Sagittarius

by Kim Faulks

  This whole thing felt wrong somehow. It didn't make sense. I glanced from Michael to Marcus, and back again. “Why didn't we help them?”

  “Because I didn't know who wrote the damn thing.” Marcus looked away and shook his head.

  “I should've fought harder,” he whispered. “Searched more. I should've done a lot of damn things, like never given up. I should've never given up...on all of us.”

  “It's not just you,” Victor snapped. “It's on all of us. We all gave up.”

  He was right. We all gave up. Marcus may have made the decision for himself, but we made a conscious choice to follow.

  “And this meeting tonight?” I asked. “What are we getting out of this?”

  “I want...no, I need you to hear what really happened,” Marcus growled. “I'll not make a decision where we're all concerned. Not on my own. We're a family—we’re a damn pack, we're all equal, and it's about time we started acting like it.”

  “But tonight is different, Marcus.” Abrial paced the floor where she could. “It could be bad. I don't want you to—”

  “We can’t wait one more second.” He cut her off with a punch to his chest. The thud echoed around the room. “We’ve waited long enough. That bitch is running. I know she is. I can feel it. Her panic—her fear. She’s got nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Lucas and the others have seen to that.”

  Abrial stilled for a second, and then nodded.

  “Thorn needs us now more than ever,” Marcus murmured. “It's our responsibility to fight for her, to hunt this bitch for her. Are you with me?”

  “Yes,” Zadoc snapped and raised his head. Black veins ran across his cheek and down his neck. He wasn't quite Zadoc, wasn't quite...Dragon. He opened his palms and stared at his hands. “I want her death, more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.”

  His growl was blistered and raw, like gravel stones rubbing together, wearing me raw. “When I was down there...with her…she…” He turned his head to stare at the wall. “She stripped me naked. Made me drink...forced me to...I didn't let her win, didn't allow myself to…”

  Unseen claws savaged the tender flesh of my heart.

  “She took my dignity, took my strength.” He lifted his hands, black blood pulsed through his veins. “I’m nothing more than what she made me. But, I’ll not let my daughter share the same fate.”

  Sweat gleamed off his skin. Under the cold, icy silence, I could hear his heart thundering inside his chest. My brother was sick, sicker than I knew. But this sickness wasn't something you could see like the black veins along his arms. It was a soul disease, leaving nothing more than shattered fragments behind.

  A lump welled in the back of my throat. If I could find a piece, just one small piece, I could start to mend my brother back together. “I'm with you. Whatever you need. Whatever it takes.”

  And a blood sacrifice would do.

  The Huntress's face came to life, stealing my focus, my pain. Hurt turned to rage. "And you think these Vampires will give us information?"

  "I think it's a good start," Marcus answered. "Michael seems to think we should give them a chance. That whatever happened five hundred years ago is worth pursuing."

  "Tonight the Vampires will be high on blood and hate." Abrial crossed her arms across her chest. "And you want me to walk right into their den and demand an audience with their Prince?"

  “Yes.” Marcus crossed the room to stop in front of her. He rubbed her arms and growled. “I want you to do exactly that. It’s time the immortal world recognized the Guardians and the Bloodstone pack for who, and what we are—a goddamn force.”

  3

  Lucas

  Marble grated on marble as the monstrous door to the Shadistin world opened, and the stench of a thousand years billowed out.

  I stared inside the tomb and shuddered.

  Down here, amongst the dark, only one God reigned.

  The only God who came when called—and not even the Archer behind his wall of ice could comfort me.

  The God of Death whispered from these walls. If you listened...if you craned your head and waited, you'd hear him speak to your tired, laden heart…come to me…I am waiting.

  The stone had no end, closing in from the sides and below like a goddamn mausoleum. I swallowed and tried to force my spine out of my damn throat and back into place.

  Lucas, the Archer whispered in my head. I don’t like this place. The panicked words seeped through the wall of ice. I clenched my jaw and forced the words. “You’re not fucking helping, you know?”

  Marcus moved closer to block the fading light. Of all the fucking places, why here, why now? I tried to relax, tried to say the words that stuck in my damn craw.

  We didn’t need these Shadistin Vampires. They weren’t our allies. They weren’t our friends. They weren’t like the wolves. Hell, they weren’t even like the damn Hellhounds.

  They needed nothing more than human blood and to be left alone.

  And yet we were here...not leaving them the Hell alone.

  Walk away. This is a bad idea, my Dragon growled and Isaiah mirrored the call. “Marcus, you sure you want to do this?”

  The monolithic stone structure loomed above us. I looked over my shoulder at the long line of stairs we’d just climbed. But all I saw were the whites of Alpha's eyes.

  “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil,” the Marine murmured, caught my stare and winced. “Sorry, seemed fucking appropriate if you ask me.”

  “God you’re dramatic,” Xael snarled and climbed the stairs to stand next to me.

  The harsh bark of laughter burned. I smashed my lips together and tried to swallow the sound.

  “What?” she snapped. “What's so damn funny?”

  Tears blurred the stone wall. I swiped my eyes with the back of my hand as panic welled in my chest. “Dust...just swallowed dust.”

  Her dark brows narrowed. “You're making fun of me—again.”

  The laughter died away as a cold sliver of fear punctured my balloon of happiness. I shook my head. “No...promise, I’m not."

  "Yes, I'm damn sure," Marcus snapped at my right. "We're here for a reason. You want revenge? Then, this is the way we do it.”

  “Make the human go in,” Xael growled and stared at me with dark eyes edged with danger. “That’ll give him something to pray about.”

  Alpha mumbled something under his breath and then countered bowing at the waist and waving toward the open door. "Ladies first."

  "I'll go." I took a step. This was my damn family. I turned to glance at Bastian who hung back from the rest of us, and then to Alpha and Abrial—all my family. I sucked in a breath, yet it wasn't the air that made my chest swell.

  It was love. It was honor. It was protection.

  The chiseled outline of the beast above seemed to close in as I turned to that open doorway. The stories were old. But not older than us.

  Acheron, the Original Vampire sired three races of undead; the Gioardianne who lived amongst the Stones of the Undead, high in the Mountains of Rune; the Vengari, a cruel breed that traveled wherever their death spells took them; and the Shadistin, who lived in places like this.

  Legend said in the moment of death it was the Vengari who stole the spark of life in your eyes. They were the cruel, the barbaric, vengeance fueled their blood. They hunted one thing, and one thing alone—wolves. Forever searching for the ones who murdered Acheron in cold, undead blood, and started the immortal war of these two races.

  But it was the Shadistin clan no one spoke of, and it was the Shadistin clan Marcus wanted us to see. I took one glance at the mammoth cavern behind me with its stony stalactite fangs that warned even the hardened wanderer away and then turned to the open door.

  The Archer snorted and shook his head. Hungry flames licked the edges of his nostrils as I stepped deeper inside. The walls and the floor seemed to disappear behind an inky wall of nothing. I shortened my stride and reached out, catching movement
in the shadows.

  The cold kissed the tips of my fingers and licked its way along my arm. Something moved at my right...and then my left. The steady throb of my heart stuttered before racing to catch up.

  "You okay in there?" Marcus's voice boomed through the cave.

  I winced, fuck it, and then nodded. "Yeah. Just peachy."

  The thunder of boots followed, bouncing against the walls to deafen me.

  "It's not too far, I'm right behind you," Michael murmured at my shoulder and soft light spilled from his skin and into space. He raised his gaze and his voice, casting the boom into the waiting creatures in the dark. "No one will hurt you. We're here by the request of the Prince. We mean you no harm, any of us."

  "You kick down our door and invade our home. How are we to believe that?"

  An icy breath skimmed my ear with the words. I whipped my head right and then left and saw...nothing.

  "Send word to the Prince," Marcus snarled into the inky depths. "We'll wait right here until he responds."

  "Oh, no. You want to invade our sanctuary, then by all means, come in. But the wolf and the human...stay with us."

  The echo was instant. Two voices gnashed like fangs as both Marcus and Xael spoke.

  "Like Hell she will." Marcus took a step in front of Abrial.

  "Over my dead body." Xael moved to stand alongside Alpha.

  "We're here at the Prince's request." Michael edged toward the darkness. Dappled light spilled from his skin. "So no one is touching anyone."

  "Pity," the shadow hissed. "We'd have the bitch center stage tonight."

  "Try it, Zombie," Abrial answered and lowered her head.

  The deep guttural growl rippled from her chest to spill into the cavern.

  Shadows gave birth to stone as these undead things stepped into the light.

  Pale skin sparkled as the male Vamp closed the distance. Everything about this creature was cold and black, from his hair to his pants and the infernal hate that spilled around us.

  I shifted under his focus, unable to tear myself away as obsidian pupils narrowed, leaving a rim of red to bleed into white.

  One by one the Shadistin Vampires shrugged off their inky cloak and moved into the light. The leader of this welcoming party stood out from the rest. The pale slash of his mouth curved, revealing the tips of pointed fangs.

  One of these vicious bastards was a pain in the ass. Three demanded your utter attention—I glanced around the cavern—but ten?

  He focused on Abrial. "Do you know what tonight is, bitch? I'll spill your blood all over the grand stairs, make you fucking whimper...like you did for your whore mother."

  But there was no answer from the Alpha, not even a flinch that she heard the Vampire at all.

  "One more fucking word," Marcus snarled, "you'll be nothing more than a pile of ash."

  The darkness took form with pale faces and hungry eyes. Men, women...too many Vampires for me to count.

  "Seal." The bark ripped through the cavern.

  A nerve twitched at the undead's temple as a blond male strode out of the tunnel and into the light.

  I caught the flinch before the smug piece of shit answered. “Gabriel.”

  “One more word and the Guardian won't have a body left to burn.”

  There was something about this new Vamp—something that screamed righteousness from the long black leather jacket covered with studs and armor to his white shirt and shining shitkickers. One quick glance at Michael and I knew why. This was the same Vamp my brother seemed to like. The same Vamp who saved the Doc's life.

  And only one question remained—the damn question I'd been asking myself since Marcus’s tale of the Vampires filled my head. Why?

  “Why are you here, Seal?” Righteousness moved in, towering over the vile corpse to snarl. “You threaten their guests, and undermine our Prince. You think The Princess applauds your efforts? I’d kill you right here—but that would be too easy—too kind.”

  “The Prince?” the piece of-undead-shit spat. “And what a fucking Prince he is, inviting this bitch into our home. The Princess won’t have it. She deserves better. The King and the Queen, Acheron rest their souls, deserve better. They were born of royalty, it’s about time the Prince shows it."

  I could see it now, the heat of desire—the cruel cutting edge of hate. This undead bastard wasn't just protecting his future King—he was protecting the woman he loved.

  But no love lingered around this...Gabriel.

  No. This one was all vile, bloody business.

  I was gone a day. One fucking day. Now Michael had befriended a…Vampire? The word executioner came to mind.

  “Please, excuse the welcome," Gabriel murmured and cut me a glance. "You've been invited here to meet with the Prince—”

  "Wait one second." Abrial cut the Vampire off with a raise of her hand.

  She moved fast, striding toward the dark-haired Vamp, cocked her fist and lashed out. Seal stumbled for a second. Red bloomed on his cheek but hate stung, harder than any blow the Alpha made as she leaned in close. "My name is Abrial, and I am the Alpha of the Bloodstone pack. The next time you see me...the next time you disrespect me—will be the last damn time you disrespect anyone. You feel me?”

  Gabriel stared at her with a mixture of confusion and respect. "The Prince is waiting."

  The tiny trickle of blood glistened on Seal's cheek. I glanced down to Abrial's open hand. Claws curved, lingering for a second before they slid home.

  She waited for a heartbeat and then answered. "Lead the way."

  We left Seal there, nursing his cheek and his pride. I never stopped, never turned, but the need to watch our backs slowed my steps.

  We wound our way through the cavern maze until the faint sounds of music grew stronger. It wasn't a joyful sound. There was no laughter, only a melancholy haunting tone that seemed to breathe life into these stony walls.

  Gabriel slowed long enough to make sure he was heard. "The Prince is...unfortunately taking some time to heal. I'm telling you this, not because of sympathy, but out of courtesy. He doesn't like others to stare."

  I glanced over my shoulder to my family. But their guarded gazes gave me nothing. Even Xael kept her focus on the ground. The Prince had pure blood running through his veins. He shouldn't need time to heal. Not from a damn injury...and if he wasn't injured—then he was sick.

  So what in the Hell kind of sickness did he suffer?

  "Move it, or lose it." Xael charged forward, smacked my shoulder and disappeared through the doorway.

  Great. Just great. Goddamn Vampires. You'd think after a thousand years of evolution they'd have learned a little tact—or, I don't know, maybe the ability not to piss off the wrong fucking immortals?

  The rest of my family followed, leaving me to linger at the doorway.

  "Come, welcome." Gabriel motioned me forward with a wave of his hand.

  My feet stilled, kicking the stony floor. For some reason I didn't want to enter. I didn't want this dynamic we shared with the wolves to change. We were happy with the Bloodstone pack, and Gunny and Alpha, weren't we?

  Inky shadows clung to the edges of the room. The harder I stared the more the darkened corners lied. Black on black moved in.

  My gut tightened. Sweat broke out at the nape of my neck. I swung a panicked gaze across my kin. "Marcus...wait."

  At the far end of the room light spilled in through small cracks in the ceiling like Heaven itself had been stabbed with a crooked blade and left to bleed onto the stony cavern floor.

  But it was the murky darkness that drew me to where pits of fire illuminated the stony steps with an orange hue. Dark shapes moved in and the amber glow picked out white eyes and shadowed faces.

  "May I present Prince Austine Nicholi." Gabriel's voice rang through the room.

  I lifted my gaze as my family parted. A young male clutched a cane and took a slow step down the stairs, moving into view.

  I'd pass him without a second glance if I hadn't known
better.

  An Alpha in the Vampire world didn't mean thick, rolling shoulders and hands the size of tree trunks. Down here, power had a strength all of its own.

  And in this case it was blood.

  For these Vampires blood was everything. It was thirst. It was hunger.

  It was the perfect line to an ancestor created by the Original Vampire—the one resurrected just like Jesus Christ.

  Only this time...this Vampire stayed and created an empire of the undead.

  I saw traces of power in this Prince underneath the cautious way he moved. But it wasn't the power that held me transfixed.

  It was the reason why he wasn't healing. Pale skin shone translucent as he took one more stair and then another, and as he came closer I lost my breath.

  Black, spidered veins spread out along his cheek. I tore my gaze away to find the biggest of our family, for they were the same inky veins I saw in Zadoc.

  Demon blood. Was that why we were here? Was this the one thing we needed to understand?

  The Prince moved slow and deliberate, edging toward us one step at a time until he hit the last stair, and slowly straightened.

  "Thank you," he murmured raising those electric blue eyes. He found each of my kin, lingering on North, Bastian, Isaiah, and then me. "Thank you for coming."

  The hairs on the back of my neck rose as power brushed seductive lips across my skin. This was no man and no normal Vampire. His energy moved like the birth of a tornado…building...building until the power consumed the room.

  "Marcus, good to meet with you again," he murmured. "I trust you've been made to feel welcome."

  My brother cleared his throat and answered carefully. "Yes, thank you."

  There was a heartbeat of silence before the Prince raised deep brown eyes. One brow rose carefully. "You're lying. But you don't wish to offend. Thank you, for being...courteous."

  Sick he may be, but the Prince was no damn fool. He turned his head finding the enforcer standing next to Michael. "Gabriel?"

  There was a flinch in the blond Vampire's face. A tell that was every bit as delicate as it was dangerous. He licked his lips, cast a panicked gaze along the stairs and the darkness before answering. "Seal beat me to the entrance."