Blood Burdens (The Shadow World)

by Brandy Nacole

  A faint outline of something starts forming in the midst of the darkness. I recognize the form. “Micah?” I whisper. My chest becomes tight as my stomach twists into a knot, making me feel like I am going to throw up. As his name leaves my lips, his figure becomes a little brighter and more substantial.

  “Racquel please help me. She’s going to-” Micah’s voice fades, and so does his figure.

  I scream out his name but to no avail. Once my scream fades, I’m met with an all-consuming silence. I whisper his name so softly, a quiet desperate plea for him to come back. After a few moments of silence I start trying to pull away from the dream and back into my body.

  “Racquel!” My name is screamed so loudly by Micah that I flinch and grab my ears. His face zooms out of the darkness, stopping mere inches from mine. And there’s color now. His green eyes, tinged with an outline of red from his transformation, are wide with fear. “Help me!”

  I can feel our connection break as Micah is ripped away. I bolt up in bed with a gasp, fighting for air as I try to grasp what has just happened. I place my hand over my racing heart, trying to calm my emotions. My chest and torso throb with pain from being psychically separated from Micah. When we were pulled away from each other, it felt like I was being torn apart.

  Before I launch into full panic mode, my phone rings. My hands shake as I unwrap my legs from the twisted bed sheets. Danika’s name flashes on the screen, along with the time. Why is she calling me at four thirty in the morning?

  “Hello?”

  Her voice is tight with worry as she rushes to answer me. “Racquel listen, you need to get back up here right away. Our plane will be waiting for you in Roanoke.”

  Panic overtakes me for a moment. I still hadn’t gotten over the dream and now I’m being thrown into something else. “What’s going on?”

  “Shadows are being kidnapped again.” Danika doesn’t elaborate or give me anymore directions, she just hangs up. I stare at my phone in disbelief and then rush out in the hall. I don’t take the time to wake everyone up one by one. Instead I scream.

  Of course I get the response I expect. Everyone comes busting out of their rooms with sheer terror on their faces. Ethan bounds up the stairs so fast he hits the wall at the top, leaving a nice depression in the drywall and crumbles of plaster on the floor.

  Addie reaches out to me, her hands grip my arms. “What? What is it? Are you okay?”

  “Danika just called and said there have been more kidnappings. A plane is waiting in Roanoke to take me to the Covenant. If any of you want to come with me, I suggest you hurry. I’m leaving in five minutes.”

  Without further instruction, Ethan runs downstairs and then a second later I hear the front door slam. I’m guessing he needs to get a few things from his house. I know Ethan. He’ll be back in five minutes, even though his house is a few miles away.

  Coy retreats into his room to gather stuff. I knew there would be no argument when it came to Coy going. He needed to get out of this house and get into the action. Was it reckless? Yes! So was his willingness to let stray Vampires snack on his throat.

  Addie pauses like she’s going to say something but decides against it. I turn back to my own room to change and get packed. After slipping out of my pajamas, I grab a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. Then I grab a duffel bag and throw in some clothes, my boots, and some weapons.

  As I’m walking out of my bedroom, I glance back. My sheets are still knotted from rolling around in them. The memory of Micah screaming my name sends shivers all over my body. When I close my eyes, I see his scared face as he begs for my help. My face starts to warm and my eyes begin to sting. Pushing down the tears, I swallow my fear and make him a promise. “I will find you, Micah.” I shut the door, sealing my promise, and make my way downstairs.

  Addie’s in the kitchen making to-go cups of coffee. Even in times of ‘get your butt in gear we’ve got to go,’ she’s still Super Sis, making sure everyone’s taking care of and has what they need. Coffee will be needed. Coy comes bounding down the stairs after me, backpack in tow. It was the backpack I carried when we went after Cerelia.

  “You ready?” I ask. He nods and clenches the backpack’s straps.

  I walk over to him and give his tense body a hug. “Hey, this could be it. In the next few days, you could have Micah back.” Coy smiles at me, then gives me a small kiss. I open myself up and kiss him back with no resistance. I promised I would try and give our relationship time and that’s what I was going to do.

  An unnerving quietness hangs in the air. We all knew this would probably happen again. We knew that Cerelia was going to keep trying her experiments, which would require more kidnappings. I was just hoping we would find her before she was able to take action again.

  I head out the door and notice that Ethan’s back and loading his duffel bag. Coy and I hand him our bags. Addie sits up front with me, leaving the two boys in the back. As I’m backing out of the driveway, I see a black Land Rover driving down the street. Its glaring headlights blind me as the vehicle stops directly behind our car.

  Who in the heck would be out at this hour? Fear climbs up the notches of my spine as a cold chill breathes on my neck to spread its menacing shiver over my body as thoughts of Cerelia and Edwin’s promise to get me on their side flashes through my mind. Could it be them? Seeing Addie’s reaction, I know she fears the same thing. She’s clutching her chest tightly as she looks at the side mirror with panic.

  My anger rises up at seeing her panic. I reach over into the glove compartment and grab the silver-coated dagger and throwing star that I placed there a while back, just in case. Addie swivels to look over at me and shakes her head. “No, don’t.”

  “I’m just going to see what they want. Just stay in the car.” I pause to glance at the boys in the back. “All of you.”

  Coy nods but Ethan gets out of the car anyway. Swearing, I get out of the car too. I start to scold Ethan for not listening to me but stop when I see his fierce expression. He crosses his arms, glaring at the Land Rover. “Vampires.”

  “Great,” I respond. Just what I needed, a pissing contest. I put the star in my back pocket but keep the dagger in my hand. The sharp edges of the stars blades catch my jeans, ripping through the fabric. Wonderful. These were my favorite pair of jeans. This is already shaping up to be an awe-inspiring day.

  “So what should we do?” As I’m asking Ethan the question, the doors on the Land Rover open. Three Vampires step out of the vehicle. Two of them rush around the vehicle to guard the third.

  I’m stunned into silence and confusion when I see the Vampire they’re guarding. She’s beautiful, with long white-blond hair that reaches down to the small of her back in a beautifully kept wave. Her figure is like most female Vampires—bone thin. Her fangs are extended down past her bottom lip, which puts me on alert because most Vampires don’t show their fangs unless they are about to attack someone. But her beauty is not what stuns me. It’s her eyes.

  Her eyes are a pure red, indicating her as a Sire. But that can’t be right. Only Sires have red eyes to show their power. And as far as I know, there can only be one Sire.

  Her two beefy guards regard me cautiously. Ethan nudges my arm and nods toward my dagger. In my shock, I had raised the blade. I lower it, but keep a firm grip. I don’t know what this Vampire wants or what she’s capable of, but I’m not going to be put out because of her intimidation tactics.

  “Hello Racquel. My name is Natahala. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Natahala’s voice is sweet and enrapturing. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her. “May we go inside and speak for a moment?” She asks.

  I snap back to reality and remember where we were going before being stopped. “I can’t. We are leaving for the Covenant. There have been more kidnappings.”

  Her façade falters for a brief moment into disbelief but she recovers herself smoothly. “Do you mind if we follow you? I have my own private plane in Roanoke.”

  Ethan sti
ffens at my side. I know he doesn’t trust Vampires but there’s something more to this Vampire than any of the others I have met. Vampires normally give off a venomous demeanor that keeps you at a distance. This Vampire doesn’t. She seems to wield a different, gentler, attitude.

  “It’s not up to me. It’s up to the Covenant.” Taking out my phone, I call Danika.

  Before the first ring finishes, Danika picks up. “Everything okay?”

  I can tell she’s on edge just like the rest of us. We don’t know where Cerelia is or who she plans on taking next, which leaves us all a bit jumpy. The one thing we do know is that I’m a bigger target.

  “Yes…well…sort of.” I relay Natahala’s request to join us.

  Danika pauses for a moment, considering. “Ask Natahala if she is Lynna’s sister.”

  I turn to Natahala, who doesn’t seem to have moved at all in the last few minutes. She stands as still as her guards. “Do you know someone named Lynna?”

  A fond smile crosses Natahala’s face. “Yes. Lynna is my sister.”

  Bringing the phone back to my mouth I confirm this with Danika. She gives the okay for them to join us but warns us to be careful before hanging up.

  I tell Natahala she’s welcome to come along. The Vampires get back in their vehicle, pull back to let us out, and wait. Ethan and I exchange nervous looks before getting back in the Altima. I hope Danika knows what she’s doing by allowing Natahala to come along. I place the dagger and star back in the glove compartment before putting the car in gear.

  Addie stares at the Land Rover in the side mirror as we back out the driveway. “Do you trust them?”

  Oddly enough, I do trust Natahala. The fact that her fangs were extended had put me on alert, but once I realized she was a Sire—even if how that happened was still undetermined—I relaxed. Sires always have their fangs out. I saw the distress in her face when I mentioned the kidnappings. Plus, her manner was calm, peaceful, and concerned. I could sense Natahala meant us no harm, that if anything, she wanted to help. “Yes. She doesn’t seem like most Vampires, she’s more composed.” I sigh, giving Addie a minute before throwing the next bit at her. “She’s also a Sire.”

  That pulls Addie’s attention away from the mirror. “What? How?”

  “I don’t know but she is. She kept her fangs extended and I could feel her power. Her eyes are red too. Still, nothing like Aldrick’s.” I shiver thinking about Aldrick’s menacing power and bright crimson eyes. His eyes held tremendous power and hatred for any being that crossed his path. Natahala’s eyes were red too, but it was a gorgeous red, glowing with power but a power of kindness and strength, not hate and maliciousness.

  Addie goes back to looking at the mirror. “I wonder what she wants.”

  I’ve been contemplating the same thing since they stopped us, but don’t have a clue. I had only met Natahala’s sister Lynna once, and even then it was brief. I knew from my vision that Lynna was opposed to Aldrick, and wanted to start a revolution. Coy regarded her with a lot of respect, since she went against Aldrick. After he separated feeders from their families, Aldrick forbade them to communicate, but Lynna secretly helped allow the feeders to communicate with their families through letters. Lynna could be trusted, I had seen her thoughts and plans, but what about Natahala? What are her motives?

  It didn’t take long to get to the airport. Danika didn’t specify where to go, so I follow my gut and head to the private operators’ area. Sure enough, standing in the parking lot are two security officers I recognize as Witches who work for the Coven.

  I park, and the officers escort us to our plane. I start to tell the officers about Natahala’s arrival but they wave my explanation off, already in the know about Natahala. As I get on the plane, I see their Land Rover pull up at another gate. The guards gesture the Vampires in the direction of their plane. The sleek black jet looks just as luxurious as the Covenant’s but I’m sure Natahala’s plane is her own, not just for use by any old Vampire.

  It doesn’t take us long to get to arrive at our destination from Virginia. As I exit the plane in Boston, I spot Danika waiting next to a black Ford van.

  As we wait for Natahala’s plane to arrive, Danika pulls me aside. Quietly, she asks, “Did Natahala say what she wanted?”

  “No. We really didn’t have time. She wanted to speak with us but I told her we were coming here because of the kidnappings.”

  Danika nods as she glances around. Her gaze falls on Ethan, who’s just exiting the plane. He glances up, as if sensing someone’s eyes on him, and when his eyes meet Danika’s, he freezes. Pain laces his face as his body tenses. Regaining himself, Ethan averts his eyes, walks down the steps and heads to the other side of the van. He doesn’t look at Danika, and she doesn’t look at him.

  Danika narrows her eyes at me. “Why did you bring Ethan?” She tries not to sound angry but I’m not deaf, I have super hearing, I hear the hurt, plain as day.

  I shrug. “He was at my house when you called. Do you honestly think I could have gotten away without him? You know how he is.” Technically I am innocent, it’s not like I planned on Ethan being there when Danika called, but….

  She tries to hide the small smile that is creeping onto the surface. “Yeah, I know.” I can hear the pain in her voice and it drives a spike of sadness through my heart.

  After a few heavy minutes of awkward silence, Natahala’s plane arrives. She introduces herself to Danika, and before long we are all crammed into the van. I’m up front with Danika, Natahala and her two guards are in the middle row, Addie, Ethan, and Coy are in the back.

  When I glance back to check on Addie, which is now a common habit, I notice the sour expression on Ethan’s face. He’s practically breaking his neck to keep from looking toward the front. I wonder if he regrets coming? From the expression on his face, I would say he does.

  I start to turn back around but stop and face Natahala. I’m champing at the bit to know what she wants. “So why did you seek me out?”

  Natahala glances around the vehicle. “I suppose the rest of you will find out soon enough anyway.” Natahala fixes her stunning red eyes on me. “As I imagine you’ve already guessed, I’m a Sire. I’m no longer under Aldrick’s rule, nor are my supporters.”

  “But how did you become a Sire? I thought there could only be one at a time.” Danika has her eyes on the road but she’s clearly interested in this story. Heck, we all are.

  “I hated Aldrick. I still do. So do a lot of other Vampires. I wanted to get out from under Aldrick’s rule. After distancing myself from him and letting my hatred for him rule my emotions, I began to feel a weakening in the Sire bond. Normally, the only way to become a Sire is to kill the leading Sire. That, of course, is my ultimate goal. But I couldn’t at the time. Finally, after many years of research, I found a way.

  There is a spell that will complete a Sire transformation on a dominant Vampire. The first condition was that my Sire bond with Aldrick be weak or almost nonexistent, which it was. The spell also required the blood of the current Sire. It took Lynna time, but eventually she was able to obtain enough of Aldrick’s blood to complete the spell. The hardest part was killing one of his followers. I do not believe in killing lives to sustain your own life nor do I like violence. I know that’s hard to believe coming from a Vampire but it’s true. Just because we need blood to survive doesn’t mean we have to kill to obtain it.”

  Coy interrupts in an angry tone. “Yeah, because enslaving humans is so much better.” The guards twist around at the menace in Coy’s voice. Even I flinch a bit.

  Natahala places her hands on the guards’ shoulders as she turns in her seat to face her accuser. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Coy. Lynna told me that you had escaped. I’m glad to see you’re still alive. That doesn’t happen very often. It is true that many Vampires enslave humans for feeding purposes. I look down upon this as well. I have human feeders but my feeders have free will. The family that donates their blood to me has been loyal to m
e for decades.”

  “What do you mean by ‘feeder family’?” I ask.

  “The Nasser family has been loyal to me for decades. It started with Anippe Nasser. She is the great-grandmother of my feeders now. Anippe was the local medicine woman in the village I live in.” A small smile flickers across Natahala’s face. “Anippe could tell I was ‘other,’ as she put it, from the moment she met me. But she didn’t say anything until the town’s people started coming to her, complaining they were ill and weak. They also had bite marks on their necks or wrists.”

  “Wait, how did you get the town’s people to forget about what happened to them?” One of the reasons most Vampires kill their victims if they don’t have feeders is because the victim remembers.

  “I had a Witch traveling with me. She was able to manipulate their minds to forget what happened.” There’s some more clean-up the Witches do for the Vampires. “As I was saying, Anippe became suspicious of all these illnesses and came to speak with me. At first I denied her accusations, but with time and her persistence, I confided in her. Immediately she offered me her blood in exchange for the town people’s safety. Ever since then, her family line has stayed loyal to me.”

  Coy lets out an exasperated breath. “How? Do you not fear they will reveal who you are one day?”

  Natahala shakes her head. “When a feeder—or in my case feeder family— agrees to donate their blood only to me, a tattoo of my families crest is placed on the back of the feeders neck to keep them silent. It is charmed to keep the feeder from speaking about Shadows. Once they agree and have the tattoo, they can live freely in their own communities. The only requirement is that they donate a pint of blood once a month. We’ve never had a problem so far and if we did, there are ways to fix the problem without killing anyone.”

  I’m a little stunned. I never expected to meet a Vampire who cared so much. I know Coy sure didn’t. “Are these feeders allowed to leave their communities?” Coy asks.

  Natahala slightly shakes her head. “Not without a Vampire accompanying them.”