The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(60)

“I brought Eleira here, it’s true,” I say. “But she was still human. The transformation had not yet taken her. All this—” I gesture at the cups lying scattered on the floor, “—was meant to expedite the process. I wanted to present her to the King when she was ready. As both a powerful witch and a vampire, that he could do with as he pleased.”

“And yet you failed,” Father says in a low voice.

“She… overwhelmed us with her strength,” I admit. “Neither Victoria nor I thought the ceremony would accelerate her transformation so much.”

“She was alone?” Father asks. There’s a dangerous current in his voice.

I eye the fourth chalice on the floor and decide to offer the absolute truth. “Raul was here, too. I captured him when he came for Eleira.”

Father’s eyes widen with sudden fury. “YOU BROUGHT MY SECOND SON TO ME,” he screams, “AND YOU LET HIM ESCAPE?”

“Shh, shh,” the woman coos. “Don’t get angry.”

“To hell with that!” Father flings her off. He stalks towards me. “You,” he says, “do not deserve to leave here with your life.” He grabs me by the throat and hauls me up, then pins me to the wall. He takes a dagger from his robes.

The woman runs up to him and throws her full weight onto his arm. “No!” she pleads. “Do not kill him! Do not waste his potential! Take him prisoner, bind him, shackle him, but let him live!”

“Why should I?” Father’s grip tightens on the dagger held at my breastplate. The point presses into me.

“He knows things,” the woman exclaims. “About The Haven. About your first wife. He can offer information that we won’t get from anybody else!”

Father throws me down. He kicks me in the face. I taste blood. I try to fight him, but I’m no match. He uses the Mind Gift to keep me on the floor. The telekinetic force binds me. I cannot strike against him no matter how much I want to.

He continues his attack. Kicks rain down on me from all sides. All I manage to do is curl up in a pathetic ball and take the abuse. He’s yelling and screaming obscenities as he beats me to a bloody pulp.

Finally he tires out. I look up in a daze.

“Take him to the prisoner’s quarters,” he commands. “Bind him in chains. He’ll be given a chance to redeem himself…” the King seizes my chin and forces me to look at him, “…after he’s been sufficiently tortured.”





Chapter Thirty-Seven




RAUL



Days pass with Mother locked in her room. After news of Bradley’s death emerged, an eerie type of tension descended over The Haven.

Vampires have started seeking me out to try to understand what’s happening. Mother’s seal of all the exits and entrances makes them uneasy. They feel trapped, and, for the first time in our existence, uncertain about the mental stability of their Queen.

Eleira, the only one of us viewed as an “Outsider” has been more or less shunned by all the other vampires here.

“I don’t understand,” she tells me. “Morgan told me I have three days to decide. But when I go to her she won’t open the doors.”

“You’re not the only one getting that reception,” I mutter. “Come here, look at this.”

She walks over to my desk. The charts I’ve been pouring over are still laid out. Constellations, astrological signs, everything that points to the succession.

“Do you really believe in this stuff?” Eleira asks. “Seeing the future in the stars? I always thought it was kind of… hocus pocus.”

“When you have the assurance of living for centuries, you see patterns emerge. The stars don’t decide our fates. But knowing what’s going on in the heavens gives insight into what might happen on earth.”

I sweep a hand over the chart that’s taking up the most space on my desk. “As vampires we have a particular advantage in studying the night sky. We are only awake when the stars shine. They are a part of us, as essential to our wellbeing as the sun and vitamin D are to humans. These charts, also—” I glance at Eleira, “—told us of your birth. So you can’t deny their power.”

Eleira studies the intricate symbols overlaid on the canvas. “I can’t make heads or tails of it,” she mumbles. Then she shifts her gaze to me, eyes afire. “You can teach me! Can’t you?”

For a second I’m taken aback by her interest. Then an easy smile spreads across my face. “I would love to.”

I walk around the table so that I’m standing behind her. She doesn’t move. I take one of her hands and draw it along a celestial line. “This one,” I say softly, taking advantage of the moment to be close to her, to breathe in her delicious scent, “is called the Nocturna Animalia constellation. It’s Latin for ‘Creature of the Night.’ Humans have never charted it. It is not important to them. But it is to us. When we watch the shifts over centuries…”