Reunion by Felicity Heaton (e book reader free .TXT) 📕

Her eyes ran over the cold grey stone of the mansion. It was dark and foreboding against a backdrop of cloud strewn night sky. The moon was nowhere to be seen and the only light was that coming from one of the ground floor windows. The rest were dark, making them look like the hollow eyes of the building.

Jascha moved past her and stopped by the door, watching her. She managed another smile. This time he seemed to see straight through it. He walked back to her, dumping the body at her feet, and his look melted into one of concern. Marise caught his hand to stop it as it rose and held it tightly, squeezing it and taking comfort from his touch. She wanted him to caress her cheek as much as he did, but she was afraid that someone might see. She still didn’t know how to break things to her comrades.

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice a little shaky and giving Jascha all the evidence he needed to pin down her feelings.

His thumb brushed against the back of her hand and then he stepped closer to her, bringing his body into contact with hers.

At this distance, he would easily be able to sense the bones of her emotions, enough to truly know how she felt.

She glanced at the house to make sure that no one was watching and then moved into his embrace, resting her head against his chest and closing her eyes. She reached out a little, latching onto the feelings she could sense in him and using them to comfort and soothe her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her hair. She didn’t feel as strong as she had done when she had left this place to visit her home and discover who had attacked Timur. With Jascha being strong for her, she was letting herself be weak, relying on him to help her through.

He smiled when she stepped away from him and looked into his eyes.

She was strong. Her gaze dropped to the sleeve of her jacket. The servants had done an admirable job of repairing it, and although it would never be the same again, it was still her shield and it still gave her power and conviction. She wore this uniform for a reason. She had been chosen because of her strength and sense of duty. She wasn’t weak, she was just in love, and it was something that could make her stronger too. Her desire to return to Jascha, to protect him, would be another part of her shield now—it would give her the strength to do her job, regardless of the danger it involved.

Picking up the body, she carried it towards the house and knocked on the door. It opened within a few seconds, revealing the familiar low-lit interior and the Caelestis Law Keeper. He raised an eyebrow when he looked past her and she knew he had noticed Jascha.

Marise thanked him with a nod as he stepped to one side and gave her room to enter. She walked into the house and went straight to the library on the ground floor. As expected, the Vehemens and Tenebrae Law Keepers were there, sitting in the armchairs near the large fireplace with their noses in books. She had never seen two men study as much as they did.

“Mission completed. I have brought back his body as evidence. I tasted his blood... whatever he was, he wasn’t all human. There was a trace of vampire in him.” She dumped the body down on the mahogany table in the centre of the room.

Both men rose from their seats, placed their books down, and came over to stare at the body. She swallowed hard, waiting for someone to mention her company. None of them did.

“Is everyone here?” she said.

The Vehemens shook his head. “The Aurorea have called Daemon home... some business about the prophecy. Serge has been asked to investigate Ineru’s escape from exile and see if it was assisted or not.”

She noticed his pause and frowned at him. It wasn’t like him to stop halfway through a report.

“And Natyla?” she said, watching him closely.

His eyes flickered with something for a moment and then all emotion disappeared from his face as though someone had wiped it away.

“Natyla has been called back to Budapest. She has business to attend to.” There was a darkness in his voice that made her look at Jascha.

She had heard something similar in his a thousand times. A hint of jealousy. It was probably just her imagination. Eduard would never be jealous. He never showed any feelings at all.

He picked the body up. “We must see what has been done to this man.”

She watched him go and then caught the eye of the Caelestis Law Keeper, Vincent.

“He was in a fight and his target escaped, disappeared. Natyla apparently got in the way, misjudged her attack and caused Eduard’s injury. He has not spoken to her since.” Vincent shrugged in a way that said it was all he knew.

Marise could swallow that easier than the thought of Eduard being jealous. He had always been the kind of man you didn’t cross and definitely didn’t get in the way of during a fight.

“Who is your friend, little Marise?” The amused tones of Balthazar drew her attention to him. The Tenebrae Law Keeper was leaning back in a wooden chair beside the table, his dark eyes boring into her. He had always been the only one of her comrades to unsettle her. Quiet, secretive and with a vicious streak a mile wide, he reminded her of what the humans called serial killers. There was a blackness inside him that made him the perfect Law Keeper. Here was a man that no emotion could touch.

“He is my child and elite guard of Venia,” she replied flatly, not letting her feelings come to the surface as they wanted to.

He scrutinised her a moment longer and then stood, brushing his jacket down. He gave a disinterested glance towards Jascha and then left the room.

“Eduard will be ready for us by now,” Vincent said and then walked away.

She looked at Jascha. He raised his eyebrows.

“Friendly aren’t they?” he said with a smile.

“This isn’t the barracks, Jascha. This is the way we are expected to be. This is what it means to be a Law Keeper.”

His smile widened and he pushed her hair behind her ears. She was surprised that he didn’t say anything. She had been expecting him to crack a joke, or reassure her that she wasn’t like the others, she wasn’t heartless as Tynan had told her the other night.

She held his gaze, searching his face for a sign of what he was thinking. He closed his eyes, stealing their light from her world and dipped his head towards her. She didn’t stop him when he kissed her. Instead, she responded in kind, teasing his tongue with her own and showing him that regardless of what happened here today, she loved him and wanted to be with him again.

He broke the kiss and held both of her cheeks in his hands. When he drew back, he was looking at her with so much emotion that she wanted to look away. He held her steady, forcing her to look at him.

“Lubov moya,” he whispered and she melted into the pool of warmth inside her.

She smiled and caught his hands, bringing them away from her face and holding them.

Looking into his eyes, there were so many things she wanted to say to him, but she couldn’t find a voice for any of them. She smiled at him a moment longer and then turned, leading him from the room.

When they reached the small laboratory in the basement where Eduard had taken the body, the others were already discussing the findings so far. She stepped up to the stainless steel table where Eduard was studying a slide of blood under a microscope and then stared at the little machine beside it. She didn’t understand any of it. In his time as a human, Eduard had been passionate about science. In her time as a human, she had been taught to run a household and catch a husband.

She looked at Jascha where he stood by the door. He looked awkward and out of place, not a part of this group but an outsider. She signalled for him to join her, not wanting him to feel as though she had abandoned him. She needed his strength too.

Eduard looked at her and she leaned her backside against the table. She told him everything that had happened down to the very last detail. He frowned a few times, and made the odd remark to Vincent and Balthazar. She tried to keep her attention away from Jascha but her eyes kept straying to him, her hand itching to be in his again, to feel his slim fingers closed tightly around it, reassuring her.

She was glad that Daemon wasn’t here. Of all the Law Keepers, he was the one she most expected to cause trouble about her relationship with Jascha. Natyla would understand her need for love because she suspected that the Nocens Law Keeper had a lover of her own. The lord of Serge’s bloodline, Hyperion, was an advocate of love, regardless of the law, and she knew that in some small way, Serge shared his master’s view.

“Your child is strong and courageous,” Eduard said with a nod of respect in Jascha’s direction. “He deserves recognition for his help.”

She tensed when Jascha stepped forwards.

“I did not do it for recognition,” he said, thick Russian accent making his words sound proud and true.

All three Law Keepers looked at Jascha and then at her and then back again. She took a deep breath and stepped forwards towards Jascha, her hand sliding easily into his and her fingers curling around it, confirming their suspicion for them.

She looked at all of them, waiting for one of them to speak or give her a look that said they didn’t approve of what she was doing. None of them gave an outward sign of disapproval and she was surprised when Eduard smiled.

“The humans have done something to this man,” he said, pointing towards the body on the operating table in the middle of the room. “His blood is different, more like ours.”

“We suspected that someone has been playing god to give the humans an advantage in their fight against us,” she said.

He nodded. “They are unravelling our secrets and must be stopped. We cannot tolerate such disobedience. We must discover the source of this change and destroy all evidence.”

There was a general murmur of agreement. She glanced at the window and closed her eyes as the sun called to her. She was still tired and sore from the fight with the hunter and Jascha needed his rest. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and smiled shyly when she found he was staring at her. Well, he needed rest amongst other things. They did have a lot of catching up to do.

Leading him towards the door, she paused when she reached it and looked back at the room. She thought about what had happened and while she was glad to finally be back with the man that she loved, she couldn’t be happy about the circumstances that had brought them back together.

“I am tired and Jascha must rest to heal his injuries,” she said and Eduard stood, nodding in understanding. “Wake me if you discover how the change in this human has happened. When night falls and we have more evidence, we must contact our comrades and then we must warn the bloodlines.”

She looked at Vincent and Balthazar, her eyes lingering on him longest of all. In his eyes was