“Sometimes better. What it means practically is that I have two power sources to draw from,” Caemorn explained. “Double what most Vampires do.”
“If you’re sure…” Balthazar looked very uncertain about leaving him down here in the palace’s dungeon alone. “We have plenty of Acolytes ready and willing! Dr. Stone arrived yesterday and you two get along rather well.”
“Later,” Caemorn promised.
Balthazar studied him some more, but guessed–orknew–he would not be moved from here right not as he said, “Understood. Fiona, would you or Sana be willing to teleport us to the Eyros Palace?”
“Of course. Then we’ll return here.” Fiona’s gaze slid to Shaela. “I would like to be present for the questioning.”
Shaela hid her face from Fiona as she pressed herself against the farthest part of the cell away from them.
“We will,” Balthazar agreed. He reached and grasped Caemorn’s arm. “Wait for us.”
“You will miss nothing of import,” Caemorn assured him.
They had teleported away and left him with the prisoners and his thoughts.
“Why did you not walk out into the sun?” Caemorn asked both Legion and Shaela.
“We’re not suicidal!” Shaela gasped. It was the first thing she’d said since she’d been imprisoned.
“But you are,” Caemorn said, half turning his head towards her. “For there is no future where you survive and Daemon does not rule.”
“We have a Seeyr,” Legion said. “They showed us the way.”
Caemorn let out a dry bark of laughter. “I hadtheSeeyr and I can assure you that there is no way your plans work.”
And he couldn’t believe there was any Seeyr Vampire who would turn against Daemon. Even if tortured and starved like their Immortal had been, they would have foreseen their rescue eventually.
“Don’t you want to be free?” Shaela had scrambled to her feet. “What am I saying? You’reoneof them. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You believe that you are free?” Caemorn lifted an eyebrow.
“We got to live without you for some time,” she said. “Free of your machinations. Free of yourwar–”
Caemorn laughed again. “You forget who started that War. It was slices like Roan. He was in the thick of it. Wasn’t he, Legion?”
Legion shrugged or was just adjusting their mass. It was hard to say.
“He changed,” Shaela insisted. “You said yourself that Legion had never met you, which means that Roan is not you.”
“No, he is not. And I have never been so glad. Do you not know the monsters that you associate with?” Caemorn asked, his silver eyes burning. He closed his fingers around the soul gem. “Roan tortured his own fledglings. Legion is a serial killer. Whatfreedomdo you have with them? What is it worth?”
“We’re not all like that!” Shaela insisted, swallowing harshly.
“Truly? Jill–or whatever her name was–killed a homeless man forfunin front of Grayson,” Caemorn listed off the abuses. “Then someone came and killed her. A Mirryr Vampire sought to murder Grayson in front of the students to prove a point. Not to mention the monsters you sent after him and the other students. And then there are the dead humans that you’ve left scattered around the Ever Dark like broken dolls. So, forgive me, but I do think you arealllike that.”
“We don’t want to be ruled–”
“You already are.” Caemorn shook his head. “Daemonisking. There is no changing that. Every molecule inside of us,” he held up a hand, “is ruled by him. Whether you deny it, fight against it, or simply accept it. There is nofreedomfrom him.”
“You want us to have no hope,” Shaela whispered.
“I want you to wake up from the bad dream that I began,” Caemorn said. “And the illusions that I wove after it. Everything you are saying and doing is because ofme. But you bleat like some pathetic sheep at me about taking your hope away when there was never any hope. It was all lies!”
Her eyes were huge. “No, there was truth in what you said–”
“No, there wasn’t! I did and said whatever I had to in order to mop up after the War and re-establish order,” Caemorn told her, his right hand sliced through the air. “I created a false religion–made my brothers and sisters your enemies–and cast Daemon as an angel of light.”
