Chapter Twenty-One
Xander
“I have found the one whom my soul loves.”
- Song of Solomon 3:4
“Papa, Alexandra and I will be in our wing unless an emergency comes up.” I ignored my family’s stunned expressions.
“People are dying all over the fucking place because of our enemies, and you want to go off to fuck?” Drako tried to get in my face, but Alexandra headed him off.
“Enough!” she said menacingly as her eyes bled to black.
I’d only seen her do that once before. Clearly, she had an inner demon. I’d never seen a dhampir who crossed so many species. A vampire, human, witch, and a demon? And now with my impenetrable shield and our powered child in her womb, she was probably the most powerful being in the room. I had no idea what happened after her eyes bled to black, but I didn’t think I wanted to find out if it happened to a member of my family.
“Nyet,” I said softly, while caressing her lower back slowly, softly, hoping to calm whatever demon had just surfaced.
“So cool, Aunt Xandra,” Drago said with unabashed excitement as he raced to grab Alexandra’s hand.
“Yeah, that’s so freaking cool.” Apollo grabbed her other hand.
Sneaky little fucks. My nephews had already learned to immediately protect. They were trying to protect Drako without alerting Alexandra to that fact. I wanted to grin, but I didn’t dare. The situation was too volatile as it was.
“What does it mean?” Zora wanted to know, and she moved to stand in front of Alexandra as well. “What happens when your eyes do that?”
The kids moved so fast. None of the adults had been fast enough to stop them from coming so close to danger. Fortunately, Alexandra seemed to have enough control over her demon to immediately push back, and her eyes immediately returned to their beautiful two-tone dark and golden brown.
“As you can guess, I have an inner demon,” Alexandra mumbled ruefully.
The adults in the room immediately relaxed when she appeared so controlled and gentle with the kids.
“It’s probably why I have the gift to mend souls,” she continued.
“But your demon can rip stuff apart, right?” That was Apollo being his usual bloodthirsty self. The little shit was morbid as hell. Luka wasn’t looking forward to when he became a dhampir adult in three years.
“Or blow things up, right?” Drago has always been fascinated with any power that blew a person into pieces.
“Aunt Xandra’s demon is not violent,” Zora defended with her usual sunny outlook. It lasted until someone threatened one of us, and then you would see a whole different side of Zora. She was so much like me. I was only now realizing that.
Alexandra laughed. “I don’t think that there is such a thing as a non-violent inner-demon,” she said soberly. “Unlike a full demon, my inner demon does not take over my human and surface fully as a separate entity. I think my vampire-dhampir side is too strong for that.”
She had everyone’s attention now. Even Papa was looking plenty fascinated.
“I had no idea that you had an inner demon.” Papa seemed embarrassed that he hadn’t sensed it.
“My demon surfaced for the first time when Cecile tried to kill me.” Alexandra shrugged. “Now it surfaces when I’m seriously pissed.”
“And you were pissed at me for going after my brother.” Drako said it more as a statement than a question.
“Yes, sorry. It is the only time that I can’t control my demon. Whenever anyone attacks him, my demon surfaces,” Alexandra said apologetically. “My father had an inner-demon as well. I knew that I got it from him. However, until I met Malachi, I didn’t understand why.”
“That sounds about right,” Papa mumbled. “When he and the other members of the Brotherhood had been trying to gain more powers, they tried becoming demons. However, it didn’t work out the way they intended. Their demon was more in control of them than they were of it. Your control over your demon is admirable.”
“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of practice.” Alexandra shrugged.
“But what happens? What does your demon do?” Apollo asked impatiently.
“While my father had the ability to suck the blood from a person’s body in mere seconds by simply kissing them, thus turning them into a withered corpse, my demon turns a person’s blood supply into liquid picric acid, which causes their body to explode instantly.” Alexandra laughed sheepishly. “I had no idea I could do that until my demon surfaced when I was barely a few months older than Zora.”
“What happened then?” I scowled, pissed at the thought of what danger she must have been in to have her demon surfacing at that age.
“Oh, some vampires thought they could force me to mate with them,” she said nonchalantly. “They quickly changed their minds, but my demon isn’t so forgiving.” She sighed. “It was also my demon that killed my father when he tracked me down a few years later.”
“Sick!”
“Wicked!”
Apollo and Drago pumped their fists in excitement.
Alexandra laughed.
“And you were going to do that to me for simply yelling at my brother?” Drako grinned. “Why am I impressed by that?”
“Because you’re an idiot,” Danika said disgustedly, but she spoiled it by yawning. Apparently, she was as tired as her baby.
I wrapped an arm around Alexandra’s waist and pulled her against me. She shivered, and her body’s response to my touch had me moving her to stand before me. My touch seemed to melt her bones, and she leaned heavily back into me. I was hard and pulsing within seconds as her desire stoked mine.
“So, if you all have grilled my mate enough, we have some things to discuss,” I told my family huskily. I was fighting hard to hide my struggle to remain coherent.
Drako snorted.
“Yeah, right,” Luka muttered.
Tristan laughed.
Papa sighed.
The kids looked confused.
“Shouldn’t you stop trying to make decisions for me and ask me instead?” Alexandra sounded breathless and seemed to be having the same issues as me.
Danika and Luna were nodding as though they were offering some sisterhood support.
This was one of those times that I wished I had my brother’s ability to teleport. I flexed my fingers at her waist and slid my palm over her flat stomach to hold her tighter to me.
Alexandra couldn’t stifle her soft, needy moan, which forced her to turn into me and hide her face in my chest. The tips of her breasts were hard as pebbles, stabbing into me.
“Fuck this,” I muttered as I quickly picked up my mate and ran to my wing of the castle at vampiric speed.
I barely made it over the threshold of our bedroom before I was on her. Holding her up against the nearest wall, I ripped her T-shirt and bra from her and sucked her taut nipple into my mouth.
She hissed at the sharp, sweet pleasure of it. “You told your father that we were going to talk,” she accused in a breathy voice.
I released her nipple with a pop and regarded her steadily. Her usually dark-and-golden-brown eyes were completely golden now.
“If you can still talk, I’m probably not doing this right,” I teased and then grinned because I hadn’t been able to tease, to feel this carefree in over a century. I lifted her higher, bent to her nipple, and did a wicked curl and roll of my stiff tongue around the tight bud. Simultaneously, I slipped my hand between her legs and my fingers into her damp folds, slipping and sliding the rough skin of my fingers over her sensitive flesh as I sucked her breast.
Her moan this time was long and deep, an animalistic sound.
Good, she’s not talking now. I wanted to pound my chest like Tarzan.
I swerved my head between one nipple to the next, thrust first one finger into her wet sheath, and then added a second.
She shattered violently, coming with such intense pleasure that it enflamed every nerve ending in my body. I was desperate to be in her and wasted no time in doing exactly that.
Two hours later, I was still trying to regain some control to have that all-important conversation that I knew we definitely needed to have. But incredible pheromones, which morphed into mind-bending desire, boomeranged between us and held us hostage in a sensual, sexual haze that we enthusiastically indulged in. We were compelled to feed, and we drank from any part of our body that the other could reach, savoring the metallic, earthy taste of our blood during each orgasm, with each orgasm even more explosive than the last.
I’d never known lovemaking like this. And it was love. I accepted that. Yeah, I was still pissed that she’d left, but that was more my fault than it was hers. I accepted that too.
I finally realized just how much and why my brothers called me all kinds of idiot for not wanting this sooner. Sure, I loved and had a connection with my family, but this was different. It was a love and connection with another person that transcended everything that I’d ever known before. It was even deeper than spiritual. She was the mate of my soul. A mate that my soul loved.
Being with her made everything else seem insignificant. Even with all the danger we faced and the issues compounding around us, being with her gave me such joy, such contentment. I felt as though I could conquer anything, overcome anyone. I felt pretty fucking Zen.
However, despite my joy, a joy I never thought that I would ever feel again, or was even worthy of, I still didn’t want this life for her. I wished that Luna and Danika weren’t locked in this life. None of them deserved this violent, never-ending perilous life as a Petrov.
“You’re happy about the baby, right?” I asked softly, still buried deep inside of her and not wanting to be anywhere else. It wasn’t the priority stuff that we needed to discuss, but we were at least talking.
“I’m happy that a bit of you and a bit of me is growing inside of me.” Her soft voice was dreamy and filled with the same joy I had been feeling when I first heard our baby’s heartbeat. “It is a profound gift.”
And just like that, I was aching again for her. When we surfaced again another hour later, it was her asking a question.
“So, you’re okay with having a mate now?”
“I’ve always wanted you,” I told her. “The first time I saw you I was drawn to you and wanted you more than I ever wanted anything. You are so fucking beautiful. I’d never seen anyone like you.”
She kissed me sweetly and with such incredible adoration that she seared my soul. Our lips remained locked. We angled and re-angled our lips, sipping off each other, drowning in each other, and the kiss kept changing, melding from one passion to another, getting hotter, intensifying with each slide of our lips over the other’s. I flexed my hips only once before we were both coming so hard we simply melted into each other.
Nine hours after we left our family to have our “talk,” Luka reached out telepathically.
“Luna is in labor. We need Xandra.”
“We’ll be right there.”
We arrived in Luna and Luka’s room to the same family chaos as hours before. No one even bothered to get the human doctor that served both Luna and Danika. Everyone was present, except Danika, Drako, and baby Blaze. And of course, Meredith, Luna’s best friend, was at Luna’s bedside this time, along with Luka.
I watched my mate be her brilliant self again and deliver Luna’s baby. Luka’s son was a fine boy. Poor kid, though. With Luka and Luna’s insistence on giving their kids celestial names, the kid had to go around with the name Orion. Now my brother had the moon in Luna, a sun god in Apollo, a sky in Zora, and a star in Orion.
The baby was passed around the room, and the kid seemed to love it. No one said it, but we were all waiting on Orion to reveal his powers. So far, the kids had all presented powers that were more powerful than their parents’.
“He will probably have a deadly shield like his brother and sister,” Meredith cooed, holding Orion more snugly against her.
“Definitely,” I agreed, “and don’t forget the mind-liquifying thing.” I laughed because, apparently, I did that now.
“I don’t know. He has been so tame, almost like a human baby,” Tristan teased. “I mean he doesn’t even smell like an immortal.”
“Maybe that’s his power,” Alexandra said. “It is a very powerful gift. He can hide in plain sight, and other immortals would never realize that danger lurks so close.”
“It’s one of your abilities,” Papa said as if it just dawned on him.
“Yes,” Alexandra agreed. “I think of it as a cloak. My cloak is why I was able to be in a room filled with immortals and they had no idea that I was not human.”
“Don’t forget that you fooled me too.” Papa’s admiration of her rang out clearly in his voice.
“And me,” I added and only just realized how her ability to hide from me really bothered me.
“All of us.” Luka winked at Alexandra. Obviously, he admired my mate now that she had delivered his son and ensured Luna came out of childbirth unscathed.
Didn’t my family realize what this meant for me? If it was not for our physical dependency, Alexandra would have been lost to me for as long as she wanted.
Despite our making love and talking for hours, we never talked about what was truly between us. I knew that it was my fault, but I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to hear her reject what we had, and I wasn’t ready to admit my fear for her. I didn’t want to say it, but I was hoping that there was some way that I could save her from this life. Yes, she was pregnant with my kid and irrevocably tied to me, but I was desperate to remain in this hopeful bubble for a bit longer.
“She still doesn’t know that you don’t want her in this life, does she?” Luka asked.
“Are you wanting my mate to leave again?” I didn’t bother hiding how pissed I was. Luka must have read my mind while I was unguarded. Fuck, I needed to be careful because that could have been Alexandra.
“I want you to stop being a jackass and talk to your mate,” Luka growled. “She is more ready for this than any of our mates were. She’s fucking powered when our mates were not.”
“Excuse me, are you guys talking about me?” Alexandra asked cheekily, but it was clear that she didn’t need anyone to answer. “Because if you are, I think someone needs to know that I will live in this violent, perilous world whether I am a Petrov or a Gauthier.” She ensnared my gaze. “So, whether I decide to stay or go, my life will still be dangerous. Or did you forget that I have had people trying to kill me since before you came into my life? Since I was a child. Always, I have been in danger.”
I glared at Luka and then glared at her. “Wh…what do you mean, stay or go?” It started as a stammer and then moved progressively into a shout. “You are not leaving me again!” Yeah, that was a full-bodied yell.
“I’m not leaving you, you moron,” she said prissily. “While it’s kind of sweet that you think you can protect me from a life I was born into, I’m also offended that you think I’m so damn weak that you need to protect me.”
“That’s not it at all,” I denied. “I am powered and have been surrounded by power all my life, and it still wasn’t enough to protect me. Hell, I was barely in your life for a few days when you were almost killed. I didn’t protect you as I should have.”
“I thought we agreed that was my fault,” she dismissed.
“You’re my mate. Of course, your safety is my responsibility.”
“Fine. So, does that mean that you’re my responsibility too?”
“You almost killed me because I raised my voice to him,” Drako muttered. “That’s not even a question.”
“Pop-pop says that we’re all responsible for each other,” Zora piped in.
I accepted that my family would always have my back and defend me, but to hear and see the murderous intent in Alexandra’s eyes on my behalf just cracked me wide open. I didn’t know when I started loving this woman because my feelings for her kept growing. As much as I loved her yesterday, I loved her even more today. And that was why I hadn’t wanted her in this fucked-up life, powered or not.
“Yes, we are responsible for each other. But I will never be okay with my mate jeopardizing her life for me,” I insisted. I looked to my brothers and Papa. “So, if those bastards somehow got their hands on me, I want all of you to get Alexandra out of there. Save my mate. Save my kid.”
Alexandra sighed. “We’ve already established that our lives are irrevocably tied to each other. Anyone coming at us, they are coming to kill us. There is no way I will let them take you without a fight.”
“Xander is right to be concerned.” Luka frowned at Alexandra. “We’re not even in it, and you’re already wanting to jump in and kick ass.”
“You need to listen and take care of our baby. I have lived several centuries already. Our baby needs to be given a chance to live.”
“I am not leaving you behind,” Alexandra said stubbornly. “And forgive me, but this family is plenty powerful. Why would any of you be willing to be left behind? We didn’t leave Alexi with them. Why would I be willing to leave you?”
“We are powerful, Alexandra,” I growled, “not fucking omnipotent!”
“I’m not leaving you.”
I held my obstinate mate’s dark gaze, and just like that, the desire for her, which was always just beneath the surface, was hotly blazing again. I let the image of what I intended doing to her, how I intended to sensually torment her ass for her stubbornness, flood my mind, every graphic, erotic detail.
My mate’s eyes glowed a brilliant golden hue as she moved toward me as though pulled by an invisible string.
I didn’t wait for her to reach me. I moved at vampiric speed and flipped her over my shoulder without breaking stride, taking her directly to our wing of the castle.
We made it to our wing, but we didn’t make it to our bedroom. And I never quite got around to tormenting her. I wanted her too damn much.