Fated Realms: (Witchling Wars: Vampire Echelon Book 2)

by Shawn Knightley

  “Keep the weapons,” Tobias said as he saw bodies starting to disappear below us. “We might need them one day.”

  I did my best to envision the empty highway with nothing but their rifles laced with magic bullets left behind.

  When I opened my eyes, the scarlet red fog of my magic had dissipated and there was nothing left. Only the rifles and the stain of human blood on the ground. Christophe quickly washed it away with his elemental magic. Soon it was as if there was no battle. No death. No loss of life. No chaos. Only the bridge behind us proved what had taken place.

  “That’s a trick I wouldn’t mind having,” Christophe said with a smile as he admired my work. “You’re handy to have around.”

  “No, I won’t hunt with you to dispose of the evidence,” I said dryly. His face fell in disappointment. Or mockery. I was pretty sure it was a mixture of both.

  “There’s still the helicopters,” Tobias walked around me, motioning for the vampires walking up to gather the rifles. “And the bridge. It’s a little… conspicuous.”

  He wasn’t wrong. It was glowing over the hillside in a vivid display of magic pulsating straight out of the sky to keep it up.

  “Let them live,” I said. “Someone needs to survive as evidence.”

  “Evidence of what?”

  “That those who cross into the mountains risk never coming back. This is our territory now. They need to fear our willingness to protect it.”

  “And the bridge?” Tobias asked.

  “A shadow charm will do for now. But we need a long-term solution.”

  As the remaining vampires of the Catach-Brayin started to stir, Tobias ordered them to gather the weapons and head back to the nest. I could acutely sense what had shifted. It was a change that I didn’t expect to happen so quickly. I wasn’t just the woman Tobias decided to have at his side anymore. I was a coven master who kept them alive. They valued me now. Perhaps they even respected me. And I would continue to protect them.

  14

  I waited until all the vampires of the coven were back inside Mount Evans, safely resting and freshly fed. Then I sat outside the cavern entrance and let the sun soak into my skin. It still fascinated and disturbed me how I couldn’t feel warmth or the cold any longer. The only thing that I could feel was the scorching hot burn of magic when it was used against me. I sat down and placed my hands over my knees, wanting to feel the sun’s warmth. Missing the comfort it gave during harsh Scottish winters. And the hope I felt when its rays lasted longer and longer with the coming of summer.

  “You won’t ever get used to that.” Tobias stepped out of the cavern and watched me from a few feet away. “At least I haven’t.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Not feeling time move anymore. Or the seasons. Only seeing them. It can be as annoying as it is pleasant. I went from dreading the long winters to wishing I could have them back.”

  “I guess I’ll find ways to cope.”

  He dug into his pocket and took out small translucent pieces of paper. I didn’t have to look closely to see what it was.

  “Liza didn’t get all of it.” He moved to hand me a piece. It was vixra blood. I didn’t have to think too deeply about what he had in mind.

  “Going somewhere?” I asked.

  “We both are,” he answered. “You know as well as I do that the bridge can’t say open. You may have crowning magic but I also think you’re smart enough to know that you can’t use it well enough yet to break the link between worlds. It’s probably already been open far longer than it should. Who knows what has passed through?”

  He wasn’t wrong. It was the one problem that I couldn’t fix before we left the scene of the battle as fast as we could. I concealed it with my shadow charm. But it was something witchlings would be drawn to. It would call to them the same way it called to me. Even so, that wasn’t what bothered me the most. I had seen beings from the in-between realms in the past. They weren’t pleasant. And they definitely weren’t always friendly.

  Tobias extended his hand and I took it. He had no intention of standing there and having a moment. He had other things on his mind. With a swipe of his finger, he sliced a hole through the air, allowing the light of a vixra tunnel to shine through with its tremendous power.

  “Shall we?” he asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t have taken your hand if the answer was no.’

  He stepped inside and pulled me gently along with him. We walked through the tunnel and I did my usual routine, avoiding looking down from the sides of the walkway between time and space. It moved by so quickly that it sometimes made me nauseated. Even after using the tunnels so many times throughout the centuries. Not anymore. My body didn’t work that way now. I was fed. And my crowning magic was back inside me, churning as if it was nothing more than another organ giving me life. Or a limb that I could use with nothing more than a fleeting thought.

  We stepped out of the tunnel and landed softly on a gravel road. I knew it too well to mistaken it for anything other than the driveway leading to the Matthew’s manor.

  “Are you sure about this?” I asked Tobias, staring at the large structure before us in the Hungarian countryside. “I could always just tell Eli through the notebook he gave me. I’ve communicated through them before. They get the job done.”

  “Come now,” Tobias said with his usual taunting tone of voice. Only I didn’t think he meant to taunt me anymore. Perhaps merely to challenge me. “You know as well as I do that this problem is bigger than you and me.”

  “That’s a rather large thing for the likes of you to admit,” I said, returning his fire.

  He let go of my hand and I felt as though a part of me fell away with him. I wasn’t sure what to make of Tobias now. Even after we had risked everything for the coven together. We both endured times when we met and then were forced to part ways. He was tender one moment and severe the next. Arrogant then soft. His well-placed armor was on and then I would say or do something that allowed me a peek inside once more. Just enough to make him a mystery and to leave me wanting more. Was this what it felt like for other women as well? For Lenora?

  I started heading to the side garden to knock through the kitchen’s doorway.

  “G,” Tobias called out to me. “We’re not slaves anymore. We don’t use the servant’s quarters.”

  “We’re still bottom of the barrel to the vixra.”

  “Not today.”

  He took the large black iron knocker on the wooden door and knocked a few times, then he stepped back with me standing a few feet behind him. Watching. Waiting. Wondering.

  Who would answer? If it was Arthur I wasn’t sure he would listen long enough before he inevitably punished us. I was a runaway slave. As was Tobias.

  Lucky for us, it was a butler who answered the door. One I had seen on many occasions but never spoke to. He was human. One of the few who knew about us and knew better than to ask questions.

  “Yes?” he asked as if he didn’t recognize either of us.

  ‘Snob.’

  “We’re here to see Eli Matthews,” Tobias answered.

  “Mr. Matthews is busy,” he sneered.

  ‘Yep. Definitely not keen on having vampires around.’

  “He’ll make an exception for us,” Tobias reassured him.

  “Will I now?” Eli’s voice chimed in from the end of the long entrance hall behind the butler.

  Eli casually walked over to the door with his eyes boring into the two of us. “That will be all, Munroe. Thank you.”

  The butler stepped aside.

  Eli didn’t speak up until he was out of earshot. “You have a lot of nerve coming here after what has transpired,” he said. His sophisticated British accent sounded different when he was scolding me. Or anyone else for that matter. The only bad news for him was that I wasn’t intimidated by him anymore. Or any vixra. I might have been a vampire now but I had crowning magic. I could defend myself. And I didn’t need to take orders from anyone.

  �
��Oh, so you know, do you?” I spoke. “You know exactly what has happened? Or have you heard whispers?”

  “We need a private audience with you and your grandfather Edmund. He will need to hear everything from us.”

  “You couldn’t have written?” Eli said to me.

  “Not about this,” I insisted.

  He considered my words then opened the door a little wider to let us in. “Follow me.”

  We trailed along behind him as he led us through the manor and toward the dining area a few floors above us. To my shock, the entire Matthews family was seated for dinner. Along with Arthur seated at the head of the table.

  ‘You call this a private audience? Thanks a lot, asshole.’

  Arthur’s eyes went from his usual unpleasant tension to severe in a matter of seconds.

  “How dare you!” he said just low enough to sound menacing as he stood from his seat. “You come back to my home after what you did? I hope you’re not here to beg forgiveness. You’ll find yourself disappointed.”

  I saw Arthur’s two daughters stand from the table. They summoned their green vixra magic from their palms and were ready to fire at me and Tobias should he step out of line or threaten them in any way whatsoever.

  Stepping into the dining room uninvited was like stepping through a time warp. I had always met with Edmund, Arthur, or Eli. I’d seen the other members of the family passing through but never spoke to them. I always figured it was beneath their dignity to speak to a slave such as me. And a kruxa.

  Edmund and I locked eyes. He was irritated, to say the least. But I couldn’t be certain if that was from having entered his home without an invitation or if he knew what had happened on the highway leading to the Rocky Mountains. Either way, he was going to hear me out whether he liked it or not.

  “Victor has opened a bridge between realms,” I stated loudly so everyone would hear. Eli asked for it given I asked for privacy. “It’s still wide open and only hidden by a shadow charm over the highway on I-70 leading east to Denver.”

  “What?” Arthur’s wife exclaimed in a stunned voice.

  “That’s not possible,” Edmund stated, finally seeing fit to stand just as everyone else had. “My great grandfather made sure the links between realms could never be found or opened. He hid the only magic capable of opening them and took the secret to his grave.”

  “Well,” Tobias said, enjoying the fact that he knew more than Edmund Matthews a little too much. “I think it’s safe to say that the secret must have gotten out somehow long before he died. Because Victor hid the lock and key to open them over a thousand years ago for safe keeping.”

  “Where?” Edmund demanded.

  Tobias hesitated. I could sense his growing amusement.

  ‘Oh, just come out with it.’

  Tobias extended his arms as if he were a showman. “Us.”

  The Matthews looked at one another in confusion.

  “Victor hid away the key inside Georgeanna’s first incarnation. Her first life in ancient Scotland where we were both born. Then he cast a spell to make sure she would reincarnate every two centuries so he would always have an opportunity to open the link between realms. Then he hid the lock inside of me. He’s the one who turned me into a vampire. And while I was transitioning from a kruxa to a vampire, he cast a similar spell to hide the lock in my body. As it turns out, the prophecy your lot have always been so afraid of was nothing more than a vision Victor once had a very long time ago when he wasn’t a vampire but a vixra. A vision of inevitable war between humans and magical beings. Only he didn’t seek to stop it. He sought to open the link between realms so he could escape it.”

  “Or unleash whatever was on the other side,” I said. “We can’t be sure of his intentions.”

  “Why’s that?” Arthur asked.

  “We sent him to the in-between. The place between realms. Whether or not he survived is a bit of a mystery.”

  Edmund crossed his arms over his chest. “Your new state of being has proved useful after all,” he stated a little too confidently.

  “What do you mean?” Arthur asked.

  “I figured Tobias and Georgeanna would make a better team if Georgeanna was free to exert her will as a vampire.”

  “You helped her escape?”

  Edmund shrugged his shoulders, clearly not too bothered by his son’s outrage. “I wouldn’t say I helped. I merely encouraged both Tobias and Georgeanna to find a new way to work together that was more useful. Besides, I’ve lived much longer than you, son. I’ve fought against and worked alongside vampires. I know how they think. Tobias and Georgeanna are far better assets to us as free vampires than they are slaves to our will.”

  “Do you want to tell the council what you just said?”

  “Not particularly. And neither will you. Or any of you for that matter.” I could sense among them that Edmund’s words were final. Arthur might sit at the head of the Matthews table but his father still had the final word when it came to the family’s place in the world. They wouldn’t dare disobey him.

  “Aren’t we getting away from the true concern here?” Arthur’s wife spoke up in her fine gown. She looked as if she walked out of the 1920s by the looks of the material. Vixra might have been the most powerful magical beings in the world but they shared more with humans than they wanted to admit. Just like humans get trapped in a particular decade as they age, so did the vixra. Even so, I couldn’t help but admire her impeccable taste. “That link being open causes a far greater danger than Georgeanna and Tobias disobeying vixra orders. For all of us.

  Tobias threw a glance in my direction as if to say, where has the most rational person in the Matthew family been hiding all along?

  Edmund stiffened as he slowly sat down once more in his chair. He beckoned Eli to come forward. I could see he was deep in thought, trying to figure out an answer where there might not be one and not liking what he ultimately came up with.

  “Felix,” he said to him. I knew whatever he was about to say it had to be serious. Eli’s family rarely used his true name, Felix, unless they were either angry at him or they were about to ask him to do something he wasn’t going to like. In this case, I didn’t think any of them were going to like it. “I will travel with you to Denver and we will sever the link as much as we can.”

  Eli shook his head. “You can’t possibly think we’re strong enough to do such a thing. I’d be drained of my magic for months. I don’t even think it’s possib-”

  Edmund raised an eyebrow at him. It was an expression I was all too familiar with. Edmund only made it with me when I tried contradicting him. Which I learned early on wasn’t something a slave should ever do.

  “You will come with me to Denver and we will sever the link as much as we can. Which I freely admit won’t be much. Neither of us has the magical ability to break it completely. But we can make sure it doesn’t touch the soil of this realm. It will remain standing but not enough to allow anything too harmful to pass through. And if it does, you will be there to stop it.”

  “Me?” Eli snapped, clearly not liking this idea.

  “Yes. You will take up residence in Denver for as long as it takes to figure out a way to contain the link between realms and eventually destroy it. Which I admit may be a while. You will guard it and protect all those who might come to harm’s way should anything nefarious manage to cross what remains. Is that understood?”

  Eli stood up a little straighter, realizing he wasn’t going to win this battle and not wanting to appear weak before the rest of his family.

  “Yes, grandfather.”

  ‘So formal.’

  The vixra held onto tradition more so than anyone else I’ve ever known. Which I must admit, was one of the things I most admired about them.

  “Tobias has taken up new residence from what I understand,” Edmund went on. “I’m sure he can arrange for his former townhome to suit your needs.”

  Now it was Tobias’s turn to be outraged. I couldn’t see him want
ing to share or even loan his fancy new accommodation in Denver to the likes of a vixra. But then again, what choice did he have?

  ‘Don’t look at me. This was your idea, remember?’

  He reluctantly nodded his hand and the agreement was settled.

  As far as I knew.

  “As for the two of you,” Edmund lowered his voice and directed his words to Tobias and me. “I’m well aware that the incident which revealed your kind was something of a catastrophe. And rather inevitable. I’m honestly shocked that vampires haven’t revealed themselves long before now. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that I don’t hold you both somewhat responsible. As well as that blonde girl. What was her name?”

  “Liza,” Tobias answered. “And before you ask, no, I won’t harm her or hand her over for your judgment. She may be a wild card but she’s one of my best warriors. She was also being lured by Victor. We only recently discovered that he has the ability to lure vampires along with humans. None of her actions were of her own free will.”

  ‘Except for the concert. I haven’t quite forgiven her for that one yet.’

  Edmund tapped his fingers on the wood of the fine dining room table. The fireplace flickering behind them was the only sound for a solid ten seconds as Edmund considered his words.

  “Then who do we hold responsible for all of this? For vampires being revealed and the fact that war may very well be upon us?”

  “We live in a day and age of handheld video cameras on everyone’s cell phone and social media,” I stated as if it was obvious. At least it was to me. “People share one thing and it can go viral around the world in an instant. I followed your orders and did what I was told. Tobias did everything he could to keep the Catach-Brayin in line. Even so, there’s only so much we can do. The best we can hope for is to minimize the damage.”