Silas clearly didn’t understand any of it—not the looming threat and certainly not Raphael’s role in deciding who would rule. And she just as clearly had deluded herself into believing she could win. Whether it was because Klemens had favored her, letting her believe it was her own power rather than his that fed her rise in his ranks, or if she was simply that stupid, Aden didn’t know. But he did know that one of the reasons she’d remained loyal to Klemens was because he’d let her play her cruel little games, permitted her to take weaker vampires and torment them, to kill humans for the fun of it. Never mind that Klemens was sworn to protect the very vampires Silas had tormented, or that he bred instability by permitting her to prey on humans. The now-dead vampire lord had probably found her games amusing. It wasn’t uncommon for a vampire’s children to be reflections of himself. And Klemens had been one sick fucker of a vampire.
Regardless of why Silas was the way she was, it was too late for her. If she’d come to Aden at the beginning, if she’d stepped aside in recognition of his greater strength and pledged her fealty, he would have rewarded her, even given her a city of her own. Not a major city, but something suitably profitable.
But after everything that had happened, he wouldn’t trust her out of his sight, and he didn’t like her well enough to keep her in his sight. If she walked out that door right now and came to him on bended knee, it would only make it more convenient when he chopped off her head.
Aden did a final check of his vampires, receiving a quick nod from Bastien. Gathering his strength, he sent out a wave of power, searching the warehouse, wanting to know exactly what waited for them inside. True to form, Silas had brought so many of her minions that it was difficult to get an accurate count. He didn’t bother trying. It wasn’t worth the expenditure of energy.
“She’s brought more than I can easily count, so stick close and expect trickery,” Aden told his vampires, then glanced over at Freddy, who stood closest to the entrance, and nodded.
The big vampire pulled back the heavy door on its sliding track, entering first when Aden would have done so. Aden had to smile at that. It was vampire instinct to protect one’s master. He would have done the same thing for Lucas.
Aden entered the warehouse and immediately stepped to one side, clearing the entrance for the rest of his vampires. There were no lights inside. The only illumination came from moonlight through the dirty windows, but darkness was hardly an impediment for a vampire.
Silas’s people waited for him, spread out across the back of the warehouse in disorganized rows, their aggression palpable, raising whatever power they had in preparation for the fight to come. For the most part, their eyes gleamed red, betraying their lack of significant power. Silas stood in the very last row, surrounded by the buffer of her minions. She was a petite woman, so short that he only knew she was there because of the dirty-penny shine of her eyes in the dark warehouse.
“This is your party, Silas,” he called out to her. “You and your pretentious invitation. We haven’t used human blood for such things in a century or more,” he added derisively, pricking her temper and reminding her that he was far older and more experienced than she was. He raked the assembled vampires with a sneering glance, ending with his gaze directly on Silas. “But all I see are underlings. Are you refusing to fight? Again?”
“At least I have minions,” Silas responded, her soprano voice echoing in an odd way that told him she was enhancing it somehow. Probably making it louder, and what a waste of energy that was. “Unlike your pathetic four,” she continued. “If they do nothing else, my many children prove my fitness to rule.”
“Silas, Silas,” Aden chided. “They do no such thing. Your need for them, and a sorry lot they are, proves nothing but your weakness.”
Silas snarled angrily. “Kill him!” she ordered shrilly. “Kill them all!”
Aden engaged Silas’s vampires without mercy, disgusted by the nature of the battle. He despised having to kill so many vampires, but he was in this battle to win, and so he fought with everything he had.
He and his four attacked as a team, his vampires feeding him their energy, while at the same time drawing strength from his staunch defense, from his willingness to die for them.
The attacking vamps swarmed Aden, trying to isolate him from his people, thinking to take him down by sheer strength of numbers. They were like yappy dogs nipping at a lion, but even dogs can do damage if there are enough of them. None of Silas’s minions were powerful enough by themselves to kill him, but as Aden fought them off, as they managed to strike the rare lucky blow that left him bleeding, he knew her true objective was for them to weaken him for her. She didn’t want them to kill Aden, she needed to do that herself, needed that notch on her belt if she was going to come out of the challenge with any honor. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have her minions diminish him, leave him injured and bleeding, unable or unwilling to use his dwindling energy to heal himself.
That was how Silas saw the situation. Aden had other plans.
Aden let Silas’s people wound him, let them draw blood thinking they’d beat him. He heard her victorious howl, felt the sudden surge of power that told him she believed her triumph was at hand. And still he waited. Until they were gathered around him like rats, their eyes ruby sparks in the darkness, their defenses lowered, confident he was bested. And then he killed them, mowing them down like a scythe through wheat, his power a sharp-edged blade that cut through their bodies with ease.
And deep within Aden, the dark half of his vampire gift stirred, roused by the blood soaking the ash-covered floor, by the scent of the air which had become a red-tinted miasma of death. But this time, Aden didn’t fight it. This time he opened his arms and let it come.
He laughed with joy as the bindings broke, unleashing this darkest aspect of his power. It was an erotic rush, as if he’d been the one imprisoned, as if he was finally freed. Black flame raged through his muscles and blood, expanding his power, reaching outward, seeking victims, seeking . . . food. He roared his pleasure as the gruesome power which was so much a part of him sought out and drank the energy of the dying, sucking up their life force, growing stronger with every death, not caring whether the vampire died beneath his hand or another’s.
Silas’s minions gazed upon him with horror, no longer struggling to be the first to attack him, but shoving to escape instead. They trampled each other in their panic, ignoring the shrieked demands of their mistress ordering them to attack, far more willing to face her anger than the hunger of this monster who had suddenly manifested among them.
But none escaped. Aden wouldn’t permit it. His loyal four wouldn’t permit it. As the last of his attackers died, as the screams of disbelief still echoed off the brick walls, Aden reined in his most deadly power. It went willingly, like a satiated child, weary from its efforts and too full to protest. Aden closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and took stock. He glanced left and right, drinking in the sight of his four vampire children, bloodied but still standing staunchly by his side.
He caught movement in the dim recesses of the warehouse. There was a door in the back, and a sliver of faint light flashing as Silas tried to worm away once more.
Aden raised his power and slammed the door shut before it could open more than an inch or two. Silas spun to stare at him, her eyes going wide with fear and surprise.
“Not this time, Silas,” Aden growled.
He stalked across the wide open space, taking his time, taunting her with his confident swagger. “A smart warrior knows his enemy,” he lectured deliberately. “You didn’t even bother to discover the true nature of my power. Klemens knew. Why do you think he refused to take the field if I was there?”
He came within five feet of her and stopped, the blue gleam of his eyes casting her in foggy color. “You thought your slavish minions would guarantee my defeat, but the only defeat tonight will be yours.”
Her eyes narrowed in rage, their copper-penny glow making her look sallow
and sickly. But for all her glare of defiance, she was afraid of him. She kept rubbing her arms, as if trying to scrape away the clinging webs of his power, kept reaching with her mind for her dead minions, becoming frantic all over again when she discovered they were gone.
She didn’t even try to surrender, seemed to understand at last that she had come too far, had caused too much bloodshed for him to accept her submission.
But she was still a vampire, still driven by the power of her blood. She made a final, desperate bid for survival, marshaling all of her remaining strength into a single knife-blade of energy. With a gesture far more disciplined that Aden would have credited her with, she thrust it at Aden, a killing blow aimed at his heart.
Aden was not so easily taken in. He’d been fighting vampire challenges a century before Silas had even been born. He’d sensed her desperation, felt her gathering power. When she launched her surprise attack, he was ready for her. With a gesture, he deflected her conjured knife blade, turning all of that energy back on her and blasting her across the floor to slam against the far wall while she wailed in both anger and pain.
Aden was silent as he crossed the few feet to where Silas lay choking on her own blood, her power drained, her body damaged beyond her current ability to heal. Had Aden been willing, he could have saved her.
But he wasn’t willing. Silas needed to die. The only question was how much pain she would endure first.
Sinking to one knee, he studied her dispassionately. She’d known the risk she was taking and had taken it freely. She wasn’t the first vampire to die this way, and she wouldn’t be the last. It was the lot of those who were made Vampire, especially those who were driven to climb the ladder of power.
Reaching down almost idly, he stroked his fingers over her chest where her heart still beat frantically. In another context, the gesture could have been sexual. But there was nothing sexual about this.
“One way or another, Silas,” he murmured, “you’re going to die tonight.” He shrugged. “I can make it easy, or—” He bent his fingers slightly, and his power squeezed her heart. Silas cried out, her eyes going wide with shock at the intense pain“—I can make it very painful,” he finished.
She blinked up at him, her breathing reduced to harsh gasps for oxygen.
“Tell me where Sidonie is,” he said, his voice hard and uncompromising, “and I’ll make it quick.”
“I don’t,” she began breathlessly, struggling for enough air to speak. Her head rolled from side to side in denial. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Aden’s gaze went flat, and his eyes lit up, bathing her in their cool glow.
“Wrong answer,” he growled.
She shrieked as he ripped her mind apart, as he dug for knowledge of Sidonie’s kidnapping and found nothing. And when he was finished, he dug his fingers into her chest and squeezed her heart like an overripe tomato, feeling the bloody flesh squish through his fingers like some gruesome puree.
When it was all over, when Silas had become part of the bloody mud on the floor of the warehouse, Aden stood. If she’d had any power left, he’d have absorbed it willingly, but by the time he’d killed her, she’d been drained of every ounce. He closed his eyes against the inevitable adrenaline crash and felt Bastien and the others gathering around him, offering their protection and their strength.
“She didn’t know anything about Sidonie’s kidnapping,” Aden said quietly.
Bastien gave him a worried look. “Then where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“We should go, my lord. There will be enough light through the windows in the morning to burn away this mess, and we can leave her vehicles out back. Local scavengers will strip them far more efficiently than we could.”
Aden glanced around the nearly empty warehouse. “If any of her minions—” He didn’t bother finishing the sentence. There’d been no one left to survive Silas’s death.
“It’s late, my lord,” Bastien reminded him. It was late, much later than he’d planned. The business with the dead doorman and its follow-up had taken far too much of his time. And he wondered if someone had planned it that way, someone who had Sidonie in his clutches even now.
It did no good to curse the rising sun and its implacable effect on his vampire nature, but he did it anyway, swearing long and fluently. Sidonie was out there somewhere. Alone or worse. She wasn’t dead. He’d taken enough of her blood that he’d have known if she died. Unfortunately, there were far worse fates than death. He had experienced many of them personally.
Did she know he was looking for her? That he wouldn’t stop until he found her?
He drew a deep breath as they exited back onto the street, grateful for the fresh air. As cold and wet as it was, it was an improvement over the warehouse, which had become oppressive with the stink of drying blood and ash.
“Is it over, my lord?” Bastien asked, pausing to look at Aden as he opened the SUV’s door.
His lieutenant was asking if the night’s battle concluded the challenge. If Aden was now Lord of the Midwest.
Aden nodded, but waited until they were in the SUV and on their way home before going into detail. “Silas was the last major challenger that I know of. It’s possible some unknown contender is out there waiting in the wings for the rest of us to kill each other off, but I haven’t heard of any.”
“But then, how do you claim the—”
“That’s Lucas’s call. He’s the current Lord of the Midwest in fact, if not in spirit. I’ll notify him of my intention to claim the territory. He has the option of fighting me for it, but I think we both know he won’t do that. Although,” he added thoughtfully, “if Silas had tried to claim the victory, he would have made her fight for it.”
“Or simply sicced Raphael on her,” Bastien muttered.
Aden chuckled. “You’ve met Raphael, Bastien. Does he strike you as a vampire who can be sicced on anybody?”
Bastien’s face brightened in a rare grin as he looked over the seat at Aden. “I think Cyn could get away with it.”
They shared a tired laugh, and Bastien said, “So, you inform Lucas, and then what?”
“Then we travel to that godforsaken ranch of his in the middle of nowhere, and he formally transfers the Midwest to me. We spend a night in drunken revelry, and then we come back to Chicago and start working. But before we do any of that, I need to find Sidonie. It wasn’t Silas who kidnapped her, so who was it? And what do they want?”
“Could it be that unknown challenger you talked about?”
Aden frowned, shaking his head. “Maybe. It doesn’t sound right, though. It took manpower to take Hamilton and his people down that way. If there was a challenger in town with the numbers to do that, I’d have heard about it. Damn it!” he swore, pounding the armrest in frustration, feeling the rippling heat inside his skull that warned him the rising sun was nearly to the horizon.
“I can have some our daylight people put out feelers tomorrow, my lord. It will give us a head start in the search for her.”
Aden nodded, his mood grim. “He used humans for the assault, and humans talk. They can’t seem to help themselves. Someone will be bragging about taking down a vampire, even though that’s not what happened. We simply have to root him out.”
“We’ll find her, my lord.”
Aden agreed silently. He would find Sidonie. He only hoped he wouldn’t be too late.
Chapter Nineteen
THE NEXT NIGHT, Aden opened his eyes to the knowledge that he was Lord of the Midwest. He’d told Bastien they had to contact Lucas, had to go through the formalities first. But that was just the paperwork. He felt the victory in his bones and blood. He knew there was no vampire in Chicago who could stand against him, and if he stretched his awareness even farther, he detected no one within the entire territory, his territory, who could.
He would have to pay Lucas a personal visit anyway, in order to receive the full power and burden of his lordship. Every vampire within the Midwe
st would soon look to him for his next breath, for the next beat of his heart. Aden tried to imagine the weight of it. The lives of his four vampire children seemed heavy enough. What would it be like to have thousands weighing on him every minute of every day? He’d probably come to welcome the daily rising of the sun for the rest it would bring him.
He sat up, pulling his awareness in and narrowing his focus. Lucas would have to wait. Aden’s first priority was to find Sidonie. She was somewhere in this city, a city he now owned. Somewhere out there was a vampire who knew something, who’d seen something, that would lead Aden to whoever had attacked his guards and taken Sidonie from him. He didn’t need someone to point out the house, they only had to get him close. Her blood would tell him the rest.
Throwing aside the covers, he climbed from the bed and strode to the shower. He sensed his vampires waking up in their secure rooms down the hall. And then he blinked in surprise, his step nearly faltering as he felt something more, something only a lord would sense . . . vampires waking all over the city. Good. He’d put them all to work.
ADEN WAS SURPRISED to find Earl Hamilton waiting when he strode into his office. The human had been pacing the receptionist area and turned when Aden rounded the corner. He was wearing full combat gear, including a military-grade chest plate, with a MP5 hanging round his neck on a sling. His hands rested on the weapon as he faced Aden.
Aden (Vampires in America) Page 24