Giver of Light (36 page)

One more step closer, one less beat from my dying heart.

“Who is the spy?” I asked numbly. Running out of time. Running out of options. Running out of courage.

“She has been very useful, if not demanding, but I fear disclosing her identity right now would be a little rash. She may still have some tricks of her own. I don't entirely trust her. She has proven slippery in the past.”

I couldn't think who he was referring to. He'd mentioned a female before, one who had insisted on me being drugged, who would have killed me if he hadn't have complied. I had no idea if this was all a ruse, or a trick of his own, but if not, then I could only assume the female he referred to as the spy and the female who had threatened my life, were one and the same. But who? Alessandra? It would make sense, she was more than capable of such treachery, but that didn't help me right now. Jonathan had taken the last step and stood right before me, an arm's reach away.

Samson stepped in front of my body as a shield, but Jonathan only laughed.

“Do you wish me to kill your child, sweetheart?”

“Stand down, Samson,” I heard myself say. He didn't move. I lifted my hand to pull on his sleeve and found myself on my knees on the floor.

What the fuck?

It took a moment for me to sort out the sensations; the pain, the fear, the dread, the surprise. The realisation of the truth.

Samson knelt down next to me, as did Jonathan. The latter being close enough to strike with that needle he still held firmly in his grasp, but he didn't. At the same time as Samson asked if I was OK, Jonathan did too.

“What is it, Lucinda? What is wrong?”

I swallowed twice before attempting to answer, my breath a ragged gasp in my chest, my heart frantically trying to escape out of the pulse at the side of my neck. I curled my body against the onslaught, my shields shattering, my mind invaded and threatening to explode. My hands came up to the sides of my head and I screamed and screamed and screamed. I couldn't fight this, I couldn't possibly win. I wasn't strong enough and she was too much for me.

“Lucinda!” Jonathan shouted, dropping the syringe to the floor and using both hands to hold me by the shoulders and shake.

It helped, a little, the pain of his grip and the disorientation of my head lolling back and forward as he shook, managed, somehow, to loosen her hold. I felt an unusually powerful presence in my mind then, frantically building my metaphysical walls. I knew this signature, I had felt it in my head before, but I simply couldn't place it. Not right now, not when so much was happening all around me.

As my shields were hastily erected and I felt that new presence casting her out of my mind and slamming the door behind her, I heard a male voice say,
It is all I can do for now, child. Use the time I have given to gain your strength, she is near and you must face her now, or all is lost.

Who are you?
I asked inside my head. Friend or foe? Good or bad? Dark versus Light?

You know me, we once fought side by side. My promise to your mother has been kept,  now keep yours and hold the Dark dear.

With that he was gone, but not before he washed my body with his own Light, so bright, so strong, so much more than even mine. As big as Nut, as powerful as the strongest vampire, as warm and loving as a father to their child.

One name rang out in his absence.
Ambrosia.
He was the Ambrosia. A member of the
Iunctio's
council, an ancient vampire who had once stood beside me as we battled an attack on the Champion's life, the leader of the
Iunctio's
council.

He had been in my head at that time too, that's why he felt familiar. And he had spoken to Nut through me. Shit. I'd forgotten the old vampire, but I couldn't forget the Light that shined in him. He was brighter than some Nosferatins I know. Nut had called him father and that is exactly what he felt like right now. A protective parent, looking out for his child.

I didn't waste time gathering myself, he'd given me a reprieve, I wasn't going to throw it away and let Jonathan use it. I quickly rolled over and picked up the syringe pushing the plunger all the way down and making the drug spill out onto the polished concrete floor. Jonathan's frantic movements to stop me, told me everything I needed to know. He didn't have another immediately on him, no doubt he could get more given time, but now, as they say, his time was up.

With the force of 100 tonnes of TNT the back half of
Sensations
crumbled to the ground in a hail of bricks and mortar, dust and debris. Coughing through the carnage, my hand firmly in Samson's as he led me across the dance floor, somehow managing to find Michel's vampires despite the lack of vision, I knew Pete had gone for bust.

As far as distractions go, he wasn't pulling any punches.

Chaos reigned, ghouls stormed in and vampires good and bad, began to fight.

And all I could feel was her presence, near the rogue and Marcus, down in Aotea Square, calling, beckoning, teasing.

The Queen of Darkness had come for me and she wanted to play.

Locating Michel's vampires in amongst the mayhem of falling masonry and attacking vampires was one thing, releasing them from their chains of silver, a whole other. It took precious minutes to unbind each vamp and even when one was free, his recovery from the effects of silver was too steep to aid in releasing the others. Samson and I were on our own, the ghouls holding off Jonathan's men and Matthias AWOL. I couldn't even sense him and I had the feeling something bad may have, in fact, transpired.

Bad. Ha! That was a laugh. Right now bad would have been OK, what we had could definitely be classed as up shit creek without a paddle.

I'd just managed to undo the last vampire in the row, Samson was still working on his final prisoner, having a little more of a challenge with silver than I, when the vampire in front of me squawked. His eyes went wide, saucer wide and before he had a chance to shout a warning, I was pulled back into the swirling dust cover by a hand in my hair.

Bloody hell it hurt. My hands instinctively went up to try to grab my hair back, or at least get a grip between my scalp and the fist that had a hold of most of my hair. A barrier to ease the pain, but whoever it was, was holding on tight and dragging me from the scene at high speed.

I struggled and kicked and when I realised I couldn't get a hand in my hair to ease the stinging pain of having it almost wrenched out, I started whacking at the body over my shoulder, in a flurry of flailing arms and slapping palms. He didn't stop, nor even attempt to shield himself from my blows, he ignored everything I did to him as though possessed and on a mission from God. I changed tactics - a fighter has to adapt to challenging situations - and started trying to grab hold of tables and chairs and door jams to halt our retreat.

That slowed us down, but didn't stop our increasing distance from the battle that raged in the bar. And instead of going out the front of the building, the path of least resistance, but undoubtedly the one swarming with ghouls and now Michel's freed vampires, we were heading out the back, across fallen walls and ceilings and rubble the size of Mt Cook.

God dammit. Not only was my head screaming for release, but now I was covered in the criss cross of scrapes and bruises from jagged concrete and the odd reinforcing bar. And still I couldn't stop our retreat.

Finally, we emerged in the garage, or what was left of it. The vampire holding on paused, no doubt considering his next move, so I took advantage and elbowed him hard in the stomach, twisting in his grip and ignoring the several strands of hair that came out during the motion and prepared to whack him across the face.

“Hold still, sweetheart. I've got to find us a car.”

“I am not your sweetheart!” I countered. I'd known it was Jonathan as soon as he'd grabbed my hair, but I'd refused to allow myself to acknowledge it. The longer I believed my assailant to be anonymous, the stronger I was able to be. No such luck now, the creep had opened his mouth and removed all shadow of doubt.

He ignored me and with his arm now wrapped around my waist, hauled me off the ground and ran across the car tossed space, to the very end where one of Michel's Land Rovers had miraculously survived the ghoul attack. Reaching into his jacket pocket, I had moment of abject fear - thinking a syringe would be revealed - and was unbelievably relieved to see only handcuffs, which is why I was too slow lashing out with my fist before he managed to handcuff both my hands to the hand rail inside the passenger side door.

In a second he was around the driver's side and starting the vehicle with a simple hand motion over the ignition. Vampires would make great car thieves, no need for any tools.

“Where are you taking me?” I demanded over my shoulder, trying to glare at him, but the position of the hand rail and both my arms, making it damn near impossible to face him straight on.

“Away from here. She is close and I will not have her kill you.”

OK. I sympathised with the notion, but...

“Who the fuck is she?” I'd had enough of guessing. I wanted answers.

“She rules the Dark, Lucinda. She wants us all. Every Nosferatu, every Nosferatin, she wants us all cloaked in Dark.”

“The Queen of Darkness,” I breathed, feeling that pull, that enticing attraction to where she waited at Aotea Square.

“I don't know if she is a Queen, but she is the strongest vampire I have ever encountered. And the Darkest.”

“Who is she then?” I couldn't believe I was having a somewhat civilised conversation with Jonathan, but then he was driving me away from the evil Darkness that was spreading out through Auckland CBD, like a fog on an early autumn morning, swallowing up all the scenery in its path.

“I don't know her name, I'm not even sure if the woman I met is her true identity. She was cloaked in more than just
Sanguis Vitam
when we met. And she also... wasn't exactly there.”

“Well, that's helpful, Jonathan. Really descriptive. And you think we can just out run this uber-powerful vampire?”

“I'm willing to give it a go, for now. Until I can get another dose of the drug into you, it's the best shot we have.”

That fucking drug. “Good luck with that,” I muttered, then uselessly rattled on the handcuffs holding me tight.

He laughed and ran a shudder-worthy hand over my thigh, thankfully removing it to negotiate a difficult intersection.

“I told you, you are mine and I always take care of what is mine. With the drug on board, you are separated from your Prophesied powers, she can no longer sense you, nor find you. Nor do you provide a threat to her goals. She will give up hunting you, just as she did when you were drugged before. As I said, sweetheart, I have no choice. It has to be this way.”

“There are always choices,” I said absently, trying frantically to think of a way to get out of the damn cuffs and sliding my stake into his broad chest.

“Yes. There are. But, the drugs have the added bonus of making you forget your previous existence and fall into the present. I am your present. The only reason it failed before was the loss of connection to your kindred and I have him now. So things will go according to plan.”

He sounded so sure, so positive, that Michel was his and I didn't want to believe him, I so didn't want it to be the case at all, but I couldn't sense Michel and that would only mean one thing. He was shielded to me, most likely by a combination of silver and drugs. I closed my eyes and tried to push the pain of that thought away. How the hell did he get Michel? Michel, a level one master vampire, Master of a City, joined to the most powerful Nosferatin in the world. How the hell, did Jonathan get the upper hand?

I concentrated on my Light, on my Nosferatin powers and on the powers of our Bond. If it was likely I was going to be drugged soon - and although I intended to make that as difficult as possible for Jonathan to achieve, I wasn't so cocky to believe it wasn't a viable outcome - then I would use the time I had left to send what I could to my kindred. If he had a boost in powers, maybe it would be just enough to get himself free.

I let the Light build inside me until I felt it bursting at the edges of my skin, I vaguely heard Jonathan exclaim something next to me, his firm grip on my shoulder, a shout in my ear, but I was too wrapped up in my Light to really notice and when I could hold it no longer, I let it out, down that connection, that Bond to Michel. And before I knew it, I was hurtling down that Bond myself and slamming into a wall. My body ached from head to toe, as though I had been literally thrown against a brick building, the full force of the impact rattling in my bones. My head throbbed, my back felt like it had been split in two, my chest was bursting with a frantic need to breathe and my stomach gave an almighty heave, but thankfully held its contents. And then the wall shattered.

And I fell on the ground at Michel's feet.

Despite the aches and pains throughout my body, I was up and crouching, a silver stake already in my hand. My gaze took in the scene around me immediately. Michel, chained by silver, hanging against a plastered wall. Welts around his wrists, where the chain securely held him, his arms above his head, stretched out on either side. More chains and welts around his neck and again at his ankles, spreading his legs to form a star fish against the wall. He was naked and had marks and cuts and deep gashes all over his skin. The blood slowly dripping down his body and into a pool on the floor.

So much blood.

I shook my head to clear the frozen image of a bedroom full of blood, a mattress floating in a sea of red and forced myself to continue to take in the rest of the environment around me. We were alone, in a small, unfurnished room. I sent my senses out and could feel vampires all around us. Some of them ours and some of them clearly not. We were outnumbered and out gunned. I could feel all of Michel's vampires in a similar situation as him. Chained, silvered, compromised.

Except one.

Erika.

I couldn't understand why she was free, but I didn't have time to think about it right now. I glanced down at my body, it looked normal, corporeal, me, but I had a feeling I was kind of Dream Walking, although I had never Dream Walked down the Bond connection to Michel before, so this was all very much new territory. I couldn't rely on my usual Dream Walking skills; invisibility, no smell, or sound, or the ability for vamps to sense me. I hoped it was like a Dream Walk, but I couldn't be sure, so time was of the essence.

I stood up and returned my attention to Michel. He looked unconscious, maybe even retreated into that place vampires can go to when threatened, when trying to conserve their energy, or appear non-threatening to an enemy. He wasn't breathing, there was no pulse, he was supernatural still. But I could feel him in front of me, despite not being able to feel him when back in my body, here I could feel it all. He wasn't drugged, so maybe the room itself was the shield. It didn't matter, the relief of him not being drugged was enough to make me smile like an idiot, regardless of how much shit we were still neck deep in.

I didn't know how much time this latest Dream Walk-like moment would give me, so I rushed over to the chains and began frantically trying to undo them. Before I'd fumbled for less than a minute, I knew I couldn't free him without a tool. They were padlocked and beyond finger manipulation. I groaned in frustration and bit my lip.

“Use the Bond,
ma douce,
” came Michel's weakened voice, as though he was talking from so very far, far away.

“Michel?”

“Use the Bond, it will overcome any obstacle to get to me.”

I had forgotten that the Bond could do that. It allowed us to stay connected over distance, to overcome any hurdle to get to our kindred despite how far away they might be or how trapped they could be kept. I closed my eyes, with my hand over one of the locks and tried to home in on the Bond, or whatever it was that connected us. Nothing happened, not even a tingle. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough? Maybe I needed to think of  a magic word? Open Sesame. Abracadabra. Kazam. Nothing. Zip. Not a thing.

“Breathe,
ma belle
.” Michel actually laughed. Damn him, silvered and chained, he still managed to laugh at me. “Just relax and breathe, it will do the rest.”

I took a deep breath in and when I released it, the padlock clicked open and the silver chain unravelled releasing his arm. He groaned as the silver slid against his raw skin and his arm moved stiffly down to rest against his chest. I made quick work of the rest of the locks and when he was finally free, he stumbled forward into my arms, both of us collapsing to the floor.

“I am weak. I need blood.” I knew he could feed from me when Dream Walking, although he couldn't really see me, once a vampire had me in their arms, they had no problem finding a vein and biting deep. I could be drained, killed, while Dream Walking. It had its advantages, but it wasn't completely safe. Not that I thought Michel would drain me, no, I was just more grateful he could actually feed from me right now at all.

I took hold of his head and directed his mouth to the curve of my neck. His tongue came out and lapped against my pulse, locating the precious blood beneath the skin and then with a moan he slid his fangs in. Wrapping his arms around my body and pulling me into his lap. He pulled deeply on my blood, a soft purr coming from the back of his throat. It took no more than a minute, longer than he would usually feed, but not long enough to have too adverse an effect on me once I returned to my body. And he didn't make it anything else other than a warm and loving sensation, a sharing of power and strength, his gratitude mixed with his promise, that he would return to me, no matter what.

When he withdrew his fangs and licked the marks, he rested his forehead against mine for a moment and inhaled deeply.

“Are you safe?” he asked softly, after a moment of enjoying being near.

“For now,” I lied, only to have him pull back and look at me deeply in the eyes, or whatever it is he sees when I'm Dream Walking. I hadn't fooled him though, he could probably read my mind even though I wasn't really here.

“Do you know where he is taking you?”

I shook my head. “We were heading west, out of the CBD. He just wanted to get me away from the Queen of Darkness. For now he wants me alive, but he will drug me as soon as he can.”

“Does he have the drug on him?”