Chapter 14 Kaly’s Childe #2
“I have always thought that Kaly Vampires want to delve into the mystery of what comes after to either assure themselves that they made the right decision in staying here. Or that even if there is something better after, that they would never get there anyways,” Caemorn mused.
He nodded and let out a sigh because Caemorn’s words caused him to remember an unfortunate fact. “There has been an uptick in suicides since our reveal.”
Caemorn nodded back. “To be expected. Especially when it was revealed what the Kaly can do and, of course, the religious fears that we are sent by the Devil to tempt them to leave the light.”
“I’m keeping Elgar busy Whispering. But it’s like putting a finger in the dike,” Balthazar admitted. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen as we get deeper into this.”
Caemorn surprised him yet again by briefly putting a hand on his shoulder. “That is why you are right that we need to make the Ever Dark come alive for the humans. For ourselves, too. I know you do not remember, but Nightvallen used to sparkle with life.”
“Sparkle?” Balthazar grinned at this rather romantic description. “Well, then, Caemorn, we must make it sparkle again.”
Having left the bustling–and sparkling–Nightvallen above to the silence and drear of the dungeon, Balthazar knew that he and Caemorn had been right about how to proceed with the humans. What the Sect of Dawn offered–fear and alleged “freedom”--amounted nothing more than chaos and death.
Legion shuffled to the bars. Their mind was an open sewer.
They were thinking constantly of their kills.
The bloodier the better. The slap of organs as they slipped from cracked open chests.
The final beat of a heart that they took a bite out of and blood gushing down their chin.
Their victim’s screams were like music to their ears and got them hard.
There was more of that. Lots more. Legion was practically pushing those thoughts at him.
Not “practically.” They are.
“Did that work with Roan?” Balthazar asked.
Legion tilted their massed head to the side. “Did what?”
“Loud thoughts.”
Legion shrugged. “It is my mind. I will think about what I like.”
“You believe that if you put all that crap in front of me I won’t push beyond it? That my distaste for what you are will stop me from knowing the truth about the Sect of Dawn, not to mention the truth of you?” Balthazar asked.
“My kills are the truth of me,” Legion assured him.
“Your kills are trying to fill a hole inside of you that can never be filled!” Balthazar scoffed.
“You know nothing of me. You are not a predator. You are… prey,” Legion growled. “Pretty prey. I bet your screams are like music.”
And then they started to imagine doing those things to Balthazar that they had done to countless others. Balthazar let his head tip back and let out a snoring sound.
“You think I cannot do these things? I have to many,” Legion gloated.
“No, you cannot, Legion. And not because you are in there and I am out here,” Balthazar told him.
“Because you are Eyros? I saw you fall,” Legion chortled.
And, for a moment, Balthazar saw himself fall too. In a midnight Ever Dark field. Elgar was by his side. His Childe curling over him as claws, teeth and more came to rip them apart. Vampires had killed him and Elgar. But not just Eyros Vampires as he’d thought. Every Bloodline.
Every Bloodline was against me. Interesting. Legion must have been there when I fell.
“Let me tell you about yourself. And I won’t look in your mind to do it.
Likely, your parents didn’t love you and abused you hideously.
You likely even had a head injury when you were young.
You wet the bed far beyond the age when that should have stopped.
You, undoubtedly, had a fascination with fires.
And, I bet, your first kills were of helpless animals.
A family cat or dog. I’m guessing you killed it and then dissected it.
The smell of rotting flesh and blood has never bothered you.
Having sex with the dead is the only time you’re comfortable engaging in such acts because the person can’t reject you.
Have I got that right?” Balthazar asked.
Legion just stared at him.
“I really didn’t look in your mind, you know. Almost all serial killers have these experiences and commit those acts. You’re not special, Legion. You’re regrettably normal,” Balthazar said as he leaned back in the chair.
“Why are you here alone?” Legion asked, changing the topic conveniently. “Kaly left.”
And he had left Shaela a muttering wreck in her cell, though all he had done to her was talk. Balthazar sifted through her mind while looking at Legion and found that she was shocked, terrified and undone. By words. By truth. But that was often the way of it.
“Caemorn is interrogating Roan with Christian’s assistance.
Christian can read the minds of the dead.
They don’t need my help with that and I don’t need their help with this,” Balthazar remarked.
“Oh, and Elgar–the one that saved you and damned you, all at once–is going on a date.” He narrowed his eyes.
“But, surely, there is one person you are really interested in who isn’t here. ”
Legion shuffled again. Their skin was a mixture of scales and long hair. They stank as if they had rolled in something dead. They probably had.
We should have known they were in Nightvallen by the stench alone.
“You will not tell me where my Master is,” Legion guessed. “So why should I ask?”
And yet the wild hope was still there that he would tell.
That he would give Legion a single crumb of information about Weryn.
The fact that Weryn had literally dropped them off and gone to check on Grayson had stunned Legion.
They truly thought that Weryn–even if it were out of hatred–would be focused upon them.
But he wasn’t. Ryder had simply left without a backwards glance.
“Oh, on the contrary, I will tell you.” Balthazar smiled broadly. “He’s making love to Grayson right this minute. You know: the real Childe of his Heart.” Balthazar thumped a hand over his chest in time with its beating. “He is not thinking about you at all. I can assure you of that.”
Legion went still. They imagined breaking Grayson’s pretty neck.
They imagined ripping it off and drinking from the geyser of blood.
But they mostly imagined the look of pain and anguish on Grayson’s face just before they did so.
And they imagined performing that act only after torturing Grayson for endless ages.
“It’s not Grayson’s fault that Weryn doesn’t love you, Legion,” Balthazar said. “Just because he’s found the Childe of his Heart hasn’t extinguished Weryn’s love for his other Children or his Bloodline. He just doesn’t love you.”
Legion’s strangely beady eyes narrowed. “Roan was your Master, was he not?”
“Want to commiserate about Masters who didn’t love us?” Balthazar laughed.
“He hates you. He thinks–”
“Roan? Or Kaly?” Balthazar stopped him.
Legion grimaced. “He–”
“Kaly brought me back into the Vampire world,” Balthazar found himself saying. “And he… he loves me.”
Legion shook their head. “No, you are wrong. You–”
“He does. It’s rather stunning. He’s been taking care of me.
” Balthazar’s eyes went distant as he thought of all Caemorn was doing.
“You know, I thought he wanted to be in the Eyros Palace all the time, because it's just nicer than the Kaly Palace. But that isn’t it at all.” He shifted in his seat, leaning forward.
“He stays for me. To make sure I’m all right.
To keep an eye on me. Good grief. Huh. All this time and I thought it was me taking care of him.
Making sure he doesn’t fall back into the bad habit of believing he’s alone. But he is doing the same for me.”
“Roan would never do that!” Legion snarled.
“No, he wouldn’t. Because the Roan you and Shaela here know isn’t him any longer.” Balthazar pursed his lips. “And, it’s strange or maybe not, I don’t… I don’t feel the pain I used to feel.”
“Pain? I will make you feel pain and–”
“I always thought that there was something wrong with me that Roan didn’t care for me.
Why would a Master loathe his creation so much?
” Balthazar mused. “I thought I was completely over it when I killed him. The first time and then the second time. Looks like I will definitely get a third. But there was still something in me that mourned.” He looked up at Legion who was glaring at him, but whose mind was completely reeling.
“I haven’t felt that at all since Caemorn has been by my side. Isn’t that something?”
“You are deluding yourself.” Another growl.
“No, I’m not. Because, you see, I’m an Eyros–I’m the Eyros–and I always keep looking for the truth no matter how much it hurts,” Balthazar said with a faint laugh. “And the truth here is that while I thought I was saving him, Kaly has been saving me. He’s been saving me.”
Balthazar realized that he had connected to Caemorn’s mind at some point–maybe the connection had always been there–and he realized his peace came from knowing the truth.
His Master loved him. There were no ands, ifs or buts.
There were no qualifications. Caemorn–not Roan–was the reason he was here again.
Eyros reborn. Eyros remade. Eyros is going to kick butt.
His silver-eyed gaze focused on Legion. “Now, you’re going to tell me everything you know. Because I am Eyros, Childe of Kaly, Immortal and Vampire Lord. Nothing and no one can stand before me.”