Set To Start (Morningstars) (7 page)

He walked them over to the bed, placing her down gently before running his nose down her jaw and along her neck. She moved, just enough so he could easily struck her carotid artery. She wanted him to take her blood, to make this feel normal because somewhere in the back of her head a tiny, doubting voice pointed out that his kiss tasted different, that his touch felt unknown to her. As if he had heard her internal monologue, he suddenly pulled back, leaving her breathless and instantly cold. The warm blanket that had been his body was removed far too quickly for her taste.

“What the hell is wrong?” she asked, going on her elbows so she could look at the vampire warrior sitting at the end of her bed.

“My brother brought home a human girl,” he finally said, pausing as if this explained all the mysteries of the world.

“So?” she prompted and he shrugged.

“It wasn’t uncommon for us to take women home and share them, enjoy them until they were too content to move.” The image hurt. Cia never had been a jealous person before, but now, since there suddenly seemed to be a valley between her and Kaden, she couldn’t help but hate the faceless women. “It was always fun, but since a few years, that’s just not happening anymore. If we had a girl, we’d take here right where we found her and then get out. There was no one holding Jaden’s interest long enough to go anywhere else with her.”

Cia wanted to press her hands to her ears. She didn’t need to hear about him and other girls. In fact, she didn’t need him to talk at all. She just wanted to be in his arms and see him smile.

“Kaden…”

“Now he brought one home and told me to get out. If something happens to her, it’ll be my fault.”

That made Cia actually look up. “Happens to her? Like biting, you mean?”

Kaden shook his head, finally a small smile spreading on his lips. “Come over here,” he coaxed, holding out his hand to her. He didn’t need to ask twice and she went to him, moving on his lap. He embraced her, kissing her cheeks and then her forehead before leaning back enough to look at her.

“You are all pale and sick,” he mumbled, brushing his thumb over her lip. Almost instantly, a flush worked its way over her cheeks. She wanted his lips where his thumb was. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I wouldn’t be happy to hear about you and other guys no matter how long ago that is,” he admitted and finally some of the pressure on her chest eased.

“Are you worried about her or about what it could mean for your brother?” she asked, hoping to clarify where the change in him came from.

“She’s is a human and breakable. Whenever I left she was asleep, but you don’t know Jaden. You haven’t seen him with the vampire women in the last months,” he mumbled, thinking to the months he and she already had been an item. Freezing all over, she moved off his lap.

“Have you … always shared with him?” she asked and he ground his teeth together, making his jaw strain.

Getting up, he grabbed her shoulders, making sure she met his eyes.

“I haven’t slept with any other woman since I met you,” he pointed out, accentuating every spoken word with a gentle squeeze of his fingers. “I’m just tagging along because … I worry he’s going to kill someone.” The break in-between his words made her curious. There was something he wasn’t saying and it made her shake her head. “What?” he instantly asked, alarmed.

“Nothing,” she lied, swallowing. She had no idea what it was, but suddenly it couldn’t be clearer that Kaden and she didn’t belong together. Even while he was holding her, he was holding back.

“So, that girl …” She didn’t even know why she returned to that subject.

“She’s human, I am certain, and yet Jaden is different. He’s more intense when it comes to her. I know though that I need to tell Colbin about her. She is … special, I guess. I didn’t even see her and yet, her scent was unique.”

“Unique? As in she wasn’t showered?” she tried to joke, but he just shook his head, contemplating.

“No, it was sweet, a hint of vanilla and berries. Raspberries. I’ve never known a person who smelled so … eatable. It’s like you are biting into a warm cupcake.” He sounded fascinated and more than just a little hooked.

“Her blood tempts you?” she wanted to know and he shook his head.

“No, trust me, that’s not it. I’m just curious because I’ve never met anyone like that. Jaden claims she has supernatural reactions.”

“What do I smell like?” she asked, knowing that vampires had a much better nose.

“You smell like you. It always depends on the lotion you use. I like the violet one the most. It gives you a flowery smell.”

“No smell that’s unique to me?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Finally his face fell, as if he realized whom he was talking to and what he was saying.

“You smell amazing, Cia. I love being with you, and whenever I go home I love to carry that scent with me. Jaden asked me about it simply because I couldn’t get myself to shower. Hey, I’m here with you, aren’t I?” he asked, cupping her cheek. As much as she wanted to lean into the touch, she couldn’t.

“Actually you aren’t. I just can’t figure out if you are mentally with her or your brother … or both.” He stepped back, regret on his face. She just couldn’t decide if he regretted that he had made her feel this way or if he regretted acting that way.

“He’s my twin. Anything that happens to him impacts me directly one way or the other,” he admitted, at least easing her mind a little. He was thinking about what this meant to them as twins instead of thinking about her.

She placed her hand above his heart, feeling the beating only faintly as it knocked against her hand in a steady rhythm.

“How about you get back to Jaden and that girl and once that situation is sorted, you’ll come and see me?” she asked and he took a deep breath, obviously searching for something to say. She stopped him with her finger on his lips. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. Just make sure that next time you get here, you’ll be here,” she whispered and then stepped away. It hurt her that he didn’t even try to hold onto her.

“Bye, Ciarda, I’ll make it up to you,” he promised and then left. Cia didn’t think long before raiding her closet, dressing as elegant as she could. She needed someone to talk to, and the only person understanding her and that crazy world was her mother. Now Cia only hoped she’d be happy to see her.

Cia knocked on the door that once used to be the entryway to her home. A lady opened, only a servant she didn’t know and one who obviously didn’t know her, either.

“Yes?” she asked, sounding polite and yet annoyed. Checking her watch, she realized they most likely were getting ready to have dinner.

It was weird for Cia to be thinking of it being dinner when morning was drawing closer.

“I’m here to see Joanna,” she said politely, remembering her high-class-manners. “Please, if you could ask her for a moment of her time. It’s Ciarda.”

The woman told her to wait a moment and then closed the door. She wasn’t even asked to wait in the foyer. What the hell?

It took about thirty seconds and the huge door was torn open.

“Mary, I cannot believe you made her wait outside. I … we’ll deal with that later. Make sure the table has just one more place set,” her mother fussed, then she turned to Cia, tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

Cia hadn’t realized how much she had missed coming here until she felt hot streaks running down her cheeks, too.

“Mom,” she all but sobbed, falling around the other woman’s neck. Her hug was reciprocated and there was no better place on earth. It made Cia want to bawl her eyes out for having been strong way too long and staying away.

Her mother led her inside, never once letting go of her, and she loved it.

“Bernard! Bernard! Come and see,” her mother called out and her father stepped to the parapet on the top floor.

“Cia!” It wasn’t more than a gasp, but the next second he had pulled her in his arms too, holding her tightly. “We wanted to respect your wish, but we hoped every day that you’d return…”

How had she ever thought she should and could stay away from her parents? It had been a lie she had told herself for too long.

“I was sure that I didn’t belong to the night any longer and nothing has changed about me…” She gave her parents a moment to listen to the silence that sure was filled with her heartbeat for them. Their somber expressions let her know all she needed to know. “Anyways, if we needed any more proof that I wasn’t an Origin, vampires can take my blood.”

“That’s why you are here,” her mother stated while her father furrowed his brows.

“You were attacked?” he asked and blood colored her cheeks.
‘Attacked’ is one way to describe it
, she thought.

“Attacked definitely, but not the way you think, Bernard,” her mother grinned, taking her arm. “Come on, I think this calls for a woman-to-woman talk.”

“I … don’t … oh,” her father mumbled and even more blood shot into Cia’s cheeks. Something passed between her mother and her father, then his features softened. “Dinner will be ready in half an hour. You’ll stay, right, Cia?”

She instantly nodded, needing the feeling of being home.

Following her mother, they walked up the stairs and then entered what used to be her room … and still looked the same.

“You didn’t change a thing,” she whispered, touching her comforter-covered bed.

“Well, we did take the dust off everything,” her mother grinned and Cia had to laugh. At home she hadn’t been exactly the cleanest person, especially since she had hated servants going through her stuff, but now she missed having someone that cleaned for her.

She touched the blush-colored comforter, looking at the slightly darker walls. Her whole room had been done up like a little girl’s room, but while it had pissed her off to no end when she had been living there, she now wanted to throw herself on the bed and cry her eyes out.

Her mother hadn’t even taken down the black posters of one human hard-metal-band or the other, and so she took a deep breath, starting forward to take them down while telling her mother, who sat down on the window seat, what had happened.

“I started to work two jobs so I could buy myself a house, always hoping that one day I’d meet a guy who’d just blow me away. I was hoping that by pretending I came from their world, I’d eventually become fully human – with a husband, a house, and kids. I thought I was happy with what I was doing, but then he stepped into my life.”

She paused, turning to her mother before going over to the next poster. “In my defense, I’ve been living among humans for so long that I didn’t realize what he was. Of course, he only came at night, but I have to be honest, I was thinking he had a girlfriend somewhere.”

“You’d sleep with another woman’s man, daughter?” her mother scolded her and she turned to her, a plea for understanding on her face.

“I’ve never met anyone like him, Mom. The way he looked at me, I thought I could have the world. That was, until I started to tell him that I love him and he just kissed me as an answer. Again, I thought there was another girl, until he got extremely mad, telling me that I wouldn’t understand.” She snorted, crunching up another poster into a paper ball.

“But there wasn’t,” her mother offered.

“No,” Cia admitted. “One day a woman walked in at my work place and told me that he can’t give me what I want to have because he is promised in some way.” She could still picture that woman with a clarity that confused her. “It took until the end of my shift for me to realize
what
she was saying. What he was.”

“You found a vampire. From all the people walking this city, one of ours blew you away?” her mother inquired gently and finally Cia turned to her.

“More than that; a Morningstar warrior found me, not just any vampire.”

Her mother got up, coming over to thoughtfully touch the places where before poster had covered a floral wallpaper. Cia wondered what her mother was thinking, but she refrained from asking.

“I am guessing that this is not the end of the story,” her mother finally said, turning to her. “A happy relationship wouldn’t bring you to that door. Then again, if you aren’t Origin and he could bite you, he is still unbound. Are you waiting for him to find the girl?”

“I was ready to change everything for him, Mom. I stopped working at the daycare center because I thought that if I kept a nightly schedule, he and I had better chances. After all, there isn’t a Queen and even if he’d find some girl, how long would his Origin survive? I could live…”