A Shade Of Vampire 6: A Gate Of Night (17 page)

Tears would have fallen from my eyes, but they quickly evaporated due to the heat that I was exuding.

“What’s happening to him?” Corrine gasped as the Ageless healed her shoulders of the burns I’d inflicted on her.

“He’s losing control. Without the vampire curse, the powers your ancestor bequeathed to him have been unleashed. Even
we
don’t know the full extent of his capabilities and now it’s all coming out.”

She had basically just admitted that even they had no clue how to harness my power.
So all this time, they’ve been playing trial and error with me, experimenting with different methods to try and bring my powers under control. They have no idea what they’re doing.
The thought drove me to the brink of insanity. I screamed my agitation out and with the piercing shout came torrents of fire shooting out of my palms.

“Mistress,” Ibrahim gasped. “He’s beyond control.” He was trying to cast a cooling spell on me, but his attempts failed. No wind or ice or water cooled me down.

I saw stark terror in the eyes of my mentor as the wizened warlock realized that nothing he did could restrain the power that was escaping from my exhausted body. I was about to implode and nothing seemed to be able to stop it. Giving up on trying to stop me, he formed a force field around himself, the Ageless and Corrine in order to stay safe from the red-hot flames darting out of my palms.

The Ageless glared at Ibrahim first and then looked at me like I was a child who had just disappointed my parents severely. Her calm was unnerving. She didn’t seem to be fazed by anything at all. I could swear she muttered a few curses before shutting her eyes and mumbling incoherently. She began to float from the ground and within minutes, a whirlwind appeared, quenching the flames I’d just created, saving her palace from sure destruction.

She might have quenched the fire I’d created, but she hadn’t stopped the source. No matter how I tried to control it, the fire was building up inside me, threatening to escape.

“Take control!” she screamed at me. The pressure only increased the build-up of fire within me. To my shock, she lunged forward.

“No! Don’t come near me!”

The warning went unheeded. She was coming at me at full speed, her widened eyes letting me know that she knew that what she was asking of me was impossible.

“You can claim control.” This time, her tone was calculated and controlled. Desperate.

“I can’t!” I managed to scream out as charring red fire began to flow through my veins, forming outside my fingertips.

She gulped just before reaching me. She pressed her palms against mine and stared right into my eyes. I wondered if she knew whether what she was about to do would work. I couldn’t help but admire that she did it anyway. An ice-cold sensation seeped from her skin to mine. She was neutralizing my fire with her ice, creating a warm energy between us.

“I can’t…” I seethed. “I can’t…”

For a moment, I thought she was going to give me another pep talk. They kept telling me that I could take control, that I could get myself together and harness the power. Instead, to my surprise, the Ageless nodded, her eyes glazed over.

“I believe you.”

“Sofia. I need my wife. If you don’t bring me to her or bring her to me… if you keep at this, I swear… I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep myself from burning your realm down.”

Her eyes flickered and she slowly nodded. “I think what’s best for you is to stay here, Derek, but we have interfered with your life long enough. Remember, however, that should you choose to leave, the consequences are on you. If your lack of control destroys Earth, then there’s no one to blame but you.”

I clenched my fists, wondering to myself—like many times before—if I was indeed doing the right thing. Convinced that I was, I nodded. “I need to get home.”

“The Shade—or what’s left of it—is waiting for you. Corrine will take you there.”

Corrine’s eyes widened. “I can’t go back. I don’t want to. Please.”

“You will take Derek through the portal and you will not return until his mission is complete. He will need your powers to neutralize his.”

“Please,” Corrine begged, making me wonder what on earth could’ve possibly broken the woman’s spirit. The witch cowered in front of no one. To see her so shattered made for a fearsome omen of what I was about to see.

The Ageless, however, was unmoved. The silver-haired vixen’s shoulders sagged. “There is no other way, Corrine. He will ruin The Sanctuary if he stays here. We can’t help him anymore. You can. Take him back home.”

I was relieved, but I was also confused. The witches were supposed to be the agents of good—maintaining balance, or so they said—but if there was one thing my stay at their realm had taught me, it was that I couldn’t trust them.

Just like all the other realms, they were looking out for themselves and no one else.

I had no idea what had happened to The Shade, how ruined it probably already was, but one thing I knew for sure was that no matter how magnificent the witches’ realm was, it could never be the kind of paradise my true home was to me.

Clara left after promising that she would return “to see us entertain the Elders”. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn’t need Eli’s genius to know that we were being set up for trouble.

I slammed my fists against the dining table we now circled. “What do we know about these creatures?” I asked, terrified by the thought that it was one of these “original vampires,” these “Elders”, who was holding my pregnant daughter captive.

Vivienne shook her head. “None of us have ever been in the presence of the Elder. We were never sure if the Elder was even real, but in hindsight, maybe the Elder had something to do with Derek turning over to the dark side.” I could tell by the expression in her eyes that whatever version of Derek had existed at that time, she hadn’t liked it.

“That was Derek at his worst, his darkest,” Xavier explained. “We were loyal to him. We loved him. He was our leader. But we all feared him.”

I didn’t need to know exactly what he’d done to get a picture of just what sacrifices were made to secure The Shade. I knew my history as a hunter and I knew the thousands of lives that were claimed before The Shade disappeared from the maps. Many companies of hunters—brave warriors—had been lost at the island.

The man my daughter had married was notorious for a reason. That was never a secret to me.

“He
never
said anything about the Elder? Ever? There must be something—anything—that we know about this creature. Even just tall tales and rumors.”

Vivienne shrugged. “As I said, none of us were even sure that the Elder existed until recently, when he started manifesting himself.”

“I’ve encountered him,” Claudia spoke up. “Once. A long time ago.”

All eyes turned toward the blonde vampire.

Claudia shifted uncomfortably on her feet, almost as if she were afraid we would hurt her.

“You’ve
seen
the Elder?” Yuri asked. Clearly, even he had never heard of this before.

Claudia shook her head. “No. I don’t think anyone ever has. Not even his children. He is a presence sensed. He is absolute coldness seeping into your bones, freezing you. He is pain. He is fear. I…”

Her eyes were wide with horror. I could only imagine what was going through her mind.

Vivienne was getting impatient. “How did you come to have an encounter with him? Why would you even want to go to him?”

“I never went to him, Vivienne.” Her voice came with a hiss as she uttered Vivienne’s name. “You don’t go to the Elder. He comes to you. When he pleases, and often times, he does it to draw blood. I don’t understand it, but he seems drawn to the darkness of one’s soul. We all have it, I think, and that’s what usually draws his presence.”

“He sounds like the devil himself,” Xavier muttered.

“He might as well be,” Claudia said softly, swallowing hard. Her eyes turned toward Yuri. She was crying out for him to reassure her, to let her know that despite what she was about to reveal, he would still love her.

Yuri had become one of my friends at The Shade, and I knew without a doubt that no matter what, he would still love her. Deeply. Nothing was ever going to change that.

An ache formed in my heart at that realization, because in Yuri and Claudia, I’d always seen myself and Camilla. I found myself wishing that they could survive whatever was to come. I wouldn’t have wished Camilla’s fate and mine on anyone.

“It’s all right, Claudia,” he assured her. “Tell us everything.”

“It was me whom the Elder came to in order to get to Derek. He instructed me on how to conjure the darkness in Derek. The first time the Elder came to me was the worst night of my life. I’ve seen evil in many of its forms, been a victim of it. I’ve even been evil myself, but nothing compares to the Elder. I don’t think Derek ever forgave me for bringing the Elder into his life. I…”

A bitter smile formed on Vivienne’s face. “I’m sure he has, Claudia. If he hadn’t forgiven you, I doubt you’d be alive.” She stood to her full height and nodded in resolution. “None of us are strangers to the atrocities that happened here at The Shade. That’s the past. Let’s leave it there. What we need to deal with now is that a force that is completely unknown to us is about to come to our home. The Elder isn’t just a myth like we once thought he was. He exists and he is not alone.” Vivienne shuddered as the implications of what she was saying sank into her—into all of us.

“We’ll survive this.” Liana spoke up. “We have to. I want that cure, Vivienne.” She turned to her husband and clutched his hand. “We’re so close to being human again, living with a family. Normal. Mortal. And Sofia… if she really is pregnant… Derek and Sofia are family to all of us. We’re family. We’ve made it this far for the past five centuries. Together. We need to get through this the same way. Together.”

I was taken aback by what she said. I’d known that Derek wanted the cure in order to become human and be with Sofia, but it had never dawned on me that any of the other vampires wanted it as badly as he did.

With Anna, the only immune apart from Sofia, having been taken to the hunters’ headquarters soon after Derek and Sofia had left, there was no way any of them could take the cure for themselves. For some reason, the cure made the stakes higher. I looked at every person in that room—all of them vampires—and found myself perturbed that I honestly saw each of them as family.

I’d be a fool to still think of myself as a hunter,
I thought,
but then again…
I thought of Zinnia and Julian and other comrades I’d made as a hunter, and I saw them as family too.

Liana’s pep talk seemed to have the desired effect on all involved. I had to give it to these vampires. They were resilient. Practically unbreakable.

“We’ll make it.” Cameron nodded.

“You don’t look convinced, Vivienne,” I said.

Vivienne forced a smile. “All I know is that if any of us are going to make it—together or otherwise—we need to know what we’re up against. Claudia, we’ll need you to tell us in detail everything you know about the Elder. Your encounters with him. What he did. What he put you through. That may be painful to relive, but it’s necessary for us to know.”

Claudia nodded. “All right. I’ll try to remember.”

“Good, but before that, Yuri, I need you to look through all the texts your brother has kept over the years. All the information about the original vampire. Legends, stories, rumors… I don’t care what it is. Find it. Ask Ashley to help you out. She’s already worked with Eli before when they were trying to figure out the hunters.” At that, Vivienne gave me a side glance, almost as if to apologize.

Yuri immediately went about the task, digging through the many resources his brother had collected over the past five centuries, leaving us all to hear what Claudia had to say.

“When the Elder comes, he will always make you bleed,” Claudia started. “An encounter with the Elder will always leave you in pain after.” She detailed how the Elder inflicted pain. The mystery of his invisible presence. She told us everything she knew.

“Okay,” I drawled after she was done. “We know what he is like. Now what we need to figure out is how to fight back. What are his weaknesses? How do we destroy him?”

Silence crossed the room as we all hung our heads to dwell on the reality we were facing:
How on earth do you fight a creature that you can only sense, but never see?

I was perched on an overhanging plateau at one side of the mountain range that was the Black Heights. I had to get away from everyone at the Catacombs, try to gather my thoughts together, find a dose of peace that could get me through the night.

I stared at the view ahead of me. Far into the distance, where the night of The Shade stopped and the day of the rest of the world was about to start, the sun was rising. It would only be a few hours before the Elders arrived.

“Vivienne?” A familiar, warm, soothing baritone spoke from behind me.

I was both relieved and shaken to have him around. Xavier had over the past months awakened my desire for him in so many ways that his very presence scared me. I was pleased to have his company, but I was also afraid of the effect he had on me.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you. I know this is one of the places you go to when you want to be alone.”

I smiled, sensing him approach from behind me. “You keep stalking me, Vaughn.”

“I would think you’d be used to it by now, Novak.” The tips of his fingers brushed against my shoulders, then down my arms. “Vivienne… You’re trembling. You’re scared.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Cameron and Liana are right. We’ve made it through a lot together. We can make it through this.”

“I want to believe that we can make it, but we don’t even know what we’re up against. All that talk about unity and togetherness sounds great, but the Elder is a threat just on his own. To think that there are more of his kind…” I heaved a sigh. “Yes. Liana is right. We need to make it through this together, but we also have to look at this with a dose of realism. Xavier, we are an Elder’s creations. Mutations of the original. We are just watered-down versions of that particular Elder’s power. Who knows what the others are capable of? The information Claudia revealed and Eli dug up… they’re threadbare clues to what kind of creatures these things are. How do we fight that?”