Apocalypse Read online

  “Are we to do this here and now?” Khaelen’s inquiry was casual, though every sense was on alert.

  “As much as I would love to tear your throat out, bloodsucker, it would harm the cause.”

  “The cause?” Khaelen pretended to look disinterested. He could feel the sun begin its climb in the sky. Though Allantra had given him energy, the sun could still burn him.

  “You forget part of my reason was to come here and save Minn and the pups. I am also here because of Allantra and the prophecy,” Dharean stated, crossing his powerful, tattooed arms across his chest.

  “Ah, the source of her disillusionment.” Khaelen chuckled in sarcasm.

  “She has told you about the prophecy?”

  “She has told me nonsense about the three of us being destined to share a life.”

  “It is not nonsense. This prophecy has been among my people longer that I have been alive, perhaps even longer than you have been alive, old one. You are more than just some vampire, aren’t you? You are Full Caste. That is rare indeed.”

  “You are a powerful shaman, but I detect darkness in you. Your markings”—Khalen pointed to Dharean’s tattoos—“I recognize some of those; they are used by practitioners of the dark arts. You must be a Noir Brujo.”

  “You are far more educated than I ever would have guessed,” Dharean said, new respect in his tone. “Yes, I practice the dark arts. I have been responsible for the protection of my people from yours. I do not apologize for doing what has been necessary.”

  “Glad to rise one level higher than you had placed me.”

  “I still do not think much of your people, bloodsucker, nor you, for that matter. Allantra speaks the truth. We are all connected and it is best if you accepted it. That vampire we ran into gave off quite a bit of power once she was corporeal again.”

  “Dominica is probably the main source of our troubles right now,” Khaelen agreed. The sun had risen dangerously high and Khaelen was now beginning to feel his skin grow warm. “But we will continue this at another time, True Blood. It seems I have an enemy more powerful than you. The sun will not be tamed by anyone. Until next time.” Khaelen didn’t wait for the True Blood to answer him. He teleported straight to his room, where he found Allantra naked, draped seductively across his bed.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he barked out, instantly hard as he gazed upon her.

  “You and I need to get things in order. I’m here to fully bond with you. I want you, Khaelen; I have never stopped thinking about you.”

  Khaelen watched as the headstrong Allantra he knew leaned back on propped elbows and parted her long slim legs. Khaelen did what any self-respecting man who had been egregiously wronged did. He fell victim to the call of the siren.

  Her scent traveled into his very soul. Every cell in his body remembered her and hungered for her. With a thought he stripped his clothing away. He moved so quickly she gasped as he crawled on the bed toward her, pausing only long enough to kiss her ankle. Khaelen traced his tongue across her thigh and across the sides of her knees. He watched her as her head fell back, clearly enjoying his touch. His touch, not the shifter’s. Khaelen paused in his ministrations, willing her to look him in the eye. Slowly she raised her head, a questioning look on her face. Khaelen rewet his tongue slowly, sensuously. She squirmed as she watched him lick at her inner thigh. He came so close to the junction of her thighs she moved her hips to get him where she wanted him, but he merely nipped at the other thigh, tormenting her.

  She groaned at the disappointment of not getting her way; she moaned at the sensations he was causing her. Then slowly he tongued his way to her feverish core. He lapped at her, relishing the taste of her once again. She was so wild. How could she even propose to him that they bind with a third? She belonged to him. Khaelen allowed himself to get lost in the moment. He could deal with reality later.

  Her fingers grazed his scalp in a hypnotic massage as she kept him firmly against her. He teased the hardened nub until he heard her gasp in pleasure. When she could no longer keep herself propped up she fell back, but as she did so she closed her thighs on either side of his head, trying to keep him locked in place. But Khaelen, like Allantra, could never be caged. He pulled her legs down while still feasting; she clawed at the blood red sheets as the orgasm overtook her.

  Without waiting for the orgasm to subside, he plunged inside of her. Loved the feel of her walls as she pulsed madly around his cock. When the tremors began to die down, he moved inside her in long, slow strokes.

  “Is that what you wanted, young one? To be fully mated to a vampire?” he asked as he slowly pushed in and out of her.

  “Yes, Khaelen, it—it is what I want,” she managed, entwining her legs with his.

  “Do you know what you must do to fully mate with a vampire, Allantra?”

  “No,” came the short, breathy answer.

  “We must exchange blood; you must take mine and I must take yours.”

  Allantra didn’t answer; she raked her nails down his back with enough force to cause deep furrows in his skin, though he could barely feel them. His teeth burst forth and he sank them deep into her neck. Her pure blood rushed right to his head, immediately causing a drunken effect. He drank deeply of her, while not once stopping his cock from pumping in and out of her. Finally he closed the wound, then bit her on the shoulder. She cried out from the sudden bite. But not from pain; he felt her walls convulse tighter around him, even suctioning him deeper as he drew life from her.

  Khaelen pulled back his canines and closed the wound on her shoulder as well. He gazed into her face, making sure he had not taken too much. To his surprise, she had lengthened her teeth to puncture his skin. He lowered his neck to hers and felt the teeth pierce his neck; she made small sounds as she exchanged blood. Truly, there was nothing more erotic to a vampire than the exchange of blood. Her small mouth on his neck was his undoing as he felt his blood being drawn into her mouth. The eroticism was too much and they both tumbled into a whirlwind of an orgasm.

  Heat struck him as a blinding light pulsed from every pore in her body. He held her tightly as his seed poured into her. She held him just as tight as the light washed over them. It felt as if tiny bolts of energy were making their way into every crevice of his body. Loud crackling rent the air as if it were storming right there in his bedroom. Then, deathly silence. Nothing but heavy breathing could be heard.

  “What happened?” Allantra finally squeaked out, her body completely limp under his as Khaelen rolled onto his side, careful not to overwhelm her with his weight.

  Khaelen was at a loss. He knew what had been happening up until the light came. The energy. It felt like the energy Allantra had transferred into him earlier, magnified a thousand times.

  “A thousand times? A little dramatic, wouldn’t you say?” Allantra commented. Khaelen stilled. He had not said that out loud. Can you hear me? He directed the thought to her.

  “Of course I can.”

  You do realize I am not speaking out loud?

  “That’s silly. I can hear you loud and clear.”

  Allantra, look at me. Khaelen waited until she leaned across his chest and looked into his face. Notice my mouth is not moving.

  Allantra jerked up. “We’re fully bonded!” Her face lit up in pure joy. “I had no idea it worked so quickly with vampires.”

  Khaelen sat up as well. “It’s not supposed to. It usually takes a few days and even then a little at a time before we can read each other’s thoughts.”

  “I don’t understand. With Dharean it took a little time before I could home in on his thoughts. Why so fast with you?”

  Before Khaelen could speculate the door to his room opened and in stepped Dharean. “My guess is, because we are all linked now, the process has been given a power boost by the synergist. By the way, flammulae, I would appreciate in the future if you didn’t give me a complete visual along with emotions when fucking your vampire.”

  Chapter Four

&
nbsp; Dominica crashed hard to the stone floor of her personal room in the Elder Council chambers. A yelp escaped her lips; it had been too long since she felt anything, let alone pain. Weakly she stood and looked around. Hatred seeped from her soul. She hated this room, had hated it for so very long, but there was nowhere else to go. Until now. Ignoring her fatigue, she went to the hidden chamber where she kept her darkest amulets and tools of power. There was no more time for dreams. The day had arrived.

  She was a reckoning unto herself. She would give only a few of the Elders a chance to join her in wiping out every shifter who walked about. She had seen him. Him. The shifter who had betrayed her first. She’d thought him long dead. Apparently his treachery knew no bounds. He had managed to convince her he no longer existed. But she would make sure she personally killed Masque. Death alone would be too easy and quick.

  She put the items in a bag and looked about. Hunger ate at her. She had not feasted in almost a hundred years. It had been far too long. Her canines elongated at the very thought of feasting. She mentally called to the first guard she could make contact with. A quarter guard hurried to his death. As soon as he came through the door, the lightest spark of surprise lit his otherwise dull eyes. But it was too late. He had already entered the den of the lioness. She pounced upon him quickly, tearing out the jugular and greedily gulping at the human blood that gushed forth.

  Dominica bled him dry, though her hunger was not satiated, only held at bay for the moment. As she used the uniform of the guard to clean the blood off herself, a wonderful thought went through her mind: a mother True Blood and her sons. They had to have come from somewhere. There had to be more hidden in the Savage Outlands. She would need more shifters if she were to turn the Elders who supported her campaign corporeal. A plan began to form. A beautiful, wicked plan.

  Dominica mentally called to the quarter guards again and waited for their arrival. The human blood coursing through her veins was a pleasure she had not experienced in quite a long time. When two more guards entered her chambers, she feasted again, then threw the bodies in one neat pile in a corner of the room. At last the guard she had been waiting for appeared.

  His gaze traveled to the pile of corpses in the corner. He shook slightly as he took in Dominica’s physical form. He dropped to his knees and bowed until his head touched the floor.

  It was a shame all beings didn’t follow his lead.

  “I need answers, servant, and it is you and only you who can appease my curiosity,” she purred while elegantly dropping to her knees. The feeling of the cold floor was a sensation she had not expected. Truly it had been too long.

  Now fully satiated from the blood of the guards, she felt her power slowly returning and amplifying. Almost lovingly she placed her hands on either side of the bowing guard’s head and closed her eyes. “Tell me what I need to know. Show me where you found the mother and the pups,” she whispered, encouraging the memories she needed to surface.

  The guard began to shake and moan softly as Dominica pulled the memories viciously, not caring if she was ripping his mind apart. She huffed in disgust as she had to work through the mind control spell she had woven herself. It was good work, she had to admit. Eventually she came upon what she was looking for.

  She pushed the guard away, his life already forgotten as he slumped to the floor, now a body with a brain consistency equal to mud. Hope burst in her dark heart. There had been a village of them. A whole village of those nasty vile shifters, just waiting to die by her hand. The way to the village had been muddled at best in the guard’s brain. She would have to find the village with the little information she had gathered.

  Though power charged through her veins, she knew from instinct alone that the sun had risen. She was still no match against the sun. But there was a way around even the natural elements. With a thought she made the heavy tome she kept locked away appear at her feet. If that shifter wizard could have tattoos to protect him, there had to be something she could conjure to give her protection from the sun.

  * * * *

  Masque circled the compound steadfastly. He didn’t trust the vampire any more than the Noir Brujo. After delivering the herbs Minn had requested, he had taken it upon himself to look after his leader and his family. The raptor kept a sharp eye as the sun came up. He took the time to hunt and think.

  How long had it been since he’d seen Dominica? She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, and now the most evil. He’d certainly had a hand in that. It sickened him to think that he had put into motion the wheels of the prophecy. For he had betrayed her after she had risked everything to be with him.

  His betrayal had been accidental as much as it had been a way to protect her. His parents had been very powerful and demanded to meet the mate he was destined to be with forever. He’d refused, but they’d had a shaman see into his future. The shaman had told Masque and his parents that he and his mate would never live a life of happiness. She only saw blood and death. The shamans were never wrong.

  Masque and Dominica had vowed to each other to defy their parents and their people to be together. But Masque saw no reason to doom his love’s future. He never came for her as he’d promised. He could only imagine the shame she must have gone through. She called to him through their blood bond. He refused to answer. He could feel her heart breaking. He answered her once and only once. Go on with your life, Dominica. I am not your destined mate. He’d only wanted her to live her life and forget about him. He wanted her to be happy. Eventually she no longer called to him. She could not track him down as long as he did not use magic. All this time he thought she had mated with someone else. It was not lost upon him that, had he used magic, she could have tracked him down and wiped out the whole village. What had he done?

  It now occurred to Masque that what the shaman had seen was the prophecy being fulfilled. They indeed had been mates that were destined never to be together. He had loved Dominica. At the time he’d thought he was saving her future. But now she had killed too many. Committed too many heinous acts to be forgiven. But he could stop her. He circled the compound again; he would stop her even if it meant killing the only woman he had ever loved.

  Masque landed high up in a branch and reached for his Noir Brujo. He came up against a wall of pure anger. His first impulse was to go to his leader’s side. But a second thought prevented him from doing so. The Brujo had to fight some battles alone. It was only natural for there to be a battle between him and the vampire. Masque shook his head at the thought. To share one’s mate with another was quite a thing to get used to.

  The three of them needed to form the Triumvirate on their own. He had other things to tend to, most notably Dominica. It was not lost on him that he was supporting the very people who would kill his mate. How does one take a stand on such an issue? He’d had a hand in what she’d become; yet his people needed to survive.

  For the first time in many years he concentrated on opening the blood link he had ignored. There was a slight feeling of dizziness as his mind searched to connect to the one that matched his. Finally he could feel the darkness in her mind.

  You dare to use the blood link? Her tone dripped with acid.

  Dominica, where are you?

  I am everywhere. I am your death. Are you seeking me out to die?

  I cannot allow you to take more lives, especially my people.

  You are not my mate, nor my keeper. You are merely the insect that will be smashed under the weight of my power. Dominica laughed bitterly.

  Your revenge is with me.

  That is where we agree, shifter. It is my destiny to wipe the earth of you vermin.

  Masque sighed as the sadness swirled in his heart. There really was no way around this. He would have to kill her. You will die, he said at last.

  Perhaps. Dominica laughed sweetly. Tell me this, blood mate. Do you think you can catch me and kill me before I wipe out your village?

  If possible, the blood stilled in Masque’s veins.r />
  Ah, I see I have your attention, blood mate. Yes, I know there are more of you, and I know where. Even now while you rest in the trees, I travel fast toward your people.

  Not possible; it is daylight. Masque felt the blood in his veins turn to shards of ice. She knew exactly where he was, though he had not used any magic.

  Do you think it is only your wizard who knows dark magic?

  Masque felt the quiet in his surroundings. He cocked his head wildly, trying to find the aberration. A gust of wind blew violently enough to knock him from his perch; as he tried to right himself in the air, the wind came again, slamming him in the thick bark of a tree. Pain ripped through him as one of his wings contorted in an unnatural angle. He fell heavily to the ground, shifting his form.

  He landed with a thud to the ground. His arm was broken, and the back of his head had a nasty gash. He opened his eyes slowly to see the apparition of Dominica’s face hovering above him. I know much magic. I am more powerful than you can conceive, little birdie. Catch me if you can. Then the apparition was gone.

  The vampires’ compound was not far; Masque ran as fast as he could to the house, cradling his broken arm while it healed. She was powerful. Even from far away she wielded magic like he had never seen. He ignored the sharp stones under his bare feet as he mentally yelled out a warning to his Noir Brujo.

  Chapter Five

  “You have entered my private quarters unannounced and most assuredly uninvited.” Khaelen rose from the bed, dressing with but a fleeting thought. “I have opened my home to you, but you push my hospitality too far.” His canines began to descend as his anger permeated the room.

  “Allantra belongs to me as well, vampire. It is well you do not forget that. It stands to reason wherever she is, gives me the right to be there as well.” Dharean, his eyes black and funneling, looked at the naked Allantra in his enemy’s bed.