by Lisa Kessler
“Gretchen,” he whispered, almost smiling when her eyes fluttered open. “Are you feeling better?”
She nodded, straightening up against the wall. “I think so…” Her words trailed off as she inspected him from head to toe. “You look…horrible.”
He chuckled and suddenly lost his balance, toppling over beside her. His laughter vanished instantly. “I don’t feel well.”
Gretchen frowned. She laid her soft hand against his cheek as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his forehead. She drew back with a sad smile.
“I forgot…you don’t get fevers, do you?”
He smiled in spite of the ache swelling in his abdomen. “No. I’ve forgotten what a fever feels like.” His features sobered. “But something is definitely not right. I’m just not sure what’s causing it.”
Issa awoke surprised to find the back of his head still throbbing. He reached up, sliding his fingers into his hair to feel where Mulac had attacked him the night before. His fingertips found the wound, and he winced as he pulled them back. His own blood covered his fingers.
Issa frowned.
He was an ancient. His wound should have been healed within hours, most certainly during the daylight hours while he slept, and yet…
Issa rose to his feet. For the first time in countless centuries, he felt no thirst, no hunger for the rich warmth of living blood. He frowned. His body should demand blood to repair itself, but he felt no urge to hunt. Panic engulfed him. This wasn’t right.
He could hear Kane and Colin stirring. Issa made his way to them, frowning at his pace. Instead of using preternatural speed, he could only manage a walk. His limbs felt heavy and weak.
“Issa, my arm,” Colin whispered, pulling Issa to his side.
Blood drenched Colin’s makeshift sling. He peeled the fabric back and Issa grimaced at the sight. The flesh that had closed over his brother’s exposed bones the night before was now rotting. Blood oozed from the broken seam of his skin.
“Do you think Camalotz poisoned me? Maybe her blood got inside my wound.”
Issa met his eyes and shook his head slowly. “No. The wound in the back of my head is once again painful and bleeding, and it was Mulac who injured me, not the Demon. I do not think she is to blame for this.”
Kane emerged from the shadows carrying Marguerite in his arms. His jaw was taut, worry burned in the depths of his ice blue eyes. “Rita drank from me before the sunrise. I watched her leg wounds heal before we slept.” He turned slightly, exposing the deep gashes in Marguerite’s calf. Blood trickled down, dripping off her heel to the sandy ground. Her skin was like chalk and she moaned softly against his chest. “As you can see, she is far from healed now.”
Issa nodded. “Both Colin and I have experienced the same sensation. Our wounds have reopened. Whatever healing we gained is now lost.”
Kane frowned. “Did you both choke on blood as well?”
Colin shook his head. “I am not sure I know what you mean. My thirst is gone, but…”
“Rita has been vomiting blood ever since she opened her eyes.”
Gretchen got to her feet, relieved that the dizziness in her head had subsided. She was starving and thirsty, but other than that she felt fine.
She wished she could say the same about Lukas.
She turned when she heard Calisto’s voice. “Help me! Please! Something is wrong with Kate!”
Hearing the call for help, Lukas jumped up, staggered, and finally leaned against the wall for support. His skin looked pasty, and his hand trembled as he rubbed his brow.
Gretchen lifted a torch from its base on the wall. “Do you need blood or something?”
Lukas raised his hand, shaking his head. “I feel sick just thinking about putting anything into my stomach. Come on, we should see if we can help Kate.”
“This has never happened to you before?” Gretchen asked as they slowly made their way through the shadows in search of Calisto and Kate. She held the light up closer to Lukas, glancing over at him while they walked. “Night Walkers can’t get sick, can they?”
Lukas shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’ve never been sick before.”
“You definitely look it now. Did they have you drink anything during the ceremony last night? Anything you can think of that might have poisoned you somehow? I couldn’t see it all through the storm.”
“No.” He shook his head slowly. “There was thick smoke, but that was all.”
Gretchen nodded and started to speak, but a gasp stole her words when they came upon Calisto and Kate.
Gretchen scrambled to the ground with the torch in hand. Her knees gradually felt cold and wet, and her stomach twisted when she realized it was Kate’s blood soaking through her jeans. “She’s bleeding out her ears and nose and mouth.”
Gretchen looked up at Lukas, hoping he would know what to do, but instead she saw helplessness. He squatted down beside her, steadying himself on her shoulder while he took a closer look at Kate.
Calisto’s chest wound was open and seeping blood, as well, his sternum exposed. Yet he did his best to cradle Kate’s head in his lap, stroking her hair back.
“She woke up like this?” Lukas asked.
“She never woke,” Calisto whispered. “I hear her heart beating, but she has not opened her eyes.”
Lukas frowned. “Was she injured last night?”
“No.” Calisto closed his eyes, wincing in pain. “She helped me back here. She was the strong one last night.”
A deep voice resonated from behind them. “Tonight, it seems none of us are very strong.”
Gretchen looked up to find Issa, with Kane and Colin close behind. She scrutinized them as best she could in the dim firelight. The three brothers looked far better outwardly than Lukas and Calisto. Not quite as colorless and shaky, but they did not look well, either.
Issa knelt down beside Gretchen, dipping his fingertips into the pool of Kate’s blood. He didn’t appear to lose his balance like Lukas had. He brought his hand up to his face, inspecting the blood, and Gretchen noticed his head wound oozed again.
“You’re bleeding,” Gretchen told him quietly.
Issa nodded. “Yes, I know. Our wounds are not healing.” Concern etched his dark features as he reached out to touch Kate’s pale cheek. “But she was never injured. I do not understand what is happening to her.” He paused, his voice softer, almost to himself. “Forgive me, Ch’en. I meant to save you from harm this time.”
Issa stood up with a growl. “Perhaps her fate is inescapable. Death is her destiny.”
“No!” Calisto fought to stand, and finally gave up, settling for rising up on his knees instead. “Love is her destiny, not death. There has to be a reason for this. It is affecting us all on some level, not just Kate.”
“He’s right,” Gretchen agreed, her mind struggling to tie all the threads of information together. “All of you are suffering. If this was only about Kate, then the rest of you wouldn’t be having symptoms.”
She looked from one immortal face to another as her hypothesis simmered just out of her reach. “All of the wounds that healed last night are open again, but how are Lukas and Kate connected? Neither one of them were injured at the ceremony.”
“They are the youngest, so they will be the first to perish.” Gretchen turned as Zafrina entered the chamber. Her orange eyes were dull, her hands trembled, and she leaned against the wall for support. “The human world will be close behind.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Zafrina was soaking wet, and her orange eyes no longer burned in the darkness. Their color was lifeless, like embers of a forgotten fire. And she shivered.
“Zafrina? What are you doing here?” Gretchen got up and took a step toward her.
“What have you done?” Her tone was accusatory as she glared at the three remaining immortal brothers. “The Demon is banished?”
Gretchen reached out to touch her arm. Her skin felt like ice. “You don’t have to worry anymore. Mulac’s gone
.”
Zafrina gasped, looking at Gretchen then back to Issa. “Is this true?”
Issa nodded. “He called Camalotz into this world, and his sacrifice sealed the door to imprison her.”
“No…” Zafrina whispered as she dropped her gaze. Her hand brushed absently across her abdomen. She shook her head and glared at Issa again, her eyes glowing for a brief moment. “Do you have any idea what you have done? Have you forgotten our stories? They are not prophecies of a lost race. They make up the fabric of our world.”
Kane glanced at Issa, then at Zafrina. “Our prophecies are destroyed and our world forgotten. What are you trying to say?”
Zafrina pointed to Marguerite, lying lifeless in Kane’s arms before meeting his eyes again. “We have no god to hold up the North. While you rushed to stop the Demon, did you forget our world needs balance?”
Issa stood slowly. Gretchen could almost see his mind working over the problem, the pieces falling into place. “Without Mulac, there can be no balance for our kind in this world. We will all grow weaker, until we finally cease to exist. Without our presence, the human world will also descend into darkness. How could we have done this…”
“But you’re immortal,” Gretchen said.
“Yes, as long as our world remains in balance.” Zafrina closed her eyes, resting against the stone wall. “Our race depends on having all four corners of our universe upheld.”
Gretchen looked over at Lukas, her chest tightening until she ached inside. “So Lukas, Rita, and Kate are sick because they’re…”
“Dying,” Zafrina finished the thought. “It will take longer for this trauma to affect the elders of our kind, but those who are new to the immortal Night Walker blood will be the first to leave this world.”
“No!” Kane paced the area. A trail of Marguerite’s blood followed him everywhere he went. “There must be a way to stop this.”
Gretchen watched Lukas slowly straighten out of the corner of her eye. He looked shaky, but he managed to make it to the wall and leaned against it. Her heart skipped in her chest, and panic licked at her nerves. She’d finally found love, and now she was going to lose him?
No. No way.
“Okay, let’s postulate a hypothesis here.” Gretchen forced herself to think like a scientist again. She had to. If she let her emotions interfere, she’d never be able to help Lukas. “If Zafrina’s right, then this is all happening because your upholder of the North is missing. Your world is tilted, for lack of a better description. Am I right?”
Kane stopped pacing. Colin and Issa stared at her, and even Calisto looked up from his ministrations to Kate. Gretchen met Lukas’s eyes. The corner of his mouth quirked up in a small smile meant just for her. Gaining strength from his confidence in her, Gretchen swallowed the fear that welled up in her throat before looking at Zafrina again.
“Am I right?”
Zafrina nodded slowly.
“Then all we need to do is find someone to uphold the North, right?” Gretchen glanced at the others.
Zafrina laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. “It is not so simple. It cannot be anyone, it must be…”
Gretchen watched Zafrina intently, waiting for her to finish. “Must be who?”
Zafrina met her eyes, and something in her stare sent a chill down Gretchen’s spine.
“Mulac,” Zafrina said quietly. “The upholder of the North must be an heir to Mulac, must share his bloodline.”
“So, there’s no way to stop this?” Gretchen pressed her lips together, struggling to stay calm. “You’re all going to get weaker until you die? Just like that?”
“I did not say that,” Zafrina said. “I have an idea.”
Lukas struggled to keep his hands from shaking. “Unless you can bring Mulac back from wherever it was we sent him, it sounds like we’re finished.”
He managed to stand upright, but only because the wall bore his weight. Without it, he’d be in a crumpled heap on the floor. His legs felt weak and his stomach clenched, on the verge of retching again.
Gretchen gave him that look that told him to be patient, and he started to smile in spite of himself. She made her way over to stand beside him. The feel of her fingers sliding through his felt like electricity, and for a moment, his pain faded.
“We might be able to produce an heir,” Zafrina said quietly.
“Impossible.” Kane resumed his pacing. “His soul is lost to this world. We have nothing left of him.”
Zafrina shook her head. “That is not true.” Her hand brushed over her lower abdomen again. “Because his unborn child still sleeps in my womb.”
Lukas’s eyes widened. “What? Impossible. How could Mulac have impregnated anyone? He was a Night Walker.”
Zafrina lowered her hand, her expression darkening. “I am a priestess of fertility. I possess magic the others do not.” She glanced at the three remaining brothers. “Surely you remember the prophecy of an immortal child born to a mortal woman? He was to be the mark of a new beginning for our people.”
Kane lifted his gaze from Rita to meet her eyes. “I remember the prophecy.”
Zafrina nodded. “Mulac came to me after you banished the Demon the first time, before you all left our land. He came to see the prophecy fulfilled.
“As a mortal, I was his lover. He wanted to father the immortal child of the prophecy, to bring about a new beginning. He believed he was destined to be the father and came to me many times, with gifts and promises of glory. I loved him, and finally agreed to his request. I was going to be the mother of a god—or so we believed.”
Lukas did the best he could to move closer to Gretchen—the only mortal in the room—without losing his balance. He still wasn’t sure what Zafrina had in mind, but if it didn’t work back then, why did she think it would work now?
His eyes met Gretchen’s. He reached for her thoughts and found the lullaby. Being unsure of her thoughts made him nervous. He tilted his gaze toward Zafrina. “So what happened?”
“I made a powerful fertility potion, lifting the mantle of his immortality for a single night.”
Lukas’s head spun, and not because his body was dying. “You’re saying, you made him mortal? He was a man?”
Zafrina nodded. “My magic made his body live for one night at my most fertile time. He laid with me, and we conceived a child of his blood.”
“Mulac never spoke of this,” Issa said. “Why should we believe you?”
“Because you have no other choice.” Zafrina glared at him. “Weeks later, as the child grew within me, Mulac forbade me to reveal him as the father.” She lowered her gaze to the floor. “I believe he did not want any of you to be able to bear your own children. As time passed, I watched him change. He thought only of his legacy. He knew my pregnancy would soon be evident to others and began to worry about my safety during the daylight hours. He started locking me away until nightfall. His hunger for power poisoned him. He became a stranger to me.”
Lukas frowned. “But you never had a baby, right?”
“No.” Zafrina shook her head and raised her chin. “One night he came to me and said the only way to be certain of his unborn child’s safety was to be sure that no harm would come to me. That night he gave me his blood. We made a fatal mistake.”
“His blood killed your baby,” Gretchen said softly.
“His blood killed my living body. My womb was no longer fertile. The baby will never grow or change, but it still remains inside of me, blood of my blood.” Zafrina stepped closer to Gretchen. “That is how we will be certain that you conceive an heir to the God of the North.”
Gretchen stared at Zafrina. “Me?”
Zafrina nodded. “Only a living womb can create life and give birth. You are the only one among us who still lives a mortal life. You are fertile. And you will be the one to save us all.”
Lukas could almost see the two tons of weight dropped onto Gretchen’s shoulders. He straightened, and in spite of the wave of vertigo, pushed himself
off the wall to look at her.
“Gretchen, you aren’t seriously considering this?” He stared into her green eyes, unable to read her thoughts. She didn’t answer. “No. This is too much.”
“If it’ll help you get better, how could I not consider it?” She kept her gaze locked on his. “If you were mortal and needed a kidney, I wouldn’t hesitate to give you mine. We’re not in this alone anymore, remember?” She paused for a moment. “This isn’t any different.”
If he were stronger, he might have been able to mesmerize her long enough to make her forget Zafrina’s insane plan, but he felt like hell, so he’d have to try talking instead. “This is too dangerous, even if it could work. I don’t want my immortality back if it means losing you.”
“If the Night Walkers vanish, the human world will be next, right?” Tears welled in her eyes, stabbing him in the heart. “You’ve lost me already if I don’t at least try.”
He glared at Zafrina. “This is far from decided.” He took Gretchen’s hand. “We’ll be back.”
As he tugged Gretchen toward the door, he heard Zafrina’s voice behind him. “Time is running out.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Lukas led her out of the pyramid into the thick, humid night air. Gretchen stared into the darkness. The world still looked so normal. The jungle noises had returned, and life seemed untouched by the banishment of the Demon and the death of a Night Walker god. The normality of it all settled the twisting in her gut, and she looked up at the stars, pulling in a deep breath to calm her mind. Lukas squeezed her hand, drawing her attention to his face.
He brought his free hand up to caress her cheek. She tried not to notice the way his fingers trembled. “You are so beautiful. I’m sorry I waited so long to tell you.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure I look gorgeous right now.”