Chapter 1
"Dragon Seeker"
(Revised after reading Dark Demon)
Bucharest, Romania
November 2007
Mandy stood under the rain, watching out for a cab, she needed to go to the ER, get her ankle checked again, although she already knew it was a sprain.
"Are you alright, lady?" Tristan spoke to her in English, with a hint of Scottish accent; he had inherited that from the McBrides.
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you; I'm waiting for a cab." Mandy replied keeping a good ten feet of distance with the man.
"I meant no disrespect to you, is just that I saw the show and I wanted to tell you that you were wonderful." Mandy snorted in reply, she had been regular at best, not wonderful. "There's my car, over there, I can give you a ride to your hotel."
Mandy turned around and gazed at the stranger; his voice had something that called out to her. "I don't go out … with strangers." Mandy's speech halted when she noticed that even to her 5'10'' height he was a towering 6'3'' and well built.
She felt intimidated by his physical presence, and then she gazed directly into his eyes; he had soft almost welcoming aquamarine eyes. He also had a full mouth and slightly pointy ears, kind of like an elf, and dimples, his smile had dimples; all of that combined rendered him almost childish but the square jaw and the high cheekbones made him a dangerously handsome, and mighty tall Elf.
And he had red hair, deep burgundy, she dearly wished she had hair just as beautiful, in fact she had dyed her hair like that a few times during her life, but it made her look sickly.
"You are right, I am a stranger, there's a cab." Mandy turned her eyes back to the street, it was pouring rain and her body was beginning to tremble. "Oh no, is taken. Are you sure you wouldn't like a ride? I don't bite, I promise. And I'm not a serial killer either, in fact I'm an investor, I was thinking about financing a ballet company."
"I told you, I don't go away with strangers, and I'm retired, tonight was my last show."
Amanda herself was a classic beauty; she had big blue-gray eyes, they were almond shaped and framed by thick black eyelashes, she had slanted cheek bones, so pronounced that it reminded people of Audrey Hepburn, in fact she possess that willowy elegance and proud walking, she also had a full mouth, a straight nose, and long wavy hair. And it all seemed to emphasize her size; she was tall, lean and delicately graceful as ballerinas should to be. As female Carpathians should be.
Tristan noticed all those things and smiled, she didn't fit his type at all; he had always preferred curvy, sexy, little blondes.
He wasn't Mandy's type either; she had always enjoyed the tall, dark, handsome and broody type of men, like most vampires were depicted in books.
"Oh, tell me it isn't so! You are such a wonderful dancer." Mandy started to feel uncomfortable with his staring, she felt like he was undressing her with the eyes; and she decided to hazard a long walk to her hotel.
She hadn't taken more than a few steps when she slipped and fell, lading awkwardly against the concrete with her bottom first, shamefully so.
Tristan had been walking behind her, caught up in the rain as well; he was dodging an impossible erection just to see her standing there, drenched in rain with her nearly see-through dress.
He didn't catch her when she fell; in fact he had almost wanted her to slip so he could offer assistance.
"Are you alright?" Tristan asked, keeping the lust at bay, gazing at her deep cerulean eyes, she was crying, sobbing painfully, he felt the anguish and he offered his hand so she could stand up again.
"Live me alone!" Mandy pushed his hand away and laid there on the wet asphalt, with the cold rain drenching her even further.
Mr. Rogers, the company director had politely asked her to leave the ballet company that night, to try teaching young kids for a change.
She had taken what little bits of her pride were left and ran out resigning her position on the company on the spot.
She had been holding back the tears until she was all alone at her hotel room, she was too proud to cry in front of her peers.
"I cannot do that, lady. I'm a gentleman, you are in distress, if I may, I'll take you somewhere warm …and dry, maybe even to a hospital. I don't mind the rain, but your ankle is looking worse by the minute and you're shaking like a leaf." Mandy sighed painfully and a sudden flow of tears came down her face, this stranger was kinder to her that any of her friends.
"I don't have any money; I can't pay for a doctor here!" Tristan ignored her ramblings and took her into his arms, and carried her to his car. "They don't treat foreigners for free, you know? My boss said he'll pay me the severance next month when the tour finished."
"I'm not going to let you stay here hurt, wet and sad, so I'll take you to the doctor, I'll pay him and then you'll pay me back. How does that sound?" Mandy agreed with a nod, she was still sobbing painfully but the tears had stopped flowing.
Tristan felt like she was breaking his heart into a dozen tiny pieces with each sob. He wanted to kill her boss with bare hands, slow and painfully. She was injured, how dared he ask her to leave?! That was plain cruelty to him.
"Am I too heavy?" Tristan paused to secure her closer to his body when he crossed the street to get to his car.
"Too Heavy? Do you even know what that means, you weight less than hundred pounds, and believe me for your height you must be a result of anorexia and bulimia." Tristan dropped her on the leather seat and she started crying again, even louder than before.
He had a vintage Mercedez Benz, a convertible of all kind of cars.
"You don't know what is like been in this industry? You can't weigh more than a hundred and twenty pounds, no matter how tall you are, I've been a ballerina since I was seven, I've never been able to enjoy my body, never! There was always something about it, first I was gawky, then I was ugly, asymmetrical, legs and arms too long for the torso, and then my face, my eyes are too big, the feet too big, the breast too big. In this industry perfection is everything…." Amanda buried her face between her hands and cried brokenly. "I'm not perfect anymore, I think I never was!"
Tristan drove on, like he wasn't listening to her but he was. She had such a distorted image of herself.
"Ballet isn't everything, I'm sure there's something else that you'd like to do with your life." Tristan offered as he tried to ignore just how beautiful and perfect she was, she had big feet, but she had to, she was tall, she had ample breasts and he was sure God had meant that for him, she had eyes the size of the moon, and he was sure they would look beautiful on her face if she gain weigh, she had slanted cheek bones and skin so fair he could see the veins pulsing at her collarbone and temple, one vein trailed down to her breast, down to her areola, and as if she heard the call, the nipple surged turgid against the fabric, beaconing him, he nearly crashed the car at the next red light but he didn't, he had moved the other car a little forward to avoid the impact just in time.
"Ballet is the only thing I know; at this age it would be hard to try something else."
"Hard but not impossible, I don't mean to pry on what isn't my business, but don't you have a boyfriend, a family somewhere, something to go back to?" He needed to know the answer to that question desperately.
Mandy thought twice before she answered. "You are right, is none of your business, but I don't have either, my parents died at car crash when I was twelve, I was sent to a foster home until I turned fifteen, I was working by then, so I declared myself capable and I've been independent ever since."
Mandy turned to face him and retorted back the question. "Do you have a girlfriend or a family somewhere? And shouldn't you be with them right now?" Tristan smiled, she thought he was a married man picking up his next affair.
"I have neither, but I am looking for both, do you have suggestions?" He meant someone like her.
"You're an American, what are you doing in Romania?" Mandy asked changing the subject to a safer one. She had understood the hint all too well.
"I'm visiting friends," he meant all the Carpathians living around the prince. "Hey my friend's wife is a physician, why don't I take you to her?" He meant Shea and Jacques
"I have a bad feeling about you, like you are going to be trouble, have you seen 'Hostel'?" Tristan laughed out loud. That was plain ludicrous.
"You can't honestly think of me like that!" He saw her face and noticed she was serious, how could she suggest that much evil, he was her lifemate, he'd never harm her. "I'm not a serial killer, or a thief, or a rapist or anything like that, take my cell phone, make a call, try me, my wallet is right there if you want to verify my identity. If there's anybody in the world who wouldn't harm a fly, that's me." That was a candid lie, but not too distant from the truth.
She reached out for the cell phone and called her hotel room. "I'm with a Tristan McBride, he's an American citizen, his passport number is… if I don't call back in two hours call the embassy."
"What's your name? Now that you know mine I'd like to know yours." He asked her.
"Amanda Johnson." He rolled the name under his tongue, Amanda, Amy, he though it was a lovely name, sexy, interesting.
"Tristan McBride, and it's a pleasure to meet you, Amanda." Amy though his name was a little cheesy, but waved from legends none the less, Tristan and Isolde had been incredibly important for medieval history and the name itself was common in literature.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tristan McBride. I'm sorry about my outburst; I shouldn't have told you all those things." She said honestly. Tristan smiled a little lopsided smile and winked to her; she responded to it with a surge of warmth, suddenly she felt like her cheeks were in flame.
"Don't worry, Amy; your secret is safe with me." She couldn't bear the staring so she turned around and gazed out into beautiful night.
She sensed deep feelings stirring in him and that frightened her, there was something odd about him, something that made her skin crawl.
And then she took his credit card and asked him. "If this is your credit card, tell me last four numbers." She was just making small talk and also testing him.
"Jesus! I don't know that, it's a visa, it's golden, it has my name on it, and I can remember the first four numbers 3245 but not the rest… oh also it expires in May 2009." He had arrived at the outskirts of the Carpathian Mountains; he parked the car at the Inn and walked out. "Does that satisfy your curiosity, Sherlock?" Before Mandy could protest, he took her into his arms and carried her into the woods to meet Jacques and Shea at their cabin.
"You have very good eyes, its pitch black out here." The Inn lights were fading and the trail was becoming a little oppressing for her taste, the barriers had been opened to let the new couple inside but they could still feel them.
"I eat a lot of carrots."
"No doubt you do! Look how they've gotten your hair." Tristan laughed again, she laughed right along with him, even in a dark forest she felt like she could trust him, she was never wrong about people, she was psychic; she read into people's minds and auras, she could see their hidden intentions, she also had visions when she touched people.
"Here we are; this house belongs to Jacques and Shea Dubrinsky; they are friends of a friend. Jacques brother is Mikhail Dubrinsky; he is a childhood friend of mine." Jacques was the one to open the door; he had their son in his arms, Shea followed behind him with a stack of medical supplies.
"Hi, my name is Jacques and this is my wife Shea and my son Vladimir, please come inside. How are you, Tristan?" Shea looked at the fellow redhead with the same rapture as raven had, he was quite rare, Jacques in turn noticed how tall the girl was, and just how thin.
"I'm ok, I found this fellow American in trouble, I thought Shea could take a look at her ankle." Tristan sat her down in the couch softly and leaned down to check her damaged ankle. It was swollen and she was quite sodden with rain.
Tristan had met all the other Carpathians couples living on the camp over the weeks, he was friends with most of them, the only one he thoroughly disliked was Gregori; the one they called "The Dark One". They hated each other on sight and would probably fight if Savannah wasn't so delicately and extremely pregnant with twins.
"Oh goodness you are going to catch a cold in that, let me get you something to warm up." Shea said and then she waited until both males left the room and gave Amy a hand out of her wet dress, and into a fresh linen camisole and a jacket.
"Thank you; you are very kind." Mandy said.
"Don't mention it; now let me take a look at that ankle of yours." Shea noticed it was sprained right away, there was also a complicated fracture that hadn't healed properly; she had probably not stayed off the foot as long as she was supposed to. "You are going to need an ointment and bandages to immobilize it, also some pain killers, I'm sure this is sending darts of pain up your leg."
"Very much so, I'm so glad to hear another American, I can't understand a word of Rumanian."
"Can I offer you anything? Food, something to drink, you must be cold, nothing like hot chocolate to fix that, let me get you some." When Shea turned around to go to the kitchen, Mandy saw her true face, same kindness and beauty but with long fangs coming out of her mouth, she had seen Jacques just like that too, and Tristan, she had seen him flash red daggers with his eyes, he had quite a beast inside him. But not one bit of cruelty when he gazed at her, he had flashed daggers when she was crying and telling him about her misery, telling him what her boss had done to her.
She felt eyes on the back of her head, Tristan, even though he was talking to Jacques he couldn't tore his eyes away from her, he smiled and whispered "It's alright, don't be afraid." She wasn't afraid, it was more like curious, she was a great fan of paranormal things, and she sensed not one of them were normal.
She actually felt drowned to magic, fairies and vampires. She felt more at ease knowing these people belonged to the secret world she secretly dreamed about. She was an adept Wicca, and loved to practice spells.
"And soon you will too." It was a vision of sorts, it was Tristan's voice, whispering into her mind that she would be just like them very soon, she had seen him sinking his fangs onto her right breast and drinking her blood hungrily, and then the vision had faded leaving her restless.
Mandy leaned down to caress her foot and something appeared at her lower back, a small black mole, a dragon shaped mole actually, Jacques saw it too, he gasped and then he merged with his brother Mikhail, the dancer was a member of the dragon seekers, no wonder she had that waif look about her.
She might be Razvan's daughter, for her age she had to be either Razvan's or some other Dragon Seeker they haven't heard about. That made her all the more important; Tristan felt the change in the air and then not sooner than seconds later Mikhail and Gregori had arrived at the cabin.
Gregori been quite so threatening made feel Mandy frightened, she actually tried to stand and walk away from him, headless to the pain on her ankle. "Stay there woman, we need to scan you." Mandy's heart hammered in her chest, after all the threats to the prince she was considered suspicious; they had to scan her, see if she had some sort of spell about her.
"I'd like to go home now." Gregori noticed she was hurt; she couldn't walk, so he moved closer to her, he meant to go inside her body and verify her birth mark as well as her illness.
The second he tried to enter her, Tristan exploded lunging for his throat, he had returned abruptly to his body and responded to the threat; both males made a leap to slay each other, baring long white fangs and growling like beasts.
"Stop! All of you, you are frightening her!" Mikhail said with his all commanding prince-like voice. "What's your name, little one?" Mikhail said walking the girl back to the chair she had been sitting in, comforting her.
"Amanda Johnson, I appreciate your help but I'd like to go home now."
"Amanda, my name is Mikhail Dubrinsky, this is my son-in-law Gregori, you must excuse him; he has no manners. The thing is dear, that we noticed you have a birth mark that ties you to us; we'd like to examine it, if that's ok with you."
Gregori, don't forget she's not claimed, you can't touch her, no one can, only Tristan. Mikhail said through the link. Besides, you know your family and the Ferdichenko don't get along.
Tristan stood behind her, leaned her down, bearing the small of her back and without asking traced the birth mark, there it was, the dragon-shaped mole, he was now certain; she had Dragonseeker blood in her.
Amanda turned around and they all saw it, she had never thought much of it, but she had it, and she also had some traits, all the psychic ones, the magic powers and her intolerance to sunlight, she burned easily, too easily.
"What do you know about your family?" Tristan asked her very calmly, he could feel her heart racing in her chest; she was scared to death.
"Only that they died and I was sent to a foster home, but they weren't like you, they weren't vampires."
"They were not your real parents, you have a mark that makes you a part of the Dragonseeker family, a very evil one, and we need to know where you came from. And we are Carpathians, not vampires." Tristan responded making emphasis on the last part.
"I don't know, I told you I only remember the Johnsons I know nothing of dragons." They believed her, she had to be the descendent of a human and a dragonseeker, otherwise she would be full Carpathian; she had to be one of Razvan's bastards.
"It doesn't matter anymore, Mandy. You belong to us, and we are going to look after you." Shea said conciliatorily, she had a lot of sympathy for the poor girl, joining was always difficult.
"Come here to me. We are leaving now." Tristan said as he took a hold of her arms, commanding her to follow him quietly and without complaints; she didn't bulge and inch so he lifted her up and walked out with her, Mikhail had assigned him a cabin close to his own.
"Where are you taking me?!" Mandy asked with pain and fear in her voice, she could feel the rage taking over him.
"To my cabin, you need to rest, and so do I." He spoke harshly, it wasn't her fault, but she was tied to a family that had caused him a great deal of pain, the vampires he had killed had been sired by Razvan, they had murdered members of his human family that he dearly loved, his girlfriend, his parents, his cousins even his friends, Razvan had slowly decimated the McBrides over centuries for some reason.
And if that wasn't enough the vampire Maxim had tried to kill Mikhail under Razvan's and Xavier's suggestions, so they had every reason to be suspicious of her, and Tristan had every reason to hate her family. He knew only fragments of the whole story, he hadn't meet Natalya, Colby or Skyler so he did no know that not one of Razvan's daughters was evil, only Razvan and because he had been lured to the dark side by Xavier.
"Shouldn't we explain him what's going to happen to them?" Shea asked out-loud to the group of male Carpathians, they were staring at the all-too-familiar scene of confrontation before joining.
"Let him handle it himself, it's what we all do." Mikhail said solemnly.
"We never take advice any way, I'm afraid it's imbedded in our bones." Jacques replied gazing back at Shea, she had their son on her arms and she was rocking him softly back and forward. The picture made him weep with shame, he didn't deserve such gifts.
"He needs to suffer his own mistakes; I don't think an intervention is required just yet, although her dragonseeker blood needs to be observed in case Razvan has a link to her, she's going to be a handful, I don't envy him." Gregori mentioned casually, Amanda reminded him of his own Savannah, his beloved and headstrong magician in features.
"He'll handle it." Mikhail said with trust, he knew little of the man but now that he had found his lifemate he wasn't a threat to them any more, and for that alone the prince was thankful.
Tbc…
AN: I know this is fairly repetitive, cliché area to be writing about, after all Mrs. Feehan has conquered and mastered a formula that hasn't failed yet, so I'm going to try and make it new and exciting, I'll fit my characters to be different, and not quite as preprogrammed as we have seen in the dark series. I hope you enjoy this experiment. If you don't, there is always the option of a bad review, and believe me, I'd rather find flames that no reviews at all.
An2: Amanda goes for all these nicknames: Mandy, Amy and Manda.
An3: If you like to picture Carpathians as real people—like I do—think of Amanda like Amy Lee from Evanescence, and of Tristan like Brendan Frazier. I also think of Gregori like Kovac from ER (I can't write his real name!) and of Mikhail like Leonydas from 300 (Gerard Butler) so if you don't like my choices then give me better ones!
Here are a few couples I like to see happening if we ever have a Carpathian movie made:
Gerard Butler and Shannen Doherty, Mikhail and Raven
Goran Visnjic and Anne Hathaway, Gregori and Savannah
Patrick Dempsey and Alicia Witt, Jacques and Shea
Julian McMahon and Isla Fisher, Darius and Tempest
Joaquin Phoenix and Laura Prepon, Vik and Natalya
There you have it, let me know if you liked it…
Extra:
Sky is falling
By Lifehouse
I
watch as the daylight crawls
past the shadows hanging on the
walls
it's been a long time since I felt the stains
of
yesterday getting in my way
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I've got eyes but tell me can I see
the sky is falling and no
one knows
we shouldn't be hard to believe
shouldn't be this
difficult to breathe
the sky is falling and no one knows
you
leave me hanging on
I need to catch my breath
I've got you
and I've got nothing left
don't leave me all alone down here
with myself and all of my fear
I'm alive but tell me am I
free
I've got eyes but tell me can I see
the sky is falling
and no one knows
we shouldn't be hard to believe
shouldn't be
this difficult to breathe
the sky is falling and no one knows
no
one knows
no one knows
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I've got eyes but tell me can I see
the sky is falling and no
one knows
we shouldn't be hard to believe
shouldn't be this
difficult to breath
the sky is falling and no one knows
the
sky is falling and no one knows
the sky is falling and no one
knows