A Court of Blood and Void: an RH Fantasy Romance (War of the Gods Book 1)

by Meg Xuemei X

  “Cass baby,” he called.

  I wanted to throw myself into his arms and bury my face against his warm, solid chest, but now wasn’t the time.

  “Don’t let any of them leave,” Alaric shouted. “Kill the rest, and we’ll figure out how to contain the gods. We can’t let the rest of their kind learn about Cass.” He wielded his sword in every direction to stop Phobos from vanishing.

  He said what I was thinking. I wouldn’t allow anyone to escape this club, either. This bunch had found me. If I let them go, they’d bring more to hunt me.

  I dashed behind Phobos, taking advantage of his preoccupation with Alaric, and thrust my palm into his back. I was pleased that I was sneaky and super fast. Who didn’t like to fight dirty?

  His energy poured into me, rendering me drunk and giddy.

  I was drinking him and draining him.

  Phobos roared, trying to shake me off, but I didn’t let go. I glued to him like a leech, sucking in his power greedily. And Alaric was keeping him busy to let me do my thing.

  The energy of the God of Terror flowed into me like river, and I gave some to the land. It received the alien fertilizer with appreciation.

  My hand glowed, and soon my whole body radiated with bright light, as the god grew duller, until he dropped to his knees, whimpering and weak.

  And I had never felt so full, so energized, and so fucking good.

  I threw my head back and cackled like a maniac.

  Ichnaea caught a glimpse of her pal’s condition and paled just as Pyrder, Hector, and a giant vampire pinned her down.

  “What are you?” she hissed.

  I smiled sweetly. “A monster.” Then I nodded at Alaric. “Finish her, please?”

  I’d learned that only a demigod could kill a lesser god with his flaming blade and blood.

  “Anything you want, sweetheart,” Alaric said.

  He stalked to Ichnaea and plunged his sword into her heart as the fae and vampires cut down the rest of the minions.

  I moved to stand before a kneeling Phobos. He barely had the energy to raise his head.

  “You kissed me, didn’t you, Phobos, your naughty boy?” I asked cheerfully. “Now I want to kiss you back. May I? You didn’t ask permission when you touched me, but I have better manners. So, I’m now asking: may I kiss you back?”

  Fear filled his eyes. The God of Terror knew exactly what terror was. He was worried that my kiss might be the death kind.

  I was curious to test it.

  “No, please,” he rasped.

  “You just hurt my feelings.” I pouted. “I’m a girl, I’m sensitive, and I don’t take rejection well.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” he said trying to appease me.

  “Who’s the bitch now, little Phobos?” I cupped his face hard. “And you think I want to kiss you? Touching you disgusted me, except when I drank your energy.” The next instant, I flashed him a sweetened smile. “Thanks for showing me the ropes.”

  Rage turned his violet eyes to dark purple.

  “He’s weakened,” Reysalor said. “We can probably end him now. Alaric, your sword, please.”

  Everyone in the room darted awed glances between the god and me. There was fear in their eyes, too. None of them knew who I really was, and I didn’t give a fuck that I didn’t know either.

  “No, don’t end him,” I said. “I’ve just found my free food source. I don’t even need to ask for three meals a day anymore. Last time when I negotiated with Lorcan about the number of my meals and snacks, he frowned deeply at me.”

  “Did he put you on a diet?” Alaric asked in anger.

  Pyrder also looked displeased. “And you let the vampire do it, Reys?”

  Reysalor spread his arms. “Lorcan was thrown off balance when our Cass had to ask for a meal.” Then he turned to me. “He didn’t frown at you. He was furious with Jezebel. He was so angry that your own mother could do all those things to you, locking you in a cage and starving you, that he wanted to twist her head off. Which I should have done before she could hurt you again. We’ll always provide for you, Cass baby. You don’t need to ask for food or shelter or anything. The whole world can go hungry, but we’ll make sure you won’t lack anything.”

  That was touching, but I didn’t do too well with emotions. I waved a hand dismissively at the men to show them I didn’t want to dwell on the past.

  “Our Cass makes a good point in keeping this asshole,” Pyrder said. “We can also use him for information.”

  My smile turned predatory. “I’ll drink from our little Phobos once a week and I’ll never go hungry. And that’s exactly the cocktail of the Devil’s Love I’ve been looking for.”

  “You’re the devil’s daughter,” Phobos cursed like a broken record. “I know that’s part of what you are. Wherever you go, you’ll leave chaos and destruction. The fools think you can help them overcome us but they should fear you more than anything.”

  24

  The vampires guarded the High Lord of Night, but they let me, Reys, and Alaric through the ring of protection. Pyrder and the other fae warriors kept a close eye on Phobos, even though the god was too weak to move a finger.

  The warriors’ conversations drifted to me now and then. It was the first time the earthlings had ever brought down any gods, albeit minor ones.

  They darted glances in my direction.

  The vampires had kept one mage and one human alive. They had cut the mage’s wrist open and fed their lord while I dealt with Phobos.

  Lorcan was barely breathing, and his heart wasn’t beating anymore, just like other vampires. Blood soaked him, and the wound in his chest wasn’t healing.

  My heart sank in icy fear.

  “It’s no use,” a dark-haired vampire said in dismay, looking up at Reysalor. “This blood isn’t potent enough to revive the High Lord.”

  Without a word, Reys cut his wrist and dripped his blood into Lorcan’s mouth.

  We waited for a miracle, but none came. Lorcan remained unmoving, and his wound didn’t seal.

  “Should we use Phobos?” I asked. “He’s a god and his blood should be potent enough.”

  Phobos chuckled even in his feeble condition. “Try it. I welcome the results.”

  “According to the legend, the blood of gods will burn us to ashes,” one of the elder vampires said.

  “You’re probably the only one who can drink from a god, Cass,” Alaric said. “My blood isn’t good for the vampires either.” At my questioning look, he explained. “I fought side by side with Lorcan a millennium ago. He was wounded, and when I gave him blood, it only made his injury worse. I’m not surprised that Reysalor’s magical fae blood can’t help him, either.”

  “How did he recover back then?” I asked. “We could use the same method to cure him.”

  “He’s the most powerful vampire,” Alaric said. “He somehow survived. But I doubt he’ll survive this. The god’s bolt is lethal. If it were any other, except the four of us, they’d have been turned to ash right away.”

  “There must be a way,” I said, my voice biting.

  Then something hit home.

  My blood might be the only thing that could save the High Lord of Night. My mother’s blood was nectar to vampires. Her blood strengthened the vampire king a great deal, which was one reason he was addicted to her and would do anything to preserve her.

  My blood was richer and more potent than hers.

  But I’d sworn that I’d rather perish than offer my blood to a vampire. I’d vowed that they wouldn’t even get it from my dead body.

  I’d called Jezebel a blood whore.

  But if I didn’t give my blood to Lorcan, he would die.

  I gazed down at him. His face was ashen, and the hole in his chest was grotesque. Even though his vampire warriors had bandaged it as best they could, blood still oozed out.

  The High Lord of Night wouldn’t last long.

  A part of me withered as his pulse grew weaker, waiting for the ti
cking to stop altogether. An empty ache gnawed in my center, as if my soul knew that if he was gone, I’d forever miss a piece in me.

  I didn’t understand why and how I felt this way toward him. I’d hated and detested his kind since I was a child.

  But I couldn’t let Lorcan die.

  If it weren’t for him, both Reys and I would have been speared by Ichnaea’s arrow. He’d put my life above his.

  I let out a rasped breath. If I had to be a blood whore to save him, so be it.

  “Fine, I’ll let him have my blood. Just this once,” I said to the vampires surrounding their lord. “My blood will save him, but I need all of you to stay away from me while I feed him.”

  My blood had sent the vampires into blood frenzy when Jade had cut me.

  The vampires hesitated.

  “Go!” I roared, ready to toss every kind of magic I possessed at them.

  “Get the fuck away. Now!” Reysalor also roared.

  “Let’s roll,” said the giant vampire who had helped Reys subdue the Goddess of Tracking.

  The vampires zoomed away from us.

  The fae warriors, led by Hector, immediately moved in and surrounded Lorcan and me in a protective ring, their backs to us, their fronts facing the vampires outside the open wall that the gods had blown away. All the warriors gripped their swords tightly, ready for any threat.

  I conjured my fire, and the blue flame appeared instead of the black. It hesitated for a second, unwilling to cut me.

  “Now!” I ordered.

  The fire sliced open my vein.

  I pressed my wrist onto Lorcan’s lips and let my blood drip into his cold mouth.

  As soon as my blood—rich, hot, and full of unknown power—hit his tongue and went down his throat, the hole in his chest started closing.

  To my great relief, Lorcan was no longer bleeding out.

  The vampires at the perimeter, guarding and patrolling, snapped their heads in my direction. All of them looked at me with intense craving, though they fought to control their urges.

  I hissed at them. “Don’t even think about it. Don’t ever come near me!”

  A few vampires snarled, wanting my blood more than their lives.

  “Come near her, and you’ll die, bloodsuckers!” Alaric snarled back, waving his flaming sword. “I don’t give a fuck that your lord is like my brother. I’ll personally kill you all should I deem you even the slightest threat to Cass Saélihn.”

  Pyrder added viciously beside the demigod. “And I’m Cass’s ultimate shield.”

  The vampires faltered and stayed where they were.

  “Stop inhaling the fucking air!” the giant vampire shouted at his brethren. “You can go for an hour without breathing.”

  His peers followed his order, and they quieted down. Some vampires with less control bolted into the distant shadow of night.

  Lorcan snapped open his eyes and gazed up at me.

  “Cass,” he said, his gray eyes full of concern, pain, and relief. He raised his hand to touch my face, as if wanting to make sure I was real and safe. His fingers were cold, yet his touch still sent a shiver of pleasure over my skin.

  “Foolish girl, you should not—” he said, and I scowled at him, not appreciating him calling me foolish after I’d just given him my blood.

  Before I offered him scathing words, his hand dropped, and he blacked out again.

  “Lorcan?” I called. “Don’t fucking chicken out like that!”

  He didn’t respond.

  I pressed a hand against his healed chest, and his heart started beating against my palm.

  25

  Instead of returning to Reysalor’s mansion at the edge of Academy, we took Lorcan to his domain in Portland, Oregon, so he could enter the healing chamber there and recover faster. Reysalor’s sunny mansion wasn’t suitable for a wounded vampire and his horde.

  The gods had crippled most of human technology, but some private planes still flew under the radar. We had to take a chance with a jet since though Reysalor and Pyrder could teleport us, we were too many for them to do that. Also, they didn’t want to leave a strong magic imprint for the other gods to track us down. Furthermore, they weren’t sure what teleporting would do to Lorcan in his injured state.

  I was all for flying. It would be a new experience.

  I was surprised that the High Lord of Night chose to set his center court—the Court of Blood and Void—in the mortal realm. All vampire courts in both mortal and immortal realms were a part of his court. That was why he could access ShadesStar and find me.

  I’d never been to Portland, but I’d dream-visited the cloudy city a few times. Pyrder told me that a lot of supernatural beings who didn’t dwell in the immortal realm chose to live in Portland.

  It was more convenient for the vampires to stay near the mortals, their food sources. Fae and shifters were more elitist, so they preferred to remain on the other side of the veil. They didn’t like other species, especially humans, finding out about their realms.

  Fae were racists. Pyrder sent me a disapproving look after I gave him my conclusion.

  “Pardon me. Don’t expect me to see things through your panther’s tunnel vision,” I said to him as I gestured for the stewardess to bring me more drinks. It wasn’t like I was thirsty again after I’d taken the energy drink from Phobos. But you gotta taste the world and everything in it. Mortals had the phrase carpe diem—seize the day, put very little trust in tomorrow. And Lorcan’s private jet stashed some good stuff.

  The pinkish cocktail with a string of three olives and a little umbrella on top was my favorite so far. It was called Hawaii Vacation. And boy, did I need a vacation.

  But Pyrder the buzzkill told me the gods had tanked Hawaii. It was under the ocean now. California was gone too, reduced to rubble.

  Even if he hadn’t told me that, I’d begun hating gods after Phobos had served me the Devil’s Love.

  I darted a backward glance as I took another sip of my sweet, pungent booze. Poor Phobos was chained at the back of the plane, watched by Hector and his team. I didn’t think they’d offer him a drink. I wondered if it was called inhumane treatment and torture.

  The fae warriors guarded him like mean vultures, even though I already told them the God of Terror wouldn’t bring down the plane since his energy level was super low, thanks to me. Phobos was napping now. It was good that he was sleeping. When he was awake, even in his low energy state, he carried a bad vibe of terror with him. It didn’t affect me, but others—especially the lesser fae and vampires—could still feel every bite of his terror.

  Lorcan was placed in a private room, as far away from Phobos as possible. The High Lord of Night was being guarded under extremely tight security. He hadn’t opened his eyes again after touching my face and calling me foolish.

  He’d bypassed a critical condition after I’d fed him my blood. When we reached his court, I might need to feed him again. But what if he still wouldn’t wake up?

  I refused to dwell on the dark thought. It only made my stomach and mind churn.

  One step at a time.

  “Where was I?” I asked Pyrder. I liked to talk to Reys’s twin, even though I disagreed with him on almost everything.

  “POV,” he said, slanting me a glance. “You aren’t at the age of forgetting things, are you?”

  I punched his muscled upper arm and regretted it. It was like hitting a rock.

  He grinned. “One more time.”

  I ignored him.

  “C’mon, Cass,” he called. He liked when I touched him.

  Strangely, it was pleasant whenever our skin made contact, even a small gesture like our fingers brushing when he handed me a drink.

  “Let me,” Alaric said, and took the empty glass from me this time.

  He’d fought with Reys for the right to sit on my other side.

  “You and the vampire have spent a fair amount of time with Cass,” Alaric had insisted, “which put me in an unfair competition.”


  In the end, Reysalor had backed off after making a few valid points. I’d say Alaric was lucky that Reys was easygoing at the moment.

  As for me, I wasn’t going to take a side if it didn’t serve my interest. I knew how to look out for myself, and I liked the attention they showered on me. I’d been starved of it. For over a decade, it was just me and the cage.

  Alaric gave my hand a playful, gentle squeeze, and it was just as pleasurable as Pyrder’s touch. I had to control the urge to lay my head on his broad shoulder and purr. Maybe I could do that later if I pretended to fall asleep.

  Alaric’s scent of snow, hard ice, and sandalwood hadn’t stopped caressing me, and I could get used to it. He carried harshness and menace with him as if they were his armor, but I didn’t care, mainly because he was sexy as fuck. I could be shallow like that. Besides, he hadn’t shown his vicious streak toward me. If he did or would, I’d put him in his place.

  “Cass, sweetheart,” Alaric called, as gently as he could, which surprised me since tenderness wasn’t in his nature. I’d seen through him, but I didn’t tell him that I didn’t mind him being rough around the edges. Considering his demigod heritage, he might have had a bad childhood, like I’d had.

  After the psychopath god had called me little Cass, my four male companions had ceased calling me that.

  “Yes, Alaric, what do you want this time?” I asked teasingly, promising myself to enjoy every minute of their affection.

  While I wrapped the boys around my little finger, I got them to tell me how they’d found me.

  Jezebel had been thorough and meticulous in applying layers of most powerful spells to keep anyone from getting a whiff of me. Not even the vampires in her court, except the vampire king, knew that I’d been locked in the underground cage.

  But Lorcan, Reysalor, Pyrder, and Alaric had all been given a vision about me at the same time, and they’d been assigned different tasks. Reysalor was to find Lorcan and get him to ShadesStar to search for me. Lorcan was gifted with runes that he would need to release me. Pyrder was sent to get Alaric to track me, and they were both led to Misery Twist.