Fated In Secrets (Nocturne Vampire Clan #2)

Chapter 8

8

RIORDAN

I paused on the edge of the quarry, a sheet of harsh, unforgiving granite softened by lilac-purple blooms and the spicy smell of redbuds. The haunting scent, the sea of spring growth spread across the hills like a colorful blanket became a smear as I replayed the rage in Silver’s eyes before she stomped away.

Good .

I was glad she hated me.

Hate was better than that flicker of hope softening her beautiful face, that teasing note in her voice as she’d taunted me, like we were friends . Silver was my tool, a source of power, an asset to protect. There could be nothing more between us than casual enmity, because if we grew any closer, she’d be used against me.

By Silas and that monster, Valaine. By fucking Collum.

Or the host of enemies waiting to cut me off at the knees.

My cruelty was saving Silver from untold pain. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the flash of hurt painted across her beautiful face, right before she’d stormed away.

If anyone suspected I had feelings for her, they would hunt her mercilessly. Hurt her. Torture her. I rubbed my chest. Loving her…only meant I would lose her faster.

I should know. I’d lived this nightmare before .

From the moment I’d first understood what hatred was, I’d despised my sire.

Domonic Graves was a coward parading as a king, a cruel bully who broke my mother into a thousand pieces, and when I failed to put her back together to his liking, killed her in front of me.

I’d been ten and from that day on, I swore the bastard would draw his last breath with my hands around his throat.

I’d kept my childhood promise, then spent the past decade plotting to make sure Tyrell followed Domonic into the ground. Now both those bastards were dead, and I had all the power I’d ever desired and…

Silver had hit the mark earlier.

I didn’t have a clue how to use this new magic.

She was right about me being afraid .

Afraid of this amalgam of light and dark power, which was more like a noose around my throat than a blessing, afraid I’d doomed my entire clan to an even worse fate than Laurent Tyrell’s depravity.

Afraid I was too ill-prepared, too short sighted for the battle that lay ahead.

Afraid that once I touched that churning, bruising darkness in my center, the chaos would swallow me whole, and every word Blake tossed at me earlier would come true.

The allies I’d counted on had either bolted, or were waiting in the shadows for me to falter, to fail as their king and protector. All these years of careful planning, only to have everything fall apart at the end left a bitter taste coating my mouth.

I stared down at the cold, dark water below me, pondering Silver’s words—no, her accusation.

Are you…afraid of this power? She’d been about to say something else, but pride had forced me to cut off her words, lest they cut too deep. Or ring too true .

I clenched my hands, liquid power coursing through my veins. This new magic was unlike any I’d ever encountered before, this fire that was my birthright and the dark curse from the monster I’d despised.

They writhed within me like pairing serpents, begging to be unleashed.

Begging to combine .

This was the power that had forged an entire clan. A power born of malevolence with no limits, greed with no bounds, and I had refrained from touching this twisted magic, fearing Tyrell’s darkness would contaminate me. If it hadn’t already.

But Silver was right.

I had to find out what I could do.

I raised my hand, fingers splayed wide against the patchwork of purple flowering trees. The next instant, a flicker of blue-white fire danced to life in my palm. I stared at that flame, reassured, mesmerized. This cold magic was as familiar as my own heartbeat, but now there was something other , something darker beneath it, waiting to consume me, but I couldn’t hesitate.

I had to save this clan, even if I became something monstrous in the process.

With a low growl, I let the flame expand, encasing both hands, blue fire turning white, threaded through with ribbons of red, pulsing like angry veins. Around me, rock trembled, the damp air ripening with anticipation, like the waiting calm before a storm.

My enemies thought they could predict my every move. But they had no idea what I was willing to become to protect my people .

"To hell with all of them," I murmured, my voice rasping against the gentle silence. "Let them see the depths of my commitment."

The moment I unleashed that plume of red-tinted fire, a blazing inferno shot from my hands, roaring through the quarry with unrestrained fury. Stone shattered beneath the brutal assault, rocks exploding into a deadly hail. I barely flinched, focused on controlling this unholy power. Devouring fire spread, surging over slick gray walls, licking hungrily at shadows until the entire pit was alight with my wrath.

The ancient magic twisted my fire magic into strange and terrible shapes.

The flames turned darker—writhing in grisly, impossible forms, burning with ancient, primal fury. Power reverberated through the quarry, the ground quaking beneath my feet as I poured every ounce of my strength into wrestling this magic to my will.

Roaring dragons exploded across the flat expanse of the water; eyeless wraiths spun up into the clouds. Horror upon horror ripped from me, red-flame creatures I didn’t even have names for, until the pit became a warzone, phantom creatures tearing at each other with claws and teeth.

Minutes, hours, days, passed in a blur of pain, my body locked in combat with this slithering, oily power that fought to subjugate me to its will.

Magic clawed up my throat, crept into my lungs, turned my blood to vapor, but I fought—I’d keep fighting until I couldn’t draw breath—because if I stopped, this power would twist me into something evil.

Shards of razor-sharp granite rained down from above, the fiery power cleaving apart the quarry as efficiently as human dynamite. My clothes whipped around me in tatters, my body so numb I was impervious to the flames.

I didn’t know how I could still be alive, my lungs shredding, muscles tearing beneath this internal onslaught, my legs giving out as I crashed to my knees. This was folly, believing I could undo two millennium of evil, outwit my enemies, and unite a kingdom.

My sire always called me a fool, and right now…

No. Fuck him.

Fuck Domonic and his petty, controlling, cruelties that stuck in my head, no matter how many times I tried to claw them out. Fuck my sire and his need for power and admiration and fuck this goddamned magic .

I balled my hands into fists and shoved to my feet.

Obey me. Fire crashed around me in a hellish symphony as I peered inside myself. A bottomless pit stared back, mouth gaping, ready to snap.

Obey me. I’m the king and I am your master.

I swore that oily darkness chuckled, drowning me in promises of suffering and dominion. My weakened body shuddered, legs trembling, but I kept pushing, never stopping. Then, finally, the darkness receded.

Time began to slow, the light around me dimming.

I put everything I had left—the last of my power, energy, will—into crushing the slithering dark magic down, strangling those red pulsing veins with every ounce of strength I possessed.

One last roar, like the keening of a dying dragon—and the magic went dark, leaving nothing but an aching emptiness inside me. I honestly didn’t know if I’d beaten it into submission…or the darkness had simply given up.

I dropped to my knees, body spent, the magic barely an ember at my center. The quarry lay in ruins, the once- imposing walls reduced to smoldering rubble, the forest nothing but smoking, charred stumps. I drew a shuddering breath, blistered face sliced from the shards of granite, empty except for the ache of power spent.

“Fuck you,” I whispered to the slumbering shadows, to the enemies lurking in the dark. "Threaten me again and I’ll fucking beat you into submission."

Something cold and hard settled within me.

I’d become something to be feared, and I would use every shred of my power, my fire, and my rage to protect those I held dear.

I was swaying on my feet when I returned to Darkmore, high on success, completely drained of energy and bleeding like a fucking sieve.

I hadn’t been this depleted—hadn’t allowed myself to become this weakened—in decades. If even one of my enemies saw me this vulnerable, my one-week reign would go down in history as the shortest in Nocturne history.

As it was, I crash landed in the middle of my study, the safest place my fogged-out brain could come up with.

“Where in the fuck did you come from?” Malachi’s nose wrinkled. “You reek of burned toast and old feet. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were having a barbeque and didn’t invite me, which would just be rude.”

The bastard lounged behind my desk, boots propped on the piles of official papers, a glass of my best fucking scotch in his hand, which he swirled for effect. “I didn’t know how long you’d be, so I made myself comfortable.”

Any-fucking-one else would have pulled their feet off my desk, but this prick just took a dainty sip. Since I couldn’t be sure if he was here as a friend, or to stab a knife in my heart, I yanked up the pathetic dredges of my magic.

A faint mist of darkness threaded with red filled the air, and the bastard sighed.

“So fucking touchy. I was just leaving. You look like hell, Riordan, but the red glow suits you. Nice addition to the unholy fire.” He swirled the bourbon again, eyeing me thoughtfully. “From that rumble I detected earlier, I hope you have been exploring your new powers?”

I should kill Malachi, here and now.

But he could still be useful , my pragmatic side argued, even though every other part of me screamed to take his head and be done with this two-faced prick forever. Not that I actually had the strength to take him on.

“None of your fucking business.” I balled my hands into fists, preparing to send a lash of power straight through his throat when the door flew open.

“There you are.” Silver burst into my office, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I need to ask you…” Her mouth fell open, and it occurred to me that I might look worse than I felt.

“What happened? Were you in some kind of explosion?”

“The king’s getting acquainted with the power of one of the most twisted vampires to ever exist. It appears he won this round.” The smile glittered on Malachi’s face. “Barely.”

Even in my battered state, it was a thing of beauty to watch Silver narrow her gaze on Malachi like a maggot writhing on the floor. “Why don’t you crawl back to your hole, or have you forgotten which rock you live under?”

“Charmed, as usual, little slayer.” Malachi slammed the empty glass on the desk. “Pleasure to see you both. ”

Silver and I watched him leave, matching disgusted, murderous expressions on our faces. I should really do something about that fucker, but God, her scent …my fangs exploded from my gums. She smelled fucking delicious.

“You look like absolute fucking hell, your majesty.” She reared back, dragging her hand through the haze of magic. “But…holy shit, you succeeded, didn’t you? You went to the quarry and you used the magic. How did that go?”

“I managed to control Tyrell’s power. In a manner of speaking.” I gripped the edge of the desk and dropped into the high-backed leather chair, only to find the seat still warm from Malachi.

Fucker .

But sitting was better. At least my head stopped spinning. Sort of .

“Well, that’s step one.” She chewed at her bottom lip and my fangs ached, hunger gnawing at my stomach. “Now, all you have to…”

“Before you plan out my entire future, I need a favor, Silver.” My hand went up and she froze in place. “I need you to say yes, and I will save you some trouble by pointing out the obvious. I’m completely at your mercy right now, but this is a one-time offer.”

“One time?” she asked slowly. “And I can have anything I want?”

“If you tell me yes right now, then I will give you whatever you wish.” I winked, which only sent more blood trickling down the side of my face. “My advice is, don’t be shy.”

“What do you want?” Suspicion oozed from every word.

“You first. The sky’s the limit. Think big, Silver.”

“Alright, I’ll grant your favor.” She said that like a queen, looking down her nose at a minion, and all the blood left in my body rushed to my cock. “I want total freedom. And I want my sister to have free reign of this place, whenever she wants.”

“Done.” I agreed easily. “But for the record, neither of you have been prisoners.”

My suit hung in tatters, every inch of skin peppered with a thousand tiny, stinging cuts as I did the one thing sure to piss her off. I crooked my finger at her, “Now come here.”

“Put that finger away and fuck all the way off.”

“Come here and I’ll whisper in your pretty little ear what I want in return for granting your freedom.” She looked even more pissed when I added, “You know, in saying that, I do feel like a king right now.”

“You are such a dick. Seriously a fucking dick. One of these days, Riordan, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

“Of that I have no doubt.” Pure lust tightened my balls at her little growl, every cell of my being yearning to pounce, but blood loss kept my ass in the chair.

She stalked toward me like she was waging war and my heart quickened, adrenaline flowing as fast as hers. Something had pissed her off and she was aching for a fight.

Well, she’s come to the right place.

“Come sit here.” I patted my knee and her temper spiked like a thunderclap inside me. Locked in the same room, I felt every echo of Silver’s emotions, every jittering heartbeat, every doubt racing through her mind when she stopped in front of me, her narrowed gaze drifting from my face to my thigh, where my fingers still tapped.

“ Sit down .” The command whipped through her, bending her body toward me, whether she wanted to or not. “Be a good girl and you’ll get your precious freedom, Silver.”

“Such. A. Fucking. Asshole.”

But she settled her plump ass onto my thigh, her heat sinking into me as I bracketed her waist between my palms. “Now. Don’t panic, but I need to feed, Evangeline.”

She jolted, but I held her in place. “You aren’t in danger.” Much . “Controlling that much power cost me in ways I didn’t expect. I’m completely drained. If I don’t feed, I will require several days to recover.”

I watched her face as she processed this, the calculating glimmer when she realized I was weak enough for her to kill, her wondering how much magic I’d expended to get to this state, and finally, the acknowledgement that having me down and out for a few days was probably a bad idea, given the current state of affairs.

“You’ll turn into a bloodthirsty brute, remember? Try to chew my face off or something.”

“With this new magic…I can control the bloodlust. I swear.”

“ Trust me, I swear ,” she rolled her eyes, “…you are pretty cavalier with your pretty promises, which, I’ll remind you, are never kept.” She whipped a knife out of gods-knows-where and brandished the wicked-looking blade between us as my cock turned harder than steel.

Fuck, she was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.

“If your eyes go all creepy black like before, I’m stabbing you through the fucking heart.”

Our eyes locked and at those words—the fucking challenge in her furious gaze—I almost fell to my knees before her, ready to worship, even though she was ready to carve a hole in my chest.

“Stab away.” The edges of my vision darkened, my own blood coating the inside of my mouth. My insides ached, like my organs were liquifying and I was minutes away from collapsing.

But a few mouthfuls of her blood …

“Fine.” She gathered her hair back and tipped her head to the side. “You fuck me over again Riordan, and I’ll sneak into your room at night and cut off your balls.”

The fire in her eyes threatened pain, but the scent of her arousal wrapped around my cock like a fist. Oh, she fucking needed this as badly as I did.

I didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, too overcome by hunger to stop myself from cradling her face in my right hand, and wrapping my other palm around the nape of her neck. She was so goddamn delicate, yet every time I touched her, I felt like I held the power of the entire universe in my hands.

My lips coasted over her velvet-soft skin, tongue tracing a pulsing vein before I paused over the faint pair of marks. The ones she’d begged me to make. I was so fucking greedy when it came to Silver, seeing my marks on her practically made me come right then and there.

Just one, explosive mouthful of her blood had turned me into a madman.

But I could control my urges now. My addiction would be a thing of the past, once I had this last taste. At least, that’s what I told myself.

“Are you planning to bite me, or are you going to keep fucking around, your majesty?”

This fucking girl .

I sank my fangs in, striking deep, warmth flooding my mouth with the most heavenly taste I’d ever experienced. Every fucking time with Silver was better than the last, and I didn’t know how I was ever going to let her go.