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Chapter Twelve
Six months ago . . . .
It had been six months since Riordyn had found Jenna lying in a pool of her own blood and nursed her back to health. Yet for all he had done, she hadn't uttered a single word, and her eyes remained glazed and unseeing. He craved to share her mind, to listen to her speak, to hear her laughter, but as the nights passed he resigned himself to the knowledge that the woman he knew was gone forever.
True to his word, Conleth remained with him, and watched over Jenna when he could not be with her. Every night he rose from his sleep and returned to her side in hope things would change. Every night he was met with the same soul shattering disappointment.
Jinn-Si's second command came the night he returned to her. No longer was he allowed to sleep deep beneath the healing soil during the daylight. Instead she forced him to sleep beside her in the bed they made love in to add to his torment.
The same dark madness that had taken Jenna from him, slowly edged into his mind, and he feared that in the end he would turn vampire. He no longer trusted himself to feed from humans as the urge to kill grew too strong. Conleth would feed then shared his own blood with Riordyn. Unbeknownst to the younger Carpathian, he also drank Jinn-Si's blood – another command of hers, a command he knew would damn his soul for all eternity. Conleth would then command Riordyn to sleep beneath the soil for an hour or so to regain some of his waning strength. If it weren't for his new found friend, he would not have lasted more than a month.
When he rose tonight from an hour of restless slumber, Conleth sat waiting for him as usual. "This cannot go on much longer," he said, waving a hand at the unsettled earth. "You do yourself no favor in agreeing to her every demand. Every night I see the growing madness in your eyes, and it leads me to wonder if I should take matters into my own hands."
"And how would you do that?" Riordyn lifted a brow. "If you take my life, you will not end Jenna's suffering. And if you think to end her life, I will kill you."
"Let me take her from here, Riordyn." He pushed to his feet, turned his back on Riordyn, and walked to the edge of Jenna's bed. "If she is far away from Jinn-Si, she might recover. It is the only thing I can think of to save your lifemate."
A low growl erupted from deep within Riordyn's throat. "You will not take what is mine from me!"
"Then you are the one condemning her to madness." Conleth stood his ground. "I did not want to mention this but your eyes have burned red for the past two months. I am not a fool, Riordyn. I know what you do when you are not with Jenna! Let me take her away from this place, and then greet the dawn as you should."
Riordyn stared long and hard at Jenna. In six months she had gone from being alive and vibrant to a catatonic shell. Dark smudges rimmed her eyes, and she had grown so thin he feared she wouldn't live much longer. Still she was the only scrap of sanity he was holding on to. But Conleth was right. If Jinn-Si couldn't find her, maybe she would recover, and he could greet the dawn, ending both of their suffering. "Where would you take her?"
"It would be for the best if I did not tell you. If you know, Jinn-Si would find out."
Every ingrained instinct within him reared up to fight against the idea of setting Jenna free even if it was to save her life. His eyes gleamed fiercely red in the warm glow of the candlelight. Incisors lengthening to razor sharp deadly fangs, his fingernails turned to claws. He fisted his hands, his claws biting deep into his flesh. "Take her now before I lose control over my body!" he ordered in a harsh rasping whisper. "Save her from me so she might find some peace."
"I am truly sorry we found no way in which to save you both."
Breathing hard, Riordyn flinched as Conleth gathered Jenna in his arms, and headed out of the cavern. He remained as still as a statue, knowing if he moved an inch, he would go after them, and more than likely kill the man trying to save his lifemate. You will let me know if she recovers?
I will let you know, he responded then closed himself off to Riordyn.
Riordyn remained where he stood the entire night, giving them a chance to get far away before he returned to Jinn-Si. As dawn approached, he waved a hand through the air and everything he created for Jenna's comfort disappeared, leaving the cavern as cold and empty as his heart and soul. Shifting into a hawk, he flew back to the woman who destroyed his life.
No longer dressed in the guise of a weak helpless woman, Jinn-Si wore a deep burgundy gown cinched at the waist, and cut low to expose a good portion of her breasts. A slit ran up the side of the dress, ending at her upper thigh. Gone were the gaunt cheeks and the dark smudges beneath her now deep emerald eyes. As usual she greeted him with the menacing smile of someone who knew they had him right where they wanted him.
"You are looking particularly miserable tonight," she said as a way of greeting him, combing her fingers through her long raven hair. "What's the matter, lifemate, did she not wake to greet you when you crawled to her bedside?"
"Andras would be proud you avenged him so mercilessly," he uttered, slumping onto the bed. "Had I known back then how black your soul is, I would have killed you first."
"Never tempt a woman to revenge, lifemate, for you will be sorely out of your depth." Laughter spilled from her red painted lips as she came to stand in front of him. "More the fool you are, lover. Had you killed me, you would have met your true lifemate so much sooner than you did. You would have saved her from many lifetimes of madness."
His fingers twitched with the need to wrap themselves around her throat and choke the life from her. "You have gotten what you wanted. Jenna is well beyond my reach, and my only wish is to greet the dawn. You have done your worst, destroying me utterly and completely. So tell me, how does this end, Jinn-Si?"
"You have no idea what it means to suffer, Riordyn!" she spat, the smile slipping from her face. "I loved Andras, and you murdered him in front of my eyes. Hundreds of years I've waited for that foolish little girl to find you – and in every lifetime, I ached for Andras' touch. Now you will know what that feels like."
"He murdered innocent people! I could do no other than to see him punished for his crimes!"
"And I can do no other than see you suffer for yours."
His hands fisted into the thick comforter on the bed. "Eventually I will turn vampire, and will not care if you take Jenna with you when I rip out your throat out," he snarled, exposing his fangs in hope that she would see how close he was to becoming a vampire.
"No, you will not turn vampire – as long as she's alive you'll cling to the hope that you can somehow break the bond you created between us."
"I believed you to be my lifemate. I thought – I believed I was saving you from madness."
"Oh, you did," she chuckled, "truly you did, and in doing so, you drove Jenna into the bowels of Hell." Her thumb nail traced a path along the vein in her throat, slicing into her flesh. Blood dripped down her pale skin, inciting his hunger. "When you speak so softly to her, she smells my blood on your breath. Do you fool yourself into believing she does not know you take my blood into your body every night? Do you convince yourself it is all right since you do not make that final exchange?"
"I do it only because you command it of me," he gritted out, stomach churning at the thought of how many times he drank her blood – of how he had come to need and enjoy the taste of her blood even though he despised her. "I do it for her . . . for the small measure of peace you give her in exchange for my complete obedience."
I must give Conleth time to take Jenna far away from here, he reminded himself as he rose to his feet, and closed the gap between them. In a few days he would walk into the sunlight whether he heard from him or not, but for now he lowered his head, and drank in her powerful mage blood. If she read his thoughts she failed to comment or taunt him for losing his lifemate. Instead, she murmured, "You do it for yourself, Riordyn. You may not love me, but you need me - and my blood more than you need your pathetic lifemate." She pulled back slightly and held his gaze until he lowered his head and averted his eyes. "Deny it and I will withhold my blood from you." Tucking her hand beneath his chin, she lifted his head, and caught his gaze once more. "If you truly love your lifemate, tell me you'd rather feast from humans, and you will have my permission to do so."
The moments stretched between them as she waited for his response. The words to say he wasn't addicted to her powerful blood, lodged in his throat. "Without my lifemate to wash away the darkness filling me up inside, I need your blood to keep from harming innocent humans."
A smile curled on her painted lips. "Tell yourself whatever lies you need to, lover." She laughed maliciously. "How sad will it be for young Jenna to have to tell your people you chose the sweet, powerful blood of your enemy over her?" His shoulders slumped, and she patted him lightly on the cheek. "Return to the emptiness of your true lifemate's cavern, and upon your next rising, I want to see you on your knees when you are begging for my blood. If not, you will go without until you do. Is that understood?" Gritting his teeth, he gave a curt nod. "Good. Andras would be proud to see how low the man who murdered him as fallen."