Vampire Mage: An Urban Fantasy Harem (The Vampire Mage Book 1)

by Joshua King

  My eyes locked on Aurora, and I didn’t want to look away. I felt Ashe’s hand wrap around my wrist and start pulling me backward. I wanted to stay there in the room with her. I didn’t want to be away from her.

  “Come on, Hayden,” Ashe said. “We have to go. We don’t have much time.”

  Finally, I tore my eyes away from the gorgeous woman gazing back at me and followed Ashe out of the room. Just as the door was closing behind me, I heard her voice again.

  “I will only believe the answer from a friend I trust.”

  I immediately wondered if she had actually spoken the words, or if I had heard another thought.

  We walked back down the hallway and into the elevator. As the doors shut, she smashed the button for the lobby.

  “I thought you needed a key card to use the floors this high up in the building,” I said.

  “Just to get up to them,” Ashe said. “You need special authorization to access these parts of the building, not to leave them.”

  “I guess it’s reassuring to know they can’t keep anybody hostage here,” I said.

  She looked at me seriously.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but decided it was best to just let that train of thought end.

  14

  I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened in the tower when we walked through the front door of Solomon's Fang. It all seemed completely outlandish, like I was a part of some sort of incredibly complex prank. Of course, I didn't know anybody who was smart enough, or creative enough, to go about orchestrating a plan like this. To be completely honest, I probably didn't know anybody who gave enough of a damn about me to try. It was all real, and that meant I really did have one hell of a challenge ahead of me.

  “Are you feeling better?” Ashe asked as we walked through the door and immediately crossed through the bar.

  “Feeling better?” I asked.

  “You've been really quiet the entire way back,” she said. “Are you dealing with everything all right?”

  “I'm fine,” I told her. “I promise I'm not going to start moping around and bemoaning my fate. Unless I notice any sign at all of dick rot. If that happens, I can make absolutely no promises about how well I'll handle it.”

  She laughed, and suddenly turned to face me.

  “You seem tense,” she said.

  I nodded and shrugged, trying to look casual even though I knew she could sense the tension in me. More than a day had passed, and time was going by quickly. It seemed challenging enough to find Aurora and convince her to change me when it didn't also involve having to bend to the whim of the princess and go on a quest to bring her back the answer to some riddle. At least she hadn’t requested my heart on a silver platter, though there was still no guarantee of me coming back alive.

  “Maybe a little,” I said.

  “Well, going through the portal isn't going to be easy,” she said. “Maybe you'd like a quick tumble in bed to take the edge off.”

  That intoxicating glint was in her eyes again.

  “Well,” I said, walking toward her she had to back up against the steps. “We do have a few minutes to spare…”

  She laughed as I chased her up the stairs toward her apartment. When I gathered her up in my arms and tossed her onto the bed, I was already hard and ready to sink into her. Feeling her hot, wet pussy close around my cock was exactly what I needed to distract me from our visit to Nakatomi. I rolled Ashe over onto her stomach and used my knee to shove her thighs apart so I could get on my knees between them. I plunged into her again and used my leverage to slam into her fast and hard. Her ass bounced against my thighs with each thrust, the sound of our skin slapping against each other only arousing me further. She let out a moan, and I gave her ass a sharp smack, causing her to cry out. Her hips lifted slightly, and I did it again. I growled at her sounds of pleasure and took hold of her hips so I could ride her until I came in a blinding rush.

  I was sitting on the edge of her bed half an hour later when she came back into the bedroom. I had showered before her, but was still only wearing my pants.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  “The first time you and I went down into the basement and you introduced me to Tybalt,” I said. “He mentioned that there's a blood price to go through the portal to Solon City.”

  Ashe tossed the towel she had been using to dry her hair into a hamper in the corner.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It's not that bad. All the portals require it. It's how we're able to pass from this world into the Underworld.” I shuddered, and she looked at me strangely. “What is it?”

  I drew in a breath.

  “I don't like blood,” I admitted. “I know, it sounds ridiculous. But I really fucking hate it. I always have, ever since I was a kid. I'm sure a few hours stretched out on the psychiatrist's couch could give me some sort of deep insight into whatever trauma that happened to make me so squeamish around it.”

  “Or you could be like a lot of people,” she said. “You see, most people don't go wandering around talking about how much they love blood.”

  “I guess,” I said. “It just really bothers me. I don't like admitting it, but I'm anxious about this whole blood price thing.”

  “You better get over that shit,” she said. “There's a whole lot more after the piddly little blood price. Remember, you have to actually drink Aurora's blood to complete the change.”

  “I know,” I said, swallowing hard to try to keep my stomach under control. “I'm not really looking forward to that.”

  “Like I said, it's best you find a way to get over that real fast. Not being able to stand the sight of blood is an odd affliction for a vampire to have. It's like a human being afraid of a cheeseburger.” She brushed her hair up into a ponytail at the back of her head, tied on a pair of black boots, and let out a breath. “You ready?”

  I looked down at myself.

  “I'm half-naked,” I said.

  “I know,” Ashe said with a grin. “I hoped you were planning on staying that way.”

  “Probably not the best idea,” I said.

  I finished getting dressed, and we walked out of the apartment. Walking down the stairs felt familiar now, and I realized just how much I was leaving my old life behind. I had barely even thought about it, which was comforting in its own way. We made our way through the main floor of the bar toward the door to the basement. As Ashe opened it, my anxiety about the blood price came back. I tried to think about what it could be as we walked down the next set of stairs and through the chambers of the basement. I was surprised when Ty didn't step out of the shadows like he had the first time.

  “Looks like your bouncer is asleep on the job,” I commented.

  “Not today.”

  The sound of Ty's voice came from the room behind me.

  “Ty,” I said. “Always lovely to see you.”

  Part of me expected him to launch back into the stream of questions from when he had come up to the apartment the day before. Instead, he didn't even acknowledge me and walked toward Ashe.

  “Do you need something?” he asked. “I still haven't heard anything else about Aurora.”

  “We did,” Ashe said. “One of the Shade from the scuffle yesterday showed up at my place with a note requesting Hayden meet her at Nakatomi.”

  “I take it that visit didn't involve her stretching her neck out to him, or handing him a little vial of blood so he could tip it into his coffee,” Ty said.

  “Not exactly,” Ashe said.

  “I got sent on a mission,” I said.

  “A mission?” he asked.

  “Aurora doesn't want to change him yet,” Ashe said.

  I was getting seriously tired of them talking about me like I wasn't even there.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Turns out she's having second thoughts.”

  “I wouldn't exactly put it like that,” Ashe said. “I don't think Aurora has had a second thought
in her entire existence, alive or otherwise. That's just not her. What Hayden means is she gave him a bonding bite, but she hasn't decided whether she wants to go through with it yet.”

  “Really?” Ty asked. “I never thought I'd see the day.”

  “She played it off like it was no big deal, but you know as well as I do it's not something she does all the time. In fact, I think she has only done it one other time, ever.”

  They looked at each other like they were sharing some kind of secret, but I couldn't hear any thoughts coming from Ashe. A realization suddenly popped into my mind, and I grabbed her arm to pull her away from Ty.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said. “There's something I need to tell you.”

  “Now?” Ashe asked. “We really need to get through the portal.”

  I glanced at Ty. I didn't want him to hear me, so I nodded.

  “I'll tell you later,” I said.

  She gave a single nod, then turned back to the bouncer.

  “She said there's something different about Hayden, and she won't consider finishing the change until she finds out what it is.”

  Ty's eyes slid over to me and he scrutinized me for a few seconds before looking at Ashe again.

  “So why are you here?” he asked.

  “I'm supposed to talk to somebody called Malakan,” I said.

  “Aurora said she wants the answer from him, and she'll trade her blood for it,” Ashe said. “So, we need to get through the portal and find Malakan.”

  “How would he even know anything about me?” I asked. “I don't even know who he is. How could some vampire in a world I've only known existed for twenty-four hours tell me what it is about me that's so different.”

  Ty and Ashe exchanged glances again.

  “Don't tell him.”

  Ashe was thinking it in repeat, and it occurred to me Ty couldn't hear her, she was just hoping to send the vibe to him.

  “I need to get you through the portal if you're going to go,” Ty suddenly said. “I have things I need to be doing.”

  It was a bullshit answer to get past my question, but I wasn't going to push it. I’d had enough of Ty, and was ready to move on to whatever was waiting for us on the other side of the portal he guarded. I followed Ashe into the room where they had told me about the portal, and watched Ty walk up to a cabinet I hadn't even noticed the first time we were there. He reached in and pulled out several objects. He laid them on a table, and I looked at them. The only thought that went through my mind when I saw them was that they looked like antique surgical implements. I watched him cross the room and reach up to light a candle in a large sconce in the wall. It produced just enough glow to illuminate him as he lit several others, until there was enough light in the room for me to look around. Directly in front of me was a wall covered by a tapestry that looked old and worn. Ty moved the tapestry to the side, using a loop woven into the pattern to attach it to a hook in the wall.

  The movement exposed an area of bare stone, but he didn't do anything else. He came back to us, and looked back and forth between us.

  “Which one of you is going to make the payment?” he asked.

  Before I could even open my mouth to answer, Ashe stepped forward.

  “I am,” she said. “Hayden has been going through a lot the last couple of days.”

  “All right,” Ty said. “Come here.”

  Ashe walked up to him without any hesitation. She didn't seem afraid or worried, even when he reached over to the table and picked up one of the knives. I reminded myself she had gone through this process countless times before, and it probably didn't bother her anymore. As the only person in the room who had no idea what was going on, I was bothered. She extended her arm to him, and Ty took her wrist. He flipped her arm over, exposing the pale, soft underside of her forearm. Without a word of warning, he drew the blade along her skin. I tried to watch without reacting, but as soon as I saw blood rising up to the surface, I felt my stomach flip. Despite the feeling, I forced myself to keep watching. I wanted to know what was going to happen. She was paying this price for me, and I felt the compulsion to know every step of it. I needed to understand what was happening.

  Ty placed the knife back on the table and picked up a long, narrow piece of black material. It looked like dark wood, but I couldn't fully tell. He brought it over to Ashe and stroked it over the wound he had just made. She didn't react as he scooped her blood up onto the object and carried it over to the wall. She kept her arm in the same position, and I watched as the blood stopped beading up and dried. By the time she gestured at me to follow her toward the far wall where Ty was headed, it was visibly healing.

  We stopped a few feet from the wall, and Ty reached up to run the black object along it, spreading Ashe's blood onto the stone. There was a faint hissing sound and the stone seemed to absorb the blood, then the stones melted away.

  “Come on,” Ashe said, patting my arm.

  She walked forward, and I followed her through the wall.

  15

  I didn't know what to expect when I got through the portal. Part of me thought we would go through the wall and end up in another basement. Instead, it seemed like we were suddenly standing in an alley. It looked very much like the one where we had fought the Shade guards, and I looked around. Everything seemed so familiar. It didn't feel like we had done anything but step outside the building.

  “Did we just pass through a wall into the alley behind Solomon's?” I asked.

  “Do you really think we would go through all that just to do a parlor trick into an alley?”

  “No,” I answered. “I'm just trying wrap my head around it.”

  “That,” she said, gesturing at the building beside us, “is the Solan City part of Solomon's Fang. Around here, people just call it the Fang. The portal to get into the city comes out here rather than inside because it would be annoying as hell for people to be traipsing up and down from the basement all the time.”

  “Is it the only way?” I asked.

  “No, there are other gateways throughout the city.”

  I noticed her glance at her arm. “Thanks for doing that,” I said.

  “No problem,” Ashe said. “It’s not a big deal for me. I’ve paid the blood price more times than I can count. After what you told me, I knew you probably wouldn't be too enthusiastic about being the one he had to cut. I'm already almost healed, anyway. But I'm letting you know right now, it's not always going to be like that.”

  I gave a short laugh.

  “I got it,” I said.

  “Good,” she said. “Now, let's go find Malakan.”

  We walked out of the alley, and I was struck again by just how much this place looked like New York City. All of what surrounded us felt exactly like home. I couldn't pinpoint anything that set it apart, or anything that made me feel like I was in some other world. On a whim, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, and glanced down at it.

  “I have cell service!” I exclaimed, holding my phone out to Ashe as though she had asked for proof.

  “Yep,” she said.

  “Look, I don't get this. You and Ty made this big deal about moving through a portal, and going into another world. Supposedly we are in a different city, and yet I can't tell the difference at all. I mean, I know we're not on the same block, but it still looks exactly like New York.”

  “It's supposed to,” Ashe said. “That's how it was designed.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Ages ago, the mages designed Solon City. They are an extremely powerful magic species. They wanted to create a world that was a mirror to the one of the humans. They used their magic to exactly replicate New York City. The trees, the skyscrapers, every blade of grass. It's just the same as the human version.”

  “The human version?” I asked. “So there are other vampire cities?”

  “Not vampire cities,” she corrected. “Underworld. There are many more species here than just the vampires. Like I said, it was designed
by the mages. But, no, it's not the only city. There are other Underworld cities throughout the world, all of them designed to exactly mirror their human counterparts.”

  As we walked along the sidewalk, I noticed several of the people we passed turn to look over their shoulders at me. A few sniffed the air, leaning toward me as if trying to figure out something about me. I looked at Ashe, who wasn't paying any attention to anyone around us.

  “Tell me about this Malakan guy,” I said. “You didn't explain why Aurora would want me to go to him. Is he some sort of vampire guru?”

  “He's not a vampire,” Ashe said.

  “He's not?”

  I was shocked by the revelation. I had just assumed the princess of the vampires would send me to another vampire to prove myself.

  “No,” Ashe said. “And it's not something that's necessarily well-received among our kind. Malakan is a mage, a warlock. A very old warlock. He was exiled by his people, and now he lives in the slums of Solon City. The vampires and the magi don't have the friendliest of histories with each other. The war claimed many lives on both sides, and even though it's mostly a stalemate now, there is still a tremendous amount of tension. There is a lot of distrust on both sides, and Malakan is at the center of a lot of it. Many vampires don't believe he's actually separated from the rest of the warlocks. There are rumors he's here in Solon City as a mole, feeding information back to his people. But not everybody feels that way. There are just as many people who think his presence here has done a lot to offset the danger from the warlocks, and is continuing to ease the tensions and turmoil between the two races.”

  “Why would Aurora send me to him?” I asked.

  “Malakan has been a close confidant of Aurora's for a very long time. It's not something that's well-known, and not something she likes to advertise. But she thinks very highly of him and his opinions. It seems to me, though, that it must be more than that.”

  “Why do you say that?”