Frailty: The Darkshine(25)

He tensed beneath her and she lifted her head to look at him. He stared at her for a second before looking out the window with his brows knit. His hand went behind her head and pushed it gently back down to his chest, right over his heart.

“You want to know everything?”

“Yes.”

“We come from a place that is not known by any other kind. We are an age-old species that is a predator amongst all.”

“What about the myths about vampires? Is any of it true? I mean, I thought vampires couldn’t be in the sun?”

“Well, a lot of those are exactly what you said, just myths. Humans have made the myths in order to make them feel as if they can have some kind of control over us. In truth, many of those things about vampires are false. It is true we have fangs and must drink blood to survive. Our strength is insurmountable, and our senses are keener than any other creature on the planet. We can hear better, see farther, and run faster than any other species on this planet.”

His hand slowly ran up and down her nude back, calming her as he spoke of what he truly was. “Sunlight can’t kill us, as you can already attest to. Garlic, holy water and stakes through the heart can’t harm us either.”

“So you can never die?”

“We are immortal, but only to an extent. Nothing aside from cutting off my head, burning my body, and burying the ashes in separate locations can kill me.”

“Has anybody ever tried to kill you before?”

“I have been around for thousands of years. I have made many enemies.”

“Why did your kind decide to rise now? Is it the world or just the United States?” He was quiet for a suspended moment, his gaze trained on the window, his face flat of any emotion.

“The world.” The words were spoken low and dark. “It wasn’t my decision. It had been tried once before, but the result had been less then pleasant. I was actually against the whole idea, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I thought it cruel to take over what was not ours, to kill and capture a species that had flourished in this world. My mother and father are the king and queen of the DarkShine, and they had the whole species in agreement that our kind should rule, not live in the shadows. They said they were sick of hiding from a weaker species, of being in the proverbial dark and being the second class in this world. So they perfected their technique, tweaked what needed tweaked and came together to take what they wanted.”

Shock resonated through her. “What happened to all of the humans?” Helina already had an idea of what had happened, had seen what they had done to her sister, but she wanted Gaijryc to tell her himself. It put her at ease to know that the man—the vampire that she had grown to care about had been against what his kind had done.

His hand snaked around to her front and he pulled her closer, cradling her head against his chest. “There are many of us, but not nearly as much as there are humans. We trained, learned the weaknesses of humans and what there faults were. We watched the wars that they participated in, watched as they slaughtered their own for power. Soon we had all the information that was needed to overcome the humans.”

“What about my government? Surely they had weapons that could stop you?”

“Without a doubt, but like I said, unless they kill us in a specific manner, my kind is unstoppable. It was actually quite easily to take control, but make no mistake; I had nothing to do with it and would have stopped it if I could have.” He kissed the top of her head and she closed her eyes.

“I’m not proud to say what I’m about to tell you, but you deserve to know. My kind has killed many humans, but the majority are kept as slaves. The majority have been kept as workers within high-ranking family homes, or as their pets.”

Fear and disgust bombarded her at what he said. “What do you mean, pets?”

“We can survive off of our own kind’s blood, but you see, humans taste so much better. They’re like an aphrodisiac, a drug to our senses, an intoxicating liquor that drives us mad. Some of the DarkShine like to keep pets, like to keep humans as their blood lovers.”

She was disgusted by what Gaijryc told her. How could his kind be so cruel as to keep pets—human beings for their food and their sex slaves?

“They like it, though, humans I mean. They’re willing in every sense.”

She looked at Gaijryc with wide eyes.

“How do you know that?”

“Years ago when I was just a fledgling, I saw that Ryce, the first ranking lord of the DarkShine League, had a human female for a pet. I was very young and didn’t fully understand the concept. I saw her as a caged animal, but in all actuality she was a treasured jewel. I had snuck into his room while he was away on a mission, curious as to what the fascination was with the weaker species. I expected her to be chained, to have ragged clothes on and be dirty, but she had been sleeping in his bed, wrapped in his silk sheets with rubies and diamonds on her neck. She was beautiful, with long dark hair and these striking hazel eyes that seemed to look into your very soul.”