move through the water like a
seal.”

“But there is danger in the water.”

“No danger. Everything brought in here I
control. Nothing will harm you.”

Tavish took her hand; he removed her teddy and
led her into the water until she was submerged to her neck. Mercy was afraid
but excited. When she stepped deeper she floundered when the bottom was
suddenly gone. She went under and came up spluttering. Tavish pulled her to his
chest. He kissed her.