The entity smiled. “So you are the huntress that The Darkness now fears. Interesting...”
“Who are you?” Sanaya demanded, taking a step forward. Her grip on The Millennium sword so tight her nails dug deeply into her palm.
“I was you…once...,” the entity said softly.
Her voice reminded Sanaya of those creepy bells that rang every so often in the chapel. Sanaya remained frozen in place, muscles so tense they twitched involuntarily. A bead of sweat dripped from her brow as she studied the entity.
“I was everything you are and then some,” the entity continued. “I was the chosen one and yet here you are wielding Aklia’s blade as if you deserve it. But I am here to take back what is mine!”
The attack was swift, and Sanaya barely had enough time to use her own blade to block the entity’s strike. Steel met steel as the two danced, recognition flooded Sanaya’s memory instantly. This was one of the Seven! That must mean that Cain was closer than what she initially thought. She swung, catching the vampire with her fist and then following through with a swift kick to her chest. But the vampire was too fast and stronger than anything Sanaya had fought up until this point.
“Sanaya!” She heard Archer calling out to her but she did not have time to think let alone respond. She barely missed another hard strike, and another, and then the vampire disappeared into mist. The tension in the air thickened. Nothing but the sound of her own beating heart pounding against her breast bone filled her ears. Her Guardians were silent.
And then the entity reappeared behind her, snatching her by the back of her neck and slamming her into the concrete. Gun shots rang out. Sanaya’s body hit the concrete with so much force, that the huge slab split into fissures. Pain shot through her, blinding her. However, adrenaline kept her in the fight. Flipping back onto her feet, she went for the entity again, with the sweet chime of the Millennium Blade as it sliced through the air, connecting with the entity’s own blade.
More gun shots followed by the foolish bravery of King and Trent heading straight for vampire.
“No!” Sanaya shouted at them but it was too late.
The vampire smiled and spun around quickly, using the same telekinetic force used on Tatsu, she flung both Guardian potentials into the cast iron fence. The two young men ricocheted from off the fence onto the wet grass and from what Sanaya could tell they were bruised but nonetheless ok. Refocusing her energies on the fight at hand, the entity took advantage of the split second distraction and in a movement too fast for the eye to follow, she hit Sanaya with several hard punches knocking her to the ground and The Millennium Blade flying in the opposite direction.
Badly beaten but not ready to give up, Sanaya pushed herself up. Maya’s chants could be heard off in the distance, while Danny did his best to distract the entity with the fireballs he launched at her from the palms of his hands. A dense darker energy awakened once again in Sanaya’s psyche, just as it did with Cain. Her cracked ribs were already beginning to knit themselves together, but not quickly enough for Sanaya to escape being snatched from where she stood and into the powerful grip of the fallen huntress.
A beam of light flashed across the sky and from it appeared Aklia, Natasha and Raya who hit the ground running to Sanaya’s aid.
“Annalia,” Aklia commanded. “Let her go.”
Annalia’s laughter filled the dense night air as the Slayers faced off with their former protégé.
“You bitches were too stupid to realize that I am the Slayer the prophecy spoke of and not this little tramp!”
“You are no longer a huntress Annalia,” Aklia said calmly. “Now let her go.”
“Well neither is she!”
No words would ever be effective enough to describe the pain of Annalia sinking her dagger-like fangs into Sanaya’s throat. She felt the terror also sink in, to her Guardian team and the Council Members. Maya’s chanting grew louder as the ground began to tremble. Aklia was pure motion. In a sweeping move, she struck Annalia with multiple energy blasts from her palms, forcing the vampire to release Sanaya’s limp body.
Sanaya collapsed on the pavement, gasping for air and gripping her mangled throat. With each struggle for breath, the vampire toxin filtered in through her veins, liquefying her from the inside out. Thrashing about on the pavement from the pain, she could barely see the fight between The Slayers and the vampire huntress. Her Guardians went nuts, and she could hear the parade of more feet hitting the pavement in a full run. King was the first to reach her.
“Baby!” He croaked as he gently tried to raise her up.
“Don’t move her!” Archer commanded. “Don’t move her.”
Demon entities surround them—the disembodied spirits awaiting Maya’s command. Steel met steel off in the distance. Guardians were cursing, emptying shells, and the emergency alarms went off, warning students and staff that the school was once again on lock down.
King’s warm hands covered her own. “I’m right here…”
“Don’t…don’t leave me,” she managed to say just before the pain took over and stripped her of her consciousness.
Chapter Eighteen
There was little Daemon could do to contain his laughter. Annalia called him at the last minute, barely missing the clean strike of Aklia’s blade. The former huntress now laid at his mercy across the black marble floor of his lair, her skin still smoking from the silver burns from the blessed weapons of The Council Slayers. One of her precious fangs was missing from having been knocked out by a powerful punch. Her once beautiful pale skin blistered and littered with deep cuts, some of them exposing bone. He should have just let them finish her off. But, her death would have meant more problems from The Beast’s now favorite harlot, Selene.
“That was foolish of you to make an impromptu appearance at The Academy and expect to come away victorious.” Daemon frowned as he took a seat on his expensive black Italian couch. “And look, you are dripping blood on my floor!”
“If I were not gravely wounded I would have gutted you from navel to chest,” Annalia wheezed.
“But look where you are now,” Daemon said coolly.
“Heal me,” Annalia wheezed, coughing up another round of blood.
“You know that I cannot do that sweet heart. You forgot that the Huntress has silver in her veins when you bit her and it is only a matter of time before it eats away at your organs before you die a horribly painful death.” Amusement danced in Daemon’s dark stare as he glared at her. A part of him seriously wanted to rip her head off and feed her remains to a pack of wolves. The other part wished he had the capacity to heal her so that he could continue to press forward with his plans. At least Selene will not be able to say that he did not uphold his end of the bargain. She wanted Annalia’s head on a silver platter, and he would definitely be able to do that now. But as far as his own vengeful plans, it was time to execute Plan B.
“You lie!” Annalia hissed.
“Do I? My dear, you were not born a creature of the night, so even if I were to feed you my blood, that would not be enough to save you. Perhaps you could try calling Cain? He is your maker, so perhaps he could help you?”
Daemon casually stood up, taking one last look at one of the most feared members of his kind and shook his head. What a waste. He had a meeting to attend to shortly, and he was curious to find out what his colleagues had been up to since their last encounter. He was certain that this convening tonight would be quite interesting.
*****
Pure panic and chaos erupted among the Guardians. Slipping in and out of consciousness, Sanaya felt the gentle healing touch of Aklia. A warm sense of calm poured into her, temporarily soothing the acidic burn of the vampire toxin that saturated her system.
“I think she is coming to,” a Guardian shouted from somewhere in the distance.
“Her immune system is going to take over and do most of the work,” Archer’s voice was closer to her.
Someone else touched her and before she could guess she
felt herself lifted and carried across a short distance.
Her foggy thoughts drifted to Eve as she wondered if the Guardian was alright. Archer must be bugging out, she thought.
Warm linen sheets covered her while she was gently eased onto the soft padding of a mattress.
“We can draw out the pain,” Aklia announced as Raya and Natasha gathered around her. Each warrior placed both palms on Sanaya’s body: Aklia at the head; Raya with her palms on Sanaya’s chest, just above her heart; and Raya at her feet.
“As we do this, you can have your physician sew up the bite wound. No drugs. We want nothing to slow down her natural healing process.”
There was a sudden shift in the room as the present Guardians considered what Aklia requested.
More comforting warmth filtered into her body, and Sanaya felt like she could sleep peacefully like this forever. Metal clanked as a small table covered with the physicians instruments was pushed towards her.
More worried whispering.
In the meantime, The Council Members maintained their positions as the doctor went to work on cleaning out the large area of torn flesh that exposed ripped muscle. Minutes flew by, and the only ones allowed to remain in the room were her Guardians Archer, Congo, Louis and the church assassin Tatsu as they all stood idly by, and collectively holding their breaths. When the physician finally sewed in the last stitch of the threading and tied it off to close the wound, the entire room sighed.
“She will be fine,” the physician said adjusting his glasses. “Her immune system is already working to fight off the toxin. But I must warn you...”
“What?” Archer demanded, marching towards the doctor with Congo right behind him.
“She is entering the final phase of her maturity. The blood sample that we took showed an increase in her hormone levels coupled with the tripling of her white blood cells.”
“And what does that mean?” Archer asked.
“It means that with everything going on in her body, she is going to be sick as a dog when she wakes up. We will have to keep her here under observation for a few days until the toxins are completely flushed from her system-“
“She will stay with The Council until further notice,” Aklia interrupted the doctor, receiving uneasy glances from The Guardians.
“The hell she will!” Archer snapped.
“We have natural healing medicines that humans have yet to discover while they are too busy creating synthetic drugs. She will heal faster under our care, plus she will fall under our protection until this Cain crisis is averted,” Aklia argued.
“You Guardians were given the most important responsibility,” Natasha added. “And since falling under your care, she has become a target for the Darkness prematurely and-“
“She. Stays. Here.” Archer’s voice reflected an all too calm yet lethal tone to it. “When this girl was born to a highly dysfunctional family, where were you? Answer me this: where were you? Where were you when her father left home human and retuned as a goddamn vampire? We had to find her with very little to go on other than hope and a prayer-“
“You will lower your tone with me Guardian,” Aklia snapped. “We had little to go on just as you. Yes we know when a Slayer is born, but where, is always a mystery. The moment her body began to change and her energy signature became stronger, then we were able to protect her until you came along to save her-“
“I think everyone needs to chill,” Congo suggested, looking around the room. “Arguing about where she goes at this point doesn’t change the situation. Baby girl was bitten by a goddamn vampire, and had it not been for the fact that she carries a natural immunity to vampire bites, we would have been preparing to put her in a casket.”
“Why don’t you guys do your healing thing here?” Lois suggested, looking directly at Aklia.
“Because it is not safe for her any longer,” Aklia replied sadly. “Cain has a mind-lock with her and can track her anywhere on the planet if he wanted to. She can sense him but she is still learning how to navigate senses to actually pin point him.”
The silence that filtered into the room was thick enough to suffocate each and every Guardian that stood within its walls.
“She mind-locked with Cain?” Archer asked with disbelief. “And she didn’t tell me?”
“She struck a bargain with him in exchange for his protection over The Academy,” Aklia continued. She gently pushed a stray braid away from Sanaya’s face, examining the young woman closely.
“And what did she exchange?” Congo croaked.
“She promised to hunt down and kill his only surviving heir, Selene,” Aklia said after a long pause. “But we all know that Cain is quite capable of killing her himself. He doesn’t need Sanaya’s help.”
“But if Cain is watching her, don’t you think her disappearance will cause him alarm?” Lois asked. “I mean, if she struck a bargain with him and he is expecting her to at least hold up her end of the deal, if you take her away, he will not be able to sense her-which means bad news for us. None of us are strong enough to go against an entity such as Cain.”
All eyes returned to Aklia, who then glanced down at the still unconscious Sanaya. “You do raise a very valid question Guardian…but for some reason, I believe that whatever agreement they may have come to, has just become null and void.” She turned to face Raya and Natasha who both looked at each other as the realization struck them.
“If Cain promised to protect The Academy in exchange for Sanaya killing Selene, he did not hold up his end of the bargain tonight,” Raya said easing away from Sanaya.
“He surely didn’t!” Natasha squealed. “Ladies and gentlemen, the female entity you just witnessed is Annalia-one of the Seven. She used to be Cain’s most trusted and dedicated out of all of them.”
“And if she meant that much to Cain, why didn’t he come to her aid?” Archer asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“That I cannot explain,” Aklia sighed. “But two factors remain: Cain did not stop Annalia’s attack but he did not rescue Annalia either. Annalia is barely alive, and that Ancient One -Daemon – who saved her, knows it. Whatever scheme she was a part of has been thwarted, at least for now.”
“Looks like Sanaya will just have to stay here until she wakes up,” Archer retorted. “Because there has to be a reason why Cain didn’t follow through on his promise and something tells me our little darling knows why. For all we know, Annalia’s attack may have been an act of revenge from Cain to simply prove a point.”
The Guardians all mumbled in agreement, while The Council members shared uneasy glances.
“We will watch over her,” Raya declared. “The rest of you should rest, especially you Archer.”
Archer said nothing, but the deep frown and hard glare said it all. The Guardians filtered out of the room one by one, each one sharing the same exhausted expression as the other. The physician completed his notes before exiting the room with his nurse, leaving The Council members alone with Sanaya.
Natasha glanced over at Aklia whose attentions were focused on Sanaya. “We have to move her and soon…” Natasha said with worry.
“The Guardians, especially do not understand,” Raya agreed with a sigh.
“If she is already entering the final phase, over the next few days-even weeks she will attract more harm to The Academy than they ever could imagine. Plus Cain…”Natasha added.
“We will wait until she awakens before making any decisions,” Aklia announced. “Until then we stand watch. Summon the other council members. We are running out of time.”
Chapter Nineteen
Hidden in the distant shadows of Vatican City, at the top of one of the most lavish penthouse suites in the city, Cain leaned over the balustrade of his patio balcony and watched over the city with a sigh. The youthfulness of the night enchanted him with a gentle breeze, while the energy from the hundreds of thousands of innocents -and the not so innocent-permeated the air. Smoothing his tongue over his lengthening fangs h
e forced them to retract, as the idea of innocent blood triggered his vampiric needs. He needed to remain focused. The Slayer-his Slayer, was something both terrifying yet beautiful at the same time. In all of the millennia of his existence, never had he encountered a huntress as gifted as she. And whatever power she’d tapped into, that bubbled just beneath the surface of her skin, unnerved him and yet, excited him at the same time. She would serve him well if he could just earn her trust…
And, he’d have to severe that tie with that young man of hers.
Guardian Mate Bonds were a nuisance, but like everything else in this world considered sacred and fragile, Mate Bonds could be broken. Dressed in nothing but a pair of grey sweats, the night air felt wonderful against his bronze skin. The pull to venture out into the night and to indulge in every sensual sin imaginable was all too tempting until he felt the dark, familiar presence of an entity he thought he would never see again.
Annalia.
What was she doing in Vatican City? When he forced the remaining four of what was once The Seven from his presence for their safety, Annalia was the last to leave. She would have made a perfect lair queen, but the female was a bit too ambitious and blood thirsty for his tastes. Plus, even long after the death of his beloved Luluwa, no female would ever compare to his first wife. Until now…
An image of Annalia soon interrupted his thoughts, flooding his mind’s eye with visuals of the female engaged in a serious hand to hand with Sanaya. He stood, transfixed for a moment, completely consumed with the vision of past huntress versus present huntress. Both were pure motion, magic…but the older huntress had centuries of battle experience over Sanaya which proved to be detrimental to the young Slayer’s health. He considered intervening, despite the current state of the agreement he forged with Sanaya, he would rip Annalia’s lungs from her body if she killed her. Rage ignited within him towards his protégé as he watched her slam his new interest into the concrete. His eyes went jet black as he summoned his will to dematerialize to The Academy when his sister and her holy harem of dead Slayers appeared.
The Vampire Hunters Academy: The Reckoning Page 10
