A Vampire's Life Book 6

Chapter 24

Ariella's head was heavy on his chest, she wasn't asleep but her body was in a dormant state after feeding for so long. Zane looked down at her stomach, running his fingertips along the skin. He couldn't believe that she was pregnant. The morning was quiet, the ball finished a few hours ago. They had started on the bed but somewhere in their night of endless passion they had ended up on the day bed. A cool breeze floated through the columns, the temperature no longer affected him. Zane liked this part of her quarters, an oversized day bed on a patio area, secluded from everyone. They could rest, feed and have sex here and never be seen or disturbed. She moved higher up, nuzzling into his neck, wrapping her arm around his body.

'How come she didn't have the ceremony thing? It's not a full moon.'

'Oh. Uh...' Ariella sat up and felt the embarrassment of her father's plan. 'Not essentially necessary. You have to be approved by the council unless it's an emergency but the ceremony is not mandatory though. Finn entered your mind and found your intentions. My father decided that he would let me decide your fate but until you actually did something, you were innocent.'

'So you just decided to throw temptation at me?' he frowned at her.

'Zane you had walls up; you wouldn't even trust me with what was going on. What did you expect my father to do? He wanted you to be open with me, to be honest with me. How can you expect to have an eternity with someone if you cannot tell them your darkest secrets? What did you honestly think would happen to Julia if you told us?'

'I don't know.' he shrugged.

Ariella sat on his lap, looking at him directly.

'Did you really think that I would send your sister away? Or worse yet, kill her? You knew how I felt, yet you couldn't even tell me you had a sister. That's pretty bad.'

'I know.' he sighed 'I feared exactly what happened tonight. They didn't get the results they wanted, so the turned up to do it for themselves. I knew I could never hide from them. No amount of protection would ever be enough.'

'You are wrong. I could have turned you and sent you through the rock face. Kept you somewhere in mid jump until the guards had dealt with them. I would have protected you.'

Zane sighed loudly as he looked up at her, the smile had never left her face. Even though she was gently scolding him, she still smiled. Ariella leaned down and kissed him sweetly and then nestled back down into his embrace.

'I suppose you are wondering about Lucian.'

'Oh, I uh.'

He wondered if he should tell her that he had figured out how to enter her mind or that Lucy enlightened him, but he remembered that he wanted Ariella to tell him.

'It's ok, it's a part of my life, I don't mind.'

Her fingers play at the edge of his shoulder as she tightened her grip on him. Zane thought it was almost like she wasn't prepared to let go.

'So long as you're not going to get jealous, because there will be so many more functions that we will have to attend with him.'

'Yeah sure. So long as he stays out of your pants I'm fine.'

Ariella chuckled.

'I can assure you, those days are long gone.' she sighed. 'I was thirty-two, there were a few remaining slayers that had survived the original battle that my parents had fought in. They had reformed and created a small faction with the newly formed rogues and set upon my family. As expected all of the vampire families in the area helped us as we fought the slayers and rogues. It was expected that all able bodies were to go forth and fight this new menace. It was there on the battlefield that Lucian and I found each other. We already knew each other but this was different, something about it made it different. Heat of the moment I guess.' she shrugged as she sat up. 'That was the battle that we lost my grandfather in. Lucian was the shoulder to cry on, he was there for me when I needed someone, I was so close to my grandfather, his loss hurt so much.'