❖
Beirut, Lebanon
Lucien watched from Kato’s side as two more immortal leaders fell at his feet, kissing the hand Kato extended to them. They were in Beirut for a meeting with the vampire lords of the Levant and Cyprus.
Ramy and Amal were Druze siblings who had taken control of the scattered immortals of Lebanon, Syria, and Cyprus fifty years before but had been immediately plagued by territorial disputes both believed were the work of the Athenian council. Laskaris had wanted the territory for himself but could not appear outwardly hostile. While Amal did her best to maintain order in Beirut, she had near-constant leadership challenges. They only stayed in power because Ramy, who controlled Cyprus, was phenomenally gifted in business.
Lucien made a note to speak to Ramy about taking part in Kato’s new administration.
“Father Kato,” Ramy said, “how may we prove our loyalty to you and our honor in front of the council?”
“By continuing to rule your territory with a firm hand,” Kato said.
Lucien detected the doubt on Amal’s face, but she said nothing.
Kato must have seen it too. “I think you will find in the coming months that many of the troubles you have been facing will become… less troublesome.”
Amal said, “Thank you, Kato.”
“Be warned, however, that if you cannot maintain control when I rule Alitea again, expect to lose your throne. This territory is beloved to me—it holds some of the strongest waters of my ancient kingdom—and I will not have a weak regent looking after it.”
“Yes, Kato,” they said in one voice.
Ramy glanced at Lucien, noted Saba standing at his side, but he averted his eyes before Saba or Kato took note. Makeda had not attended the meeting, and neither Ramy nor Amal had asked what Saba’s cure was. Lucien suspected those in their territory were not given the luxury of treatment but the swift cure of the sun.
One of Saba’s messengers waited in the door, and Lucien nodded her over.
“A message for our mother, Lucien.”
“From?”
The girl smiled. “You didn’t smell it?”
Lucien lifted the linen envelope to his nose, knowing without another word who the message was from.
Dark smoke and incense.
He handed the sealed letter to Saba. “A message from Arosh.”
“That took longer than expected, to be honest.”
“You deal with him,” Lucien said. “You’re the only one who can.”
“Not true,” Saba said. “Kato can as well.”
“Kato has a few things to do.”
Lucien eyed the old king and his new regents, nodding at Ramy and Amal’s first lieutenant who stood on the other side of the room, watching the proceedings with no discernible expression. The man had spent hours with Lucien, arranging the intricacies of protocol and the details of the agreement.
Within an hour, Kato’s meeting with Amal and Ramy had concluded and fealty had been pledged along with a reasonable tribute amount and named immortals to add to Kato’s growing forces. Within days of leaving Saba’s secluded territory in Ethiopia, the ancient king had conquered nearly all of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Without a drop of blood being spilled.
Lucien knew it wouldn’t last.
❖
The plane had landed in Cyprus just before dawn the night before, and their party—which now included four vampires from Inaya and four from Amal—was staying at Ramy’s seaside compound on a secluded strip of shoreline north of Paphos on the western side of the island. Lucien knocked on Makeda’s chamber door, stripped down to a pair of shorts and eager for some time alone with his lover.
Makeda’s eyes were glowing when she opened the door. “Swim?”
“Yes.”
“Humans around?”
“They’ve all been given the night off. Thank Saba when you get the chance.”
Makeda’s smile might have broken her face. Their time in Tobruk had been brief, and a cursory tour of Inaya’s waterfront offices was the closest Makeda had come to the water. Then they’d taken off for Lebanon and more political meetings. This was the first night they’d been able to relax. The first night Makeda would be able to swim in the ancient Mediterranean Sea.
She stripped off the robe she’d been wearing, and Lucien’s fangs dropped at the sight of Makeda in a white bikini. Feeling more predatory than playful, he dove into the ocean seconds after she’d jumped off the rocks. She swam deep into the midnight-blue water, and he followed her past the edge of moonlight glittering on the surface of the calm sea and into the darkness of the cove below the guest villa.
White craggy rocks turned black in the darkness, and Lucien followed the tug of Makeda’s amnis as she swam along the bottom until he found her sitting on a low rock at the bottom of the sea, head cocked as she watched a school of sardines spiral above her.
Lucien swam toward her, enjoying the childlike pleasure of her first ocean swim in months. Unlike many earth vampires, he’d never felt uncomfortable underwater, probably because he’d spent so much time with Kato. He reached out his hand and brushed the cloud of her hair away from her face before he leaned in to touch her lips with his.
She grinned, her fangs glowing in the faint light, and met his mouth with her own. He tugged her up from the rock and swam toward the school of sardines, wrapping his arms and legs around her body as he rolled them toward the surface. The school surrounded them, and Lucien and Makeda floated in a rippling cloud of silver.
He let her go, let her float away, and watched as the fish circled her, moving as one organism as they kept a cautious distance from the predator in their midst.
Wonder. Delight. Curiosity. Her face was a symphony of emotion.
He wanted to show her the world. He wanted to take her to jungles and coral reefs. Let her explore volcanoes and caves so deep only alien creatures seemed to thrive. He could do everything with her. There were no limits but the sun. He could—
The tug on his ankle made him glance over his shoulder. It hadn’t come from Makeda.
Another tug. This time the current yanked him back and away from the school of sardines.
Kato?
He couldn’t scent anything in the water, but the familiar energy of the ancient water vampire was nowhere in the cove.
Makeda’s eyes met his, and she frowned.
What is it? she mouthed.
He shook his head a moment before an unseen hand closed around his chest and yanked him into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Makeda opened her mouth to scream, but no sound escaped, only the last of the bubbles she’d held in her lungs. She didn’t think about her scream or her wonder or the darkness or the sharks she’d felt swimming close by. She reached out with her amnis and found the trail of Lucien’s energy moving incredibly fast and incredibly deep toward the open sea.
She followed on instinct.
As she sped through the water, she didn’t try to remember Kato’s lessons. She didn’t need to. She’d absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. Makeda raced through the ocean, dodging fishes and sharks as she chased after the void in the water that was Lucien. She followed his blood as he moved, and whoever had hold of him was fast.
Abruptly, she felt him come to violent stop.
Makeda didn’t slow. She swam down until the thread of his energy grew strong. She tasted grit and salt and algae in the water and knew the ocean floor had been churned up.
Lucien!
She dove farther, unable to see in the pitch black, feeling only with her senses as a sudden rush of water forced her to her belly. She landed facedown on the rocks and gravel, and that was when she felt it.
Like a roar coming from below, Makeda felt a wave of Lucien’s energy move up from her legs as the seafloor rippled and tossed her up. She was thrown into blackness and chaos, the currents twisting around her as the sand and the rock and the water battled nearby.
She could see nothing.
She felt everything.
Whatever water vampire had grabbed Lucien had taken him too deep, too close to the seafloor and the ground that answered to him. She felt the rock fall away beneath her feet before it thrust her up and she was moving like a rocket through the water, the sand propelling her toward the surface like a coin flipped end over end. She burst into the night air and gasped, looking around at the vast emptiness of the sea.
“Lucien!” Makeda tried not to panic.
A jut of rock speared out of the ocean to her right, and she swam toward it. She could see the shore in the distance, but she couldn’t leave without Lucien. She was getting ready to dive back underwater when she felt the grit swirling against her legs. A swell of water and sand boiled up beside the small rock she was swimming toward. She froze, unsure what it meant until an algae-covered grey spear broke the surface of the water. It rose over her head, the stone giving way to pockmarked rocks ripped from beneath the seabed.
Lucien had pulled the earth from beneath the sea.
He hung naked off the side of the rocks, holding on with one hand as he let the rocks carry him above the waves. His fingers gripped the gnarled rock effortlessly, and the water poured over a bare back covered with tattoos. Stags and bears chased each other. Arrowed ink defined the muscles of his torso. He appeared like a young god, ripped from the earth and born from the water.
Trapped within the rugged stone was a strange vampire, his head hanging at a crooked angle, one arm and leg dangling free while his whole right side was clasped in an earthen fist.
“You pulled…” Makeda had known he was powerful, but this? She touched the jagged rocks. They felt sharp and rough, like they’d been hewn by a giant’s fist. “You pulled them from the bottom of the sea?”
Lucien swung toward her, his fingers nimble on the spiked grey face of the new island he’d created. “Makeda, are you all right?”
“Are you?”
A low chuckle. “I’m fine. More fine than our friend here.”
She swam closer and saw the vampire’s eyes rolling toward her though he couldn’t move his head. It was as if concrete had poured and hardened around him. Except the concrete appeared to be grey volcanic rock.
“He took you too close to the ocean floor. You were able to connect with the earth.”
“It’s not as deep as one might think. The south side of the island slopes off quite quickly and goes very deep. If he’d dragged me that direction, he might have managed to kill me.” Lucien swung toward his captive and patted the vampire’s cheek. “But you didn’t do that, did you?”
The vampire snarled.
“Do you recognize him?” she asked.
“No.” Lucien slapped the water vampire when he tried to bite him. “But it looks like Laskaris knows we’re coming.”
“My master will crush you like the— Grruggh.” The vampire’s voice fell away in a wet strangle.
“I didn’t feel like letting him talk.” Lucien dropped into the water and swam toward her.
“Shouldn’t you question him?”
“Why?” Lucien grabbed her around the waist and kissed her hard. “I had no interest in what he had to say. Are you tired?”
“No.”
He grinned. “You followed me so quickly. Were you going to wrest me away from the bad vampire carrying me to my doom?”
“If I had to.”
Lucien threw his head back and laughed. “I adore you, Dr. Abel.”
I adore you too. In that moment, with his smile huge and his amnis a living, pulsing power around her, she wanted nothing more than to take his blood. Let him take hers. He was glorious.
“What are you going to do with him?” she asked.
“Leave him.”
More wet, strangled sounds.
“Couldn’t he get away?”
“If he was as strong as Kato, he could use the water to break the rocks to pieces. But I don’t believe even his master, Laskaris, could break the earth’s hold on him.” Lucien looked toward the east, back toward the assassin’s craggy prison. Then he reached over and pushed the rock slightly north, angling its face toward the island in the distance.
“There,” he said. “He’ll have a quick death.”
He was leaving the assassin there. The sun would burn the vampire as soon as it crested the horizon.
Lucien grabbed Makeda’s hand and kicked back toward the villa, floating on his back and spreading his arms on the surface of the water. She relaxed and swam next to him, watching the sky as he led them back toward shore.
“He was going to kill you,” Makeda said.
“He was going to try.” Lucien kissed the back of her hand. “I’m quite difficult to kill.”
“Please be careful.”
“I will.” He flipped water in her face, clearly more invigorated than concerned by the fight. “Don’t worry about me.”
“I have your blood in me,” she said quietly. “It would hurt, Lucien. And the pain wouldn’t only be physical.”
Lucien didn’t say another word, but he pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her, holding her as they swam toward shore.
❖
Kayseri, Turkey
They were deep underground, conferring with the regional vampire leader, who was descended directly from Saba. While Laskaris controlled the coast, he’d never controlled the interior of Asia Minor where Saba’s kin had ruled for years.
Makeda was sitting on a low bench carved into the wall of the cave, examining the intricate and vivid paintings lit by candlelight. The regional leader of Cappadocia had a palace as luxurious as Inaya’s. It was just dug into the volcanic tuff of the hills and hidden from human eyes. Lucien and Saba were sitting by a fire, drinking tea and hashing out details of their alliance with Saba and Kato’s new regime. Kato and Ziri were elsewhere; they hadn’t told anyone where they were going.
Makeda also had the feeling they were waiting. For what, she didn’t know until she caught a scent growing closer in the darkness.
She turned toward the tunnel where a man emerged. Handsome was too civilized a word for him.
Primal.
She froze instinctually, because if there was a single vision of the word predator, this man—this creature—was it.
Saba turned and rose. “Arosh.”
The man’s skin was burnished bronze. His smile cut through the gloom of the cavern as he walked toward Saba.
“My queen.” He bent and kissed her fully, murmuring something Makeda couldn’t understand against Saba’s lips.
He was tall, but not as tall as Lucien. It was his bearing that made him imposing, not his size. He wore nothing but scarred leather pants, and black hair fell to the middle of his back. When he turned his attention to Makeda, she shivered. Black tattoos marked the rise of his cheekbones, accentuating the hard planes of his face.
“And this is the little water vampire I have heard of,” he said. His face softened, and Makeda’s eyes fell to his full lips. “She is truly lovely.”
Makeda’s eyes darted to Lucien. He was glaring at Arosh but made no move toward Makeda.
“Speak, child,” Saba said. “For this one has no intention to harm you.”
Makeda spoke to Lucien. “This is the fire king?”
“Yes,” he said. “Makeda, meet Arosh.”
She kept her eyes on Lucien. “I don’t know why you’d think I’d want to have sex with him. He’s pretty frightening. That’s not a turn-on for me.”
Arosh laughed, and his dark eyes danced when she looked at him. “Now you’re just challenging me, my beauty.”
“I am not your beauty,” Makeda said.
Arosh turned his attention away from Makeda and brought Saba’s hand to his lips. “What are you scheming, my queen? Did we not have plans?”
“We had… thoughts,” Saba said. “I changed my mind.”
“It is your prerogative to do so, but I would know why.” Arosh glanced at Lucien. “But perhaps I already know.”
 
; “My king.” Saba put Arosh’s hand at her waist. “Come to my quarters that we may speak privately. For there is much to say between us.”
“Our friends?”
“We will meet Ziri and Kato before dawn, but right now”—she rose up and pressed her full mouth to his—“I would be selfish with your attention.”
Arosh’s eyes turned lazy, sensuous, and hungry. “You command me, my queen, and I come.”
Without another word, they left the room. Lucien looked at Makeda, waited for her nod, and sat back down with the man he’d been negotiating with.
“Elia, my apologies. May we continue?”
The older man smiled. He was older than most immortals, and the candlelight showed deep lines in his face. “Of course, my friend. There are only details to sort out between us. The immortals in our region will be most happy with a new regime in Alitea, for our dealings with Istanbul grow tenser every decade.”
Lucien nodded slowly. “I appreciate your loyalty, but can we depend on you for material support?”
“Of what kind?”
“Your people.”
Elia glanced at Makeda. “Should you need feeding—”
“Warriors,” Lucien said. “Soldiers, not donors.”
Elia’s smile was guarded. “But surely the four ancients need no assistance in taking the island? Kato is the lord of the sea. Saba is… Saba. The earth falls under her command.”
“We cannot underestimate Laskaris and the council,” Lucien said. “They are near-ancients themselves. My mother and Kato are too wise to take anything for granted. We ask for four warriors, Elia. Only four.”
Elia seemed to relax. “Four is a reasonable—”
“And one of your own children among them.”
The older man froze. “I have only my daughter, Kiraz,” he said. “And she is no warrior, Lucien.”
Makeda’s sympathy was with the older vampire. If he truly had only one child, surely Lucien wouldn’t—
“If your daughter is no warrior, she can assist Saba in some other fashion,” Lucien said, his voice firm. “But Kiraz must come with us, Elia. If she does not, you know what the consequences will be.”