Flesh And Blood: House of Comarre: Book Two (House of Comarre 2) Painter, Kristen (historical books to read txt) 📖

him. Made him feel as close to sane as he’d been in a long while. Turning her into a vampire was unacceptable. There were only so many burdens he could bear.

That was not one of them.

The waning moon shed its pale silver over Aliza’s porch, giving them just enough light to work with.

Evie came out of the house, shutting the sliding door behind her. She’d regained enough strength that their work could go forward. ‘Midnight hour, Ma. At last.’

Aliza smiled. Her daughter was whole again. Her sweet Evie, well and standing beside her. Aliza nodded at her precious child, thankful she held no hard feelings over the length of time it had taken Aliza to free her. ‘So it is.’

‘Did the shifter go through the smoke?’

‘We’ll know soon enough. For now, let’s light the candle and start this new spell.’

Evie struck a match and touched it to the wick, lighting the black anise-scented candle. She placed it in the center of the salt and earth pentagram they’d outlined on the scarred picnic table.

Aliza took the vial of blood from her apron and set it beside a wide strip of willow bark on the table. ‘Hold that flat for me.’

‘I never imagined we’d end up with his blood,’ Evie said, securing the willow at both ends with her fingertips. She twitched, a subtle jerking of her whole body. She’d been doing it since being released. Aliza hoped it would go away. ‘Should be better than Dominic’s, don’t you think?’

‘For sure. Malkolm’s blood holds more dark power.’ And power was exactly what they were after. Had been, ever since the night Evie had turned herself to stone. They’d just never figured it would take them so long to get the blood to make it right. Aliza uncorked the vial and dipped a glass fountain pen into the blood. On the willow bark she wrote the unholy name. ‘This will change everything.’

Evie laughed softly. ‘I want a penthouse in the city.’

‘Child, we will own the city.’ She took the bark and held it over the candle and spoke the simple spell. ‘Ancient spirit, now at rest, heed my call and manifest.’ Slowly, the bark began to burn. Smoke curled off the papery wood until the fire hit the name written in blood. In a flash, the piece flamed brightly, then went to ash in a puff of smoke.

The smoke grew into a cloud, heavy and dense and viciously red. Evie shivered.

‘It’s okay,’ Aliza assured her. ‘The pentagram contains it.’

The smoke spun out and lengthened. Curled into a humanoid shape. Put down hoofed feet. The form towered over them until, at last, the being before them had a voice. ‘Who summons me?’

‘I do,’ Aliza said. ‘I and my daughter.’

Hard red eyes peered back at her. ‘Mortals?’

‘Witches,’ Aliza corrected.

‘Do you know who I am?’ Disgust razed the voice into something like metal against metal.

‘You are Samael, the ancient one, he who fell, head of the Castus Sanguis, the creator of the noble race of vampires.’ And, she thought gleefully, mine to command.

He seemed mollified by her acknowledgment of him. ‘Why do you summon me?’

‘Power,’ Aliza answered him.

He laughed. The glass doors rattled and something in the house shattered. ‘All beings want power. What do you want from me?’

What they had originally wanted and what they wanted now had changed since the night Evie had been restored. ‘We want the ring the vampiress Tatiana seeks. The ring of sorrows.’

Samael laughed a second time. ‘You are not equipped to command such a thing of power. Release me and I will teach you how.’

‘I summoned you, didn’t I?’ She’d expected this response. Known he’d want to be released. No demon wanted to do the bidding of a mortal. It only made her want the ring, whatever its power, that much more. ‘And because of that, you must give me what I want and answer my questions.’

His smile vanished. ‘I do not have the ring.’

‘Then who does?’

‘A blood whore. One of the comarré. The one Tatiana seeks.’ He growled, the sound like thunder. ‘Release me!’

‘You mean the girl with the gold tattoos?’ Evie asked. She nudged her mother.

He nodded, eyes like fiery slits.

Aliza smiled. ‘Then give her to us.’

‘I can’t.’ He scowled. ‘I cannot touch her. Why do you think I sent the vampiress after her?’

Evie stepped forward. ‘What is the ring’s power?’

‘Bring it to me and I will help you rule the world.’ He leered at her. ‘All you have to do is release me.’

Aliza shook her head. ‘Not enough, demon. What does it do?’

He raged, arms outstretched, clawed fingers splayed. ‘Mortal fools! With that ring, you can raise an unconquerable army. Now, free me.’

An unconquerable army was far more than Aliza had ever hoped for. Plans began to form in her head. Why rule Paradise City when she could have the world?

‘Not yet, demon. Not yet.’

Glossary

Anathema: a noble vampire who has been cast out of noble society for some reason.

Aurelian: the comarré historian.

Castus Sanguis: the fallen angels from whom the othernatural races descended.

Comarré/comar: a human hybrid species especially bred to serve the blood needs of the noble vampire race.

Dominus: the ruling head of a noble vampire family.

Elder: the second in command to a Dominus.

Fae: a race of othernatural beings descended from fallen angels and nature.

Fringe vampires: a race of lesser vampires descended from the cursed Judas Iscariot.

Kine: a vampire term for humans, archaic.

Kubai Mata: an ancient secret society designed to protect mankind against othernaturals should the covenant be broken.

Libertas: the ritual in which a comarré can fight for their independence; ends in death of comarré or patron.

Navitas: the ritual in which a vampire can be resired by another, to change family lines, or turn fringe noble.

Noble vampires: a powerful race of vampires descended from fallen angels.

Nothos: hellhounds.

Patron: a noble vampire who purchases a comarré’s blood rights.

Remnant: a hybrid of different species of fae or varcolai.

Sacre: the ceremonial