Vampire Food 08: He Smelled Like Peach Pie (8 page)

The man strode toward her, his long sword shifting on his hip with the purposeful steps he took. Em tilted her eyes back further, knowing that he could be an enemy, but unable to do anything but stare at him as he stopped directly before her.

A voice behind her whispered, “Shanagar.” There was reverence in the tone, and her mind barely acknowledged it as belonging to Russell.

The man bowed before her, a graceful gesture that caught her completely by surprise. Dropping to one knee, he reached up and freed her hand from the fabric, kissing the back of it before he stood. He was tall, amazingly tall, possibly over seven-foot as she stared upward into his striking face. He had a scar across his left cheek as if it had long ago been sliced open, but it only served to make him more alluring. “Be thee Emerald the queen?”

How did he know her name? Em swallowed hard, trying to find her voice. “Yes.” The word came out like a child’s mortified chirp. “They call me Em. And you are?”

“My name was once Shanagar. I have been sealed away in the rock of these caves for many a year now. I have heard your name echoing in the walls of my prison. I knew you would surely be beautiful, as you are dearly revered by your subjects.”

Em wanted to tell him that they weren’t her subjects. She wanted to thank him for the compliment, but she was so smitten that she couldn’t think straight enough to get the words to her mouth. “Sealed away? Sealed away how?”

“Vidar. He wanted me dead, but I do not die easily. When he couldn’t kill me, he had me bound and placed in a small cave. He then had the entrance sealed so I could not escape.”

“How long ago?”

“I don’t really know. I slept in my darkness. What is the year?”

“2034.”

“Last I knew, it was 1769. I gather it has been almost three hundred years.”

He had been locked away for that long? “And you didn’t starve to death?”

“No. Many small creatures have given me their blood as the ages passed. I owe them my life.”

Em looked up and saw that hundreds, if not thousands of birds had filled the hole in the ceiling. They stood side-by-side and row-by-row as a living ceiling, none of them moving or making a sound. “The birds belong to you?”

“No. They belong to nature. I simply requested their aid and they gave it.”

He looked over her shoulder and frowned. “Stand, man. I no longer require any to bow before me.”

Em shrugged off the cloth and turned to see that Russell was just getting to his feet. He stood behind her with his head down, his eyes lowered. “Russell. You know him?”

“I know of him. He was once a great king and our kind thought him dead. If we had known, Shanagar, we would have surely come to your aid.”

“And you would surely have died. Your name is Russell?”

He still didn’t look upward. Em was stunned. She had never seen Russell stand in submission before anyone. “Yes, my lord. Russell Cane.”

“Turn your eyes up to me. I don’t expect your surrender.”

Russell gazed up slowly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

“I saw you save this woman. Are you her mate?”

“One of them. The other two are up in the rubble somewhere. I’m hoping that they are still alive.”

The words hit Em like a brick. She hadn’t even been thinking about Rory or Salt. They could be dying and she was standing in awe, having a chat with the king, king of what? Was he a shifter? He didn’t look like a shifter. Shifters didn’t have one green eye. Damn, he was beautiful. Em tried to pull herself back together. “We need to try and find them.”

Shanagar nodded and before Em even saw him turn around, he was standing on a remaining ledge of the upper level. He held his hand out to her and she ran toward him, leaping into his arms. Shanagar steadied her, a smile lighting his amazing maroon lips. His teeth were perfectly snowy white and looked almost like molded porcelain in his mouth. She really had to snap herself out of this state of wonder.

Forcing herself to move away from him, she headed in the direction of where their chambers had been. Em started to shift rocks aside to dig a path, but Shanagar stepped up beside her, his fists balled. A moment later he was shattering a way through the rock, shards of stone flying into the air as if a jackhammer was drilling out an entrance for her. Em followed close behind him, figuring that it was the safest place to avoid the debris.

They came to a slab of wood and Shanagar stopped. He pried the wood from its rocky tomb, and showed it to her.

“That was our door. I think the bedchamber should be right ahead. The bed was covered with a metal slab that was cloaked with sun-reflective fabric. I left Rory and Salt sleeping because I was restless and wanted to go for a walk. Russell must have followed me after I woke him up to get out of bed.” Tears suddenly formed in her eyes as she considered Rory and Salt. Could they have survived and if they did, why hadn’t they come out on their own?

Shanagar shifted a large bolder up over his head and threw it behind them, it made the floor shiver with the weight of it, but it seemed to weigh nothing to him. He then began to push the smaller stones to the side, obviously fearing to smash them and hit the wrong thing. He pulled out a medium-sized rock and then dropped it back in place, turning and throwing his arms around Em. He took her down to the ground, his body cloaking hers. She felt him move, a sharp stone digging into her back as he kicked out one of his legs. Em had no idea what he was doing, but she didn’t have the strength to push him off.

It seemed as if hours had passed, but it was probably only a few minutes and then he stood, pulling her up. “Forgive me, but the sun was coming through. We can look no further until darkness falls.”

His words were like a stake to her heart, Em felt as if she were going to faint. If the cloth was torn in any way, then Rory and Salt were trapped, burning alive under the sun. She turned running back to the drop-off and leaping to the floor. A moment later she had the cloak in her arms and was bolting back upward.

* * * *

She was as stubborn as she was beautiful, but Queen Emerald was also not thinking very clearly. He couldn’t say that he blamed her. He knew full well what it was like to be buried under tons of stone. He had tried to escape, but had only served to bloody his knuckles. Luckily for her, they had grown stronger and his skin had become more resilient over the years.

He watched as she took a running jump, and knew exactly what she intended to do. The cloth had protected her from the sun before, but it would only work again if she kept her body covered with it. That would be impossible if she was trying to dig.

He put out his arm, capturing her around the waist as she headed toward the stone that he had just covered the opening with.

“Stop! You will be burned alive and you will allow sunlight to flow into the caves. How many suffer below us who have barely begun to heal if they even can?” The carnage was bad, but it could be far worse. He had seen many battles and watched many people die during his lifetime. What surprised him was how little the caves had changed. The clothing was different, and the window that let the sun in was new, but basically everything else was the same.

Emerald was glaring at him. “How the fuck would you know? You’re not a vampire.”

“Yes, I am. I just have more tolerance to the sun because of my shifter blood. The sun burns me, but does not kill me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was a shifter, Emerald. I was a king in my time, an alpha as none before me. I was seduced by the female vampire who turned me, but some of my shifter blood remained and I became a half-breed. That is how I called to the birds and the animals that sacrificed their life for me. I can survive on blood or meat, they both give me substance to survive.”

She was obviously stunned. Of course, there was probably little or no reference written as to such a thing. Vampires believed that shifters couldn’t be turned and shifters believed the same thing. It was better off that way, because only a strong shifter such as himself had the ability to survive.

“I don’t care what you are, or who you were. Those two men are my mates and we can’t just leave them there.”

A gorilla lumbered up onto the strewn rock platform. He shifted back into Russell, his naked body stark in the dim light. Emerald hurried to him, gently touching the blood on Russell’s side. “You’re injured.”

“I know. I got hit with a shard of flying stone.”

She dropped to her knees, leaning and licking the wound. Either she had very healing saliva or she had just bitten her tongue. What a novel and erotic way to heal someone.

Russell obviously enjoyed it. He shivered, inhaling sharply as her blood began to heal him. “I will go outside and look from there. Hopefully I can find them and assess what condition they are in.” He pulled her to her feet. “What do you feel, Em?”

Shanagar was wondering the same thing. He was probably contemplating different subject matter, but her feelings were at the root of it. Emerald shrugged and Shanagar had to wonder if she had elevated mental abilities. There were seers in his village, and it was possible that they still existed.

“I don’t know.”

That was not an answer that a seer would give. She closed her eyes, and then shook her head in a slow, remorseful fashion. “I can’t touch Rory’s mind. I’m afraid, Russell. What if they’re dead?”

That was an interesting fact. She could speak to her mate with only her mind. Maybe she was a seer, just not the kind he had known in his past life.

“You would know, Em,” replied Russell.

“I’m not sure of that. My blood is too diluted.”

“You knew when Joel died.”

“I knew because his severed head was held before me. I didn’t feel him die.”

She had four mates and one of them was killed? What a busy woman this Queen Emerald was. Of course, that indicated that she would have no trouble filling in the gap in her life.

Russell grimaced and Em stroked his cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. Joel needed to die. I just don’t know about Rory or Salt.”

Russell had killed her fourth mate? That didn’t sound right. Maybe his assumption had been wrong.

Her face crumbled into tears, and Russell reached out to soothe her. The shifter obviously loved her. In his youth, he would have passed unfavorable judgment on the alpha shifter for such an unspeakable act. Of course, that view had been changed when he fell in love with a vampire himself.

Emerald accepted Russell’s embrace and then leaned back with a sniffle. “What do I do if they are dead? Everything is gone, Russell.”

“I’m still here.”

“I know. You saved my life.”

He swiped her face with his palms. “I’m not that noble. I couldn’t bear to have you die. I love you too much.”

Russell was trying to calm her with words, but Emerald’s placating smile failed miserably. “Please go see if you can find them. But be safe. I couldn’t bear to lose all three of you.”

What a proud, devoted woman she was. She was everything he had imagined her to be as he had listened for the sound of her voice. Hers was the first notably lovely voice that he had heard in his hundreds of years of seclusion. Her speech had given him insight into the current mode of conversation, and he had listened intently trying to decipher and then remember the new dialect. Now he was speaking it quite well, and knew that he had made a good impression on the woman who had been but imagination until this day. He had even had dragonflies in his stomach at the thought of someday meeting her.

How wonderful it was to be free, and she certainly wasn’t a disappointment.

As Russell headed away from her, he glanced over his shoulder. It was a look that told Shanagar that Russell knew exactly what he was thinking. Shanagar was craving a mate and the queen was also craving him. She was trying to mask her interest, but Russell had seen through it just as clearly as Shanagar had.

So many of the vampires that had been awake in the common area were burned. Some had found shelter under tables or furniture, but none had been spared completely. Em didn’t have enough blood in her body to heal them all and she was encouraging any human she came across to donate what they could. She was mainly looking for Mia, although her heart ached with each each body she passed.

Shanagar walked beside her. He had stated that he couldn’t help anyone because of his altered blood, and she had no reason not to believe him. As they neared the outer wall, Em had wonder if maybe Mia was in her chamber, safe and sleeping as she should be. “Can you stay here and wait for Russell? I need to go check on Mia.”

“That is who you are searching for?”

“Yes. It’s kind of a long story, but she’s like my daughter.”

“I will stay. Please be careful. You don’t know if any who set the explosion are still around.”

He had a good point. She had seen no weres and very few shifters among the injured. “I will. I wish my sword hadn’t been on the wall by the bed.”

He drew his sword and reverently handed it to her. “Do you have skill with the steel?”

Em took the blade. It was a bit heavier than she was used to, but the craftsmanship was magnificent. “Yes, I do. Thank you. Why did Vidar bury you with your sword?”

“He gave me a mercy if I wanted to behead myself.”

“How sweet of him.” It sounded just like the cocky son of a bitch.

Shanagar leered at her, his nostrils flaring in confusion. “I don’t understand your words.”

“It was sarcasm. I hate Vidar, even though he is dead. Long story that I don’t have time to tell right now. I’ll be back as quickly as possible.” With his sword in hand, Em raced around the pieces of stone that had landed in the hallway. She strode down to Mia’s chamber, pushing open the door. Mia lay upon her bed, the sheets around her covered with her dark pink life fluid. Em ran to her, falling to her knees on the mattress. She rolled Mia over and cried out in grief. Mia had been filleted, her head hanging on by only her spine.

“Oh god, Mia. Who would do this to you? I will find them and I will make them suffer for your death.” She stroked the girl’s cheek and was stunned to hear feel her skin twitch. Mia was still alive. Em had no idea what to do. How was it possible that she wasn’t dead? She looked more closely at Mia’s neck and saw that she had been mistaken. The skin that was still attached was holding onto its blood like a sponge to protect her brain. Em stood, racing back out into the hall. “Shanagar!” she screamed without waiting until she reached the end of the hall. He flashed to her and Em turned, flying back to Mia’s room with him on her heels. He stood looking down at Mia’s body. He must be thinking the same that Em had, that Mia was dead, because he dragged Em into his arms.