“Lucius!” I shouted his name in astonishment and without thinking about it, I shot up, only to cry out as pain stabbed at my side. Hearing this Lucius didn’t hesitate in his actions. He swung himself up into the cart effortlessly, coming down on one knee next to me with a thud.
Holy shit but staring up at Lucius now looked as though some dark avenging angel had just dropped from the Heavens. Or like some kind of demonic centurion used to stand guard at the gates of Hell, killing all that tried to escape. A body made for sin, concealed by ancient armour made for destruction of those that stand against him.
He wore a black breastplate brushed with copper that looked like it had been chiselled in his torso’s image, as I knew first-hand what lay beneath the metal. Rippling muscle after muscle, just like the deep ridges forged on his chest and stomach that faced me now. I even found myself raising my hand and reaching out to touch it, just to see if he was real. Then his harsh words stopped me and my hand fell back to the furs beneath me.
“Quomodo haec deterioratus est?!” (‘How was she injured?!’) Lucius snapped in what I assumed was still Latin. He sounded furious and barely keeping a lid on his rage. I couldn’t help but flinch back, as like this, even I was scared of him. That was until he spoke to me this time.
“Ssshh, be still,” he whispered, leaning down closer and softly proving that his anger wasn’t directed at me. Well, that was until the commander spoke.
“A fenestra saluit haec domine mi.” (‘She jumped from a window, My Lord’) After he was informed of something, Lucius growled and this time, it was directed at me. So much for not being the one to piss him off! Way to go Keira, I thought with an inward growl of my own. This time I tried to scrabble back only his hand whipped out, circling my throat in a split second. He followed up the action by shaking his head slowly, silently telling me no and it was enough to get me to take his threat seriously. Unsurprisingly, I stopped moving immediately and had to ask myself what had been said to him to make him shift his anger towards me so quickly. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have long to wait until I found out.
He leant down even further until he dominated the space around me and I couldn’t help but hold my breath as I waited for what he would do next.
“You jumped from a fucking window!?” It wasn’t very often I heard Lucius speaking to me from the depths of his demon side and trust me when I say that I was more than thankful for that fact. Because right now, I was close to peeing myself with fear from hearing it.
“I…uh…” I started to try and make my excuses when his actions stopped me, as he peeled back my borrowed cloak. It was no surprise to me what he revealed but for him, well you would have thought what he was now seeing was me half dead from being mauled by a blood thirsty bear. He very slowly reached out with his free hand and with a feather light touch, he ran his fingers across my strapped ribcage. I sucked in a startled breath, snapping him out of the moment.
The demonic snarl that rippled up from his chest had me once again trying to get away. However, with my neck still firmly in his grip, all he had to do was tighten his hand for a few seconds, cutting off my air supply as a way of telling me to be compliant. I stilled quickly and once I did and he was satisfied, he eased his hold on me once more. He made sure not to hurt me but the control he had over me was rolling over me like an invisible wave of domination. Even the gentle feel of his thumb grazing up and down along my chin was something that felt more like he was luring me into a sense of false security.
It was messed up, I knew that. As one hand held my life at his mercy, the other was gently examining my body and the two forces became warped together, creating something dangerous. Something my laboured breath told me with certainty.
“Next time you run, I will be the one chasing you, do you understand, Keira girl?” he asked me with formidable weight behind his words, words that I could only nod to for fear my reply could anger him. I even had to close my eyes against the sound of him calling me by the nickname he had christened me way back when he first took me from Draven.
I think if he had called me his I would have found tears forming behind my lashes. Even his voice sounded like the Lucius I knew and it was a difficult thing to face. This near cosmic pull that connected us together throughout the ages. Now if all I could do was understand it, I might have had a hope of how to defend myself against it.
He continued to stare at me for a moment longer as if trying to rip my thoughts from me and then without taking his eyes from me, he barked out another order,
“Volo erro mundatum inuenies!” (‘I want the hallways cleared.’) I don’t know what he said but his commander certainly did as he nodded before issuing his own orders to his men. Half of them saluted Lucius by hammering a fist over their hearts before saying in unison,
“Caesar!” Then they swiftly left, moving as one to a place I couldn’t see thanks to Lucius’ imposing body that was still leaning over me. The next thing I knew he was pulling my focus back to him when he started to cover me back up with each side of the cloak. It was such a tender action that once again, it didn’t match the deadly hold he still had on me.
“Take a deep breath, for I am going to move you now,” he said, only now releasing his commanding hand from my neck before it caressed along my chest. Then I felt it snaking down from my collarbone to the back of my shoulder. I did as he said just as he started to lift me into his arms. I whimpered, sounding like a wounded pet of his and he cooed over me, offering me much needed comfort.
“There, easy now, just take light breaths, for your ribs are broken and deep breathing will only hurt you,” he told me tenderly and I found myself falling deeper under his spell thanks to the sensual lure in his voice. Then he raised up from one knee as easily as if he had been carrying a sack of feathers. He even made sure not to jar me too much when he jumped gracefully from the carriage. The commander stepped forward making Lucius release a low, predatory growl.
“Si vis me ad viros…?” (‘Would you like my men to take…’) His question ended with what first sounded like a snarled demand and then a deadly warning,
“Nemo tangit eam!” (‘No one touches her!’)
“Et omnis, qui tetigerit eam non occidere me ... sum, ut patet Marcus?” (‘And have it be known that if I find otherwise, that offending hand will find itself severed, along with its owner’s head…do I make myself clear, Marcus?’) Lucius said, and the dip in his voice only added severity to the obvious threat, one the commander named Marcus took very seriously.
“Bene ergo de verbo” (‘Good, then I suggest you spread the word of such.’) he added before walking past Marcus and his men, leaving them both looking shocked and fearful. This was when I was granted my first real look at where I was and even the blanket of night couldn’t diminish its ethereal beauty.
“Ww…where are you taking me?” I asked, first trying to find my voice and forcing the words out, embarrassed by the nervous quiver that told him everything he needed to know…
My fate was at his mercy.
“Into my home,” he said confidently and I looked up at him as we mounted the endless steps that would take us through the tallest row of columns I had ever seen. They stood all in a line like heavenly stone soldiers all gleaming white in the moon’s rays. It was the most imposing entrance I had witnessed and I couldn’t help but reach up and curl my fingers over the rim of his breastplate around his neck. I gripped on tight just so that I felt safer. He looked down at where my hand now gripped him and something unknown passed across his face.
“Your home!?” I hissed as if needing confirmation on this one as it was too insane to believe. It was one thing studying the time of the Romans and that of ancient Rome’s architecture, seeing most of it in ruins, but seeing it here and now in the flesh, was more like stepping into a dream than into my forced reality of the past.
Lucius looked down at me and with a slight smirk playing at the corners of his lips, he told me something I already knew but still found unbelievable.
“But of course, I am after all, now…”
“Emperor of Rome.”
Chapter 26
A New Ruler
After he said this I didn’t know what to say in return, so decided the best course of action came in the form of silence. I mean what did someone say when finding yourself being carried through a Roman palace by an Emperor Vampire overlord that had seemingly kidnapped me for the second time…or would this be classed as the first? Nope, not going to venture into that time warp minefield, as I might not make it to the other side without my brain oozing out of one nostril.
We walked the massive marble hallways in silence and I simply marvelled at how the ancient world had managed to create such beauty without the aid of modern day technology. It was mind blowing really, which was why most of the journey I looked over his shoulder simply staring in awe.
I would feel his eyes watching me as if he too were discovering it all over again through my inexperienced eyes. I could barely get over the sheer scale of the place and there was a definite theme going on and that would be massive, marble pillars. They were simply everywhere, along with every other shape you could think. Arched doorways, square recesses cut out of walls that were brightly painted, intricately carved panels sectioning off rooms and lush deep materials made from the finest of silks. It was almost like the rest of the world had been laid out for the picking and they had simply plucked pieces from each culture and mixed it with their own.
The one aspect that remained a constant in all this was the distinct lack of people one would have expected roaming the halls. I had to wonder if Lucius hadn’t made it this way, almost as Draven had done, so that no one would see me?
I don’t know how far we had walked but it seemed like no time at all before we approached a pair of massive double doors. They were huge, so big in fact that I couldn’t help but speak my mind…or at least try too.
“It’s all right, you can put me down so that you can…” I was cut off when he lifted me up slightly so he had space to kick forward, hitting the centre of the doors with a thundering boom.
“Or not,” I muttered and when I felt the slight rumble from beneath his breastplate I looked up to see he had found my sarcasm amusing. He looked so handsome it was almost painful to look at him. His sandy coloured hair was longer in this time, but was held back from his face with a strip of fraying worn leather. If anything, this gave his face that meaner edge to it and you couldn’t help but take him seriously just from his bone structure alone. But if this was not enough for you then his intense eyes would have been. They were like grey ice, or smoky quartz with blue flecks sparking out from his pupil. This combined with the exotic almond shape and thick, long dark eyelashes casting shadows around them, didn’t marry up with the unusual colour.
Oh, he was still the cocky and confident Lucius I knew, but with something more. Even when I first met him back in the cave prison and the sight of him killing the guards had me throwing up in the corner, I still hadn’t found myself afraid of him. Okay, so I hadn’t exactly known it was him and it was obvious that he had been there to free us. But even seeing him for the first time as the renowned assassin I had briefly heard about still hadn’t been enough to get me to look at him any differently than I did back in my own time. But now, dressed like this and ruler of the entire Roman Empire…well then yeah, that was a totally different Lucius and not one that I had been counting on ever seeing.
Even when Draven had ordered him to go back to Rome and take his royal place, I still had held onto the idea that when he left that room, our time meeting in the past had swiftly come to an end. Well, like Draven once said and I had numerous times preached back to him,
‘Assumption was the mother from which all mistakes are born’ or most commonly known as, ‘The mother of all fuck ups’. Well this was definitely one of those times I thought as he walked us both into what looked like a bedroom. And my reaction to this was to physically gulp, an action Lucius didn’t miss if that damn smirk was anything to go by.
“You know back in Persia I just had one of those little tent things, so there’s no need to put me up somewhere this fancy,” I told him forgetting which time I was in when he repeated,
“Put you up?”
“I mean sleep,” I told him and he nodded once before informing me sternly,
“Yes, well I am not putting you in a fucking tent! This is my private bedchamber and one you will be staying in until I say otherwise…am I understood?” Okay so there was that gulp again, only this time one I thought I might possibly choke on…did he say, his…his bedroom?
Oh no, I was in big trouble, unless he planned on sleeping somewhere else…yes, that must be it, I thought with a shit load of hope and a sprinkling of ‘Oh please God, please’. He cleared his throat and I soon realised he was still waiting for something.
“Oh, right sorry…umm…I...” I told him trying to go back and wrack my brain for what he’d said.
“You are not to leave this room unless I state otherwise, now am I clear?” This time his voice told me to take this more seriously than I had the first time, so I thought it safer to simply nod.
“Good,” he said just as he walked to the large bed and placed me down at its centre. I took this brief opportunity to look around the enormous room, one that even dwarfed the huge bed I was now lay on. The high ceilings were adorned with panels of artwork painted straight onto the stone walls. Pictures of Gods and Goddesses sat in Heaven, waiting no doubt until their judgement on the Earth was called upon. Garden scenes with overflowing fountains being admired by beautiful ladies in togas. Two arched, carved doors situated at the centre of one of the side walls looked as though they opened out onto an enclosed garden that mirrored some of what was already painted inside.
Well at least it wasn’t a balcony, I thought nearly rolling my eyes as I played out a small montage in my head of all that had happened to me on one in the past few years. No, I had to say I wasn’t sad to see one missing. Besides, we were on the ground floor, so it wasn’t really all that surprising.
The tall windows might have been narrow but the room had many and each were covered with latticed wooden shutters, decorated with tiny star cut outs. Then there was the bed itself that had a rolling headboard which curled around back in on itself. The edges were painted gold against the dark wood. Above there was a circular canopy covered in crimson red silk that flowed down around the side of the bed, just waiting to enclose those that lay underneath.
The other parts of the room included a comfortable looking seating area, with wave shaped couches that matched the yellows and reds in the woven rugs they were sat on. Each of the armrests curled in just as the bed did and each were rich in colour and gold. The room didn’t exactly scream Lucius’ dark nature but considering he had only just risen to power, I doubt very much he’d had time to redecorate. Shame really, as I think I preferred the manlier Gothic Lord of the hidden castle look.
Which brought me back to the man himself and now we were both in a room bathed in candlelight, thanks to the dozens of candlesticks, I finally got to see more of him than just his face and breastplate. Large silver shoulder pieces bent over in three connecting metal strips attached to the top of his chest. Attached to this was a burgundy coloured cape that reached the floor.
Like the rest of the men I had seen, his strong legs were bare, with only a knee length tunic seen beneath strips of leather. These looked attached to the bottom of his chest plate, one that curved down past his stomach. Each strip of leather held small arrow shaped pieces at the top, each adorned with the head of a lion in what looked like forged bronze. Straps of thinner leather across his torso finished the look as these seemed to hold his weapons either side of his body. A brushed copper eagle at his chest was left uncovered and the bird was one with outstretched wings and carrying a plaque in his claws that held a single word written…SPQR.
I don’t know why but like before I reached out to touch it, this time actually managing t
o make contact.
“What does this mean?” I found myself asking, and from the look on his face, one that was completely unexpected. At first, I thought he wouldn’t answer me as he just seemed to be looking at me with a quizzical stare. But then he spoke.
“Senātus Populus Que Rōmānus,” he said with a deep purr to his voice. The way the foreign words just rolled easily off his tongue had my mouth going dry. Jesus, but how was it that the sound of three words could turn a person on! I felt ashamed of myself as I always did when feeling this way around Lucius, but it just couldn’t be helped. I didn’t know what it was between us and had even resigned myself to never fully understanding it, but if I had to give it a name, it would simply be ‘An invisible pull’.
“What…what does it mean?” I asked having to clear my throat after the first word and rising slightly, leaning back on my bent arms. He at least tried to hide his smirk this time, as he tapped two fingers on his lips before answering me. I knew it wasn’t a gesture done out of thought but more like one done out of amusement and the knowledge of this made me blush. He knew how much he was affecting me.
“It means ‘The Senate and People of Rome’…you will see it a lot among Roma” Okay, so that made sense as a nation’s moto and also why he, as the Emperor, would be wearing the Empire’s emblem.
“And now you wear it as their ruler...does it…?” I let the question fade having second thoughts about asking it. However, a man like Lucius wouldn’t let something like that drop, I knew this when one honey toned eyebrow rose.
“Continue and ask it of me.”
“I…well, I guess I just wondered if it bothered you?” I forced the question out to the end this time, one that I found myself having to elaborate when he asked,