Eternal Flame - Book 6 (The Ruby Ring Saga)

by Chrissy Peebles

  He reached for his gun, which was still on the floor. He took careful aim and shot several guardian poison-laced bullets right at me. They stopped a foot from me and just dropped with a ding.

  I lifted the doctor up in the air with my mind. His eyes bulged as I threw him. He scrambled up and reached for a sword on the wall. Lifting it high, he yelled and ran toward me. A mighty gust of wind threw him backward. Not one to give up easily, he found the gun on the floor and shot at me again, but I easily sidestepped the shot, and it crashed instead into the bulletproof window. When the ammunition boomeranged, it pierced the center of his forehead. Just like that, the doctor was dead.

  I focused hard, and fireballs appeared in my hands. I bombarded the door with them, until it splintered into a million tiny pieces. I threw a dozen fireballs in the air and flung them toward the waiting crowd of blue-ringed immortals, knocking them over like bowling pins. The ones who were still standing quickly ran, not wanting to face the same fate.

  “My, my how the tide has turned,” I said, wearing a victorious grin.

  I hurried down the stairs and glanced around at all the bodies strewn all over the floor.

  Victor greeted me, his eyes glowing just like mine. “Sarah! You are all right?”

  “I’m fine. Where are Liz and Charles?” I asked.

  Jackson grabbed my arm. “I’ll go find them. We still need you to open the box.”

  A vision suddenly hit me, and I saw myself standing by two gravestones, sobbing.

  Jackson touched my shoulder. “They’re dead,” he said. “I know it’s awful, but you made our world a better place by opening that box.”

  “But was it worth their lives?” I snapped. “I should’ve gone after them!”

  “Then the box would’ve never been opened. They would have snatched it away, and we never would have seen it again.”

  I snapped back into reality and blinked, looking at Jackson. “I-I had a vision,” I said. “They’re going to kill them. I have to go.”

  “No!” Jackson shouted. “The box!”

  “I’ll be back! Just guard the box. They’re going after it as we speak!”

  I sped away in a blur, following the sound of Liz’s voice. She was biting, punching, and screaming as Kyle dragged her though the ballroom, to a back entrance.

  Victor followed me, keeping pace and sending volts of electricity at the dozens of security guards rushing toward us. They fell down like swatted flies, and all eyes turned on us. The band abruptly stopped playing their jazzy tunes, and staff ran everywhere. Victor shot me a victorious smile. We both knew nobody could withstand our power, and we were unstoppable, even against hundreds of powerless blue-ringed immortals. I quickly locked every exit with my mind.

  Streams of energy came at us from every direction as other immortals determined they could take us down. They wanted a fight, but their drained energy was laughable, so weak it felt like mosquitoes landing on me. At best, it was merely annoying.

  Kyle moaned when he saw that there was no escape, and Victor pounded him with countless energy blasts. He raised his arm to ward off the fireballs, but Victor’s spheres of glowing fire grew stronger and bigger. Kyle was no match against Victor’s fury. He crashed into the towering swan ice sculpture, shattering the beautiful design into millions of pieces. Moaning, he scrambled to his feet, and another immortal handed him a sword.

  “I’ll cut off your head!” he screamed.

  Tired of their games and infuriated by his threats, I rushed at him. His eyes bulged, but he managed to sidestep me and move to the left. I grabbed Kyle and flung him across the room, where he landed on a table. The sword clattered to the floor. He scrunched his face up, consumed by anger. I threw him violently again, sent him flipping toward the opposite wall.

  I looked for Liz and Charles. My gaze darted around the room, and I spotted them, slumped against the wall. I thought of the vision and hoped I wasn’t too late to save them.

  Others came at us. We punched, swung, and zapped. I leapt thirty feet and landed on a tall immortal, who crashed to the marble floor.

  I quickly felt my sister’s wrist for a pulse and was happy to feel one.

  Jackson’s men hurried over. One picked up Charles, and the other scooped up Liz.

  “We got ‘em,” he said. “Get back to the box!”

  A group came at us, and Victor immediately went on the defensive. Somebody grabbed my feet and threw me across the floor. I jumped to my feet. Kyle swung at my head. I ducked, then kicked his knee. Drawing my arm back, I drove my fist into his nose. His head flew back, and he stumbled. I grabbed the back of his head and rammed my knee right into his face, dropping him to the ground.

  I couldn’t believe the immortals wouldn’t give up and run away. Many of them were watching from the sidelines, expecting security to get this under control. When more security showed up, we lashed out with more jolts, launching the immortals across the room.

  Victor summoned thunder. I tapped into his energy, and electricity surged through my body. Rain pelted the roof, thunder clapped, and lightning flashed. Glass exploded, and the floor shook. An explosion of concrete and debris fell like rain. Electricity ran down the walls and floors, and showers poured in.

  Finally, the immortals found enough sense to run, scattering like rats. When I glanced up, I saw a sword, just inches from my face. Kyle’s cold gaze met mine.

  “Please,” I said. “Just let me go.”

  “You need to go back to the lab where you belong.”

  “No!”

  Then, to my amazement, time froze. Even the raindrops hung in the air, like a movie put on pause. I took full advantage and kicked the sword out of Kyle’s hand, it clanged as it hit the floor.

  Jackson looked at me. “If you don’t mind, I need to unfreeze us and kick this man’s ass.”

  “By all means, go for it.”

  When time caught up to itself again, Jackson punched Kyle and sent him flying. The wind roared, and water gushed in from the open ceiling. I blinked the rain from my eyes.

  Jackson walked up to Kyle and kicked him swiftly once again. Kyle slid across the floor, crashing into the wall.

  “I’m going to make you pay,” Jackson said.

  “Don’t kill me,” he begged.

  Jackson glared. “You killed my wife.”

  “I had to make an example so others wouldn’t take on human wives.”

  “I’ve been your most loyal supporter. Why couldn’t you give me forty or fifty years with her? Humans don’t even live that long!”

  “Because humans are not worthy of our love. And I did you a favor when I find out she was carrying your spawn.”

  “Samantha was pregnant?” he asked, stunned.

  “She had just found out. I knew we had to take action. You know we can’t have half breeds walking around.”

  From the look on Jackson’s face, I knew in that instant that Kyle was a dead man.

  Victor grabbed my arm. “Jackson’s got this covered. Let’s get that box opened.”

  Chapter 32

  When I turned in Jackson’s direction, I saw Kyle coming at him with a dagger. My heart thundered. “Jackson! Behind you!”

  Victor threw the sword. Jackson caught it and spun around, then sliced Kyle’s head off in a fit of fury.

  I gasped, for the leader of the blue-ringed immortals was dead.

  “My Samantha has been avenged,” Jackson said.

  He looked at me and I could see how upset he was that his child had been murdered. He was consumed with emotion and despair. I softly touched his hand.

  “We need to go open that box,” he said, taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly.

  “Let’s go finish this thing once and for all,” I said.

  “For my wife and unborn child,” he whispered.

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Follow me,” he said, suddenly speeding in front of us.

  “What about the priests?” I asked. “Your witches?”

>   “I always bring backup, Sarah. There are more of them upstairs waiting for us.”

  He led the way, and in the library, I quickly pulled out the fancy, gold key. Hands shaking, I inserted it into the tiny lock. I slowly lifted the lid and a beam of bright light shot out.

  “You have to give the power back to the box,” Jackson said.

  I nodded and touched the box, letting it overtake me and slurp up the power I’d drained from it earlier. Now, it drained me, and I felt dizzy. I opened my eyes and grabbed the table so I wouldn’t fall over. Victor wrapped his arm around me.

  Jackson’s eyes widened. The priests hovered over me and started chanting. I didn’t know what they were saying, but I was glad they knew what they were doing. I covered my eyes because the light was now so bright. It illuminated the entire room like the sun itself. I fell into Victor’s strong embrace, and he held me close and tight. When I looked up, his eyes were back to normal; the surging power had left us. I could still feel my powers, though, so I knew no real damage had been done.

  Again, Liz burst in. “I...we...” she stuttered.

  “Liz!” I shouted. Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” she said, “but I need help downstairs!”

  Victor, Jackson, and I hurried to act as reinforcements. The immortals had called in others, and since they weren’t at the party before, they still had all their powers. The immortals came at us strong. Yes, we were more powerful, but there were far more of them. We combined forces and threw our streams of energy against theirs with all our might, but we were quickly losing ground. Our combined powers were simply no match for theirs.

  They inched closer, and I concentrated even harder. We couldn’t let them win, not after all we’d been through. With a grunt, I pushed my powers to the extreme. “We didn’t do all this for nothing,” I said.

  Just as the closest immortal began to reach for me, their powers suddenly dissipated. I gasped as they were thrown back against the wall by just our power.

  Jackson stopped. “It worked!”

  I could not believe my eyes. “They’re...powerless.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Liz said. “Is it over?”

  I ran upstairs and looked at the box. It heated up, and smoke drifted all around it. Then, suddenly, it exploded into a million glittering crystals. “No!” I said. “I thought maybe we could tap into those powers again against Ethano.”

  Victor wrapped an arm around me. “It’s gone. We’ll defeat him another way.”

  “I’ve waited for this moment for so long,” Jackson said. “Everyone is cured. We don’t know what caused the sickness that afflicted some of our kind, but it is over now, and the immortals are powerless. They’ll never feed on humans again.” He shouted and started passing out hugs. “It’s over!” he shouted. “It’s finally over.”

  Everyone cheered and clapped. Dozens of immortals lifted me high up into the air as I smiled in joy. They yelled and shouted my name over and over. I’d never had that kind of attention before over something I helped to do. It was an amazing feeling and everyone was so happy. Many called me a hero but I didn’t really do anything special. I guess Ethano had done a good thing by marking me. Because of him, I was able to help my home world.

  When they put me down, I smiled at Victor.

  “What now?” I whispered.

  “You’ve fulfilled your part of the deal. Jackson can handle it from here.”

  “We did a good thing,” I said. “Blue-ringed immortals will never be able to hurt humans again.”

  “Jackson will be able to restore peace among his people,” Victor said, “and his clan will still have their powers to enforce order and keep peace.”

  “It’s a win-win for everyone,” I said.

  “Not for us,” Liz muttered, “not completely.”

  I cocked a brow. “Why not?”

  “They will come after us, Sarah. They will want revenge. Sure, we cured their dying people, but we also stripped them of their powers, and that will piss them off for generations to come. We need to stock up on Hershey bars and get the hell outta here.”

  “We can’t risk them tracking us back to the portal,” Victor said.

  “Then we go now, while they’re disoriented and unorganized. We’ll get Alexander and my parents and go.”

  “What about Beth?” Liz asked. “She’ll be a target.”

  “Jackson will keep her safe, and she wants to stay here, to raise her child in the world she grew up in. We have to respect her decision.”

  Victor gripped my hand. “Come, my Queen. We have a throne to reclaim.”

  Then, without another word, we hopped in the car.

  ***

  My mom greeted me on the porch. “Baby, are you okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine, Mom, but I hope you’re all packed. We need to leave right now. Where’s Alexander?”

  “He’s sleeping. I’ll get him.”

  She stopped in her tracks, and I knew something was on her mind. “What is it, Mom?”

  “Honey, it’s just...well, now that this blue-ringed thing is over, you know it’s safer here for Alexander. Taking him back to a world where a monster is waiting to snatch him up just doesn’t seem right. You know what Ethano will do if he gets his hands on this precious child.”

  “I know the risks, but we can overtake Ethano. Victor will get his kingdom back. He’ll never be happy here, because this is not his home. Besides, we’re in just as much danger staying as leaving. It just depends which monster we wish to fight. The blue-ringed immortals may not be as powerful, but they will want revenge. Given the choice, we choose to face Ethano, with the help of Victor’s army.”

  “He’s far more dangerous.”

  “If we stay here, Mom, we will have to live on the run, be in constant fear.”

  “There will be fear in your Tastia, too, Sarah. I’m already frightened of what Ethano will do to this family.”

  “We’re strong, and he can’t tear us apart.” I paused, then said, “Mom, if you don’t wanna come with us, Jackson will protect you here. If you do come with us, you can never, ever come back. I know it’s a hard decision, but I just need you to know that.”

  She cupped my face. “I know, Sarah. Living here without my daughters will be no life at all. I want to see my grandchildren grow up, even if it means early retirement in a whole other world.”

  “You know we’re heading down a dark road,” I said.

  “Yes, I know. You have to take on Ethano,” she said.

  Rain started to fall from the sky, like some ominous sign. “Yes.”

  She pulled me under the porch awning. “It won’t be easy, but I am sure you and Victor can outsmart him and beat him at his own game.”

  “We plan to, Mom, but you, Dad, and Alexander will have to hide for a while—just until it’s safe. Then we can all live happily in the castle.”

  “Fine. Then let’s go. We’ll take your father’s car, a loaner from Jackson. It’s all packed. I even threw in some chocolate for your sister.”

  “I gotta grab some stuff I already packed.”

  “Go ahead, honey. I’ll bundle the baby up.”

  “Did you get the wedding album?”

  “Yes, along with the wedding DVD.”

  I chuckled. “Mom, I can’t watch it there.”

  “You’ll be alive for centuries. Maybe one day, Tastia will invent all the modern luxuries we already know about. I just can’t leave it behind.”

  I smiled and rushed inside to get my few remaining things.

  “Let’s go,” Charles said, motioning us toward the packed car.

  Victor threw a few bags in the trunk and hurried inside the car.

  Flooring it, Dad asked over his shoulder, “So how do we open this portal in Sabrino Cave?”

  “Any immortal ring can open it,” Victor said. “It’s strictly forbidden, but King Taggert will make an exception.” He let out a long breath. “If he’s even alive.”

  “I just hope we don’
t see one of those creatures,” my mom said.

  “They can come and go as they please, Mom,” I explained. “The portal door stays open for about five minutes after one passes, but we can get in anytime with the rings.

  “They’re sort of like a skeleton key,” Liz chimed in.

  “Let’s not speak of skeletons before we go into a dark cave, dear.”

  “Sorry, Mom,” Liz said. “I’m sure we’ll just see puppies and rainbows and unicorns.”

  My dad gripped the steering wheel. “Why not use the necklace that old witch gave you to get here?”

  “It is only a one-way device,” Victor answered. “We can’t get back with it.”

  “Are you ready to say goodbye forever?” Liz asked, squeezing my hand. “No more Wi-Fi or cucumber melon body wash.”

  “I’m ready this time,” I whispered. “Tastia is my home...and I’m sure they have cucumbers and melons there.”

  “Hey, you two. Enough with your dirty jokes,” our mother said.

  We looked at each other and broke out in laughter.

  “I just know I want to spend the rest of my life at Victor’s side,” I said.

  He wrapped his arm around me, making me feel safe and warm all over.

  “Will you miss my world?” I asked. “Even a tiny bit?”

  “Your world is a beautiful place,” he said. “I’m glad I got the chance to spend some time here.”

  “We’re leaving so many people behind,” Liz said, suddenly solemn. “Seeing them again just makes it that much harder to leave. I really love cousin Mindy’s eight little boys.”

  “What? You screamed when Leo put a spider on your head. And don’t tell me you’ll miss Edith squeezing your cheeks.”

  She laughed. “Boys will be boys, but boy, did I jump.”

  “You were so good with them,” I said.

  “I’ll miss them, that’s for sure. A tiny part of me is not ready to let go, to leave this world behind forever.”

  I patted her hand. “I think it makes us brave.”

  “Once everything is restored, I will feel like myself again. I won’t have to hide my powers all the time like I do here.”