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

by Kayleigh Sky

“I’m skinny.” He pulled his gaze from the painting and fixed it on Rune. “I’m a skinny whore.”

  Rune’s face darkened, his eyes alight, flaming like a bonfire in the sunlit room.

  “Why would you say something like that?” He gestured at the painting. “Over this? It’s a fucking gift.”

  “It’s payment!” Isaac’s fury caught him off guard. He balled his hands into fists, and his face hurt as though his skin had grown too tight for it.

  Rune’s mouth clamped shut.

  “You fucked me,” Isaac said. “You let me fuck you. You said you wouldn’t take the map.”

  “And I haven’t.”

  “You thought you could fuck it out of me. That’s all it boils down to. I’m a whore.” Somebody Rune had to change to make beautiful. Telling him that the painting, completely different from the way he really was, had hurt his feelings made him sound stupid, but not saying it burned a hole in him.

  He dug his nails into his palms. “On a good day I’m just a donor, but there have been a lot of bad days. Days I said, okay, just let ’em have you, cuz I was scared of somebody killing me. But none of those days—” He pointed at Rune’s bare chest. “None of them hurt as bad as this. Cuz I gave my heart to you. For a fucking map.”

  Rune took a step, the brown of his eyes darkening to obsidian. “I told you. I memorized it. I don’t need it.”

  “Liar.”

  “I waited years for you.”

  “That’s a lie too.”

  The darkness in Rune’s eyes dimmed into a haunted brown. “It was the way it needed to be. I didn’t follow you. I didn’t call you until… you were there. With Jessa. In my home.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better? You didn’t want me. I already know that.”

  “You don’t know anything.”

  Isaac snorted a laugh. “Well, I know more than you do. You didn’t take the map, and you don’t know why. So, maybe you don’t know everything. I got the map because I was supposed to. No matter what you think, I was there. I was the one. You can’t make me feel bad anymore. I feel good about myself. I don’t use people.” He pointed at the painting. “I don’t paint people naked when they had clothes on. I’m not a whore anymore. I’m a cook. And I’m going.”

  “WHY?!” Rune roared.

  Fuck. Isaac held still, imagining the house shaking around him. “I can help.”

  Rune blinked before a scowl carved furrows in his forehead. “How?”

  “You don’t think I can?”

  “No.”

  Of course not. Isaac bit down on his tongue to stop the tears burning his eyes. What could he possibly do? Nothing.

  “I saved Jessa. I saved Mal. I’m going to save you.”

  He didn’t know where those words came from. But he knew the minute he said them they were true, and his stomach knotted into a ball of fear.

  I’m going to save you.

  36

  Full Circle

  Of all the things.

  Crouched in the weeds, Rune rested his chin on his steepled fingers, elbows on his knees, and gazed down on the little yellow flower.

  A Gold Star. For real this time, not the scrubby weed he’d fixated on in the desert. The others stood behind him, imagining he stared into the portal, probably. The dip in the ground in front of him looked like a portal, but it wasn’t Alta. It was only a sinkhole that must have formed in one of the earthquakes.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, squeezed tight against a pain such a tiny flower shouldn’t have had the power to bring. But it was Jessa’s, and he was only an hour from home. So close. But as good as a million miles away, and when he’d left, something had torn out of him with the permanence of a missing organ. Maybe he could live without it, but he wasn’t whole and never would be.

  With a grunt, he pushed himself up.

  Uriah approached. “Is this it?” Doubt laced his voice.

  “No. Over the hilltop, I think.”

  Rune turned to meet Isaac’s gaze. Hot, suspicious, pissed off and… hurt. Why he’d taken offense to Rune’s painting of him he’d never know. But maybe it wasn’t the painting. I will save you. His voice had rung with surprise. Maybe it had come of a revelation, like a vision. Rune let his gaze shift to Camiel. They all stood alone on the hillside, but he wasn’t sure they were as alone as it seemed.

  Camiel glanced at Anin then away. Rune trudged to him through the weeds. “Do you have your cards with you?”

  Camiel cocked his head, lips quirked in a smile. “Do you want a reading?”

  “Something like that. I suppose there’s an order to the cards?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “Are some more important than others?”

  Camiel’s smile faded as he pursed his lips. “Every card is important, but some carry more weight than others. The Royal cards for one.”

  “Is Abadi’s card a Royal card?”

  “Yes, but not because she’s in it. Anyone or anything could be in the card, and it would still be a Royal card.”

  “Why? Are they special?”

  “Oh, very special.” Camiel tipped his head back, smiling again. “These cards are for fortune-telling, though I am not a fortune-teller. But they’re also playing cards, Ellowyn or human games, it doesn’t matter. They’re a typical deck. You could play poker if you wanted to, but the Royal cards have a special case in fortune-telling, or so I hear. They represent the archangels and are sometimes called calling cards because they mark an angel’s appearance.”

  “I remember,” Rune murmured. “My mother pulled one for me the last time I saw her.” He gazed over Camiel’s shoulder where Isaac stood with Anin and Uriah. “This was after she read my fortune in blood and said my lover was not my fated. But when she pulled the card for me—just playing, I think—and I asked her what it meant, she said nothing, that the reading was over.”

  “I was named for an archangel.” Camiel gave him a rueful smile. “I wouldn’t put much stock in it. Do you remember what card it was?”

  He shook his head. “I saw a lake with a giant serpent rising from the center. People were running from it.”

  “Samael. Interesting.”

  “Why?”

  “He is the accuser. A demon and fallen angel. He’s not God’s enemy, but some put him on a par with Satan. His tasks are ugly and harsh. To humans, he is the angel of death. To us, he is the Light Bringer.”

  “There are more archangels than Royal cards, aren’t there?”

  “Yes. We have only four Royals like the suits the humans play with.”

  “My mother’s?”

  “Barachiel.” He flashed Rune a look at his teeth. “Consider him an enforcer. He guards God’s throne.”

  “Show me the cards.”

  Camiel slipped his pack off his back and dug inside. He stood with his deck and shuffled through it, pulling the Royal cards. Something buzzed in Rune’s gut. Something that filled him with energy and made him want to throw up at the same time. Light Bringer? Was the card his mother pulled for him a portent of who he’d become? How close was Light Bringer to Light Bearer? Was he no better than the human-hating Solomon Frenn?

  You murdered your father. Your king.

  He swallowed sour bile and took the cards Camiel gave him. He remarked to himself again on the beauty of the artwork. The colors glowed like jewels. He wished Uriah had located Kadian, the artist, but he was most likely dead. Whatever he’d known about these cards and Abadi was gone.

  Rune turned to Isaac. “Let me see your map.”

  Isaac’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t argue. He pulled it from his pack and held it out. Rune gave him a sharp dip of his chin and took it. He stared at Camiel.

  “Which is the first card?”

  “Sameal’s.”

  Rune took it and held it against the parchment. A moment later, he shook his head and brought out his own piece of the map, studying it against the other. “The landmarks aren’t in order.” He pointed at what he’d thoug
ht was a cactus. “This is the portal here. But this card…”

  “Gabriel’s.”

  “The cups are like Qudim’s.”

  The angel sat on a stone throne surrounded by what appeared to be water. A jeweled ceiling soared above him. The angel held a red cup close to half his size. It perched on his lap, his chin hovering above the rim. Other cups sat in niches in the walls around him.

  “Mal said the words meant nothing out of context, meaning they didn’t identify anything, but I think they do. This letter here…” He pushed the maps and card at Camiel, who took them with a surprised grunt, grabbed his own pack and found the glossary Mal had given him. Uriah and Anin pressed closer. He tapped a symbol. “This one means cup, and it’s here on the second map. I don’t think it really is a map. I think it’s just a list of clues and not in order.”

  He studied the card again. Other than the cup in Gabriel’s lap and two others, the rest were the same size. The two larger cups appeared high on the wall on either side of the card.

  “So… we’re looking for cups?” Camiel asked.

  “No,” said Rune. “We’re looking for a hole in the ground.”

  “Well.” Camiel flashed a grin. “Looks like we’re in luck.”

  “Keep those Royal cards handy. We’re going to need them.” Rune held both pieces of the map to Isaac. “Hold them.”

  Isaac’s eyes narrowed… suspicious little bastard… but he took them.

  Rune hefted his pack onto his back and headed down the slope to a grove of trees growing in a shallow valley. On the other side, the hill rose again only to drop suddenly into a picturesque hollow. The last time he’d seen it, Qudim had been camped here behind a small pond. Waiting for him. Had he had any idea of Rune’s treachery?

  He swallowed, pushing the memory back, focusing on the sound of the footsteps behind him, the broken weeds and dislodged rocks, but Qudim’s voice rose loud in his head…

  * * *

  “My son.”

  He clasped his father’s forearm and let himself be pulled into Qudim’s embrace.

  Their home, the one Rune had found for them, was less than an hour away. But Qudim was beginning the last push against the Lakewood Refuge. In other countries, the final cities were falling too. So little time to do what he needed to do.

  “Where are your enforcers?”

  “Taking their places.”

  It wasn’t until he pulled away that he saw the black streaks and smears on Qudim’s skin and clothes. The smell of human blood had embedded itself in his senses, but now, so close to Qudim, it swamped him, and his eyes in the glow of the fire caught the gleam of red. “What have you done?”

  Qudim smiled. “You first, my son. What have you done?”

  Betrayed you…

  * * *

  He topped the ridge and stared down. Another hill on the other side was scarred with rubble and the broken walls of the homes that once nestled here. The pavement was still visible, though the yards had disappeared under weeds and stray walnut trees. The humans who’d lived here had never known how close they’d lived to the vampires who’d destroyed them. The drainage tunnel that had once hidden the portal inside an access pipe had broken in half. Part was submerged in weeds, another part curved like a jagged overhang. The portal itself was plainly visible now, a pockmark in the earth like a scarred abscess. Rune headed for it, pulling in deep breaths until he scented the cold, stale air of the underground. Home.

  He stopped and turned. “Be sure you want to be here.”

  “Where else would we want to be?” Uriah asked.

  Rune smiled and tore his gaze from Isaac’s hot stare. “I wouldn’t know what to do without you, my friend, but this portal might lead nowhere. Or it might trap us.”

  “Well, you’ve sold me,” said Camiel. “I was on the fence before, but now…” He flashed a smile. “I’m all on board.”

  “Cammy’s flippancy aside, you are free to wait here. No blame or judgment.”

  He turned, and much as Qudim had done years ago, disappeared into the portal.

  37

  Isaac’s Adventure Begins

  Odd odors assailed him.

  Not bad ones, though. When Isaac released the breath he’d been holding and took another, the air was cold and musty, with slightly sweet scents mixed in.

  He’d pushed ahead of the others, keeping Rune near him. The bastard had jumped, vanished, and Isaac had closed his eyes because he didn’t want to see himself plummeting into nothingness, but he’d landed on a solid surface after only a few yards. It wasn’t dark because Rune had turned on a flashlight. His face in the glow was more than empty. It was sealed off as though a wall had come down.

  Isaac got his coat out of his bag and pulled it on as the others jumped down. Rune had told him it would warm up closer to the cities. “Abbatine, where Zev is from, is hot.”

  The platform Isaac stood on had a railing around it and a ladder to another platform a hundred yards below. Rune came up behind him and gazed down into the depths. “We went down about five hundred feet looking for my father’s body before the walls started to collapse. There are ledges but narrow. He went straight down. We won’t go that far. The portal continues at the second platform.” Rune pointed his flashlight on a rope bridge with an opening that had bits of shining metal at its edge.

  Rails?

  “Are those train tracks?”

  “Yes. It carried a trolley.”

  Holy fuck.

  Isaac shivered. This was the real deal, not like the sanitized Pomariah, tidied up for human consumption. This was where vampires had lived when nobody had known anything about them. Isaac didn’t remember a time without vampires. The Upheaval had changed everything, but the world above was human-made, and vampires always seemed odd in it. Too mysterious, too secretive, too vicious to live in the sunlight.

  Rune pushed away from the railing. “Let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?” Isaac asked.

  “Someplace we haven’t been before. It might be a rift that developed after the portal was constructed or an old tunnel exposed by a cave-in. Not a place anybody would live. Not a thoroughfare.”

  “But there might be lots of places like that. And it could be anywhere, couldn’t it?”

  “No. It’s the first card.”

  Isaac bit his lip. It seemed like a jump to him, but maybe that was a vampire thing. Puzzles hidden inside of puzzles. Maps and riddles and cards. And not any cards, but Royal cards, all made by different people for different reasons. So why would they all lead to the same place? But the five of them were all here together. All from different places.

  What if Isaac had never met Mateo? Never found Comity House? Never fed the drainer prince Jessamine? Never followed the voice in his head? Never met Asa and the King?

  All those steps, and here he was, following another king. The true king.

  His thoughts disappeared the first time he slipped, but an arm caught him from behind, and he twisted to meet Anin’s gaze. “Careful.”

  He nodded.

  Rune’s light flashed ahead. They had food, Synelix, and water for days. When would it be too late to turn back?

  Already?

  Isaac slipped again on the loose scrabble under his feet and went down on his ass. Anin lifted him up. Rune had stopped. His face was hidden, the light behind him. “This won’t be easy.”

  “Don’t treat me like a baby. I saw you almost slip.”

  Rune laughed. “I didn’t slip. I fell.”

  He moved on again, the flashlight beam bouncing on rock. Isaac lost track of time, but eventually the steep slope began to level and shallow steps appeared. Rune’s pace quickened. They came to a large opening off to the side, which sank deep into the rock, and turned into it. The ceiling arched high above, and carts lined up in a row against a wall. Shovels and racks and chains hung from pegs. “Maintenance for the trolley line,” said Rune. “These were usually at the halfway point.”

  “How far dow
n are we?” Isaac asked.

  “A few miles. Do you need to rest?”

  “No,” he snapped.

  The bastard hadn’t asked anybody else. Isaac wasn’t going to be left behind. He wasn’t going to fail him. That last thought startled him, and he blinked. Was he afraid of failing Rune? Why? He was surrounded by his friends. His subjects.

  I will save you.

  Isaac steeled himself and turned back to the tunnel. “Are you guys coming?”

  Stubborn.

  Whatever.

  Rune tapped his shoulder with the flashlight. “Since you’re leading.” His voice held a sour humor.

  Isaac took the flashlight and pointed it down the long flight of stairs. They curved in the distance. Walking was faster now, the slope easing the deeper they descended.

  “You know,” said Camiel. “Gabriel is usually shown with a trumpet not cups. That only happens in a few decks. Cups are the human name for them. We call them drabs. Either way, they’re tedious if you ask me. Relationships, emotions, talking. Well, I love talking, and drabs were my favorite cards when I was a child, but talking about serious things? No thank you. Cups are no fun in my book.”

  Uriah’s voice came from behind them. “Is that a warning, Camiel?”

  “No, servant Uriah.”

  Uriah’s laughter boomed and danced off the walls.

  “Are there people down here?” Isaac asked.

  “Oh God.” Camiel rolled his eyes. “What a killjoy, you are, Isaac. And I was having so much fun.”

  “We have to expect that,” said Rune. “At least somewhere. Lotises.”

  “And their cronies,” said Camiel. “Maybe that’s what the card means. Maybe we’ll have to talk to them. Negotiate for our lives.”

  “Cammy.”

  Anin’s quiet tone shut Camiel up. After that, nothing else was said until Rune grabbed Isaac’s shoulder and pointed ahead of him. “There. Flash the light on that.”

  “On what? I didn’t see anything.”

  But he swept the beam over the wall as it curved away.