Vampyre Blue (21 page)

'Wow, my hero.' Blue said sarcastically. Pierre frowned at her and they shared a smile. He loved how she could make him see the lighter side of life, even if he couldn't really, she'd give him that spark, that glimmer, that's what he lived for. What he went on living each day for, those moments when he felt alive. They embraced and he kissed her forehead. She never would understand him. They didn't go into the Temple until it had started to get light.

'Just a few more turns.' Pierre mumbled as he carried the coffin backwards through the labyrinth with Blue.

'This should be ridiculously heavy shouldn't it? Almost impossible? We should need lifting equipment and pulleys and animals for this kind of work shouldn't we?' Blue kept on.

'For the love of God woman, Yes!' Pierre scowled.

He gave her a warning stare, like carry on and we're going to get physical but then he would look at her the very next second as if she were a fluffy kitten or a summers morning. Blue didn't know which annoyed her the most, she was a monster and yet he still thought she was as cute as pie.

'Just round here.' He said again giving her an annoying wink.

Cleo following them always on her guard, her Walther P99 tightly in her grip, ready for the worse, stepping sideways checking for enemies everywhere. Pierre told Blue to place the coffin gently on the ground just before all three of them stepped into the most beautiful temple they could have ever imagined, it was dawn and somehow the daylight illuminated the great expanse without being fatal for Pierre. Silks hung from the sandstone walls in similar colours, candles were placed everywhere, luxurious pillows and cushions were fashioned into beds, books and trinkets laid in piles, lanterns hung from the vast ceiling, great expansive stone pillars with carving all over them were at strategic points in the vast space, there were carved freezes in the walls, and a multitude of decorations and paintings. It was perfection, a dream-scape.

Pierre walked over to a tall Nubian woman with perfect chocolate skin and bright green eyes. She was happy to see him and they embraced, Blue had a pang of jealousy stir in her soul.

'Oh my child do not be jealous.' Isis looked over to Blue and beckoned her over, 'Come here my ivory princess.'

Pierre coaxed Blue over to the two of them.

'Blue, this is Isis, Goddess of all the known world.' Pierre said, 'And Isis this is Blue, the love of my life.'

'Let me look at you child.' She said to Blue holding up her hands in hers. 'She is a fine woman Pierre, you will do well to treat her right and she might think about doing the same with you.' She gave Blue a wink and Blue blushed a little. 'And I believe you have something of mine?' Isis questioned.

'Yes yes.' Blue remembered, Pierre gave her a puzzled look, as she pulled out an ancient book from her backpack. 'I saw this in Daen's Tibetan palace and I thought this looked Egyptian, and we were heading to Egypt, and it probably belonged here, and I thought we might need it and so I thought I should bring it with me.' She gave them a did I do okay look.

'Excellent,' Isis purred, 'We don't need it today, but it is back where it belongs.'

Eliza and Brett walked into the main temple room, completely unaware of Cleo and Blue's sudden arrival.

'Oh my God! Oh my God!' Eliza shrilled and then ran straight to Blue. She jumped at Blue giving her the biggest hug, practically squeezing her in half.

'Wow it's good to see you too honey.' Blue gasped between squeezes.

Cleo fastened her gun away and put down her equipment, Eliza gave Cleo a massive hug as well.

'Have you met Brett before?' She asked both Blue and Cleo.

'Well, if not it's a pleasure to meet you.' Blue stuck out her hand to shake Brett's, Cleo shook his hand too.

'Hi I'm Pierre.' He shook Brett's hand, Eliza stared at him unsure, she turned to Blue questioning why he was here.

'Oh yeah, there's loads we need to catch up on.' Blue told Eliza.

'Enough!' Commanded Isis, 'We need to get you all to safety. Daen is on his way here right now. He is a key piece to this ritual, as are you all. It is vital that he remains unaware of your presence. He needs not be aware of anyone or anything other than me. This ritual will begin as soon as he steps within the runes where I shall be waiting.'

'Then let's get to our places and we'll all catch up after.' Said Pierre.

'If there is an after.' Whispered Eliza.

They exchanged uncertain glances as they skittered off into their hiding places, everyone of them apprehensive about what exactly was about to happen next.

Chapter Nineteen.

Daen arrived at the archaeological dig site in Egypt as the Sun was climbing in the sky arching to noon, he walked through the dig site, to the temple entrance. The archaeologists, it would seem, couldn't see an ancient temple when it hit them in the face. He walked with purpose and authority, he knew exactly how to get through the labyrinth. When the books started to appear, he knew he was close, he was in the library.

He entered the temple, lit only by the light of the hundreds, if not thousands, of softly flickering candles. The dancing light reflecting on the walls, illuminating the silks that gently moved with the air.

'Daen.' Isis drifted through to where he had walked in. His skin prickled and his body hair stood on end a shudder ran the entire length of his body. He looked up at her where she stood, her raiment rippling around her perfect body as if caught in a gentle breeze. He was numb. It had been over two millennia since he had seen her, he'd never been back, he had thought her long dead. Two millennia wasted looking for Isis, when she had been here all along. He felt defeated, he felt like a stupid child. Isis approached him and held him in her arms. He sank into her arms, he felt rapture to be there in that very moment. Every moment for the last two thousand years was geared towards recreating this very moment and he couldn't understand why he had never stepped foot in this temple in search of his precious Isis.

'Oh Daen, what have you done?' Isis asked his as she held him to her chest.

'Isis.' Her name was all he could managed to say, he was so overwhelmed with emotion.

'Daen, why did you do all this? Why were you so evil?'

He broke away from her, meeting her gaze and looking deep into her emerald eyes, his jaw hardened.

'No need for that Daen. The choices you have made have been your own, you have done exactly as you've pleased for the last two thousand years. Have you not?'

The words hit him like poison darts, his beloved had seen everything he had done, everything, the last two thousand years screamed through his head, shame burned through him.

'I thought you were dead.' His voice almost a whisper, 'I waited for you, for your re-incarnation.' His voice almost breaking.

'I'm alive Daen, even your precious Oracle knew that from the first time you asked her where my soul was. You need to make amends for the wrong you have done. For the people's lives you have ruined. For the people you killed, for fun, not for me.'

Daen looked uncomfortable, as if Isis telling him this made him realise that what he had done wasn't acceptable.

'How is it, after all this time, I can reduce you to a quivering child?' She asked him.

Daen stood before Isis and everything else melted away, it was just the two of them. Infinity sweeping around them, the both of them lost in the moment. Time had literally stood still for the pair, they were stood over the runes now, the ritual had begun.

Daen was aware only of where he was and who he was with, Isis, his Isis, for whom he had longed for for so long, but he was unaware of the ritual she was performing and the part he played within it. The runes and markings beneath them held infinite power, they held them both and he was completely unaware.

The very second the ritual began, Eliza dressed in the robes suited for the rite, led Pierre and Blue, carrying Star over to the sacrificial tables near to Isis and Daen. Star was placed on one side, Pierre on the other and Blue in the middle. Eliza made sure they were all in the correct places according to the scriptures and then positioned the temple mirrors to align the high noon sun into the area where Isis stood suspended in time with Daen.

The air around Isis and Daen had started to transform into a translucent bubble of vibrating throbbing energy. The pair held inside were completely unaware of this, to them nothing in their immediate surroundings had changed at all.

'Blimey.' Gasped Eliza as she glanced up at Isis and Daen.

Blue looked up at her from where she lay on her sacrificial altar.

'Eliza, aren't you supposed to start chanting something with Pierre and I joining in?' She anxiously reminded her.

'What, Oh, yes, yes! It's just so impressive, I just wasn't expecting such a magnificent sight!' She gathered herself together and started the incantations she'd been rehearsing with Isis.

Eliza started chanting the ancient Egyptian passages and Blue and Pierre joined in once she had been through it twice, they didn't know what it meant, they couldn't even repeat it now. The three of them were chanting ancient Egyptian hoping it was working, not knowing what was going to happen. Isis and Daen in an ever growing ball of light and energy just in front of them. Blue was worried, it had been millennia since anyone had attempted a ritual or anything like this, or so she was led to believe. Star was strapped down next to Blue, Blue kept having a look at her every couple of minutes or so, worrying that she would jump up at any minute and unleash all hell. She was thinking to herself that Pierre rubbed off on her a little too much sometimes with all his worrying. She carried on with the chanting and tried clearing her mind of the worry, just concentrating on the words. Blue's mind skipped back to the days just before her birthday and her life before she was a Vampyre. She carried on saying the words aloud as she thought
'I'm a bar tender that can sew and draw, how the hell did I end up on an altar in Ancient Egypt?'

Isis stared deeply into Daen's eyes.

'What do you want from all this? This life?' She asked him.

'I want you Isis.'

'And I want to be free of this world, I'm ready to ascend Daen, I'm ready to make peace with all and go on to the next adventure. I'd like you to come with me.'

Daen looked at her, then he looked down at his flesh and bones,

'I,' he paused, 'I didn't know we could, I don't know.'

Isis sighed inside, she stared into his eyes he still seemed like a child to her. Right in that moment she knew he wasn't really ready for this. He'd been too busy with his greedy fantasies for the last two millennia to even grow up at all.

'Daen I don't mean to rush you, but we're ascending now. The ritual is being performed as we speak.'

'How could you?!.' He was visibly shocked, he hadn't even expected to have walked into a trap.

'I don't want to ascend!' He yelled at her his face going red, 'What about the prophecies?' He added in an almost desperate whine.

'THE PROPHECIES AREN'T ABOUT US!' Isis screamed momentarily losing her composure, 'You have no choice Daen!' She added, 'It is done.'

He tried to move but he couldn't, he struggled and pulled and screamed. He concentrated and looked out of the energy bubble, he saw Star and screamed to her in his mind. She sat bolt upright, it made Eliza jump. Star was still held with the restraints she'd been put in. Daen had control of Star, she started screaming.

'RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME!' She thrashed back and forth and bucked, she was wild like a cornered beast.

'LET US GO!' She screamed again.

Pierre, Blue and Eliza kept on chanting. Eliza chanting to keep calm, Pierre and Blue because they had been told by Isi
s, '
No matter what happens just keep chanting'.

The noon sun moved over the temple, the alignment was exact. A beam of light came from the sun into the temple. Isis and Daen glowed and shimmered brightly as if lit with an inner light. In the bubble of energy Daen was fighting for his flesh and bones.

'Just let go!' Isis pleaded, 'Move on with me!'

'I thought I wanted you Isis, but you just want to control me too!'

'No, I don't.' She said sadly.

'I don't believe you Isis.' He said.

She looked at him, searching his eyes, they betrayed him, revealing to her the heartbreak, fear and confusion he felt.

'Why didn't you fight for me?' He asked her in almost a whisper.

She looked back at him, a tear rolled down her cheek. She had no answer for him, in all her might and power and stubborn arrogance she had convinced herself that he should come for her. She hadn't in over two thousand years even once considered the possibility that she could go after him. But that answer would be as bad.

'I love you Daen, can't we make this right now? Come with me on the next adventure.' Isis urged.

Daen looked at her, she had truly broken his heart; he was also very aware that if he said no to this ascension then he would most likely be vaporised, finished and would probably disappear forever. He glanced over to Star through the energy bubble which was apparent now, then back at Isis. If he couldn't stay here at least a part of him could. He called over to Star, she lay still on the altar, their minds completely linked. He willed his mind to go into hers, he willed it with all his black charred soul.