by Faulks, Kim
The fanged bastard didn’t like it. Black eyes glinted as it swayed and stumbled forward. My hands unclenched and hunger moved in, until a howl of fury tore through the darkness, and the mountain shook.
Magic cut through the air, standing the hairs on my arms. I jerked my gaze to the Queen, finding her staring into the dark. “Need to keep moving.”
She jerked her gaze to me, fear making her voice tremble. “Don’t you feel that?”
I did feel it…and I knew what it meant.
Dragons.
Huntress…
War.
My Hound trembled, itching to howl into the night. But the sound was snatched from my lips as, in the distance, I felt the rest of my line bay their fury through the trees.
“Hurry,” I said, shoving out a hand. “This way.”
She moved with my command, stepping closer, letting me touch her arm. Power raced with the brush of my fingers, until my hand clasped hers.
“Amaris,” she whispered. “We find her first.”
I tightened my hold and started forward, scurrying down the mountain side. The sharp scene of pine grew stronger the further we ran. The Vampire horde surrounded us, tearing between trees to get to the fight.
A woman’s roar cut through the darkness, and the blast of power followed. I stumbled under the weight and pulled the Queen with me.
“Abrial! Don’t you turn your back on me…I’m your mother!”
The shriek drifted to my ears, dragging a snarl free. Shouts mingled with terrifying roars until it was all I could hear. I held her hand as gently as I could, catching her when she stumbled, and kept moving.
There were thousands of the Vampires…tens of thousands. They crawled out of the night like an infestation and raced toward the fight. I glanced over my shoulder, to the wide, frantic eyes of my Queen.
She looked like her mother.
The memory hit me hard.
“Kalliste?” A moan came to me in the dark.
I turned to the sound, finding a shadow crawling toward us. She stiffened, stopping dead before she dragged in the scent of blood. “Parry?”
There was a second where I wanted to drag her closer, to protect her. It’s the call…just the call.
“Parry!” She tore from my grasp, falling to her knees at the Hellhound’s feet. “Jesus. You’re hurt.”
I stepped closer, drawing the old Hellhound’s gaze as he shook his head. “Not fatal,” he answered, staring at me. “You found her.”
Recognition burst through me like the stars had aligned.
“Good,” he answered. “Now get her the fuck out of here, Sevan. Do what you were created to do.”
My top lip curled as he reached out and brushed the hair from her face. “Did that piece of shit hurt you?”
She shook her head, grabbing him around the shoulders and helped him to stand. “No, and you don’t need to worry about that. We need to get you somewhere safe.”
A soft snort of laughter tore from the old man as he shook his head. “There’s nowhere safe, kid. Nowhere topside, at least. I lost track of your sister.”
“We’ll find her,” she answered. “We’ll make sure she’s safe.”
“Promise me.”
She stilled as he wobbled, standing on one foot. “I promise. We need to get you—”
“No.” He shook his head and slid his arm from around her shoulders. “Not me. You need to find her and Oryn, and then you need to run.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“You will do what I say!” he snarled, eyes blazing with fear and pain.
She stiffened at the outburst.
He seemed to wobble, before his shoulders sank. “You don’t understand,” he shook his head. “But Amaris does. You need to find Amaris, Kalliste. She’ll explain everything.”
“Explain what? What aren’t you telling me?”
I wrenched my gaze to my left as the horde of Vampires seemed to surge. “We need to move, my Queen.”
She glanced my way, and then her gaze slipped beyond me to the hundreds of Vampires heading our way. There was a tremble in her voice as she turned back to him. “I won’t fight with you on this, Parry.”
“My leg is broken,” his quiet words were etched with pain. The kind of pain that would break a man—heart pain. “It’s bad, and I heal slower now. I’ll be useless to you. I can’t fight, or run, but you can.”
He lifted his gaze to me. “He can do what I can’t.”
Fire burned in the old man’s gaze, fire and power. I knew him here, just as I’d known him all those years ago. He wasn’t just the Queen’s second in command…he’d also been her lover.
I’d seen them in the shadows. Watched them from afar as they kept their courtship secret. I’d seen how he touched her, a brush of the hand, a whisper a little too close to be proper.
I’d seen him fall in love with a Hellhound Queen.
And I’d seen how beautiful she became months later when she announced she was pregnant.
“Find Amaris,” he urged, and gently pushed her hand away.
I stiffened as the past slipped into the present to fill my mind. Pregnant. The Queen had been pregnant…I turned to look at her, really look at her. There were trances of the old man, the curve of her nose, the way she twitched when she didn’t like what she was hearing. Which was right fucking now.
“Parry…” she murmured as screams and howls cut across the mountain behind us.
Something was happening, and it wasn’t anything good. “We have to go,” I snarled as three of the charging Vampires slowed and stopped behind us.
“No.” Strands of red hair lashed her face as she shook her head.
But there were more Vampires stopping behind us, as though somehow, they’d only just figured out we were here. I jerked my gaze back to the old man as he shoved her away. “Go! Get out of here.”
I never hesitated, only strode forward, bent, and grabbed her around the knees before I rose, tossing her over my shoulder.
“Do what you were created for, Hellhound.” Desperation raged clearer than a lightning strike in his eyes. “Protect her. Go!”
She screamed and thrashed, kicking her legs. “Let me down!”
But his fear was all I saw. It was the driving force inside me now as I turned, looked at the growing army of undead…and I did the only thing I could.
I ran.
13
Kalliste
“Put me down!” I punched his shoulder.
Parry was a blur in the distance…still, I watched him struggle on his feet while the growing invasion of Vampires grew around him.
My heart leaped at the sight, panic driving acid into the back of my throat. “Stop!” I screamed, bouncing and jolting as he ran over the rocky terrain. “We can’t leave him! Parry! PARRY!”
“He’s gone,” The Hellhound snarled and adjusted his grip around my thighs.
“P-put m-me d-down!” I winced and roared, feeling every jolt of his steps as he raced down the steep incline and away from the trees.
Rocks slid out from under him. He slipped, almost falling. Fear tore through me before he caught his footing and raced headlong down the sheer incline. Screams grew distant as he hit the bottom of the incline and stopped. His powerful shoulders rose and fell with heavy breaths.
I lowered my hand, sucking in the cold night air, and found a hold. Hard muscles bulged under my hand. My fingers slid against warm skin.
“You going to behave?” he snarled.
Behave? Goddamn bastard. “Yes.” I forced through clenched teeth.
I’d give him behave. I’d not be captured, not ever again. I’d kill myself before I let that happen, Queen or not. I would not bow down to a man ever again.
He slid me slowly from his shoulder, gently grasping my waist, steadying me. My feet hit the ground before I stumbled away. No one had touched me like that—not ever. I swept my gaze to the incline and the war raging above.
“It’s too late,” he answered, watc
hing me in the dark.
“You don’t tell me a goddamn thing, you hear me?” Cold, hard rage swept through me.
I wasn’t myself. Not the quiet reflection of my mother. This was someone I didn’t know, someone a little unhinged.
“We need to go now, my Queen. Don’t let this all be for nothing.”
I flinched as though he’d slapped me. The fire in his eyes was cruel, and cutting. “You blame me? Is that it, Hellhound?”
“Never,” he growled. “If there was anyone to blame for any of this, then it’d be me.”
And still he didn’t fall, did he? The thought took hold. Seven lashes of the Cursed whip, one for each of the Hellhounds sworn to protect the royal line, and still he didn’t fall. So where was his allegiance? How did he fight the impossible and refuse the call?
His line was already under the control of the one who held the whip. There’d be no fighting for them, not now. Oryn’s terrified face came back to me. She’d screamed for the Hound when the first one fell. I’d seen love in her eyes, love and hopelessness.
“My Queen,” Sevan murmured.
I took a step away from him. “I don’t trust you, Hellhound.”
Pain deepened his crimson flames as he gave a slow nod.
“Tell me how you fought the call,” the words spilled in a rush. A howl tore through the night, low and mourning. My people were being slaughtered up there. “Tell me now, or, so help me God, I’ll burn you to the ground right here.”
Energy answered the call, humming through my veins to sting the tips of my fingers.
He sucked in a breath, never once taking his eyes from mine. Still he stayed quiet.
I took another step backwards. If I hurried, I could still save Parry. I glanced at the incline and stepped again.
“I can’t tell you how,” he murmured, drawing my gaze. “But I can show you.”
Blue blended into the red in his eyes until they turned magenta. My breath stilled, heart hammering, until finally the red gave way to Hellfire blue. “No.” I shook my head. “That can’t happen.”
“Believe me, I wish it weren’t true.” He flicked his gaze to the incline. “And if anyone finds out I’m marked by Hell itself, then none of us will survive.”
All the implications of that hit me hard. If Hell had left a mark, then the Cursed whip created by Hell itself was useless against him. It’d see him as part of the lash, see him as just an extension of its own power.
He was a walking, living, breathing, reincarnation of my home.
That surge of power inside me gave way to something else. A needing…a wanting.
“So now you know. You know my darkest secret, one even my wife never knew.”
Wife? A nerve twitched at the corner of my eye as the hungry snarls of the Vampire horde grew closer.
“We have to go, Kalliste. We have to run.”
My breath caught with the sound of my name on his lips. I trusted him. I didn’t know how or why. I didn’t know if trust was even the word I needed, but I gave a nod. He held out his hand, and this time I didn’t hesitate.
I closed the distance, sliding my fingers between his as he turned and ran, heading along the thin riverbed to skirt the mountain.
“Where are we going?”
“The only damn place they can’t get to…we’re going home.”
“Amaris, my sister.”
“She’s with the Dragon. Believe me, she’s in the safest place she could be right now.”
I let him lead as we scurried over rocks until my shoes grew sodden in the slow trickle of water that snaked between the rocks, and then we climbed.
The terrain was steeper, sheer cliffs rose up ahead. He dropped my hand and turned, seizing my gaze. Traces of blue still mingled with the red, and my world trembled.
I tried to suck in a breath as that tremble turned into a shudder. No. This wasn’t happening. Not with him, not with the one man who’d hated me all my damn life.
“Umm,” he glanced around and then at me once more. “It’s an earthquake.”
“No shit,” I muttered with more snark than I’d intended.
Boom!
Something detonated in the distance. Cracks raced along the riverbed. Sevan grabbed my hand and yanked me forward once more. I was getting sick of being led around like a damn child. My foot slipped and his hand clenched tight, saving me from falling.
“You okay?” His growl reached me.
I gave a nod, “Yes,” and hurried forward.
The earth shook once more, but this was more than a damn quake, this was something else. We ran faster across the rocks as the trickling water turned into a stream, until a blast of terror ripped through me.
Sevan cried out as his knee buckled and he tore from my grasp, hitting the ground.
My heart slammed inside my chest, my world glowed red. Flashes of images filled my head. Darkened tunnels glowing red from the river of Hell.
And the seal.
The seal to Hell itself.
Breaking.
Sevan howled and speared his hands into the ground as I dropped to the ground beside him.
“They’re trying to get in.” He closed his eyes and whimpered.
Savagery rose behind the wall of Hell as another boom rocked the air, a kind I’d never heard before. Panic punched through my chest as Sevan let out a moan and lifted his head. Blue flames danced in the darkness and, in the glow, I saw them.
Runes that covered his face. The same runes I’d seen carved into the circle on the throne room floor. Protection. Loyalty. Power.
“Not in,” the words slipped free. Sevan lifted his head and meet my gaze as I finished, “they want out.”
His breaths stilled as the earth shuddered once more. This was no earthquake. This was a Hell attack. His whimper cut like razors as he shoved against the ground and struggled to his feet. “This was the plan all along, wasn’t it? He what…needed the Cursed to control the gateway. Doesn’t he know what that’ll do…the thousands of fucking demented waiting to tear apart this world? Fuck!”
He was a blur in the darkness, but this time, he wasn’t racing along the river, but climbing the embankment. I stilled and sucked in a breath, dirt and rocks scattering down the sides behind him. I turned to stare into the dark. We’d been running toward the city, but the longer route. He was keeping me safe, just like he promised, but no more. Now I was on my own.
It was time to decide, align myself with the Hellhound, or find my sister on my own.
He let out a snarl and lunged, grasped a rock and kept climbing. Decide…and decide now. I clenched my jaw, jerked away from the trickle of water, and took a step. “Wait.”
I kicked off my shoes, and my toes sank into the earth. Rocks dug into my fingers as I searched for a hold and climbed after him. Sawing breaths stole my focus the harder I climbed.
“Here,” he reached for me, grasping my hand and lifting me through the air.
Tendons screamed along my arm. Pain followed, cutting deep. We climbed, crawling inch after inch until we hit the top of the rise. Trees towered on both sides, leaving a clearing in the middle, and it was through that clearing I saw the city burning below.
Lava shot like a ruptured artery into the sky. A red glow swallowed my world. I stared at the ruins of my home and took a step forward. “No…no.” Pain took a sledgehammer to my chest as a sudden growl slipped from the Hellhound’s lips.
I jerked my gaze toward him as darkness grew from the trees, spilling out to surround us on all sides. They moved as silent as the night, swelling by the thousands…and out of the midst of the Vampire horde limped Blaze Trigg.
I stumbled backwards, until my heel met nothing but air. Sevan lunged, grasping my hand, as clumps of dirt fell down the sheer drop behind me.
“There you are,” Blaze winced as he walked. “I knew I’d find you.”
A hiss slipped through the air and the sound resounded like a nest of vipers…a nest of thousands of vipers. Hairs on my arms stood on end. I
shook my head, straining against the Hellhound’s grip.
The sonofabitch smiled as he limped forward, and the savage warning snarl of the Hellhound rippled through the air in response. He took a step, dragging me forward just enough to pull me from the edge as he stepped in front of me. “That’s close enough.”
But he couldn’t save me from the sight of my captor as Blaze shook his head. “Not sure if you noticed this, Sevan, but we have you both surrounded. Did you think you’d get away from me that easy?”
He shifted that calculating gaze toward me. I lifted my chin and tried to swallow. I’d not let the sonovabitch see I was rattled. But as he stepped closer, so did the Vampires. I flinched at the movement and a tiny whimper slid free.
The Hellhound’s hold tightened around my hand. “You don’t need her,” Sevan growled. “Let her go.”
There was a flare of surprise on Blaze’s face as he cocked his head. “Is that so, Sevan? What exactly do you think is happening here?”
“It doesn’t take a fucking genius to figure out what the earthquakes are for. You need me, right? Without me, the others of my line are fucking useless. There’ll be no breaking the seal…”
There was a flinch as Blaze curled his hands into fists. It was Hound against Hound as Sevan released his grip and stepped forward, meeting Blaze face to face. My breaths deepened watching them. Sevan inched to the side, blocking Blaze’s view of me.
I knew in that moment what he was doing.
He was giving me a way out.
Run.
The word tore through me. I glanced over my shoulder to the sheer drop below. I’d fall, maybe hurt myself…but I’d survive…and escape. My pulse boomed in my ears. I sucked in a hard breath. Time was a ticking bomb, and one spark was all I’d need.
“So you don’t need her,” Sevan said, opening his arms and drawing their focus. “I’m right here.”
I inched backwards until my heel hovered in the air.
“I was happy to take her to her sister. But if she wants to stay out here with the Vampires, then by all means.”