Blood King (Spirit Seeker Book 1)

by Amber K. Bryant

  Would it have been so terrible for him to drink from Sybille and turn her? He would have her then, have her for all of time, perhaps. Sure, she wouldn’t have a choice in the matter, but he hadn’t had one either and it all worked out for him. More or less. She’d be angry at first, but eventually she’d come around.

  Getting up, he stretched his long limbs and crept over to the cot where Sybille slept. Moonlight poured in through a nearby window, illuminating her in pale blue. In that light, it seemed death had already touched her.

  Elis turned away so he couldn’t see the pulse in her neck; he shielded his nose from her mouthwatering aroma. No, he couldn’t do this, couldn’t steal her human life away from her without her consent.

  Stupid soul and its stupid moral code.

  He made a dash for it, outside, away from the cabin, down the path and out into the driveway, deciding that he would track a deer or a raccoon or a squirrel. Anything. He needed to taste the blood of a creature whose heart was still beating. His own slowly pumping thirster heart skipped in anticipation. Fangs out, he envisioned piercing flesh, imagined the first taste as warm liquid, salty as the sea, slid down his throat.

  Midway between the cabin and the road, he sensed it. A large mammal. Elis stopped to sniff the air, to listen for its movements.

  That’s when that large mammal must have struck him from behind. He remembered someone catching him as he collapsed, and after that there was a mountain and a beach and an island with no way off. There was sleep that both wouldn’t come to him and wouldn’t cease, and a life that had been taken from him, a life he just realized, for perhaps the first time ever, he would miss bitterly.

  Invincible.

  There was nothing they could say to that. Both Devin and Sybille knew what Raelyn meant even if neither of them could fully comprehend it. As much as Devin must have wanted to hear everything that had happened to Raelyn over the past ten years and as much as Sybille wanted answers, there was no time for any of that.

  Raelyn led them into a small, neatly organized office. Sybille’s heart fell. No Elis.

  The thirster laughed at her expression. “What, did you think it would be as easy as me leading you to him, you taking him, and that’s that?” She reached over a desk and turned the monitor around so they could see what was on it.

  Charlie pointed at the grainy image. “There’s your friend.”

  Sure enough, a live feed showed Elis strapped to a gurney while several people stood over him. He appeared to be asleep.

  Sybille ran her finger over the screen as though she’d somehow be able to reach him through it. “Where is this? What are they doing to him?”

  Raelyn smirked. If this horrible woman hadn’t been Devin’s sister, Sybille would have punched her in the nose. She might be invincible, she might make Sybille pay for her actions, but still it would be an immensely satisfying act. Instead, Sybille stood in silence while Raelyn explained to her how stupid she and Devin were.

  “The Blood King has had his eye on Elis Tanner ever since the rumor of his existence reached the Low. Imagine our delight when we found him right here in our woods. Thank you for bringing him to us, by the way. It made things so much easier.”

  Sybille cringed. “We didn’t bring him to you!”

  “Whatever you say.” Raelyn waved her off. “What matters is that we find his returned soul to be equal parts repugnant and fascinating. Our scientists are busy seeing what makes him tick. Nathanial believes he could be a candidate for a new strain of Crave—that’s if they confirm what we believe, that his spirit has somehow altered his physiology.”

  “Wait a minute…” Devin braced himself against the desk, bringing his hand up to his mouth. “Are you saying Crave is made from bloodthirster…blood?”

  “No, not blood, bone marrow.”

  “That’s not any better. God, I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Sybille gripped the monitor like she might strangle it. “They’re planning on testing him and harvesting his marrow. We have to get him out of here. Tell us where he is!”

  Raelyn shook her head. “No way. You’ll get yourselves killed, which you may be surprised to hear I prefer didn’t happen. Lucky for you, I have a sentimental attachment to my traitorous brother’s sweet blood. I promise I’ll get Elis Tanner out for you, but you have to do something for me in return.”

  Sybille narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure you’re the sort of person I want to be making deals with.”

  “You don’t have a choice. If you want to leave the Low alive and with your friend, you’ll do as I say.” For such a petite woman, her words held great strength. Even though she was too young to have any mesmerizing powers, her natural gift of persuasion was impressive.

  “You really haven’t changed, have you?” Devin sighed. “What do you expect us to do, Raelyn?”

  “I expect you to take my daughter with you out of the Low and make sure the Low never tries to reclaim her.”

  Devin was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, his words came out in a croak. “Your…daughter?”

  Charlie put her arms around him. “See Uncle Devin? I can keep a secret.”

  Devin let Sybille drive—a sure sign the events of the past hour had rattled him. Sybille was barely holding it together herself, the Low picking at her like a cat kneading its claws into her bare legs. Beyond that maddening sensation, there was a growing awareness, a stirring. The thirsters of the Low were awakening to her presence amongst them. The edge of their collective consciousness pressed against her, side by side with the Low’s energetic assault.

  If she didn’t get out of the Low soon, she never would.

  The road. She needed to focus on the road. Letting herself get riled up would help nothing. Devin, Elis, Charlie—they all needed her to be her usual level-headed self. She gripped the clutch and thought about everything that had happened, as well as what was yet to come.

  Raelyn promised she would deliver Elis to their cabin by midday. “You should be ready to leave as soon as I get him too you. And remember, if you won’t take Charlie with you, I won’t hand him over. Understand?”

  Raelyn said this to her as she ushered them through the house, tracing their way to the servant’s entry. “I’ve already been away from Nathanial for too long. If I don’t get back up there soon, he’ll send people to find me. She gave her daughter a quick hug. “Remember…midday.”

  Sybille was startled out of her thoughts and back to the present by a loud sigh coming from the seat next to her.

  “How could this have happened? How could she…” Devin’s voice trailed off, the same way it had several times since they’d returned to the truck and sped away from Nathanial’s house. Sybille could hardly blame him for his dejected state. The disappointment of not being able to confront Nathanial and take Elis back herself still sat in Sybille’s mouth like a bitter pill.

  She wished she could have comforted Devin, but how? She wasn’t the one with any answers. His niece, on the other hand, had more than her fair share.

  “Do you know what the Blood King calls my mom, Devin?”

  He started in his seat at the sound of Charlie’s voice, then shook his head no.

  “The night you lit her trailer on fire, Nathanial was driving by. He stopped to watch it burn to the ground. He thought my mother was dead. Who wouldn’t? She should have been. She was for a while, I guess, but then she rose from the ashes just like Dumbledore’s bird, so he named her after it. Calls her Phoenix.”

  “So, he knows what happened…what I did.”

  Sybille completed Devin’s thoughts. “He must have figured out mixing Crave with Strike was the key to this invincible state.”

  “Yeah…only when he tried it out on other thirsters, they just died and stayed dead.”

  “Little spy, you have been holding out on me.”

  Charlie shrugged. “It was for your own good. You weren’t ready to hear it. Besides, Mom never told the Blood King who you were. She says she isn’t capab
le of love but that’s not true. She loves me and there’s still a part of her that remembers loving you. She didn’t want Nathanial to suspect you were the missing ingredient. Of course, he knows now.”

  “What the hell are you saying?”

  “Oh my God, is Sybille’s stupid wearing off on you? You’re the reason my mom is still alive and Nathanial is still Blood King. You plus Crave plus Strike equals invincible bloodthirster. I don’t know why that is, so don’t be dumb and ask me.”

  “Shit.” He banged the back of his head against the seat’s headrest a few times. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “Um, language? Even Mom tries not to swear around me and she’s a blood sucking monster. You’re not a very good role model, Uncle Devin.”

  Sybille was hardly less dumbfounded than he was. Devin, her completely un-mystical, psychically inept friend was the key to immortality? Poor guy, he was really getting a lot of unbelievable information dumped on him today. She patted Devin’s knee. “We’ll figure this out. Let’s get back to the cabin, wait for Raelyn to bring Elis to us and get the hell out of here. Then we can sort through all this craziness. Together. Okay?”

  “Are you going to take me with you now that you know I’m your niece?”

  “My niece.” Devin turned towards her. “That’s another story I’d like an explanation for, but Charlie, you’ve gotta know, I’ve always wanted to take you out of the Low. It’s just…complicated.”

  “How complicated can it be? You put me in your truck and you drive away!” Her little voice rose to a mighty tremor. Sybille had a feeling Charlie spent a lot of time wondering why Devin hadn’t saved her from a fate she’d more than hinted at she knew would be dismal.

  “What your uncle means, Charlie, is that the Low makes what should have been an obvious and easy decision into one that’s much more challenging.” Sybille kept her voice low and steady, hoping to calm the girl. “We’re not going to abandon you here. We’ll take you with us, just as we promised your mother, but you have to be prepared.”

  “Prepared for what? Are you going to go all evil queen on me when your magic mirror starts telling you you’re no longer the fairest in the land?”

  Sybille raised an eyebrow. This girl was Devin’s niece all right, running around the clock on one part adrenaline and two parts sarcasm. “I traded in my magic mirror for a flat screen. So, I was thinking more along the lines of the Low deciding to put up a fight. We want you with us, but it wants to keep you.”

  As she drove down one dirt road after another, the Low’s tendrils continued to reach out of the earth, twisting their way around her like vines strangling a tree trunk. It was maddening. Her head pounded from the effort to keep herself from giving up, from letting the Low take her and do with her whatever it wanted. Charlie may not be able to feel that, but it didn’t mean the hold the Low had on her was any less. It was a mistake to take Charlie with them. But if it meant getting Elis back, she would do it. Besides, they had to at least attempt to save the girl, even if their efforts ended in disaster.

  She expected Charlie to be ready with a snarky comeback. Instead, there was nothing but stillness within the truck as the trees lining the roads leading to the cabin streamed by. Finally, her little voice sounded from the back seat. Sybille had to strain to hear her.

  “Thank you for trying, at least.”

  “Hey, hey now…don’t cry, little spy.” Devin reached his arm back and let her grab onto his hand. “If the Low comes for you, it’s going to regret it.”

  Sybille bit her lip and focused on getting them to the cabin. She couldn’t bring herself to tell either of them that it wasn’t really about the Low coming for Charlie. The Low ran through the girl, like an incubating disease. She had lived here too long for it not to have infected her. It wasn’t a question of the Low finding her, then. It was a matter of whether Charlie was strong enough to fight off that infection before it destroyed her or spread itself to everyone else.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The island was warm, the breeze pleasant. Elis could not have been more miserable. He had no concept of how long he’d been trapped in this dream and no clue where Sybille had gone or if she was ever coming back. Something terrible might have happened to her. Maybe she needed his help.

  He would never know if he continued to sit here in this horrid paradise. The question that ate away at him the most was one he’d been asking himself before this dream began, ever since Sybille first explained her vision to him: How was it that Juliana was going to manage to ruin his life yet again?

  Elis sat with his fingers pressed around another margarita-filled glass. No matter how much he took from the little tiki shack, it always seemed to be fully stocked when he returned for more. He hadn’t had blood in who knew how long, and he no longer cared. So long as his glass was full of something that would dull his unhappiness, it was fine by him.

  The sun set, gently nestling itself into the horizon and then disappearing under its folds altogether. Elis remained in his beach chair, the open expanse of darkness a simple comfort against the claustrophobic thoughts threatening to undo him.

  There was no sleep in this place because he was already asleep. He sat there, eyes open, until pink light crept up behind him, sunlight peeking over towering palm trees. Finally, he made his way back to the shack to grab another pitcher.

  “You shouldn’t drink that.” Elis, mid-pour, looked up at the sound of her voice. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he’d seen her or heard her speak. His hope crumbled when he realized it wasn’t Sybille. A young woman with hair the color of the sand sat on a bar stool, swinging it partway around as her hands grabbed the edge of the counter.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  She stopped twisting. “Not one for manners, are you?” She hopped off the stool and walked around behind the counter. Elis took a step back.

  “Relax, bloodthirster. Your psychic darling sent me. I’m not going to be able to hang around and chat, so you’ll need to listen to me and try your best not to interrupt.”

  She stared at him, her fierce expression challenging him to disobey her. Not going to happen. Having anyone show up in this place was a development Elis wasn’t likely to ignore. Whatever she had to say, he was listening. He motioned for her to continue.

  “You’re being held by the Blood King. He knows you’ve let your soul back in and he wants to see if that means your bone marrow can be turned into extra potent Crave. He’s got me hooked up to you so I can poke around inside that beautiful brain of yours, but what he doesn’t realize is that I want to get you out of here. You and your team are the only ones who might be capable of destroying him. That’s a pretty big ‘might’ but it’s all we’ve got—a thirster with a soul, a powerful hierophant, and my dumbass brother who for some reason has the ability to make immortals extra especially immortal.”

  Elis reached for his margarita. “You’re making exactly zero sense, love.”

  She knocked the glass out of his hand. “I might make more sense if you weren’t totally blasted.”

  “Is that really my fault? This is a dream. I’m not actually drinking anything. Apparently, it’s your lovely Blood King that’s keeping me all stoppered up.”

  “Maybe, but you’re more in control than you realize. You think you’re trapped here, but it’s because you think you’re trapped that you are. If you think you need to be drunk to cope with it, you will be. I mean, it’s fine if you want to give up on your own time, but you’re on my time now. And Sybille’s time. So, if you want to see her again, if you’re worried about her, put down the bottle and come have a taste of something much more sustaining.”

  She brushed her hair away from her neck and tilted her head, exposing a curve of taught skin. Desire flared inside of him. It had been a long time since a woman had willingly offered herself.

  Deep, unsated thirst coursed through him. He was on her in a second, fangs dug into flesh, warm iron upon his tongue. She tasted not of mint or cinnamon
but of something he couldn’t quite put a finger on, something that he’d experienced at one point in his life but had forgotten all about until many years later. Until now. It was all he could do not to break away from her and sob.

  He woke to pain and chaos—pain in his chest, chaos everywhere else. His wrists were strapped to a table. He tried to struggle against the bindings with no luck; it was as though his arms were made of jelly.

  The island was gone but the woman he’d been feeding from was not. She bent over him, undoing the bindings from his wrists. Her blond hair brushed over his cheeks.

  A tall, broad-shouldered man appeared above him, long enough for Elis’ eyes to focus and recognition to hit.

  “Nate.” The man turned to him, his expression cold. Elis swallowed, his throat aching in its efforts to produce sound. “You’re Nathanial Atkins. I’ve met your spirit. Nice guy.”

  Nathanial’s eyes turned into pools of fire. “Get him out of here. Now.”

  Elis let himself be lifted by the woman–it wasn’t as though he could do much to resist anyways. He struggled to gain a modicum of control over his limbs, feeling like with each step he was a rubber band being pulled taught and then flicked a foot farther ahead.

  The woman dragged him from the room, past thirsters with confused, scared looks on their faces. They kept well clear of Elis. Reaching the top of a staircase, the woman sighed under his weight. “You either have to make it down the stairs on your own, or I’m just going to push you over, let you tumble down them and hope you aren’t too broken when you reach the bottom. Which is it going to be?”

  With trembling hand, Elis reached for the railing, clinging to it as he made his way down, stair by stair. It was slow going. The woman’s biting commentary did nothing to help.

  “It’s like I’m a hummingbird being forced to watch a tortoise cross a desert.”

  “I’m doing the best I can!”