Captured (Vampire King Book 2) (12 page)

His
fangs erupted. He retracted them quickly and didn’t respond.

Little queen?
Ian’s voice seeped into my head.
Its presence was different. It needled inside instead of slipped like Samuel’s
voice. There was a dim warmth to the voice also, as if it were a thin sheet
that had just been washed with river stones and left out to bake in the sun.

Little queen?

“Do
you hear that?” I gasped.

“What?”
Samuel turned to me. “I don’t hear anything.”

We have our own mental
connection, little queen,
Ian said in my mind.
One that Samuel
can’t hear. Come meet me.

I
swallowed down fear.
Where are you?

In the washroom around the
corner.
Ian
responded.

“Is
everything okay?” Samuel asked while Octavia looked at me with concern.

What do you want, Ian?

Blood, and I’m sure you want more
answers.
Ian’s
chuckle trailed behind his voice.

I
cleared my throat. “Where’s the bathroom, Octavia? I just need a minute to
myself.”

“It’s
around the corner. When you walk out of this room, you’ll see a silver door,”
Octavia instructed. “Take my guards with you.”

“That’ll
be okay as long as they stand outside.” I headed to the bathroom. The guards
followed. As soon as I opened the door, all I saw was an empty bathroom with
rainbows painted on the walls.
Samuel and
Octavia really love rainbows.
The door closed behind me. Hands wrapped
around my mouth and pulled me into a muscular shoulder.

“Don’t
scream, little queen.”

Chapter Eight

“Do
you promise not to scream?” Ian asked.

I
nodded. As soon as he released me, I slapped him on his face. “Was that
necessary?”

He
rubbed the soft, pale flesh on the side of his face and smiled. “I thought you
would scream when I startled you.”

“Maybe
you should just try not to startle me in the first place.”

“That
doesn’t sound like a lot of fun now, does it?” He focused those copper eyes on
me. He had no hair on his head. Although pale skin covered his face, gray
decomposing skin coated the rest of his body. “I want more blood.”

“I
want more answers. Let’s start with why you watched Samuel and I make love.”

He
directed his attention to my breasts and then let his gaze travel down my body.
“That should be an obvious answer.”

“Don’t
do it again.”

He
smirked in response. “Is that an order?”

I
let out an exasperated breath. “Please, don’t do that again.”

“As
you wish, my queen.” He bowed. “We don’t have much time. Maybe we can make both
exchanges in the same instance. I drink from your wrist while you ask me
questions. I’ll send the answers to your mind and end my drinking when you stop
asking questions.”

“I
don’t want any tricks or—”

“Until
I drank your blood, I hadn’t been able to see in a hundred years. You restored
my sight.” He stepped to me and seized my wrist. “I have no intention of
angering or tricking you in any way.”

He
held my wrist up to his lips.

“Okay,”
I agreed, not really sure of myself, but praying to Ambi and Ressi that I was
doing the right thing for Samuel and I. “Go ahead.”

He
only had one fang. It cut through the skin on my left wrist with ease. A sting
of pain bit at my skin. With Samuel, bliss came soon after his fangs buried
into me, but not with Ian. Instead, this felt similar to when the castle
doctors stuck needles in my arms to take samples of my blood.

Go ahead with your question,
Queen.

“You
said I looked like your first queen, but Queen Regina thinks I look like the
Quiet King’s first queen,” I said. “What’s the truth?”

His
giggle danced in my head.
Both are true.
My brother Nai, the one you all call the Quiet King, and I shared the same
first queen.

Shock
filled me as he continued to drink. A tiny groan slipped from his mouth. He let
go of my wrist. I kept it up to his fang, afraid to yank it out too quickly and
hurt myself. Ian’s hands went to my waist and he pulled me close to him as he
sucked in more of my blood with no restraint.

Her name was Phinova and she was
a blood mage just like you.
He
tightened his grip on me and pressed his body into mine. His chest, which at
first seemed soft, was now hardening with each second. Instead of one fang
inside my wrist, another one appeared and sliced into me.

“Tell
me more about blood mages,” I said`. “We don’t have much time.”

There weren’t a lot of blood
mages in my time with hair as red as yours and such sweet blood. Even then,
other mages killed them due to the power of their blood
. Ian drank some more.
Your blood can heal most creatures quickly
and turn a human into a vampire.

“How
is this even possible?” I wasn’t sure if I believed him or not. There’s no way
he was correct. My mother and father both had brown hair. I doubted that they
were mages, but then I didn’t know what a mage looked like.

Vampires never figured out the
how and why.
Ian’s
words filled my head.
Mage tribes fight a
lot among themselves, but when it comes to maintaining their powers and
history, they unite together and keep all of it secret
.

I
swayed a little. My body felt weak. “You have to stop drinking for a while. At
least until I can get my balance again.”

Ian
released me, backed up, opened his white shirt, and gazed at his chest. Gray
flesh transformed to pale new skin right before our eyes.

“When
Nai and I were young, there were ten vampire kings throughout the territories,”
Ian whispered. “Each had a reasonable sized castle and ruled the small city
around them. People called that time the Age of Peace.”

“I’ve
heard of it.”

“My
father was king of Capitol City. Since the city is so close to the mage
territories, he spent most of his life trying to build strong relationships
with the tribes.” Ian tore off his shirt and grinned as muscles appeared on his
body, sculpting his waist and arms into thick, coiled muscle. “Father was only
able to befriend one out of the four mage tribes, Tribe Wind. The other three
tribes, Flame, Stream, and Rock didn’t trust vampires enough to come near us.”

“Why
not?” I’d never seen a mage before and only knew they existed from childhood
songs and schoolbooks on species.

“Well,
vampires and mages hate each other for many reasons, but in the end, it all
stems from our religions.”

“How?
Don’t they believe the same thing?”

“Vampire
religious texts state that Ambi first made the mages because he was alone, but
due to the mage’s selfishness, they ran away and never returned.” Ian held his
hands in front of his face, pushed out dark claws, chuckled to himself, and
then retracted them back into his flesh. “Next, Ambi created vampires and made
us dependent on his blood so that we would return to him. The sun goddess
showed up. They fell in love. And she made humans to feed vampires while the
two gods explored the universe.”

“I
know the story.”

“Yes.
But the mages believe differently. They think the sun goddess Ressi was on the
planet first. That she formed only humans from the soil and sun. At the time of
creation, there were no elfkins or mages around.”

“What?”
I twisted my lips.

“According
to them, Ambi showed up, spotted Ressi, and was overtaken by her beauty. He
desired her, but she refused him. And so one night when she was fast asleep
among the stars, Ambi attacked and raped her for sixty days and nights, filling
her body with seed.”

I
held my hands to my chest.

“And
when he finally finished, darkness bathed the world for seven days and vampires
clawed their way out of her womb, spilling onto the earth.”

For
some reason, I thought of the moons’ cycles. It took the two moons sixty days
to complete their rotation around planet Dos. Darkness arrived for a full week
during the last phase when neither moon could be seen in the sky. On the first
night after the week of darkness, the two moons reappeared and brightened the
land. Vampires celebrated their reappearance as Lunation Day.

“Do
the mages celebrate Lunation Day?” I asked.

Ian
chuckled. “No, they hold candlelight ceremonies and do a whole lot of jumping
around and praying, begging Ressi to come back.”

“So,
then I doubt the mages believe that the two gods ran off together on a lovely
adventure.”

“Correct.”
He combed his fingers through his new blond hair. “I owe you so much for
bringing me back to my rightful body.”

“Please,
continue. We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Well,
due to so much raping and coming, Ambi fell asleep.” Ian laughed.

I
frowned. “I don’t find any of this funny.”

“It’s
not like this is a true story.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But I will continue
with complete seriousness.”

I
rolled my eyes.

“Ambi
was exhausted, so Ressi seized the opportunity to kill him. But a god can’t be
killed, only stopped by separating him. So, she filled him with light, which
for some backwards mage reason, paralyzed him.” Ian strolled over to the
porcelain sink next to me and trailed his fingers along the edge. “Then she
split him in two halves with her teeth, rolled him into two balls, and trapped
him among the stars.”

“The
two moons are Ambi?”

“Yes.
Apparently, the mages believe our glorious moons are two halves of a sadistic
rapist that is forever trying to form back together again.”

Brie?
Samuel’s voice entered my head.
I raised one finger to my lips to tell Ian to be quiet.

Yes,
I thought back to Samuel.

Is everything okay? You’ve been
gone for a long time.
Samuel’s voice held concern.

I’m okay. I will be there soon.
Have you gathered more information from your sister?
I hated lying to him, but I
didn’t think Ian would be so forthcoming with information around Samuel. And I
doubted Samuel would be willing to just stand by and watch as Ian drank from
me.

Octavia knows nothing else. We’ll
have to deal with my mother tomorrow night. She should have answers,
Samuel replied.
We’re done for now. I’ll get Ty and
Victoria. Stay in the bathroom or go to the room with Octavia until I return.

Okay.

“Hurry.”
I directed my attention back to Ian. “Samuel will be here with Ty and Victoria
soon.”

“We
have time.” Ian waved me away. “I watched those two go off into a dark room,
grabbing each other and bumping into the walls.”

“How
did you know how to come here?”

“I
overheard how Samuel wanted to attend his sister’s party. I’ve wandered this
area of sewers for many years. I’ve just been afraid to get too close to
vampires without any eyes. Your blood gave me my eyes back and my courage.” He
stepped closer to me. “I would love to find ways to truly thank you.”

“Telling
me this information is good enough.” I cringed and inched back. “So, why again
are blood mages killed? And your father, you said, he was friends with a tribe?
How does that relate to me?”

“Mages
believe that when Ressi looked down on planet Dos, she cried in shame at the
sight of the vampires, the products of her brutality. She wanted us dead, but
couldn’t do it herself, because we were still part of her.” Ian leaned back on
the wall. “So she formed mages with her tears, dirt from the land, and fire
from her breath. She gave each of the mages power over an element so they could
exterminate the vampires for her. Then she left. Apparently, when all of the
vampires are gone, Ressi will return.”