Nicolae managed to suck in enough air to get back up and growled at her. "Playtime is over. Azazel!" Nicolae held out his still working hand and the king of the Underground threw a menacing looking sword into his hands.
Victoria heaved a sigh. "Pretty swords kill just as well as ugly ones."
"I think you'll find that this one really does the trick."
He swung out at her and she dodged only to be sliced in the leg by Nicolae's new sword. The immense pain was immediate. Victoria screamed both in fury and agony as she realized what that sword was covered in. "You dirty cheater!" she spat at him.
"Every warrior always knows to have extra contingencies in place for emergencies." He used Victoria's fall to give himself time to pry open the eye that she had punched shut. Victoria shakily got up, her leg now failing her as the heavy dose of poison set in. He swung at her again and she tried to move, but was unable to. The poison moved fast and she was already losing the ability to use her legs. His sword made a deep slice into her arm this time and the burning zapped through her like lightning. Without any more energy left as the poison spread in her body, she collapsed to her knees onto the dirt.
"Let this be a reminder of all who stand against us!" he shouted to the audience. There was a mix of cheering and booing. "Let this be the step that transcends Terrarum into a new world order." Nicolae approached her and raised that sword over her heart. "I'm sad our little game is over, but you have outlived your usefulness, princess."
Those were the last words Victoria heard before he plunged that poison sword into her heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Death and Other Inconveniences
One moment, Victoria had been staring up at the dark ceiling of the Underground. The next, that darkness was replaced by a blinding light far brighter than anything she had ever seen. She realized her eyes were closed, and that the light was radiating through her eyelids. She opened them only to quickly cover her face with her arms.
Her arms. She could move them. She almost cried from joy as she felt her face under her hands. Untouched. Unscathed. She wasn't hungry, nor was she in pain.
Victoria felt soft, lush grass underneath her. Uncovering her hands from her face, she realized that the light that she had seen was shining from a bright entity floating in the sky far beyond her.
"That's…that's the…sun," she said aloud to herself. Panic flooded through her but quelled the instant she realized that her skin wasn't burning. However, that could only mean…
"I'm dead."
One moment, the sun was shining high above her face, casting unfamiliar warmth onto it. The next, the upside-down face of a man looked back at her as he peered over her head. His golden, curly hair floated all around his face as he said, "Yes, it certainly looks that way."
Victoria sat up and he quickly stepped back to give her some space. Something told her he was used to strangers just winding up in his field.
"Who are you?" she demanded. He just smiled at her. For some reason, she found herself calmed by his smile.
"I am just like you, or, I was. I too ended up in this field a long time ago just like you have today." He motioned with his head to somewhere behind her. "And just like they did once, as well."
She looked over her shoulder and saw a tall wooden house. It was odd and mismatched in every way. One wall was green, while the other wall was purple. One wall was made entirely of windows, while others were adorned with shells and murals. It made no sense, and yet, there was something inviting about it. Something like being found.
"This is the place where the lost ones go. Many buildings in the Beyond have names. Everyone knows this place as 'Home.'"
"Home," she said. The name seemed perfect for the place. Victoria looked to the left of the house where a lake sparkled in a deep cobalt blue. It was there that many splashed and played. Lazy white clouds floated slowly through the sky as a light breeze blew the scent of jasmine through the air. Victoria looked to her side where the man stood. He did indeed have crazy blond hair that moved gently in the warm breeze. His skin was well-tanned from many days in the sun, she presumed. He looked entirely normal were it not for those striking golden eyes staring back at her.
"You're a vampire," she said unsure of why her tone held mild surprise.
"In another world, I suppose titles like that mattered. Now," he said as he picked up a pole that she hadn't realized had been laying by his feet. "I am a fisherman."
He took off down a dirt path that led towards the house and the lake.
"Hey, wait!" Victoria cried as she walked after him. She took in more of the world around her with admiration. Flowers bloomed and willow trees dotted the landscape. In the distance she could have sworn she could see something white. Her first guess was snow. It seemed ludicrous in a landscape like this, but she supposed anything was possible in the Beyond.
The man led her down to a dock that stretched out into the lake and sat at the edge as he cast his pole into the water. Victoria was now close enough to realize that the lake wasn't just a lake, but the mouth of a river. And that something white in the distance wasn't snow at all, but clouds. She gasped as she realized she was at the very edge of a world. A low call in the distance caught her attention as she watched a whale that seemed to be made of the very sky itself swim through the clouds as if it were the ocean. That river that connected to the lake wound throw the sky in crazy spirals. Crazier than that, she saw boats sailing along it, as if this were normal behavior. For them, she supposed it was. In the distance, the river passed many other places similar to the one she stood on.
"Floating islands in a sea of sky," Victoria said in awe. "It is truly spectacular."
"If you think this is amazing, then you should see it at night. Now that's a sight to behold."
"I suppose I will soon enough."
The man just shook his head. "You may be here right now, but there is no room for you at Home."
"Will I go to another island?"
"No, you see, when a soul is sent to us, a room attaches itself to Home like it was always meant to be there. You have come here, but there is no addition of rooms for you to call yours."
"Which means…"
"You already have a home. Your trip to the Beyond is only temporary. For whatever reason, I do not know. I just know that this world isn't ready to accept you yet, because you already have a home among the mortal lands."
Victoria thought of the arena and that dirty cell. The pain and the torture. "What if I don't want to go back."
"No one ever does. Not when they've seen the paradise of the Beyond. But I suppose you can either lay down and die, or get up and fight. In the end, it's always up to you. If you truly wished to stay here, I'm sure a room would materialize. However, I believe there is something holding you back from death. That reason alone is why no room has been built."
Victoria thought of Raduta, Alex, Albert, and Adrian. She thought of their fun on Stransura, and how she felt like a regular teenage girl for once instead of the future queen. All these things had become so important to her. At last, she thought of Nicolae Blake and his idea of a new world order. She thought of the slaves in the arena that were so filled with despair. She thought of those blades and his cruel smile and his promise for justice on a world that had wronged him. Whatever his justice was, she didn't want to see it.
The man by her side was right. Victoria already did have a home. And she would do everything in her power to protect it.
The man was smiling at Victoria as though he had seen all of her thoughts that had materialized in her mind. "So, you do have something worth returning for?" he asked her.
"Yes," she replied. "Something worth fighting for."
"Then I wish you the best of luck in your fight. I have the strong feeling that we will meet again one day."
Victoria nodded. "Then I suppose I will see you then." She looked around herself wanting to remember as much as possible. "How do I get back?"
"You're already halfway
there," she heard the boy say from behind her.
"What?" she turned around, but he was gone, as was the house, and the lake, and all of the people. Alone, Victoria stood in that empty meadow as the sunshine slid away into a starry night. She watched the sky in wonder and marveled at its beauty. A feeling within her soul told her that was where she belonged: among the wind and stars. There was a sound like heavy wing beats and the night grew darker, still, as an onyx shadow, a pure void of light, descended on where she stood.
Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced through her heart and she found herself jolting forward. Instead of paradise, she now was looking at a dirty, brown ceiling. She was on a table, she realized, partially covered by the body bag she lay in.
She had been dead.
She had no way of knowing how long she had been dead for but now she was alive. There was something different, too. Something within herself felt different. She couldn't think of any other way to explain it than that.
All Victoria knew was that she couldn't waste any more time sitting there. She remembered every moment of torment Nicolae had put her through. Every word he said. She had lost the fight because Nicolae had cheated. Stars, Amnesty was going to be mad at her for making her lose all of that money.
There was a sensation of heat in her hands that startled her. In her rage, claws had erupted from her fingertips, but there was fire there, as well. Slowly, it ate its way through the plastic of the body bag and scorched a black spot into the table.
She…had powers? How was this even possible? Perhaps, in her most dire hour, she had been able to summon her mother's flames. In her soul, she willed those flames to grow, for she suddenly had a desire to burn this whole building down, to burn down the entirety of the underground. Instead, they went out and were replaced with a darkness like midnight. It was a darkness she had seen before. It was the same that flickered around Albert's illusions. However, that was not an ability in her family line. It was an entirely different ability than the fire altogether.
It was impossible.
But that was not for her to contemplate now. Not when her enemies surrounded her and death was a mere few poor decisions away. Victoria quickly and quietly rose from her position atop the table, careful not to alert anyone to her presence. She silently slunk away into the next room and hid amongst the shadows.
Suddenly, she got an idea. She looked down at her now completely normal hands. Mere minutes ago, those hands had been wrapped in fire and shadows. It was the latter that she needed now. She had seen Albert practice it enough times to see how he did it, but it was the feeling behind those powers that she was unsure about.
"My abilities come straight from the mind," he would tell her. "If I can imagine it, then it can be."
Somehow, she doubted that these abilities were the same, but they certainly seemed similar.
Victoria closed her eyes to concentrate. 'I am shadows,' she thought. 'I am shadows. I am darkness. I am the space between the stars.'
Upon opening her eyes, there was a silent whirlwind of darkness around herself. When she reached out to touch it, she was reminded of the night sky. She didn't know how this was possible that she could suddenly have powers, and multiple ones at that, but she knew that the only way to escape this place was to utilize them.
A noise in the room from which she came brought Victoria back to the present. Carefully concealing herself amongst the shadows, she tested out just how visible she was. It turned out that if she moved slowly and silently enough, she would remain completely concealed.
When she got back into the room, she found a wizard looking at the burned body bag in horror.
"How…" he began to ask himself.
Victoria accidentally jostled a bookshelf causing a couple of items to fall and break on the ground. The wizard jumped about a foot high in the air and yelped looking directly where she stood.
"Where are you demon?" he cried.
As funny as the idea was that she had somehow turned herself into a demon, she couldn't risk this man alerting the others. When his back was turned to her, she lunged out of the shadows sinking her teeth into his neck. His scream was sucked up by the night that surrounded them. The flavor of wizards was unlike anything she had ever tasted. She needed it. As she drained the wizard of every last drop of his blood, she felt that feeling erupt within her again. Perhaps it was power. Perhaps there was something special about wizard blood that made vampires stronger. Now she understood why her ancestors couldn't resist the taste.
When the color had at last gone out of the man's brown eyes, she finally deigned to release him. Blood dribbled down her chin and onto her shirt. Victoria tried her best to lick it all up, not wanting to let any of the delicious blood to go to waste.
A tingling sensation made Victoria look at her arms. The wounds from her fight with Nicolae and his poison blade were closing up leaving behind scars that looked as though they had been healed years ago. She smiled to herself. Perhaps it was power, indeed. When those wounds sealed up, light emanated from them.
Shadows, flame, and now something else she had never seen before. She couldn't help but shake the feeling that she has somehow stolen the powers others had once possessed. She remembered back to when she first escaped with Ceto. The woman whom she first killed and consumed was of celestial breath. Her power came from the planets and the stars. Victoria wondered if she now had that ability among her arsenal and how she might utilize it.
Victoria crept out of the room into a dimly lit hallway. The fire of torches on the walls seemed to reach out to her as if to say, 'I know you. We are of the same breath.' She put her hand up to it and willed it to dance around her fingers. It did before a door swished open at the end of the hall and a shocked wizard stood staring at her. Victoria tackled him, but not in time to silence him. He let out a yell for help as she sunk her teeth into the side of his neck and drank from him greedily. She heard more noises from farther away, still she drank. She needed as much strength as she could get. If her powers only answered her call when she was strong, then she needed as much blood as she could get. Once she was finished drinking, then she would get out of here.
All at once, the environment shifted and Victoria was looking at a barren forest under a sky full of stars. The man that she had her teeth around breathed in sharply. Huh, she hadn't realized he was still alive. He was slowly dying by the looks of it. Terror was etched on his purple face as he suffocated, even though her hands weren't around his throat. Victoria released her grip and got up to really get a good look around. The place smelled of death and everything just seemed wrong. The man had suffocated, but she was breathing just fine. A shriek erupted from the space around her and Victoria knew where she was. What she didn't understand was how. Another shriek shattered through the air; this time much closer. Fear shot up Victoria's spine, and she wished dearly to get back.
She blinked, and somehow, she was. The stench of death was replaced by mildew. She looked at her feet. The wizard hadn't come back with her. She kept going and passed through the next door. She hadn't thought that she was still in the arena, but the next room proved her to be correct. She was back in that prison room in the warehouse. Right where she had told Ceto she would be should she be able to get help. Hopefully she hadn't come back too late. She heard a clinking of chains and saw Nicolae in her old cell with his back to her. In her shadow form, even Nicolae couldn't detect Victoria's movements. His poison blade was laying on the table behind him and she smiled. She plucked that sword right off of the table as silent as the night and slashed him across the back. Nicolae cried out in pain and looked around madly. It took all of her self-control to keep from laughing. She stepped out of those shadows, the sword still in her hand. "Now, this is interesting."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Monsters Making War
"Draconis," Nicolae hissed at her. That word sounded like the winds that blew around Batara, that same wind that always seemed to recognize and know her. "I knew it."
"As mu
ch as I'd like to pry those answers out of you," Victoria replied. "I only have so much time before I burn this place to the ground." Nicolae scratched out at her. His legs had stopped working just like hers had during their fight in the arena. "Don't you remember what I said?" Victoria chuckled. "Didn't I say that I was going to cut you open and drain you from every last drop of blood you had?" Nicolae snarled at her, but she took one of his blades. The silver glittered in the dim light of the cell. "You know, before I got here, I always hated wizards. I wished they would all disappear from this world because of their ideals about vampires." She dipped that blade in the poison and walked closer to Nicolae. He didn't need shackles. The immobilizing nature of the poison did just the trick. "Now there's not enough."
"I'm not sure whether I should be angry or laugh. I suppose either way I have won. Should I manage to escape this, I'll rip your head off to make sure that you don't cash in any more of your remaining lives." He chuckled. "And if you kill me right here and right now, I will die knowing that I created perhaps the greatest monster Terrarum has ever seen. You're worse than I am."
Victoria smiled at him. "Debatable." She took the blade and gouged a long line down his forearm. Blood immediately spilled out and over her fingers. "Hmm," she looked around the cells before her eyes had at last landed on it: the goblet that had been stolen from her home. She took his arm and let the blood drip into the cup, then she did the same with his other arm. Sweat glistened across his brow and a growl laced with pain escaped from him.
His eyes were filled with promises of revenge when he said, "You really are a monster, Victoria Speranta."
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