The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (20 page)

I can feel my breath bubbling up within me, until I
let out a whoop of joy as I race through the grasslands on Thunder, my black
stallion. I can barely hear a thing over the roaring wind, but turning to my
right again, I can see Jocelyn making clicking sounds at Latte - her light
brown mare - and to my left Edgar is stroking the dark, almost black rump of
Jet; Edgar's stallion. Star, Scott's Horse, must have had a shot of adrenalin
racing through his veins consider how fast they had disappeared.

Twilight descends upon us as we travel up the dirt
path to the house. The lights are burning bright now, and we can hear laughter,
and music coming from within. The soft, sweet sounds of a violin being played
reach us from the front porch, and the voice of a woman sings sweetly at
heavenly heights. Hearing the woman's voice, a horrid, spine tingling memory
rises to the front of my mind.

Darkness and pain is all that I know.
Darkness, pain and a voice as sweet as the angels, if they exist. My eyes see
nothing within the darkness, but I can feel her soft, sweet hands caressing me,
healing me, nurturing me back to perfection as her voice sings sweetly, healing
me in ways that go deeper than flesh and bone. Her voice is all that I want, no
need to hear, for all of eternity. If only it was possible to tell her how I
feel, to show her what I wish could be. She sings of freedom and the future in
the 'High Lands'. I can almost picture a perfect place, a place without sorrow
or darkness, where she could be mine. My dear sweet Angeline.

Jocelyn looks at me in concern, her dark amber eyes
burning brightly in the twilight. I shake my head swiftly, one slight motion to
tell her not to ask. There is concern in her eyes, and I know that she wants to
help me, to take away whatever pain there must be in my eyes. Pulling myself
together I turn away from her, and rap my knuckles against the door; once,
twice, thrice. The music abruptly halts at the sound of my knocking. There is
the noise of shuffling skirts, and muffled voices, and then the creak of the
door opening.

A soft, mousy brown eye appears through the crack.
When whoever had open the door saw that we were a part of the Kings warriors,
the door opens wider, and I can see that it is a young girl, no older than
fourteen. Her hair falls in soft golden brown curls, her skin a light blush of
pink and her lips are, as all vampires lips are, scarlet red. She is a small
thing, petite but it is clear that she is no child but a young, growing woman.

"Can I help you Sir?" She asks, and her
voice is delicate, light like air.

"Yes, Can I come in for a moment, Miss?" I
ask politely, it is always best to handle young women like her with care.

"Of course Sir, and its Miss Mazurow, Helen
Mazurow," The young girl says opening the door wide open for us, and
allowing us to enter into the building. Before we can enter Edgar comes
bounding up the steps from tying our horses to a tree branch. We enter into the
house as a group, and Helen shows us the lounge room, where we find Scott
sitting on the couch, a man sitting on a stool with the violin in his hands,
and one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Her hair comes down in
dark curls, which fall down to the bottom of her bust. Her dark brown eyes,
burn brightly in the candle light, but shine with memories of a past that I
know we have shared. Her crimson lips, look smooth, kissable like velvet. Her
velvet lips pull up into a smile.

"How can I help you good Sirs and Madam?"
The Older woman says, and I deflate quickly, as the hope of her saying my name,
of her recognizing me goes up in smoke.

"Madam, as my friend here may have told you we
need a place to stay for the night. Your house is the only one in miles, and we
were hoping that you could offer us sanctuary from the night," I say,
before she inclines her head in understand.

"Of course, our home is always open for the
services of the King. This is my servant Jed, my personal, walking 'blood-bag'
if you will. You've met my daughter Helen, and I am Angeline. Dinner will be
ready quite soon. Please sit, Jed, Helen and I were entertaining
ourselves," Angeline says, and I look up into her eyes hoping, hoping that
she recognizes me, but the ghosts of me and our past have fled from her eyes,
and the recognition I was hoping from her is nowhere to be seen.

From the corner of my eye I see Jocelyn moving to
take a seat next to Scott, and as she brushes past me, I can feel the cold hard
energy radiating from her. Her anger burning through her veins lashes out at
me, and I sense that somehow I've disappointed her, and that I've made her
angry, though I have no idea as to why.

Time flies by as I listen to Jed 'the blood-bag'
play violin, and Angeline and Helen singing. We are alerted for dinner, and we
move out from the lounge room to the dinning room were the house-maid has laid
out dinner for all of us. A platting of fried pork, vegetables and potato's are
dished out to us, plus a dish of gravy, and a bottle or two of wine are placed
upon the table with our glasses. I sit at the end of the table facing Angeline,
with Edgar and Jocelyn on either side of me. Scott and Helen are sitting on
either side of Angeline, and thus this is how we are seated.

We eat in silence as my men and I fill our bellies.
I notice that instead of eating the food, Angeline is feeding off of Jed's arm,
her vampire teeth deep within his skin. We can all here Jed's low moans, almost
guttural groans like that of an animal's. I can tell that Scott and Edgar want
to take a bite of Jed, but I cannot sense the need for blood, for I am not a
vampire, and thus I do not lust for that crimson drug as they do.

When dinner is done, the plates taken away, and Jed
sent to eat to replenish his own human needs, we sat at the table in silence.
"Angeline, I want to thank you for what you are doing for us tonight. I
know that you do not know us, and thus the deed your doing is of even greater
value. I must confess that tonight is the last night of a short journey for
us."

"And where, if I may ask, is your headed
destination? There is nothing out in these parts besides..." Angeline
starts to say, her eyes darkening as the Mer-people territory came to mind.

"Atlantis, the Mer-kingdom. That is indeed our
destination. We are on a mission for our King, Victor Menédez. I'm sure you are
aware of the problem within our world, the Skin-walkers to be precise. King
Menédez has declared war upon the Skin-walkers. Thus why we are out here, on
our way to Atlantis; to recruit people to fight in the war against the poison
within our world. If there were men within your household I would have been
asking them to join us in the war, as it is we can only recruit females who can
fight or heal."

"And you would like to recruit our help,
Sir," Helen asks, her questioning, mouse brown eyes turning to me.

"If you and your mother have the ability to
heal, then yes we are in need of your assistance," I sigh on a final
breath. I have to admit the thought of whether Angelina would offer her
assistance, and then when it came to me I banish it from my mind. What does it
matter to me if she would want to help or not, she is a memory from my past,
something to be forgotten, and though she sits before me now, I still have no
need to bring up the ghosts of the past.

"I'm sorry Sir, my daughter and I have no
skills to offer to you. If we did, we would have been honoured to serve our
King and country in any means possible. You are still however, welcome to use
our housing as you please. As the humans say, Mi casa es su casa,"
Angeline says, before licking at the trickle of blood that runs from the corner
of her lips.

"Of course, and thank you for your generosity
Madam," I say before standing up, my team following me as Helen directs us
to our rooms.

"You three boys will have to share a room, as
we only have the one guest room," Helen says as we make our way up the
stairs. "As for you Miss, you'll be sharing my bedroom with me. I hope
that's okay?" Jocelyn doesn't make a sound of protest, and neither do we.
The night is a bit more comforting in each other's presence, and we relax as we
fall asleep, small quite talk passing between us until the only sounds left is our
breathing.

"Kayden," She breaths, her
warm breath tickling my skin, stirring the strands of hair that hang in my
face. "Kayden, wake up," She says again, her warm hands finding
purchase on my shoulders.

"Angeline?" I ask my voice
thick and croaky with need. Her hands halt for a moment, as if shocked to be
confused for the person who I am truly calling for.

"No, I'm not Angeline. You need to
get up and to get out. She's draining you of your blood, soon there will be no
more blood within you, and you'll outlive your purpose," The woman stops
for a moment, as if the thought is just sinking in. "She has no use for
things without purpose." I reach up for the woman's face, my fingertips
brush against her soft lips.

"Who are you, and why do you
care?" I ask, now knowing that she is a friend and not an enemy.

"I'm a friend, and let's just say
I'm doing a favour for someone else," The woman says, as she pulls me up
to a sitting position. She helps me put my shoes on and I reach out for her
again.

"Who?" I ask, her amber eyes
meet my eyes, there's a darkness in her eyes, which terrifies me, what horrors
has she known?

"King Menédez, your Oath
Brother," She says, as she kneels before me, she gets up onto her own feet
before pulling me up as well, and leading me out the door. We run leaving a
scorning, loathing Angeline behind us.

The light outside is a dull grey, an early predawn
light that seeps underneath the thin, shabby window curtains. I can see Scott
in one bed, and Edgar on a mattress placed on the hard wood floor boards and
standing in the doorway, what must have awoken me from my memory filled dreams,
was the vampire that had saved me from a life of a 'blood-bag', Jocelyn.

"Joyce," I whisper, beckoning her to come
to me. She smiles sweetly, as she makes her way over to the bed, and gets
underneath the blankets snuggling against me. Her small body fits perfectly
against mine, and as I wrap my arms around her body, I place a gentle kiss against
her forehead. "I was just dreaming of the night you saved me from this
house." I tell her and I feel her sigh against my chest.

"I was just thinking about it too, and that
poor fellow that she was feeding on tonight. You were lucky, you had someone
that wanted to save you, but him, I don't know if he'll even survive the end of
the week let alone the end of the month. Considering how sallow he
looked." Jocelyn's breath is thick and heavy, against my cheek.

"For months after you saved me, I wasn't myself.
I had in-fact, forgotten who I was. I couldn't do anything without being scared
that I was going to do something wrong, and be punished for it. It wasn't until
we were fighting around in the arena, and you beat me that I realized that to
heal, and get over it all, that I would have to pull myself together. That, and
the fact that I couldn't allow a girl to beat me," I say, turning to the
girl beside me, the girl with the brightly burning amber eyes that shine like
hot coal.

"And you eventually came to your sense, and
were able to beat me in the arena. However, I enjoyed myself in the time that
it took for you to do so," Jocelyn says, before leaning up and placing her
soft lips on mine. I allow myself to indulge in the warmth of her soft kisses
before I have to pull away for breath and the need to get up and out before we
are all trapped.

"We have to go, before the sun-rises. Before
she
rises. We can't afford to be trapped in here with her," I say, getting up
and making Jocelyn move as well. "Go; get everything read for our
departure. I'll wake up Scott and Edgar." Jocelyn dashes out the door
before I can say another word, and as I pull on my pants, I quickly make my way
over to Scott's bed to rouse him, before I make my way over to Edgar's bed to rouse
him as well. We quickly dress ourselves, and without them asking me any
questions, we make our way outside before the sun even rises. There is no way
that I am staying here any longer than need be, not with that devil of a woman
in that house.

The great blue is within sight from the two-story,
cabin and we race toward it, Thunder, Latte, Jet and Star carrying us as they
run, their legs pounding against the ground, their steps thrum with the beats
of my heart. It is a very short ride from the house to the shore line, the sun
barely moving from one point to another in the sky before we have arrived at
the Shore, the boundary line of Atlantis the Mer-kingdom. The house - and the
ghosts and memories it had raised within me - has been left far behind, and now
we are back on track, our mission before us.

No-one ever dares to enter Atlantis, the deep, black
waters are enough to drive anyone away from its shore lines, but what most
people fear is the barely human creatures that roam the waters. There are more
in the depths of the ocean, of Atlantis then the Mer-people; who resemble
humans but have little compassion. There are legends of what could be within
these black waters, legends to scare children away from the shores, from the
all-consuming waters. Legends that tell of things that seek nothing but the
deaths of 'land-walkers', things with souls as black as the waters that they
swim within. No light reaches the bottom of these waters, and we are about to
find out how far their depths are.