In the end, it came down to a sleeping boy in a life pod.
She rose to her feet and brushed her hand against her face, and stared in surprise at the moisture that glazed her cheeks. Her lips moved, shaping silent words. “Goodbye, Rafael.”
Her wings spread to their full wingspan, and she took to the air. He had turned his back on her, and now, she left him.
Even so, she looked back until his home was lost to the miles that separated them, finally invisible even to an icrathari’s eyes.
Chapter 16
A quiet sigh ripped through the silent shroud that lay over the ark. From her perch on a carbon steel beam in the upper reaches of the large room, Siri allowed her gaze to flow across the endless rows of life pods. In her hand, she twirled two small steel balls. The rotating movement across her palm anchored her and gave her something to focus on beyond the fact that her problems were not only vast, but also eternal.
Twelve months had passed since she had last heard Rafael’s voice, when they had said farewell in the caverns. In the grand scheme of eternity, a year was no more than the passing of a moment, but the past twelve months had dragged with the slow torment of centuries. Rafael had been right when he called the ark a tomb. It scarcely mattered that all the inhabitants of the ark were alive; they would never awake again. Why did the icrathari even bother keeping the human children alive? They would never wake, never smile, never laugh again.
The hope of expanding the settlement beyond the dome was an impossibility, a fact that tormented her like an open wound. Earth’s meager sources of palladium were unreachable. There would be no more glass domes, no more human settlements other than Aeternae Noctis. No second chances for life on Earth.
The icrathari had saved humanity for nothing!
Siri hurled the balls away from her. They flew across the room and smashed against the glass of a life pod, before bouncing off harmlessly, to land on the ground.
The glass remained unmarred.
Her eyes flashed open wide.
The palladium glass of the life pod was unmarred.
The ark housed thousands upon thousands of life pods, each of them flawlessly constructed from palladium glass.
She shot to her feet. Her wings flared, lifting her in the air. Siri hovered over the ark, looking down on the single largest palladium deposit in the world.
Laughter bubbled through her, a silver chime that echoed off the arched vaults of the ark. “Oh, Rohkeus. Did you think of everything?” She dove in exultant flight through the rows of life pods. Her fingertips brushed over the frosted surfaces, as if caressing the faces of the sleeping children. Their coffins would be their salvation, the key to new life.
She raced out of the ark and nearly collided into Jaden and Ashra who had apparently been on their way into the ark. Siri flung her arms around Jaden’s neck and smacked a kiss to his cheek. “You’re a genius.”
“Ah…” Jaden’s eyebrows drew together. “Okay…” He leaned back to stare at Siri. “Are you all right?”
“What is this about?” Ashra asked.
Siri took Ashra’s and Jaden’s hands and pulled them to the door of the ark. “What do you see?”
Ashra frowned. “The same thing I’ve seen for the past thousand years.”
“What you’re looking at is Rohkeus’s genius and farsightedness,” Siri said. “A little over a thousand years ago, when we were in the final stages of outfitting Aeternae Noctis, Rohkeus ordered the vampires to use palladium glass for the life pods.”
Ashra’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes.” Siri swept her hand across the room. “Every single life pod in there is made from palladium glass.”
“Are you sure? Why didn’t you remember this before?”
“Why would I have? I didn’t hang onto Rohkeus’s every word the way you did. Besides, if you recall, we were in a bit of a rush to build out Aeternae Noctis back then. The impending holocaust had me a little distracted. How was I supposed to remember a random, passing comment he made, even if he was our prince?”
Ashra’s gaze drifted across the rows of life pods. “Are you telling me you’ll be able to build domes from the palladium glass in here?”
“Absolutely.” Siri sucked in a deep breath. “I can build out two—perhaps three—domes, each the size of the dome over Aeternae Noctis.”
“And life returns to Earth,” Jaden murmured.
“As Rohkeus…as you always intended.”
Jaden shook his head. “I wish I’d known him.”
Ashra smiled and stood on tiptoes to breathe a kiss on Jaden’s lips. “Not trading you for him.” She looked back at Siri. “How soon can you get the domes up?”
“Well, we’ll have to find good locations for them, and then park Aeternae Noctis nearby to provide cover from the sun while we actually construct the dome. Then there’s the internal build out and the migration…I’d say at least six to nine months a piece.”
“You’ll let Rafael know, of course.”
“Uh,” Siri stuttered. “Yes, I will. After I’ve erected the domes.”
“Why not before?”
Siri’s shoulders shifted with a silent sigh. “Because words aren’t enough, not anymore. I need something to give him.”
“Like his son?”
Siri nodded. “Especially his son.”
Chapter 17
Everything felt the same yet different when Siri soared from Aeternae Noctis and into the thin air. The night was cool in contrast to the mild warmth radiating from the ground. In the distance, she saw the outcropping of rock that marked the entrance to Rafael’s caverns.
On the surface, nothing had changed since she had been this way last, some three years earlier. Two years, eleven months, and twenty-seven days, to be precise. The last time, something in her had cracked—had almost broken—when she realized he was not waiting on the surface of the Earth for her.
Her words had not been sufficient to move him then, but her actions would make it all right now. Four palladium glass domes, each ten miles in diameter, dotted the landscape once dominated by the Colorado River. Terraforming had made the valley fertile once more. Artesian aquifers provided water for the communities flourishing beneath the dome.
Aeternae Noctis was occupied by a skeleton crew. Most of the humans had relocated to one of the four permanent cities, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, which were protected by twenty-second century human military technology as well as standing armies of vampires led by Talon and Yuri.
The ark was empty of children, save one. Families were reunited, and the laughter of children filled the cities. The night of the full moon was no longer regarded with fear.
Only one child remained in the ark, still frozen in sleep. He had no family to return to.
Siri’s goal was to give him a father to return to, even if the man himself no longer wanted her. No doubt, Rafael would relocate with Stefan to one of the cities. She had to remain on Aeternae Noctis, but she would see him each time the moving city made its circuit of the area. It was less than she wanted, although more than she deserved. She would learn to live with it; after all, she had learned to live without him these past three years.
Siri’s wings flared, slowing her descent, as she landed by the rock outcropping. The air was still. Nothing moved.
She looked around. Something felt wrong, even though she could not pinpoint it immediately. There was a full energy cell in the solar charging station. Absently, she swiped her finger over the station. The silver color of steel appeared beneath the thick layer of brown dust.
She stared at the layers of caked dirt on her finger. Rafael would never have allowed dirt to collect on the solar charging station.
The coil of horror in her stomach sprang her forward.
The steel trapdoor stuck when she pulled on it; she had to exert force to open it. The air in the caverns was stale, and an energy cell lay fallen just inside the entrance of the caves, its once-shiny surface a dull-brown. The sight
spurred her on.
She raced down the familiar tunnels. Her bat wings flared, carrying her along so that her feet hardly touched the ground. She peered into the retinal scanner. Metal ground against steel. With a low groan, the carbon steel doors opened.
She could smell his scent, but it was different. Wrong. He smelled of decay and death.
She burst into his alcove. Shock tore a gasp from her. “Rafael!”
The skeletal figure staked to the far wall raised its head. Its gaunt features were beyond recognition, but she knew its voice, his voice. “Trap…” Its whisper was so soft that her preternatural senses could hardly hear it. “Run.”
She ran toward it, not away from it. “Rafael!”
The light vanished from his eyes and his head lolled, as if the need to deliver the warning had been the only compulsion keeping him alive.
The shadows beside the ruins of the cottage shifted, and a lean humanoid figure stepped forth. “He said you would never come back.”
Siri twisted to face the new threat. Standing still, she assessed the immortali she had fought once before. He did not look dangerous. He did not even look mad, but looks were deceiving. Her jaw squared. “He was wrong.”
Erich Dale inclined his head. “I hope you mean a great deal more to your icrathari sisters than he meant to you, or will I have to wait another two years, eleven months, and twenty-seven days to spring my trap?”
A hard fist seemed to squeeze around her heart. Rafael had been attacked and staked to the wall the day she left him. He had not met her because he could not. If she had done more than wait for him on the planet’s surface, if she had gone down into the caves, she would have found him. She could have saved him. But now—
“You are too late,” Erich said, as if he had read her thoughts. He paced in a circle until he stood between her and Rafael. The stark contrast between his body and Rafael’s mocked her. “No matter what we did to him, he refused to scream your name, afraid it would somehow summon you. He never had a chance; the blood sickness you inflicted on him kept his broken body from healing, and eventually, he bled dry. Became a husk.” Erich’s upper lip curled. “And yet, he refused to die. He stayed alive to warn you, for all the good it will do.” He waved a hand. Twenty or more daevas flittered through connecting tunnels to surround Siri like a constricting noose.
Behind Erich, the broken husk of Rafael’s body moved. Shriveled muscles on bony arms pushed against the wall, sliding Rafael’s body forward along the stakes.
Erich spun around at the sound of wizened flesh grating against metal. His jaw dropped and his arms swung up as Rafael hurled himself through the air. The elder vampire and immortali collapsed to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Snarls rumbled through the cavern, echoing against its walls. Dirt kicked into a cloud of dust, obscuring Siri’s view of the wrestling immortals.
“Call them off.” The raspy whisper like a knife’s edge was Rafael’s. The curtain of brown dust fell back to reveal Erich on his knees. Rafael crouched over the immortali; his skeletal hand clenched Erich’s blond hair and his other hand, talons extended, wrapped around Erich’s exposed throat.
The daevas froze. Their wings rustled as they exchanged nervous glances.
“You won’t do it,” Erich said. “You possess too much humanity to murder me in cold blood.”
“What humanity I had you tortured out of me years ago.”
What was left of Siri’s heart cracked at the matter-of-fact tone in Rafael’s voice.
Rafael paused for a beat before he began the countdown. “Three, two—”
Erich made a sharp sound. For all its guttural tones, it rang with command. The daevas retreated, like a paper fan folding in upon itself, clearing a path to the exit.
Rafael looked up. His hazel eyes, so weary, so full of despair, met hers. A half smile tugged up a corner of his mouth. “Go,” he breathed.
Hell, no. Her wings flared to their full ten-foot span and swept down, carrying her swiftly through the air toward Rafael and Erich. She swooped around the curve of the cavern walls, gathering speed. She did not slow down as she swept past Rafael. She tore him away from Erich and soared down the tunnel.
Although Rafael’s height made him bulky, he weighed nearly nothing in her arms. She outraced the screeches of outrage. She left behind the flapping wings and the sounds of her pursuers as she swerved through the narrow caverns. With less than a five-second head start, she burst into the open air.
Siri saw Aeternae Noctis in the distance. She could not make it, not burdened with Rafael. A split-second decision sent her diving toward the crumpled columns of steel and brick that lined the dried riverbed. She crouched behind the ruins as the daevas soared from the tunnel. They hovered in the air, their yellow eyes searching the landscape.
With an animal-like scream, one of them pointed at the domed city, moving ever farther away. As a group, they flew toward Aeternae Noctis. Incoming daeva invasion, Tera. Sorry.
Rafael’s breath rasped.
She looked down at him.
His eyes were closed, but his lips moved, shaping words she strained to hear. “Would have been there…”
Siri swallowed against the lump in her throat. “I know. And I’m here now.” She peeked over the barricade of twisted steel and fallen bricks. The daevas were dark specks in the distance. She would have to run a gauntlet to make it back to Aeternae Noctis. Saddled with an injured elder vampire—no, not just injured, but one on the brink of death, her chances shrank to impossible.
Regardless, she would not leave Rafael. Her arms tightened around him as she assessed his injuries. Open cuts traced paths over his chest and back, but the worst were the gaping wounds in both his shoulders, right through the scapula. Fragments of shattered bone embedded in his desiccated flesh. How had he even managed to move, let alone fight Erich?
Probably in much the same way he had stayed alive when he had bled dry years earlier—willpower.
Her gaze traveled along the length of his body. His knees had been smashed. The potent accelerated healing of vampires would mend broken bones, but fragments would not miraculously align.
Rafael needed a rebirth—easily accomplished with a fresh infusion of icrathari blood—but first she had to put him back together. The process promised to be excruciating for him. She looked around. Not here. She needed shelter from the sun and enough light by which to work. Moonlight would not suffice.
Aeternae Noctis was the only sanctuary, and twenty or more daevas stood between her and the city.
Tera stalked into the chamber on the top floor of Malum Turris. Her wings, flared from recent flight, folded against her back. “What in the Creator’s name is going on?”
Jaden glanced over his shoulder. “Daevas. Twenty-five, by my count. Coming this way.”
“They’re attacking the city?” she asked. Hadn’t the daevas learned that they could not enter the city short of having a traitor on the inside?
“Not yet.” A muscle twitched in Jaden’s smooth jaw. “Siri’s not back yet.”
“Back from where?”
“She went to Rafael’s caverns a half hour ago.”
Tera shot forward to examine the map on one of the computer’s panels. In a half hour, the city had traveled two hundred and fifty miles. The distance did not pose a problem for a swift-flying icrathari, but if Siri wasn’t swift, or worse, wasn’t flying— “Turn the city around and head back to the caverns. Siri’s probably in trouble. The daevas will follow the city, and I want to be right outside the cavern before we engage them in case she needs a quick retreat.”
“It’ll be a half hour before we get to where we need to be.”
A thin smile curved Tera’s lips. “The daevas are simply going to have to be patient while waiting to die. I’ll tell Ashra we’re turning around.”
Jaden nodded. “I’ll join you once I enter the new navigation codes.”
Tera dove headfirst into the shaft, her wings flaring to control her free fall. Twenty-five daevas
would not have posed a problem to a vampire army led by an icrathari, except that she had no vampires to command. Almost all of them had been reassigned to protect the new settlements. Aeternae Noctis was theoretically invulnerable, and she had never expected to engage in battle on what had been intended as a cursory pass by Rafael’s caverns.
Jaden would help, of course, but an icrathari and an elder vampire against twenty-five daevas was going to be a close battle.
Her lip twisted. Ashra was going to dirty her gauzy new gown.
Tera landed on the platform leading to the large chamber that Ashra and Jaden shared with Megun and Aisling, the daughter Ashra had borne to Jaden. She entered after a single perfunctory knock. Lindsay, the female vampire, who watched the children in Ashra’s absence, glanced up as Tera entered.
Tera gave an approving nod; Lindsay’s right hand rested on her hilt of her blade. One could never be too safe, or too complacent.
Megun, as pretty an icrathari child as Tera had ever seen, was living evidence that the daeva’s apparently demonic appearance was a direct function of overexposure to the sun instead of a genetic flaw. She ran toward Tera and flung her arms around Tera’s legs. Her black wings fluttered against her back; the breeze stirred her silver locks. Megun’s bright golden eyes gleamed. “Did you see my pretty hair? Lindsay braided it for me so it looks just like yours.”
“Very pretty,” Tera said. Across the room, the toddler, Aisling, dark-haired and green-eyed like her once-human father, was the ethereal moon to Megun’s dazzling sun. She tottered on unsteady feet, her unsmiling face set in stern lines that reminded Tera of Ashra. Aisling’s gold-gilded horned wings left no doubt as to her status. That child was a princess, Tera reflected, and she was going to be a credit to her mother and an absolute headache to everyone else.
The swish of silk and chiffon drew Tera’s attention to the door that led to one of the suite’s bedrooms.
Eternal Dawn Page 15
