Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) Page 2

  I blocked out the happy cheers, wondering what the other fire users were thinking. It was one thing to fight back to stop themselves from being oppressed. But I couldn’t understand why they would want to rule over humans.

  “First, I must heal those of you who fought valiantly to protect the innocent.” Two flaming swords sprouted from Kresnik’s arms, making everyone gasp. Except Coral and me. I was too busy recalling Coral’s uncanny ability to shape magic. Coral stiffened, perhaps working out where he gained that ability to shape fire.

  Kresnik touched the tip of his blade to a man with a bleeding chest wound. He shuddered and screamed and thrashed, but seconds later, he stood.

  “You see?” He raised his sword. “I now have the power of healing. No-one will ever fear death because my magic will secure the immortality of my most loyal.”

  For the next several minutes, Kresnik walked around the stage, sticking his sword of flames into the wounds of the injured. Dozens of audience members lined the steps, clutching minor wounds. I slid down from the seat and lowered myself onto my knees.

  “What are you doing?” Coral hissed.

  “Getting out of here with all my blood,” I whispered back.

  Coral glanced at the stage, where Valentine stared at us through red eyes. My escape was also a test to see how much free will Valentine could exercise in the presence of Kresnik. Kresnik called him onstage. Would he stay there and obey his new master while I escaped or would he come after me instead?

  By now, the magic thief had already healed the injured and was moving on to those with minor wounds. I ducked behind the people lining up on my right and bolted up the auditorium steps. In a few moments, I would be free…if the wards weren’t already trapping me here.

  Excited chatter echoed around the auditorium. It looked like everyone was pleased to see the return of Kresnik. Ignoring them, I took the stairs two at a time. Even if I couldn’t leave for now, I would bide my time until one of the people here left on a mission. Now that my magic belonged to someone else, he probably wouldn’t be able to track me. Especially if I only moved about during daylight hours and stayed away from windows at night.

  The air shifted, and Valentine appeared at the top of the stairs, glowering down at me through those eerie red eyes. My stomach plummeted to the stone steps, and my insides rippled with anxiety.

  “I can explain,” I stuttered through yet another round of applause. “People like me need to use the bathroom—”

  He grabbed my arm and dragged me down the steps, making me stumble over my feet to keep up. Valentine deposited me on the seat next to Coral’s, placed both hands on my shoulders, and pointed a finger between my eyes. The scowl on his features told me I would not enjoy what he would do to me if I tried escaping again.

  I nodded, and he continued toward the stage.

  Coral leaned into me and murmured, “Possessive?”

  “This soulless version of him thinks I’m his property.”

  “Typical vampire.”

  My posture slumped. This time, I let her comment wash over me. There were a hundred more things to worry about than Coral still thinking that Valentine was a tyrant who would use me as a blood cow, and my continuing life was one.

  I stared at the stage, meeting Valentine’s eyes. If he wasn’t completely under Kresnik’s control, how much influence could I exercise on him to set him free?

  Chapter Two

  I slumped back in my seat and blew out a weary breath. What I needed right now was Valentine. Not the preternatural glowering at me from across the stage, but the fully restored soul dwelling within his heart. If Valentine was in his right mind, we might be able to work out how to get out from under Kresnik’s control.

  Better yet, Valentine’s soul might help me work out how I could retrieve my power, because there was no way Kresnik would use his flames to restore an enemy who would kill him for murdering and enslaving his father.

  After the man in question finished healing the last few stragglers’ minor wounds, he walked to the center of the stage, where the dead bodies lay two feet apart in a line.

  “My children,” he said in a voice that echoed across the room. “When you follow me, I will grant you eternal life. I can heal the sick and injured, raise the dead, turn the elderly into youths.”

  He walked along the line of corpses and stopped at Brother David’s. With a gigantic hole in the chest, his was one of the worst in the lineup. Kresnik skewered the other man’s corpse with both flaming swords and stepped back to let the blades do their work.

  I licked my dry lips, trying not to act impressed. This was no different than throwing a fireball—something most mages could do.

  The scent of burning flesh filled the air, but the dead man’s exterior remained unmarred. Seconds later, his skin glowed with the light of the fire burning him from the inside out. I placed a hand over my mouth. Could Kresnik bring back every dead fire user from the battle? By the time I’d completed that thought, the corpse was reduced to ash.

  “Ceremonial dagger?” he said.

  Healer Calla extracted a golden knife from the apron of her white gown and knelt to present it to her master.

  Kresnik sliced the palm of his hand and dripped his blood over the ash pile. I glanced at Valentine to see if he would react to the blood, but he kept his gaze on mine. My stomach tightened. What kind of thirsty vampire didn’t gravitate to blood? Then realization hit with the force of an anvil. When I was Valentine’s master, he never once tried to bite me. Valentine didn’t attack Kresnik because the wretched man was his master.

  Coral leaned into my side. “Why’s he using blood?”

  “Remember that piece of debris that hit you on the head?” I asked through the side of my mouth. “Your blood got into the ashes and accelerated his return.”

  “I still can’t believe that’s not Father Jude.”

  I wrapped my arms around my middle. It looked like the Kresnik from five hundred years ago who the Council said had burned out his magical core had actually survived. Kresnik then moved to the land Valentine’s father had bought for him and commissioned the building of that mansion. That’s where all the fire users lived for centuries, until the demon enforcers raided it.

  My gaze lingered on the ashes, which darkened with Kresnik’s blood. At some time during the raid, Father Jude led the fire users out to safety, while Kresnik fought the demon enforcers and got dragged into Hell. At least that’s what happened to his soul. The Council must have destroyed his body, and his shadow slithered away to cause mischief.

  I sucked in a breath, waiting to see if Brother David would rise.

  Up on the stage, Kresnik leaned toward Valentine and murmured in his ear. Valentine kept his gaze on mine throughout the conversation, making me hope they weren’t talking about Kresnik’s plans to have me exsanguinated now that I had served my purpose.

  The audience chatted among themselves until a scream echoed across the stage. Kresnik spread his arms wide. “Behold, Brother David is once again whole!”

  Applause thundered, picking up volume as the sound continued to bounce off the walls. Kresnik wasn’t anything special—he just used the power of seven to amplify the power of a phoenix. Only Clarence, Gail, and Racon knew that, but they weren’t around to tell the audience that the emperor had stolen his clothes.

  “Did you see that?” asked Coral.

  “It’s pretty much what happened when Father Jude rose from the ashes,” I muttered.

  She ignored me and joined in the applause.

  I leaned away from the other woman, my stomach plummeting. Had she been swayed by this resurrection to respect Kresnik?

  The naked Brother David turned in a circle, not seeming to understand what was happening. Healer Calla placed a sheet over his shoulders and guided him to the side of the stage, where he shrugged off the covering and rubbed his temple. The last thing he probably remembered was having his heart torn out by a demon enforcer, if he remembered anything at all.

/>   I’d bet my former collection of black tourmaline that Brother David’s body was alive but soulless. It wasn’t common knowledge, but I’d come to learn that supernaturals kept their souls in their hearts. Kresnik just revived a heartless body, and the real Brother David was probably already in a cell within the depths of the Demon King’s lair, being tortured for daring to have fire.

  Kresnik flicked his arm, indicating for Brother David to take a seat. The newly resurrected man stumbled from side to side before someone guided him off the stage and into a space in the front row.

  The other fire users crowded him, seeming to be asking questions, but Brother David stared ahead at Kresnik the way Valentine stared at me. My skin tightened. How many of those dead people would he bring back wrong?

  “One more thing before I restore my faithful warriors.” Kresnik turned to Aurora, who dipped into a low bow and walked behind the screen.

  Moments later, she reemerged with two of the men I recognized from Jonathan’s banishment. They led a dozen uniformed enforcers, each bound with metallic chains around their necks and ankles and wrists. Chains linked the enforcers together, forcing them to walk in lockstep.

  Aurora bowed low and presented the chains to Kresnik, who turned to the audience and beamed. “When I clamped down on the wards, I collected every single intruder, dead or alive, to join my ranks.

  Within Kresnik’s hands, the chain turned as red as hot coals, and livid heat spread down the other links and up into the first collars and cuffs.

  The first enforcer’s scream was so gut-wrenching that I leaned forward, gulping mouthfuls of air.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Coral whispered.

  I shook my head, my gaze fixed on the horror unfolding on the stage.

  That first enforcer fell to the ground, followed by another and another until steam rose from the chains. A hushed awe spread across the auditorium, but all I could feel was a stomach rippling with nausea. Kresnik was burning them alive.

  When the last of the enforcers lay on the ground with saliva frothing from his mouth, Kresnik turned to the women standing at the big screen. “Ceremonial slaughters.”

  Each of them extracted daggers and walked around the stage. I stared into Valentine’s eyes, holding his gaze as though it was the only thing keeping me sane. What was the point of doing this? Revenge? Recruitment? To prove to the newcomers that Kresnik was powerful?

  The women reached down and stabbed the men through their hearts. Each time one of them flinched, I shuddered hard enough to make my teeth chatter. When they were sure that all of the fallen enforcers were dead, the women returned to their positions.

  “Behold.” Kresnik raised his arms, and the dead enforcers rose to their feet.

  By now, I couldn’t stomach the spectacle, much less the applause. I lowered my gaze to my lap, waiting for this assembly to end.

  Kresnik said, “Please see to it that my Preternatural General has the very best room within the upstairs house.”

  My head snapped up, and I gulped to find both Kresnik and Valentine staring at me with different degrees of hunger. One of them hungered for my blood, but the other hungered to destroy me. I pursed my lips. Kresnik hadn't been kidding when he said the time for hiding was over. He wanted some of us to live above ground, just so the Supernatural Council would see how powerful he had become.

  Aurora turned to Valentine, who nodded and followed her toward the steps that led to the door at the top of the auditorium. As Valentine passed, he wrapped his hand around my bicep and pulled me off my seat. I stumbled up the stairs after Valentine, hoping he would take mercy on me and not drain me to a husk.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, but both Valentine and Aurora ignored me as they reached the top of the stairs.

  I glanced over my shoulder, wondering if Kresnik wanted us out of the auditorium because he was about to share sensitive information, but the man ordered his preternatural enforcers to stand at the back of the stage while he continued burning the dead with his flaming swords.

  There were no signs that a battle had ever taken place within the hallway. Kresnik’s magic had restored the curving passage to their usual pristine white. Even the light fittings were repaired.

  Valentine’s arm encircled my waist, pulling me into the coldness of his corpse. A shudder ran down my spine. Whatever he had done out there must have burned away every ounce of blood in his veins. He looked even worse than he had the day we had fought the Demon and Mage Kings.

  The woman who was supposed to be my mother walked down the hallway at a brisk pace, never once sparing me a backward glance.

  “Aurora,” I snapped.

  She turned her head to the side and scowled.

  “You planned this all along, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “What are you talking about now?” she said as though this was the tenth in a string of questions laden with unfair accusations.

  “My conception,” I snapped. “How many children did you dump around Logris, hoping they would develop enough fire magic to eventually steal?”

  Aurora halted in the middle of the hallway, her shoulders rising toward her ears. She turned around and glowered at me through narrowed eyes. “It is a great honor to survive the enchantment that made you a vessel for the highest and purest grade of magic. Remember that, girl.”

  That was like telling a calf it had been fed only the very best so it could provide the most delicious meat. I shook my head from side to side, wondering what level of brainwashing Father Jude and Kresnik had performed on her to participate in such a barbaric act.

  “How could you?” I whispered.

  Aurora turned around and continued down the hallway. “If you knew how the people within have suffered, you wouldn’t ask such tedious questions.”

  My muscles tensed, and my pulse revved up to full throttle. I tried to rush at her, but Valentine’s arm secured me to his side. Even when I glowered up at him, he continued to stare ahead as though he’d been programmed to obey a single command, which was to follow this wretched woman to a safe spot where he could drain my blood.

  “Why don’t you explain then?” I curled my hands into fists.

  Aurora smoothed her hands down the sides of her white gown. “The magic all of you were born with belonged to our Lord—”

  “What, he was a phoenix, too?”

  She shot me a glare, her features tightening. “Our Lord thought that the power to resurrect our warriors would serve in the upcoming conflict.”

  “What am I then? A sacrifice—”

  “A dual soul,” she said, sounding smug. “Much like Father Jude and Our Lord except that you combine the intelligence of a person with the fire of a phoenix.”

  So, at some point after leaving the mansion and being dragged into Hell, Kresnik managed to hitch a ride in Father Jude’s body. At least now the old man’s dual personality made sense. The version of him who had set my teeth on edge and raised my hackles had actually been Kresnik, broadcasting straight from Hell.

  I turned to Valentine to see his reaction, but he continued staring straight ahead. All the anger inflating my insides seeped away, replaced by the fluttering of my stomach and a sense of dread so thick I could scrape it off my tongue. Perhaps after feeding, he might be able to make sense of what was happening—if I even survived the night with a hungry preternatural.

  Aurora pushed open a door that led to a stairwell of stone floors and ornate iron banisters that curved upward in a gentle slope. As we walked through the doorway, pinpricks of power travelled across my skin, indicating that we were passing some wards. It looked like I had retained my sensitivity to subtle magic, which meant I was still a Neutral. It also meant that Valentine might not need to drink every ounce of my blood to replenish himself.

  She took the stairs two at a time. I guess because she had tired of my accusations and wanted to return to her beloved master.

  At the top of the first flight was a grand entrance hall of dark wood floors, turquoise walls
, and a vaulted ceiling. White pillars broke up the colors, and stone plinths stood at ten-foot intervals, each holding marble busts.

  After a battle of the magnitude I’d seen earlier, all this must have been reduced to rubble. There had been dragons and salamanders and warriors wielding weapons, and half the mansion had been destroyed. Goosebumps tightened across my skin. How could one person hold so much power without shattering into pieces?

  The new wards had to be powerful if Kresnik was allowing Valentine to stay in Kenwood House. That, or he was too dangerous to allow anywhere near his followers.

  “How many babies died before you worked out how to combine their souls with a phoenix?”

  “Not as many as those who were killed by the Supernatural Council,” she said, sounding as smooth as slime.

  “Aunt Arianna always told me—”

  “One evil only compounds another,” she snapped. “Arianna was my sister before she became your guardian.”

  I clenched my teeth. This wasn’t a competition. “What do you think she’ll say when she discovers that the child she took great pains to raise just got fed to a hungry vampire?”

  “You and I know she wouldn’t approve.”

  “Yet you’re handing me over anyway.”

  Aurora paused by the door, her lips tightening into a thin line. Unease settled in the lining of my stomach. I knew it was Kresnik who handed me over to Valentine and Aurora was just a follower, but how could she carry someone inside her for nine months and just let them get consumed?

  For a moment, I pictured her as a woman who had spirited me away to the safety of Aunt Arianna, so I wouldn’t become a sacrifice. But that wasn’t true. If Aurora had told my aunt to protect me, then my aunt would have left the country. There were plenty of places a fire user could go around the world—Atlantis, Baltia, or Arcadia. They could even seek shelter in New Mesopotamia if they didn’t mind being ruled by vampires.

  No. If she had cared a damn, she wouldn’t have continued insisting that I return to the Flame. Aurora knew what she was doing and fully intended me to be the main ingredient in a ritual to create this new and improved Kresnik. What I didn’t understand was why I kept trying to appeal to her nonexistent conscience.