The Vampire King (20 page)

“Don’t call me Evie,” she said. Her voice was weak, but workable. She felt her strength returning quickly.

Charles smiled, flashing the fangs she’d seen him use to kill the woman in her vision. Evie winced and looked away.

“The room you find yourself in at the moment does not exist on the Earth as you know it. This is the astral plane,” he told her. Evie looked up to find him gesturing to the rainbow fog walls. “It’s just you and me Evie, and nowhere to run to.”

Evie looked at the walls, strangely transfixed by the way they swirled and curled, and she wondered whether she were dreaming again. Maybe this was a vision? Or maybe she had died and this was actually Hell. She could believe that.

But there was a niggling at the back of her mind and everything felt very, very real. And she couldn’t stop thinking about Roman.

She knew this was real. Deep down, she knew that everything Roman had told her in the last few days, everything she’d witnessed with her own two eyes and processed with her own mind, was true. Roman was the Vampire King, Charles Ward was a vampire rogue murderer, and this really was the astral plane.

Whatever the hell that was.

“You mean like the place that you go if you have an out of body experience?” she found herself asking, truly wanting to understand.

Charles smiled again and nodded, his expression impressed. “Yes, in a way.”

“How are we here?”

“One of my abilities has always been to pull others into the astral plane along with me – so long as they are asleep when the attempt is made.”

Evie thought about this. She remembered the darts that had hit her legs and arms and embedded themselves in the side of her neck. “The darts,” she said. “They were poisoned with some kind of sleeping agent.”

Charles’ smile broadened, his wicked fangs ever threatening. Evie shivered. “On the money,” he admitted. “You’re incredibly astute, Evie –”

“Stop calling me that!” she yelled.

He ignored her and continued. “I’m going to enjoy having you around for a while.”

“Did you kill him?” she asked, her heart aching as she prayed he would answer her honestly – and then prayed it would be the answer she wanted to hear. She didn’t think Roman was dead. She felt that she would
know
if he was. But she had to hear it from Charles’ lips anyway.

“You mean the king?” His brows raised, his expression nonchalant. “Of course not. He’s a tough son of a bitch. It would take a hell of a lot more to kill the royal pain in the ass. But you have to admit that it was an effective way of taking him temporarily out of the picture.”

Evie closed her eyes, relief flooding her system. Then she tried to stand once again, and this time she was successful. She made it to her feet and leaned against the fog-filled wall. It was a strange sensation. It rippled beneath her touch as if she were laying against a vertical water bed.

“What do you want with me?”

“So many things,” Charles said, tilting his head to one side and appraising her from head to toe. She felt slightly sick. Ward was a handsome man, and in a normal world devoid of vampire rogue murderers, he would have seemed an impossible prospect. But at the moment, and in this current situation, she felt as if she were staring into the adoring eyes of a living nightmare. “But first and foremost, you will act as an instrument of vengeance, little Evie. And I believe you will do an amazing job of it.”

“I won’t do
shit
for you,” Evie hissed at him.
That was stupid
, was the thought that piggybacked on it. Why provoke the psychopath vampire? She closed her mouth and looked away once more, her heart hammering along as if it were content to just beat the shit out of the inside of her lungs.

Charles, for his part, seemed utterly unruffled. “Not at first, you won’t. Not willingly.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress slacks and began pacing around the strange astral room. “But no one can find us here, Evie. Like I said, it’s just you and me.” He looked up at her then, and Evie swallowed hard as his blue eyes began to glow with an eerie, hungry light. “And with no one else to feed from, I'm sure to get hungry.” He showed her those fangs again in a promising smile. “How many times do you think I’ll have to drink from you before you break?”

Evie felt a cold chill go through her. “You could pull anyone else in here,” she said. “As long as they’re asleep.” It’s what he’d told her, more or less, wasn’t it? He was just trying to scare her. And it was working.

“I have to be in close proximity with someone for the trick to work,” he told her, almost conversationally. He resumed pacing, but his gaze remained on her. “I have to be able to touch them. And it wouldn’t be wise for me to leave here. At first, D’Angelo will no doubt assume the attack was carried out by Hunters. I made certain to heavily shield our presence, after all. But before long, he’ll figure it out.” His gaze dropped to the ground, and his expression became contemplative. He turned his steps toward her, closing in on her. “And then he’ll come for you.” He looked up again, fixing her with an unwavering, decisive gaze. Evie felt her legs go to jelly again and found herself desperately wanting to move back. But there was nowhere to go.

“We’ll need to be finished with our business by then,” he said, his voice having lowered conspiratorially. “So I won’t be leaving for any reason, Evie. In fact, I’m going to be doing everything within my power to speed things along.”

He stopped in front of her and Evie wondered whether he could hear her heart. It was deafening in her ear drums. “What do you want?” she asked again.

“I want you to say three little words, Evie. And I will take care of everything else.”

He braced his hand against the strange wall by her head and leaned in. Evie flinched when the glow in his eyes brightened, enveloping her in their blue topaz magic. “What three words?”

“
Addo nox noctis,”
he whispered, his breath fanning out across her cheek as he spoke. He was so close, she feared he might try to kiss her. His fangs peeked out from behind his lips, and she remembered that she had been kissing Roman only moments ago. His fangs had drawn her blood….

“Thousands of years ago, the new king created and enforced a law which prevented vampires from creating new vampires from mortals,” Charles explained, all the while gazing steadily into her eyes. “He was probably right to do so,” he said, his tone clearly disapproving, “as our kind were ripping through the human race without a care, creating slaves left and right. Those slaves did not possess the inherent powers of Offspring because they had no warlocks as parents, and hence the sun was as deadly to them as ever.”

Charles stopped and his gaze flicked to Evie’s lips. She held her breath and turned her head. All she could think about was the woman he had killed and the bullet that had taken off half of Roman’s brain.

Charles took her chin in his hand and forced her to face him once more. Evie tried not to wince with the pain of his cruel grip. “For three thousand years, our kind have lived without creating companions who could accompany us into immortality.” He roughly released her and stepped back, his expression going hard. “Even if he hadn’t hidden away the means with which to do it, we’re all too afraid of D’Angelo’s almighty wrath.”

“What has that got to do with me?” she asked, rubbing her chin gingerly and glaring at him with everything she had.

“You’re going to change that, Evie. You will be the first one created since the start of D’Angelo’s reign. And you’re going to be mine.”

Evie stared at him.

“You will repeat those three words and effectively cast the spell,” he told her, giving her the command as if she were a recalcitrant child. “Then you will take my blood.” He smiled a devilish smile. “And I will take yours – to the very last drop.”

Don’t faint, don’t faint, don’t faint.

“And when I’ve finished with you, Evelynne Grace Farrow, you will become the first mortal turned vampire in three thousand years.” He laughed, the sound harsh and ugly in the clean air. “And you will break Roman D’Angelo’s precious heart.”

Chapter Nineteen

“I’m sorry, My Liege.” Saxon’s deep voice was the first thing Roman heard as the world returned him to consciousness. “I returned to the mansion to speak with you about sending a few of your men after Ward and when I arrived, you were under attack.”

Roman sat up, all senses and awareness slamming into him at once as if he were a magnet. The safe house was in ruins. Glass and debris decorated the floors and walls, as did blood and other bodily matter. Roman saw his reflection in one of the shards of glass beside him on the floor; he was whole and didn’t bear a scratch. But he knew damn well that something had hit him hard. Only the worst kind of injury could have taken him out in such a manner.

Evie!

“Evie,” he whispered.

“She’s been taken, My Lord.”

“Hunters?” he asked as he quickly came to his feet, his dark gaze scanning for any sign of his future queen. He could smell her – cherry blossoms and blood - but despite the rage it opened up inside of him, she wasn’t there.

“It would appear that way, but something doesn’t add up,” Saxon said as he joined Roman in surveying the damage. Roman had no time for finesse or permission; he scanned Saxon’s thoughts and memories in order to see the attack from a new set of eyes.

But it didn’t do much good. There was the flash of Saxon’s re-materialization after a transport spell, the other vampire saw Roman and Evie standing together, he called out to warn Roman – and then the world exploded in shards of glass and bullets. A split second after Roman went down, Saxon did as well, most likely from the same kind of wound.

Roman was beyond words. So much rage simmered inside of him, he felt as if his veins were carrying lava. How the hell had this happened? How the fuck had Ward gotten in and out of the safe house grounds without tripping any of the alarms or shield spells?

Curses poured through Roman’s soul, burning him up from the inside out. At his side, Saxon took a step back, drawing Roman’s glance. The blond vampire looked concerned – and impressed – and rightly so. The air around Roman was crackling with angry energy as if he were a barely contained storm.

“My Lord, can you not travel to the astral realm?”

“I can,” came Roman’s simply reply. He was the only other living being in the world who he knew could do so. And in a fair world, he would be able to make it into that other plane, find Charles Ward, and rip out his traitorous, kidnapping, black-magic-using spine.

Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy. The astral plane was enormous, consisting of one long valley of multi-colored nothingness and air and twenty million doorways. To make matters worse, Ward was able to manipulate the plane the way the Shadow King manipulated darkness. He could steal Evie away through a labyrinth of ether so vast and complicated, it would take one of two things for Roman to find Evie. It would either take a miracle, or it would take forever.

Forever wasn’t an option.

A miracle was in order.

“Saxon, gather as many men as you need, get Samantha’s help, and track down everything having to do with Charles Ward. Search his living quarters, his resting places, and pull all of his files. When you’ve learned everything you can, erase him from existence.” Going through Ward’s belongings probably wouldn’t turn up much, but Roman wasn’t known for leaving stones unturned. If there was the slightest possibility that he and his men could find whatever it was that was aiding Ward with this newfound windfall of power, then it was worth the search. Most of all, however, Roman was pissed. He wanted everything that Charles had ever held dear completely and utterly destroyed. It was the least Roman owed him.

In the meantime, Roman knew what he had to do. He was certainly capable of traveling the astral plane himself, and while it was true that he was the only
living
being he knew of who could do so other than Ward, it was the “living” bit that was the important distinction. There were technically other creatures capable of traveling astrally. Getting to them was going to cost him. But at that moment, Roman would have given anything to have Evie back safe and sound.

Saxon nodded once. “Yes sir. Consider it done.”

“Good,” Roman said. “There’s someone I need to see – alone. Have David contact me when you’ve finished.”

Again Saxon nodded. Roman took one last look at the mess around him and spoke the single word necessary to transport him away from it.

Charles laughed. “Oh in time, sweet heart. In time.” He stood in the cellar doorway, outlined by the light behind him. The basement was new. The stairs leading out of it were new. Even the doorway and the entire house that rested beyond it were new. Charles had created all of them, molding them and forming them from whatever strange substance the astral plane was made of.

Evie wouldn't have believed such a thing possible if she hadn’t witnessed it herself, but then nearly everything she was witnessing these days was something she would have otherwise thought impossible.

Now she sat on a bare stone floor against the wall of the basement of a house that shouldn’t exist and she’d been there for what she would guess was an hour. She was cold, which made no sense. The air in the rainbow fog room they’d first appeared in had been the perfect temperature. Clearly either she was transferring some of her misery to the air now or Charles was capable of bringing this illusion to life to the very last uncomfortable detail.