Read Online The Dark Blood of Poppies by Freda Warrington - Free Book Online

nothing. No one new came or went. Nothing changed.
    Cesare drifted through eternity in the depths of misery, dead inside.
    When dawn found him one morning, cross-legged on the flagstones with a book of Kristian’s writings in his lap, he thought he was imagining a new presence in the castle. He felt a shadow brush his mind, walking the corridors towards his cell…
    “Cesare,” said a raw, whispering voice.
    He looked up, saw a vampire in a shabby dark suit. Colourless face, eyes pouched with grief, short hair standing on end. A sack dangled from his left hand.
    It was a face Cesare hadn’t seen for a hundred and fifty years. Impossible. He put the book aside and stood, shaking creases out of his robe. “Who are you?”
    “You know me.”
    Cesare frowned. “John?”
    “Yes, I am John. You must help me!”
    Memory woke, and a splinter of black anger pierced the greyness. “But Kristian put you in the
Weisskalt
.”
    “I woke up.” John’s eyes were glassy, maniacal. “Kristian’s death woke us and we escaped.”
    “You were Kristian’s enemies, you and that traitor Matthew.” Cesare’s anger surged, exhilarating and uncontrollable.
So I’m not quite dead, after all
. “You attacked him.”
    “And we were punished. Don’t turn me away.”
    Cesare was so stunned to be thinking, feeling, talking, that however deeply he’d hated John, he wanted to keep him here. “What do you want?”
    John lifted the sack and thrust his hand inside. Then he let the sack fall to the floor. Between his hands he cradled a severed head.
    Cesare stared at the distorted features. Its mouth and eyes drooped with sour pain. The neck stump was horribly ragged. “What happened?”
    Tears ran down John’s face. Finally he whispered, “It’s Matthew. Someone – she –” He shook his head, swallowed. “I heard that Kristian could bring vampires back to life if he had the head. Do you know how?”
    Cesare pondered, his own misery forgotten. “Why should I help you? I loved Kristian, you despised him. We can’t be friends.”
    “Please!” John was trembling.
    Cesare thought,
How pleasing to have this creature at my mercy!
“Why did you reject Kristian? Tell me!”
    “He was arrogant.” John hugged the repulsive head to his chest. “He wouldn’t see that vampires are the Devil’s possessions and must submit to God’s punishment. Kristian dared to invoke God as if we were blessed, not damned. Blasphemous arrogance!”
    Cesare broke in impatiently, “Not blasphemy. God has a use for us. We are not the punished, but the
punishers
. Our purpose is to visit God’s wrath on mankind! This is a noble duty, not an evil one. John, we hold the same beliefs. The only difference is that Kristian’s followers take pride in what we are.”
    “Pride is a sin.”
    “Very well, believe you’re damned, if you must. But even the damned have a place in the Almighty’s plan.”
    John’s face lengthened with desperate hope. “If I could only believe you.”
    Then Cesare no longer felt hostile towards him. He felt fatherly. John’s fault was ignorance, which could be remedied. Cesare gripped his shoulder. “We can debate to our heart’s content. It’s too long since I had the chance of a theological argument!”
    John stared, his eyes wild. “So you’ll help us?”
    Cesare lifted the grotesque burden out of his arms, as tenderly as if it were a baby. “Come, let’s begin. The head must be immersed in blood every day. Fresh human blood.”
    * * *
    Vampires neither sleep nor dream, Violette had been told. So what were the nightmares that assailed her in the Crystal Ring?
    Although Raqia terrified her, she couldn’t stay away. She tried to resist, but a masochistic urge would overcome her, like dark music enticing her mind and body. The sidestep she made into the vampire realm was as easy as breathing. The world faded. Her own cells seemed to melt and form a new shape as she found herself in a wind-blown forest of shadows, under