Ellowyn Found: An MM Vampire Trilogy Omnibus Edition Books 1 - 3

by Kayleigh Sky

  “Threw?”

  Camiel’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “It’s quick and flashy. A little like scrying. I toss the Letters. I look at them, and they tell me things.”

  “You mean the Letters of the Revelatory Passion?”

  “Yes. I carve them on stones.”

  “Like this?” Zev opened his hand.

  Camiel’s irises shrank to a thin ring around his pupils. “I didn’t kill him. You cannot judge me on my bloodline.”

  Zev let his fangs drop. His gums ached, the sheath under the surface hot and raw. Hunger tore at him. He ached for Asa, but it was the pulse in Camiel’s throat he eyed.

  “You would do well not to tell me what I can and cannot do, Nezzarram.”

  Camiel took a breath, lips parting, chest swelling. “Honor for you aside, Majesty, I will defend myself from false accusations.”

  “You recognize the stone?”

  “I gave it to him. I tried to convince him to let me read for him. I saw danger in the stone.”

  Zev clamped down on the agony in his chest. Emek, Emek, what have you done? How did you get this stone from Og?

  “What danger?” he whispered.

  Camiel shook his head. “It’s a feeling. I believed the sacrifice was him.”

  Zev rested his head against the back of the chair again and squeezed the stone in his fingers. “That would suggest Og’s involvement in my attack. That he would be the fall guy, as the humans say.”

  “I had guessed as much.”

  “You said nothing.”

  “The law forbids it.”

  Zev nodded. “Of course. It’s sorcery. It isn’t evidence.” He opened his fingers. “But the stone is real.”

  “I’m not an idiot, sire. I wouldn’t leave a clear path back to myself. I gave him the stone, yes, but he was quite alive when I did it.”

  “I don’t suspect you, Camiel.”

  Camiel extended his hand, and Zev dropped the stone on his palm. Not what he’d meant to do, and a frown tugged at his brow. For a moment, Camiel’s eyes glazed. He squeezed the stone in his fist, stiffened, took a breath, and offered the stone back. Zev took it.

  “It’s cloudy.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Things are not as they seem.”

  Zev gave him a long stare, then smiled faintly. “Goodnight, Camiel.”

  Camiel nodded and stood. “Pleasant sleep, sire.”

  He had no intention of sleeping, but he said nothing.

  The window rattled, the sound of the wind struggling to get inside. He rose and poured another drink. The wall moved in and out, as though the room had taken a breath.

  Zev gazed at the glass in his fingers.

  Was that a tremor?

  He didn’t need the alcohol, but he drank it anyway. And then he frowned at his empty glass, picked up the bottle, and strode out the door.

  Looking startled, Anin stared as he passed, then followed him, vibrating worry when Zev turned away from his rooms. He took the stairs down to the floor where he’d been stabbed and brushed the wall with his fingertips as he strode down the long corridor until the whisper of a draft blew against his skin.

  He stopped and took a swallow from his bourbon.

  The stone door lay flush with the wall, but its rim formed a rectangular cutout. The entryway hadn’t been constructed for secrecy, but they stood in a flickering gloom that threw shadows on it and made it hard to see. Zev swiped his mouth with the back of the hand he held the bottle with and fixed a stare on Anin.

  “Does it bother you that humans call us vampires? That we do?”

  Anin blinked. “I am Ellowyn. That doesn’t change.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty.”

  Zev groaned. “You don’t even remember the cities.”

  “No, sire.”

  “You might as well be human.”

  A smile crossed Anin’s face. “We are human.”

  Heart and soul. Flesh and blood. Mortal.

  And fallible.

  “I’m going to speak to the prisoner. Alone.”

  Anin straightened, a frown pinching his eyebrows together. “Allow me to wait in the hall. I don’t think the prisoner is a risk to you, but let me be nearby.”

  Zev smiled. “Yes, of course. The risk is from my own kind.”

  He took another drink and pushed on a stone until the door popped open with a click.

  Anin followed him into a narrow, dark staircase. A wave of comfort washed over him as though he were home again, surrounded in a dark that wasn’t all dark, and encased in stone.

  He followed a turn down another flight that took them to an iron door like the one in the dungeon. He went through, and Anin followed. Zev stopped and turned back.

  “No farther.”

  Anin nodded.

  Swinging the bottle at his side, Zev continued on.

  His heart pounded, his stomach fluttering, the closer he got to the dungeon. The cold stung him. He wore only a sweater and jeans and the soft loafers he sometimes wore in winter. He wanted his feet bare and the air on his skin, but he shivered. He pushed the buttons on the lockbox beside the door and retrieved the key inside. His mind returned to Qudim’s dungeon and the vampires he’d tossed into the pit that sank into the ground inside it. His laugh had rocked the walls like a force. “Dig your way home, traitors!”

  He shivered, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.

  Emek stood in the corner, wrapped in a blanket. A heater pumped out warm air.

  Zev closed the door, and surprise flickered in Emek’s eyes.

  “Did you kill him?” Zev asked.

  “No.”

  Zev reached into his pocket, took out the stone, and held it on his palm.

  Emek frowned. “What is that?”

  “You tell me.”

  “How would I know?”

  “It was inside your chess set.”

  Emek’s eyes stretched wide. “No, it wasn’t. I don’t know what that is. I’ve never seen it before. Somebody…” He paused, gaze lowering to the floor, eyes shifting, a frown on his face. He looked back up. “Somebody put it there.”

  Zev laughed, put the stone back in his pocket, and took a swallow of his whiskey. “Planted it on you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very clandestine.”

  Emek’s face hardened. “Except for the fact I’ve never seen it before and it isn’t mine.”

  “Drink?”

  “No.”

  Zev shrugged. “Well, I need it. Traitors all around me. Murderers. Cowards. They never come out in the light of day, but I roll over rock after rock, and still they slither in the muck. Peace…” He swung the bottle in the air, liquid sloshing. “Peace is for the weak. You never saw Qudim. War for him was… glorious. He crushed the Nezzarrams, Camiel’s family. The taste for blood is… addictive.”

  “Is that what you want? Blood?”

  “An eye for an eye.”

  Emek laughed, the sound ugly, reverberating off the walls.

  Zev went still.

  “That’s funny coming from you,” Emek said.

  A slow heat warmed the blood in Zev’s veins. “Enlighten me.”

  “Why?” Emek snapped. “You don’t care. You got what you wanted.”

  Now Zev laughed. He lifted his arms and turned in a circle. “I wanted this?”

  “I’m the one in a cell.”

  “You ran.”

  “I didn’t know I was a prisoner.”

  “We’re all prisoners.”

  Emek snorted. “You sound like a teenager. All emotion. No sense. So easy to use.”

  “Have you been using me?”

  “Me using you? That’s funny.”

  “I don’t think I want to call you Emek anymore.”

  Emek shrugged. “I don’t care what you call me.”

  Zev took another drink, and the walls swirled around him. Careful… careful… He set his bottle on the floor and straightened. “I think
I’ll call you Asa.”

  The blur of motion caught him mid gasp. He fell back against the door, and Emek pressed in hard against him, a hand under his jaw, pushing his head up.

  “You fucking liar. I won’t call you king. I won’t call you Zev. I’ll call you a fucking murderer. Your hands are bloody. Yours.”

  Zev’s lips pulled back from his teeth, and he clenched his fists. The fucking loneliness. The years of… Nothing. Of doing the right things. Of hunting for the enemies of humans and vampires alike. Adi ’el Lumi. The haters of peace.

  He dropped his fangs and hissed. But Emek… Asa… hung on. The hand that gripped Zev’s jaw jerked with a violent shudder. Asa’s face drained of color. But his eyes burned with the bloodlust of a vampire.

  “I let you into my home!” Zev roared. Into me. My sweet… “You spied on me. Tell me you aren’t working for my enemies. Stupid human. They will slaughter you.”

  Asa bared his teeth. “You… first.”

  “You want war?”

  “I want… you… to pay.”

  Zev laughed again. A half mad cackle. He brought his hand up, grabbed Asa’s neck and propelled him across the room, lifting him and pinning him against the wall. He flattened his arm against Asa’s chest, keeping the weight off his neck. “I am empty, human. I don’t remember my old dreams. I let them go to fight a darkness that will destroy your people too. My enemies have no urgency, because they are fucking immortal. One replaces another. One puppet like you for another puppet. You lied to me. Thought you could fuck me into stupidity.” He put his face close to Asa’s and let his fangs brush Asa’s cheek. “I… trusted… you.”

  Tears glowed in Asa’s eyes.

  “I gave up love,” Zev whispered. “My fated love.”

  Asa’s lips curled again. “You got sex. You enjoyed it.”

  His fingers dug into Asa’s neck, curling of their own accord. “Allow me to reciprocate.”

  The booze and fury heated his blood. Tightening his grip on Asa’s neck, he pushed his other hand between his thighs and jerked, startled, at the heat of Asa’s hard cock throbbing against his fingers. He groaned, Asa’s willingness fueling his arousal.

  “Just sex?” he whispered. “No. You are my fated.”

  Asa sneered, a kick catching Zev in the thigh. “Never.”

  His guttural voice made his throat vibrate against Zev’s palm. Zev drew his other hand along Asa’s cock, dragging a shudder and another kick out of him. Asa’s booted heel rested on the back of Zev’s hip, his pelvis rocking into Zev’s palm.

  “You lie… and steal… and spy,” Zev grunted.

  “I haven’t stolen anything from you.”

  Zev laughed. “You don’t deny the other things. Who are you spying for? Give me a name.”

  Asa grimaced, glaring down his nose, chin lifted. Zev cupped his balls and pulled a moan from his throat.

  “Give me a name,” he said again.

  “Moss.”

  Zev snorted. “Try again.”

  “Otto.”

  “Hm… I trust him, I think.”

  “You can’t trust anybody.”

  “I don’t know where the knife will come from, who will wield it, what morsel of my dinner is poison, what spell will drive me insane. Yet, even I don’t believe you can’t trust anyone.” Zev pressed his body against Asa’s, gazing into his eyes. “You can trust me. Tell me what you want.”

  “Your hole.”

  Pain mixed with his arousal, but Zev smiled, lips peeling back over his fangs. “Or not.”

  Asa’s thighs gripped him tight around the ribs. His face went blank and empty. “You want to force me? You won’t be the first, and I won’t feel a thing.”

  “I will never hurt you, my fated.”

  “You lie and steal and kill.”

  “Make me forget,” Zev whispered.

  He let his lips part, and Asa bent, straining to reach them. Zev released his hold, letting Asa slide to his feet.

  He bit back a gasp at the touch of Asa’s fingers in his hair and braced for pain. But Asa only loosened the bun at the back of his head and ran his fingers through the strands. “So beautiful,” he murmured.

  Zev shivered and stepped away. “You want it like this?”

  Asa’s eyes darkened. “I take what I can get.” But his fingers were soft on Zev’s face, sliding over his eyes and nose and lips. “You fooled me.”

  “You feel nothing for me?”

  Asa smiled. “I hate you.”

  Zev’s heart stopped. Annihilation spread inside his chest. He stared into Asa’s eyes and beyond, slipping past the edge of a portal into darkness, as though falling the long way home. Back to jeweled ceilings and silent lakes. Lured by mysterious caves and rumors of treasures. Where the dark hid nothing it didn’t also reveal. Outside, a storm covered the world in snow. Pristine. Untouched. Hiding dangers and treasures alike.

  “You lie,” Zev whispered.

  Asa winced, pain twisting his features. He cupped Zev’s face and pulled him closer. “You lie.”

  Asa kissed him, and the ice in Zev’s veins melted. He wrapped Asa in his arms, opening to him, letting his tongue in, lifting him until Asa’s thighs hugged his waist again. Asa bore into him, caressing Zev’s mouth with his tongue, and Zev inhaled his scent, cold air, piney woods, sour sweat.

  He broke the kiss and crushed Asa to him, burying his face in Asa’s neck. “I’d do anything for you.”

  He wasn’t sure Asa had heard him until his lips brushed Zev’s ear. “Promise.”

  The word stabbed into Zev’s heart like a Ryzok, because Asa was right. He was a liar. He couldn’t do anything for him. Every part of Zev denied Asa’s involvement in Og’s murder, but that didn’t mean he’d let him go. Asa was lying too. Spying for someone.

  “Just trust me,” Zev murmured back.

  Asa released his hold on Zev’s waist, and his boots hit the ground with a thud. The backs of his eyes gleamed like the palest moonstone.

  “You don’t even promise anymore.”

  Cold stole over him as Asa’s heat seeped away. “Anymore?”

  “You promised… You said you’d come and get me.”

  “Asa.”

  “Don’t call me that. I’m Emek. Asa’s dead.”

  “You aren’t dead.”

  “I was killed with everybody else.”

  Zev burned inside, and his voice burned his throat. “I looked for you.”

  “I hid.”

  “I promised I’d come back.”

  “To kill me after you murdered my dad?”

  The last of the heat left Zev’s body in a gust of cold air. Artic. Freezing him. Leaving only despair and the buzz of too much alcohol. “Murder? I… No. Of course not.”

  “I saw it,” Asa said through his teeth, saliva bubbling on his lips. “I saw what you did. I didn’t get there in time to… to save him. Any of them. They were all… all dead. And the blood. So much of it. You have no idea.” Asa choked and hunched his shoulders. His face twisted, and his breath rattled out. “I gave you everything. Everything. I thought I was doing the right thing. I believed you. And… And I have nothing. I hate that I want you. I hate that I can’t burn you out of me.”

  “Who are you working for?”

  “Nobody,” he spat. “A shadow. I don’t matter anymore, and you can’t stop them. You’re dead too.”

  Zev grabbed Asa’s shoulders and shook him. “Don’t be a fool. The minute they don’t need you, they’ll kill you.”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  Flames erupted in Zev’s eyes, glowing red in front of him. “I am! For you.”

  “I don’t care, vampire.”

  “Asa. Listen to me. I did not kill your father. I had no reason to. I had what I wanted.”

  Asa laughed, the pitch making Zev hold on tighter. “You. Drink. Blood.”

  Zev fixed his gaze on Asa’s and spoke through his teeth. “I drink the synthetic blood you gave me.”

  Asa’s features
twisted. “I stole it. For you.”

  “For all of us.”

  “For you!”

  “Let me help you.”

  “I’m not helping you,” Asa snarled. “I’m making sure you pay.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Get out!”

  Zev gritted his teeth.

  Asa’s hands slammed into his chest, knocking him back against the door. “And take your fated love with you. I don’t want it. You’re a worse whore than me.”

  “You’re beautiful to me, Asa.”

  Something like despair filled Asa’s eyes, but he didn’t move or speak.

  Zev picked up his bottle on the way out, locked the cell door, put the key back in the box, and walked away.

  43

  Isaac To The Rescue

  Music, the strange strains of the vampire bi’lilo, and the buzz of conversation filled Asa’s head. It brought a strange comfort and a sense of companionship, though he knew it wasn’t real, and no one kept him company. He was alone in a stone cage with a flickering light and a humming heater, but over the heater, the voices melded into one. “Wait… I’m scared for you… We can stop a war… I won’t leave you… I promise… promise… promise…”

  How often had he dreamed of Zev? Zev coming to kill him… Coming to save him? His faceless lover. He’d sold himself over and over, and nobody had touched him. He was Zev’s. Every decision he’d ever made had brought him here. But he was in a cage, and Zev was a murderer.

  “I want peace for you. I want you to be happy.”

  Was peace so valuable Zev would murder for it? A bitter means to a lofty end. An end that lay like the driven snow over everything that had been lost in getting it.

  “I did not kill your father. I had no reason to. I had what I wanted.”

  What they’d both wanted. What Asa had stolen for. So damn idealistic.

  He’d had no judgment. No perspective. And now… “I would never hurt you.”

  Asa scooted closer to the heater, ass on the floor, head resting on his bent knees. The voices rose in song like a chorus. Maybe he’d lost his mind. The sound of the door dragging across the floor barely registered until warm hands gripped his, and he looked into Isaac’s pale face. Was he dreaming? He jerked away.