Read Online Black Heart by Evernight Publishing - Free Book Online

whose
ashes...?”
    Deegan cut him off. “I know.”
    He handed Tristan an urn. “This is
Laura’s. We will scatter them over the bay as Raynor
requested.”
    “ And Raynor as well?”
    Deegan stood, clasping
Raynor’ s
remains tight to his chest.
    “ No. I will be keeping them. In
a safe place. No one is to know, Tristan. The story is his remains
were scattered along with Laura’s.”
    Tristan was floored. A memento? A
remembrance? It struck him suddenly. He knew of the Oriundus. He
heard talk of it decades ago. The Bureau no longer sanctioned it.
There was severe and swift retribution to any Vampire who practiced
it. The Oriundus was a resurrection of a Vampire from the ashes
like a phoenix from ancient mythology. Damn, did his father plan to
resurrect Raynor at some point? He heard the whispers in the
Vampire world; it had not been done in hundreds of years. The
revived Vampire not quite the same; part of his soul was gone.
Contrary to belief, Vampires did have souls, and they felt things
deeply. Would his father take such a drastic step? His father must
have read the concern and confusion on his face.
    “ Do not ask me, Tristan, what I
intend, I don’t know. Perhaps it is reluctance to make it final, to
be parted from a friend who was such a part of my life.”
    Tristan ran his hands through his
hair, tousling it in irritation.
    “ Dad, you can’t bring him back.
Ever. I have heard the talk. Any Vampires brought back through the
Oriundus are soulless, unfeeling. I know it was done centuries ago;
these Vampires were used as assassins. Hunters. They were
bloodthirsty beyond any reckoning. You can’t—especially not with
the Concealment in play here!”
    Deegan stroked the marble urn absently.
“No. I can’t. But I am not ready to say good-bye, not
yet.”
    “ If that is the only the reason,
then fine, I will say nothing. But I will bet Raynor would want his
ashes spread with Laura’s. Do not deny his last
request.”
    A pained look crossed his father’s face,
but it was there fleetingly.
    “ I have to. For now. Don’t fight
me on this, Tristan.”
    What could he say? Whether his father
showed it outwardly or not, he was obviously distraught over the
events that transpired. He wouldn’t push him. He just wanted this
over so he could go home and find peace and love in the arms and
body of Katrina. Never had he been as happy as these last three
weeks since they decided to mate. He would be marrying the human
way as well. They were discussing the fact that Katrina might be
open to being turned sometime down the road. That stunned him. His
previous mate would not even have contemplated it.
    He had to admire Raynor. His honor and
his love. He went out with dignity and with the woman he loved.
Tristan could not imagine a better end, regardless of the
circumstances.
    He clasped his father on the
shoulder.
    “ I will not fight you. Let’s see
to Laura’s remains. I want to get home to Katrina, and you must be
home to Raylene. You will have a lot to discuss.”
    ****
    W hen Deegan pulled into the driveway of his
home, it was close to eight that evening. He could see the lights
blazing in the downstairs study and living room. No doubt Raylene
was up. He and Tristan had sailed his schooner and scattered
Laura’s ashes in the bay. When they returned and moored the boat
Deegan drove to his office at Black Transports. There he placed
Raynor’s ashes in his floor-to-ceiling safe.
    He sat in the car. Telling Raylene about
her parents, about the Concealment, filled him with dread. All he
wanted was to make love to her. It would be selfish of him to walk
in, take her to bed and lose himself in her curves. But he needed
it, desperately. Affirmation of life or as others crudely put it, a
funeral fuck. After seeing to the burial of a loved one, a session
of hot sex to prove that you live and you feel. Tristan thought him
unfeeling, but he felt the loss of all six of his mates over the
last eight hundred years. They cut