by Iris Walker
“I didn’t, but between you and Magnus, I’m picking up a little bit.”
“Magnus?”
Todd nodded, glancing to the cage. “Sometimes I talk to him. He knows a lot about your kind. I guess he was involved in something way back when, during his vampire days. Honestly, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. How can someone go from being immortal one moment to being human the next?”
Megan’s eyes centered on the cage, underneath the shadowy tarp. “I have no clue.”
“Hopefully there are enough signs that I don’t have to worry about being mauled in my sleep,” he joked, bumping her shoulder.
Megan gave a light laugh, prickly fear growing in her mind. “I don’t think Mistress Fausta would let that happen.”
Reykon
Reykon stood at the window, barely able to see across the beach in the dark night. It wasn’t too long before he saw Darian’s silver hair, coming towards the steps. Reykon stepped away, glancing to the lab where Chadwick and Robin were still packing up his gear. She’d been so eager to see how the caster used magic to transport his goods and wares from dimension to dimension. Reykon, even as a young strongblood, forgot how much Robin didn’t know about their world. It seemed like just yesterday that she’d demanded he explain that vampires actually did exist and that they were headed to one. A small smile touched his lips at that memory, those days spent in the car together, alone, even though she’d hated his guts. The door closed and Reykon looked to Darian, who was dusted by the rain, but otherwise untouched, in all his vampiric grandeur.
“I must return to my people,” he said in a stony voice.
Reykon gave a sharp nod, watching the vampire with caution. “And Lucidia?”
“She is unbound,” Darian muttered. “Bringing her to the stronghold would incite aggression and mistrust among the eldest vampires.”
A bitter laugh came out of Reykon. “You know, I checked the law. There’s nothing about strongbloods being bound. It’s not even addressed.”
“Your point, Thraxos?”
“She didn’t break any laws, and neither did I.”
Darian gave him a cold look. “Whether it is written in the-”
“No,” Reykon interjected. “The law is the law. Lucidia had no hand in taking those bindings off, and she shouldn’t suffer because of what Chadwick did while she was out.”
“How lovely it would be to live in a world where the written law was all that mattered,” Darian said with a biting, sarcastic tone.
Reykon gave a tight smile and held both his hands up. “Fine. You know what? Sorry I bothered, I forgot who I was talking to. Darian the careful, the ruler of stones, the heirless master…”
The vampire’s glare deepened, red fury boiling in his gaze. “Watch it-”
“No!” Reykon barked, letting his abilities brim to the surface, radiating energy in a haze around him. “You watch it. I have no interest in fighting you, Darian Xander, but I will not stand idly by when your kind try to assert any control over me. Not after everything we’ve been through. I might not be able to kill you, but I’ll give you a run for your money.”
Darian Xander didn’t like that. Reykon watched his expression harden, his pent-up rage brimming to the surface. And then, in an instant, that fire was quelled, and Darian straightened up, composing himself. “You would do less damage than you think, but luckily, I have no interest in petty squabbles. On this occasion, anyway…”
Reykon gave a cold smile and let his power fade until his skin was its usual olive tone, just as Lucidia walked inside and quirked an eyebrow at them.
“Zip it up, both of you,” she muttered, shuffling to the kitchen and grabbing the bottle of whiskey on the counter, pouring herself a double, double shot and downing it in one go.
Reykon was still eyeing her when they heard a strong knock on the front door.
Lucidia
She nearly dropped the glass, she was so surprised by the mundane noise. Well, it would have been mundane, if they hadn’t been in a mirror dimension that was supposed to be entirely hidden, secret, and most importantly, empty.
Chadwick slammed into the room with a strange expression, conjuring a yellow orb of crackling energy. “Who the hell is that?”
Robin stood behind him, eyeing the magic and skirting around the kitchen to stand next to Reykon. Reykon gave a sharp shake of his head, his eyes guarded, focused on the door with hawk-like precision. “I don’t know.”
The knock returned, three times, and then nothing.
“Someone must answer it,” Darian said.
Chadwick shot him a look. “Be my guest, bloodsucker.”
Lucidia let out a noise of distaste and charged forward, letting her magic surface, brighter and more powerful than she was used to, sending a thrill of exhilaration through her. As she ripped the door open, every muscle tensed to attack, until her sights fell on a familiar and confusing face. “What- what are you doing here?” Lucidia asked, scowling at the boy caster from the Dallas rogue safehouse.
“Hello, Lucidia. I need to speak to you. All of you,” he said, his expression grave.
“How did you find us?” Chadwick asked in an angry voice.
“I had help from a very gifted friend. Please, I am not your enemy.”
“You’re safe here,” Lucidia said, stepping aside and opening the door for him.
Chadwick made a noise of disagreement. “Now hold on-”
“He is safe here, under my command,” Lucidia said in a steely voice. “You touch him and I end you, got it, twinkle-toes? The caster helped me during my time of need and is a friend.”
Chadwick simmered, letting his magical missile fade and dissipate. “The caster, you say?” He walked up to the boy, circling around him and narrowing his eyes.
“My name is Tycho,” he announced, looking to Lucidia from around Chadwick. “I come with news and information that is integral to your mission.”
“I didn’t think they gave you names,” Chadwick muttered bitterly.
“What are you talking about?” Lucidia shot back.
“I won’t disrespect you by muttering the name you were once called by, but I’ll have you know, if this has anything to do with me, you’ll need more protection than your strongblood friend has to offer.”
“Could someone please fill us in?” Robin said impatiently.
“I am not here for you, or in any connection to your crimes. I am here as a favor to a dear friend of mine, who has risked her life to set the path right.”
“What did you say?” Darian asked, stepping forward. A hush went over the room and Lucidia moved in front of Tycho, coming between him and the master vampire.
“Everyone calm down,” she said. “Tycho will tell us what he has to say, and we’ll let him talk. Got it?”
Robin raised an eyebrow but walked over to the kitchen. “I’ll make some coffee.”
Robin
Everyone had taken their seats around the living room, like some weird family reunion. Robin honestly didn’t understand half of the weird side-looks that Chadwick was giving Tycho, and why Darian was so put off by the young caster. She also had no clue where Lucidia knew him from, so basically she was just in the dark. Since she’d been dropped into this whole thing from the human world, she was pretty much used to not knowing anything. But the kid didn’t seem that dangerous. After looking the boy up and down, she decided that she’d faced worse in her time between Magnus, Calliope, and Charlemagne. She brought the coffees out and sunk into the couch, glancing around the room, where everybody was tense and silent, watching each other. Robin scowled. “Jesus, do we need a talking pillow?”
Darian’s lips pressed into a thin line, and Chadwick’s grumpy scowl deepened. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you guys?” Robin muttered. “The kid clearly came a long way for this. Tycho, what information do you have?”
Tycho looked up, addressing the room. Robin noticed that he had deep, deep blue eyes, like the color of dark sapphires. The iris
es also seemed bigger than normal, subtle but strange. He was a unique, ethereal creature that made Robin wonder what he was made of. “Thank you,” Tycho said, looking to Lucidia first. “It is good to see you again, after your triumph at House Demonte. I must unfortunately give my condolences along with this congratulations; Seldon Lexos passed away last week, during his slumber.”
Reykon stiffened. “Wait, the Seldon Lexos?”
Whoever that was. But he seemed important to Reykon, so clearly it was a strongblood thing. She gave a side glance to Darian, whose expression grew grimmer with each moment. It didn’t help that he was outnumbered in terms of strongblood sympathizers.
“Yeah,” Lucidia said, letting her gaze fall on Darian. Darian gave her a single nod, serious and cold. Boy, Robin could have cut the tension in here with a knife.
“As I said, I have received news of great import from a friend.”
“A friend?” Chadwick asked.
“Another hybrid,” Tycho said.
Robin leaned forward slightly. “What’s a hybrid?”
Tycho let his sympathetic gaze slip to hers, and even though he was almost half her age, she got the feeling that he was her grandfather, giving her a nod of consolation and telling her that it wasn’t her fault. “You, Robin Wright, are a hybrid, though you were not made in the same manner as my kin and I.”
Robin’s eyebrows pulled together and Chadwick was the next to speak. “A hybrid is any being made organically from a witch and another creature. You were made by Calliope and Kenzo’s union. Tycho and his friend were made in similar conditions, though were raised under markedly different circumstances. Hybrids have powers that are not known until after they are fully created, so their abilities have great range, but not as much power as casters. They’re brought up as servants, or tools.”
“You were raised by the casters?” Robin asked Tycho.
He nodded. “Our kind are kept in cells, studied, experimented on. It is a harsh fate that I am glad to see you have not met, though your road was perilous in its own ways.”
“I’m sorry,” Robin said softly.
“The path that brought me here is the same one that brought me up. I do not regret it for a moment.”
“You repeatedly speak of ‘the path’,” Darian said quietly, deep in thought.
Tycho and Darian exchanged a look, a mutual understanding, and Robin leaned forward. “No, no. None of that. I don’t have any background knowledge to go on so I need everyone to be super clear. I can’t read into any of these glares that you’re all so fluent in.” She looked at Darian and cocked an eyebrow. “So, what is it?”
“The path is a phrase that I have not heard used as this one uses it in a while,” Darian hummed.
Robin let out a tense breath. “Okay, Darian? There’s a steep learning curve here, I’m gonna need you to spell it out for me.”
“There used to be a race of individuals that referred to a path and used it for much destruction.”
“Cassandra is not like them. The casters used their studies from the fates to create her, but you must understand that-”
“Wait, the fates?” Lucidia asked with a sharp scowl.
“Yes,” Tycho said. “But it’s not what you think. She is half strongblood, and the fates’ power instilled in the witch that bore her was diluted. Her powers are much, much weaker than theirs, and she can only influence humans in meager, meager ways.”
“What do the fates do?” Robin asked, glancing at Reykon, who just shrugged his shoulders. Great, she thought in exasperation.
Darian’s lips pressed into a thin line. “They’re wicked creatures that can see paths of the future, and often manipulate creatures into acting upon their counsel.”
“Doesn’t trying to change the future result in like a wormhole, or something? The butterfly effect?” When the entire room just looked at her with a strange expression, Robin threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know, okay? That’s just what the movies say…”
“Meddling with the course of events is not the problem. The problem is that the fates lie and attempt to cause the most exciting path to occur, which for them is the one ending in the most lives lost.”
“Oh,” Robin said.
“But Cassandra is nothing like them. She’s not one to reach out in the first place, but whatever she saw gave her enough concern to tell me about it and insist that I warn you.”
“Where is this Cassandra?” Darian asked.
“With respect, vampire, I would not tell you even if I knew.”
Darian just nodded smoothly.
“The message I must relay to you is that if Fausta Ambrose succeeds in her effort to overthrow the refuge of House Albus, all will be lost and Xerxes’s plan will come to fruition. He will enslave the vampire race and he will become the leader of the most powerful empire this world has ever seen.”
Lucidia’s eyebrows crept together. “He wants Fausta to gain more power?”
“Yes. Both her and Cain have been part of his plan since the beginning, and they are doing exactly what he wished of them.”
“How could a caster that we’ve never even seen have that much control of the vampires?” Reykon asked.
“Another hybrid, one still under the thumb of Xerxes and Zenecai, has the ability to plant seeds in people’s minds. I have heard the casters talking about her, through my own channels, and know that the two thoughts were that Fausta would overthrow the north and vein enslaving the wolves, and Cain would take control of the south and disregard discretion around the humans. The end goal of this, of course-”
“To alert the humans of vampiric existence, while keeping the casters in the shadows of the ensuing persecution,” Darian muttered.
Tycho nodded deeply. “Yes.”
Robin stiffened. “He’s forcing you on the defensive.”
“And it’ll be that much easier to pick them off,” Reykon said, shaking his head.
“And even if we’re safe,” Lucidia said bleakly, “each vampire Xerxes takes gets turned into a supercharged caster that comes back to bite us in the ass.”
“Currently, the entire guild has been pulled back to mine the essence rock, or to hunt rogue strongbloods and vampires. That’s why we’ve heard nothing of them.”
“Strongbloods?” Lucidia asked.
Robin’s head was totally spinning, but this was one piece of information she could play connect the dots with. “They’re making more conduits. They worked out all the bugs, and they don’t need Jadzia’s Comet if they have an essence vial.”
“You know this?” Darian asked.
“Charlemagne and I had a little powwow, remember? He told me that they already have a conduit ready.”
“His name is Peter,” Chadwick muttered.
“And just how the hell do you know all of this?” Lucidia asked, narrowing her eyes. “I’m grateful for whatever you did to heal me, but I’ve got a million and one questions about how you knew what to do and how you seem to know everything about the highest workings of the caster guild.”
All eyes turned to Chadwick. “I grew up there,” he scowled. “I just know the ins and outs.”
“You haven’t told them?” Tycho asked.
“What’s to tell?” Chadwick snapped at the boy.
“Clearly something,” Lucidia fired back.
“Hold on,” Reykon said. “Tycho might be your friend, Lucidia, but Chadwick is mine, and he’s been by our side for weeks after we met in the Prism. Nobody forced him to help us, and nobody forced him to heal you. In fact, Robin wouldn’t even be alive without him. So, tread carefully.”
“Where I’m from doesn’t matter,” Chadwick said. “What matters is that I’m on your side during this fight, and any fights in the future.”
“Your current loyalties may lie with us, but past loyalties have a way of resurfacing,” Darian hummed. “What is your secret, caster?”
For a moment, the room was silent, eyes trained on Chadwick. As the tension deepened, a bitter sm
ile spread out on Chadwick’s lips. “You know what? Fuck all of you, and you in particular, hybrid,” he snapped, jabbing a finger in Tycho’s direction a second before storming into his lab.
Robin’s eyes widened slightly, and she looked to Reykon, who shrugged. “Give him a minute, I guess. I’ll go talk to him.”
“Before I leave,” Tycho said, “It is imperative that you know this: the only way for Darian to succeed in this battle is for all of you to assist in the fight. There is no fight without you, and there is no success without Reykon.”
Everybody shifted their gazes to him, and Robin’s fingers intertwined in his, giving his hand a squeeze.
“What?” Reykon scowled.
“Cassandra told me to tell you something. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how it pertains, but I will relay her message in its original form. She wished for you to know that Reed was correct, and that you must learn from him for the good of us all.”
She remembered the name from their conversation on the boat, bathed in sparkling sunlight and ocean spray. “Reed?” Robin asked, turning to him. A deep, pensive look crossed over Reykon’s face and his gaze shifted to the ground.
“Reed Hyxos…” Darian hummed. “That is a name I have not heard in a few decades. Though the last time I did hear it was from Magnus’s own lips.”
Reykon let out a long breath, and Robin slid her other hand around his bicep, reminding him that she was there, even though she didn’t know the first thing about what he was going through. Clearly, something had happened in the past that only the vampire-born individuals knew about.
Tycho rose. “I believe I have caused enough angst for a lifetime. I do apologize for showing up unannounced, but time is of the essence, and more casters and hybrids are fleeing for the human world with each passing day. I will leave you with this: Darian, this is a war that will not be like the others. Strength is strength, but allies are strength in its most pure form, and this, friend, is where Fausta has erred. But you will only triumph if you choose a different path than hers.” He turned to Lucidia. “Thank you for vouching for me, Lucidia. I am eagerly anticipating our next meeting. Surely, there will be one.”
