Ellis Vane

A true Immortal

The warmth of the food and the tavern’s clamor offered a temporary shield against the journey’s fatigue and the unease coiled deep within Ellis. She chewed her bread in silence, savoring the nutty flavor spreading on her tongue.

Lumi ate with gusto, shoveling stew into her mouth, washing it down with hot ale, and thumping the table with greasy knuckles. "Eat, drink, let tomorrow handle itself! Loosen up, pup, or your bones’ll rattle apart. Get some sleep!" A loud belch punctuated her words.

"Pleasant dreams, ladies." Caius inclined his head. He rose with the fluid silence of a night predator, slipping soundlessly into his assigned room.

The door clicked shut, cutting off his unnerving presence. Ellis exhaled, shoulders slumping with relief.

Lumi gave her back a solid thump. "Ignore the antique. Sleep. We move at dawn." She blew out the oil lamp, plunging the room into deeper gloom, lit only by faint light from the distant inn sign outside.

Sleep came slowly. Ellis felt she’d barely closed her eyes when a scream—high-pitched, warped with terror—ripped through the night’s quiet. It scraped like rusty metal across her eardrums.

"Blood! Blood!"

The shriek erupted from the tavern below. Instantly, the crash of overturned tables and chairs followed, then panicked cries and the pounding of running feet jerked the entire inn awake.

Ellis shot upright, heart hammering against her ribs. Fabric rustled on the next bed as Lumi materialized at the door, a coil of faint, ready gold light circling her fingers, illuminating her cold, alert face.

"Seems we’ve uninvited guests," the witch murmured, sleep vanished.

Ellis snatched her silver dagger from the bedside and rolled off the bed, bare feet hitting the icy floorboards. Beast-blood roared in her veins, senses snapping wide open. The thick, coppery stench of blood, laced with decay, flooded up from downstairs. Multiple sources! Vampires. More than one.

Their door exploded inward in a shower of splinters under a savage blow. Two twisted figures filled the doorway. In the dim light seeping through the window, their appearance chilled the blood.

Skin like lifeless grey porcelain, webbed with dark purple veins beneath. Faces unnervingly beautiful yet frozen in inhuman vacancy, lips stretched in rictus grins revealing rows of bone-white fangs. Dead eyes burned with pure, mindless bloodlust.

Vampire spawn! The lowest thralls, cold puppets enslaved by hunger.

Instinct moved Ellis faster than thought. She dropped low, sliding sideways. Her silver blade flashed cold in the gloom.

Clang! Metal met hardened bone as a spawn lashed out. The impact jarred her wrist, pain shooting up her arm. Simultaneously, she drove her knee upward like a piston, putting her whole weight behind it, slamming into the gut of the second spawn lunging for her. The creature grunted, stumbling like a toppled statue into the doorframe, raining wood dust.

"Can't seem to shake these bloodsuckers!" Lumi snarled. The gold light at her fingertips flared, coalescing into a searing whip. It cracked through the air with a hiss and lashed the staggering spawn. A sharp smell of burning filled the air. The spawn jerked violently, then dissolved into a puff of ash and a dying, inhuman shriek.

Glass exploded like thunder from the window. Three more wraith-like figures crashed through the shattered frame, bringing a blast of frigid night air and a shower of glass shards into the cramped room.

The small space instantly choked with thick, icy death-stench. The newcomers sealed the only escape. Their murky amber eyes fixed blankly on the two women in the center, fangs glinting coldly in the low light. They moved with chilling, mechanical precision.

Four beautiful, dead-eyed monsters advanced like clockwork killers. The air thickened, heavy as ice, pressing down. Only the spawns’ harsh, cold breaths and the frantic drumming of Ellis’s own heart filled the silence.

"Barging into a lady's chamber uninvited," a voice drawled, thick with indolent boredom, "is hardly the epitome of grace."

It came from the shattered doorway.

The two spawns blocking the entrance froze solid. Utter, primal terror drowned their murky amber eyes—a terror born of bloodline, of deepest instinct. Absolute, soul-crushing subjugation.

The air vanished. Time stopped.

Caius Thorne stood framed in the broken doorway. He still wore the fine grey velvet shirt, collar carelessly open, revealing the elegant line of his pale throat. His pale gold hair was loosely tied back, a few strands falling over his forehead. He looked utterly composed, as if stepping from a refined soirée into this arena of cold death.

"Fancy meeting such vermin in this backwater," he murmured, lifting his eyelids to sweep a dispassionate gaze over the four spawns frozen like statues. His look held only absolute, contemptuous indifference—a gaze that crushed more effectively than any roar.

The four spawns staggered back as if struck by an invisible hammer, bodies shaking violently, bones creaking.

The leader’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. Clack-clack-clack. He strained, forcing a ragged, despairing hiss from his throat: "M-Moon’s Eye Stone... Lord Kaelen’s orders... Find it... Offer it..."

"Kaelen?" Caius’s lips parted slightly, repeating the name. A faint, curious inflection colored the single word. He took one elegant step forward.

Just one step.

It landed like a boot heel on the spawns’ hearts. The air thickened, heavy as wet stone. Darkness seemed to congeal into viscous tar, pressing in from all sides. Ellis felt the breath crushed from her lungs; the beast inside screamed run! Even Lumi’s golden light flickered wildly, like a guttering candle.

Caius’s gaze fixed back on the leader. "Seeking the stone?" His voice was low, melodious, yet slid like an icy serpent down the spine. "How fortuitous. I possess it. Why not ask me?"

The words, softly spoken, rang like a summons from the deepest pit.

"No—!" The leader finally recognized that face—a presence far more ancient, far more terrible than Lord Kaelen. Prince Caius Thorne. A true Immortal.

Caius made no further move. His silver-grey eyes merely blinked. Once.

Puff. Puff. Puff.

Three soft sounds, like candle flames snuffed out.

In the space between blinks, three of the four spawns dissolved into fine, grey-white ash. Only the leader remained.

Absolute, consuming silence smothered the room. Even the wind outside seemed muffled.

Ellis’s breath caught. She’d known Caius was high-born—noble, perhaps a lord. But Prince... that was far beyond expectation.

Caius seemed to have merely brushed away dust. His breathing remained unnervingly steady. He lowered his gaze, cold eyes resting on the sole survivor.

"Run," he commanded, his voice flat, yet carrying more force than thunder. "Tell Kaelen. What he seeks is with me. If he desires it..." Caius paused, a cruel, mocking curve touching his lips. "Let him come and take it. With his life as payment."

The spawn on the floor whimpered like a dying animal. It scrambled, limbs flailing, crashing through the shattered doorway in a blind panic, vanishing down the dark corridor, leaving only the thick scent of terror behind.

Finally, Caius lifted his eyes. The silver-grey gaze swept the ruined room, the four small piles of ash stark against the floorboards, then settled on Ellis and Lumi. The glacial aura around him hadn’t fully dissipated; his eyes in the dim light were fathomless, like moonlit, icy pools.

"Well," he murmured, brushing non-existent dust from his sleeve. The sound was clear as ice hitting stone in the silence. "It seems tonight’s dreams are postponed."

A faint, unreadable smile touched his pale lips as his eyes fixed on Ellis, holding a glint of dark amusement. "Spoiler alert, little wolf. They were about you."