Chapter Four
Chapter
Four
AZIZ
Breathing calmly, I look in the eyes of the woman standing just inside the alleyway.
I tracked these vampires down, and they seemed to be itching for a fight.
To say they got their fight is an understatement.
The vampires all ended up losing their lives tonight.
They were a part of the Night Dwellers. I had intended to send a verbal message to their boss, though their dead corpses will do just fine.
Without looking away from the woman, I pull my phone out of my pocket and send a message to Dreven. He can get someone out here to clean up the mess for me. I have other problems to see to, such as the woman standing in front of me.
Not just anyone.
A beautiful one who just so happened to have the aura of the gods surrounding her.
Fuck me.
I didn’t know tonight, while I was handling business with the Night Dwellers, I’d come across yet another of my problems I needed to see to. But here she is—the daughter of Apollo.
I don’t know her name or anything about her. Something I intended to find out when I found her. Instead, she found me. The way she’s staring at me now doesn’t sit well with me.
It’s not that it doesn’t sit well with me.
That’s not the right term I should use. No, just the look at her stirs a desire inside me that I’ve never allowed myself to feel before.
It’s more than the bloodlust frenzy that we feel when we want sex and blood at the same time or if we’ve gone too long without the need to satisfy our urges to drink from a vein.
We might have new ways of drinking blood besides the regular way, but that doesn’t mean it’s better. Drinking straight from the source has always been compelling. The taste alone . . . well . . .
I shake the thought off as I notice her take a step backward.
“What’s your name, little one?” I ask, stepping in her direction.
I could hear the way her heart beats, and how she was trying to keep her breathing calm. She was good, but I knew she was scared. Or at least nervous.
She takes another step back, loses her balance, and if I didn’t move when I did, she’d have fallen backward.
“Easy, little one,” I keep my voice gentle. This woman isn’t only beautiful, she’s something else. Something that doesn’t even have to do with the fact she’s the daughter of a god.
I curl an arm tighter around her waist and straighten her. “What’s your name?” I ask once again. A part of me needed to know her name.
“Umm, Jett,” she whispers and licks her lips.
“Jett,” I murmur her name, liking the way it sounds on my lips. “What’s your last name?”
“Boyer,” she answers. She blinks and then says, “My name’s Jett Boyer. And you are?”
Smirking, I tell her my name. “Aziz Diamantis.”
“Aziz Diamantis,” she utters my name with nothing more than a breath.
I let her go, but don’t move out of her space.
“What are you doing out here so late at night?” It might not be my business, but those vamps had been lying in wait for a woman, and my guess, it was this one. I heard them laughing when I found them. They joked about how she ran from them.
Jett straightens, takes a step back, and seems to get her wits about her. “It’s none of your business what I’m doing out here so late. Maybe I should be calling the cops for what I just witnessed.”
“And what did you just witness?” I ask, cocking a brow.
“You know exactly what I just saw,” Jett snaps, with a huff in her tone. She was annoyed with me. She’d actually gone from nervous to annoyed.
“You won’t be able to prove it, little one.” This scene will be cleaned before anyone comes across it. “Besides, you should be thanking me. They’d been lying in wait for a woman, and I’m guessing that woman was you.” I watch the way her eyes widen, and she visibly swallows.
“They were waiting for me?”
The way she asks this question and the look on her face, I’m sure she’s talking to herself, but that doesn’t stop me from answering.
“Those vamps are a part of a group called the Night Dwellers. They’re a pain in the ass as they seem to think they can taunt and scare the residents of Redwich while feasting on them.”
“And you don’t?”
Grinning, I slowly shake my head. “If I wanted a warm body to drain, I wouldn’t do it here in town. It’s one of the rules we have in place. What’s that saying that humans use all the time? You don’t shit where you live?”
Jett cocks her head slightly, sighs, and then turns away, starting to walk. Watching her, I get a good view of her backside and find I rather enjoy the view of her walking away. Her ass is glorious.
As much as I want to follow after her, I have other things to do.
Like report back to Orpheus that I’ve found the daughter of Apollo.
I don’t know what he wants me to do with her, but I don’t think she’s a threat to him or anyone else.
Something about her called to me, though, and it wasn’t her blood.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I walk the half block down the street toward Dyrk.
I spot Dreven and Silvan, and send them to handle the corpses.
Unlike in movies, when we’re killed, we don’t just turn to dust or shrivel up into a decaying mess.
Their bodies do decay rather rapidly, but they still last a while.
It’s why the bodies are going to be moved and buried.
Once I’ve given them their orders, I go in search of Orpheus.
I find him sitting in a back booth. The club was still open and would be until early morning for those of the night.
Humans typically stopped coming in around midnight, and the place was clear of them an hour later.
We stayed open, though, for those who wanted to commune among themselves.
I’m not surprised to find Sibley sitting across from Orpheus.
It’s typical to find her staying close to him.
Some have questioned whether the two of them were mates.
This isn’t a rumor to be found true. Sibley has set more than one vampire in their place for asking such a thing.
The reason for her sitting there is she claims it’s the family table and keeps her from killing those who annoy her.
Maybe if she let herself have it, she’d have found a mate of her own.
Vampires don’t mate as other supernaturals do, such as the shifters and were-folk around here.
We typically find someone we want as ours, and there’s a blood exchange involved.
Usually this is done between vampires, though there have been times when a vampire will mate with other supernatural beings.
“You found the girl,” Sibley remarks as I take my seat next to her.
“I did,” I confirm, meeting Orpheus’s gaze and not worrying about the fact my sister spoke for me. Cocking my head slightly, I look at her and ask, “What did you see?”
Sibley takes a breath, her eyes going white.
“She’s special. Unlike others. Pure and loved.
Wanted by those who would destroy the light inside her.
Turn her dark. She’s the key to destroying the sun.
Or so they believe. Only when she’s with the mate who can protect her, shield her from the dangers, will she be safe from what the darkness holds.
Though she’s born of the sun, she was born for the night.
Follows both the sun and the moon together as one.
She’d not harm those who want to see her harmed.
It’s not who she is. Protect her and love her.
That’s Apollo’s demand. That is his will. ”
I furrow a brow, watching as my sister blinks and comes back to herself, her pale face going even paler. The two of us, when we were turned by Orpheus, we retained most of our tan skin, but Sibley’s was always a bit paler compared to my own complexion.
“What did you just see?” Orpheus demands, straightening in his seat from the slouch he’d been in.
“It wasn’t completely in focus that time, but I knew I felt the presence of Apollo himself,” Sibley whispers and shakes her head, like she’s trying to clear it.
“I’ve never experienced something like that.
It’s like he was saying it was your job to protect her.
” She looks directly at me as she says this. “She’s your mate.”
“What?” I demand, disbelief filling me. “There’s no way that can be true.”
“It is.” She nods and looks to Orpheus. “I do not lie, and you both know this. I cannot. In my vision, she is Aziz’s mate. She’s to be protected from the blood witches. If they are to get their hands on her before Aziz has a chance to do the blood exchange with her—”
“She’s a human, I’d have to turn her.” I blurt out, slamming my fist to the table.
“She’s immortal,” Sibley says. “Not human. Her father made this so she would never die. As I was saying, though, is that if they get their hands on her before you do the blood exchange with her, then she’s doomed to their mercy.”
Oh shit.
“So, Apollo wants us to protect this woman?” Orpheus demands.
“It’s what has been demanded by the fates.” Sibley nods, swallowing visibly. “It’s because of this woman that you will find your own mate, and I’ll find mine.”
Oh hell.
Leaning back in my seat, I let what Sibley has just shared sink in.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to have a mate, but the image of Jett pops in my head, and I can’t help but think about what I felt as she’d been walking away. She didn’t freak out as others would. She stood there and even got smart with me.
Hell, and damn nation. The fates have decided to screw with my life, it seems, and this time the Sun God decided also to join in.
But why would they pick me?
Sure, when I was alive and breathing centuries upon centuries ago, I worshipped at Apollo’s temple. I paid tribute to him. I’d do this nearly every day. Even the times I hadn’t been able to make it to his temple, I spoke to the sun itself when I needed to.
I’ve not done that since the day I was turned. I’ve lived in darkness ever since.
“We knew the blood witches were a problem. We already planned to deal with them, so that’s what we’re gonna do.
Deal with them. Aziz, I want you to handle this.
It’s your number one priority. The rest can wait.
Find a way to come to terms with your mate, seal it, do whatever it takes to keep them from getting their hands on this woman. ”
“Jett,” I grind out. “Her name is Jett.” I shouldn’t care that he calls her ‘this woman’. I really shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. She has a name, and it’s Jett. Jett Boyer. And she was mine. Whether I liked it or not. Whether she liked it or not.
Tonight was a blood moon, but it wasn’t full.
That was still six days from now. Sibley had explained before that the blood moon would stay with us through the full moon.
It’s the first time in centuries it’s doing this.
I’ve never understood the power behind any of this.
I didn’t really care too much so long as it didn’t affect any of us.
Now it’s coming to bite me on the ass because this blood moon shit could end up getting a woman meant to be mine into a world of trouble. A woman who, even when she knew what I was, didn’t seem to blink an eye when she saw what I had done.