Fifteen
sun was just rising when Jill and Damien arrived back at his house. Damien hadn't spoken the whole ride home. His mind was a swirling torrent of thoughts and concerns over everything that had happened. He’d turned down Jill’s offer to drive, choosing to stare out the window as he thought about Kain’s history with Jill.
When Jill had asked him what was wrong, he just shook his head. He knew she didn't believe him.
Charlie wasn't home yet so Damien took his spare key out of the old mailbox and unlocked the door, flipping on a light so they wouldn't run into any unwanted surprises.
“Damien, what's wrong? You've been quiet since we left the mountains.” Her warm hand cupped his face, her thumb running along his cheekbone.
“Nothing's wrong. Just...thinking.” Damien replied, taking her hand from his face.
“You can't lie to me, Damien. I can feel what you feel. Please, open your heart to me. I want to help.”
Damien didn't reply. He just walked up the stairs to his room and sat down on the edge of the bed. Jill followed him, sitting next to him. She took off her jacket to reveal her sleeveless tank top. The gaping scar on her shoulder exposed to him. The wound had been deep enough, it left a jagged groove indicating where the flesh was torn from the muscle.
“Christ, Jill. That looks bad.” Damien turned away, disgusted. He’d once again been the reason Jill was injured.
Jill looked down at her shoulder. “I can cover it if it displeases you.”
Damien shot up from the bed, his shoulders tensed. His hands rigid. “Displeases me? Damn it, Jill, it's not that! It pisses me off that once again you've had to go through so much to save my worthless ass. Because of me, Kain, Gabriel, Holt and Lune are all in danger now too! I could have gotten them killed!”
“I wasn't going to let her turn you, Damien. I couldn't handle it. It would shatter my soul to pieces.” Her arms wrapped around her, gripping her shoulders at the thought that she couldn't have made it on time. Knowing Damien, he would have begged her to kill him with her own fangs.
“How did this start, Jill? What went so wrong it has the two of your races tearing each other's throats out?”
Jill rose to go stand next to the window, looking out over the expanse of the landscape as she tried to picture the past. “I only know the stories Pentacost told me when I was old enough to hear them. The exact event was lost many centuries ago.”
“Tell me.” Damien came up behind her, his hands rubbing her shoulder against the pain he could hear in her voice.
Jill reached up behind her. Her hand petting the soft flesh of Damien’s cheek. The light tickle of his facial hair teasing her skin as he bent down to kiss her jaw. She closed her eyes, sighing.
“Centuries ago, before the songs of the children of the night were heard, Luna rose into the sky greeted by the brothers Tenebris, the night father and Barghast, the shadowed one. In the beginning, it was only the gods in the heavens. Everything else was dark and empty. Tenebris and Luna were lonely and longed to have children of their own. As millennia past, they began falling in love with one another. Tenebris, eventually proposed to Luna. This angered Barghast for he was in love with her as well. His jealousy burned the blazing red of his eyes. He threatened his brother, swearing if he went through with his marriage to Luna, he would forever hunt and kill any children they had,”
Jill felt a pain in her chest, the memories of countless innocent lives lost as a result of jealousy burned with anger inside of her. Damien put his arms around her, holding her to provide support.
“Despite this, Luna married Tenebris. Their love gave birth to the wolves. The rulers of the night. To Luna it wasn't enough, she wanted more. She asked Tenebris to help her bless us with the ability to change. To live among man. As his own gift, Tenebris gave us inhuman beauty and the ability to stand on two legs with power beyond any force in nature. For centuries they loved their children but,”
Damien sat down on the windowsill to allow Jill to snuggle into him for comfort. She lay between his legs, her cheek against his chest. The soft beat of his heart helped to ease the tension working its way into her soul.
“Barghast's rage soon fell upon us. His soul poisoned to the point he began to feed on the blood of man,”
“In order to carry out his threats, Barghast's fangs found the veins of man's greed and fear, giving birth to the first vampire. He bade him to hunt down the children of Luna and Tenebris, killing all he saw.”
Damien ran his hand through Jill’s soft hair. His sense of amazement overwhelming him. It was as though he could see the events Jill was describing in his mind’s eye. “What about the werewolves? Did Barghast have something to do with them?”
“Yes. His shadow fell on one of my kind, dementing the beauty Luna and Tenebris created. His curse had been fulfilled. The Blood Wars had begun. Tenebris feared the genocide of his children so much he called upon Luna's sister, Solaris to aid in our protection,”
“Solaris answered his cries and reached out her hand to drive the shadows away, damning them only to live in the darkness or die in the sun's light.”
“Jill, I still don’t understand the Purifiers? I mean, it’s the reason I’m being hunted, right?” Damien asked, eager to learn why he had become public enemy number one on the vampire’s most wanted list.
Jill looked up at him, her eyes sullen. Her fingertip tracing the muscle of his chest under his t-shirt. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. We don't know their origins. We only know they tried to protect man's world from being wiped out by our war. I only met one in my entire life on this planet. According to legend they can live just as long as one of us, if not longer.”
“How long can a lycan live?” Damien asked, curiously.
Jill closed her eyes, a low growl formed in her throat. “Damien, in our early history we could live for centuries if we weren't killed by man or slaughtered by vampires. Many of us long to live out the lives of a normal human to get back into Luna's loving embrace and out of the chaos. Many are forgetting, ignoring the call of our mother. Others are giving their lives in last ditch efforts to take some of the vampires down. Our world is a world of fear and unease. It's not for the faint of heart.”
Damien brushed his knuckle over her cheek. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured you into telling me.”
Jill took his wrist in her hand, softly kissing it. Hearing the soft murmur of the streams of his blood as it drifted peacefully in his veins gave her peace. His pulse was calm. His heartbeat gentle and comforting. “It's okay. You deserve to know why you’re being hunted. I just wish I knew more.”
Damien had been curious about the Purifiers but so far no one could answer any of his questions. All he knew was there was something about him the vampires saw as a threat big enough to want him dead.
Lilith’s words came forward in Damien’s mind despite his best efforts to suppress them. His heart hurt so bad he needed to know so he could move past the feeling of betrayal nagging in the back of his mind.
“Jill, I have to know. If I didn't have Lucius' soul inside of me, would you have given me a second look? Would you even know I existed or cared to know?” The words tasted bitter as Damien said them. He wanted to trust Jill’s love for him but his uncertainty couldn’t be ignored.
Jill's lips met Damien’s in a loving kiss. It wasn't demanding or possessive like Lilith's had been. Her hands tangled in his hair, holding him in place as she savored the taste of him. She positioned her hips so they relaxed against his, her stomach flat against his own. Her breasts conveniently pressed against his chest.
She pulled away, staying close to his face. “Damien, I told you. I’m not going to chase ghosts anymore. You took my breath away the minute I saw you. My heart fluttered like a hummingbird's wings when I saw these gorgeous jeweled eyes of yours. I knew I wanted to be with you the rest of your natural life. I didn't mind taking things slow as long as I could eventually have you to myself. You may have Lucius' soul but you have made it your own. Its unique song is more beautiful than any I've ever heard,”
Jill ran her hands down Damien’s sides, positioning them so she could begin guiding his shirt up.
“It's your voice that I hear, your heart that I feel, your pain that fills me when you're under stress. Your blood that flows through me.”
Damien pulled away from her, his brow furrowing in confusion. “My blood?”
“When you were hurt by Stoker, I had to do something truly desperate to save your life. I think it's time I told you,” Jill took a deep breath, knowing what she was about to tell him would sound strange to anyone that wasn't a lycan or hadn't seen it done before.
“I've tasted your blood, Damien. You were dying. The only thing I could do to close the wound was use the curse inside of me. To my kind, the sharing of blood is as sacred as sex. It gives us the ability to talk to each other, even if we're miles away. It's how I heard you when you begged me to hurry to rescue you.” Jill sighed, her fear of him rejecting her inched forward in her mind.
Strange? Strange didn't even begin to describe the way Damien felt about what he'd just been told. Didn't vampires drink blood?
“I know what you're thinking and no. It's not the same. For us, it’s a bond. All of our memories, our feelings become one when we share it. Vampires drink blood to stay alive, maintain their power and create more of their kind.”
“Wait, so because you healed the wound in my side, now you can tell what I'm feeling. What I'm thinking?” Damien asked, confused as to how Jill knew what was going through his mind.
“No, it's not like mind-reading. Only lycans bound together by the gods can read each other’s minds. It is rare. Think of our bond as more of a telephone. You don't have my blood in you so you can't hear me but I can hear you. I can't talk to you. It's an unbreakable bond that keeps us together even if we leave each other.” Jill said, her concern intensifying the more she felt the growing unease in Damien.
“Okay. That doesn't make any sense to me and quite frankly, creeps me the hell out.” Damien replied, slightly disturbed. Internally he was debating on how to process what he’d just learned.
Jill scooted away from him on the other side of the sill. “Do you want me to leave?” She sat on her knees waiting for his reply.
“No Jill, I don't.” Damien scooted over to her, his hand reaching out to stroke her face. He smiled at the wide-eyed look on her face. Clearly she had expected him to recoil from her.
“It's just something else I'm learning about you. It's strange but I want to make it work between us, Jill.” He wanted to know as much as she was willing to let him. “Speaking of which, is turning from a human into a lycan painful? When they're bitten or something?”
“Kain or Holt would know more since they’ve both done it. From what they've told me it's excruciating. The body's white blood cells try to fight the change, putting the heart under extreme duress. If one survives the initial change, shifting from one form to the other is actually very pleasurable. You’ve witnessed it before. You can actually get to a point where you can easily slide from one form to another with little effort,”
Jill leaned in close to Damien’s face, her hand cupping his neck. Her thumb ran softly over his cheekbone. “I won't ever turn you. It's your mortality that makes you beautiful and free, Damien. This life is cursed. It's not one I would wish on you.”
Damien hadn't thought about asking her to turn him, he was just curious as to how it worked.
Jill placed a gentle kiss on Damien’s eye before getting up. “The elders wish your presence at the meeting tomorrow. I suggest you sleep most of the day and take it easy tonight. Some of these alphas you've never met before. They can be stubborn in their old ways. Your mind is going to need to be fresh.”
She walked over to the bed to lay down, her own mind worn from telling the dark and blood littered history of her people.
Damien sat down next to her. There was still so much he didn’t understand. The vampires feared him but what was his role in all of this? No one could give him any answers and from what Jill said, no one knew.