Clove : Book 4 of Lord Emperor Vampire Series

It’s a shorty, but it’s evil. Bwah hahahaha

Everyone is of the opinion and Liam needs a spanking. Ever think he might like it? ^_^

I restocked my pocky, milk and honey to one and all. Thank you for the reviews. I love hearing about parts you find funny. Sometimes, it’s parts I have to go and re-read because I didn’t find them funny at the time of writing. I think it’s like tunnel vision. Just got to get to the end of the chappie. I think I can, I think I can. Soo, these actually make me stop and enjoy the story. Yeah that sounds freakish….gotta be me. Mauh!!
Mihara; Sesshomarurunaraku(x4); Marin Liliz; Laur; Crimson Vixen; Rosei; Rosemary; darma and sweet, sweet k.

Ps. I will get over to the rants section, I just havent’ gotten there yet. Oh, oh oh! Thanks for those who voted in my Claudius vs Sex poll. I am handwriting the fight scene. It seems to flow easier that way.


Chapter 159: The Wind-up

Everybody hated me.

I was never so happy to stand across from Claudius inside the arena at the new Warehouse. His eyes narrowed at my shorn locks and blue gear. Hair, earrings, the metallic blue leathers under the snow white coat. I actually found blue docs, they weren’t the same metallic blue but eh…I was overkill anyways. His eyes flicked down the to blue Hellcat Queen swishing her tail from side to side.

“Is this not taking a statement too far?” I got that eye brow arch.

“Well, the hellcat is a surprise.” I got a tail across the back of my knees. I almost dropped. “Enough already. You’re supposed to be my back up.” Her eyes narrowed and her whiskers twitched.

Oh yeah, great idea X. Talk to Shade. I can’t hear her. She must have found something she didn’t like because, I assume after she read me, or attempted to read me, she has been stuck to me like burrs on a woolen sock.

This has been a hellish last hour. I was actually looking forward to getting my clock cleaned. Marcus was pissed that I choose Shade as my second. When he got all puffy and self important, I pointed out that she was my partner from the beginning. He also didn’t want to hear that I didn’t want him to strain relations between him and Father. I just got Claudius passed calling Marcus ‘strange’. The last thing I wanted was start a celebrity death match. So after Marcus stalks away all emotional, Claudia stalks in and punches me in the fangs. Another sucker punch. She knocked me on my ass. That wasn’t hard because I only had on my boxer and my leather pants were tight and only up past my knees. I was effectively hobbled.

I knew Claudia was a chip off the old block. I didn’t know it was a mirror image. I swear she was channeling Carnage when she ripped into me for being inconsiderate and that I broke my promise to tell her these things. My shuttering that she wasn’t part of the House was the worst thing I could say. Se hauled off and hit me again. “Don’t you dare hurt Daddy.” Then she disappeared out of the room.

Drama. My life was drama.

I pulled my pants up then disappeared into the bathroom to re-spike my hair. I came out to find the last person in the world I wanted to see laying on my bed…or what was my bed…but was now Marcus’ Hey. I don’t even have a room here anymore more, and it’s my damn House! Lamby was laying there in all of Billiam’s glory.

“Come to start any more coups. Predad Praroditel’?”

“Shit.” Liam rolled off the bed and I snatched at the comforter where he had been laying. Then I proceeded to chase him around the room al a keystone cops until I shot a small blast of hand of light just above his head. He turned and pressed his back against the wall, “Hey…Sexy…you know me and Honeybee were only looking out for you.”

I felt his eyes zero in on the narrow strip of exposed flesh of my open zipper. My apron…I don’t really know what else to call it, was laying on the chair. I just about took his head off and here was coveting me with his eyes. I must have looked imposing or something because Liam’s eyes actually flamed red and he dropped to his knees. His eyes flared s pale scarlet. You are so fucking kidding me. He arranged himself into the reverent pose with a little bit of difficulty because of his unfurling erection. I could feel the scent of arousal coming off of him. Pervert! Hentai! I so wanted to knee in him the face right now.

“Why did you plant that idea in Father’s head?”

“Whispers were already started, My Lord. Once Armanita was killed, the list of lost blues was discovered. The High Council has known that Claudius was Sigmund’s love child since that time. There had already been debate over proclaiming him Emperor over you even though he didn’t manifest blue or show any sign of the blue line.”

“And you couldn’t tell me.”

“You’re unpredictable Sex.”

“So tell X, tell Az..”

“You call him Az?”

“LIAM!”

“Would you have listened? You attacked me on the beach, Sex, when I was still at the height of my power. No one has ever dared. Even Cillian has never forcibly taken my blood. You latched onto me like a leech and I had to pound you off. You were a fledgling! You were supposed to tremble in fear. You weren’t supposed to shoot glass tipped hand of light arrows at me. You sure as hell weren’t supposed to nail a glass spike through my foot!”

“You deserved it!”

“That’s when I knew.” Billiams voice got quiet.

I lowered my hands but stood before him wary. “Knew what?”

“That’s when I knew, you were stronger than me. A fractured fledgling barely two years old and you fought me.”

“You kicked my ass.”

“You got away. You shouldn’t have been able to get off the beach without my permission. If I could have, I would have forced you to merge, and I would have taken over your body.”

“So you decided to leave it to Orel Wessel to do your dirty work.”

“No…”

“So you…”

“Shut the fuck up for a minute, I’m trying to tell you something!”

I snapped my mouth shut. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Liam, William or Billiam swear at me before.

“You are grounded in that body, Sex. It’s like you’ve been superglued. No one is forcing you out. Not me and certainly not some upstart organization called Orel Wessel. Skell is your son. You created him because you needed to.”

I reached down and grabbed Liam by the shoulders and dragged him to his feet. He was taller than me but right now I was much more pissed. ”I needed to because they raped us. Every fucking day, every possible way, mentally, spiritually physically, Orel Wessel raped us and broke us down.”

“Yet here you are.”

“No thanks to you.”

“You said you were uncomfortable being Emperor. You didn’t want people bowing to you. You had children on the way. When Hades and I went to Claudius, we didn’t plan on losing you for seven years. We were trying to free you from so many responsibilities. You were too young to bear them.”

I hit him. Hard. He crumpled to the floor. Whoa. Fist of Hades here. I stood over him then knelt down until I was sitting on him. “I lay this at your feet Liam. I lay this at yours and Hades feet. Father was being Father. Hades said he was wishy-washy as Emperor. I trust Hades word as far as I could throw the little bastard and we have seen how well that goes. If Father’s been wishy-washy, which I don’t believe; it’s because of you guys. You’re Ancients! You may not claim him but you were there were he was conceived. You are supposed to treat him like your son. You should have backed him up, if not as kin then as your Emperor!”

I grabbed his chin and forced him to look up at me, “You left him lost in that village -- persecuted and confused. It’s a damned wonder he isn’t fucked up more than he is.”

“We were trying to give you to Claudius.”

What? Wait…what?

“Claudius came to me and voiced his concerns over you boys. Especially you, Sex. He wanted to ease your burden. He wanted to lift that weight so all of you could get your act together with your mates. You must admit that Marcus and Azrael were in trouble seven years ago.”

I pushed Liam’s face to the side and climbed to my feet, “I am going to beat the crap out of you later, Liam. X already worked over Hades for a different matter but I can live with the result. Right now, I got to get ready to beat the crap out of Father.”

I turned did up my pants and yanked on my apron. I started as Liam tied the laces closed behind my back. “Ask him to step down.”

“I already did. He said no.” I stepped away from Liam and checked myself out in a large floorlength mirror. Wait a minute. Marcus took over this room and there’s a big mirror in it? A spark of admiration lit within me. He’d grown up and conquered his terror. I Glocked, knifed and daggered myself then checked my stylish blue coif again. I picked up the coat and turned facing Liam.

“You promised to stay out of the blue line.”

“I’ m not in the blue line.”

“Ah, it’s symantics then. Let me get this message across. Don’t fuck with us. You or your precious Honeybee. The only reason I don’t kill you now is that William doesn’t deserve it and my children would get upset if their Dedushka disappeared. Besides, you’d end up back at the beach and I won’t submit my brothers to you in all your Viking glory again.”

The side of Liam’s face was swelling where I had popped him a good one. It had already started to change to that distinctive shade of blue black. “It wasn’t supposed to turn out that way.”

“Don’t give me that. You’ve told X, you live with your decisions. Regret isn’t a part of your make up.”

“Maybe not mine, but it’s part of William therefore, it’s part of me.”

“Live with it.” I pulled the coat out and checked myself one last time. “Oh, and tell your precious, I want off his palace of sin.”

“What’s wrong with it? I thought it was pretty accurate.”

“That’s were you’re wrong. Hades might have physically messed with us, but I can tell you right now, none of us, especially me would ever welcome him with open arms. Get rid of it, or I will.”

“I can’t tell him what to do.”

“I’m not asking, Liam.”

“You can be an ass, Sex.”

“You taught me well, Predad Praroditel’”

Marcus had buggered off ahead of me. Unlike the last time, I didn’t have a vanguard of Loyal saluting. I didn’t have a rack of hellkitties parading in front of me. Right now the House of Von Drachenfeld was divided. The House of Assassins was divided. We had to decide this before our enemies realized how fragmented we were right now.

So now, here we are.


“Stop this now.” Hades hissed from Father’s shoulder. Shade growled lowly in her throat as she stood beside me. She really was a cool color of blue. She truly was a cat of a different color.

“I’m not talking to you.”

I ignored him and looked at Claudius. He had on his signature black fighting leathers. This shouldn’t have come to this. Father promised to run with me. To be at my side. I blinked back the tears. There was two feet separating us in the sand of the floor and it might as well have been the Mojave desert.

I had blocked out the murmurings of the assembled Rank. I didn’t have to push my way through the throng this time. I had built a reputation prior to my disappearance. Shade sauntered in front of me, flicking that wide and hurtful tail. It was like I had approached in a cone of silence only to have the mutterings start up after we had passed. I noticed the silence because my Sasha had finally showed up and had me in a headlock of an embrace. “For God’s sakes, do not cry, Fallen. Not here.”

“Back down.”

“You back down.”

“You’re supposed to be with me.”

“I am trying to protect you. All of you. I want you home. I want you safe.” I got a kiss to my temple. “If I have to kick your ass to do it, so be it.”

“Can’t you protect me by being at my side? You don’t have to stand in front of me!”

“I have told you, anyone wishing to harm you will have to go through me. Let me shelter you from the storm, Fallen. Fold up your wings and let me protect you with mine.”

“You should spread yours with mine and shelter those who have no shelter at all.”

“We are going to have to do this thing, are we not?”

“Yeah.”

I got fingers under my chin and he tilted my head up. I closed my eyes as I saw the number of vampiric faces ringing the upper gallery. Sasha gave me a tender, loving chaste kiss. “I made reservations at Underworld for eight. Dry your eyes, Fallen. It is showtime.”

I brushed at my tears and nodded. Sasha let me go and he backed up. I got a cat tail rubbing up and down my thigh. The door to the arena opened a final time and the officials walked in. Armor, Nightengale and…no clue who that was. Since Armor was the highest ranked not participating in this fiasco, he was the automatic official.

“Is there a withdrawal from this challenge by either party?”

Carnage stared back at me. I needed my game face. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Are you both prepared?”

He nodded. I nodded.

“As you have been challenged for your ranking, Carnage you have the choice of weapons.”

“Wings.”

I snapped my eyes open. What?

“and the blue line.”

“You said no Hand of Light.”

“I said, if you used it, so would I.”

“Challengers, disarm. Give your weapons, all your weapons, to my lieutenants. They will be turned once the challenge has ended.” I slipped off my coat and handed over the the unknown assassin. His face just froze. So did Armor’s and…Father had a blue ring around his irises. I hear a kitty snicker.

“That is appropriate fighting leathers?” Armor inquired with a smirk on his face.

“It’s the only thing that fit and had wing clearance. Be nice, I might let X borrow it.”
I got a reaction out of him with that remark.

“We could postpone the challenge until you can get real fighting leathers made.”
Father offered with a low gravelly voice.

“I’m not expecting you to stab in me the back, Carnage. That is more of Hades, Liam thing to do.”

Hades sputtered but clenched his teeth shut when Claudius raised his hand.

I shucked my harness and handed my Glocks to the treestand. I took my time unbuckling my forearm shealths, letting vampire eyes roam over me. Okay, I’m evil. I didn’t pick this outfit to get this kind of reaction but I was going to run with it. I turned towards Shade, leaving my back to Armor and Father and a sundry of other vampires and made an erotic cabaret out of removing my small back waistband dagger.

I am so hoping that Father can’t react as quickly thinking with his small head.

I flexed my back and rolled my shoulders. I caught a gleam in Shade’s eye. She was having fun.

I turned back. Father was still flaring, or fighting the flare. I stretched my arms up above my head and rolled my neck leisurely. I got a warning tap from a Hellcat tail. I dripped my arms and watched as Carnage but on a Mel Brooks display of disarming. Knifes, knifes, more blades;, shirkuren; chain. Chain?. Finally he pulled the tie from his hair braid and handed over a stiletto. He must be lighter by at least thirty pounds.

Father took his challenges seriously.

Armor stepped up between us. “This is a serious matter both of you. You’re factioning the House of the Assassins as well as the House of Von Drachenfeld. Now that you started this there can be only one clear winner. You either forfeit or you fall. Either way the win must be decisive and the outcome must be adhered to. No matter who wins, this challenge cannot be made again for a year. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Yah.”

“Touch hands and go to your starting marks.” I lifted my fist ad held it up knuckles flat and vertical. Father looked at it puzzled for a moment then copied me. He hit knuckles together with mine then backed to his side of the Arena. I shuffled backwards to my mark. Blue panther Shade sat in the sand, her tail twitching in expectation.

I looked across the sand at my opponent. We were really going to do this. Holy crap.