The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of Ash (3 page)

I stare at the blonde vampire.

She gives a very satisfied grin.

“My blood was the first you tasted.”
Her voice sounds in my head, but she’s not actually speaking! “
You and I have a unique connection now.”

My eyes grow wide.

“Can you read my thoughts?”
I wonder.

She gives the most miniscule smile. Then, in contradiction, she shakes her head.

“Not quite,”
she tells me, again without speaking.
“But you and I can communicate through a telepathic link.”
She glances at James beside her.
“Don’t tell this one. He won’t take it too well.”

I stare at her.
“Do all vampires have this trait?”

Victoria laughs out loud. “Of course not,” she says, this time using her actual voice. “We are special. But… most vampires also
kill
the one they first feed on.”

“But I didn’t kill you,” I whisper.

“No,” she say. “You did not.”

James looks at us, considering... but doesn’t say a word.

“That’s why you want to now
,
”
she adds.

I struggle against the impulse she’s trying to goad out of me.

“Safer to speak this way.”

“Who says I want to speak with you?”
I counter.

“You have questions only I can answer
.
”

I can’t deny that.

“We are not so different, Eleira.”
She takes a breath.
“I did not want to be a vampire when I was turned, either.”

I can’t help my shock.

She continues:
“I was also part of a line of witches. That is why our connection exists. Vampires killed my twin. She was the one they wanted. Not me.”

“You have The Spark?”

She doesn’t answer.

“Why do you want me to kill you?”
I ask.
“Why do you taunt me when you know what I can do?”

She shakes her head. I feel a
snap,
and suddenly the link between us is no more.

“Hello?”
I venture.

There’s no reply.

I try to catch the strand in my mind that alerted me to her presence... and find it entirely missing.

Victoria flashes the thinnest grin before closing her eyes.

I make an annoyed sound with my throat and turn away. If she can cut off the connection then so can I.

… I hope. I truly hate the idea of her having unfettered access to my head.

Some hours later, the plane starts to descend. We drop below the cloud cover. I look out my window and see the dense redwoods of the California forest.

Home.
I think.
But unlike I’ve ever known it.

I keep looking out the window until we land. With an aerial view of the forest, I can’t help but wonder where The Haven would be inside it. Can I see it from the Outside, now that I’m a vampire? Or is it just as invisible to me as before?

Raul emerges from the cockpit. “Get up,” he barks at James and Victoria. “And behave yourselves. You’re on my territories now.”

James rolls his eyes and gives a lazy smile. He raises his bound wrists to Raul. “You might as well release me and get it over with,” he says. “We both know Mother won’t stand for seeing her eldest in chains.”

“After she finds out all that her
eldest
did,” Raul replies with a biting look, “she can decide what to do. Let’s go.”

“No point dragging this out,” Victoria mutters. She stands after Raul eases her chains. James follows suit.

Raul turns his head away from them to address me. “You wait here,” he begins. “I’ll—”

But the moment he diverts his attention from the prisoners, a look passes between the two of them. Victoria reaches into her
jacket
and pulls out the thinnest silver stiletto. I have no idea how she smuggled it on board.

“WATCH OUT!” I scream.

My cry gives Raul just enough time to twist back. Victoria’s stab, aimed at his heart, instead glazes against the side of his ribs.

Raul roars and catches Victoria’s arm. He torques it into an awkward position that makes her drop the weapon. But James is right there. He swoops down to pick it up—

I’m out of my seat and on him in an instant. I don’t remember making the conscious choice to do so. It just happened. With Raul in danger, my instincts roar
to life.

I crash with James into the plane’s aluminum wall. He snarls at me, but I pin him there easily. He tries to fight. My hand lashes out and catches him by the throat. I feel the call of blood.
His
blood. I feel it pulsing through the heavy veins in his neck.

I could crush him.
The thought is distant, foreign, and strange. It’s unlike me. It’s laced with such malice and hate and, above all,
desire…

If I but squeeze, I could break his windpipe and end his life.

Someone grips my shoulder. I hiss and jerk free. The grip tightens, and Raul turns me to him.

“Eleira,” he says. He’s looking at me with pleading eyes. “Don’t.”

His voice brings me back to myself. I look down at my arm, see the way my fingers are tightened around James’s throat. I see the fear in the other vampire’s eyes, the abject horror swimming behind his irises that he’s doing his best to hide.

It’s the same sort of fear I felt when James first attacked me in the atrium. Back when I was first made a prisoner of the Soren brothers.

With a startled gasp, I let James go. There’s a heavy dent in the aluminum wall of the plane where we’d hit.

James falls to his knees. He sucks in air and looks at me as if I’m some feral beast.

Raul gently brings me into him. His arms wrap around my body. He holds me tight.

Over his shoulder, I see Victoria struggling with that velvet, silver-lined bag over her head. When did Raul manage to get that on? It feels like only seconds have passed…

“You blacked out,” Raul whispers, as if sensing my thoughts. “The bloodlust broke through.”

“Because you were in danger,” I say without thinking.

“Eleira,” he holds me by the shoulders and looks into my eyes. “I won’t lie and say it’ll get easier from here. But you
have
to control it. Do you understand?”

I stare right back at him. Confusion and… anger…? swirl inside me. I just saved his life, and he wants to lecture me?

I try to twist out of his grip. He doesn’t let me go.

“Promise me,” he says. “Promise me you’ll control it in The Haven.”

I feel that anger rising. I try to push it down, but it’s like a pot of boiling water. The only way to get rid of it is to stop feeding it heat… and my raging emotions are simply adding to the fire.

“I…” I start to say. But the voice that comes from my lips is not my own. It’s cruel and savage and threatening.

It’s the voice of the vampire borne within me. It’s full of anger and hatred. I’ve never been an angry person, and to feel the emotion so acute inside me, it frightens me.

It takes all the willpower I possess, but I temper it. I speak with my regular inflection.

“I’ll… I’ll control it.”

“Good.” Just like that, Raul releases me. He bends down and offers his brother a hand. I stare as Raul helps James up.

What the…?

“I was trying to help.” James says to me grudgingly. “To get the weapon away from Victoria.”

I can’t help the incredulous scoff from coming out.

But Raul only nods. “We might plot and bicker,” he says. “But two vampires of The Haven would never kill each other.”

Yet even as he says that, a haunted look passes through his eyes.

“Especially not anywhere near our coven’s territories,” James adds. He looks at the blonde woman twitching on the floor. “She was a fool for trying an attack.”

My mouth works, but no words come out. Is Raul just going to stand there and accept
that
for an explanation?

“I
saw
the look that passed between you and her before she drew the knife!” I accuse James.

“You misread it. I was telling her not to do anything stupid.”

“Liar!” I snarl. Tendrils of that ever-present anger rise from my gut. “I know what you’re capable of! You’d stop at nothing to get ahead!”

“She’s known me for a few weeks and already has such a firm opinion,” James notes to his brother.

Raul gives a sour chuckle.

“I can’t believe this,” I say. “Raul, did you not see what just happened? She—“I point at Victoria, “—tried to kill you. Your brother helped her! If it wasn’t for me—“

“Enough.” Raul cuts me off. Something in his voice slices right through the hierarchical vampire presence that I naturally exert over him. “That’s enough, Eleira. I want you to trust me on this.”

Am I going crazy? None of this is making any sense! Why is Raul reacting so… passively? Why am
I
being framed as the bad guy?

Raul gives me a level look. “We’re going to deplane now,” he says. “I’ll take Victoria. James will come next. Eleira, you wait here until I return.”

“No!” I say. “Why am I to be left behind?”

“It’s for your safety,” Raul says. He takes my arm and pulls me aside. He whispers in my ear, “Mother knows I brought you back. But she doesn’t know how powerful you are yet. She’s waiting for us out there. She’ll be able to sense your power from a distance—but she doesn’t know it’s
yours
. I don’t know how she’ll react when she discovers it’s actually you. Victoria already surpasses her in strength. The Queen won’t like that. But bringing
two
vampires, both stronger than her, home with me? Let’s just say it makes for an unpredictable situation.”

“Fine,” I grumble. Part of his explanation makes sense… a bit.

It doesn’t mean I like it.

I settle into a seat, cross my arms, and stare daggers at the backs of the other three vampires.

Raul rips the sack off Victoria’s head just before he takes her off the plane, leaving James with me.

SMITHSON

I stand on my Queen’s right, shoulders back, chin held high, chest thrust out.

We’re gathered at the edge of The Haven for the arrival of her two sons. In my mind, I conduct a quick check of all the guards.

I’ve posted many around the area. The congregation surrounding the Queen is only a tenth of those under my command.

The rest are spread through the trees, hidden in strategic positions throughout the forest. All are waiting to strike on my command.

When the Queen of The Haven reached out to me and offered me the position of Captain Commander… I was flabbergasted. I could never expect such a boon.

She and I knew each other, many long centuries ago…

I lie flat on the rocky ground, edging my way forward inch by agonizing inch.

A violent fire rages around me. The smoke forms a dense black cloud that covers most of the sky. It hides the summer sun and is the only reason my team and I have any chance of success.

No one would be crazy enough to go into the blasting hell we’re approaching without the benefit of such cover.

I look over my shoulder and check on my men. This mission is of the highest priority. We are Knights of the Vorcellian Order. We’ve dedicated our lives to eliminating the stain of witchcraft and sorcery from the human race.

All of us have taken our vows, forsaking the basal pleasures of this life for the sake of a higher calling.

Our Order has been around since the start of the millennium. We’ve always operated in the shadows, undermining magic wherever it appears. Witches and sorcerers—they are our targets. They are our prey.

We cannot allow the dark, unnatural forces to spread throughout the world.

Now, my team and I stand on the verge of destroying one of the most powerful family of witches in existence:

The Soren Clan.

The past two decades have been a spectacular success. We’ve managed to burn, kill, or otherwise eliminate all the weaker families. Only five remain that we know of.

Of course, there is always the possibility that more exist. If they do, my Order will find them, uncover them, and watch them burn.

This has been my whole life’s purpose. I was born into the Order and quickly rose through the ranks. As a teen, I was made First Officer. Older men scoffed at my appointment, but I quickly proved their doubts wrong. And the ones who continued to snicker behind my back?

Well, those were the only who found their heads on pikes when I became Lord Commander a short five years later.

Eighteen other Knights are here with me. They are my most trusted men. When I caught wind of the ceremony the Soren witches were planning from an inside source, I knew this was the most opportune time to strike.

Of course, this mission carries a high risk of failure. All our missions do, but taking calculated risks is all part of the game.

Sometimes you have to go by nothing more than the feeling in your gut. And my gut told me to
attack
.

We continue scaling the rocky hill. Four days ago, we set the fires to trap the witches in the midst of their ceremony.

All supernatural creatures fear fire. It is the one element they cannot control, because it is the one element governed by God.

I mouth a brief prayer and make the symbol of the cross around my chest. My faith in the Lord is unwavering. It is what allows me to face such monstrosities of nature without fear.

But something went wrong.

The fires we set have not yet been put out. They haven’t lessened. If anything, in the past few days they’ve grown stronger.

Stopping the blaze should have been the Soren clan’s first priority. And yet they’ve allowed it to rage on and on…

We surveyed the land before striking the blaze. There wasn’t enough tinder there to fuel the fires for four long days.

That means something else is feeding the flames. Something, I suspect, that comes from the inside.