Chapter 13 Remnant #2
I walked to him and he handed them over. “Sire.”
“Thank you.”
He smiled, then lifted his chin at Lazriel. “We meet again.”
“Arthur is your name?” Lazriel asked.
“Certainly is. It’s nice to have you with us.”
With that, he took his leave.
“He’s one of the guys you had watching my back.”
“Yes. He’s a highly-trusted and deeply accomplished agent. He’s been with me for centuries. I wouldn’t assign anything less than the best to guard that which is most precious to me.”
Silence fell again from him, stunned once more.
I took the opportunity to hold out one of the glasses to him.
He took it and scented it, then screwed up his face. “This isn’t from a blood bag.”
“It’s straight from the vein.”
“I told you that—”
“Straight from the vein without the need for the bite, Lazriel,” I told him pointedly.
“You’re accommodating me.”
“That I am.”
He scented the blood again. “This was literally just poured, right?”
“Correct.”
“So, you have humans down here bleeding into glasses for you?”
“Not usually into glasses. This is just for your preferences.”
He looked horrified. “You’re holding them captive? Hurting them? Forcibly feeding off them?”
“There is no forcibly. They wish for it. They garner pleasure from being fed from. Not to mention, fear and panic taints the taste and the power of their blood.”
“It does? I thought—”
“We are not merely predators in that sense. It is easy to incite fear, especially over humans who are very far beneath us physiologically. But it takes more effort and smarts to acquire respect and come to mutually beneficial agreements.”
“I want to see for myself.”
“And you shall. After you drink.”
“It took you days to show me this fight space. The rest you’ve shown me has just been limited to the residences.”
“When I speak to you, Lazriel, know that it is the truth. If I tell you something will happen, it will. I am not playing a game here. The stakes are too high for such nonsense.”
“Then why only offer to show me this feeding place now?”
“Your reaction to me offering you a glass of fresh blood should answer your question sufficiently. There is a great deal to take in here. One step at a time. Work on your patience.”
“It’s not about my patience. It’s been days and nothing.
You know I’m in a rush. I’m needed. Velra is in danger.
Sylas is fucking dying. They need answers, they need help, solutions.
Not me fighting for three straight days in this training space and holed up in the room you assigned me reading tactical manuals and a shit-ton about vampire lore. ”
“You have been here merely one week. And yet you believe you are entitled to ferociously guarded secrets at the heart of an immortal organization that survives through such secrets?”
“Twenty-one years of abandonment would say that you fucking owe me.”
There it was.
He hadn’t just sought me out for information, although it was what he’d been allowing himself to believe since he’d been here. The only thing he’d been allowing himself to believe, to demonstrate toward me.
There was no shame in that, no judgment that he’d get from me for it. Of course that was how he’d had to frame it within his own mind. Twenty-one years of abandonment had seen to that.
“You seek not only information to weaponize, but also a father. One you have been denied for too many years.”
“Because of—”
“Because of me and your mother. Yes. You are absolutely correct.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“And since you have been here all you have experienced is the war general, the strategist. It’s hurting you, yes?”
“Hurting is a strong word.”
I highly doubted it. But as he wished… for now.
“Then let us state that it vexes you. Will that do?”
“It’s… better, yeah.”
I gestured at one of the metal benches lining the left side of the space. “Sit with me.” He moved to put his glass down on a nearby ledge. “No. Bring the glass.”
He grumbled, but did as I’d asked.
As I settled on the bench, he sat down beside me, albeit leaving two feet between us.
I turned on the bench to face him, ignoring the fact that he put his glass down behind him, instead of finally at least trying a single sip. I did the same and he relaxed a little.
“Truth be told, Lazriel, it grieves me that these are the circumstances under which you have been able to meet me. That it has been tainted by the likes of Puritas, Halrow, these external threats. As such, I have been functioning as a war general in my interactions with you. Because your safety is paramount. Safeguarding your life has taken precedence over father-son bonding time, on finally building a relationship that has so long been denied you.”
I took a moment, allowing that to sink in for him, before I continued on, “The last time I allowed my sentimentality as your father to win out over the war general, it cost a great deal.”
“Last time?”
“When your mother and I made the decision for me to stay away when she was eight months pregnant with you, I didn’t take well to it. I broke the terms of our agreement.”
“You made contact, you mean? Came to see me?”
“Yes. It began with the day that you were born. I could hear the call of my own blood. I witnessed your birth. From the shadows, of course. Albeit, still on Vyrn Hollow Pack lands. I saw you take your first breath, saw your mother hold you and comfort you. I saw my son.” I shoved my hand through my hair.
“After that, I kept coming back. Kept watching. Seeing you grow, seeing you play, learn to crawl, to walk, and even run, discovering your love for forest-green, your interest in adrenaline-fueled activities like climbing the trees and even swinging from them, riding a pack member’s motorcycle when you were barely tall enough to seat yourself upon it.
Your first crushes—on a gentle girl a pack over, then the one on an older boy within your own pack. ”
“And you never once spoke to me?”
“I did.”
He jolted. “Excuse me? What?”
“Your mother was away meeting with what was known back then as the Lupan Stabilization Unit. You were in the care of that fool, Strickland. While he was busy drinking and posturing to the pack, I saw you wander off in search of adventure. You weren’t alone.
I saw you sense it. Not like a wolf, but like a vampire.
It was the first indication that your vampiric nature was rising and would surface soon.
But your reflexes were still only that of a young wolf, except for that initial sensing, and you were set upon by five pack members—the teenage children of a group of close-minded zealots that Rhyza was on the verge of removing from the pack altogether.
They were on probation at the time. The group that attacked you was being led by the boy you liked.
He’d noticed and he liked you too, but he couldn’t accept that, so he chose to lash out instead.
” I grimaced. “And he did lash out that day. The five of them descended on you. So I intervened.”
He choked. “You attacked them?”
“I don’t harm children. Even severely misguided ones under the influence of fools and filth. I created a distraction, then spirited you away before they could even register it, let alone that there was a vampire in their midst.”
“I don’t remember you being there. I mean… the start of the attack you’re talking about… I kind of remember it. I remember Jesse being there and hating on me, but parts are missing.”
“That’s the result of Oblivisca being performed.”
“You had a magic-wielder wipe my memory?”
“Your mother did. Unfortunately, with what transpired shortly thereafter, it had to be done in order to keep you safe. Before that, we spent several hours together.”
“Doing what?”
“Talking about your interests. Climbing trees and doing tricks. You shared a secret with me about your wolf turns never having hurt you, but needing to pretend to the pack during wolf runs so that they didn’t think you a freak—your word, not mine.”
“Shit,” he breathed. He pushed off the bench and started pacing. “I… can’t… I don’t…” He spun around, his eyes blazing gold with his wolf right at the surface. “Why did you make me forget that? Why?”
“We wandered further away than I’d intended that day. I got lost in being with my boy at long last, in listening to you speak. And you weren’t used to another wanting to listen so intently so you spoke a great deal to me. About everything.”
“And I just… trusted you?”
“Not at first, no. When I first spirited you away from those misguided youths, you were afraid. You didn’t know me.
I was a stranger to you. I told you my name, but you said code names are for bad men or those with dangerous secrets, and you insisted on knowing my true name.
So I gave it to you. You’d heard your mother speak my name in her sleep, something I was not aware of, and you made the connection, also knowing of her alliances and friendships with vampire kind. ”
“Hold up… you’re saying you revealed to me that you were my dad?”
“Yes. Although, there wasn’t much to reveal with you putting so much together on your own. You were a highly astute child, very curious, incredibly smart and gifted.”
“So, that’s why Mom insisted on wiping my memory of that day we spent together? She didn’t want us to have a connection? It scared her?”
“Not much scares your mother, but you knowing my name was one such thing. Not through any selfish agenda, or her own heartbreak over our fractured familial unit. But because of the burden it would put on you to know, to keep it secret from anyone you encountered.”
“Because of your work with The Shadowed?”
“That was just the tip of the iceberg. As I said, we’d wandered further than I’d intended that day. To the outer rims of the pack lands. And they were waiting.”
He started. “Who?”