Jaden shook his head. “No, she flew down.”
Lucas laughed aloud. “Tera is our most adept aerial warrior, but Ashra is almost as capable. Their hair-raising turns through the corridors of Malum Turris are often enough to make an elder vampire doubt his immortality.”
At the mention of an elder vampire, Jaden looked up. “You’re not an elder vampire, are you?”
“No, Talon is the only elder vampire, and he was transformed before the apocalypse. Since then, Siri has attempted to transform humans into elder vampires, but all the transformations failed.”
“And the immortali are the results of failed transformations?”
“That’s right. They did not survive the trial.”
“The trial?”
“After a full transfusion of pure icrathari blood, the transformation from human to elder vampire or immortali takes at least six hours. To protect the city from the psychotic rage of an immortali, we bury the human outside Aeternae Noctis. If, by chance, the transformation succeeds, the elder vampire would have the wits and skill to return to the city. An immortali, however, will forever wander the Earth, if it emerges from the ground at all.”
“How does it survive?”
Lucas chuckled. “Rather uncomfortably, I imagine. Vampires and elder vampires will die if the injuries they sustain exceed their self-healing capabilities, but uninjured, they can live indefinitely. Sustenance—blood—is required only to heal from injury, and under those circumstances, icrathari blood is far preferable to human blood. The stronger the blood, the faster we heal, as I’m sure you’ve already found out.”
Jaden exhaled, releasing his breath in a soft sigh. “So what are humans to you?”
“To me and to many of the other vampires and icrathari, a nuisance. To Ashra, a responsibility that no one can convince her to abandon. More than once, her commitment to the humans was all that kept them alive after a rebellion.”
“Rebellion?”
“Do you think you’re the first generation to challenge the icrathari? Yuri, the vampire who now leads the rank of our warriors, was the leader of the last citywide rebellion. The icrathari crushed the rebellion and found other uses for her talent.”
“By turning her against the humans she used to fight for?”
Lucas met Jaden’s gaze. “Yuri is a vampire, but she still fights for the humans. You’ve seen the world outside Aeternae Noctis—the daevas, the immortali. Yuri and the other vampires defend the city. We defend the people we once were.” He shrugged. “I shouldn’t expect you to understand, though. No human has, not since the founding of Aeternae Noctis.” The platform stopped, and Lucas stepped off the elevator and into a massive circular chamber before turning to offer Jaden a helping hand.
“Jaden.”
He looked up at Ashra’s voice, the now-familiar breath of silk over steel.
A gathering of vampires and icrathari parted to allow Ashra to pass. “What are you doing here? You were barely alive three hours ago.” The glow of her golden eyes was gentle and without guile. Her lips curved with the hint of a sweetly unself-conscious smile.
Blood slave, a part of his mind mocked him. He hesitated.
Her smile faltered. Her eyes widened. Surprise and hurt flickered through their depths.
Blood slave or no, he could still resist her, and he hurt her when he did.
His conscience tugged. His heart quivered under the assault of the truth. She had challenged an entire clan of daevas to save him. She had taken far more risks for him than he had for her.
Trusting his instincts, he tugged away from Lucas and walked into the icrathari’s embrace. He pressed his cheek against her hair, and the scent of jasmine and hyacinth wafted toward him. He winced when her arms pressed lightly against his back. The throb of raw agony was muted, but noticeable. “The pain reminds me I’m alive,” he said softly.
A low chuckle emerged from the ranks of the vampires. Ashra laughed too, a quiet sound. With an arm wrapped around his lean waist, she turned and led him toward the others. “You know Talon, of course.” She indicated the elder vampire with a nod of her head.
Talon’s grin was sardonic, his dark eyes narrowed. He still appeared thin, but his skin had a healthy flush. Blood. Jaden fought down the instinctive rush of horror. Strong blood. Icrathari blood, not human blood.
Ashra introduced the three icrathari—two female, one male. “Tera, Siri, and Elsker.”
Jaden recognized Tera as the icrathari warlord who had effortlessly defeated him. Her black leather bustier and pants were not armor, but they were far more practical than the gauzy dress Ashra wore. Tera’s eyes were like shards of steel, and her thin lips pressed into a tight line. Like Ashra, she was slender, but there was an appearance of wiry strength to her that Ashra lacked. Appearances, however, as Jaden knew well, were deceiving in a race where strength was a function of age, not training.
Tera offered him a cool nod. Her acceptance would be slow in coming.
Siri’s slight smile was more welcoming, though still guarded. Her red velvet dress clung to a curvaceous body, and her short hair framed her face. Unlike Ashra, whose horned wing joints were encased in gold, and Tera’s encased in steel, Siri’s wing joints were exposed. The bones gleamed, a polished and creamy ivory set against the jet-black of her leather wings.
Ashra spoke. “Tera leads our warriors and scouts. Siri manages the medical, research, and engineering teams of Aeternae Noctis. Elsker is my adviser.”
The sole male icrathari, dressed in a black silk shirt and linen pants, extended his hand to Jaden. His handshake was firm and his smile steady. “Welcome back, Jaden.” His voice was smooth, a melodic tenor, and his touch offered the familiarity of friendship. His pale blue eyes glowed with warmth and a welcome that both Tera and Siri had withheld. “It’s been a long time.”
Had Elsker and Rohkeus been close friends? Jaden did not doubt it.
“And these are the vampires who run the daily operations of Aeternae Noctis. You’ve met Lucas, who oversees the infirmary. Phillip is our lead scientist. He also manages the ark. Xanthia is our engineer; she keeps Aeternae Noctis in the air.”
Jaden’s gaze lingered on each of the three vampires in turn. All appeared in their late-fifties; Lucas, Phillip, and Xanthia had been transformed later in life. Their hard-won human knowledge and expertise in their chosen fields were seized by the icrathari and immortalized in service of the city.
Ashra continued the introductions. “Yuri leads the vampires who defend the city.”
Unlike Lucas, Phillip, and Xanthia, Yuri appeared scarcely older than Jaden. Apparently, the confidence and insolence that had inspired her rebellion against the icrathari had not been fully purged from her. Her stance was proud, and she carried herself with the careless grace of a trained warrior. Like Tera, to whom she reported, she wore her hair in a braid down her back.
Ashra gestured at the fifth vampire in the room, a slight woman dressed in practical black leather armor, not unlike what Jaden had worn. “And this is Dana Hunter.”
Dana Hunter?
Jaden stiffened. His eyes locked on Dana. Her emerald eyes—so much like his own—glowed with love, but her stance remained closed. Her fingers were interlaced, locked together in front of her chest in an attitude of prayer. Her slim frame trembled.
Could it be? His heart pounded in his chest. His mind whirled, his thoughts too fragmented to grasp. He took an unsteady step forward. A single word emerged from his lips. “Mother?”
Her throat worked as she swallowed hard. Dana nodded.
“Mother.” He tried the word again. The second time, his voice quavered less. Two quick steps placed him in front of her.
Dana opened her arms, enfolding him in an embrace he had not felt for twenty-three years.
He buried his face against her hair. “You’re alive,” he whispered. His mind spun. His version of reality shattered. Like molten glass, the fragments reshaped around the woman who had once anchored him, his mother.
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br /> She nodded. Her hands stroked his hair. Her chest heaved against his, and soft sobs emerged from her throat. She said nothing.
He released his breath in a sigh and surrendered to the swirling chaos of reactions that buffeted him. The questions would have to wait until he was collected enough to tease his emotions apart and form coherent sentences. After a long moment, he pulled back and stared into the face that had previously existed only in his hazy memories.
“I never thought I would see you again. You—” He chuckled. Wry humor shielded him from the necessity of delving any deeper into his thoughts. “You were the vampire who accompanied Ashra to my cell.”
The corner of Dana’s mouth tugged into a smile. “You hit me and ran.”
Ashra laughed softly. “He hit us both.”
Dana looked back at her son. “You’ve lost your fear of us.”
Jaden managed a thin smile. “I’ve learned that there is a great deal more to fear.”
Tera pushed away from the wall and paced the chamber. “The daevas won’t be a threat for much longer. Now that we know where they are, we can take them out.”
“You can’t. There are thousands of them.”
Tera spun on him. Her gray eyes blazed. “What?”
“I saw thousands of daevas in the caves.”
“That’s impossible. The daevas are descended from the four icrathari who did not enter Aeternae Noctis, and icrathari do not breed easily. There cannot be thousands of them. You’re mistaken.” Tera’s voice snapped like a steel trapping slamming shut.
“I—”
“Both Talon and Ashra reported no more than a few dozen daevas.”
“The narrow tunnels created a funnel and limited their numbers.”
Tera shook her head. Her eyes narrowed. “They’d just fed on you. You were disoriented from blood loss. You hallucinated—”
“I know what I saw. A cavern filled with thousands of daevas, and—” His brow furrowed as he sorted through memories blurred by pain. “I saw someone else—a human or vampire, I…I couldn’t tell from that distance.”
Tera threw her head back and laughed. Her tiny fangs gleamed in the florescent light. “That’s absurd. The only creatures outside Aeternae Noctis are the daevas and the immortali, and the immortali are insane. The daevas would never conspire with the immortali.”
Siri cut in. “Jaden, you were badly hurt even before the daevas drew on your blood. Tera’s right; the combination of your injuries and the blood loss, you shouldn’t have been able to raise your head, let alone see straight.”
“But he could, and he did. He fled the daevas, freed me, and then stood his ground, sword in hand,” Talon interjected. His dark eyes locked on Jaden. “Ashra’s blood flowing through your veins allowed you to survive what you otherwise would not have.”
Siri’s eyes widened. “Ashra’s blood?”
Talon continued. “When I tried to feed on him, I tasted the blood of an icrathari mingled with his.” He smirked at Jaden and licked his lips. “The flavor is heady. I expect the daevas noticed too.”
Had they? Jaden’s brow furrowed. Had the daevas been startled by the taste of his hybrid blood? What kind of information had they conveyed to the male figure Jaden had seen in the caves?
Siri’s incredulous gaze flashed to Ashra. “What did you do?”
Ashra’s chin tilted up. “He was injured, and the sun scorched him. He would have died without my blood.”
“And he didn’t go mad? How much did you give him?”
“Ten drops at dawn, and another ten three hours ago.”
Siri walked up to Jaden. Her wings beat down, lifting her up to look into his face. Her stare was direct, but lacked the challenge of Tera’s flinty expression, nor did it cause his heartbeat to race, the way Ashra’s did. With clinical detachment, she drew a fingernail across his wrist.
Jaden flinched, but did not yank his hand away. The vampires and icrathari were obviously nonchalant about spilling blood. He doubted he would ever be that relaxed about it.
Siri dabbed at a crimson drop trickling from his wrist, and brought her blood-smeared finger to her mouth. Her tongue darted out. Her eyes closed, and she inhaled deeply. The soft glow of pure appreciation flickered over her face, reminding Jaden of Thomas, the old vintner who all but smacked his lips when he sampled his prized wines.
“More than heady. I’d say his blood is intoxicating.” Her eyes opened, and she smiled. “Very interesting. Phillip and I will need to run more tests to confirm if you’re still human or if you’re turning into something else.”
Alarm shot through Jaden’s spine. “Something else?”
Siri chuckled. “Never underestimate the transformative power of an icrathari’s blood. I wouldn’t worry too much; I doubt you’ll transform into a vampire off a few drops of Ashra’s blood. Change is rarely immediate, though, and the most profound change is often the most subtle.”
Elsker cleared his throat. “What about the soul bond?”
Ashra tensed.
Jaden glanced around the room. The vampires and icrathari turned their faces away from him. A chill clawed through him. His fingers curled into fists. “What is a soul bond?”
Elsker hesitated. When he finally spoke, he seemed to choose his words with care. “A soul bond is the unbreakable connection formed between an icrathari and the person transformed by an icrathari’s blood. It lasts through death—”
“And apparently through reincarnations,” Talon cut in. The glance he threw Jaden was self-mocking.
Jaden’s eyes narrowed. Surely Talon was not suggesting that some kind of bond existed between them because Rohkeus had transformed Talon into an elder vampire a thousand years prior. He held Talon’s gaze. “What does the soul bond do?”
Talon shrugged. “Nothing or everything, depending on your point of view.”
Jaden gritted his teeth. Would he never get a straight answer out of the vampires and icrathari? “I need to know.”
Ashra placed a hand on his wrist. “We cannot tell you what we do not know. Our legends speak of the soul bond, but Talon is the only elder vampire, and Rohkeus died soon after Talon’s transformation. We’ve never tested the extent or the strength of a soul bond. You, however, are not an elder vampire. You have nothing to fear.”
But he did. When he stared into the gold of Ashra’s eyes, he could have sworn he had already succumbed to the soul bond. Forty-eight hours earlier, his fear of the Night Terrors had suffocated him like a death shroud, but at that moment, all he felt was irritation over their evasiveness.
Soul bond. Blood slave. It doesn’t matter what term they use. I’m becoming one of them—in spirit, if not in body.
Like Ashra, he had a stake in the survival of the city and the human race. Jaden looked at Tera. “I stand by what I saw in the caves.”
Tera glared at him, and then she snarled, a guttural sound of frustration. Her wings spread; the scrape of leather against leather whispered against her back. She paced the length of the chamber, and then spun, whirling on him. “If what he says is true, then we cannot take them on. Even if the narrow tunnels funnel their attack, twenty-five cannot stand against thousands.”
Ashra’s eyes narrowed. “I want to stop their attacks on Aeternae Noctis, not annihilate them.”
Tera glowered. “There is no other way to stop their attacks.”
Elsker shook his head. “Total war is not, and will never be, the answer. The last time the humans embarked on total war, they would have driven their own species to extinction, if not for Rohkeus and Aeternae Noctis.”
Siri shrugged. “We could seal the entrance to the cave, though I imagine there are multiple exits, none of which we’ve found. What we really need is to understand the daevas and their society. We’d be fighting blind otherwise—brute strength against brute strength—and they have far greater numbers, but if we could analyze them and find a weakness…”
Jaden glanced at Siri. Her short hair framed her face. Could she have bee
n the icrathari who had met with the daevas? Knowledge was, after all, the sweetest of forbidden fruit, and Siri, more than any other icrathari, craved knowledge. She would parley with the daevas in exchange for information.
Talon cut in. “What about the infant Jaden took hostage? She’s daeva royalty.”
Several heads snapped up in his direction. It appeared that the daeva hostage was not common knowledge.
Elsker frowned. “What’s this about a hostage?”
Siri shrugged. “An infant daeva. Talon believes it’s a daughter from one of their ruling houses. Historically, icrathari and daevas have not tended toward democracy or layered societies.” She smirked at Ashra. “More likely, a small handful of daevas command the vast horde. If we can cut off the head, the masses will be useless until new leaders emerge from the inevitable scramble for power. I suspect there will be a fair number of casualties in the process.”
Ashra folded her arms across her chest. “I agree, but I doubt the infant daeva will be of any use to you in unraveling the mysteries of their society.”
Elsker shook his head. “If she is royalty, won’t the daevas attempt to retrieve her?” He shot Jaden an angry glance. “By taking her hostage, you’ve endangered the city.”
Doubt churned in the pit of Jaden’s stomach. With effort, he kept his voice even. “The daevas didn’t leave us too many options for escaping unscathed.”
Ashra waved a dismissive hand. “We will use the infant as leverage if we negotiate a truce with the daevas.”
With a hint of a scowl in her voice, Tera asked, “And what about our planned attack on the daevas’ cave?”
“On hold until we know for certain what we’re up against,” Ashra said. “The council is dismissed.”
Most of the vampires and icrathari filed from the chamber, leaving behind Dana, Ashra, Elsker, and Jaden.
Jaden broke the silence. “My sister and my father—”
Eternal Night Page 11
