by Rue Volley
We both looked as we heard someone cry out. I flashed forward and Blake followed me. We pushed through trees until we came to a clearing. Josh stood there with his blade gripped tightly in his hand. A girl lay at his feet, rolling to her side. She moaned and hissed at him. I looked around and didn’t see Elin. I looked at Josh.
“Where is Elin?” I asked him.
He turned to me and shook his head. I looked around and saw blood on the ground. I stumbled forward following it. I pushed thicker brush out of my way and finally came to a clearing by the water. Elin sat there staring at the water. I stepped up behind her and watched as the blood was flowing from her side. I slowly moved up to her and looked down. She had her blade in her hand. It was covered in blood. I looked out and saw a body floating in the water. I sat down next to her and she looked over at me. She had a strange look on her face and her eyes looked lighter.
“Elin?” I said as I sat down Indian style. She grinned. She had blood on her teeth.
I looked down and she had her hand on her stomach. Blood ran over it.
I pulled her hand and the blood flowed rapidly onto her lap.
“Oh my god, Elin!” I said as I leaned towards her.
“Don’t, Rue,” she said in a calm voice.
I looked at her face and she shook her head at me.
“Elin… no,” I said.
She sighed and looked out at the water.
“You know, I have spent what seems like my whole life wanting to be immortal, and now that I sit here dying I am almost relieved to not have to pursue it anymore,” she said to me.
“What can I do? There has to be something that I can do,” I said.
She looked up at the sky and sighed again.
“Listen, he bit me; I can feel the poison. He also stabbed me with his blade, double whammy… Asshole,” she muttered.
Her hand started to fall from her stomach and she nodded a little.
“Elin,” I whispered. “I am sorry that I hated on you, I am.” She looked up at me.
“Really?” she said. I nodded.
“That’s so human of you,” she whispered as she fell backward.
I caught her before she hit the ground. She looked up at me.
“Take care of Josh… he is special,” she whispered to me.
“I know, I will… I promise,” I said to her.
Elin looked up at the sky and smiled.
“That looks like a rabbit,” she said.
I looked up at the clouds and spotted it. I smiled. I looked down at her and she was gone. I sat there staring at her for a moment and I heard Josh’s voice. I looked up and wiped my face. I guess I started to cry at some point, I had no idea why, I should have hated her, but in the end I felt sorry for her. Josh ran up and looked down at us.
“Oh shit, Elin,” he said.
I let her go and he pulled me up from her. He looked at her for a moment and leaned down to her. He whispered something in her ear and backed away from her. He pulled his blade and shoved it into the ground. He started to chant in Latin and so did Blake. They both closed their eyes and raised their hands up. I watched as color started to swirl around Elin’s body. The color lifted her and took her out above the water. The swirling mass gently laid her into the water and then she slowly sank under. I looked at Josh and he opened his eyes up and looked at me. I shook my head and looked at the blood on my hands, unable to say anything.
Josh stepped up to me and touched my hand. I looked up at him.
“We need to go, Rue,” he said with compassion in his voice.
I nodded and looked back at the water then I looked back to Josh.
“Did she go to memory?” I asked him. He looked at Blake.
“That’s where we sent her,” he said.
Blake looked at me and turned to walk away from us.
I took one last look at my hands and then back at the calm water Elin disappeared into.
“I didn’t hate her,” I said to him. He smiled at me.
“I know,” he said.
Chapter Sixteen
Lord Barrington
Caine stood up and closed his eyes. He felt a tearing in his chest. He grabbed it and looked over at Lily. She sat in the chair playing with a dirty doll, hair all blonde and curly like her own. She looked up at him and grinned. Caine walked to his tent opening and looked out at the people scurrying around. The carnival was preparing to move; they had out stayed their welcome here and it was becoming dangerously close to invoking investigation. Three children and two adults had mysteriously disappeared since their arrival. The rogues had expanded their search for food at night, but it didn’t mean that others would not become victims too close to its location.
He closed his eyes again and looked down at his hands. He watched the color swirl on it and knew that his bond with Elin had been severed. He looked back at Lily and she smiled. Her teeth all filed and pointed in her mouth. He walked to her and looked down; he placed his hand on her chin and raised her head to break her attention from her cryptic doll. She tilted her head at him when she noticed his look had softened.
“Go and get Erik,” Caine said to her.
Lily nodded and stood up. Caine grabbed her wrist and stared at her for a moment. Lily didn’t get nervous she just relaxed, so that he wouldn’t find her reaction odd. He grinned and let her wrist go. She walked to the tent opening and then looked back at him.
“You are sad, my Lord,” She whispered.
Caine waved his hand at her and sat down in the chair.
Lily walked out and went on a search to retrieve Erik for him.
Caine leaned back in the chair and rubbed his hands. The breaking of a bond with a host is a terrible thing, especially with Elin. She had fed from him for so long it ached in his bones. He leaned forward and sighed.
“Elin,” he whispered.
Erik stepped through the opening and looked at him.
He felt the energy radiating from him as soon as he took a breath.
“My Lord?” Erik asked.
Caine looked up at him and relaxed his face.
“I will let you know that Elin is no longer with us,” he said.
Erik stepped forward and raised his hands up.
“What has happened to her?” he asked him.
“It seems that she has been killed. I felt her leave me,” he said as he leaned back and looked around the room.
“What would you have me do?” Erik asked him.
Caine flashed to him so quickly he didn’t even see him coming. Caine walked behind him and then around to the front, to face him. Erik controlled his breathing; he didn’t want to become a casualty to Caine’s unexpected grief. Caine leaned into him and smelled him. Erik cleared his throat and looked straight ahead. Caine took a step back and stared at him.
“When did you make the choice to deceive me?” Caine asked him.
Erik’s eyes flashed to him. He suddenly has two choices, denial or redemption.
He decided to choose redemption. He knelt down to one knee and lowered his head.
“It was not deception, My Lord,” he muttered.
Caine shifted his weight to his other foot and stared at him. For a split second he considered taking his blade and running it through his heart, eating him alive. He felt the ache in his hands from the sudden loss of Elin and he sighed.
“So, what was it then, Erik? Did you decide that your plan was better than mine?” Caine asked him.
Erik looked up at Caine and let his energy even out; he didn’t want to give Caine any indication that he meant him any harm. He was certain that Caine could kill him at a moment’s notice.
“I was sent with you, My Lord,” he said as he slowly pulled his blades and laid them by his sides, showing that he was relinquishing his power.
There is no greater show of defeat than laying your blades on the ground when you are a protector. Caine stared at his blades and walked to him. He kicked them out from in front of Erik and stared at him.
“M
y Mother sent you with me, did she not?” he asked him.
Erik lowered his head and nodded.
“And what was her plan then?” Caine asked him as he pulled both of his blades and held them at his sides. Erik looked up and tilted his head.
“She wishes for you to return to Valon, My Lord,” Erik said, hoping that Caine wasn’t about to stab him. Caine grinned and relaxed his hands.
“To Valon?” he asked him.
“Yes, My Lord, She did not want you harmed. She simply wanted you returned to your home, and she wanted Rue Volley destroyed,” he said as he kept his eyes locked on Caine’s blades.
Caine looked down at his blades and raised one, putting it under Erik’s chin.
“Tell me, Erik, why would you trust Sophia?” Erik grinned.
“I have no choice, My Lord,” he said. Caine laughed and turned to his chair.
“It seems that Sophia is dealing in treachery,” he said as he walked to the chair and sat down. He still gripped his blades in his hands. He stared at Erik, who remained on his knees.
“You know, she tried to kill me when I was a child, Erik,” Caine said as he laid his blades on his lap.
“I did not,” Erik said as he remained on his knee.
“Yes,” Caine said as he stood up and placed his blades onto his back.
“I was very ill; no one could help me, I spent many days in pain… years really.”
Erik looked up at him and shook his head.
“It is known that you were ill, My Lord… but everyone thought that it was because your Mother had created you with her...”
Caine screamed out and flashed to him.
Erik stumbled back and Caine leaned into his face; he had a look of pure hatred on his face.
“My mother did not create me with her own brother,” he said as he gritted his teeth.
Erik nodded and lowered his eyes.
“Of course, My Lord… I apologize.”
Caine stood up and brushed his pants off.
“This place disgusts me really, who lives on a dirt floor?” he asked to himself more than to Erik.
Erik pushed himself back up and remained on his knees.
Caine looked at him. He smiled.
“No, My Father is none other than William Volley. Of course he did not know. My Mother never told him. She told no one,” Caine said as he sat back down in his chair.
He pulled his blade and stared at it long and hard. Erik shook his head.
“William Volley?” he asked him.
Caine flashed his gaze to Erik.
“Anyway, I spent many years with terrible pain, so horrible that it twisted me. I don’t know who else could have survived it, but myself of course,” Caine said as he clinched his fists and relaxed them.
“I don’t know if you have ever tasted the bite of a snake, it is a burning… lingering pain, which slowly eats away at you. That is my Mother, a snake, Erik. She is the most dangerous of creatures. I would suspect that her deep hatred for him compelled her to make me suffer, as if I was the reason that he left her before I came along. You see, a woman cannot handle a broken heart, Erik… it is a weight that they simply cannot bear.”
Erik looked up at him and tilted his head.
“So… that would mean that Rue is your sister, My Lord?” he asked.
Caine looked at him and grinned.
“No… she is not. Grace brought that creature into this world on her own, without the help of my Father. I doubt that William knew, in fact I would bet my life that he did not.”
“I do not understand why Sophia would want her dead,” Erik said as he continued to watch Caine, as he twisted his blade and stared at it. Caine looked at him and licked his blade, cutting his own tongue. He shuttered and swallowed the blood and then stood up.
“Sophia does not want Rue to take her power, Erik. You see, when Rue becomes twenty-one, she will invoke all the power given to her and she will bear a new breed to our people, one that will rule forever. I plan to be the Father… I must be,” Caine said as he stood up and walked to Erik.
Erik looked up and stared at him.
“Why do you tell me all this, My Lord?” Erik asked him. Caine smiled down at him.
“I simply wanted to get it off my chest. You will not survive it.”
Erik stood up quickly and tried to lunge at his blades.
Caine thrust his blade through his heart and held Erik close to him.
“Sometimes it is best to run,” he whispered to Erik.
Erik’s eyes started to fade in color and Caine closed his eyes. The color started to swirl from Erik’s body around them. Caine sucked his breath in as the color swirled and started to absorb into his body. He pulled his blade out and Erik slumped to ground. Caine looked down at him and grinned.
“You picked your allies poorly,” he said as he walked back to his chair and sat down.
Lily stepped into the tent and tripped over Erik’s body.
She looked at him and then up at Caine. He grinned at her.
“Now… you will tell me of you and your brothers plans Lily. I would suggest that you practice your ability to communicate immediately,” Caine said as he wiped his blade between his fingers and licked Erik’s blood from it. Lily shook her head and remained on her knees in front of him.
Caine leaned forward and placed his blade under her chin.
“Your brother has probably met his demise already, you treacherous bitch. It is time to choose sides, if you value your life as it is,” he whispered to her.
Lily sucked in her breath and closed her eyes, flashes of Jonah’s face running through her mind.
***
Johnathan stood up and rubbed his hands. They ached. He did not know why. He looked over at Theodore and gave him a questionable look.
“What is it?” Theodore asked him.
Johnathan shook his head and looked at his hands.
“My hands just started to ache really bad,” he said as he stared at them.
Theodore walked to him and took his hand in his. He held it and closed his eyes.
“Something has happened,” he whispered.
Johnathan looked up at him and shook his head.
“Do you think it is Rue?” he said in a panic.
Theodore opened his eyes up and smiled at him.
“No… it is not Rue, my boy,” he said.
Jonah came flashing up and looked at all three of them.
“Did anyone else feel that?” he said as he looked around. Theodore shook his head.
“Johnathan only, it seems,” he said as he let Johnathan’s hand go. Johnathan looked at Jonah.
“What did you feel?” he asked him.
Jonah took his hat off and looked at the sky.
“Death,” he muttered.
Kai stood up and scanned the woods.
“I didn’t feel anything,” he said. Jonah smiled at him.
“Well, perhaps you would like for me to teach you,” he said.
Kai shook his head and pointed his finger at him.
“Listen, you kind of freak me out… no offense,” he said. Jonah laughed.
“None taken… I assure you that I would not take a bite.”
Kai shook his head and looked at Theodore.
“I swear to god, I’m gonna kick his ass,” Kai said as he walked to the fire and leaned down to it.
Sam flashed up with Sara on her back. She stopped and looked at Theodore.
“Did you feel that?” she asked him. Theodore shook his head.
“I did not, but it seems that Johnathan did… and Jonah,” he said as he looked at them.
Jonah smiled at Sara as she popped off of Sam’s back. Sara brushed her dress off and looked around. Jonah flashed up to her and smelled her. Sara held up her hands and stared at Sam.
“Whoa… what’s the deal?” she asked him.
Jonah laughed and stepped back from her. He looked at Sam.
“I take it that her memory is gone,” he said to Sam. Sam
nodded and looked at Sara.
Jonah grinned and pulled his hat off. He bowed to Sara and held out his hand.
She took it as she giggled and he kissed it as he looked up at her.
“So lovely,” he whispered.
Sam grabbed his hand and pulled it from Sara’s.
“I did not bring her here to snack on, you freak,” she said to him.
Jonah grinned and winked at Sara. Sara rubbed her neck and gave a nervous smile back to him. Sam leaned into her. “Jonah is a cannibal Sara. I would suggest that you keep your distance from him,” she whispered.
Sara flashed a look at him, as he rocked on his heels.
“Oh crap...really...? Like you EAT people and stuff?” she asked him.
Jonah smiled and leaned towards her.
“We could just skip the eating part and go right to the stuff, if you like,” he whispered.
“Oh,” Sara said as she grinned at him.
Sam grabbed her hand and pulled her over to Theodore. Theodore smiled at Sara as she looked back at Jonah. Sara looked at Theodore and grinned. Theodore touched her face.
“You have been very naughty,” he said to her.
Sara looked down, her shoes were muddy. Theodore touched her chin and raised it to him. “You are lucky to be alive, do not tempt fate with Jonah. I cannot promise that his charms would not bewitch you into becoming his meal,” he whispered.
Sara looked back at Jonah and he bowed to her.
“Okay then,” she whispered.
“Where is our rambunctious brother?” Theodore asked Sam.
“With Rue I am sure… he tracked her.”
Theodore looked out into the forest.
“I would suggest that we return home. I feel that we are in danger here,” he said.
Sam looked at Kai and he held out his hand to her. She grinned and flashed to him.
She hugged him so hard, he almost fell over.
“Oh… you missed me then,” Kai whispered to her.
She took her arms from his neck and stood in front of him.
He smiled at her and touched her face. She turned to Theodore.
“We should go; will you carry Sara this time?” she asked him.
