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That did nothing for me—or for Alaric, who’d taken the form of a man to walk this world and who needed my power to accomplish his ends. Like the Voidborn in their form of smoke, sunlight presented a threat to us.
But with the aid of angel blood and magic…
Swiping his hands together as if to rid his skin of the last of the angel blood, Alaric straightened. “Come, pet. We have a nexus to destroy.”
He started walking, and I said nothing as I followed him. I resented his treatment, yes. But that resentment had fallen into a distant second place compared to the ideas now spinning in my head.
In all the decades I’d been a vampire, I’d sought ways to reduce the sun’s ability to harm me, from the magical to the mundane. Spells I’d ripped from the books of old sorcerers. Umbrellas I used on days without a single raincloud. Even ridiculous hats and full-length coats on occasion, all to shield me through whatever absurd royal function I needed to attend. I dispelled questions about my avoidance of the sun by claiming I wanted to keep my skin looking youthful, yet even the most powerful of spells had only protected me for a short while.
But this…
As we walked through the waves of dry, yellowed grass, I turned my hand back and forth, marveling at the play of sunlight on my skin, the sight indescribably foreign to me after so many decades with only my night vision or candlelight to see by. I’d scarcely remembered how many colors flesh possessed when exposed to daylight. Each tiny hair or fleck of oil on my skin reflected the light like a crystal, shimmering and beautiful.
By the gods, I could go anywhere now. Conquer anything. Anyone.
A smile pulled at my lips. Even if it was for his own reasons, Alaric had just given me an advantage beyond compare. My strength and skill, and my magic too, were no longer constrained by the ravages of the sun, and thus I could strike at my enemies, day or night, with impunity.
But he’d given me more than that.
My eyes slid to the south. He’d provided information.
Without the aid of magic to protect them, angel blood could prove fatal to his kind. Moreover, Gwyneira was out there somewhere, and knowing that irritating brat, she was probably headed for Lumilia too, caught up in some grand delusion of taking my throne from me. But she had a descendant of angels traveling with her. Likely those damned giants as well. And once I removed Alaric from being an insufferable thorn in my side, I could send my Huntsmen and the Aneiran army after them.
I’d capture her giants. Bleed her angel dry.
And then I would destroy her once and for all.
5
GWYNEIRA
Iwas trapped inside my own mind, screaming at myself without sound.
And the vampire I’d become was about to kill a creature unlike anything I’d ever seen.
The furred beast fell as I slammed into it, even its massive size unable to compensate for the strength and speed of my attack. The creature’s head looked like a cross between a wolf and a horned deer, and it had a tail like a wolf too. But unlike those animals, this beast had walked on two legs, not four, with its body built as tall and broad as any of my men. Its enormous jaw and sharp cheeks showed edges of bone, and its body was pure muscle beneath its thick, gray fur, like the gods had thought the wolf that this beast resembled was too soft and gentle a creature to fully emulate.
No, it was more than a wolf. More than a horned deer.
A forest god.
Fangs the length of my hand glinted in the sunlight. Its enormous hands bore claws like blades, as did its feet. When I struck, the creature grabbed at me, holding me back while I snapped my fangs at its throat. But already I could tell it wouldn’t be able to stop me for long.
Nothing could. The vampire was fully in control now, shifting my body between human form and smoke effortlessly. Meanwhile, I was nothing but a speck of memory in the back of my mind, helpless to stop myself from killing this strange and beautiful beast that had?—
Suddenly, the furred creature stopped fighting.
The vampire didn’t hesitate, lunging down and sinking my fangs past the beast’s fur into its throat. Blood flooded my mouth, hot and sweet and smoky.
And familiar.
Horror shot through me. Oh gods, I knew this creature. But it was impossible.
Ozias.
The vampire didn’t give a damn. It was still hungry and that deer it had torn down in a desperate concession to stave off starvation hadn’t satisfied.
But this was Ozias…
