hundred years since Alfred went to sleep again after only being awake a year. The oldest of them all, he had grown weary of the world, the politics among the councils, and the foolishness of young vampires wanting to cut their teeth on other species.
Old pacts and alliances lay in half-forgotten tatters as younger generations jockeyed for position. Rogue could care less, but it was those same politics that landed the turned succubus in Nightmare Penitentiary and right into the hands of a shadow demon.
At the end of the long cavern, he ran his fingers around the edging of the door, removing the ice locking it closed before he pumped the handle and pulled the door open. Inside the shadowed chamber, he paused.
Nothing moved. The heart beating inside beat sluggishly. One beat for every few minutes. Legend said vampires slept in coffins. Stories to delight and horrify the masses. While they didn’t actually sleep in a coffin, those who went to ground often buried themselves far away from civilization, to avoid the sights, the sounds, and the distractions that might wake them early.
Deep in the hold beneath the keep, they were as far from others as they could get. If Rogue tilted his head and focused, he could catch the three beating hearts above. Fiona’s beat far faster than Maddox’s or Fin’s. It had been racing when he sank into her earlier while she fed on Maddox. Rogue’s own body had thrummed with renewed vigor since draining her. The shadow taint wouldn’t survive within him, just as it wouldn’t in the others.
They were old enough in his case, magical enough in Fin’s, and just pure stubborn in Maddox’s, that it couldn’t warp them as it would and had been in her. So far, she’d impressed Rogue with her willfulness and independence. He supposed she’d needed those traits to survive, as her kind were often dismissed as hedonists. It might make fitting her into their lives a challenge.
Fin put too much stock in old prophecies and tales told over many cups of ale. She might not even survive her transition in the long-run.
The reason hybrids were so rare was they often died, a victim to their own dual natures tearing each other apart.
Quieting his mind, he pulled from that darkened pathway and focused on the draped chamber ahead of him where Alfred slept.
“Fin believes she’s here,” he told him.
There was no response, not that he expected one. The heart pulsed once, then went quiet again.
“I am only telling you because she was in Nightmare,” Rogue said quietly, aware his words would echo back to Alfred when he woke. “She may not survive her transition. We may not have gotten to her in time. If they come for her, we will lead them away. If we must flee the keep, they will never get in here, but you will find us in Fin’s lands.”
The chances they couldn’t hold the keep were slim. They would likely have a much harder time holding on to her. Maddox and Fin might be lost in their lust for the red-haired, red-eyed vixen, but Rogue understood the need to assert authority flaring within her.
She would run.
Everyone ran.
Maddox had, though he may not remember it anymore.
As had Fin.
They’d actively sought to become hybrids.
Well, Maddox had. His had been a conscious choice. Fin’s had been a matter of his survival.
Still—they all ran.
“We’ll protect her,” he said finally. “Rest well, brother.”
With those words, he turned and left the room, sealing it behind him before he began the long walk back to the stairs and up.
He closed off the iron doors again, then returned to the baths. She’d been out again when he’d left them. Her words reached him just as he got to the doors.
“I was just wondering if I could go see the sun…I haven’t seen it in weeks.”
The sun didn’t affect all vampires. The naturally born had some immunity, but the turned? They all tolerated to varying levels. It was the longing in her voice that tugged at Rogue. She’d fed on all three of them for a second and in some cases a third time. The blood in her was older now, hurrying the transition along.
Did the sun bother succubi in general? Unfortunately, he knew little about the species.
“Maybe not yet,” Fin answered into the silence. “It’s better if we take the next steps slowly.”
“There are places we can go that you can see it,” Maddox added, though neither sounded certain.
Rogue scowled at her slow sigh. Disappointment