Final Days Read online

  Eventually, Ahmose laid a hand on Jacob’s bowed head and slid down off the stone.

  “We have to take her home. Them. We have to take them home.”

  Jacob lifted his head, his eyes still glistening with tears Ahmose knew would not stop for a long time.

  “I know,” he said, his voice cracking. He still didn’t move. A few minutes later, Ahmose took his arm and gently pulled him off the table, supporting him as he gained his balance.

  “Do you want me to carry her?” Ahmose asked, but he already knew the answer.

  “No. I’ve got her. I’ve always got her.”

  Tears welled again in Ahmose’s eyes. He looked over Jacob’s head as his team came back into the cave. The man who led the team shook his head. Whoever had done this was gone.

  It didn’t matter. They would find the person and justice would be done. Death was too kind to punish these murders, but there really was nothing that was cruel enough.

  Jacob lifted Starla’s body. Oh, God, Ahmose thought. This beautiful woman was reduced now to the emotionless noun. Body. All the love and vibrant life she’d contained…gone. Just the body left now. Behind Jacob, trying to be strong, Ahmose almost lost it. He covered his face with his hands as he suffocated a wail that wanted to slip out.

  Holding her close, supporting her head, Jacob crossed the barrier from the forest into the first blood’s village. Ahmose followed behind him, his eyes going over and over to Starla’s long brunette hair curling down Jacob’s arm. He just could not imagine never seeing her again. God, how he was going to miss her. Already he felt a huge hole in his life he knew would never be filled.

  Vampires lived very long lives. Loss was common, they grew accustomed to it. Sorrow and grief had to be expected, but then they had to move on. Life continued. That was the greatest truth. But Ahmose could see only a dark and empty future without his Shoazan and his children.

  Jacob slowed as they arrived in the main garden where the community gathered. A massive bench graced the center surrounded by water fountains and flowers in myriad varieties.

  He laid Starla there and dropped beside her. Ahmose had noticed he hadn’t let her go since they found her.

  “Where do I put her?” Jacob finally asked.

  “Send for Chione,” Ahmose said to one of his men, and squatted down.

  “Chione will take care of her. We will…” he couldn’t say the words. He swallowed and wiped his eyes. “We will bury her on the hill above my dwelling. She will lie in the warmth of the sun again.”

  Moments later, Chione came into the gardens on her summons. Her eyes swept the scene and landed on Starla’s body.

  “No,” she whispered, as she moved towards her. “No.”

  She dropped beside Jacob, touched Starla’s chest, her eyes travelling to her throat.

  “Who did this?”

  Ahmose answered her. “We do not know. An ancient dagger was recovered. Eillia is on her way and hopefully will be able to determine who held it. Whoever it was is dead, they just don’t know it yet.”

  “The child,” Chione murmured. “He was too new. He will never be born.”

  “No.” The word cracked, Jacob’s voice low and angry. “It’s all gone. My life with her and our children. It’s all gone.”

  Chione leaned against him and touched his forehead. Her touch should have been able to calm him, her ability to impress another person’s emotions was strong. But it didn’t work, and she wasn’t surprised. Even her considerable talents couldn’t override grief of this level. Her eyes moved back to her friend lying still forever, surrounded by white moonflowers that glowed in the pastel lights that lit the gardens. The relationship she and Starla had developed had been close, and more so each time they were together.

  Chione thought they would have become soul sisters down the years, now that Starla would be living with them in the village.

  She kept herself together for these men who loved Starla so much. And she knew later, when she could, when she was alone in her dwelling, she would break down. Not now.

  “I will prepare everything. Jacob. Master. My sorrow for your loss is deep. This community will be in mourning for a very long time. If you would bring her to me in an hour, I will have a place for her in the Temple of the Moon.”

  Chione bowed as she stepped away and turned towards the temple, free to let the tears flow. And they did, so steadily they obscured her vision and she had to keep wiping them away.

  The next hour went quickly as she did her duty to her master and his queen.

  Lying on a ceremonial alter in the Temple of the Moon, Starla looked beautiful. As if she only slept. Jacob stood at her side, her hand in his. He was surprised she still felt warm to him, but that may be normal for deceased vampires. He didn’t know. He’d never touched a vampire who had died before, it was so rare. Just last year, Eillia’s lover had died from a beheading. But he hadn’t been close to Hamid.

  She’d only been gone a few hours. The tears had stopped for the moment, but he knew there were plenty more to come. It would only get worse from here.

  Chione had done a wonderful job. She had wrapped Starla in a pale rose gauze, curled around her throat to hide the horrible wound that took her life. Starla’s rich mahogany hair was twisted into a long coil with sparkling beads and laid across her shoulder and down onto her chest.

  He couldn’t breathe. Looking at the woman he had waited three lifetimes for lying dead before him, Jacob just wanted to be with her. Wherever the fuck she was, that’s where he needed to be. He felt a hand slide into his and a warm body beside him.

  “I cannot imagine this place without her now. I will not be able to look at those gardens without seeing her there,” Chione said.

  This time, Jacob felt her calming influence. He could draw breath again. His heartbeat dropped back to a normal rhythm. “You did her proud. She looks like she could get up and smile at us. She looks lovely.”

  “It was not hard. Our little Star was beautiful, inside and out.”

  He felt her lean against him and he knew she was in pain, too.

  “She really loved moving here to live in this village with you. I think she brought half of France with her, though.”

  “I understand. I would miss this place if I had to go, and I would take anything that would help me stay connected here.”

  They were quiet.

  Jacob looked into Chione’s cat-shaped eyes.

  “We would have been happy here,” he admitted.

  “You would have been family.” She paused. “Will you go?”

  Jacob nodded. “I couldn’t be here. I would see her everywhere. I’ll never forget her, but I don’t know where I’ll go from here now. I’m directionless without her.”

  “Yes. She urged me to go when I told her I thought my destiny was not here. I find I still want her advice, and I don’t know what I’ll do without it.”

  “I wish you the best. Maybe we’ll see each other again. When I can face this place. Although I don’t know when that will ever be.”

  “I hope so. I still consider you family. Now, it is getting too near daybreak. You should go and try to sleep before the services tonight.”

  “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to bury her.”

  “I know. But we must honor her, and let the community mourn. It is our last duty to her. Go. Sleep. I will see you tonight.”

  For another ten minutes, he lingered and touched his dead wife. Then he kissed her lips, nodded to Chione, and walked out. Chione closed off the temple with the secure panels and turned back inside.

  The sun ruled the sky now and the vampires were secured for the day. Jacob lay unmoving in the huge bed that had been chosen so he and his mate would have unlimited space for all the lovemaking they would do for centuries to come. He could not sleep.

  Tonight, they would bury his wife. No. Tonight they would bury his life. Because he couldn’t see one ahead of him now without her. He was empty and lost. Nothing could ever fix this
. Nothing was left. With a sob, he rolled over and buried his face in his plush pillow that was covered with expensive scented satin. Because she loved them. The pillow blocked the air and he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t move so he could do so because it didn’t matter to him if he ever drew a breath again.

  Ahmose sat on his bed with a bottle of whiskey. He was drunk. The world around him was fuzzy. Good. It was better that way. In all his centuries of life, there had never been pain like this. He honestly didn’t know what to do. The sun would set and he would be expected to lead his people in a ceremony to say goodbye to his Shoazan and his son.

  He shook his head and killed half the bottle as he fell back still as death on his bed.

  Where was she today? Wherever she was, could she see her loved ones grieve for her? Would she know how much she was missed?

  First bloods had little in the way of spiritual beliefs about an afterlife. They were so long-lived, it was never addressed in the community. This would be the first funeral here in nine hundred years. He didn’t know. All he knew was that he was going to be so fucking drunk by tonight, they would have to pour him out of this fucking bed.

  Say goodbye to her publicly? He couldn’t do it.

  Chione had stayed in the temple with Starla. She couldn’t go home. It was her duty to prepare her for this journey and she didn’t really know how to do it. She’d never prepared someone to be buried and dead forever.

  She sat on a tufted bench across the large room, Starla displayed on the decorated table twenty feet away from her. Her eyes kept wandering to her.

  No. She had to remind herself over and over. Her friend was not there. She was gone.

  It wasn’t right. No one would hurt her. No one had reason to hurt this lovely soul and special child. So she could not be dead. She could not be dead!

  Her eyes slid back across the room to show her how wrong she was. Someone wanted her dead. That slice was intentional and brutal. Whoever did this was vampire or at least knew about vampires.

  Had she done right by her? Was there anything else she could do?

  Chione unfurled her legs and walked barefoot over to the body. Jacob was right, she just looked like she was sleeping. Even her skin had maintained its healthy color. Bending over, she kissed Starla lightly on the lips, then brushed her hair back. Tears came, unchecked.

  “I’m sorry, my sister. I keep thinking if I had been here I could have prevented this. Or would have been with you and seen this coming. I feel like this is all my fault. I don’t think I will ever forgive myself.”

  Her tears dropped against Starla’s cheek and Chione wiped them away. Mustn’t mess up her face. Starla must be perfect for Jacob and Ahmose. Tonight would be the last time they would see this woman that they loved.

  She carefully put to right the damage her uncontrolled emotions caused and caressed Starla’s forehead before she went back to the bench to try to rest.

  At that moment, a sound intruded behind her. An odd sound she couldn’t recognize. Chione looked back and saw nothing moving. She watched for a few moments, heard nothing, and was just turning again as it repeated.

  The sound was so quiet, if it had not been completely silent in the room, Chione would never have heard it. Behind her, in a room where she was the only living person, the sound of a breath suddenly drawn made her twirl. She scanned the room but saw no one or nothing that could have made that sound. Was the grief and exhaustion too much for her? It had to be.

  She needed sleep. The sun was high at mid-morning, a time when she should be compelled to rest, and she couldn’t do it. Tonight was going to be an awful, awful night. Turning once more to try to rest on the soft bench, the sound came again, a little louder. A breath, drawn with difficulty. She knew it.

  Chione raced back to Starla and watched her still body. Not breathing. Of course not, how could she be? She had been examined by their best medical authority Masura, and he had declared her deceased permanently.

  Then it happened. A moment she would never forget no matter how many centuries she lived. A movement so small she wasn’t sure it had happened. Starla’s lashes lifted over her closed eyes and dropped back. An almost imperceptible blink. What the…?

  Chione stared…transfixed. Had she seen what she thought she had? And while she was looking at Starla’s face, Starla’s lips parted and that tiny breath she didn’t think she could have heard, pulled in air. Starla had taken a breath.

  Shocked, elated, panicked, unsure, Chione touched Starla’s lips with a fingertip.

  “Mistress?”

  Starla’s eyelids fluttered, fluttered again, then they cracked.

  By the power of the universe, God, or magic, whatever it could be, Chione accepted that a miracle was occurring and her recently deceased friend was not actually dead.

  “Star, my mistress, you are here.”

  Starla finally opened her eyes, narrowly, but they were open. The dark brown iris’s moved back and forth as if she were searching for something.

  “Mistress, it’s okay. You’re okay now. Stay calm. It will take some time for you to adjust.”

  What could she say? She herself had no idea what was happening. But as the seconds passed and it became obvious Starla was breathing, she was alive, Chione dared to believe.

  “You have been injured so you need to remain still. It is day and I cannot bring Masura to see you, but I am sure you are going to be fine.”

  Tears came again and her voice cracked. “You’re going to be fine.”

  Starla’s eyes opened wider and searched Chione’s.

  “Ja…” Starla squeezed out.

  “I’ll get you some water, but don’t try to speak.”

  Chione poured Starla a glass of fresh, pure water from the village’s underground springs.

  “Sip this slowly. Oh, mistress I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you open your eyes. But you have been very ill so please take it easy.”

  “Ja…” Starla barked out again.

  Chione understood this time.

  “Your mate is at your dwelling. But it is day and he cannot come. I will let him know you are awake once I have made you comfortable.”

  She had no idea how she would tell him. Blurt it out, she guessed. Jacob and Ahmose would be shocked. But should she phone them now? They would want to come immediately. They would risk their own lives to come. No, she should wait.

  Windari had stayed in her dwelling while they brought Starla’s body back to the village. She knew they had recovered the knife she’d left only partially hidden in the cave. And that they had a reader on the way who would know it was Crystal who held it last. Things were going exactly as planned, so she sat back with some wine and reached for her favorite vibrator. Time for celebration.

  Windari wouldn’t put in an appearance until she gave Ahmose her condolences at the funeral service tonight. She needed a little down time before she donned her sympathetic face for the community of mourners.

  Back in the temple, as day progressed, Chione shivered, having trouble with this startling reality. She watched Starla struggle to stay alert, to breathe, to understand.

  Chione wondered if the baby was alright. And she wondered…

  Chione moved closer and smiled reassuringly at her friend.

  “I just want to take a look at something.”

  She gently uncoiled the tulle she had wrapped around Starla’s neck to hide the horrible wound that, up until now, they had believed to be a fatal injury. As the last layer came away, she stared, stunned, at Starla’s smooth unmarred neck.

  It wasn’t possible. Even first blood vampires would not have healed from an injury this severe so quickly and completely. The fact that several people had declared her lifeforce gone was suspect enough. But even if she had never been dead, Chione had seen that cut. It had been deep and egregious. How was she as perfect as she had ever been after that?

  Magics. Nothing else. Magics beyond that of normal first bloods. It had to be. But whose magic was that powerful
? Was there something they did not know about a Shoazan? She thought there must be.

  Any truth that explained it ultimately did not matter to Chione. What mattered was that Starla was still alive.

  “Your wound, mistress, is gone. You are very powerful to achieve this.”

  She had tried to hold it together. But she failed. Suddenly, the tears slid down her cheeks, one trail, then two, more.

  “Oh, mistress, I am so glad you’re alive.”

  With her senses slowly returning, Starla felt the pressure of Chione’s fingers on her forearm. And what had Chione said? She was happy Starla was alive?

  Her throat hurt so badly she didn’t think she could speak. But she tried to anyway and although she could only get out one word at a time, she managed.

  “Was.” She gasped on breath that felt like fire moving in her throat. “There.” She tried to swallow. “Doubt?”

  Oh, spirits of the moon! Chione realized her mistake. She did not want to tell her. This time she chose her words carefully.

  “There was some concern, but it was all for naught. See you are here and well.”

  “My. Child. Is he?”

  The room lost its air. Chione did not know what to say. She had never been a woman who could lie well, and this was so important. She told Starla the only thing she could.

  “I do not know.”

  Starla didn’t react. She blinked, and her tongue shot out to wet her lips.

  “More water, please.” Her words were coming easier.

  Chione poured it quickly and helped her drink a good amount this time.

  As Starla laid her head back, she closed her eyes and was still again. Chione stood over her, unsure what to say or do. Moments passed…minutes…then Starla’s eyes opened again. Her lips curled slightly and she looked at Chione, her eyes glittering with unshed tears.

  “He is still here. Safe.” She drew an extended breath. “I need Jacob.”