by Cege Smith
That was when he felt it. It was the slightest rustle that changed the way the wind wrapped around him, but it was all the sign he needed to know. Others were coming and they were moving fast.
“Princess, we have to keep moving. It isn’t safe here,” he said. Before she could protest, he swept her up into his arms again and started to run.
Connor put out his mind to touch those behind him, and he almost drew back again instantly in disgust. There were two of them, and he confirmed they were the same ones who had almost found them the night before. The one mind was curiously empty. Connor had encountered minds like it before; simple men who had no ambitions or goals in life beyond existing. There was nothing threatening to be found there. But it was the other that worried him. That one’s mind was a cesspool of red and black; anger, madness, and violence.
Connor was able to skim thoughts from the surface of that one’s mind and it made his stomach turn, even after all the things he had seen in his afterlife. The two pursuers had spent the day at a small farmhouse on the other side of the valley. There had been a man, a woman, and two small children there. It was because of this rare find that they were late returning to the valley to continue their search for Connor and Angeline. The memory of the small boy they had found in the potato cellar was so vivid, and the taste of his blood when they finally finished with him was so sweet, that Connor could not stop his mouth from watering even though his mind rebelled against it.
Connor was able to pick up a few more impressions. The thoughts of the dark mind had turned to Angeline and the possibility of capturing her for himself. For even though it was the Master’s game that set this madman on Angeline’s trail, he hoped that he would have a chance to play his own game with the princess. And that was when the vampire’s name swept across the tall grass between them and hit Connor with full force.
Searon.
For the first time in a long time, Connor felt fear rising up through his core. Searon had been the Master’s favored son, at least until a particularly gruesome encounter with a traveling merchant train that had braved the wildness of the lawless side of the Solera Valley in search of a profit.
Connor had been summoned to the coven’s council to witness Searon’s sentencing. He hadn’t wanted to, but Monroe had insisted on it. He knew that his reclusiveness vexed his sire and had even caused some bad feelings between Monroe and the Master. The request had been so simple it hadn’t even been worth getting into a fight with Monroe. And as much as he detested what Monroe had done to him, cursing him to live as a murderer for eternity, he had grown somewhat fond of the man over the years. He suffered Monroe’s rants in silence, and tried to accommodate the small favors, just enough to curry sustained goodwill between them so that Monroe left him in peace.
Connor had been against the very back wall of the circular chamber when Searon had been brought before the Master in chains. While everyone else pushed forward to get a better look at the wayward son, Connor had leaned back against the wall and yawned. The extra four inches he had on most of the men meant that he could see just enough of what was happening in the center of the chamber. High up the wall in each of the four corners hung huge oval mirrors wrapped in ornate gold cases. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house, and it was a guarantee that you wouldn’t miss even one excruciating detail of the action.
The Master looked downright shaken. Connor knew that the Master had doted on Searon and looked the other way over his transgressions for years. But the truce with the Robarts required that the vampires stay hidden, and given the Master’s carefully laid plans, what Searon had done had put all of that in jeopardy for the last time.
Connor saw that of the two, Searon looked far less concerned than his father. The man was still very young for a pureblood, only slightly older than Connor, but he had all the brash and swagger of one much more immature. Being a pureblood made Searon rare amongst the ranks of the vampires gathered in the hall. The legends said that before Alair Robart had made it his personal vendetta to exterminate their entire race, one in every two vampires in the Master’s coven was a pureblood. Of course, that had also been a time when there were multiple covens scattered across all of Altera. Now turned vampires like Connor outnumbered the purebloods fifty to one. And Searon was the only pureblood son of the Master and the only link left to the Master’s deceased wife, who had died giving birth to Searon. Searon had lived a pampered life.
Searon had knelt down before his father and knuckled his hand to his forehead. Connor felt the gesture dripped with condescension.
“Father, you have summoned me. And now I have come. How can I serve?” Searon’s tone carried no worry.
“Searon, my son. My heir. You have caused great difficulty for the coven. You must answer for your crimes,” the Master said.
“My crime was only in a zest for living the true vampire way, Father. I think it is time that we throw off the shackles of this so-called truce and we take back what was stolen from us. I offer my life in service to the task,” Searon said.
Clever, Connor thought. So Searon understood that he had angered his father a great deal but was still trying to turn the tide in his favor. Everyone in the coven knew that Searon despised the shackles of the Robart truce. Searon had offered up a neatly thought-out angle for the Master to take that would save the Master face and further Searon’s pursuits against humans. If it was anyone other than Searon standing here, the Master would have already called for his head.
Connor was bored and so he cast about looking for something interesting to pick out of the minds around him. If he got lucky he’d find a tidbit to give Monroe to work on. Monroe was the Master’s Chief Deputy, and over the years Connor had handed him some good leads on those who plotted against the Master.
There were so many people in the room, though, that no one individual thought was distinguishable from the other. It was just a whole lot of noise—until he touched on a tendril of white hot anger that almost burned the inside of his skull. He was perplexed. He had never found something that intense in picking at minds. He started to gently reach out again to see if he could pinpoint who it was.
At that moment the Master spoke again. “Many have told me that I have been overindulgent with you, Searon. How could I not be? You are my son and you are pureblood. But I cannot allow you to put this coven in jeopardy any longer.”
Connor felt a mass sense of shock and surprise scuttle through the minds in the room. He kept poking and pushing these out of the way, looking for that one mind again.
“BANISHMENT,” the Master’s voice boomed throughout the chamber.
Astonishment now also joined surprise.
“Searon, you are hereby stripped of all titles and heir rights. You will leave these coven walls and never return, or face death. You are dead to me now,” the Master said. He pulled up the cowl on his cloak and turned.
At that moment Connor stumbled on to the mind he had been searching for and found the small tendril of anger had grown into a seething mass. There was heat and violence swirling. He looked anxiously around to see where it was coming from, and then his eyes locked on Searon’s in the high mirror. It was coming from Searon. And Searon knew that Connor knew.
With a brief high yell, Searon sprang to his feet. He whipped off the royal cloak and threw it on the ground. He pointed at his father. “Coward! Cowards all of you! You think you can get rid of me that easily, think again!” The he turned on his heel and ran from the room. Coven law dictated that a banished vampire had mere moments to leave the coven walls before becoming fair game for the hunters.
Connor could see that many of the coven members were shaken, and he wondered about the wisdom of the Master’s decision.
Running as hard as he could against the tall grass, Connor remembered asking Monroe about the decision afterwards. He couldn’t fathom why setting a madman loose on the world had been a better plan than simply killing him.
Monroe had clasped Connor on the shoulder and said, “It is di
fficult for anyone to lose a son, and you never want to be in the position where you are deciding between life and death for your child. The Master knows what he’s doing. Now that Searon’s been banished he’s none of our concern any longer unless he stirs up trouble for the coven.”
And so it had been for years until now.
Connor hadn’t been careful using his mind-reading abilities when he had scanned Searon or his companion, and he hoped that Searon had been too distracted by his recent kill to notice. He picked up the pace.
Searon had found a way to get back into the good graces of both his father and the coven. Connor glanced down at the woman in his arms. News of the Master’s game had reached Searon’s ears, and Searon knew that all he had to do was win the game by bringing the princess to the Master. Connor pulled Angeline closer to him and ran.
CHAPTER NINE
It felt like Connor had been running for hours and Angeline completely lost track of time. Initially she was surprised to hear the thud of a heartbeat, his heartbeat, against her ear, but eventually she tucked her face into Connor’s cloak and let the rhythm soothe her nerves. The night air was chilly and they seemed to be moving at an impossible pace.
Angeline had just started to doze when Connor stopped and she was jarred awake. She was afraid they had already arrived at the coven, but realized that it was still full dark and the only light she could see was that of the moon. Conner carefully slid her down onto a small rock that sat on the edge of a clearing. They were surrounded by tall grass on all sides, but in the center of the clearing stones had been laid out to form a small fire pit.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked, although she was relieved. She didn’t know how long it would take to reach their destination, but the more stops they took the more opportunities she’d have to find a way to escape. “The sooner this detour is done the sooner I can be returned to my people.”
“I thought you could use the break, Princess. Would you like something to eat?”
Angeline’s stomach answered for her and she winced.
Connor chuckled and dug into one of the pockets of his cloak. He pulled out a piece of hard jerky and handed it to her. She took it delicately, but bit into it with a force that she couldn’t control.
“Tell me about your Master,” she said after several moments of silence.
Connor started stalking the perimeter of the clearing. She knew what he was doing. He was simultaneously guarding anyone from sneaking up on them while at the same time staying close enough to guard her from running. Not that she would have known where to go in any case. The lands around them seemed completely barren of life. She had not even seen a house or farm since they had entered the Forgotten Lands. She had never felt so isolated.
Connor was silent so long that she wondered if he was going to answer her or not. “What is it you’d like to know?”
“I’d like to know why he sent you to accost me from my father’s deathbed,” she replied, crossing her arms. “I’d like to know what he hopes to gain from this meeting.”
Connor didn’t reply and Angeline waited. Looking up at the stars, she felt like the sky was so big that it was closing in on her.
“I’d like to know if I’m going to live long enough to see my father again,” she said softy. Tears sprung up in her eyes.
Connor finally turned and his emerald eyes seemed to float in the heavy darkness. “I am a simple servant of my Master. But I know that he has matters of great importance to discuss with you, Princess. Matters that affect all of us. He has risked much by asking me to bring you to him. He knew that this would bring the legends back to life, and not in a good way. He is wise. He has ruled our coven here in the dark forgotten land since the days before we were banished here. He is a fair leader. I do not think you are in any immediate danger from him.”
Angeline caught the hitch in his voice when he said “immediate.” That didn’t make her feel one bit better about her predicament.
“You were banished here?” she asked. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that vampires existed. There was so much she didn’t know, and part of her was still angry at her father for putting her in this position. She should have been at his side for the last two years learning every bit of knowledge he could teach her about ruling Altera as well as everything there was to know about their mortal enemies, not astronomy or math from the Sisters of St. Abath. She should have been at his right hand, not Malin.
Connor did another circle of the clearing before answering. “Yes. After your great-great- great-grandfather did a fine job of hunting down and killing all but a few remaining vampires, he offered them a choice. They could move to the farthest corner of the kingdom, by far the most remote, hostile place in all the land, and never come back, or he would kill them where they stood.” He knelt down in front of Angeline and sighed. “My Master was one of those survivors. So he came here, as far away as he could possibly get, and he gathered the survivors to him and they have lived here peaceably ever since.”
Connor’s story added at least ten new questions to Angeline’s list. She wished she had a pen and paper to write it all down.
“How many of you are there?” she asked.
“Too many,” Connor said curtly and then he turned away.
Angeline wondered if he could hear their pursuers and how far behind them they were. And she was also disturbed by Connor’s answer. A secret kingdom of vampires sitting quietly all the way out where no one could see what they were doing? Angeline smelled something very bad in all of that. She feared that this pseudo vampire king was amassing an army to wreak havoc on her people. They had been at peace for so long that she doubted most of them remembered what it was like to live in a time of war. Her father had campaigned against small upstarts far in the east near the ocean and had skirmishes along the boundaries of the Solera Valley, but there hadn’t been a full-scale war since…well, since the war that solidified that a Robart would sit on the throne of Altera until the end of time.
Angeline, deep in her thoughts, wasn’t paying attention to what was happening around her. She still felt a bit lethargic from the journey so far. Then she felt a slight pinch of pain on the top of her hand. She looked down and gasped. A spider the size of her fist was crouched over her hand like it was claiming it. Its red beady eyes dared her to defy it.
Then Connor was there and he grabbed the spider by its immense furry body and crushed it in his fist. Red blood squeezed through the folds between his fingers and dripped onto her hand. Angeline’s stomach turned. She hated blood.
She turned away as Connor walked to the edge of the clearing and tossed the spider’s mangled body into the tall grass. Her hand was hurting, though. She examined it as best she could in the moonlight. There was a large bump and two angry red marks where its fangs had pierced her skin. It was warm to the touch and it tingled. She scratched it for just a second before Connor returned and took her hand in his, looking at it closely.
“It bit you,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. His touch was gentle as he probed the bump. She tried not to cry out. “That hurts. Is it bad?”
Connor seemed to slip to the ground in front of her. He looked shocked, as though he had no idea what to do.
Angeline was alarmed. “Connor. I’m going to be fine, right? It’s just a little spider bite.”
“From the most poisonous creature in Altera,” he said. He couldn’t meet her eyes.
“You need to do something!” Angeline said too loudly. She was starting to feel the tingles of pain traveling up her arm now, and there was a dull roar sounding in her ears.
“Even if I could get you to a healer, a single bite from that menace kills in less than ten minutes.” Connor moved closer to her. “Princess, I don’t know how I can help you.”
Angeline felt herself slipping off the rock. She couldn’t feel her lower limbs anymore. Her mind was trying to think of any alternative, but she could only think of one. If the vampire lore was accurate
she had an option, a very undesirable one because it was extremely dangerous. But she didn’t have much of a choice.
“You have to suck the venom out,” she croaked.
She saw Connor’s face contort. “I can’t do that. I don’t wish this life upon anyone.”
She tried to shake her head but only managed to move it a few inches in either direction. “That’s not what I’m talking about. Suck out the venom, Connor, but I’m not going to drink your blood. I’m going to be a queen, not a vampire. Don’t stop until it’s gone, and if I live then it was meant to be. But I will not die like this. A Robart does not go down without a fight.”
She saw the panic in his eyes, but he had started to nod slowly. She was relieved. That meant that it was possible to be bitten by a vampire and not become one. So that part of vampire lore was true.
“Please,” she whispered, and she felt her consciousness fading. Maybe she was going to die. Her salvation rested in the hands of this handsome vampire. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and she was gone.
CHAPTER TEN
Connor watched Angeline descend into unconsciousness. He didn’t have any time to think or decide if he should really contemplate doing what she had asked him to do and what it meant. Connor had not drunk human blood in more than fifty years. But if he wanted her to live, he had to do it. Unfortunately, there was a chance that the request carried a heavy consequence that they would both have to live with forever. No matter what Angeline thought she knew, what she had asked him to do had far-reaching repercussions if he didn’t manage to remove the venom before she reached death’s doorstep.
There wasn’t time to think about it any longer. Her life was wavering in the balance. Connor made the decision, took her hand, and sank his teeth into the warm bump where it had all started, and immediately he felt heady and nauseous at the same time. While Angeline’s blood tasted fragrant and young, there was an underlying hint of sourness—the spider’s poison. He knew that his vampire healing would keep him safe from the full effects of the venom, but his knees weakened and he sank to the ground. But that wasn’t enough to deter him; the blood lust had him fully in its claws. His eyes rose up Angeline’s slim, still body. Her chest rose and fell in short successive gasps as her lungs tried desperately to get fresh air. Her skin had gone waxy, and he could see two red splotches high on her cheekbones.
