Hellfire and Honey, page 20
“Just a sip of water.”
He lifted a cup to my lips. The cool liquid spilt into my mouth, but nausea made me choke.
“When does the advance party leave?” I asked to distract myself from throwing up.
“In two or three days,” Zavier said.
That gave me plenty of time to recover.
The room blurred. I fell into the pillow and the open arms of unconsciousness beckoned me. I pulled away, twisting and bucking in its grasp.
“It’s okay, Sal,” Zavier patted my hand and smiled. “You can rest some more.”
“Remi?” I asked as my vision became a black tunnel.
“He’s fine. We have people studying the symbols. You’ll be interested to know…” Zavier’s voice faded. Sleep pulled me back into the darkness.
I jolted from the pillow, sitting upright, and searched the room. Adrenaline pulsed through me, heightening my senses. The smell of fresh baked bread masked a lingering foul stench. A shadow moved in the darkness and I locked on it, scanning for a threat.
The shadow turned the knob on a lamp and gentle light flooded the room. Kadence stood next to the bed and raised an eyebrow.
“Are you going to throw up again?” he asked.
Warmth filled my face. That explained the sour smell.
“What are you doing here?”
“Going over the latest update.” He held up a handful of papers. “They send new ones every few hours now.”
“In the dark?”
“Are you worried that I might strain my vision?”
I rolled my eyes but the motion set the room spinning. I closed them for a moment while the world settled.
When I opened them again I found Kadence watching me. He wore a blank look, but an edge underneath betrayed his worry. My heart pounded harder, for a reason unrelated to my illness. Was the vampire concerned for me?
“What does the update say?” My head ached and the turning in my stomach grew worse. I leaned against the pillows.
Kadence walked to the other side of the bed and sat. He slid close to me, leaning against the headboard. The blankets already bore creases. Someone must have been lying beside me.
His power slipped across my skin and I shuddered. Memories surfaced from the murk of my unconscious mind. A flash of a knife, his blood on my tongue, his hands in my hair. The power filling my body, cleansing it from the inside out. My throat closed as he settled next to me, as though it had never happened. Had it been a dream?
“These are the new reports.” Kadence passed a sheet of paper. “The scouts have a final estimate and it’s lower than we expected. According to Tatiana, some bodies aren’t good hosts for a demon. A few of the soldiers must have died at the Fields.”
I scanned the paper, but the text was a blur. Had the blood been real? If not, what other fever-induced dreams did I have?
“Are you listening to me?” he asked.
“What?”
Kadence sighed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?” My face got hot again. If I kept blushing, it might stay that way.
“About drinking my blood,” he said. “Do you want to talk about how much you liked it, Sal? How you begged me not to stop? Do you want to talk about how you cried for more, like a child?”
Anger flashed through me.
“No, I don’t want to talk about it with you,” I snapped.
“Did I make you mad?” he asked. “Good, because you’re better mad. You’re stronger and smarter, and we need that right now. After this is over, we can talk about the blood and the craving, but right now our people need you to be sharp.”
Rage and annoyance twisted, because I knew he was right. If I went down the spiral of almost dying, leaving our people alone, and the sudden desire for another taste of Kadence’s blood, I would be useless. My lungs filled as I took a new breath. The stretching strengthened me, grounded me.
“How many are there?” I asked, setting my feelings where they wouldn’t get in the way.
“Roughly, four thousand and five hundred soldiers.”
“They lost five hundred people?” I whispered. Those soldiers had family here. We had lost so many people and the battle had yet to begin.
“We don’t know how many died due to the possession, or if anyone refused and was killed,” Kadence said. “It’s not great news, but it’s good news.”
“How is the training going?”
He shuffled the pages, bringing a new one forward.
“It’s going well,” he said. “The new recruits are learning abbreviated self-defense…”
My eyes were so heavy. It wouldn’t hurt to rest them for a moment.
“Sal?”
“Hm?”
“Are you asleep?”
Something warm cradled my head. It wasn’t particularly soft, but there was a space hollowed just for me. Kadence’s heartbeat steady in my ear.
“Oh!” I jerked my head up from his shoulder. Spots claimed my vision.
“It’s okay,” the vampire said. He pressed his palm against my cheek. “You can rest with me.”
My body felt too heavy and the spots danced. I let my head fall and he was there to catch me. The worries of the upcoming war faded as Kadence held me tight against him.
“How did we get here?” I asked, fighting the urge to fall back asleep.
“Here?” Kadence’s eyes peered across my chambers. “Well, I walked, but I’m sure someone carried you.”
Exhaustion stole every witty response from my tongue. Death had called for me and Kadence warded away the reaper with his blood. Surely, we were past rival insults. Surely, our future was leading somewhere else now.
“Here, the war, being strangers and also being enemies,” I said.
Kadence tensed against me, but his fingers found a steady rhythm running through my hair.
“Lore says the vampires and witches once resided together,” Kadence said. Shock rolled through me at his serious tone. Not even a hint of sarcasm marred his words. “Until the witch queen murdered her vampire husband in a fit of jealous insanity. The rest of the witches fled, facing execution if they remained.”
I licked my dry lips. “Our myths claim the vampires began the war, with unprovoked attacks on surrounding kingdoms. We stepped in to protect those less able.”
“It’s a nice story,” Kadence turned and his breath brushed over my face, wrapping me in that smokey scent that was only his. “I think that’s all the myths really are—stories. The truth lies in what comes next, what you and I and our people will become together.”
As my breathing steadied, Kadence’s body softened. His heartbeat slowed, and I thought I felt the press of a kiss on my forehead, but sleep claimed me before I could be sure.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Can you explain everything one more time, please.”
Juno Williams tapped a pointed stick against one dark=skinned palm and narrowed her eyes from beneath curls of black hair that had come loose from where the mass was pinned atop her head. High heels tapped the floor in disapproval and she looked as though she may have strangled me if I wasn’t her queen.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” she clipped, catching herself before she rolled her eyes. She pointed a finger at a line of chunky geometric symbols painted on the naked, decapitated body of one of the hybrid creatures suspended waist high on a table. The blood had been cleaned around the red marks and a white sheet covered the headless stump.
“These symbols are reminiscent of ancient script from the Awriba Dynasty, which ceased to exist in the third millennium or so.”
She raised her eyebrows at me, despite the four other people in the room.
“That means that they’re very old,” she said.
I bit my tongue at her impolite comment. It was my fault for not catching this information during her first lecture. I felt like I had been trampled by horses and the animals had turned around and trampled me again. My body ached, a light fever came and went, and I had almost thrown up three times since we’d walked downstairs to the morgue. I missed Juno’s first explanation due to a mysterious ringing in my ears. Zavier watched me from the corner of his eye, but he hadn’t argued yet. He couldn’t say much, since his arm was in a sling, and healers tried to trail him through the castle.
“Thank you for clarifying,” I said, “Please continue.”
She pursed her lips. “Anyway,” she said, like it was two words. “These are the same symbols from the captive.”
“Remi,” Saffa said behind me.
Juno clenched her teeth. “The symbols match the ones from the captive, Remi, and have clear indications of spellwork. It took a while to recognize them. Luckily, we have the best historical linguistics scholars on our team, and they identified the Awriban symbols. However, they don’t all make sense. This script,” she gestured to a series of triangles with lines scratched through some, “is a deviation of power or control. It could be a foundation for the mind control the captive—Remi—described. But this symbol,” she pointed to a square box on top of two rectangles, “is nonsense. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Lanterns flashed on the walls of the windowless room. The smooth grey stones didn’t retain any heat from the stories above and I wrapped my shawl around my shoulders. Chairs had been dragged in from the adjacent laboratory and the room resembled a classroom. Instead of a large slate at the front, there was an examination table. The body looked ghostlike, the red symbols shocking on his pale skin. Juno smiled down at the dead like she knew a secret. Zavier and Kadence sat next to me. Saffa and Remi behind us.
The body blurred. I blinked and it sharpened.
“What are the symbols drawn onto the victims with?” Zavier asked.
Juno smiled wide at the old man. I guess it was just me that she didn’t like.
“It’s powdered dye from the roots of the madder plant. The plant prefers warmer climates, which we hypothesize is connected to the Awriban words. The Southern civilization used to reside in a humid location. However, it’s a hardy plant and could easily be grown here, by a skilled botanist.”
“It stains.” Remi frowned. He had been cleaned up too. Dark stubble broke through his bare head. He wore a short-sleeved black tunic, breeches over his thin, fit frame, and a pair of slippers. We weren’t sure if the mind control could come back, so he was comfortable, but under guard. The red powder had been washed away, but the symbols stained his skin.
“Can you still perform magic?” Zavier asked.
Remi grimaced. “I keep destroying your trees. My apologies.”
It was impossible not to imagine his power ripping through the stone walls and bringing the castle down on top of us.
“We think that as long as the stains remain, he will have access to magic,” Juno said, a little too excited.
“What does this all have to do with the blood donation building and the missing blood bottles?” I asked. Jon Chan’s blank face flashed in my mind. His funeral occurred while I was unconscious. I tried not to think of his wife and children, mourning for their father and asking questions that didn’t have any answers.
Juno’s gaze sharpened and her smile fell.
“The captive—”
“Remi!” Saffa said.
Juno turned pink. She pointed a finger at Saffa.
“If all of you never stepped into my morgue, it would have been too soon. Remi said he was forced to drink blood as part of the spell. We tracked down the donors of the blood that went missing from the wagons. They all belonged to powerful witches, including one with a particular poison affinity.”
Like the magic that had poisoned me.
“So what does this mean?” I asked.
“It means the rogue assassin group stole a bunch of blood from powerful witches. Then they kidnapped some vampires. They cast a spell and forced the vampires to drink the powerful blood and the vampires could do magic.”
I shook my head. “I still don’t understand how it helps us, though.”
Juno bent the stick in her hand until it broke with a pop.
“It means,” she bit, “that we might be able to derive parts of the spellwork and apply it to our vampire allies. We’d try to avoid the mind control aspect, of course.”
She waited. I wasn’t the only one giving her a blank look. Juno pressed her palm to her forehead.
“We can take the magic symbols,” she pointed to the body, “the magic plant root, and the magic blood, and put them on a good vampire, and the good vampire will have magic powers.”
“Thank you, Juno, for explaining that,” Zavier said.
Kadence eyed the body with his arms crossed. “How will you avoid the mind control part?”
Juno turned to him. “We won’t include those symbols.”
“But you don’t know what all the symbols mean. How can you avoid them?” Kadence asked. Doubt pinched his brow.
“We would have to find volunteers and do some tests.”
“What happens to the volunteer if the spell goes wrong?” Kadence asked.
Juno smiled a harsh line of teeth. “It won’t go wrong.”
“Your Majesty?” Remi said, “I’d like to be a volunteer to test this spell. What my kidnappers did to me was awful, but the army of the dead will be worse. I was there when it happened to your mother, sir. I was young, but it’s not something to forget.”
I saw through Kadence’s blank face to the flash of pain underneath.
“These demons don’t feel for us,” Remi continued. “If we can give our troops these powers, we might have a fighting chance.” He looked at his stained palms. “If that means some of our people will be hurt, or even die trying to make that happen, it’s worth the risk. My family died in the war. I lost my parents, my brother, his wife, two nephews. I won’t pretend there isn’t pain between the witches and our vampires. After years of war and loss, part of me dreamed of revenge.”
His blue eyes met mine. Rage and hurt and regret filtered through them. I didn’t look away. He deserved to look his enemy in the face.
“But peace is better,” he said. “Children get to keep their parents now. We have to make this peace last, and surviving the demon horde at any cost is the price for that. Others will feel the same.”
Meaningful sacrifices, my mother’s voice whispered and I ignored her. There wasn’t time for grief and aches now.
“How many volunteers do you need?” Zavier asked.
Juno tapped a fingernail against her chin. “As many as possible.”
“How much madder plant do we have?”
“We don’t grow much here,” Juno said. “We have to import it.”
“I’ll approve all expenses for imports from the emergency budget,” I said. “Zavier, put out a request for people to donate it from their personal supplies. We need to get started right away.”
The others stood, but Kadence lingered, no doubt to ask Juno more questions before offering his vampires as test subjects.
I stacked my papers and left the morgue with the group, ignoring the lines of black bags sitting on the sides of the room. The laboratory resided next door, and several witches gathered around low tables, whispering to each other. They didn’t turn toward us, consumed with the beaker of bubbling liquid in front of them.
Dizziness made my head swim. I slouched up the stairwell, balancing one hand against the rocky wall until the world stilled.
Zavier caught my arm and tucked us into an alcove. He searched my tired face. This was the longest I had been out of bed since Kadence had chased away the poison with his blood. Sweat beaded on my forehead. Sleep beckoned me.
“Are you sure you’re well enough to travel tomorrow?” Zavier asked.
No, I wasn’t sure. Thinking about being on a horse made me want to throw up. “Yes, of course. I’m feeling a lot better.” I smiled.
“It’s a three-day ride to Vari Kolum.” Zavier raised an eyebrow. “You can rest more here and come with the first wave of troops.”
I needed to be there when my soldiers arrived. Walking into our enemy’s land would be unfamiliar and frightening. I had to be an example of stability and support. They needed to see me and know everything was okay, even when it gravely was not.
“I’m well enough to travel.”
A dark shape moved in the hallway. Kadence rounded the corner and stopped when he saw us.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“I was just making sure the queen was well enough to travel tomorrow.” Zavier said.
Kadence looked me over. A shiver ran down my spine and not from the fever.
“What did she say?” he asked.
“That she will be able to ride.”
“But you disagree?”
“I would like the queen to prioritize her health.” Zavier said carefully, diplomatically.
Kadence pressed his lips.
“If the queen says she can ride, then she rides.” He turned away. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”
His footsteps faded away, but the warmth that his confidence sparked low in my chest did not.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The rocky terrain blurred as we rode. We had passed through a thick forest and were trudging up and down foothills nestled at the base of a great mountain range. Kadence had assured us there was an easy pass between the looming mountains that looked like giants through a haze of fog and he led us over the twisting roads.
A winter chill had claimed the land, setting frost across the grass. At some point during my recovery, the trees had dropped their golden leaves, and evergreens now wore a pale layer of ice. The blue sky promised peaceful weather, although the brush of a cold breeze slipped against my exposed face.
I had managed to stay on Vry, although the first few hours were uncertain. I rode sandwiched between Cynthia and a female transportation soldier named Bryn. Maybe it was the fresh air, but I felt better today. The rocking motion of riding didn’t make bile burn the back of my throat. My strength was coming back. Progress.
Cynthia’s black hair hung stick straight and brushed against the small of her back as she sat in the saddle. Her eyes wandered the landscape, scraping back and forth, scanning for threats. In black leather riding breeches and a blood red jacket over a white shirt, she looked both professional, and fierce. Her mount, a jet black stallion, snorted any time Vry got too close.
