We continued for several painful minutes, our footsteps the only noise between us.
Eventually, a large building built of brown stone with high walls came into view. A series of steps led up to an arching wooden doorway manned by two vampires with menacing swords on their backs.
They opened the doors, watching us closely as we passed. A beautiful marble hallway greeted us; pillars held up an ancient ceiling painted with intricate pictures.
I barely had time to absorb the sight before we were led down a hallway and guided up a winding staircase adorned with red carpet. More guards greeted us at the top of the stairs.
A man with cold blue eyes gripped my arm, leading me away from the group as everyone was taken in different directions. My heart tripled its pace as Paige disappeared around a corner and my escort directed me to the right.
My throat swelled with anxiety as I followed him, unsure what else to do.
If I run, they’ll catch me. If I fight, they’ll hurt me.
We soon arrived at a wooden door and he pushed it open, nudging me inside. As I stepped into the bedroom, the door swung shut behind me and a key turned in the lock.
“No!” I slammed my weight against it, hammering my fist on the door. But no answer came. I was stuck here until someone decided to let me out.
Trembling, I turned to face my prison.
My eyelashes fluttered as I took in a bedroom which was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
The space wasn't just grand, it was bordering on ostentatious, stretching away from me in a space at least twice the size of my family's apartment. Fine red carpets and carved furniture stared back at me.
Maroon sheets sprawled out over a massive bed, meeting with a huge wooden headboard of black oak. Beside the bed was a dresser with an oval mirror inlaid with sparkling green gemstones.
Dark shutters were clamped over the single window, keeping all daylight out of the room.
I headed to the closet and ripped the doors open, finding an array of gorgeous dresses inside. Beneath them was a white dressing gown like the one I’d had before. I grabbed it, wrapping my bare body in its soft embrace.
My heart stuttered as I moved toward the bed, crawling onto it and curling into a tight ball. I shut my eyes, trying to will away the fear creeping into my body. But it was useless. Whatever those royals wanted with us, it couldn’t be anything good. And the longer I lay there waiting for someone to come, the more images sprang to mind of the kind of horrors I was soon going to face.
There was only one thing I could really be sure of. I was in serious trouble.
I woke as the sun broke through the trees and blinked around at my strange surroundings in confusion. For twenty-one years I’d woken in the same bed every morning. Looking up at the grey stone of the cave’s roof was more than a little disconcerting.
I rolled onto my side and blinked the sleep from my eyes as I looked at the embers from our fire the night before. I missed the warmth it had given and without it, the frosty bite of the stone beneath me had worked its way into my bones. I shivered and reached out hopefully towards the charred pieces of wood which remained in the soot but no heat found me. I sighed in disappointment and tugged my hand back inside the sleeve of my coat.
I sat upright and a thick fur cloak slipped off of me to pool in my lap. I ran my fingers over the soft grey fur and frowned at it in surprise. I’d fallen asleep wrapped in my coat but remembered shivering in the night as the fire died down. Magnar must have placed it over me. The gesture was so at odds with his stony attitude towards me that I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I looked around for him and spotted him sitting in the cave’s mouth, gazing out at the woods beyond it. He was unnaturally still and I took the opportunity to observe him unnoticed. Now that I was looking for it, everything about his clothing spoke of another time. My clothes were made from cotton and polyester but he wore a leather jerkin and trousers secured with silver buckles.
His face was somber but strangely alluring too, though much of it was hidden behind the rough stubble which was close to being a beard. And despite the fact that I’d never seen him smile, something about the natural curve of his mouth made me think that it used to be something he’d done a lot.
I imagined his deep voice raised in laughter before everything had been stolen from him and my own pain over losing my family stabbed sharply through my chest. I couldn’t imagine waking up to realise that everyone and everything you’d ever known had died a thousand years ago. How did you even begin to grieve a loss like that?
Everything in his posture made me think of some kind of wild beast. He was alert and poised to attack even though he was sitting quietly. I doubted he’d missed the sound of me waking up and realised that probably meant he could tell I was staring too.
I cleared my throat uncomfortably as blood rushed to my cheeks.
“Thank you,” I said awkwardly as I folded the cloak and held it out to him. He didn’t turn my way so I placed it on the ground instead. “For the cloak,” I explained as he continued to maintain the silence.
“You were cold.” Magnar still didn’t turn from his observation of the trees and my jaw ticked with irritation. I knew he was miserable but he didn’t have to be so rude all the time.
“Did you sleep well?” I asked, forging on with the one-way conversation in the hope that he might start talking a bit more. We didn’t need to be friends but it would be easier if we were at least civil.
“I rested a little. Sleep does not hold much appeal these days.”
“I can imagine,” I replied.
“No. You cannot.”
Back to being an ass today then. I huffed with irritation, wondering why he’d even helped me in the first place if my presence annoyed him so much. I needed him if I wanted any chance of saving Dad and Montana though so I kept my thoughts on his tone to myself.
“You said you’d help me get my family back,” I began. “But how do you know where they’ve been taken?”
“When I awoke thirteen moons ago, I scoured the area for signs of my kin and found my enemy instead. I observed them, and I saw what they did to the mortals under their care. I had hoped to track down my brethren before confronting them but with the news you delivered, I fear they are all gone.
Without me, the Slayer’s Crusade was doomed to fail but they would have tried anyway. My people were not the kind to back down from a fight no matter how likely they would have been to lose. While I slept, they were slaughtered, I know it in my heart. The task now falls to me alone.” Magnar stood and turned to look down at me. He seemed even more intimidating from my position on the floor as he towered over me, his muscular form blocking most of the light from the cave entrance behind him.
“I’m sorry but you’re losing me again. What task?” I asked with a frown.
“The sole purpose of the slayers is to hunt and destroy the vile creatures who have enslaved your kind. Though that task shall be harder alone, I will still take it on. And I shall start with destroying the place where they hold your family.”
Though I’d already suspected it, his words made me ask the question I’d been trying to avoid. I had to know what we were heading into even if it confirmed my worst fears.
“Do you mean... were they taken to the blood bank?” I asked, my voice barely cracking beyond a whisper.
“I know not what they call it but that name would seem to fit. It is where they take all of the humans they remove from the caged town. They torture them and drain them of their blood with the most vile of practices. I was hard pushed to stay my blade when I first discovered it but that was when I still had hopes of finding my kind. I will not hold back this time.”
“Well, for what little it means, you’re not alone.” I stood and offered him a smile which didn’t try to hide the fact that I knew I wasn’t going to be much help.
Magnar surveyed me for a moment and I thought I could feel the faintest crack in the wall he had built behind his gaze. He nodded and
pulled a blade from the belt at his hip. “Here. If you are to be a warrior, you shall need a blade.”
I tentatively reached out to accept it. The metal was golden in colour and the hilt felt warm in my palm. It was carved with runes just like those on his other blades. I looked closely at the beauty of the intricate designs they formed with appreciation.
I’d never held a weapon before and the knowledge that I was about to break another of the vampires’ laws sent a thrill of rebellion through me.
I grasped the hilt and a powerful surge juddered through my body, resounding in the depths of my chest. I let out a small gasp as the strangest sensation flooded through me, like deja vu. Though there was nothing at all familiar to me about standing in a cave with a barbarian while wielding a dagger.
Something about the small weapon felt right against my skin. Like it was calling to something deep within me. The sensation seemed familiar although there was no way it could be. Like the memory of a dream.
“Fury,” I murmured, the name skipping through my mind like the whisper of an old friend.
“What did you say?” Magnar stepped towards me suddenly, catching my wrist in his grip. “How do you know that name?”
My heart leapt with surprise and more than a little fear as his burning gaze tore into my own. I recoiled from him, dropping the blade and trying to pull my hand out of his grasp. He ignored my attempt and twisted my hand in his own, roughly pushing the material of my coat up to reveal my forearm.
He brushed his fingers along the exposed skin of my inner arm as if he was trying to remove something from my skin. Goosebumps rose along my flesh in response to his touch and I yanked my arm away more firmly, finally managing to break away from him.
“What the hell?” I demanded angrily as I backed away. I was more aware than ever of the differences between us. If he attacked me I’d have no chance of defending myself. He was even more formidable than the vampires; at least with them I knew my blood was too precious to spill.
“Forgive me.” Magnar spread his hands slowly and took a step back. “For a moment I thought...” He shook his head sadly. “I was trying to see something that couldn’t possibly be there. I have lost so much and I leapt to the wrong conclusion. Please accept my apologies.” He stooped to retrieve the blade I’d dropped and offered me the hilt again.
I eyed it suspiciously but something about the weapon had been comforting. I liked the way it had felt in my palm. I slowly reached out to take it and felt that same sense of power and relief as I held it again. As I concentrated on the sensation, I heard its name in my mind once more. Fury. I wasn’t sure how I knew it but that was what this blade had been named by its creator. I could almost feel the heat of the furnace, hear the sound of the hammer moulding the metal.
As I focused on the sensation, other images flashed through my mind. I saw the blade wielded by many sets of hands. It had taken lives and saved them, passing from hand to hand as hundreds of years passed. It had killed vampires before. And I knew it could do it again.
I looked up at Magnar in astonishment but he didn’t seem to know what the blade had shown me and I hesitated to tell him after his reaction to me knowing its name.
“Thank you,” I breathed.
Magnar tipped his head to me and turned away. He retrieved his cloak from the floor and wrapped it around his shoulders, making sure that he could still reach his swords. He stamped on the final embers of the fire and stepped out of the cave, striking his blade through the runes he had carved on the threshold. I felt their power fizzling out of the air around me.
He continued away from me, lost in his own thoughts again as I hurried to follow. He might have been all kinds of terrifying but he was the best chance I had of breaking my family out of the blood bank. After that we could continue with our plan to escape this place and he could go on his way too.
A knee jerked into my body. Then again. And again until I winced as it connected with my hip.
“I know you're awake,” a dark voice poured over me like liquid fire.
Somehow, I’d fallen asleep after hours of being left alone in the fine bedroom and now I wished I never had to wake up. But there was no point feigning sleep any longer so I reluctantly opened my eyes.
My heart pounded wildly as I discovered Erik towering above me, his cloak removed to reveal a black shirt as dark as his hair. I recoiled on instinct, my pulse elevating further as I took in the devilish vampire. He was the most captivating monster I’d ever seen. Even the Elite didn’t look this perfect - and that was saying something. His face was all sharp angles, from the straight edge of his brow to the clear-cut diagonals of his cheekbones. The silvery lacquer of his skin was punctuated by the dark shadow on his jaw and the fortress of iron in his gaze. Power emanated from him in a way that made me feel as brittle as a twig. At least I’d had the sense to wrap myself in a gown before I’d fallen asleep; I didn’t ever want to be exposed so close to this formidable beast.
“Hey Rebel, guess what?” he drawled, moving to sit on a dark-wood armchair and leaning back into its red velvet cushions.
“What?” I bit out, fighting hard not to lose my nerve. I'd never been in a room completely alone with a vampire before. And if I had, I wouldn't have expected to step out of it with any blood left in my veins.
“You're now my property. And if you have any notions of escape, of fighting back or even slashing open those pretty veins of yours to end it all, I urge you to forget about them. At least until this ritual is over anyway.”
“What ritual?” I breathed, gathering myself to the edge of the bed and knotting my hands in my gown.
Erik blew out a breath of irritation. “Don't ask me questions. You can think of yourself as a glorified pet if it helps. Whatever keeps you quiet and doing what I say.”
“No,” I snarled immediately. Count or not, royalty didn't mean anything to me. In fact, the only thing it meant was that these people were not only my enemies, but they were the ones who'd decided to shove humans into the Realms and strip us of our rights.
My upper lip curled back. I may not have been alive when humans were at the top of the food chain, but whatever driving force had gotten us there once still lived in my veins.
“No?” Erik echoed, seeming confused by my response. One second, he was patting down his fancy trousers, the next he was standing above me with a penetrating glare. “What kind of human says no to a Belvedere Royal?”
“A kidnapped one.” One taken from her family by force. But I didn't air that thought. My family were locked away safe inside my chest. And I didn't want this guy to have any leverage on me.
His heavenly, haven't-smiled-in-years face lifted into something resembling a grin. “Kidnapped? You're food.” He shook his head in confusion then tapped my forehead with a cold finger. “This is a privilege, you realise? I think the other humans have grasped it, are you slow or something?”
My scowl grew and my rage followed. “Why did you even bring me here? What do you want?” I demanded, gaining my feet so I didn't feel so small on the bed. It was useless considering he had half a foot of height on me and even if he hadn't he was a damn vampire. So I had absolutely no chance of fighting him.
“Two reasons...” He stalked a little closer. “The first is none of your business. And the second is because you didn't want to be chosen. So that intrigued me.”
“Why?” I hissed, my spine straightening.
“Because as much as humans try to pretend they're above screwing over their own morals, they rarely pass up a chance to gain privileges. You however...” He released a derisive laugh. “Well you're either stupid or you have more of a backbone than most of the humans who walk into the royal palace.”
“And what good does that do you?” I asked through my teeth.
“You'll find out soon enough.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Enlighten me...why did you walk into that courtyard looking like a rebel today?”
“Maybe I am one,” I whispered, unsure where the wo
rds came from. I'd always been outspoken with the vampires. Maybe it was my father's stories of the old world that had kindled such a fire of hatred in me. Whatever it was, it was out in full-force now.
“Lucky me, as a rebel is just what I need.” He pinched my chin between his finger and thumb, his hold rough and terrifyingly strong. He inspected me and I refused to let him see how rattled I was at having a vampire's icy hands on my skin. But inside, my spine turned to mush and my heart thrummed like the wings of a bee.
“My brothers have chosen pretty kittens to entertain them so I've picked an angry little dog to chase them about.” He chuckled, releasing me at last and my hatred for him inched a little deeper into my chest.
“Oh don't look so sad, Rebel, if you play along maybe I'll put you back in the pig pen with the rest of the bacon.”
Eternal Reign (Age of Vampires Book 1) Page 10
