1. Claire
1
CLAIRE
Vampire Prophecy:
“One will rise. And she will be forged of bone and flesh, a love like no other — inamorata. And she alone shall force the heavens wide. Then shall the race of vampire fall. By their own hand, by their own blood, they shall splinter from the inside, brother against brother, none left standing but the guilty. And when our kind spills her blood, so the race of vampire will finally end.”
The dirt is cold beneath my knees, but the sun is warm even down the long tunnel that leads to the hillside, the sun casting dappled gold and green against the mouth of the cave. It’s like looking at the daylight through a kaleidoscope, as if I’m kneeling before a passage to the promised land. It feels like … hope.
But the interior walls of this cave are a bleak reminder of how far I’ve fallen.
I clench my hands together in prayer, my fingers entwined just beneath my chin. My rosary is heavier than it should be. It offers little peace.
I’ll never be whole again. The barren place where my soul should reside has ached since the night I turned, and that emptiness has consumed me ever since.
I suppose it’s only fitting that my outside matches the inside. One of my elbows fits neatly into the cavernous gulf in my side, my arm brushing only air instead of flesh as if an enormous beast took a bite of me.
That b***h — she was the one who did it. Stabbed that blade into my abdomen, killing that area of my body almost instantly. And the poison … that’s what that blade is made of, a toxin stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. And it spread so quickly, like flames eating me alive from the inside out. The only thing that saved me was the change — the doves. I shifted into my bird form before it could spread deeper into my body, but where the knife pierced, every place it touched … those pieces of me were already lost.
My knuckles ache, and I force my hands to relax. I wiggle my elbow a bit, side to side. I hit a jagged line of shattered rib on one side, and on the other, only the silk of my empty shirt.
“Once we find the location, we’ll ambush them.” The voice behind me is low, male, and forceful, but I know it’s more of a question than a demand — he’s as frightened of me as any of them are. I’m their queen, and none will do anything without my approval. “We’ll have the element of surprise,” he tries again. “If we have the numbers — ”
“The numbers wouldn’t have helped us last time,” another vampire says. Which one is irrelevant. I don’t care what they say, so long as they’re here for the big show. I do need their strength. As strong as I am, I need backup.
It would be easier to just kill her, but what I have planned is a fate worse than death for her and her hive. Though I suppose their fate is far less crucial to me than my own.
I lower my hands and push myself to standing, finally turning to the rest of the group; the sun beats on the red silk that covers my back. It warms my skin through the shirt, but where I’m missing a hunk of flesh and sinew the heat feels far too deep — invasive. Like I’m being split open and roasted alive.
“She thinks she’s invincible,” I say. “That all of them are invincible.” A hundred eyes blink at me, glittering and catlike in the gloom, but the darkness beyond the cave’s mouth is by design. You need privacy to build an army.
And I have. Oh, I have.
I won’t need them all. Just a few, enough to get close to Dawn — perhaps more to sniff out the hive. But my husband will not go down without a fight. He is loyal and has the self-control necessary to hold his own against us. Markula … My blood boils. He never touched me, not once. I was his wife, and he refused to touch me. He drove me into his brother’s arms. Does he know about us? Does he even care?
Maybe not. I was saddled with Narimi’s dead weight for centuries, but I got what I needed from him. He showed me Markula’s future with that woman. Told us all about the prophecy they uncovered, and hearing those words gave me hope for the first time since I turned. When I burst into that seminary to take Markula, I had a single sliver of hope left, but his refusal to leave with me … well, never mind that. He’ll pay for his transgressions as Narimi did. Killing him felt like the first breath of fresh air after centuries of inky smog.
They’re still watching me with their catlike eyes. Waiting for instructions. For inspiration. “She is not invincible — her hive is not invincible. Their Warrior was my husband. I sired him.” This revelation is met with a rumbling of surprise and excitement. Some of them are aware already, have been since New Orleans, but we’ve added many soldiers since.
I grin with perfectly vicious teeth. I am not afraid of Markula as I was in life. Now I’m the only one with the power.
“All we have to do is find them,” I say. “And I have a plan. Which of you is worthy?”
The question is met by a scrabbling of feet.
“Patience,” I whisper. “Patience.”
This mission has been centuries in the making. I believe I’ll savor every minute until the savage, bittersweet end.
