Nythi stops before the island of a bed and sits on the end, taking in my little self-comfort routine. “Hey. You okay?”
Laughing nervously, I drop my arms. “Kinda feel like I should be asking you that question.”
Her lips part in a dazzling smile despite the paleness of her normally golden-hued skin. “Oh, this?” She waves towards her face. “It’s no biggie. Just something that happens when I don’t feed often enough.”
Confused, I stand here, words failing me.
Which only makes that smile of hers—again, identical to her brother’s—that much wider. “My brother hasn’t told you, has he?”
“Hasn’t told me . . . what?”
“I’m a vampire.”
I choke. “Excuse me, what?”
Laughing, Nythi scoots over and motions for me to join her.
That unexpected bombshell notwithstanding, I find myself walking towards the bed to do just that.
“I’m a vampire, as well as a goddess.” Her eyes roll upward, expression contemplative and gloating. “As well as an overall badass bitch.”
I fall onto the bed next to her, looking her over, as if that’ll end with some sign of her vampiric nature making itself known. “But—but . . .”
“Vampires are real. Many different variations of the species,” she says.
“But that means Ianthen is a-a—”
“My brother isn’t a vampire. I was turned into this.”
“Okay . . .” With a little shake of my head, I smile sheepishly at her and do my damned best to get my head back in the game. “Sorry. It just feels like everyday I get a hundred new facts shoved into my brain.”
She returns my grin and shifts to face me on the bed. “Understandable. Kind of comes with the whole ‘ancient being’ territory.”
Another brain melter: the otherworldly gorgeous female before me doesn’t look older than twenty-three, yet she’s over fourteen-millennia-old. “Sorry. My brain hurts sometimes.” We share another smile. “Especially right now. Something’s going on and no one would tell me what.” They rushed off without explanation, and I wasn’t able to find the God of Medicine when I went looking for him to ask him.
After that whole episode with Ianthen barging in while I was hugging Cyake. Inwardly, I cringe as I remember the look on his face. The obvious conclusion he came to. Not that he gave me a chance to explain myself. Not that you owe him an explanation anyway, a small voice reminds me. It’s none of his business who you hug, especially since it isn’t your business which nymph he’s fucking on any given night.
Something black and totally ugly blossoms to life within me at that thought.
Ianythi doesn’t seem surprised by my comment, but doesn’t offer any insight.
I decide to try asking her anyway. “Do you know what’s happening?”
“I do.”
When she doesn’t elaborate further, I blow out an exasperated breath. “But you aren’t going to tell me. Why?”
“My brother doesn’t want you to know until it’s all sorted out.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to be petty and ask her to refrain from mentioning her brother, but I bite back the ridiculous remark. “How do you know what your brother wants? He isn’t here.”
“Same way I can see everything that’s happening right now.” She points at her head.
“What does that even mean?”
“My twin and I have a connection. Most immortal siblings have one, but it’s especially powerful in twins, triplets, etcetera.”
“So let me get this straight. Whatever is happening right now, you can actually see it?” When she nods, I’m taken aback all over again. “So I’m guessing whatever it is isn’t that bad, since you’re sitting there all calm and shit.”
All I get is a shrug.
“Ugh! Come on.”
“I told you: my brother doesn’t want you to worry.”
Why on Earth those words send my heart diving into my stomach is beyond me. “That isn’t fair, you know? Especially if my friends are involved in any way.”
“Sorry.” Her expression makes it obvious that she really means it. “It’s the whole ‘you’re still human’ thing. No offense, but we have to be very careful with how much stress your mind is put through.”
“So you’re brother sent you here to watch over me and distract me.”
She smirks. “Something like that.”
“Not knowing is what’s stressful,” I grumble. Fuck this. Now, more than ever, my impatience for Nylicia to switch out my DNA is at an all-time high. Remaining human was okay when there was a possibility I wouldn’t be staying in this world; now that I am, being the outsider—the mortal—is getting fucking old. “All this waiting around is going to drive me nuts. You might as well distract me.”
The next grin Nythi sends my way is pure attagirl. “What would you like to do?”
“Mind telling me how you became a vampire?” I’m not really expecting her to answer, what with the constant, CIA-grade secrecy around here, so when she shrugs one shoulder, my attention is immediately rapt on her.
Eyes staring off into the distance, the moonlight glinting off that lush, navy-blue hair, she becomes lost in whatever images are going through her head. That stare of hers is so heavy, so downtrodden, that her reply comes at me like a punch aimed at my face. “My R’mann turned me into this.”
“You’re mated?” I cry.
“Yeah, I am.”
And that’s all I need to hear to pick up on the unsaid portion of that statement.
She is.
Meaning . . . “You’re stuck in a Fieren?” I whisper, my sternum cracking in half suddenly.
Another shrug. As if isn’t a big deal. Or just a fact of life she’s come to fully accept.
My voice remains nothing but a reedy whisper. “How long?”
“It happened when I was twenty-five.”
As the shock of that settles over me, I jump to my feet, too restless to remain seated. “Fourteen-thousand-frucking-years?!”
Nythi nods at me, and her calmness only breaks my heart further.
But why do I feel this way? Sure, she’s cool people, yet I’ve barely spent any time with her. I don’t really know her.
Why do I feel like it’s one of the girls confessing such a tragic thing to me?
“Where is the bastard?” I grit out.
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is he’s about to awaken soon.”
“Awaken?”
Those unholy white irises focus back on me. “He began hibernating shortly after it happened. At first it was only twenty years at a time. But that became longer and longer, until about two-thousand-years ago he hit full millennium status and began to awaken every thousand years. He’s due to rejoin the waking world any time now.”
You know, I think they have a point about the whole “how much a mortal mind can take” thing, because with each new thing I learn about them, my brain threatens to implode. “How have you survived this long?”
“There’s several theories. For one, he made me into a vampire, giving me the ability to feed despite the mating. The only downside is that each time I feed close to his awakening, he can feel it and track me down with it. Which is why I’m being extremely careful about feeding lately.”
“And two?”
Nythi stares at me, steady, calm—suddenly, it’s like a veil collapses from around her, a change so rapid that I stumble backwards in its wake.
As her blood seems to abandon her and she turns paler, her veins bleed purple-black, the flesh beneath her eyes bruising.
And those eyes . . . God, the whites of them darken with the same purplish color, interspersed with dark red. A mark bursts to life on the left side of her neck, a massive, gorgeous design that stretches from her jaw, down her neck, over her shoulder and her arm.
Silver-black and deep red lines.
Instead of looking frightening, she looks absolutely beautiful. A gothic version of herself.
“I’m the second vampire in all of creation.” Her fangs are so long now her lips are fuller and I have no problem seeing them as she speaks. “So I’m the second most powerful vampire of all time after Kain. Vedlyl thinks that helps with the whole fighting the mating thing.” Just as fast as it had come over her, she reverts to her usual self.
“Cain?”
“Yes. But with a K. Of course, with time, his name’s been misspelled and his actual legacy forgotten. The King of All Vampires.”
“B-But . . . as in the biblical . . .” I can’t even bring myself to finish the sentence.
“Yes,” she answers nonchalantly. “One and the same. Although he was adopted into Abel’s family. Not born. And, like I said, they left out the part where he was cursed to become a vampire after committing that murder.”
“Are you saying that humanity’s first murderer is real and that he . . . he . . .”
“Is my R’mann? Unfortunately for me, yes. That traitorous, vampiric bastard is. Well, okay, he isn’t a bastard, per say. His father Lucifer very much claimed him before Lilith and the kids were thrown out of Heaven, but you get the point.”
“L-Lucifer? Lilith? Dear God, how much of those religious texts are real?” The world spins around me a bit. Slightly dizzy, I stumble backwards, and end up sinking onto one of the massive, gold ottomans scattered throughout the room.
Nythi’s off the bed and kneeling in front of me in a flash. “Ah gods. I did it, didn’t I? I broke your brain. My Fort’em’s going to fucking kill me!”
“Nythi, I need . . .”
“What, Sol? What do you need? I’ll get you anything. Fuck, I’ll get Vedlyl!”
“A drink, Nythi. I think I need a freaking drink.”
-Queens Center Mall, Elmhurst, Queens, NY (USA)
IANTHEN
“You,” my best friend growls, and even without seeing him I can hear how lost he is to the change. To the violent bonding symptoms overcoming him. “You will be mine.”
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. The God of Fate is back and he’s not fucking around with this whole claiming thing.
“My . . . my R’ma. My mate.”
“N-no. Not you. Never you,” a hoarse, female whimper answers him.
“Yeesss. You will be mine,” Fate decrees, clearly not giving a fuck about his female’s wishes or desires.
I slam out of my wolf-form, willing on clothes, my eyes immediately meeting Dyletri’s wide ones. As Dyletri and I take off running, I hear Cyake’s female scream and begin fighting against him.
“Cyake!” Ismini cries out.
Sliding around the concrete pillar, I come face to face with the sight of them—
Holy . . . fucking . . . ohmyfuckinggods that’s Nylicia relative! There’s absolutely no way she isn’t.
The small female beats against Cyake, the sound of her hands breaking a loud crack. Cyake doesn’t even seem to notice, his glowing, metallic blue eyes fixed on her face.
A face that is almost identical to the Watcher’s.
“Cyake!” Dyletri and I shout, heading towards him. Ismini’s already there, seeming afraid to approach him.
She should be.
In the background, I swear I hear what sounds like Zen’s voice, but my priority is my best friend and the huge mistake he’s making. “You gotta let her go, dude!” I shout at Cy, even as that human with the lack of aura screams and cries and continues bashing him with her broken, fragile limbs. I try to reach for him.
That monstrous glare swings around in my direction, teeth snapping at me like he plans on ripping my arm straight off.
Baring my teeth, I get in his face, screaming at the top of my lungs. “Bro, you’re fucking hurting your female!”
It’s like I slugged him. His head jerks back, glowing blue eyes widening. Blinking as if coming out of a dream, he turns back to his female—
She lands another hit across his face, and the sound of her bones further shattering makes me sick to my stomach.
I’m not the only one. Expression stricken, Cyake shoots away from her, hands held out in her direction. “My female—”
“I’m not yours! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” she shouts at him, tears drenching her cheeks, face bright red.
She isn’t crying because of her injuries; she’s devastated that he of all beings claimed her.
A fact that isn’t lost on Cyake. The pain tears at him, twisting his expression, until he’s silently pleading with her.
And that’s when it hits me like a mountain landing on my head.
Fate is displaying emotion.
Fate cares about her pain.
“Let me heal you. Please,” he begs in that raspy, multi-toned voice.
She ignores his plea, running around him and not stopping until she’s against the concrete wall across from us. Slamming into it, cradling her broken hands to her chest, she slides to the floor, curling up into a ball.
Shaking back and forth, she chants, “not you, never you”.
“Female,” Cyake whispers, sounding wretched and destroyed.
My eyes flicker in his direction at the change in his voice—his own have returned to their golden shade, but that doesn’t change anything.
Fate took full control of him. The die has been cast. Their story has been set in stone. That female that so obviously despises my best friend will one day be his, whether she wants it or not.
Which she clearly doesn’t.
What the hell did Cyake ever do to her? Does he even know her? I don’t. Turning back to her, I’m struck anew at the resemblance to Nylicia.
“Please. Let him heal you. He’s the only one here that can,” Dyletri says softly.
“Keep him away from me!” the distraught human shouts.
A tall, blonde male appears next to her out of nowhere, his light blues eyes widening at the sight of her. “Spari!” he cries, kneeling before her, his aura flaring with his emotions.
I recognize him. That’s Dagobert, the current leader of the Vy’shis.
“Get the fuck away from her.” My best friend starts running past me.
How I manage to grab him in time is beyond me.
Of course, he starts struggling against me immediately.
“What the fuck is your problem? Did you fucking do this to her?” Dagobert demands, unholy rage bleeding into his eyes.
“He claimed me, Dago. Fate fucking claimed me,” Spari cries, more tears leaking down her cheeks.
“What the fuck?” Dago shouts, and in that one scream is all the 4-1-1 we’d ever need. His animosity can only mean one thing.
He has feelings for the girl.
And that’s just the kind of spark needed to make my best friend go nuclear.
Right as he breaks free of my hold, Dyletri appears in front of him, arms wrapped tight around all that struggling insanity. Cyake’s body slams back into mine and I join in the safety-hold, putting all my weight into helping Dy keep this enraged Hyren from attacking the Vy’shi leader and starting a war.
Although, guessing on that male’s feelings towards Cyake’s mate, we’re probably heading in that direction no matter what we do.
“Primal god or not, I’m going to fucking kill you,” Dagobert grits out, sounding more animal than sentient being.
Of course, Cyake goes berserk.
“Dude!” I cry over the mass of straining body limbs. “You need to shut the fuck up if you want to live. He’ll fucking end you with a single word!”
The air around us becomes nothing but insane pressure and I don’t need to look at Cy’s face to know the powers of Fate have returned. “As I’m about to do—”
“Dago, get me out of here! Please!”
Spari’s cry must get through to Dago, because Cyake screams, “No!”, and the air shifts as they both disappear. “Gods damn it, you both held me back while he took her away!”
“And you need to fucking breathe and think straight!” I let him go at the same time Dyletri does. “That female clearly hates you.”
/>
“But why?” Eyes once again golden and full of agony find mine. “I’ve never even met her. Why does she hate me so much?”
Chapter 18
IANTHEN
A fter millenia of relative “peace”, I have to admit, the crazy shit going down is starting to get to me.
Fuck. I think it’s starting to get to us all.
Cyake’s in his room, pounding back bottle after bottle of Aeleth, clearly determined to find a black hole of oblivion to lose himself in.
Hell, when I left him, he was also hollering for both Vedlyl and his brothers at the top of his lungs, so I’m pretty sure he’s determined to hook himself up to an IV of the stuff.
It’s my duty as his best friend to stick by his side, but ever since realizing Zen took Eve from the parking lot while everything went down, my main priority’s been about finding Sol. I have to come clean about what happened.
To top it off, my twin slammed shut the connection between us, leaving me blind as to what’s going on as she watches Sol.
Hence, my rushing down the hall leading to the room Sol claimed for herself.
“Whaaaa . . . No way! Whaddya mean he-he—“ A loud, feminine hiccup echoes down the hall.
I recognize that little hitch in breath. Recognize that voice, too.
Dematerializing the rest of the way, I reform before the dark wood doors leading into Sol’s room.
“‘Etotallydid! Ran out buck naked while mom chased him,” my clearly drunk sister cries out.
What the hell are those two up to?
Opening the doors and a single glimpse inside answers that question real quick.
Both females throw their heads back, roaring with laughter, my sister rolling on the floor.
Sol, sloshing drink in hand, struggles to hold onto a large, gold ottoman, her sea legs obviously failing her although there’s no ocean in sight.
My nostrils flare as I inhale the slightly spicy, familiar scent in the room. “What the fuck?” I snap, heading straight for Sol. “You gave a mortal Laussane?”
Soleria’s eyes widen at my approach and she scrambles off the couch, cradling the glass as if it’s her baby.
Blood Drenched Conquest (Ryze Book 3) Page 16
