by Candy Crum
“Jeff’s complexion was cleared up with the change, but he was so ghostly pale, and I definitely noticed the temperature difference. The teeth, too. They are bigger than yours,” Kailah replied. “And he bit Rachel. Why isn’t she a Rogue?”
“Yes, they are larger. I’m not exactly sure why. I would assume evolution and the fact they are strictly predatory. And Rachel was brought here and healed by Sayen and me. That’s why Aeric lied to you. Going to a hospital would have ensured she woke up as a nightwalker. She would have been doomed, so he thought quick on his feet.
“When a Rogue turns, it’s a quick transition. It can be less than one hour, but no more than twelve. However, it’s excruciating. The transition will have the person intermittently screaming and writing in pain, or they will pass out from it. It’s much faster, but terribly unpleasant. The muscles don’t break down gently as it does with a traditional transition. They are eaten by venom and repaired.”
“Are they stronger than daywalkers?”
Khanae stopped for a moment, her eyes looking up as she thought over the question. “Yes and no. When they are first born, yes. They are much stronger, but that’s because daywalkers transition over years. A new Rogue will be incredibly powerful at first, but after that, their strength increases so slowly that a new daywalker will catch up and surpass that in a few years. We get stronger every year while it takes Rogues decades to level up in strength.”
“I feel like we’ve been here for days talking about this stuff, and I look over to that wall of books and realize we haven’t even touched on more than maybe a chapter’s worth of knowledge,” Kailah said.
The Vampire queen nodded. “That’s very true. But there’s one last thing you should know before we move on to other things.”
There was a pregnant pause as Kailah stared into Khanae’s eyes. The young Immortal could actually feel the tension in the air.
“A few weeks ago, we had a Rogue here. It wasn’t a pleasant visit. He was hunting for you. According to him, the Rogues believe you are capable of giving them the ability to walk in the day.”
“What?” Kailah asked with obvious shock.
“It gets worse. That’s not the only Vampire we’ve interviewed—willingly or otherwise. It seems they believe they can turn you. They think that doing so will make you want to fight for their cause. You’ll destroy Khia, destroy me, and you’ll restore the ability for them to walk in the day. You’ll free them from the darkness.”
Kailah found herself at a loss for words. “Is that even possible? Can I be turned? Can they walk in the light?”
“I can’t begin to know what your powers are capable of. From what Sayen has seen, you will be more powerful than Khia or me. Nothing will stand in your way once you’re ready. It’s possible you could heal them back to a daywalker state, but I don’t know. As for turning you, that is impossible. You would be killed within a few hours, if not minutes.”
“That sounds delightful,” Kailah quipped.
Khanae chuckled, but it was brief. “Indeed. Your body hates anything having to do with Vampires. It instinctively wants to purify it. If you were to have Vampire venom or blood in your system, your body would go into overdrive trying to purify it. The problem is that if the blood were powerful, say if I tried to turn you for instance, the blood would be too strong for your weak body. Even for Sayen. Your spiritual power would do all it can to purify it, but the blood or venom is in the process of breaking your body down to regenerate it into something stronger. If that’s interrupted by your spiritual power, you’re just consistently weakening.
“If this were to happen to you, your body would begin to give out, and your spiritual power would begin to weaken and fade. As that happens, the blood or venom makes a comeback and successfully begins to change you. As you strengthen again, your spiritual power gets another burst of energy… but then it’s too late. Your body will recognize you as a Vampire and will instantly purify it.
“In other words, you’ll commit suicide without even trying. You won’t be able to control it. You won’t be able to stop it. No one can. Not even another Immortal. You would kill yourself. We’ve seen this happen over and again—Vampires turning Immortals—and it has ended the same one hundred percent of the time.”
Kailah sat there for a moment, reeling over what she was just told and knowing there was an entire race of Vampires out there hoping to tempt fate by doing exactly that to her.
“Yeah, I think I might try to avoid that one,” Kailah said.
Khanae laughed. “Wise choice.”
Chapter Two
Kailah sat on the floor in the living room with her legs crossed, her hands resting palm-up on her knees in a meditating position. This room had beautiful mahogany hardwood floors and white brick walls. The furniture was white, the tables black marble. The large fireplace along the wall was also white brick with a mahogany mantle which held black and white vases and family pictures.
She knew anything in that room cost more than her very life.
The pristine couch behind her had been ruined the night Rachel was nearly killed by Jeff. Aeric and Brett had brought her there to the house and laid her on the flawless material. No one had even said a word about it. All they’d cared about was saving her life.
“Today we are going to focus on looking into the past.” Sayen sat in the same position as Kailah, her long white hair pulled back into a high ponytail.
She looked no older than Kailah, which made her feel awkward when she thought of her as her great-great-grandmother. Her icy eyes almost twinkled as she looked into Kailah’s.
“I can feel your apprehension, but I assure you that it’s much easier to look into the past than it is to look into the future,” she said with a smile.
Kailah smiled in return, but it was forced. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but she wasn’t sure she could pull this off.
“Close your eyes and focus on the energies around you. You can feel Vampires easiest, so locate everyone in the house,” Sayen instructed.
Taking a deep breath, Kailah closed her eyes and allowed her stomach to lead her. “Brett is in the garage.” She paused as she shifted in her seat, trying to get more comfortable to make her work easier. “Aeric’s in his room… I think?”
“You think, or you know?”
Directly above the living room was the family room. Next to that on one side was her room and on the other was Aeric’s room. Across the hall were two more bedrooms, Brett’s and Sayen’s. But with Rachel, Mary, and Amanda also in the house, Rachel and Mary stayed in Sayen’s room while the Immortal stayed in Khanae’s room—which was the largest and took the entire area over top of the attached garage. It would have made more sense for the brothers to share, but that wasn’t how things ended up, and she didn’t really mind. Amanda slept in her room.
As she looked around, she could feel Khanae stationary in her private bathroom. “Khanae is in her room, Aeric is definitely in his room, and Brett is in the garage.”
“Good. You know where I am, so where are the humans?”
That took some effort. Kailah could feel auras in the house, but she had yet to feel a human’s or see one. It was because their life forces paled in strength to those of a Shadow Realmer.
“I feel a presence in the garage with Brett and another in the family room. Wait… two others in the family room.”
“Very good!” Sayen praised. “You picked that up pretty quickly. That’s basically the bottom of the barrel—but important. If you can’t sense things, you’ll die long before you get a chance to use your powers. Demons have a grey or charcoal aura—except Succubi and Incubi. Theirs have a ring of pink around the edges. Werewolves are purple, we are blue, and Vampires are red.”
“And the meaner they are, the darker the aura color, right?” Kailah asked as she opened her eyes.
Sayen nodded. “They are. The only exceptions are the queens and the Mothers. They all have darker auras, but they will turn an almost black when they
are enraged. Okay. Next step! We’re going to focus on the past. We’re going to try to trigger a vision.”
That sounded kind of fun. Kailah closed her eyes again and began to focus on the energy around her. That had been the trick to creating a barrier, but she’d done terribly. She refused to fail again.
Energy flared around her, and she cracked her eyes open just enough to see Sayen’s aura ignite. She glowed impossibly bright, and she wondered if it was something a normal human could see or if it was only for the supernatural.
“Focus on my energy. Feel it. Let it pull you, but not too much. Your power is going to quickly feel the urge to connect. Your power needs to be used. It’s like a being of its own until you finish the transition, so it’s going to search for another power source: me. It’s going to draw from me until it overwhelms you and forces you to use it. Don’t let your power control you. You control it.”
“That sounds incredibly complicated,” Kailah mumbled. She could already feel the heat growing in her chest. It felt like being on a diet for years and staring at the biggest piece of dark chocolate cake she’d ever seen. Her chest burned with need, and it was quickly mounting.
“Well, you’re not a simple creature, my love. You’re much more complicated. In a few seconds, you’re going to have a choice to make—and it’s going to hurt.”
“Wait, what? Hurt? Why would it hurt?” Kailah felt a little more than worried right then.
“Because you’re not ready. Listen, the pain in your chest is going to grow until it feels like you’re being burned alive. You’ll be overcome with rage because your spiritual energy will be controlling you, and I don’t exactly know how far your power can reach. It might be enough to kill one of the boys.”
“And you’re telling me this now!”
“For good reason. Now choose,” Sayen ordered.
Kailah sat there, pain building. She could sense the three Vampires in the house, and her hatred was almost to a boiling point. Her mind was screaming at her to make it stop, but her body was in control. It wanted her to give in, but her mind fought to keep that from happening.
“Choose what?” Kailah was frantic. “What do I choose from? What are my choices?”
The house began to rumble as the ground began to shake. Something shattered across the room, but she kept her eyes squeezed tight. If something didn’t happen soon, she worried she would bring the whole house down on top of everyone.
“Sayen.” Khanae’s voice echoed through the room, only spurring the hatred inside of her more. She wanted Khanae to die. She wanted to burn her alive, and she hated herself for it. “Sayen, she’s about to lose it. Stop this.”
How can I be good if I’m filled with such hate?
“She’s fine. Kailah, let go of the fear. Choose to accept who you are and stop fighting it.”
“This was not what I had in mind when you said you were training today,” Khanae said. “She’s lit up like Time Square on New Years Eve. Stop this. She can’t handle it!”
Kailah’s eyes opened, and then they widened. Sayen was even brighter than she had been before, her hair gently blowing in a wind she hadn’t even felt. Looking around, Kailah could see dozens of spirits she had no idea were there. Several stood behind her, touching her. She could feel them begging her to touch them, use them.
Between Sayen’s overwhelming aura and the strength of the spirits around her, she felt helpless. Tears filled her eyes as the pain in her chest grew. Any second all that energy would release, just like it had in the car with Aeric, and she had no idea if Khanae would survive.
Turning her head to the left, she saw the spirit of a young boy. He couldn’t have been more than twelve. He smiled as he slowly reached out his hand. “It’s okay,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. We want to help.”
Her arm felt as if it weighed a hundred pounds as she lifted it. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sobbed. I don’t know what to do, she thought.
“Let go,” the boy said, his soft smile comforting her.
She didn’t know if that was the right decision. After all, didn’t Sayen say not to give in? Or did she mean not to give in to something else? Nothing made sense. All she knew was the pain she felt and the comfort she found in the little boy.
Her hand finally lifted. As car alarms screamed outside and dogs howled, Kailah reached out and touched her fingertips to those of the little boy.
“Together forever,” he said.
A bright flash illuminated the room as the most excruciating pain Kailah had ever felt ripped through her body just as everything went black.
Chapter Three
Only the need to learn from the past justifies opening an old wound.
Words fluttering through Kailah’s mind woke her, though her eyes still refused to open. She felt something tickling her wrists and ankles, and something else slightly dug into her back, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
The scents of grass and nature enveloped her, and she found herself curious. Only moments before she had been in the living room with Sayen—hadn’t she? It certainly didn’t seem much longer than that, and she didn’t have memories of anything else afterward.
After several tries, her eyes finally opened, and she was faced with an incredible forest. The trees were bigger than any she’d ever seen, and the vegetation along their bases was lush and green, even beneath the dense canopy.
Looking down at her hands, she saw dark skin. Those were not her hands, and the soft white robes she wore weren’t hers either. Curiosity piqued, she grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled it around to see that it was as white as snow.
“Sekhmet.”
She’d heard that voice. It was only once, and it was in a dreamlike state, but she recognized it. She was in Sayen’s body, and that was Taima’s voice. But who was Sekhmet?
Her head turned, and she could tell that she no longer had any control. This was no dream. It was a first-person vision from her great-great-grandmother’s point of view.
He smiled and walked over, kneeling on the ground before her. He took her hands in his.
“Have they come to a decision?” Kailah asked against her will, Sayen’s voice coming forth.
Taima nodded. “They listened to my pleas. You have healed several of our sick and saved our crops from dying when you brought rain. We owe you a debt.”
She smiled. “And is it a debt that brings you here to me? Or is it more?”
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back. “I believe I loved you the moment I saw you. I have never seen anything so beautiful.”
“This would tether us together forever. Are you all right with that?”
He laughed. “Sekhmet, you are the one giving up immortality. Are you all right with that?”
Sayen wasn’t her real name. She’d changed it.
Without warning, Kailah was lifted onto her knees as Sayen kissed Taima. It was brief but filled with love. “I have never been so certain of anything. I found something with you I have never known before. I never thought I would find love, and I certainly never believed I would have a chance to have a real family. Your people possess magic—real magic. Combining yours with mine, I believe we can sever the ties I have to my family in Egypt.”
Taima gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips. “And we could start one of our own.”
She nodded. “Yes, we can.”
Sayen wiped away a tear as she fought back the happiness. Kailah could even hear the thoughts in her mind. It felt incredibly intrusive to be part of such a private moment, but she imagined that she was seeing it for a reason.
Sayen had never felt such happiness; that hadn’t been a lie. She felt scared to be happy. It had been years since she’d seen her friend, Khanae, and she had no clue where the Vampire was. She was on her own for the time being. Which meant that if Khia found them, everything would be over.
Kailah heard the racing thoughts running through a scared woman’s mind. Sayen was well over a millennium old, but she fe
lt no different than a teenage girl at that moment. She was so worried about what would happen if her family discovered her love.
Would they kill him? Would they torture him? Would they send the Forsaken Wolf army after them just for show? Or would Khia show herself?
Part of Sayen was screaming she needed to run. That she was being selfish for dragging him into her mess, but the other part loved him more than anything she had ever held dear, and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. Just the idea of growing old with him and dying together made her feel a warmth she never knew was possible.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She forced a smile. Though he was everything she’d ever wanted, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.
“I am,” she answered simply.
Kailah went along for the ride as he helped her stand. They began to walk deeper into the forest, but everything changed. The world around her swirled just seconds before she was kneeling next to a fire, Taima on his knees as well. Each of them held a single clay cup between them.
Though Sayen’s eyes were locked on Taima’s, Kailah could still see everything around her. The whole tribe was there, their houses not far away. They were inside a small community built inside the forest.
A shaman sat just to the side of them, a bone-handled dagger in his hand. As he spoke, Kailah didn’t understand the language, but with Sayen as her translator, everything made sense.
“Severing the ties that bind us to the blood of our family should never be taken lightly. Understanding the consequences is very important. This ritual will destroy any bond this woman, Sekhmet, has with her family, including her ancestors. Not only will she lose her identity, but she will lose her immortality, her power. Do you understand?”
Sayen looked at the Shaman and nodded. “I do.”
“You will have a very important part of you stripped away. The only way to save you from an eternity of loneliness and loss is to bind your life to that of another. You will fill that missing piece, and you will inherit a new family. The other person must accept you with his or her full heart. If there should be any doubt from either of you, the spirits will not bless the ritual, and your soul will be doomed.”
