Golden Hue (Ascension)

by Stone, Zachary

  “Yes,” I said. “I'm serious.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  We left the mall and before long, we were driving through downtown Atlanta. Looking out the windows of the vehicle, I was amazed by the tall buildings that seemed to rise up into the clouds.

  Lizzie's phone rang and she answered it. In a few moments later, she hung up.

  “My grandma Meg is flying in,” she said. “She’s going to be joining us at the dance.”

  “Do we need to meet her at the airport?” I asked.

  Cathy and Sarah both looked at me.

  “She’s flying in,” Lizzie said.

  “Oh,” I said. “I get it now.”

  I felt stupid, again.

  “When will she be arriving?” I asked.

  “She’ll be here in time for the dance,” Lizzie said.

  I looked forward to seeing Meg. Not only was she a friend, but she was the most powerful vampire in my new family; we might need her.

  Not long later, we drove up to the empress’s estate. The large, cast iron gate opened, and the limousine drove into the parking area. As we neared the front of the house we could see smoke billowing out of one of the windows. I powered up and flew towards it. Hovering outside of the smoke-filled room, I peered inside. Even with my enhanced vision, I could make out very little of what was going on.

  With Lizzie and Cathy hovering beside me, I rushed to an office window, opened it, and flew inside. We rushed through the office and opened the door to the main hallway.

  Looking to my right, I saw a number of vampires and servants with fire extinguishers. They were trying to put out the flames of what looked like a massive explosion. Debris was everywhere and the smoke was getting thicker.

  “What happened?” I called out to a short vampire, who’d already transformed.

  “A bomb went off,” he said. “We’re trying to put out the fire before it spreads.”

  I rushed forward through the smoke, and I made my way to a flame filled room. Fire was spreading up the walls and up to the ceiling.

  Trying to remember what Meg had taught me, I peered into the molecules of the wall and ceiling with my mind. They were bouncing around and vibrating at high speed. Focusing, I tried to slow them down.

  The flames started to recede. I called forth more power, and I could feel a tingling as my skin turned golden. I focused harder, and a frost started to spread on the walls and ceiling. A minute later, the entire room was covered in a thin layer of ice.

  Looking upwards, I let my mind inspect the room above; it was on fire as well. I pushed harder, and the room above me began to cool. In seconds, it too was covered in ice. In my mind, I could see the flames were out.

  I rushed back into the hallway. Cathy and Lizzie were looking at me.

  “We have to find Sarah,” I called out.

  I grabbed the arm of a female vampire that was running down the hallway.

  “Have you seen Sarah?” I asked.

  “Not recently,” she said, before breaking free and continuing down the hall.

  “Follow me,” I called out to Cathy and Lizzie. They followed me down the long corridors as I looked for Sarah and made my way towards the throne room.

  Two guards stood at the door of the room.

  “I need to speak to the empress,” I stated.

  The black haired, fully transformed guard growled at me.

  “She’s indisposed at the moment,” he said.

  “I don't care,” I said. “I need to talk to her.”

  “You’ll have to wait,” he said.

  I then realized that I hadn’t tried to call Sarah, so I pulled out my phone and dialed her number.

  It rang seven times and went to her voicemail.

  “She should be answering,” Cathy said.

  “Try to call her,” I said to Lizzie.

  Lizzie called her, but again there was no answer.

  I turned and looked at the guards.

  “Please let us in,” I asked.

  “No,” the second guard said.

  I increased my power level and fully transformed. My claws emerged, and I could feel my fangs.

  Without a moment's hesitation, I slowed down time, grabbed the two guards by the neck, and slammed both of them through the door.

  Walking into the room, I saw Sarah.

  A tall, red headed woman had her hand around her throat. The empress, sitting on her thrown, was watching – doing nothing to help her.

  I zoomed towards the red headed woman.

  “Put her down, now!” I yelled.

  She looked at me and continued to choke Sarah.

  “If you don't put her down, so help me, I'll take you out,” I said.

  The tall red headed woman grinned at me, and she dropped Sarah.

  “You must be Eli,” she said. “I'm Agatha, your great grandmother.”

  Chapter 11

  I stared into the sinister blue eyes of Sarah's grandmother.

  “What are you doing to her?” I demanded.

  The empress stood up. Her light blue dress looked as graceful as her eyes looked cold.

  “This is a family matter, Eli,” she said. “Agatha has the right to discipline her children – including her grandchildren.”

  I flew towards the empress and looked her in the eye.

  “You told me no violence would take place under your roof,” I said.

  “This isn’t violence,” she stated. “This is discipline.”

  I looked at the empress with disgust.

  “I'm not going to let her kill my mother!” I shouted.

  “She isn’t going to kill her. I’d never allow that,” the empress said coldly.

  Sarah rubbed her throat before finally speaking to me.

  “Let me handle this, Eli,” she said.

  Cathy stepped forward.

  “There’s no time for this,” she said. “Your mansion is under attack.”

  “I’m aware of that,” the empress said. “But this takes precedence.”

  I rushed to Sarah's side and looked up at her grandmother.

  “Whatever you have to say to Sarah, you can say it to me as well,” I said.

  “Alright,” Agatha said. “You’re a disgrace to your family, Sarah. By killing your blood kin, you’ve proven what your mother said all along about you.”

  “What did she say?” Sarah asked.

  “That you’d betray her one day,” Agatha stated. “That you weren’t half the daughter June was to her.”

  “I loved my mother!” Sarah shouted out, with tears in her eyes. “But she was going crazy! She killed my boyfriend; he did nothing to her!”

  Agatha stepped closer to us. In response, I raised my power level and allowed my golden aura to surround Sarah as well as myself.

  “You’ve proven my point,” Agatha said. “You’d kill your own mother, the queen vampire that gave birth to you, over a pathetic human being.”

  Sarah grabbed my hand; she needed my support.

  “My mother was about to kill my son,” she said. “She’d also killed others. You don't realize how she was changing. There was no way you could know; you were gone all the time.”

  “Your daughter sat back and did nothing while her servants kidnapped and tortured innocent pregnant girls from the maternity home,” I said. “Innocent pregnant women were burned alive. Are you too crazy, too out of your mind to realize that’s simply wrong?!”

  “My daughter was a good woman. She loved me, and I loved her,” Agatha said.

  “I don't doubt she was a good woman once,” I said. “But from what I can tell she started to change at some point. I don't know why, but by the time I met her she’d become violent and obsessive.”

  Agatha seemed distressed.

  “I don't want to fight you,” Sarah called out. “You’re the only blood kin I have left.”

  “You should have thought about the consequences of your actions,” Agatha stated. “I can't forgive you for what you did.”
<
br />   Agatha turned and walked out of the room.

  Cathy and Lizzie rushed to Sarah's side. The wrapped their arms around her as she sobbed.

  I stepped towards the empress.

  “Are you going to let this happen again?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry you don’t yet fully understand our ways,” the empress stated, before standing up and walking out of the room.

  Turning around, I saw that Sarah was regaining her composure.

  “If she attacks you again,” I said. “I'll kill her.”

  As we walked out the room, Cathy's phone began to ring; it was Ruby, her mother. Cathy turned the speakerphone on.

  “The witch's sisters are in Savannah,” Ruby said. “They’re at the door of the beach house and want to come in to talk. I asked them to leave, but they simply sat down on the porch. They want to speak to whoever is in charge of the city.”

  Cathy grabbed the phone.

  “Tell them the queen of Savannah is on her way,” she said.

  “Alright,” Ruby answered.

  “We will be there soon,” she said.

  “Are you two ready for a fast flight?” Sarah asked.

  “I'm ready for one,” I said.

  We went to get our bags, and I made sure the dagger was still inside. A few moments later, we were flying to Savannah.

  “Stay low to the ground,” Sarah said. “We don't want the government picking us up on radar.”

  “Take my hands,” I told Lizzie and Sarah.

  They each took one of my hands, and Cathy grabbed onto my back. I increased my power level until I transformed, and a golden plasma flowed over my body. In an instant, the plasma surrounded them and we accelerated. We raced over houses, trees, and roads at high speed. Our rate of travel was so fast, I doubted anyone could see us.

  I guided the four of us as we zoomed towards the beach house. Using my enhanced vision to scan ahead of us, I made sure we didn’t collide with any manmade structures.

  In what only seemed like a half hour, we were over Savannah. We slowed down a little, and I could see the downtown area below us. The large bridge over the river was visible, and I could also see the various shops and businesses that packed River Street.

  A few minutes later, we landed in the yard of the beach house. I powered down and morphed back into my human form, as did Cathy and Sarah.

  Looking at the porch, I could see three ordinary looking, middle aged women. Two of them were sitting on a porch swing, and a third was sitting on a rocking chair; they all looked very relaxed.

  As we walked up to them, the woman on the rocking chair stood up and approached us.

  “Hello,” Sarah said to the woman with long, light brown hair. “I'm Sarah, the queen of this city. If you want to talk to who’s in charge, then you need to speak with me.”

  Looking at the three women, I realized they didn’t look like witches. Unlike their sister's first host, they didn’t have warts and weren’t wearing black dresses.

  “You can call me Betsy,” the witch in the rocking chair said.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Betsy,” Sarah said.

  “Let’s cut to the chase, Sarah,” Betsy said. “You forcefully dispersed our sister's spirit from her host, twice. Now, we can’t find her.”

  “I can't say that I'm too upset about that,” Sarah said. “Your sister was willing to hurt innocent people; she held innocent pregnant girls captive and tried to kill us.”

  “Our sister's ways aren’t our ways,” the woman said. “But she’s always been and always will be a member of our coven.”

  “So what do you want,” I said, stepping closer to the witch.

  Betsy looked at me and squinted. I could tell she was trying to get into my mind, but I blocked her.

  “You’re strong,” she said, looking at me. “Not many people can do that.”

  “I'm not just a person,” I said. “I'm also not just a vampire. Now, what do you want,” I repeated.

  “We want permission to move into our sister's house,” she said. “She owned a small property on Abercorn Street. Most of her possessions are there. We think that her spirit may be drawn to the property. If you’d allow us to live there, it would help us find her.”

  Sarah looked at me and then looked back at the witch. Her two sisters were now standing beside her.

  “How do we know that you don't want to move to Savannah just so you can plot your revenge against us?” I said.

  “You don't know,” she said. “You’ve no reason to trust us, just like we have no reason to trust you. However, if it means anything, I give you my word that we hold no malice against you. Our sister broke the code of our coven and did things that were clearly out of line.”

  “You did what you had to do by dispersing her, and we’re going to do what we have to do to get her back,” she said.

  “When do you want to move in to your sister's home?” Sarah asked.

  “Immediately after the Dance of the Night,” Betsy said.

  “One moment,” Sarah said, turning to Cathy, Lizzie, and myself.

  “What do you guys think?” she whispered.

  “It's your call,” I said. “I don't trust her, but she seems more reasonable than her sister. Also, we don't want to make another enemy right now.”

  Sarah turned around and faced the witches.

  “You have permission,” she said. “I know what it’s like to lose family members -- even those family members you know were out of line.”

  “Thank you,” Betsy said.

  “Would you like to come in for some coffee and a bite to eat?” Sarah said. “If you’re going to live in my city, I hope we won't be strangers.”

  Inside the house Sarah led the guests into the kitchen. She put on a pot of coffee and asked Ruby to start making some sandwiches.

  Cathy and I sat down at the kitchen table opposite a tall blond-haired witch.

  “I'm Eli,” I said.

  “I'm Rachel,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  She extended her hand across the table. I hesitated for a moment, but I decided to have a measure of faith in the sincerity of our guests. I took her hand and shook it.

  Suddenly her expression changed from one of geniality to seriousness. Her pupils dilated and she began to speak solemnly.

  “I see a great battle,” she said. “You’re there along with many others. I see a dagger in a woman's hand, and I see the empress. She’s speaking.”

  Suddenly, her eyes turned back to normal.

  “I'm sorry,” she said. “I can't control that. It’s my gift: seeing possible futures.”

  “There’s no need to apologize,” I said. “What else did you see?”

  Rachel reached out and placed her hand near my forehead.

  “May I?” she said. “It might induce another vision.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  She placed her palm on my forehead, and her eyes suddenly turned black, again. This time she remained silent as she stared into space. A moment later, her eyes returned to normal. She removed her hand from my forehead.

  “There’s going to be a battle soon,” she said. “I know you’re involved, a woman will wield a dagger, there will be bloodshed, and there will be many people involved. However, the vision isn’t clear, but that can be a good thing.”

  “How can that be a good thing?” I asked.

  “All my visions are just possible futures,” she said. “The fact that the vision was unclear means that the future I saw can be easily changed – for better or worse.”

  Ruby walked around the room and began to serve everyone sandwiches and drinks. She first served the three witches, and they thanked her for the food. For the next couple of hours, we ate and talked with the women. I learned that the other witch was named Lisa.

  As sat and talked, Bobby, Cathy's brother, came into the house. Cathy got up and kissed him, and I stood to greet him.

  “It’s good to see you again, Eli,” he said, shaking my hand. “I heard y
ou may have saved my sister's life. I really appreciate it.”

  “Good to see you too, Bobby. You know I’d do anything for Cathy.” I said.