Chapter 7 #3
Lanlin considers him for a long moment. “Then may I be the torch to both of you that lights hope in your darkness, until the sun rises for you again.”
My throat is tight.
Does he mean that?
Lanlin’s devotion is overwhelming. Aurelius warned me that it would be.
Is it real? Or a trick?
“White Lotus is where I grew up for the first few years of my life,” Lanlin continues like he hasn’t just thrown Daire and me into turmoil with his unexpected earnestness.
“Shadow Vampires can either be born, known as the Fanged, or be Turned from humans or other species. The Turned and their children face persecution. I allow them, however, to live in this village, which is the sacred heart of the kingdom, as a symbol of my protection and respect.”
“Is that why you’re bringing us through here, before we reach the capital?” Daire quirks his brow. “Show us what a benevolent ruler you are? Because we’ve heard this story before from Aurelius.”
“I brought you here to introduce you to my family, before I introduce you to the court. I have been taught that it is the thing that should be done to honor you both.” He points at the pyramid.
“Your family live in a pyramid?” I ask, confused.
“Spark…” Daire sounds pained.
“They live with the Shadow Devils.” Lanlin leans forward, patting his demonic lion’s flank to urge her forward. “But the deads’ shades live on in the tombs.”
I wince.
Lanlin rides toward the villagers, who are dressed in simple linen tunics with wooden lotus decorations in their long hair, who are flocking out of the houses.
Touched, I smile.
Bard rejected me because he didn’t want to tell his family that I was his mate. The first thing that Lanlin wants to do, however, is introduce me to his family, even if they are dead.
All of them have died? He has no one?
So, he is just the same as Daire and me.
“He’s not what I was expecting.” Daire watches, as the Shadow Vampires line the path through the village and drop to their knees in front of Lanlin. The Eternal don’t keep them back. Instead, the King strolls on Devil casually through them. “Well, apart from the unhinged, brutal killer part.”
I study the way that these villagers are prostrating themselves with a fanatical reverence before this unhinged, brutal killer as he passes.
They’re chanting: Void Vampire, Void Vampire, Void Vampire.
It sets my teeth on edge.
What does it mean?
I can sense burning eyes in the night peering at Daire and me from doors and the tops of roofs.
I tighten my hold on Daire’s waist.
These villagers in the heart of the kingdom are worshiping Lanlin like he is some type of god…or perhaps, Shadow Devil.
Aurelius was never treated like this.
“Is Lanlin this loved?” I mutter.
“Or feared,” Daire replies.
Suddenly, a little Shadow Vampire with grimy cheeks and a tangled mess of hair, who is hardly old enough to walk, toddles out in front of Devil, clutching a lotus flower.
She holds it up to the snarling demonic lion.
The villagers around her gasp in shock.
One, who I guess must be her mom, cries out in terror.
My heart stops.
Will Devil kill her?
Will Lanlin?
“Please,” I cry out.
Before the word has fully left my lips, however, Lanlin has slipped off Devil like smoke, reforming in front of the demonic lion to shield the young vampire.
He kneels on one knee, gesturing with his hand for Devil to back away.
Devil snarls but slinks back into the shadows.
The charioteer fights to pull the vehicle to stop in time.
The mom stands watching with wide, tear-filled eyes.
“Mercy, Void Vampire,” she pleads.
Lanlin ignores her.
My heart is in my mouth.
Slowly, Lanlin holds out his hand. “Is this for me, little fledgling?”
The vampire sticks her thumb in her mouth, before roughly holding out the closed-up lotus to Lanlin.
“Thank you, my dear.” Lanlin takes the flower, as if his army, mates, and entire crowd are not watching him. The fledgling gives a fanged grin. “Do you like tricks?”
She nods.
When Lanlin smiles, it is the first genuine smile of his that I have seen.
I thought that he was beautiful before.
Smiling like this, he is the most mesmerizing person I have seen. And I currently have my arms around the most stunning fae in the realms.
Lanlin leans forward, before pretending to catch a moth from behind the fledgling’s ear, which then flutters up into the sky and toward the moon.
She laughs and claps.
“Now,” Lanlin says more sternly as he stands, still holding onto the lotus like it’s the most precious gift he has ever received, “be a good little fledgling and run back to your mother.”
The fledgling throws herself at Lanlin, hugging his leg.
Lanlin flinches. His smile becomes strained.
At last, the fledgling toddles back toward her mom, who snatches her up, hugging her and weeping.
“This is the monstrous Shadow Vampire King…?” I whisper. “The most feared assassin in the realms? The person Aurelius hates the most?”
“You saw what he did in Bael,” Daire replies, harshly. “Even a monster can do party tricks for their own kids. It’s how they treat other kingdoms’ kids that matters.”
Unexpectedly, both twin demonic lions throw back their heads and bellow.
“Fuck.” Daire lurches forward, clutching onto Shadow’s mane to stop us from being thrown off.
Lanlin twirls around, staring up at the night sky in alarm.
Then he howls, “Ambush!”