A Shade of Vampire 10: A Spell of Time (15 page)

Excitement and passion coursed through my body. I reached up to touch his shoulder and finally his eyes fixed on mine.

He stood up, drawing me up with him. He picked me up in his arms and laid me on the bed. Tucking me back under the mosquito net, he remained outside of it, gazing at me.

“Rest now, Rose. We’ll talk about this when you wake up.”

I reached a hand up to the net, wanting to touch him again, reassure him that it would work out all right, if he’d just come back with us.

But I agreed to his request.

I lay down on the stiff pillow, exhaustion beginning to claim me again. My eyes didn’t leave Caleb’s still form in the corner of the room until they fell shut.

As I drifted off, I imagined him coming back with me to The Shade. I pictured our arrival at the Port. We’d go straight to my parents. Mona would help me explain that it had all been a misunderstanding. Because Caleb was a good man. A man who deserved more than the life he’d been dealt.

Much more.

I
moved
my chair closer to her once she’d fallen asleep. I wanted to take in her beauty, the gentle flush in her cheeks, the way her lips parted slightly as she breathed.

So much had happened in such a short time, truth be told, I was still in a daze myself.

Rose’s suggestion to return with her to The Shade was indeed my only option—if I was to stay alive, of course. Even then, if I agreed, there was no guarantee that we’d make it back in time. I was still bound by Annora’s seven-day curse. I studied the map and thought about how we could possibly return. We had no passports. Rose clearly had no special phone on her capable of contacting The Shade. We’d have to find a way to get to the other side of the continent quickly, and then steal a boat to travel the rest of the way to The Shade. I had no idea how long that might take us. Any number of things could go wrong. For one thing, I had the sun to contend with during the daytime. We’d have to do the bulk of our traveling at night and during the day stay out of the sun. All the while traveling with Rose—a frail human girl. And all this was actually the least of our worries. We had Rhys on our tail, I was sure of it. I knew he wouldn’t stop until he’d hunted us down. And he was a Channeler, even more powerful than Annora. He might be hurtling through the Amazon rainforest at the speed of light right now, toward us.

Still—detaching myself from the situation—I had to get Rose back to The Shade as quickly as possible. What might happen to me had to be secondary. Of course, if something did happen to me, she wouldn’t survive. She was dependent on me now.

Thinking about the odds we were up against sent my mind reeling. I felt overwhelmed. But I realized there was no point worrying about what might happen. Our circumstances were out of our control. We just had to take things one day at a time and do our best to stay alive.

I picked up the map again and continued to study it, trying to decide what our next move should be. Before we set off anywhere, I needed to steal some sort of protection for myself from the sun. Perhaps a long hooded raincoat. We didn’t have the luxury of only traveling at night. We simply didn’t have that sort of time.

For the next couple of hours, I tried to focus on planning our journey. But thoughts of Annora kept interrupting me. The way I’d left her there, helpless on the ground, so willingly. As though it was just instinct to abandon her for Rose. I wondered what she might be doing now. Whether she might have woken up already, or whether she might still be lying unconscious and alone in that dark tunnel.

As I looked again at Rose, I realized that while I was in her presence, I just didn’t care much. I didn’t know what would become of Annora, but the fact that I was able to leave her so easily spoke volumes. Although I felt guilty for it, Rose eclipsed Annora so completely, it was hard to feel much for her even as she occupied my mind.

Even if Annora hadn’t done all she had, I wondered if Rose might still have eclipsed her. I wondered if trying to fix the witch had been nothing but an attempt to fill the hole Rose had gouged in me. I’d hoped that perhaps if I had Annora back, she’d make me forget the pain I felt in the princess’ absence. Perhaps it had all been a big ruse—none of it done for Annora’s sake, but for my own.

I looked at the old clock on the wall. It was time.

I untucked the mosquito net. But before I woke Rose, I bent down and gave in to the urge that had consumed me the moment I’d laid eyes on her beautiful face again.

To touch her. Breathe her in.

I caressed her soft forehead with my lips. As much as I wanted that moment to last forever, I allowed my kiss to linger only for three seconds. I didn’t want her to realize what I’d done. Because I didn’t want this to be another mistake.

I pulled my mouth away and clutched her shoulders, shaking her awake.

Her green eyes flickered open and she gave me a small smile.

“Caleb.” She reached up, her fingers brushing against my cheek.

I closed my eyes, barely breathing. It took all the restraint I had to not bend down and kiss her again, this time on her flushed lips.

I cleared my throat.

“Rose, it’s time to go. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

M
y brain was
on fire as I sat up. My muscles felt like they’d been put through a shredder and restrung beneath my skin. My bones ached. My vision was blurred and my throat parched. I reached out and felt for the wall. I leant against it as I tried to stand. My eyes slowly came into focus. I was in a dimly lit tunnel. I gripped my head. I felt like I might pass out again from the pain. I could barely think straight.

I placed both forefingers on my temple and muttered an incantation. Nothing happened.

Where are my powers?

I’m supposed to be stronger than ever.

Then the last memory I had before the blackout washed over me. I doubled over.

“Caleb,” I gasped.

Pain seared though my chest as I recalled his handsome face, his beautiful brown eyes, the way he’d touched me as Lilith performed the ritual, the way he’d looked at me with concern. As my mind’s eye fixed on this man who’d remained by my side all these years, my heart raced. My head felt light. With Caleb in the center of my heart, breathing life into my soul, it felt like I was walking on air. A sudden warmth rushed through me, shooting from my chest and spreading throughout my body. A sensation that was all-consuming. Earth-shattering. A sensation I’d thought I was no longer capable of experiencing.

What is happening?

Tears welled in my eyes and began to stream down my cheeks. I collapsed on the floor. Sharp rocks cut into my knees, drawing blood. But I could barely feel it. The pain in my chest brought about by Caleb’s absence and the euphoria coursing through my veins overwhelmed me completely.

What have I done to you all these years, my love? How could I have let myself lose you?

My body had never felt so weak, so vulnerable. I didn’t know what had happened to me. And although I was confused as to why I could summon no magic—I was supposed to have been made into a Channeler, I should be even more powerful—the only thing on my mind was Caleb.

My love. My fiancé. I need to find him.

I managed to stand again. I stumbled through the tunnel toward Lilith’s chamber. My hands shaking, I fumbled for the doorknob and swung the door open. “Caleb!” I shouted, casting my eyes around the room.

The chamber was empty. Even Lilith had sunk back into her tomb.

I stumbled back into the tunnel. I ran until I reached the other end. I pushed open the door at the other side, the darkness of the cave enveloping me. I tried to summon light from my palms. Again, I was unable to wield my magic.

“Caleb! Caleb, it’s me… Annora… I-I’m back. It’s me.” My voice broke. I ran to the cave’s entrance.

Another pang hit me as I realized Caleb wasn’t here.
Did he leave? Where could he have gone without me? Why did he leave me lying on the floor?

What have I done to him all these years?

It felt like I’d just woken from the dead. I’d forgotten what it was like to breathe. To feel anything other than cold.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, trying to swallow back the tears. “My love, I’m sorry. Forgive me. Please. Come back.” I fell to my knees, gusts of ocean wind whipping my skin. I closed my eyes, imagining Caleb standing in front of me. “I made the wrong decision,” I breathed. “I should have listened. I never should have given myself up. But I’m back. My love, I’m back. And I promise to love you for the rest of my life. I’ll never lose myself again. I swear, I’ll be the girl you wanted to marry. We’ll run away. Far away from… all this. We’ll live our story.”

Although my mind was riddled with fear not knowing where he was now or why he’d left me in my vulnerable state, a warm rush of comfort spread through me.

I had found him again in my heart. Now, it was only a matter of time before I found him again in the flesh.

That I knew, because ours was a never-ending story.

“
E
ye of snake
. Beak of crow. Skin of toad. Blood of Rose.”

The chant echoed around the moonlit graveyard.

A tall man with black eyes levitated a few inches off the ground, stirring a black pot. Beside him was a grey tombstone. Smoke erupted from the cauldron, billowing upward, forming a swirling vortex. Within the smoke, another figure appeared, back turned to me. A pure white robe hung against soft curves. She turned slowly in midair, twisting to face me. But she had no face. Where her eyes, nose and mouth should have been was nothing but smooth pale flesh.

An echoing crack pierced the night. Then a hiss.

The tombstone’s lid sprang open. A still corpse rose from it into the air. The rotting corpse of a woman, it dwarfed even the man, her bony legs almost twice the size of his. Her ripped clothes revealed more of her moldering body than they covered. Her black eyes glinted in the firelight.

She spoke in ancient tongue, her voice grating like nails.

The man drifted toward her and poured a goblet of boiling liquid into her mouth. She let out a blood-curdling scream. Her jaw expanded and split, the bottom half hanging disjointed.

As the corpse began swirling around in the air, her head snapped back at an almost ninety-degree angle, the faceless woman in white drew closer to me. And a face formed. The face of my young Rose.

Tears of blood spilled from her green eyes.

“Auntie.”

“
V
ivienne
. Wake up!”

I opened my eyes, gasping for breath. Xavier stared down at me, gripping my shoulders and shaking me. I was in our bed. I sat up and leaned against the headboard. Xavier’s face was stricken with worry—an expression that everyone on the island had shared since Rose had been discovered missing again.

I dropped my head in my hands, trying to piece together my jumbled mind. I could barely form a coherent sentence. I was thinking in fragments, thoughts assailing my mind so fast I couldn’t keep up with them, much less articulate them.

“They know something.”

“What?”

“About the twins. We’ve been mistaken in thinking there’s nothing different about them.”

“Vivienne, who’s—?”

“We need to discover what the twins have. Before it’s too late.”

A Shade of Vampire 11: A Chase of Prey
is available now to order from Amazon!:

Click here now to grab your copy!

Here’s a preview of the cover:

I’ll see you on the other side. ;)

Love,

Bella x

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D
ear Shaddict
,

If you’re curious about what happened to Kiev during his time away, and how he came upon Anna, I suggest you check out his completed stand-alone trilogy:
A Shade of Kiev
.

Kiev’s story will also give you a deeper understanding of the Shade books and the kind of threat Derek and Sofia are now up against.

The trilogy is available from Amazon, and the first book is currently discounted to $0.99 (I can’t guarantee how long the sale will run):
Click here