Beyond the Veil (Vampires of Velum Mortis Book 1)

by Stephanie Summers

  My muscles, stiff and aching, struggled to keep my body upright as he dragged me out of the cell.

  “Good luck,” the frail voice in the darkness called out.

  I tried to catch a glimpse of the man who had comforted me but could see nothing more than shadows.

  “Shut up, traitor,” Harmon commanded.

  “He’s not a traitor just because of who he fell in love with,” I asserted.

  “Of course, you’d see it that way,” he said, yanking me along behind him and up the stairs.

  “It’s not like he was set up to fail or anything,” I said sarcastically. Maybe I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help myself.

  The mid-afternoon sun greeted us, causing me to squint from the brightness. Harmon marched me into the middle of town square where the council members and other onlookers from town watched me being judged over something I’d convinced myself I had very little control over.

  “You may speak,” Master Lewis said. “Defend yourself.”

  “Is there any point?” Once again, my tongue lashed out before I could stop it, but was there really any point? I doubted it. “You knew damn good and well what I was walking into and didn’t bother to tell me the truth about any of it. You could have held me back. Did everything in your power to keep me from it, but you sent me there to fail, and now you’re condemning me for it. That is the price for treason, isn’t it? Death?”

  “It is,” he replied. “And yes, we knew of the curse and what it could mean for you if you succumbed, but we had to send you. You would’ve perished had we not. She threw that in for good measure to make sure we wouldn’t just lock you up, but you failed the test, nonetheless. You could’ve followed your training, followed everything you were ever taught and ended him, but that’s not what you did. This wasn’t a simple mistake, my dear. You woke the vampire king and now he’s free to reign over his kind. A war will be coming soon.”

  “There is no war coming. Do you even know anything about him? Or how ridiculous that sounds?”

  “I know everything there is to know about him. He’s one of the deadliest creatures in existence and you woke him. And not only that, you left Harmon behind in favor of joining the vampire. You tried to help him reunite with his kind.”

  “Did Harmon tell you his life was spared because I left when I did? And yes, I did go with Liam. He had plenty of opportunity to kill the both of us, and he didn’t. He even spared a pack of werewolves who attacked us because he said they’re mostly human and he doesn’t enjoy killing us. Does that sound like some diabolical villain poised to strike our town down?”

  “And you know so much about his true nature after only a few hours at his side? This is your curse talking. You only saw what you wanted to see. Of course, he didn’t kill you. He wants you for his own. If you’d succeeded and stayed with him, he would’ve locked you up in no time, torturing you every chance he got just because he could and forcing you to birth his disgusting progeny.”

  “Get on with it, then,” I said, anger coating my throat while tears stung my eyes. I doubted Liam would have locked me up, but the people who were supposed to be my tribe certainly had, and I had a hard time believing he would force me into anything.

  There was no hope left for me, but at least if there were an afterlife, I’d be reunited with my mother and father soon enough, though I suspected I would have a few choice words for dear old dad. He was just as much to blame for where I was at that very second as the rest of them. He’d never bothered to warn me of what was coming either.

  They took me back toward the edge of town behind the building where I’d spent the night. A large wooden beam with a small platform about two feet above the ground loomed in the distance as we approached. Small logs, twigs, and branches were laid out in a wide circle around the stake with narrow paths of wood lined up from the circle to the beam. Another pile sat at its base. They’d gone all out to make my death a spectacular thing to witness.

  It didn’t look like my death sentence would be overturned the way it had been for the man still imprisoned.

  Harmon picked up some rope as another slayer lifted me up onto the platform. The plank was barely large enough for my feet to fit comfortably, but what did comfort matter now anyway? I was pushed against the beam by Kit and held in place by two others. She sneered up at me, and if I could’ve gotten my leg free from the hands holding me there, I would’ve kicked in her teeth.

  I stood there without moving, a calmness settling over me. It would do no good to fight. No one could escape the odds I was up against. Even if I could get free, there was no way I could fight my way out. I doubted even a vampire like Liam could make it out of a crowd full of slayers without being captured.

  Harmon took my arms and yanked them behind my back, wrapping them around the beam before he wound the rope, tightly binding my hands and wrists.

  “Cordelia Adams, you have been sentenced to death for the crime of treason. Do you have any last words?” Master Lewis said, peering up at me with not an ounce of remorse on his face.

  “Burn the bitch,” someone from the crowd called out.

  “I’m going to make your lives a living hell,” I said, raising my voice above the murmurs in the crowd. I wanted them to hear exactly what I had to say. “Mark my words. Even in death, I’ll haunt this fucking place until all of your last dying breaths. You’ll regret this day for the rest of your pathetic lives.”

  My last words tasted like salt, but I couldn’t help myself, even if I didn’t really believe I could or would haunt the place after I was gone. I liked to think once I passed that I’d never set a ghostly foot in a place like Mallory Falls again, but I wanted them to think that every bad thing, every strange occurrence, every stroke of bad luck from this day forward could all be attributed to me.

  Harmon lit a torch as he watched me begin to subconsciously struggle against my bindings. He smiled and threw the blazing mass at the circle of wood surrounding me.

  Smoke floated through the air as the wood began to catch fire, licking its way through the dried kindling. The sticks that led to the base of the beam started to burn. It wouldn’t be long now before flame would overtake me and I’d be snuffed out, the last of my life force fading into the ether.

  I wanted to beg them to reconsider, but the words stuck in my throat as I wiggled and squirmed to try and free myself from the encroaching heat and flame. Slamming my body forward as far as I could, it did nothing to loosen my bindings.

  The people, some I considered friends, few I considered family, cheered as the fire crackled and popped, celebrating my misery and impending death.

  I closed my eyes and prayed that it would come swiftly as an audible gasp undulated throughout the crowd.

  And just when I thought the end was upon me, everything changed.

  9

  Liam

  I shouldn’t have hesitated. I should’ve followed her as soon as she left my side, convinced her that she was safer with me than she was her own people. But instead, I’d decided to give her space, so she could process everything and come back to me on her own.

  And now look what they’d done to her. The sight of her bound to a stake, ready to burn, threw me into a fit of rage as I bounded toward them.

  Racing through the crowd gathered around to watch her demise, I leapt through the flames, landing on my feet just below her. I yanked at her bindings and had her free within seconds, pulling her rigid body from the beam she’d been attached to. I set her safely on the ground away from the fire, wiping away her tears and checking her for burns. None marred her skin. Lucky for them because if it had, I’d have killed every last one of them and relished in it.

  Movement caught my eye.

  I turned, baring my fangs, and snarled at those stupid enough to close in on me, but they’d be subdued quickly enough so I could move to my intended target.

  It was Harmon I wanted. She hadn’t uttered his name to me, but I’d heard it in her thoughts and seen his imag
e there so many times I wanted to kill him just to alleviate the pain he’d caused her. And that was before he tried to burn her.

  He stood behind newly-appointed slayers, dripping with inexperience and stinking of fear. They drew their weapons and surged forward. At least they weren’t cowards like he was.

  Knocking them all to the side as they charged at me, I focused on my target. Harmon’s fist struck me in the face just as I got within arm’s length of him, but I stood firmly in place, refusing to let him push me around. I threw my hands out in front of me as fast and as hard as I could, making contact with his chest. Many townspeople gasped as he flew cartoonishly through the air and out of their sight, landing somewhere just behind the forest line. I could only hope his spine snapped in two when he hit the ground.

  I turned to Delia, and commanded, “Get out of here.” She nodded and took off running in the opposite direction as the crowd stood dumbfounded and watched her go. I guess I’d created enough of a spectacle that they’d forgotten all about her and the crime they’d been so desperate to punish her for.

  As the slayers got up on their feet, they turned their focus on me again, pouncing nearly all at once, but they were no match for my strength and agility. I’d fed before leaving Edgington City in anticipation of what I might encounter once I set out to find her.

  I shouldn’t have hesitated.

  One by one, I flung the slayers away and after the last one was down on the ground again, I raced to where Harmon was sprawled out on a pile of dirt and leaves.

  “I can’t understand for the life of me what she saw in you,” Harmon spat as he tried to roll to his side.

  “I could say the same,” I replied. “You’re a coward, and yet they all look up to you as some sort of god, don’t they? You’ve done an excellent job at fooling them all, but you don’t fool me. I see you for what you are.”

  “I see you for what you are, too, Your Highness,” Harmon said, disgust lingering on his words. “You’re a monster. A filthy blood-sucking motherfucker, hell-bent on destroying the human race, and once you get your queen, you’ll do everything in your power to carry out that plan.”

  “And why would I want to do that?” I asked and nearly rolled my eyes. And I would have, too, if it hadn’t meant taking my eyes off of Harmon. “If the human race dies out, so do I. Eventually, anyway. That’s one of the most idiotic things I think I’ve ever heard from you lot, yet it’s the one you always cling to.”

  “We cling to it because it’s true,” he said and jumped to his feet in one fluid motion.

  I stood there, stunned that he could move so easily after the landing he’d taken and wondering what kind of help this human might have enlisted. Surely magical, but that couldn’t be since Harmon was a self-righteous prick who would never stoop so low as to enlist the aid of forces outside the realm of normalcy.

  I’d bet my life on it.

  No matter, I was ready for him despite any enhancements he might have utilized.

  Harmon took a dagger from a holder strapped to his thigh, held it at his side, and charged toward me. I side-stepped him and sent Harmon tumbling to his feet. He was up and running at me again in no time. I managed to knock the blade from his hand before wrapping my arm around him and pulling him close enough to rip his throat out with my teeth.

  My other hand pushed Harmon’s face away from me, exposing his neck, top lip curling over my fangs. “Your blood wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it’ll do.”

  Searing hot pain shot through my side an instant later, causing me to let go of Harmon. I looked down to see the source of the pain and saw another dagger he’d had concealed sticking out my flesh, just beneath my rib cage. Gripping the handle, I pulled as hard as I could, but the blade wouldn’t budge. My strength waned by the second, and I fell to the ground. My body tingled as the blade’s magic coursed through my veins, lulling me into a trance, much like the spell that had put me to sleep had done.

  I had failed her by not defeating Harmon. He would hunt her down now, and he wouldn’t stop until he killed her.

  Harmon stood over me, looking down with a sneer plastered on his face.

  “For someone who supposedly despises supernatural creatures, you sure don’t mind using a witch’s magic when it suits you, do you? It’s too bad your beloved council can’t see you for what you are.”

  “I do what I have to in order to survive and to stay on top of my game. I knew you’d try to save her. Only an idiot wouldn’t anticipate it. If it took a spell to take you down the first time, I knew it’d take another to do it again. The longer that blade is inside you, the weaker you’ll become. Could take hours or it could take days, depending on how much strength you have left to fight it, but you’ll fall into a coma like you did before. Only this time, there are no loopholes once you’re asleep. I’ll still be sure to put you where you’ll always have the watchful eye of a loyal slayer on you. Can’t be too sure when dealing with witches.”

  I held my side and tried to will my body to attack, but nothing happened. It was like I’d lost all control over myself.

  Harmon dropped to his knees a split-second later, and I squinted to try and focus my blurring vision. I couldn’t quite make it all out, but something sharp, likely an arrow, jutted out from the front of his shoulder with the rest of it protruding behind him. Harmon screamed out in agony, gripping the source of his pain.

  Footsteps quickly approached.

  Delia came into view a moment later.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said and helped me to my feet.

  We ran for what seemed like hours, though as weak as we both were and as wounded as I was, we didn’t manage to get very far at all before stopping.

  “They’ll be on us soon,” she said, her voice faltering.

  “We just need to go a little further,” I said. “There used to be a cottage up ahead. Let’s hope it’s still there and unoccupied.”

  “Yeah, sure. That won’t be the first place they look,” she said sarcastically.

  “Do you have a better plan?” I snapped, irritated that I couldn’t just whisk her away to safety. “I have to get this fucking thing out of me or it won’t matter where I go.”

  “Can’t you pierce the veil? You said vampires could do it easily.”

  “I could if I were at my full strength, but since I’m not, I need to use a portal, and we’re not anywhere near one at the moment… I know of someone nearby who could help. Get me to the cottage and I’ll tell you where to go.”

  She nodded and placed my arm over her shoulder to help steady me as we made our way through the forest.

  Her heart pounded in her chest, like a drum struggling to keep the pace. A sound that normally would drive me into the throes of bloodlust, but not now. Now my thoughts were plagued with how I wished I’d ended Harmon instead of trying to drink from him first.

  “There,” I said after an indeterminate amount of time of her dragging me through the trees.

  A dilapidated shack with dried out vines snaking up its side and through holes in its windows was situated just ahead of us. The grass in front of it was brown and decayed, its walkway cracked with remnants of weeds pushing through.

  We hurried inside and pushed the door shut behind us.

  Delia helped lower me to the floor where I nearly curled up into a ball from the pain. I had never felt anything as agonizing as that blade, not even the Fae king’s magic had burned so badly when I’d faced him years ago.

  “You came back for me,” she said.

  “And you came back for me, my queen,” I responded.

  “Don’t call me that,” she said and knelt beside me. “I’ll try and pull it out.”

  “You can’t,” I said. “It won’t budge. We can thank your ex for that. He enlisted the help of a witch.”

  “I heard,” she said. “He’s a hypocrite. He wanted to condemn me to death because of a witch’s magic but turns around and uses it to his own advantage.”

  “Where
did you get the bow and arrow? I thought you only wielded a sword.”

  “He took my sword when he locked me up… The armory was unguarded, so I slipped in and tried to find it, but it wasn’t there. The bow was the easiest thing I could get ahold of, but I didn’t have enough arrows to bring it with me after I shot him. I heard him telling you everything just before that.”

  “I need you to go west of here and find Theodosia’s cabin. It’s not far, maybe a mile, but you’ll need to go quickly. She’ll know what to do,” I said, trailing off. If there’s anything that can be done…

  Theodosia had defiantly kept her home, not caring that the slayers dwelled merely a few miles away. I admired her spirit and tenacity.

  “I don’t want to leave you like this. What if they find you?” she said and took my hand.

  There were no words that could truly describe what it felt like to me when our flesh met. I only hoped I wasn’t a fool to hope she felt it the same way I did.

  “Then at least they won’t have you,” I said with a faint smile. “Now, go.”

  I let go of her and watched her raise to her feet. She looked at me hesitantly and opened her mouth as if to protest once more, but I was prepared to argue.

  I shook my head subtly as she took a step backward, turned, and left me alone in the middle of the broken-down cottage.

  How fitting a setting it was considering I felt much like the place looked, dried up and dying. The thirst nearly drowned out the burning hot dagger piercing my side. I didn’t usually need to feed very often, but considering I’d been asleep for twenty years and had only had a nip of Harmon and a glass of donor blood at the tavern since I’d been awake, it wasn’t surprising that I felt like I was starving, especially with all the energy I’d expended.

  The only hope I had of surviving now was that Delia would succeed and bring me back to life the way she had done the moment she kissed me.

  10