In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete Third Season

by Frater, Rhiannon

  Dexios pulled up a chair and leaned toward her as Vanora took a first bite. It was delicious.

  “Pólemos is having me watched and I can’t enter parts of the haven. The temple is heavily guarded now. There’s been a lot of activity near the cell blocks.”

  “Cell blocks?”

  “Where Aeron keeps prisoners before he kills them.”

  Wincing, Vanora took another sip of broth. “I see.”

  “I heard a rumor that Aeron called off the purge last night, but also had prisoners brought to the haven. It’s going to be a little difficult finding out who the prisoners are.”

  “It could be any of Roman’s vampires.”

  Dexios nodded. “Kallos will have to look into it once the sun sets. She can’t move around right now. There is too much activity in the haven.”

  Sensing the wistfulness in his voice, Vanora patted his arm lightly. “I’m sorry you’re going through all of this.”

  “It’s harder the closer we get to a resolution. I’m almost afraid to hope that we’ll have some sort of happy ending.” Dexios shoved his dark hair back from his face.

  “Me, too.”

  “You can do this, Vanora. I know it will be hard. But you can.”

  The next few bites were eaten in silence. The sensation of the spell attempting to manifest, yet teetering on the brink of unraveling, was a constant, unsettling presence. She hadn’t lied to Alisha the night before. Though she was clinging to her identity as Vanora Socoli, sister to Roman and Alisha, she felt the emergence of the White Queen. She regarded the persona as all the characteristics that Arianrhod’s spell had created in her. What frightened her most was how difficult it was to hold onto her human life the more immersed she became in the supernatural world.

  “Can I?” Had she played into Arianrhod’s hands?

  “Vanora, don’t be afraid,” Dexios said with apparent concern.

  Setting the spoon in the white bowl, Vanora stared down at the silver bracelet and ring that Armando had given her. She needed to cling to her love for him. “I can’t really explain how I feel.”

  “Torn between two identities. Dual natures. Right?”

  “Or maybe you do.” Vanora let out a nervous giggle.

  “I am a wolf. I am a man. Sometimes the wolf speaks more loudly than the man. And sometimes the reverse. The emotions of my two natures are sometimes in conflict with one another. It is during those times that I am most lost until I remember who I am.”

  “So, who are you?”

  “Both. I am the wolf. I am the man.”

  “But how can I be Vanora Socoli and the White Queen at the same time? Don’t they directly contradict each other?”

  “I don’t know. Do they?” Dexios cocked his head and lifted an eyebrow.

  Vanora answered truthfully. “I don’t know.”

  Finishing her dinner, Vanora pondered his question. It was difficult to sort it out when fear was starting to make it hard to swallow her food.

  Once she was done, Dexios claimed the tray and stood. “Have you decided where you want to greet him? Here? The throne room? One of the parlors?”

  It pained her to realize she didn’t fear Aeron. She feared her reaction when she’d finally see him. “The throne room.” It seemed like a less intimate setting, therefore safer.

  Dexios raised his eyebrows, and then grinned. “Let me return this to the kitchen, then I’ll escort you there.”

  “There’s a kitchen?”

  “He has to make sure his queen is well fed, doesn’t he?”

  “He’s so--” Vanora stopped herself.

  Dexios paused at the doorway. “Sweet?”

  “Thorough,” she amended.

  “Right.”

  The werewolf let himself out the door.

  Vanora sighed and pressed one hand over her wildly beating heart.

  She couldn’t lose herself.

  She had to remain strong.

  She was Vanora Socoli.

  * * *

  Strident voices and someone violently shaking her gradually tugged Alisha out of her death-like sleep. It was incredibly difficult to focus, and nearly an impossible task to open her eyes. Leaden limbs and a heavy head summoned her back from sleep.

  “Alisha, look at me,” an accented male voice demanded.

  “I’m trying,” she muttered, or at least thought she did.

  “Give her more blood,” a female voice urged.

  Fresh blood flowed between her lips and over her tongue, which felt thick and heavy. The trickles of hot liquid slipping into her gullet were a wonderful sensation.

  “Alisha, wake up.”

  It was Armando.

  “Trying,” she groused.

  “Alisha, open your eyes.”

  Dexios this time.

  After an immense struggle, Alisha’s eyelids peeled back to reveal Armando leaning over her. Beyond him was a stark white room, silver bars extending from the floor to the ceiling, and a cluster of people staring at her. She was reclining against a wall. Nearby, a bleary-eyed Alexander was tugging on his boots and zipping them up.

  “We almost have Carlotta awake.”

  The familiar voice was welcomed. It was Angel. He’d survived.

  “Where are we?” Alisha croaked.

  Armando offered her another swig from a white mug. The blood inside was so fresh it steamed the icy air. “Aeron’s haven.”

  “What?” Alisha shoved the cup aside and tried to get to her feet.

  Grabbing her wrist, Armando heaved her up. “We were betrayed.”

  “That fucking demon! I knew it!” Alisha wobbled on her feet and grabbed Armando’s shoulder. “I knew we couldn’t trust him!”

  Armando slung an arm around her waist to support her, his expression tormented. “We had no choice.”

  “And now we’re here.” If she ever got her hands on that demon, she’d rip his head off.

  It took some effort, but Alisha managed to focus on the scene around her. Dexios and a tall, slender young woman with brown curly hair were on the other side of the bars, while trapped inside the prison were an assortment of supernatural creatures. Tracy, Angel, Carlotta, Armando, and Alexander were all familiar faces, but there were others she didn’t recognize. The strangers oozed otherness and she wondered what they were.

  Angel and Tracy pushed through the cluster of people to stand near Alexander. Both looked pretty battered and Angel was naked from the waist up. Neither mentioned Sheila’s very noticeable absence, but Tracy moved to hug Alexander. The tall vampire leaned into her embrace.

  “Where is Vanora? Is she safe, Dexios?” The second she asked the question, Alisha felt foolish. How could any of them truly be safe in Aeron’s haven?

  “She’s here. She’s prepared to do what she must.”

  “How did we end up here, Dexios?” Armando demanded.

  “I overheard that Vanora’s sister had been captured, so I told Dexios,” Kallos explained.

  Looking just as frustrated as Alisha felt, Dexios added, “As soon as we could slip past the guards, we came to see if it was true.”

  So the pretty brunette was Dexios’s love. Alisha was surprised to feel just a tiny bit of jealousy.

  “Well, now let us out of here,” a man in a very outdated, ill-fitting polyester suit ordered. He was a big man with a pudgy face and receding hairline.

  “We can’t do that,” Kallos answered.

  “Why not?” Alisha and the other man asked in harmony.

  “The cell is locked with magic. Only the correct magical key can open it,” Kallos answered. “If we try to open it, the spell will incinerate us.”

  “Then what is the point of you being here?” the large man shouted.

  “Hank, calm down,” Armando ordered.

  “Calm down? Armando, how the fuck am I supposed to calm down when half my pack is trapped in here with me?”

  “You were supposed to get out of Houston.” Armando’s golden gaze was filled with pity.

 
“Well, obviously we didn’t make it out before your big daddy came knocking.” Hank snarled with frustration and a woman with lots of red hair rubbed his arm in an attempt to calm him.

  “If you didn’t come to get us out, why are you here?” Feeling more awake now, Alisha was steadier on her feet. She disengaged herself from Armando’s gentle hold and approached the bars. A wave of nausea gripped her all at once and she took a sharp step back. She wasn’t sure if it was the silver coating the bars or the ward that was the cause.

  “Be careful,” Kallos said, concerned.

  “Answer her question.” Armando took Alisha’s arm and pulled her back to his side. “Why did you come here if not to save us?”

  “Firstly, we came to verify you were actually here. Secondly, to warn you,” Dexios continued.

  Alisha may have known Dexios a short time, but she had noticed more than once how he tried to retain a calm demeanor while delivering bad news. His worry was always given away by a slight shift of his eyes to one side.

  “Warn us about what?” Armando’s eyebrows were drawn together in a tight line.

  “All of Aeron’s children are now here. He summoned them all.” Dexios glanced toward Alisha. “He anticipated Vanora’s ascension to his side, so he called all his children to him to celebrate.”

  “The most dangerous of all vampires,” Carlotta said groggily. She was in the arms of a young teenage vampire. He tenderly stroked her hair as she attempted to waken fully.

  “I don’t understand why we’re still alive,” Angel said, his Mexican accent thicker than usual. “Why bring us here and not just kill us?”

  “Sacrifices for the celebration,” Armando grimly said.

  Those words sent a shiver through Alisha’s body and obviously unnerved the other prisoners.

  “Gladiator games. Vampires against werewolves,” Hank said darkly. “Like the old days.”

  “He did have a pit made in one of the warehouses,” Kallos admitted.

  “But he wouldn’t kill her, right?” Tracy pointed at Alisha.” She’s Vanora’s sister.”

  “He might be planning to have Vanora kill both her and me,” Armando answered.

  “But Vanora wouldn’t do that!” Tracy protested.

  “He’s counting on her becoming his White Queen and transforming into the monster he is,” Kallos explained.

  “But she won’t!” Tracy noticed Alisha’s grim look. “Right?”

  Pushing away her own fears, Alisha said, “Of course she won’t. She’s my sister and your friend.”

  “We need to get out of here now.” Hysteria laced Carlotta’s words as she struggled to stand. The teenage boy at her side grappled with her, trying to keep her from lunging toward the bars.

  “We can’t without the magical key,” Hank growled.

  “Go find it then,” Carlotta ordered, pointing at Dexios and Kallos. “What good are you if you’re not going to help us?”

  Looking every bit as frustrated as they did, Dexios drew close to the bars. “We came to warn you so you can be ready to fight back when the time comes. We’re going to try to find a way to free you, but if we can’t, you will need to decide for yourselves when is the right time to strike. We’ll do what we can, but we were lucky to get in to see you. Since the bars are silver and the cell warded, the only guards on this floor are at the entrance. So we came in a secret way.”

  “Then get us out the secret way,” Hank snarled.

  “We can’t get you out of the cell,” Kallos reminded him.

  “Then what good are you?” Hank flashed wolf teeth as he put his back to the bars.

  Alisha now recognized that the people hunkered around Hank were all werewolves. They were obviously not Leto’s wolves, so they must have been a pack already existing in Houston. The purge had apparently extended past the vampires.

  “Can you let Vanora know we’re here?” Alisha wasn’t sure what her sister could do for them, but it seemed important that she know they were trapped in the lair.

  Dexios shook his head. “I doubt it. I escorted her to the throne room before Kallos found me. She’s there waiting for Aeron, and now that the vampires are awakening, getting to speak to her will be very difficult. But should we find the opportunity, we will tell her.”

  “So you came here to just warn us of our impending death.” Armando tucked his hands into his leather coat and glowered at Dexios.

  “Vanora will find a way.” Alisha placed a soothing hand on Armando’s arm, but he shrugged it off.

  “Where is the demon?” Armando risked the spell and flung the white mug through the bars.

  Dexios snatched it out of the air and shoved it into his coat pocket. Alisha glimpsed blackened flesh on his forearm. Apparently, Dexios had brought the mug of blood to revive her.

  “I don’t know where Greg is,” Dexios replied.

  “But he sold us out. Why?” Armando cocked his head, his gold gaze hard and demanding “Why would he do that?”

  Flicking his gaze briefly at Kallos, Dexios sharply inhaled. “To see Siana.”

  “Then you need to get to Siana before he does,” Armando said significantly.

  “To hurt her?” Alisha gaped at Armando. “Is that what you want to do?”

  “No. To lift the ward. She’s the one who cast it. We need to get out of here,” Armando replied, giving her a dark look. “We need to not be pawns for Aeron to use against Vanora.”

  “We’ll do what we can to help,” Dexios assured him.

  Armando inclined his head. “Good.”

  Taking Kallos’s hand, Dexios hurried through a doorway and out of sight.

  “Do you think that’ll work?” Hank asked.

  Shrugging, Armando said, “Maybe.”

  “We should rush the bars. Ignore the silver and rip them out of the concrete,” Carlotta said, her voice high and scared.

  Jerking up his sleeves, Hank revealed healing burns. “We’ve been trying that. Didn’t work.”

  “And if you’re a vampire, you get set on fire,” Angel added, pointing to a chard bit of cloth near the base of the bars, explaining his shirtless appearance.

  “We just can’t wait for them to make us fight each other,” Tracy protested.

  “If Dexios can get to Siana, we may be able to get out of here,” Armando assured the frightened woman.

  “They can’t keep me in here!” Carlotta struggled to get free of the teenager, but he held onto her arms, even drawing blood.

  Armando rushed to the irate vampire’s side and wrapped his arms around her. His fierce look faded into a compassionate one. “Carlotta, we’ll get out. I promise.”

  “He’s going to kill us! He’s going to kill us all!” Carlotta screamed.

  A touch on her arm pulled Alisha’s attention to Alexander. At first she thought he’d touched her for reassurance, but then recognized he wanted to tell her something. He pointed to the metal tips of his boots. Alexander ground his heel into the floor and the ornamentation on the back of his boots popped out. It was actually the hilt to a blade hidden in his sole. Alexander discreetly shoved it back into place.

  Alisha flashed two fingers at him.

  Alexander nodded. He pointed to himself, then Armando.

  What could two silver daggers do against all of Aeron’s vampires?

  With a sick feeling of dread, Alisha knew that she was certainly going to find out.

  * * *

  The instant he opened his eyes, Aeron sensed Vanora was near. Every cell in his body vibrated with the power of her presence. Sitting up, Aeron slung his legs over the edge of the bed and stared into the absolute darkness of his sleeping chamber. Elation and dread combated within him.

  Tonight his loneliness was acute even with Vanora close by. The long separation had worn him down and he longed to hold her close. If all Leto said was true, Vanora may have come to kill him. That thought wounded him. The fact that he had awakened alone without her at his side was a reminder of his failure. If not for Leto’s meddling, V
anora may have stayed on the run indefinitely. His only hope was that once they were together his love would destroy her misgivings.

  Standing on the cold marble floor, he touched the small button on the wall that activated the low lighting. The room was more like a vault than bedroom, with thick impenetrable walls and a massive steel door. In the old days, coffins and tombs had been places of safety against the sun and people. In modern times, it was best to take precautions against every possible threat.

  Clad only in white linen pajama bottoms, Aaron walked to the door and activated the intercom and security monitor inset in the wall beside it. The camera feed was from right outside the door. Pólemos appeared, leaning against the wall, waiting for Aeron to rouse.

  “I’m awake,” Aeron announced.

  “She’s here,” Pólemos answered.

  “Where?”

  “She asked to go to the throne room. She’s waiting for you there.” Pólemos voice was neutral, but his eyes were clouded with apprehension.

  “I’m coming out.”

  Aeron unlocked the door and activated the latch. The massive door yawned open to reveal Pólemos in his black body armor. Aeron found the color repugnant, but Pólemos insisted it was best for night patrols.

  “Who’s awake, Pólemos?”

  “Mirrah and the Brides. They’re feeding. Lorelei is skulking about. Most of the younger vampires are awake.”

  Aeron was a slave to daylight like all vampires. He was incapable of being awake during the day. As he grew older, he didn’t always rise with the setting of the sun. When he’d consulted the Oracle, she suggested that, because he was so powerful, he was more sensitive to the sun, and that his body wouldn’t awaken until its influence diminished. It had peeved Aeron to hear this explanation, but he mollified his frustrations by the thought of his children with Vanora being impervious to such inconvenience. He might not be able to defeat the sunlight, but his offspring would.

  “I’ll dress and go to Vanora.”