The Vampires #1: Alaric and Faina

Chapter 18 (Alaric): A Special Session

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Husband.

Faina had whispered husband to me as she'd fallen to sleep.

It was the word I wanted to hear from her from the moment I saw her at a party, but Faina was less than impressed with my arrogance. My golden-eyed wife was highly sought after by other vampires who wanted this beautiful woman as their donneuse, and I had to work hard to change her opinion of me in the months after meeting her, but I was determined to win her heart. From the first moment I saw Faina, she became my obsession, someone I couldn't live without, and my pursuit of her was relentless and well-known in our community. I loved her sharp mind, her sense of humor, her generosity, her laugh, her very gentleness. There wasn't anything I didn't love about Faina.

The first time she allowed me to drink from her, I held her close and stroked her neck and whispered those ancient words in her ear.

I drink you in and you become the very blood in my veins.

It was a statement of my commitment to her. Although we had both been involved in feed and releases prior to meeting one another, in many ways, it was our first time when Faina and I came together. It was the first time it wasn't just a feed and release for either of us, and the intensity we experienced almost brought me to my knees.

It was the first time I'd ever fed from a vampire's neck, and I was the first vampire Faina had allowed to feed from her neck. There was no gesture that was more telling. The neck was intimate, personal, meaningful. For feed and releases without emotion, you either offered your wrist or you drank from the wrist. I'd been offered the neck before, but I'd always refused, wanting to save that for the woman I would someday meet and make my bride. Faina had been well worth the wait.

As the daughter of a prominent family, one of the ancient Twelve, it was expected Faina would marry a vampire from one of the other ancient families. No one had expected her to marry a non-Twelve, not even considering my wealth and my family's excellent reputation. She'd simply shrugged when I'd brought up the expectations others had for her and had informed me coolly that what others thought didn't matter to her.

"How could I love anyone else like I love you, Alaric? My heart will never beat for anyone but you."

In no time, she had become my everything and after only four months, I asked her to be my wife, and more importantly, my blood bride because I knew that Faina was my present and my future, the woman I would build a family with, the woman I would conquer mountains for. The woman I would bond to my Hunger.

The woman who was the very blood in my veins.

I watched her sleep, cherishing this time with her, knowing it was coming to an end in a few short months that I knew would speed by. I would have time with Faina and our babies for one precious week, and then the Alarie himself, I had no doubt, would take my head. What I had done was unforgiveable to the community and my life was in forfeit as a result.

But while I still lived, I would take every moment I could with my Faina, and I would treasure those precious seven days when the four of us would be a family.

One week.

One week of beauty that would be overshadowed by what was to come. I hated that for Faina, for my children, for her family who would have to be there for her in the aftermath. What should be a happy time, a miraculous time given the twins, would be filled with deep pain. I'd have to speak with Gervais about sending Faina and the children away for a few months with Aullana, until things settled, until there wouldn't be gossip and looks and whispers and unkind comments. He would have to be present at my beheading since he was the Bellamy, but I would ask that he and Cordula leave immediately after to be with Faina and the babies.

Putting those thoughts aside, I just enjoyed the moment of being close to Faina after being separated from her for so long. My hand slid to her belly where I felt the gentle movements of the babies, and I memorized the perfection of the moment as tiny feet and hands bumped against my hand -- Papa's hand -- while my very-much-alive wife slept peacefully under my protection.

My eyes studied Faina's throat. Although the wound on her neck was healing, because it was so deep and jagged, it was taking longer to disappear than normal. Pressing my lips to the wound, I let the relief wash over me that we'd been able to get to her in time and stop the blood that was draining from her much too fast. It had been so close.

Much too close, and I'd almost lost her and the babies and had that happened, I would have followed them into the afterlife because my heart would have shattered. Without Faina, my heart couldn't and wouldn't beat.

Idly I wondered what, if anything, the Vautour would do in retaliation for his daughter's brutal death at my hands. I was certain Gervais would handle whatever the Vautour would attempt to do because, however much he may despise me for what I'd done, you did not fuck with that man's family. For my part, I was going to have the Vautours removed from my company's Board and finish them off financially in the time I had left. Right or wrong, I considered them complicit in Daylin's evilness and wanted them all to suffer for what Daylin had attempted to do to Faina.

After I got through with them, we'd see if anyone wanted that family's markers in the future. Their name would be useless and they'd be penniless. They could suffer for Daylin's crimes since they'd covered for her and allowed her to flourish and become what she was.

Pure evil.

"Alaric," Gervais quietly called to me from the doorway.

"Come in," I said. "She's sleeping."

Gervais walked into the room and stood by the side of the bed, his hand going to his daughter's forehead and then moving to stroke her hair.

"You saved her life. You and the Hunger. I still don't know how you tore loose -- there's no way you should have been able to break free -- but I'm forever grateful."

"She was in danger," I said simply. "But it was still too...close."

"You got to her in time, and that's all that matters to me. I came up here to tell you that the Vautour is making noises, but the Alarie has been apprised of everything and is handling him decisively."

"There should be no question after his daughter attempted to kill Faina and the babies and did succeed in killing two others."

"Three," Gervais corrected me. "The nurse who was supposed to be working tonight was found dead in her car, a chocolate in her mouth."

"Do they know yet what was in the chocolates?"

"They verified it was bagged blood."

We both thought about that horror for a moment before Gervais went on.

"I also came to tell you that the Alarie has called a special session of the Twelve tomorrow and your presence is needed there."

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA