The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of Ash

by E. M. Knight

  The deference these vampires give Riyu is strange. He’s so weak. But they obviously respect his knowledge of magic.

  After hours and hours of walking, we squeeze through a narrow chasm, and I find myself in…

  A cavern that looks exactly like the one where we first arrived.

  It’s identical. Down to the very last fleck of crystal on the ground, it’s the same.

  I spin around in confusion. Have we turned around? No, we only went straight. We only went one way.

  Riyu walks to the middle of the cavern. The other vampires form a tight circle around him. No words amongst us are spoken as Riyu begins to chant in that other-worldly tongue.

  Another burst of light, another blue sphere. Riyu brings it close to the ground. The spinning globe does not take away the light in here. If anything, it seems to make the cavern glow brighter.

  “This time,” Dagan says, appearing behind me. “You go first.”

  He shoves me through the portal.

  Pain such as I’ve never known takes me. It’s worse than silver, worse than torture, worse than anything I’ve ever experienced in my existence. Coming into the Paths, the pressure was external, pressing into me. That at least made it bearable.

  Coming out, going through the portal this way, it’s all from within, like a foreign energy fighting to get out. My body feels like it’s going to explode. Like my skin will rupture, and I will combust.

  A burst of blistering light, then heat, then the coldest cold I’ve ever known takes hold of me. Then my feet hit solid ground, and I crumble down, gasping for breath, my knees unable to hold me.

  “You disappoint me, son,” a grim voice says above my head.

  I crane my neck up, and stare at the visage of my Father.

  “A member of the Inner Circle needs to be strong. He needs to be mighty.” My Father starts circling me. “He cannot be seen grovelling…” Father plants a foot between my shoulder blades and applies pressure, “on the ground, like a pathetic worm!”

  The sound of more feet landing comes. From the corners of my vision I see the vampires of my company stream out of the portal. They land right on their feet, none showing any ill-effects, and stream into formation by the far wall.

  Military precision, I think.

  “Good,” Father says. “The rest have arrived.”

  Dagan comes through the portal last. He offers the King a respectful salute.

  “You’ve brought my son back. Was the rest of the mission a success?”

  “We ran into no problems,” Dagan answers. He goes to one knee, takes the amulet off, and offers it to my Father.

  Father’s cascade of chains and rings rattle as he takes it from the larger vampire. It quickly disappears in one of his robe pockets.

  I watch all that with half a mind, because, in truth, most of my attention is stolen by the vampires on the far wall.

  I can feel their true strength.

  The moment they came through the portal, I felt it. They’re not weaker than I am—not at all.

  They are, each one, many, many times stronger than I.

  How…?

  It makes no sense. A vampire’s strength cannot simply change. And I knew their strength before, I felt their weakness, I spent time in their company!

  Yet awareness of their new, collective strength crashes into me like a tidal wave. Some catch me looking. A few sneer.

  One, so boyish in appearance that he might be confused for a woman, offers an apologetic shrug.

  Dagan grabs me and hauls me to my feet. Embarrassment streams through me at being manhandled in front of my Father. I push off and steady myself.

  If only I could somehow steady the turbulent thoughts in my mind.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Dagan says. Even his strength has expanded. He’s bigger, more powerful, more forceful than before. He looks at his retinue. “You are wondering… how.”

  Father chuckles.

  Dagan beckons for Riyu. Out of all the vampires, only his strength is unaltered.

  Yet the stronger vampires regard him with reverence nonetheless.

  “The King and I thought it prudent—” Dagan tilts his head to my Father, “—for us to take precautions before approaching The Haven. Riyu cast a spell on each of us that cloaked our strength.

  “Because otherwise, how could we have gotten so close to your coven without arousing attention?”

  Suddenly it all makes sense. Cloaking. That’s why I couldn’t exert control over any of them when Dagan left us alone in the caves.

  “You’ve all done your duty,” Father says. “Go and enjoy the reward given to those who please me. Each of you will feast on a limitless supply of blood. And, at the end… you will be given a sip from the chalice.”

  On that pronouncement, a raw hunger, a blistering excitement shines in the eyes of the vampires by the wall. I’m not immune. I feel it, too.

  The chalice. The one Victoria told me of, the one that spreads The Ancient’s power.

  Father looks at me. He sees my greed. “Not you, son,” he tells me.

  That comes as no surprise. The fact that I so openly displayed my eagerness does.

  The vampires file out of the chamber we’re in. Riyu is the last to leave. He stops and casts one look over his shoulder at me.

  Then he’s gone.

  But in that split-second, I catch a resemblance I never noticed before.

  He looks like Father.

  “It seems you have an admirer,” the King says softly.

  I still the features on my face and don’t react to the provocation.

  Father starts to walk away. “Come with me.”

  I follow him through a series of empty halls. A set of doors lead into the throne room. Shivers crawl up my spine from my last memories of the place.

  He almost killed me here. This is where Victoria saved my life.

  I hide my discomfort. Father continues to walk.

  We go through another set of doors. The halls become tighter. Father takes a turn, and then one more, and another…

  And suddenly I find myself standing in front of the doors that lead to the treasure vault.

  I misplace a step. Father looks at me. “Something wrong?” he asks, too casually.

  “No,” I choke. I can all but feel the invisible noose is being lowered around my neck.

  “Good. There’s something in here—” he nods ahead, “—that I want you to see.”

  I swallow my sudden fear and walk with him into the room.

  It’s exactly as it was when I was last here: the fallen chalices on the floor; all the spilled blood; the destruction from the fight between me and Eleira and Victoria and Raul…

  “Nobody has been allowed in since your escape.”

  I almost choke. The noose is getting tighter. “It wasn’t an escape. It was an ambush.”

  “You and Victoria tried to betray me.” Father kneels down and touches the dried blood on the floor. He brings it to his lips.

  “This…” he tells me slowly, after tasting it, “…is the blood of a great witch.”

  He surges up, and before I know it, his hand is around my throat, the other on my chest, just above my heart. His claws extend and he digs through my shirt. There is deep-set fury in his eyes.

  “You brought her here!” he rages at me. “You brought the witch, you had her under my nose, and you did not give her to me! After I offered you the gift of sanctuary! After I spared your pathetic, miserable life! You are a traitor!”

  His hand crushes my windpipe. I cannot speak.

  “Well?” he brings his face closer. “What do you have to say? Think carefully before you speak. Your precious Victoria is not here to protect you.”

  I choke out a single gasp.

  He turns an ear to me and hisses, “Yes?”

  “I…”

  Whatever remaining strength I have is being sapped from my body. I’m fading. Under Father’s strength I am nothing. I hate this feeling, I hate how patheti
c it is, how damn pitiful it makes me feel…

  “It was betrayal,” Father growls, tightening his grip over my heart. “And I only brought you back to me for one thing.”

  He lets go, and the sudden release makes me stagger and fall.

  “So that I could kill you myself.”

  Just as he’s about to attack, a female voice from the background stops him.

  “I would not be so hasty about ending this one’s life if I were you, my King.”

  Father freezes. I look past him and see a beautiful raven-haired woman flow into the room.

  A gown of the deepest maroon hugs her curves, and then flows out behind her in a long train glittering with jewels. Her face is painted with smoky makeup, emphasizing her dark, dark eyes against the pale complexion. She’s stunning, and, in short—just my type.

  She comes up to my Father’s side and places an arm around his back. He grabs her and pulls her to him, kissing her passionately.

  An ugly spark of jealousy rears inside of me at the ostentatious display.

  When he lets go, she turns to me. Pity shows in her eyes.

  In that moment, such a violent torrent of anger surges inside me that I nearly lash out and attack Father. I know full well I would lose.

  But pity from a beautiful woman is amongst the most humiliating feelings that I know.

  “Why do you toy with him so, my King?” she asks. “The vampire who spoke at his induction was right. He has your bloodline. In it, there is strength.”

  “Strength to defy me,” Father says.

  “Look at him.” She motions at me. “He is proud. You shame him and expect respect in return?”

  “He is too arrogant. Such arrogance—”

  “—is mirrored in you, my love.” The unnamed woman smiles sweetly at him. “Could you blame James for his behavior, given the circumstances of his upbringing?” She lowers her voice. “He’s been corrupted by your first wife. There was a reason you left her for me.”

  “Don’t speak of such things in front of the boy.”

  I cringe at being referred to as ‘boy.’

  The beautiful woman offers me her hand. “Let me help you up.”

  I swat it away imperiously. “I don’t need your help.”

  “But you are in need of my protection.” She glances around her. “Had I not stepped in, your blood would already be on these walls.”

  I cast a surreptitious look at my Father. His face is blank.

  “I’m sure,” the woman continues, “that you had reasons for hiding the witch from the King. So tell us, while your ruler is in an indulgent mood…” she strokes his arm, “…what that was.”

  “I brought Eleira here, it’s true,” I say. “But she was still human. The transformation had not yet taken her. All this—” I gesture at the cups lying scattered on the floor, “—was meant to expedite the process. I wanted to present her to the King when she was ready. As both a powerful witch and a vampire, that he could do with as he pleased.”

  “And yet you failed,” Father says in a low voice.

  “She… overwhelmed us with her strength,” I admit. “Neither Victoria nor I thought the ceremony would accelerate her transformation so much.”

  “She was alone?” Father asks. There’s a dangerous current in his voice.

  I eye the fourth chalice on the floor and decide to offer the absolute truth. “Raul was here, too. I captured him when he came for Eleira.”

  Father’s eyes widen with sudden fury. “YOU BROUGHT MY SECOND SON TO ME,” he screams, “AND YOU LET HIM ESCAPE?”

  “Shh, shh,” the woman coos. “Don’t get angry.”

  “To hell with that!” Father flings her off. He stalks towards me. “You,” he says, “do not deserve to leave here with your life.” He grabs me by the throat and hauls me up, then pins me to the wall. He takes a dagger from his robes.

  The woman runs up to him and throws her full weight onto his arm. “No!” she pleads. “Do not kill him! Do not waste his potential! Take him prisoner, bind him, shackle him, but let him live!”

  “Why should I?” Father’s grip tightens on the dagger held at my breastplate. The point presses into me.

  “He knows things,” the woman exclaims. “About The Haven. About your first wife. He can offer information that we won’t get from anybody else!”

  Father throws me down. He kicks me in the face. I taste blood. I try to fight him, but I’m no match. He uses the Mind Gift to keep me on the floor. The telekinetic force binds me. I cannot strike against him no matter how much I want to.

  He continues his attack. Kicks rain down on me from all sides. All I manage to do is curl up in a pathetic ball and take the abuse. He’s yelling and screaming obscenities as he beats me to a bloody pulp.

  Finally he tires out. I look up in a daze.

  “Take him to the prisoner’s quarters,” he commands. “Bind him in chains. He’ll be given a chance to redeem himself…” the King seizes my chin and forces me to look at him, “…after he’s been sufficiently tortured.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  RAUL

  Days pass with Mother locked in her room. After news of Bradley’s death emerged, an eerie type of tension descended over The Haven.

  Vampires have started seeking me out to try to understand what’s happening. Mother’s seal of all the exits and entrances makes them uneasy. They feel trapped, and, for the first time in our existence, uncertain about the mental stability of their Queen.

  Eleira, the only one of us viewed as an “Outsider” has been more or less shunned by all the other vampires here.

  “I don’t understand,” she tells me. “Morgan told me I have three days to decide. But when I go to her she won’t open the doors.”

  “You’re not the only one getting that reception,” I mutter. “Come here, look at this.”

  She walks over to my desk. The charts I’ve been pouring over are still laid out. Constellations, astrological signs, everything that points to the succession.

  “Do you really believe in this stuff?” Eleira asks. “Seeing the future in the stars? I always thought it was kind of… hocus pocus.”

  “When you have the assurance of living for centuries, you see patterns emerge. The stars don’t decide our fates. But knowing what’s going on in the heavens gives insight into what might happen on earth.”

  I sweep a hand over the chart that’s taking up the most space on my desk. “As vampires we have a particular advantage in studying the night sky. We are only awake when the stars shine. They are a part of us, as essential to our wellbeing as the sun and vitamin D are to humans. These charts, also—” I glance at Eleira, “—told us of your birth. So you can’t deny their power.”

  Eleira studies the intricate symbols overlaid on the canvas. “I can’t make heads or tails of it,” she mumbles. Then she shifts her gaze to me, eyes afire. “You can teach me! Can’t you?”

  For a second I’m taken aback by her interest. Then an easy smile spreads across my face. “I would love to.”

  I walk around the table so that I’m standing behind her. She doesn’t move. I take one of her hands and draw it along a celestial line. “This one,” I say softly, taking advantage of the moment to be close to her, to breathe in her delicious scent, “is called the Nocturna Animalia constellation. It’s Latin for ‘Creature of the Night.’ Humans have never charted it. It is not important to them. But it is to us. When we watch the shifts over centuries…”

  “Yes?” Eleira breathes, her voice soft and low.

  I find my throat suddenly constricted. I have to clear it before trying again. “When we watch over centuries…”

  Eleira turns her body and looks at me. Her pupils have widened. There’s a flush in her cheeks.

  She is so beautiful.

  “Yes?” she presses. “What happens when you watch them?”

  “I…”

  My mind ceases to work. I’m lost in her amazing eyes. I start lowering my head, wanting to kiss her, n
eeding to taste her lips.

  Her eyes drift shut as she waits for my kiss.

  We only get a half-second of contact when a loud crash from the library in the opposing room sounds. Eleira gasps and pulls away.

  I curse inwardly.

  “I’m all right, I’m okay!” Phillip calls, oblivious to what he’d interrupted.

  I grind my teeth and share a sympathetic look with Eleira. Then we both go to check on my brother.

  He’s lost somewhere beneath a huge pile of books that has just come tumbling down on top of him from a great shelf. Only his head pokes out, his glasses askew.

  “Well, that explains the noise,” Eleira says, trying to stifle a giggle.

  I cross my arms and stare. “Aren’t you supposed to be more fleet of foot,” I deadpan, “given that you’re a vampire?”

  Phillip gives a cheeky grin.

  “And why are you wearing glasses again?” I continue. “You’ve fed. Your vision should be perfect.”

  “They contribute to my look,” Phillip says idealistically. “Besides, after wearing them so long, I feel naked without.” He taps the lenses. “I replaced prescription glass with regular.”

  “Charming,” I rib. “You’re going to have to put all those books back, too.” Eleira and I walk over and help him up. “How’d you manage this disaster anyway?” I look at the railed ladder on the far side of the room. “I had that installed for a reason.”

  “A book caught my eye on the top shelf.” Phillip glances up. “I didn’t have time to go for the ladder.”

  “And look what happened when you decided to climb on your own. Did you get what you were searching for, at least?”

  “Yes,” he tells me. “And Eleira—this book pertains to you.”

  “Really?” she asks. “How?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  We return to my study. Phillip lays the book on the desk. It’s covered in dark, flaking leather. It looks old.

  There’s no title. Nothing at all is imprinted on its front, back, or spine.

  For a second, I get a sense of a menacing power held inside.

  “Ready?” Phillip asks.

  “It’s just a book,” I bluff. “There’s nothing to get ready for.”