Clash of Legends

  AMARANTHINE:

  Clash of Legends

  Joleene Naylor

  www.joleenenaylor.com

  Joleene@joleenenaylor.com

  First Edition, 2015

  Copyright 2015 by Joleene Naylor

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover art & interior art copyright Joleene Naylor 2015. All rights reserved.

  This book is available in print

  Find Joleene Naylor on Smashwords at: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/joleenenaylor

  Ramblings from the Darkness at www.joleenenaylor.com

  You never know what you’ll find in the shadows…..

  **********

  Other books by Joleene Naylor:

  Amaranthine:

  Get the books:

  1: Shades of Gray

  2: Legacy of Ghosts

  3: Ties of Blood

  4: Ashes of Deceit

  5: Heart of the Raven

  6: Children of Shadows

  7. Clash of Legends

  Bundled with special features

  Amaranthine Special Edition I: Shades of Gray & Legacy of Ghosts

  Amaranthine Special Edition II: Ties of Blood & Ashes of Deceit

  Also:

  Vampire Morsels Collection: 17 Short Stories

  Free:

  101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire by Joleene Naylor

  Heart of the Raven Mini Prologue Collection

  Tales from the Island: Six Short Stories

  COMING SOON:

  Tales of the Executioners

  And look for individual Vampire Morsel short stories on Smashwords

  Non-fiction:

  How to Get a Cheap Book Cover: from how to woo your cover artist to simple DIY

  **********

  Clash of Legends: The seventh in the Amaranthine Series

  The explosive seventh installment in the Amaranthine series brings blood, ruin, despair, and hope, for even in the darkest night there is still a moon.

  After the battle in Indonesia. Katelina wakes in Samael’s domain. Though her memories are tattered, she knows someone is missing: Jorick.

  Her vampire lover gathers an army to save her from the ancient, but his master Malick interferes. For five hundred years Malick has manipulated and ruined Jorick’s life. When he leaves Katelina broken and bleeding in the bowels of his oasis, it’s the final straw.

  While Malick sets up his glorious war with a living legend, Jorick plans the ultimate taboo: to kill his master. He’s tried before and failed. Will this be different, or will he and Katelina be crushed in the carnage of a greater battle, between two whose blood goes back millennia?

  **********

  To the Martins: Kathy, the best sister-in-law, Meghan, my favorite niece, and Ryhan who is my favorite nephew.

  And to the memory of Susan Koenig, a fan and friend. I miss our emails.

  **********

  Prologue

  “Where am I?” Katelina was aware of her voice only after she’d spoken the words aloud. Her body ached and her senses were bathed in darkness.

  The answer was a single word, like a breath of peace from warmer places. “Safe.”

  Safe from what? Her memory was numb, but she ached to understand. An urgency pressed beneath the surface. Something terrible had happened. Falling rocks, screams, blood. And among the chaos had been her… what? Her friends? Were they all right?

  “They are safe,” the voice soothed again, the words followed by a touch; a hand on her head. “Close your eyes and see.”

  But she didn’t have to close her eyes because the scene was there, as bright and clear as if she was a participant. There were names attached to the actors in the drama, but she couldn’t find any feelings about them. Did she know them?

  Etsuko sat on a chaise longue in the motel room, wearing a pink kimono, her hair pulled up. Her attention moved between her needlework and a clock, as if she was counting the minutes.

  Someone pounded furiously on the door and Etsuko jumped. She laid her needlework aside and hurried to answer the frantic summons. The door was barely open when a vampire burst inside, his long lion-colored hair wild around his face.

  “Oren-sama, I did not think to see you. The sun is rising–” Etsuko broke off as she noticed his state of disarray. He was streaked in blood and dirt, his shirt was torn, and a wound on his shoulder bled freely. “You are hurt.”

  He pushed past her and threw his suitcase on the bed, as though to pack, and then flung it aside again. Etsuko turned to close the door, but two more vampires forced their way through. Like Oren they were dirty and bloody. The teen had thick, curly hair and a sunburned face, while the bald vampire’s head glowed pink. They were sunburned.

  Etsuko bobbed her head quickly. “Loren-sama. Micah-sama. I must guess from your appearance that the battle has happened? What was the outcome, if I may ask?”

  “That son of a bitch took her!” Micah roared. “We need to go after him!”

  Took who? Katelina wondered.

  Micah snarled and Etsuko asked, “Who was taken?”

  “Katelina,” Loren answered.

  The scene wavered for a moment. Katelina. The name was familiar, and she felt like it belonged to her, but it didn’t stir an emotional connection.

  The scene cleared and the teen rushed on, “Malick showed up and did some weird thing to her. Verchiel said Malick ‘activated a kill switch’ – he said he’d suspected it was there but he’d never expected it was to make her kill herself. He figured, if anything, it would be Jorick. Anyway, Jorick attacked Malick and cut off his hand. It’s still there at the guild-whatever, so it won’t grow back on. The Scharfrichter took it and are going to do something with it. I dunno, maybe put it in a box as a trophy. As I was saying, Jorick injured Malick, then all of a sudden Samael dropped down from the sky, exploded Ronnell’s head, grabbed Katelina, and jumped out again – whoosh – like Superman. Malick laughed and laughed, then he did something similar and Jorick started after them, but Wolfe tackled him and told him the sun would be up any minute. And he was right, we barely made it here.” Loren unconsciously rubbed his pink nose. “But they had this huge argument about it and Jorick said he meant to follow anyway.”

  Jorick. The name felt at home on Katelina’s lips and something stirred in the back of her thoughts. There was an image of a man with long black hair and pale skin. Dark eyes the color of night.

  The images disappeared as the door flew open and a red haired vampiress stormed in. Her dress was torn and her exposed skin was rosy from the sun. “Thanks for leaving me to pay the taxi. That would have been great if I’d burst into flames.”

  “I ain’t got any fucking cash, Torina.” Micah snapped, then he turned to Oren. “So, we goin’ after Lunch or what?”

  “Go where?” Torina asked and threw herself into a chair. “Do you have any idea where he went?”

  “That son of a bitch Sorino is a tracker. We’ll make him hunt Samael down, and if he refuses we’ll take that pretty boy of his as a hostage until he agrees!”

  “You can’t do that,” Loren said. “Now let me finish. Wolfe and Jorick had this huge argument. There were a bunch of those other Munich guys, too. Sadihra was there, and they kept trying to drag Jorick downstairs before the sun came up. And that’s when Verchiel grabbed Kai and took off.” br />
  Verchiel. The name conjured a vision of red, like a crayon. But before Katelina could grasp at it, Torina demanded, “He did what?”

  Loren shrugged. “He said he was faster and could make it further before he had to hide out, and since Kai’s a human I guess he thought he’d come in handy.”

  “Sorino will kill him,” Oren said.

  Torina wiped her face and frowned at the dirt on her hand. “He’ll have to beat Jorick to it.”

  “Anyway,” Loren went on. “The whole place is a huge mess. Most of the building is leveled. There’s like walls left here and there, but that’s it. Between the bodies and the rubble it’s going to take them a month to sort it all out, but there’s no time now coz the sun’s up and all the human disaster people are there, and everyone’s scattering like roaches.”

  Oren hesitated and moved to the window. He lifted the corner of the coverings, only to drop them quickly. “The sun is clear of the horizon. We’re helpless until it sets.”

  “And that’s why we need to go,” Micah argued. “The fuckin’ mummy can’t go anywhere until the sun goes down, so he’s trapped, too. The city’s not that fuckin’ big. We sniffed out the god damn Black Vigil, we can sniff him out. We can load up on fuckin’ sunscreen or umbrellas or some shit.”

  Oren turned to face him. “Do you remember Finland and the sun? Did you notice that of all of us Jorick was the least affected? Why do you think that is? Because he‘s the oldest. Samael is...I can’t even guess how old he is. For all we know he can walk in full daylight with no effect. I doubt very much he’s as trapped as we are.”

  Etsuko took a chance to interject another question, “If I may ask, where is Ume-sama?”

  “She’s still at the fortress thing-a-majig,” Micah said. “She got hurt pretty bad, but she’ll heal up with some rest and be back tomorrow.” His tone turned bitter, “Which will be fine because we’ll be sitting here like jack-asses with our thumbs up our butts!” Micah kicked the table leg with enough force to snap it. The table leaned dangerously and then crashed to the floor in a shower of glass.

  “I didn’t know you liked the little human that much,” Torina said.

  Micah spun to face her. “I don’t like that son of a bitch kidnapping our-” he broke off.

  “Our pet?” Torina asked with a smirk. “Oh forget it. We all know you’re fond of her. She is a bit like a Chihuahua, I suppose. I only hope Wolfe stopped Jorick from doing something stupid.”

  Something stupid? Katelina wondered. What did she mean?

  “Pardon my ignorance, Oren-sama,” Etsuko began. “But won’t any of the guilds do something?”

  “Good luck with that,” Micah spat. “By the time they decide to move their wrinkly asses it’ll be too late. Look at how long Malick’s been terrorizing the world and they still ain’t done shit. Samael will have drained her dry by then.”

  “I don’t think that’s his purpose,” Oren said. They all turned to him and he sighed. “After the Raven Temple, Jorick probed the human’s mind to see if Samael had done anything when he spoke to her. He found something in it; a door, he called it, and he left it. Apparently, shortly after that she started to have messages in her head and strange dreams. He noticed something odd once or twice, but it was always in the heat of some calamity and by the time he had a chance to look into it he’d forgotten. She finally said something to him when she got the last message, ‘I’ll be there soon’. And then he probed deeper into her mind, found the dreams, and it all made sense.”

  “Well I’m glad it made sense to him, coz it sure as fuck don’t make sense to me. What door?”

  “I bet that’s the kill switch thing Verchiel was talking about,” Loren chimed in. “But if so Malick did that when they were in Munich the first time, not Samael.”

  “I don’t know,” Oren said testily. “Jorick told me this before the fight and he just assumed it was Samael. Who would have guessed she’d be so easy to tamper with that two vampires would do it?”

  “So why did Samael take her then?” Micah asked angrily.

  Oren tried to look patient but failed. “I’ll explain it another way. Do you remember the scroll we got in Egypt?”

  “Yeah, yeah, the one that said where the temple was and had some legend about an apocalypse. So?”

  “Do you remember what it said? ‘When the Heart has been given to the broken body within the temple of the Raven Queen and the sleeping wreak their wrath. Then all will tremble at the might of the master and his consort in the time of the Great Destruction.’ We assumed it meant that Lilith was the consort and that the one who woke her was the master, but it isn’t. Samael is the master and–”

  “You’re joking!” Torina cried. “He chose her to be his consort? She’s not even pretty.”

  Anger sparked in Katelina and then disappeared under the soothing peace.

  What does it matter?

  “I don’t think it has to do with a choice. She’s simply the one who woke him up, the one whose blood he drank first. No matter how she came to do it, she’s the one who gave him the heart and let him feed off her. I imagine it’s a reward of sorts.”

  Nothing matters.

  “A thank you gift,” Etsuko said quietly.

  “Well what a gift.” Torina wiped at her face again and stood. “I can’t take it. I need a bath.”

  In the end it will all fade away.

  “What about Lunch?” Micah demanded. He looked from one to the other. “Am I the only one who gives a shit?”

  “No,” Loren said. “I’m worried too, but I know it will be okay. Jorick’s going after her.”

  Even this.

  Let it go.

  Chapter One

  Katelina opened her eyes and blinked against the late afternoon sunlight. She looked around the room. The bed she lay in was built in an alcove. Carved stools sat along one wall, sandwiching an open doorway. A table was laden with random items: a vase, a box, hair combs. There was nothing familiar, only vaguely exotic.

  She peeled back the blankets and swung out of bed. Her back and shoulder burned, and her clothing was strange; an embroidered robe with a faint musty odor. Though the cut was different, it made her think of the kimonos that...

  That what? The thought ran to nothing and she rubbed her head. In the back of her mind phantoms moved. The shadows of screams sounded. Crimson splashed on dusty stones.

  It was a fragmented moment, captured like a photo. She pressed and others popped to the surface. There was a temple gouged into a mountain. Dust, old carvings. A secret door that led below and then an attack. She smelled terror but couldn’t feel it, even as she saw herself dragged down to secret chambers.

  A mummy laid in a box. Sorino read an inscription on the wall with a smug expression. It wouldn’t do him any good because he needed the Heart of the Raven to wake the sleeping mummy and she had that.

  He made her draw it out. Made her stuff it between the mummy’s lips. The mummy turned into a withered, ancient vampire. It drank from her arm until she screamed. Then it went on a rampage.

  The legends said the ancient in the box was Lilith, and that whoever replaced her heart—the legendary Heart of the Raven—would command her. The legends were wrong. The heart belonged to one of her husband’s other wives, and the mummy was her husband Samael. Once awakened, no one could control him.

  Katelina saw snapshot scenes of Munich, Germany and of a battle in a Finnish forest. There was a destroyed fortress in Uzbekistan, laid waste by the Children of Shadows, a vampire cult that crushed everything in sight. There was a jungle, then Indonesia. She saw her allies fighting against the wave of black. Micah and Loren. Oren and Torina. Verchiel hanging by his fingers from the ledge as he tossed his sword to Jorick.

  Jorick.

  He was etched in her mind: long black hair, dark eyes, perfect skin, and gleaming vampire fangs. When she’d last seen him, he’d stood like an unbending storm waiting to unleash its fury. Malick, his former master, cowered away, clutching the s
tump of his wrist where his hand used to be.

  She tried to piece together what had happened next, but there was only blackness and agony…had Jorick…Was he…?

  “He is behind. Better to hurt now than later, for betrayal and pain is all a lover brings.”

  She turned to see a man in the doorway, dressed in an embroidered robe of bright yellow. Long hair fell around his shoulders like a curtain of shimmering night and his face…She couldn’t look away. It was as if beauty incarnate stood before her, with eyes that burned like the heart of a dark star. She was lost in their center, and it was only when he closed them that she came back. She stood in the middle of the room, hand outstretched, as if desperate to touch something so exquisite.

  She stepped back. Nothing made sense. Where was she? Who was he? But she knew. She knew him with every breath in her body.

  It was Samael.

  An overwhelming feeling of peace enveloped her. He motioned her to one of the stools and she went without thought.

  “There is nothing to fear. I have not brought you here to harm you, only to deliver that which I promised.”

  His voice was gentle, like whispering rainfall in the spring. She could almost smell the green of the leaves and the damp of the earth.

  He laid a hand to her head. Electricity sang through her and memories popped to the surface. In her mind she was back in the cave of the Raven Queen’s Temple. She lay on the floor, waiting for Samael to kill her. He lifted her gently and met her eyes. His voice resonated inside her, not as words, but as a sense of meaning. He told her not to fear, that he must prepare the way, and soon her destiny would be fulfilled. She would stand above the world, a queen of darkness who would never know suffering again.