Shadows of Mist, page 13
part #8 of The Vampire Gift Series
She kneels down by his body, and, before I can stop her, slits his throat with a silver blade.
“NO!” I cry out. I launch myself at the woman. But her screechers are equally fast. They leap in my way, sacrificing themselves for their master. I tear through, two, four, ten, ripping out their hearts and crushing their throats without mercy. The others start to scream. The sound staggers me, but I clench my teeth and fight on, propelled by the sight of Riyu’s blood gushing all over the floor. If I can just get to him in time, if I can give him some of my blood…
The screechers force me back. They slam into me in a never-ending tidal wave. It doesn’t matter how many I kill with my hands—dozens more simply take their place.
And the perpetual screeching continues to pound into me, splintering my head, splintering my mind, until I see double and start to lose all sense of up and down, left and right.
“Enough!” the woman’s voice rings through the air. It cuts through the shrieks like an ivory blade, and when it’s done there’s only silence.
I stagger back against the old woman’s prison, my head ringing, my magic gone, unable to make sense of things.
“Take a few moments,” the woman says softly. “The effects are not permanent.”
Then she whispers something in a forgotten tongue, and a moment later all the anguish disappears.
I look around the room in a dumb daze. There must be at least two hundred dead screechers littered around me. But that doesn’t even make a dent in their numbers outside.
Frantically, I reach out to find Riyu’s presence.
It’s gone.
Something inside breaks. “NO!” I scream. “No! No, no, no, no!”
I huddle back, feeling the utter shame of my failure, the absolute despair of having let him down.
Suddenly, I am the lost seventeen-year-old girl again, having no idea where I am or what to do, having absolutely no confidence to get out of this alive.
“There, there,” she says, coming toward me, picking her way delicately over the bodies. The rest of her screechers stay outside. “No need to look so glum. My cousin must have picked you for a reason to inherit the crown.”
She grabs my chin and forces me to look at her.
“I know you could rip my heart out right now,” she says. “But if I die, you die. My lovelies will devour you in mere moments. And when you die, what will happen to all the spectacular defenses you’ve built up for your coven’s vampires? Poof!” She looks up into the air. “They will disappear, just like that, and then we will truly have a feast for the ages.”
She lets me go and turns away, not the least bit concerned about showing her back.
Of course, her words had the intended effect. I am paralyzed, trapped, stuck, unable to do anything and incapable of thinking straight.
“You’re Rebecca,” I manage to say.
She laughs a glorious laugh and does a spin, red skirt flaring.
“Child, what gave that away?” she asks.
My eyes dart to Riyu’s lifeless body, then I look away.
She notices and clicks her tongue. “Now, that’s not very pleasant, is it?” She snaps her fingers, and two screechers run in to drag the corpse away.
“Afraid there’s not much we can do about the blood, though,” she tells me with a vile smirk.
“You’re just like Morgan,” I hiss.
Her attention snaps to me. “No,” she whispers, in a dangerous voice. “I am not just like Morgan. I never was. I never wanted to be. She forced me into this!”
The anger, the passion, behind her words strike fear into my heart.
“You know, I asked my children to bring me your head?” she says. “Well, now that I have you, I think we can do one better. You are linked to The Haven, after all. You might be more use to me alive, pathetic and declawed as you now are.”
My hands clutch at the fallen rock behind me. Desperately, I seek a way out. No magic to use, the vampire gifts all rendered ineffective—what hope do I have?
“Look,” I say. “I know what Morgan did to you. I know it was wrong. But I am Queen now, and whatever she’s done can be undone, I swear it!”
Rebecca scoffs. “Child, look at me,” she says. “Does it look like I’m lacking in anything?”
“She severed your soul,” I say. “She—”
“Did she, really?” Rebecca asks. “Or was I simply her first failed experiment? She was always so sure of herself, and that confidence proved to be her Achille’s heel.”
She gives me a once-over. “Don’t try to bargain with me, girl. It won’t do you any good. It’s clear who holds the cards. And if I have learned anything in my long years of exile, it’s never to take a chance unless the odds are stacked in your favor. Here, now? The odds are completely on my side.”
She stops at the doorway. “I must leave you for a little while. Don’t do anything stupid. My lovelies—” her hand reaches out and she strokes the nearest screecher’s head, “—have explicit orders to destroy you if you try to escape. With the Currents still barred from you, I would not recommend testing that order. But, of course, you may do as you wish. Remember that my first instinct was to have you beheaded.”
She smiles, turns, and walks out the doorway and out of sight.
Chapter Sixteen
Phillip
Near The Haven.
Raul steers the plane down, and we land.
My mind is racing, my body almost trembling from excitement. When I show Eleira what I have brought her, all past sins will surely be forgiven.
After all, what can compare to bringing in three such powerful witches, who are sworn to The Haven, simply by virtue of being my fledglings?
The plane engines turn off, and Raul emerges from the cockpit. There is a marked change that I can see in him. Something about the way he moves speaks of a dangerous grace. His eyes seem almost shadowed now, and that makes him very intimidating.
If he had been like this back in the caves, I would have thought twice about fighting him.
He opens the door and lowers the stairs. I motion at the witches to follow him out.
They stand together as one, motion perfectly synchronized. Whereas, at first, I thought it was all coordinated, now I am starting to think it is their natural state of being. I do not know how they set up all those spells in the ceremonial chamber, I don’t know the extent or flavor of them—but I do know they allowed the witches to exist cocooned outside of time. There must have been something about that magic that created this bond in them that gives them the synchronized movements. It’s uncanny, but also somehow… pacifying.
Maybe it’s just me.
I’m the last to exit the plane and step out into the night. I’m glad we don’t have to face the sun again—even with the Forsaken Sisters’ ability to cast that dark ray through the rays, making it as if they had never been there in the first place.
I don’t readily admit it, but something about that spell troubles me. It wasn’t particularly strong, not from a third party’s perspective. But to undo something that’s already been done—to remove the rays so entirely, for them to leave no residue…
It seems almost like unraveling reality.
I shudder. Even in my state of mind I know that is a very dangerous proposition. How can one rule the world if no world exists to be ruled?
“You’re lagging, brother,” comes Raul’s curt call.
I give a start and realize he and the witches are a dozen yards ahead. I grunt, then hasten my steps to catch up.
The three witches had decided to go absolutely quiet midway through the flight, and none of my attempts to draw them into conversation had been fruitful.
It is a huge impediment, because I want to understand exactly what sort of bond they have created between me and my brother.
They slow down as I reach them, each giving me the same inscrutable look.
The same look—almost. Allura’s eyes, for a flicker of a moment, seem to have a little bit more to them. A sort of… sparkle, maybe a bit of curiosity.
Then it strikes me how long it’s been since any of them have had a man, and I cannot help the devilish grin that forms on my lips.
Very reminiscent of James, I think slyly.
She gives no outward response.
Raul leads the way back through the woods. We are taking a different path to The Haven than the one we took to exit. All the better in my estimation. That way led to Raul getting the better of me, and I refuse to let it happen again.
We keep walking, until suddenly, Lorne’s arm juts out.
“Wait!” she gasps.
We all freeze.
She looks at the other two witches and does some sort of eye code. Immediately, they fan out and take up posts equidistant apart in front of us.
“What are you doing?” I hiss.
Allura shoots me a nasty look. “Don’t interfere where you’re not wanted, vampire,” she scowls.
I take an angry step toward her before Raul catches my shoulder.
“I suggest you listen,” he says in a low, deep voice.
I decide to humor him, and so I step back. I cross my arms, making a point not to look at Allura directly.
“Fine,” I announce, putting on a bored expression.
The witches turn away. They start to concentrate. I try to catch Raul’s eye, but he is wholly focused on what they’re doing.
Irritation bubbles inside me. I do not like, at all, how the witch dismisses my remark. The hierarchy still rules us, after all.
After a few minutes of unremarkable silence, and no change in the witches’ demeanor, my patience runs out.
“Enough of this,” I snarl, striding forward. “Tell me what you’re doing.”
Allura hisses in annoyance. “There’s a very powerful magic at work here,” she says. “The weaves are inverted, so should be impossible to see or sense, but the currents being used are so strong…”
I burst out laughing. Immediately, a look of indignation passes over her face.
I think, for a moment, that her cheeks become a touch red.
“Well of course there’s magic!” I exclaim. “This is the edge of The Haven. Raul, you should have recognized it. This is where the wards Eleira erected begin!”
I stride between the witches, then make a grand show of stepping past their invisible line.
The moment I do, all three gasp. I don’t notice anything remarkable, so I just turn, very slowly, and step back.
All three of my fledglings have their mouths hanging open.
“What?” I say. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“When you did that…” Sute responds, “When you took that step, you were transported many miles away.”
I frown. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m right here.”
She shakes her head, then shares an inscrutable look with her sisters.
“There’s a fold,” she explains softly. “In the very fabric of space. We are acutely sensitive to such things. It exists at the edge of the magic we found.”
“Well, those are the damn wards!” I say. “Seriously.” I glance at Raul, who is coldly silent. “These are the wards, Sute, the ones that Eleira put up. It’s not exactly something incredible.”
“Oh, but it is,” she whispers. “To fold space in on itself so very deftly, to be able to do it without an imperfection anywhere, not a single artifact… it takes sublime amounts of power. More than the three of us have combined. More than should rightly be able to be used on this Earth.”
“You hear that, Raul?” I mock. “Your beloved is supremely powerful.”
“Quiet!” he snaps. By the dark look in his eyes, I can see I’ve struck a nerve.
“The wards are not entirely Eleira’s doing,” he tells the witches. “Our mother made them before.”
“Impossible,” Lorne says. “There could not have been two witches in the history of the world to do something like this. It is power granted only once in a planet’s life cycle.”
I whistle obnoxiously. “So Eleira is the most powerful witch who’s ever lived?”
“It appears so,” Lorne says, fully serious.
I can’t help myself. I laugh again.
“Come on,” I say. “We know you three. We know Cierra. All of you are stronger than the girl. Besides—she’s had access to a great torrial.”
At the sound of that all their eyes light up.
“A torrial?” Allura asks.
“Mother had a crystal throne,” I explain indifferently. “It bound her to The Haven. That is why she was so desperate for a successor. She wanted to free herself from those shackles, because she knew she had served her time.”
The witches do that infuriating secret look amongst themselves again.
“If this is true…” Allura intones. “…then we made the right choice coming here. We had no idea when we made the deal with Mor—”
She cuts off, stopping just short of saying my mother’s name.
That makes me curious.
She motions at me and Raul. “So, go on, then. Lead us inside.”
Raul nods and starts off in a different direction.
“Eleira told me,” he begins, “that there are a series of points around the wards where we can make our entrance. Access points, as it were.” He comes to a stop by a great big stump. “This is one.”
We all gather around him. I was not privileged enough to be granted the information about the location of the points.
Raul stands there, sure and confident of himself.
The rest of us wait.
After a few minutes I clear my throat. “What’s the holdup?”
He gives me a nasty look. “Just be patient.”
We all wait for a few more minutes. When nothing happens, I growl in annoyance.
“Seriously, what’s taking so long?”
Raul hesitates, showing the first sign of confusion I’ve yet seen.
“Isn’t there something you’re supposed to do, some incantation you have to say, some way of alerting the Queen of our arrival?”
“Eleira told me that she will know we’re here and reveal the entrance to us.”
“Well, we’re here,” I say, kicking at the dirt. “And no entrance.”
“Just give her some time, will you?” he snarls. “The way we left things, I’m sure she has more pressing issues to think about than granting us entrance right away.”
I narrow my eyes. I’m not sure, but I think I detect a trace of fear in his voice.
“Well, since I cannot use my own magic anymore, I’m of no use.” I bugger off and lean against a tree. “We’re all waiting on you, Raul.”
“She’ll come,” he forces out. “Trust me, she’ll come.”
But the way he unconsciously hitches his shoulders betrays his doubt.
Chapter Seventeen
James
In The Crusaders’ Facility.
I stand with my arms crossed as Paul prepares the apparatus that will apparently be able to block the Currents.
Victoria looks just as skeptical as I am. Her body language almost mirrors my own.
Paul has found two black obsidian orbs. He’s placed one of them in some sort of machine that he says will activate its power. Victoria asked him if it was a torrial. He just laughed and shook his head.
For the last half hour he’s been tapping away at the computer that is linked to the machine, preparing whatever it is he needs to prepare.
I look over at Paolo. He has a permanent scowl fixed on his face. I don’t blame him. If I were forced to stand idly by while the man responsible for the deaths of my friends walked free, I would not be able to have anywhere near his level of self-control.
April hangs on half a foot behind him, deferring to him as she used to do for me.
I’m not sure how I feel about that.
My patience is wearing thin. “How much longer?” I demand.
Paul answers without looking up. “I’m almost done. The program has to be adjusted for the exact parameters of this place.”
“And what does this program do, exactly?”
Absently he gestures at the obsidian orb in the machine. “It will laser a precise set of runes over the stone. Those runes will be activated when the other stone is placed in an exact location across from it. Together, the obsidian stones will react, and create something like a force field that the Elemental Forces cannot penetrate.”
Victoria sniffs. She obviously does not expect the experiment to work.
“But like I said,” Paul continues, “the runes carved into the stone must be specific to the location. You cannot simply take the orbs elsewhere and erect the same sort of force field. This is just a demonstration,” he glances up and locks eyes with me, “to show you what’s possible.”
“Fine,” I shake my head. “If this helps against Cierra, I am willing to wait.”
I wander off to Paulo and April. I look the pack vampire up and down. I can feel his distaste for Paul emanating off him like noxious fumes.
“I’d like a word with the girl,” I say.
He doesn’t move right away, instead giving me the same once-over.
Then he nods. “Go easy on her,” he says to me under his breath. “She’s been through a lot.”
I definitely feel the protectiveness in his tone.
“April,” I say, taking her elbow. “Come here a moment with me.”
I lead her to a secluded corner of the vast space, far from everybody else. The show of physically moving her should be enough for the others to be smart enough not to try eavesdropping.
“Tell me what happened after I left,” I say.
She glares at me. “That’s all you have to say, James?” she spits. “Tell me what happened? As if I’m not a living person, as if you don’t care if I’m alive or not!”
“Of course, I care,” I snap. “But it looks to me you’ve clung on to a new protector.”
Her face screws up. “Paulo? You’re jealous of Paolo?”
“Don’t be so vain,” I say. “Not everything in this world revolves around you. You can have eyes for whomever the hell you want, I don’t care. What I do care about—” I squeeze her arm, “—is getting an account from you of what happened in the motel.”
