13. Our master does not quite understand you do not have significant self-esteem woes.
THIRTEEN
Our master does not quite understand you do not have significant self-esteem woes.
Somehow, I found peace through carving wood. As the sun rose and its pale luminesce filtered in through the windows, Emerick snuggled into the blankets on our bed and slept with our kittens, who had joined him on his pillow while I worked at a nearby table on a cozy armchair.
I’d told him I would only be a few minutes, but I doubted I would be keeping my word.
For however long it lasted, I would treasure the serenity of the moment.
An hour after sunrise, someone knocked at the door. Puzzled, I got up, checked the peephole, and discovered Ben waiting outside. After snagging my room key, I let myself out of the suite and joined him in the hall. “Emerick’s asleep. Is something wrong?”
Ben blinked. “Beyond the role reversal?”
I grinned at the bafflement in his tone. “I was carving when the sun rose, and rather than sleep, I kept carving. It’s quiet.”
“Ah.” Ben smiled, and in his expression, I spotted his understanding of the situation.
I, especially, rarely enjoyed any form of quiet.
“There isn’t a problem, is there?”
“There’s no problem, I’m just not sure how I’m going to talk to Emerick about you when you are here and Emerick is not.”
I grinned at his comment. “How about you talk to me about me? Then we’ll talk about Emerick because he’s sleeping on the job and we can.”
Ben narrowed his eyes, and after a few moments, he shrugged. “That works for me.”
After considering our options, I opted for the pair of armchairs near the elevator meant for us to be comfortable if we had to wait. “There’s no reason we can’t talk out here, right?”
Ben followed me. “There’s no reason at all. Emerick wanted to talk about your training and preparations for our operations, and he didn’t want you to feel inadequate.”
I raised a brow. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Our master does not quite understand you do not have significant self-esteem woes. You have food security issues, you have trauma, but in reality, you’re quite confident in your skills—and quite accepting of your weaknesses. My goal is to limit your weaknesses.”
“My hunting is not traditional because I lack proper training, and my diet was insufficient, so I still lack physical strength compared to other vampires?” I guessed. “We started trying to work with me, but we didn’t get far. Things have been busy.”
“Busy is an understatement.” Ben waited for me to sit before plopping down, stretching out his legs, and sighing.
“But yes. Emerick has been worried about our group fighting together because we don’t have a cohesive strategy or fighting styles.
We don’t know how to work with your brothers or your father well.
I can work with Emerick, and Emerick can work with me, but everything else is chaos. ”
Right. Ben hated chaos when the chaos involved a fight, one we were striving to make fair only to us.
“I suggest we embrace the chaos. We give everyone a job that caters to their strengths while keeping those nearby who counter their weaknesses. Rather than try to change the people in the group, just change the strategy to match the group. I am your woman if you need stealth before sheer brutality. As such, we should probably put me somewhere we suspect Breckenan is going to go and use me as the very violent frontline assault. Emerick can back me up and be the skilled ambush predator he is. I have no idea what you’re going to do. ”
“I fight in a style similar to Emerick. I’m also strong at chasing down a fleeing opponent.”
I regarded Ben with wide eyes. “Can you teach me to chase down fleeing opponents?”
“I can, yes. It’s a lot of sprinting, aerobic exercising, and parkour.”
I loved watching people do parkour; something about people mimicking goats and going places humans typically couldn’t appealed to me. “I want to be a human goat.”
He sighed. “I want to argue with you, but there are similarities to goats when humans engage in parkour. I’m sure we can find somewhere on this ship to start teaching you.
I may regret this, but I will ask your father for suggestions.
The next concern I have is your potential trauma.
We don’t know how far Breckenan took your beating. ”
“Do you think it’s possible Alheen didn’t actually erase those memories?”
“I don’t know. I’m struggling to come to terms that the Originals are members of your family—and that they view you as an Original as well.”
“Realistically, what does the label change?”
“Outside of scaring the piss out of sensible vampires, very little. That Breckenan isn’t terrified of the force we’re bringing to the table tells me that he truly knows little of vampire society.
That he attacked Clarke will ultimately be the final nail in his coffin.
That you and your mother rose are of importance, but Clarke is old, liked, and respected.
Breckenan is none of those things. Every reputable brood in the world has cast their lot with Clarke—and even the unsavory broods hesitate to show any allegiance to Breckenan and his lot.
As word spreads the Originals are on the move and are against Breckenan?
He’s truly dead and simply doesn’t know it yet. ”
“We just need to limit how much damage he can do before everybody pitches in to eradicate him,” I muttered.
“Exactly so. If he’s wise, he’d retreat and not surface again for a few hundred years, but I don’t believe he understands such wisdom. He is a slave to his ambition.”
I pondered Ben’s words, and after a while, I nodded. “And Breanna?”
“I have been doing some research, and it seems Breanna shares some similarities with his mother. From all accounts, Breckenan loved his mother dearly. What we don’t know is if he means to use Breanna as a necromantic vessel.”
I sucked in a breath. Over the past few months, Emerick had told me twisted tales of what necromancers attempted, and one of the options chilled me. “You mean to give his mother a body to occupy?”
After a grimace and a sigh, Ben replied, “I believe so, yes. If he wanted to romance her, he would have used his wealth to charm her. Instead, he has guaranteed her work, and while not at a suitable rate, it was enough money to make certain she stayed. I suspect if she had asked for a raise, she would have been given it to make certain she stayed where he could watch her—and make his preparations. I’m not convinced he wants her as a partner.
A living puppet for his mother’s soul? That I could believe without hesitation. ”
“But does he have his mother’s soul?”
“No, but he does have her corpse.”
I shuddered. “You’re serious. He kept his mother’s body?”
“From the intel we have gathered, I do think that’s the case.
We’ll know more for certain as he starts making his journey to Europe.
We will be scrutinizing his luggage carefully—and we have people in position to intercept and relocate anything he might try to hide in cargo.
At this stage, her corpse would either be mummified or bones.
But for necromancers, that might be enough.
They believe the soul can be brought back through any lingering part of the body. ”
Gross, gross, gross. “Please make it clear that Emerick will not be permitted to keep parts of my rotting body around should I somehow be dispatched before him. And should someone kill him, I will be destroying everything they were and are.” I scowled and wrinkled my nose. “Just for the record.”
“I had guessed as much. Bonded pairs tend to become quite sensitive about this issue. But yes, Emerick would handle your burial personally. We haven’t needed to go over our burial practices with you yet, but they’re extensive.
I can walk you through the entire process once we are in Europe.
However much Emerick abhors everything that Breckenan stands for, he will see him properly laid to rest so that there is no hope of him rising again.
Our practices aren’t just to help those left behind make it through their grief. ”
With each tidbit of knowledge I learned about vampires and their society, I came closer to truly understanding the depth of my ignorance. “What is the greatest risk to Emerick?”
“Stakes,” Ben admitted. “As you’ve experienced, stakes are excellent at paralyzing us, and if we are stabbed in the heart, we perish. It is our one true weakness. For younger vampires, there is also the matter of the sun.”
I stared down the hallway to a window allowing light to stream inside, which offered a view of the ocean beyond. “Unless you’re me, apparently.”
“Or your father,” Ben conceded. “We’ll have to set up a proper sunroom for you at the estate, possibly on the roof.
It will be easier to keep an eye on you when you take naps in puddles of sunlight that way.
We’ll adapt to your needs once we have a better idea of how you differ from regular vampires. ”
“Is there any way to protect him from stakes?”
“Outside of body armor, which we do tend to wear when we are expecting a fight, no. The armor often can’t stop something like the crossbows we use. Those are the most risk. They can punch through our protections.”
I cursed. “Does Breckenan have these crossbows?”
“Unlikely. We don’t think his brood even has stakes.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“Let’s just say even the weakest of stakes tends to get crabby in the presence of necromancers. For the necromancer to also be a vampire? I would not be surprised if a stake touching him might be enough to reduce him to ash.”
Color me surprised. Intrigued by the intel, I engaged Ben in a staring contest. “And one of my stakes?”
“Instant incineration is probable. Your stakes are potent, and I have no doubt they’ll eradicate any vampire of twisted bent by default.
I highly recommend you don’t stab vampires you don’t want to kill when you’re in a bad mood.
Your stakes might receive the wrong message.
When you captured the other vampires, you were quite distressed over their state.
Your state of mind will make the most difference. ”
“I’ll keep that in mind. When I see Breckenan, a fury hotter than any sun is appropriate.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then it’s settled. I will only turn my wrath on the deserving. What do you think about Breckenan wanting Breanna as a vessel for his mother?”
“The possibility is plausible, which makes it disturbing. I spoke to Darius on the phone to see what he thought, and he is disturbed. He will be winging his way to the ship after we have confirmation that Breckenan is headed to Europe. He shouldn’t have any problems catching up.”
“How fast can he fly?” I blurted.
“According to your father, he’s not quite as fast as a jet when he decides to get moving.”
I struggled to imagine being capable of flying across the ocean without the help of a plane. “I am unreasonably jealous by this,” I complained.
“Honestly, I am as well. I told Darius as much, and he laughed at me—and then he warned me you would likely be faster than him. Your father is the swiftest of the family thus far. I was also warned it would be a matter of time until Emerick learns how to fly. That was when I began feeling rather ill.”
I could guess why—and I agreed with him.
My husband enjoyed taunting his vampires and had more than a few feline behaviors. Should he learn to fly?
He would take every opportunity to torment those in charge of keeping him safe, myself included.
“He would definitely use the power of flight irresponsibly,” I muttered. “I will encourage him to contain me with the power of fur instead.”
“That would be appreciated. I will begin making a training plan for you. Finish carving the stake you were working on before going to bed. It is better that Emerick does not believe you are staying up late for now. He needs rest, and he resists it most of the time.”
“I’ll be working on that,” I swore. “I’ll finish my stake and go to bed, but it isn’t my fault if I can’t sleep.”
“That’s fair. If you can’t, text me, and I’ll see about tiring you out so you can. Just don’t be surprised if Emerick whines should you beat him awake. You’re now his favorite part of waking up.”
I would keep that in mind for the future. “I’ll make sure his delicate sensibilities are calmed so we can get to work tonight. Just keep an eye on Breanna for me, please.”
“If I’m not watching her, someone from her team will be. We will make her as safe as we can. I can’t make any promises, but we will do our best.”