I nodded firmly and he seemed to relax.
“You're the first human I've chosen,” he said. “I'm not sure what is appropriate and what isn't, but I will try to learn.”
My brows lifted in surprise and my throat finally loosened enough to allow me to answer.
“Thank you,” I forced out. Not because I was grateful, but because I needed him to know that this was not okay. And if he was willing to try and empathise with my situation, then I had to encourage that.
“So,” he said, sharper. “Let's discuss Fabian.”
I sighed. This was what today was about. I had to be strong and fulfil my side of the bargain to ensure Erik stuck to his.
“Okay,” I agreed.
A mask of formality slid over his features. “My brother is a highly political man. But he has his weaknesses. A pretty girl can capture his attention for a while, but it is a certain rare breed who can captivate him entirely. I believe you are that breed.”
I snorted in disbelief. “Why?”
He grinned darkly. “You are beautiful, for one. But you are also fiery. And that kind of spark is what some men like in their women. Fabian included. I knew that when you stepped into the courtyard dressed in nothing but your underwear and your face smeared with mascara. Although Fabian would never have picked you in front of our entire royal court for the sake of propriety, I could tell he was tempted.”
I cleared my throat, trying not to focus on the fact he'd called me beautiful. A boy in the Realm had once called me that and I'd steered clear of him for a month to ensure he never said it again. But hearing it from Erik was something else entirely. How could a vampire admire me when I was supposed to be his packed lunch?
“But you also have a lot of work to do. Fabian won’t wish to be seen with you if he feels it will damage his reputation. So we have some damage control to do.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Tomorrow, you will not only be dressed respectfully, but you will show the right kind of interest in Fabian.”
“What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes.
“He must feel desired by you, but you must also play hard to get. Something the girls do not often do. If you capture his attention, he will forget all about your initial misconduct.”
My toes scrunched at his words and my neck heated up fast. I groaned in answer and Erik laughed in a deep rumble.
“Come here.” He patted the space between us and I reluctantly slid closer. He dropped an arm around my shoulders, took hold of my face and angled me toward a couple across the room. I tried to ignore his cool touch as I took in the female vampire dressed in a tight black dress that showed off her curves. She was running her hand up the male's arm, giggling about something as he spoke.
“You see what she's doing?” Erik asked.
“Yes...”
“That is how you must behave.”
I took a breath, nodding my agreement. This was going to be degrading.
As I watched, the male leaned in for a kiss and the woman offered her cheek at the last second.
Erik smirked, dropping his hand onto my knee. I nearly jumped out of my seat, but he kept it firmly in place.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
He turned toward me, brushing a lock of hair from my ear as he whispered, “The Elite are watching. I'm supposed to be courting you. They mustn't know what I'm really planning.”
I bit back my urge to ask more about Fabian. I'd only worried about how I was supposed to do this up until now, but the why was suddenly devouring me. Why did Erik want me to seduce his brother? What was the point in it?
Erik's fingers trailed over my neck and every fibre in my body came to life with his caress. Part of me wanted to pull away but I was locked in place and the longer his hands remained on me, the more I liked it.
What's the matter with you? He's a vampire!
“I have a meeting in an hour,” Erik purred in my ear, sending goosebumps skittering across my neck. “You will accompany me.”
Angus arrived with my food and I jumped on the opportunity to push away from Erik. I eyed the strange arrangement of bread, a turnip, a raw potato and some strawberries mixed in with a couple of radishes. My features skewed as Angus looked to me for approval. I supposed he'd tried his best...
“Eat,” Erik commanded as Angus placed it on a table before us with another low bow.
Despite not feeling remotely hungry, I picked up the plate and forced down a few bites. A lifetime of rations made me anything but complacent. And I had to keep up my strength.
Erik sat back in his seat, taking out his phone again and giving me some semi-privacy as I ate. I spotted the Elite watching me and offered them scowls when Erik wasn't looking. He might have wanted to keep up appearances, but I didn't care what they thought. And Erik hadn't specifically requested that I pretend to be interested in him, so I damn-well wasn’t going to.
I was trapped, pushing through swathes of white material as a man laughed. There was no joy in his mocking tone.
If they found me here I was as good as dead.
Food. I’m just food.
I cried, trying to run as the endless material caught around my legs, tripping me. Ebony hair spilled around me. Montana’s hair.
I was a captive. I would never get free of this place.
Dark eyes danced with joy as he found me and I stood frozen in place, the material wrapping its way around my body. He watched as it crushed me. Squeezing and squeezing until I couldn’t breathe. He watched and he laughed.
I didn’t know who he was or why he wanted me. I only knew one thing.
I was his.
“Callie?” Strong hands clamped around my arms, shaking me roughly. “It’s time to wake.”
I opened my eyes, fighting off the strange dream as the fear from it clung to me. Despite the strangeness of it, I’d found it weirdly reassuring. Like I had been with my sister, not just dreaming about her.
“Alright, I’m awake,” I muttered as I squinted up at Magnar whose face was disconcertingly close to mine.
He offered me a hand and pulled me upright. “Were you having a nightmare?” he asked.
“Not exactly... I had a strange dream about Montana.”
“Your sister? Perhaps she is sending you a message.”
“A what?”
“She is your twin so she has slayer blood too. You are both of the Clan of Dreams and as such, your innate gifts hold the power to communicate while you sleep. It is unlikely that either of you would be strong enough to do so in any fully conscious way without taking your vows though. And even then it is doubtful that you would be strong enough considering the fact that you are not full-blooded slayers. But anything is possible.” He shrugged.
“You mean I could talk to her in my sleep?”
“Perhaps. Whenever I was visited by an unrelated member of your clan in my dreams, I was shown only images. But my mother was of your Clan and when she visited me we could hold a full conversation. That could have been due to our blood tie. Or it could have been due to her considerable strength. She was undoubtedly the strongest Dreamer who ever lived in my time.”
“Why do your answers always leave me with more questions?” I asked. Even if the dreams did turn out to be some kind of weird connection to Montana it didn’t really help me. They were nonsense. I couldn’t glean any information from them other than the hope that she was still alive.
“We have a problem,” Magnar said, choosing to ignore my remark. “Something tried to break our wards last night.”
“Oh?” I asked, attempting to sound super casual about it but coming off more like a frightened mouse.
“It is not possible for a lesser vampire to even detect the wards let alone fight against them. Any who come close to them would find themselves heading away again and never even realise they’d been influenced to do so. The fact that someone has pushed very hard against those impulses concerns me. Someone of much greater importance must be hunting us now.�
�
“But that’s no issue for you right?” I asked. “I mean, you’re the guy who said ‘there’s only five’ the last time they came for us.”
“Your faith in my skill is quite flattering,” he replied, placing a hand on my shoulder. “But I am only one man. And all men die.”
“Wow. Thanks for the pep-talk. Are you really that concerned?” My heart fluttered uncomfortably at the thought that he was worried about this.
“No. But I do not wish for you to think of me as immortal. Death is a constant possibility. Every time I unleash my swords I know it could be my last fight. This is something you must accept if you are to be a slayer.”
“Got it. You might die, I might die, immortality is only for assholes. And speaking of immortal assholes, do you have any idea who has been sniffing around us?” My mind went to General Wolfe and my gut plummeted. I’d never seen a vampire feed off of a human before but the way he’d torn into my father was something I could never banish from my memory. It had been like watching some kind of crazed animal attack.
“It is certainly one of the Elite. I fear that if we continue on our course to the blood bank as we are then the one following us will figure out our destination. With the best will in the world, a single slayer will not stand a chance at taking that place down if they know I am coming.”
“One and a half slayers,” I teased.
Magnar tilted his head at me and smiled. “Maybe one and a quarter.”
“Harsh. But probably more accurate,” I conceded. “So what makes the Elite more formidable than the lesser vampires anyway?”
Magnar pushed his long hair back as he considered his answer. “Essentially it is because of who created them. A vampire’s strength comes from the one who sired them so the closer they are to the original line, the stronger they are. Those who were turned by an original vampire are the strongest of the Elite and any they sire are a little weaker, then any sired by them are weaker again.”
“So it’s kinda like each generation is less powerful than the last?” I asked, trying to follow what he was saying.
He nodded. “Do you remember what I told you about the Belvederes?”
“The ones who call themselves royalty?” I asked.
“They are the original vampire family. We called them the Revenants once but the gods decided to unite them under that false name.” His lip curled back in disgust and I could tell his hatred for them was more than just because of what they were. It was personal.
“You mean, they’re the ones who started all of this? How? Where did they come from?” I asked, shifting a little closer to him.
“There are many stories about that. Many theories. I suppose the only ones who truly know are the four of them. But if I ever get close enough to ask, I won’t be wasting time on questions,” he growled.
I itched to ask him why he hated them so much but the darkness in his eyes made me afraid of the answer.
“So you said they’re a family?” I asked, grasping onto a safer question.
“Yes of sorts. Though family is usually tied together through love and those monsters are incapable of such an emotion. Their loyalty to each other is born more out of a lust for power. They are siblings, or so they say though they bear little resemblance to each other. I do not believe they truly shared the same parents when they were human. There are three males and a female. And they call themselves royals,” he laughed like that was some kind of twisted joke and I shifted uncomfortably.
If he knew this much about them then it meant they’d held this power since his time. They’d had over a thousand years to solidify their influence and control before they’d taken over. How were we supposed to stand a chance against such an ancient power?
“What else do you know about them?” I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know the answer.
Magnar scowled as he thought about it. “The woman, Clarice, was known as the Golden Whore in my time. She is beautiful beyond words, though the sight of her porcelain face always turned my stomach. She has gathered an army about her who she calls her harem. Men who she seduced while they were still human and brought to her bed before turning them into one of her kind.
She would appear in human villages, flaunting herself at men she found desirable and would encourage them pursue her until they fell begging at her feet. There were nearly a hundred of those pathetic creatures trailing after her, aching for her touch and willing to lay down their lives for time between her legs.”
“And they just went along with that? They were happy to become like her? To leave their lives behind for a soulless monster?” I asked in disgust. I knew the vampires were beyond beautiful to look at but it had never made me desire them. Their beauty was unnatural and cold. The idea of going to bed with one of them made me feel ill. “Didn’t any of them refuse?”
“I think they were so deeply under her spell that the idea of refusal wouldn’t have occurred to them.”
“And the others?” I asked, wondering if I really wanted to know.
“The brothers. Fabian the Snake, Miles the False God and Erik,” he spat the final name with venom. “Killer of a Thousand Souls.”
I stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“Fabian created the Familiars. He found a way for the vampires to thread a piece of their soul into the hearts and minds of unwitting creatures. They would become their eyes and ears. Sunlight didn’t hurt them so they could spy on us even when we believed we were safe.
It caused devastation. The vampires would appear when we least expected them, always knowing our plans and lying in wait. We even executed some of our own, wrongly believing they had betrayed us before one of the prophets figured out what Fabian had done. We believed the colonies of bats that swarmed above our camps at night only came for the insects drawn close by the light of our fires. By the time we realised what he’d done, many souls were already lost.”
My mind whirled with the idea of the slayers having to come to terms with the fact that they had wrongly sacrificed some of their own because of the vampires’ cunning. It made me wonder if the Realms weren’t as bad as I’d thought. At least they didn’t kill us anymore. They made us give them blood but our lives held value to them now. It sounded as though it hadn’t always been that way.
“Miles was a different kind of monster,” Magnar continued. “He set himself up as a god, offering eternal life to any who proved their devotion to him. People built temples in his honour and showered him with gifts in the hopes that he would grant them immortality. But of course eternal life comes with a price which must be paid in blood.
Once he had changed those poor souls into vampires, he cut them loose claiming to want them to enjoy the freedom of eternity. But they craved blood above all else. Often they would return to their home towns in hopes of seeing their families only to be overwhelmed by their thirst. It would seem that most of those who are newly sired have little control over the bloodlust that drives them. They would lose control, killing those they loved and anyone else unlucky enough to cross their paths in their desperate need to satiate their desire for blood.” Magnar fell quiet and I shifted closer to him, my thigh brushing against his as I tried to offer him some comfort from the terrible memories.
The silence stretched and I could tell he didn’t want to speak of the final brother but I needed to know.
“And... the last brother?” I asked tentatively.
“Erik,” Magnar growled. “If I do one thing with my time on this earth then it shall be to remove him from it.”
“What did he do?” I asked, my voice almost a whisper.
“Many things. Countless atrocities. It was he who killed my father in the Battle of Atbringer. The clans were almost destroyed that day. He killed hundreds of us with his army of monsters.
Unlike his siblings, Erik has always been more particular about those he sires. He seeks out the greatest warriors, the most ruthless politicians, only the best of the best for his army. The Belvederes
were the only creatures to leave that battlefield with their lives. Although my father returned to us as well. But he was no longer alive. That monster had turned him into one of them, hoping to corrupt his soul and use him for his own vile purposes.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 17