Chapter 304 - Army of the Undead part 16

"No!" I cried in outrage, and pushed Palifver away from me. I had bitten him instinctively, jealous, vengeful, and now I was suffering the consequences. Khronos had placed a memory in the blood drinker's mind, sent it as a message to me. They had my son! They had Ilio, and they had my mortal descendants, the Tanti!

Palifver, laughing, seized my head. He meant to tear my head from my neck as I stood helpless, transfixed by the Sharing.

And then Palifver's head was gone, ripped from his shoulders by my beloved Zenzele.

She thrust his headless body away from me, then took my cheeks into her hands.

"What is it, my love?" she said, searching my eyes. "What did you see?"

"Ilio," I choked. "They have my son."

"The God King has the boy?"

"Yes, I… I saw him in Palifver's thoughts. He has the Tanti, too. He sent Palifver as a message to me. He wanted me to see the boy. To witness it through his eyes, so there was no doubt of it in my mind. He is torturing them, my beloved, night after night without end."

She winced, and for a moment she gazed at me with sympathy, sharing in my anguish, then her eyes hardened. "I'm sorry, my love. I truly am. But you must put your loved ones from your thoughts. The battle still rages. Nothing can be done for them if we fall."

"Yes," I nodded, and then I did as she said. I put Ilio and the Tanti from my thoughts.

Another blood drinker who had slipped through the gaps in our defenses rushed at Zenzele from behind. He was a tall, thin vampire with streaming blond hair and fearsome fangs. Before he could reach us, however, Bhorg shattered him with a swing of his hammer. The giant struck him so hard he shattered. The remains fell to dust almost instantly. He must have been an old one.

"Make love when the battle is over, you two," Bhorg yelled at us merrily. "We still have mosquitos to swat!"