A Destined Death (34 page)

Draven looked around the dungeon that had been his home since he was first dragged to Paris. The stone walls and jail cell feel came standard, although this one had a sunroof that could be opened on a sunny day. The ashes of those who’d come before him lingered at his feet. Nineteen years ago, he’d stood in this very room, asking his good friend for a favor. He’d chosen this fate if he failed to save Elizabeth again. However, Elizabeth still lived, and his friend was early.

Armando hung beside him, out cold from the metal insert in his stomach. The device spread out and stabbed through his organs to keep him from regenerating. Draven’s insert was the same, but his heart already felt pierced by the admission Elizabeth had made: Lissa had let herself die rather than remain with him.

Held against the wall by the restraints on his wrists, he stood and faced each one of her past lives.

Alicia had been the love of his life. He’d dated a few girls before her but once he’d seen her and felt her warmth, it was all over for him. She had a way of brightening every day and filling the earth with her own light. When she’d died so suddenly in the earthquake, he felt ripped apart inside, angry and miserable at himself for living on without her. Then one day, he found hope when he learned about reincarnation from an ancient in Rome. The crazy vampire had a theory that had been worth investigating.

She’d become Krista when he caught up with her soul next. She was beautiful and delicate but because he hadn’t followed Alicia in death, her soul remained tortured. She’d said she heard evil voices, and even though she felt clear when he was around, she feared she would succumb to the darkness when she turned. At the time, he’d been so happy to be reunited with her that he didn’t want to justify those fears. Then he’d found her dead without any explanation. It helped to hear Elizabeth’s account of that night, and he decided to finally accept what had happened with Krista.

Melissa, her next soul, only lived to the fragile age of five. He stayed with her every night after she got sick, and she died in his arms from pneumonia. Nothing had ever been as hard as watching her die. He thought about turning her just to keep her with him but he couldn’t bear to do that to a child. He’d slept for a year after her death.

Then Lissa came along. Beautiful and full of life, she’d known who and what he was instinctively. Things were so easy with her, and after she proved that she could see the future, he never gave a second thought to spending forever with her. He knew she would be able to see danger in advance and avoid it. He never thought he’d lose her. That was why he threw such an elaborate party for her on her twentieth birthday, why he’d stayed at the mansion to make sure every detail was perfect. She said she’d be fine.

Elizabeth’s words still echoed through him.
“She knew she was going to die so she sent me a message.” 

“I didn’t want to hurt you but you have to believe that she…that I, did it for you. She saw a way to save you in this lifetime, and she knew her death was meant to be, otherwise she wouldn’t have seen us together.”

He was glad the metal pierced his chest, glad it dulled the pain he felt there. He sucked enough air into his punctured lungs to let out a sigh. She sacrificed herself to save him. She died because of him. The thought felt worse than if they’d have opened up the sunroof.

He didn’t know if he could accept it. They’d been perfect together and marvelously happy. He tried to walk away from the thought like he always did but the chains on his wrists prevented it. Truth be told, he knew she wasn’t happy. She was busy and distracted most of the time and chose to be alone without giving a reason. Her secrecy and her demanding that he not read her mind suddenly made sense in an all too real reality.

She didn’t want him to know she was planning for her death because she knew he would try to stop her.

“Meant to be,” he muttered with a sharp jerk upward. A bolt of pain surged through his chest, and he enjoyed the distraction it offered.

The only thing meant to be was for their souls to reunite for all of eternity. Why did Lissa think that dying willfully would improve anything? They could have been together twenty years sooner but she’d chosen…wrong! She’d chosen so wrong!

Still, he couldn’t deny what he felt for Elizabeth now. She’d been impossible since day one but everything about her left him wanting more––her strong will, her warmth and understanding, the way she felt in his arms. He wanted her to live and fulfill as many of her dreams as possible before he turned her even though the wait wasn’t easy. He’d been in her room every night to watch her sleep. He followed her on every rainy day and watched carefully for fate’s hand to drop. Luckily, it hadn’t.

After eighteen years of waiting for her, she made him wait two more while she finished college. Her drive was comparable to Lissa’s but her heartbeat never failed to rise in his presence. She never gave up on him either. Even when those bastards hauled him away, and he begged her to stay safe, she bravely came to Paris to find him. The act was reckless and dangerous, and yet, he’d never felt more in love.

After what he’d been through with Elizabeth, their bond was stronger than it had ever been. The past could not be changed, he decided, but their future was before them. He vowed to do everything he could to honor Lissa’s sacrifice. Perhaps it was meant to be after all.

Draven pulled himself out of his thoughts when a vampire appeared before him. He wore a brown karate outfit, comfortable and easy to move in though he stood perfectly still. His dark clothing and russet eyes contrasted greatly with his pale, white face. 

“Good evening, Draven,” he said with a bow that made his coffee hair fall forward onto his shoulder. “My name is Alexander. I am one of the three Elders, I am also the one who can see what will be.”

“You brought me here?” Draven questioned warily.

“No, but when I saw that you were being held in France, I thought I’d drop by and say hello.” He clasped his hands together in front of his chest. “In fact, I pled your case for you and your brother after that nasty little incident here.

“You revealed yourselves to humans and then disappeared, leaving us to clean up your mess. As a first offense, you were forgiven because, as I told them, you were protecting Coty,” he said with a nod. “He will become a vampire in the future. I have seen it, therefore we accept him as one of our own.”

“Thank you for that,” Draven said. He glanced over to see Armando still out cold.

“Oh, it was my pleasure,” Alexander continued. “You’ve been quite an inspiration to me over the years. You see, I was in love once too, just as you have been since the 1940’s, but I was a fool. I didn’t have the patience to wait for her to accept me as you do. I turned her the moment I found her in her new life, and she hated me for that. She hated what she’d become, and one day she dressed up in her Sunday best and just walked out into the sunlight.” After making a walking movement with his fingers, his gaze fell to the floor.

Draven bit down on the images of Elizabeth doing the same. “What do you want?” he asked out of irritation.

“I told you, a friendly visit,” he said with a shrug. “I pled Elizabeth’s case as well, you know.”

He tensed at the words. “What do you mean?”

“On June 16
^th
of this year, she was involved in the slaughter of eight hundred vampires. She was being judged for crimes against our race.”

Draven closed his eyes. “And the verdict?”

“Innocent, of course,” Alexander said seriously. “Someone planted The Cross of Anguish on her. Can you imagine? That artifact attracts evil vampire by the droves. It was clearly a case of self-defense.”

Another pain shot through Draven’s heart when he recalled telling her that the necklace might have slowed them down. Elizabeth still had the necklace, and she was probably wearing it right now for protection because of what he’d said. “Who would do that?” he moaned.

“Who indeed,” the Elder said calmly. “Perhaps fate isn’t as deadly to her as you once thought.”

“What are you saying? Tell me who did it.”

Alexander moved to stand directly in front of Draven and looked him squarely in the eyes. “I cannot interfere.”

Certain that he wouldn’t receive an answer, Draven nodded calmly. “Could you answer one question for me?” he asked, letting the corner of his mouth turn up.

“What is that?”

“Will you be at my wedding?”

Alexander chuckled and then raised his eyebrows. “In other words, will there be a wedding?”

Draven nodded once.

“No,” Alexander said flatly. He waited for Draven’s face to fall before he smiled. “I cannot answer that.”

When Alexander disappeared, Draven banged his head against the wall. He felt helpless, trapped and locked in a cage while Elizabeth was in more danger than he had ever imagined. If someone had been purposely killing her during all of her lifetimes, he needed to be with her. And if she still wore that necklace, he needed to protect her!

Before he could try to contact her again, Blade, one of the vampire bounty hunters, entered the room and winked. He was blond; the other two had dark and red hair, called Remi and Josh, respectively. They were the only vampire bounty hunters in existence, and if a vampire was wanted, they were all that was needed. The inserts on their debilitating weaponry kept vampires too weak to even break the metal shackles on the wall.

Blade’s wink was the most excruciating of his torture techniques since he claimed to be the one who’d bitten Elizabeth when he told the story.

Growling, Draven glared back.

“Tell me, Draven, did she taste that sweet when she was a virgin? I bet she did. It sure is too bad that you’re stuck in here, and she’s out there helpless. She’s in France, you know. I, on the other hand, have the day off,” he taunted, seeming to enjoy the way the growling increased. “I’m free to go and find her and do whatever I please…”

With a burst of anger, Draven yanked his right arm free, breaking the chain. He pushed the button on the insert, and the metal spreading inside of him retracted. With another yank, he pulled the metal rod out of his stomach, and his insides splattered around the room. He immediately turned it on Blade.

Blade smiled and clapped slowly. “Very impressive.” He winked again before he closed and locked the door behind him.

The gruesome hole in his stomach didn’t heal right away but he got enough strength to pull his other arm free and release Armando. Then he fell onto the floor and slept until his body regenerated fully.

“Nice work,” Armando said when he awoke. He removed his blood-stained shirt and used it to wipe the excess blood off his repaired stomach wound. “Are they all right? Is Tina badly shaken?”

Draven sat up but remained in his spot on the stone floor. “I’m sure she’s wonderful. You spent one night with her, asked her to be a mother and a wife, you told her you were a vampire and then bit her right before you got hauled away to Paris of all places.”

“You’re in a foul mood,” Armando grumbled. “Anyway, it was a small bite, and I doubt you waited any longer to tell Elizabeth when she came of age.”

Draven closed his eyes and hung his head.

“Well, how long did you wait?”

A groan reverberated in his throat. “Two years, sixteen days, and eighteen hours.”

Armando cuffed his head. He knew he deserved it. He’d been so stupid and waited too long, and now he was too late to go back and change things. His delay was to blame for everything.

“Where are they now?”

“A motel room. I’ve been getting almost constant danger vibes from Elizabeth since she arrived in Paris but something’s really wrong now. I haven’t heard anything from her since yesterday afternoon.”

Armando stood as still as a statue. “She’s not…?”

“No!” Draven barked. Jumping up, he threw off his own blood stained shirt and started to pace. “What about Coty? Have you heard from him?”

“Nothing, I’m afraid. Can you teleport us out of here?”

“No. I tried already. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Both turned to stare when the lock on the door rattled. A vampire entered with
bright red eyes that matched his robe. Pointed long fingernails appeared as he grabbed a tuft of long snowy hair and threw it over his shoulder. He progressed into the room, his stark white face turning up in an evil smile.

Draven crossed his arms over his chest. “Damion, old friend, you look…different.”