Dark Crossroads (The Templar Book 6), page 4
I didn’t want to be Erica. I didn’t want to be the highest ranking blood partner of a Balaj. I wanted more. I had more.
It wasn’t just the addiction Dario’s bite would bring that worried me. It would change our relationship. Blood partners were adored, protected, coddled. If the inevitable happened and a vampire slipped and took too much blood, Dario had mandated the partner would be turned. No more dead humans, he’d said. Those who were important enough to be beloved of one of the family should not suffer death at their hands. There were times I almost convinced myself that would be a good life for me.
But it wasn’t the life I wanted. I was a Templar and as much as I’d chafed about taking my Oath, there was no escaping my need to serve my pilgrims. I did that far better alive and not addicted to vampire venom, no matter how seductive that life sounded.
“Hi Babe.” Dario’s eyes met mine and his smile deepened, turning my legs into jelly.
“Hi.” I crossed the room and kissed him. It wasn’t enough of a kiss to make it look like we were on the set of a porno, but enough of one that those watching—including Erica—knew what we shared.
“Want dinner, Aria?” Opal asked. “I’m making spinach. It’s Mom’s recipe.”
“Run for it. Save yourself,” Balan intoned drily.
I liked spinach, but our family mostly ate it raw in salad, or creamed as our vegetable side. I wasn’t sure about boiled.
Opal must have seen the doubt in my face because she giggled. The woman had never left the ’70s behind, continuing to wear tube tops or peasant blouses and psychedelic-colored tights or patched bell-bottom jeans with platform clogs. Her natural hair was either teased out into a perfectly round afro, or gathered into a poof on top of her head. Today it was the latter, a rhinestone studded pick stuck through the base of the poof.
“I’m just wilting it in the salt water,” she told me. “Then I fry it up in bacon grease. Trust me, you’re gonna love it.”
“You sold me on bacon grease,” I replied. “Virginia isn’t exactly Deep South, but I grew up below the Mason-Dixon Line. Butter and bacon grease are staples in our kitchen.”
“See?” Opal wrinkled her nose at Balan. “Aria approves.”
“Yes, but this is the human who eats Fruit Loops out of the box,” Madeline interjected.
I scowled at Dario and punched his chest playfully. “You told her that?”
He laughed, the sound rumbling through me. “I like to think I embrace the modern world, but calling hardened sugar ‘breakfast’ is something I will never understand.”
Opal gave the spinach a quick stir before scooping a spoonful out and putting it onto a towel-covered plate. I watched her pat it dry and drop a piece into a frying pan of bacon grease. It sizzled, and a wonderful smell filled the air—at least I thought it was wonderful. It was clear that Balen and Madeline did not.
“How are the magic lessons going?” Dario asked, turning my attention from the spinach.
“The find-ownership spell was a complete bust,” I told him. “I think I should shift focus to something like deflect bullets.”
“Need me to be the guinea pig?” Opal asked cheerfully. She’d helped out in the past when I’d needed to test spells on someone who wasn’t easy to kill. The vampire was enthusiastic about the whole thing, reading spell books as I worked, and suggesting all sorts of modifications. She would be a perfect test subject. If I made a potion, I wouldn’t need to worry about it poisoning her, and if the spell failed, a bullet wound wouldn’t do more than cause her a minor, temporary injury.
“Maybe,” I replied. “I won’t be ready to test anything for weeks, and I’ll need to clear it through Dario.”
He shifted behind me and I got the feeling my borrowing Opal might be an issue. I wasn’t sure why, since he’d readily volunteered her several times before. He’d always seemed happy to help me and give one of the Balaj’s youngest vampires something productive to do.
His arm slid from my waist to my hip. “We’ll be back to try the spinach later,” he announced. “I need to talk with Aria in private for a bit.”
That had become his code for “Don’t disturb us unless the house is burning down, and pretend as if you can’t hear everything we’re saying or doing.”
Another disadvantage of Dario’s home becoming Balaj central was that private time was never really private. I was pretty sure even with super sensitive vampire hearing, the others couldn’t hear every word of our conversations, but I was willing to bet they knew exactly when we were getting it on. I hated that, even though everyone had been very circumspect about our disappearing upstairs for hours at a time.
I headed for the stairs, but Dario steered me to the living room, clearing it with a glance. I wasn’t sure where all the vampires vanished to. They were probably all piled in the kitchen, pretending not to be listening in to what we were saying.
I turned in his arms, this time giving him a kiss that did belong in a porno. He gripped my rear, pulling me up against him. One hand roamed up my back to grip my hair, holding my head as he took over. I rocked myself against him, wet and ready to get naked and make love on the couch. Screw it if the others heard.
All too soon he broke the kiss, easing me away and leading me to the couch, where he pulled me down onto his lap.
“How was your day?” He nibbled on my ear after the whispered words and for a second I forgot all about the question.
Then my day came roaring back like a dash of cold water.
“Well, I found this on my doorstep this morning.” I pulled the little embossed card out of my pocket and held it out.
He stared at it. “It smells like Templar. Not you or your family though.”
“It’s from an Order Elder. Elder Emmett Purcell to be exact.” I shoved the card back into my pocket and leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder.
“And what does this Elder want?” His voice rumbled in his chest, and his hand rubbed my back.
I felt so safe in his arms like this. I just wanted to stay here, to feel his arms around me, breath in his spicy cinnamon scent, feel the coolness of his skin against mine. I snuggled into him, feeling the sharp edges of the card in my pocket.
“He wants me to meet with him and set up a time to take my Oath.” I sighed. “I figured it would eventually come to this. It’s been years since I should have taken my vow. Evidently their patience has run out.”
“What happens if you say no?” Dario asked.
I shrugged. “Honestly I don’t know.”
It’s not like they could force me to take my Oath. I’m sure there would be repercussions though. Maybe even for my family.
I hated the thought of my family paying for my decision. I doubted the Order would reduce their stipend, but they could start giving them the shit jobs. And they could penalize my family for supporting me in any way. None of that really jived with what I knew of the Order though. I assumed they’d continue to pressure me while declaring me to be basically excommunicated.
We sat in silence for a while, Dario still rubbing my back.
“Penny for your thoughts,” I murmured to him.
He held out his hand. I didn’t actually have a penny, so I dug in my pocket and gave him a dog treat still in there from this morning.
He tossed it through the dining room and into the kitchen where it bounced off the back wall. No one said a word, although I was pretty sure the vampires noticed a dog treat whizzing like a bullet past them from the living room.
“I was thinking about you shoving that card up the sender’s rear end,” Dario commented dryly.
I smirked. “Ainsworths would never be so impolite.”
He snorted at my response.
“Well, at least not to a Templar Elder,” I amended.
“I take it that means you’re going to meet with him?”
I nodded. What else could I do? I might not have taken my Oath, but I was still a Templar. I’d been brought up to respect the Elders, and refusing a request to meet would be very disrespectful. Added to that, my parents and siblings were all Knights. It wouldn’t look good on our family for me to thumb my nose at the leaders of our Order.
I didn’t really have a good reason not to meet with Elder Emmett Purcell. I wasn’t on bad terms with the Order or the Elders. I hadn’t done anything to piss them off, and vice versa. My refusing to take my vow so far wasn’t a snub as far as the Order was concerned. They just saw me as a little eccentric, a late bloomer. I was pretty sure the Elders didn’t comprehend how someone might never take their vows. They most likely viewed my not-a-Knight state as temporary, and something that was my parents’ problem, not theirs.
My parents hadn’t called to give me any sort of heads-up, although they were out of the country at the moment. It wasn’t just politeness that was driving my decision to accept the meeting request, it was also a large dose of curiosity.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled the card out again, holding it as if the thing were going to give me cooties. The front had an embossed, crimson Templar cross, the back a swirled cursive that I was sure had been written with an expensive fountain pen.
“Four on Tuesday,” Dario commented. “Is he going to demand you take your vow right then in your living room, or do you have time to think about it?”
“Taking the Oath usually involves a ceremony in front of witnesses, so I doubt he’s going to corner me in the kitchen and knight me.” I stuck the card back in my pocket. “I’ll hear what he has to say, then probably stall until my parents get back and I can talk to them about it.”
“I’m pretty sure I can guess what they’re going to say,” Dario drawled.
So could I. Mom made no bones about the fact that she wanted me to take my vow yesterday, and although Dad had been less vocal on the subject, I knew he agreed. We were Templars. This is what we did. This is what I was born to do. My destiny was as inevitable as death and taxes as far as my family was concerned.
I thought back to my visit Thanksgiving. I’d chafed against giving my Oath to an Elder of the Order, but really the covenant was with God. And if they wanted me to take my Oath so badly, maybe I could bargain assistance against the Big Bad, just as I was doing with Haul Du. Having a group of mages at my back would be useful, but not nearly as useful as having the might of the Templar Order to support me in defending the city and my Pilgrims.
“This isn’t the worst of my problems,” I confessed. “Reynard showed up tonight before I came over.”
Dario stiffened. “What does that jackass want?”
He’d made it clear what he thought of the mage, and hadn’t understood why I’d bothered to reach out after the mage had thrown me under the demon-bus. I’d tried to explain that Reynard was my only connection to Raven, the only other person who I knew was suffering her loss just as much as I was. Eventually I’d realized he was right. It was better to mourn alone than try to be friends with someone who didn’t care about me at all.
“Reynard wants my help with something.”
Dario practically vibrated with anger. “Of course he does. That self-centered, shallow dick-for-brains never does anything unless it benefits him somehow. I know you loved your friend, but she had lousy taste in men.”
I chuckled, once more thinking how amazing it was to be curled up in Dario’s arms, on his lap, talking over all these things with him.
“It seems some old Haul Du member has returned and wants to take over the group. Allegedly he’s killed two members in his quest for Haul Du’s leadership position, Reynard wants my protection and for me to get the usurper out of town. In return he’s offered to tutor me.”
The vampire made a growling sound low in his voice. “Your protection? And what amounts to a hit on a mage? This is the kinda shit you go to a vampire Balaj for, not a Templar.”
I wasn’t thrilled about Dario reminding me of what he and his vampire family did as part of their business plan.
“He didn’t come right out and tell me to put this guy six feet under, but he sure as heck implied that. Get him out of town included making sure he stayed out of town and was no longer a threat. And how that happened wasn’t something Reynard was worried about.”
“I really hate this guy.” Dario gave me a rib-bruising squeeze. “He wants you to be his hired muscle and take out the competition, and as your reward you get the benefit of his somewhat questionable expertise? Please tell me you didn’t agree to this.”
“Dude…squishing the breath out of me here,” I gasped.
“Sorry.” Dario let up on the crushing grip and kissed the top of my head.
“No, I didn’t agree to it. I threw him out and told him it wasn’t my problem.”
“Good girl.”
“But… He said it’s going to turn into a mage war with collateral damage. He said this guy was into dark magic, that Dark Iron threw him out years ago because of his questionable practices.” I snorted. “Can you imagine how horrible this guy is for Dark Iron to consider his practices questionable?”
Dario buried his face in my hair. “He’s lying. Reynard wants you to help him and he knows what buttons of yours to push to get that. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t bring up Raven and wax poetic on how she would have wanted him running Haul Du.”
“Now that I wouldn’t have believed.” Raven loved Reynard, but she knew his faults. She’d told me once that he wasn’t a leader, that he’d never sacrifice his personal goals for others. Looking back, I knew that was true. He was happy to sacrifice me for a chance to bring Raven back, but I doubt he would have put his own soul on the line.
It made me mourn my friend even more. She did have shitty taste in men. I wished she was still alive so I could encourage her to dump his ass and date someone else instead.
Like Balen. Or Tremelay.
“I’m glad you told him no. And if you ever feel the need to stick your sword through him, I’ll be there to help with the cleanup.” Dario’s arm tightened, this time gently. “Oath. Potential mage war. Unknown Big Bad. Disappointing results of your spell. Which one’s keeping you awake at night?”
I sniffed. As if he didn’t know. “All the others are an issue because I’m trying to get my ducks in a row for whatever is about to descend on us. If I take my Oath, will the Order send help? If I support Reynard, will Haul Du assist? Will I ever be able to cast some decent magic spells or have to fight this thing off with my sword and a butter knife?” I laughed, suddenly thinking of something. “Wouldn’t it be ironic if I worried myself sick over this and the Big Bad turned out to be nothing and Fiore Noir was just killing people and harnessing the energy of their souls for their own gain?”
“And Chuck is just messing with you,” Dario added.
I scowled, on a role. “Maybe the Big Bad is only a fluffy adorable bunny.”
Dario chuckled. “I watched that movie with you where the cute bunny was a murderous monster. You shouldn’t discount fluffy bunnies. Maybe it’s a unicorn.”
I shuddered. “I’d rather it be a murderous Monty Python bunny. Unicorns suck.”
His hand stroked my hair. “Any idea on when this murderous bunny is going to descend on us? I know you said spring, but then Chuck was hinting if it was a warm winter…”
There was something tense about Dario’s question so I shifted around to face him, straddling his lap. “He’s still hinting it might come before spring. Why?”
“Timing is going to be a bit dicey and I just want to make sure I’m available to help you.”
I tried to read him, but the vampire had that blank, poker-face expression that let me know I really wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “And you might not be available because…?”
“Finally things are relatively stable in our territory. We’ve got an opportunity to expand the Balaj—and we desperately need to grow our numbers. We’re at risk being so small in such a large city. Winning against the Philadelphia group and beating back those mercenaries has bought us time, but I don’t know how long this peace is going to last.”
I knew exactly what he was talking about. Yes, they’d picked up James from the mercenaries and brought him into the Balaj, but they’d need to turn as many humans as they could and make sure they had time for both the new vampire to gain control and some minimum of power, and for the sire to recover the significant amount of power it took to turn a new vampire. It was a balancing act. They needed to turn as many as they could, but not so many that they left the Balaj vulnerable due to the weakness of their strongest members.
“Why you?” I asked, although I could guess at the answer. “Why not let Madeline, Balen or one of the others turn someone while you protect your family?”
“First, this is my Balaj. Those who I turn will be especially loyal to me and I need that. Right now no one would dare challenge me, but in a few decades, when we’re stronger, someone might. I need to build a group of those who I can completely depend on.”
I nodded, although that hadn’t worked so well for Aubin. Leonora, Dario and others of his own had turned against him in the end. I guess much like a child overthrowing a parent, the circumstances had to be dire for that to happen.
“Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s a hierarchy to these things. It’s an honor to be the first turned under a new leader. And it’s an honor to be turned by the leader.”
Yep, I knew exactly where this was going.
Erica. Leonora’s blood partner. I’d tried to forget that Dario had been taking blood from her, and renewing her mark. It drove me crazy, but I’d kept the jealousy bottled up inside. This was how the Balaj honored her as Leonora’s beloved. And it was how Dario honored the Mistress he’d loved and served, even though their relationship had been far from smooth. She’d given her life for the Balaj, and Dario felt duty bound to make sure her blood partner was taken care of, that she was honored by having her blood taken only by their new leader, and that when the time came to turn new members, she’d be first in line.
And she’d be turned by the highest ranking vampire in the Balaj—Dario.
