Page 48 of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

“Go find Erekkus,” he said. “He’ll give you orders. We have plenty of work to do.”

Atrius did not restbefore cementing his hold on Alka. He ordered a sweep of the towers, eliminating the last of Aaves’s men, who hid in the shadows, foolishly throwing themselves at Atrius’s warriors wielding frying pans or dinner knives. They were easy to root out.

I wasn’t sure what I expected Atrius to do once that was done—strip the capital for resources, perhaps, or set up his men in the civilian homes—but it wasn’t what he did.

I was with Erekkus, dragging away bodies from the first floor of the tower, when Atrius appeared on the balcony that overlooked the crumbling homes of Alka’s people. Everyone stopped their work, necks craning. Erekkus was pulled away by another soldier who said something in Obitraen to him.

“What’s going on?” I asked Erekkus, when henodded and returned to our work.

“Atrius is addressing the people. They’re going to get everyone out of their houses to listen.”

Addressing the people? I couldn’t quite name why this was unbelievable to me—maybe it was because the idea of Atrius making a speech seemed absurd, or maybe it was shocking to me that the vampires considered the citizens of Alka people worth addressing at all.

“They’re going to terrify people. Everyone’s going to think they’re about to get rounded up and slaughtered.”

Erekkus shrugged. “Maybe. But they’re not.”

“Why not?”

He chuckled. “You’re not the first one to ask that question,” he muttered.

“Atrius doesn’t kill the civilians of the cities he conquers.”

I couldn’t quite tell if there was a question mark at the end of that or not.

“No. He doesn’t. Not one of them, if he can help it.”

I thought about Raeth.

If he can help it.

We hoisted another body over the edge of the ravine, to be burned in the pit below. It made a series of very unpleasant cracking noises on the way down.

“You’re surprised,” Erekkus said.

“He didn’t strike me as the forgiving type.”

Erekkus laughed, like I’d said something legitimately hilarious, the sound punctuated with a grunt of exertion.

CRACK, as another one of the bodies fell against the rocks.

“Why is that funny?” I asked. Despite myself, I was panting. These bastards were heavy.

“Atrius has an interesting moral code.”

“I’m just surprised, given?—”

“Given that we eat humans. Last one?”

He pointed to one final body, a silk-drenched old man with a clearly broken neck, and we crossed the room to drag it over.

“Yes,” I said.

“I’ll be honest, Sister, a lot of us do think we should be eating a whole lot better on this trip than we are. But—”Another grunt, as we hauled the body over the edge.CRACK. “—Everyone respects Atrius. And Atrius believes he can’t rule this kingdom while also eating its subjects, which, I begrudgingly have to say, does make sense.”

I stopped mid movement. My brows rose without my permission.

“Rule,” I repeated.

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