Page 18 of Darkest Heart

The spires from the gothic buildings towering in the sky greeted us as we descended into the walled city. A layer of fog formed a swirl around the mountain surrounding us, and the late afternoon sun lowered in the sky. Pockets of air hit my wings, knocking me sideways. I turned back, slowly descending as my ears pounded. Soaring between buildings, I caught Zach’s slight smile as the music from the street musicians, and performers greeted us. He’d stayed here for some time with Anna, then finally moving them both to a small town near the Lake of Laveniuess where he’d spent the last few weeks. The city was home, but it wasn’t a good place for a mortal to be. Really, anywhere in Sanmorte was dangerous, the city and aniccipere territory in the south was far worse.

Erianna looked down, the sunlight glowing against her dark skin, a stark contrast to the paleness of Zach. The wind knotted their hair together in a swirl of silver and black as they readied to land.

I thought about Erianna’s wings, or lack of them, and a pang of grief shot through my chest. She loved flying, probably the most out of the three of us. Her wings were always her favorite perk of being a vampire until they were so callously ripped away.

Kalon was behind everything in court, including Sargon’s moves. The king may have made the orders, but it was his brother who whispered the ideas in his ear in the first place. I swore I’d make him pay. I’d never wanted to murder anyone, and the act of killing used to tear me apart. Until recently. I had people to protect, loved ones who needed me, and I didn’t mind tearing out hearts and cutting off heads if it meant keeping them safe. Because out of everyone in the kingdom, Olivia, Erianna, Zach and Anna were the only ones I cared about. They were good in all this darkness, a rarity among immortals. I would protect and honor that kindness in them and be the karma to those who would hurt them.

Like Astor and Kalon, and Velda or Hamza.

Guiding my movements, I pointed my wings up, pulling my body vertically for a smooth landing. On bent knees, we landed in the middle of the bustling streets in the city. It was about to be Vitarem, the holiday where we honored our dead, so the spirits of the sangaree were high.

Store windows glittered with dark objects, skulls, and books. A tailor shop sat on the corner, showcasing their most luxurious gentlemen’s wear for the elite on mannequins. I glanced at the old bookshop. A black sign hung over the door‘Mortis Bookshop’. Through the windows, I spotted shelves filled with leather-bound books, old journals, and a display of used demon boards. The lingerie shop next to it was a stark contrast to everything else. In the windows, mortals were used instead of mannequins. One of the models winced when she shuffled her position.

Ravena sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Back to this place again.” Her lips twisted in disgust. Of course, it had been twenty years since she’d seen the city. “It’s somehow more depraved than it used to be.”

“Once you look past all the darkness, there are some good places here,” I offered, although it was hard to find much to like about the city. However, like in any place, there were a few hidden gems.

I recalled my nights at the Moonstone Bar. The owners were good people, as far as vampirescouldbe. In general, the mortals there were taken care of and given some kind of decency. They had rules about rape and murder, which made the establishment unpopular amongst most. But they had a small, but loyal following. Zach and I included.

I glanced around the familiar, large city center with dark, gray buildings forming a square around us. A cloud of cigarette smoke wafted up my nostrils as a tall, skinny man drew on his cigarette, burning the embers down to the butt. He laughed with a group of den workers. I could tell by their blood-stained clothes, with spots not in the normal places if they had been from feeding. I guessed they had been on their hands and knees, scrubbing floors after some of the elite got too carried away. Mortals cleaned the lower-class dens, but vampires were hired to maintain the upper-class dens and auction houses.

A Blood Knight, off duty, pushed through our group, glancing only at Ravena as he hurried. I noticed the pristine badge that all traffickers wore with honor. It was the rockstar of jobs amongst the working classes.

Zach glared at some woman who’d almost knocked into Erianna as she dragged her mortal, male slave at her side into one of the peep shows. Loud music resonated in my ears as the bars opened. While they were nothing like the ones in the mortal world?which was far more modern than Sanmorte?they were still fun to go in when I first turned. I would drink away my trauma with Gwen until I felt numb, which took a lot more liquor as an immortal.

Hordes of sangaree bustled inside as night fell over the city, the storefront’s lights flickered off, and the auctions, dens, shows, bars, and theaters came to life. I paused at a poster for the theater, the black ink running on the paper‘tonight’s performance, the virgin and the beast’.

My eye twitched as memories flooded back of watching another variant of that show with Gwen. No matter where they performed it, it always ended with the mortal virgin being slaughtered on stage at the end, and the vampire ‘beast’ giving in to his desires. Most of the time, there was necrophilia involved. That, and rape, public humiliation of different sorts. Zach and Erianna had seen it all in their centuries alive.

The stench of garbage mixed with urine hung over us as we moved through the crowds and into the seedier part of town. Ravena walked in front, holding her head high as she looked at the weathered newspaper stand with pictures of her husband on the front page.

We strode past the largest auction in the heart of the city, with thick, velvet curtains hanging on the doors, and ticket booths and either side manned by an aniccipere in a suit. Its beady eyes trickled over the crowds of people, most of whom were sangaree.

Although the creature wouldn’t know anything, with its livelihood dependent on the sangaree and city, the urge to go over and try to get information from it was strong.

“Don’t,” Erianna warned, as if sensing my thoughts. “The ones from the south are wholly different. He’s a little civilized.”

Zach shrugged. “They’re all bestial.”

I watched as the aniccipere grabbed a silver ticket from a man, then removed the rope from the door, allowing him inside. It took everything to turn away. Losing my temper meant drawing attention to our being here. Once we found out Olivia’s location, we couldn’t have anyone know where we were heading. If the aniccipere got an idea that we were already close, they’d move her.

In a way, it was a good thing Sargon hadn’t joined us yet. He would draw far too much attention. At least Ravena didn’t wear a crown, and her face wasn’t as well-known amongst the public.

The music faded as we left the busier part of the city and trod over cobblestone, down narrow streets lined with four-story houses. A woman looked down at us from a grimy, broken window. Averting my eyes, I looked at the boarded-up stores. Several of the streetlamps flicked as we walked under them, and the night sky darkened from indigo into black.

“Here,” Zach gestured, and we turned into a seedy alleyway filled with dumpsters and trash bags. It reminded me of the first time Olivia had ventured onto these streets with me. Neither of us prepared then for the life we’d end up having. She’d seen a rotting body on the sidewalk, and I pulled her away as she vomited, all over me. Her face when she realized what she’d done, horror in her wide eyes, her cheeks reddening. I smiled to myself, as I realized, even then I’d known there was something between us. I tried to push it away, but when I was with her, I craved a better life. I desired her.

“What are you smiling about?” Erianna asked, nudging me with her elbow. “We’re in an alleyway.”

I smirked, then ran my hand through my black strands, taming the mess the winds had caused. We were meeting someone important, who could potentially lead us to my love, and I wanted to appear fearless, someone not to be fucked with.

“Nothing,” I told Erianna, who rolled her eyes.

Zach turned to Erianna. “Look fierce. You know who we’re seeing.”

“You know I only have one expression,” she remarked as we reached a green door between two dumpsters.

“Resting bitch face?”

---