The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Traveling Full Circle

Her tears finally drying, Mara smiled sadly.

"Who would've guessed when I was helping you to pass your entry exam for acceptance into the Ventru nestari training program that you'd end up as the Lord Commander of the Qos Viran?" she asked, looking up at him.

"My father," Lash straight faced replied and they both laughed.

"He worked you hard, there's no denying that," Mara said, her smile slowly brightening as she remembered better days spent in the Lash household.

"But it made you into the vampire you now are. And I'm glad it did, because, before they put me into that suit, I had a premonition that the powerful male I knew you would become, was destined to come and save me!"

"Oh? Considering I had no idea you were called to Ascend, I certainly didn't," he said with a wry chuckle. "I was rescuing Amylia, not Mara Darktower."

"Maybe so, but I always suspected that someday you'd be Lord Commander of the Qos Viran," Mara said, her sad smile becoming a playful grin. "And I must say it looks good on you, Lash."

Lash smiled before respectfully bowing his head.

"Thank you, Night Mistress," he said. And quickly got a punch in the arm.

"Nope," Mara said, moving close to give him a light push in the chest. "You're not calling me that." She folded her arms beneath her breasts. "Not 'mistress', or 'queen', or any of those honorifics. And certainly not that horrible name the Conclave gave me at my Ascension."

Lash chuckled as he held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Okay, okay, no honorifics. But I see you certainly have become lilith level bossy."

Mara actually blushed and dropped her hands to her sides at that.

"Sorry," she said. "But you get nothing done with m'tada unless you command them with either words or the cloud. I guess I'm used to doing that by this point."

"Fair enough," Lash said with a smile. "Well, I know I don't have to say it but I will. You have House Lash as your shield, Mara, and Clan Ventru as your sword. All that we have, is yours."

Mara smiled, her eyes tearing up. Then she was stepping forward to once again wrap her arms around his powerful body, the big vampire returning the favor to pull her in tight.

"Thank you, Lash," she said, taking a deep breath in before squeezing him even tighter. "Ash me, you smell good!"

"Easy there, Mara," he said without relinquishing the embrace. "Don't make this weird."

She immediately looked up at him, a brow raised.

"What's weird about saying you smell good? Like really, really, really good?? There's nothing wrong with that, my alpha prime friend. Nothing at all!"

"Day Witch's pyre," he groaned. "Somebody told you!"

"Uh, no," Mara quickly replied. "I have lilith nose now, remember? They didn't have to tell me. I could scent you as soon as I stepped into that hallway." She put her face back against his chest.

"Of course you stepping out of that door looking like a vampire god didn't hurt, either. You certainly didn't look that good at the funeral."

"That was over a decade ago," Lash reminded her. "I still had baby fat on my face at that point."

Mara laughed with delight, a deliciously sensuous sound that actually sent a thrill up his spine.

"We grew up together, remember? You were never a baby. You came out of the womb ready to fight."