by SARA FREITES
“They are the vampires,” Eden informed me quietly.
They weren’t what I’d expected, not scary or monster-like, but more so…unique.
Although the clothes they wore, besides the oversized trench coats, weren’t out of the ordinary, their skin and hair were a dead giveaway that something wasn’t right about them. Their dead-looking eyes reminded me of perfectly round pools of varying-colored water with a depth right in the center, the color there dramatically darker where their pupils should have been. The linings of their eyelids were slightly pinked like they’d all missed a day or two of sleep. They were tall and slender people, the men tending to be lean and built while the women far more fragile with perfect hourglass figures. And only when the vampires opened their mouths to speak in hushed voices could I see their fangs. The soft blue or, on some, seafoam green veins creeping down their long arms and up their necks were hard to miss. Most of the vampires had perfectly whitened hair and eyebrows, but some even had a light shade of iron gray or a creamy variation.
When Eden and I came upon another narrow door, I studied the hard, expressionless faces of the vampire group. Among them, I recognized Garrett whose contrasting complexion caught my eye and stuck out from the others.
“That’s her,” I heard someone whisper as we passed a second group of vampires.
“I can’t believe it,” another replied in a hushed voice. “After all this time.”
“She even looks like her,” a third spoke while the group disappeared around a corner.
“Don’t worry about them,” Eden whispered. “They’re all expecting you. It’s just kind of hard for everyone to believe the reincarnation is real.”
“Why do their eyes look like that?” I asked in a whisper.
“I’m not really sure about that part. I think it has to do with something in their inner eyes changing after rebirth and the way the light refracts there, makes them look as though they don’t have pupils,” she explained.
Eden guided me through. We went down another level, this one far less grand than the last. We met two familiar faces ascending the stairs. I’d seen them before. They were the very first vampires I’d ever laid eyes on when Garrett and the others saved me from Shane’s lair.
“They’re both sub-clan leaders. The one with the long hair and brown eyes is Terry. He’s the oldest in our clan and second-in-command under my father. The taller one with the gray-looking eyes is Harper, the youngest here, third-in-command,” Eden whispered while we neared them. “Hello, gentleman,” she greeted them, breaking her whisper.
Terry nodded. Harper held his eyes just over our heads.
“Hello,” Terry greeted us, his French accent apparent.
He was tall but not overly big. His powdery blue veins popped against his snowy skin, and his pupil-less-looking eyes were gentle and weary as if he’d seen a lot of pain and sadness in his life. Strands of his creamy white hair fell over his shoulders as he moved.
Harper made a noise in his throat, and I couldn’t quite tell whether it was a laugh or a scoff. He stood built and lean and didn’t look like someone I’d want to run into in a gloomy alley. His hard, intense eyes made me feel as if he’d snap at any second. The ivory stubble stemming from his buzzed hair reached his jawline and the lower half of his face. His olive-colored veins bulged on the inside of his arms and crept above the collar of his shirt.
My eyes finally broke away from their odd features as the men brushed past us. While Eden and I continued on, the air became colder and damp. At the bottom of the steps, the area didn’t look renovated and appeared far less kept. Large slate pillars sat at every turn, and except for the cobwebs in the corners of the stone walls, the area seemed completely vacant. The flames from the few candles fixed to the walls flickered while we walked by.
“This is B level. Remember when I told you we keep our prisoners on this level?” Eden asked and pointed to the second pair of double doors we walked by. “That’s where we keep them. The rest of the doors down here lead to tunnels built to connect us to other vampire greystones. We call the greystones ‘safehavens’. We have five of them throughout the city. Like this one, each structure has a codename, and they are all part of this clan. This area is still part of the Sanctum, but the safehaven a few blocks down is called the Meridian. There are exactly four hundred and eighty-three of us all together, so we try to stay pretty spread out. Other than the safehaven down the street, most of the greystones around us are vacant, much like the way this one was made to look from the outside.”
“Who are the prisoners?” I asked, still stuck on that part of our conversation.
“Believe me, you don’t want to know,” she replied. “We think they’re all working for Arlos. We have maybe nine or ten in there now.”
“Are they all havidens?” I wondered aloud.
“Yes. No reason for us to put anything else in there.”
“Oh. So, are all havidens working for Arlos except for you and your brother?”
“No, no. Not all, but a lot are. Arlos created most of my race, after all. We even think he has some kind of demonic power over the ones working for him.”
Eden led me to a large glass panel stationed between two stone walls. The glass had to be at least ten feet tall, ceiling to floor. Behind it, a motionless and hazy indigo sea resided. There didn’t appear to be a top, bottom or even a back to this vast “room” protected by the glass, and I had to step in closer to understand what I was looking at.
“Autumn, meet Lady Latresma,” Eden spoke excitedly.
Inside, through the space, a snowy mass came into view. A wispy arctic vapor rose from the glass surface while my eyes pierced through the thick ice. The mass became clearer. After a few passing seconds, it wasn’t hard to tell that a body floated behind the glass, seemingly suspended in time. Her ivory hair floated motionlessly around her like a snowy headdress, and her face held a serene expression. She was nude, but thick strands of her hair and the depth of the ice covered most of her body. I’d expected her to look more corpse-like. Shocked at how alive she looked, I even expected her to blink.
I leaned in. It was like looking into a foggy, discolored mirror. The obvious differences between us were just that. She could have been about my age, give or take a few years, but appeared much taller with longer arms and legs. She was also significantly paler than me with veins the color of a midday sky lacing the joints of her bare arms, knees and neck. The veins pulsated a glowing garnet in color in three-second intervals.
Like a forceful wind, an odd sensation swept over me. It seemed to urge me toward the icy grave. I’m not sure what it was. I felt undoubtedly creeped out by the dead, frozen body, but somehow after attempting to fight it, I gave in. I took one cautious step forward. That’s when everything blurred over. A mist rose from the floor. My feet weren’t even on the ground anymore. As the haze became transparent around me, the lights of a city twinkled far below.
At first, it all appeared to be the memory of the strange dream I’d had weeks earlier, only this was far more real. A woman came into view just ahead. Her slender body levitated weightlessly. Her long lily white hair drifted about her body. With her sapphire eyes gazing on, she reached for me with an outstretched hand. A faint whisper filled my ears. Even so quiet, I could tell it wasn’t English. Gradually, the voice became several whispers. The closer I drifted toward the woman, the more blaring and distorted the whispers became.
It didn’t take me long to realize who she was. Images of her flashed across my vision—images of her in a gold flowing dress moving across a courtyard toward a darkened form on the other side of a gate. Then, another image of her smiling at someone as she sat at a table, a large fireplace roaring just behind her. And the last, her body lying on the marble floor of a palace-like mansion. She wrenched in pain while a man stood over her, a large blade in one of his bluish hands. With his face shadowed, his glowing blue and white eyes blazed through the dark. A strong feeling of hatred rose inside me while his laug
h rang in my ears.
“Autumn, what are you doing?” Eden’s voice came from far behind me.
My arm stretched on its own for the floating vampire. Her icy palm pressed against mine. She and the city below dissolved. I was surprised to find myself on solid ground again with my hand pressed against the cold glass of Latresma’s grave. The whispers ceased. I stared confused at the vampire’s motionless body behind the glass.
Latresma’s eyes snapped open through the denseness of the ice, and it cracked across her face. Panic ripped through me. I yanked my hand away. I would have turned to run only my body wouldn’t allow it. A low hum rang in my ears. A bright light exploded from Latresma’s chest. Eden grabbed my arm and drew me away when the light grew. A strong wind blew against us, and Eden backed us against the wall, all the while my arms went for her in fear. We screamed.
Just as brief as it all happened, the light and wind faded. Left behind was an empty space where Latresma’s body once rested. The ice behind the glass had cracked straight down the middle of the ice prison without a trace of the body left behind. Eden and I waited there in silence, our arms intertwined from our moment of absolute terror. That’s when I realized I was hugging her around the waist. Half a dozen vampires had gathered around us. Eden and I slowly parted.
“She’s been there for decades. What the hell happened?” Eden asked.
I wasn’t sure if she was asking me or the vampire group as she gazed at the empty grave.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Was that supposed to happen?”
“Where is Latresma’s body?” one man from the group inquired.
Everyone turned to the wall of ice. Then, the vampires’ gleaming eyes found their way around to me. A nervous sweat broke out over my back and neck. The astounded, angry expressions across their faces made me feel half an inch tall. They must have looked to that monument-like grave for hope and reassurance for hundreds of years, and then, I came along and defaced it. I was sure they would kill me.
“It is just as the legend says,” another vampire spoke up. “Little human, you and the Lady are now one, body and soul. Eden, you best let Thade know what happened here. We don’t want him assuming the worst.” He peered over his back at his group and said, “Let’s get back to work.” His eyes were back on me in an instant. “It is a great pleasure to finally meet you, my Lady.”
With that, the group disappeared behind the pillars. Through the corners of my eyes, I watched Eden, afraid to see her reaction.
“It’s okay, Autumn,” she assured me as if she could sense my anxiety. “It just means we are one step closer to ending all of this. Trust me, your presence here is far more comforting than that corpse was. Now, before we go back to the upper level, I’m supposed to give you this.” She took a leather booklet from a little cabinet against a pillar. “It was supposedly Latresma’s book of incantations passed down along with her body, but it’s useless. Completely blank. It’s rightfully yours though, so—”
She handed the booklet to me. I blew the dust from it and looked it over. My fingers trailed down the smooth maroon leather of the cover. The edges were worn, curved up and partially torn from age, and it appeared to have some water damage. The outer cover was braced in a dingy gold medal at the corners. A diamond-shaped leather piece sat in the middle of the cover. Centered there was a four-petaled golden flower pendant set with an onyx stone. A line of blonde straw had been stitched into the book’s edges as if it alone held the book together.
Sliding the forked clasp out of its hoop that held the pages closed, I opened the book. A few dingy pages fell to the ground. Both Eden and I knelt to gather them off the dirty concrete. While flipping through the pages, I found perfect cursive words written in black ink. I pushed the pages back in the book and flipped through them.
“I thought you said it was all blank,” I said as my hands turned to the middle of the book on their own.
“It is,” she replied.
“Not one of these pages is blank,” I told her and pointed to the small dainty handwriting on the page. “See?”
She leaned in before moving back to stare at me like she thought I was crazy. “What are you talking about? I don’t see a thing.”
The words “lève-toi, gardien”, translating to “guardian, arise”, were written across the top of the page.
“A guardian?” I asked myself. “What kinds of spells are these?”
Eden stared after me. Just below what I read, a small paragraph stated that the incantation would “transform my body into a being whose speed went unmatched, whose agility would overtake anyone who stood against it”. It went on to describe the way the being would look—“blackened violet fur, bone-like blades”. It brought flashbacks of the monster feline in my reflection the night before. Further down the page, it stated that I needed a valued possession of a deceased loved one on my being in order for the spell to work. Jacoby’s pocketknife. It was what had allowed me to transform the first time. I remember murmuring something just before I transformed in the street, too. How I’d known the words of the spell before reading this was another thing. Just below it, the instructions said that to dispel the incantation, the caster had to bite deeply enough into their own tongue to taste blood. I didn’t remember doing this the first time, and must have done it by accident.
“And it’s not just this page. The entire thing is written in French,” I told Eden.
“That sounds right. Latresma was from Paris, and a lot of vampires in this clan originated from France,” Eden explained. “We have several vampires here who can speak the language and translate it for you…that is, if they could see the words. How are you seeing them?”
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “I can translate it. This is it. This is the thing I turned into last night. The pocketknife my brother gave me was what I needed for the spell to work.”
“You said it’s a ‘guardian spell’?” she asked.
“Lève-toi, gardi—” I began to read aloud.
“No! Girl, don’t read it out loud. Are you crazy?” Eden snatched the book from me. “You’ll turn into that thing again.” She lightly laughed at her outburst and flipped through the pages as if to shake off her reaction. “Alright. How are you seeing what’s in here?”
“Are you blind?” I asked as I grabbed the book from her and spread it wide open for her to see.
“Autumn, there’s not a single thing written on…oh, wait a minute. I get it. You’re the only one who can see it. Latresma must have cursed the pages so no one else could read what she wrote. You can read it because you are the holder of her soul.”
I smiled. I knew I wasn’t crazy.
“Now, hold on. You speak French?” she probed.
“I pick up on it really fast in school. Unfortunately, I never get to use it outside of class,” I clarified.
“There’s no coincidence there. It was Latresma’s native language. Keep that with you. For protection. Some of those spells might be useful one day. I suggest you read it front to back as soon as you can.”
We started upstairs as she spoke.
“I know everything I’ve told you isn’t going to make you feel better,” she went on. “But you don’t have to fear us. It will just take time before you’re used to our lifestyle.”
“What do you mean?” I asked when we entered the kitchen. “You said something like that earlier, too. And you haven’t explained how I’m supposed to fight Arlos.”
“It’s all going to sound bad,” she confessed with a sigh.
“As bad as everything else I’ve been told in the past twenty-four hours?” I asked, concerned.
We climbed yet another flight of stairs to the top floor and passed the bedroom I’d earlier woken up in.
“I need to let my father Thade talk to you,” Eden reminded me of his name as she led me down the little passageway.
We entered the next room. It was arranged like the one next door with a closet instead of a bathroom. In place of a bed sat a large e
merald-colored couch. A man stood with his back to us. My eyes trailed the long and whitened dreadlocks hanging down his back in a thick ponytail. He spoke in a hushed voice to three other vampires whose eyes bounced off me as I followed Eden. When the tall man faced us, I instantly noticed a resemblance. If this man wasn’t Eden’s father, I would’ve been surprised. Thade’s features were much like his daughters, only far more rigid, and his skin reminded me of the worn leather of the little spell book Eden gave me, laced in areas with dull green veins. I guessed he was around sixty or so. Despite his age, it was easy to tell through his button-down shirt that he was built like a brick building. This all added to his already intimidating presence.
“Hey,” Eden greeted him as he dismissed the others.
The other vampires filed out, leaving the three of us alone.
“Well, hello there, Autumn,” her dad said and subtly shooed Eden away.
“She can read Latresma’s incantation book,” Eden filled him in as she left. “There are spells in that old thing, but only she can see them. Also, it seems as if Latresma’s body became one with Autumn somehow. The body disappeared when I took her to see it.”
“Is that so? How invigorating!” Thade exclaimed, his booming voice startling me. “There’s no doubt now that we have the right one. Please let everyone here know not to fret over the absence of Latresma’s body. I’ll contact the other safehavens and inform them myself. They’ll be overjoyed to hear the news of their union.” Eden left the room, and he turned his attention to me. “Be sure to keep that little book close to you at all times, Autumn,” he said, his eyes on the booklet in my hand. His smile faded, his face returning to its stern expression. “You never know when you’re going to need it. I hope it will give us an advantage. I’ve been meaning to talk with you since the minute you were brought in. I apologize for not doing so. I’ve had a few other issues to address first.”