A Queen Among Blood: Chapter Seven - Yildiz
My body has become a livewire, every synapse firing at hyperspeed sending my senses into overdrive. My body feels hot and flushed as if I’ve been basking in the sun for hours. My heart has picked up speed and my mouth is salivating. My body is in such a state of overload I can’t move. I’m completely frozen, as a thousand questions race through my mind. Now that I am in close proximity to his scent, I can pick up the metallic undertone in his scent, but far more intense than what I’ve scented before.
My animai is a sanguidae?! Why is he here? Why did he stop me? And how in the name of the Gods did his body shatter my sword?! I might have killed him! I have so much I want to ask I don’t know where to begin.
“Not her,” comes his deep and warm voice that elicits a shiver from me.
“What?” I whisper, trying to process that fact I’ve finally heard his voice and what he meant by what he said. I take what’s left of my katana and place it back in its scabbard.
“I can’t let you hurt her, and as much as he deserves your punishment, I can’t let you hurt him either,” he says, turning to face me. His form towers over me at 7’4” and his aura is the brightest I’ve ever seen. Its shade of blood red is as rich and thick as blood itself, but I can still make out the flecks of silver buried within. They appear almost hidden as if the red is trying to mask them, so they almost look as though they’re moving in and out of focus. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and for the first time in my life, I curse my mother for making me blind. What I wouldn’t give to see the face of my animai.
Before I can find the words to respond to him, or before my body can throw itself at him as it yearns to do, he turns around and lays his hand over the leader’s head and in an instant his heartbeat slows, and he drops to the ground. Did he just knock him out? The young woman kneels by the man, her heart now racing as she begins to panic.
“He’s unharmed. He’s just asleep, I promise,” my animai assures her. She looks up at him and I can see her hands moving fast in front of her, and now it all makes sense. Why she never spoke. She’s mute. Since he spoke to her using words, I take that to mean she’s not deaf. Human folklore dictates that when a human becomes a vampire all human ailments or ‘disabilities’ are healed. That’s not the case with sanguidaes. Illnesses of any kind will certainly be healed, but deformities or disabilities will not. I wonder if the leader turned her believing it would give her, her voice back.
“My signing skills are a little lacking, but I think she said something about if he dies, she dies,” he says in a calm voice. He’s speaking to me, yet he’s not so much as glancing in my direction. My animai is standing not two feet away and not once has he acted as though he’s just found his soulmate. He seems so unbothered by my presence. Does he not feel the bond between us? Oh Gods, is he underage?
“Fortunately for you I’m fluent in all forms of sign language,” I say, trying to focus on the task at hand and not how much I want to wrap my arms around him. I’m just able to make out his body tensing in response to my speech. Ah ha! So he does feel the bond. So then why is he acting like he doesn’t? Then again, I haven’t said anything either. It just seems unprofessional to jump on my animai when I have four sanguidae writhing in pain while one is unconscious, and another begs for his life. I still have a duty to uphold.
I walk over and kneel down before the young woman and place my hands around hers, “What is your name?” I ask. I keep my hands on hers and feel their movement as she attempts to communicate.
“Amber,” she says through NZSL.
I smile, “I’m sorry to meet you under these circumstances, Amber.”
“Are you blind?” she slowly signs, indicating her surprise and confusion.
I nod, “Yes, I am.” As I answer her I hear my animai’s intake of breath. If he’s going to have problems with my blindness, he’ll just have to get over it.
“If you’re blind, then how can you understand her?” asks my animai curiously.
“It’s called tactile sign language. It’s how someone deaf, mute, and blind can communicate. I can’t see the words she signs, but I can feel them,” I smile in reassurance.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone, but the hunger was too much. Simon takes care of me. I know he does horrible things, but he’s good to me,” Amber signs, “He… he would even give me the hearts,” she slowly signs. I may not be able to see her face, but I can feel the shame coming through her hands. Those who learn to speak with their hands are quite adept at channelling their emotions through them too, one just has to be willing to notice.
I take this moment to examine her aura and Simon’s a little closer and I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. I must be losing my touch. The faint matching cyan blue buried in Simon and Amber’s auras. They’re animais, but they’ve not completed the bond, they wouldn’t even know what it is. For that matching hue to appear they must have mated but not marked one another. Their instincts probably encouraged them to mark one another, but perhaps feared that was just their hunger talking.
“Amber. I won’t hurt Simon, by law I can’t. He’s your animai. It’s what we supernaturals call soulmates, and he is yours. He still needs to be punished for his crimes, but I can promise he will not be killed. We do not believe in splitting up souls.”
“I don’t understand,” she signs.
I’m about to answer when I notice how quiet it has become. I turn to look behind me to notice the four sanguidae who were writhing on the ground are now gone. I never even heard them leave, that’s not possible. They would have been in too much pain to even get up. Suddenly I feel Amber’s hands vanish from between mine, and when I look back, Simon and Amber are also gone.
“Where are they?” I question.
“Nowhere you need to worry about,” says my animai.
I get to my feet, “You sent them away? How? Sanguidae don’t possess that kind of power,” I argue suspiciously.
“I’m not that kind of sanguidae,” he says, a tone of disgust in his voice. As he turns his back on me I reach out grabbing his forearm, and instantly a fiery sensation shoots through my hand and up my arm; its heat enveloping me from the inside.
“What do you mean, ‘not that kind of sanguidae’? What kind of sanguidae are you?” I question curiously.
Too fast for me to react, his hands are around my upper arms causing a significant amount of pressure to actually hurt me, and yet a part of me wants him to tighten his grip. But beyond my heady need for the man holding me in place, some part of my brain manages to keep working. He’s stronger and faster than a sanguidae and even me. Bloodstone doesn’t faze him, and my sword shattered on impact with his body. He can teleport beings with a simple wave of his hand, and he himself can teleport. He’s over seven feet tall and his aura is almost as bright as my mother’s, brighter in fact.
“I’m the first. Is that what you wanted to hear?” he hisses, his words full of disgust, but they don’t seem to be directed at me.
“You’re the progenitor of the sanguidae…” I breathe in disbelief. I was so overwhelmed by the bond; it confused my senses too much to notice the power radiating off him. It’s almost God-like.
His grip loosens and he lets me go, “I will handle the sanguidae you encountered today. They are my responsibility. They will not bother anyone anymore,” he promises, avoiding my question.
“It’s you isn’t it? The reason why sanguidae are always handled before we can get to them. You get to them first. They come from you, so you feel obligated to take care of them,” I surmise, feeling one of the greatest unsolved questions we’ve encountered in our existence finally being answered.