by Melle Amade
“I was, for a while,” she says. “Your father led us out into the desert of Australia. We went on a trek through the outback. It was long and tiring and it looked for a long time like he might just be leading us in circles. Like it might not mean anything at the end of the day. The long stretches of red sand that make up the interior of Australia are brutal. I come from the lush and green jungles of an island nation surrounded by water. And here there was nothing. And when the vehicle broke down we were expected to walk. And for your father, it just seemed like the normal thing to do. To just walk out into the middle of the desert and it wouldn’t be a problem. But they can all shift. By ‘they,’ I only mean your father, El Oso, and a couple of the Blackhawks and bears who kept his company. As for me, I was required to walk as a human.”
I look up at her long, dark hair. So, different from the white hair I had seen just two months ago when I met her. I guess they don’t have bleach in the deserts of Australia.
“Where did he take you?” I ask.
“Well I thought he was trying to make us go mad,” Lady Heather says. “He was walking in long strides, and singing something, and he did not eat. He got skinnier and skinnier, but he seemed to have a vision in mind of where he was going. We would fall asleep at sunset under the stars and wake up as the sunrise stretched out across the dark red horizon. And we kept walking. We walked through dry creek beds where scraggly eucalyptus trees stretched their roots down into the center of the earth, trying to find a bit of water to keep growing. We walked by massive red rocks that I wanted to crawl under for shade. And we walked along vast flat horizons where there was nothing except for little white tufts of grass at odd intervals, surrounded by the blood red dirt.”
She pauses for a breath and I know this is my father’s country. My hands clench wishing it was my father telling me this story.
“But one day we woke up and it looked like we were nowhere. Like it was again the same flat dusty plain. But as we went farther, the ground gave way into a cliff face and we walked down what seemed like a little known but clear path. Down to the bottom of the cliff. The canyon was very long and very narrow. You’d never find it by plane or by car. But your father seemed to know exactly where it was. Not only as if he had been there before, but as if he been there the day before. He never missed a step, he never stopped or looked twice at a map. He was steadfast and sure as he walked down the switchback pathway into the deep, black, narrow crevice of the earth. And it was so cool and refreshing down there after the days in the heat above. There was a small trickle of a stream running down to the base of the canyon, coming from a recessed cave, out in the middle of nowhere. That’s where it was.”
“My father had the chalice?” I ask. My legs weaken and I sit down into the chair, my eyes instinctively go to the cross-stitch of Noah’s ark that hangs on the wall. My father had the chalice and he had been back to Australia at some point after his family was massacred to hide it. There was still so much about my father I didn’t know. “He gave El Oso the chalice?” I ask. “But why? Why would he do that? Why would you give El Oso the very thing he wanted?”
“Because it was the bargain,” Lady Heather says, her eyebrows raising and her fingers making a delicate fan motion in the air. “That’s what he offered in exchange for your life. If he had not given El Oso exactly what he wanted, El Oso would simply have turned around and sent all of his Berzerken after you.”
“But you don’t understand,” I say leaning forward. “The spell El Oso has to do requires the blood of a dove. He will kill my father, now. You have to tell me where they.”
“I am a slave. I do not know where he is,” Lady Heather says. “I was inconsolable when we were leaving Australia when I realized there would be not even a brief trip to my homeland. We would simply come back here and my imprisonment would go on and on and on. But then I heard something. I heard when we got to Mexico City you were free. I insisted I come here for some research in the library. El Oso’s heart is on the chalice and he let me come, but he sent Polaris to guard me.”
“They are in Mexico City?” I ask.
Lady Heather shakes her head.
“You must know something about where they are right now. You must tell me. My father’s life is at stake.”
“He had all of the other artifacts in safekeeping somewhere. But I do not know where. Only that they are somewhere in the south.”
“And your machine?” I ask. “You used it to find me. Up in Potter Valley, and then you used it to track me here. Can’t we use it to track El Oso? He has magic too.”
“Yes, but it is not an easy thing to do,” Darko says.
“I will take her necklace off,” I say. “But you must give me your word that you will help me find my father. Now. And your word must be as binding to me as my father’s word was too El Oso.”
His eyes are bright and clear as a spring sky. He truly loves her and I know there is nothing he won’t do to free her from the necklace.
14
“I will do your command,” Darko nods as Lady Heather takes her place by his side. Their hands entwine.
“How is this even possible? How do you even know each other?” I ask.
“We more than know each other.” Darko’s eyes light on Lady Heather’s face as if he has memorized every part of her. It’s the way I imagine my face appears when I look at Callum. It is deep, glowing and intense, as if every part of his life is wrapped in every part of her.
“But you’re human,” I say. “You’re a Hunter.”
“I am,” Darko says. “At least, I was born a Hunter. But I have only Hunted El Oso and the Berzerken since I met Lady Heather more than thirty years.”
My eyes go wide and I stare at him in shock. He only looks about twenty-five. “I don’t understand.” I say. “How can you have been alive that long?”
The laugh that comes out of his mouth is hollow, even bitter.
“Sometimes I ask myself the same question,” he says. “But now, maybe today, I will have the answer.”
“We met in Amsterdam,” Lady Heather says. The smile curving her mouth tells me despite the years of imprisonment and the years of subjugation to El Oso, this woman still has heartfelt memories and happiness inside her. They must have been tucked deep, very far away.
“I know shifters live a long time,” I say. “And I know we age slow and look young for our age. So, I don’t have any problem knowing you,” my finger points at Lady Heather, “might be sixty to seventy years old. But you…” my gaze falls on the spritely young man with the clear blue eyes and shocking white hair. The man with not a wrinkle in his skin.
“Have you not guessed?” he asks.
My eyebrows knit together and my head shakes as I stare at him.
“No, I haven’t guessed anything. What is there to guess? A Hunter that’s been in love with the shifter who is a prisoner of El Oso and their relationship has been going on for more than thirty years, even though he looks like he couldn’t possibly be more than twenty-five. I’ve got nothing.” I’m trying to get my brain to click together and to understand what it is, but I’m not putting the pieces together.
“Have you heard of the Wars of Attrition?” Darko asks.
“Yes,” I nod. “The wars where they wiped out all of the Passiefs because we apparently love of humans.”
“Many shifters went extinct,” Darko says.
“They say that’s what happened to the witches who were cat shifters, and the werewolves, and the vampires...” My voice weakens and fades away.
“‘Vampire’ is not term we use for ourselves,” Darko says. “We are bat shifters. We do not suck blood. Sometimes, as bats, we eat blood like any other animal. Like your coyote friends. But when I am in my human form, I am just in my human form.”
“You’re- you’re a vampire?” I ask.
He nods.
“But I saw you in the sun.” And what about the sun? Does that do anything to you?”
He shakes his head. “I wear glass
es to protect my eyes, much like your frog friend. Also, bat shifters have really pale skin, so we can’t really go and spend a lot of time in the sun. Sunblock was a useful invention.” He shrugs and smiles. “And as a bat, well obviously I prefer to be out in the dark. So, we sleep a lot during the day so we can play at night.”
“Garlic?”
“Personally, I hate it,” he says. “But that’s just me.”
“How did you survive the Wars of Attrition?” I ask.
“In the deepest darkest caves of Mother Earth where no others will go,” Darko smiles as if being that creepy is okay.
“How long have you been alive?”
Lady Heather’s teeth shine white in the dark, and she looks proud as her gaze turns to Darko. “May I introduce you to the Marquis Radovic of Montenegro. You have the great honor of meeting one of the most illustrious Marquis of the Middle Ages.”
“The illustration,” I murmur. “You were a knight.”
“I was left on the door step of the Radovic castle by my shifter family. They thought they should have a shifter raised within the Hunter society, but I was adopted by not just anyone in the castle, I was taken by the Marquise herself. When my shifter family finally made themselves known to me, it was too late. I had been raised a Hunter. I killed my own brother and fled everything I knew…for centuries.”
I lean forward shocked at the words he is telling me. “Do all vampires live this long?”
“Bat shifters are the longest living shifters in the world,” Darko says, giving a slight shrug, as if it’s to be expected. “We can only be killed by force. We never get sick. During the Wars of Attrition, they killed many of my people. But some of us bats, we were able to hide, buried deep in caves for long periods of time.”
“Where are the rest of you?” I asked.
“Caves in South America,” Darko says. “Where many of us live primarily in bat form. It is the easiest way for us to stay off the shifters’ radar.”
“So, you live in South America? Right under Muirderkring South?” I ask.
“That is where the largest group of us live,” he says. “But I lived in Indonesia for many years. That is where I first saw her.” he nods towards Lady Heather.
“But she’s a predator, and more than that, the shifter world believes vampires are dead. So, it was a great danger when I followed her to Amsterdam. And even greater danger when I made myself known to her.”
“We searched in secret for some of the artifacts that would help the spell. We also wanted the power of magic and the ability to be free to strengthen the bat shifters so they could live out in the open instead of hiding in caves all over the world. But we failed. And all the parts the artifacts that were needed were lost to us forever.”
“But what was a million times worse than losing those,” Darko says. “Is losing her.”
“I was part of the bartering chip. El Oso still keeps me close and it protects my family. I could never go against him.”
“We have spent decades looking for a way to get out of this collar and to be free of El Oso. I even rejoined the Hunters, the very people who hate our existence and wish all shifters dead, in order to find more information. About the metal, about anything.”
“But you never attacked the Berzerken until Spotswood ranch?” I ask.
“She would never tell me where they were,” he says.
“If it was ever discovered I had a hand in the downfall of the Berzerken, it would come back on my family,” Lady Heather says. “I could never have that happen. I made him promise to never hunt El Oso through any information he discerned from me.”
“That’s why you developed the magic device.” I say. “Because you knew El Oso had magic. But how did you stay in contact?”
“The same way everybody else does. In the beginning, through letters, chance meetings, she would give me hints as to where she would be and I could see her from afar. Sometimes we would go years without seeing each other, maybe two or three. But now, now we have discovered there is a way to be free of the collar.”
“But even if you get it off,” I ask. “Won’t it mean he can go after your family?”
“Without the collar,” Lady Heather says, “my family can go after him. For they will not be afraid he will kill me at the slightest provocation. Without the collar, we can all be free. He’s left me here in Polaris’s care. But now, now I can go.” She looks at me, her eyes begging to be free.
“Not without him helping me find my father,” I say. “You will come and help me find him.”
Darko’s eyes go to Lady Heather. “You cannot join me. If I go with, you must leave, you must go as far from this place as possible, as far from El Oso as you can. Return to your jungles of Indonesia. While El Oso is trying to get greater power, you must rally your people. If we are to rise against the Berzerken, we must do so now.”
Lady Heather nods. “It is not the first time we have been separated,” she says. “And my guess is it will not be the last.”
He leans forward and puts his hands on the sides of her face, gently kissing her. “No. I am sure it will not be. You are always in my heart and always a part of me.”
I feel almost a witness to a private moment that I shouldn’t be there for. But I can’t look away. Theirs is the love of fairytales and happily-ever-afters. Theirs is a love unable to be fulfilled, even now. But I can’t change my request. He must come with me to help find my father. And then they can do whatever they want for the rest of their lives. I don’t care. I hope they’re happy and live a long life together. But for now, I need him and every moment we sit here and wait and talk is a moment closer to my father dying.
“Come on.” I stand up, already clicking my fingernails together and walking towards her. All I want is to get the collar off her. Although I did it for myself and Roman it was while Lydia was singing an ancestral song, while we had power and magic and ancestors and were in a hidden safe space. I have no idea what it will happen if we do it here. But I do know I have to try.
“I don’t know if this is going to work for you,” I say to her clearly. I look her in the eye to make sure she understands. “But I will give it my best shot. And it may burn you.”
“It cannot be worse than the pain I’ve already suffered,” she says. “I am ready.”
She arches her neck and bares it to me, and her long dark hair falls down her back, over her billowing green dress.
And suddenly I’m nervous. What if I burn her? What if I hurt her? What if I kill her? But the sooner I get this done, the sooner we can leave and find my father. Flames rise in my hand as I step towards her.
“Be careful.” I hear Darko breathe as I reach my hands to her neck and let each one of my fingers alight in the flame. I press them directly against the metal so there’s less chance of the flame scorching her skin. I hear her gasp, but I keep my fingers pressed in. They will warm the metal and change it and stretch it and do whatever it needs to do to allow me to pull it from her neck.
But nothing happens.
She just sits there, her neck arched. My fingers press against the metal and I can feel the collar heating up. I can feel it separately from anything, and it’s going to start burning her skin. I can see the sweat bead on her forehead, dripping in rivulets down the sides of her cheeks and dropping like tears onto her shoulders. But she still sits there, unmoving, waiting to see what will happen as I try to burn the life out of her prison.
“It’s not going to –”
But the metal gives.
It’s only slight, it’s a tiny dip, but I feel it falter under the weight of my fingers. It’s working. I let it sit for another minute my mouth pressed tightly close together as I stretch my finger slowly into the depression and move them up ever so slightly so I can slip my fingernails down behind the choking collar, between her neck and the metal.
It’s working.
But nobody in the room is breathing. Even I’m perspiring as the heat from my hands travels up my arms and burns at my
face.
And suddenly my whole hand is behind the necklace, between the collar and her neck and I’m pulling at it and tugging and stretching it. When it gets to a point where the collar is stretched out so much it can go over her head, Lady Heather bows her chin, and instead of ripping the necklace apart, I simply lift it over her head like a reverse coronation.
She doesn’t scream or cry or laugh.
She kneels before me, taking my hands in hers and together we hold the collar and each other. Our eyes meet and even though I had no suffering like here, I can still feel the shared truth of what we have known. And my heart sings in her freedom and we bow our heads together and touch foreheads, knowing we have both survived..”
15
Even from inside the house I can hear the vehicle drive up the street. A low growl rumbles through the room. Lady Heather’s claws tap against the wooden floor as she presses her paws into the ground, preparing to spring. Black fur stands up on end around her neck, white teeth bared and ready to sink into flesh. The jaguar’s green eyes slant, waiting to attack whatever might come through the door.
“It’s Callum.” I step towards the door to stop any maiming Lady Heather intends to do. “He said he’d come check on me. You should go.”
Darko isn’t moving. He’s fixated on the jaguar as if she has some divine light emitting from the back of her head or something.
“I can’t hide you here.” My fingers tap against his arm. “We don’t even know, it could be Polaris.”
“It’s not Polaris,” Darko says without even bothering to look. He keeps his gaze firmly on the stunning black jaguar, whose green eyes glimmer as she runs her tongue along her sharp white teeth.
“How can you tell?” I ask as the front gate creaks.
“You think bears have a good sense of smells?” He smiles. “They’ve got nothing on a vampire bat.”
The front door opens without even a knock and Callum walks in the door.
I try to block him from seeing Lady Heather, but it’s futile. A growl comes from the back of her throat. “Stop.” I glare at her. “That’s not exactly going to help.”