by Cege Smith
“Why is the One that important?”
“The One is living conduit between the Immortal Ones and the Clan and even the rest of the world. That is why you will find the cure you seek with them. The One must be pure.”
“These trials. What do they involve?”
“What does any kind of trial involve?” Tobias said evasively. “A relentless pursuit of the truth. Dragging information out from the shadows and exposing it to the light of day. Then using that information to make decisions about someone’s fate. That is what you face, but your jury will be the closest to Gods you would ever meet in your mortal lifetime.”
Something prickled at Angeline’s consciousness again. It caused her to stand abruptly and whirl around. There was no one behind her, and she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“What is it?” Tobias said.
“I can feel someone or something is trying to touch my mind,” she said. Her heart beat wildly against her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was Connor, but that was her hope. If he had found a way around the magical silence barrier, it would make things so much easier for her.
“That’s impossible,” Tobias said. “Anyone who tries to use magic to reach into the personal spaces of Council members will suffer a terrible sweeping sickness.”
“What?” Angeline said. “Why would you do something so awful?”
“Spies are not treated kindly here,” Tobias said.
“Yet you use them to gather information on your supposed allies,” Angeline scoffed.
“What are you talking about?” Tobias said.
“Corrinda and Malin Baford? Theodora’s children? Malin has obviously been spying on my family for years. Then I found out that he was feeding Corrinda information about me, and that was how he took orders from the Clan. I can only guess how many other eyes and ears the Clan has in my palace.”
“Corrinda Baford was exiled from the Clan two years ago,” Tobias said quietly. “She did not accept the terms of her fate and was killed in an unfortunate encounter with her mother about six months ago.”
“What?” Suddenly Angeline felt weak. “I saw her in my palace. I heard her giving Malin information from the Clan.” She didn’t add that she left Corrinda and Malin in charge of her kingdom.
“Whoever you thought that you saw, Majesty, I can assure you that it was not Corrinda Baford.”
Angeline sat down in her seat again, stunned. Then she got up out of the chair and began to pace. “Is there any way that I can return to Brebackerin before the ceremony begins?”
“No, there’s no time,” Tobias said shaking his head. “I understand that you are feeling that something is happening at home that needs to be addressed, but you have to do this first. Now that you have openly declared yourself the One, you must follow through with the Trials of Truth. This will be your only opportunity to become whole again.”
“I need refreshment,” Angeline said suddenly. “I also would like a few moments alone to quiet my thoughts.”
Tobias looked uncertain, but then he pushed to his feet. “Of course. Give me just a few minutes.”
As soon as she heard the door close behind her, Angeline closed her eyes and concentrated. She had no idea how to make what she wanted to work, but she had to try. She popped the top off of the vial of blood, and tipped it so that one small drop fell out onto her tongue. An explosion of light went off in her mind, and she felt a surge of energy rush through her body.
She focused all of that into one thought. Find Connor.
It was like her mind swirled for just a moment and then burst out of her body bolting through the darkness. Then she saw another kaleidoscope of colors in front of her just before her consciousness rammed right into it. She felt him, but it was a confusing array of images and smells that were all tainted with blood. She didn’t have time to dissect what she was seeing. She didn’t know how long she would be able to hold off the clawing binds of magic that were already threatening to pull her back in.
Connor! Malin needs you! Corrinda is an imposter!
Then it was as if an elastic binding snapped her back into her body and her eyes shot open with a gasp. She heard the door behind her open again, and she managed to hide the capped vial back into her pocket just before Tobias came into view at her side.
“Are you alright, Angeline?”
She didn’t buy the look of concern on his face at all. She understood now that the only interest he had in her was what she could give to him. It distressed her on one hand, but on the other, she needed him.
“Yes, I just felt that chill again,” she lied. “Perhaps Theodora is trying to read my mind.”
“She wouldn’t dare,” Tobias said, handing her a cup of tea. “This is laced with blood. It should satisfy your cravings and keep you calm.”
“What else do you need to tell me?” Angeline asked, reading the unspoken words in his statement.
“Sacrifice will be required to open the portal, Angeline. Surely you remember that from the legend of Mamette and Arduro? You have to stay calm and do your part.”
“You mean that I have to kill someone,” she said hollowly.
“Sometimes, to get what we want, we have to do things that we would never do otherwise. You have to remember that you are doing this for a greater good,” Tobias said simply.
Angeline sipped her tea and focused on the soothing liquid. She wondered if it would warm the ice that she felt inside because she knew that he was right. She would do it if she had to. There was no other choice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Connor dragged the dead guards’ bodies into the closest room and shut the door behind him. The bloodstains splattered around the passageway were telling signs that something had happened there. It was only a matter of time before the alarm raised, and they began to look for him. Then he took the body of the third guard and carried it down three flights of stairs and burrowed deeper into the compound.
He found an empty room off the dark passageway and decided that it would serve his purpose for the moment. He prowled the edges of the room feeling the press of the minutes rushing by. The swell of energy and feeling of power swirled inside his body. He would not have been able to sit still even if he wanted to.
In the last few moments before he was about to kill the third guard, he had a thought of sudden clarity. If he was going to put himself into a blood-induced coma, he needed someone to watch his back while he was under its effects. Having someone with an intimate working knowledge of the compound, the tunnels, and the movements of the other Clan members was an even bigger benefit. So Connor decided that he would turn the remaining guard into a vampire.
Connor had never sired a vampire in his long life, and there was something poetic about taking that step now. Although he was responsible for Angeline’s transition, he didn’t count that because she had asked for him to save her. Violently shifting the course of a human life and ushering them to the other side of the cold grasp of death without their consent was the most inhumane thing he ever thought he could do. Now it was done. It was as if that action solidified his embracement of his state of being.
He waited, formulating the rest of his plan in his mind. He wasn’t sure how long he was going to have to wait for the guard’s re-emergence into his new life. Those types of details were things that he passed over in his life in the coven since he never intended on becoming a sire. Angeline’s transition had taken hours and moved through several phases, but birth into vampirism was a much more straightforward process than becoming a wraith.
He heard the shuffling of feet outside the door, but it didn’t seem like they were in any hurry. Connor focused his hearing to try to catch a phrase or two about what was going on.
“An hour…Queen…impossible…Trials of Truth” were the only words he culled from the conversation. He thought about stepping out into the hallway and attempting to use compulsion, but even with his enhanced abilities from the influx of blood, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to ov
ercome the magical block. He couldn’t risk discovery yet, and it wasn’t time to gorge his body again. He would use his new companion to lure the needed prey to him so that he could remain undetected as long as possible.
What he heard wasn’t at all comforting. He desperately wanted to talk to Angeline, but there was no way to reach her. He closed his eyes and let his mind reach out for her. If she were physically close to him at all, he might be able to find her. He scratched at the darkness and quickly grew frustrated at the nothingness that he touched. For a brief moment, he thought that he felt her, but then it was gone.
His thoughts were distracted when he heard the shuffling of boots on the stone behind him. He turned and crossed his arms, waiting for the broken pile of flesh and bones to awaken. He knelt down a few feet away from the guard, feeling a slight sliver of pity for what the man was waking up to. Connor remembered his own awakening all too well, even though a hundred years had passed.
His eyes opened, and the guard saw him there. He opened his mouth to scream, but Connor put up a finger to his mouth. Then the man began to claw at his throat. It would be dry and scratchy and burn like hell. He would need to feed very soon.
“What’s your name?”
The guard blinked at him. His eyes glowed in the darkness. Connor knew that he would be wondering why he could see Connor clearly without any torches or lanterns in the room.
“Marcus.”
“Marcus, do you remember what happened before you blacked out?” The old Connor would have allowed the man to come around to the realization of what he was on his own, but the new Connor had no time for niceties. They had work to do.
“You killed my friends,” Marcus said, the note of accusation strong in his voice. “They said you were harmless and that you understood the new order of things.”
“They underestimated me. It’s not the first time,” Connor said. “What else?”
Marcus pulled himself into a seated position. He looked around the room, and Connor surmised that he was trying to find an escape route. There was no escape for him now.
“I need a drink of water,” Marcus said. His voice was raspy.
“You need to think,” Connor snapped. “What happened after I killed your friends?”
“I thought you were going to kill me,” Marcus said, starting to pull at his throat.
“I did kill you,” Connor said.
The look of stunned disbelief told Connor that Marcus was processing what happened afterwards. “You made me drink your blood.”
Connor smiled. He knew that it was a cruel smile. “You can thank me for that gift later.”
“You…you infected me with your bloodlust,” Marcus said. His face twisted into a grimace. “Why? Why would you have done such a thing? I’ll never thank you for that.”
“Once you get your first taste of blood, all of those nasty things you believe about my kind will not matter anymore. You will forget that you were ever human, and the truly wondrous thing is that won’t bother you in the slightest. You have the strength of ten men. You are faster than any animal in the world. You can have anything you wish, as long as you do exactly what I tell you to do.”
For several long moments, Connor wondered if Marcus had heard him at all. Then the man turned to him. “When can I get that drink?”
“As soon as we can find you an accommodating host,” Connor said as he stood. He put his hand out to Marcus. “If you help me, I will ask nothing else of you. You can go about your new life as you see fit. It wasn’t a choice I was given, so you should consider yourself fortunate.”
Marcus put his hand in Connor’s, and Connor pulled him to his feet. Marcus looked down at his hands in wonderment. “I feel so strange.”
“The transition is still taking effect. Once you feed, those sensations will settle.”
“Why? Why did you turn me?” Marcus said, reaching out to grab Connor’s elbow.
“I need you,” Connor said simply. “All in good time, I will explain that further. For the moment though, we need to stay out of sight. Do you know where we are?”
He put his ear against the door but heard no one in the hallway. He opened the door, and they stepped outside. Marcus looked up and down the long passageway. “We’re on the fifth level down, just above the cellars. This is the servants floor.”
“Excellent,” Connor said. “There is one servant in particular that I am interested in. Emma.”
“She is vampire stock,” Marcus said, licking his lips.
“Yes, but you will not feed on her,” Connor said. “Her blood carries magic that Theodora uses for her own purposes. No, we need a nice unobtrusive, nobody servant for you.”
As if his words conjured him into being, a teenage boy appeared around the corner. He was filthy, and Connor thought by the smell wafting off of him, he was probably a stable boy. He made a mental note to ask Marcus where the stables were.
Connor stepped back into the shadows. “Call to him,” he said under his breath. The words were for Marcus’s ears only.
Marcus did not hesitate. “Jory!” Marcus said. “You are a sight for sore eyes.”
“Hey, Marcus,” the boy said in a warm greeting. “I thought you were on prisoner detail. I heard that wildling vampire is a big disappointment, nothing like the vampires that we used to find.”
It rankled Connor to hear the boy talking about him so dismissively. Was this why Theodora thought that she could so easily overpower him? The idea made him even more angry and intent on breaking the spell.
Jory was within a few feet of them when he slowed. A confused look crossed his face. “Who’s that with you, Marcus?”
Marcus stepped closer to him, and Connor waited. The instinct to kill would take over. There was nothing else that he had to do. The voice in Marcus’s head would do it for him.
As he expected, Marcus moved the last few feet in a lightning fast blur and then the boy was in his arms. Connor watched the scene unfold feeling nothing. His companion needed to feed. The only thing that he had to do was make sure that Marcus did not kill the boy.
It didn’t take long before the boy’s skin paled to almost white, and Connor saw the beginnings of the shudders that meant his life was about to expire. He stepped forward and put his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “That’s enough.”
Marcus growled in warning and didn’t stop. Connor grabbed the back of his red hair and yanked Marcus’s head back. With a hundred years on his side and the blood of three fully grown men coursing through his veins, he was stronger than Marcus by a factor of ten. Marcus hissed at him, but didn’t let the boy go.
“You will not kill him. We need to keep a low profile, and we cannot be racking up bodies, at least not yet.”
“He will tell someone,” Marcus said.
It was a logical argument.
“He will be too weak from blood loss to move for several hours. By then, we will be long gone.” Connor hoped that they would be long gone. “Put him in the room we just came from.”
“You are soft,” Marcus sneered.
The blow from Connor’s fist broke Marcus’s jaw. Jory’s body slipped to the floor. Marcus whirled away from him cradling his jaw. Connor grabbed the back of the boy’s shirt and hauled him up and through the doorway that he had just exited. Then he shut the door and locked it from the outside.
“I promised you freedom for obeying every word I tell you from now until we part. If you cannot comply with that, I will kill you myself. Now.”
“I’m hungry,” Marcus said plaintively.
“There will be plenty more where that came from,” Connor said. “Now I want you to tell me where Emma is.”
“Her quarters are on the other side of the compound down one level. They keep her near Bryant for obvious reasons.”
“Are there other vampires in the compound?” That was one complication that Connor had not considered.
“No, not for some time. Bryant isn’t very tolerant of others like him in his territory,” Marcus said.
“I hope you have a plan for dealing with him. He’s cunning and ruthless. I think that’s why Theodora lets him get away with everything else.”
“We’re going to steer clear of Bryant,” Connor said. “At least until the next part of my plan is done. You have other friends in the guard, yes?”
“Yes,” Marcus said.
“Where are their quarters?”
Marcus cocked his head in the opposite direction. “Back that way. Since it’s the middle of the night, the ones who aren’t on duty will either be drinking or in bed.”
“Perfect,” Connor said. “Four unconscious men should do the trick.”
“Do the trick for what?”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” Connor said. “Take me to the soldier’s quarters. Remember, if we run into anyone you know, act normal. We can’t be discovered.”
“Why can’t we just take four servants?”
“I need grown men,” Connor said firmly. “The bigger, the better.”
They had only moved about ten feet in the direction of the guards’ room when Angeline’s voice exploded in Connor’s mind.
Connor! Malin needs you! Corrinda is an imposter!
Then it was gone as quickly as it had come. He stumbled, and Marcus stopped to stare back at him.
“Something wrong?”
The implications of Angeline’s words brought a flurry of anxiety to Connor’s mind. After a few moments, he shoved it all away. First he had to break free of Theodora’s binding spell. Then he would worry about how to obey his Queen’s order and find a way back to Brebackerin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Malin felt the strange sensation of weightlessness and then falling, which brought him out of his deep slumber. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, thinking that the healer would come running as soon as he heard that the Queen needed assistance. His eyes popped opened just before his head smacked against the hard stone floor, causing him to cry out a yelp of pain.
He looked up and saw his sister standing above him looking down at him. Her long blond hair curled around her shoulders, and her eyes were bright. She smiled at him. “You fell out of your chair, silly.”