Shadowed Valor (Daughters of the Vieux Carré Book 3) Read online

  Shadowed Valor

  Daughters of the Vieux Carré Book Three

  Rhys Rowlyn

  Copyright © 2020 by Rhys Rowlyn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Bram

  2. Cassie

  3. Bram

  4. Cassie

  5. Cassie

  6. Bram

  7. Cassie

  8. Cassie

  9. Bram

  10. Cassie

  11. Cassie

  12. Bram

  13. Cassie

  14. Cassie

  Also by Rhys Rowlyn

  About Rhys Rowlyn

  Bram

  She’s near.

  Who is she?

  Her scent is intoxicating.

  Pushing my hands upward, I try to lift the top off of whatever I’m in. It doesn’t move, so frantically, I feel around. Twisting from side to side, I can’t find a way out, I’m completely surrounded.

  I sense her anxiety, and the need to get to her overwhelms me. Is she in danger? Where am I? Why am I trapped?

  Using all my strength, I throw my fist forward. It bursts through the wood above my head. Using my other hand, I fling the fragments off me as I jump forward, ready for whatever threat I must face to save her.

  I look around until my gaze finds her across the room. I move in that direction but can’t explain what I’m feeling, only that I know she’s mine. I growl and wonder at the gruffness in my voice. Shaking myself, I continue toward her.

  Her green eyes widen and she takes a step back, but then her spine stiffens and she readies herself as if for battle. Why? I would never harm her. I want to protect her.

  Two males jump onto my back. I recognize one as Phillipe but continue toward my female. I shake them off and lunge forward, but they jump on me again, knocking me to the floor. Snarling, I push myself up until I am standing and continue toward her.

  The other male pants as he tries to keep me from her. “Damn, mate, this one is strong. It’s like holding back a freight train.”

  “Bram was a Viking and is old as dirt.” Phillipe grunts, tightening his grip on me. “Cassie, try to get some blood in him.”

  I still when my mate approaches me. One of her hands touches my chest, and the other slams something to my mouth. Blood hits my system, and I frown. Where is it coming from? It’s cold and not at all what I’m used to. I reach up and try to pull the thing from my mouth, but her hand stops me.

  “That’s a good boy. Now take your blood so we can get you calmed down…” Her voice trails off, and her face pales as she snatches her hand from mine.

  I rub my knuckles against her cheek, but she leans away from me. She’s a tiny thing and a bit shorter and slimmer than the women I’m normally attracted to. She looks sturdy, and I find myself liking her dark blonde hair and bright green eyes, which have small flecks of gold in them. She’s dressed strangely, so I frown down at her. Women aren’t supposed to wear trousers or show their arms. I move to put her behind me and hide her immodesty from the men holding me, but she pushes me back. Why is she resisting my touch? Doesn’t she know?

  “Cassie, snap out of it, love, and give him another bag. If not, we’re going to need help holding him.” The male with the weird accent is complaining from my back. I shake a bit, sending him backward a few steps. He jumps back on me, and I roll my eyes.

  She springs into action, pulling the bag out of my mouth and quickly replacing it. I stand in front of her, allowing her to do whatever she desires, ignoring the two vampires on my back. They seem to realize I’m not fighting her and loosen their grip but keep a hand on me.

  “How many bags do you think it’ll take? He’s a big guy.” The male with the strange accent reaches toward her, and I move in front of him.

  Phillipe furrows his brow, dropping his hand from my shoulder. “Try three, and we’ll see how he’s doing.” He steps in front of me. “Bram, do you know who I am?”

  Meeting his gaze, I nod, then turn my eyes back toward my mate.

  She takes the bag from my mouth and replaces it again, and I narrow my eyes on her. They keep saying blood, but I don’t see a donor anywhere. I take the strange container from her and examine it. I’ve never seen this kind of material. What sorcery is this?

  Removing the bag from my mouth, I stop her from replacing it. “Don’t.” My voice sounds foreign and gruff.

  She steps back and I follow, keeping myself between the other males and her. Her cheeks turn pink and she grasps her hands together, but I notice they’re trembling. Why is she upset?

  I take her hands in mine and rub my thumb along her wrist. “I am Bram Svenson, and you must know we are mates.”

  “Yes, I know, and I’m going to need a minute.” She pulls her hands out of my grasp, taking a step away from me. I resist the urge to follow her.

  “Wait, what? I didn’t know Cassandra was a descendant.” Phillipe narrows his eyes, looking her up and down.

  “Cassandra, is that your name?” I don’t have a clue as to what Phillipe means by descendant. I’m too enthralled at knowing her name to worry about further details.

  “Yes, I’m Cassandra Devereaux Dubois, but I go by Cassie Dubois. I took on the Dubois name along with Giselle.” Her head tilts to the side as she frowns at me. “Why don’t you have the famille’s name? Phillipe and André do.”

  “I was not created by Gabriel.” Glancing over at Phillipe, I wonder how she knows about Giselle and so much about our famille.

  “Wait, I thought all of these vampires were the same family. What do you mean you don’t have the same creator?” The one with the strange accent chimes in, and I wonder as to who he is.

  “Alastair was both Gabriel’s and mine,” I say. “We were as brothers and best friends. When Gabriel decided to leave and create his own family, I went with him. Alastair had several new vampires, and I didn’t see things the same as they did, so we parted ways. I never felt the compulsion to make a child like Gabriel had. I was happy to be the carefree uncle.” I wink, grinning at Cassie.

  Phillipe burst out laughing, shaking his head. “Carefree my arse. I felt as though I had died and gone to Spartan hell. Constant training until you were sure I had every basic instinct under control.”

  “I didn’t want you children to mess up. It was important you had control. It was also one of my bones of contention with Alastair. He tended to coddle his creations.” I grimace, remembering one in particular who Gabriel and I both knew would eventually be a problem. We were not wrong.

  “So to get back on topic, Cassandra is a descendant of one of the women who cursed you?”

  “Cursed us? What are you talking about?” I listen and notice for the first time the strange noises and scents. Something is wrong, terribly wrong. I look down at my clothing and realize they are rags, my boots rotting. “What is going on?”

  “Bram, maybe you should sit.” Phillipe leads me to a couple of chairs near the wall.

  I take Cassie’s arm and put myself between her and the other vampire. Turning, I look him up and down, but nothing about him is familiar.

  “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”

  “Oh, I do apologize. Giles Smith at your service.” He holds out his hand for me to take, and I do, unsure what he wants. He shakes it and releases my hand. “I am a friend who only recently joined your little ra
gtag group.”

  Phillipe waves for me to sit and Cassie nods, so I take a seat and look from one to the other.

  Phillipe rubs the back of his neck, glancing up at me. “Where to start, hmmmm… First off, it’s been almost three hundred years since you last woke up.”

  Springing to my feet, I gasp for air, not knowing what to think. “What do you mean?”

  “Calm down, I know it’s a lot to take in, but we’ll explain everything.” Cassie rubs my arm, smiling tentatively up at me. “Please, have a seat. We promise to tell you everything.”

  Pinching the bridge of my nose, I close my eyes for a moment until I feel more in control. “Yes, please, tell me everything.” I sit back down, staring at the floor as I await their explanation.

  Phillipe nods encouragingly. “What is the last thing you remember? That will give us a good place to start.”

  I run my hand through my hair but frown when dust flies everywhere. I understand what they are saying, but it feels as if I only just went to sleep for the day. “I remember we had landed in this rough new world and had found us a warehouse to store our crates until we could find housing. I remember Gabriel giving that woman, Simone, gold to go buy supplies for them. I thought he was making a mistake giving her so much. She was such a greedy chit. Then we went to sleep.”

  “Simone and the others didn’t get supplies. They used the gold to pay a witch to put a curse on us.” Phillipe stands and paces the length of the room.

  “What respectable witch would do such a thing?” I’ve known many witches in my time, and most steer away from eliciting this type of magic—especially for gold.

  Cassie steps in front of Phillipe, motioning for him to sit. “Giselle met with her afterward, and she said the bones told her to.”

  Hmmm, that would explain why she did it, but I feel there is much more to this. “What did you mean about Cassie being a descendant? What does that have to do with anything?”

  “The witch used blood magic, and something had to be sacrificed. They agreed to give up a descendant. They forced Giselle to give blood, and something happened with the magic so it created mates for us based upon which vampire came with which woman. Our theory is that because Giselle was already a mate, and the blood of each woman was used, it combined and did something extremely special, creating fated mates.” Phillipe leans back in his chair, rubbing his chin with his finger.

  “So Cassie is Aimee’s descendant?” Tilting my head to the side, I look her up and down but don’t see any resemblance. Aimee was short and round with dark-brown hair and brown eyes.

  “Yes, it would seem so. Cassandra was living here with Giselle and was about to die when Giselle was compelled to create her. She thought it was the fates giving her a friend or companion, but it would seem there was more at work. I know she’ll be excited to know this.”

  “I had no idea my family originated from the first women in New Orleans,” Cassie says. “I only knew my grandfather came into some money and bought our plantation. I don’t know anything about my mother’s family. My ancestor was named Aimee? Was she as bad as the others?”

  “No, I liked Aimee. She was quiet and meek. Simone tended to bully her, and I would often put a stop to it. It doesn’t surprise me she was convinced to go along with the plan.” I turn toward Phillipe. “I knew those women were going to be trouble. Gabriel refused to listen. Where is the rest of the famille?”

  Phillipe points at the crates on the other side of the room. “Giselle and Cassie have kept the famille safe all these years, waiting for us to awaken. Of course, Cassie had no idea she was keeping her mate safe.”

  “Are we the only ones who have awakened?”

  “No, André is awake but is off with his mate. Fleur’s mother has disappeared, and they are following up on a lead. He called earlier and said it was a dead end. They should be home some time tonight.”

  “This is surreal. All these years I longed for a mate and wondered if they were real.” I take Cassie’s hand in mine and kiss her wrist.

  She frowns down at me. “Yeah, like I said, I’m going to need a minute.” She pulls away from me and backs toward the door. “Look, he’s going to need some bigger clothes than the ones we have, so why don’t y’all set him up with a shower and some sweats while I take care of getting him some. I also need to run by and see Giselle. I’ll be back later.”

  I watch as she runs out of the room, and I turn, shocked, my eyes on Phillipe and Giles. “Why is she running from me?”

  “Don’t take it personally. She’ll come around. I’ve known Cassie for a while, mate, and it takes her a minute to process things. She is used to being a loner and fairly independent. She’s probably worried about you wanting to be the alpha male.” Giles slaps my back, grinning at me. “Come on, and we’ll show you the wonders of indoor plumbing. Trust me, you’re going to love this.”

  Cassie

  “Giselle, did you hear what I said? The damn Viking is my mate!” Pacing in front of Giselle’s desk, I throw my hands in the air.

  After I ran out of the attic, I beat a path straight to Giselle to inform her what had happened. I probably should have gotten Bram some clothes, but I needed to see her first. I may be freaking out at the moment.

  “Oui, I did, and I can’t figure out why you’re complaining. Bram is a sight to behold.” Giselle leans back in her chair and props her feet up on her desk.

  “Because he’s a Viking and old as dirt. It’s going to be all old-world crap, like ‘mate, get my boots,’ ‘mate, wash my back,’ ‘mate, this,’ and ‘mate, that.’” Biting my thumbnail, I glance down at her before I resume pacing.

  “If he’s that hot, I don’t think I would mind washing his back, grrrrr.” Rebecca brings her hands up and acts like they’re cat claws, scratching the air.

  “I don’t need any input from you. And don’t be growling over my mate.” I narrow my eyes at Rebecca and can’t stop the spark of jealousy that shoots through me.

  “I’m with Rebecca on this one. He’s all big and burly with his wild blond hair, beard, and those blue eyes. Those eyes are the stuff dreams are made of.” Giselle waggles her brows at me, bursting out laughing at my shocked look.

  Rebecca sighs as she leans back on the sofa, and I growl, not liking the look on her face. I walk to the sofa to pick up a pillow and throw it at her.

  “Hey, what’d you do that for?” She giggles, putting the pillow behind her head.

  “Be glad it was only a pillow. She’s griping about him, but she doesn’t like us drooling over him.” Giselle puts her hands behind her head, grinning at me and enjoying herself way too much at my expense.

  “You are not helping. What am I going to do?” I plop onto one of the chairs in front of her desk.

  “Well, dear, there’s not much you can do. He’s your mate, so enjoy him. I’ve heard Vikings are very lustful and considerate lovers.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about,” I mumble under my breath.

  “What was that?” Giselle holds her hand up by her ear. “Cassandra, I know you’ve had lovers throughout the years. I remember a couple of soldiers in town on leave and the cop you went out with… oh, and what about the biker?”

  “About them, I never… you know…” My cheeks heat up, and I bite my lower lip.

  “You never what?” Giselle furrows her brows, narrowing her eyes.

  “You know…” Raising my brows, I wave my hand, hoping she’ll pick up on what I’m saying.

  Rebecca puts her hands against the sides of her face, her mouth dropping. “Oh my God, you’ve never had sex?! But you’re like almost two hundred years old.”

  “How is that possible?” Giselle lowers her feet to the floor and leans forward in her chair.

  “I’ve thought about it and even brought some of them home, but when I came into the house, something stopped me. I usually would take their blood and make them think we had, when in truth I was just messing with their minds.” Covering my face with my hands, I le
an my elbows on my knees.

  “You little sneak. All this time I thought you were living it up, and I admit I was a little jealous, but you were chickening out.” Giselle points her finger at me, laughing.

  “Dang, I thought you were so badass—not that having sex makes you a badass, but still.” Rebecca moves to sit on the edge of the desk, facing me. “Wow, that’s crazy. I confess to being a little ho since I was changed, although I never bring them home. Something about that house stops me, and I think Phillipe would be disappointed.”

  Giselle and I stare at Rebecca in shock. I shake my head, turning back toward Giselle.

  “Sorry, did I just TMI y’all? I’ve calmed down some, but when I first got changed, I was so hot and couldn’t seem to help myself. Guys were hitting on me left and right. It was too much temptation.” She fans herself, giggling.

  “Okay, Rebecca, stop talking. We’re going to have to get you a hobby.” I widen my eyes at Giselle, who shrugs.

  “So are you scared of having sex? Because I’m here to tell you mated sex is the best. Of course, I’ve never had any other kind.” Giselle’s cheeks turn pink, and now she’s fanning herself. What’s up with all the fanning?

  “Yeah, what she said.” Rebecca points her thumb in Giselle’s direction.

  “I’m a little concerned about the actual act, but what I’m really worried about is him being so controlling. I’ve lived independently for a long time.” Okay, I’m more than a little concerned about the actual act, but I do need to keep some of my badassery intact.

  “That’s the truth.” Rebecca snorts, shaking her head.

  I narrow my eyes but choose to ignore her for the moment. “And I don’t know if I can handle someone thinking they have the right to tell me what to do.”