Only then did the troll take his place beside Vojalie. He was turned toward her, one of her hands clasped between both of his.

Abigail wondered if this was how those unfortunate people felt who stretched their necks for the guillotine.

Chapter Six

Gerrod wouldn’t have been nearly so concerned, except that Abigail was trembling. He could feel her distress, almost palpably, as though she had a personal frequency and was shedding her misery in waves.

Only what on earth had Vojalie said to her that would have caused such anxiety?

So, he waited.

Vojalie leveled her gaze at Gerrod. He stared back.

“I must know one thing,” she said.

“Anything,” Gerrod responded.

Vojalie smiled, softly but there was a sadness in her eye that now added to his mounting sense of despair. Something was amiss. “I want to know what you are willing to sacrifice for this woman?”

Of all the things she might have said, Gerrod wasn’t expecting those words. “What am I willing to sacrifice? In what way? What do you mean?”

“Gerrod, Abigail is a blood rose, even though she’s of human stock. I felt it the moment she walked in, but I couldn’t believe it.”

“I hate to plead ignorance, but in my three hundred years I can’t recall hearing about a blood rose.” Although, he remembered Ethan saying something about a rose. Maybe this was what he meant.

“I understand. Even I had to examine the ancient documents. There are only a few references of any merit and little help at all. But a blood rose is an individual who can supply a mastyr vampire with an unlimited amount of blood.” Gerrod shifted slightly and looked down at Abigail. She looked up, her light green eyes wide. “Sweet Goddess,” he murmured.

“Well, that would explain my recurring condition,” she said. “And why, after you take what you need, I feel so wonderful.” Her lips quirked slightly. “Well, it explains part of the reason I feel so wonderful.”

She looked young and adorable and her words teased him mercilessly. You would say that here, in front of Vojalie and her husband?

Well, if you heard the questions I was asked earlier, you wouldn’t be too surprised. At this point, I think everyone in Merhaine knows that you bonked me last night. As for how soon it becomes known that you shagged me in the bakery closet, well, that will be for Elena and Ethan to reveal.

At that he laughed, bending his neck back, shouting his laughter into the ceiling and it felt good.

“I wonder what she just pathed to him,” Davido murmured.

“She’s good for him.”

After a moment, Gerrod’s amusement stopped dead as the harder truths began hitting him. He once more centered his gaze on Vojalie.

“What is the nature of the relationship of the blood rose to the mastyr vampire? Does it involve a ritual bonding ceremony or anything of that nature?”

“Not something specific that I could discover. The bonding occurs naturally over time so proximity would be all that is necessary. Although another brief anecdote indicated that the bond can be hastened by the placing of blood in a receptacle from both mastyr vampire and blood rose, then blending. Once combined, each drinks from the receptacle. Apparently, this can lead to a sudden burst of power, even unusual healing, which I think could be used throughout one’s life.

“As for the nature of a blood rose, because she is meant to bond with a mastyr vampire, all mastyr vampires will be drawn to her.”

He lifted a hand and said, “Ethan touched her earlier and she immediately tapped his personal frequency.”

“The mating frequency?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have proved the documents correct. However, there is a remedy. It’s important to exchange frequencies during a mating, which then sets a sort of seal on the bond, one that another mastyr vampire cannot cross.”

He felt relieved. If Abigail was to be this person, this blood rose in his life, then he had thought it would be very difficult to keep other mastyrs away from her. But a seal, that would be a good thing. His mind reeled from everything he was hearing but he needed to understand all that being a blood rose would mean.

“There must be more.”

She nodded. “There is one aspect of the blood rose that might have some application given the recent Invictus activity. For some reason, a blood rose is impervious to the effects of wraith blood, and her blood can even act as an antidote. I believe this means that Abigail would be protected from a wraith pairing should she ever be captured.”

Should she ever be captured. The words had a terrible ring to them.

Gerrod pondered all of this. He glanced at Abigail. No smiles right now, just a concern in her eye as she met his gaze.

He turned back to Vojalie. “Can you be more specific about what being a blood rose would mean for Abigail? It is very tempting to think that I might have someone at my side with such an unusual ability. However, it must have ramifications for her.”

He watched Vojalie’s chest rise and fall before she said, “It does which is why I asked earlier what you would be willing to give up for this woman.” Her gaze shifted to Abigail. “I fear your life would change drastically and perhaps not in ways you would wish for. You have come to a crossroads tonight and it won’t be simple. If you choose to stay in Merhaine, to live with Gerrod as his blood rose, you will become a vampire.”

“What?” the word burst from Abigail like a gunshot. “I don’t understand.”

“This makes no sense,” Gerrod added. “She can’t become a vampire. No one can. You have to be born one.”

But Vojalie extended her hand gesturing in Abigail’s direction. “Except, apparently in cases like this.”

Once more she shifted to address Abigail. “You’re already halfway down this road or did you think you were born with your telepathic ability and a frequency that even I can sense?”

“I have a frequency?”

“Abigail has a frequency?”

“The beginnings of one, yes.”

Gerrod stared at the floor. He was caught between two thoughts that held him suspended over a deep chasm. The first thought was that Abigail could become to him something extraordinary, someone who could provide him with endless blood and who could engage in extraordinary sex because she would possess personaly energy waves. Even dwelling on it this little bit set his own frequency to vibrating strongly. This first how-to-benefit Gerrod musing, however, was pathetically selfish and he knew it.

The second thought was that a human should never have to give up her birthright. He would not wish to cease being a vampire. He’d birthed as one, he was long-lived, he enjoyed all the various aspects of his birth genetics.

So this was why Vojalie had asked him the question, ‘What are you to sacrifice for this woman?’ If he understood all the nuances, that if Abigail was to hold onto her humanity, he would have to give up hope of ever having her in his life. That would be his sacrifice.

But it was like being offered a gift, even shown the beauty and breadth of that gift, every unique and desirable facet, then having it snatched away. He could feel his scowl return, heavier, deeper than ever before.

He knew only one thing: For a specie to have to change, well it was as wrong as what the Invictus pairs went through. It was a perversion.

He lifted his gaze to Vojalie. “This is a perversion.”

He had expected Vojalie to protest. Instead, Abigail spoke quickly. “No,” she said, overlaying his arm with her hand. “You’re wrong.”

Gerrod was surprised at the forceful sound in her voice. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I do know that what I’ve experienced has felt like a normal progression, something for which I am oddly designed, but I don’t believe for a moment it’s either immoral or unnatural. I also think Vojalie’s concerns are the greater ones anyway.”

Gerrod glanced between the two women. “Which concerns?”

Only then did Abigail frown and sink back into the couch cushions. “I will need to choose between the worlds, to determine to which life I will pledge my greater allegiance, my citizenry, my commitment.”

And the truth is, she added, pathing to him and looking into his eyes once more, we barely know each other, the bonking and shagging notwithstanding.

*** *** ***

Abigail stood in the vast entrance hall of Gerrod’s castle.

So she was a blood rose.

Something so uncommon in Realm history that Gerrod had never heard of it and Vojalie had been forced to search through the old leather tome to find out what she could about the strange condition.

The drive back from the fae’s house had been very quiet. Silent, in fact.

She had no idea what his thoughts were, but during the entire drive, hers had been an internal, mental round robin of weeping, wailing and screaming.

She wanted to stay with Gerrod in his castle and in his arms forever and yet, did she really? What did she know of him, except that he was a lonely, scowling Guard of the Realm, a mastyr vampire who ruled over a million souls of varying species, an admirable man in essentials, a wonderful lover, a good friend, and very hard on himself.

But could any of this, anything really, justify changing biology.

He stood staring at the stone floor, his hands on his hips, the soft leather coat bunched at the waist.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

Gerrod turned to face her. She thought it odd that right in this moment he must have been standing in the very center of the massive hall, a large wagon-wheel-like wooden candelabra suspended over his head, though at least some fifteen feet above his tall frame. Was he trying to center himself?

“I honestly do not know what to make of this turn of events. I was looking for an answer more along the lines of, ‘Well, Gerrod, I believe this woman to be your mate, even though she is human.’ That would have been entirely sufficient. The problems would have been more like whether I could persuade you to live in Merhaine at least part of the year or if you would agree to a bodyguard when you worked at the Hollow Tree bakery.