“No, but I had a prophecy about something else. The destruction of Seattle is coming soon, and if I don’t go after Brendan and Genevieve, I’m not sure they’ll survive it.”
My hands shook, so I squeezed the coin even tighter. “What did you see?”
His eyes travelled far away. “There’s a catastrophic earthquake, and then piles of corpses disappear under ivory roots.”
My pulse fluttered. “That’s the Tree of Life. We were theorizing that Ravage is using it to harvest human blood.”
“The Tree of Life? That makes sense with what I see… but much bigger, and Genevieve is caught in the middle of it all. Brendan will be going after her soon, and he’ll need me too.”
“Well, I think I’m going to have to sit this one out…” I sniffed, “I’ll miss the hell out of you three.”
Timothy opened his arms for a hug, and I stepped into his embrace. Dried mud crackled between us as we held each other.
“Sorry that I’m naked again,” I said as I pulled away.
“I can’t seem to catch any of you with clothes on lately.” He shrugged and sighed. “I’m starting to think that maybe I was adopted.”
Even though my heart was breaking with the knowledge that this might be goodbye, my little brother could make me laugh. It was probably more of a half-laugh, half-sob, but it was close enough.
“Hey Kori…” he said, “You fight, and you survive, whatever it takes.”
“Back at you…” The hedge wall around my brother blurred, black and green, swirling together until I thought I might be sick.
I opened my eyes to a long stretch of skin and the curve of a neck, dripping with blood. Ash’s choppy blond hair brushed my cheek.
Stone buildings streamed past, and all I heard was his heavy breaths. Aside from that, everything was pain.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kori
Thousands of invisible metal splinters drove into my body from head to foot. Breathing hurt so much, I tried to hold my breath for as long as my lungs would stand, but that only caused the pain to increase when my body forced me to breathe.
I did not know why there was a sudden outcry to halt, but feet echoed from all directions. And I wanted to look, but I had no strength. I couldn’t even flop my head over.
"Find the queen!" Death bellowed from somewhere way too close to my ear.
There were shouts and cries of confusion all around, and a hand touched my foot.
"Don’t touch her," Ash growled, and for one long instant the chaos silenced, then people shouted even louder. “Ruin, take my right. We’re getting through.”
"What is the meaning of this?" I heard a deep, female voice call out. "Clear the way now."
It took a few seconds, but then we were again moving forward. Every footfall sent spasms through my body. When we stopped again, the chatter of a new crowd enveloped us.
Ruin started to say, "We’re sorry for barging in here—”
"Everyone better get the fuck out of our way." Ash roared. "We demand an audience with your queen right now."
“The Queen of the Deep?” the unknown female voice rumbled. “What do you want with her—"
“Take us to her,” Ash snapped.
"Take us to the queen, now," Ash said the word ‘queen’ with derision.
“You are all bloody, dirty, and you smell like the wrong end of a pig. The queen will appreciate the fact that you helped her troll friends to safely pass into her realm, but beyond that, she doesn’t tolerate entitled vampires.”
“You’ll take us, or we fight our way in,” Ash growled.
A hush passed over the crowd until only whispered voices and footsteps echoed around us.
I fought my eyes open and tried to focus on the woman before me. She was a warrior with a shaved head on one side and spikey black hair on the other. Her shirt and pants had more holes than fabric, showing glimpses of her body underneath. She had deep-set brown eyes and bee-stung lips.
“This is the queen,” I croaked out, somehow just knowing it. Maybe it was her regal, authoritative voice. Maybe it was the fact that if this woman had ordered me to do anything, I would want to obey, but I was positive she was the queen.
Blurry faces and bodies leaned in all around us. The smell was only marginally better than the crowd I’d just left. Or maybe it was me that smelled so ripe, at this point it was hard to tell.
“What do you want?” The Queen tilted her head. “Who are you holding there?"
"It looks like rags," someone called from within the crowd.
Ash didn’t move. My vampires stayed locked in position, boxing me in on three sides. I felt their presence, even though all I could see was a blurry mess through heavy lids.
Ash squeezed me to him, ever so gently as he stepped forward.
The vampire who I was almost positive was the Queen of the Deep leaned even closer, so close I smelled jasmine. "That is no pile of rags. This is the Tempus who’s destined to destroy the world as we know it."
Where the court had been hushed before, it definitely wasn’t after the queen made that pronouncement. A cacophony of voices rose around us, driving spikes of pain into my head.
“What? No.” Ruin’s voice grew even more hoarse. He stood close beside me, and I wanted to look at him fully, but my neck wasn’t in the mood to obey my commands. “Ravage, the King of Nightendale is the Tempus that’s destined to destroy the world,” Ruin said. “And, we prevented him from getting Kori’s power.”
The queen’s dark brows rose. “Meaning that Ravage is not that Tempus.” She reached forward, and Ash growled and tried to back away, but something was clearly keeping him in place. The queen only brushed a section of hair away from my face. “It’s never a good idea to change a powerful supernatural into a vampire. But you know all about that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do,” Death said. Almost in sync, Ash stepped back, and Death stepped between the queen and us. She’d have to go through Death to attack.
Ash quivered as he held me, like he was having to physically restrain himself from lashing out.
I fought my goopy eyes open, to look up into the queen’s features as they went in and out of focus. Even though my eyes refused to focus fully, I could see that this woman had the type of beauty that caused men and women alike to worship her on sight. I’d never seen any woman so striking. She didn’t have a soft, distant type of beauty. It was direct and powerful.
“How long has she been like this?” the queen asked.
“Are you actually the fucking queen, or are we just wasting our time?” Ash growled.
The woman sighed. “My name is Silence, and yes, I’m the vampire queen that people call the Queen of the Deep.”
“Then, she’s been like this for a fucking hour, maybe more,” Ash said in a clipped tone. “I found her lying beside me.” He glowered at the queen. “She had to drink large amounts of all of our blood, and she’s still half dead. Meanwhile, you fuckers were just sitting here cozy while the King of Nightendale slaughtered us practically on your doorstep.”
“Even I have to follow rules, warrior,” Silence said, making the crowd around her chuckle. “One of those rules is that I have to kill Tempus Blood Mages.” She held up a hand toward Death, who I hadn’t even seen move. “Your survival in these moments depend on you keeping your instincts in check.”
My vision cleared just enough for me to see that we were surrounded in vampire warriors. Their details were blurry, but I could see there were a lot of them.
Silence drummed her fingers on her chest. “I wasn’t clear, and I apologize for that. The rules state that I would have to kill a Tempus Blood Mage, but Kori, you’re no more a blood mage than your warrior here is still a werewolf. I was asking how long you’ve been a vampire.”
“Kori isn’t a vampire,” Ruin said. His tone wasn’t harsh like Ash’s, who sounded downright hostile, but there was a thread of indignation there. “Whatever King Ravage did to her didn’t turn her into a vampire—”
“You’re right and you’re also wrong,” Silence interrupted with a smile that showed the points of her fangs. “What King Ravage did turned Kori into a vampire queen. Vampires prey on humans, but a true queen has a much more dangerous and rewarding prey. However, as I said, you’re right too…” Silence’s fingers tapped her chest again. “This woman is only halfway through her transition, therefore she’s not a human, vampire, or a vampire queen. She’ll need her master for that.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Ash snapped.
Even though my eyesight was blurred, the set of Ash’s jaw made me think that perhaps he knew exactly what that meant without the queen explaining it to everyone.
“It means, Kori, you need the blood of your maker to fully transition over. It takes weeks of blood exchange.” The queen’s fist clenched and unclenched. “For better or for worse, Ravage changed a Tempus Blood Mage—and I have to decide whether or not to risk your survival.” Her dark eyes met mine.
A low growl rumbled from Death’s throat, but the queen didn’t even deign to glance over.
“Why take the effort to kill me?” I rasped out. “I die every other day. All you need to do is not revive me.”
“From the sound of it, if you use your power again, no one will be able to revive you.” Silence’s dark eyes softened. “You froze time. There were rumors of Tempuses powerful enough to do that off and on throughout the centuries, but they never survived to adulthood. Over time, natural selection must have eliminated the talent. Your body as it is now is far too fragile to survive the toll your power places upon it—the only reason it has this long is because you’re drinking your true mates’ blood. Clearly, that’s no longer enough.”
“I have no control over my powers,” I coughed out.
“Powers?” She asked, tilting her head.
“I’m also an Ignis.”
“Then you should already be dead. That makes my position here a simple one.” The corner of her lip lifted, bearing a sharp fang.
Ruin rubbed his chin. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but the rumors say that you were a supernatural before you were turned. Maybe you can help us.”
“You must be the one who usually does the talking… I really doubt your friends here would have survived so long otherwise. Are they always this rude, or am I just lucky?”
“It’s been a long day for all of us,” Ruin said.
Silence’s sharp gaze studied him. “No, I won’t help any more than I already have.” She focused on me. “I’m not ready to kill you but I’m not sure that keeping you alive is what’s good for vampire-kind.”
Ash tensed as the queen’s fingers came down to my neck, but she only brushed the dirt there away. Her hand ran over the raised mark there. “But I’ll tell you this: mate marks are powerful—the stronger they are, the stronger your connection to this world will be.”
“How do we stop her from dying?” Ash growled.
The queen closed her eyes and sighed, her long dusty lashes fanning down. “I already told you the only way, and I don’t repeat myself. You can stay here until she dies, so long as you all follow the laws of the Deep.”
“No… fuck no. We came all this way for your help,” Ash articulated once more. “There has to be another way.”
“The only reason I’m offering you provisional sanctuary at all is because you devised a method of bringing so many of my friends safely to me,” Silence said as she stared into my eyes with her deep and fathomless gaze. “Every member of their family group survived that final stampede through the Nightendale warriors, and that took exceptional skill and even more exceptional luck. It’s gained you a peaceful death, Kori.” The queen leaned in, her voice lowering. “Go to your room, love, feed, and fall asleep. Enjoy each other while it lasts. But, if your consorts drink from you, they should be wary to use your powers in the Deep. If we think for a moment that they’re attacking anyone, we’ll kill you.”
“We’re not drinking from Kori. She dies after we do that,” Ash snapped
The queen blinked slowly at him. “I just told you that she has too much magic in her blood.”
A vampire broke from the line of muscular warriors surrounding us. He was tall, and a thick, blond mohawk made him three inches taller. He gestured to the right with a thick hand and said in a low voice, “This way.”
Ash squeezed me a little tighter to him as we passed the crowd of vampire warriors. The rough, stone halls he carried me down were painted in bold colors, too vibrant for my dead-tired eyes to focus on.
We passed through a yellow door into a small, cozy cavern. Sconces held flickering candles along a brilliant blue wall. The room was clean but cramped. The yellow furnishings were so large, they looked like they were jockeying for space to exist.
Ash set me on a bed, which I was sure would have to be burned clean from how filthy I was, and Ruin came around and lay down beside me.
He brushed a chunk of hair out of my face. “How are you feeling?”
“Progressively less awful,” I managed. It was as close to an answer as I could come up with. I felt like a corpse, and I smelled like one, too.
Ruin’s azure eyes didn’t leave mine as he slung an arm over my waist. “Does less awful mean about to die again?”
“No.” I smiled.
“You probably should feed again after what just happened,” Ash said from somewhere behind me. “I’ve recovered enough, how about you two?”
“Rest first,” I said.
“No, Kori, I can do it.” Ruin stared at me, and he didn’t look away as he raised his arm to his mouth. He paused with his wrist just before his teeth. “Whatever you did back there at the bridge, it saved all of our lives, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
After a few seconds passed with us both just lying there, staring at each other, he bit into his wrist. Blood immediately welled up, dripping onto the cream-colored bedsheet. “Please don’t use your power again,” he said, his attention never breaking away from mine. “Even if all of us are about to die. We’ll find another way.”
“Trust me, I didn’t choose this.” I pointed to my aching body, “I didn’t stop time on purpose. I have absolutely no control over my abilities with time, or fire for that matter.”
Furrows crossed Ruin’s brow, but he didn’t say anything more. He held me as I fed on him. The relief was immediate as I took long, slow pulls of his blood.
The stabbing sensations of pain that throbbed deep in my bones dissipated, leaving only tiny little shivers in their stead. After he was finished, Ash took his place before finally Death took his. We drank until all three of us were so exhausted, we fell asleep in a pile.
The last thought that bounced around my mind was that Ravage had likely already healed. I had chosen that fate. The trolls wanted him dead, and I had prevented them from killing Ravage. Now, the whole world would pay the price for my weakness.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash
I woke to find Kori softly snoring beside me. Clumps of pale dirt clung to her skin and caked in her hair. Reaching forward, I rested a hand just over her heart. The slow steady thump of her heart beat against my fingers.
Kori made a sound and opened an eye to a slit before closing it again. She yawned and rubbed her head on the pillow.
We had each fed her our blood, but it probably still wasn’t enough. Even after everything, Kori was weak and shaky.
“Ash,” Ruin whispered from behind me.
Trying not to jostle Kori, I rolled partially toward Ruin. “What?”
Ruin laid there, glaring at the painted ceiling, his gaze far away. Even though he called my attention to him, he didn’t acknowledge me, seeming to be miles off in his thoughts.
“What, Ruin? I was sleeping,” I lied.
“Is it just me, or did Kori need more blood with every feeding even before she froze time?”
It wasn’t just him. In the days before we reached the city, I was feeding Kori until I felt sick and
drained. “We have plenty of blood between the three of us.”
“True.” Ruin sighed and scratched his chin. “But the time it takes to revive her seems like it’s getting longer too.”
“Get to your point,” I muttered.
“The Queen of the Deep said there was only one way for Kori to survive this.”
It was like Ruin threw a bucket of ice in my face. Not water, just jagged shards of ice. “You mean hand her over to Ravage? What the fuck, Ruin?”
I carefully scooted past Kori and away from them both before clambering off.
“Where are you going?” Ruin asked as he stumbled after me.
Away from him. I couldn’t listen to Ruin for one more fucking second.
“To wash up,” I growled.
“All right. The warrior who brought us here said something about a spring.”
“Yeah, that way.” I nodded to a doorway on the far side of the cavern that was barely disguised as a room.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the other way.” Ruin followed along behind me.
“Fuck off,” I growled as I crossed the space in long strides to a dresser where I grabbed a shirt and sweatpants out at random.
Ruin leaned against the wall, his brow hiking high up on his forehead. “Kori is going to need to talk about this, and I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
“I said fuck off.” I turned and pointed into his face. “Obviously, you haven’t been paying attention here. Ravage wouldn’t save her. He’d take her power and kill her. You think he’s going to let someone as powerful as she is survive to threaten his rule?”
“You might be right.” Ruin rubbed his jaw harder, working his thumb back and forth. “But, she’s in a position of power now, where she’s been under his power up to this point.”
“What are you even considering? We fought all this way to get away from that asshole. Everything we went through, everything the trolls and her brothers went through—all so we could get her here safely.”
“But, she’s not safe,” he nodded to the bed. “And the queen doesn’t seem inclined to help us. Or maybe she can’t.”
Ash (Fire & Blood Book 2) Page 19