Chapter 3 Kidan
KIDAN
Susenyos Sagad stood silently before Kidan, the side of his face lit by the monstrous window. Her breath caught at his sudden appearance.
He flicked a glance at Samson and back toward her, and the house came to life, fueled by their joined minds. Fire wrapped around Kidan like a second skin, comforting instead of searing. Her lips lifted at one corner, raw relief coursing through her.
Light reflected in Susenyos’s dark eyes, and he gave her a small smile in return.
He was fearsome without his smile, cloaked in the stolen beauty of an eclipse.
But there were rare moments, like these, when he radiated warmth.
It made her feel a little proud, knowing she drew out a different side of him.
Without her active hatred toward him… toward herself, Kidan didn’t know what remained between them.
But it was a force of its own, a concentrated ball of magnetic energy that threatened to explode whenever they were in close proximity.
But other times, it was gentler, a hand extended over a cliff, dragging her away from the abyss like now.
The creature between her legs tried to move, breaking the haze she was in.
Kidan glanced down and dug the bullet in Samson’s shoulder deeper, making him howl.
The twisted agony on his face was fascinating. As if his physical pain could ever amount to what he’d put her through. Kidan was torn between drawing out her torture or killing him instantly.
She fed her gun into his wound, the act no different than puncturing a too-ripe fruit.
A desperate cry tore from him and his blood drenched her fingers, smelling of salt and metal.
Susenyos’s intense gaze was distracting, and she could feel it lingering on different parts of her body, trailing down to her parted thighs. A flush crept up her neck.
“Are you going to just stand there?” She flicked a quick glance up.
“I wouldn’t dare interrupt a genius at work.” His voice was a murmur, with something dark lurking in it that she couldn’t identify. “Show me how you end a life, yené Roana.”
Once, those words would have horrified her, but now they only flooded her with delicious energy.
“If you kill me,” Samson snarled through his panting breath, “the blade artifact will be lost.”
Kidan smiled at his attempt to live. “We don’t care.”
The Sage’s artifacts could fade into a black hole and Kidan truly wouldn’t care.
But Susenyos stepped forward. “Three people must know the location of an artifact in case something happens. That’s the Nefrasi way.”
“That was your way,” Samson spat, dark blood in the corner of his mouth. “You kill me here today and you will never find the blade artifact.”
Three artifacts—the Sun, Water, and Death artifacts rumored to free vampires from all restrictions.
Thunder crossed over Susenyos’s features. The paneled walls near him were no longer burning with violent fire, they were rippling, becoming soft as curtains. Traces of concern entered his mind. Those artifacts held power over him. They would always be his utmost priority. Her throat went dry.
“Don’t listen to him,” Kidan said, breathing fast.
“You… would waste… another century… looking for them.” Samson struggled to form words, half weakened, half furious. “And if… Lusidio discovers them before you, what then?”
It was a bunch of babble that didn’t interest Kidan. “Enough of this.”
Yet Susenyos had gone entirely still at the name.
Black, twisting tendrils of what could only be terror ensnared his feet, a manifestation of an emotion visible only to them.
They extinguished Kidan’s fire and darted toward her like eels.
Wrapped around her ankles and burned like fire ants.
Panic bloomed inside Kidan’s chest. She waited for Susenyos to speak, to instruct her like before when the house magnified their emotions too much.
But he was frozen. Barely seeing her. She’d seen him tortured in the observatory, in the visions of his past, but this was more.
Frightening because he wasn’t fighting back.
He always fought back.
“Yos,” Kidan called, hoping to wake him.
He didn’t answer.
Kidan tightened her hold on the gun, calling forth her rage by drawing a triangle on Samson. A cloak of red fire descended from the roof and she welcomed it, letting it fill her lungs. Extinguish the reaching shadow fingers.
Susenyos exhaled and stared at the fading black tendrils in surprise.
Samson’s shoulders struggled to move despite their pinned position.
It was now or never.
“See you in hell,” Kidan said.
She pulled the trigger at the same time as a force collided into her side.
Both her arms were knocked off course painfully.
The bullet found the leg of a chair and the entire thing exploded on one side.
Her gun flew out of her grip and scraped the floor, spinning before going still.
She scrambled for it just as a figure flipped her onto her back and pinned her to the floor.
Susenyos… hovered above her, face severe.
“What the hell are you doing?” she shouted, the flames whirling into a tornado around them.
His face was grim, shooting a loathing look to where Samson lay. Still alive.
“He’s right. I need the blade artifact first.”
He was not serious.
Kidan writhed under him, cursing so loud her lungs bled. “We have to kill him now. This is our chance! I swear to God, Yos, I’ll kill you if you let him go. He will kill GK!”
Susenyos stared back with a resigned yet determined look. Her fight slowed as cruel disappointment took root. They’d finally reached an understanding, to work and kill together. He couldn’t abandon her now.
“Don’t do this,” she whispered, hating the way her tone softened.
His eyes dropped for a moment, but his voice betrayed no emotion. “This is the closest we’ve come to putting all the artifacts together.”
She screamed at him then, but he didn’t ease his grip. After a while, he slowly let go. Confused at his sudden surrender, Kidan remained still for a second before crawling to where the gun was.
Someone else picked it up.
A large man nearly double Kidan’s height loomed over her. He had tree-trunk-like arms and a face of terror. They called him Warde, one of Samson’s followers.
Kidan scrambled to her feet quickly.
Behind him, shyly entering, was June.
Kidan’s vision pulsed.
Her sister’s soft round eyes found hers. It was remarkable the power they had over her, fisting Kidan’s heart in a tight grip.
The lounge transformed again, now echoing the deep blue found at the bottom of an ocean. It stirred such a deep sense of loss Kidan couldn’t afford to linger on it for long. She squeezed her eyes shut and thought of something else, something that didn’t fill her with so much pain.
But the house magnified whatever emotion her mind felt. And Kidan felt alone and afraid. She wanted her sister. She opened her eyes, needing to be brave.
Come to me, she pleaded silently.
Her sister’s brows slanted, taking in the scene. Samson struggled to stand, his claws gouging into the leather couch in search of balance. The material ripped, and he fell backward, clutching at his injury. June’s face melted into concern, her eyes flicking to Kidan.
Kidan held her breath, half lifting her hand.
Please, come to me.
June walked to Kidan, closer and closer until they could almost touch… then passed her.
Their shoulders brushed, gently and brutally, like a leaf touching a speeding train.
A breathless sound left Kidan, her knees almost buckling.
Her sister bent, supporting Samson’s swaying form. “Are you all right?”
Kidan winced against the sweetness of her voice, how she’d missed it. How, even now, her first thought was her sister was alive.
She was safe.
“I’ll be fine,” Samson grunted, digging one of the bullets out.
Just like when June had first appeared, curling braids long, fawn face glowing, the betrayal of it all made Kidan’s mouth pool with acid.
After Kidan had spent more than a year searching for June, after she’d killed Mama Anoet, there her sister was, standing next to the vampire who wanted to rain chaos over the world.
Kidan didn’t recognize this twisted version of June, one who was so cold and calculating against Kidan.
Kidan didn’t think she could ever forgive June for leaving.
And once June knew Kidan had murdered their foster mother, June wouldn’t forgive her either.
There were so many things she wanted to yell at June about, to ask why, why, why.
And she could no longer wait.
Samson straightened with June’s support, grunting in pain. One bullet was still in his gut.
“Warde.” Samson heaved a breath.
The giant moved past Kidan, his shadow falling over her face. A thick bone chain hung around his neck, clinking. The sound caught in her ear and she whirled, studying the quiet vampire effortlessly lifting Samson.
Was he a Mot Zebeya like GK? Only they wore finger bone chains.
June followed Samson upstairs without glancing Kidan’s way. Kidan’s chest burned, her fingers curled inward. When she turned, Susenyos was watching her.
Golden threads danced behind his shoulders, weaving letters in haunting beauty.
If Susenyos Sagad endangers Adane House, the house shall in turn steal something of equal value to him.
His gaze slid to the writing for a second, but his face was remarkably masked. As potential house masters, only the two of them could read it.
For now, at least. She wondered how long it’d take June to read it.
Maybe Susenyos was thinking the same thing.
Kidan would have believed he was perfectly fine if she didn’t hear the slow, terrifying beat of war drums pulsing in the walls. He was human in this house, vulnerable to death as easily as Kidan.
And Kidan was furious with him.
“Who’s Lusidio?”
It was that name that had made him betray her.
At her question, the house shuddered.
Visible cracks, like black vines, shot across the floors and walls. Kidan staggered back, eyes wide.
This emotion… she’d never felt it from him before. Rage, yes. But never something so cold, like crystalized fear.
Susenyos’s jaw tightened at the state of the house, and he spied the door.
“Later,” he said, voice rough.
He marched to the front door, rushing through the last few strides. Kidan stood there for a second before crossing the hall. She moved to the window by the coatrack, parting the curtains to see him brace against the outside gate, shoulders rising and falling.
The house was affecting him more strongly. She knew about being overwhelmed but this went beyond. Sometimes, Susenyos’s calculating mind didn’t seem entirely fixed on Samson but on Kidan too. As if she were a problem he hadn’t accounted for and was figuring out how to quickly solve.