Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 12

Lucca

The secondary infection is unexpected.

One minute we are standing at the top of the castle, discussing what our next move should be, when I feel unsteady. I had only been partially wounded the day before, it had not been a very serious injury and after a few hours, I was walking around again.

But this was different.

“Are you all right?” Finn asked.

I leaned against the wall for support, and took a moment to respond. I felt very strange all of a sudden, nauseous, my head swimming.

“Come, sit down,” he said.

“We must… we need to…” I couldn’t find the words, my head was thick. I felt my sons lay me down and call for the healer to come quickly. As for what came next, they told me later what happened, as I, at this point lost consciousness.

It was established that some of the bullet had broken off and had not been removed when they had cleaned the wound. The shards had not entered the blood stream right away, but when they did, the damage was instantaneous as they were laced with silver.

This poisoned my entire system, attacking my already weakened body. A younger man would not have survived but I had already been given a fair amount of vampire blood and now received more infusions to help me fight the infection.

The healer told my sons I had a fifty percent chance of survival, which were not odds they were comfortable with, understandably. At this point, I was delirious, having vivid dreams that seemed extremely real and were deeply disturbing. At times, I would be lucid, briefly, and notice them in the room. I kept asking for Sunil, but he was not there.

“Where is he?” I apparently asked.

They shook their heads, they didn’t know.

The theory was that it was difficult to travel from the Capital to the west of the country, the roads were dangerous. But Izzy had come right away, without any trouble, she had been able to navigate the treacherous ways and come to the castle to check if I was all right. I dreamed of Izzy, the way she had been before we had become intimate, bonded by blood.

The way she was when I met her, fierce and independent. How strong she had seemed, so wise and mature for her years. I had drawn her into this drama of my life, and now she was inextricably linked to violence and chaos that had become our world. She had left the castle and I had no idea where she was. I had sent no protection with her, no crow to watch her.

I’d been so angry that she would point the finger at my sons with such flimsy evidence to support her theories. For a brief moment, I had even suspected her of being in league with those plotting to overthrow me. It was a moment of madness, brought on by a feverish mind, a weakened system. When my head was clear, I knew there was no way Izzy was involved in anything like that. She was completely pure and trustworthy, I had no reason to doubt her at all.

But Sunil, he had explaining to do.

During one of the first dreams I had, Zendan the Great appeared to me, the way he had been years ago. I had never said goodbye to him, he had been killed in one of the big battles of the Great War. In many ways, he had been a father to me. At that point, I had no family of my own and he had taken me under his wing, called me his son. He had been in favor of me marrying his daughter and strengthening his house.

Then the war turned as darkness poured from the underworld, and we saw how humans were being exterminated, how vampires were turning against each other. We had a conversation at his stronghold, on the island Valleira. He said to me that we needed to align ourselves with the best forces, we needed to bring an end to the war before the demons and the brogs overran our earth. They would destroy themselves in the end, but not before they had destroyed us.

Without human blood, vampires would struggle to survive, we would feed off each other and eventually die too. The balance needed to be restored. Zendan sent me off to negotiate with the other vampire families, to see if we could establish an allied front to negotiate with the humans, who at that point had some weapons and a few strongholds in place. It was while I was away, that Valleira was attacked and Zendan’s force was wiped out. When news of his demise reached the other houses, it speeded up the peace process as all of us saw the end approaching.

Now, Zendan came to me, his face ragged and worn, as it was towards the end of the war.

“You must stop this,” he said to me. “This is on you. Only you know what to do.”

“But who is it, I can’t see my enemy?” I answered. “Is it Tempesto or the Servant? Is someone else behind it? I have a feeling there is someone else here. Perhaps MoZa? And what of Chakrat?”

“You know who it is,” said Zendan, angrily. “You have been blind! Smug in your tower, a little king with a little crown, you have looked away while they stole your power from you!”

In the dream, his voice shook with fury, he grabbed me and threw me against the wall. I didn’t fight back. Zendan had always been stronger than me, even in my dreams.

“Do you want to live or do you want to die!” he screamed at me as darkness came in great waves and provided relief from his rage.

In another dream, Simonis sat next to me on the day bed. It seemed so real, as if it was really happening. Her blond hair twisted in braids around her head, her beautiful violet eyes as enchanting as ever.

I put out a hand to touch her and I could feel her arm, like she was with me.

“Are you here?” I asked. “Are you really here?”

She didn’t answer, but stood up, walked around.

“You don’t have time for reminiscing like an old man,” she said. “You must act now. It will all be taken away from you, all of this. It will be gone.”

I didn’t know if the dreams were manifestations of my own fears, my subconscious trying to spur me into action, but they shook me up. When I woke up, I felt myself shaking, wondering why they would come from the spirit world to berate me. Of course, I didn’t have anyone able to talk to me like that now. Izzy was probably the only one who had dared to speak openly to me and I had put an end to that.

In the early morning, my most disturbing dream was of my mother, my real mother. I found myself in the small peat house we had then, my father outside, covering our wood supply. It was raining outside and cold. My brothers and sisters were sitting in front of the fire. My mother sat in a chair, doing some sort of needlework, mending clothes probably. We were poor and life was dreary.

I must have been around eight years old then and was supposed to look after my younger brother and sister. But I wasn’t paying attention, playing instead with some sticks I had picked up. My brother took one of the sticks and stabbed it at my sister, playfully, but hurting her. She had an ugly scratch on her face and started bawling, my mother blamed me. She looked at me, her eyes blazing. “I asked you to do one thing, just one thing! Go outside! Now!”

She chased me into the cold, wet rain. I remember hearing my sister cry and thinking it was my fault, wanting to go back inside and warm myself at the fire. But I had been banished into the night. Within the year, they would all be dead, only I would survive. It would be decades of me, alone in the wilderness, roaming the land. I never belonged anywhere, never could find a place where I felt safe. It was not a stretch for me to remember that time, always with a chill in my bones.

I had tried to create warmth with my own family, setting up an empire in the Grey Mountains, but it wasn’t enough, it had not changed a thing.

When I woke up at the end of the second night, the fever had broken and I felt able to sit up.

Ragnar was in the room, keeping watch.

“How’re you feeling?”

He offered me some product, which I drank.

“Where is Layrr?” I asked.

He told me Layrr had gone to check on the blood bank. They had reports that our people had been removed and that it was taken over by others, it wasn’t clear who.

“This is all part of the same destabilization attack,” I said.

I asked after the mobile signal and Sunil.

“It’s still down, we are not able to call anyone in the Capital or Citadel.” He paused. “But we sent crows to find Sunil.”

“And?”

Ragnar’s face darkened. “He’s gone, we can’t find him.”

“You can’t find him?”

“The housekeeper says he has not been there in days.”

“Could something have happened to him?”

Ragnar didn’t know. “We’ve sent someone to track him down, a shifter, able to blend in. Reports from the Citadel are patchy. But it seems like the Council has been overthrown.”

“What?”

“Lare has been killed. MoZa is missing and Tempesto is at his compound. No one dares to go in or has been seen leaving it. It looks like he is the one in power now.”

“And the Servant?”

Ragnar shook his head. “I don’t know. Jock said he left the West after the skirmish.”

“And what is happening at Fort Ferney?”

“More refugees are streaming from the North. They are in camps outside the walls. They say it is chaos in Ginnerlong. There have been storms too, snow and ice. Those that aren’t locking themselves in their homes, are fleeing.”

“Where is Finn?”

Ragnar went to fetch my old counselor.

He came in, looking anxious and tired. “Oh, it is good to see you much revived!” He said, rushing to my bedside. “I have been so worried. Times are dark, Sire. The news from the Citadel is not good.”

He cast a sidelong glance at Ragnar, which I interpreted as a wish for privacy. I sent my eldest son off to check on the men and do a round-up of how many I had ready and able to fight.

As soon as we were alone, Finn gave me the information he had.

“There has been a coup on the Council. But it is not clear who is in power. Some say Tempesto, some say the Servant is about take Lare’s seat. But he must be voted in, even if it is a formality. There is unrest in the capital and there have been outbreaks in the Citadel. Demons.”

“What about the demon hunters?”

Finn shrugged, “We don’t have as many as in the old days. We have kept them behind locked doors for so long, but they are getting in now, they are a problem.”

“Do we have a new Seer?” I asked.

“There is a kid, he had been brought to us some time ago. He has some ability but it is raw.”

I thought of my old Seer and wondered how much of what she saw was true. How much of it had been what she wanted me to see?

“Bring him in.”

Finn went out and after a while, brought in a shy boy with long hair.

“How old are you?” I asked

“Sixteen,” he said, in a soft voice.

“Speak up, boy,” I said, but not unkindly. Finn said his parents had tried to sell him after learning of his ability, fearing it was witchcraft. He had arrived at the castle and was taken in by some of the castle staff, who had heard of his ability and thought it may be of use.

“What is your name?” I asked him.

“Robert,” he said. I asked him if he was treated well, if he was comfortable where he was staying. He nodded.

“All right, Robbie,” I said slowly. “Do your visions come when you want them to or do they come unbidden?”

“I have no control over it, my lord,” he said unhappily. “Sometimes, it’s like I have many dreams in a day, then sometimes, weeks go by and, nothing.”

He lifted his arms in despair.

Finn rolled his eyes, clearly thinking the boy was no good.

“You must not try to force it,” I said. “Let them come of their own accord.”

He nodded.

“Have you had any visions….dreams…lately? Like the last couple of days?”

He nodded. “There is one, it is…bad. Awful.”

I sat up.

“Tell me,” I commanded him.

“It’s always the same. It’s dark and there is a storm. Lightning, very close by and it’s frightening. Then this man appears and he grows bigger and he is covered in blood and he is laughing, and his laugh grows bigger and louder until I can’t take it anymore.”

I nodded. “Is there anything else?”

“A girl…” he said slowly.

“Sometimes, there is a girl. Sort of, in the back, just standing there.”

“What can you tell me about her?”

He shrugged helplessly. “She’s pretty, very pretty?”

Finn took the boy by the arm, started pushing him out of the room. “That’s enough,” he said. “The king must rest.”

“No,” I interrupted. “That was very good, Robbie, really.”

Then I said, “I am promoting him to the house. See to it that he gets a room nearby. And anything he wants to eat, have you been yearning for something?”

Robbie’s eyes lit up. “Well, not for food, Sire, but for my sister.”

“Oh? What about her?”

“She was in Ginnerlong. But I haven’t heard from her in so long. If I could maybe get a message to her? Find her.”

I told Finn to get it done.

Then I needed time to think.

Alone.