Brom’s voice drowned out everything, the pulsing beat of my heart stomping in time with the music flowing from the speakers around us. No one could look away from the vampire as he cast his arm out over the crowd. “When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle and sails rejoicing in the flood of Death. When souls are torn to everlasting fire, and fiends of Hell rejoice upon the slain—who can stand?”
He dropped his head and the power in his silence was hypnotizing. We all held our breaths waiting, watching the vampire’s chest heave with each breath he took.
“Oh, who hath caused this? Who can answer at the throne of flame?” His voice was otherworldly, filled with a resonance of command, and the crowd absorbed it. Shifters, spirits, warlocks, and vampires alike watched him with rapt worship as I imagined humanity looked upon the visages of gods. “The kings and nobles of our past have done it,” Brom intoned with the severity of a death sentence. He threw his arms wide, his head falling back as he cried out, “Hear it not, children, thy families have done it!”
The crowd erupted into cries and screams with a ferocity that made me jump and Romulus wrapped his arms around me, growling. I could feel his transformation moving within him as he waited for a threat that never appeared. Even Merlin had brought his balled fists up, magic billowing around him.
“The time of reckoning has come for our predecessors.” Brom’s voice cut through the cacophony of praise. “And a new world will be ushered in on the wings of flame.”
Brom pulled off the small microphone and tossed it back to the DJ, who cranked up the volume of the music. The crowd, spurred on by the energy of the vampire, returned to their dancing with a determined ferocity. The vampire reached us just as Hei-Sook returned with the requested drinks.
“Fancy speech,” she said evenly as Brom took one of the tumblers from her tray.
“It’s time for this world to change,” Brom said, and tossed back the drink, finishing the tumbler quickly. The rest of us followed his example, still processing what had happened. I reveled in the magical cocktail, my mind feeling expanded to the dizzying size of the universe before imploding in on itself.
“None may flee from death or love,” I mused, and let a wicked smile stretch across my lips. Brom’s eyes answered my challenge. “Then let us not even try. Let’s dance.” I set my empty glass on the serving tray and stalked down into the crowd, flanked by the three most deadly men in the room.
A new world ushered in on the wings of flame. Death and love were inevitable. I was a phoenix, ready to bring light to the darkest of shadows.
Chapter 15
Brom
The people of New York flowed around me with the classic indifference the city was known for. Their hearts beat in time with the heartbeat of the city, a low resonant beat that all vampires could feel as naturally as the humans breathed. It was always there, no matter if we were searching for it or letting it soothe us to sleep.
Ella’s taste lingered on my tongue as her hand warmed my own. She stood beside me, unwilling to let me face my father alone, uncaring of tradition. Her blood was filled with sulfur and iron and power. Even a single drop of her blood made my veins burn. It was as if I could hardly contain it, the fire threatening to burn its way out of my veins and consume me. It was addicting in a way I’d never experienced, a brush of death that I wanted over and over.
By the end of this, I would have much more blood than hers on me, but I knew I would still be able to taste her sweetness.
“Brom?”
I turned to look down at the woman at my side, her face covered by a gorgeous golden mask. Not one of the passing businessmen and women even spared her a look, so unflappable were the terrestris of New York. A city did learn to ignore the odd, even if they didn’t realize their city was also the second largest magical city in the world.
Her eyes were uncertain, but her lips were tight with determination. She would not leave my side by choice. I knew there would be a reckoning between us when I could allow her to go no further.
“Shall we, my love?” I asked, pulling her hand to rest on my arm. I escorted her up the gray stone steps, past the gargoyle sentinels, and to the seemingly nondescript door.
I brought my thumb to my mouth, sinking my fang into the flesh. Hot blood welled up, dripping to the stone at my feet. Each drop resonated with ripples through the wards my father had placed. He would know of my arrival, and I wondered if he was rushing to protect himself. How many of his men would I have to slaughter before I held his neck in my hand?
I reached forward and swiped the blood across the door. There was a faint click as the wards recognized my authority and opened. I gave a half smile to Ella before ushering her inside. I gave one last look at the people passing on the sidewalk. They would never know the atrocities about to happen.
The entryway was quite a pleasant room. Rich warm wood floors polished until they gleamed, walls tastefully decorated with turn-of-the-century paintings. A visitor would never suspect that most rooms in this house were designed for one purpose—the feeding of vampires. Below this room, there was even a miniature crematorium. It wouldn’t serve the Syndicate to have a steady stream of corpses leaving the building every Monday morning.
“Eleanora,” I said as we stopped in the middle of the room. I turned towards her, covering her hand on my arm with my bloodied one. “I must ask you to stay here. You cannot join me, no matter what you hear.” She began to shake her head in denial and I cupped her face, wishing I could be stroking her cheek instead of the jewels covering her mask. “It is not that I do not wish you at my side. Nor is it that I wish to protect you, though I do.”
“Then why can’t I help you fight them?” she asked, frustration in her tone.
“Because of the line of ascension. It is more than tradition. The power must flow to me and not be conflicted.” I willed her to understand. “Each kill made will drive me further into the primordial beast I am, until my blood sings with death lust. Were you in that room, the power would drive me to attack you. And you would rightfully burn me to ash.”
“Oh,” she said, her soft lips parting gently. I could not resist their temptation, bending my head to press my lips to hers.
I had confidence in my power and my fate at taking my father’s place. But if I failed . . . I tugged her to me, deepening our kiss. Could a kiss rightfully impress upon her my love, my devotion? The desire and my need to be at her side. The drive I felt to protect her at all costs, even if that meant standing between her and an army of thousands. I would slaughter the world just to be able to hear her cries of pleasure, to feel the gentle touch of her lips against mine, to have her love as certainly as she has mine.
The door at the far end opened and the determined steps of my father’s guard interrupted us. I did not pull away from her, gentling our kiss instead. Let them wait. They would be dead soon enough.
“So you’ve aligned yourself with the accursed one.”
I smiled at Ella, nodding slightly before turning to face my father. I was often told I took after my mother but my stature, my poise, was all my father. He did not look most of his seventy years, but that was what the blood of the young did for a vampire. His hair had turned from blond to silver many years ago, but his face was still hard and unlined.
“Father.” I bowed my head respectfully and the man snorted, crossing his arms.
“Is the bitch’s cunt so good that you’ve decided to forgo tradition and usurp me?”
I breathed out slowly, refusing to let him rile me. I could feel Ella’s heart racing with anger.
“I could ask the same of Madam Jupiter,” I responded evenly.
My father recoiled as if I’d slapped him. Ella stepped away, watching us, and I let my hands fall to my side. I could feel the blood dripping off my hand, the sound shockingly loud in the tense silence.
He had two men on each side of him, four in total in this room. I extended my senses to the room beyond, and held back a feral grin as I counted eight more hea
rtbeats. My father felt I was enough of a threat for a dozen of his best guards. I almost pitied him.
“You’ve grown complacent, Father,” I said as I walked towards him. His men shifted, watching me warily.
“And you’ve grown out of your place,” he retorted, stepping back through the doorway, grasping at a confidence his racing heart belied.
“Shall we?” I was cordial. There would be no love lost between us when one of us died today. It was not the way of my father to love his children. That had been reserved for my mother.
He harrumphed and spun on his heel, his men escorting me inside the room. I paused briefly in the doorway, looking back to where Ella stood alone now.
“If they come for you,” I called, her eyes holding mine. “Burn this place to the ground.”
I stepped through and one of the men closed the door behind me, locking it.
He was the first one I killed. I had no use for decorum or rites. Ascensions of our vampire ancestors were as our true nature was. Bloody and violent.
The vampire’s blood spilled hot across the black marble floors of my father’s modern throne room. He’d always been obsessed with the image of power. I did not need such glamour and materialistic displays for my peers to respect me.
My father sat in his ornate chair, watching as his men attacked me, his eyes growing hard each time more blood flooded the floor and none of it mine.
Ella’s fire screamed in my veins, delighting in the viciousness of my strikes. I could feel their flesh under my nails, their blood fouled my mouth, their deaths sending me into a craze.
More men spilled in from the doors on either side of my father’s chair. Vampires in suits and street clothing. His supporters, not just his guards.
They attacked in groups, trying to pin my arms down, but they were no match for me. Even if I did not have Ella waiting for me, her love driving me to take this man down, they would be no match. My father severely underestimated me.
My suit jacket had been torn from me, my white shirt stained red with a flood of death. Each step squelched under my shoes as I drew in the blood magic. I could feel hot rivulets of blood dripping down my face, a mockery of sweat, and still I advanced towards my father.
“I will put you down myself, boy,” he growled, brimming with the blood magic as well.
The power of death was what made ascensions so violent. Any vampire could draw the power of a violent death into them. It meant that as the rival fought their way to power, they strengthened their opponent.
I laughed. It started deep within me, pouring out as he watched me as if I’d gone insane. I shook my head, still chuckling. “You don’t understand, do you, Father?”
He grunted as he pulled off his own jacket, rolling up his sleeves.
“While Madam Jupiter was sucking your cock in that obscene throne of yours,” I drawled out, “I was chosen by your harbinger of death. I have the power of a fucking phoenix flowing in me, and as she declared—you cannot extinguish us.”
He roared, a bestial sound tearing from his throat. It was a rejection of his fate, still convinced that he could slay me. It was as if the universe slowed around him as I gracefully stepped aside of his strike, time catching up with us as I snapped forward under his arm, wrapping my hand around his throat.
Lifting him, it was as he weighed nothing, my fingers digging into the soft flesh under his jaw. He clawed and growled, an aging panther knowing the new, younger male would defeat him but refusing to submit.
“Do you not care for this world, boy?” His words strangled out, his nails digging into my wrist. I could feel my blood running hot down my arm, but there was no pain.
I pulled him close, his face going red with the lack of air.
“I care about Eleanora Bediver.” I spoke softly, looking over him as if I held tenderness in my heart. “And you would take her from me. For that, you’ve earned this death.”
I let go of him and he staggered against me, his windpipe crushed and wet gasps straining from his lips. I buried my fangs into his jugular, deeper than any feeding, and ripped his head away from me, blood spraying out in a violent shower and covering my chin. His body fell at my feet, his blood flowing to join the rest of the dead.
I strode across the bodies and blood-drenched marble and took my father’s seat, slumping against the back of it. The wards of the room fell, no longer stable without my father’s command. Adrenaline coursed through me, my chest heaving as I finally let myself feel the exhaustion from the fight.
The door ticked opened and I looked up to see Ella’s face as she peered cautiously through the door.
Between us lay nearly three dozen scattered bodies; blood and other bodily fluids filled the air with stench. Suddenly I wanted to shield her from such a sight. This was more barbaric than she deserved.
She pushed the door open further, her blue eyes holding my gaze. Ella walked through the room full of carnage, never taking her eyes from mine, even as she stepped over the fallen.
She climbed into my lap, taking my face in her hands, uncaring of the blood between us. Desire and need surged within me, rushing through me on the heels of the blood lust. I ground up against her, craving her, and instead of revulsion . . . she crushed her lips to mine.
Chapter 16
Eleanora
Waking up with Merlin’s head between my legs and Romulus’s mouth on my own was bliss. Or perhaps bliss was Merlin’s tongue circling my clit before nipping it with his lips, sending me crashing into orgasm, my only anchor being the lycan capturing my cries with his kisses.
Merlin’s hands slid along my thighs as he crawled up and beside me, Romulus slipping between my thighs in his place. I snorted, my mind hazy with pleasure and sleep, as I realized both had already been prepared—condoms and all. I hummed with satisfaction as Romulus dragged his cock through my lips, coating himself with my desire before slowly sinking into me.
Lazily, they made love to me as the early dawn’s light broke through the bedroom windows. My gasps and their moans were the only sounds in the room. I was trapped between them, my senses being driven to madness as they covered me with their touches. They took every part of me, their mouths burning hot trails against my skin as their cocks filled me. I would arch back into Merlin with pleasure only to be pressed harder against Romulus’s chest.
There was no need to think about the day before or the threats which lurked in the shadows. There was no death to herald into the world in this moment. Only love. Only us. And when I had thought my mind and body had reached an euphoric numbness, Brom’s sudden appearance sent me catapulting into reality once more.
“You came,” I whispered, reaching for him even as he stripped off his clothing. He’d had to stay at the Tepes estate, securing his position as the leader of the vampires. Even with Merlin and Romulus beside me, I had still missed him.
“I couldn’t bear greeting the new day without you,” Brom whispered as he crawled onto the bed.
Romulus rolled onto his back, tugging me until my head was pillowed on his bicep, as Brom’s lips ghosted over my thighs. I opened willingly for him, reaching for Merlin. The warlock captured my hand with his, pressing a kiss against me as he laced our fingers together. I hummed as the vampire nuzzled my center, licking broadly at my sensitive flesh.
“I can taste their scent on you, little bird,” he spoke, before lapping at me once more. “I can sense how you drove them to their pleasure, even as you broke around them.”
I could feel my stomach drop with renewed desire at Brom’s words. He kept speaking, pausing between points to taste me, to tease me, to fuck me with his mouth. His words were sin, and I wanted to be covered with them. I felt the scrape of a fang against my thigh, and I shuddered, my eyes squeezing tightly shut as I panted. And I couldn’t prevent the low moan that uncoiled from my lips as I felt him sink his fangs just above my clit.
“I’ve been thinking about this all night,” Brom said as he pressed the bite marks. Logic said I should be fee
ling pain as he coaxed the blood from me, the wet heat of it trickling down my pussy. “I thought about what it would be like, to have you beneath me just like this, feeding both on your blood and your pleasure. How many orgasms could I pull from you before you were delirious?”
I really wanted to find out. I tried to tell him as much, but his mouth was pressed back up against me, licking and suckling, and any words I tried to speak came out in unintelligible stutters.
Brom treated me like he was savoring every taste, slowly building the pleasure until I was trembling in their arms. He was balancing me on a knife’s edge, never letting me fall into orgasm until I was nearly sobbing. He pulled his mouth away and I cried out in denial, and only Romulus’s hand on my shoulder kept me lying down. Then, Brom was there, sliding into me, my body clenching around him. I looked at him, and the sight and feel of him was nearly enough to send me over the edge. My glorious, devilishly handsome vampire, his face covered in my blood and my slick, watched where we were joined together, cock covered in me. He looked up at me, arching an eyebrow as he ground himself into me.
“You love this, don’t you, little bird? The way our cocks feel inside you, filling you, making you ours?”
“So good,” I stuttered out, amazed I could find the words. Brom pulled back before snapping his hips sharply. It was as if he’d signaled Romulus and Merlin to action. Their hands and mouths were on me everywhere at once it felt like. All while Brom fucked me. I couldn’t last, not when I lost all sense of whose hands were whose, whose lips touched me where.
And when fingers slipped between Brom’s cock and my pussy, seeking out my clit, I fell off that delicate knife edge and into darkness as my pleasure overwhelmed me.
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