A Shade of Vampire 70: A Breed of Elements

by Forrest, Bella

  “She has a point, you know,” Inalia said to Eira.

  “Yeah. Still. That’s my father,” Eira grumbled. “My father helped kill your father. I’m sorry…”

  Inalia hugged her, resting her head on top of Eira’s. “Don’t be silly. Up until yesterday, we didn’t even know who our dads were.”

  “Don’t blame yourself for anything,” Taeral said. “No one could’ve stopped this. They were hell-bent on destroying Brann.”

  “What did they say, exactly, about him dying?” I asked. “Wouldn’t Cerix’s freezing death affect them, too? How does any of this work?”

  Inalia shrugged. “They said I knew what to do. But I don’t.”

  “They said he can be replaced, and that Inalia knew what to do,” Taeral replied. That specific completion of her statement made the wheels in my head turn.

  No, it can’t be…

  I stared at Inalia for a while, unable to speak. Of course she didn’t know what to do! There was no manual for being a Hermessi child. No way for her to know what being a Hermessi child implied if her father died. Oh, wow…

  Inalia was still in a haze after what she’d witnessed. I doubted she’d realize what I’d just concluded. Not without my help, anyway. But I loathed the thought of being the one to tell her. It didn’t seem fair. No, it was cruel and heartless, and she didn’t deserve this!

  “Brann hasn’t died out yet,” Inalia said. “Maybe, just maybe, there’s still hope. I don’t care what the Hermessi said. I don’t trust those sons of bitches!”

  “We don’t even have a timeframe,” Amelia murmured. “How long before it all goes cold.”

  “And no other Hermessi to rely on,” Eira replied. “I doubt my father will help, now.”

  “They did tease him for pitying me,” Inalia said, staring at her boots as she remembered her encounter with the Cerixian Hermessi.

  Silence settled over the room. One of us had to tell Emperor Tulla, as well. I rubbed my face with my bare hands, trying to gather enough strength to move forward. But how could I? All we had were epic problems and zero solutions. How the hell were we going to dig ourselves out of this one?

  “So, what now?” Herakles asked the kind of question that made me want to roll my eyes.

  We all gazed at one another for a while. By the looks of them, none seemed capable of a coherent response. At least I wasn’t the only one stuck in a mind-block. But the gravity of our situation only got heavier with every moment that passed.

  “How do we tell the Cerixians that their planet is doomed?” Riza mumbled, her eyes wide as the larger implications began to set in.

  “What do we do? Do we evacuate the planet?” Varga asked.

  That was a thought. But the logistics behind it were a nightmare. Especially since we didn’t know how long it would take for the planet to freeze and kill them all before they could get off. We had no fire to help them with.

  “Hold on. I’m confused about something,” Taeral cut in. “Okay, the fire’s dim, and it will go out soon. But, what about the sun? It still shines. Cerix still revolves around it and receives its light and warmth. How can the planet die if it still belongs to a solar system?”

  Eira sucked in a breath. “It’s the Fire Hermessi that links the sun to Cerix.” Her voice sounded peculiar. Different. As if there was another person inside her, talking at the same time. “If the Fire Hermessi dies, the sun cannot warm the planet. The light is cold and uneven. It doesn’t heat the planet to its core.”

  “Eira, are you okay?” Taeral replied, visibly alarmed.

  She looked up at him, and that was when we all saw the sudden change. Her blue eyes glowed like magical fires. Sapphires ignited. That wasn’t Eira anymore.

  Taeral

  Unlike Acquis’s previous contact through Eira, this looked different. There was no water pouring out, and she stood upright. The blue glow from her eyes seeped into her skin as she looked at me. Eira seemed to have been sculpted straight out of a large sapphire, and I couldn’t look away.

  My stomach contracted into a microscopic size, my heart was in my throat, and the chills got so intense that my teeth started clattering.

  “A-Acquis?” I managed.

  She nodded. “My connection to my daughter is getting better, it seems,” she said, her voice doubled with that of a male. She brought her arms up and briefly looked at them, turning her palms over and smiling. “Yes… This feels right.”

  “Enough fawning over possessing your own child’s body. Tell us what the hell you want!” I snapped. I had zero time left to experience any awe at the sight of a Hermessi, especially after what Inalia had witnessed on their existential plane. I also had zero respect left for these entities. As far as I was concerned, they were as bad as all the other evil monsters we’d dealt with in the past.

  Eira-Acquis glanced around the room, then gave Inalia a sad smile. “I am sorry for your father.”

  “You helped kill him!” Inalia said, crossing her arms.

  “He’s not dead yet… Ah, wait,” Eira-Acquis murmured, then looked down.

  The pain tore through me like a hot knife. Inalia felt it, too, and she dropped to one knee. I couldn’t even move to help her, my joints crippled by the agony of fire dying. Literally dying. Fortunately, Trap was there to help Inalia up and lead her to a chair, while Eira-Acquis watched her with a pained expression.

  “That’s Brann dying,” she said. “I’m surprised he lasted this long.”

  Tears glazed Inalia’s eyes. “You did this.”

  “All three of us did this.”

  The candles went out, and a chill settled in the room. Outside, thousands of dim lights faded into darkness, as the city of Silvergate surrendered to the night. The Fire Hermessi was dead and would never return. The planet was headed toward its own demise, and I couldn’t even wrap my head around how that made me feel.

  The pain subsided, but the hole left in my soul would never heal. I knew I’d get my fire back once I went home, but, for the time being, I had none left. I flicked open my lighter and tried to produce even a tender little flame, but only dry sparks came out. Nothing.

  “And I am sorry,” Eira-Acquis added. “But I had no choice. Brann defied the Hermessi. His own kind. It couldn’t be tolerated.”

  “Then why’d you help—” Amelia tried to ask, but Eira-Acquis’s hand came up, motioning for her to stay quiet. In that instant, we all understood. We weren’t alone in the room anymore. It wasn’t just Acquis present. Air was here, its presence tickling my skin, and so was Earth, softly humming through the stones and glass and metals that had helped build this palace.

  The hairs on the back of my neck spiked upward.

  “Brann paid the price,” Eira-Acquis said. “A fair price for betraying us. And it cannot be undone.”

  “How long until the planet dies?” Lumi asked, her face straight. She’d gone past the emotional devastation of everything we’d witnessed so far. I had to give her credit for that, for focusing on what lay ahead. The rest of us didn’t seem as focused as the swamp witch. Then again, the GASP elders had sent her here for a reason.

  Eira-Acquis looked at her. “A day. Maybe two.”

  “So, what, everybody dies, then?” Lumi retorted.

  “It doesn’t have to end like this.”

  “What if it does? What happens to you and the others?” Eva asked.

  Glancing to my right, I saw Inalia wiping her tears with trembling hands, as Trap stood next to her, one hand gently resting on her shoulder. I would’ve done anything to be able to hold her, but my own body didn’t obey me.

  “We’ll find another world. A dry or fiery stone in need of elements,” Eira-Acquis replied.

  “And you’ll just let millions of Cerixians die? Are you that heartless?!” Inalia shouted, no longer containing her fiery rage. An orange glow expanded in her eyes, and it warmed me up on the inside—albeit temporarily. So strange…

  “We are the forces of nature,” Eira-Acquis said, raising her c
hin. “We do not require hearts, and we do not abide by anyone’s moral code. We do as we wish, and our will shall always be done, one way or another.”

  “You’re killers, that’s what you are,” I muttered.

  Eira-Acquis smirked. “We are all killers in this room,” she said, then moved her attention back to Inalia. “But you can still stop this, child of Brann. You know what you have to do.”

  “You keep saying that, but I don’t!” Inalia replied. “I don’t! No one told me what I am or what I can do.”

  “You need to tell her,” Lumi chimed in, her lips pursed. “She was raised Cerixian. She never even followed the Hermessi faith.”

  Eira-Acquis raised her eyebrows in surprise at Lumi. “You know what she has to do.”

  “I figured it out,” Lumi replied with a nod.

  “You did?” I croaked.

  “But I’m not going to be the one to tell her,” Lumi said. “Acquis here must do it. He helped kill his brother and Inalia’s father. It’s his duty.”

  “It’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Riza murmured, staring at Eira-Acquis, who sighed in return.

  “I thought Inalia would’ve figured it out by now, like a Hermessi child normally would. It should be embedded in her soul, from birth. I came here hoping she’d say it out loud, for me and my siblings to hear, as well. To make it official.”

  “How would she have figured it out, Acquis? You didn’t leave instructions anywhere,” Lumi said.

  Eira-Acquis thought about it for a moment, then gave Inalia a sideways glance. “Because she’s the only one whose fire is still burning, even after Brann died. That fire is knowledge. She should’ve tapped into it. The fire will tell her what she needs to know, always.”

  No one said anything for a while. But the answer came to all of us, in the form of a thought so terrible, so heartbreaking, that it nearly brought tears up to my eyes. I blinked rapidly to push them back down, then looked at Inalia.

  She was as blank as a piece of paper, the orange glimmer in her eyes fading.

  But she knew, all right. “I still have fire in me, yes.”

  “Don’t you feel stronger?” Eira-Acquis asked. Inalia nodded slowly. “That’s because Brann passed some of his energy on to you, his offspring. Now, do you understand what you have to do?”

  Inalia nodded again. “I… I have to take his place.”

  “You must become the new Fire Hermessi,” Eira-Acquis added.

  That couldn’t be good. Under any circumstances. The Hermessi didn’t have physical bodies. They were endless rivers of energy that comprised the natural elements. How was Inalia going to become one? Not one thought crossing my mind gave me any kind of comfort. On the contrary, my anxiety was beginning to reach critical levels.

  We were all stunned.

  “What if I push my fire back to Brann?” Inalia asked, though we both knew that was a long shot. “What if I try to bring him back? I have more power now, right?”

  “You can’t bring back the dead. Not even fire,” Eira-Acquis replied promptly. “What’s done is done, Inalia. The choice is yours now. Cerix lives, or Cerix dies.”

  “Either way, you’ll be fine, right?” I said.

  Eira-Acquis nodded. “Our plan stands. Our fight continues. There are thousands of us, Fire Star prince, including those of your home planet. What comes next is inevitable, so the best you can all do is use your time wisely. You don’t have much left.”

  Raphael chuckled, then stepped forward, hands behind his back. “Or, we keep fighting until we find a way to stop you, and you all go screw yourselves. That option is still on the table, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Eira-Acquis hesitated to reply. There was sadness in her eyes. Genuine sadness. I knew then that Acquis didn’t want to be here, to say these things to us. He had to.

  “Writhe all you want, Perfect. You cannot stop nature.”

  Raphael grinned. “I can damn well try.”

  Eira-Acquis inched closer to me, enough to whisper in my ear. Herakles’s, Varga’s, Eva’s, Amelia’s, and Raphael’s ears flicked. They were listening, too, with their heightened senses. “Fire Star prince, the odds aren’t in your favor. I’m here on behalf of all the Hermessi, so you know what that means, right?”

  “They’re close. Watching,” I murmured.

  “Indeed. As soon as I leave, they will come for you. They won’t hurt Inalia. They expect her to replace her father. But you… They won’t hesitate to tear you all to shreds.”

  We were surrounded by a most dangerous enemy, and we had to slip out of this palace before Air and Earth came at us with all their might. If not for our own safety, at least for that of the many Cerixians who were bound to get caught in the crossfire.

  I nodded slowly, then took Inalia’s hand and brought her close, while the rest of the crew gathered around me. Inalia seemed confused. The others weren’t. Raphael had already whispered the information to the rest of the crew. They knew what was coming.

  “What’s going on?” Inalia asked, looking at us. “What are we doing?”

  Tension added enough weight and thickness to the air that I could easily cut through it with my blade. Even breathing felt difficult, muffled by the anticipation of a new round of natural attacks aimed at us. Previous Hermessi had tried to have us drowned, crushed, or swallowed by the earth itself. There was no telling what the Cerixian ones were capable of—they’d already sent their cult henchmen after us.

  “We have to go,” I said, keeping my gaze fixed on Eira-Acquis, who gave me a brief nod in return.

  “Inalia’s time to make a decision about Cerix is running out,” she replied, her voice loud enough to be heard across the room. “Whatever you all choose to do, be careful. There will be repercussions.”

  She was saying this on behalf of the other Hermessi. The whispering game was over. Acquis was back in business mode. I took Eira’s hand in mine, then looked at Lumi and the others in my crew. Despite the ache in my soul, and all the troubles raining down upon us and drenching us in fear and grief, my vision was clear.

  I knew what we had to do—at least for the next five minutes.

  “Listen, guys, gals. We’re about to do something we’ve never tried before,” I said, not taking my eyes off Eira-Acquis. I had to be careful with what I said, but I was pleased to know that hands were linking between us, making sure everyone was connected to me—even Trap, who didn’t seem to want to separate from our group or Eira, for now. “We’re about to stand up to the Hermessi, to fight tooth and nail until we shove these bastards back in their rightful places. Earth should be earth. Water should flow. Fire should burn. And air should be breathed. That’s it. No more murderous cults. No more ritualistic crap. No more. However, in order to do that, we need to prove to these SOBs that we’re not just tiny insects for them to stomp on. Are you all with me?”

  “Hear, hear!” Raphael replied.

  “Damn straight,” Varga said.

  “With you all the way,” Herakles added.

  Eva chuckled. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “So, it’s a warm ‘screw you’ to the Hermessi, then!” Riza chimed in.

  “I’m so on board for this,” Amelia said.

  “Count me in,” Inalia grumbled. “And I think I speak for Eira, too.”

  “And me,” Trap replied.

  “Well, then,” Lumi said. “There you have it, Acquis. The people have spoken.”

  Eira-Acquis exhaled sharply. “I was afraid you’d say something like this.”

  “Wait until we figure out a way to stop you,” I hissed.

  “Will you do it before we complete our ritual? Or before Cerix freezes to death? I doubt it,” Eira-Acquis replied.

  I squeezed her hand and jerked her closer, my nose merely an inch from hers.

  “Let us handle that. You’ve overstayed your welcome, already,” I said.

  A blink later, the blue glow faded away, and Eira came back to us, wheezing and panting as if she’d just ru
n a marathon. I instinctively put an arm around her, holding her and Inalia close. Lumi and Raphael gripped my hands, linking with the others.

  Tormented winds rose outside, howling and smacking against the glass windows. The ground began to shake. One hell of a crap storm was brewing, and we were smack in the middle of it.

  “Hold on!” I said.

  With all my strength, and despite the cold dissolving into my bones, I teleported us out of there. Moments passed in absolute darkness, as I envisioned our destination. The edge of the small town in Hadeen where Inalia and Eira had first taken us. Where the people were dressed in red, gold, and black silks. Where the air was dry and hot… but not as hot as before, I noticed.

  Brann’s death was certainly leaving its mark, and that mark was spreading like a disease, killing every flicker of fire in its path. Soon enough, the whole planet would be submerged in ice-cold darkness. A night like no other.

  We all breathed a collective sigh of relief as we gathered our frayed thoughts.

  “How do I replace the Fire Hermessi?” Inalia asked, still baffled by what Acquis had told her.

  “And how do I stop my father from taking over like that?!” Eira added, downright annoyed.

  “Don’t hate him too much,” I replied. “He helped us. You heard him. That was the heads-up we needed to scram before his brethren pounced on us, angry-nature style.”

  “Whatever. It’s just rude and irritating, losing control of my body like that,” Eira grumbled.

  “As for your question, Inalia, I am not sure,” I said, resting my hands on her shoulders. “But whatever it entails, we’ll all be here for you. We’ll figure it out, and we’ll find a way to get through it. You heard Acquis. The fire inside you is knowledge. It’ll tell you what you need to know, I guess. At some point. Hopefully sooner rather than later.”

  “Yeah, easy to say. I haven’t even figured out how to ‘tap into it,’” she muttered.

  “Why couldn’t Acquis just tell her?” Herakles asked.

  “You heard the water mook. He thought she knew what she had to do,” Raphael said in a mocking tone, meant to demean Acquis and make him sound like a nasal little twerp. “He probably figured Inalia can easily access what has to be genetic information. Technically speaking, she also probably knows what replacing Brann means, too. She just doesn’t know it, per se. Gah, why couldn’t they just be straightforward about this?”