Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Kira blew out a sigh for effect. "Makes sense. All the things he could do in bed about fried my circuits - and with that power of his, I mean that literally." Radje gave her a contemptuous look. "It wasn't just women. Menkaure has had other men, too."

She shrugged as much as the metal clamps would allow. "So he experimented in his wild young vampire days. Lots of people have. Why, there was this one time in college with me and my girlfriend after a few tequila shots - "

"Are you too stupid to comprehend anything I have said?" he interrupted.

Kira gave him a hard stare, her anger escaping at last. "I understand a lot. Like how you're so obsessed with hating Mencheres that you'd stoop to even this. Go on, tell me more, but I don't care. Whatever hell Mencheres raised back then, I think he more than made up for it with over nine hundred years of celibacy, so you're not turning me against him with your dirty little anecdotes. Right now, all you're doing is boring me." She saw his fist coming, but as she was bolted to the wall, all she could do was brace for it. Pain blasted through the side of her face, followed by a snap of her neck that she could feel and hear. For a few agonizing seconds, she couldn't see. And then the pain faded and her vision cleared so that Kira could notice every detail of Radje's wiping her blood from his hand onto her shirt.

"We will see how bored you are after I take Menkaure's power and kill him," Radje said crisply. "If you think he will find a way to defeat me, he will not. Menkaure knows he's already dead. If he didn't, he would have fought against me harder." He swept out of the room with the curt word to one of the guards to make sure to eat in front of her while giving her nothing. Kira's mouth tightened into a grim line even as she fought to tamp down that searing hunger inside her. She had a task to accomplish, and she'd need a clear head in order to do it.

And a little time without any guards watching her.

Chapter 31

Mencheres lay on the bottom of the tub. The water had long since cooled, but he didn't add more to heat the temperature. He hadn't wanted to move lest it disrupt his concentration. For the past several hours, he'd stared at that looming wall of darkness in his mind, trying to tear it down brick by brick. Kira's location lay past it, if he could only find a way to breach its indomitable defenses.

But all that occurred was the darkness edging closer until it seemed to have already swallowed him. He replayed Kira's words in his mind as if they were talismans that could guide him. You ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? . . . When did you lose the ability to see past the darkness? . . . Survivor's guilt . . . you might not see a future for yourself because you don't believe you deserve one.

None of that should matter now. He might not believe he deserved a future, but he knew Kira did. That should be enough to make him relinquish every bit of guilt that might have been blocking him before. Kira loved him, and she believed in him in a way that no one else had before, ever. That alone should be enough to enable him to rip down that wall of darkness within him.

Yet despite his channeling every fiber of his being toward destroying that wall to learn Kira's location before it was too late to rescue her and leave to meet Radje, the darkness didn't waver. Its denseness seemed to grow instead, and when the timer went off on the watch Mencheres had set, he knew with great sorrow that Kira was wrong. This wasn't a barrier he'd caused within himself, no matter how strongly her faith burned for him. It wasn't survivor's guilt, self-fulfilling prophecy, or his misinterpreting what he saw.

It was Duat, the dark underworld devoid of sky or land, and no one defeated death once its ferryman set his sights on them.

Mencheres rose from the tub, not even bothering to towel off before he pulled on his clothes. A calm purpose settled over him. Eternal darkness might await him, but before he entered Duat, he would bend that darkness to his purposes first. There was yet a way to save Kira.

Vlad's expression was somber as he waited for him outside the bathroom. He asked no questions, but he would know Mencheres had been unable to breach that wall inside him. Otherwise, he'd be urging them to leave, so they could retrieve Kira.

"Perhaps we can - " Vlad began.

"I know another way," Mencheres cut him off. His lips twisted into a sardonic smile.

"Though you might not want to stay to see it."

Burning assailed her from the inside out even before Kira opened her eyes. Her mouth felt dry, her limbs ached, and somehow she had a stomach full of fire. For a few confused moments, she couldn't remember where she was, or why she was manacled to a wall.

Then it came flooding back. The three vampires ambushing her in Tina's building.

Radje bringing her here. Mencheres, scheduled to meet Radje tonight to trade his life for hers.

She didn't move or do anything else to rattle those metal clamps and alert the guards that she was awake. They hadn't left her alone once last night, to her dismay. Of course, Radje had been here, so perhaps the guards had put on a more diligent front for him.

She heard them in the other rooms. They had humans with them, and those heartbeats sent Kira's hunger into overdrive. Though this building seemed to be closed to the public, the ruins were a tourist attraction, giving the guards an easy supply of food.

But no guards were in the room now. Radje might not be here either. He might be on his way to Atlanta to meet Mencheres. What time was it? How long had the dawn kept her asleep?

Kira glanced around, trying to see if any glimmers of sunlight streamed in the room past hers. She couldn't crane her neck enough to see any, or they weren't there, but it didn't feel dark yet. She still had time. The rapid thumping of those heartbeats called to her with a hypnotic lure, that burning in her stomach reminding her that she didn't have much time, either. If she couldn't control her hunger, it could drive her into a senseless blackout of bloodlust again.

Mencheres is counting on you, Kira reminded herself. She could do this. She wouldn't let him down.

As quietly as she could manage, she pulled at the iron manacle around her wrist. It creaked in an alarmingly loud way, making her eyes dart nervously to the open archway, but no one came. Kira gritted her teeth and tried again. The irons still groaned in a manner that sounded like alarm bells to her, but from the sounds in the other room, the guards were occupied with the humans. Who knew how long that would last? She had to hurry.

Kira felt the iron begin to wiggle back from the wall. Elation flooded her, but at the same time, she heard one of the guards mumble, "Did you hear that?" She shut her eyes and sagged in her restraints just in time. The guard entered, waves from his aura increasing as he drew nearer. A large hand cupped her face, lingering far too long for her comfort. That same hand gave her breast a rough squeeze next, but Kira forced herself not to react.