Fated Realms
Witchling Wars: Vampire Echelon Book 2
Shawn Knightley
Copyright © 2019 by Shawn Knightley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Witchling Wars Glossary
About the Author
Also by Shawn Knightley
1
It didn’t matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t stop shivering. I took deep breaths. I tried rubbing my arms vigorously with my hands. Nothing worked.
Would I die here? Alone in the dark and damp cell beneath the earth. Would they be so cruel?
Yes. I knew they would. They would relish it.
A loud creaking invaded my ears. Someone was coming. Heavy footsteps walked through the stone path then down the steps. Torches lit up the passageway and revealed the man walking down its length. He was alone. And he wore the armor that I began despising so long ago. Even so, I welcomed the light of the torch in his hand. I wondered if I got close enough if I could feel the warmth coming from its glorious blaze from where I was sitting huddling in the corner of the stone cell with nothing but cobwebs for company.
When the man appeared on the other side of the iron door he was smiling. He looked through the iron and held the door with one hand, tempting me with the sight of the flame. I desperately wanted to feel warm again. He saw where my eyes were wondering and it filled him with glee. I could sense it coming from his skin.
“Don’t worry, kruxa,” he said in Latin, showing his fangs in the dim light of the cell as he spoke. “We’ll get you nice and warm soon enough.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. There was a menacing tone to his god-awful voice. He snickered as he watched me shiver in the darkness. Only this time it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the creepy feeling he gave me as he spoke. As if being a vampire and a Roman wasn’t enough.
“What do you want from me?” I mumbled through chattering teeth. I didn’t expect him to understand my native language. And I also didn’t want to give in by speaking Latin. I knew how to speak it but doing so felt like admitting defeat. “I can’t give you my magic. Nor can anyone else.”
“I know, kruxa. I’m not foolish like the other soldiers. I don’t want what’s not mine. Besides,” he said as he lifted his hand away from the iron cell door and held it before me. “I don’t need your magic. I have my own.”
His hand lit up in a stunning array of red light. A remarkable glow of swirling magic that illuminated the entire passageway behind him and my small cramped cell. It was then that I noticed the full array of his uniform. He wasn’t just a soldier for the Roman army. He was an officer. A very high ranking one. He had powerful magic in his possession. And above all else, he was a vampire. I sat in the corner for hours wishing I could see even the smallest sight as spiders crawled over me. Now I wished he would take it away. He was so pale that I could see some of the veins in the corner of his face just around his eyes. His eyes were so light that they were almost translucent. He was as terrifying as he was mesmerizing.
He watched my eyes widen as I marveled at the magic twisting between his fingers before he let it seep back into his skin. Part of me wanted to see it again. Another part was glad the light was gone. I could no longer see his fangs glistening.
“I’ll make you a deal, kruxa,” he said quietly. “I have something very precious in my possession. Something I need to protect. If I give it to you and you prove worthy of keeping it safe in the years to come, I will make sure that no matter what happens to you, you will never truly die.”
“Any man who can see what you are knows that such a thing isn’t a reward. Immortality is a punishment. I’ve seen vampires drive themselves to madness because they can’t handle immortality.”
“You won’t be a vampire,” he said. “But you will survive. Although, perhaps not in the way you wish.”
“In what way then?”
“One that matters.”
“What matters to vampires rarely matters to witchlings. Particularly kruxa.”
He smirked at me once more, admiring my wit. “You’ve seen the power I can wield. You know that you won’t survive being imprisoned without help. Nor will your lover. What’s his name? Talorcan?”
“What have you done with him?” I demanded.
“Shhh,” he hushed me. “Don’t fret. He’s perfectly safe. For the moment.”
I wanted to break through the iron cell door and snap his neck. And yet, I held no power. I was a captive. And the Romans showed no mercy for my kind. Especially once they realized that kruxa can’t share their magic. Only the vixra can. Not that it would help a mere human. Vixra magic was too strong for them. It would kill them if they dared try possessing it. But that didn’t stop the Romans from pillaging villages where they suspected witchlings might be living. I thought Talorcan and I could fight them off. We could protect the tribe. I was wrong. So very wrong. My people placed their trust in me and Talorcan’s judgment. Now I felt nothing but shame for my failure.
“Let me help you, kruxa. You might come to find that we can be of mutual use to one another.”
I searched his emotions to see if there was any deception lurking inside of him. I could usually tell if someone wasn’t being completely honest with me. Or if they had their own interests placed above that of my tribe. It helped me to know when outsiders meant well. And if raids might be afoot from the local tribes that saw how plentiful our crops were after a long harvest. They were envious of how well we lived and how our magic could sustain us in the harsh winters.
I let my magic search the Roman officer’s emotions. The vampire who claimed he could find a way to spare my life. I found no deception. Only interest. Not a romantic one. He wanted something from me. And he fully believed he could provide it. His arrogance offended me. It was the same arrogance I saw the other Roman officers show on the battlefield.
“As I said, kruxa,” he went on. “I’m more than willing to save your pathetic little life. But my offer comes at a price. I need you to hide something for me. It will follow you throughout your life. You won’t feel it. Nor will you sense it.”
“What is this object?” I asked, not really wanting to hear. But my curiosity got the better of me.
“I cannot say.”
“You want me to hide something and not even tell me what it is?” I hissed.
“I can say that it’s of a magical nature,” he said with a slight tilt of his head.
“Is it something the vixra want?” I asked.
“Eventually, yes. They will want it. You will only give it back when I will you to do so.”
“Will the vixra kill for it?”
“I’m not sure.”
I looked at him with skepticism. “I don’t help vampires. They’ve killed far too many of my kind. I’m prepared to die over helping the likes of you.”
“Very well,” he said, stepping away for a moment and coming back with someone trapped in the firm grip of his hand. It was Talorcan. My husband. I rushed up to the iron door the moment I saw his face. He had been beaten. His eyes were swollen. His face was bruised. There was blood trickling down the side of his cheek.
“What have you done to him?”
“Nothing that won’t heal, kruxa,” he said.
Talorcan groaned in pain. He wanted to hunch over. Were his ribs broken?
His eyes fluttered open and closed. Then they focused on me. I wasn’t sure if he could see me. Or if he even knew I was alive.
‘My god. That wretched vampire lured him. Talorcan doesn’t even know I’m standing here.’
“But this,” the vampire continued, “this might take time to heal.” He reared his head back and thrust his fangs deep inside Talorcan’s neck. Talorcan grunted from the pain but he didn’t try to fight him off. His mind was elsewhere. Blood oozed down his throat as his eyes started to droop. He was losing too much blood.
I was prepared to die for my people. I was even prepared to die for Talorcan. But I wasn’t prepared to watch him die. I always hoped that if we died on the battlefield, the swords of our enemies would take both of us so I wouldn’t have to live without him.
“Stop! Please!” I hollered. I let out some of my magic from my hands and aimed it directly for the hinges of the cell door. I already tried to break free several times. But my strength abandoned me. I used too much of my magic on the battlefield.
The vampire dropped Talorcan from his hand and let his magic swirl inside the cell. I watched Talorcan fall to the ground with a smack as the bright red magic from the vampire’s body latched onto me and shoved me right into the stone back wall of the cell.
“Behave,” he ordered me as if I was nothing more than a wild dog.
“What are you?” I muttered, trying to speak through his magic strangling me against the wall. “Vampires can’t wield such magic.”
“I’m different. I’m willing to make you different as well. And the man you love. But you have to be willing to help me. Do as I say or watch him die.”
‘Talorcan would want me to let him die before helping a vampire. Especially a Roman. I know he would.’
Or so I tried telling myself over and over again. I shut my eyes and struggled to think through the pain. When I opened them again, all I saw was Talorcan starting to come around on the dirty stone floor. He glanced up at me as blood continued to pour out of his neck. His hand reached up as if he could finally see what was really happening. He wanted to reach out. To touch me. To stop me from dying.
‘I can’t let him harm you. I’m sorry. Forgive me!’
“I’ll do what you want,” I spat through gritted teeth. I tried bringing my hands up to loosen the tightening rope of his magic around my throat. It burned me to the touch instantly. He was so much stronger than me. He could kill me in the blink of an eye and never even use his fangs. Which meant the one thing I feared most. If I refused him, he would use his magic against my tribe. Or what was left of it. I could sense his blood-thirst. And his eagerness to see me suffer if I refused.
“What was that, kruxa?” he taunted me as his magic stung me with an even harsher intensity.
“Yes! I will help you!” I managed to say through the pain.
He let me down and I fell to the dirt floor. I didn’t even realize he had me suspended above the ground until I crumbled to my hands and knees, coughing as my lungs struggled to gain a single breath.
When I finally could breathe again, I peered up at him. I heard the sound of iron rubbing against iron as he opened the cell door and stepped inside with the torch still in his hand.
“Good decision,” he beamed, aiming his free hand directly at me.
“No!” I shouted, “you said-”
“I told you it was of a magical nature. Nothing more.” And with that, his magic lurched out of his palm and struck me directly in the chest. My arms extended outward as sparks flew throughout the cell, making me feel as though he had set hot coals right on top of my chest, burning into my lungs and searing through my heart.
I let out a scream. Talorcan must have been coming around because he heard me. He was finally aware and able to see. The vampire stopped luring him. Even through the agony, I could sense he was enjoying himself. Not just because I was in pain. But because Talorcan was witnessing it first hand.
“No!” Talorcan screamed from outside the cell. He summoned his magic from his palm and shot it right at the vampire’s back. It didn’t affect him even in the slightest.
When the vampire finally stopped, his magic was surrounding me in a circle of bright red light, spinning about and finally settling over my skin as my body absorbed it. I shook helplessly on the floor as he watched in utter delight.
“I’ve placed a very special item inside your body,” the vampire said to me as the sound of crackling from his magic started to dwindle and I could finally breathe again without feeling like my lungs were on fire. “It will always be locked inside of you until the day I decide I want it back.”
“What will?”
He didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at me. He simply turned around and walked out of the dungeon.
“Guards,” he shouted.
Two men in Roman uniforms charged into the cell and grabbed me by the arms. I didn’t have the strength to fight them. I could hardly even walk on my own two feet as they held me up from under my shoulders and shuffled me out of the cell. The vampire grabbed Talorcan from behind me and dragged him out by the neck. I could hear Talorcan trying to fight him off. Along with the screaming that followed as he failed to stop him with his magic.
I hollered his name. I didn’t know if he was conscious. All I knew was that whatever the vampire was planning, whatever I had agreed to, was somehow going to end up being the worst decision I had ever made.
My worst fears were confirmed when we finally got outside and I saw the stake in the center of the fortress. There were dozens of Roman soldiers standing there in uniform, waiting for me to be tied to the stake and delighting in their merry enjoyment of watching me burn.
“You said I wouldn’t die,” I screamed at the vampire. “You said!”
“Indeed. I did,” he scowled at me. “I also said we would warm you up.”
He laughed as I was pulled toward the stake and tied down with my hands above my head and my ankles latched on with a thick rope.
Talorcan finally came to his senses. He wasn’t being lured anymore. He saw what was happening. And he panicked. He ran for the stake only for two of the soldiers to latch onto him and hold him down by his arms, forcing him to his knees as he watched in complete horror. He tried summoning his magic to get loose. It was no use. He used too much of it in battle. Just like I did. He’d never recuperate in time.
The vampire took the torch in his hand and lit the pyre to flames. It was only a matter of seconds before the flames reached so high that I could no longer see Talorcan through the black smoke. But I could hear his screams. Even as the searing hot flames started dancing around my flesh and consuming me alive his screams overpowered my own.
I should have known better. I should never have trusted a wretched vampire. I had seen what they did to the neighboring tribes. I saw how deceitful they were. And how they became slaves to their thirst for blood.
‘What have I done? What did I agree to?’
It didn’t matter. Soon there was nothing I could focus on. Nothing but the pain of my flesh burning under the pale moonlight.
I slowly began to stir. My thoughts were muddled. Like a fog had taken over my mind and forced me to sleep for far longer than I intended. I forced my eyes open. Normally it took me a few minutes to see clearly after a deep sleep. Not an
ymore. Everything was crystal clear and sharper than I ever imagined.
The ceiling above me was red and brown. A cave with a shimmering light danced above me.
“She’s coming around,” Lenora spoke nearby. I recognized her voice instantly.
Someone was holding me. His hands gripped tight and I started to make sense of where I was. The memories came back to my mind as I started to sit up.
There was the highway. The vampires surrounded me. Victor stabbed me. Then Tobias held me in his arms as he… he…
Tobias turned me into a vampire. But only after Victor surrounded my body with crowning magic exploding from his hands. Just like the vampire in my dream. Or was it a vision?
Tobias’s face became sharper. His eyes were focused on mine, waiting for me to move. Or to say something. Only one word came to my mind.
“Talorcan.” It was him. The man I saw the Roman vampire torturing. My lover. My… husband. Many lifetimes ago.
Tobias smiled. A warm smile that once intimidated the hell out of me was now dare I say… affectionate?
His hand curved around my face as he tilted my head up. He pushed my top lip upward away from my teeth. His hands weren’t cold anymore. They didn’t feel hot either. They were simply normal.
“How long before her fangs are fully formed?” Lenora asked.
“It will take a few days.”
“It was you,” I whispered.
“What do you remember?” he asked me as if he knew I had seen something.
Of course he did. He always knew before when I had a vision. Why should that change now?
Only it should have changed. I should have lost my ability to have visions as I changed into a vampire.
Fated Realms: (Witchling Wars: Vampire Echelon Book 2) Page 1