I gasp when I see him. Valen. Hanging suspended in the middle of the cavern. Crucified on a silver cross, his skin sizzling as he hangs limp, his face hidden beneath gore. His entire body is destroyed, blood and sinew, skin hanging in ribbons, bones broken and shattered.
“Valen!” I scream, the sound cut off when Gregor yanks my hair and orders silence.
Valen stirs, his head lifting the slightest bit. “Valen, I’m here,” I try to find our bond, to pick up the threads that linked us. But they’re nothing more than cobwebs that disintegrate at my touch.
“Valen has long been a disappointment.” Gregor continues stroking me absently. “His weak blood made that inevitable. I often wonder why I kept him. I think it was for the novelty of it,really. A half human mutt. So rare. But made no more valuable for its rarity. Quite the opposite, in fact.” His claws dig into my scalp. “But his disdain for the humans has been quite clear over the centuries. So what is it about you that makes him betray me? Makes himlieto me? Forces me to punish him?”
I grit my teeth.
“My lord?” Coal strides in, two other vampires at his back. “You summoned me?”
“Valen has proven not up to the task of finishing off the human command. He also failed me in Atlanta. As such, he is no longer in charge of my forces. Until a competent Dragonis successor can be found, you will lead my armies.”
Coal stops in front of us and drops to one knee, bowing his head in deference. “My lord.”
“You will go at sunset. Destroy them. Force them out of their holes, give them nowhere to hide. Bring me the head of their general.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“If you fail me, you will meet the same fate as my Specter.” His claws go deeper, digging along my scalp, separating skin from bone. I can’t scream, can only endure.
Then he withdraws and licks my blood from his fingers. He gasps, a horrid wheezing sound like a death rattle.
“Amate?” he asks, incredulity in his rasping voice. “Ahumanmate?”
Valen twitches.
Gregor groans and lifts me from the floor, settling me sideways in his lap, his fetid stink making me gag. Gripping my chin, he wrenches my head toward him, his dead eyes staring into mine. “He didn’t just lie about your death. He betrayed me from the start!” His voice rises to a roar, an ear-piercing howl of rage that rattles some stone free from the ceiling, the rocks crashing to the floor.
I shake uncontrollably, my teeth chattering.
“Shh,” he coos, then clucks his tongue. “Shh, now.” He drags his fingers down my throat, lingering at my pulse, then lower to my chest. Resting his palm over my heart, he stares up at Valen.
“All for this pitiful human? You’ve given up everything. You’re still trying to shield your thoughts about her from me even now. Your feelings, though, they can’t be hidden any longer. You’re too weak. I can taste them.” He inhales through his rotted nose. “Love and longing. Desire. You want her more than you want to live, more than you’ve wanted anything.” He breathes out slowly, his emaciated body barely moving. “You killed my son for her, didn’t you?” he says it so quietly, almost sorrowfully.
Valen grunts, the sound close to assent.
Gregor’s gaze flicks back to me. “My son Theo was a god. A more perfect being never existed and never will again. Your pathetic human mind can’t comprehend what he was. His promise. His abilities. Your heart will never truly understand the pain of that loss.” He presses his claws into my chest, easily piercing the fabric and through my skin. “But I can give you an idea. Speak, now.”
I scream as he holds me still, his other hand at my throat, his claws embedded at the back of my neck.
“Why are you still here?” Gregor’s voice booms over me.
“My lord, I was simply awaiting your command,” Coal replies.
“Go, now,” he snaps, then gives me a skeletal grin, the scant flesh hanging on his face warping and stretching. “I have business here with this human. Valen’s mate.” His fangs lengthen. “I intend to make this last. He’ll hear your screams for days on end. He’ll listen to everything I do to you. And when his eyes heal, he’ll watch, too.” He presses his claws deeper, the tips scratching against my sternum, my ribs.
I scream again, the pain of it unthinkable, unbearable. Tears well in my eyes, my chin trembling, but I can’t escape. There’s no way out of his grasp. Fatima’s blade digs into my forearm, blood oozing from the cuts. It’s pinned between us, my other hand mangled and useless from the fall on the stairs.
“I was once told by an ancient that the suffering of one’s mate bestows the same pain tenfold upon the other. Mates cannot bear it. It drives them mad if they’re helpless to save the one their soul is bound to.” His black tongue snakes out and licks the blood and tears on my cheek. “Though I suspect he broke your bond, didn’t he? Rejected his claim on you to save you?” He nods. “I can taste it, the shattered link like burned blood. The same feeling I had when he killed my son. My precious child.”
“Theo,” I force the word out.
“You knew him? Yes.” He pulls his claws from my chest and licks them one by one. “Oh yes, yes you did. I remember now. Speak,” he commands. “Tell me about him.”
“He was cruel. Vicious. A horrible vampire who killed my friends and tortured my sister. I hated him. I’m glad he’s dead.”
He makes a rasping, wheezing noise. I realize it’s a laugh.
