Elonora
As soon as Raphael, Vesta, and Zeriel headed for the stairs leading back to the surface, I turned to look at Rose and Ben.
“Let me go with them,” I said. “I’m of no use here, right now, while we wait for Douma to learn stuff. You can prepare another message for Draven and the others, and I’ll go try to talk to Raphael again. I think I can get him to budge.”
Rose and Ben looked at each other, then back at me.
“Go. But take Nevis with you, just in case you need any backup out there. And keep your True Sight on, at all times,” Rose replied. “Abaddon, Araquiel, and the others are still looking for us.”
I gave her a brief nod, then rushed up the stairs, followed closely by Nevis. The silence between us was pretty awkward, but I chose to focus on Raphael, for the time being, and ways to convince him to help us. He was already out to get us serium to block Douma from the wireless memory database. I figured we only needed another push to get him on board with the rest of our plan.
Kailani, Hunter, Leah, Samael, Dmitri, Kallisto, Ridan, and Amane stayed in the bunker with Douma, leaving her enough breathing room to learn everything she needed, going forward. I knew Rose and Ben were going to prepare another message for GASP, with some pretty crucial updates—including Douma’s memory reset and Raphael’s presence.
I reached the top and caught up with Raphael, Vesta, and Zeriel.
“Wait up,” I said.
Raphael gave me a broad smile, which instantly faded at the sight of Nevis standing right behind me. “I was going to say I’m glad you decided to join us,” he muttered.
“What made you change your mind?” I chuckled.
“Mr. Icicle,” Raphael said.
The temperature suddenly dropped, prompting me to give Nevis a stern sideways glance. “Let’s play nice with the locals this time,” I whispered. “Please.”
Nevis let out an audible sigh but got his frost under control. He wasn’t happy, but he, too, understood what was at stake. Of course, part of me was utterly flattered by his display of emotions. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it, right now. My focus was on getting Raphael to help us.
“We’re coming along to help,” I said to the Perfect.
“Not sure how you can do that, but, by all means,” Raphael replied, then motioned for us to follow him.
“Where are we going?” Vesta asked as we trekked through the deep woods, heading east.
“There’s a pit, less than a mile from here. Well, it’s more of a crevice, but it’s got a hefty deposit of serium at the bottom. We just need to get down there and chop some of it out,” Raphael explained.
“Or I could just get it out,” Vesta said.
Raphael smirked. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”
Some time passed before either of us said anything. Using my True Sight, I could tell that we were in the clear. There weren’t any rogue Faulties in these parts. Sonic booms echoed in the distance, but they were too far away for any of us to worry.
“You know, Douma’s going to be okay,” I said, changing the subject. “I’m pretty sure she’ll want to help us.”
“I don’t doubt that one bit,” Raphael replied. “You’ll be teaching her a different set of values. We’re all the product of our environment, and if you expose her to a certain range of ideas, she’ll react to them in a positive manner.”
“But you’re different,” I replied. “You were subject to the same indoctrination as Douma, yet you refused to enforce Ta’Zan’s orders. What makes you different?”
“I don’t know, Elonora. Perhaps a glitch in my blueprint. I never stopped to think about it for too long. I just accepted the fact that I’m not like my brothers and sisters.” He then stopped, staring straight ahead. He pointed to a patch of yellow-leafed trees. “Over there. The crevice is right beyond those trees.”
Vesta gave him a brief nod, then motioned for Zeriel and Nevis to come with her. “I need some frost to slide down that crack, and I need someone to keep a lookout,” she said.
Nevis clearly wasn’t comfortable leaving me and Raphael behind, but he knew what Vesta was trying to do. Our little fae had already caught on to what I was up to, from the moment she’d seen me come up. Vesta wasn’t a girl of many words, but her mind was incredibly sharp.
Raphael and I stayed behind, walking at a slower pace while we let Vesta, Nevis, and Zeriel go ahead.
“They don’t really need me down there,” Raphael said. “I know enough about fae—not only from you, but from Ta’Zan, as well—to have a pretty clear idea about how your friend can get to the serium without me putting in any work.”
“That’s Raphael-talk for being lazy, right?” I asked, giggling.
His aura caught an amber hue as he looked at me and smiled. “Why struggle, when others can do it for me, huh?”
“Fair enough,” I replied, then exhaled deeply. “What would it take for me to convince you to work with us, Raphael?”
He stopped walking, then turned to face me. “Nothing. What would it take for me to convince you to stay here with me, instead?”
I stilled, utterly baffled. “Wait, what?”
Raphael’s lips stretched and twisted into a devilish grin. “You can read emotions, right?” he asked. I nodded slowly. “Then you can tell how I feel. How you’re getting under my skin. I like you, Elonora, and I’ve never felt like this before.”
“You’re joking,” I blurted. “Dude, you had all those Perfect ladies around you, and you… you get stuck on me? Me?!”
He cocked his head to the side, somewhat confused. “You don’t think too highly of yourself, I take it.”
“It’s not that. It’s just… why me?” I replied.
“Why not you? You’re gorgeous. You’re intelligent and gifted. Oh, not to mention the fact that you’re a fierce fighter, undeterred by Ta’Zan and the rest of my people. What’s not to like about you?”
I huffed, trying to wrap my head around what he’d just said. Granted, I’d noticed his minor soft spot for me, but I didn’t know how deep it went until he voiced it. I wasn’t as good with charming guys as I’d thought. If anything, Raphael, who was dangerously attractive, could easily sweep me off my feet, if I wasn’t careful.
That thought went out the window as soon as I spotted Nevis looking at me, just before he disappeared with Vesta and Zeriel behind the yellow trees. I then understood the difference between what I felt for him and what I experienced toward Raphael. Nevis had gotten a firm hold of my heart, and I doubted my ability to move away from him. I was in too deep, already.
Raphael, on the other hand, made me feel like I was developing a harmless crush. He was a dashing Perfect, gorgeous and smart and charismatic, able to charm the pants off anyone. But not me.
“So, you want me to stay here with you?” I asked, my voice low.
“I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you safe from everyone, including Ta’Zan.”
“What about my friends? My brother? My family?” I replied, frowning.
“Ta’Zan can’t be defeated,” Raphael said. “The best I can do is give you a home here. I can’t guarantee the safety of the others. Sometimes, you need to accept a loss, Elonora. This is one such instance.”
“That’s a load of crap,” I replied, getting angry. “You think I fought tooth and nail up to this moment to just… give up? You’re kidding yourself.”
“I’m trying to help you.”
“Why? And how is this helping me?” I snapped.
“Because, like I said, I like you,” Raphael replied, his pale blond brows furrowed. “I’ll be honest. I don’t care much about people, in general. Not even most of my siblings. And I know Ta’Zan well enough to understand his reach and his resources.”
This wasn’t getting us anywhere. I decided on a different approach, because I couldn’t bring myself to just turn him down or accept his offer. The former would’ve brought things to a stalemate. The latter was impossible for me to do because I
was in love. With Nevis. Dammit.
“What is it that you want most in this world?” I asked him. “If you could have or do anything, what would that be?”
“Besides you?” he replied, grinning.
“Come on. You only met me yesterday,” I said, crossing my arms. “Be honest. Forget about this sudden crush on me or… whatever. Think. What is it that you want? Truly want?”
He glanced around, smiling softly.
“I’d like to see more,” he finally answered.
“More of Strava?”
He sighed. “Puh-lease. I can do that in one long supersonic flight. My photographic memory matches my speed. I mean out there. I’d like to travel. To see other worlds. Ideally before Ta’Zan conquers them all.”
I thought about it for a moment, then felt my brain light up with a marvelous revelation. “Okay. So, how about, instead of asking me to stay here and hide… Why don’t you join us and help us stop Ta’Zan? Then, you could come back to The Shade with us. You could join GASP. We could go out and explore new worlds together. It is literally what we do.”
“The Shade. That’s your home,” he said.
“Sort of. I could show you my real home, Nevertide, too. You’d like it. It’s beautiful. Oh, I could take you to Neraka, to see daemons and Manticores. Or Calliope or Persea, or the whole of Eritopia, home of Druids, incubi, and succubi, among other marvelous creatures. Don’t you get it, Raphael?” I asked, smiling. “What is the point in having a dream, if you can’t make it come true? And what is the point of hiding and pretending to stay neutral, when every fiber in your body is telling you to get involved?”
He stared at me, surprised by my in-depth reading. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re forgetting that I don’t just see emotions in people. I can interpret them, too. I know you’re longing for something more, Raphael, but I’m not it,” I added. “Unfortunately, my heart belongs elsewhere, but—”
“The Dhaxanian schmuck?”
I stifled a grin, pressing my lips into a thin line and hoping that Nevis’s hearing wasn’t all that good. Judging by the thin sheet of ice stretching toward us from the yellow trees, he’d definitely heard Raphael.
“There are others like me in The Shade,” I said, shifting my focus back to Raphael. “Other vampire sentries. Or any other kind of hybrid you might like. Heck, you might even find true love there. Everyone finds love in The Shade.”
Raphael nodded slowly, unable to take his eyes off me. A minute went by in absolute silence, while I tried to understand the many colors flaring through his aura. He was definitely undecided, but also intrigued. I could almost hear a yes about to roll off his tongue.
But I meant what I’d said. I was pretty sure that Raphael would fall in love with The Shade once he saw it. And I also knew that someone in there would eventually steal his heart. That’d be one lucky lady.
“There are others like you, you say,” he said, making me giggle.
“Maybe even better—”
“I doubt that. Don’t sell yourself short.” Raphael cut me off. “You struck me from the moment I laid my eyes on you, and that won’t change. Your stubbornness might be the end of me, though. Tell me, how do you expect to defeat Ta’Zan?”
“He’s not invincible,” I replied. “He’s weaker than all of you, physically speaking. He’s building his empire through manipulation. I’m sure he’s holding something over the Perfects’ heads to get them to stay in line. You and your siblings must know that you could easily overthrow him, if only…”
My voice trailed off, as I remembered something we’d hypothesized before.
“If only what?” he asked.
“If only you could get whatever leverage he has out of the way. Technically speaking, Perfects are indestructible. But Ta’Zan would never create something he cannot destroy if it ends up going against him.”
I waited for Raphael to reply, but he kept quiet. Instead, he gave me a weak nod.
“Think about it. With you on our side, other rebel Faulties would certainly join us. With Douma, as well, we’d have more firepower. We could infiltrate Ta’Zan’s stronghold. We could get whatever it is he’s holding over your heads, then simply stage a revolution. Or wipe all the Perfects’ minds, straight from the source. I’m sure Ta’Zan has one such protocol handy, too.”
“Remote deletion of memories, you mean,” he breathed.
It was my turn to nod. “Point is, we can keep fighting by ourselves, Raphael. But our worst-case scenario involves destroying the entire planet in the process. None of us really want that, but we’ll do whatever it takes to protect this universe. Your existence cannot and will not trump our right to live. You must understand that.”
“I do, actually,” he replied. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“You’ll work with us?” I asked.
“I’ll do my best. I can’t promise anything,” he insisted. “But I’ll see what I can do. On one condition!”
I bit my lower lip, going to great lengths, internally, to stop myself from jumping around like the happiest little girl in the In-Between. My heart was pounding, though, performing dangerous somersaults as it wrestled against my ribcage.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You’ll take me with you,” he replied. “No matter what happens, you’ll take me with you to The Shade.”
I nodded enthusiastically. “You got it.”
“I haven’t given up on the hope that I might sway you to be with me, though,” he added, gently gripping my chin between his thumb and index finger. “I know you’re all melty about the frost prince, or whatever his title is. But I have my sights set on you, until someone else crosses my path. Got it?”
I felt the blood rushing up to my cheeks, as I laughed nervously and slowly moved back, out of his electrifying reach. Raphael could easily seduce the pants off of anything and anyone, but I didn’t want to give in. I chose to follow my soul, and it was pulling me toward Nevis.
“You’re doing the right thing, Raphael,” I said. “Not just for us or for yourself, but for your people, too. Ta’Zan will only bring war and pain. There’s a better way for the Perfects to live and thrive, and not at the cost of our universe, our worlds, and our happiness.”
“I agree. But you’ll have to trust me, going forward, Elonora,” Raphael replied. “I choose to trust and follow you, now. I expect the same in return.”
I smiled. “Of course.”
“Good,” he replied. “Don’t make me regret it.”
I sure as hell didn’t plan on doing that. We now had Raphael on our side, and Douma as a promising work in progress. We were doing better than yesterday, already. I felt as though I’d just gotten a few steps closer to getting my friends and family back.
This was the beginning of something new. Maybe even a path to victory.
Derek
It was somewhat flattering to hear from Sofia that Ta’Zan was so interested in me, specifically in my so-called “soft points.” I doubted any such information would serve him, since I was already his prisoner and had nowhere to go. I figured it helped him get closer to me. Ta’Zan was an empiricist by nature, with only science and progress as his religion. He placed zero value on emotional attachments, but he did appreciate an opposing argument now and then. And those I had plenty of.
We’d developed a strange relationship, though it had nothing to do with Stockholm Syndrome. The captor and the captive had been engaging in dialogue. Despite the fact that I couldn’t change his mind about what he was planning, I could at least tell him, over and over, about the many ways in which he was wrong. I could tell him about the social projects we’d engaged in, which had worked. Nevertide. Eritopia. Neraka. They’d all started out in grim conditions, yet now there was peace and unity.
Ta’Zan listened and developed a personal interest in me. I could’ve ventured to say that maybe I was the brother he’d never had—not the one he would’ve had to get along w
ith, but rather the one to tell him he was wrong, the one he’d have to go against, just to prove a point. There was emotional attachment even in these frayed family ties, and Ta’Zan seemed to want such a dynamic. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered to ask Sofia about me.
We all had something he’d never experienced before. With all of us trapped in the diamond dome and guarded by Perfects and shock collars, Ta’Zan had become the stranger, the guy on the outside, looking in. In a way, that worked to our advantage. It exposed a minor weakness in Ta’Zan: his need to be with people whom he could consider at least remotely close to his level.
The Perfects, the Faulties—they were his creations, his children. No matter how illustrious they were, physically or otherwise, they were still inferior to him, for he was the one who’d shaped their minds. I, on the other hand, was someone out of his control. His only power over me came from captivity, and nothing else. I was his challenge, and maybe his most prized possession.
Isda, Monos, and the other Faulties, however, were becoming a problem for Ta’Zan, though he didn’t know that yet. The dissent was growing among the first generation. The Perfects treated them poorly, and Ta’Zan didn’t make much of an effort to enforce better behavior. If he caught Perfects abusing Faulties, he intervened. Otherwise, he didn’t care. He was too busy creating better Perfects.
A couple of days had passed since he’d made Cassiel. The upgraded Perfect had undergone training and learning sessions, and the Faulties had been eavesdropping on his progress. Nothing we heard from them was encouraging in any way. On the contrary. Ben and Rose’s time was running out in the wild, because Cassiel was almost ready to go after them.
They’d survived the maniacal Abaddon and the intrepid Araquiel, but Cassiel was… different. Worse, on every level. Cassiel was determined to succeed, and his hybrid genes made him more powerful than all the other Perfects together.
It was early morning when Isda came in, accompanied by Monos and a few other Faulties, for our feeding. This time, however, it was Monos and two other males who’d suffered quite the beating. Sofia and I didn’t say anything. Instead, we watched as they distributed the fresh food and blood among the six hundred prisoners.
A Shade of Vampire 64: A Camp of Savages Page 17
