Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 22

Lucca

I think back to how I met Layrr, so many years ago. It was right after the end of the Great War, when the world was still trying to rebuild and recover. There was so much destruction and devastation and I had been tasked with helping the Western Territories to get back on their feet.

This also meant dealing with violent groups that occasionally surfaced and who were in breach of the peace agreement. Out west, in the high mountains, there were enclaves where vampires had gone into hiding and sometimes we received word that a group was tormenting a village. I had gone out with a few men to investigate one such complaint and found a small settlement up in the mountains that had been completely vandalized. Women and children had been attacked in their homes, drained of their blood. The men were cut down in battle, most of them were dead.

But I found one young man, Layrr, still breathing. As I walked past, he called out to me, begged me to let him live, to help me. I took whatever pity I had left and gave him some of my blood, turning him into one of us. He was keen to leave the village, to seek revenge for those that had murdered his kind. He became a strong fighter and in time, I adopted him as my son.

Layrr was quiet and tough, unlike Ragnar who liked to fool around. He was not like Sunil, who had early on showed interests in the parties and socializing, like Simonis. Layrr was more like me, perhaps I was flattered by his love for me, his wanting to accompany me everywhere, learning the ropes and what it meant to run a kingdom.

Once we became responsible for the blood banks in the west, he took over command for them and the business grew and expanded. Apart from the Capital, our blood banks were the biggest and the most productive, we paid the best and our product was held to a high standard. We became even wealthier and the family grew in power.

“I don’t know where it started to go wrong,” I admitted to Izzy. “I became aware of his anger at some point, the way he was clashing with Ragnar and others. I thought it was normal sibling rivalry. But he was experimenting with the drug blood on the side. He knew I wouldn’t approve of it.”

Izzy was quiet, letting me work through everything on my own. I appreciated that. I was so happy to have her there, a part of me had thought it was over between us, that she would never accept who I was. I knew we had to address what had happened between us, the fight at her house a few weeks back, but I sensed that it wasn’t the time now.

She seemed a bit subdued, less prickly somehow. It could have been the death of her mother or the stomach wound that had nearly been the death of her. I could see it still bothered her in the way she walked.

“Then Marlon came to talk to me this morning, told me about the women.”

I sighed. “I’d always wondered why Layrr didn’t take a partner, why he didn’t find someone. Ragnar had friends, if you want to call it that, even Sunil was never alone, but Layrr was always on his own.”

I told her how Marlon had found me in the Eyrie, looking very uncomfortable. I told him to spit it out.

“I should have come to you, Sire,” he had said. “But I had no proof and I knew how much you loved that kid.”

“But?”

“I suspect he started taking some of that drug blood, you know. On some of our trips to our own banks, there would be vans from the Capital and Prince Layrr would tell me that he’d take care of it. Sometimes, we’d be there for a few days and he’d go off on his own, barely talking to anyone and getting into fights with anyone who challenged him.”

“Marlon told me that Layrr watched the women coming in to donate blood and sometimes commented on them. This started to worry Marlon, especially when the girls would go missing soon after. Their friends or family would report them missing and state the last place they visited, as being the blood bank.”

“One evening, one of his men opened one of the empty vans and found a girl inside, tied up, but still alive. She was covered in bite marks, not enough to kill her, but he was using her to drink from, keeping her as a slave. The man let the girl go after swearing her to silence and came to Marlon, telling him the whole story.”

“The next morning, that man was dead. Marlon went to Tanata, to tell her about it. We were in the Capital at the time and she told him she would tell me about it. The next thing he heard, she was dead.”

“So, you think Layrr killed Tanata to keep her quiet?” Izzy asked.

“I would like to think that Layrr wouldn’t want to kill me, but now, I can’t even be sure of that. I think Tempesto put pressure on him to kill me and he was trying to find a way to do it. First, he had to get rid of Tanata, she was in the way.”

I stared out at the valley, the mist that clung to the trees and the woods.

“I don’t know if I can do it, Izzy,” I told her. “I know it has to be done, but he’s my son. I’d always thought he would take over all of this one day. I would rather… it was someone else.”

“I understand,” she said.

She came up to me and embraced me. I felt such tenderness for her then, and stroked her face.

“You’ve forgiven me?”

“For what?”

“Yelling at you, that night at your house.”

She smiled. “You did save my life, again.”

“I won’t do it again,” I said. “I promise.”

“Does the promise of a vampire mean anything?” she asked me, lifting an eyebrow teasingly.

“It does, when it comes from me,” I said.

She stroked my cheek. “I know that,” she said.

“Will you stay here, with me?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said and I pulled her close. “For a while.”

I said, “I am going to give you some extra protection.”

From a little wooden box, I took out a silver cross, on a chain.

“Wear this, no vampire will come near you.”

“What is it?”

“I had it made for you,” I said. “A gift.”

The necklace would repel any vampire who came too close to her. It would take a very determined and ferocious vampire to withstand the magic that was contained in the necklace.

“I want you to feel as safe as possible here,” I said.

I put the necklace on her and she tucked it under her clothes. I felt its power straight away. It was nauseating.

“Maybe… don’t wear it around me,” I said and she took it off laughing.

“I thought the vampire king would be strong enough to withstand it!”

“So did I!”

It felt good to laugh, to hold her in my arms and feel her body against mine. I wanted it to stay like this but I knew it couldn’t.

Finn was hovering at the door, and we parted, reluctantly.

“Apologies, Sire, but… Lord Ferney is here to see you.”

I said to Izzy, “Why don’t you go down to the kitchen and get some food? There will be something there for you.” As she left, I called out to her, “Wear the necklace!”

Jock came in, looking weary.

“They’re up at Loughlin’s Vale,” he said. “I received a call last night from one of our scouts.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Around thirty of them.”

“Get your best fighters,” I said. “We’re leaving right away.”

Jock paused. “I don’t think you should go. You’re not strong enough yet.”

“What would that look like?” I asked. “If I can’t even face my own son? It will be bloody, this battle. I need to show that I am up for it.”

“Are you?” Jock’s voice was low.

“Of course.”

But I wasn’t sure at all.

Ragnar joined us. He watched Jock leave.

“Do you think Sunil is with them?”

Ragnar shook his head. “He’s gone back to the Capital. Sunil isn’t a fighter, he is a schemer, looking out for himself.”

“How involved was he in all of this, do you think?”

Ragnar shrugged. “I don’t think he wanted to betray you, for him it was about rising to power in the Citadel. He liked being the go-between. But he told me Tempesto was becoming unpredictable, I think he saw the writing on the wall.”

“And Layrr and the girls.”

Ragnar looked away. “I knew. I warned him to stop it, that it would get him in trouble. He ignored me.”

“Did you know about the drug blood?”

“Anyone could see it was changing him.”

“I didn’t!”

Ragnar chose his words carefully. “You were hardly home the last few weeks. Even before, you were busy negotiating that deal, the property development in Ginnerlong?”

I remembered that. Progress was slow, there were issues with the land and building regulations, I kept having to deal with the authorities.

“Then when the queen was killed, it was like you could only deal with one thing, your focus was off. Layrr saw the gap, taking more chances. He took more of the stuff, he was becoming impossible.”

I had missed all of this.

I went down the stairs to prepare for our mission. In the kitchen, I heard laughing and voices chatting. It was Izzy, talking to some of the castle staff. I saw Robbie and his sister were there, sitting at a bench, close together, joking.

“You didn’t,” the girl teased him.

“I did!” They were laughing and the cook put a plate of something on the table and all of them dove into it, breaking off chunks of what looked like a kind of bread.

I remembered this kind of interaction from before, long ago. Even over the last few years, there had been times when I’d been able to sit comfortably with people, share good times and laugh. But this kind of ease, belonged to the world of the mortals.

If you wanted that, you needed a mortal.

I needed Izzy.

I came into the kitchen and all of the people around the table jumped up andfell silent.

Izzy looked at me.

“You ready to go?” she asked me, coming out to say goodbye.

“I am.”

She looked at me. “I’m coming with you.”

“No way!” but she silenced me, shaking the necklace in my face, which made me take a few steps back, it was that disgusting to me.

“I’m a bounty hunter, remember? This is what I do.”

“Just keep that…thing… away from me,” I said, pinching my nose.

She laughed and I smiled to myself.