His features contorted with agony, Jaden rose over Elsker and swung his other sword.
Elsker’s head rolled off his shoulders. His body collapsed beside Megun.
Ashra threw herself forward, catching Jaden as he dropped to his knees, his sword falling from his fingers. “No, you can’t die, not now.”
His eyes fluttered and closed. His heaving breaths subsided into shallow gasps of air.
Tera and the remaining vampires, Talon, Yuri, Lucas, and Xanthia among them, burst into the chamber. Lucas hurried to Siri’s side and dropped to his knees. His examination was brisk. “Get her to the infirmary. I can save her.”
Yuri stepped forward, scooped up the injured icrathari, and ran from the room.
Ashra held out a hand to stop Lucas from leaving. “And Jaden?”
Lucas shook his head. “His injuries are fatal. He will not survive as a human. He won’t even survive the half-hour transformation to a vampire. I must tend to Siri now.” He turned and followed Yuri from the chamber.
Ashra stared at the man she loved. The human.
She bent over him. “Jaden?”
He did not respond. His skin was cold, clammy.
Could she transform him against his will?
No one had ever successfully transformed into an elder vampire, not since the founding of Aeternae Noctis.
But how could she let him die?
“Stay with me,” she murmured.
His eyes—Rohkeus’s eyes—opened and focused on her face. His lips moved, silently shaping the words, “Let me go.”
Talon shook his head. “Don’t do it, Ashra. He won’t transform. He can’t.” His dark eyes locked on Jaden’s. “He’s afraid. You can smell his fear.”
The pungent scent rose from Jaden’s skin. He was rank with terror. His green eyes—brilliant green—stared at her. Rohkeus’s eyes. Jaden’s eyes.
If he were only Rohkeus, she would have let him go. She had learned to live with only her memories of him. They would suffice.
But this was Jaden. They had barely begun their journey together. How could she face the rest of eternity without this magnificent, exasperating man who clung to his humanity and challenged his mortality at the same time?
How could she find love without him?
She leaned close and pressed her cheek against his. “You found your way back to me once,” she whispered fiercely. Her breath traced a path down his neck. Her fangs sank into his jugular and tore through the skin. His blood spilled onto the cold steel floor. Gold-tinged crimson swirled with pools of spilt icrathari and daeva blood, blending into the brilliant hues of a sunset.
She drew a sharp nail over her wrist and pressed the open wound against his lips. He fought her, turning his face away, but he was too weak to resist. She held his head still and forced her golden blood past his lips.
His throat worked as he swallowed. Sips became gulps as the blood took hold, flooding his veins, purging his mortality. He trembled from violent shivers. His eyes flashed open, the pupils dilated and unfocused.
His human body died and was reborn as an immortal. His savagely ripped throat and chest healed, the jagged edges tugging seamlessly together. The wound in his jugular shrank, the flesh knitting beneath a flawless layer of skin. The last droplet of blood that seeped out was gold.
Ashra pulled her wrist away from his mouth.
Madness flickered in the depths of his green eyes.
Blessed Creator, I have lost him. She spoke through the crushing pressure on her chest. “Take him outside the city. Bury him.”
Tera nodded. She bent down and gathered Jaden into her arms.
“Wait,” Ashra called out before Tera flew away. She breathed a final kiss to Jaden’s cheek. A single tear trickled from her eyes. Her voice was an unsteady whisper. “My love will find you.” She sank into his fevered warmth, inhaling his scent. Her eyes closed, and she drifted in the memory of his embrace.
Tera’s voice cut through their farewell. “I have to bury him now. He’s changing, faster than I expected.”
A low sob shuddered out of her. Ashra pulled back and turned away, braced to lose the man she loved.
Chapter 19
A raging fever consumed his flesh. The pain washed like acid down his throat, swirling through him, dissolving everything it touched. Arching in agony, he dug his fingers into his hair, and stared aghast at the golden blood dripping from his fingertips. His nails, now sharper than a knife’s edge, had cut into his skin.
Am I dying? What’s happening?
His senses screamed into full revolt. The sweet yet repulsive scent of decay and rot filled his nostrils. The skittering sound of settling sand particles pounded through his head. Glimmers of light filtered through the enshrouding dark, piercing his skull with shafts of pain.
Ashra’s blood…changing me. Oh, God. No.
His head spun as he struggled through fractured memories. Talon’s voice, distorted into a ghostly whisper, echoed in his skull. “If there is fear—any hint of fear—the transformation fails.”
Fear.
Like a living shroud, it choked him, suffocated him. Blinded, he fled from a body he could not control. In his mind’s eye, he ran, pursued by sights, sounds, and smells that pulverized him. Terror chased him to the brink of sanity. His mind skidded on the edge of madness.
He looked down.
The fall was endless.
He teetered on the precipice. The overpowering sensations he could not understand and could not control closed in on him. He had to jump. There was no other way.
“My love will find you,” Ashra’s voice whispered.
You did this to me.
“My love will find you.”
Why? I begged you to let me go.
“My love will find you.” The echo of her voice, rich with love, faded. The warmth it offered lingered.
Embrace the blood.
I love you, Ashra.
Your love is enough for me. It has to be.
Jaden closed his eyes, settled into the cocoon of the earth, and willed his fists to unclench. He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the musky scent of soil. Sensations pummeled him from all sides. The shrill, panicked scream of madness pierced his soul.
Embrace the transformation.
Insanity clawed at him, shredding him to pieces.
There is no other way.
Ashra waited. From the balcony surrounding the chamber, she watched the changing landscape outside the dome. She had ordered Siri to disconnect the projectors at the top of Malum Turris. The illusion of the flawless, beautiful Earth shattered. The people deserved to know what lay beyond the dome; they deserved the truth.
Only then could humans, vampires, and icrathari find a way to survive on their altered planet. Together.
Xanthia, aided by teams of human engineers, had hotwired the damaged engines. The city moved at a crawl, inching forward on six of its twelve engines. Speed was no longer crucial now that they knew that the heat of the sun could not penetrate the palladium glass dome. It was important only to make progress. The city moved, slowly covering a hundred miles a stretch. It stopped directly above the solar charging stations to allow teams of vampires and humans to replenish the fuel canisters.
Uncaring of the activity that bustled around her, Ashra inhaled deeply, a shuddering sound.
Jaden had not returned.
The transformation would not have taken more than six hours. He would have had to travel to catch up with the city, but the distance should have meant little to an elder vampire.
Eight hours became ten.
Ten became twelve.
Hope, already dim, faded.
Finally.
The sun had set.
The searing pain of his transformation had passed hours earlier, but instinct kept him in his shallow grave. There was no place, not even for an immortal, out in the scalding sun.
The dry soil flaked away easily as he dragged himself out of the ground. The sky was dark, but th
e surface of the Earth was still warm to the touch.
There was no sign of the city.
Jaden raised his face to the night sky. The jagged edges of the mountains stood in stark relief against the sky. With his enhanced eyesight, he could see every crevice. He could hear the faintest whisper of sound. The air caressed his skin like a lover’s fingers; he could feel the tremors vibrating through the air.
Tremors caused by a massive domed city moving through the air.
With a smile, he turned toward the direction of the city. His muscles coiled, the motion as fluid as a predatory pounce. He ran with the effortless grace that only an elder vampire could attain.
Dawn was a threatening sliver of light on the horizon when he leapt up to land on the metal platform in front of the outer doors. He raised a hand to pound on the door, but it slid open before he made contact.
Talon grinned at him and extended a hand. “It’s good to see you again.”
Jaden grasped Talon’s hand and allowed the elder vampire to draw him into the city. Ashra stood five feet away, her arms wrapped around her stomach. Her golden eyes widened, and her lips quivered. The terrible fear eased from her eyes, but wariness remained.
Her hesitancy seared him. How could she doubt what he felt for her? She had spared his life, saved his life, and—out of love—granted him immortality. He held his arms open and without a word, she walked into his embrace.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know you did not want this fate.”
“I want you.” He tipped her chin up and brushed a kiss over her lips. “Your love found me.”
Tension drained from her slender frame as she relaxed against him. “Welcome home, Jaden.”
Chapter 20
Siri gritted her teeth, but could not hold back the low grunt of pain as she dragged herself out of her canopied bed. Three weeks had passed since Elsker had injured her. She was grateful that, either in carelessness or pity, Elsker had not actually killed her, but she paid for each moment of being alive.
Her immortal icrathari body had not healed with the flawless precision she had expected. Her throat still burned as if scalded with acid. The stabbing ache that endlessly pulsed from her stomach sent tremors through her slender body. Human technology and medicine offered no relief. Each day was a torment.
At least she was alive, though her gratitude faded with each passing day. An immortality of pain was more than she could contemplate.
The pale glow of the moon danced through her open windows to pool upon the floor. A full moon. Perhaps her last.
She had to conceal the pain—conceal the truth—from Tera and Ashra until she found the courage to end her life.
It would be simple. Aeternae Noctis traveled through both day and night, mimicking the Earth’s phases. It would be easy to leave the city during the blazing heat of noon and fly out from under the shadow of the dome.
The sun would do the rest.
First, she had to ensure that her duties at Aeternae Noctis would be attended to when she was gone. Lucas and Xanthia were well trained, and they would maintain the infirmary and the engines. The ark, however, needed attention, and Phillip was gone.
Siri closed her eyes. To still the trembling, she clenched her hands into fists.
She would have to train Phillip’s replacements. When they were ready, when they were capable, she could take her leave and end her pain.
The full moon bathed Aeternae Noctis in silver. Malum Turris stood guard over the city, the eternal light of its uppermost floor a benediction of grace and blessing. Through day and night, it was a lighthouse, a beacon of salvation and hope.
Michael glanced out of the window of his cottage; his brow furrowed as a slight figure carried aloft by bat wings soared across the arc of the moon.
“Are they coming soon, Papa?” a small voice asked.
He pressed a hand against his son’s tousled head. His strong voice trembled. “Yes, soon.” He sat down and drew his son into his arms.
The child reached up and touched his face. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, right, Papa?”
“Nothing at all, my son.”
He had spent the past week anticipating the knock on the door, and when it came, it relieved the burden he had been carrying though it ushered in sorrow.
With tears in her eyes, his wife opened the door.
Jaden stepped in, his green eyes downcast. “I’m sorry, Michael.”
Michael swallowed through his tears. “You will take good care of him. He will be safe.” It was a statement, not a question. He knew now, as did everyone else in Aeternae Noctis. The city was a burden jointly borne for the sake of the survival of all.
“Yes.”
Michael kissed his son one last time. The boy hugged him and then slipped off his lap to embrace his mother. With a smile brimming with confidence and faith, the boy slid his small hand into Jaden’s and looked up at the elder vampire. “I’m ready.”
Ashra landed on soundless feet at the entrance of the ark and folded her wings behind her. The infant daeva she cradled in her arms sighed, a happy sound, and snuggled deeper into her embrace. Its tiny face pressed against the curve of her breast, and its eyes closed as it fell back asleep.
She knew Jaden had sensed her arrival; he turned his head in acknowledgment as she entered. She walked forward, slipped an arm around his waist, and leaned against his chest. She did not need to look up into his face to know that his bleak gaze rested on the cluster of children prepared for cryogenic hibernation.
“That’s Andrew.” He tipped his chin at a small child who turned to wave at him before stepping into a pod. “Michael’s son. He and Khiarra were friends.”
“I’m sorry. I know this is difficult for you.”
Jaden inhaled deeply. He glanced down. With a tender finger, he stroked the cheek of the sleeping daeva. “Aeternae Noctis isn’t the answer,” he said, his voice pitched low. He shook his head. “It can’t be the answer. There must be some other way to live, not constrained by the limited resources of the city. There must be some place on Earth that is ready for us.”
She tilted her head back to look up at him. His sensual lips were set in a grim line, and his eyes were narrowed with a gleam that she had come to recognize as stubborn determination. Many vampires had been killed in the daevas’ assault on Aeternae Noctis. The ranks would be rebuilt in time, but in the interim, teams of vampires and humans stood ready to manage and defend the city. In the ark, Siri coached three humans, a man and two women, through administering the cryogenic process. In the city square, humans sparred with Talon and Yuri under Tera’s watchful eye, while Lucas sorted through the seemingly inexhaustible list of humans volunteering to be transformed into vampires.
The prophecy had come to pass. Khiarra had shredded the veil of deception and ended the eternal dark.
Ashra turned to Jaden. “Have you decided to lead the scouts?”
Jaden nodded. “Yes, I’ll lead them. Siri and I can plot a course for the city that will allow us to search out new areas for habitation. We’ll find something, Ashra. I know we will.”
“And the daevas?”
He inhaled deeply. “Do you think Elsker was right, that with access to our technology, the daevas might be able to restore life on Earth?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t dismiss the possibility. Four icrathari refused to enter Aeternae Noctis; Megun was one of them. There may be three others, still alive. I want you to locate them.”
She would have to negotiate a peace with the ancient daevas without sacrificing the humans and vampires under her protection. The infant daeva, raised with care, was a token of goodwill, a step forward in the search for common ground.
Jaden nodded. “I’ll find them. First, I’ll identify a safe place to set down the city. We’ll expand our settlements and establish our defenses. Whatever happens, we’ll keep Aeternae Noctis secure.”
He drew her close, wrapping his arms around her and the infant daeva they had named Megu
n. Safe in the arms of her lover, Ashra closed her eyes and smiled.
By building the city, Rohkeus had saved humanity. Jaden would save humanity by leading them out of it.
Hope burned, a steady flame, anchored by love that transcended time and even death.
THE END
* * *
Ready for the next installment in the Aeternae Noctis series? Check out ETERNAL DAWN.
Eternal Dawn
Aeternae Noctis #2
In the city square beneath the shadow of the tower, Rafael Varens stood among hundreds of other people, watching the full moon climb to its zenith. Its light shimmered through the curve of the dome that enclosed the city of Aeternae Noctis, washing over its slate roofs and cobblestone streets, its fields and forests.
Rafael’s grip tightened around his five-year-old son, Stefan. His attention drifted past his son’s blond head to the scorched landscape outside the dome. The jagged peaks of mountains flashed by as the city, carried aloft by massive repulse engines, traveled through the night.
Someone in the crowd whispered, tremulous and low, “It’s time.”
In the city square, the murmur of conversation subsided to hushed whispers and eventually fell silent. Rafael held his breath as an icrathari soared from the uppermost floor of Malum Turris, the black tower supporting the apex of the dome. The creature sliced across the arc of the moon and glided to a landing in front of the church. Bat-shaped wings flared to its full ten-foot span before folding against its back.
Only five feet tall, the immortal and powerful icrathari was greeted by silence born equally of awe and resentment. Her silver hair, cut short, framed her face. Her features were delicate, and her large violet eyes slanted upward, enhancing her ethereal appearance. A red silk gown clung to her body; a crimson scarf accentuated her neck.
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