Dark Storm

by Christine Feehan

  He was gone before she could catch his path. A soft, protesting cry slipped from her lips. She’d felt hope for the first time. In that brief moment, she couldn’t explain it, but she wasn’t so alone. He understood the whispering of the earth, the information she gathered when she sank her hands deep into the soil—that complete affinity with and the need, even compulsion, to care for the plants and environment around her. She was the guardian, the sentinel, and somewhere another walked the same planet and held that same job.

  It occurred to her that she was a little mad after the murder of her mother—that she’d suffered some deep psychotic break—and she barely managed to swallow the bubble of hysterical laughter. She couldn’t afford to lose it. Not now.

  “Whatever the evil entity is—and it feels masculine to me—it speaks the same language as the porter chanted when he killed my mother. And I think it managed to escape with the blast.” She swallowed hard, her eyes meeting Jubal’s. “I’m sorry. I tried my best. If my mother hadn’t been killed maybe she could have done more.”

  Ben carefully picked himself up, scooting across the dirt to put his back to the wall, careful to keep his movements short. “Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on here.” He pushed his hair back, his hand coming away filled with ash. “Because I feel a little bit as if I’m going insane. Did she really stop the volcano? I mean, we’re still alive aren’t we?”

  “For the moment,” Gary said. “I think she managed to minimize the blast and direct it to the other side of the mountain. The vents opening closer to us are just relieving pressure.”

  “How long have you had this particular skill?” Ben asked, his tone somewhere between awe and sarcasm.

  “Since my mother died,” Riley replied, feeling a little distracted. She wanted to brush up against that elusive feeling of comfort and strength and draw courage from it just one more time. Trapped in a cave, waiting to cook to death, exhausted beyond anything she’d ever known, she wanted to curl up in the fetal position and hide.

  “How did you do this?” Ben demanded. “Are you some kind of devil worshipper? No one can make a cave grow over their head or stop a volcano from exploding.”

  “Clearly, I didn’t stop the volcano,” Riley pointed out. “And that’s the second time you’ve accused me of worshipping the devil, and I really don’t appreciate it. You were right here. You watched everything I did. I called on the Universe, not the devil.” She couldn’t keep weariness—or disgust—out of her voice, and it wasn’t entirely fair to Ben. Given everything that had happened, his fear and need to lash out were understandable. If everyone weren’t looking for her to save them, she might be tempted to lash out, too. Moreover, how could she explain what was happening to him when she didn’t understand it herself?

  Grief welled up without warning, and she blinked back a hot rush of tears. She wanted her mother—needed her. Everything was happening so fast, and Riley didn’t have a clue what she was doing.

  Gary stepped in smoothly. “Calm down, Ben. I know what’s happening seems crazy, but just because you’ve never encountered something like this before doesn’t make it less real—or less dangerous. Fighting among ourselves is only going to make things worse. Jubal and I have witnessed things that would send most people screaming their way straight to the loony bin. But the truth is, evil does exist, monsters come after us in the night, and people like Riley are sometimes the only thing standing between us and total annihilation. I wish you hadn’t had to be a part of this, but unfortunately for you, you’re a brave man and you chose to protect Riley instead of running away like the others. That choice, while admirable, has put you in harm’s way and exposed you to powers beyond your comprehension. As long as you stick with us, you’re going to be in the middle of this, and I can pretty much guarantee it’s going to get worse before it gets better. So we need you to keep your cool, and lay off Riley. Sniping at her isn’t going to help any of us.”

  Riley had to admire his calm, matter-of-fact explanation. There was something very reassuring about Gary. No drama. No ego. Just his presence. She took another drink of water. Her throat felt parched, her body thirsty. She needed . . . but what she didn’t know. Only that she was suddenly craving something. Despite her exhaustion, her blood was on fire, rushing through her veins, her pulse leaping, finding a strange rhythm.

  She felt more alive than she ever had and had no idea if it was because the volcano had come to dramatic life, breathing fire, or if it was because she’d connected with someone who had given her a brief moment of comfort in the midst of total madness. Maybe it was the intensity of her emotions, the fear, the grief, the adrenaline. Whatever it was, she felt every bit as vibrant as she did weary.

  “It’s just hard to wrap my head around all this,” Ben said in a calmer voice. “The funny thing is, I’ve always been interested in folklore, everything from Bigfoot and the Yeti to werewolves and vampires and I’ve traveled all around the world in an effort to prove where there’s smoke there’s fire. I’ve been in a minisub searching for the Loch Ness Monster. You name it, if it was unexplained, I went to find it, but after all the disappointments, I didn’t really believe anymore. Maybe I never really did. But this . . .” He shook his head and wiped his hand over his mouth. “I’m sticking with you, although I have to tell you, I’m just a little scared.”

  Jubal smiled at him, a flash of white teeth in his ash-blackened face. “Welcome to our world. You’d be crazy if you weren’t a little afraid.”

  Riley pushed herself up and scooted to the far wall facing the three men. She drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. “I’m definitely scared, Ben. I’ve come to this mountain several times and nothing like this has ever happened before.”

  Ben sent her a strained smile. “Thanks for the cave, however you managed it. Melting in hot lava isn’t the way I want to go out.”

  She tried to find a smile and hoped she pulled it off. “Pyroclastic clouds aren’t exactly my idea of fun, either.”

  Jubal cleared his throat. “Are you certain whatever was locked in the volcano was able to get free?”

  Riley nodded reluctantly. “He’s free. I couldn’t hold him.” She tasted the bitter flavor of failure. “You know what he is, don’t you?” When neither Jubal nor Gary answered, she sighed. “Look, we’re in this together now. He’s out. I felt him. I know he’s real. You have to tell me what we’re dealing with.”

  “I’d like to know, too,” Ben agreed. “No matter what it is, it can’t be much crazier than what I’ve already witnessed.”

  Jubal rubbed the bridge of his nose, his eyes meeting Gary’s. He sighed. “No matter how we say this, you’re going to think we’re insane.”

  Ben shrugged. “I already think maybe I’m insane, so just come out with it. None of this seems real.”

  Still, both men hesitated. Riley didn’t like the way they looked at one another. She felt her pulse jump. She couldn’t get any more scared, could she? Fear of the unknown was worse than the knowing. At least then she could try to prepare.

  “I need to know what this evil thing is, Jubal. I heard it speak. Its voice was in my head for a minute, and it felt foul.” She shuddered. “I think it’s going to come after me.”

  “What did it say?” Gary asked.

  “He spoke in that same language the porter used just before he killed my mother.” She closed her eyes, drawing on the same phonographic memory that let her reproduce bird and animal calls perfectly and made her so adept at linguistics. “He said, ‘Arabejila. Emni hän ku köd alte. Tõdak a ho caóasz engemko, kutenken caóasz engemko a jälleen. Andak a irgalomet terád it.’”

  She didn’t know what the individual words were or what they meant, but she reproduced the sounds, inflection and pitch precisely and the sickening foulness of the tone made everyone flinch.

  “The only word I recognized
was Arabejila. It’s a family name and it’s very unusual. My great-great-grandmother was named Arabejila and she was named after another great-grandmother.”

  Gary and Jubal exchanged another long look.

  Riley sighed. “Just tell me what it means. At this point, like Ben, I don’t think I’m going to be surprised by anything.”

  “He must have thought you were someone he knew,” Gary ventured. “If you have an ancestor who was called Arabejila, when he sensed your presence, you must have felt familiar to him, which means her genes and gifts are strong in you. He probably believes you are this Arabejila.”

  “No relative of mine with that name has been alive for . . .” She trailed off, glancing at Ben. Whatever had lived in the volcano had to be a very ancient evil. How long had the women in her family been coming to such a remote part of the Andes and performing the ritual?

  She pressed her lips together tightly and rubbed her cheek along her knees. If that ancient being had been sealed in the volcano by one of her ancestors, it stood to reason he might be a little angry and looking for revenge.

  “Never mind. Can you translate what he said?”

  “Repeat the phrase for me,” he said. “I’ll do my best.”

  She did so, speaking as slowly as she could without affecting the rhythm and inflection of the words.

  Gary rubbed his jaw, stared for a moment at his blackened hand, rubbed the ash onto his jeans and then shrugged when his hands remained dirty. “Emni hän ku köd alte. I know that means ‘cursed woman.’”

  “I thought that phrase was familiar,” Riley said. “The porter chanted it over and over. He was calling my mother a cursed woman.”

  “And now you,” Jubal said.

  Riley instinctively buried her fingers in the soil, needing comfort. She already knew that evil entity was going to be coming after her. She didn’t need Gary to tell her that; she’d heard the hatred and rage in the thing’s voice. But she’d also heard fear. She wasn’t Arabejila, but if evil feared her, Riley was more than happy to claim kinship with the woman.

  “Tõdak a ho caóasz engemko, kutenken caóasz engemko a jälleen, I believe is, I don’t know how you . . .” He frowned at Jubal. “‘Escaped’? ‘How you escaped me’?”

  Jubal nodded. “That’s what I got. And something about ‘not again.’”

  Gary nodded. “‘I do not know how you escaped me, but you will not again.’ That’s as close as I can get. Clearly he thinks he knows you.”

  “And the last part?” Riley insisted. “Andak a irgalomet terád it.”

  “That means, ‘I will have no mercy for you this time.’” Gary said the words in a rush, as if he wanted to get it over.

  “So who is he? What is he?” Riley demanded.

  Gary wiped at the ash on his jeans, not looking at her. “I’m afraid you’re dealing with a vampire. A very powerful vampire. The real deal. He’ll tear out your throat and drain you dry. He feeds off the suffering and terror of people. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s what was locked in that mountain.”

  Riley stared at him, openmouthed. She hadn’t expected him to say vampire. Vampires were mythical demons in horror movies or novels. She didn’t have a clue what she thought he’d say, but certainly not vampire. He was serious, too. She snuck a look at Jubal. He was just as serious.

  “All those weapons you have, you were expecting this. Clearly, from the beginning, you knew.”

  Gary shook his head. “No, that’s not true. We actually came here to research a particular plant we thought long extinct. A small group of adventurers had come here last year and one had a picture of the plant on his blog on the Internet. A friend of ours just happened to stumble across the photograph and sent it to me knowing my interest in rare plants. Jubal and I were both excited about it. I got in touch with the miner who described the plant and I became certain it was what we were looking for. We contacted a guide and came.”

  “But our guide was ill,” Jubal said. “Just like yours and Dr. Patton’s guide.”

  “And ours,” Ben added.

  Gary nodded. “So we threw in with everyone and figured since we were all going to the same general area, we could travel together and then go our own way when we got to the mountain. At that point we didn’t have a clue anything was wrong.”

  “We began to suspect we were dealing with the undead when all the strange things began happening and they were clearly directed at your mother,” Jubal added. “There’s a certain feel to evil, and we’ve both felt it before.”

  Ben shook his head. “No. No way. I’ve studied vampire lore around the world, and I’ll admit, there’s a part of me that wanted to believe something like that existed, like in the movies. I ran into a group of people in my travels that totally believe in vampires and claim they hunt and kill them. They were all nut jobs. Completely whacko. There are no such things as vampires. The people they killed were ill, or lived differently or had trouble being out in the sun. I investigated each victim and none of them were vampires. The few people who act like vampires, killing for blood, are in mental institutions for the criminally insane.”

  “True enough,” Gary agreed. “I know exactly the people you’re talking about. I was mixed up with them once, a long time ago, and yes, they kill indiscriminately. They target someone and then twist facts to fit what they want to believe, but that doesn’t negate the fact that vampires exist.”

  “If that’s true,” Ben argued, “why doesn’t anyone know about it?”

  Riley had to admit it was a good question. She kept her head on her knees, but watched Gary’s face carefully. He truly believed what he was saying. Jubal did as well. Neither struck her as insane. She’d felt evil when she’d plunged her hands into the soil. Even more, she’d heard it—heard its voice. There was no denying it, as much as she’d like to.

  “How was he able to get the bats and monkeys, even the piranha and that snake to target my mother if he was trapped in the volcano?” she asked, not waiting for Gary or Jubal to answer Ben’s very logical question. She believed Gary, and that was just plain terrifying.

  “Vampires can be very powerful. If this one has survived locked in that volcano, we’re dealing with an extremely powerful one. He has been around for more centuries than we can imagine, growing in power.”

  Riley closed her eyes briefly. She’d let something truly evil out into the world. “There are stories, folklore we believed, about the devastation of both the Cloud People and the Incas living here, that something had killed their best warriors and destroyed their villages. They thought it was an evil god who demanded sacrifices of children and women, yet never was appeased. Could it be that old?”

  “Yes,” Gary replied simply.

  Riley wanted to curl up into a ball and lay in the comfort of the soil. She hadn’t had time to grieve for her mother and she felt overwhelmed with sadness so abruptly she could barely think. She didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to talk or hear any more. She wanted to be a child and cover her ears. She sighed instead and forced her weary body to sit straighter. “So do you carry stakes on you along with those weapons?” It was a halfhearted attempt at humor, the best she could muster under the circumstances.

  Ben snickered. “Wooden stakes? Are you kidding me?”

  “Stakes don’t work,” Jubal said. “You have to incinerate the heart. You can shoot them, stab them, stake them and even cut off their head, but if you don’t burn that heart, they can repair themselves.”

  A groan escaped her. Of course you would have to incinerate the heart. Anything else would be just too easy.

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Now I know you’re crazy.”

  “I wish I could tell you I’m making this up,” Gary said. “But I’m not. Everyone is at risk now. All of us. Every tribesman. Every member of our party that tri
ed to get away from the volcano. He’ll be looking for blood and he’ll kill anyone he comes across. Not only will he take blood, but he’ll take their memories and learn at a rapid rate so that he’ll fit in anywhere he goes. His lack of knowledge of the past centuries won’t mean anything within a matter of days.”

  Riley ran the pad of her finger back and forth over her eyebrow, trying to ease the beginnings of a headache. “Then we have to find the others and make certain they’re safe.”

  Ben frowned at her. “You’re actually buying into this? An honest-to-God vampire who won’t die even if you drive a stake through its heart. Even if we stab or shoot it.”

  She nodded slowly. “I don’t want to buy into it, Ben, but I do. Those animals behaved completely against their nature, and something drove Capa to murder my mother. So call it whatever you want to call it, but I want to know how to kill whatever it is. I want to know exactly what to expect when I come across it, because I don’t want any more surprises.”

  Ben scowled at her but nodded his head. “I suppose you have a point.”

  “Vampires can be very cunning,” Jubal explained. “They’re masters of illusion. They appear to be charming and handsome, but in fact, they mask what and who they are. They can get inside your head and make you do whatever they wish. You’ll go to them when they command it and allow them to rip out your throat. You will give them your children or any loved one if they demand it.”

  “Great,” Riley said. “The worst monster imaginable, right? That’s what you’re saying. Just say that. So, along with a gun I need a flamethrower. I noticed you had one, Gary. Can I borrow it? I’m fairly certain it’s me Vamp doesn’t like. He made that pretty clear.”

  “I say we get the hell out of here the minute we can,” Ben said. “Whatever it is can live off the piranha.”