Immortals After Dark 10 - Demon From the Dark

similar. Dimly lit buildings, blaring sounds, her drunken carousing.
    Most of the time, there were only impressions, words whispered in his mind. The witch had oft repeated to herself, Think of ruby , while experiencing a keen longing. What did that mean? What was this thing that she yearned for so badly? A ruby? A stone?
    He wanted to know so he could deprive her of it, as part of his vengeance.
    "Another bad dream, vemon?" the strange male intoned. "It's a hazard of drinking blood."
    Days ago, Malkom had matched the voice to a being in the cell diagonal from his--a vampire called Lothaire, one with light red eyes, which meant he was fallen--a crazed Horde vampire.
    Like the Viceroy and the master.
    Spurred to slaughter that vampire, Malkom had barreled his head against the glass, too late forgetting his horns had been cut. Blood had run from his head. Hadn't mattered. He'd launched himself against the glass over and over until the mortals had knocked him unconscious again.
    Upon Malkom's awakening, Lothaire had ridiculed him: "Fool. You sleep excessively for someone who has so much to learn."
    Then the cycle had repeated.
    Yet soon, Malkom had decided that the vampire was right. He did have much to learn. He needed to discover a way to reach the witch and escape with her. And he needed to speak Anglish as well as he understood it, to unlock her language more quickly than he'd ever anticipated.
    So he'd stopped fighting and started listening to those around him, observing all he could. At times, he could just make out the witch's voice. She was definitely within this building.
    So near ... She'd given him a taste of her body, he'd taken tastes of her blood, and he needed more--even as he hated her. While he'd been ready to lay down his life for her, had surrendered himself to his worst enemy, she'd coldly plotted his downfall.
    Now Lothaire asked, "What did you dream of this time?"
    Malkom paced in front of the glass, fully healed now and even more desperate to contend with that vampire, any vampire. Desperate for freedom.
    Lothaire sighed. "And still you want to kill me? When I know what you are--and where you can find more of your kind?"
    More of his kind? Exactly how many were made? "What do you want with me, leech?" Malkom's words came haltingly, but he'd nearly recovered his understanding of this language. As Carrow's memories had begun to accumulate with his own, they'd acted like a puzzle key in his mind.
    "You call me leech , when you've just woken from a blood-borne dream? You're as much a vampire as I."
    "I am no vampire," he grated, even as his mind flashed to that searing image of the witch's breast pierced by his fangs. The crimson drops ... "I've spent my life ending things like you."
    "Your old life, perhaps. But this is a new existence for you. And you need information to survive."
    "Information only you can give me?" Malkom sneered.
    "Precisely. In exchange for your allegiance once we escape."
    "Allegiance? The last vampire who sought my loyalty fared ill," Malkom said.
    "What did you do to him?"
    "He lived to see his blood and most of his flesh painting the walls." The Viceroy had pleaded to die, beseeching Malkom with bloody tears. "Watch that you do not end up like him."
    "You're only impressing me. And whetting my appetite."
    "I swear allegiance to no one."
    "That's your first mistake in our world, ScArba ."
    Malkom clenched his fists at that word. "You act as if freedom is nigh."
    "Perhaps yours. You see, I took something from someone very powerful. Once the waters recede, she's going to come for it. She will unleash hell--since I cannot."
    Whatever that meant.
    "Now that you're healed, the mortals will begin studying you," Lothaire said. "Whenever you leave your cell, there's a chance for escape. Of course, there's a certainty of pain."
    Malkom worked to block him out, wondering why he'd ever answered the vampire in the first place.
    Because he intrigued me with his knowledge of what I am.
    "Perhaps if you broke free, you could be reunited with your pretty witch?"
    At that, Malkom lunged to the glass. "What do you know of her? Where is she?"
    "Carrow Graie is close."
    "Where? Damn you, tell me how to get to her!"
    "The guards approach. They're going to take either you or me."
    If Malkom could leave this cell, would he see her? Since he was able to speak so much more freely, he needed to communicate with her. To tell her that he thought she was more of a whore than his own mother. To inform her