The vampire leapt off the wall, his talons extended. Jaden dropped down on his back and slammed both feet up into the vampire’s stomach moments before the creature's claws would have torn through his neck. The attack broke the trajectory of the vampire’s leap, flipped him over Jaden’s head, and slammed him onto the ground. The immortal grunted. Jaden scrambled to his feet and reached over his shoulder to draw his sword, but an ice-cold hand closed around the back of his neck and propelled him forward, slamming him face-first into the wall.
The impact punched the air out of Jaden’s lungs. His vision flashed white.
“Good fight,” the vampire hissed. “But you’re not good enough, human.” His grip shifted. A hand pressed against Jaden’s shoulder, and the other pulled Jaden’s head back.
Jaden gasped at the sharp pain as fangs sank into the vein at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. The toxin in the vampire’s fangs was fast acting. An anti-coagulant and intoxicant, it kept the blood flowing while lulling the victim into dreamlike lethargy. Jaden’s eyes fluttered as he struggled against the toxin flooding through his veins.
With a hiss, the vampire pulled back. “You have icrathari blood in you.” He swung Jaden around so that he could look into Jaden’s eyes. He shook Jaden hard. “You’re not an elder vampire. What are you? A human-icrathari hybrid?”
Jaden shook his head. The words felt clumsy on his tongue. “Ashra…saved my life. Her blood—”
“The cold bitch saved you?” The vampire laughed without mirth. “She sentences vampires to death for challenging her, but saves the life of a human? What kind of hold do you have over her?”
“I don’t know.”
The vampire lowered Jaden to the ground. “I better not toy with her chosen, then.” His tone, however, was sardonic instead of reverent. “What is your name, Ashra’s chosen?”
Jaden scrambled away. The vampire’s words tumbled, an incoherent jumble, through his head, competing with the rush of blood in his ears and the pounding of his heart.
The vampire kept his distance. “I won’t hurt you.” He laughed, a low, amused sound. “At least not permanently. Who are you?”
Jaden knew he wasn’t thinking clearly, but he answered anyway, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. “Jaden.”
“I’m Talon.” The vampire stepped forward.
Jaden recoiled. The curved wall of the cave blocked further retreat.
Talon paused and held up his hands, as if to assure Jaden that he was no threat. His claws, like those of the Aeternae Noctis vampires, possessed a pearlescent sheen. They retracted until they seemed as harmless as Jaden’s fingernails. Talon’s gleaming incisors vanished behind a self-mocking smile. He dragged a hand across his mouth to wipe away a streak of blood.
Even in the sparse light, Jaden could see that the crimson was subtly shaded with gold.
Talon’s smile widened. “How did you escape from Aeternae Noctis?”
“My sister and I were in Malum Turris. We were trying to find our way back to the city. I didn’t know…didn’t realize what lay outside.”
“The icrathari have gone to great extremes to keep you humans in the dark, literally and figuratively.”
“Why?”
Talon slid down the length of the wall to sit cross-legged across from Jaden. “In the early days of Aeternae Noctis, humans committed suicide by the thousands when they realized what they had done to the planet and that they had damned themselves to eternal night. To save humanity from extinction, the icrathari seized the children and cryogenically froze them until all the adults who entered Aeternae Noctis had died. When all who were left were the icrathari and vampires, Siri redesigned the interior of Aeternae Noctis and plunged it back into the seventeenth century. She also designed the hologram that reflects off the inner dome. Only then, did Ashra have the children released from their sleep.” Talon chuckled. “For many years, the vampires were babysitters and nursemaids. We built the houses, tended the fields. We taught young men and women the trades of masonry and carpentry. When Ashra decided that the humans were old enough to fend for themselves, she ordered us to pull back to the tower. Over time, the humans forgot that we were once their protectors and defenders. We became the Night Terrors.”
“Why would Ashra—?”
“Fear keeps humans from the greater sin, curiosity.”
“But—”
“Would you be here, Jaden, if you were not curious?”
“I was trying to save my sister.”
“Perhaps for you, love is greater than fear.” His thin shoulders moved in a shrug. “Most humans can’t see past their fear. It consumes them, focuses their hatred on the icrathari and the vampires. People who hate rarely pause to understand.”
Jaden’s eyes narrowed. Comprehension emerged in a rush of insight. “They’ll spend all their resources fighting the icrathari and vampires, smashing themselves against immortal creatures who will always be faster and stronger, and they’ll never uncover the truth of Aeternae Noctis.”
“Exactly.” With a sardonic smile, Talon waved a hand to encompass their surroundings. “The unvarnished truth behind the eternal night plunges people into despair. It has even driven newly turned vampires to suicide. Ashra once said, ‘If the truth gets in the way, then the truth be damned.’ And she’s right. We’ve worked too hard and too long to salvage humanity’s remnants to lose them to human foibles.”
Jaden inhaled sharply. Talon had added depth and detail to the scant facts Ashra tossed his way. The truth be damned. He could easily imagine Ashra speaking those words with cold indifference.
Except that cold indifference was the furthest thing from the emotions and thought processes that had inspired Ashra’s decision.
He stared down at his fisted hands. How could he reconcile a thousand years of his people’s imprisonment within the dome with Talon’s assertion that the icrathari and vampires were humanity’s defenders and protectors? His mind quavered, surrounded by a quicksand of truths, partial truths, and lies. There was no middle ground, no safe path that would allow him to reconcile all he had known with what he had learned.
Something had to give, but what? How would he know what was real, what truly mattered?
Ashra.
He jerked, startled by the immediacy of his instinctive response.
What was wrong with him? She was an icrathari.
Night Terror. Demon.
Defender. Protector.
Perhaps the more important question was, what was he? Was he just another human, steeped in fear, too swamped by hate to understand, or could he be the first to listen with an open heart and mind?
An open heart and mind…and a soul that was not his own.
Memories, in the guise of dreams, jolted into place, the fragments piecing to a single coherent image of Ashra.
He knew her. He knew her as she had been. He knew her in a way no one else did.
With a snap, emotions coalesced; the unending love of a former life blended with the inexplicable attraction of his present life.
Jaden blinked, startled by the relief that flooded him. Was their love—human and icrathari—meant to be?
The stone slab groaned and slid back. Six daevas, their yellow eyes glowing, stepped into the cell. They shoved the vampire into a corner of the room and pulled Jaden to his feet.
“They’re careful harvesters,” the vampire shouted after Jaden. “Don’t fight. Don’t panic. It’ll be all right.”
Don’t panic?
Did Talon have any idea how ridiculous the advice was to a human on the lowest rung of a large and growing totem pole of supernatural creatures? Jaden forced down his fight-or-flight instincts, and focused on counting his steps and memorizing the path through the warren of tunnels.
The narrow tunnel opened into a space twice the size of the cell. The daevas forced Jaden down on a stone slab and rolled up his sleeves, exposing his wrists. In battle, with their talons extended and upper lips drawn back to reveal sharp fangs, t
he daevas had appeared monstrous, but in that moment, the creatures he had mistaken for demons of legend were not harsh, nor were they as hideous as they had seemed. They had no hair on their heads, and their dark skin appeared shriveled like raisins left too long in the sun, but their features were delicate and not unlike an icrathari’s.
Two daevas entered, each carrying a fluttering infant. One of the daevas looked Jaden over and nodded. At her cue, the daevas who had escorted Jaden through the tunnels locked him down; two held his feet, two others his arms, and another his head.
He trembled from the cold of the stone slab seeping into his bones.
Two daevas drew sharp fingernails over his wrists, slicing open his veins. He bit back a gasp of shock and pain, and inhaled sharply when small mouths attached to the open wounds. Bat wings quivered on the tiny bodies pressed against his wrists. The infant daevas suckled with feverish abandon. Jaden closed his eyes against the rushing and chilling sensation of blood drawn from his body. He tried to keep track of the minutes, but the effort grew harder with each passing moment. Jaden roused himself from his dazed lethargy when one of the daevas lifted her mewling infant from his wrist. The infant screamed in protest and attempted to latch back onto Jaden. Blood trickled from its mouth; crimson tinged with hints of gold.
The daevas exchanged alarmed glances. They pried the infants off, and one of the daevas bent her head to taste the blood that still flowed freely from his veins. Her head snapped up, her yellow eyes wide. A rapid conversation followed, the sounds guttural but distinct. The daevas released him and stepped away from the stone stab.
His head reeling, Jaden pushed up on one elbow, but a sharp blow against the back of his head plunged him into darkness.
Chapter 10
Tattered fragments of sensations lured Jaden awake. He rolled onto his side and grimaced against the sharp sting of pain. He pressed a hand to the back of his head; his hand came away red with his blood. Damn. The next time, he would fight back; at least he would have deserved the beating.
He tumbled off the stone slab, but caught himself before his face smashed into the sandy ground. The cave was empty. Jaden’s brow furrowed. How long had he been unconscious, and why would the daevas leave him unguarded?
Shivering through his leather armor, he turned his head toward a low sound that vibrated between a buzz and a hum. He gritted his teeth and dragged himself to his feet. His legs trembled beneath him, but he leaned against the wall and followed the sound through a maze of corridors.
The sound grew louder with every turn. The path ended on the edge of a crevasse overlooking a massive cave. The ground plunged at least two hundred feet below him, and the roof extended a hundred feet above. Looking up made him dizzy. The walls were pockmarked with small openings at random heights and intervals, not unlike the one in which he stood.
The cave was filled with daevas, thousands of them. The sound—a combination of a multitude of voices speaking in the guttural daeva dialect and the flapping of wings—was deafening. The flurry of bat wings was so thick that Jaden could hardly make out the male humanoid figure standing at the center of the cave floor.
Jaden could not tell if it was a human or a vampire. Regardless, the daevas gave the man a wide berth, except for two daevas who hovered in conversation with him. One of the daevas gesticulated wildly, pointing up at the cave wall opening where Jaden stood.
Every daeva swiveled in his direction. Thousands of yellow eyes fixed on him.
Jaden could hear his breath rasp on the utter silence of the cavern.
The man in the center of the room jerked his head in Jaden’s direction.
Jaden fled down the corridor. The sound of fluttering wings drew ever closer, the brush of leather against stone. The low narrow corridors worked to his advantage; the daevas could only come at him one or two at a time. He raced through the pitch-black caverns he had mapped out in his mind by counting his steps and tracking each turn.
He did not stop when he found himself face-to-face with a startled daeva. He hurled himself against the creature. His greater weight, combined with his momentum and the element of surprise, gave him a brief advantage. He smashed the daeva into the rock wall. Its eyes rolled up in its head, and it slumped to the ground. A whimpering bundle fell from its arms.
Without realizing it, Jaden caught the infant daeva. Its tiny wings flapped, but Jaden seized them, immobilizing the infant in the same way he had immobilized chickens before slaughtering them for the evening meal. The child wailed.
The sound threw him back into motion. He scrambled through the tunnels, the baby in hand, and slammed his weight against the rock door that sealed the cell. The rock groaned and slid back. “Talon. To me!” He pulled a sword from the sheath across his back, and tossed it hilt first into the darkness.
A lean arm snaked out and seized the sword. The elder vampire emerged from the shadows, tension evident in his emaciated frame. He glanced over Jaden’s shoulder at a tunnel that glowed yellow with daeva eyes. The vampire shook his head. “Humans never know their limits.” He stepped out of the cell. “This way.”
Together, Jaden and Talon went the only way they could—the way that wasn’t blocked by thousands of daevas. A low growl preceded the rush of wings. Jaden threw a glance over his shoulder. He spun around and swung his sword up to deflect a vicious swipe. A furious chitter arose among the clustered daevas, but they kept their distance, their bright yellow eyes darting to the squirming infant that hung by its wings from Jaden’s left hand.
“It appears you’ve snagged their princess,” Talon said with a low chuckle. He too had paused. He kept his back pressed against Jaden’s as his eyes searched the dark corridor ahead for potential threats.
“What? You understand them?”
“You can learn anything in five hundred years of captivity.” Talon threw a quick glance over his shoulder and nodded his head at a large daeva that emerged at the front of the pack. “That’s her mother. It appears you have the perfect hostage.”
Hostage?
Mentally, he recoiled. The infant daeva was scarcely larger than a spring chicken, and no heavier. Its yellow eyes were wide in its smooth face, and its skin was soft, undamaged by the sun. It blinked up at him, both curious and innocent. Trusting.
The large daeva stepped toward him.
Jaden took a step back and held the point of his sword at the infant daeva’s throat.
The adult stopped in her tracks. Her chin lifted, and she held out her hand in an imperious gesture. Sparks of light reflected off her silver ring.
Jaden shook his head. “I don’t think so.” His words, quietly uttered, echoed through the cavern.
“Do you have a plan?” Talon tossed the question to Jaden.
“No, not really. Just keep moving.”
“Not an option.” Talon stiffened. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
Jaden spared a glance in Talon’s direction. Another pack of daevas swarmed toward them. The spread of their large bat-like wings filled the tunnel.
After a moment of silence, Talon laughed softly. “This day had to come, though I never thought I would die fighting next to a human.” With fangs, claws, and a sword, he leapt into battle.
Back-to-back, Jaden and Talon kept the daevas at bay, though Jaden was convinced that he was alive only because of the daevas’ reluctance to endanger the infant.
A terrifying series of screeches and howls arose from the ranks of daevas fighting Talon. The attack on Jaden fell back in confusion. Jaden threw a glance over his shoulder as the daevas who had been attacking Talon spun around, turning their backs on the elder vampire, to face an apparent threat behind them. Glimpses of silver flashed through the black flare of wings.
The curtain of wings collapsed like a shredded veil. Ashra stepped through the darkness, her silver hair swirling about her expressionless face. The golden blood of the daevas streaked her white gown.
Jaden released his breath. A smile flashed across his face. She had come
for him. Somehow, he had known she would. His green eyes met her golden ones. “Get Talon out of here.”
Surprise chased recognition over her features. She nodded, seized Talon around the waist, and soared over the bodies of the daevas she had slain. The icrathari and the elder vampire vanished into the darkness.
The daevas shrieked.
Ashra’s disappearance stripped the daevas of their restraint. Yellow eyes aglow, they lunged at Jaden, apparently indifferent to his tiny hostage. Instinct demanded he protect the child. He cradled the infant to his chest with one hand. With the other, he slashed out with his remaining sword. He hacked indiscriminately through the flurry of wings and arms that surged at him. Claws tore his sword from his hand and ripped through his leather armor. He screamed, dropping to his knees, his body curved over the baby to shield it from the brutal attack. Vicious pain carved through him like a plough digging gouges into the ground.
In that terror-stricken moment, Jaden knew he would die.
Chapter 11
Ashra returned in time to see Jaden’s body crumple beneath a furious flutter of black wings. The metallic scent of his blood cut through the stale air. She drew her breath in sharply and screamed. Her battle cry raced ahead of her, as much a weapon as her claws and fangs. The daevas recoiled, cowering. That split-second of their cringing terror was all she needed. She swooped in and snatched Jaden up.
Her black wings pressed tight against her back, she swept through the curving tunnels, and then up through the shaft that led to the surface. Daevas raced behind her. Their claws shredded the hem of her gown and gouged her feet.
Jaden’s faltering heartbeat fluttered against her chest. In his arms, secure between their bodies, he cradled a squirming bundle. Ashra did not spare it a second glance. Faster. She broke through the surface, took two quick steps through the stone hut, and then lunged into the open.
Her wings unfurled to their full ten-foot span, carrying her up through the thin air. The shadow of Aeternae Noctis blocked out the glow of the moon. With daevas snapping at her heels, she flew along the underside of the city, swerving around the invisible blasts of superheated air that pulsed out of the massive exhaust funnels. Shrieks of pain and panic followed in her wake as unwitting daevas were broiled alive. A daeva grasped her ankle. She twisted into a spin, her wings wrapping around her like a black cloak. Centrifugal force flung the daeva off, hurling it into a column of scalding air.
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