Free Sekhmet's Curse (Pearl Vampire Chronicles) by Dara Nelson Page B

with,” Matt said.
    “Me too,” Carlos said.
    I shook my head, “You’ll spook her.  If you go, you stay hidden.  Understand?”
    They both nodded then headed out the door.  I turned to Jason, “Let’s eat, okay?”
    He nodded, but added, “You don’t have to babysit me, you know.  I can take care of myself.”
    “I know you can.  But I thought you wanted to hear about the time your Dad broke my ribs, right ?”
    He blushed slightly, “Well, yeah.  But do you have to make it sound so morbid?  I’d like to hear other stuff too.”
    “ Of course you do,” I said as I tucked my arm in to his and led him into the hall.  “So, what do you want to know?” I said.
    I could tell that he really wanted to know about the broken ribs, but he resisted asking.  “Tell me about the first time you met my Dad.”
    We turned into the kitchen, “Okay.  But actually, the first time we met was also the time he broke my ribs,” I said as I grabbed some pints from the fridge.  “How many for you?”
    “Ummmm, four please?  Is that too many?”
    “It’s not too many at all, Jason.  You can have as much as you want when you’re here.”
    “Then six please.”
    “Six it is,” I grabbed them, and four for me, and dropped them in the microwave.  As I was heating the blood I began telling him of my first encounter with his father, “Your father and others like him were working for someone who wanted female vampires for their breeding abilities. But vampires and s eraphim ’s weren’t, ummmm , friends yet. Seraphim’s had been extinct for hundreds of years, or so we thought.”
    “Until that priest guy used DNA to bring us back, right?” Jason said.
    I nodded, “Yes.  So when they basically appeared out of nowhere and all they were doing was kidnapping female vampires, some of which were my close friends, well, we immediately came to the conclusion that they were trying to kill us off so w e began trying to figure out how to defend ourselves. We never, ever thought that vampires and seraphim’s could get along and live in peace. It was only because of your father that we became friends, but that happened much later.”
    “Funny, but he told me the same thing about you.  He said you were the reason that my kind and vampires got along now.  He said that it was because of how you treated him when you had him captured.  He was intrigued by you, fascinated by you and he even developed a little crush on you. The priest had raised them to despise vampires, he said that you were the reason that we went extinct in the first place. But when he first met you, when he first talked to you, h e knew he could never harm you.  And because he wanted you to stay alive and be his friend, then he thought that maybe it was okay to let all vampires live and even be friends.”
    “Really?   He told you that?  That’s, well, I didn’t know that he felt that way.  Anyways, w e were trying to figure out why the s eraphim ’s were kidnapping female vampires.  And we thought the best way to figure that out would be to capture one.”
    “And you were the bait , ” Jason said.
    I smiled, “He told you that?  Yes, I was.  I was out on the lawn when your father and his friends showed up.”
    “Why didn’t you just ask him why he was here?”
    “Because he only spoke Latin.   He pretended that he didn’t know English.  And nobody here at the time knew Latin.  So, when you father first saw me, he waved his friends off and hovered right above me.”
    “Yes.  He said he knew immediately that you were excellent breeding stock and so he marked you as his mate right then.”
    “He marked me?”
    “Yes.  With his scent.   From his,” he blushed, “from, you know.  Didn’t you feel it?”
    “Well, yes.  But I didn’t realize that was what he was doing.  What does that do, when he marks me?”
    “It repels all other s eraphim s.  It tells them that you are his.  They won’t come near you.”
    “Oh.