Authors: Megan Duncan
“And you said Ana jumped in before you did?”
I nodded.
“Then where the hell is she?” Arrick asked in frustration.
“My guess.” Dmitry announced and we all looked to him. “Those portals take you where you want to go. Claire wanted to be here. Obviously.” He looked to Arrick. “And Ana wanted to be somewhere else. Most likely some hideout of theirs or something.”
“So, you think that portal felt where I wanted to be and took me there?”
“If you can control them, then yeah, that’s what I think.”
I recalled the thoughts I had while I traveled in that endless dark void. I had wanted to be with Arrick. It had brought me to him. I met his gaze and his expression revealed he knew what I was feeling. I wanted to be with him and that made him incredibly happy.
“So there are more of them than we can count and they can use portals to travel anywhere they want?” Robin sounded exasperated, breaking the warm gaze that connected Arrick and I.
“I don’t know, Robin.” My tone grew sharp even though I hadn’t meant it to. “All I know is that we shouldn’t stay here. If there is no one left here,” I winched at my words even though I spoke the truth, “Then are only option is to go back to Naos. My parents are there, they’ll know what to do.”
“Who is going to defend the city if we leave?” Dmitry questioned.
“Well, we need to find out if the High Council is still in-tact. That’s a good place to start,” I offered.
Dmitry nodded. “If they were just after you then there may be a good chance that the other cities in the region were untouched. Those vampire lords will need to be contacted. There has to be some sort of protocol for situations like this.”
I watched Dmitry walk about the room strategizing as he talked to himself. We had to get some kind of plan together. We couldn’t just flounder around helplessly.
“Who is directing the search party?” I asked Robin.
“Some of Fox’s guards survived the attack as well as some servants. They are all scouring the palace and the entire grounds,” she replied mechanically.
“Okay, that’s good. We need to know the areas they have covered and widen our search if needed. And maybe even recheck some areas just to be thorough.”
I grabbed onto her shoulder with she didn’t reply. “Okay?”
She nodded.
I held back a sigh. “Can you do this for me, Robin?” I thought giving her something to keep her busy would help her grief.
“Yes.” Her smile broke through the sadness on her face and she rose to join in on Dmitry’s strategizing.
I rose to speak with Arrick in private and caught him as he stared out into the darkness of the night from my balcony. This is where I had first seen him. On a beautifully starry night, much like this one, but also so very different.
“Was the city attacked?” I held my breath, waiting for him to answer.
“No.”
I sighed in relief and smiled. “Then we can get Liz and my mom, well my human mom I mean and bring them to Naos with us.” I turned to leave and tell Robin and Dmitry my plan when I felt a lingering dread within Arrick, “Hey, are you okay?”
“They didn’t attack the city.”
“Yeah, that’s a good thing.”
He shook his head. “Not entirely.”
“What do you mean?”
“Claire…,” Arrick looked at me as if he were going to yell, but the anger in his expression didn’t reach his voice. “You’ve encountered these monsters. You’ve seen Baal. Do you really think they would leave thousands upon thousands of humans alive?”
After he had put it like that I had started to doubt my answer. “Well, what reason would they have then?”
“Food,” Dmitry said with disgust from behind me, making me jump. “They kept them alive for food. They are going to wipe every vampire from the planet that opposes them and then they are going to hunt down humans as they did in the Dark Ages.”
“Wolves after lambs,” Arrick sighed into the night and Dmitry nodded. “They enjoy the hunt, the torture and the kill. With us gone and the power of all the regions they can do as they please and live as the Gods they think they are.”
“They were supposed to have all died out in the Dark Ages,” Robin added, joining us on the balcony. “I know the story of the Dark Ages. Nicolae fought against them. When the last of their kind died, he brought peace to the world and divided the land into regions and gifting them to the vampire warlords who fought beside him.”
I remembered how Robin had told me some of the story of the Dark Ages the night I met Arrick and was bonded to him as my Blood Mate. That night, she sounded so proud of Nicolae and the vampires of our history and how they fought against the savage animals that shared our bloodline. Now, it felt more like they were a completely different creature. It was scary to think we shared anything with them, but they were once like us. The glory of battle, the taste of blood and the deliciousness of victory proved to be too sweet for them. It had darkened their souls and mutated them into something else.
Could that happen to me? I had started to enjoy killing The Dark vampires. I had started to embrace the vicious nature that sweltered inside me. Did this mean that I could change into one of them? Is that why I could control the stones?
“They obviously didn’t kill them all,” Dmitry said coolly.
“I just don’t get it,” Robin huffed and slapped her hands onto the stone railing of the balcony. “How could she do it?” Her voice shrieked in frustration.
“How could who, do what?” Dmitry asked.
“Nyx! How could she allow things like them to even exist? How could she let them kill our families, my parents?” I rushed to console her, but she pushed me away, “No! I know they are gone. I can feel it. I feel empty.” She sobbed fitfully. “How could she make them so powerful and give us nothing to defend ourselves?”
“They are not creatures of Nyx, Robin. You should know that.” Dmitry laid a hand on her shoulder. Whereas she pushed me away, she allowed this. There was something newly affectionate about his touch. Then he saw me staring and his hand retreated. Surprisingly, I wasn’t jealous at all.
“Do you really believe Nyx had a hand in making them? They created themselves. Products of their own monstrous nature.”
“He’s right,” Arrick chimed in. “They follow another belief. Another God.”
“Baal,” Robin said blankly. “How can we go against a God? Even if we do go back to Naos and join with Claire’s parents, what good will that do? What chance does any vampire have against a God?”
I felt a little hurt by Robin’s words, but I knew she had reached her breaking point. “There’s always a chance. I survived, didn’t I? And how do we even know Baal is really a God?”
“Yes,” Dmitry said quizzically. I could almost see the wheels spinning in his head. “She has a point.”
“What proof do we have that he is? Other than that he says he is.”
“There is only one way to find out,” Arrick chimed in, feeling the hope that our idea was breeding.
“How?” Robin asked.
“Kill him,” Arrick and Dmitry said in unison.
“Okay, well how are we going to do that?”
“Something tells me Nyx didn’t leave us defenseless.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“She did give us you, didn’t she?” Dmitry said. “You are Nyx’s weapon against Baal.” He sounded almost like an evil scientist, his eyes wild.
Each of my three friends’ eyes locked onto me in complete shock as realization hit them. I could control dark stones, I could travel through evil’s portals, and I had survived an encounter with Baal. There had never been a vampire like me before. The extent of my abilities could be limitless.
In that instant I knew one thing.
It was me against the army of The Dark.
The stone statue of Nyx flashed in my mind, her sword pointed fiercely into the night sky and her hand outstretched to her followers below, lifting them up to fight beside her.
Closing my eyes, I prayed, mentally offering my hand to hers. I knew I couldn’t fight this battle alone and I needed to be strong. War was looming on the horizon and it was time to fight.