Ellowyn Found: An MM Vampire Trilogy Omnibus Edition Books 1 - 3

by Kayleigh Sky

  “Beautiful,” Camiel murmured.

  The wall rose fifteen stories above them. Black rock and luminous jewels around a massive throne carved into the wall. And on the throne sat a statue.

  “Is that Sameal?” Isaac asked.

  Rune nodded and moved past him, circling the black lake. A faint ripple moved across the surface, spreading from something in the center. Isaac followed Rune. The statue that was Sameal bore the remnants of clothing in a few wisps of cloth draped over the arms and legs. Rubies glowed in his eyes and dripped from the corners of his mouth.

  “Did people worship him?”

  “Not my people,” Rune muttered, distaste thick in his voice.

  He turned back to the others, and Isaac followed him.

  Crouched beside the lake, Anin pointed. “Over there.”

  Uriah flashed his light. The beam spread in a burnt orange color, catching tiny bubbles popping on the water’s surface.

  Rune stopped in front of Camiel. “Let’s see the second card.”

  Camiel shrugged off his pack, set it on the ground, and dug through it. He straightened a moment later and turned the deck toward Rune. “Jeremiel.”

  Rune turned to Isaac. “Give me your flashlight.”

  “Jeremiel is the keeper of mysteries. Visions and dreams, and such things as how the fuck we get out of here without going back the way we came.”

  Anin shot up from his crouch on the ground. “What is that?”

  In the beam of light Uriah pointed across the lake again, a pale shape glided through the glow. “A fish?”

  “It’s huge,” Anin said.

  Rune motioned them away from the lake’s edge. “I guess we stay out of the water.”

  He looked back at the card, and Isaac drew closer. There was no figure in this one but flames emerging from the bottom edge and a glittering lightning bolt made from diamonds that slashed from one corner to the other. Rune frowned and brought out the map again, studying it. “It’s telling us which direction.”

  “That’s hardly an arrow,” said Camiel.

  “It’s a lightning bolt like the one in the card, and it’s pointing from one corner to another. We’re in the right place. We just need to find the way out and keep going.”

  “Until what?”

  “What is the third card?”

  “Barachiel’s, the one Abadi’s in. The guardian of God’s throne.”

  “There are only three ciphers. The next one leads to a broken knot.”

  Camiel rolled his eyes. “Well, that’ll be easy to find.”

  “For now, let’s worry about finding the lightning bolt,” said Rune.

  They all scanned the wall, but it would’ve been too easy for there to be a giant jewel-encrusted lightning bolt pointing the way. The rubies and citrines and emeralds formed circles and crescents, stars, and diamond shapes.

  After a moment, Rune sighed. “Let’s eat.”

  They sat along the ledge and munched on protein bars. The fish swept by again, ghostly gray. Was it lonely? No other fish joined it. How had it gotten in here? What did it eat? Isaac broke off a piece of his protein bar and tossed it into the water. The fish breached the surface, bowing its back, before scooping up the treat on its way down. It circled back to the center of the lake and slapped the surface with its tail like a mini whale. Isaac tossed in another piece.

  “It gets enough to eat,” Rune murmured.

  “How do you know?”

  “It’s been here a long time.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “No, that’s awful for any people living down here. Fish don’t think.”

  Isaac wasn’t sure enough of anything in life to agree with that. “What if it does? You don’t know everything.”

  I won’t leave you here. I promise.

  But that wasn’t Isaac’s worry. Rune had already left him.

  He brushed off his hands and stared at the wall. How long ago had they done this? And why? Did they worship this angel? The angel of death. Lightning was a kind of life. It brought people back to life, and tingled inside with the energy of a kiss.

  He stood and panned his light on the wall, up and down. Back and forth. Back again.

  That… that couldn’t be anything, could it? It wasn’t a real shape. He crossed to the wall behind them. The constellation of gems made an irregular pattern, dipping in and out of the rough terrain. At one time, the shape might have been flat, the tiny dusting of crimson stones more like a… heart.

  “Look. I think that’s supposed to be a heart.”

  Rune stared over his shoulder, but not at the heart; he was focusing on Isaac.

  Anin and Uriah approached him. Uriah cocked his head at the shape on the wall. “So what’s a heart supposed to mean?”

  Isaac thought about it. Hearts. Romance. Candlelight. Cozy, rainy nights by a fire. “If a heart stops, what makes it beat again?”

  Camiel smirked in Isaac’s direction. “Well, the answer isn’t love.”

  “Electricity,” said Rune.

  Isaac nodded. “Lightning.”

  Rune rose, strode past him, and rested his palms on the wall. “Fitting, isn’t it? The angel of death. An escape to life.”

  Isaac stared as Rune’s fingers slipped into a crevice that slashed and dragged one half of the heart lower than the other. “I feel something, but I… I can’t quite reach it.”

  He removed his fingers, and Uriah grunted. “Let me.”

  He went to his pack and returned with a knife. Rune stepped aside, and Uriah dug into the crevice, scraping at the rock in a shower of dust and obsidian-black chips. After he widened the wedge, he stuck the tip in, working it up and down. “There is something here,” he grunted.

  After a few minutes, he shifted the knife to the other side, scraping up and down again until he stopped and wiped the back of his wrist across his forehead. “Want to try again? It’s angled back.”

  Rune nodded and curled his fingers into the crack. “It’s a lever. I don’t know if there’s enough—”

  The ground shook, followed by a loud rumble. They all backed up, turning to look at where the sound had come from. A whirlpool spun in the center of the lake. Isaac gasped. “The fish!”

  He lunged, but Rune grabbed him and hauled him back. “You can’t do anything.”

  He jerked free. The anger that gushed through him as the lake spun and drained shook him. He didn’t know where it came from. Why this emotion over a fish? He ate fish. It made no sense, but pain stabbed him, and he pulled his hair to blunt it.

  The lake fell fast, gathering speed around the vortex. Mossy boulders appeared. It wasn’t as deep as it had appeared. A grate covered the opening in the bottom of the lake, but the fish… The fish was gone.

  “Where’d it go?” Camiel asked.

  Rune leaped into the air and landed in a crouch at the bottom of the lake. He stood, water lapping at his boots, face creased in a smile. He pointed. “There.”

  Isaac sat on the ledge with his pack and dropped down. Anin and Uriah thudded beside him. Camiel stood on the ledge, weight on one hip. “Am I going to get dirty?”

  Rune sighed. “You already are, Cammy.”

  Looking startled, the vampire wiped his face.

  Isaac crouched to stare into a culvert. A thin rivulet of water ran down it. “Wonder where it goes.”

  “Only one way to find out,” said Rune. “Good job, Isaac.”

  Isaac turned back with a grin.

  “Oh god.” Camiel’s face squinched as he jumped down. “What I wouldn’t give for a plate of cheese and crackers, a bottle of good wine, and a pair of twins.”

  Nobody replied. Maybe only Isaac saw the flash of pain on Anin’s stoic face. He pushed Camiel sideways. “Me first.”

  Not waiting for anybody else, he ducked into the culvert and crawled into the dark.

  39

  The Puzzle Box

  Ballsy bastard.

  But Rune didn’t stop the kid. Why should he? Fuck the worl
d and Solomon and the treasure for a few minutes. Let somebody else take charge. Not that anybody else could for long, and Rune wasn’t much of a follower anyway. But for a few breaths…

  He bent and clutched his shaky legs as Isaac disappeared.

  He trusted Isaac. He was kind, and he cared.

  After straightening a few seconds later, Rune shooed everybody else into the culvert and crawled after them. The concave floor rolled downward for an easy mile before slanting in a steeper descent.

  “I see more water,” Isaac called.

  “Don’t go in it,” Rune yelled.

  “Why not?”

  “Just don’t.”

  The culvert opened onto a green-lit space and dropped six feet to the ground. Rune hopped down beside Uriah. Isaac, standing beside another massive lake, flashed him a grin. “The fish.”

  The ghostly creature skimmed the surface, circling past them. A smile tugged at Rune’s lips too, and he laughed. “No treasure is worth your fish,” he said.

  He wasn’t sure why the fish’s freedom mattered to him, but it did, one of the first good omens he’d had in a long time.

  “Maybe there are others,” said Camiel. “Maybe it’ll find its fated love. Won’t that be sweet?”

  Anin grunted. “You should shut up, Cammy.”

  Camiel tilted his head at him. “Really? Are you aware what I can do to you if you annoy me?”

  Anin sighed. Instead of worry, amusement crossed his face. “Everyone annoys you, Cammy.”

  Camiel flicked his hand. “True. It’s a burden.”

  Uriah laughed. “Fuck me, cousin. Are you ever serious?”

  “I try not to be.” Camiel tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling studded with specks of light.

  Carvings, bright with gem-colored paint, decorated the walls.

  “Wonder where we are,” said Uriah.

  Rune took a breath of surprise as realization dawned on him. “Rilith.”

  Uriah startled. “Rilith? But that was lost ages ago.”

  “We’re close to Celestine. Supposedly, the Celes left Rilith. All that remains is the Rilith Collection. No one knows why they left, but it looks like they sealed it off for some reason.”

  “That doesn’t bode well,” Camiel muttered.

  “Well, we aren’t staying,” Rune said. “We’re looking for something that resembles a knot.”

  He approached Isaac still standing on the edge of the shore and cupped his neck. “You are an asset to me. In many ways.”

  Isaac gazed into his eyes, older than he had looked only a few weeks ago. Or I am different? “You didn’t want me here,” he said.

  “We’ve been lucky. Don’t take anything for granted.”

  He tightened his fingers, then let his hand fall and strode along the shore’s edge. The lake shifted into a strange oblong like the heart Isaac had found, as though the two halves had been pulled in opposite directions. The cavern floor rose in a low slope along the demarcation. Behind him, rocks clattered as the others followed him. As they walked, Rune gazed at the walls. Some of the symbols resembled the ones on the map. How had the paint lasted for hundreds—a thousand—years? It was as though the cavern had been encased in a vacuum seal. His heart tripped at the thought.

  “Hurry!”

  He grabbed Isaac’s hand and ran for the shadow on the other side of the lake.

  “What’s wrong?” Uriah yelled.

  “Just hurry!”

  The shadow was a cleft in the rock, small compared to the space surrounding it, but twice the size of a vampire. Rune swung his arm, propelling Isaac toward it as a loud rumble rent the air, and the tunnel began to narrow. He turned back. “Come on!”

  Anin pushed Camiel, who stumbled and dropped his pack. Anin grabbed it and swung an arm around Camiel’s waist. They darted into the cleft, Anin turning sideways.

  “Go, Uriah! Now!”

  Uriah skidded to a stop, eyes widening. “Sire, you.”

  “OBEY ME!”

  Uriah jumped, shirt catching on rock as he lurched into the dark. The cleft sealed, and the culvert in the opposite wall crashed shut. An eruption of splashing water drew his attention to the lake. The tube was closing too. A white shape leaped into the air and plunged into the middle of the fountain of churning water, and an inexplicable relief ran through him. Good fish.

  He took a breath, filling his lungs, and wondered how long before it ran out. Well, fuck if he was waiting for that. He concentrated on dimming but broke out in a cold sweat when he stayed in his body. His heart rate picked up again. A whisper of fate came to him: Death is the end of life. It can never unfold another way. No reason to be afraid.

  But he was afraid. The voice wasn’t his.

  It came again: Isaac…

  The watery, phlegmy whisper crawled along his spine and blew into his ear. Goosebumps erupted on his skin.

  Mine, it whispered.

  No fucking way. He dug his fingers into his hair and swung his gaze to the culvert on the other side of the lake. Something tamped his powers. The rock? The energy? A spell?

  Concentrate!

  But panic stirred.

  What a shitty way to die. Suffocating. His chest heaved as though the air had already seeped away.

  Could it happen that fast?

  Rune!

  Fuck.

  His boy. His goddamn boy.

  He swayed and reached for the rock in front of him. Concentrate. This wasn’t the first time he’d faced failure. During the Upheaval he’d gotten trapped in a tunnel with no way out and lost the bracelet his mother had given him.

  Never take it off.

  But he had, and now it was gone.

  Rune!

  The sound of sobbing reached him, strains of grief working through the cleft. He bowed his head to it.

  Forgive me.

  He took another breath—stale, it’s already stale—his heart hammering, the echo drifting, fading, when he reared up. He slipped on the rocks, catching himself on his fingertips.

  Don’t give up.

  Mama?

  A clanging filled his ears like the echo of a gate crashing down. He sloshed through the puddled lake bed for the tube and hung over it. A metal plate blocked his way.

  Sealed in.

  Trapped.

  Laughter from the walls ricocheted inside his pounding head. What had he done when lives had depended on him? Jessa’s and Mal’s. His household and his people.

  Never take it off.

  But he’d ignored her and had done the opposite. He’d dug the bracelet’s edge into the soil like a hoe and freed himself. I was young. Too young to believe in failure. In giving up.

  Too young to doubt himself and forget his power.

  He stepped back, tripped over the slope, and landed on his ass. The massive vault of rock soared above him.

  Mine, rattled the strange, phlegmy whisper again.

  Like hell.

  His eyes followed the line of the slope to a deep crease that cut the wall from top to bottom.

  The air was thin, but not gone. Maybe once, before the Upheaval and the earthquakes that had torn through here, it would have been gone by now. But time had changed this place. The lake was fuller than the water from above could account for, so what had already been in it hadn’t evaporated. Air had to be getting in.

  He struggled up, knees shaking, and fell against the wall where the slope met it. A vibration ran through his palms and up his arms. But how could his weight stir a thousand tons of rock? Only if it wasn’t an unbroken wall anymore. He leaned closer and something soft tickled the side of his face. A breeze. He inhaled, drew the sweet scent into his lungs, and locked his knees.

  Isaac… I’m here…

  A familiar spinning sensation unfurled inside him, and he dimmed into a gossamer wisp and slipped into a fissure in the rock. Voices floated closer.

  “Let me go! I have to find him.”

  He skimmed through the blackest of stone, the blackness like terror.
His heart thundered. Horror-struck eyes fixed on him, and he collapsed on pointed stones.

  Isaac fell on him. “Oh my god, oh my god… What happened?”

  “It’s okay.”

  He raised his gaze and caught Camiel’s narrow stare.

  “Your mother’s son,” Camiel said.

  Abadi had never dimmed. She’d been as corporal as anyone else, but her voice still sang in his head along with the memory of her wry smile. “It’s a spell-catcher. Never take it off.”

  What had she known about him?

  Uriah had let his hands fall after dragging them down his face. “I thought we lost you.”

  “I thought it too,” he admitted.

  Isaac pulled away, his face reddening and twisting in the dull light. “What took you so long? What were you doing? You scared me.”

  “I was stuck,” he admitted.

  Camiel nodded, then laughed. “Clearly, I’m not as strong as you, but there is a binding spell here.” He brushed the wall. “Tourmaline and black agate. I think the entire chamber in Abadi’s Royal card is tourmaline. The magic here is powerful.”

  “Was she a part of it?”

  “Or fighting it. In any case, this is not a comfortable place to be.”

  “Does it affect your powers?”

  Camiel laughed. “Until a few minutes ago, I was rather proud of my powers. Now I find them a bit underwhelming. But I do feel… uneasy. I don’t think we were supposed to get into that chamber at all. We certainly weren’t supposed to escape.”

  “But we did.” Rune looked back at Isaac. “And so did your fish.”

  Isaac’s eyes widened. “It did?”

  “It dove into the drain before it closed.” He stood, dragging Isaac up with him, and stared at Anin and Camiel. “You must keep my secret.”

  Both vampires dipped their chins and bowed their heads. “On our honor, sire.”

  Rune nodded. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Anin led the way this time.

  The tunnel twisted in an S-shape, sloping and rising, steps carved into the rock floor in the steeper parts. An hour later, several flights of stairs led upward. The walls softened, and their steps kicked up dust. A ledge like a handrail appeared in the wall, and lights glowed in a few of the niches. At the top of the last landing a semi-circular room appeared with three tunnels leading out.