Blood Flows Deep (Ryze #1) Read online

  N. Isabelle Blanco

  Blood Flows Deep

  (A Ryze Novel)

  Blood Flows Deep

  Ryze #1

  Copyright © N. Isabelle Blanco

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This work is copyrighted. All rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the author.

  Cover image licensed by shutterstock.com/ © CURAphotography

  Cover design by Booming Covers

  Publication Date: Aug 17th 2016

  Genre: FICTION/Romance/Paranormal Erotica

  Copyright © 2016 N. Isabelle Blanco

  All rights reserved

  Glossary of Characters

  Crius – God of the Underworld

  Cyake – God of Divination, Speaker of Prophecy

  Dimithinia – Ancient Ritrioan Queen

  Dyletri/Salicyar – God of Lust

  Enteax – Aviraji

  Evesse Salazar – Ismini’s best friend

  Ianthen – God of the Hunt

  Ianythi – Goddess of the Wild

  Ismini Harrovnian – Prophexia, the Prophesied One

  Lisrn – Aviraji

  Lizzisi – Exivisi Genelhi, Goddess of Light

  Maivera – Goddess of Illusions

  Nylicia – Watcher of Destinies

  Sillizi – Exivisi Genelhi, Goddess of Darkness

  Soleria de Leon – Ismini’s best friend

  Vedlyl – God of Medicine

  Vermylea – Maivera’s sister

  XreakLi – Sesengt, Guardian of the Earthen sector

  Zeniel/Mavrak – God of Tranquility/God of Vengeance

  Zexistr – God of Existence

  Glossary of Terms

  Abideos –The Chamber of Souls; inside Renentr.

  Aristi – Soul Orbs.

  Aviraji – Corrupted gods who want full control over the Universe.

  ceFtut – Monsters created when the Aviraji combined the DNA of the worst creatures in the Universe.

  Dixieme Eductu – Ultimate Lesson – Melting of the ice sheets that submerged hundreds of ancient kingdom; beginning of the last great war.

  Enzyria – The Ryze’s domain.

  Etaeryb – Mind-meld/mental connection.

  Fieren – Illness resulting from an unrequited mating.

  Gnetica – Shield that hides things from human eyes.

  Haklenayasas – The dream realm/Nylicia’s realm.

  Hyren – Werewolf

  Illion – The source of all things in the Universe.

  Kystm – The veils, or barriers, between dimensions.

  Prophexia – Prophesied female.

  R’ma – Female mate.

  R’mann – Male mate.

  R’mmanev – Mating between two beings.

  Renentr – The main underworld/Crius’s realm.

  Ritrio –The Empire of Blood, one of humanity’s earliest empires.

  Ritrioan – People from Ritrio, Dimithinia’s people.

  Ryze – Defenders of the Universe; nemesis of the Aviraji.

  Sesengt – Guardians who watch over the Universe and all its dimensions.

  Sivigh –Door to the Underworld of Renentr.

  Ryze– Group of gods defending the Universe.

  Terets – Weapons, molecule destabilizers.

  Utorou – Portal to the Haklanayasas.

  Ziaphrite – Mating ritual.

  PROLOGUE PART 1

  – The Empire of Ritrio, 13,982 years ago

  DIMITHINIA

  “Kill. Bleed them dry.”

  “I already have!” I cry out, stumbling down the marble passageway. My hands are lost in my long, black hair, tearing it out at the roots. I slam my fists into the sides of my head, as I have done for the last fortnight.

  It does me no good.

  That voice will not leave me.

  He will not stop.

  He wants me to kill all of them. For him. And I have done it. I have killed so many. For him, I have bled them all dry.

  Why is it not enough? Why can I not be with him, this man I do not know?

  “He is not real, you disgusting fool.” Closing my eyes, I once more will the voice in my head to leave me be. I do not know how I will exist without his presence, real or not, but I can no longer live this way.

  I am a queen who has killed her own subjects.

  A queen that has gutted the lifeblood of her own kingdom.

  I have done all this because of the hole in my soul, a never-ending abyss that awoke on the first night I heard that voice.

  He is not real, and yet I need him more than I have ever needed anything.

  “Kill more, Dimithinia. You must!”

  “Why?” The question is an ungodly wail that I do not recognize as my own voice. It echoes all around me, beating down on me with all the pain behind it. I fall to the floor and curl into a ball. “Why me? I do not want this.”

  “If you don’t, everything will change. We won’t ever be together.”

  His language is so odd. I do not know how I comprehend it. There’s so much I do not comprehend about what is happening to me. Have I finally lost my mind? I have seen it happen to so many before. Constant agony seems to be more than a mortal can take.

  The thought fills me with more terror. I do not want to be one of those people wandering around lost in a horrible world created within their own minds.

  Maybe Salicyar can help me. He has been so kind to me. He was the first male, albeit a God, that ever showed me compassion.

  No. That is not true. Agathen. Oh Agathen. The head of my royal guard . . . what will he do when he finds out I am behind all the disappearances? That those thousands of girls have died at my hand?

  “Kill . . .”

  It does not stop. It never stops. My shaking intensifies.

  “Together . . .”

  “Liar!” I screech into the empty halls. He does not exist, and even if he did, how could he do this to me? I have lost control. I have killed, defiled my subjects. I have lured innocent young females into a trap, hung them upside down . . .

  Bled them dry.

  Bathed in their blood.

  As if they were animals. Nothing more than unthinking sacrifices.

  My stomach heaves, empty.

  “Kill. Kill. KILL.”

  “No!”

  “I need you. Please . . .”

  I once thought I knew love. When Salicyar, the God of Lust, answered my plea and laid with me the first time, he proved to me that the act of sex could be gentle. Caring. I thought I fell for him then.

  But this is not Salicyar speaking to me. Even if this voice is nothing but a figment of my sick mind, it has proven capable of arousing more emotion in me than Salicyar ever did.

  That male behind the voice needs me.

  And I need him.

  Real or not, I will kill for him again. And again. I will undo every female in this kingdom, bathe in their blood, and bask in the act if I must, all on the chance that he might be real.

  Trembling, I ease off the floor and continue down the hall, my long black skirts trailing behind me.

  Kill. Yes. For him, I shall kill.

  The blood has been washed off my skin.

  Not that it makes any difference. It remains with me, an invisible stain I can sense and smell.

  Seven. This time I killed seven.


  They trusted me.

  Because I am their queen.

  That title has destroyed me so many times in the past. My abusive, missing husband made me regret my destiny on many occasions.

  And yet I rather have him here, tearing me apart. I rather that be my destiny instead of this.

  When will the killing be over? When will it be enough?

  When I finish off every innocent female in the kingdom? Or when retribution comes looking for me?

  Because surely there must be some horrid punishment awaiting one such as I.

  Is there not?

  Of course there is. Eventually, the gods will find out. I do not know how they do not know already, but they will come for me.

  I pray they do so soon. The killing is unbearable . . . living a single second longer, yearning for the owner of that voice, is even worse.

  My prayer is answered mere moments later.

  In the form of a large black hawk landing on the edge of one of the palace balconies.

  Red eyes.

  This bird has red eyes.

  It opens its mouth and the sound that leaves it almost brings me to my knees.

  Agony. In its purest form. A sound so reminiscent of the one I let loose earlier.

  Another bird lands next to it. Another bone-chilling cry.

  More birds. Red eyes. More cries.

  There are so many of them. By the Gods, they are blocking out the sky and the sun!

  Fear suffocates me, although I know I am not afraid of the birds. I am not frightened at their unholy numbers either. It is what I sense that freezes me from the inside.

  They are warning me.

  I rush to the edge of the balcony. My palace sits on the highest hill of the kingdom, overlooking everything—

  My breath leaves me.

  The—the ocean. It is coming at the kingdom. Flooding . . .

  Everything.

  The screams of the victims below reach me right as another larger wall of water comes behind the first, blocking out even more of the sky.

  And I know.

  I know that I am responsible for this.

  The gods have come to punish me.

  And they are going to destroy my entire kingdom alongside me.

  PROLOGUE PART 2

  – Enzyria, Viewing Chamber

  DYLETRI

  I can barely feel the warm air of the chamber caress my cold flesh. I clench my fists, nails almost breaking through my gloves and digging into my palms. Stars zoom past me, their white light surrounding me on all sides.

  The projected image moves at the speed of my thoughts—thoughts that are frenzied and crashing together. My chest tightens, the muscles stiff and aching.

  A blink of my eyes brings the image to a halt. All around me, the circular chamber casts a three-dimensional replica of the Universe upon the walls. I refuse to turn away, even as the anger in me spreads and makes my eyes heavy.

  A planet that once held life is gone. My jaw ticks as I take in the large rocks left floating in its place.

  I tell myself not to look any further. Is this not proof enough?

  My nostrils flare, and my blood boils hotter. Fuck that. I need to see more. Not being on that dimension is fueling my denial. A pitiful voice whispers inside my head and reasons that perhaps that corner of the Universe was spared.

  Stop. Do not do this to yourself, you ass. You already know.

  I am not good at listening, even to myself.

  A sharp turn of my head has the image in front of me rotating, spinning. Stars once more fly past. I take one step closer to the image, the dread inside me turning acidic. My mind rages, trying to stop me. Another quick head movement and I find myself staring at what had been another planet with intelligent life.

  Sentient beings, weaker than my kind, but no less aware, destroyed for no reason. I have seen destruction since the beginning of time, but that was before living creatures began to inhabit the planets.

  Why the hell would they do this? The waste. The callous destruction of the thing my kind is supposed to hold so sacred.

  Energy crackles at the tips of my gloved fingers. I bite through my cheek to keep myself from flinging bolts at the walls of the chamber. Air burns through my lungs. I reach deep inside for the courage needed to seek out the other planet. The one that is most important to me.

  I am a fucking god. There is no way I will let something like fear hold me back.

  But still, it roils inside me, warning me that I might not be able to handle what I am about to see.

  Growling under my breath, I focus on the projection before me and will it to move again. It takes mere seconds to find what I am looking for, though it feels like an eternity. The slow muttering of chaos inside my mind, the what-ifs, only serve to increase my apprehension.

  Will it be as the rumors say, flooded and devastated? Or will it be gone, obliterated like the others?

  The moment the image stops, I stare at the small blue planet on which I have spent so much time on. Horror settles deep. The changes I see, even from afar, make me feel as if I have been pummeled by one of the meteors projected in the room.

  The reports circling the dimensions were true. The planet before me had been mostly land, land which is now missing. I do not need to look closer to see the Aviraji melted the ice caps. The oceans continue to rise, swallowing up whole continents before my eyes.

  It has been half a day since those cocksuckers unleashed this havoc, and the devastation has only begun.

  Stop. You have seen enough. You have your proof.

  I run my fingers through my hair, tug roughly, and blink again.

  That one small motion puts me eye-level with Earth’s destruction. As if I am standing on the planet itself, the roar of crashing waves fills my ears. Lingering screams echo around me as I witness the people running, fleeing stone-forged cities with panic written on their faces.

  They run for naught. Even as they try to find shelter, there is no escaping the ocean. No way to avoid the tsunami that is headed toward them. It is so large that, once it is close enough, the sky is no longer visible above it.

  The deafening roar it makes barreling down on the land is enough to shake even me, a god.

  Those fucking bastards. I swear to everything . . .

  The urge to kill something, anything, is growing. I manage to slide my eyes closed. For a second. Like a masochist, I can not keep from opening them to look again.

  “Salicyar?”

  Nylicia. Fuck. I do not have time to deal with her right now. I growl as the images flicker and then disappear, leaving the chamber silent. Not that I am done. I want, need, to see it all. Every last ripple of destruction. I deserve it.

  She willed the image off, but the sounds of despair continue to reverberate inside my mind, careening inside my skull.

  I can not blink, can not process. The gods be damned, I need to tear into something.

  Dimithinia is gone. I have no choice but to admit it to myself. The one mortal I truly care for is gone. As are millions. They were all wiped out with her.

  How many innocents were amongst the dead? I can imagine the fear, the panic—the faces of the children and their parents as they realize there is nowhere to go. No escape.

  Everything. My fellow gods almost destroyed everything. Why?

  “Salicyar?”

  I stare off into space, barely able to control the violence within me, let alone give Nylicia my attention.

  She repeats my name.

  “What!”

  The Watcher of Destinies moves closer. “Things will get worse.”

  “How much worse can they get? They said they intended to punish a few beings. This . . . this was an apocalypse!”

  “Not quite. An apocalypse would have killed all the humans and almost every living thing in the Universe.” Nylicia sounds way too calm for my liking.

  “Why?”

  She responds softly, her voice near a whisper, “This was not about punishment of the mortals. It
is about war, Salicyar.”

  “War?” Although I should not be surprised.

  “This is nothing compared to what the they plan to do.”

  It is enough to make me turn toward her. My eyes land on her see-through form. Her body is as much of a projection as the one I was just viewing.

  I met Nylicia, the self-proclaimed Watcher of Destinies, a few hundred years before. To an immortal, it is a short acquaintance, but I have already come to trust her. From the moment she made herself known to my group of friends, everything she foretold has come to pass.

  “Salicyar—”

  “I do not wish to be called by that name anymore. That is the name the Aviraji gave me, along with my duties, and they have betrayed me.” My tone is harsh, but it is only a fraction of the bitterness consuming me.

  “They have not only betrayed you. They have betrayed thousands. Perhaps even millions. But come sunrise, they plan something worse.”

  “Worse than this?”

  “I told you. War. Many of your friends and allies are destined to die—”

  “More death!”

  Nylicia stares blankly into space, a look so cold that it chills me deep down to the bone. “The tower,” she mumbles dispassionately. “So many will fall upon the tower.”

  What tower? “And you will just let this happen?” I do not know why I bother to ask; it is clear that she could not care less about the doom she just mentioned.

  It is times like this that I have to wonder: is she really on our side? Or is she on theirs? I have seen kindness in her, but more often than not, I have seen this emotionless, cold nature that reminds me of the darkest evil in the universe.

  Those hazel, aqua, pink, and light blue eyes focus on me, a universe worth of knowledge shimmering in their depths. “I will have no choice. The Aviraji want death, and the Fates are inclined to oblige.”

  My body flares with light at the mention of the Aviraji; white light that surges through my veins. It lights up my skin, my eyes. Even the ends of my hair glow with the intensity of the anger I feel.

  I look down at myself, sneering. Disgusted. The light glowing beneath my skin reminds me of who gave me these powers in the first place. The very beings I now ache to destroy.