Slayers: The Aurora Part 3

"Rakin." The man whispered, his face pale.

"I was too late." The Aurora murmured, feeling her own failure weighing her down.

The man nodded, "Follow me."

The Aurora followed the man into the tunnel, up a set of stairs and through the door into the split level home above, carrying her burden. She heard shocked cries, and the murmurs around her, as she carried the lifeless body of the adolescent boy. She was lead into a large room where a man sat behind the large mahogany desk. He stood.

"What is this?" He demanded.

"I bring your dead, Jardon." The Aurora said, her voice cracking a little.

"Thank you, Aurora." Came the formal reply to her words. Words she had uttered too many times before. She was so weary of the deaths she was forced to witness. He directed her to place the boy on a nearby couch.

"How did this happen?" Jardon asked, looking at her with dismay.

"I was too late, I failed." She told him.

"No, you came, and you have brought him home. A warrior is not always meant to save everyone the..." He intended to continue, but suddenly the door flew open and a woman rushed in. Seeing the body, she screamed, "Rakin! Rakin."

Before she turned glaring at the Aurora. "You are meant to protect them, the innocent ones. How dare you not save him!" She fell to her knees beside the body with her eyes streaming tears and her hair wild. "He was onl..."

"Enough, Senta." Jardon said, cutting off the woman's tirade.

"I must go." The Aurora told them, unable to bear the pain of the woman's loss. She needed to get out of here before the weight of her own pain caused her to collapse.

"Of course, should you need us, do not hesitate to call. Senta is just upset from her grief, she does not truly blame you." Jardon whispered. Only she knew that it didn't matter, she felt her own inability to stop all the killing, and it was destroying her. She was led to the main door and she exited onto the street. She walked for several miles, until she reached a park. One filled with midday sun, and people running and playing, finding a bench, she sat down. Her heart heavy, and her mind in chaos.

It wasn't long before she felt the approach of the woman behind her. The woman sat down beside her. She ignore her, wanting to just disappear. She watched the people. It was a long moment before the woman spoke.

"Your thoughts are heavy, my queen." Mina spoke, next to her.

"Yes, I am weary, Mina" The Aurora replied.

"What troubles you?" She asked.

"They just walk by," The Aurora said looking at the people who pa.s.sed them where they sat on the bench. "I sit here covered in blood, and they just ignore it as if it doesn't matter." She said, finally looking at her adviser.

Mina snorted out a light laugh, "The blood is blue, my queen."

"Why should that matter, Mina?" She asked, unsure what her adviser was saying.

"Most humans, don't even know that demons exist, much less that their blood is blue. They just think you sit here covered in blue slime. They don't know that its blood. You and I, we know that the pain from the death you just carried is great. They don't know that you feel responsible because you were not able to stop it. Nor do they know that you've become weary. You need rest, this mad quest you're on is wearing you down. Let it go, Morvan can wait." Mina told her, her eyes meeting the Aurora's.

"I cannot, you know that I cannot let this go. Too many have died, and I need to finish this." She shook her head, angry at the suggestion that she should walk away from this without finis.h.i.+ng it.

"I'm not asking you to let it go, I am asking you to step back, and wait." Mina was interrupted by the second woman, who had entered the park and was now standing behind them.

"We're asking you to wait. You are sacrificing too much, and we can't ask it of you. We don't ask it of you." Jayne reiterated.

Looking at her two advisers, she felt less weary. She was fighting for them, and all the others who were unable to fight for themselves. She could be weary when she had killed Morvan. Until then she would have to fight.

"I am not going to back away from this, not after Kara." Hard determination entered her eyes. She was not going to walk away and let that evil b.a.s.t.a.r.d win.

Mina sighed next to her before she finally said, "Then let us help. We know this mad plan you have come up with and it is dangerous. Too many things could go wrong."

"Nothing will happen, the plan is solid." The Aurora stubbornly replied.

"It is dangerous, and Kara would not want you to attempt it. The vampire ball will be filled with nearly a thousand demons. Demons, who will not take kindly to a slayer in their midst. They think we are the boogieman." Jayne growled.

"I know." The Aurora said, "But it is the only time he will be away from that fortress that he has built for himself."

"Then we can find a way to lure him out, let us help. It will be less crazy if we find a way to isolated him without you cras.h.i.+ng into the annual vampire ball with a sword only to die before you get near him." Jayne demanded.

"No, I will not risk anymore of my people. This plan will work." The Aurora growled, unwilling to allow them to convince her to risk them.

"d.a.m.n it, we want to help." Jayne grumbled.

"You must not this time, but if I need you I will call, now I must go." The Aurora jogged to the alley and blinked away.

Jayne looked at Mina. "We need to stop her."

"And how do you plan to do that, Jayne? She could stop us with a snap of her fingers. How do you propose we stop her?" Mina stared at her friend, unsure how she expected them to stop their queen.

"I don't know, but we must. You know as well as I do that she is the heart of us. If we lose her it will destroy us." Jayne growled.

"I think we should let it play out and be ready when she needs us. This is not a bad plan, just a dangerous one." Mina held up her hand to stop Jayne's next tirade. "I want to help her too, but if she feels this is the best plan then we must stand behind her. We cannot prevent her from leading even if we tired. She has the ability to shut us down."

"I hate that freaky power she gained a year ago. It's hard to stop someone from doing something stupid when they can literally shut you down with one word." Jayne grumbled, again. Speaking of the new power their queen had gained last year that allowed her to send any of the slayers to sleep by telling them to sleep. It was d.a.m.ned inconvenient.

"I know, but for now we wait." Mina sat on the bench watching the people as the Aurora had been for a long time before she too blinked home from the nearby alley.

Chapter 7.

Liza became bored watching reruns of the Nanny after about two hours. She wandered back towards the training field. Finding Lucas and Trey facing off in the middle of the courtyard. Their swords were drawn and they were circling each other. Dominick was leaning against the wall near the entrance. She walked to where he was, leaning on the wall beside him.

"So, can I take in the winner?" She asked Dominick, smiling.

Dominick looked at her for a long moment with an odd look on his face. Then he quietly replied, "Liza, it is not the same now. You are his blood slave. It cannot be the way it was before, the others are watching." He looked at her for several moments, sadness filling his eyes. "He is in danger."

"What do you mean he's in danger?" Liza demanded, her heart beating crazily in her chest at the thought of something happening to Lucian.

"The other vampire lords are planning trouble. He is not in a good position at this point, you coming back has not helped matters. Of that I am sure." Dominick grumbled, looking at her for another long moment, before asking. "Are you here to betray him?"

"Never." Liza vehemently replied.

"I hope not. I will not spare you, Liza. He is my oldest friend, and although I care for you as if you were my own child, my loyalty is his. I will not allow even you to get away with betrayal."

"I would never betray him, Dominick. I couldn't bear it." Liza whispered.

"I hope that is the truth. I wish that this could be the way it was before, but I cannot allow it. He cannot afford to allow it either. You must accept your new role as his slave. You cannot do the things you were once allowed to do. You know the rules, and if you want him to be safe, you are going to have to follow the rules."

Liza looked up at him with wide eyes. She understood what he was saying, but that didn't mean she liked it. She wasn't really the type to 'mind her role' so to speak. She was the type to buck the rules and to h.e.l.l with the bulls.h.i.+t. But if it meant that Lucian could be in danger, then she would do what she needed to do to keep him safe, she loved him.

She watched the men circling each other, Trey was letting his guard down on the right, and she could see that Lucas knew it. She smiled slightly as she watched. It didn't take long for the younger vampire to take out the older one. She laughed when Lucas did a victory dance in the yard. Dominick put a quick end to that with a barked order.

"You should go to Maria, and see if she can keep you from trouble, Liza. I think it would be best if you no longer came to the practice yard. Do you understand?" Dominick told her, watching her closely. Her eyes met his and she nodded curtly. She left the yard with a wistful feeling of loss. She didn't know why she felt so disillusioned by Dominick's refusal to allow her to practice with the men anymore. She wondered what else would change.

Would Lucian no longer allow her to spend time with him other than his visits to her chamber? And would those visits be few and far between, after all he had many blood slaves to choose from. She wanted to cry as she thought about him not allowing her to spend time with him. She'd wanted this, but the reality wasn't the same as the fantasy. She wanted to be in his life. To be his lover, and she'd thought that being his blood slave would get her what she wanted. Only after last night and then this morning with Dominick, she wasn't sure that this had been a good idea.

Maybe coming here and asking for this had been a bad move. She wasn't sure she could bear the pain of losing something she wanted so badly. Liza didn't want to just be another blood slave to him, she wanted to be his only blood slave. With a sigh she headed to her rooms, hoping to find a way to understand her new role here. She didn't want to endanger the man she loved more than her next breath.

She needed time to think. Heading to her rooms she wanted to lie down and just cry at how screwed up this whole thing had become. She'd wanted to find the silver lining, but if what Dominick had indicated was true then she wasn't going to like being Lucian's blood slave. Heading up the stairs, her mind filled with unhappy thoughts, she almost walked into Toby.

"Oh, sorry." Liza muttered, moving around him.

"Ah, there you are, Liza. The master will come to you again tonight for substance. He will arrive at nine again this evening." Toby informed her. She noticed he was looking a little fl.u.s.tered, and she wondered what had him so upset.

Toby told Liza of the master's instructions, he was still a little fl.u.s.tered over those instructions. The master was easily predictable when it came to feeding. He always saw his slaves at elven, and went to his office afterwards, but with Liza he was breaking that unspoken rule. Toby had made the mistake of asking about that, and the king had become quite upset. He'd been shocked when Lucian had all but roared at him to go tell her what he'd demanded. It worried Toby, and he would inform Dominick of this new development if the master continued to insist on feeding from her nightly. He never used a blood slave more than once in a week. Dominick had asked to be told of any odd developments where Liza was concerned, and the way the master was acting was strange.

Liza was still watching Toby, he realized. "Shall, I bring up a meal at eight then?"

"That would be okay." Liza told him with a nod before she moved around him headed to her room.

Liza walked down the hall towards her room. She was glad that Lucian would come to her again tonight, and yet she felt disappointed too. She knew that it would likely be a repeated performance of last night. Not that it hadn't been d.a.m.ned pleasurable up until the moment when he'd left her full of need, with her heart pulverized by his not making love to her.

Entering her room, she headed into the bathroom, intending to take a bubble bath to help herself relax. Then perhaps she'd take a nap she thought looking at the clock to see that it was only four. She began filling the tub with water, adding the bubbles. She watched as it filled, her heart squeezing with the pain of her thoughts.

Lucian stood in his chambers, listening to the water running in the bathroom next door with his body hardened painfully. He almost groaned as he adjusted his member in the light sleep pants. Knowing that it was hours before he could touch her again. He wanted to enter her room, and pull her from the tub she was filling with water, and take her against the nearest surface.

His felt the throbbing of his d.i.c.k, and knew that it was going to be the longest five hours of his life. Toby had been shocked when he'd insisted he see her again this evening, but he did not care. She was his, and he would have her again tonight if he wanted, he thought. His d.i.c.k throbbed harder thinking of the ways he wanted to own her body. He did own her, he thought, feeling some of his desire wane. He did not want her to be his property. It did not sit well with him, not at all. Liza was so much more than a blood slave to him. Although, he was unsure what she was. He did know that he had almost been out of his mind for the last two years without her.

Moving to the desk beside the wall, he opened the drawer. Drawing out the envelope. He opened it, watching as the photo's fell out. He found the one he liked the best, and gazed at it. Liza was laughing with a friend she was talking to in the photo, her smile was open and her head was tilted back showing off her slender neck. He knew that his having her followed was crossing a line she would not be happy to know he had crossed. Only he had been unable to stop himself from hiring the human detective to follow her. He had wanted to see her, had craved it like he now craved her blood.

Now looking down at the photo, which was slightly bent around the edges, it was no longer enough to just see these photos and know that she was safe. He wanted to touch, and he could. He could have her in all the ways he had desired for the last four years, and yet he would not allow it. She did not deserve his races scorn, but as a blood slave she would receive it. It almost killed him that she was willing to accept it, for him.

Growling in displeasure, he stored the photos inside the drawer, lying down on the bed. Perhaps if he slept for a few hours, then he would not feel the creeping of the time before he was able to taste her again.

Chapter 8.

Liza could barely breathe as she waited for Lucian, four hours later. She'd finished eating her steak, baked potato, and salad about ten minutes ago. Now, she was waiting, watching the door with a pounding heart and a near uncontainable excitement. She was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with need for his touch as she stared at the door, even though she was sure that he'd likely not be early. After twenty minutes of staring at it, she decided that she didn't want to seem desperate. Lifting a book she'd been reading earlier she pretended be reading it. She'd barely gotten to the fourth page.

She was so distracted with her thoughts of Lucian. Dear lord, she had it bad. She needed to get over this crush on a vampire who would likely never return the forlorn lovesickness that she felt for him. She was pathetic. It was truly maddening to feel this l.u.s.t and longing and know that the man you felt it for may never return your feelings.

Liza was surprised when twenty minutes later, at eight twenty five Lucian entered from his suite. She looked up from the book she'd been staring at, even though she'd been lost in thought, with shock. He was early, very early. Not that she minded. He was also handsome standing poised in the doorway between her room and his looking at her. His robe was open slightly, revealing a masculine chest with only a small bit of dark hair coving it. His arms flexed as he gripped the door frame, still watching her. She wanted to jump up and rub all over him like a cat in heat.

Wanting to feel his hands on her, she almost moaned. He was so handsome, and she'd wanted him for so long. He hovered in the doorway staring at her for so long she wondered what he was thinking. Had he changed his mind and wasn't doing to even enter the room? How would she bear that? She waited, hoping he would enter the room, or say something at least.

Lucian was unable to stand waiting another moment to see Liza at eight twenty. He'd been waiting for over an hour after he had wakened from his nap. He could hear her moving around and talking to Toby who had brought her dinner. Lucian had heard Toby enter bringing her dinner, and the less than ten minutes ago he had returned to gather the tray, and she had been moving around restlessly for the last twenty minutes. He had decided that he could wait no longer.

He had not been expecting to find the sight of her on the bed, with her dark hair fanned around her on the pillow, a book held in her slender hands and the way her nightgown clung lovingly to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, so appealing He almost swallowed his tongue at the sight. Liza was so beautiful. He was clutching the door frame to stop himself from storming over and ripping her gown off to thrust into her with a roar of satisfaction. Maybe feeding from her again tonight was not such a good idea.

Only as even as he thought this she set the book aside and smiled at him, and his heart began to beat faster. His eyes took in the picture of perfection she made sitting there waiting for him to come to her, and he knew that he would not be able to resist tasting her again. His member thickened, filling with need. He wanted her so badly, but he knew that he must resist. He would allow himself to take her blood, but her body was off limits. His d.i.c.k throbbed in protest at that thought.

"You're early." Liza breathlessly muttered. She was almost blind with the cravings she felt for his touch. She ached, and she was wet with need.

Lucian didn't speak, he could not. When she'd moved her hair had fallen away from her neck and he could scent her arousal in the room. It smelled like suns.h.i.+ne and wildflowers and Liza. He was not able to stop himself from moving to the bed. When he stood next to it his eyes stuck to her pulse, which was beating wildly in her neck. He knew that she wanted him, and he wanted her too, but he would not use her in such a way. He would not, he told his unruly d.i.c.k when it twitched.

He sat on the bed taking her into his arms, unable to resist the temptation to hold her. He needed at least that much. She leaned into him as he lay back on the bed with her. His hands slid to her waist, clutching her as his lips found her neck, his tongue slipping out to caress the pulse still beating wildly against his tongue. He groaned, his lips moving towards the spot where her neck met her shoulder where his mark was. He licked in swirls, feeling her s.h.i.+ver in his arms.

Liza s.h.i.+vered in pleasure, Lucian's mouth caressed her neck, making her want to rub against him and purr like a cat. She managed to hold on her sanity enough to stop herself from ripping off her clothing and his, just to feel his skin caress hers. His teeth scored her neck, and she let out a helpless mewling cry. She felt his hand slid to her breast cupping it again, moaning she pressed against his hand. Her arms wrapping around his neck to pull him closer, she heard a growling sound, and realized that it was Lucian.

It didn't frighten her, it only made her body melt into his caress. She knew that even with that deadly sound issuing from him that she was safe. His teeth scored her neck a second time over the mark he had made the night before, which made her cry out again, the area had been sensitive all day and that light caress had stroked s.h.i.+vers of fire down her spine. Shocked, she clung to him.

"So very sweet, My Liza." Lucian could not help the selfish pleasure that filled him when her body bowed towards his when he caressed his mark. He knew that it should concern him that it was so sensitive, but he was too wrapped up in her to care. He moved unable to stop now that he had felt her beneath him. He pulled on the nightgown sliding it up her slender thighs slowly. She did not stop him, which made another possessive growl issue from him. He pulled the offending garment off and threw it on the floor near the bed. As he stared down at the soft flesh he had revealed, he groaned. She was perfect.

Although, scars that puzzled him covered the pale perfection of her skin. He knew that she had trained in sword play with Dominick, but he also knew that if his friend was the reason she had these ten scars he would flay him alive. Liza should not have been hurt while learning to defend herself.

"Where did these come from," He demanded rubbing a faded scar on her side beneath her right breast.

"Oh," Liza gasped, trying to cover herself with the blanket.

"Where, Liza?" He demanded preventing her from pulling the blanket over her.

"It's not...well it was Thomas, okay." Liza muttered and rage unlike anything he had ever felt filled him.

Lucian's hand clenched on her hip, where he held her, and she saw that his eyes had turned into red lasers again. d.a.m.n, that was not the mood she wanted when he was in bed with her, she thought. She shouldn't have told him. Thomas had been torturing her for almost a year, and she'd been unable to stop the violence until she was older. She knew why he'd been so obsessed with causing her pain, but that was another secrete that she could not reveal to him.

Lucian leaned forward his mouth moving to the scar just beneath her breast, making her breath catch. His tongue lashed out, caressing the slightly puckered scar. She felt that lick as if he'd licked her entire body, she bowed off the bed with a moan so loud she was embarra.s.sed.

Her hands went to his shoulders as he licked each scar, caressing them with kisses and licks that made Liza burn so hot she thought she would burst into flames at any moment. She felt his hands cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and then his mouth closed over one tip making her whole body s.h.i.+ver, pleasure filling her with an ache so sharp she could not bear it.

Lucian had only wanted to kiss those scars, to make them better, but as his mouth closed over her breast and she writhed beneath him he knew that he would not stop. He needed to touch her like this so badly he almost could not bear the weight of it. She was his. He sucked the nipple deep into his mouth, his teeth caressing the tip. He knew that before he left the bed tonight his mark would cover these beautiful mounds. His other hand cupped her, his fingers slid over the tip, pinching lightly.