Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  “I will tell him.” He looked at Diego, his gaze going hot. “I have room if you want to ride with me, Diego?”

  Looking to his lover, Diego nodded and got onto the breeze mate, the small and compact vehicle open to the elements from the top, without so much as a word to Xan. Both men knew they were far superior to her because they were both fully human with no small trace of Vampire blood in them.

  Xan watched the men leave and felt ill. Moon and stars help her, she didn’t know if she could survive another meeting with her father, not after the last one. Her mind turned back to that day, the day she had confronted him about Diego.

  * * * *

  The day that Xandra had learned the kind of man her father was, it had been a brutal and hard day. It had been a heated battle of words. Xandra had found that her father installed Diego as her personal assistant because he wanted to keep tabs on her. When she had demanded that Diego leave her, Lord Ripley sneered, “You are a woman. You have no right to demand anything of me.”

  “I will go to Mother.” Her words had been the death sentence for her mother. She knew that now. “She is the only reason you are a lord in the Syndicate. Because of her and my grandfather.”

  Her father’s eyes blazed. She had always known that her mother was afraid of her father, but until that moment didn’t know why. With a snap of his fingers he demanded that her mother be brought forward. His gaze never wavering from Xandra’s, he said, “This mother? You will go to this bitch?” His large hand closed over her mother’s delicate throat. Her pale citron hair was dull and lifeless in the lights of the hall. “She is nothing,” he said simply and then, eyes never wavering from Xandra, snapped the neck of his wife and threw her on the ground.

  “You will see. I am far more than you will ever be. I am stronger, smarter, and I will always, always be the one to deliver death. Your mother served me in giving me my heir. However, heed me well, girl.” He pulled Xandra up by her hair. “Heirs can be sired again.” And then, in a very inhuman move, he bent in and bit her ear, biting off her left earlobe and laughing in her ear as she screamed. “Just a reminder, daughter, of just what I can do.” Throwing her across the floor, he turned, leaving her mother dead on the dais and a fear in his daughter that he had always wanted to be there, a reminder to her of just who ruled the Syndicate.

  * * * *

  Once she had changed clothes and pulled her hair back in a braid, she entered her father’s inner sanctum. “You requested my presence, Father?” She wished she could get away from him. She was desperate to flee from him, but there was no hope. There was never hope for her because there was nowhere for her. No matter where she went, she would always be found, and the thoughts of what would happen when brought back were enough to make her remain.

  “Good, this time you remembered to pull your hair back.” His hands clasped behind his back and a feral smile formed on his face. He liked to see the damage he did to her. He appreciated seeing the lost lobe on her delicate ear. “You should thank me, daughter. I have finally found someone who is willing to take you to wife.” He rocked back and forth on his heels as he smiled. “He is a good friend of mine.” He didn’t even know the lord in question, but that was beside the point. “So keep that in mind when you decide to run your smart mouth.”

  “Thank you, Father,” she whispered in horror. Moon and stars, he was going to wed her to a monster. “If you feel I am worthy for your friend, I am happy to be of service, Father.”

  “Good, good.” He walked around. “You will be ready for travel in three days. You, my dear, are going to wed a Vampire Lord.” Without waiting to hear a reply, he simply moved from the room and stalked out, making sure she knew she was worth less than the fly on the wall.

  As soon as she was certain she was alone, she raced to the bathroom and lost all the contents of her stomach. Tears falling from her eyes, she shook her head. “Oh god, he’s giving me to someone that he knows. At least with the devil I live with now I know what to expect.” How long into her marriage would it be before the Vampire snapped her neck as her father had done her mother?

  Rising on shaky legs, she nodded, set her dress to rights, and moved toward her bedroom to pack for her death.

  Chapter Three

  Their arrival at the spaceport had been a celebration. Music played and vendors peddled their wares. Xandra had been granted permission to move through the crowds with Diego, and as she looked at the things for sale in venders’ stalls, she was blissfully unaware of the people watching her, of the men, women, and children all giving her looks as if she were the very devil herself.

  Lightly, she touched a moonstone tear drop and smiled. “You have beautiful merchandise. Thank you for allowing me to see it.” She nodded to the man and moved on to another stall and then another. She knew she would need to leave the small area soon to prepare for the first meeting with her betrothed, but in all truth she didn’t want to meet him. She wanted to put it off for all time, if only she could.

  Stepping up to the vendor as the woman left the table, Lorn looked to what she’d touched and, moments later, had it in his pocket before he rejoined his commanding officer as they trailed behind her. Passing the package over, he lifted a brow. “An unusual woman.”

  Glancing to his second, Andries grunted slightly. “Indeed,” he murmured. The crowds were splitting for them as they approached and then closing behind them. Thankfully they were far enough back from her that she had no idea she was being followed. Although he didn’t really worry about her seeing them, the man that was with her concerned him. He was much too observant for the mere assistant that Andries had been assured he was.

  For another half hour they followed her through the market before his assistant joined them. “They are ready, my lord,” the smaller man said in a respectful tone.

  Why he had to have an assistant he’d never know, but at times like this Andries appreciated the man. It saved him from any unnecessary contact with the Alliance. “Approach the lady in five minutes and let her know that her presence is now required and ensure she arrives there in one piece,” he ordered. Stopping, he let her and her “assistant” move out of sight before returning to the Grand Chambers, the place all first contacts were made no matter with whom.

  * * * *

  She paused and looked around. The feeling of being watched had been driving her to distraction, and she hadn’t wanted to look but couldn’t stop herself from doing just that. Seeing no one out of place or threatening looking, she shook it off.

  “Come on, my lady.” The words were respectful, but Diego’s tone was anything but. “We need to get away from these godforsaken heathens, and you have to change. You know that you need to look your best.” He looked her up and down. “Well, as good as you can look.”

  “Thank you, Diego. You are likely right.” She was about to turn to move back to her appointed rooms at the hotel when a small man approached them.

  “My lady, you are to come to the Grand Chambers. If you will follow me please?”

  “Who are you?” Diego asked with a sneer.

  “I am Lord Mauricio’s personal assistant,” the little man said and pulled himself up to his full height.

  Placing herself between the men because she knew the look that Diego was wearing, she said, “We will follow you, kind sir, please?”

  She followed the little man, more than well aware of the wrath that was going to be brought down on her by Diego and not able to find it in her to really care.

  Once they arrived at the Council’s Grand Chambers within the large and forbidding looking government building of Castitas, Xandra clenched her hands at her sides hidden in the folds of her gown and waited to meet the man her father was so fond of.

  Rushing forward, the chancellor bowed before her. “Greetings, my lady, I am Chancellor Fernando. If you would.” He waved a hand toward the doorway, the large double doors standing open with guards to each side.

  As she moved forward, the chancellor looked to the man at he
r side. “I’m terribly sorry, sir, but you will have to wait here,” he said as they reached the doors, the guards already having moved to bar his entrance. Smiling the political look that all chancellors used, Fernando continued forward with a nod to the lady.

  Before the bank of windows at the far end of the room, Andries stood staring out them with a frown on his face. He’d received word back from the border about the continual arrival of more ships from the Syndicate. They were daring, to say the least, foolish for sure, dead a definite possibility.

  “My lord.” The chancellor cleared his throat as the doors were closed, shutting in the lady, the dark lord before him, and all the chancellors of the Alliance in the room.

  Turning, Andries looked to the little man and heaved a quiet sigh before moving toward the two at the center of the room. “Fernando,” he said in a less-than-pleased tone conveying his lack of pleasure at this farce that the chancellors and his father had pushed him into.

  “My lord Mauricio, may I present the lady Xandra Ripley,” Fernando said formally, avoiding the yellow gaze of the devil himself as he made the introductions. “My lady, may I present to you the Lord Colonel Andries Mauricio,” he finished and then stepped back before practically running to join his fellow chancellors. He’d survived, by the gods he’d survived, but never again would he ever draw attention to himself from the lord and, may the gods be merciful, the Colonel would forget Fernando’s name.

  Bowing formally, Andries straightened to his full height before her. “My lady,” he greeted quietly and simply, fully aware of how others disliked hearing his voice. Since she had never before met him, he felt he should at least be considerate to her ears and keep his responses short.

  She bowed to him, her hair down so that he wouldn’t see her earlobe and know he was getting a defective bride. “My lord,” she murmured and rose to her full height, nearly eight inches shorter than him. “It is a pleasure and an honor to meet you, my lord.” Her voice was soft, quickly putting everyone at ease, a skill she’d learned long ago and worked on everyone but her father. “It is an honor and a privilege to be promised to someone whom my father holds in such high regards.”

  Lifting a brow at her words, Andries looked toward the chancellors for an explanation and got blank stares that told him they had no idea. “I have never met your father, my lady, so I am not sure how the man could hold me in any sort of regard, let alone high,” he told her.

  Fernando was pushed forth once more and he winced, having to put himself in the Colonel’s sights yet again. “Pardon, my lord, if I may?” he said in a respectful tone. At his nod Fernando looked to the lady. “I am not sure what you have been told of this union, but my lord Mauricio has placed a stipulation upon it. We require to know if you come into this union of your own free will without any coercion of any kind. If there is any coercion, we will have to nullify the possibility of the union, but if there is none, we can proceed at your ladyship’s leisure.”

  She looked from the Chancellor to the lord and back again. Her mind simply wasn’t working right. He had said he didn’t know her father. However, her father had said he knew the lord. She didn’t doubt for a moment her father could and would lie, but the why was the question.

  Did she have coercion to join with the lord before her? Yes. Could she voice it? No. To voice such would enrage her father and, potentially, have him go off on another of his murderous rampages, the innocents of her world his targets. “And what of you, my lord?” she whispered softly, looking to the large man standing before the banks of windows. “Would you wish to marry a woman you don’t even know? A woman who isn’t one of your people?” She shouldn’t ask these things. It wasn’t her place, and she knew as soon as her father found out…well that was for later. “I stand here now alone, my lord. There are no guns to my head.” Just her heart and her people’s heads. “So I believe the question is back to you. Do you have someone coercing you into this marriage?”

  Oh, now there was a bunch of loaded questions. Eyeing her, Andries knew he’d have to watch his tongue around her. Anything he said could and likely would come back upon him. Noting how the chancellors all suddenly had other things to look at, he let them suffer for a moment longer before he shook his head. “There is no one that could or would dare”—slight lie—“coerce me into anything, my lady. As to marrying you or one of my people as you called it, there really is no one that has ever caught my eye or my interest. While I know naught of you, I see no reason not to proceed if you are still of the mind to do so.” And that was probably the most he’d ever said in the whole of his life at one time.

  The sound of his voice wrapped around her, made her feel strange, and she heard herself asking, “Can you tell me of yourself, my lord? Tell me of the place we will call home?” She suddenly found it imperative to know if that would always be the way his voice affected her. “Will we live together, or separate? Will you send me home?” Her voice quivered in fear at the thoughts of being wed and then sent back home. The only reason she hadn’t been sexually used for her father’s joys was because she was a virgin, and he had known that was a commodity that was easily bartered with. However, if she made it home after being wed and no longer had that small defense, she would be one of the whores used for whatever her father wished.

  Tipping his head at her question, no, not so much the question, it was the tone that caught him, Andries looked pointedly to Fernando, who quickly took off for the sidelines once more. Shifting, he indicated the windows and began walking toward them, glad that she followed without him having to say anything. Once there was enough space that the chancellors couldn’t hear them easily he turned to face her once more.

  “I normally am aboard a vessel which I command,” he told her softly. “I have a home in the country in which I reside when I am not required within the city. As to living together or not, that would be your choice, my lady, though on my world husband and wife do not live separately unless they are separating.” Or if he was keeping a mistress. “Sending you home is not an option, and, this is something you should consider now as well, my lady. You will likely never return unless I am able to schedule it into a route of my ship.”

  She shouldn’t have felt relief, she really shouldn’t, but she did. “I will admit that I haven’t traveled in space much at all.” She took a step closer to him, looking out the windows and seeing nothing but his reflection. They were a striking pair, he with his short blacker-than-endless-space hair and she with the unusual natural lavender color. The citron of his eyes made her want to have them watching her always, but she held her tongue. He was after all a man and as such…well she didn’t have too much trust in men. “I would rather not live away from a husband I had. When I wed, I would like it to be forever. I want to have one man only as the man who wakes at my side each day.” She shrugged and closed her eyes. “And of you, my lord? I have to admit to much ignorance where your people are concerned. Do you marry once, or as many wives as you can handle?”

  “We marry once, though separations do occur,” he said to her, looking down at her face and wondering why she seemed so nervous. “There are cultures on our world where a second or third wife is not forbidden, all at the same time, but not here.” Turning slightly, he tipped his head to better see her face. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I don’t think I could be a second or third wife to any man.” She nodded and turned to face him. “If you had your choice, and please don’t give me the side speak and twisted words of a diplomat, if you had your choice, would you marry me?”

  “I don’t know you well enough, my lady, to make an accurate determination, but based on what I’ve seen thus far I see no reason not to,” he told her honestly. “You appear healthy and with a strong will of your own. You don’t appear to be fragile in a way that would cause you any problems with living on our world or among the peoples here.” Raking a look down her form, he ticked off other criteria in his head as to her shape, her form, her stance, and the breadth of her hips
. “I see no reason to cancel the wedding unless you have something you wish to bring to our attention, my lady.”

  She shook her head. The relief was almost instantaneous as she looked at him. “No, there is nothing.” She bowed her head to him and turned back to the window. “When would you like to proceed? Will it be soon or would you rather send me back home and have it be at a later date more fitting your schedule?” She prayed to the moon and stars he wouldn’t send her home.

  Signaling behind her back to the chancellors, he kept his eyes on her. “We are ready now, my lady. If you wish to change, feel free to go with my assistant to your chambers. We will reconvene at your convenience,” he added so that she wouldn’t feel rushed at all. “Or, if you wish, we can delay until another day if you wish for any of your people to be present.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t want to leave this room until I am safely married to you.” The whisper of fear was there because she knew if she walked out of that room, Diego would feel it his place to ensure that she was properly reprimanded for allowing them to keep him out of the chambers.

  Stunned to hear her words, especially the tremor of fear, Andries nodded slowly. “If that is your wish, my lady, we can accommodate you.” Nodding to the chancellors, he offered her his hand. “We’ll need to go into the next chamber to meet with the minister. Do you wish for your assistant to be here as witness?” he asked, concerned that her father would not take their word on the marriage without a witness of his own.

  “Only if you promise not to leave me alone with him,” was uttered before she could censor the words. “I’m sorry, that was unkind of me.” Truthful, but unkind. “However, you are right. He should be available so that he can see that we did indeed wed.” Even that wouldn’t stop her father if he chose to decide the validity of the wedding was off.