Chapter 2

 

Instantly, they were sifted to land in the middle of Kristoff’s apartment. It was spacious, elegant, with wooden floors and bold plush furnishings, Persian rugs, and various antiques. He lived in splendor—the polar opposite of the life he had once suffered through in his mortal life. He was alone now, with only the unconscious woman in his arms.

 

He put her in his spare bedroom. His few friends teased him about that spare bedroom. He had lived in mansions with numerous bedrooms, but in his Boston apartment, that kind of lavishness was looked on with too much scrutiny. As it was, he paid his rent on time and spoke to as few as possible without seeming like a hermit and thus turning himself into a curiosity. He’d learned long ago that blending in worked better to disguise and hide oneself than anti-social and dormant did. The hermit attracted too many suspicions.

 

But he had that spare bedroom with the large four-poster bed that had been such a burden to move, and no one until this mysterious woman had ever slept in it. He gently removed her coat and her blazer, socks and shoes, and tried to get her as comfortable as possible without alarming her upon waking. Finding her clothes removed would most definitely startle one such as her. If his housekeeper, Mrs. Sparks, had been here like she was in the daytime, he would have asked that she removed the lady’s clothes, but it was only him there tonight. He could watch her to his heart’s content, at least until she woke up.

 

While she was out cold, he took it upon himself to look through her coat in search of some kind of identification. She carried a small wallet; she had one credit card, her driver’s license, and less than one hundred dollars in cash on her. If he didn’t know better he would almost guess that she was poor, but her coat was fine wool—all of her clothes were nice, not his quality of expensive, but definitely nicer department store. She had taste. She wore Donna Karen jeans. But she didn’t keep money on her. Smart girl.

 

Her name was Carina Bella Francione. She had obviously been loved by her parents for a name like that, to be named an endearment. It also meant she was Italian. Italian, like Ana had been, which perhaps explained why she reminded him of her like she did. He continued his search, saw that she was twenty-four and worked at the museum in downtown, which, he supposed, explained why she commuted.

 

He had cleaned her head wound, had learned as much about her as he could from the minuscule information that she carried on her person, had simply looked her over for some time, and now he found himself quite bored. It wasn’t that he couldn’t stare at her for hours, but that looking only prompted him to think of how she would look at other times—her laugh after a clever joke, her smile after receiving a gift, breathless in the throes of passion—which only lead his mind straying more. So much so that he wanted to shake her awake, just to distract him.

 

He walked out of her room and decided to head to the kitchen to prepare her something to eat once she awoke. He opted for soup—something light but substantial. He knew he could easily make potato soup. Yes. He was willing to bet she would like that, and after eternities of living on his own, Kristoff was more or less adept on how to take care of himself.

As he waited for the water to boil, his mind could not help but horde him with questions. Why had he taken her here? What was he thinking? But some other part of him simply smiled. He did not know, despite the obvious of getting the story out of her, why exactly he brought her here. And it wasn’t as though he knew of anywhere else to take her. She was at his mercy. At least until her eyes opened.

 

“I always knew having that spare room would prove wise,” Merrick said jovially, leaning on the door frame of the kitchen, and popped a lemon drop in his mouth.

 

Kristoff refrained from rolling his eyes, but he let out a snort. “Bah. As I recall, it was you who continually mocked me for having only one spare room, saying the need for one and the need for none were the same, that if I was going to have one, I should have five.”

 

“Which is why your memory is so faulty and no one trusts it.”

 

Yes, he grated on the nerves, but there was a camaraderie between the two men, despite that one was a god, whose brothers Errie and Bane were the gods of death and night respectively. The other man had been a poor serf boy, had grown up into a handsome man that the vampire queen once decided to feed upon one night, the proceeded to turn him into her kind. Since that time, Kristoff had gone rogue from his queen, time and again choosing the gods such as Merrick, Bane, and Devlynaria, those who had his back, those he trusted, instead of siding with Lilith the Vampire Queen.

 

“How is Devlyn, Bane, everyone?” he asked.

 

Merrick let out what could only be called a deep masculine chuckle. “Would you believe my brother finally got Devlyn into bed?”

 

Kristoff gave a thundering laugh. “Are you serious? Is it about damn time! She ran off from him how
many centuries ago?”

 

Merrick waved a scoffing hand. “She was young, scared, and only wanted to be the chaste virgin and a goddess. She was horrified to learn that her betrothed was a womanizing rake and cad. I don’t blame her a’ tall, though she was down here on earth entirely too long. She made her point. Had she not loved him, no one would have forced her, especially not my brother. But she doesn’t listen to what little reason she has. As it is, she’s also pregnant, and can’t return home now, even if she wants.”

 

Kristoff shook his head. “I sure have missed a lot since your brother denied my company in her entourage.”

 

“Oh, he was merely jealous, knowing that you had bedded Katerina, and it was quite likely you would have eventually bed Devlyn as well. If that would have happened, his betrothal contract would have been null and void, and there was entirely too much at stake to risk that. There still is.”

 

Kristoff’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? Bane never told me too much, preferred to keep me in the dark, as it were. Minions aren’t supposed to know too much, right? And Devlyn’s entirely too ignorant for her own good.”

 

“As I’m sure you know, we have a war going on in our plane right now, both between the lighter and darker gods, as well as between the rulers of the hell dimension and all of their minions, any of their subordinates. Both Devlyn’s father and my own, Bane’s sire, are leaders in the dark realm. Because of both their lineages, Devlyn’s and Bane’s children, the ones they sire together, will be the rulers who put a stop to the wars. We need Bane and Eyes on the same side, fighting together.

 

“They also do not have just one child, according to the prophecy. They have three. Great, right?”

 

Kristoff shook his head. Devlyn’s love life got more screwed up as the days passed, it seemed. “Why not your children? Don’t you and Bane share the same father?”

 

“Yes, but prophesy shows that I do not have children. My mate cannot have children; she is barren.”

 

“And our muse?” he asked, knowing how much Merrick loved Katerina, the muse.

 

Merrick sighed. “She was once human. She died as a human and was given life again by Lilith. After being the creature Lilith turned her into, Devlyn and Eros turned her into a muse. Add in all of those things, and she could never have children. If she had only been a muse, then perhaps… But muses can’t have children. If she were to give that up, I don’t think any part of her body is still human enough to have a child. At least not a child that wasn’t more vampire than it was human.”

 

“But you have Errie as a brother too. Devlyn has other sisters as well. Why can’t their children be these superior gods?”

 

Merrick shook his head. “Not all of us are meant to bare children. Devlyn has a sister that is half succubus. Would you really want to see what kind of a child would result from that and Errie? Or even me? Now, any who do have children, it’s this reign of cousins and brotherhood that conquer our heaven once and for all. Together. But it’s these three children that will ultimately rule.”

 

“But why? What makes them so special?”

 

“The links. Night, both sides of hell, light, earth, all of these polar forces coming together into these children will create a power force to be rivaled by none.”

 

“Then let’s hope they get their mother’s disposition, eh?”

 

“Oh, gods, let’s hope not!”

Reviews

[Michael X]

this line adds to the suspense nicely "They also do not have just one child, according to the prophecy."
and gives a great visual depiction of whats coming to light, i love the entirte aspect of using Gods and goddesses in the midst of vampires, you created a vibrant, colorful place where the readers can dweel among the images, there is alot happening in this chapter, much is revealed, from mew characters to the battle, great way to keep one on the edge of the seat, excellent pace, can't wait to see where this going

[Dianne]

Well, now I want to know more about Devlyn. She must be special to get such strong and distinct reactions.