The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of Ash (18 page)

Nothing.

I growl with displeasure. Dagan is not my friend. That much is clear. And he is not my enemy—yet.

The most dangerous type of foe is one you do not understand. Because those you do not understand, you might underestimate.

Just like I did with Riyu.

Finally all preparations are complete. I’m called to join the pack.

“Give me your hands,” Dagan says.

I scoff. “Why?”

He takes out a pair of manacles. “Because these are to go on your wrists.”

I meet his gaze. “No.”

He sneers. “Do you really wish to challenge me?
Again?”
The vampires around me take a menacing step inward. “We own you, James. Either you put them on willingly, or we use force.”

“Why now?” I demand, my pride making me obstinate. It was always a prickly thing, that pride. “You freed me from the collar, and now you want to bind me in chains.”

“The collar was silver. It affected your head. These—” he hefts the manacles in his hands, “—are made of iron. They are meant to keep you in line.”

“If they are iron you know how easily I’ll be able to break out.”

Dagan’s lips twitch up in a half-smile. “Then you should not protest against putting them on.”

The vampires around me are watching the interaction with hungry eyes.

Finally, I give a resigned sigh and offer him both arms. “It’s a shame you don’t trust me.”

“It’s not me,” Dagan says as he clamps the cuffs over my wrists. “It’s your Father. And, yes, I think it’s a shame, too.”

He smiles in satisfaction once they’re secure. “Now, on to The Crypts. Riyu?”

The weakest of the vampires steps forward. He stops right beside me. I look at him. I don’t like the secretive smirk that’s on his face.

He winks.

A bright blue flash streams out from where he’s standing. I shield my eyes with one arm against the light. When the spots in my vision fade, I look back—and discover a rotating sphere hovering above the ground, approximately waist-high.

None of the other vampires look the least bit impressed. But I stare at it in wonder. It’s obviously magic—but magic the likes of which I did not know existed in our world.

The sphere starts to spin faster. As it does, it exerts a suction on the air, almost like a black hole. The cavern we’re in is unlit, but because of our vampire vision we can all see through the dark. Yet as the sphere spins and spins and spins, I find my vision diminishing. The corners of the room become cloaked in a black that my eyes cannot pierce.

It’s more than unnerving. It’s downright terrifying.

But it is fascinating all the same
.

Riyu begins to chant. It’s a low, slow incantation. The cadence builds until the pace of his words matches the frequency of the spinning orb. The cavern walls completely disappear from my vision. Not long after, the vampires on the other side of the orb become hidden, too.

Riyu’s words grow louder. The very air shimmers. A similar resonance to that I felt right before the ground gave way in my prison beneath the earth is at hand here.

The orb expands and flattens at the same time until it’s the size and shape of a round café table. Dagan gives a command.

One by one the vampires around me leap into the spinning blue light. I watch as it swallows their forms, and they wink out of existence.

Eventually it’s just me, Riyu, and Dagan. “You next,” the huge vampire grunts. “Quickly.”

“How do I know it’s safe?” I ask.

“You don’t.” Dagan grins.

And, just like that, he shoves me inside.

ELEIRA

Raul storms off after Morgan’s declaration about the human slave. Phillip and I look at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Oh, go!” the Queen says. “Go chase after him, go bring him back, go do whatever it is you need to do.” She grimaces at Bradley’s body. “Somebody will need to clean this mess up.”

She retreats into her own private hall, effectively dismissing us.

Phillip stops me outside the castle. “Let’s give Raul some time to cool off.”

I nod. The darkness of The Haven weighs on me, and it’s not just from the lack of light. There’s tension and turmoil in the air. Things are changing too rapidly for me to keep up.

“Where do you go when you want to just… get away?” I ask. “When you need to clear your head?”

Phillip looks at me in thought. “Usually I’d be in my suite,” he says, “but I have a feeling you’re asking for something else.” He turns his head in the direction of the far woods. “There is… well, I’d better just show you.”

He takes me past the first row of trees. The ground beyond them slopes upward. It’s rocky and uneven, but there’s a feeling of cleanliness here, of purity.

We hike in silence for a long time. I appreciate the serenity. After all the commotion I’ve endured, this is the perfect escape.

We come upon a deer trail. I hear an owl hoot from high above. A light breeze blows through the trees.

Then the ground before us drops, and I’m presented with the view of a magnificent secret valley. At the bottom is a small lake, dark and tranquil. Smooth black pebbles line the beach.

Phillip looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. “Well?” he asks.

“Phillip, it’s beautiful!” I say. “Can we go down to the water?”

“That’s why I brought you here.”

He offers me his arm. I take it, and we make our way down the slope. The lake reflects the many stars shining down on us from the sky.

“This used to be one of my favorite spots in the entire Haven,” Phillip tells me. “Raul’s, too. We would spend hours here at a time. The water has a calming effect on us, we found. When things were getting too hectic outside, this was the perfect place to retreat to.”

“I can see why,” I murmur softly.

Phillip nods. “I still come here sometimes. Raul does not anymore.”

I look at him. “Why?”

He exhales. “There was a girl, long ago. Her name was Liana. She…” he trails off, and runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know if I should be telling you this.”

“You can’t just start and leave me hanging!” I protest.

“Raul would kill me if he found out.” Phillip offers a wry smile. “Figuratively speaking, of course. I think I have to clarify in light of recent events.”

Is he making a
joke
?

“Can you keep a secret?” he asks.

I feel a small zap of excitement. “Yes!”

“Liana was very important to Raul. They met, I believe, when he led the coven’s vampires on a hunt. This was nearly two hundred years ago. The systems we have in place today were not so developed back then. We did not have
The Hunt
, for example. Vampires made pilgrimages out of The Haven once a month to feed on humans in faraway towns and villages. We kept a few humans here as slaves, but there were always more vampires than humans in The Haven.”

“What changed that?” I ask.

“The landscape of the world. As new technologies emerged, Mother realized it wasn’t viable to keep sending hunting parties out. The murders would be discovered. She began the breeding program and set up the village as you know it now. That led to an expansion of the human numbers. Soon, vampires didn’t have to travel anywhere to feed. The hunt Raul met Liana on was one of the last officially sanctioned by the Queen.”

“So who was she?” I ask in a whisper.

“Somebody a lot like you,” Phillip says. “Somebody who broke through and managed to claim Raul’s heart.”

I take a sharp breath. I feel like I’ve just been stabbed in the chest.

But then again, what can I expect? Raul’s been alive for more than half a millennium. Of course he’s had relationships before.

“But it was a love forbidden by the Queen,” Phillip continues. “Because of what the celestial charts predicted. Mother took one look at them… and cast Liana out.

“But Raul didn’t listen. He hid her here and confided the secret in only two other vampires, James and me.

“We swore we would never betray him. We saw the way Liana and Raul were when they were together. With her at his side, some of his darkness was… swept away. Much the same way it happens with you.”

My shoulders tense in discomfort. “I’m not sure that’s entirely true.”

“Trust me,” Phillip says. “It is.”

He stops and looks out at the placid water. When he doesn’t speak, I prompt:

“What did the celestial charts predict?”

Phillip gives an uneasy shrug. “Nothing pleasant.” He turns to me. “Raul might tell you if you ask, but it’s not my place to give that piece of information away.”

“So what can you tell me? What happened to Liana?”

“She remained hidden for a few months. And then, one day, she just… disappeared.” He grunts. “Somebody must have found out about her presence. I never told a soul. I don’t think James did, either.”

“Was it murder?” I ask softly.

“That’s the only logical conclusion,” Phillip says. “But we never found a body. We never found any hint of an escape, either.” He nods into the distance. “Past that bend was where Raul built a small hut for her. It’s gone now. Destroyed by him in a blind rage. I… don’t know anything past that. Raul stopped talking about her when it became obvious she was gone. The next few decades were the worst I’ve ever seen him. He became withdrawn and hostile. He was aggressive toward everything and everybody. The Haven’s vampires started to fear him. The Royal Court even suggested to the Queen that he should be thrown out.

“She laughed at them, of course. I think that was the first seed of discord between her and the Court.”

“And Raul?” I ask. “How did he recover?”

“For the longest time, I didn’t think he had. Not in full. He’d just managed to suppress the anger, suppress the rage. But now, I see him with you—”

A fox darts through the bushes. We both start at the sound.

Phillip looks at the sky. “We’ve dawdled long enough. We should go back. And Eleira? Please don’t tell Raul I said anything. Not yet.”

ELEIRA

I find Raul pacing the floor in front of his desk, on top of which are piles and piles of arcane astronomical charts.

He looks up when I enter.

“Is it true?” I ask. “Did you really kill the vampires like Morgan said?”

He studies me, a curious expression fleeting across his face. Then his hands tighten into fists, and he nods. “I had no choice. They were torturing a group of humans.”

Surprise takes me. “You called the humans
‘slaves.’
”

“When we were in the hearing of others,” Raul says wearily.

“Those guards,” I ask, stepping closer. “Were they the same ones I met at the introductory ceremony? The ones who dragged Patricia and Jacob before the Queen?”

Raul nods.

“Then good riddance!” I take his hand firmly in mine. “I could tell right away they were different from the rest. Tainted. Corrupt.
Evil
.”

“You thought we were all evil back then.” His eyes pierce into me. “Did you not?”

I shake my head. “I knew you were different, too.”

To my surprise he draws his hand away and turns to his desk. “I don’t deserve you, Eleira,” he says. “No matter what you think of me, I have no redemption. I am a monster, and I’ve given way to darkness, more times than I can count…”

He turns back. “I see the way you look at me sometimes. Like I’m worthy of salvation. I’m not. I’ve done so many monstrous things. Killing those guards is a blip on the radar compared to my other sins.”

“Forget all that,” I say. “That’s in the past. What we have right now before us is the future. And—”

The doors fly open, and Phillip storms inside. “April is gone!” he exclaims.

“What?” Raul exclaims.

“After we parted,” Phillip says, nodding to me, “I went to the infirmary to check on her. She was gone. The doctor claims not to have seen anything. I checked the village. April wasn’t there. I found her adopted family. She wasn’t with them.”

“A human can’t wander far in The Haven without drawing attention to herself,” Raul says. “Somebody must have seen her.”

“Nobody!” Phillip exclaims. He’s more agitated than I’ve ever seen him. “Even the guards don’t know where she is!”

“Phillip, relax,” Raul says. “She couldn’t have gone far. The Haven is sealed inside and out.”

“You think I’m worried about her
escaping
The Haven
?
” Phillip laughs. It’s a desperate sort of sound. “No. No, it’s not that, brother.”

“Then what?” he asks.

Realization strikes. “You think she’s been kidnapped,” I gasp.

“Worse,” Phillip says. He’s deadly serious. “Taken hostage.”

“By whom?” I ask.

“There aren’t any vampires who would harm her,” Raul says. “They know she’s under the Queen’s protection. Morgan offered April clemency at the same time she introduced Eleira to the others. Remember?”

“That was before Bradley’s murder,” Phillip points out.

“Which is even
more
of a deterrent not to go against the Queen,” Raul says.

“You don’t think Bradley had friends?”

“April wouldn’t be their target. Mother considers her unimportant.” Raul’s eyes sweep over me. “Only Eleira matters to her.”

“But April matters to
me
,” I say. “Everybody knows she’s my friend. I’m strong enough to protect myself. April isn’t! She’s only human. What if Phillip’s right, what if she’s been taken hostage, what if they mean this as a warning, what if this is somebody getting back at us…”

I trail off. I’m going in circles.

“We still have to find her,” I finish lamely.

“What’s to say she didn’t just walk out of the infirmary on her own?” Raul asks.

Phillip shakes his head. “She couldn’t have. Not in the condition she was in when I saw her last.”

“Fine,” Raul says. “We’ll look for her. But the three of us stay together. We can’t risk being seen apart. With Mother acting so impetuously
,
we have to present a unified front. We don’t yet know which of the other vampires is on our side. And if Phillip’s right, and April’s been taken hostage… that means we do not have much time.”