Vampire Apocalypse #2 Cataylst (24 page)

“Jared,” Sophia replied, using his name,
rather than title, to show she was through with him. In all the
years they were together, she tolerated much, but this was the last
straw. Sophia sauntered to him, swaying her slender hips as she
went. “It’s been drawn to my attention that you tried to drain my
prized possession.”

The King laughed like it was funny, “Prized
possession? I hardly think she was your prized possession. That
would be your mirror, but things have changed, haven’t they
Sophia?” He smiled with his lips closed, intending to appear smug.
Celticad’s shadow stretched out across the ground behind him.
Everyone was in place, except the girl. Where was she?

Sophia’s lips curled back into a vicious
smile, revealing her pointed fangs. She licked them with her
tongue, a slow stroke, the way she did when she was younger, when
they met. “They certainly have.”

The King’s eyebrows lifted as his lips pulled
into a small smile, still careful not to reveal his fangs, “Well,
this makes things more interesting, does it not?” He looked at
Reggie who had drawn back when the King strode across the lawn. The
vampire was standing in a patch of moonlight that doused his dark
hair, forming a halo. Jared laughed. “The old ways are returning,
and with the old ways, old times, eh, Reggie?”

Reggie inclined his head, his full lips
twisting into a smirk, “So it would seem.”

Sophia’s eyes darted between the two and for
the first time in a century, she wasn’t certain she knew
everything. They were referring to something, something from their
past. But their lives didn’t intersect. They never had. Sophia’s
gaze narrowed, “Enough of this. If you are here to take what is
mine, do not dishonor me with such idle chatter. Jared, the
butcher’s child, son of a peasant—I gave you this life and I can
end it.”

The King remained calm, “Then you better do
so, my dear, because I’ve had enough of you to last a lifetime or
two.”

The Queen sprang on him, moving faster than
the eye could see. The King shouldn’t have seen it, he shouldn’t
have had time to react, but he did. Stepping to the side, the Queen
flew by, comically streaking through the air like a kite. Landing
hard on her feet, Sophia screamed and rounded on Jared. “You drank
her blood,” she accused.

The King shrugged, “It was there and I had
nothing better to do, since you removed all my previous
pastimes.”

“Human relationships are off limits,” she
hissed, baring her fangs.

“I never kept them around long enough to have
a relationship, my dear. In the olden days, I simply used them to
my liking and drained them. But since you made that silly law, I
was forced to sneak around behind your back.” Sophia’s black eyes
narrowed to slits, her body tensing, but she didn’t attack. The
King continued, goading her and enjoying it immensely, “It made it
fun at first, but now it’s just a hassle. So, ask me, Darling…”

“Ask you what?”

“How many girls I’ve had since that law, you
know, the ones that were forbidden—the girls from your private
collection.” He stepped toward her, his finger resting at the base
of her throat. Looking into Sophia’s eyes he said, “All but one, my
Queen, and make no mistake—I will have her, too.” The King’s lips
pulled back into a sinister smile, revealing his fangs.

Sophia saw them and froze. While her fangs
were still forming, barely even points, Jared’s were fully formed,
coming to sharpened points. His finger was on her throat, trailing
a line down her neck to Sophia’s collarbone. He was close enough to
kill her and strong enough to do it. Sophia went rigid, knowing she
would lose. She didn’t know how it was possible, but he’d had more
blood than her. That was the only reason his fangs were fully
formed, and if his fangs had returned, so had his other powers. “If
you came to execute me, do it. I’m not your toy to bat around.”

“Actually,” he whispered in her ear, “you
are.” Pulling back, he dropped his finger and winked at her. Sophia
hissed at him, but did not strike. The King grinned. “Fangs,
Sophia—your transformation to the old ways is so near completion,
but not quite.” Sophia remained rigid, her shoulders squared off,
watching her husband pace around her. “I’d planned on just slitting
your throat and dropping a match, but what fun is that?” Snapping
his fingers, Celticad walked up behind him and held out a
glittering chain. The King tilted his head toward Sophia, “Wrap her
up.”

Celticad stepped toward Sophia. She shrunk
back as the giant vampire came toward her. She noticed his smooth
skin, the lack of translucence. While she could fight him and win,
she could not defeat her husband. It was a fact, and yet, if she
didn’t do something, she would die. Sophia acted. Launching herself
forward, she attacked Celticad. Her tiny body, slammed into the
vampire hard. The force of the hit made Celticad stagger back a
step and blink. When he looked down, he saw where the Queen stabbed
him in the side with a dagger. Looking irritated, the vampire
reached down and pulled it out. The blade came away stained with
red blood. Sophia’s eyes widened as she looked at the dagger.
Without a word, she attacked again, screaming for her guards to do
the same, but they stood there, blinking in shock.

“Enough,” the King bellowed. He moved faster,
hit harder, and had the Queen pinned to the ground at her brother’s
feet. Jared rested his hand on her face and the other at the base
of her neck, exposing her throat. Without a word, he lunged at her,
sinking his fangs into her neck. Sophia screamed out, clawing at
him, trying to wrench herself free. But as the King drank, she grew
weak. The burning at her neck faded, and soon she felt numb.
Pulling away, the King, grinned down at her, his lips covered with
her blood. “Just like old times, my dear. Ending it like old times
will be much more fitting, don’t you agree?”

“What do you mean?” she barely had the
strength to ask. He’d drained all her power and she couldn’t make
her body move. She couldn’t even bring herself to sit up. She
needed blood.

Snapping his fingers, Jared pointed at his
prone wife. Celticad brought the chains forward and wrapped them
around her body, pinning her arms to her sides. The metal hissed on
contact and Sophia cried out, “With the return of the old powers
also comes the old ailments—silver, sunlight.” He paused seeing the
shock in her eyes, “Oh, you poor thing. You didn’t know. To tell
you the truth, neither did I, until that precious pet of yours
stabbed me with a silver comb.” He grinned as Sophia laid at his
feet, squirming, her skin smoking from the silver. Looking up at
Reggie, he asked, “The box? Or sunlight?”

“Why not both?” Reggie grinned.

Sophia’s gaze cut to Reggie, “You planned
this with him.”

“I told you I’d kill you given the chance.
The King was kind enough to offer me that chance. Good-bye darling
sister.” Reggie laughed and turned back to his truck, gesturing for
the guards to fetch the items from the bed. “I brought a lovely
box.”

The guard’s hauled a wooden box from the
truck and lowered it next to Sophia. She stiffened when she saw it.
“Remember this, sister? Remember teaching me how to hunt by locking
me in this wooden coffin for months on end? It left me so starved,
that by the time you let me out, I’d do anything to get blood.”

Sophia swallowed hard, her eyes wide. Her jaw
locked as if she was steeling herself to her fate. “A few decades
trapped inside sounds perfect.” The King practically purred.
Stepping over the Queen, he lifted her like it was their wedding
night, his eyes filled with emotion. The silver chains burned into
his arms, but he didn’t care. This was worth it. Reggie opened the
lid and Jared lowered his bride inside. Sophia screamed as he did
it, thrashing in her chains, making her skin hiss as more of it was
burned away. She stilled for a second when her back hit the wood.
Leaning over her, Jared kissed his wife on the forehead, and said,
“Next time you see my face, you’ll die, but you’ll be so deranged
by starvation by then, that you won’t remember. Sweet dreams, my
love.” He stepped away, and Reggie lowered the lid. Celticad
wrapped the coffin in a thick set of chains and the three vampires
looked down at the box with the Queen screaming inside.

“Where do you want her?” Celticad asked.

“The tunnel under the palace,” the King
ordered. He stared at the coffin, saying, “I want to be able to
visit her once in a while, make her remember who she was and how
she came to be in that box. Parade her through the palace, first.
Tell them that their Queen is no more.” Celticad nodded once, like
it was a normal request. Ordering two other vampires to lift the
box with him, Celticad and the others started walking back to the
palace with the Queen’s coffin lifted high on their shoulders. Her
scream pierced the night and faded, carried away by the wind as
they brought her inside.

With a grin on his face, the King turned
slowly, sensing her. “Come out, my dear, and see how forgiving I
can be.”

Kahli stepped from the shadows behind
Reggie’s truck. The others were surprised to see her, but not the
King. “Vampires don’t forgive,” Kahli breathed, her green eyes
narrow, pulse pounding in her ears. The way the King looked at
Kahli made too many emotions slither through her body. Part of her
wanted to go to him, to let him have her, while the part of her
brain that slayed his Trackers wanted to feel his blood running
between her fingers.

The King’s lips pulled into a devastating
smile, “No, we don’t.” He stared at her, neither commanding her to
come or moving toward Kahli. The wind whipped his dark hair and
blew through the buttons on the front of his shirt, filling it with
air. He looked like a god, standing in front of her, dripping with
power. After a moment, his smile shifted to a self-satisfied smirk.
His eyes cut the side as he said, “Isn’t that right, William?”

Will stepped through the crowd of vampires
gathered behind the King. They parted for him, as Will walked
slowly forward, his eyes fixated on Kahli. His suit was streaked
with red and black blood like he’d been fighting. Kahli’s heart
twisted so hard she thought it broke. In that moment, it felt like
time stopped. This couldn’t be what it looked like. The King didn’t
own Will, he’d told her as much, but that meant that Will was there
by choice.

A bright red stain ran down the back of
Will’s head. It was from the spot where Kahli hit him with the
flashlight. The blood was still fresh, dripping down his neck,
forming long streaks of scarlet across his white suit. Will watched
her, his bottomless blue eyes locked on hers. “It is. We’re a
vengeful lot. Vindictive to a fault, fixated on getting what we
want—at any cost.” Will stood between Reggie and the King, his arms
folded, his eyes hard. He stared at her with disgust in his
eyes.

“Will,” Kahli breathed his name like he was a
ghost. For a moment she thought they caught him, that Will stood
there like that because he was forced to, but that wasn’t the case.
The three were standing together, shoulder to shoulder, like
allies. Her throat tightened so quickly that she couldn’t speak.
Bile rose up her throat, pooling in her mouth. All that time
together in the cave, all those things he told her—the stolen
kisses—everything was a lie. It was to lure her in, to make Kahli
trust him. A sensation so bitter, so sour filled her stomach and
fluttered through her body that she couldn’t stand to look at him
another second. The wind blew cold and fierce. Kahli was like that
wind—cold and brutal—and completely alone.

Glancing at them, she had to make a choice.
There was no time to ask Will what he was doing, if this was what
it looked like, if all the things he’s said to her were lies—there
was no time for any of that. For their plan to work, she had to act
now, but Will was standing with them. There was no way to protect
him.

Tears stung her eyes, but Kahli refused to
let them fall. This was his decision. Will was standing with the
wrong side. He chose the vampires over her. There was no way to
save him now. Pressing her eyes closed, Kahli allowed the pain to
flood her body. Her voice was firm when those green eyes opened
again, determination prominent. Kahli blinked at Will, his face
fading as her lashes fell. Turning away, she said, “Light it.”

Instantly, a wall of flames sprung from the
ground, like golden bars of light, nearly engulfing the vampires
closest to her, including Will. He stepped back, staring at her
through the flickering flames, refusing to sever their gaze.
Kahli’s stomach twisted, her throat felt like it was crushed. There
were shouts of shock as the flames shot out of the ground like
sleeping beasts. Screams of pain sprung out as the wall of flame
raced toward the palace. Another bright spot flickered in the
distance, racing toward them, trapping the vampires behind the
inferno. The flames formed a golden cage, holding the vampires
back. The flames hissed, pushing the vamps away from Kahli and
toward the palace. The wall of flames billowed with black smoke,
stretching high into the night sky. Will wasn’t the only set of
eyes on Kahli. The King’s golden gaze was locked on her face, his
chest filling with smoke as he breathed in the air. His body was
too close to the flames, but he refused to step back. Reggie
finally pulled him away, shouting things Kahli couldn’t hear over
the roaring flames. The rest of the vampires scattered when the
flames flew through the landscape, and raced back toward the
palace. Vampires ran toward their home to protect it, while others
went up in flames, having the misfortune of having the fire spring
on them like a wolf. The suits they wore were very warm, but very
flammable.

More screams erupted as Kahli stood there,
eyes locked with Will, her red hair dancing in the wind like
tongues of fire. It seemed like a lifetime, standing there, staring
at him. Somewhere in the back of Kahli’s mind, she knew she needed
to run, but her feet wouldn’t listen. They remained glued to the
spot as the fire flared in front of her. Cole ran forward, and
grabbed Kahli by the wrist. The rune burned as he touched her, but
Cole didn’t let go. He tugged hard, and Kahli finally stumbled away
from the smoke and flames, choking as the wind shifted and blew the
black smoke in her face. Cole raced away from the wall of flames,
making sure their bodies were lost in shadow beyond the flickering
golden light. Kahli felt empty, like someone carved out her insides
and left them with Will. She didn’t feel anything as they ran, and
the banshee-like screams of the vampires burning within the palace
walls floated over her like a whisper. It was a moment that should
have made her feel something—pride, fear, fulfilled vengeance—but
Kahli felt nothing.