by Ciara Graves
The air grew still, and the ruby on Seneca’s ring glowed with power. Her eyes were fixed on the wall behind me. She was grinding her teeth as her skin paled. For a solid minute, it was eerily quiet, then she gasped, and the sound was loud enough to hurt my ears.
She was muttering under her breath about someone named Minnie and then cursing someone else named Macron. “Find him… it can’t be…”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, confused by her reaction and words. “Many have been taken by Rudarius. Including yourself.”
“It’s nothing,” she replied hastily, though her face gave away that it wasn’t nothing. There was a strange recognition as she looked back at me, like she was really seeing me for the first time. It confused me in more ways than one. “At least, now I understand your need for revenge.”
“You believe me, just like that?”
Her green gaze flickered to mine, and if I’d had a heartbeat, it would’ve stilled from the amount of agony and pent-up rage in that one look. “Takes a broken person to know another broken person.”
“You said he hurt you. You never said what he did.”
She sniffed hard. “Doesn’t matter. What does is, I believe you, and if you really do have a plan for stopping Rudarius, then I will join with you to kill him.”
“You make it sound like the worst option out there, siding with me,” I said with a sneer.
“You murder people for fun,” she pointed out. “I don’t. I don’t kill anyone for blood. I am not like you.”
“Not yet,” I said,
She hissed in warning.
“If there is truly a war coming, you’ll change your tune soon enough. We’ll all have to. You think I’m so bad for what I’ve done? Just wait.”
“Plan,” she said stiffly. “What is it?”
“Your rings,” I said, nodding to them. “You have them because you’re of royal blood. You have the power to call down sunlight. If we can get Rudarius alone, you can destroy him.”
“That’s it?” she exclaimed. “That’s your plan? You’re kidding, right?”
“It’s all I have so far. I’m being watched.”
“I thought you said Rudarius trusted you.”
“He does, but sadly, he’s not stupid. I am the son and heir to what was the rival coven to his. If I were to ever get enough support, enough power, I would become a viable threat.” I walked toward her, and she backed up, so I stopped. “Those rings are our one chance.”
“You understand this plan of yours puts me—and me alone—at risk. I’ll be the one in the line of fire.”
I bared fangs as I suggested, “You could always give up your blood, and I could use the rings.”
The words were barely out of my mouth when I was slammed into the far wall. She moved too fast for me to keep up with, and though she wasn’t cutting off air, her hand closed in with those rings glowing fiercely, ready to unleash her magic.
She opened her mouth wide, flashing fang as her eyes shimmered from green to red and back again, shifting from one side of who she was to the other.
“No vampire will ever use my blood again. Do you understand me?”
“Rudarius,” I whispered. “He used you for dust.”
Her hand closed even tighter, and I went completely still.
“You have no idea what he did to me and you never will. If I think for one second, you’re going to turn on me, you’ll regret it. I don’t care how old you are, I will rip your head off and go after Rudarius alone.”
“You’d never get close enough.”
“Is that a challenge? Desperate people can do quite extraordinary things.”
“He’s in Otherworld surrounded by his coven,” I reminded her. “You need me.”
As she continued to hold me in her grasp, I searched her gaze for any hint of what she had gone through in those dungeons. It couldn’t be any worse than what I suffered through, but the longer I looked, the more my heart sank and emotions I hadn’t sensed in years sparked to life. She said she was broken like me, but that wasn’t true.
Rudarius shattered whoever Seneca used to be, tore her apart and set her soul on fire.
If that demon of hers hadn’t been in her life these last couple of years, this would be a very different woman standing before me. More dangerous. Darker.
Evil.
She suddenly released me as if she read my thoughts. “Destiny.”
“What?” I asked confused.
“Nothing. Just something a seer told me about you.”
That caught my attention. “What about me?”
“Whether I like it or not, you and I are just getting started with each other.” She spun the ruby ring around and around on her finger, contemplating. “That it was destiny I was turned into a vampire. And now it’s my job to stop the war.”
Destiny? Who had she talked to? I did not see myself working with Seneca, except to kill Rudarius. The moment he was dead, I was finished with her. Done. Shane’s words of simply taking her and being done with it came back to me. And I almost did, in that split second. Knocked her over the head and made off with her into the night.
Except my body refused to listen to my order to move.
In nearly a hundred years, I thought I was alone in my plight and my suffering. And yet, here before me was a woman who understood exactly what I’d gone through. It was beyond curious, and like before, words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“If I found someone who could prove to you without a doubt that you are a royal and you can kill Rudarius, would you agree to this plan? Would it convince you that we’re after the same end game?”
“And who would be able to do that?”
“Give me a couple of days, and I’ll show you exactly who.”
Her brother.
I nearly said her brother, but I’d kept it to myself. If she had no idea she was a royal, the chances of her knowing she had a brother were low. Normally, I wouldn’t care if I hurt her more except her green eyes were so troubled, adding to her burden seemed cruel.
“I’ll be in touch,” I managed to get out, then turned around and blurred out of the farmhouse before I could say anything else that might get me in trouble.
As I sprinted through the countryside toward the mansion, I replayed the conversation in my mind.
It wasn’t the words that passed between us I got hung up on. It was the way I acted around her.
For years, I let myself be sucked into being the heartless killer Rudarius needed. He wanted someone gone, I dispatched them without question.
I’d grown cold to the world and everyone in it.
When Seneca staked me during our first fight, she ignited an anger in me and awoke a part of me I believed was gone for good.
Once upon a time, I was a positive, good soul. Rudarius saw that destroyed.
Now maybe, Seneca would bring that Draven back.
“What would she want with a bloodsucker like you anyway?” I muttered to the night.
She might be part vampire, but being with one, I assumed, would never happen.
Especially with that demon of hers hanging around.
I scoffed, wondering if he truly understood the woman he was with.
Chapter 13
Draven
“You want to do what?” Shane demanded as soon as I got him alone in my chambers.
“We don’t have a choice,” I argued, glancing worriedly at the door.
Lacy saw me come back and though she hadn’t stopped me to chat, I saw the look in her eyes. For the last couple of days, she’d been following me around, asking questions of all the guards, as well as Shane and Christian.
“Our time is running out. We need her on our side.”
“We need her rings and her blood,” he hissed. “Why didn’t you just take them?”
The Draven I was forced to become would have done exactly that. Kidnapped Seneca without a thought, but I was exhausted from playing the carefree monster Rudarius turned me into. I wanted
my old self back, and one way or another, Seneca was the way to do it. She said it herself. A seer saw our futures entwined somehow. Find him, that’s what she’d been muttering under her breath. That him, I sensed, was me. I’d been waiting for a sign like this for far too long to miss out on my chance at revenge now, just because the path suddenly got hard.
“I’m doing this,” I told Shane. “You can either help me or stay here. What do you want to do?”
“You’re giving me a choice?” he asked, confused.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You turned me,” he said, as if I needed reminding. “If you order me to come with you, I’ll do it. I will never fail in my loyalty to you, so why are you asking me what I want?”
I sighed as I gripped his shoulder. “I didn’t ask you if you wanted to be a vampire.”
“Well, no,” he agreed slowly.
“I should have. I dragged you into this life because I was selfish. You’re my friend, Shane, the only one I’ve got,” I confessed. “I want us both out of this hell, but if you wish to stay and keep yourself safe and alive, then I’ll understand.”
He reached up and grabbed my arm. “You sure you’re feeling alright? Seneca didn’t put some weird voodoo crap on you?”
“She’s fae, not a witch doctor,” I said dryly.
“Yeah, well, I’ve never seen you act like this. It’s weird. Give a guy a break.”
“This is me. All me. I swear it to you.”
He backed away from me, pacing the length of my room once, twice, then halfway through the third time, seemed to make up his mind. “What do you need me to do?”
“Lacy. You need to distract her, so I can get the fae prince out of the mansion.”
“And take him where?”
“The safe house, for now, I guess. Once we meet there, we’ll wait a day and then move him to Madwich.”
“Distract Lacy,” he said, nodding. “I can do that. She does think I have a thing for her.”
“Don’t get caught up in whatever shit you’re about to pull,” I warned. “I’ll need you for what comes next.”
“And what will come next?”
“That, my friend, is a damned good question.”
Sneaking the only prince in our custody out of the mansion without being spotted was going to be a pain in the ass.
Not like we even had his ring to give back to him. Rudarius took it.
I now regretted cutting off his hand, but if I hadn’t done something, someone else would’ve. If it had been Lacy’s call, the prince would’ve been tortured until he had no idea who he was. Getting him to trust me now was going to be impossible.
Shane and I parted on the main floor, with me casually making my way toward the stairs leading to the lower levels and him greeting Lacy loudly as he entered one of the parlors.
I heard her say something in a disgusted tone, but Shane was resilient. She would not be able to get rid of him easily.
Once below, I searched for Christian and breathed a sigh of relief when I spotted him at his post near the cells. Alone. I nodded and spoke with a few of the other vampires as I aimed toward Christian. I greeted him and then nodded for him to follow me out of hearing range.
“I need you to do me a favor,” I whispered.
“Of course, sir.”
“In three minutes exactly, I need you to pull the alarm.”
His mouth parted as he looked at me confused. “The alarm? What for?”
“To clear a path. And then I need you to keep the stairwell clear, allowing me to sneak something out of the mansion undetected. Can you do that?”
“If you need me to. What are you taking out?”
“Not what.” I glanced down the rows of cells until my gaze landed on the one at the end. “Who. No one can know, Christian. Three minutes exactly.”
He hesitated, like he wanted to argue, then nodded and returned to his post, checking his watch as he went. Once he was situated, I blurred to the end cell where the fae prince was chained up. He appeared paler, weaker. He could barely lift his head to glower at me as I reached for the lock on his cell door.
“What do you want?” he muttered, his mouth moving lethargically over the words.
“Getting you out.”
“Don’t have much blood left.” He managed to straighten more. “I hope you all choke on it.”
“Save the insults for later,” I told him, “unless you don’t want to see your sister.”
“She’s here?” He perked up immediately, pushing to his feet with a grunt.
“No, we’re going to her.”
He watched me closely as I quietly opened the cell door, then walked in and worked at the chains binding him. They were iron made and had burned his skin at his wrist and ankles. I expected him to attack me at some point, but he stood perfectly still as if expecting the same from me.
“This is a trick,” he finally decided. “Rudarius sent you here to trick me into telling you about Seneca.”
“Not even close.”
“Then what? You can’t expect me to believe you’re taking me to see her after what you’ve done.” He held up his handless arm.
If I hadn’t used an iron dagger on him, his hand would’ve eventually regenerated, but the iron ensured his hand would never come back. It had been beyond cruel, and the guilt piled on with all the rest I suffered under for my past actions. All in the name of Rudarius and my revenge.
“I am sorry for that, but you were right.”
“I was?”
“About me being in a cage. You were right, but Seneca is my way out. She can defeat Rudarius, but she doesn’t trust me or believe me that she is royal. I need you to show her the truth.”
“And then what? We all team up together?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yes.”
My single word shut him up, and he peered over my shoulder. “Where is she?”
“A few hours away. I’m getting you to a safe house tonight. By tomorrow night, you’ll be reunited with a sister who doesn’t even remember you.” I checked my watch. Thirty seconds. “You coming, or what, Prince?”
His scowl said he didn’t trust me, but his eyes held a sliver of hope that I was telling the truth.
He bobbed his head and asked me how this was going to work. I held up my finger, watching the seconds tick by. When three minutes passed, an alarm rang out. Confused yells came from the vampires, as Christian ordered them all out of the lower level.
I waited for the last set of footsteps to fade away then motioned the prince forward.
“What’s your name by the way?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Marlie,” he told me.
“Interesting name.”
“If you say so.”
He stumbled, and I caught his right arm, slung it over my shoulders, and helped hurry him along.
“Still don’t trust you.”
“Who said I trusted you or your sister?”
“You’re helping us.”
“Correction, I’m helping myself through her and you,” I pointed out bluntly. “We all just happen to want the same bloody thing.”
“Really,” Lacy’s voice rang out.
I cursed as she appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
“Lacy, you should be evacuating,” I told her, quickly coming up with a story she might buy. Not that anything useful came to mind at all.
“Should I be? I think I’ll wait right here for our master to come,” she hissed, her eyes flaring red as she bared her fangs. “That way I can see how he tears you apart for betraying him. I told him you would turn on him. Told him, time and time again, but he never listened to me.”
“You really think you can hold me here?” I asked with a laugh. “We both know I can beat you.”
She snapped her fingers, and three more vampires appeared behind her. “You’re a fool, Draven, which is sad considering how handsome you are. I wish you could have simply given up this silly quest for revenge. Wasn’t I enough?”
“You?” I laughed harder and louder as her smile fell and she hissed like a wild animal. “You’re nothing, but a cold, heartless bitch. We all know who you want to be with. Pity he would never be with you.”
“You cretin.”
“Yeah, well, what can I say, takes one to know one.”
“Might I point out,” Marlie whispered, “that we are outnumbered, and without my rings, I am fairly useless being this weak.”
“Don’t worry, I have some friends here.”
“I’m afraid not,” Lacy commented and snapped her fingers a second time.
Christian stood to her right with a stake in his hand aimed right at Shane’s neck.
The sight confused me until I caught the evil glint in Christian’s eyes.
“Traitor,” I snarled.
If Marlie wasn’t so weak, I would’ve charged the vampire across the room.
“You’re one to talk,” he shot back. “Turning on our master as you have.”
“He is not my master,” I said as my rage rose. “He is nothing but a murdering piece of trash, and I will see him dead.”
“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Lacy sighed, “and I grow tired of this conversation. Guards take the prisoners to their cells to await Rudarius’s arrival. He should be here within the hour.”
He might be, but we wouldn’t.
“Was this part of the plan?” Marlie asked. “Getting us killed?”
“No. Now shut up.”
Lacy and her goons might think they had the upper hand, but I was older than all of them, except her. I was one of the best warriors in this coven because I was a soldier all those years ago when my father turned me. A true fighter. These freshly-turned vampires were nothing to me.
I locked eyes with Shane, and he winked at me. I spied the hint of silver in his gloved hand, hiding and waiting for its moment to appear. Sneaky bastard. Knew there was a reason I turned him.
