Freed (Vampire King Book 3) (5 page)

“No.”
He pierced me with them, hard and unyielding. They ripped into my neck. I
screamed. Stinging pain exploded in the area. My blood rushed to him within
seconds as if at his command.

“No!”
I beat at his chest, scratched his face, and struggled to get away. His arms
locked around me like steel. And then my traitorous body reacted with lust. My
nipples perked. My clit ached with desire. But still I fought against him as a
longing for sex rose in my core. “Don’t do it! Don’t even—”

It’s done.
His
voice sang into my mind, laced in beauty and harmony. I hated it. Tears spilled
out of my eyelids. He retracted his fangs and leaned back. A neutral mask
cloaked his face. Dots of my blood decorated his lips.

“Are
you happy?” I peered at him through a blurry view of tears.

Yes.
His
gold eyes shifted to red.

“You’re
right. You’re not the man that walked into the Quiet King’s bedroom.” I slapped
his face as hard as I could.
Boom
.
His face fell to the side and then he turned it back to gaze at me. I climbed
off of him, feeling week again, like I could pass out in seconds. “You are a
monster!”

“Where
are you going?”

“Why
not plunder through my brain and figure it out?” I staggered out of the tub and
searched for a towel. “That’s the last time you bite me without my permission.”

He
leaped out of the tub in a blur of motion. Terror ripped through my heart. I
backed up as he landed before me with a thump.
Clop clop
. He stepped my way. His muscles ballooned. Water dripped
from them and the long cock that hung between his legs.

“Be
careful, queen!” he roared.

“Or
what?” I stepped his way. “I think you’ve done enough for tonight. Don’t you?”

He
sneered but said nothing else.

“You
bit me without my permission.”

“I
needed the bond,” he roared.

“And
I needed you to respect my privacy.”

“I’m
sorry.”

“No,
you’re not.”

He
ran his fingers through his sandy blond-and-black strands. “I’m not myself
anymore—”

“No,
you’re not,” I said through clenched teeth and turned away from him. “When
you’re Samuel again, then come back to me.”

“And
if he’s gone?”

“Then
I’m gone, too.” I disappeared through the doors.

His
rumble came from behind me so loud I almost stumbled from the quake of the
ground.

Not even death will keep me from
you!
His voice stabbed into my head.

“Then
I hope I don’t have to put that to a test!” I called back and then collapsed
onto his rainbow-covered bed.
I’ll just
rest for a minute and then I’ll leave.
Water coated my waist and below. I
yawned.
Just a few minutes and I’ll climb
out of this sewer.
In the tub, adrenaline had burst through me from one
taste of his blood, but now I was weary and full of dread.

He bit me without my permission. He
held me to him, ignored my struggling, and drank until the mental connection
reformed.
I traced a huge rainbow at the center of the bed
with a lazy finger, struggling to keep my eyes open.
What else will he do? How much more will he take? Will I ever stop him
if he goes too far?

No.
Samuel’s
voice slid into my thoughts.
Not if I
don’t desire it.

Chapter Four

~Ian

How many vampire kings does it take
to change the oil in a lantern? Five. One king to kill the other and the other
and the other and the other, until the last one is standing covered in blood
and ready to change the lantern’s oil.

After
slinging on my leather costume pants, I stormed out of Queen Regina’s bedroom.

The
sitting room’s coarse carpet scratched my feet. The fake queen had left. Only
dominas and musicians remained in the sitting room, their faces creased with
worry. The dominas huddled in the corner as the musician strummed his guitar
with shivering fingers.

“Sir.”
A half-naked male servant jumped up and came to me. “Queen Regina asked me to
keep you here.”

I
slammed my fist into the center of his chest. He traveled through the air,
screeching. His body crashed into the floor. I continued. “She’s no queen of
mine.”

“Lord
and ladies dance under the moons,” the musician sang. “Come to all and—”

“Sing
another lyric or pluck a cord and I’ll rip your throat apart!” I formed my
hands into fists. “Where is the fake queen?”

“S-she
left as soon as you went into the room,” the youngest-looking domina said from
the corner. “A-and then the screams came.”

I’d
been inside the room for a while due to waiting for the domina to get a red wig
and return.

But
how long had that been?

“And
where are the other two vampires, Ty and Victoria?”

“They
left with her.” The musician set his guitar to the side. “Queen Regina ordered
us to play the music louder if we heard noise and to keep you in here as much
as possible.”

“Did
she now?” I pushed through the door. A freezing breeze hit my face, carrying
the scent of blood and death. I covered my nose with my arm.
The smell is worse than in the sewers.
The
royal court was empty and dark. Silent. Deserted. The few candles I saw lay on
their sides. Platters of food had been left untouched. Robes slung across turned-over
lounge chairs. Headless bodies of royal guards formed a path out of the Royal
Court into the city, as if some deranged vampire had sliced and killed his way
to freedom.

Dear Ambi, let the deranged vampire
be Samuel and not an enemy.

Screams
and cries rose higher up in the castle. I raced that way, sniffing the air. A
sour fragrance greeted my nostrils. It seemed similar, yet unique. I inhaled
again.
Odd.
I couldn’t place the
smell, but I knew it. I rushed toward that sour odor, thinking that maybe the
scent held a clue of what happened today.

Footprints
extended across the ground. Bloody prints. Some of the shapes were small feet.
Others were big feet. Then came boot prints, ones from sandals, and even a
horse’s hooves, huge ones, the size of a massive horse perhaps. I slowed down.

Massive hooves?

I
lowered to the ground and stared at the hoof prints.
Not a horse at all. A vampire king walked these halls.
I sniffed
the air again.
Not Nai either.
I knew
his stench. We were twins, after all, and had lain inside the same mother’s
womb. I grew up with him and could find his scent in darkness with my nose
covered by cloth.

That is the sour scent I missed. It
is the scent of a newly formed king.

Since
Nai had killed all vampire prince babies in the land, it had been years since
I’d caught the scent of a prince at the end of his ripening. No more vampire
princes traveled the land. At least none that I knew besides Samuel.

Dear Ambi! Samuel has hooves?

More
cries filled the same. They rushed all around from high in the castle to all
outside the gates. I ran through a hallway shrouded in gray stone. It took many
years to ripen from prince to king and a hoard of the queen’s blood to nourish
him. There was only one other way that I’d heard a prince ripening too soon and
that was what had happened to my brother.

Years
before a greedy king had broke into the castle, taken Phinova from my brother,
and made him watch as they tortured and killed her. He’d filled with rage and
sparked the hormones to work overtime, growing into a vampire king before their
eyes. His senses burned away, too. He lost his eyesight, ability to hear, or
utter another word with his lips.

However,
Nai gained. His body drummed with power. When he resided in the city, his
magical influence could be experienced anywhere, even in the grimy sewers under
the castle. It rattled my teeth, raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and
waved against my skin. I doubted others reacted the same way. It was because I
was a vampire king, too, and just couldn’t deal with one so powerful and so
close.

In
the old days, mature vampire kings never stayed to close to other kings. It had
even been set into law that no more than five vampire kings a time could visit
one city and when they did, space needed to remain between them. We were
competitive beings, possessive, domineering, and some would say psychotic at
times.

When
kings met, more rules controlled the sessions. All kings could not bring their
queens for fear there would be battles over them. Each king guaranteed an
amount of guards equal to what the others brought. If they sat in chairs,
servants and helpers measured and analyzed the seats to make sure that all
equality remained. Once Nai and I had been forced to set the table for one of
our father’s meetings with several kings, it took us hours to measure the place
settings, test the quality of plates, and taste the food, assuring that all
kings received similar portions of meat and rice, wine and bread.

And still a fight ensued that night
over butter.

Steps
appeared at the end of the dark hallway. I raced up them toward the cries and
reached the highest level of flights in moments. Here the perfume of rotting
corpses soaked the area. A hint of vampire king scent drifted my way, but it
was old. This king had left. If it was Samuel, I assumed he fled to the sewers.

But how could it be Samuel? He
wasn’t close to the end of ripening. Even with Brie’s powerful blood, he had
years to mature. Unless…

The
fragrance of Brie’s blood crashed into me. Growling, I increased my speed. Rounding
the corner, my foot smashed down on something cold and wet. I looked down.
Bloody gunk and mucous splattered the floor. A few fingers rolled near the tip
of my toe.
A hand perhaps.
I gazed
before me. Rows of heads torn from their bodies sprawled out. I could barely
breathe, for the place was rot and dripping decay. Shrieks and screams sounded
farther down. I continued there, slipping on murky liquid each step.

“My
god.” I entered the room.

Queen
Regina dangled from the ceiling by her own intestines. Her body swung back and
forth. Her last expression was one of confusion. Behind her, a mountain of
corpses rested, its peak reached the ceiling. Blood painted the walls and
floors. Somehow I recognized the room through the horrific scene. It was where
Nai, Phinova, and I read, long before we’d made love to her and during the time
when we were just babbling princes trying to get her attention. We’d sneak up
here and hide her from her guards.

“My
god.”

Guards
without legs, arms, and hands screamed over and over. I would have put them out
of their misery if not for the glowing image far off, the one that sat on a
diamond throne.

Phinova!

I
froze. My queen sat on that gleaming throne. She’d been dead for all these
years, almost a hundred, yet her flesh seemed fresh and new. I stepped closer.
Spiders had built webs over her face and arms. They crawled in and out of her
nose. That red hair flowed down and draped her shoulders. I approached and
touched those strands. So soft and silky. She wore a crimson gown. And then I
realized that it was a mistake; she wore an ivory gown drenched in blood.

How could it be? She’s been dead
for so long.

No, my foolish Ian.
Phinova’s voice seeped into my mind.
In
this body I still live. With the life liquid of blood mages, I remain.

“Phinova?”
My legs collapsed under me.
Slime
spattered all around—a mixture of blood, mucous, fluids, and death. I wiped the
stuff away. My gaze remained on Phinova the whole time. “Phinova? No, you
didn’t say anything.”

I did, sweet Ian.

“You’re
dead.”

No. I live.

“No.
No. No.” I covered my face and shook my head over and over. The guards shrieked
some more. And between their screams I could hear the dripping of murky fluid
as it dripped down from the fake queen’s legs.
This is insane. I have to get out of here.
I jumped up, searched
the room, and didn’t spot Brie, nor did I smell her.

Take me, Ian. Don’t leave me here,
my only love.

My
face snapped to Phinova. Her corpse didn’t move. Those lips were shut tight. I
turned around and rushed away.

Ian!

“There
is evil in this room. That is all.” I left and turned into the hall.

Ian, please don’t leave me! Not
again! No!

“Death.
W-wherever death lingers for too long, bad magic rises.” I bobbed my head up
and down. My feet dragged along a little at a time. “Phinova told me that
herself long ago.”