Echoes & Silence Part 1

by Angela M Hudson

  “Mathias!”

  He grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet, turning me so the blade sat sharply against my throat. “Ah, little queen,” he taunted. “All alone with a big scary vampire.”

  “You’re the one who should be afraid.” I tucked my fingers between the knife and my skin, readying myself to shift it. “I’m no little queen.”

  “But you are stupid,” he snapped, and raked the blade across my fingers swiftly, opening the tips as he shoved me away.

  I squealed, folding over my wounds, forcing the skin closed with the palm of my other hand. “Screw you!”

  Mathias sheathed his dagger and smiled at me wickedly. “That was the plan.”

  “Try it,” I said through my teeth, standing tall and lowering my hand as though it didn’t hurt. “I dare you.”

  “And who will defend you?” he asked mockingly, nodding toward the ground. “You’re weak, and your so-called knights are useless.”

  I glanced back at Falcon, laying half on the hall rug and half on the floorboards, surrounded by a sea of blood. He would be so pissed with himself right now—laying there like a big useless speed hump.

  But all I cared about was getting his body to a safe place, in case anyone decided to cremate him. We could restore a cut throat, but not a pile of ashes. “What do you want with me, Mathias?”

  “I have orders not to kill you,” he said, moving in to take my arm. “But my master never said anything about… hurting you.”

  His round, focused eyes seemed to take up his whole face as he looked right through me, and a spark, just a flicker of something in his mind flashed into mine. My heart skipped a beat, not only for the plans he had for me, but for the fact that I was getting so much better at reading unfamiliar minds, and the exhilaration of my growing powers further fueled my already burning will to survive.

  Within half a second, my eyes knew exactly where his knife was, the exact way he’d block me, and I plotted out exactly how to grab it, bend it around him and jam it into the back of his neck.

  He moved his feet apart as my gaze came back to his, but the realization sunk in too late. His body hit the ground in a bulky heap as the knife slipped perfectly between two vertebrae and totaled him. And all he gave as the blade popped his flesh was a quivering little whimper and then… nothing. It seemed almost too easy.

  I squatted slightly while I checked my surroundings, listening carefully. No one was coming, and the screaming outside had stopped. All I could hear now was the slight murmur of whispers in the front entrance—perhaps some of the guests that didn’t get away.

  “Falcon?” I whispered, shoving his shoulder. But he was gone. Just a lump of flesh now. “Don’t worry.” I kissed his head, smoothing his thick blond hair back. “I’ll keep you safe.”

  Down the hall, an endless line of closed doors offered no hope, no place to hide. And I couldn’t drag Falcon’s weight all the way to Jason’s old room. Not without leaving an obvious trail of blood behind.

  I got to my feet with a gentle heave and checked the doors on both sides of the corridor. The one closest to Falcon was unlocked. Thank God. So I pushed it open and a warm light greeted me—a fire burning pleasantly in the corner, a bed sitting central to the windows, and a big round rug in the middle of the room.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to the absent owner.

  The small glow from the fire snuck out the door and landed on the bodies in the hall. I screwed my nose up at the sight of them. They both just looked so… dead.

  “I really don’t have time for this,” I said to them both, then dusted my hands off and bent to grab the cuff of Mathias’ pants. I dragged him inside and dumped him carelessly on the hardwood floor, then went back for Falcon, gently lifting both his wrists and hauling him into the room, shutting the door with my foot.

  The two bodies lay side-by-side; one on the rug by the fire, the other on the cold floor. I looked them over like they were a mathematical equation.

  One disabled knight. One slab of meat. Plus a long trail of evidence leading the enemy to Falcon’s safe place. This equaled a pain in the ass.

  I grabbed the sheets off the bed and quietly turned the door handle, checking both ends of the hall before dropping to my hands and knees. The white cotton soaked up some of the blood, merely spreading the rest around. I continued rubbing it around in useless circles before I realized how futile it was to hide blood from a vampire. Even with bleach and a bucket of water, I hadn’t a hope in hell of covering the trail completely. I tossed the sheets across the hall. They hit the opposite door and landed in a red-and-white heap.

  Time to address problem one and two.

  Safely back inside the room, I cupped Falcon’s jaw and opened his mouth, eyeing the dagger in Mathias’ neck. If I removed it, he’d wake up eventually. But I needed something sharp—aside from my teeth. Looking around the room though, I realized they were the only things available. So I squatted over the vampire, lifted his wrist and dragged his sleeve up his arm, popping the cufflinks off carelessly before sinking my teeth into his flesh. I rolled my tongue to the back of my throat to avoid his flesh, but his blood flooded my mouth, and he tasted surprisingly nice for a piece of shit. I didn’t want him to, but he did.

  When an artery opened, I quickly dragged him by the wrist across the floor and positioned it over Falcon’s open mouth, dusting my hands off as I stood back. If just a few drops could get past that slit into his throat, it might heal him enough that he could at least wake up and defend himself. I couldn’t stay here and do it. He’d want me to—I’d be safe here. But the people in the front entrance needed me too. I couldn’t leave them down there, exposed and out in the open. But before I could go anywhere, I needed Nhym.

  I kissed Falcon on the head, then gently and quietly closed the door as I left.

  None of the guards lined the hallways like they usually did, and the absence of something I was so used to made the big old manor seem really scary. Probably scarier for the humans, though.

  “Just hang on,” I said, as if my words were a prayer that would reach them, or maybe protect them. “I’ll be there soon.”

  * * *

  A thick layer of dust covered Nhym’s box. I gently wiped my hand along the top, revealing the Markings of the Old Language: Where there is life, there is hope. The same Markings were on the blade of my sword, reading: Nhym. Meaning life. But she would not bring life tonight; she would defend it.

  I flipped the catch on the box, and my hands knew the hilt of Nhym like they knew the curve of my own breast. I drew her from the box and held her up to the night, clambering clumsily to my feet, half-tripping on the soft fabric of my long dress.

  “We’ve got a job to do, Nhym,” I whispered, charging my hands. And Nhym glowed like a lightsaber in response, as if to say, “I’m ready for battle, My Queen.”

  I placed her on the bed and darted to my wardrobe to get my sword belt, considering a change of clothes for a moment, until I thought about the fear I could smell from the lower floors rising up like thick smoke. There was no time.

  I snapped my mask off the small loop on my dress and tossed it aside, then wrapped the leather belt around my small bump, practically running to my bed to get Nhym after. With her by my side, no vampire stood a chance. Still, that didn’t mean I was looking for a fight. So I took the secret exit out through Eve’s childhood bedroom and walked with whispery steps to the stairway. I could hear them down there—four humans and two Lilithians—could hear them breathing frantically, panicked, muffling their whimpers. And if I could hear them, a vampire certainly could.

  At supernatural speed I appeared in the entranceway, my back to the Great Hall, my hand on my sword. The room seemed empty on first glance, until I sniffed the air and narrowed my grid to the small triangle of space behind the open door.

  I didn’t want to scare them any more than they already were, so I announced myself quietly as I approached. “You don’t need to be scared.”

  “Queen Ara?
” someone said.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, thank you, God!” A small human stepped out from behind the door, no older than seventeen, followed by an old man, two elderly ladies and a middle-aged man. Their masks had been removed, ties loosened and, from what I could see in the dark, they’d taken off their shoes.

  “Are you all okay?” I asked.

  “We’re okay now you’re here.” The girl grabbed my arm tightly. “You have to help us.”

  “I will.” I put my arm around her. She was tiny, even compared to me, which made her easy to hug. “I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

  “There’s nowhere to hide,” the middle-aged man yelped in a loud, panicked voice. “They’re everywhere. They’re Warriors. They—”

  “Merv, calm down.” One of the ladies put her hand on his arm and looked at me apologetically. “We were in the group of Lilithians locked away all this time. He’s afraid to go back.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll never let that happen. Come on.” I grabbed the girl’s hand and led her through the front door. “Follow me.”

  Atop the steps, the midnight mist blew in with a steady breeze, settling on my cheeks and in my breath. I paused a moment, sniffing out my dad’s last steps, using the time to scan the large plains of grass for movement. But it seemed the Warriors had moved on—either led away by the knights or simply appeased by a mission complete. What that mission was, I feared to ask. Drake had no reason to attack us.

  “I’m telling you, we need to go. Now!”

  “Shh,” Merv’s Lilithian wife warned him.

  “I’m not going to shush, woman. I won’t be shushed,” he yelled, flipping his wife’s hands off his arms. “I’m not going back in those cells, I tell you. I’m not!”

  “Merv,” the woman pleaded. “We’ll be heard. Just quiet down, honey—”

  “Yeah, Merv,” a mocking voice said from the driveway. I looked down to the pair of Warriors standing below the steps, a gun aimed at Merv’s head. “Why don’t you quiet on down? You might be heard.”

  I could visibly see Merv die inside when I looked back at him, his wife shrinking beside him.

  “To the right,” I said quietly and calmly. “The forest will protect you.”

  My small group looked at me, confused, until I yelled “Run!” and not a heartbeat passed after with them still standing. They split apart in four directions and vanished. Not one of them running for the forest.

  “Stupid idiots,” I mumbled.

  The Warriors moved up the steps, aiming their guns at me like overly cautious cops storming a drug house. I put both hands up, as though I was weak and afraid, and as they reached my side and lowered their weapons to cuff me, I gripped Nhym’s hilt, whipped her from the leather belt and slashed the wrist and then the neck to my left, driving the tip through the stomach to my right. It went in like a stick through soft butter, and both men went down hard and fast, bleeding out on the ground like helpless sacks of wheat.

  It occurred to me then that these men, while they might’ve been well-trained cops or maybe service men, hadn’t long been vampires and had no idea how to defend themselves as such. They didn’t even attempt to block me, almost as if they thought they were indestructible.

  I squatted down and yanked the hair at Gut-Stab’s forehead, tilting his face up sharply. “Who sent you?”

  His mouth gaped, his whole body shaking. “It… it hurts.”

  “Yes,” I said impatiently. “Vampires feel pain more savagely than humans. Who sent you?”

  He looked down at his trembling, blood-covered hand.

  “Answer me!” I yelled, but before I could scare a confession out of him, a shrill scream echoed across the grounds, rushing up from the edge of the forest to my ears like a sudden breath, carrying with it the scent of human blood and a final memory. I stood up like a cat listening for prey. Those humans didn’t stand a chance out there alone.

  “This is your lucky day, vampire,” I spat, and kicked him in the thigh. He moaned, rolling over. Hopefully in pain. I gave him one last kick in the bum, then sheathed Nhym and took off at a human run, gathering my blood-stained dress in folds above my knees. If the fabric was sticky with static before, being drenched thickly in blood certainly didn’t help. But it didn’t matter. It felt like no more a nuisance than having long hair or being cold. My mind and heart and soul made a beeline for those helpless humans and not a thing in the world clouded my calling.

  As I reached the border of the Enchanted Forest, I caught the scent of the younger girl. She’d veered off suddenly away from the tree line. I had to resist the urge to call to her, following her scent instead, checking the low shrubs and ferns for signs of a lifeless body. She wasn’t dead, though, wherever she was. I could still feel her energy, and the bloody scent I caught before was in the opposite direction.

  My nose guided me to the grassy entrance of the field—the section closest to the Throne Room doors, where no one had bothered to mow recently. This was supposed to be off-limits to the public, but enough of them passed through this way to the back of the manor earlier as a shortcut to the village that the grass was still a little flattened in places. I could smell the fear and the raw cinders of a recent explosion, probably the one that caused that mighty orange glow.

  For a series of events that happened such a short time ago, it sure did feel eerily deserted around here. And quiet. I closed my eyes and let my hands hang loosely by my sides, feeling the air, the life, the energy of Nature from my fingertips to my shoulders. If I took my shoes off, this would be much easier, but I felt a great sense of urgency. I focused hard on the feel of that young girl, using the element of earth to amplify her last steps. And it was almost as if they glowed blue—a warm kind of energy radiating off them—one after the other, guiding my eyes to her hiding place.

  “You can’t hide here,” I whispered, covering her mouth as she screamed.

  She pushed my hand down. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Appear out of nowhere like that.”

  I looked back to where I’d been standing just a second ago. “Sorry. I’m not used to people not being used to it.”

  She caught her breath, fanning herself as though she was choking on the entire experience. “I never even knew about vampires until tonight. My boyfriend, he—”

  “He only just told you, huh?”

  She nodded.

  “Where is he now?” I poked my head up above the rock and checked for bad guys. “Did he just abandon you here?”

  “I don’t even know.” She looked around too, as though she might see him. “When that girl got speared by that giant rod, he pushed me out of the way, and then he was gone.”

  I caught a flash in her small human mind of a blond girl being pinned to the gravel drive by a giant spear through her chest. “Maybe he’s with the others.”

  “I bet he is. But why would he just leave me? I mean, don’t I matter to him?”

  I looked back at her huge round eyes, so open and full of hope and love and gullibility. “If he didn’t fight with his last breath to keep you safe, you’re better off without him,” said the girl whose own vampire boyfriend had failed her many times.

  As that sunk in, her lip trembled, and the hope died in her eyes. “But that’s not fair. I gave myself to him. I… he was my first love.”

  I sat back a bit with the breath of realization, then rubbed my brow furiously. “And he’s Vampire, right? Not Lilithian?”

  “Uh-huh.” She nodded, her face buried in her hands.

  “You’ve been Spirit Bound.”

  “I’ve been what?”

  “Look, here’s the deal.” I opened her hands so I could see her face. “You’ll be bound to him forever. And I can either let you go home, back to your human life, where you’ll mourn him and probably eventually kill yourself, or I can have one of my men turn you.”

  “Turn me?”

  “Yep. They can bite you right now, and you c
an go home, sleep it off, and wake tomorrow with a hunger for his blood.”

  “I…” A new kind of realization set in as she looked at me. “You’d just turn me—just like that?”

  “Well, no. I can’t turn you, or else your venom would be a danger not only to vampires, but also to yourself—if anyone wanted to use it for evil. But we can go down and find out what the hell happened to all my knights, and if they’re still alive, hopefully just standing around laughing about the pathetic fight Drake’s Warriors put up, then one of them can bite you and you can be on your merry way.”

  A smile cheered her whole red, tear-streaked face. “Let’s go then.” She stood up. “I’ve got a score to settle with that jerk Lucas.”

  “Okay, but…” I stood too, and gently pushed her to the ground by her shoulder. “For your own safety, you need to stay here.”

  “But what if they find me? You found me. They—”

  “Then run into the forest.” I pointed behind me. “You’ll be—”

  “No way. Lucas told me what that place is. It’s cursed.”

  “It’s not cursed.” I started walking. “Lilith will protect you.”

  “Who’s Lilith?” she called.

  “Just go.”

  I heard her sigh then storm off, her heavy human footsteps making enough racket to wake Mathias. But if she reached the forest before another Warrior came by, I knew she’d be safe in there. The legends surrounding the forest were enough to keep the Warriors out of there, and if they weren’t, Lilith was enough to protect a human seeking sanctuary. Especially a girl. One that’d been used and hurt by a man.

  As I ventured out into the open field, the doused fires and the icy sea air forced a smoky, foggy cloud over the land, giving me, but also an enemy, a place to hide. I walked with my sword in one hand, the other out front to feel for solid objects, inhaling the cold like a block of ice and exhaling it so quietly it was barely a cloud itself.

  My careful footsteps over the uneven grass yielded too much noise though, and my sword belt added to it, clanking around against my leg as it slipped down under my belly. I stopped a moment to tighten it around Bump, using that second to scan the ground at my feet for dead bodies. It was all just too quiet. There had to either be a lot of dead things under my feet, waiting for me to trip on them, or a horde of cunning warriors lying in wait for me to fall into their trap. Either that or they had what they came here for, and left. But if that was the case, where in the hell were all my knights?