Ally hadn’t intended falling asleep in bed with James, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open for another second. She hadn’t known how tired she had been, and it hit her like a ton of bricks. As she was drifting off to sleep Ally heard a man’s voice calling her name. She didn’t recognize the voice but she it sounded vaguely familiar to her…
A terrified auburn haired girl was dumped into what appeared to be something like a dungeon of sorts. Looking around her surroundings, the girl discovered that the floor was compacted dirt and a man, unknown to her, was lying on the makeshift bed in the corner. He looked worn and weak, but she didn’t know if he was a threat or not. He didn’t appear to be, but appearances could be extremely deceptive as she had already discovered. Natalia had not been what she appeared to be that night in Melbourne.
The vampire that had carried her in and dropped her unceremoniously on the ground was turning around to leave. She watched him with horror and confusion as he walked away. The creature stopped and turned around to look back at her. Kathryn gasped at the crimson red eyes glowing at her in the darkness. Seeing her terror, the evil creature smirked before speaking with a raspy voice filled with evil intent, “Natalia will come for you soon.”
The words weren’t exactly threatening; but the sentiment behind them however, terrified her anew.
Cold, stark fear scratched its way up her body. A single candle against the wall, cast a weak light and created numerous shadows across the room. Kathryn couldn’t see any windows or doors in the dingy dungeon, with the exception of the one that led to the stairs. Realizing her predicament, she knew that door was the only way out, but she shuddered to think of what horrors lay beyond the door at the top of the stairs. Kathryn had the feeling there was only one way she was leaving this place, and she didn’t like the thought one little bit.
Tears began falling unbidden from her eyes. “Oh god, Chase. Where are you?”
Adele had warned her of danger at the Masquerade Ball, but she hadn’t comprehended the full amount of danger that they might actually find themselves in. How could she have known? This was something out of your worst nightmare and then some.
The man in the corner stirred, grabbing her attention. Kathryn flattened her body against the wall near where she had been dropped, trying to get as far away from him as possible.
“I won’t hurt you.” A few seconds later he was caught by a flurry of coughs.
Kathryn was still wary. Appearances had deceived her before, and she was left overcautious. “Are you ill?” She asked, still flattened against the wall, and trying to keep her wits about her.
“Not in the way you mean.”
Well, what does that mean? She wondered, feeling puzzled by his words. Taking in her surroundings again, a fresh wave of fear ran through her. She knew that she was in trouble, and that she might not survive this. Her only hope was that Chase had gotten away safely to Ally and James.
“Ally,” she whispered, remembering that her friend didn’t know what was going on. She hoped that someone had told her by now.
Kat gathered her courage and spoke to the man in the corner. He might be able to help her and if nothing else, shed some light on the situation she was in. If he turned out to be a vampire or something else deadly, what did it matter at this point? She decided.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Damian Carlisle,” he said with a weak voice that held a sense of pride.
Kathryn had heard that name before.
“Oh God, do you know James Carlisle?” she said as it dawned on her.
Damian turned to face her; his eyes held suspension and doubt. “What’s it to you?”
“I know James and his soul mate Ally.”
The weak man looked at her with a sense of hope that she hadn’t seen, until now. “He has a soul mate?”
“He does,” she paused and asked again. “Do you know him?”
He hung his head. “He is my younger brother, and I have feared for his life for so long…” Looking up at her, Damian smiled weakly though his eyes reflected emotion so intense she felt it to her core. “Thank you lassie, I have been here a long time not knowing what is going on in the outside world.”
She smiled despite being locked in a cell by vampires. Kat could see the joy her small bit of information had brought the man before her.
“Do you know of Adele?”
Kat saw true fear reflecting back at her in his eyes. “Adele Woodcomb?”
He sighed. “That might be her name now, but it was once Adele McConnell.”
Kathryn nodded enthusiastically. “That’s her! She’s Ally’s grandmother.”
He nodded softly. “So she married.” He paused then looked up at Kat again. “Is she well?”
“Yes, I believe so. She has been worried about Ally and the prophecy, but she is well. She should be in Scotland with James and Ally, but I don’t know for certain.”
“With her husband, I presume,” he stated more than asked a question.
“No he died a long time ago,” Kat said. “Were you and Adele close?”
The man looked at her with eyes that swam in grief and loss. “She was my soul mate.”
Kathryn gasped in shock. Her heart broke for him. She knew what it felt like to have a soul mate now and if Chase had remarried thinking she was dead; it would be devastating.
“Was he a good man?” Damian asked.
“He was a very good man, treated her like she was a goddess.”
Damian smiled to himself. It was soul shattering to know that she had given up on him but what else could she do. He was happy that Adele’s husband had been a good man and treated her well.
Does she still think of me? he wondered. He looked at the lovely young girl sitting against the wall opposite him and decided he could trust her. She brought news that he had been waiting to hear for a very long time. “What’s your name, lass?”
“Kathryn Montgomery.”
“Well despite the circumstances, it’s nice to meet you lass,” Damian said with a warm smile.
Smiling back, Kathryn asked, “How long have you been in here?”
“Since 1961,” he said without any emotion.
Kathryn started to tremble with fear. “You have been here for fifty years!”
He shrugged. “Sounds about right.”
“There is no way out?’ she asked, as fear started overwhelming her again.
“If there was, I never found it, and they keep me too weak to do anything anyway.”
“What do you mean too weak?”
“They take my blood in order to become our equals and keep me weak so that I won’t be able to fight back. I thought all the immortals would have known that by now,” he said getting tired. His loved ones were safe. He knew that now he could leave this world in peace.
Lost in his thoughts, something that she had said earlier slapped him the face. “What prophecy?”
“You don’t know?” she asked surprised. This must have only been a recent discovery for them.
He shook his head side to side, indicating that he didn’t know.
“There is a prophecy involving Ally. She is to kill Vincent and reunite the immortals, but he is trying to kill her before she gets to him.”
He again shook his head, processing what he had just been told. “I remember…So he found his prophecy girl.”
Damian felt a wide smile forming across his face. James had done the impossible and found his needle in a haystack. Hope surged through him. Maybe he would be able to get out of here after all. There was just one problem, everyone thought he was dead and no one knew where they were…
Alessandra woke with a start. Sitting up and clutching the sheet to her chest, she tried to breathe but the air around her was suffocating. Trembling in fear and feeling a cold sweat break out, she tried to fight the fogginess that had a firm grip on her from sleep. Ally knew that she had been dreaming and tried desperately to remember what it was. Something deep inside her knew that it was vital.
Jam
es stirred beside her and sat up putting his hand on her shoulder. She jumped at his touch. Immediately, Ally climbed out of bed and was hit by the chill in the room.
James got up and followed her. “What’s wrong Ally?”
She turned around to face him. “I can’t remember,” she mumbled more to herself than him.
He grabbed a blanket from the end of the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. She smiled at him gratefully as he went to stoke the fire. It still had enough embers to start a fire quickly. The room was bitterly cold and dark, save the moonlight shining in through the windows. Ally was grateful that it provided enough light for her to see where she was going.
She walked to the french doors and slipped out onto the balcony. The crisp fresh air seemed to revive her, and she felt a sense of calm sweep through her body.
James sat back on his heels and watched her walk out to the balcony. He decided to give her a few minutes to gather herself, before he went out to comfort her.
She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and leaned against the balcony railing, looking out into the night. The pale moon in the sky filtered light down illuminating the garden with an eerie glow. Lost in her thoughts, she began to remember snippets of the dream.
She remembered dreaming of Kathryn and a man at first, then it all came flooding back to her. She felt her legs go weak and just before she hit the ground, she felt strong arms grasping her, pulling her back up.
“Ally!” he cried with concern.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears.
“What is it?” he asked as a tear began to roll down her cheek. He lightly brushed it away with his thumb as he waited for her to respond.
“Damian and Kathryn,” she said simply, then looked up at him again with disbelief and happiness. “They’re alive!”
James stared at her for a moment then he dropped to his knees from the sheer shock of what she had just told him.
His brother was alive.
Ally looked to the stars and sent up a silent thanks to the immortals that had sent her this dream.
She dropped down to her knees as well. “That is why I had the dream about Damian. It all makes sense to me now,” she said breathless with excitement.
“Because he was alive this whole time, and we never knew.” He was gloriously happy that his brother was still alive, but the guilt of giving up on him was beginning to feel like a crushing weight upon his shoulders.
“I gave up when I should have kept looking, but the evidence we found made us believe he was dead!”
She laid her hand upon his as a gesture of love. “You did everything you could James, don’t let the guilt overcome you. Your brother is alive, and that is all that matters.”
He smiled up at her and threw his arms around her. “Thank you, Ally.”
She was touched but couldn’t take the credit. It was the immortals long gone that had shared the information; she was just the vessel. “I didn’t do much. I just had a dream.”
“A dream that told us my brother is alive. There is no greater gift you could give me than that,” he said firmly as he pulled himself and Ally back up then led her inside. It was far too cold for them to be outside and having recovered from the shock, he could think clearly again.
Ally let him lead her back inside, and she moved to stand in front of the fire. She was chilled to the bone.
James sat in the chair off to the side of the fire. “Where are they?” he asked.
She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s the problem. I don’t know exactly.”
“Tell me about the dream, and maybe we can figure it out.”
She nodded and hesitated before reminding him that someone else would need to be told. “We will need to tell Gran.”
He nodded solemnly. James didn’t blame Adele for moving on, but he knew how she would feel when she discovered that Damian was alive. “It can wait until morning,” he said. “There is nothing she can do tonight.”
Ally agreed with the idea and proceeded to tell him about her dream.
“So they’re in a dirt cell with no daylight,” James repeated out loud looking for clues to where they might be hidden. “Obviously it’s underground.”
“But that is about all we know.” She moved from the fire to the couch feeling toasty warm. “Could it be a basement?”
He thought about the validity of her suggestion and decided she might be onto something. “It could be, but where?”
“That I don’t know,” she said, feeling discouraged. “They must be in Scotland. At least that narrows it down a bit.”
“All of Scotland is still a big place Ally.”
“Not all of Scotland, it has to be somewhere nearby,” she said, following a thought process.
“How do you figure lass?” he asked.
“We spoke to Chase this afternoon, and I had the dream just now which gives us about a twelve-hour gap.”
“They could be anywhere if that’s our time frame.”
She glared at him. “Let me finish.”
“The things that happened in my dream would not have taken place at the same time I had it. They would have happened earlier. She woke up five minutes before they threw her in the cell. If knocked unconscious, then how long before she woke up?” she asked.
“It depends on how they knocked her out.”
“Try to be helpful,” she said sarcastically.
“I am trying to be realistic,” he replied.
“Well sometimes you have to think outside the box, James. Radical ideas can sometimes lead to radical discoveries, and right now we need one.”
He got up and moved to the fireplace, leaning against the mantle he looked into the fire. His brother was alive, and they didn’t know where to start. James felt so helpless, but Ally was right. They needed to think outside the box, but where does one start.
“James…”
“I’m sorry Ally. I just feel so helpless and so guilty. I gave up on him too easily and who knows what tortures he has endured for all these years in the hands of the vampire?.”
“You can’t blame yourself. I know you would have done everything that you could.”
“Thank you, Ally,” he said. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do.”
She shrugged. “You’d do the same for me. So what do we do know?”
He shook his head. “We have to determine where this cell is that they are being held in.”
“I still think it is a basement, which means they are being kept in a house.”
“But which house?”
“Do you know everyone around here?” she asked.
“Not everyone but I know a few that are close by,” he said not sure of where she was leading.
She thought a moment. “The house would have to appear unoccupied. Can you think of places like that around the area?”
James looked back into the fire and studied it for moment. Then he looked up at Ally with excitement dancing in his eyes. “There was a house that Damian and I found once, it was only an hour from here, it appeared to be abandoned but something about it didn’t seem right. We never went back to find out what was going on because he went missing, and I forgot all about it until now."
“Then we start there,” she said decisively.
Ally felt hope surge through her again. Hopefully, they would find Kathryn and reunite Damian and Adele. “I still think we should leave at first light, we can’t risk the vampires at full strength.”
“I agree, we can tell Chase and Adele of our findings in the morning.” He walked over to Ally and took hold of her hand. He pulled her up and into his warm embrace. “Thank you little one. You are amazing.”
She warmed all over. What girl didn’t want to be called amazing?
“Now let’s get you back into the warm bed,” he said with a wicked smile.
She smiled back at him with an expectant glance towards the bed. She wasn’t quite ready to be with him yet, but she knew it would be s
oon. She wouldn’t be able to fight the temptation much longer.
They crawled back into bed, and Ally fell into a deep sleep.
James sat up on his elbow and watched her sleep for a while. “I love you, Alessandra,” he whispered into her ear. Then rolled over and stared at the ceiling for the next few hours.
Chapter Twenty Three
Immortal Prophecy Page 30
