“To be honest,” Tisiphone continued, but her voice was uncharacteristically distant, as though she were thinking out loud instead of speaking to the group. “We’re not really sure we wanted to reclaim what we lost. We could have taken eyes, or ears, or tongues from other vampires many times over the years. But if we were once again whole, would we cease to be what we are? Maybe we just wanted to test ourselves. To brave the temptation and embrace the horrors that created us.”
Blood tears cascaded down from Alecto’s large, bright eyes. She wept not only for herself, but for the two who couldn’t.
Tisiphone took a deep breath and let it out in one long, ragged blast. “If we find the Watchtower, if we destroy them, no matter how righteous we believe our cause to be, we’ll be no better than the Hunters, or the Stewards. No different from the High Council ordering the mutilation of three young women who stood in the way of their own righteous goals.”
“That’s a wonderful sentiment,” Taos said, his voice uncommonly free of sarcasm. “But we can’t just leave the Watchtower be. Either, Suhail will find them, or the High Council will eventually use them to track us. That is, if they don’t pull off their little body switching trick and wipe every blood drinker off the map.”
“What if we used them for ourselves,” Thad said. The other vampires turned to look at him—even the two with no eyes.
“Are you mad?” Taos asked. The irritated tone had returned. “What in the world would we need the Watchtower for, assuming they’d even go with us?”
Thad continued, unfazed by Taos’s bark. “I think they will go with us. They’re in just as much danger from the High Council as they are from Suhail. We’re their only hope. They’ve been enslaved for so long, I doubt they even know how to survive on their own anymore.”
“But why would we need them?” Shufah asked.
“In Celeste’s vision, she saw three fixed points, but there was a smaller point, too. One that was drifting around in the sea.” He waited for them to realize what he was getting at, but no one spoke. “If the vision came from Sebastian, don’t you think he would also try to tell us where he was? He’s part of the Watchtower, too.”
They all looked toward Celeste. She could find no fault in Thad’s logic. “But if that smaller point is Sebastian, then he has to be in a ship or submarine. That way, the High Council could always be on the move. He has sent no other visions, and there’s no way to…”
“You want the Watchtower to show us where Sebastian is?” Shufah finished.
Thad nodded. “They’re the only ones who can.”
“But why find the Dwarf at all?” Tisiphone asked. “What does this gain us?”
“Because, he’s my friend,” Thad snapped, but his face quickly softened in apology. “But if that’s not good enough for you, try this on for size. Sebastian had a vision about Jerusa.”
They all flinched at the mention of her name, as if by mentioning it, he might call her into their presence.
Thad continued, “Sebastian said, she was destined to become the Queen of Life. That she alone could stop what was to come. I’m guessing, Sebastian meant Suhail. If we’re right, Sebastian is with the High Council. Find them and you’ll also find the Necromancer. If we take the Necromancer, we can stop the High Council from becoming Divine Vampires. But we can also force the Necromancer to undo whatever he did to Jerusa so she can kill Suhail. Two birds with one stone.”
There was a long moment of quiet pondering. It was an oversimplified plan, but not a bad one.
“There is only one problem,” an unfamiliar voice spoke from the darkened corner furthest from the door.
The vampires were on their feet in a blur and storm of dust. They retreated with their backs to the wall, and though they could’ve torn through the heavy wooden beams with little difficulty, a moment of curiosity held them in place.
Everything within Shufah screamed the intruder was nothing more than a mortal woman. At first, she thought it was another member of Lamorak—they seemed to possess some style of teleporting technology—except that the woman had no discernible scent, and her heart rate thrummed along at too steady of a pace.
Then the woman moved from the shadows and stood under the bare light bulb. Shufah uttered a gasp, and the Furies bowed their heads in reverence. The younger vampires had probably never seen the Divine Vampire with soft, pale skin and short brown hair. It had been centuries for Shufah and the Furies.
Shufah moved closer, but only a step. “Danyl? How did you find us? Why have you come? Is all well with Jerusa and Silvanus?” Her heart clenched within her chest. She had mourned Jerusa once already. She couldn’t bear to do it again.
The Divine’s eyes were bright, but filled with a deep pain. Shufah’s breath stopped in her chest. The Furies were holding hands. Without thinking, Shufah reached out and took the hand of Megaera.
“I haven’t gone by the name Danyl in a very long time. You may call me Danielle. I’ve come to help you, at the request of Silvanus. I leapt to the Ice Fortress, but it was destroyed. I found a strange group of humans off in the distance. I searched their minds to find your location. Beware what information you share with your mortal friends. It’s no longer safe from your brother.”
“Thank you for the advice,” Shufah said with a slight bow.
Danielle returned the bow. “Silvanus and Jerusa are still alive. He took hold of her and leapt away, though not without a bit of pain for his efforts. Jerusa, on the other hand, is not well, as I’m sure you’ve figured out.”
“We noticed,” Taos said. “What’s wrong with her?”
Danielle shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? You’re the ones that set that vile wizard upon her. All I can tell you is that she’s void of thought or conscious. An empty husk controlled and manipulated by those savage demons.”
“That makes total sense,” Thad said, slapping the side of his head in an all-too-human gesture. Danielle tilted her head at him and smiled. “When Jerusa faced off with Suhail, half of the savage wraiths stopped him from getting to her. But the other half stopped Jerusa from getting to Alicia.”
“You should be thankful that Jerusa’s eyes were focused elsewhere,” Danielle said. “Had they set upon you, your little coven here would have withered lips and be craving flesh.”
“But why?” Taos asked.
“Jerusa is a Divine Vampire, yet she is also something else. Not like Suhail, but no less dangerous. She’s been leaping all over the world, seeking any blood drinkers she can find, and then, her savage demons do their work.”
“She’s exterminating the blood drinkers?” Tisiphone asked, appalled by the concept.
Danielle considered this for a moment. “Not exactly. She doesn’t kill them. Her demons suck the life force from the blood drinkers to the point that the savage change occurs. Then, she leaves them to their own savage whims. Silvanus, myself…” She made the slightest pause, as if tasting something bitter. “… and Augustus had been the ones doing all the exterminating.”
“And we were next on Jerusa’s list,” Taos said with dismay. “Not that I really blame her.”
None argued with him. What they had done to Jerusa had been meant for her good, but it had all played out so badly. They understood it was really the savage wraiths using Jerusa to satiate that instinct they could no longer perform, but strangely, it felt like her vengeance on all who had wronged her.
“That is why Silvanus sought you out,” Danielle said. “To warn you. Jerusa will come for you again, and when she does, I doubt you’ll be lucky enough to distract her.”
“But how will she find us,” Thad asked. “How does she find any of the blood drinkers?” But he immediately answered his own question. “It’s the wraiths. Just like the vampire ghosts, when she was a blood drinker. And the human ghosts, when she was mortal. They helped her find whatever she was looking for. Alicia was the one that held the others in line. With her gone, the wraiths moved in.”
“I suppose,” Danielle said.
“I’m not very knowledgeable about such things. What I know is that Jerusa is drawn to large gatherings of blood drinkers. At one time, your coven would be considered small, but there aren’t too many blood drinkers left in the world. Silvanus has her distracted, for now, but it’s in your best interest to go your separate ways, if you can.”
Shufah turned to her fellow vampires, a fire of purpose renewed in her perfect eyes. “I see our path now. It’ll be far more dangerous than storming the Ice Sanctuary, though, and we’ll need help.” Her eyes flicked to Danielle. “But if we hold true, we may still set things right.”
She laid the plan out before them. They would separate into three groups, both to protect them from Jerusa, but also to move on the divided Watchtower in one coordinated strike.
The Watchtower were prisoners, accurate enough, but not all who are imprisoned wish to be set free. If they moved on one location at a time, the undivided coven could better dispatch the Hunters, but it was always possible that one group of augurs could send a warning to the next group, stealing from them the element of surprise.
“Will you fight with us?” Thad asked Danielle. “There’s nothing the Hunters can do to stop you.” Shufah smiled at Thad’s little emphasis on the last word. It was the modern American version of awe and respect.
“If there were other Divines still alive, then yes, I’d gladly help.” Danielle’s mouth was drawn tight, bleaching the color from her lips. She seemed so mortal, so fragile. “But it’s all Silvanus and I can do to control Jerusa now. Her demons feed on us just as they would you. They can’t kill us, thankfully, but the assault leaves us diminished. I don’t dare leave Silvanus alone with her for long.”
Thad nodded with a disappointment that they all felt deep within their bones.
“We’ll use our new friends,” Shufah said, “the humans of Lamorak, to escort us to the three locations where the Watchtower are being held. Once we have them, we’ll rendezvous somewhere isolated.”
They needed to reunite the Watchtower for an augur’s power swelled when combined with other augurs. Once the Watchtower located Sebastian, either by choice or by force, the next step would fall to Silvanus or Danielle. There wouldn’t be enough time for Lamorak to transport them to Sebastian’s location, nor would it be wise.
The High Council was diminished to only three—perhaps fewer by now—but they weren’t without power. Now was not the time to meet them in battle.
Shufah spoke to Danielle. “Once you have Sebastian and the Necromancer, you must bring them back to us. The Dwarf’s power will raise the rest of the Watchtower’s gifts exponentially, and we may need their powers to protect us.”
“But if she’s off messing with Jerusa,” Thad asked, “how are we supposed to get a hold of her or Silvanus.”
Shufah pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “Not all mortal imaginations are useless.” Thad’s face puckered, embarrassed by his own shortsightedness. She looked again to Danielle. “Will you help us?”
“I will if I can.” Danielle’s answer hung in the air like a bloated thundercloud. “I don’t think I need to speak for Silvanus. You are family to him. Though, I suspect when the time comes, it will be me. He’ll want to stay with Jerusa.”
Shufah explained the rest. When they were all in one place, her coven and the Watchtower, they would draw Jerusa to such a large number of blood drinkers. If not, Silvanus would have to leap her to them.
This is where their true battle would begin.
Shufah made them no promises. The world she had been comfortable in had fallen around her like a tattered garment. Jerusa was now perhaps the most powerful creature ever to exist. There may come a time when her brother would claim that title, but Shufah didn’t think that was yet true.
When the end play came, Jerusa’s savage wraiths would defend her as a hive of hornets will their queen. The fight would be swift and brutal.
“No matter what, we must protect the Necromancer.” Shufah saw Taos’s face tighten in disapproval. “At least until he’s undone his spell on Jerusa. After that…” She glanced at the Furies, who had convinced the rest to spare the Watchtower. “… well, we can’t allow the High Council to reclaim him. He’s their only path to becoming Divine Vampires. As soon as Jerusa’s herself again, the Necromancer dies. Do we all agree?”
The other vampires nodded in assent, but the Furies stood as stoic as statues, their blended mind speaking to one another in that silent language that even augurs could not detect. The moment stretched unbearably long, and a knot threatened to form in Shufah’s stomach.
On this subject, she would not, could not bend. In a different time and place, Shufah would’ve spared the Necromancer, sending him off with a warning to never cross their paths again. But Othella, Cot, and Mathias now knew the Divines’ secret, and that wicked parasite hiding within a stolen mortal form could fully grant unto them their dark desires. Right or wrong, the Necromancer was too dangerous to live.
At long last, the Furies turned their faces to Shufah. “We agree. The wizard cannot survive. But his light must be extinguished quickly. No taunting or tormenting to repay his past treacheries.”
All eyes turned toward Taos, who smiled as if proud of this. “I’ve got no problems with that.”
“Our course is set,” Shufah said with a sigh of relief. Her spirit lifted a notch. Many times, the most arduous task on a perilous journey is deciding how to begin.
“I think there’s something else you should know,” Danielle said. Her voice remained soft, beautiful, like the song of a bird, yet the tone threatened to unravel the little hope Shufah had knitted for herself. “I leapt to the Ice Fortress not long after the humans destroyed it. As I made a sweep of the area, extracting the information I needed from the mortal’s minds, I came across another blood drinker making his way toward the Fortress through one of the caverns. He was a hideous creature. Tall, with arms and legs like an insect’s, and a patchwork of flesh like a madman’s quilt.”
“Victor,” Thad blurted out. “It’s the Monster.”
“A fair enough name,” Danielle said with a nod. “He is the reason I was delayed in coming to you. He tried to feed upon me, but once he realized what I was, he fell into hysteric babble, raving like a lunatic.”
“That sounds about right,” Thad said.
“I couldn’t understand much of what he was talking about,” Danielle said. “The only thing he said that wasn’t gibberish was, ‘The host is the key’ and ‘The host must die.’ Do you know what this means?”
“I’m afraid we do,” Shufah said, her voice thin and tight. “Will you bring him to us? We must speak to him right away. Time is no longer on our side.”
Chapter Thirteen
Danielle looked at them with uncertainty. “I’m sure this Victor can’t have gone far, but why do you want him? The more of you there are, the more Jerusa will be drawn to you.”
“We understand the risk,” Shufah said. “We’ll separate as soon as we can, but Victor is a powerful vampire. We’ll need his help if we’re to win this fight.”
“But he’s mad,” Celeste protested. “How’re we supposed to control him?”
“That’ll be up to you, I’m sorry to say. You’re the only one that can separate Victor from the Monster.”
“I don’t like this,” Taos interjected. “This is dangerous enough, without adding to our troubles. He’s powerful, no one is disputing that, but he could turn his wrath upon us rather than the Hunters.”
“We’ll know better once we see him,” Shufah said. “When we part, the Furies shall go one way, Thad, Taos, and Celeste will go another, and if Celeste can bring Victor to the surface, he and I shall take the third path.”
“I’m not sure how long it will take me to track him down,” Danielle said, an edge of irritation in her voice. “I suggest you divide up now. Silvanus won’t be able to hold Jerusa for long. If I’m not back by an hour before dawn, I’m not coming back.”
Without another word, Danie
lle vanished from their sight.
“Not sure we should put our hope in that one,” Taos said, walking away from the group. “In her mind, this fight is already over.”
Shufah placed a gentle hand on the giant’s lofty shoulder. “The Divine Vampires have never known death before. Now, they’re being hunted to extinction. We’re used to it. For Danielle, it’s an unfamiliar experience.”
“Do you really think we need the Monster?” Celeste asked again.
“Victor might be crazy,” Thad said, his voice rising with a tremble, “but he saved me and Sebastian more than once. He deserves to be a part of this, and not just as an expendable weapon. He deserves to lay his own demons to rest.”
In the unchecked anxiety before battle, their emotions were getting the better of them. If Shufah didn’t cool the atmosphere soon, the inevitable explosion would be devastating to their cause.
“No one is expendable,” Shufah scolded. She looked to each of them and then repeated. “No one. Victor isn’t some blunt axe I mean to swing at our enemies, but he will be a powerful ally if we can convince him to tame the Monster. But even if he can’t, even if he won’t, I still want to hear what Sebastian told him of the human holding Alicia’s spirit.”
Thad and Celeste nodded apologetically toward each other. Taos even clapped the young fledgling on the shoulder.
Shufah turned to Celeste. “The three locations in your vision, where are they, exactly.”
Celeste closed her eyes, recalling the vision. “The first location is in South America,” she spoke in the distant cadence of one who is still dreaming. “The country of Brazil. Just outside a tiny town named Coronel Pilar, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “The second location is India. The village of Ha, in Longding Koling of Kurung Kumey.” Another sigh. “The third location is in Northern Africa. Algeria. On the outskirts of the city of Illizi.” Then Celeste doubled over and coughed as though something vile had lodged in her throat.
Taos caught her and held her until the coughing stopped. When she had composed herself, she stood on her toes, pulled Taos down, and pressed her lips to his in a short but amorous kiss. They turned back to the group, neither ashamed nor embarrassed about their affection.
The Savage Vampire (The Perpetual Creatures Saga Book 5) Page 14