His eyes flickered from one vampire to the next. “She said I must show you, but she didn’t tell me to leave.”
“Where do we have to go for you to show me?” I asked.
“Into the darkness,” he replied.
“Will you take me there,” I asked? “To the darkness?”
He swallowed hard, the vein in his forehead pressing against his taut skin as he nodded.
WE WALKED DOWN the winding hallways in silence, the boy turning back to meet our eyes every few seconds. He didn’t trust us, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t need him to trust us. I just needed him to be honest. With the power out, he led us to a stairway.
“10 flights. We’re going down 10 flights,” he said.
I eyed the others cautiously. We were back on the main level.
“There are 10 levels below the basement?” Lillie asked.
He nodded but didn’t face us. “10 flights.”
He swiftly ran down the steps until finally stopping at a door and turning to face us. His skin was flushed, his breathing erratic, and he swiped at the beads of sweat dripping down his paled skin. He lifted the identification badge that hung from his neck and raised it before us.
Cameron Webster was printed in bold font. Below his name was his department: Records. Below that was a thick, solid black line. The card looked worn, the clear coating curling at the corners.
I arched an eyebrow.
He rolled his eyes. “10 flights. Power’s out. My key card won’t work.”
“You don’t have a key for the lock?” I asked, glancing at the brass door handle.
He shook his head. “Level three. I’m level three. Level fives get keys. But I’m level three.”
“Okay. Move over here,” I said with a shrug.
He grabbed my arm, his fingers curling around my skin. “Wait. There may be more. There’s always more.” He swallowed hard. “In there,” he added with a whisper.
“More what? Vampires?”
He nodded bleakly. “Always more. When you think they’re gone, they’re not. There’s more. Always more.”
I glanced at the others, who nodded in response.
“We can handle them. Can you?” I asked.
His eyes widened; his face grew pale. He shook his head quickly. “No, no. I’m level three. Level three works the files. I work the files. The history. Not now. Not the present. I’m level three!”
“Okay, shh. No worries, kid. Just stay behind me,” I said with a smile.
He sidestepped quickly and joined the others. Yanking my arm back, I shot it forward, the flat of my palm slamming against the center of the door. The force shattered the frame’s hinges, and the door flung into the dark room, crashing against a wall and tumbling to the ground.
Cameron stepped beside me, mouth agape. “Whoa.”
“Yeah, you should probably get better security doors,” I replied with a chuckle.
“Yes, better doors,” he added, as if he was taking a mental note. “Y’know, the door opens this way,” he said, motioning his arms like he was opening an invisible door toward us. “That means you pushed the door against the frame.”
My eyes met his, and I grinned. Only mere seconds passed before his face grew dark, and he stepped back, adding more bricks to the wall between us. Soon, I hoped he’d see that the differences between witches and vampires were only found in our biology.
“Better doors,” he said, nodding his head. “It’s this way.” Grasping the door frame, he peeked around the corner. “But I’m not sure if—”
“Relax, Cameron,” I said, ignoring the obvious shudder that ran through his body as I said his name. “Just show us the way. We’re right behind you.”
He nodded and entered the dark room. My eyes adjusted quickly, but I wished they hadn’t. My stomach twisted at the sight. Humans—I presumed to be witches—in white lab coats lay dead on the floor. There were dozens. With slashed skin and blood-stained clothes, their lifeless eyes stared at me as I passed, as if to ask, “Why didn’t you come sooner? How could you leave us to fight her?” A slop of bile stung my throat, and I swallowed it down. The air was thick with death, the bodies already beginning to decay. The sour smell of rotting flesh tickled my nose, so I forced myself to hold my breath.
Cameron took a step forward, tripping over someone’s arm. As he fell, face first, into a huddle of dead human bodies, I dove forward, catching his arm and pulling him back.
“Oh, god. Oh, god! What was that? What’s in here?” he said as he grabbed onto my arm. His voice was panicked as he squinted in the dark. The only light came from the stairwell behind us. I was thankful that wasn’t enough to light his way. He didn’t need the picture of his murdered friends haunting him forever.
“Nothing. You just tripped,” I said, my voice cracking. “Let’s keep moving.”
He nodded, his grip on my arm tightening. “There should be a door. Somewhere around here.”
“There,” I said, leading him toward it. We filed inside the room and closed the door behind us.
“No! Open the door!” Cameron cried out.
I nodded toward the others, and Jeremiah flung the door open, letting it crash against the wall.
“The door. It has to be open. Always open. We can’t get locked in if it’s open.”
“Okay, we’re sorry. It’s open now,” I said, hoping to reassure him.
“Over here. On the wall, somewhere over here,” Cameron said as he pointed to the right of the door, “A key. On a hook. There should be a hook with a key.”
I scanned the wall until I found the nail, keyless. “I see it. There’s nothing there.”
“What? No! It’s there. It has to be there. Check again.”
“I’m looking at it now, Cameron. There’s nothing there. It’s empty.”
“The ground. Check the ground! Someone must’ve knocked it down. Check the ground,” Cameron said as he fidgeted in the darkness.
On their hands and knees, the vampires scoured the ground beside the wall, meticulously checking every square inch.
“That key. We have to find it. We need the key,” Cameron added.
“I can’t just break the door down or something?”
“No! We need the key. That key cranks on the back-up generator. It’s a spare. It’s always there. In case something like this happens…”
“Found it!” Lillie called, tossing the key to me. I caught it, mid-air, and placed it in Cameron’s hand.
“The lock and pad. Over here. Somewhere over here. Do you see it?”
“Yes,” I said, finding the lock with a fingerprint pad large enough for a hand.
“Okay, take me there,” Cameron said.
I walked him to the lock and placed his hand against it.
“This pad. It will scan my handprint. Once I put the key in, I’ll have five seconds to place my hand on the pad before the generator locks. Five seconds. Okay? If we take six seconds, we’ll have to turn on the back-up generator manually, and I don’t know how to do that. I’m a level three. Level three, okay? We have only five seconds.”
“Here. Give me the key,” I said as I took it. I then hovered his hand above the pad.
“Count of three,” I said. “One. Two. Three.” I slid the key into the lock and turned it. The scanner lit up bright white. “Now.” Cameron placed his hand on the pad, and the crank of the back-up generator echoed through the building. One by one, the emergency lights flickered on.
We were standing in a seemingly endless hallway of glass doors. The white-walled room, with white tile floors and white ceiling, felt uncomfortably sterile.
“What is this place?”
“This is what she wanted you to see,” Cameron said.
I walked down the hall, my eyes flickering to the empty rooms. Each was padded from floor to ceiling. I walked toward one, raising my hands to rest my palms against the glass.
“No! Don’t touch the windows! Don’t touch!”
I froze. “Why? What’s wrong with the windows?�
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“10,000 volts. 10,000 volts of electricity. It could kill a human. But your kind… You won’t die. Just pain and sleep.”
I yanked my arms back, crossing them over my chest. “These are… cages?”
“Yes. For the dead. This is one of the containment cells, yes,” Cameron answered.
“The dead? What… what were you containing?” I asked. Although, I already knew the answer.
“Vampires.”
My mouth agape, I spun on my heels and faced him. “Why?”
“You know. I think you know,” he said, his face hard.
“Why were you holding vampires here, Cameron?” Jasik asked, stepping forward.
Though he said nothing, his eyes never left mine. His strength never faltered. I had to give him credit. His balls had seemed to triple in size in the past five seconds.
“Cameron, I don’t want to play guessing games. This is what she wanted me to see. So please tell me what I’m supposed to see!” I yelled.
“When we… When witches discovered the immortal species, they panicked. Can you blame them? Vampires are the better species. I mean, aside from being immortal, they have so many more strengths than witches. They can live for weeks without food. They don’t need water. They’re strong, really strong, and fast and smart. They’re natural predators, hunters. Vampires sit at the top of the food chain. The only thing above them is the sun.”
Cameron kicked at the ground, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I don’t need a history lesson, Cameron,” I said, and he shivered.
“My job is the history! I’m a level three!” he yelled.
I exhaled quickly, holding my hands up before him. “Okay, I’m sorry. Please continue.”
“Witches were scared. The world they loved was going to be overtaken by the vampires. So they started practicing powerful dark magic, The Power. They would bless one witch with the power to control all the elements. They would strengthen the witch’s power.”
“Don’t you mean they would infect her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “They knew, at first. They knew what was happening. The elders, they experimented on spirit users. To amplify their power so mortals weren’t decimated during the war. At first, they didn’t say it was from the gods. They told the truth. They didn’t lie. But then, they all… they all started dying. They weren’t supposed to die! But they did, and then no one would volunteer. No volunteers, no power. So the witches, the elders, they started over. New slate. Clean slate. Then there was the prophecy and the chosen one. And the spirit users, they welcomed The Power again.”
Cameron began pacing back and forth.
“But centuries passed. Centuries! Hundreds of years! And the war, it was still happening, because the vampires, they were still there. We weren’t any closer to getting rid of them all. And the chosen witches, they were all dying. Too strong. It was too strong, but it wasn’t enough. The witch still didn’t have enough power to eradicate the immortal species. So the witches, they would give the chosen witch more power, and then more and more, and eventually, the elder witches got it right. They bestowed enough power to let that chosen witch make a difference.” He exhaled sharply and shook his head. “But this power, this gift, it started to change them, the chosen ones. It was too much power. It was too much for the mortal coil. So they granted each coven with a spirit user permission to cast the spell. Chosen ones were everywhere, in almost every coven. It was supposed to be enough. They were supposed to be the last sacrifice to eliminate the vampires. But they didn’t. They kept dying. With all the chosen ones dying, the council made a decision, because their people were being hunted. Annihilated.”
“What did they do?” Lillie whispered.
“They were contained. The vampires. They were contained and controlled by powerful magic. It was supposed to be safe! The elder witches, they thought they were creating the perfect army, pitting vampire against vampire. If it worked, there’d be no need to sacrifice their witches to The Power. You see? It was supposed to save everyone. But… But something happened. The vampires. They fought back.”
“You mean, the vampires were defending themselves, which caused them do the same thing the witches were doing to the vampires: kill to survive.”
“It’s not natural,” Cameron said, meeting my eyes. “To live forever is not natural. If it was, vampires would be born, not bitten. You might feel like the witches betrayed you, but the true infection here is the vampire blood running through your veins.”
I swallowed hard.
He nodded. “You’re not a normal vampire. You’re an infected witch. That power they gave you is still inside you.” He laughed maniacally. “It’s funny. Every day, it fights to control you, to tear you apart. But that’s the beauty of being immortal. It’ll never win.”
“Beauty? That’s an interesting choice of words for someone who thinks vampires are infected with some virus,” Jeremiah said.
“You’re not understanding. Avah’s not a vampire. We’ve been studying The Power’s effects on the chosen,” Cameron said, his eyes meeting mine. “It’s changed you. You’re something else. You’re… I don’t know...”
“I may not be one of them, but I’m certainly not one of you. I’m immortal.”
He shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. “Temporary kink. We were planning to work through that. I’m level three. I’ve seen the tests. They’re fixing that.”
“Working through what?” I asked. “What exactly have you been doing here?”
“It wasn’t working. Empowering spirit users wasn’t working. So the council agreed to try another option.”
I eyed the other vampires. “I know. You told us already. You told us about the tests,” I said.
“Magic. We were using magic to alter their brain chemistry. In the brain,” he said, tapping his pointer finger against his skull. “We were training them to be warriors for the people. Vampires fighting vampires.”
“You caught them. Kept them here. Deprived them of food, of freedom. You practiced magic on them without taking any precautions, because let’s face it, if they die during the process, no one would care, right?”
“The methods were safe. The methods we used have been used for centuries in prison camps.”
“Safe? Prison camp? Are you hearing yourself?” Jeremiah asked.
“I’m thinking questioning his sanity is irrelevant,” Sebastian said.
“You were brainwashing them!” I yelled. “How could I have never known about this?”
“You didn’t need to know. You’re not a level three. I’m a level three. I know.” He grabbed his ID badge and held it before me, nodding.
“I was a chosen one! They knew this would fail. They knew I’d end up dead!”
“All mortals die.”
“So because one day I’d suffer a natural death, that made it okay to subject me to this hell?”
“We weren’t ready yet. The magic we were using only worked on some vampires. We needed more time. We had to keep spelling witches until the vampires passed the tests.”
“You sit here calmly, as if you’re writing a shopping list and not talking about murdering the youth!”
“It is an honor to be chosen. We didn’t choose you. The gods chose you.”
“How can you say that?” I asked.
“You’re a spirit user. We didn’t decide that. The gods did.”
“You’re sick. You’re all sick!”
“Avah,” Jasik said, and I met his pained eyes.
I shook my head, my thoughts cloudy. I swallowed down the knot in my throat and blinked back tears. “What else?”
“What? What else what?” Cameron asked.
“What else do we need to know?” Jasik asked.
Cameron exhaled slowly and ran a hand through his hair. “The vampires, the ones who didn’t seem affected by the magic, they… started changing.”
As he spoke each word, my mind began to clear and the realization hit me.
“Were Rogues,” I interrupted. “To escape this prison, they willingly gave up the only thing they had to offer: their souls. They were starved, so they fed from the witches who got in the way of their escape. They killed mortals, damning themselves in the process.”
The other vampires gasped.
“When did this happen?”
“I know. I’m a level three. Level threes, we see all the notes, all the records,” Cameron said, nodding. “It’s been nearly a millennium.” He shrugged, as if it was completely normal to partake in this behavior for any period of time.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” I said.
“We were creating an army. We were going to change the future,” he argued.
“And you did. Congratulations. This war started because you damn witches wouldn’t accept another species. You couldn’t see past your fear. You believed there’d be a war between mortals and immortals, so you created one. This all started because you were too damn proud to just share this world. Your fear led to your hatred, which then led to the vampires’ imprisonment, which then led to the creation of Rogue vampires. You caused this war. You brought this on yourselves.”
“No! The vampires, they still would have been a problem.”
“You don’t know that,” I said.
“No, you don’t know that they wouldn’t have been a problem. You can’t be sure they wouldn’t turn on us!”
I nodded. “You’re right. Just like mortals, there likely would have been some bad apples. But instead of having the vampires with morals on your side, you isolated yourselves. You turned against allies and left yourselves vulnerable. This vulnerability made you turn on the spirit users!”
“No! Stop! I don’t have to listen anymore. I told you. I told you why she left me here. Now you know. Now you can leave.”
I glanced at the others. Their expressions were a mix of pain and anger. They too felt the betrayal I had faced. Their kind had been subjected to torturous experiments for nearly a thousand years.
I closed my eyes, taking several deep breaths before reopening them. I was angry, taking my frustrations out on Cameron. In truth, he and I were the same. We were both pawns in a war orchestrated by our elders. So instead of focusing on the betrayal that weighed heavily on my soul, I thought about his words.
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