The Phantom King (The Kings) (18 page)

But the Anime had finally arrived.

And there would be time for fun la
ter. Thane would make certain of that
.

Slowly, he turned to face the rogue spirit.
Steven
Lazarus
had materialized in t
he living room, his tall
form as real and solid as
he was. “I’m here,” he told Thane, defiance etched into his handsome features.
“
You want me, Phantom King
?
Come and get me.”

Chapter Eleven

Marius
, the Akyri King,
knew well that he was treading
on
thin ice. The being he now approached was unlike any he had ever so much as looked at,
whic
h wasn’t saying much, as so far
he couldn’t really see anything.
It was dark up ahead.

He was taking a great chance in coming here. But he’d been given information so valuable, a chance so rare and precious, to
ignore it would probably have
been a grave mistake. Especially now – now that he could feel the other
twelve
of the thirteen
sovereigns getting edgy. Namely, D’Angelo.

It wouldn’t be long before the Vampire King stepped in, and when he did, Marius wo
uld have the fight of his life
on his hands.

This would help hi
m avoid it. It would help him get what he wanted now –
and
in the long run.

When Marius had
gone after the red-headed warlock,
Siobhan,
he’d wound up facing off with a mortal who Marius was no longer so certain was only mortal.
A fight had ensued; the man had been a cop, and well trained in the art of combat. He’d given Marius a run for
his money, and in the end, t
h
e entire ordeal had been a bust
in more ways than one.

T
he struggle had drained Marius more than usual. He’d cornered the human and begun to destroy him
with a conflagration spell
when an odd sensation had assaulted him. He enveloped the mortal in a killing blaze, and as he did so, he had the strangest feeling… that he was killing
himself
.

It was off-putting enough that Marius pulled back at the very last moment,
withdrawing the
final elements
of his spell. The damage he’d done was more than adequate to kill a human. And if his opponent was human, he would be no more than a spirit now and no doubt inhabiting the Phantom King’s miserable realm.
He was out of the way, and that had been the point.

However, if he was
not
human
,
if there was th
e slightest chance that Marius’
feeling about the man was on the mark and
he truly was some kind of Akyri
despite the shell of humanity he wore
,
then he would survive. His mo
rtal form would
disappear
and he would undergo
changes as the huma
nity in him was sloughed off. A
fter a brief recovery period in which he would no doubt need to absorb the power of a warlock, he would return to being
as he was, i
f a bit more powerful
than before. A bit less human and
a touch more Akyri.

The problem was, issuing this
spell
and then pulling back
on it as he had was untowardly hard on Marius.
He’
d needed sustenance after the cop had disappeared and the fire had settled – a
nd the
little
warlock
he’d come for
was nowhere to be found.
This further disappointment served to anger Marius enough that he proceeded to destroy the house around him before leaving the area.

He
’d
lost on two counts.

And now he not only felt denied, he felt
vengeful.
He’d tried to return to take her many times. Her power, so dark and sparkling and pure, pulled at him as no other magic ever had.
But each time he located her – during
her move, in her new home –
it
was there. Some sort of force field, keeping him out.

Enough was enough.

Last night, he’d had a dream
about a figure on a dark throne. In the dream, he’d
been given a great gift. H
e’d tasted magic upon his tongue, in his bon
es, coursing through his veins. It had been
her
magic. In the dream, he’d won.
And she was his.

The figure on the throne would give him the power he needed to get past the for
ce field and take what he wanted
.
And that was why he was here
, standing at the opening of a hidden cave and gazing across a torch-lit expanse at a darkness that would grant him his deepest desires
.

He could see nothing in that
depthless black
, so out of respect and a touch of fear he hoped did not show, Marius bowed his head.

“I told you
others would come,” came a female voice.

Marius’
head snapped up, his
cold eyes
sparki
ng like the sun glinting off
an ice berg.
The darkness had lifted a little and he could now make a few things out.

A woman
he hadn’
t seen before
stood beside the stone
-hewn throne across the
cavern
ous
chamber.
She was incredibly beautiful
,
from her thick ebon hair, pale skin, and red lips to the tall, voluptuous body below and the provocative manner
in which it was dressed
.

She was also a vampire.

Centuries as the Akyri King afforded Marius
many
things, not the least of which was the ability to identify supernatural beings on sight.

The va
mpire woman smirked at him, her
crimson lips turned up in that secret smile so many vampires had down to an art
. Her dark blue eyes gave off an unnatural light. She was hungry. It was a look he knew well.

Beside her, in the shadows of a massive pitch-black throne apparently carved out of obsidian or onyx, a figure in a black robe stirred. It was the slightest of movements, and yet the air in the cavern moved with him. It shifted as he did, almost flickering as if he’d disrupted the balance of ions in the atmosphere.

Marius swallowed. It made a very audible sound in the unnatural silence.

The woman leaned toward the figure as if listening. Marius heard nothing, but a moment later, she straightened and her smile expanded,
giving him a glimpse of
her fangs. She left the throne’s side and made her way down the stone steps of the raised
dais, her heels clicking on the rock
.

“My lord has decided to grant your request,” she told him.

His
gaze narrowed.
I haven’t asked yet.

“No need,” she said as if she could read his mind.
He was an Akyri, and hence born on the same warlock magic that ran through a vampire’s veins. The advantage was that most vampires could not read his mind. Roman D’Angelo was a notable exception.

Perhaps this woman was as well.

“
My lord knows what it is that you
want, and he believe
s that giving it to you would prove
beneficial where everyone is concerned.” She stopped a few feet from him and lowered her gaze to take him in from head to toe. “
Especially for him
,” she finished. Her tone had taken on a sultry note.

“Can you read my mind
, Offspring
?” Marius asked her point-blank
, referring to her by the other name vampires were known as in the supernatural world
.
“Offspring” was not as formal as “vampire,” and a little
derogatory
since it insinuated that a vampire was nothing more than the product of someone else’s roll in the hay. However, he
kept the
level
of his voice personal. There was no need to raise it; vampires had excellent hearing.

The woman cocked her head to one side and her smile broadened. Her eyes were beginning to glow. “I can.”

“Then I can see you’ve had a few wishes granted yourself,” Marius wagered.

She chuckled, the sound enticing. “I have.
You saw this
in a dream, did you not?
” She gestured to the room and the dark throne behind her. “
So did I. This is my dest
iny, and it is clearly also yours
.”

Marius said nothing.

“
The
rewards for your servitu
d
e
will be many, Akyri King,” the woman continued. She
raised her hand and gently trailed a fingernail along his jaw line. “You have no idea.”

Marius looked from her to the dark, shadowy figure upon the throne that had yet
to move again
. “Oh, I think I do
.”

Chapter Twelve

Phantom King?
Siobhan thought. Had she heard that correctly? She
had little time to consider it, because a foreboding
was uncoiling
within her. A tight knot of dark
fate
was coming loose, painful in its
whiplash unraveling
. Something bad was about to happen.