by Cindy Mezni
Ex Tenebris
Book 1 of the Nëphyr trilogy
Cindy Mezni
Also by Cindy Mezni
Poisoned Iris - a post-apocalyptic dystopia
Shadow’s Dangers - an urban fantasy romance
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Copyright © 2018 by Cindy Mezni
All rights reserved.
Cover by Alexandra V. Bach
Symbol by Cindy Mezni and Ervin D.
Edits by Gem (writingfreakediting.tumblr.com)
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
Contents
1. A Pile of Corpses
2. A Wind of Revolt
3. Fire and Ice
4. Problems Galore
5. A Monster Named Ezekiel
6. Confidences
7. When the Vermin Invites Itself
8. A Tiny Part of Humanity
9. Interview with a Mortal
10. Late Admissions
11. Back to Civilization
12. When the Mask Falls
13. The Subterfuge
14. Heading for Reynosa
15. Misunderstanding
16. Ultimatum
17. Leonemä
18. The Beginning of the End
19. Facing the Enemy
20. Trapped
21. Last Embrace
22. The Bond
A Note to my Readers
About Cindy Mezni
Shadow’s Dangers by Cindy Mezni
Poisoned Iris by Cindy Mezni
1
A Pile of Corpses
This book contains some sensitive themes. If some themes can trigger you, please take a few moments to look at the detailed list of trigger warnings that can be found at the following address:
https://www.cindymezni.com/ex-tenebris-trigger-warnings
“What happened?” I asked Shane when I arrived in the Reserve, the place where we kept our prey.
I couldn’t tell if I was in the midst of a nightmare or a dream. The famished monster within me tended to find the bloody sight before me delectable. The Queen that I was, however, was trying not to unleash her wrath.
“We don’t know, Nemesis,” Shane told me in a slightly shaky voice.
My gaze snapped to him. He looked down right away. He was right to show submission and deference after the monumental mistake he and his incompetent subordinates had made. Sure, with his muscular physique, he looked like he could beat me in a fight and, therefore, have no reason to be afraid of me. But Shane knew better. I might not look threatening with my porcelain skin, my long, ebony hair, my generous curves, and my thin, black dress, but I was more powerful than he. In a the blink of an eye, I could have him dead at my feet.
“You don’t know? There are cameras everywhere, you’re responsible for the supervision of our territory and you don’t know how this happened?”
I inhaled and exhaled deeply many times to try to rein in my sudden desire to wring his neck.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked calmly, my face probably showing the struggle that I was having to control myself.
“I assure you that I’m not,” he said, looking uncomfortable. “We have no idea what happened. They obviously knew where the cameras were and avoided them. We didn’t notice anything until there were screams and smoke.”
“Smoke?”
“After having ripped to pieces and killed the most humans possible, they burned a ton of bodies there,” he said and he pointed toward an alley.
Not wasting any time, I headed in the direction he’d indicated. The blood and body parts scattered all around me were awakening my hunger. But I was too wrapped up in the situation to pay it any attention.
“By all the fires in Hell . . .” I said in a breath.
It was definitely a nightmare. The pile of corpses was phenomenal. The only time I’d seen so many carcasses in one place was at the beginning of the Ex Tenebris Age, seven years ago, when all the Creatures of Darkness killed for pleasure rather than to eat. Back then, at least, I’d participated in the festivities and I had my fill of meals. All that remained here for me was the horrible stench of burnt flesh. By Lucifer, what a damn waste! There were almost half of the mortals of our Reserve piled in front of me and they hadn’t even served their purpose.
We’d already so little food. I didn’t know how many survivors of this slaughter were left, but it wouldn’t be enough for the thousands of Nëphyr in New Hell. The next delivery made by the human government wouldn’t take place for months, and, even with further restrictions, we couldn’t ration enough to hold out until then.
To say we were in a deep shit—I even more than the others—would have been the understatement of the year.
“What Nëphyr have done this in your opinion?” I eventually asked him.
“This isn’t the work of Nëphyr. At least, no Nëphyr of our clan, that’s for sure.”
“What do you mean?”
I was surprised. I’d imagined that some Nëphyr angry because of the current restrictions had manifested their displeasure by perpetrating a bloodbath to force me to find a new human procurement source. But creatures from outside the clan? It made no sense.
“We found holes in many places in the wire fence surrounding New Hell.”
I stared at him, frowning. So it was an external attack. Or it was what someone was trying to make us believe. Still, it was another point that was holding my attention right now.
“You’re telling me that someone or something has come and gone, after having wreaked havoc on our Reserve, and you didn’t do anything?”
“I-It’s—”
My hand closed around his throat to keep him from going on.
“I don’t want to hear your justifications. You and your colleagues are in charge of preventing any intrusion. You failed. Even worse, we have next to no food now because of you.”
I tightened my grip and planted my nails into his flesh until drops of ebony blood beaded along his neck.
“You will find me the culprits. And you will bring them to me so I can find out why they targeted us and make them regret having attacked us. If you succeed, perhaps—and I say perhaps—I won’t tell Xander to execute you all after having tortured you at length for your incompetence.”
I let go of him. He started coughing, trying to get his breathing back to normal. We, Nëphyr, might not need oxygen to survive, but it was still unpleasant to be deprived of it for too long.
“I think I know who they are,” he told me in a hoarse voice. “Or rather, I think I know what they are.”
“You think?” I said as I sent him a meaningful look.
He looked down again. I didn’t want speculation, I wanted certainty. And I wanted the ones at fault handed to me on a plate quickly.
“So who are your supposed culprits?”
“Vampires.”
“Vampires?” I repeated, skeptical. “From what you told me, you have no image of the events and there’s no detectable scent on the corpses. Between the ones sprayed with gasoline and burned and those in pieces who smell more of blood and fear than anything else, I don’t see how you reached such a conclusion.”
The scent of hemoglobin was strong, but that of fright eve
n stronger. The sheer terror of a human living its last moments resulted in a powerful olfactory trace that remained hours after the death. On the contrary, the smell of a predator—no matter if it was a Nëphyr, lycanthrope or vampire—on his victim and in the air vanished fast. It was the reason why Shane had nothing to back up his hypothesis.
“There’s something you have to see.”
With me on his heels, he walked around the still smoking and burning in places mound of corpses. We went to the end of the street and, there, I saw it. The emblem of the Nëphyrian race had been drawn on a building facade with blood. An elongated oval with a letter in the middle and flames representing Hell bordering the inner contour of the form. The letter was usually a ‘N’ for Nëphyr but it had been replaced here by a ‘V.’ ‘V’ for vampire . . . or a name beginning with that letter.
My blood boiled in my veins when I approached it and focused on the second symbol, smaller than the other one. The Ankh Cross, an ancient Egyptian symbol of life after death, of eternity. The sign that had been taken as an emblem by the vampires. And it was painted in front of me with vampire blood given the smell, just like the Nëphyrian symbol was.
They were well and truly guilty.
But why did they do that? No idea. Finding out the answer to this question wasn’t my priority, though. I had to rid the wall rid of these drawings and prevent this story from spreading. Otherwise, my food supply problem would seem very insignificant compared to the war my clan would want me to declare on the entire vampire race.
2
A Wind of Revolt
“This dress is a real bane,” I said, trying to make it down the stairs without stepping on the fabric and tearing it.
When I’d put it on a bit earlier, I’d thought it looked good on me, the red contrasting perfectly with my pale complexion and my emerald eyes. But, in fact, there was a huge problem: the cut. The satin dress had no straps, fell to the ground, and had a very long train. There was every chance that its seemingly endless piece of cloth would get stuck somewhere and I’d end up naked in front of my whole clan. I was anything but modest, but as Queen, and in this day of Shemyan—a celebration to commemorate another year of reign of a clan’s sovereign—it would be more than inappropriate. Moreover, if I was attacked tonight after my announcement, bundled up as I was, I risked my life if I was incapable of fighting properly.
“A royal attire for a royal evening,” Edenaï eventually told me as she joined me, careful to not follow me too closely in order to not step on the train.
Ever since I was crowned, three years ago, she said the very same thing at every Shemyan.
“I most likely risk ending up royally dead with such a hindrance,” I retorted dryly.
Edenaï started chuckling. She was used to my bad temper and even managed to enjoy my scathing remarks. She was the only one who could be amused by them . . . and not have me reacting violently. I suspected it had to do with her resemblance to me, physically and mentally. Or more accurately, to the one I’d been in another life. But I always was careful not to dwell on it. There was no point.
“What could happen? All you’re gonna do tonight is say a few words here and there and remain sitting on your throne.”
She was wrong. She knew nothing of the new food restrictions, more severe than the previous ones, or what had motivated this decision. Just as the rest of the clan, she was going to learn about it soon.
“Note that, in the future, all I want you to bring me when you go get me clothes are short dresses in which I can move freely.”
“Gotcha.”
I arrived at the floor where the Council Room was located. Edenaï kept going down the steps and nodded me goodbye. I opened the door to exit the stairwell and found myself in the hallway. I heard shouts, then. No doubt my Councilors had heard of the intrusion on our territory. But what they knew precisely remained to be known. I walked down the corridor to the door. With a sigh, I opened it.
“—knew nothing!” Caine shouted when I entered.
Silence fell like lead. Every head turned in my direction. Nathanael and Xander looked at me, the blond one with discretion and the dark-haired one shamelessly, and Venom, the only other female in the room, and Logan showed an impenetrable expression. Only Caine seemed on the verge of slitting my throat at any second.
“Apparently, our Queen considers it more important to impress everyone rather than take care of her clan.”
Before I could argue, Xander spoke.
“Majesty, you’re breathtaking . . . not to say something that would definitely be rude.”
Usually, his attitude would have forced a smile out of me. But not now. Not today. Xander lived only to make fun of everything and everyone. His nicknames of Reaper, Executioner, Death and so on, his imposing stature, his harsh angles of his face and the long scar on his left cheek didn’t hint at that side of him. Yet, at this very moment, he was mocking Nathanael, given the provocative wink he just sent him. Nathanael’s features hardened before becoming impassive again.
“It kills me to admit it, but the Reaper is right, you—”
“ . . .want to screw her and make her your property, your Parinrä*. Nothing new under the sun, Nathanael. Too bad for you, she only sees you as a toy she plays with and throws away according to her whims,” Caine said, his voice heavy with disdain. [* Partner. Word designating a Nëphyr known to all as the companion of another Nëphyr.]
I thought Nathanael wouldn’t counterattack because if anyone had self-control, it was he—which was a rarity among Nëphyr. But I was wrong. He leaped from his chair and walked with big strides to Caine, already standing, waiting for him. I immediately got between them. If there were to be a fight, Nathanael would murder him despite the fact that it was forbidden to kill our kin, unless they’d committed an act worthy of a death sentence. Even in this case, only the ruler of a clan—myself—or the Executioner—Xander—had the right to make this decision.
“If you kill him, the Cäptiarëm will come here to bring the Nëmayän justice.”
The Cäptiarëm, or Trackers, were the spokesmen of the Nëmayän, the High Instances. The High Instances were the leaders of the Nëphyrian world. When a clan or some Nëphyr took the wrong path, it was their Trackers who came to clean the mess.
“It’s Shemyan,” he reminded me in a neutral tone, his crystalline blue eyes plunged into mine.
“You seem to forget that even though fights are allowed today, my agreement is still needed. So yes, I’d love to see Caine dismembered, but I won’t authorize you to do it. Not for a reason as stupid as your scorned male pride.”
His gaze turned fierce, but he didn’t reply. Fights were only allowed in some cases. The overflow of testosterone wasn’t one. Satan knew there would be constant bloodshed in this residence otherwise.
He eventually returned to his place in silence. His self-control was really impervious. In my early days as Queen, it was he who’d taught me to control the monster within me. With the conditioning to which Ezekiel, my creator and former lover, had submitted me after my transformation, and decades of letting my primal instincts govern me, it hadn’t been an easy task. But I managed to do so. It couldn’t have been otherwise, anyway. An impulsive Nëphyr sovereign never stayed long on their throne.
“What a good dog you are, Nathanael,” Caine commented behind me. “Totally wrapped around the finger of your mistress.”
In a flash, I was standing in front of him, the blade of the dagger I kept in a sheath attached to my thigh, and easily accessible thanks to an opening hidden in my dress, against his throat. He hadn’t seen it coming.
“I won’t let the two of you fight, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to listen to you disrespect a member of my Council and especially I who am your Queen. Should I painfully remind you of your duties to me, Caine?”
His brown irises began to glow, the sign of extreme anger in a Nëphyr.
“No,” he finally said reluctantly.
“Very well.”
I withdrew my dagger and put it back in its sheath. I motioned for him to sit. He hesitated an instant, probably wanting to argue with me as usual, but gave up and sat down. I did the same and finally came to the only subject that mattered.
“You obviously have all heard about what happened in the Reserve, two days ago. I’d like to know how.”
“Not by you, obviously.”
I sent an unmistakable look at Caine. It was a reflex for him to contradict or annoy me. But I’d just called him to order, so he better remain silent from now on.
“By whom?” I asked in a harsh tone.
To my amazement, it wasn’t Caine who answered, but Nathanael, a small, amused smile playing on his lips.
“The frightened animal eyes of the Nëphyr of the security team don’t lie: the threat of execution is hanging over them. By wandering a bit in their sector, I quickly discovered what was going on. Caine probably did the same.”
I exhaled a sigh. Even when it came to being discreet, these morons from security sucked.
“In your place, I’d have killed them for their incompetence,” Venom said.
I turned my head toward her. It was the first time the golden-haired female spoke since the beginning of the Council. She should have continued to keep her mouth shut. I glared at her.
“You’re not in my place, Venom. Dead, they’re useless to me. If I kill them now, who’s going to find me those behind this attack? You? I don’t think so. Who’s better to look for something than the people whose very survival depends upon the results?”
