The Usurper

by Candy Crum

  “If you were coming around here for information, I assume it’s safe to say that you have Vampires trying to do just that—sniff her out,” Aeric said.

  The Rogue nodded. “Yes. If we find her before any of you do, it can change everything for us. She could be our savior. She can turn us into daywalkers.”

  Sayen’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell told you that? Even if it’s true, she would never. Khia is wrong that all Vampires need to die. Most Rogues are cold and ruthless. Your bodies no longer work properly, and as a result, you begin to lose your mind over time. You become harder to deal with and even more ravenous. Your instincts control you. The last thing we need or want is Rogues in the daylight.”

  “Sayen,” Aeric said, worry in his voice. “There are bigger problems now. Khia’s closing in, and the Rogues are aware of more than just her existence. They have a general location. We can’t stay distant any longer. We have to find her.”

  Sayen sighed. “I don’t know exactly where she is. She’s moved several times over the years, though I can still feel her proximity. She’s still close to where we left her. I just haven’t bothered to look too close out of fear Khia might be able to sense her through me. My powers have been back a very long time; the binding has worn off. There’s no way for me to block Khia entirely now.”

  Aeric nodded. “I know, but that doesn’t matter now. Khia’s getting close. You need to sense her out. If she’s still in the same part of the state, we can be there in an hour or two.”

  “I’ll talk to Khanae. She can help me. If I can locate her, Khanae can use her telepathy to warn her. She can cross through my link and talk to her directly,” Sayen said.

  The Rogue shrugged. “Not to butt in, but I’ve been told dream walking is best for finding those who can’t be found.”

  “Been talking to many Wolves, have you?” Aeric asked.

  The Rogue smiled. “Just the Forsaken ones.”

  Aeric rolled his eyes. “Shocker. No Anubian would get close to you. Why you’re taking advice from someone cursed by a god, Anubis no less, I have no idea. They can no longer use those spiritual abilities.”

  “Actually, he has a point,” Sayen said. “The Anubian Werewolves do dream-walk. It’s how they keep connected to one another over long distances. Sometimes, their telepathy can’t reach that far, so they do it when the subconscious is most vulnerable. Maybe he’s right. I’ll talk to Khanae.”

  “You’re welcome,” the Rogue said with a snide tone to his voice.

  “Someone’s feeling a bit more confident,” Aeric said.

  “That’s because his friends have arrived,” Sayen said, her eyes turning to the stairs.

  Aeric heard the click of the basement door just as a loud crash sounded upstairs. He could sense several Vampires closing in on Khanae, who was on the upper floor. He smiled as he smelled the blood.

  Did they really think they could take her?

  Sayen stepped around the Rogue as two Vampires reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “Hello, boys,” she said. “So nice of you to join us.”

  They only had time to flinch before her hand extended, a spiritual barrier exploding forth. The moment they touched it, they began to scream as their bodies quickly turned to ash.

  She turned to the Rogue that was still tied up, all amusement now drained from his expression.

  Sayen walked over and leaned forward, laying her hand on the side of his face. Aeric knew right then that she had no plans for him to die quickly.

  “You’ve been calling your friends, eh?” she asked. “Impressive. I didn’t realize you had telepathy. Most Rogues don’t, which means there must be daywalkers working with you.”

  He was quick to nod, obviously not wanting to bring on her wrath.

  “Good to know,” Sayen said.

  A light blue glow surrounded her hand, growing brighter as the Rogue began to scream. Aeric watched as his skin burned, the ashes flitting away into the air as her power consumed his entire body. Soon, there was nothing left but a charred pile on the chair and floor.

  “We made a promise, you know,” Aeric said, a smirk on his face.

  “Yeah. But you didn’t see what I did when his friends showed. If he’d lived, he would have left here and finished off that family off down the road—that innocent man and child. He’s just like the others. And after that, he planned to find Kailah. We can’t let that happen. I’m going to find her tonight,” she said.

  “Well, Khanae is finished with her guests upstairs, so I’m sure she would be happy to help,” Aeric replied.

  “Does your friend still live in Indianapolis?” Sayen asked.

  Aeric nodded.

  “Good. Call her. I have a feeling we’re going to need her. Unlike us, she can get close enough to sniff our girl out without being noticed by Khia. If we go, Khia will know we’ve found her,” Sayen said.

  Aeric nodded, knowing that after almost a quarter of a century of waiting, the final war was about to begin.

  ***

  Five Days Later

  Kailah sat bolt upright in bed, chest heaving with every breath as she forced herself to calm down. Every night for days she’d had the same dream. With each passing night, she was able to move farther into it and discovered something new, though everything else stayed the same.

  That night, she had traveled through a pasture to see two women locked in battle. One was short, no more than five feet tall with obsidian hair down to her hips and dark olive skin. The other had long, white hair and icy eyes. Kailah could feel the coldness rolling off the white-haired woman, and it terrified her.

  After taking a deep breath, she then blew it out as she reached for the lamp. A quick glance at her phone showed that she was up fifteen minutes before her alarm to get ready for work was due to go off and decided to get up early.

  She set her phone down and rubbed her eyes. As she opened them again, she received quite the jolt. Standing at the foot of her bed was a man she had seen several times throughout her lifetime, but never as clearly as right then.

  Her grandfather had once told her about her Native American ancestry when she spoke to him about seeing spirits from time to time. That day, she had learned that her great-great-grandfather, Taima, was a full-blooded Native American, and she more than likely inherited her ability to sense spirits from him.

  Unafraid, Kailah smiled at the man. He was tall with long, silver braids. One hung over each shoulder. She had never seen what her great-great-grandfather had looked like, but she had a feeling that might have been him. His features were obviously Native, and he looked too much like her side of the family to be a coincidence.

  He opened his mouth several times as he tried to say something, but she couldn’t hear anything. Every time he tried to speak, he faded out. It seemed that he only had enough energy to make himself visible.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t hear you.”

  He tried to speak again, and she desperately wanted him to. She had seen the dead enough in her lifetime that it had allowed her to get used to it. It had been scary at first, but that changed over time, especially after what her grandfather had told her about her lineage. Even so, no matter how many times she had seen them, she had never been able to communicate.

  “Are you too weak to speak to me?” she asked.

  The man nodded his head, his mouth opening again before closing. The expression on his face appeared stressed, concerned.

  “What is it?” she asked, mentally kicking herself when she realized he couldn’t answer. “Right. Yes or no questions.” She thought for a moment. “Are you worried? Because you sure seem like it.”

  He nodded his head, and she smiled. “Are we related?”

  He smiled in return, nodding yet again.

  “Ha! I knew it. I’m assuming you’re my grandfather,” she said, receiving yet another nod. “Are you worried about me?”

  Another nod told her yes, the anxiety once again crossing his face.

  �
��You don’t have to worry about me. I’m okay,” she said. “I’m in nursing school, working full time, and I own my own home. I’m doing very well—especially for a twenty-four-year-old.”

  He shook his head. A slight chill ran through her as she felt a light breeze blow through. It was enough to lift her hair and move the curtains.

  He can do that but can’t speak? she thought.

  She was about to ask another question when he disappeared entirely, reappearing next to her side. She jumped as his dark brown eyes stared into hers.

  His hand reached out, and as it did, he immediately began to fade. At first, she felt excited, curious. But the moment his fingers brushed her face, the excitement of actually making contact with a spirit quickly turned into a deep chill that settled in all the way to the bone.

  A flash of the white-haired woman she had seen in her dream went through her mind as he touched her, that coldness once again settling over her—only this time, it was far worse.

  It felt like death itself. As soon as that image appeared, he was gone. She couldn’t sense him near her any longer, and she wondered if that was all there was.

  Had he shown her that woman, or had she remembered her from her dream? If he had—how did he know about her? As far as she knew, spirits couldn’t read thoughts and certainly couldn’t see dreams.

  Kailah pushed herself out of bed and went to her closet to grab a pair of scrubs, deciding not to let the eeriness of her dream and visitor bother her. She would need to be able to pay close attention to her patients.

  That didn’t stop her curiosity, though. Kailah decided that she would try to find a way to speak to him next time. She had a feeling his recent visit was for much more than to only say ‘hello’.

  Chapter Two

  Sydney made her way through the halls of Seymour General, new hire papers in hand. It was her first real day on the job, and she had just been released to begin work after a visit with the ladies in the HR office and a very expedited hiring process. Compulsion had been used in the process. Even though it was necessary, she still lamented needing to do so.

  She was to replace a physician in the Emergency Room that had retired, but it would only be a temporary position. Soon, she would need to get back to her life in Indianapolis. She loved the rush of emergency medicine and was damn good at it. The heightened senses certainly didn’t hurt.

  Reaching out and placing her fingers on the wall-mounted button that would engage the doors to the ER, she took a deep breath as she pushed it before stepping through. It was a risky move for the queen to send her to work there, but she couldn’t say no.

  The opportunity to lay eyes on the Elysian was impossible to pass up.

  It was also a job she took very seriously.

  The queen had been concerned that the binding placed on the fated child years ago had weakened. In any other Immortal, that spell would be difficult—if not impossible—to weaken in such a short amount of time. Even in Sayen, the spell had lasted almost a full century.

  It would have lasted longer had she not tethered it to the life force of a human.

  But in the fated, if she truly was such, her power would become too much for the spell to contain. Sydney had been sent to test its strength, to see if the queen was overly cautious or if there really was cause for worry.

  One of two things would happen. If the ritual still held, Sydney would pass under Kailah’s radar as if nothing were amiss. Sydney would be just another new person on board at the hospital. That would allow her to keep an eye on the girl for safety and pinpoint the moment when the spell began to fail.

  That, of course, would require a longer stay for Sydney, and her life in Indianapolis would be on pause for much longer.

  However, if Kailah truly was the Elysian—a name given by the Vampires centuries ago to the child that Immortals foretold would one day come—and the spell had begun to weaken as a result of her power growing… Well, there would be quite a different reaction in the young woman.

  As Sydney made her way through the ER and found the large nursing station in the center, surrounded by glass walls, she spotted a young woman that matched the description: long dark brown-black hair, eyes of nearly the same color, sun-kissed, Native American skin, and answers to the name Kailah—which she could plainly see on the girl’s badge from where she stood.

  But Sydney didn’t need all that.

  She could smell the girl across the room, over the offensive scents in a hospital, including those that human noses couldn’t track. Immortal blood smelled incredible to a Vampire, but it wasn’t wise to risk tasting it given they could turn a Vampire to ash with a single touch.

  Sydney wouldn’t risk it at all. Being a daywalker, she enjoyed the freedoms that came with exercising restraint and being a good person. Giving into the dark side was fun, occasionally, but giving in too often could have very negative consequences.

  Though Kailah’s back was now turned to her, as Sydney stepped into the nurse’s station, she saw the girl tense up, her right hand lifting to massage her head.

  That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, Sydney thought.

  “Hey! Sydney! I was just telling Kailah about you,” Sam, the male charge nurse she had met upon her initial arrival that morning, said as she sat her things down.

  “Good morning, Sam,” she replied. “All good things, I hope.”

  Kailah turned, forcing a smile. Sydney could see she was in a lot of pain but wasn’t sure if that was because of her presence or just a regular, run-of-the-mill, human headache.

  “Hey,” Kailah said with a gentle wave of her hand. “I’m Kailah. I apologize if I’m not very animated. My head is splitting suddenly.”

  Sydney smiled, waving her off. “No worries at all! I’m happy to meet you.”

  A spike of guilt struck Sydney as she took a few steps closer. She needed to touch her. It was the only way to really test the spell, though that was scary as hell for Sydney. She just hoped the headache was natural, or this was about to get much worse for the girl, and she didn’t want to hurt her.

  She stepped forward again and extended her hand, swallowing hard as Kailah reached out. “I’m Sydney.”

  Once again, the girl forced a smile as she placed her hand in Sydney’s. The moment their skin touched, Sydney felt a jolt of power pass through her. It burned mercilessly, and it took all she could to stop herself from violently yanking back.

  Kailah jumped at the shock between them, her eyes wide although she didn’t pull away. The girl’s breathing almost instantly increased, and Sydney smelled the spike of adrenaline.

  Shit. She’s going to be sick, Sydney thought.

  But that turned out to be the least of her worries. Kailah’s grip tightened as her eyes tightly closed. Sydney could see her wobbling for a moment as if she might pass out. Then further proof of the inevitable came.

  The vibrations were small, constant. She doubted anyone else would have noticed them much, but that was dashed when anything not bolted down in the ER began to shake and make a lot of noise.

  She’s doing this, Sydney thought. It’s really happening.

  “Is that an earthquake?” Sam asked from behind her.

  “Indiana is prone to have them from time to time!” another nurse said, obvious fear in her voice. “What do we do?”

  “Stay calm and check on patients,” Sydney said, eyes focused on Kailah. “It’ll pass in a moment.” She helped Kailah sit and knelt in front of her, still holding on to the young Immortal’s hand. “Hey, are you okay?”

  Kailah opened her eyes, fear in them. Listening in, Sydney could hear the girl’s heart racing. She was having an anxiety attack alongside the pain. Judging by the thin sheen of sweat on her forehead, she was also experiencing the typical nausea.

  “Excuse me!” Kailah said before running out of the station and to the bathroom.

  Sighing, Sydney pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Khanae. <>

  The room had
stopped trembling, but not before a few things fell off the desk and to the floor.

  “Thank God!” the fearful nurse said.

  “Would you mind going to check on the patients?” Sydney asked when nursing assistants walked into the station. “I’ve not had a chance to check charts.”

  They nodded, only one of them speaking. “No problem, Doctor. There’s a new patient in three. A little boy. Kailah already took his history and did an assessment, but no one has been in to see him yet.”

  Sydney nodded. “Thank you. I’ll go check on him.” She turned to Sam. “Kailah isn’t feeling well. Let her know if she wants to rest she’s more than welcome to.”

  Sam started to protest, but Sydney made her way over, keeping enough distance that wouldn’t alarm anyone watching cameras, but close enough she had optimal control.

  Her eyes focused on his, power emanating through every pore. “I said… Allow her to rest. She feels terrible, and she needs our help to get better. You wouldn’t want to make her feel worse, would you?”

  He shook his head, lost in her charm. “No, ma’am.”

  Her shoulder-length lobbed hair and heart-shaped face was naturally beautiful and could stop a man in his tracks, but the added push she gained from compulsion made everything even easier.

  “I’m so glad to hear that,” Sydney said. She turned and grabbed a chart marked with a large ‘3’ from where it was sitting on a desk next to the exit, then made her way out of the nurse’s station.

  ***

  Kailah jumped when someone sat on the desk next to her. As she lifted her head from her arms, she realized she had fallen asleep, though she had no idea how.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Sydney said, setting a chart in her lap.

  “Oh, damn. I fell asleep. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened,” Kailah responded.

  “Eh,” Sydney said. “Don’t worry about it. I told everyone to leave you be. I could tell that you didn’t feel well. Speaking of, how are you feeling now?”