The Soul Eater made a disgusted noise. “Well, in any case, he’s dead now.”
So, he didn’t know the truth then. How could he? Dahlia had obviously meant to kill Cyrus, and probably reported the deed finished when she’d told the Soul Eater.
“You’re a monster,” I rasped, still trying to swallow my shock.
“And you’re a simpering fool!” His hand shot out to grab me by the throat. Rage lit his eyes and hard lines bracketed his mouth. Still, he wasn’t the Soul Eater I’d feared meeting tonight. I hoped that creature didn’t show his face while I was around.
He took a deep breath and released me, smiling tightly. “I’m sorry. Forgive me. I have no wish to harm you.”
I find that hard to believe, I thought, but said nothing.
“You intrigue me, Carrie.” He regarded me with an intensity that burned. “You may have been too strong for my son, and certainly too strong for my fledgling, but you’re no match for me. A challenge, certainly. It would take us a long time, I think, to tire of each other.”
“Well, I’m already getting tired of you,” I retorted. But it wasn’t true. When Cyrus had been my sire, I’d been drawn to the danger in him. In him I’d seen reflected all my basest desires. He’d offered me a life of indulgence and hedonism, and I’d been able to turn away in disgust. But the Soul Eater…Everything about Jacob Seymour seemed right. As if he could do no wrong simply because he believed nothing was wrong. It made him powerful, and power remained my weakness.
I begged myself to remember what had happened before, how unhappy I knew I would have been if I’d stayed unquestioningly at Cyrus’s side. The Soul Eater didn’t need me. I’d wanted that so much, someone to need me. Now, it seemed the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to need someone else, and the best possible person to need would be one who could provide.
I was falling under his hypnotic spell again.
“Think of it, my dear. I have but a few full-time companions, none that I share my interests with.” He gave me a pointed glance, leaving me no illusions as to what those interests were. “And you’d benefit from our alliance in other ways.”
“What? When you get tired of me my soul gets a gala installation in your lower intestine?” I shook my head. “No way.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have to consume you, Carrie.” He waved his hand as if shooing away my foolishness. “Use your head. My fledgling knows what I’m up to, and he’s likely told you as well. Why would I need or want your pathetic little soul? I didn’t sire you. I have no use for you.”
“A minute ago you were practically down on one knee, and now I’m pathetic? You sure know how to win a girl’s heart.” I stood as if to leave. “So, if that’s all—”
He threw out his hand and an invisible force knocked me back to the sofa. “Impressive, yes? The power…it’s all you’ve ever dreamed of, and more.”
I glared at him. “And you’ll use it against me every day of my life, making me your mindless puppet. I’ve already been through that with your son. What is the price you ask, oh great one, for this dubious honor?”
With an evil smile, he came toward me. I couldn’t move as he leaned down, his teeth bared. He had fangs, even though he wasn’t in feeding mode. At least I hoped he wasn’t. His nose almost touched mine, and his breath was cold against my face as he spoke. “This is why my son couldn’t tame you. I will not have the same problem.” He slapped me hard across the face. It caught me off guard and I tasted blood.
“The price for letting you live,” he hissed, gripping my hair to punctuate his last word, “is that you will bring my fledgling to me!”
“Nathan?” I gasped through the pain. “No way. Kill me now.”
He lifted me by the throat and flung me across the room, literally. I bounced off the wall and landed in a broken heap on the floor. In my head, breaking down the wall I’d created to block him out, Nathan’s anger—with me, with his sire—and his pain assailed me, skewering my mind in a thousand agonizing places. “Nathan, no!” But I’d meant to call out to him with my mind.
The Soul Eater laughed, and the sound twisted into the tortured screams of the souls trapped inside him. His eyes glowed red and his face contorted. “Let him come. Let my wayward child come home to me, as he’s longed to do so many times.”
“No!” I scrambled to my feet and broke for the door, but the Soul Eater was on me in a second, holding me back.
“Struggle! He’ll feel your fear and it will quicken his pace.” Jacob’s hands turned to claws around my arms, and the stench of decay overwhelmed me. “You will be rewarded for your compliance.”
Bile rose in my throat. I choked it back. “He’ll kill you! And I’ll help, I swear it!”
“And you’ll die like all the others who’ve tried.” His words died into an anguished cry, the chorus of voices in him raising to protest their eternal torment.
The door of the study ricocheted off the wall as it burst open. “The hell she will!”
“Nathan, no! Get out of here!” I tried to escape from the Soul Eater’s grasp, and to my surprise, he let me go easily. I hadn’t anticipated it, and wound up on my face on the hard marble.
When I looked up, I saw what had taken Jacob Seymour so off guard.
His son Cyrus, presumed dead, standing in the doorway.
Cyrus showed no hint of bravado as he entered the room where he’d once died. He met the Soul Eater’s astonished gaze head-on. “Hello, Father. There are a few things we need to discuss.”
In all the time he’d worked for the Movement, Max had never seen the Oracle conscious. She actually seemed less frightening, and that was dangerous.
She sat on a carved wooden throne with a back that pointed up like a church steeple. Her head, normally bald, was covered in an Egyptian-style wig, her thin body robed in a loose red dress. She held her head regally, but appeared fragile, like a mental patient in the starring role of the asylum’s Cleopatra. Her frailty actually caused a stab of pity in him.
He knew better, but Bella…she might have been through assassin training, but she was still a woman, and women had sympathy. Sympathy that would get her killed.
“Come.” The Oracle pointed at Bella and crooked her finger. The wheelchair shot forward with such speed that when it stopped, Bella fell out, spilling to the floor.
When Max tried to run to her, he couldn’t. He added telekinesis to the list of shit he hated about the Oracle.
“Hey, bitch!” he shouted, hoping he’d catch her attention with his boldness and she wouldn’t just twist his head off his shoulders. “You know, for wanting that baby, you’re not being too gentle with the mother.”
“What happens to the wolf does not concern me, only what happens to the child she carries, and it is in no danger.” The Oracle turned back to Bella. “My daughter is strong in you.”
“She is not your daughter,” Bella shrieked, pushing herself up with her arms. “She will never be yours!”
“You presume to correct me?” The Oracle laughed. “I, who know all?”
“For knowing all, you sure don’t have much common sense,” Max shouted, desperate to get the Oracle’s attention off of Bella. “Why would you hook up with the Soul Eater? He’ll double-cross you faster than you can come up with one of your stupid prophecies.”
The Oracle crooked her finger and pulled him forward, his feet tangling together as he resisted her. She brought him to within inches of Bella, smiling cruelly. “You doubt the legitimacy of my prophecies?”
Trying for bravado, he laughed. “I do. Hell, half the time we can only figure out what they’re about after the thing happens. That’s not a real handy skill, making general observations and then pinning them on an event after the fact.”
“I have never done such a thing. It was your Order of the Brethren that decided I spoke of a future that would include them.” She closed her eyes, hands clutching the carved arms of the throne. When she looked at them again, her eyes were obscured with a haze of blood. “T
heir time is over.”
“Yeah, kinda got that when you toasted the place.” Max tried to move his arms, and when he managed, there was nothing to do with them. It wasn’t like he could fight the Oracle. It was a losing battle before it even started. “But you’re still asking for a world of hurt teaming up with the Soul Eater. He’s not a real trustworthy guy.”
The Oracle laughed. “He is a pawn. He has no power over me. He has my heart. He could have killed me at any time. But he doesn’t, because he is weak, and he does not know how to proceed without my help.”
“But you sent him your heart,” Bella said, wiping a trickle of blood from her split lip. “He has your heart.”
“He does.” She gave another eerily knowing laugh. “He does.”
Max shook his head. “He’s totally going to kill you.”
The Oracle leaned back, her eyes fading slowly back to normal. “He desires power above all else. He will not kill the source of it.”
“But he won’t coexist with someone who has more than him. He’s trying to become a god. God means all-powerful.” The Oracle’s hold on Max had slipped a bit, and he bent to help Bella.
The Oracle made a fist and drew his spine painfully straight. “He will never reach that level. I will use him up and discard him.”
“For what? To get yourself killed for free? Hell, I could have done that for you.” Max grimaced as her invisible hand tightened around his spine. “If you’re going to kill me, kill me!”
The Oracle relinquished her hold. “My vision is not clouded by lust for power. I will not fall as easily as him.”
Max stretched his neck, hoping his back wouldn’t collapse into dust. “Then what’s your vision? Lay it on me, babe. I got time.”
“You have less time than you believe.” The Oracle pointed at him, but didn’t use her destructive powers. “I am establishing a new order. With the Soul Eater’s help, I will destroy all those who would oppose me. When he has exceeded his usefulness, I will dispose of him. Those loyal to chaos will reign.”
“Chaos?” Max raised an eyebrow.
Seemingly pleased at his interest, the Oracle nodded. “The world will become a vampire’s paradise. Mortals will weep in fear at our feet and tremble before us. The earth will become saturated with the blood we cannot drink for the abundance of it.”
“Sounds…nice.” He cleared his throat. “But that doesn’t sound like chaos. I mean, you’re using the term ‘order,’ you’re talking about people worshipping you. Sounds kind of like what the Soul Eater is doing.”
“Let me finish!” She held up her hand and snapped it closed, and his jaw tightened, teeth shifting against each other under the pressure. “Lowly ones will rejoice, powerful ones will seek more power. It will be as it is now, but only for a time. They will soon realize they are not bound by laws or sides in a never-ending war. They will begin to turn on each other.
“Vampires will hunt vampires, new Soul Eaters will rise. Others will kill them. No leader will emerge who can sustain his rule. All the earth will be lost in darkness and blood.”
“Why would you want that?” Bella whimpered.
Tenderly, the Oracle reached down to touch her face. “I would not expect a lowly werewolf to understand.”
“What does the kid have to do with it? I mean, if you’re superpowerful, why do you need a baby to help you?” Why do you need my baby? He fought to keep the unspoken question from surfacing. The bitch might get him, might get Bella and their daughter and everything important to him, but she wouldn’t know it. He didn’t know how, but if she didn’t know what they meant to him, he got to keep a part of them. Just for himself.
“The prophecy.” It was Bella who spoke, her sorrow cutting straight to his heart. “I didn’t want to tell you. I wasn’t ready to let you know.”
“What prophecy?” He looked from the Oracle to Bella. “What prophecy?”
“There is a prophecy among my people, made by the Oracle long ago.” Bella’s head dipped. She wouldn’t look at him.
When the Oracle spoke, her voice was low and mechanical. “The sword forged of blood. A natural-born vampire.”
“But she’s not a vampire. Bella’s a werewolf. The baby will be a lupin,” Max protested, though he was pretty sure it wouldn’t matter.
The Oracle spread her hands, an expression of bewilderment on her porcelain face. “So, I may control the wolves, as well. It is not a setback. Be proud. The child you gave me will rule after my one hundred years of chaos.”
“You’re doing this all for just a hundred years?” Max sputtered in disbelief. “That’s like a blink of an eye to you!”
“If I have the child, the natural-born vampire, the course of events in those hundred years can be altered considerably.” She leaned forward with a predatory smile. “Through her, chaos could rule without end.”
So that was the plan. She would make his child a monster. Even though it was a kid he’d never seen or held, the thought made him ill. “Fuck you.”
“I do not appreciate your vulgarity.” The Oracle turned to one of her sentries. “I want him dead.”
The vampire approached, pulling a stake from her belt. This is it. I’m going to die. Max swallowed, but the lump in his throat wouldn’t go down. He’d always wondered if he’d be afraid. And he was. I’m going to die, and it’s going to be some third-rate vampire crony who does the honors.
“No, not you.” The Oracle held up her hand as the vampire paused midstrike. “Bring the one who just arrived. The present from dear Jacob.”
There was an interminable wait as the vampire crony, looking more than a little pissed off at not being allowed to kill him, left the room. While she was gone, the Oracle didn’t speak. She sat, looking bored, on her throne, occasionally tapping her fingernails on the carved wooden arms.
“Max,” Bella whispered, as if the Oracle wouldn’t hear them only a few feet away. “I do not think we will survive this.”
“No. I do not think you will.” The Oracle’s laugh filled the room, pounding Max’s brain like a sledgehammer.
It was echoed by the slamming of the big doors behind them. The Oracle’s face lit up. “Ah, there you are. Come here. Kill this vampire.”
“Why?”
The voice sent a shock of recognition through Max. But he couldn’t place where he’d heard it.
The Oracle’s eyes narrowed. She obviously didn’t like being questioned. “Because I asked it of you. Call it a test of loyalty.”
“I call it a poor excuse to drag my ass out of bed before sunset.” The voice moved closer with a jingling of chains. “But yeah, no problem.”
The body that went with the voice passed Max, insinuating himself between the Oracle and his intended victim. He was stocky, his brown hair shaved from the sides of his head in what would have been a Mohawk if it weren’t so long. “So, give me a stake.”
The vampire guard threw him one, and he caught it before it could pierce his chest. “Nice one, lady. Thanks.”
Then he turned.
It was the kid. Nathan’s dead son.
It was Ziggy.
Twenty-Four:
Ashes to Ashes
E veryone always says, “You should see the look on your face,” or, “I wish I’d had a camera.” Both of those statements went through my mind as the Soul Eater laid eyes on his formerly dead son.
Cyrus strolled into the room like he still owned the place, head held high. “Surprised to see me?”
Nathan followed close behind him. His steely expression softened with relief when he saw me, but the emotionless mask snapped quickly back into place. “It’s a dysfunctional family reunion.”
“She told me you were dead.” Jacob’s right arm flailed, reaching for something to brace himself on. He seemed a tad more flappable than you’d expect someone to if he walked around calling himself the Soul Eater.
And Cyrus fed off his father’s shock like a fire sucking up oxygen. I knew Cyrus well enough to know this was the first
time he’d been in this position. “She tried. She failed. But what I want to know is, why did you send her to do it?”
“I didn’t!” The Soul Eater backed up as Cyrus advanced on him.
Before Jacob could call for the guards, Nathan grabbed the overturned couch and flung it at the doors. They slammed closed under the weight, and the sofa fell neatly to the floor, effectively barring anyone from entering. The guards would be strong, but they were still just humans. The Soul Eater’s taste in furniture ran to heavy, expensive pieces. If anyone came sniffing around, the sofa would at least buy us time.
“We don’t need any extra company,” Nathan said coldly, advancing on his sire.
“Get back, Nolen!” Cyrus commanded, stopping him in his tracks. “This is my fight and mine alone.”
I felt the conflict in Nathan. He wanted to honor Cyrus’s wishes—it was his father about to be killed, after all—but he was driven by his desire to avenge his wife. To avenge himself.
It’s okay. I waited until he looked at me, and put out my hand. He came to stand at my side.
There were tears in his eyes. It’s really going to be over.
Nathan had never been this stupidly optimistic before. The Soul Eater wasn’t dead yet, and I’d learned never to believe in the logical course of the future. Logical didn’t really apply in the vampire world.
The Soul Eater drew himself up straight, regaining some of his regal manner. “Dahlia is a troublesome and disobedient girl. I warned her repeatedly to stay away from you, but she didn’t listen. If she turned you, it was her own initiative.”
“Oh, she didn’t turn me.” Cyrus took a few steps toward the fire. “She bled me and left me for dead.”
“Then she didn’t do a good enough job of it!” The Soul Eater stalked off on his own path. It was almost comical, the way father and son paced identically, alike in their rage. “You are weak. Even a human could have fended off that cow of a witch!”
Then, as if he was struck by lightning, the Soul Eater’s eyes narrowed. He turned to Cyrus. “But you did. She told me as much. She didn’t turn you. How do you stand here if she did not turn you?”
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