Blood Ascendant (Sons of Navarus #7)

by K. M. Scott

“I know, but we have to do everything we can to help our son and our friends. We can’t give up now, Ramiel.”

  He hung his head and kissed her softly on the lips. “Will we ever just get to be together and happy again?”

  She kissed him back and smiled. “I guarantee it. I just need you to have faith, okay?”

  Noele didn’t know what she would have done if the prophecy required her to see Ramiel sleep with another female and then with a goddess. She couldn’t understand what he was going through, but she needed him to believe in her, and in that she knew Ramiel wouldn’t let her down.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Everywhere he looked, Theron saw another memory of another time he’d been happy in the only home he’d ever known. The cardboard caterpillar book his mother used to read him each morning before bed. The chair his father used to sit in when he’d bounce him on his knee. The scrapbook his mother loved to explain to him so he knew the history of born vampires.

  He wandered through the house from room to room, lost in the past and all he had then. They had been happy. That he never doubted. He didn’t know so much then, but it didn’t matter. What he knew was they loved him.

  Theron stopped in the doorway of his parents’ room and stared in. He could almost imagine her smiling at him long before the last of the sun’s rays set below the horizon. Never an angry expression for waking her up before he was supposed to. No, she just smiled and waved him over to where she lay next to his father still asleep.

  Her long brown hair lay across the pillow, spread out like an angel’s behind her as she looked up at him standing next to her. “Did you have a nightmare, honey?” she would ask with true concern in her voice.

  Nightmares never woke him up. He was a clyten, so his body never wanted to sleep during the day. He didn’t know how to stop that then. But she never scolded him for that. He didn’t realize it until later how much she sacrificed for him, even in things like waking before she had to.

  The memories of this place made his emotions run amok. He had a loving family and a home, and those fuckers took it away. They killed his mother, and then they killed his father. Now he had only his sister, but she was just a child. They were orphans because of the Archons.

  How could he be expected to know what to do now? Without the parents who helped him understand the world and his place in it, how would he win this battle against the bastards who ruined his life and a god with unlimited power?

  The future threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn’t do this. Not alone. Not without the two vampires who had always made him feel like he had someplace safe in the world.

  Theron’s legs shook as his emotions unraveled inside him, and he slid down the wall of his parents’ bedroom, falling to the floor. He’d cried when Dante finally told him the truth about his mother, but that had been more out of rage than sadness. Barely a vampire with a teenager’s mind, he only knew to react with anger then.

  Then his father’s death at the hands of that daemon made those same feelings surface once more. Again, his rage took over, smothering his sadness, and he tore those fucking things of Hades to pieces. Anger and hatred coursed through him in those moments, but since he’d returned to his childhood home, they’d disappeared, replaced by utter sadness he didn’t know how to handle.

  And as he sat there on the floor in the only place he’d ever felt safe in his entire life, the tears finally came for all he’d lost. Not out of anger but out of sadness. For the mother taken too soon. For the father he’d gotten a second chance with who’d been taken cruelly in front of him.

  For a life lost to his fate that had been destined from the moment he was conceived.

  Once they started, he didn’t know how to stop them. The tears didn’t wash away his sadness. They didn’t make him feel better. Nothing he’d ever heard about how they healed a broken heart happened. He merely cried and continued to cry without getting anything from it.

  After a while, the lack of any good to come from crying turned his sadness to anger once again. That’s all he knew, so he naturally reverted to the rage that filled him from the moment he realized who he was in this world.

  The vampire born solely to defeat the Archons and take over the Underworld.

  He had no other purpose, no other meaning, except to the two vampires who had lived in this place with him. Now they were gone, ripped from his life when he needed them most, and he again had no other reason for being alive other than to perform as the war machine the Prophecy of Idolas claimed he’d be.

  Once, in a time that he only knew of through memories, he thought life would be more. Back when his mother and father loved him and Dante spent his days teaching him about how to be a clyten, Theron had looked forward to a future filled with happiness and fun. He had a way of making females want him, and he felt powerful and protected.

  As he thought back to those days down near the sea with his only friend, a hint of sadness once again slipped into his mind. The hours they spent together then had promised so much, but what had they really delivered? Sweet lies wrapped in sun-drenched moments and the smiling faces of beautiful girls.

  Theron’s hands curled into tight fists at his disappointment that nothing he’d ever believed had come true. He thought his parents would be there for him, and then they were taken away. He thought being a clyten and born vampire would make him something special, but he was nothing now, a being created solely to fulfill some cipher from ages ago. He thought being a Son of Navarus like his father would give him what he sought to be that vampire everyone needed in this war, but it turned out he was only their leader because of his stronger powers.

  He couldn’t go on like this.

  This war needed to be ended tonight. He could do it himself. Fuck everyone else. He’d go to Archon headquarters and wipe all of those motherfuckers out. Hades’ daemons didn’t have any power over him, so he didn’t have to worry about them, and the Archons were just a bunch of sterile fucks who thought they should rule the vampire world. None of them would be able to stop him.

  Slowly, he convinced himself he should do it, so he stood and took one last look at his parents’ bedroom before leaving. He had nothing to lose now. They’d taken everything he’d loved, so now he’d do that and more.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he spied something in the darkness as he walked into the living room. A flash of blond hair alerted him to the fact he wasn’t alone, and in a flash, he rushed whoever had made the mistake of coming there.

  He clamped his hands around their neck and began to squeeze as they tried to speak to him. The words didn’t make any sense, and he ignored them.

  Curious to see what he was about to strangle to death, he turned on the light and saw he’d caught himself a daemon. She looked more human than the ones who had found him and his father, but she was daemon, nonetheless.

  “Another one of you? I’ll do to you what I did to the other two, and then maybe Hades will get the hint,” he growled as he slowly tightened his hold on her neck.

  “Please, Hades didn’t send me. Your mother did,” she croaked out, barely loud enough for him to hear.

  For a moment, his heart skipped a beat at her mention of his mother. But she was a daemon sent to kill him. A creature who would lie to trick him.

  “Don’t bother with the mother stuff, bitch. I’m not buying it.”

  His thumbs pressed into the front of her neck, and he felt the tendons strain beneath them. It wouldn’t take much more to kill this one either, but he wouldn’t do to her what he did to the others. Not in his home. He didn’t want that there.

  He didn’t fucking want her there either, for that matter. She was a filthy follower of the god of the Underworld.

  Her dark eyes opened wide while he pushed harder against her throat. “Please…Noele said to tell you that Hades plans to crush the Sons and their allies with his legions. She wanted you to know.”

  Lies. It didn’t matter that she knew his mother’s name. She was still a liar sent by Hades
to trick him.

  “I don’t believe you. My mother would never deal with something like you,” he said and then spit in her face.

  As if that was a step too far, the daemon lifted her arms and pressed her hands to his face. Too bad for her she didn’t know he was immune to whatever daemons could do to other vampires with just their touch. The surprise that her attempt to hurt him didn’t work registered on her face, and for a moment, her hands simply hung suspended in the air near his head.

  “Sorry. That doesn’t work on me. I’d say you should go back and tell your boss that, but you’ll be dead in a few seconds.”

  Her arms began to flail, and she tried to push him away, but it was no use. Whatever power she possessed as a daemon, it was no match for him.

  Finally, she squeaked out a word Theron didn’t recognize. “Nyx.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed just as he felt the life begin to leave her body, but then someone touched his arm and he didn’t know why, but he had to release the daemon. She fell to the floor in front of him while he looked down in shock.

  What the fuck had happened?

  Quickly, he turned to his right and saw a woman standing there looking at him. She wore a long black dress that showed off her body nicely, especially her breasts it barely covered. Her black hair hung nearly to her waist, and her dark eyes studied him like she was curious what he could be.

  “Who are you? Why did you stop me from killing this thing?”

  “Layla, return to the Underworld right now,” she said, completely ignoring his questions.

  The daemon disappeared from in front of him, irritating Theron more than he had been before. “I don’t care who you are. I was going to kill that.”

  “It’s her, not it,” she said in a silky voice that rolled over him and seemed to ignite something inside him.

  “I was going to kill her then.”

  “And I couldn’t let that happen. So now she’s gone back to where she belongs.”

  Who the fuck was this beautiful woman and why did she think she should have any say regarding what he wanted to do with daemons?

  As he wondered just that, she reached out and touched his cheek. Theron simply rolled his eyes. “Sorry, but that daemon shit doesn’t work on me.”

  Then just as the last word left his mouth, he felt lighter, like all the sadness and rage inside him disappeared. The woman smiled and then softly sighed as she moved her hand from his face.

  “So much emotion in one being.”

  “What are you? You don’t act like the other daemons I’ve met.”

  “I’m no daemon. I’m Nyx, the goddess of night.”

  Theron stood watching her, not understanding what was happening to him. “And that’s how you can change how I feel?”

  A slow smile spread across her lips. “One of my many powers.”

  “So you’re a goddess? Any relation to the god I’m supposed to overthrow? Hades?”

  In a split second, she changed from happy to furious, startling him. Her eyes grew pitch black, and her eyebrows drew in like angry slashes toward her nose. Worst of all, the beautiful smile she’d just given him vanished, replaced by an angry frown.

  Clearly, he wasn’t the only one with emotions in that room.

  “No, he’s no one to me.”

  “Good, because when I’m finished with him, that kingdom of his will be mine.”

  She ran her fingertips along his jaw and then over his head as her smile returned. “Who are you? A vampire who can overthrow a god? I’ve never met a creature like you in all my existence. You intrigue me.”

  Her touch excited him, sending waves of desire along every inch her fingertips glided over. “I’m the one prophesied by Idolas to defeat the Archons and Hades to rule the vampire world and the Underworld. I’m Theron.”

  Nyx closed her eyes and said his name in a faraway voice that made him feel like he was in a dream. “Theron.”

  “Are you really a goddess?” he asked, suddenly needing to know the truth as everything inside him churned in a way he’d never experienced.

  She opened her eyes and nodded. “I’m one of the ancients. Before Hades and his brothers and sisters existed the gods and goddesses like me.”

  “And you control the night?”

  “Night, dreams, sleep, darkness, pleasure, and death.”

  Her mention of death pushed out all the other thoughts out of his mind. “Have you been sent to kill me by the ancients because I plan to take Hades’ throne from him?”

  Nyx stepped forward until her body touched his and shook her head slowly. “No. They have no interest in the troubles of Hades, the Archons, and the Sons of Navarus. I came because my handmaiden called for my help.”

  “A daemon is your handmaiden?”

  “Yes. And who do you have for you, Theron?”

  Sadness returned as he considered his answer to her question. “No one. I am alone in the world.”

  “But you are a member of the Sons of Navarus. Are they not there for you?”

  He shook his head. “I am alone.”

  Once more, she ran her hand through his hair and every bit of sadness in him disappeared. “You are alone no more, Theron.”

  His eyes fluttered closed, and then he felt her lips on his. Her kiss was soft and seductive, like the very night itself. The scent of jasmine gently swirled around him, making him feel lightheaded.

  And when her tongue slid into his mouth to tease his, Theron felt like he was flying, untethered to the ground he stood on and soaring through the night sky. He had no idea how Nyx made him feel like this, but he didn’t care. After what seemed like a lifetime of rage and sadness filling him, now he sensed nothing but pleasure.

  “Doesn’t that feel better?” she whispered against his lips.

  Opening his eyes, he looked at her beautiful face and smiled. “I think I know why you’re the goddess of pleasure too. I’ve never felt like that before.”

  A wicked smile lit up her face. “I neglected to tell you what kind of pleasure I control, Theron. Sexual pleasure. While other goddesses lay claim to some part of that, it is mine to rule.”

  He wanted to answer with something, but at that moment as her hand slid down the front of his shirt and under his pants, not a single word formed in his mind. All he could do is focus on where her body touched his and silently pray to any god who may be listening to let this feeling go on forever.

  Theron watched as she waved her hand and suddenly her dress disappeared to reveal a body so perfect it could only belong to a goddess. In his short life, he’d enjoyed more than a few females, both vampire and human, and they paled in comparison to Nyx. Full breasts led to a tiny waist that flared to hips that made him want to bend her over and fuck her from behind.

  For a moment, he wished he’d figured out that whole making clothes disappear trick other vampires could do, but as if she read his mind, she waved her hand again and removed his for him. Curious to know if his power of mind reading worked on her, he attempted to focus his thoughts as she slowly kissed his neck, sending waves of need coursing through him.

  Nyx lifted her head and smiled. “I sense what you’re trying to do, but that doesn’t work on me. I can, however, read your mind, and I love what you’re thinking.”

  “I just wondered,” he admitted as she returned to kissing his neck.

  “Don’t wonder, Theron. Just enjoy,” she murmured against his skin just above his collarbone.

  Her words wound their way into his brain and seemed to fill up every inch of his mind. He could think of nothing else but enjoying her and what she offered. Whatever power she had over him, he didn’t want to fight it.

  He stuffed his hand into her hair and tugged her head back so she had to look at him. Could he control her thoughts even if he couldn’t read them? He stared into her eyes and thought about how good her mouth would feel on another part of his body.

  With a smile, she shook her head. “I told you. Your powers don’t work on me. But if you want
me to do that…”

  Her sentence faded into nothingness as she moved her mouth down over his chest and abs, finally kneeling before him. Looking down, he watched her palm his rock hard cock, the feel of her hand sending a shock of pleasure through him like he’d never felt before. His heart slammed into his chest as he waited in wild anticipation for her to slide her mouth over him, and she seemed to delight in making him wait.

  “Are you trying to torture me?” he asked before placing his hand on the back of her head and pulling her to him.

  Nyx didn’t answer and instead sucked his cock into her mouth, taking every inch of him down to his balls. Her tongue teased the underside of his shaft as the head pushed up against the back of her throat, sending Theron’s need for far more into overdrive.

  She slowly retreated up to the head, but he quickly thrust his hips forward, fucking her mouth hard. Her ability to make him want her combined with his sex drive that usually bordered on intense to make their fucking wild and uninhibited.

  Just the way he liked it.

  After a few more jabs of his cock into her mouth, she pushed his hand from the back of her head, stood up, and kissed him hard on the mouth. “I’ve never had a vampire before. Are all of you like this?”

  Theron shook his head and grinned. “There’s no one like me.”

  She slid her hand up and down his cock and moaned. “Prove it.”

  He didn’t need to be asked twice with an ordinary female, and Nyx was no ordinary female. Lifting her off the ground, he positioned her over his cock and pushed her down onto him as he spun them around so her back faced the wall. She clung to his neck and stared at him wide-eyed, and with the first hard plunge into her cunt, she cried out in ecstasy.

  Theron planted his hands on the wall behind her and let his desire dictate the speed of their fucking. He didn’t know if it was because of her powers or because she’d taken away all the sadness and anger inside him, but he felt nothing but pure pleasure like he’d never felt before with anyone.

  Her cunt fit like a glove around his cock, and with each thrust, she met his motion with her own, her body begging him to take her harder. In his ear, she moaned sweetly and repeated his name over and over, like some prayer of worship for him.