by Kat Cotton
The King gave that chilling laugh.
Then he zapped his energy at Kisho again. Kisho blocked it without firing it back, and the two of them became locked together like that. Zapping and blocking. The entire staircase became a rainbow of light.
If it hadn’t been so horrific, it would’ve been beautiful to watch.
Kisho maintained the shield, but he needed to do more than just hold on. He needed to throw that power back at the King.
Nic had seemed to do that so easily, but Kisho couldn’t.
I knew what Kisho needed. That anger. He needed to dig deep inside him and be prepared to really kill his father. Defensive play didn’t cut it. Also, he needed to attack from the King’s right side. The blind side. I’d told him that.
The shower of light continued between them. The air filled with a low buzz.
A ray of light flew through the room, hit the old chandelier and sent a shower of glass fragments cascading down.
I covered my head. That looked deadly.
The King backed up a few steps and hurled another blaze of blue light at Kisho.
The shimmering bubble wavered, almost breaking.
Kisho recoiled. He’d been struck. That light had broken through the shield.
I bit my finger, not wanting to scream out.
Surely Kisho would fall. He’d be down and weakened.
No, he steadied himself, wincing but okay. His shield must’ve been strong enough to take some of the impact.
“You’re weakening,” the King said.
Kisho stood up straighter. “Bring it on,” he said. “I’m strong enough.”
I hoped that wasn’t just talking big.
I wanted to gather all my strength and send it to him. I just wasn’t sure how to do that. I hated standing around, watching them fight. There had to be more I could do, something to help Kisho. Maybe if I ran out into the open, I could take some of the King’s firepower. That might weaken him. Surely if maintaining that shield zapped Kisho’s strength, then using all that power had to drain the King as well.
The King fired at Kisho again. Kisho stood firm, but again, the shield wavered.
I gulped as Kisho’s face twisted. He hadn’t been so lucky that time.
I needed to do it. Even for Kisho, it seemed a huge sacrifice, but maybe it would give Kisho time to regroup. If I could buy him a little time, the pain would be worth it.
“Hey, King!” I yelled, running out into the open. “Think you’re a big hero? You’re not such a tough guy.”
“Clem!” Kisho screamed.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “The old geezer isn’t as strong as he looks.” That was a total lie, but I hoped it would reassure him.
The King turned to face me. “Quiet, you measly siren. Nymph. Harpy.”
Huh? What had he called me? He spat those words at me but I didn’t have time to question it, because the surge of blue shot down the stairs. I flinched, ready to take the pain.
Before the King’s shot could strike me, something slammed me into the carpet. Damn. I’d end up with fatal carpet burns, the way this fight was going. Already, most of my body was grazed.
Vlad.
“Don’t be a hero,” he said to me.
“He can’t win alone.”
“He’s not alone.”
I looked up as the shield around Kisho reformed. “I can’t stand seeing him get hurt,” I said to Vlad.
The Demon King turned back to Kisho with his hand still out. If anything, the bubble around Kisho glowed brighter. The King fired another shot at him. This one bounced off Kisho, and before the King could move, his own power, triple strength at that, slammed into him.
He slumped on the stairs. His face twisted and his limbs twitched.
A sheen of sweat had covered Kisho’s face, but he approached the King. He had his knife. Just like I’d told him, he was going to cut the King’s throat. So much more satisfying than staking.
The King tried to shoot at Kisho again. Fool. Because the King was weakened, Kisho easily reflected it, and the power zapped right back at the King.
He was debilitated, and he was down. All Kisho needed to do was slice that knife across his throat.
He grabbed the King, pressing the knife into his flesh.
The King laughed. “Go ahead. What do you think will happen when you kill me?”
“The world will be a better place.”
“Not true. There is always a King. If you kill me, then you become me. That’s part of the prophesy you’ve never learned about. All your friends, all your pretty little pack, will be nothing to you. You’ll probably kill them yourself.”
Kisho took a step back, doubt flickering across his face. The risk of Kisho turning dark if he killed the King had been one of my biggest worries. Maybe the King was bluffing, maybe not. There was no way for us to know.
“Kill him!” I yelled. “You have enough humanity inside you to fight it.”
“You can’t do it. You’re too insignificant,” the King said. “You’ll never be good enough.”
As Kisho pressed the knife to his father’s throat, a sharp pain rose from my stomach. It felt as though that knife was pressing into my own flesh. I tried to fight it, to push that pain down. I didn’t need this. It was a most inconvenient time. But the pain seized me again, and I cried out.
Chapter 39: Love
My legs became weak, and I stumbled.
What was happening? Had the excitement overwhelmed me? Something grew in my stomach like an evil spiky thing. My body went hot, so hot I could barely stand it. I wanted to throw off my clothes and lie on those cold marble stairs so I could cool off.
Before I could, I turned cold, my flesh clammy and sweat-covered. I grabbed hold of the bottom railing of the stairs to keep myself steady. That was all the thought I could manage.
The cold flooded my body, worse than it had ever been. Worse than when I was under that waterfall. Cold darkness overwhelmed me; I couldn’t hold on to this railing much longer. The churning of my stomach ramped up to insane levels. My mouth went dry. I gulped, trying to swallow.
“Clem!” Kisho shouted.
I had a sense of Kisho running down the stairs to me, but my head had turned to mush. Everything blurred. The red carpet and the white marble stairs and the silver flashes of light swirled together.
Was this it? Was I dying?
Arms grabbed me before I could collapse. As they did, my stomach heaved. Oh, great. I’d never hear the end of this. Clem Starr, vomiting at the climactic moment. Harry McConchie would never let me live it down. No, wait, he was dead. But Nic would never shut up about it.
My head . I was burning up again.
Kisho shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be worried about me. He had to fight.
“See what happens when you try to kill me?” the King laughed. “She’s connected to me. If I die, she dies too.”
No way. That couldn’t be. I’d resisted using the power. I’d been strong.
But with Kisho away from the King, the sickness faded.
Vlad grabbed hold of me and waved Kisho away. Still, Kisho held tight.
“Leave me. I’ll be fine,” I told him. “You have to kill the King, no matter what.”
“I can’t kill you,” he said.
Vlad had told me that if I wanted to get rid of the power inside me, I’d know what to do. I sure as hell needed to get rid of that power. While I had it, Kisho would never kill his father.
Bloody hell. Why hadn’t that stupid waterfall worked? Why hadn’t sex with Nic? This power clung to me like maggots on a corpse.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll survive.” I grinned at Kisho. I tried to make that convincing, but Kisho wasn’t stupid.
I struggled to my feet, needing to stand on my own.
“I don’t want this power. This stupid power. I give it back!” I shouted.
I don’t know what I expected. That the universe would hear me, and in a magical flash, take the power from me? That denying
the power would finish it?
Didn’t happen.
The Vampire King appeared beside us.
“Go on, kill me,” he taunted. “Kill me, and watch her die.”
I didn’t like to agree with him, but if that was what it took, then Kisho should do it. Fucking love. It made you so self-sacrificing and lame, but if I had to choose, I’d pick him over me.
The Vampire King reached out and ran his finger along my cheek. “She’s not even that pretty.”
Did he think he was Nic? What the fuck was with these vampires manhandling me? I’d been scratched and prodded, and now the old geezer wanted to stroke my face.
“Screw you,” I said.
But I knew what I had to do. I had to put this power right back where I got it. Just like I had to with Nic’s purple marker so he’d never know I’d borrowed it. That was how life worked. You borrowed stuff and returned it so it looked like you’d never touched it in the first place.
God, this would be gross, though.
I grabbed the Vampire King and fastened my lips to his. He struggled, but for some reason, he couldn’t break my hold. Maybe the power in me gave me strength. Maybe the fight with Kisho had weakened him. Maybe, deep down, he just really wanted it. Even without using my sexual aura, I was pretty sure the Vampire King wanted a piece of me.
Last time I’d done this, I’d lost myself in him. I’d fallen deeper and deeper, tempted by the things he offered. But now, I knew what he was offering. Nothing I wanted. His stupid power had done me no good. Well, it had killed the kitsune, but other than that, it’d been all bad.
What I really wanted was Kisho. The King couldn’t give me that.
Even as the kiss overwhelmed me, I held on to my thoughts of Kisho. I couldn’t get pulled under, and I couldn’t be tempted while I thought of him. I needed him alive, no matter what.
I could feel something flowing between us. Instead of tumbling into that dark place, my body became lighter, warmer. This wasn’t a kiss. It was an enema, purging me of the darkness inside me.
Still, the King struggled. Still, I held on. I couldn’t let go until every trace of his power had left me. I wanted no King power remnants floating around my body.
Suddenly, my stomach heaved again.
I broke away from the Vampire King, pushing him away from me, while my stomach kept churning. Waves over nausea overtook me. I thought I’d collapse.
Then everything came flooding out of me. A huge vomit. And, eww, the vomit. So thick and black and syrupy. What had I been eating?
Chapter 40: Vlad
The King stepped away from me, glaring at me in horror. Hadn’t he ever seen a person throw up before?
“Are you okay?” Kisho asked.
“Never been better.” I gave him the thumbs-up.
“Come on, try to kill me,” the King said. “Even if it doesn’t kill her, you’ll never survive it. Just give up your worthless life.”
“I’m not worthless,” Kisho said. He didn’t raise his voice or yell. He spoke in a quiet but confident way. “I’ve never been worthless. You’re the one who’s worthless. All you do is spread fear and terror. What’s the point of that? You harmed my mother. You’ve hurt so many people. There’s nothing in you. Nothing at all. Not even hate or anger.”
Vlad grabbed me and dragged me away. Good thing, too, because the King attacked. The power zapped from him.
Kisho didn’t hesitate, and he didn’t hold back. The moment the King fired, his shield went up, stronger this time. The power bounced back at the King, throwing him back onto the stairs.
The King groaned and tried to move away.
Kisho planted his foot on his father’s chest. “You need to hear this. You have some ancient power. I’m not sure how you obtained it, but you’ve lived a thousand lifetimes of worthlessness. The stupid thing is, you don’t even get pleasure from your killing. It’s all just a game you got tired of centuries ago. If I kill you, old man, it will be a mercy killing.”
Wow, that was totally ballsy of Kisho. Kisho, the one who never spoke back, who always apologized. It made me all gooey in the belly, hearing him talk like that. Or maybe that was the aftereffects of the vomiting.
No, it was definitely lust.
“I can kill you. I can kill you, and I can win this fight. You think I’d turn on my pack? On Clem? That will never happen.”
Actually, he had no proof of that.
“Oh, you’ll turn,” the King said. “Look how much you changed when you fed. This will be a thousand times stronger.”
For the first time, Kisho wavered. But he had no choice. If he didn’t kill the King now, he’d never have the chance again.
“You’re no father. You play at being a father, but you have no idea what that means.”
I bit my lip hard. Kisho needed to do this, but before he could raise the knife, something flashed through the air. I could barely make it out, it moved so fast. Only when Vlad landed beside Kisho did I realize it was him.
But what could Vlad do? The King could only be killed by his own blood.
Vlad stood with Kisho. The two of them together.
The Vampire King stirred, his strength returning.
“You can’t do this alone,” Vlad said. “You can’t take on his power.”
Then he smiled at Kisho. What the hell did he have in mind?
He took the knife from Kisho’s hand. But Vlad couldn’t kill the Vampire King. He didn’t have the blood. He knew the prophecy better than anyone.
“Remember when you came to a small village in Russia?” Vlad said to the King. “You destroyed that village. A woman lived there, a woman who shone brighter than anyone else. You forced yourself on that woman. You raped her and left her to die. Only she didn’t die. She went far away, to a place where you’d never find her.”
Wait, what?
Vlad’s face twisted into a look of pure hatred. “You prey on the weak. Feed on children and leave a trail of destruction in your wake.”
To be honest, I didn’t think Vlad had any right to talk about a trail of destruction. He’d been a force of devastation himself in his heyday.
“But you could’ve lived with me,” the King said. “You could’ve been my true son. I took you in. I gave you everything.”
Blah, blah, blah. If I could, I’d kill him myself so I didn’t have to keep listening to this “true son” bullshit.
“I am your true son.”
Fuck! What?
Vlad had always called the Vampire King “Papa,” but I’d assumed it was because he saw the Vampire King as a father figure, not because...
Damn. Just damn.
I’d been right. I’d been totally right about Vlad and Kisho. Not even Nic had worked that out. Well, not totally right, since I’d thought Kisho was Vlad’s father, but right enough. There were about a million things there that didn’t line up, but it wasn’t like this was question time.
“You can’t do this. I have to do it,” Kisho said. He had a stake, and he moved toward the King.
Vlad grabbed Kisho’s hand. “You don’t have to. He’s telling the truth. You’ll absorb the dark energy if you kill him.”
They could have less talk and more King-killing, in my book. I strained on tiptoes to see what they were doing.
“You’ve done enough. You’ve renounced your father. You’re free from him,” Vlad said. “It doesn’t matter who does the actual killing.”
The Vampire King moved, dragging himself up higher on the stairs.
Vlad pounced. “Do you remember that woman, or is she just one of many you violated in your time?”
The King didn’t answer. His mouth was hanging open. I guessed he hadn’t been expecting this. But, hell, if you go around forcing yourself on women willy-nilly, chances are you’re going to end up with a bastard son or two. Not a smart move when someone of your own blood can destroy you.
“You are not my blood son. I’d know.”
“Unicorn magic is very strong,” Vlad said. “
Strong enough to conceal a child. Strong enough to keep that child safe.”
He hovered over the King, knife raised.
“So, you’ll be the one with the dark power. You’ll become evil.”
The King laughed, but one look at Vlad’s face stopped that laughter. Vlad wasn’t fucking around. Who knew? Maybe the unicorn sparkles inside him would overrule any evil power.
“I can’t be evil,” Vlad called out. “I am unicorn. Good. Evil. None of that exists for us.”
That was true. Nic had told me unicorns were amoral, and Vlad definitely was.
Wow. Vlad was the Vampire King’s son. No matter what, my brain kept coming back to that. It seemed so obvious in so many ways now. Like how he’d said he’d returned to help Kisho, not Nic.
Vlad was still standing there, knife aloft.
At that moment, the rain stopped, and sunlight flooded through the windows. The light hit the metal of the knife, making it glow in Vlad’s hands. The light hit Vlad, making him glow too.
That was a trick of the sunlight, surely, or maybe a unicorn thing. I could barely watch, the light glowed so brightly.
“UNICORNS DO NOT FORGIVE!” Vlad cried.
With that, he plunged the knife into the King’s throat.
The King grabbed his throat. He writhed but didn’t cry out.
He held his hand out. Even with the life draining from him, he was able to hurl his zappy power at Vlad.
Vlad laughed and shot right back at him.
The blue glow and the pink one flew toward each other, and time seemed to stop. When the kitsune had done that to me, it’d created an explosion of sparks, but when these two lights met, it set off a massive boom.
I covered my face as the entire room lit up. The light became too powerful to look at, like a total eclipse, and the ground shook. I wondered if the walls would cave in around me. I wasn’t sure if I should run or stay put.
Everything around me became nothingness. Then the shaking stopped and the light faded. The world went back to normal. Almost.
The lifeless body of the Vampire King slumped on the stairs. Almost instantly, from above, a few vampires scurried down and dragged the body away.
