Obsidian Horizon

by Heather Renee

  “There is a small library of sorts that Ruth has set up here. It’s not extensive, and mostly consists of journals from previous hunters who have written down their thoughts and impressions. There are even a few that Solomon wrote, detailing his beginning as a vampire and then hunter,” Jameson explained, not quite meeting my eyes.

  He empathized with Solomon, not only as his hunter mentor, but also because they were both pure vampires. He knew my feelings about my father and respected them, but I knew he wished I would give him more of a chance. Over the past weeks, my resolve had been slipping and my heart warming a bit more toward him, but I was stubbornly not giving in. Not yet.

  “So, you found clues in these journals to piece together a way to forge a dagger—without the Sea Witch’s help—in hopes that it will lead us to the Obsidian Caves, and we can find her.” I tried to keep the doubt out of my voice, but by the sheepish looks on both their faces, I had failed. I wanted to be supportive, but the plan sounded like it would take too much time. Time we didn’t have.

  “When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” Jameson admitted.

  “Well, it’s the only good lead we’ve come up with so far,” I added, trying to be positive, and gave them both a small smile. “Show me what you’ve found and maybe I can help.”

  “Seems like a waste of time if you ask me,” a voice said from the doorway.

  Evander was leaning against the frame, careful to keep away from the rays of sunlight that streaked across the floor. He was wearing new clothes and would have looked like a gentleman, if it wasn’t for all of the scars littering his face and arms. He watched me appraise him before taking a bite from an apple.

  “You haven’t offered an alternative,” Jameson pointed out, sounding as if they had discussed it previously.

  “The dagger creates a magical bond with the hunter. How can you replicate that without magic?” he asked, stating the very thing that had given me pause. “And if, by some miracle, you can, how do you know Lavinia will be able to bond to it? It could choose another, and all your efforts and time would have been wasted.”

  “It’s worth a try. How else is Lavinia supposed to find the Sea Witch?” Nathan countered, and I noted his uncomfortable stance. He didn’t trust the vampire.

  “You found me, didn’t you?” Evander asked, turning his piercing green eyes on me.

  “That was the compulsion. It guided me,” I stated, trying not to show how uncomfortable it made me. “I can’t compel the Sea Witch.”

  “No, you can’t, but I think that is the answer,” Evander challenged. “You need to explore that ability. There is more there. You just need to figure it out.” His eyes bore into mine, trying to convey his seriousness.

  “I discovered that ability by accident, and it’s not something I wish to explore further,” I declared, straightening my spine and raising my chin.

  A crease formed between Evander’s eyebrows, but he took another bite from his apple to cover it up. Still, I saw it. He was hurt I had dismissed his advice.

  “I’ll be around,” he offered, before disappearing in a gust of air.

  “I don’t trust him,” Nathan stated what was already obvious to us.

  “He means well,” Jameson replied, frowning at the door. “At least, I think he does.” He shook his head, confused.

  “Show me what you’ve found,” I prompted, putting Evander and his advice out of my mind.

  “Right,” Jameson agreed, refocusing on the task at hand. Flipping through the book, he pointed to a passage. “This journal was written by a hunter named Cassien. He tested his dagger thoroughly and was the one to figure out how to use it to find vampires. I’m hoping to learn and understand that a bit more, to see if that could be the key to finding the Sea Witch once we make your blade.”

  I nodded, reading through the passage quickly. Cassien was thorough in his descriptions, and it ignited a small spark of hope in my chest. Maybe this could work. My abilities had fully manifested, but I was hesitant to explore them like Solomon and Evander wanted me to.

  The darkness inside me lay mostly dormant, for the time being. I was terrified to see just how far it would push me if I attempted to use it. The power was a temptation that I could not afford to give in to. Not with so many people I cared about around me.

  “It’s a good start,” I concluded, smiling at Jameson. I loved seeing that flicker in his eyes as he learned new things. Reading had opened up a whole new world of knowledge for him.

  “There are more of Cassien’s journals in Ruth’s library. I’ve only read a couple, but I have a feeling that everything we need to duplicate the daggers is between their pages. We just need to piece it all together.”

  “It’s our day off from training, so let’s go to this library and see what else we can find,” I offered, my heart lifting. It felt like we might finally be moving forward for the first time in weeks.

  Nathan went to check on Nettie while Jameson led me to where he had been doing his research. Ruth’s library was located in a small room. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase was built into the East wall, with most of its shelves filled with books of all different sizes. A small table was set in the middle of the room with chairs surrounding it. Maps of far-off places were hung on the remaining three walls, making me feel very small in comparison to everything that lay beyond our small strand of islands.

  Jameson went to the shelves, pulled several books down, and carried them to the table. “These are all of Cassien’s journals that have descriptions of daggers he studied, which were either his or other hunter’s. Each one leads to the next. He had a brilliant mind and opened so many avenues for making hunters more effective in this fight.”

  “That’s great, but you said ‘he had’…” I let my thoughts drift off, hoping Jameson would know what happened to Cassien.

  “He passed away a couple of years ago. Another hunter finished the last entry, expressing how Cassien was following his dagger toward what was supposed to be a small group of vampires, but in fact was much larger, and it ended up being his downfall. He was ambushed,” Jameson admitted, his smile faltering. “I would have loved to meet him.”

  “Well, it’s fortunate that his journals had been kept safe, so other hunters could learn from him. He didn’t die in vain.” Placing my hand on his larger one, I gave it a squeeze and picked up one of the books. I found myself wondering where we would even start, and how far Jameson had already gotten on his own. “Have you taken any notes on the different aspects?”

  Jameson shook his head, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. “I’m much better at reading than I am at writing. I have most of the process I could find marked on the pages, but I’m missing something. I’m hoping your fresh eyes will find what I haven’t.”

  “All right, where do you want me to start?” He pushed two journals toward me, and I could see pieces of scrap parchment marking the pages he mentioned.

  I grabbed one of them, opening the book to the first passage that Jameson had flagged, backtracking a couple pages so I could understand as I began to read.

  The writing was very dry, and at times repetitive, but I found myself engrossed by Cassien’s thoughts. Jameson was right. He had been a brilliant man who had many ideas on how to turn the tide in the war against vampires to our favor. He was able to accomplish a couple, before the very things he had dedicated his life to ridding the world of killed him.

  Cassien mentioned vampire venom several times in the passages that Jameson had marked. He had believed that the venom was the key component to making, and potentially ending, vampires. I was surprisingly sad for the stranger; he would never know if his assumptions had been correct.

  “Jameson…” I called, looking up from reading a passage where Cassien described how he felt when he had bonded to his blade. “What does it feel like training to be a hunter and bonding to a hunter’s blade?”

  “Solomon says that every hunter’s bond is a unique experience. I can share mine with yo
u, but it will likely be different for you.”

  Curiosity increased inside me, and I nodded, encouraging him to continue.

  “When Solomon arrived to train us, he was tough and very focused on the task at hand. He tested everyone that Pierce had picked, but only a few passed—including me. For weeks, we trained in weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and worked our bodies into the perfect weapons Pierce wanted. He would wake us up in the middle of the night and drill us on everything we had learned. He made us fight each other, even while exhausted and disoriented from lack of sleep. It might sound cruel to some, but he was preparing us for the type of creatures we were to fight. We had to be combat-ready at any time, be able to shake off sleep in a moment’s notice, rely on ourselves over weapons. Because without a hunter’s dagger, all other weapons against a vampire would fail.”

  Even though Solomon hadn’t been there for me, I was glad to know he had been out there aiding others. It helped ease some of the angst I felt toward him when Jameson spoke of his good doings.

  “After I trained with the few who were chosen, I would sneak off and show others what I had learned. I wanted everyone to be able to fight and defend themselves, not just the strongest ones Pierce had deemed suitable. Alice was one of my first students, then Nathan and Henry joined us. I didn’t think Solomon would approve of me teaching others, so I didn’t tell him, but he’s a hard man to keep a secret from. I thought he would be upset, beat me bloody, or kick me out of his team, but he didn’t. Instead, he encouraged me to continue, saying that I showed a true hunter’s spirit. I didn’t know what it meant at the time. I thought he had been grooming us to protect Pierce.

  “Eventually, the truth of Pierce’s plans became clear and Solomon had to leave, but before he left, he offered a dagger to our group. I was the only one the blade called to, and I was drawn to it almost immediately. I couldn’t take my eyes off the powerful piece, and the inscription fascinated me. He dismissed everyone else and explained what I was feeling. The dagger had chosen me to wield it. He handed it to me, and when my fingers wrapped around the hilt, the connection occurred painlessly. I was completely open in my intentions and it was like the dagger knew them, could see them, and it approved.”

  A chill raced across my skin as Jameson continued to tell his story. I had known about his upbringing as the son of a plantation worker, who followed in his father’s footsteps, and of his sister who died of influenza. But this was something life-changing. I could feel the passion and duty he felt as a hunter through his words.

  “Later that day, after Solomon had warned me about what would come next—and before he disappeared—I was bitten by Pierce, in the hopes that I would turn into the ultimate weapon. I kept the dagger a secret, but I feared it wouldn’t accept me any longer—I had become what it was created to destroy. When the transition began, the connection to the dagger didn’t leave me. Instead, it remained a constant companion; it helped me through the first several hours when the hunger was at its strongest. I ran into you later that night, and with you in my arms, I felt like I could breathe again.”

  I gripped his hand and squeezed, even more grateful for him, but I was also sad to know that he had endured so much to get to the point he was at.

  “That’s incredible,” I offered, my voice squeaking a bit as I tried to reel in my emotions.

  “It feels like a lifetime ago.” He gave me a small smile that put a dimple on display. “I know that you have your issues with Solomon, and I respect them, but he gave me what I needed to survive after being bitten. He helped me become the hunter I am today, as have you. He isn’t bad, Lavinia. He’s made mistakes, because down to his very core, he’s still human.”

  “I’m trying. It’s just harder now. I don’t want to get hurt again if he decides to disappear. I know his heart had been in the right place when he left, but whatever his intentions were, it can’t erase the pain.”

  “Give it time. As vampires, that’s one thing we seem to have an abundance of,” he admitted, reaching across the table to caress my cheek.

  I didn’t mention that though it seemed like we had plenty of time—with us being immortal vampires—it felt to me like our clock was ticking down until Prime made a move. After spending time with him, I knew that his next decision would be bloody and full of death.

  We returned to reading the journals, but my mind continued to run, thinking of everything that Jameson had said. It made me see Solomon in a new light, and I knew deep down that I would eventually forgive him. I just wasn’t sure when that would happen.

  Deeply lost in my own thoughts, I had to read a passage three times before the words finally sank in, and I realized that I might have found something.

  “Jameson, have you ever heard of the ‘blood of the sea’?”

  He shook his head. “Why? What did you find?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer him, but the darkness within me reared up as I repeated the passage over in my head.

  “If we need magic to find the Sea Witch, then we need to figure out what the blood of the sea is before it’s too late.”

  Chapter Three

  My fingers traced the words as I thought about what Cassien had meant when he wrote them. He spoke of an idea to combine the magic of the blood with a bonded dagger, but nothing was written about whose blood it was or where to find it.

  Once again, we were looking for something we didn’t know how to find, and I was frustrated, but at least this time I was certain we were moving in the right direction. My instincts had guided me well thus far, and I wasn’t going to deny them now. At least, I’d try not to.

  “I know you were excited about forging a new dagger, but I don’t think that’s the direction we need to take anymore. It led us to this information, so it definitely helped, but I think this is what we need to focus on next.” I pointed to the entry and slid the book across the table to him.

  He read the words, and a crease formed between his eyes as he searched the rest of the page. I silently waited and hoped he would come to the same conclusion as I had, or at least trust my instinct.

  Closing the book, his eyes met mine. “Should we ask Solomon if he knows anything about it? I read all of that before, but none of it held any importance to me, so I dismissed it. I knew having your eyes on the books would be a good thing.”

  Nodding, I smiled at him. “It might not have held importance before, but the darkness within me is telling me it does now.”

  His face turned serious and full of concern as his brow knitted together again. “Do you trust it?”

  I opened my mouth to answer “yes” but then closed it. The darkness was a part of me, and I tried to accept it, but I did fear its power. I didn’t know for certain if it was pushing me toward the blood of the sea for good or bad reasons, but if I couldn’t trust what was inside me, could I even trust myself? All of a sudden, I began to doubt everything, and I didn’t like it at all.

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly, holding back the tears of frustration that wanted to fall.

  Jameson walked around the table and wrapped his arms around me. “Don’t worry. We will figure it out together.”

  His hand reached for mine, pulling me from my seat, while his other grabbed the book before leading us out of the room. My mind whirled with new questions I didn’t like, and whatever certainty I previously had about my instincts diminished while I fought for control of the darkness.

  We found Henry and Alice in the dining area, carrying food that was likely lunch for the children. “How is Maggie?” I asked.

  “She’s doing as well as can be expected,” Alice answered. “I took Timothy to her when she woke, and she calmed considerably.”

  “Can we trust her with Timothy anymore?” I hated asking, but it was a reality we needed to confront. We couldn’t afford to just hope for the best.

  Henry nodded. “I believe we can, but it’s not fair to keep him locked in a room with her all day, every day. Finding the balance for them both is going to b
e the hardest part, until we can figure out how to calm her emotions.”

  The kitchen door swung open, and Evander walked in with a smirk gracing his scarred face. “Lavinia knows how to make Maggie better.”

  My gaze met his, eyes narrowing. “What are you talking about?”

  “Really?” He raised his hand and pointed to his head. “You can control her.”

  I shook my head furiously. “I can’t try compulsion on a child! What if I hurt her? Just because it worked once and nobody got hurt, doesn’t mean it will happen again.”

  Evander took three paces toward me before realizing his mistake. Jameson’s chest rumbled in warning. Thankfully, he knew better than to test Jameson, so he stopped.

  “Your fear is going to be the death of all your loved ones.” Evander spun on his heel, disappearing back into the kitchen.

  Not knowing how to respond to his statement, I just stood there. He had a point. I needed to get a handle on my own abilities, or I would be too much of a liability to help take down Prime. Even though my powers had grown, I had only grazed the surface of what I could do and avoided any abilities that made me face my vampire side. Sucking in a breath and closing my eyes, I tried to rein in what was swirling within me.

  Voices danced around me, but I blocked them out as it took every ounce of concentration to focus. The darkness was getting stronger with each passing day, and Evander pressuring me was making it worse. It felt like its own entity, trying to take control of me.

  My body shook when strong hands gripped my shoulders. “Lavinia!”

  Forcing my eyes open, I met Jameson’s concerned ones. “I’m sorry.” He pulled me closer, stroking my hair.

  “I’m fine. You have nothing to be sorry for. What happened?” Turning my head, I found Alice and Henry standing next to us, both equally as worried as Jameson.

  “It was nothing,” I assured them. “Sometimes it’s harder to control my vampire side than I realize. Evander bringing up compulsion caused me to lose a little bit of control, but I’m fine now. I promise.”