by Jeff Gunhus
“Why?” I asked, not even looking up. “Why did you do this?”
Pahvi laughed, high and shrill, bordering on madness. “Did you think you could walk in here, kill so many of my brothers and just get away with it?” He circled around Eva and me. “It was clever of you to make me believe the dagger you found was a fake. I’ll give you credit for that. But why didn’t you use it on her?” He stopped and peered into Shakra’s eyes. He waved his hand in front of her face. “Or maybe you did? Is this…condition…caused by the dagger?”
I wiped away my tears, hot anger creeping in on my shock and grief. But I said nothing in return. If Eva was going to die in my arms, I wanted to spend every second focused on her. Even without looking up, I felt Pahvi crouch down near us.
“The end is near for her,” he whispered. “I can tell such things.” He leaned right next to my ear. So close that I felt his hot breath on my skin. “I can save her. You know I can.”
The idea ran through me like electricity. Eva could live. I could have her back. I would be able to hear her voice once again. See her smile. Just see her do nothing more than walk into a room.
But then I realized what Pahvi was offering. He would turn her into a vampire and end her human life into order to save her from death. And when she woke to find out what had happened, to find herself one of the living dead, she would know it was me who asked for it. She would never forgive me. But right then, I didn’t care. I was ready to beg Pahvi to do it. I would trade anything I had away, including my own life.
I closed my eyes, fighting to make the right decision. Unexpectedly, the image of Ren Lucre came to me, kneeling beside the bed of his wife, my grandmother, making this same awful decision. All at once, I understood the power of it. The magnetic pull from the dark side that held out the promise to cheat even death itself.
But it was a false promise. It wasn’t really living. It was damnation. I knew Eva believed the same. I looked back down at her blood-soaked clothes. At her chest barely moving with shallow, ragged breaths. Her empty, staring eyes. I squeezed her hand tightly and whispered, “Forgive me.”
I turned to look at Pahvi, his eyes gloating. I shook my head. “No,” I said. “She would rather die.”
Pahvi scowled. “You are a fool.”
“And you cannot transform her against her will,” I said. “Or without permission from the Lord of the Vampires.”
Pahvi got to his feet, his eyes wild. He gripped Veritas with both hands. “You’re right about that. That’s why I think it’s time there was a new lord,” he snarled.
He spun around and lunged at Shakra, the point of the dagger aimed right at her chest.
At the last instant, Shakra’s arm flew up from her side and knocked Pahvi’s blow to the side. She turned her head slowly, like an automaton coming to life. Pahvi must have known there was no recovery from his betrayal. He was fully committed.
With a cry, he sprang at her, the dagger flicking the air in elaborate motions. Shakra, her movements still rigid, blocked each blow with the armor on her forearms, sparks flying with each impact.
The vampire horde around us erupted in a chorus of screams, hisses and cries. It was impossible to tell if it was anguish over seeing their Lord attacked or simply the bloodlust of seeing a fight certain to end in death. They surged forward, sensing the opportunity to feast on Eva and me while their leaders fought. I clutched Eva to my chest, ready for the end.
Shouting, Will and Daniel jumped through the air and landed on the ground between us and the approaching vampires. Xavier and T-Rex were right behind them, and soon they formed a protective wall around us. Even though they’d saved our lives by coming back for us, my heart sank. I was afraid all their bravery meant we were going to die together after all.
In front of me, Pahvi continued his ruthless attack. He kept going, relentlessly striking with Veritas. He knew only one break of Shakra’s skin would be enough to finish her.
I saw Pahvi’s other sword on the ground nearby. I hated to leave Eva, but I couldn’t let Pahvi win. If he did, he would become Lord and turn Eva into a vampire against her will. I refused to let that happen.
I grabbed the sword and, with a yell, scrambled toward the fighting vampires. Even locked in combat, Pahvi saw me coming. He hissed and turned from Shakra to engage me. One mighty swing of Veritas and my sword broke in half. But Shakra landed a viscious blow to Pahvi’s side with her fist, and he doubled over.
That was the opening I needed. I summoned all my strength, a white-hot heat streaking down my arm from the Templar ring, and struck a blow with my broken sword right at Pahvi’s elbow.
He howled in pain as his severed arm fell from his body, his hand still clutching Veritas.
There was no blood. In fact, the stump where his arm had been immediately began to regenerate, a new limb pushing out of the skin. Pahvi twisted backward, dodging Shakra’s blows.
I grabbed Veritas, but the severed hand had a locked grip. I picked up the entire forearm, dagger attached at the end, and swung with everything I had.
Veritas plunged into Pahvi’s rib cage.
I let go. It was a macabre scene with Pahvi’s own severed arm holding the dagger embedded inside him.
Pahvi staggered back, a shocked look on his face. He reached for his side but pulled back his hand like he’d touched fire. A glowing light appeared from inside his chest, showing the shadows of his skeleton. Shock turned to fear as he recognized what was happening to him. His mouth stretched out in a silent, painful scream as the first of his victim’s pain hit him. Unlike the young vampires who had felt Veritas’s blade, the suffering Pahvi would experience as centuries of victims came back to haunt him was nearly impossible to comprehend.
Suddenly, Pahvi was suspended in the air. Shakra had skewered him with a sword through his chest just as he’d done to Eva. She walked him over to the well in the center to the stage and hung him over the edge.
Without a word, she dropped him into the well, Veritas still lodged in his side. He screamed but it quickly grew distant as he fell deep into the earth. There was no impact that I could hear, just an endless drop toward his unbounded suffering. Pahvi would face the truth for decades in the darkness, and the truth was not going to be kind to him.
Shakra turned to me, and I staggered back to Eva and the others. The rest of the vampire horde had regained their sense of obedience in the face of Shakra’s power and stood behind us as we gathered in a circle around Eva. Shakra studied Eva and then looked back at me.
“Many before you have given in to the temptation to save one they loved,” Shakra said. “Perhaps yours is the braver choice to make.”
The adrenaline overload in my system now made me shake uncontrollably. I tried to steady myself, not wanting to give Shakra the satisfaction of thinking it was because I was scared of her. “It’s how she would want it,” I said.
Shakra arched an eyebrow. “And you’re positive of this? That she would choose the darkness of death over immortality? I was once sure that the only other I loved had forsaken me.”
I reached out for that sliver of logic. In my desperation, I would take anything to justify saving her. I heard Gregor’s voice, there is no greater waste of a lifetime than one filled with regret. If I didn’t save her, would this be my greatest regret? Could I really know what Eva would choose when the decision was real, truly a choice between taking her last breath or living forever? Would I have the strength to make the right choice even for myself?
But I knew I was grasping for a way out. False justifications. Especially the last. I might not be strong enough to make the right decision if I faced death myself, but Eva would. She was stronger than me. She was stronger than all of us.
“This is different,” I whispered. “I know with everything I have she would not want this.”
Shakra spoke directly into my ear. “The last human to receive the gift from me was Gregor. She would be powerful. She would be alive.”
“She would be a vampire,”
I said, shaking my head. “She would never forgive that.”
Shakra pointed to me. “You have the Jerusalem Stone.” It was a statement, not a question. I simply nodded. “The five Stones together can make a vampire human again, just as they did for your mother. Do you see the implications?”
I nodded. If Shakra saved Eva by turning her into a vampire, I could return her to her human state if our quest was successful and we recaptured all the Stones. If we failed, then she would stay one forever. I looked back to Daniel, Will, T-Rex and Xavier. None of them committed to an answer. They looked at the ground or stared blankly at me. I understood how they felt. None of us thought she would want this. But none of us wanted her to die.
“Jack,” Shakra said, her voice softer, sounding so much like my mother’s voice that it caught me off-guard. “Can you hear me?”
I realized Shakra’s mouth had not moved. The voice was in my head. I nodded.
“I want to thank you,” her voice said. Suddenly, a torrent of images and emotions poured into me. It was overwhelming, like a fire hydrant turned on full blast. I felt myself stagger back, but the world of the cavern seemed far away. All I saw was the blinding swirl of color, of light and dark. I heard a thousand voices speaking at once. Somehow, through it all, without seeing any one thing, I saw everything. Or rather, I felt everything.
Shakra had not been born separated from emotion, it was just that it lay buried so deep inside of her, it was all but inaccessible. Except for when she had Gregor in her life. That had been different. I felt that part of her ripped away when he left her and the powerful transformation as she accepted that he had forgiven her and that, in the end, he’d still loved her. I felt the pure joy of the moment and then a profound regret, so cold and sad, it hit me like a plunge into dark waters. Unable to breathe. Unable to see. So intense was the emotion that great sobs welled up in me and shook my body.
“This is what you brought me. This is what froze me in place,” Shakra said. “But better this than to feel nothing at all.” She pointed to Eva. “Better some kind of life than losing her completely.”
The rational part of my mind fought for it. Wouldn’t I rather have Eva angry with me, hate me even, than never hear her voice again? Wouldn’t it be temporary, just until we recovered the rest of the Jerusalem Stones? What right did I have to let her die?
But these were all lies, and I knew it. I shook my head, the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. The tears streamed steadily as I pulled Eva tight to me.
“There is strength in you, Jack, that I do not begin to understand,” Shakra said. “Perhaps you will be the one who can change the order of things. Perhaps you truly will collect the Jerusalem Stones and prevent the coming war—just as your mother said you would. Many in the Creach do not want a war. Bitterness and anger fills my father’s heart. Perhaps you can change that.”
“And if not?” I choked out.
“Then perhaps his time is over,” Shakra said. “Fate will determine that, and I will not stand in the way.”
I nodded and turned my attention back to Eva. Her breath was more ragged now. She was slipping away.
“And I will give you one other gift, nephew,” Shakra said, her voice rising in volume. “One for which you will someday thank me.”
With our minds linked, I had a sense of what she intended to do even before she moved. I cried out, “No!” but it was no use. Part of me filled with terror. But it would be a lie not to admit a flood of relief washed over me as well.
It was fate, and I decided not to get in its way.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I stood on the front deck of the boat as we motored slowly down the Seine River through the middle of Paris. It was night and the Eiffel Tower rose up in front of us, lit by floodlights. Tourists walked on the observation platforms, looking like little specks next to the massive structure. Will and T-Rex walked up next to me, taking in the sight.
“I’ve seen it in pictures so many times, it feels weird to see it in person,” Will said.
I nodded, welcoming any small talk to distract my attention from my brooding thoughts.
“It’s beautiful,” T-Rex said. “The way it glows like that.”
I turned and saw Daniel at the steering wheel with Xavier next to him. After Shakra escorted us back to street-level, we’d made our way to the river and borrowed the boat easily enough. We intended to put some distance between us and the vampires as quickly as possible, then leave the boat somewhere it could be returned to its owner.
None of us spoke much as we readied for our trip, each lost to our own thoughts. Dealing with our own emotions of coming so close to death. Dealing with how we felt about how it had all ended.
But we’d made it out alive. And we had the first Jerusalem Stone. Now I clung to one thing Shakra had said, that many of the Creach did not want a war with humans. Perhaps the other Creach Lords would be willing to part with their Jerusalem Stones in order to avert the coming clash. I could only hope.
Still, the revelation of my heritage on my mother’s side gnawed away at me from the inside. My mortal enemy was actually my grandfather. The blood in my veins was his as well as that of a Templar. It struck me that he must have known this when we met that first night in Sunnyvale. He’d been ready to kill me as quickly as a rat or some other pest. I knew not to expect a tender reunion when I met him next.
There were still so many questions. How had my mother been able to reunite the Stones to transform herself into a human to be with my father? How did she die? How did I fall into Ren Lucre’s hands? Gregor had apologized for his part in it, and Shakra shared the blame too. Even my mother had apologized for what she did. Yet none had been willing to give me a straight answer. I wondered if I would ever know the whole truth.
Until then, I must continue leading my friends into danger. Our quest was only one fifth of the way complete, and already I’d asked so much from them. Based on what Shakra had told me, I had a good clue where to look for the next Jerusalem Stone. Well, it was clear how we might find the Lord who guarded it, but where he kept his Stone was anyone’s guess. The Lord of the Werewolves was our next adversary, and he was sure to test us in every way possible. Even Tiberon had warned me of his fierceness and violent nature.
I had no idea how we would defeat him or rally him to our cause. But we had to keep moving forward. We would make the journey to the den of the werewolves and, I hoped, find something when we got there to help us form a plan.
I looked at the bow of our small boat. At the point most forward, keeping as much distance as possible from the rest of us, a figure in a hooded cloak stood looking out into the night sky. Even with the gentle rocking of the boat, the figure somehow appeared not to move. I stared, unsure of what to do.
As if feeling my gaze, the figure turned, the cowl of the hood casting a shadow. A breeze gusted, and the hood moved enough so moonlight illuminated the face.
Eva stared back at me. Her eyes cold and hard. Her mouth a tight, stern line. She reached up and pulled the hood back into place. For a brief second, her eyes burned like embers in the shadows. They were the eyes of a creature of the night. They were the eyes of a vampire.
She turned and looked ahead of us.
Will leaned in to me. “Is she going to be okay?” he whispered. “She hasn’t spoken since it happened.”
T-Rex was close enough to me that I felt him shudder. “Don’t talk about it,” he said, choking on the words. “Please…just don’t…”
It had been hard for all of us, seeing Shakra force the gift onto Eva despite my pleas for her to stop. But it had worked. Eva had come to, pulled back from the brink of her mortal death into a different kind of death altogether. It was terrible, that first moment of realization when she put together what had happened to her. The look she gave me was seared in my mind. So filled with betrayal and hatred that I had to look away. I also knew that if she saw my eyes she would see the truth in them. She would know I felt relieved she was alive. That
deep inside, I was glad Shakra had saved her.
Eva hadn’t spoken to anyone since that moment.
I put my arm over T-Rex’s shoulder and I felt Will do the same. “It’s going to be alright, T-Rex.”
He looked up at me, tears in his eyes. “Is it? I mean, do you really think so?”
I glanced at Eva standing at the bow, her head tilted back to look at the night sky. I thought about the challenges ahead of us and the sacrifices we would need to make in order to achieve our quest. I told T-Rex what he deserved to hear. The truth.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I hope so, but I just don’t know.”
It was an unsatisfying answer, but it was all I had to give him. These were my best friends, and they deserved the truth. They both nodded their heads, and we stood there, arms draped over one another, watching the lights of Paris pass us by.
Whatever the future held, we would face it together, hopefully without regrets, with honor, and never forgetting the friendship binding us. I hoped that, in time, Eva would once again be part of that bond. Until then, all we could do was give her the space to heal and come to terms with what had happened and why.
I knew it would take time for Eva to heal, and I was afraid that she might not ever do so completely even if we were able to restore her humanity when we recovered the Jerusalem Stones. As I watched her stare up into the empty night sky, I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
I had tried to stop Shakra, but my heart hadn’t been in it. With our minds linked, Shakra had known this is what I secretly wanted in my heart. I admit it, I was happy Eva wasn’t dead. I could live with her despising me if it meant not burying her body. I hoped she would one day forgive me, but it wasn’t the most important thing. The fact that she was alive was what mattered.
I started to push those thoughts from my mind to think about the coming challenge of the Lord of the Werewolves, but then I stopped myself. There would be time for that later. Instead, I walked to the back of the boat with Will and T-Rex and joined Daniel and Xavier. We stood together in silence as Paris slid past us, finding comfort in the simple company of friends.
