Soulmates Ch. 08

A big thankyou to Pixie for fixing up my shocking mistakes. Your a legend for putting up with my grammer problems!

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The lowest basement of the building was linked to the sewer system. It was the way young vampires traveled through the day if they needed to get a message to Eric from their bosses. Eric, Richard and Dee were the first to live in this area. They had promised themselves at the very beginning that if they could live in harmony, then anyone else like them should do so as well. If anyone decided they wanted to go against their laws, then they would be dealt with quickly so others knew never to cross them. Even though, the Were and the Vampires would never truly see eye to eye they did like the idea of not having to fight each other. They would only ever have to fight amongst themselves for more power and that is what Eric and Richard allowed. They could only fight their own race; they weren't allowed to bring the other race into it and they sure as hell weren't allowed to let the humans, who were oblivious to them, know what type of city they really lived in.

The lowest basement was split into three rooms the entrance from the sewers, a viewing room, which had a one way mirror which looked directly into the meeting room, which was the third room. The meeting room looked more like a living room than an actual meeting room. It had a small kitchenette which contained only a fridge, which just had bags of fresh blood in it. Inside the cupboards wasn't food but weapons, weapons that would be required if there was an attack and they were there as a last resort.

When the outsider entered, Richard was sitting on one of the single chairs with Dee on his lap. Marcus was in the kitchenette pouring them each a drink and Micheal was sitting on a couch reading that day's paper. Richard and Dee both looked over to him before they began their heavy petting again giving the appearance that no one else was in the room with them.

The outsider cleared his throat and began to get nervous. Richard had lifted his skills a little just so the vampire knew who he was dealing with. Just so he would know that they weren't young like he was and if he wanted to cross them, his death would be painful and slow.

Marcus picked up the drinks and took them over to place them down on tables closest to them. Then he sat down himself. He looked at the youngling and raised his brows. "You are here for business so spit it out. We don't have all night."

The vampire jumped when he was spoken to and nodded a little. "My boss is after new blood in his army. He wants to know if anyone in this city was interested in joining him to get rid of all the animals in the area before moving onto bigger things."

Micheal closed the paper then folded it neatly before tossing it on the table to pick up his drink. "And why would we join him? Shouldn't he join us since this is our city?"

The young vampire took a step back from the tone in Micheal's voice. "I'm just a messenger. I am just saying what he told me to."

Marcus sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers together. "What is your name, childe? And what is your boss'

name?" Once he had the younglings gaze. He showed him just a hint of what he was dealing with in the room. His eyes turned from dark brown slowly into blood red before going solid black which showed the young vampire that he wasn't dealing with any normal vampire. He was dealing with an ancient.

* * * * *

Meanwhile upstairs. Dinner was getting the finishing touches to it and being placed on the table. Ulisi had been preparing it, with Billy helping her while he was around. He had to return to his mates since they were early in their pregnany, his tiger never liked leaving them for to long, even tho he knew Tom was with them. After saying his goodbye to her during the meeting. She made sure she had plates done up for everyone's preferences and made sure there was plenty of food for all of the guests.

It had been such a long time since she had interacted with others of her kind. Hell, she may have done but with her wolf being asleep, she wouldn't of known who they truly were. She felt so at home, being with others of her kind. She had missed it so much. Her wolf was even excited being around others of their kind but she was more excited on seeing one of them in particular. Ulisi had to talk her wolf down from claiming him when she saw him in the boardroom. All she wanted to do was go over to him, bend over and wriggle her arse against his crotch. Even though she had lovers in the past, she had never felt the need to do that, ever. Just the thought of it started to make her blush.

Maria looked over to her with concern. "Gran, are you alright?" going over to the older woman who looked more like her older sister than who she grew up with.

Flushed, Ulisi looked to her and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine, child."

Eric was watching and couldn't help but grin. He went over behind Maria and pulled her back against him whispering in her ear which made her eyes go wide and stared in disbelief at what he had just told her. She looked up to him and he just nodded. "It's the way of the wolf. With Ulisi allowing her wolf wake, like me, she won't be able to control what she feels and for who. So just be happy and I'll make sure he treats her right."

Due to how the spirit weres lived Eric knew straight away through the bond with Ulisi that she had found her mate the moment she entered the boardroom. Eric the Alpha of their family so, his bond to each member was stronger than the normal bonds they would have between the women. He would always be able to feel their emotions and would never be able to block them ever. It was a gift along with a curse of being an Alpha to a spirit pack. He was even finding the bond growing with Jessie which he didn't expect to feel. That was however one bond he was glad he was getting.

Maria looked at him with shock then looked at Ulisi before stepping towards her and hugging her tightly. Whispering she said, "I so hope you're going to play hard to get with him. You deserve to have a bit of fun in the relationship department after everything you've done for me. I'm so happy for you, Gran."

Ulisi gave a sigh of relief, for some reason she had thought Maria would be against the idea of her taking a mate. She hugged her granddaughter back and kissed her cheek. "Thank you my dear. I do plan to do just that, if I can keep my wolf back from submitting to him as soon as he walks through the door."

The three of them couldn't help but laugh at the submitting part. They each knew she wasn't the type of woman to do that but try telling her wolf that.

Just as all the plates were placed on the table, Eric called out. "Foods up."

It was as if they had heard him because Gabriella and Thad walked through the door.

* * * * *

The youngling began to shake when he watched Marcus' eyes shifting to solid black. His breathing began to quicken and he started to back towards the door but stopped when he felt the wall behind him. His hands were just pressed against the door and he felt like he was paralyzed and nothing seemed to work which only increased his fear.

It didn't help any that Dee and Richard had increased his fear ten fold of what he would really have been feeling right then.

Marcus looked over to couple and chuckled. "Oh, leave the childe alone. Stop playing with his mind." Shaking his head a little at their game before looking back to the young vampire. "I will ask you one more time, what is your name and the name of your boss?"

Dee and Richard stopped their kissing and looked over to Marcus as innocent as they could but there was wickedness in their eyes. They would play nice but keep the original blocks up. Dee moved around so Richard couldn't distract her again and rested her head on his shoulder while he automatically slipped his arms around her.

The vampire felt an instant relief after Marcus spoke to the couple. He looked over to them and began relaxing then darted his gaze back to Marcus. "M.. My name is Danny and my boss is André Blanc.."

Marcus let out a soft growl. He couldn't contain himself."André Blanc is your boss and he's in this area?"

The growl made Danny jump and shook his head a little. "He's coming though. He said he had a few spots to do along the way and would be here to meet his new army at the end of the week." He had no idea why he was giving away so much information. It seemed to just blurt out before he could even realized what he was saying but he knew, if he wanted to walk out of this room alive and unharmed, he would have to continue to blurt things out, knowing that when he saw André next, that would be one meeting he wouldn't live through.

Micheal looked over to Marcus. "You know him, I take it?"

Marcus growled again while standing suddenly and began to pace the room. "We knew he was a crazy son of a bitch but we never expected him to be this crazy. He was given his last warning with kills a century ago and been off our radar since, so we just thought he'd started behaving himself. I guess he'd just become more sly with his kills. He was always a smug bastard though. We should have known to keep someone tracking him. Hell, we should have just killed him after the last time."

Danny didn't like anything he was hearing. He knew his boss wasn't completely sane but having warnings from the ancients. That was something totally out of his league and knew his friends back there would be in a lot of trouble by the end of it. He knew if the ancients were pissed off at someone then no one around that single person would live through it. Hesitantly he spoke. "I never signed up to go against the ancients. There are others that don't want that fight either. If you can try to take them away from him then I will tell you everything I know."

Marcus looked over to Dee and she nodded. He then turned his gaze back to Danny. "Tell us everything and during the fight we'll get your friends out."

* * * * *

The world seemed to disappear when Ulisi saw Thad. He stood at the doorway with the same expression across his face and they just stared at each other. It took a nudge from Gabriella and a nudge from Maria to snap them both out of it. Both looked slightly embarrassed with how they were acting. It felt like they were teenagers again with their first crushes.

Dinner had gone smoothly and the others soon left to go to their rooms on the levels below which only left Eric, Maria, Ulisi, Wolf, Gabriella, Wyvren, Gabriella, Nikolai and Thad. The women were in the kitchen, cleaning up and talking quietly while the men were on the balcony talking amongst themselves.

Thad was quiet most of the time, in his own little world, and only hearing bits and pieces of what was actually being said. Suddenly he just blurted out, "can I get your permission to court Ulisi?"

The men stopped talking and stared at him. Eric couldn't help but smirk. "I was wondering when you were going to ask."

The other men just chuckled.

Eric lent back against the railings and looked at Thad hard. "You don't need my permission to do that. You need hers. If you get hers, then I'm fine with it."

Thad truly felt like a teenager now. He had never felt this way for anyone before. It felt like he didn't know anything about swooning women, even though he had had his share of women in the past. "How do I go about that?"

Wyvren then spoke. "It depends whether you want her just for your bed or do you want her respect?"

He wanted to say he wanted her until his dying breath but knew that was not appropriate speech expecially in front of Eric so instead he

said, "I want to spend the rest of my life with her. So her respect is first before taking her to my bed."

Wolf knew the young wolf was thinking other things right now but seeing his human had control of his wolf made the spirit respect the born were. "Learn our ways and you will have her."

Thad looked at him. "How would Cherokee men tell women they want them?"

Eric couldn't help but grin as he looked at Wolf. Both had the same opinion of the man now when it came to becoming part of their family. Eric looked back to Thad. "Strange but it's how we do it. Go over to the fire place, pick out one of the logs and place it at her bedroom door. If she uses it to start a fire, then you know she's accepted you. If she doesn't it means she's refused you."

Thad stared at him dumbfounded. "You mean, it will come down to a piece of wood if she accepts me or not?"

Eric and Wolf both laughed and nodded at the way he was looking at them. "Yes, it comes down to a bit of wood." Eric managed to get out through the laughter.

Thad nodded slowly. He couldn't believe what they were telling him to do. It must have been some sort of joke but he would do anything to have Ulisi accept him and if it meant being laughed at by the men, then so be it. He would play along. He gave a heavy sigh as if defeated then went inside and over to the fireplace. He looked through the bits of wood until he saw a piece he liked. Then followed his nose down the hallway to her room and placed the log outside her door before heading back to the balcony with the men. As soon as he returned he saw the serious look on both Wolf and Eric's faces he noticed them both turn to stare inside to watch what was going to happen.

The women stopped clearing away the lunch things when they saw Thad walk over to the fireplace and then disappear down the hall with a small log. Ulisi clutched her chest as her heart began to beat faster. She stared at Thad as he headed back outside to the men and didn't take her eyes off him until she felt Eric and Wolf looking at her. She saw the nod of approval from them and couldn't help but smile.

She looked at Maria and beamed which made Maria give her a bright smile in return and a big hug while whispering. "Go get him, Gran."

Ulisi nodded a little as she tossed the tea towel down that she was holding and walked down the hallway to her room to see the log. She picked it up slowly and caught his scent on it. It had been the first time she was able to truly take in his scent and it sent her wolf into a spin. Her wolf was jumping around all excited, calling out, 'Mine, Mine, Mine.'

She walked back out into the living area, clutching the piece of wood. Right now, burning it was the last thing she wanted to do with it because it held his scent but she knew she had to complete the ritual so he would know she accepted his offer.

The fireplace hadn't been used at all, so she didn't need to move any other logs out of the way. She placed the log on the wood cradle inside it then lit a match. The wood was already treated so it to begin burning straight away, then she walked away from the fireplace and back over to the women who each gave her a hug.

On the balcony, there was silence until Ulisi lit the match to burn the log. Each man smiled and patted Thad on the back in congratulation of being accepted by Ulisi in his claim to be her mate.

Thad looked stunned at what just happened. Shakily he asked. "That's it? I don't have to say anything else?"

Eric just laughed, "No my friend. She's accepted you as her mate. With my people the log represents being able to provide for the woman. If she knows you can provide for her and the future family you'll have, then she accepts by burning the log. If she thought that you couldn't provide for her, she would not have burnt it. However, we knew that there was no chance in hell she would not have burnt it." Once he had explained he chuckled again along with the other men.

Wolf just smiled at Thad. "You will be an interesting addition to my family and your life will be changing soon, my son." He then looked at the other men. "Go and get the women. The new couple will need to have some time to themselves."

The men nodded and left Thad on the balcony and collected the women and Jessie before heading upstairs to Eric's apartment

* * * * *

Downstairs in the basementm maps were laid out on the table and Danny was showing them the areas they had been in, what they had done and where he knew they were heading next. He realized he felt safer with the ancients than he ever did with André. Even though it was a bit scary at the start, once he began to share information with them, his nerves disappeared and he began to realize there was more going on than André was telling anyone.

He also gave them a list of the dangerous vampires in the rogue clan along with their abilities. Marcus just shook his head. "So that's how they did it."

Danny looked at him curiously. "Did what, Sir?"

Dee spoke slowly, "He doesn't know what is actually going on." Then it dawn on her. "He's raising the army as a shield to protect himself. They don't actually know the full agenda of André's plans or anything about the bears."

Danny looked blankly at them blinking. "Bears? What bears? We never came across any bears in our travels."

Micheal shook his head in response. "So a lot of innocent vampires are going to be killed because they don't actually know why they are there."

Marcus just half shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. He might have thought he had the strongest with those abilities but he has forgotten about the ancients and our numbers. We'll have to speak to Eric and Wolf first about it but we can do this with minimum causalities."

Danny just looked lost at what they were discussing. Shaking his head slowly while frowning, "Who are you talking about, Sir?"

Marcus looked at him and grinned. "You haven't worked it out yet, have you childe?" Danny shook his head which made Marcus chuckle. "Drop everything but the communication."

A moment later all of his senses were back to normal. He knew they were blocking him somehow but thought it was just a way to stop him knowing where he was actually being taken. As soon as one single scent hit him, his eyes went wide and he stumbled backwards. He could smell wolves and other animals on the vampires. Tripping over his own feet, he fell onto the floor and scurried himself back to press against he wall behind him. "You... Your with them!"

Marcus laughed. None of them had given their names over to the man so he had no idea who he was dealing with at all. "I am Marcus DelRosii, one of the leaders of the Council Enforcement Team. This is Micheal who is the vampire representative of this city and these are Dee and Richard, who would be considered the vampire leaders of the city. This particular city is run by one man alone. Eric Campbell. A spirit wolf who won't take crap from anyone who wants to fuck his city up. So everyone, were and vampire live together peacefully and we defend what's ours."

As soon as Marcus said his name, Danny went pale. He knew things were changing but never expected it by this much. He knew everything was going to hell with what he had done. He knew if he messed up now, he was going to have a very slow and painful death, ten times over.

Marcus just stared at him hard. "Now my boy, you can either help us sort out this mess, or I can send you back to the Council and they can deal with you. Those are your only options. If you help us end the problem, I will place you under my protection so no one will be able to touch you without me killing them. So make up your mind quickly where you stand."

For Danny, there was no choice. They hadn't killed him yet, so he would do whatever he could to stay alive. His self preservation kicked in and nodded. "I'll do what you say."

* * * * *

Everyone was having drinks and catching up, in Eric's apartment, Maria was laughing so much, her stomach ached from the stories Gabriella was telling her about the first meetings with Eric and Richard, then later on meeting Dee. Maria had tears running down her cheeks and couldn't help but look over to Eric to see him look shocked with which stories Gabriella had decided to share. Then Nikolai joined in with the stories which only bought more embarrassment to the wolf.