Ascension (Demon's Grail Book 1)

by Amy Cross

  “Hello?” I whisper. “Are you -”

  I pause.

  The figure shifts a little but doesn't respond.

  “Are -”

  I can't quite get the words out, but in a flash the memories come flooding back. I was talking to Keller and Emilia about my brother, and then I was attacked from behind; after that, I remember only brief moments of being dragged along a corridor and strapped to an operating table, and then... Reaching up, I run my fingers through my wet, matted hair until I wince as I feel a shaved section where the skin has been cut but is already starting to knit together again; I reach around to the back of my head and find that there are half a dozen more damaged patches, apparently closing a deep cut that runs down to the base of my neck.

  Keller operated on me.

  He must have been trying to cut the information out.

  Suddenly the figure moves in front of me, shifting under the blanket and letting out a low, pained groan. I want to reach out and move the blanket aside, to see his face, but I'm scared of what I might find. Finally, realizing that I have no choice, I take hold of the blanket and start pulling it down, letting the fabric move across his body until his face comes into view. I stop as soon as I see the eyes, closed and bloodied, and I realize with a mounting sense of shock that it's him. It's really him.

  My brother.

  He's real.

  For the next few minutes I sit in silence, unable to do anything other than stare at his ravaged, sleeping face. Even in this low light and with his features distorted by cuts and bruises, I can see a family resemblance; he looks a lot like our father, with a hint of me thrown in and a few aspects that remind me of our mother too. Our father, our mother... After thinking for so long that I was alone, it almost feels wrong to acknowledge that someone else might share that parentage, that this person right in front of me is also the child of Patrick and Sophie. Was he really out there all this time, unknown and hidden, while I was being drawn deeper and deeper into the heart of the vampire fight? The possibility seems too insane to believe, yet as I stare at his face I can't deny that he looks so much like other members of my family. The few members I've ever seen, anyway.

  And then, slowly, his eyes start to open, staring straight at me.

  I open my mouth to say something, but no words come out. What words could there possibly be?

  Finally his lips twitch, but he seems far too weak to speak.

  I have to say something.

  “I...”

  I take a deep breath. My head still hurts, but worse than that is a feeling of deep, terrified anticipation in my chest.

  “My name is Abby,” I say finally, poised to reach out and touch his face but not quite daring. “Abby Hart. Abigail.” I wait, but of course he can't reply, not in his current state. “I think we...”

  I fall silent. He continues to stare at me, but his breathing is becoming increasingly shallow.

  “You can't die on me,” I say after a moment, suddenly realizing that as quickly as he arrived in my life, he seems to be on the verge of disappearing again. Pulling the blanket down a little further, I'm shocked when I see thick, knotted cuts running across his chest, with sections of broken ribs poking out through the skin. From what I can tell with just a cursory examination, it looks like he's starting to heal from the injuries he sustained, but I imagine his body isn't used to this type of punishment so the healing process is likely to take much longer than would usually be the case for a vampire. It might not even work at all, not if his human side is too dominant. I want to help him, but I don't even know where to start, and when I look back at his face I realize that he must have endured more pain than his human mind could ever comprehend.

  And he still has a human mind, even if the vampire side of his soul has begun to emerge. I know from bitter experience that it takes time to adjust to the truth.

  Suddenly I realize that his lips are moving, and that he's trying to whisper something.

  “What is it?” I ask, leaning closer until my ear is close to his mouth. “Try again.”

  “Sister,” he whispers, his voice sounding fractured and frail.

  “I...” Pausing, I don't know what to say.

  A moment later, I feel something icy brushing against the skin of my arm, and I look down to see his fingers touching me.

  “Abby,” he whispers. “Are you... my sister...”

  “That's right,” I continue, swallowing hard as I turn back to look at his face. “I'm your... I'm your sister and...” I pause, before looking around at the walls of the dark chamber. “I guess we're still in the house, probably somewhere in the basement. I don't get why they'd be bothering to keep us alive, or to clean up our wounds, unless they think they might still need us. I guess they didn't get everything they needed from my head either. The spider empire is said to have always -” Stopping suddenly, I realize that I'm in danger of focusing too much on the past when I need to be focusing on the present. I look down at my brother and see that he has already become much weaker even in the short time that I've been here with him.

  Crawling closer, I put a hand on the side of his face.

  “I'm going to get us out of here,” I tell him. “I don't know if you can hear me, but I swear I'm going to get us out of this place. You're not going to die here and neither am I.”

  He stares up at me, before whispering something else.

  “I didn't catch that,” I reply, leaning down.

  “Jonathan,” he whispers.

  “Jonathan? Who's -” Suddenly I realize what he means, and I turn to look into his eyes. “Hey, Jonathan,” I say, forcing a smile even though I feel completely helpless. “I'm sorry you've been caught up in all of this, I should have... I didn't know you existed, or I would have come and found you sooner, and I would have protected you. I don't know how much you know about the people who did this to us, but they're from a completely different species, an ancient species that stands for cruelty and horror and evil. For thousands of years, the spider empire was -”

  I catch myself just in time.

  This isn't the moment for a history lesson. It'd be too easy to launch into a long, factual explanation when what I really need to do is get to my feet and fight.

  “It's going to be okay,” I mutter, getting up and this time managing to stand, although I have to keep my head bowed slightly since the cell's arched ceiling is so low. Making my way over to the far wall, I start examining the door, finding that it's thick and that there are heavy metal bars reinforcing the wood. I give it a gentle push, just to feel how much it moves, and I find that it's as solid as stone. Struggling to contain my sense of panic at the thought that we're trapped down here, I start trying to pull at the locking mechanism, hoping against hope that somehow the door will turn out to be some old, rusty contraption.

  Behind me, Jonathan lets out a faint, pained gasp.

  “Don't worry,” I reply, glancing back at him, “trust me, I've been in way worse situations than this. I've almost drowned in a blood-filled church, I've been in a diner that was ripped apart by Tenderlings. I even got my head cut off once and...” Pausing, I realize that these stories probably aren't helping. “I'll get us out of here,” I add finally. “You just have to learn to trust me.”

  Looking up, I realize that I have no idea whether Keller and Emilia are still here. They might be planning some new way to get into my head, since I'm pretty sure they didn't get everything they needed, or they might have already headed off to find Karakh, leaving us here in case they ever have to come back for us.

  “What would Absalom do?” I mutter, turning to look at the door. I try to imagine Absalom sitting calmly in his garden, dispensing advice, but I have no idea what he'd say about a situation like this. Maybe he was right, maybe I should have stayed and accepted his offer of more training, but I had to come and find my brother. I guess that was the easy part, though; finding him and getting us both out of here, that's the hard part.

  I sit back, still staring at the doo
r.

  Okay, forget Absalom.

  What would my father do?

  The answer comes to me immediately. Patrick would have broken his way out of this chamber using brute force, the kind of force that I've never managed to summon. I saw him do that kind of thing a few times, reacting with fury to situations when a more measured approach might have been better, but right now I'm starting to wonder whether I'm the opposite; maybe I tend to over-think things, when I need to let my anger do the hard work.

  I start pushing against the door again, until I feel that the section closest to the bottom might just be slightly weaker.

  “This isn't going to be pretty,” I mutter, looking back over at Jonathan for a moment before getting into position, ready to start kicking the door, “but I'm hoping that after all this time, Keller underestimated the strength of an angry vampire.”

  I take a deep breath.

  This has to work.

  Kicking as hard as I can manage, I let out a cry of anger that quickly becomes a cry of pain as I feel my foot slam into the unmoving wooden door.

  Stepping back, I bite my bottom lip, determined to keep from whimpering.

  “That hurt!” I gasp finally, feeling a little breathless. “That really, really hurt!”

  It takes a moment, but I get back into position, ready to try kicking again. Deep down, I'm already starting to think that there's no way this can work, that the door has been reinforced so that there's no chance a vampire can break through, but I have no other ideas. Taking a deep breath, I try again.

  The result is instant agony.

  The pain shudders up my legs, and I gasp as I feel for a moment that my ankles might just have snapped. Filled with anger, I turn and slam my shoulder into the door, desperately hoping that I'll manage to take it down, but I just drop to the ground with a frustrated grunt. Is that it? Is that all the anger and fury I can summon?

  Stepping back, I stare at the door once again and try to think of a better plan.

  And then I realize my brother is standing right next to me. Actually standing now, not collapsed on the ground in a heap, but standing next to me and also staring at the door.

  Slowly, I turn to him and see that even though his body is still horrifically damaged and scarred, there's a sense of genuine anger and determination in his eyes.

  “It's okay,” I tell him, “I can do this. You're too weak, you should just -”

  Before I can finish, he lets out a cry of frustration and launches himself at the door, slamming hard against the wood and then dropping down.

  “You're going to hurt yourself even more,” I point out, hurrying over to him. “The door's too solid,” I add, reaching out and pushing against the wood. “Feel it, it's -”

  Suddenly I realize that even though the door is still locked, it moves just a little more than before. I pause for a moment, before hearing a scrambling sound nearby and turning to see that Jonathan is already getting back into position to try again.

  “Wait!” I call out, hurrying over to him and putting a hand against his chest. “We have to -”

  He ignores me again, throwing himself at the door with such force that I honestly don't know whether the cracking sound comes from the door itself or from my brother's body as he crashes into the wood and then falls down. Hurrying over to him, I haul him up and pull him back, but he quickly pushes me away and gets ready to try again.

  “Stop!” I say firmly, putting a hand on his shoulder, only for him to push the hand away. “Jonathan, I've already tried this, it's too much for one person!” Pausing, I suddenly realize that we have to work together, so I quickly get into position. “On my mark, okay?” I continue, taking a deep breath as I stare ahead at the door. “I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't want to spend too long on this, so let's try to get the damn thing down in one go. I remember once at the house of Gothos, I was trying to break out of a room and -”

  “Now!” Jonathan shouts.

  Barely able to react in time, I nevertheless manage to join him so that we hit the door at the same time. I close my eyes, bracing for the pain of impact, but when it comes there's a loud splitting sound and I feel the wood breaking apart. Reaching out to steady myself, I finally come to a halt and open to my eyes to see that we've managed to break the door down the middle. Jonathan has already fallen back, panting breathlessly on the ground, so I turn and kick the rest of the door through until I'm able to crawl out into the corridor.

  “We did it,” I whisper, genuinely shocked, before turning back to Jonathan and seeing that he's still on the ground. I crawl over to him and find that the effort has left him in an even worse state than before, but when I try to pick him up he pushes me aside and struggles to his feet before staggering out into the corridor.

  Following him, I again offer some support, only to be brushed away.

  “Here's the thing,” I continue after a moment, “we have to get out of here. We can worry about everything else later, but right now I have to get you to safety. There are things we can try, people who can help, and your body will heal if you just give it time. I know you're new to this, but I remember when I was first starting out, there was this one time -”

  “Enough stories,” he hisses, pushing past me and stumbling along the corridor, clutching his right arm as if it's broken. “You're always telling stories about stuff that happened years ago!”

  “Trust me,” I reply, following him as he leans heavily on the wall between each labored step, “the past kind of never really goes away for a vampire.”

  “There's that word again,” he mutters breathlessly. “Are you insane like all the others?”

  “You mean the spiders?” I ask, hurrying ahead slightly and then peering around the next corner to make sure that the coast is clear. “That's another example of how everything goes way -”

  Before I can finish, Jonathan bumps into me and then starts limping along the next corridor.

  “I never wanted to get involved in this,” he stammers, his voice filled with pain. “I was happy working at the library. I just want to go back and pretend I never heard about vampires or -”

  Stumbling, he manages to steady himself against the wall before yet again pushing me away when I try to help.

  “I'm going home,” he continues, sounding increasingly breathless. “I never want to see you, or that Emilia woman, or any of these freaks again.”

  “I'm not sure you have that choice,” I tell him, keeping pace as we make our way along the corridor. “Trust me, I know what it's like to suddenly find out that you're part of something much bigger. I was a kid when I was taken from my adoptive parents' home and forced to face it all, but...” I watch his ravaged face for a moment, and I realize I can see fear in his eyes. “You don't have any other option,” I continue. “Believe me, if running from it was an option, I'd have run by now. You have to accept what you are and -”

  “Why?” he snarls, turning and shoving me against the wall. “Will it make me happy? Will it make me a better person? Will it make the world a better place?”

  “No, but -”

  “So what do I gain?” he continues, wincing once more. “Why is this life of pain better than my old, quiet life working in a library?”

  “It's just...” For a moment, I feel as if I don't have an answer. “It's the only life we can lead,” I say finally, as he pushes forward and we reach the next corridor. “Even if we both try to slip away, there are other forces out there that will always come look for us because of who we -”

  Suddenly he slips and falls, letting out a grunt of pain as he lands. I try to help him up but he pushes me away, so instead I watch as he tries and fails to get to his feet. After trying one more time, he drops down and then onto his side, letting out a gasp of pain that's so dry and so addled, it's hard not to worry that he's genuinely pushing himself close to the brink of death.

  “Like it or not,” I continue, kneeling next to him, “right now you need my...”

  Hearing voice
s in the distance, I look along the corridor and spot a set of stone steps leading up to one of the higher levels.

  “I'll be back in a moment,” I add, looking down at Jonathan's face and seeing that he's barely conscious. I pause for a moment, not really sure what to do, before leaning toward him and gently kissing his bloodied cheek. “I finally found you,” I whisper, “and I swear I'm not going to lose you so soon. I've got a lot of stories to tell you, so wait right here and I'll be back in a few minutes.”

  I wait for a reply, but he's too weak. Getting to my feet, I make my way toward the steps. When I get to the bottom, I glance back and see that Jonathan hasn't moved at all, and then I head up to the next level and then the next, only to immediately realize that I'm on the ground floor and that I can hear Keller and Emilia in a nearby room, with candlelight flickering from one of the doorways.

  “I can't do this,” Emilia says, her voice sounding uncharacteristically low and cautious. “Please, can't you come with me?”

  “Not right now,” Keller tells her as I make my way cautiously toward the door, still listening to them. “You can do this, Emilia, I wouldn't send you if I wasn't absolutely certain that you're ready. You're not a child anymore, sometimes you have to do things that scare you. Maybe you can't see the strength in yourself, but trust me, I see it, I've watched it grow over the years. You're not the scared girl I first met all those years ago. You must ride to the council, tell them what we have discovered so far about Karakh, and see if they are able to make sense of it. Then you can come back here, and hopefully by then I'll have finished going through the Book of Karakh and I'll know what to do next.”

  “But -”

  “We each have our role to play. Mine is -”

  “I'm scared.”

  “Don't question me, Emilia,” he continues with a sigh. “You must do what is necessary.”