Two Halves Series (31 page)

“These shapeshifters concern me. I want them here, on my side, where they belong!” Aseret’s speech picked up momentum, though he didn’t seem to be speaking to anyone in particular.

“Master, Castall would not allow—”

“Do not ssspeak!” The demon at his side fell silent at Aseret’s hiss.

“Place herrr in the third cell.” His words were sluggish again.

The seekers hesitated, but did not question Aseret. I didn’t think anyone would.

Aseret turned away, floating toward the central staircase.
“Asamu rata lipear.”
The hushed whisper flowed out of his mouth in a thin, reddish stream of light which carried the strange words on a velvety cloud of steam that hit the force field around me, sizzled and dissipated its spell.

As soon as the shield was down, radiant heat of six new palms burned from above my shoulders and at the sides of my arms. They didn’t need to touch for me to feel the pressure of their strength. The seekers guided me through the second curtained entrance too quickly for my liking—I was still not used to the slippery floor.

Their palms urged me downward to the circular stone stairs, which ended at an unsavoury dungeon. The corridor was dank and dim with countless openings in the walls. Their interiors were obscured by a green sheer curtain of energy that projected foreign words randomly across their surface.

We passed two cells and stopped at the third, its opening blocked by a stream of green brightness flowing from the stairway behind us. The demons stepped inside the cell and pushed me against the back wall. Behind them, the light—a spell, I realized—spread to cover the entrance like those on the far side of the corridor.

“Do not try to pass through this spell,” the tallest of the seekers said, his voice a faint imitation of Aserets, but lower. “It will kill you.” They passed through the green barrier unscathed and left the dungeon without looking back.

The barrier intrigued me, and I focused on the scattered words. Fifteen of them floated on the green fog, and none except one looked familiar—my name.

I sat on the stone floor with my back against the cold side wall and wondered how long I’d be here. My stomach grumbled. The hunger did not bother me, but my heart did. The little needles were still poking. They had not stopped since the last time I’d seen William. “Where are you?” I whispered.

“Hello?” a weak male voice answered.

I sat up in surprise. “Who’s there?”

“I’m a prisoner in the fourth cell. Are you a prisoner as well?”

“Yes. They just brought me in.”

“What did you do?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I think I was too happy for their liking.” I forced out a chuckle, wondering how much I should share with the stranger. “Why are you here?”

“I’m a permanent resident.” He laughed quietly. “It’s been over two years now, I think.” After a pause, he added, “Creatures normally stay here a day or two, then they disappear.”

My hand went to my throat. “What do you mean disappear?” I felt the vibration of my voice under my fingers as I spoke.

“I mean they don’t come back to this world, or the one above. Sometimes they scream when they’re taken away. Sometimes, if Aseret is too bored to torture, he’ll order it to be over quickly. That doesn’t happen often.”

I wasn’t sure if I should ask my next question. “Are you a demon? You don’t sound like one.”

“I’m a vampire,” he answered.

A vampire locked away for so many years in a demon dungeon?
This couldn’t be a normal occurrence; they must have had a good reason to keep him here.
Could William’s parents be here? How many vampires had Aseret imprisoned?

“You’re a vampire too?”

I didn’t hear doubt in his tone that I was one—he spoke like a well-mannered gentleman.

A polite vampire?
“Yes, I am.” I hoped our similarity would bring him comfort, lessen the pain I heard in his voice. It surprised me, how normal I imagined him to be—like me. The ease of a conversation with a purebred vampire was natural. Even locked up, this vampire seemed tamer than the one I met at the motel.

“But you have a heartbeat?” I imagined him raising his brows. There was a hint of hope, even compassion, in the way he asked the question. The serum must have completely worn off. I wasn’t expecting my other half to be revealed so soon—especially to a real vampire.

“Yes.” I hesitated, not wanting to shock him—or make him hungrier for human blood than he probably already was. Not that there was much blood left in me—just enough to survive; enough to keep my heart beating. “I’m a little different from a regular vampire.”

“How different?” His voice was still quiet, full of anticipation.

“I’m also half human.”

Tiny clatters as pebbles fell from the ceiling, the sound spreading like a tsunami through the barren cell. I heard earthworms working their way toward the surface and demonic footsteps crossing the main hall upstairs. The occupant of the second cell was motionless. I started to wonder if the stranger was still there.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to upset you,” I said.

“You didn’t.” He was clearly trying to make his tone as normal as possible, but I could hear the undercurrent of excitement. I imagined him smiling.

Is he really that hungry? Have they not fed him here?
“Look, don’t try to break through your cell to get to me,” I blurted. “You’ll die. Even if you could, I’m still a vicious vampire. I’m sure I’m stronger than you.” My rambling most likely undermined my warning, but I did feel bad for the stranger and didn’t want him to get hurt.

“It’s okay, I don’t want your blood,” he assured me. “I’m just a little surprised. There’ve been different creatures imprisoned here, but none of them as interesting. What is your name?”

He thought I was interesting. Of course he would. There was only one other half-breed in the world.

“Sarah,” I answered. “I haven’t known exactly who I am for very long.”

“What do you eat?” My sensitive ears heard the fifth disc in his neck crack as he cocked his head to the side.

“Any human food, and blood—but I stick to animals. No human blood for me.” I shivered.

“What do you look like?” I heard the smile in his voice again. My story must be intriguing him.

“Well, I’m five-six; I have turquoise eyes, caramel skin and wavy auburn hair.” I heard him sigh pleasantly.
What a weird way to talk about myself.
“I look pretty young for twenty-one, but I do age. I’m not sure how that works, exactly, but I do age.” It was oddly comforting, talking to this neighbour I’d just met.

“Of course you would. You’re half human.”

My heart warmed unexpectedly. “Why are you here?” I asked, hoping he would be as generous with his answers as I was. “You said you’ve been here for a long time.”

“I was captured by Aseret over two years ago.” His voice was quiet now. “It was an ambush on one of our northern clans. Demons and vampires had an agreement that allowed them to coexist. Each stayed off the other’s territory and respected boundaries. Vampires lived on the northern continents. Demons thrived in the warmer climates of the south, feeding on the heat and Earth’s energy to grow stronger. But they thirsted for more and more power as they began eliminating vampires. The attack was quick. There were so many of them. That’s how I ended up here.”

“Where’s here?” I asked.

“We’re under Yellowstone National Park.”

Now my trip with the demons made sense. I should have recognized the heavy odour of sulphur. We must have travelled in a time vortex, going almost back to Pinedale.

“Before my time, when vampires and demons lived in harmony, Aseret was a good warlock taught by their leader, Castall,” my neighbour continued. “Aseret decided to strike out on his own. He wanted power and knew how to get it. When he became a demon, he upset the balance in the underworld, a balance that has not been altered for thousands of years. Aseret recruited frail warlocks and created an army. The weak-minded warlocks who couldn’t manage spells too well turned vicious. Aseret promised powers beyond their imagination, and they followed him. He wants to overcome the vampires; if he succeeds, overpowering other creatures will be easy.” I heard another crack in his neck as he lowered his head.

“But good warlocks still exist. They can help.” I tried to revive the vampire’s spirit.

“Yes, some remained good, like Castall, serving Earth the way they were meant to.” He drew a deep breath.

I liked this vampire. And the human virtues I heard in his story.

“Castall gave me the love of my life in exchange for a promise,” he continued. “We fought alongside the keepers without realizing they had a grander plan for us.”

The story sounded familiar and intriguing. It was striking a nerve inside my heart. My focus on the vampires’ connection to Castall broke as a strange feeling developed that I was slowly becoming involved in the tale. I imagined the vampire sitting beside me.

“Go on,” I encouraged my neighbour.

“We decided to split up. I’d run, making sure the seekers only followed me. I easily misled them—the young ones are not too smart. My wife went to a safe place, where she gave birth to our daughter. She . . . died. Her name was Saraphine. My name is Ekim.”

Chapter 16

“Ekim,” I repeated. A hush spread through the cell, so profound it bounced off the walls and came back to my ears. Shivers passed over my skin, then deepened to trembling. When I tried to speak again, I couldn’t. My lips felt glued together. The sound built up in my throat, increasing in pressure but unable to escape. My heart raced; I feared I’d faint. The tiny cell seemed to shrink, the walls closing in.

When the first wave of shock wore off, I was overwhelmed with happiness, not only relieved that I wasn’t alone, but that I had a better ally here than I’d thought. My breathing quickened, running wild until my lips finally parted to let out some air, releasing the mounting pressure.

My chest tightened, and my eyes welled up. Until now, I’d thought my heart was only composed of the two halves; mine and William’s. But now there was a third part. How I wished William was as close as my father was; how I wished I could share this moment with him.

I wanted to say the first words to my father that I’d practiced so many times, but before I could, I saw a flash of bright beams centered between two figures standing at opposite ends of a large hall, their arms outstretched. Streams of light flowed from their palms, one fiery red, the other cold blue; their exerted power met in the center of the hall in a dazzling flash of energy, a beautiful but dangerous display of power. The energy fed me more information from the vision.

The flame-red palms shook as their owner, Aseret, shrieked in happiness. The other hands were steady, despite the frail appearance of the man. He was tall and thin, with long, silvery-gray hair and pale, wrinkled skin. The vision turned both men around, and now I saw eyes full of wisdom, concentration, and peace. There was no fierceness in the old man’s expression as in Aseret’s, only composure and certainty. He looked more like a warlock than a demon. Castall.

“Run, now!” he yelled—and I was back in my small and gloomy cell.

Unable to gather the pieces of this future, I concentrated on the present. I managed to release some words from the back of my throat. “Are you . . . my . . .” I hesitated; saying “father” felt foreign. I decided not to ask, but to say it, hoping it would be true. “You are my father.”

I held my breath, praying no one was pulling a prank or casting a spell.

“Yes, Sarah.” Ekim’s voice was soft, though louder and happier than before. “I am. I was hoping we would meet one day, but under more pleasant circumstances,” he added ruefully.

“Why are they holding you here?” I’d thought my first words to my father would include something like “I missed you” or “I’m sorry I judged you,” but although he was biologically my father, he was still a stranger in my world. No, he was new in my life.

“I’m here as bait. Aseret wants power, and the only way for him to get it is through you and William.”

“You know William?” I already knew the answer, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say his name out loud.

“I do.”

“We were supposed to rescue you,” I said, dejected.

“Good job. Did William come up with that brilliant plan?”

I chuckled, then covered my mouth for a second to regain my composure. “We both did.”

“You shouldn’t be here, Sarah.” His voice sounded muffled, and I imagined him placing his head in his palms.

“It was the only way to find you, and William’s parents.” I leaned my elbows on my knees.

“It’s too dangerous for you to be here.” Ekim’s frail voice fell by an octave.

“Aseret seems to think I’m useless.” I lowered my head.

“He lied. If he thought you were useless, he would not have allowed you to live.”

“How are we supposed to help the underworld if we’re not here?” My hands flew up in the air.

“Is that what Castall told you? That you have to be here to save the underworld?”

“Not in those exact words.”

“I see.”

“Are you mocking me?” I tilted my head to the side.

“Do you want me to mock you?”

Our bickering seemed so natural.
Has he really been gone all my life?

“I’m sorry,” we said at the same time.

“I just wish you were back on Earth.” His words were heartfelt and sad. His love was clear in every syllable. “You’re in danger here.”

I sighed. “I have so many questions. I don’t know where to start.”

“Let me explain,” he offered.

I nodded. “Please.”

A pause, then after a long exhale he continued. “Your life must have been confusing and lonely. I’m sorry for that, but it was for your protection. We did everything to make sure Aseret couldn’t get his hands on you and William. The day I met your mother, there were spells and curses already cast that would change our fates forever.” I heard defeat and loss in his voice. “I remember 1856 as if it were yesterday. William’s father and I were not yet best friends when we saw two beauties out in the field picking flowers. We were merely hunting companions and, at that time, happy two victims had strolled by instead of one. Otherwise we would have fought over who’d get the kill.”