Page 54 of Dance of the Phoenix (Cloak of the Vampire #3)

Aileen

I opened my eyes, short of breath, sweat covering my skin.

For a few long moments, I was disoriented, memories pushing their way back into my head. I remembered my name. Remembered who and what I was. Remembered the last few days. Remembered Logan, Zoey, Cassidy, and CJ. Remembered Jada.

That’s when my disorientation turned into absolute horror. But the memories did not stop.

Because I also remembered the Phoenix and the promise I’d made.

But the latter didn’t matter. I couldn’t dwell on it even if I wanted to, because I remembered Ragnor.

I remembered Atalon carving his heart out.

Ragnor’s heart.

Ragnor was dead.

Agony made me suck in a breath and put my hands over my chest, where the pain was most unbearable. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even cry. I was in a state of shock, panic, and utter pain.

It felt as if a vital part of me was missing. As if my heart was cut in half.

I’d thought my soul was crushed before. It felt that way when I watched him getting killed right before my eyes.

And yet now, my soul was somehow still here, barely intact, holding on by a thin last thread, but here.

I almost wished it wasn’t. I wished I could be like Jada. That once the pain became too hard to bear, I would simply become ... nothing.

But I was still here.

My soul, however flimsy, was still here.

And the agony refused to stop.

Because Ragnor was dead.

He was dead.

“Good morning, Aileen.”

The voice was familiar, and it made my despair come to a screeching halt. Because that voice ... it belonged to a very specific individual. And how could it be here ?

That’s when I realized that I was no longer in the arena. I was lying in a queen-size bed, still wearing the jeans and tee I last wore. There was natural light in the room, though, coming from a nearby window. I was no longer underground, meaning I was no longer in the proximity of the arena.

Slowly, I turned my head to the side and saw a familiar man sitting in the chair near the bed. He had tousled black hair, pale gray eyes, and a handsome face that was sadly attached to a tall, lean body. He wore black clothes, along with an affectionate smile that made me want to hurl.

Wode’s smile widened when he saw my eyes widen in shock. “Missed me?” he asked, cocking his head as his smile turned almost boyish. “I know I did.”

“You ...” I spluttered, unable to find the words as panic rose inside me. “Where am I? Why are you here? What—”

“Easy,” he cut me off softly. “I’ll answer all your questions, don’t worry. But first, I need to check something.”

The Jinni who’d once kidnapped Isora and Zoey and fought Ragnor and me all those weeks ago, stretched his arm toward me. I flinched, not wanting him to even breathe next to me, but he touched my temple despite my evident recoil.

“Interesting,” he murmured, withdrawing his hand. “It seems you somehow retained your sanity, despite losing your Alara Morreh.”

The shock returned with a vengeance, only this time, it was multiplied by the thousands.

He didn’t just say Alara Morreh , did he?

“That definitely makes things easier for me,” Wode said, smiling again, just as the door behind him opened, followed by what seemed to be a maid holding a tray. “Ah, food is here. You must be hungry. I also got some blood for you. I hope B plus is all right.”

Wode took the tray from the maid and shooed her away before he put it on the nightstand. “Come on now,” he said. “Sit up and eat. You look like you haven’t eaten in days.”

I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t even thirsty. I was too shocked to even register such unimportant needs.

He sighed. “You either sit up by yourself or I make you,” he said, giving me an almost pitying look. “What will it be?”

Beyond the shock, the thought of him, or anyone else, touching me was distressing enough that I sat up, took a spoon, and ate the porridge on the tray.

“Good girl,” Wode murmured soothingly, “you’ll need all the energy you can get for the next few days.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn’t care. I had to get out of here, so nothing else mattered.

Wode kept quiet until I finished the food and drank every drop of blood. Only then did he say, “Let’s talk.”

Ragnor’s face suddenly flashed in my head, and the pain in my chest doubled, making me sick to my stomach. Seemingly aware of what was happening, Wode got a bucket from God knew where and gave it to me. I emptied the entire meal right into it, heaving until nothing was left.

“That won’t do, Aileen,” Wode said with another sigh. “As I said, the next few days are going to be hard on you. The process of removing an Imprint is quite hard on the body.”

I froze, raising my head to stare at him, eyes wide. “What did you just say?”

Wode grinned sinisterly. “Ah, yeah, that caught your attention, didn’t it?”

“What did you say?” I repeated, my heart beating so hard, it was almost deafening.

He leaned back against the chair and crossed his arms behind his head. “As I said, we have a lot to discuss. Let me tell you some dry details first.”

He spread one arm to gesture over the room before he returned it behind his head. “We’re in our new headquarters in Vegas. I know,” he added when he saw shock slamming into my face yet again, “it’s kind of like we’re closing a circle. We met here for the first time a few months ago, after all.”

“How long have I been out?” I said, fear now replacing the shock. How could I be in Vegas, when I had just been in Houston? I couldn’t have been out for more than a few hours ...

“It’s been three days,” he said, shrugging. “You were unconscious for a while, which makes sense, since you have just lost your Alara Morreh.”

I began to tremble. “You keep saying my Alara Morreh,” I said, voice shaking just as much, “but I have no such thing.”

Wode’s eyes widened. It seemed now he was shocked. “Didn’t Rayne tell you?”

My trembling grew worse as a foreboding feeling settled in my gut. “Tell me what?” I asked, feeling tears welling in my eyes. I knew what he was going to say before he did, and I didn’t want to hear it.

I couldn’t take hearing it.

But Wode was merciless, and he said the thing I feared most. “You were Ragnor Rayne’s Alara Morreh. ‘ The one who’s promised ,’ as those winged assholes call it.”

Shaking my head slowly, all I could say was, “No.”

He arched a brow. “You seem to know what Alara Morreh means, so that means you know about the Malachi,” he said, “but it appears you didn’t know that way before he was a vampire, let alone even a human, Ragnor was a Malachi.”

It made no sense.

None of it did.

Ragnor, a Malachi? Like CJ?

How?

“It seems Rayne hid some important details from you.” Wode smiled, as if it was the best news he’d heard all day.

My head couldn’t compute. Everything stood still at his words. I didn’t know what he was trying to say, and I didn’t bother trying to understand. Because I felt as if everything I knew was suddenly false.

Ragnor had lied to me by omission.

He never told me he used to be a Malachi.

When I tried to talk to him about it before, he’d changed the subject.

Why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t he clue me in to the fact I was his Alara Morreh?

Why did I have to learn about this all after he was ... he was dead?

“Let me tell you some crucial things you need to know, sweetheart,” Wode said, and I whipped my head toward him, bile in my throat at the fond way he called me fucking sweetheart . “Do you know what vampires truly are?”

“I don’t care,” I spit, hugging myself. My trembling just wouldn’t stop.

“Oh, but you should care, considering I plan on removing your Imprint and turning you back into a human,” he said, smiling like a Cheshire cat. “Do you know what an Ekimmu is?”

I knew. It was a creature from the Tefat that served as a medium between species. Like a spiritual being, almost. But what did any of it matter? “I said I don’t care,” I growled, anger filling me up. I clung onto it. It was easier than feeling the agonizing pain.

“ Ekimmu is an old name for a vampire.” Wode spoke as if I didn’t say anything.

“And it explains what a vampire truly is. It’s a form that brings out the hidden potential in humans, thus you have the Gifted, and even the Sacreds.

It’s a medium that allows mere humans to use more than just ten percent of their brains.

The downside of that, of course, is the fact that the power that allows this, Lifeblood, forces you vampires to drink blood every day to replenish it, or you will suffer from Bloodlust.”

My trembling came to a stop.

“The Ekimmu is also a species that can bridge between different supernatural species,” Wode continued.

“Say a human and a supernatural being birth a child. That child will be born human, never able to fulfill their supernatural potential to the max, unless they are given the Imprint and turned into a vampire. Only then their full potential, perhaps even a special Gift or magic, would come to fruition. The same goes for Malachi who fell from grace—fallen angels, basically, who were kicked out of the Malachi ranks. Like your precious Ragnor Rayne.”

I stilled.

“Yeah, Ragnor Rayne committed a grave sin when he was a Malachi.” Wode grinned.

“He got his wings torn off and was banished from Haramon, the Realm of the Malachi.

A banished, wingless Malachi no longer has access to their Malachi powers.

They are practically humans—though punished to live as an immortal in their human form.

“But Rayne was given the Imprint and managed to access some of his Malachi powers back,” Wode said. “That’s the true power of the Ekimmu—of vampires.”

I could barely process any of it. Just the knowledge that Ragnor hid so many things from me, that I had to hear about it from Wode, who somehow knew all of it despite being a Jinni and thus an enemy ...

“And that brings me back to you, sweetheart.” Wode gave me another of those maddening smiles, and I flinched. “Why do you think you’re a Sacred?”

I froze. “How . . .”

“How do I know you’re a Sacred?” He asked the question for me, since I couldn’t. And he immediately answered. “Well, let’s just say Atalon and I are on good terms. He told me all about your magic. What an interesting power you have.”

I suddenly remembered a couple of months ago, when Atalon locked me in that cell with Isora, and the Jinn came to visit, taking Isora and me in exchange for some sort of object Atalon wanted.

How did I forget about this? How could I be so stupid as to forget that Atalon and the Jinn had some sort of alliance going on?

Another mistake to add to the never-ending pile.

“But that’s not the point here,” Wode said, making my eyes snap to him. “You see, you’re not simply a Child of Kahil, one of the mere followers of the Morrow Faith, but rather, you’re a direct descendant of one of the Morrow Gods themselves.”

The story I recalled while in Esheer suddenly came back to me. Neser, with the power of fire. Desher, with the power of ashes. And Ankharen ...

“So you becoming a vampire actually brought you closer to your ancestor,” Wode said with a sigh. “And while that is truly a wonder, a curious case to be studied, it unfortunately cannot be part of the plans.”

Plans?

Wode smiled again, and something about this particular smile was especially twisted, and it made me freeze yet again. “See, long ago, we Jinn were promised a bride. A descendant of the Morrow Gods, to be exact.”

My heart dropped as that foreboding feeling from before returned with vengeance.

“To summarize a long, tragic story, the birth rate of pure-blooded Jinn is close to nil,” he said, smile gone. He looked the most serious he had been so far. “Our numbers have been dwindling for centuries. There are only a few hundred of us left.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with me?” I bit out, a sense of panicked urgency making my heartbeat quicken.

Wode didn’t beat around the bush. “Once every few centuries, a Sultan is born,” he said, his gaze locking mine in an unbreakable hold.

“Once the Sultan sets his sight on a Hemet, a bride of his choosing, no matter the bride’s race, he can impregnate her over and over again and have her give birth to Jinn just as pure blooded as the others. ”

“No,” I said, realizing where this was going now.

He nodded with a somewhat wistful look. “The moment I saw you here in Vegas that first time, I sensed you were my Hemet, Aileen. You’re the most perfect Hemet I could find: a descendant of the Morrow Gods, a bride we were promised many centuries ago.

It all fits—but for one thing.” He paused. “You’re a vampire.”

And vampires were infertile.

“No,” I insisted, feeling as though hives had risen all over my skin.

“This is why I’m going to conduct a ritual to get rid of this Imprint you were given by Rayne,” Wode said and gave me an almost fond smile. “And then, once you’re human again, I’ll make you my Hemet.”

I wanted to flee, but Wode had anticipated it. Because the moment I got out of bed and put distance between us, shaking from head to toe, he smiled and said, “I drugged the blood. You’ll be fast asleep again soon.”

And as if on cue, I sank into the darkness once more.