Page 12 of King of the Damned
Vampire fangs are incredibly rare and valuable, but for their intoxicating and hallucinogenic affects when crushed into a fine powder and inhaled. One fang could fetch a high enough price for a demon hunter to feed their families for a year, and while I can recognize the irony, we do not enjoy the thought of being hunted for sport and dismantled as trophies.
So, we kill them first. During the hunt where I found Cassius, I traveled with about fifteen vampires. Their orders were to slaughter the hunters, but not before I questioned them, searching decades upon decades for my cursebreaker. When I finally grew tired of always being let down, we simply killed them on sight.
As I was feeding on one of them after our slaughter, I saw this viper coiled up on a rock, watching intently with white eyes. Its scales were black as the void.
Cassius, as I’ve come to call him, is a puzzling creature. I had suspicions that he was no ordinary viper from the peculiar eye color, but when he long outlived the normal lifespan of a snake, the suspicions were confirmed.
A supernatural being.What, though, I don’t know. Perhaps a lost experiment of the Priestesses. It matters not to me. He’s been a fine companion. Never one to intrude on my business as a spy would. He comes and goes as he pleases. Sometimes I won’t see him for months, only to find him slithering down the corridor or in my study where he likes to sleep between the tomes lining the shelves.
“Lord Kaius,” Dravon says, clearing his throat. I glance down from my dais and find him staring at me with bewildered eyes, awaiting intently for my response. “Shall I repeat myself, my Lord?”
Dravon is among the oldest vampires in existence, and for good reason. Even as a human, he was a skilled fighter but even more so, a survivor. He could be stripped naked and pushed into sunlight, and the man would still find a way to slit your throat. He’s dangerous, and the entire vampire race knows it, myself included.
But he is no threat to me, and for that I am certain. My demise would only bring about his, and that makes me the most powerful vampire of them all. An immortal king with no subjects brave or stupid enough to challenge my rule.
In another lifetime, in other circumstances, I might even consider Dravon my heir. He is very much my opposite. He’s impulsive, short-tempered, melodramatic, and most irritatingly, messy at the dinner table. But what he does or does not do with power and leadership will really be no concern of mine once I’m human.
I wave my hand in a dismissive motion, telling Dravon I’m not at all concerned with what he just said, but still have the decency to let him hear himself talk.
“I asked about the girl.” He flips a loose strand of black hair out of his eyes with a quick twitch of his head.
That gives me pause. “The girl?” I reply curtly as I watch Cassius slither around my forearm.
“The human girl that you so clearly wish to keep to yourself. You’re not keeping her in with the other cattle?” I give him an unimpressed glare. When I don’t respond, Dravon’s lip turns into an untrustworthy grin. “Ah, not cattle then, but a bed warmer. Do allow me the pleasure of ripping her throat out when you are done with her. She does smell divine.”
“You will do no such thing,” I warn, though my voice is calm. I want to rouse no suspicions of Adelasia’s lingering presence nor her importance to me. She’s too valuable for that. Best I let him believe she’s just filling my bed. “Are you so concerned about what I do or do not do with my human toys?”
As soon as the words leave my mouth, I feel a tug in the very essence of my being. It catches me off guard and in that insignificant second that I lose focus on my magic, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling falls to the center of the room and shatters the crystals hanging from it.
Cassius slithers away, startled by the loud noise, and Dravon simply steps a foot to the left and kicks away a crystal shard that landed near his boot, unconcerned.
I regain my wits and allow myself a smirk.
I do love it when she’s angry.
“You’ve never taken a human lover,” Dravon continues, unfazed by the interruption. “I’m simply…curiousabout what changed.”
“The times, Dravon.”
With that dismissive tone, Dravon makes his way out of the throne room via the underground passages that allow our kind to wander the valley when the sun is out. When I sense he’s gone, I stand to go find the source of the chandelier disturbance.
She’s in the center courtyard, watching an insect flutter in a small patch of wildflowers that I suspect she grew herself. They stand out among the dead and decaying foliage that I never cared to tend to.
Unfortunately, the courtyard is one of the few places where the sun is allowed to infiltrate the palace. We vampires use it mostly for admiring the moon and stars. In the daytime, it’s lifeless, just like the plants that once grew there.
Adelasia is sitting on the ground with her knees tucked up under her chin. I can smell the anger in her blood, and I can only suspect it stems from the conversation I just had with Dravon.
“Darling, that’s what you get for eavesdropping,” I say from the safety of the awning that lines the perimeter of the courtyard. Adelasia turns her head and scowls at me.
“Go find another toy to play with,” she snaps, and I simply snicker, which only makes her more furious with me. She stands abruptly, conjures a stone in her hand, and throws it.
It lands three feet to the left of me. “Please Adelasia, finish your temper tantrum quickly. Anger spoils your blood, and I do love the way you smell.”
“I hate you,” she sneers.
“And I hateyou.”
“I haven’t even done anything to you!”
