“How the heck are you doing this?”
“I only wish I could explain it myself,” Emily said, “I feel something here, Samuel. A connection unlike any other I’ve ever felt before. There’s something strong here… and it’s calling out to me. Right now, let’s call it a new trick. I’ll discuss the matter further, but first I need a favor.”
“Well now that you’ve got me sloshing around with ghouls and vampires, I’m free to do just about anything you need.”
“I’m sorry for that,” Emily continued, “I wish there could’ve been another way.”
“Yeah, I do, too. Oh well, out with it, Emily, what do you need?”
“I had hoped to get you to press Esther for information,” Emily confessed, “That’s not going to happen now, but I need you to see if you can get Fiona to open up a little.”
“You want me to become her friend?”
“Something foul is in the air,” Emily said, “Ever since I was declared the summoner by the paranormal realm; people have been using me for their own gains. All the schemes and betrayals, their sole purpose was to cloud my mind and make the right choice seem unattainable. I’m going to finish this war on my terms, and for that I’m going to need your help.”
“Finally, a direction I can follow. I’ll be there when you need me, Emily. You can count on that.”
Chapter Three
The helicopter settled down on a clearing near a large mountain, raised high above the jungle and casting an ominous shadow on the land below. As the blades of the helicopter came to a slow halt, the passengers unstrapped themselves and prepared to descend upon the lush jungle landscape.
Emily was the first to touch down. She was drawn to the nearby temple and eager to visit the halls of her people, gone from this world, but not forgotten. She was closely followed by her brother and then Esther.
“I’m not going to need you for awhile,” Xander said to the mercenary pilot, “Head back to the ship and wait until I call you.”
“Yeah, I think I can do that.”
“Good,” Xander said, “I’ll be requiring only one more pickup, but that shouldn’t be for another day or so. I’ll pay you the same price as before.”
“Double.”
“Getting a little too bold now, friend,” growled Xander as he unstrapped himself from the seat.
“Hey, man, you’re asking me to hold off any other jobs until you decide you want a pick up. That’ll cost you double what you paid me for this job.”
“Very well,” Xander accepted, knowing full well he had no choice but to go along with the pilot’s demands, “You’ll get your money… after you pick me up.”
“Well then, mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
Xander gave the man a pat on the back and promptly exited the helicopter. He could’ve charmed the pilot and bent him to his will, but he was a good man, skilled in his trade and completely dependable. He would have need of a man with the pilot’s skills in the coming days.
“I can feel it,” said Emily, waiting until Xander had arrived, “The temple is near, isn’t it?”
The group paused for a moment while the helicopter fired up again and lifted off into the sky. Steven tried to chase the pilot down, but it quickly took off and left them stranded with no way to return to the ship— not unless Xander willed it.
“Where is he going?” Steven asked.
“Our contract has been fulfilled,” Xander said with a grunt, “We’ve no more need of his services. Not yet, at least.”
“Why the hell would want that?” asked Steven, throwing his hands up into the air, “What if we need to get out of here?”
“If the vampire queen shows up, she will take it from us,” Xander replied, “We can’t allow that to happen.”
“Forgive me, sire” Esther interjected, “But how do you propose we get out of here if the horde does arrive.”
Xander smiled politely and started to backpedal into the thick foliage that encompassed the clearing. “We tend to one problem at a time, my child.”
The group followed Xander into the jungle, and did so for almost an hour before he finally stopped and allowed the others to catch up. They had headed further and further up the mountain’s slow ascent, only to arrive at a place that resembled nothing of importance.
“I don’t see anything,” Emily said.
“That’s because it’s not here,” Steven replied.
“The boy’s quite correct,” Xander answered, “We could travel this jungle forever and still never come close to the Temple of Prometheus.”
“What’s your point here?” Steven asked.
“My point is that the temple isn’t anywhere in the jungle,” Xander said as he approached a patch of thick overgrowth, “It’s underneath.”
They huddled around the tunnel that descended into the ground, where the absence of light made the path appear to go on forever, steeped in darkness and unbridled pain. Something awful had happened here, and the countless years between then and now had done little to cleanse these lands.
“It’s one of many that lead to the temple’s grounds,” Xander continued, “I’ve found many, but this was one of the only ones that leads straight down.”
“And what of the other tunnels, are they still intact?” Emily asked.
“The temple has survived for thousands of years, maybe longer,” Xander said, “I’m surprised I found any that were undamaged.”
“Well, what’re you waiting for, sis?” asked Steven as they stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the inauspicious passageway.
Emily concentrated on the energy coursing through her veins and used but a small fraction of that power to turn her right hand into a glowing ball of white fire. The tunnel lit up brightly for the summoner that beckoned it so, and they started their descent into the confined passageway.
“Well, brother,” said Emily as she led the way down, “I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
* * * * *
Far behind the summoner’s group, Samuel and Fiona were sprinting through another part of the jungle. The ghouls and vampires were close behind, led by the most unlikely pairing of vampire and hunter.
“You want to slow down a little?” Samuel asked as he struggled to keep pace.
“Can’t keep up, can you?” answered Fiona, “I forgot just how human you are.”
“You’re running your men too hard,” Samuel said, “Keep running them like this and it won’t matter how fast we get to the temple. They’ll be near death and in no condition to fight.”
Fiona slowed to a halt and let the vampire hunter catch up with her before she resumed towards the GPS destination at a slower pace.
“You’re in a hurry, I get that,” Samuel said, “What I don’t get, is why you’d be so eager to throw your life away. Are you so ready to die, vampire?”
“Don’t presume to know anything about me, hunter.”
“Oh, I don’t,” Samuel said in agreement, “But I know your kind, and the hunger that drives them to such unfathomable depths. You’re a predator, and you’ll always return to your roots… if the hunger grows strong enough.”
“You better watch your tongue… I might just get the urge to cut it out.”
“There we go. Threaten me, just like your kind always does,” Samuel chided, “Kill what stands in your way and burn what you fail to understand.”
Fiona turned sharply and almost struck the vampire hunter down where he stood. She was hungry, furious and ready to give in to her vampiric urges. It wasn’t the summoner that stopped her from engaging in these attacks, however, it was that she refused to prove the hunter right.
“You’re antagonizing me, why?”
“That wasn’t my intention,” Samuel said, “I merely wished to know if your desires would prevent you from completing our mission.”
He was lying. His intention was, in fact, to get her agitated and off her game. Her guard was up, but if he could coerce Fiona into a full-on frontal assault, her guard would
be dropped and ready for the picking.
“The summoner didn’t tell you, did she?” Fiona asked with a smirk and lick of her serpent tongue, “Death was never the way of the summoners, and what is a doomsday device to some is salvation to others.”
“You’re not going to die,” Samuel said in astonishment, “I can’t believe it… you’re not going to bloody die.”
“How’s that for a kick in the pants?” Fiona asked, “Your eternal enemy… forever out of your reach. I guess you could keep slaughtering us, but then you’d be no better than the vampires you sought, killing humans and living off their suffering.”
“Why does everything have to be so black and white with you?” Samuel wondered, “If you’re not longer a vamp, you’re not longer my enemy.”
“Well now, how very big of you.”
“I can’t believe it’s really true,” Samuel said with a shake of his head. “It’s just too crazy. What about trolls… and well, trolls. Don’t tell me they were once human.”
“We were all human once. It’s both the blessing and the curse that runs through the entire paranormal realm. I would’ve thought a vampire hunter of your ilk knew all there was about the creatures he hunted.”
“Never hunted troll,” Samuel admitted as they stopped briefly in front of a waterfall, “And I don’t care to start anytime soon.”
“Wise choice.”
“We should stop for a moment and let the men catch their breath,” Samuel noted.
“I would think a man that fights those stronger than him for a living would be more open to a challenge.”
“I’d love nothing more than to be wrong about you,” Samuel said, “But, like I said, you’re a predator; and once you’ve tasted the thrills of the hunt, it’s hard to live a life when you’re the one being hunted.”
“Ah… so you do plan on hunting us after our rebirth.”
“I never said it would be me,” Samuel replied, “There are plenty of terrible things in this world, and without your powers, you’ll be at a level playing field for the first time since your embrace. Think what you want, lady, but you’re not going to like that… not one bit.”
“We shall see about that,” Fiona said, “Or perhaps… we won’t. Enough small talk, vampire hunter; it’s time to get the troops and move out.”
Samuel didn’t like the tone in her voice, the contempt and resentment she had been known for was now replaced with a quiet confidence. It was a confidence that seemed to shatter Samuel’s own and leave an empty feeling in its stead— like he had included in only a part of the whole plan.
“May whatever god the summoners pray to keep you from harm’s way, Emily,” Samuel muttered under his own breath, “You’re on your own now.”
Chapter Four
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Steven said with a dumbfounded look, “Your people really built this, Emily?”
The mismatched group stood in awe at the precipice of the gigantic cavern that housed the mythical Temple of Prometheus. The entire limestone palace was still radiant, even after all these years, and masked in a propitious aura that seemed to exude through its seamless walls.
The temple was massive, and continued to get larger the closer they came through the passageway, now turned into a narrow bridge that spanned a bottomless pit underneath them.
“Our people built this, brother,” replied Emily, “Never forget… she was your mother, too.”
“Emily’s light is strong,” Esther noted, “But not this strong. I can see the entire temple and the wall of rock encapsulating it. What’s lighting our path?”
“The temple, itself,” Xander said, “It may be made with simple limestone, but it’s been infused with the residual energy of the summoner’s that built it. Ten thousand years from now and this place will still be burning just as bright.”
“It’s majestic,” Esther said, “I wish that I knew more about their culture.”
“You and I, both,” added Emily with a hand placed on Esther’s shoulder, “It’s a legacy that I’m afraid I’ll never truly understand.”
They approached the limestone pillars that lined the entrance to the temple and walked through the path decorated with marble statues of majestic creatures, many long since extinct from this world, others never before seen by mankind. They all marveled at its beauty, and the tranquility it provided— except Xander. He stood alone in silence, eager to pick up the pace and head towards the temple’s inner sanctum.
Emily wasn’t sure if it was that his previous trip to the temple had deluded his ability to marvel in its grace, but he couldn’t have been less impressed with the situation they found themselves in. He was impossible to decipher, one minute hot and the next cold. He was one of the smartest men she had ever met, yet he rarely said a thing, or at the most, said very little. Perhaps the biggest question that circled the summoner’s mind, however, was Xander the hero or villain of this story?
“How do you suppose we open the door?” Steven asked as he ran a hand down the hinge-less door, built right into the side of the wall. They wouldn’t even have known it was a gateway, had it not been for the large circular engraving directly in the middle of the temple’s front wall.
The design was of two dragons swirling around one another, not unlike the two that had come to the summoner upon her first awakening, and then once more almost a week ago. There was a connection with these majestic creatures and her people, only for her there was no known connection to be made.
“These doors would never open for me,” Xander said, “Mitra’s scrolls spoke of a hand placed upon the circle, but no hand of a vampire would unlock its secrets. It’s remained closed for all these years… its secrets lost with the death of the summoners. I doubt even your mother had come back here after the culling.”
Without a second thought, Emily placed her palm against the engraved circle. A large section of the limestone wall lit up with the same bright azure light that coursed from her body when fully charged. A section of the wall disappeared and opened to a hallway that seemed to go on forever.
The connection was growing stronger between Emily and the memory of her people, and with one step forward she sent out to change her fate forever. She had thought of this moment since first setting out for Xander’s castle, but nothing could’ve prepared her for what she was about to witness.
“This was the last place the summoner’s made their passive stand,” Xander said with solemn reflection, “The summoner’s were cut down by the first breed of their paranormal creations… they never even put up a fight. Even in their dying hours, they couldn’t bring themselves to turn back the clock on their children and use the temple’s secrets against them.”
There were hieroglyphs carved intricately into the walls, containing entire volumes of their history and lore. Yet, the luster was lost among the hundreds of fossilized remains. Everywhere they looked, groups of remains had been strewn about the lengthy hallway. It had been a warzone, where so many of Emily’s kind had met a very different fate than that of their children.
“It’s a warning,” Xander said, “The originals wanted to make an example of their parents… they wanted their mother’s and father’s to suffer.”
“Are there any of these originals still around?” Steven asked as he knelt down beside one of the remains.
“None that I’m aware of,” Xander replied, “If there were any, likely they would’ve kept their head so far under the sand that they’d never come up for air.”
“Aren’t they respected amongst their own?” Steven asked as he continued with his little investigation. He knew next to nothing about the vampires he fought, and even the smallest bit of information could one day prove useful.
“Power is all that my kind respects,” Xander confirmed, “Yet greater than the power of one, is our need for bloodshed and war. Intelligence is the first thing to flee a man when his cravings get the better of him. My kind was strong… but weak willed when it came to our unfortunate mi
sgivings. Within a few thousand years of internal wars and power struggles, our fledglings barely resembled their former elders, and that of their own elders. History had been lost, with superstition given its place. We were a people without an identity... and those are the worst kinds of monsters… the ones who had neither rhyme nor reason in their actions.”
“By the time I became a vampire, the fourth council had been erected,” Xander continued, “And with them, our entire heritage had been born anew… from the fires of the burning history of all that came before.”
“I could spend a lifetime reading this,” Emily said as she tried her hardest to ignore of the remains next to her feet, “And still, I’d never begin to understand who or what my people were. It’s not like I can read any of these squiggly lines and disjointed characters. My mother should’ve been the one here… not me.”
A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga Page 23