Conceding, I got up and took his hand. He walked us out of the Great Dome and into the night, the moon and stars sprawling across the dark sky. Pink particles glimmered in the corner of my eye but vanished whenever I looked directly at them. The mist was present in a discrete and fascinating form.
“This reminds me of the time Serena and her group got pulled into Eritopia. Twenty years went by, and we had no memory of them whatsoever,” I said as we started walking toward the redwood residences.
“That was a nightmare,” Derek replied. “I never want to feel that way again. This time, we’re obviously awake and remembering. I dare hope it won’t take us twenty years to find our son.”
“I made a promise to Acheron, you know? He was dead, but I sort of… I sort of hoped he still heard me from somewhere in the afterlife.”
Derek gave me a surprised look. “What did you promise? You never told me.”
“It felt foolish at the time, but I can’t help but circle back to it now,” I said. “I promised we’d look after Thayen. That we would raise him and love him as our own.”
“We did that.”
“But he’s not with us anymore…” I replied, my eyes stinging.
Derek stopped and turned to face me, his arms slipping around my waist. “Sofia… we’ve been through hell and back more than once. We’ve lost a son, more than once. We lost everything the last time. Our children… everything—if only for a few moments before Death brought it all back. We survived. Thayen is made of the same fabric as we are. You kept your promise to Acheron. We’ve raised a strong and capable young man.”
A presence invaded my consciousness. At first it was faint, barely an impression. But as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I knew we weren’t alone anymore—which was a shame, since I would’ve liked nothing more than to kiss my husband and thank him for his strength even in the most trying of times.
“Derek, Sofia,” Safira said, emerging from the woods to our left. “I was just about to come find you at the Great Dome.”
“What is it?” I asked, hopeful. “Are you okay? Are the others okay?”
She smiled, vaguely amused. “Yes. Everyone is okay. Please, do not fret. I only come to bring another sliver of good news. My sisters and I have succeeded with our second endeavor, as promised. We’ll be able to detect when a shimmering portal opens.”
“Can you tell us the particulars?” Derek replied.
“This was Chana’s doing, really. She collected pink mist particles from the existing spell and injected them into her bloodstream,” Safira explained. “It was an innocent try, until she realized she could feel all the portals that had opened before, more intensely and clearly than ever. She thinks she will also feel a new one when it opens, as she is intrinsically connected to the mist now. And when she feels it, she’ll transfer the sensation to each of us, so we can all share the experience.”
“Wow. How did she know to do that?” Derek asked.
Safira shrugged. “We just figured it was worth a try. No knowledge came with it. The mist is a spell, and Chana imagined that if she were to bind the spell to herself somehow, she might be able to do more than the spell itself. We are conduits of elemental magic, after all, and while Eritopia might be far away, we are not powerless.”
“Thank you,” I said, ever in awe of the Daughters. “I… I am humbled and grateful to have you and your sisters in our life. I really am.”
“Perhaps thank me when this leads to something,” Safira replied. “Even if we are able to feel when the next portal opens, and we have people standing by with intervention teams, we don’t know when the next portal will open… So, we’re still stuck in this unpleasant limbo.”
Derek let out a breath, almost like a whimper. He was exhausted, though nowhere near ready to give up. “It doesn’t matter, Safira. What matters is that even now, we are able to come together and face our enemy head on. I echo Sofia’s sentiments, as well, and I thank you for your support and kindness. We are fortunate to have you in our lives, especially now.”
Safira shuddered and threw her arms around us. I was speechless, but I didn’t dare push the Daughter away when she needed a hug. They’d always been distant creatures, oftentimes difficult, even. Yet the disappearance of Viola and Astra had hit Safira hard, and I had a feeling her sisters were going through the same emotional struggles.
“I’m grateful we are such a big and strange family,” Safira said, her face hidden in my hair as Derek and I held her close. We stayed like that for a while, enjoying the peculiar closeness. We all needed a moment to pull ourselves together.
And my husband was right. The moment would come when we’d have to mobilize and go after our children. Until then, the best we could do was to put our heads down and find comfort in one another. The world we lived in was still crazy. It didn’t mean we were old enough to give into its madness.
No. Our son would need us. And we would be ready.
Thayen
The crap hit the fan with impressive speed.
We were invisible, but Aida and Field’s clones could see us. The alarm was still blaring, and heavy boots thundered through the underground corridors, getting louder with every second that passed. Voss, Chantal, Richard, and Isabelle were still in their cells. Dafne, Soph, and Jericho were there with them, already working on the padlocks to set them free.
With Viola unconscious in Brandon’s arms and the Berserker having betrayed us, Astra unleashed the whole wrath of her Daughter nature. I wasn’t sure what Aida and Field’s copies had hoped to accomplish by trying to fight us, but it ended poorly. A wave of bright pink light hit them, and every bone in their bodies broke.
Astra successfully combined her Daughter energy with a powerful barrier, and the crackling sounds made me shiver. The doppelgangers collapsed, slowly dying from internal bleeding. All of their shattered bones must have pierced important organs. Determined to get to her mother, Astra stalked after Brandon through the corridor, following the blue lights of his eyes as he moved farther away.
From behind, the hallway flooded with clones armed to their teeth. Horror gripped me by the throat when I realized that only Richard had gotten out. Jericho, Dafne and Soph were still working on the padlocks that kept the others in when dozens of doppelgangers nearly rammed into them. “Run!” I shouted. “Follow me!”
“Damn it!” Soph snarled as she started firing her pulverizer weapon. This throng was forcing us to withdraw before we could get the rest of our friends out.
Jericho pushed Richard toward me. My friend was weak and barely standing, so I hooked an arm around his waist and pulled him down the corridor with me. The clones must’ve done something to keep him submissive, and I imagined they’d done the same to Voss, Chantal, and Isabelle. Soph and Dafne emptied several clips into the incoming horde of clones, turning them into loose piles of silvery ashes. We couldn’t use all our ammunition down here, though.
There were too many doppelgangers, and not enough clips. Their reactive speed was frightening, and we needed to get the hell out of dodge before more of them came through from the other side. We were already overwhelmed.
“Let’s go,” I said, leading the group with a weakened Richard by my side. “Dude, you’re a mess.”
“Tell me about it,” he croaked, struggling to stay awake. “I don’t know what the hell they injected us with, but damn… It’s like my muscles were turned to mush. I can barely think straight…”
“It’s okay, we’ve got you,” Soph said, then briefly turned around and fired a few more pulverizer pellets into the remaining clones. More would come from behind soon, so we absolutely had to get topside before that happened. “We’ll have to come back for the others, one way or another.”
“I know… we have to get out now, though,” I said, boiling with anger.
As if reading my mind, Jericho hung his weapon over his shoulder, leaving Dafne and Soph in charge of pulverizing our pursuers while he dug through my backpack and picked out two explosi
ve charges, each the size of a cellphone. He carried the remotes in his bag, and as he ran, he started connecting the devices between them.
“You never cease to amaze me,” I gasped once I realized what he was doing.
“Yeah, makes me less angry about having to cover your ass,” Dafne replied, giving him an appreciative sideways glance.
Jericho chuckled, though he was sweating and nervous as we trailed after Astra. “It’s a fine ass, admit it…” Humor was his coping mechanism in the middle of this wretched nightmare, and I dared not take it away from him.
The Daughter didn’t lose sight of Brandon, and that was the curious thing. The Berserker had vanished from our sight before, yet this time he was allowing this chase to unfurl. It didn’t make sense. He could’ve just taken Viola and disappeared.
Finally, we saw the door beyond him as it slid open. He rushed up the stone steps with Viola thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Astra threw a small barrier at him, likely aiming for his legs, but she missed him by inches and cursed under her breath.
Behind me, Jericho was done with the charges. “I need you guys to move faster,” he said.
As if my heels were on fire, I ran like the wind. Richard’s boots weren’t even touching the ground anymore, and I could barely feel his weight. Soph and Dafne were right on my tail as we sprinted up the stone steps and reached the northern edge of the Port.
The clones called out and trampled below, as Jericho dropped the two charges and quickly caught up with us, clutching the remote tightly in his hand. “Five, four, three… damn it, I’m out of breath!”
“Two, one,” Dafne finished for him, and he chuckled and pressed the detonator.
A split second passed, then the ground shook beneath our feet. The heavy boom rippled across the sandy beach, followed by a deep rumbling and sharp screams of horror and agony as that part of the tunnel collapsed on the incoming clones. For a second, I worried about Isabelle, Chantal, and Voss, but their cells were too far from that exit to suffer more than a dusty shakeup. The entire maze, if built after the original from our island, was an incredibly sturdy structure, each of the cells reinforced with a heavy steel alloy. The ceilings and the support beams would last longer than the stone itself.
“And there you have it,” Jericho exclaimed. “Why I aced the explosives class.”
“Where the hell is he taking us?” Soph asked, her breathing ragged as we kept running after Astra, Brandon, and Viola. That was an excellent question, since the Berserker was now racing up the shore and gradually inching closer to the northern redwoods.
“I don’t know, but we can’t lose them,” I replied.
Black smoke billowed behind us, spreading around the Port. More clones were spilling onto the beach, most of them headed for the cells and unable to see us just yet. It worked to our advantage, but I knew it would be short-lived unless we got off the beach and out of sight.
Somehow, Brandon seemed to be on the same page, as he changed direction and bolted straight for the woods. Astra cast another barrier at him, but he jumped, agile as a wildcat, and the air rippled past him, crashing into a tree. It left one hell of a hole in the trunk, splintered wood raining down. I could only imagine what it would’ve done to Brandon’s legs had the barrier hit him.
“Astra, what’s the plan?” I asked, almost out of breath.
“We stay on him,” she replied. “I have to get her…”
And none of us could disagree. It was Viola that had been demanded by HQ. More tests, I’d heard Aida and Field’s clones say. What tests? Viola might know more. Brandon absolutely knew more, the treacherous bastard.
The sequoias rose around us with their reddish bark folds and emerald crowns, giants watching us from above as we darted between them in a desperate bid to recover one of our abductees. Refusing to lose sight of her mother again, Astra launched another barrier, knowing she couldn’t use her pulverizer on Brandon while he still had Viola. She couldn’t risk hurting her mother.
“Could you please stop trying to break my damn legs?” Brandon blurted and came to a sudden halt. “I’m trying to help you here!”
We all stopped, our words lost along the way.
“Wait. What?” Astra croaked, trying to make sense of this madness.
“They’ve suspected me of treason before. I had to do something to get them off my back,” Brandon replied. “To prove I’m still loyal. The Berserkers aren’t as easy to convince, but it’s not them I was trying to get on my side. It’s these dumb clones, who tell on everybody to HQ, including the Berserkers.” Gently, he laid Viola down. She was still asleep, resting peacefully in some kind of deep slumber. Her heartbeats were mellow and even. “Actually, let me correct my previous statement. I had to do something to get them off my back while also helping you get your Pink Lady back.”
“That’s why you sold us out back there?” I asked, my blood still boiling as I nervously looked around. Soph and Dafne had emptied a couple canisters of trace wipers along the way, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough. We’d made quite the ruckus down by the Port, and I didn’t even want to imagine how much harder the recovery of Isabelle and the others would be after this botched attempt. “Do you have any idea how insanely difficult it will be for us to rescue the rest of our friends now?!”
Brandon nodded. “I do. But I had to, as you so eloquently put it, ‘sell you out.’ It was only a matter of time before one of the clones spotted you. Damn it, kid, you were never going to get out of that place with your friends.”
“How do you know that?” I shot back.
“You didn’t even let us try,” Astra added, shaking as her gaze darted between Brandon and her mother. “You… made me trust you.”
Brandon shot her a cold grin, but the blue flames in his eyes flickered with hesitation. “I never told you to trust me.” He pointed at Viola. “Anyway, here you go. You’re welcome.”
“What about my friends?” Astra retorted. “We had to blow up that exit. The clones won’t allow for a second incursion.”
The Berserker exhaled sharply. His expression shifted from bored amusement to something much deeper and more profound. I reached out a hand, wondering if I could use my glamoring abilities on him. He raised both hands as the blue in his gaze intensified to an almost-white. “Don’t even think about it, kid. You can’t afford the spiritual energy you’d need to hold something like me down.”
“So, I could glamor you, if I wanted to,” I said.
“You could, but it would cost you dearly. Don’t be stupid,” he replied. “Now grab your mom, Pinkie, and get out. Head for the Black Heights. There aren’t as many dragon clones in those caves as you might think. HQ is keeping them all closer to the Great Dome, ready to engage if needed.”
“This is unbelievable,” I snapped. “You twirl and jerk us around, and now you expect us to keep following your lead? How stupid do you think we are?”
Brandon shrugged. “Personally, I consider you smarter than the clones. Take it as a compliment. And get crackin’ before…” His voice trailed off, and he sighed with exhaustion, his shoulders dropping. “Too late.”
The air thinned. A strange chill swept through the forest, concentrating around us. Shadows danced between the trees, some sliding down the redwoods like engorged snakes. Blackness spread across the grass, and before any of us could even blink, we found ourselves surrounded by shadow hounds. At the eastern edge of the clearing, Haldor stood, enormous and proud as before, whip dangling from his right hand. I had no intention of feeling it wrapped around my arm again.
“Damn, I’ve seen that mountain before,” Richard mumbled, coming out of his daze again. He was standing on his own now, though he still wobbled. He could also see the massive Berserker that had just revealed himself. “I like the skinny one better,” he managed, his gaze faded and weary.
I had to agree. Brandon didn’t walk around with an army of shadow hounds under his command, nor did he enjoy tormenting us. No, that was all Haldor, w
ho looked pleased to find us all in one place. “Oh, look. A spineless, treacherous Berserker, a sleeping Daughter, a useless wolf pup, and five idiots who have yet to understand that they should never have stepped through that portal to begin with.”
And so it would begin. The fight we’d been dodging for quite a while, first thanks to Myst, and later thanks to Brandon. We could no longer avoid it now. The shadow hounds had caught our scent, and we had two Shadians we needed to protect since they couldn’t protect themselves.
We were screwed, but I had no intention of giving up.
Astra
Brandon seemed tense as he gave Haldor a sour look. They were equally displeased with seeing each other again, but Brandon didn’t want to fight. He kept taking small steps back, as if gradually preparing to flee. I hadn’t pegged him for a coward, but here he was, inching away from us.
“You really should run, Pinkie,” he said to me, but I was too angry and too scared to even imagine a scenario where I would be able to flee. On top of that, the pet name irked me beyond belief.
“You really should grow a pair and help us,” I replied, moving closer to my mother. Kneeling beside her, I tried to wake her up, but she was unresponsive.
“She’ll come out of it on her own and not a moment sooner,” Brandon said.
“Once more, I find you consorting with the enemy, old friend. Did you think you’d get away with it?” Haldor asked, his voice booming like thunder across the clearing while his shadow hounds prowled around us, eagerly awaiting his command. They were dying to get a piece of us.
Jericho’s fists were ablaze, and I was ready to unleash all the light I had left in me. I just wasn’t sure it would be enough to push this persistent enemy away. I had a feeling our business with Haldor would only end if he died—or if we did. And the latter wasn’t an acceptable option, damn it.
A Shade of Vampire 89: A Sanctuary of Foes Page 19