Burn (Drift Book 3)

by Michael Dean

  “Tell me about it,” I added.

  “So, when the day of the lavish wedding arrived between the two powerful families, humans had come from all over the world to witness it. It was the largest wedding of its kind at that time. Shimmer was there, hiding, waiting, picking his moment to take what he deemed was his. With jealous eyes he watched the wedding from afar, staying out of sight of the girl he loved. When all the festivities ended and all the wine had been drank, Shimmer stalked the new couple by following them in their fancy carriage. When they arrived at their destination, just before Geoffrey took Temperance into his bed, Shimmer struck. He attacked his love as she prepared for her husband in her boudoir, sinking his teeth into her neck, rendering her unconscious, leaving her teetering between life and death. When Geoffrey’s beloved never came out of the boudoir, he went to find out what was delaying her. When she didn’t answer his calls from the other side of the door, he went in the room and found her lying on the floor, bleeding from the neck. It was here that the showman in Shimmer came into play.”

  My eyes veered from Elysia and stared at the earth in front of us.

  “He introduced himself to Geoffrey, told him what he was, and took glee in watching him plead for their lives. Of course, Shimmer would show him no mercy. It was rumored that when they found Geoffrey Lonecrow, it was so gruesome, not a soul that witnessed the massacre could hold their stomachs. Shimmer had ripped him apart, inside and out, piece by piece. Body parts were strewn around the bedroom, arms and legs were apparently slung in every direction, even his eyeball-less head, completely decapitated, was found somewhere in the boudoir. They say the blood was ankle deep in parts of the room, as well as splattered all over the walls.”

  “Has he no conscience?”

  “Of course not…he’s of the underworld. That’s not the worst part.”

  “Geez, there’s more?”

  “Shimmer, so self-absorbed was he in his jealousy, took out Geoffrey’s heart, placed it in the middle of the blood soaked bed, and stabbed it through the middle, pinning it to the center of the bed with this letter opener.”

  Elysia reached into her robe and pulled out a sharp silver letter opener.

  “How did the angels get in possession of that?” I looked it over as she held it up.

  “We have our ways; that is all you need to know.”

  “I’ve always known he was vicious, but I had no idea…”

  “This is why I tell you this horrendous story, Leo, what he will do to you, maybe even to Shade, will be done without leniency. You must know, truly, what kind of monster you’re going up against and be prepared accordingly.”

  “Monster…indeed, at least that much I’ve always known. What happened to the girl?”

  “Shimmer took her and gave her his eternal bite, forever making her part of the undead, forever his own. He transformed her into a vampire and took her as his bride. He knew it was the only way he could have her. It was the only way. She’d never give herself over to him now…not after what he’d done.”

  “If he loved her so much, why has he taken the twins? How come I’ve never seen, nor heard of Temperance?”

  “Because she’s dead.”

  “Dead?”

  “Because Temperance, her family, her husband’s family, and the story of his gruesome death was so widely known, it didn’t take long for her to be recognized by some of the common folk in Romania at that time. Shimmer couldn’t hide her completely. Rumors were rampant that Temperance was a vampire all along and that she was responsible for killing her husband. It was thought that she did it purely to take the Lonecrow name, steal their riches for her side of the family, and become the most powerful family in the world. This caused a feud between the Lonecrows and the Greylocks. A feud that cost many lives, committed many evils, and turned the world on its head in that age. It was a breeding ground for souls during that time…for both Heaven and Hell.”

  “So Shimmer stashed her away? How could she have been killed then?”

  “He tried, but it didn’t work. Acting on the rumors of her whereabouts, one night an army of thousands of humans showed up outside of Bran Castle. It was composed of soldiers from the Lonecrows, as well as other prominent families of the day. The Greylocks, what was left of them after all had united against them, had been exiled to some remote island off the mainland after it was rumored that the entire family may be some sort of witches, conjurors of black magic, which of course, they weren’t. Guilt by association. So, they were no longer the last defense against the good name of Temperance Greylock.”

  “So what happened?”

  “A battle broke out…a war between the humans and Shimmer’s vampire clan, which was a lot smaller back then. The humans were losing until a soldier accidently discovered that the way to kill a vampire is by taking the heart. Although still getting defeated, they fought admirably. Temperance, going against Shimmer’s orders, and without his knowledge, came out of hiding and sought to end the bloodshed. She exposed herself to the dwindling human army, she placed herself among them, in the middle of the fighting, tried to call for peace, but when a soldier’s sword cut through her back, piercing her heart before pulling it out of her, the call for peace was over. Shimmer witnessed his beloved being killed and spared no mercy on the army. He killed every last human there, then ransacked the town of Transylvania, killing every human being around, only leaving human children, accidently, alive. Luckily, those that survived were too young to comprehend what was going on. His thirst for revenge didn’t stop there, it had to be quenched. Any human that he deemed responsible for her death, which was pretty much every human, he killed without mercy. He wiped out the entire bloodline of the Greylocks and the Lonecrows, killing anyone that had aligned with them in the process. He even sent out orders for humans rumored to be associated with those families to be killed. It was a horrible time. Shimmer had forsaken spiritual law and was making rules of his own.”

  “Where were you guys…the angels, to help the innocent? Where were you?”

  “We were there…doing everything we could to stop him. We protected who we could, the best we could, even taking many vampires’ lives on our end as well. In the end, we restored balance; that is all we could do. We are not killers.”

  “Maybe you should have been. You allowed him to run free. To destroy humans at will. Why didn’t you stop him?”

  “We tried…to stop him. Humans chose to pursue him. They made the choice of their own free will. There was nothing we could do for those that chose to fight him…nothing. Events had to play out. All we could do was stop his wrath upon the rest of the innocent humans that didn’t come after him.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t stop him. He wiped out entire families.”

  “We did stop him…”

  “How?” I demanded.

  “From eradicating the entire human race.”

  Her words hit me like a ton of bricks. Although I didn’t fully understand all the details about why the angels didn’t stop him from killing so many people, I did see the big picture. The human is race is still around, and flourishing.

  “Now that I can’t feel any worse about Shimmer, what does all of this have to do with me not being able to punch through to Molina’s heart?” I shook my head in annoyance.

  “When Shimmer finally calmed, when he could no longer take out his fury upon the innocent because we had him in check, he transformed the best blacksmith and surgeon in all of the world into vampires.”

  “So?”

  “So…Shimmer had the surgeon split him wide open, exposing his chest cavity and the bones, the dead blackened parts within, including the only thing still alive, beating within him…his black heart. The blacksmith poured hot melted steel over the entirety of his inner core, covering his bones and the body parts within in a sort of steel shell. Since the heart was not being removed from his body, it continued to beat. It is said though, that Shimmer’s screams could be heard for miles from the pain. When they were done with th
e front, they opened his backside and repeated the process. Since a vampire can heal quickly, it was the surgeon’s job to keep him open while the blacksmith poured in the molten steel. The operation was a success. Then the surface skin healed, as is usually the case with vampires, demons, and angels alike, for that matter, concealing what is beyond Shimmer’s skin, dense steel padding, stronger than a knight’s armor.”

  “All to protect his heart?”

  “That’s right…ensuring that he could live for eternity, never to suffer the same fate as his love Temperance. So, when he took on his new brides, the vivacious French twins, he had the same procedure done to them, making it nearly impossible to kill all three of them. That is why you couldn’t punch through Molina. Shimmer, naturally not wanting to die himself, never wants to experience what he went through with Temperance…again.”

  I lowered my head in thought. “If I can’t take his heart, then how can I beat him, save Shade, and survive?”

  Elysia turned to me with a look of peace and confidence on her face. “Like I said…nearly impossible.”

  “That still doesn’t help me, Elysia.” I looked back up at her, discouraged.

  “Opportunities will always present themselves, my dear Leo, you’ll just have to know what to do when they do.” She placed one arm on my shoulder and raised the other with the sharp letter opener in it, handing it to me.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “If an opportunity presents itself, Leo…” she encouraged me.

  I looked down at the tool in confusion as she took her hand off my shoulder, put her hood back on over her head, then linked her hands together under the arms of her robe and stared at me with a calming smile.

  “What if I fail?”

  “Then you fail. Nothing is ever set in stone, Leo. Just stay vigilant and take the chances when they are presented. That’s all the help we can offer you other than informing you of what you are truly up against. This is your task, and yours alone. Be strong. You have talents that you’ve yet to let blossom…use them.”

  She bowed, then turned her back to me and started to walk away. I slowly turned the letter opener around in my hand and then looked back to her.

  “Elysia.” She turned to acknowledge me. “Just think, up until now, I thought you were the quiet one.” I smiled. Elysia simply grinned back at me and nodded before walking a few more steps and disappearing.

  I stood there for awhile and glared at the tool that stabbed Geoffrey Lonecrow’s heart. Angels always speak in riddles and this was the case again. What opportunities could she be talking about that would present themselves to me? I mean, I guess I’d have to wait and see, but I didn’t have a clue as to what she was referring too. Not only that, what did she mean that I have talents that I’ve yet to use? In every scuffle that I’ve had up to this point, I’ve used everything in my arsenal that I’m aware of.

  Well, there wasn’t much time left to figure it out anymore. It was time to head back to Romania. Everything that Shimmer has put me through would now be thrown back at him in the most furious way I could muster. I may not be successful in defeating him, but for the sake of Shade and myself, I would throw everything I had within me at him. I was still very pissed, and I was still all demon. That was the best weapon I had against him right now and he was going to feel every bit of my rage. Tucking the lengthy letter opener into my pocket, I thrust my wings out and rocketed towards earth and inevitability.

  Chapter 8

  CAVITY

  Just out of curiosity, I carefully flew over Transylvania and Dracula’s castle. The streets were empty and everything was eerily quiet. It was if the humans in the small city knew that something big was going on. Just before I got to Devil’s Tooth I could hear the roar of a crowd bellowing out from within the mountaintop. I landed and stood upon a nearby peak and looked down into the cavity of the mountain where the coliseum sat. Off in the distance I could see a nearby storm approaching in the cloudy sky. It made the scene all the more ominous.

  This was the first time I had laid eyes on the Cavity Coliseum…and it was massive. It looked nearly identical to the infamous Roman Coliseum, but it was much deeper and wider. The arena hosted a group of vampires battling for sport. It was apparent they weren’t trying to kill each other, it was more of a show of strength in order to entertain and warm up the already raucous crowd for what was to be Shimmer’s main event with me, I assumed.

  Thousands upon thousands of blood suckers sat in stands that were actually seats carved out of the mountain itself. At one end of the arena, what would be an end zone location on a football field, sat Shimmer in between his two brides above the festivities. As always, standing just behind Shimmer’s mountain-made throne, was Murgit. They were seated directly in the center of the most powerful vampires in all of history. Well, those that still dwelled on earth, that is. All of them were taking in the festivities, clapping, and laughing at the scene below.

  When my eyes panned down directly beneath them on the dirt field of battle itself, I saw a figure chained to what looked like a very large wooden crucifix. I realized almost immediately that it was Shade. The crucifix was stuck into the ground and chains held Shade in place. They were tied around her wrists and feet, very similar to the way I was held in the Caverns of the Forgotten. I could tell Shimmer hadn’t taken her as his bride yet. Their word was kept, but the sight of her distress lit a flame of fury within me that needed to be released.

  I leaped off the peak I was standing on and jumped down to the battleground. I landed in a three point stance, directly in the middle of the six vampires that were battling one another in good fun. I raised up slowly. Everything stopped and the crowd hushed as I stood. I made eye contact with the worn out, exhausted Shade and she flashed me a big smile. She seemed too tired to call out to me, but I could see her lips move. I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I could tell she was very happy to see me, though. Her dingy hair was covering her face, but I could see for sure now that she was still human by the color of her eyes.

  “My friends, it’s nearly time for our main event!” a voice echoed from above me. My eyes shot up to see Shimmer rise from his seat and begin clapping. This caused the crowd to roar in delight. I took this moment to survey the entirety of the massive complex. I looked up and turned a complete three hundred and sixty degrees. The Cavity looked even bigger when standing at the base of the battleground…and it was loaded, shoulder to shoulder, with screaming vampires. It was a very intimidating site to behold, even for a demon.

  “My gods and goddesses, behold, the one who claimed Diccittidel, the vanquisher of Queen Agrelia, and the biggest traitor of all time.” The crowd hissed and booed. “The love-struck hero demon…Leo Cutler.”

  Shimmer waved his hands up and down in an effort to calm the rowdy mass and they did as he commanded.

  “My friends…I know you are anxious to see me dispatch this delinquent, but first, I have a little something…more in store for you. An appetizer…if you would be so gracious.”

  Immediately my first thoughts were, Here we go with the changing of the rules again, but I had no choice other than hear what game he was about to play next.

  “For Leo here to gain the prestigious opportunity of a one on one confrontation with me,” like Agrelia wasn’t enough of a test, “he first must prove he is worthy. So I will issue a challenge to our brave brothers below…a true test of ssssssstrength.”

  The combatants surrounding me looked at one another in confidence as Shimmer continued.

  “The first brother capable of killing this traitor, keeping me from having to sully my hands with him, I will make a member of my personal high council.” The crowd began to oohh and ahhhh and Shimmer had to motion for them to quiet again.

  “Along with that great honor, he will have a permanent place at mine and my beloved queen’s dining table in the great ballroom and he will also be able to have the first dance this very evening with my new bride…after I’ve had the pl
easure, of course.” He waved one hand down to Shade and crowd roared in exuberance.

  The six blood blisters all glared at me with hunger in their eyes. I looked back up to see Sierra hand Shimmer the Demon Dagger and he held it up in display to the loud mob before purposely throwing it into the arena. It stuck into the ground right in front of Shade’s shackled feet on the crucifix. The blade was sitting there for any vampire to simply pull out of the ground.

  “Let the games begin! To the winner goes the sssssspoils!” The crowd exploded in glee.

  Without a moment’s hesitation the six blisters came at me in a blaze. Fists were being thrown at me from every direction. I took a few blows but pretty much ducked, blocked, and evaded everything they hurled at me. They were sloppy fighters, so I was confident I would prosper.

  When I was through toying with the idiots, I retaliated. Punches kept coming at me from all directions at the same time, but I managed to block and strike. One by one I pulled out their hearts in record time as they fell to the dirt. I did it so fast they never stood a chance in fetching the Demon Dagger and I accumulated all six hearts of the blood suckers within my arms in mere seconds. I looked up at Shimmer, smiled, and tossed the hearts on the ground. It was a few seconds later they all disappeared into ash along with the bodies of the vampires I just vanquished.

  The crowd went deathly silent. “Is that the best you can do?” I taunted. They began to boo me in pure hatred now, but Shimmer just continued to smile as he raised a hand back up to silence the hostile crowd by placing a finger over his lips.

  “My friends! The traitor has gotten past the weak. This still does not prove his worth to us! Worry not, for I did promise you entertainment.” The crowd screamed again in jubilance.

  “As a gift…just for you, my two beautiful brides will be doing the honor of being the next in line to eradicate this virus. I assure you, you will be pleased.” The crowd cheered again as Sierra and Molina looked at each other with reluctance. Shimmer sneered back at them, which caused them both to stand and wave at the crowd with nervous smiles. Murgit clapped his hands wildly behind them.