The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(4)

“You’re not listening to yourself!” I cry. “You feel their strength. You know Patricia’s never been powerful enough to challenge one of your personal guard. How would she or Jacob have killed them? Why would they kill them?”

“Because they’re filth,” she spits. “Because they were humiliated by my guards in front of the entire assembly. Because in the fires that you and my other son began, in the mayhem and confusion, they thought they could have their revenge! How they did it, I don’t know. I don’t care to know. Maybe they took them by surprise. Maybe—”

“Andrey would never have been taken by surprise.”

“SILENCE!” she screams. “Silence! Don’t you dare talk about Andrey. Never again—never again will you speak his name to me. Or else… or else…” she’s starting to sound hysterical now, “…or else you’ll end up in a painting on the castle wall, too!”

One of the new guards gasps. Mother turns on him in a blind rage.

“You don’t think it’s within my right to do?” she demands. “You don’t think that I have absolute rule in The Haven?”

“No, my Queen. You do, my Queen. Forgive me, my Queen.”

The apology seems to appease her. She takes a few deep breaths to compose herself.

Then she addresses me again in a sweet voice. “My son,” she says. She walks toward me. “My sweet, precious, youngest son. Don’t you know how hard it’s been for me to watch you toil away as a result of your… choice? Don’t you know how hard it’s been for me to see Raul and James rise up above you, when you were the one always gifted with such potential?” She touches my cheek.

I stare into her eyes, unflinching.

“You know what I speak of,” she tells me softly. “You were always the intelligent one. You sensed the same darkness inside you that I did when you were made. You knew it could overtake you, if you only let it, and you knew that its power would be unrivalled by any in our coven. You knew that had you embraced it, you would have risen in power, and, eventually, stood above even me.”

The silence in the cave is palpable. Each one of the guards is listening to his Queen with bated breath.

“Yes, Mother. I knew,” I say. That is my greatest secret—that I can become the strongest of all.

And now it’s out in the open.

“But you rejected it,” she says. “You rejected it, because of your love for me.” She wipes away a fake tear. “You did not want to challenge my rule. Why, then, do you do it now?”

“I made the choice for myself, not for you,” I tell her. “And yes, I loved you once, as a child loves either of his parents. But who you’ve become today is a far cry from the woman who raised me.”

She smiles in a cruel way. “You think your words hurt me.”

“I don’t resort to holding my sons hostage,” I challenge, “when things don’t go my way.”

She gives a flippant little laugh. Then she directs her gaze at Patricia, still being held on the floor.

“You want to save her?” she asks. “You can. I’ll tell you how.” She leans in, and whispers in my ear, “Feed. Feed, and embrace who you are meant to be.”

She turns away and clasps her hands. “Bring her,” she tells Smithson.

The Commander immediately retreats into the far reaches of the cavern. I hear a door open. And right away comes the fresh scent of human blood.

Smithson pushes a girl into our midst. She’s bound, gagged, and blindfolded.

It’s April.

“I’ll leave you alone with her,” Mother says. She releases the collar around my neck. I stagger down. “Feed, and I’ll spare the vampire’s life. We both know that it’s much more valuable than that of a human’s.”

On that note, Mother walks out the door, trailed by her guards. They drag Patricia with them.

April is shaking. She’s in very rough shape. I can’t imagine the horrors my Mother must have inflicted upon her.

“You wouldn’t,” she whispers. “Would you?”





Chapter Two




ELEIRA



I sit in the back of the plane, huddled beneath a blanket, holding Raul’s hand.

He’s turned the autopilot on and come out to see me. I’ve been trying my best to suppress the vampiric urges roiling inside.

It’s been hard. Very, very, hard. With our two prisoners, James and Victoria, sitting bound in silver not more than twenty feet away, the urge to feed on them comes and goes in ravenous spikes.

So far, I’ve managed to fight it down. I suspect the only reason I’m capable of doing so is that I’m wearing the ring Raul gave me.