Vanquished Gods (Hallowed Games #2)

Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

I crossed back to the lunarium’s window, still trying to steady my breath. The moon hung high, casting its silver light over the rocky earth below, while vampire soldiers poured out of the castle. They moved in tight formation, already heading toward Veilcross Haven, their shields and armor gleaming like the scales of a massive serpent winding through the night.

“You’re sure Veilcross is safe?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes away from the soldiers.

Sion’s hand closed gently around my bicep, pulling me from the window. “There are walls around Veilcross for a reason. But I’m sending more men to reinforce them. Now, we’re going back to your room. You’re at the greatest risk, and we don’t have gates here to stop vampires.” His low, commanding voice brooked no argument.

I turned to him, confusion tightening in my chest. “What do you mean, I’m at the greatest risk?”

“Maelor has tasted you now,” Sion said, his expression darkening. “He’ll crave more of your blood tonight, if he can get it. Come with me.”

A chill ran up my nape, and reluctantly, I followed him to the lunarium door. As we walked through the candlelit halls, the shadows seemed to shift, as if alive and watching. My fingers brushed the bloodstained fabric of my dress, the white ruined by streaks of crimson.

I swallowed hard. “What happens when Maelor gets like this?”

Sion didn’t break stride. “He’ll be out of his mind for the next day or two, hunting humans. The self-loathing comes after.”

My stomach clenched. “And which humans is he most likely to try to kill?”

Sion stopped, turning to face me, his eyes deadly serious. “You, if he can find you.” He searched my face. “Has he ever drunk from you before tonight?”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yes.”

Sion cursed under his breath. “Fucking brilliant idea on his part, but that explains tonight, I suppose. And it means I will be staying in your room, mortal, no arguments. Vampires can get addicted to the blood of certain people, so when he smelled your blood tonight, it sent him into a frenzy. I suspect he’s been struggling ever since he first drank from you—in Ruefield, was it? He started losing it back in Ruefield.”

We reached my room, and he pushed open the door, waiting for me to enter. “Bolt the door behind me. Lock the windows. I’m sending soldiers to guard your door. I’ll return in a few minutes.”

“Do you really need to stay here with me if I have the door bolted and guards outside?”

“You know Maelor to be a good person, but right now, he’s not in charge. The darkness has a hold of him. The instincts he’s so desperate to repress have exploded like a dormant volcano. They are overwhelming him, and he will tear through anything to get to you.”

He closed the door, and I bolted it shut behind him, as ordered, with a loud click that echoed through the room.

The moment he was out the door, I peeled off my bloodstained dress and washed the blood off myself in the bathroom, tossing my ruined gown into the hamper. I pulled on a fresh dress that was bright red and soft against my skin.

Crossing to the bookshelf, I selected a book, then dropped into the chair by the window. But as I opened it, I could hardly focus on the words. I peered outside, watching the flicker of silver armor shifting in the shadows as vampires spread out, hunting for Maelor.

I glanced down at the cut on my forearm, now just an angry red line, slightly raised around the wound.

Who the hell fixed the razor clam shell to my chair? It seemed like a deliberate trap.

I tried again to focus on the text, flipping the pages, but I wasn’t taking anything in. Something about pious eyes, passionate groans, and rosy buds…

When a knock sounded on my door, I stood, dropping the book in my chair. I unbolted the lock and opened the door. Sion stood outside, his arms folded, eyes flaring with darkness.

“Why did you open the door?”

“Because you knocked?” I said.

“I could have been Maelor.”

“Right, well, I thought in his crazed, animal state, he might not be knocking.” I opened the door wider, and Sion stepped inside. “You’re absolutely sure that you need to be here?”

Sion turned, bolting the door shut. “Yes, and I’ve got soldiers lined up outside as well. I will make sure that nothing else happens to you tonight. In fact, I will make sure nothing happens to you as long as I’m alive. Or rather, as long as I’m undead.”

Sion glided past me, heading for the chair I’d been sitting in. He picked up my book, dropping it in his lap as he sat, making himself comfortable. “ Ripe as the finest summer fruit, with gleaming pink lips begging to be tasted…let a man kneel before you to drink. You really picked the filthiest thing on the shelf, didn’t you?”

“I haven’t even looked at it yet.”

He flipped the pages, staring at the text. “ Rosy buds to tempt a man out of his wits. It’s about a Raven of the Order who keeps a harem of women in tunnels.”

“And what’s going on with the search for Maelor?”

“No sightings of him from the soldiers around Veilcross,” he said. “But one of our trackers followed his scent down to the sea. He already managed to kill a thrall by the shore, and he left her drained body on the rocks. That should sate his appetite for a little while, but we have no idea where he is.” He turned another page, then looked up from the book again, golden eyes narrowing on my arm. “How did you manage to cut yourself on a simple chair?”

“It was a razor clam shell. Someone had attached it to the chair. It seemed intentional.”

Shadows stained the air around him, and he went very still.

“Someone in my castle is trying to have you killed. It would seem as if we have another traitor in our midst, don’t you think?”

Another knock sounded on the door, and I raised my eyebrows. “So…am I supposed to not answer it?”

“Who’s there?” Sion barked through the door.

A high-pitched voice called back, “I brought the food to feed the human.”

On the one hand, I was a little disturbed by the degree to which that statement made me sound like a pet that needed feeding, but those reservations were overruled by the rumbling in my stomach. On the other hand, after our aborted dinner, I really did need feeding.

Sion unbolted the door and opened it cautiously, then a little wider. A platinum-haired, red-lipped vampire sauntered inside, carrying a domed tray. She set it on my table by the window and removed the cloche. Immediately, the scent of venison filled the room. It was pure decadence.

The servant smiled at me. “We finished roasting the stag you killed today.”

I sat at the table, my gaze roaming over the meat, which was seasoned with rosemary-infused butter and accompanied by a berry sauce that smelled like blackberries, maybe with a dash of honey. Caramelized onions and wild sorrels sautéed in herb butter lay on the side, and a small glass pot of spiced cream with wild berries drizzled with honey completed the meal.

As the servant left, Sion closed and bolted the door behind her, then returned to the table and poured me a glass of wine. Apart from the fangs in my throat earlier, he really was the perfect host.

“Thank you for this, Sion.”

My mouth watered as I cut into the meat, savoring the rich, succulent flavors. The world seemed to fade away as I ate, dipping the meat in the berry sauce, tasting the buttery sorrels.

When I finally looked up from my food, I noticed Sion staring out the window, his muscles tense. Shadows flickered around him, and the candles in my room guttered in their sconces. His tension was palpable.

“Are you worried about Maelor?” I asked quietly. “You keep saying that you’re not, but I’m not sure I believe you.”

He kept staring out at the sea. “He never accepted becoming a vampire. And when we transitioned, he lost his wits. It was even harder for him than it was for me when we crawled from the soil.”

“After you were abandoned by the man who sired you?”

His eyes seemed locked on the waves outside. “Yes. The hunger was agonizing. It was all we knew—but we didn’t know what we were hungry for . At least, not at first. The Mormaer, our sire, only told us one thing: stay out of the sun. And that was all we knew, but it was very hard to stay out of the sun when we no longer had anywhere to live.”

“What happened to Maelor’s home? He was nobility.” I took another bite of venison.

He turned back to the table and poured himself a glass of wine, and his gaze met mine. “First, we were buried. By the time we crawled from the dirt, undead, the Tyrenians had taken over every notable building in Lirion. Maelor’s was probably one of the first they commandeered, draping his stone walls with their golden banners. They festooned his home with the symbols of their Archon.”

“Then where did you go?”

“We spent few wordless days, more dead than alive, in a cave we found, instinctively hiding from the sun. The transition isn’t complete until you drink blood, but we didn’t know that was what we needed. I think the transition was worse for us than it is for most simply because we had no idea what was happening to us, or what a vampire even was. I had a vague sense of being dead, that my heart wasn’t beating. The shock of it made me forget who I was.”

I swallowed hard. “That sounds horrible.”

“In the first few days, before we knew to drink, our bodies were clumsy and stiff, and I felt like an abomination. We hid in the dark, rotting and confused, like walking corpses. The hunger was maddening, but we couldn’t imagine what it was we were hungering for. It didn’t seem to be food. It was a slow, torturous death. I remember once or twice I tried to walk out into the sun, but my skin started to burn immediately—smoldering, smoking, the flames rising. I dove right back into that damp cave. I remember thinking I was living in the world of eternal torment the Tyrenians had told us about. The place for the wicked. For the rotten. My memories came and went, sometimes empty, sometimes flooding me. I kept thinking that I wished I’d had the chance to take my mother’s bones out of the mass grave and bring them to the Archonium to free her from torment.”

“I’m sorry.”

His dark expression cleared. “But that was before I knew that the Archon wasn’t real.”

I stared at him, entranced, no longer even thinking about the food. “Which of you fed first?”

“Maelor. I’d gone into a sort of trance state in the cave that night, but then I smelled something that called to me, a hunger that lured me in. At first, I didn’t recognize what it was—I only knew that I needed to find it, consume it. I followed the scent to the city, and as I got closer, I heard the sound of screaming. When I crossed into the city, I saw the crumpled bodies of mortals drained of blood, lying lifeless on the cobblestones and in dark alleyways. It hit me then—what I was, what I needed. I still couldn’t put it into words, but I felt it. The need for blood. I turned into something predatory, something feral, and I could hear the heartbeats of those in the city.”

“You remember it all so clearly.”

“Like it was yesterday. I started to walk back toward my home, Maelor’s palace. And that’s when I ran into a Tyrenian soldier. That was my first kill, and I didn’t feel one bit sorry for him. I didn’t wonder what I was doing. I just leapt for him, my fangs sinking deep into his throat, his blood filling me like the finest wine. I’d never tasted anything like it—the sweetness, the magic in that blood as I drained his life, the strength that coursed through my veins. His strangled cries called more soldiers to us, but I tore through each of them. And when I’d finished drinking them dry, my gaze flicked up to the stars. I no longer felt dead. I felt more alive than ever. The brightness of the stars pierced the sky with an otherworldly brilliance, like jeweled gods that hung above us. The night wrapped around me.”

“And that’s when you started to enjoy being a vampire?”

“I felt like I was drowning in ecstasy, in beauty and power. All my worst fears about being rotten to the core were washed away because I felt at one with the glory of the world around me. There was no Archon, there was only the sky and the soil and the breath of wind through the leaves. My senses were as sharp as my fangs, and every flicker of those stars above seemed to pulse within my body. Although my heart was still, the stars beat for me. I remember licking the blood off my lips and then smelling Maelor. His scent was so familiar to me that I could follow him around the city, and I tracked him back to his castle. That’s when I found him, with his fangs buried deep in Epona’s neck.”

Sion’s voice grew distant as he drained the last of his glass.

“He couldn’t stop himself,” I whispered. “And when did Maelor realize what he was?”

“A few days later, and he wanted to die. He kept trying to walk into the sun, but we were in it together, and I wasn’t going to let him burn himself alive. Becoming a vampire can amplify who you were before, and he’d already yearned for death, to return to his little girl. He fights his survival instincts more than any vampire I’ve met. I’ve made it my job to stop him from ending it all.”

There was a moment of silence, a heaviness settling between us like the weight of despair.

“You know, Sion, after everything you’ve been through, it’s amazing that you’re as mentally composed as you are.”

Sion’s expression softened, his eyes gleaming with something I couldn’t place, and that look sent a pulse of heat through my veins. “Was that actually a compliment?”

“I guess it was.” I stood, then cast a look at him. “Do you actually care what I think of you? Beyond me being the Underworld Queen who serves your cause?”

His eyes searched my face like he was trying to unravel a hidden meaning, and he took a step closer. “Yes, I care what you think of me, Elowen.”

His words caught me off guard, and something cracked the ice in my chest. “But why?”

His eyes danced with mischief over the rim of his wine glass. “Maybe I care about the opinion of a strong, fierce woman who fights for what she loves. Or maybe I’m just afraid you’ll drive a stake through my heart again. That really hurt, you know.”

“I thought you said I had no chance against you in a fight.”

“I’ve been known to bluff. And I know you’re always weighing dangerous ideas in that secretive mind of yours.”

Dangerous things like what Sion would do if I told him I’d been lying to him about Bran this entire time. “And what kind of dangerous things do you think I’m weighing?”

He closed the distance between us, his eyes darkening. A smile ghosted over his lips. “Like whether you want to drive a stake through my heart or kiss me again.”

My breath hitched, and the space between us felt charged. “Is a kiss so dangerous?”

“Maybe I crave you like Maelor craves blood.” His velvety voice slid over my skin, and he leaned down, his lips moving closer to mine.

“Because you belong with death, and here I am.”

He shook his head, and I thought I read a mournful expression in his eyes. “No, that’s not it at all.”

My heart slammed against my ribs, my blood ignited with heat.

His expression had turned smoldering, the air between us sparking, and the memory of our last kiss lingered on my lips, the way he’d made my body light up. I felt as if I were standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to take that plunge.

But another memory was also playing about inside my skull—the one of Rowena gloating about the prior night’s conquest.

Abruptly, I turned from him. “Well, I should go to bed. That’s not an invitation, in case you interpreted it as such.”

He dropped into my chair, refilling his wine. “Of course. I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of the pleasure of depriving yourself pleasure.”

I woke to find Sion pacing silently before the window, his eyes once again locked on the sea.

The first rays of dawn stained the sky with violet and pink, and all I could think about as I watched him was how terrifying it must have been for them when they’d learned that the sun would kill them. That the very thing that gave us life and made plants grow would light them on fire.

I sighed, sitting up in bed, and Sion turned to look at me, his eyes like warm honey.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Who’s there?” Sion barked.

Through the door, a deep male voice boomed, “It’s Aelius. And we believe Maelor is gone. He took one of the cogs from the dock, and he’s left the island.”