Page 22 of The Vampire King's War

Thank you, Libbie.

Warmth flooded her deadened limbs. She got to her feet. There was a wild grin on her face. She didn’t blindly reach for Christian. She simply willed herself to be holding him and she was. She then teleported them both to where Balthazar still lay unconscious.

Out of the fog of ghosts, she could see that Christian was unconscious too. She gently laid his slender form against Balthazar’s. Though both of them were gone from the world, they turned towards one another. They weren’t asleep. They weren’t unconscious from blows.

She narrowed her eyes. Their souls were somehow pulled out from their bodies. Not fully. Not yet. Kaly had trapped them both somehow. She wasn’t sure how to make that right. She worried that if she teleported them fully out of danger that the distance might break whatever held their souls to their bodies. This was as far as she dared to take them.

“Hold on. Both of you. I’m getting Caemorn,” she said.

She was back on her feet and willing herself to Caemorn. He was standing, unlike the other too, but he made no sound or movement when her arms went around his waist.

“Where do you think you’re taking them?” A silky smooth voice asked.

She had met Artemis Alucius only once, but she recognized his voice and his body. The ghosts cleared and she saw that there were two figures standing in the moving mists of the spirit forms. The one nearest her, the one that had spoken, was Artemis. He was beautiful with golden hair and an angelic face. She thought to get her bow that was strapped across her back, but she’d be dead far before she could move an inch. Artemis might look like a beautiful teenager, but he was not.

They had stopped allowing the turning of children, even teenagers. In the past, children were treated as small adults, not as beings who hadn’t fully matured yet. But they knew better now. Artemis had been created at a time before then and Fiona understood why. He truly looked like an angel fallen to Earth.

“I wouldn’t take Caemorn and the others away from here, Fiona,” Artemis said smoothly.

He was dressed in a long frock coat of dark black silk, black pants and knee high black boots with buckles. His blond hair hung to his shoulders. Fiona thought she felt Caemorn stiffen even more, if that was possible. Clearly, she’d been right that there was some problem taking them away from here.

“Why is that?” she asked back just as smoothly, putting on what she thought of as her Order personality. The cold and unfeeling Fiona. The Fiona that was encased in ice.

Like a magician, Artemis lifted up his right hand, fingers spread wide, and in between them were two gems. “Because this is where their souls are. One for Christian. One for Balthazar.”

“Eyros,” she corrected.

Artemis’ eyebrows lifted. “Eyros. Hmmm, yes, I see.”

“No, I don’t think you do. Who is that? The woman?” She gestured with her head towards the shadowy figure who stood like a mannequin in a shop window.

“Never you mind.” Artemis smiled.

Is that another of Kaly’s forms? Can they control more than one body at a time?

“I see two gems in your hand. But not three. Yet Caemorn is… not himself.” Fiona kept a firm hold on Caemorn. She needed the right moment to get him with the others and then… then she knew exactly what she was going to do.

“Caemorn is my fledgling. There’s no need for another cell.” Artemis palmed the two gems after smiling at them for a moment. “I am his prison. I am his jailor.”

Fiona was chilled by that response.

“This is foolish,” she said. “Whatever short term plan you have going here against Daemon won’t last. He’ll find you. He’ll destroy you.”

“I am not so easy to destroy.” Artemis’ gaze was distant.

Is Kaly not fully with me? Maybe distracted somehow? That’s good.

“What is your endgame? Why are you doing this?” she asked.

Artemis focused on her again. There was a sheen of sweat on his head. The female figure wavered too. Artemis’ voice was still smooth as he said, “Daemon must earn his crown.”

“So you think that you’re helping him by being his adversary?” Fiona could not hide her disbelief.

“Tell me that you didn’t want to test him yourself? You wanted to know his intentions, didn’t you?” Artemis challenged her with an upraised eyebrow.

She nodded. “I wanted to think that we had a choice about him being king or not. That if he wasn’t worthy then…”

“Then you would deny him the throne?” Artemis nodded.

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