Marion’s eyes fill with urgency, and my pulse quickens.
“I cannot tell you how I know this or where the information comes from, but I’ve been given a glimpse of the future. And in it, you are significant. Saga, you are not our savior. Quite the opposite. If given the chance, you will bring about the destruction of us all.”
I almost pinch myself, to make sure I’m not in another dream, because her words are almost too bizarre to be believed. Her secret is worse than I imagined, and I shake my head, confused.
“That can’t be. I’m nothing. I’m insignificant. How could I bring about destruction? I don’t even want to hurt anyone.”
“I know you don’t, Saga. You are a sweet and kind soul. And I do not know how it happens, through some hidden skills and abilities, or some role you play in the struggle between these two men and our war with Luminos. But all the same, you are being manipulated, and it is being done by our Elders for a very dark purpose.”
I stay silent for a moment, trying to drink it all in.
“Roland thinks otherwise. He thinks I’m meant to lead. That it’s some jealousy thing, that you’re afraid to lose your rule.”
“If only that were true, I would gladly step aside and give you my throne. But it’s not, Saga. It’s not.”
I’m sickened and terrified at the same time, because on some level, I fear that what she says is true. I remember my visions of the past, of the Elders appearing in each of my lifetimes, hovering around me. And whatever they want frightens me, deeply.
“But this makes no sense. Why would they want to destroy everything?”
“Who can say for sure? They are the Elders, and they’ve lived for a very long time. Their plots and plans are complicated things, far beyond the ken of us lesser beings.”
“But there must me something I can do. There must be some way I can change this fate.”
Marion puts her hands on my shoulder and stares at me, seriously.
“There is. Saga, you must listen to me carefully, and remember my words, remember them so strongly that you’ll carry them with you through lifetimes. If you come back to this realm, you must stay out of the war. Stay away from Roland and Adam, stay away from the Luminos. If you can find me, I will do everything in my power to hide you, so the boys do not know you’re here. In fact, if you can, do not return to this place at all. That is our only hope.”
“But what about now? What can we do in the present?”
Marion says nothing for a moment, and it’s a sad thing, to see concern mar her perfect features. Her eyes shift away, but she slowly forces herself to return my gaze.
“There is only one thing. It is an ugly piece of business what I must do to you, Saga. And I hope you’ll forgive me one day.”
I swallow nervously, and the words catch in my throat.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“No. But I’m hoping you won’t think it’s a far worse fate.”
And I know what it is. It hits me in a flash; the tanks. She’s going to put me in the tanks. And, again, Marion looks away, full of guilt.
And I don’t know what I was thinking, how I can continue to put myself in the heart of danger, lifetime after lifetime.
Before either of us can say more, the doors to her suite burst open. It’s Lina, and she comes storming inside wearing one of her black outfits, a more formfitting bodysuit this time. Marion’s face registers shock and rage.
“Lina! How dare you enter my private chamber this way!”
“Is it true?” Lina says, ignoring her. “Is this woman Saga?”
I’ve never seen Lina like this. Her face isn’t hardened, and full of arrogance. It’s soft, and she seems almost panicked, and just a bit hopeful. And once again, I’m filled with feelings of guilt for hiding my true nature.
“It’s true,” I say. “I’m her. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Oh, my sister. I’ve looked for you for so long. You don’t know how I’ve hoped you would return to me with your Luminos gift,” she whimpers.
Lina rushes to me and takes me in her arms. And I feel something in her hug that transcends time and past lives. It’s something I haven’t felt with Staci, or even my own sister. It’s different even from Adam. I feel a sense of family, like she’s someone I can trust above all others. I try not to cry, this is the last place where that should happen, but I can’t stop a few tears from rolling down my face.
“And to think I was so mean to you. I was worried that you were another of Adam’s ruses.”
“It’s all right, I don’t mind.”
Lina leans back, and looks me over.
“You’re still the same, little sister. Turning all the boys’ heads.”
“Well, maybe not all the boys,” I say, trying not to sob. “And as I recall, you were the true beauty of the family.”
Lina laughs, for a moment. But she pulls away from me, and I’m shocked, because her soft features are gone. She’s frightening again, full of rage, though it’s not directed at me.
Lina is glaring at Marion.
“What are you planning on doing to her, Marion?”
“Only what needs to be done,” Marion says, calmly.
“Are you insane? Have you gone mad? This is Saga.”
“No, she is not Saga. She is Luminos. You just said it, yourself.”
Marion stands firm, keeping a grave face, even though I suspect that it’s killing her inside, at least a bit. Though I can’t help but to be skeptical to some small degree, I suspect that there’s truth to her words.
“Stand back, little sister,” Lina says, putting her hand in front of me.
I back away, in horror, as the two women begin to circle each other around the table.
“You are not going to harm a hair on her head,” Lina says.
“And do you really think you can stop me? When doing so would be treason?” Marion says, full of contempt.
But Lina doesn’t wait for more banter, and it happens in a flash. She lunges, but Marion casts her aside, throwing her into the long table. And a few of its chairs clatter to the ground, as Lina scrambles to her feet.
My sister comes back at her, and it’s almost too fast to see. She’s on Marion, throwing punches the vampire queen blocks. Lina aims for a gut punch, which Marion stops with her hand. But she’s not trying hard enough, and Lina slaps her. Twice, and the shock registers on Marion’s face.
She throws Lina again, and she hits the wall, grazing the frame of the giant oil painting. It falls down, and it’s unnerving, to see the destruction the two women are causing. They’re trashing the beautiful room before my eyes.
Marion runs at her, but Lina uses her height to her advantage, and throws a roundhouse kick at Marion with her long leg. She bombards Marion with more kicks, one after the other, stunning her. Lina raises her hand in the air like a claw, and for a split-second, her burgundy nails glisten in the light. She slashes down on Marion’s face, and red lines cross her beautiful features. Marion screams, holding her hand to the wound in shock.
While she’s stunned, Lina manages to wrap her hands around Marion’s neck, and the two tussle on the ground, rolling about, but the vampire queen cannot break Lina’s deadly grip. Marion winds up on top of her, but Lina still holds her back with her extended arms, choking her. And I’m shocked, when she calls out to me.
“Do it, sister! Use your Luminos skills to end her wretched existence. You can do this!”
But I’m too shocked to reply. I’m stunned that Lina would even think of me in this way.
And Marion slowly twists her head within Lina’s grip ever so slightly, looking in my direction.
And it happens. All the training and hours of combat from my past, the ones I never truly believed were there, come bubbling to the surface. I know I only have a moment, while Marion is stunned, and I run.
I’m not stronger than her, but I could bring about enough force to fracture her neck, so Lina could have the edge. And I leap through the air.
But at the last moment, I shift my foot, to land on her shoulder, and I knock Marion away.
I manage to get to my feet between them, and I raise my hands, stopping the two women. It’s terrifying, like trying to block two wild animals from fighting.
“Samahlina, no!” I tell my sister. “I did not save your life so you could throw it away …”
The shock of my yelling brings Lina to her senses, and she stands down. But she still looks ready to pounce.
“Marion is doing what she must,” I plead. “Promise me. Promise me that you will never try to hurt her again.”
Lina looks enraged, but she nods her head, slowly.
“I agree to what you say. Only for you, sister.”
“And you, Marion. Swear to me. Give me your word you won’t put her to death for what she’s done here today. Promise you won’t punish her, and I’ll do exactly what you want.”
But my words are loaded. I’m not talking about marching dutifully to the tanks, which I’ll do, of course. I’m talking about staying away, from Adam and Roland, from the Luminos. Forever. Which will kill me, far worse than any torture they could inflict in their vampire dungeon.
I stare at Marion intently, communicating the message with my eyes, and she seems to understand.
“Of course. It was a simple misunderstanding. Lina’s emotions got the best of her, but she did me no real harm.”
And perhaps she’s right, because the wounds on Marion’s face are starting to heal before my eyes. They’re not even leaving a scar.
“I will do as Saga wishes,” Lina says. “But your actions are unspeakable, Marion. As of this day, I will no longer be a part of your house.”
“Do what you must,” Marion says, coldly.
Before they can say anything else, the vampire militia arrives. Guards covered in body armor, human or otherwise, show up at the door, at least 10 of them. And now there really is nothing Lina can do.
What was she thinking? Did she really believe she could get me out of the tower past this force? It was foolish, yet touching that she still cares enough after all this time to try to help me.
Marion motions to one of the guards, and for a moment, I’m afraid she’s going to shoot me.
“Give it to me,” she says.
And he hands her what looks like a pen.
“This will help,” she tells me, grimly.
And before I can react, her hand flashes out, and she plunges the device into my neck. There’s a stabbing pain not entirely different from one of Roland’s fangs, and I scream out in pain. As she pulls it away, I can see that her thumb is on a trigger, and the end of the pen has a needle. And I’m so sick of these vampires sticking me. I grab the sore spot on my neck.
And my vision begins to blur.
“Don’t worry,” Marion says. “It’s just a little something to relax you.”
And the reality of the situation finally sinks in. My worst nightmare is coming true, Marion is going to put me in a vat alongside the rest of the Luminos, to drain me. My short life is effectively over.
A tingling begins to form in my legs, and it becomes a warmth that spreads through the rest of my body. The vampire drugs are ridiculous in their speed and efficiency, and the feeling isn’t entirely unpleasant, except for the fact that I know what it means; my death.
And the panic sets in.
“Oh, God, no. This was a mistake. Please …”
My legs start to feel weak, but before they can give out on me, he’s here. He catches me, taking me in his arms.
Adam smiles down at me, cradling me. And he looks just a bit disappointed.
“Oh, Meridian. What have you done?”
Before I can try to speak, Marion says something, and he looks up to her.
“I understand,” Adam says, back to her, lowering his head. He lifts me, and we’re suddenly walking down the corridor. He doesn’t even seem to protest, or fight back.
Adam is carrying me to my fate. We march down the hallway with the rest of Marion’s soldiers, toward the elevators.
My head bobs under the effect of the drugs, and I look around, nervously. I must doze for a moment, because when I come to, I’m in the basement, in the wretched lab. And I struggle to stay awake for as long as I can, to fight the effects of the sedatives.
Adam takes me to one of the vats, an empty one, and it’s strange how the construct works. The glass walls seem to drop to the floor somehow, and he steps inside, sitting me on a chair that’s part of the contraption. And vampires are all around me. They’re cutting the clothes from my body, sticking tubes into my veins, which doesn’t even hurt, I’m so numb. The technicians attach monitoring devices to my wrists that they check and recheck with their tablet computers. They connect weird sensors to my legs, and when they tap some controls on their pads, my limbs twitch. They put straps around my arms that they attach to bars over my head, and when the vampires hit more of their controls, they flex and extend. It’s as though I’m a puppet, and they’re pulling my strings.
Oh God, it finally dawns on me; this is all so that I don’t atrophy while I’m floating in the tank, so my body will last as long as possible.
I look around fruitlessly, trying to see if there’s a way I can somehow correct my stupidity. And I understand now, why Lina struggled to extract me from this place. I try to say something, call out to her to please try again, but it’s too late. My throat muscles are numbed.
Adam stands aside, and he’s watching me with a sickened expression on his face. And part of me can’t understand why he’s so complacent, why he’s not fighting this the way Lina did, even though I would not want him to bring punishment on himself. Marion is next to him, bearing a guilty expression, but I no longer pity her, even though I’m complicit in helping her bring about this sad fate. I don’t feel friendship for her anymore, I feel resentment that she couldn’t try harder to find a better solution. I feel rage, and the desire to hurt her.
And Lina, my poor Lina is crying, real tears, not the drops of blood you see in the movies that supposedly come from a vampire’s eyes. She cries big, gooey globs of water that roll down her cheeks. And I hate myself too, for failing her, for not finding a way to spend more time with her in this life.
The vampire attendants put a thick tube into my mouth, no doubt to help me breathe, or to feed me. And the way it slides down my throat is the most disgusting sensation I’ve ever felt. They all step away, as the glass walls rise around me, and I panic. The fluid that will encapsulate me begins to bubble up from the floor through hidden tubes, making big, glopping sounds. And I dread what it will feel like when it rises above my head.
But before I’m covered completely and my vision is blurred, it happens, what I had been waiting for. There is a commotion in the hallway, and I can see a blur through the glass. It’s Roland, and he expresses the kind of rage I thought would come from Adam. I can hear him yelling within the lab.
“Marion, I forbid you from doing this!”
And I can hear her muffled pleas. Lina goes to his side, yelling too, and I can see Roland becoming more angry. And the vampire soldiers are on him, trying to pull him from the room. And suddenly, glass shatters, and fighting breaks out.
For some reason, Adam appears before my face, pressed up against the glass, blocking my view. He’s ignoring the fighting, saying something to me. Not with words, I realize; he’s saying it in my mind.
“Meridian, go to our place. Go to our place.”
And it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. I don’t want to be in this dungeon anymore. I don’t want to feel the sickening fluid that’s creeping around my body.
I close my eyes, and somehow, I’m instantly there, a much better environment. I’m on the hill that’s covered with flowers, on the path that leads to our cottage. The journey is quicker this time, perhaps because of my altered state, or my burgeoning talent for skipping through dimensions. And I see Adam standing near me.
He’s wearing the same clothes he had on, though they g
low here, ever so slightly. I’m wearing my jeans and T-shirt, even though I was stripped naked for the tanks. And Adam doesn’t seem like his same cool and collected self. He puts his hands on my shoulders with urgency.
“Meridian, we don’t have long,” he says, earnestly. “I’m going to get you out of here. I promise I will not leave you in this place. I’m going to save you.”
But I’m not really interested in his words anymore. I turn away, and look up to the top of the hill. Beyond the canyon, I can see the clouds beginning to separate, opening the doorway to paradise. And I realize I have one last chance.
My Luminos skills are still at my disposal, just as they were when I battled with Lina, and I kick Adam, once to the groin and another to his chest. I have no delusion that I can hurt him, nor would I want to, but my blows stun him, knocking him back. Before he can realize what’s happening, I run.
I charge up the hill to set this right, to do what Marion said, what I should have done before. I can hear him behind me, coming after me, but maybe the Astral Plane makes us equals, maybe it gives me just an extra burst of speed. Or maybe it’s my determination that allows me to outpace him.
As I near the top, I can see it, the green grass of paradise floats before me, off in the clouds, just a leap away. The gates of the city within it are opening, and the two little girls who called to me before come skipping out. But the ground beneath me begins to quake, and I look back over my shoulder, past Adam, who chases after me. And I see a black energy come seeping out of the forest, one that races after us, up the hill. And it moves at a terrifying pace.
Adam calls out, but I can’t really hear him. I near the edge of the cliff, but the sky turns grey as the gooey blackness gets closer. I keep running anyway, and I can see the girls watching me expectantly from their world. But they say nothing this time.
I jump, but as I’m in the air, the shadowy energy lashes out at me. It’s tendrils cling to me, like the fingers of a living thing. And I watch the gates of paradise shut and the clouds close, as the energy around my feet.
And it pulls me downward, dragging me toward a much darker fate.
The Meridian Gamble Page 42