All Chapters of Blood Beneath the Cypress Knees: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

38 Chapters

Let Them Come

There had been laughter once.Simone remembered it faintly—the sound of small feet running through the cottage, her five children chasing each other in the warm light of late spring. Her husband’s deep, soothing voice reading by the hearth.Then the coughing started. The fever. One by one, her children fell to the plague, their little bodies too fragile to fight.By the time the soldiers came to conscript men for the war, her husband was too weak to resist. They dragged him from their home, leaving her alone with the dead.Simone remembered kneeling on the dirt floor, her fingers stiff from cold and grief, whispering prayers through cracked lips. Begging God to take her too.But it wasn’t God who came.A vampire—pale, beautiful, inhuman—found her in that darkness.“You’ve lost everything,” he murmured. “Let me give you eternity.”Simone had no strength left to refuse.“You have my word,” Simone said quietly, standing before Rio and Junie. “I’ll help you protect the child. The council

Last Updated : 2025-09-06

Ravenous

The air was thick with smoke and iron. Even after the battle was won, the swamp felt tense, as if it too waited for what came next.Inside the new rebel safe house, Rio sat beside Junie’s bed. She lay pale against the sheets, her emerald eyes dark with exhaustion.“I feel… strange,” she murmured.Rio brushed her damp hair back from her forehead. “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”But he couldn’t ignore the faint tremor in her hands or how her pulse quickened unnaturally. "Let me have a look." Simone said as she knelt down next to Junie.“You’re certain?” Lucien asked, his arms folded as Simone examined Junie.The older vampire nodded once. “I was a midwife before I was turned. I’ve seen many births… and one vampire birth, long ago.”Her amber eyes lingered on Junie’s slightly rounded belly.“This is different,” Simone said softly. “A half-fae, half-vampire child… it’s unheard of. The fae’s life-giving magic conflicts with vampirism’s hunger.”Adonis frowned, golden eyes unbl

Last Updated : 2025-09-06

The Unleashing

The night air cracked like a live wire. Junie’s hands trembled, faintly glowing as Odessa circled her in the clearing.“Ok do that again,” Odessa said, her voice calm but unyielding.Junie’s emerald eyes narrowed as she raised her hands. A shockwave of pale green energy rippled outward, scattering leaves and toppling small trees.Claude whistled from where he leaned against a mossy trunk. “Mon dieu… she’s a damn hurricane.”Odessa didn’t smile. “She’s uncontrolled. That could’ve killed someone.”Junie wiped the sweat from her brow, her chest heaving. “I’m trying.”“I know,” Odessa said softly, stepping closer. “That’s why we’ll keep going until you don’t have to try.”Elsewhere in the safe house, Rio sat alone with his head in his hands. The visions had returned—flashes of crimson and black, the sound of screaming, the stench of burning flesh. He saw a hand clutching a vial of ink-dark liquid. A voice whispered in his mind, low and cold.“It’s nearly ready.”Rio gritted his teeth. “S

Last Updated : 2025-09-08

Shattered Fortress

The war room smelled of blood and smoke. Candles flickered as Rio, Lucien, and Adonis stood around the battered wooden table, maps of Louisiana spread out like wounded skin.“They’ll hit us again,” Rio said flatly, golden eyes cold. “We can’t keep waiting for them to choose the time.”Lucien nodded grimly. “He’s right. If we let them tighten their hold, we’ll be surrounded before we even step out of the swamp.”Adonis placed a hand on the map, his fingers long and pale. “We attack first. Hard. They won’t expect it—not after centuries of cowardice from those who came before us.”Junie leaned against the doorway, pale and trembling from her earlier power surge.“You’re planning to go now?” she asked softly.Rio’s gaze flicked to her. “We don’t have a choice. They won’t stop coming, Junie. And if they take you—” His voice broke slightly. “If they take the baby—”Junie crossed the room and rested her hand over his. “Then we don’t let them. But promise me you’ll come back.”He kissed her k

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

When the Moon Speaks

The underground fortress lay in ruins behind them. Flames licked at broken stone as the scent of burned flesh and blood clung to the air.Outside in the humid night, the rebels regrouped. Claude was wounded but alive, his blade still dripping. Odessa stood stiffly with her arms crossed, her dark eyes unreadable.Junie leaned into Rio’s chest, still pale from exhaustion but alive—stronger now than he had been days ago.“You did it,” she whispered.But Rio’s golden eyes stayed sharp. “This was only the first step.”By dawn, word spread like wildfire. The Valentine bloodline had destroyed the Louisiana council.Rebel banners rose over the swamps and cities alike, their symbol—a coiled serpent dripping with blood—painted in crimson on the old council halls.Simone organized the rebels into a governing body, her maternal authority commanding instant respect. Claude and Odessa began recruiting sympathizers from nearby territories.But it wasn’t all celebration. From New York to San Francisc

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

Ashes of the Rebellion

The Valentine rebels had seized the estate days ago. Once a council elder’s domain, the plantation stood like a sleeping giant at the edge of the bayou—its cracked columns and flaking paint defiant against time.Now vampires filled its halls. Some repaired what they could. Others patrolled the edges of the land, eyes sharp for council survivors—or worse… Luna.In the west wing, Simone tended the wounded in a makeshift infirmary. Claude oversaw the rearming of their fighters. And Odessa stood alone at a second-story window, her dark eyes fixed on fireflies drifting across the fields.Junie found Rio outside in the orchard. He sat slumped against a gnarled tree, his golden eyes dim with exhaustion.“You look better out here,” she said softly.“Better than I feel,” he admitted.She sank down beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Do you ever wonder what it would be like… if none of this had happened? If we were just normal?”His jaw tightened. “Every damn day.”But then his hand f

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

When Fire Sleeps

Junie clung to Rio’s arm, sobbing. Her emerald eyes darted everywhere—searching for a path, for hope, for anything.“Rio, we have to go!” she cried. “We have to—please—”But Rio couldn’t move.He watched Odessa fall to her knees as more enemies swarmed her. Watched Adonis press his face into the ashes of his son. Watched the mansion—their home—collapse inward with a deafening roar.Junie’s hands gripped his face, forcing his golden eyes to meet hers.“Rio! Look at me!”The ceiling split above them. Flaming timbers crashed down. Heat seared Rio’s skin as he felt himself pulled backwards—Junie’s arms around his neck, her sobs in his ear.But his eyes stayed locked on the burning hall. On Adonis, rising to his feet with fire dancing in his own eyes, and a shadowy woman standing across from him—her beauty inhuman, her black hair flowing like ink.Luna.“IT’S TOO LATE,” she whispered through the flames.The mansion roared as it collapsed. A blast of heat and sound.And then—Nothing.Just

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

The Serpent’s Nest

Adonis opened his eyes.But they were not his eyes.They were Silas’s—dark, sharp, lined with faint crimson from sleepless nights. His tongue tasted copper. His hands—slender, pale—flexed at his sides, and he felt the hum of power beneath the skin.Perfect.Deep inside, Silas screamed silently. He could feel every movement, every breath, every step Adonis took in his body. But he was powerless—locked behind invisible bars in his own mind.Who are you? Silas thought wildly. What are you doing?Adonis did not answer.The lair was alive with whispers and the stench of magic. Vampires twisted by the black liquid stalked the halls, their eyes glowing like hot coals, their movements jerky and inhuman. Witches chanted over cauldrons, stirring brews that smelled of iron and rot.Adonis walked through it all with Silas’s easy grace, nodding at sentries who lowered their heads in respect.“Master Silas,” one muttered, bowing slightly.Adonis inclined his head, Silas’s voice sliding easily from

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

The Snake Coils

Adonis moved through the black-stone corridors like a shadow wearing Silas’s skin. Even after centuries of war and bloodshed, few missions had ever felt this delicate. One wrong word, one wrong look, and Luna would unravel his possession with a flick of her fingers.And yet, he felt no fear. Only cold, ruthless clarity.Silas’s memories were laid bare for him to sift—childhood lessons whispered in a dark chamber, tortures endured in the name of “training,” and the haunting image of Luna’s true form… festering skin, weeping boils, a thing that should never have lived.“Mother,” Adonis murmured under his breath, testing the word on Silas’s tongue like poison. “Even your own children fear you.”He found the first of them in the armory. A witch—her long braids streaked with gray—polished a curved blade as two feral vampires hissed and stalked their cages behind her.“Marais,” Adonis said, Silas’s voice calm but tinged with careful warmth.She froze, fingers tightening on the hilt. “My lo

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

A Serpent’s Heart

The fortress was alive with whispers.Adonis moved through the candlelit halls, Silas’s boots clicking softly on cold stone. Guards watched from the shadows, their eyes sharp with suspicion. He could feel Luna’s presence pressing against the walls like a tide, her attention growing heavier with every step.“She knows something,” Silas whispered faintly in his mind.Adonis didn’t flinch. He hadn’t heard Silas’s voice since the day he’d taken his body. “You’re speaking now?”“I’ve been watching,” Silas said. There was no fear left in his tone—just cold, bitter resolve. “She’s going to kill you if you falter.”“Then we won’t falter,” Adonis murmured aloud, making it seem like he spoke to himself.Silas’s presence stirred uneasily. “Why are you here?”“To end her reign.”A pause.“I want that too.”“Tell me what you know,” Adonis said silently as he strode through the armory.“She feeds at midnight. Fresh blood—always human. She keeps a cache of enchanted artifacts under her throne.”“Wh

Last Updated : 2025-09-09

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