Jar of Souls

by Bradford Bates

  I watched with growing horror as Adam started to fall back. He wasn’t able to hit Gaston with any of his spells, and now he had been forced into a purely defensive role. A bolt of power slammed into him, sending him flying into the tomb wall, falling onto the ground next to me. If Adam couldn’t stand against this threat, there was nothing I could do. The sudden realization that I was actually going to die crippled me. I slumped down the wall, coming to rest on the ground opposite of Adam. I looked into his eyes and didn’t see the defeat that I thought I would, just cold hard resolve.

  That little spark of resolve gave me some small amount of hope. “The apprentices are dead,” I managed to whisper. “I had to incinerate them.”

  Adam nodded once, a small gleam in his eye. “Damn you, Gaston!” he shouted. “We could have unlocked the secrets of the Jar together. United we could have accomplished so much.”

  The same grating voice I remembered from the chateau replied, “The power of the Jar is too great to share, old friend. You have felt what it can do. Why would I ever want to share that?”

  “I would have put you in charge of the research. You would have had unlimited access,” Adam coughed out.

  “Why would I want access when I can control the Jar myself? No one else would be willing to go as far as I would to access its full potential. Already the Jar calls to me, telling me what to do. With its power, anything is possible.”

  Gaston came into view, the scar on his face almost glowing red. The power of the Jar had taken him over. I wasn’t sure who was in control, him or the Jar. All of his attention was fixed on Adam. He completely ignored me.

  “Gaston, I can still help you. We can still work this out together,” Adam wheezed.

  “There is nothing to work out. You have already lost.”

  Adam’s body started to shake against the wall. All I could think of was that Gaston was using the Jar to imprison his soul. I didn’t know what I could do, but I had to do something. I pulled on my very essence, hoping there was something left; with a burst of strength that I hadn’t thought possible, I sent that power out toward Gaston. At first, it seemed as if nothing had happened, and I felt my heart sinking. Then his hand spasmed for a second, just enough to break his grip on the Jar. It fell to the ground, breaking his spell on Adam.

  That was all the opening Adam needed. In a flash of brilliance that almost blinded me, Adam released all of his power at Gaston. The man cried out in pain and then burned away in a cloud of ash. The tomb’s walls shook with the force of Adam’s magic, sending dirt down onto us from above. I struggled to stand and then fell back to the floor. Adam managed to find his feet and then moved toward the Jar. He wrapped the object in a swatch of dark cloth, and I felt the Jar’s power dim.

  Adam placed the cloth into a bag slung over his shoulder and then picked up his staff. I could tell he didn’t have the strength left to help me up, and I wasn’t sure that another attempt would be the best idea. He waited for a few minutes, resting his back against the wall, and then motioned for me to give it a try.

  “I think you can make it now.” He said it as a request, but I knew it for the command that it was.

  “Adam, I have some bad news for you,” I managed to choke out as I struggled to my feet.

  “Oh, is it worse than almost having my soul ripped out?”

  “There was a pack of Lycans trying to get into the tomb when I sealed it.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem now.” He gave me a weak smile before shuffling toward the door.

  I was still trying to figure out what he meant, but the sudden realization that there was no scratching coming from the tomb’s entrance hit me. Adam waved his hand, and the rock wall I had summoned crumbled back into the ground. Eight dead Lycans lay outside of the door. None of them even twitched as Adam helped me over their bodies.

  He sat me down in the wet grass. “Stay here; I’ll go grab the horses.”

  “See what happens? You get old and get a staff, then everyone expects you to limp around while they lie on the ground.”

  “The benefit of it is I get to stay dry, and when I tell the story, I look much more heroic.”

  “Oh, trust me, when I tell the story, I’ll be walking up the hill to get your horse.”

  Adam smiled and let out a low chuckle. The sound of it filled me with hope. We had won. We had stopped Gaston. If what Adam said was true, then I was a rich man. I laid my head down in the wet grass and stared into the rainy sky. Some days it felt good to be alive.

  When Adam came back with the horses, it stirred me from my thoughts of wealth and retirement. My legs had finally stopped shaking, and I felt confident I could get into the saddle on my own. I pulled myself up gently and felt better once I had both feet back in the stirrups. “What do we do now?” I asked as we started to ride out of the valley.

  “Now you go back to our base. I will meet you there after taking care of this.” He patted the bag resting under his shoulder.

  “Are you sure you don’t need me to come with you?”

  “I think it’s better that no one knows where the Jar is but me.”

  “That’s good, because I was thinking of stopping back at that inn for a few days before heading home. The last thing I wanted to do was ride all around the countryside with you.”

  “It sounds like I might make it back before you do.”

  “Just have my money ready.”

  Adam laughed, and as we reached the top of the valley, he turned his horse away from mine. If I rode fast enough, I may be able to make it back to the inn before the sun set. A hot bowl of stew and some wine sounded delightful. Not to mention how much I was looking forward to sleeping in a warm bed under a roof. No more missions, no more hunting. I was going to leave the order and find somewhere to settle down.

  6

  April

  Present

  It was hard to tell exactly where I was. The room around me was dark. A few candles dotted the far corners of the room, but the weak light they provided wasn’t enough for me to make out too many details. My head started to swim, and my vision blurred momentarily. I tried to call on my gift, but it didn’t respond. The magic came to me in a slow trickle. Once I had enough, I used it to try and wash away whatever I had been injected with.

  Clearing my head seemed to help, but when I tried to move, I found I was bound to the couch I was lying on. Surprisingly, the bonds weren’t locked, but when I tried to undo them, I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. I jumped a little bit at the light touch. As much as I wished I could say I was a badass, waking up in a dark room, finding yourself tied to a couch, and being touched by someone you can’t see tends to do that to a girl.

  “You may remove the restraints but do not leave the couch.”

  The voice sounded familiar. A quick look confirmed it was Lestat. “What the hell is going on? Why am I here and where is Britta?”

  “Your friend was allowed to return to Adam. You are still in the Grotto, and as I said before, someone else wishes to speak with you.”

  “Well, if you were hoping to get on my good side, there are better ways to do it,” I said with a little bravado coming through.

  “I don’t think she is concerned about getting on your good side, just that you are here and that you pass the information she gives you back to Adam.”

  “Just who in the hell will I be talking to?”

  A form seemed to glide out of the shadows. The female figure came into better view. I could tell she was in incredible shape, but almost all of the Fallen were. As she moved closer, I could see that she had high cheekbones and her eyes slanted just a touch, speaking of Mediterranean or Indian descent. Her dark hair was tied in a tight bun, making her features look even more severe. When she smiled, her fangs extended, making me shake just a bit. It was an involuntary reaction that I wish I could have stopped. My gift still felt weakened, but my strength was returning faster now that whatever I had been injected with was purged from my system.

  When s
he spoke, her voice came out clear and resonated with power. “You won’t need your magic here. No further harm will come to you; in fact, I was displeased that any had been done in the first place.”

  I let my magic slip away. This vampire was the oldest one I had ever met, and I wasn’t even sure I would have time to form a spell in my weakened condition before she could rip me to shreds. “Pardon me if I hesitate to take your word for it when I find myself completely at your mercy.”

  Her fangs slid back in, and she smiled. This time it was warm and inviting. I wasn’t sure what creeped me out more. At least with her fangs out I knew what I was facing; now she could have been just about any mid-thirties woman on the planet.

  “I’m sorry for the way we ended up bringing you to this meeting. We wanted to make sure to remove your friend from the equation. She works for some powerful people, people we would prefer not to share this information with.”

  “You mean Britta? She is just a girl I train with. What kind of powerful friends could she possibly have?”

  Lestat faded back into the shadows, and the female vampire started to circle around me. “Who her friends are isn’t what’s important now. What is important is that you are willing to deliver a message for me.”

  Did she seriously think I would refuse? I didn’t think that there was any chance I could fight my way out of a nest alone. She smiled down at me and took a seat on the opposite side of the couch. She turned her head toward me, waiting for a response. “I would be more than happy to deliver whatever message you may have.”

  “Again, I have to apologize about the unorthodox nature of this meeting, but I have reached out to Adam with no response. So we had to resort to other measures.”

  That was something I hadn’t thought of, that the Fallen might actually be in contact with our leader. The supernatural community was a pretty small place, and people in power tended to be well known. “I think I can forgive a small amount of discourtesy, but what makes you think Adam will listen to me?”

  A sly smile played out on her face, and her fangs lowered again. She ran her tongue against them before speaking. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with Adam for weeks without success, so I did a little digging. I found that Charles here has been sharing some of our secrets with Adam and decided to use him to get a messenger. You must forgive his part in this, my dear. He wanted nothing to do with it.”

  “Who’s Charles?”

  “You may know him as Lestat. Personally I refuse to use that ridiculous name. Charles is a perfectly good name, and there is no reason not to use it.”

  I looked over my shoulder at the shadows behind me. Lestat moved forward enough that I could see him shake his head once before fading back into the shadows. I guess there would be time to laugh about the name change later. “I agree Charles is a fine name. So you were saying that you lured us here to give me a message.”

  “Indeed. I think Adam would be much more understanding if it was passed along from one of his own people.” She reached out and handed me a thumb drive. “This includes some surveillance footage of attacks by the Lycans on some of our nests. The Elders will be meeting soon to decide which course of action to take. I had hoped that Adam would look into the attacks before we end up at war with them.”

  “I thought you hated the Lycans. I’m surprised the Elders haven’t jumped at the chance to strike out against them.”

  “Oh, some of them have. Others like myself realize that it’s bad for business. When humans inevitably get caught up in the fighting and die, then you pesky gifted get involved. That means losses of life and, well, more importantly, to our finances. You know how much real estate we lose in a war? How many businesses we have to close until it’s over? The sheer loss of daily income is staggering.”

  “So you are less worried about the Lycan attacks than you are about losing money?”

  “For now. So far nothing that has been damaged cannot be replaced. I can’t say how much longer that will be true. I thought that with the evidence in hand, Adam could reach out to his Lycan contacts and find out just what in the hell is going on. A war costs them just as much, if not more than us.”

  “Not to mention all of the work we would have to do. Nothing that big could go unseen by the humans. Everyone has a camera, and a few YouTube videos later there would be a lot of tough questions to answer.”

  “Indeed. I’ve also included some footage that we cannot explain. It seems to us that there were also some humans involved in the attacks. From our best guesses, they were already dead when they attacked us.”

  “You mean like zombies,” I said with a laugh. “That’s impossible. None of the gifted can raise the dead.”

  “I assure you it is no joke. The bodies had to be dismembered and burned before they stopped twitching. The humans involved didn’t bleed when they were hit. So unless you know of another race that can control the dead, I suggest you take it seriously.” Her eyes hardened, and I could see the predator behind them peeking out at me.

  “I will give Adam the information and tell him about what you have said.”

  “That is all I ask. Oh, Charles, do be a dear and see our friend back to the surface, will you?”

  Lestat moved forward and motioned for me to follow him. Just as we reached the door, it blew inward. Shards of wood and dust filled the air. I was surprised when I felt Lestat pull me behind him. As the dust started to clear, I could just make out a figure stepping into the room. From the look on his face, I couldn’t tell if I should be happy or terrified.

  7

  Jackson

  Marcus’s eyes went wide as I just pushed Adam’s door open without knocking. Screw it; if he didn’t send one of the Ascended with them, then it was his own damn fault. I wanted to know if they had reported in yet and if they hadn’t, what he planned to do about it.

  Three steps inside and I knew I had interrupted an important discussion. By the fifth step, I stopped caring. Adam and the inspector were both staring at me. The inspector wore a small smirk, and I could tell he was just waiting to see what would happen. Adam looked angry at the interruption, but I wasn’t about to let that deter me. A quick glance showed that Marcus had followed me in, but he was hovering by the door, eyes downcast.

  “You sent April and Britta to a vampire club alone! What in the hell were you thinking!” I shouted, finally coming to a stop beside the inspector.

  Adam stood up. “Despite what you may think, Jackson, I am not in the position where I have to explain myself to you. April and Britta were sent to meet with a known and dependable contact. They will be fine.”

  “If they were just going to get information, they would have been back by now.” I turned to Marcus. “Right?”

  Marcus looked up for a second and then looked back down as all three sets of eyes landed on him. “I think they would have been back by now.”

  He didn’t say it with much conviction, and I started to wonder if I had jumped too fast to the wrong conclusion. I looked back at Adam, waiting to see what he would say.

  “So you have a lot of experience with the Fallen, Marcus? Enough experience to know exactly how long it takes them to conduct business?”

  Marcus stared at Adam, his gaze now hard and determined. “I have a lot of experience killing the Fallen that preyed on the people in the Island. When we were left alone to fend for ourselves, we learned a lot more than people like to give us credit for. I may not know much about how they interact, but I know one thing. They are killers, pure and simple, and you sent our friends into their nest!”

  “I know about what your family did to defend your home. It’s part of the reason I reached out to your father and asked to bring you here.”

  “You spoke to my father?”

  “Of course, I had to do some convincing, but it worked out in the end.”

  “Wait, what do you mean by Island? I thought you were from Louisiana?” I said, breaking into the conversation.

  “I am,” Marcus replied. “They call
it the Island because we stand free from the council and the Ascendancy. On the Island, we protect our own.”

  “And they have their own way of doing things,” Adam added.

  I wanted to find out more, but Marcus wasn’t done with Adam yet. “You know all about my past, but you still sent my only friends here into a nest of those killers.”

  “I sent them to meet a contact; the Fallen normally take their time with things. It comes from having a near immortal lifespan. Things happen slower with them. I’m sure Britta and April are fine.”

  “Sir, I’d still like to head out there to check on them, if that is ok,” I said. “If nothing else, it would make me feel better knowing they are safe.”

  “The inspector was just filling me in on your day, Jackson. Are you sure you are up to leaving so soon? I would think that you would be tired from your ordeal.”

  “I’m fine, and I won’t be able to rest knowing that they are out there alone.”

  “So be it. You and Marcus can go to the Grotto . . .” His words trailed off as a disheveled Britta pushed her way into the room.

  I’d love to say that my first thought had been about her safety, but it wasn’t. The first thought I had when I saw her was damn, she looks amazing in that outfit. Then my brain came back online, and I realized her makeup was smeared and she had been crying. I rushed to her and wrapped her in my arms. Pulling her tight against me, I whispered in her ear, “Are you ok?”

  “I’m fine,” she said, pulling away slightly. She turned her gaze to Adam. “It’s April. She needs help.”

  The room went silent as we all felt Adam draw on his power. I knew that he was powerful, but I had never imagined just how strong he really was. It was easy to forget that he was in charge for a reason. His older appearance and white hair often made me think of him as a grandfather. From what I felt right now, he might have been the strongest gifted on the planet.