Blood King (Spirit Seeker Book 1)

by Amber K. Bryant

  The girl opened her mouth to respond, but another voice spoke instead. “Adelaide!”

  A woman with the same glossy black hair and full heart-shaped lips as the little girl came up behind her. “I was wondering where you’d gone and now I see.” She spoke in a hushed voice so that no one else could hear her. She turned Adelaide to face her. “What have I told you? Never summon spirits, especially when I’m not around.”

  “But Mommy, I didn’t! She was just here. I didn’t call her!”

  Adelaide’s mother raised an eyebrow at Juliana, who nodded in confirmation. “She tells the truth. I was already here.”

  “Who called you? Wait, never mind. I can’t do this here.” She handed her daughter a backpack, pink to match her jacket. “If you need my assistance, follow us back to our house. It’s only a few blocks away. I can help you, but there will be a price for that assistance.”

  Juliana’s glow deepened. “Whatever it is, I will gladly pay it.”

  Devin awoke to panic—panic in the form of a bloodthirster pounding down the stairs, growling out obscenities with every step, eyes wild and, much to Devin’s alarm, glowing bright red. Something had set Elis off.

  “Sybille had her vision. She says we’re going to die—all of us. All of us—that includes me!”

  Scratching his head and yawning, Devin sat up. “Did she say how these deaths were going to occur? Or when?”

  “She didn’t say anything specific. That’s not how her visions work, you know that. She just said it would happen.”

  “That we’d all die.”

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe not right away, but eventually.”

  Elis bit his lip. “Right.”

  “The fate that awaits us all, man. Even you, bloodthirster. Someone’s going to stake that rotten heart of yours eventually.” Devin grimaced as he stared at Elis. “Do me a favor and blink a few times until you’ve got yourself under control. Save the glowing devil eyes for someone who cares.”

  Much to Devin’s surprise, Elis did as he’d instructed. Soon his eyes returned to their usual grey stormy seas. He was calm again, but not happy. “She’s fucking with me.”

  Devin nodded. He would have found Elis’ predicament hilarious had it not been for the fact that he’d been in the same position not that long ago. Sybille had this effect on men, both living and undead. “Don’t feel bad, she did the same thing to me when I first started working for her. Had me watching over my shoulder for days, and when I finally asked her if she could please find out what specifically was going to kill me, she looked at me like I was the world’s biggest dumbass.”

  “So, she didn’t have a vision that we’re all going to die…imminently.”

  Devin shrugged. “I doubt it.”

  “You doubt it, or you doubt me.” Sybille made her way downstairs and joined them in the living room. She’d traded her mother’s hideous robe for a loose-fitting checkered blouse and black leggings.

  Devin’s gaze followed her as she stepped closer. “I would never doubt you.”

  “Give it up, man,” Elis muttered under his breath. He turned to Sybille. “Honestly, Sybille, I don’t know why I’m still here. First you send me on a wild goose chase, then you incite panic with your fake prophecy.”

  “You make it sound like I yelled ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.” She gave him a puppy dog face.

  “Cut that out. That…that face you’re making won’t work on me. I’m a vicious bloodthirster!”

  She kept it up and threw in a bit of eyelash batting for good measure. “You’re a vicious bloodthirster with a soul. That makes you special, and a special soulful thirster should be able to take a joke.”

  “I can take a joke. What I can’t take is the fact that you’re deflecting. Whatever you saw, you don’t want to share it, so you decided to divert my attention with one of your games.”

  “Hmmm, that does sound like something I would do. Only in this case, I didn’t do it. I messed with you for the pure pleasure of it. No ulterior motives there. And,” she paused long enough for both to lean in towards her, “I can tell you exactly what I saw.”

  Elis paced the floor. Again.

  It had taken several minutes for Sybille to recount the contents of her vision. Nothing she relayed had been very reassuring. “I thought you said you hadn’t seen any of our deaths.”

  Sybille grabbed his hand, forcing him to come to a halt. “This is true. I didn’t. I said she was about to kill me. She hadn’t actually done it yet. Come, sit down.”

  He did as she asked, plopping himself next to Devin so that the sliver of satisfaction he got watching the slayer observe Sybille’s fingers entwined with his own would counter the terror threatening to undo him. Anxiety was a long-forgotten enemy that had returned with a vengeance along with his soul, and it made him even more anxious that he felt anxious in the first place. What was happening to him?

  “Tell me again what you saw in your vision. Leave nothing out.”

  “Again, really?” Sybille sighed, but she squeezed his hand and nodded. “We were in the Low. All three of us. There were people there—humans—but they were sick, not whole somehow. I don’t know, maybe they were on Crave, but whatever it was, there was this hopelessness radiating from them.

  “Then suddenly, Devin was gone. Not dead gone, but I think I’d sent him to do something, something we needed done. You were still there, Elis…and then this woman was with us as well. A spirit. An old spirit.”

  Elis swallowed. An old spirit. “And she said something to you?”

  “I think so…no, she said something about me, to you.”

  Elis swallowed. His mouth was dry and he realized he had been so wrapped up in all of this that it had been far too long since he’d eaten. The sweet, woody aroma of cinnamon permeated the air around him. Why the hell did she have to be so tempting?

  “What did she say?”

  “It didn’t make any sense, Elis. Like I said, she’s an old spirit. All of them are pretty much nuts.”

  “I’m an old spirit.”

  Sybille shrugged. “She said, ‘she will be deserving of this. How can you even bear to smell her?’ Whatever the hell that means. Do I smell bad?”

  “No!” both men answered in unison.

  “See? She’s crazy. After that freak out, she raised a knife and aimed it at my heart. That’s when the vision ended and you brought me my favorite chocolate bar.”

  “So, all of that…” Devin pried himself out of the couch, keeping his back turned to them. “And you got nothing on Nathanial Atkins. Nothing?”

  “I’m pretty sure the strung-out humans were his clients, so there’s that.” She looked down to her lap, finally sliding her hand away from Elis. “But no, nothing more specific. I’m sorry, Devin.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  If they were going to figure out what was going on with the eternally eternal Blood King, they were going to have to go on a fieldtrip to the Low—they didn’t need a vision to tell them that. The hard work would have to be done in person. But if she was going to put herself in harm’s way, Sybille still needed one thing answered.

  “Elis, that spirit spoke to you as though she knew you and that’s because she does.”

  Elis stared straight ahead saying nothing.

  “I recognized her. She’s the woman from the portrait in your office. Before we go any further, I need to know. Who is she to you?”

  Sybille let the question hang in the air. Even with him facing the other direction, she could tell Devin was waiting for the answer as well.

  Finally, Elis turned to her, his eyes red again, but now there was no glow to them, only the bloodshot, heavy-lidded dullness of someone whose pent-up misery was about to burst free. “She was my wife for well over two hundred years and my torturer for one hundred more. A couple of years ago, she tried to kill me. I thought I’d escaped her, but now it seems she’s been searching for me again and if your vision is correct, then she has a new plan.”

/>   Devin turned back towards them, his arms still crossed in front of him. “Which is what, Elis?”

  “She wants to torture me again—that’s nothing new, but now she’s going to do it by killing the only other woman I’ve built an attachment to.”

  “Dammit, Elis.” Devin’s eyes narrowed. “Sybille, I’m not going to let that happen.

  Elis grabbed for her hand again. “Neither am I.”

  The men’s attention was on Sybille now. Both had that alpha-dog look, the one that presumed a woman was endangered unless a strong man was there to protect her. For all her mother’s faults, she’d nailed that maiden-in-distress fetish dead on. “For fuck’s sake both of you, take a step back. You don’t seriously believe I haven’t come up with a plan, do you?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sybille hadn’t anticipated having to add ‘deal with a bloodthirster’s tragic romantic history’ to her to-do list, but here she was.

  After a century of mourning and two attempts on his life, Elis finally decided he was done with Juliana. Even then, he admitted, it hadn’t been a clean break.

  “She’s responsible for giving me back my soul, Sybille. She made me a bloodthirster and then she made me a bloodthirster with a soul.” He’d confessed this to her earlier in the day during the few minutes where Devin had given up chaperoning them in favor of a hot shower. Elis’ shoulders stooped as he spoke, his usual bravado shrunken inward. Then he straightened, puffing up his chest, voice clearing. “Not that I’m not over her though. Of course, I’m over her. Completely.”

  She nodded rather than calling him out on this lie; the only one he was deceiving was himself. He may no longer love or long for her, but her influence upon him would be with him until his death. He would never fully escape her.

  Perhaps Sybille wouldn’t either.

  The fear of Juliana killing her was real enough. Sybille had downplayed it for Devin and Elis—she needed them functional and strong to carry out her plan, not wasting their time and skills babysitting her. It wasn’t like her visions were destined to happen. There was no such thing as destiny. There were only choices and consequences for those choices. Her vision had been a warning, a call to arms. It didn’t have to happen, but it would if they weren’t careful.

  As for the plan she had so boldly told them she already had, well…it wasn’t exactly rock solid. They didn’t have to know that though. As long as she acted confident, as long as she led them on this mission hoping for the best, she’d see them all through this. They would simply have to roll with the punches.

  This, if anything, was her plan: improvise.

  It was hardly comforting to realize the only thing standing between herself and Juliana’s vengeance was a façade of confidence and a knack for quick thinking.

  Well, if it was all she had, it would have to do.

  Juliana floated near Adelaide and her mother, the little girl’s hand peeking out of her bright jacket as she grasped onto her mother’s coat sleeve. The woman wore an infant strapped to her back. The baby gurgled, bringing its mitted hands together in a silent clasp. She couldn’t tell if it was looking at her or simply staring mindlessly at shiny moving objects. Juliana made a face, sticking out her tongue and bulging her eyes. The baby laughed and wiggled its legs.

  A whole family of hierophants, then.

  She began to think with greed about what sort of power this mother might possess.

  They turned onto a tree-lined street with compact two-story homes, modest but well kept. Juliana glowed with delight. There was so much intuitive energy surrounding them. It was exactly what she’d been searching for.

  “You are not the only ones of your kind here?”

  Adelaide turned to stare at Juliana. The woman stopped walking. “My children and I are certainly not the only humans able to communicate with spirits. Most who claim to have the ability are nothing but frauds and thieves, though. You’re lucky to have found us.”

  An answer, but not an answer. Like her daughter, the woman was being cautious. Juliana took note of that. Humans were as a whole an idiotic, self-destructive lot, but there were exceptions. She wouldn’t be able to play this person as though she was nothing more than a townie about to throw away a month’s salary playing rigged carnival games.

  The woman proceeded to a house nearly at the end of the block. Children’s toys littered the otherwise well-tended lawn. They entered, removing scarves and hats and jackets. A man with a neatly trimmed beard and glasses appeared, holding a third child, aged somewhere in between the other two. The child clung to his father, cheeks flushed, eyes glazed.

  Adelaide’s mom put her hand on the boy’s forehead. “How’s he doing?”

  The man swayed a bit as he held his son. “The same. Lots of coughing. At least the fever isn’t any higher.”

  “Still, maybe we should take him in to urgent care. The tea I made isn’t helping.”

  “I’m going to put him down for a nap. Eleanor too. We’ll see how he is when he wakes up.”

  Juliana floated in front of the man, who looked through her to his wife. “He can’t see me, can he?” She waved her hand in front of his face.

  The woman scoffed. “Obviously not.”

  “What?” The man looked momentarily confused. “Oh, is there a spirit with you?”

  “She followed us back from the park. I’ve got to see what I can do for her. Will you take Adelaide up with you too, maybe read a book to her while Simon and Eleanor nap? I’ll check in with you in a bit.”

  He nodded. “Of course. Bye-bye, spirit. Adelaide, tell the spirit, ‘bye-bye.’”

  Adelaide rolled her eyes. “Daddy, I’m not three!” She turned to Juliana. “Be a good spirit, okay? Evil spirits suck!”

  Adelaide took Eleanor from her mother. She carried the baby up the stairs, followed by her father. When they were gone, the woman turned to Juliana. “Sorry about that, but it is true. Evil spirits do suck. I have no reason to assume you mean any harm, but I need to be extremely careful.” She led Juliana through the kitchen into a back room that she explained had been the farmhands’ quarters back when this was a farm house surrounded by corn fields instead of a sprawling city. “I want to warn you: I have children and a husband to protect. My work can’t be allowed to negatively impact them. You understand.”

  “Of course!” Strangely enough, she did. She never had children and never wanted them, but she did remember Elis as a child. She remembered wanting to protect him, to keep him from harm. It’s all she ever wanted for him, actually. If only he had understood that, none of this would have happened. “I would never wish any injury upon your family. I know you can’t know that, but it is the truth.”

  Mostly the truth, at least. She needed this woman and there was no sense doing anything to jeopardize her plans regarding Elis. She would be very careful with this hierophant family, at least until she’d achieved her aim.

  “Maybe, maybe not.” The room they were in was tiny and dim, heavy drapes obscuring the late afternoon sun. A round metal table was set up in its center, two folding chairs pushed in around it. The woman slid one of them out and sat in it, her gaze never leaving Juliana. She lit a candle in the middle of the table and from its flame ignited a stick of incense. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re here. I’m almost one hundred percent certain you’re the spirit half of a bloodthirster. Your type tends to gravitate towards my family. Do you want me to find and destroy your thirster? I can call someone who will help us—”

  “No!” Juliana uttered the word with such vehemence that the woman stopped speaking and stared at Juliana with the same narrowed, suspicious eyes her daughter had back at the park. Juliana calmed herself and then spoke again. “Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m grateful for the work you do. Believe me when I say that destroying bloodthirsters is of particular interest to me. But the truth of the matter is, mine has already been found…and destroyed.”

  The woman finally unfroze herself. She set the burning incense upright in
a bowl of dried rice. “What? How is it that you’re still here then?”

  Juliana proceeded to explain how she’d sacrificed her own freedom to find the spirit of her husband so that that spirit too could be liberated and its beast obliterated. She explained that things had gone wrong, so wrong that now a new creature had been created, one in which thirster and spirit mixed to form a monster unlike any the Now World had seen before.

  Juliana expected the woman to scoff. She was fully prepared to be met with disbelief, to have to explain it all several times over again to make herself understood. After all, what she was saying seemed outlandish, even to herself. Instead, though, the woman not only took it in stride, she threw in her own outlandish proclamation.

  “No effing way!” She put her hand over her mouth the way humans did when they believed something unbelievable. “I know who you’re talking about. It must be him!”

  “You know him?” Juliana did everything she could to hold herself back. She couldn’t scare this woman off, not now, but the urge to wail, to scream and shake and lose herself was nearly over powering.

  “I don’t, but I know someone who does, and if what you’re saying is true, she’s in danger, isn’t she?”

  “She? Who is this?”

  The woman bit her lip, perhaps realizing she’d revealed too much. “It doesn’t matter. The only thing that does is that we stop Elis before he hurts her, or anyone else.”

  Elis. This woman, this stranger knew his name. It was him then. He was close and this human could take her to him. This could all end now. She took a moment to calm herself before she spoke, each word measured as though she were Scrooge weighing coal for the fire.

  “You may not realize it, but you’re helping free the world of something so dangerous, no one is safe until he is gone. You, your husband, your children… If this woman you spoke to is close to him and also to your family, well…I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this situation has become. We need to fix this…” Time to drive it home. “For your children’s sake.”