by Morgan Rice
“Now, I’m losing my patience with you,” Kyle said. “Tell me where the girl lives or I’ll make sure you never get to read one of your precious books again.”
Tears began to streak down Aidan’s cheeks. Kyle held the dart a mere millimeter from his eye. One slip, and the old man would be blinded.
“All right!” Aidan cried at last, his voice etched with agony. “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you.”
Kyle let him down. The old man was trembling all over. He wobbled over to his desk and pulled out a leather-bound book. He flung it across the room at Kyle.
“It’s in there,” Aidan said, his voice drenched with regret. “That address will lead you to Scarlet Paine.”
Kyle clutched the address book in his hands. Just to make sure the old man hadn’t tricked him, he flicked to the correct section and scanned the page. At the top, in neat, flowery, academic handwriting was the word Paine. Several names and an address were scrawled beneath.
Kyle snapped the book shut.
“Good man, professor,” he said. “Don’t worry: one day I might just turn you, too.”
He turned and swirled out of the office, leaving Aidan a hunched, weeping heap in his office chair.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Scarlet didn’t know how long she’d been ascending the stone staircase. Shadows ebbed and swelled around her as she took one careful step after the other, her hand running along the rough stone wall to help keep her balance. After having followed the tendril of light inside the tower, she’d found herself in an empty, chamber-like room, with nothing but a zig-zagging staircase before her. With no other options, she’d begun to climb.
As she went, it occurred to her that the tower shape and strange, winding staircase design made it impossible for her to fly. She wondered whether it had been designed that way specifically; a vampire-proof structure, built to ensure that whatever—or whomever—was residing at the top would have plenty of time to prepare for the approaching intruder.
The further up Scarlet went, the darker her surroundings became, until it was so black she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. The only sounds she could hear were the soles of her sneakers scuffing against the stone steps, the squeaky noise mingling with her ragged, anxious breath. She had no idea what would be awaiting her at the top of the staircase, though every instinct inside of her told her that the uncertainty and fear would be worth it in the end.
Suddenly, without warning, there was no extra step to take. Scarlet’s foot plunged to the leveled ground, filling her with a horrible falling sensation. Though she couldn’t see a thing, she knew that she had finally reached the top of the tower.
She took another step forward and stretched her hands into the dark, empty expanse before her. All at once, she heard the sound of a roaring wind striking up outside of the tower. It sounded like a fierce storm had sprung from nowhere, though Scarlet had seen no indication on the journey here that one was brewing. Scarlet couldn’t help thinking that something mystical was afoot.
The wind continued to howl. Then, suddenly, the tower lurched and began to sway. Scarlet’s stomach flipped as she felt the floor move beneath her. The walls groaned. Scarlet stumbled and tried to steady herself on the walls but lost her footing and crashed to her knees.
Even in her terror, Scarlet could think only of Sage, and of the way she had left him out there alone. What if he wasn’t strong enough to survive the battering of a storm? What if he died out there alone? She would never forgive herself.
Just then, a loud crack of thunder sliced through the air. It was so loud that Scarlet covered her ears. Then a mere second later came the flash flash flash of lightning, bright enough to burst through the cracks in the stone brickwork. For a moment, the whole room was illuminated.
It was then that Scarlet realized she was not alone.
Though the room had been alight for no more than a second, she had gotten a good look at them. Three old women, each with a long white shawl hanging over her shoulder. Their eyes were glazed over with age, clouded by cataracts. Scarlet wasn’t sure if they could even see her at all. They were standing side by side serenely, smiles on their wrinkled faces as though oblivious to the storm and the shaking tower. They looked like they could be a thousand years old.
Scarlet was on her knees, looking up at the blank space where she’d seen the women.
“Who are you?” she cried, her voice rising a notch to compete with the screaming wind outside.
The tower shook as another rumble of thunder sounded out. Scarlet pressed her hands to the ground, trying to find something solid and unmovable, and failing. The ground shook like the aftershock of an earthquake and Scarlet felt her stomach roiling.
“Please!” she shouted. “I’ve been led to this place! I think you can help me!”
The women didn’t say a word. Scarlet began to worry that she had made them up entirely.
She dragged herself to her feet, battling against the swaying ground, and began to stumble toward the place the women had been, hands outstretched. She’d gotten no more than two paces when lightning struck again. The women were no longer there.
Scarlet was plunged back into darkness. She span round, groping, trying to get hold of something, anything.
“She seeks answers, dear sisters,” came a wizened voice from behind Scarlet.
There was something about the voice that made Scarlet feel uneasy. It was beyond old, beyond ancient. It was a voice from the beginning of time.
She swirled on the spot but couldn’t see a thing. She couldn’t even make out their silhouettes.
Another explosion of light burst through the cracks in the walls, revealing the three women now surrounding her. She screamed, startled by their sudden reappearance, by their closeness. She felt fingers slide into her hair and shuddered. Her skin crawled.
When lightning illuminated the room again, Scarlet caught another glimpse of the three strange, white-haired women. She realized that they were pacing in a circular motion around her. She reached out and tried to grasp one of the women’s arms, but they moved too quickly for even super vampire speed.
“She is in love,” another voice said, distinct from the first but equally as disconcerting.
“It is an obsession,” the third voice contested. Her voice was the most terrifying of them all. It was raspy, painful just to listen to, like acid burning flesh.
Scarlet’s throat constricted.
“It’s not an obsession,” she stammered. “Sage and I are in love.”
The women ignored Scarlet, speaking not to her but instead to one another over her head, as though she weren’t even in the room.
“A vampire in love with an Immortalist!” the horrifying third woman was saying, her cackling, rasping laughter making Scarlet shudder.
Scarlet squeezed her hands into fists and swallowed the bile in her throat. The third woman enraged her. How dare she make such snap judgments about her and Sage?
Just then the ground shook violently, flinging Scarlet to the floor. Her palms slammed into the cold stones, making pain race up her forearms.
Now the voices of the women floated above her. Their ancient, rasping words seemed magnified, as though each syllable filled the entire room, until Scarlet felt like she was filled with the very sound of them.
The first woman was using a sing-songy voice. “A vampire in love with an Immortalist, dear sisters. Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
“And when their races bring our world to the brink of war!” added the second.
From her position on the floor, Scarlet shook her head in confusion.
“What are you talking about?” she pleaded. “I don’t understand! What war?”
From all around her came the sound of the women laughing, echoing off every wall, swirling down through the entire tower and back up again, multiplying fifty times over. Their laughter grew louder and louder until Scarlet’s head pounded from the noise. Their cackles merged with the roaring wind, with the roc
king building.
Scarlet could take no more. She slammed her fists into the ground. She felt the stone crack beneath them.
“Why did you bring me here?” she screamed.
All at once, everything went silent. The women stopped howling with laughter. The wind stopped roaring. The floor no longer shook.
Scarlet breathed hard and deeply, trying to calm her frayed nerves.
“You brought me here,” she added, “because you can help Sage. I know you can. I just want a cure.”
There was a long moment of silence. Then, from the center of the room, a small yellow light began to glow.
Scarlet swept the hair from her eyes and peered up. The light radiated warmth, and for the first time since she’d entered the tower, she got a real sense of her surroundings. The Mayan-style stones exposed on the inside were a warm beige color. There were no windows. The roof pointed up, culminating in a huge peak. Dust covered cobwebs criss-crossed across the length of the ceiling, thick and ancient.
And, more importantly, Scarlet got her first proper look at the three strange women. In the yellow light they appeared much younger. Their white shawls looked golden, and the mistiness had disappeared from their eyes, revealing that each had a different colored iris.
“Who are you?” Scarlet said.
“We are the beginning,” the first woman said. Her voice no longer cracked but was as smooth as honey. Her eyes sparkled azure.
“We are the end,” the second sister said, her emerald eyes glinting.
“We are all time and no time,” added the third. She had deep black eyes like pools of oil.
“I don’t understand,” Scarlet said.
The blue-eyed sister ran a hand down her silky gold shawl and paced across the floor, her steps as light as snow.
“We have been here since the first spark of life,” she said. “And we have seen the end of time. We exist always and forever, and always have, and always will, for ever more. We have seen the birth of the Earth and its death. We have seen it a thousand times over, backwards, forwards, and all at once. We know everything.”
“We are knowledge,” the second sister added. “All understanding. We can stand on atoms. We hold planets in the palms of our hands. We are the wind and the water, the fire and the earth. We are everything that has ever been or ever will.”
“We are sorrow” added the third sister. “We are joy. We have felt every tear that has been shed. We have breathed every breath. We are pain and forgiveness, anger and sin. We are intangible and everything that can be felt at once.”
Scarlet shook her head and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.
“And you can help me?” she stammered.
The blue eyed sister turned to the other two.
“Dear sisters,” she said. “She cares deeply for the dying Immortalist.”
“It is a powerful love, indeed,” the second sister said. “But what of her mother and father? They chase her across the Earth.”
Scarlet finally managed to collect herself and stood.
“What about my parents?” she asked.
The third woman, the one who had reviled Scarlet so much, turned her dark black eyes on her.
“They risk their lives chasing after you,” she scoffed. “Searching for a cure to save you. Putting themselves in mortal peril.”
Though her voice no longer turned Scarlet’s stomach, her attitude still enraged her.
“Please, I just need to save Sage. Then I can help my parents, or find a cure, or stop a war, or whatever it is you think I should be doing instead of saving the man I love.”
The third woman was about to issue a rebuke when her emerald-eyed sister laid a hand on her arm.
“It is not her fault that she cares only for the dying boy,” she said. “She will do anything for him. We ought to help.”
“I care about my family, too!” Scarlet protested. “And my friends! I just...” her voice quieted. “I can’t live without Sage. And that’s the truth.”
The black-eyed sister flashed a fierce expression at Scarlet.
“Care about your family and friends?” she hissed. “Is that why you leave your best friend to languish in a mental institute?”
Scarlet staggered back, the woman’s words hitting her like a fist. Had something happened to Becca, Jasmine, or Maria? She couldn’t bear to think about it. The thought of her friends in danger hurt her to the core.
“Please, just help me save Sage,” she begged. “You brought me here for a reason, didn’t you? Or was it just to torture me?”
She could feel the tears creeping up and hated herself for them, hated her weakness. But everything was overwhelming her. These women had told her that her parents were in peril, that a war was coming, that one of her friends was in a mental institute. The only thought that gave her any comfort was that this was some kind of test.
The blue-eyed sister’s gaze softened.
“She will do anything for him, dear sisters,” she said. “Just look at her.”
“I will,” Scarlet said, gasping through her emotion. “Anything.”
She pulled her hands into prayer position.
“She does not care about the great suffering that is to come,” the black-eyed sister sneered. “She sees only what is before her. She thinks only of the boy.”
Scarlet’s tears turned to anger. She swirled to face the black-eyed woman and gritted her teeth.
“So what?” she challenged. “So what if all I want is Sage! So what if I’d happily die to let him live!”
The black-eyed sister paused. A smile turned up the corners of her lips.
“You would die?” she said, arching an eyebrow.
Scarlet clenched her fists.
“I will.”
The black-eyed woman spun round to face her sisters, moving so effortlessly it was as if she were made of air. The other two women looked at her with mournful expressions on their faces.
“She said she would die,” she said. “Then, dear sisters, let us tell her, that die she must.”
Scarlet felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. The whole world seemed to end in that moment. All this time she had been hoping, praying, holding on to the slimmest possibility that somehow she and Sage could live happily ever after. And now they were telling her it couldn’t be? That she would have to die to let him live?
“I… I have to die?” she stammered. “So Sage can live?”
“There is no other way,” the third sister said, cruelly. “An Immortalist can be made human by draining a vampire of their blood.”
Scarlet could hardly breathe. “You mean he’d have to kill me?”
The black eyed woman smiled even more devilishly. “Of course. But this can only happen whilst in the vampire city. And an Immortalist can only enter the vampire city of their own free will.”
“He will do it,” Scarlet said passionately. “If I tell him what he needs to do, he will do.”
“They must be willing to be mortal,” the sister added with vicious glee. “And they must do it for love or they will perish.”
“We are in love!” Scarlet cried. “Sage will want to become a human, I know he will.”
The black-eyed woman turned her gaze from Scarlet to her sisters.
“How can she be so certain, dear sisters?” she said lazily. “She knows not what the boy must sacrifice. She does not understand how it feels to have immortality flowing through your veins.”
Before Scarlet had entered the tower, she’d have thought there was nothing in the world she could face that would make her question her and Sage’s love. She’d been certain that Sage would consent to any conditions that meant they would be together. And yet now, in a heartbeat, the women had put a seed of doubt in her mind.
She shook her head. It could all be a game, a mental trick. She couldn’t let this woman deter her.
“Where is the city?” Scarlet demanded.
The black-eyed woman turned to her sisters.
“Tel
l her what she needs to know if you wish,” she said.
And in a swirl of black smoke, she disappeared into the ether.
Scarlet stared at the space she had once filled, feeling, in spite of herself, a profound sense of loss.
The blue-eyed sister approached.
“The vampire city resides beneath the Sphinx in Egypt.”
Scarlet’s mouth dropped open. “I’ll never get there in time! Sage will die before I reach Egypt!”
The green eyed sister came up beside them.
“Take this,” she said.
She held up a small glass vial. It had a glass stopper in the top, and a long dropper that stretched down to the bottom.
“What is it?” Scarlet asked.
The green-eyed woman removed the stopper. The glass glittered and Scarlet saw then that the point was as sharp as a needle. The woman jabbed her finger. A drop of blood bubbled to the surface of her skin. She held her finger over the vial. The red drop fell into it.
“A drop of immortality,” the woman said, smiling. “For the Immortalist. It will keep him alive until you reach the lost vampire city.”
Scarlet took the glass bottle in her hand. It was so small, so delicate, and yet contained something irreplaceably important.
All at once, a green swirling smoke appeared, and Scarlet realized that the second woman was disappearing into the ether like her black-eyed sister had.
Only the blue-eyed woman remained.
“Why did you help me?” Scarlet said.
The woman rested her hand on Scarlet’s arm. Right before Scarlet’s eye, the hand became smaller. When she looked up, she realized the woman had turned into a child, small and innocent.
“We are the mothers of all,” she said, her voice sweet and childlike. “We do not want our children to fight and die and kill each other.”
“But you’ve seen everything,” Scarlet says. “You know how it ends.”
The girl smiled.
“We have seen everything. Every outcome. Every possibility. Everything that could be. Not everything that must.”
Scarlet shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”