Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 11 of 28

The throne's light still hummed under Adrean when he felt the walls thin. The castle no longer hid him. Gods pressed against it from every side. He stood from the seat and knew one meal of divine power would not hold it. He had no allies. He had only enemies who feared him. That had to change tonight. Lucifer leaned against a black pillar, wings loose. "They come in ones and threes now," he said. "Soon they come together. A king with no army is just a target on a nice chair." He tilted his head. "You beat gods alone. You cannot rule alone." Adrean turned to the great hall. Three vampires waited there, drawn back from the far walls. Umbra Nightshade stood in black, red eyes flat, shadow curling at their feet. Crimson Sanguine stood beside them in a red coat, blood-dark hair falling over one shoulder. These two had once held authority over Adrean. They had caged him, tested him, then watched him grow past them. Now they watched him like something they might have to kill. "You reeked yesterday," Crimson said. "Today you smell like the seat. The old power bows to you." Their mouth twisted. "So do we, or so do you die alone. Which offer is this?" "Neither," Adrean said. "I hold Yahweh's power. Every god feels it. They will come here, to this castle, to me." He looked from Crimson to Umbra. "You served this bloodline before I existed. When they break the walls, they break your home too." Umbra's shadow slid closer to the throne. "You want us to bleed for your crown." "I want us to bleed for the same walls," Adrean said. "Stand with me and share what I drain. Stand apart and die scattered." A voice cut through the hall like heat. "The boy speaks true." Shiva stepped from the far door, blue skin dark in the torchlight, a snake coiled at his throat. He had burned the god-path into Adrean once, forced him to stop resisting the fire. Adrean tensed. Shiva was a god, and gods hunted him now. But Shiva raised one open hand. "I trained you. I felt you take my fire and live. I would rather feed a king I made than kneel to the pack that comes for him." He smiled without warmth. "Bind me to your seat, and I fight beside you." The two vampires looked at each other. Crimson stepped forward and cut their palm. Blood dripped on the throne's base. Umbra pressed a shadow-cold hand to the same stone. Shiva laid his hand over theirs. The throne's runes flared. Adrean felt the three link into his blood like new veins. For the first time he was not one against all. "Now," Lucifer said quietly, "you have a court." He looked toward the thinning walls. "You will need it. The first of them is already at the gate."