by Zara Novak
“And I wouldn’t be surprised if the other three are around here somewhere,” Malachi said in horror.
This was bad. This was very bad. Jack let out a deep scream of fury that sounded more like a roar and sprinted forward until they hit the clearing. They got there just in time to see a figure carrying Ellie to the truck just ahead.
“Get your hands off her!” Jack roared, leaping forward with all of his speed. He hit the strange creature with the force of a speeding bullet, but he was knocked back instantly, smashing into a nearby tree, landing on the floor with no breath inside of him.
“You’d learn fast not to bother me,” the man said after shoving Ellie’s unconscious body into the truck. Jack stood up slowly and blinked hard. He was looking at himself, but it was obviously not himself. Just what the hell was this thing?
“Don’t you fucking dare touch her,” Jack roared, wiping away blood from his lips.
“Or what?” his clone walked forward, a dry smile twisting at his lips. “You’ll hurt me?” In that instant two flashes of black burst across the air. Jack’s clone twisted and dodged the attacks in an instant. The black shapes crashed into the ground as useless piles. It was Rourke and Malachi.
The clone stepped over the bodies and approached Jack, stopping a few paces in front of him. “There seems to be a little confusion. You seem to think my mate belongs to you. I’m afraid that’s just plain wrong.”
Jack looked past the clone and focused on Ellie’s unconscious body in the truck. Anger boiled his blood. Red consumed his every thought. He launched forward again to strike his imposter, but the vampire caught the blow with ease, turning and launching him back across the clearing to crash into another tree. As Jack stood up again he coughed blood. There was no way he could face this vampire on a physical level. He was way too strong for Jack.
“The next attack won’t be a counter. I’ll simply kill you. Consider this a warning.”
“Cute.” Jack laughed and spat blood into the dirt next to him. “Here’s yours. Touch her again and I’ll destroy you.”
His imposter stood a dozen paces away, arms hanging patiently at his sides. “I’d like to see you try.”
So, let’s. Came the voice of Wraith. Bring down the storm and kill this bastard. Let’s hold nothing back. Use everything we got.
Jack nodded to himself slowly as he began to channel the power of the demon inside of him. Static cracked in the air. Wind brushed through the trees overhead. Dark clouds filled the sky. The imposter looked up at the falling rain and glanced back to Jack with a curious smile on his face.
“Familiar magic. I’ve felt it before. Could it be… another vampire with the same ailment as I?”
The comment threw Jack, but he took little notice of it. He focused all his rage on channeling his power and summoning the storm. Within a few seconds he felt the darkness swirling inside of him. He was ready.
Kill him! Wraith screamed. Kill him!
Hate rained down from the sky as a brilliant torrent of violent lightning. The dark energy swelled inside Jack, filling every inch of his mind and body, lifting him from the ground and holding him there as the storm ravaged his target.
Keep going! Wraith’s voice screamed. Keep going until he’s dead!
He let the darkness take over him completely, surrendering his consciousness to the awesome force of the dark magic. The last time had been nothing compared to this. He wasn’t holding back now. He would use everything he could to kill the creature trying to harm his mate.
The last of his power vanished and Jack dropped to the ground on all fours, chest heaving, body smoking. He looked up at his target to confirm the kill and saw him standing there, completely unaffected.
“A neat trick,” the man said with a dark smile. “But as I said… I’m shadow cursed too. Your magic has little effect on me, vampire. I’d kill you if you didn’t look so pathetic… oh well.” With that the imposter turned from Jack and walked back to the truck on the other side of the clearing. Jack watched in desperation, his head lolling as he heard the truck’s engine fire up. He tried to crawl forward, but his attack had drained every ounce of his strength.
He reached his hand out in vain and collapsed into the mud. Rain came down as a cold and violent torrent. The last thing he remembered was the bright headlights of the truck before it swung around and disappeared in the trees beyond. Hand still held out, he groaned his mate’s name into the storm. “Ellie… Ellie…”
“They’re here!” a distant voice shouted. “Let’s get them before the sun turns them to ash!”
Hands slipped around Jack’s body and lifted him from the cold wet ground. He groaned in pain as they carried him somewhere. They lay him down on hard metal. A door slammed. Fingers forced his eyes open, shining torches into his empty black eyes. An old woman crouched over him. “He’s still alive, but barely. He must have used the full force of his power. Stupid idiot.”
“Rourke and Malachi are alive too,” the voice of a younger girl said somewhere behind him. “They’re weak though. Very weak.”
Wincing, Jack pushed himself up onto his elbows. His head felt as though it had been crushed in a vice. He looked around and saw he was in the back of some truck. “Where the fuck am I?”
“Scouting truck,” the old woman said. “We’re taking you back to Skarvast. You three were a few minutes away from waking up dead. What happened back there, Jack? Where is she? Who took her?”
Jack tried to shake the pain from his head, squinting heavily as he stared back at the old woman in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about lady?” He sat up straight and tried to ignore the pressing feeling to vomit. His head hurt like a mother fucker for sure. Had someone attacked him? Was he being abducted?
“Your woman, you damned invalid!” the old woman cried. “Someone took her! They left you three for dead. Who was it? The Order? The Circle?! Who took Ellie?!”
He stared into the old woman’s crazy red eyes and rolled his head on his tired neck, wishing he could be asleep again. “Ellie? …who the fuck is that?”
32
Something had gone drastically wrong with the Vistor’s prophecy crusher. Kaleb Spartan kept his hand steady on the wheel of the stolen pickup truck, the lost daughter bound and unconscious, sleeping in the passenger seat beside him. He drove north, with his eyes locked on the nearing mountains which stood overhead like giants made of ice.
His first directive with the lost daughter had been to bring her back. He had not done that. His second directive was to kill her. He had not done that either. His programming hadn’t worked as well as the Vistor intended. Something else had happened inside his mind. Something unexpected.
We’re supposed to kill her. A voice rang inside Kaleb’s mind. Glancing over, he looked at the sleeping girl, the blonde vision of beauty, and felt his heart tug at his chest. Kill her? How on earth could he kill something as beautiful as her? He couldn’t bare thinking about a finality as gruesome as that.
But that’s what we’re supposed to do. It said again. That’s what the Vistor wants. That’s what our purpose is.
Kaleb didn’t understand the voice that was inside him. Before taking on the form of Ellie’s betrothed his mind had been relatively sound. Now it was like there were two voices inside of him, arguing against each other. One wanted to fulfill his original purpose and kill the girl. The other wanted to follow the image in his head and complete the prophecy. The prophecy that was destined for him.
But it’s not destined for you. It’s destined for her and her real mate. You’re just an imitation. You’re meant to be her assassin, so finish the job!
And just what did the voice mean by ‘real mate’, anyway? He was her real mate. He’d taken the form of her ‘lover’ to an almost perfect degree, and ever since he’d taken the form he’d seen those prophetic glimpses of their frozen fortress. The image pulling him north. The prophetic compass that guided them both to their final journey. If he wasn’t her real mate, then why would he be able to see
that? Why would he feel it? Dragging every atom of his body forward to some unknown destination?
She’ll remember you’re not real when she wakes up. You’re just a poor imitation. Best to kill her now before she wakes up and you do something stupid.
Now that was a good piece of advice. Kaleb was meant to be an atom-perfect copy of Ellie’s perfect partner, so why had he missed the tattoo from his wrist? Keeping his hands on the wheel, he focused his eyes onto the blank spot on his wrist and made the necessary change. Black seeped up from the under layers of the skin and formed on the surface in the shape of a crisp hammer. There. Sorted. Much better.
There was the question as to why his body had failed in an exact replication. It might have something to do with the mental turmoil he was facing right now. Ellie’s lover was clearly not the most mentally adjusted. It was Kaleb’s first time taking the form of another out in the field. There were bound to be a few glitches.
She’ll still know it’s not you. She’ll remember the fight.
The voice in his head was full of useful advice. “You’re right,” Kaleb said to himself, smiling as he drove on. “I’ll need to do some house cleaning.” With his left hand held on the wheel, Kaleb reached out his right hand and placed it against the forehead of the unconscious girl. He flared Intention through his fingertips. The dark power throbbed from his hands and into her mind. Not too much. Just enough to overload her processing faculties and blank everything from the last couple of hours. He held his hand there for a few seconds until he felt the wipe was sufficient, and then he pulled it away. She’d wake with a slight headache and no recollection of the last few hours. He’d still have to account for them leaving Skarvast, but he would handle that when she woke.
He focused his attention back on the distant mountains and noticed the brush of pink sky hanging just above the lowest peaks. It would be sunrise soon, and he’d have to find shelter from the sun before they reached the mountain pass.
Kaleb drove on until a suitable shelter presented itself. There was no one else on the straight and narrow road headed toward the mountain. The first sight of other folk came when he pulled into a parking lot of a roadside diner an hour later. He turned the engine off and looked up at the crooked sign over the diner’s entrance.
Mad Mike’s. Last stop 300 miles.
Ellie was still sleeping peacefully in the passenger seat. Kaleb jumped out of the truck, walked across the half-full carpark and stepped inside the bright and open diner. There were half a dozen patrons inside. A quick taste of the air revealed they were all vampires. He approached the counter and a vampire with long black hair nodded at him in recognition.
“Morning. Looking for a room?”
“For two,” Kaleb said.
“That’ll be $40 for one night.” He paused and looked past Kaleb, staring out through the diner windows to the truck. “You can’t bring slaves in. We’re slave free.” He thumbed at a sign on the wall next to him which read ‘No More Humans - Keep Black Fang Out!’.
Kaleb made a sour face at the sign, feeling instantly offended by the vampire’s tone. “She’s clean, I assure you.”
The vampire behind the counter sighed. “Doesn’t matter. This is a human free territory. Not worth risking it. Too many dead. If you don’t like it then drive on. You sure as hell ain’t bringing her in here though. Pass is probably clear enough now anyway. You can refuel, but I want you and that… thing out of here.”
Kaleb curled his hand into a tight fist, clenched his teeth together and looked up and down the counter at the other vampires sitting there. He looked back at the vampire stood on the other side, shook his head slightly and sighed. “I really wish you hadn’t said that. Now I have to kill you.”
When Ellie came to the first thing she noticed is that her wrists were bound in chains. Why were her wrists bound in chains? Sitting up in the cab, she stretched the ache from her muscles and looked around. She was in the parking lot of some roadside diner. There was a terrible aching in her head. Blinking felt slow and painful.
She managed to climb out of the cab and stood in the parking lot, breathing the crisp morning air and staring at the vast mountains just ahead on the horizon. Their sheer size took her breath away, making her forget for a moment about everything else. Just where was she anyway? And what the heck had happened?
Ellie ambled across the half-empty lot toward the front of the diner, trying her hardest to remember as she approached the front door. The last thing she remembered was… nope. The only thing in her mind at the moment was a vast blackness. Her last real memory seemed to be back in the metal shop with Jack, but that felt like it was a lifetime ago.
She pushed through the glass door, failing to notice the bloodstains swamped across the glass windows at the front of the diner. The first thing she noticed upon stepping inside was how quite the diner was. She stopped abruptly as a body slid across the floor, leaving a dark trail of blood in its wake. A familiar voice sounded from the right, the direction the body had been thrown from, and Ellie looked to see Jack.
“What are you doing out of the truck?” he asked. His voice sounded irritated and short. Angrier than usual.
“I came to find you…” She trailed off and looked around the diner for the first time. Her head felt slow. Her mind felt like it was wrapped in glue. She wasn’t thinking fast. Why were there dead bodies everywhere? “What happened here? Did the Circle attack us again?”
Jack stared at her for a moment with his mouth hanging open. A spark flashed in his eyes. “That’s right. The Circle attacked again. They destroyed the village. We barely escaped with our lives. You had a blow to your head.” He walked toward her and gently brushed a hand over her hair. She let her head fall forward against his chest and breathed through the grogginess. “Do you remember much?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head and looking back up at him. “My head hurts like a bastard though. Were these vampires Circle members too?”
He looked around him momentarily and nodded slowly. “That’s right. Undercover faction. I took care of it though baby, don’t you worry.” He leaned in and kissed her throat. Ellie pulled back, staring at him oddly. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s not really the most romantic place for that…” she said, staring at him momentarily in question. “Don’t you think?”
His flat red eyes stared back at her blankly and an automatic nod followed a few seconds later. “No, of course, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
A feeling of unease stared in the back of Ellie’s mind, but she couldn’t understand why. She put it down to tiredness and dropped her head against Jack’s chest again before pulling away from him to yawn out her fatigue. Her stretch was limited by the chains holding her wrists together. Jack seemed to notice her staring at them and stepped forward with an explanation.
“Two Circle vampires tried to take you,” he said as he swept toward her. He took a key out his pocket and unlocked the chains. “There wasn’t time to get the chains off when we left. Sorry.”
Ellie slipped the chains from her wrists and stretched her arms wide, feeling much better now she could move again. She wondered why Jack would have they keys if Circle vampires had been the ones that tried to take her, but she didn’t have the mental energy to question it properly. She stretched and instantly felt a little relief. “Ah. That’s better. It’s okay. Sounds like things got pretty hairy back there. What happened to everyone else? Rourke, Malachi, Kara, Natalie… did they make it out?”
An empty smile filled his face. “I’m sure they’re fine darling. But enough about all that. We’re away from the bad people now. Look out at those mountains over there.” Jack’s hands seized her shoulders and turned to the brightening sky outside. The mountains loomed on the horizon, almost like they were waiting for them. Ellie felt that pang of hopefulness once more. That felt right.
“We’re so close,” she said, her voice hinged with hopefulness.
“That’s rig
ht.” Jack squeezed her shoulders and kissed the side of her head. “We’ll take shelter here for the night and once sundown comes again we’ll make way for the pass. Nothing can stop us now sweetie. We’re going to find our place. We’re going to follow our destiny.”
Ellie smiled and felt a deep warmth bubbling up at her center. It faded fast when her eyes brought her back to her current reality. She stared at the dead bodies lying across the diner and noticed for the first time how brutal the scene was. Repulsion stirred inside of her and she twisted out of Jack’s grasp. These murders were positively barbaric. It wasn’t like Jack. It wasn’t like Jack at all.
The vampire stared back at her, fear brimming on his eyes. He seemed to notice that something was wrong. He grabbed hold of Ellie by the arm before she could step out from the mental fog shrouding her. He pulled her through to the back of the diner and upstairs, away from the chaos and into a plain dark room with a bed for two.
“Come lay with me my mate,” Jack said as he pulled her over to the bed. “It’s been a long day for the two of us, and we should get some rest.” Jack lay Ellie down on the bed and climbed onto it, spooning her from behind. As she lay there staring at the grey wall ahead she couldn’t ignore the feeling that somehow this all felt wrong. Turning onto her back, she looked at Jack, staring into his eyes with silent uncertainty.
“What’s the matter darling?” he asked as he brushed a hand through her hair. It was a good question, and one she couldn’t answer. His rich scent of oak and earth lifted to greet her, but this time it didn’t comfort her. A sick feeling formed in the pit of her stomach, sitting there like a block of rotting ice.
Ellie tried to shake the feeling away and sighed. An inexplicable sadness swept over her. Tears brimmed in her eyes and ran down her face. She felt tired. Why was she so tired? “I-I don’t know Jack. I just feel sad. Something feels wrong to me. Don’t you feel it too?”
Those twinkling red eyes looked back on her as he stroked her hair reassuringly. It was a gesture that should have soothed her, but it did little to unravel the tension coiled in her chest. “You hit your head hard, darling. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a concussion. I’m here. Nothing can hurt you. It’s okay.”
