Landon collided with Meridian and then the others piled on too. Judah was in wolf form.
I fell down the wall and landed hard on the floor. I drew in painful lungfuls of air.
“Come on, we can’t hold her forever,” Viggo yelled.
“I bind you, Meridian Vine,” I said in a shaky voice, and I felt the anklet flare to life.
“No!” screamed Meridian and there was a burst of blue light.
Every one went flying off of her. Now, they were all stuck to the ceiling, writhing there, grunting. None of them could speak.
“I bind you,” I said again. “I bind you from the depths that be, my will to see, so mote it be. I bind you, Meridian Vine.”
She shrieked. Blue lightning flew from her fingertips.
“I bind you, Meridian Vine,” I screamed as it hit me. Power was flowing out of me too, and now I could see it. It was red, like strands of light, and they were being flung through the air, going for her body. “I bind you. I bind you from the depths that be, my will to see, so mote it be. I bind you, Meridian Vine.”
And the strands of power found her, wrapping around her wrists.
“How?” she said. “How do you have the power?” And then she spied the anklet on my foot. “No,” she breathed.
“I bind you,” I said again. “I bind you, Meridian Vine.”
The strands of power tightened on her wrists and traveled up her arms. They wrapped around her torso. They wrapped around her legs. They wrapped around her feet and her neck and she was cocooned within them.
And then they glowed bright red and disappeared.
And Meridian fell to the floor, coughing, and everyone else tumbled down too, except for me. I stayed upright, and I felt power rushing through me. It was good, very very good, and I began to have an inkling why Meridian might kill for this, why it might be so good that she couldn’t resist trying to get more of it. I shook. I wanted to take off the anklet right now, but I knew that I couldn’t.
I had to keep her bound for now.
“Why?” croaked Meridian. “I only wanted to help you.”
“We can’t trust you,” I said, stalking over to her, staring down at her on the ground. She was helpless, and I was powerful, and I loved being this powerful. I loved every second of it.
Judah was getting to his feet. “You don’t want to do things our way,” he said. “You want to kill all the vampires. Well, we want a different plan. You’re going to help us.”
“This is what we call forcing your hand,” said Landon. “About that cure?”
Meridian laughed helplessly. “Yes, yes, I see. Of course I do. What was I thinking? This could never work, not the way that I had planned. This is what you would have always done. No matter what I promised or how I groveled, you would always do this to me.”
“You deserve worse,” I said. “All we’ve done is take your power. We’ve left you alive.”
“You don’t understand,” said Meridian. “Without my power, I will die. It is the only thing keeping me alive.”
“What are you talking about?” said Desta.
“Who cares?” I said. “She’s probably lying. You tell us how to cure Landon.”
“And if I do, you’ll unbind me, is that it?”
“You’ll be unbound after you do the spell for the pack,” said Judah. “After you take down one city block of vampires and no more.”
“I can’t do the spell if I’m bound!” spat out Meridian.
“I suppose you can’t cure Landon bound either,” I said. I laughed bitterly. “We knew it had to be a trick.”
“It’s not a trick,” said Meridian. “I can’t cure him, anyway. I never said I could do it, only that I knew how it could be done. It was a trade of knowledge that I proposed to you, alpha.”
“And now we’re proposing another trade,” I said.
“No,” said Meridian. “You’re killing me.” She laughed softly. “Not that I suppose I can complain too much. That was my plan, after all. I just intended to do something good with what was left of myself before… oh, it doesn’t matter.”
“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” said Judah. “She can’t do the spell bound?”
“Well, it would make sense,” I said. “She’s cut off from magic.”
“Fur and teeth,” he muttered. “What am I supposed to do with that?”
“If we let her go, she’s determined to kill the vampires,” said Viggo. “We can’t.”
“If we don’t offer her something, she won’t tell us how to cure Landon,” I said.
“She can’t kill the vampires without the blood of the pack,” said Judah. “Is that right?”
“Yes,” said Meridian. “That’s right.”
“But if we give it to you, you’ll do as you wish,” said Judah. “You won’t follow the wishes of our council.”
“I’m not obligated to your council,” said Meridian. “Why do you care so much about the vampires?”
“I don’t,” said Judah. “But it’s them you have to worry about.”
Meridian looked at Viggo. “You. Viggo Heathcote. King of the vampires. You have always done despicable things in the service of protecting your own kind. You are the worst kind of scum.”
“You’ll find that insulting me doesn’t have the intended affect,” said Viggo. “I went hundreds of years with no one insulting me, no one at all. Now, I rather find it a novelty. In fact, I say we keep her alive just so that she can call me more names. Desta’s stopped, and so have you, Camber. I really only have the bloodhound, and he’s about to die if we don’t do something.”
“You’d sacrifice your entire species to hear her call you names?” said Desta. “You really have gone mad.”
Viggo laughed. “Maybe.”
Meridian’s eyes rolled up in her head. “It’s beginning,” she gasped. She cried out, and the skin on her forehead and cheeks began to wither and crack. “If you don’t do something, I’ll die in front of you right now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Meridian was sobbing, and she looked very much like an old woman. Her dark hair had streaks of gray that were running through it.
“I’ll tell you how to cure your bloodhound,” she said to me. “There is a pool. It’s on the other edge of the country, far from here, in Wessorton. You travel there, until the flowers bloom inside out, and then you seek the Guardian of the Pool. He will judge you worthy or not and then allow you to slip inside. The water of the pool heals any ill with no consequences. But only the ones that the Guardian allows through can be cured. If your bloodhound is worthy, you may keep him.”
“Unbind her,” said Judah to me in a low voice.
“No,” said Desta.
Meridian coughed. She looked older still. “The power kept me from aging. Long ago, I began to do nothing except pursue more of it. I forgot why I pursued power in the first place.”
“Why did you?” said Viggo.
“Because of you,” said Meridian.
“Me?”
“You and others like you,” said Meridian. “When I was a small girl, my entire family was killed by vampires. I hid or they would have killed me too. They drained my younger twin brothers. They were only three years old.”
“No,” said Viggo. “It’s not me you should blame for that. I ended that. I set up the blood banks. I instated the blood slaves. I stopped those kinds of attacks.”
“No,” said Meridian. “Because that is what you had promised, and we were already giving up our blood to you, and still… still it happened.”
“I’m sorry,” said Viggo. “Any vampires who did such a thing would have been burned to death. If you can remember any names, if they are still alive—”
“No,” said Meridian. “They didn’t stop to chat. They just destroyed.”
“It’s a tragedy to be sure,” said Viggo.
“I spent my whole life amassing power,” said Meridian. “I wanted a spell strong enough to destroy all vampires. But by the time I was powerful
enough to do such a spell, I no longer cared about anything except power. All I desired was more, more, more. And so I became a monster. A monster worse than those who killed my family. I became the very thing that I despised.”
“Unbind her,” said Judah. “Unbind her now.”
I looked at Desta.
She shook her head.
“When you attacked me,” said Meridian, “I was so weakened that I used up all my power, and I was once again myself.”
“By weakened, you mean when I ripped off your head?” said Desta.
“Yes, it was quite difficult to heal,” said Meridian.
Desta let out a hysterical laugh. “Let her die, Camber.”
“I thought I could fulfill what I had always wanted to do,” said Meridian. “I thought, I will gather just enough power to keep myself alive and to do the spell that I sought out. And then I’ll let go, and I’ll die, because I do not deserve to live any longer, not with the evil I have done. I thought that if I destroyed the vampires, I would have done one good thing. But perhaps you’re right. Perhaps killing them all is nothing more than continuing my evil. Perhaps it means my legacy will always be monstrous.”
I licked my lips. “I release you, Meridian Vine.”
“Wait, what are you doing?” said Desta.
“I release you from the depths that be, my will to see, so mote it be,” I breathed. “I release you, Meridian Vine.”
Meridian gasped.
I repeated the spell again.
Meridian stood up, but she did not regain her youthful appearance. She looked aged and withered and tired. She stood there on shaky legs.
“Why?” said Desta.
“It has to end somehow,” I said, looking at her. “It can’t end bloodless, Desta, and there’s no other way. The vampires are oppressors. They’ve been alive for too long. They control the entire world, and it has to stop.”
“But all that death—”
“I know,” I said. I rounded on Meridian. “You don’t kill all the vampires, but you kill enough that you’re sure you will end their reign. Whether that’s a block or ten blocks, kill enough that it’s devastating. Kill enough that they’re afraid. And then your legacy will be that you helped to make the world a better place, because we will make a world where all the species can live together.”
Desta shook her head at me. “If it were the werewolves being threatened—”
“If the werewolves forced every person in the kingdom to give them blood, if they took blood slaves and raped them and controlled them and treated them like cattle, then I would say that the werewolves deserved it.”
Desta lifted her chin. “I’m going to go to the city and warn them.”
“It won’t work, love,” said Viggo quietly. “They’ll never believe they’re actually in danger.”
She turned to him. “Why aren’t you angry?”
“I don’t know,” said Viggo. “I suppose I think that a revolution sounds rather exciting, and things have been extremely boring the last few centuries.”
“But—”
“Or maybe I think your sister is right about the world needing to be a better place,” said Viggo. “When I first became king, I was young, and I cared only about myself and my own species. I couldn’t see a bigger picture. Now, I do see it. And your sister’s right. The vampires are ensconced in their power. They won’t give it up easily. You will have to take it by force.”
“That still doesn’t mean that you give up your entire species—”
“Do you know how many vampires I have killed in my life?” said Viggo.
“Not as many as live in the city,” said Desta.
“As many as live on a city block, easily,” said Viggo.
Desta looked away.
Meridian drew herself up. “Well, I appreciate your faith in me.”
“You won’t kill all of the vampires,” I said to her.
“No,” said Meridian. She turned to Judah. “Let’s go and talk to your council.”
* * *
Landon and I went back to my cabin, where I wanted to start packing to leave right away for this pool that Meridian had told us about. He said that it was too late, and we were too tired, and we should set out in the morning. I was exhausted, especially after having used all that magic, so I agreed.
Before getting into bed, I took off the anklet. I kept it, only because I wasn’t sure if we would need the power against Meridian again. If she truly was going to die after she did the spell against the werewolves, then I would flush it down the toilet as soon as I knew she was gone. That kind of power was too dangerous to mess with, and I knew better.
Landon and I slept until early morning, just before the sun came up, when we were awakened by Desta banging on the door.
She paced in the living room, wringing her hands. “I can’t believe I ever decided I could be with Viggo.”
I stood in the doorway. Landon was still in bed. “Well, he is sort of awful.”
“That’s the thing. He’s not. Deep down, there’s something very sweet about him. Maybe you can’t see it, but he shows it to me.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, why is that you’re so upset with him?”
She rounded on me. “I’m upset with both of you. How could you do what you did? Why not let that stupid witch die? You had what you wanted from her. You can cure Landon.”
“I explained myself.”
“Yeah, a better world. I heard you. But it’s not going to be a better world, not if it’s born in that kind of violence.”
“I don’t know what else to say,” I said.
“I can’t stay here,” she said. “But I can’t be with Viggo. I can’t go to the city. Where am I supposed to go?”
“Come with Landon and me to try to cure him, I guess,” I said. “We’ll be on the other side of the country. It’ll be safe.”
She hesitated. “All right. I guess so. That could work.”
* * *
But when I told Landon about Desta coming along, he wasn’t too enthusiastic.
“Come on, Camber, this cure may not even work. There may be no pool there at all. And if so, that means it’s going to be our last few days together, because we don’t know how much time I have left. I want to spend that time with you, not with Desta.”
“I thought you said you didn’t hate her anymore.”
“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I want to go on a road trip with her.”
“But she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. She’s angry with Viggo, and I’m all she has.”
“Consider it my dying request, okay?”
My lips parted.
“Yeah, I’m pulling that card,” he said. “She’s not coming along.”
Landon and I were talking in the bedroom, so I left and went to my guest room, where I’d left Desta. By this time, the sun had come up, and she was lying on the bed in the darkened room. At first, I thought she was asleep, but then she spoke.
“I’ll find somewhere else to go,” she said.
“You heard,” I said.
“I heard.”
“I’m sorry. But if he’s that adamant about it—”
“You have to oblige him,” she said. “I get it. Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“I really am sorry,” I said again.
“Just go. Let me get some rest.”
“But we’re planning on hitting the road soon,” I said. “We don’t know how much time Landon has left. I can’t just leave you in my cabin.”
“Sure you can. I’m telling you, I’ll take care of myself.”
“You’re not thinking of doing something stupid like going back to the city and trying to warn the vampires, are you?” I said. “Because I can’t lose you, Desta.”
“She’s right,” came Landon’s voice from behind me. “She can’t lose you. If I die, she’ll only have you. So stay alive for her, all right?”
Desta sat up on the bed to look at Landon. “Listen, Landon—”
“I promise,” said Desta.
Landon nodded at her. “Okay, good.” He turned and went back to packing.
I followed him.
We didn’t have much to pack, so after we had breakfast, we were ready to leave. I went in to say goodbye to Desta, and we hugged for a long time and there were a lot of tears. I knew she was still angry with me for what I’d done with Meridian, but we were family, and even when we were angry at each other, we had that bond.
We were just walking out the front door when Viggo was there, coming through the sunlight with a grimace on his face.
“For fang’s sake, let me in out of the sun,” he growled.
We did.
“Where’s Desta?” he said.
Desta appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You most certainly are,” said Viggo. “I had a shelter built into a mountainside in the west. It’s fully stocked with everything we might need, and we’ll be safe there. That’s where we’re going. Now.”
“No,” said Desta. “I’m not.”
“Desta, I can’t abide these tantrums you keep throwing,” said Viggo. “All the drama you keep bringing into my life—”
“Tantrums?’ she said. “You did not just say I threw tantrums.”
“Look,” I said. “You guys fight it out in the cabin for as long as you need. Hopefully, we’ll all see each other when this is over.”
They barely acknowledged me. I was glad I’d already said my goodbyes to Desta.
Landon and I shouldered our bags and walked through the village, heading for the gate, where the cars were kept.
“Wait!” called a voice after us.
We turned.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
It was Judah.
He hurried to catch up to us. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Yes,” I said. “The cure. This was all about the cure for Landon.”
“Right,” said Judah. “Of course you’re leaving.” He put his palm to his forehead. “Of course you are.”
“Is that a problem?”
Canticle to the Midnight Moon Page 18
