30. Callie

The truck jerked to a halt and I sat up suddenly as I came to my senses again. I wasn’t sure if I’d fallen asleep or passed out, but I hadn’t wandered into any dreams so I was tempted to believe it was the latter. Julius’s arm was tight around my shoulders and I smiled up at him appreciatively as I moved out of his grip.

My head swam with pain and my vision darkened a little as I got to my feet.

Julius leapt out of the truck and I waited for the dizziness to pass as Danielle, Clarice and the other vampires followed him out.

I took a steadying breath as I moved to the exit and Fabian caught my elbow.

“Let me carry you inside,” he breathed, his voice laced with concern. “You can hardly stand.”

I tugged my elbow out of his grip and shook my head, causing it to spin wildly.

“I thought I warned you not to touch me,” I snarled before jumping out of the truck.

The sudden movement stole my energy though and my vision darkened to the point of totality as the ground rushed towards me. I heard Tempest hitting the gravel path as it fell from my grip and the sound resounded painfully through my skull, causing me to wince in preparation of my face following it to the ground next.

Darkness took me before the pain could strike and I lost myself to it for several seconds.

I came around quickly, blinking in confusion as I found myself in Fabian’s arms while Julius pointed Venom at him.

“Release her,” the slayer growled and I tried to push my way out of Fabian’s grip, but he wouldn’t let me go.

“She collapsed,” Fabian hissed. “I’m just looking after her.”

“If you care about her then you’ll respect her wishes. She told you not to touch her.” Julius stepped closer, violence simmering in the air between them.

“Get off of me,” I snapped.

Fabian reluctantly released the arm which he’d banded beneath my legs so that my feet could touch the ground, but he kept his other arm around my waist. I used my gifted muscles to shove him back and I stumbled towards Julius, hoping I could make it that far without blacking out again.

Montana climbed out of the cab as the tension between them grew. “What’s going on?” she asked, her eyes darting between the three of us and landing on me with concern.

“Nothing,” I replied quickly, not wanting her to worry about my injuries. We had more important things to focus on. “We need to get moving.”

Julius stooped to retrieve Tempest from the ground before handing it back to me. The heavy presence of the blade made me feel closer to Magnar as it greeted me, and I held it tightly as I followed Clarice up a wide set of stairs which led into the lavish castle.

Julius stayed close to my side and I offered him a small smile when I was sure the others weren’t looking. I didn’t want these vampire to realise just how weak I felt. I’d lost a lot of blood as well as having my head smashed into a wall and I was the only one here who couldn’t heal quickly.

We moved through expansive corridors and up a spiralling staircase until Clarice led us into an office with a huge glass table dominating the central space.

I dropped into a chair with a sigh of relief and waited while Clarice, Montana, Julius, Miles and the vampire who seemed to be his shadow took seats too. I guessed Danielle and the other Elite weren’t going to be privy to this conversation.

The door closed behind us and I frowned as I wondered where Fabian had gone.

“It might be worth cloaking all of us so the gods can’t hear this conversation,” Julius murmured on my left and I nodded as I pushed the ring’s protection over everyone in the room.

The vampire I didn’t know had chosen a seat opposite me and he smiled at me as he noticed my attention lingering on him. He was tall with black hair, dark skin and a strong presence. I wondered why he was the only Elite to be given special treatment, my gaze trailing to Miles whose seat had been tugged close to the stranger’s.

“I’m Warren.” He leaned forward, offering me his hand but I didn’t shake it, still too wary of the bloodsuckers to trust an unfamiliar one easily.

“And why are you here, Warren?” I asked.

He glanced at Miles who answered for him.

“He’s family.” He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Warren is my secret husband.”

I didn’t smile in response to the wide grin he offered me. “And did you have to kidnap him and force him down the aisle too?” I asked.

“No,” Miles chuckled like I’d been joking. “This one is for love.”

“How nice for you to be allowed to make that decision,” I replied darkly before looking away from both of them.

Being back in this place was putting me on edge. We were surrounded and outnumbered, and I was beginning to wonder why the hell I’d agreed to come here. Fabian still wanted me for his wife with or without the ring’s influence. If we couldn’t trust these bloodsuckers then there was very little that I’d be able to do to stop him from taking me again even with Julius.

Miles shifted uncomfortably and Montana caught my eye from Julius’s other side, giving me a reassuring smile. She obviously didn’t think I had any reason to fear this place and I had to trust in her knowledge of these royals.

“What are we waiting for?” Julius asked as no one seemed inclined to start discussing what we were going to do next.

“Fabian is just sending his Familiars out to scout for Valentina,” Clarice explained. “We need to figure out where that bitch is hiding. We can start as soon as he returns.”

The pounding in my head was growing sharper again and I touched my fingers to the wound on my forehead, fighting the urge to wince.

Miles watched me with interest and I scowled at him. “Am I making you hungry, bloodsucker?”

“A little, now that you mention it,” he replied. “But mostly I’m just fascinated by seeing a wound which doesn’t heal instantly.”

I placed Tempest on the table in front of me and leaned towards him. “I can give you one to match if you like it so much?” I offered.

“You can try if you want to spar with me.” Miles grinned and I got the feeling that was a genuine offer.

“Our kind don’t play at fighting with the likes of you,” Julius snorted dismissively. “So if you want to fight her then you’d better be prepared to die.”

The door opened before Miles could respond and I looked around as Fabian stepped in. He was holding a glass of water and had something else clasped in his other fist. He began to move towards me then halted suddenly as the ring’s influence fell over him.

I eyed him warily as his love for me slipped away and I wondered what that would mean. The last time I’d released him from it, he’d tried to steal the ring from me and force the bond back into action. I clenched my fist tightly, ready to remove its power again if I had to.

“Have your Familiars found anything?” Clarice demanded of him.

“Not yet,” he replied, though his gaze remained fixed on me. “But they’re scouring every inch of the city. It won’t be long until they find them.”

“I imagine you said much the same thing when they were hunting us,” Julius replied scathingly. “But they weren’t very effective then.”

Fabian dropped into the seat on my right and didn’t respond, though he was clearly irritated by Julius’s remark. He placed the glass of water on the table before him and slowly slid it towards me as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it or not.

He hesitated before leaving it in front of me then withdrew his hand.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

Fabian glanced at the rest of the people in the room before he replied. “It’s water. So that you can take these.” He held out his fist and I frowned as he opened it to reveal two white pills. “They’re painkillers to help you feel better. You’re my wife after all and I swore to look after you.”

“I’ve never noticed you paying so much attention to caring for your other wives,” Miles commented.

“Well there’s not a lot of point in her being here if she can’t think straight,” Fabian replied dismissively, dumping the pills on the table in front of me before looking away.

“He divorced his other wives anyway. Aren’t we supposed to pretend they never existed?” Warren reminded Miles and the two of them laughed as Fabian glowered.

I guessed that he wouldn’t have gotten the painkillers for me if he hadn’t been under the influence of our bond at the time, and now that it was gone, he seemed embarrassed by the action.

I pursed my lips as I picked up one of the little pills. “What am I supposed to do with these?”

“Swallow them,” Fabian growled, obviously wanting to move the conversation along.

My headache was only getting worse so I shrugged as I put the pill into my mouth and washed it down with the water. I repeated the process with the second pill and some of the tension left Fabian’s shoulders as the attention shifted off of us.

“We need to quell these biters once and for all,” Clarice announced, drawing the subject back around to the reason we were all there. “Once we have their location, we need to go in hard and without mercy. When they were just protesting there wasn’t much we could do about them but at this stage I don’t think there is any other choice but to execute them all.”

“Agreed,” Fabian snarled.

“We should try to apprehend Valentina,” Miles added. “Then we can broadcast her execution for everyone in the New Empire to see.”

“If I get to her before you, I won’t be holding back on killing her,” Julius replied.

“Me neither,” Montana said and I agreed with both of them on that.

“So long as she dies, I don’t care much either way,” Clarice said. “We can’t let this stand. She has flouted our laws, raised a rebel army, abducted a prince and placed a false crown upon her head. It’s time she learned the consequences of those actions.”

“We should go after her at night so she can’t use the sun against you,” Julius said.

“What of the other elements she can wield?” Miles asked, pushing a hand through his blonde hair. He and Warren looked oddly clean in comparison to our post-battle filth.

“There’s not a lot we can do about the wind.” Julius shrugged. “But when I used to spar with her, I would try and contain her within a building or cave to cut off her connection to the rain and lightning. She can’t fist fight for shit if you can get that close to her. We always used to tell her to work on it but she refused, preferring to rely on her gifts.”

“As far as I’m aware, she hasn’t spent any time sparring since she was turned,” Fabian added. “So I’m sure if any of us can get close enough she’ll be easy to dispatch.”

I smiled in response to that.

“Good. Then for now we should rest up in preparation of heading after her once we get a location,” Clarice said. “Montana, you can have Erik’s room; as he’s your husband it’s yours now too.”

“Oh... sure,” Montana said with a faint frown, and it didn’t seem like she was entirely comfortable with that decision.

Clarice turned her gaze to me and Julius. “I can have rooms made up for the two of you as well.”

“As much as you’re obviously looking forward to sneaking into my bedroom tonight, I’ve told you I’m not interested in you, harlot. So we only need one room,” Julius replied firmly.

Clarice opened her mouth to respond, her eyes flashing with rage but Fabian beat her to it.

“If you seriously think I’m going to let you take my wife to your bed in my fucking castle then you must be deluded,” Fabian snarled. “If she’s sharing anyone’s bed, it’ll be mine.”

“Callie belongs with my brother,” Julius growled. “And I’ll die before I let you lay a hand on her.”

“That can be arranged,” Fabian hissed.

“I’m right here,” I said loudly before they could come to blows. I turned my gaze to Fabian before I continued. “And I’ll be sharing a room with Julius and ideally Montana too. We’re already outnumbered here and if you think we’re going to put ourselves at further risk by separating then you’re all fucking insane. This isn’t a negotiation and if you try to make any decisions for me then I will happily use this blade to cut your head off again. I’d hazard a guess that it might be a little harder to heal from in that scenario?”

Fabian eyed Tempest with distaste and let the subject drop.

“Well if we’re done here then maybe you could all go and wash up,” Miles suggested. “You reek of death.”

“That’s rich coming from the likes of you,” Julius muttered.

Everyone got to their feet and as I stood, I was pleased to find my head didn’t spin. In fact, I could barely feel my headache at all anymore. I realised with a jolt that it must have been because of the pills Fabian had given me and my gut squirmed uncomfortably as the unwelcome feeling of gratitude filled me.

“I’ll show you to your room,” Clarice said and Julius followed her as she headed away down the corridor.

Montana noticed my hesitation and stopped beside me as Miles and Warren left too. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Just tell Julius I’ll catch him up.”

She glanced back at Fabian in surprise then nodded as she hurried after Clarice and Julius.

“Fabian?” I called, drawing his attention as he stepped out of the door.

He stilled and looked at me like he couldn’t quite believe I wanted to talk to him. “Yes?”

“Could I have a moment?”

“Anything for my dear wife,” he replied mockingly.

“Would you prefer it if I kept using the ring on you while we’re talking?” I asked as I spun the golden piece of jewellery on my finger. I could already feel the others slipping outside of its protection and I just hoped that the gods didn’t try anything while they were too far away for me to hide them.

Fabian looked at the ring too, seeming to consider it for a moment. “I think that would be wise if you would rather I restrained myself.”

I gave him a faint smile and left the ring’s power in place over him so that he wasn’t a slave to our bond.

“I just wanted to thank you,” I said. “For the pills. And for fighting beside me out there. You might have saved my life once or twice.”

Fabian narrowed his eyes at me as if he was waiting for me to add something else, but that was it. I was still pissed at him for what he’d tried to do to Magnar in their fight, but it wasn’t as though Magnar would have done any different had the tables been turned. And if they were all able to put their feud aside to try and solve the prophecy then I was willing to do the same. As much as I might have preferred not to, I knew that I did owe him my gratitude.

“Well if you really want to thank me then feel free to use your mouth for something other than words,” he replied, shifting a little closer to me.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Do you work hard at being an asshole or does it just come naturally?”

“It’s hard to say after all this time.” He shrugged playfully and I couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Have your Familiars found anything yet?” I asked, trying to keep the desperation from my voice, even though I was fairly sure I failed.

My heart ached for Magnar. I needed to know he was alright. I was desperate for any hint of information and I wasn’t sure how long I could bear to wait in this damn castle before we headed after him.

“It’s been thirty minutes,” Fabian replied scathingly. “Animals can only get so far in such a short period of time.”

“Right.” I nodded, disappointment pooling in my gut as I began to turn away from him. “Well, that’s all I wanted to say so-”

“I could show you something else if you’re willing to trust me?” he offered.

“I should probably just go. Julius and Montana will be wondering-”

“Of course, you’d have to get permission. I’d forgotten you slayers are all just slaves to your vow.” He turned and headed out of the room, and I scowled as I followed him, knowing full well that he was manipulating me but unable to resist the urge to prove him wrong. I didn’t need to ask anyone’s permission for anything anymore. I was free and I intended to stay that way for the rest of my days. Besides, if I stayed with him then I’d find out as soon as his Familiars discovered anything.

“This had better be worth my time,” I muttered.

Fabian chuckled as he led the way back down the corridor and we descended a flight of stairs. He pointed out things about the paintings on the walls and the architecture of the building as we passed them and I frowned at the opulent surroundings.

“You realise this stuff doesn’t impress me, right?” I asked as we headed down another long corridor and Fabian guided me into a darkened room. “Everything you’re showing me just highlights how much you kept for yourselves while leaving the humans to suffer in squalor.”

“There are those who would argue that humans used to allow their farm animals to suffer in squalor before we took over. As the new apex predators we are simply continuing your traditions.”

“Humans used to eat animals?” I asked in disgust. That sounded a hell of a lot like being a vampire to me.

“Of course. But you couldn’t really expect us to maintain that level of agriculture just to fatten up our own food supply now, could you? So we got rid of all of that when we seized power.”

“Then it sounds like you did at least one good thing.”

I looked around at the dark room as he headed on through it and I realised it was a library. The scent of dust filled my nostrils and I glanced back towards the exit, tightening my grip on Tempest as we delved further into the dark. The blade hummed with displeasure and I was sure it was trying to tell me that Magnar wouldn’t like me doing this, but it was too late for me to turn back now. And if Fabian did decide to hurt me then all I’d have to do was remove the ring’s influence from him again. The version of Fabian who was hopelessly in love with me could at least be relied upon to leave me unharmed.

“Yes, I suppose you would be able to identify with the plight of a cow destined to be a hamburger,” he murmured.

“A what?”

“Never mind.”

“I hope you haven’t brought me all the way down here for a reading lesson so that I can decipher your next love letter for myself,” I said, eyeing the books. “Because I’m really not sure if writing poetry is your calling.”

“Hilarious,” Fabian replied coolly. “But you can be assured I won’t be writing to you again. Even if you could read.”

“Well you say that now, while you’re not all obsessed with me. But love-struck Fabian deals with things a little differently,” I teased.

“What’s to say I’m not obsessed with you either way?” he asked as he stopped before a door at the back of the room. “Here we are.”

“And where exactly is here?” I didn’t want to respond to his other comment or think about what it meant so I simply ignored it.

“You’ll see.” He typed a code into a keypad beside the door then pressed his hand to a scanner.

The sound of a heavy bolt unlocking filled the air and the door slid back into the wall. Then a light flicked on and a stairway was revealed.

“Ladies first,” Fabian said, indicating for me to go ahead of him.

A shiver of anticipation ran down my spine and for a moment I could have sworn I heard a thousand voices whispering to me from the space beyond the stairs.

I stepped forward slowly, descending the steps as Tempest and Fury hummed in hungry excitement. No doubt I should have been hesitant to follow Fabian’s instructions, but my instincts were urging me on with a sense of excitement which I couldn’t quite place.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and goosebumps raised along my flesh the further I went. Something was waiting for me at the foot of those stairs and it was eager for me to arrive. My blood sang for it and my heart pounded frantically like it was responding to the call of a long-lost friend.

When I finally stepped out into the enormous vault, my breath caught in my throat and my lips parted in wonder.

Every inch of space was filled with rack after rack of glimmering golden weapons. There were bows, axes, daggers, hatchets and blades. So many slayer blades that I could have sworn the room was alive with their energy.

I stepped forward, brushing my fingers along their hilts as their names whispered through my mind, one after another. Each of them longing to be held, begging me to lift them into my arms and use them for their sole purpose. To destroy the vampires.

I bit my lip as I turned back to Fabian and I couldn’t fight the smile which lit my face.

“Do you think it was wise to bring me here?” I teased. Every weapon in this room hungered for his death with the desperation of a starving man.

“Maybe not,” Fabian admitted, his eyes sparkling with a joy of his own. “But the look on your face right now is worth the risk.”