The Vampire Gift 5: Whispers of Evil

by E. M. Knight

  His forebrain and hindbrain are in constant battle as he’s always thinking about food.

  I don’t know where he’s gotten blood… but I won’t press him on it. He is my younger brother, and I do care for him.

  I just hope Liana’s blood is potent enough to stave off some of the hunger that the blood he gets hasn’t satisfied.

  I tuck the vial away and continue to my true destination, the Queen’s own study chambers.

  Mother hasn’t spent much time there in recent years. But I hope to discover one thing above all else:

  Plans for tonight’s succession.

  One thing that is still unchanged is that the ceremony must take place at the birth of a new day. It will occur no earlier than midnight.

  It means I still have some hours left.

  I slow my pace nearer my destination. It’s oddly comforting being back in the treetop apartments. Eerie, too, given how still and quiet they all are. But they lend a sense of familiarity to me that has been radically missing these last few weeks.

  Weeks? No, it hasn’t been weeks. Has it? All the days, all the nights blend together in my mind. Ever since the castle fell, time has become nothing but a nuisance. Couple that with the disastrous wound I took in battle, and the darkness I had to struggle through in the aftermath…

  Well, you tell me weeks, days, months, I wouldn’t know. I can’t tell the difference. To a vampire they’re all one and the same.

  Unless there’s pressure to get something done, unless there’s an artificial squeezing of time, unless there’s a deadline, unless there is…

  Father’s ultimatum.

  After tonight we’ll have a much clearer view of things. If the wards come up, The Haven will be protected.

  But… at what cost?

  Admittedly, I knew little of Mother’s plans at the start. That was my folly, my weakness, my own shortcoming. How I wish now that I had paid more attention then.

  But not in a million years did I expect to fall completely, absolutely, irrevocably in love. Not with the woman brought in to be Mother’s surrogate. Not after having my heart shattered by Liana.

  Maybe I was too much of a cynic. But such traits are in my nature. They were there long before I was made into a vampire. A pervasive skepticism and an unimpressed attitude defined what little I recall of my human years.

  And now I am about to pay for my mistake. Eleira says she’s up for it, Eleira says she’s accepted her fate, but the truth is… she knows so little.

  That’s not to demean her or her intellect. I’ve seen the extraordinary power of her instincts. She’s sharp and smart, quick to grasp concepts, as evidenced with her rapid-fire learning of magic… but for all that, she is still no more than a child. A baby vampire! It takes years for newborns to accomplish as much as Eleira has in her short time with us. No matter her innate talents and capabilities, she is still woefully short on experience.

  And that, I fear, is her biggest weakness. She is blind to things, not because she wants to be, or chooses to be… but simply because she doesn’t know any better.

  She hasn’t had the benefit of residing with the same group of vampires for centuries.

  That is why Mother’s quick decision to hold the succession tonight scares me. She was adamant, for as long as I’ve known her, from the very moment she revealed some of her plans, that the succession ceremony has to take place on a full moon.

  I look out the window at the sky. The moon is just a sliver up there. We’re not even close to the proper alignment.

  I don’t know enough about magic to determine why the phase of the moon is so important… but I do know the value we place in the constellations. All of prophecy is bound around them.

  So it’s only logical to assume that Mother’s former insistence on having a full moon was grounded in something very, very important… and that the abolition of that requirement means the ceremony that is to take place tonight differs greatly from the one that was originally planned.

  That is why Eleira’s readiness scares me. She could say no, she still has the power to refuse. I would back her a million times over if she wills it.

  But the unfortunate truth is that if I even hint at her backing out, it will accomplish only the opposite of my goals. She will sink her heels in and become obstinately stubborn about going through with it regardless.

  It will only make her most determined to prove herself and face the challenge head-on.

  But I have no illusions that Mother is planning something tricky.

  I open the door to her study, using the key I’d swiped from the stronghold. This is where I can find answers… I hope.

  With blazing speed I run around the room and grab every single book, document, and parchment there is. I place it all up on the grand central desk, flip the first open, and start to read.

  This time, unlike the time I was with Eleira in the library, I have no qualms about using my superior preternatural abilities to speed through the written words. My mind works as fast as it can, absorbing every little piece of information in the books.

  There is talk of magic in some… but none of it is directly relevant.

  With a grunt, I set the final book aside. I look once more out the window at the sky. Only five minutes have passed.

  Next, I turn to the ancient manuscripts from centuries ago.

  On some of them I recognize Mother’s precise, sharp handwriting. There are notes in the margins and around the blocks of text. But again all this is useless. Nothing gives me what I ache to know!

  Going through all these documents takes another ten minutes. In the back of my mind I feel the clock ticking, I still have hours left, but this is not an auspicious start.

  I wish I could have asked Phillip to pull up whatever he has on the elaborate computer systems. But all of them have been taken offline in the aftermath of the battle with The Convicted. We couldn’t have the sudden appearance of electronic activities give our location away to government agencies.

  I turn my attention to the final stack. This one contains Mother’s notebooks. Some of her most private writings.

  I hope I can find something about the succession here.

  Without another thought, I dive in.

  But to my disappointment all I find are strange, long-winded ramblings. About things of no consequence to me. There’s nothing there about magic or her abilities, or any of her plans…

  With an exasperated growl I push away from the desk. Of course there isn’t anything here. Why should there be? My mother wouldn’t just leave her most secret plans lying around, unguarded, in notebooks. But I had hoped…

  Foolish to hope. I scold myself. Remember that always.

  I get up and make a sound of disgust. This was a stupid plan. The odds of me coming out of it with any new information or knowledge were slim-to-none. It reeks of desperation.

  But of course I’m desperate. The woman I love is about to fling herself into deep, murky waters she knows nothing about.

  In my frustration I slam a fist against the desk. “Dammit!” I scowl. “Dammit, dammit, dammit!’

  I hear a click and spin around.

  Behind me, a tiny trapdoor has popped open.

  It’s embedded into the floor of the room. It’s so perfectly seamless that even with my superior sight I managed to overlook it completely.

  Could the little racket I caused hitting the desk have been enough to trigger it?

  I approach it warily. There is no other explanation for it having come open. Yet, would Mother really have a hidden entrance here with such a flimsy defense?

  And then it hits me: the wards! Much like they erected a protective barrier around The Haven, they must have had some influence hiding secret passages that Mother utilized. Perhaps it was all linked to the throne torrial… who knows?

  Yet those conjectures matter not. The only thing that does is that this is a passage that leads somewhere… somewhere secret.

  I crouch down beside the trapdoor and ease the
lid up. Immediately, the musky scent of old paper greets me. My eyes pierce the darkness, and I see inside.

  That door leads to a little well, or chamber, no bigger than the room provided in one of those construction site portable toilets.

  I glance around, then jump in.

  Clouds of dust erupt around me as my feet hit the floor. Nobody’s been here in ages. Circular shelves run all around the room, all filled with ancient documents.

  In the back of my mind, a huge spark of disbelief flares. Could it be that luck has smiled upon me for once?

  I pick out a scroll at random. More dust, ancient dust, puffs up. I wave a hand in front of my face to clear it away and begin to read.

  Right away, I know I’ve hit the jackpot. These are the same sort of writings I was exposed to when I’d taken up studying the stars. Written in the same hand, even!

  Not by my mother, of course, these predate her…

  But this is the repository of all things to do with prophecy! The writings of the ancient witches, of the one who had the Sight, they’re all in here!

  Excitement takes me. I wasn’t expecting such a windfall. And at a time when the outlook seemed so bleak! It’s almost like a real-life version of deus ex machina.

  Incredible.

  I doubt I’m going to find anything of the ceremony in these scrolls. That is Mother’s domain. She is the one who set up the throne torrials in the first place.

  But what I do discover here, as I go from parchment to parchment… is the absolute depth of conviction these witches had of the prophecy.

  Most of the writings are cryptic. And Mother did not hide much from me. The star alignments she spoke of were exactly what is written here.

  And yet…

  And yet, I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something. Some vital element, some sort of clue. All those parchments are here for a reason. Mother stowed them away for a reason… yet they do not reveal much. Perhaps it’s simply that I don’t know what I’m looking for.

  An uncomfortable itch develops at the base of my neck. The more time I spend here, the less time I have with Eleira before the ceremony. I was hoping to discover something useful about it… something that might hint at how it will look… but I’m coming up null.

  That bit of frustration threatens to flare again. I should not be victim to any of this!

  At the very least I’ve learned of one more secret place. Maybe there is some use to the knowledge contained down here.

  But it does not directly apply to me.

  I look up at the gaping trapdoor above me, then do one more cursory scan of the scrolls in this cramped space.

  Out of the blue, a particular one on a high corner catches my eye.

  While all the rest have a thick coat of dust on them—or did, until I reached for them—this one is less grimy. In fact, it looks like it’s been recently disturbed.

  With a bit of chuckle I take hold of it and pull it down. What an obvious clue. Sherlock himself couldn’t have had an easier time with it.

  As soon as I have the parchment in my hand, a feeling of… power… washes over me.

  I stop and frown. Had I imagined it?

  I look at the scroll. There are runes scrawled all over it. Exactly of the sort I saw inscribed in Mother’s torrials.

  And the likes of which were there in The Book of the Dead.

  So, this is one of the few in here that have to do with magic.

  But what use is it to me? Am I really going to find anything about Mother’s plans tonight? Anything that might help Eleira?

  Not that I can tell.

  This whole venture was doomed to fail from the start. It was a stupid thing, a ridiculous thing, to expect to stumble upon anything useful with nothing more than a bit of sleuthing.

  I do one last scan of the document. I cannot read a thing. No wonder.

  Still, I tuck it under my arm as I jump back out the little storage room. Even if I can’t read it, there are others who might… and I have no plan to just leave it lying around where it can so easily be discovered.

  Clock’s still ticking. Midnight looms ever-nearer. It’s beyond time for me to get back to the stronghold, lest my departure be discovered.

  As fast as I can, I arrange all of the Queen’s belongings into the same position they were in when I came in. Then I close the trapdoor, take one more look around to make sure I’m not forgetting anything, and finally lock up.

  I shake my head, half in disappointment and half in disgust. Even when the idea to come here in search of more information sparked in my mind, I had a feeling I would not be overly successful. Now, that that has all but been confirmed…?

  At the very least, I got to see the treehouse apartments again. They are very much important to me.

  I take the quick way out and soon find myself running back to the stronghold. I have the one parchment, the one scroll, hidden beneath the flap of my jacket. And in my other coat pocket, I have that special vial of blood.

  At least, because of that, the expedition will not be deemed a complete failure. Eleira would doubtlessly be angry if she found out that I’ve kept this other woman’s blood for so long…

  But nothing compels me to tell her. Besides, she said it herself: she doesn’t want complete transparency so much as she wants full honesty. I appreciate that. And if I am taking slight advantage of it at the moment, so be it.

  I’m doing it with her best interest at heart.

  I’m lost in my own thoughts, paying no more than a cursory attention to my surroundings, when suddenly, that jolt of power rips through me again.

  I go shock-still. In fact, I nearly drop the parchment in surprise.

  Because, this time, there was no doubting it: the power came from it.

  Carefully, slowly, I unravel the scroll and hold it out before me.

  Some of the runes are oh-so-faintly glowing.

  Immediately, I tense up. That blue glow is all-too familiar to me now. Quickly, I do a scan of my surroundings. But I am still all alone, out here in the night, in the depths of the woods and of The Haven.

  So what is triggering the glow?

  I lay the parchment carefully on a dry boulder. I put two stones on either end to hold it down, then step away.

  Part of me expected the glow to evaporate once I broke contact. But those runes continue to give off the effervescent light.

  Uncanny.

  For the second time tonight I wish I had Phillip with me. He could at least make out some of the meaning behind the runes. But for me, they are entirely a foreign language. Nothing helps me figure out what they mean.

  The power I felt, though, is undeniable.

  For a second I debate leaving the scroll behind. I have no idea what compelled me to steal it. Only that it seemed important, perhaps. But working with objects of magic is like dabbling with dark forces while being completely blind to them. This parchment can do anything, really—I have no idea. I don’t feel threatened by it, of course not, but carrying it back into the stronghold when it’s obviously been actuated by something seems like the absolute perfect way to attract unwanted attention from the Queen.

  Yet there is importance to it. Instinct tells me that.

  I bring both hands behind my head and breathe out. What am I doing, dawdling here like this? The surge of power was undeniable, yes… but I don’t think it has anything to do with me.

  My eyes go up the center of an enormous redwood… and when they reach the top, a jolt of alarm hits.

  The moon is visible again. But now it’s nearly half full.

  I stop and gape. There was just a sliver of it in the sky a scant hour ago! And now it looks like it’s in the waxing gibbous phase.

  The glowing intensifies.

  A wind picks up in the distance. It howls through the tops of trees and sends dry needles spiraling down. I shiver as it slices through my coat. Not from the cold, mind you, but from a sense of… foreboding.

  Slowly, as if emerging out from a great lake o
f lava, I feel the presence of one other supernatural creature descend upon me.

  I turn around. I cannot see him through the trees, yet his proximity is undeniable. The flavor of knowing is unlike any else I’ve ever experienced.

  “Who’s there?” I call out. “Who walks these woods?”

  There’s no answer.

  The feeling expands and threatens to take over. I know I’m not coming face-to-face with just a regular vampire. This is someone else, somebody not of The Haven coven.

  My back muscles tense. The wind continues blowing, sending the ends of my jacket billowing. Once more I look up at the sky and find the moon even larger than before.

  A great sense of unease takes me. It is almost like a nausea. Something is happening here, something obviously to do with magic, and it is nothing I can control.

  “I’ll ask one more time,” I say, making my voice purposefully firm. “Show yourself! Tell me who you are. If not…” all my claws come out, “…I will have no choice but to consider you a threat.”

  Could it be The Ancient? I think. Could it be some vampire from The Crypts?

  No answer comes, but the feeling of darkness, of malice continues to expand.

  “Last chance,” I warn. “Reveal yourself! Or—”

  The words die on my tongue as a great albino hound emerges from the woods.

  The dog is monstrous. Its shoulders stand level with mine. If it stood on its back legs it would easily dwarf me. Its fur is perfectly white, white as snow, white as winter.

  Two red eyes gleam into me from above an enormous muzzle.

  I take an inadvertent step back. It is a creature of the night, I know its presence the same way that I do any vampire’s… but I’ve never heard of a turned animal before.

  “What are you?” I whisper.

  The hound takes a step forward. To my utter fascination its paws leave no mark on the dirt. No matter the weight of its body—and it must be immense—it leaves no impression on the forest floor.