by L.H. Cosway
I wander down a random hallway, no intention of actually using the facilities. There are servers all about the place, but I keep walking until I get to an empty corridor. Hastily, I dig the dowsing rod from my bag and pull it out. I lean back against the wall where there is a slight corner for me to hide behind.
I pull Pamphrock’s ring off and put it in my bag. I’ll try to find Rebecca first. I close my eyes and envision the girl in my head from the picture I’ve seen of her. It only takes a minute for the branch to begin buzzing in my grasp. It gently tugs me forward, unlike the violently strong pull I’d gotten from the metal rods.
I allow my body to loosen, just letting the branch pull me in the direction that I need to go. It stops working for a minute, so I have to close my eyes and picture Rebecca again. This time the branch pulls me a little more urgently, down the long, pristine hallway. I open my eyes when I stub my foot off something to find that I’m standing at the bottom of a staircase. It’s much more narrow and discreet than the massive marble masterpiece at the front of the house.
Suddenly, my arms shoot up with the force of the branch that has Rebecca’s hair ribbon twisted all around it. I guess this means it wants me to go up the stairs. The high heels I’m wearing are starting to hurt my feet, so I shuffle out of them and shove them in my bag before proceeding to ascend the steps bare foot.
This part of the house is completely empty, it surprises me because Gabriel did mention that Whitfield had doubled his security in order to keep Pamphrock and the slayers subdued. Although perhaps he’s keeping them in an entirely different part of the house. The place is huge. It makes sense that he’d keep Pamphrock away from Rebecca. Whitfield’s one cruel vampire, and not allowing the Governor of the North to see his daughter, even one last time, seems to be something that he would derive pleasure from.
I climb the stairs at a moderate pace, all the while glancing back and forth to make sure nobody’s following me and that nobody comes upon me suddenly from the other direction. My heart is pounding and the branch I’m holding in my hands is buzzing more strongly now. It seems that the closer I get to Rebecca, the more it buzzes.
The stairs end and I find myself on the landing of the very top floor. I hide behind the corner of the wall and peer down the corridor. My gaze lands on a tall, dark haired vampire who is most definitely standing guard in front of a white door. I quickly pull myself back behind the corner, my breathing becoming erratic. Oh God, will the vampire hear my heart as it goes thump, thump, thump in my chest? Or will he smell me before he sees me?
I have no idea what to do now. The fucking dowsing rod is buzzing like a maniac, because Rebecca is quite obviously being kept behind that white door. I should have asked Finn to let me bring a stake with me or something, although I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to use it.
I pull my phone from my bag and text Finn, Rebecca’s being kept in a room on the top floor, but there’s a vamp standing guard.
Less than a minute goes by, but it feels like it takes forever for Finn to reply. Finally my phone lights up with a message. I have the sound and vibrate switched off.
Don’t worry, we’ll get her out of there, just go and find Pamphrock now.
I sigh in relief and begin to twirl Rebecca’s ribbon from the branch before replacing it with Pamphrock’s gold ring. It slips easily over the wood. Just as I’m preparing to centre myself and visualise Pamphrock, something zooms past my eyes. A split second later the vampire who’d been standing guard is looming over me. His eyes are dark brown pools, and I can almost see his nostrils flare as he breathes me in.
“You smell good blue eyes, but what oh what are you doing all the way up here?” he asks, there’s a smile touching his lips, a smile that seems pleased. It isn’t a good sign though, he’s only pleased because he’s happened upon an amusement. Something to drown out the monotony of standing guard.
I plaster on the best dumb girl face I can muster and reply, “Oops, I was searching for the bathroom and got lost. I’ll just head back downstairs.” I turn on my heel, but the vampire grabs me by the elbow, stopping me in my stride.
“Not so fast,” he says, and his face is becoming more intense by the second. Scary intense. His gaze wanders over me, as though trying to figure something out. Then he fixes his eyes on mine, and his voice comes out hard and mechanical when he says, “You want to stay here with me, tilt your head to the side and present your neck for me.”
For a moment I’m confused as to why his voice sounds so strange, but then it hits me. He’s trying to compel me to do as he says. Not good. But I can’t let him find out I’m immune to his skills. His eyes start to turn red just as I slowly tilt my neck back for him, pretending his thrall is working. His red eyes widen and his fangs extend, he’s so focused on my neck that he doesn’t see me drop my hand into my bag which is nestled at the side of my hip.
I immediately touch on the item I’m looking for, one of my sharp, black high heels. I suck in a breath for courage and whack him on the side of the head with it. He falters a little because he hadn’t been expecting it, but he soon recovers.
“You little tramp,” he spits and lunges for me, too quick, using his vampire speed. Milliseconds later his hand is clasping my jaw and I feel like if he applies any more pressure he’ll end up crushing it. I swallow and it hurts. Then my hands start to tingle, in a sensation that is both foreign and familiar. My magic.
“Wait a minute,” the vampire whispers in shock, clearly he’s just figured out that his compulsion didn’t work. Wonderful. His red eyes narrow, and he looks left and right down the corridor, as though making sure we’re alone. Then he drags me by the jaw over to the white door he’d been guarding. He presses a few buttons on the key pad next to it and the door slides open. The vampire hurls me inside, finally letting go of his death grip on me. I rub my jaw to ease the pain.
“I don’t know how you did that,” the vampire grits out harshly, “my best guess is that you’re some kind of witch, which means you’re not here to attend the party.”
My hands continue to tingle. The vampire whips a phone out of his pocket and hits a number that’s on speed dial before raising it to his ear. “The Governor’s going to have a great time taking care of you,” he sneers over at me. After he’s said it my hand shoots out and sparks fly from my skin, knocking the phone from his hand. It drops to the floor, sizzling like it’s just been burned.
“What the hell?” he says, his hulking, muscular form advances on me. My hand flies forward again, this time intentionally. Okay, those sparks are a great defence, if only I could figure out how to summon them on command. They trickle from my palm, spilling onto the floor where they are burning into the wooden boards.
Just as the vampire is about to grab hold of me, I throw both of my arms forward and the sparks fly from them like a luminescent rainbow. They flit through the air, like they had done that night outside Rita’s house. When they hit the vampire’s skin they immediately pop and burn, and great big welting red marks rise on his face and arms. He falls back from shock and lands on his bottom. There are gaping burnt holes in his black t-shirt, where the sparks have melted through the material.
“Fuck!” he gasps and hisses at the pain. “What the hell are you?”
“That’s a question I like to know the answer to myself,” I mumble and look away, confused by what I’ve just done to him. I didn’t want to cause him pain, but I didn’t exactly have a choice. Looking away is a bad move on my part, because I don’t notice the vampire grab my ankle, effectively pulling me to the ground.
“No!” I squeal, my hands fly forward in fright as I fall abruptly on top of him. This time threads of glittering sparks stream from them, as though they have conglomerated to form something solid. The stream makes contact with the vampire’s face and chest and his eyes roll back in his head before he passes out. Shit, what the hell was that?
I stumble to my feet, and only now am I noticing that I’m not in a room, but a small atrium wh
ich leads to a narrow set of stairs. The stairs go up to what looks like the attic. There’s a dark wooden door at the top of them that’s firmly shut.
I look back at the vampire. He’s not dead, but unconscious. However it doesn’t look like he’s going to be waking up any time soon. I need to find Pamphrock now, but then I realise that I left the dowsing rod out in the hallway. I’d dropped it to the floor when the vampire guard had crept up on me out of nowhere. I have to go back for it.
Just as I’m about to head back out, a powerful pull seizes my entire body. Propelling me up the narrow stairs. The pull tells me that something familiar awaits me at the top of them, I just don’t know what it is. I want to go get the branch but I can’t help myself, the pull is too much to take. I need to go with it, wherever it wants to take me. I put one foot onto the first step and it makes a small creaking sound. Then I hurry up, desperate to discover what is on the other side of that door.
Chapter Seventeen
A Real Hero
I place my palm on the door handle and turn, expecting it to be locked. But it isn’t, the handle turns easily and I open the door into a large attic room that has some light streaming from a small lamp shade. There are stacks of old boxes in one corner and in the other is a narrow single bed with pale sheets.
On the bed lays a little body, curled in on itself sleeping. The body belongs to a young girl with bright blond hair that obscures her face. Rebecca. Once I spot her I fall to my knees, my body hums in recognition. My blood sings in my veins. This girl is like me. She is my kindred. She has die Äußerste Macht blood. Oh my goodness.
This is why Pamphrock had thought I’d reminded him of Rebecca. We have the same blood curse. Does her father know about this? Do the vampires? Hell, I don’t even understand how I know it, but I can feel it with every fibre of my being. A sudden burst of joy hits me, because I’m no longer the only one of my kind. The magic inside of me had been urging me to find her all along, that’s why I’d felt a pull to go up those stairs and find whatever lay beyond them.
Rebecca’s mother must have been a human with the same blood as mine, the same blood that my mother was killed for. I had just assumed she was a dhamphir like Pamphrock, but she can’t have been. Only humans carry the Ultimate Power gene, at least as far as I know. Although if my mother truly was the daughter of Filipp Petrovsky as Noreen would have me believe, then perhaps witches can be born with it also. I glance behind me, suddenly remembering the unconscious vampire I’ve left downstairs. We need to get out of here before he wakes up.
I rush over to the bed and place my hand on Rebecca’s shoulder, giving it a slight shake to wake her up. Her eyes blink a few times and then they open fully.
She gazes at me for a moment, then asks, “Are you the angel?”
“What angel?” I reply in confusion.
“I dreamt that an angel would come and save me from the monsters. She looked just like you.”
I’ve never considered myself to look particularly angelic, but I suppose in the cream lacy dress I might just about pass for one.
“I’m not an angel, but I am here to save you,” I tell her. “Come on, we need to go.” I urge her up from her sleeping position. She’s wearing yellow pyjamas. She gets up and slides her feet into a pair of slippers. I take her hand and we make our way over to the door. I glance down at Rebecca, making sure she’s okay, but when I lift my eyes back to the door there’s a figure standing there. Eliza. I let out an involuntary gasp and step backward instinctively.
Eliza has her arms crossed over her silky purple chest, a grin on her face like the cat that got the cream. “I fucking knew it,” she declares, beaming from ear to ear. “I knew there was something off about you. You’ve been working for Pamphrock haven’t you? We thought he had something up his sleeve since things had been so quiet this last week or two, but nobody guessed that Ethan would fall for a honey trap.”
I wince, because although I’d like to argue that I do have real feelings for Ethan, I have still deceived him. I try to ignore the pain in my heart that this knowledge instils in me.
“You stole a little girl,” my voice is jittery, and my eyes are watering because now that Eliza knows what I’ve been up to she’ll be only too happy to tell Ethan all about it. “I don’t need to justify my means for helping return her to her father.”
Eliza gives me a dirty look. “Her father has dedicated his life to the killing of my species, I have no sympathy for that man.”
“Your father intends to do the exact same thing to the dhamphirs and the magic users, that was quite obviously the message of the little speech he gave downstairs.” Saying this, it suddenly occurs to me that both sides of the city are more alike than they think. They both aim for the extinction of the other.
Eliza ignores what I’ve said and instead pulls a phone out of her pocket. She dials a number and talks into it rapidly. “Ethan, there’s been an infiltration, yes, I need you to come to the attic, and bring my father with you. Now.” She hangs up, and looks back at me.
I feel Rebecca tugging on my arm, so I glance down at her. “Don’t fight with that lady,” she whispers, “she’s a bad person.”
“I know that, honey,” I reply, stroking her hair away from her face, hoping it will soothe her fear, even though I’m only just holding it together myself.
Eliza snorts over by the doorway. “You’re going to regret the day you ever stepped foot back in Crimson,” she says, her voice dripping with malice. “I’m really going to relish your torture, and your death. Father might even allow me to kill you myself. My face will be the last you ever see.”
I roll my eyes and make a fake retching noise. “Please, don’t make it worse, having to look at you at all makes my skin crawl Eliza.”
“And that’s what will make it even more wonderful when I drain the life from your body. I’ll force you to look at me while I do it.”
She’s trying to break me down, but I’m determined not to let her. “Sounds kinky, are you sure you haven’t got some secret Sapphic tendencies?”
“You can try to insult me all you want, you will be dead before the night is out.” Eliza answers, but she does sound slightly irritated and I feel a sense of triumph at this. So what can I say, I plough on.
“Yeah well, saying you want me to look into your eyes while you sink your fangs into me, sounds kind of gay if you ask me,” I make a nonchalant shrug to really rile her up. I might as well get a few last shots in, I’m as good as dead now anyway.
Anger consumes Eliza’s features and Rebecca whimpers at my side when the vampire dives for me. I let go of Rebecca’s hand and push her away, just as Eliza’s hands grip onto my neck. My face goes red as I struggle for air, but she’s holding on too tightly, suffocating me.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I hear Ethan’s voice demand, and Eliza’s hold loosens as I fall to the floor. I cough to catch my breath.
“Your human whore has been playing you this whole time,” Eliza sneers, turning to face Ethan.
Ethan gazes at her in confusion, and it’s only now that I notice Whitfield standing in the doorway too. “What in the world is going on here?” he asks shrewdly.
“Father!” Eliza exclaims. “I caught her trying to take the girl. She’s been working for Pamphrock.”
“Pardon me?” questions Whitfield. I have never before heard those two words uttered with such cold, reserved rage.
Ethan’s incredulous dark eyes lock on mine, disbelief colours his expression. “Tegan?” he says, my name passes his lips like a question. My heart is falling apart with guilt for what I’m doing to him, and also with fear for what Whitfield will do to me now.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, as a solitary tear runs down my cheek. My apology confirms it’s the truth and Ethan’s face inexplicably hardens. I have never seen him look at me this way before, not even when he’d been really angry with me. Another irreparable crack forms in my heart. Everything we had together is ruined now, there’s no going
back to that place, the place where he might have loved me.
“Did you know about this?” Whitfield snaps, focusing on Ethan, who just about manages to tear his eyes away from me.
“Of course I didn’t Jeremy, don’t be so ridiculous.”
“I don’t know,” says Whitfield. “I have always held my doubts about you Ethan. You are a strong and fierce warrior, yet you coddle that abomination of a sister of yours as though she were truly one of us.”
Oh no. Poor Delilah. Whitfield really does plan on getting rid of her, just like the rest of the dhamphirs on the North side.
“What has Delilah got to do with any of this?” Ethan asks in exasperation.
“Everything.” Whitfield replies. “She is a sign of your weakness. She represents the fact that you do not share my vision for the future.” Ugh. Here we go again, Jeremy Adolf Hitler Whitfield.
“I have fought by your side for more than a century Jeremy, I have saved your life countless times and you mine. How can you accuse me of plotting against you?”
Whitfield leans back against the wall now, observing Ethan. “Show me that you are loyal then.” His eyes flick briefly to me. “Kill the girl. She betrayed you. Punish her.”
Eliza rubs her hands together in glee. I really want to slap her. Ethan’s inner struggle doesn’t reveal itself on his face, but I know he must be having one because he stands glued to the spot, gaping at Whitfield.
“Is there something wrong Ethan? She’s a blood donor who went behind your back. Kill her, I’ll get you another one just like her.”
The only outward sign of Ethan’s fury is how he clenches his fists at his sides. Something brushes my hand softly, it’s Rebecca. She takes my fingers into hers, perhaps to comfort me. Wait a minute, my hands, the sparks. Maybe I can get us out of here.
Ethan speaks then. “Jeremy, you don’t understand…”
