The Vampires' Birthright (39 page)

Chanson and Raquel were near me when this happened, and we all gasped in surprise. Even Xuanxang seemed stunned to find his former lord standing across from him, covered in gore from European allies they both once shared.

“Begone from our domain,” said Gustav. “Move away.”

The Chinese emperor and his cohorts shifted into their dragon forms, their tremendous bulk crashing to the floor hard enough for me to feel in the ground from where I stood. I’m not sure if Gustav could have killed any of them with the power of his scepter. By the time he pointed it toward them again, they had picked up Ralu’s remains and flew out through the gaping hole behind them.

Logic told me that they would take Ralu’s body back to China, even though it would remain a mystery as to why. Would they somehow revive the corpse, as Garvan suggested? Or, as Chanson and Armando later stated, was it something in Ralu’s blood that remained inside the corpse, like a rare protein, that Huangtian Dadi coveted?

All we knew at that moment was the hostile expulsion of our group from China had taken on a more ominous meaning. The trio’s presence while fighting for the enemy broke any previous treaties.

Xuanxang seemed to understand this and prepared to pursue his brethren in further battle, until Gustav stopped him from leaving. A heated discussion started, but I couldn’t bear the fear of what fate had befallen my precious daughter, and rushed off to find her. Thankfully, the entire enchanted area was set aglow by tall gaslights that had escaped the destruction inside the palace.

“Alaia! Alaia! Where are you, my baby?” I shouted.

The weakness had returned to my knees, and I thought for sure she was dead. Yes, I hadn’t gone very far yet, but I had a sinking feeling she had already become a blood snack. Especially since the society that needed us had been brought to the brink of anarchy. In that moment, where surely most civilized vampires believed they would be on their own soon, why wouldn’t a disloyal stray vamp drink enough of our sacred blood to look fucking fantastic for a century or two?

That’s what I pictured, and I couldn’t pull my focus away from such images in my head. Even as I wanted to help Chanson, Tyreen, Garvan, and the others, I couldn’t do it. When I was about to collapse near a coral tree, Racco caught up to me.

“Don’t give up, Txema,” he whispered harshly, as he picked me back up and brought me close to him. “We will find her, and she
will
be fine.”

Meanwhile, the others called out to Alaia as they searched the garden and lagoon.

“But, she’s not here so how can she be safe?” I said, bursting into tears again.

“You’ll have to trust me, I’ve been around long enough to know when to believe my instincts,” he said, his gentle tone and confidence unwavering. “Sometimes—hey, did you all hear that?”

“Hear what?” said Armando, his tone irritated. He was searching among the bushes next to a palace wall that had also escaped damage from the attack.

“Wait… I think I hear something, too,” said Tyreen, hope in her voice. She closed her eyes and listened. Blood smeared over her front from the battle, but none of it looked like hers. “It’s coming from―” She turned toward the lagoon, and pointed toward the table where I usually ate breakfast with Racco.

“Found her!” yelled Raquel.

She walked into view across the lagoon, near the harp stand. The vampires flew by us as Racco and I ran to the water’s edge. I heard Alaia’s giggles and baby talk, but also, a young man’s voice.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” asked Armando.

He approached a shadowed form near where my baby lay precariously perched on a marble bench next to the water’s edge.

“I’m talking to my daughter.”

It sounded like Peter, but not the confused vampire I’d seen two days prior. He sounded like the man I knew and dearly loved once. I wanted to run to the other side of the lagoon and throw my arms around him, to thank him for saving my baby.

But that was before Armando grabbed him and pulled him under the glow from a nearby gas lamp.

In that instant, my illusion fell away. It was Peter, but the man I loved had not returned. He was still half-civilized vampire and half Chupacabra, and completely despised by at least Armando. Tyreen was the only one who eyed him compassionately, as if picturing what could’ve been her fate had Franz and Armando not rescued her as they did.

Despite Armando’s gruff treatment of him, Peter smiled, his attention focused entirely on our daughter, and she seemed enraptured to be in his arms.

“I wanted to spend time with my little girl. She’s all I’ve got—”

His words were cut short by the sudden appearance of Gustav in our midst. He was even rougher with him, wearing a facial expression of intense anger.

“You almost brought about the deaths of the only two humans who matter to us, do you even realize that, you fool?” said Gustav, after he grabbed Peter and pulled him up to the empty marble pedestal where Mohini usually perched. “And to think I had taken up for you, to defend your right to exist. But, for what you’ve done, and the hand you’ve played in the deaths of so many, tonight, you shall surely die.” His jaw unhinged like a snake and his double set of fangs elongated.

“I-I’m s-so s-sorr-r-y,” Peter stammered, sounding confused and frightened as he did the night he was brought to the island from America. It appeared Alaia had an effect on his speech, at least until a moment ago. “Please d-don’t k-kill m-m-e-e-e.”

“Don’t hurt him, he’s her father,” I wailed, as my former love cried and trembled in terrible fear. “Peter didn’t hurt Alaia—if anything, he kept her safe from everything that happened in there.”

I pointed back toward the ruined wall plainly visible as the lights inside the palace were all on again while the initial clean-up process began.

“What, so you think he has a birthright to Alaia due to the fact he was physically involved in her conception?” asked Gustav, much more hateful in his manner than he had been with Ralu a short while earlier. “He has
no
birthright. Even
you
have no birthright. You and Alaia belong to us, and both of you will always be
our
birthright.”

It became apparent the execution would go through as planned, and all of my companions were silent―including Racco. No one dared to challenge their angry king.

“I saved you out there and you know it!” I cried.

He looked at me and his eyes flashed with such anger that I thought for a moment that Ralu’s spirit had hopped into Gustav, but I held my ground. His fury passed, and he regained control of whatever beast lurked within himself.

“You saved yourself, Txema. The timing was fortuitous for me, certainly, but there was no altruism in your action and I will not let you lie to yourself or to me and pretend otherwise.”

Before I could respond (and likely make things worse) an old friend spoke up.

“I beg you, my lord, let me take him with me to my fortress in India,” said Kazikli, his tone more plaintive than I’d ever heard it before as he peered up at Gustav. “I can fix this one. I’m sure of it. And, I can make him into the kind of warrior you will be proud of. I only need time. Besides, if Ralu somehow survives, then Peter Worley can only attract him to me and my home, and to no one else. I’m willing to deal with the personal consequences should that happen.
Please
do not kill this boy tonight.”

At first, Gustav glared at Kazikli, surely incensed his close friend chose to upstage his decision. Kazikli, however, never wavered in his resolve. Nor did his compassion weaken as he gazed up into Gustav’s face.

Gustav looked around at the gathering crowd.

“Very well, my beloved friend.” Gustav loosened his grip on Peter’s head. His tone had softened. “Enough blood has been spilled today. He will be yours for now. But if anything else happens to endanger Txema, Alaia―or anyone else in our society―he will be summarily destroyed. Am I clear?”

“Yes, my lord,” said Kazikli, with a humble bow so that there could be no doubt among those watching that Gustav was king and Kazikli a grateful servant. Peter wept beneath him. “I’ll take him with me tonight.”

“Thank you for your mercy,” I said. “And I promise to make up this favor to you at some point in my life. I’ll find a way to repay your kindness.”

He released Peter and flew over the lagoon to where I stood with Racco.

“Oh, I certainly expect no less from you, Txema,” he said, smiling thinly while keeping his voice barely above a whisper.

“When do we need to decide on our next destination?” asked Chanson, as she came up beside me.

“Tonight,” he said, his smile dying in its weariness. “The journey to find a place safe enough for all of us begins right now.”

aking plans to leave the island turned out to be harder than expected in the aftermath of Ralu’s attack. Before anything could realistically be discussed and settled upon, there were security and clean-up measures that needed to be taken care of first.

Koimala and his shape-shifting vampire contingent combed the island and surrounding reefs for stragglers from Ralu’s army. Meanwhile, the survivors from Gustav’s allied army worked diligently to clean up Racco and Koimala’s palace. That turned out to be a much more gruesome task than it first appeared. It meant picking up vampire corpses from both armies, along with body parts strewn in hard to reach areas, and then taking everything to the southern beach to be burned. Mohini and her vampire maidens insisted on taking care of the bloodstained marble surfaces themselves after sunrise, along with the defiled pools and fountains.

“It will take some time to rebuild this place, but at least I’ll have something to work on for a little while,” said Koimala, chuckling sadly. He and his group had recently returned from their surveillance trip around the island. They found only one straggler from Ralu’s routed army, and it flew off with a frightened screech when Bhima and Chatur surprised it. “But other than Ralu’s redecorating efforts upon our reception area, we should have everything else taken care of before tomorrow night.”

“Do you think Huangtian Dadi’s magic will revive Ralu?” Mohini asked Xuanxang. She looked worried.

“I don’t know,” he said, sounding a bit shaken by his former master’s betrayal of longtime friends and alliances. “He is the unquestioned supreme dark sorcerer in the Himalayas, and I fear what he is planning to do with Ralu’s remains. If he is not careful, he may unleash something beyond his control, something that could one day destroy us all, including him.”

We were gathered in a large library that escaped the notice of our enemies when they attacked, located on the second floor and not far from my accommodations for the past few weeks. Exquisitely paneled in hand carved oak, it would’ve been much harder to restore if it had received similar damage to what was prevalent downstairs. Oh, and by ‘we,’ I am referring to Gustav (whose arm has grown back now) and his closest confidantes from the vampires who joined us from around the world, along with my protectors, Koimala and his vampires, Racco, Alaia and I. Kazikli and Peter had already departed for the Indian fortress. Nora decided to join her longtime beau, at Kazikli’s request, which gave me even more hope that he would eventually find a cure for Peter, or to at least make Peter’s vampiric existence no worse than Tyreen’s.