by Rye Brewer
“Which is why I’ve placed you here,” he replied. “I couldn’t have you discovered while I’m distracted, searching for Anissa.”
Hope bloomed inside me. “You’ll still look for her?”
“Of course. I won’t forget about her. I can’t leave her there, either.” He looked behind him, to where the light still shimmered and flickered. “I can’t waste any more time, Jonah. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay here.”
“Like hell I will!” I flung myself at him, but he put up a sort of shield around himself. I rebounded off it, hitting the wall behind me.
“I’ll find her,” he promised, as I shook my head to clear it. “I promise. I’ll bring her to you, and we’ll make a plan together. But it’s safer that you stay here. I will come back.”
“No! You can’t leave me here like this! You can’t.”
“It’s for the best. You’ll see.”
I jumped to my feet, ready to follow him, to do anything necessary to get to Anissa.
He held up one hand. “I haven’t hurt you yet, Jonah, and I don’t want to. Don’t force me to.”
It wasn’t easy admitting to myself that he was right. I was a powerful vampire, but my powers didn’t mean much in the face of what he was capable of.
I watched, just as helpless as ever, as he stepped back through the portal and left me on my own.
12
Anissa
My face stung. Tears rolled down my cheeks. They made me pull my own hair, throw myself to the floor, and grovel.
I ached all over.
There were at least a dozen of the young shades standing around the room, throwing out commands for my captor to force me to perform, taunting me.
I could feel the presence of another inside me. Another being. A spirit. That was what shades did, wasn’t it? They sent spirits into others. That was what the shade had done to me. I wished I knew her name. I knew nothing about any of the shades tormenting me.
I wanted to reach out to whatever was inside me. I wanted to ask what it was doing, how it was controlling me, if it could let up a little so the pain and shame could end. I needed it to end. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t control my hands or the fresh tears flowed down my stinging cheeks, hitting the stone floor.
Please, talk to me, I thought, reaching out to the spiritwalker inside me. Please, work with me, not against me. I can’t take much more of this. Don’t make me do this anymore.
There was nothing but silence. Black, bleak silence. The hopelessness was worse than the pain, I decided. I was at their mercy, just like I’d be at the mercy of whoever they sold me to.
Their voices mingled as they laughed and jeered and still argued over who should have ultimate control of me. I did what I could to tune them out, desperate for a little peace. I couldn’t stand it much longer. They would drive me crazy.
“Enough!” Another voice cut through the cacophony. “Leave her alone.”
I couldn’t look up at him from where I was on the floor. I only knew it was a male, and not Steward. I knew Steward’s voice well enough by then. It wasn’t as deep as Steward’s. Younger, too.
“But, we were just…”
“I know what you were just doing,” he spat, shutting up the protestor. “Release her, Tasara. Now.”
“You can’t be serious,” my captor Tasara said.
Tasara.
My captor’s name was Tasara. I would never forget it, ever.
She would pay.
“You know me well enough to know that I have no sense of humor. Let her go. Now.”
And just like that, I felt the tight hold over me loosening. I could control my head, my hands, my legs.
Only I was too weak and downtrodden to get up.
Instead, I closed around my core, drawing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. I couldn’t stop shaking. I closed my eyes, willing myself to shut it all out. I couldn’t even bring myself to stand up to them and show them they hadn’t broken me. Because they had come very close to doing just that.
“I want you out of here, now,” the voice ordered. “And you know better than to talk about this to any of the others. Your punishment will be severe. No one is to know she’s here. Is that understood?”
“But—”
“I mean it, Tasara. Now go. All of you.”
I heard their robes shifting as they left and felt the resentment boiling in all of them. Like a bunch of naughty kids who’d been caught. Who had discovered me? Probably the leader of the Custodians. Was he only saving me for even worse punishment?
“Get up.”
He was talking to me. There was no one else in the room.
What he didn’t know was that I couldn’t get up. I was terrified, not to mention heartsick.
“Anissa.” The command in his voice and his knowledge of my name opened my eyes.
I looked up—slowly, inch by inch, taking in the robes and the dark skin that wasn’t as dark as Stewards. The eyes. That nose.
“It’s you.” I unfolded myself, awe taking over for fear. I was too stunned by the presence of my brother to worry about how I felt anymore. “I don’t believe it. You saved me.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did. I never would have survived that without you. Thank you.”
He looked away as I stood. “I didn’t do it for you,” he muttered.
“Who, then?”
“For our mother.” He looked at me again, but only briefly before his eyes shifted away from mine. “She wouldn’t want to see her oldest child in that position.”
I heard respect in his voice, maybe even love. I wondered about the two of them. How long had she lived there with him? How much did he know about her? And he knew about me—how? Had she told him he had sisters out in the world? Did he ever wonder about us?
“I have so many questions for you,” I whispered.
“I’m sure you do, but now’s not the time for them.”
“When, then? I’m tired of being told now isn’t the time. Wouldn’t you want to know?”
“I’ve always wanted to know.”
He met my eyes at last, and I saw pain in them.
“But like I said, now’s not the time. You aren’t safe here. One day, I’ll let you feed from me and you’ll get your answers. For now, we have to leave.”
“Leave? And go where?” And without Jonah? He knew about Jonah, of course. He’d seen him. I was afraid to mention his name for fear of how Allonic would react. He was saving me because I was his sister. That didn’t mean he had to save Jonah. If I brought him up, my brother might abandon me.
“Out of here. I’ll help you find safety elsewhere.”
“But where? Out in the world? I don’t even know what time of day it is out there. I could burn in the sun if it’s still day.”
He nodded. “And it is. Most of us are settling in for sleep at this time, to avoid being awake when humans are most likely to be in the forest around us. There’s still a lot of time before the sun sets. It’ll have to wait until then.” He turned away, like he was about to leave.
“Where are you going?” I hated the sound of panic in my voice but couldn’t do much about it.
“I have to leave you here for now,” he said, looking at me with those unnerving eyes of his. “I’ll come back, and we’ll get you out of here then. Just wait for me here.”
“What happens if one of them comes back?” I asked, and I couldn’t keep from shivering a little at the thought.
I would never forget her. Tasara. Her taunts and jeers. The way they’d all made me hurt and degrade myself.
“They won’t. They know they’d have to face me if they did, and none of them wants to do that. Trust me.” He didn’t say another word, his robes trailing behind him as he left the room.
Wait for him there? Wait for one of them to come back for me, more like. I couldn’t take that chance. I didn’t even know if I could trust him—I remembered the way he’d looked at me when he first discovered m
e in Steward’s quarters. That look screamed hatred and resentment. What if Allonic was only saving me for himself? What if he had something even worse in mind for me?
I didn’t intend to hang around and find out.
I slowly counted to one hundred, until I was sure he was far away, before opening the door.
How could I find my way back? I dashed down the long, dark tunnel Tasara had led me down when I was under the control of her spiritwalker, then made a left since we’d made a right. Yes, I remembered. I’d made a left turn three doors down, so this time I made a right when I was sure there was no one around to see me.
I was careful, staying close to the walls, freezing in place whenever I thought I heard voices or footsteps. It was all in my head—I was still shaken up by everything that had happened back in that room. I pushed it aside. I had to focus on finding Jonah.
Once I reached the towering room with the rows and rows of shelves, I knew I was on the right track. I ran down the hall Steward had led us down until I was back in his quarters. I could breathe there. I leaned against the wall outside the door to my room, eyes closed, chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Jonah?” I whispered, once I’d collected myself.
I opened the door to my room—empty, as I had expected it to be. I went to his room next.
“Jonah? Come on. We have to leave, right now. It isn’t safe.”
Only he wasn’t there. His room was as empty as mine. Dread began growing in my stomach. How long was I even gone? I had no idea how much time had passed. What could’ve happened to him? Anything, really. What they’d done to me might have been just the beginning. And to them, he wouldn’t have been as valuable—he didn’t have fae blood. They could have…
“Jonah?” I was desperate, my heart racing as I went from room to room. Each was empty except for books and scrolls and documents I no longer cared about. I only cared about finding him. Where could he be? I didn’t see a trace of Steward, either. No. They wouldn’t have left me there.
Maybe they did. Maybe they gave up, or maybe things got so dangerous for Jonah that he had no choice but to leave. Maybe he was waiting for me somewhere at the entrance to the cave, waiting for me to come out. I had to get there. He’d be waiting. I was sure of it.
How had Steward brought us to his quarters? I closed my eyes and willed myself to look back. I replayed what I could in my mind, calling up the little landmarks I could remember. I had been so confused then and so afraid of where we might be going that I hadn’t paid the strict attention I could have. I cursed myself for not being more aware. I should’ve been.
I couldn’t stop. That much was for sure. I kept going, through long, dark passageways.
I headed away from Steward’s quarters until the cold wasn’t so cold anymore, making rights and lefts as necessary, until there weren’t any more doorways. It was all smooth wall, floor, ceiling.
I realized I was on the right track and started to run. I remembered the long passage he’d led us down when we first reached him, and when I reached the end of that and made out a glimmer of light at the end of the mouth of the cave entrance. My heart soared.
“Jonah?” I called out as I ran. He had to be out there. He just had to. He’d make everything better. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore.
I didn’t stop running until I was out in the open, and immediately I recoiled away from the sun’s burning rays.
“Jonah!” I cried out, wanting him to know I was out there looking for him. He had to be hidden somewhere. That was the only answer. He was hiding, protecting himself from the sun until I reached him.
“Jonah, I’m here!” I covered my face with my arms, but it was no use. My bare hands began burning almost instantly, the back of my neck, too. I covered it with one arm, but that left part of my face exposed. I shrieked, spinning in circles, trying to find somewhere to hide until the sun went down again.
I was too weak and too scared to go back inside—what if somebody found me when I did? Yet I burned more and more every second I was in the sun.
Images of my mother’s burned body flashed across my mind. I heard the skin on the back of my neck sizzle and realized I was burning.
There was only one thing to do. I began to dig, using my burned hands. It was even greater agony, and it left my head and face exposed to the brutal rays. Even though I worked blindingly fast, throwing dirt and leaves in all directions as I dug myself a hole to hide in, by the time I finished my hands were a mass of raw blisters.
I scrambled into the hole, sobbing in pain as my scalp began to blister the way my hands had. I pulled the leaves and dirt all around me as the skin of my face began burning and peeling.
Hurry, hurry, hurry.
I settled in once I was completely covered, just one mass of gripping agony. Not even the slimmest ray of light pierced the shelter I had created for myself.
I closed my eyes, wondering what could possibly happen next as I prepared to rest and heal. I couldn’t look for Jonah while the sun was up and while I was in the condition I was in.
“Please, wait for me,” I whispered, though I knew he couldn’t hear me, before closing my eyes and allowing myself to go into a state of stasis for healing.
13
Anissa
It was taking too long.
I opened my eyes, listening for the sounds of the forest. There were almost none—the sun must have set, the daytime animals inside for the night. Even the birds no longer twittered in the trees. The nocturnal ones were emerging from their dens and the shadows.
I was too weak after my experience with the shades, the spiritwalker, and the burning sun’s rays. I had never fully recovered after feeding from Steward, either—the visions I’d seen had made me break off before I was really finished. I couldn’t heal fast enough when I was weak like that. The pain wasn’t as strong as it had been—it was still there, but it had dulled to a slightly more reasonable ache. My hands weren’t oozing as they had been when I first hid in the hole.
It wasn’t enough. I couldn’t wait days to find Jonah, and I couldn’t risk leaving myself out in the open even if I was concealed in a hole.
I had to feed.
On what?
I focused my vampire hearing, but couldn’t make out the sound of anything larger than a rat. There was nothing big enough to bother feeding on, and I didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of feeding on a rodent, anyway.
A footstep caught my attention.
Another.
Jonah, I wondered.
No. I would have known if it were him. I didn’t know how, but I would. Maybe because his step was much lighter and more graceful than the heavy, plodding tread I heard just to my left. Maybe twenty feet away, from the sound of it. A hunter? No. Not at night.
So, it wasn’t someone hunting for animals. It was someone hunting vampires. An Enforcer.
Even in my weakened state, I could overtake him if I tried hard enough, and if I had the element of surprise on my side. All of my training came back to me. I could thank Marcus for that, at least. I knew how to be quiet, so quiet my prey had no idea I was anywhere near until they felt my thin blade slip into place.
It wouldn’t be a blade this time. It would be my fangs. And I couldn’t use the wrist—he could fight me off with the other hand if I did that. No, I had to latch onto the throat and wrap myself around him so there would be no chance of shaking me off. Did I have what it took? I needed to, or else it would mean waiting endless days to heal. I needed to feed, too, and there was no synthetic blood for miles and miles.
I waited until the Enforcer was just far enough away that his footsteps were barely audible before I rose from the ground. Luck was on my side for once, as clouds covered the moon and hid my rising.
The Enforcer was only thirty or forty feet away, just on the edge of a clump of trees with his back to me. I could almost smell the blood pulsing through him, just waiting to replenish me. I couldn’t afford to wait for him to see me, so I ran to him a
nd threw myself onto his back.
“What—”
That was all he managed to say before I pulled his head to one side and latched onto his neck, just at the spot where the artery pulsed beneath the skin. He had been carrying a crossbow, but dropped it in surprise.
Not much of an Enforcer, obviously.
I closed my eyes and drank deep. I was breaking the league’s laws, but I couldn’t worry about that just then. It was a matter of survival. I wasn’t feeding for the sake of feeding, out of convenience or anything like that. It was feed or die.
And no wonder they didn’t want us to feed from humans.
It was like a drug hitting my system all that once. I took great, long gulps, filling my senses with the sweet, tangy blood as I drank. The human’s heart pumped rapidly in terror as the man fell to the ground, sending the blood in great gushes into my greedy mouth.
Yes, no wonder they didn’t want us to feed from them. It made me feel invincible! I could do anything! I buzzed from head to toe, filled with an energy I’d never known.
The heart began to slow, and with it the flow of blood.
I sucked, hard, trying to get all I could before I killed the human. I couldn’t drink once he was dead—we couldn’t drink from the dead, not ever.
It would kill us as surely as we killed them. I waited until the man was just a heartbeat or two away from death before disengaging, and even then, I was reluctant to leave him there. He was still, deathly still.
And me?
I was on fire from the inside out, a fire I could get used to. Everything was sharper, clearer. I could hear everything. I could see everything. I was strong and fast and powerful. Nothing could stop me.
And I was healed, too. No more burns or blisters. Nothing but smooth skin.
I had to find Jonah. He was all that mattered then. I shook my head to clear it of the almost drugged state I was in and began searching. I was faster than ever thanks to the blood, and I listened intently as I covered the forest in hopes of finding some sign of him.
I didn’t hear any movement but my own and that of a few owls and bats. The moon’s light cast a silvery glow over the trees, but it didn’t help me find Jonah. My frustration grew. He had never left the Sanctuary, had he? He had to be in there somewhere, in that maze of tunnels and passageways. How could I ever find him? Was he still alive?