Page 5 of Vampire's Hearth

I chuckled. “Of course you were. How is Isla?” I had met his human mate when Declan had finally returned from Ireland.Her eyes brimmed with love for him, her trust paramount. And it needed to be. Isla was the only person he cared to feed from, careful to take only what he needed or to pleasure her, and not a drop more. She also fed from him, his blood repairing her body daily to its current state so she could stay with him, as a human, for as long as she chose.

“Isla’s fine. She sends her regards and regrets. She needed a nap before continuing her day.” I could hear the innuendo, and even without looking, I knew his eyes were sparkling at the memory.

“I’m sure.” It astounded me that a vampire mate took the first step to becoming one of us each day by allowing our blood to heal them. Should she die, she would have twenty-four hours to drink the blood of a living being and join our kind or pick out her final resting place. I took a drink and set my glass down to make a point before I finally looked at him. “How is my brother?”

A shadow fell over the bar. I looked up at the bartender standing between us and the brightly lit wooden shelves that rose high along the wall behind him. “Hi, can I get you anything?” He pointed at Declan’s empty hands.

“Midleton, double, neat.”

“Sure thing.” He looked over at me. “You good?”

“I’ll have the same.”

He nodded and turned to the wall behind him. A plethora of bottles filled the shelves, the light shining through liquids of almost every color. Gliding the library ladder along the wall, he climbed up a few rungs and strained to reach for a bottle. When he returned, bottle in hand, he slipped two glasses onto the bar from underneath and poured the drinks.

He slid a glass to each of us and glanced between us. “Put it on my tab,” I told him gruffly.

“Sure thing. Let me know if you need anything else.”

I nodded, indicating that this conversation was private and we no longer required his help. I could see him shiver. He probably didn’t even know why. It was an effect vampires had on humans who looked at us for too long.

“Aiden is… Charleston...” Declan ran a hand through his blond hair. “It’s bad, Cormac. He’s got them. The factions… The wolves… He’s gotten them all.”

A cheer went up among the humans—no doubt triggered by the activities on the television. I ignored the sound, pushing it to the back of my mind. This couldn’t be happening.

I struggled to keep my composure as fear constricted my chest. “To what end? Please tell me the fae are staying far out of it.”

I hoped with all my heart the fae were staying out of it. The fae were the opposite of the vampires. Whereas our undead blood was pure darkness and our existence an abomination of nature, their connection to the natural elements made their blood pure light. My mother taught us they were benevolent, but you needed to pay close attention when dealing with the fae. They prided themselves on being hospitable, bound by rules of decorum and grand oaths. Only sometimes you found out too late they were tricksters, and the oath might not mean what you expected. Many kinds of fae walk our world, some more prevalent than others, but each one is bound to nature.

When Aiden started down this path, it seemed like a child’s game, the end goal to inflate his insatiable ego. But now, without his family at his side, he was out of control. If it were any other vampire, my family would walk the other way together and let the immortals handle the issue. But this was my brother. He was drawing attention to himself—and to us. He had to be stopped before he started a supernatural war.

He walked out on me a hundred years ago, realizing he would never win me to his side of immortal domination. My brother could have gone to New Orleans or Savannah; well-run harbors of paranormal activity where mortal and immortal worked together for the good of both sides. He had even stood a reasonable chance of unseating the immortal powers in those cities had he gone there. But no, he’d gone to Charleston. In Charleston, the creatures of the night and humans were still finding ways to co-exist, which made it a perfect place to wreak havoc. Or kill those who opposed you on any level.

Declan sighed as his glass clinked on the counter. “So far, it’s only the vampires and the wolves. He’s given the wolves in the Low Country access to the city and James Island, in particular, but the island vampires didn’t even balk at Aiden’s demands. Of course, everyone is afraid of dying. A few witches stayed in the French Quarter, but most ran, headed for Savannah. They still don’t think Aiden brings anything to the table, and they think that with his particular brand of rule, humans will never take him seriously. They will just keep ignoring his proposals on how to share the city. And, of course, killing too many humans risks exposure, and your brother isn’t even that stupid.” He took a sip of his drink, his eyes hollow. “But I hear the powers in New Orleans have taken notice and are preparing to defend their territory if he heads in that direction.”

The news about the New Orleans vampires was bad but not unexpected. They’d had a good thing going for quite some time in their city, and no one messed with it.

But for the witches to only leave a few in the city? It didn’t surprise me the witches saw right through my brother. Witches played all sides—good, evil, and every shade of gray in between. They were the one supernatural being my parents had taught us to fear—in the same manner the stags of our native Ireland feared the long-extinct lynx. I could still hear my father’s instructions.“Keep your distance, stay together, blend in with the humans, and only attack if you’re cornered.”I feared I knew why the witches went to Savannah.

I sighed. “He cannot be allowed to move outside of Charleston. It’ll be the end of us all. We need to stop him and bring our family back together as it should be. Although with one fewer brother if it must.”

“Are you sure about this?” Declan’s words were hesitant, and I wasn’t sure why.

I remembered each detail of the day he came to me twenty-five years ago, his hands trembling as he told me about the torture and execution of anyone who defied Aiden or showed the slightest hint of disloyalty, as defined by his whims. Aiden had commanded the particularly gruesome deaths of two of Declan’s friends. The vampires had sworn loyalty to my brother before they found their mate bond with each other. Aiden saw this as a betrayal and sentenced them to desiccation. They were entombed in brick walls, each with one arm free, capable of brushing the fingers of the other if they struggled to reach out. There, their bodies would dehydrate and turn to stone from a lack of blood. But vampires are strong and don’t die easily. After a year, Aiden revived them, instructing them to look into the other’s eyes as he beheaded them in front of his meager band of followers.

That was Declan’s tipping point. When he knew my brother’s ambition had turned to madness—an evil that even he couldn’t support.

I turned to him and looked hard into his eyes. “Do I have to remind you it has been over a hundred years since my brother walked away from me, away from his family, and started on this ridiculous path to domination, endangering us all?”

Declan smiled. “In his defense, sometimes I’d like to walk away from you, too.”

I pressed my teeth together in anger and gripped my drink. Declan’s place as part of my family was well solidified, and hewas one of the few who could speak to me this way. “Forgive me if I just want Aiden to maintain the decency he was born with.”

Declan set his hand on my arm. “Look, I get it. He was never the same after that hunter shot him.”

“Never the same” was only the tip of it.

The memory of their voices rang in my head. Declan and Aiden ran into our home in Ireland, both soaked in sweat, and a hole in Aiden’s shirt over his heart. The two of them prattled so quickly it was difficult for my family to make out the story.

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