Shadow of the Vampire (30 page)

         
The Queen smiled. "Take it...Diana...show you...the way."

         
"But I can't just leave you here."

         
"You must." A lone tear rolled down the Queen's face. "Now...go."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

         
CATIJA LAY ON THE BED with her eyes closed. Unmoving, she listened to the steady rhythm of music. Each melodic note of the song throbbed through her, replacing the long numbing pain. Although she recalled asking Alexia to put her disc on before she left, she couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd left her side. She could only breathe in the music. Feel it en compass every inch of her. Each breath came shallower, the time between them prolonged until she thought they might cease altogether.

         
The bed sunk beneath someone's weight. Long legs stretched alongside hers. At the brush of fingers in her hair, a smile curved her lips.

         
"Yuri?"

         
"Yes, Cat. I'm here," he replied. "As here as I can be, anyway."

         
His voice seemed remorseful, tight with emotion. Something she hardly ever heard from her stoic older brother. Catija wanted to comfort him, reassure him she understood his exile and held no ill will toward him at all. While part of her grieved along with him for mistakes made and all of the time they had lost, right now she did not care about any of that. None of the past mattered anymore. None of the things said or done seemed relevant...except one. One regret, one promise she'd made and would not get to complete.

         
"I'm sorry..." she whispered, "...failed you."

         
"Shh." The arms around her tightened and soft lips brushed her temple by her hairline. "You did not fail anyone."

         
"But..." she swallowed "...the dragons..."

         
"Will be found," he replied, his palm smoothing down her cheek in a reassuring glide. "As will my daughter. At long last she will be returned to me."

         
"How?" The moment the question left her lips, understanding pricked what was left of her conscious mind. A glimmer of hope sparked through her dying body. "You've..." she began, but she could no longer get her lips to function. Her tongue felt fat and heavy and stuck to the roof of her dry mouth.

         
"Yes, Cat. I've seen it. Seen the future," Yuri answered for her.

         
Those words released the heavy chains shackled around her heart. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt free.

         
"I did it," she breathed, a smile on her lips.

         
Yuri nodded, his powerful chest trembling, and she briefly wondered if he was crying. "You did. And I thank you, dear sister."

         
Warmth Catija had not felt since childhood spread through her like an absolving bath of light. It filled her, shooting out from her core through her limbs in all directions. So bright at first, so all encompassing, she did not register the menacing shadow lurking nearby until it blocked out the light.

         
Someone else was in her chamber. His cold hate and age-old anger tried to leach the positive energy and remaining power from her. But it was too late. Catija had her release from Lotharus and her past. Death was no longer feared, but a salvation.

         
Yuri screamed. The heart-wrenching sound a warning, protest and a threat all at once. Catija felt his corporeal being dissipate. His body and limbs shifted into a cloud of energy in an attempt to blanket her. Helpless and raw, Yuri's bellow filled her ears, nearly breaking her heart. While his sadness and loss upset her, she could not find it in herself to feel regret. Even when Lotharus drove the pointed tip of his staff through her heart, absorbing what was left of her power into himself, Catija was still smiling.

         
"LORD D ECLAN!"

         
At the sound of his name, Declan spun around. A familiar figure was running full bore down the passage to him. When he neared, the flames from a wall sconce illuminated the young fledgling legionnaire.

         
"Ash?" Declan handed Doc the parchment he'd been reading and started toward the young dragon. At his approach, Ash stopped running and leaned over. Resting his hands on his knees, he tried to catch his breath in heaving gasps.

         
"They need you...council."

         
The last word had barely fallen from the youth's lips before Declan took off at a blind run. A thousand thoughts flitted through his mind, but he only hoped and prayed on one. Combat boots pounding on the stones, he took the turns and passageways at breakneck speed, barreling past the guards posted outside the council room without so much as a glance.

         
The room was empty. Panting, he swept his hand through his hair and paced. He was just about to head back out the door when it opened.

         
"Did you find her?" Declan asked the first person who stepped through the threshold.

         
Tallon's brow tensed at his remark. "No. But we found someone else."

         
Behind her, Griffon entered the room, followed closely by a scowling Falcon. Declan cocked a brow at the sight of Griffon wrestling one of Lotharus's soldiers into a chair, securing his hands and feet with duct tape. If his face were any indication, the vampire had not come easily. A gash split across his forehead, spilling blood along the sides of his face. The purple flesh had already swollen around one eye to the point it was nothing but a sliver. The other one, milky white, fought to remain open as he visibly warred to stay conscious.

         
Elder eyes.

         
Alexia's words floated through Declan's mind, making his heart pinch. When he'd awakened to find her gone, the truth of how much she meant to him, every emotion he'd been too frightened to label, had slammed into him with aching clarity. It didn't matter that the crystal was missing. Nothing mattered to him except Alexia. God's truth, he wanted her in his arms, in his bed. But right now, he'd settle for just knowing she was safe. He could worry about the rest later.

         
Declan settled his gaze on Griffon, who stood, his arms crossed tight about his wide chest. Declan didn't need to ask who had taken the vampire down. Didn't need to see Griffon's gloved hands to know they were bloodstained. Disgust rolled through him at the realization that one of his flock had beaten this soldier. To think they were no better than the vampires who'd tortured him for information sickened him endlessly.

         
"Now, tell him what you told us," Tallon ordered, bringing Declan back from his thoughts. The soldier sucked in a breath and rested his head back on the edge of the chair.

         
"Lotharus has a secret society...of vampires," he said on the exhale. "An army of soldiers he's built and perfected over the past few years." The soldier closed his eyes, wincing as he took in another deep draught of air.

         
"What do you mean, 'perfected'?" Griffon asked, his face showing distaste at being in such close proximity to a soldier that wasn't dead. When the soldier failed to answer right away, Griffon cracked a meaty fist across the vampire's face. The soldier fell sideways, nearly toppling the chair.

         
Declan winced as the soldier struggled to sit back upright in the chair. Enduring this was like some form of exposure therapy he wasn't yet ready to undergo. The raw pain of being beaten and tortured still vibrated in the forefront of his mind.

         
"Olden blood," the vampire finally panted. "He found blood of the true ancients in the lower catacomb vaults after a quake tore through the caves. Pure blood."

         
"So, he found a bottle of blood. What's the big deal?" Falcon chimed in.

         
The vampire leveled his good eye on him. "Like any species, our blood had become diluted over the centuries. The lines did not remain as true and strong as they should have. At first, Lotharus tried to use the blood to convert himself. When that didn't work, he made us. But then the scroll that spoke of the Draco Crystal, the ritual, fell into his lap and he abandoned everything he'd worked on to find it and prepare."

         
"And what's so special about you?" Griffon said with a grunt. "Other than those freaky eyes, you all look and die the same to me."

         
"It is said the true oldens possessed memory blockers."

         
"Memory blockers?" Tallon asked.

         
Griffon leaned over her. "It means they could feed off their prey without conscious," he replied under his breath. "Feed off humans again without the threat of going mad."

         
Falcon pushed his way back to the soldier, his hands fisting the vampire's bloodstained collar, nearly yanking him off the chair. "Anything else?"

         
"Yes," the soldier snapped. "It's also said they could walk in the sun."

         
A collective gasp filled the room. Falcon released his hold of the soldier and took a shaky step back.

         
"Can you?" he asked.

         
"Haven't tried," the soldier replied, sulking back into the chair.

         
"As interesting as all of this is," Declan said, "it doesn't help me find Alexia."

         
"Alexia?" The soldier arched a brow and turned toward Declan. "Lotharus plans to kill her at midnight when she ascends and steal her power. With the ruler's force harnessed in the crystal, he can overthrow the order and become the first man to rule our horde in centuries."

         
The vampire's face showed no feelings, his voice held no inflection of emotion, which amazed Declan as he stood in speechless disbelief.

         
"But the Queen..." Tallon finally said, staring at each of them with shocked incredulity before turning back to the soldier. "He can't do that, can he? Won't she stop him?"

         
The soldier shook his head. "He's already killed her."

         
Declan's heart stopped. Without a word, he spun, heading for the door. "Dec, wait."

         
When he didn't slow, Tallon's hand grabbed his bicep, turning him around.

         
"I'm going for her, Tallon. You're not stopping me."

         
Her pink lips twisted and she reached beneath the tattered hem of her sweater to dig something out of her pant pocket. "Then you're going to need this."

         
Declan glanced down. She held one of their black tracing sticks in her hand. The red light at the top blinked in a steady rhythm, meaning not only was it turned on, it was tracking something. Someone. Frowning, he reached for it.

         
Tallon dipped her chin. "I put a tracer on her last night."

         
His frown tightened into a scowl.

         
"I won't apologize, so don't ask me to. You're my family and I'll do what I think is best to look after you, no matter what."

         
Declan took the device from her hand, unable to utter the thanks on his lips.

         
"For the record," she continued, "I don't agree with this. You shouldn't go there. It's too dangerous."

         
"She's right." At Falcon's voice, Declan glanced up. "You need a plan. If Lotharus has already killed the Queen, he will be even stronger now than before."

         
Declan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "All right. Griffon and Falcon, head back out to the catacombs and see if you can spot any activity that might tip us off to Lotharus's whereabouts." Opening his eyes, he set what he knew was a worried gaze on his sister. "Tallon, go and get me Doc. Tell her to bring every bit of parchment, every book and scrap of paper regarding the vampires and their histories with her and meet me in my chamber. Make it quick."

         
"Right," Tallon said. "I'm on it."

         
ALEXIA RAN INTO THE HEART of the garden, stopping at the fountain. As always, Diana stood with one palm up, the other offering water to the sunken city. Panting, Alexia carefully pulled the crystal from underneath her heavy sweater. It seemed to grow heavier in her hand, as if it knew what she was about to do. Wanted her to do it.

         
"Mother, I hope this works," she whispered, placing the ball in Diana's hand. Slowly, Alexia released the stone, pulled her hand back and held her breath.

         
Nothing happened.