Nara put the phone down and turned to look at the man standing in the
doorway. Very tall, powerfully built was extremely good at
intimidating people. Hard, rippling muscles were clear evidence of
his strength. He was only half vampire. No pure blooded vampire would
ever be a slave. So instead of using one of their own kind, they bred
humans or mutants in Slave Pits to fight as gladiators for the joy of
masses. And when they were old enough and IF there was an elder
vampire that was interested in them, they were allowed a partial
transformation.

Kael was one of such slaves. He was very handsome. His face sharp,
all angles and plains. He had very long, rich, silky hair gathered
high on his head into a tight ponytail that turned into a braid that
fell almost to his waist. Warm mahogany bronze that seemed so… not
fitting… to a dangerous man like him.

She sometimes looked at him, really looked and saw a very attractive,
man. Very calm and controlled. But he wouldn't survive as a slave if
he wouldn't be able to control his feelings. Vampires liked pain.
They were so different than human. And they weren't evil like humans
liked to picture them. No. their love for pain and blood was real,
but they more liked experiencing it then causing. And they cherished
blood because it made them so much stronger, gave them eternal life.

Her gaze traveled along his chest, a work of art itself, to his face.
Kael was introduced to her by her husband. It didn't surprise her
that Marakaj surrounded himself with beauty. He was beautiful and
loved it around.

A flash of memory hit her. Waist long, silky, very heavy raven hair
and eyes of most intense navy blue she ever saw. Pale face and body
without a single mark. Marakaj. The love of her life.

She was barely sixteen when she me him. He told her straight away who
or what he was and asked her if she wanted to be marked by him.

Vampires, only the most powerful and oldest, could leave a Mark that
was a proof that the chosen person was their mate. She agreed. And in
a week she was is wife.

Right now looking at handsome but plain face of her bodyguard she
wondered just how deeply Marakaj managed to hurt him. The thin, white
scar that ran from the edge of his hairline, through left brow and
eyelid, then cheek, jaw, neck to collarbone was undoubtedly her
husbands work.

Kael didn't scar. He had healing factor he was born with and was a
half vampire what enchased his regeneration skills, but still Marakaj
managed it. She wasn't fooled for even a second. Maybe she was barely
a teenager but she knew what Marakaj was. She was in love, but she
wasn't blind. Her husband was a telepath/empath/telekinetic on… what
do they call it?… an omega level. They were linked most of the time
and she KNEW him.

Nara was aware of his lust for blood, his dominative tendencies and
pleasure the submissiveness gave him. She was never one for it. If
she wasn't strong, Marakaj would have destroyed her, broke her spirit
and drove her into madness. Even if not wishing it.
 

Instead he muted the link sometimes that her awareness of him was
just basic and found another way to get the dark desires fulfilled,
never wanting to hurt her. And she knew it, understood and considered
it a proof of his love. Just how much he must have loved her to
suppress his desires like that? He was a Master Vampire. The oldest
and post powerful of all. Not only among Nosferatu Clam nut all
others. He could do whatever he liked and no one would stop him,
certainly not she – a simple human, nor other vampires. Masters
decisions were never questioned. Yet he did everything possible t
protect her.

Nara raised her eyes to meet Kael's gaze but wasn't surprised that
the man averted his eyes. Always the slave. The long years of
training and conditioning id their work. She tried to set him free,
but he didn't listen.

She wondered vaguely if Marakaj took him to bed. She knew he liked
both sexes and Kael would never have a choice. The vampires never
knew or understood democracy or mercy. Their only law was strength.
Whoever was the most powerful, the one ruled. Dot. No questions, no
answers. Just raw, pure force. She suspected that Marakaj made Kael
his "pet". There was something strange in the way Keal watched her,
when he thought she wouldn't notice. The way the small hair on her
neck stood up when he was close. She saw shame in his eyes when she
asked about the scar for the very first and last time. She didn't
want to humiliate this man. He had suffered enough in his life. She
still wasn't sure how old he was. Marakaj was about one thousand
years old when she met him, but Kael was a mystery to her.

Nara still wasn't sure how she would react if Kael confirmed that he
was her husbands' lover. Pure human part in her would want to skin
him alive. Maybe she was usually calm and gentle but she could be
very possessive. After all she and Marakaj were a MATCHED pair. She
had temper, just hidden. But there was also the soul inside her. No
one was really sure how it worked. It wasn't possible… theoretically.
She felt Marakajs' presence inside her all the time. The movement as
a dark fog that enveloped her in black softness. She could share his
memories and knowledge sometimes. It happened that walking the
street, window shopping she could stop in front of an antiquary and
tell the origin of antique chairs. Something small, meaningless
sometimes sparked her/his memory. At first it was confusing, sharing
her mind with barely conscious presence, but then she just accepted
it. Now if a particularly attractive woman caught her attention,
igniting a sudden, fierce spark of lust she knew it was him. It
taught her that he saw world so much different than she.

Not once she experienced the sudden urge to grab Kael by that thick
braid and force him to his knees, knowing well he would oblige, and
feed on his submission. Fuck him, humiliate him, destroy, make him
bleed and crash into pieces and then create him again, stronger.

But the urge was never strong enough to threaten her. She always KNEW
it wasn't her. And Marakaj wasn't trying to force her. He merely
showed her what he saw looking at Kael. Power. Sexuality hidden under
perfect obedience. Stamina.

She saw something completely different. A caring, infinitively
patient man. Extremely loyal. A rock that would always be there
beside her, quiet and eternal. A man that wouldn't break his word
even for the price of his life.

- Kael… - She started softly, not sure how to ask him a favor. She
never ordered him, it just wasn't her style. Even if she knew he
would obey, she preferred to ask him. She wanted to show him, that
she RESPECTED him.

- Yes? – He asked quietly, trying to look smaller, less threatening
while talking to her.

- When I got ill last month… you gave me some kind of potion. You
said that it would heal me. No matter from what I suffer.

He nodded. A nasty suspicion was creeping up his back.

- Will you give me another bottle?

He sucked a breath with a hiss. He should have expected it. Really.
After what he overheard from the conversation he should have known.

- The potion is to be used ONLY on royalties. Giving it to a human-
he all but spat the word- would be breaking of the Code.

Nara came closer to him. Her head reached him only to armpit but
still she wasn't afraid of his size.

- Why? - She asked calmly. She needed to understand the rules in
order to break them, didn't she?

- There are many reasons. One is that the potion will kill any human.

- Kael. – She asked tilting her head and letting the shimmering wave
of gold fall over one arm – I AM a human.

He dropped his gaze to her neck in search for the barely visible bite
mark. She understood and unconsciously raised her head to touch it.

- Yes, he marked me. But he didn't change me. I NEVER drank his blood
Kael.

- But you tasted it. – It wasn't a question. He knew how much Marakaj
was into blood play. Pain was just a side effect for him. The blood
was what mattered.

Nara closed her eyes and turned her face for a moment. Kael wondered
if she knew how strikingly beautiful she was. His heart clenched for
a moment. She wasn't so beautiful at first but Marakajs' power
changed her. Made her breathtaking, almost inhuman. Just like Marakaj
himself.

- No Kael. – She said finally. – I am completely human, without even
a trace of vampire blood in me. – and the potion didn't kill me. Why?

He sighed.
- Small dozes are… relatively safe. But you… you are protected by
Marakaj. You can not compare yourself to simple human.

– What I tell you now… mustn't leave this room. – She started
cautiously.

He nodded, curious.

- When I met Marakaj… he cried Kael. The first time he saw me tears
of blood run down his cheeks.

Kael straightened his spine. Marakaj cried?! Vampires cried blood
tears only when they KNEW their time was ending. When the sensed
their death. Otherwise they couldn't.

- He knew he was going to die soon. And he was intent on making sure
I would stay mortal. And I think it is better that way. But then I
wanted to join him. – She turned back to him and reached out a hand
to his face.

Kael stilled waiting for her actions. She touched his scar with index
finder so lightly that he felt the heat of he body more that the
actual pressure.

- Do you know that you have that scar because of me? – She asked
almost whispering, lost in memories, but still touching him. – One
day he cut himself. Just a little cut that bled only a drop before it
closed and healed. But I acted on instinct and bent to kiss it. Lick
the blood away. That day was the only moment he got mad at me for
real. After short but extremely fierce fight he left. I knew he did
it not to hit me. He came back next morning. Calm. Peaceful.
Apologized. Then, few hours later, I saw you. With a scar that by all
rules, you shouldn't have.

He jerked back, surprised how much she noticed. He was just a slave,
less than nothing in comparison to her. Being her husbands' sex toy
granted him release from being a gladiator but nothing more. He was a
thing. Still she noticed him.
Did she also notice how much in love he was with her? How desperately
needing to be close?

Marakaj noticed and laughed at him so hard it must have hurt. He
remembered kneeling at the hard, cold floor with his head bent and
hair undone, like Marakaj liked it and hearing that roar of laughter.
It seemed to last hours. He felt more humiliated than ever before.
Not even the displays in front of the spectaculars or the common
knowledge that he became nothing more than a whore hurt this much. It
hurt even more because he knew, he would never have her. When Marakaj
finally stopped laughing and snickering he took fistful of his hair
and jerked back, forcing Kael to bare his throat to him. And then
told him, in detail what he would do to him if he ever even looked at
Nara the wrong way. But to make his point he punished him in advance.
No one got to even look at what was his, and Marakaj made damn sure
Kael understood his lesson.

And he did. After the public punishment Kael was despised even among
other slaves as less than them. But still Marakaj taught him how to
fight. He gave him the ability to morph, which made him almost
unstoppable in fight.

Even now, few years after that night Kael felt blush creep on his
face at the very thought Nara could notice his attraction.

- What do you want from me?- He asked finally recomposing himself.
There was no way she would notice.

- Give me the potion?

- Because some human needs to be saved? – He snarled. – Don't think
so.

- No. – She said so very softly. – Because I ask you.

Fuck. She knew there was no way he would refuse her. And although
making the potion HURT he could only stare into the ever-surprisingly
bright, almost yellow eyes and nod.

She gave him one of her rare smiles.

- Thank you Kael.

He nodded again and turned to leave wondering why the hell he must
have fallen for that particular woman? So pure although being with a
Master Vampire?

He entered his room and took the small suitcase out. Then pulled a
set of herbs. While mixing them together he whispered the old words
of shaman magic that Marakaj taught him personally only for this one
purpose. When the water with herbs started glowing, he closed his
eyes for a moment. He knew it was going to hurt like hell. He
prepared the syringe and drank the mixture.

There was a deceivingly long moment of nothing happening and then all
his insides were on fire. In his ears the whisper of power was so
strong he though he would go death. His bowels seemed to boil and
twist causing his knees to give. He fell to the floor with a loud
thump. He prayed that Nara wouldn't hear it. The last time he did it,
she wasn't there.

His vision swam and he knew the moment was close. Then he felt as if
his heart was being ripped into pieces, he wasn't able to breathe at
all and was using all his will, not to howl in pain.

Blindly he reached out for the syringe and clawed at his shirt to
expose his chest. Finally, with trembling fingers he took the syringe
and counted his ribs, with practiced movement sliding the long needle
between ribs and straight into his heart. Copper taste of blood
filled his mouth when he bit his tongue, convulsions taking hold of
his body.

He never heard the shocked gasp. Nara came to his room to ask if he
needed something to the potion and then SAW just what the potion was.
Smelling the sweet scent of herbs and shaman magic in the air
triggered Marakaj's memory and she understood the ritual.

She watch with terror as Kael pressed the needle to his body, knowing
it was aimed for his heart and then watched the syringe fill with
strangely glowing blood, that changed it's color quickly becoming
transparent, and blue.

She knelt beside barely conscious Kael and stroked his face gently
while his healing factor worked to remove the damage. She tried to
soothe him, let him know she didn't know how much it cost him.

- I am sorry Kael. I never wanted to hurt you…

But she needed the potion, and probably would have asked anyway.
Sometimes she wondered just how much like Marakaj she was…

TBC