The Map, The Dagger, and The Vampyres (Fated Chronicles Book 2)

by Humphrey Quinn

  “Why would you even attempt taking her from me?” he questioned. “You know it is a pointless endeavor.”

  Meghan refused to answer. Her heart was beating so hard she felt sure it would burst through her skin.

  “Look at me!” Colin demanded with such fury that she instantly lifted her gaze, locking in on the betrayal staring back at her. He invaded her mind, easily listening to her thoughts battling each other for dominance.

  You’re not my brother anymore.

  I can’t believe I killed her.

  Don’t give up.

  Too many have already suffered.

  You know what has to be done! Do it!

  Colin’s stare throttled toward deadly.

  The horrific pain returned and Meghan went flat to the ground, unable to move or breathe, but through it all, her grip remained tight around the bone dagger blade. She did not know how much longer she would live, but she had to finish her mission.

  In some seeming moment of weakness, Colin’s anger diminished as he appeared to have an inward struggle with the idea of killing his own sister. The pain stopped. Meghan rolled onto her back, lungs working hard to find adequate air.

  Two dark eyes beamed down, Colin a tower over her.

  Meghan’s hope was premature.

  “I believe I’ll bring Catrina back now so she can watch me avenge her death. She loved you like a sister. You owe her an apology before I kill you.”

  The struggle Meghan thought she had seen in him was not there.

  “Even you, Colin Jacoby,” Meghan started boldly, “cannot bring back the dead who have given their life to save another.” She let that statement sink in. “Catrina knowingly sacrificed her life so you could live.”

  Colin’s neck twisted his deadly glare staring down to his beloved.

  Could this be true?

  Sacrifice was not reversible?

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Then try it. Bring her back.”

  He was more powerful than any one human should ever be, but he was not all-powerful and was about to learn this lesson in a painful manner. One in which his fury would instant and unforgiving.

  Colin bent over Catrina’s lifeless body. In his mind be pictured her alive and at his side.

  No breath.

  No movement.

  “Live!” he ordered Catrina’s limp body. An order his words normally obeyed.

  This was it.

  Meghan’s one moment to end a future reign of terror and brutality.

  The one moment when Colin would be distracted from all else but Catrina.

  Meghan rolled to her stomach and bounded to her feet. With a swift unyielding action, she plunged the dagger into Colin’s back and straight through his heart.

  One fatal wound, from which he could not recover.

  The bone in the dagger like a poison to the magic that had claimed her brother’s innocence.

  A wave of shock surged through her.

  His. Not hers.

  Colin’s memories flooded her mind, ones they shared as children, and new ones she had never seen before. So many from before he’d been poisoned by the powerful magic that had taken over.

  Meghan wondered briefly, if in her moment of death, this is what it would feel like. She stored the rush of memories, the good and the bad; it was the least she could do for the brother she loved so dearly. The one she loved enough to kill, in order to save him from a future the innocent Colin would never have wanted.

  He slumped to the ground, next to Catrina and her unborn child.

  All dead.

  Colin Jacoby, her brother, dead.

  Killed by the hands of his sister and once protector.

  He was no longer present in Meghan’s mind. Their connection forever broken. She had never wanted to experience it again; his absence, and the emptiness it left behind. This time, it was for good. He would not return. She would never again hear his thoughts or be comforted by his presence.

  The magical barrier which Colin had created vanished with his final breath, and Ivan and Nona rushed to Meghan’s side.

  No cheers resounded in the field of victory.

  Only whimpers over the lives that had to be ended.

  Ivan Crane brought Meghan Jacoby close to his chest, holding onto her as if her life might end if he did not.

  “You did what had to be done.”

  Meghan could not breathe.

  She could not see.

  She had committed the ultimate betrayal.

  She may have destroyed the evil that had taken control of the world, but that evil had taken control of her brother.

  “She was pregnant, Ivan. We killed an innocent child.”

  “It is regretful,” he whispered grimly. His hands found the sides of her head and he forced her to look into his eyes. “They hid that secret well, but it changed nothing. Had we allowed that child to be born, it would have suffered the same fate. If not by our hands, by someone else.”

  Sadly, so, this was a kinder fate.

  Meghan dropped her gaze. Ivan, his hands.

  “We both knew you were the only one who could get close enough, Meghan. I am so sorry it had to be you. If I could have done it for you…” the pain etched in his voice was heartbreaking to listen to. And the ruthless reality of the lives she had taken was more than Meghan could bear. Her tears turned to sobs. Her head fell against Ivan’s chest, her mind reaching out for the brother who was no longer alive to hear her.

  Ivan wrapped his arms wrapped around her, knowing there was nothing he could say to ease her pain. After a few minutes, he helped her stand.

  The army stood behind them, unsure of what to do next.

  Meghan closed her eyes, unable to witness Colin and Catrina, lifeless, but she would never forget. Her mind’s eye saw the knife stabbing them, the sights and sounds emblazoned into her memory.

  Her head grew dizzy and her body gave out.

  Ivan swooped her into his arms before she fell, and gently kissed her forehead. She’d saved the world, but she might now be lost to it. He’d do all within his power to make sure that did not happen, and carried her away from the memories she would never forget.

  A flame flickered, casting a woman’s silhouette against a cave wall.

  “This is a future I cannot allow to happen,” she whispered to the shadows. This alarming vision of what was to come had been given for a reason. As a chance to stop it. To alter its course. To give all involved a second chance to choose differently.

  With a better outcome?

  Was there really a way to stop this future?

  The woman, a Firemancer, cast her long glance to the candle of the daughter she’d believed dead for years. It was still lit. Burning brightly. However, the vision she had just witnessed was devastating, and her heart was heavy with the weight of it.

  She leapt to her feet, dashing through the rows of lit candles, searching for one in the shape of a young man. She found it and knelt down on the cold ground in front of it.

  “I will not allow this future to take place. But if I’m to succeed in changing this future, I will need help.” As she was stuck, unable to leave the prison she’d ended up in. Too much was at stake to try to escape now.

  She lit the candle in front of her. The flame a conduit straight to the young man she believed was her one chance. She peered into the flames, whispering.

  “Hear me, child.”

  The young man in the flame lay sleeping in bed. He stirred but did not wake.

  “Hear me,” she repeated. “You must find me.”

  The young man replied in his sleep, his voice slurred. “Where must I go?”

  “When you awake, you will know where to find me.”

  “Why must I find you?” the boy asked.

  “Because I can show you, Sebastien Jendaya, how to save the ones you lost and love.”

  Sebastien did not answer. His eyes darted back and forth under closed eyelids, dreaming vividly of a vast forest leading to the entr
ance of a cave.

  CHAPTER 18

  “We have been walking non-stop for an hour,” groaned Meghan Jacoby, nearly dropping her bags from exhaustion.

  “I’m aware,” cracked her brother, Colin. “I’ve been listening to you complain about it the entire time.”

  Meghan responded with a figurative sticking out of her tongue in his mind.

  She plodded alongside Colin near the back of the caravan as they headed toward their new home, both glad to be out of Limbo after only narrowly escaping from Eidolon’s Valley and the clutches of the Goblin King… now deceased, a fact only Colin and his hidden dream girl, Catrina Flummer, we were aware of.

  Limbo held no chance of escape for Colin and he was thrilled to be out of it.

  He’d kept Catrina hidden with the invisibility spell. All the while wishing he could do the same with himself. There was no escape from the inevitable questions and stares that followed the Svoda learning that he, a magical newcomer, had killed a Scratcher. A feat never accomplished before even by the most powerful of the Svoda. Not even their Queen, Juliska Blackwell.

  Having Catrina securely behind him gave him the strength to continue; rescuing her was worth every awed and incredulous stare.

  Ivan Crane followed cautiously, a few steps behind them all. Although he could not see Catrina at Colin’s side, he knew she was there and appeared reluctant to allow too much distance between them. Meghan, as well as Colin, knew Ivan well enough at this point to know how badly he wanted Catrina to tell him everything she knew about his mother.

  “We’re almost there now,” they all heard someone announce, up ahead. Many sighs of relief echoed through the weary travelers, many of whom still nursed injuries from the battle with Eidolon. Where there was, however, was a secret. After the battle, during their time in Limbo, the Viancourt and Juliska had decided where to go next but had not shared the information with anyone.

  The caravan stepped out of the dark forest they had journeyed through and into a clearing that glistened with a cover of recently fallen rain. Looking overhead at the swirling cloudy gloom in the sky, it looked like it might rain again at any minute.

  Odd, thought Meghan. It was completely dry in the woods. She assumed the treetops were too thick to let any rain down through. Or light. It had been eerily dark in those woods, and therefore, though gloomy skied, the brightness of the clearing blinded them all.

  Everyone stopped, huddled at the entrance to the clearing. Each member regaining their visibility. And rather than continuing into the clearing and unpacking, no one moved. Hardly a breath was heard. Instead, they stared in speechless dread at an unexpected sight.

  Fire had swept through the clearing, leaving behind only remnants of the huts that should have been their new homes. Smoke smoldered on the wet ground. This was a recent attack. The previous occupants: other Svoda, who were not expected to be here.

  Sickeningly, belongings from the previous tenants lay strewn about the clearing as if someone had been searching for something. At the same time indicating that the people living in the huts had either no chance of escape, or had made such a hasty retreat they had left everything behind.

  Juliska Blackwell, Banon of the Svoda Gypsies, took a few steps forward, followed by her personal Balaton, Jelen and Jenner Wandrer. They were brutish looking men, and also brothers.

  “Everyone, stay here,” she ordered softly, in as much disbelief and concern as the rest of the group.

  “Could this be a trap?” asked Jelen, as she ventured into the clearing.

  “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “You two, check the perimeter. Once we know it’s safe, we will allow the rest to enter.”

  Her personal Balaton left her side and examined the entire clearing. There was no sign of a trap. Or life. Or anything that indicated what had occurred in the meadow, other than destruction.

  When her Balaton returned and gave the okay, she motioned for her people to follow. They did so, silently, in awe of the devastation that lay before them. Fear, expanding, with each step that brought them deeper into the clearing.

  Ivan sped up to get closer to Juliska. Meghan did the same. Colin gladly lagged behind, and sadly, glad the attention was no longer on him. The Mochrie family was right in front of Colin. Jae had been quiet and distant since leaving Eidolon’s Valley, and during the walk to the clearing.

  Everyone gasped, and froze, a woman crying out in angst.

  She left the huddle inching their way into the clearing, her body sinking downward, her knees splattering into a muddy puddle. She grasped a folded blanket that had been dropped and left behind.

  “This blanket belongs to my daughter. I made it for her unborn child before we left our island.” The woman’s statement confirmed the Svoda’s worst fear: the belongings definitely belonged to another Svoda caravan.

  “So where is everyone?” It was Billie Sadorus who asked the question they were all thinking.

  No one dared reply.

  They continued deeper into the clearing, looking for any obvious clues. The huddle breaking up into smaller groups, no one willing to stay alone. Except for Colin, but he remained close to the Mochrie’s nonetheless, at their encouragement to do so.

  Thirty minutes later after searching all the belongings and what was left of the huts, there was no additional evidence to explain what happened. Just the same ominous scene: smoldering fire, strewn belongings left in a hurry, and no sign of life.

  Juliska gathered them all together.

  “Initiated members, organize into your zones at once, we will meet within the hour. Non-Initiated members, set up temporary living quarters away from the devastation.” She paused, her face set in determination. “We will discover what has happened here. We will not leave until we do.”

  The caravan buzzed, nervously obeying their leader’s orders. They set up a cascade of tents, arranging other supplies, setting up in the only corner of the clearing not covered in smoldering fires or haphazardly discarded belongings.

  The Balaton set up a larger tent for the Initiated to meet, which stood in between the tents for living in, and the devastation in the clearing. In the center of their new tent town, a cantina began to take shape.

  Meghan rejoined Colin and helped the Mochries set up their tent. Exactly an hour later, all Initiated members headed for the large meeting tent, leaving everyone else to finish unpacking.

  The meeting was surprisingly short. Around thirty minutes. Meghan and Colin had expected it to go on for hours. When it ended, everyone gathered in the cantina.

  “The Viancourt will vote now,” Ivan informed Meghan, Colin, and Jae, upon seeing them.

  “On what?” Jae asked him.

  “We’ll all find out soon,” Ivan replied, not revealing anything discussed in the meeting.

  A few minutes later, Pantin Hollee exited the tent, ready with an announcement.

  “All zone leaders met and spoke their views, and the Viancourt has taken a vote and decided unanimously that as of this moment, the following rules will be strictly enforced.”

  The people were silent as she spoke.

  “No one is to leave this clearing without the direct permission of the Viancourt. A curfew is set for sunset, meaning you must all be in your tents by the time the sun is down, and no one shall use magic unless instructed by the Viancourt to do so. The Balaton,” she continued, “are setting up special measures, which will track any and all magic that has been, or is used, in this clearing. Anyone discovered using magic will be considered as interfering with this investigation, and will be promptly and severely punished.”

  Pantin Hollee paused. Breath heavy, and drawn out.

  “These rules are necessary if we are to discover the terrible truth about what has taken place here.”

  The group shouted their agreement. These rules seemed a small price to pay for the answers they all desperately wanted.

  “Now disperse,” exclaimed Pantin Hollee. “Tomorrow at first light, all zone leaders wi
ll attend a mandatory meeting to discuss further developments and plans. Until then, keep your eyes and ears open, and most of all, be safe.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Colby and his Catawitch, Elisha, trudged up a steep hill. There was no path to follow and he trudged through the tall, swaying grasses, up, up, and up, until at the top he came to two trees. Thickly rounded trunks were telling of the aged nature of the trees. However, they were straight and tall, and the branches struck out like tendrils, entwined around each other creating a gated-like appearance. The corner of Colby’s mouth turned up slightly. His bright blue eyes peered sideways at Elisha.

  “You know what to do.”

  His Catawitch reached out with a front paw and extended a claw, scratching Colby’s hand. He winced only slightly, allowing the blood to pool in his palm. He stood in between the two trees, allowing the blood to pour out of his palm and onto the ground.

  The instant it hit the earth a voice echoed.

  “Welcome home young Master. Your blood is true and you may enter.”

  Elisha jumped into Colby’s arms and began licking his wounded hand.

  “Terrible! Vile! Appalling!” she cattishly admonished. “Requiring a blood sacrifice every time you come home.”

  “Father has to be sure it’s really me, Elisha. You know this. It’s not appalling, it’s smart.”

  “Still, it’s cruel that I have to hurt my Master each time he comes home.”

  “But I’ve got you to heal me, don’t I?” he reminded her.

  Elisha had already healed his wounded hand, using her Catawitch magic to do so. She jumped down, parading alongside him.

  They no longer stood atop a lonely hill, but rather at the entrance of a vast estate. Colby stepped onto the cobblestone driveway, soon crossing a small wooden bridge. A stream trickled underneath, feeding the surrounding lush gardens with water.

  “Ah, welcome home Master Colby,” a voice spoke just after he crossed the bridge. Colby turned to see an older man sitting on an upside down bucket, with his gloved hands elbow deep into another steaming bucket. The foul stench quickly found Colby’s nose.