His head reeling, Jaden pushed up on one elbow, but a sharp blow against the back of his head plunged him into darkness.
Chapter Ten
Tattered fragments of sensations lured Jaden awake. He rolled onto his side and grimaced against the sharp sting of pain. He pressed a hand to the back of his head; his hand came away red with his blood. Damn. The next time, he would fight back; at least he would have deserved the beating.
He tumbled off the stone slab, but caught himself before his face smashed into the sandy ground. The cave was empty. Jaden’s brow furrowed. How long had he been unconscious, and why would the daevas leave him unguarded?
Shivering through his leather armor, he turned his head toward a low sound that vibrated between a buzz and a hum. He gritted his teeth and dragged himself to his feet. His legs trembled beneath him, but he leaned against the wall and followed the sound through a maze of corridors.
The sound grew louder with every turn. The path ended on the edge of a crevasse overlooking a massive cave. The ground plunged at least two hundred feet below him, and the roof extended a hundred feet above. Looking up made him dizzy. The walls were pockmarked with small openings at random heights and intervals, not unlike the one in which he stood.
The cave was filled with daevas, thousands of them. The sound—a combination of a multitude of voices speaking in the guttural daeva dialect and the flapping of wings—was deafening. The flurry of bat wings was so thick that Jaden could hardly make out the male humanoid figure standing at the center of the cave floor.
Jaden could not tell if it was a human or a vampire. Regardless, the daevas gave the man a wide berth, except for two daevas who hovered in conversation with him. One of the daevas gesticulated wildly, pointing up at the cave wall opening where Jaden stood.
Every daeva swiveled in his direction. Thousands of yellow eyes fixed on him.
Jaden could hear his breath rasp on the utter silence of the cavern.
The man in the center of the room jerked his head in Jaden’s direction.
Jaden fled down the corridor. The sound of fluttering wings drew ever closer, the brush of leather against stone. The low narrow corridors worked to his advantage; the daevas could only come at him one or two at a time. He raced through the pitch-black caverns he had mapped out in his mind by counting his steps and tracking each turn.
He did not stop when he found himself face-to-face with a startled daeva. He hurled himself against the creature. His greater weight, combined with his momentum and the element of surprise, gave him a brief advantage. He smashed the daeva into the rock wall. Its eyes rolled up in its head, and it slumped to the ground. A whimpering bundle fell from its arms.
Without realizing it, Jaden caught the infant daeva. Its tiny wings flapped, but Jaden seized them, immobilizing the infant in the same way he had immobilized chickens before slaughtering them for the evening meal. The child wailed.
The sound threw him back into motion. He scrambled through the tunnels, the baby in hand, and slammed his weight against the rock door that sealed the cell. The rock groaned and slid back. “Talon. To me!” He pulled a sword from the sheath across his back, and tossed it hilt first into the darkness.
A lean arm snaked out and seized the sword. The elder vampire emerged from the shadows, tension evident in his emaciated frame. He glanced over Jaden’s shoulder at a tunnel that glowed yellow with daeva eyes. The vampire shook his head. “Humans never know their limits.” He stepped out of the cell. “This way.”
Together, Jaden and Talon went the only way they could—the way that wasn’t blocked by thousands of daevas. A low growl preceded the rush of wings. Jaden threw a glance over his shoulder. He spun around and swung his sword up to deflect a vicious swipe. A furious chitter arose among the clustered daevas, but they kept their distance, their bright yellow eyes darting to the squirming infant that hung by its wings from Jaden’s left hand.
“It appears you’ve snagged their princess,” Talon said with a low chuckle. He too had paused. He kept his back pressed against Jaden’s as his eyes searched the dark corridor ahead for potential threats.
“What? You understand them?”
“You can learn anything in five hundred years of captivity.” Talon threw a quick glance over his shoulder and nodded his head at a large daeva that emerged at the front of the pack. “That’s her mother. It appears you have the perfect hostage.”
Hostage?
Mentally, he recoiled. The infant daeva was scarcely larger than a spring chicken, and no heavier. Its yellow eyes were wide in its smooth face, and its skin was soft, undamaged by the sun. It blinked up at him, both curious and innocent. Trusting.
The large daeva stepped toward him.
Jaden took a step back and held the point of his sword at the infant daeva’s throat.
The adult stopped in her tracks. Her chin lifted, and she held out her hand in an imperious gesture. Sparks of light reflected off her silver ring.
Jaden shook his head. “I don’t think so.” His words, quietly uttered, echoed through the cavern.
“Do you have a plan?” Talon tossed the question to Jaden.
“No, not really. Just keep moving.”
“Not an option.” Talon stiffened. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
Jaden spared a glance in Talon’s direction. Another pack of daevas swarmed toward them. The spread of their large bat-like wings filled the tunnel.
After a moment of silence, Talon laughed softly. “This day had to come, though I never thought I would die fighting next to a human.” With fangs, claws, and a sword, he leapt into battle.
Back-to-back, Jaden and Talon kept the daevas at bay, though Jaden was convinced that he was alive only because of the daevas’ reluctance to endanger the infant.
A terrifying series of screeches and howls arose from the ranks of daevas fighting Talon. The attack on Jaden fell back in confusion. Jaden threw a glance over his shoulder as the daevas who had been attacking Talon spun around, turning their backs on the elder vampire, to face an apparent threat behind them. Glimpses of silver flashed through the black flare of wings.
The curtain of wings collapsed like a shredded veil. Ashra stepped through the darkness, her silver hair swirling about her expressionless face. The golden blood of the daevas streaked her white gown.
Jaden released his breath. A smile flashed across his face. She had come for him. Somehow, he had known she would. His green eyes met her golden ones. “Get Talon out of here.”
Surprise chased recognition over her features. She nodded, seized Talon around the waist, and soared over the bodies of the daevas she had slain. The icrathari and the elder vampire vanished into the darkness.
The daevas shrieked.
Ashra’s disappearance stripped the daevas of their restraint. Yellow eyes aglow, they lunged at Jaden, apparently indifferent to his tiny hostage. Instinct demanded he protect the child. He cradled the infant to his chest with one hand. With the other, he slashed out with his remaining sword. He hacked indiscriminately through the flurry of wings and arms that surged at him. Claws tore his sword from his hand and ripped through his leather armor. He screamed, dropping to his knees, his body curved over the baby to shield it from the brutal attack. Vicious pain carved through him like a plough digging gouges into the ground.
In that terror-stricken moment, Jaden knew he would die.
Chapter Eleven
Ashra returned in time to see Jaden’s body crumple beneath a furious flutter of black wings. The metallic scent of his blood cut through the stale air. She drew her breath in sharply and screamed. Her battle cry raced ahead of her, as much a weapon as her claws and fangs. The daevas recoiled, cowering. That split-second of their cringing terror was all she needed. She swooped in and snatched Jaden up.
Her black wings pressed tight against her back, she swept through the curving tunnels, and then up through the shaft that led to the surface. Daevas raced behind her. Their claws shredded the hem of her gown an
d gouged her feet.
Jaden’s faltering heartbeat fluttered against her chest. In his arms, secure between their bodies, he cradled a squirming bundle. Ashra did not spare it a second glance. Faster. She broke through the surface, took two quick steps through the stone hut, and then lunged into the open.
Her wings unfurled to their full ten-foot span, carrying her up through the thin air. The shadow of Aeternae Noctis blocked out the glow of the moon. With daevas snapping at her heels, she flew along the underside of the city, swerving around the invisible blasts of superheated air that pulsed out of the massive exhaust funnels. Shrieks of pain and panic followed in her wake as unwitting daevas were broiled alive. A daeva grasped her ankle. She twisted into a spin, her wings wrapping around her like a black cloak. Centrifugal force flung the daeva off, hurling it into a column of scalding air.
Her back muscles ached; her wings strained, driving forward at maximum speed while carrying Jaden’s weight. The two-mile diameter of the domed city—an endless expanse of carbon steel—seemed damnably long, but the entrance beckoned with a warm glow. Almost there.
Ashra’s wings flared wide. She threw a mocking smile at the horde of daevas closing in on her. Her wings swept down, carrying her aloft. She shot up through the closing steel doors. Two daevas, their wings pressed tightly against their back, surged after her, maneuvering through the narrow entrance and into the tower. A third followed.
Talon, his feet placed on either side of the closing doors, drove his sword through the first daeva’s stomach. The creature doubled over with a screech of pain. Talon kicked the daeva off the blade, and brought the razor-sharp edge down across its scrawny neck.
Ashra dropped Jaden onto the floor. His limp hand fell away from the tiny body he had held close; the infant daeva whimpered from the loss of contact and burrowed deeper into Jaden’s warmth. The second daeva lunged toward the child. Ashra spun around and seized the daeva by its neck. Her grip tightened, pulverizing bone. It wilted in her grasp. She ripped through its stomach and dropped its corpse to the ground.
The third daeva wailed. Its unearthly cry was cut short as the carbon steel doors ground close, severing its body in half.
Talon dropped his sword, seized Jaden by his leather chest piece, and slammed him against the wall. “You…you’re a human who commands icrathari and elder vampires. Who are you? What are you?”
Jaden’s green eyes were unfocused. His lips moved, but no sound emerged.
Talon pushed harder.
Jaden arched his back. His breath pulsed out of him, a gasp of pain. His eyes rolled back, his head lolled to the side.
“What are you doing?” Ashra pulled Talon away and caught Jaden as he slumped forward into her arms.
A flurry of wings surged into the room—Tera and Siri. Tera was the first to reach Ashra’s side. Her gray eyes swept across Ashra, Jaden, and then focused on Talon. Her jaw dropped. “Talon?”
The elder vampire flashed a smile. “In the flesh.”
“But how—?”
Siri cut in. “What is this?” She leaned down and picked up the wriggling bundle of wings and thin appendages. A tiny mouth opened into a wail. Tears spilled from large yellow eyes set in a dark-skinned face. “A baby? Is this a baby daeva?”
“Their princess,” Talon said.
“How did you—?”
“Jaden took it hostage. It was our ticket out.”
Siri’s violet eyes gleamed in the florescent light. “I have to show it to Phillip. We finally have a daeva to experiment on.”
Ashra frowned. “Don’t hurt it, Siri.”
“Yes, of course,” Siri said. With the infant in her arms, she walked out of the room.
Ashra scooped Jaden into her arms. He shivered, arching away from the contact as if her touch had burned against his skin. His eyes fixed on her face. His lips trembled.
“I’m taking you to the infirmary,” she whispered. She ran toward the central shaft and leapt. Her wings unfurled, bearing the both of them up through the tower.
Lucas, the vampire who managed the infirmary, spun around as Ashra raced into the clinic. He took in the situation in a single glance. His lean face set into tight lines, he gestured at one of the vacant pods. “Put him down. We have to get his armor off.”
Jaden ground his teeth to keep from screaming in pain as Ashra and Lucas eased the remnants of his leather armor off his back. Blood trickled from his mouth; he had bitten through his lower lip. The useless armor, shredded into thin strips by vicious daeva claws, was tossed aside. Lucas lowered Jaden, facedown, onto the cushioned surface of the pod, and then cut the blood-soaked cotton shirt off his body.
Lucas inhaled sharply. Jaden’s back was little more than a bloodied pulp of ruined muscles and ripped tendons.
The door opened. Dana rushed in. She stopped short, her green eyes wide. Her expression was stricken. “What happened?”
“Daevas.” Ashra looked at Lucas. “Can you save him?”
“We can transform him. He’s lost a lot of blood, but he is stable enough to survive the half hour it takes to do a full transfusion.”
“No,” Jaden breathed. The white sheets beneath him had turned crimson. “Not…vampire.”
The vampires and icrathari were still monsters to him. Irritation snapped through Ashra, but the concurrent ache surprised her. “It’s the only way you’ll survive.”
Inexplicably, Jaden chuckled. The sound was pained but clearly amused. “Humans die…all the time.”
Lucas interjected. “He’ll need blood, regardless, and we don’t stock human blood.”
Dana shrugged. “We have lots of humans in the city. I’ll bring back some donors.”
She turned to leave, but Lucas held his hand out. “You’ll need people with matching blood types and without blood-transmitted diseases.”
Dana’s smile was a tight curve, devoid of humor. “I’ll find some volunteers. I know them from my time as a human. I’ll bring them here. How many do you need?”
“At a pint each, at least six.” Lucas shot Ashra a glance. “Of course if we’re planning to drain every drop of blood from their body, we’d need just one. We’d even have extra pints at that point.”
“Bring six,” Ashra said.
Dana nodded and left.
Lucas looked at Ashra. “Humans in the tower? You’re breaking lots of rules for him.”
“I made those rules.”
Lucas nodded. “For a reason. To protect the humans from us.”
“From their impressions of us.”
Lucas conceded the point with a nod of his head. “What changed, Ashra?”
She looked at Jaden but said nothing. Her mind filled in the silence. I remember love. Could it still be there waiting?
The minutes crawled. Ashra’s breath caught and held with each gasp that tore out of the injured man. Each moment spent beside Jaden was a cacophony of anxiety that made it nearly impossible for her to think clearly.
She should let him go, set Rohkeus’s soul free as she had intended from the beginning, but the path that seemed obvious then was no longer the only path.
She swallowed the bitter chuckle. I outwitted myself. I followed Jaden to prove that there was nothing of Rohkeus in him, but there is. In fact, there is more than just Rohkeus in him.
The rebirth of Rohkeus’s soul gave him a second chance at life, at love.
Did it mean she had a second chance at love too?
Lucas shook his head. “He’s not going to make it.”
Life. Love.
“Turn him on his side,” she ordered. With a fingernail, she slit her wrist and dripped her golden blood into Jaden’s mouth.
Lucas’s brow furrowed. “Ashra—”
“I know what I’m doing.”
Instinctively, Jaden turned his pale face to her. His eyes were closed, but his throat worked as he swallowed her life-giving blood.
Dana and five other vampires entered the room, each pushing ahead of them a blindfolded adult huma
n. Dana jerked the blindfold off the old man she escorted. His eyes widened. “Jaden?”
Jaden’s eyes fluttered open. “Father?” Teeth gritted against the pain, he pushed up on one elbow. “You’re alive.” Joy and relief were evident in his weak voice.
Gareth Hunter’s gaze flicked between Jaden and Ashra. His lip curled in disgust. His fist swung out in a backhanded blow that slammed Jaden back into the pod. Jaden slumped into a bloody heap, unconscious.
Ashra’s vision flashed red, but Dana reached out and caught Ashra’s hand before the icrathari’s claws ripped through Gareth’s throat.
Unflinching, Gareth stared at the icrathari. “If you think I will save the life of man you’ve turned into a blood slave—”
Dana cut in. “You will save the life of our son.”
Gareth turned to face Dana. His jaw dropped, and his eyes widened with equal parts terror and disbelief. “Dana?”
Ashra smiled with new respect for Dana, who had apparently abducted Gareth and blindfolded him without being seen.
“You’re—”
“A vampire,” Dana said. “Jaden is human, and to stay alive and human, he needs a transfusion of human blood.”
“The exchange of blood is the devil’s work.”
“Marriage to Lydia has turned you into a superstitious old bore.” Dana shoved Gareth into one of the empty pods, fastened the leather straps over his wrists, waist, and ankles, and then turned to Lucas. “Hook him up.”
Lucas chuckled under his breath. The other vampires stood guard over the cowering humans as Lucas inserted needles into their veins. Their blood flowed crimson into a machine, which analyzed it for impurities before transferring through a translucent tube and into a needle plunged deep into a vein in the crook of Jaden’s arm.
Dana tossed Lucas a small sealed jar. “I know you don’t carry medication since no one in the tower needs it, so I stopped by the herbalist. Once we clean and sterilize his wounds, the aloe salve in the jar will hasten the healing.”
Lucas shrugged. “As will Ashra’s blood. Every bit will help. Jaden is unlikely to survive as it is. Get the humans out of here. They’re cluttering my clinic.”
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