Gaze of Fire: Sequel to Veins of Ice

by Melissa Kellogg

  “What did you do?! What did you do?!” she shouted as she hopped across the room.

  Asher backed away from her. “Not all things that belong to the night are corrupt. I put the remains of my pendant into your wand. It looks like it’s changing it from a dark weapon to a regular wand,” Asher said, satisfied with himself. It was magic that he had been unaware of. He suspected that the wand that she had wasn’t a regular wand. That wand had a life force of its own and was obviously extremely powerful, so it couldn’t be of human make, but perhaps elven.

  “How did you know that it would do this? We erased this knowledge from your texts. You’re just a stupid blood sack.”

  Her skin split open in wide fissures.

  He didn’t bother to answer her. As a Fire, he was naturally inclined to be bold and persistent. He hadn’t known what moon diamonds were capable of doing, only that his pendant had stopped her wand’s magical blast from killing him on the spot. If it could do that, then it could do other things. It was simple logic, but one that might’ve been obscure to him if he had allowed hopelessness to take over.

  Corentine ran away with the wand still in her hand. He got up to follow the blood trail, but he didn’t have to go far. Outside on the sidewalk, she had fallen. Her body and blood organs had liquefied. Her blood slithered away down into a drain. She wouldn’t ever get up again.

  His eyes went to the illuminated sky and City Hall. Instead of billowing upwards, the smoke now wisped. Karena had put out the fires in City Hall. He had to get to her. She could be in danger. He limped and jogged towards City Hall. He prayed that she hadn’t encountered the vampire Elders or anything sinister. But if she had and needed his help, what would he be able to do without his powers?

  Chapter 30

  Alarms pealed inside of the Ancient Library. They tore through the air like desperate cries for help. The spells that protected the books from heat and other unfavorable conditions were depleting fast. Their glowing runes blinked in panic all over the shelves and walls. The imbued energy in their characters was draining due to actively shielding the books from the fire, smoke, and heat. They could only withstand so much before they faded into nothing.

  The fires pawed at the shelves and books. Fueled by stacks of logs that had been placed in the center of the library, they raged upwards to the ceiling. The logs crackled in troll-like laughter. The heat bombarded her. There was so much fire. It shocked and overwhelmed her.

  Karena inhaled some of the smoke and choked. Her board lowered as she lost her concentration. Flame tentacles reached up to her board from the bonfire below. The soles of her boots began to melt. It was like holding her feet to an oven. She rose upwards before her feet were scorched.

  All around her were curtains of orange. The runes began to flash red. Once they died, the books and scrolls would be consumed by the fire. The elemental essence in her veins pulsed as it collected and pressurized inside of her body. She knew what she had to do.

  Free us. You can’t hold us back. We are the arctic force that sweeps across the tundra her blood rasped inside of her head. Her elemental powers were ready.

  Ice exploded from her hands. It dived into the cores of the bonfires and snuffed them out. It rippled across the tile flooring and up the bookshelves, icing the wood. The runes exhausted the last of their energy makeup by creating an air pocket around the books, scrolls, tapestries, artifacts, and paintings so as to protect them from the ice. Now that they were sealed in ice tombs, the books and items were safe.

  Her powers rolled through the library like a winter storm descending from a mountain’s top. The ice hammered the dancing flames with a blow that they couldn’t recover from. Energy poured from her body. Her elemental life force bled out of her in order to stop the ravenous fires. From the floorboards to the cracks in the ceiling, ice zigzagged to save humanity’s future. The knowledge in the library couldn’t be replaced. It held the key to the future. All of their mistakes, experiences, hardships, and successes from the past were stored on those pages on the shelves. This could be the end of her life. She hadn’t ever depleted herself like this before.

  Her ice pursued the remaining fires in the library as though it was a bloodhound. Like rivers overflowing their banks, ice spilled out across tables and chairs. It burrowed into the damaged wood structure of the library. Due to the temperature change, the wood creaked in thunderous snaps.

  Icicles formed and lengthened from the ribbed ceiling. Snowflakes whirled around her with glee and chased each other like maniacs. She began to tire and fast. Black specks in her vision flashed. She staunched her powers before she lost consciousness. Her head swayed and her knees shook from the effort.

  The library now looked like an ice cave. Karena breathed hard. Smoke lingered against the ceiling, but when she rose up to the mezzanine where bookshelves lined the walls of an indoor balcony, she could see that all of the flames had been snuffed out. Bluish ice shone on the floors, while on the wood, it had become an opaque, white color. She listened to the Ancient Library. It was silent, except for some kind of odd scraping sound.

  Ever slowly, Karena descended back down to the lower story on her board to inspect her work and to look for any flames that she hadn’t caught. But the library was sheathed in ice. Nothing warm could survive in there.

  She panted and slouched. She had exhausted herself to a dangerous point. Never before had she expended her powers to such an extent that she risked blacking out. She felt as though she could sleep for a week now. However, the Ancient Library was saved. Though huge, she had iced it all. If she had arrived even a minute later, some of it might’ve been lost.

  From one of the ceiling corners below the mezzanine, something stirred. Out of the corner of her eye, it looked like a giant spider lurking there. Just as she turned towards whatever it was, it leapt at her with startling quickness.

  It slammed into her with its full body weight. Karena fell with it on her. Air rushed past her ears. All she could see was a mass of robes. Claws tore at her clothes and skin. Terror took over as did excruciating pain. She twisted her head around and freed herself from the sight of fluttering robes. But what she saw now wasn’t much better. The tile floor loomed towards her and she could even see the gold grout in-between the tiles. Her hands went out, but she was so tired that she couldn’t create the massive outburst of ice that she needed to offset the speed of her fall.

  A realization popped into her head. She had a board that could fly. She commanded it with her mind to turn her right-side up. With her feet anchored onto it, the board slid underneath her and swept her upwards away from the sight of the floor. Due to her sudden pendulum-like motion, the creature slashing her was ripped away from her.

  The creature landed on the ground on all fours and stood up to glare at her. Her heart skipped several beats. She hovered out of reach of the monster. It was a vampire, but not just any vampire. The dark aura around the humanoid meant that it was a vampire Elder. As an Elder, it was also taller and more muscular than other vampires. His silver hair had been pulled back, revealing the long scars that slithered across his face and neck. They were battle scars from fighting and killing power-hungry vampires.

  She and Asher had been right. Destroying the Ancient Library had been a priority for the vampires, but there was only one vampire Elder before her. There was still another one somewhere in the city, or perhaps it was in the same building. And she would’ve thought that the vampire Elder below her would’ve had vampiric weaponry. Leaping at her had been a primitive tactic. Or had he thought that no one would’ve had the wherewithal to check on City Hall or possessed the ability to save it if someone did see smoke billowing from it?

  “A Chaos elemental. One of the few left in the city. Your abilities are extraordinary, as always,” the vampire Elder spoke, baring his teeth.

  Just like with the mimecat, everything she did, the vampire Elder was going to mentally take note of it and use it to his advantage. She couldn’t waste any time by talking. Besid
es, the other vampire Elder could be nearby. Ninja stars rotated on her palms and she threw them as hard as she could at the vampire Elder. He sprung away, and she followed him like a bird of prey after a fleeing rabbit. He bounded from aisle to aisle with her in pursuit.

  He ducked into the part of the library where the ceiling was low and the bookshelves created a tunnel-like environment. She skidded to a stop and hovered by the open entrance. He lurked in the shadows at the far end of an aisle with a grin on his face. It infuriated her. How was she going to kill him when he was so fast and agile? Fighting him in close quarters wasn’t wise.

  However, the ice around him would become his grave. All she had to do was get a hold of it.

  “What’s your name?” Karena asked. She needed only half of a minute to thicken the ice around him.

  As her hands stretched outwards, and her mind connected to the ice, her hands began to shudder. Her whole body quivered. She had little energy left. She could kill herself if she used any more of it. It was as though she had run a marathon. Her breathing labored. The black specks in her vision now became bursts as she gained a grip on the ice. The distance was making it difficult for her. The vampire Elder was at least ten yards away or more.

  “Thanatis the Formidable,” the vampire Elder said. “You’ve weakened yourself, Karena. You’ve overspent yourself, but I have to say, it’s impressive that you iced this entire library. We’ve overspent your kind to death before. It was always so much fun to bet who would die first and when.”

  Rage filled her. From the sides of the bookcases, two-foot long spikes shot into Thanatis, but they broke upon meeting his body. He tugged down on his collar to show her that he was wearing magical chain-link armor. Though he didn’t have weaponry, he had armor to withstand the most brutal of attacks. Not even the sharpest of blades would be able to pierce through it or crush him while he wore it. He was virtually untouchable by her. She had to go get help because she wouldn’t be able to defeat him.

  “You don’t seem surprised that I know your name,” Thanatis added.

  He was baiting her. With only five registered Chaos elementals in the city, it was a no-brainer who she would be with her ice powers. She turned around to fly away, but she came face to face with none other than the second vampire Elder. Her cruel face twisted in delight over Karena’s shock at having been snuck up on.

  “Boo!” the vampire Elder said.

  Because Karena had been startled, she consequently lost her concentration on her board. It landed on the tile floor with a smack. She was trapped. She had been so focused on Thanatis that she hadn’t considered the fact that Thanatis was only buying time until this one showed up.

  “I’m Adrastia the Sadistic,” the vampire Elder said, breathing foul air into her face.

  Adrastia’s grey eyes injected Karena with a toxic fear. Karena blasted a wave of ice at her in a desperate attempt to barrel past Adrastia in order to get away. But her blast was weak, and Adrastia didn’t budge. Adrastia smiled, seized her, and threw her away from the library aisles. Karena hit the tile floor and slide a short distance. Her shoulder seared in pain, while the rest of her body ached. She struggled to get up.

  Adrastia and Thanatis crouched down next to her. Adrastia jabbed her with a long knife, pinning her to the ground. They laughed.

  “The poor thing, she’s so tired,” Adrastia said. A few spiders dangled from her hair and were tossed when Adrastia laughed.

  Thanatis said, “She could use a rest.”

  “A permanent one at that. It’ll mean one less Chaos elemental to contend with and to ruin our plans for when we make our return in a century or so,” Adrastia said and paused. “Where is your sweetheart?” she asked Karena with a mocking frown.

  Adrastia pressed the knife down into her. “Where is he?” Adrastia seethed.

  Karena scowled at her. Her whole body shivered with fear. A ghostly mist wreathed her. Her powers were spent. She was defenseless.

  “He said he would meet me here,” she said to pacify them.

  Adrastia looked at Thanatis and then back down at her. “Awwww, how sweet,” Adrastia said.

  “How should we kill her?” Thanatis asked.

  Adrastia shushed him, and he growled in anger. She said, “This is our little pet.”

  “I know how much you like to torture your food until they beg to be killed, but we don’t have time for this. The entire city has mobilized, and soon they will begin the sweeps. They will dig up every inch of earth for our kind.”

  Their dark auras made it hard to see the beautiful ceiling. Karena hoped that the library’s ceiling would be the last thing she saw, and not their cruel, death-like faces. The ice coating on the walls and bookshelves gave off an otherworldly sheen. To die surrounded by ice would be a good death she figured.

  “This one isn’t as lively as the others. It’s just lying here,” Adrastia said with a snarl. Her knife’s point dug into Karena’s chest a little harder.

  So was this what it was like for a mouse that had been caught and held captive in a cat’s paws? Karena felt the connection to her dad’s magical board. She summoned it with dire urgency to hover where Adrastia’s head was. She wasn’t going to give up just yet.

  The board plowed into Adrastia’s head, and dipped towards her. Thanatis grabbed her with a strength that threatened to break her arms. Karena commanded ice to spear him through his palms. Ice shot from her arm into his hands and up his forearms. He roared, but even in such pain, he didn’t let go. Adrastia recovered, seized the board, and broke it in half. Karena thrashed. Ice spun away from her, but her already exhausted state left her panting. Adrastia threw her across the floor.

  Dazed, Karena lay motionless where her body had come to a stop. She was unable to muster the strength to get up. Her vision winked out for a second, but came back. Her hands slid over the ice that coated the mosaics on the floor. The very thing that she had used to save the library couldn’t save her now. She didn’t have any more energy left. She wondered if she should over-expend her abilities just to spare herself the pain that Thanatis and Adrastia would cause her before killing her. She was going to die anyways.

  “Where is he, Karena?” Adrastia taunted. “Where’s your lover now?”

  “He’ll burn you, like his ancestors did to your kind before,” Karena said, wishing that she could hug Asher one last time.

  “He has abandoned you. Love never lasts. If he loved you, he would’ve come by now. Think about it, you’ll never see him again.”

  “I made the choice to come to City Hall. I didn’t do it for him.”

  “I doubt that. You were foolish to come here. And love turns people into fools. He knew that you would meet two vampire Elders on your own here.”

  Karena refused to believe that or allow Adrastia’s mind games to gain any traction in her thoughts.

  As she looked past their leering faces to the ceiling above, Karena said, “You don’t know what love is, do you? You don’t have any love for your own kind. I chose to be the first to try to stop you from destroying our history and written knowledge because I want humanity to succeed and be free. No matter how they look or what background they come from, I love my people. I would gladly die for the greater good.”

  “How noble,” Thanatis spat.

  Karena continued, “Though your race is powerful, it’s limited and more primitive than our own because of one simple fact; you lack compassion and love. Without those, you will never be more than a parasitic race that hides in the dark.”

  Enraged, Thanatis tossed her. She heard him snarling somewhere behind her. She flew through the air, knowing that the landing was going to be painful again. And it was. She crashed onto a desk and rolled off of it. Displaced quills and other objects cascaded down onto her. The desk fell onto its side next to her. One of the stationery objects, most likely a quill, cut her neck, causing blood to trickle down from the wound. She strained for the breath that had been smacked out of her.

  Adrastia and Thana
tis came to stand above her, as was their preferred way of looking at her. It gave them a false sense of superiority. It was as though she was nothing more than a rug to be walked on, or an animal to be ordered around.

  “Are you having fun now?” Thanatis asked Adrastia.

  Adrastia hissed at him.

  Thanatis said, “She’s not like the previous ones. They used to give quite a show before you killed them. Or if this is what you call amusing, then the centuries underground have rotted your brain.”

  “You’re rushing me,” Adrastia said, and from her forearm, long blades emerged like metal claws.

  Karena’s stomach sickened even worse. Whatever Adrastia was going to do to her, it was going to be torturous. Death wouldn’t be quick or painless. Karena wasn’t going to allow Adrastia to have the pleasure of mutilating her and hearing her scream for it to stop. She would rather kill herself first by using the last ounces of her elemental powers, and in the process, try to take both of them down with her.

  The remnants of her remaining elemental powers swirled together in her. They needed weeks to recover and recharge, but she didn’t have that luxury.

  Her blood hummed The last of the winter storm will exact one final blow to the enemies above. Ice doesn’t die when the sun shines because at the heart of all elements is a soul. We are at your command one final time. Her blood knew it too. This was the end.

  Above her, Adrastia and Thanatis had stopped talking. They were staring at a spot somewhere on her neck. They crouched down to get closer to her. Then she remembered that she had been cut there from one of the falling objects on that table she had landed on. The blood on her arm and on the rest of her body didn’t seem to interest them as much as the blood on her neck. She tried not to speculate as to why, but couldn’t help but wonder if it was because her blood had been freshly drawn there or because her main artery was closer to the surface than somewhere else. Perhaps both of those factors combined had caused their focus to shift.