Deceptive Changes: Kat LaMond Book 1 (54 page)

I walked down the spiral staircase and travelled the downstairs.  A small kitchen with a dining nook to the side of the kitchen, a living room a little down the way and a small bedroom that he had turned into an office with a powder room.  The house had original wood and was polished to a high gloss.  There were no pictures of any kind decorating the walls. 

I walked into his office and sat at the computer desk.  A small, cherry wood desk that held the computer and monitor with a little roller shelf for the keyboard and mouse.  Everything was neat and placed just so in the room.  I got out of the chair and opened the closet with nothing in it but cardboard shoe boxes. 

I closed the door and gasped.  Haven was standing beside me, in street clothes.  “What do you think of my house?”

“It’s beautiful but you don’t have any personal items,” I said as I looked around the room.

“I don’t like having my personal life out on display for just anyone to see.  If you want to see anything let me know and I’ll pull boxes and boxes of stuff out.”  He held out his hand.  I hesitated only a moment before sliding my hand into his.  He pulled me close and kissed me. 

He pulled back from my mouth and kissed his way to my neck.  I felt his teeth slide in and then I was crying out and clutching his back as orgasm after orgasm went through me.  Haven pulled back and smiled at me.  “Holy shit,” I whispered and shivered in his arms. 

When I was able to stand on my own he let me go and grabbed a box from the closet.  He pulled me down to the floor and opened the box.  “This is when I was a little over two hundred years dead.”  He showed me a black and white photo that was aged yellow.  He was striking and the coloring of the photo made him even more so.  He was standing beside an empty chair with his hand on it and his left arm down at his side, he wasn’t smiling.

He passed me another photo.  In this one he was laughing and leaning comfortably on a lounger with his arm tossed over his head, his silver hair was fanned out around him.  “You haven’t changed a bit,” I said and chuckled.  He chuckled and handed me another photograph.  It was much more recent but done in black and white, I could tell because he was wearing current decade clothing.  He was standing in front of a building with the sun shining on him.  He was pointing at something and I could see that the photographer caught him in mid laugh. 

“You were so happy.  What happened?” I asked without thought.

He took the photos from my hand and placed them back into the box.  “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine,” I said apologetically when he didn’t say anything. 

He nodded and said, “I’d rather not.  But, I will say, I am happier than even this picture.”  He kissed my cheek and put the box away.  He helped me to stand and we went in search of the guys.  They were in the kitchen and looking out at the little bird bath in the backyard.

Haven walked up to the guys and whispered something.  They nodded and turned.  Todd walked up to me and kissed my cheek.  “Haven has a few things he’d like to show you.  Alone.  We’ll see you at the house, babe.”  I grabbed him around the waist and gave him a big kiss on the neck.  His arms circled me.  “Love ya, babe.”  I repeated the words and he let me go.  Each of them came over to me and gave me a hug and kiss.

When they were gone, Haven turned from the window and smiled at me.  “What’s going on, Haven?”

“I wanted to show you more of my life.”  He grabbed my hand on the way out of the kitchen and pulled me upstairs. 

><                            ><

We were in the finished attic.  He had a collection of paintings sitting against the right wall and on the left were shelves with knickknacks and other items.  A huge mirror stood against the far wall between two windows.

The paintings were what drew my attention.  They were of him and another man, older gentleman.  They were arm in arm and smiling.  Another painting was of Haven, alone.  He was standing proper with his hands lightly resting on a chair.  He had his long hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail with silver eyes and an unpleasant expression on his face, like he smelled onions or something.

Haven came up behind me and said, “That’s not what I wanted to show you, Katja.”  He took my hand and walked me over to the shelves.  “This is what I wanted to show you,” he said as he took a little box from the shelf.  He opened it and a diamond ring, at least five carats with two sapphire stones, which matched the necklace, on either side, was nestled in cushioned velvet. 

He kneeled down and took the ring from the box.  “You’d make me the happiest man in the world if you’d wear this ring for the ball.” 

My heart beat fast in my throat.  “Thank you but I couldn’t.  You’ve already given me the necklace to wear.”

His ice blue eyes turned silver.  “Don’t you want to wear this ring?”  What could I say?  No, I suppose, but it was beautiful. 

“Stand up, Haven.  You aren’t proposing marriage.” 

He stood up fluidly and grabbed my hand.  He slipped it on my right ring finger and smiled, “Perfect.”  He kissed my hand and said, “Wear it, get comfortable wearing it.  It’s yours.  Forever.” 

I stepped back and took the ring off.  “I can’t Haven.  I’d love to wear it for the ball but it’s not mine.  It’s for the woman you find that completes you.”

He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them.  They were ice blue.  “You.  Katja.  You are the woman that completes me.  Please wear it.  The ring was designed specifically with you in mind.”  I frowned at his explanation.  “When I got the information on the guys, I also got the information on you.  I had a craftsman make the ring and chose the diamond and sapphires personally.  It’s yours.  Please keep it?”

Tears collected in my eyelashes.  I turned from him and let the tears fall.  How could he have done something so special, so kind, and he hadn’t even known me at the time. 

I jumped as his breath ran across my neck.  “It was made a hundred years ago.  It’s never been worn by anyone and has been taken great care of.” 

I turned as I brushed the tears from my eyes.  “Why?”

“Because I wanted to.  The seer told me about you.  How wonderful a person you are, how torn you are, how beautiful you are.  I wanted to give you something that showed exactly what kind of person you are.  Stunning, strong, vibrant, and worth so much more,” he said quietly.  He grasped my right hand and slipped the ring back on.  For its size it wasn’t that heavy. 

I hugged him and whispered, “Thank you, Haven.” 

He kissed my cheek and whispered, “For you, anything.”

I pulled back from him and indicated the paintings leaning against the wall.  “Will you tell me about the paintings?”

“Another time, Katja.  I still have more to show you.”  I gulped as he took my hand and led me out of the attic to the second floor.

He pulled me into a room.  A beautifully decorated room with dried lavender sprigs tastefully displayed around the room.  In the center of the room was another painting.  One that featured me.  I looked at him and frowned.  “That’s me.” 

He laughed softly.  “That’s your great, great, great, grandmother Katya.  I knew her when she was with Antreas.” 

I walked up to the painting and looked closer.  There were subtle differences, such as, the eyes were brown not sea-green, and she was plumper than I am.  Her hair was a lighter shade than my raven hair.  “You look scarily like her and you’re strong like she was.”

Katya, my grandmother times three, was also a king slayer but she couldn’t kill Antreas.  She was in love with him from the moment they met and refused to hurt him but in the end she did or he did, whichever.  She left Antreas and married the first man she ever raised, Jacob.  They lived to old age and when she died, he died with her.  They had three children.  Until I was born, there were no other king slayers in our family.

“You knew my great grandmother?” 

He nodded.  “I was never with her, if that’s your next question, but she was around the mansion a lot.  I got to know her and was sad when she died.  I was thrilled when the seer told me that I would be meeting her great, great, great, granddaughter,” he said as he looked at the painting.

“What was your price, Haven?” 

He turned to me and smiled.  “My price?”

“Don’t be coy,” I said softly.  “What was your price to the seer?  Thorn mentioned that she was a great fortune teller but she had a price.  What was yours?”

“My price wasn’t heavy, Katja.  It’s not something that I want to talk about,” he tried to shield his eyes before I saw the pain flash through them. 

“Please, tell me?”

“Okay, but not in here.”  He took my hand and brought me into his room. 

It was rather plain: a bed, a nightstand, an armoire, and a little desk with a chair by the window.  The only color in the room came from the paint on the walls and that was a light lavender. 

He brought me to the bed and sat on the edge pulling me onto his lap.  “My price was a decade of servitude.” 

I frowned at him.  “You served this woman for ten years?”

“Yes, and when it was done I left as fast as I could run.”  Haven’s eyes had bled back to silver. 

I kissed his forehead and whispered, “I’m sorry, Haven.”  He stood up with me in his arms and laid me gently on the bed.  I sat up as he climbed in.  He slipped in behind me and pulled me against his chest.

“I was basically a slave, a sex slave specifically.” 

I turned into him and whispered, “You don’t have to tell me, Haven.”

“I know but you asked.”  I swallowed and kissed him.  His arms wrapped around me and pulled me back.  “I was for her entertainment.  We would put on shows for the general public, well those that found us in the little house.”  I didn’t understand. 

“What?”

“She ran a whore house, Katja.  Even a hundred years ago they had whore houses.  I knew I would owe her something, I just didn’t know it would be that.”  He paused and ran his hand along my stomach.  “She had these little plays that revolved around sex and I was the star attraction.  People loved my silver hair and ice blue eyes.  My body was like a ‘god’s body’ one customer said.  I was used and, at times, abused by the customers and when I’d complain to her, she said ‘you’re a vampire, you heal,’ and waved me off.  The plays were done with mostly men as the stars and they weren’t gentle.”  He stopped and let the memories flood through him.

“I’m so sorry, Haven.” 

He grabbed my hand and kissed it.  “I may be a vampire but I like gentle.  I was never into rough or S&M.  When she found out that I could bring people, vampire or no, to orgasm…that’s when she used me voraciously in her shows and with customers.”  He stopped talking and clutched my hand as the memories came over him. 

I turned into him and kissed his neck.  “Please.  If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t, Haven.  I’m not trying to make you relive the memories.  I’m sorry that I brought it up.”

“Don’t be, Katja,” he said as he lay back against the bed.  “One day a customer, a vampire, found out that I was starring in her little plays and that I took on customers.  Not out of a desire to have many people but because I was beholden to her for another three years.  The vampire paid handsomely to have me for the night.  Brutal is inaccurate for that night.”  He took in a shaky breath.  I closed my eyes against the pain in his and listened to his soft words as he ran his hands over my arms and back. 

“He bled me more times than I’d ever been before.  He had me bound and gagged on the bed…”  His hands dug into my arms.  I opened my eyes and found him was looking at me.  “Kiss me?”  I nodded and edge up closer.  I kissed him softly, wrapping my arms around his neck.  I wanted to kiss the pain from him but he had more to tell and I knew it.  He pulled me back and I slid back down, laying my head on his chest. 

“I was bound and gagged on the bed.  He used instruments that I still have no names for.  He used them to cut and burn me.  I struggled against the bindings but he had bled me too much for me to break the bonds.  I healed all the wounds he inflicted on me, of course, but he’d just make new ones.  After he was done burning and cutting me, he flipped me onto my stomach and raped me repeatedly.  I remember screaming through my gag so loud that the seer actually came in to see what was going on.  She laughed as she saw him raping me and closed the door.  After that night I refused any other customers.  I didn’t care if I had to stay another ten years, she wasn’t getting me back into that room with one sadistic customer or another and when I told her that she threatened to keep me longer.  I still refused.  We made a deal.  I’d stay for the rest of my term and I’d bring customers with my touch or bite.  I made sure that they couldn’t touch me as I turned my bite or brought them to orgasm with my touch.”

“I am so sorry, Haven.  That is such an inadequate word, ‘sorry’, for what happened to you.”  I closed my eyes and let the tears flow down my face.  They dropped onto his chest, soft, warm.  He held me while I cried for him. 

“It’s a long time over.  I killed that vampire.  I found his name in one of the records she kept and I hunted him down after I left her horrid place and I killed him after I tortured him.  I never did what he did to me.  At first he laughed as I whipped, beat, and burned him.  Finally, I took out a dagger and started cutting off appendages.  I did it until he stopped laughing and started screaming.  I made him scream for a lot longer time than he made me scream.  When I’d had enough of his screams, I killed him slowly.  It’s very hard to kill a vampire slowly but I did it.”