Then I asked, “What kind of hunter were you?”
“I hunted the remainder of our enemy, my kind and those who allied with them. Once warriors they’d become renegades. They had to be found and stopped before they planned another revolution. I was the one who stopped them.”
I got up on an elbow and looked at his face in the weak light. I could tell something was not right.
“How many of you were there? Hunters, that is.”
“Just me.”
What? This didn’t make sense.
“Really?”
“They only needed me. I was good at what I did.”
Was he serious?
“How many renegades were there?” I asked.
“Thousands.”
My mouth dropped open. He couldn’t be for real.
If he was, this gave a whole new meaning to the words “Mighty Vampire Lucien”!
“Were there… were there…” I stammered, “any other kind of hunters as good as you?”
“You mean the hunters of mates?”
I nodded.
“No.”
“None?”
“There were at least twenty hunters, only hundreds of mates to be hunted.”
Wow.
“Why was it only you who hunted the renegades?”
“I wasn’t the only one at the beginning. The Dominion recruited and dispatched other hunters. Most of the others didn’t survive. As I mentioned, I not only survived, I excelled. They pulled the others back and sent only me.”
This was crazy. Lucien was Super-Vamp, singlehandedly crushing a possible rebellion!
This was remarkable, unbelievable and very, very cool. But that something that I sensed was wrong niggled at me, making me uncomfortable.
I watched him for a moment, thinking of his magnificence, Stephanie’s, Cosmo’s, Lucien’s obvious pride in his people and I said softly, “You hunted your own.”
His hand came up, fingers curling around my neck and he explained as if I’d made a gentle accusation which I hadn’t, “They were also hunting, Leah, and they were hunting mortals. Feeding and killing. Without thought or remorse. Making a point, living their lives in the old ways. They were not only murdering innocents, they were putting everything we vampires fought for at risk.”
I stared at him.
Then I guessed, “You didn’t like doing it.”
He shook his head. “Regardless if I didn’t believe in their way of life, enslaving your brethren and delivering them to their executions is not a fun job.”
He could say that again.
I understood what that something wrong was and it made me incredibly sad.
For Lucien.
Something I never expected to be but there it was.
I felt my body get soft and I pressed into him.
Lifting my hand to touch his face, I whispered, “Lucien.”
When my palm rested against his cheek, I saw his eyes close slowly and the deep feeling so obvious in his handsome face made me catch my breath.
He was immensely good-looking but looking at him in that moment, he’d never been more striking.
Not ever.
I felt my mouth part in awe and I desperately wanted to kiss him. And through my kiss I wanted to draw away his demons, absorb his emotion, take it away from him forever.
Before I got the chance to attempt this feat, his eyes opened and he murmured in a way that said he was trying to reassure me even though it was him I sensed reliving a nightmare, “It was a long time ago, sweetling.”
“It bothers you still.”
His hand went from my neck to my hand on his face. His long fingers curled around mine and he drew my knuckles to his lips, brushing them there.
Then his eyes locked on mine and he repeated, “It bothers me still.”
I understood then why people acted the way they did around him and I shared, “You’re a vampire hero. They admire you.”
“They do,” he agreed in a casual way that said it mattered very little to him and went on. “They also fear me.”
I was thinking they probably should. He could hunt down thousands of vampires on his own, that was pretty freaking scary.
“What does this have to do with me?” I asked.
He rested his hand still holding mine on his chest. “Because of the status they’ve placed on me, people take an interest in what I take an interest in. That, plus other annoying things, goes with the territory. However with you, I marked you twenty years ago and waited. This isn’t my usual behavior. Your behavior isn’t the usual concubine behavior either. This intrigued my people and they started watching and waiting to see what would happen. Now, I fear, they’re no less intrigued.”
“So, in a way, we’re like the mortal and vampire Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, without the weddings and such, of course,” I muttered.
I felt relief sweep through me when the air cleared, his face softened and his lips twitched.
“Something like that.”
Well, that was one question answered and, as usual, it made sense.
Now for the one that might freak me out, not that the last one didn’t.
“Why do you think you can make me safe from my dream?”
He rolled us to our sides, pulling me up so I was face-to-face with him and gathering me close.
“You remember the conversation you overheard this morning?” he asked and I nodded.
How could I forget?
He continued, “I think you’re attuning yourself to me.”
“Yes, I remember you saying that. What does that have to do with –?”
He interrupted me, saying, “You’re dreaming of The Sentence.”
I fell silent but my heart tripped.
His eyes grew contemplative. “Has your mother or one of your aunts explained The Sentence?”
They hadn’t, as such. I shook my head deciding not to lie out loud.
“Edwina? Stephanie?” he asked.
I shook my head again, this time not nonverbally lying.
When he spoke again, it sounded like he was speaking aloud to himself, not to me. “Then you must have somehow sensed it from me.”
“Sensed what from you? What’s the sentence?”
His eyes refocused and he murmured, “It’s not pretty, sweetheart.”
“I could guess that,” I replied.
His lips turned up before he began to explain, “The Dominion created The Sentence for mortal and immortal mates who would not denounce each other. They did it in hopes that the others being tortured or yet to be caught would spare their partners from this by quickly denouncing them. What they understood, and I reminded them, as did Cosmo, Stephanie and other advisors at the time, was that a vampire’s vow is his or her bond. He, or she, will never denounce any vow, no matter what might befall them.” He took in a breath then continued, “In many cases, when vampires mate, their claimings are a promise, not a vow. There is a nuance of difference but it’s there and for a vampire that nuance is crucial. The understanding being that eternal life with another may not work out after centuries. To promise forever opens the relationship to Severance. To vow forever, never. However, in most cases when a vampire took a mortal as a mate, during the claiming they vowed to be with their mortal forever. This, a vampire would never denounce. The Dominion was, however, with some experience of the behavior of mortals, counting on the mortal being less devoted. Unfortunately, they were wrong and dozens of Sentences were carried out.”