Page 49

“But you don’t approve?” Ryder stopped pacing directly opposite where Demos sat sprawled at the dining table.

Demos lifted his silver eyes to Ryder. “Have you thought how Grayson might be perceived, especially by an Ashyr Vampire?”

Ryder opened and shut his mouth. “I…”

“I know that you are not so enamored with the idea of the Immortals returning. You don’t care if Weryn ever shows up… or if he’s here already.” A stare from Demos had him shifting uncomfortably. “But others do care. Very much. They see how much favor the Bloodlines whose Immortals have returned are getting. Not just the pretty palaces that are open to them, but the affection of our king.”

“You don’t think that Grayson is--is Ashyr reborn?” Ryder let out a sharp laugh that somehow hurt.

Demos spread his arms. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because he… simply because he is telekinetic doesn’t mean he’s Ashyr reincarnated! When Balthazar was human he couldn’t read minds! When Caemorn was human he couldn’t raise the dead!” Ryder insisted.

Demos’ stare should have shot right through him at this rate. “Balthazar was the second son of some lord or another. He was a drunk and a gambler. Yet… yet he always won. He should have lost against the cretins he played against in games of chance, become indebted to the low lives of society, but he never did.”

“Meaning he was reading their minds?” Ryder felt his throat growing tight as he said this.

Another shrug of those big black shoulders. “I think he either had the luck of the Devil or he knew what cards were in everyone’s hands and knew when the dice were loaded. As to Caemorn… Well, there are stories about him dissecting dead animals as a child and perhaps even bringing a crow back to life. But less is known there. I could go onto Wyvern, as well, but--”

“Enough.” Ryder ripped a hand through his hair. “I see your point. But none of them is as powerful as Grayson with their gift when they were mortal.”

“And you think that means it’s less likely he’s Ashyr?” Demos eyebrows were practically one with his hairline. “Why are you so against him being an Immortal really?”

“Because…” Ryder stopped.

He wasn’t sure how to express this, how to put what he felt into words. This sensation of being chained with the knowledge that you had a life before this one where you had created monsters instead of children to fight for you. That your best intentions became the worst of acts. The War between the Immortals after Daemon had gone to sleep to await Julian was born was so brutal. He hadn’t been alive during it, but he knew what it had done to all of them. He just knew…

“Grayson is already saddled with a dark past. Being Ashyr wouldn’t relieve that. It would only add to his burden,” Ryder finally said.

Demos regarded him with an almost sadness in his eyes. “The Order lied about what happened during the War, Ryder. Only those who were actually there know which Immortals started it and what was actually done versus the grim fairytale the Order told us to keep us in line.”

“We know how bad it was because of the safeguards that were put in place because of it.” Ryder grimaced. “Our traditions are not just because we have a greater tie to nature than the other Bloodlines as we turn into other living beings. But because we so abused that during the War that it was determined never again would we allow ourselves to behave that way.”

He was practically shaking. Talking about the War, about Weryn, about all of it caused his skin to want to split open so that he could crawl away from himself.

“All this talk about me being Weryn and Grayson being Ashyr is not good news, Demos. The Immortals’ hands are covered in the blood of their own children. The Vampires that are… off all come from that era.”

“Lawson wasn’t alive then,” Demos said quietly as if that proved something.

“He was turned by Legion,” Ryder reminded him unnecessarily.

They both went silent then. Legion had been Weryn’s top general in the War, though he had not been the oldest of Weryn’s Children. But he had been the most ruthless and the most dangerous. Lawson, of all his fledglings, was the only one not to have been brought down afterwards by Vampire hunters like himself and Demos. The only one that was not tainted by madness.

Does your blood run pure, Grayson?

Ryder shook his head violently as if to shake that vision out of it. But the echo of the words remained.

“Weryn made Legion. Approved his barbarity. We shouldn’t want Weryn back, Demos,” Ryder insisted.

“I thought we were talking about Ashyr here,” Demos replied softly.

“We shouldn’t want any of them back! And those that are need to prove they have the right to rule us again! But Daemon’s just given them all the power yet again!” Ryder gritted his teeth.

“Daemon isn’t like the other Immortals,” Demos said, stroking his chin. “We’ve been around enough of the crazies to know he isn’t like that. He trusts Balthazar and Caemorn. Shouldn’t we?”

“I know. I know.” Ryder threw up his arms. “But I think he’s blinded by his love for the Immortals from the past. He doesn’t know what they became without his leadership and guidance. He still sees them as the beings he knew. But they changed while he slept. Or maybe, not being weaker than them, he didn’t know what they were really like at all.”

Silence fell between them except for the popping of the tree-branch sized logs in the fireplace that spanned the length of one wall. The heat from it embraced the whole room. Ryder had piled furs and pillows in front of it. Other than the table, that was the only real touch of habitation he had brought to this space.