Chapter 3 The Hunger of the Forge

Every muscle fiber felt like it had been replaced with tempered wire, and the golden heat in my veins acted as a constant, humming lubricant for my movements.

I reached the overlook that separated the Blood Pits from the Ivory Plaza. Here, the cobblestones were replaced by polished white marble that shimmered under the purple moonlight. Huge banners of deep crimson hung from the balconies, bearing the crest of the High Sovereign. I stood in the shadows of a massive gargoyle, my breathing steady and deep. I was no longer the wheezing, broken boy who had been kicked into the gutter an hour ago. I was something else, something that didn't fit into the neat boxes of human or vampire.

A group of noble youths drifted past my hiding spot, their laughter echoing like the clinking of fine crystal. They were dressed in velvet and silk, their movements fluid and arrogant. I watched them from the darkness, noting how their skin lacked the golden vibration that now defined my existence. They were statues, beautiful, cold, and ultimately hollow.

"Did you see the way the human cattle looked at the gates today?" one of them asked, flicking a speck of dust from his sleeve. "They actually thought they could petition for more rations. As if their labor is worth the price of the air they breathe."

"The Sovereign is too soft," a woman replied, her eyes glowing a faint, hungry red. "If it were up to my father, we would have thinned the herd months ago. A hungry human provides the most bitter blood, but a desperate one... that is where the flavor lies."

I felt a growl vibrating in my chest, a sound that started in my heart and traveled up through my throat. The golden light under my skin pulsed in response to my anger. In the past, I would have lowered my head and prayed they didn't notice me. Now, I wanted them to look. I wanted to see the expression on their faces when they realized the "cattle" had developed teeth.

I stepped out from behind the gargoyle.

The laughter died instantly. The three nobles stopped in their tracks, their pale brows furrowed in confusion. They looked at my tattered, mud-stained clothes, and then their eyes drifted to my face. My skin was still radiating that low, embers-like glow, and the steam from the drying rain drifted off my shoulders in wisps.

"Who invited the trash to the plaza?" the lead noble sneered, though his hand instinctively moved to the rapier at his hip. "You have five seconds to crawl back into the hole you came from before I use your hide for a new pair of boots."

"I'm finished with holes," I said, my voice sounding like the low roll of thunder.

I didn't wait for his five seconds. I moved. To the nobles, I must have looked like a streak of golden lightning. I closed the twenty-foot gap before they could even draw their weapons. I grabbed the lead noble by the throat, my fingers sinking into his soft, pampered flesh. The heat from my hand immediately began to char his silk collar.

"Release me!" he shrieked, his eyes bulging. "Do you have any idea who I am? I am Lord Julian of the Third Circle!"

"I don't care about your circles," I whispered, lifting him off the ground with a single hand.

The other two nobles tried to intervene, but I didn't even look at them. I lashed out with a kick that caught the man on the left in the stomach, sending him folding like a piece of parchment. The woman tried to unsheathe a jeweled dagger, but I caught her wrist. The moment my skin touched hers, she let out a blood-curdling scream. To a vampire, whose body temperature is a constant, icy chill, my touch was like being branded with a white-hot iron.

I turned my gaze back to Julian. His face was turning a mottled shade of blue, his fangs bared in a desperate, useless snarl.

"You're all so proud of your blood," I said, my heart thumping against my ribs with a renewed vigor. "You think it makes you gods. But your blood is cold. It's stagnant. It’s dead."

I felt the "Forge" in my chest pull. It was an instinct I didn't recognize, a hunger that had nothing to do with my stomach. My fangs elongated, and I felt the golden energy in my veins yearning to bridge the gap between us. I bit down on his shoulder, not to drink his blood, but to let mine flow into him.

The reaction was instantaneous. Julian’s body began to convulse. My "Iron Blood," charged with the heat of my heart, acted like a poison to his cold system. He wasn't being drained; he was being burned from the inside out. His veins turned black as the golden energy collided with his stagnant essence. Within seconds, he went limp, his eyes rolling back in his head.

I dropped him. He hit the marble floor with a dull thud, smoke rising from his pores. He wasn't dead, but his power was gone, his core shattered by a heat his body couldn't contain.

The woman noble scrambled backward, her eyes wide with a terror I had never seen on an aristocrat's face. "You... you're a monster. A sun-demon!"

"Tell your masters," I said, standing tall as the golden veins in my neck pulsed. "Tell them that Asher has returned. And tell them that the Night Realm is about to experience its first summer."

I left them there on the polished marble, a broken mess of silk and ego. I didn't kill them because I wanted the word to spread. I wanted the fear to reach the ears of the man who had ordered my execution. I wanted Valerius to know that I was coming, and that every step I took brought a heat that would melt his frozen throne.

As I walked deeper into the Ivory Plaza, the architecture became even more grand. Great arches of bone and silver spanned the walkways, and the sound of music from the gala grew louder. I was nearing the heart of the city, the place where the most powerful vampires resided. My heart was beating faster now, but not out of fear. It was anticipation.

With every beat, I felt my power stabilizing. The "Zero" that had been Asher was gone, replaced by a legend that was still being written in fire and gold. I reached the edge of a great fountain, the water carved from solid diamond. I looked at my reflection. My eyes were no longer the dull brown of a human; they were two burning rings of amber, glowing with a light that refused to be extinguished.

I was the anomaly. I was the Iron Blood. And tonight, I would make sure this city never slept again. I looked up at the highest tower of the palace, where the Sovereign’s crest flew proudly. That was where the true battle would begin. That was where the man who broke me waited, and that was where I would prove that a heartbeat was the most powerful weapon in existence.

The air around me began to shimmer as my temperature continued to rise. I was a walking sun in a world of shadows, and I was just getting started.