A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (8 page)

I
barely paid
attention to the gate Patricia chose to take us through. I just trusted her to make the right decision as she vanished us from The Shade and we reappeared on top of a snowy mountain peak. It didn’t take her long to locate a crater in the ground and a few seconds later, we were all leaping through it.

On the other end, we found ourselves in a humid jungle with broad leaves and tree trunks five times the size of any on Earth. The atmosphere was so heavy it was a struggle to breathe. Shrieks and growls of wild animals surrounded us.

I didn’t need to look around for more than a few seconds to know where this was: Aviary. Dark memories of the time I’d spent here came rushing back.

“Let’s keep moving,” I said, gripping Patricia’s shoulder perhaps harder than necessary.

She did as I’d requested and a few moments later, the jungle disappeared in a blur of colors. When my vision came into focus again, we were standing on a cluster of rocks beneath the shelter of an overhanging rock. To our right was a beach covered with pristine white sand.

“Well,” Patricia said, “I tried to vanish us within The Sanctuary, but this is as far as I could get… the boundary.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I’ve been out of the place too long. I’m an outcast now, not much different from you.”

I climbed down from the rocks and, ignoring the sun’s rays as I left the shelter of the cliff, I began to run full speed toward a line of trees that marked the beginning of the mainland. I might as well have just run up against a brick wall. Just before I reached the trees, I smashed into an invisible barrier and bounced back.

I climbed back up to where the others were still standing on the rocks for shelter.

“So what do you suggest we do?” I panted.

Patricia sank down on the rock and furrowed her brows.

“I think the only way in is to wait for a witch to come out, and then hijack them.”

“Hijack?” Abby asked, frowning.

“Yes, hijack. If you can hold onto a witch and enter with them at the same time, you should be able to gain entrance. At least, that used to be the case.”

“How often do you think witches stray outside the boundary?” Erik asked.

“They don’t have much reason to. When they want to travel outside, they’d mostly vanish themselves from within The Sanctuary itself. Most witches actually never leave the place.”

“So how are we going to do this?”

“I’m not sure that we have any choice but to wait and hope someone will come.”

Wait and hope.
Those were the last two words I needed to hear right now.

I
’d hoped
to be able to escape the nightmare I was living in by falling asleep, but I was only met with more. If anything, the nightmares were worse and more vivid when I shut my eyes. I woke up shivering in the early-morning hours, and didn’t bother trying to fall asleep again after that.

As breakfast time approached, there was a knock on my bedroom door. I’d expected to see my maid, but instead it was Brisalia herself carrying a silver tray of food.

She walked inside and set the tray down on my bedside table, then reached for my hand and squeezed it. She gave me a smile and there was warmth in her eyes as she said, “I’m sorry.”

I nodded, averting my eyes to the ground and swallowing hard.

“I know you want to be alone right now, but there are some things Thalia and our council want to discuss with you.”

I raised my gaze to her. I wasn’t sure what they might be, though I could take a good guess. They knew I’d spent years living with the black witches. I guessed they wanted to pick my brain for information. They’d be sorely disappointed, of course. I’d betrayed Rhys too many times in the past to be trusted with much high-level information. I was usually only told the basics in order to do my tasks.

Although it was the last thing I wanted, I nodded. I couldn’t refuse this request after all their hospitality.

“When?” I croaked.

“After breakfast.”

I nodded.

“Do you remember where the meeting hall is?” she asked.

I nodded again, dark memories washing over me. How could I forget that place? It was the room where I’d been sentenced to banishment from The Sanctuary. The place where all these familiar people who looked on me now with warmth had once glared daggers and hurled insults at me.

“Very well. I’ll meet you there in half an hour.”

With that, she stood up and vanished from the spot.

I cast my eyes toward the breakfast tray. I couldn’t even think about eating. I headed straight for the bathroom to shower and get dressed. Once I was ready, I vanished myself downstairs to the meeting hall. Thalia sat at the head of a long table, with Hermia and Brisalia on either side, while the rest of the chairs were taken by over a dozen other witches and warlocks. All members of The Sanctuary’s council.

Shivers ran along my spine as I felt their gaze on me. It was unsettling the way they were looking at me now, as if the past had never happened.

“Take a seat, Mona.” Thalia’s smooth voice echoed around the hall. She gestured to an empty chair next to Brisalia.

I walked up to the table, curtsied and sat down.

“To begin with, I just want to repeat how happy we are that you have returned home.”

I clasped my hands together on the table and fixed my eyes on them, avoiding her eyes. Of course, as if there weren’t already enough uncomfortable things about this situation, all of them were still unaware that I’d murdered Odelia in her sleep.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

“You might have already guessed why I’ve called this meeting. As I’m sure you’re aware, the black witches are gaining power by the day. We have managed to gain inside information on some of their intentions, but much of their plans we are still unaware of. You spent many years with them. I would like to start this meeting by having you explain what you learnt about them while staying there, and what you believe their plans are.”

My mind felt so distracted, it was a herculean effort just to focus on her words. I cleared my throat and ran my tongue over my lower lip.

“I… What do you know already?”

Thalia exchanged glances with her sisters. It was Brisalia who answered me. “Do you know Efren Hansard?” she asked.

Efren. Of course I knew Efren. His sister had made my life a living hell when I’d been under Rhys’ wing.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Well, we managed to catch him. He’s now a prisoner here. Most of the information we’ve gained is from him, though it seems that he wasn’t high enough in rank to know everything. What he has told us is that there is an Ancient still living. And she is the key to their power. We don’t know where she is—even our spells couldn’t force this information from Efren. Right now, we are still large enough in number to overpower them, but their strength is growing each day. Once they are strong enough, they will take over The Sanctuary.” Brisalia paused, looking at me expectantly.

“I’m afraid there’s really not much more that I know,” I said. “Rhys and his aunt didn’t trust me as much as you might have thought…” My voice trailed off. I did know one thing, of course: I knew where Lilith was. I knew the link she had with The Sanctuary. But if I revealed that, I was just one step closer to them finding out that I had slit Odelia’s throat. I ought to admit this to them, but right now, I was drowning enough as it was. I didn’t think I could handle it. So I fell silent.

Thalia let out a sigh. “That is a shame,” she said. “We’d all hoped that you’d be able to assist with this.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking at her apologetically.

“You’re a Channeler,” Hermia said. “Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then you must have met with this Ancient in order to gain such powers?”

“Indeed I did. But I don’t remember the location. Rhys didn’t trust me enough to reveal that to me. I was blindfolded and escorted by him there and back. I don’t even know whether she’s being kept on earth or in the supernatural realm.”

An awkward silence descended on the hall. I kept my eyes fixed on my hands.

“Well,” Thalia said eventually, “if you really don’t have any more information to offer us, then, at least you can help us to secure our realm.”

“Certainly. I can do that.”

“We already have protection around the island, of course, but since you’re a Channeler, your magic is stronger than ours. We’d like you to put a protective spell around this place, similar in strength to that which you put around The Shade.”

The Shade.
I felt a pang of guilt as she mentioned the island. There were thousands of people there, many of them dear to me—humans, vampires and werewolves alike—who were dependent on me for protection. Now that I’d left the human realm, if the black witches attacked, there would be no way they could keep them out. Patricia and the other witches there could maintain the spell of night and put up some kind of protection around them, but it wouldn’t be nearly strong enough for the might of Rhys and his kind.

But as the memory of Sofia and Kiev betraying me once again came to the forefront of my mind, fire burned through my veins, and it stifled any guilt I was feeling.

It’s just too bad.

The Shade’s queen should have thought twice about playing me for a fool.

A
fter what felt
like hours of waiting, I’d had enough.

“I can’t take this any more,” I said, shooting to my feet. “There’s got to be another way.”

“I’m all ears if you have any suggestions,” Patricia muttered, brushing a fly away from her face.

“We need to try to lure someone out.” I felt all three pairs of eyes on me as I began pacing up and down on the rock. “What could we use as bait?”

Patricia looked at me thoughtfully. “Hmm.”

“What about an explosion?” Erik offered.

“That might do it,” Patricia said.

“What if it attracts more than one witch?” Abby said. “I doubt Patricia is capable of tackling more than one.”

All eyes fell on Patricia. “We have the element of surprise on our side,” she said. “It really would depend on how many witches came out to investigate. If it was two or three, I might just be able to manage. More than that, I doubt it.”

“So we’d all have to be touching the witch in order to gain entrance?”

The witch nodded and stood up. “We can try an explosion, I suppose, and see what happens. In the meantime…” Her voice trailed off as she gripped each of our hands and pulled us toward her while muttering a chant under her breath. A few moments later, she, Abby and Erik disappeared. Looking down at my hands, I realized I had too.

“We have a better chance of succeeding at this if we’re invisible.” Patricia’s voice came from my left.

“All right. Now what?” I said.

“You vamps need to wait here in the shade while I figure out the best place to set off the explosion. Once I set it off, we’ll wait to see if anybody comes. If there are fewer than three, assume that I will attempt to close in on them and start walking toward the witches—I’ll emerge as soon as I feel I’ve got control of the situation and beckon you over.”

“And if there are more than three?” Erik’s voice came from my left.

“Then stay where you are,” Patricia replied. “I won’t attempt anything and we’ll have to come up with some other idea… I’m leaving now.”

As the witch’s presence left us, I walked over to the edge of the rocks where I could best position myself for scanning the beach. I was almost knocked forward as someone bumped into me from behind.

“Oh, sorry.” Abby’s voice came quickly.

I reached behind me and, finding her arm, guided her to a spot next to me where she was in no danger of knocking me again.

“Erik?” I said.

“Yeah.” He sounded like he was standing next to Abby.

“Okay,” I said. “Now, pay attention.”

I kept watching the beach, alert to even the slightest bit of movement as I tried to determine where Patricia was. After a few minutes, there was a sudden noise that sounded like the crack of a whip, and then in the sky, a ball of fire appeared, swirling and circling as it gathered speed. With one deafening roar, the ball exploded, sending glowing fragments flying down into the sea and onto the beach.

“
Somebody
must have heard that,” Abby said.

“Now it’s just a question of whether anyone cares enough to come and investigate,” Erik said.

We couldn’t be sure where Patricia was now that the explosion had died down. I supposed that, like us, she was watching the boundary.

“Come on,” I whispered, willing someone to emerge from the line of trees.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. I was beginning to think that Patricia ought to cause another explosion when a woman emerged from the forest, a few hundred yards away from us. One strap of her long blue gown hung down her shoulder and her hair was disheveled. She stopped just before crossing the boundary and looked up and down along the length of the beach.

“Phinneas,” she called.

A bare-chested warlock wearing dark pants emerged behind her. His hair was also mussed, and lipstick stained his face.

“Do you see anything?” she asked. Both scanned the length of the beach. “What could it have been?”

The warlock shrugged. “It was probably just young ones up to no good. There are no lessons today.” His hands snaked around her waist. He drew her closer to him and buried his face in her neck. “Don’t let this distract us, Riona,” he whispered. “We don’t have long.”

I held my breath, ready to let out a curse as he began pulling her back away from the boundary. They’d almost disappeared from view when the woman stopped in her tracks.

“Wait, darling,” she said breathlessly through his kisses. “Those rocks look more comfortable.” She pointed toward where Abby, Erik and I were standing.

Catching the warlock’s hand, the witch stepped out of the boundary with him and crossed the sand toward us.

“We need to move,” I hissed.

Although the sun hadn’t yet set, we had no choice but to make way for them. I wasn’t sure where Erik and Abby had scrambled off to—from the sounds of it, they’d climbed up the cliff—but I leapt from the rocks and dropped into the waters below. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to endure the sun for long, but the sea would at least help to soothe some of the burning in the meantime. I swam round the rocky enclosure and made my way back toward the beach, scanning it for any sign of Patricia.

Come on, Patricia. Where are you?

I tried to ignore the moans that were beginning to drift down from the rocks above me, but it was hard when I was still so close.

Bracing myself for the full heat of the sun, I climbed out of the water in hopes of getting a better understanding of where Patricia was and what was holding her up. She’d said she’d emerge once she felt she’d gotten control of the situation, whatever that meant.

I cast my eyes toward the two now-bare bodies writhing on the rocks. I grimaced. I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull this off. We only needed one of them, but from the looks of it, separating those two would be like separating Siamese twins.

I almost jumped as something brushed up against my arm. I whirled around, but saw nobody. Then Patricia spoke. “Kiev, is that you?”

“Yes. How did you—?” I looked down at my hands to check they were still invisible, wondering for a moment if the spell had worn off.

“Your footprints in the sand,” she murmured.

“What’s happening?”

“I’m going to try to distract the warlock, send him over toward the other side of the rocks, and then come back for the witch. The moment you see the warlock leave, stand as close as you can to her without being noticed. Instruct Abby and Erik to do the same.”

Before I could respond, she let go of me and I no longer felt her proximity. I started to climb closer toward the rocks again, trying to hide how heavy my breathing was becoming due to the pain the sun was inflicting on me.

Perched on the rocks as close as I dared, I was expecting Patricia to cause another explosion of some sort any second now. But my focus was suddenly distracted by footsteps hammering over wet sand behind me. I looked back and was stunned to see another warlock running along the beach toward us.

He was tall, wore fine clothes—an embroidered leather waistcoat and dark silk pants—and his hair was slicked back. His face was contorted with fury. His chest heaved as he raced toward the rocks. Swerving dangerously close to the amorous couple, I tucked myself in a narrow corner to avoid this man bumping into me as he approached.

Leaping up the rocks, he stood, casting a towering shadow over Phinneas and Riona. They were so absorbed in each other, they didn’t even notice his presence until his hand clamped around Riona’s throat and he tore her away.

Well, this has just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

I wasn’t sure where Patricia was now, but clearly we had to wait for this scene to unfold before we could do anything.

“Zylen,” she gasped, clutching the man’s hands around her neck.

Lowering his head to her, he spat on her face. “Whore,” he growled. “How long did you think you would get away with this?” He slammed her head against the side of the wall. “A visit to your sister’s? Is that what this is?”

Phinneas leapt up and a curse blasted from his palms, separating Zylen from Riona. He glowered at Zylen. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

Zylen jumped to his feet and hurled a curse back at Phinneas, hitting him square in the chest. Phinneas shot backward, falling down into the ocean below. Zylen leapt into the ocean after him and the two warlocks began battling in the waves.

“No!” Riona screamed, scrambling to her feet and clutching her dress against her. “Don’t hurt him.”

As Riona motioned to hurl a curse at Zylen, a beam of light shot from his palm and hit her stomach. Her legs folded beneath her and she fell on the ground, her whole body rigid. Her screams assured me that she was not dead, just paralyzed.

The battle in the waves became more and more furious by the second as the waves carried the two men further away from the rocks.

Riona’s body then began to levitate—or so it seemed until Patricia hissed, “Now. Kiev! Abby! Erik! Come over here!”

I walked over to Riona and reached out into thin air until I was touching what felt like Patricia’s shoulder. I glanced up toward the direction I’d heard Erik and Abby scramble away toward. They might have been in the sun this whole time. I hoped they’d be all right.

“Erik?” I called. “Abby?”

“Here,” my brother called behind me. “We’re here.”

The two of them brushed against me as they gripped Patricia. A few seconds later, all five of us had vanished and reappeared outside the boundary bordering the forest lining the beach.

“Now,” Patricia said, “Hold on to some part of this witch as we walk through.”

I did as she’d requested, touching the girl’s arm, and I assumed the other two did the same as we hurried through what had previously been as solid as a brick wall. This time, as I walked through, it was with ease—as though there was no boundary there at all.

We hurried further into the trees, out of direct view of the beach, where Riona’s body lowered to the ground. “What is happening? Who are you?” she gasped, tears still streaming down her face as she looked around wildly.

Patricia finally came into view, standing directly next to her, although my, Erik’s and Abby’s forms remained invisible. Patricia bent down over Riona and looked at her kindly.

“Don’t worry, dear,” she whispered, running a palm over her forehead. “When you wake up, you won’t remember what just happened. It will all seem like a bad dream…” As Patricia’s palm caressed her forehead, Riona stopped whimpering and her eyelids began drooping until they dropped shut. A few moments later, the woman was snoring.

Taking in a deep breath, Patricia stood up and looked toward our direction. Her form disappeared from sight again as she muttered, “Now the real work begins.”