Velvet Cataclysm: Princes of the Underground, Book 1

by BETH KERY

  “You don’t get it, Christina. I didn’t just take some of your blood. Vitessence is concentrated in your blood, sweat and sex juices—yes—but it surrounds you as well. I let down my guard. I absorbed enough of the powerful energy that exudes from you to make me drunk.” He grasped her wrist and roughly jerked her hand off his erect penis. Christina cried out in protest when he stood abruptly, pausing by the bed.

  “Drunk and stupid,” he added.

  “Saint—”

  She stared in rising disbelief as he stalked toward the balcony doors. He opened them and disappeared. Christina realized with a jolt that she was alone.

  “Saint?” she called. She hurried out of the bed and rushed to the open patio doors. The rain had slowed to a steady downpour. Lightning struck, and Christina caught a fleeting image of a wolf running through the yard.

  Chapter Nine

  The earth muffled his howls of torment, but the planet’s powerful soul could offer him no solace. Kavya watched dispassionately as his charge writhed, his agony so intense, it was as though a frantic serpent twisted inside of him in the midst of a death agony, contorting his body. When Kavya saw the blood-tears that stained his face, he finally stepped forward and touched a bunching, rigid shoulder muscle.

  Saint collapsed on the luxurious carpet of his bedroom, panting wildly. He squinted up at Kavya through eyes veiled by misery.

  “Why do you make me suffer?” he rasped when he’d caught his breath sufficiently to speak.

  “No one makes you suffer but yourself, Saint.”

  He slowly rose to a sitting position. “Christina thinks you’re a sadist. I’m beginning to think she’s correct.”

  Kavya chuckled and sat in an upholstered chair, smoothing his slightly soiled and singed orange robes. He spent much of his time isolated in his laboratory and often forgot the niceties, including clean robes, when he wandered back out into this blindingly lovely alien world. “I would say that Christina is spirited, but that’s a monumental understatement, as we both know.”

  Saint said nothing and stood. He blinked and stared around the luxurious subterranean bedroom, as though wondering how he’d gotten there. Kavya suspected the memory of what led up to his misery struck him, because he shuddered visibly. He walked over to a table that held a pitcher, water and towels. He dampened a towel and wiped the blood-tears from his face.

  “Where have you been for the past ten years?” he asked Kavya.

  “Has it been so long?”

  “Longer. I have been in need of your advice,” Saint said, his tone accusatory. “I have called you repeatedly with my mind.”

  “Yes. In the matter of Teslar. He has found a means to grow more powerful.”

  “He is harvesting fear in young, vulnerable humans. I believe he is convincing them to give their life freely to him. It makes their vitessence more potent.”

  Kavya nodded. “Wise of you to realize it, Saint. Yes, Teslar’s discovered an ancient truth. The life given willingly offers the magician more power than merely stealing what is not his to take. Add to the mixture great fear, and an even more potent alchemical cocktail is created. Great magic is released when a being feels such overwhelming fear in the act, and yet still chooses to sacrifice their life willingly.”

  Saint’s upper lip curled in disgust. “So, that’s what he’s doing to gain strength.”

  “That...along with one other factor that you will have to discover for yourself.”

  “Always speaking in riddles to me, aren’t you?” Saint asked bitterly.

  Kavya shrugged. “It’s your journey, not mine.”

  Saint closed his eyes briefly. Kavya sensed him trying to chase away his bitterness and grief so as to attend to what must be done. When he stared at Kavya a moment later, he felt the return of his charge’s normal tight focus.

  “We are ready to stop Teslar, especially now that I have a means of finding him. The young woman who sleeps at Christina’s—Alison—I believe she knows the location of Teslar’s hideout in the tunnels. I have been training regularly with Strix, Isi, and Fardusk. Their skills have improved greatly. I can give one of them my heartluster,” he said, referring to the special silver sword that both he and Teslar carried. “But it would be better if you supplied me with another to give them.”

  “The heartluster has been specially designed for the Sevliss princes and their clones,” Kavya said mildly, unfazed by Saint’s rising fury.

  “Teslar has never been this blatantly methodical in his bloodlust. He forever hunts, but the Iniskium and I have curbed him through the centuries so that he resembles a natural predator. But he no longer feeds like an animal; he’s become a sociopathic murderer. How can you stand by and allow him to terrorize and kill those young people? How can you continue to refuse to let me finish him?”

  Kavya picked at a chemical burn on his robes thoughtfully. “Have Isi, Strix, or Fardusk battled Teslar yet?”

  “Isi has faced off against Javier several times. Isi only lives to kill Javier for turning Jane Farrant, his lover, into a revenant several years ago. Isi and Javier are well matched. Odds are, Isi will eventually kill him. He nearly did so in the subway tunnel tonight.”

  “But Javier Ash is not Teslar,” Kavya said calmly. “Have any of your Iniskium warriors confronted your clone, Saint?”

  “Only in a few brief tunnel skirmishes.”

  “And?”

  “If only you would allow me to destroy him!” Saint raged, and Kavya had his answer as to whether or not Saint’s three strongest Iniskium warriors were powerful enough to finish Teslar.

  “Saint, we have discussed this too many times to count. There is a means of vanquishing Teslar, but only if you first acknowledge that the two of you are joined.”

  “I acknowledge it daily,” Saint exclaimed, looking insulted. “Who knows better than I that we share the same parasitic nature?”

  Kavya continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Teslar and you are two sides of the same coin. He is evil, yes, but he is your dark self. Your shadow. If you cut him down, you destroy something in yourself. There is no telling what will happen to you. If you are weakened or killed in the process, who will keep the Scourge revenants in check?”

  “Huh, let me see… How about you?” Saint bellowed.

  “I’m afraid that would not serve my purpose. Controlling the Scourge is not a mandate that has been set in my blood, after all.”

  Kavya smiled pleasantly in the face of Saint’s low, dangerous growl. “How is the boy?”

  “He grows strong. He is much like his mother,” Saint muttered after several seconds.

  Kavya leaned forward in his chair. “Is that all you have to say on the matter?”

  Saint scowled. “What more should I say?”

  Kavya leaned back and sighed. “If you don’t know, it’s not for me to put it into words.”

  Alison and Aidan devoured the breakfast of homemade waffles and bacon while Christina watched them broodingly and sipped her morning coffee. She didn’t move when someone knocked on the kitchen screen door, already knowing who the visitor was. Aidan leapt from his spot at the oak table, syrup leaking from the side of his mouth, in order to answer the door. Saint followed him into the sunlit kitchen a second later, wearing jeans and a dark blue T-shirt and carrying a motorcycle helmet. His light blue eyes met Christina’s briefly before he glanced resolutely away.

  “Want a waffle, Saint?” Aidan asked.

  “Nice of you to offer my services,” Christina said wryly. Aidan grinned at her before he attacked his waffle again.

  Saint shook his head. “No, I came to get Alison.”

  Alison’s fork fell to her plate with a clatter. She stared up at Saint, flabbergasted.

  “You came to get me?” The girl’s gaze flickered over to Christina and then back to Saint.

  “If you’ll come. I was hoping you could show me where Teslar has taken you in the tunnels. Teslar and the Scourge revenants are day-sleepers. It should be safe, as
long as we don’t get too close.”

  Aidan also set down his fork, his waffle forgotten. “How come sunlight doesn’t hurt you like it does Teslar?”

  Saint’s shapely lips—which in Christina’s opinion, were made almost indecently sexy highlighted as they were by his trim goatee—twitched with grim amusement. Thoughts of how his mouth had moved over her hungrily while his cock plundered her in a deep, thorough possession swamped her awareness, the power of the memory so realistic and intense that her cheeks flamed and her sex heated.

  She blinked away the sensual haze imposed by the mere sight of him. She was still angry at him for running away again last night, but she’d grown pensive as well, trying to think of the best way to cut through his stubborn hide.

  “You’re being influenced by stories, Aidan,” Saint said. “Teslar can go out during the day. It’s just that, for the activities he prefers, the night suits him better.”

  “What kind of activities?” Aidan asked. “Stuff like attacking people on the subway?”

  Christina cleared her throat loudly, throwing Saint a warning look when he glanced at her. Aidan was too young to know about Teslar’s twisted nighttime activities.

  “Yeah. Stuff like that and a lot worse,” Saint replied.

  “Like what?” Aidan demanded.

  “You let Saint worry about that,” Christina said abruptly.

  “But, Mom, I want to know! He’s dangerous. Saint told me last night he wants to kill us.”

  “You told him that?” Christina accused Saint furiously, standing from the table.

  “He has a right to know if he’s in danger. He has a right to know if his mother’s life is threatened. Do you think Aidan didn’t recognize the truth last night? You put yourself at a grave disadvantage by burying your head in the sand,” Saint stated impassively.

  Christina glared at him before she turned around and dumped her coffee in the sink, hissing a curse when some of it splashed onto her white shorts.

  “So I guess I still can’t go to my baseball game this morning, huh, Saint?” Aidan asked.

  “No.”

  Aidan sighed in disappointment. His little league team was in the midst of playoffs for the championship and Aidan was easily their most valuable player.

  “You and your mother aren’t to set a foot outside of Whitby’s property until Teslar can be contained. Alison, will you show me where Teslar is holed up in the tunnels?” Saint asked.

  Alison stood, her eager nod surprising Christina a little, given how down she’d been on Saint last night.

  “Wait a second! If it’s so dangerous for Aidan and me to leave Whitby, why’s it okay for Alison to go?” Christina demanded.

  “Alison is different than you two. She’ll be safe with me. I regularly hunt the revenants in the underground, usually during the day, when they’re relatively inactive. You two aren’t safe anywhere but here for now…and especially not in the tunnels.”

  “I don’t get it,” Aidan said. “My mom and I take the subway all the time and Teslar has never attacked us before.”

  Saint considered first Christina and then Aidan with his enigmatic gaze.

  “The subway tunnels are relatively shallow compared to where the revenants reside.”

  “Yeah,” Alison whispered, her enormous eyes fixed on Saint. “He took me down on an elevator real deep, into places I never knew existed under the city.”

  “The planet itself possesses a soul,” Saint said. “The deeper one goes into the earth’s mantle, the more it can be felt. For us, it is a constant source of nourishment—like a human breathing the purest air and drinking the freshest water. We could live off the earth’s vitessence alone for a week or longer. We are creatures of the underground…of the earth.”

  “But that doesn’t explain why it’s okay for you to take Alison down into Teslar’s hellhole,” Christina said fiercely.

  “It’s okay, Christina,” Alison murmured. “I want to help if I can.”

  “It does explain it,” Saint told Christina as if Alison hadn’t spoken. “If you or Aidan were to go that deep into the earth, the vibrations of the earth’s energy and your powerful vitessences would amplify one another’s. It’d be the equivalent of a crashing gong going off in Teslar’s sleeping brain. A clanging dinner bell,” he added harshly when Christina opened her mouth to argue. “The relative shallowness of the subway tunnels is the only reason I’ve allowed you and Aidan to use the subway in the past.”

  “The only reason you’ve allowed us,” Christina repeated in mixed amazement and outrage. This was really too much. The guy refused to even commit to being her bedmate and yet had no problem masterminding her life!

  “We can talk about it when I get back,” Saint said, jerking his head at Alison in a let’s go gesture.

  Christina felt like she had no choice but to watch helplessly as Saint handed the motorcycle helmet to Alison and both of them headed out the door.

  Chapter Ten

  The metallic whine of the hydraulic crane bounced off the walls of the limestone shaft, the echo making it necessary for Alison to shout in order to be heard.

  “Where in hell are we going? Or, don’t tell me—my question contains the answer, right?” She glanced nervously below the steel grating on which they stood. They’d started out in an empty water reservoir that was already two hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the ground. By the time the crane reached the bottom, they’d be far, far down in the bowels of the earth.

  “Chicago Deep Tunnel. Close to a hundred miles of tunnel and reservoirs used for water runoff. All of the tunnels have been mined at this point, but only some of them are currently in use. The project has been going on for several decades. According to my sources, some of the tunneling equipment is mysteriously being utilized at night, although they haven’t been able to figure out the precise location of where, or who’s doing it.”

  “Teslar?”

  Saint nodded. “I’m guessing he’s been burrowing below the deep tunnel.”

  “Even farther down?” Alison exclaimed. “Why didn’t we just use the elevator Teslar took me on? I said I’d be able to show you the location.”

  Saint shook his head. “Teslar would make it impossible for just anyone to access that elevator. Even if we did access it, he’d be alerted to the fact. I guessed from your description where the elevator must have been located. You got off in the deep tunnel before you transferred to a chamber where you went farther downward, right?” Alison nodded. “We’ll use this entrance and hope one of the chambers looks familiar to you. You can lead me from there.”

  “He did key in a code to call the elevator,” Alison mused, her brow wrinkled in memory. She stepped closer to him. “So, how do you rate, just walking into this pumping station and being allowed to come down into these tunnels? I thought that guy up there was going to lick your boots, he was so happy to do whatever you asked.”

  “I happen to know the President of the Water Reclamation District,” Saint murmured.

  Alison snorted. “More likely you own the bastard.” She stumbled and almost fell when the metal platform reached the bottom of the shaft and came to a halt with a shudder. She scurried off the platform quickly, casting a suspicious glance at the hydraulic crane.

  “You’ve got an awesome bike, but your twin’s got one up on you in regard to the transportation to hell department.”

  Saint didn’t reply, just walked over to the MinerMobile that would quickly take them to the first giant maintenance chamber five thousand feet away. Alison perched on the side of the vehicle and he steered them to the entrance of the thirty-foot-high limestone tunnel.

  “It’s weird down here. I noticed it when I was with Teslar,” Alison murmured in a hushed voice after several minutes, glancing around the dark, circular tunnel. The flashing lights on the MinerMobile cast her pale face in crimson light. “Do you think I’m sensing some of those energies you were talking about back at Christina’s—the earth’s soul, or some shit like t
hat?”

  Saint shrugged. He doubted it. “What do you hear?”

  “Hear? I hear this little car-thingy moving and nothing else. That’s what’s so weird. It’s like we’re insulated from every sound on earth down here. Why? What do you hear?”

  “The earth singing,” Saint said simply. “What you’re experiencing is more than likely your imagination. Only the rarest of humans can sense such things.”

  “Rare humans like Christina?”

  He gave her a hard look when he heard her snide tone of voice. Alison swallowed heavily. He noticed the rapid throb of her heartbeat. He instinctively set up an energy barrier when the girl leaned closer to him, her eyelids sinking heavily over her huge eyes.

  “It’s possible I’m just as special as Christina,” she said huskily.

  Her eyes fixed on his mouth. He leaned back deftly, avoiding her seeking lips.

  “You know, if you weren’t so busy trying to fuck everyone before they fuck you, you might notice most people aren’t half bad,” Saint said.

  “Oh, is that right? Such an angel, aren’t you, Saint? You don’t fool me, even if you have turned Christina into your number one cheerleader.”

  Saint stared straight ahead and continued to drive. He knew the girl was taunting him. She existed by quickly gauging other people’s weak points, and Christina was certainly his. Good thing he possessed no vitessence, or a human like Alison could drain him to exhaustion in five minutes flat. As things stood, his admiration for Christina deepened for putting up with little energy-suckers like Alison around the clock.

  He drove into a sixty-foot-tall chamber filled with emergency backup generators, metal staircases, and maintenance equipment. He shut off the vehicle. Alison remained seated when he stood. She still scowled at his rebuff of her advance. Saint sighed, not particularly wanting to put up with her sulks at the moment. He needed to find Teslar and lead the Iniskium on a surprise attack as quickly and efficiently as possible. The longer Teslar had to fade back and retrench, the worse it was going to be for Christina, Aidan, and any number of innocent humans in Chicago.