Caramel: Book 3 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Series

Okay this chappie has just blown my plotting all to hell, now I have to reorganize…again. Ratsahfrackinmurackin……

Rosemary: would that be considered a co-dependent relationship?

k:
Q: Claudius was giving Armor/Marcus a blood bath when he took him from the humans but Claudius raised him to the age of 26 before he offered the covenant.
A: Vampires can give humans blood baths without turning them into Vampires. It takes a sharing/transfusion to birth a new vampire. While the blood bath doesn’t remove scars from other Bloods, such as the Lycan, on humans it will heal and remove scars.

SKOW VOTING: Sorry, it’s nomination period only. You can’t vote yet. My bad.

Rosei: With so many personalities about, you can easily go 7-8 chapters through the rotation of characters!. Oh my god, that is so true. I actually could not remember what X called Armor as his pet name. “Pretty” how the hell could I forget “Pretty”? Gack!!

Sesshomarunaraku: Playing with Endellion will open up a whole new can of worms. Once you use it, you can’t put it away and pretend it never happened. Everyone will know that Hashmalliam has returned by the end of this book. Don’t know if that is a good thing of bad thing yet.

This probably would have been up sooner, but I went golfing. It was fun. I got burnt crispy and crashed my cart…well actually a drunken golfer sideswiped me. Who knew it could be so darn dangerous on the course? The next day was the killer, I couldn’t move. Yah, it’s all fun and games until your arches of your feet cramp up. Still we came in 9th in the tournament. Whoo hooo.

So golf tees and mike’s hard lemonade to the Loyal and true: Rosemary; Spirit; k; Lioncourt; Jenna T.; AsyenMari; Laur; Dark Avenger; Rosei; Mihara; sesshomarunarku (x4); Yuusei6Roku (welcome – keep stalking in a good way); shiden; Demon Akasha and HisokaXD (nice driveby :))

ENJOY!


Chapter 134: Princess Sarah

I don’t remember ever fighting with Armor. I mean, yeah, I physically fought him as a human but that was basically me wearing myself out and getting forced to do whatever he wanted anyways. But that was then, this was now.

Armor set his hands on the glass desk of my office at Shadoe Inc.. “Why can’t…?”

“It’s already set.”

“It is my room too!”

I sighed and looked up at him. I’m discovering that Armor does not do change well. “Pretty, I can’t have the Baroness move into Azrael’s dungeon. That is just too….ick. I don’t want the children to see the toys their uncles play with. Besides, the workers have already started. We don’t need all that room.” I frowned and looked at him in his immaculate tan Dolce summer suit “This isn’t about moving bedrooms, is it?”

Armor straightened and looked down at me. He lied to me. He actually stared me right in the eye and lied to me. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I was not awake then the movers came in and started dragging our…”

“Come here.” I crooked a finger at him.

His voice trailed off. He moved around the desk and stood before me like a little boy called on the carpet by the teacher. “Kneel.”

He met my eyes then lowered himself to his knees. He was face level with me. I reached out and brushed his cheek. “I never thought that you would be insecure.”

“I am not insecure.”

“Listen and believe me, Armor. I love you. I am moving US, you and me, down to the dungeon. Claudia is sacrificing a lot to be here, I can’t ask her to take over Sex’s little room. Besides, we are so damn noisy. I don’t want to wake the winglets.”

“You will be her official husband and Lord.”

I held up my hand then picked his up. I brought his wedding ring to my lips and gave him a prince charming kiss. “You are first. First in my heart, first in my life, first in my bed. You have never shaken my faith in what we have, Armor. Please, don’t start now.”

“She carries your children.”

“She did that on her own.”

“We drove her to it.” Armor leaned over and rested his head on my thighs; his hands came up and held onto the arms of the chair so I didn’t roll away. “I cannot compete with the mother of your children, no matter how she came to be pregnant.”

“You don’t have to compete. There is no comparison. She just doesn’t have what I need. Not her fault. Not your fault. It’s just the way I’m built.” I stroked his hair, gently. “I love you Armor. Never question that. You are my anchorpoint. I can do what I have to do because I know that you are there for me, Pretty. At best, Claudia will be a sister to me.”

My voice trailed off and I played with his hair. Gently stroking the back of his neck. His whole back shifted with the force of his contented sigh. I closed my eyes and rested my head back on my chair. It felt peaceful.

I should have known. Peace wasn’t meant for me.

The door to my office flew open and Paul jumped in front of the open doorway.

“I said you can’t go in. You don’t have an appointment.”

“Go away kid, you bother me.”

Liam pushed his way past my administrative assistant. Both of them came to a skidding stop, as I raised my head up from the chair and Armor straightened from underneath the desk.

Paul just grabbed at Liam’s arm and tried to pull him out of the office.

“Ah, that’s good. I was worried about you, Little Emperor. You’ve grounded yourself back into the here and now.”

What? I furrowed my brow, what was he….oh my god. “No, this isn’t what it looks like.”

A wide band of pink crossed over Armor’s nose and cheeks. He hastily climbed to his feet. Liam shook Paul off him. “I will call security.”

“Xavier, will you call off your poodle before I crush him.”

“Thank you Paul. As you can see, Liam feels he has the right to walk on in me at any time he feels fit.”

Liam put his hand across his chest, “Moi, oh you are so cruel Little Emperor, especially when I’ve been working so hard to fulfill your requests.” He flopped himself down on the couch across from the giant wall of sight and sound.

“Blood, sir?”

I looked at Armor. He shook his head. “I’ll take a tankard if you please. I’m eating for two you know.”

I looked at him, “You’re pregnant?”

You think I stripped him naked and shoved him into the girls change room. The expression was absolutely priceless. Armor tried to keep his expression still but finally burst out laughing.. Manu and Pyotr came around side the partition wall glanced at the little vampire family still life and headed back to whatever the heck they were doing out of sight.

“I am NOT pregnant.”

I started laughing. It felt good. Armor came around my chair and set his hands on my shoulders. “Gees, Liam. Where the hell would you register for a baby shower?”

“Well someone got their vitamin D injection today.”

“Jealous?”

“Well…yes. I don’t know where the hell Hades is.”

“Can you get our little mother blood, Paul. Thank you.”

My temp-for-the-week glared death at Liam then turned and left. He had no clue who Liam was, he knew Hades’ William but everyone assumed that when Hades got trounced, William did too. They were treating him like the old guard. They didn’t know he had just been supersized. “Little mother. Haha. Oh, you’re killing me.”

Armor leaned over and whispered into my ear. “Do what Marcus showed Azrael. Test your new shield.”

Oh yeah. Coming up with a new blood shield was less than fun. You just didn’t say, shield and have something pop into being. I had to construct something different. It was akin to those puzz-3d things. I had a build a solid structure, which was still the mirrors but they were interlocked now. Yes, my shield was a mirrored disco ball. Then I covered it with a fountain of blood and basically encircled it As long as the blood retained it’s fluidity, my mirror, which was fragile, was strengthened by about 100%. The blood mist or fog was harder to do. Marcus had let Azrael look at his but…I could only form lower land fog, not city of London fog.

“Can you find Xavier?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s sitting right there.”

“Mentally.”

Liam cocked his head and then grinned at me. “Impressive. Not completely off the radar but just a ghost of your former self. If I didn’t know what I was looking for, I would dismiss it completely. You’re more than just a pretty face.”

“Thank you Liam.”

“I’m talking to the big lug behind you.”

“I will take that a compliment.” Armor stood up.

“That is what it is.” Liam squeaked as he leaned forward on the black leather couch. “Okay, cats and kittens, the reason I’m here is a progress report on the new Lycan’s den. I’ll have you know your lower neighbors, the Solomons, are hardasses. They won’t budge. So aside from doing as Sex suggested and killing them, blood thirsty little menace – I mean that in a good way, by the way. The lower floor is out of the question. But the good news is I bought out the Hendersons just below them. The deal is done, bank transfers had occurred and movers are working on getting them out. However, we can’t get it until Saturday, so Von Drachenfeld will be a little crowded Friday night.”

“It’s going to be even more crowded. The Female Alpha Lycans will be here tomorrow.”

Liam let out a hissing breath .“That was fast.”

“Too much Alarik in too short a time.”

“I like your Elek, she moves with a purpose.”

“I think she due when Claudia is.”

“You are going to be over run with babies in less than three months. I’m going to be a grandfather again….” Liam rubbed his hands together. “What? I told you over the centuries I have been female. I’ve been a mother and a grandmother and a great grandmother.”

“No more.” I pinched my bridge of my nose.

“I know what to do with babies, Xavier.”

“Are you volunteering to baby sit?”

“Hell, ya. I’m good with children. You think Cillian would have hung around me all these centuries if I was just a dink?”

I didn’t want to go there. I wasn’t going to go there. I dropped my hand down and leaned forward in my chair, “I need you to answer me something, Liam.” I let my voice take on a serious bent. “How do I destroy a funneller?”

“I thought Claudius went after Alarik.”

“Safety in numbers, right. He showed Sex that he can get by that pretty damn quick. I take it he’s an Ancient. Do Funnelers get stronger like regular vamps?”

“It’s just like graduating up to a larger funnel. He can channel more. He might be able to hold more, but he still has no power himself.”

“So basically, if he loses contact with those Vampires who have been funneling him, he’s …”

“An Ancient.” Liam shook his head, “Even if he did lose those special gifts that usually come with age, he will retain Ancient speed and strength. In a one on one, he would pound you into the cement, Little Emperor. Even though this isn’t what you want to hear, leave the Ancients to the Ancients.”

“Can Father kill him?”

Liam paused then looked past me to the large window, “Claudius is out there hunting with a purpose. He made it to number one, to First by himself. His own talents and abilities kept him there for over two hundred years. Alarik made it to number 5, it was through four different vampire’s efforts that he reached that number and he only stayed there for five years. Alarik has made Claudius, his little brother, his enemy. He doesn’t know that it’s Carnage, the First of Assassin’s who’s hunting him now. They do not call him the Black Death just because of his coloring, Xavier. Once the plague starts, there is now stopping it. It will roll over everything to get to it’s objective. My advice. Stay out of your Father’s way. If he requires help, he will as for it.”

“But he’s coming after me.”

“He’s targeting Claudius.”

“I got the fang marks.”

“LYCAN! Armor.” Manu and Pyotr came around the wall a little flushed and clothes a tad disheveled. “Do that on your own time.”

I thought that was rather the pot calling the kettle black.

“I’m tell you this, because the Lord Emperor does not want to listen. Do NOT, I repeat, do not allow him to engage in battle with Alarik. Even with all his strengths and gifts, Xavier is still a baby. Make no mistake, if Alarik thinks that killing Xavier will hurt Claudius he will do it. You are the Lord Emperor’s first line of defense. Don’t make it his last.”

“And you, I want to slap you in the head. Stay out of Claudius’ way. You might want to help him but you would prove to be a distraction. Even a break in concentration for a mere flick of the eye could get your father killed.”

“So what I am supposed to do? If you tell me to sit here and look pretty so help me I’ll…”

The phone interrupted my tirade. “What?”

“Er, Sir. Security has called from the lobby, you have an unexpected guest.”

“I thought you said I only had a luncheon charity thing I had to go to.”

“Sir, she claims to be your girlfriend.”

“We both know that’s not possible. Who is it?”

“Er..hmmm.”

“Paul, spit it out.”

“Princess Sarah Elizabeth Winfield.”

“By herself?”

“Yes sir.”

“Call security, tell them to bring her up…” Pyotr pointed to the door and started for it. “Actually Pyotr is coming down to get her. Look in the files and get the number for Winfield and patch it through as soon as you get him on line.”

I hung up and pinched the bridge of my nose.

“X?”

I leaned back against my big monkey. “Sex’s girlfriend has stopped by for a visit.”

“Does Father know about this?”

“She’s twelve.”

“Lolita complex?” Liam inquired.

“No. And you are not the one to be talking about a Lolita complex.”

“I waited till his balls dropped.”

I think my mouth hit my chest. “Get out. Just….get out.”

Liam sighed and rose to his feet. “Well my work here is done. By the way Little Emperor, I stopped by Von Drachenfeld before I came here, it’s nice thing your doing for the Baroness. You have a good heart.”

“Thank you, Liam.”

He wiggled his eyes at Armor. “You’re moving to the dungeon. Not so far to swing from the chains to the bed now, eh. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say not more.”

“GET OUT!”

“You’re service sucks. I’m leaving without my drink. Later.” Liam swept out like a dust devil and I just collapsed back on Armor.

“Can we just run away?”

“Been there, done that. Didn’t it end with you getting tasered and me on the stone of punishment?”

“We both ended up on the stone of punishment. Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrap.” The door reopened and in walked Sex’s Princess.

“If Mommy heard that, you’d get your knuckles smacked with a ruler.”

“Good Morning, Princess Sarah…”

She made two skipping steps forward then stopped She looked at me then furrowed her brow. “Who are you?”

“Xavier. I will deliver the assigns.”

“You’re abandoning me?”

“Discretion is the better part of valor.” Armor gathered up the assigns and slid them into the manila envelop.

“Pyotr you’re with Armor today.”

The little red fox toned Lycan returned in Russian. “My assignment is you. It was given personally by Zsigmond. I will not leave your side today.”

“Personally eh? Armor, hold up.”

“Manu, have you been personally commanded by the Zsigmond as well?”

“No, Lord Alpha.”

“Then you are Armor’s tail.”

“Yes, Lord Alpha.” Manu hiked it over to Armor. It was low, but I heard them whine to each other. Now I felt like a school teacher breaking up a couple of teenagers who were making out….hey, they were had been making out on my bed.

“Who are you? You’re not Edward.”

I perched on the edge of my desk, “Edward is my older brother. My name is Xavier. Now, I’m going to ask you the same question, Edward would ask you. How did you get here alone?”

“I took a cab.” She positively beamed with pride. “I saw on the news where you worked and I knew that that woman didn’t work here with you so I could come and visit and she would never know I was here.”

Oh good Lord. “Sarah…”

“Princess Sarah.”

“Sarah, does your mother know you’re here?”

“You have an old radio!” Sarah tore past me and poured all her attention into my jukebox. Well I’d take that as a no.

The intercom sounded. “Yes, Paul.”

“I have Sandra Winfield on line one.”

“You found their home number?”

“No, Sir. Mrs. Winfield called here.”

“Thank you Paul. Sorry about earlier. Liam needs to be taken in small doses.”

“Understood, Sir.”

I hit line one. “Mrs. Winfield.”

“NO! I came all this way to be with Edward!”

“Oh Thank, God she made it there safely. I found a note saying that Sarah was going to go and play with Edward. I thought she meant the little boy in her class. Needless to say, I freaked Edward’s mother out when I told her I was coming to pick Sarah up for lunch.”

“I’m staying with Edward!” Her voice was shrill.

“As you can hear, she is alive and kicking…and screaming.”

“Thank God. Edward…I hate to ask you this, I know you are a busy man but…”

“I can drop Sarah off. I have to pass through that area of town this morning anyway.”

“Can I speak to my daughter, please?”

I turned and looked at the brown haired missy. She had a petulant pout on her lips. Her eyes flashed as her little plans were thwarted. She was going to grow up a heartbreaker….and someone’s mistress. “Your Mother would like to speak to you.”

I thought for a minute she was going to refuse then marched over and accepted the receiver from me. I headed over to the jukebox and punched in a couple of songs.
I concentrated on the music as Mother and Daughter had a little power struggle on the phone.

Mother won.

I got a pair of arms around my waist from behind. “I want to be your girlfriend. You would only have to wait seven years. That isn’t long.”

Claudia was right. Sarah was going to throw her life away if she kept fixated on me. “I’m not Edward.”

“But you look like him. Where is he then? I came all the way here.”

I untangled myself from her hold and turned and knelt down in front of her. “Sarah, Edward is getting married tomorrow to the Baroness. You met her at the restaurant.”

“She was mean.”

“I thought so too, but now, I don’t think she was mean enough.”

The confusion in her eyes tore at me. She was only two years older than my nieces. Shane was going to have a hell of a time with them if they got this boy crazy so early. “Then you can be my boyfriend. Xavier.”

I held up my left hand. “So you know what this is?”

“You’re married too?”

“For a couple of years.”

“But…he kissed me.” I thought she was going to start crying. Oh save me from a little girl’s tears. They were my kryptonite.

“Boys kiss girls all the time, Princess Sarah. Sometimes, it’s just to be friends. I think that is what Edward meant. He just wanted to be your friend….and he’s a boy so that does make him one of your boy friends. You are very pretty and very smart and very resourceful. You probably have a lot of boy friends at your school.”

“Jimmie’s been kissing me, but he kisses me on the lips.”

Gees, even twelve year olds were getting more action than me when I was twenty-eight. “I think that means Jimmie wants to be more than just a friend who’s a boy. He wants to be your boyfriend.” I just had a wicked thought. If Claudia had three girls, I’d be done for. All four of them would walk all over me.

“That woman is going to have Edward’s babies?”

Er….ah….I never thought I would be having “THE TALK” with a little girl. I was NOT having the talk with a little girl. “Yes, she should be having the babies in August.”

“And Edward is getting married tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“I wanna go home.”

I reached out and touched her curls. Sex’s healing of her was a good thing. “I’ll take you home. You ever been in a limousine?”

“When we go to the Opera or someplace fancy. You drive in a limo all the time?”

“I have lots of work to do. Let me call for it.”

I stood up and got a desperate hug around my hips and her forehead bounced off my crotch. I grunted and it was sheer force of will that kept me from crumpling on her. I patted her head and slowly walked to my desk.

I had Paul call for car. I wanted it to pull up out front. I didn’t need to make this intelligent little girl that there was something different about me. Pyotr smiled indulgently at the little girl and took her to the big window and pointed out various sites as I tried to recover from my strike to the groin.

Princess Sarah found it funny that six Loyal escorted us to the waiting limo. Two climbed into the front with the driver. Pyotr opened the door and bowed to the little girl like a footman at a carriage as she climbed in. I followed after and he pulled the door shut behind him.

“You talk funny.” It was just a child’s observation, not an insult.

Pyotr cocked his head to one side, “English is not my first language.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I was born somewhere far away. My Mother and Father spoke Russian.”

“I know Russian. Dosvi’daniya!”

“Very good. Where did you learn that?”

“There’s a cartoon called Anastasia. It’s about a princess who loses her memory and all her family. She’s an orphan and she sings and an evil man keeps trying to kill her. I don’t want to be that kind of Princess.”

“That kind of Princess?”

“Alone…she had to wear boys clothes and didn’t have any friends. You’re my friend right, Xavier?”

“I’m your friend.”

“Are you my friend too?” She stared over at Pyotr and batted her eyes. They were born with this ability weren’t they?

“Da.”

“That means yes.” She beamed.

“Da.”

“Princess Sarah, you cannot run off by yourself, like you did this morning. There are evil men out here that don’t care if you are a princess or not. If they catch you alone, they could hurt you. You scared your Mother when she couldn’t find you.”

“That is what she said on the phone. I just wanted to see Edward.”

“Why don’t you just call him first. He’s pretty busy and you did all this and you still didn’t get to see him.”

“But I met you. You’re his little brother?”

“Yes. Here we are.” Pyotr did a quick sweep. I concentrated and practiced my own sweep. Nothing but humans in the vicinity; except us. The Loyal opened the door. Pyotr slid out and then offered a paw back to the little girl. She took it as if it were her right. Everything little girl should be a princess once in a while. I smiled and followed her out the limo. She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. She pushed opened the door and pulled me in after her.

“MOMMY!”

I grimaced. Shrill little voice. Pyotr stepped in behind us and shut the door. Wait…wait a minute. The last time here, there were bodyguards everywhere.

“HE’S HERE!”

He’s here? Sandra stepped out into the foyer and she knelt. Princess Sarah shook her hand free and ran up to her mother. “Thank you for coming, Edward. I told you I would help you.”

“What?”

There was a pssst sound and Pyotr staggered sideways. He crashed to the floor with a dart sticking out of his neck. Psst. Psst, Psssst. I knocked a dart out of the air but two hit me. Whatever it was exploded in my chest were it hit, like ice. “An angel shouldn’t be captive.”

I dropped to my knees. /Shade!/

“I found someone who is going to free you, Edward. They are going to purge you. You will be cleansed.”

“Cleansed?” My mouth felt thick and my word was slurred. I dropped to my ass. HC stepped out of the hall carrying the tranquilizer gun that had knocked me on my ass, literally.

Who said cleansed?

“Do not fight it, Lord Emperor. This has been designed especially to take down Blues. Do not blame Sandra. She is helping the Angel who saved her daughter’s life.”

/SHADE!/

/What?/

/Princess….princess…./

/Xavier?/

/with the princess…/ I stuck my arm out to keep from falling over.

/X! What the hell is wrong with you!/

“We will take it from here, Mrs. Winfield, Miss Winfield.” HC stepped forward and then crouched before me. I couldn’t hold my head up. His hand came up and cupped my cheek. “We will make things right again.”

We?

“That’s right, General.” I blinked and focused my eyes past HC to the other figure that stepped out of the hall. Alarik. My body just collapsed from the drug. “I have him. Out the back.”

I could hear a rushing through my head as whatever that was they shot me with was trying to take me completely over. I tried to shake my head. I just stared up at the ceiling. Alarik knelt beside me, his hand came up and ran along my hairline. He propped me up and pressed his mouth to my ear. “I am going to fuck you raw, nephew. The only name you will be screaming from those perfect lips will be mine. Then Orel Wessel will take your mind away. You’ve been betrayed by humans. Remember that as you go through hell.”

I couldn’t say anything. I just stared up at his face. He killed his own mother and unborn sibling. I wouldn’t get mercy from him. He lifted me up in bridal pose.

“What shall we do with him?” HC pointed at the downed Lycan.

“It’s just a dog. Leave him. The pack will kill him for failing to protect his master.”

“Thank you again for your help Mrs. Winfield. In the end, you will have done the world a service by helping us free Edward.”

/NNNOOOOOOOO!/

/“X! Where are you!/

My head just got heavier and then there was nothing but cold and ice. I might as well have been dead. I was a prisoner of Alarik and Orel Wessel.

* * *