Blood Awakening (20 page)

His canines exploded in his mouth, and he groaned,
scraping them gently against her neck.

Vanya tightened her arms around his shoulders and
let her head fall back completely unabashed, exposing her vein. “Take what you
need, Napolean.” Her breath was a series of shallow pants.

Napolean fought the primal urge with everything he
had. Thank the gods, he had fed last night, or he would have drained her. She
was far too innocent, and he was—exactly what he was—the sovereign lord over a
house of vampires. He pulled back and gazed at her, knowing his eyes were glowing
red, feeling his fangs grow sharper at her request.

“This is what I am, Vanya!” he hissed, allowing
her to see the transformation. “You are better than this.”

Vanya didn’t yell or cry out, but the shock
registered in her eyes just the same, and the sweet smell of fear, mixed with
adrenaline, permeated the room. Her heart was racing—and not just from passion.
He dropped his head, allowing his long black-and-silver banded hair to conceal
his face.

Vanya challenged him then. “Do I, Napolean? Do I
deserve better than the human
destinies
that you join to your males? Better
than the sons that you revere and take hundreds of years to train as masters? Better
than the warriors that you lead...and love? Why is your species beneath mine, dear
lord? How could anyone be
better
than you?”

Napolean shook his head. “You forget,
I was
there
, Vanya.
Before
. Before all of this. Before the Curse. I know
what we once were.”

“And still are, Napolean.”

Napolean shook his head. “You are the daughter of
our
true king
; you are pure and untainted. Vanya, I have the blood of a
thousand men on my hands. I do not even remember the names of the human women I
have taken to my bed, regardless of how seldom I may have done so. I carry
newborn infants to their death, evil or not. I clean up the remains of our
healers…and our warriors…and our wizards after the Curse has claimed them. I
drink the blood of every member of the house of Jadon, and I absorb their every
emotion—their hate, their fear, their lust...even their love. You were placed
in an enchanted sleep at the tender age of
twenty.
My angel
,
I
have
lived
for over twenty-eight hundred years. Oh Vanya, you are
innocence incarnate compared to me.”

All at once, the serious discussion was
interrupted by a heavy set of footsteps approaching from the hall.

Vanya smiled knowingly. “We will continue this
discussion later, my dear king.”

When an ensuing loud knock resounded against the
library door, Napolean frowned with frustration. “I apologize for the
interruption, Princess.”

“Milord?” The deep resonant voice belonged to Nachari
Silivasi.

Vanya placed both hands on Napolean’s shoulders, stood
up on the tips of her toes, and kissed him on the cheek. “Do not let this
matter distract you, Napolean. Go now, and bring back my sister.”

Napolean kissed her forehead and stepped back. “I
will do all that I can under the sun to make it so, Vanya. You have my solemn
vow.”

Vanya nodded. “I know this, Napolean.” She brushed
his cheek once more. “And as for you...come back to me unharmed.”

Napolean laughed a little then. “I am very hard to
kill, Princess. Believe me, there is little chance of that happening.”

Vanya declined her head and gestured toward the
door. “Go meet with your subjects, milord. And may the gods grant you victory and
guide you with a steady hand.”

Napolean bowed slightly at the waist and turned
toward the door. She was right; the matter at hand required his full, undivided
attention. Yet the woman he was leaving had rattled him beyond any danger he
had ever faced.

“Her scent disappears in the clearing.” Marquis Silivasi regarded his brothers as
well as the menacing-looking warriors who sat quietly in Napolean’s dining room,
each one tightly situated in a circle around the table, all staring at a map of
the local terrain. “Once he takes her into the air, it is very hard to follow a
set trail.”

“Can you not triangulate her position using the
blood that runs in your veins?” Napolean asked.

The twins, Ramsey and Saxson Olaru, exchanged an
inquisitive glance. “
You fed from the princess
?”
Ramsey asked, staring
at Marquis with a faint hint of disbelief. “What the hell, Marquis?”

Marquis growled and turned back to the map.
None
of your business, my friend
.

Ramsey’s light hazel eyes darkened for a moment,
the scattered specks of gold flashing crimson before they returned to their
normal hue. “I meant no disrespect, warrior.”

Even as a ruthless—and rightfully feared—Master
Warrior and sentinel of Dark Moon Vale, Ramsey Olaru had only seven-hundred years
to Marquis’s fifteen-hundred: less than half. Marquis severely outranked him,
and consequently, did not have to explain a thing to the younger warrior, even
under circumstances such as these.

Ignoring Ramsey’s apology, as was proper etiquette
meant to imply that no offense was taken, Marquis shook his head. “I can
pinpoint her whereabouts within a couple of miles: The problem I’m having is
her depth. She’s miles underground, Napolean. So deep that I’m losing her
signal.”

Nachari rapped his knuckles on the table,
releasing nervous energy. “There is an anomaly in the position of the stars.” His
tone was thoughtful and deliberate.

“What do you mean?” Marquis raised an eyebrow.

Nachari pulled out a small iron device that
resembled a protractor and laid a transparent map of the heavens directly over the
map of the valley. The two maps matched each other perfectly in coordinates and
dimensions. Turning to Napolean, he began to point out various abnormalities in
the constellations, abnormalities that could never be seen by human eyes, but
were easily detected by a Master Wizard descended of Celestial Beings.

“She is descended of the goddess Cygnus; is she
not, milord?”

Napolean nodded hastily.

Nachari placed the stationary edge of the iron
device on the tail of the divine constellation and moved the point toward the
beak. “Cygnus is known as the Northern Cross or the Swan, but if you look
closely, the beak has moved.
Albireo
is pointing further south.” He drew
a small dot at the new coordinate.

All of the males leaned in closer to see what
Nachari was showing them.

Napolean viewed the map quietly for a few minutes.
“Nachari, trace Marquis’s constellation: Draco.”

Nachari smiled. “You see it, too?” He lifted the
iron device and set it back down over the celestial dragon with the base at the
dragon’s head, the point at its tail. “The tail has dropped toward Polaris.” He
drew another small dot to indicate the change.

“Hmm.” Santos Olaru leaned in closer, his crystal
blue eyes focused on the second point. “The gods are moving the stars. That’s amazing.”

Saxson cleared his voice. “I bet there are a few
scientists at NASA having a coronary about now.”

“No doubt,” Nachari agreed. And then he drew a
line straight through the North Celestial Pole.

Napolean sat back. “It’s an arrow.”

“Yes, it is.” Nachari lifted the top map. “Marquis,
circle the region where you believe the princess to be.”

Marquis picked up a red pencil and drew a circle equal
to about two miles in diameter. Nachari laid the second map back on top of it. The
arrow pointed directly to the center of the region Marquis had circled.

“Holy Serpens,” Santos whispered.

“She’s right there,” Nachari said. “The gods are
showing us her position.”

Marquis grunted. “Good work, little brother.”

Interesting work,
Nachari responded
telepathically.

What do you mean?

Why is your constellation connected to hers?
Nachari
asked.
Why does the goddess Cygnus work with our Lord Draco on this?

Excellent question,
Nathaniel interjected,
sharing the private bandwidth.

Napolean turned to Julien Lacusta, the valley’s
best tracker. “So the question is: If she’s several miles underground—at that
location—how in the world did Salvatore get her there? There are no abandoned
mine shafts in that area.”

Julien ran his hand over his short mahogany hair
and stared down at the map, his moonstone-gray eyes surveying every mile one
quadrant at a time. “I’m getting a terrible feeling about this,” he said,
squinting. “There’s no way she could be that deep underground...unless….” His
gravelly voice trailed off.

“Unless?” Napolean prodded.

“Unless there’s already some sort of tunnel system
or underground structure there, and we’re talking about a big one.”

Ramsey Olaru exhaled and stared at the tracker. “Are
you suggesting that our dark brothers have some sort of cavern system built
underground, directly under Dark Moon Vale?”

Saxson caught his breath, and Santos shifted
nervously in his chair.

Nathaniel looked at Marquis.
Do you know what
that would mean?

Marquis frowned. “What are you saying, Julien?”

Julien shook his head, looking perplexed. “I’m
saying that the nearest underground tunnel is about five miles away in the Red
Canyons, the steep cliffs in the old sacrificial chamber.”

“I know the tunnel you speak of,” Marquis said. “It’s
in the cavern we destroyed in our short battle with the Nistor brothers not so
long ago.” Marquis’s lip turned up in a snarl as he remembered the night he had
tracked Valentine to the sacrificial chamber.

It had been shortly after Nathaniel had discovered
what had happened to Dalia, their youngest brother’s
destiny.
Nathaniel
had searched the memories of his new mate, Jocelyn, only to discover the full
extent of what Valentine had done to their family: He had kidnapped the
destiny
of Nachari’s twin and impregnated her. He had forced her to give birth to his
own evil sons in a hideous ritual that caused her untimely death, ultimately causing
Shelby’s death as well when the young vampire could no longer fulfill the
demands of the Blood Curse.

Marquis had cornered Valentine in the chamber the
same night, but before he could finish him off, Salvatore had shown up to save
him, and then Nathaniel had joined in the battle, which only encouraged Zarek and
Kagen to show up as well. The standoff had almost turned into a full-fledged
vampire war, but luckily, Napolean had put an end to the skirmish before the
entire valley could be destroyed, along with most of its human inhabitants. In
any event, the sacrificial chamber had been all but destroyed in the process.

Valentine got what was coming to him,
Nachari
reminded Marquis.

Marquis shrugged. Yes, they had killed the evil scourge,
but not before Shelby, Dalia, and even his innocent housekeeper, Joelle, had
fallen victim to the maniacal vampire’s schemes.

Nathaniel placed a hand on Marquis’s shoulder,
which Marquis abruptly shrugged off, a typical reaction that didn’t seem to
insult Nathaniel one bit.

“Has anyone here ever explored the cliffs?” Julien
asked, bringing Marquis back to the subject at hand.

One by one, the males shook their heads.

“Those corridors go down for miles,” Ramsey snorted.

“I always thought they were meant as safeguards, to
trap and kill any females who tried to escape the chamber,” Santos added,
standing up, his crystal blue eyes turning cloudy.

Julien shrugged. “But what if they’re not just straight,
vertical corridors? What if they connect to—or lead to—somewhere else?” He
picked up the pencil and began to trace a line across the map connecting the
Red Canyons to the area Marquis had circled. “What if they lead to an
underground passage?”

Napolean’s canines began to lengthen, and the
males instinctively moved away from their fearsome leader, whose legendary
power was enough to incinerate any of them right where they stood simply if he
lost his temper and glared at them.

No one spoke a word for the next five minutes.

Finally, Julien continued: “To go from there”—he
pointed to the Red Canyons—“all the way to here”—he pointed to the area circled
by Marquis—“would require a virtual
colony
of tunnels.”

Nathaniel inhaled sharply.

“
Holy. Shit
.” Santos sat back down.

“Their lairs are right beneath us?” Ramsey asked,
indignant. “How could they hide such a thing?”

Nachari frowned. “With enough diamond and crystal
built into the walls—enough steel to enforce the chambers—they could completely
block their energy. And that far underground? They could mask their presence
from any of us.”

Napolean slammed his fist into the table, and all the
males, save Marquis, literally leapt backward, exiting the room. “And our
valley has more than enough of those resources.” He looked around the empty table
and grumbled, “I’m fine.” He sighed. “Get back in here.”