A Vampire's Bane

by Raven Steele

  Her long black dress reached the floor, its silky edges dragging through the dirt as she walked towards me. She looked up at me, her pink eyes meeting my gaze. Her long white hair had been twisted up into a loose bun. “I didn’t know he was going to do this.”

  I approached the bars, my chest aching. “I didn’t think you would.”

  Her hands rubbed at her arms. “I hate this place.”

  “I know. You should go.” I didn’t like seeing her here, the dungeon of all places.

  Her eyes met mine, pain radiating from them. “I’ve done terrible things, Moeder.”

  “We all have.” I reached through the bars for her, trying to comfort her, but my hand met with empty air.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” her words came out an appeal, the desperate plea of someone who had no hope, but wanted it.

  “Always.” Emotions crowded my chest, widening a shallow crack in my heart. Darkness bled out. I breathed in slowly, willing it back, willing the tears stinging my eyes to remain in their dark holes.

  Her eyes closed as if she couldn’t stand to keep them open any longer. “I don’t like being here, but I have nowhere else to go. I’m an outcast. A monster in a world of beautiful creatures, but Korin accepts me for who I am.”

  I stepped forward, anger bordering on rage filling my entirety. “Korin is using you. And you are not a monster! You never have been.”

  “Then why do I feel this,” she clawed at her chest, her eyes opening, “this ugliness inside me? It’s eating me from the inside out, and I fear there will be nothing left soon.”

  “That’s what he does! He wants you to feel worthless so he can control you.” I gripped the bars, but recoiled when I felt the holy water’s sting again. “You have to leave this place, Faithe.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Because he’s compelled you to stay?” I gauged her reaction, any small detail to give away what I already believed to be true.

  She wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. “Why would he have to compel me? This is where I belong.”

  My legs weakened when I saw and felt the truth to her words. The others may have been compelled, but she hadn’t. Her pupils hadn’t fluctuated, her lips hadn’t tightened. She was here, with Korin, of her own free will.

  “Faithe, please. You have to get away from him. He’s poisoning your soul.”

  She chuckled, as sound that snaked its way into my heart, furthering the crack across its surface. “What soul, Mother?”

  “What if I found a way where we could both go? No separating. Just you and me. We will disappear.”

  “Together?”

  “What I did before, it was a mistake leaving you. I see that now. I never thought Korin would go looking for you.”

  “Where would we go?” A glimmer of hope clung to her eyes. It was small, nearly drowning in dark shadows, but it was there.

  “I know of a place, a beautiful place filled with light and peace. Many go there to find themselves again.”

  “Did you go there?”

  “I did. After I left our coven, I wasn’t in a good place. You were gone. Mateo and I —” I swallowed through my dry throat “—I was alone and didn’t know how to exist without you, without him.”

  “So you sought after the Kiss of Eternal Night.”

  I flinched. “You know about that?”

  She approached the bars, her dress swaying around her legs. “Of course. Korin kept a watchful eye on you, all those years. He told me everything you did.” Her expression hardened. “You preferred to shut off your humanity rather than come find me.”

  “It wasn’t like that. I believed you were safer without me around.”

  She wasn’t listening. “After you battled and obtained the coveted Kiss, what did you do?”

  I didn’t like how she was baiting me. She probably expected me to cower, to hide in shame at what I’d done. But I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. She needed strength, and I’d show her what that looked like. Show her that despite how challenging life may get, how hopeless, one can still find their way back. The moon’s shadow can only last so long before the sun rises.

  “Let me tell you what I did, child.” I summoned a fraction of my dark gift and expelled it through my gaze. “The Kiss burned through me, eating at every emotion I had until there was nothing left. And still it hungered. It nearly drove me mad until I realized the only way to calm the beast was to kill. Not just take lives, but rage right through people. The violence, the blood, was the only way to silence the Kiss’s voice in my mind. Rage is its favorite snack, and I indulged it for a very long time.”

  My sudden candor and fury startled her, and she stepped back, paling. “What made you stop?”

  As much as I wanted to, I didn’t turn away from her. “A child not much younger than you when I found you. She had long blonde hair, eyes the color of fallen acorns, skin as pure and white as the first snowfall. She stood in the rain, alone on the street corner in the middle of the night. She was the only one left in her village that I had not killed.”

  I hesitated, afraid to say what happened next. But maybe it wasn’t just Faithe who needed to hear it. Maybe I needed the reminder too, especially with the way I felt the darkness inside me swelling, growing into something deadly and all too familiar.

  “What happened?” Faithe stared at me wide-eyed, but not with a look of horror like I would’ve expected but more of an understanding. It was in that moment, I realized Faithe truly had done some horrible things.

  My voice lowered. “Just before I killed her, that young girl said something to me you had once said. ‘Let me die, dark angel.’”

  “I remember,” she whispered.

  “I saved you that day, but I wasn’t strong enough to save that little girl, not in the way she should’ve been saved. Instead, I snapped her neck, a mercy killing compared to what I had done to the others. But by doing so, when she reminded me so much of you, it had opened a part of me that had been buried for a long time. A sliver of myself before the Kiss took over. It was just enough that I fled and hid in a cave, chained to its wall so I couldn’t hurt anyone else. That’s when they found me.”

  She looked up at me. “Who?”

  “People who can also help you, if you’d let them.” I didn’t want to say anything else. I’m sure she had heard of the Ames de la Terra, but not in a good light. Korin would love to see that group destroyed.

  “It’s too late for me.” A slight deflection in her voice told me otherwise.

  “Listen to me, Faithe. There are plans in mo—”

  “He’s coming.” She quickly backed up against the wall, as far away from me as she could reach.

  I had been so focused on Faithe that I had missed the distinct sounds of approaching footsteps, followed by the clinking of a metal pole as it occasionally hit the top of a stone step.

  The door opened and Faithe’s expression melted into a mask of boredom as Korin and Naburus entered.

  Korin’s eyes flickered from her to me. He descended the steps, holding his hand out to Faithe. She smiled and accepted it, letting him pull her to him. “What have you two been talking about?”

  “Nothing important. Sharing pointless memories.” She ran her hand up his chest, making him growl deep in his throat.

  “Why am I here, Korin?” I asked.

  Naburus set his IV pole on the floor and pulled it along behind him, dirt gathering at its legs. He stopped just in front of the bars and sniffed. “You touched them. I can smell your burnt flesh.”

  I ignored him. “Korin?”

  “Show me,” Naburus demanded, a hunger in his eyes.

  I raised my hands, facing my palms toward him. There was nothing to show. I had completely healed.

  “No, no. Grab the bars again.”

  I ground my teeth together. “Is this really necessary?”

  “Give my boy what he wants,” Korin said. His heated gaze lowered to Faithe’s. He tilted her chin upward and kissed her hard, while his h
and lowered to her breast.

  I grabbed the bars, every muscle in my body tight. I could snap the metal in two. Kill Naburus and attack Korin. The bars began to groan under the pressure.

  Naburus giggled as he stared at the smoke rising from my hands. I barely felt the sting.

  Korin jerked away from Faithe and sucked in a great breath. Blood dribbled down his chin. He must’ve bitten her tongue. Faithe wouldn’t look at me.

  “Why am I here, Korin?” I asked again, my voice loud and full of power. I let go of the bars. Naburus tracked my hands.

  Korin’s cold gaze focused on me. “I learned you were recently in Black Glen. I want to know why, and I want to know how you got in.”

  This startled me. Of all his questions, I hadn’t expected this one. It worried me he even knew about its existence, a city that was supposed to be secret.

  “I was invited there.”

  “Why?”

  “The fae King wanted to know about several missing people in the city. He thinks vampires are involved.” I kept my lie as close to the truth as possible to avoid suspicion.

  Naburus reached through the bars, his fingers aiming for my hand. I jerked it back to his severe disappointment. He frowned and slowly withdrew it.

  I glanced away from him to Korin. “I came here tonight to find out if there was any truth to it.”

  “And if there was?” Korin asked.

  “Then I’m here to warn you. The fae King and Queen are not happy. For that matter, neither are the Witches of Rouen. If our coven does have anything to do with missing people in the city, I suggest it stop. We are making lots of enemies.”

  He scoffed. “The Witches of Rouen are unorganized amateurs, and the fae? They are cowards, hiding in their secret city. They’ve grown fat and lazy in their complacency.”

  “You could’ve asked me your questions without these bars in my face. Why did you lock me up?”

  He approached the cell, eyeing me up and down. “How do you feel being imprisoned?”

  A cold and violent chill raced up my spine. “What kind of question is that?”

  Naburus looked over at him. “May I, father?”

  “My son wants more of your blood. He said it made him feel better.”

  “No.” I backed away from the bars. As long as I was behind here, I was safe.

  “But you must.”

  “I don’t have to do anything.” My gaze flickered to Faithe. Color drained from her face, making me frown. What did she know that I didn’t?

  “You’re right,” Korin said. “You don’t.”

  “Father!” Naburus pouted. An odd spectacle for someone who looked so old.

  “You don’t have to feed my boy, just like I don’t have to do this.” His hand struck forward like that of a viper and snatched Faithe. He spun her around to face me and placed her body between him and the bars. “This will only hurt for a moment, pet.”

  Snatching a fistful of her hair, he yanked her neck to the side and plunged his fangs into her neck. At the same time, he stepped forward, ramming her body into the holy water infused bars. The bare flesh on her face began to smoke, and she screamed, a terrible sound that wrenched my heart and cut off my breath.

  He might just make me watch her die.

  Chapter 26

  “No!” I cried and rushed the bars. I tried to push her back, but Korin held her firm. Faithe’s skin began to blister, and she cried out in agony.

  “I’ll do it! Just let her go.”

  Still fangs deep in Faithe’s neck, Korin’s gaze slowly met mine while her face melted.

  “Please,” I begged, his eyes glazing over in pleasure as he drank from her neck. He moaned, as the smell of her burning flesh stifled my nostrils.

  “Please!” I begged again, falling to my knees. He watched me beg him, his lips twisting up in a crazed smile. My eyes darkened and let a flash of the Kiss flash in them. “Korin.”

  His grin grew wider. “Yes,” he hissed, “that’s it, Samira.” But he stepped back, unlatching from Faithe and taking her with him. She sucked in several choppy breaths and sunk to her knees.

  “Faithe?” I wished there weren’t bars between us.

  “Get up,” Korin ordered me.

  I did as he said, worry and anger storming inside me. A clashing of emotions I could barely contain. Once again, he’d given me an impossible choice, reminding me how much control he had over me. I had to set Faithe free, had to find a way to release his control over me.

  “Stick out your arm.”

  I slid my arm between two bars without question. Any slight movement to the left or the right would cause me to burn.

  Naburus scooted over to me, the metal pole dragging behind him. Dirt had gathered so much at the bottom it pulled the tubing from his arm taught and jerked him back. He hissed and brought the pole next to him, nearly knocking it over.

  His scowl disappeared when his eyes found the veins on my wrist. My pulse beat erratically just beneath the flesh.

  I lowered my gaze to Faithe as Naburus punctured my skin and began to drink. Faithe, ever so slowly, began to heal, one cell at a time. She stayed on her knees, her hands lay limp in her lap, a defeated gesture. She stared into the distance, her consciousness anywhere but here.

  Inhaling an angry hitched breath, I turned away as Naburus began to rub his crotch, moaning as he drank.

  “Good boy,” Korin said, his voice deep and throaty.

  I could feel Korin’s gaze watching me closely. Something about this felt wrong and not just because I had a psychopath drinking from me while he pleasured himself. This felt staged.

  My rage grew. I slowly looked up at Korin, the Kiss’s dark power seeping from my heart. A smile tugged at the corners of Korin’s thin lips. Could he feel my rage? See it? I hoped so. I wanted him to fear it.

  Just before Naburus let go, he pushed my arm to the side, singeing it against the poisoned metal. I didn’t even flinch. I wouldn’t give him anymore satisfaction.

  Naburus unlatched and licked his lips. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he experienced some sort of euphoric sensation.

  “How long are you holding me?” I asked Korin.

  “For a time. My boy might get hungry again.” He looked down at Faithe. “Get up, pet. You look ill.” He made a tsking noise. “I’ll take you to your room.”

  Naburus exited first, his eyes still glazed. Faithe said nothing as she followed after him. She didn’t even look back at me. Had she been part of this ruse? Or was she as innocent as I was?

  Korin stopped, his hand on the door jamb. “I want you to think about what just happened. Picture my son in your mind drinking from you while he touches himself.” He paused. “And I’ll give you one more image to think about. Tonight, I’m going to have Faithe in every way possible. She’s going to have to beg me to stop.” He winked. “Sweet dreams.”

  The lights turned off and the door slammed shut.

  Searing hot rage slammed through me, so powerful I stumbled back. I would kill him. Jerk his spine right out of his ass. I punched at the wall, my fist crashing through the wooden walls only to meet dirt on the other side.

  The foreign presence inside me, the Kiss of Eternal Night, took hold of my emotions and surged forward. I gasped and fell to my knees as the beast inside me kissed itself awake.

  I clutched at my head and gritted my teeth. I couldn’t unleash it, not after all I’d done to hold it back. And yet, if I let it loose, I could very well kill Korin. And right now, that’s what I wanted more than anything. He had to know I would want this. Did he want to die?

  My blood turned to ice, and I snapped my eyes open in the darkness. This is what he wanted. This is why he put me in this cell, tortured Faithe in front of me and let his foul son feed on me again. He wanted me to get angry and lose control! The realization doused my emotions like a wet blanket.

  I sucked in a breath and pulled myself into a meditation pose, hands resting on my crossed legs, and focused on relaxing and cle
aring my mind. Korin wanted me to embrace the Kiss, but why? And why wasn’t he afraid of that happening? This concerned me the most. Based on what Faithe had said, he knew what I’d done when I’d given in to the Kiss before. Why would he want that, especially when, according to Mateo, he wanted every last drop of my blood? Why not try to take my blood while I was imprisoned? Maybe he still would. I sighed and continued to concentrate.

  Time passed slowly. My bones felt the sun rise and with it came a nagging sensation across my flesh that made me itch. Only a tight space like my coffin would relieve it.

  I huddled into the corner trying to make myself feel as tight as possible. My eyelids grew heavy, and I let a heavy sleep pull me under. If I slept, I couldn’t think about Korin and the terrible things he’d done.

  Nightmares invaded my mind. The kind I hadn’t had in a very long time. They were full of violence, blood, tortured screams. All of it by my hand. I was death’s reaper, riding on a bloody stallion straight to hell, taking everyone in my path with me. The trail of bodies behind me stretched long.

  “Samira.”

  My eyelids flew open. My mind and body were numb. Just as it should be.

  Lights had turned on. By the way my body was feeling it was nearing sunset. Teddy stood in front of the bars, glancing back toward the door as if someone else might be coming in.

  “Are you okay?” he asked me.

  “I’m fine. Did you find the briefcase?”

  “I did.”

  “And?”

  He glanced at the door again. “I drank the liquid, and I got to tell you, it felt like I was being burned alive by fire from the inside out.”

  “I’ve heard that, but did it work?”

  “Ask me anything.”

  “Why did Korin imprison me here?”

  “He said he wanted to scare and anger you. That’s all. I thought it was strange, so did the others.”

  “What of Kristina? Did she take it?”

  He nodded. “She cried afterwards. A lot. When she realized she was free.”

  “Is she going to escape here?”

  “She wanted to say goodbye to you first. Korin’s letting you out soon, but he’s going to have you followed, so be careful.”