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© jamessica stories; 2010.
All rights Reserved.
Reproduction of this story or taking of ideas in any way is prohibited; and illegal
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If you see these *** around speech then that means that Dimitri and Phoenix are talking mind to mind***
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Chapter 12
“Ashes?” Dimitri’s voice broke my train of thought, “do you mind if I come in?” this time he raised the present up to me and smiled.
He was still dressed in his leather pants and midnight blue shirt, his pale skin looked even paler and more beautiful than ever.
I want him, I finally admitted to myself. I really want him. But can I mess up what we have now to be his fling, when we have to work so closely together for the rest of my life?
I couldn’t say yes, could I? I looked at the King in front of me and made up my mind. Stepping to the side I let him in. Well I didn’t say yes as such, at least I had bought myself some time.
I turned my back on Dimitri and walked over to the chase lounge in the far corner of my room - as far away from the huge queen sized bed as I could get.
Lifting my eyes to his I decided to play dumb and hope he didn’t push me into an admittance of my feelings tonight or any other night in the near future. I let a sly smile cover the trepidation that was surely showing on my face.
“is that for me?” I asked as I indicated the beautiful deep red cloth that was wrapped around what seemed to be a long rectangular box.
“when I have bought a female a gift in the past I have always bought them jewellery of some kind, but for you I found that would not simply do. For one, they would only get in the way while you fought and for another, I thought you would appreciate these instead.” his gorgeous eyes held mine as he held it out to me.
I took the proffered gift, and settled in on my lap. Tearing my gaze from his, I took in the stunning material, with both my hands and eyes. It felt so rich beneath my callous fingers that I was tempted to bury my face in it as I pulled it free from the hidden object beneath. Instead I slowly folded the wrap into a neat square.
The box that remained on my lap was breath taking. The intricate design was like nothing I had ever seen before, but was so appropriate and providential that a shiver started to creep from the base of my spine and up towards the small hairs at the nape of my neck and a gasp escaped my lips. The box was made of dark mahogany that had been carved into so that their was not one smooth fraction of the wood that was untouched. And on the lid was carved a magnificent phoenix with two swords crossed over as a sort of coat or arms. And the eerie thing about it was that the box was obviously hundreds - maybe even thousands of years old.
With shaking hands I opened the chest - as that was what it really was - and found it hard to breath as I reached with both hands for what lay on deep blue mounds of silk. Each of my hands came to rest on a hilt each and with the contact came a jolt as though the world was realigning itself just for me.
For indeed this was my true present, not the rich material, not the exquisite chest but the two daggers that lay beneath it all. The hilt’s were adorned with fine smooth jewels set into leather and a thin gold wire had been entwined all the way around the length. The daggers so highly polished, I could see my own startled yet awed face as I brought them up to eye level for better inspection.
It took me a long time until I was able to drag my eyes toward Dimitri and what I saw when I looked at him was so shocking I almost dropped my beloved daggers.
“Dimitri…” my voice was hoarse with emotion and if he had been human he would not have heard me.
There was such devotion in his stare as he watched me with my new daggers that I couldn’t comprehend what it meant.
I set the daggers lovingly back into the silken bed and then stood so that I was only a few steps from him.
“they have been in my family for over a millennia. Many vampire Kings before me have fought in great battles with the Daggers of Phoenix-” Dimitri paused to smile at me before continuing, “I think you will put them to better use than keeping them in storage for another millennia.”
My right hand made its way over my heart as Dimitri spoke. I inclined my head - it was as near to a bow that I would ever give him - and said “it is a great honour to be entrusted to be their carer for ever more.”
It seemed to be the right thing to say because Dimitri put his hand over his own heart and inclined his head to me as a mark of respect.
But then something he said registered in my brain and I looked at him with a frown, “what do you mean by family? I thought vampires were made not born.”
For the first time since I had met Dimitri, King of the Vampires, he fidgeted and looked slightly uncomfortable - for all of two seconds and then he was cool collected Dimitri again.
“you are right except for the fact that Royals are different - we are born vampires instead of being turned into vampires.”
I just stared at him and his golden eyes stared right back until I felt as though I was swimming in a pool of molten gold. His hard beautiful face was unmoving so I couldn’t read any of his emotions and I would have rather shot my own leg off than open a mind link between the two of us right now.
“you were born a vampire?” was all I could manage to gasp.
Dimitri broke our starring contest and walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down I let my own knees give way until I planted my ass back down on the chase lounge.
“when each King is crowned he also is given the ability to reproduce as his father had done and his father before him and so on. My mama and tata now live back in Romania in a huge castle and they live as happily as they did a thousand years ago.”
“but how can a female vampire reproduce if she is clinically dead?”
Dimitri looked at me as though the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.
“they can‘t Ashes, no dead thing can reproduce - except for a male born of a royal - because we are not dead, we are simply Vampyre. My mama and my bunica-grandmother- and so on were human. And after their children were born they remained that way, because the Sotia of a king can never be turned into a vampire.”
“the Sotia?”
“the wife.”
“so your mama is still human? How is that possible?”
“there are rules that go with being a king Ashes some of them I don‘t think you are ready to hear yet.”
“don‘t you dare Dimitri, I want to hear it all right now.” I said only in a slight huff.
“Mircea has interrogated the prisoners and has found out that they were being paid to assassinate me by a grievous coven who had lost more than half their members due to rogues killing them. Apparently they felt that as king I was the one to blame. As the Americans say - go figure.” Dimitri said with a shrug. “stupid fools to trade money for their lives.”
“thanks for letting me know Dimitri, but stop avoiding the question!”
Dimitri sighed and started to tap his long fingers along my duvet. When he finally looked at me there was a resolved look in his eyes , which meant he was going to answer me. I clasped my hands together and leaned forward in anticipation.
Dimitri rolled his eyes at me and openly smiled while visibly relaxing. “you are so easily entertained sometimes Ashes.”
“eh, I‘m easy.” I said with a grin that matched his own. “so tell me about your mama and tata and the rules linked to their royal marriage.”
“casatorie.”
“what?”
“we call it a casatorie not a marriage.”
“a casatorie.” I said trying out the pronunciation, “nice I like it much better than marriage. Okay so tell me.”
“When a King is crowned his tata steps down and retires - so to speak - with his Sotia. The new Kings tata takes his mostenitor - heir - aside and tells him that when the time comes that his Adevarata dragoste will come into his life, but that he is to be patient until she arrives - for if he is impatient and does not wait for her all will be ruined, for a king is the only vampire who can exchange blood with a human female to keep her alive and he can only exchange blood with one female ever, so if he does not wait for his Adevarata dragoste then she will be lost to him forever and he will have no mostenitor to pass the crown onto.
“the blood exchange does not only keep his Sotia alive as long as him but keeps her and their Tinerii - young - alive through the pregnancy, otherwise they would both die. And only a kings Adevarata dragoste can hold the Tinerii to full term no other human could.”
When Dimitri stopped talking I felt like I was going to throw up and cry all at the same time. Because I had ruined the line of royalty because of me Dimitri would be the last king.
“Dim…”
“so I asked my tata,” Dimitri spoke over me, “how I would know when my Adevarata dragoste came into my life and he told me in the most joyous voice ‘ah, my Baiatul you will know she is coming even before you see her, for you will feel her presence first, her blood will call to you and then you will have a vision of her. So fear not my Baiatul you will feel such love for her before you even know her.’ I had laughed and shook my head at my tata thinking him an old fool who was still in love with my mama. And I had said ‘but tata, that is the same way I found my Enforcer Danut - except for the feeling of love instead I felt raw power.’ and my father had just smiled at me and said ‘exactly my dear Baiatul, your Enforcer and your Sotia will be the closest and dearest people to your heart and they will both be human.’ my tata had laughed and shook his head as though it was the best joke in the world and that made him the happiest male on earth.”
Tears were silently falling down my cheeks now, I was crying for Dimitri’s loss, and the raw pain he would go through when he would undoubtedly have to watch his Adevarata dragoste die of old age and all because I was born a female - I had always thought that the Enforcer had been male because the last Enforcer had died about five hundred years ago - and back then the women were only meant to make babies and feed the family, I wish that had been the only reason.
Dimitri had been starring off into the distance as he told me the story, but now he brought his eyes back to my own watery ones. His face softened as he took in my damp cheeks and red rimmed eyes.
“and then I came along and ruined everything didn‘t I? You told me it was fate that I was your Enforcer - that is some cruel fate to do this to you Dimitri. If only I was born a male.” a sob caught on my last word and I couldn’t look at him any longer.
Instead I looked at my hands in my lap, and tried to convince my stupid female hormones that Dimitri did not need to watch me cry for him.
“so you can imagine my shock when I suddenly felt your presence as you got off the ship in New York and started your journey toward me and the feeling of raw power coming off you was so strong that I had never felt anything like it - not even with my previous Enforcers.” I winced and let my head hang instead of looking at him. “a power so strong that it wasn‘t until you arrived in Toronto that I felt what was also there and nearly as strong as the raw power was the amount of love that was coming out of you, my blood felt alive and all I wanted was to go to you but I had to bide my time before I approached you and turned your life completely upside down.”
I still hadn’t looked up at Dimitri as he spoke - I just kept thinking of how fate could be so cruel to take love away from Dimitri.
“why are you crying? I don‘t like to see you so sad my Adevarata dragoste.” Dimitri said in a voice I had never heard him use before. It was full of love. For me.
My head snapped up. My eyes wide with shock as I stared at Dimitri. “what?” I asked as my brain registered all of what he had just said.
“you are my Adevarata dragoste, Ashes. My one true love.”
Where had all the oxygen gone all of a sudden. I couldn’t breath, this could not be happening to me. My heart and my mind seemed to be at war with one another, for my heart was pounding so hard inside my chest that the thud from each beat was loud enough for us both to hear. But all my brain could comprehend was how much of a problem and inconvenience this revelation was going to be.
“when were you going to tell me?” I finally asked in a quiet voice.
“what?” surprise flickered through Dimitri’s eyes.
“when were you going to tell me that I was your Adevarata dragoste Dimitri?” I asked as I pushed myself to my feet and started to pace. “this whole time I was going crazy trying to convince myself that it would be the worse idea ever to act on my feelings for you, because you are like my boss or something and I am going to have to work for you for the rest of eternity if I live long enough.”
From behind me a low growl erupted from Dimitri but I just continued my ranting, even I could hear how hysterical my voice sounded. I couldn’t look at him - not yet.
“I had come to terms with the fact that I would most probably never have a family of my own because I had given my life to you as your Enforcer. So while I was fighting my attraction to you I had to deal with the fact that I would probably never get to fall in love or get married or have children of my own.” I spun around and looked him square in the eye, “When. Were. You. Going. To. Tell. Me?”
“I wanted you to come to terms with being my Enforcer before I told you the rest of your fate, because that is what this is. Your fate. You may be angry at me right now Ashes, but that does not change the fact that you are my Adevarata dragoste and one day you will learn to love me.”
I just stared at him as I tried to get a hold of my temper.
“oh for goodness sake!” there goes my temper. “of course I love you. I‘ve loved you since the first day we met, I just didn‘t understand what I was feeling for you was real and not some stupid crush, until now.” I started to pace again trying to reign in the anger that was pouring out of me.
“if you love me then why are you still so furious?”
I stopped a couple of paces away from him, not daring to get any closer and stared at him. Then I opened my mind to him and just watched as he got everything I was feeling and thinking in one big rush.
I could feel him sorting out each thought and feeling. The feeling of being lost because my life had abruptly changed again, the confusion as I tried to work out why me? Why am I the first female Enforcer who just so happens to be the Kings Adevarata dragoste as well. The fact that everyone else in the house must have known except for me as I recalled my conversation with Blake earlier on the way to the club - ’why am I off limits?’ I had asked. And he had said, ’because you are Dimi…’ only to be cut off by Ari. The realisation that Anoushka hadn’t run from Dimitri because he had told her I was an Enforcer but because he had told her I was his Adevarata dragoste. Was I really the last one to know my own fate. Had Dimitri really thought I would be okay with that. And then last not least I was angry at myself for being angry with Dimitri because really he was a male after all - what did I expect? He got as much a say in this as I did.
Exhausted with my own anger and thoughts I collapsed back onto the chase lounge and closed my eyes. Hoping that if I were to fall asleep I would wake up and find that the last hour had been a dream.
“a dream huh?” Dimitri asked in a low voice.
Woops, I had left the metal link open. Ah well. “no that‘s not right, I just wish I wasn‘t so pushy when it came to you telling me the story. I would have rather have found out that I was your Adevarata dragoste….” well how would I have liked to have found out? “urhg! I‘m sorry Dimitri I think I just need some sleep and time to wrap my mind around my new title.” I tried a small smile as I looked over at him. He looked as drained as I felt.
Dimitri nodded to me and then slowly stood. He looked really sad and my heart hurt at the look on his face as he walked away from me.
“just promise me one thing Ashes,” he said as he stood by the door.
I looked at him, “anything.”
His smile was even sadder in that moment. “don‘t run away from me because if you do I’ll just have to chase you.”
Before I could say anything he was out the door and I was left alone, even in my head, because as Dimitri closed the door to my room he also closed our mind link. I walked over to my bed and let my dress fall to the floor, naked, I slipped in between the soft welcoming sheets on my bed letting my mind wander as I waited for sleep to claim me.
I love Dimitri.
Dimitri loves me.
I’m his Enforcer.
I was going to have to spent the rest of my life with him anyway.
How am I supposed to act around him now.
I feel as though my mind and heart are split in two, I love him with all my heart but I also want to protect him with everything I have - I am his Enforcer and his one true love- his Adevarata dragoste.
Finally exhaustion won out and my thoughts dried up as sleep dragged me under.
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Vote and comment please
© jamessica stories; 2010.
All rights Reserved.
Reproduction of this story or taking of ideas in any way is prohibited; and illegal