by Nadia Heaton
If he was to look for Ariana, he’d have a better chance with Mirabelle at his side. With his vampire abilities and her witch powers, they would make a formidable team. Rashid liked the idea of both of Ariana’s parents searching for her and finally bringing her home.
After days of brooding, he still hadn’t come up with a way to visit Mirabelle. He’d tried, but she had either abandoned her usual haunts, or she had them so well warded that even his vampire senses couldn’t pick them up. Clearly, she didn’t want to see him, and of course, Rashid didn’t have her phone number or any of her contact details.
He had considered hiring someone to find her number, but the chances were good that Mirabelle would simply hang up on him. No, he had to see her. Rashid knew that she was scared by what had happened between them, scared of her own feelings for a vampire.
At least he was slightly more used to having conflicting feelings for a being he was supposed to hate. Rashid had loved Mirabelle for a long time, even though she was a witch and he was a vampire. This was all new for Mirabelle – it was obvious that she’d buried any feelings she had for him deeply over the years.
Rashid was just wondering about where else Mirabelle could be when someone knocked on the door. He was about to snarl at them to leave him alone, but was surprised to hear Savion’s voice. Savion was firmly on Lisette’s side of things, and wanted to stay out of what he thought was Rashid simply making trouble for the sake of it.
“Rashid! Open up, this is urgent.”
Rolling his eyes, Rashid unlocked the door and opened it reluctantly. “What?”
“The volcano is under attack! The witches are in their submarine right now. You have to send reinforcements, I’m not sure how long our people can hold them off for.”
It only took a moment to consider; there wasn’t really a choice. If the witches got control of the volcano, the vampires would have no leverage over them. Rashid was willing to bet that within an hour of that happening, someone would give the order for the eternal flame in Antarctica to be extinguished, killing all vampires instantly.
“I’ll gather those I can, but there aren’t many here, at least not now. Vince and Zan have something going on… I haven’t really been keeping track…” There was no time to reprimand himself for becoming so distracted, but Rashid couldn’t hold back his anger at Savion.
“This is your fault! If you hadn’t told your girlfriend everything the vampires were planning, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“That’s not true. I haven’t spoken to Fleur in days.”
At first, Rashid didn’t believe it, but when he caught a glimpse of Savion’s anguished expression, he softened slightly. Savion was clearly worried for the woman he loved, a feeling Rashid could understand completely. “What about Lisette and Bethany, then? Someone has been passing information to the witches. How else would they know about Vince and Zan’s attack? That must be why they went for the volcano in the first place.”
“Lisette and Nobu don’t have any idea what your people are planning – as you recall, you’ve been keeping your plans secret from her, given how they’re in direct conflict with her orders. Jermaine has taken Bethany to his home in the Caribbean. They’ve decided to stay out of this fight. It must be one of your people.”
Was it possible? Rashid had been sure that everyone in his chateau was committed to the cause, but if he was wrong, it could spell disaster. A lot of the vampires who had come were ones he didn’t know personally, but all of them had been involved in his cause for weeks. Why would they turn traitor now?
All of them except one.
Victoria.
It hit him like a lightning bolt. Victoria had arrived shortly before it seemed that the witches started getting information on the vampires’ plans. That very day, Mirabelle had turned up at the chateau, asking for her niece, for Tristan. Rashid knew that Mirabelle had a spell to alert her when her nieces were in trouble.
Victoria had never been in any real danger, but Rashid knew he’d scared her when he was intimidating Teo. A spike of fear like that could well set off the spell. Victoria wasn’t real. It had been Tristan all along, disguised and acting as a spy…
“Rashid? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost… a witch. Where is Victoria?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
Rashid’s mind was spinning, and he struggled to think. Tristan had shown no inclination to hurt anyone, or do anything other than gather information. The witches at the volcano, on the other hand, undoubtedly had hostile intent. Tristan could wait. The vampires defending the volcano needed help now.
“Let’s go. We can go through my portal.”
“But – the reinforcements –”
“No. I have a better way.” Rashid strode out of the library, catching one of his guests by the elbow. “Markus, see to it that Victoria stays in her room. She’s not to leave for any reason, got it?”
“Got it.” Markus thankfully didn’t question, leaving Savion following along in Rashid’s wake.
“I came for reinforcements, and I’m not leaving without them, Rashid.”
“Fine, bring them. Bring whoever you want. Tell them they have my orders to help defend the volcano. I don’t have a moment to waste. I need to get there.”
Rashid ignored Savion’s protests, hurrying to the portal. He wouldn’t hurt Mirabelle’s niece, but she didn’t know that. He could bargain for Tristan’s life, and use his leverage to get the witches to cease their attack on the volcano.
Savion zipped off, no doubt to muster reinforcements. If Rashid did his job properly, those reinforcements wouldn’t be necessary. He stepped through the portal, closing his eyes against the sudden rush of power that felt like a cold wind.
The next thing he knew, he was underwater, within sight of the volcano. Rashid shifted to his ray form, which was better adapted for swimming than his human one. He immediately saw the huge, armored submarine heading straight for the volcano. Once he got closer, he’d have to shift back to his human form, or Mirabelle wouldn’t recognize him.
Vampires in their ray forms were coming from all directions. Rashid couldn’t see into the submarine from here, so he quickly swam around to the front. The front portion was reinforced glass, allowing the witches to witness the scene before them.
The water around him seemed to shudder as powerful magic was cast through it. Rashid couldn’t tell if it was the witches casting a spell, or if it was the defenses the vampires had set up around the volcano, but whatever it was, it was powerful.
He had to stop this now, before it got even more out of hand.
Rashid realized that he no longer wanted war between witches and vampires. He didn’t want to chance Mirabelle or Ariana getting hurt. He couldn’t remember when something had changed within him, but from planning an illegal war behind Lisette’s back, he suddenly found that all he wanted was for everyone to lay down their arms and leave each other alone.
He still didn’t like witches, of course, but Mirabelle was a witch, and he couldn’t get around that fact. If the witches went down, she went down with them. For so many years, Rashid had thought that being a proper family with Mirabelle and Ariana was impossible… but after what had happened between them a few days ago, he was starting to wonder.
Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe there was a chance of a happy ending for all of them.
One thing was for sure, there would be no chance of anything if he didn’t find a way to diffuse the situation. Rashid swam faster, his eyes fixed on the submarine. On Mirabelle.
13
A couple of people screamed as the submarine jolted violently to the side. Mirabelle pressed her lips together, trying to present a calm front for the people who looked to her for leadership, even though she felt far from calm herself.
“Keep going! René, take teams to the portals and use magic to reinforce them with magic if necessary.”
René rushed off, gathering eight or nine other witc
hes about her. The submarine shuddered again. “Prepare to attack!”
Their magic was of limited use when cast through salt water, but Mirabelle had anticipated this problem when making the submarine. She’d ensured that the entire thing was armed with human weapons. Of course, they’d have to be careful not to hit the volcano, but all of the weapons came with aiming systems.
“Missiles aimed at the vampires,” she instructed calmly, watching as the witches around her followed the instructions.
“Ready, aim–”
Almost everyone fell down as the submarine was rammed again by a battalion of vampires in their human forms, all swimming fast and hitting one side of the sub with their shoulders.
“Weapons are down, Mirabelle!” Amanda called from the control panel.
“What? They can’t be down!” Mirabelle abandoned her place at the front and hurried over to Amanda. Sure enough, all of the weapons screens were flashing red with failure messages. Mirabelle was going to track down the humans who had sold her this system and kill them. They had assured her that it was state of the art and would hold up against any enemy.
Of course, she’d had to get them on the black market – where else was she supposed to get government issue military weapons? She certainly couldn’t explain to the human government why she needed them. Mirabelle had been warned that the black market could be unreliable, especially to people who weren’t used to navigating those circles, but she’d had to arm her sub somehow.
“How do we fix them?” Amanda was fruitlessly trying to navigate the failure warnings, but having little success.
“I don’t know, smuggled weapons don’t exactly come with an instruction manual! Use magic if you have to, just get them working!”
Whoever designed these things obviously hadn’t taken the strength of vampires into account.
“Mirabelle, it’s no use – some of the damaged parts are on the outside of the ship, our magic won’t penetrate through the salt water.”
Mirabelle ground her teeth in frustration, fighting to think through rapidly rising panic. “I’ll go. Give me one of the suits. Get on the radio and be prepared to instruct me on how to fix the part.”
“You can’t! We’re surrounded by vampires, you’ll be killed.”
“Staying here without weapons will get us all killed, Amanda, you know that! You just be ready to instruct me.”
Amanda wasn’t the only one with protests, though. So many witches broke into speech that Mirabelle could barely distinguish their voices from each other.
“Shut up, all of you, unless you have a better idea!”
She wasn’t paying attention to them anymore. Mirabelle dashed to the storage cupboard where she kept the diving suits. This would protect her from the salt water. Whether it would protect her from the vampires remained to be seen. She’d put up some basic protection spells around them, but she wasn’t sure if they would hold in salt water. There hadn’t been time to test them; she’d been too busy dodging her family and looking for Ariana.
“Going into the airlock! Someone get ready to let me out.” Mirabelle didn’t wait to hear any more arguments. She pushed down her own fear and forced herself to do what was necessary.
Someone must have followed her orders, because the airlock door slammed shut. The door on the other side opened, letting in a rush of water. Mirabelle was pushed back a few steps, but the suit did its job in protecting her from the worst of the pressure.
As soon as the airlock was filled with water, she swam out. The suit was big and bulky, but the flippers propelled her well enough.
Almost from the moment she exited the submarine, Mirabelle knew she’d made a mistake.
Vampires were everywhere, both in ray form and in their human shape. They noticed her immediately, and a group of three split off from the main force, which was still ramming the submarines.
They swam toward her in their ray form, but Mirabelle knew that they could transform the moment they got within arm’s reach of her. Without her magic, she was helpless against vampire strength. They could snap her neck in an instant.
Mirabelle tried to cast magic, but it was futile. She may as well not have done anything, for all the effect it had. For a moment, she was paralyzed with terror as her own death came swimming toward her at horrifying speed.
One thought penetrated her panicked mind. She couldn’t let the volcano be destroyed. She was already dead – there wasn’t time to get back inside the submarine before the vampires got to her. The only thing she could do now was try to ensure that the other witches had a chance.
Mirabelle turned her body upward, swimming frantically for the weapons port.
“Amanda? Are you there?’
“I’m here, Mirabelle.” Amanda sounded tearful; clearly, she knew, too, that Mirabelle would never make it back.
“Tell me what I need to do, and quickly.” The vampires were quickly gaining on her.
“You need to reposition the weapons head, and reconnect the wires that have been broken.”
One look at the weapons head told Mirabelle that she didn’t have enough time. The vampires were mere feet from her. She might be able to knock the head back into position, but there would be no time to reconnect anything.
Wanting to be facing the enemy when they took her out, Mirabelle turned in the water. The rays were almost upon her.
Then something unexpected happened. All of the rays heading for her seemed to stumble in the water and quickly brought themselves to a halt. It would have looked funny if the situation hadn’t been so serious.
The rays hesitated in the water, their heads turned back. It was like they were talking to someone, someone who was instructing them. Was it possible? Mirabelle knew next to nothing about what powers vampires had when they were in the ocean.
To her utter disbelief, the rays suddenly turned around and swam in the other direction. There was a single ray heading for her now, swimming faster than any of the others, but it was still some distance away.
“Quickly, Mirabelle, get back to the airlock!”
Mirabelle hesitated. She could probably make it back to the airlock before the ray. She could live… but their weapons would still be offline.
Perhaps Amanda guessed her thoughts, because she spoke quickly into the radio. “We can still retreat. We’ll come back and fight another day.”
“The vampires will have the eternal flame by then!”
“Maybe, maybe not – we don’t know if our defenders will repel them. Mirabelle, we need you, you’re our leader.”
A small part of her, a part Mirabelle deeply despised, said that maybe they didn’t need to fight with the vampires. Was Rashid one of the rays? How would she feel if she got the missiles working, and she killed Rashid?
“Mirabelle, NOW!”
There was no more time to decide, but they could gain time if they retreated now. Even if Mirabelle stayed here, there was no guarantee that she’d be able to fix the weapons.
It was Ariana who decided for her. If she died now, Mirabelle would never be able to make things right with her daughter. That thought was enough to spur her into action. She spun around and swam as fast as she could back to the airlock.
The moment she was inside, the door slammed shut. Mirabelle was washed into the second chamber, and had barely gained her feet before the outer chamber was emptying itself of water.
Amanda was waiting in the main part of the sub, her face very white. “Come on, Mirabelle, let’s go. The vampires are bashing the portholes. They’re not going to last much longer, and if the salt water gets in…”
She didn’t need to finish the sentence. If the salt water got in, they would all be dead before they knew what had hit them.
Mirabelle wasn’t ready to concede defeat yet. She was starting to catch her breath after being sure she should die. Her courage was returning, and she was ashamed of her momentary weakness. They were safe enough in here, for now. there was still a chance to fight.
“René
, what’s the update on the portholes? How long can they last for?”
“Maybe a few minutes. We have to leave.”
Mirabelle couldn’t leave, at least not yet. She’d get them out of here before she let them all die, but while there was a chance at taking the volcano, even a small one, she had to keep fighting for it.
“We use their own tactics against them. Back the sub up, and ram it into that clutch of vampires.”
“They’re too fast, they’ll swim away…”
“Now!”
The submarine moved a bit, but then ground to a halt.
“The vampires have us surrounded,” René called. “They’re holding the sub, we can’t move.”
Mirabelle fleetingly wondered if she should have called a retreat while she could. One of the rays swam right up to the glass in front. Mirabelle was afraid it would try to break through – the glass was magically reinforced, but it had never been tested against vampires.
Instead of bashing the glass, the ray transformed… into Rashid. He pressed his hands against the glass, staring at her.
Mirabelle stared back. She knew she should be reacting, but all she could do was look into Rashid’s eyes.
Then he gestured deliberately upward, clearly instructing her to take the submarine to the surface. Rashid pointed to his lips, then to Mirabelle. He wanted to talk to her. Well, that was too bad, because she didn’t want to talk to him.
She shook her head. Almost immediately, Rashid gave some kind of signal, and the vampires surrounding them bashed the submarine again. The entire thing shuddered.
“The portals won’t hold much longer!” René wasn’t the only one who was starting to panic. Mirabelle felt she was fast losing control of the situation.
Rashid tapped on the glass to get her attention, then gestured again to the surface. He pointed to the vampires behind him. The meaning was all too clear. Go to the surface, or he would instruct the vampires to destroy the submarine.
Defeat left a bitter taste in her mouth. “Bring us up.” Mirabelle didn’t look away from Rashid, glaring at him. As soon as the submarine started to rise, he gave her a relieved smile, which Mirabelle didn’t return. Who did he think he was, smiling at her like he knew her?