Sharon Ashwood - Unchained

A vampire dynasty? Projects like that always ended in a bloodbath followed by a snowstorm of gloating memoirs. What a pompous fool. Bravo to the double- crossing demon thief for putting a wrench in that idiotic plan.

However, Belenos was a pompous fool with something the prince still wanted.

Miru-kai reached the meeting place, a cavern where the roof was so high, it was lost in shadows. Here the rock was unhewn and the boulders a soft gray with veins of white. Pebbles covered the floor, marking where a river had run long ago. A mere stone’s throw away, a cliff face thrust into the darkness. Deep runnels gouged the rock, hinting that a long-ago waterfall had splashed from at least forty feet above.

Miru-kai searched the darkness. An ever-burning fire flickered in a brazier at the mouth of a tunnel. Flames cast a tiny puddle of light, drawing blade-sharp shadows on the rocks.

The cavern was empty. The others had not arrived.

Before Miru-kai, the dry riverbed wound through the cavern. Behind him, a narrow passageway led back toward the gated wilderness where the phouka and demons roamed. He looked up at the blackness above. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he thought the dark held a different quality tonight. It looked almost like, well, sky instead of rock so high it was lost in shadow. It had to be his imagination, because there were no stars, or moons, or any glimmer of relief in the velvet black. He wanted to be free so badly he was imagining things.

He yearned for the weave of his existence to change.

A tiny figure darted out of the tunnel, its wings whirring like the flight of a dragonfly. Miru- kai got to his feet as the little fey zipped around the brazier, circling the light.

“Greetings, Shadewing,” said Miru-kai.

The fey’s body was no longer than Miru- kai’s hand, spindly and frail. The skin was dark blue, with hair the color of forget- me-nots. The overall effect was waif-like, if one missed the needle teeth, claws, and eyes that glowed like hot coals. Shadewing was a bringer of nightmares, the one who soured milk and made babies cry in the dead of night. In other words, a nasty little bastard at the best of times, and one of the prince’s most clever emissaries. Miru-kai had trusted him as a go-between on many occasions.

“The vampire king sends his warmest wishes,” Shadewing said with a voice that was lovely and yet chill. It made Miru- kai think of the frost on fallen autumn leaves.

“He did not choose to come in person?” Miru-kai said with sarcasm. “How like a vampire to take what he wants and then never call.”

“The vampires sent me ahead. Belenos is no more than a minute behind me.” The little fairy twisted in the air, looking behind him. “Less than that.”

A pair of goblins, hulking brutes in bronze-plated jerkins, gold rings glinting on their tusks, lumbered from the mouth of the tunnel. Those were Miru-kai’s guards. Dark-suited vampire guards stood behind them, their pale faces seeming to float in the shadows. In their midst stood the tall, red-haired King of the East.

Belenos stepped forward, moving like a tall-prowed ship cutting the sea. The image was apt. There was something of the plundering marauder still lurking in his topaz eyes.

Miru-kai schooled his expression to hide his contempt. The prince and the king faced off at a polite distance, making formal bows.

“I, Belenos, monarch of the Eastern Kingdom of the Vampires, surrender your payment.”

He was holding a yellow gem no bigger than a peppercorn, held by a claw of gold.

“I, Miru-kai, prince of the dark fey, accept your payment.”

Miru-kai held out his hand. Belenos dropped the gem into his palm. Miru- kai’s fingers closed over the dainty object, feeling the jolt of power as soon as he touched it—fey magic calling to fey magic. It would take him time to learn the gem’s secrets, but now he held a world of potential in his hand.

“Our business is concluded,” Belenos intoned. Obviously, he was already feeling his inner emperor.

Vomitous cretin.

Miru-kai slipped the loop of chain over his wrist, sparing a glance for the gaggle of vampires standing a few yards away. What did one call a group of the Undead? Flock? Herd? Fang? A suck of vampires?

There was something very obviously not a vampire in their midst. He could just make out a small form, one that glowed with life. “Is that a human child?”

He loved human children.

This one was female, just on the cusp between child and maiden. She was wedged in between the vamps, corralled by their lifeless bodies. Panting like a bird, he thought. Trying not to breathe too deeply lest her frame brush the dark coat sleeves of her captors. He could see it in her fine shudders of disgust.

Poor chick.

Belenos’s mouth twitched, just the hint of a self-satisfied smirk. “With your help, Prince Miru- kai, I have found the means to create a living dynasty.”

He paused, giving Miru-kai a moment to be impressed. The prince gave the ghost of a bow.

The vampire continued. “That is the daughter of the woman I seek to fulfill my plan. My human servants took her this morning.”

Miru-kai frowned. “Why?”

“Leverage. I’m going to let the child’s mother stew until she’s desperate. Then I will lead her into a trap. Perhaps here in the Castle? It’s an atmospheric place for an ambush, don’t you think?”

Miru-kai, who had experienced a millennium of the atmosphere, shrugged.

Belenos went on. “Once the mother comes to find her, I will take both back to my kingdom.”

A chill dread dragged over Miru- kai’s skin, like the tail of a silk shroud. “If you are referring to the magic of the Chosen, I thought it required affection freely given.”

It was Belenos’s turn to shrug. “Captivity can teach affection. If that doesn’t work, I have the daughter. I can raise her to love me. She carries her mother’s magic. Perhaps both shall make good wives. Plus, I still mean to regain the urn. As the expression goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. I will have my heir.”

Now the vampire’s mouth moved, not to a smirk but to a smile that turned the prince’s stomach. Miru-kai looked at the girl. Her eyes were huge, brown, and frantic, her face almost as pale as the dead pallor of the vampires.

Apparently free will was a slippery concept for the king.

Outrage began to bloom in Miru-kai’s gut, a pinprick of bitter heat.

The hunt for Eden had moved outside of Holly’s house. Reynard took charge of the search, dividing up the streets and assigning volunteers to each small segment of ground. Of course the police were there, doing everything possible, but there were only so many officers available and a lot of streets to cover. The neighbors had come out to help, human and supernatural alike. Reynard had sent Ashe to lead the door-to-door search because it was clear she needed to be moving, not organizing. On the other hand, taking charge and assigning tasks was his strength.

He just wished he felt better. He could deny the drag of the urn’s absence, but it was still there, a nagging fatigue that grew with every hour. But there was no time to think of that. Not now.

Twilight was falling, and a new and unfamiliar terror rose in his gut. Someone vulnerable, someone he had started to care for, was in danger. He had fought to protect innocents before, but never one who had wound herself around his heart in the space of a few hours. This was new and, bloody hell, it was awful. He felt helpless.

The house had already been searched, both physically and magically. There was no sign of struggle. No one had seen anything. Everything pointed to the conclusion that someone—almost certainly the minions of Belenos—had scooped up Eden and carried her off. Holly thought perhaps Eden had left by the side door, slipped past the hellhounds, and gone to the corner store. Kids broke rules sometimes just because they were there, and Eden had a history of running away.