Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
He blinks, stunned. “My… fill?”
“You can take as much as you like. Take it all, if you can. I’ll make more blood.” He leans in, but I stop him with a flat hand on his chest. “First, you pledge.”
“I pledge, my lord! I fuckin’ pledge!”
I take a claw, swipe it across his neck, open it up, let the blood spill until he collapses, and then I bend down, open my wrist, and let my blood pour into his mouth.
I look up at the stunned scions waiting in line, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “Don’t worry,” I say, my voice soothing and calm now. “This won’t kill him. I am merely replacing his inferior blood with mine. And you all will get the same.” I narrow my eyes. “If you pledge.”
They nod, but not enthusiastically. Most of them are staring at the man on the ground at my feet. He’s not moving. The blood I’m feeding him is pooling into his mouth, un-swallowed. So they are not convinced.
Fools.
It takes several long and painfully stress-filled minutes for the blood to drain out of this scion completely. But drain out it does. By this time, he is a shriveled-up husk and nearly unrecognizable.
The watching scions start murmuring, but then, just as they are losing all hope, this one coughs and sputters. Blood comes flying out of his mouth.
His eyes open, focus on mine, then he comes at me like a fiend, grabbing for my neck.
Of course, he will not be feeding on my neck. I press my wrist into his mouth and he grabs at my hand instead, sucking on me, drawing out my blood in long drinks the likes of which he’s never experienced before.
It feels good. So I smile and sway on my feet a little.
I don’t know how long it takes before he is full. Twenty or thirty minutes, maybe? Then he stumbles away, presses his back up against the cave wall, and slides down it, slumping into himself like a heroin addict.
I look back at my waiting scions. There are dozens of them, so it’s gonna take a while. But after waiting thousands of years, what’s one more day?
I beckon the next in line with a crooked finger and he attacks me while I laugh and cut open his neck to drain him dry and fill him back up.
16 - Syrsee
His name is Paul
Ryet is talking to me, and I say something back, but I’m drawn to another place and his voice fades along with my awareness of him.
I find myself inside the Darkness.
Here lies infinity. The forever. The eternal. The unknown.
Ever since my grandma died I’ve been looking for the truth. It feels like a mission now. I wanted to read the books because I felt like that was where my truth was hidden. Somewhere deep in the pages of antiquated thoughts, and magic recipes, and philosophical waxing.
But my whole trip to the Guild with Ryet was nothing but a dream. Nothing but a lie.
No wonder I was reading nothing but meaningless things. The Guild library doesn’t hold my truth, I do.
I am the Coyrah and the reason I can’t find my truth is because I have been shattered into so many pieces, there’s not much left of me.
Which begs the question: If this piece of me I’m living in now is but one of hundreds, or thousands, or, who knows, maybe even millions—then what would I be if I was whole?
How much power over the purple and gold would I have if all of that knowledge was contained within a single consciousness?
And what could I do with that power?
Change Ryet back?
No. What’s done is done. He’s a vampire now, whether I like it or not. Whether he likes it or not.
Just like him, I am made of Darkness, but that’s the past. It’s done and there’s nothing I can do to change it. But maybe I could use all that magic to bring forth a better future.
Not for the world—I don’t speak for the world—but just Ryet and me. Couldn’t I use my power to find a way to give us… hope?
It’s a goal, at least. One that might be futile, but what else am I gonna do? If I am eternal, what better way to spend eternity than hunting down all my missing pieces so I can put them to good use?
This new confidence and understanding forces a change and slowly, the black emptiness fades and then I’m conscious again. Another minute or so passes before I try and open my eyes. And when I do, I wake up immersed in a mist of swirling gold and purple.
It moves around me like a slow-moving tornado, glittering, and sparkling, and catching the light. For some reason, this makes me feel safe. Kind of reminds me of a fairy realm I saw in a movie once.