Chapter Five
The room was shrouded in darkness, the figure on the bed uttering a low groan and turning over. Strong arms reached out, blindly seeking something in the space beside him. Whatever he searched for couldn’t be found, and he settled down for a moment, before the process started once more; the lone male tossing and turning in the huge bed.
Caleb dreamed. Usually his dreams were filled with erotic moments with his Annie, fragments of their life together replaying repeatedly while he slept. Tonight was different though. Tonight the bed beside him was empty, as it had been the night before. For the first time in over a quarter of a century Caleb slept alone, and his nights were filled with restless turnings as he searched for the other half of his soul.
Last night he’d woken at 2 am, having gone to bed only an hour before. He’d remained awake, lying on his back staring at the ceiling and wondering how everything could have gone to shit so quickly and with such disastrous results. Tonight he was so tired from lack of sleep that his nocturnal restlessness didn’t wake him; instead he was sucked under to another time and place, looking through the eyes of a man he’d never met…
*****
“Anakatrine, what are you doing?”
The petite woman with her back to him turned around sharply, lavender eyes pinning his own with a vacant stare for a moment before they cleared and a sad smile crossed her face. “Preparing, my love, as you know we must.” She turned away, closing the leather bound spell book in her hands and placing it into an ornate wooden chest.
“It is almost time, Callain. The trial of the mated panther and vampire is less than a week away. We must ensure we protect what we can, while we can.” The vampire queen turned to her brother who was leaning against a tall bookcase and waved a small hand towards the tower of chests in the library. “Take these somewhere safe, Gard. Only you must know their location. I fear if the Council finds out where they’ve been hidden, they will seek to destroy the knowledge they hold.”
Angry lavender eyes met hers, and for a moment, Callain was mesmerised as he watched his mate and her brother. One was so huge, the other so small, and yet there was no mistaking their parentage. The Guardian secured his long auburn locks at the nape of his neck while his sister piled her curls in an ornate bronze clasp at the top of her head. But it was their eyes that mesmerised him the most, the same deep lavender hue that was a mark of their royal birth. The power that shone from those eyes was staggering to witness, and vampires of a lesser birth sometimes couldn’t bring themselves to meet their gaze. It didn’t faze Callain though, for he was the third part of the power of the triumvirate; the third side of a triangle of power so strong that they had ruled the vampire nation for almost three millennia.
He could see the rage in Gard’s eyes, and it was instinctive for him to step between them; however, he knew he would earn the rough side of his mate’s tongue if he tried to intervene. Some days he was sure she thrived on the heated debates she had with her brother. Callain held his place and watched the brewing argument.
“This is an outrage! Why are you running, Ana? You are our Queen, our ruler, not this pathetic Council. Abolish it and be done with it, sister. I fail to comprehend why you ever allowed it in the first place.” It was an old argument between them, one they had nearly every other week. The result was always the same, but still the Guardian pushed for an alternate course.
“How many times must we discuss this? I’ve told you before, Gard, our people are stagnating. We are becoming so xenophobic that one day in the future we will set ourselves too far above others; we will look down on them with such distain, that we will forget what it is to love, what it is to live. We must evolve. This is the first step in that evolution.” Tired patience accompanied her words as her gaze travelled the bookcases, looking for anything of worth she may have missed.
