“Stop!” I called out to him, and he did as I said, looking at me with question in his eyes. “I think I have a better idea.”
I ran to the back of the car, relieved when Jacen followed. As expected, the troll remained where it stood. Throughout all of this, he’d stayed on “his” side of the bridge. Apparently, he was purely defensive—he wouldn’t attack unless we did so first.
“What’s your idea?” Jacen asked. “Because that thing is as strong as a mountain. I can’t think of a supernatural on Earth who could get through it.”
“We’re not going through it.” I picked up one of the jugs of gasoline and handed it to Jacen, and then lifted one for myself. Thanks to my Nephilim strength, it wasn’t heavy at all. “We’re going to burn it.”
“Nice.” Jacen uncapped his jug and headed toward the troll before I could say more.
We both hurled the gasoline at the troll, making sure to stay on the bridge as we did so. As long as we were on the bridge, the troll didn’t attack. There must have been some kind of magical barrier where the bridge met the land. He sniffed the air a few times as the gasoline landed on him, but other than that, he stood in place, making sure the bridge wasn’t passable.
“Now for the fun part,” I said once both of the containers were empty.
Jacen raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. “I never would have pinned you as a pyromaniac,” he said as we walked back to the car.
“A girl’s gotta have her secrets.” I actually wasn’t a pyromaniac—I was just excited to see if my plan would work—but a little flirting never hurt anyone, not even when they were fighting a troll.
I fished around the survival kit, smiling when I found the flare gun. I’d never used a flare before, but I had shot a gun—we had plenty of gun shooting ranges in Florida. I used the flashlight to skim over the directions—luckily, the flare didn’t look too complicated to use.
“Get in the passenger seat,” Jacen told me as he climbed inside the car. “How far does that thing shoot?”
“A thousand feet,” I told him what I’d read on the instructions.
“Perfect.” He turned the car around and drove to the other side of the bridge.
The troll watched us, but it didn’t move. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to move until we were off the bridge entirely.
It apparently thought it was the Bridge Master. Up until now, it probably was.
But up until now, it hadn’t met us.
“How close to the troll are we?” I asked, since I didn’t know exactly how far a thousand feet was.
“Close enough to hit it,” he said. “And far enough away that we won’t get blown up in the blast. Are you sure you don’t want me to do this?”
“Have you ever shot a gun before?” I asked him.
“Why use guns when you have fangs?” He smiled and flashed his fangs, as if reminding me how dangerous he was.
A part of me urged me to go for my stake—it must have been my angel instinct—but I resisted. My instinct might recoil at the sight of vampire fangs, but my brain—and heart—knew better.
“I’ll take that as I no,” I said.
I flipped my hair over my shoulder as I got out of the car, then I readied my stance and pulled the trigger.
Annika
The troll exploded into flames.
It howled and stumbled off to the side of the road, hurling itself straight into the ocean.
I jumped back into the car and fastened my seatbelt. “Go!” I screamed, although Jacen hardly needed the encouragement to put the pedal to the metal and race down the bridge. I laughed at the thrill of the speed, adrenaline rushing through my body as we peeled down the road.
We whizzed by the place where the troll had been standing, and I turned around in time to see the creature’s big ugly head surface above the water.
It huffed, as if frustrated that we got away, but made no attempt to hurry out to follow us.
Relief coursed through my veins at the fact that the troll wasn’t dead. Which was silly, I knew—that troll would have killed us if we’d attempted to fight it to get past the bridge—but I didn’t want to kill if I didn’t have to.
Especially since the deaths of those three vampires guards still haunted my conscious. They were just doing their jobs, like the troll was doing his. They hadn’t deserved to die.
But I faced forward, not wanting to allow myself to spiral. We had a quest to focus on. Wallowing in self-pity wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
“Your destination is on the left,” the GPS lady said, and Jacen slowed the car as we approached.
The only thing on the left was an abandoned house with a rickety dock going out into the ocean. The roof sagged, looking about to fall in, and the windows were cracked and dirty.
It looked like it had come straight from a horror movie. But this was clearly where we were supposed to be—it was the only building on the road for miles.
“It’s deserted,” Jacen said as he pulled the car to a stop in front. “And decrepit. I wouldn’t trust the floor to hold us.”
“We didn’t come all this way not to go in,” I said, already on my way out of the car. I doubted anyone was inside—Jacen was right that it looked deserted—but I carried my stake with me just in case.
“I know that,” he said, fast behind me. “We just need to be careful where we step, that’s all.”
I nodded and headed toward the rickety building, my angel instinct warming my chest with each step I took. “There’s another clue for us in there,” I said, walking faster now. “I feel it.”
Jacen walked beside me, and we paused on top of the faded welcome mat in front of the door.
He reached forward to open it, but stopped himself. “This is your quest,” he said, dropping his arm to his side and motioning for me to take the lead. “After you.”
“Thanks.” I reached for the door, but not to open it. Instead, I knocked.
Jacen raised an eyebrow, clearly thinking I was nuts to have knocked on the door of an obviously abandoned building, but said nothing.
We waited for a few seconds.
Nothing happened.
A breeze passed by, and I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself and missing the heat inside the Wrangler. I tried to peak through the window, but the glass was covered in so much filth that it was nearly opaque.
Jacen glanced back and forth between the doorknob and me. It was clear what he was thinking—he thought I should just open the door myself.
But bursting into a home seemed rude—no matter how abandoned it appeared.
So I raised my hand to knock again… at the same time as the door started to slowly creak open.
Annika
A beautiful woman in a hand-stitched gown stood in the opening. She looked like she’d stepped out of a fairy tale. Behind her, I got a glimpse of the inside of the house—it was bright, cheery, and full of plants and flowers.
“You must be Annika,” the woman said with a smile. “Please, come in.”
I stepped inside the warm cabin, and the woman took my coat, hanging it on the coatrack. Even the coatrack had greenery on it—flowering vines that traveled up its spine. The entire room smelled like an overdose of floral perfume, so strong that too deep of a breath made me dizzy. The scent covered up the smell of the woman’s blood—I had no idea what type of supernatural she was, if she was one at all.
“Who are you?” I gazed around the plant-filled entry room, which seemed to glow from within. Even the windows were scrubbed clean and completely in tact—far different from the cracked, dirty panes I’d observed on the doorstep. “What’s this place?”
“I’m Dahlia,” she introduced herself. “And this is the home my sisters and I have made for ourselves while waiting for your arrival.” She turned away from me and looked at Jacen suspiciously, clearly sizing him up. “Who’s your friend?” she asked.
“Jacen Conrad.” He gave her hand a solid shake before dropping it promptly. “Vampire prince of the Va
le.”
“I didn’t realize we would be hosting royalty.” A smile flitted across Dahlia’s face, and she tilted her head toward him, batting her lashes.
“Jacen is my chosen companion for my journey.” I stepped closer to him and took his hand in mine, leaving no space between us. “He’s making sure I stay safe and protected.”
“I see.” She glanced down at our joined hands and took a small step back.
Yes, I was staking my territory. And no, I had no shame about it.
”My sisters are waiting in the living room,” she said, quickly changing the subject. “Shall we join them?”
I looked around the bright, blooming room—this lady could either be as kind as she seemed, or secretly evil, like the hag from Hansel and Gretel who lured children into her home to plump them up and eat them. I didn’t feel a need to be on guard, so I suspected the former. However, I glanced at Jacen, curious to get a read on his thoughts.
He just shrugged in response, as if leaving the decision to me.
Unsure what else to do, I looked inward, toward my angel instinct. Warmth spread through my chest—a feeling I was coming to associate with the confirmation that my intuition was correct.
“That would be great,” I said to Dahlia with a smile. “Thank you.”
She swished her skirt and led the way toward a nearby door—it was rounded and carved of wood, perfectly in place in this fairy tale dwelling. “You’ll want to mind your head once inside,” she warned Jacen. “You don’t want to knock into the hanging gardens.”
He nodded in response, although I suspected that if he knocked into a hanging garden, it would be the garden that got hurt—not his head.
We followed Dahlia into the living room. Like she’d warned, multiple boxes hung from the ceiling like chandeliers, each one overflowing with blooming plants. Just like the entryway, every flat space in this room held plants and flowers, the scent so strong that it felt like breathing in a sickly sweet poison.
Two women in similar dresses to Dahlia’s sat on opposing couches sipping tea. They shared Dahlia’s brown hair and light eyes, and while they didn’t appear to be triplets, they all looked the same age.
They each lowered their cups of tea when we entered.
“These are my sisters,” Dahlia told us. “Violet and Iris.” She pointed to each of them as she said their name. “Sisters, this is Annika the Nephilim and Prince Jacen of the Vale.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
Jacen simply nodded at them—apparently my greeting was enough for both of us.
“After all these years, you’ve finally arrived,” Iris—or maybe it was Violet—said, looking at me in awe. “Would you like to sit down and join us for tea and sandwiches?”
Annika
The sisters poured us cups of vervain tea—they’d grown the herb themselves—and served us mini sandwiches with the crusts cut off. I was hungry—a side effect to fighting a troll in the freezing cold, I supposed—and was quick to dig in.
Jacen didn’t eat or drink anything, despite accepting a cup of tea. Did he think these women were trying to drug us? My instinct told me that they weren’t, which was why I felt comfortable accepting food and drink from them, but I appreciated that he was looking out for me.
“What is this place?” I asked after polishing off a sandwich. “Are you supernaturals?” I gazed around the flowering room again, the questions escaping my lips one after another. There was clearly magic at play here—I just wanted to find out what type of magic.
“We are mages from the realm of Mystica.” Iris gave me a small smile before taking a sip of her tea.
“Come again?” I blinked, half of what she’d said not making sense.
“Mages are the mythical ancestors of witches,” Jacen said slowly. “It’s rumored that they live in a realm parallel to our own, and that thousands of years ago, they came to Earth and mated with humans to create the first witches. Soon afterward, they returned to their world, never to be heard from again.”
“That’s halfway true,” Violet said. “Because we didn’t come to Earth. The humans came to us. Thousands of years ago, they discovered the entrance to the Tree of Life—the Tree that acts as the bridge between realms.”
“The Tree of Life.” I gasped, my cup of tea clanging with the saucer. “That’s what Rosella told me I needed to find.”
“Be patient—we’ll get to that,” Violet said with a kind smile. “Are you ready to hear the remainder of the answer to your question?”
“Sorry,” I said, since while I wanted to jump straight to the Tree, I also didn’t want to anger these women. While they seemed kind, they also seemed powerful.
It was never a good idea to piss off people who held a lot of power—at least not if you wanted them to help you.
Violet gave a small nod, and continued. “The humans were safe in Mystica, of course, but in the other realms?” she said. “Not so much. Our kind sympathized with the humans—as we do with all living creatures—and we rescued the ones we could from the other realms, bringing them back to Mystica. Once they were all safe in our realm, we gave them a potion to erase their memories from the moment they’d discovered the Tree, and we returned them to Earth. When they were safely returned, we cast spells around the Tree of Life to prevent humans from stumbling upon it again. The Tree has remained hidden to this day.”
“And the witches?” I asked. “What does this have to do with them?”
“Mages love all living creatures,” Dahlia said with a knowing smile. “When the humans were in our realm, we loved them as well. Many women ended up impregnated during their stay—it was this mixing of humans and mages that resulted in the creature you refer to as a ‘witch.’ The human women who were impregnated had their children on Earth, and the mage women found their children loving homes on Earth once they were born.”
“The mages gave up their children so easily?” I asked.
“It was the kind thing to do.” She smiled again, as if the solution were easy. “In our realm, the witches would have always been weak compared to the mages, but on Earth, they would be strong. Earth was the best place for them. So, we gave them the best.”
“I see.” There was something eerie about these women that made the hair on my arms stand on end, but I forced a smile, since they were being exceptionally accommodating to us.
Plus, they knew about the Tree of Life—and I needed to learn how to get there.
“We were correct—the witches have thrived on Earth for thousands of years,” Iris added. “Well, until recently. But that’s where you come into play, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” I told them. “All I know is what the psychic Rosella told me—that I need to go to the Tree of Life to get the Holy Grail. Then she had a vision of the coordinates for this location, wrote them down, and here we are.” I looked around the strange, plant-filled room, still amazed that we were inside what had appeared to be a dilapidated building when we’d pulled up.
“We’ve been here since your birth,” Dahlia said. “Waiting for you.”
“So you could bring me to the Tree of Life?”
“No, dear.” Iris threw back her head and laughed. “We won’t bring you to the Tree of Life.”
“Oh.” I deflated, since I’d been hoping they would. “But you said your kind cast the spell to hide it, so I thought you knew where it was?”
“We do,” Dahlia said. “But the Holy Grail only belongs to one who has demonstrated his or her worth to have it. Therefore, we cannot go with you. This is your task, and you must complete it with the help of your chosen companion.” She made a brief nod to Jacen—avoiding his gaze—and then turned back to me. “However, we can start you on the path to find the Tree. Would you like to receive our help?”
Annika
“Yes,” I answered, since obviously I hadn’t traveled up here for nothing. “Of course I’d like to receive your help.”
“We were hoping you would say that.” Violet placed h
er tea down on her saucer and stood.
Her sisters did the same, as if they were robots programmed to move in tandem.
Creepy.
“Come,” she continued. “We have a fully stocked boat waiting out back.”
They led the way, and I followed warily, with Jacen by my side. How could there be a boat waiting out back? I’d seen the back when we’d pulled up—all there had been was a dilapidated dock. There certainly hadn’t been a boat.
Then again, all this had been was a rundown, abandoned building.
The mages clearly had magic of the likes I’d never seen—not even from Geneva herself.
They led us out back, where sure enough, a gleaming fishing boat sat attached to a shiny dock.
“How did you do that?” I looked behind us, amazed to find that the house also looked shiny and new as well.
“It’s a more powerful version of the boundary spells used by the witches on Earth,” Violet explained. “The decrepitness is simply an illusion. You’re only seeing through it because we’re allowing you to do so.”
“Very cool,” I said, since it was.
“I’m guessing we’re supposed to leave in that?” Jacen motioned toward the boat, which bobbed peacefully next to the dock.
“Of course,” Violet said. “We’ve had the boat waiting for you for years.”
Jacen turned to me. “Do you know how to drive a boat?” he asked.
“No,” I answered, since while I’d gone out on boats with friends before, I’d never actually driven one. “I’m guessing that doesn’t mean you do?”
“It can’t be much harder than driving a car.” He turned to the mages. “Right?”
Dahlia rolled her eyes and gave us a quick rundown on how to handle the boat.
“There are supplies inside,” she told us once the lesson was over. “There’s water, but no blood. I hope you’ve brought your own?” She glanced at Jacen, then at me, and I realized her implication.
The Vampire Fate (Dark World: The Vampire Wish Book 4) Page 11
