Knowledge Quickening

by D. S. Williams

  Despite my terror about what was happening in Romania, I knew Epi and Conal were right. Whatever I was facing, it was more powerful than I'd faced yet. And I needed to have the full strength of the spirits behind me to fight it. With constant practice, I was growing stronger and more potent every day. Although it was frustrating as hell to be sitting around on our hands, I knew the spirits would tell me if anything happened, would give me warning if they were going to be killed. I knew from the spirits they were being held by the Vampire Council in Romania, at their castle near a city called Sfantu Drâghici. One of the oldest cities in Transylvania, it had been inhabited since 1332. Laying on the Olt River, in a valley between the Barolt and Bodoc Mountains, the Drâghici Vampires, who had merged themselves together as both a Kiss and the Council inhabited a stronghold high in the mountains, overlooking the city. Who would have thought? Vampires actually living in Transylvania. If I hadn't been so horrified, it would've been funny.

  I cringed inwardly as I thought again, about what was being done to my friends. The spirits, whilst not exactly helpful in whatever quest I happened to be facing, were unpleasantly vocal about how my friends were being tortured. I knew they were being given no blood, no sustenance and as time went by; their abilities were deteriorating, their strength leaving them. There were ominous warning of what was being done to them, but I knew I had no choice – I had to wait. I needed answers before I could rescue them.

  My emotions were being ripped apart. I knew they desperately needed help, but I had to accept what Epi and Conal insisted was true – that we needed more information, before I could march over to Europe and rescue them. Epi assured me he would get me there and I had to trust him. It wasn't as if I could just head out to the airport and book a flight – I had no legal means of travelling. I often wondered if I was putting too much faith in those around me, but what else could I do?

  My cell phone rang and I reached into the pocket of my shorts to grab it. “Hello?”

  “It's Conal. I'm outside, unlock the door.”

  I launched off the couch and ran to the heavy doors, throwing off the locks and wrenching them open. Conal stood in the doorway, heavy shadows circling his eyes, but he looked better than when I'd last seen him. I wanted to throw myself into his arms and hug him, but I hesitated uncomfortably. Our relationship had reverted to pleasant cordiality since his father died.

  He opened his arms to me, apparently reading the indecision in the expression on my face. “Don't I get a hug?”

  I put my arms around him awkwardly and released him just as quickly. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, but I haven't found the bastard who's leaking information.” He stepped past me and greeted Epi, while I shut and locked the heavy doors. “Everything okay here?”

  “We're fine. Epi tells me now that he put enchantments on the church and your apartment. Apparently all the worry about whether I was safe or not was for nothing.”

  “You didn't ask,” Epi retorted.

  “What sort of enchantments?” Conal slumped onto the couch, resting his arms along the back of the headrest.

  I explained what Epi had done and Conal rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Not bad, old man.”

  “Thank you for that rousing endorsement,” Epi sniffed.

  “Are the pack safe?” I questioned. I sat on the floor near Conal, unnerved by the thought of sitting beside him. What was wrong with me? Yes, we had declared anything between us over, but I was wrangling with a discomfort I'd never felt around him before.

  “Yeah. We have a place in the mountains; there are caves up there. The pack will hide out for now.” He frowned heavily. “Ralph Torres heard we weren't the only ones attacked last week. There were at least two other groups who were hit. Maybe more.”

  It was my turn to frown. “I don't understand. If they're after me, what use is there in attacking others? They have nothing to do with this.”

  Conal sighed. “I don't understand it either. But I think I'd feel better if we had more backup down here, to keep an eye on you. Do you think Nick Lingard would come down?”

  “He's flying in tomorrow morning,” I reported quietly. I hadn't been able to hold him off any longer. He was bringing some of his men with him and little Katie. While she had nothing to offer the vampires in the way of abilities, I wouldn't put it past them to kidnap her, as another way of forcing my hand. I'd told Nick I would feel better if she was here and now that I'd learned of Epi's enchantments, I was certain it had been the right decision.

  “Do you think you should contact your dad and warn him?” Conal knew I'd been keeping in contact with my father, using the iPad to send emails back and forth. Our correspondence was regular and we'd been getting to know one another, in fact, he'd been suggesting we meet, something that in light of my current situation, I was trying desperately to avoid.

  “And tell him what? That I'm involved with vampires, werewolves, shape shifters and a warlock and oh, by the way, I'm an Angel? I don't think so,” I responded with a wry grin.

  “Whilst I can see how it would be difficult to explain, he and his family could be in danger,” Epi said, surprising me by agreeing with Conal.

  “There's no way of explaining,” I waved my hand around the room, “all this to him and not coming across as a complete lunatic.”

  “You told me the guy's an ex-marine,” Conal said. “He's probably seen some freaky stuff in his time.”

  “I'm pretty sure he's never met a werewolf. Or a warlock,” I stated with certainty. “Look, I'll think about it, okay? Maybe I could talk to Mom, ask her specifically to keep an eye out for him – warn me if anything untoward happens. Is that good enough?”

  Conal nodded his agreement. “Okay. For right now though, I'm taking you back to the apartment. You look like hell.”

  “You'll be back in the morning for more training?” Epi pressed.

  Conal groaned as he unlocked the doors. “Naturally. Nothing I like better than starting the morning by getting the crap beaten out of me and smelling as if I've rolled in a corpse. See you, old man.”

  Chapter 35: A Light Bulb Moment

  I lay in Conal's bedroom, the crumpled sheets testimony to the sleeplessness I suffered. I'd been laying here for hours, tossing and turning, unable to quieten my mind enough to doze off.

  The drive from Epi's had been painful and I knew it wasn't only affecting me – Conal had been distracted, as awkward as I'd been. We arrived back at the apartment and Conal ordered Chinese take-away for dinner, which we'd eaten in silence.

  After dinner, he'd announced he was going to bed, leaving me alone in the living room, staring after him with tears welling in my eyes. I heard the door to the second bedroom shut firmly behind him and dragged myself to the bedroom we'd shared until now. I knew Conal was doing what he needed to do and I'd never given him what he wanted, but I missed him. I missed his closeness, the comfort and security of having him holding me in his arms.

  I rolled onto my side, staring at the Hjördis, which was lying by the side of the bed. Maybe I should have stayed at Epi's place. Conal had made it clear he was as uncomfortable having me around, as I was with him. Now he'd decided with certainty what he needed to do, it seemed like a chasm had developed between us. Having me here was a constant reminder of what he couldn't have. A rush of grief swelled in my chest as I realized I'd wanted it too. I loved Lucas, but – and it pained me to admit it - I loved Conal too. Both men were intertwined within my heart and causing me additional pain. Maybe I should swear off men altogether. Not men, you idiot, I reminded myself ruefully. Maybe you should swear off vampires and werewolves.

  Shaking my head, I forced myself to return to more pressing problems. How could we get into the vampires' stronghold, retrieve everyone and get out alive? Nick was inclined towards battling our way in and out, but he was thinking as an enthusiastic fighter. Epi insisted we needed to use stealth and my abilities. I hadn't even tried talking to Conal about what we should do. And I still had that same, un
settling feeling. There was something, which remained elusive – just out of reach in my mind. The vampires had a definite plan, something set in motion months ago. I ran over the events in my life since last October, probing them thoughtfully, trying to pick up a pattern, anything that might give me a clue.

  I fell into a restless sleep sometime around 2am, but my mind filled with more horrifyingly graphic imagery. Lucas calling to me, silver chains wrapped around his torso, burning into his skin as his expression filled with agony. Marianne, asking me why I hadn't warned them of the impending danger, her voice melancholy and accusatory. Striker screaming, his mind destroyed by a thirst for blood which wasn't sated. Rowena pleading for the lives of her family, for that's what she considered them, her skin chalk white and almost paper thin, her eyes filled with terror as she watched Ben being tortured. Striker's skin sizzling as holy water was trickled onto his naked torso, burning him like sulfuric acid and the distress in his eyes as he gritted his teeth against insurmountable suffering. The faces of the werewolf pack, their eyes empty sockets as they stepped closer, growling and snarling. Conal being bitten by one of the vampire Council, his eyes filled with hatred as he watched me standing alone and doing nothing to help – and the sigil, the half-finished purity sigil which I knew wasn't going to help. Interspersed through the nightmare, appearing intermittently, almost as a dream within the nightmare was the man with similarities to myself, with dark curls and fair skin…

  “Charlotte. Charlotte! Sugar, it's a nightmare. C'mon sweetheart, wake up…” My eyes snapped open and I found Conal crouched over the bed, his arms wrapped around my body and holding me tightly against him as I screamed.

  “Conal!” I inhaled a shuddering breath and clung to him as though I'd never let go. I struggled to take back control, taking deep breaths until the nightmare began to fade. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to expunge what I'd seen from my memory. It couldn't be real, my mind was playing tricks based on the myths I'd heard about vampires. “I didn't think you'd come,” I admitted quietly when I'd calmed enough to speak coherently.

  Conal took a moment to speak and when he did, his voice was hushed. “Call me a masochist.”

  “I'm so sorry.”

  “For what? For not being a werewolf? For not loving me?” He loosened his hold, settling into the bed with his back against the pillows before he drew me into his arms, nestled me against his chest. “You can't help who you love.” He brushed the tears from my cheeks with his thumb. “I can't help loving you. It doesn't matter what I tell myself, how much I try to deny it – that's the truth. I don't want to be with anyone else but you. Hell, I don't want to think about anyone else but you.”

  I needed to be honest with him. “I know it's no consolation, but I do love you, Conal. I wish I could love you enough to forget Lucas. But I can't. I don't want to have regrets over this. I don't want you to get the wrong impression, and I don't want to hurt you. I want to have you in my life always. I know that's selfish and I'll understand if you don't want the same thing, when you know I'm still in love with Lucas. I've tried to convince myself that I can forget about him, but it just isn't happening.”

  Conal's black eyes were solemn, dark pools in the soft glow of the lamp. “You will always be in my life. I'm happy for this not to go any further, if it means I keep you in my life. You need time to sort out your feelings. Don't be sorry, Sugar. Just go to sleep. You need your rest.”

  I closed my eyes tiredly. “You don't have to stay, Conal. Go back to your bed.”

  “Yeah, I do need to stay. Because if I'm here with you, the nightmares don't seem to be so bad.” He winked. “To be honest, I've kind of gotten used to sleeping beside you.” He kissed my forehead softly and burrowed down in the bed, adjusting my position until I was lying against his side. “Go to sleep, Sugar.”

  Snuggling against him, I listened to his steady breathing and felt the stress dissipating from my body. My eyes drifted shut and I relaxed against him, falling deeply into a sound sleep.

  ≈†◊◊†◊◊†◊◊†≈

  When I woke the following morning, I was still encircled by Conal's strong arms. I rolled over so I could look at him and smiled. His handsome features were softened by sleep and he breathed deeply and evenly.

  I yawned and stretched, squirming away from Conal, thinking that some breakfast might be in order. Conal sensed the movement and drew me tighter against him.

  “Good morning,” he murmured sleepily. “Where are you going?”

  “Breakfast. Want some?”

  Conal blinked in the bright sunlight. “Yeah. Then I supposed we'd better go and get our butts whipped with Epi again. That should be delightful.”

  I giggled. “Hopefully the aching muscles, the bruises – they'll all be worth it.”

  “I guess so, but I'm probably going to get my ass kicked by the leech when he discovers I've been sharing your bed for the past month or so. Platonically or not.”

  “Lucas will understand,” I stated confidently. “He's over one hundred and fifty years old. He's pretty mature about stuff.”

  Conal looked at me incredulously, one eyebrow raised. “You think so? I'm not so certain. I've seen the way he looks at you. The same way I look at you, in fact. Except somehow, my lustful thoughts seem like they're more impure—”

  It felt like one of those cartoon moments, the ones where the light bulb appears over a character's head when they get a brilliant idea. I shook Conal off, sitting up in the bed and staring down at him in astonishment. “What did you say?”

  Conal drew himself onto his side, looking at me curiously. “What?”

  “Just then – what did you say?”

  “I said that I felt like lusting after you was impure—”

  “Oh, my, God.” I felt like smacking myself over the head and almost did. My mind worked at a dizzying pace and I swiftly realized what I'd been missing. I launched out of bed, hurrying towards the door.

  “What's wrong? Charlotte!” Conal pulled the covers from his body and stood up quickly.

  “Impurities! Impure thoughts! That's why I keep getting that sigil in my head, over and over again!” I ran from the bedroom and down the hallway, shuffling through the piles of paper Conal had stacked on the breakfast bar.

  “What are you looking for?” Conal caught my hand, looking concerned when he caught the flush in my cheeks and the wild look in my eyes. “Calm down, Charlotte.”

  I took a deep breath. “Where's that list of people who were killed and injured last week?”

  Conal rifled through the paperwork, while I grabbed a highlighter from his bureau. “Here it is.”

  I handed him the highlighter. “Check the list of who was killed. Mark the ones who weren't pure-blooded.”

  Conal stared down at me for a few seconds; his expression measured, and then shifted his focus to the paper. The highlighter hovered over the paper while he ran down the list. He looked up and I could see what I suspected was true. Anger was evident as the same misgiving occurred to him. “The majority of the dead are half-bloods. Probably more than ninety percent.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  Conal grimaced, tapping the edge of the bench with the pen. “I know my pack. All pureblood werewolves traditionally receive a name that means wolf. Conal means wolf, Kenyon means wolf. I recognize the names.”

  I shut my eyes, pressing my forefinger and thumb to the bridge of my nose as I clarified what I'd figured out. “The vampire council is planning an ethnic cleansing,” I muttered.

  “What?” Conal sounded startled.

  My green eyes flashed with anger as the enormity of what I'd began to understand sunk in. “Ethnic cleansing. Lucas told me the Drâghici Kiss; the council, believe themselves to be the equivalent of a vampire government. What if they also think they're superior to other supernatural beings? I'm thinking they know they can't kill all of you, but they can't, or won't accept half-breeds.”

  “You think they're going to kill anyone who isn't pu
reblooded?”

  I paced from the bench to the couch and back again, trying to absorb what I'd discovered. I was certain I understood their plan now, what they intended on doing. The purity sigil had been the key. “I'm assuming that like many races in the world, they don't want to tolerate other racial groups, for want of a better word. For whatever reason, they're culling the people that don't meet their ideals of perfection.”

  “Like creating a master race?”

  “Possibly.”

  Conal leaned against the bench, crossing his arms over his naked chest, his expression thoughtful. “Mixed blood creates weaknesses in our people.”

  I lifted my head to stare at him. “How so?”

  Conal shrugged. “Some of them can't shift completely; others take a long time to recover when they revert. The mixed blood makes them weaker, not as swift.”

  “Would the vampires know that?”

  Conal thought quietly for a minute. “It's likely,” he admitted.

  “What percentage of an average pack would have mixed blood heritage?”

  “Probably sixty percent.” Conal saw my eyebrows rise in surprise and continued. “Charlotte, I've told you how difficult it is to carry a cub to term. Miscarriage rates are high and for werewolf females, the rate is even higher. Most of them can't carry a pregnancy to term.”

  “Why?”

  Conal shrugged. “I know we've discovered that we can shift at will, not just full moon. But we have to change at the full moon, there's no option.”

  I began to understand where he was going with this conversation. “When the females change into their wolf shape…”

  “The cub can't survive the shift, Charlotte. We have to sedate the mothers when they're pregnant to try and overcome the need to shift at every full moon during their pregnancy. Sometimes it's successful and they stay in human form. Most of the time it isn't successful and they lose the cub. We have more success with mixed heritage relationships, where both parents have mixed blood. The relationships where the female is human and the male is werewolf are more successful, too.”