The Cry of the Night (Blood and Moon Book 2) by Alex Vale

Author:Alex Vale [Vale, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Asher

“The Horned One has gone silent. Do you believe he has forsaken me for my mercy on you? For not having yet sacked Grander?”

Asher floated in a semi-permanent state of dissociation and derealization. The walls of the catacomb’s cell melted around him, shifting like living sand, and the nerves of his limbs felt detached, hovering around his body like gnats. Malkolm was ever present as a constant prick in Asher’s neck or a gulp of bitter flavor between his lips, drifting through the cloud of Asher’s consciousness. The lord manipulated Asher’s will with a flourish of his hands, the tilt of his head, pulling and tugging, pushing.

Whenever the lord spoke, Asher had a hell of a time figuring out if it was real or another hallucination altogether. It didn’t help that the Blood God sometimes responded.

“He has lost my grace for regarding himself above me,” the Blood God spoke in Asher’s ear. His rumble was a crawl of molasses, suffocating Asher. “Malkolm would not stop at usurping the High King. He would spend the rest of his days seeking to dethrone me and become a god. I cannot reach those who have fallen out of my favor.”

“Think yourself clever?” Malkolm was suddenly there. Angry and very real. Shit, had Asher conveyed the Blood God’s message out loud? The lord’s claws burrowed into Asher’s cheeks as he gripped his chin, forcing more of the drugged blood down his throat. “Perhaps a higher dosage is in order.”

Asher was lifted beyond the catacombs. He found himself peering through murky waters, Asher fully submerged. From underneath the waters of the salt flats, he watched the kaleidoscope of the vampiric realm wheel overhead.

Maybe it was just another drug-induced hallucination, but Asher welcomed the escape from worldly pain and discomfort. He began to consider his place in the Universe. His patrons’ place. The Blood God had admitted to not being all powerful by confessing that he could not infiltrate Malkolm or directly control any other vampire. The same could be said of the Moon Goddess.

It was easy to think about gods, divinity, and the afterlife lost in this realm. The concepts flowed through his consciousness in a steady stream, as if hooked up to a direct feed. He pretended that there was an outside source. It was easier that way.

He found himself asking, once again, “What is a god?” An all-powerful being, an immortal creator? He considered the divide between monotheists and polytheists, such as the Greeks versus Christians. One would consider their gods to be creators, each with their own roles controlling the natural world but doing so imperfectly, while the other had a single omniscient creator, flawless beyond recognition. The beings they individually choose to worship, was it out of love, respect, fear? All of those things? What is a god?

If ants could grasp the idea, they might worship humans as God. Or at least godly. If humans, hypothetically, ever created artificially sentient life, such a creation may revere humans as God. Or… maybe even program that life to worship humans.

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