He carefully set it down on the ground, crouching before it. His forehead glistened with sweat, and his bone hand began to glow a deeper shade of purple. I watched as strange, ancient runes flared to life over each vertebra. Finally, he let out a tired breath, brushing his hair back with his good hand. “The other one. Quickly!” he snapped without looking away from his work.
Eve tugged off the head with a sickening pop and handed him the spine. The moment Nero touched it with his bone hand, more of the runes flared to life, again racing down each vertebra like a lit fuse of violet flame. He was panting as he looped one end of the spine over the center intersection of the infinity loop.
There was a deep thump to the air and Dracula gasped, trembling as he stared at Nosh’s work in horror. The spine came to life, winding around that intersection of the other spine so that it resembled a leash attached to the twin loops. Then Nero sat back, his shoulders shaking.
Eve pulled him to his feet, staring into his eyes nervously. “Are you okay, warlock?”
Nero grinned weakly. “Magician, toots. I’m a fucking magician.”
She smiled at their private joke—how she had called him a magician when we had first raised the castle. She shoved him towards Dracula, laughing. “Let’s see how they work, magician.”
Everyone watched as Nero scooped up the macabre spine cuffs. Dracula climbed to his feet, not even remotely resistant. He held out his hands and Nero slipped the loops over them. Then he stepped back, tugging on the leash portion. The loops tightened over Dracula’s wrists, the jagged points of the vertebrae jabbing into his skin. Dracula’s eyes widened in pain and he bit his lip. The entire setup glowed with dull, purple light. Then it slowly dimmed to nothing.
The castle walls suddenly seemed to relax and settle. As if they had been holding their breath. Dracula was no longer her problem. Master Sorin Ambrogio was officially back.
I smiled, nodding to myself.
Nero nodded smugly, staring into Dracula’s eyes. “Karma is a bitch, Dracula. The leash-holder becomes the leashed.” He leaned close, affectionately petting Dracula’s matted hair. “What’s your safe word?” he whispered.
Dracula stared at him, shaken to his core. “Hubris,” he rasped. Purple arcs of electricity abruptly ripped out of the spine manacles, scorching his flesh from head to toe and he screamed wildly. They winked out after only a moment, but Dracula’s echoing cries continued on for a few more seconds. His flesh was charred and steaming where the electricity had burned him. He whimpered, trying to catch his breath.
Nero grinned maliciously. “I forgot. Safe words won’t work until the next software update.” He tugged at the spine with a frown. “Well, spine-ware update, I guess.”
Dracula shuddered, lowering his eyes. “I’m sorry, Nero. I was only doing as commanded—”
“Strip,” Nero commanded.
Without hesitation, Dracula began tearing off his clothes. But…his face looked confused and startled. As if…he was obeying against his will. His eyes had turned a solid purple, just like…
How Dracula had once used Nero’s collar to control him against his will. Nero’s eyes had turned red when Dracula used the collar that way, but since Nero’s necromancy power was purple, Dracula’s eyes had turned purple.
I shook my head, marveling at his creation. “That’s incredible, Nero,” I breathed in a sincere compliment. “How did you learn that?”
Nero glanced over at me as Dracula continued shredding his clothes off, tearing the fabric rather than unbuttoning anything. “It just came to me,” Nero admitted. “I studied the collar a lot over the past few days, trying to make a duplicate, but I hadn’t been successful. Until now.” He stared down at his bone claw with a wondrous smile. “It’s as if everything I studied suddenly clicked into place. Kind of like when you go to sleep with an impossible problem on your mind and then suddenly wake up with the solution.”
I considered that in silence, wondering what Hecate had truly given him. I frowned, assessing Dracula. He had known when Nero would return from the Underworld so that he could instantly collar him. “I heard you met a friend of mine recently,” I said to Dracula.
He shuddered at the memory, nodding weakly. “Yes. He drained me of all the blood I had spilled.” He looked troubled, likely wondering why his ritual had not worked. “If not for my brides, I would already be dead.”
“I see he made his delivery,” I said, jerking my chin towards the Soul Spring.
Dracula tensed, whimpering as if expecting an attack. Realizing that he wasn’t in danger of immediate harm, he glanced over his shoulder, and then back to me with a nervous twitch. “What?” he asked, obviously not seeing the Soul Spring.
44
I studied Dracula. He couldn’t see it? I glanced at Nero and Lucian, who were also frowning in the direction of the Soul Spring, but it was apparent that they couldn’t see it either. They knew Hades intended to deliver it, though, so they both shot me considering looks, understanding the situation. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, were staring directly at the Soul Spring, sniffing the air and licking their lips hungrily. “Clever bastard,” I said, smiling. Hades had only made it visible to those who could use it. I turned to Nero. “Keep an eye on him. I need to talk to the Nephilim in private.”
Nero nodded in understanding, shooting another brief glance in the direction of the invisible-to-him Soul Spring. “Need me to interrogate him?” Nero asked me, jerking his chin at Dracula. “For you.”
Dracula whimpered again. I stared down at him, disappointed to find him such a pathetic disgrace. What the hell had Hades done to him? He’d never been remarkably brave, but he hadn’t been such a sniveling waste of life either.
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t trust a word from his mouth. Even though he seems broken, he lied about Polana and Thana.”
Nero nodded grimly. “Maybe my new hand can help teach him some honesty.”
“Start with how he found you after you learned necromancy. He said he’d been following commands.” I stared at Dracula, who was wilting dejectedly. “Take the answer with a grain of salt. Now is his last chance to be helpful. I imagine the last few hours of his existence will be truly wonderful to witness. Those are the only sounds I care to hear from this…creature. We’ll leave in just a minute, so be ready.”
“Where are you taking me?” Dracula whispered numbly.
“Snitches get handed to witches,” Nero muttered. “You really shouldn’t have tried to summon Hades to sell out Sorin.”
Dracula shuddered, but didn’t offer a response. Nero set to work, growling at Dracula in low tones—under the close, watching glare of Lucian—as I walked over to the Soul Spring, motioning for Adam and Eve to follow me. My fingers were tingling at the prospect of getting my soul back. I glanced back to find that I had left an alarming trail of blood in my wake. I saw Dracula licking his lips as he stared at it, but his fear of Nero—and his spine leash—kept him in line.
“You understand your earlier instructions, right?” I whispered meaningfully.
They nodded uncertainly. “Kind of,” Adam said in a low whisper.
I nodded. “And you feel healthy? No ill effects from…your reunion?”
Eve smiled. “Quite the opposite, Master Ambrogio. They are sleeping peacefully—for the first time in many, many years—but their power is ours to use at will.”
Adam nodded. “It is…humbling. I thought we were the same, but they are much stronger.”
I nodded uneasily. “They were the worst of the worst—according to the Olympians. Which really means that they were the strongest and most feared.” I pondered that for a moment. “Do you know which Titans they are?”
Eve shook her head, sharing a glance with Adam. He shrugged. “Mine just sleeps.”
I let out a breath. At least it wasn’t bad news. In my dream, the storm had evaporated upon giving the Titans over to Adam and Eve, so I took that as a favorable sign.
“Okay. Be vigilant.” They nodded.
We drew close to the Soul Spring, and I managed to get my first clear look at it. It was decorated much like vases from Ancient Greece, but one thing on the front drew my attention like a moth to a flame. Ambrogio was written on the front, but the first and last letters were the Alpha and the Omega symbols.
The beginning and the end. I frowned uneasily. Had those been on the Soul Spring in the Underworld? Surely Nero would have noticed and told me about it later. I maintained my composure and held out my hand. “This is a Soul Spring, courtesy of Hades.”
Their faces stiffened to anger. In our shared dream, I’d told them everything about my meeting with Hades. I’d come entirely clean with them, trusting their unwavering loyalty. But no one else knew about that, so we were forced to maintain appearances. They did well.
I held up a hand, forestalling their fake anger. “I know how you feel about the Olympians, but I expect you to keep that to yourselves for the moment. Hades is on our side, and his gift already saved Lucian and Nero.”
They nodded stubbornly.
I gestured at the Soul Spring. “It’s tied directly to the Underworld so that you can always have nourishment without having to kill anyone.”
They studied it curiously, genuine smiles breaking out on their faces. Even though they had the Titan souls inside them, I knew they were still very hungry. Starved, even. The Titan souls had given them power but had done nothing for their hunger.
“Watch closely so I can show you how it works.” I picked up the golden chalice sitting atop the fountain and scooped up some of the green liquid, my fingers trembling. My soul was within. I was about to be reunited. After so long.
I took a drink of the thick, almost chewy soul juice.
I dropped the chalice as power tore through me, making me clench my fists tight enough for my knuckles to crack. The power was wild, furious, and violent—a beast willing to do anything to escape this new mortal cage. Letting me know that it definitely wasn’t my soul.
And then the foreign soul drained straight out of my wound, zipping back into the Soul Spring, taking the momentary power along with it. I bent over, slapping my hands onto my knees, panting wildly. That…wasn’t anything like Nero and Lucian had experienced. The fountain had given me the wrong soul! Where the hell was mine if not inside the fountain?
And what the fuck had Artemis done to me? I managed to mask my concern as I shot an amused look at Adam and Eve. They were staring at me intensely.
“I don’t see how you two can stomach the stuff, but to each their own,” I said with a hollow grin. “I don’t consume souls, so it doesn’t work for me. Why don’t you try?”
They nodded warily, and Adam scooped up the chalice, bumping Eve back as if to protect her. She rolled her eyes. “Hurry up, you big lump. I’m starving,” she complained, patting her taut stomach with a hungry gleam to her eyes.
Adam nodded, scooping up a drink and pouring it down his throat. The vapor dribbled down his chin and his eyes flared green for a moment. The crimson crystals abruptly crackled to life over his body, doubling and expanding with renewed vigor. I saw a few new green tendrils shifting over his shoulder, looking like an infant compared to the mass of red.
Huh. Red, gray, and now green. How many colors could they acquire? They were starting to look like rainbows. Adam let out a loud belch, licking his lips. “Maybe the Olympians are not so bad,” he said carefully. “Hades knows how to make a good apology, at least.” His eyes still glowed with crimson fire rather than the brief green I’d seen after he consumed his cup.
Eve snatched the chalice from his hand and followed suit. She gasped, her body going through similar reactions with the thin tendrils of green crystals and the momentary green glow to her eyes. She blinked, her legs shaking as she turned to stare at me, her eyes red again. “Wow,” she breathed. “I feel like it’s my first meal in weeks. This is so much better than what we get from killing someone. And without the after-guilt.”
I grimaced, wondering what kind of souls they had just consumed. “Like fat-free chocolate,” I said, recalling Aristos’ love of the sweet—and for the same reason. They grinned, nodding.
Lucian trotted over to us, sniffing at the air curiously. Then he sat down and stared at me, obviously hinting that he was bored and wanted to go kill something. I sighed, casting one last look at the Soul Spring. I momentarily considered visiting the Underworld to see if Hades could help with my wound.
Then I turned away, masking my lightheadedness, and motioned for Adam and Eve to follow me. “Let’s go. It’s time for Dracula to meet his adoring fans.” I would at least get him out of the castle before I decided what to do next. It was almost time to meet the Sisters, so traveling upstate might be cutting it close. What if Artemis was waiting for me there?
Or Apollo?
Lucian watched me approach, his tail tucked between his legs. He probably sensed the lack of my soul, but I didn’t want them worrying about that.
Nero glanced up, smiling at me hopefully. “Did it work?”
I plastered on a smile. “I feel like a new man.”
He eyed my wound dubiously. Then he glanced back at the unseen Soul Spring, squinting his eyes. “Why can’t we see it? Is it because we got our souls back?”
“Maybe.”
He turned to me with a frown. “If you just got your soul back, why can you still see it?”
I shrugged uneasily, hoping my Nephilim didn’t ruin it. “Because this is my castle.”
He nodded after a few moments. “That makes sense.” He clapped his hands together, scooping up the spine leash and tugging Dracula forward to get him moving. “I’m so excited. More excited than my first farmgirl in my first barn. I think even my magic has an erection right now,” he said, openly readjusting his pants as he grinned at Dracula.
I rolled my eyes.
“You ready to meet up with your old girlfriend, Drac?” Nero teased. “Because she’s dying to see you. You’re going on a date, loverboy!”
Dracula slowly turned to look at him with a puzzled frown. “What?”
Nero smiled. “The High Priestess of the Sisters of Mercy. Or maybe you knew her from her wilder, more rebellious stage with the Cauldron witches. You look like you enjoy naughty girls.”
Dracula stared at him as if he’d spoken a foreign language. It was the first sign of a backbone I’d seen from him. It wasn’t anger, but it was something. “We are all dead.”
Then he stared ahead blankly, resigned to his fate. He truly was a broken man. I scratched at my chin, his words and demeanor sending a slight chill down my neck.
Nero glanced at me. “You were right. He’s a closed book. I got nothing from him.”
I wondered again about what had caused his change of attitude from the man I had once known. Was it a result of Hades’ torment? Maybe we’d hit him with one too many sapphires.
Was this foreshadowing of what I could expect if Natalie and Victoria came to harm? I licked my lips nervously, more afraid than I had been a moment ago.
We walked out of my castle, leading the naked Dracula towards Central Park. I could already hear the roar of the crowd from the distant streets, despite how far away they were.
45
I stood outside the gates to Castle Ambrogio, staring at the wall of impenetrable defensive fog protecting my home. Crowds of my monsters huddled on the far side. The rest of my party remained within the castle grounds, waiting.
I held out my hand, drawing on the power of the castle. Form a clear path.
The fog rolled back, forming parallel, twenty-foot-tall walls on either side of the wide path leading towards the street. Nosh and Izzy waited near the playground on the other end, staring at us in disbelief. I motioned for my party to join me. “Close the gates,” I said.
Lucian loped beside me, and Nero followed us, leading the bound, naked Dracula through the new path. He walked obediently, his head down, not even acknowledging the sounds of the crowd, the fog, his nudity, or anything else. Not i
n shame, but in acceptance.
I shook my head. And the world had thought this man was the world’s first vampire.
It was laughable.
I realized that everyone further back—hundreds of vampires and werewolves—had jogged over to Izzy and Nosh, all of them screaming like they were an invading army. Dracula didn’t even flinch at that. He was entirely numb to everything.
I turned back to Adam and Eve. “Keep an eye out for any Olympians and guard the gates.” I warned them. “Remember the plan. If you see anything, find a discreet way to let me know.”
“Yes, Master Ambrogio,” they said, clapping fists to their hearts. But Adam wore an uneasy frown. Eve elbowed him with a stern glare. “Man up, Adam. This is what is best for Master Ambrogio. He already told us to let it happen,” she hissed in a low tone. And I suddenly remembered giving them permission to let Nosh punch Dracula.
A promise was a promise. Even if it felt excessively cruel, given his current state. But Nosh deserved to get his own taste of vengeance against the man who had destroyed his family.
Adam nodded hurriedly. “Of course.”
Nero was still holding Dracula’s leash, and he cast me a nervous look as Nosh walked up to Dracula. I waved off the necromancer’s concern, watching my son. The crowd hushed, all leaning forward to watch.
“Do you know who I am?” the shaman snarled.
Dracula gave a faint nod, not meeting Nosh’s eyes. “Yes.”
Nosh reared back and kicked him straight in the nuts. Dracula dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. I winced, shifting from foot-to-foot. I’d been expecting a punch to the face. Not this.
“Damn! I think I felt that through the spine,” Nero said, jangling the leash.
Nosh glared down at the groaning vampire. “You are getting better than you deserve for the crimes you’ve inflicted upon my family. Upon this world. I wanted to make sure you had a proper send off. Before your romantic date.”
Devil’s Blood: Shade of Devil Book 3 Page 28