by E. M. Knight
She stands and draws a strand of hair out of her face. “One done,” she says. “Never to trouble me again.”
Her coterie of guards snickers.
She turns her attention to the woman. “My dear, you’re in luck,” she says. “You get a few more minutes on this earth while I recover my strength.”
I see it as my chance. If I can save Patricia… if I can make a difference…
“Morgan, you mustn’t do this!” I stop fighting the collar around my neck—it’s not like I can do anything against it. “Think of the consequences! You speak of killing vampires as the greatest crime—surely, this is worse! A soul is not meant to be separated from a body. Not while still remaining on this earth! Please, please, don’t mar your rule by doing something while lost in the grips of madness!”
She barely looks at me. “Madness?” She scoffs. “No, Phillip. This isn’t madness. Madness would be allowing the seed of rebellion to linger. You think I can turn a blind eye when four of my guards are dead? You think I can sit on my throne and do nothing while filthy vampires such as these seek to undermine everything I have? Everything that we’ve built?”
“You’re not listening to yourself!” I cry. “You feel their strength. You know Patricia’s never been powerful enough to challenge one of your personal guard. How would she or Jacob have killed them? Why would they kill them?”
“Because they’re filth,” she spits. “Because they were humiliated by my guards in front of the entire assembly. Because in the fires that you and my other son began, in the mayhem and confusion, they thought they could have their revenge! How they did it, I don’t know. I don’t care to know. Maybe they took them by surprise. Maybe—”
“Andrey would never have been taken by surprise.”
“SILENCE!” she screams. “Silence! Don’t you dare talk about Andrey. Never again—never again will you speak his name to me. Or else… or else…” she’s starting to sound hysterical now, “…or else you’ll end up in a painting on the castle wall, too!”
One of the new guards gasps. Mother turns on him in a blind rage.
“You don’t think it’s within my right to do?” she demands. “You don’t think that I have absolute rule in The Haven?”
“No, my Queen. You do, my Queen. Forgive me, my Queen.”
The apology seems to appease her. She takes a few deep breaths to compose herself.
Then she addresses me again in a sweet voice. “My son,” she says. She walks toward me. “My sweet, precious, youngest son. Don’t you know how hard it’s been for me to watch you toil away as a result of your… choice? Don’t you know how hard it’s been for me to see Raul and James rise up above you, when you were the one always gifted with such potential?” She touches my cheek.
I stare into her eyes, unflinching.
“You know what I speak of,” she tells me softly. “You were always the intelligent one. You sensed the same darkness inside you that I did when you were made. You knew it could overtake you, if you only let it, and you knew that its power would be unrivalled by any in our coven. You knew that had you embraced it, you would have risen in power, and, eventually, stood above even me.”
The silence in the cave is palpable. Each one of the guards is listening to his Queen with bated breath.
“Yes, Mother. I knew,” I say. That is my greatest secret—that I can become the strongest of all.
And now it’s out in the open.
“But you rejected it,” she says. “You rejected it, because of your love for me.” She wipes away a fake tear. “You did not want to challenge my rule. Why, then, do you do it now?”
“I made the choice for myself, not for you,” I tell her. “And yes, I loved you once, as a child loves either of his parents. But who you’ve become today is a far cry from the woman who raised me.”
She smiles in a cruel way. “You think your words hurt me.”
“I don’t resort to holding my sons hostage,” I challenge, “when things don’t go my way.”
She gives a flippant little laugh. Then she directs her gaze at Patricia, still being held on the floor.
“You want to save her?” she asks. “You can. I’ll tell you how.” She leans in, and whispers in my ear, “Feed. Feed, and embrace who you are meant to be.”
She turns away and clasps her hands. “Bring her,” she tells Smithson.
The Commander immediately retreats into the far reaches of the cavern. I hear a door open. And right away comes the fresh scent of human blood.
Smithson pushes a girl into our midst. She’s bound, gagged, and blindfolded.
It’s April.
“I’ll leave you alone with her,” Mother says. She releases the collar around my neck. I stagger down. “Feed, and I’ll spare the vampire’s life. We both know that it’s much more valuable than that of a human’s.”
On that note, Mother walks out the door, trailed by her guards. They drag Patricia with them.
April is shaking. She’s in very rough shape. I can’t imagine the horrors my Mother must have inflicted upon her.
“You wouldn’t,” she whispers. “Would you?”
Chapter Two
ELEIRA
I sit in the back of the plane, huddled beneath a blanket, holding Raul’s hand.
He’s turned the autopilot on and come out to see me. I’ve been trying my best to suppress the vampiric urges roiling inside.
It’s been hard. Very, very, hard. With our two prisoners, James and Victoria, sitting bound in silver not more than twenty feet away, the urge to feed on them comes and goes in ravenous spikes.
So far, I’ve managed to fight it down. I suspect the only reason I’m capable of doing so is that I’m wearing the ring Raul gave me.
“It’ll become easier,” he promises. “Once we get to The Haven, you’ll get to feed from the blood banks. You won’t need to kill anyone.”
I nod, very stiffly. The vampire inside me wants to kill. It craves the hunt.
I’m terrified of letting Raul, or anybody else, know.
I draw into myself even more to help contain the struggle.
My eyes go to the front of the plane. James is reclined in his seat, staring despondently at the ceiling. Victoria is as tight as a compressed spring beside him.
“Why do I want their blood?” I whisper. “Vampires aren’t supposed to lust that way for each other. Are they?”
Raul coughs and tightens his hand around mine. “You’re different,” he says. “We knew that from the start.” He traces the ring. “This helps. Doesn’t it?”
I swallow and nod. I keep my breathing very shallow. I’m afraid of catching either James’s or Victoria’s scent.
“You’re different,” Victoria suddenly mocks. “Oh, how naïve the both of you are.”
Raul stiffens as soon as he hears her speak.
“You’re a witch,” Victoria continues. “And your transformation has been prompted by the blood of one infused with the strength of The Ancient. No wonder you crave vampiric blood. No wonder you want to kill.” She sticks her neck out. “So come on, little vampire. Come here. Do what you were meant to do. Suck me dry. Feed the darkness growing inside you.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Raul growls. He stands up. “I can shut her up if you need me to. Just say the word.”
“No,” I motion him down. “She can taunt me all she wants. It won’t make a difference.”
If anything, resisting will show Raul my resolve.
“It’s too bad you’re unwilling,” Victoria continues. “I would make the most scrumptious feast. I’m sure of it.”
James’s eyes pop open. “You’re disturbing my rest,” he tells her. “Shut it.”
Victoria gasps in indignation. I’ve only been a vampire for a little while, but even I can tell how the reprimand goes against the hierarchy of power on the plane.
Victoria is stronger than James, who is stronger—slightly—than Raul.
But I am the most powerful vampire here. That terri
fies me.
I pull the blanket tighter around me and try to become as small as possible.
“If either of you bug her while I’m gone,” Raul says as he walks to the cockpit, “the silver sacks are going right back over your heads.”
Victoria gives him a nasty glare but doesn’t say a word. James simply offers a resigned shrug.
I’m left alone with my own thoughts. Time slows to a standstill. Only the constant hum of the plane’s engines keeps me company.
In short order, I find myself drifting off. I didn’t know vampires needed to sleep. In fact, I’m not actually sleepy, but my mind seems to be slowing down. The worries running through it no longer seem so prevalent.
Victoria’s voice makes me perk up.
“You’re not falling asleep. You’re going hypo.”
I look at her. “Excuse me?”
“Hypo. Like a diabetic. Low blood sugar? Ever heard of it?”
“Of course I’ve heard of it—” I start to say—and then stop short.
Victoria hasn’t actually opened her mouth.
I stare at the blonde vampire.
She gives a very satisfied grin.
“My blood was the first you tasted.” Her voice sounds in my head, but she’s not actually speaking! “You and I have a unique connection now.”
My eyes grow wide.
“Can you read my thoughts?” I wonder.
She gives the most miniscule smile. Then, in contradiction, she shakes her head.
“Not quite,” she tells me, again without speaking. “But you and I can communicate through a telepathic link.” She glances at James beside her. “Don’t tell this one. He won’t take it too well.”
I stare at her. “Do all vampires have this trait?”
Victoria laughs out loud. “Of course not,” she says, this time using her actual voice. “We are special. But… most vampires also kill the one they first feed on.”
“But I didn’t kill you,” I whisper.
“No,” she say. “You did not.”
James looks at us, considering... but doesn’t say a word.
“That’s why you want to now,” she adds.
I struggle against the impulse she’s trying to goad out of me.
“Safer to speak this way.”
“Who says I want to speak with you?” I counter.
“You have questions only I can answer.”
I can’t deny that.
“We are not so different, Eleira.” She takes a breath. “I did not want to be a vampire when I was turned, either.”
I can’t help my shock.
She continues: “I was also part of a line of witches. That is why our connection exists. Vampires killed my twin. She was the one they wanted. Not me.”
“You have The Spark?”
She doesn’t answer.
“Why do you want me to kill you?” I ask. “Why do you taunt me when you know what I can do?”
She shakes her head. I feel a snap, and suddenly the link between us is no more.
“Hello?” I venture.
There’s no reply.
I try to catch the strand in my mind that alerted me to her presence... and find it entirely missing.
Victoria flashes the thinnest grin before closing her eyes.
I make an annoyed sound with my throat and turn away. If she can cut off the connection then so can I.
… I hope. I truly hate the idea of her having unfettered access to my head.
Some hours later, the plane starts to descend. We drop below the cloud cover. I look out my window and see the dense redwoods of the California forest.
Home. I think. But unlike I’ve ever known it.
I keep looking out the window until we land. With an aerial view of the forest, I can’t help but wonder where The Haven would be inside it. Can I see it from the Outside, now that I’m a vampire? Or is it just as invisible to me as before?
Raul emerges from the cockpit. “Get up,” he barks at James and Victoria. “And behave yourselves. You’re on my territories now.”
James rolls his eyes and gives a lazy smile. He raises his bound wrists to Raul. “You might as well release me and get it over with,” he says. “We both know Mother won’t stand for seeing her eldest in chains.”
“After she finds out all that her eldest did,” Raul replies with a biting look, “she can decide what to do. Let’s go.”
“No point dragging this out,” Victoria mutters. She stands after Raul eases her chains. James follows suit.
Raul turns his head away from them to address me. “You wait here,” he begins. “I’ll—”
But the moment he diverts his attention from the prisoners, a look passes between the two of them. Victoria reaches into her jacket and pulls out the thinnest silver stiletto. I have no idea how she smuggled it on board.
“WATCH OUT!” I scream.
My cry gives Raul just enough time to twist back. Victoria’s stab, aimed at his heart, instead glazes against the side of his ribs.
Raul roars and catches Victoria’s arm. He torques it into an awkward position that makes her drop the weapon. But James is right there. He swoops down to pick it up—
I’m out of my seat and on him in an instant. I don’t remember making the conscious choice to do so. It just happened. With Raul in danger, my instincts roar to life.
I crash with James into the plane’s aluminum wall. He snarls at me, but I pin him there easily. He tries to fight. My hand lashes out and catches him by the throat. I feel the call of blood. His blood. I feel it pulsing through the heavy veins in his neck.
I could crush him. The thought is distant, foreign, and strange. It’s unlike me. It’s laced with such malice and hate and, above all, desire…
If I but squeeze, I could break his windpipe and end his life.
Someone grips my shoulder. I hiss and jerk free. The grip tightens, and Raul turns me to him.
“Eleira,” he says. He’s looking at me with pleading eyes. “Don’t.”
His voice brings me back to myself. I look down at my arm, see the way my fingers are tightened around James’s throat. I see the fear in the other vampire’s eyes, the abject horror swimming behind his irises that he’s doing his best to hide.
It’s the same sort of fear I felt when James first attacked me in the atrium. Back when I was first made a prisoner of the Soren brothers.
With a startled gasp, I let James go. There’s a heavy dent in the aluminum wall of the plane where we’d hit.
James falls to his knees. He sucks in air and looks at me as if I’m some feral beast.
Raul gently brings me into him. His arms wrap around my body. He holds me tight.
Over his shoulder, I see Victoria struggling with that velvet, silver-lined bag over her head. When did Raul manage to get that on? It feels like only seconds have passed…
“You blacked out,” Raul whispers, as if sensing my thoughts. “The bloodlust broke through.”
“Because you were in danger,” I say without thinking.
“Eleira,” he holds me by the shoulders and looks into my eyes. “I won’t lie and say it’ll get easier from here. But you have to control it. Do you understand?”
I stare right back at him. Confusion and… anger…? swirl inside me. I just saved his life, and he wants to lecture me?
I try to twist out of his grip. He doesn’t let me go.
“Promise me,” he says. “Promise me you’ll control it in The Haven.”
I feel that anger rising. I try to push it down, but it’s like a pot of boiling water. The only way to get rid of it is to stop feeding it heat… and my raging emotions are simply adding to the fire.
“I…” I start to say. But the voice that comes from my lips is not my own. It’s cruel and savage and threatening.
It’s the voice of the vampire borne within me. It’s full of anger and hatred. I’ve never been an angry person, and to feel the emotion so acute inside me, it frightens me.
It takes all
the willpower I possess, but I temper it. I speak with my regular inflection.
“I’ll… I’ll control it.”
“Good.” Just like that, Raul releases me. He bends down and offers his brother a hand. I stare as Raul helps James up.
What the…?
“I was trying to help.” James says to me grudgingly. “To get the weapon away from Victoria.”
I can’t help the incredulous scoff from coming out.
But Raul only nods. “We might plot and bicker,” he says. “But two vampires of The Haven would never kill each other.”
Yet even as he says that, a haunted look passes through his eyes.
“Especially not anywhere near our coven’s territories,” James adds. He looks at the blonde woman twitching on the floor. “She was a fool for trying an attack.”
My mouth works, but no words come out. Is Raul just going to stand there and accept that for an explanation?
“I saw the look that passed between you and her before she drew the knife!” I accuse James.
“You misread it. I was telling her not to do anything stupid.”
“Liar!” I snarl. Tendrils of that ever-present anger rise from my gut. “I know what you’re capable of! You’d stop at nothing to get ahead!”
“She’s known me for a few weeks and already has such a firm opinion,” James notes to his brother.
Raul gives a sour chuckle.
“I can’t believe this,” I say. “Raul, did you not see what just happened? She—“I point at Victoria, “—tried to kill you. Your brother helped her! If it wasn’t for me—“
“Enough.” Raul cuts me off. Something in his voice slices right through the hierarchical vampire presence that I naturally exert over him. “That’s enough, Eleira. I want you to trust me on this.”
Am I going crazy? None of this is making any sense! Why is Raul reacting so… passively? Why am I being framed as the bad guy?
Raul gives me a level look. “We’re going to deplane now,” he says. “I’ll take Victoria. James will come next. Eleira, you wait here until I return.”
“No!” I say. “Why am I to be left behind?”
“It’s for your safety,” Raul says. He takes my arm and pulls me aside. He whispers in my ear, “Mother knows I brought you back. But she doesn’t know how powerful you are yet. She’s waiting for us out there. She’ll be able to sense your power from a distance—but she doesn’t know it’s yours. I don’t know how she’ll react when she discovers it’s actually you. Victoria already surpasses her in strength. The Queen won’t like that. But bringing two vampires, both stronger than her, home with me? Let’s just say it makes for an unpredictable situation.”
