Shade's Loss

  He pulled his cell out and dialed his friend while undoing the first lock. It was intricate on its own but one had to find the catch first.

  He had two of the locks disengaged before Gideon answered. From the sound of it things were fine at his house or his Master was unaware of Leila’s potential demise.

  “Where is Leila?”

  “She left for your house over an hour ago, why?”

  “You need to get here ten minutes ago,” Damon informed him before hanging up.

  He was thankful Gideon was not more than five miles away. His Master could be one of the gentlest paranormals he had ever met but also the cruelest.

  He was only one lock away when he heard Gideon’s motorcycle pull up outside. He would find his mate before anything else then find Damon.

  He heard the last click and jerked the door open. The tunnel would be freezing he was prepared for that but not for the shape that Shade was in.

  Damon hissed at the sight of her mangled body curled into a protective ball. She was unconscious and clearly beyond mortal help. Her blood called to him, yet the idea of hurting her was beyond offensive, bordering disturbing. He could never harm the lovely girl lying broken before him.

  Damon stumbled momentarily before recovering himself and falling to her side. Even in the dark he could tell she was bitten and seriously injured. He did not need to see the bite to ascertain that.

  He gently kneeled beside her and picked her up. He cuddled her to his chest as carefully as he could. He tried to avoid causing her further pain or injury as he raced up the stairs to the kitchen counter. He irritably shoved off what little human tools for cooking he had and laid Shade down as easily as he could.

  She was not breathing at all. Her pulse was so weak he was not sure it would last even another second, each beat possibly her last.

  Damon quickly analyzed her and determined that she had been bitten in the neck by the demon and the venom had now spread throughout her entire body. Her ankle was broken in at least two places and possibly her ribs. The bite was lethal therefore it would end her human life.

  He had to turn her or let her die and be with her parents. Mikhail would be completely and thoroughly distraught either way but he knew even as a werewolf he would rather have his sister a vampire than dead.

  He wanted Shade’s permission above all else.

  Gideon walked up behind him. He sighed at the damage. He knew the demons were capable of such destruction personally.

  “Leila is fine. She was knocked out by the Vanth out front. I see you took care of the nasty creature. How is the mortal?” Gideon was straight to the point with Damon.

  “Dying… she is… was my soul mate.” Damon whispered. The decision to own her soul was a heavy one to make and he felt anything but worthy of it. His selfishness could not be the only reason. He could not imagine the world without her spit fire attitude and ferociously strong will.

  Gideon peered a moment longer and shook his head.

  “It is a pity that such a young and delicate child will have to lose her humanity. I release you Damon from your bond and shall you choose to sire this mortal I abide by this and support you. Congrats Master Damon, be with your mate,” Gideon replied solemnly placing a hand on his shoulder and walking away to leave Damon to choose.

  He licked her neck wound worried the process would fail simply because she had bled out so much. The important part was his blood though. He would not be able to avoid getting a taste of the venom when he licked clean the wound on her neck. It had finally stopped bleeding leaving only a cruel set of teeth marks.

  “I will return momentarily with blood for you both,” Gideon informed him from the kitchen doorway, he had been awaiting his decision. Shade would need several bags to finish the conversion.

  He slashed his own wrist and placed it to Shade’s mouth. It was the most direct way despite how technology was today. A preplanned non-emergency conversion would include I.V.’s, and would take half the time.

  Damon held her head angled so the blood flowed directly down her throat. The chances of a successful turning were slim but he would not give up on her. He refused to let her go. Even knowing he had no right to claim her, he was not ready to lose her forever.

  It could take all day and some of the night before there was any changes, any way of knowing if she would join him as a vampire. Hours that would be filled with self-torturing thoughts.

  It would take almost all his blood to replace hers and begin the painful conversion from human to vampire. The vampire cells had to repair all the damage done to her body.

  Damon took his wrist from her mouth when he had felt it was enough to get her started. He carried her upstairs to his room and laid her down on his bed.

  She had blood from her ears to her toes.

  He tenderly washed the dried blood from her face and body. She was not clean but it would suffice for a moment.

  He dug through her bags and found another shirt and changed hers very carefully.

  A small gash in her leg confused him. It would fade as the change took place so he merely cleaned it.

  Damon covered her with his blanket as he heard Gideon’s approach.

  “How is she?” Gideon asked.

  “I will not know for some time. This is not like the last turning I was present for. I do not remember my own. I have had no other vampire tell me how to convert and the monarchy refuses to teach us the proper way. Without what you have shared with me and what I witnessed before, it will do. She will live as a vampire or not.”

  “I believe she will make it Damon. A soul mate’s blood is best for the turning. It is more potent for the other. She will be fine, and despite her miniature size will be quite strong. Here drink this. You need to stay strong while feeding her.”

  Damon listened to Gideon’s sage advice and complied despite his adamant reluctance to do anything but simply lie with her, hold and protect her until he saw her eyes open.

  His heart clenched with a painful throbbing ache. Only once had he experienced emotional agony as great as this.

  “Has her heart stopped beating?” His Master asked.

  “Yes right after I brought her up here.”

  “After midnight, early morning maybe it should restart. Your blood has to have time to work. Do not fear I have faith enough for both of us that you will no longer be alone. Someone must look after you.”

  Damon nodded barely listening to the werewolf.

  The girl was so fragile. He wanted to kill the demon all over again. The cleaners had come and gone by now he was sure, removing all traces. For now he would watch over his future mate.

  If only she knew her brother was alive. She needed to fight to live and after losing everyone. She didn’t understand his growing feelings for her or that she still had a brother even if he was a werewolf. She had people who cared. Maybe not mortal people, but that did not change the depth of his feelings at all It simply lengthened them to forever instead of a normal life span of sixty to eighty odd years.

  Damon was curled up next to Shade with his wrist in her mouth, letting the blood drain straight down the inside of her throat. He was becoming weak but with Gideon here bringing him warm blood all day and into the night he would be fine. He would have to relocate Shade and himself as soon as she was ready for travel. Damon knew he needed to plan details but for now she was all that mattered.

  After she rose he could make the final stand that would end this mess. His immeasurable wrath had only been seen by a few and that was in his rebel days. His name was legend and those who tried to hurt what was his would rue him until the day he died. Tooth for tooth, nail for nail the vengeance he wrought would be a steel warning for any others.

  The bastard who ordered this would never feed again or order another futile attack. His mistake would soon be rectified.

  If his existence came to end then Gideon would protect and teach his Shade to be a strong and honorable vampire. She would want for nothing.

  The d
emon had been sent, there was no doubt about it. He also knew by whom.

  That someone knew where he was and would soon know Damon had a weak spot, the one lying dead in his arms. Once she was turned and safe he would make sure that the Royal prick not only suffered but understood that age was nothing in the long run.

  Damon let the anger fade and sifted through memories that he had locked up some time ago, memories of his newborn days when Gideon had beaten the rules into his unrelenting brain.

  Memories of the people he had slaughtered without thought in the name of Royals who sat cold and immovable on their righteous thrones.

  One memory was of a dark and dank dungeon where he had been locked away until he could control his madness and thirst.

  Damon was disgusted with the violence of his past, his and others. Such as the cruelty he had dealt out repeatedly to innocent men and women to sate his thirst and his superior’s whims.

  The tiny woman beside him was changing him. Of course age attributed to some of it. Shade was a furious whirlwind of self-improving theories, only she did not know it.

  Damon sighed and tried to unleash the disturbing thoughts that haunted him since his rebirth. Walls like a prison that held the pain tightly within him, eating at him. He would get on his knees and crawl and beg to bring back just one innocent that he had slain.

  He was terrified of becoming attached to another soul, letting them in only to bring him down. Silent screams echoed in his head at the extreme injustice of everything. He mentally cried out to the little creature beside him to wake and join him.

  He was a fallen warrior who needed someone gentle to tame him. Show him that humanity was still within him, reachable but locked away with the only key in her hands. He needed her to teach him the world was not an evil and unworthy place but full of tenderness and life. Would she open up to him and share her battle weary soul and help him overcome the intense hatred he had inside?

  If only she would wake and say to him all the things he needed to hear. She lay on still dead to the world. His pleas unheard or denied. If she asked he would leave the life behind that he had been forced into.

  He would never fly, never be winged and virtuous like an angel but he would do his best to earn her love and trust. His wings had been ripped away many lifetimes ago but he would still do his best to be worthy if she would have him.

  Heaven was forever barred to him he was sure, but in her open arms he could find some kind of contentment and maybe know love.

  Other females had come and gone but he knew deep down he was blind. He could not remember one of them now, other than his dead wife who he never got a chance to know. Damon only saw Shade now and no other female could compare, he was sure of it. She had slipped beneath his armor and wiggled her way inside him.

  Damon tottered on the brink of a mental precipice, ready to fall back to what he knew. Only her voice could give him what he needed to accept this life and move on ready to enjoy this existence.

  It felt like eternity had passed since her pulse had beaten the last time, had pushed blood to her heart one last time. His blood was circulating through her body, if she was strong enough she would wake in the morning. Her heart could start back anytime.

  Contrary to modern vampire stories he had a beating heart. The only time it stopped was during conversion and the briefest moment when he met his mate, or she was in danger.

  His had a few times but this was because he was extremely worried about Shade. Although with all the facts on the table, she must be his. How he managed to acquire a dainty one though was surprising. His obvious choices of the past in women were strong and able-bodied. Women who knew what they wanted and went for it. His conquests in the past were of the females bidding. He would walk into a room and have his pick of willing women desperate for a moment of his time.

  Damon was choosy though. He could not stand an evil bitch.

  When he was mortal it was so hard to find a gentle but strong woman who could handle the daily life of his stature. He had chosen and she had died. His married life had been short lived. Not even a wedding night.

  When his town had been attacked his wife had been the first to die, drained dry. He had fought bravely and earned the right to live… as one of the dead.

  At first he had been so sick, so angry he had been given the curse to live on while his people, his family and friends had suffered and died.

  Now he had a family again and someone wanted to take them away.

  Gideon had returned with another blood bag for him to drain. It was as close as he would get for a few days to feeding.

  Biting mortals was frowned upon but if you could maintain absolute discretion it was ignored. A lot of the ancients could only feed from a human. The blood bags could not sustain them. If they were at a social occasion and drink blood from a wine glass it was for social appearances only.

  Damon tried to avoid the humans but when tracking it was much simpler to sip from one or two and claim it was just his kinky and wild side.

  Most mortals would look upon him and see nothing but a façade that he produced. They would see a Goth teen, quiet and deadly. Men would recognize the assassin in him and avoided him unless he wanted to feed. Then he put his happy face on. The good/bad guy who was cool, sophisticated, and stood out.

  His fellow Trackers had yet to compare to him in his arsenal and personalities. It was what made him Elite.

  Damon was old century and it did not take much to fool the modern human. Flash some big bucks, smile, and walk the walk.

  That is if he ventured out of the shadows. He was happy being alone, working alone until now, he thought looking at Shade.

  With his long black hair, black attire, and piercings most people would just assume him to be the typical Emo kid whom were almost always swept under the rug and ignored.

  Of all the advancing styles only the Goth had really suited him and his anger. He chose this to some extent, the dark colors and discretion on a mission attitude. Whoever he brought into his world would have to die and be reborn. Live in the shadows and become a cannibal of their own people.

  Gideon was comfortable in the real world and had tried to seduce him over but he was not ready. If Shade lived then that would have to change. She was not from his world. She lived in the social age of technology.

  If she did not want to be his mate she would be his ward. Whatever she chose would be fine with him.

  Damon knew the reason behind her brother’s ill-fated change and would leave it up to him to inform her. All that mattered is she lived and knew she was not alone.

  He would beg whatever God that had created his kind that she chose to stay with him, either as his ward or mate. He did not want to be the stalker, one that hid silently in the shadows on the fringe watching and protecting.

  Hours passed leaving him to mentally wander over various nefarious actions he had chosen in the past to get where he was now.

  Dawn was approaching and the dull ache he felt every time began. His strength slowly ebbed and he relaxed. He was already weak from sharing his blood with Shade. If another demon came now he would not be able to protect them. Gideon would have to do the honors of dismembering the next unfortunate soul, making him doubly glad that his Master was not a vampire.

  He could feel the sun rising over the horizon and tree line.

  Damon still could not understand fully why the sun did this, something about them being part of the Shadow World. What happens to shadows who meet the sun? They grow weak and disappear.

  Vampires were not meant for this world he believed but for a different one, a shadowed and darker realm.

  He still had to discuss with Gideon the idea he had of vampires keeping the wolves at bay by killing all the newborns. Werewolves were less than one hundredth the population that the vampires were. Demons could be sent back to their realm in a heartbeat. Only so many were called over at a time.

  Hell, if the demons and werewolves and any other shadow creatures all came together
they would still not be half of what the vampires were.

  Only time could change that and Trackers to be more careful on extinguishing feral’s. That and maybe vampires choosing something better, something more honorable and moral.

  His eyes began to droop, a sign that he was too far gone to fend off the encroaching sun.

  Damon must have drifted off for a while. He dreamed about losing Shade and not being able to find her. The only good thing was that she woke and joined him in their shadow world, no longer mortal.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Not even an hour after he had fallen asleep he was startled by a hesitant nudge. It caused him to cling more tightly to Shade and swing his free hand, now a fist, into whatever had awoken him.