The Last Vampire King (Shadow Kings #2)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

White Lotus Village, Blood Kingdom

Lanlin Sin, Alpha Shadow Vampire Prince

Lies feed my royal House of Sin, as much as blood. My twin, Lazarus, with his dreamer’s heart is easily tricked. But I am cursed to see through illusions.

Tonight, the truth is that under the haunting beauty of the silver moon, our souls are about to be torn apart.

I prefer to be the one with my fangs in someone else’s throat. I’m addicted to the sweet taste of stolen blood.

Isn’t that what everyone expects from the monster prince?

Why would Mother and Father do this to me?

“Run.” I glance over my shoulder at Lazarus in frustration. “By my heart, faster.”

My canines elongate into two sharp fangs in my distress. My dominant pheromones become stronger, rolling off me in waves.

I wrinkle my nose at the intoxicating fragrance of the sweet lotus flowers.

“Why?” Lazarus struggles to keep up with me in the dark, tripping over the long linen tunic, which he had been sleeping in, before I dragged him out of bed to make our escape from White Lotus Tower.

“It’s our birthday. We’re going to be nine.

All grown up, nurse said. There will be celebrations.

Dancing and honey and date bat cakes. They’re my favorite. ”

Lies.

“The only bat you’ll see tonight,” I mutter, “is me if I shift into one.”

Looking at Lazarus is like looking into a mirror.

He is small, olive skinned, and pretty. His long, black hair flutters in tangled lengths to his waist.

A matching obsidian scarab beetle pendant to my own with diamonds for eyes, as if it’s only waiting to spring to life, rests on his chest.

The scarab beetle is the emblem of the House of Sin. The pendants are the singular gift that Mother has given us. They are heirlooms, which are the only things we possess that show we belong to the oldest royal line, the House of Sin.

As the Shadow Twins, we have dwelled in the darkness of this kingdom. I hoped that clinging to the shadows would keep us safe.

But I have been lying to myself.

Is that worse than being lied to?

Like the calf being fattened up to be sacrificed, my twin and I are being prepared to be bled out tonight.

What would it feel like to be accepted by my family?

As the nurse has often told me, however, while tucking me into bed as the dawn light kissed the roof of the tower, as the only vampire of my generation with The Power, I am a freak.

Each night, I have been made to pray to the Shadow Devils to give thanks that I have been allowed to live.

Shadow Devils, choke on my curses.

I am not grateful.

I am going to live because I choose to. I am going to kill anybody who harms me. And I am going to destroy the Shadow Devils themselves if they hurt my twin.

When a sharp rock slices open the sole of my bare foot, I hiss in pain. I didn’t even take the time to grab sandals, when I discovered what was truly planned for my birthday.

Instead, I grabbed the only person in this world who I love…who I love more than myself…to make my escape from the one place that I could call home.

Only, I don’t.

This village has been a pretty prison.

Panicked, I glance behind myself at the trail of blood. The scent of my crimson footprints on the steep path could be easily followed by any vampire.

My pulse roars in my ears. “The bats whispered to me, Laz. They overheard a secret. The only thing being feasted on tonight will be our blood.”

My white moths flutter around me in comfort. My rats scamper along beside me in the shadows, squeaking.

Run, run, run…

I shake my head, trying to block out their pleas.

They can tell that danger is coming.

“Is this a prank?” Lazarus stops, frowning.

“I don’t like breaking the rules. I want to go back.

Mother will be there. She promised. She said that if we were good this year, then she’d take us to the capital and let us meet our brothers and sisters, and nurse said that I’d been good.

You too, Lan, whatever nasty things nurse says about you.

I don’t believe them, and you shouldn’t. You’re not—”

“A freak? Beast? Monster? A perverse hearted, fanged demon who swallows order and bleeds chaos from the Void into the world? I admit that last one was creative of her.”

“You’re none of those things.” Lazarus clenches his fists.

“I hate nurse. I hate her corrections. I shall insist Mother punishes her, and when we are older, I will claw out anyone’s tongue who insults you.

Everything will be good when Mother takes us back to court with her.

If only we saw her more often than on our birthdays… ”

“Mother lied. They all lied.” Fear skitters through me, as I force myself to stop and go back for Lazarus. “It’s a trick to separate us forever.”

“They can’t,” Lazarus gasps. “I’ll rip out their throats.”

I give a sharp grin, revealing my fangs, despite how wet my cheeks now are. “Not before I do. Come on, we must get out of here.”

I don’t know where we’re running to because anywhere in our own kingdom is under the fierce control of Mother.

The neighboring Draca Kingdom, maybe?

The flies, who often act as my spies, have overheard the Beta servants talking in admiration about our allies, the Shadow Dragons, as well as the young prince, Aurelius, the Golden Dragon.

Often the smallest of creatures are the most powerful because fools treat them as insignificant. Ignored and invisible, they are the best spies.

The animals are my allies, but I’ve never had a friend before.

Could my twin and I escape to Aurelius’ court? Would he shelter us or return us to our family?

I bite my lip.

I have spent long hours in the library reading about the legendary Golden Dragon, obsessed with his power — sun, where I am the moon.

Can friendship save me?

Will anyone love me apart from my own twin, who is half of my soul?

Love someone as twisted with chaos as I am?

I don’t even know whether I can love someone other than Lazarus.

“The cubs,” Lazarus says, urgently. “We can’t leave them behind.”

“Shadow and Devil are following us,” I promise. “They’re safer that way. They’d only try to protect us and end up dead. They’re too young for heroics.”

I don’t tell Lazarus the real reason: Shadow and Devil are demonic lions who are obsessively protective but were also given to us by the Void Cult when we were born.

And it’s the Void Cult who are coming to destroy us tonight on the Queen’s orders.

On Mother’s orders.

I have only seen Mother, the Alpha Shadow Queen KalaKant, along with her Beta consort and Omega King, eight times. She appeared to celebrate each of my birthdays.

She was regal, aloof, and formidable.

I have never met my large number of brothers, sisters, and half-brothers.

My twin and I have been raised alone in Mother’s ancestral village far from court.

I never believed that it was because I was special. I always knew that it was because I was cursed — the freak who could talk to and control animals.

The only freak in the kingdom who could also shift into them.

Yet I didn’t think that my twin and I would be betrayed like this.

Did Mother ever love us?

I fight to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks.

Yet why not only sacrifice me? I’m the one who is cursed with The Power.

The outcast. Beast. Monster.

My brother is innocent.

On the other hand, I was born wicked.

I clasp Lazarus’ small hand in mine, dragging him further along behind the polished white limestone of the pyramid.

Glimmering moonlight catches on the gleaming surface of the tomb, which is carved with lotuses. The moths fly up like a second moon above the dagger-like tip of the pyramid.

The stars are sharp in the silky black sky.

Lazarus and I have reached the sacred heart of the village. The spirits of our ancestors are alive here. I feel their shades like spiderwebs against my skin.

Will they keep us safe?

Do they at least love and watch over us like the myths say?

I peer at the flat roofs of stone houses in the distance, as well as the road through it, which leads to the capital, Sheut. Suspiciously, no villagers are strolling through the streets, working in the market, or calling to each other from open windows.

It is eerily quiet and still.

Suddenly, I hear movement in the shadows behind me.

My heart rate spikes.

I twirl around, pushing my brother behind me.

“Who is it?” Lazarus whispers, wrapping his arms around my neck. His body is as warm and familiar against mine, as his incense scent is. “What secret? What trick? Tell me.”

My breathing is ragged. Fear and adrenaline race through me.

I hush Lazarus urgently.

I strain to listen, squinting through the dark with my wine-red eyes.

For long, terrifying moments, I can hear nothing but my own pounding heartbeat.

Nothing.

I take a deep breath, steadying myself.

I am about to hurt my brother for the first time in my life.

I hate it.

I would rather sink my fangs into my wrists and bleed myself out.

The truth hurts more than lies. But losing each other would hurt the most.

It would break me.

“Nine is the age that both the Scarlet Temple and the Void Cult take in apprentices.” Slowly, I back away down the path, never taking my intense gaze off the darkness.

“Mother kept us here in the village that worships the sacrifices to both these powerful pillars of the capital. Nobody at court knows that we exist. One of us will be taken by the Void Cult in secret to be trained; they will be thrown to the Void Devils as a sacrifice. Nobody will know royal twins were even born to the House of Sin.”

Lazarus becomes ashen. “She wouldn’t…”

“She’s ruthless. Cruel. Is obsessed with pain, blood, and death.”

“You admire that about her.”

“As a Queen.”

“She’s our mother.”

“She’s a stranger.” My eyes burn.

Another noise in the shadows.

My head whips to the side.

I swallow.

They are too close.

Lazarus and I aren’t both getting out of this. I am not escaping with my cut foot. But I can make sure that my brother does.