9. Asher
Nine
Asher
The landing of the plane pushes fresh waves of euphoria through my body. Is it something in the earth that connects us? Now that we’re so close to finally being together?
My blood’s boiling, rolling through my flesh and flowing through my little undead heart. I’ve never felt this type of miserable bliss, the longing that reaches through every vein and artery, in all the nights I’ve searched for her.
My cock.
Oh gods, my cock.
It throbs as if scenting her out across the city. Her very essence calling me to claim her.
Those memories of her body, the way it would move and sway as I thrusted into her virginal cunt, fill my head.
Just because it was a fevered dream for her doesn’t mean I didn’t feel every clenching muscle of her core. It was perfect completion.
A deep shiver flows through me at the memory.
“Asher?” Matthias questions.
“She’s close,” I say.
She’s here, somewhere in this Order-infested city.
New Elysium.
A city that was on the verge of becoming a safe haven for vampires and their allies one hundred years ago. A city where we could finally let ourselves be true to who we are. A place to live freely.
Then it was granted to Nikolaos.
If you ask anyone who was around back then, it wasn’t given to him fairly. There was an underhandedness to how he got the city. It could have gone to any one of us who had experience, and who had earned what they had. Instead, the governing council of this nation’s vampires handed it over to the fuckwit.
What a fucking stupid way to ruin such a perfect city.
Within fifty years of Nikolaos taking over, the Order successfully installed a small conclave. Fast forward another fifty years and they’re the largest delegation on the east coast of the North Americas.
Nikolaos’s coven can barely keep their act together. There are too many other interlopers who have made headway in the city, and it’s becoming a rotting cesspool of shit. I wasn’t up for a promotion when the dumbass was granted the city, but there were at least a couple of other choices.
Shaking my head, I ignore my misgivings about coming back to this hellhole.
I’ve come here few times since Nikolaos was granted the city, and every single fucking time it’s to fix something that asshole fucked up. Revolts, riots, huntings… Each and every time I’ve been here I’ve walked away with at least one more reason to rip his head off his neck.
“You’re not allowed to kill anyone.” I look over to Matthias and Andrei, then peer pointedly at Raphael. “Not without my expressed verbal permission.”
Raphael frowns at me. “That’s some bullshit.”
“Istanbul.” Andrei snickers. “There’s a reason he says expressed verbal permission.”
“That was eighty-five fucking years ago, you shit,” Raphael growls. “If I hadn’t acted on my own fucking permission…”
“Yes, yes.” Matthias grins. “We’d all be in a world of hurt.”
“Fuck all of you.” Raphael crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“Remember,” I say, and laugh. “Blinking my eyes doesn’t fucking count.”
Raphael’s right though, we’d probably be a few members shy of where we are now if he hadn’t gone into his berserker rage.
The stretch SUV that we’re riding in though is giving me bad feelings. We shouldn’t be riding around in circles… I can feel it. We should already be at the meeting spot Nikolaos set up for us.
“Raph,” I say as I look out the window.
“Yeah?” he grunts, still acting as if he’s been deeply wounded.
“You’ve been here recently… Should we be circling around like this?” I ask.
All three guys look out the windows and begin to growl.
Matthias moves in the blink of an eye, slamming his fist through the glass partition between us and the driver.
Over the squealing of the tires, I hear Matthias asking the driver where exactly he’s taking us.
“Fucking hell,” Raphael says as he moves up beside us. “Either they’re delaying the meeting or they’re using an absurdly stupid ghoul.”
“You drive,” I say to Raphael. “You know the city better than me.”
Matthias begins to force his will upon the ghoul, and it’s not long before we have the address of the meeting spot.
Raphael moves up into the driver’s seat and pushes the knocked-out ghoul into the passenger side.
“What the fuck are they playing at?” Andrei asks as he moves into a protective position near me.
Big fucker is trying to act like a shield, as always.
Pushing on his shoulder to move him out of the way, I growl, “I don’t fucking know.”
Trying to shoulder me further back into the seat, Andrei moves his bulk around as if he’s some damn teddy bear.
“If you don’t get the fuck off me…” I warn, and slam my fist into the back of his thick head.
“After the shit you put us through?” he says, and moves enough for me to see what’s going on around us.
“Yes,” I grunt. “It’s the awakening and being so close to her. I can feel her… I can feel her emotions… At least some of them. She’s afraid, yet she’s keeping herself unnaturally calm... I can’t understand why.”
Shaking my head, I push Andrei fully out of my way and move up to the seat behind Raphael. “Get us to wherever we’re going, fast. I don’t like the bullshit that’s getting pushed on us.”
“It’s some fucking club Nikky boy owns,” Raphael says as he pushes the SUV hard.
The large engine roars as he swerves and threads us through the lanes of traffic.
“In one piece, dammit!” I snap at him.
“We’ll be fine.” Raphael laughs. “Besides, when’s the last time you died in a car accident?”
I’m going to fucking kill him some day, I just know it.
* * *
The building we pull up in front of is large and unimpressive. It has zero advertisement. There’s no windows with beer slogans, no neon flashing lights. On this late summer night, there’s nothing that shows what it really is.
A blood den.
Staring at it pisses me off so bad I want to murder Nikolaos over and over again.
I might just do it too, Council approval be damned.
Looking at the long line of fang-wannabes waiting to be granted admittance, I fight the urge to growl.
In a city that’s practically being run over with the Order, this illogical fuck is operating as if he has a fucking truce with them.
Vampires are out in human society. Our existence is no longer hidden from the those who would have hunted us down centuries ago.
But that doesn’t mean we have immunity from the world at large.
All the things that go bump in the night came out a hundred years ago, but that doesn’t mean openly operating a blood den in a fucking Benedictine stronghold.
Looking to Raphael, I murmur so only the four of us can hear my words. “Contact the local pack and see what it takes to get on their good side. Have Aaron in New Philadelphia cover whatever it is they want. Set a gathering in two days, somewhere outside the city.”
“If the local is under Nikolaos’s sway?” Raphael asks.
“Find one that isn’t,” I answer.
Raphael nods and moves away from the lines.
“Meet us inside when you’re done with the call,” I order.
Then I look to Matthias and Andrei. “Let’s get in there.”
Taking the lead position, I move only as fast as a normal human. Unlike this stupid fucking building, I have zero plans on advertising myself.
I don’t like the idea of any of this.
“Matthias, any chance the safe house we have set up is compromised?” I murmur as I look at the long line of humans practically begging to get in.
“I highly doubt it,” he murmurs back. “Aaron assured me it’s completely off-the-books.”
“Good,” I say. “I don’t want any interruptions once I have her.”
Andrei nods. “Understood. Do you feel her inside?”
“Yes.” I take a deep whiff of the air.
I smell all types of shit right now.
Dirt, piss, alcohol, blood… even cinnamon. Someone’s been masking here.
Masking around a blood den.
Fucking wonderful.
Andrei learned a couple decades back some of tricks the Order has been using against us. Masking is one of the more clever ones. Cinnamon oil all over the body can easily repulse a vampire. The odor is just too damn strong to the unsuspecting. It can be quite overpowering to our heightened senses.
My coven has been training ever since Andrei’s discoveries, and we haven’t shared them either. No reason to give other covens the information when it could be the difference between our survival and theirs.
“Cinnamon too,” Matthias growls loudly.
“Someone’s masking, but it’s faint. They’ve probably already entered, or it’s been worn on the skin for too long,” Andrei says.
Pushing through all the blood bags standing at the door, I feel like puking up my last meal. The reek of desperation sliming out of their pores makes me nauseous. I’ve never been fond of blood dens. Sure, it’s fast food, I suppose, and for those of us who can’t beguile, it’s okay.
But for me, the desperation of these simple fools just ruins the enjoyment of eating. They want to be turned so badly, and they have no clue it’s not going happen.
We keep our numbers in the thousands across the whole planet. Population control is a must. Too many vampires means there’s not enough food for us all. It’s also a peace of sorts with the large governments. We police ourselves so they don’t try any shit.
Our numbers are small for those reasons, plus the need to search for one’s fated. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like if there were millions of vampires in the world and they were all trying to find a marked woman.
The Marked just aren’t born every day.
Standing in front of the doors to the den is a giant motherfucker that is almost twice my size. This big bitch makes Andrei look small.
“Open the fucking door,” I snap at him as I push the last of the humans out of the way.
Looking down at me, the bouncer frowns. “Who are you?”
I can feel Andrei vibrating beside me and staring lasers through the side of my head.
Turning my head to Andrei, I say, “No.”
Focusing back on the big fuck in front of me, I move faster than he can react. I grab his balls in my left hand and his throat in my right. Lifting him off the pavement, I stare into his bulging eyes.
“I’m your elder, pipsqueak,” I snarl as I use his body to thump against the front doors of the building a few times.
Whatever the fuck this guy’s name is struggles against my grip, but he goes quiet after I slam him into the brick wall beside us.
Dropping his unconscious body to the ground, I look to Andrei. “Behave.”
Matthias begins to laugh loudly as the humans around us scatter for safety. Even if they want eternal life, they know better than to be near a fight when it breaks out.
The doors slam outwards and two vampires stalk out toward us.
One is named Derek… and I think the other one is called Vaughn.
“Asher, what the fuck, man?” Derek frowns.
“You were supposed to be here a half hour ago,” Vaughn says.
“We thought so too, but when your ghoul decided to fucking circle the city a couple times, we figured it best to find our own way here,” Matthias answers for me, his precise enunciation of each word showing the world just how he feels.
Moving through the two, I yank the door fully open. My eyes instantly adjust to the pitch-black room they have set up right inside the entrance.
This is supposed to be for our protection and to hide what goes on from the humans. If the humans could see what happens in the den, I have no doubt a good seventy-five percent of them would run for their lives.
Blood is thick in the air but thankfully none of it belongs to Chloe.
My head swims with fear again, and this time it’s visceral. Coming from somewhere deep in the den.
Fuck.
My head swivels around, my eyes searching the den’s seedy fucking booths and dance floor.
All around me there are dirty, filthy, humans and vampires.
Dizzy with angst, I sway for the briefest of moments on my feet. Just long enough for me to fall against Andrei’s big frame as he throws his arm around my shoulders.
Throwing his head back, Andrei lets out a booming laugh before he shouts, “Time for the feeding!”
He’s protecting me.
Nodding my head in thanks, I gather my frayed wits and look at Nikolaos’s men.
“Where is she?” I snarl at Vaughn.
He’s always been a good guy but he’s a member of Nikolaos’s coven, and I have no time for their fucking games.
Not anymore.
“This way, Ash,” Vaughn says with a nod of respect.
We walk through the club at a slow pace. And while I understand it’s out of safety for the vamps and humans alike, it’s driving me fucking insane.
My anger is boiling even higher.
Something is off right now.
The wrongness with each step is growing.
Chloe isn’t where we’re going, I can feel it.
My feet feel as if they’re stepping on glue with each step.
My muscles want to turn in the other direction.
She’s not the one.
I know it before I even enter the room Vaughn leads me to.
Approaching the door makes my skin crawl through the roof. Each moment, each step closer hurts my very being.
Everything I am and everything I’ll ever be revolts at the wrongness of it all when I finally reach the woman.
Bending down to look into her vacant expression, I feel nothing but repulsion.
She’s enchantingly beautiful, as regal as a princess from the fairytales. Thin and lithe, black hair and blue eyes. Pale porcelain skin.
If she was my soulmarked, seeing her here, bound to the table by chains with vampires surrounding her, would send me into a blinding rage.
But she’s not mine.
She’s not the one.
Turning my head away, I fling myself away from the woman.
“It’s not her!” I scream into the pitch-black rafters.
The bloodlust comes upon me so quickly I lurch out of the room.
Dark, insidious thoughts flow through my mind as I close my eyes to the den. Shutting down each sense—sight, sound, taste, and smell—I open the bond between us fully.
She’s here.
She’s alive, and there are two marked women in the same city…
Thoughts of Chloe swim through my mind as I try to focus on her.
A tugging sensation, much like a taut string in the middle of my chest, draws me to her.
Opening my eyes, I follow the rapid beating of her heart.
She can sense me, and her fears from before pale in comparison to what she’s feeling now.
Terror, lust, and a deep shame rocket through me.
Blood pounds through my chest, flowing into each of my limbs and every extremity.
My cock is so fucking hard, I swear it’s going to rip through the zipper that’s barely restraining it.
A door appears before me, but when I look at the handle that wants to keep me away from her, I don’t understand it.
Why is my brain failing to comprehend simple things…
A barrier stands before me.
Lifting my foot, I slam the door off the hinges.
In an instant my brain loses all fogginess. All sense of disorientation vanishes.
There, sitting back on a thick leather sofa, Nikolaos cradles my fucking mate.
Smells, taste, vision… not a single one of them is needed now.
My very being is rocked into the world of singularity.
“She’s mine.”