by Iris Walker
Lucidia narrowed her eyes. “Yes, you’ve got a great dog whistle.”
Darian laughed softly, his strange, teal eyes sparkling under the fluorescent light pane. “It is nice, to see you in this place, doing well. After all the travesty we’ve endured in the past days, somehow you still make me laugh.”
“Happy to help,” she muttered bleakly.
“So angry. You’ve always been that way,” he reminisced.
“I’ve got plenty to be angry at.”
A moment of silence slipped between them as Darian’s eyes twinkled in memory. “I wish to tell you a story.”
“Nobody’s stopping you.”
He smiled and drummed his fingers against the table. “When you were very young, I changed a law because of you.”
“What?” she scowled.
“Do you remember this?”
Lucidia shook her head.
“You were five or six years old. Kenzo brought you to the Blood Moon celebration along with some of the other unbound strongblood children. It was a magnificent celebration, all around. As the night drew on, we began preparing for the ritual of the warrior, and the field was packed with subjects, all in their sections, as per custom.”
Lucidia was thrown back into her childhood, when children of all the races had gathered around Darian at his throne for stories just like this one, as he’d dazzled them with grandiose voices and hand gestures. And now, as she listened to him describe the Blood Moon Ceremony, that same nostalgia flooded her like a warm blanket. It had always been her favorite holiday, and as she listened to Darian speak about it, her memories drifted back to the excited hordes of her people, pressed together in the large field of House Xander, trying to get a glimpse of the stage. The blood warriors danced, fighting fiercely in a reenactment of their people’s history.
Darian continued, his eyes sweeping the table in front of him. “The dance began, and I sat on the platform, watching both the performance and the crowd as they cheered the actors on. You were in the farthest section, behind both the strongbloods and the humans, with the other unpledged and blood slaves. But you were so tiny that you couldn’t see anything. Kenzo, being the father that he was, put you on his shoulders, but I suppose the people behind you made a fuss because they couldn’t see either, so he begrudgingly put you down and promised that you would see it next year, when you were taller.”
“You asked him to go up with the other strongbloods, in the front rows, and he had to tell you that those sections were reserved for bound strongbloods only, and so you would have to wait until you were old enough to go through the pledging ceremony. Evidently, though, that answer was not satisfactory to you. You got so mad at Kenzo that you ripped away from him and disappeared into the crowd. He nearly tore his hair out looking for you.”
Lucidia’s heart wrenched at the memories of her father, before he’d been branded a traitor and locked in a prison cell by the very vampire in front of her.
“A little bit later, they’d moved into the meeting of the vampiric tribes, and I was watching the scene in front of me when I saw someone fall down from the tree, next to the roped off seating areas. I tried to catch a glimpse of what had happened, but I couldn’t see over the crowd. A few minutes after that, you managed to sneak through the spectators to get to the very front of the display. You were hanging, like a little fruit bat, on the velvet rope, because you could barely see over it,” he chuckled.
This brought the corner of Lucidia’s lips up in a smile.
“But pretty soon, the other strongbloods realized that you were much too young and got angry because you’d infiltrated their section. They pulled you out of the crowd and sent you back to the correct area. It caused quite a raucous.”
“When everything had settled down again, the performers were just beginning to show the dance of the wolves, and out in the crowd, I see not one, or two, but five little bodies dropping from that tree. Apparently, after being thrown out, you’d gone back to the other strongblood children and riled them up enough to convince them to climb that tree with you and make it to the front of the show. How you snuck them past Adonis, I’ll never know, but you pulled it off, and there you all were, at the front of the crowd. You were gripping the velvet rope, all bright-eyed and dazzled by the show, just thrilled.”
“But the other strongbloods recognized you, and they were truly angry this time. Not only had you no respect for the rules, but you’d broken them once, and then willfully broken them again, not to mention you were yelling at the adults that were demanding you to leave. It caused such a disruption that the cultural director stopped the dance on the stage until the crowd settled. Kenzo was brought over, and was trying to calm you down, but you were having none of it, and you kept yelling at him that it wasn’t fair, picking fights until you were red in the face.”
“That sounds like something I’d do,” she muttered.
“Yes,” Darian said with a soft laugh. “Eventually, I decided to come down from the stage, to intervene. And as I walked down the stairs, in all of my robes and ceremonial garb, the crowd quieted, standing still as boards. You, though, you caught sight of me and broke away from Kenzo’s grip. You marched right up to me and pointed a little finger in my face and said ‘you need to fix this! I’m just as much a part of your house as they are and it’s not fair that we can’t see the show because we’re kids. It’s your job to make the rules, and you messed this one up, so fix it right now.’”
Lucidia raised an eyebrow, thinking what a commotion that little outburst must have caused.
Darian laughed, nodding in agreement. “Yes, verbatim. You should have seen the elders. They looked about ready to rip you apart. But you walked up to me with such confidence and determination, and you felt so strongly that I would be on your side in the matter; truly, I was worried that it’d break your heart when I didn’t concede to your demands. I don’t remember what I said to calm you down, but whatever it was, it didn’t work. You ended up going with Kenzo, but before he dragged you away, you looked at me straight on and shook your head, just so disappointed by it, and so angry.”
“Later that night, I was thinking about the show, and how you’d admonished me in front of my own subjects. It was bothering me, because you wanted so badly to see the blood warriors fighting, which was what you were so enthralled by. I felt as though I’d done wrong by you. So when the next year rolled around, I made an amendment to the ceremonial organization, and I made the strongblood’s section all inclusive, so that even those who weren’t pledged yet could see. And sure enough, the next year, and all the years after that, you muscled your way to the front row, or damn near close.”
“It sounds like you should have smacked me upside the head,” she said with a small smile.
“I suspect that would have made you even more angry, and even more determined,” Darian chuckled. “Do you remember any of it?”
“Not at all,” she admitted. “But I don’t find it hard to believe that I’d cause a scene big enough to stop the ceremony.”
“Never was there a dull moment where it concerned Lucidia Draxos,” he murmured. “I have many more stories. One day, perhaps we shall relive them.”
A silence slipped in, neither one of them wanting to broach the travesty-filled topics that loomed ahead.
A few minutes later, a mountain of food arrived, the owners of the restaurant bringing in dish after dish.
Darian thanked them in perfectly emulated Mandarin, and they smiled widely, exchanging a few more words before backing out of the room.
Lucidia gave him a coy smile. “You know, I’m only one person. Unless you’re planning on eating.”
“Take what you want and leave the rest. I prefer to support local businesses, and the owners are truly lovely people.”
She gave him a quirky look and grabbed a fork, starting in on a plate of chow mein. “Anonymous, human Darian... gotta say, you’re a complete stranger to me.”
Darian laughed at this, smoothing his jeans ou
t. “I make it a habit to keep up on mortal affairs. Every so often, I walk through their cities, a stranger, listening to their lives. I suppose it’s my version of television.”
“You had that talisman commissioned so you could go visit human cities?” she asked.
“Yes. I used to not bother with such parlor tricks, but it seemed that I scared the children away, so I decided it might behoove me to blend in.”
Lucidia chuckled to herself, downing another portion of orange chicken as a silence slipped between them. After a few moments, she pushed the plate away and let out a long breath. “What did Max tell you?”
“She and Paxton filled me in on the current situation,” he said, all joking aside. “I am so very thankful that she had the foresight to accomplish all that she did. Once we regain control, I plan to reward her immensely.”
She nodded. “Good. They’re safe, for now. But if Max can hack into your secret server, or wherever you kept those addresses, there’s a chance Fausta and Cain could.”
“My top priority is moving our people to safety.”
Lucidia took a long swig of tea. “Where is that, exactly?”
“I was hoping to discuss it with my head strategist. A leader is only as good as their counsel.”
Lucidia thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “I think it depends on what advantages we have. And about how honest you are with those advantages.”
“Of course,” Darian hummed.
“For instance, if we were harboring a vampire killing weapon with crazy red birthmarks, that would be important for me to know,” she said, shooting him a look of irritation.
Darian nodded deeply, his eyes lighting up in mutual understanding.
His acknowledgement only made her anger surge. “If I were you, I’d be glad you still have a strategist. She could have died when you had one of your secret spies throw her off a bridge,” Lucidia continued in an icy tone.
“I am thoroughly glad that she didn’t, even though the circumstances at the time called for such antics.”
Lucidia’s jaw tensed. “I should have known you were behind it.”
“I never expected Ivan to succeed. He was supposed to be with Magnus as a silent observer, but somehow, his duplicity was uncovered and he was imprisoned. It was serendipitous that he and Reykon Thraxos had worked so closely that the strongblood would have trusted him. And, from what I hear, you two may not have escaped had it not been for his knowledge. It seems to have worked out.”
That was a bitter pill, lodged in the back of her throat.
“You have her?” Lucidia murmured.
“I do.”
Lucidia’s amethyst eyes flicked up, searching Darian’s face. “What… what’s the extent?”
His eyebrow raised and he tapped his finger on the table absentmindedly. “She has extraordinary powers, though I am concerned about her willingness to integrate into our world. She harbors much anger, I think.”
“What can she do?”
“She siphons energy from vampires. I’ve seen her both turn vampires back into humans and, more recently, sustain the draw and leave the victim in a weakened state. Either option is dangerous, but she has gained considerable control in a short span of time.”
Lucidia’s eyes trained on the plate before her. “I’m surprised you let her live.”
“I am as well,” Darian admitted, a bitter smile playing on his lips.
Lucidia scowled.
“When Ivan contacted the secure line, I was both exhilarated and full of dread at the notion of taking Robin into the fortress. Magnus, I was very excited to talk to, but Robin was more of a risk, you see. Ivan had considerable trouble bringing her there, because they were attacked by several vampires during the journey.”
Lucidia frowned. “Why?”
“Robin has an incredibly powerful effect on vampires. I have experienced it, myself. It is akin to the pull that we have on humans, the ability to draw them to us and create a false desire. I have considerable self-control, and it took much of my resistance to stay in place. When we brought her to the castle, nearly all the vampires on my staff had to be restrained.”
“That’s a problem,” Lucidia muttered.
Darian nodded. “But the pull is magical in nature, so it can be stopped temporarily. I suspect that as she matures in her abilities, she will be able to control it, as we do.”
“So you’re planning on keeping her alive?”
“If it is up to me, yes.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Lucidia said with a sigh.
A short silence slipped between them, accompanied by the sound of an overly taxed AC unit from the nineties. After a few moments, Darian spoke softly. “I was going to kill her. I had my hand on her throat, you know,” he murmured, studying the wall.
Lucidia’s eyebrows pulled together.
“We were all concerned,” Darian continued. “After what had happened at House Demonte. Fear was running rampant, and we were in hiding, and she was completely unconscious yet still affecting the outside world. Two days after she arrived, I went into her room at night, and I had my hand around her throat. It would have been quick. She never would have known.”
A shiver raced up Lucidia’s spine. “What stopped you?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I’d like to say it was something rational, like the potential for strategic apprehension of a weapon, but that would be a falsehood. I knew it was a risk, yet I felt compelled to give her a chance.”
“Did you make the right choice?” Lucidia whispered.
“Yes,” Darian said with a small smile. “She is angry and young and bold in many ways, but she has a good heart. After she’d woken up, we started testing the extent of her power, and she nearly imploded because she was afraid of becoming the weapon that Calliope had described. Even though she would have only been affecting vampires, the idea of it scared her.”
“It can’t be easy, being dropped into this from the human world,” Lucidia said bleakly.
“I can imagine not.”
Lucidia gave a bitter scoff. “I had no clue. I thought she was just some random weakblood girl with weird birthmarks. I figured nobody would even care that she lived and died in the human world.”
“That was the knowledge you were given,” Darian said.
“Yeah, but you still called for my execution.”
“I did so not because I wanted to, but because it is required of me to be an impartial judge. If I had pardoned you at that point, it would have spared you peril, but if my standing as a competent leader were to degrade among my subjects, it would cause thousands peril in the coming years.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” she grumbled. “Even though it wasn’t my fault.”
“That’s why I’m going to pardon you,” Darian murmured.
Lucidia’s head snapped up. “What?”
“I see now the extent of the magical influence you were under. It was caster-born warfare, and it is not fair that I punish you in light of the other vampires who broke rank despite their orders. I could not blame a human for succumbing to a vampire’s pull, and I maintain the same mindset towards Robin’s magical influence. It wasn’t up to you, nor to Kenzo for that matter. I’m planning on pardoning him, as well.”
Her eyes widened. Memories of Kenzo, of her father, of him walking side-by-side Darian as an elite member of the guard, bombarded her. “After all this time?” she whispered, her voice trembling.
Darian gave her a sad smile. “A wise person once told me that I am in charge of the rules, and that I need to fix them if they’re wrong. Calliope clearly manipulated Kenzo into his crimes. I only hope Kenzo understands my regret and sorrow when we see him again.”
“Thank you,” she said, her chest tight with shock. “I… I don’t…”
“We must still reclaim House Xander, and that will take considerable force. Kenzo is in the palace prison, which I assume is overrun by now. I do apologize about your werewolf companions, though my hands were
tied in that matter as well, considering their crimes.”
Lucidia nodded, thinking to Clay and Megan, and how they’d attacked an entire Xander convoy to break her free. She knew that they’d be pursued, but simply assumed they’d gotten to hiding in time, though clearly that hadn’t happened. A bitter taste spread out in her mouth. “Fausta has them.”
“How do you know?”
“Max recorded everything, and is watching it live, too. We saw them. She’s playing gladiator with our people.”
Darian stiffened in his chair, his expression set in pure stone. “We must act quickly.”
“I know you’re like the god of secrets and all, but I’d appreciate an honest answer on this one: did you know about any of this ahead of time?”
“I knew about House Prior’s growing opposition, though I was surprised that their turnover occurred so quickly and painlessly. I also knew that Fausta was conversing with the other vampire masters, but as far as my intel was concerned, she was an annoyance more than a real threat. I don’t know how she and Cain managed this takeover so quickly, but they’ve done an impressive, albeit tragic, job with it.”
Lucidia nodded. “I think they’re compelling humans. They used military airlifting to siege our strongholds. I don’t know how they could risk our entire world by bringing us that close to the mortals, but that’s how they managed to take over everything. I mean, the humans have the manpower, to say the least.”
“It is careless,” Darian said. “But Fausta has always maintained the idea that humans should be subservient. My guess is that she intends to move her warfare onto the human world when she’s done with ours. At that point, any attention drawn to us would be null and void. Cain agrees with her on the idea that the humans are like blackberry bushes that have overgrown and choked the garden out.”
“How do you feel about that?” Lucidia asked, a pit growing in her stomach at the thought of taking on however many billion of them there were now.
Darian shrugged. “The ocean has many fish. Some of them eat others, and some of them assist others, and some of them still float along the ocean floor with no knowledge of the sharks and minnows that war near the surface. Everything has a place, and the fact that vampires do not reproduce as quickly as humans serves an important purpose. If the ocean brimmed to the top with sharks, then the smaller creatures would be obliterated. There is a delicate dance that life performs, and it is only the foolish that are not content with their part in the production.”
