King of the Flame

by Elizabeth Frost

  “Good.” Drake stepped closer, raising his hands for the elemental to take. “That’s good. We’re both in agreement, then. She should stay because she strengthens us. Both of us.”

  The elemental heaved a sigh and did not take Drake’s hands. “I warned you, remember that when you wake up.”

  “Warned me about what?”

  Drake didn’t have time for the elemental to clarify. Instead, the creature burst into a thousand sparks of light and disappeared from his dream at the same time he was wrenched from the sleeping world.

  Disoriented and unsure of what had happened, it took Drake a few moments to realize pain had drawn him from the dream.

  Even after he realized it was pain, he had a hard time pulling himself awake. His chest ached. His very heart hurt, which only made sense considering the speech the elemental had been giving him. The idea of losing her... it hurt his very heart. He hadn’t realized heartbreak would feel like this.

  Thankfully, she hadn’t left him. She’d done nothing that would make him feel like this. All he had to do was roll over in the bed, pull her into the curve of his body, and breathe in the scent of her hair. It would ease his soul and pain.

  But when he tried to roll, the pain got worse. His heart seized, stuttering and stopping as it tried to pump around a foreign object buried in his chest.

  No, not a foreign object.

  Drake opened his eyes with a gasp and reached for the hilt of the blade he knew so well. It drew from his magic, pulling and sucking at all the power in his body. This time, it felt a little different. Like it was drawing on his life force as well as his magic.

  Who had done that? The magical artifact hadn’t been changed in centuries, yet this magic wasn’t the same.

  “Oh, Drake,” the elemental murmured. “I’m so sorry.”

  Why would the creature be apologizing? It hadn’t put a blade in his chest. The fortress was being attacked. He needed to get Lilith and make sure she was in a safe place. Fire faeries in battle never played fair and she would be the first person anyone attacked to get to him. His new toy. His new love.

  “Lilith,” he gasped, coughing through the blood in the back of his throat.

  He didn’t expect her to respond, but her lovely voice filled his ears.

  “I couldn’t let you kill them all,” she said. He could hear the pain in her voice, the loss she already mourned. “I couldn’t let you turn into a monster worse than what we already are.”

  Drake looked to the warm spot beside him where she’d slept all night. Where he’d reached out multiple times when he awoke just to touch the silken strands of her hair or the smooth velvet of her shoulder. Just to know she was still there.

  She wasn’t. This time she crouched at the foot of the bed, one knee planted and the other already on the floor. She was ready to run. Her eyes were wide as she stared back at him, her mouth quivering with emotion and tears in her eyes.

  Even now, he hated to see her in pain. He wanted to smooth the tears from her gaze and assure her everything would be fine. He would be fine.

  “What?” he asked. A drop of blood spilled from his lips and trailed down his chin. “Who attacked us?”

  “I did.” A single tear fell down her cheek.

  “Steady, Drake.” The elemental shifted in his mind, drawing closer to the surface even though Drake didn’t want to lose control right now. He didn’t understand what Lilith was saying. She attacked him?

  “Why?” he asked.

  “You said you wanted to kill all of humanity.” Her words were thick and heavy. “I can’t let you do that. I feed off them, Drake. By killing them, you’re killing me.”

  “You feed off me,” he replied, confused. He wrinkled his brow and held onto the hilt of the knife. He started to pull it out, only to pause when she flinched forward.

  Lilith hesitated, then let out a slight sob. “If you pull it out, you’ll die faster.”

  “Isn’t that what you wanted?” He still couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to kill him. She had the same feelings for him that he did for her. He was certain of it.

  But anger still boiled in his chest. He could feel it bubbling to the surface, growing, stretching, aching until he couldn’t feel or think of anything else. An eruption would happen sooner or later and the elemental would take control. But he had to know.

  He had to know.

  “Why?” he snarled again. “Don’t give me some bullshit about saving the world. That’s not you. That’s not us.”

  “You don’t know me. Not really.” She shifted her weight off the bed until she stood. Lilith moved to the side where she placed a hand on his forehead and eased him back into a relaxed position. “I’m so sorry it had to end like this. I won’t ever forget you. Never.”

  It didn’t matter if she didn’t forget him. She’d tried to kill him! And she wouldn’t give him an answer why, even though he’d asked multiple times. He deserved an answer after all they’d been through together. After all the trust he’d built.

  The anger overtook all sense of normalcy or any calm remaining in his mind. The elemental surged forward into control and fed power, magic, and healing into his lungs. Lava pooled in his heart, hardening and pushing out the knife which had thought it could kill him at long last.

  Blood dripped out of his mouth and pooled cold and thick on the pillow beside his head. Lilith took a stumbling step backward as he reached up and pulled the blade out of his chest.

  Lava illuminated the hole the blade left behind, filling the wound and searing all the arteries that had been hemorrhaging blood.

  He sat up and fire spread from his fingertips. Flames caught on the bed sheets. The black silk ran red with blood and fire and heat. He kept himself in his own body, however, because he wanted her to see this wasn’t the elemental who would punish her. It was him.

  Drake.

  The King of the Flame.

  The man whose heart she had shattered beneath her heel.

  She stumbled back again, tripping over her own feet as she tried to get away from him. Drake waved a hand. A wall of flames burst into life in front of the door. She wouldn’t be leaving this room, not until he got his answers at least.

  “You’re the one they sent?” he asked. “The people who want me dead thought they’d send a vampiress to what? Seduce me?”

  “No.”

  “What other explanation is there, Lilith? That you innocently landed in my trophy room, then tried as hard as you could to get me to fall in love with you? Without ever intending to stick a knife in my heart?” He jabbed a finger to point at the object. “That knife?”

  “I never intended for any of this to happen.” She lifted her hands in front of her. “You have to understand that. I don’t want to kill you, and I don’t want to see you dead.”

  He touched the hole in his chest, lava still leaking from its ragged edges. Drake stood and wet plops landed on the obsidian floor in front of him. “I’m sorry, the wound in my heart seems to say otherwise. You wanted me dead, you’re just sorry you didn’t succeed.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, then shut it. He wondered if she stopped speaking because she knew he would smell her lie. She’d never be able to twist her words with him.

  “You’re allowing her to live for what reason?” the elemental asked.

  “I don’t know,” he replied.

  Lilith’s chest jumped with a great inhalation. “You’re talking to it now, aren’t you? They said you spoke to the creature inside you. The one who killed that woman and the one who wants to end the world.”

  He’d nip that in the bud right here and now. “No, Lilith. I talk to the creature who is mine and mine alone. It’s not the beast inside me, pulling my strings. The elemental wants what I want. Don’t try to blame this on him when every decision I make is my own.”

  Her face crumpled with tears. “Don’t you see how much worse that makes all this? You want to destroy an entire realm for petty hatred. There is good in that realm and
you have no right to play god.”

  He opened his arms wide. “But to them, I am a god.”

  Lilith darted to the right, racing away from him although he didn’t know where she thought she was going. There was nowhere for her to go where he couldn’t reach her.

  He flicked his fingers and another wall of flame burst to life in front of her. She spun in the opposite direction only to be drawn up by another wall. Drake did it one more time, trapping her where he wanted her. The only way for her to move now was to walk toward him.

  “A little spell like that can’t kill an elemental. Nothing can kill an elemental, Lilith. My sweet, backstabbing Lilith.” He reached his hand out and touched the collar around her neck. “I don’t know how you were able to get around this, but now I will make sure you never take it off again.”

  She lifted her hand and touched his. Not grasping his wrist or trying to free herself, just touching him. Like he desperately wanted her to do.

  “I know you think you have so much control,” she replied with a sad smile. “But you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  And then she vanished.

  26

  She landed on her hands and knees underneath her bridge. Lilith coughed through the pain in her chest where her heart thudded hard, screaming she hadn’t teleported correctly. No one had done anything like that in centuries, and yet, she apparently thought she could do it while freaking out because an incredibly powerful elemental was threatening to kill her. Or lock her up for the rest of her life.

  So she’d gone to the only place she could think of.

  Home.

  Water dripped from the bridge and landed next to her in tiny splashes that covered her hands with an icy chill. The air was too cold and damp for her now that she’d lived in the hellish landscape Drake had built.

  She stood, rubbing her arms and trying to ignore that she wore nothing more than her underwear. She needed to find somewhere safer than this. Somewhere her own people might protect her now that she was more powerful.

  It was a risk. But she had no other choice.

  Lilith took a deep breath, centered her mind, and pictured the only place she never wanted to return to. The one place where all vampires were safe, but she was thought of as nothing more than a traitor and a thief.

  When she opened her eyes, the building stood in front of her. It had once been a barn, but now it was home to a brood of vampires more powerful than any who had survived before. The Primus had dug beneath the barn and built a stronghold that could survive the apocalypse. One he had always been so concerned would happen in his lifetime.

  Now, she guessed he was right. It could happen. And she hadn’t stopped it.

  Lilith took a shambling step forward, one foot, then the other, then she was running toward the building. She hit the door hard with her shoulder and spilled into the welcoming hall where nearly twenty vampires stood.

  It wasn’t a barn inside. It was a beautiful room with mahogany floors, a stained glass ceiling, and thick, plush carpets that cushioned her fall. Lilith righted herself quickly. All the other vampires stared at her with wide eyes.

  They were dressed in suits, as they always were. Glasses of wine filled with blood in their hands. These were the elite of her kind, and the ones who refused to protect the weaker vampires who needed them.

  “Lilith?” Lazarus stepped forward, his suit perfectly pressed and that stupid handkerchief in his pocket. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you wearing any clothing?”

  She stood strong before them. It took every ounce of her strength not to cover her body from their prying eyes, but that would only be seen as a weakness. Vampires preyed on those they deemed weak and they would tear her to pieces if they thought for a second she wasn’t telling the truth.

  “I got into the trophy room like you asked me to,” she said. “I found the knife.”

  His eyes widened in shock. Lazarus took a step closer to her and lowered his voice, “Lil, you really should only tell this to the Primus. You don’t have it on you, do you?”

  “I’m not finished. The faerie king, he found me.” She watched all the vampires take a step away from her as one. “No, listen please. I need your help. Your protection.”

  Even Lazarus didn’t want to stand too close to her now. “Why do you need protection? What have you done?”

  Too many things. She’d fallen in love with the faerie king, drank his blood, became so powerful it would boggle their minds, and also she’d pissed him off to no end. If they didn’t help protect her, he might ruin everything.

  Lilith opened her mouth only to find herself floating in the air. No, not floating, blasted away from the door.

  Her face hit the floor first, scraping along the carpet and digging into her skin. She put her arms out to stop herself but ran into the wall first. Her right wrist crunched and blistering pain made her lose her breath.

  The sound came next. Splintering wood, a great booming rush of heat, and the sound of vampires screaming.

  She pushed herself up onto an arm and surveyed the damage. The front of the barn had been torn clear off the wall. Some wood still burned from the explosion that had rocked through the safest place for all the vampires.

  Two had been too close to the explosion. One vampiress was already nothing more than charred pieces of black body. The other, a male, lay moaning on the ground as flames licked his face. Lilith held his gaze until his eyes went flat and all the life disappeared from his form.

  Vampires didn’t have souls. At least, that’s what they were taught when they turned. He didn’t go anywhere other than death itself. Just like someone had turned a light off.

  Time slowed. She turned her head and stared at all the other vampires laying on the floor with her. Lazarus reached out a hand for her to take, his lips moving but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Her ears were ringing too loud.

  Drake stood in the wreckage like an avenging angel. Flames danced between his fingertips as he strode into the room. His gaze fell to the vampires on the floor and she could see no emotion in his gaze at all. Just a blank expression of boredom.

  “She needs your protection from me.” His booming voice broke through the ringing of her ears and with it came the rest of the sounds.

  Crackling of flames. Moans from other vampires who were crawling toward the hatch that would let them slip down into the secret realm below the barn. Toward safety.

  Flames burst to life over the hatch, so hot she could see the metal turning red from where she lay.

  Lazarus grabbed her hand in his. “Lilith, is that him?”

  “That’s the King of the Flame, yes,” she said, coughing in the smoke filled air. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think he’d follow me this fast. I thought we had more time.”

  Drake’s laughter interrupted them. He tilted his head back as though what she’d said was the most amusing thing he’d ever heard in his life. Great booming laughter filled the room.

  All the vampires froze where they were. A few mouthed words she couldn’t make out, begging her to do something. To help save them from this monster who played with their souls while he laughed.

  She wished she could do more. Lilith wished she knew how to stop him, but she didn’t. She’d already tried and failed.

  Lazarus squeezed her hand. “We’re vampires, Lilith. We’ve lasted this long.”

  She met his gaze and answered with the haunting words of her old brood. “We will live to see another moonrise.”

  She hoped.

  As Drake laughed, she forced herself to stand. For all the vampires he’d harmed and the two he’d already killed. But mostly for herself, because she wouldn’t allow the man she loved to throw a tantrum and kill her family.

  With a snarl, she stood and braced her legs. “Drake, this isn’t between you and them.”

  “Oh, no love. This is between me and the entire realm. Did you think shoving a knife through my heart would stop any of this? Did you think for a second I would
n’t come back for round two?” He opened his arms wide. “Why don’t you try again?”

  A shard of wood flew from behind Lilith and buried itself in Drake’s chest. Blood welled around the wound before lava burned the wood into ash.

  Drake looked down at the injury before baring his teeth in a wide grin. “Wood? Really?”

  Lilith didn’t have to look behind her to see who dared attack a faerie king. Lazarus. Of course it was Lazarus with his foolish heroic tendencies and his fat head. His footsteps crunched on the rubble of their home. He stood beside her with a straight spine and a twisted growl. “You are not welcome here, faerie.”

  “I’m not the one who has to be invited to step inside.” Drake tilted his head to the side. “Or is that a lie as well? It seems to be all your kind can speak. Lies, lies, and more lies.”

  She wouldn’t stand for his insults in front of her people. “I never lied to you. Not about anything important.”

  “Killing me wasn’t a lie, then?” he spat. “Trusting me to do the right thing, that would have been remaining truthful. It’s not just words, Lilith. It’s so much more than that.”

  She tossed her arms open, mimicking his posture, and shouted, “What do you want from me, Drake? Of all the people you’ve dealt with, why are you so obsessed with a vampiress?”

  “Because you ripped my heart out!” His scream thundered through the vampire haven.

  The wood shuddered and quaked, the flames flared brighter than before. A drape fell from one of the windows and crumpled in a pile of ash on the floor. This building couldn’t stand much more of his rage or it would collapse in on itself and kill the remaining vampires who were still hoping to sneak back into the underground sanctuary where they might survive this faerie king’s wrath.

  Lazarus stepped closer to her. “You need to get him out of this building.”

  She was so tired of people telling her what she needed to do. “I know that.”