Clove : Book 4 of Lord Emperor Vampire Series

Marin Liliz: here’s more milk!!

K:Due to your insight and poignant way of saying this, I changed Marcus just a tad in this chappie from the way I had originally written it. His muse will continue to be just out of reach for a while. Breeding question will be dropped in the forum.

Asylum: Snowflake was fine. He morphed up into a Sabretooth tiger to outrun the Orel Wessel poison dart. Morose, didn’t make it. Since Sex wasn’t around, there was no need for the hellkitty to be reincarnated. As for the Lycan females, they were introduced in the last epilogue of Caramel—roughly referred to as the 5 Xenas.: Amara; Sheila; Nori; Akane and Svetlana.

Thanks again to the Loyal! Whoop whoop. Whoop, whoop. Everyone up against the wall and assume your favorite position. Opps, having a flash back to the previous night. Hhahahaah. Just kidding. I can’t remember the other night.  Really am kidding. Here’s to the LOYAL and TRUE! Romaticfae; rosemary; Marin Liliz; Natana; K; AsyenMari; Asylum; Laur; Mihara; Duelriel; Dark Avenger; Rosei dramastarself; blackopal; rainy; lioncourt; meadows_peak and Jae.

In the Forums section I have a POLL: Who is your favourite character in the CAKE universe. Why don’t you head on over there and click the button. Oh, and thank you for voting for me in the SKOW awards. I got my ass kicked by 100+ votes but I think I clinched second. Whoo hooo.


Chapter 153: Turn the other cheek

I was drifting in idyllic splendor not really asleep and not really awake when I heard beautiful music. I lifted my head off the bed and brushed my hair out of my face. Marcus stood nude at the foot of the bed as he played his violin. That was got to be the hotness thing I have ever seen. And the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. He had his eyes closed as he played…I had no idea what it was but it was soul stirring.

I sat up and flipped over. My hair hung around me in a messy tangle. I stretched again and yawned as his last note rang out in the small room. “That was beautiful.”

“I’m off. I can’t play what I hear in my head.”

“How long has it been since you packed it away? Maybe your just rusty. You need to limber up.” Marcus laid the violin back in it’s case and turned towards me. His whole face lit up with his smile.

“You’re beautiful.”

“I know.” I was greeted with a chuckle. “Take a seat, Babe. We need to talk.”

“Can I hold you?”

“I’m going to hold you. I’ve been locked outside this body for six years. I’m going to take every chance I can to feel. Marcus climbed back on the bed right up into my arms and then settled, resting his shoulders against my chest.

“Good Afternoon.” He gave me a chaste kiss and brushed my hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind my ears. I wrapped my arms around him and set my chin against his shoulder.

“Who was that yesterday? The one I met in the hall. That wasn’t Armor. Babe?”

His voice was low and quiet. “Armor left me. I was actually alone. It was so strange to not have you here. I kept turning a corner expecting to see one of you there and you never where. It hurt him to see the kids because they are so much like you, and he couldn’t handle it. He loves them. I can feel it. It just rips him up inside and he didn’t know how to cope with the pain…so he retreated. He wouldn’t come out even when I asked him to so…I had to make a game face.”

“You have another brother?”

Marcus sighed and nestled back against me. “No, Liam showed Father how to make that blood fountain shield. Father showed me and he told me how he got Carnage on.—his game face.”

“Then the challenges started up. You asked me to be second, Azrael. The House moved me up to First. Everybody thought I was a joke. There were challenge after challenge. Finally, I knew I had to stop them. It wasn’t doing the House any good.”

“Nightengale was mouthing off about Xavier using his influence to lift me up the Ranking. Then there were others. Tristan was the last challenge. I had to make an example out of him or it would never stop. Tristan was claiming that Xavier was a fraud and that meant Father was as well. I didn’t care what they whispered about me but to attack you and Father. I put my game face on and I killed him.”

I tightened my arms around him. I wasn’t going to enlighten him about Claudius diary entry. He didn’t want me to know now gruesome it truly was. “Marcus, why is everyone warning me that you’re strange?”

He stiffened then angled his head sideways look up at me. “They call me strange?” There was hurt in his voice.

“Aside from your game face, what else have you changed?”

“I’ve been lonely without you, my Angel. When I was a child, I played with childish things but now that I’ve grown, I’ve put childish things away.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that there were enough babies in Von Drachenfeld. There didn’t need to be an Ancient one as well. I am too old to play helpless son.”

“You’re not helpless.”

“I was, until you came along. Maybe everyone was used to overly sensitive Marcus.”

“You stopped your music and your art.”

“They meant nothing without you.”

“Oh, Babe. What did you do without them?”

“Callia and Raissa have me wrapped around their little fingers. They just have to point at something and I’ll go do it. They keep me busy. You have beautiful girls, Azrael. They will have all the young bloods standing in line for them.”

“Well all the young bloods better back off until their eighteenth birthday.”

“I think Father said twenty-one.”

“That works for me.” I shifted him sideways so I could nibble at his neck. “And little Lex?”

Marcus sighed, “He prefers to hang out with Father. If everyone is whispering I’m strange, it’s no wonder he wants nothing to do with me.”

I sighed and pressed a kiss to his exposed nape. “Lex told X that he wanted you to color a poster Liam gave him but you didn’t do that kind of thing anymore. He might be scared of you, Babe. You are kind of big.”

Marcus linked fingers with mine on his broad chest then raised them up, turned it and pressed his lips to the back of my hand. “I have never really had anything to do with that. I just kept growing and growing. I have had to work at being scary. I had to. I heard the gossip. Your little ones, Claudia, the puppies, they depended on me. I knew I could be strong. I had to show everyone else I was. I had to be taken seriously.”

Marcus twisted to face me. “I’ve had a lot of time to think, Angel. Father and I had worked out a relationship that we both benefited from. It worked when it was just the two of us. I needed a Father. He needed a son. Then I had you. He had Sex. I made you into Father and became your Puppy. I should have treated you like a lover…instead of a guardian. I am sorry, Azrael. I should have stood beside you, or in front of you because I am older. Maybe…maybe I wouldn’t have gone stupid and done those things to Xavier if I grew up.”

“I liked taking care of you Marcus. I still call you my Puppy in my head. And for X, that’s been forgiven.”

I got a kiss to the forehead. “I couldn’t find you, Azrael. I tracked you to Reggie’s monument then there was nothing. We found an Orel Wessel dart. It was just like you vanished off the face of the planet. What did they do to you? Where did they take you? Why do you have a new brother? Was it so horrible that another brother had to come and take the abuse?”

I looked up right into his eyes. Those warm soulful eyes. I lifted my hands and cupped his face. You don’t tell loved ones stuff like that. You can’t. It wouldn’t be right to pass on that – that taint. I lowered my forehead to the crook of his neck and wrapped my arms around his chest as far as they would go.

My voice was a whisper of anguish. “I could hate them, Marcus. It would be so easy to hate Orel Wessel. I could fill my heart with that darkness.” One arm wrapped around my waist, the other held his hand to the back of my head, stroking my hair. “But if I have a heart of darkness, how can I love my children? You can’t love anyone with hate in your heart. I got you. X has Armor. Sex wouldn’t bee hurting so much if he didn’t love Claudius. Skell…he has no clue what love is but Lanseng is waiting to show him. Orel Wessel may have bent us, Marcus, but they didn’t break us. Hate would let them win. I can’t let them win.”

“You’re home now, Azrael. You’re in my arms were you belong. You can be happy here. You can be safe here.”

I relaxed into his embrace. I soaked up the fact that I could feel his strength. I could smell his scent.. I let my tongue flick out and lick at the salty sweat of his skin. His voice rumbled above my head. “You’re home. You’re home.” I opened my eyes and spied his second love propped in its leather case. I was home.

“I challenge Cipher for his rank.”

He stilled. “I accept your challenge, Azrael.”

I just lay against him breathing softly. His arms loosened and he began to hum something. It was pretty.

“Will you take a bath with me?” I finally croaked out.

“We won’t fit in my tub. It’s meant for a single. I can barely fit in it.”

“Armor’s room is empty.”

“Technically, this whole building except one floor is yours.”

I frowned. “One floor?”

“The Hendersons. One floor below us. They are stubborn. Von Drachenfeld is now 20 stories of a 21 story building. You go ahead and get everything ready. I’ll get in touch with Father and get the gym set up. I will meet you there.”

“Do you think Father will stop us?”

“A challenge has been issued and accepted. He can’t stop it. Up, Angel. This evening will take care of itself.”

“I love you, Puppy.”

He untangled us and stood up beside the bed. He leaned over and pressed a whisper soft kiss against my lips. “I know.” His hand pulled a strand of my hair forward as he rose back to his full height. He breathed in my cinnamon scent then let it trail out of my grasp. “Get the bath ready, Angel I will take care of you until we have to let the world back in.”


The gym had been cleared of equipment but it was sort of pointless because all that extra space was taken up by the Loyal. The walls were a sea of black suit jackets. I just looked so monochromatically wrong against them. I was in white. Even my docs were white. If it was winter outside, I could close my big green eyes and hide in a snow bank. Still…Marcus liked it. He liked it a little too much. I was late because of him. Under the pretext of helping me dress, his did Armor’s little cop-a-feel. I returned the frisk so I guess it didn’t matter about being late when my opponent was his internal brother. Still, where was he?

I had on that funky ‘got a day pass’ tee, a pair of Sex’s white leather, should be unbelievably tight, but fit just right, low riders and as I mentioned, white Docs. My lower stomach was exposed well below the navel, but the rest of the pants that Marcus hauled out for me were too baggy. I had to eat more. Marcus had my hair braided in one tail down my back and the tip of my hair swung and tingled my naked strip of back.

I glanced around me. There were a heck of a lot of Loyal that I had never seen before. Life moves on when you stranded on a beach.

Father swept into the room and locked onto me. There was a march in his step that snapped the Loyal into attention then down into reverent pose. That felt odd that they weren’t doing it for me. Oh, gees. Listen to me whine.

“Do you know what the hell you are doing, Azrael?”

“I believe Xavier informed you of our intentions.”

“This is madness. Marcus, is not who you remember.”

“Marcus is exactly who I remember. He is NOT strange. You hurt him deeply with those remarks. If he had changed so much, you wouldn’t have drawn blood from him with just words.”

Whatever Father was going to say just dried up in his mouth.

“You should be proud of him Father. He has grown up.”

“I am proud of him. He is my Eldest son.”

“Then maybe you should tell him that, Claudius. Marcus is a mind reader, but you know as well as I that he would never do that to you without your consent. Don’t make assumptions that everyone knows what’s going with you Father. You are a very hard man to read.”

“I love my son.”

“Well calling him strange doesn’t reflect that. That might be why, Lex is scared of Marcus.”

“What?” Claudius voice rang out loud enough that everything but silenced.

At that moment the doorway was filled with a huge chunk of Vampire. Marcus? Wait a minute. I’m supposed to be duking it out with Armor. My face must have held my dismay because Father turned and said the exact same thing. “Marcus, what are you doing here?”

Since none of the Loyal twitched, I could only assume that they knew about the brothers and about my brothers. With six, you get eggroll.

“A challenge has been issued. A challenge as been accepted.”

“But not you.” I spoke lowly.

“Are you withdrawing your challenge for First?” Marcus tilted his head to one side and looked at me with those big brown eyes.

“I…I can’t. You know that.”

He moved away from the door and came and stood directly in front of me. He stood up straight and tall as he looked down at me in his most intimating manner. “Ask me.”

I blinked at him.

“Ask me what you should have asked Hades.”

Claudius stepped between us. “This is unheard of. A challenge has been issued. It has to be witnessed by the Ranked for it to be valid.”

“I, Azrael, Second in the House of Assassins, challenge you, Cipher, First to defend your rank.”

“I, Cipher, accept your challenge, Azrael. Now, ask.”

“Give me your rank, Marcus. Please.”

“Why?”

“I need it to defend those who can’t defend themselves.”

Claudius looked between the both of us. I looked up at Marcus’ calm gaze. I might have looked calm by my insides were twitching like a snake in tree. “I forfeit.” He lowered himself down to one knee, his eyes never leaving mine until he lowered himself fully into reverent pose.

“This challenge is over. The Ranking of First belongs to Azrael. Cipher is moved to Second.”

The silence was broken by murmurs. The Loyal come to see a fight of epic proportions. This wasn’t it. I took a deep breath. The night wasn’t over yet.

“As First, I challenge Carnage for this Rank as Head of the House of Assassins.”

The room went back to waiting for a pin to drop.

Claudius turned toward him, his face schooled into emotionless. “You have made your challenge for the day.”

“The rules state that there can only be one challenge fight per day. It doesn’t limit the number of challenges that can be issued.”

“You know how I feel about this, Azrael. You should be with your family. You are out of the light of scrutiny. Stay out and raise your children.”

“Where do my children end, Father?” Marcus climbed to his feet and stood at my left. “From the time we were twenty four hours old, the brothers and I have been taught that we are the caretakers of the Nation. The blood we’ve spilt. The things we’ve done. The horrors we’ve endured have all been for my children. We have the wings. We have the Light. The Vampire Nation is my family. Von Drachenfeld is precious to us. Our children and wife are precious to us. My mates are precious to us. But so are the covens, the council and the Vampire Houses. Where is the line, Father? Where is that line that shows were where to stop claiming blood as family?”

“There is a challenge on the floor.” Marcus voice rang out so everyone of the Loyal and the Ranked could hear it. “Azrael has challenged Carnage for the position as Head of the House of Assassins. Your answer, Carnage.”

There was a brief flash of distress. It was just like a moment when X asked if Claudius would have killed him and Armor for breaking the Covenant. “I accept the challenge. This challenge will be held at the Warehouse, at noon. Once you are defeated, Azrael, you cannot challenge for a year.” Claudius stepped closer, “Do not bother asking me to step aside. You know my views on it.”

“He doesn’t expect you to step aside. He doesn’t want you to.”

“Sex.”

“He wants you to stand in his way.”

“Why won’t he come and talk to me?”

“You betrayed him, Father. He will meet you at noon tomorrow, and you better bring you’re “A” game because hell hath no fury as a brother scorned.”

“What I did then I did because I believed it was the right thing to do. What I do now, I believe it still the right thing to do. I will stand in your way. I will make you stand still for one year or longer if need be.”

“You can try, Father. Orel Wessel may have locked our support pillar in the dark, but they never broke him. You did more damage with one action than a whole army could do in seven years. Sex will be there at noon.”

Claudius narrowed his eyes and bit back what ever he was going to say. He nodded his in our direction and, there is no other way to say it, stormed out of the gym.

Holy crapola, can you say waltzing with a gorilla? I thought Father was going to rip my face off.

Marcus wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me back to his chest. “You really have a way of pushing Father’s buttons, Azrael. I thought for a moment I was going to have to jump him.”

I gave him a slight elbow into the stomach. “You’re not jumping anyone but me.”

I got a kiss to the part on top of my head. “So, are we going to do this?”

I twisted and looked back at him. “Marcus?”

“It’s a brand new start for everyone. You and Armor need to clear the air, so I’m going to let you bond.”

“Bond?”

“Well that sounds better than let you beat the crap out of each other. Since the question of Rank is now a thing of the past there no need for a clear winner. So…” He reached behind himself and pulled out a CD and flashed it in my face. “there will be a time limit. Once the CD ends, that’s it the fight is over. You two will get those issues out between you and bury the hatchet so to speak.”

I pulled out of his arms and turned to face him. “You’re serious.”

Marcus handed the CD to a Loyal. “I have one condition. You fight like humans. No fangs, no wings, no hand of light mishaps.”

“X did what he wanted to. It wasn’t a mishap.”

“That makes it even more sad, Angel. So, do you agree?”

“How do you know if Armor is going to agree to this.”

“Simple. The prize if Armor wins is that he gets Xavier in his arms tonight. If you win, I’m back in yours. No matter what, after this fight, both of you will have a beer together. You are brothers. If you plan on taking us to war, you will need Armor to have your back.”

Marcus walked to the center of the room. The Loyal who had begun to disperse suddenly released that they just might be getting the fight they were looking for. “Maestro, if you please. Do you agree?”

I nodded.

Armor raked his eyes up and down me. “Slutboys-r-us looks good on you, Azrael.”

“Eat shit and live, Armor.” I smiled sweetly back at him.

The strains of the Immortals Techno Syndrome (Theme of Mortal Kombat) filled the gym. “TEST YOUR MIGHT!” The voice yelled out and was followed by a pumping techno rhythmic beat. Marcus, you are so kidding me.

Armor smirked at me. “I hate to admit it, Azrael but you’re good for him. I never knew he had a sense of humor. Let’s do this.”

“You’re serious?”

“X in my arms tonight, I’m serious.”

“I won the last time.”

“I let you win. That was then, this is now.”

A digital voice cried out. “MORTAL KOMBAT”

I shrugged and dropped into an easy balanced stance. I lifted my arm and gestured at him with my fingers. “Let’s dance.”
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