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

Jascha winced when he turned his head and his neck hurt. He scratched at the wound.

“She did a good job on it,” Tynan said.

Jascha’s hand fell to the bed and he looked back at his brother. “Who called her?”

“Timur. He is frightened. What happened out there? Is it as Marise said?”

“If I had to guess, I would say she was right. Someone has been changing humans, increasing their key abilities. I don’t believe this is a one off either. Once a successful transformation has taken place, and the abilities proven, then others will follow.” Jascha leaned back and took a deep breath, his thoughts returning to Marise. He wondered where she had gone to make her call. Was it far away? He tried to reach out with his senses to locate her but his whole body ached in response to the strain and he slumped into the bed, tired to the core.

“Do you think Marise will be in danger?” Tynan said and then hesitated a moment. Jascha gave him a look as dark as thunder, silently telling him to reveal what he knew. “She has orders to kill.”

Jascha immediately sat up and ignored the riot of pain that shot through him, making his nerve endings scream.

“That isn’t going to happen. We’re going too,” he said, moving to get out of bed.

Tynan’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked at his brother.

“Our help won’t be welcome. She is still mad at you, and if we go, we will be a distraction for her.”

Frowning, Jascha covered himself again and realised that what his brother had said was true. Marise wouldn’t welcome the help. She wasn’t the lowly guard she used to be. She was a Law Keeper now. They were meant to work alone. They didn’t need help.

But he couldn’t allow her to put her life on the line because of pride and her anger.

“I don’t fully recall what I did wrong, but it couldn’t have been worthy of so long a punishment,” he muttered to his knees as he stared at them.

“You slept with Almina,” Tynan said flatly.

Jascha shot him a look that could kill. It was typical of his brother to remember the details. He had always loved bringing up all the times someone had done something wrong.

“It was one night with my sire,” Jascha said in his defence. All vampires had times when they needed to be with their sire, to feel the connection between them and strengthen their bond. It was acceptable for a vampire to gain that through physical intimacy. It didn’t mean anything emotionally.

His brother looked past him to the door and frowned.

“I think something might be amiss there,” Tynan whispered, distant and as though he was thinking aloud rather than speaking to him.

“I’m going with her,” Jascha said, overlooking his brother’s comment and going to leave the bed again.

This time, Tynan’s hand on his shoulder held more force. “You’re not strong enough.”

“If the hunter attacks—” Jascha started.

“Marise isn’t yours to protect anymore.” Tynan cut him off and Jascha glared at him for the reminder. “You lost that right fifty years ago. Rest, brother. If it is so important to you, I will not let Marise out of my sight.”

Marise was finding it incredibly difficult to concentrate. As though it wasn’t bad enough that it was raining, freezing cold, and slippery underfoot in the cemetery, she couldn’t get her thoughts off Jascha and Tynan was driving her insane.

She turned sharply to face him. He stopped, keeping the thirty foot gap between them steady. It was a wise move. If he came much closer, she would kill him for dogging her.

She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. She really didn’t need him following her everywhere she went. It had been annoying enough in the mansion and there she had been able to shut herself in a room and leave him outside. Here, she couldn’t shake him so easily.

“Was it Timur’s idea to annoy me, or Jascha’s?” she said, reaching the end of her tether.

There was no way she could continue her search for the vampire hunter when all her focus was being stolen by her increasing anger.

“Does it matter?” he said, cool and calm, as though there was a right and wrong answer and if he chose the correct one, she would let him tag along as he so clearly wanted to.

Marise knew who had sent him. Her question had been pointless. Timur wouldn’t have ordered him to help her. He was too busy trying to convince his entire bloodline to remain inside the mansion and starve to death. It had been Jascha. Or had it been Tynan’s idea. She knew Jascha inside and out. He was recovering well, healed enough now that he wouldn’t see his injuries as a hindrance and would most likely want to protect her out of some strange, hopeless chivalry. Of course, Tynan would never allow Jascha out of bed until he was fully recovered.

“No,” she said. “I’ll ask you to leave either way.”

Tynan took a step closer. It was a brave move, but then her bluff wasn’t too hard to call. She would never raise a finger to hurt him or Jascha. Her heart ached. She loved them both too much.

“I can’t leave, Marise. I promised Jascha I would protect you.”

She laughed, mirthless and bitter.

“Do I need a babysitter? Who is elder? Who has years of training as a Law Keeper? If a hunter attacks, it will be me protecting you!” She went to turn away and then held her nerve, locking eyes with Tynan and allowing her feelings to slip their leashes. “I am not a youngling. I am four times older than you and Jascha!”

Tynan backed off. “Jascha is just concerned.”

She laughed again.

“Go home. Tend to your brother.” She turned and walked away.

Tynan didn’t seem to take the hint. She could sense him following her. She held the sigh inside. If he tailed her into the next cemetery, she would make him leave.

“Why did you come back? Wasn’t any of your reason to do with Jascha?”

Marise spun on a pinpoint to face him. He had stopped a distance back, clearly before he had spoken. Her hands shook as she struggled against the onslaught of feelings that his words had released and she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about them to find an answer.

Looking into his eyes, she couldn’t ignore the honesty they demanded and the assurance they offered. He wouldn’t tell his brother. He was just concerned about both of them. He always had been, acting like a brother to both her and Jascha, a confidant she could speak to and know he would never tell anyone, not even Jascha.

She gave a tiny nod, her voice tight with emotion and fear. “It was, in a way. But it doesn’t change what happened, or my feelings.”

“He doesn’t know.”

Marise froze, the hairs on her arms rising as she stared into his blank emotionless eyes. Sometimes he looked so much like Jascha. He could hold her motionless with just a look and a few well placed words.

“Doesn’t know what?” she said, hoping he didn’t say what she thought he was going to. He couldn’t know. He just couldn’t.

“That you’re his sire and not Almina,” he said in a tone as empty as his eyes.

She swallowed hard, fighting her instincts to run away and pretend he had never spoken those words. He knew. She couldn’t find her voice to deny him, or explain. All she could do was stare at him.

His expression hardened.

“It was a dirty game to play, pretending that Almina was his sire because you didn’t want to admit that you had feelings for him before you turned him... you still have feelings for him. Why didn’t you tell him when you began your relationship with him?”

She paced a little way towards him, her emotions colliding inside her as she struggled to get a hold of them and find the right words to say, to make him understand why she had done what she had.

Her gaze lowered to the floor and his feet. She stared at them, her eyes wide and filling with tears as she thought about all the years she had deceived Jascha. She’d had her comeuppance in the end. She had paid her dues for hiding the truth from him.

“I couldn’t... he would’ve hated me.”

Tynan chuckled. “He would’ve got over it and he wouldn’t have done those things with Almina, and you would have still been together like you should be. You hurt each other... you’re both as responsible for what happened as the other.”

She hesitated a moment and then took another step towards him.

“Tynan... I’m not proud of what I did, and I should’ve told him, but I was scared that he’d only love me because I had sired him.”

His whole face lightened, softening as he looked at her.

“And you wanted all of his love,” he said and she nodded. “But now both of you have none.”

The rain fell and she listened to the sound of it as her thoughts ran over what he had said. The cold water soaked through her jacket, sucking what little warmth she had from her and chilling her. It only added to the feeling inside her, drawing out the despair and the hopelessness.

She sighed and clawed her wet hair from her face. “It’s too late now.”

“It’s never too late.” Tynan stepped up to her, giving her an understanding look that made her want to cry. “Fifty years and he’s thought of no one but you, Mari. I saw the work you did on his wounds. I know you still love him and he still loves you. He’s going to come to find the hunter with you whether you like it or not.”

“That hunter almost killed him.” She couldn’t hide the worry as it strained her voice. Tynan smiled.

“And your point? He loves you Mari, enough to die if he could die protecting you. Just think about telling him, please? He’ll understand if you do.”

He reached out to touch her and she backed away, getting the better of herself and her feelings. She was on a mission. This was no time for making amends and patching up her relationship with Jascha. She didn’t even know if she wanted to be with him. He made her feel weak and vulnerable. She hated that. For fifty years she had felt invincible, the elite of the elite, stronger than stone and steel. Seeing Jascha again had rendered her powerless and pathetic. She had become a slave to her feelings again, and she didn’t want to lose control. She was happy as a Law Keeper. She loved her position.

But did she love it more than Jascha?

She shook her head and water ran down over her brow and her cheeks.

“Leave me alone, Tynan. It doesn’t matter how I feel, I can’t do this... can’t you see that? I can’t. I’m not allowed to.” She held onto those last words, desperate to convince herself of their truth so everything would become easier.

She couldn’t love Jascha, not now that she was a Law Keeper. She was supposed to be emotionless, impartial.