Candy: Book 5 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Saga

Chapter 224: Eggs

Ripley was fucking with me.

Claudius had basically tracked me down to give me my fighting leathers. For once I wasn’t accused of being a hot heated flake who was running into harms way. Everyone was pissed about the scope and scale of Orel Wessel – the Gathering--and not solely on my behalf, which was a good thing. I was so out of kilter with my emotional range right now it was simpler just to shut it down. Well, ignore it anyways.

After Father was finished scaring the piss out of Kain, he set him to rights in more ways than one. He impressed upon my redheaded eldest that he was now part of a family whether he wanted to be or not. He re-stressed the danger he was in because of his bloodline, again whether he wanted me to be his daddy dearest or not. He also locked him in a windowless room and set Manu and Pytor on guard outside the door as Kain ranted and railed against the injustice of being kidnapped and held against his will. Father was a force just cut to the chase, brutally if called for.

Which I would have to call him on after everything was said and done with Serephina. Riassa was right. Everyone needed a Father, and Armor needed Claudius to treat him a hell of a lot better. Another failing that could be laid at my feet. Damn it. Not now…

I got into my leathers and suited up well aware that I was feeling like an action hero getting ready for the last battle. I so hoped not. I had too much going on in my life to die right now.
Claudius was in his own black leathers – not the shiny patent ones, but just as form fitting. Sex was a randy little bugger out there on our sandy warm stretch of Unending Plane. Yes Father cut a fine figure but...well yeah, I guess he was sex on wheels with long black tresses. Everyone was waiting in the batcave, so I was genuinely blindsided when I got a tongue shoved down my throat.

I staggered sideways and hit the wall. A warm body plastered himself against my front. I was about to blast the interloper when that tingling sensation started as Ripley began to drawn on our connection. He sealed his lips over mine and kissed me like he was sucking on a milkshake. He drew energy through me from the undying plane. I tangled my hand in the back of his hair and pulled his head back. Whatever I was going to rip into him with just dried up. Ripley looked like he fell off the turnip truck, and it back upped and ran over him, reversed and ran over him again. His face was gaunt. His sockets had a sunken appearance and he looked like he had been punched between the eyes.

/Apologies, Lover…but I am in need./
/How much?/

/Until I don’t look like shit./

/That much, eh?/

/Xavier…/

I bent over Ripley in the classic film noir movie Vampire pose except instead of ripping into his throat I pressed my mouth firmly on his and searched for the tap that connected me to the Unending Plane. I don’t know why it was this way but as soon as our tongues entangled, I could feel the energy that made my flesh do the heebeejeebee shuffle open and flow through me to Ripley. He was like a goblet to my pitcher. His arm came up around my back clutching me tightly to him.

“What the hell are you doing!!” Marcus jerked us apart. Ripley slammed unprotected to the floor and I did my impression of a bat hitting a wall then I slid down the surface until I bounced on my ass on the floor. “You know Armor’s hurting and lashing out…you don’t have to punish him because he isn’t strong enough emotionally.”

I blinked and looked up at Marcus. All the way up. He was just like the jolly brown leather giant. Way to air our dirty laundry, Marcus. You could feel the tension in the room rise as we stared at each other. Ripley groaned and held his forehead. Marcus glanced down at him and then frowned. The energy that I had siphoned to him was coursing through his body. The hallows what were in his face now puffed up like a blow up doll. The paleness of his tan faded and he turned back into a golden boy. The bruising around his eyes faded and suddenly there was the gold and silver Fey who had offered up his magic for my use.

“What is going on?”

Claudius stepped forward. “This is Prince…Ripley. He has bonded with our Lord Emperor to be his magical shield. What caused this drain?”

Ripley was still lying down on the floor but he gestured toward the table. Marcus turned toward the silver case set in the middle of it. “You can open it. Don’t touch it. I had a hell of a time getting it here. Setting it off prematurely is something you’ll want to avoid.”

“You need more?” I tore my eyes away from Marcus and looked across at Ripley. He was looking better, not as haggard but there was tiredness at the corner of his eyes.

“Not if it means getting my skull slammed against the floor again.”

Marcus watched as Riot unlatched the case then opened it. I couldn’t see what was in it from my position on the floor, but my legs were a little shaky. Little? I just had a refresher course in pissing off Marcus in the physical world. My own eyeballs were rattling around in my skull. Claudius reached down and hauled Ripley off the floor by the scruff of the neck then took my elbow and jerked me to my feet. Oh, not good. The change in elevation was a wicked head rush. It had to be otherwise I was looking at a damned gaudy poor man’s attempt at a Faberge Egg.

Why the hell was I weak? I was just a straw.

Claudius hiked his arm around my back as I felt his eyes on me. I wasn’t faking it. My knees were shaking. I was hit with a quick shot of healing light. Since Claudius still had Ripley in his other hand the little Fey got zapped as well.

“Thanks.”

“Losing focus will get you killed, Xavier.” I got fatherly lips pressed to my forehead. Claudius turned toward Ripley, “And you, trying to come between those two will get you killed. Armor is First for a reason, Prince.”

“It wasn’t a kiss.”

“I know kisses, Dark Fey. An intertwining of tongues in an open mouth joining is a kiss.”

“I was channelling energy to Ripley.” I got my feet under me and just swayed. Marcus was a bundle of surprises. Well, I had met all those surprises before. I had just forgotten them. He was quick. He was stealthy and since he had already mindfucked me; he had re-ignited the spark of fear. Yes. I didn’t want to admit it but that fear that had encompassed my first year with him was still within me. I thought I had beat it. That was just a lie. I was scared of Marcus.

“Then maybe you should not be channelling.”

“Cutie has a point.”

“Ripley.” Claudius warned.

“Claudius is right. We need to be focused right now.”

Time to change the subject.

“What’s with the Easter egg?” I pointed at the egg shaped object. It was a little bit bigger than a football but it was jewel encrusted. I frowned. Uhhhhh. It was the same pattern as the jewel encrusted kilt. Was it?

“This Blood Magic.” Ripley had a tone of awe in his voice.

“So...Serephina has an egg too?” I cocked my head and really looked at it. I think it was my kilt pattern.

The look Ripley gave me was one that asked if I was being deliberately stupid or if I was just getting lucky in that regard. He let loose a large sigh then walked up to the table. “This is ancient Blood Magic. This is why I looked like total crap because to call it forth took much more power than I expected, then again, I should have known. This is Von Drachenfeld blood magic. I am not of your bloodline.”

Claudius joined us at the table, “So then, any mage could call this?”

Claudius got the same are you stupid look. Ripley’s rejoiner was an arched eyebrow. “No. Absolutely not. I can count on one hand, minus two fingers who could do this, or maybe I should say, might be able to do this. I don’t count Serephina in on this. A human mage, your natural Father, X. X, I like that. A witch of the merfolk, Callisto but since she shuns the modern world like the rest of her ilk I can dismiss her as well and then there’s yours truly.”

Ripley paused for effect and looked around the room at us. Lycan and Loyal just looked back at him. “Oh come on, you cannot be this naive.”

I looked over at Father. He shrugged. I turned back to Ripley and passed the shrug on.

“Von Drachenfeld.”

“Yeah?”

“From....” Ripley waved his hand in front of me, coaxing me to follow him. I had no idea where the hell he was trying to go with this. “Dragon Field.”

“You got the egg from a field?” I thought the Fey was going to haul off and slap me in the head.

“Where the hell did you get that!” Bill...er, William came to an abrupt halt just inside the doorway to the batcave and Hades ran into his backside. Not that this was anything new.

“You know what it is?”

Liam marched up to the table and reached out towards it but then caught himself before his fingers actually touched the surface. He snatched back his hand and turned to the Fey. “You brought a Dragon’s Egg here, to this plane, in this day and age?”

Dragon’s Egg? Dragon? As in St. George and the Dragon kind of thing?

“Who the hell are you?” Ripley frowned and stared at William who was doing his better impression of a pissed off rock star.

“Who the hell are you?” Was the return, complete with a turned up lip in a sneer.

“I asked first.” Ripley crossed his arms.

“Whupdeedoo.” Ripley’s duo toned eyes began to swirl silver on grey like a storm cloud trying to decide whether to become a twister.

Father spoke up trying to keep the tension in the room at a minimum. We were still all feeling the effects of Marcus and mine little tiff on the tiles. “William, this is Ripley Silverstyx. He has bonded with Xavier and serves as his surrogate.” Liam actually spun on his heel and looked at me with shocked eyes.

“What? Do you know the consequences of that binding oath, Little Emperor?”

“Ripley, this is William and Liam. Liam is the parasite leeching off of...”

“HEY!”

“Liam...” Hades warning just stopped him in mid rant. That in itself was worth a blink or two.

“Serephina has forged strong blood magic. I needed to make sure that Lov..X’s blood magic was stronger than what she could accomplish. Using her soul as the catalyst of her powers is an extra boost that simple magic can’t stand against. Since blood sacrifice was out of the question I had to get the next powerful thing --the Drachen.”

“Blood Sacrifice?” I deliberately walked between Liam and Ripley to get a closer look at the egg. This was a dragon? I thought they were big giant lizardy things. “What’s that?”

“You would sacrifice a member of your immediate bloodline as the stabilizer of the power base.”
I snapped my head toward the Fey. Ripley quickly added. “That would never happen.”

He gestured to the egg. “Which is why I had to call out to the Plain and ask to be lead to the Dragon Realm.”

“Foolhardy.” Liam almost snarled.

“What?” I gestured at Liam to spill what was eating him inside.

“Dragons are unpredictable creatures. If you don’t get it’s loyalty from the get go, you’ll have something far worse than Serephina flying the skies.”

“How do you...”

“I’ve dealt with dragons before. Fickle creatures at best.”

Ripley pulled up his sleeve but looked put out that the arcane symbols were not swirling under his skin.

“Liam is the original Vampire. A true immortal, unlike the rest of us.”

Ripley snapped his head around and looked at William then his glance slid over to take in Hades standing at Liam’s elbow. I know he recognized the former Head of the House of Assassins. He turned back to me. “What the hell are you doing, X? How badly are you trying to piss off the rest of the Blood Nations if these are your allies?”

I shook my head. “That’s the sad thing, Ripley. I’m not.”

“When this thing with Serephina is done and gone, we are going to have to seriously work on your karma.”

“Lock that thing back up, Ripley.” Carefully as if handling nitro glycerine, Ripley set the Dragon’s Egg back into the metal case and locked it.

Marcus was glaring at Ripley. Liam was glaring at Ripley. Ripley was ignoring them with a practised ease. Claudius actually made a deep sigh. Help appeared in an unexpected quarter. Hades stepped forward and slammed the flat of his hand hard on the table. “We are going to war, gentlemen. Comparing dick size can be done after we finish off this sorceress.”

Hades turned towards me, “Xavier. Rein it in.”

I frowned. “Rein what in?”

“Whatever the hell it is that has everyone lusting after your body. Armor and Ripley are going to be coming to blows over you.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“I am not going to club Ripley down.”

“I’m lusting for him but he already turned me down.”

“ENOUGH!” I shouted and sprouted at the same time. Claudius showing the quickness that he has always had danced out of the line of my wing span. “A child of the Von Drachenfeld bloodline is held captive by Orel Wessel. We have been given this mission as Imperial Decree by Empress Claudia. I would go against Wessel myself because that child is mine. They raped him from this body...” My voice broke.

Hades smoothly took over now that I had brought the focus of this meeting back to 20/20 clarity. Father stroked his palm gently up and down my spine allowing his gentle touch to be the strength I needed. It felt like a piece of me was missing. Armor was always there giving me his silent strength. I was so bereft and he was only standing across a table top from me. It might as well could have been across the country

Hades straightened and looked around the room with his watery blue eyes. “Make no mistake, Orel Wessel will have learned from the last time we stormed their stronghold. It won’t be as easy. Aside from the paramilitary machine that they are, we now have to contend with Magic.”

“Lord Hades, you need only concern yourself with the ground troops. I will take care of any mystical issues.” Ripley spoke up easily and his voice was full of confidence. The carefree teasing tone was gone.

“I’ve heard of your skill, Prince Selden. Your reputation precedes you.”

“Your diplomacy is legendary Lord Hades, but it’s not necessary here. I walk the dark path of magic and I have killed and maimed my enemies with it. Serephina is the only one within that compound that has any power and what she has done to get it drains her every day. Even without my helping her out of this world, she isn’t long for it.”

“She dies today.” My own tone was dark and resolute.

“Yes, Xavier. Serephina will die today.” Ripley bowed his head in my direction.

Hades continued. “The Regency Mages have been contacted.”

Ripley shook his head. “They won’t be needed.”

“From what I have ferreted out, that facility is a Mage Academy as well as a science facility. Surely, you can’t...

“Honeybee, if the Dark Fey says he can handle the whole of the Orel Wessel school, he can handle it.”

“How do you know?” Hades turned back to Liam.

“He is Xavier’s surrogate. Our little Fey had hooked himself up to the House of Von Drachenfeld. You’re drawing energy straight from one of the unending planes of existence with the blood of the Ancients flowing through our Emperor’s veins, you have created a pipeline to untapped magic.” Liam’s grey eyes looked at me. No, through me. Whatever he was seeing right now, wasn’t anything in this room.

Claudius stepped closer, wrapping his arm around and over my shoulder pulling me back against him. My wings fluttered with the sound of a fall rain and then I concentrated. They glittered into non-existence. “You sound as if you have experience with this, Liam?”

Liam was still caught up in memories. Hades stepped back to him and took his hand. “William has had to call on the Blood Magic before. It isn’t a simple thing to release something that could destroy the world.”

“I don’t mean to belittle the effort and decision to release the dragon. It is a weapon of last resort. The unleashing will be solely at the discretion of our Lord Emperor.”

Liam flinched then seemed to break out of the memory loop he was lost in. His eyes latched to mine and they had a slightly haunted quality to them for a moment then he blinked and the ass that we knew and tolerated was back in the building. “Honeybee, we don’t need to involve the Regency Mages. At the most, they only need to be informed of what is going to be fireworks of spectacular proportions and that our informing them is just a courtesy.”

“We don’t want the Regency involved in this.” I shook my head.

Everyone turned toward me. Claudius released me as I pulled myself together. Now was not the time to start playing the fainting maid. “We don’t need any humans coming with us.”

“Xavier?” Marcus leaned forward over the table.

“We go in hard and fast. We go in and we kill everything that isn’t us. If it isn’t a Blood, it dies. I want that understood right here and right now. Nothing crawls out of there. I want Orel Wessel crushed. Every time they crawl out of the dark, they take something important from me. This ends tonight.” I snapped my eyes to the brother of my love, “Marcus.”

I matched his hot chocolate brown gaze. “My Lord.”

“You mindfuck every General you can find. I want every cell location of every Orel Wessel soldier in this country. They are not re-organizing to come back and bite my ass a second time.”
I turned toward Claudius. “Find my son, Father. Find my son and bring him home where he belongs.”

“I will, my Lord.”

“Ripley. I am putting my faith and the lives of my family, my Loyal and my compatriots in your hands.”

“I will not fail you, X.”

I looked at everyone in the batcave, wolf and vampire. Old friends and new. I knew they all by name and have shared a cup of blood with all of them over my grand banquet table. I knew their significant others and baby fangs. This was about more than just getting Six back and killing the Sorceress. This threat swept beyond me and mind. It touched on every Blood. They knew what I was asking of them and they had stepped up to the plate. Last night might have been the time they would ever hold their loved ones in their arms.

I know I surprised and even shocked them as I bowed toward them. My hair hung forward sweeping the floor. I wouldn’t drop down into reverence but I would give them the respect that the Loyal deserved. I brought my arm across my chest and laid my open palm over my heart. I stood up and let my eyes meet their eyes. Red Flame burned banked in their eyes. Lycan gold glittered in Baojia and Sang Kyu’s visage.

“No mercy.” My words were quiet.

“No Mercy! No Mercy! No Mercy!” The shouts rang out through the halls of Von Drachenfeld. It was my new motto. Ripley picked the silver case off the table and I turned to lead us all out toward the battlefield behind a nondescript stone farm house. No Mercy. That well had dried up when Haley’s blood stained the streets two days ago. I could feel my eyes beginning to burn with the fires of the Blue Line.

No fucking mercy for any of them.

* * *