The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(91)

But they’re not going for the opening above us anymore. No, they’ve turned to go deeper in the caves.

But why…

“The humans!” Eleira gasps at exactly the same time the thought hits me. “The Convicted are going for the villagers!”

I curse. But how would Eleira know the humans had been taken underground in advance of the other coven’s arrival? She was locked away when it happened.

I ask her as much.

“I can sense the humans in the distance,” she replies. “All of them.”

“That’s because of your strength,” Mother interrupts. She’s pacing the small spot in front of us, her skirt swishing at her legs. “The Convicted do not have senses as attuned to that as you. No, it is the Voice that is directing The Convicted. The Voice that is telling them where to go.”

“How can you know that?” Eleira asks.

“Because,” Mother says. “I hear it too.”

“What are we going to do? We can’t just stay here!” Eleira protests. “We have to help!”

“I agree,” I say. “Smithson, get the guards. I’ll collect the rest of The Haven vampires to help. We won’t stand pat and let The Convicted slaughter our villagers! Smithson? Smithson!”

But as I look around, the Captain Commander is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s gone,” Mother says softly.

She sounds… completely resigned.

“What’s wrong with you?” I scream at her. “Your kingdom is under attack! The humans are about to be slaughtered! The Convicted have just escaped!”

She shakes her head. Self-pity as I’ve never seen it haunts her eyes.

“I’ve failed,” she says under her breath. “I’ve failed The Haven. I’ve failed my people. I failed, I failed, I failed...”

“Snap out of it!” I yell. “You’re the Queen, you’re the Monarch!” The sounds of The Convicted are becoming dimmer and dimmer. The longer we wait, the farther they get from us…

And the closer they get to the humans.

Mother looks back at the remains of her castle. “Six centuries…” her voice cracks. “Six centuries it stood, only to be lost like this.” A despairing sob comes from her throat. “It’s gone. It’s really gone, it’s all gone…”

Eleira steps up to her and swings her arm. Her angry slap connects with Mother’s left cheek.

Morgan looks at her, eyes wide, almost trembling.

“You are a powerful witch,” Eleira says in a steely voice. “You are the ruler of The Haven. You owe it to your subjects to show your strength. The castle fell—so what? It can be rebuilt, just as the village was rebuilt. The barriers are down—but you can erect them again! And I’m not,” she stresses, “a dark witch. Whatever you think that means, it is not me. Not who I am. Not here.”

She touches her chest, right at the heart. “Maybe something happened when I was a child, but I can fight it. I will fight it, if you guide me, and together, we will defeat it.”

She takes hold of Morgan’s shoulders. “But right now, that’s not the threat. If you stay here and bemoan what has happened, then your kingdom will be ruined. Then you’ll lose all you have built. But if you show courage, and if you fight—The Haven vampires will fight alongside you. That I know.”

Whoa. Chills run through me at that rising speech. I see Eleira in a new light.

Suddenly, she seems to realize what she’s doing, who she’s talking to. She gives a small gasp and shrinks back.

But I’m right there. I grab her waist, spin her around, and kiss her passionately.

When I let go, she looks at me with wonder-filled eyes. “What was that for?” she breathes.

“For kicking ass,” I say. “And for being amazing.”

I turn to Mother, who seems to have been roused from her mini pity party.

“Will you stand with us?” I ask. “Or will you cower and hide?”

Mother looks at me, then pushes herself up to full height. “A Queen,” she says loftily, “never hides.”

She’s back, I think.

For now, the thought comes with no small measure of relief.





Chapter Fifty-Nine




JAMES



I stumble in a half-crazed daze after Smithson. He runs fast, urging me along, through caverns that I should know as well as the back of my own hand.

When he grabbed my arm and pushed me to go, in the aftermath of our fall into the earth, at first I resisted. But then he said the words that made me know he was the one who’d arranged my passage in:

“Beatrice would want you safe.”

So I went with him. I ran from my Mother and brother and Victoria and Eleira, while being consumed with shame at what I’d done. I let my Father play me like a second-hand fiddle. I thought he’d wanted the staff, the torrial, for himself.