Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (20 page)

Emilio stepped through first and one-by-one, we followed suit, entering the kingdom of Ravenden.

A large brazier burned in the center of the room, casting a circle of dancing light and shadows. Unlike the cave the Bull Shoalians called home, the clan of Ravenden was more similar to our Sotto and obviously built by human slave workers some centuries ago. The walls of Ravenden were of a natural stone streaked gray and white. The firelight bounced off them, making the quartz shimmer like diamonds in a veil. Great stone pillars stood at each corner of the room, trees carved into their marble bodies, and atop each tree perched a raven, the crest of Ravenden.

“Well,” Vasco said, “we should have company by now, shouldn’t we?”

“One would think,” Nirena said.

Istania drew bow and the others did too, as if she had given them an order.

“Something is amiss,” she whispered.

I glanced back. The doorway we had come in through had disappeared. Gulliver and Istania were the only two guards from Bull Shoals that bothered removing their hoods. The others stood tall and mysterious.

Iliaria and Anatharic shared a look. Iliaria nodded and they moved in opposite directions. There were two doorways marked by torches, but each of the doorways was without actual doors. It didn’t seem the most private place for a quiet entrance. Surely, if the clan of Ravenden was around, they would have heard us by now.

Iliaria’s nostrils flared as she tried to catch a scent on the air. I placed my hand on the pommel of the fox blade.

“Someone should be here,” Gulliver said.

“Unless we have walked into a trap, Bull Shoalian,” Renata said, giving him an unfriendly look.

“I swear on it, this is no trap of our making.”

“No,” a woman’s voice called from everywhere and nowhere. “It is of ours.”

I placed the gilded cage on the ground as quietly as I could. The night was suddenly alive with a symphony of hissing steel.

All those in our party stood armed, and yet, nothing happened.

Iliaria had drawn both of the crescent-curved blades of the Dracule.

“Morina,” she said. “Doing Damokles’s dirty work, these days? I knew you were ambitious, but I had thought you better than to be his bitch.”

A tall figure emerged from the darkness at the back of the room, stepping into the circle of light from the brazier. At first, I thought it was some trick of light that made her appearance so strange. And then I realized I saw her truly. Her hair was streaked black, white, and ash gray. Draculian wings stretched from her human back, arching above her shoulders. One of her eyes was covered by a large patch. The eye left uncovered was crimson with branches of the same onyx lightning that decorated Iliaria’s gaze.

“Now, now, Printessa.” The Dracule smiled widely, revealing all four of her fangs in a sort of grinning snarl. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

It was not noticeable, but I felt Renata startle beside me. I wasn’t sure why.

Iliaria moved from the doorway and closer to the Dracule. Morina kept the brazier between herself and Iliaria, not exactly hiding behind it, for she was too tall in stature to do that, but it did seem she was making an effort to do so.

Istania moved to my right and Gulliver and another followed her as they flanked out. The two other Bull Shoalians covered the doorway Iliaria had been investigating.

The rest of us stayed as we were. I let the point of the fox blade drop toward the ground and waited. It seemed no one was too keen on charging into battle just yet.

“What did he offer you, Morina?”

“Offer?” Her one red eye blinked. “Why would you think he had to offer anything, Printessa?”

“What did Damokles offer you in order to gain your services to his cause? Power? He has none to give.”

“I do not need Damokles’s power or his promises to seek to right a wrong committed long ago.”

“Aah.” It was Iliaria’s turn to smile, dark and mysteriously. “So that’s what this is? Come to defend your wounded pride? Or should I say, your wounded eye?”

Morina hissed through her teeth. Her face crinkled frighteningly, but Iliaria stood her ground. “You took something from me, Printessa.”

“Fool,” Iliaria spat the word. “It was your own doing. When will you see that?”

Fury passed over Morina’s features. “Never.”

“So be it,” Iliaria said, raising her hands and the two sickles to her sides in invitation. “Come dig your own grave, then.”

Morina started to lunge, but before she could get around the brazier, the sound of a crossbow to my right snapped and sent an arrow whirring through the air.

Morina was fast. She heard the arrow and tried to whirl away from it. She used her wings to shield her body against it and succeeded in knocking the arrow off its course and skittering across the smooth floor.

But while she was busy deflecting Gulliver’s shot, Istania took hers. The arrow penetrated her neck and Morina cried out like an animal screeching.

Another of the guards let loose. This time, Morina caught the arrow before it pierced her heart. She jerked the arrow free of her neck and seemed to ignore the gush of blood that spilled down her chest. She spoke through clenched teeth. “You are all making me
very
angry.”

Emilio raised his hands and a ball of flame leapt to life between his open palms. “There’s more where that came from.”

Morina growled her challenge at him.

Piph,
Cuinn whispered in my mind,
she said the trap is of their making. I do not sense anyone else, though. She’s alone and trying to make ye think it’s an ambush.

Why would she be alone?
I asked him.
That bloody well doesn’t make any sense.

He offered his version of a fox’s shrug and said,
Beats the pumpkins out of me.

Emilio’s flame stretched and moved as if it were shaping itself into something. If I was going to stop the fight that was about to ensue, I had to do it now.

Renata placed a hand on my shoulder. I think it was to warn me, but I stepped forward anyway.

“Emilio,” I said. “Cease fire.”

He glanced uncertainly at me and I reached up to touch his arm. He let out a breath, and as he did so, his flame shrunk to a plume of smoke.

“Wise,” Morina said. “But why stop now? We’re just getting started.”

“If you really wanted to kill us,” I said as I walked toward her and felt the tensions in the group behind me rise high like a tide threatening to pull me back. My legs trembled ever so slightly, but I forced myself to continue toward Morina anyway. “Why did you come alone? Why not ambush us?”

“Does it really matter?” Iliaria asked. “The fact that she is here and stands against us is evidence enough of her treachery, I think.”

“It matters, Iliaria.”

Morina’s one eye-lid flickered.

“You wonder why I approach you,” I said.

“Terrific,” she growled. “A telepath.”

“No,” I said and knelt before her, far enough away that if she made a move to hurt me, I was certain Iliaria could stop her. “An empath. Why do you attack us alone when, Dracule or no, you are outnumbered? You cannot win a battle against the lot of us.”

“An empath, even better. The last time I ate an empath I had indigestion for a week.”

“Then you know I will not go down so smoothly, though perhaps it says something of your skill when it comes to women, Dracule.”

“I didn’t mean it in that way,” Morina said, her one eye narrowing slightly.

“I’m sure you didn’t. So tell me, why do you seek to attack us when you are alone and outnumbered? Surely, if you were working with Damokles and his horde of toadies you would have come with a small army at your back.”

“Who says I have not?”

I turned the fox blade in my hand until the flat of the blade caught the light and drew her attention to it.

“An empathic vampire with a spirit blade.” Morina laughed darkly. “You do make interesting
friends
, Printessa.” She was still gazing at the sword when her eye widened. “You,” she said. One moment, she was staring at my hand, at the ring, I think, with an expression of surprise and horror, and the next, my blade went clanging across the floor.

Morina disarmed me in a matter of seconds. For a split second, my vision went dark, and then Morina pulled me hard against her, the point of steel a sharp threat at my throat.

When my mind made sense of what had happened, I realized that Morina had grabbed me and used her Draculian ability to travel between the worlds to shift us to another place in the room. She’d pulled me further back in the room, away from the others and their weapons, and held me in front of her like a shield.

The expression on Iliaria’s face was one of fury.

“So this is her?” Morina asked, the tip of her blade threatening to prick my skin. I went very still as my heart hammered like a drum against my ribs. I tried to calm myself to no avail.

Morina’s blade cut my skin, sharp and stinging. A trickle of blood slid down my neck. “Answer me!” she screamed over my shoulder. “Is this her, Iliaria?”

“Is she who?” Iliaria asked, her voice deep and growling with anger.

“Don’t try to riddle me,” Morina said, pushing her blade even harder against my neck. This time I winced and she grabbed a handful of my hair to keep me still. “Is this the vampire you’re bedding? The one that has seduced you with her charms?”

“I do not feel that is particularly any of your—” Her blade threatened to bite deeper, and I stopped talking.

“You must be an excellent fuck.” Morina’s lips moved at my ear, her breath hot. “To sway the allegiances and gain the passions of a Draculian Printessa. Is she as gentle as you’d hoped, vampire? Does she make sweet love to you in the night?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond so I didn’t. Morina didn’t like that, and she jerked roughly on my hair and placed her blade higher up on my neck, against my beating pulse.

You’ve got to get her to let ye go, Piph.

I don’t know how, Cuinn.

Aye, you do. Use your empathy. Use your skills, lass.

I shut my eyes, blocking out the sight of Iliaria’s fury.

Renata’s voice whispered through my mind,
Play your fear for all it’s worth, cara mia.

I met her gaze from across the room. I understood what she wanted me to do, though I was not so certain it would work on Morina. Renata wanted me to use my fear to extort and distract a Great Siren.

Not so difficult to do, considering my heart was still beating as if it’d jump out of my chest and flee without the rest of me. I raised my trembling hands and touched Morina’s arm. “Please,” I whispered.

Morina buried her face in the bend of my neck, though I knew she watched the others to make sure they did not move against her. She inhaled deeply against my skin and I did not fight the tremor of my limbs.

“Do you play so weak and helpless for her?” Morina’s laugh vibrated against my neck, and I wasn’t pretending at all when I cringed and squirmed against her.

She held me tighter, her arms like metal shackles around me. “There are rumors floating around about you,” she murmured. “Queen’s consort, Draculian lover.” Morina’s steely fingers circled my wrist as she raised my hand, turning it to reveal my tattoo. “Oh, you must like her indeed, Printessa, to have given her your mark.”

Iliaria was deadly silent.

Morina nuzzled my hair and I bit my tongue and tried to focus on something else, anything other than her face so close to mine. My fear amused and encouraged her. It wasn’t exactly helping or distracting her.

“She’s right, you know,” she whispered at my ear again. “I could not best her in a fight.”

“Then let me go.”

“So soon?” Morina asked. “I’m not likely to do that,
love
, for as soon as I release you, they’ll be on me like vultures.” Her lips were pressed so close to my ear that I felt her smile.

“Why are you working with Damokles?”

“I’m not,” Morina said. “I’m working for myself. You see, your Draculian
lover
there has taken something from me, ’tis only fair, I think, that I take something from her.”

“You would not dare,” Iliaria said.

“Watch me,” Morina said and several things happened simultaneously. Morina spun me in a dance-like move, her wings spreading out to shield us both. She caught both my wrists in her hands and spun me to face her. She used the grip she had to raise the wrist that was bare of Iliaria’s mark to her face. “Know that when I do this, I take great pleasure in it,” she said, and then she bit me.

Iliaria screamed, “No!”

But it was too late. Morina’s fangs sank down to my bones and I screamed too, screamed at the fiery pain of it, screamed where her mouth and power burned against me like a white hot flame that threatened to sear my flesh away.

*

Piph.
Something tapped my side and my eyes flew open.