Set To Start (Morningstars) Page 2

  “Of course not. You asked me to keep this between us and it’s not as if she is an Origin or anything. There was nothing coming from her like I would have expected if she would have been … you know, meant to be a vampire’s mate.”

  “You think that’s why I’m attracted to her?” he asked and she shrugged. “Don’t you think I would have known if she would’ve been meant to be mine?”

  Again she shrugged, placing her entwined hands in her lap after sitting down on his bed. “Something’s still not adding up about her. She felt weird to me, as if she wasn’t herself. Anyways, that wasn’t why I came. That girl seriously has feelings for you. A lot of them.”

  He shook his head, turning away to walk over to the window. He knew that. In his soul he too had known that she wasn’t an Origin or his to be, but still, his heart was hoping and praying that there just was a belated reaction. All of this still didn’t explain though why Lara had been out to see her.

  “What did you promise yourself from seeing her?” he wanted to know and Lara got up, coming over.

  “I was hoping I could make her understand. She might not be your one and only, but you really like that woman and I think you should have a shot at a relationship. With any luck your Origin will not come along for a very long time and your human will long be gone by that.” He appreciated the effort, but his heart still broke. The thought of Cia being gone wasn’t exactly something to ease his mind.

  “What did she say?” Even though he could guess the answer, his heart couldn’t help but pick up speed with hope. No matter that it was beating much lighter than any human's heart, he still felt the rhythm change.

  “She said she couldn’t change it and I’m guessing she meant the fact that she hurt you. Or hurts about you not saying those words she wants to hear so much. I don’t know, but it didn’t sound very promising,” Lara admitted and Kaden gave her a smile. No matter how sweet her intensions had been, they most likely just cut Cia deeper. He needed to see if she was all right and even though the night was only two more hours long, it would be enough time to go and stalk her. Again.

  “I’m gonna tell Jaden I’ll stay here tonight,” he decided.

  “I figured,” Lara smiled, touching his back before she walked over to the door. “Good luck,” she then added before fully leaving.

  Kaden called his brother while he made his way to the door. “I’m staying at the compound, don’t wait up,” he said without hello.

  Jaden growled, broodier than ever. “If you can stand all that love stuff, be my guest. I hate how Colbin and Lara always hang on each other’s lips. Literally.” He made some noise and Kaden had to shake his head. He hadn’t even noticed because he was so preoccupied with thoughts of Cia.

  “Which is why I stay in my room and read. I’m too lazy to come home, so I’ll just watch some TV and see you tomorrow.”

  “’Kay,” Jaden replied, then hung up. Sometime soon things needed to change, but for now he had other things that needed to be taken care of.

  Cold air was blowing in, making the curtains rustle in the slight breeze while Cia watched the open balcony door. Having spent the last hour thinking about Kaden and about what Lara had told her, things finally started to make sense, and pieces of her that had been broken for too long come barreling in, reminding her that there was a fully different life out there.

  His scent reached her before Kaden stepped inside.

  She was determined to make this right with him, but that didn’t mean she would jump on his arm until she had said all she needed to say.

  She saw how he turned, locking the door tightly. Cia wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep her in or something out. Maybe it was only a precaution ingrained in his genes.

  “You knew I was coming,” he said when he turned back to her, his back to the door, his eyes hidden from her view since only her night lamp was on, throwing dark shadows across his handsome features.

  “I hoped you would,” she agreed and then pulled her knees up so she could hug them. Her eyes stayed on him since his reaction to her next words would determine the direction their relationship would take. “By the Creator, I missed you,” she whispered, feeling weird using the name of a god she hadn’t heard of in so long.

  Just as she had expected, his whole body stiffened and he swallowed once, twice, and finally a third time. “What did you say?” he asked and she finally got up from the bed, the need to be close to him propelling her forward faster than they both had expected. He stumbled slightly as she crashed into his arms, but it didn’t take long until he locked his arms around her body, holding her tight. She had missed this like nothing else.

  “I said what you heard,” she whispered, pulling back even though it seemed even harder to do now than ever before. “I didn’t think of all this … vampire business until after that woman was gone. Lara it was, right? That’s what the other guy called her. I am assuming that he’s your twin because … his voice was so much like yours.” She waited to continue, seeing how Kaden just stared at her. “Okay, I have to tell you something,” she announced, reaching for his hand so she could lead him over to the bed. “Sit, this might be complicated.”

  By the way Kaden looked at her, she was suddenly worried that she had broken him with just a few words. He was utterly silent; his handsome face a mask of pain. She figured the sooner she had her story out of the way, the better.

  “Okay, so, ten years ago I had this car accident…”

  By the Creator. She had said it. She knew. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Could fate be really so cruel as to bring Cia to him, a vampire to be, but no potential Origin, which they called true vampire's mate, for him or anyone?

  “Okay, so, ten years ago I had this car accident. I was walking down the street and a drunk driver just took me by surprise. He hit me right there on the sidewalk in broad daylight. I was rushed to a hospital. This was … the doctors said it should have been fatal, but because of my genes, I was healing just enough to not die right on their table, but I lost a lot of blood. And if I say a lot, I mean it. I was supposed to die, I think. My parents couldn’t get to me on time since … well, it was what? Two in the evening. So they did some blood typing and figured every blood would work well with mine.” It was just something about their metabolism, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to drink from just anyone without their bodies rejecting the nutrition.

  “They replaced almost all of it. My doctor said something about my blood having been fully switched and that was how much I needed.” She shrugged and Kaden blinked. He hadn’t known that there were vampires out there treated in human hospitals. Usually they would have been given blood if they had been injured, that much was true – but they’d have it through their mouths, not their veins.

  “Anyways, it didn’t take long and I realized that all those things that were special about me as a vampire – the better hearing, the quicker reflexes – it all was gone almost from one day to the other.”

  “Not all vampire born children have those reflexes. Maybe you didn’t lose them,” he offered, not sure her story was over yet.

  “Thanks for saying that, but my parents and I realized long ago that my metabolism wasn’t the same anymore. My senses are worse now, and if you cut me …” She took a knife, surprising him with how prepared she was. He watched how she cut her palm and he reached for it, holding it. If she were born to be a vampire, this cut would heal in less than a second. Instead nothing happened.

  “I don’t heal anymore, Kaden. And I get old.” She looked disappointed, almost sad, but then shook it off. “My parents and I decided that it was best if I went and lived life the way we all knew I had to: the human way. There was no hope for me ever being turned. Which is what I am working for now. A house,” she finished, and even though that had been something they had talked about before, it felt totally different now.

  “No, I am sure it’ll still come. I mean, once you are getting closer to your change … even if you don’t have the Origin blood, you can
still …”

  She shook her head, not even letting him finish and her expression was one of defeat as he kissed the unmarred skin next to the cut.

  “I turned thirty three months ago. If I really had anything vampire left in me, I’d be dead by now. I never thought it could be possible, but that blood transfusion changed me from what I used to be to what I am now. I haven’t thought of vampires in nine years, maybe more. Not even when all the signs were there. You’re a warrior, aren’t you? A Morningstar warrior. But you didn’t find your Origin yet, did you?”

  He shook his head, thinking that he didn’t want this to happen now anyways. “There’s no Queen, so she would be bound to die. I don’t want that to happen.” He looked at her, wondering if he had hurt her another time with careless words, but instead she was smiling.

  “You know what that means? The good thing about me being human? And about you being unbound?” she wanted to know and he shook his head, trying to gauge her reaction. “You can have my blood while we make love,” she whispered, being on his lap in no time. His heart was racing in his throat as he raised his hand to his lips, biting his wrist and pressing it against her lips.

  “Drink, so your cut heals,” he pleaded and she did, then she met his lips.

  “Your time is running out fast, so let’s make the most out of those last minutes left,” she grinned, having him out of his shirt in a matter of seconds, opening the button of his jeans only to pause.

  “One could think that you came with a goal in mind,” she accused with a picked up brow and a smirk.

  “I was … no, that wasn’t …” It hadn’t been his reason to not pull any boxers on, but the hope in his heart sure had kept him from changing after finding out he was going to see her.

  “Liar,” she teased, laughing. It was funny how easy she now could be around him even though the perspective on it had changed.

  “A guy can dream, right?” he wanted to know.

  “Then let’s go and make your dreams come true,” she laughed, reaching into his pants. It was crazy, but sometimes every woman had magic, because, in no time at all, Cia had wiped his head clean of all thoughts except the ones concerning her body and her pleasure.

  It was different waking up without Kaden after having realized why he only came at night or how he could sneak in without making a sound. It had even felt different making love to him after the talk they had. There was no denying that things would change from here on, too. It was as if Kaden was finally liberated and Cia finally ready to not push for the three words.

  Shaking her head at how human she had become, she got up and walked into the shower. She needed a long, hot downpour to ease her sore muscles. She had to grin as she thought about Kaden being much more open about what he wanted after realizing he could let lose his predatory nature. There was something immensely dark and sexy about the way the utterly sweet guy had turned into this handsome, demanding warrior. Looking back, the signs had been there like the way he always checked all locks, the concern he’d had about hurting her, and the way something always had held him back.

  Cia raised her face towards the water, feeling a slight pull on the side of her neck so she touched the wound. This had been something she had wanted. Kaden had taken her blood without any problems, which meant that he wasn’t bound, and that she definitely was neither an Origin nor his potential everything. That was the thought which hurt her more than she could have guessed. She knew that no one would have been able to take her blood if she was meant to be a vampire’s something. It hadn’t mattered then if she was going to be a future mother or only a future wife, but now the thought of not being either hurt her more than she cared to admit.

  Walking out on her parents nine years prior had been hard, but it also had been a lot of time to get used to ‘normal life’ or better yet, the idea of having one. She still was sure it had been the right decision back then. She had changed her routines and adjusted her wishes. A husband had been on the plan first, then a house and children would soon follow. Only when it became clear that maybe there wouldn’t be a husband had she started to put everything she had into buying herself a house. It had been almost too easy to build a life away from the night, but now she craved said life more than she ever had craved anything else.

  She knew that it wouldn’t change who she was, or wasn’t, to Kaden, but she would still feel closer to him. She couldn’t help but wonder how things would be right now if that dreadful day, so many long years ago, hadn’t happened.

  A shiver went through her at that thought. If she’d be a true Origin, she wouldn’t be alive anymore by now. If she’d be just any other vampire woman, she still couldn’t be Kaden’s for life. It was a mind-boggling, but Cia didn’t care any longer. She was not a vampire, which meant she most likely had years and years to spend with Kaden without his Origin ever coming into the picture. She was ready to fight for that and she was pretty sure she could convince Kaden to try it. They had nothing left to lose, because where Cia was concerned, her heart was already his anyways.

  Sighing, she started to get dressed, knowing that she had another shift in the daycare. It was the work she truly loved, thinking it was probably now the only part about her human life that she had left to love.

  Kaden snuck back into the house, knowing that he shouldn’t have any reason to worry, but Jaden was in the living room when he came in even though it was early in the morning. In fact, the sun had just started to rise behind him, and Kaden all but felt the heat on his skin.

  “You know, I sometimes think you aren’t talking to me anymore about what’s going on,” his twin said, his tone harsh, but his expression even harsher. He barely recognized Jaden any longer and there was no telling what had brought on the change. He was fighting harder and hungering for more blood in the fights. It wasn’t unheard of that vampires sometimes went insane, but usually those were the ones indulging in too much blood. Jaden didn’t belong to that group because Kaden always was with him whenever they went to feed.

  “You know, sometimes I think the same about you,” he said, sitting down on the armchair close to the fireplace, mirroring Jaden’s relaxed pose even though he was anything but relaxed.

  His twin met his eyes, picking up an inquiring eyebrow. “What wouldn’t I tell you?” he asked and Kaden debated on how to start that topic.

  “Why do you keep antagonizing Colbin?” he inquired for their leader, who was almost like a father to them.

  “Because it’s ridiculous. That love is … I just don’t believe that any couple could still be that in love. We’ve seen vampires and their women. We’ve seen females. You know how they are and that’s surely nothing that would make me go all infatuated.” There was no denying the truth of that, but then the women they met usually were club sluts and little more.

  “We’ve never met any other Origins and their partners other than our parents,” he reminded Jaden and his twin took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

  “Remember how dad used to say that we’d find our place in the race and make a difference?” he asked and Kaden nodded.

  “He’d train us for hours, telling us that we need to fight and get strong. He told us that there was nothing more important than ensuring our race was safe. I can still see us sitting at the table while he told us that loyalty and traditions were all that kept our race from tearing itself apart.”

  Jaden smirked, but it seemed almost malicious. “Yes, and then he tried to kill us both because he thought one of us would turn insane. When he couldn’t kill us, he kicked us out and told us to never ever come back because it would break mom’s heart.” His twin’s voice was breaking at that because their mother had always been there to treat them exactly like children should be treated, but then, the day they were forced to leave, she had stood by and just watched them. They hadn’t been older than fifteen, leaving with nothing with years until the change would claim them and one was bound to turn to the dark side. They hadn’t known back then that twins like them were techni
cally one person.

  New York had been the closest city and they had spent years in the Bronx, fighting with gangs. “I remember the first kill we had on the street; that Hellraise, draining the girl who used to bring us food?”

  Jaden nodded. “We were dirty and thin, nearly starving and still we fought every night, fought all the monsters that crawled out.” And there had been a lot of monsters. Kaden shivered, half way surprised that they were still alive.

  Their time on the streets was long over, yet Kaden couldn’t stop the twinge going through his body every time he remembered those years. They had been so close to the change and yet so far away from the blood they needed.

  Colbin had found them and brought them back to the compound. They had gotten women over and their change had been undergone. Even though Kaden had felt different waking up that morning, after all, his whole day had been laced with the pain of limbs stretching further than the skin was ready to go and bones breaking to create room for broader shoulders and more muscles, but after all of that, he didn’t feel crazy. He remembered waking up and seeing Lara there, telling him that neither of them had woken with red eyes. She had called it a miracle, but by now Kaden called it science.

  Of course they had been back to see their parents, but their mother was gone. She had been killed by a rogue vampire, one who wasn’t Hellraise, the bad spawn of the vampire race, but simply evil. Their father had refused to take them back in, saying that bad mojo was cast upon the twins.

  “Colbin kept us because he had honor. Our father didn’t have any of that.”

  Kaden heard the anger in Jaden’s voice, but he couldn’t really say anything to calm his brother down. Decades lay between those days and now, but the pain still felt fresh.