by Aya Walksfar
“When a person’s Spirit is called through the Cold-Between that Spirit becomes solid. It can be Called into the physical world while the body is some place different.”
A dawning horror awoke in my mind. “You’re saying that Serena can Call Ariel’s Spirit to her in solid form. If she can do that, she can kill that Spirit, can’t she?”
“Yes.” Tears filled the elder’s eyes. “Yes, she can kill Ariel’s Spirit and sever the connection between the child’s Body Mortal and Soul Immortal.”
I leapt to my feet and began shoving furniture out of the way. “I'm going into the Cold-Between and get Ariel back!” Floor space for a circle quickly appeared.
“Whoa! Wait a minute, Captain.” Nikki jumped to her feet. “What if that’s exactly what Serena wants? What if she’s set some kind of magical trap to kill you and then destroy Ariel?”
I continued shoving furniture out of the way. “I don’t care. I won’t sit here doing nothing while that child faces Goddess knows what all alone.” Eyes blazing, I whirled to face my friend. “You don’t get it. No child should ever have to face the dark alone.”
“Alexis, you are speaking from your child self, the wounded part that felt abandoned. What does the Captain of Artemis’ Warriors say?” Patrice met my stare with a patient, steady look.
Hands clenched at my sides, I hunched my shoulders. When I raised my eyes I knew that they reflected the pain and fear and sorrow of the child I had once been. “You speak the truth, Elder; but only a part of it. Yes, the child inside of me remembers all too vividly the terror of being alone and hurting. The warrior I have become knows that we live so that we might be able to save other children from such a fate, just as Serena and Gregory saved me those years ago.”
Patrice dipped her chin. “Then so be it. We will prepare for your journey to the Cold-Between. May Artemis place Her Shield around you.”
****
The sky to the east had lightened from the coal black of a new moon to dark charcoal gray of a new day as the witches linked hands and, facing outwardly, formed the first circle of protection. Their low chanting soothed the nerves fluttering in my gut.
The second circle of protection had been formed from the traditional cedar branches with candles lighting the four directions and three candles lighting the heart of the circle. North, South, East, West, Mother Earth, Maiden Sun, Grandmother Moon.
Inside of the circles of protection, Ariel sat facing me. I held her small cold hands in my warmer ones. Having discussed who to link with, Patrice reminded me of Gregory’s words--I held the key to releasing Serena’s soul; Kira held the key to cleansing Serena’s soul; Sheena held the key to strengthening Serena’s soul and Ri held the key to clarity of purpose to renew Serena’s soul.
Now, Kira knelt on Ariel’s left side, her hands firmly, but gently gripping the child’s shoulder. Sheena sat behind Ariel, her strong arms wrapped around the child’s thin chest. With Ri unavailable, Nikki knelt on Ariel’s right side, both callused hands laying lightly, yet firmly on the child’s other shoulder. Ever since she had been appointed to protect Ariel, no one had a greater clarity of purpose than Nikki.
Find and release, cleanse, strengthen and renew. Would that formula work to save Ariel?
I had to try. Eyes closed, I sank into that quiet place.
The absolute nothingness of the Cold-Between always hit me hard when I first entered. My physical heart probably pounded in panicked stutters, but I couldn’t hear it; couldn’t feel the pulsing in my throat. Nothingness. Yet I felt solid, real.
No horizon; no up or down. Blackness. A purity of Blackness, yet not a darkness of the Spirit or of the Soul. Where were the pinpricks of light I had come to depend upon?
I closed my eyes and emptied my mind of all thoughts; all questions; all doubts. A tiny spark of blue light hung before my closed lids. With my Will, I reached out for it; tugged at the nearly invisible thread. The thread inched the spark closer. Opening myself to the Nothingness; not sure that I could gather Energy from the Cold-Between, but knowing I had to try. That tiny spark held the Energy that fueled my magic. Without it being enhanced, I doubted my ability to aid Ariel.
Cold seeped into me. An urgency washed through me, screaming for me to slam shut the door to my Spirit. Instead, I gritted my teeth and spread my arms wide. Head thrown back, feet planted far enough apart to lend balance if there had been something solid to balance against, I pulled my Spirit door wider still.
In a breathtaking whoosh, cold slammed into me. I couldn’t catch my breath; the air in my lungs felt like icy needles. A ragged cough rasped my throat. I tasted blood on the back of my tongue.
Arms trembling, my knees threatened to buckle. I stiffened them, but wondered how long I could hold the stance. Finally, I opened my eyes. If this hadn’t worked, I wasn’t sure I had the Energy to try again.
A path only a couple of feet wide opened up in front of my feet, the edges outlined in a glacial blue glow. My leaden arms fell to my sides. The breath I sucked in burned all the way into my chest.
Tentatively, I placed a foot on the path. The glacial blue felt as cold as it appeared to be. I shuffled ahead a few steps then glanced down, convinced that I walked barefoot on an iceberg, but no. The blue glow highlighted cracks in my boot leather. Had the intense cold caused the leather to crack?
Whispers stirred in the Blackness around me. They came from everywhere and nowhere.
“Walk this path and you’ll not return.”
“Are you sure this is the path for your life?”
A harsher whisper than the ones before asked, “What matter is it to you if humans are used as dispensable cattle? What did anyone ever do for you? Why care who rules the vampires? Let the bloodsuckers fight and kill each other off. They are all the same; Serena proved that after all those years masquerading as the Light.”
Still a different whisper inquired in a reasonable tone, “How can you be sure Ariel is different; that she is worth the sacrifice of your life?”
Teeth gritted so hard that my jaw ached, I trudged forward; my feet so heavy I could barely lift them.
A maniacal laugh swirled around me.
I jerked to a halt and stared into the black abyss that encompassed everything, except this path.
Hot breath licked across my frozen face. “She murdered me. Her daughter is the same. All vampires are alike. We need to kill them; destroy them. Don’t look for this one. Good riddance. Blood tells out in the end.”
I stiffened my spine. “Is that why you’re so hateful? Does Caine’s blood tell out in you?” Once more I compelled my foot to move ahead. I shifted my weight against the inexplicably dense air.
“I may be Caine’s descendant, but I didn’t drink anyone down.”
“She’s sick! She isn’t responsible for being unable to control her impulses no more than you are responsible for throwing up,” I shouted.
A sardonic laugh echoed as if I walked through a deep gorge with high walls. “I am responsible for throwing up if I do nothing to cure my illness.”
Halting, I glared around at the Nothingness. “What if you can’t do it yourself? What if you need others to help you?”
“How hard you try to defend her. There is no defense for the evil she has done. Ariel will follow in her mother’s footsteps, just as her mother followed in her own mother’s footsteps. Murder is common among vampires. They have no conscience. You must face the truth--vampires cannot feel love, not like a human feels love.”
I snorted a bitter laugh. “News flash--murder is pretty common among humans as well. It was humans who forced Artemis to create vampires in the first place.” I whirled in a circle, my feet so cold they felt as if they were on fire. “Leave!” I commanded in a deep voice. “I have work to do.”
This time as I moved ahead, no vengeful Spirits hovered close.
The longer I walked the harder it was to feel my feet. I began stumbling. I fell to my knees, and instead of rising once again, I began to crawl. Breath
came in pants; and now my hands ached even more fiercely in the cold.
Exhausted, and remaining on hands and knees, my head hung between my shoulders. My eyes landed on the space just behind my hands. Bloody streaks marred the cold blue glow of the path. Resting back on my heels, I stared at my hands. They looked as if someone with a very sharp knife had peeled the skin away. Unprotected the skin must have adhered to the icy path.
“Alexis.” A young voice called and this time I knew it came from behind me. I twisted to look back and my eyes widened in wonder.
“Tabitha?”
The young Earth Witch dipped her head in a tiny bow. “At your service, Captain.”
“How...what...”
Tabitha knelt before me and cradled both my hands between her own slender ones. “Hush, Captain, and let me work. I don’t have much time.”
As the young witch chanted, the skin of my palms heated. They burned, but not the painful burn of destruction. No, this was the welcome pain of healing. Tabitha released my hands and pulled me to my feet. “Captain, lay your hands on my shoulders. I cannot push Energy into you in the Cold-Between. You must pull it from me.”
“If I pull your Energy, the brutal cold here will kill you.”
A gentle smile touched Tabitha’s lips. “I believe I am strong enough to survive; but if by some chance my body proves me wrong, this is my sacrifice for my People. Kira has had a Foreseeing. There are certain things that must happen if this is to end well. Already the balance has been tilted for far too long in the wrong direction. We must do all we can to re-establish a healthy balance.”
She reached out and placed my hands on her shoulders. “There is no time, Captain, to debate. Take the Energy now!”
Her urgency called to the spark inside of me. The spark sent out tentative, pale blue tendrils along my veins, like tiny flickering flames. They flowed down my arms and through my hands into Tabitha’s shoulders. As the blue flames touched the young witch, a forest green fire flared up and met them. The two touched like old friends getting to know one another again--hesitantly, slowly. Then as if they recognized each other, they joyfully twined together, the forest green flames mingling with the darkening blue flames.
The twined flames sent a surge of renewed Energy through me. As my Energy grew, it sucked harder on the young witch, pulling more and more of Tabitha’s forest green fire from her Spirit.
Terrified that I would drain the witch, I fought to pull away, but the Power held me fast to Tabitha’s shoulders. I watched as my Power called the life force from the woman in front of me. Horror lanced through me, shooting adrenaline into my muscles. My hands came loose with an audible pop. Right before Tabitha’s form collapsed, it was gone.
I spun in a circle, as if I thought the girl had teleported behind me. Nothing. Only me and The Cold-Between. Alone again.
Had I murdered the young witch? Drained the life force from her? Please, Goddess, please, no. Sorrow overcame me. I fell to the ground. My hands tore at my hair and my mouth stretched in a silent wail of grief.
“Alexis!” Gregory snapped. “Get ahold on yourself and think like a Warrior.”
I jerked upright to scan the blackness. “Gregory? Where are you?”
Silence.
I stumbled to my feet. The glow of the path had faded since I stopped. Not much time, not much time left. Urgency built until I thought my chest might burst. Full blown panic hit like a tsunami. I took off running. Arms pumping, legs screaming, I pushed to go faster. Head thrown back, I sucked in the burning cold air.
Ariel! Where are you? I shoved the thought out into the darkness as I raced headlong down the blue glowing path--the glow fading even as I ran.
I couldn’t tell how long I’d been running, racing full out against the fast escaping minutes when the path ahead of me dimmed, flickered and faded from view. Nothingness stretched beyond reason wherever I rested my eyes.
I’d lost Ariel! An agonized scream tore from my throat. “Ariel! Ariel, answer me!”
My voice boomed through the Cold-Between. I jerked at the unexpected sound in the soundlessness. “Ariel!” My call echoed.
Ariel, Ariel, Ariel.....the name bounced eerily from unseen canyon walls.
A scream rent the air.
Tension thrummed through my body. When the scream came again, I honed in on the direction, and even as I ran, I wondered at the unexpected I kept encountering in the Cold-Between.
Sound in soundlessness. Solidity in nothingness. The Spirit’s journey affecting the physical manifestation. If I died here, my not-here body would die, too.
Without visual and other sensory input, I could not tell if I truly moved through space. The child seemed to suddenly appear mere feet away from me.
Ariel lay as if strapped to a shiny ebony table, long and narrow. An altar of some sort. Though she jerked and struggled, her thin arms and legs only thrashed, as if loosely tied by invisible restraints.
Blood dripped from a gash in the child’s arm. Serena stood over her daughter, the light of black and red candles illuminating her from below. The dancing flames threw her face in a ghoulish cast. The First Councilwoman held a chipped stone-bladed knife just above her child’s chest. The knife caught and absorbed the pale light from the candles.
Serena glared across Ariel, her eyes morphing from emerald to pitch black. Red veined whites surrounded the unrelieved black. Without taking her gaze from me, she slashed down.
A shallow gouge opened up, bisecting the child’s thin chest. Dots of blood beaded along the slit. Ariel screamed and thrashed, bucked against the unseen straps. “Please, Mommy, please....I’ll be good. Please, don’t hurt me!”
“Serena!” I snapped. “What are you doing?”
An evil smile pulled her mouth into a grimace. Fangs glistened from between red lips. In an eerily reasonable tone, she said, “Why, Alexis, it should be obvious. I am disciplining my daughter as any good mother would.” Insanity gleamed from her eyes.
I eased closer. “Serena, talk to me. Tell me what Ariel has done to merit this punishment.”
Rolling her eyes as if she dealt with a recalcitrant teenager, Serena laid the knife on the table next to Ariel. She folded her arms loosely across her chest, and raised a bemused eyebrow. “All of you children cover for each other. I understand that, Alexis. It is the nature of children. But, you mustn’t interfere when I have to discipline one of the other children.” She wagged a finger at me.
I eased forward another step. “Maybe you should discipline me first, Serena.”
Lips pooched out, Serena sauntered away from the altar, and away from Ariel, a sexual heat radiating from her every movement. Peering over her shoulder, her tongue traced her lips. In a sexy purr, she said, “Come here, Alexis.”
I waited where I was, willing Serena to move farther from the child.
Suddenly she whirled and lunged toward Ariel.
Balls of blue fire burst out on the palms of my hands. “No, Serena! Stop!”
She leapt over to the table and snatched up the knife that lay next to the child. “No one will drain me and steal my Power!” Her mouth twisted into a snarl as she raised the knife high above her head.
The knife rose to the pinnacle of the arc. For a nanosecond, it halted at the peak before it flashed downward. I heaved balls of blue fire. The balls struck the knife almost as if its ebony blade drew the fire to itself.
Blue fire exploded. The knife shattered into millions of fragments. The fragments seemed to hang in the air then disappear. With the knife gone, the blue fire raced along Serena’s hands and arms.
She screamed in agony and pounded her burning limbs against her body. The fire spread to her body. Flames encased her.
I raced to Ariel. As soon as I touched the child, I saw black links of cold iron binding her to the altar. I grabbed the chain around Ariel’s chest between two hands and jerked.
The iron links scorched my palms. The stench of charred meat rose from my hands. Still I clung to the chain and
jerked, once, twice, thrice. Six times I jerked the chain in desperation, trying to snap the links. Gregory said I could release Serena from the chains of darkness. Surely I could release Ariel from those same chains.
Tears streamed down my face. Jaw clenched against the scream that built in my chest, I gave one last, desperate jerk. The links popped apart and the chain vanished.
Red welts and seeping gashes crisscrossed Ariel’s body. The child lay stiff, staring blankly, eyes fixed on nothing, body shuddering. Before I could scoop the thin body up, Kira appeared beside me. “Let me, Captain.” She laid her hands on the child’s heart area and chanted. Slowly color returned to Ariel’s cheeks. Her eyes focused on Kira.
Kira disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Sheena now sat on the altar with Ariel’s body snugged against the front of her body. The Warrior’s arms wrapped around the child as she rocked them both and crooned something soft and low.
When Ariel turned her face to look at Sheena, the Warrior gave the child a kind look. And just that quickly, the two were gone.
Nothingness closed in around me. No sound. No light. No scent. Even when my fingers touched my own arm, I couldn’t feel them. Knees quivering, I sank down. Tired, so tired. My eyes drifted shut. I welcomed the Nothingness.
Chapter 34
Serena Longer
The chill of the stone floor seeped into my chest. Cheek pressed against the rough surface, I tentatively cracked open on eye. The base of the black altar stood an inch from my nose.
“The princess finally awakens,” a cruel voice broke the silence. The toe of a shoe slammed into my side. Ribs cracked and pain rocketed through me. I clamped my teeth against the scream that wanted to claw its way out.
Hands flattened on the ground, I attempted to lever to my knees; determined to face my enemy standing. My arms quivered beneath the strain. Another boot to my ribs and I collapsed with a grunt.
“You’re pitiful, almost as bad as a human. You can’t see what’s right in front of you.” Contempt dripped from Baskell’s words. “Almost killed by the sorcerer I sent and then attacked by your own Magic User.” He shook his head with scorn. “You should have listened to me sooner, Serena. The only good use for Supernaturals is to drink them down and harvest their powers for our own use. Matriarch Helena knows that.”