by Kim Faulks
The sudden inhale of her breath turned my head. Eva stilled at the doorway, lips parted, eyes wide as she stared at the mindless horde.
“It was always you, Eva,” the Prince murmured and stepped from behind her. His head turned to the newborns.
It wasn’t fear that shone in his eyes as he looked at them…it was adoration. He looked at them as a father looks at his children…his murderous, mindless children. “But not with them… I am their King. I am the one they obey, just as Acheron told me they would.”
“No,” Eva whimpered. “Austine…please tell me you didn’t.”
He gave her glare. “He’s like my father…he is my father. Just as he's yours, Eva. He promised me all this…and more.”
“You stupid fucking imbecile.” The words spilled from my lips.
A sudden hiss echoed, filling the room like a thousand pissed off snakes. My mouth turned arid, words now nothing more than ash.
“Nice one, Guardian. Let’s just piss off the hungry mindless children,” Gabriel muttered.
I caught the shake of his head as the army grew. But it was his Queen he focused on as he turned back to the newborns.
“Eva.” Her name singed my throat. “Get behind me.”
She took one slow step and then froze as the sickening hiss erupted, filling the cavern.
“I don’t think they want her to move.” Austine chuckled and took a step from the doorway. “I don’t think they like my sister very much…no…I don’t think they like her at all.”
My damn heart sped as the Archer swelled inside my skin. Tens of the baseless undead had grown to hundreds, until they swallowed the shadows. Panic breathed new life into my pulse as I stared at the pack.
We were at a stalemate as beady-fucking eyes stared at Eva with a sickening lust. A flinch brought a surge of the deafening hiss. Still her sonofabitch of a brother chuckled. I clenched my fist and splayed my fingers, staring at his nice long neck. I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat and choke the laughter right out of him.
Vampire or not. He was a fucking dead undead. He just didn’t know it.
“On the count of three I want you to make a run for it.” I dragged my gaze from Austine to settle on Eva. “And you keep running. Don’t look back, not for anything. Promise me, Eva. Promise me you’ll run.”
She never answered, only stared into the abyss of inhuman and turned to her brother. Her voice was so small. “You wanted me dead this much? I only ever tried to protect you. I only ever wanted to see you become the man you were meant to be.”
And with those words she slowly turned, stilled for a heartbeat, and then lunged toward the sea of undead.
“No!” Gabriel’s blood-curdling scream was deafening as he raced after her.
But he didn’t get far. The sea was already rising…swarming toward us in a blur of fangs. They hit her, lifted her boots from the ground and drove her backwards. She kicked, punched. Her battle cry swallowed by the howl of savage hunger.
My muscles trembled. Fire burned, stealing my thoughts, my emotions…stealing everything. All I saw was her. The panic on her face. The shine of pale eyes, her hand reaching for me, fingers stretched wide as she went under.
And then there was no more.
The Archer consumed me, splitting flesh, shattering bones. Fire burned until there was no sense of body, no mind, no space… I raised my head to the Shadistin cavern and screamed my rage into the stony walls.
My spine bowed, skin split. Blood ran warm along my shoulders as wings slammed into granite. Fingers curled and thickened. Toes deformed, merging together as my thighs turned into thick, wide cannons and hocks. Fetlocks danced with silver fire that lashed the ground.
Rocks rained from above, smacking the plague of undead as they hit me one by one. The wave drove me backwards until my hooves caught hold. Muscles howled, steel shone, flames glowed, licking the air as the plague of undead bit and savaged.
Thick armor made no difference. Tiny teeth found the gaps and soft flesh. Agony flared as their fangs sank between scales. I swiped the air, carving a path through the bodies six feet deep. Their screams of rage turned to screams of agony.
Still they covered her…they hurt her. My Eva…my mate.
The sickly scent of old blood filled me as I lifted my hoof into the air, dragging an undead with it. The Vampire hung on, its feet dangling before I drove down, trapping its body under three tons of muscle and bone.
The merciless crunch was a tune I remembered. A tune Lucas would rather forget.
But not today. Today he welcomed the sound with a howl of rage as I heaved one wing into the air. My elbow smacked the ceiling, rocks rained down. I could hear her now. Her faint screams drowned out by the oncoming wave after fucking wave of these undead rodents.
A head flew through the air in front of me. I turned to see the warrior ride the fall of the newborn’s torso all the way to the ground.
His blonde hair was splattered now, port wine colored blood dripped down his cheek and covered his mouth. Blood that glistened against ivory fangs as he craned his gaze to mine and screamed, “Save her!” Then he lunged, driving another Lowest Kynd into the ground.
I drove my hooves into the ground and sliced the air with my wings. The wind howled through the cavern like a cyclone, scattering bodies in its wake. Fire flashed from my mouth, fire made arrows designed to kill. They spilled from my lips, like a barrage of bullets that always found their mark.
The Prince flinched, stumbled and slammed his spine against the walls as silver bolts tore through undead after undead.
“My Queen!”
The scream cut through the cavern as the second circle warriors joined the fray. Three men and one woman hacked and cleaved, swinging their swords as they surged forward. One tossed a blade into the air and Gabriel rose up to catch the hilt.
But the Lowest Kynd were too many. There were hundreds of years of corruption and lies. They descended on the warriors and as one newborn was cut down, ten were there to take its place.
I screamed my rage into their bodies, fired flame after flame to see them dance and scream and die. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough. I slammed my hoof into the ground. Fissures raced, spearing along the walls of this place. I would bring it down—bury us all like the mountain…for all I cared about was her.
One swing of my wing knocked the pile free. The undead toppled, spilled. I caught the edge of her tattered black dress before she was gone under the body of a thick, muscled male.
Her scream was raw and ravenous. A pale fist plunged through the undead’s belly and out the other side. The newborn toppled in a mess of arms and legs and corded intestines as Eva struggled to one knee to scream. “Get the fuck off me!”
“No…no. I am your Prince…your King.”
I swung my head to the spineless piece of shit to see Austine surrounded by the mindless. They were hungry…ravenous, and to them a King’s blood was as good as a Queen’s.
“Eva,” Austine whispered.
He cast a quick gaze to his sister, until a snarl rumbled my chest and slipped from my lips. Eva stood, covered in blood and guts. Her eyes steeled, trained on the ten that stepped toward her kin.
“Eva…help me.”
“Austine.” She struggled, stumbling forward as one of the newborn pack turned.
He took a step, mouth widened, fangs at the ready before I opened my mouth wide and lunged. His screams ended under the crunch of his skull. Cold, thick blood slipped down my throat as I whipped my head left. Legs flew through the air and hit the wall to fall to the ground.
I opened my mouth, leaving the rest of him to fall at my feet. One dead wasn't enough, the rest of the pack lunged, claws ready to carve a King’s flesh.
“No!”
I surged forward, meeting the newborns as Eva threw herself toward her brother, taking one newborn to the ground. Austine’s screams pierced my head. Pale skin shone as he slapped and thrashed.
“Get the fuck off my brother!�
� She whipped her legs around, taking the newborn to the ground with one kick.
Her brother stumbled, dark regal blood flowed freely from the puncture wounds at his neck. He slapped his hand to his vein, staring as the remaining swarm turned on her.
I bit, savaged, trampled bones into the stone as they scrambled with lightning speed after her.
“Austine!” Eva screamed. “Help me.”
Her screams reached my ears, dragging my heart into my mouth. I caught the bastard tremble as I spat a severed limb to the ground.
“Austine!”
Her pain was a lance to my chest. I sucked in a breath and whipped my gaze to her. The Prince was gone. I could hear his steps echoing behind us…growing fainter…and fainter.
But it was Eva I looked for as the hope in her eyes shattered. Her pain was my pain. I screamed and savaged, tore limb from limb until the bodies piled at my feet. I needed to protect her…needed to save her.
A newborn sank its fangs into her shoulder. Her dress hung in tatters, perfect pale skin marred red and bloody with open wounds that covered her from her fingers to her face. She stilled, staring after her traitorous brother as the newborn savaged her arm.
I screamed my rage, silver fire merged to an arrow trailed by a chain. The undead shuddered, its feet left the floor as the arrow plunged through before I dragged the chain backwards, and brought my fire home.
Bodies piled, more escaped. There was nothing left now…nothing but death and destruction. Nothing but bodies piled at my feet…just like Mernan.
Eva struggled, her knee gave way before she tried again. The savage wounds at her neck gaped as she stood and stared into nothing. A chill raced through the room, stealing the heat in my belly, turning the undead blood in my mouth to ice.
The Lowest Kynd outnumbered us, no matter how many we cut…not matter how many we killed. There were too many for us to survive. Power raced in my veins and leaked into the room. A darkness swarmed like a storm…like the one that clung to my home, like the one that clung to her.
Pale eyes shone as she wobbled, still she held her ground. The dark current surged, building…building. I sucked in the bitter cold of blood and stone and felt the rage within me. It bled from my bones…seeped from my skin—and found a new home.
Her fingers trembled as she lifted her hand. Energy sparked, drawing closer, raging harder. It was a river…a cold, underground river that cleared anything in its path.
The sea of undead stilled. One with its fangs buried in my chest, another entwined in the long strands of my tail as she whispered one single word. “Drop.”
They tumbled like sticks of nothing, falling to the ground and that was where they stayed. I sucked in the air, warm blood seeped from my chest…my legs, my wings. The cavern was silent. The Lowest Kynd nothing more than corpses…
Steel gouged stone as one by one the warriors stared at the woman who was Death itself before Gabriel dropped to his knee and murmured the words I longed to hear.
“My Queen.”
28
Lucas
“And now”—Marcus stared at me, curled his lip—“will you tell me what the fuck is going on?”
I sucked in a breath and felt the leather pants shift. My nipples tightened, until I swore they were hardened to ice. I glanced to my sister, catching one high brow as she stared at my attire. The leather pants weren’t mine. We’d hurried, traveling as fast as we could to my family home.
Gabriel followed my sister’s gaze, stared at pants that stretched like damn overfilled balloons across my thighs. My cock twitched in open rebellion to being smashed against my balls.
“Yes.” The high-pitched screech tore from my lips. I swallowed, shifted a leg and tried again. “Yes.”
“Then let’s have it.” He swung his hand through the air and turned to my mate.
Eva was quiet after the battle, too damn quiet. Her pale eyes shone even brighter. There was a change in her. One that drew me tighter into her spell.
“The beginning then,” she murmured, drawing every gaze in the room.
Guardians and wolves crowded the space. I loved this house, loathed this house. The walls closed in as her voice filled the room. She had secrets. Secrets she needed to keep…secrets that welled in her veins like poison and as she told the tale I knew it was my poison now. My poison to share.
“The Wolves and the Vampires have hated each other for centuries. It’s a hate based on a lie. Acheron was never murdered by a Wolf. He was murdered by one of his own after making him a King—my father.”
The gasps of breath drowned out her words. I found the Alpha at Marcus’s side. She was still…utterly still as Eva continued. “He stabbed Acheron in the back, like the kind of man he was, and then he panicked. What perfect enemy than a race that could kill us with a single bite.”
Abrial shook her head and turned from Eva. “What could he possibly hope to gain?”
“To rule the three races,” Eva answered. “But he failed…he did more than fail. Acheron’s body was buried…but his blood still lived. It raged in all of us…only some he wanted more.”
“The Huntress,” Marcus growled.
“He wanted me…so she took me, and my father…” My heart twisted as her voice broke. “My father let her. Sold me for silence—that was what she whispered the first night Acheron came for me.”
Marcus turned, spearing her with a look of doubt. “I thought you said he was dead.”
“He’s the father of Vampires,” she murmured, lifting her head to meet his gaze. “You think he’d be killed so easy?”
“I saw him…fought him,” I growled. “The bastard stepped from the shadows, and disappeared the same. He’s fast, Marcus, and strong. Stronger than anything I’ve fought before.”
My brother stilled. The entire room was suspended in a sea of fear.
“He wanted the child.” Marcus turned to Joslyn. “It was him all along.”
“A child…yes. When he couldn’t have one with me, he turned his attention to another and when the Dragon baby was born, he had that vile bitch take her.”
Marcus’s voice softened. “Couldn’t have one with you?”
“I had a child once…a boy. But he was rotten and corrupt. I gave birth under the tree of death, and that’s where I left him.”
The room seemed to still. I had no words, nothing that could ease her pain. The dark need for revenge bloomed.
Marcus shook his head. “What the fuck does this undead bastard want?”
My gut tightened. I dreaded the words, still they spilled from her lips in a cold, dead voice. “What every man wants. A wife, a lover. Someone to raise his demon army and stand by his side.”
“And the Huntress?”
She flinched with the words. “He never wanted her. No matter how much she loved him, he never wanted her. She wasn’t his type…that’s what he used to whisper when he…when he…”
Zadoc’s skin paled. His dark eyes widened. There was no rise in his chest. Nothing at all to say he was alive. He was a statue. A frozen statue of suffering and pain.
“So what happens now?” Abrial murmured. “If the Vengari find out what really happened you think they’ll keep hunting us?”
Eva shook her head. White eyes shining with purpose. “No, they’ll hunt us instead.”
“There’ll be an all-out war.”
The room turned as the strange one, the seer, stepped close. Her blue eyes sparkled with the kind of truth that chilled you to the bone. “And now that we’re allies, we will all be slaughtered.”
Marcus spun, shaking his head. “Allies? No one said anything about—”
“Allies,” the seer growled. She turned, standing face to face with Marcus, took one glance at her sister, Abrial, and urged. “We will need her at the end.”
“Vampires, Wolves, traitorous fathers and sick bastards. None of them will save us when the Huntress comes.” Gunny turned to the others. “We still have this last place to search and the night is closing in
. Are we finished here?”
“Last place?” I turned to Marcus, his gaze still captured by the seer.
“Yes,” he whispered and broke away. “Not far from here. A warehouse, isn’t that right?”
“Yeah,” Alpha muttered. “Outside Nyx on the way to Flinders. Won’t take long, an hour at the most. I can go myself if…”
“No.” Marcus shook his head. “You almost died last time. If she’s hiding there you’ll need us all.”
The Marine nodded, turned to Gunny. “Then let’s go.”
Headlights splashed against the derelict building. Paint peeled from the walls. Half of the place was crumbled. I stared at red letters stuck to the front door and turned to the Marine. “Check again.”
“I’ve checked three times now.” He leaned in until I tasted his breath. “I’m not checking again.”
“Check a-fucking-gain, dickhead.” I pointed to the door. “This isn’t the address.”
“Dickhead?” A ghost of a smile crested the mortal’s lips. “We gotta stop hanging out; you’re starting to sound like Gunny.”
Marcus yanked the letter, stared at the words and hurled it to the ground. “Let’s get this done. I want to go home.”
“Better not be spiders, mortal,” I snapped, and suppressed a shudder. “I fucking hate spiders.”
Marcus leaned backwards, dragged his shitkicker into the air and lashed out. The snap of a lock rang through the evening air. The door smacked backwards and came to rest. I trod on the demolition order as I followed, Eva close behind.
I slowed, waiting for the brush of her body and reached for her hand. She was quiet, too quiet, as though the secrets she spilled had somehow scattered parts of her to the wind. But the breaking…the shattering had been her brother’s doing.
I will find him. Her cold fingers wound through mine. And when I do there won’t be a body left.
The Archer’s words were more than a promise. They were a seal, a pact—one that would stoke his fire forever.
“Can you feel anything?” the Marine growled. “Spells, fucking voodoo…anything like that?”
