A Mermaid's Ransom

  "The question now," Lyssa considered, sitting back, "is what to do about you. There are few loner vampires out there, Dante. We are very structured. We belong to territories, Regions. We have overlords and Region Masters for these areas, a protection for all of us. Having you roaming free with no sense of what a vampire is or does could become a liability for us all."

  Mina spoke up then. "Right now, he's on thirty days' probation here. The enchantment on his throat also prevents him from causing harm to others."

  "I am more concerned with him exposing our world to more scrutiny than we desire. Not what harm he can cause to humans. That is far more easily controlled. Beyond that, there is his own well-being, if that is of concern to you." She gave the witch a shrewd look. "It is not wise for him to be in a territory without the overlord or Region Master's awareness of his presence there. It's surprising no vampire has yet found and challenged him. A loner is quickly attacked."

  Lex remembered that malevolent presence near the diner, but Dante had his attention on Lyssa. "I am told humans prefer ignorance of our existence," he said. "But I do not necessarily belong to your world, any more than I belong to the Dark One world. I will choose where I belong."

  "Really?" Lyssa studied him. Heat sizzled between the two vampires like a laser line. "How will you do that, youngling, if you have no idea who you are?"

  "How would you propose to teach me?" The derisive challenge was blatant.

  Dante, I think she's trying to help.

  Lyssa cocked her head. "I could force you to concede my power over you. Is violence what you require to learn, to listen?"

  I learned about power through being helpless. I learned to fight by being beaten. Alexis blanched as his words came back to her, his ability to learn through conditioned response and reaction. And he was prepared to prove it right now. His emotions were clear on that. She felt the heat gathering within him, ready to strike.

  "No," she said. Before he could anticipate her, she'd lifted herself up on his legs and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her face into his throat, her body into his so he was cradling her in his lap. His only choice was to hold her or toss her to the side as unceremoniously as a sack of potatoes.

  Which he might very well do, so she tightened her arms, holding on to him. Let them help, Dante. Please.

  Dante's body quivered beneath hers, but his fingers curled into her back, the other hand sliding over her thighs, a protective rather than a dismissive gesture, thank the Goddess.

  "How can you help me learn to live here?" No less argumentative, but the phrasing made the difference. Lady Lyssa sat back, her eyes sliding over Lex curled in his lap.

  "I likely can't. Not right now. Mina is right. You are more savage beast than student, and to conquer that requires something different. Perhaps what's in your arms now, a balance to your darkness. But if you win that battle, then you would do well to consider spending some time here. We can help you understand the vampire side of yourself, what rules govern our lives, and where you might fit into that life. As I said, vampire children are rare. It automatically wins you a title, Lord Dante." Though there was mocking humor in her voice, it wasn't entirely unpleasant. "Whether you earn the respect that goes with it is up to you."

  She shifted her gaze to Mina. "I will speak to Dante alone now. Jacob will show you my roses and let you meet Kane."

  Twenty-one

  DESPITE the fact she was a queen, getting everyone to comply with that directive was not so easy. Dante did not want Alexis out of his sight. Jacob didn't seem overly enthused leaving Lyssa alone with an unknown Dark Spawn male vampire. But in the end, her will prevailed, as did Mina's, who supported the Queen's request.

  Alexis found the roses even more beautiful than the ones on the front drive. Kane likewise was a gorgeous child, perhaps two years old. He had his father's still, vibrant eyes and mother's silky black hair, as well as kittenish fangs.

  The baby found David as fascinating as his parents had. When the angel squatted down, his wings curving across the ground, Kane went right for them, losing his balance on the uneven surface and plopping down upon them. As he laughed and sunk his fingers into the feathers, David twisted around, watching him play with amusement.

  Angelic energy put most parents at ease, and Jacob was no exception, despite his obvious concern about what might be happening in the study they'd left. He wasn't alone in that. Alexis paced uneasily until Mina's fingers closed around her arm. The witch sat her down on a bench beneath a heavy canopy of yellow fragrant blooms highlighted by the rising moon. "She's not harming him, Alexis."

  "I know."

  "Of course you do." The witch gave her a sardonic look. "You're in his mind. You know what he's capable of. You aren't worried about what Lyssa will do to him. You worry what he'll do if she says the wrong thing, makes the wrong move. You want to believe in him, but you know belief isn't always enough."

  Alexis bit back a retort. She was far more prepared to reassure her parents than to fence the far-too-accurate observations of the Dark Spawn seawitch. She was tired, hungry and her nerves were frayed, but she could hold it together. She would. "He doesn't understand a lot of things yet. He might interpret something simple as a threat."

  "Hmm. Sounds like it might have been better to keep him in Hell, let him learn about Earth in a controlled environment for a few months before releasing him on the world. Why didn't anyone think of that?"

  Surging up from the bench, Alexis faced her godmother. "It needs to be his choice. He's not going to do well anywhere he feels trapped. He's been trapped long enough. If it weren't for you, he'd have been here twenty years ago."

  She stopped, biting her lip, heat flooding her cheeks. Jacob and David paused in their conversation, but Mina ignored them. "You feel his feelings," she said, "but you don't necessarily know everything about who he is, who he was."

  "I know more than anyone has tried to know," Lex snapped. "Except maybe you. You didn't have to try. You knew. You gave up on him, left him there. The person who understood him better than anyone."

  "Perhaps that was why I left him there." Mina's eyes sparked. "Change can be very difficult when you've chosen your path."

  Alexis fought to contain her emotions, cognizant of their host's scrutiny. When she nodded to David, feigning reassurance, he gave her an even look, but spoke a word to Jacob. They returned to entertaining the baby.

  "I overheard you talking, when I was under Raphael's care," Alexis said quietly. "You said Dante had changed. That he'd been a scavenger, but now he was different."

  When the seawitch's expression altered, the truth of it clicked into place. "It was the closing of the rifts. You shut down the one avenue he had. Life became even more unbearable."

  "Rather than giving up, he became angry, and his rage overrode his fear." Mina shrugged. "It can happen. It says something about who he is. Whether it will be his salvation or the avenue to his own destruction, only time will tell."

  "How can you be so callous? I know you feel things. I may not understand all of them, but when you and David are together"--Lex's gaze traveled between the two of them, and back to Mina's face--"I know how much you feel."

  "You know many things." Mina rose and met her toe-to-toe, the spark in her blue and crimson eyes becoming something far more dangerous. "You may feel what I feel, or Dante feels, but don't make a child's mistake of thinking that brings you full comprehension."

  Alexis tried to draw back, but she couldn't. Mina's energy poured over Alexis's skin like hot oil, holding the girl in a tunnel of suffocating heat. That Dark One blood Mina carried, so much like Dante's, was raging over her. She couldn't speak without whimpering, but Mina wasn't done yet.

  "You don't know what it is to grow up without any love, except for a mother who lived her life in torment until she couldn't bear it anymore. You don't know what it's like to be tortured by those who are amused by your pain, who revile you as a thing, not a living being. Not just one day, or two, but from t
he second you're aware of your own existence. To have that suddenly be different . . . it takes a long, long time to believe it is different. It's safer to believe it isn't." Her lip curled back, showing Alexis a hint of the witch's fangs, a sign of her own Dark One sire. "Your job is to give Dante courage through your understanding, courage to make his own decisions and face the consequences. Not to shelter him with soft feelings and wishful imaginings. Because if evil has gripped his soul deeply enough, it will take him in the end.

  "You've already seen what he can do physically, and some of his magical abilities. Unlike you, I am far less concerned about his feelings, or yours, than the swath of destruction he could cut here if his mind succumbed to the desire for power and control. No matter how many bodies he has to stack up to achieve it. You sense where he is vulnerable, but you do not see those same areas are like volcanic lava, ready to explode with fire and destruction."

  Alexis shook her head, flinching when Mina's hands gripped her biceps, claws digging into her tender flesh. "You've known loneliness, Lex. Some rejection, some fear about who you are and what you'll become, but you've never in your life experienced isolation, except for your brief time in the Dark One world. Even then, you made a connection to Dante's mind. Every bad thing you've experienced has happened against a backdrop of love, friends, a family who will sacrifice anything for you. You grew up playing in the sparkling waters of the ocean, close to the surface where you never lost the warmth of the sun except by choice. You flew in the skies safe in your father's care, adopted by practically his whole Legion."

  "It doesn't make my gift worthless," Alexis managed, glaring through a haze of heat at the witch. "I've just never used it like this." Hell, faced with a challenge like Dante, she was realizing she'd hardly used it at all.

  "It's not worthless, but it is limited, if you refuse to understand its weaknesses. Take yourself past your own experiences and reactions. Don't translate someone's feelings into your own language. Understand it in theirs. Then your gift will truly find its potential."

  Just as abruptly, Mina's hypnotic gaze released her. Alexis would have fallen, but David was behind her, his hands on her shoulders. Mina jerked her head at the bench. "Sit her down before she falls down." She adjusted her attention to Jacob, watching the proceedings with intense interest from the steps, Kane now playing between his bent knees. "Can that majordomo of yours make a sandwich for her before she passes out?"

  Alexis blinked through the pounding in her head. She hadn't realized how angry she'd been with her godmother about Dante's imprisonment. Now that anger swirled inside of her, confused and unsure of its target, because for once, the witch's feelings weren't incomprehensible to her. Despite her sharp tongue, Mina wasn't angry with her at all. She was frustrated . . . afraid. Afraid for her goddaughter. Goddess. Mina was as afraid Lex was going to make a bloody shambles of this as Alexis was herself.

  Jacob had risen at Mina's request, Kane toddling forward just ahead of him. The child initially had been heading for Alexis and David, but at the last moment he bypassed them and tripped, falling against Mina's legs.

  The witch glanced down as Kane landed on her skirt, both his fists grabbing onto the velvet as he tipped his head back and gurgled at her. "Shoo," she said in a practical voice and twitched a leg, an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge him. "Pink leech."

  David sent Jacob a pained expression. "She's very maternal."

  "My lady calls him the parasite, and that's one of the kinder names. She'd also do anything in the world to keep him happy. It's not in the ear, but the heart." Jacob smiled, nodded respectfully to Mina and plucked his son off her skirt, settling Kane in the crook of his arm. "Let's go find the pretty girl some food, hmm, Kane? Best way to win her affections."

  Alexis attempted a wan, polite smile, but when he moved away she put her head down in her hands. Goddess, all of this would be easier if she just felt better. She wasn't sure if she was going to throw up a sandwich or devour it like she hadn't eaten in months. She knew Dante was right, that she wasn't giving herself enough recuperation time, but what choice did she have? Take a vacation to Tahiti and let him fend for himself?

  Mina and David stood near, for she saw their feet. David's were bare, as most angels, and Mina wore black canvas sneakers with unicorns printed on them in hot pink outlines, like neon equine ghosts.

  "So what is Lyssa doing with him?" she said in a monotone, wondering if she could bear another catty remark from Mina.

  The witch sat down next to her, stretching her legs, crossing her ankles between David's feet. She rocked her toes, scuffing his calf as he gave her a narrow look.

  "I expect she wanted to get a sense of him alone without all of us in attendance. Or, if she really does have to slam him to the floor to get him to listen, she felt it was best to do that without an audience witnessing his humiliation. Particularly you." Mina put a hand on her arm when Alexis started to rise. "Alexis, are you listening to me at all? It's as bad for you to assume he's a misunderstood puppy, as it is for others to assume he's an untrustworthy monster. The truth lies somewhere in between."

  Alexis winced as Mina altered her grip to press on the area that Dante had gripped so brutally. "Don't forget that. You don't have to worry about Lady Lyssa. She can hold her own against him, even though I didn't configure the restraint for vampires. Humans and one merangel were my major concern. Plus, I didn't expect him to encounter many vampires. I also didn't want to leave him at the mercy of the species among whom he's most likely to make his home. Vampires only respect aggression." Her brow lifted. "Now, would you like to hear more about vampires, or do you want to keep acting like a cranky baby?"

  Alexis scowled. "I think David's right. You're fluent in sarcasm."

  David's somber lips curved, drawing her attention. "At least it's remarkably easy to translate."

  Alexis set her teeth. "I'd like to hear more."

  Mina gave David an annoyed look. He simply went to a squat, his hands falling on her bare ankles, caressing them and the small sneakers. "Vampires are clannish, as Lady Lyssa implied," the seawitch said at last. "They consider humans inferior, and view most other species with suspicion. Their respect for power and hierarchy is innate to them, which may explain how Dante accomplished what he did in the Dark One world. Vampires are also very dominant in their relationships with others."

  "Well, domineering I know." Lex snorted. "Look at my father."

  Mina nodded, inscrutable. "Yes, he is. But the type of dominance I'm discussing is something more like what he shows toward your mother. Since you're an adult, I know you're quite aware of it."

  "Pyel doesn't . . ." Lex drifted off. "Oh. Oh." Despite herself, a warm shiver ran up her spine, because she did know what Mina meant. It had been that way even in the Dark One world. It was too primitive and visceral to be a compulsion magic, but something elemental in her responded to Dante's sensual commands.

  "No shame in it," Mina said quietly as Lex's cheeks flushed and she avoided direct eye contact with either one of them. "Your mother has it, too. It's in your nature to submit to the man you love. With vampires, it's essentially a requirement of bonding with them. If you hadn't had it, it's far more likely he would have killed you."

  The witch sighed. "A submissive personality seeks the best in the one she loves. She will seek it in the darkest part of her soul if she has to, because she must find it. Her heart and sanity depend on it. It's why your mother was able to call your father's soul back from the Dark Ones, when no one else could have. Dante . . . his soul is far darker than your father's ever was."

  "You're making him sound like a monster again." Alexis shook her head. "He's not."

  "No, he's not," Mina surprised her. "He's a predator. That's different from humans. Humans aren't natural predators. They're aggressive and opportunistic survivors. If something threatens them, they won't hesitate to use what their intelligence provides to fight back. But a predator's primary directive is to evaluate every life-form as food, foe or f
amily. And the last category is a very small one." At Alexis's frown, Mina gave her an impatient look. "Why do you think your father didn't want you coming with us? He knows vampires, Alexis. Lady Lyssa is more complicated than most. She's practically responsible for creating an overarching Council that keeps the small number of vampires on this planet observing basic rules of civility, like killing no more than twelve humans a year in the pursuit of blood. But within their ranks, the vampires slaughtered by their own, or human servants sacrificed to their interests, isn't limited."

  "And I'm his human servant."

  "You bear the marks. Have you had trouble reading him as easily as you have others?"

  Alexis nodded, and Mina grunted. "I figured as much. You probably thought it was because your girlish head was spinning under his seductive charms. But it's very possible that he's able to keep some of himself shielded from your gift. Fortunately for us all, he's not been entirely successful at that. Dante doesn't yet understand the full significance of what third-marked means in the vampire world. But he will. Your father already does."

  Mina gave her a direct look. "If the bond between vampire and servant is willing and understood, it's a moving and intense relationship, but there are aspects of it that are very disturbing, unless that strong bond is there. Vampires share their servants. Sexually, as part of their games of pleasure and power, because vampires are an extremely carnal species. As I'm sure you've noticed."

  Ignoring Alexis's renewed flush, she continued. "But being human servant to a vampire means more than that. At least in the mind of the vampire, he owns that human--body, mind, heart and soul. Lady Lyssa is correct. As a vampire, Dante needs to understand their world, and it is likely he can only understand it by living as part of it. If he does, it is likely he will desire to do it with you at his side."

  "Does my father . . ." Alexis closed her eyes. "Of course he knows. That's why this is driving him crazy."

  "Oh, there are a variety of things that have his feathers in a twist, I can promise you," Mina observed dryly. "But that's one of his big concerns. Vampires are not evil, per se, but if you do not know the proper way to deal with them, they will literally have you for lunch. We are fortunate that Lady Lyssa has lived so long, long enough to see the consequences of excessive violence. And that her servant and mate, Jacob, straddles the world between human and vampire so easily."