by Emma Glass
“Difficult as always,” I answered dejectedly as I pulled up a seat. “How would you like to be left in control of the hold? I’ll switch places with you. You can deal with the other vampire lords, and I’ll laze about with a nurse tending to every whim all bloody day.”
“That bad, huh?”
I lowered my head. “Dreadful.”
The guard didn’t respond. I lifted up my head again to see that Kinsey sat upright, staring at me.
“You know, my Lord… you don’t have to come check on us like this. We have our own superiors who swing by every day for progress reports.”
“My life is safe, thanks to you lot.”
Her face told me she didn’t accept the answer. “You sent us back up to the surface without you, my Lord, while you defeated the creature alone. If anything, you saved our lives.”
“One of your count died protecting me. The rest of you lie here, grievously wounded after you did the very same. I do not so easily forget those who lay their lives down on the line for mine. I know it’s your sworn duty, but that doesn’t make the order any easier – but none of you complained for an instant. You ascended to the challenge and fought with me against incredible odds.”
“I would do it again in an instant.”
“That, I do not doubt,” I smirked. “But I want you to know that I meant what I told you in that cave, when we were the only two awake after the beast’s attack.”
“Which was what?”
She coughed before I could answer; I held a glass of water for her and sadly averted my gaze. “I’ll never lead you into such danger like that again. Not blindly.”
I lowered the glass when she finished sipping.
“You know, with what you said earlier… you were right, Lord Craven. It is our sworn duty to protect. There is no highest honor than to serve, whether it means to live in glory or die trying. So long as it means you get to serve the hold another day, any of us would die to defend your life.”
“You were admirable at it.”
“That’s the highest praise I could hope for.”
“There’s higher,” I observed. “The others, they all fought valiantly in the line of duty. But these ones lack your mettle and your compassion. They are also healing at a much worse rate than you…”
“Always been a little lucky,” she shrugged.
“Today continues the trend,” I replied with a smug smile. “Sadly, your companions here will be worse for wear for surviving the encounter with the tatzelwurm. On the other hand, Kinsey, you are expected to make a full recovery…”
“That’s good news.”
“…Which is why, once you’ve healed, I plan to make you my vassal. Do you accept?”
“Your vassal?”
“I’ve spoken with the sage; he enlightened me to the details. It is a ceremonial way for a vampire lord to choose specific bodyguards. As a bonus, the ritual elevates those of particular merit to the Court of Stonehold.”
“You want me to bodyguard you?”
“Can’t think of a more appropriate knight. At my side, you helped me face down one of the most horrific beasts we’ve seen. Were the others going to be in suitable physical condition, I’d extend the same hand to them… but it appears that you are the only guard from that day to come back just as strong as ever.” I leaned forward. “Kinsey, become my vassal. Serve a permanent post at my side.”
“Thank you, Lord Elliott. I… I just don’t know what to say.”
“Think on it,” I told her, pulling myself up out of my chair. “I expect to be distracted for the next few days, so you’ll have time.”
Had I only known how ‘distracted’ I’d really be. My eyes stayed firmly set on the threat of the vampire lords, but danger lurked just around the nearest corner. My entire life was about to be thrown into complete and utter disarray, because the most immediate threat was a whole lot closer than I could have possibly realized…
17
Sabine
A dark new dawn rose over Stonehold Castle.
From my vantage point high along the castle walls, the Isle of Obsidian was freshly awash with the morning glow. It turned the entire island into an ethereal sight under our supernatural skies.
Memorize this, Sabine, for it’s the final day that you’ll see this sight...
In the three days since making my decision, I came here during the sunrises to memorize just how beautiful this all looked. It was the one thing I knew I’d miss about my time here, so close to the vampire lord of Stonehold.
I had played a dangerous game, coming here. Years of planning went into positioning myself to come here, awaiting the right chance and just the proper timing…
Once I’d slipped into the inner circle of Elliott Craven, I had expected a clear path forward.
Yet, you found opportunities for bigger things, didn’t you? After all this, the only thing you weren’t prepared for was the allure of a bigger prize…
As if on cue, she was beside me.
“You’re up early.”
Nikki Craven stifled a yawn as she crawled up onto the battlement at my side.
“I don’t understand why you insist on sitting in such blatantly dangerous spots,” my head shook in disbelief. “You are bound to seriously injure yourself, one of these days…”
“Aw,” the deranged vampire twisted her face towards me. “Does Sabine care about little old me? Does she care for my safety?”
I crossed my arms. “Don’t be foolish.”
“Nah,” she chuckled darkly. “Of course not.”
Nikki slid over sideways; for a moment, I was afraid that the maniac was going to plummet off the side of the stronghold. Even vampire lord blood won’t hold up to that! But then I could see that she was dangling upside-down, grinning madly from the flattened tooth of the castle wall.
“Come back up from there,” I ordered.
“No,” she winked. “I like it like this.”
“All the blood will rush to your head.”
“I do my best thinking like that.”
“No you don’t.”
She grinned wickedly. “Nah, you’re right.”
Even after our few days of covertly meeting, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of my new ally. Nikki Craven was a wildcard, but then there were the things that she’d told me of the other holds…
Elliott is a fool to not use her, I noted.
So perhaps I will…
“Have you decided yet?” She asked, bored.
Gravely, I crossed my arms. “Yes.”
Nikki swung from her upside-down position to grasp between the battlements in front of me. Effortlessly holding herself by her fingers as she dangled from the castle wall, she supplied a prime example of a vampire lord’s strength. Even if she is not the reigning lord, Elliott’s death would mean the hold would become hers…
What a terrifying thought.
“So?” She giggled. “What did you decide?”
With a sigh, I glanced up at the dawning sun again. Its light bathed the island in such beauty; it made me wonder if I should reconsider.
Life here is unusual, I thought to myself. Elliott might make a reasonable ruler yet. At this point, he requires suitable advisors. If he lets the right ones in, they could help him continue his mother’s work and build a prosperous era for Stonehold…
I could stay, I remembered. I could remain here and leave him none the wiser – abandoning all my former plans. My allegiance could remain here; it wouldn’t be that difficult to become a servant to the Cravens…
“I’ve opted to change my mind,” I told Nikki.
“Oh?” She lifted herself up to peacefully leer at me in her own twisted way. “So, you’ve decided to give up on your plan for the moment?”
“I wouldn’t quite say that.”
She tilted her head. “Out with it, Sabine.”
My eyebrow arched. “Change of plans, is all.”
The insane vampire grinned toothily as she swayed her dangling tors
o back and forth, down out of sight, patiently awaiting more.
“I am going to take Clara Blackwell.”
Nothing about her movements changed; even her eyes seemed just the same. The swaying of the vampire’s body below her shoulders didn’t shift even an inch.
Yet, the powerful intuition that had guided me this far was giving me a peculiar feeling about the younger Craven, all of a sudden. It was some small and imperceptible change.
Something feels… different.
“Can I still count on your help, Nikki?”
She smirked evilly. “What kind of ally would I be if I declined? I’m a little miffed you chose to change things up on me, but…” Nikki lunged up from the battlement and gracefully landed on the opposite one behind me in a crouch. “Change, like many things in this world, is meant to hurt…”
“Why? Do you like things to hurt, Nikki?”
The demented vampire grinned. “Always.”
I couldn’t help stifling laughter. “Well, that’s certainly good to hear. I have great need of you to administer a little… pain. You will need to subdue Clara if we have any hope of getting her out of the castle undetected.”
“Subdue?” She licked her lips evilly. “I feel like I can manage ‘subdue’…” Her head tilted again as she squinted her eyes. “But when do you plan for this to happen?”
“As I understand it, your brother leaves today to meet with the other vampire lords.”
Nikki’s eyes widened. “You meant today?”
“Yes, why? Is that a problem?”
“Well, it’s just that the chrysm…”
The crouching lunatic paused, her eyes on me with cat-like cunning; if it weren’t for her sick and demented mind, I’d have thought Nikki Craven was plotting…
With a blink, that side of her was gone. Maybe she was dueling with sanity, I chuckled inwardly.
“Another day,” she daintily shook her head, as if she were clearing it. “Must’ve been thinking of another day… funny, how often I can get them so very mixed up.”
Something doesn’t seem right….
“Nikki, are you certain you’re up for this?”
“For harming Clara Blackwell? Ever since that little human brat wound up here, it’s caused my brother boundless trouble. Maybe he’s a tad better off without her as a… distraction…”
That lacked her usual malice.
“You don’t sound convincing.”
Nikki’s eyes glinted with a devilish gleam. “It doesn’t matter if you think I am or not. The things in my head that I fight on a daily basis crave blood and carnage…” She crept down from the stones in a truly terrifying crawl, rising up before me. “Feed me something to torment, and I will.”
Either Nikki Craven is the world’s best actress, I laughed with equal parts shock and approval, or she is definitely on my side…
“So, shall we plan?” She tilted her head.
“Yes,” I grinned. “Yes, we shall…”
18
Elliott
Down within the teleportation hub, I walked up towards the vertical tower of massive monitors. Incomprehensible charts, graphs, and figure sets flickered across screens almost as tall as I was.
Micromanaging all the various chrysm levels of Stonehold Castle, the pair of female attendants barely noticed me approach. Their nimble fingers flew across keyboards as they kept their eyes on the gigantic screens, studying a ridiculous density of information.
It was far beyond my capacity to understand, so I left them to their devices. Instead, I walked the short breadth of the hub atrium, ignoring the five hallways that stretched towards the various clusters of teleportation nodes.
My destination was far more interesting.
Around the side of the pillar of machines and screens stood a simple panel door, obscured by the atrium’s darkness. I pushed through the easily overlookable entrance to reveal a staircase, rising up into the hidden chamber of the chrysm hub.
The stairs lit up at my presence, one at a time. The rising illumination revealed rolling fog that drifted down the stairs – a natural byproduct of the chrysm ore’s cooling systems.
It never brought me joy to come here.
Solemnly, I ascended towards the single most important teleportation node in the castle. There were only about a dozen steps, but each one filled me with rising dread.
I stepped onto the tiled glass platform.
It always filled me with awe to see this device. After all, this was no mere teleportation node…
The teleportation portal stood powerfully before me, glowing with unrestrained might. Tall enough to fit Clara standing on my shoulders, the portal commanded total respect. It was the most vital defense point of not only this castle, but of every castle. Every hold in the world had a portal just like this one in their castle somewhere, ready to send their vampire lords to any connected part of the world that they saw fit to visit.
Nodes were two-way closed circuits.
Portals, however… well, they could blink you anywhere in the entire global portal network. And that included any other castle on the planet…
Long-range chrysm teleportation required far more power to properly control. This entire room was designed to keep the highly volatile ore at the coolest temperature available. As such, the glass beneath my boots was incredibly thick. It was even coated on the underside with a transparent, heatproof layer, protecting it from melting in the intensity of the castle’s chrysm ore reservoir.
Two feet of solid glass separated me from a cruel fate of boiling alive in what was effectively a small, highly volatile volcano of magical magma.
The gatekeeper stood quietly before me. To resist the effects of ongoing chrysm radiation, her head was fitted with a special plate visor. This meant that her face was completely shielded with segmented plates of thinly hammered steel – just like her plated gloves, which were instrumental in her work. The plates were all designed to not only shift comfortably with her motions, but to deflect most of the side effects of single-handedly guarding the castle’s most vulnerable entry point.
The gatekeeper bowed her head respectfully. “Greetings, Lord Craven.” She gestured towards the portal. “Do you wish to leave the castle?”
“Yes,” I answered reluctantly.
Dramatically holding out a plated glove, the gatekeeper turned towards the monolithic portal and wove her fingers expertly through the air.
“Lord Craven, where would you like to go?”
Crossing my arms defiantly, I summoned up every last drop of remaining courage. Mentally, I prepared myself for the viper’s nest I was about to voluntarily descend into.
“Take me to the Council of the Eight Holds.”
The council chamber’s true location was a total mystery, to even all of us vampire lords.
Shrouded in secrecy, the chamber acted as the single connecting point of all the holds on Earth. It was here alone that the vampire lords convened to discuss matters affecting the entire realm.
It was also where we turned on one another.
In a desolate chamber bathed in complete darkness, I stepped out from a special node. Some of us theorized that the council chamber had been carved from the heart of a mountain; the surfaces of this room were rough and unrefined, from a great many centuries before we designed more efficient architectural techniques.
The only worthwhile feature was a primitive doorway in front. Dusky light lazily filtered from down the hallway; I followed a barren and lifeless path that had been long ago whittled out of solid, flawless rock. Our ancestors had quite the lingering fascination for chilling, soulless design…
My gaze trailed up to the ceiling. Natural light came in from outside of these passageways, but there was no way these were built outside. I could almost hear the creaking and rumbling of distant, earthy noises; it was like listening to the breaths of the very earth around me.
When I had asked Lorelei about the light, she’d merely scoffed. It seemed that nobody knew how t
he paths were lit with trailing, dusty light, or how the chrysm teleporter node was supported without any nearby supply.
After a few moments of walking the trail, never rising nor falling, an empty doorway carved into the stone awaited me.
With a deep breath, I stepped through the gate and into the real Council of the Eight Holds. It was time to face off against the other vampire lords for the fate of Clara Blackwell’s life.
19
Clara
To keep my mind off of Elliott’s meeting with the vampire lords, I descended back into the hobby I’d enjoyed before all the magical nonsense.
Reading.
While I comfortably holed up within Elliott’s suite, the Knightly Trio decided to let me focus on my book. When I found their trance thing to be a little too distracting, I asked them if they’d let me read it alone.
Asarra wasn’t pleased to hear it. “Are you sure that is such a good idea? I do not like this.”
“It’ll be fine!” I grinned.
“But… Lord Elliott–”
“Lives in a stronghold with no way inside or out that doesn’t go through the defenses,” I tried to reassure her. “You’ll be right here, it’s just that, well…”
“Is it creepy?” Viktor asked.
“Uh, it can be, sometimes.”
Wilhelm chuckled. “Well, fine then. If you’re so utterly dead-set on it, I suppose Craven Keep is the most fortified part of the castle. It’s not like we aren’t, oh, I don’t know, at the top of one of the toughest towers in the whole world…”
“I’m not sure,” Asarra groaned. “Lord Elliott–”
“Isn’t here,” I smiled sympathetically. “When he made you three my guardians, he asked you to do whatever I asked of you, right?”
The knight opened her mouth to respond.
“Within reason,” I quickly added.
“I… yes, that is true.”
“Wilhelm said it himself: this tower is highly fortified. Nobody’s getting in or out of here unless they go through you, right?”
