Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Silence.
“Exactly.” I turned around and rushed away.
Ian!
“There is evil in this room. That is all.” I left and turned into the hall.
Ian, please don’t leave me! Not again! No!
I wanted to turn around.
Part of me. . .wanted to even. . .pretend that it was here.
“Death.” I forced myself to keep moving forward. “W-wherever death lingers for too long, bad magic rises.”
Ian, my king. My only love.
I bobbed my head up and down. My feet dragged along a little at a time. “Phinova told me that herself long ago. Get rid of the dead thing fast or evil will sprout.”
Ian. I’m trapped in this corpse.
I stopped in the doorway.
I’m imprisoned in here!
I fell to my knees, covered my face, and rocked. “Get it together, man. Get it together. She can’t be alive.”
I am alive!
“Shut up!” I roared. “Dark spirit!”
You said you would never let harm come to me. You said only the sun and moon gods could stop you.
I had and I meant it.
But, Nai said the same things too, and probably had been saying it to this corpse for all these years.
This couldn’t be Phinova.
What magic was this? How could she still be alive?
She was inside my head.
Was it due to our bond? Did it somehow live past her death?
Phinova’s voice slithered into my skull. Magic is complicated and unknowing.
I rubbed my eyes. “I won’t let you trick me.”
Give me blood from the mages. More and more. Take my body.
Against all logic, I rose. “And where shall we go?”
Wherever blood mages are. Their blood keeps me alive.
“And if you don’t get it?”
Then I slowly sink into myself and. . .
“And?”
We shall not talk of those things.
I returned to the room. “And what happened here, Phinova?”
A young vampire prince became king tonight. They tortured his queen. He ripened, broke free, killed all but a few, and escaped.
“It must be Xander you’re talking about.”
Dear Ambi, I’m talking to a corpse.
I am alive.
“You haven’t proven that.”
I gave you more than a spell to keep you alive. I gave you a spell to grow another penis.
“Nai could have told you that, and Phinova would have said cock.” I wiped away webs and spiders from her face. “Was Xander’s queen hurt?”
I’m not sure. One woman said that she lived.
“Then I know where he ran off with her.” Against even more logic, I lifted Phinova up into my arms and raced out of there.
A few dominas peeked out from shadowed corners and shrieked when they spotted Phinova’s corpse in my arms. I didn’t see any royal guards. It seemed that all had fled or died tonight.
“Nai will return to this chaos, ready to bring war to whoever ruined it.”
Do not worry, my love.
Phinova’s voice vibrated through my head.
Nai can be controlled.
Tell me how.
He listens to me and has been for a century. When he fills my body with mage blood, it sinks into my veins, preserving me, and then Nai drinks from my neck as we make love.
Cringing while still running off to the sewers, I gazed down at the corpse so fresh and full of life, but dead just the same. “Maybe that has been the problem all along. He is drinking darkness over and over.”
Her voice played like a smooth musical instrument, gentle and soothing. What do you mean, my love?
“Nai has ruled the territory like a crazed man. Maybe it’s because he gets his orders from. . .you? Dear Ambi. You’re dead and he’s making love to you. He’s madder than I thought.”
I’m alive. It isn’t wrong.
Phinova chuckled in my head and I wanted to pause right there and kiss those lips to see if they would move.
Ambi, help me.
My arms trembled as I carried her.
This is wrong.
This is only wrong if you think so.
She used to say that. . .She did. Maybe, it is her.
It is.
I ignored her voice and tried to think.
Or perhaps, I simply yearn for it to be her.
It is me.
Why am I even carrying her away?
You’re saving me.
What madness is this? Why did I take the dead body?
Just like when you, Nai, and I would make love, you always worried it was wrong. But was it, loyal Ian?
Increasing my speed, My bottom lip quivered. “After all these years, I still don’t know.”
Chapter 13
Battle Form
Xander
Camille slept.
I stood in front of the bed, naked, hard, and dripping soapy water.
Her dream performed a play in my mind. Ambi and Ressi hovered over Camille as she kneeled in the sky before them. All three floated above the planets. The gods blinked in and out of form, never truly in a solid image, but more like transparent wisps of mists, magic, and color.
I’d never seen anything like it before.
They resembled something of great power.
Even through her dreams, I could feel their influence vibrating against my skin.
Ambi gleamed white and bright like the moon. The only other color was the dark blue in his eyelids and the blackness of his horns that curled back like mine and boasted sharp points at the end. His mouth moved as he talked to Camille in a language I could not understand. With each foreign word, fiery stars flowed out of his lips.