New Things

Maddox entered the cave just as Serenity awoke. As soon as the earth opened up, the baby started crying. Maddox didn't know what to do and sat down looking lost. He rocked the baby and spoke into her mind to calm her.

Seren looked away from him and the baby, she didn't want to see it, it was only a reminder of her current situations of her own pregnancy. She stood up and went to the bathroom and shut the door, she then turned on the shower and started to undress

Maddox looked at Serenity and said in a lost tone in her mind, Serenity, I don't know who to give this child to. Her parents died today, and her lifemate just handed to her to me. I've never held a baby in my life! She's so small... I could hurt her. What do I do?

why are you asking me...I'm new to this life... I have not even adjusted to what I have become....the last thing I need is to be a mother...to anyone child she said stepping into the shower

Maddox said, Serenity, I know this has been hard on you. I will help you every step of the way. But... this child is beyond me.

so is this one she said placing and hand on her own stomach even though he was not there to see it, she knew he would know what she met. The water was warm yet she felt cold, usually, she was comforted by water, but not this time.

You don't understand, he said. We will be able to connect with our child, mind to mind, in a couple of months. We will learn about them, get to know them before we can even hold them. But this child... I have resisted talking to her, but she won't listen to me. I have tried to get past her natural shields, but nothing works. If I don't know how to care for her, how can I be a good father to her if we decide to keep her?

keep her?! her heart sank and anger grew in her I don't even want to keep the one inside me! why would I tolerate another! she knowing somewhere inside it was only half true but it still didn't keep her from being angry enough to almost fall in the shower because she hit the wall

Maddox was there, having put the crying infant in a quickly fashioned crib and going to his mate. He held her by her arms to steady her.

"I said 'if'," he pointed out. "To be honest, I'm not ready to be a father right now. I thought, with our child growing inside of you, we both would have time to grow and think about it. But the Alexandor handed his lifemate to me and..." He let her look him in the face, watch the emotions play there. "That child scares me, Serenity. I don't know if I'll ever be ready to raise a child if I'm like this. She's small, easily broken, and I'm not exactly a welcome sight to children. They say if my brother fails, I'll be the next Dark One just based off my intimidating looks alone. I feel as if it is a failure on my end. I know you don't want a child right now, and I agree we aren't ready. But... what if you decide you do want a child, our child or the one in the other room, and I can't do it?"

"I...." she said in a soft uncertain tone, she didn't even know what the dark one was or most of anything he just said. Her thoughts began to become a little fuzzy "Maddox...I" he was so close, his smell surrounded her, his voice danced on her skin, he was like an alien to her, not from this world, everything about him called to her, the pain started in her stomach, something was wrong, she felt her limbs getting heavy, she felt rejected and drained, blood started to flow from between her legs as her legs gave out on her "whats..." but she couldn't finish as the room started to spin

Maddox held her to him, tears falling as he said, "This can't be happening now! Please, God! Don't let this child die! Don't let Serenity lose something so precious!" He rocked her, unknowingly sending a call to the prince for aid. "Please, both of you must live! I love you both, and I'm scared of failing both of you! How can I make this right?!"

A strong hand gripped his shoulders "Calm yourself Maddox dont panic, feel your lifemates body, feel her emotions what do you sense?" the princes voice said from behind him

Maddox said, Pain... Unloved... Rejection? I don't understand. The pain I understand, and I have yet to convince her she is loved, so I can comprehend her feeling unloved. But why rejection?

are you sure that's how Serenity feels? look deeper Maddox the prince said

Maddox looked deeper and was shocked. His child's... no, his daughter's first impression of him was that he didn't want her. But that wasn't true. He wanted her, but he feared he would fail her and her mother, cause a monster to harm them because he couldn't be what they needed. Little one, I am sorry I made you feel unwanted, but that is not so. I want you more than anything, but if I can't protect you... I do not want to lose you or you mother. Please, stay with us. I have never cared for a child and I am new. Please, fight for us. She may not know it, but your mother needs you.

He looked at the prince. The look on Maddox's face said everything Xavier needed to know.

-----

Michael woke up and stretched. His hand found strands of silk and brought it to his mouth. Then, he smelled something strange. It shouldn't be there, yet it was. The scent of another man. Wake, Scarlett. Wake so I can learn who has touched my woman.

Scarlett stirred next to him and slowly awoke. Before she turned to him she put on her mask to hide her face once more "what are you talking about?" she asked in a sleepy tone

"I smell another man on you," he said. "I was gravely wounded, but I should have known if a man came into our room and touched you. The fact I did not means you went to meet someone after I went to sleep."

Her uncle's voice entered her mind. Get angry with him. Storm from the room. Then, come to my house just outside the walls of the school.

She looked at him with an angry expression "excuse me?" she said in an angry tone as she stood up and dressed "you know I may have a duty to you as a lifemate but that does not mean I will tolerate wrong doings on my own character" she said with a growl and stormed out of the room. She covered her tracks and moved quickly knowing he would come after her. When she finally was able to lose him she went to her uncle's house like he asked and quickly closed the door and warded the place so no one could enter "Uncle?" she called out for him

Alister sat in a leather chair with a smile, his hard cock very evident as he wore no clothes, and said, "You did well. Ride me, Scarlett. Hard, fast, and rough, like you sluts enjoy."

She growled though she didn't know why, and she was hesitating for reason that were unknown to her. Suddenly she found she did not want this that the thought of being with him sickened her "I... don't want to " she said in an uncertain tone

He said in a compulsion heavy voice, "Yes, you do. Remember, you are my toy, Scarlett, mine to play with whenever I feel like it. It doesn't matter that you have a lifemate or a Dragonseeker. You are my property and no one else's. Now, ride me like the whore you are."

"I'm not a toy uncle..." she said as she started to walk towards him "the whole reason we started this was because you said..." but she didnt get to finish because he pulled her to him and kissed her roughly, his compulsions from the other night kicking in.

"Ride me," he commanded again. "Admit you are my toy, submit to me like you did last night." He took her mask off. "I want to watch as the pleasure plays over your face. Be my whore, Scarlett. It's what you've always wanted, remember?"

She growled as she lowered herself onto him, when he was inside her he felt her fight the compulsion. Alister was shocked. He pushed into her mind, gripped her wrists and started pumping into her. He had to lay the compulsion on thick so that even her lifemate would not notice it.

"You are my whore!" he said, each thrust sending his commands so deep into her psyche that she wouldn't question them. "My toy! I tell you to do something, you do it! No matter what! Death is an excuse, not a reason to disobey me! You will come to me when I call, or you will be punished! You like my punishments! You beg for me to use you like the slut you are!" He laid her on the ground so he could hold her still. With his previous compulsion on her, it was easy to force his will upon her and make her into a living sex doll. "You are nothing but a skank and gladly open your legs for me! For anyone I tell you to fuck! Do you understand your master, Scarlett? If you do, then lay there and take me deep with in you, beg me to pound into you as hard as I please! Pain doesn't exist for you! It is part of being my toy! And you love every second I fuck you!"

She did as he commanded, wrapping her arms around him, begging him to fuck her silly. When he finished, she looked badly used, but satisfied. Alister laughed. He finally had her. With everyone else, she would act as she always had, but with him... He planned on enjoying every moment with her body. He had finally succeeded in getting her to be his forever.

"Ride me, Scarlett," he ordered again, sitting back in his chair. "Crawl to me like a dog, like a the bitch in heat you really are."

She shifted into her wolf form and crawled to him, his compulsion so strong she was taking his words literally

He stopped her and said, "You will always be in your human form, you moron!" He took out his brass knuckles and punched her hard enough to send her to the floor, forcing her back into her human form. "If you ever transform into an animal, it best be to kill a vampire! Now, try again. Ride me. Crawl to me like a dog, on your hands and knees. You are so hungry for my cock, you must have it in you every time we are alone."

-----

Jacob paced the room. He had to get Victoria out of there. She had been trapped for days with a monster in a small room. He had seen that when he touched her mind. Now, his own people trapped her in a room again. He hit the wall, causing Victoria to wake from a Carpathian slumber.

She groaned and started to move, she let out a sigh of discomfort as hunger slammed into her, her throat almost burning and her skin looked pale

Jacob ran to her and used his teeth to tear open his wrist. He placed it to her mouth and downed a bottle of blood.

"Take what I offer freely," he said.

She went to protest but when she opened her mouth his blood seeped in and she lost all train of thought as her mouth enclosed on his skin and a moan echoed her throat, her new fangs sunk in around his own bite as she began to drink from him

He didn't stop her from feeding, even as his legs gave out. He wanted her to be healthy. He was seeing white splotches over his vision, but he saw her color returning. His hand went limp against her mouth and his head lay next to her, eyes closed and skin nearly translucent.

She stopped and instinctively licked the wound and closed it then handed him a bottle of blood and rolled over, turning her back to him, his blood coursed through her body but she still hated that she had fed from him

Weakly, he put the bottle to his lips and drank. He groaned and said in her mind, Sorry for making you upset by having you feed from me. I should have given you a bottle, but, in truth, your color was so off, I reacted without thinking. I will try to fight that instinct until you are better prepared to accept it.

She sat up but kept her back to him "I will never accept it or you" she said in a low tone "but you're in luck at least we know you have someone who will accept you so why don't you go running back to her and leave me alone"

"She... is with her lifemate," he said. "There is only you for me, Victoria. If I had said the binding words to you when I saw you, none of this would be happening. But I'm a modern man and believe it should be your choice. I did take it away at the talent show, but I had to prove to all three of us that you are my lifemate. And Victoria... even with her abilities, I should have seen the truth. I'm sorry."

SHe was silent with her back still turned to him, suddenly she jumped up from the bed and rushed the door, slamming into it hard "Let me out!" she yelled and continued to slam into the door

He went to her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Let me help."

He ran with preternatural speed at the door. After so many days, the door cracked and unnatural light from a desk lamp shown through before it fell away. However, there had been an audible crack that filled the room sickeningly. Jacob fell to the floor and coughed up blood. He had broken the whole right side of his body, three ribs puncturing his lung.

"Go," he wheezed out. "Be... free..." Then, he passed out.

She went to leave but found she couldn't, she couldn't leave him like that, with a defeated sigh she then went over to Jacob, she didn't know what to do she had not even begun her healing classes yet. She dug a hole in the earth with her hands, big enough to put him in, she dragged his body into it then she put her wrist to his mouth "here take back some of what you gave me...I don't know how to do this so hurry up" she said nudging him trying to get him to wake up

Zandar and Serilda arrived. They had heard a sound like a bomb and went to check it out. Zandar had Serilda sit back. He went to Victoria.

"He needs more than just blood," Zandar said. "I never thought he would try to use himself as a battering ram just so you could get out for air. We were coming to take you to the prince, but this will delay us. He can't feed right now. He is leaving this world. Can you not feel it?"

Victoria looked down at Jacob, he was pale but she knew he would live, she didn't know how she knew but she did "so be it" she said and ran from the room

Zandar was in front of her in moments and said, "You cannot leave. You are the reason he still lives. If you leave him now, and he dies, you will live a half life. Only you can hold him now. I have tried, but he pushed me away. We need you to save my idiot nephew."

-----

Maggie walked around the school in her bare feet. She looked ethereal, like a Gothic fairy. The flowers seemed to respond to her, wanting to follow her every movement. She had snuck out of the protection of the school to dance among the trees. What she didn't know was someone or something was watching her, marking her as prey.

Her hair shimmered silver in the moonlight. Her clothes, as black as the night itself, seemed to flow around her like water. Her pale gray eyes were framed by long, black eyelashes. Her dark makeup made everything on her pop in a way that sent the hunter's heart pounding. She didn't seem to have an ounce of self-preservation, yet, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Her pale skin looked so smooth, he ached to touch it.

Then, a growl came from the woods opposite him. She looked and started backing away, fear running through her. His breath caught in his throat, fear for her coursed through him when he shouldn't be able to feel. The vampire he had been tracking... he had found her.

"S-stay away!" she said in a sing-song voice.

The colors nearly blinded the hunter and he had to take a firmer grip on the branch to keep from falling. He glided out of the tree as an eagle, but landed between his woman and the vampire as a man. And she was his woman; there would be no escaping him.

The fight was over quickly and when he was done he turned to her and gripped her arm tightly "you are not to leave the safety of the school grounds" he said making the compulsion strong as he walked her quickly back to the school "what is you name?" he asked in a stern tone

"I'm Maggie," she said, tears welling up. "I'm sorry. I had to get out of there. It was almost a compulsion from the earth itself. The soil, it was hurt. I had to heal it."

"Maggie..." he said in a silky tone that called to her "Stay in the school it is too dangerous out here, study hard so that one day you may heal the earth like you desire until then stay on school grounds where it is safe" he said just as they entered the school grounds

"I don't like it here," she said, clinging to him. "There are no trees, and the other students... I have no friends here, my family taken from me when I was young, and now a vampire tried to attack me. I want to leave. This place isn't for me."

He stopped her and turned to her "I will help were I can but you need to be here, think of it this way, here you can learn to help the earth you love so much" he said in a softer tone

"I can heal the earth already," she said, weeping. "It may not be fast enough, but I can. But... this place doesn't feel alive like the forest does. The humans who go here, they don't care. The earth here had died! I can feel it, but I don't have the strength to heal it! I can't be here! I can't listen to the cry of the earth anymore! Everyone looks at me like I'm nuts, but I know I can hear it! And I can't heal it!" She started to pass out.

Deseray was there and said, "She is having a panic attack... again. Bring her to the infirmary. I have just what she needs."

He did as the woman asked and hurried maggie along "does this happen often?" he asked the woman

Deseray nodded and handed Maggie a bucket of clean Carpathian soil to run her fingers through before saying, "Her ability is too strong for her. Her telekinesis is more manageable. But Maggie can't control her need to heal the earth. Humans don't care about the earth and throw trash everywhere. That has killed most of the earth within the walls. Under the buildings, the earth is fine, but she feels the rest of the earth here crying for her aid. Her connection to the earth is too strong and would kill her if she were left unchecked here. The teachers have combined their abilities to keep her from healing the grounds until she has been converted. We don't want to risk her, but healing such a large area would kill her, even as a Carpathian, without her lifemate."

He noded as he sat her down in a chair "I see...where is the head master I need to speak with him" he asked

"We do not have one at the moment," Deseray said. "He committed a crime, so we are currently looking for a new headmaster."

"I'm better now," said Maggie. "Sorry to always trouble you."

"Not at all," said Deseray with a smile. "But you need to remember..."

"I know," Maggie said. "I can't block the sound so it's just difficult. I hope I can gain strength fast enough so I can heal it."

"That won't be possible," said Deseray.

Maggie was shocked. She suddenly jumped up as if to run, like she would defy all those people and try to heal the earth anyway, or cry. She didn't know which.