Finn’s gaze dropped to the floor. “My magic has increased beyond anything I ever dreamed possible.”
The king let some of the saccharine slip. “Still I ask, is he satisfied with what you’ve accomplished?”
Finn made no reply, nor did he look up at Gwala.
“I must insist that you make no more requests about your sister. The fact that I allow you to watch her is more than Omar suggests. Any more and I might have to assume it is your obsession with your sister that is holding you back from attaining his approval.”
Impressing Sonia, Finn looked the king in the eye once more, covering any hatred or fear he might be feeling. “Will you require my presence this morning?”
Gwala glanced over to Sonia, a genuine smile creasing his eyes. “No. I will be otherwise occupied. Report directly to Omar.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” With a final glance at Sonia, Finn walked off the way he’d been going.
Glancing over to Gwala to see if he was watching, Sonia turned to see if Finn would look back at her. He didn’t. Good. She wasn’t sure if there would be any repercussions if Gwala learned she had known Finn in her previous life, but she saw no reason to find out. The entire first month she’d been at the Vampire Cathedral, she’d heard Gwala talking about the new warlock he was acquiring. Like he was getting a brand-new toy. When she finally heard he’d appeared, she’d felt no more curiosity to meet him than she had hearing about his impending arrival.
Even when she’d at last seen him from afar, she was uncertain if her eyes were deceiving her. They had once before, when she’d thought she’d seen Brett’s boyfriend in the Square. Like the man she’d seen that night, the new warlock looked much like the good-looking man she’d met for those few brief moments. While not as sickly looking and hate filled as the version she’d seen at the Square, Finn was still somewhat thinner than when she’d met him, and he had none of the previous joy that had seemed to seep from every pore.
Gwala was a few feet in front of her by the time she realized he was moving forward once more. He paused to look at her over his shoulder. “Is the excitement getting to you, my queen?”
With two long, graceful strides she was beside him once more and slipped her long fingers into his hand. “Lead on, my king.”
He beamed, once again a child excited to show off his most prized plaything.
As they traveled down endless curving hallways and descended lower and lower into the depths of the Cathedral, past the tunnels that led to the harbor they’d just returned from, Sonia’s thoughts drifted back to her previous life. Maybe the possibility of seeing the sun once again was responsible for the unbidden nostalgia.
The only flash of humanity she’d experienced since becoming a vampire had been the night Brett had caught her midsnack as she devoured an entire family in one of the San Diego suburbs. He’d interrupted her as she was finishing draining the little girl, and she’d nearly ripped out his throat before she’d realized who he was. For the briefest of moments, shame had flooded her, and she’d fled, tearing through the house and running at blurring speed.
Within a few miles, fury had replaced any guilt or shame she might have imagined. Many times since, she’d wondered why she hadn’t killed him. She’d killed her family without a second’s hesitation and without a modicum of guilt. The same was true for what’s his name who she’d started dating those last few human days. What was different about Brett?
Maybe it was simply that by the time he’d discovered her, she’d been a vampire for a couple of weeks and the bloodlust had lessened. Which led her to wonder if she’d not woken up in her parents’ house, whether she still would have killed them later. After all, she wasn’t making it a point of searching out her brother and killing him. She assumed she would have gone to her parents’ eventually, but she wasn’t entirely sure.
She couldn’t help but wonder what her old friend made of it all. Finding out that his best friend had been turned into a vampire. Had he realized she was a vampire? Maybe he thought she’d gone insane and started attacking people. Maybe he was still out there searching for her, trying to get her help. And now he’d lost his boyfriend as well. What would he think if he found out he’d been dating a warlock? She hadn’t thought of Brett in what seemed like forever, and here she was wondering about him. The realization made her pause in her walk once more. She couldn’t say she felt love, but obviously some part of her cared about him. Somehow.
“Is everything all right, my queen?”
She flashed Gwala a smile and began walking, her eyes taking in the dimly lit stairway they were in for the first time. It looked exactly like the dungeons she’d seen in hundreds of movies, save for the beauty of the rock and marble that comprised the structure. “Just excited to accept this gift you offer, master.”
He nodded in satisfaction. “It is only right that my queen be a Royal. It would be an injustice for your beauty to never be seen in the sunlight again.”
“You have yet to explain what will provide the source of the ability to be in the sun since our hunt was unsuccessful.” She didn’t want to give him a chance to question her preoccupation any further, and, truth be told, she wasn’t at ease with her thoughts of her past life either. It was all a reminder of the creature she had been.
Even as he picked up the pace once more, Gwala turned and gave her a look of pride as he explained. “While Menos had a vision for the power we could attain by sharing our secret, it was I who foresaw the opportunity to make this shift in power a renewable resource, especially when the convenience was so readily provided once we attained the fifty mer specimens.”
Like clockwork, he paused at the perfect spot to allow Sonia to question him, giving him the opening to continue reveling in his brilliance. Not missing a beat, Sonia played her role. “And what opportunity was that, my king?”
“With so many mers, it was a fairly logical leap to realize that if we could get the creatures to breed, we would have a never-ending supply of mer blood. A commodity that brings with it much power and riches. There is no limit to what a vampire will pay or service they will provide to become a Royal.”
Sonia was surprised she hadn’t jumped to that conclusion herself. It seemed a rather obvious solution. Then a thought caused her to question the logic of such a proposition. “I suppose I have been attributing too much human intelligence to these creatures. I would assume that they would realize their fate and that of any offspring they might produce. I am surprised they are willing to mate and produce young if they realize they are to be sacrificed for our benefit. Are they more animal than man? Mating much like cattle before entering a slaughterhouse?”
Gwala’s expression exuded pure pleasure. “Ah, my dear, there are ways around that. The fact that they indeed realize their children’s fate makes the experience all the more delicious. If anything, the mers have an intelligence and moral compass much superior to humans.”
She gave the king a skeptical raise of her brow. “A species that would sacrifice their own for profit, even for the sake of immortality, does not seem superior to human morality to me. I would say equal, if anything.”
“You may have a point, my queen, but the choices of some do not seem to be indicative of the entire species. At least from what I have seen of them since.”
“So how do you convince the mers to produce offspring if they are aware of the consequences?”
He gave another smile. “One of the many reasons I require such powerful witches to be employed by the Cathedral.”
