Night Kings: The Complete Anthology by Gregory Blackman

Author:Gregory Blackman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vampires, witches, werewolves

Chapter Thirty Seven

Night Kings: The Red River

Gregory Blackman

The Darkest Touch

The supernatural realm was but a story to Elsa Dukane until her eyes burst white with fire. Now the supernatural was her life and the life of all those around her. Her friends, one a werewolf and the other a witch, had grown up with her most of their lives; hidden in plain sight with roots deep in the community.

What was she? Somehow that question paled to the other one that weighed heavily on her soul. What would she become?

She’d seen the light inside the high priestess of the sisterhood; the darkness of the vampire queen and her progeny. Soon Elsa would find out where she belonged on that spectrum. It was for that reason Elsa went to see the Sisters of Salem and the reason she currently walked to Blackrose Manor.

She knocked on the man in black’s front door until both the door and her knuckles were painted with blood.

“Goddamn it.” Elsa shook her hands silly when she realized the trauma she’d inflicted on herself. “Can anyone friggin’ hear me?”

When no one came to the door she entered the home of her own accord. Every light in the manor had been turned off. It was dark, quiet, and there wasn’t a soul anywhere in sight. Elsa had only her instincts to guide her; instincts that drove her upwards his many flights of stairs and down a long hallway that seemed to stretch on forever.

When the hallway finally came to an end there was a single wooden door. The door was the color of blood and it beckoned for her touch. She opened the door and walked over the threshold to the other side. In this room she found Remus Castalon atop a golden throne, head sunken low, not a pale follower in sight.

She crept closer and closer to the throne, but still the king rested in silence. He made no move to greet her, no move to stop her. Remus let her come to him for a change. In days past he would’ve taken every opportunity to shape Elsa Dukane in his image; do what the vampire queen attempted of Lukas.

Remus wasn’t his maker. He would do so in a more discreet manor. The end result would remain the same.

Kindred were being murdered by the dozens in his city. The ones still left called upon Remus to solve their problems. How could he solve the problems of others when he couldn’t solve his own? He was one man, one voice, and no matter how hard this man tried he could never be the deposed lady in red. She wasn’t a leader. She was a tyrant.

She would show her enemies no quarter. She would drain their bodies and throw them into a heap for others to bear witness. She wouldn’t stop the spread of the darkness that threatened to engulf Salem. She would make sure those responsible could never return.

“You’ve come a long way,” the man in black said.

The unknown girl had come all this way and not once did Elsa think of what she would say to him.

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