Key to Conflict Page 6

  CHAPTER

  5

  D OWN at the cabin, while Gillian made her way up the mountain and had her little chat with herself, Tanis was laughing, dabbing at his split lip with the back of his hand. He couldn’t help it. She was so delicate, so Human, so completely helpless in the face of his outraged fury but so fearless to even take him on. Even now, she had no idea of the danger she had been in.

  Aleksei was glaring at him, arms folded over his chest. “I hope you are satisfied, Tanis. If she sues you for assault, I will not lift a finger to help you.”

  That made Tanis laugh harder. “That is the most complicated, infuriating, beautiful woman I have ever met. I confess, Aleksei, I have to admire her spirit. And you know perfectly well that if she had been that cheeky with you, you might have reacted the same way.” His smile was maddening. Male ego at it’s finest.

  “I would not have spanked her,” Aleksei said flatly.

  “Oh yes you would have, brother. She may be your therapist, but you are attracted to her, admit it. I could feel your protective outrage in her defense and your wish to punish her when you learned of her deception.

  “The first time that little spitfire puts herself in danger or the next time she lies to you, will be the time we see the calm Aleksei come apart with fury. I look forward to it.” His brother could be a real pain in the ass sometimes. Aleksei had forgotten just how much.

  “You had better go straighten this out with her, Tanis. Whatever your feelings are, she is my therapist and is helping me come to grips with a few things. Not to mention the fact that we are asking her for her assistance to keep our villagers alive.” Aleksei’s voice held a note of finality that Tanis knew not to argue with.

  “As you wish, Aleksei. I will make sure she is not devoured by any of the beasts which roam our mountains.”

  Chuckling, Tanis made off in the direction Gillian had taken. After a moment’s thought, Aleksei followed, wanting to make sure their discussion was a peaceful one and not trusting Tanis’s temper to remain so jovial.

  Gillian was in a tranquil setting. The moon was full, the air clean and crisp, the forest a dark and comforting haven surrounding her little clearing. But she was still fuming.

  “Terrific, I’m out in the middle of this fucking backward Country with guys who think they fell out of a John Wayne movie.” Gillian’s hand involuntarily went to her butt and she rubbed it ruefully. “If those knuckle-dragging troglodytes think they can get away with this, they have got another thing coming.”

  She looked beautiful there in the moonlight, talking to herself, the blush of embarrassment still on her cheeks, eyes flashing emerald fire. Tanis had located her easily on the mountain. Vampire hearing and scent perception was outstanding. It had been easy to track her to where she sat alone in the moonlight, looking like a lost fairy queen: small, blonde, magical.

  He watched her for a few moments silently from the shadows, admiring her, even admitting that as ill-mannered as she was, he was very attracted to the little Human. Aleksei had ordered him to make peace and make up. Admitting that he had been wrong in his treatment of her was going to be difficult. They needed her right now, needed her expertise, needed to keep her safe, and he could swallow his pride. He hoped.

  Gillian felt his raw power before he said anything. It was strong, like nothing she’d ever encountered, and it made her cautious. When Aleksei’s voice startled her from a different direction than where she was looking and expecting Tanis’s arrival, she spun, hand going toward the knife in the spine sheath. “What?” she barked.

  The gray-eyed Master Vampire approached her, hands held out. “Gillian, please accept my apology for Tanis’s actions and please accept Tanis’s apology as well. He overstepped his rights and boundaries with you. He does realize that.”

  Aleksei had followed Tanis, wanting to make sure neither of them killed each other. He watched Gillian’s response; she was angry, that he could tell. Whether or not she would listen, was another story. If she wanted to leave, he would have to let her go. Keeping her prisoner was not typical of the man he had been nor the Vampire he now was.

  Aleksei spoke softly but with a commanding push in his low, velvet voice. “You have nothing to fear, Gillian. We are not Dracula’s Vampires.” He reached a hand out toward her and started forward but stopped when she brandished the knife.

  “You stay the hell away from me, Count Rachlav. You already told me at the inn that you and your brother certainly are Dracula’s spawn. I’m not that drunk.”

  Cold anger was taking over as her calculating mind clicked through their prior conversation and tried to make it mesh with what he was telling her. Gillian felt her mind going to that very empty place it went whenever she was faced with the very real possibility of killing or being killed. He was lying…sort of. No matter. Come hell or these Vampires, she wasn’t going down without taking somebody with her. A breath later, her arms were pinned, the knife was on the ground and she was pulled back into a hard masculine chest. She didn’t need to turn around to figure out who held her.

  “Tanis, either you let me go right now, or you kill me right now. I’ve had enough.” She spat the words out but didn’t struggle in his iron grip. It would have been futile anyway. She wasn’t moving unless he wanted her to.

  “I have no intention of killing you, Gillian. Neither of us do.” His voice was hauntingly beautiful and full of concern. She turned slightly in his grasp and looked up into his golden eyes. She believed him; she could feel truth in his words and aura.

  “You want me to listen? Fine. I’ll listen. I just love having conferences with Machiavellian undead in the middle of the fucking forest in the middle of the fucking night.” She was, however, still pissed off.

  Tanis’s face darkened. “Perhaps the lesson we began back at the gate needs to be reinforced, piccola, if you are going to begin with ill-advised and derogatory statements.” Somehow she knew piccola wasn’t meant an insult.

  Anger began to build into rage again but she was now sober enough to realize that this line of conversation was getting her nowhere, so she changed tactics. Plus he was telling the truth. About all of it. He wouldn’t kill her but he would tan her ass again, given half a chance. She could feel him seething.

  “All right. You win. For now. Let me go, Tanis, I mean it. I will listen because if you two had meant to kill me, you would have done it by now.” He released her cautiously and stepped back, watching her warily.

  Aleksei stepped up, towering over her. “You are not afraid of me, are you?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m not afraid of either of you, I just don’t want to wind up as an indentured servant to Count Dracula.”

  She was lying through her teeth. She knew it, they knew it. She was more scared than she’d ever been in her life with the magnitude of what she’d learned from Aleksei back at the inn. In fact, if the worst thing that would happen to her had been Tanis’s enthusiastic spanking, she was still ahead. Embarrassed, but ahead.

  Aleksei came closer slowly. “If you will allow me to, I can enter your mind and give you more of a basic understanding, but it must be with your consent. I will not force you, nor will Tanis.” Hearing his beautiful voice with no compulsion behind it fortified her trust in him. He felt safe. It went against all her logic, but he felt safe to her.

  Aleksei stood in front of her. “I don’t need to touch you for this but it will help since you are Human. Will you permit this and not attempt to hurt me?”

  He cocked an elegant eyebrow at her and a slight smile crept over his mouth. Gillian stared hard at him, then started to grin.

  “All right Aleksei, you do whatever you need to do. I give you my word that I will not kick you in the face while you’re doing it.”

  A strong elegant hand reached toward her face. Gillian had a brief Star Trek flashback, envisioning Mr. Spock about to mind meld with her and started to giggle. Aleksei, already attuned to her, said softly, “I am not a green-blooded, pointy-eared Vulcan, Gillian.�
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  “A what?” Tanis questioned in response to the vision of Spock superimposed over his brother’s face through their link.

  “Later,” Aleksei replied, focusing on Gillian, who giggled, opening her mind to his; then he touched her lightly and they fell into a rapport.

  Swiftly she gained the information he wanted her to read. Tentatively she pressed further and he allowed it. Dropping his shields, Aleksei gave her complete access to whatever she wanted to see within his powerful mind. He wanted her to know beyond any doubt that he would never harm her, that he and Tanis were wholly and completely opposed to Dracula and his plans.

  Gillian unexpectedly shied away from going deeper, puzzling Aleksei a little. She had an inbred sense of what would make him uncomfortable and avoided it. Since she was in his thoughts, she knew there was nothing of portent about their situation that lurked in the shadows of Aleksei’s mind. The mere fact that he had offered to literally bare his soul to her won her trust in this circumstance.

  He did notice that she had a deep-seated fear of getting too involved on a personal level with anyone. Either of her jobs practically insured that she would remain alone. He knew that wasn’t by accident, but couldn’t dwell on it just now.

  After a few minutes, Aleksei dropped his hand and Gillian opened her eyes. “As I expected,” the Vampire began. “A true empath, but you knew that didn’t you?”

  At Gillian’s nod, he continued. “How is it that you have been able to kill? To open yourself to another’s internal pain, and then take a life?”

  “It’s hard to explain, really. I just isolate myself in a ‘quiet place’ and allow my survival skills to take over, just like a good sociopath.” Gillian’s grin crept over her face but he felt her metaphysical dodge. It was painful for her. She killed only when ordered to and even then only when absolutely necessary.

  “Sociopath?” Aleksei’s lovely voice washed over her. “I would hardly call you a sociopath. With your sensitivity it must have been agony for you growing up as you did. You must understand that to us, even at twenty-eight years, you are still very young. Young and female to us, Gillian, inspires a deep protective instinct that is difficult for an older male Vampire to overcome.”

  She blushed and looked away, not wanting to delve too deeply into the idea of someone looking after her. He took a deep breath to explain to her what must now be explained.

  “Dracula will be aware that you are here and able to attune to you. Do you understand why?”

  Gillian looked back and forth between the two Vampires with her. Both of them were magnificent. Equally lovely. Aleksei’s dark majesty and silvery gray eyes sparkled with power in the moonlight. Tanis’s noble bearing was unconscious. His eyes glowed gold and his face was calm, but warring underneath there was something dark, dangerous and mysterious.

  “No, I don’t. He’s your enemy, not mine. I’m just here as an observer.”

  “He has a network of spies, some of them are Human. Anyone could have noticed you at the inn, anyone could have learned you had come through Immigration,” Aleksei stated, as if that would explain everything. “And it would not be hard to track you to my home. To Dracula, it does not matter why you are under my roof, only that you are or have been.

  “You are a noted professional, you give solace to Paramortal beings. You are also apparently a decorated soldier. You have fought for the peaceful existence of Paramortals and Humans. Drawing attention to Human-Vampire camaraderie is absolutely against everything Dracula believes in. Humans are cattle to him. Nothing more.” His voice held bitterness and shame for his Lord’s outmoded and prejudicial beliefs.

  Tanis moved to the log and sat, patting the space next to him. Gillian hesitated a moment, then sat beside him, a thousand questions in her eyes. He put an arm behind her carefully in a protective gesture, unconsciously sheltering her with his larger frame.

  “In our culture,” he began, taking his cue from Aleksei, “all Vampires are descended from three main Lines: Dracula’s, which is the Eastern European Line, the Egyptian and the Greek. Dracula’s Line, unfortunately, is the one Aleksei and I were reborn from.

  “Our allegiance, however, is to the Egyptian Line of Osiris. He has been a staunch supporter and friend to Aleksei and myself over the centuries. Dionysus, who is the Sire or Font of the Greek line, is a wild and chaotic collaborator, but an ally nonetheless.

  “There are other Vampiric types in the world. China and India have their own variations, but they are more like our Revenants: mindless, damaged, self-directed corpses who chew more than they drink and who are the true horrors in our culture.”

  Gillian thought about what he said for a moment. The enormity of what she’d learned in snatches from Aleksei’s mind made sense with what Tanis was telling her.

  Finding her voice she asked, “So how did I get a target painted on my ass, and how do you suppose that I can help you?”

  The entire idea of a Vampire turf war over the intellectual properties of Humans suddenly struck her as ridiculous. She’d been asked to swallow a lot of things this evening but sitting here, having a discussion about metaphysical lineages with Vampires in the moonlight, was a bit much for even her open mind to grasp all at once.

  From beside her right shoulder, Aleksei’s voice came as he sat next to her, trapping her between himself and Tanis.

  “You are unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time, Gillian. If Dracula has truly returned, it is because he thinks to carry out this war by causing dissention between the Bloodlines and perhaps even other Paramortals.

  “I suspect that he believes he is now powerful enough to win with whatever allegiances he has formed. There is no other explanation for his return at this time. He would never be welcomed back in this Country, not by me, nor any of the other local Master Vampires who were once loyal to him. He has simply become too mad.”

  Watching her face, he found it impassive, her eyes widening slightly at his statement was her only reaction.

  He continued. “Dracula had vanished for three hundred years, Gillian. If he is back, that can only mean that he has spent a good deal of that time formulating a plan, a network of allies and an army.

  “Knowledge like that would be very hard to keep secret. Dionysus and Osiris are probably aware of it by now. We will need to meet with them or their representatives soon to find out how to fortify our allegiances to each other.”

  He paused for a moment, unconsciously tucking a strand of Gillian’s shining blonde hair behind her ear.

  “Tanis and I are out of the loop, so to speak. Dracula is the Sire of our Line, but we give him no loyalty and his minions get no quarter here. We have no access to his knowledge base. Osiris and Dionysus will not volunteer information outside of their lineage, but now we must become informed, and quickly.”

  “To keep you safe, piccola guerriera, we must keep you close to us. There are horrors in Dracula’s mind and army that you cannot imagine.”

  That was from Tanis, and he watched her closely. “Thoughts flow across your face, Gillian, but I wonder, what thoughts?”

  “All right.” She rose and walked away from the log before turning and looking at the two Vampires, waiting expectantly. “I’ll stay. But, I’m only here for a few weeks. I need you to know two things: One, there will be no blood play involving me at all. In other words, nobody takes my blood nor gives me theirs.

  “Two, let’s all try to keep this from being as unnerving as possible for me, okay? I’m a little out of my depth. When I figure it out, I’ll be less edgy. But for now, let’s all try to keep a lid on our tempers.”

  She stared pointedly at Tanis. “Can we get along without killing each other?” But she smiled when she said it.

  Surprisingly, Tanis smiled. He couldn’t help it; she was just cute…and brave. “I think we might be able to manage that, piccola.”

  “What…exactly does that mean? And the other one you just said,” Gillian asked Tanis, then looked to Aleksei.

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sp; “‘Piccola’? It means ‘little one’ in Italian. ‘Piccola guerriera’ is ‘little warrior’,” Tanis provided for her, smiling as she became flustered.

  “Shit. Nicknames. I feel like a fraternity mascot,” she groused, kicking at a clump of sod.

  Both the males laughed, making her jump. It was warm, rich laughter, like a bubbling hot tub filled with chocolate or honey, but frothy and light. It filled her with extraordinary feelings, making her giggle along with the two pantie-drenching males. Oh yeah, she was way sober now.

  Tanis began thinking of ways to make amends with the little hellion. She was appealing to him in more ways than just a professional interest for her military skills and as someone to protect. His blood was stirring as it had not stirred for decades.

  A deep chuckle bubbled up from Aleksei’s chest, interrupting his thinking. “That is good to hear. I do not want to have to intervene between the two of you.”

  “I do not think your intervention will be necessary, Aleksei,” Tanis rumbled in a bet-I-can-get-you-wet timbre, staring directly into Gillian’s eyes.

  Her chin jerked up a notch and her smile faded as their eyes locked. Pure sex was radiating from his gaze but he wasn’t looking at her like she was Prey. The other thing she noticed was that he wasn’t trying to bespell her, though he certainly could have. Tanis was looking at her in open invitation, pure and simple.

  She had sensed a measure of his power and Aleksei’s. She knew power and they had it in buckets. If Tanis wanted her, willing or not, he could make her his and she would have no idea the thought wasn’t her own. The fact that he was obviously offering but allowing her a chance and a choice said something about his inherent character. A true Dracula Vampire would have no qualms about enforcing his will on a Human. Maybe he and Aleksei could be trusted with her life.