A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21) (20 page)

“
W
ake up
, River. Wake up.”
A deep voice echoed in my head. It was a familiar voice, though, buried in the depths of my subconscious, I couldn’t quite put a name to it. I couldn’t put a name to much at all, even myself. My being was infused with the enjoyment of a profoundly satisfying sleep.

“Wake up!”
it called again.

But my sleep was too comfortable. I felt warm and deliciously relaxed. I was floating across an endless mass of gentle waves. The water lapped against the sides of my body like a massage, only serving to deepen my relaxation.

“Wake up, River!”

“No.
I don’t want to wake up. Go away,”
I thought to the echo, irritated at the disturbance.

I tried to block the voice out. I tried to ignore it and hope that it would go away. But it only grew louder and louder, shattering my peace like a foghorn.

“Wake up!”

“Why should I wake up?”
I shot back.
“There’s nothing worth waking up for.”

But the voice remained persistent, each call drawing me further and further away from sleep until I was pulled back to consciousness enough that I felt damp soil beneath me. My eyelids unglued. My vision was hazy as I fought to brush away the cobwebs of sleep.

I was… in a field. The same field I’d been in just… how long ago? How could I have fallen asleep here and…

My eyes traveled over the many sleeping members of Derek and Sofia’s council on the ground surrounding me. Rose slept next to me.

The atmosphere was so quiet, I could distinctly pick up the rolling of the waves on the beach.

What happened here?

I stumbled to my feet and bent down over Rose. Gripping her shoulders, I shook her hard. She didn’t respond at all, and had she not been breathing, I might even have feared that she was dead. I cast my eyes over the others and tried to wake Caleb, who lay nearby. He too was still as a rock. I tried several others—some vampires I didn’t even know the names of—before I straightened, panic lighting up my brain. Derek and Sofia were absent. Though the last thing I remembered, they had been in the farmhouse…

I hurried into the old building only to find that it was empty. I scanned the fields outside once more, just to double-check that Derek and Sofia definitely weren’t there—that I hadn’t accidentally overlooked them. They weren’t.

Oh, God. How long have Derek and Sofia been missing? And where is Aiden? Did Corrine even manage to find him?

What do I do now?

One option was to keep trying to wake others up so they could assist me, but I’d just tried that. And they were all so deep in sleep that something told me that even if I stayed there shaking people for another hour, I still wouldn’t have managed to arouse anyone. I had already shaken them hard—as hard as I dared to shake a person. I didn’t understand how I was able to wake up and they weren’t. But now was no time to ponder over it.

A witch must have been behind this. And who else but Jeramiah’s witch?

My pounding heart rising to my throat, I tore my eyes away from the sleeping bodies scattered in the fields and back toward the entrance of the woods.

A chill ran down my spine as I began to race with all the speed my legs could muster into the woods. I was still oblivious to the time, and for all I knew, it could be too late for Ben’s family already. Jeramiah and Amaya had already swooped down to put everyone in a slumber. They would’ve grabbed Derek and Sofia, and if they’d taken them, I was sure that they would have managed to find Aiden by now too. The question was, were they still alive?

In the dream when Ben had come to me, he’d said that Jeramiah was planning to hand them over to the hunters, and that he was going to meet them on a cluster of rocks near the boundary of The Shade. But where was that exactly? As I tried to rack my brain for the location, I soon realized that the location was the least of my worries. How was I going to get there? Even if I did manage it somehow, what would I find there? Would I be in any position at all to help them, assuming they could still be helped?

My mind turned to my own family, wondering if they too had been put to sleep or whether it was just us near the farmhouse, since we’d been near Amaya’s targets, Derek and Sofia.

I couldn’t see a reason why Amaya would cast a spell over the human population, but now wasn’t the time to find out. My family wasn’t the target, Ben’s was.

As I raced through the trees, winding along the forest path, I wasn’t comforted to find a group of children lying sound asleep on the ground. They had wooden toys around them, and had clearly been in the middle of playing. Even these innocent children had been affected by the spell.

I feared that everyone in the island might’ve been hit. Then again, this island was big, and I hadn’t yet ventured far from the fields. Would the witch really have bothered to cast such a wide spell? I wondered if she was even powerful enough to achieve such scope.

I still didn’t know this island well, but I knew it well enough to be able to sense that the furthest point away from the agricultural area—where I guessed the spell would’ve been concentrated—was the Black Heights. The mountains were all the way on the other side of the island. If I hurried there, I could see if anybody at all was awake and could help…

I was tempted to just get in a boat and try to navigate there myself but, firstly, as much as I had observed Ben during our voyage across the seas, I didn’t know how to work a vessel by myself. And secondly, a second boundary had been put up around the island by the witches to protect The Shade’s inhabitants from the merfolk infestation. And unlike the original boundary, this one didn’t allow people out, unless they had special permission. Derek and Sofia would have that, no doubt, but I certainly didn’t.

And so, as I neared the clearing before the Port, I didn’t head toward the jetty. I took a left turn and continued running through the forest toward the mountains.

On my way, I spotted dozens more vampires and even humans lying asleep in the woods, and even as I passed by the Vale, I couldn’t hear the usual bustle of the town—it sounded eerily quiet, confirming my fears.

Still, I clung on to my thread of hope and didn’t let up my speed until I arrived at the foot of the Black Heights. My eyes traveled around the mountain cabins perched among the rocks. Spotting the burnt-down cabin of Aiden and Kailyn, I shuddered. All seemed quiet—I couldn’t spot anybody walking around up there—though I tried to comfort myself that did not necessarily mean they were all asleep.

Still, my eyes lowered from the cabins and I focused instead on the entrance to the mountain caves—apparently once used as storage chambers, and now carved out into exquisite apartments for the island’s dragon population.

I had not ventured in here since arriving. In fact, I hadn’t had much contact at all with the dragons. They kept to themselves. I realized that if anyone could help me, they would be a good bet. I just had to hope that the sleeping spell hadn’t reached them.

I approached the heavy door carved into the base of the mountain, and, pushing against it, I was relieved that it wasn’t locked. It ground open, allowing me entrance into a lantern-lit tunnel. The moment I stepped inside, a wonderful surge of warmth rushed through me. Although the walls, floors and ceilings were made of stone, it was as though they had some kind of central heating system behind them. They radiated heat that penetrated my skin and eased the aching of my bones—aching that I had gotten so used to by now, I took it for granted.

A heady scent of frankincense and myrrh laced the atmosphere as I traveled along the tunnel until it opened up into a grand entrance hall. The floors were made of shiny black marble, rich velvet drapes covered the walls and a grand chandelier hung in the center of the room, casting soft, orange light. When I took a left, it led to a wide corridor, just as beautifully decorated.

As my gaze traveled along it, there were carved wooden doors on either side—entrances to the various dragons’ apartments, I could only assume. I headed toward the nearest door to me on my right and pressed my ear against it. I sensed movement coming from within. I let out a sigh of relief. Amaya’s spell had not extended as far as I’d feared it might.

I balled my hands into fists and banged against the door. Once, twice, thrice.

Footsteps approached, and the door swung open. My eyes widened at the sheer size of the brown-haired, grey-eyed man standing in front of me. I was sure that I’d seen this dragon shifter before—though I couldn’t recall his name—but up close like this, he was far more formidable. He personified strength and it looked like he could easily crush the bones in my hand if he shook it too tightly.

“I am sorry to disturb you,” I said. My throat felt parched from the heat his bronzed body was exuding. “I need help urgently. The king and queen, and I think Aiden also, have been captured by an enemy. I know where they might be, but please, I need you to help me get off this island—there’s a cluster of rocks just outside the boundary where they’re supposed to have been taken. I’m not sure if they’re still there but… Can you please help?”

The man’s brows furrowed as he tightened his satin robe around him and stepped out into the corridor.

“The king and queen are in danger? We must leave once. Jeriad!” he bellowed, his baritone voice booming off the walls. “Neros! Azaiah!”

More footsteps sounded behind doors nearby, and they swung open. Out stepped three more dragon shifters. One of them, with wavy black hair that licked the sides of his face—Jeriad, I believed his name was—looked even larger and more intimidating than the one who stood in front of me. All were dressed casually, in cotton pants and loose shirts.

“What is it, Ridan?” Jeriad asked, sauntering toward him.

“The king, queen and Aiden are in danger!” I replied for Ridan. “I can explain along the way, but we must hurry out of the boundary! Do you know how we could do that, since the witches put up a second one—?”

“Yes, we know,” Jeriad said, his piercing aquamarine eyes falling on me. “There is an area on the other side of the mountain where there is no beach. Only steep cliffside. Since there is no danger of the merfolk entering from there, I requested that the witches leave that area open so that we dragons could come and go as we please.”

I breathed out.

With that, the four men swept across the entrance hall and entered the tunnel leading toward the exit. I hurried after them as they reached the main door and barged outside into the clearing. As I emerged soon after, they were already starting their magnificent transformation. Their humanoid forms morphed and swelled in size until I was gazing up at four breathtakingly fierce beasts. Jeriad—with gorgeous silver-orange scales—reached a massive hand down for me. I tentatively gripped hold of his huge scaly fingers and stood in his palm. He raised me up onto his back. I positioned my legs either side of his thick neck and I barely had time to gain a hold on his scales before he launched upward into the sky, followed quickly by the others.

As we rose higher and higher, I held on for dear life. Soon we were level with the highest peaks of the mountains. We traveled over the range and, with the dragons’ supernatural speed, soon reached the other side, where the ocean met the steep cliffside Jeriad had spoken of. As we flew over water, even despite Jeriad’s assurances, I half expected the dragons to hit a solid barrier. Instead, we soared over the waves and headed toward the outermost boundary of The Shade.

I cast my eyes downward even as I focused on maintaining my grip—my palms had become sweaty from both the dragons’ heat and my nerves. Holding on wasn’t as easy as it should have been.

Now that I was scanning the surface of the ocean, I realized that there was more than just a single cluster of rocks near this island. I wasn’t sure which one Ben had been referring to. We just had to keep searching.

As we flew, I explained what was happening and what had happened, but as we moved closer in line with the Port, my voice faltered. I caught sight of a scene that chilled me to the bone. We had found the right cluster.

A
s the sound
of the motor neared, Jeramiah cast a lingering glance over the three of us.

“It’s time for me to step out now,” he said, moving backward. “But I’ll stay nearby for a while to make sure things go smoothly…”

He turned to the witch and nodded. She planted a hand on his shoulder, and the two of them vanished.

Even while the vessel sounded like it was less than twenty feet away, I couldn’t help but wish that Jeramiah had left his parasol behind for my father and me. Our limbs were still rigid as ever, and the sun beat mercilessly down upon us from the cloudless sky.

I couldn’t see what state I was in—which was probably a good thing. Though as Derek, lying next to me, looked at me with worry, I sensed that my skin had begun to melt and peel. I was in more than enough agony for it. I didn’t know how many minutes or hours we had been lying here in total, but I was reaching the limit of my pain tolerance—which, through unwilling training over the years, was at a much higher level than most vampires’.

After all my father had just been through, this was the last thing he needed. He was suffering enough mentally to not be subjected to this kind of physical pain. My blood boiled at the thought of what Jeramiah had done to him. Like Derek, I had also held out hope that, if we ever managed to meet Jeramiah, he would be different. That he wouldn’t continue his father’s—and grandfather’s—legacy of malice and cruelty. Now it seemed that I’d hoped for too much. Far too much.

My thoughts froze as the growl of the engine died. Footsteps pounded over the rocks. Ten men came into view. They were dressed in black combat uniforms, their eyes obscured by dark shades. Clutched in their hands were shiny silver guns.

I looked desperately at Derek and then at my father, but we were as helpless as each other. The men closed the final distance between us and swooped down, gripping our limbs and hauling us over the sharp rocks. They dragged us to a boulder and propped us in an upright position.

The tallest hunter among them—and also the most slender in build—stepped forward. His eyes roamed the three of us.

“Derek and Sofia Novak, and Aiden Claremont, of The Shade. Is that correct?”

“You’re barking up the wrong tree with us,” I croaked. “Nobody on our island is a threat to you or any human.”

His angular jaw set firmly. “We have some doubts about that,” he said.

Swiveling to face Derek, he raised his gun and cocked it.

“No!” I rasped.

What followed happened almost too fast for my brain to process.

A mighty roar boomed down from the sky, so loud and fierce it made my hair stand on end.

The hunters froze and whirled around. Four magnificent dragons—Jeriad, Azaiah, Neros and Ridan, if I recognized them correctly in their beastly forms—soared toward us. Jeriad—who was leading the horde—widened his jaw and released a storm of flames. Fire blanketed the center of the islet, billowing dangerously close to us. The heat dried out my eyeballs and scorched my already fried skin.

Azaiah, Neros and Ridan joined Jeriad in releasing more fire, and soon I couldn’t even see the hunters through the blaze. I did hear their gunshots, shouts, racing footsteps, and splashes of water as they no doubt retreated for safety. As the flames began to lick but a few meters away from our feet, I feared that they would consume us before the dragons came for us.

But then Ridan and Neros burst through the wall of smoke and fire. Ridan arrived at my side first. His massive left hand closed around my body as he lifted me up while his right hand reached for Derek. Neros picked up my father before the two dragons’ wings beat heavily, raising us into the air. I was relieved that Ridan kept me lower against his body, beneath the shade of his broad chest. It felt like if my skin was tortured much more, it might become irreparably damaged.

Another round of lethal gunshots fired—one so unnervingly close, I heard it whoosh right past my ear. With all the smoke and flames, I could only just make out the outlines of Jeriad and Azaiah beneath us. My vision being hazy from all that forced sunlight didn’t help either.

“The eyes, Amaya!” Jeramiah bellowed from somewhere beneath us.

Oh, no.

“Hurry!” I panicked.

We had to get to the boundary before the witch reached us.

Through the myriad of chaotic sounds broke out a thundering splash. I caught sight of Jeriad’s giant tail thrashing in the water, while the rest of his body was submerged. He was clearly in agony.

“The witch must have gotten to his eyes,” Derek shouted.

At this, Neros flew up to Ridan and transferred Aiden into Ridan’s hand—the same hand that held me, for there was plenty of room for the two of us.

“I’m going down to assist,” he said, doing a one-eighty and darting back down toward Jeriad.

Ridan continued hurtling forward with us toward the island and as he did, he began spouting fire all around us—I guessed to prevent the invisible witch coming too close. I thanked the heavens that we weren’t far from the boundary and we managed to fly through it before Ridan got stabbed in the eye.

Although we were engulfed again by the darkness of The Shade, my skin was still singed. I cast a glance at Derek. His eyes were still fixed on the scene we’d just left. I gazed there too, even as I tried to calm my palpitating heart.

I could make out the hunters’ speedboat dashing away now. Clearly they’d realized they weren’t equipped to battle four angry dragons. Both Neros and Azaiah were hovering near the waves where Jeriad had fallen. I guessed the injured dragon would shift back into his humanoid form for his two companions to easily carry back to the island.

I wasn’t sure how the dragons had known to come, but we had just managed a narrow escape. I shuddered to think what would’ve happened had they arrived even a few moments later. I was certain that those hunters were going to take all of our lives, even as we’d informed them of our innocence.

The view of the ocean became obstructed as Ridan dipped behind a row of trees and touched down in a clearing near the Port.

Derek and I locked eyes, almost certain that the same questions were running through both of our heads.
What is up with these hunters?
They were so interested in stalking our island—they’d had naval ships stationed near our shores for months now, and they’d even tried to detect our every moment with motion sensors—yet now that they’d had three specimens from The Shade—including the king and queen at that—they’d simply wanted to kill us? If anything, they should have imprisoned us and taken us in for interrogation. The motives of the hunters were a complete mystery to me.
What exactly is their game?

Our disturbed nephew, Jeramiah, was yet another enigma. I still wasn’t sure how he’d entered the island, or what exactly he’d thought he would gain by traumatizing and murdering his family members. Revenge? Was that really all that drove him? I guessed it shouldn’t have been surprising. Lust for vengeance had a way of blinding people to what was in front of them.

However jumbled my pain-ridden brain was with doubts and questions about the hunters and my nephew, as Ridan lowered us onto the lawn, there was one feeling of certainty that I couldn’t shake: this wasn’t the last time we’d cross paths with either of them.