Jax looked to me, then back at the guard before taking off at a run again. He was first to the door, but I was only a step behind. We headed down the stairs, in the dark, my lungs burning as I took the steps two at a time, grabbing hold of Jax’s shirt just before the bottom.
“You can’t do this,” I whispered, reaching for his hand in the dark. “Where is it? I know you have a strand of fur. Give it to me.”
“No, you have risked enough. Let me do this. I have spent enough time with the humans to be able to do this. Des, please.”
Would he even be able to handle the human emotions? What if he can’t take it, how will I get it back?
“Okay, but if you think you can’t take it, what are we going to do to get it back out of you?” I whispered back.
“I have two strands of yowie fur left. Here, you take one and then if I start going crazy you can take it. Deal?”
I paused trying to think of a reason he shouldn’t be the one to try this. Finally, I nodded and released my grip on his shirt. He raised his hand between us, a single strand between his fingers. I took it from him and he hit the release on the wall and the door shot up.
Ava was standing in front of the bars.
“There is no other way,” Ava said as she reached her arm out towards the bars. “You need his power and I’m the only one who can take it.”
“Ava, no!” I called and both Jax and I ran towards her.
But before we could reach her, the vampire was there. His hand shot through the bars, grasping hold of hers.
The vampire hissed as the light turned his flesh black, but he didn’t let go.
“Jax, blast him!”
We both sent orbs of light towards the bars and the vampire released Ava with a growl as it slunk back into the safety of the darkness, a chilling laugh lingering in its wake.
Ava turned slowly and raised her head.
“Mum, I don’t feel good,” she said as she took a step and stumbled towards me. Jax regained movement and reached for her before I could. She grabbed a hold of his arm to steady herself and when she looked back up to me I sucked in a breath. My stomach sunk as I watched a tear run down her blushed cheek, her blood red eyes gleaming back at me.
16
“AVA, WHAT DID YOU DO?” I asked, still trying to process what I was seeing.
“Ava,” the vampire whispered through the dark. “What are you, little thing?”
“She is none of your business. Jax, let’s get her out of here,” I said and grabbed Ava’s other arm to help her out of the room. The second we were back on the stairs Jax pulled a folding orb from his jacket and I didn’t protest one bit.
He brought us to my room in the elf palace. Ava collapsed, a huge weight in our grasp the instant the folding cloud released us.
We quickly laid Ava down on the bed. “Ava, sweetheart, can you hear me?”
Her breaths were shallow and short and even with light shaking she wouldn’t stir.
“What happened?” King Blake asked, rushing into the room and coming to grasp Ava’s hand on the other side of the bed.
“She must have overheard us talking, she froze the guard. I couldn’t stop her.”
“She let the vampire power in?”
I nodded. “How do I get it out of her?”
“Do you still have the fur?”
“I... I think I dropped mine. Jax, do you have yours?”
“Yes, here,” he said, holding up the tiny strand.
“That is not much at all, I am not sure it will work. Where did you drop yours?” King Blake asked.
“In the cell, near the vampire I think. Oh my Fey, what if the vampire got it?”
“Stay with her,” King Blake said, then stepped back and threw a folding orb high into the air.
“Can you go get Maylea and Sien?” I asked Jax and he didn’t question why, just stepped back, throwing another folding orb into the air and reciting the cast.
I gripped Ava’s hand tighter. “Come on, sweetie, please, please wake up.”
I laid my hand over her heart. It wasn’t as fast as it usually was. Instead, it drummed only a beat every two or three seconds.
I squeezed her hand in mine, begging her to wake.
“Des,” Maylea called as she appeared along with Jax, Sien, and Max, under a folding cloud. “What happened?”
“Ava touched a creature and absorbed his power.”
“I thought she was protected here?” Max asked, coming to Ava’s side.
I shook my head. “It wasn’t working. It never really was. Her magic kind of finds a way to cancel out whatever cast is stopping the absorption.”
“So we have no way to stop her obtaining new magic?” Max asked.
“The vampire touched her and she absorbed his power, so maybe it’s as simple as we don’t let her touch anyone magical without gloves or something?”
“It’s worth a shot, but what’s to say it doesn’t come from being near a creature too? We can’t keep her isolated forever,” Maylea added as she laid the back of her hand against Ava’s forehead. “The poor child is burning up. Des, go get a wet washcloth.”
I dashed to the bathroom and returned to find King Blake standing in my spot. “Did you find it?” I asked, moving to lay the cloth over Ava’s head.
“I did, here,” he replied, holding out his hand with a single strand of fur in between his thumb and forefinger.
“Des, is that what I think it is?” Max asked.
“Jax didn’t use it all, we were going to use it to try to take the vampire’s power, but Ava got there first.”
“What vampire?” Maylea asked.
“The vampire Traflier hid in the catacombs. King Blake thinks if we can dose Traflier with the vampire’s power it will consume his mind so much we could have a shot at restraining him.”
“You used Ava?” Max glared towards King Blake.
“No, Dad.” I took the strand from King Blake. “Ava overheard Jax and I, she ran in and froze the guard, she wanted to take the power from the vampire. Now I just hope these two tiny strands are enough to take it back out of her.”
King Blake moved a pink lock of Ava’s hair off her cheek with one finger, “It has to work.”
Sien stepped beside the king. “The power Ava has is a copy, so you should be able to take it, despite the vampire’s confidence you could not.”
“Do it now,” Max said, stepping back from Ava.
“Here,” Jax said, holding out his hand to me.
“If you feel like it is too much, or the single strand won’t take it, you have to let me do it,” I said, handing him one of the strands.
He nodded and moved to stand between Ava and I. “You all might want to step back a little. I don’t want to take anything from anyone else.”
We moved back towards the wall, and Jax held the strands up between his fingers.
He can take it. This has to work.
I looked for Ava’s magic. The tiny rainbow light was buried beneath a churning orb of dark red. It was the red he wanted. I watched as the gold stream of the equillis power clung to Ava’s rainbow magic. It created a fuzzy mist around her rainbow light as if trying to protect it. The elf’s power was there too, a dark silver. The red magic was trying to consume Ava’s but the equillis and elf magic were keeping it at bay. The red swelled out towards Ava’s magic again and a golden stream rose up, blocking it, but being absorbed in the process.
“What’s happening?” my father asked.
“It’s not coming to me, Des, I can’t take anything from her. Let me try with both strands.”
“No, we agreed. If you take it with both and the power consumes you, we have no way to get it out of you.”
“We have no way to get it out of you either.”
“Will you two stop fighting and get that creature’s power out of my granddaughter now!” Max yelled and Jax handed me the strand of fur.
I mouthed sorry and he moved behind me to hold my waist as I focused again to see Ava’s ma
gic. This time I wanted to not only see it, but to take it. I didn’t want to leave her powerless though, so I tried to focus on all of the different magic inside her to ensure I only took the one that didn’t belong.
But if I leave the others’ magic and only take the vampire’s, she could take on too much again and will go insane without a way to remove it. What do I do?
I looked past the magic to Ava’s peaceful face as she lay still unconscious on the bed.
Take it all.
I grabbed the magic inside her. All of it, and pulled it through the strand to me. It fought for a moment, but with the strand doing the calling it could only protest so much before it flooded from her to me. The red thick vampire power separated from the others. I quickly pushed the elf magic back into Ava. I wouldn’t be leaving her completely defenseless.
The red magic felt like it looked, oily and thick. I cringed as it made its way down to my own magic. The equillis magic I pulled in shot past the red power and quickly joined my own. The red vampire power tried to penetrate the orb of magic swirling inside me, as the equillis had done, but sparks of light shot out when it advanced, keeping it separate.
“Mum!” Ava called, and my eyes shot open.
“Ava, are you okay?”
“You took it, what will happen to you? Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be fine, you ever try anything like that again and you won’t be. You will be grounded for eternity.”
“What’s grounded?”
I shook my head. “Never mind, just promise me.”
“I promise,” she jumped from the bed and stepped closer to King Blake. My pulse quickened. My cheeks felt flushed and something in my stomach fluttered around.
What am I feeling? Is this Ava? Is this the power the vampire had?
“Ava, stop.” She did as I said, looking at me with wide eyed. The fluttering settled a little, but my pulse was going a mile a minute. I turned to look at King Blake, he stood, arms folded across his chest, eyeing Ava and I warningly. I moved between them and as soon as I was closer to him, my stomach settled, my heart rate slowed, but a new warmth grew. My hands became clammy and a smile fought to rise to my lips.
Seriously I can feel everyone, this is going to suck. Ha, perfect trap for that prick.
“You two need to stay away from each other for a bit, just until I get back. I reckon we have exactly what we need to throw him off his game.”
“Mum, why, what is it?”
“I can feel everyone, everything you are feeling.”
Ava blushed and stepped a bit further away from King Blake.
“Desmoree,” Malcom’s voice rang through the closed door. “Are you there? I need to speak to you.”
“Come in,” I called, and Blake gave me a farewell nod, leaving the room as Malcolm entered. As King Blake passed the boy, his eyes rose up and fixed on him, following him with his gaze the whole way past and out.
“Do you want me to go, Mum?” Ava asked, taking a step towards the door too.
“No, no, you can stay. I’ve tried to keep things from you, look where that got me.”
She smiled and sat on the end of the bed.
“Malcolm, you wanted to see me?” I asked him, his back to me and eyes still watching the door the king had walked through.
“That was the elf King,” he said, still not turning to me.
“Yes, it was. King Blake. He’s the new elf King and the reason we are here and safe. But you probably know that already too. What is it you wanted to tell me? Is it about Traflier?”
Malcolm turned. “Yes. Traflier. Des, now is the time, you must go now.”
“What do you mean? Why? What is happening?”
“The power he took from you is fading. He took what he could from the Feydom but it isn’t enough. He wants more. He needs more. He wants to control the human realm and the power he has amassed will barely get him back there now.”
“Why? He should have heaps of power.”
“Yes, but the fabled magic he took from you had banshee magic. Banshee magic only works for females.”
“Seriously? So can the banshees help me fight him?”
“No, they won’t help you again. If you enter their realm uninvited a second time, they will keep you there.”
“Okay, so even if the banshee’s magic wouldn’t work for him, he has all the rest.”
“It isn’t just that it won’t work, it fought against the magic he consumed. He had to get the banshee magic out before he could start building up again and by then it was too late. Too much of it had been taken over.”
“How do I get him there, in the human realm?”
“He is looking for power, for the fabled creatures. You have to get the fabled to help you, at least the dragons, equillis, and the dwarves. It’s their magic he wants most, now that he eliminated the yowies.”
“I can’t ask them to help me again, not in this. He will kill them.”
“He might, I can’t see what happens. I only know there are some of them there before you capture him.”
“Capture, not kill?”
“I only see the capture. You can do this, Desmoree. You must.”
“I’ll send word to the fabled now.” I didn’t need anything but his word to know it was something I had to do.
With the help of the elf King, I was able to send messages to the dwarves, not that they had a good relationship, but after helping me, the elves didn’t assume they were always there to steal when they saw them. Though most of the time they were.
The dragons were contacted too, Drendor replying almost immediately with confirmation of their help. Only a few would be sent to the location I chose, I didn’t want to risk too many of them, they had only started to rebuild their kind now their flames had been restored.
The equillis came through to the Elf Kingdom so I sent Sien to ask them for their assistance. It was a surprise when the king showed up though, offering his help. The queen would remain with the herd, he brought four stallions and six mares with him. All of them ready to be bait, like me, for Traflier.
I gathered the scrolls the fey had saved during the evac and fumbled through some of the gateway descriptions. There was one in particular I was looking for. It was to a gateway on the edges of grazing farmland. Far enough from the cities to draw attention, and enough wide open space that the fabled helping me could evade him better.
Finally I found it. The earth was stained a rich orange red, but the bundles of grass that grew from it were as green as I had ever seen. There was a mountain of red rock jutting from the otherwise flat landscape. This is where the gateway opened. The red rock splits open to reveal the black onyx gateway on activation. It was perfect.
I received word from the dwarves they would offer some assistance. What exactly ‘some’ was, was yet to be revealed, so I sent them a location orb and instructions on how to use it. I would take the equillis and elves through with me, but the dragons and dwarves would need to meet us there.
I hadn’t seen Ava in a few hours, with this new power surging through me, I steered clear of her and her teenage emotions. I stuck with the Tanzieth for the most part, it was like I was feeding off their strength. Their determination and training kept their emotions in check. That was until Crow walked in.
The rage she felt when she saw me gearing up with her squads flooded to me the second we made eye contact. The red power bubbled with excitement at this new emotion as the room took on a red hew. The movements of those around me slowed. I walked through them towards her. Her expression changing only by micromillimeters per second.
What the hell is this? What am I feeling? Is that my stomach growling?
I reached Crow and had my hands around her throat in a second. I forced her head to the side and it was like her blood called me. My eyes fixed on the vein running down her neck, it pulsed once, twice, three times. I took a breath and she smelled delicious.
What the fuck?
I pulled back from her. Her head left at that a
wkward angle and her eyes wide and staring right at me. I tried to shake the urge to lunge at her again. It was strong. I wanted to rip open that vein. Spill her blood. No. Drink her blood.
Holy crap, I’m a vampire.
I bolted from the room, weaving through the corridors, everyone I passed moving in slow motion.
Are they moving slowly, or am I moving really fast?
I kept going until I reached the door to the stairs that led to the vampire. I pulled open the door and dashed down. The second he saw me, he smiled.
“Well, Desssmoree, it appears you could take my power after all. How do you like it?”
“This is insane. I nearly ripped the throat out of someone. What are you?”
“I told you...”
“I know you said you were a vampire, but I’m standing in this light just fine. How about you come closer? Give it a try?”
His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. “You have what you need now, are you going to give it all to him?”
If I give Traflier this power and he doesn’t go insane, he will be able to kill us all in seconds. What if this is exactly what he wants?
The vampire gripped the bars, his fingers turning black again. “Desssmoree, let me out. We can defeat him together. Then we can awaken the rest of your kind. Won’t it be amazing? A new era of hybrids. Unlimited power, invincible, any realm for the taking.”
Wait, what?
“You want to take over realms just like him. You want to infect the fey with whatever this power is, and then what? We all feed off the humans until there are no humans left?”
“Please, Desssmoree, those things reproduce like cattle. We have millions to feed from. Think of the power.”
“No.”
“No? Really, you can resist the pull of their emotions?”
“Yes I can,” I said and my eyes began to clear. The red hew turned a pale pink as it dissipated, and the room returned to living color. I breathed out a laugh. “Nice try though.”
I left the room and headed back upstairs. The corridors were filled with elves and fey who were moving at regular pace again. I didn’t fancy running into Crow, so I headed straight for the throne room, running into Ava on the way.
Destroying the Fallen Page 24