“What will happen once the Caen are destroyed, and I’m no longer under threat?” There he put his uncertainty out there. Robert reached over and laid his hand on Eddie’s thigh and turned to look at him directly.

  “I’d like for you to move in here with me. I know you have a job at the restaurant and responsibilities at the farm, but I need you here with me. I’m a soldier with the DuCane army, and I have dreams of working my way up to leadership one day. This is my life and my career and my people. I want you to join me in this life.”

  Robert was serious, and the offer was what Eddie had hoped to hear, but now he wondered if it was possible. Could he turn his life upside down, leave what was familiar and start a new life here among people who may or may not accept him. The Master was awesome, and Amon was kind, but this place was massive, would he ever fit in? Would Robert grow tired of having him around?

  “You’re not the only human who is the beloved of a vampire here.” Robert seemed to have read his mind. “The Master’s beloved, Ezra, is human, Silas Patronne’s beloved, Wolfe, is human and Ismael’s beloved, Easton, is half-human and half-vampire. We are many here, and we welcome all true bonds regardless of origin.”

  “I’m twenty-four, a busboy, a farmhand, and an avid reader. What can I offer here, what can I offer you?” Eddie regretted those last words when he saw the stricken look on Robert’s face. He looked as if he’d been slapped, but Eddie hadn’t meant to offend him. He cared for this man and wanted to please him.

  “I’ve explained, and you’ve listened, but have you actually heard me?” His words were spoken tight and crisp. Eddie didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.

  “A vampire claiming bond that takes place between beloveds and which we completed yesterday binds us together for all time and eternity. There is no walking away, only compromise and acceptance on the part of both parties. I cannot remain here if you are elsewhere, and you will feel the distance and the pain of separation as well. It affects both parties vampire or otherwise.” He took a deep breath and glanced down the walkway from which they’d come before continuing.

  “I’ve lain my heart bare to you in every way; there is nothing that I am hiding from you. You can feel the depth of my emotions for you through our bond.” His words were taking on a desperation that Eddie ached to ease.

  “I love you.” He said, and Eddie melted, his heart pooled around his feet as he listened and heard. “Your strength under such dire circumstances, your will to prevail, your kind and accepting view of the world, and your big brown eyes, I love everything about you. I wanted to tell you that yesterday, but I thought it was too soon and would add too much pressure to a young man who was already loaded down with so much.” He paused for a beat and squeezed Eddie’s knee. “Our future is together, and I’m asking for our future to be here, but if you find that to be impossible, I will follow wherever you wish to go.”

  His tone was shredding Eddie, and he turned to him ready to beg Robert to let him stay and vow to do everything in his power to make this work and make him happy when someone approached from the adjacent walkway, and they were moving very quickly. He felt Robert stiffen and sit up. Eddie instinctively leaned into Robert as he watched the purposeful steps of the man coming towards them.

  When he was within a few feet, Robert stood up and brought Eddie up to stand beside him. “What is it?” He asked when the man stood before him.

  “The Master has asked for you to meet him in the Gallery on the first floor.” The man told him and then turned and walked back the way he came. Robert put his arm around Eddie and hugged him close.

  “I’ll walk you back to my quarters and meet you there after I’m through.” He stated and began walking back towards the Palace with Eddie tucked under his arm.

  “I want to stay here. I like the garden, and I’m safe here inside the Palace grounds.” Eddie wasn’t ready to be cooped up inside, not with so many things on his mind. Robert considered it for a moment and didn’t look pleased but relented.

  “I’ll meet you here in the garden when I’m finished. These gardens stretch for miles, so please don’t wander too far from the Palace.” He appeared unsure about leaving him. He paused for a moment and then place a hard kiss to Eddie’s lips, and then he was gone.

  Eddie wished he could have said something to reassure him, but there was no time to say what he needed to say. It would wait until he returned, and then Eddie was going to tell him that he loved him too. Never in a million years did he think he would say that to a man he met two days ago but it was the honest truth. He still felt reluctant to hand over too much control, but he wanted Robert in his life.

  He walked several paths, all running parallel to the Palace until he found himself in the center of a circle of sculptured hedges. He pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures. He wanted to show them to Joe. Joe had been studying landscape design through an online school, and he would appreciate the beauty of these trees.

  Eddie was staring down at his phone when he heard them. It was the sound of hard soles grinding on the gravel of the path. When he looked up, there was nowhere for him to run. He was surrounded by Caen soldiers.

  “Fuck.”

  …

  Robert hurried to the Main Gallery and saw that Master DuCane, along with Ismael and Silas, were present. He entered when given the order to approach and stood before them.

  “I won’t keep you long.” Master DuCane told him. “Is your beloved in your quarters?”

  “No, sir, he’s in the Topiary garden,” Robert responded.

  “I’ll let you get back to him shortly.” He assured, but first, Silas has a report on the Caen that I wanted you to hear.

  Robert turned his attention to Silas. “They were tracked from their location in Northern France to the East Coast. Their migration began shortly after Eddie observed the vampire attack at the restaurant and overheard the clean-up crew discussing the event. The Caen have been dormant for centuries but awakened a couple of months ago and started tracking something.” Silas paused and allowed Robert to comment.

  “This something is what awakened them?” He asked.

  “Yes, they followed it from France all the way to Mt. Pleasant, where they found it to be in the possession of a young farm boy.” He paused for a moment and then finished. “It’s the rosary, Robert, it has power beyond what Eddie can ever imagine, and the Caen will go to any length to obtain it. They’ve been spotted in and around town, biding their time waiting for an opportunity. We have our soldiers trailing them and taking them out, but as you know, when you kill one, it seems two take his place.” Robert was struggling to control his reactions and his need to race back to his beloved. Silas fell silent, and Master DuCane took over.

  “Your beloved is safe; the beads protect him. He prayed for protection, and the beads responded to his request. The Caen have been unable to take them or even touch Eddie because they can’t, the beads prevent anyone with the intention of harming your beloved from getting close. Between him being your beloved and also wearing the beads, is why no one could clear his mind or influence him.”

  “The beads, I had no idea,” Robert said.

  “It’s old magic of the old ways and very powerful. The Caen need those beads; they are one part of a series of mystical ties that have bound them for the past five hundred years. You don’t want to know what the ruler of the Caen would do in this world, as it is today, if he were released.”

  Suddenly, Ismael’s phone began to sound an alert. “Easton says there’s been a breach in the Western quarter of the Hedge garden.” Silas dispatched soldiers to the area based on the coordinates.

  “The Topiary garden is adjacent to the Hedge garden,” Robert spoke his thoughts out loud. He jumped and grabbed a ceremonial sword from the wall and ran from the room. He raced towards the Hedge garden with the others beside him. He knew it was Eddie; he could feel his panic as he cleared the building and burst outside.

  …

  Eddie dropped his phone and took in the horror that surrounded him. There were so many he couldn’t count them all. They stayed back, giving him a good ten feet of distance. They just kept circling and chanting, and Eddie was terrified.

  He wanted Robert; he wanted to be in his arms. Then suddenly the scene exploded, DuCane’s soldiers charged into the area, and a deadly battle was taking place ten feet from Eddie, and yet nothing touched him. It felt as if he were in a dream watching the action but played no part in it.

  Eddie clutched the beads and stared out at the mayhem that swirled around him. He saw Robert enter the fray and cut his way through the crowd. It wasn’t pretty, as blood and gore filled the space.

  Master DuCane appeared and moved through the battle with ease. The Caen soldiers appeared just to drop as he passed them by. They were no match for the Master and no match for his beloved.

  Eddie reached out frantically for Robert when he entered the center of the circle in which Eddie was standing. Robert took his hand and pulled him close while Master DuCane came to stand beside him carefully observing what was taking place. The Caen were dying, but their numbers continued to replenish as the battle continued.

  It seemed surreal, so much violence, and yet the three of them stood in the center, the eye of this storm untouched. Eddie looked to Robert for answers, but he was preoccupied watching ready to defend if one of the Caen turned on them. But they never got any closer; the war raged on until everything came to a sudden, blunt stillness. The battle ended with every Caen vanishing in the dust, and only DuCane soldiers and guards remained standing, waiting and focused for the next attack.

  Instead of more Caen soldiers appearing, one man appeared tall, well-groomed, and with eyes framed in red that looked to be on fire. Eddie’s heart began to thunder in his chest, and he held tight to Robert for support. There was no question that beneath the fine cut of that expensive blue suit was a monster. He flipped back the side of his crimson cape and stared at them. His lips curved up when he pinned his gaze on Eddie.

  Robert tucked Eddie close and stood to his right while Master DuCane stood to his left. Master DuCane looked at the terrifying being with dismissive indifference as he spoke. “Why are you here, Arjun?” His tone pointed and deadly. The man took a step closer but like the others could not come within ten feet. He looked down at the ground and then up at Master DuCane. The smile had left his lips, and a wave of growing anger was taking its place.

  “The human has what belongs to me, Louis.” He spoke to the Master by name. “It was taken from me and hidden by those thieves in France. But I heard it stirring, coming alive again, and I woke to follow. The stone calls to me. It is mine.” The guy rambled on, and Eddie had no idea what he was talking about or what it was he wanted.

  Arjun caught Eddie’s gaze and held it, and it was the worst feeling of Eddie’s life. His fingers gripped Robert's arm, panicked by the attention. He felt his stomach turn as the man tried to get at his thoughts. Eddie tore his eyes away and stared down at the ground.

  Arjun’s frustration was evident when he issued his next demand in a shout that shook the trees and had Eddie quaking in his boots. He could feel Robert channeling his own stillness and composure to him, helping him to calm and to stay focused on their connection.

  “Give me the beads from around your neck, human, and I will let you live. Deny me, and you all die.” He ended with a growl and a snap of his head as he turned to regard the soldiers positioned around him. “Give it to me, or I’ll kill you all.”

  Eddie ran his fingers over the beads and wondered briefly why this thing wanted his prayer beads, and then things began to fall into place. He looked down at the stone in the center, and it was glowing. It had never glowed before. The beautiful blue was turning to a fiery blue flame. The power of the beads began pulsated up Eddie’s arm.

  “You aren’t strong enough to keep the stone of Llyr, not even a small shard, as is being held within that string of beads. Give it to me.” His voice thundered until Master DuCane stepped towards him, and there was displayed a flash of uncertainty in the man’s evil expression.

  “You and yours were defeated centuries ago by a handful of monks on a hillside in France. Your marginal power was broken then and is now fading into nothing. Soon, Arjun, you will cease to exist.” The words were hitting home with Arjun’s uncertainty growing. But then he turned his attention away from Master DuCane and nailed Eddie with a stare that seared painfully into his mind and demanded Eddie give him the beads.

  Robert heard horrifying words and threats filling his mind as he sought to shield his beloved. Arjun looked at Robert and laughed. “He’s pretty, I’ll give you that vampire. But I wonder if he’ll die pretty.” Robert’s vampire roared at the threat to his beloved.

  Arjun wasn’t speaking, but Eddie heard his threats and saw the horror that would ensue if he refused him. Everything was charred and scalded, black for as far as the eye could see. The world was razed. Eddie felt his resolve weaken in the face of so much death and suffering, and he slipped the beads from around his neck, holding them pooled in the palm of his hand.

  “Arjun has no power over you, Eddie; he is attempting to frighten you into giving him the beads because he is utterly powerless to take them from you.” Master DuCane’s calm voice broke through the violence and fear tearing through his mind. Eddie heard him, and he buried his face against Robert’s shoulder as his mind began to clear.

  “The beads belong to you, Eddie, and they will only leave you if you willingly give them to another. They cannot be taken or stolen from you. Their power is attached to you, and you are the only one who can release that power.” Eddie drew strength from Robert and held onto the truth of Master DuCane. He gathered his strength and stood straight, and while not making eye contact with Arjun, he did face him.

  This was the reckoning he supposed. It was his time to stand tall and make the right decision. He held tight to Robert’s hand with his right and held the burning power of the beads in his left. They were more than he was capable of controlling, but they could not be set free. The only choice that seemed appropriate was this; he reached out his left hand towards Master DuCane.

  “I give them to you, the power and control of these beads with the burning stone belongs to you, Master Louis DuCane.” Eddie placed the rosary in Master DuCane’s hand, and the power of the contact and shift of energy shone in a flash of white light behind his eyes. The smile that followed was deadly as he turned his gaze on Arjun.

  Eddie was not sure what happened at that moment, but Arjun vanished, leaving not a trace of him or his minions having ever been there at all. When Master DuCane looked back at Eddie, his expression was warm.

  “Thank you, Eddie.” He said and placed the beads in the inside pocket of his jacket. He then turned to Robert, who was holding Eddie in a steel grip. “Take your beloved and enjoy the remainder of the day. The Caen will bother you no more.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you,” Robert stated, and he scooped Eddie up into his arms, and in an instant, it seemed to Eddie, they were back in their room, and Robert was setting Eddie back on his feet.

  “Oh, my love, I never want to feel so inadequate and so terrified ever again.” He groaned into Eddie’s ear. He held him in a hug so tight, Eddie had to struggle to breathe, but there was no place he’d rather be. “I thought I’d lost you when I saw you there in the middle of that bloody battle. My heart nearly died, and all I could think of was cutting my way through that onslaught to get to you, to save you, to be with you.”

  “I was so stupid, Robert. I shouldn’t have stayed out there. I knew the risks, but I didn’t want to be controlled or told what to do. I was such an imbecile, too stubborn to save my own life.” Eddie felt the tears and didn’t bother to try and stop them or hide them. No more would he hide anything from Robert. He was Eddie’s heart and soul, and that became clear there in the garden when Eddie thought he’d lose the only man he’d ever loved. The pain of that was sharper than anything that monster, Arjun had inflicted upon him.

  “I love you, Robert. I should’ve told you before you left the garden, but I thought I had time. I nearly lost everything before I had another chance to tell you. I’m sorry, and I’ll never act the fool again. I know who you are, and I know that I would die, my heart would shrivel and die if I ever lost you. I want to stay here with you and build our life together here in Coven DuCane. I love you.” He repeated the declaration again needing to make himself crystal clear, no more uncertainties.

  “I love you too,” Robert said and smiled. His beloved was safe and had agreed to stay with him forever. The love he saw and the words that were spoken filled his heart and nurtured his soul. Eddie belonged to him, body and soul.

  He turned Eddie’s face up towards him, marveling at the innocent beauty. He stared down into those beautiful big brown eyes, the eyes that had stolen his heart from the very beginning. “Together forever.” He said.

  “Together forever,” Eddie repeated before his lips were taken in a kiss that both surrendered all and demanded everything.

  EPILOGUE

  Louis sat with Ismael inside the vault located in the basement beneath the chapel. It was a room that was designed to hold and secure an item as powerful as the rosary that Eddie had gifted to him.

  “Where do you think the other shards of that stone are located?” Ismael asked.

  “The monks broke it into five pieces and placed them inside religious items. The items were dispersed around the world hidden in the graves of the righteous who were to protect them for all time.” Louis scowled at the implications if the stone of Llyr, even a shard, got into Arjun’s hands.

  “I don’t know how this one found its way here, but we’re extremely lucky it ended up in the hands of someone as innocent and pure as Eddie Boone. The outcome could have been quite different, had it gone to someone else.”