White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) (26 page)

Ash smiled sadly and to everyone’s, especially Tristan’s, amazement, she lifted onto tiptoe and kissed him. Days ago Wren busted his lip open, Desmond made it worse, but it had a nice thick scab on it now. Still, it was a dangerous game, one that could mean the end of his humanity if the thinnest drop of Ash’s vampiric enzymes found its way into his system. Even knowing what he might be giving up, he submitted to raw need and scooped her up with an arm around her waist, that knife still in his grip, and his other hand grabbing her head.

The entire group reacted, he could feel it light up his blood. Excitement, surprise, disgust, confusion, they all felt it on some level. And much to his delight, he felt Ash smile before she deepened their forbidden kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth. He knew the show was for the others as much as for their own comfort. They loved each other, the Uruwashi and the vampire, and they wouldn’t hide it from anyone. Maybe it was reckless, but it was done now.

When they parted, Tristan whispered across her lips, “My rashness is rubbing off on you.”

She only smiled before pulling away.

“Dear boy,” Innokentiy said, taking a step forward. He had everyone’s attention now as the question of his death, which everyone believed so deeply in, was on their minds. Yukihime, out of all of them, seemed the most troubled by the Viking’s appearance. Tristan didn’t doubt she might have known him before his faked suicide, especially since he was an ancestor to her old lover.

“There is no prison that can hold our kind, it just doesn’t exist. And I’ve known Xuejiao for a long time, there’s nothing you, Ash, or even the mighty gods themselves can do to stop her. Not alone. This, this… mob, it’s the only way. Unfortunate but true. And just as her death is the only possible outcome and her acceptance palatable, she must also fight it. It is only natural.”

“Well spoken,” Xuejiao said reverently with a nod.

Innokentiy returned her nod but looked deeply saddened.

Feeling the panic rise again, Tristan turned to Ash. Surely, of anyone, she understood him, his feelings. Even if they had been bombarded over the past few days and his subconscious anxieties were becoming clearer to him. His morals were at risk, exposed for all the world to sway. So many things were in question but the only real question he needed to resolve right then was if it was okay to kill a vampire for simply being a vampire. Because no matter what they’d done, a vampire was a person. Just like Innokentiy said, there was no prison to hold them but did that mean that death was the only answer for their misbehavior?

“There has to be another way.”

Ash bowed her head, whispering, “I’m sorry.”

Tristan looked to Innokentiy again, and seeing his resolve to do what must be done, he looked to an unlikely ally. Yukihime seemed troubled but made her decision clear with her adverted gaze. Desmond too. Angry and aggravated, Tristan made a noise low in his throat.

“Cowards,” he whispered, shaking.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath, waiting to see what this strange creature had to say next. After a moment of gathering himself, Tristan let out a long sigh.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly to Ash, “But I just can’t—I can’t let you do this to her.” He shifted smoothly into a fighting stance with his stolen kitchen knife brandished. His knee screamed against the position, his head throbbed. “I won’t let you slaughter her like, like an animal.”

Ash chuckled sadly, shaking her head. She moved to stand by her lover’s side and smiled at the surprise on his face. “No.
We
.” She smiled up at him. “We’re a team, no matter what. Always.”

XUEJIAO looked smug as she lifted her chin, smirking triumphantly at the crowd.

“Ash,” Tristan whispered. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Of course I do. Besides, you are right. I don’t know how, but there must be a better way. There is no humanity in a mob extermination like this and I want to believe our kind still remains human at heart. You will not stand alone because you are right. You will not stand alone because I love you.”

The crowd was silent and tense until someone made a disgusted hiss and then all hell broke loose. Most of the group went for Xuejiao, but more than a few were headed straight for Tristan. He hesitated, for just a moment and got a shoulder to the gut for it.

Ash didn’t have to apologize for the hit because he realized in the blur of vampire and snow that he’d almost gotten himself chomped on by one of the ancient strangers. He came to laid out flat in the snow nearly ten yards away and still gasping for a clean breath. She might have broken a few ribs and he was grateful for it.

“Tristan!” Ash snapped and he moved without even thinking, as if he knew exactly what was coming. He rolled away in time to miss a fist encased in earth and again when a second vampire tried to scoop him up.

They were old enough that he shouldn’t have gotten the better of them but he could tell by the look on each of their faces, he’d surprised them. They’d underestimated him.

He was just wobbling to his feet, almost having found his breath finally, when the snow rippled and he went down again. Snow cascaded over his face, filled his mouth and sinuses. He didn’t need the burn of a dozen seikonō in his blood to know that that’s exactly what was sizzling its way down his throat. He didn’t know who was trying to suffocate him, only that he could taste their malice in the seikonō.

Despite not being able to breathe, Tristan felt distinctly composed. Maybe it was because in the midst of vampire powers surging through him, he felt Ash nearby and trusted her to step in before it was too late. He could hear her, somewhere off to the side, fighting with all she had. Of all the flavors of seikonō swirling in him it was hers that was the strongest, like a light in the dark of all the others. She almost had a taste. God, she was so strong; she stood up to the elders of her kind on nearly equal ground.

Another presence was suddenly on him and he instinctually fought before he recognized it. He forced himself to stop thrashing and let the man help him, praying that the trust was justly placed. Ice bit into his veins as Desmond forced his own seikonō onto Tristan, chasing out the invader. Tristan felt as if Desmond were physically inside him, filling his body and his mind.

Desmond’s presence swelled, leaking into every fiber of Tristan’s body. His entire body prickled with sharp energy but just as the pain of it was almost too much, it subsided. And then he could breathe and see again.

Desmond was looking at him, but not with the stupid ass proud grin he was expecting but a deep frown and something that might have been worry in his bright green eyes. Tristan suspected he was lucky to be alive in that moment.

He opened his mouth to frankly thank Desmond when a pair of icy hands grabbed him, jerking him back. He latched onto the wrists of the one holding him and dug his nails in. He knew that if a vampire didn’t want to let go, there was no getting away, but he could make them pay for it. They felt pain too.

Sure enough, he felt skin break under his nails and the coldness of the vampire’s blood. He smiled to himself because he knew that coldness was to his advantage. He also knew just how strong this one was, he was the same vampire who’d just tried to asphyxiate Tristan, going for a more direct approach now. Despite the strength of the seikonō Tristan felt invading him, the vampire was young. Not quite a full Master yet, just a blundering transmute, probably one of the older one’s scions.

“Desmond!” he croaked out and the vampire seemed to come to himself again and darted for them. Behind Desmond, Tristan could see Ash engaged in a large group. She was outnumbered by five, but somehow managed to keep them at bay, keep them from ganging up on Tristan. However she was doing it, he hoped it would last long enough for him and Desmond to take care of this one before they could join her.

Desmond. Jesus. He was actually relying on the guy. Boggled the mind.

The big vampire swooped in, deftly diving over Tristan and taking down the guy behind him. By the time Tristan scrambled to his feet, Desmond had the fellow House of Water attacker’s neck in his big meaty hands.

Tristan dove for the vampire, clocking him in the jaw before sending a second fist into his middle, making him double over. He motioned with a nod for Desmond to move the vamp and when the big guy slammed the offender down into the snow, Tristan jumped on top of him, pinning his arms.

The young almost-Master blinked up at him with wide amber eyes. And a memory slammed into Tristan, looking down at Lucien like this and that taste, god, what was that?

Shaken, Tristan croaked out his words. “Stand down and I won’t cut open your throat.”
With my nasty butter knife!
Echoed in his thoughts but he managed to bite his tongue.

“You think that will kill me?”

Tristan shrugged, trying to regain his confidence, pushing on the kitchen knife to draw a line of blood. “Only one way to find out.”

The vampire looked startled for a moment before confidence filled his expression. “But you don’t like to kill, yes? You think being humane with non-humans is judicious? It’s folly.”

Tristan didn’t even have to think about his answer, speaking from his heart. “You were human once. A part of you still is. You may be stronger, smarter and everything better than humans—than me. But you deserve the same fair chance that the rest of us have to make your case.”

The vampire smiled, showing his fangs. “There is no law, no fair when it comes to the food chain. And I’m number one. Vampire is the top of the food chain.”

A dark smile slowly came over Tristan, his eyes lowering to half-lidded, cold and cynical. He felt empty, disconnected. And right. “No, I am.”

At Tristan’s sudden show of confidence, the vampire wavered, his smile slipping. “Wh—what?”

“Haven’t you heard, I’m Uruwashi and last I checked that makes
me
the top of the fucking food chain.”

Over him Desmond made a noise but he couldn’t look away from the one he had pinned. Alone, he was no match for this one but something in the vampire’s eyes said he knew more than folktales about the Uruwashi. Tristan wasn’t sure how he knew, only that it was a certainty, This almost-Master vampire had seen the brutality of the Uruwashi in an ancient’s blood, no doubt.

“How astute,” the one under him said and Tristan flinched at the wrongness of it. Almost as if…

“Yes,” the vampire said again in that hollow tone that almost had a feminine quality to it. “Come to me and I will spare your…
friend
.”

Tristan’s head jerked up, looking around. There was Ash, still in the angry Uruwashi-seeking crowd, considerably smaller now as three of them lay unmoving in snow stained red. Yukihime, Balian and Katrina had joined her but he could tell she was annoyed by their interference. Point was, she was fine.

Xuejiao was putting on a lighting/ice show for half a dozen other vampires, including the one she’d called Tegwen, Audric and Innokentiy. The old Viking looked like he was enjoying himself.

At least someone was.

Then there, almost to the tree line all the way on the other side of the field were two figures. He could make out that the smaller of the two as a woman, but more than that was lost to the distance between them. On the ground before her, on his knees was a man that even from this far away, was no doubt, Wren. She lifted a hand and beckoned to Tristan.

“Shit,” he hissed.

“Go on,” the vampire on the ground said. “This one will stay here and entertain your little helper.”

In his utter shock, Tristan almost laughed at the “little” part, a word that in no way applied to Desmond. Slowly, he sat up, loosening his hold on the vampire. When he was sure that the man really wasn’t going to try to kill him again, Tristan got up, scrambling back.

“Whut in the bloody hell do yew think yur doing, mate?” Desmond bit out, enough seikonō in his words that Tristan shuddered.

Tristan looked at him, this man he hated but was learning to rely on, this vampire who should have killed him ages ago and his mind went empty. What could he say that would appease Desmond’s sense of duty? Did he care one way or the other about his own scion? Would that make a difference to Desmond?

“I told you before, I’m not your mate. We’re not friends.”

Desmond looked startled for a moment. And that was long enough. Before he could recover, the vampire sprung to his feet, dusting up a cloud of snow. Tristan gasped, stumbling back, nearly re-twisting his bum knee. He caught Desmond’s eyes, wide and surprised through the haze and then the vampire was on the big Scotsman.

Tristan stood frozen for a moment, wondering if this was really okay and then he remembered Wren. Desmond was a Master and stronger than he showed. Wren was just a vanilla. He might as well have been a human. Maybe that’s what drew Tristan to the vampire.

Tristan’s decision was easy then and he turned, running away from the fray. By the time he crossed the field, his knee was killing him and his chest hurt from gulping down cold air. He felt out of shape but the truth had more to do with his time with Xuejiao. The tiny vampire had nearly gotten the best of him.

Nearly
.

He stopped a few yards back to catch his breath and take stock. There was no one else to interfere, he knew it with a certainty that was his Uruwashi blood. The fact was that he was so far from the others that the mix of vampire energies that’d been a swirling chaos inside him were gone. All he felt now was this new Master, and Wren but to a much lesser extent. It was almost a relief but then how could he relax with that weight pressing down on his soul? Dammit, she was old. Too old.

And he thought Innokentiy and Xuejiao felt heavy.

Shit
.

She was older than them both, combined, and she wanted Tristan to know it.

“Astute for such a young man.”

Frowning, he nodded. Despite his wall, she could read his thoughts. There was no hiding from one so old. “Tristan. Uruwashi.”

She looked startled as much as her alabaster smooth complexion would afford her. Of all the vampire Tristan had seen, including those here tonight, she was by far the ghostliest. She looked like a moving statue and it freaked Tristan the fuck out so much so that he could barely contain himself. He didn’t care if she was in his mind now, rooting around, he just didn’t want her to touch him.

Her mouth twitched in an almost there smile. “You know, you shouldn’t go around introducing yourself properly. There’s some who will take offense to the word Uruwashi.”

“Only the old ones,” he muttered and then let out a breath, forcing himself to calm down. “Well, I was told I was rude,” He glanced at Wren, smiling faintly but Wren wouldn’t look at him. “So I thought I’d be polite for once, see how it works out for me.”

Her smile finally took shape and it made her look more alive. But, no, not really. She was still creepy as fuck. “And, how fares it thus far?”

He shrugged to look cool despite the pounding in his ears. He could barely hear her over his own pulse. “We’re still talking. In fact…” He made a bold move and took a single step towards her. Wren must have moved because Tristan was suddenly looking at him and the vampire made the smallest of gestures that screamed warning to Tristan. Wren was telling him to run.

He swallowed back a lump and said, “I’m pretty sure you called me over here.”

“Yes,” she answered plainly.

After a moment of silence with only the far off cries of vampires beating each other up, Tristan cleared his throat. “It’s quiet… out here.”

“Less bickering.”

“Yeah,” he snorted, feeling at ease suddenly, “what was that all about back there?”

“Our kind… we don’t usually get along. Especially the ancients and kodaijin. Eventually, we all go into hiding, make ourselves hermits. It’s why everyone thinks the kodaijin are all dead. But the truth is that we just can’t stand the noise of the others any longer.”

“So… there’s more of you?”

She considered him a few seconds and then nodded, pulling Wren closer. “Many. But more sleep than roam.”

Tristan looked to Wren again, taking in his look of warning behind the veil of hair and sighed. “I know you didn’t call me out here just to give me ancient vampire secrets and shoot the shit, so what’da want?”

She was quiet for a moment before she laughed. Again, the human behind the monster shone through and it put Tristan at ease. He was starting to suspect she was doing more, working her vampiric body language. If she were as old as Tristan suspected then who knew what she could do, and Tristan couldn’t even guess. For as much time as he spent with Xuejiao, she really didn’t show him much of anything.

“We don’t like to show off, generally.”

Tristan rubbed his forehead. “Losing my patience here, lady.”