Page 41 of House of Darkness (The Fallen Star #1)

ROMAN

Istared at the house before me—a three-story behemoth with gargoyles perched on the eaves, its unassuming gray front door belying the darkness within.

Every second felt like torture as I paced, waiting for my generals to arrive.

Catina eyed me cautiously, standing between me and the door, holding me back.

Babysitting me until reinforcements arrived.

It was taking all my willpower not to charge in immediately, but I needed reinforcements.

If I charged in now, I could be facing a horde of vampires, and even my power would not be enough. Then Codran would have what he wanted.

I knew that, but I seethed for a chance to tear out his throat with my bare hands. When Enso and the others arrived, I began my march toward the door. Enso stepped to my side. “Triangle formation?” He asked.

“You and I in the front,” I responded. He nodded and barked orders back at the group, who moved into formation around us.

“What’s the plan?” Isabella asked from my flank.

“Kill them all,” I snarled.

“They’re not all guilty,” Razvan reasoned cautiously. He had returned to town only that morning, still in travel attire and in need of a shower, yet he insisted on helping.

“If they are here, they are complicit in Codran’s scheme.

They are all traitors conspiring to overthrow the crown.

As of today, the Bursuc House is an enemy of the crown, and they will all be treated as such.

” My voice was cold and unfeeling, seeped with a tsar’s authority that left no room for question.

A tone Leonidas had used all too many times that had filled me with hatred and fear, but now I understood.

With a forceful kick, Enso and I burst through the doors, shaking the house to its foundation. The foyer lay empty. Panic began to creep in again, but I couldn’t allow it—not when Estrella’s life was at stake. I focused on the fleeting wisps of her consciousness I sensed.

“Down,” I commanded.

The Bursuc thrived in the depths of the earth, felt at home in the darkness.

Well, I’d bring the darkness to them. We found the staircase and worked our way into the house’s underbelly, the sensation of tons of dirt making the raven within me shift and scream for release.

I simply honed that tension and funneled it into my fear and hatred.

We made it down three flights before we encountered our first Bursuc vampires.

Rows and rows of vampires donned silver badger masks with jagged fangs along the edges.

Their black vests hosted silver shoulder spikes that merged into their beast form, those hairlike needles protruding from their shoulders.

“Under orders of the tsar, you are sentenced to death for treason,” Enso announced.

He had transformed into his beast form, his body covered in deep green scales and twisted horns sprouting from his skull.

Balls of flame readied in each palm. We exchanged one last glance.

Enso knew what I would do to protect my family; it was the same he wished he could have done.

He dipped his head, then we began our destruction.

Spikes of blackness shot out of my body, merging with the torrent of flames erupting from Enso’s palms. That mixture of light and dark coiled over the first row of vampires and forced into their eyes and mouth.

I watched with a brutal, twisted satisfaction as they screamed.

Their very flesh bubbled and fell from their bones as the dragon’s fire and my darkness worked.

The air filled with the scent of burning flesh and fabric, the copper from their boiling blood a tangy taste across my tongue and nostrils.

The remaining soldiers froze in horror as they acknowledged their fate. Nothing they did would change the fact that they were dead men walking. They knew it too, because they rallied themselves, and my team met them head-on in a clash of steel and fangs.

Enso and I drew our weapons as the fighting thickened.

Though our powers were deadly, our fighting skills were deadlier in close combat.

The air was heavy with the weight of fear and adrenaline.

My body moved without my guidance, cutting through the mass of bodies with ease.

This—this I understood. I understood violence and hatred.

I knew what it meant to fight for every step with the threat of being cut down looming over my shoulders. I could deal with this.

I just couldn’t deal with the knowledge of what was to come. What I was reliving over and over again in the minds of those I cut down. I could not lose her.

We hacked our way through the swarm of vampires, leaving a pile of bodies in our wake. Each step forward was a battle, so when we erupted into the throne room I was panting and covered in sweat. But my entire body went cold as I looked upon the scene in front of me.

Codran sat on a spiked obsidian throne, his black suit blending into the stone.

Needle-like spikes fanned across his shoulders, several feet high and covered in remnants of his flesh and blood from where they had torn from his back.

He held a clear glass of blood in his curled talons, still dripping with blood from his victim.

And his face… it was smeared with blood, his stained pink fangs protruding over his reddened lips and his eyes blackened from the taste and filled with a savage, brutal delight. He looked more animal than human.

Chained to his throne like an animal, Estrella was screaming, thrashing against the chains binding her wrists.

Her eyes met mine, but the pools I had fallen in love with were glassy and unseeing.

A black bite mark marred her neck where the venom seeped through her perfect body.

Bite marks covered her arms and legs, blood dripping from the wounds where they had feasted on her.

The horror of what they’d done to her froze me where I stood.

Her pain pierced through me like spears, ripping my already tattered mind and soul to shreds.

“HOW DARE YOU!” I screamed.

“Did you know she was a magnifier?” Codran took a long sip from his glass. “Of course you fucking knew. Decided to keep that to yourself, like the selfish prick you are. That’s okay though, we’ve shared her now.” He curled his tongue along his lips, lapping up her blood.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” I stepped forward.

Codran’s guards lining the walls stepped forward, but he waved them back and stood.

It was then that I noticed how massive he was.

He had always been small, but in his beast form with Estrella’s blood running through his veins, he was even larger than me.

His shoes stepped onto Estrella’s starlight hair as he approached me, and that was enough for me to lose whatever sanity I had left.

My skin tightened to the point of tearing as my bones and muscles readjusted to accommodate my true form.

My fingers felt like splinters were being torn from them as my own talons grew and hardened.

I hurled into him with the force of a locomotive.

He barely managed to pull his sword from its sheath before we smashed through the throne in a cloud of dust and stone.

I sank my teeth into his shoulder, and in response, he shoved his blade through my stomach, forcing me off him. My pain was overshadowed by rage, but as I tried to stand, my body jerked forward in reaction to the gaping hole in my gut. I clutched the spot and prowled toward him, teeth bared.

The room had quickly devolved into the seventh circle of hell. Enso’s flames engulfed the room. In the glow, our soldiers clashed with the Bursuc, some with weapons and others with fangs and claws. The smell of charred flesh, screams of agony, and clashing metal filled the air and centered me.

Codran scrambled to his feet and held his bloodstained sword toward me.

I wasn’t afraid, though. He could spear me a thousand times over, as long as my head was attached, I’d come after him again and again until I was laughing in a pool of his blood.

I chuckled at his wide eyes. He pretended, but he had never faced off against a true monster.

“You committed a sin, now you have to dance with the devil,” I hissed. I spun my karambits, the raven’s head hilts settling into my palms like the touch of an old friend.

He smiled back and straightened, that fear dissipating and leaving behind a crazed satisfaction. “You want to see my sins, fake tsar? I’d be happy to share them with you.”

Nightmares crashed into my mind like a tidal wave, knocking me down and threatening to pull me under.

I was in a dank cell, the sound of water droplets and the hushed whimpers of women filling my ears.

On the roughly carved floor in front of me huddled four shaking, nude women.

But my eyes only went to the one in front.

The light of my life, braced against the women behind her, protecting them with her body.

Her eyes were furrowed with hatred and anger, but I could hear the thrum of her panicked heartbeat.

Hands that I didn’t recognize but that came from my own body lashed out and tangled into her hair, tearing her off the floor.

She fought against me with everything she had, but it was useless.

There was nothing she could do against this monster as he pinned her against the wall.

I could feel her skin breaking under my hands as I forced her to my will.

Could hear her soft sobbing as I hurt her, over and over…

A searing pain lit up my back like a cattle prod.

I wasn’t sure how, but I was on my hands and knees.

Codran’s foot held me in place as he tore his sword from my back.

I choked out a scream, but not at the pain.

The pain was nothing compared to what I had just endured.

Rage and helplessness forced their way down my throat and took away my ability to breathe.