“You’ve been out for nearly a week since,” Victoria says.
Alarm grips me. “What? Then I must get out of here. I need to go with Smithson to—”
“He has already left,” she tells me. “He took Paolo and April. He only wanted Paolo, but the vampire refused to let April out of his sight. He’s very protective of her.”
“So, then it’s you and I,” I say. “And Paul. Where is he?”
“A few levels up,” she says. “You had to be brought here.”
“Why?”
“Because mere minutes after you passed out, you started lashing out. With magic. Your body underwent seizures. We could not do anything to stop them. Each time they came, torrents of power burst out from you. You nearly destroyed the entire facility upstairs.”
“I… what?”
“I’ve never witnessed anyone command so much power. You pulled on the entirety of the Elemental Forces around us. It’s a wonder we remained untouched.”
“A whole week,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Unbelievable. You say I lashed out even more?”
“It was madness. You destroyed most of the equipment up there in your first seizure. I managed to deflect the worst of it from us as a last-ditch effort.”
“How?” I ask. “If the magic from me was as strong as you make it seem, how were you able to stop it, given your strength?”
“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that,” Victoria admits. “But I think what happened is that the force you were controlling—”
“I didn’t have control,” I say. “I was unconscious.”
“Yes, right, you know what I mean. I think the force felt the presence of other sentient beings. It felt our organic matter. In a way, I think it knew what it wanted to do, and that was not to kill us. I created a protective shield. The moment I did, your attacking force evaded it. It avoided it entirely.”
“What does that mean?”
“That even unconscious, you still had control. But the power built up within you needed an escape. Otherwise…” she hesitates. “Otherwise, it would have burned you to a crisp.”
“It’s like you said before, about a witch drawing too much magic,” I reply, thinking hard. “You said you’d burn out, lose your ability forever.”
“Except with the amount you were using, you would have lost your life.”
I swallow.
“So how did you get me down here?”
“Paul quickly made another set of obsidian orbs,” she says. “These were done in haste. We knew we did not have much time.”
“You said the equipment was destroyed.”
She nods. “Yes. But a few pieces of obsidian remained. Paul sketched the patterns into them by hand, going from memory. Lucky for us, they worked. We surrounded you with them, cutting you off from the source. It was enough for your mind-magic connection to calm. You hit a deep sleep, and while you were in it, we rushed you down here.”
She swallows. “The seizures came on again mere moments after we got you into this room. You lashed out with ever-greater power.” She motions at the wall. “All that damage is from you.”
I look around the room another time. “This bunker wasn’t empty at the start, was it?”
“No. Your magic destroyed many things. We took them out so you wouldn’t hurt yourself, when we deemed it safe. I brought you the bed.”
I whistle. “That’s quite a tale.”
“How do you feel?” she asks.
“Normal,” I say, after a brief pause. “I feel completely… normal.”
“Hungry?” she asks. “How is your thirst?”
I shake my head. “Nonexistent.”
“That’s interesting. Your body went through a lot. You should be famished.”
“And yet I’m not.”
“It must come later.”
I take a deep breath. “So, you’re telling me we lost a week?”
“Well,” she says slyly. “I wouldn’t exactly call it lost.”
I quirk an eyebrow in question.
“Come upstairs,” she says. “I’ll show you what I mean.”
I follow her out the room, giving a shudder when I cross the doorway. Floating around in that unconscious space is not a pleasant memory. The farther I get from the physical space where it happened, the better it will be.
We climb up a narrow flight of stairs and emerge a few stories up. Victoria pops her head out first, then jumps out and looks around. She offers me her hand.
I take it, if only to feel her skin. Something about the way she was worried about me is very endearing.
I might have to bed her quite soon.
We walk down a metal hall lined with all sorts of doors. After passing a particular one, I stop.
“There are humans inside,” I say softly.
“Yes,” Victoria smiles. “You’re right. Keep going.”
I walk with her to the main door. She opens it, and I find an enormous control center greeting us.
Paul spins around in his chair and instantly rises. He beams when he sees me. “Glad to have you back.”
“Careful,” I warn. “Don’t forget that you’re the one who caused this.”
A look of confusion passes over his face.
“You overfed on April,” I remind him, “which made me lose control.”
“Ah, yes, that.” He waves his hand in dismissal. “Water under the bridge. I explained to her how the bloodlust took over. She accepted my apology.”
“She is more forgiving than I,” I say darkly.
He laughs. “Why such a foul mood, James? We have something wonderful to show you.”
I come up to where he’s sitting and look at the screen. There are multiple windows open, each showing a video feed from a camera.
“These,” he says, motioning at the rooms, “are all the rooms you passed.”
I see that a few of them have people inside, looking quite destitute.
Paul points them out. “These are The Crusader generals who refused to take us up on the offer. And these…” he presses a button, and a wide steel door starts to slide up one wall, “are all the ones who accepted.”
No sooner than the door is lifted, I feel the presence of many new vampires. They all range in strength, as per the usual bandwidth of fledglings.
What surprises me is how many there are.
My eyes scan over the heads. I estimate there to be at least fifty. The moment the door stops at the very top, the vampires march out. Precise, trained, professional—and they go to one knee on the floor, clap a fist to their chest, and say, all at once, “We pledge allegiance to you, James Soren, as our leader, our maker, and the King of the Nocturna Animalia!”
I can’t help it. My lips curl up in a smile. I spy Victoria from the corner of my eye. She is barely suppressing a gleeful grin.
I turn to her, only vaguely conscious of the bedsheet I have wrapped around me, compared to the fine uniforms of my new generals. “You made so many?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “They are all yours. The first was converted by Paul, who is your original fledgling. His fledgling made the next, and the next one made the next, so on and so forth, all the way down the line.” She smiles. “We’ve solved the problem of too many fledglings draining your strength. This still ensures they are all descendants from you.”
“Brilliant,” I whisper.
I approach the men. They look at me with deep respect in their eyes. They can feel the full force of my strength through the natural hierarchy.
I come to their front line. “You may stand,” I say.
They rise at once.
“Very impressive,” I murmur. Much more impressive than the first ragtag crew of humans I added to my coven, all those Fang Chasers who were then poisoned by the Narwhark.
I walk along the front line, memorizing each vampire’s face. When I finish with them, I turn back to Paul.
“Beast isn’t here.”
“No,” he agrees. “He isn’t. He is one of the few who refused.”
“What happened to him?”
“You can find him in the rooms outside. I am still hopeful we can persuade him.”
“I’m not,” I mutter. I remember the absolute hatred he had for vampires.
It would do me great pleasure to crush his skull with my bare hands.
I turn to the new vampires. “Give me your names,” I tell them. “One by one.”