Page 83 of The Star's Sword

Cayne was just a staircase beneath her, and his whole body seemed tense in awareness of it. “Vasara, come face me, so that no other vampires have to die. You know what I must do, and why.”

“I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” Vasara said, looking him over.

“Simon,” Cayne said. “You will pay for Simon.”

Vasara let out a giggle, looking at the vampires around her. “I don’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about, do you?” She shrugged. “These elder vampires have been with me through the night, so I don’t know what you think I was doing.”

“I don’t need a trial with your crooked gossips,” Cayne said darkly. “I know what you tried to do. I’m here to see you pay for it.”

Vasara spoke again, but this time her voice was high and almost shaky. “My friends, this man appears to have lost his mind. He is a friend of a friend of mine, so do try to be gentle with his body when you’re done with him.” Her mouth turned up at the corner. “Or, if he’s alive at the end, bring him to me. Bound.”

Cayne simply remained poised, ignoring what she said. Then he lifted his head, letting his hood fall back slightly. “I will face you, Vasara. I will find you at all costs.”

She turned to look at him imperiously. “You will soon be dead.” Then she disappeared, and the entire contingent of elder vampires that had been standing with her turned to us.

As one, they began removing heavy cloaks and their jewels, and their crowns and tiaras, stripping down to simply clothes, and rolling up cuffs.

Male and female alike, they began moving down the stairs toward us.

“Cleo, you’re free to leave if you want to, but I must do this. It is in my blood,” Cayne said.

“I’m here with you,” I said. At least I could hopefully hold him back as much as possible. I reached for my sheath and brought my sword out, pulling it from the sheath but not calling its night sword function forward. I held it out, guarding, as vampires in the ballroom began to look at each other in groups and decide there were more of them than us.

As they started to move in, Samael and I guarded Cayne’s back, as he raised his ax and prepared to face off with the elder vampires.

“I do not wish to hurt anyone but I will find Vasara. Please get out of my way,” Cayne said, in a dark, flat voice I’d never heard him use before.

“Please believe me,” Samael said. “Cleo and I will not be able to stop him. You have never seen Cayne attack here, before, right? He is not out of control. Please just stay out of his way.”

“She’s trying to win the Morningstar contest by lying to her friend and making him kill Vasara,” one of the elder vampires said, a tall, blond female who was cracking her knuckles as she stepped forward. “We must defend our queen.”

“So Simon isn’t even your king, now?” Cayne scoffed. “You let Vasara replace Cleo, and now you think she can protect an entire settlement?”

“She is a celestial vampire,” one of the vampires in the ballroom said. “Who better to save the world? Or perhaps just protect this one?”

I got it then. That half of the vampires probably realized she would never ascend, if she was the Morningstar.

Because she would never risk it.

And for a lot of these vampires, life was good. They didn’t want it to change, no matter who had to suffer beneath them.

As they began to close in, gathering into a much bigger mass, they started to hiss and sprout long, black claws, which they swiped experimentally as they began to lunge here and there at me and Sam.

I hadn’t trained for fighting vampires. They weren’t considered especially strong, unless they were in a flock, and then they could cause problems if they mobbed you and sucked all your blood out.

Sam slashed forward, not to hit, but to warn, as a vampire got dangerously close.

“Fuck,” Cayne said, as the elder vampires closed in on us. “She’s getting away.” He braced himself, and then leaped over the elder vampires with his powerful legs, heading for the hallway Vasara had gone down. “Vasara, get over here and explain what you were doing with him!”

But even more vampires blocked his path, hissing, and Cayne had finally had it with them.

“If you are going to defend that monster, then I’m sorry, but this world won’t miss you.” Then he slashed upward with a massive strike of his axe, and three vampires were cut in half diagonally, the shock on their faces frozen as their upper bodies slid to the side, and blood sprayed and spilled everywhere as their legs slowly toppled and fell.

Cayne charged down the hallway and Samael grabbed me, using his wings to fly us over the elder vampires on the stairs and dropping us at the mouth of the hallway just as we saw Cayne go running down a hallway to the right, going out of sight.

We ran forward, and caught him as he slammed into a heavy stone door that looked like it led to a vault, pounding on it. “Let me in! Vasara, you can’t run forever! This is Simon’s fucking keep!” He kicked at the door and then cursed, holding his foot. “Get out here and fight me for what you’ve done! You knew I would be here!”

Red lights began flashing and I heard sirens breaking out.

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