Zaria Daratrazanoff sat at her vanity in her bedroom in the grand house she lived in-her prison. She had all the things she could ever desire on the outside, but no one knew what life was like on the inside of the beautiful house that smelt of death and screamed of evil. Life was not as a piece of cake when you lived in a house with vampires.
" There's my beautiful girl." Sergey Malinov-Zaria's biological father-said as he opened her bedroom door and walked in with a necklace box in his hand. Zaria cut her garnet eyes up at him in the mirror, sighing.
" Another one? More gifts to commemorate the day you ruined my life, Sergey?" She inquired, her voice dripping with disdain as he placed the silver chain with a large diamond hanging from it around her neck. He tightened the chain around her neck, snatching her back against him.
" I gave you a life, Zaria. An army at your beck and call. Every piece of jewelry that you could ever desire. Allowed you to get degree after degree. What more could you ask for? I have not killed you when I certainly could have." He reminded, fastening the chain around her neck and stepping back. Zaria whirled to face him, garnet eyes blazing.
" You have not killed me because you need me, Sergey. Let's face it." Zaria snapped, standing up, her hands on her hips. Sergey moved then, wrapping his hand around her throat and slamming her into the wall so hard that a mirror shattered and rained glass down on her, forcing her to close her eyes and cover her head.
" You are right. If I didn't need you to control my army, I never would have kept someone so damn troublesome alive." Sergey said, releasing her.
" Sure, whatever." She snapped, moving back to her vanity and sitting down, her back to Sergey, showing she wasn't the least bit scared of him nor what he might do to her.
" Get dress, Zaria. I have a job for you." He ordered, flinging a pair of leather pants and a black leather v-neck, three-quarter sleeve blouse onto the bed with a pair of black high heeled boots.
" Oh, joy." She commented, rolling her eyes at him.
Inara Daratrazanoff looked over at her eldest daughter, Damalia, who was sitting on the couch next to her lifemate, Tariq Asenguard, looking through a photo album of Damalia's childhood with her beloved younger sister, Zaria, who had been missing since she was six years old.
Tiberiu Bercovitz-Inara's lifemate and the man Damalia considered her father-laid his hand on Inara's shoulder, brushing her mind with his. He knew how hard this day was on her. Zaria had been the baby of the family and loved dearly by them all. Her kidnapping all those years ago had ripped something from them that they could never get back. Any trace of Zaria had disappeared, leading them to believe she had been taken from the mountains-maybe the entire European continent. Any hope of finding her was pretty much lost along with her trail.
" I miss her." Damalia said as Tariq and Tiberiu both went completely rigid.
" Mikhail is under attack." Tiberiu said as they sprang up, fleeing towards the home of Mikhail Dubrinsky-the Carpathian prince-unsure who would attack them when there was no hint of an attack. Things had been quiet in the mountains. Too quiet apparently.
" We must hurry." Tariq said, not stopping to argue with Damalia on staying behind.
Mikhail whirled, slicing at a vampire as he tried to keep his lifemate, Raven, behind him. His younger brother, Jacques, and his lifemate, Shea, were off to his left fighting as well. His second-in-command and son-in-law as well as oldest friend, Gregori Daratrazanoff, was off to his right fighting alongside his lifemate-Mikhail and Raven's daughter-Savannah.
There were numerous other couples, Ivory Malinov, her lifemate, Razvan Shonski, his twin sister, Natalya, her lifemate, Virkinoff Von Shrieder, his younger brother, Nicolae, his lifemate, Destiny, another couple, Falcon, and Sara, Julian Savage, his lifemate, Desari Daratrazanoff, Darius Daratrazanoff, his lifemate, Tempest, Aidan Savage, his lifemate, Alexandria, Gabriel Daratrazanoff, his lifemate, Francesca, Dimitri, his lifemate, Skyler, Lucian Daratrazanoff, and his lifemate, Jaxon, all fighting the vampires valiantly when Tiberiu, Inara, Damalia, and Tariq exploded onto the scene and joined the fierce battle.
" We're not going to survive this." Mikhail said to Gregori who sliced at a vampire. Gregori nodded gravely. He knew they were going to fall as well. They could only go out fighting.
" It has been an honor, Mikhail." Gregori said. Mikhail gave him a tight smile.
A vampire launched himself at Raven, knocking her backwards, away from Mikhail. He was about to tear into her when he was suddenly ripped away from her, flying backwards into a tree. Raven found herself staring up into the face of a young woman in a pair of dark shades. She held her hand out, pulling Raven easily to her feet. She shoved two swords into her hands and then let out a small sigh.
" I hate vampires. They have to be the most disorganized creatures." The young woman-a child really-said, rubbing the bridge of her nose and rolling her eyes before dropping her hand and letting out a high pitched whistle, stopping the vampires in their tracks.
They all turned to face her as she stepped away from Raven. The vampires all stepped back, abandoning their battle. The real fear in their eyes was jaw dropping as they watched the young woman dressed in all leather with leather boots that came to her thighs and her long raven hair with a strange silver streak framing her face falling to her hips in sensual curls.
" What are you doing here? We left you in the cave. You should not have been able to escape." One vampire snarled. The young woman produced a silver collar and threw it to him.
" You really should learn new spells." She taunted, gathering energy in her hands so that it glowed white hot and nearly as bright as the sun.
" You do not want to do that." One vampire said, trying to appease her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
" Well, Roberto, you could always fight to see who I spare." She said, shrugging. She took several steps back when a frenzied battle between the vampires broke out. She leaned casually against a tree, continuing to gather the energy in her hands.
" I have never seen anything like this. I've only ever seen Lucian control a vampire with his voice." Gabriel said, staring at the young woman as she casually lobbed the ball of energy into the fray, killing all but one vampire.
" Hmm. Roberto." She mused, walking towards him, the sway of her hips hypnotic, her movements graceful.
" Come away from here, little one." He said, holding his hand out to her. To everyone's shocked horror, she placed her hand in his, allowing him to pull her to him.
Roberto's eyes widened as he looked down to see the woman's little fist buried in his chest. He felt her fingers close around his heart, nails digging into the organ painfully. His eyes snapped to her face, confusion on his.
" I wanted this death for you, Roberto. I owe it to you. I wanted to feel my fingers around your heart and know that I'm the one who took your life. He was an idiot to think I would remain loyal to him. You didn't honestly think I would spare you, did you? I've been around you vampires for most of my life, I managed to pick up a few tricks along the way. One of them happens to be deception." She said, smiling sweetly at him a flames licked along her arm, burning Roberto from the inside out.
" He will kill your girls now. Those he doesn't kill will come after you. You betrayed not only him, but them as well." He said as he turned completely into ash. She removed her fist, waving her hand to send his ashes scattering about the land.
" You saved my life." Raven said, stepping forward and holding out the swords she had been given.
" I should have been here sooner." She said, shaking her head and pushing the swords back towards Raven. " You keep them. This war is far from over. He will send vampiresses and they are trickier to kill. They will not sacrifice one another like vampires." She said, turning towards the woods.
" Wait, what is your name?" Mikhail inquired.
" I had a name once, but no longer. I am no longer that little girl. That girl is long gone, leaving death in her place." She replied, turning and walking off.
" Wait, there was a child taken from us years ago. Her name was Zaria. Is she still alive?" Gregori asked.
" No. She died long ago. She had no choice. She broke and could not be repaired no matter who tried. Even if the true Zaria was alive, you would not want her back. She would be cold, cruel, and uncaring." She replied, turning and walking off.
" Zari-bug!" Damalia screamed, causing the girl to hesitate. She shuddered, shaking her head.
" Zaria, do not do this to your family. You fought too hard to just walk away." A male said, walking into the clearing. The girl's head snapped up.
" John, what are you doing here?" She asked, looking up at him.
" Well, someone had to make sure you didn't do something stupid." He replied, flashing her a smile. She raised an eyebrow at him.
" I never do anything stupid." She replied, indignant.
" What you're about to do isn't?" He inquired, moving suddenly, heaving her over his shoulder and carrying her back to the others, ignoring her struggles.
" Put me down right now, John! Now!" She growled, kicking.
" No. Zaria, you saved my life and you deserve to be with your family once again. You're not evil like you think you are." John said. Zaria ceased her struggles and turned to look at him over her shoulder.
" I never said I thought I was evil." She informed him hotly.
" No, but you think it quite frequently." He replied, setting her on her feet.
" I thought I told you to stay out of my head." She hissed, glaring at him.
" I do not recall that conversation." He mused, flicking her shades off her face to reveal a pair of vivid garnet-almost scarlet-eyes flashing fire at him.
" I'm sure you don't." She muttered dryly, gripping his hand hard as she turned to face her family. John moved his hand, grimacing as he wiggled his fingers. Um…Zaria, you are crushing my hand. He said on their private mental path-one created through a blood bond. Oh! Sorry! She replied, snatching her hand away. John shook his hand, giving her a tight smile.
" Zaria, why did you tell us you were dead? Honey, we have missed you so." Inara said, reaching up and touching Zaria's face. It was no longer the chubby face of a child they had all known, this was the face of a woman with eyes of a woman who had seen far too much.
" Because I am dead. I'm not the little girl you once knew." She said, dropping her head. John moved, placing his foot directly on top of hers. She grounded her teeth together and elbowed him, glaring.
" Zaria, you may not be the same girl, but you are our little girl. We have searched constantly for you all these years." Tiberiu said, stepping forward and cupping Zaria's face in his hands.
" Dad…." Zaria choked, reaching back and taking John's hand. He in turn gave her a little shove towards Tiberiu.
" Zaria." He whispered, pulling her into his arms before stepping back to look at her. " Is this your lifemate?" He inquired, looking at John through narrowed eyes.
Zaria and John both looked horrified as they dropped one another's hands and stepped away from each other, shaking their heads and making a faces of disgust.
" If I had John as a lifemate I would run screaming into the dawn." Zaria said, shaking her head again in protest to the notion.
" You would have to beat me to it." John stated, shuddering at the thought of being bound to someone he looked at like a sister-his best friend. Zaria gave him a small smile.
" Okay, that just makes this situation a little more confusing as he seems to still have his colors and emotions." Tiberiu said.
" That's because he has only been in his Carpathian life for about a year." Zaria said, biting her bottom lip.
" You were not born Carpathian?" Mikhail asked, stiffening.
" No, Sergey was going to convert me, but Zaria did it before he got the chance, to save me the pain." John said, his head held high.
" You know why I did it, John. A lot of it was to save you pain, but a lot of it was because I needed a friend." Zaria admitted. John shrugged.
" I do not care why you did it, Zaria, but I'm glad you did." John said, watching as she fisted one hand and rubbed it against her temple. He sighed, glancing up at the sky.
" What is it?" Inara asked, looking up as well.
" Headache?" John asked. Zaria nodded.
" A little one." She allowed, still rubbing her temple. He sighed again, shaking his head.