A Shade of Vampire 84: A Memory of Time

by Forrest, Bella

  “It was with a heavy heart that the Lord Supreme, of the Crimson dynasty, forced our retirement,” Mira added. “We were surrounded by too many gold and silver guards. Back then, the Crimson guards were practically an army on their own. We were outnumbered, and despite our standing and experience, we were taken to the islands. It was there that we realized our retirement had also been expertly orchestrated by the Darklings. They’d infiltrated the government at the highest levels. Our only link to the outside world was through Darklings. No one knew what they had done to us. The death magic barriers, the suicide-prevention charms… they kept us well fed, sure. They delivered construction materials and other things when we needed them, but we were prisoners there.”

  Kemi let out a deep breath, one he seemed to have been holding for a long time. “Mira and I lost our daughter and freedom in the span of a single week, along with our last chance to help the Unending before the Darklings got to her. We outlived our children…”

  “Didn’t you try to get Eliana to remember her past lives?” Tristan asked.

  “The Darklings were circling too closely,” Mira replied. “I worked with her on a couple of occasions, looking to coax her memory a bit, but she struggled too much with the guilt of having caused the Black Fever. The circumstances were different compared to what they are now. You found Valaine relatively early compared to us, and that gave you an edge. Eliana’s mental state was much too fragile, and Endymion was annoyingly persuasive.”

  “I know how horrible it is to lose a child,” I said to Mira and Kemi. “And I know it’s not the kind of pain that you ever bounce back from. I was fortunate to see our son come back to us, twice—I’m sorry you never got that opportunity.”

  “Valaine here is the closest we’ll ever get to Eliana again,” Mira murmured, looking at Lady Crimson with a warm half-smile. “I’ll take whatever fate tosses my way.”

  Time cleared his throat. “Considering all the craziness that has happened to this point—and even though I have a way of containing Valaine’s darkness—I think we should isolate her from the rest of the group. It’s safer for everyone, including Valaine.”

  “The north tower,” Tristan suggested.

  “Where Eliana died,” Valaine murmured. “Yes. It might help jog my memory.”

  “We’ll take Kalon up there for the same reason,” Time said to Esme. “If I put him in one of Soul’s interdimensional pockets, he’ll be safe from Unending’s darkness.”

  “Yes, there are multiple rooms in the tower,” Mira replied. “It’s a good idea.”

  Esme didn’t have much to say about any of this. Ashen with worry and barely able to formulate a full sentence, she just nodded her faint agreement. We were close to either breaking through and releasing the Unending or losing everything and everyone in a flurry of unknown death magic.

  There was no way of knowing what advanced tricks the Darklings had learned from the Spirit Bender. There was only the hope that Valaine would reach the Unending within her before the Darklings would find us in this ruined city. Meanwhile, my husband was still in the lion’s den, and my nerves stretched beyond their limits as I wondered if I would get him back.

  I could walk in the daylight now, and I couldn’t even enjoy this momentous breakthrough. There was no celebration. No music or dancing. No laughter or relief. Only the fear that everything could come crashing down around us at any moment.

  Esme

  Kailani came with me to the north tower. We needed her magic to rebuild the top of the structure. Using nearby chunks of stone in a breathtaking display of telekinesis and a shapeshifting spell, Kailani took the rubble and raised it to the top, laying it brick by brick until the tower glistened beneath the hazy sky.

  “Thanks, Kale,” I said after she finished working her magic.

  “Don’t mention it.” She gently squeezed my shoulder. “Hold tight, Esme. We’re not done fighting yet.”

  I must’ve looked like hell for her to feel the need to say such things. Tearing up, I gave her a faint smile. “I know. It’s just that I’ve had Kalon by my side until now. It feels empty without him. I’m not sure that makes much sense…”

  “Of course it does,” Kailani said. “I’d feel the same if someone or something took Hunter from me. You fell in love, Esme, at the worst possible time. For what it’s worth, you’re not the first or the last,” she added with a chuckle. “The most powerful and most enduring kind of love flourishes in the face of adversity, so all you can do is keep pushing until you reach the end. We’re all headed in the same direction.”

  “Soppy love tales aside, we need to get moving,” Time interjected. I’d almost forgotten the First Tenners, Tristan, and Valaine had come along. “I’ve got an idea.”

  He led the way into the tower and up the spiraling staircase. Dream, Nightmare, Phantom, Morning, and Soul followed. I was next, along with Tristan and Valaine. Kailani took Widow back with her to help with the protection wards around the city. Kelara and Seeley had already set up a broad range of defensive circles, but more was needed to make sure Roano lasted longer than Orvis had in case of a Darkling attack.

  “What was your idea?” I asked as we reached the top.

  Time stopped in the middle of the room, briefly gazing out the window. “Soul and I can put together a chamber of sorts,” he said. “A time spell inside an interdimensional pocket.”

  “Ugh, like the one I put inside Zetos,” Soul muttered.

  “Exactly. Tristan, Valaine, Morning, and Phantom can stay in it. Time will slow down inside it, making days pass while hours unravel out here,” Time replied. “They’ll be safe, and I will be around in case they need me.” He paused and looked my way. “I can do the same for Kalon. Slowing time in his interdimensional pocket will tamper with the curse’s progression. The Black Fever will take longer to… you know, kill him. He’ll have hours in there, and you’ll have days out here. By my calculation, this double shift will increase your chances of awakening Unending before the Black Fever offs Kalon.”

  My stomach felt heavy, bile rising and burning my throat. As much as I hated being away from Kalon, it was his best chance at survival.

  “How far do your time manipulation powers extend?” Tristan asked as Valaine settled by one of the windows, looking out at the ruined city below. Glimmers of familiarity persisted in her black eyes. I could tell she was remembering moments from her last trance.

  “After she gave Unending the power of immortality, Death became more reserved with the abilities she bestowed upon us,” Time replied. “I cannot change the past, but I can look into it. I can go as far as it takes, provided I have precise parameters to follow. It’s not an easy process. Sometimes it takes days to find a single moment, for example. I can peek into the near future, as well. I’m talking half a day, tops… but that’s a trickier ability. Circumstances change. Once certain decisions are made, the future changes. If I look into the future now, it’ll show me one thing. If I look into the future five minutes from now, it’ll show me another. It’s a volatile process, at best.”

  “Isn’t that similar to what Seeley did? During the Thieron trials, he admitted to analyzing the possibilities of survival for each of the GASP agents involved. It’s how he decided to give Acantha the nudge to put herself forward as the Eirexis sacrifice,” I said.

  “What Seeley has is more of an instinct, rather than an ability. He’s able to analyze and determine odds based on the known facts,” Time explained. “My power is closely tied to the flow of time and the events that may or may not unfold.”

  “And you can stop time,” I said. “That’s your main characteristic, right?”

  He nodded. “Within certain limitations. I can slow it down. I can speed it up. I can stop it altogether. The longer I grasp the timeline, the longer I manipulate it, the harder it gets. Eventually, exhaustion sets in, and my soul wears out… I’m less functional afterward, so I’ve learned to work with a handful of minutes in everything I do. That being said, I’ve develop
ed some spells that can target one or a few people at once, lasting beyond my natural abilities, which is what I’ll be using in Soul’s interdimensional pockets.”

  “Right, so slowing time down for Kalon, speeding time up for Tristan and Valaine, those are such spells,” I said, drawing my conclusion and hoping I’d gotten it right.

  “Yes.”

  “My brother and I will split our duties between the protection of Soul’s pockets and the protection of the city,” Dream said, hooking an arm around Nightmare’s. “Provided, of course, you don’t have any more stupidly suicidal missions like Dieffen in mind. Because I’ll want to be there to watch your asses get kicked again.”

  Her snicker got on my nerves, but she was right. We needed to bring a new game to the table where the Darklings were concerned. While Valaine and Tristan worked on finding the Unending, the rest of us would have to find another approach to our enemy. The Darklings were determined and armed with unknown levels of death magic, which they would gladly use against us the first chance they got.

  I didn’t even realize there were tears in my eyes until Time revealed Kalon, who was still sleeping soundly over his shoulder. “I’m going to slow time down for him,” Time said, putting Kalon down for a moment. He whispered a string of words into the blade of his scythe, which he then pressed against Kalon’s temple.

  Soul picked Kalon up and carried him downstairs. I heard a door open and close, then Soul came back up with a flat smile. “It’s done. He’s tucked away. All good.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” I murmured.

  “It’s not. You will all have to watch my back going forward,” Soul warned me. “If I get severely injured or knocked out by death magic or another scythe, my hold on these interdimensional pockets will weaken. I might even lose them altogether, and chances are I won’t be able to find them again.”

  “Wait, what?” I croaked, suddenly alarmed.

  Soul shot me a cold grin. “The void between dimensions is fluid. The pockets I open are like bubbles in water. They keep moving, but I’m connected to them while conscious. If I lose the connection, they slip away. And the void is endless.”

  “You’re putting a lot of responsibility on our shoulders,” Tristan muttered.

  “It is what it is. As unstable as they might be in my absence, they’re still the safest place to be for the likes of Kalon,” Soul insisted. “Which is why protection from the outside is paramount, because that’s still a risk.”

  “Ugh… how’s that a risk?” I asked, groaning with frustration. “Can a Darkling get into the pockets?” It seemed to amuse Soul, yet it irked me beyond any tolerance limit I had left.

  “A skilled one? Sure,” Soul replied with a cold grin. He had a weird way of coping with trouble, I realized. He didn’t take it in stride, but rather laughed in its face. “Since we don’t know what type of spells the Darklings learned from Spirit, I can’t exclude that possibility. Knowing my deceased brother well, I imagine he’d have cooked up formulas to mess with all of us First Tenners, not just Unending. A fact further evidenced by Time, Morning, and Night’s capture.”

  The Night Bringer scoffed. “Thanks for the reminder.”

  At least Kalon was safe for now, and I’d do my best to make sure no one got to him. Looking at Tristan, I noticed the concern embedded in his expression as he stole glances at Valaine. “How are you two holding up?” I asked.

  “Eager to get moving with the whole remembrance thing,” Valaine said. “I’m done watching the people closest to me suffer and die.”

  Soul clapped his hands once. “Well, then—let’s go.”

  “Where, exactly?” Tristan replied.

  “Into an interdimensional pocket,” Soul shot back. “Wasn’t that part clear already?”

  “Yes, I got that. But where is it? I don’t see it,” Tristan said.

  The Soul Crusher smirked, wiggling his scythe as he drew an invisible line in the space between them. A faint shimmer persisted in its wake, like a suspended thread of silvery snowflakes trembling in the wind. “After you,” Soul said, motioning for Valaine to go through it first.

  Tristan followed, as did Phantom and Morning. They’d stuck with Valaine until now, and they seemed determined to see this through to the end. Time offered me his arm.

  “Would you like to see it?” he asked, and I nodded slowly.

  We entered the pocket, where darkness prevailed. Soul was still working on the contents, I realized, as a room began to form around us. The wooden floors. The plaster walls, the flowery tapestry. Flickering sconces and old cherry wood furniture. It looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

  “I’ve been here before,” Tristan muttered, turning around in confusion, trying to make sense of what he saw. “I’ve seen this somewhere…”

  “It’s your old Shade house, the one that your grandparents, Anna and Kyle, built,” Soul replied, glowing with satisfaction.

  “How would you possibly know this stuff?” I asked, utterly befuddled.

  Phantom sighed. Clearly, this wasn’t the first trick he’d pulled. “Don’t go there, Esme. My brother has some exceptionally creepy methods. Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to know the details of how he got into your heads and latched on to one of your dearest memories. It’s what Soul does.”

  “You’d use this as psychological torture if you had the chance, huh?” Tristan asked Soul, who offered an excited nod in return. “You’re crazy.”

  “Nope. Merely a psychopath. There’s an important distinction,” Soul replied. “That being said, your haven is ready.”

  Time etched various runes into the walls, each of them briefly lighting up once they were completed. When he was done, he turned around to face me. “Time flows differently here now, so let us return. Mere fractions of a second will have passed in the tower.”

  I hugged my brother tightly. “You be careful in here, okay?”

  “And you be careful out there,” Tristan said. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Shifting my focus to Valaine, I gave her a hug, too. “Don’t give up,” I whispered in her ear. “Keep digging until you find the Unending. Tristan has seen her once. I know you’ll get her out, eventually.”

  “Thank you, Esme.” Valaine gave me a weak smile. “And I’m sorry. I never—”

  I cut her off. “Shush. Tristan’s right. Not your fault.”

  Time took my hand in his, and we both stepped back at once. Everything warped around us, and I found myself standing in the room at the top of the northern tower. Soul appeared beside me and gave me a playful nudge.

  “Don’t be a downer,” he said. “You’ve got more allies these days, vampire. Your odds are better than they were a week ago, for sure.”

  “I’ll stop being a downer when Kalon is awake and healthy again.”

  “That, I’m afraid, depends solely on Unending,” Time said quietly, and I hated him for being right. We’d done everything we could. The rest of the journey to find the Unending belonged to Tristan and Valaine.

  Kalon’s life was in their hands, and I knew they would stop at nothing to get him back. I had no idea where this would all lead, but I’d formed a vision of the future, and it involved Kalon and me exploring countless corners of this vast universe. It held adventures and precious moments of love and peace. It offered smiles and light and everything that was sweet and wonderful about this life.

  I didn’t envision some kind of heaven with Kalon. There were monsters ahead, too—and dangers and terrible risks. Evil wouldn’t leave this world. Someone would always find ways to hurt the innocents. But all these concerns were ephemeral because I wouldn’t face them alone. We’d face them together. Provided, of course, that what we’d set in motion here on Visio panned out before the Darklings got to us again.

  Esme

  I left the north tower with a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. All our hopes hinged on Valaine’s ability to dig deep into her memories and past lives until she found the Unen
ding. Kalon was in a deep sleep, stuck in a different time and tucked away between dimensions. We’d found refuge in Roano, but this place wasn’t entirely safe. We’d lost the Darklings for the time being, but I couldn’t be sure how long it would take for them to find us again. Their level of determination was terrifying, even to someone like me. The worst part was that Death was unable to help us because she’d given the Spirit Bender way too much knowledge of death magic long ago.

  The pessimist in me insisted we were screwed six ways from Sunday. The optimist looked to brighter days again, putting perhaps a little too much faith in Valaine’s ability to overcome her current obstacles. The realist was stuck somewhere in the middle—unwilling to surrender but terrified by the thought of losing Kalon.

  Ansel waited outside a structure that looked like it had once been a house, though only the foundation and a short portion of a wall remained. Tudyk and Moore had used sticks and some cloths from the Orvisians to put together a makeshift shelter. Both were hard at work trying to figure out a way to make the thing hold, since every gust of wind knocked the sticks down.

  “What are you up to?” I asked, noticing Ansel’s deep frown. “I think your brothers need your help.”

  “Nah, we’re okay,” Tudyk replied.

  Moore smiled, picking the sticks up and checking their lengths again. “Ansel was never the builder in our family.”

  “I’m better off sitting here, doing nothing,” Ansel grumbled.

  “Where’s Kalon?” Tudyk asked. “Is he with the Reapers?”

  I sighed, stopping in front of Ansel. “Yes. They put him under a time spell. It’s supposed to slow the Black Fever down. While days go by out here, hours go by in there where he’s sleeping.”

  “What are his odds of survival?” Ansel asked. “Be honest, Esme.”