Page 44 of The Vampire King's Gift

Daemon slowly turned around. His eyes were filled with that red witch fire. He was smiling though and gestured for Julian to come to him. The young man did so without any trepidation, or so it seemed. When Christian started after him, Balthazar put a firm grim on his waist. His fledgling raised an eyebrow.

“Monsters,” Balthazar said simply. “You are not to pet them, no matter how cute they look.”

“None of these are very cute,” Christian pointed out.

“Exactly, yet you seem to want to scratch them behind the ears,” Balthazar retorted.

That had Christian smiling faintly. Balthazar saw that his fledgling was continuously fingering the diamond that held David. He almost wished that Christian would drop the damned thing into the muck. That would be the end of that problem.

“Oh, look, Daemon’s having them approach Julian,” Christian murmured.

Balthazar’s gaze slid back to their king and his fledgling. Sure enough, one of the ugliest Night Hags he had ever seen—wearing only a tattered black cloak and white hair swathed around her dessicated form—approached them. She kept her head low as she tottered through the black water, making a wheezing sound in the back of her throat. Balthazar grimaced. But Julian smiled at the hideous thing and inclined his head. She let out this tittering laugh and then capered back into the crowd of creatures, pleased as punch, and bragging to the others of her being blessed by the Vampire King’s fledgling.

It was then that the other—leaders, he supposed—of the monsters lined up to meet Julian. There was a ten-foot tall werewolf that was half as wide, with muscles rippling under pure white fur. There was the Wendigo creature who lightly passed its claws over Julian’s head—not touching him, but close—which inspired Julian to circle around its withered form. Julian’s thoughts told him that he was trying to truly believe that a thing with more bone and leathery skin than flesh could truly be alive on some level.

The massive dragon-like creature flew in a circle and blew fire against the moons just for Julian’s delight. The diaphanous, ghost-like women, that glided two feet above the water, simpered and smiled at the young man without showing the horrors beneath. And on the procession went.

“Do you not wish to greet them, Balthazar?” Daemon looked back at him with a grin.

You know very well that they all creep me out, my king!Balthazar sent over their mind-link while he said out loud, “They wish only you and your fledgling’s attention, King Daemon. I would not take that away from them with second-best.”

Arcius guffawed into one hand. “He is the only one you will admit you are second-best to with no sense of false pride.”

“I believe we are seeing more of a miracle in Balthazar than in this.” Fiona smirked, her fear receding slightly as the cavalcade continued with no sign of violence, she had started to relax.

He raised an eyebrow at her. She, surprisingly, stuck a tongue out at him. He blinked.

“Fiona being playful? Maybe the world really is coming to an end,” Balthazar murmured.

Christian gently elbowed him. It was his fledgling who asked, “What has he brought them here for? Just to greet him and Julian?”

“I highly doubt that,” Balthazar said.

There was a shout from the Spire. He turned around, frowning. He strained his eyes, but he could see very little of what was going on in the square. There seemed to be more people there. They were like a surging mass. Caemorn must have really gotten the crowd whipped up. They would make a grand entrance then. Balthazar’s lips flattened. He really had hoped that Caemorn would fail.

The Kaly Vampire was insufferable, in general, and this would make him only more so. Daemon might even be impressed with him and take him into the inner circle with himself and Arcius. That would be abhorrent. Well, maybe not that bad, but it was hardly his fantasy.

I should be content that so much more than I ever even imagined is coming true. Well, maybe I did imagine it, but still Caemorn killed Julian’s parents. He is the cause of Heath and Selene’s Second Deaths as well!

But he couldn’t truly blame Caemorn for those. Even if Caemorn dangled something before Selene and Timothy, that was on them for betraying him and their House. Caemorn was just a creep.

Daemon was turning now. The procession was finally semi-over. Or maybe the time limit had run out. Daemon had an arm around Julian’s shoulder and was kissing his fledgling on the temple as if to reward him for being good and brave. Which Julian had been.

Though Julian and Christian were both young, they were open in ways he had not been when first turned. Perhaps it was because of the life they had both lived with parents who were scholars and constantly sought knowledge. They were adventurers on their web series. They had never been fakes like so many were in that arena. So even now he wasn’t surprised to see Christian and Julian’s heads craning about them, trying to soak in everything, and not making a judgment about what they were seeing. They were like twin sponges.

Were all Vampire fledglings this way? He didn’t think so. He knew that he was like a proud papa who believed his child was special and above the crowd. But he thought that might actually be true of both of them. Julian was, after all, Daemon’s fledgling. The one who had survived his blood when thousands, evidently, had not.

No wonder he didn’t believe that Julian would survive.

And he had turned Christian who was the first Speaker to the Dead in how long? Way long. He was Eyros, of course, so his fledgling would be special simply because of that. But Christian was sensitive and intelligent and courageous and…

“Why are you looking at me with that misty-eyed expression?” Christian’s eyebrows were raised.

“What? I’m not looking at you in any way—”

“You have tears in your eyes.” Christian reached up and wiped one of these nonexistent tears away.

“I’m allergic to things here,” he lied.

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