Looking around, I didn't see Silvanus. I watched Ayden jump to the ground below and he looked back at me, signaling that I had to follow.
After jumping, I followed him across the small pond and to the other side of the cave where he pointed to a rock and told me to sit. He sat next to me and we waited.
“How do you know he's here?” I whispered.
“I just know.” He folded his hands together and placed them on his lap.
I glanced around the cave again. “How long has this place been here?”
“A few centuries, I think,” he said. “Many Deamhan have come through this area.” Suddenly he raised his hand for quiet. “He's here.”
Gazing around, I didn't see him, but I heard the sound of slow footsteps approaching. My questions for Silvanus returned to the point that I could no longer wait. However, something happened at that very moment that confused me. My head began to pound, like a small migraine. It grew and with each pelt, I squinted and blinked. Covering my eyes with my hands, I had to look away. “Do you feel that?”
Ayden replied. “No.” He didn't seem bothered by the current state of pain that I found myself in. Instead he remained quiet and observant of the shadowed image approaching us.
You look well, Maris.
Suddenly the pain ceased, allowing me to open my eyes and stare at Silvanus whom I had not seen in ages. He looked just as beautiful as the last day I had seen him. His hair had grown a little longer and it looked neatly combed. He wore a white shirt underneath his black leather jacket, jeans, and black ankle boots—a stark difference from the clothing he wore in the past. He looked like a glowing light bulb among the darkness in the cave. Clearly he had adapted to the human fashions of the 50s, down to his thin lips that pulled back in a smile at the sight of me. Expecting that he, too, wanted to see Ethel pay for her crimes, I believed that his thoughts would prove it. Instead, I only picked up the sound of faint music playing in his head. He looked good; so good that for a second, my thoughts about Finley escaped my mind.
“You've fully recovered.” He walked toward me with his arms opened and I moved back. He couldn't be this happy to see me!
“I assume that I have you to thank for that.”
“I didn't do enough.” He approached me and he lowered himself to my level. “But I'm glad that you're safe after all these years.” He wrapped his arms around my entire body in a tight embrace. I went rigid at the thought of returning the gesture. He pulled back and smiled again.
“You gave us funds needed to get to America.” Still unsure of how to accept him or even thank him, I craved to know what he planned to do next.
“But the plan fell through,” he said. “However, that will be corrected easily.” He looked at Ayden. “You should thank Ayden. He is the one who risked his life for you.”
My eyes meandered over to Ayden who didn't look back at me. Instead, he stood up and walked over to Silvanus.
“As you can see, I survived the fire caused by Anastasia's betrayal,” Silvanus said. “I know you want your revenge and she will get her due, but not now. We must deal with Ethel first.” He tapped his fingers together. “I do apologize for her. I should've killed her instead of showing mercy.”
“Is that why you're here?”
“Yes and no.” He stood up and placed his hands behind his back. “I've known Ethel for a very long time. She prefers to honor the old traditions when it comes to punishment and respect to chaos and blind murder. She refuses to adapt to the times. She is part of the older generation of Deamhan that have outlived their use on this earth. Ethel wants anything having to do with the Curse destroyed, but we have someone much older and stronger on our side.”
“Kyra?”
“Yes and when she arrives you will see the true power of an Ancient Deamhan.” He motioned for me to sit again.
I lowered myself slowly and when he began to speak again, I found my upper body leaning forward, grasping on every word that escaped his lips. Back in London, he never told me anything about Ancient Deamhan. Now he began to tell me about Kyra.
Kyra had a strong connection to the Curse. Her own sire was the offspring of the first Ramanga to have ever existed. She had a long, bloody history dealing with the Dorvo Coven. Kyra knew the famous Dorvo, the vampire that existed and survived during those ancient days. During the time of the Pure Ones, Dorvo wasn't a vampire but an assistant of the Kashshapu, a practitioner of dark magic. It was this very Kashshapu who created the Deamhan to deal with the growing vampire problem. He was also the same individual responsible for creating Limbo. He was my ancestor.
No Deamhan alive knew the exact details regarding this bloody moment in history. While Dorvo vampires claimed that their leader still lived and knew some of the magic which he handed down through his vampire descendants, many Deamhan believed he had died along with thousands of citizens in the city.
For centuries both Dorvo vampires and Deamhan looked for the tablet but came up empty-handed. Then they found me, a prostitute, and through my blood they knew now they would be able to decipher the cuneiform text. But Anastasia also knew how important I was to not only this cause but her own. She wanted leverage and by turning me, she got her wish.
“The crescent amulet your mother gave you was created by your ancestor for protection against the same Deamhan he created,” Silvanus added. “It was thought to have been lost to history.”
I placed my hand on my chest as if my amulet had magically reappeared. “I don't have it.”
“It's here and it's safe,” Ayden said as he spoke up for Silvanus. “Butch removed it from you before you saved you from the sun.”
“Butch?”
“Humans do come in handy at times,” Silvanus said. “However, you must not lose sight of what's important. Maris, your blood is the key to all of this.”
“My blood?” I gave him a confused look.
“Your ancestor was a smart human. However, he took misguided risks. He used his magic on his own daughter, transforming her into a Deamhan. After the King of the city demanded a resolution, the Kashshapu had no choice but to create Limbo with the help of Dorvo himself. But he didn't want to doom his own daughter to that hellish existence so he made a loophole and vowed to free her after all the violence had diminished.”
“Did he?”
Silvanus shook his head. “No. She is still in Limbo with the other seven Pure Ones. Because of this loophole he created, the chance that they could leave that eerie place has loomed over the heads of our kind since that time.”
I tried to process all this information as quickly as I could but Silvanus didn't stop in his explanation.
“Just a drop of your blood is all that's needed—”
“Well, here it is.” I quickly bit into my wrist, pulling back my skin. A sharp jolt of pain made my body shiver but I ignored it and held my arm to him as a stream of blood poured from my wound. “If that was what you needed, then why didn't you take it in the first place?”
Silvanus pushed my arm back. “You didn't let me finish.”
I dropped my arm, watching my wound heal on its own.
“Like I said before. Your ancestor was a very smart human. He also used the magic on his remaining child, embedding the transcription in the blood like a memory.” He tapped the side of his head.
“So all of my ancestors...my mother...this was in them?”
“Yes.”
My eyes moved from Silvanus to Ayden and back to Silvanus.
“Do you still think you aren't that important?” Silvanus asked. “Now you understand why we have put our lives on the line for you.” His voice filled with emotion that I had never heard from him before. It made me uncomfortable and instead of opening my mouth to speak again, I cowered back just a little in my seat.
“As for myself, I see you more than just a Deamhan who can save or damn us,” he said. “Your Ramanga bloodline is also my own bloodline. My sire is the Deamhan who sired Anastasia's sire. We are closely connected.”
/> “You're part of my Deamhan bloodline?”
He nodded. “I'm going to declare a Decretum that'll state that no harm will come to you. Once the Deamhan hear it, they will know that Ethel didn't kill you. That's when things shall turn a little, dangerous, if you know what I mean.”
“Are you sure they will listen? They follow her, don't they?”
“Deamhan aren't known for supporting the losing side,” he said. “Many of our kind have forgotten about our origins but they can never forget real power when they see it. When they hear my voice they will know that I am here to put things in order. Without order, we will run ourselves amok. The Brotherhood knows that if we unite, we can be a strong and dangerous enemy. The Deamhan will come to understand that Limbo is the eternal hell and our safe house. We will not free the Pure Ones. Instead we will strengthen those outside of it. Keeping them there is the only way for us to remain alive. If they are let out, make no doubt about it, we will be eradicated.”
I thought about everything Silvanus told me in our brief conversation so far. However, a few questions remained. If I was this dangerous, why did they allow me to live? Something wasn't right.
He picked up on my thought and he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Do you not trust me?”
“I trust you,” I replied. “I just don't understand why you all would protect me when I can cause great harm to Deamhan. It makes no sense Silvanus. There has to be more.”
“There isn't more,” he said. “Kyra wants you alive. That is that.” He dropped his hand. “Now, Ayden has told me that you are concerned for your sibling, Finley?”
“Yes. I want to make sure he's safe from all of this.”
“You shouldn't feel remorse for what happened in your past. Finley-”
“I want to make sure he is safe.” My voice deepened.
“No,” Silvanus immediately answered.
His ability to change his stance surprised me. But I too could also play that game. “Then I won't help you.”
“His existence isn't important to the situation.”
“He is important to mine,” I replied. “He's all I have left. He is my family. I want him back or I won't help you.” I didn't know how I could convince Silvanus otherwise to believe me. I stood firm in my ultimatum and to that he smiled.
“Optimistic, aren't you?”
“Very.”
He stood quiet in thought before agreeing. “I will try to do everything in my power to secure his release as long as it doesn't jeopardize your own life.”
“Good.” I stood up. “Don't turn this into an empty, broken promise.”
“I could say the same thing to you,” Silvanus said. “Your need to bond will only cripple your judgment.”
“It's my need to bond that has kept me from not killing myself,” I replied.
“Look around you, Maris. If you haven't noticed, times have changed. Death occurs frequently to our kind. You can't let that anger and blind you.”
“Sometimes anger is all I have,” I said. “Anger helped Finley protect me. Anger drove him to sire Jesse who turned out to be one of the best things that could have ever happened to me.” I became irritable and I growled at him. “You can't possibly know what they both did for me. Now Jesse is gone. All I have left is Finley. So when I say that I want him back, be damn sure that is exactly what I want and if you decide to not help me, I promise you that you won't get anything from me.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Decretum
The day that Silvanus declared a Decretum against Ethel, I knew that things would never be the same.
The only other Decretum I knew of was the one that Anastasia supposedly followed in which I had to be found and kept safe from the vampires and The Brotherhood. I didn't think Silvanus' statement, ushering Deamhan in Chicago and the surrounding areas to turn against Ethel, would work. However, when he made his presence known, many Deamhan succumbed to his decree.
They began to doubt Ethel's leadership and soon we heard about inner clashing among them. By declaring this Decretum, Ethel now knew he was in Chicago and that I had survived. He didn't fear that she would come after us. He welcomed it.
Meanwhile, I remained a prisoner at the sanctuary, waiting for the time when Kyra would come and snatch the needed information from my mind. Until then, I questioned Silvanus if he had heard anything about Finley. I thought that he would now be free and perhaps someone would see him. Or maybe Ethel would use him to lure me out.
Silvanus ordered Ayden to keep me distracted by teaching me patience and how to kill efficiently. He wanted me to learn how to control my desire for blood and channel that toward more positive things. Like a human child in his first year in school, I absorbed everything like a sponge. Of course it wasn't easy in the beginning. Ayden strapped me to a chair for two weeks and each day he set a bucket of warm human blood in front of me. By day two, my body shivered and my mouth felt dry. By day three, I felt that I could foam at the mouth, and by day four, I had nearly ripped my own hands from my arms, trying to free myself to get to it. I cursed, pleaded, and even cried. By the seventh day, I had exhausted myself and my cravings ceased. Somehow my body managed to survive the ordeal. By the thirtieth day, the blood didn't mean anything to me and when he released the straps from around my wrists, I stood up and gazed at the bucket, waiting for the hunger to set in but it never came.
They fed me animal blood, which tasted like old liquid mixed with dirt. First cats, then dogs and eventually horses. I refused to eat rats. My body adapted and Ayden told me how important it was to maintain this new mixture, just in case. When I finished and now had control, Silvanus took over and he began to teach me the tricks he learned when reading the minds of older Deamhan. I learned how to bypass their barriers. Sometimes it worked and other times, it didn't.
While my training continued, The Brotherhood's influence in the city began to grow, which was expected since Ethel and her band continued to remain out of control. However, more and more Deamhan came to Silvanus' side, transforming him into their new savior during this fiasco.
Researchers were everywhere and they all took up residence in the newly-built Brotherhood headquarters where the piece of the Curse was located. Butch Tiernan stopped by a few times, updating Silvanus about its location, and they prepared for the day when he would steal it from the Archives and take it out of the city. When I asked if the human still had my amulet and for it to be returned to me, Silvanus ordered him not to.
Just when I thought that Silvanus had forgotten about her arrival, he finally revealed to me one night that Kyra had arrived. When I awoke, I heard commotion coming from down the hall. No longer did I find myself subjugated to the small cell and the stone bed of twenty years, but a comfortable twin size bed in a small room on the first floor. I dressed myself quickly and left my room, just in time to see not one but two Deamhan walk through the door.
The first Deamhan—a male—had short, thin brown hair, and a smooth face that glowed. He wore a pin-striped drape suit with a white shirt underneath. I waited for him to seek me out and acknowledge that I was in the room but he continued down the hall, ignoring me.
The second one—a short statured woman—also walked through the door. Her oval, dark-colored eyes changed to a warm brown. Her smooth and blemish-free skin shone among the darkest parts of the sanctuary's interior. Her curly brown hair rested on her slim shoulders and she wore a long white dress, which had darkened near the base due to the dirt. I noticed a circular tattoo on her upper right arm. She looked beautiful—more so than any Deamhan or human I'd seen in my life. She stopped in the foyer and glanced around the area, scrunching her face as if the sanctuary had somehow disgusted her.
I watched these two older Deamhan march down the hallway where Silvanus greeted them. They turned around the corner, disappearing from my view. Other Deamhan living in the sanctuary came out, curious to see them as well. I stood against the wall on the staircase and I picked up on their conversation. They didn't bother to hi
de any details, but from the sound of the male's young yet mature voice, he didn't seem happy that things had turned for the worse in Chicago.
“Your Decretum has singled Ethel out,” the male said. “But she has yet to falter. We told you, Silvanus, that this all could have been avoided.”
“I know Ethel better than you do, Nicias,” Silvanus said. “She is dead-set in her ways.”
I had heard the name before. Silvanus mentioned him as one of the three authors of The Dictum. This made me beyond curious.
“Where is this Deamhan?” the female asked. “Where is the descendant?”
“She's here, Kyra. You walked by her on your way in.”
“Bring her to me,” she said in response to his answer.
I smelled Ayden behind me and I turned to look. He placed his hand on my shoulder and I nodded. “She's calling for you,” he said. “Go to her.”
I hesitated and continued to listen to their conversation about The Brotherhood and Dorvo vampires. Eventually they started talking about the Dark Curse.
“It was Anastasia who betrayed us back in London.” Silvanus' speech was slow.
“She will pay for what she did,” Kyra said. “Still you didn't listen to me. I warned you that a Decretum would just make things worse”
“Ethel and her Deamhan are running around like wild animals,” Silvanus said. “They are slaughtering human and Deamhan alike. What else was I supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to calm the situation, not make it any worse,” Nicias replied. “Now we have to deal with the mess. Do you know that I was deep in Hibernation when Kyra called for me?”
“I do apologize that I woke you from your sleep,” Silvanus said.
“Yes, well here I am, awake in this disgusting century with cheap, boring clothing and no sense of avant-guard.”
Deamhan Chronicles, Books 1-5: Deamhan, Kei. Family Matters, Dark Curse, Maris. The Brotherhood Files, Ayden. Deamhan Minion Page 70