The Elder continued to jump around. He slashed Asher with one of his whips, but Asher didn’t back down and poured more energy into his fire attack. They couldn’t catch Larkforith, even with a coordinated attack. He was too fast and agile. They would tire before they could harm him. The extreme temperatures didn’t seem to bother him, or else his robes were protecting him from his near brushes with the ice and fire.
When Larkforith stepped on one of the icy patches, Karena commanded the ice to creep up onto his shoes. As she did this, her ice beams spluttered and lost power, leaving her vulnerable. Larkforith twisted his head around, spotted this opportunity to take her out, and threw back his arm in order to drive forward his whip. In those few seconds, the ice had built up just enough on his shoes for her to grab hold of them. She swept his feet from underneath him. Her concentration went back to her ice attack, and her ice beams regained their power.
Just as his back hit the ground, she clasped her hands together. He jumped onto his feet like a spring coil. She had only needed him to stay in one place long enough to catch him, which for him, meant a couple of seconds. The dead space in-between her two ice beams squeezed into nothing. With Larkforith caught in the middle of them, they collided to form one mega beam and threw him back towards Asher. Would her torrent of ice just spit him out or would Asher trap him? But Asher had been paying attention because her ice beam crashed into something and a huge halo of steam burst from the site of impact.
She sweated. Her energy levels were rapidly draining. Hopefully, the vampire Elder had stayed trapped between her attack and Asher’s. The force would crush anyone, but vampire Elders weren’t normal beings. If he hadn’t been crushed, the fire would scald him and the ice would shred him until he died.
After an exhausting minute, she ended her attack, and batted back the excess fire from Asher’s side until he snuffed out his fire. Something hideous and unrecognizable crawled on the ground. It was Larkforith. His flesh had melted to his bones. Though he was almost a skeleton, he still moved with the few muscles that hadn’t been pulverized. Only one of his blood organs was working. He began to regenerate. New tissue began to creep over his bare skull.
Karena’s hands lengthened into ice blades, and she chopped him up. Breathing hard, and trying to repress the urge to retch from the sight of him, Karena watched his dismembered corpse to make sure that Larkforith really was dead. When they were sure that he was, Asher kicked away his remains. They had done it; they had killed a vampire Elder.
Asher came up to her. He hugged her and kissed the side of her head. All of her tension released. She pressed herself against him and breathed in his smoky scent. Her face nestled against his neck. She had worried for so long that she might never embrace him again, but here he was, safe and with her. Though he was uncomfortably warm against her, she compensated for it. A mist wreathed them.
“Thank you for what you did. You saved me,” he said next to her ear. His breath shuddered, indicating that his emotions had surfaced.
Karena pulled away to see his teary eyes. “You’re welcome. We couldn’t have done it without Evelyn,” she said.
He smiled and nodded. “I guess she redeemed herself,” Asher said.
As the sounds of the ongoing battle continued to punish the air, they kissed. Her fingers kneaded the back of his neck, while his hands stroked her hair.
When they withdrew, Asher said, “In the dark spiritual realm, my grandparents kept me company. They alluded to the fact that something with a long lifespan had started the feud and was continuing it. I wasn’t able to piece together what they were saying. I was in too much pain. It was only until you told me about there being vampires amongst us that I realized that they had been trying to say that vampires were to blame for the murders.”
“Remember how I was telling you that the feud didn’t make any sense, how my side would blame yours, and your side would blame mine, and yet there wasn’t anyone we knew of who was capable of murder?”
“With the exception of Tristan.”
She snorted, but quickly sobered up. “He’s in the hospital right now, crippled,” she said.
“Serves him right.”
Karena eyed the mutilated remains of Larkforith. She asked, “How many more Elders do you think that there are?”
“There’s an obscure list going back to the Vampire Regime that lists a total of twenty vampire Elders. All of them were killed with the exception of three. Their bodies weren’t recovered in the battles that took place when everyone revolted.”
“Which means that there’s two of them left.”
“Correct. At least as far as we know.”
“We were so stupid to think that vampires went extinct,” she said and shook her head.
“They fooled a nation. They’re good at what they do.”
“My dad and I encountered Mark, one of the Council members, in the park. He was a vampire too.”
“Figures.”
“The Fire district is huge. Where would the other two vampire Elders be? They could be anywhere.”
“We need to think like them. What would be going through their minds right now? How could they cause the most damage in a situation like this?” Asher asked, posing the question not only to her, but also to himself.
“Obviously, they are going to lose this fight. They were hoping to take out this district without encountering conflict, which would’ve been crucial to their plans.”
“They can’t win now that everyone has united. They might try to do what they did before by coming back in secret, and then taking over the city in order to try to live off of our labor and use us as food.”
Their brainstorming was working because the gears in her head were starting to turn. She said, “Right. But how would they do that? What has gotten us to this point, where we had no idea they were amongst us? They tried to come back. Look at Mark, he was a Council member. There has to be others.”
“Ignorance, stupidity, and blindness has made them invisible to us,” he said, gesturing wildly, trying to come up with something helpful. “We believed that they were gone for good.”
“And how did they do that?”
“By altering our textbooks and history books and our own beliefs. All of our historical accounts speak in past tense about vampires, about how there were vampires. They aren’t listed in any cryptid catalog.”
“We don’t have the memories they do, and they are aware of that. They live for centuries, whereas we’re lucky to even live a hundred years. We rely on our written accounts of history to know what happened in the past and to learn from our mistakes. We document all of our interactions with cryptids and intelligent beings. Some of the only books pertaining to combating necromancy and powerful cryptids are in the Ancient Library.”
“And if they destroy those records?”
“Then we become infantile, and reliant on memory alone,” she said, but hadn’t fully grasped the magnitude of what he was saying.
Asher said, “Because of a decision made by the Council, our knowledge base isn’t spread out anymore. The most important books ever scribed were taken from every archival shelf in the Sundarin Nation and was used to create the Ancient Library. People have to travel for miles just to access what was once in their own town or city vaults.”
Her eyes met his. They mirrored her own horror.
“They’ve burned libraries to the ground before,” she said in a whisper.
“Karena, go! Ice the entire building. I’ll catch up to you.”
“I’m not leaving you again.”
He grabbed her arms. “This isn’t about us. It’s about something bigger than ourselves. I’ve missed you, and I know you’ve missed me and endured hell just to save me, but we can’t be selfish. Go!” he said.
Tears pooled in her eyes as she choked on her emotions. She gave him another hug and kiss, and ran to the magical board that her dad had given her to use. She got on it. While it rose, she looked at Asher shrinking below her as he dashed to f
ind a vehicle to use. She hoped that it wouldn’t the last time she saw him.
As Karena sped towards the center of the city, she felt the loneliness weigh on her, but she steadied herself because she knew that there was no other choice. She had a flying apparatus, Asher didn’t. She zoomed through the district, skimming a few feet below the rooftops to avoid the battles taking place overhead.
The buildings cleared and she shot into the spacious, circular courtyard around the City Hall. Fire flicked out of the windows of the upper story. Her worst fears had been realized. While everyone was focused on the Fire district, the Ancient Library was burning without any hope of being saved. Was she too late? Its destruction would be the gut punch that would incapacitate them for generations.
She banked around the corner of the building. All of the statues had freed themselves from their positions around the four entrances of the City Hall and had risen upwards to strengthen the noise and resolve of the fight. She threw some ice at one of the windows of the second story and broke it. The intense heat greeted her as she eased herself in on her board.
Chapter 28
Hadrian raced his truck to an overlooking hill where his aunt had said that he might find one of the leaders of the Earth district. In the passenger seat, Evelyn was quiet.
“Have you visited the Earth district before?” he asked. He glanced over at her and the shadows that graced her beautiful face. He couldn’t read her like he could other women.
“I’ve flown over it a few times in the early morning, and taken a few walks here and there. I went into a bakery and they denied me service because I was an Air. I was so upset that I smashed their windows at night and stole their leftover bread. It wasn’t fresh, but at least I got what I came for,” she said. Her head bowed, and her blonde hair hid the side of her face.
“I can make bread just as good as a bakery’s, or buy it for you next time,” Hadrian said. “I’m sorry that happened.”
Evelyn continued, “After that, I lost interest in the Earth district. I didn’t want to risk losing my temper again. I prefer to go where I’m accepted, especially because of my wings and how much I seem to stand out. But I do like it, and the Water district. It’s interesting to see how different the other districts are compared to the Air district.”
“I haven’t been into the Air district much, except for when work requires it. I want to show you the gardens in the Earth district. They’ll be in bloom soon.”
“I would like that. I want to take you on some hikes into the Sparrow Hills. You can get a view of the entire city from the top of them.”
Hadrian smiled. He felt a connection with Evelyn. It was like being with Karena, but in a different way because he was attracted to Evelyn, whereas with Karena, he wasn’t.
His truck skidded around a corner. He stepped on the gas pedal again. The streets were empty. Almost everyone was inside and looking at the fiery horizon in the distance from their windows, in trees, or on their roofs. They were curious about what was going on in the Fire district, but not as they should’ve been. They were entertained, not worried.
“They have absolutely no clue,” Hadrian said. He clenched the steering wheel. He had been like them too until Karena had made her splash by dating Asher.
Evelyn turned away from the passenger window to say, “Sad, isn’t it? The vampires really succeeded in making this feud work. Everyone is so consumed with hate and distrust that they won’t go over and see for themselves what’s going on or listen to reason.”
Evelyn stifled a yawn.
Hadrian bit down on his lip and shifted in his seat. He said, “I didn’t get a chance to ask, but did you get a good sleep last night despite the location?”
“I did. You make a great pillow. I wouldn’t mind using you again as one.”
He snorted, and said, “That’s fine by me.”
“I think we all need more sleep though. However brief, our journey into the swamps took a toll. You can’t sleep well or let your guard down in a place like that.”
“It’s a wonder that the native people there can be at peace with their living conditions and environment.”
“I agree.”
They fell silent. When he flicked on his high beams, he noticed a figure standing in the roadway up ahead. It ran off before he could see what it was.
“How many vampires do you think there are?” Evelyn asked.
“There has to be a few hundred at the least. Probably five hundred.”
“Where would they get so many numbers?”
“The Wildlands. It’s the only way. I’m sure they smuggled in vampiric weaponry too. Of course, there were probably hidden crypts that they were dug up from, crypts our ancestors missed when the Vampire Regime ended.”
“Do you think our ancestors believed that they had killed all of them? Or do you think the future generations were made to believe that?”
It was a good question. Hadrian said, “I don’t think that our ancestors who lived through the Vampire Regime were stupid enough to believe that the vampires were truly gone. As a memory fades and when all that is left are textbooks and the passed-down tales from older generations, it’s easy to dismiss danger as belonging to another time and not as something that could return. I think that the future generations were led to believe that the vampires had become extinct, and they did because they hadn’t ever come face to face with a vampire.”
“Obviously, they altered our history books over time to make people believe that vampires couldn’t ever be a threat again. As a nation, we were lured into a false sense of security, which only grew.”
“Exactly. Vampires are smart. They’re a parasitic race, so their methods have been honed to perfection. They’ve done this before to other races, where they take over, and if they are dethroned, then they plant their seeds to return, even when time is limited and the mobs are upon them.”
“It might be that we’re the best host race that they’ve ever come across.”
“It’s possible that we are,” Hadrian said. He shrugged away a shiver. Vampires used other races as livestock and it frightened him.
He pulled up alongside the curb next to Lantana Park. “Wait here, if you could please,” he said, and turned off the ignition.
But Evelyn got out. She said, “I’m not going to hide.”
Courageously, she walked next to him past the flower beds and through the terraced slopes up the hill. At the top of the hill, a small crowd of people stood on the lookout platform. They ranged in age, but all of them were captivated by the fire and lights in the distance.
Hadrian shouted a hello to them, and they startled and turned around. Their eyes traveled from Hadrian to Evelyn and didn’t stray from her. Hadrian stepped up onto the platform, and Evelyn hopped onto it. They menacingly stared at Evelyn. They bristled like wolves about to attack. Their mouths turned into ugly snarls.
“Why do you have an Air here?” one of them asked.
Another said, “She’s not welcome here.”
“Tell her to go back to her district, or to help the Fires,” said another person.
“The Fire district is in trouble,” Hadrian said to them.
“Because she said so?” Eden asked, and emerged from the crowd to stand before him.
Eden was taller than him. His deadlocks flowed past his shoulders. His pointed face pinched into amusement.
Hadrian refrained from taking a step back. Eden was a Chaos elemental. He could feel the power emanating from Eden. Naturally, Chaos elementals were granted more respect, but Eden’s arrogance had always rubbed him the wrong way.
Hadrian said, “No. We saw stuff in the Markhan Territory that can’t be explained, except that they are the doings of vampires. A flock of vampiric nargoths found us, and we saw human corpses on a mud bank. And—.”
A woman interrupted, “Look, Hadrian, we don’t care. Get rid of your pigeon friend, and stay and watch the show with us.” It was Anna, who he knew from childhood.
“We have to
activate the Earth statue, and send out the call,” Hadrian said. He looked at all of them. Their narrowed eyes, stiff postures, and hardened expressions disturbed him. Their anger and distrust were unfounded.
He continued, “We have to help the Fires and the Airs.”
They laughed at him, but they weren’t looking at him. Instead, they directed their mocking behavior towards Evelyn.
“So do you talk?” Eden asked Evelyn in a jeering fashion.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Hadrian said. “Her name is Evelyn and she’s my friend.”
Eden said, “You make friends with everyone, so how is she any different?”
Hadrian fumed. “Karena will activate one of the main Water statues, and all of you will be standing here like idiots,” he said.
“I wish her luck on that one. She’s wanted by the police, and I doubt that anyone would be crazy enough to help her. Cleary, her insanity has rubbed off on you,” Eden said and smirked.
Dismissing him and his comments, Evelyn asked, “So is anybody going to help us? We need a leader of the Earth district to take us to the closest, main Earth statue.”
They didn’t bother to suppress their feelings towards her. They whispered and laughed as though she was a freak. Hadrian felt his blood boil. His powers were seconds from erupting to the surface.
A middle-aged woman pushed her way to the front. She wore strings of emerald beads around her neck.
With a weary sigh in her voice, she said to Hadrian, “I can take you. However, I will only activate the statue if the Waters respond first to the Fires’ and Airs’ plea. We can’t be hasty. I’m Akantha by the way.”
Gaze of Fire: Sequel to Veins of Ice Page 24