Page 101 of Theoden
As I ran, I felt a sharp sting in my left leg and looked down to see the feathered end of an arrow sticking through my flesh. I could tell that the tip of the arrow had been coated in dragon venom. Had I been a normal vampire, the arrow would have killed me. Just where had Amara gotten dragon venom?
I looked around for the vampire who’d shot me with the arrow and found him perched high on the roof of a home. I reached down, yanking the arrow out of my leg, then leaped onto the roof, capturing the vampire before he could flee.
He punched me hard, knocking me back, and I staggered a little before I regained my footing. He ran, leaping onto another roof and this time, I flew to catch up to him. I grabbed him from behind, bringing him down and locking my legs around his body as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Where did you get dragon venom?” I demanded.
“You should be dead!” the vampire garbled.
“Where?!” I yelled.
“I’ll never tell you,” he growled.
I had to try harder, but I was able to break down his mental wall since he was not as old as I was. Still, chipping away at a vampire’s mental wall took a lot of energy on my part and I was already hanging on by a thread. I saw that the Queen supplied her archers with the venom. It wasn’t much, but enough to kill at least a few dozen vampires.
Ara had a little over a thousand vampires now, but most were young, about a century old or less. Only about two hundred were over three hundred years or more. This attack was still one done when Ara was at a weak point. I had the information I needed and I took the liberty of feeding on the vampire and, at the same time, killing him with my venom.
While I fed, I warned Ara of the venom. If he were to be shot with an arrow, he would die.
Thank you, my son. Vex is here with me, his venom and blood will save me if I am infected, Ara said.
That is good.
I will warn my kingdom,Ara said, and he sent the message out to every vampire sharing his blood line. I also received the message warning everyone to watch out for archers as their bows were coated in dragon venom. I pushed the dead body of the vampire away from me and looked down at him.
He was pale, shriveled, and his veins were black and swollen with my venom. A death he deserved a thousand times over. I took to the sky again, and when I came upon vampires fighting those from Ara’s kingdom, I attacked with fire and the steel of my sword. I was stabbed twice and sliced countless times with each skirmish, but I survived them all, leaving my enemy dead.
We fought until the sun rose and Amara’s vampires were forced to hide just as Ara’s vampires were. I returned to Ara’s palace and he was wiping blood off his sword.
“You fared well, son,” Ara said without turning around to see the condition I was in.
I sat on the edge of the bed, which had two vampire corpses on it. My clothes were bloody and ruined, my body was exhausted, but I knew I couldn’t rest.
“Let me search them out, Father.”
Ara turned to me. “You would seek their hiding spots?”
I nodded. “The dragons and I can do it, Father.”
“The dragons will only fight by our side, not in our stead,” Ara said, then he placed his sword by the nightstand next to the bed. He pulled both vampire corpses off the bed and tossed them to the floor.
I looked at him and could tell he’d been sliced and even stabbed once, but he had survived and I knew he made his enemy pay. When Ara was human, he’d been a remarkable soldier, and with age, he’d only gotten better at fighting. He climbed onto the bed and I knew just how exhausted he was, because I was probably more exhausted, having traveled by air non-stop for days.
“Father, I will seek them out. My son and I,” I said.
Ara smiled, his eyes remained closed, though. “Your son, he is spectacular. He lives to kill, to fight, he was in his element in the battle. I enjoyed watching him slay my enemies. The sun does not harm him?”
I shook my head. “It does not. And he does have venom, but not as potent as mine. Now would be a good time to test just how his venom will affect a vampire.”
“Do not take on more than you can handle, son.”
“I will not. I will be with Marco and we will work together, Father.”
Ara nodded and then drifted off to sleep. I searched Marco out and found him licking a sword clean of blood as he sat on the staircase.
“The King was impressed with you,” I said proudly as I walked down the stairs.
“The King, the pretty, young Arab with the dark hair and gray eyes? That was the King, Father?” Marco asked.
