Where Lost Things Dwell: Night Creatures Book Two

Chapter Three - Lineage

Charani Maloney had knocked Kalyna out again, just like she’d done when she escaped Wren, giving Captain Pullman the ability to set her bones, realign her spine, and temporally add a feeding tube to her stomach to pump her full of the cocktail of vampire and human blood which would heal her body. Major Caeso Marcellus Nerva donated a pint of his own blood to the cause because Dunstan still said he couldn’t.

Of course, everyone knew that ‘couldn’t’ had nothing to do with it, and ‘wouldn’t’ was closer to the mark. He asked the Major to take his place, and so Marcellus Nerva created a new blood bond and got to share all of Kalyna’s feelings in Dunstan’s stead; her grief, her anxiety, and everything she didn’t want to share with anyone else.

Maybe that explained why she’d been awake only a matter of moments before the Major grabbed Dunstan by the collar and hurled him across the room with such force that he smashed the bed in the opposite bed bay. A roar of anger bellowed from Marcellus Nerva, anger that had to come from the hurt – her hurt – judging by the way he pressed his hand over his heart and had unshed tears welling in his citrine eyes

Dunstan had every right to retaliate, but he lay amongst the mangled remains of the bed, looking stunned to his core. Maloney and Captain Pullman wore expressions of such surprise and horror that it might have been comical to witness if not for the situation. But then another snarl tore from Marcellus Nerva’s throat, past descended fangs, and his eyes flicked back to Kalyna with something covetous enough to terrify her. Desire flared behind the yellow of his irises, potent enough that she smelled the spice of it... and so did Dunstan.

He moved almost too fast to follow, sending the Major flying into yet another vacant bed bay. Luckily, few supernaturals needed to spend more than an hour or two there at a time and all of the other beds sat empty, excluding her own. Nonetheless, if no one stepped in, Dunstan and Marcellus Nerva might well ensure that they both required Captain Pullman’s care. She might have stepped in herself, except that her numbness had only just become a tingling, body wide pins and needles, which grew more intense with every passing second.

“Have you both gone mad?” the doctor barked at the glaring vampires. “What in hell’s name do you think you’re doing? This is my hospital wing. You will show some restraint or you’ll get the hell out!”

That question seemed to snap the Major out of whatever had relieved him of his senses and he frowned at Kalyna, both confused and accusatory. He shuddered, even as he pulled himself from the wreckage of the bed, and a look of revulsion passed over his face. The abhorrence warred with the desire, one emotion the antithesis of the other, yet both seemed hungry; hungry to erase her from the world or to possess her completely.

Her body tensed at that ravenous look, panic locking around her limbs in a vice like grip. Wren had taught her to fear both unwanted desire and such intense hatred, and if she’d trusted her legs, she might’ve fled. Only when he next spoke, the Major’s admission caught her off guard.

“I know which vampire you’re descended from. Or perhaps which witch,” he said, his voice both venomous with loathing and rough with need all at once. “I know because only one vampire’s soul has ever reverberated through mine so forcefully. Only one vampire has ever taken my blood and ensured the wildness in her soul eradicated everything I thought I was, until I craved and loathed her in equal measure.”

“No,” Dunstan breathed, his amber eyes both dismayed and defiant. “No, Caeso. Don't say that...”

“She was married before she was turned, Dunstan,” Marcellus Nerva insisted, still cryptic. “She had children. Children who could’ve had children of their own, who could’ve had children of their own, one of whom might’ve been a dhampir. For two and a half thousand years, that line might have continued. Or maybe a vampire she sired fathered the dhampir in Kalyna’s lineage. I don’t know. But one way or another, they are related.”