Kingmakers, The (Vampire Empire Book 3) (42 page)

Gareth knew only suffering. His body was burning up. He was dying. Adele was rigid against him, holding him upright, but she was gone too, lost to the rifts of the Earth. Lost too was his eyesight, consumed by the flames.

He had struggled so to save her, but he had only succeeded in finding her. His head rested on her shoulder. He had no strength to lift it, but he kept repeating her name over and over, his cracked lips brushing her ear.

The ground was still pulsing with intense energy shooting up from the tombs, washing over him again and again. The silver smoke had receded, but the heat remained. His pain crested to unimaginable heights. This was on a scale beyond anything he had ever experienced. He couldn't see his skin, but he knew it would be as black as night. Perhaps he was merely bleached bone, akin to the marble skeletons that surrounded him.

Adele's heart beat wildly but still strongly under his cheek. She was still alive and fighting somewhere. He continued to whisper to her. If all he could do was awaken her and give her enough time to fight free, it was enough.

Suddenly, she dropped to the ground as if she were a marionette with the strings cut. They fell together, still clutched in each other's arms. She didn't move, but she was breathing, steadily, not racked by pain like him.

“Adele,” his tortured lungs continued to rasp out. His lips were against her throat. He knew she still radiated power even if he could barely feel it. He could sense faint drops of cold slipping through his fingers as the stone in his hand liquefied. He was dying slowly, his organs almost gone now, burned through. He longed to see Adele's face again,
touch her hair, but all that was lost to him. He was slipping away. He tried to swallow, but there was nothing but cinders in his mouth.

“Adele,” he whispered one last time, his voice barely audible now. Her blood flowed just beyond his ears. There was no life there for him, but perhaps it would hasten his demise and end his suffering. He could taste her one last time and be consumed, wash the ash from his throat with her gentle spice. And he would be able to tell if she was going to survive. A final union. It would be quick and joyous all at once before it took him.

“I love you,” he told her. And with that he bit her.

Blinking her eyes against the new light, Adele realized she was back in Greyfriar's Kirkyard. She was alive, even though her stomach was twisting this way and that. Her neck hurt. The world spun, and the only thing that grounded her were the arms wrapped around her.

Gareth!

She turned her head, and her mouth opened in a scream of silent horror. His face was charred almost beyond recognition. His fangs protruded cruelly through lips that were burnt away.

“No, oh God. Please no!” Tears streamed, her throat convulsing as she choked on her wrenching sobs. “Gareth!”

This wasn't supposed to happen. She embraced him, not caring what he looked like, rocking him back and forth.

“Don't leave me. Please come back. Just open your eyes.”

But he did not stir.

The graveyard was serenely still except for her terrible weeping. There wasn't another living soul around them for miles. There was no one to be strong for anymore. Hours passed. Eventually, her tears dried on cold cheeks. Sounds came softly to her: a small bird's cry, a gentle wind rustling a tree branch. Life was returning to the kirkyard, all life but one.

Her fingers touched his blistered cheek. “Wake up, Gareth,” she begged him. “I need you.” But he didn't. He lay curled on his side, his terribly blackened head in her lap.

Baudoin had been right. She had been the end of Gareth.

No.

Mamoru had. His body still lay near them, a swath of blood pooled at his side. He was dead. He had once meant so much to her. He had always been there for her and this was how he showed his affection, controlling her like everyone else, everyone except Gareth. And now Mamoru had taken him from her also.

“You will never control me!” she shouted at the lifeless body. Tears were falling again, hot trails bleeding across her cheeks. “You think I'm weak. I'm not. My power belongs to me!”

There was such anger in her along with the anguish, but it had nowhere to go. She was alone. She hunched over Gareth, weeping. Her strength had fled from her, and she could do nothing but hold him.

“It isn't fair. We could have been happy.”

She fumbled for his hand, and she felt something soft. Her eyes widened. Charred skin was peeling away, leaving healthy pink flesh beneath.

His hand was healing.

Her body flinched when he took his first shallow breath. “Gareth!”

He stirred, unfolding from a fetal position, ash falling from him.

“Gareth! Wake up! Open your eyes!” Her body trembled so hard she thought she would fly apart. “Can you hear me?”

His eyes slitted. He blinked repeatedly as if trying to focus. His left hand lifted. “A-Adele?”

“Yes. Yes.” She choked and squeezed his hand. “I'm here.”

“Are we dead?”

“You were.”

His breathing quickened. “I was burning.” His other hand touched his face, where his skin had almost completely healed.

“I don't know how, but you're alive,” she told him.

“I drank your blood,” he whispered.

“What?” She reached up and touched her neck. There was dried blood on it.

“When you were gone. I wanted to be one with you before I…I thought it would…end my pain.”

“It should have. I don't understand. All the other times my geomancy almost killed you.”

“You tasted different. Like wind and rain. Clean. You've changed.”

“No. The Earth changed.” She swallowed hard. “All I remember is that I had to save you. I rearranged the ley lines to stop the flow of energy.”

“You did more than that. I'm different. I shouldn't be able to touch you.” Gareth shoved himself to a sitting position with her help. He touched his chest with a frightened expression. “Have I become human?”

Adele embraced him, her sobs now a joyful noise. His arms lifted around her as well. She laughed with a hiccupping breath as she pinched him as hard as she could. “Can you feel this?”

“No.”

“Still a vampire, I'd say.”

“Oh.”

“Don't sound so disappointed.”

Gareth held her head against him and whispered gently, his voice thick with uncustomary emotion. “I'm not. I just didn't expect to see you again.”

Her arms tried to clutch him, but she couldn't make them respond any longer. Her breath started to shudder as the shock of the last few hours captured her. She was too exhausted to speak, but she drank in the sight of him.

Gareth lifted Adele and carried her into the church beside them, away from the body and the blood on the ground. The sun shone in through the shattered windows, creating honey tones along the length of the building. Gareth found a small alcove under one of the intact arches. The dark timber in the ceiling was like the wings of a protector spread over them. He laid Adele gently down, kneeling over her as if she were the only icon he would ever pray to.

Hours later, they remained cradled together within the quiet solitude of Greyfriar's Kirk.

A
FTER ENDLESS DREARY
clouds and misty rain, the day was bright and clear. The sky above Greyfriar's Kirk was tinted an azure blue. Adele set the bouquet of highly scented wildflowers on the stone tomb bearing Baudoin's name. The townspeople had carved the headstone with great care. Gareth's eyes had been shining when they presented it. It didn't look as ancient as others in the cemetery, but it would eventually. There were mounds of flowers, almost cloying in their sweetness, around the headstone, left there by the citizens of Edinburgh for their fallen.

Adele stepped back with Gareth's help and clasped his waist, holding him close to her. Her body still felt drained, but she was more alive than ever before. When she glanced up at him now there were no tears in his eyes, although there were some in hers.

“Do you think he'll mind?”

“Mind what?”

“The flowers. It's a custom. A human one.”

Gareth regarded her with a puzzled expression. “Why would he mind? He's dead.”

Adele cuffed him and then tried to explain. “Humans like to think people who have passed on can still hear us. It comforts us. Hopefully, Baudoin sees how beloved he was.”

“Yes.”

“I miss him.”

“Yes.” Gareth stood staring at the tomb.

Adele noticed Gareth was growing morose at the sight of his friend's grave, so she tugged him gently to lead him through the kirkyard. The surrounding monuments with their stone lamentations reminded her just how close she came to losing Gareth. Her chest tightened, so she held onto the joy all the tighter.

They passed a recently opened crypt, now a mausoleum for the cats of the castle, and Adele paused to remember them, her eyes misting with tears. She thought it only fitting they have a place here at Greyfriar's Kirk. Their rambunctious presence in the castle had given her the first hint of the humanity dwelling inside Gareth.

A wide shadow passed over them. Looking up they saw
Edinburgh
's hull fly over toward a landing zone at the castle.

“They're back!” Adele shouted. She wanted to run, following the descending airship, but a rapid walk was the best she could manage. By the time they climbed up Castle Hill, she was gasping for breath and hanging on Gareth for support. On the gangplank from the moored airship, Adele noted the flowing robes of Captain Hariri, and then behind him came the figure of General Anhalt.

The sirdar walked with halting steps, leaning heavily on a mahogany cane. His left sleeve was pinned armless to the front of his tunic. His dark face showed the pallor of exhaustion and sported horrific scarring from savage burns. Adele struggled to keep the pain from her expression at the sight of her beloved Anhalt, who had been so brutalized in his endless service to her.

Broad smiles spread over both men as they caught sight of the approaching couple. For the benefit of her station, she should have greeted them formally, but Adele was so overjoyed to see them again, she couldn't help but press into them with as strong a bear hug as she could manage. She breathed in the spicy scent of Alexandria.

“Dear General Anhalt.” She put a hand on his arm and kissed his cheek. “Why are you exerting yourself with these travels so soon? There are many others who are in better condition.”

He appeared confused by her concern and said, with slightly slurred speech, “I am well enough, Majesty. And there is much to do.”

It had been only three months since the consecration in Greyfriar's Kirk. After healing their terrible wounds enough to travel, Adele and Gareth had raced to London on
Edinburgh
to discover what had happened there. On the journey south, they had seen thousands of vampires, all dead. Cadavers burned to ash, lying black and flaking in the wind. In London, they found the crash site that had once been Buckingham Palace. The burnt wreckage of
Bolivar
spread over the ground and, to their amazement, they found a few survivors in the hands of kind Londoners. General Anhalt had lived through the conflagration, but just barely. As soon as he could be moved, the general had taken
Edinburgh
at her best speed back to Equatoria. Now he had returned, bringing ships and troops to occupy London.

“How was Alexandria?” Adele asked eagerly as they proceeded slowly across the castle grounds.

“Warm. Dry.” Hariri angrily drew his coat tight against the damp. “How could there be a land where it rains so much? It's unnatural.”

She raised an eyebrow at the usually more affable captain.

Anhalt leaned over to the empress to explain. “The admiralty tried to promote him. Offered him an office.”

“Would that not be a great honor?” Gareth asked.

Hariri huffed. “I don't need their pity or their daily schedule.”

Adele laughed and slipped her arm through Hariri's. “I love you just the way you are.”

“But I will still receive a raise in salary? Yes?”

“Of course.”

“Then the matter is settled!” Hariri beamed, and the small group strolled toward the palace buildings as Anhalt related the news from Alexandria in a strained voice.

“Prince Simon has made his triumphal return to the capital, much to the delighted surprise of the populace. He is in fine form and has taken to wearing copious amounts of leopard skin and sporting all manner of wicked African blades.”

“Are the people disturbed by the ruse?”

“No. As usual, they are quite taken by the bold strategies of Your Majesty. There seems to be no sense of anger that they were hoodwinked by the prince's death. And you may be at ease that there are men around His Highness who are assisting him to manage the situation there, while you supervise in the north. Prime Minister Kemal has been amazingly upright, and Foreign Minister Doreh is growing into a force to be reckoned with. Fortunately, she is a great loyalist of yours.”

Adele asked, “You came by way of London, yes?”

“Yes,” he told her. “A fleet of six airships is now anchored over London. We have at least two divisions dispersing into the city and its environs.”

“Can we spare the troops from the front?”

“For now. The vampire counteroffensive stalled, and we are gaining ground thanks to their confusion and the warm weather. Field Marshal Rotherford took Lyon in May. The clans are still dangerous, of course. The Danube Front remains static. But the creatures are not nearly so well organized, with Cesare dead.”

Gareth grunted with satisfaction.

Adele asked her commander, “Any sign of vampires in Britain?”

Anhalt shook his head. “No, Majesty. Britain seems cleansed, although they continue to thrive in their former habitats. As we flew in,
Edinburgh
passed a wall of vampires off the cliffs of Dover. Quite extraordinary. The creatures flitted along some invisible barrier that denied them access to the island. Any that dared approach, burned and fell into the sea. Whatever you've done it seems to be permanent.”

“I think you may be right. But still, I've learned to distrust the word
permanent
.”

“You have worked a miracle,” Hariri crowed. “I tell you, there are no vampires in all Britain, present company excepted.”

Adele glanced sidelong at Gareth's impassive face. He remained immune to the geomancy effect. She didn't understand it. There were times she was terrified that it could end at any moment and he'd die in front of her eyes again. Her nightmares were filled with such grisly fears, but they were fading as time passed and he remained safe with his arms around her.

The quartet entered the castle accompanied by some wheezing from both Adele and Anhalt. The silence that greeted them in the dim interior made Adele's heart ache. Gareth reached for her hand and gripped it tight as they traversed the now-empty castle.

He intoned, “There are rooms for you, gentlemen. Morgana will see you settled. There should be a meal in the great hall. Will you join us?”

Hariri rubbed his hands eagerly. “Excellent! That woman can cook my meals anytime.”

Pet suddenly bounded down the hall toward them and Adele knelt to scoop him up. He smelled musty, and she knew the cat had been exploring the recesses of the castle, still searching for his absent companions even after these long months.

As the group entered the great hall, Morgana was just placing a large platter with a glistening roasted chicken on the table. She looked up expectantly at Adele and Gareth, then with surprise at their guests.

“My dream come true!” Hariri exclaimed with an exaggerated sniff. “I've flown through day and night, through storm and sun, through vicious hordes to reach this table. And you.” He gave a brazen kiss on Morgana's cheek and hugged her. She blushed but didn't pull away.

“Aye, it is only my skill in the kitchen that you love, you pirate.”

“Nay, miss. You have so many fine attributes I can scarcely name them all. But at this hour, it is indeed my empty belly that dictates my affections. But who knows where the day may take us.” He winked at her.

Such simple flirting brought warmth to the room, and everyone settled down to eat. The conversation and ale flowed freely, but Adele noticed Gareth said little. His attention had drifted to the high windows.

General Anhalt leaned in his chair, making it creak. “Gareth, are you ready to go to London and become king of Britain?”

The vampire turned slowly to regard him. “King of Britain? What would be the point of that? I would be no more effective there than I am here.”

“We'll need something there. The situation in London is fragile. No doubt, the same across the land. The humans are in wretched shape, both mentally and physically. There are still Undead about, and they attack without discrimination. And there are freed humans who seek retribution against collaborators.”

“How are the people themselves?” Adele asked tentatively. “Do they seem happy to be liberated?”

“They are in shock, I think. Some are aware they are free; others are just stupefied. There are some who see us as the new occupiers.”

“To them, we are.”

“Would they prefer the vampires?” Hariri quipped.

“Of course not, but these people have been under a vicious regime for generations now. They've known one way of life, meager though it was.”

“The eyes of Alexandria will be on you, ma'am,” Anhalt said, stabbing a piece of chicken with a knife.

“This is the first test of imperial ambitions.” Adele tapped a thoughtful finger on the table.

“It will be a delicate affair, I grant you.”

“Hospitals and other needs of the people must be met first and foremost.”

“Construction is already under way on a hospital.”

“Good. Christen it the Miles Clark Memorial Hospital.” Anhalt raised an eyebrow, so she added, “For our fallen American brethren, General.”

“Of course.” Then the general said, “Perhaps you should make a trip south soon, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, I intend to. I need to see to affairs in London for myself.”

“London, yes. But farther south as well.” Anhalt shifted his aching legs with a grimace. “When do you intend to return to Alexandria?”

Gareth stood. “Excuse me.” He walked out of the room.

Hariri stared after him. “Pardon me saying so, but he doesn't seem too concerned about the future of his people.”

“He has no people,” Adele stated solemnly. “He's the king of ashes. I killed them with a wave of my hand.” She glanced at the door before saying, “I want to discuss my plans with you in greater length soon, General. It will be difficult, but I hope to establish some sort of court here in Edinburgh, as well as maintaining my presence in Alexandria. There will be arrangements with the court and Commons, and Simon, to ensure a smooth government there, and here. Furthermore, on the grand issue of our liberation of Europe, it is my intention to seize control of Mamoru's cabal of geomancers, and to unite them with Greyfriar's network. I will do what Mamoru should have been doing all along: create a corps of geomancers who will venture into occupied Europe and train humans to resist their vampire masters.”

General Anhalt huffed appreciatively. “Arming a man's food against him. Cunning.”

“There are difficult and exciting times ahead.” Adele nudged Pet to the floor and rose. She ran a soft hand over Anhalt's shoulder. “I can't express how grateful I am to still have you beside me to see it.”

“No need, Majesty.” The sirdar glanced up at her with a gleam replacing the fatigue in his dark eyes. “It has been my honor. Always.”

“Now, gentlemen, I beg your pardon, but I must step away.”

Hariri took a deep breath and set down his chicken leg. He studied his companion. “I am in awe of you both. After all you've been though, you still won't stop. How long do you think you can maintain your strength, my old friend?”

Anhalt watched his beloved Adele depart. “As long as she needs me. As long as she needs me.”