Blood Curse (Pulse #8) (8 page)

         
Why was Nereti hiding the secret of the diamonds from Octavius?
Kalina couldn't help but wonder. Did she not trust Octavius fully, even now? Why keep secrets from her beloved General?

          Then, with a jolt, Kalina heard another voice – Nereti's voice. The inward workings of her mind – sounding as cold and cruel as the hissing of a snake before it strikes.

            Do not reveal all, yet. You are a Queen. You must trust no one, not even the man, not even he who makes you moan. He is your slave, not your equal. He must not know. Nobody can know your weakness. They must see you only as a Queen, unassailable. When first these diamonds were used to create the First Carrier, the potion that first boiled the Life's Blood in the veins of a young woman for the first time, their purity and strength were unknown. Only a few know the source of Life's Blood – only a few know that it is your weakness. You must destroy them all so that the secret never gets out.

            Get the diamonds – bury the secret – increase your strength, hide your weakness. Then you shall be truly immortal – free of fear, free of care. Then you will reign over all the world.

            Your power is not enough. There is no such thing as enough power. There is no such thing as enough strength. The hunger of evil is never-ending. The thirst of evil is never-quenched. There is no such thing as enough. You must be stronger, better, faster, more powerful, always...

           
“Octavius,” now Nereti was speaking aloud, in a voice far sweeter, in honeyed tones that set Kalina’s teeth on edge. “How naïve you are sometimes when it comes to the workings of pure evil. You are fortunate to be so blind. I enjoy you. I enjoy your body very much. Perhaps it is because of the blood I am drunk with, the blood I drained from the Carrier, who was bonded with you once, that I feel such pleasure in your tongue, in all your parts. But you are still so innocent, so pure, so...human, almost. In time you will understand. In time you will grow harder against any emotions you may have. You will be a great General once more, and you will understand what it means to wear the blood of one's enemies upon the diamonds in one's crown.”

          “Yes, my Queen,” Octavius bowed his head. “We will send out more vampires to find these diamonds, as you wish. All of them, if you wish it.”

          “I cannot abide incompetence,” snarled Nereti. “No more underlings. We will go ourselves to lead this battle.”   

          She eyed Octavius, taking him in before pulling him in for a deep kiss. She licked his bare chest, savoring each morsel of flesh, before sinking her teeth into it, drinking from his blood before licking shut the wound. “You taste delicious, General,” she said. “And you taste like a vampire fully under my command. For an instant perhaps I wondered if you were my betrayer. But your taste is pure evil. Good.” She kissed him on the lips. “It would be such a pity to have to destroy you, General.”

          Octavius did not flinch. “I will prepare our men,” he said. “The battle ahead shall be our triumph.”

Chapter 9

         
K
alina was exhausted. She'd never known such exhaustion before. Her bones ached. Her blood was tired, as if the very act of coursing through her veins was an overwhelming one. She felt every nerve ending in her body shudder with the pain of holding herself together. What was happening to her? She'd fought battles before – battles far harder than this one – and won. But now she was tired, bone-tired. She needed to rest.

          “It's the visions,” Jaegar said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I know how they are. Even when I have visions of you, sometimes, it tires me out. All that psychic energy. But to get inside the head of a person you hate...I can only imagine what it's doing to you.”

         
What it's doing to me
, Kalina thought mournfully. At once tantalizing her, offering her the greatest pleasures, those she had for so long been denied, and simultaneously destroying her, breaking her heart over and over again. And she felt, too, the effects of that evil, Nereti's darkness, seeping into her, like an ink spill into her heart. Nereti's darkness was whetting her lusts, her appetites, making her colder and crueler, making her revel in Jaegar's submission to her in a way she had never done before. Nereti was like her dark twin – her other self – “two sides of the same coin,” Uzo had said. A shadow that she could never fully be free from. She swallowed hard.

          “Tomorrow,” she said, “we bring the fight to them. We don't wait for them to strike twice. We go straight to the palace where Octavius is being kept – we slay every last vampire, we fix Octavius, restore his brain...”

          “Kalina,” Jaegar's voice was low and full of pity. “Even if we defeat Nereti, there's no guarantee that it will fix Octavius. There's no evidence that he'll automatically go back to the way he was.”

          She shut out his words. “He will,” it was all she could think to say. “I know him. He will.”

          “In which case,” Samson said. “Let the humans get some rest. Max and Kal should go to a hotel – rest for a couple of hours, get your strength up for the next attack.” He had not flinched. The idea of an attack on Nereti, of an attack that would certainly threaten all their lives, seemed to mean nothing to him now. He had fought too many battles to really know fear.

          The vampires flew the humans into town. “The Marriot Johannesburg should suit,” Jaegar grinned,” at Kalina. “I put my card down – got us the presidential suite...”

Samson cleared his throat. “As for us...we vampires need to feed.” He looked around at Justin and Jaegar.

          Jaegar took a step forward, clasping Kalina's hand in his. “I can feed all I want right here,” he said. “I'll stay with you, Kal. Keep you safe.”

          “Don't be foolish,” Samson rolled his eyes. “If you haven't fed you're not at peak strength, and then we'd all suffer for it. Do what I have commanded, my boy, and get yourself some fresh blood, if you cannot find vampire wine. Just be...careful with your appetites. Show the young one...” he motioned at Justin. “How to find a willing victim, how to feed without draining.”

          “I know all that already!” Justin cut in, a bit too eagerly.

          “He's still so young,” Samson added.

          Jaegar nodded. “You're right,” he said, taking Justin's hand. “We'll be back soon!” And with that, the two of them flew off, Samson close behind them, leaving Max and Kalina alone.

          They made their way to the suite. Certainly Jaegar's sort of place, Kalina thought grimly. Silks and satins everywhere – gorgeously decorated in a splendor that she still hadn't gotten used to, even after more than a few years with the Greystones and their maker. Still, she could certainly more than get used to the food. Room service brought up dish after dish – meat, fish, vegetable alike – and Kalina and Max wolfed them down, unable even to speak in their hunger.

          “Tomorrow we fight, I guess,” Kalina said to Max. “Do you think we can win?”

          “No,” Max's voice was soft and almost bitter. “But we fight anyway. That's what this battle is about. That's what we always do. We won't win by numbers alone, Kal. But we have smarts, and strategy – things most vampires don't have. And we're on the side of good. Deep down, I really believe that makes a difference.” She swallowed. “It has to.”

          “Mom?”

          “Yes?”

          “What's happening to me?”

          “What do you mean?”

          “Nereti – Nereti's influence. Sometimes it feels like she's taking over, like she has too much power over me...it makes me scared...”

          “Oh, Kalina...” Max put an arm around Kalina's shoulder. “We all have that, you know. All of us, Carriers. A potential for darkness, for destruction, that could obliterate all that we've worked for. But I trust you, my dear. I trust you to overcome it. Generations of Life's Blood Carriers have wrestled with this darkness, and many – most – have won. I knew, sooner or later, you would come to the darkness. Perhaps I should have warned you. I did not want to frighten you. But now...”

          She was cut off by the whooshing sound of flight. Jaegar had bolted back into the room, collapsing in a heap of exhaustion on the floor.

          “What is it?” Kalina tensed.

          “The mines...the vampires at the mines...” Jaegar was in shock. “They've slaughtered them all?”

          “
How
?” Kalina gaped. It hadn't been more than an hour – there was no way a vampire army could get there in time.

          “Uzo, everybody. Samson had left his sword at the mines for them to enhance with the diamond powder – we went to pick it back up once we'd fed, and found the mines desecrated, the vampires all dust...”       

          “An army can't move that fast...”

          “
Nereti could...
” Samson said darkly. “We were fools to miss it. She didn't send an army, after all. She went herself. She can appear faster than ordinary vampires. And her fury may have only boosted her powers. I have no doubt that this destruction is her handiwork.”

          “The place looked like it had been ransacked,” Jaegar furrowed his brow with concern. “They were looking for something, that's for sure.”

          “I just hope she didn't find it,” Samson said. “The last thing we need is for Nereti to achieve another one of her despicable ends.”

          “I...don't think she did.” Kalina looked up slowly, taking from around her neck the pouch of diamonds Uzo had given her. “They gave them to me for safekeeping. Whatever Nereti found at the mines, it wasn't what she wanted. They're her weakness – like rubies, but stronger still.”

          Before anyone else had a chance to react, Jaegar was upon her, grasping the pouch from around her neck so violently that she choked on the string. “Give this to me,” he said.

          “Ow, Jaegar, stop, you're hurting me!”

          The string broke and Jaegar stood with the pouch in his hands. He began undoing the pouch, about to open them...

          “What is it, Jaegar?”

          His voice was high and cold and nothing like that of the Jaegar she knew. “Stay away, human!”

          “Jaegar?” Had he fed on Life's Blood by mistake? “What's gotten into you?”

          “This belongs to me,” he hissed.

          “What? Why?”

          “Because,” Samson stood in the window, sniffing the air, Justin close behind him. “This isn't Jaegar.”

          “Glamour?” Max looked worried. Only very powerful vampires could glamour as other vampires.

          “Who are you, then?” Kalina focused her power, all of her Life's Blood strength, through her eyes. The beautiful form of Jaegar began to glimmer and shine before her, fading slightly, so that beneath his face she could see that of another – perhaps a rare survivor from the mine attack, a spy...

          “What do you want, Soldier?”

          The spy looked surprised that she could see through him.

          “I told you, give those diamonds back to me, spy!”

          “You should speak to me with more respect! I'm about to become the most powerful vampire in the world. All I have to do is gulp these down and then I'll be more powerful than you, than Nereti, than
any
of you. And worlds will quake and shake before
me
.”

         
What?
Kalina had heard that these diamonds were a weapon, but nothing about them enhancing anyone's power...

          “Now, bow down and fear...”

          It was too late. Samson had rushed him from behind, knocking him to the floor, sending the pouch into the air and the diamonds flying in all directions, sparkling and glimmering with a strange red light.

          “No!” The vampire leaped forward, grabbing a single diamond in his fist. Then he began to scream.

          It was the most disturbing, most terrible sound Kalina had ever heard. The sound of agony – the smell of burning vampire flesh.

          Immediately Samson grabbed another of the diamonds through the pouch, and pressed it against the vampire's skin.

          He screamed louder, his pain greater, as the burning spread across his skin. It took him a full ten minutes to die.

          Kalina had to close her eyes and walk away to withstand the sound, the smell, the screaming. Nobody should have to suffer like that, she thought, not even one of Nereti's men. She walked from the suite living room into the bedroom, sitting on the bed and closing her eyes.

         
Those who defy me shall all die.

           
It was Nereti's voice, as cold and distorted as ever. Another vision? Kalina steeled her body to enter Nereti’s mind once again.

         
This isn't a vision, girl.

           
And then Kalina realized it. The voice was coming from straight behind her.

          She whirled around to face her – those same eyes, that same nose, that same horrifically malignant smile.

          Their eyes connected

          “It's high time we met again, Kalina,” hissed Nereti. “And this time you won't make it past the door to escape.”

Chapter 10

         
K
alina felt like a mouse, transfixed by the eyes of a snake. Terror pounded through her, her heart ricocheting off her chest, her breath frozen within her lungs, weighing them down. She had never been this close to Nereti in her full power and glory before. Her presence was overwhelming. The feeling of her, so near, was the feeling of pure evil. It lapped at her like the waves of an ocean. It consumed her entirely. Was this the very core of darkness – was this what it was like, to come face to face with the worst that vampiredom had to offer? Kalina wanted to run, wanted to scream, but instead her mind went blank. The enormity of Nereti's cruelty floored her. She saw visions in her mind's eye, flickering past her in black and white – like old film footage – visions of all that Nereti had done: of murders she had order or committed, rape and pillage that had been carried out by her command, centuries of horror wrought upon the innocent and the guilty alike.