The Usurper

by Candy Crum

  Khanae smiled. “Oh, I’m actually the rightful heir to that throne, but you’ll learn more about that eventually. We’ll stick to the basics for now. As Khia grew, she became unstable. While sneaking into the underground prison to see a man she had been secretly working with, an angry, vengeful spirit approached her. This wasn’t the spirit of one man, but dozens.

  “Hundreds of men had been sentenced to life in those cells, and some had been sentenced to die. They perished with hate in their hearts, their souls never moving on. Each soul left behind was absorbed into the last, growing larger and more powerful until it was an entity strong enough that even Anubis couldn’t see or get near it.”

  Kailah’s eyes widened. “That’s horrifying.”

  The queen nodded. “It is. That entity promised her the world. It told her if she allowed it to possess her, if she gave it a vessel to leave the confines of that prison, it would give her the power to usurp her parents’ throne. No one would be able to stop her.”

  The story gave Kailah chills. She had never heard of anything so frightening. Out of all the things she’d seen so far, Khia’s origin was far more terrifying than all the rest.

  “And she said yes,” Kailah said said flatly.

  Khanae nodded. “I discovered her plan and went to tell the Pharaoh and his queen, but it was too late. Khia decapitated both of them in front of everyone, the queen’s head coming to rest at my feet.” She paused, tears welling in her dark green eyes. “Khia had me arrested and eventually sentenced to death. But clearly, that didn’t exactly work in her favor.”

  “She turned on you so easily?”

  The Vampire offered a sad smile. “I’d suspected wrongdoings for weeks, and I’d tried so hard to help redirect her. She wanted us to rule together. When I refused, she marked me a traitor. My death was far viler than I’m sure even Khia was aware of, but when I arose as the very creature Anubis feared, I made a vow I would save the Egyptian people.”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that didn’t happen,” Kailah snarked. “God! Why do I keep doing that? I swear, I’m not usually a condescending asshole.”

  Khanae laughed. “I know. Don’t worry about it. After everything I’ve seen, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to offend me. Besides, it’s your instincts talking, not you. And actually, I did save the Egyptian people. I never claimed the throne, but the Wolf queen and I were always there to stop Khia.”

  Kailah sighed. “So, this heinous bitch is my ancestor? Because if I’m hating on you so badly, seems the genes are pretty strong. Am I possessed?”

  Khanae laughed. “No. You’re not possessed. Khia knew that I was able to create more Vampires by blood transfer. She tried, but it failed. She finally came across a spell, but it didn’t work as planned. Khia was able to create six other Immortals. They are called ‘the Mothers’, and you are descended from one of them. The first one she created. The first was the strongest, but each consecutive one Khia created was weaker and weaker, so she stopped trying.”

  What a mess, Kailah thought.

  “Well, this is all great and overwhelming. How do I know you aren’t compelling me into complacency?” Kailah said.

  “Oh, you’d know if I was.”

  Kailah’s left brow lifted. “Of course, you’d say that.”

  The corner of Khanae’s mouth turned up as her eyes narrowed. They darkened slightly, and Kailah quickly became aware of her red, vampiric aura. It flashed a darker red, and Kailah’s head began to throb. She tried to reach for it, but her body wouldn’t respond.

  “On your knees,” Khanae said, her voice soft but still authoritative.

  Kailah’s stomach twisted in knots, but it wouldn’t purge like it should have. She could feel herself giving in to Khanae’s command as she slid off the couch. It wasn’t anything like what she thought compulsion would be.

  She thought she would black out and wake up later after having completed whatever she was told to do. Or maybe she would wake up with a totally different opinion about things than she’d had before—not that she would know that.

  But this was not that.

  She was very aware that Khanae was controlling her every move. She just couldn’t fight it.

  Once Kailah was on the ground, Khanae’s energy abruptly faded. Kailah shook her head, the pain almost immediately dissipating. “What the hell?”

  “No Vampire in the world has the power to compel you, save for one,” Khanae said, a bit of amusement in her voice.

  “I’m gonna have to take a wild guess and say that’s you,” Kailah said.

  Khanae nodded. “If any Vampire tries to meddle in your head—myself included—your body will immediately begin to react. You’ll know. And no Vampire aside from me has the ability to compel you anyway. It’s hard to do even for me. Which is why you remain fully aware of what’s happening, even though you give in and do it anyway. That might change, though, once you’re powerful enough to kill me.”

  Kailah moved to sit on the couch again. “I’ll be powerful enough to kill you?”

  The Vampire queen laughed. “Oh, sweetheart. You’ll be powerful enough to do anything you want. You’ll be stronger than Khia, Sayen, and me combined. Don’t try to think too much on it. It’ll only drive you crazy. One step at a time. For right now, would you like to see Rachel?”

  Kailah nodded. “That would be great. Where is she?”

  “She’s downstairs with my boys,” she said with a smile.

  Kailah’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly do you mean by ‘my boys’?”

  “I adopted them when they were only eight. They’re entire family had been wiped out by Rogues. It was terrible. I killed the Rogues and took the boys with me.”

  Kailah gave a dark smile. “And exactly how long ago was that, would you say?”

  “Hmm. I guess that was about a hundred and seventy-fivish years ago? They transitioned at twenty-seven.” Khanae’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to fucking kill them, that’s why.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Without another word, Kailah jumped up and ran through the house. Anger overwhelmed her ability to think straight. All she could think of was that she’d left her best friend in the hands of Vampires—not humans.

  They’d lied.

  They hadn’t approached her at random. They’d done it on purpose. They’d sought her out. Her instant dislike of them made perfect sense now, though she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t sense what they really were. She’d been nervous, but not sick.

  Kailah ran out of the room, down the hall, and bolted down the stairs. Though she’d never been in the house before that night, her instincts were leading the way.

  Khanae was shouting something behind her, something about Sayen cloaking the twins, but she didn’t fully hear it. She didn’t care what the Vampire—queen or not—had to say.

  Nothing felt right anymore. Up was down; down was up. Kailah felt lost and out of control. It was how she imagined severe mood disorders felt. While she always hated that people had to go through that, she never fully understood what it was like—until now. She couldn’t imagine having to go through it often. It felt like losing her mind entirely.

  “Kailah, listen to Khanae,” Aeric said as she jumped down the last three steps. He held up his hands as she quickly walked toward him, death in her expression. “We had no choice! You weren’t going to let us take her, and you damn near killed me when you pushed me. I had no choice but to lie.”

  “Listening to my thoughts now?” Kailah asked, growing angrier by the second. “Why am I not surprised? That’s quite a nasty little trait. I bet you’ve been invading my privacy all night.”

  “Once again, I haven’t been doing it facetiously. This has been a very stressful night. I only listened in when I had to as a precaution, though that mental breakdown you had coming down the stairs was so fun to hear.”

  “You bastard!” Kailah yelled as she rounded the couch.

  Aer
ic stood from the couch, towering over her as he looked down into her eyes. With that proximity, her blood felt like it was on fire.

  “Uh oh,” Brett said. “The fight’s on now, Brother. You pissed off the wrong Immortal this time, didn’t ya?”

  Ignoring his brother completely, Aeric said, “Had I not done what I did, Rachel would be dead. Do you not understand that? She was dying, Kailah. A hospital wouldn’t have been able to save her. All the surgeries in the world wouldn’t have fixed what he did. Giving her my blood while she was that weak could have turned her—”

  “You were going to turn her?” Kailah shrieked, clearly missing everything he’d said and only hearing what her anger would allow her to. All rational thought flew out the window, not that she had much left anyway. All that was left was blood. His blood. And she wanted to spill as much of it as possible right then.

  She balled up her fist and threw a punch, putting her entire body into the swing. With absolutely no prior training, that went over swimmingly due to her craptastic aim.

  He easily dodged her poor attempt and caught her fist in his large hand. A low growl escaped him as her power burned into his skin. He’s so much stronger than Jeff, she thought when he didn’t flinch at the pain.

  In an instant, he spun her around so her back was tight against his chest, and he pinned her arms around her waist, holding her wrists tight. It didn’t matter how angry and desperate she was to hurt him, trying to break out of his grasp was like trying to break free of a vice. He was so strong that he barely had to try.

  Which only served to piss her off more.

  “That wasn’t very nice of you, Kailah,” Aeric said. “Didn’t your mommy teach you it’s not nice to hit people?”

  She struggled against him again, and she heard him laugh. He’s actually enjoying this! Bastard!

  “Now, you didn’t let me finish,” he continued as he lowered his mouth to her ear. “I said that turning her was the only way that I could save her. Not that I wanted to. That’s why I lied. I needed to get her here as quickly as possible so Khanae and Sayen could save her.”

  “I told you she was feisty,” Brett commented amusedly.

  “I’m coming after you next, big boy!” she said, fighting Aeric with all the strength she had to get free.

  “Aw! But you’re doing so well with Aeric!” Brett let out another laugh, and she felt her adrenaline surge with her anger.

  “Kailah! Stop this!” Rachel shouted from the couch. “They’ve been nothing but helpful.” Her voice was weak, but she still managed. While Kailah could tell her friend was feeling better, she obviously wasn’t back to her old self.

  “They lied to me! Especially—this one!”

  She grunted as she threw her head back. Aeric still had his head lowered, and it was just enough to allow her to headbutt him directly in the nose.

  Pain radiated through her head as she felt mutual bone crunching as his nose gave way to her skull. His nose was unnaturally sturdy, but she managed to get the job done—even if it did do equal damage to her.

  Using his temporary confusion to her advantage, she whipped around, breaking his hold on her and thrust a knee into his groin as hard as she could before throwing her hands out to push him back.

  She remembered how badly she’d hurt Jeff and burned Aeric in the alley, though she hadn’t known until he told her. She hoped to do it again.

  Unfortunately for her, things didn’t work out as planned, and he recovered much faster than she imagined he would.

  The knee to the balls had done next to nothing, and as she threw her hands out, he caught them by the wrists. He winced in pain for a moment but easily brushed it off.

  In quick, fluid movements, he pulled Kailah against him before sweeping her legs out from under her and taking her to the floor. He smoothly followed her down, trapping both her wrists on the floor over her head in one of his hands as the other held up some of his weight.

  She thrust her hips, trying to throw him off, but his speed and strength were far too much for her to compete with. In the blink of an eye, he had his legs wrapped around hers and used his powerful hips to finish pinning her down. She tried to fight, but the way he had her pinned made movement almost impossible.

  Aeric’s body was flush against hers, and his face was close enough that she could feel his warm breath. His long, dark hair cocooned them, and his dark green eyes were ringed in reddish-black.

  “Is this what you wanted to see?” he asked, a devious smile growing on his face.

  Her eyes were drawn to his mouth as his teeth lengthened and sharpened. Just like Sydney and Jeff, there were four perfectly angled teeth suited for tearing into someone. They weren’t nearly as long as Jeff’s had been, and she wondered if maybe that was a trait of some kind.

  Somehow, through the blind hatred and rage, she felt a completely unwanted and unexpected, non-Vampire related skip in the rhythm of her heart. Her body—much like it had been the entire night—was warring with itself. Kailah’s attraction to him was warring against her body’s need to destroy him.

  His eyes narrowed, and he licked his lips before his dangerous smile returned. At that moment, judging by the look on his face, she became painfully aware that he was more than likely able to sense what was happening to her.

  He pressed himself harder against her, causing her to bite her own lip. There was a momentary wince of pain from Aeric as a jolt of energy passed through her and into him, but he quickly recovered as a subtle darkness crossed his face.

  “By the way, love. If you were actually trying to hurt me with that little move of yours earlier, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that.” His voice was smooth and deep, the accent she couldn’t place thicker right then. “I’m not built like weak human men. There isn’t a place on my body that isn’t exponentially stronger.

  He laughed. “Including that one. I can take more punishment than that. Care to try again? Or would you rather do something a bit more… fun?”

  Arrogant bastard, she thought, even though she couldn’t exactly figure out which part of her had said that.

  “Enough!”

  Kailah gasped as the ground beneath them began to shake with the sound of a familiar voice.

  Car alarms outside sounded as things began to rattle across the coffee table and fell from mantle. It reminded her of the day she’d met Sydney.

  A shadow fell over Kailah and Aeric, both of them looking up. “Aeric,” was all the woman said. Her tone had been stern yet loving.

  A rush of warmth went through Kailah as she looked into the eyes of the woman she now realized was Sayen. Her rage almost immediately calmed, and she was suddenly left with the awkward attraction she felt to the man pinning her to the floor—in front of her ancestor, no less.

  “Kailah,” Aeric said with a genuine smile, his teeth retracted and the greens of his eyes normal once again. “This is Sayen.”

  “Aeric, my love, would you kindly remove yourself from my granddaughter’s person?” Sayen asked.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The ground had stopped trembling, and when Kailah looked into her beautiful face, she was smiling down at Aeric. It was a smile he happily returned.

  “Oh. Yeah. Sure thing,” he said.

  He stood and extended his hand to help Kailah up like nothing had happened. She looked at him incredulously and slapped his hand away.

  “Dear God, I hate you,” she said harshly.

  She faintly remembered that having been the second time that night she’d told him that. As he reacted to her comment with nothing more than a soft smile, it occurred to her that she had no idea it was possible to despise someone so much in such a small timeframe.

  Though, he was making it very easy for her.

  “It’ll pass,” Aeric said. “And, uh, sorry for all that.” He pointed to the floor.

  “Yeah, apology not accepted, you oaf,” Kailah snapped.

  He barked out a loud laugh. “Oaf? Seriously? Let’s not forget w
ho attacked who first, sweetheart. It was self-defense. Well, most of it. Can’t say I didn’t enjoy some of that—and I smelled the change in your scent. You can’t either.”

  “Dear lord, children,” Khanae said from behind them. “Do you hear yourselves?”

  That was just the problem… Kailah did hear this, and she found it stupid. She wanted to shut herself up, but it was like she had no control. She hated herself like this.

  “You did hit him first,” Sayen said. “And Vampires can feel your rage. They feed on it in a way. When your energy is going crazy like that, it makes them retaliate in the same way.”

  “So basically, one of us escalates and the other matches until we die,” Kailah said flatly. It was more of an observation than anything. “Great.”

  Sayen smiled. “He has to adjust to you just like you have to adjust to him. Your energy is new. And you’ve gone at him pretty hard today.”

  “How the hell would you know? You haven’t—”

  Sayen tapped the side of her head, interrupting Kailah.

  “Ah. Yeah. That’s right.” Kailah sighed heavily. “Well, this is all incredibly annoying and confusing. I don’t like any of it, and I especially don’t like him. Or him.” She pointed at Brett.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure you like one of us,” Brett said, pointing at Aeric with a smirk.

  Kailah pointed back, ready to argue, and Sayen put her hands on her shoulders before walking her to the kitchen.

  With only the few extra feet put between them, her emotions plummeted. Her entire body was trembling with the constant up and down. Tears filled her eyes as she started to feel more like herself.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Kailah said. A tear spilling down each cheek. “I mean, I had a hard time accepting it, but I vowed I would do it to make sure my family stayed safe. But this back and forth, the constant push and pull, I feel like I’m going insane.”

  Sadness reflected in Sayen’s eyes as well. The Immortal placed her hand on Kailah’s cheek. “I know. I grew up in this life, so I can’t imagine how hard this is for you. I never transitioned. I was born a full-blooded Immortal. Even though Immortal women mate with human men, the children are always fully Immortal. You, however, were truly human. You’re going through a full transition, like a Vampire does, only far slower and far more painful. But I promise you, it will get easier.”