Savanna looked at her friend and pleaded, “Drop me or we both die.”
Alexi glanced off to the cave, then back down to Savanna. A slow grin spread on her red lips.
“I know that look,” Savanna said, “You’re going to do something craz—” Alexi heaved her back away from the cave in a wide swing. Alexi rocked her back and forth, each swing of her pendulum moving her closer to horizontal.
“Alexi—” The vampire heaved her. Savanna’s arc carried her above the cave, gravity slowed her and re-asserted it’s dominance and for a moment she hovered. Then she crashed down onto the lip of the cave, landing painfully on her injured hand.
She blinked several times, unable to believe she had made it. She scrambled to the edge to help Alexi. Twenty feet below the vampire clung to the wall.
“You know you really should have more faith in us,” Alexi said as she climbed up and over the ledge. The ledge itself wasn’t very big, wide enough they could both stand on it and deep enough their feet didn’t hang over, but only just.
The cave that Savanna spotted was little more than a crack in the wall. Alexi knelt down to peer inside.
“Who gets to go into the scary cave first,” Alexi said over her shoulder.
***
Alexi gaped open mouth at the paintings on the wall. The frame was made of gold with intricately carved symbols which linked together to form script that never repeated itself. The canvas’ themselves varied by painting and there were thousands. When they first entered the room from the crack in the wall, Alexi was sure they’d gone the wrong way. She thought they had stumbled back into the Fae castle by accident. However, the paintings weren’t the tapestries, they were done with pant and brushes, not needle and thread. Whoever lived here must have spent a lifetime painting. As Alexi and Savanna wandered through the hall, a sort of story began to form with the paintings.
“Look over there,” Savanna said, pointing at one painting in the corner. It was lost in shadow and covered in dust. As she grew closer she could see the paint, its colors were vibrant once but now they were cracked and broken.
A pair of people walked hand in hand through a luscious garden. Their faces were lost to the ages and were impossible to make out.
The paintings wouldn’t be random, not her in the Fae land. She turned three hundred and sixty degrees, scanning the room as she did so. From this position she could make out a path which the paintings created by there placement.
The couple were in all of the early ones. As time moved on more people were depicted. They lived, sang, ate, and made love all in a beautiful garden. The paintings turned darker as a new figure emerged from the shadows. He was large, larger than the other people, with a dark scowling complexion. The woman let him into the garden through a side gate that was little used.
The next several paintings were burned, as if the artist had splashed gasoline on them and lit a match. After that things got murky. Paintings were abandoned, half finished, or blank canvases.
“This is weird,” Alexi muttered as they came across the unfinished one.
“Do you think this is the Fae? Their history?”
“It could be, but why leave some of it…,” she paused as they saw the next painting. A woman with stunning red hair and green eyes who was seated upon the ocean side. Her face was full of longing and Alexi swore she could see tears in her eyes. Suddenly, the memory of Victor sprang into her mind. She hadn’t been thinking about it, but suddenly she felt a profound sense of loss. She turned to Savanna and opened her mouth to speak—but didn’t Savanna’s own eyes were watery and a single tear slid silently down her cheeks.
“Wow,” Alexi said. Savanna nodded.
Wordlessly they moved on. The paintings were a story and more. The next painting had the same woman, but now she held hands with a man while she watched the ocean. Alexi smiled unbidden, her thoughts of Victor turned to their happy times. Five paintings later the two were naked in front of a fire. Desire welled up in Alexi, the way sorrow had minutes before. She coughed to cover the blush that heated her cheeks.
“These are more than canvas and paint, aren’t they?”
Alexi nodded, they were emotions, pain, desire, all the things the people in the paintings felt. The new couple went on for sometime. Different painting depicted them on the beach, in a quaint wooden cabin, and walking through a magnificent forest.
The next few were dark, like a photo taken at night. Alexi thought they were black, until the fifth one. Dead soldiers littered a small field, blood covered everything even blending into the painting itself.
Suddenly the man vanished from the painting, leaving her alone. The sadness that assaulted Alexi had smashed into her. She collapsed to her knees, tears of sorrow poured down her cheeks. Savanna was there, whispering to her, telling her it would be okay. She wiped the tears from her face and grasped Alexi’s chin and turned it toward her own.
When her tears finally dried and she could see clearly, she noticed the witch wasn’t crying. “How isn’t it affecting you?” she asked.
“Once I realized what was happening, I stopped looking,” Savanna replied.
Alexi managed to pull her self up with Savanna’s help. She wanted to stop, to skip the evil room and not suffer as the girl in the painting. The story pulled at her, urged her to go on and to see for herself how it ended.
She steeled herself for the next one. Pain and despair colored this one. The woman was alone, her love long gone. She knew he wasn’t dead, only lost to her. A few paintings went by. How long Alexi didn’t know. The pain in each one dimmed slightly. The young woman turned into a mature woman, and then an old one.
Another woman appeared. With long dark hair and brilliant brown eyes. The angles on her face and the haughtiness of her gaze gave her a regal appearance. Alexi thought she looked familiar, something about her nagged at the back of her mind.
She couldn’t make out her face though, it was as if the artist purposely left her obscure. She handed a vial to the girl. It was a promise… no a bargain. If she drank she would live forever and be with her love again. Alexi’s mouth watered with anticipation.Excitement beyond all reason permeated her mind. She took the vile and with out hesitation brought it to her lips and drank it all in one swallow.
Something was wrong. She had been tricked. The woman who bargained vanished and all that remained was the pain. It rolled over her in waves, searing her to the bone. Alexi fell to the ground with her arms clenched around her stomach. Though she fed the night before she was suddenly undeniably hungry. As if she had never fed. Her vision turned red and she couldn’t stop her fangs from sprouting. She hissed audibly when Savanna called her name. Alexi looked up, Savanna’s big violet eyes stared back down with concern. Why was she suddenly hungry? There was a rhythmic pounding in her ears. She recognized it—Savanna’s heartbeat. She had felt this way before, the night Savanna had found her. Alexi sprang to her feet unable to think on anything other then the need to feed. In an instant Alexi picked Savanna up and slammed her against the wall. She pushed her head to the side revealing her long brown neck.
Alexi’s fangs brushed against the girls soft skin. Her mouth watered in anticipation of the sweet life that would soon flow between her lips.
“Alexi, stop!” Savanna’s blows fell ineffectually on Alexi, spurring her on to hold her tighter.
“Look, look at the next painting, look,” Savanna screamed in her ear.
Something inside of Alexi knew what she felt wasn’t real. She wasn’t hungry, she had already fed and could go weeks without eating if need be. The moment passed and the hunger lessened, but it wasn’t gone.
She let Savanna go, the witch slid to the ground gulping air down.
Alexi looked to the next painting. There was a town, with shops, a stables and a blacksmith. There were bodies everywhere. Each painted all in black, with the exception of two little trails of red flowing down there necks. Ecstasy washed over Alexi and she had to take a deep breath to keep from falling ov
er. It was the feeling she got from feeding. The satisfaction of catching prey mingles with the warmth in her belly and the life in her veins.
Alexi shook her head, her eyes went wide at the horror she was about to commit. She reached down and helped Savanna to her feet.
“I’m so sorry, honey, I don’t know what came over me.”
“I do,” Savanna said, her eyes wide as she looked at the next painting.
“What is it?” Alexi asked.
“The Fae, they made the first vampire,” Savanna whispered.
Alexi looked to the next painting. The red head was in the center of a huge city. She was surrounded by others like her. She had her hair pulled back in a severe bun and blood dripped from her lips.
“Why would they do that?” Alexi asked.
“Revenge,” a man said behind her.
Alexi spun around, fists at the ready. Savanna stepped defensively behind her, dagger drawn. Alexi narrowed her eyes as she recognized the Fae. He was the man from the paintings.
***
“But why?” Alexi said as they followed him into the main hall. He wore a painters smock and his long ginger hair swung behind him in a loose pony tail. He walked in silence for a few moments, leading them deeper into his domain. Alexi squashed her urge to punch him until he spoke. After everything they’d been through since they got to this cursed land, she was infuriated to be so close, but still have to put up with the Fae nonsense.
“In here,” he gestured as if he didn’t hear her.
The room had a large fire place set in the far wall with flames that licked the stone chimney. A large table was in the room, filled with fruits, meats, cheese, and more of the Fae ambrosia. Around it were several plump chairs. Alexi wasn’t tempted by the food, but she knew that Savanna could use something solid in her stomach. She peered at the Fae trying to discern anything from him. His gray eyes stared back at her. She searched for any trace of emotion in him, any glimmer that would tell her if he would help, or hurt them. Whatever power she had to sense others emotions either didn’t work on him, or he wasn’t feeling any. Alexi shuddered to think what a Fae who didn’t feel would do .
Savanna looked over to the food then back to him.
“You may indulge yourselves, it’s been some time since I had company,” he said. He walked over to the far wall to sit by the fire. Savanna found a seat at the table and with her good hand she placed bits of food on a plate.
Alexi kept one eye on her as she moved across the room. There were more paintings decorating these walls, but they didn’t evoke any emotions in her as she glanced at them
“You obviously have questions…” he said without looking away from the fire.
“Your land is dying,” she waited for some reaction from him, when none was forth coming she continued, “Is it your doing?” Alexi asked. Savanna shot Alexi a sharp look. Alexi knew she wasn’t being diplomatic but they just didn’t have the time. She raised an eyebrow back at the witch.
“I guess that’s as good a question as any,” he said. He sighed as he drank from his mug and Alexi picked up the first sense of emotion—profound sorrow.
“We met Tamlin and the rest of the court, they think your responsible… They agreed to cure Savanna if we could undo what you’re doing,” she said. The Fae’s power wasn’t in dispute. Alexi doubted that he didn’t already know why they were here. They had to much power in this land not to know.
“You made a fools bargain,” he said.
“Then I’m a fool but since we made it here, I must not be that much of a fool,” she said. Her anger boiled up in her breast. Ever since they arrived the Fae had treated them like idiot children. She was growing sick of it.
“You are her…” he said. He brought his hands to his face and rubbed his temples in a very human gesture, “Very well, perhaps it is a sign. Please, eat,” he gestured toward the food.
“I’m fine,” Alexi answered. It was curious to her that the Fae who by all accounts were all powerful in their realm, didn’t realize she was a vampire.
“As you wish,” he said with a nod, not moving any further. His stillness unnerved her. A normal human moved even when they weren’t intending too. Heart beat, muscle spasms, and blood flow were all things her enhanced senses could pick up on. Not on him, though. He was a statue.
“Do you not eat?” he asked.
She shrugged, “I’m a vampire, my meals are of a different sort.”
“Tamlin sent you to die then, because I will not bend my knee to your kind.”
“Why turn such evil on humanity? Surely revenge on you wasn’t worth the countless lives humans have lost do to them.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. She realized she had said them as if she wasn’t one herself.
“It was Tamlin’s revenge. Humans can come and go from the Isle while sleep. Sometimes we come to them in their dreams and bargain with them to stay a while. At one time we lived on the Earth and only spent time here.”
Savanna’s color looked better as she ate. Alexi had no idea how much time had passed since they left the hall. A few hours? Days?
“We don’t sleep, at least not like humans. We have our cycles, you call them courts. She is winter, I’m summer. When one of us sleeps, the other leads. When I was awake I would travel to Earth, to Caitlin. Tamlin grew jealous and took her from me while I slept,” he drifted off for a moment as the memory of his loss washed across his face. The crackle of the fire the only sound in the room while the two women waited for him to continue.
“They wanted their king back, you see? I’d fallen in love with a lass from the farm. For a few short seasons I had forgotten what it meant to be king of the Fae. Tamlin and the petty politics of the courts bored me. I wanted to taste life as you do,” he said to Savanna.
“What happened,” the witch said after sipping her ambrosia.
“A hundred different things. I was forced to return to the Isle. My time to sleep came and I couldn’t put it off any longer. Time flows differently here, you’ve felt it I’m sure?”
They both nodded. A small worry formed in the back of Alexi’s mind. How much different? Would they return to Earth months after they left? Years?
“We argued and fought and in the end I was convinced to sleep. I didn’t see the harm in missing one season, but they did. When I awoke and returned the farm had burned to the ground. I tried to find her. She was easy to follow, I had but to look for the stench of death.”
The loss in his voice hurt her heart, visions of Victor flooded her mind and the ever present wound in her heart ignited with pain.
“You know of what I speak,” his eyes pierced her soul, pealing back the layers of her mind and showing her the pain and sorrow. Victors death burned in her as it did when it was raw and new. She let out a sharp sob. It was impossible to hold them back. For the second time that day she was racked with sobs. Savanna was there and Alexi clung to her, burying her face in the witches belly. After a few moments the sorrow subsided and she could control herself again.
“Why did you do that?” she asked. The crying had left her voice raw.
“What would you do to bring him back, your wolf? Would you kill her? No… Me? Yes, I see it in your eyes. You would kill almost anyone. You would burn the whole world if it meant you could have him back,” he said in a whisper.
Wounds she thought closed or at least scabbed over ran deep in her. She closed her eyes and could see Victor’s lifeless body behind the Altar. His dead eyes stared up at her accusingly.
“Make it stop,” she pleaded.
“If only I could,” he whispered.
The pain subsided as suddenly as it started. She heaved a breath as the hand of pain that gripped her heart softened its grip.
“There is no such reprieve for me, vampire. The pain burns with me for as long as I live. For Fae, we remember everything that was, is, and will be. We do not live in the now, we live in all the nows. We no longer deserve such privilege.”
Alexi looked to
Savanna who returned her look. She felt her eyes widen as realization hit her.
“Surely not all your kin deserve death? Warren brought us here. He helped us, he wants to save you. Is that why he was banished? Did he try to stop them?”
Dominus seethed with anger, he crushed his cup to a pulp and cast it into the flames.
“He helped create the vermin who murdered my beloved. Turned her into that vile thing who spent her nights searching for prey and her days debasing her body with the things she created with her blood. He deserves a death far richer than I can give him.”
They can visit the isle in their sleep… He had said. Alexi knew that vampires didn’t dream, she never dreamed. She closed her eyes, then woke up. The other Fae created a creature made of pure darkness. One that didn’t dream and could never visit the Isle in her sleep. One of unspeakable evil and vile temperament. It was a curse. She would forever look like the woman Dominus loved, but the real her was gone.
“It’s awful what they did to you, I can’t imagine why they would, but it’s awful.” She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. A glimmer of emotion came through with contact. The pain she felt earlier was nothing to what boiled under the surface. In that moment Alexi knew he would kill every living thing to satiate his desire.
“But your wrong, Warren didn’t help them. He stood up to Tamlin, voted against her and for that she banished him.”
“When he brought us here he didn’t recognize this as his land. Tamlin’s court cower in their keep, afraid to venture out lest the land they love kill them. They drink and eat while their castle crumbles around them. They know they’re dying and can do nothing about it. You’ve beaten them,” she squeezed his shoulder and put everything she had into her words, “You can end this now, with no more lives lost. Please. Savanna is dying. The curse they made is killing her.”
“She’s not infected,” he said.
“Something happened. I don’t know what, but something changed the curse… and it’s going to kill her. Please, she’s all I have in the world, she’s my sister in every way that counts and only the magic of the Well can cure her.”
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 16
