I Vampire

Julien Gregg's The Vampire Jessup 3: The Vampire Saga

The Vampire Jessup: The Vampire Saga
by [Julien Gregg](mailto:juliengregg85@gmail.com?subject = The Vampire Jessup on Nifty)

You've read the tales of Eric Maxwell, Darias and Ren now hear from the 700 year old Vampire Jessup. This is not the tale of how he was turned, though that tale may come later. This is the tale of what came after the events of Neverland: I Vampire 2. Told from Jessup's perspective, follow him on a journey of protection and love. This story contains scenes depicting murder, violence, bloodletting, homosexual sex, rape and has a strong adult theme. If you are offended by this type of material or it is not legal for you to read this type of material in your place of residence, please leave the site now.

This story is a work of fiction its characters do not exist outside the story. Any resemblance to living people or places is strictly coincidence. This story is Copyright © 2015 Julien Gregg. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This story contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

Three

I got away from Darian Lang as fast as I could that night. I'd lectured Noah on the importance of keeping our secrets and his damned elementary school teacher had known what I was on sight! It was beyond unacceptable. I was ready to pull him out of school, pack everything up and move again as far from this place as I could. Then the memory of his scent filled my head and stunned me again. Why did he smell so good? It made no sense. How did he know what I was?

I told them all exactly what he'd said to me and exactly how mouthwateringly delicious he'd smelled to me. Perrin had no idea what to say to that. Miguel thought I was crazed. In a way I truly was because all I could think about were his chiseled features, those amazing brown eyes and that lean and toned body that his clothes did nothing but accentuate. I tried not to think of his scent. I tried so hard that I was digging my fingernails into the palms of my hands.

"I couldn't read his mind either," I informed them. "It was like there was some sort of block on his mind."

"That's impossible," said Perrin. "No human can block his thoughts from a vampire."

"This one can," I insisted. "I'm telling you there's something really strange about this human."

"Is he human?" asked Miguel. "I mean are you sure he's human?"

"He seemed human enough," I said. "There was something about him though. He seemed so excited to see me for what I was. It was like he'd been waiting his whole life to see a vampire. He even told me that he thought we were all dead."

"This is too much," said Perrin. "He has to die."

"No!" I shouted quickly, for I couldn't allow any harm to come to the man. It was as if I were under a spell or something. I couldn't stop thinking about him, and to my embarrassment I realized I'd been erect since I'd encountered him. It was the craziest thing.

No one had caused this kind of turmoil inside of me in centuries. The last had been Tyron Par, and he'd been a Forsaken. Darian Lang was no Forsaken. He was something however. I couldn't let them kill him until I knew for certain what he was.

"Jessup, see reason," Miguel said. "We can't allow a human that isn't bonded or slated to be a fledgling to walk about with knowledge of our existence."

"I won't let anyone touch Darian Lang," I said to all of them. "I mean this. No one touches a hair on his head."

It was the cause of our very first argument in the household. To think, I'd expected that Miguel would be the reason for any strife between us. Here it was and I was the cause. I was the cause because I wouldn't let them kill Noah's teacher who knew what I was and probably what each of them were, vampire and Forsaken alike.

That day I dreamt like never before. I was not a prophet so I shouldn't have been dreaming the way I was dreaming. The dreams were in color and so vivid and strange. Darian was in the dreams and he was touching me in an erotic way. Then I was kissing him, inhaling that scent and letting it wash over me and drive me to distraction. He was naked in my arms a second later and I was inside of him. He moaned and kissed me hard on the mouth, but I would not bite him. I loved the tight, silky feel of him around my dick. It was almost like I was human again and I hadn't felt that in so many years.

I woke that evening with his scent in my head and my crotch soaked with cold cum. I was astounded. Vampires didn't have wet dreams! What was happening to me? Why could I think of nothing but Darian Lang? This had to stop. It had gone on for two solid weeks. What's more I woke from these dreams tired as if I'd not slept at all.

The house was tense with the knowledge that he was out there with his dark knowledge about us. I still refused to let any of them go near him. They continued to try to change my mind. Noah loved the guy. He was already learning so much under his tutelage. He taught my adopted son all day long while he was also the star of the most erotic dreams any vampire had ever had.

I found I wanted to see the teacher again in the flesh, though I thought it was probably dangerous. If he knew what I was then what else might he know? Noah talked about him like he walked on water. The kid loved his teacher. That was one reason that no one in the house talked about killing him anymore. The other reason is that they knew if they killed the teacher I would kill them.

I didn't even understand my reason behind wanting to protect this teacher who knew my secret. I couldn't read his mind, I couldn't seem to escape him and it was getting worse. Shouldn't I want him dead, too? I was confused and tired. It was what I imagined being strung out would feel like if I were human and addicted to a drug.

Finally I decided I'd had enough. I left the house as soon as the sun was down to hunt down that wonderful scent that wouldn't leave me alone. I found a victim on the street and coaxed him off to a private corner of darkness where we wouldn't be discovered. He was ash at my feet as I made it back to the street. I could smell the scent. It was faint but it was there. I followed it through the streets to its source.

The house was just blocks from the school that Noah attended. I walked around the house twice without making my presence known. It was a small house with white clapboard siding, a black slate roof and shutters that matched the roof. The scent was so strong here, almost overpowering. It filled my head and stung my senses as I stood there in front of the house. The front door opened and there he stood.

"Jessup Maxwell," he said as he stepped out onto the front porch and looked at me with those smoldering brown eyes of his.

He was dressed in a tight white t-shirt and jeans. His feet were bare and he glistened in the moonlight. I caught the scent of soap and chlorinated water. He'd recently showered but it did nothing to mask the scent that was all him. Oh how I wanted to sink my teeth into his throat and drink that scent into myself. It was almost painful to stand there and look at him.

"Darian Lang," I replied, standing still.

He walked down the steps of the porch, looked at me and then went around the side of the house. Of course I followed him. I'd come to find him, hadn't I? I followed him around the house to a small shack behind it like a shed. He stood there at the open door of the little shack and smiled at me before he went inside. I decided in for a penny in for a pound and followed him into the dark shack.

Inside the dark shack I was imprisoned with that scent that assaulted my being and stung my soul. I wanted him, but I would never turn or bond him. No. I made a vow to myself to leave him human or whatever he was. When he lit the match and held it to the wicks of the candles the shack was lit up with the soft glow of the candles. There was an altar across from the door! There was a statuette of some sort of deity all black standing on a pedestal in the center of a red liquid. I could smell it. It was blood! It had the same scent as Darian! It was his blood in the little bowl. I tried again to read his mind but could not.

That alone should make me find him dangerous enough to end his life, but the very thought broke my vampire heart. So it there it was. I knew it then. I was a love sick vampire who would do anything for this human. I wanted him. I needed him. My soul cried out to be with him.

"I knew you would come," he said, smiling. "I bewitched you."

I said nothing to this. Now that I knew myself for what I truly was I knew I'd know the wheres and whys of this revelation soon enough. I was utterly caught up in his every expression. I wished that he'd unlock that mind of his and let me in. Never before had it been so difficult to get into the mind of a human and read whatever thoughts or emotions it tried to hold under lock and key. This young man was different. He could keep me out. He knew that I was trying! That was the torment of it. How did he know?

"Yes," I said as I reached for him.

He met my attempted embrace head on. Then he was in my arms and my lips were on his, my tongue in his mouth. The heat from this human man scorched my tongue and made me erect once again. Oh how I wanted him. I ached with the need of him. The sexual tension between us was almost tangible. I could almost reach out and slice it with the nails at the ends of my fingers.

That I would lay down my life for him was a given. This wonderful, sexy, beautiful, crazy witch of a man was everything I'd ever wanted in all of my long vampire life. Of course I couldn't tell him that. I'd vowed to leave him human, but the idea of turning him was so appealing that it hurt me almost physically to be near him. Every touch, every kiss was like fire to my very soul. I had to have him, but I refused to turn him. I could see how it would end. He'd die one day and nothing and no one could stop me from following him into his grave for eternity.

"Yes," he panted as I kissed his neck. "Love me, Jessup."

I loved him. We were naked before I knew what was happening. We were all over each other there on the dirty shack floor. His hands roamed my entire body, touching and feeling every inch of me. Mine were all over him as well. I loved the heat of his skin, that scent of his was everywhere and I couldn't get enough. This was as close to bliss as I'd ever come in my life.

His mouth found my erect dick and then it was enveloped in his mind numbing heat. It was almost more than I could stand. I pulled him back up my body and flipped us over so I could do the same to him. He was scratching at my scalp with his fingernails, gasping and moaning. I could almost taste the scent that assaulted me on his skin. It was amazing and agonizing all at the same time. I ached to be inside of him. I ached to taste his blood!

"I want you," I breathed as I climbed back up until we were face to face again.

"Yes," he said. "Let me get you wet."

Then he was crawling under me until my dick was in his mouth again. I lifted my body slightly to give him access. He was driving me absolutely crazy. I tried once again to reach out to his mind and found that same iron wall that blocked me. It was frustrating under normal circumstances, but now my own mind was so completely and utterly blown that I didn't care.

He crawled back until he was lying there on his back underneath me. I lifted his legs and slowly entered him. His eyes went wide and he gasped. I stayed still but then he urged me on again with scratches up and down my back. I made love to him slowly and carefully. So many times I had to stop myself from biting his neck. That just wouldn't do.

This went on for so long that I was sure I'd fry in the sunlight that would be coming through the open door any minute. Suddenly the candles burned brighter and the whole shack was lit up. I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. He was cumming all over his stomach and mine as I moved my dick in and out of his scorching hot ass. I threw my head back and nearly screamed. It was like I was teetering there on the edge of the most powerful orgasm that wouldn't come for me. I stoked the flames with the heat inside him until finally I was slamming my hips against him as my orgasm took me.

When we were spent I just stayed inside of him as I kissed his mouth, burning my tongue once again. He moaned into the kiss and then I was moving in and out of him again. I was so shocked to discover that I was still erect. This time I paid more attention to the feelings as they swept through my body. He was back to scratching my back again, but I wouldn't speed this up for the second round. I wanted to feel him.

"I love you," I panted into his ear and he squeezed his legs around me tightly.

"Yes," he gasped. "Love me. Love me now."

I gave him all I had but slowly and as carefully as I could. I could see the vein in his neck throbbing with his heartbeat and I wanted his blood so much in that moment that I nearly lost all sanity. Then he pulled my head down, pushing my face into his neck. I could hear him urging me to bite. He had no idea what he was asking. I couldn't do it. I licked the vein and ran my nose over it, filling myself with the scent of his blood. I wouldn't bite him. I couldn't bite him. I knew that if I did I would drain him dry as I fucked him.

"Please," he begged.

"No," I groaned, not recognizing my own bloodlust filled voice.

He worked his anal muscles, bringing the sensations around my dick to a whole new level of heat and mind numbing pleasure. I licked his neck and finally kissed his jaw and across his face until my tongue was in his mouth again. I couldn't bite him. He had to understand. He had no idea just how wonderful he smelled to me. To bite into that would be the absolute worst thing I could do.

Suddenly I could sense my drone's apprehension. I paid attention for a moment and realized that the sun would rise in about a half hour. I couldn't stop what I was doing. I couldn't stop even though the door was open and the morning rays of the sun would burn me to a cinder. It seemed I was really going to lay my life down for Darian Lang.

"Ah," he said and then the door shut. "Don't worry, lover. The shack is air tight. No sunlight will find you in here."

"But Noah," I said as I continued to slide in and out of him. It was the strangest conversation I'd ever had during sex.

"He'll be all right," he said. "Love me."

I did love him. The sun came up while I was loving him. It tried to lay me flat, but my body wouldn't accept that. I had to be inside Darian until the very end. I could feel it inching closer as I made love to him. He was already painting our stomachs with more cum. Finally the spasms of his anal cavity brought me over the edge. I pushed myself against him, getting as far into him as I could and let go.

Spent, I rolled off of him and then listened as he breathed. It was getting harder and harder to stay awake, but I wanted to know what he had to say now. He'd instigated this whole scenario. Could I trust him to keep me safe while I slept? It was Saturday so I knew that he didn't have to work. Would he stay in the shack with me all day, or would he open the door to leave and burn me to death?

"Sleep, Jessup," he said. "Don't worry so much. I won't leave your side. I'll sleep, too."

That was all I heard. The sleep took me after that. Then I was assaulted with more dreams. This time they were different. He was talking to me in the dream and we were sitting on a bench in the sunlight. I looked around and knew I was dreaming because I wasn't on fire. There were flowers and small immaculately trimmed trees all around us. Where was this place?

"This is my place," he said, smiling at me. "I wanted to have a conversation with you but you fell asleep. I put myself to sleep and found your dreams."

"How are you doing this?" I demanded. "And why can't I read your mind even here in a dream?"

"You can't read my mind because I don't want you to," he said, smiling again. "Have you never met a human who can keep you out before?"

"No," I said. "Never. There's never been a human who could keep me out."

"Not even Tyron?" he asked, looking at me levelly as he asked it. I was rocked by this.

"How do you know about Tyron?" I demanded, turning my body on the bench to look him in the eye.

"Because though I won't let you read my mind I can read yours," he replied.

"How are you doing this?" I asked, desperate to know what was going on.

"I'm a witch, Jessup," he said. "My entire family is full of witches. We worship Darias, the God of Knowledge."

That wasn't right. I didn't know how I knew it, but I knew with every fiber of my being that Darias was the God of Blood. It made no sense for me to know this information, but I knew it anyway. I didn't know if I should say something to him about it or not. After all Darias was his God, not mine. Then a voice in my head told me to rethink that. It was very confusing.

"The only family of witches I've ever heard of is the Moreau family," I said. "We all know to stay away from them."

"As well you should," he replied. "They're all very powerful, far more powerful than my family."

"You know the Moreau family?" I asked, interested in spite of what I knew of them. That wasn't all that much. I'd never laid eyes on a Moreau witch that I'd known about. They were supposed to be really powerful and very unforgiving of our kind.

"I knew Marcus Moreau many years ago," he said. "He and I worked together on a problem I was having. He was with us for six months."

"Marcus Moreau?" I asked, sure I'd heard him wrong. Marcus Moreau had died nearly seventy years ago and he was an old man when he'd died. I remembered how Los Angeles was nearly shut down by the amount of people who had come for the funeral.

"That's right," he said, smiling again. "I've been alive for many, many years."

"You just told me the Moreau family was far more powerful than yours," I pointed out. The contradiction was plain if what he'd just told me was the truth. Of course he could have been speaking of another Marcus Moreau.

"There's powerful and then there's powerful_,"_ he said cryptically. "Besides, my family and the Moreau family share a rung or two on the genetic ladder. I don't know why they don't live as long as we have, but I do know that when it comes to power they have a lot more of it in their short lifetimes than we could ever dream of."

"You talk about your life as if you've been alive for hundreds of years," I said, knowing that it couldn't be true. They weren't vampires or Forsaken after all.

"You think that vampires and Forsaken are the only ones who can be immortal?" he asked with another of those sexy smiles. "Jessup, don't be so naive. But I never said I was immortal. I only said I have lived many, many years. Though it's improper, I will tell you that this year I celebrated my one hundred, fiftieth birthday."

"And you say you aren't immortal," I said with a sigh. All that he was telling me was making my head spin.

"My mother is two hundred years old," he said. "My grandfather lived to be three hundred, seventy years old. He died of natural causes. Sure he looked not a day over eighty, but he was three hundred, seventy years old. We're not immortal, Jessup. We don't live as long as you have."

I was quiet while I let all of that sink in. He was a century and a half old. That wasn't even close to how long I'd been walking the earth, minus the hundred years I'd slept under House Maxwell. So he was a member of a family that had been alive for centuries. What was that to me? That I loved this man was the only truth I was concerned with. That he could die had not changed. Three hundred, seventy years wasn't such a long time when you put it in perspective with true immortality. He was already almost half way through that life cycle.

"A hundred or so odd years will never be enough with you," I said as I looked into those brown eyes of his.

"Ah but I know your kind, Jessup," he said. There was no smile on his face this time. "You tire of your mates after so long. Don't deny it. It's there in your mind. Yes, you lost Tyron because he was assassinated, but what about your last mate?"

My last mate wasn't exactly my mate. If he could read my mind then he had to know that Gabriel had never been more than a fling. At least it was a fling for him. I had fallen hard for him, but that hadn't mattered when he'd run off to follow after Holden. If he could read my mind then he should have known all of that. To throw it in my face was painful.

"I did not intend to hurt your feelings, Jessup," he said, proving that he was still reading my mind. "I can only read the thoughts in your mind when you think them. When I said you tire of your mates all I got was the name of your last. I didn't get details because you hadn't thought of them yet. Forgive me."

"You made an assumption," I said testily. "Do not assume too far with me."

"You're angry with me," he said and actually pouted. "I promise I did not intend to offend or anger you."

"You make assumptions based on what you can read on the surface of my mind," I said not ready to forgive just yet. I had a point to make. "That doesn't give you the whole story, Darian. You don't really know anything about me. You try to dazzle me and taunt me with the fact that you can read my mind and I can't read yours. You throw names in my face like Tyron and Gabriel, but you don't know what either of them meant to me or how I suffered when they were gone.

"You say we tire of our mates," I went on. "You have no way of knowing anything about our mates or what we feel for them. Ninety years ago I had to watch the Father of my bloodline destroy his mate. I had to watch how it broke his heart to do it even though his mate had become rabid and deserved to be put down. Don't throw names in my face when you know nothing about them. I suggest that if you want to get to know me you should ask me questions and stay the hell out of my head."

"Point taken, Jessup," Darian said, eyeing me wearily. "As I said it was not my intention to offend or anger you. I would stay out of your mind, but then this conversation would be over. The only way I can touch your dreams is through your mind. I will refrain from assuming anything about the errant thoughts that travel across the surface of your mind. That's the best I can do right now unless you'd rather just sleep."

"What is it that you want from me?" I demanded instead of answering. "I don't get it. You say you bewitched me, and perhaps you did. What I want to know is why? What design do you have in your mind for us? That you made me love you was probably not your intention. I'm sure you wanted me to bite you, but I can't figure out why you would want me to do something like that either. With the way you smell to me biting you would be disaster. I'd drain you dry before I could stop myself."

"What do you mean the way I smell to you?" he asked. "Have you been around other witches? Do they smell the same as me?"

"No one smells the same as anyone else," I lectured, though I really wanted answers to my questions, not more questions from him. "Every human being has his or her own unique scent. Yours is just far more appealing than most."

"What I want from you is for us to love each other," he said. "I had a waking dream about you half a year ago. I knew you'd come eventually. I even knew you'd have Noah with you. I didn't know who you were or who Noah was when I dreamt of you. I just knew that you were the man who I would fall in love with. I bewitched you to find out if you would fall in love with me."

"So you're saying that what I feel for you is some sort of spell at work?" I asked. "If that is so then break the spell, I say. Let me love you on my own."

"There is no spell," he said with a chuckle. "I'm not that kind of witch. My power is all mental. I'm not a Moreau."

"You said you bewitched me," I reminded him.

"I did," he said. "That would only make you think of me, Jessup. I can not cast spells to bend someone's will or make them feel anything they don't already feel. My magick doesn't work that way."

"Well don't bewitch me again," I snapped. "I don't like being fucked with. I don't care what kind of witch you are, if you want me to love you stop the coy games and be a person. Now tell me why you wanted me to bite you."

"You are a vampire," he said, stating the obvious. "I thought that once you'd had my blood you'd stay with me."

This was a lie, but I didn't call him on it. I was tired of this fight. I had meant everything I said though. If he wanted me to be with him then he had to drop the bewitching and coy behavior. I wasn't impressed with magick. I didn't want to be someone's toy either. If he wanted me to love him he'd have to love me in return.

The sun was setting as well. I could feel its power lifting from my limbs. He didn't have long to invade my dreams. Once the sun was finally set I would wake. Then I was leaving the damned shack and going home where I belonged. I wouldn't sacrifice my time with Noah for him anymore.

"Will you come to me when Noah goes to sleep?" he asked, looking worried.

"I will come to you when I decide to come to you," I replied. Then the sun set and my eyes opened.

I sat up and looked around the shack. The candles had gone out but I'd never had any trouble seeing in the dark. I found my clothes and dressed quickly. I was aware that Darian was awake as well, but I had nothing to say to him now. I wanted to go home and that's just what I was going to do after I hunted to remove the taste of his skin from my mouth.

I walked out of the shack and breathed in the night air. Then I was gone, moving faster than my little witch could move. I found a victim almost as soon as I stopped running. He came for me with a knife and I drained him dry. I didn't let the euphoria touch him either. I was in a bad mood and he suffered for it. He was ash at my feet and still I wanted another. I was very angry with Darian, and my victims would suffer for that anger. No, I decided, it wasn't a good idea for me to go anywhere near him for a while.

Two victims later I was standing in front of my house, listening to them talk inside. They were worried about me, but surely Blaze could tell them that I was standing outside. I sighed and went into the house. They were all there. Miguel didn't seem all that worried, but then I wouldn't have worried about him either. Blaze breathed a sigh of relief when I walked through the door. Seamas and Jax just looked at me. Beth and Perrin were glaring at me.

"I don't want to hear it," I said to no one and both of them at the same time. "I'm going to shower and then I want to spend some time with my son."

"What is that delicious smell all over you, Jessup?" Miguel asked. His very voice irritated me. I didn't bother to answer.

I stood under the spray of the shower and replayed the previous night's events in my head. I still felt exactly the same for Darian as I had before he'd pissed me off. Oh I was still plenty pissed off at him as well, but the fact that I felt the same did make me feel a fraction better about it all. He'd said he couldn't make me love him. If it was the truth then at least what I felt was real.

"You were gone a long time," Noah said when I entered his room and sat on the bed. He was playing one of his multiple video games.

"I'm sorry for that, Noah," I replied. "It won't happen again."

"I stayed up late to wait for you," he said, and I felt even more guilty for not having been here for him.

"Were you a good boy?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said. "Will you play a game with me?"

"Sure," I said, happy to be forgiven so quickly.

Vampires can play video games, don't get the idea that we can't. Most of us wouldn't be caught dead playing one though. I was doing this for Noah. It wasn't hard to figure out and soon we were playing as if we'd always played together. He laughed and giggled and the sound of it did a number on my heart. It also allowed me to calm down.

I was sure there would be a lengthy discussion with Perrin about where I'd been and the fact that I hadn't even taken my drone with me. After all we were supposed to be in hiding. Well I'd set him straight about that. I would not be caged. I wasn't in hiding so much as we were hiding Noah.

We broke from playing video games when Beth announced that she had ice cream for Noah. I sat with him at the kitchen table while he ate his chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce. It smelled absolutely revolting to me, but he sure seemed to like it. I would never deprive him of anything simply because it didn't smell good to me. For all I knew it was wonderful to humans. If the look on my new son's face was anything to go by I'd say he thought it was pretty wonderful.

Shortly after Noah was tucked into bed Perrin came and demanded to talk to me. He said all I expected him to say. He told me how irresponsible it was to run off without telling anyone where I'd gone. Then he started in on me about not taking my drone with me. I just sat there and let him get it all off his chest.

"First," I said, controlling my voice and my anger at having been dressed down by him. "I will go where I want, when I want. I am not under lock and key in this damned place. We are here to hide Noah not us. Silas may come for either of us and he may not. Let him come. I am not afraid of one vampire. Don't talk to me about my drone. If he has a problem with the fact that I went off and fucked Darian Lang all night without him then he can talk to me about it. He's a big boy and doesn't need you to be his mouth piece. Now if you're done with this I would like to do some searching on the Internet before the sun comes up."

He had to understand that I would never take orders from a vampire who wasn't even two hundred years old. He had to understand that as the oldest vampire in the house I would be in charge if anyone was. I hadn't taken orders for most of my over seven hundred years as a vampire.

I went to my private room where the pine box had been replaced with a bed. I sat at the desk and searched out Darian Lang on the web. I found that he was a teacher at the school and had been for two years. I didn't find much more about him. There was his college information, but as I searched I realized that Darian Lang probably wasn't his given name. He'd said he was old. He had likely had to change his name a lot over the years of his life to keep his secret. In that regard he was much like the vampires. Sure I was still Jessup Maxwell but we had erased our names from any public records of the past. I had been a bit more creative with my own name though. I was currently Jessup Maxwell, the heir of the original Jessup Maxwell who had legally died almost ninety years ago.

There was no reason for me to believe that all he'd told me wasn't the truth. I didn't really know much about witches. I'd only ever seen them from a distance. I'd only even known of Marcus Moreau because his funeral had taken over Los Angeles. Who was I to say that one group of witches would have normal human life spans and another group couldn't have a measure of immortality?

My obsession with Darian Lang lasted for weeks. Day in and day out he was nearly all I thought about. I took Noah to the parks, to the batting cages, to miniature golf and to so many different places for so many different activities. All I thought about was Darian Lang. I'd had no more dreams so at least he wasn't toying with my mind anymore. I just couldn't get him out of my mind.

I could argue with Perrin, ignore Miguel or have long talks with Blaze and still all I thought about was Darian Lang. It was getting ridiculous. How could I have let this semi immortal witch get under my skin the way I had? I hadn't been this fixated on Tyron Par or Gabriel. The thought of Gabriel still stung. I missed him so much it hurt. I was amazed that I could still think of Gabriel in that way and be fixated on Darian Lang. Of course I knew that my vampire mind could go in so many different directions, think of so many different things at one time but the thought of loving two men was crazy.

I was a strung out vampire who couldn't focus. I hunted, I played with Noah, I had long talks with Blaze though he couldn't understand the appeal the man had for me. He was still basically straight. I think he'd already figured out that what he thought he felt for me was only the bond and not permanent. It could have been if I'd stoked that flame but I wasn't interested in Blaze that way. Drones need a steady supply of the blood of the vampire who bonded them or one of his fledglings. Ordinarily the vampire fed his drones directly from his body. I didn't do that with Blaze. I respected the fact that he was married. I filled yellow bottles with my blood and stored them in a small refrigeration unit in my room. He drank one of those every day after heating it.

I also had blood in blue bottles in that refrigeration unit. Those were for me. I'd had to make the distinction because if Blaze had gotten a bottle of the wrong blood he'd have become very sick. Drones could only drink the blood of the vampire that bonded them or one from that vampire's line. What was in the blue bottles was human blood. That would have probably been disastrous for him to drink. I made sure that he knew the difference quickly.

Another curious thing had started to happen. I noticed now that I was spending much more time around them all that Noah completely ignored Miguel. He would talk to Perrin, Seamus, Jax, Blaze and Beth but he wouldn't so much as look at Miguel. I read the boy's mind and found that he knew I didn't like Miguel so he ignored him. It was absolutely fascinating for me.

Nothing compared to my obsession however. I could think of all of those things and still be completely and utterly obsessed with Darian Lang. My pain over the loss of Gabriel, my dislike for Miguel, my talks with Blaze, the blood and the discovery that Noah was following after me where Miguel was concerned were just idle thoughts compared to what I thought about Darian Lang.

Then as it happened, I was sitting in the dining room just after Noah had gone to bed. Jax came into the dining room and sat down across from me and waited patiently for me to acknowledge him. I took a moment to really admire the Forsaken sitting across from me. He was a completely odd Forsaken. Every Forsaken I'd ever known from Tyron on to Blaze was heavily built with muscle and menace. Jax was different. He was muscular, sure, but he wasn't as over muscular as his brothers or Seamus. He had more of a baseball player's build to their body builder builds. The baseball player's build was even too generous for what he had. I'd seen swimmers in Olympic sized swimming pools and Jax had that kind of body but a little more defined.

The close cropped dark hair was like his brothers. It was the same color and texture as Cain and Blaze's. His eyes were only different because Blaze's were now ringed in a deep auburn. His ringed with amber. Cain's were just like Blaze's. The twins hadn't deviated in eye color by becoming drones, but their younger brother was as different in eye color as he was in body type.

Of course his vampire had amber ringed eyes as well. That was a trait passed down by his maker. Miguel had been turned during Bashir's first bit of rebellion against the government scientists who had been using him to try and find a way to destroy all of the vampires. What they'd found were ways to change him into another kind of vampire, one who could spawn females who morphed into frightening monsters that could fly. Miguel could morph into his own frightening monster when he wanted to, but he rarely chose to change his physical appearance. I'd only seen it happen once when the protection against the sun had been lifted by Eric's slumber.

I tried never to think about Bashir. Perhaps that was why I disliked Miguel so much. I had known the yellow eyed Forsaken for centuries. Being a bonded Forsaken gave the Forsaken a large measure of our immortality. Of course Bashir had been turned by Eric during a simple blood exchange which had lengthened his life span considerably. But it was over seven hundred years ago that I first met Bashir.

He'd been the most outspoken of Tyron's uncles after his turning. Bashir had condemned me at first, but then Tyron had bonded him and his attitude changed. I had known Bashir in ways that Eric had never known him. I'd known his hatred, his dislike, his acceptance and finally his love. It had never been a romantic love between me and Bashir. It was more a family love that we'd shared. I respected Bashir. He taught us all battle strategies and how to survive the world during the Vampire Forsaken war.

He'd taken a special interest in training both me and Matthias. Matthias had adored him then much the way I had adored Tyron. Of course by that time the madness had started to settle into Tyron's mind and take him away from me. But Bashir, in his bonded state of love for us felt bad for us now that we'd both been shut out of House Kull Duku. Alexander had washed his hands of us after Tyron's turning. He'd also been a real force in the war up to that point.

You can't work that closely with a Forsaken and not love him once you'd discovered your own capacity to love them as humans or other vampires. For so long the attitude of the vampires had been that Forsaken were animals and not worthy of our attention much less our affection. I had been the one to change that, or at least I'd been the one to plant the seeds of that change when I'd met Tyron.

I'd had a very hard vampire life with Alexander Kull as my maker. He'd been both ruthless and cruel to his fledglings in how he'd taken us, made us and then broken us. I had fallen into a despair over the death of my human brother. Then I'd found Matthias who looked so much like my brother that I'd begged Alexander to turn him so that I could have him with me. I'd been beaten for my begging and chained with chains made from his hair in the dungeon of the house with the livestock. He'd starved me for two months like he'd done just after he'd turned me and decided to break my bond with my human brother.

I had discovered when he let me out of my confinement that he'd turned Matthias, but he was more cruel to him than he'd ever been to any of us. It had taken weeks for me to recover my strength and to befriend the vampire Matthias had become. When I had done both I took him and we left House Kull Duku in the less harmful rays of the fully set sun. We'd run as far as we could when we came upon a farm of Forsaken. They'd always raised cattle for some reason. Matthias and I had learned that reason when we'd seen our first Forsaken turn. He was a young boy just into the throws of puberty. His yellow blond hair served to make him into a yellow wolf.

We'd watched him decimate about a third of the herd of Cattle that night. We'd followed him through his running through the forest that surrounded everything at that time. This was before there was an America. The land was still inhabited by what the English had come to call Indians. Alexander had come there because he'd been escaping Duku.

Anyway we'd followed him through the forest until the sun rose and he changed back to his human form. That was just as much a sight to behold as it had been to watch him change into the wolf. It was a sickening, bloody thing to watch both times. Yet there he was in all of his naked glory lying on the ground, whimpering from the pain of his transformation.

He was a young boy at the time, and that was all he'd ever been allowed to become. We comforted him in his pain until we heard and smelled his family coming for him. Then we hid in the trees to watch as Bashir and Tyron's father had found him, wrapped him in a blanket and carried him back to the farm. That was the first time we'd seen Tyron, and I was in love with him on sight.

But I wasn't talking about Tyron at the beginning. I was talking about Bashir. He had taught us battle strategies and tactics, but the training he'd given me wasn't enough the night that Tyron was assassinated by Sloan. I was locked into the mind trap by then and I couldn't even see what was happening around me after that. I was forced to relive the death of my very first fledgling over and over again for centuries.

Eric removed the mind trap from my mind and fed me his blood to make me whole and different. Bashir was there, the same Bashir who'd taught me battle strategies and tactics, who'd sat with me and Matthias when we'd longed for home and been reduced to nothing but the boys we'd been before the turning. Those yellow eyes of Bashir's, a family trait, were why Miguel and Jax had amber rings around the irises of their eyes.

I was ripped out of my memories by a disturbance in the living room. Miguel was actually hissing! Jax and I looked at each other, whatever he'd come to talk to me about forgotten as we got up and went to the living room. What we found wasn't easy to figure out at first. Miguel was morphed into that hideous monster I'd seen him become only once before. He was at least three feet taller than his five foot, eleven inch frame. He had wings that were formed by webbing that had connected his arms and legs. His hissing mouth was open wide to accommodate the huge fang teeth that protruded from it. The eyes were what captivated me for a moment. They were burning amber, absolutely alive and reflecting every bit of candlelight in the room. Seamus and Blaze were straining to hold him back. Perrin was holding a mortal by the throat at the door. I saw with dawning horror that the mortal was Darian Lang!

For a long moment I could only stand there and stare! Jax seemed to be unable to decide if he should help them hold his vampire back or go to his aid. He'd never seen him like that before. I was too riveted on the spectacle of Perrin holding Darian Lang by the throat at the front door to really worry about Miguel or Jax's torn loyalties.

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