Vampire Elite (32 page)

“Oh, yes, I certainly do remember. But you see, I’ve taken the necessary precautions to prevent that from happening. What do you think this one is doing here? ”He pointed at Gabi.
 

Gabi squeezed into the corner.

“You see, Redhead, if you kill me, Sef will rip Gabi’s heart out. It’s quite an interesting spectacle. He’ll just take his fist and pull her heart out while it’s still pumping blood. He’s really good at it. A master, really.”
 

Gagging, Arianna put her hand over her mouth.
 

“Do you doubt what Khay says?” Sef stepped over to Gabi and put his big, sweaty palm on her chest, curling his fingers like claws. “I have quite a lot of experience.”

Gabi’s midnight-black eyes went wide with horror and the blood drained from her face. Hatred flooded Arianna. She had no doubt that they’d follow through with their threat. They hadn’t hesitated to kill one of their own, Elora; they’d told her about it in gruesome detail, apparently to scare her. If they could do that, why would they even think twice about killing an Amiti?
 

“What do you want me to do?” If looks could kill, Khay would have been dead long ago. “I don’t have any powers; I’m useless to you.”
 

“You obviously know nothing about the blood-bond; it taps into your potential powers, not just your operational ones. All we need to draw powers from Amiti is your goodwill. You must willingly share your potential power, the Gift of Ra, with me or ... ” Khay slowly and deliberately turned to Sef and Sef’s lips spread in a repulsive smirk.

“Okay, I’ll do it.” Gift of Ra or not, Gabi’s life was more precious.
 

“Keep in mind that she’s my leverage against you forever. Now lean your head back. Don’t make this difficult for me.”
 

“You have good enough access already. Just do it.” Arianna closed her eyes, swallowing her aversion. “I’m sharing my powers with you, Khay, willingly. Take whatever you want,” she said aloud, but in her head she was chanting
not all of it, just a little bit, just a little bit
, hoping that would count as denying him her goodwill.
 

“Perfect.” Khay’s fingers grabbed her shoulders and a sharp pain pierced her neck. Arianna cleared her mind and dissociated into numbness, a skill she’d had ample opportunity to develop over the past three hundred and fifteen days.
 

Once Khay’d had his fill, he pushed Arianna away. “That was good. Now let’s try my new power.” He stretched his arms forward.
 

Dammit! It hadn’t occurred to Arianna that he’d test it right away—but of course he would, wouldn’t he? She slapped herself mentally. All she could do was hope that chanting
just a little bit
had given Khay just enough juice that he wouldn’t notice how much she’d withheld.
 

While she thought about that, Khay had been manifesting a glowing orb of energy between his palms that looked like a small sun. He aimed the orb at Gabi, and a terrible thought tore through Arianna’s brain—
Oh, no! it wasn’t too little; it was too much!
—just as Khay sent the orb flying through the air and slamming into the center of Gabi’s chest. Gabi screamed once and crashed to the floor. Arianna dropped to her knees next to her friend and cradled her head in her lap.
 

“You killed her, you monster!”
It was me that killed her. I gave him too much power.
Tears blurred her vision. This was by far the worst thing she’d ever done in her life. What would a monster like Khay do with the Gift of Ra? Images of devastation, of Amiti genocide, filled her vision.

“She’s not dead, idiot, just temporarily paralyzed. She’ll regain consciousness in a few hours. But let this be a warning to you, Redhead. I won’t hesitate to kill the girl if you don’t cooperate.” With a smug grin, he left the cell followed by Bahiti and Sef.
 

Pushing away her fear of what Khay could do with the Gift of Ra, Arianna lay down next to Gabi and wrapped her arms around the girl’s listless body, trying to feed some of her body’s warmth into her friend. It felt good, better than Arianna had expected—and it also felt strangely effective. Maybe it was just her affection for Gabi, or the force of her longing for Gabi to be okay, for it not to be Arianna’s fault that she’d been hurt so badly, but she felt like she was—glowing? Or ... radiating an energy that enveloped them both?

Moments later, Gabi opened her eyes. “Nice work, Arianna,” she muttered through bloodless lips.
 

“What do you mean?”
 

“Now that Khay has blood-bonded with you, he’s under your control. When the time comes, you can burn him.”
 

“I can’t. They’ll kill you.”
 

“No. They won’t.” Gabi moved closer to her, her voice so quiet that Arianna could hardly hear her. “It’s time for you to learn the truth, my Queen. My name is Serena. I’m an Amiti elder. I’m from a subgroup of the Order; we’re called the Avengers.”
 

Arianna was speechless. “What? And what are you doing here?”
 

“The Order has been searching for you. We need our Queen to stand beside us. We haven’t had access to you: first Marcus sheltered you, and then when he died, he took knowledge of your whereabouts with him. You’ve been off the grid, so to speak. Then we heard a rumor that you’d been captured and were being used as bloodstock. All of the Order members were instructed to use their powers to find you, and we’ve been covering the four corners of the earth since then looking for you. When it became clear that nothing was working—well, let’s just say I called in a very big favor to figure out where you were. I got close, then dropped my shield so Khay’s pride would know I was Amiti and of course they captured me.
 

“So here I am. I came for you,” concluded Serena.

“Thank you.” Arianna hugged her. “Now: how are we going to get out of here?”
 

“We have a plan, and your confinement will end soon. But you can’t escape; you need to wait for King Tor to free you.”
 

“
What?
”
 

“Now listen to me, Arianna. It’s very important that you follow the plan we’ve developed. But before I explain it, you must vow that you’ll fight for your people by all means possible.”
 

“I vow.” She was ready. She’d
been
ready for a long time now. She’d already made the same vow twice: once, long ago, to her father—though at the time she hadn’t fully comprehended what she was saying—and again, three hundred and fifteen days ago, to herself. “Now tell me the plan.”

“The short version is that we need you to blood-bond with Tor.”
 

“Why would he blood-bond with me?”
 

“He’s been searching for you for a long time—at least since your capture. He’s advertised a bounty of ten million dollars for you. That’s how badly he wants you. And he wants you alive. Here’s what we think. He won the vampire crown based on the power of the Gift of Ra that he got through his blood-bond with your mother. But since her death, the Gift of Ra has been fading; by now he’s rapidly losing it or may be has already lost it. Tor has to make sure that the Gift of Ra is his, or he risks losing his title. But he can only reactivate it through a blood-bond with the new Queen. And that, of course, is you.”
 

“Okay, but—”
 

“Let me just go over the whole plan and then you can ask questions, okay?”

At Arianna’s nod, Serena shared the Order’s plan. Serena’s mindreading skill had told her that Bahiti was obsessed with the ten million dollars Tor was offering for information about Arianna. Bahiti just needed a little pressure to push her a bit. Arianna could create that pressure by refusing to eat, flushing her food down the toilet so the Sekhmi wouldn’t know the cause of her declining health. Bahiti would want to make sure that she collected the bounty before Arianna died, so she’d be motivated to contact Tor.
 

Tor would come rescue Arianna, and Arianna would go away with him and get him to blood-bond with her. Once they blood-bonded, Arianna would participate in the Avengers’ plan. Serena’s group had blood-bonds with more than eighty Sekhmi, many of whom were pride Alphas. Several decades ago, the Avengers had stopped burning Sekhmi and instead were planning a more strategic use of the blood-bond. They’d been collecting blood-bonds in preparation for one final blow. When the time came, the Order would issue an ultimatum to the Elite, demanding the release of all bloodstock; those who didn’t cooperate would be burned.
 

With the King among the blood-bonded, the other Elite would be more likely to cooperate. Then, once the imprisoned Amiti were freed, the Keepers would turn the Key. If the Keepers didn’t secure the release of the bloodstock before they annihilated the vampires, they risked the possibility that thousands of Amiti would die locked in their cells because the Order didn’t know where they were being kept.

“You see, it’s a simple and beautiful plan. It will work. Now, there is one more thing you must do.” Serena got to her feet; Arianna followed her lead. “You need to appoint me the Keeper of the Mystery of Death.”
 

Although Arianna had perceived herself as a real queen before, this was the first time she’d performed any of the duties that came along with that title. Her father had been the Keeper of Death and his position had gone unfilled since then. It was up to her to name a new Keeper, and Serena was the right candidate; Arianna felt it in her gut.
 

She took Serena’s hands in hers and they locked eyes.
 

“My dear friend, Serena, you are among the bravest of Amiti. It is an honor for me to appoint you as the new Keeper of the Mystery of Death. Please accept this responsibility, and use the powers granted to you for the greatest good of your people.”
 

“Thank you, my Queen, for your trust.” Serena bowed to Arianna and kissed her hands.
 

* * *

The Amiti Queen was not doing well, and Bahiti was getting more and more nervous. Something was wrong. First Bahiti had brought that second Amiti, Gabi, back with her, and then less than a week later Gabi had disappeared along with Djay, a male from Khay’s pride—and that, she was sure, wouldn’t end well—and now Arianna was getting weaker and weaker. It was as if she hadn’t been eating, but there was clearly less food on her plate when Bahiti retrieved her dishes, so that wasn’t it. Had Gabi given her some kind of disease?
 

Now Arianna definitely wasn’t eating; she’d gotten so weak that she couldn’t get up from the bed, and her food was left untouched. This week’s bloodletting had almost killed her.
 

When Bahiti brought her food and once again saw the untouched tray on the table, she lost it, rushing to Arianna, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. “Dammit, what’s wrong with you?”
 

But Arianna seemed beyond responding to her; her head fell back and rolled against the pillow. Bahiti pulled her iPhone from her pocket; Khay had gotten what he wanted and taken off somewhere—probably to be with the new girlfriend he’d dumped Bahiti for—so she called Sef. “Sef, I need you to come to Arianna’s cell immediately.”
 

When Sef burst into the cell, Bahiti jabbed a finger in Arianna’s direction, frustrated. “I think she’s dying.”
 

Sef went to Arianna’s bed, checked her pulse and checked her pupils. “I think you’re right.”
 

“What should we do? If she dies, Khay’ll kill us.”

“Whatever we’re going to do, we need to hurry. You know Tor put a ten-million-dollar bounty on her return? It would be stupid to let her die and lose all that money.”
 

“I have a plan. While Khay’s gone, let’s tell Tor where she is, grab the money, and run. I’m sick and tired of Khay, anyway.” Bahiti placed a hand on Sef’s thigh, pressing her body to his. “Ten million will be enough for us to live comfortably for a very long time.” In case Sef wasn’t grasping the full extent of her offer, she put a little extra emphasis on the word
us
.
 

“Sounds good, but let’s get him to double the price so we get ten million each. Then we each go our separate ways.”
 

“Well, well,” came a voice from behind them. Vran, Khay’s new minion, appeared in the doorway. Khay was planning to bring him into the pride to get their numbers back up, and Vran, meanwhile, did everything he could to please Khay. “I wonder what Khay will do to you when he finds out about your betrayal.”
 

“He won’t.” Sef hurled himself at Vran, knocking him to the floor. They rolled around violently; Bahiti could hear their bones crunching as they mauled each other. She pulled out a large dagger that she kept strapped to her thigh—silver, for maximum damage to vampires—and, taking advantage of just the right moment, stabbed Vran in the heart. Vran gagged and his body went limp.
 

Sef shoved him away and smirked victoriously at Bahiti. “Good job! Now finish him off.”
 

“Of course.” Bahiti grinned and, like a flash, buried the dagger deep into Sef’s heart. Wearing an almost comically astonished expression, he collapsed next to Vran’s body.
 

“Sorry about that, Sef. I’ll have lots of expenses and ten million isn’t enough to cover them all.
Now
I’ll finish him off. And you, too.”
 

Bahiti rushed out of the cell and returned a few moments later with an ax. She swung it in a high arc and brought it down viciously on Vran’s neck, severing his head. Then she did the same to Sef. Blood spouted from their severed arteries, forming a spreading pool that almost covered the entire floor of the cell.
 

When it was done, Bahiti turned to Arianna and found her eyes open, her gaze transfixed by the massacre.
 

Still holding the bloody ax in her hand, Bahiti nodded to her. “Well, it’s not a pretty sight, girl, but you won’t have to look at it for too long.”