by Zara Novak
“I’ve been running numbers in my head,” Xander said as we walked along the village’s northern perimeter, right alongside the tall and shadowy trees that led into black wood. “I think we would be able to construct a natural barrier of sorts. Perhaps a wall or a trench to reinforce this part of the border. Most of the feral herds come in through this point, do they not?”
“They do,” one of the coven leaders said. “There is a three-mile wide passage where ninety percent of ferals enter the outlands.”
“A wall or trench would be highly advantageous,” the other said. “It would make defending this stretch much easier.”
“Let us meet again in a week’s time when Xander has had time to put together a proper proposal,” Ronan said. “When we have a more solid starting point we can begin work on this new project. Covens united, borders safe. No more fighting.”
“No more fighting,” they both agreed.
And just like that the problem was resolved. With the new oath put down by Ronan he could ensure that the covens would put aside their fighting and get on, and with Xander’s proposals for tactical changes to the town’s geography they could further reduce the amount of ferals coming through.
With the work done the brothers took back to the air. This time I ended up flying with Victor, who had insisted it was his turn to act as mount. Of the three brothers he was the only one I hadn’t ridden so far. I didn’t see the harm in letting him carry me, but I quickly came to regret it when he started looping through the air and twisting all around, basically showing off and trying to scare me.
Cut it out! Ronan said as Victor twisted round sharply. If Xander has to catch Lily again then you’ll be giving the castle a deep clean from the basements to the attic!
Just having fun, Victor’s voice answered in my mind. He did settle down after that, but I think only for the fear that I very possibly could fall off.
Spirits seemed higher on the flight back to the castle. The brothers had completed their first mission in a long time, and they were slowly starting to take back control of the outlands and iron out any problems that might exist with resident covens. With those problems taken care of they’d help control the feral herds too.
Everything was looking up and we were all in good spirits. The night was still young as the now-familiar silhouette of the Carapath mountains came into view. Even its endless blizzards were starting to feel like home now. We flew through the snowfall, great dragon wings cutting through the drift like giant kites. As we circled in over the roof I held on tight to Victor and wondered what the rest of the night might hold in store for us. Would Shadow be back yet? Was it finally time for he and I to complete our bond?
But as we got closer, we saw Freya standing on the rooftop, her translucent and silver figure a faint shape in the static of the snowstorm. She was waving her arms frantically. Something was wrong.
Ronan and Xander landed first and shifted back into their vampire forms. Victor came down, I quickly jumped off, he shifted, and we ran over to Freya.
“What is it?” Ronan said, his voice laced with anxiousness.
“We have a visitor,” she said. Her face would look ashen if it wasn’t already silver. “A vampire from another coven. He’s down in the main hall.”
“What does he want?” Victor growled.
“An exchange,” she gulped. “It’s Shadow. They’ve taken him as hostage.”
The brothers said little as we made our way down through the castle, running through its hallways and stairways in complete silence. When we got to the main hall, we found its large doors open. We all ventured in slowly, Ronan and Xander at the front, Victor at the back, keeping tight hold of my hand.
In the center of the room a solitary figure turned to greet us. It was clear to me almost straight away that something was very wrong with this vampire. Although he was of relatively normal stature and size, there was something deeply unsettling about him.
His clothes were normal enough. He wore dark trousers, a dark waistcoat and a long jacket. It was his complexion that bothered me. The vampire was pale, so pale I thought I could see the bones underneath his skin. The most bothersome thing was the dark black veins underneath his flesh. Combined with the red skin ringing his all-black eyes it made me want to look away, but somehow, I couldn’t.
“Ah, the brothers three return, and they’ve brought their little breeder.”
“Skravius Morrow,” Xander said calmly. “You have about three seconds to tell us what’s going on before we rip you limb from limb.”
Victor snarled. “You know this pathetic creature?”
“Vaguely.” Xander nodded. “He is a grunt for the Morrow coven. A mere messenger.”
“How did you find the castle?” Ronan asked.
“Oh… it was quite easy,” Skravius said through a slimy smile. “Torture provides many answers.”
“Shadow would never betray our castle’s location,” Victor growled.
“I didn’t say it was Shadow,” Skravius answered cryptically.
“Tell us what you want before you die,” Ronan said. “Make it quick.”
“It’s very simple, really. You have a breeder. You send her along with me, and Shadow will be returned, mostly unharmed. In exchange you will not hear from us again. A very simple trade. Your brother for your bride.”
“You have to be out of your mind to think we’d consider that even for a moment,” Victor said.
Skravius looked at him. The sickly vampire had an assured arrogance about him, but even despite that energy he seemed to have a hard time maintaining eye contact with the brothers.
“My leaders anticipated that would be the case, and so we move to the alternative. I will take her by force. Then we will slit your brother’s throat. You lose both. Really it makes sense to sacrifice her if you think about it…”
“I can go,” I said. “Swap me for Shadow.”
Xander looked back at me calmly. “Very noble of you to offer, Lily. But we wouldn’t take this deal in a million years. There’s no way we win this one. The only option is to destroy this bastard.”
“If you do that,” Skravius said, “You will never find Shadow. Our coven home, just like yours, is very secret. None know where it is. If I’m not back in three hours with your little breeder cunt then your brother dies, so I suggest you make this easy on yourselves.”
“You’re a fucking mongrel rat,” Victor spat. “Do you know who we are? You couldn’t take one of us, let alone all three.”
Another snide smile came over Skravius. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. You like to fly about thinking you’re the only vampires in the outlands that have been gifted with your curious draconic magic, well that’s where you are wrong.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ronan demanded.
“My coven made a very interesting discovery recently; we found a person whom could give us great gifts of magic untold. She was unwilling to give it at first, but with a little persuasion she gave it all. You see… I too am now like you.”
Skravius’s body suddenly started to pop and crack, the bones shifting in his sockets as he grew in size and shape. We all stepped back and watched in horror as the vampire transformed from the shape of a regular man to a fifteen-feet tall hunched beast that looked like a cross between a man and an alligator.
“Jesus Christ,” Victor choked. “What the fuck is that thing.”
“We’re dragons now too!” Skravius said, his voice filling the room. His words were deep and guttural snarls that only just resembled human language. Whatever the fuck this thing was it was not a dragon.
“If you’re a dragon then I’m a fucking dalmatian,” Victor snapped. “What the hell are you?”
The huge scaled creature snapped its jaws. “You only took part of the magic, but we took it all. More magic. More power. Very simple. Idiots. Now, one last chance. Hand over the breeder cunt or you will all die!”
I anticipated the blur of movement even before it happene
d. In my mind I had heard the faintest whisper amongst the brothers as they made their plan. A second later Victor had me in his arms and he was flying back across the room. Then Ronan and Xander shifted into their dragon forms, the huge beasts taking up the rest of the space in the great hall.
Skravius quivered in the presence of two true dragons, but whatever dark magic beat through him now had cast his logic to the side. The deformed beast jumped forward and attacked Xander’s dragon.
Victor shielded me as we watched the colossal beasts tear back and forth across the great hall. Stone shattered around huge bodies; furniture crumpled underfoot like it was made of matchsticks. There was no way Skravius was a match for Xander or Ronan, but he was a cornered animal, a dangerous thing for any foe.
Xander was the first to feel the wrath of Skravius’s newly acquired insanity. Skravius sank his long black teeth down into Xander’s side and his dragon reared back in pain. Ronan’s dragon swept in, grabbed hold of the mongrel beast and ripped him from his brother. With a monumental throw he launched Skravius through the air and across the room. He smashed clean through the stone wall, knocking a large hole that looked out into the snowy night. His body skittered across the snow on a courtyard outside.
Ronan bolted out after him while Xander waited. He shifted back into his human form and slumped along the long wall by the fire. A few seconds passed and there was only quiet.
“Victor, what’s happening?” I said.
“Ronan is finishing this.”
I concentrated on the thought of Ronan. There was an itch at the top of my head. But… how? It all made sense as the roof shattered open. Ronan’s dragon came crashing through it with Skravius in his grip. The two figures smashed into the stone floor of the great hall.
Fight’s over, Ronan said after the dust settled. No way the freakshow is getting up from that one. Come on.
We walked over to the center of the room. A small crater now existed where stone floor had been only moments ago. Ronan was on the opposite side. He shifted back into his human form.
At the crater’s bottom was Skravius, who was also back in his vampire form. His body was twisted and badly broken. Blood ran down his lips. To our right I saw Xander limping back towards us. He was holding his side, which was covered in dark black blood.
“Start talking,” Ronan said to Skravius. “Who did this to you?”
Skravius laughed, coughing up blood as he did so. “The witch. We found her hut. She was very hesitant to give the magic at first, but we have ways of being persuasive.”
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Xander said. “This magic is not a game; you have taken far too much. You have destroyed your souls.”
“My leaders will destroy your souls, just like they’ll destroy your brother and that stupid slave cunt.”
“Tell us where your coven is,” Victor demanded.
Skravius just laughed again. “Never.”
With that he grabbed a piece of long broken stone laying in the crater beside him and plunged it into his heart. He went up in flame, taking his secrets with him.
“We have to go back to Neave,” Ronan said. “She might be the only one who can tell us where Shadow is. Then we have to destroy the Morrow coven.”
“Rain check for me,” Xander said. He slowly lowered himself into a chair, his breath looking heavily labored. “I don’t know what that fucker had in his mouth, but it’s knocked me on my ass. I’ll have to get Freya to help me clean the wound up.”
Ronan nodded. He didn’t look best pleased with the situation, but there was little else we could do. With only Ronan and Victor now, the coven was at half its strength. “Lily you will come with us. Now the Morrow coven knows the location of the castle it’s not safe to leave you here. Xander can’t defend you in his current state.”
“I can help, somehow,” I said. “Is Neave still alive?”
“I hope to god that she is,” Ronan said. “She’s our only chance of finding Shadow.”
8
I kept tight hold of Ronan’s neck as we came down to land in the field outside Neave’s hut. It felt unpleasant to be back in the heart of the black wood again, but desperate times meant desperate measures.
Just one look at her cabin told us that something wasn’t right. Half the windows were broken, and the front door had been left wide open. Ronan and Victor shifted back into vampire form and we ran inside. Inside the cabin was just as disheveled. Furniture had been thrown all about and Neave’s beautiful home had been completely trashed.
Those fucking bastards.
There was no sign of her at first, but then I heard her shout my name. This time there was no hint of her usual sing-song voice. This was the voice of a woman that had been left broken and battered.
“Lily,” she managed. We all turned at once and saw her half-buried in a pile of rubble just behind us. We’d almost walked straight past her. Ronan and Victor quickly pulled the rubble off the witch and we all gasped at the state she had been left in. She was covered in cuts and bruises, completely unrecognizable to her usual self.
“What happened?” Ronan asked.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” she wheezed. “I’d come back from vanquishing a very powerful demon, my power was completely spent. I found the Morrow coven waiting for me here. Their demands were very simple, give them the power that I gave to you.”
“We already saw one of them,” Victor said. “That thing wasn’t a dragon.”
She smiled weakly. “No. They tortured me, so I decided to give them what they wanted, but I gave them way too much. Those abominations of magic will not live to see the end of the month. They made me tell them the location of your castle too. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Ronan said, “this isn’t your fault. Do you know where they come from? We need to trace them to their hiding point. They have Shadow and they’re going to kill him. If we lose him…”
“I’m sorry Ronan, but I do not know the location of their lair. If there was some way I could find out I would tell you, but I might know of one who can help you track them.”
“Who?” Victor asked.
Neave raised a finger and pointed at me. “You dreamed of him, didn’t you? He told you where he was.”
I paused. “I did? What? I don’t remember—”
“Dreams are fickle things child. They come and go like whispers on the wind. Think of Shadow and cast your mind inwards. You will find the answer he left for you there. I can feel his presence on your soul.”
I blinked. Everyone was looking at me. Somehow it was now up to me to save the day. “Um… okay… let me see what I can do.”
I stepped away from the group, giving myself some distance so I could try and focus on this impossibly vague task. Breathe. Relax. Just… empty your mind and follow your instinct.
My gaze wandered across Neave’s wrecked cabin. Rage and anger burned through me. I had never heard of this coven before, but it seemed like they were among the ranks of darker vampires in this world. Now they were running about, half-men, half-demonic creatures, fueled by a dangerous amount of dark and unusual magic.
Focus. Think about Shadow.
He was still just a stranger in my eyes, but in my mind, I truly felt like a piece of our coven was missing. I had to get him back. We needed to be whole for the first time.
Hollow… Hollow… Hollow…
I closed my eyes and focused on the missing vampire. In the darkness his face flickered before me. Gone were the dark black eyes, and in their place was brilliant shining red.
“Lily, you have to find me.”
Looking up I realized we were in a dark forest with gaunt and twisting trees.
“Shadow. Where are you? Where are we?”
“Hare’s Hollow,” he said. “That is where they hide. The caves beneath the hill. Hurry. There isn’t long left.”
“We’ll save you.”
“There’s something you must know. You will meet an obstacle on the way. They are friends. J
ust remember that.”
“…Okay. We’ll get you; I promise.”
“Lily, wait. There’s another thing. You have to come. Remember that. Without you, I will die.”
The vision broke away like burning parchment, light flooding in from the cracks between the fire. Then I was standing in Neave’s cabin again. Everyone was looking at me.
“Well?” Neave whispered.
“Hare’s Hollow. The caves beneath the hills.”
Ronan and Victor immediately stood to attention. “That’s only half an hour away from here,” Ronan said, his eyes fixed on Victor. “If we set off now, we can be there in no time.”
Victor nodded to himself and looked at Neave. “Can Lily stay here with you? She can help you recover. This mission is far too dangerous to—”
“I have to come,” I said, interrupting Victor.
“What?”
“I talked to Shadow. He said he’d die if I wasn’t there.”
Ronan looked confused. “You talked to him? That’s not possible he’s been feral for months.”
“I don’t know how to explain it Ronan, okay? It just happened, and he seemed very sure he would die if I wasn’t there to help.”
The two brothers considered one another silently, probably whispering back and forth about how neither of them wanted to risk me being there. They acquiesced, however. “Fine,” Ronan said, “but this really doesn’t make things easier for us. Neave, are you going to be okay here by yourself?”
“I have been left in worse conditions. I will live. I can slowly begin healing now I can move again. Just help me up.” Victor and I helped Neave off the floor and onto her feet. She had us help her up the stairs. At the top she turned and held herself against the wall. “That is far enough I can make the rest of the way on my own. Thank you.”