by E. M. Knight
“But we live in a certain era—”
“Victoria.” I extend a claw. Just one. “If you don’t learn to shut your mouth and do as you’re told, your life in the twenty-first century won’t last much longer.” I close in on her. “Now swear properly.”
With exaggerated effort she rolls her eyes. “Fine. I vow fealty to you, my Lord. You hold my life, you hold my soul, in your oh-so-beautiful hands. You, who knows best, who knows everything above everyone else, deem it worthy to let a worm like me crawl into your company and beg for her life.” She coughs. “How am I doing?”
“More flattery would be nice. And keep your voice level. Otherwise, I might think you mocking.”
That, at least, earns a tiny grin. I feel a measure of satisfaction at that.
I don’t want my women entirely groveling.
“I swear myself to you. What you ask, I will do. What you want, I will give. And I will remain in your service for so long as you see my debt unpaid. Only you decide when that is,” she adds with another miniscule smirk. “So truly, I am slave to your whims.”
“Good enough,” I cut her off. “Now rise. You cannot be of the Nocturna Animalia because I did not create you. But you will be our ward.”
In the background, April makes a strangled noise.
I turn on her. “What?”
With one hand, she points up at the sky.
It’s brightening.
Her natural fear instincts kick in. “How are we going to get back to the airfield in time?” she gasps. “We’ll never make it! The sun’s going to come up and, and, and...”
“April.” I say her name firmly. “Calm yourself. We have plenty of time.”
“The sun,” she mutters. “I haven’t seen the sun in ages. Oh God, I never will again! It’s lost to me, lost to me forever!”
“Now you sound like Lestat,” I quip. I shake my head and grab her arm. “Come on. We’ll be back at the airfield before it gets bright.”
But she doesn’t move.
“James,” Victoria says. She comes up behind me. “Look at her. Really look.”
I sigh, but do as I’m asked.
The blood has drained from April’s face. She is frighteningly pale, even for a vampire. Her cheeks sag inward, and look almost hollow beneath her terrified eyes.
“She needs blood,” Victoria says.
“She’s had it!” I roar at her.
Victoria sniffs. “Right. What, animal blood?”
I look away.
“No!” Victoria says. “No, you can’t be serious?”
“What of it?” I demand. “There weren’t any humans nearby. So I gave her a fox.”
Now it’s Victoria’s turn to look pale. “As a first feeding?”
“Yes as a first feeding,” I exclaim, growing increasingly irritated with the woman. “If you know something I don’t, then tell me. Otherwise, shut your mouth.” I return my attention to April. “Come on, we’ll get there quick...”
But she doesn’t hear me. She’s trembling like a frightened hare.
Victoria pulls me back. “Of all the stupid, idiotic things you’ve done,” she begins.
“Careful,” I warn.
She hits me. “You really are a fool, James, you know that? That first feeding sets the stage for a vampire’s entire existence. That’s why what we did with Eleira was so important. That’s why the bloodlust comes on so strong when you’re first formed.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“You truly don’t know.” She speaks in absolute wonder. “How did you survive so long while being so utterly ignorant?”
“And how do you know these things?” I counter. “What gives you the right to question what I’ve done—or how I treat my vampires?”
“Your vampire,” Victoria repeats with disdain, “is going to be nothing more than a fragile, empty shell, frightened of every loud noise, if you don’t correct your mistake soon. No—if we don’t correct your mistake.”
“And now you want to help?”
“I’m sworn to you.”
“Fine,” I grunt. “Since you have all this superior knowledge, tell me, what do we do?”
“She needs human blood,” she says. “Before the transformation is sealed. Before it’s complete.”
“It is complete, what are you talking about?” I exclaim, exasperated. April still hasn’t moved from her spot. She simply cowers there.
“You truly know nothing,” Victoria murmurs. “And you aspire to lead a coven? Ha! Good luck.”
“Help me, then,” I growl. Discomfort and anxiety about April’s predicament is starting to take hold. She’s still as a deer in headlights.
“The first feeding is essential because it sets the stage for what she becomes,” Victoria explains. “But it’s not the final seal. The first sleep is.”
“So...”
“So we need to get her inside. Quickly.” Victoria grabs April’s arm. For some reason, the girl follows the woman without protest. “If we keep her awake throughout the day, tomorrow night we can find a source of human blood. It will override the paltry… animal blood—” she says the words with ultimate disdain, “—already in her system. Then her creation won’t be stunted.” She pulls her toward the cave. “Because, James, as is? She’ll be little more than an imbecile for the entirety of her existence.”
She glares at me. “There is a reason vampires feed on humans.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
CARTER
THE PATHS
“Why do I have to be the one to carry her?” Deanna complains, for what must be the dozenth time in the last hour. “Why can’t we take turns, or—”
“Or what?” I ask darkly. I turn my head and glare at the blasted woman. “You want me to do it? Must I remind you that I am the only one of us who can read the markings and take us the proper way?”
“So you claim,” she grouses. “I haven’t seen one bit of evidence that these markings exist.” She gestures with one hand around the glorious crystal cavern, before grunting and shifting the Queen’s unconscious body on her back.
I turn my whole body to her. “You doubt me?” I ask.
Just to be sure, I direct a flick of my vampiric influence at her.
She winces.
Fool woman.
She is the last of the Royal Court I would pick as an accomplice. But she had the most to gain from what I offered, and so I had to make the difficult choice.
Besides. She burns with hatred for the Queen. That, in and of itself, made her invaluable. But damn if I didn’t wish she could shut her mouth and stop whining for just two seconds.
“I just—I’d like to see some proof,” she says. “The passages all look the same to me.”
“That’s because they were designed that way,” I say, losing patience with every word. “The Paths were not meant to be traversed by any except those who wield magic. Seeing as neither of us possess the gift?”
“Then how do you know where you’re going?” she questions.
We’ve gone through all this before. That is what frustrates me most. But even though —from what I’ve gathered—Deanna had no trouble killing Phillip, some of her nerve faltered when it came time for us to steal the Queen.
I remind myself that I only need to endure Deanna’s awful complaining for a little bit more, and then she can be… disposed of.
I put on a mask of understanding.
“Because,” I say slowly, “The Paths weren’t all constructed by witches. That would have been too great an undertaking. They had limited numbers, remember? But tell me, what did the Ancient Egyptians have in abundance?”
I don’t wait for her reply. I answer my own question. “Human slaves.”
She screws up her face. “What do the Egyptians have to do with any of this?”
I cannot believe her stupidity. So many years of being a vampire—a vampire of the Royal Court, even!—and she is completely ignorant of our past.
“The Egyptians were
the first users of magic,” I explain. “Their rituals gave birth to what you and I are. The vampire’s genesis lies with that ancient civilization.”
“Okaay...” She rolls her eyes. “Thanks for the history lesson. I still don’t see how it concerns us!”
I make an annoyed sound in my throat. “Human slaves built the pyramids. But those were just a cover for what was really going on.” I spread my arms. “They were carving out these tunnels, spread beneath the world.
“Some slaves spent their entire lives in these crystal caves. They had to have a way to navigate them. There were not enough witches to always guide them. So, they left secret markings hidden in the stone that let them find their way through. The witches approved of it, though I imagine they did so grudgingly. But it was a necessity. And those markings, my dear Deanna, are so cleverly hidden that not even your vampiric eyes can see them. Not unless you know exactly where to look.”
“So tell me where to look, and let me help you!” she cries out.
“You’re help enough just carrying the Queen,” I say. I turn back and continue forward.
To my immense pleasure, that rebuttal shuts her up.
We walk on. I lead the way. I make sure to appear supremely confident…
But inside, I do hold certain doubts.
Nothing catastrophic, of course. Yet the truth of the matter is that more than half the markings I’d expected to find have been weathered away by age. More than half. Two thirds. Maybe three-quarters.
That makes progress infinitely slower than I would have liked. We reach an enormous, oval opening. The crystal arches high above us. My eyes follow the lines of one wall up, up, until they’re fixed on the domed ceiling high above.
Jagged stalactites thrust down like pointed teeth.
An uncomfortable chill goes through me. This is the first time I’ve been this deep into the Paths. My knowledge comes from books. From what I’ve read of them, they were designed to be marvels of beauty.
But the rock above is harsh and uncompromising. I do not believe it an original feature.
Then how—and why—did it form?
“Carter. Hey!” Deanna’s voice returns me to the present.
“What?” I snap.
“I said, which way do we go?” She looks out at the myriad of different tunnels splintering off from this main hub.
“Give me a moment,” I grumble, and jump down into the pit and begin examining each entrance.
The markings I’m looking for are subtle. I told Deanna the truth. She would not be able to pick them out in the gleaming mass unless she knew exactly where to look.
But as I move from entrance to entrance, I find them either missing completely, or so eroded as to be meaningless.
Deanna has no qualms showing her impatience. She taps one foot—loudly—and huffs each time I dismiss a tunnel as the wrong one.
“If I didn’t know any better,” she announces haughtily, “I’d say you’re full of it. You don’t know where we are.”
I ignore the provocation. I only have to endure her company for a little bit longer.
“In fact,” she continues, “for this whole venture, you’ve done nothing to contribute.”
Shut up! I scream in my head. Shut up before you make me do something reckless!
“I killed Phillip,” she says. “I’ve been carrying the Queen. You haven’t even told me where we’re going. And until you do—” she sets the stiff body of our monarch down, “—I’m not taking another step. Not while carrying her.”
I hiss in annoyance. Deanna is acting like a pouty child. I move to the next entrance, examining the crystal around it for the markings.
“Hello?” Deanna yells. “Can you hear me? I’m not used to being ignored!”
“Yeah, well you’d better get used to it, if you want to live,” I grumble under my breath.
She gives a start. “What did you say?”
I turn and face her. “I said,” I scowl, “that if you don’t let me concentrate, you’re going to envy the Queen’s current condition.”
She puffs. “How dare you! Is that a threat?”
“Take it however you like, I don’t care, so long as it keeps your mouth closed.”
Violence sparks in her eyes. She leaps down the cliff and races to me. She stops just short of knocking me back against the wall—or trying to.
A step away, I throw my vampiric influence at her, which was just enough to make her pause.
“We had a deal,” she seethes, glaring at me with undisguised fury. “I help you, and you help me. So far, I’ve done my part of the bargain. Where is yours, Carter?”
“Are you really so petty, so impatient?” I snarl back. “You wanted a chance to strike back at the Queen for killing Bradley. You took out her youngest son. I gave you the opportunity for that. Without me, you would have never dared.”
She tosses her head back and takes a step closer. “It’s not Phillip who I want dead,” she says. She flings an arm back and points up at the Queen, lying on the rocks like a hardened wax statue. “It’s her! She took Bradley away from me. While she lives, my debt remains unpaid.”
“Fool woman,” I say. “Do you really think you could destroy her? She’s the most powerful of all of us!”
“She bleeds like the rest,” Deanna says. A tiny stiletto appears in her hands. “Her body is weak to silver just like any of ours. And right now, she’s nothing but dead weight.”
Deanna steps even closer. She looks up at me while placing an open hand on my chest. “Let me kill her, Carter,” she says. “Let me do away with the witch. If you are too frightened to try—”
That does it. Before I can stop myself my hand flies up and backhands her across the face.
She stumbles down. The stiletto is knocked out of her grip. I grab it before she can react, then I leap at her, pin her to the ground, and press the silver weapon against her throat.
“Never,” I say in a soft, low growl. “Accuse me of cowardice.” I press the point into her flesh. “…Understand?”
Her dark eyes remain defiant. “So it comes to this,” she says. “I knew you would betray me. Do it, then.” She raises her chin. “Kill me. See how far you can get on your own.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” I say through gritted teeth. It takes all the self-control I have to ease the pointed weapon away from her neck. “And I’m not going to betray you, either.”
I stand up and toss the small blade to the ground beside her. “But if you push your luck, you will find me less forgiving.”
Grumbling, angry, she picks herself up.
“You’re not going to harm the Queen,” I command. A laugh bubbles up from my throat. “Such stupidity to just suggest it! No, Deanna, the Queen is our biggest bargaining piece. We require her alive if we are to strike a deal.”
“A deal? A deal with whom?”
I can tell she doubts every word.
With a sigh, I decide to indulge her. If only it will help to make her shut up.
“With the Vorcellian Order,” I say. “They have something we want.” Someone, I think to myself. “For us to get it, we must offer them a trade.”
Deanna’s eyes grow wider and wider as I speak. “You mean, The Order exists?” she asks. “I thought it was just a legend—or at least, an organization that disbanded long ago.”
“Shows how ignorant you are,” I say. “Yes, the Order exists. Our dear friend Smithson is involved with them. To what extent, I won’t pretend to know… but I have a feeling he holds quite a bit of influence.”
“Smithson?” Deanna repeats, clearly incredulous. “The Queen’s own man? That’s who we’re going to?”
I shake my head in pity. “If you believe Smithson was loyal to the Queen you are as blind as the rest of them. Our former Captain Commander played her—and he played her well. He played us all, in fact… except for me.”
“And now you’re letting me in on this little secret,” she says, still dubious. “What awfully convenient
timing.”
“I don’t need your faith,” I tell her. “Just your compliance. Just for a little bit more. Do as you’re told, stop getting in the way, and—”
Without warning I feel a shift in the atmosphere.
I cut off. My eyes dart up. Up, to where the Queen is lying unprotected. Up, to where a dark cloud has suddenly gathered.
A curse escapes my lips. But before it’s even halfway out, time grinds to a halt.
I find myself unable to move.
The dark cloud swirls and solidifies. Black, inky tendrils appear in its midst. It seems to pull all the light of the crystals into it, and somehow, feed on it, convert it into darkness.
A pulse resonates through the entire space. Just like that, everything is a lumen darker.
I fight to move, but my muscles are stiff.
A long moment passes. Or maybe no time at all. The darkness becomes more and more solid. I feel a hateful energy emanate from it.
Nothing I’ve ever encountered has been able to induce such fear in me.
Another pulse. Once more the light drops. The black becomes blacker, those tendrils make shapes like living wires.
Slowly, and with no obvious concern of its own, the Narwhark steps out from the clouds’ mist.
My eyes would widen if they could—if I were not trapped in this block of frozen time.
The demon is many times larger than I remember. It’s now the size of a small dog, maybe a race hound.
But it’s not the physical shape that astounds me. It’s the overwhelming power commanded by the beast.
Thud. Thud.
Two more of those pulses run through the air. I realize in terror that they are not mere pulses.
They are a heartbeat.
Thud-thud-thud.
Each vibration comes from the vile creature’s chest. Its heart pounds so strongly that every beat shows through its dark, leathery skin.
And every beat steals just a little bit more of the light.
The demon turns its head down to us. Its intelligent eyes scan me and Deanna.
It finds us to be no great threat.
Then, casually, it turns and pads to the Queen.
No, no no! I want to scream. But my body cannot move, my lips are tied in place, and in fact, I’ve still got half that curse coming from my mouth.
