The vampires spell nig.., p.7
The Vampire's Spell - Night of The Moon: Book 4, page 7
However, Colette came to me clearly when I reached out. From her I got impressions of a standoff. The empty vampires were still waiting and it was unnerving even the coldest vampires among our people. Colette wasn’t afraid. She was more frustrated with the lack of a fight.
I tried Simi, but she was too wound up for me to reach without possibly setting her off and I didn’t blame her. The human acolytes of the goddess had been whisked away when Nicholas arrived, so she was the only human in a room full of creatures she would prefer to be hunting.
“We need to get back to our people, Lady Kele. Will we show a united front to our people?” Nicholas spoke carefully. When she turned towards him, he bowed low and offered her his arm and stepped in to him, much closer than necessary.
“Of course we are, my lord D’Elbrecht,” she purred, sliding her arm over the bend in his elbow and pressing herself against him.
“Pushing your luck, lady,” I muttered as Ami and I stepped in behind them.
“My love, you know I’d rather be wearing a string of dead snakes around my neck than have this crazed monster touching me, don’t you?” Nicholas chided me gently as his thoughts stroked their way through my mind with a sweet caress.
“Keeper of my heart, you know she could grow an arm back if she needed, don’t you? We’ve already seen her do it once,” I replied with as much saccharine as I could muster in a telepathic conversation. Ahead of me, Nicholas coughed, and I knew I’d made him laugh. Pleasing a centuries’ old vampire to the point where you startled a reaction from them was no small feat, and I felt some of my jealousy fade away.
“Ami, tell me more about the monster?” I asked again as our masters strolled down the hall ahead of us. “Where did it come from, and why, in the name of all that’s holy, hasn’t anyone killed it yet?”
“Kele said it can’t be killed. She tried, long before I ever met her. I’d never even seen it until it escaped, truly.”
“Wait. You’ve seen it? Like, up close and personal?” I gave her a moment to catch up to what I was thinking without me holding her hand. “Did it attack you? Did it attack any of the other vampires or humans?”
“Well, not exactly. It threw an acolyte out of its way. It was hell-bent on getting to Kele.”
I nodded. “Then she’s the key.” I slowed down and held Ami back a few feet. “How could you leave your former life for someone who isn’t connected with reality?”
“Don’t judge her too harshly. She’s been slowly getting worse. Who knows when it started. She’s finally beginning to lose her humanity, like all the oldest vampires do. In a hundred years, maybe only fifty, she’ll look like one of the monsters on the council.”
“She’s older than any vampire on the European council. She looks human still, because her beauty was part of what her people worshipped.”
“Their worship, blood sacrifice, all of that belief in her, that’s what made her so strong, and kept her looking like a human for so much longer than other vampires.” I glanced at Nick. He was so handsome, it seemed unbelievable that he could ever deteriorate like that, even if it did take three or four thousand more years.
“Then the belief died away and the spells weakened because they were forgotten over hundreds of years,” Ami explained. “All those souls that you feel in the mountain, are less than a tenth of what used to be here. The souls power her up, feed her, then dissipate. But our numbers dwindled and she refused to leave the mountain and create more.”
“If we weren’t talking about vampires, I’d say she was suicidal, and letting herself die,” I said with horrified understanding. I looked Ami in the eyes and her despondent expression echoed my belief. In our kinship as witches, I felt her pain and fear. “Ami, I’m begging you. Please save Rachel before we hunt your creature. At this point, I don’t know what’s more likely to kill us, the monster in the cell, or the one outside of it.”
Chapter 9
Nicholas and Kele paused in the broad, arched doorway and surveyed the scene in the gathering hall. No one had moved in the fifteen, maybe twenty minutes that we’d been gone. Only Simi had the faintest tremor as she stood with her weapons drawn, but at her sides. Now that I could see her, I reached out to her.
“How you holding up, sweetie?” She glanced at me and I used the grand entrance of the two masters to sidle off to one side and start slowing migrating towards Simi and my tiny entourage.
“Oh, Caroline, this has got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced. Are we going to kill things, or what?” I stifled a chuckle and glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. I owed her a bottle of ancient scotch and a spa day for this. Right after I got her home with as few scratches and dings as possible.
Kele’s clan all turned to face her as one, then kneeled and pressed their foreheads to the floor. It was surreal to see a clan so controlled by their master that she could direct them all with a thought, but I noticed that Ami did not move with the others. She stood serene behind her mistress without flinching as the two dozen vampires all acted as one organism.
In a moment of either insanity or inspiration, I did the same, and the wolves, Fin, and Simi followed my example after varying degrees of hesitation. I turned my head enough to glare at her sideways and she cautiously followed suit.
Nicholas watched us, then his soldiers took a knee as well. Belatedly, I realized I could’ve avoided grinding cave dirt into my forehead. Then again, I was just a lowly human servant in Kele’s eyes. The closer to the ground I could get myself, the less likely she was to remember she wanted to put me under it.
The instant she was in front of her adoring acolytes, Kele dropped Nick’s arm like it was coated in silver.
“Our guests have come to us, pleading for our assistance with their sick comrade, and we have graciously chosen to heal her,” Kele announced to her people, and I exchanged a skeptical glance with Simi and Colette to my left before looking back at the stone floor. “All arise and greet our guests.”
I was horrified and fascinated by the utter control Kele had over the empty creatures she had made. I made eye contact with Nick; he frowned at me and shook his head slightly. Whatever was going on with them, he wasn’t nearly as surprised or concerned as I was. I looked at our own people and even our vampires were shifting and glancing around at the hive mind on display for us. Rae, Dirk, and Fin had backed up behind me, and flanked me, vibrating with anxiety and ready to fight.
Simi edged closer to me, putting herself between me and Rae, and whispered softly enough that our small group could hear, but it wouldn’t carry further than Nicholas’ people.
“I’ve heard of this mindlessness before, Caroline. In the council, there was talk of how to create this effect in vampires, because it makes them easier to wipe out a whole group at once.”
“Yeah,” retorted Colette under her breath, “if you survive the fight. Masters who do this to their vampires can remove all recognition of pain or self-preservation. When they’re set to fight, they’re strong, fast, and won’t stop coming, even if you hack their limbs off.”
“Am I seeing the origin of zombie stories?” I asked quietly. “Because I’ve never even imagined anything this… this wrong.”
“Few masters are willing to go this far with their people. It takes an insane need for control and just the process usually kills the vampires being brought under control. She figured out how to keep them animated, somehow.”
But ‘somehow’ didn’t make me want to stick around and find out. I just wanted to leave all this behind and take Rachel and our people home and find another way to save her.
“Nick, I don’t like this.” I tried to reach out to the empty vampires with my power, searching each body for some personal imprint of who they were, how old, anything to define them as individuals. Each one was an empty shell, connected by magic to their mistress.
The same kind of power connected me to Nicholas and both of us to the rat-King, Jeremy. But ours was a conduit that ran both ways. Sometimes, Nicholas and I even invaded each other’s dreams. But this power was like a vacuum.
I stared at horror as understanding dawned on me. Some of the souls I felt in the stone of the mountain, trapped there with spells, and Ami’s runes, belonged to the vampires standing in front of us like terracotta soldiers. I glanced at Ami with a sick feeling in my stomach.
“The vampires started to fade without Kele, because all that’s left of them is a body and whatever power she animates them with. That’s why they were so weak,” I pushed the thought at Nick so hard he shook his head like I’d been shouting.
“Do NOT let the witch know you understand, Caroline. We get Rachel healed, get home, and only then inform the council of what we found.” He was adamant, but I couldn’t get past the sick feeling in my stomach.
“We honor your power and pay homage to you by killing your creature for you.” Nicholas’ voice boomed in the cavernous room, and Kele and Ami both smiled. I expected the pleased look on the master vampire’s face, or the relief tinged with fear in Ami. But something passed between them that I couldn’t quite read and it made my pulse bump. I was so certain that they weren’t going to heal Rachel that I stepped forward to speak on her behalf, but I never got the chance.
Several more vampires arrived with a casket held between them, even though any one of them could have lifted it without help. With ceremony, they set the casket down in the center of the room, next to the large onyx marble table.
“Nick?” I strode forward, but Cardiff and Elan each grabbed an arm and pulled me to one side, out of the line of fire.
Nicholas stepped forward and with a low bow, laid a hand on the chains that bound the casket. “So, all the grandstanding about whether or not you’d heal Rachel was for nothing?” he growled. Neither Ami or Kele answered and I felt his frustration at the delay in getting us out. I closed my eyes and felt the moon, high in the sky. We had hours left before sunrise, but that meant I’d already been here a full day. No one in our group wanted to be here another. Even my stomach was beginning to protest the fast, and I was used to going without when I was training for the hunt.
“Was anyone left watching her?” I asked him and he nodded.
“Your people were not harmed, lord D’Elbrecht,” Ami assured him. “They were simply tasked with keeping your home safe and ready for you once we were finished. Your servant had already given us every assurance that she would be willing to fight the creature for us.” She walked toward the casket and Nicholas looked up at her from a kneeling position next to it. “She does speak for herself, does she not?” I felt his frustration with me, boiling over and I pushed back at the power.
“We don’t belong down here, Nick. This place is doing something to us. Making the vampires react with anger, wanting to fight. Let’s do what we came to do and go home.”
Kele’s voice broke in. “I know our ways are not yours, Lord D’Elbrecht. But I have been on this earth long enough to know that there will come a time when there are no human options left to you and you’ll have to fully accept who you are.” My eyes felt as big as saucers as I stared at Kele, Queen of the Stars. The thought that Nicholas could be anything like her chilled me to my core.
Ami misunderstood my expression and smiled kindly at me. “Not everyone is comfortable in the presence of such immense power.” I smiled thinly at her. From what I could tell, the ‘immense power’ of the goddess was really the souls of a multitude of vampires, stolen and trapped to feed her mistress in place of the centuries of worship that had once sustained her. If being his servant helped Nick retain some humanity, then I was a fool for having made him wait so long.
“No, I don’t think I could ever become used to all of this,” I said quietly, my eyes roving over the immense stone room.
“Let’s heal your friend, Caroline, and get you back to the ocean and the forests where you belong.” Ami held out a hand to me. However, I’d seen so much that horrified me that I refused to touch her. I strode past her to Rachel and stood behind Nicholas as he unlatched the lid. I could see him straining to hold in whatever was inside, and I forced myself to keep watching, despite my shaky legs.
Rachel looked better than I had expected, and yet worse. Her skin was more drawn over the bones of her face than the last time I’d seen her before we took off from Seattle. Her eyes were still sunken in their sockets as they rolled around, blindly searching for escape from the hell of her mental prison.
But, when I glanced down over her body to make sure nothing else had changed, I found her hands covered in what little blood I’d been able to get into her before we left via transfusion. What was left of her fingernails were worn past the quick. I bent to look at the lid of the casket and found the missing fingernails embedded in the wood of the casket. At some point while we were stuck here, Rachel had become lucid enough to know she was physically trapped, and had tried to claw her way out of the casket.
I held back my tears until they threatened to choke me and shuddered as I crept closer to her. Nick was holding her in, forcing her to stay still, but it was still nothing like the zombie-esque vampires Kele controlled. Rachel wanted out. Somewhere in there she was fighting a terrifying, agonizing battle, but she was still fighting with everything she had.
“You will have to release her, Lord D’Elbrecht, but not until your witch and I complete a circle of power.” Ami began to trace the runes as she spoke, and I followed her, awaiting instructions. I’d only been working with Henny and the wolves for a few months, and some of the runes were unfamiliar to me, but I went over each step and took pictures with my phone of the ones I didn’t recognize. I sent them to Henny in a text and prayed that the power built up in the stone didn’t supersede the signal from the cell phone towers that I’d seen dotting the desert beside the highway.
“So, what are we using to activate the power in the circle?” I asked as Ami traced the last glowing symbol into the stone floor around the table and casket.
“We take her out of her coffin and place her on the table. The same properties that allowed me to project memories and image to the table, will help you and your master reflect Rachel back into herself, and cast out the nightmare that’s taken over.”
I grabbed her by the arm. “Her life force stays inside her, right?” I asked and she nodded, her face registering surprise.
“I would hardly risk the wrath of you and your master with my mistress still recovering from her wounds,” she huffed. “But, you must know: you will have to convince her to let the spell work. She’s trapped, even though the caster is dead. She’s the only one making the spell work. Her fear and pain are like a battery, giving it power over her.”
“Then I’ll go.”
“It is your choice. But the spell is strong. It would be better if her creator was in there with her, and you as his focus,” she explained.
“That may be so, but I don’t feel comfortable with both of us inside your protective circle. Nick moves out before you seal it.” I raised my hand to stop her argument. “She’s in there and she’s my friend. I’ll do what I need to.” Ami closed her mouth and gave a curt little bow at the neck.
“My lord, if you could please help us lift your vampire to the table and then step out of the circle,” Ami directed. I watched Nicholas with increasing anxiety as he and Elan lifted Rachel’s limp body to the table. I used my karambit to slice into the meaty part of my left forearm where I could get a good quantity of blood without reducing my ability to fight, if necessary.
The cut went deeper than I wanted, which probably meant it was exactly as deep as it needed to be. I hissed and jumped into the circle as Nick stepped out the other side, spilling blood onto the runes and sealing the circle with Elan, Rachel, and myself inside. Nicholas cursed and tried to lunge back inside, but when he connected with the line of runes on the floor, there was a spark and he fell back, his jacket singed and his mouth agape.
“We can’t both be in here, Nicholas. I can’t get out without serious pain, or having it removed by our hosts.” I glanced at Elan and he pursed his lips and nodded.
“I’ve got your girl, Nicholas. Nothing will happen to her in here,” he said.
I wasn’t sure I believed he could keep me safe, but I knew if he was promising Nick, he would at least do his best to keep that promise.
“Watch out for Simi, Nick, okay?” He frowned, but agreed and motioned for Cardiff and another vampire I didn’t know to flank the Venatores.
Ami began to chant and trace runes in the air in front of her, and the onyx table began to glow under Rachel’s inert form. “Now, Caroline, place your hands on the table and think of memories you share with Rachel. The more emotionally charged, the better.” I placed my palms flat on the glowing surface. The glow enveloped my hands and they disappeared into the strange liquid light.
I thought of the day I found out I was a captive of the very creatures I was learning to hunt. Rachel had been the first vampire to show me that, even though vampires were exotic and dangerous, they were more compassionate and human than I had ever considered.
I remembered her bathing and dressing me for my first appearance with Nicholas and the memory shimmered over Rachel before it seemed to sink through her into the table. Nicholas sent me images of Rachel scolding him for frightening me in those first days and as I smiled down at her, the images played out on the table as well. Elan joined me and added a memory of his first non-human meal, as Rachel taught him to stop thinking of humans as food.
Suddenly, we were bombarded by memories and images of Rachel as she was remembered by each of our people. Even Simi stood at the edge of the circle, with memories of Rachel sitting with her, talking about music and the Bible and her belief in God. Simi’s memory surprised me, not because Rachel had spoken with her, but because I could feel Simi’s love and appreciation for the vampire. As Venatores, we’d never spoken of my relationship with Nicholas or the vampires. It had never occurred to me that, as I had forced my Venatores family to associate with my new vampire friends, they might forge relationships of their own within Nick’s clan.
