by CJ Flynn
He frowned and shrugged. “I always assumed it was because there wasn’t anyone else to learn from or feed off. My father died when I was young, and I've been alone for so long—”
“You know the story of how I came to discover my ability?”
“At your grandfather's funeral. It manifested itself then.”
I shook my head. “Sort of. But Sorrell, well, Beata... she gave me an injection. This drug that another doctor developed to enhance dormant abilities.”
“And you're telling me about this because you think I need to try it? You think we have something to gain?”
I stared down at the results from Ben's last DNA scan. “I think it might be our only hope.”
Chapter 35
I downloaded every single piece of research I had. My notes, Harding's, even Dr. Park's. I marked the equipment I wanted, made my way to my cottage, packed a bag, and returned to the mansion, ready to leave.
My father was there, waiting in Sorrell's study. He looked sad.
“I understand that your therapy has not worked yet.”
I shook my head. “No. Not yet. I haven't given up.”
He nodded. “I do not see visions as frequently as I used to,” he said, his voice quiet. “For some reason, my visions end on this day, and I can't see anything in this chain of events.”
“Really? You can't see any further into the future than this?”
He shook his head. “I can and have seen future events further out than this, but nothing that's directly related. It makes me both nervous and somehow relieved. I've seen much of your life, many of the things that led you to this time and place, and it is the hardest part of my journey. The clarity with which I saw you—” He frowned. “I never saw Eden and Eliza. Never. It was the best proof I had that they were dead.”
My heart hurt for him. I knew now that I had misunderstood my father for most of my life, but I hadn't thought much about the incredible pain he must have dealt with for so long.
“I'm sorry. I'm sorry you didn't know that they were still alive. I can't imagine how that must have felt.”
“I think you must know, at least in part. You must have wondered for years where I was, if I was dead or alive.”
I nodded.
“I should be the one apologizing,” he said. “Now, and every day until you believe me. I should never have left you. Not with your mother, and not to flounder for so long in the world without me to help you. I just wanted so badly for you to never, ever learn about this other world. I hope you’ll believe me some day.”
I smiled at him, even as the tears started to run down my face. “I believe you. Right now. I do. I don't think I want anyone to know about this world either.”
He held out his arms and I stepped closer, leaning into the hug my father gave me.
I pulled away from him and wiped my face. “I think you need to leave, and go to see them in California.”
“But they won't know me. They won't remember anything about me.”
“Give them more credit than that. They seem kind of amazing.” I grinned. “I have every intention of making it out of this alive and going to see them. I need light and sunshine and a lot more of the color blue.”
He laughed. “That sounds like a plan. You really think you can just walk away from all of this?” He waved his hand around the room.
“I want to try.”
He nodded. “I respect that. I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my fight.”
I looked at him, long and hard, recognizing the desperation in his eyes. The vampire world had dominated my life for nearly a year and a half, and it felt like way too long. I couldn't blame him for wanting to find a real end to this madness.
“They were an abomination,” my father said. “The druids were trying to find the keys to immortality, and they created the vampire instead. It's time to stop that experiment.”
“I don't think the therapy is going to work,” I said, my voice quiet. “I just have this feeling that it isn't enough.”
“Then what is?”
I shrugged. “Maybe nothing. Maybe it isn't a battle we can win.” My voice broke as I thought of Ben, still in his cell in the basement. He would be moved to safety, and I would continue to monitor him, but I just knew in my gut that it wasn't right. I would go back to the drawing board, start looking for another answer. But this retrovirus wasn't it.
He was quiet for several moments before giving me a single nod. “Perhaps you are right. Maybe I need to move on, too. Maybe I need to walk away.”
“They're eighteen. Eighteen. You can still watch them grow up, you know. They're not completely messed up like I am.”
Tears pooled in his eyes and he rested his hand against my cheek. “You're not messed up. You're perfect.”
* * *
Something was happening to the sun. The light-filled bubble Ernie and the witches had maintained for so long was wavering above the estate. I could see shards of pink and purple rip across it, the dawn sky strewn with twinkling stars. I turned away from the sky as Daniel loaded the last of my things in a black SUV I had never seen before. We all had instructions. Teams of two, rendezvous in three days at a safe house somewhere to the west. We would receive the address on the third day. Daniel would be in my cargo hold, and I would be traveling with Eba. My father and Ernie would take Ben. Christian Michaels and Sarah would be traveling alone as Erika Weiss had left in the wee hours of the morning. She would not be joining us at the safe house.
We had taken everything we could manage in the last few hours. The lab equipment was on a truck, and I was carrying at least one of the servers I would need. I had taken some of my things from the cottage, but I had never had much there of importance to begin with. My father's journals were in a locked crate, hidden beneath the cargo hold.
I sat in the driver's seat and waited. I knew the wall would be coming down, knew that eventually it must. I just hoped we all made it to the other side.
There was a tap on the glass, just hard enough to make my jump in my seat.
I saw Ernie's face there and rolled down my window. “Everyone loaded up?” I asked. Daniel was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone back inside.
“Almost. We need to get Ben out here, and we'll be on our way. Daniel and Edward are inside now.”
“Can I do anything?”
Ernie nodded. “I need you to come inside. We need to talk. It won't take long.”
I looked towards the sky and saw the sunshine ripple again. “Okay.”
I locked the car and shoved the keys in my pocket before following him back inside. We stepped into a small room, just off the main foyer, a room I'd never really paid much attention to. It appeared to be some sort of small sitting room.
Ernie shut the door behind us and gave me a very grim look. “We need to talk about the serum Beata used on you.”
“What about it?”
“I had Erika Weiss dose me with it this morning.”
I stared at him, and my heart started pounding in my chest. “And?”
“It did something. It does not enhance so much as it opens up a level of conscience for the patient. I can show you.” He held out his hands. “Give me your hands.”
I grasped Ernie's hands without hesitation. Instantly, the warm light I had first felt in Florida flooded over me, igniting every fiber in my body with a magic I had never felt before.
It last for several moments before fading.
Ernie dropped his left hand away, but his right lingered on my cheek for a moment. “I can see so much clearly now what my ancestors went through.”
His hand dropped from my face and sadness crept across his eyes.
“There is so much on the drive from your father that you must work with and understand, but there is something you will never see in there. My ancestors created the humans because they began to feel deeply polluted by our practices and taste for the creation magic we were using. If every bit of magic and ability is stripped away, you are left with
a creature than can only grow with the help of all the elements, can only thrive with deep roots in the earth and face to the sky. We are you.
“Our magic was capable of giving life in extraordinary measure, but we also corrupted it. The vampires and phoenix are experiments to live forever. The shapeshifters are our way of trying to escape the face in the mirror, and the leviathans were a reflection of the monsters we had become. That magic—the magic I have just given you—is a curse.”
He took a few steps away from me, and the sadness spread from his eyes to every feature of his face. He was filled with pain, and grief, and I didn't even know how to go about helping him. This long-time friend of my father, the man who had kept him safe for so long, seemed somehow smaller and older than when I had seen him last.
“I don't know if we're all going to get through the next few hours, Allie.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet bag the color of moss. “You don't deserve the curse I have just given you, and I hate to ask you for another favor. If I don't make it to the safe house, I need you to make sure this gets delivered.”
“Delivered to whom?” I stared at the bag as he placed it in my hand.
“My daughter. Her name is Charlie Haden.”
“Will she be expecting this?”
He shook his head. “Not in the slightest.”
Chapter 36
The sky fell before I had put the velvet bag in my pocket. I knew when it happened because a shrieking roar echoed outside and I heard the first of several answering yells. I remembered the night that Lillith's vampires had first invaded this place, the night I'd first chosen to take part in this world. I went to the window and stared out at the drive that circled in front of the mansion. Sorrell had brought thirteen vampires to reclaim his home.
Ernie grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me towards the door. “Get to Ben. You need to get him out of here. I'll handle the rest.”
I didn't question him. I pocketed the bag and darted towards the stairs that would take me down to Ben. Panic was building in my stomach as I heard the screaming vampires bearing down on the main entrance.
Daniel met me at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes flickering with anger. He held out his arms and I collided with him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“What are you doing down here?” he asked, pressing his lips into the top of my head.
“Ernie told me I needed to find Ben, and get out of here before they got to him.”
Daniel released me and nodded. “I will go up there. I will buy you the time you need.”
I gave him a small smile. I wanted desperately to see him on the other side of this conflict, wanted to find out what normal life with him would be like.
He swept past me and I heard the bolt slide on the door above as he left. It would take even the strongest vampire several minutes to break through that door. Enough time to get Ben and make it out through the underground service entrance.
I didn't waste any more time in getting to Ben's cell. He wasn't languishing in a corner, per his usual habits, but standing rigid and still at the door.
“Let me out, Allie. I want to fight them.”
“I'm letting you out, but you're not fighting. The car is ready to go upstairs. We're going to sneak out the back, and get the fuck out of here.”
He laughed. “I want whatever it is in your head that has you convinced everything is so easy.”
I punched in the key code to open his door. “Shut up and get in the car, Ben.”
We heard a bang so loud upstairs it rattled the cement foundation of the basement. I felt a strange energy wash over me, the bright white energy from Ernie. This time, however, it did not fade away.
I looked at Ben, and without forcing it, my vision shifted. It didn't show me only his aura, however, but so much more than that. I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his wrist. I could feel his heart pumping the thick, toxic energy that flowed through and around him. It was muddy red, and sluggish. Ben was dying. My therapy hadn't worked at all.
Physical pain burst through me as I saw the fullness of my failure. I hadn't been working to cure him, I'd been working to save him. My anger welled at Ernie as his strange magic enveloped me. I pushed it outwards, towards Ben, hoping whatever it was could do more for him than I had done.
I watched the white energy building in my hands, flowing out through my fingers into Ben's wrist. I could see all around him as the white energy pulsed through the mud-red, turning it a brilliant red.
I heard a scream and knew without really seeing him that it was Ben. He struggled against me, but I held tight, not understanding why but knowing that he needed to wait.
The strange pulsing continued. It filled every cell of his body, warring with the red energy that was still inside him.
And just as soon as it had started, the energy stopped. It fell away from me, and my tracer-vision returned to normal. Ben was brilliant red, but a second aura, the bright white, was in the mix too.
He was staring at me, his eyes blood red, and pain etched across his face.
“What have you done?”
“I have no idea.” I continued to watch his auras dance. “But I don't think it's over yet. Come on. We need to keep moving.”
Whatever the horrible bang had been, it had collapsed the entry to the service garage. There were emergency exits throughout the underground tunnels, but I knew that our best chance was to go straight out the main door. Surely the fighting had moved on by now, and our escape vehicle was right out front. We needed the path of least resistance.
* * *
I could not have been more wrong about which path that was. I turned the locks and pushed the door open. We went out into the beige service hall that ran directly behind the foyer. Just as we were crossing to the door that would give us access to it, the power flickered and went out. Ben and I were alone in total darkness.
He grabbed me before I could protest. His vision was doubtless perfect in the blackness.
“We need to get out of here, now.” His voice was a tight whisper.
I nodded against him, and he slung me around his back. I grabbed his shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist. Ordinarily, I couldn't stand being carted around like this, but in moments of trouble, the vampire strength was definitely useful.
I let my vision shift. There were three vampires I didn't recognize in the foyer. In their midst was Sarah, the witch Ernie had brought to help him. I traced a handful of other vampires throughout the estate. Sorrell was in his private study. My father and Ernie were with him.
I had a sinking feeling that something terrible would happen to them. That strange energy from Ernie was still flowing through me, unabated. It was a heavy weight on every fiber of my being, as I was wearing a coat three sizes too big. I didn’t understand what Ernie had given me, and I wasn’t sure I was qualified to even make a guess.
“Ben?”
“What is it?”
“I can't find Christian or Eba. Only my father, Ernie, and Sarah.”
“Where is Daniel?”
I searched again. Daniel was moving towards Sorrell’s study.
“Daniel is closing in on Sorrell, who's in his private study with my father, Ernie, and a few other vamps. Probably guards.” I traced him one last time. My heart was frozen as I felt him move, and I willed him to stay safe, wished for once that I had some sort of telepathic way to communicate with him.
Once again that white energy filled me, and I felt Daniel stop. I allowed my vision to shift back to normal and my heartbeat filled my ears. Whatever Ernie had done to me felt alien and odd inside my head.
“So what do you want to do?”
“We need to get back downstairs and make sure they can't ever find the work I've done. Let’s figure it out from there. Obviously, our original plan is completely out the window.”
Ben nodded and turned, his muscles tense and twitching as he tore back towards the stairs.
He hightailed it past my
lab, past the locked server room, to a black, armored door I hadn't ever paid much attention to. I dropped off his back and readjusted my clothing before stepping up next to him. I gestured to the door.
“What's this?”
He nodded towards the keypad. “You're going to need to enter that code Camilla gave you before someone changes everything. You'll see as soon as we're inside.”
I did as he said, and breathed a sigh of relief when the code worked. I heard a series of locks moving, and finally, a little green light lit up. I pulled on the handle and a series of overhead fluorescents came to life.
