Vampire Elite (57 page)

He lifted her head from his lap. “Stop philosophizing with me.”

“Answer me.” She placed her chin on his shoulder.

“Leave me alone.”

“You don’t want to answer because you don’t know?”

“Yes.
No.
I don’t know, but I understand what you’re trying to say. Here’s the thing: the Amitis’ gift to Sekhmi is a Trojan horse. That is my answer.’

“You created the problem. This is my only chance to talk to you. You have a heart, Anock. I know it. You hate what you’re doing, and like me, you’re trying to find a solution.”

“We already found one.”

“To kill us?”

“Only the Keepers. We need the rest.”

“This is wrong.”

“No, Arianna. This is right, because if we don’t kill the Keepers, you’ll kill us, won’t you?”

“That’s what I thought at first. But then I realized that would be wrong, to wipe out an entire race. What has come to life has a right to exist and evolve. That is the rule of the Gods, and as the Keeper of Balance, I have no right to interfere with it. My job is to make sure that the balance on this planet is preserved. Earth is a planet of polarities; their constant tension keeps things moving. If one of the opposites is removed from the equation, it will create a dramatic shift and alter the balance of the entire planet.”

“Glad you understand.”

“Yes. I do. That is why I’m telling you that I will not turn the Key—at least not with the purpose of annihilating the vampires.”

“I don’t believe you. But out of curiosity, what
is
your plan?”

“I don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about it, and I feel that an answer will come to me, but I’m running out of time. You’ll kill me, yes?”

Damn, why is the traffic so slow? Move.
Anock was losing it; he had no idea how much longer he could deal with her.

“But if you keep me alive and help me, we might find a solution.” She touched his cheek with her lips.

He sucked in a breath. She was a trickster, appealing to him as a male and as one of the vampires’ leaders.
Come back down to earth, Anock, she’s playing with you. She’s fighting for her life. Don’t believe her.

The car drove through the iron gates of the mansion and pulled up at the rear entrance, where they were met by three Guardians. One of them approached the car and opened the back door.
 

“Get out.” He nudged her. “We’re here.”
 

Arianna stepped out and froze, staring at the magnificent eighteenth-century building, her new prison. “Is this where you live in Brussels?”

“Yes and no. Now move.”

“What is this building, Anock?”

“We’re not here as tourists. Move.” He pointed toward the entrance.
 

With no warning, Arianna dropped to the ground.
 

“What the hell are you doing?”
 

“If you seriously think that I’m walking to prison on my own two feet, you can think again. I’m not going to make this
easier
for you.”
 

Anock expelled a heavy sigh, bent down, and lifted her in his arms. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to carry you.”
 

Arianna cuddled up to him like a lover. It felt like a sword gashing his flesh.

“You feel so good.” She bit his ear gently as he hurried down the stairs with her. “Anock, you’re going the wrong way! Isn’t your bedroom upstairs?”

She was mocking him. “Shut up.”
 

What he was doing was wrong. He should be following his soul, not his rational mind.
 

The door to the cell was standing open and three handlers were ready for her, lined up along the wall of the corridor. Anock brought Arianna in and dropped her on the bed. Just as he stepped through the door, she called to him. “Anock.”

Reluctantly he turned around, his throat tight as if there was a pebble lodged in it.
Please, please don’t cry. I can’t survive your tears.
 

“What?” He swallowed hard.
 

She didn’t cry, just raised her beautiful eyes to him and said in a small voice like a child’s, “Anock, would you please bring me a kitten? I can’t bear being alone again.”
 

If a grenade had exploded right then, Anock wouldn’t have noticed; it would have been drowned out by the detonation of the world disintegrating around him. He fled from the basement, pushing aside the handlers and the Guardians, and rushed to his apartment, his mind filled with hatred for his life and for Sekhmet.
 

* * *

Arianna watched as the door closed behind him. She pressed two fingers between her eyebrows, suppressing her tears. She would not cry. She would not. What was the point? Crying wouldn’t help; it would not resolve her problem. They were going to kill her, she knew it. Her intuition had never deceived her. She had to do something, and she had to do it now.
 

They might have bled her powers away, but there was one that didn’t drain out with her blood: the power over her blood-bond. For the first time, she was really glad she’d let that filthy pig Khay live. She’d initially agreed to do so out of respect for Serena’s plan, waiting for the signal to obliterate the blood-bonds—and then she’d found a perverse satisfaction in the knowledge that he lived in constant fear that she could kill him at any moment. And now she’d finally found a way for that miserable bastard to make himself useful after all.
 

She sent Khay a mental image of him burning to death, writhing in agony before dissolving into ashes.
I’ll kill you, Khay. You have no control over me anymore. So I recommend that you answer me. Now.
 

No reply for a moment, and then his gruff voice in her head:
What do you want?
She could feel him freaking out; somehow he’d come to believe that she would leave him alone, and now he was terrified. Arianna’s lips curled into a smile of contempt.
It’s payback time, Khay. This is just the beginning.
 

She projected another image, this one of Antar.
Find Antar and let him know that I’m in Brussels, in the basement of an old mansion where Anock lives. Tell him that I ask to reenter Sanctuary. If you do this, I will spare your life.
 

At least for a while,
she added to herself.

Bitch,
he replied, but she knew he’d do what she had ordered him to.
 

It was her first victory. She’d given a vampire an order and he would obey. Goddess, it felt addictive. Now she understood the vampires’ struggle for superiority and control.
 

A plan began to form in her head. If she escaped from this trap, as the Queen and the Keeper of Balance, she’d find a way to turn the tide. The Amiti would become the master race and the vampires would serve them, forced into submission through the blood-bond.
 

After all, hadn’t that been the plan from the very beginning?

Chapter 74

Anock had food delivered to his apartment and tried, really tried, to focus on his meal, but his mind kept stubbornly returning to Arianna. What was in store for the girl was beyond unfair.
 

All things considered, his world was totally unmanageable right now, and he couldn’t stop thinking about everything that was happening and his own role in it all. It was wearing him out, and if he didn’t get a break, he’d lose his mind.
 

He put the dish aside and went to find Riona, who was currently the most accessible of his regular lovers. After her tragic encounter with her blood-bond, the traumatized priestess had needed time to recover in a place where she felt safe, so she’d been staying in one of the Guardians’ guest apartments.
 

Riona was just stepping out of the shower when Anock entered her bedroom. She smiled encouragingly and dropped her towel. He lunged at her, stripping off his clothes on the way. Grabbing her by the waist, he swung her onto her bed.
 

After twenty minutes of mindlessly, mechanically using each other’s bodies, they lay exhausted, staring at the ceiling. They’d brought each other to climax, but Anock could tell that neither of them had achieved the release they’d both been seeking.
 

“So, what’s it like being burned by your blood-bond?” asked Anock, avoiding looking at her, needing to know but feeling her distress.
 

“It hurts.”
 

“Tell me more about it.”
 

“Why do you want to know?”
 

“I’ve been contemplating a blood-bond and at the moment, she hates me.”
 

“Then why would you want to blood-bond with her?”
 

“Well, why did you blood-bond with yours?”
 

There was a long pause, and Anock knew she was crying.
 

Finally she spoke. “I
loved
Erec. You won’t believe me, but even though he tried to kill me, I think I actually
still
love him. I really doubt my sanity when it comes to this ... but there’s a bond that occurs when you fall in love with an Amiti, like your two hearts become one. One doesn’t exist without the other. When you lose your loved one, you lose your heart and there’s just a dark hole in your life. If you’ve never had an Amiti lover, you wouldn’t understand. It’s like nothing else in the universe.”
 

“They become your obsession, they invade your dreams and your thoughts. They’re so much a part of you that there’s no way to rid yourself of them.”
 

“How do you know?”
 

“I have an Amiti lover. Or rather, I had one.”
 

“And? What happened?” Riona turned to look at him, her tears still flowing.

“I can’t talk about it.”
 

“I still want him back. How can that be? He tried to kill me and I still believed he loved me. But it was all a lie. He’s an Avenger; love doesn’t exist in their world. It didn’t exist in mine, either, until I met Erec. He turned my entire universe inside out; I became a different person. He evoked something hidden deep, deep inside me, something primordial. For the first time in my life, I learned to feel. Before him, I was like a robot, aimlessly going about my business. Now I want to die, Anock, I can’t go back to my old existence. And live feeding ... Once you’ve experienced it, it’s impossible to go back and feed on bloodstock blood. It’s not a life. If I can’t have my Amiti mate, I just want to die.”
 

Anock remained silent, reflecting on Riona’s disclosure. Cara had the same power over him. She’d ripped him apart. Anock existed now as two separate entities engaged in an ongoing battle. The clash left him frazzled, but how to find a resolution or a compromise—or even a truce between the two opposing parts of his personality—Anock had no idea. But there was one person who might be able to help him.

He got up and started to pull on his clothes. “I need to go. Thank you for sharing, Riona. Remember, this too shall pass.” That last part was more for himself than for Riona.
If only it was true.
 

He left Riona’s apartment and took an elevator downstairs to the bloodstock cells.
 

“Tell me, do you use some sort of spell to captivate us?” he asked Arianna as he sat in the chair in the farthest corner of her cell.
 

“What do you mean?” She leaned on her elbow, puzzled.
 

“It has to be a spell. It seems that everyone I know who loses an Amiti they love also loses themselves. You’re bewitching us, right?”
 

She shook her head. “No, Anock. There are no spells.” She pulled herself up and sat on her bed, leaning against the wall. As she gazed at Anock, she looked astonishingly wise, as if she had lived a long, long life. It couldn’t possibly be a twenty-two year old girl sitting in front of him.
 

She sighed and continued. “We evoke the love buried inside you, and you suffer because the Sekhmi part of you rejects it. Our two races are each other’s opposites. We act as if we have nothing in common, but in reality, what’s on the surface of one is hidden deep within the unconscious of the other and vice versa. It’s just like the Lioness was chained within Hathor, and Hathor within the Lioness.”
 

“So you’re telling me that I, a Sekhmi, have Hathor within me?”
 

“Yes, and because you refuse to accept this loving part of yourself, you suffer. You feel as if you’ve been torn apart, and there’s a never-ending battle raging within you. The love in your heart demands to be acknowledged. It has the right to exist. I understand it’s hard to admit that you can be tender, nurturing, and compassionate. In Sekhmi society, it’s probably even harder to admit that than it is to acknowledge that you’re hurting innocent people for your own selfish purposes.”

Anock stared at his watch as if mesmerized by its long hand rhythmically counting off the seconds. The qualities she was talking about were what had brought her race to their knees. That wasn’t what Anock wanted for himself or his people.
 

“What about you?” he asked. “According to your theory, the Lioness is hiding deep within the Amiti, and we Sekhmi must be evoking Her.”
 

“Yes. By abusing us. You’re playing with fire. Do you remember what happened when the Lioness broke free from Hathor?”
 

Oh yes, Anock knew the old legends. The Lioness had come very close to destroying the world. Could it be true that the Amiti held this power within them? If it was, they didn’t even need to turn the Key; the Great Destroyer was already there.
 

It dawned on him that only being drained prevented the Lioness from emerging within the Amiti, and that those Amiti who were free were lethal; the Lioness’s wrath began to consume them. Now he understood the Avengers and some of the blood-bonds who killed indiscriminately.
 

With that revelation, all his doubts about the rightness of his mission evaporated.