Chapter 6
Flames From the Inside
Cedar
I heard them before the door even swung open.
Keres was many things, but a stealthy vampire was not one of them.
I wondered if the stealth faded with age, or if he sincerely didn’t care if anyone heard him coming—I had a strong feeling it was the latter.
I had no idea what sort of magic or abilities he had, but I assumed it had to be something or he wouldn’t be ruling over one of the four courts.
Body frozen, eyes locked on to the ceiling, as a key unlatched the door’s metal lock.
It swung open, the wood smacking against the stone wall behind it.
I listened as he sauntered in, a pep in his step, and I assumed this was the moment he started throwing his muscle and magic around.
Something to intimidate me, a shit attempt at forcing words from my mouth that simply would never come.
I couldn’t help the smirk that slid across my face.
A large body leaned across me and lifted me from the floor.
“Drop him over here, Rusor,” Keres told the male currently gripping me by the biceps as he slammed me down onto a chair in the middle of my cell, pulling my arms behind my back and linking the cuffs that stayed around my wrists like personal accessories these days.
I imagine that would’ve hurt a few days ago, but since I drank from Cora, I’d been feeling back to my normal strength.
Part of me swore I felt better than I ever had, but that could also be because I hadn’t eaten in long enough to starve a new vampire.
“What are you smiling at, bird?” Keres asked as he sneered at me. My eyes finally settled on him.
“Just the audacity in your belief that I’ll tell you absolutely anything about my family,” I replied with a shrug. I knew, without the confirmation, that Keres had no true idea about how deep my loyalty ran to Silvana and Raiden. I wouldn’t do or say anything that could in turn hurt them.
He stared at me, his expression giving away nothing. But something about his eyes made my skin crawl. They spoke of total emptiness, as if the male in front of me undoubtedly had no feelings and no care in this world beyond power. His gaze finally left me and returned to the guard, Rusor.
“You said he wasn’t drinking the blood.” He said it as if I wasn’t even here.
If he were anyone else, this would infuriate me, but I was more focused on the fact that he was letting small things slip.
He didn’t view me as a threat. A minuscule part of my soul hoped I’d get to show him just how wrong he was, but I didn’t want to put too much into those thoughts just yet.
Hope was a powerful thing, but it was also dangerous.
“He hasn’t been, My Lord,” Rusor replied, his eyes bouncing between the two of us as his mind raced to catch up with whatever observation Keres had made about me.
The thought flitted through my mind gearing towards Cora’s blood.
Keres’s eyes narrowed on me, and for the first time I could see the anger in the blue staring back.
If I had any sort of self-preservation left, I may have cared.
I’d long since left behind any ideations that I may leave this cell in one piece. Multiple pieces maybe, but not one.
“Summon Voss and Lovel.” Keres's eyes never left mine, and because I was a stubborn bastard, I didn’t look away until he did. He started pacing the cell back and forth, and my wrists rubbed against the cuffs behind my back.
It wasn’t long before I watched a tall male with blond hair halfway down his back walk into my cell to join the party.
He was easily the same height as me, his skin a light shade of ivory and his eyes spoke the same blank unfeeling look Keres normally did.
Normally, because right now he still looked livid.
Their eyes met and the male nodded subtlety. “You requested my presence, My Lord?”
Keres nodded. “Yes, Voss. This here is the bird shifter I was telling you about with Cora. I’d like your help retrieving information out of him.”
Voss nodded. “Of course. Would you like to ask the questions?” He stepped closer to me and I arched a brow, bracing myself for whatever magic was about to ensue. I had a general idea that it would be painful, but what else was new?
Keres turned and looked at me, his eyes back to revealing nothing all at once. “Who has been feeding you?”
I stared at him. “Who’s been feeding me?
That’s the first question? Well, if I had to answer, I’d say you, I guess,” I replied with a shrug.
In that moment, I wasn’t sure why I didn’t rat her out.
It would’ve been easy to just tell him his precious little dove eagerly gave me a taste, but I knew on some level he’d kill her for it.
The act of one vampire drinking from another was one of the most intimate things you could give each other—your blood, life force, the ability to sense and feel you.
No. I didn’t want to hand over that little bit of knowledge just yet.
My gaze broke from his only to stare down at my leg.
I tried not to shake or scream, but as my teeth ground together I came to realize exactly what Voss’s magic entailed.
“It’s just mental, it’s not real,” I muttered to myself, not even giving a shit that it was aloud for them to hear.
The heat ran from my toes up my thigh, stopping just below my hip bone.
My entire left leg felt as if it were on fire from the inside out.
“Stop,” Keres demanded, and the pain evaporated as if it never happened.
“Now, this here is my second, Voss. He’s a powerful male, I won’t attempt to deceive you.
Fire magic runs through his veins, only instead of simply lighting things on fire, he can also make a person feel as if they’re on fire.
You are correct, it’s only mental when he uses that aspect, but I hear it feels quite…
real…” He trailed off with a soft chuckle as if he were in on some joke that only he knew about.
I wanted to shift into my raven and pluck his eyes from his skull.
I’m sure that would also feel quite real.
“No matter. Let’s start again. We’ll circle back to that question later and I’ll get an answer from you one way or another.
” He paced for another moment before stopping in front of me.
“What exactly is it that you did for the courts?” I didn’t respond, instead just staring back at him.
“You seem to be known by everyone leader-wise. As if you’ve done them all some sort of favor, whereas I’ve never heard of you—at least until my lovely little dove turned you over to me.
” He smirked and I felt my fangs burn for the millionth time since they’d thrown me into this cell.
He glanced back at Voss with a small nod of his head and I tried to brace myself, but it did little good.
The heat rose from my stomach and up throughout my chest, stopping along my collarbones. My teeth grinding together, a small groan escaped my throat, and I thought I heard one of them let out a small chuckle. Then it stopped again.
“How did you learn of The Eternal Outcasts?”
My gaze slowly lifted until I was staring at him again, a grin across my face. “It was my job to know of them.”
Keres nodded slowly, as if that were even a true answer. He’d already figured out the majority of my job, so this wasn’t news to him, yet he acted as though it was.
“Was it you who killed Rogan and Joel?”
I felt my brows draw together before a chuckle slipped out as I realized he had no true idea who Silvana was now. He may have heard the whispered rumors when she went on her spree over Raiden, but he didn’t know who she was.
Before I could start to dissect those truths further, there was fire up the back of my neck and into my hair, a scream slipping from my lips as the heat spread down my temples and into my jaw line.
They continued like that. Question after question, lighting up random parts of my body to see what received the most response as my sight faded and nothing felt real anymore.
Who did I do more work for?
Something cold grazed along the back of my neck.
What type of work did I do exactly?
Fingers. Cold fingers.
What were Raiden’s armies like? Was I a part of them?
Hushed chuckles.
What did I know about the Court of Wolves?
A flash of red.
Who fed me?
Who was that?
Who did I feed from?
Nothing felt real anymore.
Who was helping me?
Voss pulled out real fire and my legs were flaunting actual burns by the end, which in turn made the mental ones worse.
By the time the sun was starting to rise, Keres was angry and the fire finally stopped.
My chest was heavy and I slowly picked up my head to peer around the room in an attempt to gauge how much time I had before I burnt to a crisp, when my gaze locked with hers.
She was standing in the far corner of the room in a thin white dress that stopped mid-thigh, but I hadn’t smelled her.
I didn’t feel her, which was new from how I’d felt before.
The presence of her in the back of my mind wasn’t heavy, but I could still feel her as a sheer ghost in the back of my subconscious.
How long had she been here? She took a small step towards me and I felt the growl reverberate in my sore chest.
“What do you want?”
“Who are you talking to, shifter?” Keres asked as he followed my gaze.
“How much did we use on his brain? He’s hallucinating now.
Lovely. Voss, we need to summon your sister before his mind is completely gone.
” He started walking towards the door before telling Rusor to have more blood sent down to me to ensure they could do this all over again tomorrow.