Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (16 page)

“Marcus, as Master of the Guard, you choose.” She hoped Marcus would be brave. She didn’t want to do this, but it was the only way. “Which man will you give over?”

“Sara, you cannot ask this of me, to give up the life of one of my men. No, not you, I cannot believe it of you. I won’t,” he said.

“I am no longer the queen’s guard, so I no longer play by her rules. Pick. I don’t have all night. The sun will rise soon and my lord will need to seek his bed. Now pick one man to die,” she snapped at him.

Marcus turned to the man next to him. “Jacob...?” For several tense filled moments, not a sound was made.

Jacob Donaldson was perhaps the youngest man in the group, but the most loyal to his queen, Sara knew. He was at most twenty-five, while the others were only a couple of years older, if that.

Jacob stepped forward to take the blow that would end his life. Her sweep of his mind made her respect the young man all the more.

“Yes, sir,” he said. His lips wavered as he held his chin up in a show of bravery.

“Tell my wife and family that I love them very much, and will see them on the other side.” Marcus turned back to Sara, resignation heavy on his face. “Me, Sara, I pick me to pay the forfeit.”

The small group surrounding them stiffened in surprise. They had all thought that young Jacob was his choice. Sara shoved Sherman to the floor and stepped over his inert body to reach where Marcus now stood alone.

“So be it. May the queen honor your death, Marcus Freely, Master of Arms of the queen’s Royal Guard.” Sara lashed out with her own blade and slit the older man’s throat with a clean slice. As he dropped to the floor, blood poured from the wound and spread out before the men, pooling beneath him in an expanding puddle.

Not a sound was made for a good thirty seconds, then in a voice devoid of any emotion, Sara said to the man lying on the floor next to her friend, “It’s a shame that I can’t kill you as well, you son of a bitch. But as you did not succeed in your quest to kill my lord, then I must, by rules of your kind, let you go. However, heed this.” She knelt down to him. “When we next meet, I’ll not be as kind as I was to the dead man before you. Your death will be a pleasure, long and hard. I will make you suffer dearly for what you’ve taken from me.” With a mental and physical push, he was tossed across the room a good ten feet.

“You’ve not heard the end of this, you fucking whore,” Sherman said to her as he scrambled to his feet. “You think you bested me this time, but when we do meet again, I will be the one doing the killing. You won’t be able to hold my magic from me. Then we’ll see just who is the stronger of the two of us.”

Sherman gathered himself up and left the house, abandoning the men he brought with him to be dealt with as the Master of the Realm wished.

~CHAPTER SIXTEEN~

“Sara, there’s a dead man on my floor.” Aaron sounded calm, even to himself. “What do you propose we do about it?”

She had just killed a man in cold blood, sliced him while he stood in front of them and killed him. Killing men who were here for murder of their own free will was one thing, but this man had done nothing wrong but been a part of a hired force.

“Nothing yet. I want to make sure Sherman is well and truly gone first.” She dropped completely to the floor from her knees, landing in the blood surrounding Marcus. Aaron believed her to be waiting for the man to die. He was reasonably sure Marcus was dead; there was too much blood for him to be otherwise.

“Colin. Colin!”

Colin turned to look at Sara, shock at what he had seen her do evident on his face, Aaron noticed. Everyone was shocked.

“Have these men taken to a cell. Colin! Are you listening? Have these men taken to a holding cell!” she snapped. Her voice was exhausted sounding.

“Yes,” Colin said with a shake of his head. “Daniel, Scott, please take them below and lock them in a cell.”

Colin moved to do her bidding. Aaron wondered if Colin had even noticed that he had not asked his master for permission.

After a minute or two, Sara touched Marcus. “Wake up, Marcus, you’ve been lazing about long enough.” Aaron watched as she gave the dead man another hard poke to the ribs. “Get up, you lazy bastard. We have things to do.”

Aaron started to move forward, to pick her up and away from the body. He was sure that killing this man had pushed her over the edge of reason. When Marcus rolled over and looked up at Sara with tears in his eyes, Aaron was shocked once again, more so by the man’s statement than by the fact that he was not dead.

“You saved me,” Marcus told her.

“Of course I did. I said I would, didn’t I? Now get up. You’re making the vamps nervous. They believe I murdered you.”

“He’s not dead.” Colin turned to look at Aaron. “You dinna kill the mon. But the blood, all that blood. I saw you slice his throat. I donna understand.”

Neither did Aaron, actually, but waited to see what she had to say.

“I couldn’t kill anyone in cold blood, but I thank you for having such a high opinion of me and thinking that I could.” She shrugged as if it mattered little. “When I found him among the guards, I found out he was here against his will. As are those men you took below. Sherman has their families. He’s holding them captive until he succeeded in killing you, Aaron. He told me what was happening and asked that I save his family.”

“My family!” Marcus jumped from the floor and toward the doors when Sara’s voice stopped him.

“The queen has your family with her in the high tower of Molavonta Keep. They are all there, including your mother and that stupid dog of yours. The other men’s families are there as well, safe and sound.”

The man staggered slightly, and Aaron leaped forward to grab him before he fell to the floor. He gently sat him down and watched the man’s tears flow freely.

“The queen is sending someone to get you, and you will be reunited with them as soon as possible. The other men will need to stay here, at least for a few days. If that’s all right with you?” She had turned toward Aaron as she spoke.

Aaron looked at her. Sara was pale, and her skin was clammy-looking. Then he noticed that her hands were trembling. When she noticed him staring, she put her hands in her lap and held them together.

“Oh, so now you want to involve me? How nice,” Aaron growled. He was annoyed. No, he was pissed at her. “You planned this all without as much as a word to me? Did it occur to you that I may have been killed for real had I embraced that, that mad man? That anyone in this room may have attacked you, or any other person standing here when they saw you ‘pretend’ to take that man’s life? This blood....” He looked down at the now clean floor. He looked up at her, confused when she stood up. “Sara?”

“I didn’t cut him. My knife is still upstairs in my bag. You saw what I wanted you to see,” she said, and then staggered before she fell to the floor in a heap again. Aaron immediately went to her aid. She was weak; he could feel it when he touched her.

“And the others? What if they had attacked you? How would you have handled the two hundred vampires that also saw all this blood? You can barely stand now.”

“No one in this room knew what she was doing. No one saw anything at all, save those of you who were involved.” This voice came from just behind Aaron. He turned to see who was speaking and found himself looking at the woman from his bedroom. Had that only been yesterday afternoon? “She’ll need juice, lots of juice. Using that much magic takes a great deal of energy.”

“Someone go to the kitchen and have Duncan make her what he has that’s fast,” Aaron told the person next to him. “If he doesn’t have anything, send someone who can move quickly to get it for her. Tell him to bring whatever he has right now, quickly please.”

As a younger vamp took off into the kitchen, Aaron looked around the room and saw that Mel was correct. Everyone was mingling and talking as if nothing was out of the ordinary. In fact, other than the occasional glance their way, no one seemed to be paying the slightest bit of attention to them.

“How is that possible?” he asked Mel as she moved closer to the group.

“I told you she was very strong yesterday. Sara made everyone standing here believe that she’d killed Marcus, the knife slicing through him, spilling his blood on the floor. Also, the house itself has been held. Whatever wasn’t a vampire, their magic was taken from them and left at the door. So as soon as Sherman entered, he was magically powerless against her.”

Aaron looked down at the woman in his arms. “That still doesn’t explain why I wasn’t warned. I could have helped you. I should have helped you.” He handed her the juice off the tray Duncan had brought in. He had perhaps nine full glasses of juice there, varying in colors and smells.

“I needed you to believe he was harmless,” Sara said after draining the first glass. “Had I given you a warning, let you know what he was up to, he would have read that in you and acted accordingly. He would have simply thrown himself against you at first opportunity.”

Aaron handed her a second glass, and she drained it as she had the first. He looked around the room again. No one was the wiser. But he was no less pissed about the whole thing. She could have been hurt, or killed. As his mate, it was his job to protect her, not the other way around. As soon as possible, they were going to have to set up some guidelines. Not rules, she would not follow rules, but guidelines she may.

“So you have made your decision then. Good choice, Master of the Realm. But I wouldn’t count on the guidelines either if I were you,” Mel said with a laugh.

“Choice? Guidelines? What are you talking about? Come to think of it, how do you two know each other?” Sara struggled to stand and he held her still. He liked holding her, regardless of how mad he was at her.

“Lie still, you’re still weak. Here, drink another glass of this yellow stuff. Mel came to my room today…well, yesterday…and we had a long talk. You and I will talk about it later.”

Aaron should have known better. He felt her trample through his mind like a steamroller. Had it been physical instead of a mental search, he would have bruises all over his head. And from the way she was looking at him right now, he may end up with them anyway.

“You’ve decided to keep me? Well how fucking nice for you, you arrogant ass. Was I going to get a choice in this? No, I can see that it didn’t occur to you. Either of you, for that matter. How could you?” She was crying. He had made her cry again, damn it. She turned to Mel. “And you, what right do you have making any choices for me? You hoped that I would, what, roll over and do what you say?” She struggled out of his arms as she yelled at Mel, but rather than hurt her, he let her go. “Oh my God—and the queen? You’ve decided that I would be the queen, too? How dare you? How dare either of you?”

“I told you that I’ve made decisions,” Melody snapped at her. “I told you that they affected you. If I hadn’t done this, you would still be floundering about using only a small part of what you are. I helped you.”

Aaron took a step back. He could feel the anger rolling heavily off both women. He had learned many, many years ago never to step between women when they fought. They fought by their own rules, and they were not always...nice about it.

“Helped me? Are you insane? What happens to you? Do you just fade away again? End up in some field while I deal with everything again?” Sara looked at the door when no one answered her. “And what about Sherman? Huh? You think he’ll just say ‘Oh good, you’re queen now. You go right ahead. I’ll be seeing you around?’ Fuck you!”

“Sara, she was only trying to help,” Aaron said. “She couldn’t go on. You know as well as anyone why she can’t.”

He knew the queen’s plan for him and Sara; they were to rule her kingdom together. While he did not necessarily agree with her methods, he was at least willing to acknowledge that the continuation of the lineage was vital.

“You knew about all of this? Before us...before the bathroom?” she asked him, hurt in her voice. “You bit me!”

“You wanted that as much as I did,” he snapped. “You are not going to lay that one on me alone. And yes, I knew before you came downstairs tonight, so what? It makes no difference now; you are mine, my mate for all eternity.”

He regretted saying it the moment it left his mouth. Not the words, no, never that, but his timing could have been a tad better, he thought.

There was a sudden tightening in the room, as if it somehow grew bigger than the space allowed. No one moved, no one dared to. When Aaron started to speak again, Sara held up her hand to silence him. He was too stunned by the move to ignore it. After several tension-filled seconds, Sara spoke to them.

“I want you both to never contact me again. I am not going to be queen, nor am I going to be a mate to you or anyone else. Period. I hate you both for what you’ve presumed to think for me, the decisions you’ve made for me, and the secrets you kept from me. Stay away from me.”

Sara stood again and took a look around the room. Then she turned on her heel and ran from the room, toward the front entrance hall, and out into the late evening night.

“Sara! Sara, come back here this minute!” He flashed himself forward only to be stopped suddenly by a wall. Her magic, he thought. Her magic was working against him rather than for him now.

~CHAPTER SEVENTEEN~

After everyone had paid homage to Aaron and left the mansion long before sunrise, the remaining people adjourned to the massive living room to go over the strange events of the evening. The coziness of the room was in complete contrast to the mood of the people in it. The Carlovettis were very worried about Sara; she was becoming very important to them and they wondered what she would do now.

Colin was still marveling at the way she made them all believe she had killed a man. He was also amazed at the way she took charge, and did what needed to be done without a second’s hesitation or any lack of confidence.

Mel was mad, thinking that Sara was being extremely selfish about the whole thing. She would rule all of the magical elements of the world. Why should she not want that?

Aaron was angry as well, but he was not sure at whom he should be the maddest at, Sara for leaving without letting him explain, Mel for not allowing him to explain things to her in his own way, or himself for not telling her anything. No, he mused, he was mad at himself most of all. He should have trusted her; he should have told her what he suspected from the beginning…that she was his mate, his partner. More than that, he should have treated her like one.

“Do you have any idea what level of power was required for what Sara did tonight?” Mel asked the room in general after she had been introduced to everyone.

“I know she made a believer of me. All that blood, not a drop of it real. I didn’t know you could hold that many people in thrall. Did you, Aaron?” Colin turned to his friend and master.

“She didn’t, not really. You see, that’s what I’m talking about,” Mel went on to clarify. “She held each vampire in a state of separate thrall, unique to each one of them.”

Aaron didn’t really care how she did it. He just wanted to bring her back so he could tell her how sorry he was.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean separate thrall?” Colin asked her.

“Each vampire has unique abilities of their own, right? Colin, you can read a person’s lies, scan their body for hidden objects and whatever else they may be hiding. Demetrius, even for your age you’re a remarkably strong and talented telepath. Aaron, you have a great many talents. Some of them from age, others from practice.” Mel started to pace the room as she spoke. Aaron noticed that Sara did the same thing. “You see, each of your minds works differently with your magic. Sara couldn’t just rely on one bit of magic to keep others from becoming involved. She needed to take each one of your abilities and use them against you. No one saw or heard what she didn’t want them to. She didn’t get that from me. She’s using power well beyond what I’ve given her. Beyond anything I’ve ever seen. She isn’t just a Keeper like me; she is more than me in some ways.”

“What are you saying? Are you saying Sara is not human, that she is a different species than any of us?” Aaron finally asked.

“Is she tattooed with any markings?” Mel asked. “Anything more than this?” She showed everyone her tattoo as the Queen of Magick. Looking almost like a photograph, the tattoo depicted a half-moon in light blue-grayish tones with the sun, a bright yellow, rising from it. Beneath the sun and moon stood a tree in different seasons of the year: spring with tiny buds on strong limbs; summer with full, dark-green leaves straining toward the heavens; fall with blended leaves of orange and red; winter with bare limbs. “Sara’s would be smaller and without color...or very little color...maybe just shades of gray.”

No one had seen any marking at all on her, other than the bruises the first days she was at the mansion.

~~~

It was four days before Sara contacted anyone—four long and miserable days without word to anyone in the mansion as to where she was, what she was doing, or if she would forgive them. Mel tried to contact Sara mentally, but she had shut her out as tightly as if she no longer existed. Aaron used a more modern method, the phone, but had as little success as Mel did.

When she finally made contact, it was to phone the Carlovettis. “Mr. Carlovetti, it’s Sara Temple. I was wondering if I could talk with you, please?”

Sara had been staying at the hotel out on Route Forty. It was okay as far as hotels went. It was clean and was cooler than it was outdoors. Summers in Ohio were abhorrent.

“Sara, thank God! Are you all right? We’ve been so worried about you. Yes, yes of course, any time. Just let me know where to meet you.”

“Now is fine,” she told him. “That is, if you have the time. But if you try to contact anyone else, I’ll know, and I’ll end this conversation immediately, all right?”

Sara had been trying to work up the nerve to call the Carlovettis for two days. She didn’t want to get them into trouble with their master, but she was running low on funds. All her extra cash was hidden in her van, which was currently residing at the mansion.

“I wasn’t going to contact anyone. I believe what they did was wrong to a point. Sara, you need to contact Aaron. He’s suffering badly.”

“Let him.” Sara’s heart took a hard knock at the thought of him suffering. But damn it, she was tired of everyone trying to tell her what she needed.

“I was wondering if I am able to still work for your company? I need a job, and some money. I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize you or your company, so I will understand completely if you say no.”

If he said no, which she hoped he would not, she would have to move to Columbus and get a job. Now that Mel had shown up, there was no reason to hide any longer. Well, except for the High Council of Magick and the sanction to have her put to death—minor details. Hopefully, with Mel found, Sara would no longer be hunted by them.

Demetrius was silent for a long few minutes. So long, in fact, that she knew for sure he was going to turn her down. She was about to tell him to forget it when he answered her.

“Yes, you have a job, so long as you want it. Sara, I’ll keep your employment quiet for as long as I can. Because we both know as soon as Aaron finds out you’re working again, he’ll want to talk to you. And if he does, then I’ll have to comply so long as you’re working for me when he finds out.”

“I understand and I appreciate that. Thank you.”

Demetrius had just told her that if Aaron found out, she needed to be gone before he had to make her go see him.

“I won’t let you down. I swear.” She wouldn’t either.

“I know you won’t, Sara. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He hung up first. She thought he sounded hurt.

Another week passed. Sara flew out early every evening and returned late the next afternoon, well after the highest part of the day was upon them. Demetrius had done well with her secret so far.

Demetrius had left her an email that first morning, asking her to be gone well before he and April got to work. He explained that he wanted to be honest with Aaron if he ever asked if Demetrius had seen her. So she made sure she was gone before sunset every evening. In exchange for him helping her out, she took home the next day’s flights and made the roster up with a flight schedule. Personal information was never exchanged on either side.

But after nearly two weeks of careful wording and planning on his part, Demetrius slipped up.

~~~

“Have you heard from Sara, Demetrius?” Aaron had been calling daily to ask the same question. He knew he wasn’t going to make it much longer without feeding. Eleven days was a very long time to go without sustenance, even for someone as old as he was.

“Heard from her? No, no, I’ve not seen her. Have you?” Demetrius answered quickly.

Too quickly. Then Aaron realized what Demetrius had said. He had not said that he hadn’t heard from her, but that he hadn’t seen her. Demetrius had been lying to him. No, he thought, he’d just been asking him the wrong question. He almost laughed at the cleverness of it.

“How long have you been speaking to her, Demetrius?” His voice was calm and resigned. Sara must know that he was asking about her, but apparently, she didn’t care to see him.

“Since right after the party. She contacted me the Monday afterwards. And yes, I should have told you, but I couldn’t...no, that’s not right. I wouldn’t betray her trust. Not again, not after all that she has done for me and mine.”

Loyalty was something Aaron usually admired in someone, but right now all he could think about was that Demetrius knew where she was. But he couldn’t be angry, not anymore.

“Is she all right, is she safe?” He ignored the fact that Demetrius had failed to mention that he did not trust Aaron. That much was evident in the fact that he didn’t let him know about Sara’s whereabouts. He had failed on so many levels with her and the others of his Kiss—his extended family. Failing to gain trust from his first bond as master was just another on the long list of screw-ups.

“Yes, to both,” Demetrius said. “Sara is flying for me during the early evening and into the late afternoon. She’s gone overnight. She needed the money, she said. I don’t know where she’s staying. A cab brings her to work, then picks her up, so I’m told. I know it’s not far. The cab fee is less than five dollars, according to Sara, round trip.”

“Yes, that explains a great deal. I need to talk to her, Demetrius. Please ask her to talk to me, to see me. It’s...tell her it’s important that I.... We need to talk. Would you do that for me, please?”

Aaron wanted to beg her to talk to him, but knew it would not do any good. If he had learned one thing about Sara Temple, it was she had a stubborn streak a mile wide and nearly just as deep.

“Yes, sir, I’ll ask her. What...what punishment are you going to demand of me, sire? I’m not sorry for what I did, but I will pay the penalty. Whatever you see fit, I deserve. I just ask that you don’t hurt April. She doesn’t know anything about any of this. I promise you.”

“Just ask her to see me, please.” Aaron hung up the phone.

~~~

When Sara got to work later that night, she changed into her flight uniform. It really wasn’t a bad-looking thing. The navy blue pants were tailored to fit her long legs, and made of the softest cotton twill. The t-shirt was short-sleeved, with a scooped neckline of a pretty robin’s egg blue. Made of silk, it clung to her curves like a second skin, and felt good at the same time. The jacket, made of the same material as the pants, had three-quarter-length sleeves, two buttons with the company logo on them, and was made to just touch the top of her pants when she was standing. No name tag or other tags marred the beautiful cut and line of the clothes. Once changed, she went into the hangar.

“Demetrius wants you to wait for him to come in,” Paul Potter, one of the other pilots, said as soon as he caught up with her. “He says it’s important, and he needs to be face to face with you. Oh, he also said to tell you that you’re safe here to stay and wait, whatever that means. Got it?”

“Yes. Thank you.” This could not be good. Face to face could only mean bad things were about to hit the fan. But she would wait for him.

Nearly two hours later, Demetrius came in alone. “Thank you, Sara. I appreciate you staying to talk to me.” He looked so distraught that she worried for April.

“Where’s Mrs. Carlovetti? Is she all right?” She had visions of her losing the babe and nearly swept his mind to see what had happened.

“Yes, she’s fine. She’s coming in later. I asked her to wait until I called her before she came in.”

Sara stared at him for several minutes. Demetrius wouldn’t look her in the eye. Understanding was slow to come to her, but she got there eventually.

“He knows, doesn’t he? He’s found out, and you need to fire me, right? I’m so sorry, Mr. Carlovetti. Truly, I am. I just needed the money. I never meant to cause you problems. I’m so sorry.”

Sara brushed angrily at the tears as they fell. She hated to cry. She felt it made her look weak and stupid.

“Sara, don’t do that. He does know, but it’s not what you think. No, you aren’t fired. Nor is he asking me to do anything to you, all right? Now, let’s start over, shall we? Yes, Aaron knows you’re working for us again. I screwed up this morning before I left, and he caught it. All he asked was that you agree to see him. He wants to talk to you, and to see you.”

“No. I can’t see him, Mr. Carlovetti. He hurt me, as you know. I can’t...I wouldn’t even know what to say to him.”

He leaned back into his chair. He stared at her, saying nothing for a few minutes. “You’ve never let us in, April and me, have you? We’ve tried on several occasions to get you to call us by our first names, but you refused. You’ve kept us at a distance; you didn’t want our friendship so you made our relationship purely professional all these months. No matter how hard we tried, you simply shut us down. I’ve kept your secret for you, from my own mate and master, yet you still refuse to let me be your friend. You’ve never trusted that I would never hurt you or put you into a situation where you would be harmed. We know nothing about you, save what we need to know, flight plans, records, and its all business information.” Sara watched as he stood up. She had never seen him so upset before. “You know what, Sara? I feel sorry for you. More than I ever have for anyone in all my life. All you needed to do was ask, and as your friends, because that’s what April and I feel like you are to us, we would have moved mountains for you. Yes. Yes, I do, I feel so sorry for you.” He made to leave, but before he could walk out the door, she stopped him.