CHAPTER FIVE
Cael
Sleet pelted the concrete cliffs of the Northern City. My city. Safety. The icy rain melted and drenched the buildings. Ran down the brick sides in dirty rivulets to form oily puddles that quenched the thirst of overgrown weeds and scavengers. The pitted grey roads were stained with the blood of fresh kills. Bones piled high in shadowed corners, and broken glass glinted in the dark. Rubble crumbled from the upper structures and crashed into those below. The reek of decaying flesh and putrefied remains wafted from the back alleys.
Similar spots of hell were scattered all over the world. This particular rat infested cavity I’d once been proud to call home.
It was a disaster of my own making, and for what?
I gagged stumbling past a particularly fetid break in a roadblock of loose bricks. Whatever ventured into that alley never came back.
My legs turned watery, and I rolled along the wall until my clock-covered back pressed against it. Why didn’t I notice there’s no fresh air here? The high collar of my tunic stifled. I ripped the sodden material down the middle to my navel.
Breath sawing harshly, I conceded I needed a short rest.
Unconsciousness was a death knell in my city.
I slid down. Legs sprawled, I kneaded my shoulder, and grimaced when the gaping perforation in my chest finished healing in a fiery surge of pain.
The thrust of that self-righteous fairy’s sword had neatly gutted me. It took precious time to regenerate my ruptured organs, and longer still to filter the poisoning effects of iron from my system.
Another weakness stemmed from my cursed fairy blood.
Telling the truth was a defect I managed well enough. Words were easy to twist – when I bothered to.
Iron was deadly to a fairy. Pureblooded fae cut with it needed a powerful healer to help recover from its effects. I needed no help, merely time to recuperate, and a brief bask in sunlight surrounded by nature. Not that I’d admit that to anyone. I rejected my fairy heritage outright, despised it, but that weakness needed its relevant cure.
I just wanted my family to love me.
Flashes of what happened intruded on my thoughts. Tired as I was, my mind recycled the events trying to understand something I intentionally misunderstood. I ignored the feeling my last memory of Rae provoked. Is she truly gone? The Wyld stood so that must mean she damned the overwhelming flow of magics I’d poured into the atmosphere. I just wanted…. Frustrated, I shook my head. ….My family…. Lies could not pass my lips, but I was convinced those filthy words spilled forth in a moment of insanity. ….Love me. Rae had stared at me with genuine pain for my suffering. Stroked me. Clutched me closer in her soft arms as my blood flowed hotly, and the bitter cold groped at my feeble limbs. Tears had fallen from her eyes, crystal droplets raining upon my forehead like gentle kisses.
She couldn’t have cared as she said. None of them did.
“No one does,” I muttered. “I have only myself.”
That’s how it had been as a child, how it was as a man, and how it would be until I decided to die.
“I’m glad she’s….” My throat locked, and I retched. Eyes closing for a short time, I cursed. I shouldn’t care that she suffered yet I did. “I’m not glad she’s gone, but I’m relieved an end to my vengeance is in sight.” My eyes opened weighted by pain. “Because I’m tired.”
One more fairy had to die, the Warrior who should have been a brother to me.
I opened my palm and magics crackled between my unfurling fingertips. Lit the darkness entombing me in welcome. Its greatest champion was home, and it sought to nurture the blackened heart festering inside my chest.
I snatched at the air and curled my fingers into a fist. Eyes heavy-lidded, the corner of my mouth curved. My power returned. Slowly. Poured from the Source like an empty glass filling with water.
Satisfied I’d soon be returned to normal, I turned my attention to my crowded mind. Confusion was an uncomfortable thing. I disliked the doubts encroaching upon my peaceful hatred.
My people had fled.
After my defeat, they scattered from the fairy Wyld like leaves on the wind. Idiots. They should have returned to the city instead of allowing the interfering fools that followed my sister to terrorize them senseless.
What if Lochlann destroyed them as I journeyed here?
Pondering the likelihood of that troubling complication, I discarded the thought. For certain, a fair number perished, but some must have escaped to safety.
Vampires were nothing if not survivors.
And my vampires were driven by the keen bite of hunger. The fear of what I’d do to them should they displease me, notwithstanding.
I needed to find the Queen.
She could draw out the remainder of her followers left behind to defend home. They lurked inside earthen hovels hidden throughout the city. I hadn’t the time to personally convene them, nor did I want to waste my refuelling magics on such tasks.
I need my strength to locate what remains of my Coven.
That is in theory the Vampire Queen could help me rally her underlings. If she was lucid when I called to her.
What a damned big ‘if’.
Gwendolyn was quite insane, more so after the loss of her consort.
I’d been loath to leave a powerful ally behind, but she was too crazy, a hindrance, and it made sense to keep someone under thumb guarding home.
Lurching onto my feet, I wandered deeper into the city, trying to remember the location of the vampire Nest. Used to shifting location at will using magics, it felt like an age since I used my feet to travel to a destination.
The patter of feet echoed down the street behind me.
A vampire would never be so heavy-footed.
I slinked to the side and wove a reflective glamour to blend unto the rutted brick I splayed against. Breathing shallow to calm my heart, and reduce my body temperature, I waited for whatever hunted me to pass.
Familiar magical signatures tickled my senses a scant second before they sprinted into view.
I extinguished the blistering heat I’d prepared to shower upon my unsuspecting prey.
Naomi and her Siblings ran as if death stalked not a pace behind.
Larissa, a witch of mediocre power, but strong alchemy was snatched into the shadows. Her cloak billowed in a silken cloud then rushed back as she disappeared.
Her dying shrieks spurred the others to run faster.
Unbelievable, the Coven is hunted by vampires in my city. Are they so crushed by defeat at the Wyld they’ve forgotten the natural order of things?
A vampire crept past my hiding place, a look of intense hunger giving a thorny edge to his features. Lanky frame clad simply in threadbare jeans, his feet made no noise as they lifted and settled on the frosty ground. Shadows tugged close to his flesh. Cloaked him more fully than the sleet.
The meandering pace he used for the hunt ignited my ire.
He toyed with them.
And he wasn’t the only one. More than a dozen vampires followed my Children. Picking them off as if they were nothing.
Filthy parasites.
Fury bubbled my blood and heat raced through my veins shooting power into my fingertips. I drew enough of the Source to burn a weaker man into ash.
I wove a force field to trap my Children and avoid chasing them down.
Feeling the spike in temperature, the vampire tensed as I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the wall.
His eyes rounded and cleared of blackness when my glamour dropped. Fangs receding into red gums, he went limp. The relaxation of muscle meant my death grip on the fleshy tissue of his neck felt disgusting. Pulpy and slimy, as if it was unable to find purchase on bone so floated disembodied under the surface of his skin.
Thoroughly sickened, I let go.
He fell to his knees and hunched over, feebly covering his head as if I’d strike him.
“Stupid creature. As if I’d waste time delivering a
blow. What would that achieve?”
“But the Queen says….”
I lowered my head. “Go on.”
“Nothin’.”
The innermost corners of my eyes narrowed. Gwendolyn uses my name as justification to beat her underlings? Not my concern, I despise them all. “Your name?”
Peeking through layers of scraggly hair caked in mud, and what stank like offal the vampire blinked. “Raj.”
My Children ceased jostling at the shield of energy I’d conjured, realising I’d saved them.
They tripped over themselves to reach me.
Naomi led, shoving others from her path without a care for their wellbeing though they were injured worse than her. “Father,” she breathed. “You’re alive.”
“You doubted? Yet you did not cast a spell of finding? How telling.”
She flinched.
I looked at Raj. “Where are your nesting grounds?”
The vampire gawked. “I can’t tell ya.”
“Stupid,” Naomi muttered.
I agreed, but making the creature aware of the fact and subsequently annoyed wouldn’t help.
Scrambling onto his feet, he snarled at her. “My gut feelin’ takes me home. I can’t give directions.”
“An instinctual preservation of the collective? Fine.” I gestured to the street. “Show me.”
Despite his obvious fear, Raj frowned and jerked his head side to side. “My Queen–”
“Answers to me,” I interrupted. “Save me the trouble of a messy decapitation to scare the others watching from the rooftops. One of which will gladly do what you stupidly refuse to keep their head and neck joined.”
Raj struggled with the threat for longer than I considered wise before making a throaty noise of agreement then scurrying down the street.
I followed through the foul, malodorous, rat-infested, gag-inducing pits he trudged through. His journey through the secret bowls of the city rather than the open streets satisfied my caution he led me true rather than into a trap.
Raj glanced over his shoulder irregularly to ensure I kept up. Each time our gazes met, I laughed quietly at the pang of disappointment flittering across his ashy face. My amusement disturbed him more, and oh, that tickled me.
My Children squabbled behind and I made a vague note to self to keep an eye on Naomi. Eva kept her obedient, but now my old mentor was dead her power-hungry daughter would be troublesome.
I panted for fresh air when we emerged from a break in the wall of the flooded building we passed through. I thankfully caught my bearings, knowing I could find my way back to my Wyld unaided.
Trembling, Raj pointed a dirt-encrusted finger at the stone building opposite. Head bowed, his gaze remained averted, giving me a chance to study him without having to glower or intimidate.
He was younger than me. Most demons that survived the Rupture are. However, his youthfulness was rooted deeper than physical appearance. I suppose he’d been roughly the same age as Ana when biology caught up with him, and he turned.
I looked a handful of years older. The longevity of my fairy blood served me well. My only tell was my eyes. Age rested heavy there. Few could withstand the despair clouding the molten gold of my irises.
The gold colour was a family trait I know knew.
The years of my life bled into a lingering procession of time.
As would this vampire’s.
The youthful innocence I glimpsed in him would bleed dry through a thousand cuts masquerading as years of life. Death and disappointment, that is all life holds. He’d do evil things. Partake in depraved acts that would shock and terrify him to the point of denial or insanity.
Knowing this saddened me. Affected my cold heart in a way that was uncomfortable.
Would life be different if Conall saw purity within me? Had he given me a chance at birth would he and Rae love me as they do each other?
Hatred and jealousy battered that train of thought into dust. I glared at the vampire. “Are you thirsty?”
Startled, his gaze flashed to mine, wavered in fear then darted to safer sights.
Irritated, I cuffed him upside the head. “Answer me.”
Rubbing his ear, he scowled. “Yeah.”
“Did you not feed on my Children?”
His throat bobbed. “I’m a fledglin’. Turned less than a year ago. The old ones are faster. Better at huntin’ stuff.” He jabbed a thumb towards my Children. “Only seven of ‘em entered the city.” He turned the thumb on himself, expression morose. “Guess who didn’t get a taste.”
A quick count of the auras standing next to me revealed only two had fallen. “Drink from Naomi.”
“What,” she shrieked. “You can’t expect me to let that leech–”
I held up a finger to silence her. I kept my gaze on Raj. “Escort them back to the Coven Wyld then drink from Naomi until she is woozy.” I loomed over him. “Nothing more. Take more than is your due and I will end you. Understand?”
Craning his head back, Raj nodded, eyes darting every which way to avoid locking with mine. “I g-get ya. Not a d–drop more than ya said.”
Grimly satisfied Raj would destroy himself rather than face my wrath I spun to my Children. “Go. Rest. I return directly.”
I left without another word, and blithely ignored the panicked reservations shouted at my back. This failed crusade certainly stirred them since they were bold enough to doubt me.
Faintly aware of the vampires watching me approach the mainstay of their Nest, I called for Gwendolyn, waiting in the stone courtyard for her shabby self to appear.
“It’s raining.” Her tone was as flat as her stare. She stood at the top of the steps twisting her hand around a buckled railing. “Tomas loved the rain.”
I snapped my fingers and pointed at the ground. “Come here.”
With preternatural speed, she rushed to me. “You look like her.” She screamed in my face, eyes wild, fangs bared. Digging her nails into her cheeks, she drew blood that mingled with tears streaming from her lower eyelids. “You smell like her. Your blood reeks.” Shaking, she scrubbed her hands over her neck and chest. “I feel your magic, and it burns like hers. Go away.” She shoved me. “Leave me in peace.”
Batting away a swipe of her clawed fingers to my face, I grabbed her neck and squeezed to silence her hysterical babbling.
A prickling sensation washed over my skin. I winced as my ears picked up a low rumbling followed by a screeching high note.
Gwendolyn sobbed and clawed at my hand.
I shook her hard. “Quiet. Listen.”
She wailed louder.
“Shut up.” I slapped my other hand over her mouth. “Can’t you feel it?” Her bloody tears wet my hand and ran down my forearm. I dropped her in disgust. “You leak.”
Shaking my hand to rid myself of her foul bodily fluids, I tried to focus on where the powerful hum of energy originated.
My mood darkened when my fairy nature made itself known. My instincts riled, reacting to the advancing threat growing in potency from all directions. “We’re under attack.”
CHAPTER SIX
Cael
What should have been a panic inducing announcement was met with incoherent sobbing.
I glowered at the vampire blubbering in the dirt. Curled into a ball on her side, she bashed her head on the ground in self-flagellation.
Pathetic creature.
“Up,” I snapped. “Fight or die. What approaches is powerful.”
“She comes to kill us?” Gwendolyn hiccupped, her white face slack and dazed. Tracks of red lined her sunken cheeks, and copper ringlets hung damp across her temples and neck. She grinned. “The fairy who stole my love returns to kill me.”
Grabbing her by the hair, I yanked until she stood on wobbly legs. “When did you last feed?”
“Humans? She brought humans. I wish I sipped before Raj snapped their necks, but she wanted to meet you.” Her eyes sharpened, and her fangs ran out. “Has she brought food?”
/> “Raj killed them?”
“He’s soft.” She palpated her stomach, agitated. “He doesn’t enjoy the suffering. Hunger will devour that weakness.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. The Queen was more unhinged than usual, a worthless state in a fight. “What kind of demon did you drain last?”
“Goblin. Nights ago.” Her head rolled about on her shoulders as she giggled. “Endless night and darkness that drips in blood.”
“Needs must.” I ripped the leather cuff from my wrist. Gritting my teeth, I pressed the fang-scarred tissue to her lips. “Drink.”
She recoiled even as her bony hand clamped down on my forearm and dragged it to her mouth. Her eyeteeth sank in, and she shuddered. Mewled as she suckled like a babe to teat. Closing her eyes, she swayed into me seeking to snuggle.
Her thin-armed embrace was unbearable. This is the last time. After this no leech will take from me. I leaned back revolted by the whole affair.
Rancid memories burned like acid and left a bitter taste in my mouth. Cold, clammy hands paw at my flesh. I pleaded for mercy. Screaming. My throat is raw from begging. My existence an endless night of fangs, red eyes, and blood. Iron chains. Swollen welts that sting encircle my wrists, ankles, and throat. I can’t breathe without pain. Tormented days spent suffering in a cell. When I had the energy to lift my head, a strip of meshed window teased me with glimpses of sunlight. Freedom. Something I’d never have. Why am I being punished? I don’t remember what I did to deserve this.
Overwhelmed, I hollered in pain and ripped away my arm.
Salivating, Gwendolyn went black-eyed and stared hungrily at my jugular.
“Try it, vampire.” I straightened and covered my wrist as it sluggishly healed. More scars. “See if I don’t sear the flesh from your bones. Royals are replaceable.” My smile was cruel. “Remember what happened to the last vampire monarch that crossed me.”
Her eyes slitted then cleared. “You’re back.” Her voice was devoid of madness. Calm. She took an anxious step. “Did we win? Does that cursed Wyld burn even now? Did you slaughter them all? Tell me.”
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