“I can smell the richness and the nutrients. She’s so healthy,” Adrastia said. Her face had gone slack from hunger.
“It’s a far cry from the others we harvested centuries ago.”
“Time has served them well. They’re a flock waiting to be sucked dry.”
“It would be a shame not to use them for that. They serve no other purpose in life. They were made for us to rule. Markandreo was a fool for letting them get to where they are now. They shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.”
Karena listened to their demented talk. They nurtured a false sense of ego. Their superiority and grandiosity didn’t exist except in their own minds. Her elemental powers continued to collect inside of her. They gathered from the far reaches of the ether to assist her in showing the vampires what a true Chaos elemental was capable of, and that was self-sacrifice.
Adrastia reached her hand down and brought her fingers up again. They dripped with Karena’s own blood. When Adrastia licked her fingers, her eyes rolled back. Unable to restrain himself, Thanatis grabbed Karena’s shoulders and pulled her up. His head tilted to the side, and his face bent down. Karena shouted when his teeth cut into her skin. His lips locked against her neck and he began to suck in order to draw out her blood. Nausea set in, deeper and deeper, until she began to see double.
Adrastia punched Thanatis.
“It’s my turn before you drain her,” Adrastia said to him.
He shoved her like a rag doll into Adrastia’s arms.
Was this what her ancestors had endured, where they had been treated like animals to be used and tortured on a daily basis? She couldn’t imagine the terror and pain they had experienced during the Vampire Regime.
Adrastia sucked her blood just as Thanatis had and withdrew. Karena slumped to the floor.
“She’s barely alive,” Adrastia said. “I can hear her heartbeat fade.”
“If you don’t drink, I will,” Thanatis said.
Karena could barely hear their voices. She looked across the gleaming ice blanketing the floor and the wall. It was beautiful. The library was like a palace of cold crystal. Blackness flicked in and out. She struggled to hold onto the light, but it was a losing battle. Where was Asher? Where was everyone?
Thanatis picked Karena up. He licked the blood on her neck. It was a violation in every sense. She was powerless to stop what was happening. She was caught between two monsters and being devoured alive.
Where are we? Where are you? We can still fight. We will listen to only one master and that is you. What do you want from us in this foreign blood and body that is not ours? her blood called, but it sounded as though the voice was coming to her from outside of herself. Her blood was telepathically speaking to her from inside of Thanatis and Adrastia!
Karena rasped to the vampires above her, “That blood you have taken from me is mine. It responds only to me. I can hear it calling to me.”
They stared at her, and rapidly blinked. Adrastia raised her hand to smash her face.
“Freeze them,” Karena whispered to herself. “Freeze them solid.”
Before Adrastia’s hand descended fully, it stopped in midair. Adrastia looked at her arm and hit it, but it wouldn’t move. Puffs of chilly air exhaled from Adrastia’s mouth. Then her whole body stiffened. Thanatis had already become frozen in place. His eyes pivoted in their eye sockets until they too froze. A fine mist leaked from their skin and clothes. Their skin hardened into a black, frostbitten color.
“I’m a Chaos elemental, and I am more powerful than you thought I was. Even when you take away my life force, I can still fight,” Karena whispered to the frozen figures above her. “You’ve always underestimated us as a race.”
She closed her eyes as she felt a heavy tiredness consume her. Voices from beyond called to her. A light was upon her. Should she go to it?
Minutes later, she heard feet rush to her, and warm arms drag her away and lift her up.
“Karena!” a familiar voice cried. “Stay with me. Don’t fade away. There’s blood everywhere. It’ll be okay. I’m going to get you to a healer. Don’t leave me.”
Whispers of thought and consciousness winked in and out of her mind. She held onto this familiar voice, which begged her to stay with him.
Chapter 31
Karena drifted in and out of a deep sleep. When she did return from the void of sleep, she held onto the scent and the warmth of someone familiar. Asher didn’t leave her side. He stayed with her, even as healers worked on her. When he sensed her stirring, he stroked her hair and whispered words of encouragement to her.
Her condition stabilized, and after an uncertain amount of time, she found the strength to open her eyes. When they fluttered open, her gaze met Asher’s. A wide smile broke across his face and illuminated it. He bent down and kissed her. His lips pressed as soft as a feather against hers. He withdrew to sit upright again on the side of her bed.
Her eyes searched his mocha-colored ones. She saw a tinge of sadness in them and grew worried.
“Did the library survive?” she asked.
“It did. The librarians are having the spells replaced as we speak. They’re going to be holding meetings in the next few days about how to better house and distribute the wealth of knowledge in there,” he said. He looked down, and repressed the sound of a heavy sigh, but his shoulders showed the emotions he wouldn’t reveal.
“Good. How are you?”
“Fine,” Asher said, glanced at her, and then away. “How did you do it? How did you kill them?”
He was referring to the vampire Elders. He choked back some tears. “I couldn’t get to you in time. You were almost dead.”
Her hand went out to him, and he took it and kissed the tips of her fingers.
“It’s alright,” Karena said.
Asher shook his head. “No, it isn’t,” he said. He bit his bottom lip in an effort to still the quiver there. A tear rolled down his cheek.
“You would’ve been there if you could’ve.”
“Corentine and Daray attacked me, but that’s nothing compared to what you dealt with. I couldn’t use my powers because Corentine rammed a wand into my chest and it stunned me. When I came to the Ancient Library’s doors in City Hall, the doors were sealed with a foot of ice. I couldn’t get in. I used an axe, and finally, I had to go get help because I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t help you when you needed it most.”
Her hand glided over his face and settled back down to the bed sheets. Karena said, “It’s okay. I understand.”
He kissed her forehead again, and closed his eyes to take a deep breath to steady himself. “How did you do it?” he whispered.
“They drank my blood, and I commanded my blood to freeze them, which it did because it was inside of them.”
“I didn’t know that was even possible to do. You used your blood against them.”
“I suppose it was forgotten over time, and maybe they thought that I wouldn’t know that it could be done,” she said, reflecting on the traumatic events that had taken place. “That might be their greatest weakness of all; they can’t have what isn’t theirs, and we can take it all back if we choose to do so, even if it comes at a loss to us.”
Asher nodded in agreement. “We won the fight against them,” he informed her.
“Did any escape?”
“It’s possible that one or two might have. Every citizen in the Sundarin Nation has been on alert, and purges have been conducted. But the number of vampires amongst us seem to have been mainly concentrated here in Archelm City. Because of recent events, people have taken a harder look at the feud. They have come to the same realization that we did, that the murders happened out of the blue. The vampires have been labeled as the cause and perpetrators of the feud.”
“The feud was instrumental in their plan to distract and divide us. It didn’t work. It’s surprising what a small group of people can do to avert disaster, like what we did.”
“The feud is dissolving as we speak. New unde
rstandings and bridges in communication have been made. It will take time to undo what has been done, but it has started.”
Karena thought about this. It was over. They had done it as a city; they had overcome the adversity that the vampires had engineered in the hopes of dividing them. They had prevented history from repeating itself. The vampires hadn’t been able to enslave them, as they would’ve if the Fire district had fallen.
A quiet came over them. Karena smiled at Asher, but even though he matched it with one of his own, a sadness still dwelled in his eyes. She wondered why.
She asked, “How long have I been asleep?”
“Two days. It’s early morning right now. Your family have been coming and going, as have mine. Your dad came in only minutes ago. He said that he’ll return later.”
“Did my dad give you a hard time?”
“No. He was very polite.”
“Thank goodness.”
“He was telling me that he’s been helping clean up the Fire district and that people have been in a frenzy all across the city. Most haven’t gone to work or even slept much. They’ve been too busy digging up graves, and opening up every single coffin to make sure that they killed every last vampire and vampiric beast. They’ve even been excavating sites that were known to have been frequented by vampires during the Vampire Regime purely out of paranoia.”
“But that’s not what’s bothering you. What is?”
Asher opened his mouth and closed it. His lips pressed into a thin line. He said, “There’s something that you need to know. Hadrian has been in critical care. He’s not expected to live much longer. When he was admitted to the hospital, they said that he had an even smaller chance of survival than you did.”
“What?! What happened?” Karena asked, struggling to sit up.
“You need to rest,” he said, but instead of stopping her, he put his arms under hers in order to help her sit up.
“No. I have to see him.”
“He was stabbed with a vampiric weapon. No one has been able to heal him. He keeps getting worse and worse despite the healers’ best efforts.”
With Asher’s help, Karena managed to sit upright on the hospital bed. Her feet dangled over the side, but she couldn’t stand just yet. The soreness and weakness of her body alarmed her. Even with assistance, just sitting up had required a massive amount of effort and had exhausted her.
“Who stabbed him?” Karena asked.
“Akantha, a leader of the Earth district.”
Karena cursed.
Asher continued, “It happened right after she showed him one of the main activation statues. Evelyn killed Akantha, and Hadrian was about to die from blood loss. It was a miracle that a healer’s wife chanced upon them and then brought her husband to the scene. Despite his condition, Hadrian managed to activate the statue.”
Karena eased into standing on her feet, and Asher went to pick her up, but she stopped him. She took a few tentative steps and shook her head. Asher gently swooped her up into his arms, walked out of the room with her in them, and took her to the critical care unit down the hallway near the front of the hospital.
In one of the rooms, white curtains had been drawn to block out the sight of the bed on the far side. Asher strode in and walked past the curtains to the occupied bed. Even though it was early in the morning, Evelyn was awake. One of her drooped wings covered the occupant of the bed, who could only be Hadrian. Her posture was slumped, showing her heartache.
Asher set her down. Evelyn got up to give Karena her seat. Evelyn hugged Asher and sobbed a little against him. Karena went to sit down. Upon seeing Hadrian’s appearance, she lost feeling in her body for a moment.
Blackened veins snaked like vines across Hadrian’s skin. Sweat dripped from him. A thick, blood-soaked bandage pressed against the center of his chest. Tubes hung down from hanging medical bags and connected to the needles burrowed in his skin to feed him nutrients and purify his blood. They weren’t making much of a difference. Dark bruises ringed his eyes. His mouth was cracked and pale. His skin had a horrid grey tint to it, as though it was beginning to decay.
Hadrian was on death’s door. Her heart grew heavy from the anguish she felt. She wept. Asher put a hand on her shoulder, but it did little to comfort her. Hadrian was her best friend. She couldn’t imagine life without him. They had been best friends since elementary school.
Karena took Hadrian’s hand. He woke from his feverish state. His bloodshot eyes roamed until they fixated on her.
“Hey,” he croaked.
“I’ll get you some water.”
“No. I don’t want any.”
“Okay.”
Hadrian said, “Asher told me about what happened. I feared the worst, but it looks like you’re doing better than me now.”
He hoarsely coughed.
In an effort to comfort him and herself at the same time, Karena said, “You’ll heal. You’ll be alright.”
“The healers keep coming in every half an hour. They heal me, but then the sickness comes back.”
“They’ll find a cure,” Karena insisted, wiping back her tears.
“They don’t know of one. They’re searching the library, but they can’t find anything on how to cure vampiric poisoning,” Hadrian said.
“Who’s checking? I’ll go over there again, if I have to.”
“The head librarian is. He said that a team of librarians and scholars are pouring over the manuscripts and won’t stop until they find something.”
A healer walked in, and Karena sat down by the window to give Hadrian some privacy and the healer some room to work. First it had been Asher, and now it was Hadrian who was close to death, but there wasn’t any cure this time. If healing him required the journey that it had taken to save Asher, she would’ve embarked on it in a heartbeat despite her weary condition.
It felt stuffy in there, so she pulled back the curtains of the window nearby and Evelyn opened the window for her. Dawn was approaching. It felt like so much had been accomplished, but yet the victory had been robbed. If she lost Hadrian, she would be devastated. He had been her friend for years upon years. He was someone she saw every day. And from the looks of it, losing him would also crush Evelyn.
The healer dropped his arms to his sides and looked over at her. “It’s not working,” the healer said.
Karena rushed back over to Hadrian’s bedside.
The healer shook her head. “He’s not healing like before. It has set in too deep,” the healer said.
“Isn’t there anything that you can do?” Karena asked.
“No,” the healer said, unable to offer anything else, and left.
Ice bloomed across Karena’s skin because she was so upset. She couldn’t breathe and had to sit back down in the chair. Hadrian was going to die. She might not see him ever again after that day, or even that morning.
“Don’t say anything, Karena,” Hadrian said. “It will be alright. If I go, then I go. We’ll find each other again in the next life.”
Karena gulped hard and nodded. She took his hand, and Evelyn took his other.
“It would’ve been nice to have gotten to know Evelyn more, and Asher, though preferably Evelyn more so,” he said.
Karena managed a short laugh. His hand felt cold and was slick with sweat. Hadrian closed his eyes, and his breathing became more and more shallow. Karena looked to the window. Through it, she could see that the sun was rising fast. Rays of sunlight formed a halo around where the sun was due to appear.
“Close the curtains,” Hadrian said, wincing from pain.
Karena hesitated. Tremors rocked Hadrian. He clawed at the bed and reached backwards for the curtains around his bed, but couldn’t find them with his fingers.
“Close it now. CLOSE THE CURTAINS!!!” he shouted, and panted from the strain and movement.
A sliver of sunlight crept across the floor and stopped a few inches shy of Karena’s foot. Traces of thought swirled around in her head. Vampires couldn’t withstand
daylight unless they had a daylight ring. Hadrian had been stabbed with a vampiric weapon. Had he been poisoned with vampirism? Was the solution that simple? It couldn’t be.
Evelyn jumped up, seized the curtains, and threw them together to block out the sun.
Karena stood up, feeling queasy from the sudden movement. “Asher, carry Hadrian,” she said.
“What?” Asher asked. “He’s dying. It might hurt him.”
“Carry him. Hurry,” Karena said and began removing the needles in Hadrian’s arms.
“What are you doing?” Evelyn asked. “Don’t move him.”
Despite her protests, Asher carefully put his arms underneath Hadrian and lifted him up. Karena walked out of the hospital room. She felt dizzy from the effort, but had to continue.
When they entered the hallway, they startled the nurses passing by. One of them trotted away while calling for a doctor to stop them. Karena got into the elevator and pressed for the top floor. Asher and Evelyn squeezed in. She couldn’t tell if Hadrian was still conscious or not in Asher’s arms.
“Hold on for another minute or two, Hadrian,” Karena said. She leaned against one of the elevator’s sides to rest.
The doors slid together, and they ascended upwards.
“Crazy, gearcrafter device,” Asher said, not liking the groans and squeaks it made.
On the top floor, they stepped out, found a service door, and went through it. Karena walked up the steps. Her feet felt like lead and her body felt like weak mush. She pushed through another door, and they walked onto the flat hospital roof.
Immediately, the sun hit Hadrian. He screamed in pain. He convulsed in Asher’s arms. Asher struggled to hold him, but was forced to set him down. Hadrian’s mouth twisted until his jaw threatened to unhinge. His heels and shoulders dug into the ground, while his back arched.
Evelyn shouted at Karena, but Karena paid her no attention. Karena’s mind whirled. She had made the decision, and she alone was responsible for the outcome. She prayed for her theory to work, and for Hadrian to not die an agonizing death when he could’ve had a peaceful one. Evelyn held up her wings to try to block the sun’s light, but it didn’t lessen Hadrian’s suffering.
Gaze of Fire: Sequel to Veins of Ice Page 28