Wards of Night

by E. M. Knight

“What a happy reunion this is,” the woman vampire says. She closes the door, and all four of us are locked in. “Forgive me. I should introduce myself. I’m Victoria—”

  “How could you?” Raul is staring daggers at his brother. “How could you betray us?”

  Victoria gives him a nasty look for cutting her off. But James speaks.

  “Betray you? No, no. I saw a better way. For too long you and I and Phillip have been tied to Mother’s apron strings. This grants us freedom. This will give us true power.”

  Raul scoffs. “You’re blinded by ambition. Mother is keeping Phillip hostage. She’ll kill him if Eleira doesn’t return by the next full moon.”

  My heart sinks. Is that the reason he came for me? To save his brother? To bring me back, and enter me in… The Hunt?

  James, give him credit, is taken aback. “She wouldn’t—”

  “Oh yes,” Raul says. “She would.”

  “Enough of this,” Victoria hisses in annoyance. “We’re here to do one thing. Let’s get on with it.”

  James seems energized by her command. He grabs my neck, and I cry out. Raul dashes toward me to help. He doesn’t get more than half a step before Victoria yanks him back by the chain.

  “None of that,” she says. “We need the two of you apart.”

  She pulls him to the far opposite wall, where two pegs are embedded in the rock. She hooks the chain on, even as Raul struggles against it. She makes it look so easy, manhandling a grown vampire like that. Not to mention that Raul is so much bigger than her.

  Could she be a witch? I wonder. Is that why he cannot fight back?

  After a moment of snarled curses and grunts Raul’s arms are spread to either side of him like he’s being crucified. Victoria pulls on the chains, and Raul’s feet leave the ground. He’s hanging only from those pegs.

  My own struggle against the hand hanging around my neck seems feeble and pathetic in comparison. James holds me as easily as if I were a child.

  Raul starts to rage against Victoria.

  She slaps him.

  “You be quiet,” she snaps. “Or next time, I’ll take it out on your beloved.” She looks at me.

  Beloved? I wonder.

  “Now,” Victoria pulls a table up between us. Onto it she sets a series of four medieval goblets. “Four chalices,” she explains. “And four of us. What a striking coincidence.”

  James has a knowing smirk on his face. Raul is scowling but quiet. I’m just confused.

  “We all know blood is key to our power,” Victoria continues. “And that blood, when imbued with the proper elements, can transfer that power.”

  James’s eyes take on a greedy sheen. He grips my neck tighter.

  Victoria looks at me. “We need you to be strong for what is to come. Your current human form… it just won’t do. I can see from your eyes the transformation has begun. But we need to expedite the process.”

  “No!” Raul gasps.

  “Silence!” Victoria barks. “Another word out of you, and I’m not kidding, I will hurt her. Or don’t you think,” she asks sweetly, “that I can sense the allure of her blood too?”

  Victoria nods at James. “Bring her forward.”

  I cry out as James pushes me to the table. He grabs my wrist and thrusts it out. Victoria withdraws a small, silver dagger.

  Before I know it, she slashes my wrist.

  I scream. Blood pours out. James forces it over the first of the chalices. It fills the cup. Raul struggles like crazy against his bonds, trying to break free. But the silver is impossibly strong.

  Yet the scent of my blood enrages him. He yells and screams and throws his body forward. He fights the chains like a demon trying to break out of hell.

  James, at the same time, goes absolutely still. His gaze latches onto the blood pouring from my wrist as he moves it from one chalice to the next. I can tell it takes his all to hold back.

  The precariousness of my situation hits me with full force. I’m alone in a room with three vampires. Human blood is their weakness. Mine has, for whatever reason, extraordinary appeal.

  And I’m bleeding freely before them.

  The only one who seems unaffected is Victoria. And yet… and yet the way she licks her lips, while watching me bleed, it’s…

  Terrifying.

  My heart is beating so hard in my chest that the sound is all I hear. There’s a long, tense moment as the last of the cups is filled. Victoria’s eyes are on me.

  And then she says, “Enough!”

  As if a spell is cast James is flung backward. I’m free, but only for a moment. Victoria speeds forward and clamps a gauntlet over my wrist. It stems the blood flow.

  All three vampires visibly relax. Raul goes still, but keeps panting. He directs a haunted glare at Victoria. He purposefully avoids my eyes.

  James returns and brings me back to the far wall.

  “My turn,” Victoria says. She uses that dagger to prick a finger. Into each goblet goes one drop of her blood.

  She motions James over. “Now yours…”

  Each time a drop of vampiric blood mixes with mine in a chalice, a loud, violent hissing sounds. There’s a ritualistic, dark quality to the way the ceremony is being performed. It makes me ill at ease.

  “Finally,” Victoria turns to Raul. “It’s your turn.”

  “No!” he says. “No, I will not let you! No—”

  “Oh, brother,” James interrupts. “You speak as if you have a choice.”

  The dagger flashes. Raul’s forearm is cut. Victoria brings the goblets one-by-one to him, and holds them by his elbow to catch the flow. His blood joins ours in the bowls.

  “And now we wait,” she says.

  Raul continues to bleed. I don’t know why he’s not healing. But as more and more blood flows out of him, he starts to sag and weaken.

  He turns his head to James. His eyes are rolling in his head. “Please,” he implores. “Don’t let her do this.”

  James looks at him. I think I see the briefest flash of pity in his eyes.

  Then he laughs. “You think I don’t want this as much as her?”

  “Want what?” I scream. I’m as helpless to change anything as a newborn lamb, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want answers.

  James clamps a hand over my mouth. “Shut it,” he warns.

  “I know you have good in you,” Raul implores. “Deep down. I know you do. Don’t forsake us all!”

  “Forsake you?” James sounds livid. “I asked you to join me, brother! I have not forsaken anyone. It is you who’s turned his back on me! And for what?” He glares at me. “For some snivelling teenage girl? Please.”

  “Enough!” Victoria claps her hands. “It is done. The fusion is complete.” She looks at me, and her eyes positively shine with lust. “Now, the real fun begins.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  ELEIRA

  A rag is stuffed into my mouth so I cannot scream. Some sort of velvet bag is thrust over Raul’s head, and as soon as it happens his movements become uncoordinated, jerky, almost convulsive. I want to yell for him, but before I get the chance the same sort of bag is thrown over my head.

  Immediately, the strangest sensation takes me. It’s like I’m caught between two reverberating speakers operating at different frequencies. It’s jarring, and I want to fight it, but I’m helpless to do anything.

  James grabs me by the arm and marches me out the room. I can only vaguely tell where we’re going. The sense of direction I usually have is somehow… blurred. It’s hazy.

  We walk for I don’t know how long. Even sounds are muffled. I don’t think we come across anybody else.

  Eventually, we stop. The cover over my head is cast off. And I find us in…

  An enormous treasure vault.

  My eyes pop out my head. There are piles upon piles of gleaming gold coins around us. They’re stacked shoulder-high by the walls. In their midst I see rubies and diamonds and all types of precious stones.

  The riches spill
out onto the floor. There isn’t a square inch that isn’t covered with wealth.

  There’s a fire burning on the other side of one of the great piles. It makes shadows flicker and dance over everything. It gives the vault a menacing air, almost like we’re inside a dragon’s den.

  Victoria clears a space in front of us. Raul sits slumped on the ground, the sack still over his head.

  His limbs twitch. Once, twice, three times. Then he goes still for a moment, and then starts convulsing again.

  I can’t take it. He’s obviously in pain. “What are you doing to him?” I try to say. The rag muffles all words.

  James shares a look with Victoria. She nods. He takes the nasty cloth out of my mouth.

  “But,” he says precisely, putting a finger against my lips before I can speak. “If you so much as think of screaming, you — and my brother — will both be punished. Understand?”

  I move my head up and down, burning with hatred for the vampire, him and his evil companion.

  When I was first caught, I thought all vampires were evil. But now, as I stand on the verge of becoming one of them, I’m starting to figure out that is not the case.

  Evil is not absolute. It’s not black and white.

  Raul and Phillip, for example, are far less evil than their older brother. Or Victoria.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I demand when James pulls his finger back.

  He shrugs casually. “Silver meshing, in the fabric.” He motions above his head to mimic the sack. “Silver screws with a vampire’s mind and senses.”

  I look down at the one that was over my head.

  “Ah yes, little one,” he acknowledges. “You are vulnerable, too. The effects are not as strong… yet.” He glances at Victoria, who’s laid out the four chalices in a circle on the floor. Right in the middle is an enormous red ruby. “But they will be soon.”

  “What do you mean?” I gasp.

  “We’re going to expedite your transformation,” Victoria says. She smiles. “And then you’ll be putty in our hands.”

  Something triggers Raul into a series of very strong spasms. I hear him grunt and groan, and his body shakes.

  “Get it off him!” I plead. “Please, take it off! If you do, I won’t fight. If you do —” I hang my head. “I’ll give you what you want.”

  James’s eyebrows go up. “An interesting proposition,” he says. “Victoria?”

  She shrugs. “If she reneges, it’ll be easy to make her regret it.”

  James smiles. “Very well.”

  He walks up to my brother and goes to his knees by his side. He puts a hand on Raul’s shoulder.

  Then he brings his lips close to Raul’s covered ear.

  “Your human,” he says softly, “is worried about you. Isn’t that sweet?” He tugs the cloth sack off.

  Immediately, Raul gasps for air. His hair is dishevelled, his eyes wild, as he struggles against his chains.

  Then he sees where he is. He sees the riches around him. And he sees me.

  He goes still.

  “Do whatever you want to me,” he tells James. “But let Eleira go.”

  James laughs. “Funny. She just offered a similar concession for you.”

  Raul looks at me. Our eyes meet. I feel something very heartfelt in his gaze.

  “We’re not going to let her go,” Victoria says. “But we will make her one of us. And when she is…” she smiles cruelly. “She will be no more than a pawn, ready to do anything I say.”

  “We say,” James corrects.

  Victoria touches his cheek. “No, dearest,” she tells him. “I say. The rule of power still stands.”

  I can feel James’s agitation at being addressed so. But he keeps his lips sealed.

  Victoria turns to me. “You said you’d do anything, didn’t you? Then step forward. You must be the first to drink our blood.”

  Victoria yanks me by the shirt. I stumble but do not fall.

  She shoves me to my knees before the arrangement of chalices. Raul’s protests continue in the background. “No! Don’t do this, no, no…”

  “Shut him up,” Victoria snarls.

  James thrusts the bag back over his head.

  I cry out. “You promised! You —”

  “You, too, girl.” Victoria grabs my hair. “If you value your own life, you will drink.”

  She shoves a chalice into my hands. “Now, do it!”

  I look at the revolting fluid sloshing around inside. Raul’s screams sound through the sack. “Eleira, no! Eleira, don’t!”

  “You have no choice!” Victoria hisses. “Do it now, before I force you to it!”

  I’m shaking all over. I don’t know what will happen to me once I drink. Raul seems to know, and he thinks it’s bad.

  I take a breath and catch a whiff of the blood. It smells horrid. Why do they want me to drink first? I wonder. Why —

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Victoria exclaims and shoves the goblet to my lips.

  As soon as the blood passes my tongue… a force takes me. My eyes go wide. A roaring desire explodes inside to have more. I clutch at the chalice and take deep, gulping swallows. The blood goes down my throat and burns like acid. But even as it burns, it energizes me, making me feel a new vigor, a new strength coming over my body.

  The cup is empty too soon. I’m ravenous. My eyes dart to the other three. Something is happening inside my body, some sort of shift. I feel the cells changing. I feel my senses becoming stronger, more alive. I feel my muscles strengthening. It’s the kind of solid, all-encompassing strength that comes with an innate knowledge of my capabilities.

  I lunge for the second goblet. “Hold her back!” James screams. “That’s ours!”

  Victoria tries to catch me, but I throw her off. I’m operating on instinct alone, and instinct tells me that all of this is mine—that all of these vampires are mine.

  I grab the next chalice and quickly empty it. Victoria tries to come at me again. I’m in a rage, and I toss her sideways as easily as if she were a doll.

  There’s power inside me. Deep, latent power. Power I didn’t know existed before, but power that has now been unleashed.

  In my brief pause, as I grapple with my staggering strength, James and Victoria both throw themselves at me. Their claws are out, and they’re snarling and trying to hold me down. I fight against them. I’m strong, but I’m still only one, and they are two…

  A blinding flash explodes from the ruby. The light is like a solid wall. It hits and throws all three of us back. We crash into the piles of coins, and they go flying.

  “You idiot!” Victoria screams at me. “What did you do, what did you —”

  It’s mayhem all around. The blast hit Raul and knocked the sack off his head. He comes to and sees what’s happening. His silver bonds have broken.

  Did the light do that, too?

  “SHE’S TOO STRONG!” James is yelling somewhere in the distance. “VICTORIA, YOU CAN’T —”

  The words are lost on me as I’m consumed by the undeniable urge to feed. My body demands it. There’s blood available in the chalices—somehow, they were unaffected by the blast—but a different scent calls to me.

  The scent of evil.

  I turn to Victoria.

  It comes from her.

  There’s genuine fear in her eyes. She backs away. “No, no, don’t…”

  Before I know what’s happening I launch myself at her. I no longer have conscious control over my body. Everything happens by instinct, by feel. I have her in my arms, and my lips curl back, revealing two long, glistening fangs —

  “Eleira!”

  Raul’s voice snaps me to myself. I stop. For a half second, I oscillate between awareness of what I’m doing and that complete blackout.

  But then the animal inside me roars, and I’m about to sink my fangs into Victoria’s smooth, perfect neck —

  “No.”

  Raul again. His voice carries true command. Once more I stop. I waver between who I wa
s and who I’ve become. I can feel my humanity hanging by a string. If I lose control now…

  “…If you lose control now,” Raul is saying. I realize those aren’t my thoughts but his words. They mix and swirl in my head. “If you kill Victoria now, there is no going back. Eleira, no. Eleira, don’t do it.”

  I look at the feeble woman struggling in my arms. She seems so weak, so very fragile. I could snap her like a twig.

  And yet, just moments ago I was in awe of her power.

  James is watching all of this with fascination clear on his face. Fascination and stark disbelief.

  Raul takes a step toward me. Victoria has gone still. Fear lurks in her eyes.

  “Don’t do this,” Raul says softly. “It is not the only way.”

  He puts a hand on my arm. I expect him to be cold.

  Instead, I feel warmth flow from him.

  “You’re confused by the bloodlust,” he tells me. “This isn’t you. This isn’t who you would be.”

  “How do you know?” I snarl, and I barely recognize my own voice. It comes from deep inside, from that animalistic, vampiric part the drink of blood unleased.

  “I know,” Raul says softly, “because I’ve seen your heart. I know who you are. And once, in a different life, I gave you… this.”

  From his back pocket he takes out a black onyx ring. It’s enormous, nearly the size of a quail egg.

  My breath catches. I recognize it. It’s something I had as a child. I’d always loved it, always adored it. I’d treasured it, and worn it round my neck always… until I lost it when I turned thirteen.

  “It was supposed to shield you,” Raul explains. He shoots a look at James. “It was supposed to protect you from us. I saw the signs of your birth, and I sought you out before Mother knew. I wanted to save you from this life. Had you worn it, none of us could have found you. None of this,” he gestures around, “would have happened.”

  “Traitor!” James snarls. “You went against us —”

  I shut him up with a single look. I can feel his strength, and it’s so much less than mine.

  My eyes soften for Raul. “You… tried to protect me?”

  “Yes,” he admits. “Always, I wanted to be your guardian. Why did you stop wearing it, Eleira? Why did you take it off?”