8. ARA

The two remaining elders on the small counsel had asked me far too many questions. Like my intentions to being back in Manhattan. I had to inform the both of them that I never left, and that I was older than the both of them. Sure, only by a couple years, but it counted. Raquel and Sven then gave in and offered up the rightful seat to me. I could've refused them, but nobody refused a seat as an elder, it was better than being put out to pasture, which I'd heard some other covens and clans do to their elders.

It was only fifteen minutes after they'd left when I smelled Nash's sweetness return. At first, I assumed it was his blood staining my bedsheets, but there was life to it.

He laid on the bed, dressed now. A furtive look to him, with eyebrows and lips pursed in question.

"This was on the floor when you fainted," I said. "I had the clasp fixed for you."

"That's why—" he said, gulping hard. "That's why I'm in heat."

"Oh no."

I'd smelled it on him, and tasted it from him. I suppose he didn't want to be in heat. I didn't see the big deal about it, an omega in heat was a delicious thing indeed.

He smiled slightly, and looked at me, up and down. "Does that mean you're going to give me it back?"

I tossed it across to him. "Of course."

He caught it in one hand. "My parents noticed, well, the entire compound probably noticed."

I joined Nash on the bed, down on my knees in front of him. "This is dangerous," I said, tucking a hair behind his ear. "I actually needed to talk to you. So, my new position as an elder, means I've been given information that I didn't have before this."

"What is it?" he clasped the necklace hard. "Is this your way of breaking up with me? Because we're not even together. But, we—have—I fear bonded, and I'm not sure—" his bottom lip trembled.

"No, no, no," I said, stroking his cheek and cupping a hand at his chin. "I'm just now stuck."

"You're stuck?" he said, smiling. "Because I'm the one in heat right now. I'm the one who is really stuck."

"Yeah, because as an elder, I can't be with you, but the only way I can't be an elder, is if I leave the city," I said.

I'd never looked into the supernatural bylaws that the elders and leaders created. There were some hard and fast rules, specifically those about the age required and the force of which that would create an elder. There was no escaping my fate. I couldn't be with Nash and be an elder, but I didn't have a choice to be an elder, I was forced into that.

"So, are you moving?" he asked.

"It would solve all the problems," I said, unable to stop touching him. "They also smelled you on me. So, your witch coven leaders are probably going to be searching for you. I've heard witches keep to their kind."

He scoffed. "Witches will do anything but be independent," he said. "Everyone is always following someone else's rules. And I—I'm now just a pawn because all my feelings and thoughts are tainted by you. This bond." He reached for my hand and stroked it. "I can't even think. But wherever you go, I'll come with you."

"I'm not going to let you make a decision based on your current feelings," I told him. "If I'd known we would've bonded and more-so in your heat, I might've held back a little, but I also haven't had sex in a long time. I got a little carried away."

"So, what are you saying?" He grabbed my hand at his chin. "Because I need you to use straight forward language and expressions. Please."

"I'm saying, we can't make any decisions without thinking them through. I've been alive a long time. I've made decisions on the fly and the ones I think about first, always end up being better," I told him. "The one thing I know to be true, is that I need you. In here." I took his hand, still clinging to my wrist and placed it on my chest. "But I need to warn you that you could lose your entire family."

Nash's heart raced, the sound of it like a steel drum in my ears. "What's going to happen to them?"

"Not to them," I said. "But you. You've bonded with me. Your witches aren't going to like that."

"You know, my twin brother—"

"You have a twin."

"Yeah. Rhone. He's no longer in the family pictures now. He left because of issues, so it's just me and my younger sister. I don't think my parents could survive with me leaving as well," he said. "And not just because it would only leave Melize as the only family member left, but because it'll look bad. On the outside, it'll look like they're the reason we both left."

"If your family choose, I can give them a comfortable life," I said. I had an intrinsic need to care for Nash and all his wants and needs. "Assuming, they're ok with the two of us being together."

I knew he wasn't thinking properly, his heart continued to beat, and his chest swelled as he tried to take in as much air as possible probably to calm his nerves. I wanted to squeeze him in a large hug, but I resisted, I could've made things worse with a bite on his neck to devour him. He brought out a hunger in me, a dangerous hunger.

"I understand now," he whispered. "Why my parents kept me from going into heat. They knew I would fall for someone who wasn't a witch."

"That's not the worst thing, is it?" I asked.

"I never saw myself with anyone," he said.

"I don't want you to change," I told him. "I don't want you to stop being the fun and carefree guy I saw performing magic tricks for humans."

"You make me feel more powerful," he said.

I grabbed his leg, my fingers digging in his inner thigh, feeling up, closer to the groin. "I'm not going anywhere," I said. "So, tell me what you want to happen, and I'll make it."

He looked at me, his eyes snapping wide. The colors of his irises shifted through the entire rainbow spectrum. And like a heat beat, they throbbed with a halo of yellow.

"Yours eyes." I removed my hand from his thigh to stroke his face. "Gorgeous. You—"

"I told you," he whispered. "I feel—I feel so powerful around you. I can't explain it, but it feels illegal almost."

"You're an aether witch, aren't you?"

"Yes."

I kissed him, maintaining eye contact as they settled on purple and transformed to blue. With a hand on the back of his head, I lead him down against the pillow where I continued to kiss him, forcing my tongue in his throat and his tongue submitting to mine. His sweetness had me in a chokehold, and there was no way I'd ever give this up, not by force or will. Nash woke me from a two decade depression with a bang.

Nash shot up, banging heads with me. "I have to go," he said. "My sister is trying to get in my room."

"Don't be long," I said. "I want to take you somewhere special. Somewhere without interference from elders or witches."

Once Nash vanished into the aether, I stormed out of my bedroom into the hallway.

Estefania was there, pretending like she hadn't been listening. "Well," she mumbled.

"We're leaving," I told her.

"No, uncle. Please, I've only just got here. I can stay. Hold the fort."

"Didn't you come here to learn from me?" I asked.

"Partly," she said. "And also to teach you things you needed to learn. You know, technology and all that stuff."

Estefania groaned and stormed off. "Ugh."

"Just like your mother," I laughed, calling out after her.

I round up the staff and informed them about the change.

The DeMauriel family had properties all over the world, and since the family numbers had dwindled, they were all almost unoccupied, with the exception of squatters, I assumed. In fact, there was the home in Vermont, that's where Estefania's father was currently living.

In the dining hall, there were six members of staff, and Estefania, all of them seated and stared at me at the head of their table.

"The elders have given me no choice but to relocate," I said. "As you all know, I've found myself in a sticky situation, which I'm absolutely enamored by. I've taken a mate, but unfortunately, the elders of Manhattan have come together, forbidding it. It must be a new rule, because the last time I was awake, people were frolicking through the city without a care for who they mingled with." I smacked my lips. "That was one of my most fond memories."

Estefania raised her hand. "But haven't they introduced the laws to make sure people keep their lines of succession clean." Slowly, she stood. "A witch and a vampire. What would the offspring become? You're also going to outlive a witch, and are much older than him."

"Yes, yes, yes," I grumbled, waving a hand at all the things I'd heard before. "But we're bonded.. It's more than just a bond. It's a—" My teeth tapped together, clinking in search of the right word. "It's in my soul. I feel like I've waited so long for him, my soul, it tells me that I've waited."

"Uncle," she said, interrupting me. "I love the idea of love, but with someone your equal. Nash is great, he was so much fun at the party, he has little tricks, but he's from a no name family."

I'd lived a long life, and at one point in that life, I had thought similarly to her. But none of those thoughts ever brought happiness to me. The idea of love was far fetched. I always assumed it would never happen for me, but now that it had, I wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of it. And I'd rather go with the path of least resistance, and just leave this city than fight stupid supernatural bylaws.

"You have a lot to learn about love," I said.

"But you barely know him," she said.

That was the beauty of drinking from him. I didn't have to spend hours in conversation, talking to him to feel like I knew him. I had him in me, the aura of his thoughts splashed with passion were enough.

I gave a single clap, silencing the dining room, although it was only my niece making sound. My staff leaned back against the stiff backed chairs.

"Maine is nice this time of year," I said. "Ready my things. We're going to take a little autumnal vacation while I figure this out."

"Now it's just a vacation?" she grumbled.

I loved my apartment. It was a jewel in the city. It always had been and it always would be, especially with the emerald green glass and the architecture. This would always be my home, and would stand long after I was gone, but right now, my thoughts were focused on Nash, and spending time alone with him, unimpeded by anyone else.

The staff sprung into action nearly immediately once I disbanded them to talk with my niece alone.

My niece wasn't happy about the plan, and I had told her she could stay here, but there wasn't going to be a staff to service the place, or her needs, and I'd be taking my blood stock with me, even if Nash was a fresh bag for me to drink from whenever I pleased.

"I could just go back to Vermont," she grumbled at me. "But then my dad would ask questions, and I'd rather not. He's still trying to get me married."

"You don't have to stay," I said. "Go out there and explore. Find a love connection."

"But it's not that easy."

"It isn't. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't try."

She sighed. "I think if you really wanted to, you'd stay here, fight the elders on the rule and really make a life with Nash."

"Trust me, I will," I told her.

It wasn't being completely honest with anyone.

The two remaining vampire elders in the city hadn't just told me about not being able to romance Nash, but they'd informed me of a prophecy that all elders were sworn secret to protect. A prophecy that foretold the death of a bloodline through unpure blood in this year. The prophet, Dahlia had died over three hundred years ago. And she hadn't been wrong once.

From slip of paper with the transcribed prophecy, I'd seen the year and the location being the eastern coast of the Americas. Prophets like Dahlia were uncommon nowadays, but those who claimed to see the future were witches, not prophets.

I'd have to tell Nash, but right now, we had four more months until the year was over, and the old prophecy would be through.