by Tara Brown
The others follow suit until every witch is on her knees, bowing before us.
“What is this?”
Dorian cracks a grin. “They know who you are.”
“Great.”
Landry rolls his eyes. “Like you don't already have a swollen head.”
I lift my middle finger into the air, still looking around at the kneeling witches. “Tell them to stand. They’ll freeze.”
Gwen strides toward us. She waves. “You gotta see this.” We walk to where she is, coming over the crest of a hill. In the valley below there is a clearing filled with small houses, shacks like Landry said. In the light of the pale dusk, we see the houses scattered amongst the dark trees and a frozen creek. All the people out in the snow are kneeling—hundreds of them.
I don't know what to say or do. Dorian comes and stands next to me. “You ever hear of the witch queen?”
I shake my head.
“Apparently, they have. She is the witch who will come into power when the world is getting close to ending. She will be the witch who ends the evil at the end of days.”
I turn. “What end of days?”
“You ever listen to one thing Lorri says?”
“Sometimes.”
“This is one of the bigger discussions she likes to have. The end of days, the rise of the antichrist.” He winks. “Don't worry, your part is only ‘girl who saves the world.’ No biggie.”
I shove him lightly. “Why you gotta be so mean? They’re mistaken.”
He looks around. “I don't know that this many witches would be wrong.”
“They are.” I turn and walk back to the siren. “Ask her where the kids are.”
Landry speaks softly, saying so many words I have to assume he’s adding his own flare. She shakes her head and says something in a very short sentence. He sighs. “She says they sent back five to the village they were stolen from. The rest are still missing—twelve children. They’re all special kids.”
Gwen crosses her arms over her chest. “Does she know where the children were seen last?”
The siren turns and points into the woods saying two words. Landry shrugs. “There’s a cave.”
“Of course there is.” I rub my hands over my eyes. ”There’s always a cave. Goddamn. Why can’t there just once be an orchard or a friggin’ beach or a lovely garden? Why does it always have to be the darkest, scariest place we have ever seen?” I start walking in that direction. Dorian grabs my arm, wink-running me until we reach a section of forest at the base of a mountainside. The sun is going to rise soon, meaning Gwen will have to return home or to a dark place.
The entrance to the mountain cave is not obvious but I point at it anyway. “It’s there.”
Dorian gives me a puzzled look. “How do you know that?”
“The dead kids walking out into the forest. They know I see them. Now they’re staring at me from the bush right there. It’s pretty obvious they want me to go that way.”
“I never envy you. Ever.”
I step toward the ghosts, entering the thicker woods. A child with black eyes and a pale face stares up at me. She flickers in the moonlight and holds a hand out to me. I take it, shuddering from the cold of her dead skin.
“Say you aren’t holding its hand, just say that.”
I ignore Dorian and go to the base of the mountainside where a dark spot sits amongst trees and ghosts of children. They line the dark spot, lighting the way almost, with their ethereal light. They all appear similar in age and size. They’re all in pajamas and nightdresses.
“Whoever took them came in the night.”
Landry stands next to me, gazing around and muttering, “Vampires.”
Dorian sighs. “Probably.”
I glance at Gwen as her face pales even more, making her ethereal-like in the moonlight just as the children are. I don't want to think about the fact her brothers and father probably killed witch children. God knows what they did and he can keep that information to himself.
We enter the cave but the children don't come. They stay at the entrance, in a crowd of light.
Dorian walks close to me, his arm rubbing against mine. I imagine Landry is the same. It doesn't matter that we are all trained killers; they are men and they feel they must protect us.
I can’t lie, I enjoy that perks of being a girl.
Firelight dances at the end of the cave, showing us the way. I can’t smell anything beyond the smoke. The craggy cave is larger than it first appeared. The firelight reveals all the nooks and crannies and shadows.
I cast away my cloak around me, making the scent of the witch that much stronger, and slip into the cave ahead of them. “Let me be bait.”
As I round the corner I am stunned, still and silent. It isn’t A vampire. It isn’t several vampires. It’s hundreds of vampires, and as I round the corner at least half turn their faces toward me. They’re all down below in a huge opening in the cave.
Dorian comes just behind me. “Shit!” And he’s gone.
Gwen steps in just behind me and whispers, “He’s left us here with this?”
But Landry shakes his head. “He’s gone for reinforcements.”
The vampires are all getting up, seeming confused but licking their lips.
Landry holds his ring out, the ring I myself have only just received. It is silver with a thin red line that wraps around it, with a single red rose engraved at the end of the line. One side of the ring is wider, representing the people of the world. On the other side of the thin red line is a small strip of silver, representing the supernatural world. The red band in the middle, that’s us, the Devil’s Roses. We are the last line of defense against the dark and the evil, and the thing that mankind can never be aware of.
The massive cave opening they are in begins to move as they come forward, each with bloodshot eyes and a stain of wickedness. The little girl is suddenly at my side. She takes my hand again and squeezes my finger. Her voice is like an icy wind as she whispers up at me, “My brother is still in there.”
I swallow hard as the sea of them moves toward us. I have no plan but to fight as hard as I can. I draw a line of electricity in the sand, rocks, and crags while I wait for them to get closer. They are slow and dazed.
“What do the Roses want with us?” a man asks as he gets closer.
Landry’s voice is dark and filled with things I haven’t ever heard from him. “You’re murdering children.”
“Witches. We heard it was open season on them. All the witches—we was supposed to kill them. That's what the king says.”
Oh God.
Landry shakes his head. “No. The king is wrong.”
This enrages them instantly. Fangs drop, mouths widen with hisses and shouts. They go from being a slithering line of curious evil to a horde of undead monsters. I snap my fingers, lighting the line up with the fire Whit was scared of. They snarl at us, tempting the fire and then shrinking back from the wall of flames.
Gwen backs away from it. She turns to me. “I heard that at the last brothel we took. That's what the men said. The king ordered the slaughter of witches.”
I swallow hard. “Why would Marcus order that?”
“I thought they were lying. Vampires are liars. But two vampires telling the same lie is one thing. Hundreds is another.”
Dorian appears with Lorri and Marcus in hand. My blood boils. “Your people wish an audience with you.” He scowls at me but walks toward the fire. I part it like the sea apparently was once, and let the king walk through. I want to scald his ass but I don't. Lorri growls as Landry fills her in on what we’ve heard and seen.
When her eyes meet mine, she shakes her head. “This isn’t Marcus. This is Jonathan and Oliver.”
I wince. Great, two of the other fallen, of the five that fell with Lorri. I don't know anything about them, beyond hearing that they don't see humanity the way Lorri does. They don't value life or freedom for the masses.
A scream fills the air as movements begin behin
d the wall of flames. Something happens that we can’t see, but we can hear as other screams join them. Something dark and frightening is occurring. The flames reveal the shadows of the fight, but we can’t see the winner or the loser. I lift my hands to lower the flames but Lorri stops me. “He has this, trust me.”
I do normally but the thought of them ripping him to pieces frightens me. The last of the screams fill the air and slowly a single dark shadow walks to the fire. He stands at the other side and mutters, “Your turn, Dorian.”
I lower the flames and Marcus walks out, covered in black blood. His eyes don't meet mine as he walks past us and down the long dark tunnel. Dorian walks into the large opening of the cave, moving with great speed and ferocity. His hand swipes past them, sucking souls so fast I can’t see all the movements he makes. I turn and walk out of the cave, finding Marcus standing alone in the dusky forest. He doesn't turn when he speaks, “You must let me change you.”
“I’m fine this way.”
“No. You aren’t fine.” He turns, making me jump. His face is soaked in the blood of the dying vampires and his eyes are a black sort of blue. “You are vulnerable. That many vampires, witch hunting, could have taken you. You might have just walked into a trap for all I know. You need my blood.”
“I don't want to be that. I like just being a fae witch. Adding halfling is a mistake I don't intend to repeat. I like the wind on my face and the warmth around me. I don't want an eternity of darkness.”
In a wave of anger and odd emotion I don't expect because the onset is so fast, he spins and shouts at me, “YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO ME! THEY WILL KILL YOU!” He storms across the crunchy snow and grabs my arm. I try to freeze him but it doesn't work. He shoves me back in the snow and bites his wrist. “Do you see how easy it is to overpower you?” He shoves his seeping wound in my face, forcing it past my lips. I scream as he cuts one of my lips, allowing for the blood to get in. The hot, thick liquid oozes into my throat, coating it. I am drowning and shooting fireballs and trying to freeze him. I electrocute him and call upon the winds and earth, but still he grips me and battles the effects of my magic and wrath.
He won’t let go. We shoot up into the air, still in our struggled embrace as I call on all the elements at once, creating a massive twister.
We are flying through the air when he finally lets me go. I scream as I realize what he has done to me. “WHAT IF I CAN’T SAVE ANGIE NOW? WHAT IF THIS TAKES MY SOUL? I NEEDED MY SOUL!”
He is killing me with the choking feeling in my throat and the sorrow in his eyes as he reaches forward and takes a nasty big bite out of my neck. His fangs are the last things I see before everything goes black.
When I wake I am smothered in something heavy. I reach forward, bursting my hand through the heaviness to discover it is dirt. I am buried alive which means I am dead. He has completed the change. I am no halfling.
A hand reaches into the dirt and pulls me from it. It is Marcus. I wipe the dirt from my face and hair as I struggle from his grip. We are in a warm graveyard with large overhanging trees and a beautiful smell. He brought me home.
His jaw is tight but he manages to speak calmly, “I am not sorry for this.”
“I hate you. I never want to see you again.” The words sort of fall out, like they chose to leave my lips on their own accord.
“I suppose that is fair.” He steps toward me. “But I want you to understand one thing.” His eyes are still dark and creepy, like the blue has been sucked out. “I did everything for you. I went back three times with you, remembering every detail. I relived this same bullshit fifty years, all for you. I don't do things for other people. I don't love and I don't care and I don't save people.” I realize suddenly he isn’t angry. He’s emotional but doesn't know how to be. His voice cracks, “I don't do any of those things for anyone but you.”
“I hate you and I never want to see you. Forget you made me. I don't want any part in your royal family or any part in your bloodline. I want to be the girl you never met.”
He looks like he might attack me or just tear down every willow and walnut tree in the graveyard, but he doesn't. He nods once and steps back. “Then it shall be like we have never met.” He is gone. I don't know what kind of magic he used to do it but I don't feel better. I drop to my knees sobbing black water down my cheeks and holding myself. I scream up into the dark night, wishing I could hate him as much as I said I did.
I get up and stumble, sobbing, to the grave I was supposed to make empty. I drop to my knees again and lie down on the dirt where she is. I close my eyes and whisper, “I’m so sorry, Angie.” I cry like she has just died, because, for the first time since she was murdered, I am painfully aware of the fact she can’t ever come back.
I lie there until the sunrise starts to sparkle in the air.
Chapter 22
London, 2009
Sometimes I miss Marcus. It isn’t often but it happens when I least expect it. I stroll into the kitchen to get a blood bag, but I find Gwen and Landry smiling at me instead. I don't like it when they smile at me at the same time. I feel like I’ve intruded.
Only today she hands me a huge box covered in wrapping paper. “Open it.”
I look down on the box and shake my head. “What is this for?”
“It’s your birthday.”
I look outside at the dark and nod. “Oh. It must have slipped my mind.” I tear at the sparkly paper and smile when I see it. It’s a picture. The picture. “How did you get it?” The painting is of Marcus, Dorian, and Aleksander in front of a beautiful estate. I love the painting so much it makes my dead heart ache a little.
“Marcus replicated it for you and told me it was something you loved. He seems more jovial lately.”
I narrow my gaze. “Then he’s up to something.”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “He’s rotten as the day is long but he’s not the worst vampire out there. It’s been decades. Why won’t you just forgive him? He was right. You were vulnerable. It was the best possible solution for you. You still have the strength and magic of the witch, because you claimed your magic before you died. You have the invincibility and immortality of a vampire. And you have all the weird shit from being fae.”
“He sealed my fate for me. He chose my destiny and forced this on me. And I can’t save Angie. I don't know who to push or how to control it. What if Em dies because of the push or Daddy or Maria? No one wins unless I use the magic when she pushes me and choose what the push will be.”
Landry sighs. “Lorelei, he loves you in his twisted and scary fashion. He does. He just wanted you to be safe.”
“Hmmmhmmm.” My face doesn't change. “Thank you for this. I love it. Tell him thanks.” I carry it to my room and take down the painting I had done of the garden at my house with the old dance floor and the pillars. The lilacs were in full bloom and it smelled amazing. I never see it during the day. I never see anything during the day anymore.
I draw a line on the door wall of my room and make a door. I push it open and walk out onto the dance floor at my daddy’s. The house is no longer ours. It’s sold. He and Maria are in Florida, the worst place they could have gone for me. The sun is unbearable but she uses the sun to keep them alive longer. I always visit at night and make Daddy believe I look older than I do. I make him think I stayed for the week and my kids ran around the yard. I make him believe I am happy and married to a kind man named John. I do it so he never worries. I can even compel Maria now but I don't bother. I enjoy being able to be me with her. The magic and the vampire combined are unstoppable but having someone know who you are is more valuable.
Em is the tricky one. She and Greg are old. Mid-sixties and they have grandkids. They’re happy in a way that makes me uncomfortable and grateful. I can’t fight the desire to have her life or to wish it for Angie. I feel like the world isn’t completely set right. Angie is dead, forever, and I am stuck in the dark with the cool whispered wind of the dead.
And I love the man who put me here and
cursed me with this. I love him more every day I don't see him.
I love him with every fiber of my being. I love him to the moon and back but it don't matter. I won’t ever let him back in. I won’t ever be that girl who gets pushed around and told how to be and who to be.
I am a woman and I am strong without a man.
I am stronger than any woman I know.
The doorbell rings as I step back and look at the painting. I go to the door and answer, smiling when I see the troubled face of Aleksander. He cocks an eyebrow. “You wouldn't want to help a guy out with a girl problem, would you?” He is the most handsome of all of them. His aqua-blue eyes haunt you with an emptiness. It’s so odd the way women want to fill men up with whatever they’re lacking.
I smile. “What on earth are you talking about now?”
He swallows and gives me a haunted look. “My dad.” The words make me shiver. If I had remained partially human and ever had children, his father would be the subject of the scary stories I told them to warn them about all the bad in the world.
He is the big bad wolf.
I nod, closing the door behind me. Aleksander takes me in his thick arms and does his version of traveling. It’s not a wink and it’s not as fast, but when we land in the middle of the forest I don't feel off. His way of moving is less harsh. Not to mention, he smells like cookies. I daydream about biting him, but Lydia told me he is not the sort of guy a girl goes around biting. As good as he smells, his lips are the issue for me. They’re plump and make me wanna kiss him. He doesn’t usually notice when I’m staring at them. It makes me a bit sad for him. He’s like a piece of meat and all women treat him like that.
He leads me through the forest to a road, a highway.
“Where are we?” It reminds me of the United States.
“Close to Lydia’s. A few hours away from there.”
I sniff the air, cloaking myself even more. His dad freaks me out in unnatural ways. He can’t kill me, not the way he likes. I suppose he could torture the hell out of me though. “I don't smell him.”