Otherworld Tales Volume 1 Read online

  “How do you do, Lord Caleb.” Menolly’s voice was smooth, but beneath the surface, Roman could hear a rumbling of discontent.

  Caleb gave her a long once-over, then turned to Nerissa. He held her gaze, but said nothing. Then, turning back to Roman, he said, “You are remiss. You offer me no one to drink?”

  Roman narrowed his eyes. Caleb was up to something—he could feel it. “I am a poor host, yes. I will have a bottle of blood warmed and brought to you.”

  “I prefer my blood straight from the throat. You wouldn’t refuse me, would you?” Caleb cleared his throat. “In fact, I’d rather you choose the woman personally. Someone who would suit all my tastes.”

  Roman paused. Caleb’s meaning was clear. For some reason, he wanted to be alone with Menolly, and that didn’t suit well. He doubted that his brother—as rough as he was—would go so far as to attack either Menolly or Nerissa, but the son of a bitch was up to something. If he capitulated, he’d leave them at risk. If he refused, he’d be branded in the court as churlish and his mother would intervene, and that could get dicey. Relative or not, she was the vampire queen, and she made her wishes known in her own time. But the one thing she was clear on: her children would follow decorum with one another, and they would break that decorum at risk to themselves and their standing in her court.

  He vacillated for another moment, glancing at Menolly who shot him a confused look. Finally, Roman strode toward the door. “I’ll be back with your…beverage. I’m leaving the door open. It should stay open during my absence. This is my house, and you will honor my wishes.”

  Caleb shrugged. “As you will.

  ROMAN MOTIONED TO the one bloodwhore he knew had proclivities for masochism—actually she was a switch. In all the time he’d known his brother—which was far too long—he had also known that Caleb preferred his prey to be able to handle a little rough treatment.

  “Listen,” he told Renee, “I will not require you to service him if he gets out of hand. I’m having Wendy watch over you…if it gets too rough, give her the signal and she’ll put a stop to it.” Wendy was a vampire, tough as they come, and she guarded his stable for him.

  Renee gave him a steely eyed nod. “Yes, Lord Roman. And…thank you, for watching out for me.”

  “I’ll do the best I can but remember, this is my brother. He’s one of the court. I cannot guarantee your safety but I’ll do my best.” Roman frowned. While he had lost a great deal of his humanity over the thousands of years, he cultivated what remained, and tried to keep himself humble enough to prevent himself from sliding fully into predator-mode. Once a vampire began to view humans—mortals—as expendable, they lost their ability to think clearly and usually found themselves very dead, very quickly. Power without restraint led to carelessness, and power without reason was a trigger to panic. And a group of panicked mortals were far more dangerous than the worst predator on the planet.

  “I understand.” Renee went to freshen up. Roman instructed Wendy to bring her to the office when she was ready and hurried back. He thought about calling his mother first, to find out if she had actually sent Caleb, but if she had, she might lie to him. And if she hadn’t, she’d just tell him to deal with matters on his own.

  As he approached the door to his office—which was still open—Roman slowed, listening. Vampires had excellent hearing. And sure enough, he heard Caleb talking.

  “My brother is softer-hearted than I am, but he does a good job here. I could not be regent for this area. I prefer the Old World, where they still fear vampires enough to give us the respect we deserve. You are telling me, you would prefer to remain here, at his side, as a consort than come with me and become a queen in your own right?”

  Menolly’s voice filtered out, the sultry tones vanishing from her cool, harsh reply. “Lord Caleb, your invitation is no doubt one most vampires would swoon over, but I passed swoon a long time ago. You’ve insulted my wife, you’ve insulted your brother—my consort. And you’ve insulted me, and then you invite me to switch sides and follow you to Europe? I have no clue how you think I’d be interested.” She snorted, laughing. “Truth is? I’m from Otherworld. I’m far less tractable than women who are full-blooded human—even if they have been turned.”

  “You are a fool. My brother has far too many enemies and far too little gumption to wipe them out. This Vampire Nexus he seeks to create—it’s a fool’s dream. The humans will never accept our kind—or your kind.” He must have been talking to Nerissa at that moment because she let out a harsh laugh.

  “You truly think you can go back to when vampires ruled the night and people thought they were invincible? There are a thousand wannabe Buffy the Vampire Slayers out there among the hate groups and some of them are pretty damned smart. And just because my kind—Weres—are targeted too, doesn’t mean we’ll join you in the blood bath you seem to crave.” Nerissa’s voice rang indignant. Roman had heard that edge before and while he admired her willingness to stand up for what she believed, he also knew that standing up to someone like Caleb could be very, very dangerous.

  Roman snarled and swung into the room. “What the hell is going on?”

  Caleb jumped, his eyes turning blood red. He was glowering at Nerissa, with Menolly standing between the two, her fangs down, looking ready to strike. Nerissa was on her feet, hands on hips, glaring from behind Menolly.

  Fuck, why the hell did I have to let him in the door, Roman thought. I can handle my mother. Caleb, I simply can’t trust anywhere in my city.

  “What’s going on, may I ask? Caleb, why are you threatening my consort and her wife? You wouldn’t be trying to steal her away, would you?” Roman sauntered in, keeping his voice light and easy. If he set Caleb off, Roman knew it would end up in a fight to the death and put the girls at risk. Caleb had a penchant for grudges and never let a slight pass by.

  Caleb let out a faint snarl but pulled back. Roman glanced at Menolly and Nerissa, a warning look in his eyes, and gently shook his head, hoping they’d keep their mouths shut. Menolly started to say something but Nerissa suddenly stood and interrupted her.

  “Lord Roman, our family is expecting us home—we’re needed tonight and we gave our word we’d be home by nine. If we leave now, we can keep our promise.” Her voice was steady and she avoided looking at Caleb, who was smoldering in his chair.

  Roman gave them a brief nod. “Go then. I will not have you breaking your word.”

  As they gave both vampires a brief bow, Menolly paused, looking back directly at Roman. “You know I’ll never break my word.” Then they disappeared out the door.

  Roman waited for a moment, then turned to his brother. “What the hell was that all about? You were trying to convince my consort to leave me and go with you? And what was Nerissa talking about?”

  Caleb let out a snort. “You are so good, so obedient. You follow whatever Mother says without question. And now she has been swayed—become part of the world, convince them to accept us. It will never happen. The world sees us as a plague. We’re the monsters in the dark, waiting to drink their blood and turn them into monsters just like us. You and Mother think all of this…” He gestured around him. “You think the businesses and the organizations will convince mortals to leave us in peace. Fools. You’re both living in a fool’s paradise.”

  “And what are we to do otherwise? They know we exist. We either do our best to work with them or…” Roman paused. “That’s what Nerissa was talking about—you intend to start a war, don’t you?”

  Caleb laughed. “A war? Oh, brother, the war started the first day that Kesana, the Mother of Blood, invited the demons to transform her into the first vampire. The war started back then and it will never end. I need a queen worthy to take up the battle.”

  Roman forced himself to hold steady, but what he wanted to do was stumble back, to grab the nearest sharp object and stake his brother. “You are mad. You would go against Blood Wyne—”

  “Our mother has lost her ed
ge. And you…what are you but a minor bureaucrat? What do you think will happen when the humans realize just how many of us there are? Do you really think they’re going to let us all live? Right now, they don’t realize our numbers, but you and your Nexus are intent on making us visible, and Mother has played into your hands. Menolly—I know what she’s capable of. Our mother made the mistake of telling me. She’d be the perfect queen for a new realm.” Caleb’s eyes narrowed. They were glowing crimson now, streaked with blood, streaked with anger.

  Roman knew what he should do—knew what he was obligated to do—but when it came down to it, he found himself vacillating. He’d killed countless men in battle before he’d been turned into a vampire. He’d killed countless people since then. He knew he could be ruthless, but this…fratricide, felt like a step toward finality. He’d never attacked one of his own family before. And a spark of something he hadn’t felt for a long time—fear—crept into his thoughts. Caleb was strong. If he attacked him here, and didn’t come out victorious, Caleb would be free, set out into Seattle without anyone to stop him.

  “Go. Get out of my sight. Get out of my city.” Roman whirled as a sound at the door startled both of them. There was Renee, with Wendy. “Wendy, get her out of here. Now.”

  Wendy obeyed immediately—she knew better than question her master. She grabbed Renee by the arm and dragged her away.

  Caleb just laughed as they left and headed toward the French doors leading out to the garden. “I’ll find my refreshment elsewhere. Don’t you have any worries about that. And brother,” he paused, clutching the knob, “tell Mother I wish her good luck. One way or another, there will be a new queen rising, and I’m going to be right there at her side, controlling every action. The vampire nation will live again, in fury and vengeance, just like it was always meant to be.”

  And then, Caleb was out the door and vanished into the night. As Roman watched him go, he knew that a war was coming. If he’d tried to stop Caleb now, alone, he doubted that he could have done it. But sometime, probably sooner than later, they would meet. And Roman would have to have an army behind him, because Caleb wouldn’t be coming alone. As he slowly moved to call his mother and tell her the news, he wearily thought that maybe he should just walk into the sun—be done with it and over. But that would leave Caleb free to storm against the mortals, and against Blood Wyne, and that was something Roman couldn’t let happen.

  As he picked up the phone, he thought, some nights seemed to last forever.

  A Purr-fect Weekend

  All Shade wants is a weekend alone with his Kitten…be careful of what you ask for. Sometimes you just may get it.

  SHADE WAS LOOKING forward to the weekend far more than he’d looked forward to anything for a long time. He and Delilah were going to have the entire house to themselves. The family—including Maggie and Hanna—were packing up for two-day vacation out at Smoky’s barrow, and he and Delilah would finally get a little time together, without anybody around. Granted, they had the entire third floor to themselves, but there was seldom a time when they had more than a few hours without an interruption. This weekend would be a wonderful cure to all of that.

  He hurried down to the kitchen to say goodbye—relieved for the privacy or not, let no one ever call him churlish. And he did love the rest of the family, and felt protective of them—all dragons, half-blood or not, had that streak. It bordered on possessiveness, at times.

  Camille and Menolly were in the kitchen, finishing up last minute preparations. They were leaving in the evening so Menolly could get her lair ready for sunrise deep in the barrow out by Mount Rainier. Delilah was sitting on the counter, swinging her legs back and forth.

  “I wish we could go with you, but I promised Shade—” She stopped, suddenly aware he had entered the room, and blushed. “I wanted to stay…”

  Shade snorted. He knew how tight the girls were. “That’s all right, love. I know you want to be both places. But we planned this a few weeks ago. Please?” He turned on the puppy-dog look. He knew it would get to her and he knew that they’d have a blast once they were alone. He just had to convince her not to shift gears at the last minute.

  Delilah let out a long sigh. “I know, love and…yeah, we’ll have a wonderful weekend. Just us.” She wrinkled her nose and hopped off the counter to give him a kiss. “I wish I could be in both places at once.”

  Camille grinned. “I could try a bilocation spell—I bet it would work. My magic is a lot stronger.”

  Both Menolly and Shade jerked around to stare at her. Shade glanced at Delilah, then shook his head. “Not a good idea, Camille. It’s not that I don’t trust you but…”

  Delilah let out a snort. “I wish you could. I’d love to go tramping around in the woods. But…” She frowned, worrying her lip, then turned to Shade. “Love, can you go get my backpack? I need to give Camille something that’s in it. It’s in the parlor.”

  As Menolly shouldered her bags and headed out the door, waving behind her, Shade frowned and headed back into the living room. He had the feeling that they were up to something and it didn’t make him any easier that Delilah obviously didn’t want him to know what. If it had just been girl talk, they would have gone right on in front of him. He was used to that by now.

  The backpack was in the parlor like she’d said. Shade carried it to the kitchen, but stopped short. There, on the counter, was Delilah in her tabby form, and Camille was frowning, tapping her foot as she stared at the cat. Startled as he strode into the room, a guilty look washed across her face.

  “Shade! Um…you found her backpack.” Camille blushed.

  Right then, he knew that something had gone down, but what? He slowly put the pack on the counter. “Why is Delilah in cat form?”

  Camille cleared her throat. “We…um…Delilah, come on, shift back?” She lifted up the cat, snuggling her sister as she petted the fluffy golden puffball. Delilah’s cat form was a golden tabby—furry and long haired, with a big bushy tail. She almost looked like a Maine Coon, though she wasn’t quite as large as they ran. Delilah let out a purr, snuggling against Camille as she rubbed her head under her chin.

  “Delilah? Delilah?” Shade frowned. Usually Delilah shifted when she was tired, or wanted to play, or when she was stressed. “Did something scare her?”

  Camille refused to meet his gaze. “No. Nothing scared her. Come on, Delilah—shift back. Stop joking now.”

  But Delilah just wriggled in her arms and then, with a sudden leap, landed on the floor and raced into the living room. Shade swung around, staring at his sister-in-law-to-be. “What did you do, Camille?”

  She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Just then, Menolly popped her head back in the door. “Camille? Are you coming?”

  “I…oh hell. I’m sorry—we thought it would work.” Camille glanced from Menolly to Shade, now thoroughly flustered.

  “What did you think would work?” Shade rubbed his forehead. A headache was coming on. The girls were always getting themselves in one mess or another and, granted, they usually managed to dig themselves out, but this was not the way he wanted to start a romantic weekend. “Just tell me.”

  Menolly leaned against the wall, arms crossed, a fangy grin on her face. “I have the feeling this is going to be a good one, whatever it is.”

  “Oh, all right. While you were getting Delilah’s pack, she asked me to try the bilocation spell on her. Apparently, it backfired, and she turned into her cat form.” Camille frowned. “And now, she won’t shift back.”

  Shade groaned as he turned toward the living room. “You stay here—don’t you go anywhere till I catch her and you turn her back.” Swearing under his breath, he headed into the living room, where he saw Delilah poised on the edge of one of the coffee tables. She was eyeing the mantel over the fireplace, even though it was harvest decorations. “Delilah—stop right there. Don’t you dare—Delilah!”

  But she ignored him, leaping to the mantel. There
wasn’t room for both her and the basket of pumpkin-shaped gourds, and she managed to catch a garland as she slipped off, bringing down the basket, the garland, and everything else with it. The mantel was bare, there were decorations everywhere, and Delilah sat on the ground, looking a little dazed, with the garland around her fuzzy neck.

  Shade pounced, scooping her up, and he carried the struggling tabby to the kitchen, where he plunked her down on the counter. He held her down, even though she was squirming to get free. “Change her back. Now.”

  Camille nodded, closing her eyes. She held out her hands.

  “Two from one, to one from two,

  This spell I now remove from you,

  Shift now from the form we see,

  As I will, so mote it be.”

  Amid a sputter of sparks, a faint blue light emerged to engulf Delilah. The tabby let out a brief yowl, but stopped squirming. Shade let go, jumping aside to avoid being in the way when she transformed back. A moment later, Delilah still sat there, in her cat form, her fur a bit ruffled.

  “Why isn’t she back to normal?” Shade glanced at Camille.

  “I don’t know. That should have turned her back…well…maybe.”

  “What do you mean maybe?”

  She shrugged. “The spell I used on her originally was the bilocation spell. It backfired. This was a basic spell to break another spell but apparently it’s not working on the bilocation spell. Another backfire.” Camille picked up Delilah and held her up in the air by the belly. “You are so cute, you are so pretty—what a pretty girl!”

  “Camille!” Shade stopped as she turned around, her eyes narrowed. Oops, it didn’t do to yell at one of the women allowing you to live in her house. Especially since she was married to a full-blooded dragon. “I’m sorry. I’m just…what are we going to do?”