“And I’m considerably annoyed, whoever you are,” he said as he stood up from the chair.
Tobias moved to protect me but I stopped him, setting down my staff before me and withdrawing my magic back into my body. I didn’t feel the least bit drained like I used to. In fact, I felt as though I could strangle this man with my magic if I tried. I didn’t need my hands to accomplish the task.
“How about this,” the man said as he crossed his arms. “You release my men you have pinned to the wall or I’ll give orders to more of my men outside through the phone in my pocket listening in to kill Lenora Miller.”
As much as Tobias wanted to control me, he was losing his desire for restraint. “You won’t live long enough-”
“Shh,” the man hushed him. “Careful now, Mr. Vallas. I’ve told my men that such words should be considered a direct threat. And direct threats will also lead to Lenora Miller’s death.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
The man beamed as if he was thrilled to finally get an introduction. “William Tusker,” he answered. “The president of Gandira Corp and personal friend of President Eriksson. A pleasure to meet you. I’ve been waiting for your arrival for quite some time now. A very old vampire told me he possessed certain unique skills. One of them being the ability to place any image he wants in your pretty little head.”
‘Victor.’
I no longer cared if Victor made Tobias a vampire or what kind of history they had. I would find a way to kill him.
7
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Tusker folded his hands on the arms of the wooden chair. “What men are capable of accomplishing when they’re given a single goal and told directly how to accomplish it. When they feel a certain loyalty to you. Although, my men are bought. Yours are bonded to you on some level, aren’t they Mr. Vallas?”
Tobias shifted behind me, doing his best to stand tall and appear as intimidating to Tusker as he often did to most humans. And for whatever reason, it wasn’t working. Tusker wasn’t afraid of him. Not even in the slightest. Which either made him extremely foolish or extremely dangerous. I had yet to decide.
“We’ve long been fascinated by the bond vampires seem to share,” he continued. “Don’t get me wrong. They’re capable of betraying one another just as much as humans. Only there’s something deeper. A sense of knowing who they are and what they want. And that they are better off together than on their own. A tool that can be directed so efficiently.”
Somehow Tobias knew where he was going before I did.
“They will never be yours to wield as you please,” he said harshly. “They’re mine. They always will be. Covens rise and fall. They even break apart. But mine can withstand anything. Even you.”
Tusker stifled a laugh. “Can they now?”
I heard footsteps behind me. Ones that were moving far too fast to be human steps. Vampires were appearing down the hall and walking toward the back room where we were standing. I waited to get a sense for what Tobias was seeing through his emotions when he turned around so at least one of us could keep a close eye on Tusker.
“I’ve come to learn a great deal about your kind, Mr. Vallas.” Tusker bragged. “The way your blood runs through your veins and regenerates you from nearly every wound imaginable. The way your senses are heightened. Even the way you hunt your prey. More so than that, I’ve learned how to manipulate it. I had my best scientists insert special serums we’ve designed into vampire blood. These were always experiments we never thought possible. Inside your blood are capabilities that must be shared with the world. It would be a crime not to do so.”
“Why? Because you could make a great profit?” Tobias scowled at him. “None of my kind are motivated by monetary gain.”
Tusker leaned forward. “Don’t lie to me, Mr. Vallas. I’ve had a good look at all the assets you’ve acquired over the years. Millions of dollars in land, real estate, precious gems, and currency. Even women. The list goes on and on. It’s actually quite staggering the amount of wealth you’ve managed to possess.”
“I don’t do so out of greed.”
“No,” Tusker said. “You do so for the same reason any man does. Because it fills you with a sense of power. And yet, you fail to realize the true power is inside your blood. Ripe for the taking. Vampire blood could do so many things. Cure diseases that humanity has long since tried to rid from the world. Heal the disabled. Even help create new technologies. The possibilities are endless. And you keep it to yourselves. It’s a crime against mankind if I ever heard one.”
“We’re not a part of mankind,” Tobias sneered. “We’re other.”
“And those same possibilities you speak of are exactly why our kind have deliberately stayed away from humanity and separated ourselves,” I said. “Because we know better. We tried helping humans centuries ago. Even farther back. Millenniums ago. You cannot be trusted. Nor can you understand that not everything is meant to be shared. We won’t help you. And if you don’t hand over Lenora-”
“Careful,” he said in a soft yet creepy voice that would have made a mortal man cringe. “That sounds something like a threat. Remember my men are standing outside with Lenora in hand. They will kill her in an instant if you continue speaking like that.”
“Joy,” Christophe said sarcastically. “Another man who sees himself as a villain who will kill everyone and their dog if we don’t do as he says. Tobias and I have run into greater men than you who have tried and failed to get us to do what they want. Far stronger and far more powerful. It didn’t work for them either.”
The room started filling up with the vampires walking down the hall between the guards I still had pinned to the wall with my magic. Only these weren’t the vampires we had released upstairs. They must have been held in another sector of the facility. One where I guessed the experiments were somewhat different. Mostly because their eyes were black. As if their pupils had spilled open and consumed their entire iris. The color and the white were entirely blackened out.
‘What did he do to them?’
“Who might these men be?” Tusker asked. “The vixra witchlings?”
If my heart was still able to beat it would have started racing into my chest at the realization that humans might soon know far more than we were willing to divulge.
“The vixra keep to themselves,” said Tobias. “You would be making the mistake of your life to go digging into things you cannot possibly understand.”
“Which is why I need a formal introduction. One your going to give me.”
I just about scoffed right in his face. The very thought was laughable. It was downright offensive. I had witchling blood inside my veins even when I was a kruxa. And I wasn’t considered worthy of them. Yet this man, this mortal corporate businessman, thought he was going to get some sort of audience with the vixra.
“That’s not going to happen,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Give it time.” He flashed me a warm smile. Well, as warm as he was capable of in his deeply rooted arrogance. “Just like your comrades, all it takes is a little convincing.”
“Even if you convince us, the vixra will never grant you an audience,” Tobias said. “You think you’ve learned so much but you’ve barely scratched the surface. You’re not worthy of them. The vixra are superior to you in every way. They are superior to me in every way. They will never be convinced that some human who happens to have wealth and the ear of powerful individuals is worth their time.”
“Make it worth their time,” he said sternly.
“I’ll give you a few weeks of being locked in a cell with no blood to agitate your thirst. Then you might find it convincing. Until the next time we meet.” Tusker tipped his head as if he was wearing a top hat and slowly started to disappear right before our eyes. First his legs, then his chest, and finally his head. He evaporated into thin air as his eyes maintained a penetrating glare right at me.
I thought I knew evil. I even assumed that I knew what motivated it. An
d yet, I don’t think I ever met a man who truly saw all ends justifying the means until that very moment.
“He used a tolepa potion,” I said just after he disappeared. “He has access to luxra magic.”
“Through Lenora, no doubt,” Tobias muttered. “I don’t know what he put her through for her to agree to do that.”
“He might not have needed to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind that for now. He left us with his new friends.” Christophe beamed with a strange sort of excited smile. The sicko was enjoying the action. Like it was a story unfolding and begging for his giddy attention.
The vampires with blackened eyes entered the room and slowly circled us like vultures closing in on dead bodies. Only we were still alive.
“They’ve been starved,” Tobias said. “They’ll consume us until there isn’t a drop left.”
It didn’t take much imagination to think what would happen if they did drain every last drop of human and vampire blood stirring inside our bodies. Our strength would vanish. My magic would drain. And we would be trapped. We would likely become nothing more than tools for Tusker’s desires and willing to do whatever he wanted.
I didn’t need to see the blackness of their eyes to know that if I allowed them to get even an inch closer we truly would become the prey. And I had been prey for far too long to let that happen. Even as a vampire hunter I always knew that I could easily be preyed upon. Never again.
“G,” Tobias said.
“I’m already ahead of you. Stay still.”
“I think that’s the last thing we need to do there, fraulein,” Christophe said to my side as one of the vampires looked like they might pounce on him.
“Are any of these your warriors?” I asked Tobias.
“Yes.”
“And are they worth saving in this state?”
His hesitation was all the confirmation that I needed.
I lifted my staff above my head and channeled as much of my crowning magic directly into it as I could. My body started to glow. My feet levitated off the ground. And I knew if I used too much of it I wouldn’t just kill the other vampires. I might kill Tobias and Christophe too.
I lowered my free hand and created a sort of pocket over the two of them, shielding them in the only way I knew how and praying that it would work. I created shields around my body as a kruxa but it took so much concentration. The right amount of force could break it. I wasn’t sure how much force magic could create and shield at the same time. Even so, my uncertainty wasn’t about to stop me.
It had been years since I was this bold. This brave. Or perhaps this stupid. And yet, I couldn’t see any other option as one of the vampires lunged toward Tobias, ready to feed after weeks of chronic thirst.
I closed my eyes and let every shred of my magic explode from my body, ripping through my chest as if it was all funneled right out of my heart.
I held on tight to the staff as it started to shake in my hands. I heard screaming. Screeching. The sound of the building exploding. Crumbling to the ground and then shooting out over my head. When I opened my eyes I wasn’t prepared for the sight before me.
There was too much smoke for me to see everything right away. As it turned out, causing an explosion indoors is a lot like opening a vixra tunnel inside a contained area without enough magic in your veins. Things simply get destroyed.
Tobias was crawling on his hands and feet, trying to get upright again and see through the smoke that was barreling around. Christophe wasn’t in much better shape. Tobias managed to find him and helped him to stand up. They were both protected by the shield I placed around them. It saved them from getting crushed but it didn’t save them from getting knocked back a considerable distance.
Christophe summoned elemental magic from his hand. From what I could see it was the element of air. He forced the smoke and remaining debris still falling back down to earth to drift away. From the looks of it, I had managed to blow away half the mountainside. We were deep inside a pit as the moon rose over our heads. Almost like a crater from a meteor had struck the ground.
I lowered my body back down to the dirt beneath my feet where the tiles of the facility had once been. Tobias slowly walked up to me as if each footstep needed to be taken with caution.
‘Does he think I’m going to hurt him?’
I had never seen his eyes so wide. Or sensed his emotions so deeply. He was in a state of shock. As if he didn’t know who or what he was looking at. He didn’t know me anymore. And part of me wondered if he didn’t want to. Maybe he was afraid of me because of the powerful magic flowing through my veins. Or he thought I might use it against him. I already attacked him once after the euphoria of the blood got to me. He wasn’t sure what I was capable of. And apparently, neither did I.
Christophe pulled more elemental magic under us. A stiff breeze lifted me off the ground once more as if a twister had surrounded us in the middle of a storm. It pulled me upward out of the crater and I let it. All I could see that was left of the facility was a few beds with locksin still tied to the sides and the second metal door I had busted through to get deeper into the mountain.
Once we were above the crater I got a full view of what was outside the mountain as we spoke to Tusker. He wasn’t lying after all. There were four helicopters flying away in the distance. Along with one that came crashing down after the explosion I caused. The mercenaries busted through the door and tumbled out. They survived the crash but not the aftermath. Two of them screamed and waved their arms about as flames engulfed them. It was only moments before they both fell to the ground, unconscious from the agony. The sight I avoided seeing for centuries was right before my eyes. Humans being consumed by flames. I had seen vampires lit on fire. But humans were different somehow. Maybe because they were so fragile. It triggered too many memories I had tried to forget. Only these weren’t people being wrongly accused of witchcraft. They were men bought for hire to kill for Gandira. For William Tusker. The hardened pit of my stomach felt nothing for them.
“Can you bring those other helicopters down too?” Christophe asked me.
“No,” I answered. “I don’t know which one might be carrying Lenora away.”
“Use your magic,” Tobias hollered at me. “You can bring down part of a mountain but you can’t sense which helicopter Lenora is in?”
I wasn’t sure why but his words stung me. I tried extending my senses to the helicopters flying away. There was nothing for me to find. I couldn’t sense her presence at all.
“I think Lenora was long gone before we arrived, Tobias,” I said. “Tusker tricked us. She was here. But only for a short while.”
Smoke floated up from behind me. When I turned I saw the true power of the magic that I had summoned from my body. And I learned that Tobias had good reason to be frightened of me.
There was a fire raging for at least two acres.
“I’ve already used most of my vixra magic,” Christophe said.
“But you showed her how to use it,” Tobias shouted.
I lifted the staff and channeled what was left of the crowning magic inside my body. I may have been powerful. I may have even had the most powerful crowning magic in the world. But I wasn’t immune to feeling drained of my magic any less than any other magical being. It only took more of it to overexert me.
I repeated the motion Christophe taught me. Rushing water and the chill of an icy wind ran through my mind. The way I used to watch the waves crash into shore on the Scottish coastline when I was a child. How I would run into the waves only to dash away when the water hit my feet. It was a game I would play with my mother. And a memory I hadn’t thought of in many years.
It did the trick. Water came rushing from my hand and spread over the fire, causing more smoke to roll into the sky as the flames went out with a loud hiss.
When the fires had finally stopped and Christophe and I surveyed the land to make sure not a single spark could relight and bring harm to th
e nearby town, I gently set the staff down onto the ground with the top still in my hand, unsure of what had just happened or how to process it.
My magic was capable of more than I had ever seen even the purest blooded vixra wield. Tobias was questioning whether he made the right decision in turning me. And in the end, we were nowhere new.
“Look,” Christophe spoke, bringing me out of my lost thoughts and back to the present. He gestured back toward the crater I made in the mountain. Only the remains of the facility weren’t what caught my eye.
There were people stirring from the dirt and piles of rubble. Vampires. Tobias’s warriors. Somehow in all the mess I created, they were alive. They tore through the earth digging themselves out as I stepped closer to get a better look.
“Well,” Tobias said as they pulled themselves from the ground and started walking toward us with dirt staining their pale skin. “That may have made this whole fiasco worthwhile.”
There were at least twenty of them tearing through the ground and struggling to stand once they were free of the carnage I created. And their eyes weren’t black. These were the vampires I freed from the upper floors. Not the ones crazed for blood and completely entranced. Somehow, I managed to keep them alive. They staggered toward us, locking eyes on Tobias once they saw him. It occurred to me at that moment that some of them hadn’t seen Tobias since the coven was disbanded. They were without a leader. They had been trapped for weeks. Maybe even months. And now they saw Tobias came for them. He helped to rescue them from their misery.
Whatever bond they had with him before was back in full force. It was strengthened. I could sense its power drifting through the air and crashing into my body.
‘Tusker was right. Vampires do bond in a different way.’
“Why did you come for us?” one of them asked, covered in dirt and mud.
“I’m your coven master,” he answered before directing his words to all of them. “I will always come for you.”
Whatever sense of unease I might have had about helping Tobias run the coven vanished. I felt for my fangs. To my surprise, they were full size. My transformation was complete. And I could feel it the moment it happened. I wanted to lead these men and women and help Tobias in the coming war. If indeed our future did come to war. And however Tobias might doubt me, it was my task to make sure he knew he made the right decision in turning me.
Fated Realms: (Witchling Wars: Vampire Echelon Book 2) Page 8
