Of Blood and Smoke

Chapter 45

FORTY-FIVE

Josiah

“She broke free,” Kiam stated, instantly relieving my fear just a little. We were in a small fortress outside of the palace grounds, out in the middle of nowhere. I was chomping at the bit, wanting to go and get her back immediately.

It’d been all Kiam and Micha could do to stop me from storming the collective’s compound and get Della killed, and myself, extinguished.

Kiam had someone on the inside of the palace, just like Micha. The fact surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. The only contact I’d had with him was the one time, during the celebration dinner for Onychinus. I didn’t know the man. He was more resourceful than I’d expected and had made connections everywhere it seemed. Nicholas had told him to come, when we’d requested assistance with our situation and so far, the three of us were getting along. Our initial meeting had suggested a touch of acrimony, but it appeared to have abated.

After some conversation, we decided to send in wraiths to facilitate Della’s return, following Ethan’s hint to make use of them. To do so in the needed manner, it would take the use of magic both Micha and I were unschooled in along with a foreign level of cooperation and trust.

We were in was Kiam’s Second Realm residence, a dark, dank pile of stone which, from the outside, appeared empty and in ruin. The inside was dim and foreboding, but as luxurious as one would expect from a vampire.

Soft materials, beautiful artwork, and excellent craftsmanship were displayed throughout the interior of the home, along with highly useful technology.

Currently, Kiam was successfully texting a contact he had in western Canada, working on finding a specific glamour spell. It was mostly impossible for cellular communication to work effectively between the realms, and I knew better than to ask how he managed. Whatever he’d done to enable his phone to work flawlessly was something he’d guard closely due to the edge it provided.

“I can see you have questions.” Kiam eyed me from behind his desk. We were in his office, a bank of computer screens set in a half circle in front of him. He was far less hostile than our first meeting, but some of his irritation over being in the presence of demonic ancestry remained.

Restless, I shifted my position in the leather chair and took another sip of the blood his butler had provided us in silver glasses. I didn’t say anything in return to Kiam’s remark, there was no point. He wouldn’t give me any information as this capability was a distinct advantage.

Micha turned his head toward me and his eyes softened. He sensed my impatience and reached over, giving my shoulder a quick massage in an effort to soothe. The last time I’d been this upset was when the Ancients took me from my parents, when we’d been in their education hall.

Having grown up sheltered, with a loving family, and having had that torn away was devasting at the time. For weeks, Micha held me at night so I could sleep. I’m not sure I would’ve made it without him. After a while, we became each other’s source of security and safety, and we’d formed an unbreakable bond.

Kiam stood up, towering over us, his posture making sure we knew our place. “An associate of mine has access to many different artifacts and spell books via his wife. She has a gift for locating difficult materials; we just have to wait a few minutes.”

Letting out a sigh, I replied, “Very well.”

“You should know how to do this yourself,” he chided me. “Stop being a pussy and own your birthright. You could’ve been one of the gods.”

Micha’s hand landed on my shoulder in a gesture of warning, as if he wouldn’t have ended the man himself had roles been reversed. It took several deep breaths for my heart rate to decelerate and the ignoring of Kiam’s smirk before I was able to answer.

“The title of ‘god’ is thrown around loosely, as if all it took was one human praying to a name picked out of a book to bestow the honor. I have no need of it.”

Kiam arched a brow at my words and said, “It's a matter of respect and honor. Being the superior creature you are, I’m surprised you have no desire.”

My respect was earned through severed body parts and my honor displayed through my delivered promises. Prayer to anyone or anything had proven unnecessary for my satisfaction and utterly useless for my victims. It was a waste of time and almost an insult for the man to suggest I had need of such a thing.

“Just get me the necessary materials. Every moment my woman is in there is a moment too long,” I said, rather than the thoughts roaring through my head.

Kiam paced back and forth, his phone clutched in his hand until he stopped and turned back to me. “What I don’t understand is how you obviously have magic, but not this magic. How is it you’ve survived so long without making full use of your gifts or that you had to request assistance? Your reputation precedes you; I know it is not a matter of strength or might.”

Micha spoke up. “We were both schooled by the collective, particularly Ezra. The schooling focused on basic education and the physical arts. Combat training, martial arts.”

“No magical training at all?” Kiam stroked his chin.

I spoke up. “Not outside of what would be useful in the physical defense of the court. Transitioning, paralysis, trance, hypnosis, breaking and entering.”

It wasn’t that I wouldn’t ever address the absence of the full culmination of my talents. The idea had been rumbling around in the farthest reaches of my thoughts. No, the problem lay with my singular focus on developing a successful business and the sudden appearance of Della in my life. In my prior life, I hadn’t believed I needed anything more—simply because that’s what I had been led to believe.

“I’m confident that if you were all you could be while employed by the court, they would’ve viewed you as the threat rather than as a threat to be utilized.”

Micha glanced at me and twisted his jaw to the side. I knew what he was thinking, it was likely the same as I. It’d crossed my mind before, in the past, in little snippets and wisps I’d always promptly dismissed, the inkling that things could’ve and would’ve been different.

We’d sacrificed ourselves, promising our souls to the service of the court, and turned a blind eye to everything outside. Our positions were exalted, and we’d wanted for nothing. We’d received riches and glory as well as fear and respect while employed as the court’s enforcer and his assistant. All the blood, flesh, and wine we could ever desire was ours.

Missing were the friendships we could’ve made, the wives we could’ve had, and the development of our other natural capabilities. We were crossbreeds, we had the world at our fingertips with our combination of vampire and demon blood, but we were exploited and taken advantage of, molded into living, breathing weapons.

The two of us had sat back and watched others grow and develop, and after some initial questions that’d been quickly shut down, we’d been refocused.

The two of us hadn’t a clue what’d been taken from us until we escaped our servitude and now the thievery was bearing down on us, splaying us wide open and taunting us with our inadequacies.

“Your incessant sighing isn’t going to make this go any faster,” Kiam snapped at me. “Your anger is filling up the room. Calm down.”

I shuttered my eyes, trying to relax. The waiting was tiresome. All I wanted to do was go to the palace and take my Della back.

But I couldn’t do that yet, not without risking her life. It may have been largely due to me insisting on hiring her at Ipomoea despite her lack of experience, but I knew she’d just recently got her life going in the direction she’d dreamed of. I didn’t want that snatched from her. All too well I knew the feeling of realizing you need change and then fighting as hard as you could for it.

As soon as I was about to lose it and charge off to retrieve her, Kiam’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “Send it,” he barked into the phone, tossing me a withering glance.

“Kiam,” Micha said, getting the vampire’s attention. “If you are not natural born, how exactly, did you secure your standing?”

The man sat down at his desk, taking his sweet time replying to Micha’s inquiry. “That is none of your business,” he stated, after a moment.

“What are you getting out of this?”

Kiam finally looked at my friend. “I may need a favor sometime. We’ve been over this before.”

I wasn’t sure what Micha was looking for, with his grilling of the man who’d come to help us.

“What did they send you?” I asked, standing up and stepping toward the desk.

“An enchantment for the wraiths.”

“Enchantment,” I repeated the word.

Kiam stood up and grabbed a sheet of paper from an ancient-looking printer. It stood out from everything else on his desk. He noticed my stare. “It's hard to find a good printer these days,” he muttered.

Micha stood when Kiam joined me in front of the desk. “Since you two are complete novices, I’ll have to explain some things to you. First of all, I can’t perform the spell for you. If you want the wraiths to respond to you, it must come from you . Your frequencies have to connect and a bond forms. When you read these words, absorb them, become one with them. It has to come from your heart—if you have one.”

Micha hissed at the taunt intended for me, but I ignored it. “This sounds similar to telepathy,” I said.

“It is, but heavily reliant on emotions. When you do this, it is going to drain your energy the likes of which you probably haven’t experienced in a while. You should’ve been trained in this, had years of schooling or tutelage. It would probably have been as easy as biting if you had.”

This didn’t sound that bad, loss of energy aside. “Focus my emotions, fine. I’ll get started.” I went to snatch the paper, but he held it out of reach.

“If they are waiting for you, as my intel reports, you have time to train,” Kiam warned.

I saw red. “Every moment she remains in the palace is a moment she could be lost forever.”

“Or you could guarantee her loss, by rushing in unprepared. They won’t do anything until you get there. You know as well as I how they operate, and it's you they want. She’s of no use to them dead.”

My hand shot out and I lifted him by the neck, a deep growl vibrating my chest. Kiam laughed. He laughed .

“That’s the energy you need, don’t waste it,” he hissed, baring canines as sharp as needles.

Releasing him from my grasp, he tossed his head, shaking me off, and then stared at me. “They spelled you.”

“What?” I growled at the man.

Kiam took a step closer and then swung his head toward Micha. I braced myself to interfere if necessary. “I suspect they set an enchantment on the two of you at the offset of your training.”

He turned back toward me. “It would be stronger, on you. You’re favored. I bet it's implanted in your DNA. Did you ever drink from Ezra?”

The question threw me for a moment, a vague wisp of memory teasing at the edges of my mind. An image of myself wrapped in the Ancient’s arms flitted through my head, before a similar one of Micha in the same position, rolled away, just out of reach. A snapshot of my best friend fighting the man and clawing at his face startled me, and I glanced at him quickly. He caught my eye and then looked down, frowning. It appeared he’d remembered too.

What had they done to us?

Kiam nodded slowly. “This is why you have that infernal dedication to the High Court. Going against them is completely unnatural to you.”

“You dare to judge me? I did exactly what I was trained to do. Can you say the same for yourself?” I had no idea what his responsibilities were, but his insight made us even more vulnerable. His knowledge could be weaponized, if he desired.

Kiam smirked. “I’m not a slave.”

Micha spoke up the second I was ready to strike. “If the two of you are done comparing dicks, we need to prepare. Does your hospitality extend to dinner and more refreshments?”