The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (19 page)

Sleep evades me and I find myself walking around in
circles, in a 30-meter diameter to the area that we have set up camp in. I'm
still awake as the sky starts to lighten, drawing in the fourth day of
blistering sunlight, but I'm mistaken, the sky is not lightening because of the
sunrise, but rather because of the torches that the forest vampires bring with
them whilst they descend upon our camp. I don't know why I have the sensation
to run, but I'm frozen in space, why am I wanting to run from the people I'm
seeking help from? It's such a ridiculous motion that I'm rendered useless.
However I realize the sudden urge of survival skills as I remember my father's
words, forest vampires hate the Pures because we exiled them eons ago because
of their differences. The realization hits as a dart flies into my neck, and as
I crumble to my knees completely immobile, I see them approaching my men before
the darkness finally takes me in after the long, long night.

The darkness is welcoming, blissful even and I want
to indulge in it, as if I was surrounded by the fogginess of sleep in my warm
bed, Anna tucked in by my side. However, my waking mind has other ideas, and I
find myself looking across from me though the view is distorted. I realize just
a little late, that the things I'm seeing is distorted because I am hanging by
my feet off of a tree branch, my hands tied together behind my back. I can feel
that they have bound us, not with rope, but with the thick vines that they find
in the forest, the kind that these forest vampires have been using for eons –
ever since the Pures, my ancestors, kicked them out of the city – the kind of
vines that us Pures would have no experience with, whatsoever.

I can see that Seth, Reece and Bradley are hung
exactly in the same fashion as I am. There is little that I can do to get
myself out of these vines, let alone for them, but I twist and turn and wiggle,
trying to escape the bindings I've been placed in. It is as I am trying to
escape, that I notice two eyes watching me. Before I started moving I hadn't
noticed them as they must have been closed, but now that they are open I can
see them clearly, I can see the outline of two strong, angled male faces
watching me, but camouflaged in with the greenery because of their dark brown
skin. Now that I've noticed them, they are so blatantly clear to me that I'm
surprised that I hadn't seen them before. That's when I notice the thick but
hollow bamboo in their hands, poised and loaded, ready to strike at any moment.
When I meet one of the vampires' eyes, they reveal their thick canine-like
fangs, and he gives me a cocky grin, a grin that says that they know that I
know that they are the ones in charge, that I have no power here, and I hate
that he is right, whoever he is. I want to yell at them but my lips are sealed
shut from the poison that was in the darts, and besides my throat is raw from
lack of use and dehydration.

I hear the two start talking in hushed tones, and as
I strain to hear them, I hear that they are speaking in a language that I
cannot understand. It's useless to struggle to hear them, and so I try to block
them out. They continue the conversation, and I'm simply – to coin a phrase –
'hanging' around. It's a while before they move from their spots; their moving
is the first sign of their departure. I don't know where they have gone to, or
why, but all I know is that they have gone, the other's haven't woken, and I
try to fall back to sleep again, with the blood flowing to my head it is a
simple and easy task, and because of it, darkness is swallowing me whole again.

I can barely see a thing when I wake. It is pitch
black, but I can feel the vines that have been holding me hostage slowly
breaking as something rips it apart. I try to look over my shoulder, but cannot
see anything so instead; I turn to Seth, Reece and Bradley, and see that there
are knife-wielding forest vampires cutting away at the vines. The two from
before have return plus two others, one of those other two being a woman. The
four vampires finish cutting away at the vines, and the four of us drop to the
ground. Seth, Reece and Bradley awake at the last minute before they fall, and
are just able to prevent themselves from slapping against the ground
head-first.

The forest vampires roughly drag us to our feet,
before they starting pushing us along with the sheer force of their trunk-like
arms. The three male vampires are tall, strong and incredibly huge not to
mention a dark brown in the light, which is only barely visible in the
firelight that they have brought with them. The woman however is small compared
to the men, though that is to be expected though she is much taller than Anna.
It is clear that she is not one of the forest vampires, but they seem to
welcome her, and I hope that this is a good sign, though I have no idea what
that sign could be.

I stare at her in wonder as we continue to tread the
forest grounds, being led one by one by the forest vampire men, who follow
behind us to make sure that we do not escape. I'm mesmerized by the female's
beauty; it's as if she is as radiant as the sun with white skin that could have
been made from the moon that guards the night. Her red hair burns brighter than
the fire that guides us, and her bright eyes sparkle like the stars, her pearly
teeth are evenly matched as if they were strings of pearls. She is everything
that is beautiful, and it is with a sudden realization that I know who she is,
or should I say what she is, she's an Immortal, very rarely seen in the
Underworld as there are very few left of them. Some are classified as angels,
some as demons, and some are simply human, elevated to live an everlasting life
in the world of shadows and monsters. The female who guides me talks in a very
hushed voice that sounds like the mockingbirds of the 'No-mans' lands.

"Hello Pure Prince," The female says, her
completely white eyes stare into mine.

"Hello Lady Lasting, you may call me
Victor," I say, staring into her white eyes. She smiles softly at me, as
she dips her head in acknowledgement.

"Well Victor, most simply call me the Raven but
you may call me by my name," She says, her head dipped as if in prayer.

"And what is your name, dear Lady
Lasting," I asked of the fair maiden, she smiles sweetly at me and lifts
her head.

"My name is Fey; I have come here to persuade
the vampires to not fall pray to the Skin-walkers. I did not know that you had
come here to seek their assistance in the war. My people have seen the battles
that you mortals face, I know your strengths and weaknesses Pure Prince, and I
know that you have only just begun to make alliances. I also know that the
Skin-walkers have started far before you, made alliances centuries, eons ago
with the Shape-shifters, werewolves and phantoms. You have little time to make
your alliances so I suggest you give it your all. My people will not get
involved with the war, we cannot afford to lose anyone else to your mortal
wars, but I will send my blessings with you, dear Pure Prince, and with your
consort; may she be protected from the darkness of the Skin-walker king."
She pauses for a moment as one of the forest vampires look at us, staring at
the Lady Lasting in curiosity as to why he can hear her speaking. When he looks
away she leans back into my ear and continues to speak.

"You must understand though Pure Prince, that
if you were seeking war with anyone other than the Skin-walkers, that I would
end you and your friends right now, whether it is by my own hands, or that of
the forest Vampires. The Underworld needs to be united, every living kingdom
needs to work as one, because there is a force much more sinister than the
Skin-walkers, and seeking much more than simply bedding this worlds maidens.
You need to unite this world, Pure Prince, as there is darkness beyond what you
can see, in a world where my people are trying to do all that we can to control
the darkness, but it is too strong, and soon it will leak out into the
Underworld. There are dark times ahead, Pure Prince; I pray that you find the
strength to be able to rise against it." Fey says, before we fall into
silence, she refuses to give me a chance to answer her. We continue to walk on
in silence, dragged on by the vines that still bind our hands.

I wonder what she is talking about, the darkness
just beyond our reach, just beyond our sight. A darkness that is unknown,
unbearable. A darkness that is worse than the Skin-walkers. To me it's
impossible to think of anything worse than the Skin-walkers, but the Immortals
are not afraid of the Skin-walkers, and there was pure fear in her voice, in
her white eyes. That fear that is tangible in the air is so evident to me, that
I cannot help but shudder at the thought of this uncontrollable darkness. I
wonder how she knows of Anna, and what else she knows, I wonder what an
Immortals experience with the world is like, is it detached, or are they unable
to separate with the world, or is it perhaps, a little bit of both. These
thoughts fill my head as we continue to get dragged along, in the near distance
I can see a bright light coming from the ground, and I know that we have almost
reached their camp.

I wonder what the forest vampires will think of our
arrival, what they will think of having Pure vampires – whether turned or born
– in the camps mean, or will they simply be hostile and kill us on the spot,
without warning and without cause, simply because they hate us for what
happened to their ancestors eons ago. All these thoughts fill my head as we
continue to get closer toward the camp. I wonder what will happen to Anna, what
she will feel once she finds out about my death. We are mere meters away from
their camp now, the forest vampires is cutting down leaves, and making a path
for us to walk through as we near the camp.

Every cell in my body is pulsing; every vein in my
body is pumping blood so fast that I can feel my heart racing beneath my skin.
My mind is overloading with thoughts, till it gets to the point where I can
only think of my imminent death, as soon as I find myself in front of the
warming fire. These people, these forest vampires, whom my people shunned from
the vampire city, are now about to deliver my death sentence and I can feel it
quickly approaching me.

We are now kneeling before the fire. My head is
forced up to look at a group of Elders sitting in a table before the fire. One
of the four forest vampires holds a knife to my throat and I can feel their
warm breath against my ear.

"Stay still, Pure Prince. I will not allow any
harm to come to you, but you need to trust me." Fey's soft voice breaths
against my ear, I smile softly and breath "I trust you," though it's
hoarse and croaky.

I look up into the eyes of the middle Elder, and
know that out of all them, out of all of the elders sitting before me, he is
the one, the one to deliver my death blow, and for a moment our eyes connect.
His hold no emotion, no apology, and in his eyes I see my death.

Kayden's P.O.V

The trek to the shoreline is not as treacherous as
it could have been. It is - in my experience - a rather relaxing journey. We
are sheltered in the villages and within people’s homes during the hours of the
evening, and before dawn we are back on our horses, and continuing on our path.
We are lucky to be given this mission, in the sense of the making the journey
from kingdom to shore. I keep in mind to talk to the townsmen, to encourage
them to take up arms for the sake of their king and kingdom, and for the sake
of keeping their families safe from the terror of the Skin-walkers.

Some are easier to convince, whereas others are
harder, whether it is because of a hysterical wife or sister, or the need to
protect their families at home. At times it takes only a little convincing to
make them understand the importance of our request on Victor's behalf, and at
times it takes Jocelyn's loving and understanding nature to help the women cope
with the request. I have no idea what Jocelyn says or does exactly to make the
hysterical women understand, but I can tell that she understands my
gratefulness the many times when our eyes meet across the room.

However for the past day we have been travelling
through an empty place, nameless to us but we make it our own as we traverse
through it. We travel for hours without rest, and in the two or three times
that we did stop it is to relieve ourselves, and to allow the horses to rest.
By the time that the afternoon is ending, we are beginning to make plans to
camp when I spot a house in the distance, it is a single lonely cabin in the
vast grasslands, but I can feel Scott, Edgar and most of all Jocelyn's
gratefulness for the sight.

I can tell that the house is not abandoned by the
sight of smoke coming out of it's chimney, and when I order Scott to go before
us, and ask the residents if we may stay the night, he is gone before I can say
another word. Jocelyn, Edgar and I share a look that says more than words ever
can, before we continue on our way, a little bit faster now with a near
destination in sight.

There are times when words have little meaning, and
times when our actions speak louder than words. Our actions of moving forward,
was enough to speak volumes. We urge the horses on, racing against the setting
of the sun, racing against the clock so to speak. I can feel the wind in my
hair, my tight fighting gear sticking to me, almost like a second skin in the
harsh winds that we push through. As I turn to my right I can see Jocelyn's
hair flying behind her, like a scarlet flag flapping in the wind. To my left is
Edgar; strong, broad and silent Edgar with skin like coffee and cream.