CHAPTER FIVE
1533 Words
I liked opinionated women — until I met Eloise Baker.- Beauguard
Beauguard POV
The air was still, tense with thinly veiled rage and defiance. The rage was all mine and the defiance — Miss Baker. Her cocky, sure attitude fuelled my already enormous annoyance at losing the rogue. She straightened and made to move. I hissed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned.
I wasn't sure why I was quite so invested in keeping her here. I could have drained her in less time than it would take to force her to stay — but the thought of sinking my fangs into her slender beautiful neck and taking the sweet ambrosia that would be her blood as her life drained from her eyes didn't appeal much to me.
Oh, I wanted to take her blood — but draining her wasn't the activity I had in mind.
Her splayed across my bed, writhing under me as I thrust into her — that was a better idea.
I gulped, brushing the thought away. I hadn't hungered for blood or s*x in years. But I wanted her blood and it irked me how much that want clouded my reasoning.
"Look, I don't understand what your problem is. I've already said I won't tell anyone about this."
"You can't guarantee that, and this rogue is fixated on you."
"And you can protect me — you didn't do a very good job earlier," she said, nodding to Cory. I stiffened when Cory's face fell.
"Cory was not for your protection, he was to follow the vampyre. It's unfortunate you were a target."
"That's fine, I'm not arguing that but it proves I don't need your help."
"You didn't seem to do much better without Cory's help," I sneered, and she hissed at me.
"Then I guess we're even." She glared, crowding me. I would have laughed at the attempt — but she did it quite well. She was tall for a woman. Considering I had spent most of my life towering over the opposite s*x, it was a treat to find one who could almost look me in the eye without craning her neck.
She may have been tall, but I still loomed over her — a fact that didn't please her much, because she huffed, then turned to Reia.
"Did you feed this one steroids?" Reia chuckled.
"No, I'm afraid Beauguard came that way to us."
"Yes, make fun of the vampyre," I mocked.
"What's all the racket in here?" I stiffened at the sound of the last person I'd expected here.
"Father." Turning to find the voice, I stilled at the sight of a man I had not seen in over a hundred years.
Aeron.
"Beauguard, my beloved. You haven't aged much," he said.
I laughed.
"Well I cannot say the same."
"That is an outright lie," Aeron spluttered, making me laugh.
"You have done well for yourself," he offered, looking around the room.
"I have not done much, just continued what you started." Aeron hummed, walking into the room.
"The only flaw is that you have a rogue problem," Aeron said quietly.
"He is stronger than anything we have encountered," I replied. "That is only possible if he was made of the first cluster — but most are gone, and none of us made this one."
Aeron was quiet for a moment, the grief crossing his face old and deep. I did not push it.
"The elusive bastard has made us work for our blood," Reia scoffed, untangling herself from the spot she had been lounging in. "Whatever he is, he is not one of ours."
"You are here, Reia." Aeron laughed.
"Of course I'm here, brother. It was you who left," she said, coming to stand in front of him. "Welcome home, Aeron," she whispered.
Someone huffed at the side.
"While I love this reunion for you all, I have to say again — I want to leave."
I turned to face her. I had almost forgotten the annoying mutant was still here.
"And I have said you can't leave," I growled in return, and she scoffed.
"From what I've heard you're not even certain you can protect me, buster, so cool off."
"And who are you?" Aeron asked, and she sighed, pushing towards him.
"Finally, some adult supervision," she muttered beneath her breath. I scowled — I was an adult, older than her wildest dreams. But she had walked toward Father without hesitation, the same way she'd walked into a dark alley alone, and something about that sat uneasily in my chest.
"I am Eloise Baker, and I'm the current fixation of your rogue or whatever," she mumbled.
Father stilled.
"Red riding hood," he murmured, staring deeply at her.
I watched my father's face and felt the first thread of unease.
"What seems to be the problem," Aeron asked, his eyes still on her.
"Your son refuses to let me leave," she said, staring a lot longer than I found appropriate.
"Are you all just picked for good looks," she murmured, and Father laughed.
"I've often wondered the same."
"Come, dear," he said, leading her to a chair. She went. I had spent the better part of an hour trying to keep her in the room by force and my father had managed it with two words. I was not going to examine how that felt.
"I know you're trying to distract me, I can feel the emotion in you," she said softly, as she sat.
"That is quite the power you have. You are an empath?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"You can say that. But empathy narrows it down a bit — I sense all emotion. Things connected to life and death. People believe that death is the end, but even the dead have something to give," she said softly.
"That is true, it must be such a burden to carry," he said.
I understood the burden. Four hundred years of it. I had never once considered that a human might carry something comparable.
She frowned, curling her fingers in her lap, and I sensed she was looking at my father in a new light.
"Yes, it is hard," she shrugged, glancing back at Father.
"Yet you endure," Father said softly. She didn't answer that.
"I can't just live here. I have a family that will want to know where I am," she said.
"You can see your family. In fact, we don't want much of your life to change," Father said softly.
"Father—" I called out, but she cut me off.
"And how will this work?"
"We'll give you a guard — one of us. You get to go do your tasks and we monitor this rogue. We may need your government's help catching this criminal," he said. She leaned into him.
"I'm not going to what is likely my father's engagement with a bodyguard," she deadpanned.
"Then a boyfriend, ma petite," Reia said, her eyes gleaming with mischief.
I froze.
"That has merits, can I take you," she asked my father sweetly, and he laughed.
"I am sorry, my dear, but no. I am too old to face down papa bears," he replied, nodding to me. "But I'm sure that Beauguard will be up for it."
I spluttered.
"I'm most definitely not up for it. I have duties."
Eloise stood, her eyes roving over me from head to toe.
"You'll do," she mumbled. I gritted my teeth, anger rising in my gut.
"I haven't said yes yet," I gritted. She patted my shoulder like I was a mildly inconvenient piece of furniture and I realised with some displeasure that I was going to say yes.
"Don't worry, I don't want to get married to you. I just need you there tomorrow. After that you can assign me someone else."
I stared at her, not quite sure how to answer. She turned to Reia.
"Where can I sleep — and someone should take that boy to bed, he's about to sprain his neck in that position." I turned to find she was right — while we'd all been arguing and posturing, Cory had fallen asleep on a futon.
Father rose.
"I believe we should call it a night," he said, and Eloise nodded.
"That would be great. Thank you, Aeron," she whispered warmly.
I felt a wave of emotion I wasn't ready to look too deeply at, so I ignored it.
"I'll find her another room, leave Cory here," Reia mumbled, leading the saucy red-haired mutant away.
I watched them go. Then I made my way to Aeron standing alone at the window, hands clasped behind his back.
"She interests you," Father said without turning.
"She's a complication," I replied.
Aeron was quiet for a long moment.
"Her name. Did you hear her name before tonight?"
I frowned.
"I didn't."
Father turned then, and looked at me with an expression I hadn't seen in four hundred years.
"I did," Aeron said quietly. "From the rogue. Before she arrived here."
The fire crackled. Neither of us spoke.
‘In over four hundred years I had never seen Aeron still like that. And now I understood why.’
- Writer
