A Shade of Vampire 16: An End of Night (12 page)

I
jumped
as screaming erupted behind the rocks. It sounded like someone was being murdered. I prayed that someone was Lilith.

I looked toward my parents, raising my eyebrows. Then all eyes shot up toward Mona.

I wanted to call up to her, but she was too high up. I couldn’t risk being heard. Corrine and Ibrahim lifted themselves into the air to see what was happening. Corrine gasped. Then they both lowered themselves down.

“What?” my father demanded, gripping Ibrahim’s shoulders and shaking him.

“Lilith,” he said. “Kiev did it.”

Mona descended behind Ibrahim and Corrine, her skin looking sallow.

“A rotten corpse,” she said, her voice choked. “That’s all that’s left of her. The last Ancient among us.”

“Where is Kiev?” Helina asked, her eyes lit with panic.

“Guys,” Aiden said suddenly. “Look.”

We all spun round to face him. He had stepped within the boundary.

It seemed that with Lilith, the boundary had vanished too. We all hurried forward and were able to enter as though no barrier had ever existed.

There was a wheezing sound behind me. I turned in time to see Mona falling to her knees on the sharp rocks, bent over double. My mother and Matteo rushed to her, laying her down gently on the ground as she seemed to lose control of her limbs. Her eyes drooped and shut.

Corrine hurried over too and bent down, touching her forehead.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” Corrine said.

Matteo, Erik and Helina pushed through, squatting next to Corrine and peering down at Mona.

“It must have something to do with Lilith’s death,” Erik said. “Mona’s powers were dependent on her.”

“She’s blacked out,” Corrine said.

I backed away from the crowd huddled around Mona and, cupping my palms, dipped them in the waves. Then I rushed back to the unconscious witch and tipped the water over her. That didn’t help.

“Ibrahim, Corrine,” Matteo urged. “Do something.”

The witch and warlock began working their magic, even as the uproar on the other side of the rock increased.

“It’s Mag—Kiev,” Micah called behind us.

A moment later, Kiev, still in Magnus’ form, dropped down from the rocks above. His right shoulder looked badly burned.

“Mona!” He threw himself to the ground next to his wife, gripping her head between his hands. “What happened?”

“Hush,” Corrine said. “We’re trying to revive her.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Caleb muttered. I looked up at where he was pointing.

A line of witches had appeared above the rocks and spotted us. Kiev didn’t allow Corrine and Ibrahim to attempt to finish their cure. He grabbed Mona and began running in the opposite direction. The black witches’ spells began to hurtle down toward us, bouncing off the rocks and hitting in all directions. The mayhem found me separated from everyone as I dodged to avoid a curse. When one ricocheted so close to me it singed my right ear, I spun around to find myself face to face with Isolde.

Her eyes glinted with mad fury, her chest heaving. She was too close for me to dodge her curse as it hurtled right for my chest. The force of it knocked me backward and winded me completely. My head slammed against a rock. It was all I could do to not lose consciousness.

No.

My story does not end here.

Not at the hands of this bitch.

Even as my skin felt like hot oil had just been poured over it and the sensation began to spread across my chest and down my arms, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand. She was approaching me, a look of triumph on her face. She raised her palms, motioning to strike again.

Summoning the fire within me, I forced flames from my palms. Her eyes widened with shock as they engulfed her.

I expected her to shoot out a spell to extinguish my flames but, bizarrely, she didn’t. She just began screaming as though she really was being burned.

I gaped at the witch as she stumbled around on the rocks. She was too disorientated even to make it to the sea. This was not the Isolde that I had come to know.

“Rose! Are you all right?” Mona called behind me. I was surprised to see her making her way toward me with Kiev. She was paler than I’d ever seen her, but her legs seemed steady.

The three of us stood watching in awe as Isolde burned alive until her screams subsided and her body stopped moving. She collapsed to the ground as a lump of melted flesh and bone. I shuddered, watching the flames lick at her corpse.

Mona grabbed my shoulders and twisted me to face her. Her face dropped as she stared at my chest and looked along my shoulders and arms. I looked down at myself for the first time. My skin was tinged red, but truly, the pain had felt much worse than it looked. It barely looked more serious than nettle stings. The pain was also subsiding.

“You should be dead,” Mona breathed as she continued looking me over. “Isolde wouldn’t have hit you with anything other than one of her most deadly curses. And her powers were practically on par with Rhys’.” Then she addressed her husband, whom I still hadn’t gotten used to looking like Magnus. “My blackout and now this… I and all the black witches… we have become weak. Our spells no longer hold the potency they once did. It’s because Lilith is gone. The spell she cast on you has also disappeared.”

“At least this is confirmation that she is definitely gone,” I muttered, “and she’s not somehow still hanging on in that rotten body of hers.”

My voice trailed off as the three of us looked around the rocky area. The smoke from my fire was thinning and we could see more clearly. Everyone had moved on from the area—over the rocks and further toward the castle, by the sound of it. It was just Kiev, Mona and me left here now.

We started moving to join the battle that was taking place near the castle, but Mona stopped in her tracks as we passed Isolde’s ashes. She levitated them off the ground, floated them toward the ocean and scattered them in the waves.

“She would never have done that for you. Why would you do that?” Kiev asked, looking at her in surprise.

“Because, Kiev, I’ve chosen to be a better person than Isolde was,” Mona replied, watching the remainder of the ashes sink beneath the surface. “And, after death, I believe everyone deserves at least some respect.”

W
e reached
the rocks and climbed over them, now in full view of the battle. Curses flew in all directions as vampires and witches clashed. Corrine and Ibrahim were taking on several witches at once which, to my surprise, they seemed to be coping quite well with. A single curse from Ibrahim floored three witches in his path.

“White witches are now more powerful than black witches,” I muttered, more to myself than to anyone else.

“Lilith’s demise has drained us,” Mona said.

“You think you were the only one who fainted?” I asked.

“No. I’m sure that most of these black witches passed out at least for a short while… depending on how much power they gained from Lilith. Channelers like me would have felt it the most. Can either of you see Rhys?” Mona asked.

Kiev and I shook our heads. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or bad thing.

I tried to make out my family and Caleb, but it was hard to spot vampires in this darkness—most of them were moving so fast in the churning crowd.

“Let’s go,” Kiev said impatiently.

Leaving our hiding place, we rushed down the rocks toward the battleground. I took a different direction than the couple, my palms at the ready to begin blasting fire at these black witches who had taken so many innocent lives. Adrenaline rushed through me, and there wasn’t the slightest bit of mercy running through my veins.

I was about to throw myself headfirst into the battle when I caught a glimpse to my right of a vat of deep red liquid. It was so large, a lake would have been a better word to describe it. Surrounding it were humans, and I realized that many of the screams and cries were coming from them. Before I could help with the battle, I had to do something about them. Spells were inching dangerously close to them and they were helpless. They could barely wriggle a few feet.

As I approached the lake, I spotted my mother and Ashley on the other side of it. They had already started freeing the humans, ripping through the ropes with their fangs. I rushed over to them and began working alongside them. I didn’t have any knife or sharp object on me. I did, however, have my palms. I approached a girl nearest to me, who looked older than me.

“It’s okay,” I said as she squealed. “I’m here to help.”

She was writhing so much that I was afraid she might fall right into the pond and drown, being unable to swim to the surface.

Gripping the rope that bound her ankles and wrists together, I tried to move her gently toward me, away from the edge of the lake, before placing both palms around the rope and sending heat surging through it. I had to be careful not to send through too much in case I lit the whole rope on fire and ended up burning her. I managed to release just enough to singe the rope and make it weak enough so that it snapped.

The girl stretched out her limbs for the first time in God knew how long. Tears of relief filled her eyes as I helped her to sit up. I wanted to stay with her for a moment longer to comfort her that the worst was over, but there were too many other humans waiting for me to attend to. Even with Ashley, my mother and me working, we still had a mammoth task ahead of us.

“We need to hurry,” my mother said, eyeing the humans still bound.

After the first girl I’d released, the others were faster. I was beginning to feel more confident with my heat so close to their bodies, and I was able to singe through the ropes much faster.

As we released the humans, we ordered those who were able to stand on their weak legs to hide round the side of the castle where nobody seemed to be right now. Once there was a substantial crowd waiting there, my mother told Ashley to wait with them.

I wiped sweat from my brow, looking over our progress. We had about three dozen left. It was still a lot, but nothing compared to how many there had been when we had first started.

“No!” A shrill voice pierced my eardrums. It sounded no further than twenty feet away. I was in the middle of bending over a girl and turned in time to see Julisse racing full speed toward me. Her dark curly hair was scattered across her sweaty face, her eyes practically red with rage.

I tried to shoot flames at her, but she had managed to conjure up a shield of water around herself with whatever power she had left in her.

I braced myself for impact, expecting to fall back into the lake of blood, when something raced past me in a blur. The next thing I knew, Julisse crashed to the ground, Caleb on top of her. She struggled beneath him, but Caleb was too quick. Before she could summon a curse, he’d already slashed through both of her palms. Then, lowering his head to her neck, he sank his fangs deep into her flesh and jerked upward, ripping right through her jugular.

Blood spurted everywhere, soaking the ground and forming a pool quickly. Finally, extending his nails as far as they would go, he severed her head completely. It rolled around sickeningly on the ground before halting in the middle of the pool of blood, face down.

Caleb got off her still-twitching body and when he turned to face me, he looked more menacing than I had ever seen him before. His chest heaved, his mouth dripping with blood, his eyes much darker.

Wow. Go Caleb.

His gaze sent shivers running through me. I was so used to him being gentle with me, I often forgot just how ferocious he could be. He wiped away the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and then, since he was already shirtless, he tore a piece of fabric from the hem of Julisse’ dress and wiped his hands on it.

He walked toward me, his eyes warming a little as he looked down at me. He examined my skin, which was still red from the curse that Isolde had shot at me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “You?”

He nodded. His skin was also tinged red. Clearly he had survived a curse like I had—more confirmation of Mona’s statement that the black witches had lost their touch.

I didn’t spend much time with Caleb before he left me and raced back into the battle. I needed to finish helping my mother free the rest of the humans. We worked quickly, and luckily no more distractions came before we finished releasing all of them. We herded those who could walk around the side of the castle toward Ashley, then came back to assist those who couldn’t stand. Many were just in shock, while others had genuine injuries.

Once we had finished, we left Ashley with them and cautiously approached the battle again. It was still raging, though, as before, we seemed to have the upper hand. Ibrahim and Corrine hadn’t let up their efforts. I scanned the area for my father. He stood near my grandfather, back to back as they clashed with four warlocks.

My stomach felt queasy as I caught sight of Micah—now in his werewolf form since nightfall had already arrived—biting off the hands of a screaming witch with his huge jaws. I looked around for Mona, wondering where she’d gotten to. I couldn’t see her anywhere. For that matter, I still couldn’t spot Rhys either.

I was about to suggest to my mother that we start helping when a thought struck me. “I wonder if there are more humans in the castle?”

“Let’s check,” my mother replied.

We didn’t want to be distracted by anyone attacking us, so we made our way as discreetly as possible around the edge of the battleground toward the main entrance of the castle. I looked at my mother just before we entered. I wasn’t sure what surprises this house of horrors held for us this time, but I didn’t think it wise for the two of us to go alone.

“I think we should take at least one other person with us,” I said.

“I’ll come.” A gruff voice came from behind us. It was Micah—now finished with the witch he’d been mauling. He had blood smeared on his mouth as he looked up at us, his eyes gleaming.

“Okay,” I said.

A vampire, a werewolf and a fire-wielder. It felt like we’d make a decent team.

We pushed open the entrance doors and stepped inside, closing them behind us. I hoped that nobody had seen us enter. With the doors shut, it was eerily quiet. We stood still, listening and looking around the grand entry hall for any sign of life.

“You hear or smell anything?” I asked Micah and my mother.

They both shook their heads.

“No human blood?”

“No,” Micah said.

“If Micah can’t smell it, I doubt we’ll have much luck,” my mother said. “But we’re here now. Let’s check anyway.”

“We should check the dungeon first,” Micah said.

We headed toward the kitchen and forced open the trap door. As we descended the steps, a sickly stench engulfed us. We cast our eyes around at the empty cells, moving from one room to another. But we spotted no humans, or any other creature for that matter. The dungeons were empty.

“Let’s check upstairs now,” I said.

We exited the dungeons, passed through the kitchen and headed to the wide staircase leading up to the first level. I felt so jittery, I jumped even at the creak of a floorboard beneath our feet.

My mother held my hand, supporting me as we climbed. It was dark and except for the occasional lantern, I was relying on the moonlight trickling through the windows to see where I was going.

Reaching the first level, we hurried along the corridor, checking in each room as we passed by—at least all the rooms whose doors opened. We climbed level after level, meeting nothing but more silence. Finally, we reached the level of the spell room and stopped outside its deep red door. I stared at it, then slowly reached out and hovered my hand over the handle. The three of us pressed our ears against the wood, listening for any sign of life.

There was nothing.

“Now that Lilith is gone,” I whispered, “if we opened this door and stepped inside, I wonder if we would be doomed?”

Micah shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s not worth the risk. If there was anyone in there, I would sure as hell know it by now.”

And so he retreated from the door. We searched the rest of the floor and then the few levels above, followed by the roof. I pointed to the cage at the far end of the roof. “That was the cage I freed Hermia and her friends from.”

“And it’s a good thing you did,” my mother said.

Micah grunted as we left the roof and made our way back down the stairs. “I would have just left them there.”

Reaching the next level down, we stopped and looked at each other. It was time to concede defeat. There were no humans in this castle. There was so much blood in that lake, it was no wonder that it was empty.

We made our way quickly down to the ground floor again. Ten steps away from the second level, my mother and Micah stopped suddenly. My mother gripped my arm, pulling me back.

“What is it?” I asked.

My question was answered by a deep growl. It came from the bottom of the staircase. Straining to see through the darkness, I could make out a pair of gleaming red eyes and white teeth, shiny with saliva.

Oh, great. Not another one of Shadow’s siblings.

My mother shoved me behind her, extending her claws and preparing to approach it. But Micah brushed her aside with his head.

“Allow me,” he growled, fixing his eyes on the dog.

Although the vampire dog was enormous, Micah was still larger, his jaws wider. The two animals launched at each other and clashed in the air. They attacked each other so ferociously they were a blur before my eyes. But when the vampire dog let out a deafening howl, it was clear that Micah had won. They stopped moving so fast and I could make out that Micah had closed his jaws around the dog’s throat. Blood streamed down the sides of his mouth as he clamped down hard.

The vampire dog fell to the floor and writhed around as Micah lowered his mouth to the beast’s chest. He mauled through its skin before finally closing his teeth around the dog’s heart. He pulled out the giant organ and threw it down on the floor. I looked away, my stomach queasy. Even my mother couldn’t stand the sight.

“Let’s continue, shall we?” Micah called down from below.

Keeping my eyes firmly away from the mess that was left of the dog, we hurried past it toward the werewolf.

“You are gross, Micah,” I muttered.

“Thanks,” he said, licking his lips with his long tongue and grinning darkly.

We finished descending the staircases and reached the entry hall. Approaching the main entrance, my mother pushed open the doors slightly and peered out.

She looked back and nodded. “Let’s go.”

We stepped outside. Looking out at the battleground, I was pleasantly surprised by how few black witches remained. There were many bodies strewn around on the ground—none of our people, to my relief—and those who remained standing were badly injured and clearly on their last legs.

Aiden spotted us, having just finished slitting the throat of a witch, and approached.

“We’re almost done here,” he said calmly, looking over the area. “A lot of witches fled. They’re shadows of their former selves.”

I noticed that he had reddish skin like me. So did many of the other vampires that I could see. Although curses were hitting our people, they didn’t seem to be having any serious effects other than causing pain.

My attention was drawn to a billow of flames my father had just shot out. Our vampires, along with Corrine and Ibrahim, seemed to be working together to force the remaining witches into a circle where my father could scorch them all at once. The remaining black witches, obviously realizing what was happening, vanished.

“Is that the last of them?” my mother asked.

“From what we can see,” my father replied.

“What about Rhys?” Micah asked.

Aiden shook his head. “I haven’t seen him.”

Then Magnus—Kiev—called out: “Has anyone seen Mona?”