Immortal Rapture: Immortal Heart (26 page)

“
Samira, she needs to see me.”

Marie’s brows furrowed
. “Is she okay?”

Uriah shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I’ll be back soon and fill you in.”

She smiled and nodded. “You want me to come with you? I’m sure Izzy will take Makiah.”

“No, stay and sleep.”

He kissed her tenderly, flipped off her lamp, and slipped from the room.

Once through the portal
, it didn’t take long for Uriah to spot the fiery hair of the former genie. With it pulled back in ponytail, he instantly noticed bruises on her fair-skinned neck.

Uriah took the seat next to her on the plush leather couch in the
lobby of the resort.

“What the hell happened to you?”

She sighed. “I don’t know… Every time I fall asleep, I dream and wake up with bruises. Where is Makyle?”

Uriah shook his head. “He left with his brothers over a week ago.”

She smiled and nodded. “Around the time the dreams started.”

Uriah shook his head. “What’s going on?”

“I think he’s reaching out to me in my dreams. Wherever he is, they’re torturing him.”

“How do you know?”

She laughed sardonically. “Because, I see it when I sleep, and I wake with the marks of his punishment.”

“Fuck
,” Uriah breathed. “Come on,” he said, standing and taking her elbow to help her up. He led her to the portal and back to the Middle World. For the first time in many, many years, Samira’s feet hit the soil of her homeland.

****

Makyle hung from the barbed straps that had held him captive for the past week. The lowest levels of the Underworld were the last place he expected to find himself. His brothers had come up with an interesting punishment. Two days in each level at the mercy of those who dwelled within it.

Lifting his head, he peered at the massive ogre who stood before him, a meaty fist once again swinging at his face. Closing his eyes, Makyle called on the faces of the people who calmed him. Visions of those who gave him the strength to survive. Every time he wished for death, golden eyes and fiery red hair reminded him that what resided beyond this domain was worth fighting for. When it wasn’t the golden eyes of his infuriating genie, it was the spitfire, sapphire gaze of his little Izzy or, and this one pained his heart, it was steel and jade mismatched eyes. He would survive to see each of them again.

With a final crack to his face
, everything went black and the pain washed away.

“Makyle, this is not where I expected you to end up… not the destiny I wove.”

Makyle’s eyes opened to the bright, flowing white figure of Lachesis. “Lachesis, what’s going on?”

“Oh, you
, my boy, are knocked out. It seemed the perfect time to come see you.”

“You are going to twist my one moment of relief with your game of words.”

Lachesis grunted. “Everyone likes to ruin my fun.”

“I don’t have time for your fun. I just want quiet.”

“Fine then, I will be quick. She will soon know, and they will come. Make sure you collect the blood of a Valkyrie before they take you from the Underworld. Your Izzy is the key to getting it to your sisters. Jelena will know what to do.”

“Cryptic
,” Makyle grumbled. “Why am I doing this?”

“Because one more destiny must be restored.” With a wink and a
smile, Lachesis faded out, leaving Makyle with a chain and vial hanging from his neck. He sighed and tucked it under his tattered shirt.

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PARANORMAL ROMANCE SERIES

Half-Blood Princess

Blood Claim: Book 1

Resurrection Stone: Book2

Shadowed Memories: Book3

Dark Soul: Book 4

Echo’s of Silence—Abel’s Slayers: Half-Blood Princess Book 5

A Witch’s Mark—The Guardians: Half-Blood Princess Book 6

Bound By Destiny—the Guardians Part 2: Half-Blood Princess Book 7

Last Surrender: Book 8

North American Pack

Primal Hunger

Primal Calling

Immortal Heart

Immortal Blood: Book 1

Immortal Craving: Book 2

Immortal Promise: Book 3

Keep an eye out for the rest of the Brothers stories!

© 2013 by Magen McMinimy

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Half-Blood Princess

By

Magen McMinimy

I waited outside the colonial mansion hidden in the cover of the cherry trees. The massive home was brick-faced and trimmed in white, with eight three-story columns and two upper balconies. The beautiful house’s façade was completed with large, arched windows and a massive, ten-foot, French style, front door.

The
Mayor’s home was tastefully placed just outside of downtown Maldera Springs. Large, centuries old, cherry trees in full bloom lined the quarter-mile driveway. It was beautiful in Georgia this time of year. Pink and white blossoms littered the town as the cherry harvest neared. 

Sarah
Maldera was inside waiting for her best friend, Rachel Lawson, her boyfriend, Tavian Baikov, and his older brother, Dante.

The
Maldera’s only daughter was a beautiful, petite girl with dark, thick brown hair and green eyes. She was like royalty to the Civil War era town of Maldera Springs.

I knew quite a bit about the
Baikov brothers, much to my brother, Irad’s, disgust. He’d never liked them. However, I found them intriguing and was rather surprised to find them here with Sarah.

I had been searching for her for
months, tracing her lineage without Irad’s knowledge. She was in danger, though perhaps not as much as I had originally thought. Having the Baikov brothers with her helped her chances dramatically, but even the infamous Baikov brothers wouldn’t be strong enough to save her.

Irad’s
a harsh, cruel, and sadistic son of a bitch.  I had learned that many years ago. A month after my thirteenth birthday my mother passed away. My brothers, Enoch and Irad, came and took me at my father’s request – a man I had never met. I hadn’t known Irad and Enoch either. They took me the night she died and Irad refused to let me attend her memorial.

When I turned
eighteen, Enoch convinced Irad to let me move out and helped arrange it.

Enoch is one of the good ones but he remains with
Irad; I’m fairly certain it’s so he can keep an eye on him.

Sarah may be
like
royalty here as the Mayor’s daughter, but I am royalty to my father’s people – the ones who know of me – that’s  what happens when you’re the only born daughter of the original vampire.

Yep,
the only one
. My mother was the only woman who ever carried a half-vampire baby to term. So here I stand…or rather, crouch that is, twenty-five years later, as Sophia Daletsky.

Twenty minutes
later, Sarah ran out the front door, stopping only briefly to lock it. Once down the few steps that created the entrance to the front porch of her home, she greeted Tavian by flinging her arms around him to hold him in a short, tight embrace. She then greeted Rachel and Dante as she jumped in the black Escalade.

From the pieces I caught of Sarah’s
conversation, they were all headed to Curley’s, which was the local hang out for all the high school kids.

The
Baikov brothers hardly qualified as kids, being around two hundred and seventy years old in vampire years. Tavian looked to be about eighteen when he was changed and Dante about twenty-six. The brothers are both extraordinarily handsome, and their relation is blatantly obvious. They are both tall; although Dante has an inch or two on his younger brother, they both have light brown hair, and stunning, sapphire eyes.

Curley’s is a bar and bistro with pool tables, live music on weekends, and an awesome bartender named Janie.

I waited until the taillights of Dante’s Escalade were faint red pinpoints to even my heightened eyes; I have all the senses of a vampire. I got those gifts from my father and a few more interesting ones that not even he knows about. I began to sprint after them with a quick check around me. I jumped into the air and took on the form of a sleek, white cat with black-tipped ears; it’s a far cry from my five-foot-six, black haired, curvy human form, though as a cat I still have my ice blue-grey eyes.

I raced through the fields and cherry orchards on the outskirts of town. I could have ran in my human form, but if anyone saw a girl running faster than humanly possible
…
that might raise some
red flags,
and the questions that would follow would likely tip Irad  off as to my whereabouts.

I reached Curley’s as the foursome was exiting Dante’s vehicle. I slipped into the back alley and shifted back into Sophia
–
the new to town human
.

I was wearing my favorite low-rise jeans, and a pink and white printed halter. Tonight was the night I would make my move to befriend the vamps and Sarah. I was hoping the brothers wouldn’t sense my differences. The brothers and I
have never met and they wouldn’t have ever seen a picture of me, well not that I was aware of anyway. They likely didn’t even believe in my existence. So there was really nothing to give away my true identity. I could glamour – one of the tricks no other vamp has, and one my brother’s didn’t know about – to change my appearance, but it takes a lot of power. The brother’s may be able to sense that kind of power when it’s in use. So I crossed my fingers and entered the bar as just me.

I headed to the bar with a smile on my face; Dante was there ordering a drink. From what I
learned, Dante plays the role of the older brother whose little brother came to stay with him for his senior year of high school since their parents travel a lot –
made sense he’d be getting a drink
.  

Apparently, Dante frequents Curley’s quite often. I had met Janie the bartender and a friend of Dante’s a few weeks ago
. She’d become a friend to me too, which made it hard for me when I had to compel her to mention me to Dante. She was supposed to introduce me to him the next time I came in and he was here. I really hate compelling people but I needed that introduction. Time was wasting and if I was able to find Sarah, by accident, Irad’s men would too…and soon probably.

“Hey Janie!” I yelled as I slid in next to Dante at the bar.

“Sophia!” Janie was excited to see me. She leaned across the bar to give me a quick hug. “How’s it goin’? Did you find a place yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m still looking
.”

“
Well, let me guess: whiskey and diet Pepsi?”

“You got it! But he was here before me
.” I inclined my head toward Dante.

“Oh sorry Dante, scotch?” She smiled sheepishly at him as he nodded
. “But hey, this is perfect. Dante, this is Sophia, the girl I was telling you about.”

I cocked my head at her as if surprised she had mentioned me. Dante turned towards me; he was even more gorgeous up close, with
striking, chiseled features, beautiful, cream satin skin, and an easy, confident smile that lit his sapphire eyes. He is far better looking than Kara had ever let on.

Kara was the
vampire who had sired both Dante and Tavian. Dante was in love with her and probably still is, but she left him over a hundred years ago and was a frequent visitor to my home. Irad and Enoch had essentially raised me; my father only came around once a year or so to check in. Enoch was my father’s biological son and he had turned him later in Enoch’s life. Irad on the other hand, was father’s first childe. He sired him a few years after Enoch.

Irad
had hoped that Kara could teach me to be a vampire siren, beautiful, ruthless, and deadly. Irad had wanted to fully change me many times, but Father and Enoch wouldn’t allow it. So Irad chooses to ignore the fact that I am still half human. The only thing I ever learned from Kara was what I never wanted to be. She’s cruel, manipulative, and quite proud of it. Still, she had told me of the Baikov boys; they’re her proudest moment. She’d said the Baikov’s are a wonderful example of the power a beautiful woman can hold over a man and how easily men can be manipulated by a pretty face.