Longest Days (The Firsts) (17 page)

Daniel winced.   He could see the pain in those glowing eyes and feel the waves of confusion and betrayal emanating from her spirit, her aura, whatever it was, it was there.   And he could feel it.   He remembered cursing Karma for doing this to her.   After he’d promised himself he wouldn’t hurt her again for anything in this world, here she was, shattered.

“Please, would you sit down?”  He finally said.

She didn’t respond.   She began to pace, slowly.  Eventually, she stopped directly in front of him.  Her eyes were electric, a brilliant glowing amber that was brighter than before.

“Did you kill him?  The man that was decapitated.  Did you do it?”

“No.  But it doesn’t make me innocent.  I was commander of that mission.  I take responsibility for letting it get that far.  I stopped it when I saw him, when they wanted to do it to you.  You lay there so beautiful, so pure.   I knew then how awful the order was and stopped it.”

Eillia turned away.  Tears welled and then poured.  She wouldn’t let him see.  With quicker than normal movement, she went into the storage room.  It didn’t escape her notice that this was one of the places they had made love.  The tears came harder.  How could this happen?   That she would be inexplicably drawn to this man who had destroyed her world?   She wanted to beat the shit out of him.   She wanted to hurt him in the worst way.  She wanted to throw herself at him and beg for comfort.

Dropping against the concrete, she lowered her head and let the wet pain flow from her.   It couldn’t be right.  Daniel’s aura was beautiful, he wasn’t a bad man.   Her body and her soul wanted him.  Needed him. 

She felt him.  Looked up and saw his big frame filling the doorway.  He came forward and squatted in front of her.  There were tears in his eyes, too.

“I can’t justify myself to you.  I’ve made awful decisions in my life.  I’ve been a horrible man, and I’ve hurt a lot of people.  At the time I believed they deserved to be hurt.  But I didn’t
know
that.  If there was ever anyone who needed to change his past, it’s me.  I want to be someone you could love.  I want to hold you and take care of you for the rest of your life.  I want to be your hero, Eillia.  But I’m none of those things.  I’m just a man who loves you so deeply, I’d do anything in this life to change this.  I wish…”

His voice broke.  And he looked away.  “I wish I had never been born.   Then you would never have been hurt.”

Eillia shook her head, her watery eyes on him.    This broken man, this human, who squatted before her, in as much pain as she was, was still inside her.   With the deepest sigh of her life, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him.   He held her so tightly she knew she’d have broken a rib if she were human.  

Daniel buried his face in her hair.

“Take me.  Use me.  Drink your fill, and have your justice.  I am yours to do with whatever you want.  I deserve nothing, and certainly not your mercy.  Give me to the vampire that wants to tear me apart.  There is nothing too extreme.  Just know that I am truly sorry.  More than you could ever know.  Sorry that I hurt you.  I’m sorry for all of them.” 

Eillia pulled back and looked at Daniel.   Closing her eyes again, she let her ability take her spirit into him.   His heart was deep and full of love.  His soul was splintered between who he had been and who he
should
have been.   But his spirit was pure and he loved her deeper than anything in his life. 

She pulled out and pushed him back to hold his face in her hands.   Were they destined to be together?   Her spirit amulet told her so.  She didn’t know.  Life didn’t come wrapped up nicely with a bow.  It was beautiful.  And it was messy.

The choices he’d made in his life had been hard and ugly.  But she’d just been inside him.  He’d taken lives and now felt their losses.  Soul-deep scars that would never heal.  Did it mean he couldn’t be forgiven?  

Well, there would, hopefully, be time to deal with this later.  Now, she had to save his life.  And her own.

“We’ll work this out.   Daniel, I don’t know where we can go from here, but right now, we need to get out of town.   They’ll find us, and believe me, they’ll come.”

“Who are they?  What do they want with you?”

Eillia smiled painfully.  “My death.  Again.  Deja-vu all over again.”

“I won’t let them touch you.”

“Sweet.  You realize you have no choice here.  You are in no position to help me this time, sorry.   I appreciate the intention.   We are in very serious…”

She cut off and lifted her head.  Closed her eyes and let her spirit amulet guide her into the air.  Ahhh.

When she opened her eyes, she smiled and pulled him upright.

“Well, good news.  The cavalry has arrived.  My family is here.  I knew they would come.  I just didn’t know if they would arrive in time.  Now, we have a chance.”

Koen slowed the huge four wheel drive SUV as they slid into the slick parking lot, and did a full 360 before coming to a stop.  He turned to face the back seat.

“Everyone’s head still attached?”

His frazzled passengers nodded.

“Been a while since I had to drive on ice.  Forgot how tricky it was.  I’m glad I don’t have to do that normally.” 

They all looked around the snowbound parking lot and old building with ice covered aged wood shingles and siding.  A spotlighted sign said “The Wooly Bully.”    Local bar.    Koen knew she was inside.  Even though her life force had been blocked by Tamesine, he and Park were powerful enough to feel her when they were this close.  Even that psychotic first blood bitch couldn’t interfere.

“Let’s go see our girl,” he said, and they all hurried out of the car.

Daniel was behind the bar pouring two shot glasses full of whiskey.  Eillia sat across from him on a tall barstool, and reached for one of them.  The door, which had been locked, violently blew open.

Daniel jumped.   Eillia killed the whiskey and turned toward the group that crashed through the door.

She stood and stared for just a moment as Koen came forward and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her feet off the floor. 

From his encaged position behind the bar, Daniel watched as the intimate hug set his head on fire.  He knew he had no right to feel jealousy but it flared and nearly forced him to surge forward to confront the huge man that looked like he was about to make love to Eillia.  But he held his position and let his eyes shift to the rest of the group.  Two more enormous men and a stunning woman with a huge smile were moving forward to intercept the hugging couple.  Vampires, all of them, he assumed.   If his past year hadn’t driven him to drink, this discovery certainly would have.  He upended the shot glass and poured another.

Tears flowed.  Eillia couldn’t stop them.  Her arms held Koen tightly as his held her.

“Baby…my darling little exotic.  I really thought I’d lost you.”   Koen’s voice held a deep timbered catch that told her he was as emotional as she was.

“I’m sorry.  I’m so, so sorry I didn’t let you feel me.  I should have, I know that now.  I just couldn’t face you, any of you, or my life, after Hamid’s death.”   She turned to Park.

“My god, young woman, is it even possible that you are lovelier than before?”   

Koen was pushed aside by his daughter, and hugged just as tightly by the beautiful redhead who was crying as freely as Eillia.

“Don’t you ever, ever do that to me again.  I’d just barely found you and thought you were gone from my life forever.  This past year, every event that happened, I needed to turn to you and share it.”

As they hugged, Eillia felt a strong hand on her head, caressing her hair, and then lips kissing her forehead.  She reached a hand back to take Bas’s hand and hold it, fingers entwined.

Daniel killed another whiskey and watched the family embrace.   Here was love like he had never known.  His own childhood had been quick and brutal.  No parents, just an uninterested uncle who let him run.  Who had no interest in him.   That’s why he’d joined the military at eighteen.   They were all the family he’d ever known.  But never anything like this.

Koen watched his family with moist eyes.  Then they wandered up to the tall man behind the bar.

“What’s your deal?”  He didn’t give Daniel a chance to respond.  His eyes shot back to Eillia.  

“Eillia, who’s the human?”

Eillia’s eye moved to Daniel, who hadn’t moved since the group hugs began, and then back to Koen.

“Long story.  Relevant.  We need to protect him.  Koen, don’t start.  Don’t make me hug the life out of you and kick the shit out of you at the same time.”

David stood back watching all the emotions in the room.   He walked over and closed the still gaping doorway.  As he turned back, Eillia was there with a gentle hug.

“I know we haven’t ever really known each other well, but I know you were missing for a lot of years.  And I know Tamesine was responsible.  Welcome home, David.”

He hugged her back.    And was beginning to see why everyone was so emotional.  She was quite a lady.

“It was a difficult time.  I barely made it back at all.  That’s why I’m here.    We have to stop her.”

“With all of us, I don’t see how we can miss.   Thank you for coming.  I really think there was a chance that, alone, she might have succeeded in ending my life permanently.”

“We’ll get her this time.  I’ve given this a lot of thought over the past year.  She’s crazy, but I think she’s missing family.”

Koen nodded.  “Yes, that’s true.  She wants to be accepted back with the first blood kin.  That can’t happen.  A council of first bloods has agreed she’s too unstable.  If we can’t contain her, completely and safely, then we have to consider other options.   Well, you know what I mean.  Anyway.  We need to find her.  But first, my sweet Eillia, what’s with the human.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Please tell me you haven’t been shacking up with him.”

“I haven’t.  Although if I had it would have been none of your business.”  She drew a deep breath and looked at Bas.  “Before I explain further, I need your promises, all of you, to not overreact, and above all, you must promise not to hurt him.”

The other vampires exchanged glances, and then stared at Daniel.

Daniel threw his hands up in surrender.  “Hey, I don’t care what you do.  I deserve anything at this point.”

Eillia stepped in front of him.  “Well, I do.  Promise, my dear friends.”

More hesitation because they really couldn’t imagine why she would ask such a strange thing and knew it didn’t bode well.  But Park stepped forward. 

“Of course we promise.  We love you and we trust you.”  She glanced at the huge men behind her.  “Right, boys?”

A few reluctant nods later, Eillia sat back down on the stool.  “Pull up a chair.  This will take a minute.  Bas, I am so sorry, but this centers on you.”  Drawing a deep breath again, Eillia continued.  “Daniel, this man behind me, is, or was, a mercenary soldier.”  She noticed Bas’s jaw clench.  He’d already figured it out.  “He’s the one hired by Alvin to destroy your home last year.” 

Bas pushed away from the bar, followed by Park.  She whispered to him, although all the vampires understood them because of excellent vampire hearing.  He shook his head, Park took his hand and laid it on her chest.  She pressed it to her heart and touched him.  His breathing calmed, and Eillia could feel him get control.

Park had extraordinary skills.  She had found out she was a vampire, and a first blood as well, only after a horrid childhood that included extreme neglect and a cruel mother who destroyed her self-esteem.  Now, having found the vampire community, and discovered her true nature, she was one of the most powerful of them all.  The combination of her very powerful father and human mother had produced a new generation of first bloods.  And Park, with Bas, had borne a daughter who was foreseen as even more powerful.

Eillia watched Bas and Park pull their spirits together to support each other and protect each other from news that would be impossibly hard to hear.  Moments later, they turned and walked back to take their seats.

“Go on, Eillia,” Park said, still holding Bas’s hand.

“Alright.  Daniel was a tool, an instrument, of that vile vampire.  I can’t defend his choice of profession, or what he did to you…”

Koen cut her off.  “To you!  He killed Hamid!  Surely you aren’t telling us you forgive him!”

“I can’t say I forgive him.  But I can say he isn’t a bad person.  His heart is pure.  Because he knows what he’s done and he’s offered his life for justice.  He’s handed me his life as payment for the one’s he’s taken.  For being involved in Hamid’s death.  Hamid did not die by his hand.  But I might have, if he had been truly unforgivable.  He saved me from the same fate.  He carried my lifeless body from that place, and not knowing I was vampire, not truly dead, he gave me a proper grave.”  She looked at Daniel and their eyes connected.   Then she heard a deep groan from Koen.

“Well, you may not have forgiven him, but I can see from the way you look at him.  You’ve been with him.”

“Careful, Koen.  You’re going to get that ass-kicking yet.  What I’ve done with him is not your business.”

“It is because of who he is.  What he’s done.  He’s the reason for all your pain this past year.”

“There’s enough pain to go around.  It’s really, really complicated.  I couldn’t explain it right now even if we had all the time in the world.  I just found out myself, and I still have a lot to work through.  But I know he isn’t the enemy.  Right now, we have to deal with those who
do
want to hurt us.   We need to find Tamesine and that unpleasant little vampire.”

“It isn’t a problem.  I can channel my power through you guys and find them.  And I agree.  This is immediately important.  We’ll deal with the mercenary later.  If you would all come to me, and link hands.”  Park had already stood up and stepped back to make room for Eillia, David, and her father to join her.  Bas was a very strong vampire, but he was not first blood.   He kept his seat and forced himself not to get up and beat the quiet human who stood behind the counter into a bloodied pulp.