3. CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
Nikola
O nce upon a time, Nikola had asked Asher Black what Blood Followers dreamt of. Moon Children dreams consisted mostly of memories. Many of which were cruel flashbacks—at least in Nikola’s case. But recently Nikola’s dreams had taken a turn, and he associated the shift with his newfound Blood nature.
Asher and Nikola had been able to book their own room across from Katsuki’s cramped arrangements, but Asher had gone to sleep minutes after stumbling through the door. Even asleep, he simmered with a sour mood, and it seeped into Nikola’s resting mind, taking the shape of nightmares.
Over and over again, Nikola watched himself killing the High King. But only the first time did the King bear his true face. After that, it was a montage of others falling to Nikola’s ruthless blows. Corvellious, Marianna, Morrigan, Malkolm. Yet Nikola thought of each as the High King, not recognizing one from the other, relishing in the triumph of every kill.
Until the face became Asher’s.
Nikola woke violently, tearing off the unfamiliar bedding and gulping for air. His claws, refusing to retract, sliced up the blanket’s fabric. Asher mumbled groggily before rolling over, his scarred back to Nikola.
It was just after sundown, but Nikola let Asher sleep a little longer. He grimaced at the loose fluff, shaking his hands until his heartbeat settled, his claws slotting back into their nailbeds.
He padded to the bathroom, cringing away from the glare of the oval mirror’s ring light. He splashed his face with cold water, letting the shock soothe his tattered nerves.
He toweled his eyes dry. When he raised his head, he gave a cry at the semi-transparent reflection staring back at him with hellish red eyes, a bronze bald head sporting black bullhorns.
The Blood God.
“Oh, Nikola,” the patron rumbled, his voice originating not from behind the glass but instead inside Nikola’s skull. “Do not think you have escaped the holy city.”
The holy what ? Did the deity mean Grander, the most unholy place on the planet? Before Nikola could respond, he heard the Goddess’s voice. She took the form of mist filling the bathroom, as if Nikola had just emerged from a steaming shower.
“She who rules will need the guidance of those who know both Blood and Moon.”
The God grinned, feral and unhinged. “You are still ours, shared pets. And the world is about to turn its attention unto vampiric kind yet again.”
“We call upon you, my sons, to help your brethren prepare for the storm,” the Goddess went on, her maternal softness in contrast to her twin’s mockery.
No. No . Asher and Nikola had escaped Grander and its political urban war by nearly a thousand miles. There was no way he would ever take Asher back there. Not after dragging him out of the land of the dead with his bare hands.
The God and the Goddess could smite Nikola all they liked. They could haunt him. They could strip him of his vampiric gifts and immortality. But what could they even do to him? According to Asher, the twins behaved like otherworldly spirits, not all-powerful deities.
Nikola Kingston was done with heavenly games.
He whirled away from the false reflection and marched through the fog. He slammed the door shut behind him, but if that were enough to stop the likes of such beings, the world would be a vastly different place. The voices followed him out into the bedroom.
“We are not here to curse you, Kingston. But to warn you.”
“You cannot simply flee.”
An ongoing buzz vibrated from the nightstand. Nikola’s cellphone. Anyone who had any reason to be calling him were all in the same building. He instantly regretted not leaving the damn thing behind and replacing it with a burner phone.
Morrigan’s name flashed across the screen.
Nikola struck the “ignore” prompt. He anticipated godly wrath but instead received frosty silence. Deafening silence. Nikola felt them depart his presence, leaving behind a yawning abyss. He reflected on the irony of the great relief he had felt the night the Goddess had spoken to him for the first time in decades. He could almost laugh as he compared it to his relief now that she’d gone.
If Asher and Nikola could live in peace, even if the cost was the voices of the patrons, so be it.
All the same, Nikola could feel the curiosity niggling at the back of his mind.
Why would Morrigan be calling me?
Asher stirred, squinting with bleary eyes up at Nikola. He was so enamored by the sight of sleep-tussled Asher, so grumpy and vulnerable and his . It didn’t matter what Morrigan or the gods wanted. Nikola’s sole purpose in life was keeping Asher safe.
A wisp of a thought floated through his head, his blood turning to ice. What if by ignoring these new callings, he was putting Asher into worse danger on a greater scale? Steering them all toward extinction?
Nikola breathed in. Then out. Perhaps he’d leave this one to fate.
“What’s up with you?” Asher spoke through the gravel of sleep. “You stink of anxiety.”
Nikola forced said anxiety to the corner of his mind. With a grin, he sat on the edge of the bed and leaned down to kiss Asher’s brow. “You say I smell bad?”
Asher snorted, blinking away the last of his fatigue. His fingertips teased the edge of Nikola’s scruffy jawline. He hadn’t had the chance to properly shave. Given the lustful spark in Asher’s eyes as he examined it, perhaps he would keep the shadow. “If I say yes, would that convince you to jump in the shower with me?”
The agreeable growl clawing from Nikola was overlapped by a knock at the door. He prayed it was housekeeping so he could guiltlessly tell them to bugger off, but they heard Veronica’s voice instead. “Hey, sorry, but do you two have a second?”
Asher and Nikola shared a frown. That doesn’t sound good . Nikola was across the room in a second, greeting Veronica at the door. “What’s wrong?” Nikola said, Asher springing out of bed behind him.
Veronica rubbed her shoulders, worrying the inside of her bottom lip with her teeth. “You probably want to check this out for yourselves.”
She led them back to Katsuki’s suite, finding everyone huddled around the TV playing local news. Moss, Trish, and Liam lingered in the background, their vastly varying eyes fixed on the report. After the godly confrontation this morning, Nikola had all but forgotten about the unwelcome trio.
“Oh, there you are,” Katsuki chirped, addressing Nikola. “I wanted a second opinion from another who had witnessed Purgings.”
Alarmed, Nikola paid closer attention to the television screen. A man and a woman, both smartly dressed in beige colors, sat around a conference table in front of a backdrop depicting Chicago’s skyline. The title scrawled along the bottom of the TV was enough to kick Nikola’s heart into overdrive. VAMPIRE NESTS DISCOVERED FOLLOWING UPSTATE NEW YORK EARTHQUAKE.
The discussion panel itself was more alarming still. “—most of the tunnels are inaccessible, but what has been unearthed points toward negligence from the local police force,” the woman was ranting. “How did this go unnoticed for so long?”
The man raised his hands with dramatic flourish. “Going by the reports of vampiric infected people—a disease previously believed to have been eradicated from Western society—this has been happening for decades . At least!”
Infected. Disease . So, that was how the modern human had chosen to perceive the vampire. There was an implication of a cure that didn’t and couldn’t exist. Nikola wondered how many of Malkolm’s vampires were fleeing, spilling out into the rest of the country. Why wasn’t Morrigan wrangling them?
The script, “The following imagery may be disturbing to some viewers,” flashed across the screen. The news report switched to footage from cities such as Syracuse and Buffalo, humans being struck down by seemingly nothing, as if invisible poltergeists were ripping out throats and tackling humans. There were only a handful of reels, the audio muted as the man and woman voiced over them. “For years, there have been rumors of an infestation in the States. But who can deny this ?”
The undead in the room were stunned in morbid silence. It was Moss who broke it. “They ain’t kidding. There are tags trending on Twitter and TikTok. Hashtag vampire apocalypse. Hashtag vampirism. Hashtag Grander, New York. A lot of it is circulating with pictures of Moon Children reuniting with living friends and family—the few who are young enough to still have some around, I’m guessing. Oh, shit.” Moss grimaced at whatever article they were reading. “According to this, those same Children are claiming that ‘old power’ threatened to kill them if they were accused of associating with their human friends or families. It’s just... a flood of missing people no longer missing.”
It was clear that Moss understood the gravity of the situation.
There is no turning back from this.
“So.” The report transitioned back to the panel. The man was speaking. “The question is, how do we handle this?”
“Of course, in our polarized era, there are already so many sides being taken. Do we rehabilitate these monsters? Execute them? Try and cure them?”
The man nodded gravely. “That also brings into debate about execution laws, especially with New York being the main stage of this developing situation. It’s banned in New York to sentence a human prisoner to death, but it is legal to put down a sick dog. Or, let’s say, ‘pull the plug’ on a coma patient. Do we let living relatives decide? What then?”
“How can we even begin to approach this when we barely understand the disease itself?” the woman went on. “What is fact and what is fiction left over by our superstitious ancestors?”
The TV screen flicked off. Nikola’s mind immediately went to power outage, but the lights were still on. Veronica held the controller in her hand. “Sorry,” she said, her face taut. “But all we are doing right now is stressing ourselves out. We already know how this ends.”
“Maybe it’s not all gloom and doom,” Moss chirped, their optimism tasting sickeningly sweet in the bitter atmosphere. They didn’t look up from their phone as they spoke. “There are some people advocating for the humane treatment of vampires, so to speak. There are a few who are rallying that silver eyes are harmless. But, like, that seems to be mostly people who reunited with a Moon Child, so...” They frowned at their phone. Crimson bloomed in their cheeks when they glanced up and realized all eyes, red and metallic, were on them. “There’s some hope, I think.”
“Tch.” Asher grinned with irony, winking a scarlet eye at Nikola. “So, some people want to kill only Blood. Where do you think they’ll categorize Nikki and me, eh?”
“Wait.” Kat’s voice stilled the room. Moss wiggled under Kat’s searing scrutiny. “What you say implies humans are beginning to distinguish between Blood and Moon. That is fascinating. A first in history, outside of isolated settlements.”
Francis growled. “As if humanity would not exterminate us once they discover all vampires are capable of becoming Blood.”
No one said anything as the news was digested. When Nikola’s cell phone began vibrating in his pocket, the attention snapped onto him. Veronica said, “That better be another spammer. Because who else would it be?”
“Nikki,” Asher murmured. When Nikola looked into his somber face, his beautiful lips pressed into a thin line, he realized Asher had deduced who was calling. Nikola could only assume the patrons had reached out to him as well, perhaps in the form of a dream. “You should answer that.”
Nikola closed his eyes as he let the call ring through. He could always return it. “What did they say to you, my love?”
“Same shit Morrigan said before we ran. That we’ve got some damage control to do.” Asher sounded as unhappy about it as Nikola felt.
“What,” Veronica interjected, “is happening now ?”
Asher and Nikola had a conversation without words, sharing a meaningful glance and nodding once at each other. There was no point in keeping the others in the dark. They all shared the same gods, did they not? Nikola broke eye contact and addressed the mingled covens. “The God and the Goddess have called upon us both to return to Grander to help settle affairs.”
Asher motioned at the black television. “All things considered, I reckon it’s a bad idea to keep ignoring them.”
Veronica blanched, leaping to her feet. “What? But you just got here. There’s no way—!” She stomped, a growl rising from her throat. “Are you sure you’re not misinterpreting them?”
Asher heaved a wistful sigh. “No. This ain’t like we’re reading from the King James’s Bible. They’ve been pretty cut and dry. Things are bad when the gods start panicking.”
“Let me figure out exactly what’s going on,” Nikola said to Veronica as she opened her mouth to continue arguing.
He left the apartment, not wanting to believe that Asher was willing to return to Grander. But that was what it seemed to be. Grinding his teeth as he sulked down the hall, he withdrew his phone. To no surprise, Morrigan’s name glowed beneath the missed call icon.
He hesitated. If the gods weren’t truly gods, perhaps they had it all wrong on a divine level. Or perhaps Veronica was right, and Nikola and Asher were the ones who had it wrong. Only one way to find out .
With a deep breath, Nikola swiped his thumb and lifted the cellphone to his ear.
Lady—no, that was no longer accurate— High Queen Morrigan answered on the second ring. “Kingston. I’m amazed you kept the same number.”
A choice he was regretting. “And I’m amazed I haven’t blocked your number.”
To his surprise, she chuckled. It was liberating in a way, speaking to his former superior so freely. “I assume you’ve seen the news.”
“And I assume you’re calling to plead for my help,” Nikola clipped. “What I cannot fathom is how Asher and I could be of any help to you. Your circus, your monkeys, I believe that’s what the youth quote these days.”
There was a long pause. Nikola had to check to make sure his phone battery hadn’t died. “You are both Moon and Blood in a world beginning to debate the definitions of Moon versus Blood. And I am not so drunk from power that I cannot confess desperation. Truth be told, I’m not sure what you could do—yet. But together we could assemble a sort of council, in its earliest stages.”
Oh, how delightful. A political role in Grander. Nikola wasn’t having this. “If you cannot explain how we can help you, we have no help to offer. Best of luck, Lady—”
“Wait!” She barked it like a command, but Nikola heard the true plea behind it. A rare sound, enough to give Nikola a pause. “Listen. This is an old rumor, so I will not fault you for not giving it merit, but I’m starting to believe it to be the case since discovering the High King’s... status. It’s possible he used his Moon gifts to cast an illusionary veil over Grander, obscuring us just enough to exist as we did. It would explain his confidence of purposely triggering Purgings.”
Nikola did not like where this was going. “Morrigan, you speak of a man who hunted prehistoric humans. Even together, Asher and I don’t have that capability.”
Morrigan breathed a sigh. “Perhaps you are right. I will ask this of you instead. Discuss it amongst each other. Pray to the gods over it. This is no longer an issue isolated in Grander but a dilemma for the entire vampiric world.”
Nikola had braced for a bigger argument. He hung up without a goodbye, his head buzzing. Pray to the gods? He wouldn’t need to. He’d indubitably be hearing from them soon enough.