What Kills Me (28 page)

The Empress crossed the room. She
stopped ten feet from the coffin, wearing a double-breasted,
knee-length burgundy coat with gunmetal domed buttons. Her gloved
fingers were interlocked over her stomach. She glared at me with
her ultraviolet eyes, and I pressed my back against the
steel.

“Axelia,” she said. Her voice was
muffled through the metal.

I nodded.

“Address me as Empress.”

“Yes, Empress.”

“Do you know why you are
here?”

Because a prophecy says
that I’m the destroyer of your kind.

“Because you think I am dangerous,” I
said.

“You are dangerous.”

“I’m not. I don’t mean anyone
harm.”

“But you’ve done so much harm already.
So many vampires have died because of you. My soldiers, the
swordsmith and his young steward. There was also your Taiwanese
accomplice and my exiled child.”

I noted that she did not mention
Lucas.

“I didn’t mean for any of that to
happen,” I said.

“If you had died with the transporter,
Paolo, then no one would have been hurt.”

She took a few steps toward me. I
noticed that her black leather boots rose above her knees. A
soldier must have raised some concern because she put her hand out
as if to quiet him.

“Tell me, then,” she said. “How did
you escape?”

“I escaped through the top of the
tower.”

“How did you avoid the
sun?”

“I didn’t.”

She didn’t move, didn’t
speak.

“The sun…it doesn’t burn me,” I
said.

Her hands broke apart and wavered
before she clasped them again, squeezing her fingers. She glanced
at someone to the right of my coffin, then back at me.

“I see,” she said. “What other
abilities do you have?”

“I don’t know.”

“The general reports that you are
already as strong as ten soldiers.”

“Empress, in all honesty, I don’t have
any intentions of hurting anyone. If you’ve been informed
otherwise, it must be a mistake.”

“Our kind has been waiting for your
arrival for ages. We knew this day would come. And we are prepared
to stop you from doing what you are fated to do.”

“I’m not…”

“I heard you, young vampire. You swear
that you have no ill intentions. But this has all been
foreordained. You don’t know what your future will hold. But we do.
Our earliest ancestors said that you would come to destroy us, and
we cannot ignore their warnings. They did not describe your
abilities, your strength, your immunity to the sun. But now, I do
not doubt that if you are allowed to exist you will use these
powers and gain other powers to fulfill your destiny.”

I slammed my fist against the glass,
shaking the box. The soldiers grabbed the handles of their weapons.
“This is not my destiny!” I shouted. “People make their own
destinies.”

“You’re not a person,
Axelia.”

I splayed my fingers across the glass
and hung my head. Then, as tears of frustration sprang to my eyes,
I banged my forehead against the pane. “I know. But I’m not what
you say I am.”

When I looked up, the ethereal queen’s
face was in the window and I gasped. Up close she looked like a
mannequin. Her skin was white and waxen, like the surface of a
boiled egg. Her pupils shrank as she pierced me with her
eyes.

“Do you have a family, Axelia?” she
asked in a softer voice.

“Yes.”

“Would you protect them at all
costs?”

“Yes.”

“As Empress, it is the sole purpose of
my existence. To protect the Monarchy. To protect the empire and
our children. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“Right now I need to protect them from
you,” she said. “It has already been decided. I, the court, and the
council of clerics will witness your death in an hour.”

She began to walk away.

“Empress!”

She turned to show me her profile but
she did not look at me.

“What if there’s a chance that I won’t
do the things you say?” I cried.

“That is a chance I cannot
take.”

***

The ballroom was as I had remembered,
majestic in ivory, gold, and jade. But this time it was filled with
more soldiers than clerics and members of the court. Those not
dressed in combat gear were wearing suits. They assembled on
elevated platforms along the walls of the room. Others were dressed
in blue robes, as Uther had been, and they stood in three rows,
like a choir, below the Empress’s balcony.

They had removed me from the coffin
and I knelt on the cold floor, my wrists cuffed and the chains held
by four soldiers flanking me, as if I stood in the middle of their
tug-of-war. Other soldiers stood behind me, the points of their
swords aimed at the nape of my neck. Slumped over, I hid from
everyone’s prying eyes behind my matted hair. I looked at my
trembling hands; they were stained with reddish-brown blood, likely
from the battle at the temple.

I’m a monster to them. And
they’ve come to see the monster die.

The voices subsided and when I raised
my head, the Empress was on her balcony. She had changed into a
leather turtleneck dress; its shiny vinyl sleeves appeared to be
separate from the dress, revealing her white shoulders.

The general strode into the middle of
the room, wearing a boxy black military jacket and pants. His
epaulettes bore the Monarchy’s gold emblem, and the sword at his
hip was encased in a silver bejeweled sheath.

“Children of the Monarchy,” the
Empress said. “Tonight, we may stand down and glory in our triumph.
The reign of terror brought upon us by the demon vampire is
over.”

Reign of
terror?

“Our esteemed general has succeeded in
capturing she who kneels before you defeated and humbled. We will
now all bear witness to this extraordinary moment in history when
we end her existence, preserving ours for all eternity.”

She paused to allow murmurs of
approval and continued: “The Ancients predicted the demon vampire’s
terror, but they could not predict our power in the new millennium.
The Monarchy is at its strongest. We are unbreakable. Throughout
the ages our empire has faced many threats. But we have always
prevailed and we will always prevail.”

The crowd clamored in response. A
broad smile spread across the general’s face. He turned his steely
gray eyes to the Empress and she returned his gaze. Without a word
she sat down on a high-backed, ornate wooden chair and curled her
fingers over the armrest. She appeared rigid and anxious. Hungry
for my death.

With a satisfied smirk the general
approached me. His rubber-soled boots squeaked with every step
until he stood in front of me. The soldiers rewound the chains
around their hands to pull them taut. The general made a grand
gesture of reaching for his sword, gripping the handle one finger
at a time, and retracted it from the scabbard. I saw my anguished
expression reflected in his blade, but it didn’t register as me. I
felt numb. I felt outside of my body.

This isn’t happening. This
can’t be happening. I can’t die like this. In front of all these
vampires by his savage hand. Not without seeing my family again.
Not without seeing Lucas again.

The general raised the sword. I didn’t
blink, afraid that I would miss the final blow.

Please. Not. Like.
This.

Suddenly, screams and banging erupted
outside the ballroom. Vampires started murmuring and the general
looked at the double doors. They burst open. The crowd gasped. From
the corner of my eye I saw the Empress rise, knocking her chair
backward.

Lucas.

For a moment, chaos erupted. Everyone
was yelling. Soldiers swarmed around me. Still kneeling on the
ground, I could only see legs. I heard the clash of weapons and the
disgusting squelching sound of separating flesh.

“Order!” The Empress’s voice boomed.
“Order! Fall back!”

The soldiers withdrew to the edges of
the hall, leaving me, my four captors, the general, and Lucas in
the middle of the ballroom.

“Lucas!” I shouted.

I moved to run to him but the general
pointed his blade between my eyes.

“Stay where you are or I will split
the demon’s skull,” the general said.

“Zee, are you all right?” Lucas
asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m so freaking happy
to see you.”

“General, is this the swordsmith?” The
Empress asked.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I thought you were to have disposed
of him,” she said.

“I sent a battalion after
him.”

“Yes, about that,” Lucas said.
“They’re all dead.”

The crowd murmured.

“Swordsmith,” she said. “This is
foolhardy. What do you hope to accomplish by storming into my
court?”

“I’m here for Zee,” he
answered.

“You’re here for the vampire demon?”
She sounded baffled.

“Her name is Axelia.”

“Why?” The Empress asked.

Yes, why?

“Because, Your Highness,” he said,
“she is mine.”

I smiled.
I am yours.

The Empress shook her head. “No,
Swordsmith. She belongs to no one. She has no sire. She is the
harbinger of doom. Do you not understand that? If she lives, she
will kill everyone. She will kill you.”

“With all due respect, your Highness,
I have a difference of opinion,” he said.

“This is heresy!” the general
roared.

“And you are willing to die for your
beliefs?” the Empress asked.

“Yes,” Lucas said.

She showed us the length of her throat
and stared down her nose. “Then it shall be so.”

“Your Highness, I request the honor of
fulfilling your wishes,” the general said.

She gave him a nod. The general threw
his scabbard across the floor. Lucas twirled his swords in his
hands and glared at his opponent.

“Please be careful,” I
whispered.

“Do you know who made this weapon,
Swordsmith?” the general asked. “Your father. How fitting that I
will now use it to reunite the two of you.”

Lucas moved in, his head lowered, his
shoulders hunched. They circled each other, a bear against a
wolf.

The general went on: “You should be
pleased. You will also be joining your sisters. I still remember
their cherubic faces and their little voices. They cried for your
father when we burned them alive.”

Lucas attacked. The general warded off
the torrent of hits, meeting each strike with a sneer, his sword
unyielding, like a steel rod rooted to the ground. Then the general
thrust his sword at him and Lucas flipped forward, landing on the
blunt edge of the general’s blade. Pushing away the general’s
weapon, Lucas tried to cut off his head. But the general was ready.
He ducked and used his shoulder to knock Lucas back.

“I know all of your moves, Swordsmith.
They are exactly like your obaia’s.”

The general swung at him and Lucas
clamped the thick blade between his two swords. Then he head-butted
the general in the nose. I heard it crack. As the general stumbled
back, Lucas swiped him across the face.

Yes!

The general shook his head. A line of
blood leaked from his left nostril, and his chin bore a two-inch
nick. He dabbed at his face with the back of his hand.

“That one I learned from my father,”
Lucas hissed.

Snarling, the general rushed him. They
collided, their swords producing a flurry of sparks. With every hit
I grew tenser until I was paralyzed. A black hole in my gut was
pulling me inside out. Though the general was stronger, Lucas was
fast and unpredictable. They both launched themselves into the air
and clashed ten feet off the ground. The general landed on his feet
but Lucas crashed down on his back, causing a web of cracks to
appear in the marble beneath him.

Lucas!

My gasp attracted the general’s
attention. As Lucas climbed to his feet, the general reached for a
strap around his thigh; he took out a silver stake, and with a spin
he whipped it at me.

But I saw it coming. My
eyes followed it—like the time Nuwa aimed that rock at my head—and
I snatched it out of the air, jerking the soldiers holding my
chains.
So predictable, General.
I squeezed the metal stake and glanced at Lucas.
He looked at me with relief.

Then I saw the blur coming at him.
There wasn’t time to scream. Suddenly the general plunged his sword
through Lucas’s chest. The force took him off his feet; his body
curled over the blade and his swords fell from his hands. Lucas
turned his head to look at me. Our eyes met. His lips moved but no
sound came out.