a dark master. Or where, exactly, she’d been banished to—her and others like her. I also hadn’t gotten the full scoop on what went down and how it went down and how many good people had died in what must have been one hellacious battle of good versus evil.
She had fought her son, I knew that. And others like him. Alchemists, mostly. I myself was from a long line of alchemists. From the original alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus.
I wondered if my bloodline flowed through all my incarnations, or if it was isolated to just this current one. That is, my current and last incarnation on Earth.
My bloodline was highly valuable, I’d discovered. Which was why I had the pleasure of being targeted by Elizabeth, one of the strongest of the dark masters. My bloodline and her dark mastery were enough to turn the tide of power. That is, if I let her out, which I never did.
I say one of the strongest, because there was another, of course. The entity that currently resided in none other than Dracula himself, a prince of a man I’d encountered a few months ago—and a unique warrior who had saved my ass. Dracula, the original vampire. Dracula, who had given himself up as a vessel to the strongest of the dark masters. A dark master who just so happened to be the love of Elizabeth’s immortal life.
What tangled webs we weave...
The entity within Dracula had made it known that it wanted time with the entity within me. By time, I figured they meant some hot and sweaty dark master sex. After all, it had been centuries since they had been, ah, united. Centuries that Elizabeth had waited for me to be born. Why me, I didn’t know. Why not, say, my mother? I didn’t know that either. My mother’s bloodline would have been even closer to Hermes, less diluted. Then again, imagining my mother as a vampire nearly caused me to have a fit of semi-hysterical laughter in my minivan.
No, I thought. She waited for me for a reason. Perhaps it had something to do with my witchy heritage.
I nodded, knowing that was the key.
I continued breathing, sucking in lungfuls of worthless air, but not knowing what else to do. The sun was just minutes from disappearing from a distant horizon that I could not see—not with the damn mountain in the way.
Why did she hate the sun so much anyway? What was the deal with that? Kingsley operated in the sun, and he had a similar highly evolved dark master residing within him, too.
The answer came to me as an impulse, and it came to me from her, I knew. The thing within Kingsley was a different kind of dark master. A lower form, in fact. Okay, that made sense, although I would never tell Kingsley that. Then again, maybe he knew. The thing within him was hungrier, angrier, wilder. Hence, the beast he turned into each full moon.
I wrung my hands, breathed, rocked.
The sun, the sun, the sun...
I gripped my steering wheel. Too tightly. It creaked in my hands. Bent inward, threatening to snap. I didn’t care. I hated my skin, the sun, the light. I felt myself losing it, going crazy, completely fucking losing it...
And then it happened.
It was gone and the crawling sensation between my shoulders stopped and the air hissed out of my lips and I hung my head and found myself weeping... for joy.
Then, I sat back and found myself smiling, knowing I was surely losing my mind, but I didn’t care. Not in this moment of pure relief.
The sun was gone, and I had never felt so alive.
Chapter Seventeen
There was a chance I might have been in the bad part of town.
The complex was tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac. Anyone on this street meant to be on this street. No one came through here. And those who did were high or wasted or up to no good. Okay, that sounded sort of judge-y.
The apartment complex itself was sprawling, with many wings and buildings and covered parking lots and entrances. The apartment was gated, sort of. Heavy iron gates blocked the entrances, opened by, I presumed, a scanner card. But the
She had fought her son, I knew that. And others like him. Alchemists, mostly. I myself was from a long line of alchemists. From the original alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus.
I wondered if my bloodline flowed through all my incarnations, or if it was isolated to just this current one. That is, my current and last incarnation on Earth.
My bloodline was highly valuable, I’d discovered. Which was why I had the pleasure of being targeted by Elizabeth, one of the strongest of the dark masters. My bloodline and her dark mastery were enough to turn the tide of power. That is, if I let her out, which I never did.
I say one of the strongest, because there was another, of course. The entity that currently resided in none other than Dracula himself, a prince of a man I’d encountered a few months ago—and a unique warrior who had saved my ass. Dracula, the original vampire. Dracula, who had given himself up as a vessel to the strongest of the dark masters. A dark master who just so happened to be the love of Elizabeth’s immortal life.
What tangled webs we weave...
The entity within Dracula had made it known that it wanted time with the entity within me. By time, I figured they meant some hot and sweaty dark master sex. After all, it had been centuries since they had been, ah, united. Centuries that Elizabeth had waited for me to be born. Why me, I didn’t know. Why not, say, my mother? I didn’t know that either. My mother’s bloodline would have been even closer to Hermes, less diluted. Then again, imagining my mother as a vampire nearly caused me to have a fit of semi-hysterical laughter in my minivan.
No, I thought. She waited for me for a reason. Perhaps it had something to do with my witchy heritage.
I nodded, knowing that was the key.
I continued breathing, sucking in lungfuls of worthless air, but not knowing what else to do. The sun was just minutes from disappearing from a distant horizon that I could not see—not with the damn mountain in the way.
Why did she hate the sun so much anyway? What was the deal with that? Kingsley operated in the sun, and he had a similar highly evolved dark master residing within him, too.
The answer came to me as an impulse, and it came to me from her, I knew. The thing within Kingsley was a different kind of dark master. A lower form, in fact. Okay, that made sense, although I would never tell Kingsley that. Then again, maybe he knew. The thing within him was hungrier, angrier, wilder. Hence, the beast he turned into each full moon.
I wrung my hands, breathed, rocked.
The sun, the sun, the sun...
I gripped my steering wheel. Too tightly. It creaked in my hands. Bent inward, threatening to snap. I didn’t care. I hated my skin, the sun, the light. I felt myself losing it, going crazy, completely fucking losing it...
And then it happened.
It was gone and the crawling sensation between my shoulders stopped and the air hissed out of my lips and I hung my head and found myself weeping... for joy.
Then, I sat back and found myself smiling, knowing I was surely losing my mind, but I didn’t care. Not in this moment of pure relief.
The sun was gone, and I had never felt so alive.
Chapter Seventeen
There was a chance I might have been in the bad part of town.
The complex was tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac. Anyone on this street meant to be on this street. No one came through here. And those who did were high or wasted or up to no good. Okay, that sounded sort of judge-y.
The apartment complex itself was sprawling, with many wings and buildings and covered parking lots and entrances. The apartment was gated, sort of. Heavy iron gates blocked the entrances, opened by, I presumed, a scanner card. But the
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