Domnina and her brother shared the most potent forms of two distinct bloodlines: kimaris, which made them immortal, and agramon, which made them strong. Because the bloodlines had been pure, they greatly enhanced each other when they finally blended together. But the agramon strain was infinitely stronger in Kane, while Domnina had more of the numinous kimaris blood.
The beasts which descended on the Realm of Shadows, however, did not share Kane’s strain of blood. They were a subspecies, thought to many in the outer realms to be extinct. But those in the dark lands know better.
When the blood of a subspecies agramon blends with someone who is entirely kimaris, it is always fatal. Since the countess is only partly agramon, death is delayed—but likely inescapable. When the teeth of the fetid agramon penetrated her, its toxic venom made her weak, and likely sealed the immortal’s fate.
Domnina was pale. She opened her eyes and stared deeply into her husband’s. When their eyes met, she could feel no pain, no despair, only devotion. “I will be fine, my dear LaVius. Go. Go and kill the beasts.”
He leaned over and kissed her forehead hard. His hand gripped the back of her hair and his eyes closed tightly as he deeply inhaled. He couldn’t bear to see her injured like this; frail, weakened. Every one of the remaining beasts would pay. He motioned for the nursemaids to tend her. He and Mystique stepped out into the hallway to speak. He explained of the reason for Domnina’s condition, and Mystique assured him the agramon that did this was in fact dead. He turned quickly to leave. Mystique grabbed his arm. “Lord LaVius—what of Kane?”
“He went to find your daughter. Stay with Domnina. They will arrive soon.” He ran down the stairs and out of sight.
Mystique gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Kane and Elena... he’d gone after their daughter... they would meet for the first time. She was overwhelmed by this but felt deep inside that it was the right time. She was also nervous about Kane, Elena, and Decio alone in the forest. She didn’t know how many leagues away they might be, but her clairvoyance told her they were together, and her heart told her that together they would be just fine.
As LaVius mounted Phenom, fire burned in his eyes. A rage he had not recently felt was brewing inside of him. Two members of his guard rode up beside him. “My lord, what is the battle plan?”
LaVius’s eyes darkened and turned slowly to the man; his voice was like thunder, “Hell will be raised tonight!” And they sped off into the darkness.
Chapter 15
Mystique watched over her friend as she winced and moaned in her sleep. She wished there was more she could do, but there seemed to be nothing. Finally, when all was quiet, Mystique slipped a coral dish from the poplar chest next to the door then flitted away to the evening room where she could be alone.
Mystique took the dish and slid it into a waterfall until it was filled. She then sat in silence at a table and relaxed into a meditative state. She slowly glided her hands about the air above the bowl and an image began to appear. It was night… Elena’s wedding, and the full moon was high. She and Decio looked happy. But Mystique could see no one else. She tried, but could not get a clear view of the others. Is Kane there? Am I? What about LaVius or Domnina? Does she make it through this illness? She pondered all of these questions silently. She tried hard to see a glimmer of someone else’s face—anyone’s, a face that might give her insight into what will happen. Alas, she probably tried too hard. She decided she was much too close to the situation to get a clear vision. Her mind was biased. Mystique was very upset by this. She felt helpless. She slammed her fists onto the table. “Damn!” she yelled.
“Mother! What’s going on?” Elena blurted as she, Decio, and Kane entered the room.
Mystique flew from her chair. “Oh, Elena! You are here! I’m so thankful!”
The two embraced, catching up for not only the last few nights, but for all of the lost time between them. She then took Decio’s hand and smiled at him. She was grateful that he never left her daughter’s side, and knew he would be a fierce protector. She just hoped in some way that this prophesy would not come to pass.
She then turned to Kane. As her eyes met his, she reached up and placed her hands gently on either side of his face. Her eyes told him how incredibly jubilant she was that he had found their daughter, and that the two had made peace, but also that she had pressing news he needed to hear.
“I am filled with joy that my family is all together,” she cried. “But Kane—it’s about Domnina—”
Kane felt a sudden uneasiness about him. He knew something wasn’t right in the castle when they first arrived. “Where is she?!” he boomed.
“In her chambers. Kane–it was an agramon,” Mystique said sympathetically.
Kane flew out of sight in an instant. He raced immediately to his sister’s side. Mystique stayed with her daughter and Decio and filled them in on the day’s events.
Kane entered the room and saw his sister lying on the bed. She was sleeping. She wore a plain white gown and an eiderdown quilt was pulled up to her waist. Her long dark hair was loosely strewn about the pillows; her face, lips, and hands had lost most of their color. He saw the bloody rags that one of the women had taken from her and put in a basin. He knelt next to the bed and held Domnina’s hand into the both of his. “How can this be?” he groaned, both sadly and angrily. “How!” he yelled. His breaths became deep and forceful. As his chest began to rise and lower intensely, a low growl began to emanate from within him.
The two nursemaids that stood by froze with fear. Kane’s eyes were becoming red; his jaw began to clench and he looked as if he were fighting something back—something dreadful. He quickly dropped Domnina’s hand. Kane began to shudder and it shook the floor.
The nursemaids ran swiftly for their lives.
Chapter 16
Decio stood leaning on the massive arched entryway, his arms crossed. He had been listening to Elena and her mother converse over serious matters, but something suddenly distracted him. He was used to the scent of other magical beings; the realm was full of them, and he usually could have cared less. But this was the intoxicating aroma of ordinary human blood. His brow lowered; his taste buds tingled.
He hadn’t prepared himself for this. When Decio contemplated staying at the black palace, he never considered mortals would be nearby. A few had been at the solstice ball, but this—this caught him off guard. He clenched his eyes closed and tried to control the urgency he felt inside. He could feel them nearing—there were two of them. They approached quickly from behind him. He could hear their blood pumping hard and fast in his ears; they were running. Like a flash he turned and had them both by the throats. He now stood in the archway holding them. They were the nursemaids.
Elena had better control over her hunger than Decio. She and Mystique rushed over to stop him. With Elena’s incredible speed she reached him in an instant. “Decio—no!”
He gritted his teeth and stared into the eyes of each lady. Elena tried to stand between Decio and the two women. She forced her strong hand into his chest to stop him. “Decio, it’s all right. Let them go.”
The two women had been running from the sight of Kane, but unknowingly ran right into the hands of further danger. Mystique stood still for a moment. She was more than a little curious as to why the two nursemaids had left Domnina’s side and had run so hastily into this situation. All at once, she knew something was terribly wrong and ran to Kane and Domnina.
Elena’s words began to quell Decio’s intensity. He released the women and they collapsed to the floor gasping for any bit of air. Elena was fighting back her own craving for the blood; and the women, upon realizing their peril, found the strength to take off running once more.
Decio dashed into the other direction and Elena followed him into the night. Decio was no longer comfortable staying there. He didn’t want to dishonor Lord LaVius nor any of Elena’s family by butchering their servants. Elena understood, but was reminded of the reasons Decio agr
eed with her father that they should stay in the castle in the first place. The forest was too risky right now. However, by the time she stopped him from running; they were eleven leagues away.
Upstairs at the castle, Mystique had reached Domnina’s side. Her friend was still quiescent; Kane was nowhere in sight. In a corner of the room Mystique saw a stone table crushed into rubble. Lying with it was the bowl, now broken and devoid of water, and the bloody rags. Mystique turned her eyes to the balcony; the drapes danced and twirled in the wind. She stepped slowly to them and parted them wide. There, Kane stood as she’d hoped. His hands firmly gripped the stone wall. His shirt, which was still tucked, but now lay down torn into shreds, left his upper body exposed. Mystique could see the great tension in his muscles as he heavily breathed and she knew what had almost happened. She slowly approached Kane and gingerly placed her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. “Kane, are you all right?” she whispered.
He forcibly swallowed and turned toward Mystique. They gazed at each other. His eyes began to cool from smoldering red to the tranquil hue that always reminded Mystique of the evening sea. As his intensity subsided, he cupped her cheek with his hand. “I’m sorry...” he began.
Mystique hushed him gently. “Kane, don’t. Don’t worry about what you almost did—because you didn’t. Everything is all right. And I love you. Don’t apologize.” She smiled at him warmly.
“I’m not apologizing for that, my love,” he said tenderly; his look beginning to change. “I’m apologizing for leaving.” He kissed her forehead softly then declared, “I’ve got killing to do.” With that, Kane left Mystique’s sight in an instant, a murderous storm in his eyes. She was staggered and speechless.
Chapter 17
The imperial guard, led by their master, rode across the dark plains toward the far reaches of the realm searching for the agramon. Kane was separately on the hunt. His rage was in check, but he wanted it so. He kept hold of his anger that it may be unleashed when the time was right. As far as Kane and LaVius were concerned, these beasts had done more than cross into the wrong realm—they were the reason Domnina lay dying. More than blood would be shed this night.
The two young vampires were far from the safety of the black palace where the remaining members of the guard kept watch. Decio, who’d run off most of his steam, sat with his bride-to-be atop a giant spruce gazing at the stars.
“Your mother and father will worry,” Decio realized. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”
Elena was aghast. “I shouldn’t have followed you?”
“I couldn’t stay there, but you could have. You would be much safer.”
“Decio, first, I am fully able to handle myself in the wilderness. And second, I have no care of the dangers; I would follow you to the end of the universe.”
Decio gazed across the blackness of the plains. “I know,” he said sadly. “And you would risk your own life to do it.”
“Yes,” she replied.
“You mustn’t. You must go back,” Decio insisted.
Elena refused. “No! I will not leave you. Don’t breathe those words again!”
“Elena, you—” Suddenly something caught Decio’s eye. He swiftly and quietly rose to his feet on the branch and peered into the dark at something that moved. About a hundred yards from them something barreled through the brush, something enormous, something that moved with purpose—something that wasn’t alone.
Mystique paced back and forth on the balcony outside Domnina’s chambers. She was incensed at being unable to figure a cure for her friend’s condition. “I know there is a spell–a tincture–something!” she cried out. She stomped across the stone terrace thinking hard and deep. She then paused for a moment and parted the curtains. She looked into the room where Domnina laid. Her friend was still; she seemed hard as stone. She was immortal, yet now so distant from the world; she was near death. Mystique was overwhelmed with emotion as well as query. She knew there was something she could do, but what?
Mystique’s eyes spanned the room and finally rested on the table that Kane had obliterated. She thought of his incalculable strength. She asked herself why Domnina couldn’t be that strong right now; if only for a few moments. Then she saw the bloody rags that once wrapped her friend, and she wished Domnina’s blood was more like Kane’s tonight. If she were more like her brother, then she wouldn’t be in this state. She would be walking among us, Mystique thought. “And she would probably be out there fighting alongside her husband and Kane,” she murmured.
Mystique grew angry at this travesty. She ground her teeth and turned to the stone rail of the balcony. She peered out at the dark landscape almost giving up hope at ever finding a cure. She hung her head low—then shot it back up in an instant. She had a revelation. “That’s it!” Mystique screamed. She ran to Domnina’s side gleefully, and so quickly that she almost tangled her feet in the length of her cloak. “Domnina! Domnina!” she cried cheerfully. “In all your wicked malevolence you lie there quietly—but I know you can hear me!” Mystique laughed and put one hand to her heart and clasped Domnina’s hand with the other. “I know how to help you, friend! But I must find Kane! I shall return!”
LaVius slowed Phenom to a halt. The horse groaned ferociously. “Quiet boy,” LaVius warned. “I feel them too.”
Two men of the guard were with LaVius and took notice of his actions. They too stopped and prepared for the coming ambush. “It is time,” LaVius grinned evilly. “They don’t know what’s waiting for them. Let them come. I will thoroughly enjoy this slaughter.”
The three men drew their swords, but first, LaVius dismounted. All at once three agramon jumped from the trees and the battle began. LaVius’s eyes became blood red with fury. He wielded his sword intent on annihilation. The first agramon was the largest, at least ten feet, and its shoulders were four wide. The monster growled and thrashed its massive arms at LaVius. Its teeth were razor sharp, its body sculpted into an immense muscular fighting machine. But LaVius would show him who was master of this domain.
LaVius lunged at the creature bludgeoning its belly with the two-handed blade. He then ripped it out with all his force through the monster’s side. The agramon wailed angrily, but remained standing. LaVius’s hair whipped around as he leapt up using the beast’s leg for leverage and in an instant caught its throat with the bend of his arm and twisted the muscular neck until it was no longer of use. The beast fell to the ground and LaVius jumped over it and toward the next one. The two guards were in need of assistance.
Elena stood up and next to Decio on the large tree limb. “What is it?” she whispered.
“Agramon—” said Decio, “two of them.”
The two beasts crossed the field and neared the tree where Decio and Elena stood.
“Wait here,” Decio instructed his wife-to-be.
Her brows turned in defiantly. “Like hell,” she answered, and jumped down onto the back of one of the agramon.
Decio shook his head and followed suit.
Chapter 18
Elena, now on the back of one of the agramon, tried to reach around and claw at his eyes. It was a bold effort but the beast snatched her from its back and flung her onto the ground much like the countess had been thrown earlier. Her arm twisted, and her vampire blood began to boil. Her own animal instinct took over and she ran toward the monster. Then, like flashes of light, she dodged his thrashes. She bobbed and weaved in and out of his reach, slicing him with her razor-sharp nails. She was much too fast for him, but this would not kill him.
The second agramon was much larger and had black hair that surged from the top of his skull down to his back. The beast’s eyes glowed white; its teeth were red with blood. The beast had been moving toward Decio, but Elena caught his attention. It noticed how fast she was and thought his cohort foolish for letting her play this game. He would remind him that his job was to tear her apart. He ran past Decio and barreled into the other agramon, sparking a brawl between the tw
o that left Decio and Elena thunderstruck. The rage between the two monsters seemed to escalate and their roars echoed throughout the land.
“Decio, now is our chance to get away. They are distracted.” She knew that their vampire speed would be impossible for the agramon to contend with.
However, Decio’s eyes had grown dark. “You go. I will stay and fight.”
Elena grabbed hold of Decio’s arm. “Decio, you can’t!” she whispered loudly.
“I must. We are far from the citadel and no one knows they are here. If I can hold them, you can go back and send assistance.”
Before Decio could go on, the two agramon refocused their fury—both of them on him. The first one knelt on all fours and stared the male vampire down as if he were prey; its wounds from Elena’s claws were dripping. The larger one raised his head menacingly and sniffed the air. It was as if there was a familiar scent on the wind. He looked about cautiously, but returned his white eyes to Decio whose own eyes were red and fixed upon him. The two agramon slowly made their steps toward Decio and showed the gnarly teeth that they planned to sink into his tough pale skin.
Elena suddenly dove in between them—but Decio’s strong hand grabbed her at lightning speed and thrust her out of the way as the beasts attacked.
Out of nowhere, Kane heaved onto the field and erupted into his most fiendish form. He roared at Elena, “Run!” His voice was like thunder; his eyes surged from red to burning white as he flew. Elena jumped back. Her eyes were wide, her body in shock as she saw her father’s transformation. She fell backward onto the ground. Kane looked over his shoulder and shouted at her, “Now!”
She fumbled to her feet and sped off to the castle.