Except she wasn’t mortal. And this bond would last forever.
The Entity went spinning, flung from Violet’s body with ferocious finality.
Keeran yanked his fangs from Violet’s neck and leapt to his feet. Power surged through him. The wolf within him had been fed. He was whole in spirit. And there was an intruder in his kingdom.
“Get the fuck out,” he hissed as the Entity wavered into a semi-solid form several feet away. All around them, chaos ruled. Beasts fought, shadows fumed in and out of existence, and the ground trembled with battle.
The long, black figure cocked his white, featureless head to the side for just a moment, as if he were a confused puppy trying to understand what had just happened.
And then Keeran raised his arms at his sides, and using magic he hadn’t used since he’d been attached to Wolfram Lovelace, he shoved the monster out of his realm with nearly every ounce of power he possessed.
The blast shook the foundations of the Shadow Kingdom, knocking down every abandoned, blackened house on the street block. Dark shards of wood went flying in every direction. The air opened up in front of Keeran, ripped in two by the power of his sudden spell. The Entity squealed a high-pitched scream that sounded like an alarm, and shriveled into a small cloud of dust that was crushed by Keeran’s magic as he sent it flying through the rip in space and time and into another dimension.
The hole closed back up again with the sound of thunder as a ring of power fluxed out from Keeran like an expanding blast zone. Behind him, he could feel the Pan Shadows dissipate into mist, just as they’d done when Violet had cast Lovelace’s spell.
He heard men grunting, someone crying out as if in pain, and knew that the incubi and Nimbus were diving for cover, hitting the ground, and praying to survive.
The blast moved over everyone like a slow-rolling wave of death. And then it was over. Silence filled the street. It filled the sky.
Keeran knelt beside his queen and helped her to sit up. He noticed both the piercings in the side of her neck, and the acorn that glittered at her throat. “Lovelace’s spell,” she said very softly. Her throat no doubt hurt quite a bit. She shrugged, unimpressed. “I did it better.”
His gut clenched. She was joking with him? Some warm, giddy emotion flooded his midsection.
“Holy shit, Pitch,” someone grunted behind him.
Keeran turned around to see Hesperos dragging himself off the ground. He was injured in several places, bleeding from a bottom lip, and sporting a fast bruising jaw, but he was smiling.
The problem was, when he breathed, the air frosted before his lips.
Keeran frowned.
Behind the Nightmare King, others were pulling themselves from the ground as well. Keeran recognized his hunters. And he watched as the Nightmares turned back into their mortal forms. And then he saw the Winter King, where the man had fallen to one knee.
Oh shit.
Kristopher Scaule opened his eyes. They were glowing cold blue, as frosted as a winter’s night. I’m sorry, Keeran heard a voice in his head. It even sounded cold, and when the words formed in his mind, they made his head feel chilled. I can’t hold it any longer.
Keeran swore out loud. He’d forgotten about the Darkfire.
He turned, bent again, and picked up his queen. Then he rushed toward the nearest shadows, once more moving at the speed of dark.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Well, clearly he managed to relight the damn thing.” Poppy watched Lalura pour yet another bottle of something into the bowl of liquid on top of the spell table.
But it was Dahlia who answered her. “He did. But he owes the Winter King one hell of a favor now.”
“I bet,” said Poppy. “‘Liah, how is Violet?” She hadn’t seen her best friend since Violet had encased her in ice, but she’d heard about everything that had gone down in the Dark, and she’d been worried about her ever since.
“She’s fine,” Dahlia assured her. “She’s ‘happy’,” she said, making a giddy face that Poppy rolled her eyes at. “She even joined the Nimbus.”
“No way!” Poppy exclaimed. “Wow, I’m actually jealous. I bet those guys are hot.”
Lalura’s eyes shot to Poppy, and Poppy stilled. “Are you so certain it is something hot you want, Poppy? With what you did to that encasement spell?”
Poppy’s eyes widened. “You… know about that?” Of course she knows. Idiot. It’s Lalura.
Lalura simply made a small sound of acknowledgement a little like, “Mmm.”
Dahlia, bless her, intervened on Poppy’s behalf. “Anyway, with Violet helping him, now the borders to the Shadow Realm are strong enough to keep the Entity out. They really did complete each other, it seems. And now the Shadow King and Shadow Queen are resting.”
“Which is what you should be doing, Dahlia,” Lalura said. She turned an ice blue gaze of admonition on her Tuath student. “Each Lifeblood you drink will only last so long, and the more you do between drinking them, the faster they will wear off.”
“I know. But I’m fine too, I promise.”
Poppy knew the reason Dahlia was here, in the training room the three girls shared, rather than at home and in bed, resting. She’d been through an ordeal, to be sure. But she’d come away from it with a boon worth more than anything anyone had been able to gain against the Entity so far.
The Entity apparently had the ability to turn people into vampires. Dahlia was unfortunately the first he’d changed in many, many years, and apparently he’d done it out of sheer anger. These were not like D’Angelo’s vampires. They were different. Dahlia said they were “older.” She said, in fact, that there were three factions of vampires on the planet, not one, and that each of them erroneously believed they were alone in their vampirism.
But apparently one faction was from another realm altogether and had been something akin to angels prior to “falling” to Earth. Another faction were the Offspring of D’Angelo’s ilk. And the third belonged to the Entity.
According to the knowledge Dahlia had stolen from him, there were thousands of these vampires. But they were dormant, sleeping. And no one knew where.
Theories were that The Entity wanted to awaken them. The kings wondered if that was why he wanted a queen. The queens of the thirteen realms had thus far proven themselves to be far more powerful than their kings. They had in fact proven to be some of the strongest beings on Earth. Hence, the kings posited that perhaps taking on the vessel of someone so potent would complete the Entity in much the same way a king was completed by his queen. Maybe this would give him enough strength to bring his vampires out of hibernation.
But Dahlia told them there was something else…. She agreed that the Entity wanted a queen because of her power, but she insisted there was another reason in there somewhere. Her impressions of it were fragmented and fuzzy; she’d been in a lot of pain when she’d deciphered this bit. But she could have sworn the Entity had one particular person in mind. One being he wanted to awaken.
Dahlia had filled everyone in as best she could, despite how tired she was, and Poppy quietly marveled at her friend’s strength. Dahlia wouldn’t talk much about what the Entity had done to her while he’d had her, but from what she had admitted, the torture had ranged from mental to magical in nature. On the mental front, he would taunt her, lock her away in dank oubliettes filled with unseen menaces, and attempt to ply away her self esteem. On the magical end, he used something in the very air around her to bring pain to her body without leaving marks. He’d done this again and again, and Poppy knew he had no doubt done it in every sick way imaginable. But Dahlia had never broken.
Poppy could tell she was drop-dead beat. Her deep black hair lacked a bit of the shimmer it normally had, and her green eyes were more jade than emerald. Her lips were pale, which they’d never been before. But her ordeal, if anything, had proven to Dahlia that the Entity was powerful beyond what they’d imagined. And the thing was, he’d been thwarted on several occasions.
&n
bsp; In each occasion, it seemed Lalura Chantelle had a hand in the thwarting.
The Entity was sure to notice this. He was sure to realize that Lalura was an enemy he needed to be rid of if he wanted to succeed in his plan – whatever the hell that was.
And that’s why Dahlia was there. She was afraid of the same thing everyone who loved Lalura was afraid of. She was afraid the Entity would come for the old witch. And though Lalura could certainly handle herself in most situations, again, the Entity was terribly powerful and they simply knew too little about him. He’d managed to take over the spirits of thousands of Pan Shadows, for instance. He kept inhabiting the bodies of queens, no matter how everyone tried to stop him. He always seemed one step ahead of everyone.
And so, Dahlia wasn’t willing to take chances. For that matter, neither was Poppy.
“So, I heard that the Unseelie King has officially pardoned you,” Poppy ventured.
Dahlia blushed a little. “I guess it impressed the Thirteen Kings that I managed to come away from my encounter having kept my mind more or less intact and having stored all the information I did.”
“Dahlia,” said Lalura, drawing the woman’s immediate attention. “What you did was very brave, child. It’s as I have always told you,” she continued as she slowly stirred the liquids in the bowl and watched them carefully. She was brewing up another batch of Lifeblood for Dahlia. “There is much more in you than you know. And you were meant for much more than you realize.”
Poppy watched Dahlia look away, and she understood the look on her face. The Tuath were a proud breed. It was hard for her to relive what had happened, even in the light of praise.
Poppy turned back to Lalura. She stood and approached the table with the large bowl on it. She loved this part – the mixture would begin to bubble, and then it would begin to glow. It was a vibrant lilac in color and according to Dahlia, it was cold on the tongue and tasted like a combination of cotton candy and Jolly Ranchers grape candies. It sounded delicious to Poppy. But it wasn’t for her. It was definitely for Dahlia.
She needed it now. It was the substitution Lalura had ingeniously created for her that would allow her to exist without feeding on the blood of others.
Just as D’Angelo’s Offspring and vampires in general were expected to need to do, the Entity’s creations had to “feed,” as Dahlia put it. They relied upon the blood of others to continue existing. The unfortunate aspect of this, of course, was that you needed a volunteer. Or you could go rogue, which was probably more along the lines of what the Entity’s vampires did. But that wasn’t Dahlia.
To eradicate the issue right off the bat, Lalura had gotten to work tackling the problem from a magical vantage point. It turned out, it was easier to do than anyone had expected, because whereas the Offspring were vampires due to genetics, the very nature of the Entity’s vampirism was one of magic.
Dahlia now possessed the ability to fly, to move through shadows, to become mist, to move at incredible, blurring speeds, and Superman-like strength. On the down side, she had to keep up her blood supply just as the Tuath in her had once had to keep up sex. On the up side, she no longer had to have sex to replenish her magic! The Lifeblood potion did that for her, because now her magic was more linked to her vampirism than it was to her Unseelie fae nature.
In the end, Poppy was willing to bet Dahlia was more happy with the outcome of her kidnapping than she was unhappy. She’d come away from the experience scathed, for sure. But in the very long-run, it looked like it was going to be something good for Dahlia rather than bad.
Which made everyone wonder why the hell the Entity would have done it.
All they could figure, in the end, was that the Entity was not perfect. When he was angry enough, he got sloppy. He made mistakes.
And that, right there, was the boon they had that was worth more than anything so far.
Chapter Thirty-Four
It was 2:45 in Seattle on a day on the cooler side, which was perfect for jeans, dark hoodies, and loads of Starbucks coffee. The latter was something Keeran knew Violet was more than happy to supply her Tuath body with, and something that Poppy, or Persephone Glacia Nix, was equally happy to drink right along with her.
They’d just finished their third medium cup when the three of them sat down at a local vegetarian café for barbeque tofu and salads.
Keeran leaned in after they’d ordered their meals and added, “Make one without cucumbers.” The guy behind the counter nodded, and Keeran turned to find Violet eyeing him suspiciously.
“You don’t like cucumbers?”
“No, you don’t.”
Her gaze narrowed, and her head tilted to one side. She was so cute when she did that, like a puppy trying to figure out what the hell you were saying. “How did you know I don’t like cucumbers?”
He grinned, thoroughly enjoying her confusion. “Lucky guess.”
A few minutes later, they’d finished eating and were moving through a large crowd of people toward the face of a massive glass-fronted building several blocks from the café. Keeran took point, and the three of them flashed their lanyard badges to a group of blue-garbed individuals and entered yet another building hosting downtown Seattle’s PAX Prime convention. As there had been in every location, there were thousands of people milling about around them, more than Keeran had ever encountered at a convention before. The video game revolution had fully taken hold, and this was more than enough proof.
“It smells vaguely of cheese in here,” said Poppy.
Violet laughed softly, and Keeran smiled to himself. Unfortunately, any time you packed this many people into one place at any given point in time, it would come with consequences. Odor was usually one of those consequences. Add to that the fact that most of these people tended toward the “geeky” shut-in side of the spectrum, and it was probably best to travel with mentholatum on the lip.
“You know, you contribute to the shut-in aspect with the games you create,” said Violet, who leaned over to whisper in his ear. A rush of pleasure traveled through his ear, down his neck, and into his body, warming his blood. As usual, he resisted the urge to grab her, pull her into him, and take her right there in front of a thousand ogling nerds.
Clearly he’d been thinking a little too loudly, and the bond he and his queen now shared was stronger than ever. He grinned.
He was happy. He was really, truly happy. Had he ever felt like this in his entire life?
“Oooh!” Poppy exclaimed. “I’ll catch up with you at the panel! They have Don’t Starve merchandise over there! I’ve wanted one of those hats since forever!” She rushed off, leaving he and Violet alone in the midst of a milling crowd.
They moved through it slowly, filling their eyes with the signs, sights, and sounds. There were impressive displays up all over the place for everything from My Little Pony to Game of Thrones. Keeran imagined that Damon Chroi would love a place like this. But the man had become inordinately busy of late. A house filled with three new babies and half a zoo will do that to the best of men.
“Did I ever tell you that I love the BEK games, by the way?” Violet asked, laughing as she admitted it.
Keeran stopped and looked down at her. She was blushing, her grin the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“No, you didn’t,” he said, feeling his chest puff up. “You seriously do?” But he could read her surface thoughts plain as day just then, so he knew she was telling the truth. She liked everything about them but the puzzles on level fifteen of game four, which apparently irked her to no end.
He laughed. “I guess I never would have pegged you for a gamer.” Then he asked, seriously, “What else don’t I know about you, little acorn?”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” she said mysteriously, and shot him a coy look that made his dick hard. “Yet.”
Shit. His breath was arrested, and his gums were starting to ache. He glanced at a clock on the wall. The panel he wanted to take her to started in eleven minutes,
and if he didn’t play his cards just right, he would have to use magic to get them the two seats he wanted. Not enough time to pull her into a shadow portal, screw her brains out, and return to the mortal world. Not quite.
“Come this way,” he practically growled, smiling a hungry but happy smile.
He had something planned.
She laughed beside him as he took her firmly by the upper arm and pulled her through the crowd. As they moved, several people stopped what they were doing and nudged their companions. Most convention attendees were either standing in a line for a booth, standing in line for a panel, getting autographs, playing new video games at display booths, or playing video games on their own portable devices. But when their friends elbowed them and pointed in Keeran’s direction, they inevitably looked up.
And Keeran was happy he was wearing his black hoodie and leather jacket, his hood pulled well over his forehead so that all that showed were the shadowy angles of his face.
That was enough, though. Enough to raise suspicions. After all, every publicity shot he’d ever had taken of himself for his video games had been images just like the one he was revealing now: Masculine figure, unshaven chin, black hood, eyes glowing from the darkness.
Crap, my eyes, he realized. They probably are glowing. No wonder so many more people are noticing in this building! Violet had hit a nerve, heated his blood, and now the beast in him was rearing its head. It didn’t help that he was working very hard to hide some of his thoughts from her in order to keep his surprise. That took great effort and very old skill. It was like an internal work-out. His wolf was showing, and his eyes were, indeed glowing.
“It’s okay,” Violet told him, leaning in again to whisper as she picked up the pace so they could get through the crowd without incident. “They probably just think you’re a cosplayer doing the Shade-nigma thing, and not the real deal.”
The Shadow King (The Kings Book 7) Page 17