The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of Ash (31 page)

“Get out of my head!” I scream. I try to block the Voice’s presence, just as I did Victoria’s. But I cannot pinpoint its source. It’s all-pervasive, sounding from every corner of my mind at once. It’s not a single link but an envelopment of my mind.

“YOU WILL COME,”
the Voice threatens,
“WHETHER YOU WILL IT OR NOT.”
Then it laughs.
“YOU MUST BE PERSUADED FIRST. I SEE THAT. WITNESS MY STRENGTH!”

The ground starts to shake once more. A piercing blue light comes from a crevice in the stone beside me. With a start I realize I didn’t trip over a rock.

I tripped over the Queen’s staff. My ankle is still touching it.

“Eleira!” Morgan screams. “The torrial, get away from it! Get away from it now!”

I try to move but my body is paralyzed. An external force takes control of my limbs. It’s the Voice, taking over my body. Without willing it, I reach down and pick up the staff...

A glorious flash of light bursts from the end. James, Smithson, and Victoria are knocked backwards. Raul is, too.

Only the Queen is spared.

She looks at me. “Eleira…” she begins.

“
NO
!” I scream, and the words that come from my throat are not my own, but that of the Voice. They echo through the cavernous enclosure and boom around with the stark intensity of the deranged.

“
YOU WANT TO SEE POWER, YOU WANT TO SEE MIGHT? WITNESS ME AS I STAND BEFORE YOU! WITNESS ME AS I MAKE YOUR KINGDOM CRUMBLE TO DUST
!”

With a savage, uncontrollable roar, I slam the staff into the ground. Magical energy pours through me and into its end. It concentrates there, many times greater than what a single witch could conceivable hold.

Then it all lashes out, as a thunderbolt, in the direction opposite where all the vampires are standing. It flashes and shoots straight as an arrow into the farthest reaches of the cave.

With that, the foreign force vacates my body. The power in the staff dies. The top of it is singed and black and ruined.

I barely have time to recover when a piercing shriek comes from the depths of the cavern. It’s taken up immediately by hundreds more.

I know that sound. But Morgan gives voice to exactly what I fear.

“The Convicted,” she gasps. “They’ve been released.”

RAUL

I fly to Eleira’s side as the horde of Convicted races toward us. There are hundreds of them, but through some trick of the light their numbers seem greater. “Stay behind me,” I tell Eleira in a tight voice. “You’re in no condition to fight.”

“Neither are you!” she protests, taking in my torn clothes and many cuts.

“None of us are,” Morgan says wearily. She steps to our side. “Luckily, this isn’t our fight. Look.”

As if on cue, the first of the running Convicted make a sharp turn and start scampering up the wall toward the open night sky.

“They’re escaping,” I breathe.

“The barriers holding them down are gone,” Mother says. “Obliterated by the power of the one who manipulated you and James. There’s nothing keeping them here anymore.”

I twist on her. “You have to get the barriers back!” I exclaim. The mass of Convicted is already halfway up to freedom. “You cannot let them run loose!”

Mother picks up the staff, and just as quickly tosses it aside. “Without this,” she says. “There is nothing I can do.”

“Where’s James?” I spin around and look for my older brother.
He
is the cause of all this. How he got back, how he betrayed us yet
again
…

About three-quarters of the way up, the mass of Convicted find a ledge and pool onto it. I watch as they regroup for a moment and then start to move once again.

But they’re not going for the opening above us anymore. No, they’ve turned to go deeper in the caves.

But why…

“The humans!” Eleira gasps at exactly the same time the thought hits me. “The Convicted are going for the villagers!”

I curse. But how would Eleira know the humans had been taken underground in advance of the other coven’s arrival? She was locked away when it happened.

I ask her as much.

“I can sense the humans in the distance,” she replies. “
All
of them.”

“That’s because of your strength,” Mother interrupts. She’s pacing the small spot in front of us, her skirt swishing at her legs. “The Convicted do not have senses as attuned to that as you. No, it is the Voice that is directing The Convicted. The Voice that is telling them where to go.”

“How can you know that?” Eleira asks.

“Because,” Mother says. “I hear it too.”

“What are we going to do? We can’t just stay here!” Eleira protests. “We have to help!”

“I agree,” I say. “Smithson, get the guards. I’ll collect the rest of The Haven vampires to help. We won’t stand pat and let The Convicted slaughter our villagers! Smithson? Smithson!”

But as I look around, the Captain Commander is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s gone,” Mother says softly.

She sounds… completely resigned.

“What’s wrong with you?” I scream at her. “Your kingdom is under attack! The humans are about to be slaughtered! The Convicted have just escaped!”

She shakes her head. Self-pity as I’ve never seen it haunts her eyes.

“I’ve failed,” she says under her breath. “I’ve failed The Haven. I’ve failed my people. I failed, I failed, I failed...”

“Snap out of it!” I yell. “You’re the Queen, you’re the Monarch!” The sounds of The Convicted are becoming dimmer and dimmer. The longer we wait, the farther they get from us…

And the closer they get to the humans.

Mother looks back at the remains of her castle. “Six centuries…” her voice cracks. “Six centuries it stood, only to be lost like this.” A despairing sob comes from her throat. “It’s gone. It’s really gone, it’s all gone…”

Eleira steps up to her and swings her arm. Her angry slap connects with Mother’s left cheek.

Morgan looks at her, eyes wide, almost trembling.

“You are a powerful witch,” Eleira says in a steely voice. “You are the ruler of The Haven. You
owe
it to your subjects to show your strength. The castle fell—so what? It can be rebuilt, just as the village was rebuilt. The barriers are down—but you can erect them again! And I’m
not
,” she stresses, “a dark witch. Whatever you think that means, it is not me. Not who I am. Not here.”

She touches her chest, right at the heart. “Maybe something happened when I was a child, but I can fight it. I
will
fight it, if you guide me, and together, we will defeat it.”

She takes hold of Morgan’s shoulders. “But right now, that’s not the threat. If you stay here and bemoan what has happened,
then
your kingdom will be ruined.
Then
you’ll lose all you have built. But if you show courage, and if you fight—The Haven vampires will fight alongside you. That I know.”

Whoa.
Chills run through me at that rising speech. I see Eleira in a new light.

Suddenly, she seems to realize what she’s doing, who she’s talking to. She gives a small gasp and shrinks back.

But I’m right there. I grab her waist, spin her around, and kiss her passionately.

When I let go, she looks at me with wonder-filled eyes. “What was that for?” she breathes.

“For kicking ass,” I say. “And for being amazing.”

I turn to Mother, who seems to have been roused from her mini pity party.

“Will you stand with us?” I ask. “Or will you cower and hide?”

Mother looks at me, then pushes herself up to full height. “A Queen,” she says loftily, “never hides.”

She’s back,
I think.

For now, the thought comes with no small measure of relief.

JAMES

I stumble in a half-crazed daze after Smithson. He runs fast, urging me along, through caverns that I should know as well as the back of my own hand.

When he grabbed my arm and pushed me to go, in the aftermath of our fall into the earth, at first I resisted. But then he said the words that made me know
he
was the one who’d arranged my passage in:

“Beatrice would want you safe.”

So I went with him. I ran from my Mother and brother and Victoria and Eleira, while being consumed with shame at what I’d done. I let my Father play me like a second-hand fiddle. I thought he’d wanted the staff, the torrial, for himself.

I did not ever imagine that he wanted it for The Ancient to destroy The Haven.

But the first domino has fallen. And I am wholly responsible.

Somewhere from beyond us come the shrieks of The Convicted. They’ve been let out, thanks to me. And now, after being deprived of blood, for so long, they will wreak havoc on the world above.

Smithson darts into a crevice in the rock. I follow him—and am blindsided when his first catches me square in the jaw.

I stumble back. A white-hot pillar of rage erupts in me. My vampire instincts are instantly unleashed. I snarl and launch myself at him, claws out, going for the heart.

He knocks me off as easily as if I were a babe. I crash into a wall. Smithson laughs.

“Do you think you’re the only one under protection of a cloaking spell?” he growls. He draws a dagger from his belt. It’s tipped with silver. “Come on,” he says, “show me what you’ve got.”

I launch myself at him. We collide and grapple for position. He tries to dip the dagger under my ribs. I swat the attack away, managing to get my claws up in time to swipe him across the face.

Four red marks form on his cheek. He laughs and spits out blood.

“Is that all you have?” he asks me. “Is that all the strength contained inside the son of the greatest vampire king this world has ever known?” He looks at me in disgust. “That’s pitiful.”

My anger strikes up another notch. Raging, I throw myself at him. He was right, he
is
cloaked, and that’s why I’d always considered him weaker. But he isn’t like the vampires from The Crypts. He doesn’t have the gift of The Ancient’s blood.

In fact, he and I are closely matched.

He tries to stab me with the dagger but I parry each of his attacks. I can tell from the way he holds it that he isn’t the most proficient with the weapon.

“What’s wrong, Smithson?” I ask cruelly. “Missing your precious sword?”

That
riles him up. He roars and throws himself at me. I go entirely on the defensive, only just managing to deflect his attacks.

Maybe taunting the man wasn’t the best idea.

He flashes his dagger. Every single jab gets closer and closer to hitting the mark. I grit my teeth, grimly aware that I am weakening—

With a sudden stab he breaks through my defenses. The dagger sinks into my side. I cry out. The silver tip,
inside
my body, is more than I can handle.

I go down.

Smithson looks at me and laughs. A sudden flurry of stabs descend upon me. It’s all I can do to shield my heart. The dagger dips into my chest, my shoulders, my arms, my back. Pain and agony take me. The wounds do not close because of that horrific metal.

Finally, when I lie broken and bleeding on the ground, he stops.

He sneers as he wipes the dagger clean on his pants. I groan. “Killing you was never part of the plan. But you
had
to go and visit Victoria. You
had
to make yourself seen. Beatrice asked me to get you in. She said nothing about keeping you alive.”

He tosses the blade on the ground. It skitters to a halt before my face.

“Do yourself a favor. End your misery. Take the honest way out.” He kneels before me. “Take the dagger,” he whispers. “Plunge it in your heart. You know death comes for you no matter what. You can extend your misery, and slowly bleed to death. Or you can accept my final mercy, and go out as a
man
. Because,” he stands again, “in all the behavior I’ve seen you display, you’re nothing but a frightened child.”

With that he walks away.

“Wait,” I croak, dragging myself forward. Blood continues to pour out of the wounds and pool around me. “
Why do this?
Who is Beatrice to you?”

He considers the question for a moment. Then he decides to indulge me.

“Beatrice,” he says. “Is the wife who was stolen from me. And for
that
little nugget of information…” he plucks the dagger away, “… you lost your last chance at a swift and easy death. Goodbye, James. I
won’t
be seeing you again.”

He walks out of the fissure, leaving me to bleed dry on the ground.

VICTORIA

Somewhere in the commotion I come to. I crack an eye open. Sounds filter to my ears.

Eleira—she’s alive! Eleira is screaming at the Queen, something about her being a dark witch and fighting for The Haven and other such nonsense that I cannot make heads or tails of. Beyond her, I see Raul. Handsome, stunning Raul, with his flame-red hair and blazing green eyes. If only
he
had been the one to first come to The Crypts, and not his arrogant brother James…

A sudden spasm in my neck makes me whimper in pain. I bite down the sound. I have to avoid drawing attention to myself.

My eyes go up. Far above me is an opening to the sky. I’m surrounded by rubble and debris from the castle.

Glimpses of what happened come back to me. The fight against that awful black…
thing
. Succumbing to its ghastly claws. Willing my body to heal, but finding it incapable of closing the wounds…

With enormous effort and through tremendous pain I force my arms to drag me to a hiding spot. I crawl behind a jagged rock and huddle there. I try not to shake.

I don’t know how much time I have left. But I know my death looms on the horizon. I don’t feel the link with Eleira anymore. It’s been severed completely.

Death always comes to the weaker vampire when the link breaks.

At first, I thought it would have been her. But my body has been ruined by the fight. And Eleira is obviously still standing. Which means…