Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Royal Vampire Nest, Blood Kingdom
Freya
Exhausted, I stagger through the high, cedarwood door. I brush over my grazed chin, while my other hand rests on the Shadow Vampire King’s back.
I am rubbing soothing circles without thinking about it, as if Lanlin isn’t a terrifying killer.
Yet he’s also a king who has just witnessed his soldiers being ambushed and slaughtered, his precious ancestral village being massacred, and the tomb of his family being turned to dust.
I’m almost relieved that he collapsed.
What the fuck do you say to someone after all that happens?
Daire picked up Lanlin with a grim expression and hoisted him over Devil’s back.
Shadow snarled when we tried to go near her, unsettled and distressed. Her ears were pinned to her head, as if she was prepared to leap on us if we tried to run.
Then she pointedly started to prowl down the path again toward the capital, Sheut.
Once we reached the high city walls, the shocked guards tried to stop us, but it only took the twin roar of the demonic lions for them to back off.
The guards’ faces were pale with terror.
Yet after seeing Lanlin and the demonic lions in battle, I understand why.
And this is the King who I am meant to bond with...or pretend to?
Now, Daire is walking on the other side of Lanlin, resting his wing over the slumped King to shield him from as many eyes in his own palace as he can.
Yet it’s too late for that.
We had to walk through the capital with Shadow leading the way.
Everyone has seen Lanlin unconscious.
Is this court like Aurelius’? Is their king allowed to look anything but the most powerful person without the risk of another faction angling to take over?
Somehow, my wolfie senses say no.
Did our procession with Lanlin slumped over his lion make it look like the Shadow Vampire King had allowed a fae and wolf to defeat and capture him as a trophy, rather than the other way around?
This isn’t going to go well for any of us.
My jaw tightens.
My skin is itchy with dust, sand, and ash.
I’ve never been so desperate to wash myself.
“So, is this the royal blood nest, Shadow Sin’s private chambers?” Daire asks. “You’re a good guide, Shadow. I’ll book you again.”
Shadow comes as close to rolling her eyes as a lion can, padding further into the warm, perfumed room, which smells of sweet lotus oil and honeyed resin, which is burning on bronze bowls in the corners.
She curls up with a shake of her mane, which sends up clouds of dust that make me choke, in a giant horse sized bed to the side of the room. The bed is covered in linen cushions and blankets, which are dyed pomegranate red.
Daire whistles, stumbling over a low table like he didn’t see it.
He carefully rights the table, before stroking over the decorative gold gilt; he sniffs. “Not bad, aye? Incense and lotus oil. These Bloods were rebels but pulled off having more than leaves to sleep on at night, unlike me. They like their decadent luxury. I wonder if they’d survive without it?”
It’s strange, but I feel like I have been here before.
The black draped room, which has several archways leading off it, is familiar and right in a way that it shouldn’t be, when this is the first time that I have seen this chamber.
I study the room.
The walls are smooth and whitewashed. They are painted with pretty frescoes of bats, rats, and moths. Yet it doesn’t feel like they’re painted to intimidate, unlike the battle scenes of dragons in Draca.
It’s as if the animals have been drawn to keep Lanlin company.
Lonely, Aurelius called Lanlin.
Wraith repeated to me in the Spy Guild that the vampire’s weakness would be how alone he was apart from his animals.
Lanlin’s bats were wiped out in the battle, weren’t they?
How painful will it be for him to be surrounded by these painted bats?
The room is windowless. I guess that it’s an essential feature for where vampires sleep.
The only light is the golden, flickering lamps, which are set in niches along the walls.
Devil stalks further into the room, and I follow her, trying to imagine the cold, fearsome Blood from either the court room or the battlefield living here.
It’s hard.
My footsteps sound too loud on the polished sandstone floor.
I brush my hand across a small table as I pass. It is overspilling with trinkets and makeup: perfumed oil, a mirror of polished bronze, gold and turquoise beads that rest in a shallow tray.
For the first time since the horror of the ambush, my nerves settle.
This is real.
I smile, imagining Lanlin sitting at this table and preparing himself for the peace treaty ceremony, maybe feeling as nervous as Daire and I did before it.
After all, he had been the one to surrender in the terms.
He had just as much to be anxious about as we did. He was the one who had to prostrate himself in front of Aurelius. And now, he’s the one who has had that treaty betrayed.
He’s the one who is lying unconscious.
What’s wrong with Lanlin?
Concerned, I turned to scrutinize him.
Lanlin’s impossibly long, dark lashes fan onto his waxy, white cheeks.
He is barely breathing.
He looks like the life has been beaten out of him.
Perhaps, Lanlin is a killer, but he could have blamed Daire and me for what happened, especially in his feral state.
Instead, he protected us.
As dangerous as my situation is, I can work with someone who is as devoted to his mates as this Bat King is.
I survive. It’s what I do.
I square my shoulders.
Despite the tremor in my legs, I turn to Daire. “Don’t you think it’s strange that the guards and servants just let us through?”
Daire cocks his head. “Our two demonic lion friends here are clearly the King’s bodyguards.
It is interesting that only I can charm them.
No one here wants to risk having their knots savaged.
What’s strange, however, is that the entire palace has seen their King return injured, but not a single servant is fussing over the bastard. Plus, where are the…?”
“Healers.” My gaze shoots to Lanlin’s crown, which is partially covered by his tangled hair. I reach out to tidy his hair, revealing his gleaming bat crown. “Does he truly hold the power in the Blood Court?”
“He’s the outcast King,” Daire replies like he’s remembering something that he’s read.
“A tool for some, a weapon for others. A killer always. But he isn’t the deadliest person in the Blood Court, love.
There are powers at play here, which will make what we just witnessed look like bloody child’s play. ”
“Could you have saved that for when I’m not just about to keel over?” I mutter. “I do want to sleep tonight without nightmares.”
“I’ll frighten the nightmares away.” Daire gives a sharp grin. “Plus, it looks like we’ve gained demonic lions as bodyguards already.”
“Or guards.”
“Who’s giving us nightmares now?”
“Why is he like this? We’re fucked if he doesn’t wake up soon.”
Daire lifts his wing from Lanlin’s back, before gripping him firmly by the shoulders to make sure that he doesn’t fall.
“Primal magic like he used — the type that comes deep from your soul — drains you.” Daire’s expression becomes anguished like he’s remembering something that is tearing him up inside.
He stares at Lanlin with a type of understanding and kinship that makes my inner Omega purr.
Our shared frustration and trauma were meant to be fake to make Lanlin fall for us, but somehow, it has already become real.
It has made Lanlin pack. I can sense Daire’s connection to the Blood.
“It has a cost. I learned that in Rune Forest. Being tricked into using my elemental magic, after my best friend was killed, was how the dragons captured me. It was…”
He breaks off, looking away.
“Daire,” I say, softly.
“Dove,” he corrects me. “Here, help me get our bat-faced King onto the bed.”
Daire grabs hold of Lanlin, hoisting him off Devil. I rush around to join Daire, slipping one of Lanlin’s arms over my shoulders to help drag him to the long, elegant bed, which stands at the back of the room.
The bed is made of carved cedarwood, inlaid with gold. The legs are shaped like powerful lion paws; each claw is polished. The curved headboard is decorated with bat wings. The reed mattress is covered with cool, pale ivory linens.
Lanlin is lighter than I’m expecting. Don’t the Bloods feed their King?
Or doesn’t Lanlin have a Blood Lover?
Daire and I manhandle Lanlin onto the bed. Daire leans down to lift Lanlin’s legs onto it as well. Then Daire fumbles to grab a black blanket, which is embroidered with stars. He tucks the blanket over Lanlin.
I wipe a fleck of dried blood off Lanlin’s lip. Then I grimace, when I realize that it’s not his.
Together, Daire and I stand looking down at the unconscious Shadow Vampire King.
Daire’s lips quirk.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but this isn’t how I imagined our first night would go.” Daire winks. “I’m disappointed that we’re not ravishing you.”
I nudge Daire with my elbow. “How do you know that I wouldn’t have been ravishing you?”
“Don’t make me even more disappointed.”
Behind me, Devil slinks to join her sister in bed, curling around her.
I rest my head on Daire’s shoulder, nuzzling against him.
“Are you okay, love?” Daire asks, softly. “That was a lot. You did so well. It was your first battle, aye?”
“That wasn’t a battle. It was…”
A bloodbath. An extermination. A crime against the Shadow Gods.