“Boys,” Pallas said with a roll of her eyes. “But he’s right, it was impressive. Is he really who he says he is, Tempest?”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” Pallas breathed. “Let’s just hope the rest of this works out the way he planned. You trust him?”
“With my life.”
Pallas folded her hands before her. “That’s good enough for me.”
Tempest couldn’t look at either of them again; her gaze was drawn back to the blood stained snow. Lifting her eyes, she stared at the hotel beyond. More vampires than normal were milling around the hotel and gathering on the street. The numbers were swelling to the same as those she’d seen gather during the first burning. They pushed closer to the door, but the curtains remained drawn over the windows.
He was in there, in the middle of the lion’s den, and now it was up to her to help him get out again.
CHAPTER 24
William pulled his feet forward, forcing himself to walk in time with the men dragging him toward the hotel. The vampires outside of the hotel had stepped out of their way to allow Kane to pass through. Kane may not be high enough in the ranks to warrant staying in the same building as the fake queen, but the vampires here still respected him.
Once inside the hotel, the vampires pressed closer against them. Their curious murmurs filled the air as he was led down the red-carpeted hall toward two massive wooden doors at the end. Before they could reach the doors, they were pulled open to reveal what he assumed was the ballroom beyond.
The hotel wasn’t overly large; the ballroom took up about a quarter of the first floor and was about a hundred feet by a hundred feet square. The room became much smaller with all of the vampires trying to cram inside to see what was going on. The scent of so many bodies pressing against him filled his nose. The aromas of blood, body odor, perfume and cologne mingled together to make his already pounding head throb more. He almost lost his footing again, but he somehow managed to keep his feet under him as he was dragged toward the stage at the front of the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” A vampire with nearly white hair and eyes so pale blue they were almost white demanded as he strolled in from another room.
Pulled up before the stage, William’s arms remained clasped as he was held before the man. The vampire’s bushy white eyebrows drew together over the bridge of his prominent, roman nose. The line of his thin lips were compressed so firmly they nearly disappeared from view. The man towered over him on the stage, but if they were on the same level the man would only be an inch taller than him. William was certain he’d be able to count every one of the ribs beneath the elegant, velvet blue cloak and fine silken clothes the vampire wore.
The man’s eyes came back to him before traveling to Kane and the other vampires surrounding him. “Why would you bring this villager in before the queen?” the man demanded.
“This is not any villager, Goran,” Kane replied in a smug tone of voice that caused loathing to slither through William. “The queen will be extremely interested in this young man.”
Goran snorted and folded his skinny arms over his slender chest. “And why is that?”
“I would prefer to speak with her majesty,” Kane replied.
A crackle of power slid over William’s skin as Goran’s eyes briefly flashed red. The vampire may look like a reed, but he was far more lethal than his form revealed. Around him, all of the vampires took a step back. Even the ones holding him moved away, drawing him with them. William had felt Braith and Jack’s power ooze from them before; this man may not have that vast quantity, but it was more than Gideon or Ashby possessed.
Who is this guy? His gaze ran over his high quality clothing and the ruby rings on each of the fingers of his right hand. Wealth and a whole lot of power, William noted before lifting his head to Goran again.
“I didn’t ask what you would prefer,” Goran replied in a crisp voice that caused more of the vampires in the room to fall back a step. “You never should have brought a vampire so bloodied and disheveled anywhere near her majesty. It is disrespectful.”
Kane, seeming to realize this man would rip his head off, and he didn’t have as much sway as he believed he did, bowed his head and folded his hands demurely before him. “I apologize; I did not mean any disrespect. I was so excited when I realized who he was that I brought him here immediately.”
Goran’s eyes came back to him, a caterpillar brow lifted into his hairline. “And just who is he?”
“He is the imposter queen’s brother,” Kane replied, his voice filled with excitement.
William’s head turned toward him, his nostrils flared as he glowered at Kane standing to the left and slightly in front of him. “My sister is not an imposter,” he grated through his teeth. “She is the one who rightly should be called queen.”
Kane’s eyes slid toward him, but before he could speak, a hand snaked out and grasped hold of William’s chin, jerking it forward so he was eye to eye with Goran. His lip curled as he stared at the man.
“Our queen rightly belongs upon the throne,” Goran replied, his voice deceptively smooth. “Your sister and her husband are imposters, if she truly is your sister.”
Kane straightened; he tugged at his ruined shirt as he thrust his shoulders proudly back. “She is. I encountered them both before joining the real queen’s ranks. In fact, I ran this one through with my sword, when he was still human. He should be dead; someone must have turned him before he could die.”
Goran snickered at Kane’s words. William continued to hold Goran’s unrelenting gaze. “So you are another perversion of our race, and a weakening of our blood, just like your sister.”
William shrugged as best he could with the vampires still grasping his arms. “I am what I am.”
A circle of red blazed around Goran’s eyes; his fingers tightened until they pierced the skin of William’s chin. Trickles of warm blood slid down his chin, but he kept his face impassive as drops of it fell on the floor. “Such a flippant response only shows your class. You’re a waste, a detriment to our kind. Your watered-down blood will only create weaker versions of the race who should rightly rule this earth.”
“I’ve actually heard something like that before, except it was the human race that was such a waste the last time I heard it,” he replied. He tried to smile, but his busted lips were in the process of healing and made it difficult to do so.
Goran snarled at him; he tore gouges of skin away from William’s chin when he jerked his hand away. William tried not to let the pain show, but he was unable to stop himself from wincing as he felt air brushing over the bone exposed by the motion. Goran turned to one of the vampires hovering by his side on the stage.
“Get the queen,” he commanded brusquely.
The vampire blanched visibly. “Should we ah… clean him up first, sir?” the man stammered.
“There is no scrubbing the filth from this vermin,” Goran replied.
William added another name to the list of those he’d like to see dead. He may not be strong enough to kill this one, but he’d really enjoy watching Braith tear Goran’s cotton ball head from his shoulders. William forced himself to remain unmoving as he waited for the woman who believed she would take Aria’s place.
***
Tempest waited until the sun slipped behind the mountain, just as William had told her to do, before pulling the hood of her cloak over her head. She didn’t bother with the shoe polish again; most of the vampires who had invaded their town were gathered by the hotel, drawn by curiosity as to what was going on. The ones who remained in the street were mulling about with each other, or standing by and watching the hotel. She counted on the ones gathered within the mountains also to be busy watching the hotel.
She doubted any of them would notice her; one white cloaked figure walking through the yards wasn’t suspicious to them.
“Here.” Pallas handed her two containers of the oil they used to light the lamps. She tucked the cans safely into the
inside pockets of her cloak before accepting the ball of rags and lighter Pallas handed her next. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
“No,” Tempest replied. “Stay here with the children. Have them ready to leave when I get back.”
“Abbott can do that.”
She grabbed hold of her friend’s hands and squeezed them. “If something happens to me, you’re the only other one who can get them through the mountains, and they’ll need you.”
“I’m not sure I can remember how to get out,” Pallas whispered tremulously. “I never spent as much time in the mountains as you, and I only went out that way with you one time.”
“You’ll remember when you get into them. You’ll see, it will all come back to you. Besides we only have the one white cloak and it will be easier for me to move about by myself.”
Pallas closed her eyes, her hands clenched around Tempest’s before she finally released them. Abbott and Pallas followed her through the dining room and to the backdoor. Tempest had no concern about going out there, or for herself; she was more concerned she would fail in her mission, and in doing so she would lose William forever. No matter what happened out there, she could not fail. Even if it meant she was captured or killed herself.
“If I’m not back in an hour, leave without me,” she said to Pallas.
“Tempest…”
“They’re going to kill us all no matter what; you have to take the chance to escape, Pallas. You have too.”
“We will,” Abbott said and stepped forward to hug her.
“Promise me.”
“I promise,” Pallas whispered. Her lower lip trembled; her hands shook when she rested them on Abbott’s shoulders.
Tempest pulled the backdoor open and stepped into the shadowy dusk enveloping the town. In the distance, the forlorn hoot of an owl echoed through the valley. Her eyes searched the mountains and backyards before she stepped off the porch and hurried through the thigh high snow toward the road.
She made her way toward the street and stepped onto the well-trodden road. The snow had compacted so she could walk on top of it down the road. Her head bowed against the wind blowing down the roadway between the houses. Murmurs and questions about what was going on followed her as she walked. She could almost feel their curiosity as they tried to understand what had unfolded today, and just who was the vampire they’d dragged off to the queen.
From the whispers, some assumed he was deranged, and others believed the king had sent him. Her ears perked at that theory, but even as she tried to glean more about it, they were already speculating it had been someone Kane owed money to. The money one seemed to be the prevailing theory she realized as she strained to hear more of the rumors bantered about.
Turning down the road, she walked past the house she’d shared with Pallas. Her eyes slid to the side to take in the darkened building she’d considered her home. At the end of the street, she made a right and slipped into the side yard of a large chalet. The building had been the school to vampire children for her entire life. Since the war, it had educated both vampire and human children before the town had been taken over. Arriving at the back of the empty school, she knelt behind the wooden building by a basement window.
Her fingers slid over the window until she found the bottom of it. The window squeaked when she pulled it open. She froze; her eyes darted around, but nothing moved in the night, and no one was about. Turning back to the window, she tugged it the rest of the way open.
She removed one of the rags from her cloak and a bottle of the oil. Drenching the rag with the oil, she pulled out the lighter and flicked it open. Her fingers fumbled with the flint before finally getting it to light. The rag flared to life, fire danced over her face and the surrounding snow.
Leaning back, she tossed the rag into the basement. She didn’t have to look inside to know the room was full of old desks and furniture. It had been that way since she was a little girl and had attended school here. She’d resented almost all of her time here, and she had stopped coming when she was thirteen.
To make sure the fire would stay lit, she watched the flames from the rag she’d tossed inside until they caught on a cardboard box. Leaving the window open to allow air to flow in and feed the fire, she crept away from the school and headed toward the library next. The idea of burning books didn’t sit well with her, she’d never been much of a reader, but she’d always enjoyed the smell and feel of them.
However, she planned to try to start as many fires as possible in places she knew were empty, and that would easily catch fire, before moving onto the residential homes. The fires wouldn’t be noticed until it was too late if they were in uninhabited places. Books were more easily replaced than the life of someone who could be an innocent.
The library didn’t have any basement windows, so she slid down the side of the building and climbed onto the small back porch. Wrapping a rag around her hand, she busted out a pane of the window in the backdoor. Careful not to let the glass fall to the floor, she kept hold of the pieces. The snowdrift next to the porch engulfed the shards when she released them. She lit the rag and tossed it onto the stack of books by the door.
Turning away, she continued through the backyards until she came upon the tailor’s store. No one had been in there for a while, and it was nearly a mile away from where she’d started the first fire. She tossed another lit rag inside before turning and heading toward the more human part of town. She’d started fires in three of the bigger places within the town; now it was time to start some smaller ones.
The humans no longer resided in their businesses and homes. The thought of killing anyone made her stomach turn, but if they were inside of the human residences, then they shouldn’t be in this town in the first place. She’d trade their life for William’s and the children’s any day.
CHAPTER 25
William could feel his injuries healing, but he kept most of his weight on the two vampires still holding him. They still believed they were helping to hold him up. He didn’t want them to know how much better he already felt or to suspect he’d regained any of his strength. Weakness was his friend right now, if he had any chance of escaping this mess.
The minutes ticked by, the only sound within the room was the restless shuffling of the vampires around him, and that was sporadic. Most of the vampires were as still as stone, but he could feel the excitement coming off them in waves. He could almost hear them salivating over the anticipation of seeing their queen and hearing what grizzly sentence would be handed down upon him. Goran hadn’t moved so much as a muscle; his hands were folded behind his back, his gaze steady on William.
It wasn’t so much that he saw or heard anyone approaching from the shadows of the stage, but more sensed a presence coming toward him. His head turned toward where Goran had emerged. Around him the vampires shifted, their heads bowed, and a small murmur went through the crowd. He had no idea why, but a shiver went down his spine; his skin became electrified by the enclosing presence and the power wafting from it. The hair on his arms stood up. The energy coming from the other room emitted an aroma that brought to mind the scent lightning emitted when it scorched the earth.
And they may all be scorched in the end, he realized. A pale hand wrapped around the curtain blocking the side of the stage and pulled it back. He’d meant to keep his face impassive, but his eyes widened on the woman who emerged from the shadows. He didn’t have to be told who she was, or how old she was; the vampire inside him instinctively knew the power she possessed was ancient.
For the first time fear curdled in his belly, not for himself, but for all those he cared for and loved. He’d believed this rebellion would be squashed beneath the power of Braith’s family and The Council; he realized now he’d been greatly mistaken. This woman would not be taken down without a massive fight, and he understood now why her followers had grown so rapidly.
Her kind of power would be addicting, thrilling, and the prospect of being able to get a small pie
ce of it would be enticing, even to those who didn’t believe the human race should be kept beneath the boot heels of vampires. It would be irresistible to those who did feel the human race deserved to be kept down and used only for their bodies and blood.
There were vampires who resented Braith for making them equal to humans, for taking away their ability to rain cruelty down upon the human race with ruthless glee, and no apprehension about receiving punishment for it. Those who would want things to return to the way they’d been and would believe this woman wielded more power than Braith, and they may be right, he realized with a sinking sensation.
Striking wasn’t the word he would use for her, or beautiful. Ice would be the best description for her. No matter how perfect her facial structure was, or how eye-catching her coloring, with her utter lack of warmth he couldn’t consider her beautiful.
Old, it was the first word to go through his mind when the woman stopped before him.
His skin prickled as she stood over him on the stage. She looked him over from head to toe and back again with a leisurely perusal that made his hackles rise. He’d have no shot against her, but she was the first woman he’d punch in the face if ever given the chance. Her antipathy for him radiated from her in waves, and he was certain she could notice the same emotion coming from him. He’d love to see this woman taken down a hundred pegs; he wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance to witness it, or if it would be possible.
The woman’s fingers seized hold of his chin, careful not to touch the blood drying there. Her lengthy, blood red nails rubbed over his torn flesh. His jaw jutted out as he held the eyes of the woman staring mercilessly at him. She could have his head ripped off before he blinked, but he was counting on her deciding to keep him alive in order to draw Aria and Braith out by using him as leverage.
She had to keep him alive, he had to get free of here; Braith had to know what he was going to be up against. For once in your life, keep your mouth shut and play nice, he told himself. It would kill him to do so, but this woman didn’t come across as the type who handled any kind of insolence well.