The Vampire War

by Michelle Madow

  Annika

  The island was small, so it didn’t take long until we were nearing the Tree. Luckily, no more animals popped out of nowhere, tempting us with food that would mess with our minds.

  Under the glowing green leaves of the Tree, it felt like we were in a magical forest. I couldn’t help but look up in awe as we walked. A bird flew overhead—a giant eagle—but luckily, it didn’t swoop down to bother us. If anything, its watchful eyes made me feel like it was looking out for us to ensure we were safely on our way. The stag horns were still everywhere—we had to be careful while walking not to trip on them—but we saw no more signs of the actual stags.

  We crested a small hill, and finally saw the trunk of the Tree. It was huge—as wide as a house—with thick branches going all the way up to the top. At least I assumed they went up to the top—the top was so high up that I couldn’t see it.

  Jacen and I both stopped in our tracks, staring at the Tree.

  Neither of us had a chance to speak before a growl echoed through the air. It was so loud that I swore the leaves on the Tree vibrated from the force of it.

  I instinctively reached for my sword. “What was that?” I looked around, ready for anything.

  “I don’t know,” Jacen said. “But it sounded like it came from the other side of the Tree.”

  “Then I guess we’ll be heading around to investigate.” I held my sword at the ready and made my way around the Tree. Jacen followed by my side.

  We rounded the corner to find a red dragon.

  I stumbled back, overcome by shock. The creature was smaller than I’d imagined dragons to be—about the size of a car—and it stood on its legs, its wings flapping behind it. But it didn’t try to attack. Not because it didn’t want to—its feral eyes showed that it did—but because its feet were chained to the Tree, keeping it in place.

  On the trunk behind it was the outline of a large door.

  The creature snarled at us, showing its pointy teeth. Luckily, fire didn’t come out of its mouth, so we were safe for now.

  “A dragon.” I needed to voice what I was seeing out loud to make sure I wasn’t going crazy—or to make sure I wasn’t still under the influence of that strange fruit.

  “Not a dragon,” Jacen said. “A wyvern.”

  “A what?” I asked.

  “A wyvern,” he repeated. “They’re smaller than dragons, and they have two legs. Dragons have four. Plus, dragons breathe fire. Wyverns don’t. They do, however, have a taste for supernatural flesh.”

  “How do you know all of this?”

  “I told you I did a lot of reading in the Vale.” He shrugged. “The non-fiction section in the palace library was full of useful information. I had a feeling it would come in handy at some point or another.”

  “So to get to the door, we need to kill this wyvern before it turns us into its next meal,” I said.

  “Looks like it,” Jacen agreed.

  I tried to push away defeat at the knowledge that all the weapons the mages had supplied us with were now buried somewhere in the icy sea. With all those weapons, we would have stood a much better chance at getting past this wyvern.

  “Maybe there’s another way in,” I said, although I couldn’t help but doubt it.

  “Maybe,” he said. “Let’s walk around the perimeter and check.”

  We did that, but just as I’d suspected, the door behind the wyvern was the only way in.

  “At least I saved this sword.” I raised the sword that I’d saved from the boat at the last minute. “We just need one good swing. Any chance you read up on the best way to kill a wyvern?”

  He studied the wyvern for a few seconds. “There’s a sensitive spot on the back of its neck.” He placed a finger on a similar place on the back of my own neck, sending electricity through me at his touch. “Jam a weapon straight through it and into its brain, and it’ll be dead.”

  “All right.” I stepped away from him and readied my sword. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Then I ran toward the wyvern. I couldn’t let myself overthink this—I just had to trust my angel instinct and do it.

  The wyvern hovered in the air, thrusting its wing out at me and shoving me backward.

  The wing hit me like a brick wall.

  I landed with my back to the ground, the wind knocked out of me. But I held tightly onto my sword, not willing to lose it as easily as I had in the fight against the sea creature.

  Jacen was suddenly standing in front of me, guarding me from another attack. I sucked in a deep breath and stood up as he reached down to grab two discarded antlers, throwing them straight into the wyvern’s eyes.

  The creature shrieked loudly enough to rattle the ground beneath my feet. It swatted at the antlers with its wings, pushing them out of its eyes.

  Its eyes were hollowed out, gory messes. Blood dripped down its cheeks from the empty sockets. It bucked its head and shrieked again, clearly in pain.

  Jacen and I backed away, clearing the area where the chains allowed the wyvern to reach.

  I grabbed two more antlers and threw them toward the creature as hard and fast as I could.

  They clanked against its skin, bouncing off and falling to the ground.

  “A wyvern’s skin is impenetrable,” Jacen said. “Its only sensitive spots are its eyes and the place I mentioned on the back of its neck.”

  “At least it’s blind now,” I said. “So it won’t be able to see an attack.”

  With that, I ran for it again, preparing to jump in the air and jam my sword through the back of its neck. Fear pulsed through me as I got closer, but I pushed it away. I was almost there. I could do this. I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.

  It raised its wing, blocking me and swatting me onto the ground.

  I landed hard on the pointy end of one of the antlers. I gasped in pain and looked down to find blood dripping from the gash on my leg. But I fought through the pain and jumped back onto my feet, running out of the wyvern’s reach before it could go in for a second attack.

  The wyvern sniffed the air and shrieked. It ran toward me until the chain around its ankle drew tight, holding it in place.

  It only stopped shrieking once the wound on my leg had healed completely.

  “Did you see that?” I asked Jacen, jumping in excitement at my newfound discovery.

  “Did I see you recklessly try to attack the wyvern again without any thought or planning?” he asked, glaring at me. “It was pretty hard to miss.”

  “Not that.” I brushed away his worries, since I’d ended up being fine—my Nephilim healing abilities had seen to that. “I meant the way it went crazy when I started to bleed.”

  “Of course it did,” he said. “I told you before, wyverns have a taste for—”

  “Supernatural flesh,” I finished his sentence with a grin.

  He looked from me to the wyvern and back again. “What’re you thinking?” he asked.

  “Stand over there.” I pointed twenty feet away from me.

  “Why?” He didn’t budge from his current place by my side.

  “I want to test something out,” I said. “So I don’t do anything reckless again.” I couldn’t resist using his previous words against him, although I gave him a small smile to let him know I was playing.

  “Good,” he said. “We’re a team, and that means we work together. So, what’s your plan?”

  I was impatient to get on with it, but at the same time, I knew he was asking because he cared about me. And he was right—we were a team. That meant we needed to communicate, especially in situations like these.

  “Stand far away from me—in a place where the wyvern also can’t reach you—and make yourself bleed,” I said. “I want to see what it does when it smells your blood.”

  “As do I.” He smirked, realization dawning in his eyes, and he whizzed over to the spot I’d pointed to before.

  His fangs pierced his skin, his blood bubbling up over the wound.

  The wyvern sniffed
the air and shrieked. It ran toward Jacen until the chain around its feet tightened, yanking it still and holding it in place.

  Once Jacen’s cut healed, the beast was placated once again.

  It backed closer to the door, the tension on the chain letting up. But from the way it was sniffing the air, it was still very much aware of our presence.

  If I tried to attack again, I was pretty confident I would get wing slapped to the ground for a third time.

  “You’re right,” Jacen said, dashing back over to my side. “The smell of fresh blood sends it into a frenzy.”

  “But we both heal too quickly to keep our blood flowing for long,” I said. “At least, not without maiming ourselves to the point where we’ll be useless in a fight.”

  “Neither of us are going to do that.” From the guarded way he was looking to me, I could tell he wouldn’t accept anything other than an agreement.

  “We won’t,” I confirmed, and he relaxed instantly. “But can you keep a wound fresh and open for a few minutes? That’s all the time I’ll need.”

  “Maybe.” He watched me suspiciously. “What are you planning?”

  I told him my idea as quickly as possible, since we didn’t have time to waste.

  He nodded once I finished explaining. “I’d tell you that this is dangerous, but you know that already.” He glanced at the monster again, his forehead crinkling in worry. “But this is what we’re here for, and you have speed and stealth. If anyone can pull this off, it’s you.”

  My heart leaped at his faith in me, and I couldn’t resist pulling him in for a kiss. The fact that he was supporting me and believed in me meant more than I could ever say.

  “Yes,” I said, forcing myself to break away from him. We’d have more time together later. Right now, we needed to fight. “I’m ready.”

  Annika

  Jacen ran back to position, and he bit his wrist again, allowing his blood to flow.

  The wyvern latched onto his scent and went crazy.

  Once the cut was nearly healed, Jacen bit himself again. The wyvern continued to snarl and growl, pulling at its chain like it had been years since its last meal.

  Confident that the wyvern was distracted, I made my way around the Tree, being as quiet as possible. The Tree’s trunk was huge, so I soon found a place that had enough divots to act as footholds.

  Using them, I began to climb.

  With my angel strength plus my gymnastics training, climbing the Tree was relatively easy. It didn’t take long until I made it to the lowest hanging branch. The branches were thick as well, so the first one I reached had no problem supporting my weight.

  I climbed and jumped my way from branch to branch until reaching one right above the wyvern’s head.

  Jacen was still in his spot up ahead, continuing to keep the wound on his wrist open. He glanced up at me and nodded.

  I nodded back at him and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to do. I had to get this on the first try. I wasn’t sure how smart the wyvern was, but given the way it had known I was coming when I’d rushed at it the first two times, its sense of smell was strong enough to know where Jacen and I were at all times. Jacen’s blood was distracting it for now, but my best chance at success was to catch the creature unaware.

  Gazing down at the wyvern from where I was crouched above it on the branch, I easily spotted the vulnerable place that Jacen had mentioned—a fleshy part below its neck. It was the only part of its body not covered in rock-hard scales.

  I removed my sword from its sheath and jumped.

  I landed on the wyvern’s back, right below its neck. It shrieked louder and reared up, but before it had a chance to buck me off, I raised my sword and slammed it into the flesh on the back of its neck.

  The wyvern crumpled beneath me, its shrieking silenced.

  I somehow managed to hold on as it fell. Once it had stilled, I leapt from its back and circled around it to make sure it was dead.

  From the way it wasn’t moving—or breathing—it looked like it was.

  Jacen zipped to my side, checking me to make sure I wasn’t hurt. “Good job,” he said, apparently deeming me free from any injuries.

  “You did a pretty good job yourself.” I smiled. “If you need any more blood…” I tilted my head and moved my hair away from my neck, hoping he got the message that he was free to take whatever he needed.

  His eyes dilated as he stared down at my neck. But after a few seconds of what looked to be intense contemplation, he shook away his desire and stepped away from me.

  My heart dropped—I was hoping he’d take me up on my offer. After he’d drank from me at the beach… well, I was looking forward to his doing it again.

  “Soon,” he promised, giving my hand a quick squeeze. Apparently my disappointment had been splattered all over my face. “But we should hurry inside. Wyverns aren’t supposed to be able to come back to life after being killed, but there’s no need to take our chances.”

  “All right,” I said, since the last thing we needed was to have to fight the wyvern for a second time.

  So, with my sword still in my hand, I walked to the door carved into the trunk of the Tree, reached for the handle, and pulled it open.

  Annika

  We walked through the door and entered an ornate, high-ceilinged ballroom.

  The door slammed shut behind us, and I walked toward the center of the room, looking around in awe. The room was larger than should have been physically possible. The only sign that we were actually inside the Tree was that the walls and ceiling were made of intricately carved wood. The floor was pure hardwood, too.

  But what stood out to me the most were the doors. The walls were lined with beautiful doors, each one of them a different color. The doors ebbed with light, as if something magical lurked behind them. There must have been at least twenty of them in all. Most of them had a handle and a lock. Only two were totally flat—a golden door and a silver door.

  A glance behind me showed that the door we’d emerged from was green. Like most of the others, it had a handle and a lock.

  “Did you read about this place in any of the books in the library?” I asked Jacen, continuing to gaze around the room.

  “No,” he said. “But none of the books mentioned the Tree of Life either. So it seems like we’re in completely new territory here.”

  “And there’s no sign of the Grail,” I said.

  “No,” he agreed. “There isn’t.”

  “I guess I sort of figured it would be waiting inside the Tree.” I searched for a spot where the Grail might be hiding, but found nothing.

  Suddenly, my angel instinct urged me to turn around.

  I did just that, and came face to face with the gold door.

  Of course—the door my angel instinct was apparently guiding me toward was one of the only two without a doorknob.

  “This one.” I walked toward the gold door and stared up at it. It was tall and intimidating, and I couldn’t help feeling small in comparison.

  “Great,” Jacen said. “One of the ones without a handle.”

  I smiled, since I’d just been thinking the same thing.

  He quickly came to my side, and the two of us stared up at the door together. He pressed his hand against it and pushed. Nothing happened. He pushed again, grunting from the force he was putting into it.

  “This thing isn’t budging.” He dropped his hand back down to his side and shook it a few times, as if trying to get the circulation moving again.

  I tried pushing the door as well, but also couldn’t move it. I wasn’t surprised—it was no secret that Jacen was stronger than me.

  But something had guided me toward this door—my angel instinct—so I closed my eyes, trying to get in touch with it again.

  Just like when we’d been back at the mages cabin, my instinct told me to knock.

  I raised my hand and knocked three times on the intimidating golden door.

  We waited a few seconds, sayi
ng nothing. All was quiet in the room. Maybe I needed to try again?

  But before I had a chance, the door swung open, revealing a golden, winding staircase that led all the way to the clouds.

  Camelia

  I woke up in the morning with my stomach swirling. It felt like there was a lump of poison inside of it. I felt cold and hot at the same time, and my skin was coated in a fine sheen of sweat.

  I jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before throwing up what felt like everything that I’d eaten last night.

  Once sure that nothing else could come out, I flushed and walked to the sink, where I brushed my teeth and splashed some water on my face in an attempt to freshen up.

  Witches never got sick—we were immune to human illnesses. I’d only thrown up on the rare occasions that I’d drank more alcohol than I could handle. I would normally assume this was a nasty hangover, but I hadn’t been drinking recently, in case it turned out I was pregnant.

  That was when it hit me. What I’d just experienced must have been morning sickness.

  I hurried to where I’d stashed the potion that would make me lose the baby, and I took it out, staring at it. I already knew I didn’t want to drink it, but looking at it now confirmed my decision.

  I walked back to the bathroom, emptied the contents of the vial into the toilet, and flushed it away.

  I could never harm the baby growing inside of me.

  Except that war was coming to the Vale. The guards that Scott had sent out had confirmed it when they’d located the wolves’ camp.

  By staying in the Vale, I was putting my child and myself at risk.

  There was only one place where we might both be safe.

  The Haven.

  Camelia

  There weren’t many witches in the Vale, and none of them had anything close to my magical strength.

  But when I called for the five strongest to come to my quarters, they arrived in minutes.