by Amy Cross
“But...”
Izzy paused, waiting for him to continue.
“How does that bring my mother back?” she asked finally, feeling a crushing sense of fear in her chest.
“The vampires were so arrogant,” he continued, stepping over to one of the nearby shelves, “they assumed nobody could ever break in here and do any of this. I must thank you again, Izzy, for your assistance. We should leave soon, while the gate remains open, and return to the human world. I have plenty of other plans, things I need to do now that my infamy is over.” He paused, inspecting another book on the shelf, before smiling again. “Then again,” he muttered, “it would be foolish to waste this opportunity. While I'm here, I can remove other memories, too. The vampire race is so bogged down by its own history, but I could change that.”
“What about my mother?” Izzy asked.
“Do I dare?” Gaal whispered, as if he was formulating a new plan. “How would the vampire race survive without the baggage of its past? How would those insufferable bores on the High Council be able to lecture others, if they had all lost access to the race memory?”
“But what about -”
“I could destroy it all,” he continued, his eyes wide with awe as he stepped closer to one of the shelves and placed a hand on the knotted wood. “The entire festering history of the vampire race. I could force our species to start all over again, with no memory of what came before. Of course, there would be a power vacuum, and great vampires would be needed to lead the race onward.” He turned to Izzy. “The vampires would no longer idolize historians and men of words. They would follow men of action. How would you feel, Izzy, to see your father leading our entire race?”
Staring at him, Izzy couldn't shake the feeling that he seemed almost crazed.
“What about Mom?” she asked finally, her voice trembling slightly. “You said -”
“Forget about that,” he snapped, placing his hand on some of the books. After a moment, flames rippled from his fingers and the books began to burn.
“What are you doing?” Izzy shouted, hurrying over to him. “You can't burn the entire library!”
“Can't I?” he asked, smiling as the flames spread. “History has held our race back for too long. Now it's time for a new age.” Stepping over to another shelf, he caused more books to start burning.
“In my dreams,” Izzy replied, watching in horror as the inferno grew, “I saw people who were terrified. They kept saying that someone was coming, someone awful. It was you, wasn't it?”
“I already admitted,” he replied, as the flames reached the next shelf along, “that I made certain mistakes in my past. None of this should be a surprise to you.”
“Mistakes are one thing,” she said cautiously, “but people were so scared of you, it was almost as if...”
Her voice trailed off as she saw the flames reflected in Gaal's eyes. After a moment, she spotted the old man's corpse still slumped in the mud.
“He didn't do anything wrong,” she whispered. “He was just an old man, getting on with his job.”
“Izzy...”
“And you murdered him!”
“I needed his blood. The strong take from the weak, it's the way the natural order works! You'll get used to it, in time. Don't let your old human instincts trouble you.”
“But you murdered him!” she said firmly, pulling away as he stepped closer. “You murdered him the same way you murdered so many people in the past, the same way you murdered my...”
“Izzy -”
In a flash, Izzy saw a woman's body slumping down, landing in the mud with blood gushing from her neck. The image was blurred, filled with smoke and fire, but she could hear the woman gasping and she was aware of a distant scream. Rushing forward, she dropped to her knees and reached out to help the woman, but thick red blood was already mixing with the mud and all Izzy could manage was to watch as the life faded from the woman's eyes.
Suddenly sensing movement nearby, she turned and saw Gaal standing over her. She looked back down at the woman, but she was already gone.
“Izzy?” Gaal asked cautiously. “What's wrong?”
“I saw her,” she whispered, staring at the spot where she'd seen the woman fall. “Another race memory...”
“Izzy, we need to leave,” he said firmly. “We have so much more to do. Now that the library is burning, I need to use your blood again. There are other places I must go, other cowards and fools who need to pay for what they did to me in the past. This is just the beginning. Together, you and I shall bring the vampire race to its knees and then restore all its lost glory!”
“I saw her. I think it was my -”
“Izzy!” Grabbing her arm, Gaal pulled her up and then forced her to turn until they were face to face. “Now is not the time for you to weaken! You're my daughter, you're the daughter of the great Gaal RaYuul, and you must live up to my legacy.” He placed a hand on the side of her face, as if he was searching for something in her soul. “It's a shame about those crooked fangs,” he muttered with a frown, “but perhaps something can be done about them. We can have them straightened.”
“You said we could change the past,” she reminded him, with tears in her eyes. “You said we could bring my mother back. That was a lie, wasn't it?”
“It was an aspiration that proved incorrect,” he replied, reaching down and taking her hand. “We must leave Izzy. We have a great deal to get done.”
Turning she watched as the flames spread. Scores of shelves were now burning, and she felt a sense of shock as she thought of the entire library being reduced to ash.
“Weep not for the death of old ideas,” Gaal whispered into her ear. “Rejoice, instead, that stronger men and women are rising to lead our race forward. Men such as myself, Izzy...” He paused. “And you, my daughter.”
Letting him lead her back across the clearing, Izzy couldn't help looking over her shoulder as the library continued to burn. She could feel the heat now, and as much as she wanted to believe her father's words, she still felt horrified by the destruction they were leaving in their wake. She told herself that she needed to trust her father, and that at least he was being truthful with her, but at the same time she was being drawn into a terrible crime.
“Next we shall open a gateway to the High Council itself,” Gaal explained as they headed along the aisle, toward the gateway at the far end. “Those cowards will pay for the way I was pursued. Then we shall go to the ruins of Gothos itself, and salt the ground so that no more life can ever grow there. After that -”
“I forgot something,” Izzy said suddenly, slipping free from his hand. Her heart was pounding, but she knew what she had to do.
He turned to her. “There's no time to -”
“It's important,” she replied, already turning to hurry back. “I dropped a key. It's important, but don't worry, I'll catch up!”
Racing to the clearing, she glanced over her shoulder and saw to her relief that Gaal hadn't followed. Realizing she only had a few seconds, she hurried to the old man's corpse and knelt next to him. Flames were still burning nearby, heating her face. Taking hold of the piece of wood that had been driven through the old man's chest, she tried to twist it free, only to find that it was stuck. Her hands were trembling as she tried again, and finally she managed to pull the stake free.
“Can you hear me?” she asked, tapping the side of his face gently. “Please, tell me you can hear me...”
After a moment, the old man's eyes flickered open.
“You have to stop him,” she continued. “The man who was here just now, the man who attacked you... His name is Gaal RaYuul. I don't want you to hurt him or punish him, but please, he's trying to destroy the -”
“I know,” the man replied calmly.
“You...” Izzy paused, as she heard the sound of shelves cracking in the inferno. “You know?”
“The problem with opening a direct tunnel into a place such as the library,” the man continued, staring up at her with
a faint smile, “is that one can't always be sure that one has arrived at the right place.” Gasping a little, he began to sit up. “One might, for example, aim for the great library of the vampires, only to unwittingly enter a trap instead.”
“A...” Pulling back, Izzy realized that the old man seemed to be in remarkably good humor for someone who'd just had a stake driven through his heart. “A trap?”
“This isn't the real library,” he explained. “It was always anticipated that Gaal RaYuul would try to break in again, so a decoy was established. At quite some expense, I should add.” His smile grew. “RaYuul is about to learn that when one is busy decrying the arrogance of others, one should perhaps pause to listen to the timbre of one's own voice. One might find that arrogance is rather contagious.”
“But...” Glancing over her shoulder again, Izzy saw that there was still no sign of Gaal, which meant he must have continued on his journey back to the gateway.
“You should hurry,” the old man said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “The trap has already been activated. The real library is safe, but this facsimile will be torn apart. I'm afraid the trap was designed to kill any intruders it finds.”
“What kind of -”
Feeling a sudden pain in her ankle, Izzy pulled away and look down at her foot, but all she saw was the flickering shadow of a burning set of shelves.
“The shadows have been called,” the old man told her. “Gaal brought this upon himself. As the flames grow, the shadows will become larger and faster. And I'm afraid these shadows -”
Letting out a yelp of pain, Izzy pulled back as another shadow crossed her hand, and she stared in shock as she saw a trickle of blood running from a cut in her flesh.
“I'm afraid these shadows are rather sharp,” the old man continued. “I'll be fine, but my dear... You must run for your life.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Where have you been?” Gaal sneered as Izzy raced to catch him. “The gateway will close soon!”
“We have to get out of here,” she told him. “I'll explain later, but you've made a terrible mistake and -”
“Me?” he replied with a laugh. “A mistake? Izzy, you don't know what -”
“This isn't the library,” she continued, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him toward the gateway. “I woke the old man and -”
“You did what?” he sneered, grabbing her by the throat and pulling her closer.
“I woke him!” she gasped, trying in vain to force his hands away from her neck. “I had to! I wanted him to stop the destruction, but he told me -”
“Idiot!” Gaal hissed, slamming her against the nearest bookshelf before throwing her down into the mud. “I never thought a daughter of mine could be so disloyal,” he continued, towering above her. “Maybe I was wrong about you, Izzy. Maybe your usefulness to me has come to an end.”
“This isn't the library,” she stammered, trying to get up, only for him to kick her in the shoulder and send her crashing back down into the mud. “It's a trap! They set it up to trap you! They knew you'd try again, they knew you'd keep trying forever!”
“That's not possible,” he said firmly, as the flames rose higher and higher into the dark red sky above. “Do you see those flames, Izzy? Those are the flames of an ancient vampire tradition as it dies. There'll be more flames, too. Soon, I'll show the others that I -”
Suddenly a shadow flitted across his face, causing Gaal to cry out in pain as he stumbled back against one of the shelves. Shocked, Izzy saw that the shadow seemed to have sliced his cheek as it passed, and a moment later she felt something cutting the back of her neck.
“What are these things?” Gaal stammered, before another shadow sliced his neck. “How have the defenses been activated? There are no defenses in the library itself!”
“We're not in the library,” Izzy replied, looking at the sky and seeing that the flames were getting taller and taller. “The library's safe, it's far away. They set this place as a trap for you, and now the trap's closing! They're turning the flames against you, and the shadows are going to slice you apart! They'll kill both of us unless we get out of here!”
“What did you do?” Gaal roared, slamming into her from behind and sending her crashing into one of the shelves, before tossing her down into the wet mud and stepping over her. He opened his mouth to ask again, but two shadows swiped across his chest, causing him to cry out in agony as his flesh was ripped open.
“I couldn't let you destroy this place,” Izzy stammered. “Please, there has to be -”
“Traitor!” he screamed, stamping his foot down against her face, pushing her head into the mud. Before she could react, he stamped again and again, each time forcing her head further down until she felt mud rushing into her mouth. She tried to cry out, but all she could manage was to reach up and try to push his foot away. Struggling for breath, she felt mud in the back of her throat, flooding down into her lungs as she drowned.
Suddenly Gaal reached into the mud and grabbed her neck, hauling her up again.
“Betrayed by my own daughter!” he sneered, as she heaved and brought mud back up from her throat. “You're no better than your mother! She was weak and selfish too, and she showed no faith in me! There's no way back from this betrayal, Izzy. Your blood might still be useful to me, but your soul is now worthless.” He leaned closer. “I no longer have a daughter!”
“Deal,” she gasped, reaching out and trying to push him away.
“The shadows can feed on you while I leave this place,” he continued, tossing her along the aisle and then turning, hurrying toward the closing gateway. Before he could manage more than a couple of steps, however, several shadows rushed across his chest, sending him staggering back as their sharp edges cut through his flesh and bone. One of the shadows sliced through his neck, causing him to cry out as he fell back and slumped down into the mud.
Rolling onto her side, Izzy was about to call out to him when – without warning – a shadow rippled across the nearby shelf and then flashed across the mud, quickly passing across her neck and slicing the flesh. Screaming, she rolled away, clutching her throat as she felt blood running down her hands. The pain was so intense, it took a few seconds before she could turn and look for Gaal, at which point she spotted him half-crawling, half-stumbling toward the dying gateway.
“Wait,” she stammered, trying to haul herself after him. “You can ask them to forgive you. I'll ask them to let you go...”
With shadows slicing across him in every direction, Gaal was nevertheless managing to drag himself to the gateway. The flesh on his face was in tatters now, hanging down to expose thick, rich-red blood with patches of glistening bone, but already he was able to reach out and slip his fingers through the gateway's crackling energy.
“I'll find the real library,” he gasped, as blood poured from his mouth. “I'll burn their souls in hell!”
“Wait!” Izzy sobbed, trying but failing to grab Gaal's leg. “You have to -”
Before she could finish, another shadow ran across her face, tearing the flesh and slicing one side away from her nose. Crying out in pain, she fell back and held her hands up to protect herself, only to quickly feel more shadows cutting across the palms of her hands. As more and more of the shadows began to attack her, she looked over and saw that Gaal was slowly crawling into the gateway.
“Stop him!” she gasped, trying to get to her feet, only for another of the shadows to cut straight down her back.
Realizing that Gaal was about to escape, Izzy began to crawl after him, forcing herself to ignore the constant attacks from the shadows that were now swarming all around. Finally, figuring that she wouldn't get another chance, she summoned the last of her strength and lunged at him, landing on his back and then sinking her fangs into the side of his neck. As he cried out, she dug her fangs deeper and then started pulling him back, while drawing as much blood as possible from his body.
Landing on the mud with her teeth still in Gaal's neck, Izzy fel
t him trying to twist away. Her crooked fangs, however, gave her a better grip than if they'd been perfectly straight, so she simply bit down harder and focused on drawing more and more of his blood. She heard him letting out a faint gasp, and after a moment she realized the shadows had now refocused their attention on him, slicing across his face and chest as he struggled to get free. With blood flowing over her face, she felt her fangs digging deeper into his neck, but finally his flesh tore away and she fell back, landing hard in the mud.
Too weak to get up now, with cuts all over her face and blood running down her chin, Izzy was barely able to keep her eyes open as she saw more shadows flashing all over Gaal's trembling body.
“You can't keep running!” she sobbed. “You have to pay for what you did, and then -”
“You did this!” he screamed suddenly, lifting his head with such force that the skin sloughed away, revealing the bloodied skull beneath. Turning, he lunged at Izzy, although he missed and slumped down in the mud.
Falling back, Izzy heard Gaal's continued screams, but she lacked the energy to crawl away. Instead, she lay in the mud and waited for the shadows to turn on her, for them to cut her body apart the same way they were now cutting Gaal into strips of bloodied flesh. All she could think about was the fact that she'd been so easily duped, and that she'd allowed him to manipulate her by promising that he'd resurrect her mother. It was that foolishness, she figured, that meant she deserved to die alone in the mud, far away from any semblance of home, with screams ringing in her ears.
“Izzy!”
Suddenly she felt a pair of arms reaching under her body and lifting her from the mud. She tried to look up, but the shadows had cut her eyes and all she could manage was to let her head fall back.
“I'm getting you out of here.”
The air all around her was crackling with white energy now. As she felt herself losing consciousness, she finally turned and looked back, only to see Gaal's bloodied, skeletal body rising up from the mud as shadows cut through his bones. He was still screaming, even as his heart was torn apart, and after a moment he turned and lunged at her, crying out her name one final time before the white energy filled Izzy's eyes and she felt the air starting to get warmer.