Candy: Book 5 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Saga

We now pause for a brief mental breakdown....
Pulling out my hair! Gack!!! WTF guys!!! You're killing me.
Back to your regularly scheduled reading....
as always
ENJOY
Kiix

Chapter 222: A Master’s Touch

Hades had lied. He said that the blood shield was indestructible. It felt like my brain was caving in on itself. I had mistaken my mastiff for a friendly beast. Then again, Marcus wasn’t mine. He easily ripped apart my shield and left me quivering and rolling defenseless in the dark recesses of my mind. He did it so easily. There was a reason why he was First. He could do this to someone without touching them. I’d seen him do this to someone by just using a photograph. I’d seen him do it. How could I have forgotten this? He constantly played it down. I know why now. I wouldn’t have let him near me at any time if I had know that he had a volume control on his power. I had a feeling that this was just a single notch up from what he used as his everyday information retrieval power. That first slap of mindfucking, so long ago, knocked me in a stupid loop for days. Who knew how long I might have ended up there as a drooling idiot if Nightshade didn’t come along. Well I knew she wasn’t around and she wouldn’t be around so if I wanted to keep what I had, I had to fight him.

Physically, I knew he had me pinned to the floor of the music room; but, we weren’t in the music room now. I don’t know where we were but it was grey, like smoke because it was warm and had a slight burning smell. Marcus’ eyes were right up in my face. His dark hair was long…far longer than what he had in the real world. It pooled around us and it lacked the apple scent I associated with this body. He was also dressed like an escapee from a romance novel cover.

I called on my wings. Nothing. I didn’t want to do it but I called for the blue line. Nothing.

Marcus shook his head and I could feel the strands of his hair sweep over my face. “This is all mental, Xavier. You’re in my element. You’re here until I let you go…so just relax.”

If this was mental, how the hell could I feel him? “Get off me.”

“No.”

I stilled and looked at Marcus rather shocked and stunned.

“I might look like him but I’m not Armor. I won’t jump just because you snap your fingers, Xavier.”

“Get off me now.”

“I said not until you calm down. You are not calming down, therefore, I will not be getting off you. You take very well, Little Emperor. Giving is like pulling hen’s teeth with you.”

“Hen’s don’t have teeth.”

“And that proves my point.”

“What fucking point?”

“Such language. You don’t give anything away, Xavier. Azrael does. Skell does. Hell, Sex gives so much away, but Father returns it two fold. You…don’t. Everyone around you has to work so damned hard to get something from you. Everyone, Xavier. Your wife. Your children. The Lycan. My little brother even more so. No one would have to work that hard not if you really love him.”

“I love Armor.”

“Do you? I know abuse, Xavier. What you call love is something I am familiar with and know very well.”

I forced myself to relax under Marcus’ weight. “I’m not abusing Armor.”

“Really?” Marcus looked at me intently for a moment then shifted his weight off me. He easily stood up and looked down at me as I still lay sprawled at his feet. He was dressed in simple clothes of olden times, coarse linen and shades of yellow ocher and brown. This was the clothing of his youth or maybe his life when he truly was human. I expected a hand up but he turned on his heel and started to walk into the smoke. What the hell?

I scrambled to my feet before I lost him in the swirls of his own making. If I was in his mentalscape, who the hell knew what was lurking in the unknown. It was driven home that I have no clue about my lover. But, Abuse? I was abusing Armor? I don’t think so.

If there was any sort of emergency it usually ended up falling onto our time together. That was just the way it worked out. I always explained, or did I? Maybe I did in the beginning and since he didn’t complain, I must made assumptions. That was abuse? I would admit that I was taking him for granted. If he minded, shouldn’t he have said something? I never thought of him as a martyr.

“Marcus!”

“Over here, Xavier.”

I ended up waving my hands and the smoke swirled away to reveal something I know damned well didn’t exist anymore. How did I know this? I’m the one who burnt it down. We were back in the Great Room that used to be the House of DuBussey. It was the post training days. The concrete bunker was lush and luxuriously furnished. This was Marcus’ domain. It was his house. He now had just a room in mine..actually he had to share it with Azrael. He had nothing of his own. I frowned as I looked around. Armor had less than a quarter of this space to call his own. More like a 15 x 24 foot room.

“What are we doing here?” I gestured around me.

“I’m comfortable here.” Marcus sat down and ran his hands through his hair massaging his scalp in a moment of normalcy that was just so out of place right at this moment.

“Where’s Armor?”

“I’m not allowing him here.”

“What?”

“Now is not the time for us to get into this.”

“I think you better define ‘this’ that you keep referring to.”

“You need to forgive yourself before you ask for forgiveness from others.”

“What would I need forgivness for?”

“That’s the rub, Xavier. You don’t even see it.”

“See what?”

“Me telling you won’t help. If you can’t find it for yourself, the journey won’t be worth it.”

I watched as set his hand against the bloodmarks and opened up the control panel. He hit the buttons and the big flat screen tv emerged from the wall. He crossed over the long leather couch and set himself down and relaxed into a predator’s deceptive lounge. I haven’t seen Armor do this in a while. “So what is this? Your beachfront property?”

“This is my place. I built it the way I wanted it.” Marcus turned his head and looked around himself, “I lost it because, I lost it.”

“So this is how you get me to trust you? You bring me back to the place were all this started? What are you trying to do? Mindfuck me over again?”

“Forcibly altering someone’s personality to accept someone isn’t a sign of trust. Armor physically changed you, Xavier. I’m the one who ripped into your mind only because Armor spiked hard on the emotional scale. Before you came along, the few times he was out, he was level emotionally, maybe even emotionless. He spiked; I reacted. I’ve jumped through your hoops for Armor’s sake and for Azrael wish for peace, but; I can’t have you use Armor as your whipping boy anymore.”

“Whipping boy?”

“Even murderers get paroled after twenty years, Xavier. But Armor is only part of why I pulled you here.”

“Yes, the mysterious trust factor.” Sarcasm just rolled off my lips.

“Armor scared off your First born. I will help you get your last born free from Orel Wessel because I have to take responsibility for his actions.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Shut the fuck up and stow the attitude and I’ll show you.” Marcus returned allowing his temper to show. What did I do? I had a quick flashback to crazy stalker Marcus. I shut the fuck up.

“What we called mindfucking is a Blue Line trait. Just like some of the other talents, like Azrael and the Healing Light, some get it; some don’t. I know why I have this ability now, it’s because Father turned me and he is a Blue Line. A blue blood and a red blood, if there is a bite, some blue traits might get passed on or a blue gene would be hidden but the turned Vampire would be a Red Flame. You following?”

I gave Marcus my best Billy Idol sneer.

“I got a touch of the blue line and a blue gene from Father so when Armor turned you, you being a Von Drachenfeld hidden in the human lineage, it was a blue turning a blue. Which is why you’re a winged ass.”

“Get on with it.”

“We both have the blue line ability of information retrieval. I am honed more but in the end when you have the experience, I have no doubt you will make me look inept.”

“Marcus.”

“Anyone we have ever mindfucked, is kept within in us…their memories and thoughts can be called up at will and examined closely even after the subject’s death. You killed an Orel Wessel General not too long ago. The information we are seeking, we already have. I just need to show you how to call up the file.”

“File?”

“It sounds better than ripping up the target’s mind and identity and leaving them to die in a shut down of autonomic response.”

“Yeah.” I had to agree with that.

“You should be able to do this, Xavier. Azrael did something like it when I was…strange. He pulled up a memory and he made me examine it. He made me realize that it was him, and not you, that did those things I…I can’t even say liked, it was just familiar. Sometimes we cling to the familiar even though it’s bad for us because..well it’s familiar.”

I turned my gaze around the place. Instead of the large portrait of Claudius that used to dominate the back wall, it was the large blue painting of Azrael. What was it called? Az Melancholy?

“What do you want to happen here?”

“Put it on the tv screen. Two eyes are better than one.”

How the heck did I do that? Well, I didn’t do that. Az did that. “Think of the General’s memories as a movie and show them on the television screen.”

I called up the memory of going into General Isaac Kreuz. The Orel Wessel doctrine was so strong and absolute with him. His mission was a calling. There was nothing else he had ever wanted to be. A defender against the monsters of the world. Who was the real monster here?

“Share, Xavier.”

Listening to Marcus, you’d think I never shared anything. I concentrated on the tv screen and the memories that were playing in my inner eye showed up on the screen. Marcus stilled as my mind’s eye sent the image of the Orel Wessel General in two pieces after Skell was finished with him. At the moment of it happening, I never noticed all the blood and other sundry bits spread piecemeal across the forest floor. Now that I had the time to reflect…Skell has some major issues. I’ve left him alone far too long.

“Xavier…” Marcus had rolled up to his feet.

“I’ve talked to Skell.”

“Zero in on the information you were searching for and we will start searching from there.”

I moved over to the sofa and settled on the arm. I could see Marcus out of the corner of my eye as I allowed the information I had gleaned from my foray into the General’s mind. I could see the anger rise in his face as the plans for little Treska and Lia were laid out. Where did this unreasoning hatred come from? How easy was it for Orel Wessel to disregard the sanctity of life? So we weren’t human. That didn’t make our existence invalid but maybe it did. Not all Vampires were like Von Drachenfeld. They held humans in contempt and regarded them as little more than walking tetrapaks. I could always tell those ones. They were born Vampires but they didn’t go out on killing sprees just because they could. They….we. Like it or not, I was the face of the Vampire Nation.

Serephina, aka Sara Monahan flickered on the tv screen. Marcus leaned forward his dark brown eyes intent on the memory. “Freeze it.”

It was surprising how quickly I was able to do it.

“There is an emotional thread with this image, Xavier. Isolate it. You might have to search for it, but there will be something. Even if it’s faint. Serephina has a history with the General. There will be something…”

Emotional ties. I guess that was true. Everyone affected you somehow. I sniffed mentally. I concentrated on the blonde image. What the hell was I doing? Sniffing emotions. I was getting a headache.

“Search, Xavier. It could be as fine as a silk thread. Emotions have color.” Marcus stood up and walked toward the tv. “The General looks at her with great affection. Not passion. Something stronger than just a compatriot. A Protégé? No, something stronger, a daughter. Search for a pink thread.”

Holy crap. He’s good. Got it. All of a sudden everything just lit up pink like having to swallow barium to get a good image of the circulatory system. That, which remained of the General, was a spiderweb of pink thread.

“Excellent. Every one of those threads are tied to a memory of Serephina. The more intense the pink, the fresher the memory. Let us see where the Sorceress met Orel Wessel.”

It was odd. I felt Marcus’ hands on me, urging me flat on the couch as I was, not trapped in my own mental scape, but caught up in the images that were flashing before me. Kreuz did view Serephina as a daughter. He admired her strength of will. The thing the really sealed the deal for him was the core of black hatred she carried in her heart. Orel Wessel had always been around. Since the Blue Bloods and the Blue Line of the Vampire Nation were dormant and believed destroyed, they had been content to work in the shadows. Killing Lycan and werewolves wherever they found them. Experimenting on Vampires, mostly Coven fledglings on ways to kill us more effectively. A kill trail like the one I left behind me the night Monahan ordered Armor shot, was a flag. Hell it was a fireworks display. Humans can’t do a 80 mile kill ratio in less than two hours with maximum damage of twenty-three dead, by my own hand with about ten humans listed as collateral but that was because of Monahan’s inept assassins. There also was the collapse of a warehouse/rave due to structural damage. I blinked. I inadvertently brought Orel Wessel together with Serephina. She was the only survivor. I had let her live and Wessel figured there had to be a reason. Kreuz wasn’t a general then, but he was assigned to watch over her.

“You’re doing good, Xavier. Sort through and look for the time of her recruitment. If the General was her handler, he should have been the one to make contact.” Marcus’ voice was clear but he seemed so far away. I was getting lost in these memories. Fingertips ran along my bottom lip. I snapped back to the couch and found Marcus hovering over me. “I apologize, Xavier. You were doing so well, I should have been watching you more carefully.”

The tv screen had reverted back to the blue screen of death. I blinked everything back into focus and then just laid still as a wave of dizziness swept over me. Lifting my hand to my forehead, I was aware I felt so physically contained and restricted.

“How…” My throat was croaky and dry. I closed my mouth and swallowed a few times. “How did you learn how to do this?”

“I’ve had centuries to experiment. When Father turned me, I was seriously lacking social skills. When we discovered that I could do this…”

I stared up at the ceiling. “How the hell did you discover you could do this?”

“I lived in fear for so long that when Father made me stronger when I saw injustice, I did something about it.”

“You were a hero?”

“I was a vigilante. There was a man was whipping a horse. It was bloody and shaking with exhaustion. Its back haunches were quivering and he just kept beating it. The horse’s screams…I had to make him stop. I ripped through his mind like a warhammer. You have to remember there were still Blue Houses when I was young.” Marcus knelt beside the couch and looked across the room to the big portrait of Azrael. “No one was surprised I could do it. Now that I think about it they knew that Claudius was a royal blue carrier or at least suspected. This is what brought me to the House of Assassins.”

“I’m exhausted.”

“Just like the physical world, you practice this a little bit more every day, it gets easier to do as you build up stamina. But…time is of the essence, my Lord Emperor. We need to strike before Wessel has a chance to guard against us. There is a chance that the General’s absence is already being questioned.”

“No…he’s awol for Serephina. Do you need me to put it back on the tv?”

“Can you find the Facility without my help?”

“Let’s find out.” It was easy finding those pink gossamer threads now. I pulled those in the mid-tonal range forward, examining them for any evidence of the Orel Wessel location. It was a little easier since I wasn’t trying to project the memories somewhere else. Marcus had picked up on this tie so quickly. Yes, Kreuz held Serephina close to his heart, just like a daughter. I got excited for a moment as I found the looked for memory of Kreuz taking Sara to the Wessel facility. Damn it. It was the one we already destroyed. Memories of watching Wessel trials. She was not the best physically. She could shoot. I’d have to remember that. She was close to marksman status.

Magic…Kreuz was absolutely startled when he found out that she could do magic. Once he found out she had another talent, he had been honor bound to report it. He wanted her under his wing but with this…she was gone from his influence. Got it!

I got a sharp stab of pain just behind my eye as I directed the image back to the tv. Those who could use magic were set off to another division something like the Regency Hunters and the Regency Mages. Just like the Hunters and the Mage, there was a physical division. The brotherhood might have destroyed the Wessel soldier facility, but the mage one was still up and hidden…or was hidden.

It was out in the country. A long and winding tree lined road that lead out to an old stone farm house. The land was hilly, with slopes high enough that if someone was just driving by the only thing they would see was the quaint century old abode. Behind the house was the real heart of the operation. It was only slightly smaller than the one that had held us against our will. Considering it was out in the middle of no where the amount of electricity it needed should have been a key concern. Then again, from Kreuz’s minds eye, when the sun disappeared from the sky, the only light was from the farm house. I smirked. Of course, they used magic to hide in plain sight. Kreuz’s experience was magic was limited to how it could be used in battle. He knew the property was warded but not how. I allowed the memory of driving out to the stone house to play on the screen.

I showed Marcus the stone house so he could draw it for the rest of the Loyal.

The facility was a hauntingly familiar layout. What Orel Wessel lacked in originality, they made up for it as zealots. I was able to pick and choose threads quickly. There was nothing about coven fledglings being forcible impregnated or my little white haired boy but deep in my heart, I knew he was out there. Waiting.

Hands cupped my flanks and I lost all connection with the General. My hands flew up and slammed into the shoulders pushing the bigger body backwards. Here in Marcus’ realm, I had the strength of a human. Here, I was basically the fuck toy Armor had re-made out of the flesh lump I once was. I blinked myself back to awareness and saw….Armor smiling down at me, as he pinned me to the couch.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“All these years. After all these years you still do things that amaze me, Little One. I am going to kiss you.” He moved his hands from my waist after he sat me upright and then speared his hands in my hair on either side of my face. I was plundered. This Armor was the one of our first meeting. He took. His lips nibbled at mine and his tongue swept forward. I was still pissed at him…I…couldn’t.

His hand slipped back to my neck and squeezed. I opened my jaw in pain and found my mouth filled with a whole lot of Armor. This wasn’t the Armor who offered up sweet loving. He wasn’t the one who stepped back into the shadows, who made self sacrifice into a lifestyle. A hand reached between my thighs and cupped me. His finger tips pressed inwards just behind my balls as the heat of his palm caressed my awakening cock. I grunted in protest. He hauled me up off the couch by my cock and the hand on the back of my neck. No…this was just like…the beginning.

I wrenched my mouth free. “Armor!”

“I’m tired, Xavier. I’m tired of dancing to your tune. Here. Here you’re going to dance to mine one last time.”

What? I found myself flying through the air and I bounced on the leather seat of the couch then slammed into the back. I shoved my hair out of the way as it hung in my face obscuring my vision. Red, I had red hair in Marcus’ mindscape. There would be no mistaking Marcus and Armor in this place. Armor was in red leather and that infamous black sheer shirt. The big change was that his hair was short. Really short. “MARCUS!”

“I fought him for so long. He told me that I was just jumping through hoops. I was like a little pet dog you kept because it amused you. I didn’t want to believe him.” Red flame burst into life in his hard chocolate brown eyes. “But it’s true. I love you, Little One. I gave you my all. My entire being and you still want more.”

“Armor…”

“I can’t do it anymore. I can’t smile and stand in the dark while you give your love to some else. So…” I tried to scramble off the leather but found myself almost smothered by an acre of sheer black and red leather. “I will take what you should have given me all along.”

His knee forced my thighs apart and he pressed his hip up to my groin. Traitorous little X stirred to life. I punched Armor as hard as I could in the face. He turned his head then probed the cut I left on his inner cheek with his tongue. “This is all you have ever given me, Beautiful, blood and pain.”

“Armor, don’t do this.”

“You do not look at me anymore. I am starting to think you never did. Give me this, Little One. Give into me. I will take it if you make me but I would rather not have our last time together be by force.”

I stilled. “What do you mean, last time together?”

A hand pressed down on the leather beside my head. “I am leaving you when your sons are safe within Von Drachenfeld.”

“Why?”

“You are not stupid, Little One. Marcus is the masochistic one. I have reached my limit.” A warm forehead pressed against mine. I started up into his flame banked eyes. “I love you, Xavier. I am a rare man. Once I give my heart away, I cannot get it back but I do not have to watch you drag it through the dirt anymore. It hurts so much to be disregarded by the light of your life.”

“Don’t try this. Don’t destroy what we have!” I grunted as his hand snaked its way into my pants. He began to stroke me. I gasped and turned my head toward the back of the couch.

“What do we have, Little One? It isn’t love. I’ve seen Sex and Father. That is love.”

“You do this, I won’t forgive you. Ever.”

Armor stilled then pressed a chaste kiss to my temple. “Forgiveness is not something you are familiar with. I love you, Xavier. I have always loved you. I will always love you. I just cannot live for you anymore. Do not blame Marcus. He has nothing to do with this. I will not be coming back out. You will not need me in this upcoming conflict. I have nothing to offer you. My Little One…” His hand slipped out of my pants and came up to brush hair out of my eyes. “…but then, you have never been mine. Good bye, My Lord Emperor.”

“Armor?”

The body stiffened on me and quickly slid off to the floor. “Xavier…”

“Get me the hell out of here Marcus.”

Getting slammed back into the physical form was just like that, getting slammed. My body ached from the heavy weight that had lain on me for who knew how long. Marcus scrambled off me but offered a hand to me to pull me up into a sitting position. It felt like I had gotten drunk and my brain was pounding with the aftermath of a kettle drum.

“Xavier.”

“Get your sketchbook and draw that farmhouse. Distribute it to the Loyal.”

“Xavier…”

“Please, Marcus. Just…do it. Time is of the essence here.”

I sat on the floor on the music room with the light of the sun still streaming in through the large cathedral window. Dust motes danced in the light around me. I bowed my head forward and white strands of hair fell forward over my shoulder down to my lap. My body tingled with the aftermath of his touch. I could feel the tears begin to burn in my eyes. I sniffed and took a deep shaky breath. Another breath. Tears began to fall freely.

I took him for granted and never thought of the burden I placed on his broad shoulders. Armor said good-bye. I brought my hand up and pressed hard on my chest as if I could keep my insides from shattering. It didn’t work.

* * *