“We come in conquest,” Kato continued. “Rise and parley with us, or face your end with honor.”
No response. The guards waited on the edge of the temple, as still as statues themselves. The worshipers had halted, seemingly frozen in their movements.
Kato said, “Surrender your throne, and I may let your children live.”
Saba walked to a young woman, leaned in, and drew a deep breath. Her shoulders tensed, but the woman did not step away.
A rasping sound came from the thrones. Makeda realized it must have been one of the frozen vampires drawing a breath.
Laskaris didn’t move anything but his mouth. “Why do you come to me,” he wheezed, “king of my father’s fathers?”
“Surrender your seats,” Kato said. “And we may let you live.”
Laskaris’s chest rose with aching languor. By the time he spoke again, every eye had turned toward them. “Why… would I surrender… my throne?” His eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the temple. “Do gods… surrender… to kings?”
Makeda looked up to see an elaborately decorated fresco of the four Athenian immortals drawn in their glory. Laskaris rode a brilliant curling wave from a wind Jason blew from the corner of the scene. Behind them rose a mountain wreathed in fire with Eris’s face taking the place of the sun and Sofia’s body the verdant green island in the background. A menagerie of animals bowed along the edges. Cheetahs. Elephants. Lions and zebras. Human figures knelt at the vampires’ feet, dropping flower petals and palm fronds in worship.
And Makeda realized the four immortals had been staring at their own images painted in glory for hundreds—perhaps thousands—of years. As vampires around them bowed and worshipped and offered sacrifices to them, they’d been gazing at their own images, lost in the contemplation of their renown.
“Talk about believing your own press,” Makeda muttered.
Saba walked in front of Sofia and stared at the woman.
“What is she doing?” Makeda asked.
“Sofia is her daughter’s daughter,” Carwyn said. “She is Laskaris’s mate, but she’s of Saba’s direct line.”
A sweet fragrance drifted on the air, curling around Makeda and distracting her. She blinked and looked over her shoulder.
A blank-eyed woman stood behind her, holding a goblet of blood. “Drink,” she whispered, lifting the goblet to Makeda’s mouth.
Carwyn gripped Makeda’s arm and pulled her away, snapping her out of the odd trance the scent had produced. She looked around and throughout the temple, immortals in various states of undress were holding goblets out to their party, most of whom recoiled in disgust.
“Carwyn, what’s going on?”
Then Laskaris began to laugh, a grating, awful sound that sent chills down Makeda’s spine.
Arosh snarled, “You madman.”
Ziri landed beside him, and Makeda saw him draw in a deep breath. “What have you done? It is everywhere. Did you infect them all?”
The volcano shot out a plume of smoke, drawing Makeda’s eyes away from the four seated figures and up to the top of the mountain. She looked at the glaring woman. Though she didn’t move, waves of heat spread through the room.
Arosh stepped forward, raised his hand, and Eris’s head shot back at a painful angle as she dodged the spear of flame that came from his palm.
The heat died down as Kato raised his hands and a cool mist settled over the growing crowd.
Carwyn moved in front of Makeda.
“They wanted… to die…” Laskaris wheezed. “…with their gods.”
Saba turned, her expression a frightening combination of agony and disgust.
“They’re all infected,” Carwyn said, drawing Makeda and Kiraz behind him and backing away from the goblet-bearing vampires who surrounded them. “He’s infected them all with Elixir.”
Kiraz said, “These poor creatures!”
Makeda wasn’t only seeing the dozens of immortals who stood around her, she was seeing the humans who must have been infected to feed them. Sacrificial lambs on the altar of a madman.
“This cannot be forgiven.” Kato’s hand rose, his palm out, and Laskaris jerked forward in his seat. At his movement, the other council members stood. They moved so quickly it was as if statues had come to life.
Saba stepped forward to stand at Kato’s side.
“Enough,” she said, glaring at the council. “And to think others urged mercy in the face of your madness.”
Laskaris continued to laugh and laugh. Dread curled in Makeda’s belly.
“Wait!” Makeda yelled, turning to shout at the vampires surrounding them. “Abandon your council! Surrender to Saba! She can heal you. We found a cure! We can heal—”
“Enough!” Saba’s hands rose and the floor buckled beneath her, the earth rose up, and water shot through the stone. Laskaris gave a frightening roar before the pillars rocked and everyone in the hall started screaming.
❖
Lucien saw the smoke and fire before he heard the screams. Tenzin flew over the harbor and dropped him in the water. As he fell, he surveyed the scene before him. Wind vampires from the cliffs took to the sky behind him. Water vampires jumped into the sea and fled. Those belonging to earth ran haphazardly toward the temple or toward the few boats docked in the harbor. Lucien swam toward the shore and came out of the water running.
He had to find her. Had to get her away from the destruction that would soon rain down. The ancients were at war, and the people of Alitea were fleeing. He could feel his mother’s amnis in the ground beneath his feet.
Saba was holding Alitea in her grasp.
“Makeda!”
The volcano that had formed the fortress island so many millennia ago pulsed with a low rumble. Then a sound like a cannon echoed against the seawalls as an eruption shot ash and pumice into the air. He could see fire streaking up the side of the volcano and knew Eris and Arosh had come face-to-face.
Baojia ran to him, water dripping from his hair, his eyes wide in horror. “My God, it’s Atlantis falling into the sea.”
“Where do you think they got the idea in the first place?” Lucien yelled over the crash of tumbling marble. “You think this is the first time this has happened?”
Baojia’s eyes went wide, but Lucien knew where the chaos centered. He ran toward the council’s temple, fighting through the crowds of vampires who were fleeing the battle. The sickly-sweet smell was everywhere. He could sense Makeda’s panic. He felt the gusty wind overhead and knew Ziri and Jason were battling in the skies. Whether Tenzin had stuck around to join the fight was anyone’s guess.
Baojia ran after him. “Where are we going?”
“Follow me!” Lucien yelled over an explosion that nearly knocked him down. The dark sea was churning and splashing in the harbor, waves crashing up the marble pathways and upending statuary as the water crawled toward the two ancient water vampires. Lucien trudged through a foot of water, heading toward the main hall, Baojia following him, immortals streaking out of the temple just as the burning timbers of the roof cracked.
“No!” He ran and placed his hands at the steps, forcing his energy into the stones as the massive blocks holding up the ceiling started to shake. Baojia steadied him, holding back the waves threatening to crash over his legs and swamp him. He could feel another immortal’s amnis joining his to hold back the falling rocks. “Makeda!”
❖
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Makeda wanted to run, but Carwyn had told her to stay with him at all times, and he was holding up the building. Saba’s amnis split the earth in two, rocking the foundation of the temple and bringing small pillars tumbling down around them. She saw vampires crushed under the falling marble. Others fell into giant crevices that opened beneath their feet.
This was no battle. This was destruction on a scale Makeda had never seen.
“Hold back the water!” Carwyn yelled.
Makeda turned and saw a wave of water heading toward them along with
three helmeted guards with swords drawn. It wasn’t graceful, but she fell to her knees and shoved the water back, jolting the soldiers off their feet and hopefully helping to keep Carwyn stable. Other guards she could see in the shadows and flickering fire, their swords drawn against the screaming population of Alitean vampires. The vampires who had worshipped the elders were cut down if they tried to run. Their blood washed into the churning currents flooding the streets, turning the white marble pink with the blood of immortals.
Carwyn had both hands spread, holding two of the pillars at the entrance to the temple, his massive frame straining even as his feet began to slip. She saw more seawater coming from the harbor and didn’t know who was calling it.
“Help me!” she yelled at Kiraz, but the girl was already running toward the door, abandoning Carwyn’s protection and taking her chance with the Alitean guards.
“Hold back the fecking water!” Carwyn roared. The current was above his knees.
Makeda tried her best, but there was too much of it. Was it Laskaris or Kato?
The two water giants were locked in battle. Far from the spears of water Emil Conti had commanded, Laskaris and Kato emptied the harbor. Maybe they were pulling from the sea itself. The two immortals threw walls of water at each other, knocking pillars from their foundations and tossing lesser vampires into the air.
Makeda planted her feet in the water, shoving it back in any way she could, trying to keep Carwyn free to hold up the ceiling as vampires fled screaming.
“Can’t… hold— Aaaaaargh!” Something overhead gave a giant crack, and Carwyn heaved and stretched, his hands gripping the pillars as two pieces of the temple pediment flew into the air, launched toward the distant walls of the fortress. As the weight of the massive overhead block left, the pillars beside Carwyn stabilized, but the roof was beyond hope. Plaster and wood fell in burning chunks that turned to soaked cinders when they hit the water-drenched floor.
Carwyn’s eyes swept the battle. “Someone is here.”
“Makeda!”
“Lucien!”
Lucien walked through the piles of marble, his arms sweeping the rubble to the side as he strode toward her. He grabbed her and kissed her hard, shoving her face in his neck and squeezing her so tightly she could barely breathe.
“Are you all right?”
“Laskaris infected them all!” she yelled. “The whole city. They wouldn’t listen. They think they’re gods. What are we going to do?”
“Where is my mother?” he shouted over the crashing temple.
Makeda pointed toward the center of the chaos.
Lucien’s eyes went wild, then he shoved Makeda toward Carwyn and yelled, “Get her out of here!”
“What? No!”
Carwyn grabbed Makeda around the waist and lifted her off her feet, running past toppled guards and headless vampires. Running away from the rumble of the smoking volcano and toward the harbor. Makeda struggled in his arms, watching Lucien walk toward the heart of the battle, his shirt torn in shreds and his eyes locked on the burgeoning hill rising where the temple had once stood.
“Lucien!” She lost him in the smoke and falling water. She struck Carwyn’s shoulders. “Put me down!”
“Sorry, dear girl, I can’t do that when the world might be ending.”
Pure rage was all she felt. “Lucien!”
“Carwyn!”
She heard her sire’s voice and turned. Baojia was helping people into the boats they’d brought from the yacht, shoving them toward the gaping portal to the open sea.
“Give Makeda to me!” he yelled.
“No!” she yelled. “Don’t you dare! Put me—”
Carwyn tossed Makeda toward her sire, who caught her in his arms and immediately ducked, shielding her from a piece of flying rock. It clipped his head and blood spurted from his temple.
Carwyn shouted, “Both of you, take shelter. Head to the boat.”
“Lucien!”
❖
Lucien ignored his mate’s cry, knowing his mother was on the edge of destroying everything. It was Axum again. He could hear the cries and smell the blood.
If Saba chose to abandon reason, the whole of the island could be swallowed in a massive explosion. It could sink into the sea as others had before, leaving nothing but rubble at the bottom of the ocean.
Lucien could feel Sofia’s amnis batting at the edge of Saba’s wrath. Sofia, Laskaris’s mate, who was once seen as the wisest and most moderate of the Alitean council, was screaming in rage, blood dripping down her face from the cuts and slices of the marble rocks flying around her. A stone hand reached up from the ground and gripped her in its fingers. Cracks formed in the gray marble only to seal up almost immediately. Water and mud swirled around her in a massive cyclone from Laskaris and Kato’s struggle. Lava and sparks flew across the night sky where Arosh and Eris battled.
Saba stood, staring at the blood-soaked rock at her feet. The earth rose and rippled around her like a giant flexing his shoulders beneath the earth. Tears streaked her muddy face. Blood poured from cuts on her skin. She was a bleeding angel resting in a hurricane of destruction.
Lucien walked through the chaos and knelt at his mother’s feet. “Emaye.”
She looked at him, her forehead creasing. “Yene Luka, what are you doing here, my beautiful son?”
He looked up. “You must stop, Saba.”
Pain and disgust curled her lip. “He has infected them all. His own people. His own mate. Everyone.”
Lucien had smelled it as soon as he reached Alitea, the scent of pomegranate only growing stronger as immortal blood spilled in the water. He knew what Laskaris had done with the remaining Elixir. He’d infected the whole of his island and his people, a suicide pact of his own choosing, condemning all of the island to die if he was going to lose his seat of power. It was madness of the most evil kind.
“But you can cure them, remember? Makeda and I found the cure.”
Saba shook her head. “They must be cleansed.”
“Saba—”
“Tell me why!” she said. “Tell me why I would show mercy to this vile and corrupt world.”
What reason could he give her? The course of history never changed. Empires rose and fell. Humans and vampires both seemed determined to kill each other in the most horrendous ways. Greed was rampant. Children cried. The rain fell on the just and the unjust alike.
Saba knew all those things. The pain of countless millennia lived in her eyes.
“But Saba, children still laugh.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Humans explore the stars. Mothers nurse their babies and fight for them. Boys sing and dance.” He let out a breath. “And even warriors can fall in love.”
Saba’s face softened.
“The earth has not given up on humanity, despite every abuse we hurl at it,” Lucien said. “Maybe someday it will be time to wipe all of us from existence,” Lucien said. “We may reach that night. But not tonight, Emaye. Not when so many innocents will be lost.”
“There are no innocents.”
“Then have mercy, Mother, on those who are still learning.” He took her hands between his own. “Have mercy on me.”
“I have given them”—Saba choked—“so many chances. And they refuse to see the beauty before them. The gift of life and death.”
Lucien pressed her hand to his cheek, anchoring her with his blood. He knew that, should she want it, Saba might be able to break the earth from the inside out. Plates would shift. Rifts would form and tear the continents in two. “Mother, do you hold the earth?”
“Always.”
“Then hold it gently,” Lucien asked. “For me.”
She turned her eyes from the destruction around her to his face, and he felt her touch soften.
“Hold it gently, Emaye. For my mate. For our children.”
“So much you ask of me, my son.”
“I would have a little more time to love her,” he whispered. “If you would give me that.”
/> Roaring silence swirled around them, the elements at war with themselves. The sea roiled. The wind churned. Fire lit the sky above them, and the earth buckled beneath his knees.
Kato came to stand beside him, Laskaris held by the neck in the giant immortal’s grasp. “What would you have me do with him, my queen?”
Saba’s eyes flared. “Kill him.”
Kato squeezed, and Lucien tried not to wince when the spray of blood splashed across his face. The sea calmed around them, and the water crept back.
Ziri landed in similar fashion before Saba, kneeling before her with Jason held across his legs. He took a curved blade from his robe. “My queen?”
“Kill him.”
A quick slice and Jason was no more. The wind died down and ash fell in fat flakes.
A scream sounded in the distance, then a massive fireball rose from the mouth of the volcano. Arosh appeared seconds later, soot staining his face and his hair singed at the ends. “I killed her.” He put his hands on his hips. “I didn’t need your permission.”
Saba walked to Sofia, and the earth around the other vampire tightened. Cracks formed and receded like waves in a sea made of stone.
“We are their mothers,” Saba whispered to Sofia. “What have you done to your children, Sofia?”
Sofia’s eyes drifted closed, and her smile glowed in the darkness. “Laskaris,” she whispered. “We shall be gods.”
Saba reached up and stroked her hand across Sofia’s cheek before the stone hand circling the vampire constricted, and Sofia’s head fell to the ground.
The earth beneath Saba came to rest.
❖
Makeda was soaked to the skin, Carwyn and Brigid next to her on the yacht, Tenzin flying back and forth between the boat and the rumbling island of Alitea, giving them progress reports of the battle.
She held on to the thread of Lucien’s energy, knowing as long as that thread was there, he was alive. She couldn’t face his death even if she was furious with him.
And she was very furious with him.
The battle continued in the water and the air around her. Many of the Alitean guard had been crushed by the collapse of the temple; Makeda was surprised there were enough left to fight. But Kato’s forces were kept busy by the water and air vampires loyal to Laskaris who continued to attack the few boats of survivors from the island who held up their hands and begged for mercy. Baojia had joined Kato’s forces, helping vampires into the hold below and sequestering them until Kato could decide what steps he wanted to take.