He looked to Violet, whom Gwendolyn had promised to train. “You seem like a reasonable gent, but after that showing, I worry you’re going to drag her to the wolves.”
“No. I wish to speak to her without anyone else’s interference. She has to be coming back, yes? Only two women possess the knowledge to teach the new Sorceress her magic, and since you’re here, that narrows it down to Gwendolyn.”
He considered Jaromir, who’d proven to be the most stable of the awakened Ancients so far. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you take me to the mortals exploring the island tomorrow, I’ll get you to Gwendolyn.”
“Deal.” Jaromir offered his hand and they shook on it.
“What was that all about?” Violet asked as they parted ways and Alex inspected the block of stone that was supposed to be their door. The Blood Princes were dragging them on the stone below, the grinding sound nails to his ears. He ushered her into their room before setting to the task. While they made it look easy, he was sweating by the time the block was in front of the doorway. They needed real doors soon, he thought.
However, it was nice to have some privacy with her at last. She set up an LED lantern, lighting the bare stone of their new accommodations. As they rolled out their sleeping bags, combining them to make a fleecy bed, he said, “Jaromir wants to hear Gwendolyn’s actual plan. I figure she may actually tell him…so I plan for us to be there too.”
“You think she’ll be back?” She was looking around at the stone walls, her shoulders drawing in.
“I know she will be.” They were where he assumed a bed would be, a room away from the door, with a smaller room to the side where a bath might’ve once been. He drew her close to lay a kiss at her crown and distract her from her thoughts. “Hey. Just like camping,” he said.
With her eyes on him, she relaxed. A cute little crease furrowed between her brows as she considered the description. “What? Bare bones stuff?”
He took a moment to steal a kiss while she looked so confused. “Well, think of it this way. It’s just you and me, in the middle of nowhere. Nothing to worry about at home, everything taken care of there. We have time to explore. But more importantly…” he hands drifted lower, molding to her curves.
“Time alone,” she said, catching his drift with a coy look.
“And we have the paving stone level privacy.”
She muffled a laugh against his chest. “How’d my life get so weird?”
“You met me, love.” He considered her silver eyes shining with mirth. What a wild ride it’d already been for them, going from a zoo pen to a stone room in an ancient palace. “I hope you don’t regret it.”
His inner beast began to purr when she smiled. “How could I regret meeting you? I…I really like you,” she admitted, blushing faintly.
Simple pleasure flushed him as that little kernel of instinct cheered. She likes us!
Of course she likes us, he thought, but to hear her say it was a treat all its own.
“I really like you too,” he said. Now was his time. He could tell her how, miraculously, she was his second lifemate. How they were meant to be together. If they continued down this path, they could court a real mating bond, a vampire marriage of sorts where their enhanced mental capabilities ensured they could easily share thoughts and emotions.
The mating bond was bliss. He’d felt it before, and a part of him yearned for it again. But he thought, she isn’t ready for that yet and decided against saying a word about it.
They had nothing but time.
Chapter 25
Violet
ALEX GLADLY SHOWED her how he went “camping” with a lady well into the murky hours of what she assumed was morning. It was hard to tell with perpetual darkness pushing in around the lights they’d brought to chase those shadows away. She fell asleep in his arms when they finally turned out the lantern.
A part of her asked subconsciously, what if that nightmare comes back? She dreamt sweet nonsense with the foreboding that it was coming. Any second, her mind’s eye would switch to the moment she couldn’t fully remember, when an Ancient person in white forced her to drink the blood that’d changed her.
She woke up with a musty taste in her mouth and pressure in her head. Gwendolyn’s voice had somehow pulled her away right before the first scream could start, and for that, she was grateful, even as she blinked a groggy fog away. Next to her, Alex was still sprawled out like a content cat, snoring into a pillow he’d stolen from his bed. They may have sleeping bags, but he’d made sure their heads graced something nicer.
She glanced around, wondering if she’d imagined the Ancient’s voice. As she stretched, popping her back, the woman answered that question for her. “Violet?”
“Good morning,” she answered.
“Good evening,” the Ancient corrected primly. “Sleeping in, hmm?”
“Long day,” she said, a shrug to her tone. She had nothing to be ashamed of. Still, she nudged Alex awake and kept him abreast of the conversation as Gwendolyn arranged for them to meet her outside where the palace garden used to be.
Alex stretched languidly, resting his eyes. “I suppose we should get Jaromir and go. Wonder if we’ll run into any of the other Blood Princes today.” He made mental contact with Jaromir and led her from the room.
She frowned, honestly hoping not. They may be decent people and ancient war heroes, but something about them rubbed her wrong. With Alex and the other vampires she’d met, she’d fully believed they’d been human at one point. Not so with the Blood Princes, save for Jaromir.
She kept the LED lantern on. Even though she didn’t need it to see, it was better on her eyes. The palace seemed like less of a cave, and she spotted Korin and Sirius working together to haul driftwood and rotten things from further in the palace. They paused to watch her and the bright tool she held, blinking rapidly against the glare.
Out on the steps, Jaromir and Neala sat overlooking the island. It was another perfectly dark night, the heavens blanketed by a sheet of black velvet. Jaromir was mid-word as they both glanced up at the sudden light gracing them from behind. “Ah, hello,” he said, lifting a hand. “Don’t mind us. Just a therapy session.”
Neala’s flame-red eyes seemed to hold less rage, but a part of Violet still quailed to be in close proximity to someone so palpably angry. “Bad timing, hmm?” Alex tilted his head, a cue that he was sending some mental message.
“No such thing. A walk would do us good,” Jaromir replied after a few moments, his thoughtful gaze drifting to the burly woman next to him. She shook her head and stood, passing Violet with a stiff-legged gait on her way back into the palace.
He breathed a tense sigh once she was gone, starting the lengthy descent to the palace gardens and leaving Violet and Alex to follow. “I worry for her. There’s little my Gift has been able to do to ease her pain,” he said.
“What happened with her, if you don’t mind me asking?” Alex asked.
She didn’t think Jaromir would respond, as lost in his own mind that he seemed. She’d noticed the dark bags under his eyes were more pronounced, as if he were pouring all of himself into a task. But he slowed his gait halfway down the palace’s staircase just as she was starting to puff from exertion. “When Gwendolyn decided to sink Nyixa, she snuck some magical elixir into our drink. I remember it as if it were yesterday. We toasted to Adrius and Lucia’s good health with a dry, red wine. It was a delicious vintage. It was saved for a special occasion.”
“Wait, Adrius and Lucia were getting married?” she interrupted, her eyebrows raising to her hairline.
“At political knifepoint, yes. It was either that or we would tear the island in half with a costly civil war. Not that any of that matters anymore.” Jaromir sighed again, sounding as weary as the years on his shoulders. “My point is, Neala hates red wine. She sipped it to be polite while the rest of us enjoyed it highly. We fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.”
“Except for Lucia, as part of the revenge,” Alex commente
d.
“And Neala, who came aware before the rest of us, but only in her mind. I fear the experience has broken a fundamental part of her.”
Violet imagined it was a lot like locked-in syndrome from her limited understanding of both things. Someone able to understand what was happening around them, fully aware and thinking, but unable to move. “How long do you think she was awake for?” she asked, hushed with newfound respect for the mute woman and horrified that anyone would have that experience.
“Too long,” Jaromir replied, shaking his head.
“Does Gwendolyn know?” Alex asked tightly. He looked of a mind to tell her exactly what her actions had caused.
Jaromir laughed without humor. “Oh, she knows. For all our posturing and rough words, only Neala has attempted to murder Gwendolyn. I imagine nothing would break her heart more. Gwendolyn raised and adopted Neala as her own…long ago.”
“And this is why you don’t try to drown an entire nation,” Alex muttered.
“I respect that she stopped Fell Madness in its tracks. She acted in the best interest for mortal kind,” the Ancient said in his most healer-gentle tone. “But most will think her too extreme. Especially when confronted with the consequences for the survivors.”
She nodded to herself, appreciating how realistic he was. “You all deserve better than to live in an empty palace.”
“Small steps, young Sorceress,” he replied, guiding them through the marshy ground where there was plenty of space for an impressive garden. She was glad for her lantern, side-stepping anything that looked like it’d once been at the bottom of the ocean. It seemed he knew exactly where Gwendolyn would be, leading them to the stone foundation and benches of what may have once been a covered veranda.
The Ancient woman struggled to her feet when she spotted Jaromir. Violet wiped her shoes against the stone block, keeping a respectful distance with Alex as the Blood Prince hopped forward to help stabilize her. They shared a few private words before she covered her mouth with a shaking hand. Her shoulders shook as Jaromir drew her into a hug.
“Probably the easiest forgiveness she’ll find here,” Alex murmured as they turned away from the reunion to give them a moment of privacy.
“I think they all need something like this,” she said, her lips quirking at how monumental a task that seemed. “We’re all on the same side, but it sure doesn’t seem like they know it.”
“Trust. Hard to win and easy to lose.” He played with a lock of her hair, his knuckles grazing her cheek tenderly. She leaned into his touch, wishing they were still alone. Maybe once things relaxed, they could go camping for real. Just get lost in the wilderness together without any worry for Haven, Lucia, or these morose Ancients.
He pressed his lips to her crown before turning to the other two. Jaromir had offered his arm to Gwendolyn, supporting her in the stead of her cane. “I promised you a visit to the mortals here,” he said to Alex.
“We can practice as we go,” Gwendolyn said to her. For the first time since meeting her, the Ancient seemed cheerful. If it were possible, she imagined there would be a bounce to her step. “Beginning magic is hand gestures until you have the proper tools to channel it. Come along.”
“Coming,” Violet said, a smile spreading across her face. In that moment, she decided she wanted to help make things right here. As much as one person could.
With Jaromir’s support, Gwendolyn was able to walk at a reasonable pace. They headed into the city proper within the ball of light from Violet’s lantern, revealing what was left of Nyixa’s solid spine after its long nap under the waves. “We keep any visitors on the far side of the island,” Jaromir said. “Gentle mesmerization only. They have no idea that we share this place with them, nor why no one has any urges to explore the palace. Their strange inventions do not work here, yet more and more arrive daily.”
“They won’t leave until they have answers,” Gwendolyn remarked.
“Well, they’re missing a huge part of the puzzle without knowing about vampires and magic,” Violet said, wondering what they would do when there were too many people to mesmerize and trick. The men and women sent to investigate Nyixa were on the cusp of the findings of a lifetime. She wiped clammy palms on her jeans at how close vampire kind was to being revealed to the whole world.
“It’s only a matter of time.” She echoed Violet’s thoughts. “We will choose how and when to reveal ourselves. There is only one chance for a good impression after all.”
Jaromir glanced over at her, a thoughtful look on his face. “What are you planning?”
As they passed through a ghost town of plots and crumpled stone buildings, her voice echoed and bounced. “I was thinking of meeting with world leaders, explain—”
“No,” he interrupted gently. “That, we can handle later. What is your plan to stop Lucia?”
Her gaze drifted to Alex and Violet. “You will not like my answer.” It was unclear who she was referring to—all of them maybe. Violet certainly didn’t like the foreboding of her tone.
“I would rather know the unsavory elements of your plotting this time,” Jaromir said, seeming unsurprised by the grim turn of Gwendolyn’s manner.
She breathed a sigh. “Of course. I have no desire to sacrifice you or anyone else, despite what I’m about to tell you. The summer solstice approaches in mere days. Do you know the significance of that?”
They all shook their heads. “Our young friends have lived in an age untainted by the evils of worlds beyond ours, Jaromir. Allow me to explain the old times to them,” she said, and he inclined his head with a thoughtful frown.
Alex exchanged a dubious glance with Violet. It was clear he was about at his limit with tales of the past, though everything Gwendolyn had told them so far seemed to be true. “The Fell had a tool they used to open a portal to our lands,” she began. As they turned a corner, Violet’s eyes landed on a multi-story object, pristine amongst the destruction around it. “This tool, in fact. In Jaromir’s time, we called it a Grand Occultarus. I’ve come to understand it more in the years that’ve passed.”
They stopped so Violet could crane her neck up to behold it in its dark majesty. The stone blocks around its base were carved with a number of strange symbols. Its tarnished metal rose and thinned out like the stem of a wine glass before curving around in a giant sickle carved with more unfamiliar markings. Between the point of the sickle and the base was an orb as large as a house, glimmering by lantern light like an oversized black marble.
Gwendolyn crossed herself with shaking fingers. “Do not look too closely into its darkness. It has a mind of its own and takes delight in tormenting. This, my young friends, is an Eye of Worlds, one of two in existence. When the orb spins, it becomes a portal to another world. I sacrificed my life and light to close it when we took the island.”
“Your light?” Violet repeated, feeling her shoulders draw in the more she gazed upon the structure. It was most unnatural in its pristine sheen, surrounded by the rubble of a lost age.
Gwendolyn shook her head as if it weren’t important. Jaromir spoke up in her stead. “She was once a nephilim, half angel.”
“That’s impossible,” Alex muttered.
“It’s the truth if you believe it or not.” She turned to Violet, who was still following along, willing to give any idea a try if it made sense. “Fell were an aberration from a different world, cursed husks of their former selves as the fair folk of Faerie. Their release on Earth was part of a plot to conquer it.”
Violet bit her lip, her gaze drifting to Jaromir, who nodded along as if she spoke a truth he’d heard many times before. “Fairies?” she said, finding that hard to believe. But if vampires could exist in complete secret from humans for so long…
“Yes, though they prefer to be called fae. Before our time,”—she indicated Jaromir with a tilt of her head—“angels, demons, and fae all had the ability to come to Earth on the basis of a list of incredibly strict rules. A subsect of Unseelie fae broke all tho
se rules when I was born by connecting Earth permanently to their land of punishment, which we call the Fell Lands. They set the Fell loose on the world to consume it so they could rule the ashes.”
Alex frowned, raising a hand to pause her. “And why are there no records of this anywhere?”
“There are, but so much time has passed that they are little more than myths. We didn’t realize it at the time, but silencing this Eye of Worlds made the boundary between Earth and other lands almost impossible to pass through. The Unseelie are permanently trapped in Faerie to punish their hubris.” She saw the dubious looks both of them were giving her now. “How do I know this? I am friends with a set of Seelie who ensure the balance remains that way. They are only able to come to Earth once a year, when the sun burns longest in our sky…the summer solstice.”
Alex chewed on this knowledge, looking like he was still having a hard time with his disbelief. “So, you are waiting until the summer solstice to enlist your Seelie friends to help us?”
“That’s right. There is a special place in Faerie I’ve taken those too dangerous to kill,” she said, her tone resuming its grave tenor. “When any vampire dies, a portion of the Fell in them can pass on to an heir of sorts. It’s how the Blood Princes earned their power so quickly—they took it directly from Fell.”
“So those old vamp’s you’ve curated…” Both Alex and Jaromir frowned at some implication Violet wasn’t understanding as Alex’s voice drifted off.
“They sleep, like Lucia and the Blood Princes did until recently. That way, they do no harm and have no chance of sharing their madness with others,” she confirmed. “The Seelie help preserve and seal the Vault of the Ancients. Without a cure…it’s necessary.”
Violet’s skin crawled with unease, realizing now why the others were staring at Gwendolyn. Alex with fear, Jaromir with something akin to resignation as he said, “You will place Lucia there to sleep until the end of time.”
Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1 Page 15