After perhaps ten minutes of walking, my eyes acclimatized to their new fate. I began to see more details, noticing patterns in the shifting of colors and light. The human brain was a powerful thing, even thrown into another dimension. Dorian had assured me I would adjust, and he’d been right so far.
I began to see the faintest outlines of amber light again, which occasionally dispersed into the sky. A hazy horizon, also dotted with amber, came into view. Dark shapes danced ahead, and I rubbed my eyes, but the shadows on the horizon remained steadfast, becoming a tree and a creeping vine.
This place will either give me a seizure or a nervous breakdown.
Nobody spoke as we moved through the world, for which I was grateful. If I opened my mouth, I was afraid I would start spouting nonsense or throw up from my slight vertigo. I glanced down, hoping the ground would offer some solace.
A soft amber light glowed beneath my feet, and I stumbled sideways. I looked around me. Beneath the drifting fog, the landscape emitted a dim tawny glow. The dirt beneath me grew brighter, illuminating more of our surroundings.
Laini guided me over piles of rock, but it was smoother than the previous landscape. I could feel the stones beneath my boots, like cobblestones. It felt like a street. I looked up and realized the faint outlines ahead were actually the broken and torn remains of buildings. I narrowed my eyes, trying to get a better view. More of the faded angular lines appeared in the distance. There was a city’s worth of ruins here.
I sucked in a sharp breath. We were in the demolished vampire city, the one that Dorian and I had flown over during my first visit. Laini squeezed my hand but didn’t turn around. When I glanced to the side to catch a glimpse of Sike, his eyes roved over the ruins without expression.
God, this plane used to be their home.
The vampires were quiet to evade detection, but the silence served another purpose. Dorian, Kane, Sike, Laini, and Arlonne mourned as they led us through the wrecked remains of their old lives.
The Immortals did all this? I studied the broken path beneath me. The pavement had once depicted an intricate pattern of rust-red stones, but now there were holes and broken pieces scattered everywhere. The wind picked up, singing eerily as it passed through the rubble, almost conjuring voices.
The houses surrounding us were small and burnt, the yellow glass in the windows either broken or hung from the frame in melted brown strings. As we traversed a side street between two tumbled walls, my foot struck something that clattered across the path. Looking down, I shivered with disgust when I recognized it as a heap of bones. Out of the corner of my eye, I had thought they were jagged stones. The pile wasn’t alone. Skeletons in various states of wholeness littered the ground. It was as if everyone had dropped during their day and had simply been left to their fate. How many vampires were out there, unable to mourn their loved ones because they’d had to run for their own lives?
A large group of souls floated by, and the sky briefly lightened. Taking the opportunity, I studied the buildings we stood among. Strange. I knew what buildings devastated by bombs or gunfire looked like, but these structures looked like they had been sliced. The building closest to me had neatly lost a quarter of its construction. A house on my left looked like a cutaway dollhouse, the front wall completely erased. These structures were stone. What could have done this? I knew the breath of the shrieking decay could melt stone, but it was messy and volatile; this was so precise.
I puzzled over a building where the roof and upper floor had been removed as if with a knife. The ground floor was untouched, except for weather damage. Questions burned inside me.
“Where are we?” I whispered to Laini, wanting to put a name to this place.
She looked back. “This was once Vanim. Our home.”
I went to speak again, but she shook her head. There was such pain on her face, I didn’t push.
The quiet weighed on me, almost unbearable. The area grew lighter as we walked. Still, Laini clutched my hand, but now I supported her instead of the other way around. Her eyes stared ahead with a strange distance to them.
New colors emerged around me as the sky lightened. A weed with dusky pink flowers crawled up a broken fencepost. Iridescent blue mushrooms bloomed on one of the skeletons. Under the dirt and smoke damage, the walls of some of the buildings had obviously once borne murals or signs, and hints of color peeked through the grime. Looking up, the fog now somewhat thinner, I saw that the sky revealed a strange texture in the distance, like waves rippling above us. Around the city, I suddenly made out the jagged silhouettes of mountains that surrounded the ruins with towering heights. It felt like the mountains leaned in, sagging toward the city from the weight of their massive existence. The rippling sky made the sensation even worse. The Immortal Plane pushed on us from all sides.
“We’ll break here,” Dorian said abruptly. His short command broke the silence, but it did nothing for the tension.
We stopped by an old stone bench next to a tall building made of crumbling black bricks. I sat precariously on the bench, hoping it wouldn’t transform and bite a chunk out of me.
The vampires gathered together nearby. Dorian, eyes weary, rubbed his hands across his face, leaving streaks of soot on his forehead and cheeks. I wished I could brush the dirt from his face. I hated not being able to do anything to comfort him. This was the wreckage of his life. Laini leaned against Sike for a moment. The walk had taken a lot out of her. Kane muttered something gloomy, but I didn’t hear it, nor did I want to. They grieved.
Bryce sat beside me and said nothing. He opened his mouth and shut it a few times. I knew what he meant. The distance between our two groups weighed on me. How could we help them? The echoes of so much horror filled this place, so much pain it was impossible to find words for it.
Roxy leaned against the building’s stone wall, taking a long drink from the water skins we’d brought with us. Immediately, her face froze and she began to sob. Loud, powerful cries wracked her body. She slid down, her back to the building, burying her face in her hands as she wept. I jumped to my feet, but something about her body’s severe shuddering made me freeze. Roxy didn’t cry like this out of the blue. Could I even touch her? Or would that make things worse? Dorian and the vampires stared for a moment, caught off guard, but Roxy’s cries soon yanked them from their dreamlike state.
Laini’s eyes widened sympathetically as she took a step forward, but Kane was faster. He marched over to Roxy and grabbed her shoulders, yanking her away from the building. She stumbled against his chest and peered blankly into nothing for a terrifying minute. Then, the color came back into her face. She pulled herself back, and Kane jerked away at the same time. Roxy dropped her gaze, clearly embarrassed by her outburst. Kane shuffled in place, obviously in shock of some kind.
“I heard voices,” Roxy muttered abruptly. “Terrible, terrible voices. They told me awful things. Death and destruction. I could feel what they felt.” She rubbed her hand against her chest and made a motion like she wanted to rip out her heart.
Kane turned to me and Bryce, his face tight. “Yeah, don’t touch the buildings here. They have plenty of stories to tell, and they’re usually not nice.” He forced his tone to be casual, but the hollow humor chilled me to my bones.
“The stone, it remembers,” Laini added. “It tells you things that you don’t want to know. Memories are… very powerful in this place.”
“It was so real,” Roxy said, breathing hard. “What happened here?” Her voice was small, so unlike her usual rough confidence.
I scooted to the edge of the bench, dreading what the vampires would say next. They had a story for these ruins, and it was no fairytale. My skin erupted in goosebumps as apprehension welled up inside me. Another story meant more pain, but I owed it to them to witness their history.
Dorian inhaled slowly. The somber light in his eyes wavered between hesitation and something else. Something stormy and overwhelming, a feeling that might be impossible for us to understand.
Arlonne kept her mouth firmly shut, and Kane seemed stunned to silence. Something about Roxy’s desperation had pushed him too far. His tough-guy attitude had melted away into the clearing mist.
“I’ll tell you,” Laini breathed. Her earnest gaze turned toward the buildings. “This used to be our home. Vanim was once a great vampire city, but between the damage caused when the tear first opened and attacks from our Immortal enemies, it has been destroyed. Everyone who lived here has fled or been killed or captured by Immortals.”
My shoulders sagged under the weight of Laini’s sadness. I hated seeing the vampires in pain. I hated that they had to drag us through the decaying remains of their pasts. I hated knowing that I couldn’t help Dorian and our friends with this.
“Vampires always had a special relationship with the barrier,” Laini explained. “We can move through it, but it takes an incredible amount of energy unless we’re at the special stone locations. Sometimes, the effort needed to push ourselves between the planes without a portal can kill us. But we are the only creatures that can interact or move through it, except at the tear.” She paused. “The Immortals have always disliked us, begrudging our role in society, but they used to tolerate us. The last two hundred years saw a massive rise in hostility toward our kind. This disdain grew into undisguised hatred. Our numbers prevented them from outright attack, but they forced us out of their Immortal cities, banishing us to the mountains and deep into the forests. And so, we sought a way to protect our new homes. We needed a safe place to exist, to hide our sacred knowledge and continue purifying souls in both the Immortal and Mortal Planes. Our finest scholars conceived an idea. My mother told me that it seemed perfect at the time. We never imagined it would bring our downfall.”
Dorian averted his eyes, glaring at the ground. Was he thinking of his brother? His parents?
Laini’s voice wavered, but she continued. “Our finest minds devised a way to construct the city so that it became part of the barrier. Since no creatures but vampires could cross the barrier, Vanim was safe from attack. We built doors into this half-plane, to conserve our energy. Our lights and magic were powered by the energy of the barrier.”
I hadn’t realized the barrier was capable of all that—I’d been thinking of it as a wall between rooms, but it seemed to be more like a crawl space, an interdimensional bubble.
Laini went on, “With the buildings anchored between worlds, we were protected from our Immortal enemies’ awareness. They couldn’t find what they didn’t know was there. But… something went wrong. Something gouged through the barrier, creating the tear you’re all now familiar with.” Her chest rose and fell quickly as her breathing became strained. “The damage to Vanim was unimaginable. Buildings lost their foundations in mere moments. Portals collapsed, a few exploding out into the city and destroying everything around them. In some areas, the energy released from the ripped barrier sliced through stone.” The last word barely made it out of her mouth. Telling us was a painful task. She pulled herself together and forged on.
“Most vampires inside the buildings… the shock and ensuing damage killed them. Since our powers are linked to the strength of the barrier, the survivors all weakened. We lost over half the population in the first few minutes. The city had lost its protection from the Immortals, who took advantage of our weakness to launch a large-scale attack that devastated our remaining population. We held out as long as we could, protecting the city for almost a year. It wasn’t enough.” She shook her head. “They created new weapons and blasted down what was left of our walls. Wildlings rounded up monsters, some of which you’ve seen, most of which you haven’t, and used them against us. Hunters wore magical armor with strong protections. It was impossible to fight when we were already so weak. It happened so fast. Vanim was reduced to this, and we lost most of our surviving population. We couldn’t take care of our dead. The bones you see scattered about are our comrades, left to rot where they fell. In the aftermath, it wasn’t safe enough to return and properly burn their remains.” She looked around. “Now, they’re the only vampires who remain in this city.”
My heart broke. I wanted to scream a promise to those Immortal cretins, that they would pay for the suffering they had brought on the vampires. An equally loud cry rose up in the back of my mind, reminding me of the human cruelty that brought us to this point. The Immortals had hardly done this alone. Somewhere, Alan sat in a cell, content to be a cog in this murderous machine. I’d once been an unwitting participant in this sick game. Never again.
“Did you have magic among your people?” Bryce asked gently.
“Sometimes for large community projects, like to light our cities,” Laini replied, “but vampires tend not to use magic in our daily lives, especially for combat. It’s never been our way. The rulers never allowed other castes to learn those arts very much. It all makes sense, now that I think about it. They wanted it to be a slaughter.” The distant look in her eyes shattered as she stumbled again on her words.
“Thank you, Laini,” Dorian whispered tightly. “Save your strength.”
She gave a grateful nod.
A sadness as sharp as a knife’s blade twisted in my core. Those bones were once loved ones and friends to the vampires. I shut my eyes for a moment, trying hard not to imagine what it would be like to walk among the remains of the people I loved.
“My brother Lanzon was a warrior and a scout,” Dorian said, his voice carefully neutral. He refused to give away his emotions. “I was part of the group assigned to protect the civilian vampires fleeing the city.”
Dorian once told me that vampires had a rich variety of occupations and were not just warriors. They had been scholars, healers, teachers, even entertainers. Yet so many of the vampires I had met were warriors who’d survived the hard times better since the tear thanks to their skills. Those who hadn’t been trained for battle… I swallowed as tears pricked my eyes. Most of those unfortunate souls lay around us in piles of abandoned bones.
Horror gripped me. I could practically feel the dread like a rope knotting around my throat. I couldn’t breathe. There was so much pain in this place.
“I’m sorry,” I managed in a wavering tone, unable to keep the tears out of my voice. “I’m so sorry.”
Bryce nodded gravely. “No creature deserves this.”
Roxy rubbed her arms vigorously, as if to banish chills. Her eyes were red from tears. I hated to imagine what she had heard from the voices of that building.
I had known the vampires’ story would devastate us, but hearing it from Laini and Dorian sent everything over the edge.
“Thank you,” Laini said as her strength returned. She smiled, bittersweet. “Now you know why we fight so hard. The memories of everyone we left behind live on in us.”
Kane brushed his nose roughly with the back of his hand. “We all lost people, many of them arguably greater than us. My grandmother was the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I watched a building come down on her.” In the dim light, his lean body tensed at the painful memory. He carried a great burden. They all did.
“My entire family,” Sike mumbled and kicked at a nearby rock. It ricocheted off into the distance, striking a building. “Parents. Brothers. Sister. Grandfather. I was all alone. I was lucky to find Dorian and the others, in the aftermath.”
Laini sucked in a sharp breath. “Lanzon wasn’t the only death for me. I lost my aunt, uncle, and cousins that same day.” Her voice went high and fragile. “They all survived the tear. We thought it was a miracle.” She pressed her balled-up fist against her mouth. “I’ll never stop until we get justice for them.”
Never. I felt a surge of determination course through me. Roxy wiped her wet eyes roughly. Bryce didn’t bother to hide the tears streaming down his face as his gaze lingered on a child-sized set of bones.
“My father,” Arlonne whispered. It was all she said. It was all she needed to say.
For a moment, a silence fell over our group as we honored the fallen. I pressed my fi
ngernails into my palm, relishing the sharp pain that reminded me I was alive. I was in the Immortal Plane, and I would be damned if I gave up looking for a way to right this terrible wrong with my friends.
Vanim was where it had all begun, and it was here that we began our journey to end it.
Chapter Fifteen
We picked our way through the dark fog for hours. Or rather, the vampires moved forward and helped us along. I wondered if Roxy and Bryce felt like babies too. Arlonne had been right about that.
After our stop in Vanim, I was grateful for silence again. Laini helped me when the path became too dim in certain spots. Sometimes, when she held my hand, I tried to imagine giving her as much comfort as possible, like a psychic hug.
The redbills had left us long ago at the vampires’ request, but we occasionally heard them call to one another as they followed us from above. Fortunately, the number of wild flocks prevented that from giving us away.
I could make out the thin, winding path ahead sometimes when the fog lifted in areas, revealing strange trees clad in thick blue-and-green moss that I didn’t dare touch. Although we occasionally saw the faint outline of a ruin in the distance, we never stumbled through another town or settlement. The surrounding landscape began to skew toward what I assumed was a more rural part of the Immortal Plane. Although I had no concept of how far this place stretched, in my mind it went on forever.
Sound traveled oddly in this plane. Roxy nearly tripped at one point, and her startled gasp sounded as if her mouth was right next to my ear one moment and then a hundred feet away a moment later. It was impossible to calculate distance. Everything echoed and whispered or stopped altogether, as if the warm pressure swallowed it up.
Darklight 3: Darkworld Page 16