The Dark Vampire: Last True Vampire 3 (12 page)

“I see now,” he said with sadness, “that I have made a great many mistakes over the course of the past week. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“Let’s all try to calm down.” Ronan, it seemed, had adopted the role of diplomat. Mikhail scowled at her uncle’s words and a low growl gathered in Jenner’s throat. Only Ronan seemed interested in keeping the peace. “This isn’t the big disaster everyone is making it out to be.”

Jenner snorted and Ronan cocked a sardonic brow.

“Surely you knew this could be a possibility, Thomas,”
Mikhail remarked. “Fate has a way of righting itself once misaligned.”

“So my niece’s near death, her forced transition, and tethering are all a part of some greater plan?” her uncle asked. “You’ll forgive me, Mikhail, if I don’t subscribe to your notions of fate.”

“It’s a lie,” Lucas interjected. “I refuse to believe it’s true.”

Jenner bared his fangs once again. “She’s
mine
.” His grating tone would have terrified death itself. “And if I smell her scent on you again, I’ll take your head from your shoulders, dhampir.”

So much posturing. Bria didn’t think she could take much more of it.

“Whether or not you accept it, Thomas, it has happened,” Mikhail continued. “The tether is absolute. And as you can see, a mated male is . . . temperamental.”

Her uncle gave a disdainful snort. “Do not think to educate me on the temperament of a mated male, Mikhail. I know far too well the sort of havoc a tether can reap.”

Bria cast a questioning look at her uncle. This was the first time in her life she’d heard him talk of tethers. Bria’s mother had been turned by her father and both had died when Bria was just an infant. The bitterness in her uncle’s words betrayed his emotions. For the first time since her transition, Bria wished she could better manipulate the Collective. To get a glimpse of her parents through their memories might have shed light on so many questions that her uncle had refused to answer.

Ronan and Mikhail shared a questioning look but said nothing. Jenner hadn’t seemed to have heard or didn’t care what her uncle had to say. He kept his attention focused on Lucas, who in turn chose to center his attention on Bria.

Foolish males!

“I’d like to speak to Jenner. Alone,” her uncle said after a moment.

“That’s not a good idea,” Mikhail responded.

“I trust he’s not so much of an animal as to attack his mate’s own family,” Thomas replied coolly. “As her only living relative, I think it’s my right to have a word with the male who has tethered her.”

Bria wanted to roll her eyes. You would have thought they still lived in the nineteenth century, the way her uncle behaved. So proper and civil. She wasn’t property to exchange hands, for the gods’ sake! There was nothing for him to discuss with Jenner. Bria’s life belonged to herself no matter who or what had anchored her soul. That Mikhail would even entertain her uncle’s request kindled her indignation.

“Jenner?” Mikhail deferred to him to decide.
Ugh.
Bria doubted this would end well.

“Sure,” Jenner said with an unconcerned shrug of one shoulder. His eyes slid to her uncle’s for a brief moment. “I promise not to bite.”

Bria
followed Mikhail and the others out of the study and cast a nervous glance Jenner’s way, but he refused to acknowledge her. Wouldn’t offer her any reassurances. She’d protected the dhampir. Pleaded with Jenner to not hurt Lucas. Though had she not, Jenner might have been tempted to tear out the male’s throat whether Mikhail had wanted him to back off or not. Lucas wanted Bria. He reeked with desire for her. The scent of her skin clung to him even though it had been days since he’d fed her post-transition. Jenner might not have known her for as long as the other male had, but she belonged to
him.
In Mikhail’s own words, the tether was absolute. Any male who tried to take her from Jenner would meet a violent and bloody end.

“What sort of game are you playing at?” Fairchild asked the moment they were alone. “I’ve already paid your employer a mint for his services. Services I’ve yet to collect on thanks to this recent turn of events. Do you seek to fleece me by insisting that you’ve somehow tethered Bria?”

Fairchild didn’t mince words. Jenner had to give him props for that. “See, your first mistake is in assuming that I need a red fucking cent from you,” he sneered. “Your second is by thinking I give a single shit about how you feel about my tether with Bria.”

“I’m her only family,” Fairchild replied stiffly.

“Not anymore,” Jenner growled.

Fairchild pursed his lips as he studied Jenner for a silent moment. His eyes narrowed and his mouth quirked with amusement. He possessed the same quiet calm as his niece. “You were a member of Siobhan’s coven. An enforcer, if I’m not mistaken.”

“I was.”

“And now you serve the king?”

“I do.”

Thomas regarded Jenner with a shrewd gaze that made him feel as though every particle that constructed him was being individually examined. “I’ve often found that a male of few words is also a male of action. Would you agree?”

To break it down, he shared the common opinion that Jenner was nothing more than a mindless brute.
Join the club, buddy.
He could think whatever the hell he wanted. Jenner didn’t owe him a gods-damned thing. “Perhaps a male of few words is simply wise enough to think before he speaks.”

Thomas chuckled. “True. Did you know that Bria had never known a single vampire—was too young to even know her own parents—before her turning?”

That didn’t surprise Jenner. Mikhail had been the sole vampire inhabiting the planet for two centuries. There were only a handful of dhampirs in the world old enough to have known a true vampire. The rest were orphaned offspring, like Bria, left to fend for themselves.

“The notion of a tether is as foreign to her as is her own vampiric nature. Your souls are tied and now you think
that gives you ownership of her. That you can drink from her and rut upon her as you wish?”

Jenner growled. He knew dick about Thomas Fairchild, but his second impression wasn’t any better than his first. Obviously, he was concerned for his niece’s welfare. That didn’t mean Jenner appreciated Fairchild making assumptions about the sort of male Jenner might be. The way Fairchild spoke of Bria, as though she were nothing more than a possession—something for Jenner to use at his leisure—rankled. “You know fuck all about me,” Jenner snapped. “Or what I think.” He didn’t owe the bastard anything, least of all an explanation.

“How do we know that this tether isn’t a lie constructed to keep Bria here?”

Seriously?
Bria’s uncle wasn’t just secretive. The suspicious son of a bitch had a serious hard-on for conspiracies. Jenner hiked a shoulder. “Bria confirmed it. Ask her again if you doubt it.”

“I’ll speak with my niece soon enough. Lucas is unhappy, and with reason. He expected me to promise Bria to him.”

A surge of anger crested inside of Jenner. Fairchild accused him of seeing Bria as a possession when he was the one who’d planned to give her away. Jenner’s lip curled as he leaned in close. “Life is full of disappointments. I suggest you tell Lucas to suck it up and get used to it.”

“Mikhail Aristov saved my niece’s life and I’m grateful for it,” Thomas said. “But that does not mean that I don’t hold him responsible for the slayer attacks on my and every other coven in the city.”

Harsh words from someone who’d sworn fealty to Mikhail. It amazed Jenner how easy Thomas found it to condemn Mikhail for the attacks on his coven, yet he did nothing to acknowledge the fact that without him they would have died out centuries ago.

“What you think is irrelevant. Be glad Mikhail doesn’t have a choice in nourishing your kind. His strength is yours. And now”—Jenner flashed a feral grin—“my strength is yours.
Your niece’s
strength is yours. How do I know those attacks weren’t orchestrated by the witch that you claim hunts you?”

Fairchild’s feathers were nearly impossible to ruffle. Jenner wished he knew that sort of calm self-possession. “I can assure you, Jenner, that when Astrid comes for Bria, it won’t be with a violent clash of swords. When she comes, she’ll take Bria and kill her before anyone knows she’s even there.”

Icy shards of dread speared Jenner’s chest. He understood aggression. Appreciated outright violence. Stealth and subversion would only serve to further tighten his already-coiled nerves. With Bria’s penchant to run free at night, he’d have to keep her closer than he felt comfortable doing in order to protect her.

“If that’s true, then why keep her a prisoner for so long?”

Fairchild bristled.
Good.
Jenner was glad to have finally gotten under the male’s skin. “I love Bria as though she is my own daughter. You claim to be tethered to her. If you’re so
temperamental,
as your king suggests, what wouldn’t you do to protect her? Or perhaps I’m wrong in assuming the tether is as all-consuming as rumor suggests.”

The bastard could goad Jenner’s temper all he wanted. Jenner refused to take the bait.

“You might not understand what’s happened. You might not like it. But that doesn’t change the fact that Bria has tethered my soul and, in turn, hers is tied to me. The tether is absolute. Unbreakable. Your niece won’t be leaving here with you. She’s staying here. With me. You don’t need Ronan any longer and you can keep your gods-damned money. She has me now.”

“You’re certainly capable of protecting her, aren’t
you?” Nothing seemed to faze Thomas Fairchild. His scent was clean and didn’t betray even an ounce of fear. Strange, considering the way he’d shut himself away from the world like a coward. “And you would, wouldn’t you?” Thomas studied him as though trying to worm his way into Jenner’s thoughts. “Protect Bria.”

The male was shrewd. Calculating. And undoubtedly working an angle. Until Jenner could determine his loyalties, he’d have to be careful around Bria’s uncle. He struck Jenner as the sort of male who played to whatever side could benefit him most. With Mikhail’s kingdom still in its infancy and fragile, he needed to be wary of an ally like Thomas. Someone who could easily switch sides if he saw a greater benefit.

“I want to know more about this witch and why she wants Bria so badly.” No one lived like Fairchild did—locked away and afraid—unless they were crazy or had made a dangerous enemy.

“How old are you—Jenner, is it?”

Good gods.
Thomas Fairchild could give a Siobhan a lesson or three in the art of deflection. Jenner rolled his massive shoulders and cracked his neck from side to side. This beating-around-the-bush bullshit was starting to get on his nerves. “Old enough.”

Thomas gave him a wry smile. “I made the mistake of allying myself with a vampire lord. When the Sortiari began their campaign in London, I had no idea the measure of their strength. I’d never desired to be turned, but my sister Anna did. I lent my army to the cause because it’s what she wanted. She’d fallen in love with the vampire and he turned her. It was a mistake I would not make again given the choice. I should have taken her away. Done whatever was within my power to keep her from him. The immortal hold their grudges,” he said with a dark edge. “Vendettas can span centuries.”

Cryptic.
Though his little story gave Jenner a little insight to the male. He’d probably sympathize with Siobhan given the chance. Jenner sensed that Fairchild’s fealty to Mikhail carried as much water as a rusted-out bucket.

“Are you going to tell me why Bria needs to be protected or are we going to continue beating around the bush until sunrise?”

“I don’t know you,” Thomas said. “And you know nothing about me, my niece, or my coven. If you treat her with kindness and respect, if you can refrain from cruelty, you’ll prove to me that you can be trusted not only with Bria, but with my secrets.”

Jesus.
It looked as though the rumors were true. Thomas Fairchild was mad. Being tethered to Bria might prove to be a disaster. Was this Jenner’s punishment for months of disconnect and out-of-control behavior? To be saddled with a mate whose uncle was out of his mind and who might be crazy herself?

“Treat her with cruelty?” The insult bristled, but Jenner wasn’t about to do anything to assuage the male’s worries. “I’ll treat her however the fuck I please. She is
mine
.” A total dick thing to say, but he didn’t care. He hated opportunists like Thomas.

The male swallowed hard and squared his shoulders. “I could take her out of here now. Back to her coven where she belongs.”

Jenner had about a foot and a half and 150 pounds on him. “Your niece is no longer a dhampir. She doesn’t belong in your coven anymore.” When Jenner was pushed he pushed back.

“We would welcome her back home with open arms.”

Jenner snorted. “She’s no longer yours to care for. She is home.”

Thomas’s eyes narrowed, but his expression bore not a hint of malice. Instead, he seemed . . . pleased. “I have
other business with the king,” he said. “And then, I’ll say good-bye to Bria.”

Effectively dismissed, Jenner marched for the door. He already had too much on his plate to deal with Thomas Fairchild’s insanity.

“Jenner.”

He paused at the French doors and turned to face Bria’s uncle.

“I look forward to our next conversation.”

That made one of them. Jenner gave a slight incline of his head and left. Whatever Thomas’s secrets were, Jenner knew they’d bring them all nothing but trouble.

“Come home with us, Bria. Please.”

Lucas was distraught and Bria didn’t want to add to that by disappointing him. She wasn’t going to go home with him, though. She didn’t belong in that place anymore.

“I need to stay here. Where I can learn about being a vampire.”

“What’s to learn?” He didn’t hide his disdain and his scent soured. Jealousy perhaps? “Vampires and dhampirs aren’t that different. Your life doesn’t have to change at all.”

“It’s already changed, Lucas.”

“Because you’re
tethered
?” His voice quavered with rage on the word. “What does that even mean? What does it even matter?”