Blue-Blooded Vamp (42 page)

“Now, are you going to introduce me to your friends?”

I quickly made the introductions. When I got to Tristan and introduced him as my father, her eyes widened and she shot me a questioning glance. “Long story,” I said.

She seemed to accept that. “And where’s Mr. Giggles?”

“He’s waiting for us in Gizal,” Adam said.

The mention of the demon realm sobered everyone right up. After all, as nice as this little reunion was, we couldn’t afford to hang out. Not with Cain on our tail.

“Vinca,” Adam said. “It’s so good to see you, but we’re kind of in a hurry. Can you point us to the next gate?”

She frowned. “You’ve already found it.” She pointed to the pool.

“I thought you said it was a scrying pool?” Tristan asked.

“It’s both. In order to pass through to the vampire realm, you’ll have to accept the vision the pool offers.”

“What kind of vision?” I asked.

“It’s different depending on the viewer. Could be anything, really.”

Given the tests so far, I had a pretty good idea the scrying pool wasn’t about to offer up a happy vision.

Before I could respond to Vinca’s explanation, a voice called out through the forest. “Sabina!” Cain’s singsong call made my heartbeat stumble.

A chill passed over me, like someone walked over my grave. I looked around to see if anyone else heard it. Everyone except Nyx and Horus—the other vampires in the group—just watched me. Their expressions were tense as they waited for my answer but otherwise untroubled. But Nyx paled and sweat beaded on her brow. “He’s coming,” she whispered. Beside her Horus white-knuckled his sword.

“What? Who?” Calyx demanded.

“Cain,” I said simply. Without wasting time explaining further, I turned to Vinca. “How do I do this?”

“Just clear your mind and gaze into the waters. It will take care of the rest.”

While I ran to the edge of the pool, I heard Nyx explain to the others what we’d heard. Our vampire ears allowed us to hear things from very far away. Our only hope now was to get the portal open ASAP and jump through before Cain descended.

Tristan started barking orders for everyone to spread out to guard the perimeter. I placed my hands on the soft moss and blew out a long, slow breath. I cleared my mind and focused on the glowing water. I stared until my eyes unfocused. The water went blurry but didn’t change.

“Saaabiiiinaaaa!” Closer now. A couple of miles and closing in fast. Muttered curses reached me as everyone else finally heard Cain’s call.

I blinked and shook myself. “Come on,” I said to the water. “Show me already.”

The surface warped and stirred, then began swirling. Then it stilled, calm and clear as a mirror’s surface. At first, I couldn’t make out any discernible symbols or images. I leaned closer, bending out over the water.

Smoke rolled across the surface. When it cleared, I saw myself crying. My hair was blond and hung around my face like a shroud.

“What the hell?” I whispered as I watched the scene unfold.

In the vision, I looked up as doors burst open and Cain rushed into the room with an army of spirits. I could smell their bloodlust, their hatred.

The shot widened and revealed a raven-black woman looming over me like death itself. Lilith.

“Your answer?” she demanded. “Quickly!”

I looked up at her, my hair falling back to reveal bloodshot eyes totally lacking in strength or hope. In a voice as dead as the ghosts in Cain’s army, I whispered, “It’s too late.”

“Saaaabiiinna!” Cain’s voice cut through my brain like a blade, severing my connection to the pool. He was closer. Too close.

The pool released me from its thrall. I fell back on my ass on the moss-covered shore.

“Red?” Adam called. “Getting anything?”

Hands trembling, I pushed the hair back from my eyes. My stomach felt like a nest of vipers.

“Sabina?” Tristan called when I didn’t answer Adam.

“Yeah?” I said absently.

“What’d you see?” Adam again.

I looked up and realized everyone was staring. With the
exception of Vinca, they all looked curious and tense. I quickly decided to keep the vision to myself. I wasn’t so easily swayed that I’d let one incomplete hallucination destroy my resolve.

Besides, even if my initial interpretation was right, I was fully prepared to die as long as I took Cain with me. But this wasn’t a debate I wanted to have with Adam or anyone else.

I swallowed the residue of shame left over from watching myself cower. “It showed me Maisie’s death.”

Adam’s face fell. “Oh gods, Red.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

Vinca cleared her throat. I glanced at her and froze. The nymph’s expression was so grave that I had to believe she knew I was lying. Had she seen the vision? I pleaded with my eyes for her to keep it to herself. She nodded subtly.

“So how do we open the gate?” Tristan called.

“Sabina has to place a drop of blood in the water.”

I licked my lips. After seeing my own death, a small blood sacrifice was hardly worth a second thought. I bit the tip of my finger and milked two large drops of blood. When they hit the pools, the waters boiled like a cauldron and swirled.

“The gate is open,” Vinca called.

“He’s here!” Calyx shouted from the perimeter.

“Everyone jump in! Now!” I shouted. I ran to Vinca and stopped myself just in time to keep from falling through her again. “I’m sorry to leave you like this.”

She laughed through a sob. “What’s he going to do? Kill me?”

“I didn’t deserve you as a friend then and certainly don’t now, but I’m relieved as hell you’re too stubborn to do what’s best for you.”

My friend raised a hand and touched mine. An icy chill spread through my muscles and bones, and once again, I felt the friction of her soul trying to attach to mine. The spectral contact was as close to a high five as she could give me. “Give ’em hell, my friend.”

“Sabina!” Adam yelled from the bubbling pool. Vinca pulled her translucent hand from mine. The loss of her coldness was both a relief and a disappointment. With one last smile at my friend, I turned and ran full-tilt toward the water. I grabbed Adam’s hand and together we leapt into the swirling vortex of water the instant Cain burst into the clearing.

E
ven though we’d jumped down into the scrying pool, we emerged up into a stark, alien landscape tinted black and red. Instead of the clean, iridescent waters of the faery realm, this underground lake was filled with blood.

“Ugh!” Adam groaned, leaping out.

Tristan was less vocal with his disgust but beat a hasty exit as well. Meanwhile, Nyx, Horus, and I took our time. I even swallowed a few mouthfuls of the stuff as I glided toward the edge. The blood tasted pure, like the hemoglobin equivalent of a clear mountain spring. When I finally reached the edge, Adam held out a hand to help me climb out of the crater.

“Well, I think it’s safe to assume we made it to the Bloodlands.”

I shook myself off like a wet dog. “Everyone look alive. I have more enemies here than I can count.”

Horus snorted. “You’re not the only one.”

I stilled, remembering that he’d once been an assassin for the Dominae, too. “Let’s just pray word of our visit hasn’t spread here.”

Nyx was looking around. “Hey, where’s Calyx?”

We all exchanged worried looks. “Shit, I thought she came through with us?” Adam said.

I shook my head. “Last time I saw her, she was running toward the forest. I figured she’d jump in after us.”

We all fell silent as we processed that information. “Vinca will help her,” Adam said. “After all, Calyx is a faery.”

“We need to go back,” Horus said, stepping toward the pool.

Tristan grabbed his arm. “We can’t. Most likely she’s busy being a pain in the ass to Cain to give us a head start. If we go back now, her sacrifice will mean nothing.”

Horus stared intently at the red pool, as if willing Calyx to emerge. A few tiny bubbles popped on the surface, but no one emerged.

“Horus,” Tristan said, his tone quiet but authoritative. “We need to move.”

When the vampire looked up, his face was composed. I knew that giving up on Calyx cost him, but he was a seasoned soldier. He’d see the mission through and use his emotions to fuel him in battle. “Let’s go.”

“What did Valva say to expect here?” I asked Tristan.

He shrugged. “I believe her exact words were ‘It’s creepy as shit.’ ”

Looking around at the black volcanic rock that made up the walls of the cave, I found myself agreeing. “Let’s get out of this place. Maybe outside looks better.”

I led the way to the mouth of the cave. Outside, the sky was dark like midnight. I guess this shouldn’t have surprised me, but since the mage and faery realms were both covered in blue skies, I’d assumed the Bloodlands would be the same. But I guess it made sense that vampires would be most comfortable in a nocturnal setting even in death.

The landscape outside wasn’t much different than the cave. A blood river ran through the center of a deep cavern formed by porous cliff faces. Only the golden leaves of a few apple trees broke up the red and black theme. Limbs heavy with the forbidden fruit, the trees clung to rocky crags like they were about to plunge to their deaths in the river below. Only instead of the common red apples of the mortal realm, these had black skin.

“Apple trees?” Adam asked.

I shrugged. “They can’t hurt them now, I guess.” In order to kill a vampire, you had to first remove their immortality with a dose of the forbidden fruit’s toxic juice. Now that they were in Irkalla, the dead vamps could indulge in apples for eternity.

I approached a low-hanging limb and plucked one. Using the knife from my boot, I cut into the flesh. The inside was as red as a rose and the crimson juices dripped over my hands like I’d shived someone. I raised my hand to lick away the drops, but Nyx grabbed my wrist.

“No!” she yelled.

“Nyx, I’m immune to the forbidden fruit.”

She shook her head. “These aren’t normal apples. I didn’t know they really existed before now, but according to my research, they’re fabled to make any immortal being mortal. Any.”

“Even gods?” Adam asked.

She nodded solemnly.

Adam raised his brows and stuck a couple of the apples into his pack.

“Shit, thanks,” I said to Nyx.

She took the apple from me and threw it. It splashed into the blood river where it burst into flames. “Consider the scales between us balanced.”

I wasn’t so sure they’d needed balancing. After all, it’s not like I saved Nyx’s life. I’d simply refused to end it. Still, I smiled at the vampire, relieved to put that nasty business behind us. “Deal.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Tristan snapped.

We followed the river for a mile or two until we saw a large castle set high on a cliff. The place looked straight out of old Hollywood versions of Count Dracula’s eerie abode.

Tristan pointed to the building. “Who wants to bet the gate’s in there?”

“Of course it is,” I said with a sigh. We followed a winding path leading up to the cliff. The higher we went, the more I could see of the Bloodlands. From this bird’s-eye view, I finally saw the souls of several vampires. Or rather, I saw the shadows of several bent, dark creatures. Instead of the swaggering monarchs of the night they’d been in the mortal realm, here they resembled wraiths.

The shadows crawled over the banks of the blood river and lapped up the liquid like animals. As I watched, one soul strayed too close to another. The vampire whose territory had been breached turned on the other with fangs flashing. They fell on each other like two lions battling over a prime watering hole. The battle was brief but fierce. The loser skulked away into a cave to lick his metaphorical wounds. The victor started to resume drinking from the river, but something caused it to stiffen. Its head jerked around to look up at me.

I froze. The feral face belonged to Alexis Vega.

I shuddered.

“Red?” Adam whispered. “You coming?”

I pointed a shaky hand at Alexis. “Adam, look.”

The spirit that used to be Alexis snarled and turned her back on us. Adam let out a breath. “Jesus.”

Is that what I would become when I finally died? A bloodthirsty wraith forced to scrape and fight for a meager slice of territory for all eternity?

I tensed to go help her, but Adam grabbed my shoulders and turned me back toward the path. “No, Red. We can’t do anything for her now. We’ve got to keep moving.”

I shook off the horror and guilt of seeing my old ally turned into little more than an animal. Her fate was sealed. Ours were not. With a regretful last glance at Alexis, I turned and continued up the hill.

By this point, we’d almost reached the top of the cliff. Two vampires stood guard at the black gate. They each held spears, which they crossed to bar our entrance. “Who seeks entrance to the Dominae’s fortress?”

“David?” I said. “Ewan?”

David Duchamp was an old friend who I’d killed back in Los Angeles after the Dominae told me he’d been feeding information to their enemy, Clovis Trakiya. I later found out David had been innocent, and I carried the guilt of that decision like a lead yoke ever since.