Tempted by The Vampire

by Khardine Gray

  “He took her Tristan, and I don’t know where he went. He had a Transcluce with him so her guardians didn’t sense the danger. I suspect too that the demon is blocking her from using her powers. She won’t know how to repel magic like that. It takes years of practice to do that. She will be helpless.”

  “Claire I won’t give up. I have to find her.”

  She looked me over and her sadness subsided a little. “You... you love her?”

  “Yes. I love her, now please we have all this power at our fingertips, there has to be something we could do.” Like the seer said, maybe we could work together to get Gabrielle back.

  “We’ll have to go back to the castle. I’ll consult my books and see what I can do.”

  I put out my hand to hers and she took it. In the cloud of my black smoke we shimmered back to the castle appearing in the library where the others were.

  ***

  Pru was the first to rush to Claire. Juliana next but she stopped and looked at me before going to Claire.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interfered the way I did this morning.” She began. “I have an idea though.”

  “What is it?” I wasn’t about to forgive her just like that but I’d take ideas if it helped the situation.

  “The ghost roads. Your brother said you can walk on them. I think she’s on a plane of existence where we can’t sense her, or her magical essence is being blocked out. We may not be able to track Gabrielle directly, but we can track the etherstone with this.” She held out a little compass to me and I took it.

  “What is that?”

  “The devil’s compass. It’ll pick up any objects with dark essence. It only works on the ghost roads. It will glow red the closer you get to an object with dark essence or dark magic. The good news is there aren’t many things like that that exist anymore so the etherstone should be relatively trackable. Hopefully. It may be difficult if it’s crossed a number of realms. If you find our father with the stone then you should find Gabrielle. I’m hoping that because there aren’t many objects around that are like the etherstone that whatever direction the compass points to should be it. Theoretically anyway.”

  “That could work.” Claire nodded. “That could work and a vampire would be perfect, but you’d need an anchor.”

  “I never needed one before.” I’d heard of anchors but wanted to go it alone and did, several times. Not many could walk the ghost roads, but those that could always recommended an anchor because you could get lost. Like lost for eternity.

  “How long did you stay on the road boy?”

  “A few hours.”

  “The longer you stay on the path the more lost you become until you become as lost as the souls who walk around in limbo trying to find where they’re supposed to go. You need someone else whose travelled the roads to guide you back.”

  Virgil, Ivan and Lucian came closer.

  “Gabrielle could travel the dream planes.”

  “Could she?” Claire looked curious.

  “Yes, that was how we met, but she’s out of the question.”

  “I’ll come with you,” she offered. “I should go with you.”

  “Mother please, this is dangerous,” Pru winced. She wouldn’t have known the weight Claire placed on going to save Gabrielle.

  “I need to go. It’s important. You’ll know why later.” Claire looked from Pru to Juliana.

  “I will go.” Lucian stepped forward. “I can go and be Tristan’s anchor. I’ve walked the roads by myself for months.”

  “Months?” My mouth dropped.

  “Long story.”

  “Well hell, looks like we have so much more in common than you cared to let on.” I smirked feeling some sense of hope.

  Pru however looked worried.

  “If something more happens here it’s best to leave someone strong enough to fight. The castle holds many trinkets that could be dangerous if in the wrong hands.” Lucian pointed out.

  I completely agreed with him. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  “Thank you Lucian.” Claire nodded to him then looked to me. “Both of you. Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  “We will stay here and guard the place,” Ivan stated. “Brother I don’t have to tell you to be careful.”

  I nodded. “I will.”

  “If there’s trouble come right back.” Claire waved her hands and opened a portal right in front of the first stack of books.

  The gray mists from the ghost roads welcomed us and we stepped inside.

  The ghost roads were completely different to the dream plane.

  Completely different in every way.

  I’d never experienced anything like it and quite honestly never had the desire to go back.

  I’d do it for her though. I would, and I was doing it.

  My Gabrielle. I hoped she was safe. I prayed we would find her.

  The further we walked the bleaker and grayer it all became and the portal closed behind us.

  “If anyone ever told me I’d be walking this path with you today I wouldn’t have believed them,” I said to Lucian.

  “Me neither.”

  “So, are you going to tell me what could have possessed you to walk these roads for months? How did you come back and not get lost in the ether?”

  “Love.” He answered like it was so simple. I looked at him.

  He was staring straight ahead as we walked.

  “Love? Want to explain a little more?”

  “No.”

  “Come on man, I’m curious. You have to tell me.”

  He frowned at me then returned his gaze ahead. “My wife. I was looking for her.”

  “Didn’t know you were married.”

  “This was a very long time ago, before I became alpha wolf. It was in the days of your father and uncle.”

  “What happened?”

  “Her sister tried to seduce me, she thought I slept with her because we couldn’t have children. So she killed herself. I went to the seer who told me I might have a shot at bringing her back if I could find her on the ghost roads.”

  “Shit, Lucian that’s deep. Did you ever see her?”

  He shook his head. “No. I never saw her. She died thinking I didn’t love her. I haven’t been with anyone since.”

  “I’m sorry. I guess there’s a lot about you I don’t know. You aren’t all that bad though.”

  “Nor you vampire. How do you think we’re going to do this. We don’t even know where we’re going?”

  “I’m just following the compass.” It pointed north. That was where we were going.

  I just hoped this would indeed work.

  It had to. I had to find her and get her back.

  It was strange I was so taken with her when I first saw her on the dream plane. I wanted her to be mine.

  I wanted her to be mine from back then and I just kept going back to her every night. My guilty pleasure. I had something for myself that no one else knew about and I wanted to keep her that way.

  Then I didn’t want to hide her, or hide my feelings for her.

  I started to feel for her and the minute I saw her in real life I knew I had to change things up.

  I hoped I’d get the chance to show her how I truly felt.

  Chapter 13

  Gabrielle

  ***

  “Wide awake,” Abram taunted.

  My eyes fluttered open but felt heavy like I had weights attached to the lids.

  I pulled in a steady breath and moved my head from side to side, looking around me.

  I cringed when my gaze landed on devilish looking creatures that looked like gargoyles but with a more nightmarish appearance. They were all around us.

  “Don’t worry about them. They don’t tend to bother you if you don’t bother them. They’re Shades. They just guard the mouth of hell.” Abram chuckled.

  I didn’t know if that was an attempt to calm me down. If it was it sure as fuck didn’t work.

  I tried to move bu
t realized my hands were frozen at my sides. Looking around more I noticed that I was pinned to something tangible, but invisible. I didn’t know what it was.

  It gave the appearance like I was just in the air.

  “Let me go!” I screamed.

  The memory of what happened came flooding back in my mind. Everything. All of it.

  Claire...

  She was my mother.

  “Not gonna happen. In fact get used to your new home. No one will be able to find you here and as soon as I leave the Shades will do what they see fit with you. The etherstone is what’s keeping them under control. And of course because of the spell my Transcluce friend cast your guardians still can’t see shit.”

  “You selfish bastard. You fucking evil prick.”

  “Your words can’t hurt me girl. I have the power here. All of it.”

  Tears ran down my cheeks because he was right. He did have the power and I was going to stay here forever and die.

  Tristan...

  I’d never see him again.

  I should have just stayed with him. He would have protected me from all of this. Instead I did what I thought was right and it was a foolish mistake.

  “How did you know Claire was my mother? How?” It was closure. I wanted to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, and I thought I at least deserved to know who my father was.

  “I knew from the minute you arrived. I suspected it all along, suspected from way back when that she was pregnant with a child that wasn’t mine and when she told me she lost you I changed the law. I changed the law because having a being like yourself around, a combo of all manner of powers rolled into one, is like a disaster waiting to happen for my brethren in the society. Your unpredictable. And a being like that on the side of good is not good for us. Never mind the fact that people would know I wasn’t your father. They would know. You don’t even look like me, and you don’t look like Claire either. You look like your noble vampire father who stole my wife away from me.”

  “Who was he? At least tell me. you’re going to leave me here to die, at least tell me.”

  “His name was Neo. He was Tristan’s uncle, part of the last leadership of The Order of Raphael.” He smiled. “Back then I thought he was just fooling around with my wife. One day a hell breech just happened to open up near a chasm and it just happened to kill him.”

  Oh my God. It was him.

  “You...You killed him.” I shook my head.

  “Not with my hands. The demons did. The wraith demons. When you came back to us, you with your guardians, it was a dead giveaway that Claire must have done what I feared. I just had to check things out. It was what I couldn’t find that gave the game away. Erasing your past, the bloodline that would trace your parents. That was what gave the game away. There’s only a handful of witches and mages that can work such powerful magic and they don’t do it for any old reason. Usually it’s to hide something very, very precious. You are precious to her because of who you are and because of what you are. She knew the minute you started exploring your powers I’d see and know you were the baby she told me she lost. Terrible story really. Quite bad with a sad ending, for you.”

  He lifted his hands and started floating moving higher and higher up. Just like earlier he flicked the etherstone over in his hands showing me, making sure I could see it. Making sure I could see who had the power.

  He looked up but then stopped abruptly in his tracks, stopping midair as we both beheld a bright red light piercing through the blackness that covered over us.

  The shades scattered the brighter it got.

  “It cannot be,” Abram snapped, enraged. “Hell fiends, beast, demons, fallen ones come forth.”

  My soul quaked when out of nowhere all manner of hell fiends did indeed appear. It looked like a scene from all the horror films I’d ever seen rolled into one terrible vision before me.

  The dark essence was so strong it tore away any hope I may have had.

  That red though gave me something to hang on to. It was my piece of thread. I was hanging on to a piece of thread and that was it. Whatever it was got Abram all riled up. It got him all worked up.

  A hole...

  A portal hole suddenly ripped through the blackness and a massive werewolf came through. A werewolf who roared and blasted a number of the demons and beasts back with a lightning bolt.

  Next came my angel. My Tristan.

  My vampire.

  He came for me.

  Tears of joy streamed down my cheeks and I no longer felt weak.

  Like always this man did something to me that gave me comfort and strength. The spell may have stopped me from tapping into my emotions but I could feel all the love I had for him.

  That pure love that filled my heart.

  And, my soul. Giving me hope.

  ***

  Tristan

  ***

  I almost thought all hope was gone then the compass started glowing red.

  We seemed to be walking those ghost roads forever and the nothingness sucked the life out of me. Nothingness and desolation.

  Deadly combo’s for anyone.

  I couldn’t imagine how Lucian had walked the roads for months.

  The hours I’d spent previously were just me looking around and trying to learn what I could. When you had someone you loved, who needed you to save them, it became a whole other matter.

  Abram, that bastard he’d taken Gabrielle to the mouth of hell.

  No wonder no one could get a read on her.

  She was literally off grid.

  I could see her suspended in the air. Her eyes staring at me with so much love and desperation.

  I came to her aid but really she was the one with the power here.

  It was definitely going to take her power to get out of this situation. A winged demon flew to me and breathed fire at me. I turned it to stone. Next came a hellhound. I blasted it with a fire.

  Abram, that mother fucking bastard was in the air too. Up there watching Lucian and me fighting for our lives.

  Lucian giving as good as he got and me holding my own. But... there were too many of them. We could have done with some help, definitely done with some help.

  Abram threw a lightning bolt at me but I managed to evade it and Lucian hit him with a bolder sending him flying to the ground. I used the opportunity to get to Gabrielle. I levitated right up to her and saw she was being held on a prism.

  “Tristan! There’s a spell. The guardians can’t see the danger and I can’t use my powers,” she cried.

  Shit!

  “Gabrielle...” I looked at her and saw the terror in her eyes from everything going on around us. But there was some hope. “You, all you need is you. Think. There’s so much more to you than you realize. So much power. Just explore it. There’s all these people afraid of your power, baby, for heaven’s sake my lady give them something to worry about.” I smirked, seeing her, finding her had instilled a little of my humor. But just a little.

  The hint of a smile tipped the corners of her lips and side tracked me.

  A blast sent me flying to the ground. It was Abram. He rushed over to me and held his hands out, between them was a black ball of energy.

  It crackled and sparkled with pure evil.

  “Want to feel the way your dear old uncle felt when he died?” Abram taunted. Although my body felt like it was broken I didn’t miss what his taunts revealed. “This is the power of the wraiths!”

  I closed my eyes as he launched the ball at me.

  ***

  Gabrielle

  ***

  Everything froze before me...

  Literally.

  Actually. It actually happened.

  I thought of freezing time so I could stop this and it happened.

  Tristan’s inspiration snapped me into focus and I thought of the spell stopping me from accessing my powers and imagined it gone.

  Just like that, and it too snapped away from my mind allowing me the freedom to reach my emoti
ons. It was my mind though that was my strength.

  I had the power to manipulate perception and reality. Think something and make it happen.

  That was what I did to freeze time and everyone in its path.

  I’d channeled all the emotions that swirled within me right into the thought and it happened.

  Everything froze.

  That was when I remembered how I first called on my guardians.

  It was that dream that something was trying to steal my soul. Thinking back it must have been some sort of a demon. I was in the dream plane and came across it. It could be that someone sent it after me, or maybe I just stumbled across it. When I saw it I wished I had something to protect me and that’s when the guardians came.

  I unlocked a portal to where they came from and that same portal led Eric to Pandir.

  I thought it and then it all happened. The how and the where and the what were the mechanic’s that I couldn’t think about right now, interesting as it was.

  What mattered was that I got it. I learned.

  Learned enough to make it all work.

  What made it snap into action was seeing Abram before me, about to kill my love.

  I moved my arms now on command, freeing myself from what magic bound me there and I made my descent down, down to where Abram stood.

  I took the etherstone from his jacket pocket, no problem.

  Frozen like a statute his face showed all the evil in him.

  Evil things came from hell. Evil things belonged exactly there.

  He killed my father. It was his fault why my life was as it was, and regardless of the fact that I loved my adopted parents to no end, I had a potential life in this world that was taken away from me.

  So he could fuck right the hell off and go to where he belonged.

  I thought of somewhere...

  Dark...

  Deep...

  Dark...

  Deep...

  Dark...

  The darkest, deepest place in hell. That’s where I thought of and sent him straight there. Abram disappeared from before me with his energy ball.

  I could have unfrozen everything but had a much better idea. I thought of home. I thought of being back at the castle. Tristan, the werewolf, and me.

  The space around us shifted and shimmered. When the books in the library came into view I smiled and my smile widened when I saw Claire, Pru, Juliana, Ivan and Virgil.