by Faulks, Kim
Her steps were soundless as she neared.
But the growl turned into a whimper, and that sound carved through time like it was nothing, like I was that pathetic creature once more crawling from the bowels of Hell with a dead Queen’s blood still on his hands.
My bones trembled, marrow now liquid, as that flicker of Hellfire came to life inside my chest. I knew what that agony was now. I knew the tether around my neck. In my mind, a familiar feeling returned. One I’d buried under the rubble of my life.
The feeling of purpose.
Pure brutal purpose.
I sucked in a breath and reached through that line. One by one they came to me...the first four stood together. My heart hammered as I reached through that connection we shared--one I’d forsaken all these years.
One I’d never thought I’d feel again, skimming across the others of my line one by one. I gripped their pain, consumed their terror...drawing it all inside me, just as I’d done all those years before...and when my body hummed with power and my Hound slunk closer, I turned my focus to the man who wielded the whip.
Hate and rage bloomed like a deadly flower. The power of my beast flickered deeper. I winced with the surge of hunger, the pain of power stinging as it carved through forgotten nerves. But it was the ruthless sonofabitch I held onto...and it was his power I tasted. Just enough...to understand who I was dealing with.
I lifted my head from the cold tile floor in the foyer of my home.
I knew who he was now...and the kind of vile friends he kept. The foul taste of tainted blood welled in the back of my throat.
He can feel you, the Shaman’s words echoed inside my head. Sevan can feel you, and he’s coming.
I shoved against the floor and rose on trembling feet.
Seven lashes, for seven hounds. The call to heel was undeniable.
Hate and rage slipped through the tether between us.
The first four of my line had fallen, and only three of us remained.
I closed my eyes. Haze and Cekresy couldn’t fight forever.
But they didn’t know the beast I’d fought so hard not to become. The kind that crawled from the bowels of Hell, the kind that took a piece of Hell with him.
They didn’t know me--I straightened my spine as my Hound moved closer, swallowing the shudders, and turning pain into rage--but they would...they’d know me soon...and not even Hell could save them.
5
Kalliste
I paced my bedroom floor and searched for Amaris in the dark.
But she was silent now.
Silent, dangerous, and somewhere out of reach.
I swallowed the bitter acid in the back of my throat as my Hound gave a low growl, pacing the quiet emptiness inside my head. Hard pants filled my ears, white fangs shone bright in the dark.
It’s okay. I reached her, but she lowered her head and backed away from my touch...back and forth...back and forth she paced.
Pain roared to the surface, tearing a low moan from my lips as I dragged my hand to my chest. But there. Is it Amaris? I whispered. Can you feel her?
A low growl rippled along the back of my throat, until it ended with a whimper. The tortured sound chilled me to the core. I turned to the bathroom--pacing with my Hound.
Not there.
She’s not anywhere.
I stilled in the doorway of the bathroom and closed my eyes as my Hound whimpered. Hungry...hungry...stay away from the dark. Stay away from the shadows. Shadows that bite. He’s coming...He’s coming...I jerked my eyes open, pulling away from the terror, as a low growl slipped under the door from outside. “Who’s coming?”
Panting breaths filled my mind. She paced and paced and paced.
“Where the Hell is he? Where is Blaze?”
The unfamiliar male voice made me still. I’d heard men come and go before. I’d heard women, too...lots of them come and go, all hours of the day and night.
Goosebumps raced along my arms as I focused in on the sound. But there was something different about this voice, something cold, something cruel.
“Get your filthy hands off me, Hound.”
I flinched with the male’s snarl as my Hound’s warning grew louder inside my head. “What is it?” I murmured and stepped closer.
“You think I give a fuck what he’s doing? My people are out there, waiting for my command. He wanted the Hellhound bitch dead...so she’s dead.”
“Enough!” Blaze’s roar made my heart stutter. “You will not address my guards. You will address me, Austine. In my study. Now.”
I pressed my hand against the door and sent a flare of power through the air. If I could just get a sense of the Hellhound...just find out who he was.
Cold.
Dark.
No life…
No life.
I jerked my power from the male as a heavy thud...thud...thud...came overhead. He wasn’t a Hellhound. I closed my eyes as the phantom taste of blood danced across my tongue. I opened my eyes, and stared at the wood grain in the door.
Vampire.
The word slipped through my mind. My hand slipped, my fingers curled around the doorknob. It was the undead who tried to kill my sister, the undead who changed her Hound.
No. The word made me still. I closed my eyes, searching. In my mind I saw her, dark eyes weeping, her face drooped on one side. The foul taste of rot hung heavy in the air, and I dragged that stench into my lungs, leaving it to work as deep as it could.
I’d know her now, know the bitch who’d tried to kill my sister.
My fingers grasped the knob once more. I’d lived with death before...lived with the debris it left behind. I’d lived with shrapnel in my heart. But I refused to live without her. I refused to live without my sisters.
I wrenched on the knob, just as I had so many times before. My tendons snapped taut, muscles quivering.
“Where’s Blaze?” A male’s voice came from the foyer as he snapped at the guard. “Acheron isn’t going to wait forever. He will take what he wants...and what he wants is a damn army.”
I lifted my head to the ceiling and closed my eyes. I could hear them up there, hear their muffled voices and smell their need. Acheron...I knew that name. I knew that...name. Memories filtered in, slow at first, just a trickle.
I remembered him meeting with my father...remembered his cruel gaze, skimming over me as I hid around the corner of the hallway to my bedroom in a house we’d once shared.
Kalliste...come here. Dad’s voice echoed from the past.
Fear gripped me now, just as it had then.
In my head, I was stepping out of the hallway, slowly walking toward my father, the King...and a man...no, not a man...a monster. I was young, with long, gangly legs, not yet a woman...but I was old enough.
Old enough to know what those chilling, dead eyes saw when the Vampire looked at me, and old enough to know to be afraid.
Acheron here is looking for someone who’ll be friends with Eva.
Who’s Eva? My own voice was high-pitched and tinny inside my head.
You’ll love her. Acheron stepped closer, those midnight eyes sparkling with excitement. And I know she’ll love you.
I curled my shoulders and shook my head as I met his gaze. I don’t want to, Daddy, I whispered. I don’t want to go anywhere with him…
I pulled away from the memory and clawed my way into the present. Still, the chilling shudders from my past followed me, making my fingers tremble, making me lift my head. Acheron. I remembered the name well.
I gripped the doorknob tighter once more and wondered about the girl he’d called Eva. I wondered if she’d found a friend, wondered if the monster with the empty eyes hurt her...just like he wanted to do to me.
“Guard,” I growled close to the doorframe. “I’m in trouble. I need your help.”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, coming closer.
“I think I’ve cut myself deep,” I whimpered through the door and took a slow step back. “I’m going to need a c
loth to clean up the mess.”
“We’re not to open the door…”
“Do you want to explain to Blaze tomorrow when he sees this room covered with blood?” I pinned my lip with my teeth as he came close.
“Step back from the door and show me the cut,” he growled.
I slapped one hand over my wrist...what the hell are you doing? Fear clawed its way along my throat as the lock made a clunk. Panic roared to the surface. I had no plan. I turned my head and scanned the room, and no weapon.
You are the damn weapon, Amaris’s voice tore through me as the lock clicked and the door swung inwards. I had a second, one terrifying second, to do what I needed to do.
I took a step forward, letting anguish twist my mouth and bleed through my eyes. “The bathroom,” I said as I stepped closer, lifting my cupped hand higher.
The guard’s focus went from my wrist to my eyes, and that’s where it stayed. I lowered my hand, fingers slipping from around my wrist. They wanted a Queen. They wanted someone to manipulate, someone to control.
You are the damn weapon. My sister’s words filled me as I lowered the wall inside me and my Hound moved in.
Amber flames blazed in his eyes. But they weren’t his flames...and they weren’t his salvation--they were mine. I lunged forward, grasped his shoulders, and dragged him into the room.
Fangs punched through, claws sank into flesh. There was a flicker of fear in the guard’s eyes, one that punched through my Hound’s hold. “I am your Queen,” I growled.
The voice was my mother’s, but the rage was all mine. My muscles trembled, and hate was an alien thing tearing through my veins. I wasn’t like Amaris, not so easy to feed the beast. I was the oldest...I was the protector.
Fingers curled, midnight claws speared through his shirt as I moved closer. Power rippled through me, tearing through my barriers. It was the kind of power I’d denied for so long, the kind I’d hidden in the dark, pushing it aside...until now.
The guard whimpered, desperation roaring in his gaze as he lashed out, punching me in the shoulder. “Get the fuck off me.”
“Look at me,” I growled, seizing his gaze.
He clenched his eyes, fighting the call as the low snarl of my Hound swept closer to the surface.
“Ignus!” One of the other guards called from the hallway.
Panic raced at the sound of footsteps. I jerked my gaze to the doorway. Come on...hurry...I urged my Hound. She was tentative, sniffing the air, drawing in his scent.
There was a flicker of a flame in his eyes, yellow and hungry. Less than a half-breed, and untrained in his rightful kind...still, he belonged to me.
I closed my eyes and whispered the words my mother had taught me, stoking that hungry lick of heat inside him until the yellow darkened. His eyes widened, as I shoved against his chest and stumbled backwards, sinking to the floor to cover my face as the second guard stepped into the doorway.
“What the fuck?” he snarled.
I lifted my head as his dark, empty eyes swept over me. He wasn’t Hound, not my kind. Not anything I could manipulate or control. Not anything I could use.
“You stay right there, Princess.” He lifted a finger and pointed at me as he crossed the room to the crumpled guard at the side of my bed. “What the fuck’s gotten into you? You know how much shit we’d be in if Blaze caught us in here?”
I rose slowly, making no sound. Ignus lifted his head, yellow flames burning amber now, and with the power came the darkness.
One I knew well…
One that’d haunted me my entire life.
Take it...the emptiness whispered. Take it all. His pain. His fury...his life...
I closed my eyes, stole a breath, and then reached for Death’s hand. Hunger blazed through me, the kind of hunger I hated. The kind of hunger I’d hidden from all these years. I opened my eyes. One nod to the Hellhound was all he needed.
Ignus shoved up from the floor, tore his panicked gaze from mine, and settled it on the guard standing over him. I turned as the sickening snarl filled the room, followed by a panicked cry and then a grunt as the guard was knocked to the ground.
“Ignus!” he screamed. “No...no. NO!”
The sounds of tearing flesh filled the room as I turned and headed for the doorway, the sound of my boots taking me back to the first time I met Death.
Mommy?
The small voice swept through my mind, stealing me from the hallway as I rounded the foot of the stairs and then climbed. In my head, I was walking along the hallway of my childhood home, drawn by my mom’s scream of rage.
But there was only silence now. Silence from the room I left behind, and silence from the empty hallway in my past.
“NO! My Queen! No...no...no.” The feral sound of pain followed. Guttural and raw, soul-tearing pain...heart-wrenching agony. A Hellhound’s pain.
I gripped the bannister and climbed as the Hellhound’s tortured screams floated away. I remembered that sound, remembered like it was yesterday. But the tragic howls of pain were all I had left of that day. I couldn’t remember his face, couldn’t remember my mom, could only go on what I was told of that day…
The day I’d found my mom, the Hellhound Queen, dead on the throne room floor.
I lifted my head and climbed the stairs as the sound in my head carried to the world outside.
“They’re here,” the Vampire’s voice floated from the doorway above. “My people won’t be able to hold them back forever.”
“Let them come,” Blaze growled. “They won’t get what they came for.”
He was close, so close....
I stilled, my hand on the railing, foot hovering between one step and the next.
A growl came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to the blood-smeared face of the Hellhound. Shouts and screams came from outside.
They were coming. My people. My family...my sister.
She’s not going with you, Amaris’s voice came to me as I moved to the side, letting the Hellhound soldier pass. It wasn’t Ignus anymore, not the man, only the Hound. Only the soldier willing to risk it all. To save me.
Just as Amaris had done for her entire life. It was she who saved me from Acheron when my father was so eager to give me to the ruthless Vampire. Amaris, with her feisty, loud voice. She just strode up to Dad and grabbed my hand, dragging me away from the Vampire’s sickening gaze, yelling at the top of her voice...where Kalliste goes, I go...and I won’t be happy about it, either.
Dad knew Amaris would be trouble. He knew she’d scream and snarl. He knew she’d kick and bite...it was one thing she was good at. The other was always being there for me. Always the one ready to draw blood, always the one no one wanted to deal with.
Now it was my time to be there for her.
I met the Hellhound’s stare as he passed me on the stairs. It was my time to fight, any way I could. “Kill him,” I whispered and moved out of the way. “Tear the bastard apart.”
Boom! The walls shuddered with an explosion. My heart lunged as I grabbed the bannister.
“What the hell?” Blaze exclaimed as he stepped around the corner of the hallway.
He took one look at the Hound as he climbed the last stair, and then glanced at me. The crack of automatic gunfire cut through the darkness as Ignus took one last step, let free a savage snarl, and then lunged.
Crack! The shot was deafening, driving the sound with the thunder of my heart.
My Hellhound fell, crumpling to the floor.
“Kalliste!” Amaris screamed my name outside.
My pulse drove me higher, taking that last step as I curled my fists. The Vampire came around the corner, hand outstretched, the gun in his hand. He took one look at Blaze and then me. “Princess...careful now.”
My lips curled as fear mingled with rage. The sound of war filled the night air. They were fighting for me out there. “Not a Princess anymore,” I growled as the savage sound of my Hound mingled with my tone, “but a Queen.”
6
Kalliste
Thighs tensed, my heels drove into the floor as I lunged through the air. I swung my hand, clawing his face, before Blaze seized my wrist.
“Enough!” He tightened his grip and roared as another boom came from below.
One cruel gaze to the Vampire and the ruthless sonofabitch roared, “Take care of that!”
But I could feel them, my sister and the others of my line. Those of the Seven, the Hellhounds who’s entire purpose was to hunt and kill and...protect the royal line. They were here, coming to rescue me.
Kane...RyKor...Ezre...Stone.
The Vampire stepped away, grasped the bannister, and, with one swift lunge, swept over the railing to freefall toward the floor.
He hit the marble with a thud. The bottom of his cape dragged along the floor, until the sound was gone. Battle commands were given, but all I saw was the excitement in Blaze’s eyes. His wide nostrils flared as he took in the scene.
“They’re coming,” I growled and wrenched at my hand. “My sister is about to tear you apart and she’s bringing a Dragon with her.”
“Is that what you think?” His lips curled, baring his teeth as a cruel glint sparkled in his eyes. “You think I give a fucking shit about one Guardian? It’s too late…it’s all too late.”
“It’s time,” a woman quietly stepped around the Vampire. “Sevan can feel us now.”
My stomach rolled when I looked at her face. One eye was cloudy and white, leaking slime trails down a drooping cheek.
I winced as she turned that oozing eye on me and took a step closer. My knees trembled as my Hound let out a whimper. There was something about the woman, something that smelled of the blazing fires of Hell.
“Will he come?” Blaze asked without turning away.
“He’ll come...he’ll have no choice soon,” she murmured as she lifted her hand.
Strands of a supernatural whip lashed the air. Seven strands danced with deadly power as Blaze grasped the handle. “Soon...so it’ll all be done.”
I was seized by that whip as a chilling feeling whispered through my mind. He knew the Cursed would come...he’s been planning on it. This night. This moment. This terror...he planned for it all.
