“I’m Brendel, and it’s about time you and I met,” the Hermessi replied through the vampire-fae.
It broke my heart to think we’d lose him down here. He was powerful and valuable to the team and our mission, and we’d never made a habit of leaving anyone behind. The other Hermessi moved closer, now just yards away from touching us. Lumi took Acantha’s and Nethissis’s hands, while Varga tried to reach Fallon, who shot him a blazing glance.
“Don’t even think about it,” Brendel said. “You’re not going to stop us. You should’ve understood that by now, but I’m okay with making you learn the hard way.”
“You’re sick! You’re all sick and obsessed!” Eira snapped. “You’re forcing people into extinction because of your stupid ritual!”
“Yes, and if your father fails me in any way, you’ll be there to take his place and continue his legacy,” Brendel said. “It’s the end of the road for your friends, but it doesn’t have to be the same for you. This is bigger than everyone. This is cosmic! And we’re the ones who can pull it off! A new world! A fresh start! It’s inevitable!”
“You’re acting against the universe, and the universe doesn’t like it,” Lumi said, firmly linked to Acantha and Nethissis, who were already whispering some kind of swamp witch spell. My vampire ears picked up on the sounds beneath their breathing masks.
I couldn’t let Fallon die in here, and we had no way of safely reaching Persea now. But I could still take us somewhere, while the swamp witches performed their spell. We didn’t need to speak to one another to know what we had to do. Not with more than a dozen Hermessi getting closer with every second that passed.
Thinking of Nevertide as a better destination, given the circumstances, I felt the portal open, the air rippling past me with intense energy.
“We are the universe!” Brendel said. “And we will complete our ritual!”
Eira showed off Death’s mark on her wrist. “Well, the single most powerful force in the world seems to disagree.”
It appeared to startle Brendel, who cocked Fallon’s head to the side. “Where did you get that?!”
“Now!” Lumi snarled.
The swamp witch trio glowed so brightly that it engulfed us all in the same white light that we’d been trying to move through. We could still see each other, but the Hermessi were blinded. I heard Fallon gasp as Brendel pulled her fiery hand back and lost her humanoid form for a moment.
It was all Varga needed to finally grab Fallon by the collar of his uniform and pull him away from Brendel. I pointed to the Nevertide opening, now open and glistening pink. “Over there!” I said, and Raphael helped me toward it.
We distanced ourselves from the Hermessi, as did the swamp witches. The light they’d conjured lingered, keeping the elementals at bay, somehow. I was dying to know the details of how they’d come up with that kind of magic, but time was of the essence.
We managed to slip through the pink waters of Nevertide, desperate to get as far away from the Hermessi as possible.
“Keep moving!” Lumi said. “The spell will wear off, and I’m not sure the pink waters will close before they come after us!”
Fueled by the desperate need to survive, we swam upward like maniacs, arms and legs swaying and pushing through the primordial liquid, until we passed the infant crystal eggs and our heads pierced through the surface.
“Holy crap, that was close!” Eva yelped.
Looking down, we all saw the white light of the natural portal dimming. No sign of the Hermessi. We’d left them in the void, between worlds, dazed and confused and likely wondering where we’d gone.
“Where the heck are we?” Raphael asked me. He knew I’d been the one to change direction, judging by the look in his green-and-blue eyes.
“Nevertide,” I said.
That had been a narrow escape, and our journey to find Thieron hadn’t even properly begun yet. The Hermessi had gone to extreme lengths to reach us—fortunately, the pink waters and the great void between worlds had worked in our favor, but I knew we wouldn’t always be able to rely on them.
Fallon was barely coming to his senses. I worried about him. This wasn’t the first time that a Hermessi had taken him over. His fae side was still dominant, unlike Taeral, whose jinni nature seemed to have prevented the elementals from toying with him directly.
I understood then what Death had meant when she’d said it would only get harder. The Hermessi’s power was growing, as was their ability to come after us, Devil’s Weed on or not. We were in for a world of trouble, and still, after having gotten to know someone like Raphael, I couldn’t bring myself to surrender to any form of despair.
Raphael laughed, taking his breathing mask off, and breathed a sigh of relief, beaming at me with the joy of someone who’d found the will to live, once more. Without caring about anything else around us, he took my breathing mask off, swiftly put his hand on the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss. His lips crashed against mine. Fire and ice danced around in the pit of my stomach, and I showed no resistance to this endeavor.
I welcomed him completely. He tasted like the ocean breeze, his masculine essence permanently embedded in the delicate skin of my lips.
“I won’t apologize for this,” he said, his voice low and husky. My hands had settled on his broad chest as we floated closer to the edge of the pool.
“Not looking for an apology, anyway,” I whispered, my tongue still tingling.
I had every intention of surviving this, because Raphael and I clearly had something going on between us, and, just like my mother had once said, there was nothing more powerful than love to pull us out of the darkness. I had a feeling that Raphael was going to be the one who would keep me going, in light of what lay ahead.
And, as he climbed over the edge of the pink water pool and helped me out, I had to admit… I was perfectly okay with that.
Varga
I held Eva close once our feet touched the hard ground of the pink water cave. Fallon was back and loaded with newfound energy, though he’d yet to shake that startled look off his face. Acantha and Nethissis flanked him, caring for him and checking his vitals and making sure everything was okay, while the rest of the crew made their way out, laughing and cheering, thankful to have survived a most harrowing encounter with the Hermessi.
Our relief would be short-lived, and we knew it. But we’d earned the right to enjoy this little snippet of time. We’d fought hard for it.
“Is everyone okay?” Lumi asked, squeezing pink water from the edges of her sleeves.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said, one arm wrapped around Eva’s waspy waist. I’d caught a glimpse of Raphael and Amelia kissing, but, much like everyone else, I’d kept my mouth shut about it. They deserved that moment. Frankly, I’d thought it would take Raphael longer to crack the shy nut that was Amelia, but she’d really come into her own during these missions. Fighting the Hermessi had brought out a side of her she probably hadn’t even known she had. “Fallon, buddy, how are you?”
“All things considered? Just glad to be alive.” He sighed and gave Acantha and Nethissis a faint smile. “Thank you both.”
“Boy, you are lucky Brendel didn’t eat you up,” Eva said to him. “How was she able to take you over like that?”
“The same way Kabbah could,” Riza replied, reminding us of our encounter with Nevertide’s Earth Hermessi, who was as old as Brendel herself. “He resonates with them on a level similar to that of the cultists, if not deeper, even.”
“That might make me a liability, going forward,” Fallon said, his brow furrowed.
Lumi walked up to him, placing her hands on his strong shoulders. “As long as you’re with us, we won’t let anything happen to you,” she said. Looking at us, she exhaled sharply. “The only reason we were able to escape the Hermessi down there was thanks to Amelia’s quick thinking in opening up another destination. We need to be better prepared next time. Their attacks are getting more vicious and brazen, now that they know what we’re
after.”
“What was that light spell you gals pulled to distract the Hermessi?” Herakles asked.
“The Word helped us,” Acantha replied. “It spoke to all three of us at once. It whispered the chant, and we merely repeated it.”
I sighed deeply, feeling Eva’s heart beating close to mine. “I wonder why the Word can’t stop the Hermessi, given that it’s a cosmic power, much like Death.”
“They probably have different abilities and limitations,” Lumi suggested. “Either way, it doesn’t really matter right now. We should focus on what we can do, and that is finding Thieron.”
“We should get out of here, though,” Raphael replied. He glanced at me. “Think your parents might put us up for a couple of hours while we regroup? Persea is obviously compromised, and surely the Hermessi must’ve figured out where the second opening would lead.”
“You’re right,” I said. “They’ll be down here soon, one way or another.”
“Can I just take everyone to Ash and Ruby, then?” Riza asked. “Taeral needs a break from all the teleporting, at least for a while.”
We agreed and linked hands. A moment later, we were in my parents’ throne room. My mother gasped, dropping the cup of blood she’d been sipping from. My father jumped to his feet, eyes wide. A smile stretched across his face. “Varga! You’re back!” he said and hurried toward me.
I didn’t even get to open my mouth before he caught me in a tight hug and held me close. “Good to see you, too, Dad,” I croaked. His embrace was tighter than expected.
“Honey, what are you all doing here?” Mom asked, eyeing us all carefully. Her concern didn’t stop her from coming over to hug me on top of Dad’s arms, though. I felt her soft kiss on my temple, and for a second, I thought I might as well kick back and spend a week or two here, with my parents—until reality dragged me back.
“We had some issues getting to Persea,” Taeral said.
Mom frowned. “I heard the updates about you and Death. At least you walked away with something, right?”
We were all inclined to agree. It was certainly a step forward—a shaky one, but forward, nonetheless.
“The Hermessi came after us,” I said and proceeded to tell her about our escape to Nevertide. Mom noticed the way Eva and I were practically inseparable. A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she patiently listened to my account of the most recent events. “Amelia thought about Nevertide, and a pink water tunnel opened up. It brought us here.”
“You’re safe, and that’s all that matters,” Dad replied. “What do you need from us? How can we help?”
“We need to find another meeting spot with the GASP leadership.” I sighed.
“Maybe we should head back to The Shade. It’s infinitely safer than the Supernatural Dimension or the In-Between. At least, the Hermessi there are still friendly, if I remember Harper’s story right,” Raphael said.
Mom nodded. “It’s a good idea. My mom and dad are headed back there as we speak. Derek and Sofia are about to have a council meeting about the Hermessi’s influence and your mission progress.”
“We were going to meet with Rose and Caleb, Draven and Serena, and Field and Aida on Persea,” Amelia replied. “We might as well let them know that we’re jumping dimensions instead and going to The Shade.”
“Sounds like—” Mom was interrupted by a startling earthquake, followed by a series of thundering booms that rumbled through the palace.
We all froze, glancing at one another, as the ground shook beneath our feet. Glasses clinked on a table nearby. The ceiling lights clanged, swinging left and right. Cracks burst through the stone walls and traveled upward in an uneven pattern.
“What the hell is going on?” Taeral asked, his voice trembling.
Eva frowned and touched her chest. She stilled for a moment, then checked the lining of her suit and the contents of her backpack. She looked at me, one degree paler than usual. “I don’t have the Devil’s Weed on me anymore.”
“What?!” Amelia snapped and checked herself, as well. “Oh, crap, me neither.”
It soon dawned on us that all the Devil’s Weed we’d gathered had vanished somewhere between the pink water cave on Mortis and my family’s palace. How or why that had happened, we couldn’t tell… but it left us horribly vulnerable.
“The Hermessi are pummeling the palace,” Dad said, as sentry guards rushed into the room, ready to take the emperor and empress, my parents, to a safe place. “They know you’re here.”
Taeral cursed under his breath. “We need to go. Now.”
One of the ceiling lights came down, thirty yards to our left. It crashed onto the stone floor, drawing gasps and murmurs from the two dozen sentry guards that were nervously waiting for my parents to go with them.
We linked hands, but nothing happened. It prompted another string of R-rated words from Taeral. “They’re stopping me, somehow. I can’t teleport us!”
The horror unfolded before our very eyes, as solid chunks of the ceiling fell all around us. Pebbles and dust flew outward as Lumi cast out a protective shield that held us in one place, safe from the incoming rubble. The palace was close to collapsing, and I could hear the horrified screams of people outside the throne room, the rushed footsteps as they desperately tried to get away from the building before it came down. I feared some didn’t make it, as some of the voices were cut off too abruptly.
Riza stomped her foot. “Something’s different. We can’t leave!”
As soon as she said that, a curtain of fire spread across the throne room walls, consuming the paintings and the ornaments and the curtains hung by the windows. The wooden frames crackled, blackening as the flames obliterated them. In an instant, the throne room had turned into a furnace, the heat blazing inward and almost suffocating all of us. The guards formed a protective circle around us, but there wasn’t much else they could do. They cast barriers against the flames, but it didn’t do anything.
The only defense we had was Lumi’s magic, now reinforced by Acantha and Nethissis.
“They did this before, on Hellym. But they had a Reaper’s help back then,” Amelia murmured, her chest rising sharply with every tired breath. The fire was consuming all the oxygen in the throne room, making it harder for us to even breathe. “How can this be?”
“Their power,” Taeral said. “It’s gotten stronger.”
Fallon scowled at the burning walls. “There’s more than one Fire Hermessi in here. I can feel them.”
“That’s it!” Amelia gasped. “They’ve got power in numbers, this time. The greater their influence on the affected fae, the stronger they get.”
I didn’t like this one bit. It left everything to the whims of change. If, until now, we’d relied on one tool or ability to escape, it no longer mattered. The Hermessi’s power was evolving and adapting, proving increasingly difficult to resist or evade. Whatever we threw at them, they eventually found a way around it.
We were pretty much screwed, bombarded from all sides by multiple Hermessi. We couldn’t teleport or even head back to the pink water cave to get more Devil’s Weed. We couldn’t leave the throne room, for that matter, as fire had taken it over completely. I didn’t see a way out of this.
Fallon collapsed. I wanted to get to him, but Eva held me back. “Wait,” she whispered. “Look.”
His skin had a peculiar green sheen, which amplified with every grueling moment. A Hermessi had possessed him, and I couldn’t help but scoff.
“Pretty much the last thing we needed right now,” I mumbled.
We’d promised Fallon we’d protect him, yet here we were, again, helplessly watching as another Hermessi wormed its way into his body, smack in the middle of this fiery mess. And all I could think of was that this might be the unexpected end of us, and that I may not ever get to hold Eva or my parents or my sister in my arms ever again.
Eva
There was a sense of dread settling over us. I could see it on our faces. I could hear it in our
ragged breaths and frantic heartbeats. And I would’ve easily succumbed to this as well, had I not been pestered by this nagging feeling that I’d seen that green shimmer on Fallon before.
“Ugh,” Fallon grunted, raising his head. His eyes burned like emeralds. “This is uncomfortable.”
“What the—” Varga started, but I cut him off.
“Kabbah!”
It was him! I recognized him in Fallon’s eyes. As the vampire-fae pulled himself back into a standing position, I knew, for a fact, that we were speaking to Kabbah, Brendel’s eldest foe. The realization came with a feeble sense of hope. Kabbah had been an ally to us back in the Volcrum Caves, though he’d made it seem like a territorial dispute between him and the other Hermessi.
He’d destroyed the Shills that had come down to kill us, back then. Only, this time, we weren’t dealing with those abominations. We were hounded directly by their makers.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, to be honest,” Kabbah said through Fallon’s gruff voice.
The fires on the walls and the ceiling burned brighter, more violent than before. Fallon-Kabbah put his hands out, just as the bloodcurdling shrieks of Shills began to ravage the palace. Spoke too soon, I thought. Of course they’d bring in their flesh-eating monsters. Why the hell wouldn’t they?
Bright green bolts of lightning exploded from Fallon-Kabbah’s hands. They hit the walls in multiple spots—wherever they made contact, the flames flickered and vanished, forcing the rest of the blaze to shrink away until all that was left were the blackened stone walls and broken windows. Kabbah roared as his emerald energy continued to come out, the vibrant tendrils stretching past the doors, through every nook and cranny, until they reached every other room in the palace.
I heard the Shills scream as they scrambled back out, their claws scratching against the stone floor. I heard the winds howling outside, as the earth finally stopped shaking. With one last grunt from Fallon-Kabbah, a powerful pulse was released. It traveled out of the palace and seemed to purge everything evil in its path, because silence quickly settled afterward.
A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death Page 27