“But your mother isn’t here, is she?” Xander asked through pressed lips, “You’re what’s left of the summoner legacy… you’re the one that’s going to perform the ritual… and you’re the one that’s going to save everyone’s life.”
“And how do you expect me to do that?” Emily asked, “If you were a vampire without any connection to your roots, would it all come so natural to you?”
“A vampire’s need to feed is imprinted into its DNA,” Xander replied, “Even without instruction, they’ll find that feeding comes naturally once the opportunity presents itself.”
“As will you,” Xander persisted as he started the long walk down the main hallway, “When the opportunity presents itself, of that I’ve little doubt.”
Xander walked alone down the path of mangled corpses, followed closely behind by the summoner. Both were eager to be here, but you could tell little by either of their reactions. One couldn’t wait to leave this temple far behind, and the other couldn’t stand the thought of having to ever leave.
* * * * *
Several hours later, amongst the backdrop of the Amazon rainforest, the remaining ghouls and vampires still loyal to Alexander Franson traversed the landscape in search of the location of the illusive Temple of Prometheus.
Samuel and Fiona still led the pack, having shared few words since their last discussion. It should’ve only been a half-mile to the GPS coordinates, and both were eager to see their friends once more. It had only been half of a day since they were last together, but in a place such as this, half of a day can feel like a lifetime.
The vampire hunter stopped abruptly and ducked down into the undergrowth of the jungle, pressed low to conceal his frame within the vegetation.
“Tired again, hunter?” a less than enthused Fiona mocked, “I should’ve begged Xander to let you aboard the chopper.”
“Shh,” Samuel said with a finger pressed to his mouth, “Look over there... in the trees.”
Beyond a small creek there was a scout tucked into some branches, high above the ground below. It was alone, or at least it appeared to be. The only thing for certain was that it wasn’t one of theirs.
“The vampire queen’s, I assume?” Samuel asked as Fiona joined him in the undergrowth.
“Without a doubt,” Fiona responded, “Allow me to subdue the intruder. I have a feeling you’d only go fumbling it up, anyway.”
Samuel looked back and gave the signal for everyone behind them to get down, but by the time the vampire hunter turned his gaze back to his side, the Celt beside him had vanished.
He stared intently at the scout in front of him, and watched as Fiona approached undetected. She scaled the tree with little effort, and sprang on the vampire before he could even comprehend what was happening to him.
The scout had a blade in his heart and another in the side of his neck before he hit the ground, dead on impact. She might not have been the most stimulating conversation Samuel ever had, but she was good— really good. He was just lucky to have a woman like that on his side for a change.
“All right, I want everyone up,” Samuel commanded as he rose to his feet, “We now know that Lady Amata is here… somewhere. We’re only a short distance to the location marked… and we’re going to make sure that we get there before the vampire queen. We’ve only got a small window here, people, and I’m going to need everything you’ve got left.”
The group nodded in approval and followed their unlikely commander down to the creek to meet up with Fiona. There was plenty of danger in the jungle, but now they had the paranormal horde to deal with; lurking, hiding and biding their time until they struck.
Samuel muttered a curse beneath his breath as the vampires and ghouls hurried past him and towards the ill-omened temple. He knew this was going to get bloody, but he never believed it would happen so fast.
Chapter Five
The inner chamber of the temple was massive in scope, a couple thousand square feet in diameter with arched stone walls that must have gone upward for a hundred feet. The same hieroglyphs that lined the entrance hallway were again repeated along the curved wall that wrapped around them.
“If you’ve got anything left that I should know,” Emily said, “Please enlighten me.”
“What is it that you think I know?” Xander asked as he approached the center of the chamber.
A large carving of the same two interwoven dragons lay on the ground underneath Xander’s feet. Whatever these dragons meant to the summoners, it appeared vital to the ritual. Perhaps even the gods of the paranormal creatures had deities of their own. Stranger things have happened, Emily thought, and she started to trace her hands along the laser-etched markings along the wall.
“I honestly couldn’t begin to fathom what it is that you know,” Emily said, “And I doubt that I’d want to. You’ve led me to this place, Alexander. I’d like to know why.”
“You know why,” Xander replied, “Don’t let Lady Amata’s presence cloud your judgment.”
“What do you mean? She’s here?”
“Not yet, but she’s near,” Xander answered, “I can feel her presence… clawing and choking at my very being. Her army is here, too, and they’ll kill us all if we don’t come here to do what needs being done.”
“It’s not me that she’s after,” Xander carried on, “She wants you… and she’s not going to stop until she gets you. Can’t you feel her? Her spirit’s in this room, right now, and its looking for you.”
“You’re twisting things; anything to keep from telling me the truth.”
“Amata’s got her claws around you,” Xander said, “She’s the one twisting the issues and trying to drive a wedge between us. Can’t you see that? Is your trust in me really so fragile that she could impose her will and make you question my every intention?”
“I’m hearing just about everything except the truth.”
“You’ve already heard the truth!” Xander shouted with hands extended, “I’ve lost my home… most of my children… and betrayed my entire species! You don’t get to question me any further!”
“I’ve been used by friends, cousins, boyfriends, and even the politicians on television. I know what it feels like… and I know how to read the signs. You’re holding out on me… and you’ve been holding out on me for a long time.”
“You’re burning alive with anger and hostility,” Xander said as he took a step closer, “She knows you can feel her, even if you can’t control those feelings. She’s turning you into her… making you angry and hardhearted, a pawn in her otherworldly desires. Fight it, Emily, and see her will undone!”
“You’re lying!” Emily fired back with eyes burning bright with a familiar azure light, “Everything you vampires say is complete horseshit!”
“The temple will change us all back,” said Xander, dropping to his knees with hands clasped, “You must believe me.”
“I’m trying.”
“Well, try harder,” Xander said with his hands now in fists and fanged bared, “Because they’ll be coming through that gate, soon enough, and when they’ve reached this chamber, the horde will paint the walls with our blood.”
“All right, fine!” Emily screamed as she stormed over towards the carvings on the floor.
As Emily stepped onto the circle, a white light shined down upon the summoner and encapsulated her in its warmth.
“I-I… I feel at peace, again,” said Emily, her voice wavering, “I wasn’t myself, Xander, and for that I apologize. I can see m-much clearer now—.”
All the thoughts that raged through Emily’s subconscious suddenly ceased to be and she dropped to the ground as her conscious flew high up to the bright light above. It should’ve been a wondrous occasion for the summoner, but her waning thoughts were that of sorrow. She could see the battle raging in front of the temple— a battle that hadn’t happened yet, but would soon decimate the entire area.
Her friends were dying, lambs to the slaughter under the strength of the vampire�
�s queens might. What the horde lacked in steel, they made up for in number and drove her hapless allies off into the chasm below. And there was nothing she could do. Not yet.
* * * * *
Back at the entrance to the Temple of Prometheus, Steven and Esther were keeping a lookout, with hope of seeing their friends now dwindling with each passing minute. Steven paced back and forth, kicking up stones and dust as he fumbled around the pathway. He had been out here for hours at the request of his sister, but found his mind ill-suited for the restless nature of waiting for the inevitable.
“If you hate it here so much,” Esther said, “Why do you stay?”
“Pardon me?” Steven asked in confusion.
“You rarely talk to any of us,” Esther explained, “And when you do, it’s only ever to your sister or the vampire hunter. Do you really dislike us so much that you’d distance yourself from us?”
“It’s not that,” Steven replied, “I… I’ve hurt so many people. I don’t care if it’s vampires or humans… I’ve killed people, Esther— your people. You shouldn’t be okay with that.”
“That was a blood demon. You weren’t in control of your body.”
“Tell that to the fallen, buried beneath the rubble of House Franson,” said Steven, “I doubt they’d find no fault in my actions.”
“So then why do you stay?”
“For my sister,” answered Steven, “I stay because of her.”
“No other reason?”
“My two closest friends,” Steven replied, “First, there’s my teacher and mentor, Samuel Anderson. He tried to temper my emotions… tried to help me become a better man. I responded to his generosity by knocking him onto the ground and leaving him behind. I owe him my life, for if it weren’t for him, I would’ve surely been gutted by a vampire.”
“What of the other?”
“His name’s Tyler Aucoin,” said Steven, “Our longtime friend passed away by before we left. She was his girlfriend and now he’ll never get to see her again. We left him behind… alone and without a friend in the world. I stay to make sure his loses haven’t been for nothing… loses that never should’ve happened in the first place.”
“They should’ve been here by now,” Esther said nervously, “I don’t like this, not one bit.”
“How could anyone?” Steven asked, “I might not be a centuries old vampire, but no one should be comfortable with the situation we’re heading into! I should be in university right now… okay; well at least Emily should’ve been in university right now. Our lives were stolen from us.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Esther replied.
“I wasn’t just talking about Emily and I,” said Steven, “You might’ve come to terms with how you entered your second life, but someone murdered you… and murdered any chance that poor girl inside you had of living a normal life.”
“No one’s ever said that to me,” Esther said.
“Yeah, well,” Steven said with a laugh as he leaned against the temple’s exterior wall, “I’m guessing there aren’t many guys like me in your clan.”
“You’re a confident one,” said Esther, grinning devilishly, “Maybe a little too confident for your own good—.”
Esther cut her speech short and listened to the sounds of the cavern, her ears perked towards the dark tunnel beyond the bridge.
“What’s going on?” Steven asked, “Do you hear something?”
“Possibly,” Esther said, “Whoever is approaching is heading towards us at a hurried pace. Something’s wrong.”
Something was most certainly wrong with the straggling group led by Samuel and Fiona. They were all sprinting down the steep tunnel and they slowed little for the narrow bridge at its precipice.
“Brace yourselves!” Samuel bellowed from the other side of the bridge, “We’ve got incoming!”
Led by the improbable pair, the assortment of thirty vampires and ghouls made there was across the bridge and up the path towards the entrance of the temple. Reunions were in short supply, however, and now with threats of the looming attack, they had little time to prepare before being overwhelmed by their adversaries.
“She’s here,” Samuel said hurriedly, “The vampire queen has brought her horde to the Amazon… and this time we’ve nowhere to run.”
“Ghouls!” shouted Fiona with a sword raised high into the air, “I want weapons drawn and a defensive position at the bridge’s center! I need tight formations… not an inches width between a single one of you!”
“Kindred!” continued Fiona as she watched the ghouls form a tight bottleneck on the bridge, “The temple offers little in the way of protection… its true purpose far different from that of defense, and so, it will not be used as such. I want you in similar position to the ghouls, ten paces backwards. If anyone gets through, you’re to eliminate them.”
The vampires were not as quick to fall in line as their blood-driven counterparts. They stared blankly at one another for a moment, almost as if waiting for one to stand up and challenge Fiona’s leadership.
“Well then, go ahead and do it,” said Fiona, who knew full well what the remnants of her clan were thinking, “Challenge me for leadership. If you have better skill with a blade and some alternative strategy that I haven’t considered… then surely you’d be a better fit as Xander’s right hand.”
Not a single vampire stood against her.
“None of you will do it, will you?” Fiona asked, “You think we’re all going to die… and whoever takes my position will surely be the last to die… a slow, agonizing death at the hands of the vampire queen’s most cruel and sadistic executioner.”
Still, they stood in silence.
“There’s no hope in us defeating the army that stands before us,” Fiona admitted, “They outnumber us a hundred to one, odds even we couldn’t overcome. I’m not going to order you to die… I’m ordering you to hold the line; until the summoner can turn back the hands we were given and end our eternal existences. We’ll be reborn, with an entirely new destiny before us! Fight for that, my kindred, and see our enemy’s will broken!”
The vampires beat on their chest for their commander and promptly fell into formation. They weren’t fighting for her— they were fighting for survival.
“Nice speech,” Samuel quipped, “I could’ve sworn I saw a little fight in them, after all.”
“Oh, shut up,” Fiona retorted as she approached the temple, “So this is it? The Temple of Prometheus… I don’t get it. What the hell makes this place so important?”
“What’s taking the horde so long?” Steven asked, to the attention of no one, “I thought they were right behind you.”
“Your master seems to be the only one privy to its information,” said Samuel as he joined Fiona in her approach, “If it’s questions you have, best start with him.”
“Hey, Fiona!” called Esther, waving excitedly in the air, “Can you hear that?”
“There,” Esther replied. Her hands were cupped from behind and angled towards the tunnel on the other side of the bridge. Something was happening, and it was getting closer by the second. “The horde’s almost upon us.”
“At least the trolls can’t get through,” Samuel said with a grin, “That’s one thing we’ve got going for us.”
“You’re a bloody fool,” Fiona said, “You just had to go open your mouth.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Steven asked, “I don’t see anything.”
“No, she’s right,” Esther confirmed, “I can hear it, too.”
The tunnel burst forth with an explosion of rock and debris, spent hurdling through the cavern and raining down on the unsuspecting ghouls and vampires. They held their line, and each refused to back down, even those caught between the flying boulders’ path.
The massive troll, O’larg, emerged from what little remained of the tunnel and screamed out for the blood of his enemies. His hoarse battle cry echoed throughout the cavern and reverberated through the miscreant army’s c
ollective bones.
He raised his wallopin’ stick up high and it crashed against the many cone-shaped stalactites on the ceiling. They came down on his head, which only seemed to antagonize the beast further. The troll beat its chest silly as it howled its wobbly war cry to its enemies down below.
The entire cavern trembled under the troll’s disturbing strength and the ghouls on the front line felt their nerves begin to quiver.
O’larg used the downward hill before him to gain speed as he tread heavily towards the bridge. The gigantic trolled was bloodthirsty and determined, two of the most fatal of attributes, but his formidable size proved to be the most fatal this time, and he found his footing impossible to keep and he clumsily dropped to the rocky floor before tumbling down to the bottomless pit below.
A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga Page 24
