Kingdom of War (Kingdom Journals Book 4)

by Tricia Copeland

  “Princess.” Dimitri zipped from his position at the bottom of the stairs.

  Tyler ascended behind Dimitri, eyes locked on Alena. My brain twitched with jealousy for Alena’s herald. She’s still with you. Just because Camille and Jude are together doesn’t mean Alena will abandon you and choose Tyler.

  “Are you guys done? Did you get what you needed?” Tyler’s brows shot up.

  “Apparently.” Camille skipped down the steps to her brother. “Call Dad. We need a ride stat.”

  We washed up in the hotel where Dimitri and Aaron, our vampire guards, along with Tyler and his father Grady had set up base. Alena’s mother, Anne, arranged a jet to take us back to headquarters, and we headed to the airport.

  Seeing Alena staring off into space, I took the seat beside her on the plane. “I know why I’m not happy, but I thought you would be thrilled to be out of that house. What’s wrong?”

  “Why aren’t you happy?”

  “There always seems to be more questions than answers.”

  “Well, I’m beyond happy to be out of that place.”

  “But?” I leaned into her.

  “I thought I might find out something more about my father, and Uriel, and why Alfred said I favored him.”

  “Uriel, the angel in the painting, the arch angel that sired your line?”

  “Didn’t you think it was strange that Alfred said I looked like him? What if he is my father?”

  “Yes, but Alfred said many strange things. You should just ask your mother, demand to know.” I squeezed her hand.

  She smiled and kissed my lips. “I love that you’re so direct. But you haven’t known my mother for long. She’s not going to tell me until she thinks I should know.”

  “She’s protecting you, right?”

  “Shouldn’t I get to decide if I need protecting?”

  “How old is your mother?”

  “Four hundred forty-three.”

  I tapped her nose. “Then I think she might get my vote on this one. But”—I kissed her before she could get angry with me—“ask again. Maybe she’ll tell you now, especially with Alfred’s comments and the fact that Uriel seems to be the one that’s saved us twice.”

  Even though I knew I should rest, sleep eluded me. Visions of the sword, Jesus, the warlock, and my father drifted through my mind. I gave up and started to devise a plan for finding the three pieces of the sword. We’d need Anne’s intelligence on each location and soldiers for backup. I wondered if Sonia, Thanatos, and Theron knew they had the wrong sword. What if they’d known all along and had other plans for St. Maurice’s blade? Our focus had to be on the Lance of Longinus. Our purpose was to release the witches from an afterlife in purgatory, help their souls find peace. I intended to focus on that goal.

  As Alena stirred beside me, I thought about what effect lifting the curse would have on the vampires. Orm believed that even with Alena’s half-vampire nature, she’d become a full witch at eighteen. Jude became a full witch even though he was quarter vampire. Theron—my half-vampire, half-brother—believed he became a full witch with a soul, and after hearing from Camille he wielded St. Maurice’s sword to make Sonia immortal, I guessed it to be true. Were the vampires really soulless? Would they be granted souls when we lifted the curse?

  Landing without the benefit of seeing the ground seemed to be something I would never get used to. For as much as I wanted out of that house in Greece, it didn’t feel welcoming to exit into a windowless hangar and load into closed vehicles. After half an hour, the SUV slowed, and we descended into what I knew to be an underground structure, although I had no idea where we were. The technology that kept us safe, hidden from my family’s coven, hadn’t been shared with me. Perhaps Camille’s and Jude’s lodestones, or something similar, hid us from magic being able to find our location. It frustrated me that Anne didn’t trust us with the information, but even though I’d suggested that Alena push her mother to have answers, I was a little scared of Anne. You’ve got to get over that, I thought.

  Anne, tapping the toes of her heeled shoes to the floor, greeted us just inside. “You found where the sword is?”

  “Yes. It’s in—” Air caught in my lungs, and I gasped for breath.

  Alena wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Hunter, what’s wrong?”

  “I can’t,” I squeaked out.

  “It’s in—” Camille doubled over in a coughing fit.

  “Alena, what’s going on?” Anne focused on her daughter.

  “I’m not sure. We learned where the—” Alena’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t think we can tell you.”

  “Of course. Isn’t that clever?” Anne folded her arms over her chest. “Witches and their spells.”

  Standing upright, I started to catalog the things we’d need for our missions. It would be impossible to retrieve the three pieces without Anne’s resources.

  I approached Anne. “Do you trust us? Are you willing to let us use your people? Planes? Weapons?”

  Anne looked between me, her daughter, and Camille. “You’re not even eighteen years old. Are you kidding? You have no experience coordinating staff and vehicles. Weapons? Definitely not! Do you think money grows on trees? I have people to answer to. I can’t just hand you unlimited resources on a hunch that perhaps, maybe, finding the sword and breaking this curse will finally put an end to the war between the witches and vampires.”

  Alena grabbed her mother’s hands. “But you must believe that it will, or you wouldn’t have helped us this far.”

  “That was when I could account for my resources, knew where they were being used, and how much risk was involved.” Anne shook her head.

  Even though dead tired, and in much need of sleep, I motioned down the hall. “Perhaps we could move to the conference room. Figure out how much we can tell you.”

  As soon as we’re seated, I started again. “There are th—” My air was cut off, and I swallowed to moisten my throat. “It’s in pieces. We have to retrieve the parts, and that’s all we know for now.”

  “And you know where the parts are?” Anne paced behind us.

  “Yes. That’s it.” I jumped from my seat. “Chalondra and Orm have been entrusted with the information. You at least trust Orm to use things wisely, right?”

  “I do.” Anne stopped and faced us. “You’ve had a long journey. You should rest, and we’ll talk tomorrow.

  I sensed someone in my room and bolted upright.

  “Finally, you’re awake!” Alena glared at me. “I need to talk to you.”

  “What time is it?” Pulling my sheet up to my waist, I sat up.

  “Seven.”

  “That’s only four hours of sleep. You remember I’m human, right?”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” Alena’s bottom lip puffed out. “But I really need to talk with you. My mom and I finally had our talk, you know the one about my dad. There’s so much information crowding my brain, I have to get it out.”

  I stood, pulled a shirt over my head, and then sat beside her. She began by telling me about Anne’s parents and how they were burned alive by witches outside Paris in 1557. Elizabeth and Anne fled to London, where they lived among humans. A rival vampire tribe staked Anne’s fiancé, and she began a quest to foster peace among the vampires, a quest which resulted in treaties among the vampires and with the witches. I listened to each fact, how her mother visited every vampire tribe, brought the tribes together, and learned how to live among the humans, trying to wrap my brain around living for centuries.

  “You should know Sonia massacred all the ambassadors of the first vampire tribunal my mother held.” Alena wiggled her fingers from my grip and crossed the room.

  “Sonia? Like my grandmother Sonia?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Yes, and your father was there when my mother’s family was burned. Your father and Sonia have been hunting my mother and her friends for hundreds of years, trying to erase vampires from existence. They believe vampires are the evil that should be purged f
rom the world.”

  I ran my hand through my hair. “So, what about your dad?”

  “I had a brother, like a living breathing human brother.”

  “Your mother had another child?”

  “No, she adopted a boy when she married a human in the 1600s.”

  “But your father had to be a witch, so that man wasn’t your father?”

  “A witch or a witch-like being.” She bit her lip.

  “What does that mean?” Unable to contain my energy, I bounced on my toes.

  “It’s complicated. But my father’s name is Lucas, or that’s the only name he told my mother. She said his exact words were, ‘You may call me Lucas.’”

  “Did you ask her about Uriel?”

  “I don’t think she knows anything for sure, only that Lucas is eternal, he can’t die, and Orm knows everything, but I guess he’s never told my mother anything because it’s too dangerous to know.”

  “Dangerous why?”

  “Who knows.” She slouched onto my bed. “The worst part is that he was cursed and given only one year in every hundred to be of human form. That’s why I can’t see him. He can’t be with us until 2099.”

  “What if we break the curse?”

  “We have no clue if they are even the same curse.”

  “Who cursed him?”

  “God.”

  I spun to face her. “Just as God cursed the witch souls to lie in Sheol for eternity? What kind of God is this?”

  “I had the same question. Mother explained it to me like you were helping your child by making sure they followed the rules. Like when we get put on restriction for getting home too late. God punished him for something.” Catching my arm, she pulled me to her side. “There’s something else. Sonia was sentenced in 1945 to lie in a coma, entombed in the House of Uriel until she died for siring a vampire-witch hybrid who become known as Adolf Hitler.”

  Long red locks swished from side to side as she shook her head. “This is all so much to take in. I can’t believe I had a brother who died before I even met him. Can you picture my mother raising a human child?”

  Bloody tears formed in her eyelids. I grabbed a tissue to cover my frustration. How could she be upset about a boy she never knew, and had no relation to, who died two hundred years ago, when she just told me that Adolf Hitler is my uncle? I forced myself to focus on Alena, wondering if she was upset about her brother because he was something concrete. The thing about being related to Hitler had my mind spinning, and I decided thinking of anything else would be a welcome distraction.

  “Did your mother have a picture of your father? Do you know if he looks like the being you saw on the water in Italy?”

  “She said he is blond and blue-eyed. It fits the description of the glowing form I saw in Italy, as well as Archangel Uriel in the painting in Greece. But many angels are depicted as fair and blue-eyed. It’s just too much to process.” She covered her face with her hands.

  I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her head. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “Okay, I’m done feeling sorry for myself.” Sliding out of my arm, she jumped up. “My mom wants to brief everyone on Sonia’s history so we’re all up to speed. It will be good information for future run-ins with her.”

  Following Alena to the cafeteria, I wondered how she could skip from thinking about her father to prepping for a battle with Sonia so quickly. My family’s transgressions weighed heavily on my mind. I wondered whether Anne held them against me. She’d never seemed wary or angry around me. Was everyone in my family evil deranged beings? Sonia, Thanatos, Theron, and Hitler were all murderers. My father killed Anne’s family and Elizabeth. My grandmother, Sonia, killed countless vampires. Hitler—my uncle, I guess—killed six million Jews. My half-brother, Theron, killed Alena’s high school friend, Ganby, and God only knew who else. How did I turn out normal? I thought of my mom and that I should call her to let her know we’d returned from Greece.

  Hearing heels clicking on the floor in front of us, I forced my thoughts to the present. I wondered if I would have to kill. Could I? Alena grabbed my hand and pulled me into the conference room. Taking in her face, I knew that I’d do anything to protect her.

  Anne wound around to the head of the table and sat down. Alena, Camille, Chalondra, Jude, Tyler, and I picked muffins from a platter and took seats. Anne started her tale with the story of her parents’ deaths and described each episode of engagement with Sonia and my father, how they slaughtered hundreds of vampires and terrorized Anne for four centuries. My eyes glazed with the enormity of information. What would my story be in five, ten, a hundred years, if I made it through the next one?

  Standing, Anne paced behind her chair. “Reports of missing vampires have trickled in over the past two weeks, nineteen so far. They aren’t localized to one region and don’t seem to have any connection to each other. It may be nothing, but we’d be stupid to ignore any strange activity. I’ve sent teams to investigate. We should know more in the next few days.” Anne closed her laptop.

  “Did any of them have blood bonds?” Alena asked.

  “Most of them did. Their loved ones report feeling no draw to them. They didn’t sense their deaths but have no pull whatsoever. It’s like they just ceased to exist.”

  I raised my palm. “Maybe our witch council friend would have some information. Did you ask Marcus about it?”

  “It’s premature at this point. If our investigators find nothing, we may take that step. I’ll let you know if there are any new developments.” She strode from the room.

  “So, what do you think? You ready to take on Sonia?” Jude slapped my back as we stood.

  “I think I’m ready to focus on my transformation to a full witch and finding the parts of the sword.”

  “Is Orm going to let you complete the transition before your birthday?”

  “I hope so. This can’t wait.” I stretched my arms.

  Just then, a hand landed on my back. “Your wish is my command.”

  “You agree with me Orm?”

  “I agree we need more power. Tyler will be put to the test soon too.”

  “What about Alena?” Standing, I replaced my chair under the table.

  “I can’t risk it with her. Her vampire nature will protect her. Everyone needs to be one hundred percent for what is to come.”

  “Is Tyler ready?”

  “His father says he will be. We’ll start the trials in four days. That will give you a day to work on each area.” Orm shuffled to the exit.

  “So, what happens if he’s not ready, doesn’t pass?” I followed him.

  “You’re not worried about yourself?”

  “I’ve been training for almost six months. Tyler has only been training for one. But I guess he just has to try again, right?”

  “Most witches have eighteen years to prepare, but no, if you don’t pass, you lose your magic. There is only one shot. That is why we will wait for Alena. At eighteen her body will stop growing, her emotions will level out, she’ll be more stable. Come with me, we will begin.”

  I was more than happy to be away from the rest of the group. Truth be told, all I wanted was to be alone. I trudged behind Orm, thinking hitting something would feel great.

  “So, how are you feeling about everything you learned today?” Orm asked as he closed the gym door behind us.

  “It’s not polite to use foul language in the presence of elders.”

  “Your mother raised you right.”

  “Thank God.”

  Orm placed his hands on my shoulders. “You are not your father, your grandmother, your uncle, or your brother. You have a good heart, and you’re not responsible for them.”

  “But I have a duty to stop them.”

  “Perhaps.” Orm’s eyebrows rose. “But you don’t carry that burden alone.”

  “I just want this over, to get the lance, break the curse, and go back to my life.”

  “Do you really think that’s something you ca
n do?”

  “Do I think I could, should, or that it’s even possible? Probably not, but one can dream.”

  “You realize your place if Sonia, your father, and Theron are eliminated? You would be next in line to succeed them.”

  “That’s not something I want to think about right now.” I walked to the far wall and chose a weapon. I had to do something else, anything to change the course of my thoughts. It seemed so archaic. Shouldn’t they have an election? “So, what are we practicing today?”

  “First, you’re getting all this negative energy out. Drop the weapon and close your eyes.”

  Orm lumbered to me and placed two fingers on each of my temples. A memory from my childhood popped into my vision. Four-year-old me chases two girls—one of red hair and one of blond—down a hallway. The next second, I’m in my closet with Alena. Sitting knee to knee, she creates a whirlwind using magic. Then, she teaches me to levitate a ball.

  I popped my eyes open. “How do you do that? Can you teach me?”

  “As Alena is of Archangel Uriel’s line, Camille is of Raphael’s, and you are of Michael’s line, I am of Archangel Gabriel’s line. Do you remember what his line is known for?”

  “Messengers, like Chalondra, Jude, and his father.”

  “I trained myself to pull happy thoughts from one’s memories.”

  “That is cool. So, I’m guessing it’s more of an advanced skill?”

  “Very. What would you like to start with?” Orm rotated in a circle, pointing out the different areas of the training space.

  Each represented skills from the four archangel lines: Gabriel’s, the messengers and keepers of knowledge; Raphael’s, the healers, like Camille and Tyler, and their father Grady; Uriel’s, representing one with superior wisdom like Alena; and finally, my line, Michael’s, the leaders. I strode to the far end of the room, thinking I might as well start with my strong suit since my mood still needed adjustment.

  Leadership involved many skills, physical strength, mental acuity, tuning into others’ feelings and motivations. Picking up a javelin, I threw it to the target at the other end of the room.