Shadow of the Vampire (15 page)

         
Plaintive and soft, the sound of her whispered words twisted like a sharp object in his chest. How many times had he said those words himself since the death of his parents? How many times had he kept everything inside him, not wanting to worry others with his responsibilities, his obligations?

         
Inexplicably, he wanted to pull her into his arms, hold her, give her any measure of comfort he could. Then, everything Lotharus had said earlier came flooding back. His fingers tightened their grip on the bars. "Tell me what's going on in the horde."

         
A frown cut across her dainty brow, but she didn't hesitate in her reply. "Lotharus is up to something. The soldiers, they're different." She shook her head. "They have always been disrespectful toward me. But it's gotten worse. Now they won't even follow my orders. And their eyes." She closed hers. "I'd never seen them before. They always shielded them with sunglasses." Her eyes opened, finding his in the darkness. "Goddess, there is something horribly wrong in all of this."

         
Declan's head spun as he tried to follow her incoherent thoughts. "Eyes? What do you mean?"

         
"They have eyes I have not seen, only read about in old texts. Elder eyes. All knowing, all seeing, even though they are milky and clouded. Lotharus has done something to those soldiers. I just have no idea what."

         
He slid a hand through the bars separating them. Hooking a finger beneath her chin, Declan lifted her gaze to his. The need to tell her she was in danger clawed at him. But first he had to see what she knew. "You do. Deep inside, you know. Tell me."

         
She sighed. "I have to lead this horde, but I have no idea how. I've tried to summon the colony founders, but none of them will reply. It's as if he has them living in fear, too...."

         
"Stop."

         
At his command, her lips sealed tight. Forcing his gaze away, he nodded his head toward her cheek. The dainty jawline beneath his hand was lined with black and blue. His tensed. He'd been here only two days and yet he'd seen her beaten at Lotharus's hand on each one. Seen that bastard do something else to her that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his days.

         
"What happened this time?"

         
"I don't know what you're talking about."

         
"Oh, I think you do." Ever so lightly, his finger grazed the perimeter of her beaten skin. A shudder moved through her and a knowing flicker danced behind her dark eyes before she shielded them from his sight.

         
"It is nothing to concern yourself with, I assure you, Derkein."

         
To hear that word on her lips sent unreasonable rage through him. "You're not like him, remember? So don't speak like him." Declan captured her wrist with his other hand. He ignored how fragile the slight bones felt beneath his palm, ignored the tickling knowledge that he could crush them to dust with one flex of his fist. Instead, he focused on how his feelings for her gave him strength he did not have on his own.

         
"Alexia," he breathed, willing his anger away. "How can you live like this?"

         
"Do you think, even for a moment, that I have a choice?"

         
"We all have a choice."

         
Her nose crinkled and she tugged her arms free. He let her go without a fight. "So, you're telling me you choose to be shackled in a hovel of a dungeon? And for what? To die as some martyr to a cause no one will remember?"

         
"No. I sit, shackled in a dungeon, surrounded by the corpses of my kin, for the slight spark of hope that my sacrifice can make a difference. That our kind still has a place in this modern world." Her gaze softened and he made an effort to strip the harsh tone from his voice. "If I don't believe that, then the future of dragon, vampire, man alike will be different and perhaps wiped out forever. That is something I will not allow to take place as long as I draw breath on this earth."

         
"Well, you won't draw anything for much longer if I can't get you out of here," she said, renewing her fidgeting with the lock. "Lotharus is coming and he means to kill you."

         
She was right. His acute hearing picked up footfalls in the corridors above. Each one reverberated through him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, blowing out the exhale. "You better go. They will be here soon."

         
"I told you, I'm getting you out."

         
Metal clanked as again she worked on the padlock keeping him locked inside the cell. Declan opened his eyes, reached through the bars and covered her hands with his. They stilled.

         
"For what it's worth, I'm really glad I met you," he whispered.

         
A moment passed. Then her fingers twined in his. "Me, too."

         
She squeezed him tight and hard before letting go. The desperate contact, though fleeting, was the most soul-shattering touch he'd ever known. His heart thudded to know that, after tonight, he'd never again feel her skin, her lips or her hand on his.

         
He let out a pained breath and curled his fingers around the bars, resting his forehead on the cool iron. Resigning himself to the fate stepping closer with each second. Realizing for the first time in a long time, he didn't want to die. That he had a reason to live not connected to the fate of his people or his duty to them.

         
Gods, he couldn't afford to think that like. Especially right now.

         
"Get out of here, little vampire." His voice cracked on the last word. "Get out of here before it's too late for you."

         
"I can't just leave you here to die."

         
The click of footsteps on the floor grew louder, nearer.

         
"You don't have a choice," he whispered.

         
Alexia's gaze darted from the door to him. Then she moved to back up, back away. Declan shot his hand through the bars, grabbing her leather coat sleeve. Surprised, wide eyes met his and he stared into them, hoping she'd read the urgency in his own.

         
"Promise me you'll run far away from this place."

         
"What?"

         
The sounds coming from the guards intensified. They were right outside the door.

         
"Just promise me."

         
She shook her head and backed up a step. "I can't." The hands that so recently had embraced his covered her mouth. The dungeon door flew open, and Alexia slipped into the neighboring cell seconds before Lotharus and his soldiers entered the room.

         
"Get him out of there now," Lotharus barked, tossing the keys to one of the soldiers.

         
Declan let loose a curse and backed away from the bars, wishing she'd chosen somewhere else to hide. To know she was now going to be forced to watch Lotharus and his cronies beat and probably murder him sent a new kind of torture stabbing through him.

         
ALEXIA FLATTENED HER BACK against the wall, hugged the shadows and held her breath. Watching as Lotharus paced in front of the cage like a lion waiting to pounce on its prey.

         
"I'm done playing with you, Derkein. Tell me where the crystal is and I promise I'll kill your family and friends swiftly. Deny me, and I'll take my time playing with them."

         
Declan didn't fight back as the soldiers hoisted him out of the cell, dropping him at Lotharus's feet.

         
Alexia hadn't exhaled yet. Some part of her brain transmitted that fact, telling her to let the breath out, to drag another draught of air into her burning lungs. But she couldn't.

         
Lotharus bent and fisted Declan's scalp in his hand. With a firm tug, he wrenched his head back and up. "Did you not hear me?"

         
Alexia's heart twisted and a sob stuck in her throat. She couldn't bear having to watch what she knew must be coming, yet she couldn't look away either. Taking a much needed breath, she allowed herself to close her eyes for a split second. Opening them the moment she heard Declan's voice in the dark.

         
"You'll gut every dragon you meet from gullet to groin no matter what I say," he answered. "What you could do with that crystal is much worse. Does the Queen even know its true power? Does Alexia know?"

         
Through the fear and disbelief, she heard the emphasis on her name. Realized Declan was trying to gain her attention.

         
"Do they know the race who wields the crystal's power can enslave, control or destroy the other?"

         
"Of course, you half-breed scum," Lotharus said with a growl, kicking Declan's chin with the toe of his boot. The heavy crack reverberated through Alexia's skull as if she were the one taking the pounding. Declan fell to his stomach on the ground. Flattening his palms, he lifted himself up. Blood dribbled from his mouth onto the dirty floor. Anguish and defeat crossed over every line of his face. The muscles in his arms visibly shook as he tried to push to his knees and failed.

         
Then his eyes looked into the cell, toward her. The perfect blue orbs searched her dark hiding spot, settling on her for a heartbeat, before he snapped his focus back to Lotharus.

         
"But do they know you're planning to steal it out from under them? Use it against them?"

         
Alexia covered her mouth with her hands and held in the gasp threatening to break free from her lungs. Lotharus did not answer. He only laughed and nodded to the soldiers. Each one grabbed an arm and hauled Declan to his feet.

         
This is it. The thought seeped into her mind and it nearly paralyzed her. She wasn't certain she could stand here and quietly watch Lotharus kill him. But she wasn't sure she had a choice either. She couldn't beat Lotharus in battle, much less him and four of his best soldiers.

         
Lotharus grabbed shears off the table, snapping the massive scissors as he stepped closer to Declan. Her legs trembled and tears pricked her eyes.

         
"One, last chance, Derkein," Lotharus said, aligning the tip at Declan's throat. The dragon leaned his head back as far as it would go, his Adam's apple bobbing with his swallow.

         
"Where is it?"

         
"Go to hell," Declan bit out.

         
Lotharus nodded and Ivan moved behind Declan. He swallowed again as Lotharus raised his arms and the shears with them. Alexia pinched her eyes shut, wincing at the howl of agony ripping through the air, tearing through her soul with the force of a thousand bullets. She covered her ears, but did not attempt to shield herself from the pain, the injustice, the hurt swallowing her. The dam had broken. Something inside her had broken. And rather than mourn the losses, she vowed to use the hurt, the pain and the anger to destroy Lotharus, to gain control of everything that was rightfully hers and crush him with it.

         
DECLAN HAD CLOSED HIS EYES, not wanting Lotharus's evil face to be the last thing he saw before death claimed him. Instead, he thought of Alexia in the cell, watching, and he waited. Waited for the razor-sharp pain of the shears, sandwiching the sides of his neck before they separated his head from his body.

         
"...leave his body intact." Lotharus's words rang in his mind and he tried to force those away, too.

         
Then he heard the splicing of metal, the scissors cutting through something thick and resistant. It took him a moment to realize Lotharus had not cut off his head as he'd thought, took a moment for the pain exploding through him to register an exact location. And then the force of it nearly blinded him.

         
A wounded cry screamed out of his lungs. Legs buckling beneath him, his chin fell to his chest. If the soldiers hadn't held him upright, he would have collapsed.

         
Lotharus squatted in front of him and forced his head up.

         
"I'll make you wish you were in hell."

         
Despite the unbearable agony tearing through him, the curve of a smirk tugged Declan's mouth. "And I'll die...before I tell you anything."

         
A maniacal glow burned behind Lotharus's eyes. "Oh, you'll die. It's just the how you have control over."

         
He lifted the shears, the tips pointed down at Declan's face. He instinctively flinched and twisted his head to the side. The metal hit the ground with a thud. Shocked, Declan looked up to see Lotharus stand and turn to face the opposite wall. Declan's gaze fixed on the long ponytail hanging between the vampire's shoulder blades.