Shattered Skies - Night Waves (17 page)

The next few minutes were scattered voices at best. I heard something tear and felt hands at my neck. I wondered if Akia was finishing me off. I was too warm to care. Then I heard the humming. Wow, he must have been really enjoying this. The thought should have pissed me off or sent chills down my spine, anything, but it didn’t. I was warm and Akia was so happy that he was humming and strangely, It all made sense.

“Why is she making that noise?” Akia sounded concerned instead of pissed, but when the humming continued over his talking, I realized that the sound couldn’t have been coming from him. I didn’t think Jace would hum if I was dying. So where did that leave me?

Jace answered Akia. “She
knows she’s dying, you moron, that is why she is humming, she is somewhere warm and safe and happy and her mind is finally free now.” Jace managed to keep his voice soothing as he rubbed my hands, telling me with his touch that he understood that is was OK if I gave into the warmth and vanished. “Can’t you see she’s dying?”

“Like hell she is,” and in a flash the pressure that
Akia had been keeping on my neck was gone. I heard a thump and a second later I was overwhelmed with the scent of Akia. I had missed his scent so much.

But Jace didn’t like what was happening. “
Get away from her. If you touch her, I’ll kill you myself.” Jace’s voice was further away now, and I concluded that he was the thump that I had just heard. The imaginary power struggle I envisioned between Jace and Akia caused me to shiver, and then warmth came flooding back.

“I would like to see you fucking try” Akia answered back. “Now if you want to help me
, get over her so we can save her.” Save me? How? 

I heard footsteps getting closer and when Akia didn’t react as if to a threat I realized that Jace was going to
cooperate for the time being. How romantic! They were going to work together to save me. The only thing that could have made this better would have been for Darien to be there too.  Darien. Just the thought of him made my heart ache, but the ache dissolved almost as soon as I felt it. I was fading too fast to worry much about not having Darien there. Lost in my false warmth, I thought that I was giggling when in reality I was gurgling on my own blood and taking my last few breaths.  I felt Jace drop down beside me on the hard, rocky earth. Then I heard Akia say something.

“Hold your hands over her wound as tightly as you can.” I felt Jace’s hands, tenderly at first, gingerly touching me, so afraid he was going to hurt me. “I said hard,” Akia shouted. “I don’t give a damn if you crush her windpipe! We can fix that easier than we can stop her
from bleeding to death.” Apparently Akia’s words registered with Jace.

That was all it took. The pain his hands caused
as he tried to slow my bleeding neck wound made me stop humming immediately and I was instantly upset. I had been enjoying my slow descent into death and now these two were taking the pleasure away from me. Why was it that all the men in my life wanted to take from me instead of just accepting me and giving me what I wanted?

“We need to get blood into her,” said Akia. I can’t do it alone. I haven’t fed enough yet today, only what I’ve taken from her” Akia’s voice dropped. I heard the shame
in it and then I heard Jace.

“Feel bad for yourself later asshole. Right now we have to save her.” Damn Jace, way not to cut him a break. It really wasn’t his fault he ripped half my throat out.

   Oh wait, yes it was! That’s right Jace, tell him to stop bitching. The fact that my thoughts were becoming less incoherent meant that Jace had managed to staunch the blood flow. Akia turned and confronted Jace.

  
“My blood will heal her wound but I don’t have enough to put into her, to replace what she’s lost. You are going to have to feed her too. Are you willing to donate or do I have to slit your throat and pour you into her?” There wasn’t a hint of anything but power in Akia’s voice when he asked.

  
“Says the beast that bled her out in the first place. Unlike you, I wasn’t trying to kill her; I was trying to keep her alive. If draining me dry will save her, I’ll do it.”  I wanted to scream “No one is going to die to save me,” but the words wouldn’t come.

One of them tilted my head back and held my neck at what I could only assume was a painful angle. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t protest, I couldn’t even stop the fingers that were prying my mouth open, holding my head steady, and then I felt something warm slide down the back of my
throat. The body is an amazing thing. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t talk, but somehow I was able to swallow, and I could hear Jace’s soothing voice encouraging me.

  
“Good Girl, Kitty Cat.” I loved hearing his words of approval and my mouth reacted by sucking every drop of Akia’s blood that he allowed me to have. I knew that his blood was going to make me better.

  
“Really? She hasn’t killed you yet for talking to her the way you do? What did you do, beat her about the head, drag her off to your cave and now that she’s coming to, she’s forgotten who she was?” Even with Akia’s blood flowing from him to me, he was still a smart ass, though he probably had a point.

I almost had to laugh at the cave comment. Jace had dragged me into the cave. Mind you it was to
get me away from the Hunt, but still the irony was not lost on me, even this close to death.

“If I had been the one to say good girl to her I am pretty sure she would have ripped of
f parts of me that I would rather keep.” Akia wasn’t sounding the least bit amused.

“I guess that says a lot about which one of us she views as more Alpha.” Jace was so sure of himself, I was proud of him but I didn’t know why.

  “I will be so glad when she is better and we can test that theory rodent. Now take your hand off her neck slowly so we can see if she is healing.”

  
The pressure against my neck eased. I was able to breathe again, slowly and painfully, but I could breathe. The fact that I had just consumed more Dominus blood was heavy on my mind, but there was no time to worry about that now.

  
“Give me your wrist now human!” Akia’s voice was so dark and inhuman, that if I had been able to speak I would have told Jace to run as far as way as he could, and never come back. I was trapped in my own body, as useless as a blindfolded prisoner. I heard the movements. I heard the sound of skin being ripped from bone and the muffled sharp cry that escaped from Jace’s lips. Then blood was flowing into me again. This time it was Jace’s blood that filled me.

I couldn’t help but notice that he tasted different than Akia. Akia’s blood was so hot that it burned going down. There was something about it
that made it crackle and pop as I swallowed, kind of like drinking electricity. But Jace’s blood was something else; it was warm and pleasant and sweet. Kind of like a yummy dessert that you know you shouldn’t be eating, but you just couldn’t stop yourself from eating more.

My eyes flew open like they had a will of their own. The cave was dark but I could see them both standing above me, looking down at me quizzically. What happened next was something that I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to. Both of my hands latched onto Jace’s wrist. My nails dug into his flesh, he couldn’t have gotten away if he tried. The sudden surge of strength running though me, thanks t
o Akia’s Dominus blood, gave me the power to hold him. He wasn’t going anywhere. The look of fear on his face should have been enough to make me stop, but instead, his fear did just the opposite. It made me suck harder, using my tongue to probe deeper into the wound to keep the blood flowing freely. He tasted so good.

“Cat stop, let go of him now!” Oh shut up Akia, I thought, knowing damn well that he couldn’t hear me. Akia closed the short distance between me and him in an instant and his fingers were pushing my chin aside before I could blink.

“Leave her alone, if this is what it takes to save her then she can drink me to death.” I wanted to call Jace a good boy, but speaking would mean spilling drops of his blood and that wasn’t worth it.

“You aren’t going to save her you fucking idiot, you are going to change her. I might have given her too much blood already but you are not helping. You are feeding the Vampire cells that are coursing through her veins right now. If you feed them enough they will grow and take over her human blood cells, then she will be lost to your kind and become one of me. And I doubt you want that, or do you?” Why was Akia ruining my gorging for me? This Dominus could piss me of like no one else. 

As soon as Akia’s words registered Jace started to struggle and pull away. I wasn’t having it. There was no way I was letting go. I dug my tongue in deeper and the blood rushed out faster.

“I am going to get her off of you and then I want you to keep her here and I don’t want either of you to move until I make sure the Hunt is over
, so make sure you stay put until I come back for you.” I didn’t get to hear Jace’s response because just then, the rock in Akia’s hand struck down against my temple and I fell into blackness.

“You just don’t know when to die do you?” I had never heard this voice before, but instantly
I wanted to run.

When my body refused to move, I froze in place instead. Something made me think if I didn’t move, then the creature that belonged to this nightmare voice, wouldn’t move either.

“Turn around and let me see you demon”. Wait, was he talking to me?

Was this horrific voice calling me a demon? Well now I just had to know who I was dealing with. I was almost positive I would regret it, but I just had to know. Slowly I turned and I could feel the air swishing around me. I was in nothing but a bra and panties. OK, if this was death I was going to be really disappointed. I guess I always thought death would be spent warm and cozy and comfortably well dressed, half naked and freezing wasn’t going to cut it.

“You are quite attractive for a human. I suppose I can see what he sees in you. After all he is my son. I suppose he likes pretty things too. In fact, if you’d been around when we first took over, I would have bedded you first.” Shit! My blood ran cold. I didn’t want to know more. There was no way I was going to look. I didn’t want to be standing face to face with any Vampire, let alone the one that had sired Akia.

“I said look at me you stupid foolish human or I will kill you where you stand.” The voice held more power than I had ever thought possible.

The fact that I was still alive made me doubt that he could kill me. If he had the power to kill me, I would have been dead already. I had to be dreaming. There was no other explanation. The world of dreams was the one place where I could be equal to this monster to the point where there was nothing he could do about it. Dreaming meant that I could torment him, and realizing that I could torment him meant I could let off a little steam and have a little fun both and that was all it took to loosen me up and find my courage. I looked up and I was face to face with the most amazing being I had ever seen in my life.

He was perfect. H
e didn’t look any older than I was and power was rippling off his flawless face. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly my body associates fear and sex. Every plan I had to be my normal fun loving insulting self went out the window when I looked at his eyes. They looked just like Akia’s, but there was nothing human in them, there was nothing but animal lust and I knew right then and there, if he was real he would devour me.

“There is something about you and I don’t know what it is yet. Something that if left unchecked, might be the thing that destroys everything I’ve worked so hard to build here on this miserable planet. I will kil
l you before I let that happen.” I wanted to look away. I wanted to say something back but I was at a loss.

“What is the matter pretty girl, cat got your tongue?” With that he chuckled and his lusty laugh caused my skin to throb with the promise of sex so near.

       I tried to ignore the way my body craved his touch. I had to ignore my wants or I would give myself to darkness completely and all it might hold.

       “But y
ou can’t kill me can you?” That made him stop laughing and I knew that I had hit the nail on the head. “This is just a dream and you can’t kill me. That is why I am still standing.” He didn’t like me seeing the light at all. I had thrown him off guard, so good for me. “You must be so ashamed of your son, to know that he has feelings for a pretty little rodent.” His perfect face contorted in anger and I knew I had struck pay dirt. “You are ashamed aren’t you?  Think about how bad it is going to make you look if it ever comes out.” I liked me best when I was a smart ass.

  
“You have no idea what you are, do you? None whatsoever.” There was a pause between us. I guess he thought I was going to tell him he was right, but there was no way in the universe I was going to acknowledge if he was or wasn’t. A few more seconds passed and then he said, “No Catalina, I can’t kill you, not now, not until I’ve had the time to figure out what this pull is that you have over my son and me.” Please tell me he hadn’t included himself!

  
Dreams could be so stupid sometimes. Yeah that was it. I was just having a dream. Akia’s father wouldn’t know I existed.

  
“See? There you go again, nothing to say. That’s good. I have never wanted women to talk much at all anyway. Lucky for my son, I fully intend to save him from you. I am going to mark you. And you are going to accept my mark. Do you understand me?” Was this guy serious? I was not attached to him or him to me and there was no way he was marking anything.

  
“I am not going to take anything from you, especially not your mark, so take your scare tactics and go dream somewhere else. You already made the mistake of telling me that you can’t harm me.” There, brave was good. I liked brave.

  
“I hate to admit it, but you are right. I know you though. I have dreamt about you. I hear your voice in my sleep. You call to me and I don’t know why. The one thing that I do know is that your death will be by my hands. For that reason I have to get you as far away from my son as I can.”

  
He sounded like he was making a promise. He wasn’t threatening me, he was simply letting me know that I was his prize to claim and he was going to collect one day soon. I was hoping that I wasn’t fated to become a trophy hanging on his wall. This was surely the strangest dream I’d ever had.

  
“And just what exactly are you going to do with me when you get your hands on me? Because I am pretty sure you would have problems keeping up with me.” I didn’t know why but I was flirting with him. There really must be something severely unhinged in my brain that makes me come on to dangerous men.

 
“I don’t think you should flirt and taunt someone that can snap you like a twig, little girl.” I was pissing him off good. If I’d been awake, I would have been more worried about why this monster didn’t do just that. I would have been even more concerned with the fact that he had admitted that he couldn’t kill me. What was behind that?

“You know princess, the things that I want do to you right now are making my head spin. The things that I want to do to you I promise you, if I did even the least perverse of them to you, you would never be right in the head again.” His voice was soaking with lust and power.

“Promises, promises big boy. What is it with the men in your bloodline? All such big talkers.” That voice hadn’t sounded at all like me. The second those words slipped from my lips, Trāves, Akia’s Father, looked at me with what I could only describe as pain in his dark hollow eyes.

“What did you just say to me?” I didn’t know him well enough to tell if his voice matched his eyes and I really truly hoped that I would never know him well enough to be sure.

“I didn’t say anything,” I lied. I knew I had, at least I thought I had, maybe it was a phrase that I had never uttered before, but I felt it slip through my lips.

I needed to wake up. I’d had just about enough of this dream.  There was a trick that Doctor Walker had taught me way back when, when I was little and had a bad dream. He told me that if you said “one, two, three, wake up” out loud in any dream, you would wake up, and it never failed. I looked at
Trāves, who was standing there studying me puzzled. When finally my eyes met his, he spoke again.

“That is what
she
always said to me. You even sounded like her. How is that even possible? She was dead before you were born.” Something clicked in his eyes and I didn’t want to know what that something was.

His look went from puzzled to fierce as I stood there watching waves of emotion course through him. Well now I knew how Akia could change
moods at the drop of a hat; it was a family trait. Trāves walked toward me slowly, approaching me tentatively, almost as if he was afraid if he moved too fast, I would disappear, which was exactly what I wanted to do.

“One, two, three, wake up!” I shouted as loud as I could then I closed my eyes and waited.

When I was little, I always closed my eyes in the bad dreams and then, when I opened them I was safe in my bed. I counted to
five with my eyes closed and then I gave a little sigh because I knew that I would be OK soon. Slowly I opened my eyes and took a peek.

“Shit” was all I could say before he started talking again.

“You even smell like her. Why do you smell like her?” I tried to back away. Trāves was standing so close to me that his breath was hot on my cheek.

Before I could step back he grabbed my wrist, pulling me against his rock hard body. I wasn’t sure who he thought
I smelled like but his body had definitely reacted to it.

“Turn around now,” he ordered, almost crushing my wrist.

“I don’t think so. I wasn’t raised a fool. I am not going to turn my back to you.” I knew I had no choice but I wasn’t going to let him boss me easily. With a growl that I thought only an animal could make he picked me up, holding me against him so tightly that his erection was bruising my hip.

“Let me go now!” I screamed struggling to get free, even though I knew it was no use.

“Stop moving and this won’t hurt. Keep moving and I will snap your spine and you will be paralyzed for the rest of your life.”

I listened. He couldn’t kill me and I had to know who this she was that he was talking about. “Where the hell is it?” His fingers were tracing over my shoulder, feeling for something that his eyes couldn’t see. The tender, yet demanding caress of his fingertips on my shoulders was arousing me.

“For the last time,” I said, “I don’t know what in the hell you are talking about. Now put me down!” If the tone in someone’s voice had the power to kill I would have had to explain to Akia that his father had recently departed.

“You know, I don’t care how alluring a rodent you are, you are still a rodent and you will stop talking to me in that tone. I am the ruler of this world and others, and it is best that you remember that pretty girl.” I was really getting really tired of that phrase.

“Look, I am ready to wake up and I am going to leave now. One, two, three, wake up.” I knew I sounded crazy but I didn’t care. My childhood chant was no crazier than this nightmare.

“I don’t know why you keep counting, but you are trying my patience. Now where is the rose?” His tone was simultaneously cold and
searching. His tone made me want to tell him everything he wanted to know, even though I had no idea what he was after. “You smell like Royalty,” he whispered. “If that’s true, you’ll have the mark of the black rose.”

“Mark of the what?” my voice sounded weak, as if coming from afar.

“I don’t have time for this Catalina. You are going to wake up soon and I have to know.” Wait, wake up soon? I really had been dreaming and he knew it the whole time?

Akia had come to me in a dream too. This had to be some sort of Vampire blood trick. If I got out of here alive I was going to have to ask Walker about it. I was so distracted by these thoughts that I didn’t see
Trāves move until it was too late. In one fluid motion he had my wrist in his hand again. This time he twisted me around so that I was face to face with him. Before I knew what he was doing his own wrist went to his lips and he tore his flesh away, causing blood to flow freely on the floor. I was still trying to figure out his motive, why he did what he had done, when my wrist was forced to his lips; the pain was unbelievable when his fangs sunk in.

“No!" I screamed, but it did no good. He was drinking from me, pulling my life force right out through two perfect little punctures and there was nothing I could do to stop him.  I was losing way too much blood
way too fast and I was feeling weak in the knees. I didn’t even feel him take me to the ground. I didn’t realize he was cradling me in his arms like a lost child as he emptied me.  I was floating off somewhere in the distance, somewhere in the warmth that only true Vampire saliva gives you and I didn’t even notice when he pulled his fangs out of me. I thought I was seeing things due to my pheromone induced stupor, but soon realized it was real enough when he put his wrist to his mouth and started drinking his own blood.

I didn’t snap back to reality until his mouth covered mine. His tongue forced my mouth open and he poured his blood in. His tongue rubbed against mine and the taste of blood flowing from his mouth to mine was intoxicating. I should have stopped him but the sexiness of his blood coursing into me made me cr
ave him. I’d never tasted pure Vampire blood ever and it was like nothing I could explain. I felt so alive, more alive than I had ever felt even though I was just laying there helpless in his arms. It didn’t matter that he had drained me. It didn’t matter that I was still asleep and this was Akia’s father, all that mattered was the feel of his tongue against mine.

I was kissing him back, trying to lick every last drop of the magic mixture that
spilled from his mouth to mine. When he pulled away I felt my want increase and I tried to bite his lower lip to keep him kissing me. The feeling of my teeth sinking into his lower lip was enough to make him moan. His moan sent shivers up and down my spine. I was truly vibrating with power.

“
Mmm, slow down my beautiful NXY, you are not ready yet.” Wait. What did he just call me? That name was written on the inside of my ring, the ring Walker had given me.