Caged Fire

by L M Preston

  Kayson groaned. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known. Forgive me…again. I will take things slow.”

  EmVee gave him a shaky smile then walked around him to the door. Just as Megan swung the door wide.

  “Guess who’s home for dinner!” Megan sang.

  EmVee stepped over the miniature book piles to follow Megan, who’d turned the corner of the hallway. She ducked under the stairwell that curved upwards and appeared to be made from even more books, leading to a closed door at the top.

  She turned the corner to sounds of voices from the door that was ajar down the hall. The light was bright in the room. Demi lay on the bed with Sax standing on the opposite side from Megan and Rachel. Rachel had changed since EmVee saw her last. Her hair seemed thicker, more vibrant brown with highlights of gold. Rachel turned, and her eyes widened.

  She rushed forward and gave EmVee a big hug—for her smaller form, she was strong.

  EmVee smiled at her. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “I’d hoped you wouldn’t. You would be free. Things happen. I’m sorry about your father.”

  “Me too.” EmVee reached over and touched Demi’s leg. “This is my friend; she was attacked by some creatures. They looked like they were human at some time, but their skin was almost transparent, and they had black eyes and silver nails. Also, fangs, like vampires.”

  Rachel bit the tip of her finger, a pensive reaction she always had when she was in deep thought. “Where’d they come from?”

  “I don’t know. They formed from a shadow that turned to a black dark tar-like mass. I do remember seeing one that was similar in the Vampire Province.”

  “Vampire Province?” Rachel tapped her finger on her mouth. “Were they old?”

  EmVee shook her head. “No, their bodies seemed to be teenaged, but maybe it was that their faces looked youthful if they weren’t so slashed with veins that you could practically see through their skin.”

  Rachel pivoted around to Megan. “I need to be alone with Demi…and EmVee for a minute.”

  Sax didn’t move. “I’m not leaving her.”

  Everyone’s eyes were on Megan.

  Megan pointed at herself. “I see. It’s about me, hmmm? You don’t want me here. Fine, I need to talk to Kayson—” She raised an eyebrow at EmVee. “—anyway.” She stomped out of the room.

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “I thought she’d never leave.” She whispered in EmVee’s ear. “You remember that night? The night we captured Silas?”

  EmVee nodded, forcing back a memory flash of Rachel seeming to use some type of magic to control a gold lasso to subdue Silas in order to get him into his cage.

  “The lasso I used on him…I got the ingredients from the underground lab Megan took us to near the hospital.”

  EmVee frowned. “You went back there—alone?”

  “Yes. I got trapped there overnight, and that’s when I saw it.”

  “What?”

  “What they were really doing there. They were taking magicals and experimenting on them. They had a vampire trapped there and human kids. I needed a special herb to give to a witch that could bespell the rope. It takes dark magic, and that place had lots of it.”

  “From the Void? Or other places?”

  “The dark magic, well, it comes from many places and dimensions. But those kids were from here. Children of potential Soul Thieves and Trainers. But then,” Rachel whispered even lower, “Later, when I returned there, I discovered that they’d started stealing kids from the Earthen Province that had no lineage toward either.”

  “Why? This seems extreme, like they are looking for something specific.”

  “Like they are trying to build an army. Your friend, she looks like one of the vampires and human hybrids I saw in a glass cell.”

  “How are they different from humans turned vampires? Is she changing into one?”

  Rachel bit her lip and placed her finger on her chin. “They remain the same without the glamor effect and the beast change that comes when converted to vampire. Also, the kids had black eyes. Demi isn’t turning into a vampire, however, she seems to suffer from the poison of them.”

  “Can you help her?”

  Rachel sighed. “If I could get some of Silas’ blood. That’s impossible though.”

  EmVee considered mentioning the change in her since Silas’ attack but held back. She didn’t want anyone in The Void to know what a monster she’d become.

  “Why his blood?”

  “Well, Fenrir blood kills vampires. Besides lopping off their heads with pure silver and burning the brains, not much can stop them. Soul Trainers and Thieves also have poison in their blood that kills the creatures. Maybe the hybrids are less powerful.”

  “If a Fenrir bites the vampire, will they die?”

  Rachel shrugged. “I suppose, the hard part for the Fenrir is that most vampires are hard to catch, and when they fight, they tend to gang up on the vampires. Like hyenas on their prey.”

  EmVee touched Demi’s leg. It was cold and grey, a strange color against her usually dark skin. Her hair had grey streaks in it woven in the braids EmVee had put in them before the attack. This was her fault; she never should’ve let them come with.

  “I could help, I think,” EmVee whispered, catching the curious gaze Sax gave her.

  Rachel sighed. “I’m afraid not. Silas is not coming back. He’s trapped now by the souls he tried to consume. You could never go where he is; you are human and have another soul path than magicals.”

  “Maybe I’m in between.” EmVee crossed her arms, making the decision to try to save Demi herself.

  “No one can ever be in between Norse god and human. If you are more part human, human you will remain. His hell can never be yours. He became more Fenrir than human.”

  “Even if I have been changed by him?”

  Rachel gasped. “The bite? But that would only work if you and he exchanged blood. Did you? If he released the god hormone in biting you, it could work. Do you feel a change in your body?”

  “Maybe he didn’t know how to release or hold back his god hormone. He never knew his parents. No one would’ve taught him how to restrain himself.” EmVee dropped her eyes to the floor. “We, um…had some heavy kissing in his car and I may have bitten his lip a time or two. Then I stabbed him with the branch. I was bleeding, he was bleeding, anything could’ve happened. All I know is…I’m not the same.”

  A growl sounded behind her. EmVee twisted around to find Kayson standing in the doorway, his arms folded and eyes hooded.

  “I don’t know if you’ll have a strong enough amount in you to change her. Those creatures are pure bred vampire, a dash of human DNA, and a pinch of dark magic that allowed them to hold all those differences together.”

  “Let me try.”

  Sax held up a staying hand. “No way am I letting you bite her.”

  EmVee stepped closer to Demi. “It’s the only way possible to save her. Maybe it will kill the poison in her.”

  Rachel placed a hand on Demi’s head. “Best to bite on the neck; it’s close to the brain and heart, likely to work faster.”

  “Okay.” EmVee went around Rachel to get closer to Demi’s face. “Sorry, Demi.”

  “Break the skin.” Rachel pointed.

  Kayson appeared next to Sax, on the opposite of the bed as EmVee. “Doing this can set you on edge, like Silas. A beast with no taste of skin and blood doesn’t get addicted to the flavor.”

  EmVee stepped back from Demi. “Can we use a syringe?”

  Rachel gave EmVee a sympathetic frown. “I’m afraid not. The saliva excretes the hormone and has the most power in it. Putting your blood into her won’t work. It’s your bite, or scratch, that will. If the vampire were to bite a Fenrir, it’d be instant death.”

  “I can do it also,” Kayson whispered.

  EmVee’s eyes watered. Her heart beat faster as she acknowledged the sacrifice. “If you do that, you’d be like a lone wolf.”

  “The
n we do it together.”

  “Wait!” Rachel jerked EmVee around, and her gaze jumped from Kayson to EmVee then back again. “You and Kayson were attacked by Silas?”

  “Yes.”

  Rachel’s hand shook on EmVee. “That can mean there could be an infestation of a new creation that’s not like any werewolf that’s been recorded before. No one could classify Silas as he was one of a kind, an accident that I discovered in the journal of a murdered doctor at the lab. Those samples were destroyed in the explosion that created him.”

  Kayson stepped closer to the bed. “I am sure. There are no others. No one like either of us.”

  Rachel placed a hand over her heart. “Thankfully.”

  “Now, let’s do this. Slowly.” EmVee nodded at Kayson before descending on Demi.

  They both pierced her skin simultaneously. It tasted horrible. Her blood had a decaying gamey taste to it that reminded EmVee of the vamp king.

  Demi thrashed around, her arms and legs doing pinwheels. EmVee and Kayson stood back.

  Rachel nodded, “Hold her down, and pry her mouth open. She’s having a seizure.”

  Sax grabbed her hands, but he was being thrown about by Demi’s unforeseen strength. EmVee lay across Demi’s torso, and Kayson held her legs. Rachel tore the front of one of the hardback books nearby and forced it into Demi’s mouth.

  “She’s bleeding out the poison.” Rachel slipped a finger into the black substance coming from Demi’s mouth and eyes.

  Megan rushed into the room. “What is going on in here?”

  EmVee placed her palm on Demi’s chest and tapped into the strength she kept hidden deep inside to stay the bucking of Demi’s body due to the releasing of the poison.

  EmVee held up her other hand in front of her. “Don’t come closer. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Then she turned her back to Megan and studied the elongated teeth in Demi’s growling mouth. “Rachel. Her teeth—they changed. Will they go back?”

  Demi’s body jerked several times before her muscles relaxed.

  Rachel placed a hand on her chest, wiping the black substance expelling from Demi’s eyes and mouth on her jeans. “I don’t know.” Rachel touched Demi’s hand. “She’s warm, burning up actually. A vampire couldn’t sustain this amount of heat. So, she’s not one of them.”

  “Hybrid creatures?” Sax added.

  “Were they out and about in the daylight?” Rachel grasped Demi’s chin and moved it side to side as she studied Demi’s teeth.

  “No.” EmVee slowly removed her hand from a calmly sleeping Demi’s chest. “We’ve only seen one in the Vampire Province and the others on Earth as we were transporting through an ally to The Void.”

  “Earth? Vamps are restricted by the Barrier magic created by some unknown force from crossing over to the Earth Realm. The only time magicals and the damned can cross over is on earth’s Halloween. The Vigilant makes sure that doesn’t happen, but they can’t be everywhere all the time; their numbers are still too low. How were these creatures able to get through when no entry from The Void is even possible without help?” Rachel raised a gaze toward Megan.

  “I may have an answer to that.” Megan folded her arms. “But with every revealing of truth, there is a price to pay.”

  EmVee narrowed her eyes and stalked toward Megan. “No games! I want answers.”

  Megan smiled, calmly tapping her index fingers over her lips. “You will get your answers if you help me get mine.”

  Kayson came around the table. “What is it with you? Can’t you finish cleaning up one shit hole of a mess you created? If you didn’t use EmVee to make Silas disappear, maybe her father wouldn’t have been a target. We are here because of you.”

  Megan’s pupils turned red in an instant. Palatable energy shifted in her as waves rippled and distorted the area around her. She took several long and deep breaths with her hands fisted to her sides. Then her composure calmed like a curtain falling.

  “I didn’t bring her family here. Dean, the backer behind the club your band played at, was involved. He is also the funding behind her father’s fitness complex. I’ve used everything I had to find out his identity, but I’ve got nothing—except you. For some reason, the word or warning is out that Kayson was the last person to see his band members alive. Dean wants to find you, or your dead body, for a reward.”

  “You were going to turn him in?” EmVee stepped closer to Megan. “That’s why you helped us this far?”

  Megan smirked. “Why would I do that? Kayson is important to me, and so are you, EmVee.”

  Rachel snorted. “What type of trickery is this, Megan? You lured Kayson back to The Void. Did you also plan on EmVee coming back? Is that why you gave her the Soul Charm?”

  “I gave it to her for her own protection. It was fate that worked to bring her and Kayson back. We can use Kayson as a decoy to lure Dean from hiding, and EmVee can find the Soul Thief that may lead her to her father’s killers.” Megan shrugged.

  “Why do you need to know where Dean is? What’s in this for you?” EmVee crossed her arms.

  Megan smiled. “There is always something to be gained by knowledge and negotiation. If I find Dean, I can negotiate how this…Void was created and why my mother was lured here.”

  “From the rumor, your father lured her here.” Kayson cleared his throat. “That has nothing to do with Dean.”

  Megan’s cheeks reddened as she took several quick breaths. “My father didn’t lure her. He loved my mother. He left before I was born. It was hard for his kind to have their own children. I was special to him and grew with awareness of my world faster than any human child was known to. He would have never left freely. He too had a deal with Dean, I discovered. I want to know what it was and why he never returned.”

  “Wait. If my father had a deal with Dean, Kayson’s band had one with him too. And your father, why hasn’t anyone been able to give a description of him?” EmVee clucked her teeth. “Maybe Dean isn’t a person but a front for one.”

  “Oh, it’s a person. What or who is pulling the strings to this persona is what I want to know.”

  “If we discover the puppet-master behind Dean, we can find a way to free everyone from The Void and destroy the being that is stealing all the resources from the magical Realm’s Provinces. Many new creatures that have moved in believe that their Province has been destroyed.” Rachel helped Sax assist Demi as she struggled to sit up. Her eyes were closed, and she was dazed, still out of it. “I know mine has.”

  EmVee turned to Rachel. “You’re from another Province? Not the human one?”

  Rachel’s skin turned golden, her pupils grew and changed to purple, and she shrank to become even shorter than she was before. “I am Faerie born. All the magic was absorbed from my Province. War started between the dark and light faerie. My mother gave me to a vampire who’d come to help her lover escape. They took me with them. For a price.”

  “A price?” EmVee frowned.

  “My mother’s magic, her soul. They used it to cross Provinces. Unfortunately, they lied to my mother and never planned on taking me with them. They traded me to a stranger, and I woke here. An elderly lady found me in the Poisoned Woods and claimed me as her niece.” Rachel transformed back into her human appearance.

  “If we are going to lure Dean out, it will be only EmVee and I on the inside.” Kayson went around Megan to open the door.

  “He’s right. I don’t want any of my friends endangered again because of me. How soon can you set this up?” EmVee bent over to inhale Demi’s scent, trying to reassure herself that Demi would heal.

  “A few nights at most.” Megan’s lip upturned on one side before she regained her controlled composure.

  EmVee pressed her lips together and pushed past Megan, jerking the girl’s shoulder on the way to the door.

  “I don’t like being used, Megan, and you will not have the chance to set me up again. If you do, I’ll show you a side of me you need to fear.”

  Megan gulped,
her eyes widening. “I promise, you will not be endangered by my devices.”

  “I’d better not.” EmVee left the room with a feeling of unease at Megan’s declaration and what she’d learned about her friends. Nothing and no one in The Void were what they seemed. Which made her wonder what her father was and what he’d been hiding that could’ve led his entire family to a place like this? EmVee couldn’t shake the feeling that it felt decidedly like hell.

  EmVee walked toward the commotion in the room she shared with Kayson. She waited at the door for a moment. Then slowly opened it. Kayson was standing in the middle of the bedroom throwing a book into a stack of them that held a picture against the wall. The crash filled the room when EmVee closed the door.

  “Do you want me to leave?” She leaned against the door. Her heart raced at the anguish and sadness in his wild eyes.

  Kayson stood hunched in motion to grasp something else to throw. Then he fell back into the chair and covered his eyes with his hand. “No.” His tone was ragged and hoarse.

  EmVee’s fingers itched to touch his wavy hair. Without thought, she gave in to the compulsion and bent to place her fingers in his hair. As tall as she was for a female, Kayson was larger, and she didn’t have to bend far to meet his watered gaze.

  “We’re in this together?”

  “Ahh! I wish it wasn’t like this.” He gave her a sanguine smile. “I’m tired of being used by her. Megan is evil, confusing, and manipulative. I feel as though I have no choice in this set-up she had planned.”

  EmVee sighed. “I know what you mean. She has a way of making you think you are seeking her help, only to find yourself trapped in offering something she wanted all along.”

  “She is Rumpelstiltskin’s daughter. No doubt about that. I don’t know if her father was lured away or left when her mother wasn’t useful anymore, but whatever she is going after can have everyone in The Void destroyed.” Kayson pulled EmVee onto his lap.