Chapter 3 Know You
KNOW YOU
Earlier…
Grayson insisted on being propped up on pillows on his bed so he could see out the window. It was all they would let him do. It was all his body would let him do, if he was honest.
Watch.
Watch and worry.
Ever since the electrifying display from the Kaly Palace had begun, he’d been catching glimpses of the hulking, monstrous things landing on the street and then loping off into the darkness with hoots of fiendish joy.
His only comfort was getting updates from Balthazar about the battle and knowing that Ryder was perfectly fine though he wished for the Vampire’s strong arms around him.
It would ease him in an indefinable way.
His roommates had not yet returned and he was hoping–praying–that they were okay, too.
But all he could do was lay there. His head pounded.
The world spun if he tried to get up. His body felt like it was full of sand and that sand was running out of him in a slow, steady, remorseless stream.
The fire in his chest was but the smallest of embers.
So small that he couldn’t even feed it right now without a risk of it going out entirely. He fisted his hands in the comforter.
“What are they?” Christian asked as he stared out the window, too, and another of the glowing creatures raced by.
The young Vampire had out two large soul gems–one ruby and the other a diamond–that he flipped through his fingers with unconscious grace.
Each of them contained a spirit guardian that Christian could call upon to aid him.
Unlike with the Kaly, his spirits stayed with him willingly and he could speak to them on a level no Kaly could ever do.
“Ecthrois.” The word came off of Grayson’s tongue like it had a sour taste, because his experience with these beings was not good.
That they were here, in the city, going after the students and Vampires alike was a direct slap in the face to him.
Well, it would have been if the Kaly slices had known he was back and remembered his history with them.
“They are ape-like beings from the mountains. They are cannibals, but enjoy all sorts of meat, including Vampire.”
“You remember them?” Fiona lifted a delicate eyebrow.
He nodded. “I do. I planned a campaign with Kaly to take them out. One of their colonies inhabited a peak near Lasting. They would occasionally come down and hunt Vampires in the outskirts of the city. Their ability to change from material to immaterial made them hard to catch and kill until Kaly realized that their immaterial forms were similar to souls and could be captured.”
Fiona nodded briefly, the only movement she’d made in some time. Wyvern had always been on the move in battles, teleporting so quickly that it had seemed like she was in two places at once, sometimes more. But here she was a statue. Rooted to the spot. Unmoving. Unwavering in defense of him.
Earlier, he’d asked her to go find his roommates and to teleport them back here.
She’d hesitated, clearly considering it.
But then an Ecthrois had landed in the garden outside of the dorm and that had her shaking her head: no.
She wasn’t leaving him and Christian on their own.
Not even for a moment. The Ecthrois were ignoring the buildings, but that might not last.
The Ecthrois were dangerous. It was unclear if they could phase into the dorm. Would the magic hold against them when they were immaterial like ghosts? Fiona wasn’t going to test it out. He knew he was important. Keeping him safe was a priority. And he couldn’t take care of himself at that moment.
Rachel’s face flashed before his mind’s eye.
Eager, a little bit annoying, with that certainty there was a truth to find and stand up for in every one of her expressions.
She believed in goodness, too. Not having been jaded yet by the world, she thought being a reporter added to keeping that goodness shining.
If she survived this night–again, his fingers tightened in the comforter at the thought of her or anyone else dying while he lay there watching–Balthazar would ensure she didn’t report on what had happened here. This truth could not get out.
He wondered whether it had been mad to start the school while their internal enemies had not been dealt with.
Daemon normally wasn’t so impatient, but he had slept long, the world had changed, and things had gone to hell while he was away.
He was evidently determined not to let any more time go to waste even if that meant battling on multiple fronts.
“So that’s why they were in the Kaly Palace then? They were stored in soul gems?” Christian guessed.
Another nod. “We tried to reason with them. I even sent a delegation of Eyros to speak to their god-queen, but she ripped the head off of the delegation’s leader.
Mind control was not very effective with them evidently.
They have tempers so hot and sharp that they can override the control.
So when we found their weakness, I had us imprison the lot of them.
Kaly had a special room that was lit only with Ecthrois and I had their god-queen brought into it to see what her actions had wrought.
Then I sent her back to her people with that memory and a warning of what would happen to every single one of them should she break the peace against us. ”
“Weren’t you worried she would attack in revenge anyways?” Christian asked. “Especially with tempers as you’ve described, I would imagine that would override their reason easily.”
Grayson grimaced as he recalled his own reasoning.
It was cold and he wondered how Christian would view it, but he answered truthfully, “I was looking forward to her doing so. It gave Kaly a reason to enslave them and use them as a power source. The other Ever Dark creatures couldn’t complain considering the Ecthrois had attacked us first.”
Christian regarded him silently for a moment. “That makes sense.”
And he looked out the window again, evidently satisfied with Grayson’s answer.
“I don’t know if Julian would agree with us,” Grayson admitted.
“He would understand,” Christian answered. “He wouldn’t like it. But he would see why you’d done it. And, as you said, you gave them a choice. They chose badly.”
Grayson was surprised that he still felt a little distance between his current self and the one that had made that decision.
During his time as Grayson, he’d had to make plenty of moral compromises.
Stealing money for food or someplace to stay had become normal.
And he hadn’t picked those who were richest, but who were easiest to take from without major consequences if he were caught.
Often those people were in bad spots too. But he’d done it to survive.
For as much as he’d cared for Sam, he’d lied to the man plenty of times about having some spare change, because he’d known that Sam would drink it away while he could use the money for a down payment on an apartment or simply something useful for himself.
So while his decisions as Ashyr in the past had been grander with greater negative and positive consequences, the moral math was quite the same.
His duty was to protect the Vampires loyal to Daemon.
Everyone else–everything else–was secondary.
That was why it surprised him to have a momentary qualm about this.
Or maybe it wasn’t about his choice, but how Christian would view him.
Christian was a contemporary of his in this age.
Though he thought like an Immortal now, part of him was like Christian, or like Christian had been.
As Grayson, he’d hidden his moral math. As Ashyr, he’d lived with it up front and center.
As Grayson, he’d had to keep a low profile, piss off as few people as possible, and hope that no one noticed him.
As Ashyr, he’d wanted people to know the ruthlessness he was capable of so that they minded themselves with the Vampires.
Daemon was loved, but Ashyr was feared. He had always been okay with that.
“Roan or one of the other Kaly Slices must have gotten into the Kaly Palace to release all these Ecthrois,” Fiona said and tightened her hold on herself as she likely imagined someone violating her palace like that. “Caemorn must be beside himself.”
“He is, but he’s more angry,” Christian said, his eyes glowing for an instant as he connected with his Grandsire’s mind.
“Roan is easy to be angry with,” Fiona said.
“No, at himself,” Christian contradicted. “Though, I suppose Roan is him on some level. I wonder if that’s really true anymore with the millennia of different experiences. But regardless, Caemorn is angry with himself.”
Fiona frowned. “Why? Oh, wait, I know. He blames himself for not realizing Roan was still out there and could get into his palace.”
Christian nodded. “Yes, and he… Well, the reason he didn’t look hard enough is bothering him.”
“He didn’t want to remember hurting Balthazar and the others. That’s completely understandable.” Fiona shook her head almost violently. “But he, undoubtedly, sees that as a weakness. A moral failing.”
“You know him well,” Christian said with a faint smile.
“In a way, I do, but in another way, I don’t.
Like me, the Caemorn I knew kept people at a distance, because they were dangerous to him.
Dangerous to care for, because they could be used against him and he didn’t trust them in any case.
” She shrugged. “Connections that were anything other than for power or favors later were simply not considered worthwhile to take a risk on.”
“He would argue now that they still are dangerous to him, but worth it all the same,” Christian said. “It’s more that he fears he isn’t worthy of our friendship and love. If by not looking at his past as Roan he has allowed Roan to harm us, he feels that weighs on the scale against him.”