Love's Nudging

  If you did, thank you. Thank you for respecting me and other authors for their hard work, understanding this is our job, and while we love it, we do deserve to be compensated for all the hours, and hours, and hours we put into it.

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  There is no such thing as a victimless crime. If you truly believe that, you’ve never been a victim. And the victims aren’t only the authors, but the fans who lose authors that quit over our constantly being stolen from and mistreatment. Mistreating the authors that write the books you like or read—not liking them isn’t an excuse for theft, it’s just extra weird then—that’s not a fan. Fans leave reviews to support. Fans send messages of love. Fans… Well fans are nice. Be nice.

  There are lots of ways to fight eBook piracy, reporting the site even if you’re not the copyright holder is always a good option. If you want to help in the fight, Google it and you can see there are many ways.

  Mark has always had his friends’ backs, especially now that some of them have found partners or mates and need support. So when someone’s messing with him, he’s miffed that they aren’t taking it seriously, wrapped up in their own stuff instead. He feels isolated and alone just like the life he’d left behind… Not that anyone knows since he’s always hidden his past, but that’s about to change.

  Bricius is the oldest known vampire alive. Thousands of years alive and millions of people met over his life, and one young warrior holds his interest in a way no one else has. A promise to the young warrior’s parents brought him to check on Mark, but wanting to know the man made him stay. Plus, Mark’s in danger now and doesn’t even know it.

  But when Bricius brings the world and life Mark has built tumbling around him, the warrior wants nothing to do with that ancient. Can Bricius make him understand this was always going to be the consequence of his lies, or will Bricius learn some humility to see he was wrong?

  1

  “It happened again,” one of the pre-trans whispered. “It was a tattoo this time.”

  “It was a temp tat or he would still have it on his forehead,” one reminded him.

  I swallowed down my annoyance that once again people were “whispering” about this around me. I could almost forgive the pre-trans because they weren’t used to how good our hearing was, but they didn’t seem to care when we busted them, and that was unacceptable.

  Really it was.

  “Let’s get into stations,” I called over to them, handling this hour of training for Dimitri.

  “Come on, we just helped with the construction and all we do is—”

  My clipboard flew before I even realized it, pegging him in the shoulder. He hadn’t been the only one complaining again, and they all stared at me with shock. “Do you want to die?”

  “Of course not,” he whispered, his eyes going bug wide.

  “Then get with the fucking program,” I snapped. “Almost everyone in my class and group survived because we were dedicated to the program. I know some who were that didn’t make it, so I’m not blaming them, but if you can’t care enough to survive, why the fuck are we wasting our time with you? People have done everything to survive, glad for the plan, and yet you guys always complain.”

  I shook my head and went for the door, washing my hands of them. A few called after me, and I recognized pre-trans originally from this camp and they looked panicked.

  I nodded to the clipboard. “That’s what Dimitri planned. You want to slack and lower your chances at surviving, then sluff off. You want to live, then do what’s on the fucking schedule people have cared enough to build for you. Get your head in the game because if you lose you die.”

  I headed for the main building and ops center to start my shift early. I knew my temper and blow up wasn’t about them fully. No, it was this stupid bullshit and pranking. I didn’t find it funny, and it was pushing me to crack in a way I hadn’t done in years and years. Maybe a decade. Thinking of why I’d cracked last made me flinch and didn’t improve my mood.

  And then I saw a stop sign at my station with “Reserved” written on it instead of “STOP.” I was sure steam was coming out of my ears by then. Almost two months of this bullshit and no one seeming to take it seriously even when the person kept coming into my locked room and doing stuff to me. No, everyone was busy with their own stuff, and even if I’d been there for all of them, they just laughed off my stuff.

  It had been constant though. Almost every day of this shit from signs on my room to permanent marker on my forehead to necklaces saying it, and I could not take it anymore.

  “Sorry, Mark,” Rune muttered as he glanced from me to the sign. “It just appeared. Ops is never unmanned, but Gilroy said he went over to the cabinet for a second at the end of his shift and it was there.”

  I bobbed my head and then went for the sign. I dragged it outside and proceeded to lose my shit as I smashed the sign, breaking apart the metal and even chipping the concrete of the huge slabs we now had for the main connecting area instead of gravel.

  “So you finally snapped?” a deep voice chuckled, pulling me back to my surroundings.

  I swallowed what I wanted to say when I saw we had an audience, most heading to the cafeteria for lunch and deciding to stop and watch the show. I met his gaze, the bright orange eyes alluring especially since he was probably the sexiest, most tempting man I’d ever seen. “If I had known snapping was how to make you show yourself, I would have done it much sooner, Bricius.”

  Several people gasped, but a slow, seductive smirk formed on his lips. “So you figured it out? Good for you, Markham.”

  I managed not to flinch at my full name, giving a bored shrug instead. “Jordan has been giving me too many nervous looks not to have figured it out. Plus, it seems the ancient Wyrok like using us young warriors as a way to amuse themselves, so it made sense the oldest would go overboard into offensive territory.”

  “That’s not inaccurate but not really flattering as one of those ‘young warriors,’” Zibon grumbled. “And at least Alastair knew my real name.”

  Again, it was hard not to flinch. “Where are your twelve friends?” I asked Bricius to divert the conversation.

  “You are good,” he praised. “You are very, very good.”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. It seems you are the one deflecting.”

  He moved closer, reaching out his hand towards me. His eyes flashed shock when I smacked it away. “So it’s like that?”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “You think it would be anything else after the trouble you’ve been causing me? Assuming you can just ‘reserve’ whoever and you’re the great Bricius and they’ll cave?” I snorted. “I’m not remotely interested in that sort of ego.”

  He gave a slow nod. “Fine. Mate me and I’ll stay here and protect everyone.”

  I didn’t even have to think about it. “No.”

  That smirk came back. “So selfish. And I have an ego?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I would give my life to protect the people here. I have jumped into battle when I wasn’t even a warrior yet. It’s not about being selfish but honor. That is not a request that holds any honor, and I would never trust the person who would make it to keep up their end when the time came. You were born a warrior, maybe the oldest of us, and it’s your duty to protect people.”

  “Now you really will keep his interest,” someone who sounded like Jordan said from behind me.

  The anger that flashed in Bricius’s eyes a
t what I said disappeared just as fast. “And when does that ‘duty’ end? Never? Why am I forced to—”

  “Retire whenever you want, Bricius,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. “Retire. Live your life as you deserve and have clearly earned, but if you’re willing to barter protection, then you’re not retired and it’s your duty to help our people.”

  “You can come out,” he muttered after a few moments. I didn’t even have time to blink and twelve other vampires were standing behind him. They just appeared, several people letting out soft gasps as they did.

  “Are we done now?” I asked, not sure what to say or do as their arrival and this whole thing hung thick in the air. “I said no.”

  I got a full grin for that. “I would never have agreed if you had. That’s not anyone I’d want either.” He glanced behind me before meeting my gaze again. “But no, we are not done.”

  I didn’t like the way he said that. “I am. I want no part of someone who would poke me until he annoyed me so badly that I snapped.”

  “Take it as a test of character.”

  “And who are you to test my character?” I snarled, wincing and getting myself under control, stepping away. I saw the answer in his eyes, looking away. It wasn’t about him judging me, but him thinking he knew what was best. “Stay out of my affairs. I am of no concern to you.”

  “That’s not actually true,” he said under his breath.

  I lost my ever loving mind and went to punch him, not shocked when he easily caught my hand. I yanked it away, and he let me, his eyes showing clearly he let me.

  “Wait, why doesn’t it show in your aura that you’re so pissed you’d clock him?” Matteo demanded, coming over to us. He grabbed my arm and flinched. “It’s not flaring with…”

  “I get nothing off of him either,” Marissa admitted, standing with Gary. “London?”

  He shrugged. “I can’t control it. There are lots of people I don’t get anything off of, but I never have him.”

  “Me neither, but it’s not blank like Ashton,” Marissa muttered. “It’s… I’m getting a copy of my feelings. It makes me never notice him.” Her eyes went wide when I flinched. “You know your gift.”

  “With all due respect, Marissa, I’m not in your chain of command, nor do I answer to you,” I said firmly, cutting off what else she might have said.

  “You are in mine and my gift is reading exactly as Marissa said,” Alexander muttered, giving me a hard look. “Do you know your gift?”

  “Yes.”

  “And it is?”

  I cleared my throat. “I would request to answer you privately.”

  “Fuck that,” Zibon snarled, coming over to me and grabbing my arm. “I told you mine, Mark. What the hell is going on here? How did you get it without us noticing? I can’t sense the answer, but I know it’s not blank, so I’ve never noticed there’s no answer. You never brought it up or—”

  “You’re all answering the question,” Bricius interjected.

  “You’re a reflector,” Matteo said. “You reflect all other gifts. You’re not a void like Ashton that reads that way, but I’m getting back what I’m feeling so I’m not worried. It’s the ultimate chameleon gift.”

  “A good weapon if you can control it and extend it,” Bricius added, nodding when I flinched. “Which was why you kept it to yourself. Smart. Very smart, Markham.”

  “Why do you keep calling him that?” Lance demanded, and I swallowed my feelings. He was not going to be happy when he found out.

  “Please don’t,” I begged Bricius.

  He gave me a kind look. “It’s time, and there is no good way.”

  “That is not your decision to make!” I blinked back tears, my hands fisting at my sides. “I’m no concern of yours.”

  “But you are. I promised your parents the last time I was awake.” He reached for me again, but I stepped away. “I’m sorry for your loss. They were good people.”

  “What are you talking about, dude?” Nate whispered. “His parents are fine. Mark comes from the perfect, Hallmark card family.”

  “Did he ever tell you that?” Bricius challenged.

  Nate frowned. “No, we were…” I could feel his eyes on me then. “We were talking about our families, and you didn’t want to talk about it. We kept guessing and asked if you were part of the Cleavers like a TV perfect family.”

  Bricius pushed on. “And he said?”

  “‘Not exactly like that,’” Lance answered. “We just assumed it was like that. He has Skype calls with…”

  “Home but he never says family,” Nate muttered.

  “Enough,” I whispered, feeling all the eyes on me. “Enough of this and certainly not like this.”

  “No, it’s better to get it out like this as otherwise the rumors will be worse,” Bricius argued.

  “That is not for you to decide!” I tried again, turning and shoving at his chest, not moving him in the slightest. “I don’t care if you knew my parents or not. I don’t care what you think. You don’t know as much as you think so just leave it alone.” My chest was heaving as I felt everything around me start to come undone. “Leave me alone.” I turned to leave but froze in my steps at what he said next.

  “Your eldest uncle has died,” he informed me.

  I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Well, that’s no great loss, but thank you for telling me.”

  “You cannot run from this, Prince Markham,” he replied, agitation in his tone as I closed my eyes, the bastard actually letting the cat out of the bag. I felt the cold mask slide on that I always wore when people knew who I was. Then again, it might have been the mask I wore as “Mark” being lifted. I wasn’t sure which was my true self really. “You cannot run this time like you did before.”

  And then I didn’t care about that cat, instead the top of my head about popping off. I spun back on him. “Who ran? I did not run,” I sneered. “It was made very clear that I was not welcome.” He flinched, and I smirked at him. “Oh, did they not tell you everything? How typical, and yet for all your years you didn’t figure that out? You come here to push my buttons and out me and don’t even have all the information.”

  “Your grandmother—”

  “Slapped me across the face at their funeral and called me a murderer,” I cut in, barely controlling my emotions. “I knew very well it was my fault, I am the reason they are dead, but I did not murder them. All of them said it. I did not run. It was made clear that when they died I did to them as well.”

  “Your grandmother is sorry and has been—”

  “Don’t defend her to me,” I roared, shoving him again. “I was a child too. I was seventeen. I know it was my fault. I know I killed them, but I was just a kid. I was a kid who wanted his parents, but they were so busy with their research and—they were never there. I was born a warrior, and they left me alone. Then they had another son, not a warrior like me, and—why did I have to raise him?

  “Why was it all left to me? I wanted to be normal! They left me alone with the sharks all the damn time. Everywhere I turned, I was alone.” I realized I was slamming my fists into his chest, not stopping even if it hurt me more than him. “They promised we could talk. I needed to talk to someone who wouldn’t tell the tabloids when I realized who I was.

  “But no, they were leaving again. They found someone they needed to speak with. What about me? What about what I needed?” Tears fell down my cheeks. “I was their son, and everyone else mattered before me. It hurt so bad. I hurt all the time inside. I didn’t know if I was a brat they would die. I didn’t mean for them all to die.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” he whispered, pulling me into a hug. I tried to fight, but it was no use. I would have had a better chance fighting against metal. “You did not kill them.” He rubbed my back. “You didn’t. None of it was your fault.”

  “They would have taken a different plane, left sooner,” I choked out. “They wouldn’t have taken my brother with. I was supposed to watch him, but
I didn’t want to again. I had my own stuff and… I was so scared to tell them I was gay. I finally realize it and I needed to tell them instead of a scandal if someone found out, and all that mattered was their research. I had no one, and then I killed them.”

  “You didn’t,” he promised again. “And they loved you. I know they did.” He kissed my hair but let me go when I shoved him to get away. He nodded as I angrily wiped my eyes. “They loved you very much. They did. Your parents were good people but a bit flighty, oblivious, which was about the only way they survived that sort of environment. They adored you, Markham.”

  “I didn’t run,” I rasped, my voice sounding horrible, my emotions choking me. “Grandmother has known where to find me. I made sure of that when I left.”

  “She did not,” he argued.

  I blinked at him, slowly nodding as it sunk in. “Then there’s a situation there that needs to be looked into as I made sure it was left with her people.”

  “The situation has been rectified,” he told me. “She was smart and found out someone had wanted you out of the way when she found you gone. She wanted to apologize because no matter her grief, the way she acted was unforgiveable, and she’s the one who says that. However, she thought you ran, and they knew, hiding the information of where as there were always eyes on you.”

  “Fine, but that doesn’t change that I’m a warrior and it was made clear I wouldn’t fit in with the bloodline then, so I’m not sure what you thought telling me this would really change.” I nodded and went to turn away again, ignoring all the stares and looks from the people I’d known for years.

  “It’s more complicated than that, and you know it,” he lectured, sighing when I kept walking. “Your uncle was killed by zakasacs, Markham. The public doesn’t know yet, but I won’t be the only one to look for you then. It could lead the press and people here.

  “Your parents’ castle would be where the zakasacs will go next and probably soon. There is a full staff there and only human security, not even coven guards. There is no need without a royal residing there, but that puts all those people in danger.” He nodded when I glanced back at him. “Give me a chance, and I will help you.”