Kingmakers, The (Vampire Empire Book 3) (7 page)

Adele halted inside the arch to let her snow-strained eyes adjust to the inky interior. A minute dragged by before the darkness receded, only to be replaced with the blurry shape of a vampire standing no more than a foot away from her, his fanged mouth gaping slightly, but thankfully gazing past her. He was sniffing the air, as if sensing something wasn’t right.

She forced her breathing to shallow. Her body, however, wouldn’t stop shivering. Her jaw clamped shut against the chattering. The vampire eased its masculine frame from the wall where he was leaning and moved toward her. Adele shifted and laid her body as close against the wall as possible, trying to avoid him touching her.

The vampire followed the scent he was tracking, stepping past Adele to go outside. Only then did she remember the animal carcass down the hill. The blood was probably like a beacon to any vampire. With relief, she pushed off from the wall and proceeded deep into the Bastille.

Gareth saw the bulk of King Vittorio surrounded by his clan lords on the crumbling terrace of the Bastille. Before the Great Killing, vampires were never so fat, but now it wasn’t uncommon. Snowfall cut the visibility, but the sounds of Anhalt’s assault were clear, as were flashes of fire and the chatter of small arms. Scouts dropped and lifted from the terrace carrying news and ferrying orders from the king. The jowly monarch looked up with a start as Gareth and his bodyguard landed nearby. The king continued talking with messengers and his gathered nobles, but his eyes flicked to Gareth occasionally. Vittorio didn’t seem shocked to see his visitor, but rather annoyed.

Gareth grew restive waiting for the king to summon him. His impatience must have shown because Vittorio smiled smugly. Valuable time passed, minutes of Adele being alone and unescorted. Gareth began to calculate what it would take to escape this situation, but he couldn’t be assured of killing all these vampires, and leading a chase back to Adele was useless. He could only wait for the fat king to acknowledge him. When the last round of runners went scurrying off, Vittorio raised a finger at the soldiers around Gareth.

The cadre’s commander bowed to the king. “Sire, we have found a visitor who craves your attention.”

“Gareth, isn’t it?” Vittorio said. “I haven’t seen you in a century or more, but you look like him, only older and softer.”

Gareth didn’t reply that Vittorio looked like an obscenely bloated version of the last time he had seen the king of Grenoble.

Vittorio flinched from a massive blast in the valley, then said, “I know why you’re here. I thought I was quite clear to your ambassador months ago that I have no interest in your Grand Coalition. As you can see, we are managing these humans quite well. I have no intention of surrendering my independence to Cesare, that upstart king of kings. Sending his brother won’t change my mind.”

Gareth’s brow gathered in surprise just as another explosion vibrated the ground.
Cesare had courted Grenoble?

The king smiled, mistaking the reason for Gareth’s reaction. “Does battle disturb you, Prince Gareth?”

“No, Sire. I am far from danger here with you.”

Vittorio bristled and shook a plump finger at the foreign prince. “Watch your mouth.”

A messenger interrupted. “Your Majesty, I am sent from the war chief. The humans have completely abandoned their camp and have come in full force.” Several of the nobles tensed. “But they are already flagging. Their power will soon be spent.”

The king forgot Gareth’s comment and glanced at his noble companions with a satisfied air. “See, gentlemen? I told you they would have to come. Humans are so predictable. They have gambled and lost, as they must.” He turned to the courier. “Tell the war chief I want all packs out. Send three to fall on the humans from behind. There is no retreat for them this time. This is the moment we have waited for. We must crush them.”

The messenger departed up into the flakes. Several nobles bowed to the king and also took flight, eager to be in on the glorious slaughter they assumed was coming.

Vittorio put a friendly hand on Gareth’s arm. “As I told the lovely Lady Hallow, a human attack holds no dread for me. Unlike you Brits, we here in the Alps fight the humans in the south frequently. I told her we welcome an army, Equatorian or whomever. They came, and we trapped them like the foolish bugs they are. We bled them slowly until they had no choice but to attack, or lie down and die. Now we will finish them. Meanwhile, those weaklings who allied with your brother have fared much poorer. St. Etienne is gone, and Lyon may be next. I will stay safe and independent in my mountain fastness, thank you.”

Gareth kept a bland face despite his surprise at the king’s words. St. Etienne and Lyon allied with Cesare? His brother was clearly reaching out to clans across Europe and had created a far larger network than Gareth realized. It wasn’t just Munich and Budapest. Everything he had told Adele and Anhalt about the parochialism of the clans making it easy for the humans to face them one at a time was wrong. Cesare was again innovating in horrifying ways. Gareth reminded
himself, once more, to stop underestimating his brother. It wasn’t just his life at stake anymore.

The king laughed, as did the remaining nobles. “Or have you come from Cesare to ask for my help? Perhaps you want my packs to save you? I know the humans continue to occupy St. Etienne despite Flay’s counterattacks.”

“Flay,” Gareth snarled involuntarily. The vile war chief was near. He would never be rid of her. Still, Flay was not his primary concern at the moment, as he was reminded when more distant blasts from the town rumbled the terrace. He flexed his hands nervously, discomfited by his too-long absence from Adele. He sniffed the air for hints of the empress, but there were none. He had to find her, to be sure she was safely to her goal. Even if she had found it on her own, she wouldn’t trigger the attack not knowing where Gareth was located.

The Scottish prince said, “Majesty, if there is nothing I can say to sway you to my brother’s side, I will take my leave.”

Vittorio regarded him curiously. “You haven’t said anything. You may go, but there will soon be a feast. Stay if you wish.”

“Thank you, no. My duties require me elsewhere. I will certainly tell Cesare of the magnificence of your packs.”

The king grunted with satisfaction and patted the prince on the shoulder. “It was a pleasure to see you, Gareth. I always assumed you would succeed Dmitri, and Cesare would be your messenger.” The fat monarch shrugged at the mysterious ways of the world. “Please do stop by again.”

“Thank you, Sire. I hope to spend time in Grenoble once the battle is over.”

Gareth lifted into the snowy air and angled hastily toward the St. Laurent side of the Bastille, dropping along the jagged path leading up the hillside where he whispered harshly, “Adele!” The wind echoed in his ears along with the far-off drumming of guns. He half crawled, half flew along the sheer stone wall, moving toward the river below. “Adele!”

He continued along the path, stopping and calling, with no response, until he arrived at the battlements immediately overlooking the church. Perhaps she had already reached the Bastille. He had been
quite some time waiting for King Vittorio to speak to him. So Gareth retraced his steps back up the mountain. His limbs were numb from worry and his heart raced. He frantically searched the air for her scent. He listened for her voice, cursing the intermittent sounds of war that blotted out all sounds. The snow had increased and the wind grew stronger, so he found no trace of her on the ground either.

When he neared the Bastille, he followed the path to a doorway in the stone where an iron gate was rusted and falling aside. Snow had blown into the doorway and there, on the edge of the drift, protected from the wind, were faint tracks in the snow on the stone floor.

Adele. She was inside. Which meant she was close to her target.

Gareth scattered the white footprints to keep anyone who came after from seeing them, and plunged into the stone corridor.

Each dark turn Adele made brought another vampire standing or striding through the narrow passages. It took all of her concentration not to lose focus on the line and yet stay out of their way. One collision and she would be fair game.

Adele wished for more light, but vampires had no need of it. There were some human servants inside and they held faint candles, but they were few and far between. She kept her fingers touching the wall, and walked slowly, ever ready to step aside for a vampire who blocked her path.

Pressure built inside Adele, and she knew she was approaching the rift. Everything smelled earthy and green, full of life, even in the stone corridors of the fort. She wished she could see the lines rather than just sense them. Amazingly, in a flash of light, lines on the floor glowed white. Surges of energy flowed like blood, and much of it rushed toward her. Her mouth hung open in amazement when she saw the colors pooling around her. The sensations and smells were becoming overpowering, like overripe fruit. She was somehow drinking in the energy from the line where she stood.

There was a sharp pain, as if her skin was being stretched to its
limit. Adele could barely hold the energy she contained, but she had to. There was no telling where Gareth was at this moment.

Anhalt’s assault was likely well inside the city, with no hope or intention of retreat. Thousands of vampires would be swarming the Equatorians. The slaughter on both sides must be terrible. Every minute Adele delayed escalated the loss of life mounting on the streets of Grenoble.

Come on, Gareth
, Adele entreated mutely.
Give me a sign
. Soon she would have no choice but to activate the rift; her body would be unable to dampen the energies piling inside. She could feel the rift beckoning her, luring her closer. She followed the pulsing line on the floor, struggling to keep her breath even and silent so as not to attract attention. The arched ceiling stretched down the corridor like a multitude of mirror images. She didn’t know exactly where it led, but it was where the line was taking her, deeper into the bowels of the Bastille.

With each step, she felt as if she were wading through a wild river’s cascade. The powers swirled around her legs and chest, pushing her toward the rift. It forced her to lean back or she would stumble forward with the pull of it. Only with great concentration was she able to calm the flow and make the energy slip more peacefully around her. The patterns in the earth shimmered, just as she was shimmering, in a beautiful, hypnotic rhythm.

Something jarred inside, and she knew her last step had placed her over the rift. It was like stepping over an endless expanse. Her stomach dropped. She could see nothing under her but a swirling vortex of energy. Tendrils of pulsating light reached greedily for her. Adele should have been terrified, but she only wanted to sink into the expanse and explore, to surrender herself in the grip of something warm and powerful.

Mamoru’s fervent lessons shouted in her ears. The energies of the earth were terrible things. She could be lost within them.

Her mind snapped back to the present. The power bristled and crackled, sending shocks along her skin. The pain in her body swelled to a crescendo.

“Adele?”

The barely whispered word cut through the storm of sight, scent,
and sensation. She opened her eyes. She was standing slumped against a wall inside a large vaulted chamber. Her head lifted, and she saw Gareth just a few feet away, his eyes scanning the corridor, his nostrils flared as he tried to follow her scent.

She pushed off the stone and her hand reached out, but then stopped as she saw the energies swirling like silver smoke around her fingers.

Gareth flinched and then, realizing what he was feeling, jerked toward her, finally focusing on a faint shimmer. “Are you there?”

“Go now!” Her voice sounded deeper, as if resonating. Other vampires in the corridor turned toward the empty space she occupied. They stiffened, sensing the discomfort of the pulsing rift.

Gareth didn’t hesitate, but sprinted out into the nearest passageway, his form a distant blur in seconds. A number of the other vampires started backing away as the energy boiled inside her. Some stood their ground, sensing the danger but also sensing something else that perhaps they could attack.