Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (33 page)

And I’ll never forget that, you bastard.

“Roughly one week ago,” Burke said without preamble, as if everyone in th
e room was perfectly used to him
addressing them
like they were his soldiers
, “
an
Ebon Cities spy attempted to murder me and supplant a shape-shifter in my place
at
Black Scar.  Half of that plan succeeded.”

“Whoa,” Kane said.  “Huh?”

“Just listen,” Ronan said.  Kane sat down next to him.

“Why are you so
ok
with all of this?” Kane asked
him
.

“Look, I don’t trust
the
guy,” Ronan said.  “But he knows where Danica and Cross are.”

“Danica is back in Blacksand,” Kane said.

“No, she’s not,” Burke
said
.  “The
Revengers
took her
so they could
get their hands on
your friend Eric
. 
They want something he has.”

“And what might that be?” Ronan asked.

“We don’t know,” the woman named Turner said.  “At first we thought it was
so they could
gain possession of the
arcane blade
he
’d recovered
,
but…”

“Wait, hold on,” Kane said, and he stood back up.  “How do you even
know
about that?”

“
Come now
, Michael,” Burke said.  “We know a lot more than you think.  In any case, that
isn’t
what they want.”

“Then what is?” Maur asked
as he
stood up
.  His face-wrappings
were
off,
so his scowl was unhidden
.  “
Maur has many questions.  W
hat is the connection
between
Black and Cross’s abduction and the vision
that
Maur
and his allies
had
in the desert?  Why have the Grey Clan allied with you?”

“And, best of all, why should we believe
you
, you son of a bitch?”
Kane said
to Burke
. 

Burke kept his eyes on Kane.  Both of his Revengers looked at him uneasily, as did the Grey Clan
.
Burke smiled.

“Show them,” he told Turner. 

Turner
frowned as
she
manipulated the
control stick
.  T
he air stiffen
ed
, and
her
eyes turned ice blue.  Power dripped from her hand.

The monitor shimmered
and
pulsed.  It became a mirror, a molten glass sheet that throbbed with the tune of a dying heartbeat.  Vaporous images like smoke shadows drifted into the air and arranged themselves
into
three-dimensional
holograms
.  The images folded over one another, twisted and came together
in a haze of
white shadows. 
S
ilhouettes fused into living
beings
.  It wasn’t like watching them on a screen but like standing next to them, walking
among them.

He’s
in Black Scar
. 

He sees the vaulted
passages and
chain walkways
and b
lood-stained halls
.  He
hears the roar of dread furnaces.
  Blasts of
flame
drown out the cries of prisoners
.

The entrances to the mines stand in the distance,
past
the
squat cell blocks
and
the
walking iron towers
lined
with motorguns and grinding saws.  Prisoners
walk
with their heads low
.
T
heir backs strain beneath the burden of rocks and stones
hauled
from the red diamond
mines.

Drifts of black dust fall
in
waves.  Steam blast
s
into the subterranean sky and
turns
the walls ghastly and stark.  Phosphorescent crystals glow like ghosts.

Burke is there, the false Burke.  He
has
no scar,
and he
stands tall and proud
.  T
hree
Revengers
accompany him as he surveys the scene.
 

T
he false Burke looks at his cohorts. 
N
o words
are
exchanged,
and yet they communicate
. 

The
four vampires
stand on a platform over the pri
son city.  They watch the mines
and the prisoners, but their thoughts are elsewhere. 
They think about
Cross, and Danica.

The past unfolds in a flash of images and sound.  Visceral emotions explode like wounds. 
The vampire
Burke,
whose
real
name is
Krage
, reflects for a moment, and the previous weeks unfurl.  They expand and fill the skin of moments.

Burke, the real Burke,
is telling
the truth. 

Krage
’s mind reveals
months of planning.  He sees bone vehicles and flesh juggernauts poised to make a strike, a massive force assembled in the wasteland
s
.  They
’
re not there to attack
the Southern Claw, or
any
human city
, but
something else
,
a
remote and forgotten outpost
that’
s
important to their plans
.

The memories play on. 
Kane
is aware of his body, tense and on edge.  It pains him to sit there.  His
consciousness
ache
s
from viewing this.

He sees murder.  Bodies flayed open and hollowed out.  Vampire tanks and Razorwing fliers
.  B
one
giant
s and two-dimensional skin golems
.  War wights in steaming armor. 
  Vampire shock troops with curled blood blades and poison needle rifles.

Whatever it is they seek, Cross is the key to finding it.  And
the vampire’s enemies in
the renegade
necropolis
of Koth want it,
too
.  The undead nations
will destroy each other trying to get it,
and they
’
ll crush
anyone who gets in their way. 

It won’t be long. 

Kane fell back from his vision.  His stomach churned, and he
almost
vomited.  Ronan, Maur, Jade and
Sol
had similar reactions.  They all looked like they’d just been dropped off a cliff
and then
caught at the last possible
moment
.

Kane
fell
to his knees
.  H
is face
touched
the
ground
, and t
he concrete was cool against his
burning
skin.  His
body
shook all over.  After a moment
,
he
understood
why.

Dread whispers clawed through the air
.  They were
just like the
voices
they’d heard in the desert
before the Ebon Cities tanks had ambushed them.
  His
head shook with pain. 
Blood dripped
out of
his eyes
like tears
and dribbled
on the ground
around his fingers.

Tortured cries, droning whine
s
, a high-pitched screech like a thousand wailing birds.

He saw Burke mouth something, saw Turner and
Marcus
struggle with the control stick.
  Everything was slow.

He saw Ekko’s face.  He knew he was about to die.

Somehow, he stood up.  He stumbled forward, seized the control
s
from Turner
, and yanked the cable out of the screen.  Sparks exploded across the floor
.  T
he
monitor
cracked with a sound like a pressure cooker.

T
he screech faded
, and t
he screams melted away. 
Kane’s
arms still sh
oo
k, but he was
a
live. 

Everyone gasped.  Ronan help
ed
Jade
to her feet
.
Maur and
Sol
were slow to stand up
. 
Turner and
Marcus
looked dazed, but they weren’t as bad off as the others.  Burke was shaken, but
still standing
.

Kane handed the
ruined controls
to Turner, stepped
around
her, and punched Burke square in the
face
.

“Dumbass,” he said. 

Marcus
pulled a gun and aimed it at the back of Kane’s head, but
then
he froze.  Ronan had a
kodachi
to
Marcus’s
throat.

“You sure about that, tough guy?” Ronan asked in a quiet voice.

“Enough!” Burke roared.  Blood ran down his nose and mouth.  “Enough…
God damn it,
that shouldn’t have happened.  The surveillance malfunctioned.  Turner?”

“It
worked
fine the last time we used it…”

“What?” Jade demanded.  “Used
what
?”

“Experimental technology
,
” Turner
explained.
 
“
We call it a necroscope.  It allows us to peer into the v
ampire collective consciousness
and transform their harmful thought stream into visuals and sounds
that
humans can comprehend.”

“And when it
breaks, it makes our brains pop,
” Kane said angrily.  “That’s awesome.  Nice work.”

“I did
n’t have a choice,” Burke said.  “You saw what they’re up to. 
Four
vampires
have infiltrated
Black Scar.  They’ve taken my place, and the place of three of my closest Wardens.”

Ronan let
Marcus
go.  The two men sized each other up, but Turner and Jade stepped in to settle things down. 

Kane returned to his seat.

“So I
get the fact
that your people and Koth
have teamed up and
are looking for something, and Cross is the key
to finding it
,” Kane said.  “
Great. 
And whatever
it
is, the Ebon Cities wants it, too.  Swell.  That just makes my butt pucker.  The question is…what the hell is it?  And what does it have to do with the beautiful people over here?”

The Grey Clan members had been largely unaffected by the malfunctioning glimpse into the vampire
mind hive
.  They sat
by
,
passive
.

This concerns us
greatly
, one of them s
aid
. 
They spoke into Kane’s mind with
his own voice, as usual. 

I hate
it
when you guys do that.

Regardless…
the voice continued. 
One of the entry points to the Whisperlands lies in our territory.  That is wh
y
the Ebon Cities
came into our lands
.

“Wait…the Whisperlands?”
Kane asked.