Chapter 22

Istartle awake, and something jangles as I move. I glance at my arms, confused. No wonder my wrists were so heavy. The bastards have chained me.

Thirst dries my throat, and I swallow against the sandpaper feeling, my stomach twisting in hunger. How fucking long have I been here?

"I see you've decided to grace us with your presence," a thickly accented voice says.

I squint against the darkness, and a torch flares to life, then another, and another, until light bathes the room, casting strange, flickering shadows. It takes a beat for my eyes to adjust,

Two men stare down at where I'm chained to the floor, my head still aching, my eyes raw and swollen. Fear bites me, and my spine hits a stone wall as I scuttle backwards as far as I can.

Still, I can feel the power in me, curling around me like a cat, my fingertips tingling, waiting to be used.

I'm not helpless.

One of the men steps forward, a cruel smile on his face.

"Do you know where you are?" He crouches next to me, tugging the chain securing my ankle.

All my fear condenses, and I breathe through it, icy resolve spreading. I can cower and shake in fear, or I can throw them off their fucked up little games. How long should I wait before I attack? Maybe I can force them to unchain me. If I attack while I'm chained up, it's not going to do me any good.

It's a shit plan, but it's better than no plan.

So I smile, and tilt my head, ignoring the throb in my temple. "Does it matter?"

One of the vampires chuckles, surprising me. I try not to let it show on my face. The laughing man steps forward, and a crown of white sits on top of his head. My nose wrinkles. It's like no crown I've ever seen. Darkness seems to swirl around it, which must be a trick of the light.

As he moves closer, my eyes widen.

The crown is made of bones. Finger bones.

Oh, I do not fucking like that.

Panic rises, and I push it down, breathing deeply. There's no room for panic now. There's no room for anything but my shitty, shitty plan.

"Do you know why you're here?" the first vampire asks. The flickering light from the torches splashes across the lean, too-narrow bones of his face, making him look ghastly and ill.

Which fits, I guess, considering his heart is pumping the wrong direction.

"I have a feeling you're going to enlighten me." I flutter my eyelashes, my hands numb with fear. I honestly don't know why I'm mouthing off. Sure, I've never taken crap from any doctors or patients on my shifts, but this isn't the ER, and I'm not even on Earth.

The vampire frowns, tsk-ing at me. "You'd think some of the bravado would have been bred out of them after their years watering down the bloodline on Earth," he tells the king behind him.

"Sorry to disappoint."

The slap comes shockingly quick, and my head flings to the side. Coppery blood pools in my mouth, and I spit it out. Fear and surprise burn away into an inferno of anger, and the tingling in my arms amps up.

"There it is," says the vampire who slapped me. "See how she glows?"

The king shifts behind him, and when I turn my attention to him, unease threads through me. His dark eyes are slightly vacant, glossed over. As though he's not all there. He might wear the crown, but he's not running the show.

I can't explain how I know it, just like I can't explain how I know something is wrong with him, something is off.

The vampire crouched next to me reaches for me, and I jerk as his fingernails dig into my chin. He scrapes a finger across the seam of my lips, but I can't move any further away.

Closing his eyes, he pops a finger in his mouth. "Delicious," he sighs. "It's been too long since we had a Starbound woman."

He stands, victory shimmering in his eyes. I grit my teeth, absolutely disgusted. He sucked my blood off his fingertip. This is so fucked.

"Unchain me," I tell him, trying the tone I've heard Hyadum use on his guards. The glow wreathing my hands intensifies, and I reach for him, but my power glances off him, landing on the vampire next to him. The king.

The vampire laughs, pure amusement glinting in his eyes. Beside him, the king shifts again, his expression focusing as he frowns down at me.

I suck in a breath. His heart's all wrong, yes… but that's not what's drawn my attention.

Sweat beads on my forehead as I concentrate. The vampire in charge is saying something, but I ignore him.

Darkness swirls around the vampire king's mind, his heart… it's foul, and it clings to the searching tendrils I send out like tar. That's not right. I pluck at one, and the king's gaze shifts to the vampire next to him, then to me. Gritting my teeth, sweat sliding down my back, between my breasts, I strain harder against it.

I don't know what it is. It's not a wound, not a sickness… not a natural one, at least. It feels alien, malevolent. Eldgrim's eyes narrow.

"So are you going to like, drink my blood, or what?" I say, and it sounds weak to my ears. But I need to keep him talking. Keep him distracted. The king steps back in confusion, and I lock eyes with him. He's the way in. He's the one. I don't know how I know it, but it's true. I can feel it with some long dormant instinct.

"How pedestrian." A thin laugh seeps out of him. "No. Not exactly, at least. We will drain you, slowly, of course." He grins, showing fangs. "A little at a time, to allow you to replenish. You see, the last Starbound we had here died. Gave us enough to set the power in place, but it fades over time. It needs a new dose, to keep the rest of the Starbound in check. And then, of course, since you are female, we will breed you with our bloodline, so we can keep your power close."

"Right," I say, a bit dizzy. Gross. I work harder, my limbs heavy, trying to dissolve the darkness around the king, trying to push it back, peel it away. It scratches at all my senses, insistent and wrong. "Do I get to pick who I breed with, or is it like, first come, first serve?"

He stares at me. The king blinks once, the only sign of life there.

"Get it?" I say, hoarse. "First come, first serve?"

Eldgrim bends down, locking eyes with me, his mouth pulled back in a snarl.

I grin at him, my lip splitting at the corner. "It was a good one, admit it."

"Why aren't you afraid? The women we caught before died by their own hands before we could even get this far. Then the rest fled, like cowards."

"My dude, you're the one talking to a helpless woman who's chained up. Not sure they were the cowards, but go off." I'm rambling, not even sure what I'm saying, so focused on the king. I just have to keep Eldgrim talking. Good thing he likes to hear himself. "But tell me, please, how do the undead even make babies? You have swimmers?"

"Swimmers?" He tilts his head.

"Yeah, you know, ejaculate. Sperm. Jizz. Cum. The white stuff that comes out when you get off. I mean, I'm sure you're familiar with it, considering your hand's probably your BFF."

My magic lashes out, and I find it, that itchy snarl of not rightness that I can't help poking at. My face twists as I concentrate. There. A strand of black snaps back, tainting my mouth with a bitter aftertaste. The king inhales deeply.

I stare at Eldgrim, hardly seeing him. He's trying to work out the insult, his expression furious… and slightly confused.

For some reason, this strikes me as hilarious, and I laugh. The king startles, staring between Eldgrim and I with wide, clear eyes.

"What are you doing?" Eldgrim asks quietly, cold fury infusing his voice.

Pain sears me as he slaps me again. I let the king go, the final strands weakened.

My cheek stings, but I meet the first vampire's eyes. "You will die first," I tell him, and I smile, spitting blood again. "It won't be quick, and it won't be painless."

"Eldgrim," the king mutters, shaking himself. He's massive, broad and thick, a scar slicing down his face and another across his neck. "What is the meaning of this?"

"What have you done?" This time, his boot catches me in the chest, and I double over, wheezing. "What did you do?"

The ground shakes, and for a moment, I worry I'm on the verge of blackout. Again.

"Eldgrim," the king says, and fire lights his eyes. A literal fire—an eerie orange glow that eclipses his dark pupil.

Eldgrim stands slowly, fury and fear chasing each other across his face. Ice pick pain shears through my brain as I increase my focus on the king.

"Your Majesty, I have done exactly what you bid us do when we took this land." Eldgrim steps closer, his hands out. Darkness spools between them, and the king's eyes grow redder.

"Why is the woman chained?"

I strain against the final darkness binding the king, pushing at it with all I have.

The ground shakes again, and this time, the vampires take note. A cry of alarm goes up somewhere overhead, and a bitter laugh pours from my dry mouth.

"Butcher King, we have use of her. Her people would slaughter us."

The king snarls, and the light of his consciousness fills my awareness, replacing the dark.

My people might, but I certainly will.

I push my tendrils out again, feeling around the darkness encasing Eldgrim. He makes an inhuman noise, fixating on me, and drawing a knife.

Before I have a chance to delve into his heart, his knife's at my throat.

Blood wells on the tip, and I go completely still.

The ground shakes again, the sound outside rising to a fever pitch. I close my eyes and wait for Eldgrim to drive the knife home.