by Peter Dawes
Ian nodded. “I said you are the villain of your own story, Flynn, not me. Make no mistake about it, according to your natural order, I’m evil. I don’t pretend otherwise. But you don’t know true evil, dear boy. The sinister deeds I’m capable of injure only a few. The form of evil you summon will murder by the millions.”
“This is what I was created to do?” I asked, brow furrowed. “Why would the Fates fashion a killer out of a seer?”
“Please, all seers are killers, simply baptized by the Order they represent.” He smiled. “Though hardly evil, as you might be apt to point out. You are an altogether different creature and you know it.”
Ian rose from his chair, rounding the desk and sitting on the edge of it to peer down at me. He raised an eyebrow. “Your brother told you what you are when he returned to life,” he said. “I think you both heard it and didn’t at the same time.”
“A being such as me has not existed in nearly a millennium,” I responded.
“Exactly. Do you think the Fates suddenly made a mistake? Fell asleep at the switch, as the humans like to say, and let you slip through the cracks? No, you’ve been birthed at the apex of the Order’s incompetence, into a world of change and turmoil.” His smile turned sinister, the look on his face downright wicked with suggestion. “You aren’t the messiah, seer. You’re the antichrist.”
We held a steady gaze, my eyes locked into place and his meeting the challenge. I swallowed hard and shook my head, but still refused to look away. “Have the Fates abandoned us, then?” I asked.
Ian laughed. “You make them sound like gods. They’re mechanics. Conductors. The structure in the universe, not the progenitors of it. Whatever forces control the cosmos, they only form one half of the equation. Chaos forms the other half. You’ve assumed all along that you belong to the side of order, but couldn’t be more wrong.”
“And why is that?”
“Because chaos offered you as a present. And we claimed your soul.” Lifting to a stand, Ian stood in my periphery and pointed toward the door. “Come with me,” he said, his tone of voice even.
Against my better judgment, I stood. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and suddenly I felt as though I had entered into a pact with the Devil, not quite handing over my soul, but extending it rather close to harm’s reach. We walked back to the closed door and he allowed me to be the one to twist its knob and push it open. On the other side lay not his false coven in Chicago, but my mistress’s penthouse in Philadelphia.
Ian parted from my company, weaving around furniture and walking ahead of me, forcing me to follow. We navigated away from the entryway and into the main sitting area, greeted by a standing Sabrina and a seated Valeria, who focused their attention on Ian, but not on me. “I apologize for being late,” he said, briskly closing the distance to an empty seat and settling into it. “I had a meeting I needed to finish. Please catch me up.”
Sabrina raised an eyebrow, but sighed as though choosing to dismiss the affront. “I was exchanging pleasantries with your friend,” she said. “It’s in poor taste to force two unacquainted people to make their own introductions, Master Carmichael.”
“Yes, it is, and for that I offer my deepest, and most sincere, apologies.” He crossed one leg over the other. “I trust, then, that you’ve heard all about how my dear friend Sabrina and I met, Lady Valeria.”
“I did, indeed,” Valeria said with a smirk. “It seems like we all share something in common, then.”
“Yes, we’ve all had our brush-ups with the Supernatural Order,” Ian said, “And somehow lived to tell the tale. That being said, I hope you didn’t already get to the good stuff, Mistress Sabrina. I wanted to see the look on Valeria’s face when you told her.”
Valeria raised an eyebrow, her gaze shifting back over to Sabrina. My maker lowered onto the arm of a plush couch and knitted her hands together, the smile never wavering from her face. “We’ve finally been given the boon we’ve waited centuries for, Lady Valeria,” Sabrina explained. “Whatever gods look out for us must have finally been given the chance to tip the hand in our favor.”
“Well, don’t hang me in suspense,” Valeria said. She tilted her head. “What is it you found, dear?”
“A seer. One that hasn’t been claimed or tainted by the Order.”
The elder vampiress sat up straighter in her chair. “I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. Their sorcerers don’t let any of them escape their notice.”
“Ah, but there’s good reason why this one’s still roaming free.” Sabrina arched an eyebrow at her in return. “He hasn’t attained his gifts yet. His eyes are still blue, not green yet.”
Valeria barked out a laugh. She glanced first at Ian, then back to Sabrina. “Dear heart, one can’t recognize a seer before their calling. It simply doesn’t happen. His eyes could have been brown, black, or turquoise, but that’s no guarantee that they’ll ever be emerald green.”
“And yet,” Ian said, interjecting, “I’ve laid eyes on this man in question. He’s a human doctor and unless you knew what to look for, you might be tempted to be so dismissive. You might even discount the fact that those blue eyes bear the exact same hue as our green-eyed antagonists. But squint a little closer and you’ll discover he’s not alone.” A devilish grin overtook his expression. “He’s being protected.”
She furrowed her brow. “By what?”
“Guardians. A human sorceress who happens to be a member of the Order. They’re keeping him in the dark for whatever reason, but he’s ripe for the picking.”
“A lot older than the seers usually are when they receive their calling,” Sabrina added.
Valeria’s eyes shifted from one person to the other, her body tensing again by the slightest of margins. “He’s being hedged by the Order, but they’re allowing him to be ignorant?” she asked.
“Neither of us are sure why,” Ian said, “But I’ve been tempted to take a page from my maker’s book.” Ian shifted to face Valeria. “Before my master died, you do know that we managed to liberate another of the scrolls, yes?”
She issued a sardonic chuckle. “I heard you freed the key only to lose it again. Not that I blame you. I only managed to have the key long enough to free mine. It’s destroyed now, though, or locked in the Order’s vaults, or whatever they do with these things when they know we’re after them.”
“Yes, thus it goes without saying that our last card has been taken away.”
“Well, naturally. Raulin Mallowburne gave us one escape, not a dozen. The only reason the key stayed out of our reach for so long was because of that whelp Eleanor.”
The smile returned to Ian’s face. “Unless we have a seer on our side. Somebody who can walk in and gather the rest for us.”
Valeria stared at Ian for several beats. “We lose the key, but are given a seer?” she asked.
“I think it’s more than just happenstance.” He nodded, licking his lips. “I think the time of our ascension is finally at hand.”
“After a millennium.” She looked at Sabrina and laughed, delight dancing in her eyes. “Is this your feeling on the matter, too?”
Sabrina straightened to a stand. “Not only do I think his destiny lies with us,” she said, “I think fortune smiled on me, for a change.” An eyebrow arched in defiance toward Valeria. “I want to be the one holding the leash while the Supernatural Order begs for mercy at our feet.”
A sinister smirk overtook Valeria’s expression. “He’s your catch, dear. If you want to task of bringing in our protégé, he’s all yours. So long as you understand your place in the matter.”
“And what place might that be?”
“To ready him to be our champion.”
Sabrina bristled and paced around her chair, headed for the liquor cabinet. “If that’s my place, then I know it well enough, thank you. He’ll be taught by the best, if I have my say.”
“We’ll see about that,” Ian said, interjecting. “If we turn him now, heaven knows when his powers migh
t manifest. Be on the ready and keep that damn second of yours in the dark.”
“Michael’s easy to handle. He doesn’t know about this meeting, and for good reason.” She paused to pour a tumbler of brandy. “I need to shake loose that protection hedging in the seer.”
“Just work on calling him home. Ian and I can handle the rest.”
“My pleasure.” Lifting the glass, Sabrina pointed it at her co-conspirators. “To the dawn of a new age.”
“To our liberation,” Valeria said, beaming as the moment washed over her, such obvious joy infecting her, I could not help but to read her expression as relief. Ian clapped with approval and Sabrina smirked as she sipped from her drink. For as much as I expected something else to happen, it still caught me by surprise when Valeria rose to her feet and turned to face me.
With a flick of her hand, Sabrina and Ian disappeared.
“Do you see it now, seer?” she asked, taking two steps closer to me. Pausing, she extended an arm and pointed around the room. “Amazing how the Order could hunt you down and try to slaughter you and yet, you would buy their spin that you are some anomaly of their Fates. Some powerful seer sent out to eradicate an evil which might be your equal. All along, the truth has been right in front of your eyes, waiting for you to see it. You were made to be our chosen one, bringing the balance of power back to immortal kind once and for all.”
I bristled at the way she laughed, seeing her inch closer and feeling my skin crawl in response. Yet, at the same time, I could not ignore the undercurrent between us. I hated her for what she had done to Monica. But I loathed her exposing me as a fraud just as much. Some great purpose. Some higher calling, indeed. The only good which had truly been in me had been Monica and now, she was gone.
“Don’t hold pity for those charlatans who employ you,” Valeria said, sliding up beside me and running her hand between my shoulder blades. Her touch both enticed and revolted me. “The wars which birthed your band of vampire hunters claimed hundreds of our brothers. It nearly wiped our kind from the map indiscriminately, both the bloodline which fathered us and the followers of my master. The Order are paranoid, reckless, and do more damage to the natural order than even we do. All the more reason to see our Dark Father’s mission to its culmination at last.”
“And what if I decline?” I asked.
“I don’t think you want to now. Yes, I took her as a tribute, but they wanted to murder you both in cold blood and would have done so had you not saved the two-faced bastards. Now, she is not here to judge you, or whisper sweet nothings to you from a pillow of lies. Hate me if you want, but we know the truth. One day they would have condemned you again, when they knew they had used you up and had no further need for such an abomination. That is what this has all been about for nearly a millennium. We became immortal and they viewed us with disdain. Tell me I am wrong. That they are not as blinded by the same prejudice they had when I was human.”
I fought to issue a response, but found my words lacking. In that moment, my own memories cascaded in front of me, reminding me merely of the things I had witnessed in this venture alone. Boxes with scrolls hidden in ruins, with vampires sealed inside to protect them, with only a few on a longer leash purely to capture humans and toss them to their starving compatriots. I thought of things as small as airplanes with cages and silver shackles, and large as the fact that Seattle failed to fight me when I demanded I venture alone.
“They sent you on your suicide mission,” Valeria said, as though she could read my thoughts, “And did not truly care if either you or your lover survived the expedition.”
Any attempt at disagreeing became difficult to fashion, my thoughts clouded by too many things crowding in on me. I had lost my lover and moral conscience. Been betrayed by my brother. Now shown the truth of my destiny and fallen into it just as everyone had warned me I would. I felt emptier than I had even when I thought Monica dead by Ian’s hand, locked into the finality of the events playing out around me. I had gained and lost my soul again so fast, I could not tell if I deserved either Peter or Flynn’s name.
‘Perhaps the world should burn,’ I thought morbidly.
Vampire, I was. Vampire, I would always be. All of the things which had circled me like wisps on the wind to coil around me and strangle out the human screaming from within. Left without a compass, I saw the tempest headed toward me and floundered in indecision “What would you have me do?” I asked.
“I would have you ascend.” The smile in Valeria’s tone broadened to its brightest yet. “Come, vampire Flynn. Embrace what you were destined to become. The night is young and calls for its master.”
Shutting my eyes, I faded out again, knowing my reckoning had come while not ready to face it yet. I could not ignore it any longer, though, and as I waded from the dream, I saw a world of fire and a world of grief and could not distinguish which of the two would expiate my wrath, or actualize my agony. I would never smile again. Never love again. Never breathe again the way I had with her. Time had run out on us.
All I could do was hope, in death, I might see her again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The realization that one has reached their end is both a sobering and liberating experience. In surrender, I saw the shards of glass my life had become and felt peace mixed with grief, knowing the moment would come when I felt nothing at all. My eyes opened, a deep breath racking me with jolts of pain from the still mending wound in my stomach. As I groaned involuntarily, I heard footsteps close in and stop just shy of where I lay. I did not meet their gaze. I knew it would be Valeria, and stole another moment to steel myself before I would allow the victor her spoils.
“Rise, my child,” she said. “Join us. We will feed you and clean you up before the ritual begins.”
“How giving of you,” I said, wincing once more when I attempted to move. Swiftly, more people closed in on me, more sets of hands lifting me up and supporting my weight when bending brought added waves of agony. I held up a hand once righted, to dismiss the lot, and leaned on my other palm for support as soon as they left me to my own devices. Swallowing hard, I glanced around the room, seeing a group of creatures who might have proven formidable even at my best. Enough dark energy swirled around me to suffocate me. As my eyes settled on Robin, I felt a pang in my heart again, glancing away when he tilted his chin up in recognition of my stare.
No sense in delaying in the inevitable, I supposed.
Valeria closed in on me, no pretense in the way she regarded me. Draped in black from blouse to skirt, she fiddled with her amulet, wearing a smile on her face both to entreat and gloat. “Now, now,” she said. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I’d hate to punish you this soon in the game.” She paused beside me, inclining her head so she could whisper in my ear. “My general.”
My eyes shut, throat dry all of a sudden and fangs itching merely in response to her proximity. Hunger threatened to consume me, knocking my mind off-balance for a few precarious seconds before I could steal control back. I inhaled as deeply as possible and exhaled in shaky, short bursts. “We have no work ahead of us,” I corrected. “You have one final task as far as I am concerned.”
Valeria backed away and raised an eyebrow. I mirrored the gesture. “End me,” I continued. My gaze turned severe, despite the visible vestiges of grief I knew I yet wore. “I have done your bidding unwittingly, and I will not do so any longer. You have tricked me into coming this far, but I go no farther.”
Our gaze remained locked for several seconds, me holding onto mine despite the effort and her refusing to budge otherwise. Just as I began to believe us frozen that way, the sorceress barked out a laugh, hand lifting from her necklace so her palm could lie flat against her chest. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You somehow got the impression this was an offer I was making that you could refuse.” The corner of her mouth curled, her expression condescending. “How adorable.”
“I do not give a damn how adorable you b
elieve it to be.”
“It’s adorable because you look so defiant right now. So… accepting of the consequences.”
My eyes narrowed. “Do whatever you want to me, but I am not unleashing Armageddon at your behest.”
Valeria rolled her eyes, the smile disappearing as she turned her back on me. A few of the others glanced at her, their brows furrowed while she held a breath and released it slowly. Her head tipped back, eyes fixed on the stone ceiling. “Do you really think you’re ruining my plans by rebelling?” she finally asked.
I laughed, arm reaching around to clutch my stomach and gird against inflicting further harm upon myself. “Call it what you wish. Without my cooperation, you cannot do a damn thing with those scrolls. If you could, you would have already done it and we would not be having this discussion.”
“Ah, you see, but this is where you’re wrong.” She lowered her chin, shaking her head in a rueful manner while snapping her fingers at a human underling. Short in stature for a man, he wore a shirt the same hue as mine and looked too well cared for to be a slave. He ran over to her as instructed and waited for her orders in silence.
“Make sure we have everything in order,” Valeria continued, “Including the chains. It looks like we’re going to have to go about this the hard way.”
“I beg your pardon?” I said, but Valeria ignored me in favor of shooing off her minion. Blinking, I struggled to catch up with what was happening, a surge of panic rising through me as Valeria commanded several others in my direction, these servants all immortal. The vampires conversed with her in another language, her orders coming in short bursts, and even Robin appeared befuddled as he watched a circus of activity erupt in front of us. She turned and walked away as four creatures closed in on me with menace in their eyes. The instinct to fight met with the resistance of not having fed or healed.
A few sparks barely had the chance to dance across my fingers as they reached where I sat. One gripped my arm and held it tight. Another reached for my other arm, but I shot a burst of telekinetic energy at them and knocked them back against the wall. They collided with the unforgiving stone. Another raced up to take their place, however, and before I knew it, I had been hefted up and carried with no regard any longer to my injuries.
