Chapter 62
Voices. Incoherent murmurs followed the intense light flowing past the door that was now at arm’s length, but still too far away.
His latest attempt to reach the hope it promised had zapped the last of his strength, and he’d ended up on the floor.
Now, he was stuck from the waist down, certain that the darkness did its best to pull him through the solid ground.
“…will he be OK until you’re ready?”
Mark? His breath returned to him in a whoosh of energy, and he closed his eyes, trying to reach past the door, reach Mark’s voice. He sounded so broken.
He gathered the strength Mark’s voice had provided, the desire to go to him, and every protective instinct he had to resist the pull of the darkness, pushing to his feet.
The darkness responded with a roar that tore through the void space, splitting his eardrums. He winced and roared back.
Nothing, not even undefined darkness, would keep him from Mark.
But the darkness would not be thwarted. It resumed its attack, the once pinpricks of a needle growing into slashes of a sharp blade across his calves, then on his thighs. His wounds healed, the pain persisted, but even that was not enough to keep him still. Nothing would keep him from Mark.
“I’m coming, my love,” he whispered into the darkness, the words intended as a comfort for Mark and a vow he would do everything in his power to keep.
This time, the step toward the doorway was lighter, his body yielded to his strength, and he lifted his other leg, the distance too great even though he could almost touch his destination.
As if reaching out to him, offering its help, the light seeping through the doorway grew more luminous.
Another roar from something beyond the floor, perhaps the darkness itself, filled the space.
Caster roared back his resistance, reaching past the reserves of his remaining strength. He was so close.
Another labored movement of his bloodied, embattled legs, and the doorway grew larger, the light within it beckoning him like a siren’s song.
He started to smile as his outstretched hand reached the light, but his smile drowned in immense fear when a dark, clawed hand closed around his wrist, pulling him into the light with little effort.
§
Mark refused to let go of Caster’s painful grip on his hand.
Blood stained his wrist, the bedding, and even the clean clothes he’d worked so hard to push Caster’s unyielding body into.
This and his beating heart were the only connections he had, and he wasn’t about to let it slip. He wouldn’t survive his failure twice.
The Queen’s sharp gasp broke the silence, and he turned to her. Caster wouldn’t like that he’d forgotten to keep his thoughts locked away, but he didn’t even have the strength to regret the indiscretion.
“Honey—” She started, but he shook his head against her pity. He didn’t deserve it. “It’s not pity.” She reached for his wrist, but did nothing to break the connection. “This. This shows your strength. You led him back to us, to me. I’ll always be thankful for that.”
He could only nod.
Her smile seemed brighter. “Do you hear his heart?”
He nodded again, unable to find his voice.
“He’s here.” She released his wrist and reached for his other hand, sharing her grief and her strength. “He’ll come back to us. I don’t doubt that.”
Mark wished he had such faith. Everything in him wanted Caster back. He doubted he would survive if he didn’t return, but nothing in his past gave him much hope.
The Queen’s deep sigh brought him closer to the present, away from the dread of his past. “A long time ago, before Caster was born and his father was Crown Prince,” she said, her voice beyond time as if it had traveled to that distant past. “We endured a threat much like this one.”
When he dared look at her face, there was an inexplicable smile.
“A faction of Born-Vampires disagreed with the King’s decree forbidding the making of new vampires, and they were in open revolt.”
Mark couldn’t contain his gasp. A war between Born-Vampires would devastate the whole world.
The queen nodded, but her smile remained.
“Yes. That would have been very bad had it not been for my husband’s expert leadership.
” She shrugged. “And a costly mistake by the enemy.” She leaned back into her chair, patting his hand before releasing it.
“They attacked a human village, killing everyone in it. What they didn’t know was that the Grand Priestess’s daughter lived in that village.
Her husband was the nobleman who owned the lands around it.
Their mistake was killing him and almost killing her.
” She caught his eye. “That young woman was Riley’s mother. ”
The pain in his arm was a forgotten dullness, captivated by the queen’s rendition of a history he was unaware of.
“To say the Grand Priestess was angry is perhaps the grandest understatement in history. She demanded a response from the King, and Caster’s father, in his shrewd diplomacy, saw an ally in her.”
“What did she do?”
“At the time, all vampires were still constrained by our aversion to sunlight. Caster’s father found the traitorous vampires in their hiding place, and the Grand Priestess went to work.
” She shook her head, but a shadow of the same determination he saw on Caster’s face numerous times infused her words with vigor.
“To this day, I’ve never seen anything like it.
There had to have been about a thousand witches there, chanting in unison, the unified effect of their power too great for words. ”
He sat straighter, the story riveting as it distracted him from his pain.
“The Grand Priestess’s spell protected us from the sunlight and drew the rogue vampires into the scorching midday sun at the same time.”
Mark couldn’t contain his gasp. Perhaps his mother had been right in her fear of witches.
The queen chuckled. “Yes. Vampires in particular suffer from a hubris born of our rule over other supernatural beings, but the power I witnessed that day was terrifying and humbling in equal measure.” She reached for his hand again, drawing his attention back to Caster, who remained immovable. “Can you feel a witch’s power?”
“Yeah. In wolf-form, I can see it. Like a bubble of energy around them.”
She nodded. “Well, there were at least a thousand witches at work that day. But the power they displayed, enormous in its extent, pales in comparison to Riley’s power.”
He frowned. Was he containing it somehow?
The queen had little trouble reaching past his unfortified mind.
“Yes. When he was a child, his mother and Edie bound most of it. He’s learned to control it, only unleashing its full extent when he needs to.
The point is, my dear, beautiful boy. I know my son will come back to us because Riley says he will. ”
Mark stared at her, the conviction of her emphatic declaration reaching past the broken parts of him. He believed her.
Her movement was too quick to decipher, and he was in her arms before he could formulate another thought.
Mark was well aware of how inappropriate the embrace was, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny them the comfort they both needed.
It was strange, the comfort of a mother. His mother had never been so accepting.
“Oh, honey,” the Queen whispered, pulling away from the embrace, but remaining close.
He looked at the bedding, his hand still trapped in Caster’s cry for help. “I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. I didn’t mean to…”
He gasped when she drew him back into the warmth of her embrace.
“Nonsense. And none of this formality. You are one of my sons now.” She pulled away from him, the intensity of her stare too much to shy away from.
“I have a lot of boys, and I love all of them.” Then she straightened, smoothed her dress, and held out her hand. “Now, come on. Come show me your home.”
Mark glanced at Caster, unwilling to leave him.
“He will be here when we get back, and we’ve already established he’s coming back, right?”
He nodded and pulled his hand away from Caster. His claws retracted, and Mark couldn’t contain his panic.
The queen had no such concerns. She indicated his bloodied shirt. “Change, and I’ll wait outside the door.”
He couldn’t very well ignore a Queen’s command.
Her long regal strides ate up the distance to the door, but she stopped short of opening it. “And honey, please fortify your mind, yes?”
He could only nod, still gathering the strength he would need to walk away from Caster.
“When he wakes, have him show you how to keep those walls up. Of all my children, he mastered that ability the quickest.”