by L. E. Wilson
Leeha’s eyes lit up as she told her in a confiding tone. “A very handsome male. He reminds me a lot of my Luukas, only with blonde hair. And he’s bringing a friend with him. A lady friend.” Her brows lowered as she pouted. “I’m not sure what he sees in her, but my eyes in these mountains tell me he’s extremely protective of the girl.”
As Keira mulled that over, trying to figure out what the significance of these visitors could be, Leeha wandered towards the door to leave, adding as an afterthought, “Oh! Did I mention her name is Emma? And she looks quite a bit like…you.”
“What?” Keira shook her head in disbelief. “What did you just say?” It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be her sister. What the hell would she be doing here?
“Not quite so defiant now, are we?” The door slammed shut behind Leeha and Keira heard her giggling with Josiah as the lock slammed into place.
They’d left her there, in the cell, with one dead vampire, and another one who no doubt wished he were.
Keira stared at the door in a daze. Emma was coming here? It couldn’t be. How the hell would she have found this place? Thanks to her, they were cloaked, hidden from outsiders; A simple spell that most any witch could do. Anyone who happened to come upon it would see nothing but a snow-capped mountain like any other, without so much as a hint that anyone occupied it.
It was impossible that Emma could have found it.
Maybe the bitch was lying. Maybe this was her punishment! That had to be it. It was the only reasonable explanation. There was just no way in hell that her little sister could be anywhere near here. She was on the other side of the country in PA, and across the border. She didn’t even have a passport!
And, Leeha had just shown her one of her sister’s many posters not long ago, the ones with the headline “Please help me find my sister, Keira.” She’d gloated over it. That couldn’t have been more than two weeks ago. How would Emma have been able to find her between then and now?
Again, she shook her head. She couldn’t have. There was just no way. This must be a trick; just another one of the head games that the bitch so enjoyed.
So why had she ordered her to remove the cloaking spell?
And who the hell was the male that was supposedly with her sister? She said he looked like Luukas…did she mean a vampire? Did a vampire find out where Luukas was and bring Emma with him? But why would he bring her along? A human?
Keira was at a loss. She didn’t know what to think, what to believe.
One thing she did know, however, was that the dead body on the floor was the end of her trading blood for Luukas. The other guards weren’t nearly as interested in her as this one was, and were much more afraid of Leeha.
And even if they hadn’t been before, they would be now, once the word about Blondie’s death got out.
Grabbing the body by the ankles, Keira attempted to drag it over closer to the door. She barely made it a foot before she fell on her ass with an “Oomph!” Three tries later, she’d managed to pull it a mere four feet or so, but at least it was farther away from Luukas and her stash corner.
She thought about trying to roll it onto her blanket and move it that way, but then what would she use for herself? She’d freeze to death down here, and she wouldn’t want to use it if it had his blood all over it.
The body would have to stay where it was.
Picking up her blanket, she shook the dirt off of it as best she could. Mind still reeling with Leeha’s departing words, she shuffled over to her corner and sank down with her back against the stone, pulling the thin wool around her body.
***
A howl shattered the stillness of the night, startling Keira awake, and she sat up with a start. Still half asleep and disoriented, she rubbed her eyes, and tried to get her bearings.
She must've been sleeping for a while. All of the torches except one had burned out, and lack of light caused shadows to leap along the walls like creepy puppets.
She’d felt so drained this morning. Literally. She’d barely remembered to undo the cloaking spell, before sinking back down into her corner to try and sleep. She must’ve slept through the entire day, dead body in the room and all.
Another howl sounded, closer this time, raising the hair on the back of her neck and goose bumps on her skin. She faintly heard a male voice shouting in answer from far within the labyrinth of cells.
There was someone else down here with them? She’d never heard anyone else in all the years they’d been here, and had always assumed they were the only “guests”.
Hearing a ruckus on the stairs, she jumped to her feet and ran to the door.
Dammit, the window was too high! She couldn’t see anything. Swinging around, her eyes landed on the dead vampire. He was beginning to disintegrate, but with the lack of sunshine down here, it was taking much longer than normal. She stomped on him a few times to see how solid he remained, and quickly decided he would do.
Adrenaline and fear flowing through her, she grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him close enough to the door so that she could step up onto his legs and see out the small window.
Just as she did, a body came hurtling through the air down the stairway, landing with a thud at the bottom. A gaping, bloody hole was all that remained of the guard’s throat. She barely caught a blur of what appeared to be a huge furry creature lunge down the stairs after it, leap over the body, and disappear down the hall away from her cell.
What in the hell was that?
A loud crash came seconds later. The beast must’ve burst through another door. And then all was quiet again.
She held her breath, listening carefully, but heard nothing, until…there! More howling from deep within the mountain.
Silence reigned again for long moments. Hanging on to the door for balance, Keira leaned away and looked back over her shoulder.
Luukas was beginning to rouse again.
She studied him a moment, trying to assess his state of mind after what he’d been through the night before, but she couldn’t really discern anything yet.
Turning back to the window, she let out a yelp as she found herself staring directly into a pair of glowing, green eyes.
Scrambling back away from the door, she stumbled over her own feet getting off of the dead vampire and landed hard on her backside in the dirt, those eyes at the door following her the entire time.
Once she was out of the way, the eerie green orbs zeroed in on Luukas. A low growl rumbled through the wooden door at the sight of him hanging there, and the eyes flew back to her, spearing her to the floor where she sat.
Keira shook her head frantically. “No! No! I didn’t do this! It wasn’t me! Well, it was, kind of…but I didn’t want to! She threatened me! Threatened my sister, Emma! I didn’t want to…” She was babbling, and had no idea if the thing outside the door could even understand what she was saying.
Her mouth snapped shut as the eyes suddenly dropped out of sight.
Sucking in a breath, Keira jumped to her feet. “Wait! Don’t leave us here! Please!” She didn’t know who, or what, was out there, but it couldn’t possibly be any worse than their current hostess. Plus, if she could just get out of this cell, there would be a chance to escape.
She’d just taken a step towards the door to call after them again, when the entire wooden structure came crashing in, landing on top of Blondie. She threw up her arms to protect her face from the flying debris, and when she lowered them, an exceptionally large, brown, wolf-type thing stood on all fours on top of the door.
More muscular and less hairy than a normal wolf, it appeared to be some type of wolf hybrid. And when it swung its head her way, she saw an awareness in its eyes unlike any other animal she’d ever met.
Holy shit, she thought. A werewolf. She'd never actually seen one before.
“Duncan?” Luukas’ voice was barely audible.
Tearing her eyes from the wolf, she glanced over at Luukas. His eyes were feverish in their sunken sockets as he stared at
it in disbelief.
The wolf paced over to him on its huge paws, and as it did, another appeared in the doorway. It was also brown, though a lighter shade, a bit shaggier, and nearly as large, but had eyes so dark they looked black. Unlike its friend, this one stayed where it was, and kept looking out into the hallway, like it was afraid to come into the cell. It whined softly at its companion.
I know how you feel, Keira thought.
A cold nose nudging her shoulder made her jump. The first wolf was attempting to get her attention. Standing beside her, its huge head came up to her shoulder, and it was easily twice her size or more. She could ride the thing like a horse.
It nudged her again, harder this time, and looked up at Luukas’ chains, then back at her. It repeated the movement until Keira finally caught on.
“Oh! Of course!” She paused, “What about Leeha?”
It shook its large head.
Did that mean what she thought it meant? Was Leeha not a concern anymore? What had happened to her? Keira could only hope that she had finally met her end, thanks to these wolves.
But, what would that mean for Emma? She’d never get to her in time if Leeha’s contingency plan had gone into play. Not without help.
Deliberating, she looked back over at the vampire. If she were any kind of a good person at all, she would release him, and give him back his power. It’s what she’d been planning to do all along.
She still had no clue as to his state of mind, however. What if she did all that and he was bat shit crazy, and killed them all in a psychotic frenzy?
Well, it would be no more than she deserved, after everything she’d put him through. And maybe he wouldn’t be. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be so grateful that he would help her save her sister.
It was a long shot. More than a long shot. More like an impossible shot. But she had to try.
Closing her eyes, she began chanting the words that would undo the spell and give Luukas back his power. Her hair began to dance softly on her shoulders as she drew upon the earth’s elemental energy, and the air stirred around her. She slowly lifted her arms, inviting it into her, becoming a part of it.
Distantly, she heard the wolves whining as the air currents picked up force, and her chanting got louder and stronger. Tilting her head back, she opened herself up from within, allowing the Master vampire’s power to leave her and travel back to its rightful home.
Chapter 9
Luukas
Luukas was confused as the girl began speaking in a strange tongue, saying words he didn’t understand. Who was she?
He looked at the dogs (wolves?) that had broken through the door. He seemed to know them. Duncan, and…he couldn’t recall the other one. They were inching slowly out of the room, their eyes never leaving the girl. Their hackles were raised on the back of their necks, and they whined softly as they crept backwards out the door.
Suddenly the air pressure in the room changed, came alive. His muscles tensed with the instinct to flee, feeling something wasn't right.
She raised her arms. Her voice rose in volume with each sentence, and she threw her head back. As the air grew dense with her sorcery, it lifted her body right off of the ground, until only her toes were dragging the dirt.
With a yelp, the wolves hightailed it out of there.
Weak, exhausted, and chained up as he was, Luukas could only hang there and watch as the girl…no, not the girl. The witch…yes! The fucking witch…cast her magic.
And he remembered.
He remembered her standing in front in him, looking much the same as she did now, as he was burned alive.
Remembered the sounds and smells of his skin melting and the meat roasting from his bones.
His mind recoiled violently from the memories. Hysteria rose within him, and he found it hard to breathe as he frantically looked down at himself. His heart pounded. How was this possible? How was he still whole? He had burned! He remembered! Remembered every excruciating second of it!
Am I in hell? The thought flitted briefly through his head, and was just as quickly gone.
His attention reverted back to the girl, the witch.
The word echoed through what was left of his mind. His lips peeled back from his fangs as they exploded down from his gums. He remembered others in the room when it was happening, their features hazy, but her…he remembered her very clearly.
He lunged forward on his chains, attempting to reach her with his razor sharp fangs. Rip her open! Suck her dry! I’m so thirsty. Kill her! Burn her like she did to me!
Suddenly her chest heaved upwards toward the ceiling and she opened her arms wide.
The witch fell to her knees on the dirt floor as Luukas was simultaneously thrown back against the wall, something slamming into him; a force so powerful, it knocked the breath from his lungs.
Gasping for air, his entire body went rigid, as the embodiment of hundreds of powerful life forces surged through him. Every vampire he’d ever created, every soul he shared, ripped through him like a tornado, embedding themselves as a whole back into his cells, before finally settling down within him like a sleeping beast.
In the sudden stillness, Luukas sucked in a deep breath, and then another. But he had no time to comprehend what had just happened, for just then, the witch lifted herself up off of the floor, her hazel eyes huge in her small face.
An evil smile spread slowly across his face, growing larger as she began backing away from him.
A howl sounded from somewhere high above them, a different voice, and the wolves answered from their hiding place in the hall, before running past the open doorway. But Luukas paid them no mind. His focus was on one thing, and one thing only.
The vile bitch in front of him.
Without even realizing what he was doing, he instinctively gathered his power within him, coiled it tightly, and then released it all at once with a blast of energy so strong, the entire mountain trembled. A tormented roar filled the room as his dislocated arms fell to his sides, the silver chains that had held him now nothing but clouds of dust that floated serenely to the floor.
Never taking his eyes from his prey, Luukas moved away from the wall for the first time in seven years.
The witch began to back cautiously out of the cell, like the wolves had before her. He could hear her rapid heartbeat. He could smell her fear.
And her sweet blood.
Steadily, relentlessly, he stalked her, pausing in the doorway only to slam his dislocated shoulders back into place against the wall.
She continued to back away slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
The backs of her heels hit the bottom of the stairway, and she started to fall, her arms pin wheeling as she tried to maintain her balance.
Before she could hit the stone, Luukas swooped in and grabbed her up into his arms, hauling them both up the stone steps with supernatural speed. Reaching the upper hallway, he swung his head from side to side, trying to decide which way to go. He recalled nothing from when he’d first been thrown down here.
The witch beat on him with her small fists. “Put me down!” she yelled in his face.
He threw her over his shoulder, wrapped one arm securely around her legs, and took off towards another stairway he’d spotted to his right.
Have to get out. Have to escape. Take the witch.
The stairway was a dead end. It literally led to nothing but a wall. How?
Luukas’ anxiety grew, and he fought back the panic rising in his chest. Flying back down the stairs, the witch hanging on to his raw back for dear life, he ran back down the other way.
A door!
Releasing the force of his power before him, he blew the door apart by strength of will alone, and ran through. He found himself in a tunnel barely lit by torches, smaller than the previous hallway. Which way to go?
Have to get out! Have to escape! Take the witch!
He looked to his right, then his left, and back to the right again. Which way?
Up. Need to go up.
Bouncing his prize up to a more secure spot on his shoulder, he went right. He hadn’t gone more than a few hundred feet when he saw another dead end ahead.
NO!
Sending out another burst of force, he shattered the stone and ran through.
The mountain quaked as Luukas burst through wall after wall, ascending ever higher through the maze of tunnels, until he felt the ground leveling out again. With a final, strong surge, he turned to the wall on his left and blew through it, dropping the witch to her feet but hanging on to her wrist.
She would not be getting away.
As the dust settled, Luukas found himself looking out into the cathedral-like space where it had all began, with Leeha.
He remembered.
“Keira!”
He felt the witch stiffen beside him. “Emma…” She breathed.
His head whipped around to see a small human female with bright hair running down the stairs in front of the throne-stage, calling for his witch. Pulling his lips back into a snarl, he hissed menacingly at her.
She paid no heed at all to the warning, and continued to run towards them.
Luukas growled low in his throat, his eyes never leaving her. His body tensed as he prepared to defend what was his.
A male vampire with blonde hair threw himself in front of her before she could reach the bottom of the stairway, plucking her right out of the air and holding her tight against the front of him. She struggled in his arms, demanding he let her go, but he held her fast, whispering to her, until she calmed a bit.
Still holding the human, he turned his head and looked Luukas up and down, a strange expression on his face.
Luukas bared his fangs at him too, and also at the wolves prowling back and forth at the far end of the room, just for good measure.
The blonde vampire set the human down, speaking to her sternly this time. Glancing back at the wolves, he turned to face Luukas, his expression relaxed.
“Luukas? Hey, big brother. It’s just me, Nik.”
Nik?
The vampire eased down another step. Luukas’ heartbeat picked up again as he tried to keep an eye on both the vampire and the pacing wolves. Swinging his head back and forth between them, he finally settled on the vampire, as the beasts seemed to be keeping their distance.