Blood King Page 8

  Neryssa tucked her curls behind her ear as she stepped outside. A sleek, flowing gown twirled around her as she turned, searching for Nero.

  “I was getting worried.” He stepped out into the light of a glowing leyline crystal. “I thought maybe they’d found you.”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine. I just needed to get dressed, and it took me a while to… gather my things.”

  He frowned as he looked over her outfit. Beneath the flowing silk of her dress, her shoes had a tall, narrow heel. Only two thin strips of fabric held her dress up, and she had no cloak to keep her bare shoulders warm. Between the gown and the high heels, she looked more ready to attend a royal ball than to travel down the dangerous path on the side of the mountain.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “If we had more time, I’d suggest you change, but…” Nero looked over his shoulder at the cave’s entrance. “I don’t think we have time for that. You might at least want a different pair of shoes, though.”

  “It just seemed a shame to leave these behind,” she said.

  “True,” Nero said. “Once we get to Viridi, I’m sure we can sell it.”

  Her face scrunched up with a pained look. “Of course.”

  “Let’s get moving before someone finds us out here. We need to get as far away as we can from this place before the next nightfall.” He reached out a hand. “Here, give me your bag. With those shoes, the extra balance might throw off your weight as we go down the path outside. I don’t want you to worry about tripping.”

  Neryssa rubbed her arm and looked away from him, gazing down at the steps beneath her feet.

  Not only was she dressed poorly for travel, but her pack was also missing. She had nothing with her but the dress and shoes she wore. How could she have forgotten the bag it took her so long to pack?

  The castle door opened, and Adrius stepped out with a triumphant grin.

  Nero’s heart sank as he realized: she hadn’t forgotten her bag at all. She’d been caught.

  “I thought you would be the prize, you know,” Adrius said. “I wanted you to become my loyal spy, but it soon became clear that she was the true prize. Still, I’m impressed. Any other mortal would have lain down and given up after what I put you through. Yet here you stand, still ready to oppose me. I can appreciate that tenacity.”

  “Just let us go,” Nero said, his voice shaking. “Please.”

  Adrius ignored him and pressed himself against Neryssa’s back. He brushed her hair away and kissed the base of her throat.

  “I told you he’d be here.” She squeezed her eyes shut and looked away.

  “You’ve done well, coming to me to tell me of your brother’s plans,” Adrius said in her ear. “All on your own!”

  “No,” Nero whispered. “She wouldn’t do that.”

  But with the way Neryssa still avoided his gaze, even he didn’t believe it.

  “She would,” Adrius said with a triumphant grin. “And oh, she did. She was more than happy to take this chance to prove her loyalty.”

  “Let her go,” Nero said. “Just leave her alone. Do what you want with me, but let Neryssa leave.”

  “Why would I do that, when she is exactly where she wants to be?” Adrius released his hold on her.

  “Liar!”

  “No.” Neryssa squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She started down the stairs toward Nero, her hands clasped behind her back. “He’s telling the truth. I could have left with you tonight, and no one would have ever known.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Nero asked.

  “Don’t be angry with me.” She stopped at the base of the stairs, only a few steps away from Nero.

  “Help me understand, then,” Nero said, his frustration overtaking his despair. “Why would you betray your own brother?”

  “If you’d listened to me, if you ever truly listened, you would already know the answer to that,” she said. “But no— why would you listen to a word I said? You know better. You’ve always known better.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  She paced in front of him, always keeping her eyes on his. Every trace of the guilt she’d shown earlier was gone, replaced with a cold, disinterested confidence. “I’ve always been the helpless sister to you. It’s been your job to protect me from the world.”

  “I’m your brother,” Nero said. “That’s what I was supposed to do.”

  “No,” she snapped. “You never stopped for a moment to let me be my own person. Did you ever consider what I had to do while we were living on the streets? Or did you think I just sat around all day waiting for you to come home with whatever you’d stolen, all the while expecting me to believe you earned it fairly through your labor?”

  He shrank back further with each word as her bitterness and rage tore into him. “You’re right. I never stopped to think about what you wanted. But I know it’s not this.”

  “Do you?” she asked with a derisive laugh. “How do you know what I want, when you’ve never bothered to ask? You decided who I was— who I should be. You thought I was just an innocent little girl, and you never took the time to understand what I wanted. Well, now you know. I’m exactly where I want to be.”

  “I don’t understand. He drank your blood. And he—”

  “Lord Adrius never took anything I didn’t want him to take, from my veins, or otherwise,” she said, cutting him off sharply. “At his side, I will have the power to make men kneel before me. Including you.”

  “I’ll never kneel for him,” Nero said. “Or for you.”

  “That remains to be seen,” Adrius said, cocking his head to the side.

  Ignoring the vampire’s mocking interjection, Nero stepped forward to challenge Neryssa. “What did he give you to change you like this?”

  “Everything.” Neryssa took another step forward and flashed a smile that revealed a pair of sharp fangs. She stood perfectly still to let him take in the sight.

  Nero stumbled back and fell to the ground. His sister was one of them now. She was a monster, just like Adrius.

  “You know what must be done now,” Adrius said.

  Neryssa pulled a dagger from behind her back. She hadn’t had it earlier, when she first walked out of the castle—Adrius must have slipped it to her when they were standing together. The light from the leyline crystal on the lamp behind her glinted on the steel as she started toward him once again.

  Nero’s eyes went wild with fear. He leaped to his feet. His boots pounded against the dirt as he sprinted from his sister and her dagger as fast as he could move.

  But it wasn’t fast enough.

  With unnatural speed, she was upon him in an instant. She stood before him, her hair wild, her feet bare and free of the heels she’d been wearing only moments ago. She cut him off, too close for Nero to stop his momentum. He crashed into her, knocking them both to the ground.

  Before he could say another word, a searing pain shot through his side. He looked down at the dagger. The hilt poked out from between his ribs. Fire burned through his lungs with every breath. He grabbed the dagger and tossed it away, and a pool of red seeped through his white tunic.

  He rolled over and curled up, holding his side as though his hand would be enough to keep the blood in his body, where it belonged.

  “Nero?” Neryssa’s voice was far away as Nero writhed on the ground next to her. She sat up and crouched at his side, no longer as certain as she’d been at Adrius’ side. She looked down at the wound and licked her lips. Covering her mouth, she backed away from him.

  Agonizing gasps, the primal sounds of a dying animal, tore from his throat.

  He was dying, he realized. The thought almost brought him calmness even through the pain that consumed him. Life had been nothing but pain. Why should death be anything different? He would soon be gone, and it would all be over.

  That wasn’t so bad.

  “Don’t let him die,” Neryssa shrieked. “You promised he wouldn’t die.”
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  Through blurred, fading vision, Nero could hardly make out the shape of Adrius standing above him.

  Adrius crouched down on the other side of Nero, twirling the dagger in his hand. “What a shame to waste such talent.”

  He shoved the dagger into Nero’s side once more, then again. The searing pain returned, again and again until Neryssa’s cries faded and the whole world turned black.

  Chapter 10

  Nero woke with a burning hunger clawing its way through his throat. He struggled to open his eyes. They were so heavy. He felt like he’d slept for ages, yet not at all. Exhaustion weighed down his limbs, and he couldn’t move. Couldn’t even open his eyes.

  Where was he?

  He could hardly recall what had happened, or where he’d fallen asleep. The last thing he remembered was pain. Excruciating, unrelenting pain.

  Had he died and been buried? Was he now below the earth, his soul trapped forever in his lifeless body?

  His attempt to speak came out as little more than a pained groan.

  “Nero!” Neryssa’s voice came from somewhere to his left. Her soft hand was on his forehead, brushing back his hair.

  With great effort, he blinked his eyes open. The room he was in was small, lit dimly by several flickering candles. His shirt had been removed, and he wore only pants. Neryssa sat next to him, her hair pulled back in a high ponytail that hardly contained the wild curls.

  The sight of her frightened him, but that didn’t make sense. Why would he be afraid of his own sister?

  “I was hoping you’d wake up soon,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Hungry,” Nero said, though as soon as the word came from his lips, he knew it wasn’t quite right. “No. Thirsty. Need a drink.”

  His voice was hoarse and unfamiliar, like he hadn’t used it in some time.

  “Yes, of course. Wait here.” Neryssa disappeared, leaving him alone in the bedroom.

  As strength returned to his body, he pulled on his heavy limbs, trying to rouse them from their slumber.

  But they would not budge.

  He turned his head to the side and gasped. He’d been too disoriented to notice at first, too unable to control his own body, to notice that he was bound to the four posts of a bed, his body forming a stiff X across the silky sheets. He struggled against his bindings, but his weak efforts did little to move them.

  He sank back into the sheets once again and closed his eyes, trying to remember. Had he been brought to Lord Ellery’s castle to be punished?

  No. Neryssa seemed free to move around as she pleased. If they were at Lord Ellery’s, she would be just as much a prisoner as he.

  Why couldn’t he remember?

  There was nothing to do but wait.

  Neryssa’s soft footsteps approached a short time later. Instead of bringing him a cup of water, she had with her a young woman who looked to be around their age. She shivered in her torn, ragged tunic. Her feet were bare, and her hair was pulled back in a tangled brown mess, all matted together.

  “Who is this?” Nero croaked out.

  “She is here to help you. Aren’t you?” Neryssa said.

  The girl nodded, though she kept her unfocused eyes cast downward, like she didn’t dare look anywhere else.

  Neryssa helped the girl onto the bed and grabbed her wrist. She leaned down, like she meant to kiss the girl’s hand, then brought her wrist to Nero’s mouth.

  Not wanting to be rude, he leaned forward to kiss the girl’s wrist as his sister had done. He didn’t know why. Only that it was what Neryssa had done.

  The girl smelled so good, like sugary fruit and some sort of candy.

  Something sweet flowed into his mouth. He’d never tasted anything so divine. It was power and strength all at once.

  And as he drank, it all came back to him.

  His missions to prove his worth. Their departure from Caracta.

  Lord Adrius— the vampire.

  The dagger in his gut. Again, and again.

  In horror, he pulled his head back. The woman Neryssa had brought in lay next to him, her chest rising with shallow breaths, her eyes distant in a dreamy expression. Her arm fell across Nero’s chest. Two streaks of blood dripped down her wrist and rolled down her skin, landing on his bare chest.

  “No!” Nero thrashed at his bindings, but though renewed strength flowed through him, the ropes did not budge.

  “Nero,” Neryssa said, her voice calm as though she were speaking to an unruly child, “lick her wound shut.”

  “No,” he said, his voice cracking. “I can’t.”

  “If you don’t, she will bleed out and die.”

  With a small whimper, Nero leaned forward again and dragged his tongue up her skin, passing over the wound from Neryssa’s teeth. The sickly sweet taste of her blood lingered on his tongue. When he pulled away, all traces of the wound had disappeared.

  Neryssa sat on the opposite side of the bed again, leaving the girl next to Nero. She brushed his hair back again. “You slept for so long. I was only out for a day when he turned me.”

  “What happened?” Nero asked. His voice sounded like his own again, no longer hoarse. But nothing else about him felt right. “How long has it been?”

  “It’s been nearly a week since you…” her voice trailed off, and she waved her hand in the air as though the details of his death were unimportant. “You’re like him now. One of us.”

  He rolled his tongue around to explore his mouth and found two pointed fangs. Though his memories were slowly returning to him and Neryssa’s explanation was logical, nothing made sense.

  “Did I kill her?” he asked, glancing at the girl next to him.

  “No. She’ll be fine. She’ll be sent back down with the others. Lord Adrius prefers if we don’t kill them, actually. He doesn’t refresh his supply very often.”

  Nero shook his head, still unable to grasp the reality. He didn’t want to focus on who— or what— he now was. Instead, he focused on something a little more grounded in reality. “Why am I tied up?”

  “Oh,” Neryssa said, her eyes flicking to the bindings. “That. Lord Adrius didn’t want to let you free until he had a chance to see you himself. He wasn’t going to turn you, you know. He would have preferred to let you die.”

  Nero’s mouth fell open, but no words came out.

  “He didn’t think you deserved a reward after you tried to run,” she continued. “But I pleaded for you.”

  “Let me go,” Nero said. “Before he comes back. We can get out of here.”

  Neryssa shook her head. “I’m bound to him now… And so are you.”

  As though he’d been summoned by their discussion, Adrius stepped into the doorway.

  Nero’s fists clenched, and he pulled at the ropes until they bit into his skin. “I’ll kill you for what you did to us.”

  “Such a bold threat for such a helpless creature.” He strolled over to the bed and ran his icy fingers along Nero’s exposed skin. “I see you’ve had your first meal.”

  The sound that came from Nero’s mouth was something between a hiss and a growl, something inhuman and ferocious.

  “Neryssa, escort the human female back down to the dungeons, then find something to occupy your evening. I must speak with your brother about obedience.”

  She gave him a respectful nod, then disappeared with the girl, leaving Nero alone with Adrius.

  He circled around the bed, eyeing Nero. “Your sister is the most promising vampire I’ve created in quite some time. I decided to indulge her request for me to turn you. I know from our little tests how resilient you are. So, let’s test that resilience while you learn your first lesson, shall we?”

  Adrius freed Nero’s wrist, and Nero pushed himself upright. His eyes darted wildly around the room, searching for something— anything— he could use as a weapon. Only the whip fastened to the vampire lord’s waist caught his attention. Even if he managed to take it, Nero had no idea how to use it effectively.

 
Adrius had the advantage when Nero was human, but that wasn’t the case anymore. They were the same now— the vampire lord had lost his advantage. And Nero had no intention of letting him live after what he’d done.

  “I see the hate in your eyes,” Adrius said as he started freeing Nero’s other wrist. He was calm, completely undaunted by Nero’s seething rage. “It means nothing. You will not harm me.”

  The words washed over Nero with a deep power he felt down to his bones. As the final rope fell away from his wrist, he leaped to his feet. But even as he willed his body to attack Adrius, to tear the vampire’s limbs from his body and strangle the life from him, he could do nothing.

  The grin on Lord Adrius’ face spread wider, putting his fangs on full display. “Is something wrong?”

  “What have you done to me?” Nero asked.

  “You are bound to me. Your will is mine. Now, kneel.”

  Though his mind screamed protests, Nero’s body obeyed. He fell to his knees.

  Adrius unhooked the whip from his belt and walked behind Nero. “You will learn obedience.”

  The whip cracked against Nero’s back, biting into his skin. He clenched his teeth, not wanting to give the vampire lord the satisfaction of his pain.

  “You will learn loyalty.”

  The whip struck again, sending pain exploding through Nero’s back. Again and again, Adrius struck him.

  Nero wanted to flee. He wanted to turn around and attack the monster who was hurting him. He wanted to curl up and die. But he could do none of those things. He could do nothing but kneel as he’d been instructed.

  The only thing he could control was his reaction, but every strike chipped away at his will.

  Nero held in his cries until he could do so no more, and all at once the screams he’d been holding in tore free from his throat.

  How long he remained in that room, kneeling in a long-dried pool of his own blood with only the darkness to keep him company, Nero could not say. The drips of blood that had streaked down his back had long since crusted over, pulling his skin with every slight movement. He wished he could see what remained of his back, whether there was any inch of his flesh that had been left unscarred. With the wounds left untreated, it must be hideous.