That first strike was easy enough to deflect, and Keiran countered with a thrust of his blade that Athan knocked away without any trouble.
Jerris looked his father over. “Are you all right? You were right next to it!”
Kanan shook his head, refusing to take his attention away from the two in the center of the room. “I feel fine. Right now, we need to be worried about what Keir has gotten into.”
The vampires paid them no mind, continuing to spar in the room. Athan came after Keiran, the force and strength behind each of his attacks increasing as he gained more confidence with the new weapon.
Desperate to get the sword away from Athan, Keiran tried to find a way to knock the blade from his adversary’s hand. He saw an opening and thrust forward, aiming for Athan’s wrist. Instead of flesh, however, his blade only pierced through the loose fabric of Athan’s sleeve. Frustrated, he pulled back his rapier and grit his teeth, disappointed in his aim.
Athan took advantage of Keiran’s miscalculation. As soon as his sleeve was freed from the rapier’s blade, he lunged forward and slashed out with the razor-edged sword, feeling only slight resistance as it cut across Keiran’s stomach.
Unaware at first what had happened, Keiran advanced on Athan once more. Something felt wrong, his body not moving how he’d wished it too. A slight sting across his abdomen quickly morphed into an agonizing burn. He looked down, seeing his shirt destroyed, and a wide line of crimson forming over his midsection.
Athan paused and snorted. “Not very enjoyable, is it? Just wait and see how it feels in a few hours from now! That is your payback.”
Keiran looked up, the nature of the pain setting into him different from the other wounds he’d suffered from swords in the past. He dropped his rapier to the ground and fell to his knees, clasping his hands over his stomach and curling forward.
Jerris cried out from the doorway and instinct drove him forward, but Kanan put up his arm to keep his son from rushing in. The old guard had already been exposed to the blade, however, and he charged into the room, not certain if Athan was out to kill Keiran or not.
Athan spun around and watched the old man come at him and gave a single shake of his head. He knew the old fool was too bound by duty to worry about his own self-preservation. He raised his blade to ward off the guard’s attack.
Kanan swung with his sword, straining to put all of his strength into the blow, knowing it would be the only one he got in. His blade met Athan’s and came to a dead stop. Though Athan only held the golden sword with one hand, his body had no noticeable reaction to all the force he absorbed from Kanan’s powerful attack.
…it would have brought a normal man to his knees.
Kanan’s expression went slack, realizing his error. He’d never sparred with Athan before and had not anticipated such strength. There was no time for him to maneuver for another strike before Athan thrust forward and drove his sword easily into Kanan’s chest, despite the thick leather breastplate he wore.
Jerris screamed, certain he’d just seen Keiran and his father both killed. Giving no more thought to the situation, he ran forward, tears already burning in his eyes.
Athan paid Jerris no heed, pulling back the sword and striding away to grab its sheath from where he’d left it on the table. He looked back at Keiran and flashed a quick smile. “…and that was the consequence.”
Jerris slashed out with his blade to strike down Athan, his rapier moving with enough force to whistle as it sliced through the air, but it contacted nothing. Athan had simply disappeared.
In shock, Jerris dropped his sword and turned back toward his father.
Kanan hadn’t moved much since being stabbed, only having put a hand against the wound he’d sustained. His color had blanched out, sweat shining across his brow. With each breath, the metallic scent and taste of his own blood rose up from his lungs. There was a strange pressure building up in his chest, the pain not unlike having the wind knocked out of him.
Kanan looked at Keiran. “How bad did he get you?”
The vampire had collapsed onto his side, curled from the pain of his abdominal muscles having been sliced through. He saw the odd expression on the old man’s face and struggled to move from his position. “I’m all right. You?”
Kanan gave a small nod and produced a weak, sputtering cough, bright red appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Athan has killed me.”
Jerris reached Kanan’s side just as the old man lost his balance and started to fall. There was little Jerris could do to keep the much heavier man up, merely slowing his descent. He cradled Kanan against his chest once they were on the floor. Jerris looked over toward Keiran with panic-stricken eyes. “What do I do?”
Kanan reached up a trembling hand and patted his son’s cheek. “There is nothing to be done.”
“No!” Jerris shook his head, tears spilling forth. Dizziness and cold washed over him like he’d pass out, but the sheer level of panic within him kept him conscious. “Don’t you die! Not like this!”
“Better than wasting away in bed,” Kanan managed back, his head starting to swim.
Keiran pushed beyond his own injury and crawled over beside Jerris. He could see how shallow Kanan’s breaths were. “We have to get Laron…”
“He’s still in the damn town!” Jerris replied, voice shrill in his terror. He could feel Kanan’s blood soaking through his own clothes. “I don’t know what to do!”
“Calm, boys. This can’t be undone. At least I get to die like a man. You will be fine.” Kanan managed a pained smile, weakness overtaking him. As a long-time veteran, he didn’t need medical knowledge to understand his injury. A strange euphoria began to run through him as his consciousness started to fade. “Tell Corina she’s made these last months of my life some of the best.”
Jerris let out a sob as Kanan’s eyes lost their focus and he became nothing more than dead weight in his arms.
Keiran put his arm around Jerris’ shoulders and clung to him tightly. He forced his gaze away from Kanan and closed his eyes, putting his cheek against the red head’s shoulder.
The guard leaned against Keiran in return, letting the tears come freely. “This isn’t happening…”
Other guards made their way into the room. Seeing no active threat, but their leader lying dead, there was little said. Most stood at a distance in silent respect.
Corina was brought in soon after, and she rushed over to the two younger men still on the floor with Kanan’s body. She dropped to her knees slowly, hands covering her mouth. At her age, death wasn’t a stranger, but she’d never imagined Kanan would be gone before her.
Within seconds, her throat had gone dry, her hands shaking and feeling like ice. There was a fluttering, twisting pain in her chest. Corina struggled for breath between her sobs, and she gave out a pained cry before finding any coherent words. “No, no, no! My poor Kanan! What happened?”
Jerris simply shook his head, his throat feeling too tight to speak.
Keiran lifted his head and looked at her. “Athan found the sword.”
Her breaths became jagged, and she reached out a hand to smooth down Kanan’s hair, shaking her head. She bent forward and placed a kiss on her husband’s cheek before looking the two boys over more closely.
While Jerris was clearly shaken and in shock, there seemed to be something physically wrong with Keiran. When she noticed the blood on his hands and shirt, she couldn’t help but fixate on it, knowing there was nothing she could do for Kanan.
“Keir, you were also injured?” she asked, her voice cracking.
With her there, his bravado failed him, and he moved away from Jerris. “A bit…”
“Was it done with the sword?” she asked.
Keiran simply nodded.
As much as she wanted to completely break down over Kanan’s death, it was pushed aside by her maternal instincts over Keiran. She struggled up to her feet and motioned for some of the guards to come closer. “Help him up and get him to his room im
mediately!”
Jerris didn’t respond to the sudden flurry of activity around him. He remained there with Kanan’s body as most of the others fled from the room to tend to the injured king.
The same crippling sense of loss he’d felt when Keiran had been assassinated washed in, and the young guard wasn’t certain he could live through it again. While Keiran had come back, however, he knew his father was gone forever.
Chapter 4
Jerris sat alone in the dining hall. Several empty bottles littered the table top before him, but the alcohol hadn’t done anything to dull his pain. It had taken him nearly two hours before he’d relented and allowed his father’s body to be taken away. It had only been Magretha’s arrival and pleading with him that had finally gotten him to depart the armory.
He kept going over the events of the evening in his mind, trying to think of anything he could have done differently to have saved his father’s life, but it had all happened so quickly. While he’d spent much of the winter fearing he’d lose the old man to illness, having him die at Athan’s hands had never crossed his mind. There was a part of him that knew if he’d intervened any quicker in what had transpired, he very well could have ended up dead, too.
Still, Kanan had been no real threat to the vampire. Athan must have killed him for a purpose, and Jerris knew getting Keiran under control was probably that reason.
That notion terrified the young guard. While Keiran had always stated that he knew Athan was dangerous, Jerris had never seen the elder vampire actually kill someone. Now, he had.
Afraid to be left with his thoughts any longer, he got up from the table and headed for the stairs. Jerris went straight to the door to Keiran’s room and found it ajar, candle light emanating from within.
He pushed open the door to find Keiran lying on the bed, Thana sitting at his side with Zach in her arms. Corina was present as well, rinsing blood off of her hands in a basin on the dresser.
Corina turned around, wiping her hands onto her blood-stained apron. Even in the dim light, her emotional exhaustion was readily evident. She neared the red head, lacing her hands before her stomach. “I’d expected you to come by sooner. How are you doing?”
He cast his gaze to the side, offering a weak shrug. “I don’t really know at present. You?”
She sighed and shook her head. Her frantic attempts to help Keiran in some way had temporarily overridden her sense of mourning. “I don’t think it’s truly sunk in, yet. I’ve been busy trying to get Keir back together. Jerris, he’s…he’s not all right.”
While he knew the sword Athan had used was dangerous in ways he didn’t understand, he’d seen Keiran recover from far more serious wounds. “Did he get blood? Did he not heal?”
She glanced back over her shoulder. “He tried to drink, but it didn’t stay down, and his injury hasn’t improved. In fact, it… it has worsened, Jerris.”
His brow furrowed and he tried to look around the old woman. “I need to see him.”
She stepped aside and motioned for him to go on in. “I need to get a few things while you’re here to watch.”
Jerris went forward, unsure what to expect. Thana rose up from where she sat, standing in his way.
Her posture gave away her fatigue. She rocked Zach slowly in her arms, hoping to keep the child asleep. Knowing how sensitive Jerris was to seeing injuries and blood, she didn’t want him going forward and passing out. “I’m sure Corina just told you, but I need to ask if you really want to see this. You’ve already been through so much tonight. Are you all right?”
“I don’t know how I’m doing, honestly,” he said quietly, noticing that Keiran hadn’t moved since his arrival. “Thana, I need to see him.”
Though she wasn’t convinced he was in a state to deal with anymore, Thana also knew she couldn’t stop him from seeing Keiran. With the loss of Kanan, Keiran was the closest thing to a blood relation the guard had left.
She offered him a sad smile and moved to lay the baby down in his crib. “I need to get something from the kitchen. The two of you can have a moment.”
Jerris nodded and watched her put Zach down. He gave her a pat on the shoulder as she moved past him to exit. Steeling his nerves, he went forward to see what Athan had done to his friend.
Keiran was lain out on top of the blankets. The laceration across his stomach wasn’t covered in any way. Though Corina had tried to clean it and treat it, the skin and muscle at the margins of the wound had literally melted away as the hours passed, making it far worse than the initial cut.
Jerris forced his eyes away from the gash, feeling the telltale rush of cold across his skin that generally signaled a fainting spell. He carefully sat down beside Keiran, trying not to jostle him.
The vampire’s eyes peered open, sweat running down his face. “Jerris…”
The guard gave up a pained smile, placing his hand over one of Keiran’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t come up sooner. I know Corina needs her space to work.”
Even in his state, Keiran doubted his excuse for staying away, though he wasn’t upset. “How are you faring?”
“I made it out of that room better than anyone else,” he said quietly.
“I will end Athan. He went too far this time.”
The guard looked down at Keiran, wondering if he’d ever be in any position to do anything about the other vampire. Unless he recovered, there was no point in Keiran giving much thought to Athan. “Right now, you need to heal. Corina said you drank, but it did nothing.”
“It made me throw up,” he admitted. “I feel as sick as I ever have in my life, Jerris. I don’t know if I’m going to recover. If I die, please look after Thana and Zach. You’ll know how to help him as he grows up being what he is… Don’t tell Thana I said that. I don’t want her more worried, but...”
Jerris nodded and squeezed Keiran’s hand. “I didn’t hear a thing. I can only be grateful I didn’t lose you today. Losing my father was bad enough. Hell, he was your father, too.”
“I’m so sorry, Jerris. I should have stopped him…”
The guard shook his head and looked away. “No, Keir. None of that.”
Keiran tried to move a little, but the burning pain from his injury halted him in short order. It felt as though the gash was full of molten steel. “Corina was going to get something to make it not hurt so much.”
Jerris turned to look at the wound again, but decided to not stare longer than a few seconds. It looked as though Keiran’s entrails were in danger of being exposed, and he almost thought he could see them under the thin layer of fascia still left.
The redhead drew in a long breath. “I’m sure she’ll be back soon. You know you’re going to have her here with you from now until you are healed.”
“I’m all right with that,” Keiran said, giving up just how badly he was feeling. “I need her.”
The guard forced up an insincere smile and leaned down to kiss Keiran’s cheek before standing up. “I know Mag and I were going to leave for a while anyway, but I’ll get the guard reorganized before we depart.”
“You do need to take some time,” Keiran replied, watching his friend rise.
“I will, but there are things that need to be done first. Dealing with the guard, getting him buried…” Jerris’ words trailed off, the last statement knocking the air from his lungs.
Keiran’s eyes closed again. “He deserves a royal funeral.”
Jerris shook his head. “You know as well as I do the old man wouldn’t have wanted such a thing. I will take him home and bury him there next to my mother in a day or two. My property fared better this winter than most, the ground should be workable.”
Corina entered the room again, a bowl in hand. She moved around Jerris and placed it on the bed beside Keiran and pulled out a soaked strip of cloth from it. “This will hurt going on, but you’ll be much happier for it in a few moments.”
The guard couldn’t bear to see Keiran undergo anything for the time being. He gave them a nod and
went toward the door. “I’ll stop by in the morning.”
He stepped out into the hall and went down the stairs toward the room he and Magretha shared. As he passed the kitchen, he heard something and paused to stick his head through the door.
Thana was inside, leaning against the counter. Her left hand was clamped over her eyes and she was doing her best to stifle her crying. Completely out of his element, Jerris wasn’t sure what to do, but he entered and shuffled his feet as he went, not wanting to startle her.
She dropped her hand away from her face and turned toward him, rushing forward and throwing her arms around him. Jerris returned the embrace and stroked her back.
“I don’t know what to do for him,” she whimpered. “I’ve never seen him like this… If he dies…”
Jerris rested his chin on the top of her head, closing his eyes. “He will recover. If Athan wanted him dead, he would have killed him outright. This was to teach Keir a lesson.”
“But he killed Kanan!” she replied, trembling in his arms.
The acid in Jerris’ stomach rose, and he tightened his hold around her. “He… Athan only killed my father to make a point to Keir.”
“I’m so sorry, Jerris.” Thana pressed her face against his chest. “You’ve been through absolute hell over the last few days.”
He sighed and brought her out to arm’s length. “I will be fine. You need only concern yourself with getting Keir better. He needs you. We will find our way through this.”
* * *
Though he was the man who’d sentenced her to exile and cost Arin her right hand, she’d been nothing but gracious to Betram since her husband had brought him to their home.
The two guards he’d arrived with had never returned after he’d sent them away with money earlier. Though disappointed, he wasn’t surprised. If it hadn’t been for Etras’ hospitality, he would have found no comfort with any of the other Sadoris in Ibia.
The deposed emperor couldn’t understand how Etras and his wife were able to show him such kindness. Though he’d adhered to Sadori law to have done what he did in the past, they had every right to have turned him away.
The King's Knight (Royal Blood Book 5) Page 9
