Without waiting for Hadrian to open the door for her, Akantha let herself into the passenger seat, forcing Evelyn to sit in the back seat. Hadrian climbed into his truck and sat in the driver’s seat. He felt a trace of unease for some reason. He didn’t feel comfortable around Akantha, but he ignored it. She was one of the leaders of the Earth district, and therefore, someone to trust.
Akantha directed him to another park a few blocks away. When they arrived, they got out of his truck, walked past the towering hedges of the park’s entrance, and strode into the park. The shadows masked their surroundings like thick veils. Deep within the park, a statue of a centaur stood frozen in stone. One hoof was raised. His flower-adorned hair and mane lay swept across his neck and back. The strains of muscle that corded his upper human body and lower horse body indicated that he was a warrior, and a defender of the forest and his kind.
The light from one of the nearby lamp posts flickered.
“Here it is,” Akantha said. “It requires an Earth who is pure in thought and intent to activate it.”
Hadrian shifted his weight from foot to foot. He said, “Thank you for directing us to it. It’s just a matter of time before Karena comes through.”
“Does anyone else know that you want to activate it?” Akantha asked.
“Besides those we just talked to?”
“Yes.”
“No, it’s just us, Karena, and Garth.”
“Who’s Garth?”
“He’s an airship pilot.”
Akantha frowned. Her eyes strayed to the lamp post and she touched a flask that was tucked into her belt.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hadrian said. “He’s a gearcrafter in other words.”
Annoyed, Akantha huffed.
“So no one else believes Karena besides the two of you and this gearcrafter?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
Akantha tilted her head and gazed at Hadrian with pity. He was suddenly reminded of how alone they were in the park. Beside him, Evelyn was watching and listening for movement. She was unnerved too, but by what, he didn’t know. Perhaps it had to do with the drums and flutes playing in the distance.
“It’s truly an ingenious system that they came up with,” Akantha said. She put a hand on the base of the statue, and patted it.
“It is,” Hadrian said. He wasn’t in the mood for mindless chatter.
Evelyn tugged on his arm and flashed him a worried look.
“I’m going to go back to my truck. I forgot something,” Hadrian said, so that he could talk to Evelyn in private to ask her what was wrong.
Lightning-fast, Akantha whirled around, and stabbed her hand forward. Hadrian gasped from a sudden pain and pressure in his chest. He looked down to see the hilt of a knife sticking out of his chest. He struggled to believe what he was seeing. The cruel, dark gray blade gleamed. His own blood ran through the grooves of it and caused it to glow a ruby color. It was vampiric weaponry. From catching the light of the lamp post, Akantha’s eyes glowed yellow for a brief second. It was like looking at the eye shine of an animal.
“You’re a vampire,” Hadrian gasped.
She went to twist the blade, and he cried out. Having finally realized what had just happened, Evelyn pounced and toppled Akantha over.
Hadrian pulled the blade out and put his hand to his chest. He withdrew his hand, seeing how it was dripping with blood, his blood. He tore off his sweater, and pressed it into the wound. In a shocked daze, he sank to the ground and put his back against the statue. He heaved for breath. He was going to die soon. A sense of panic and then an intense feeling of weakness came over him. He continued to hemorrhage from his chest.
He watched Evelyn battle Akantha in her halcyon form. She stood between him and Akantha, never allowing Akantha to get close or to have a chance to finish him off. Akantha darted forward, and Evelyn spun around, grabbed her arm and broke it. Akantha slashed her with another knife. Evelyn stumbled, and came at her again, refusing to back down in a fight that she wouldn’t be able to win. Akantha was too fast, and Evelyn was exhausted from their trip into the Markhan Territory.
Desperate to save her, Hadrian patted his pockets and willed any seeds he might have on him to come forth. A vine poked its head out of one of his pants’ pocket and slithered onto his blood-soaked hand. It was a razor vine. Named for its razor-like thorns, it was not only an aggressive plant that crowded out others, but its thorns could cut someone to the bone. At the moment, its thorns were as flimsy and small as a tab of paper.
He cast it forward, and it snaked across the ground like a cobra seeking out its prey. Akantha was unaware of it coming for her. Because of his worsening condition, Hadrian struggled to maintain his hold on the vine and to keep it animated. He could feel his life force evaporating as blood poured from his chest.
An owl hooted somewhere nearby, spooking him a little. He glanced over and saw it fly off. His attention turned back to the fight. Akantha slid underneath Evelyn, tripped her, and seized the back of her wings. Before Akantha could snap them off with her inhuman strength, he launched the little vine at her.
It spiraled up Akantha’s left leg, wrapped around both of legs, and drew tight. Upon his command to grow, it exploded in length and width, severing her legs to the bone. Akantha screamed and as she fell to the ground, she clawed at the vines with her hands and knife. But it did little. The vine kept growing and circling around her whole body.
Somehow, Akantha cut herself free. She hobbled a few steps, but before she could try to flee on the stumps of her legs, Evelyn took advantage of her impaired state. Evelyn ripped into her stomach and chest cavity, and pulled out her blood organs. She then decapitated Akantha. Akantha twitched on the ground for a few seconds before going still. She was dead for good.
Covered in her blood and Akantha’s, Evelyn transformed back into her human form and went to Hadrian, but couldn’t touch him, not with the blood on her. She ran away to the nearby creek to wash her hands, arms, and face before coming back to him. Her face and hair dripped with water and blood from the wounds that she had sustained during the fight. She stroked his face. Hadrian looked into her grey eyes. The lightning storm had passed from them, and had been replaced with grief-stricken, rain clouds.
“You’re beautiful, you know that,” he said. He gave her a brave smile.
Evelyn returned his smile with one of her own. A few tears slipped out of her eyes.
“I’m going to get a healer. I’ll be right back,” she said.
Hadrian stopped her. He knew that she wouldn’t be able to find one quick enough. She didn’t know the district or who to go to. Besides, no one would want to help an Air, not in the Earth district. She cried, and wrapped her arms around him. He leaned into her and felt himself fade. He could see his blood staining his pants and the grass around him. She laid him down flat on his back, and put her jacket under his head.
“You’re going to make it,” she said. “I have to find a healer.”
He held onto her, and shook his head. “You won’t be able to find a healer in time. No one will want to help you. She stabbed me deep. I want you to sit here with me instead.”
Evelyn took the sopping ball that had been his sweater and pressed it against his wound. He knew it wouldn’t do any good. A sudden surge of noise from the sky startled Evelyn, but not him. The erhu and ocarina playing from the Water district barely registered with him. Karena had activated one of the main statues, and the Water district was going to join the fight.
He was waning, and it felt good, but he didn’t want to leave Evelyn, Karena, or Rose. He wanted to see Karena and Rose again, and the rest of his family.
“Look,” Evelyn said, and pointed.
He turned his head to see a raccoon waddle towards him. It morphed into a man. An owl landed beside him, and morphed into a human too. He recognized her. She was the night receptionist from the cryptid hunting headquarters, the lady with the owl eyes.
The man knelt down to him and ins
pected Hadrian’s wound. He waved his hands over the wound, and closed his eyes. He began weaving energy together in order to close it up. On and on he went, mumbling and waving his hands, until the blood staunched, and the skin tensed up and closed. Soft energy lines held the wound together. The man opened his eyes, and looked at him and Evelyn.
“My wife sent for me. She saw what happened. I’m Lawrence,” he said. Like an animal, he raised himself upwards a little from where he crouched to scan his surroundings.
“We have to get this statue activated. The Water district has already answered the Fires’ and Airs’ call for help,” Evelyn said. “An Earth elemental is the only one who can activate it.”
“I’ve heard about these statues,” Lawrence said, getting up. “But I’m not an Earth, and neither is my wife. None of our families have elemental bloodlines present in their lineage.”
Evelyn looked down at Hadrian and his wound. Whatever she saw, Hadrian could tell from her expression that it wasn’t good. She asked, “Why are there black veins showing across his chest?”
Lawrence frowned. “But I just healed him,” he said and paused for a moment. “He’s been poisoned. What was he stabbed with?”
“A knife.”
“Show me it.”
Evelyn picked up the knife from the grass and held it up to him. His face paled. He refused to take it and backed away a couple of steps.
Lawrence said, “That’s vampiric weaponry. It’s also known as dark weaponry. I don’t know much about them, except that they can poison a person if they cut deep enough. We have to get him to a master healer.”
Evelyn and Lawrence lifted Hadrian onto his feet.
“The statue,” Hadrian whispered, feeling his head swim.
“No,” Evelyn said. “We have to get you to a master healer before the poison or dark energy, whatever it is, kills you. He just healed you and your wound is already unraveling. There’s black marks all over your chest.”
Hadrian said, “I don’t care. We have to come to the Fire district’s aid.” His knees trembled. He sweated from the effort of standing up.
When there were thousands of people who were in danger and possibly facing death too, his life was inconsequential. He might make it. There was always hope. His thoughts wheeled, unsteady, but still firm on the fact that he had to activate the statue.
Hadrian stumbled away from their supporting arms, and leaned against the plinth of the statue. Breathing hard, and clinging onto consciousness by threads, he conjured up the sight that he had seen of the Fire district burning, the sounds in the air, and the need to help their fellow human beings defeat the vampires that had come back from the grave. He and Evelyn had just encountered one, and she had been someone that they had trusted enough to elect as leader of their district several years ago. Akantha had turned out to be a goddamn vampire. There were wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing amongst them. They were all in danger of being killed or enslaved.
The statue shuddered under his hands. Despite its enormous weight, the plinth with the statue on top slid to the side. A hole was uncovered. A tight, spiral staircase wound down into its depths.
Evelyn went in first, and helped him descend. Lawrence kept him from falling backwards. Hadrian leaned against the railing as he took one step at a time downwards. Black spots burst in his vision. He was hardly aware of what his feet were doing. It was as though he hadn’t slept in days. His body wanted to shut down to rest. His determination was the only thing that kept him upright and moving.
At the bottom of the staircase, he collapsed. Lawrence worked on him again by healing him and clearing away the dark energy, but it seemed to do little good because his condition refused to improve. Lawrence shook his head above him.
“This is beyond my abilities,” Lawrence said.
“What’s the cure?”
“I wish I knew. It’s been a very long time since anyone was wounded from vampiric weaponry and suffered the poisonous effects,” he said with a heavy tone. His narrow shoulders slumped. He rubbed his hands together in worry.
Evelyn’s wings drooped even further to the ground. She tried to stifle a sob, but couldn’t. She wiped her eyes.
As he lay on his back, Hadrian’s eyes roamed from them to the ceiling. The frescos on the ceiling depicted ancient forests, half-humans, and elves. He rolled over, and got to his hands and knees. From knowing that they couldn’t convince him to rest, Evelyn and Lawrence helped him up. The pain in his chest seared him, making him gasp, but he fought it, and rose to his feet.
With their assistance, Hadrian walked down the short hallway in front of the stairs. At the end was a pitch-black room. He couldn’t tell how big it was or what was in there. Evelyn and Lawrence both stopped in their tracks. Sounds of rustling, hissing, howling, and a whispering wind rolled over each other inside that darkness.
“It’s a portal! It has to be, or some trick. We can’t go in there,” Lawrence said. He shook in fright.
Hadrian felt air swoosh around him. It was as though something invisible and large was walking by him. Evelyn and Lawrence spooked. Hadrian slipped his arms away from their shoulders and stumbled towards the room. He was becoming too delirious to care about what fate awaited him or to feel any caution at all. He knew it could be necromancy, or that it could be part of the essence of the earth itself, the dark side of it, captured and concentrated into a room. Both were equally as dangerous.
“Hadrian!” Evelyn said.
“I’ve got it. Stay there where it’s safe,” Hadrian said. “This has to do with being an Earth elemental.”
Eyes glowed, and shadows just a shade darker than the room flitted by him as he approached the room. Growls warned him not to get any closer. The room represented the savageness of the night. Due to blood loss, his fear was secondary to the overwhelming feeling of weakness that he was experiencing.
He entered the room. Blackness enveloped him. He turned, but he couldn’t see Evelyn or Lawrence. They had been swallowed up, or else he was the one who had. He walked a few more steps and sank to his knees. Hot breath puffed against his neck. Teeth poked his skin, but didn’t break it.
Hadrian closed his eyes, and whispered a prayer for everyone in Archelm City, and especially for those in the Fire district. From deep within, he felt the desperate need to help those fighting in the Fire district. It was stronger than even his desire to live. The Water district had already taken up the call and had mobilized. It was crucial that the city unite against their common enemy, the vampires.
An ethereal murmur drifted through the air. It spoke in a language that he didn’t understand. The noises of the night faded. He opened his eyes. The darkness lifted, revealing a barren room. He had faced a fear that Earth elementals knew well, the fear of being shunned by Earth itself.
Evelyn rushed to him, knelt down, and hugged him.
She asked, “What happened? I was too afraid to follow you.”
“It’s okay. I was afraid too,” he said, leaning into her embrace. Talking was becoming difficult for him.
“Let’s get you up. We have to get you to a healer,” Lawrence said.
He slumped against Evelyn. His eyelids shut because they had become too heavy to keep open. He couldn’t move his body anymore.
“Hadrian, Hadrian,” Evelyn cried.
He felt Evelyn stroking his face and rubbing his arms. He shivered from fever, and sweated.
The soothing sounds of the lokh horn and the panpipes, the sounds of his people, leaked into the underground chamber. They tugged at the most primal parts of his brain, and slipped through him like honey, offering to send him home on their notes, but he was also home in Evelyn’s arms. He stayed in that suspended state of mind where he refused to give up, but also wanted to be carried away by their notes.
Chapter 29
As Asher sprinted to his truck, he caught a fleeting glimpse of Karena as she sailed by overhead. He would’ve given anything to have had wings at that moment. He didn’t want her to go alo
ne to City Hall, but there wasn’t any other choice.
He got into his truck and yanked the key in the ignition. It sputtered. Once his friends, acquaintances, and family had learned about his relationship with Karena, they had taken out their rage not only on him, but also his belongings, which included his truck. His truck’s engine had been damaged.
“Come on, damn it. Turn on,” he growled. He hit the steering wheel with his palm.
He kept twisting the key. Finally, after countless attempts to start it, his truck roared to life. He pulled away from the curb and stomped on the gas pedal to speed towards City Hall. He couldn’t let Karena face whatever might be there on her own. There was the possibility that nothing was there and that they were wrong about the Ancient Library being a likely target to cripple them as a nation. They could be wasting precious time that could’ve been spent helping others and locating the two remaining vampire Elders who were somewhere in the city. The vampire Elders had to be brought down because they were the strongest and the most intelligent of their race.
The streets were filling up with cars as people rushed into the Fire district. He was forced to slow down. Barricades were being constructed in case the fighting swept out of its present zone. They would provide the necessary cover to hold their positions. But it wouldn’t come down to that. There were too many people mobilizing and coming to fight.
As Asher drove, his mind ticked over the recent events. No one had thought that the vampires would attack so fast. The timing had him riddled with anxiety. If he hadn’t alerted the Fire and Air district as soon as he had, all would’ve been lost. The death toll would’ve been in the hundreds or even thousands.
All the reports that he had so far gleaned had been consistent. A vampire, one per occupied Fire elemental house, had snuck in like a whisper in the night, weapon drawn, intent on killing everyone inside. Their nefarious plan had been to move from house to house on a killing spree unlike anything he had ever read about. In his own home, he had seen this happen for himself. He had been keeping watch when one of them had crawled through the kitchen window.
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