King of the Flame

by Elizabeth Frost

  Finally, after all the years of struggle, he’d found a place to call home.

  His heavy combat books struck the black stone floor, solid and sure. Though there were many hidden treasures in his fortress, one called to him more than any other.

  Drake knew most faeries weren’t like him. Most didn’t have the sudden and horrific desire to hurt themselves. In fact, most faeries were averse to pain. They were weaker than he was. That’s why he was the elemental’s host. All others had been turned aside when the elemental was searching to bond with the strongest fae.

  He’d once met another faerie king with an elemental. The King of the Sea wasn’t the kind of faerie he would have chosen. Sure, the man was powerful, but he hadn’t understood Drake’s desire either. Who liked pain?

  He did. More than anything else in the world.

  Drake picked up the pace to his trophy room where he kept the most precious of all his treasures. No faerie ever entered the room without him knowing.

  He placed his palm against the door and breathed in the heady scent of magic permeating the air. It could only open for him and the unique magic that flowed through his veins. He didn’t even have to lock the door. It opened only when it knew he was there.

  The heavy black wood swung open soundlessly. What it revealed beyond would have made anyone catch their breath in awe.

  The gold room was lit by a hundred torches. Hundreds of faerie heads hung beneath each flame. They were all a different species and from every different court. Some were killed in battle. Others had been hunted just so he could hang them with the others. He liked to stare at them when he was having a grim day. They reminded him who was the most powerful of all faeries.

  On podiums below each head was a rare item from where the faerie hailed. Some of them were ancient artifacts filled with unknown magic. Others were small, like a flower from the Summer Court. No matter what they were, each item had been difficult to find and that meant he kept it locked away from all other eyes.

  Another faerie had once called him draconic. Hence, the name he’d taken on all those years ago.

  “It’s right over there,” the elemental cajoled. “What are you waiting for?”

  He wasn’t hesitating, just savoring the moment when he would finally use the item that had drawn him since he’d first seen it. There, on the farthest wall, a beautiful blade sat on a black velvet cushion. It sang a song of pain and desire, whispering for him to come closer. Just a little closer.

  Drake didn’t know where the fire elemental had found it. The creature claimed it was from the mortal realm, but he knew better than to believe that hogwash. It might have been with a coven of witches, but they hadn’t created such a thirsty demon.

  The knife looked as deadly as it truly was. The metal was folded a thousand times over, perfectly sharp Damascus steel. The handle was blackened wood and riveted with only two gold dots through each side. Simply made but designed to cut and hack.

  The most astonishing thing about it, however, was the magic running through it. As he drew near, it glowed red with the same power that ran through his veins. It was fire, pure and powerful. Not just any flame. It was the element.

  Perhaps that’s why the elemental inside him was so intrigued by the creation. It wanted to take some of its own magic back, and yet, that magic was sealed away from them.

  “Touch it,” the elemental urged. “Feel the cool steel against our skin once again.”

  Where the elemental rushed, Drake enjoyed taking his time. He reached for the blade and turned it over in his hands. Then stroked the cool metal sides with a single finger, teasing the magic that desired nothing more than blood and pain.

  He already knew what it would feel like. The parting of his skin would be painless at first. Then, it would spread into something far more wicked. Sometimes the pain was almost cold. Other times, it burned like he’d drawn acid against his flesh.

  That was part of the anticipation. He never knew what kind of pain the blade had in store for him.

  “Hello, old friend.” Drake drew the blade across his palm and watched as blood welled.

  This wasn’t a normal blade, however. The cut wasn’t enough. He let the metal rest against the wound and watched with fascination as it soaked up all the blood it had just drawn. This weapon absorbed anyone it harmed and bathed in their life force.

  It was almost like purging of all his bad thoughts and memories. Everything flooded out of him, flowing through the blood into the blade that took all his anger, rage, the ache of guilt and disapproval from so many of his kind. It all disappeared into the metal.

  “Enough, Drake. Don’t give it too much.” Always the voice of reason.

  He dropped the knife back onto the pillow, breathing heavily and yet far more satisfied than when he had entered. The cleansing cleared his mind. It soothed his very soul.

  “Yes,” he muttered. “That was enough.”

  For now. He didn’t know when the next time he’d feel the urge would come. But he knew the knife would always remain to take away all his sins.

  Sometimes he wondered how other people dealt with the guilt of a thousand lives resting on their shoulders. Did they feel twisted inside, with no desire to change? He liked the darkness writhing in his chest. He enjoyed the urge to harm and kill and take.

  Drake often wondered if there were two people inside his head. More than just the elemental, but his own conscious fighting against the malevolent urges. One wanted to rip and tear. The other wanted to pause and survey.

  He’d never know which one was the true him. Not really. Not while the elemental lived within his chest, and he was all right with that. The creature gave him power.

  If pain was his penance for taking such power, then so be it. He would survive.

  “What are we doing today?” he asked. The last remaining drops of blood soaked into the blade and disappeared.

  “I thought perhaps we would pay a visit to the faerie who tried to sneak into the trophy room. The one with the big ears.”

  A feral grin spread across his face. “Yes, let’s pay him a visit.”

  3

  Not a chance in hell did she believe in this “mystical” blood. No one had power like that. The vampire broods would have found it by now and gorged themselves on every drop they could get their greedy little mouths on.

  Right?

  Right.

  Lilith leaned against the side of a brick grocery store and took a drag off the cigarette glowing between her fingers. The moon had just risen, and she was already starving. Probably because she kept smoking these cigarettes and burning through the human blood healing her body. Maybe. Or it could be because she was bored and wanted something to do.

  Either way. Faeries didn’t keep blood as a trophy and they sure as hell weren’t the type for keeping secrets. Someone would have heard about this long before now unless it was new magic. And no one had discovered new magic in years.

  Lilith snorted and blew out a lungful of smoke. That was all it was. A rumor spread by people who wanted magic to be more abundant. She’d waste her time trying to track down whatever faerie was this obsessive.

  A pale woman with a head full of blonde dreads paused in front of Lilith. She waved her hand in front of her face and then wrinkled her nose before saying, “You know smoking kills?”

  Lilith bared her teeth. “Only if I blow it on you.” To prove a point, she took another deep drag and blew it all out in the woman’s face.

  Off the little human scurried, fear turning her scent acrid and bitter. Good. At least this one had more common sense than to argue with vampires.

  “Get home, little girl,” she muttered. “There are monsters out at night.”

  One of these days, Lilith expected to meet a human who knew what she was. The magical community couldn’t keep a secret forever, and humans were only getting smarter. They swallowed up the earth. Soon, one of the magical creatures would make a mistake they’d all pay for.

  At least that
wasn’t today.

  She tilted her head back and stared up at the stars. When she was little, she used to count them. Trying with all her might to know the exact number in the sky.

  Except this time an errant faerie fluttering between windows obscured her vision. The creature was more stereotypical than most. It was about the size of her hand and had tiny glowing wings flapping with every movement. It wore no clothing, that much Lilith could tell without even looking, and it kept peering into windows.

  A peeping tom? How original for a faerie.

  Lilith flicked ash off her cigarette, then let it fall to the ground. If she was going to follow this little faerie around, and it seemed like she was going to, then she wouldn’t hold any flame in her hands. The stupid creature would try to light her up with it.

  Vampires weren’t friends of fire. They were like tinder. One fire faerie could cause a vampire to go up in flames and while it would take some time for her to run out of that healing blood in her body, she would burn. Just like all the others.

  Best not to take chances.

  Lilith followed the faerie down the street as it bounced from house to house. Every now and then she could hear a giggle drift through the air.

  Male or female? She couldn’t tell from all the way down here. It kept looking in every window available, laughing, and then moving onto the next window where it would watch the humans within.

  She’d admit, curiosity was getting the better of her. She wanted to know just what this faerie thought it was doing. Humans weren’t all that interesting.

  They did the same thing every night. Took a shower, ate their dinner, plopped themselves in front of the tv and watched whatever poison they chose. Then they went to bed. Some of them fucked, and not well in her experience, but then they slept for hours on end.

  She didn’t miss sleeping. Vampires rarely rested, and she was thankful for it. At least she had time to do things now, even though she also had infinite hours at her disposal.

  The faerie stopped in front of a particular house with an open window. To Lilith’s shock, it fluttered through the open space and disappeared into the person’s apartment. What the hell?

  “Oh, so you’re causing trouble,” she muttered.

  She knew what trouble meant to faeries and if she wasn’t quick in catching this one, the entire building would be up in flames and she’d miss her chance.

  Damn it. She shouldn’t have gotten wrapped up in this crap. Since when was she a hero?

  The worst part about faeries was that they didn’t understand lighting an entire house on fire wasn’t helpful. The little brat probably thought he or she was helping the humans. Humans loved fire. They gathered around it in the middle of the nights and worshiped it, didn’t they?

  Grumbling, Lilith launched off the ground and grasped the fire escape at the back of the building. She hefted herself up and over the rungs until she could walk up the stairs and make her way to the window where the faerie had slipped through. It was only the smallest of cracks, so she had to ease it open and hope like hell the hinges didn’t scream.

  Thankfully, this was one of the newer buildings in the area. It didn’t squeak, and she squeezed through the window into the quaint apartment.

  Minimalist. Strange, she hadn’t expected that in this area of town. She crouched on the bare wood floor, listening for any sound. A white couch beside her gleamed in the moonlight, along with the flat screen tv on the opposite end of the room. A cooking show played, but the tv was muted. Three plants were in the corners, the fourth corner was filled with a white stand and a white lamp.

  What was it with these people and the color white?

  When she didn’t hear any other sounds, Lilith stood up. Her shadow cast a black shape toward the kitchen where a light flickered. There you are, you little bastard, she thought.

  She stepped lightly to the open kitchen where she found the faerie rummaging through a cabinet. Maybe it was hungry or whatever, she didn’t care.

  She reached for a jar on the counter that looked about the right size. The lid twisted off quietly. The faerie might be cramped... so what? She didn’t care if it was uncomfortable.

  Just like catching a butterfly outside. She snuck up on the faerie, as only a vampire could, and then darted forward with the lid in one hand and the jar in the other. She snapped the prison shut around the creature with a harsh snap.

  The people who lived here might have heard that. She didn’t have much time.

  Lilith twisted on her heel and darted toward the window without looking at the faerie who slammed on the glass prison walls. It could scream with all its tiny voice for as long as it wanted, but she was getting them out of here before they had any kind of conversation.

  She threw her leg over the window sill and dropped onto the concrete sidewalk below.

  When she landed hard in a crouch, her heart stopped beating all together. In her rush, she hadn’t looked to see if there were other humans on the sidewalk. How would she play this off? Regular people didn’t jump out of three story windows and fall without hurting themselves.

  She glanced around and before letting the tension ease from her shoulders. No one. The back alley was still as empty as it was when she started climbing up the fire escape.

  Now she could really run. Lilith darted away from the alley and back toward the park where she knew she would be safe. No one could see her when she was moving this fast. All the humans might feel was the slight brush of wind.

  Once in the safety of the park, she slowed, jogged, then stopped on the hill before her bridge. The jar shook in her hands as the faerie tried its damnedest to escape.

  She lifted it to eye level. “All right then, let’s get a look at you.”

  Well, she expected someone a little more impressive. The faerie was male, nude as she’d expected, and its wings were rather pretty. The red veins glowed throughout the finger length appendages. His entire body shimmered with gold dust.

  “Let me out, you monster!” he shouted and slammed his fists on the side of the glass again. “You have no idea what will happen if you steal a member of the Autumn Court!”

  “Oh don’t I?” Lilith lifted a brow. “I think nothing will happen. Rumor has it, your king doesn’t give two shits about his people. Let alone a faerie caught stealing from humans.”

  “I wasn’t stealing!”

  “Then what were you doing in the cabinet?”

  He couldn’t answer her question, reminding Lilith of her favorite faerie fact.

  Faeries couldn’t lie.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she muttered.

  Lilith palmed the jar and sauntered underneath the bridge where they could have a little privacy. No one would see the strange woman hanging out in the park at midnight with a glowing red jar.

  She slid down the hill to the under belly of the bridge and then sat down in front of a storm drain. “Okay bud, I have a few questions and then you can go on your way.”

  The jar rocked in her grip. The faerie took a seat with his back against the glass. Arms crossed over his chest, he shook his head and his wings. “Not a chance.”

  “You don’t even know what my question is.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk to you. Human scum.”

  Lilith let out a bark of laughter. “Human? Do you really think I’m human?”

  Curiosity ran in his veins. The faerie shifted forward and mashed his face against the glass. He eyed her with a severe frown. “You sure look human.”

  That’s what faeries always said when they met a vampire. Some of them even considered vampires to still be human, all because they were once upon a time. Lilith didn’t get it, considering all the impossible things she could do.

  Whatever. She didn’t mind being insulted sometimes.

  Opening her mouth, she let the fangs drop out of their sockets over her teeth. “What do you think now, faerie?”

  The little man grinned. “Oh, you’re one of those. Our king uses you
r kind as toothpicks. Did you know that?”

  “Good for him. I’ve heard he’s got a trophy room.”

  “Sure does! One of the best in the realm, and what it contains would terrify you.” The faerie leaned forward and whispered, “He keeps heads of creatures like you. Has a whole collection of vampire skulls.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Sure is.” Clearly, the faerie was proud of how terrifying his master was. “You’d piss your pants if you met him.”

  “What else does he have in that trophy room of his?”

  “Everything.”

  “Even blood?” The faerie wasn’t so stupid that he’d give her the answer right away. Would he?

  He was. He scoffed and rolled his eyes at her question. “Blood, heads, a magic knife, you name it. The master has everything in there.”

  She leaned back against the stone bridge and tilted her head to the side. “How wonderful to hear that, considering the rumor of powerful blood locked away in that trophy room. All the vampires are hunting it, you know.”

  Ah, she loved the reaction when she showed a creature just how stupid they were. The faerie froze in place, and then his wings drooped. He stared at his feet with so much sadness all the light in his wings dimmed to almost nothing. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, was I?”

  “I think you weren’t.” She should feel bad. He looked like someone had stepped on him. But she didn’t feel for the creature who could just as easily kept his mouth shut.

  “The master will kill me for this.”

  “He won’t if I let you out of this jar and you run all the way to the other side of the world. He won’t be able to catch you.”

  The faerie shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself. “The master can find any faerie in his court. He knows where we are.”

  Lilith leaned close to the glass and her breath fogged the surface. “What if I was a distraction?”

  Faeries were so predictable. He tapped his knuckles next to her nose and replied, “What’s your deal, vampiress? I’m interested.”