Wicked Sun: Vampires & Vices No. 3, page 3
It must mean the transition has begun.
I don’t know what to do or how to get out. My panic builds, but there’s nowhere for it to go, so I scream, and then I cry. And then I get back up and bang on the door.
“Hello?” I yell. “Is there someone out there?”
It’s thick wood––way too thick for me to break through even with my added strength. I stop and listen intently, my hearing kicking up a notch. Someone shifts their weight on the other side.
I calm my voice to a more reasonable tone. “I really need to get out of here.”
Whoever is over there clears their throat. “Sorry, but the boss says you can’t come out until morning.”
I grit my teeth together. According to Adrian, I need to be underground for three nights after being bit to become a vampire. Does that mean I have to be underground all three nights in a row? Last night I was passed out in a French catacomb, which was a step in the right direction. This? This is not going to help me! I only have two more nights to get this done, and the idea of morning feels a million years away. I need to take care of this now. What if I’m not underground long enough? What if I can’t find a cemetery in time? What if Tate hunts me down again? No, I can’t take any chances because I’m absolutely certain that this venom is either going to transform me or it’s going to kill me.
And I don’t care about the naive do-gooder girl I used to be––she seems like a shadow of a person, a girl who didn’t know anything about the world. Who I am now would rather give in to my fate than try to fight it a moment longer. But I have to be smart because the people holding me captive will never see things my way.
“That’s not what Tate told me,” I lie, keeping my voice steadier this time. “He told me that we’d be going to dinner and to get changed.” I force a smile and hope the man on the other side of the door can hear it in my voice. “Well, I’m all ready now and getting hungry.”
“Don’t listen to her,” another voice says––a voice I know like the back of my hand. “She’s a liar.”
“Felix,” I cry with relief, “you’re here. I’m so glad you’re here. You’ve got to help me.” He doesn’t respond, and I continue, hoping he can recognize the desperation in my voice and will want to free me from it. “There’s been a big mistake. It’s not what you think.”
He scoffs bitterly, and I can picture his face full of shame and anger. “Am I going to have to listen to you all night? Because guess what, babe, there are five of us out here and more throughout the castle and outside. Everyone is on duty tonight. You’re not getting out of that room.”
I deflate, and then rage takes over. Did he just call me babe like it’s an insult? “You have no right to lock me up! If you ever cared about me, you wouldn’t allow this bullshit to carry on.”
“I cared for you. Past-tense.” My heart twists at his cruel words. “But it turns out, I didn’t actually know the girl I cared for, so shut up because you’ll get no more sympathy from me.”
I growl and bang on the door again, but it’s useless. I can’t get out. I’m locked away like Rapunzel in her tower. But Rapunzel was a princess who needed a prince to save her. Not me. I’m a powerful woman destined to become an even more powerful vampire, and no man is going to stop me from my destiny. My headache starts to ease, and it gives me a chance to think this through. I sit down on the bed and close my eyes, my mind whirling with everything that’s happened and everything that needs to happen. I’ve got to come up with a plan. There’s got to be something I can do.
And then it hits me. I haven’t been patient enough. Tonight’s a lost cause, but I’ll get another chance tomorrow. In the meantime, I think I’ll punish Felix.
CHAPTER 5
I spent all day in the catacombs searching for Eva, but she’s gone. So I return to Versailles again, hell-bent on finding Brisa’s blasted laptop. When I couldn’t find it last night, I’d left in frustration, but now I can’t figure out my next steps without it. My plan had been to find Eva and get back to New Orleans. Things were going to be a mess for a while, and getting control over my city was my priority.
But now that I can’t find Eva, I need the information from Brisa’s servers. She’s the only one who had the kind of access I need to figure out where Eva could’ve gone. I know for a fact she’d tapped into the CCTV cameras all over the world, Paris included.
I storm into the palace, no longer caring what I may face, stopping by the throne room first because that’s where things really got out of hand yesterday. I wonder if any of them are still in there, still fighting for something that means little without a royal blood bond. The one person I don’t expect to find?
Mangus.
I stop in my tracks, staring at the very brother who was announced dead by my queen only two nights earlier. He’s lounging on Brisa’s old throne, long coppery hair a mess, his Victorian clothing wrinkled, and blood glistening on his lips. He blinks up at me through hazy red-rimmed eyes.
“I know,” he says, raising his glass of blood-wine. “Don’t tell me. You thought I was dead.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was half drunk, but alcohol doesn’t do much to our systems, not unless consumed profusely. It could be that my brother has been on a binge since his wife was murdered.
“So Brisa lied?” It doesn’t make sense. Why would she lie about him dying? Did she want to punish him somehow? Sebastian was ordered not to lie, so he must’ve truly believed Katerina killed her husband. It’s a puzzle with pieces that don’t fit.
He nods, long and slow and tortured. “In a way, she lied. Truth is, brother, she really thought I was dead.”
“How?”
He cuts me off. “And then she killed Katerina.” His voice is hoarse. Murderous. “I’m glad the queen bitch is dead. Good riddance.”
He spits and then sinks further into the throne. I eye it warily, a pit forming in my stomach. He must see my trepidation because what he says next surprises me. “Come to take it?” His tone is lazy. He stands and sways to one side. “It’s yours.”
“I don’t want it. I know better than to put that target on my back. You should too.”
“What’s the point?” He scoffs. “Let them kill me.”
“You don’t mean that.”
He shrugs. “Maybe I do.”
He’s really broken up about his mate, but I understand and I can’t say I blame him. So many times I have wanted to end this endless existence, but I was forbidden from ever doing so. Now that my maker is gone, I could. I won’t, there’s too much to do, but Mangus can, and he very well might.
“Nobody has been crowned,” he goes on, “and from the ashy scene I stumbled into yesterday, nobody will be.”
He’s right, of course. Even if someone were to try and make a go of ruling our court, they’d be doing it through force and not a royal blood bond. Everything has been splintered, and taking that role would be like signing up for an early death. Even for a prince such as myself. Especially for a prince.
“Four of the lower vampires went at it right after she died and ended up killing each other.” I’d stayed back, letting them pick one another off while I looked for information. Mangus hadn’t even been there. But he’s here now, and it’s a marvel he’s still alive in his state. Anyone with a grudge against him could easily take him out. The man is barely standing.
“Where’s Sebastian?” I ask. “Did he die too? Do you know?”
“No clue. Maybe. Who cares? Technically you and I are the highest-ranked left,” he says. “I half expect you to kill me.” He raises his hands wide and smiles. “So please, do me the honor.”
“I won’t be killing you, Mangus,” I say. “And if Seb is alive, then he’s ranked just as high as we are.”
Mangus frowns. “True. Ugh, our other siblings were always so awful, weren’t they? I truly hope Seb is gone too. He was no better than Hugo, and Hugo was the worst.” He cackles, and then his energy shifts from drunk and disorderly, to full of rage. He’s not as affected by the alcohol as he wants me to believe. “But I didn’t kill our brothers, and neither did my wife. We were framed. You know that, right? It was a setup. Had to be.”
“I believe you.” Against the odds.
I’ve never seen him so upset, never seen him cry. Until now. “Who would do that to us?” Tears cut down his cheeks, mixing with his stringy unwashed hair.
I’m momentarily stunned, and then I speak. “Someone interested in toppling the vampire court. Look at us now, brother. We’re prime for a take-down. But that’s not why I’m here.” Mangus and I aren’t close, but we haven’t had any quarrels either. He worked with Brisa in a traveling capacity and may be just the person to ask for help. I hate asking for help, but I’ll do it for Eva. Anything for Eva. Underneath his grief, there’s a powerful and vengeful creature––one I can use to my advantage. “Come,” I nod toward the exit. “Let’s discuss our next move in private.”
Most of the court has fled, but a few wayward vamps still stick around, waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Many have lost their masters, and therefore their way. But that will change once they get a taste of freedom.
Mangus leads me from the throne room to his private quarters, throwing open the door and plopping down on the rumpled bed. The man is normally so well put together, so stoic, so hard. This is not the Mangus I know. But I understand––when Kelli was murdered, I had been lost for a few weeks. I’d lose my mind if something happened to Eva. And my dead wife has haunted me for centuries. But we also don’t have time for him to unravel completely, not if we’re going to secure a future for our cause.
I close the door behind me. “We need to control this.” I don’t lead with my goal of finding Eva. There’s another angle I go for instead.
He stares at me with unblinking eyes. “I thought you said you didn’t want the throne.”
“I don’t. It won’t work anyway. Anyone who dares to take it will end up staked.”
“Exactly why I was sitting on it.” He says it like it’s a joke, but there’s truth in his words.
“You really want to die?” I point outside. “Then step into the sun.”
“Maybe I will, brother.”
It’s a common command from masters to their prodigies to forbid them from attempting anything suicidal, and the depression of immortality fades after enough time. I didn’t think it would, thought that the adage “time heals all wounds” was bullshit, but I had been wrong. Still, I don’t know what to say to Mangus right now, so I say nothing. We stay in silence for a good five minutes before he speaks.
“Okay, I’ll help you,” he relents. “But I can’t make any promises.”
“That’s fair.”
“So what’s your big idea, Adrianos?” Only those who’ve known me the longest call me by my full name. It reminds me of when I first met him in the 10th century. He’d been so different back then. So angry––Katerina had softened him.
“We need to establish a council of coven leaders.”
He sits up with a rueful smile. “Brisa forbade us to even speak of this.”
“So you’re glad she’s gone, too?” It’s a gamble to talk about her this way to another one of her children, a gamble that pays off.
He jumps up from the bed. “Of course I hated her, but didn’t know you did as well, you were always such a kiss-ass.”
“We all were, Mangus. But yes, I hated Brisa for centuries.” I level him with a stare. “What she did to your vampire wife? She did the same to my human one.” This is hard to talk about, but I press on. “And orchestrated it to be by my own hands.”
I’m grateful he doesn’t ask for clarification, but his face falls, and rage flashes through his eyes. If anyone gets it, he does––I hate that he does, but I can’t do this alone. “Okay, I will help you so I can have a measure of revenge on Brisa’s legacy before I join Katerina in death.”
My spirits fall. I don’t want this for him, and Katerina wouldn’t either, but I know better than to argue with Mangus. He’s even more stubborn than I am.
“We need to break into Brisa’s files.” I give him a knowing look because while it’s a secret the man has made a point to adapt with technology, it’s not a secret he’s been able to keep from me. If we can’t find her computer, then surely she has a cloud of information somewhere. And if anyone can hack into that, it would be the man who’s taken it upon himself to learn everything possible about technology. “We won’t be able to form a council if we don’t have the names of every coven leader.”
Part of his job was to travel around and enforce Brisa’s laws, so he’s got more connections than I do, but even he doesn’t know everybody.
He strolls to the armoire, throwing it open and retrieving a black laptop. “How could this have gotten here?” he teases.
I laugh. It’s like every holiday has been wrapped into one. “You’re the one who stole the laptop?” I rush toward him with an outstretched hand, but he holds it away from my grasp.
“First thing I did when I felt her die.” His eyes glitter with rage and despair and the littlest bit of triumph. “I busted into her office and snatched it. Had to kill a few of her guards to do it. You’re not the only one who knows that what Brisa has access to will be useful.”
I step back, leveling him with a hard gaze. “We need to call a gathering of the coven leaders. Virtual or in person, I don’t care, but it must be done.”
His eyes narrow. “What’s all this about, really?”
“The safety of our covens and preservation of everything we’ve worked for,” I’m quick to respond.
That’s only part of my reasoning. Finding Eva is dependent on getting Brisa’s CCTV access. I’d tried to find her scent but couldn’t, so it’s this or let her go, and I can’t let her go.
But besides that, I really do want to establish a council rather than grapple for a hollow throne. Vampires need to hold onto our prosperity in order to keep our people well-fed without the unnecessary bloodshed of humans. That’s the only way we’re going to stay alive––because if we start a war with them, they’ll rise up against us. So many of my kind have forgotten just how many humans there are.
But as much as I should be worrying about that right now, I can’t keep my thoughts away from Eva’s well-being. She’s out there somewhere, scared and full of Brisa’s venom. If I don’t get to her, something terrible could happen. God willing, I’ll be able to track her down and get her to safety. She has no idea what she’s dealing with, and if I don’t find her soon, then I’ve already lost.
CHAPTER 6
“How’s our girl doing?” Tate’s voice wakes me from a fitful slumber, and I sit up in a sweaty pile of torn blankets and white feathers. The morning sun filters through the windows in streams of golden light, and I have to blink a few times for my eyes to adjust.
“Last night was horrible.” My voice cracks. Tate nods in understanding and hands me a tall glass of ice water. The condensation alone makes me want to weep.
“Drink this. It’ll help.” He sits down on the edge of the bed, and I gulp the water down like I’ve been days without a drop. “What happened last night? Is there anything you need to tell me?”
“You already know . . .” my voice trails off as I catch sight of Felix in the doorway.
He won’t meet my eyes, and I can’t say I blame him. Bits and pieces of last night rush back to me, and I grimace. I said so many things to him that I wish I could take back. I told him about Adrian, about the things we had done together and how it felt to be with him, and I spoke as if becoming a vampire was so much better than any human life I could have. I stand to shake out my limbs, but I don’t go to him because I know I don’t deserve his forgiveness or sympathy right now.
“I’m so sorry, Felix.” That’s all I can say, but it won’t be enough. It wouldn’t be if I were in his shoes.
He doesn’t reply, and his gaze still doesn’t reach my eyes. A hollow sadness seeps through me because I know this is the biggest turning point in our relationship so far. We’ll never be lovers, and we’ll likely never be friends again either.
“The venom will do horrible things to people,” Tate cuts in. “It’ll make you say and do things that you wouldn’t otherwise.”
I nod. “It was like being burned alive. I would’ve done anything to make it stop, but that’s no excuse for the things I said.”
“The desire to turn is not going to go away until you make it past night three. But the good news is, you only have to get through one more night of this.”
“And then what? I really won’t turn into one of them?” Because what if on night four it starts all over again? I don’t think I can take a lifetime of trying to fight this off. I’m one person during the day and someone else entirely at night––and that nighttime Eva will eventually succeed in her efforts.
“No, you really won’t turn into one of them unless one were to get its hands on you and start the process all over again.”
A huge weight lifts from my shoulders. “I’ll do everything in my power to stop this from happening again, but you have to understand that I never wanted Brisa to try and turn me in the first place.” My voice catches. “They lied to me. I should’ve known they were going to lie to me.” The room goes quiet for a minute, and I remember what he had originally asked. He wanted to know if there was anything I needed to tell him, and there is. I hate that there is––I want to scrub everything about last night from my mind, but I have to face this. “The thing is, Tate, last night I made a plan to run away today, but now that the sun is back up, running away is the last thing I want to do. In fact, I’d rather you keep me locked up until we’re sure this is behind us.”
Felix’s brows furrow, and a flash of annoyance mars his face. He thinks I’m lying, or that I’m sucking up to Tate, but I’m not doing either. This is the real me, not that monster from last night who said horrible things to him. I’m not that girl who planned it all out, imagined every scenario of getting out of here. Those scenarios frighten me now because I’d been one hundred percent serious about getting to a cemetery and killing anyone who got in my way. I would’ve killed Felix, no questions asked, and he knows it.
