The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (34 page)

"Where did you get this box Meg?" I ask,
running my hand gently over the engraving.

"It was a gift, from Kurt," She says, her
voice is choked and I realize that she is once again talking about her lover.

"Well he has excellent taste in gifts. Talking
about Kurt, I will go and find him now," I say before leaving Meg in her
room again.

Making my way back up again doesn't take as long as
it did coming down. I easily find Kayden, Victor and Shade out in the dining
hall, everyone from the war meeting still present. They are all having a good
time, and I ignore the crowd as I make my way across the room to Victor, Kayden
and Shade.

Kayden is the first to notice me, and his first
reaction to me is a joyous one. However something on my first must have told
him that something is wrong, because his happiness turns to concern, in the
blink of an eye.

"Anna what's wrong?" Kayden asks, moving
to touch me but for a moment I ignore Kayden and instead I go to Victor for he
is the one who needs to know that there is a Skin-walker within the castle.

"Victor I was just speaking to Meg. She told me
that she fell in love with someone, that she believed him to be a
vampire," I say, taking Victor by the elbows so that we have a physical
connection, but a little bit back so that we could keep our eyes connected as well.

"But?" He asks, somehow sensing that
something is wrong.

"But he's
not
! He's a Skin-walker
Victor. She says that he's here within the castle, down in the dungeons,"
I say, my breath is heavy now, and I wait for the realization to hit. Victor's
face goes from being mildly surprise at my sudden appearance, to down right
furious at the fact that not only there is a Skin-walker within his castle, but
that one of
them
would dare impersonate a vampire.

Victor marches off, with a speed that I have never
seen him posses, but fully knew he was capable of. I have to physically run to
keep up with the three boys, as Kayden and Shade has moved as quickly as
Victor, keeping their pacing with his. It's almost impossible, but I barely
manage to keep up with them. I don't pay attention to which hall ways we pass
down, except for the ones that I need to turn down, and thus, if I wanted to
come back down here alone, I would have no idea on which way to go.

They come to a stop in front of a large metal door.
There is no guard present, though it's obvious that there is a station for
there to be one. Victor pulls a torch off of the wall, and strikes a match from
the box sitting at the guard’s station. We make the descent in silence. No
words are passed between us, for there is nothing to be said. We all know that
whatever we learn down in the dudgeon's will not change anything, but somehow I
still have a sick feeling in my gut, one that tells my head to be quite, that
nothing is alright and that everything is going to change forever.

The dungeon is a cold, damp place. The ranched smell
of old sweet, bodily smells and faeces engulfs our senses and has me doubling
over, forcing my breakfast to make a second appearance. The boys do not stop
for me, and I push back down the sick feeling, and carry on as well. Kayden,
Shade and Victor are searching throughout each cell looking for the
Skin-walker. The cells aren't filled with people, in fact there are only about
five down here, each within their own cell. It isn't until we reach the cell at
the very end, that we find the person that we are looking for.

He is sitting in the back of the cell, his arms
wrapped around his knees. The man is rocking back and forth, and when the light
hits him he looks up at us. The man is clearly not my father. Instead he is a
young man, his chin and his cheeks are covered in stubble, his skin is dirty.
He has black hair, tanned skin and the grey eyes of all Skin-walkers.

"So you found out the secret?" He asks,
his voice is perfectly clear as if he still maintains his sanity. His smile is
vicious.

"We'll ask the questions here." Victor
sneers at the Skin-walker "How did you get in to the castle undetected?
Did you really think that we wouldn't find out who you really are?"

"I thought it would have taken you lot a whole
lot longer," The Skin-walker sneers.

"How dare you speak to King Menédez like
that!" Shade shouts, his hands are balling up into fists, and I know that
he wants to rip apart the Skin-walker right there and then.

"Oh I apologize; I didn't realize that I was in
the presence of royalty. I would bow to you, but then again you're not really
my
King," The Skin-walker sneers again, spitting at Victor's feet.

"Answer the question, Skin-walker. How did you
get into the castle undetected?" Victor says again, his sneer still
present and just as vicious as ever.

"Well, first off I was 'rescued' by you,"
He says pointing at Kayden and continues on quickly "then I was brought
here, by him again, then brought before the female," he says pointing at
me before continuing on again "with whom I had a vicious, but fun banter
with, before she sent me down here to rot. I think that just about answers your
question. Now if you'll leave me to rot as you were planning to do I'll be
quite content," He says smiling viciously at us.

"Meg asked me to come down here to see if you
are willing to change your fate, to change your loyalty from your own race to
the vampires. Would you actually want to do that? Or were you simply telling
her what she wanted to here?" I ask him, he cocks his head to the side, a
crease in between his knotting brows. He seems thoroughly confused.

"Who's Meg again?" He asks, a slight smile
on his lips. "Wait isn't that the blond with the purple eyes?"

"Yeah that's Meg. So your answer is?" I
ask, trying to keep my patience with the Skin-walker.

His thunderous laughter echo's around the hallow
dungeon and becomes eerie as it resounds around us. "Well aren't you all
screwed, and even dumber then we first thought. You all have failed to notice
that the female that was with me when I arrived is missing," The
Skin-walker says, his smile is vicious. He gets up from his position on the
ground, and walks over to where we are, wrapping his hands firmly on the steel
bars, pressing his face up close so that he and I have a connection with our
eyes.

"None of you are safe. Not with the female
Skin-walker out. She has taken the place of her victim; living the life of her
prey. She is a cunning, vicious little wench. You ought to get your brains in
gear, and figure out whose face she wears before she slaughters the lot of
you." His breath is ranched, and it makes me choke when he breathes into
my face. I step away from him backing up into Victor's chest. His hand finds
mine in the dim light and he squeezes it gently.

"We're not going to get much else out of him.
Let's go," Victor says pulling me along with him. Kayden and Shade follow
along behind us. We leave the Skin-walker, he screams out to us as we walk away
"Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, She'll have your heads and she’ll have
your hearts too!"

We don't discuss anything until we get out of the
dungeon altogether. We pass the guard on our way out, and it isn't until we
reach a small side room a few corridors down that we stop within it. Victor
locks the door behind us, and we all study each other carefully.

"The female could be anyone. If we are to go
off of the theory that she changed appearances the moment after she was sent
down to the dungeon, which was the first day that she arrived. She couldn't be
Victor or Shade," Kayden says, already eliminating two possibilities.

"Tell me something that's happened between us
after I arrived Anna. So that we know that you aren't the Skin-walker,"
Kayden says to me, his eyes are focused on me, and as I look up, my eyes
instantly connect with him.

"We were out in the garden's looking at the
midnight blooms. I recall that you were telling me that you created them, and
you were soothing my fears, of not being good enough to lead here, of not being
good enough for Victor," I say and from the corner of my eye I see Victor
flinch, as if he has been physically slapped by my words. "I remember you
telling me that there are three different types of people, those born into
privilege, those born into a mediocre life, and those born into suffering. I
remember you telling me that those who are born into suffering are the people
who are the strongest, the bravest, that they are the type of people that
legends are made of," I say grinning at the memory, and how everything had
changed for us since that moment.

"Well you're definitely not the Skin-walker as
that was after your "Mother" and "Father" had arrived. I
suppose it's my turn. I remember the first night of my return. We had all gone
back to the study to have a few drinks, and you had fallen asleep. We all left
a little while later, and I went back to my room but I couldn't sleep. So I
came back to the study to make sure that you were alright. You were having a
nightmare, one so bad that it was making you scream and thrash about in your
sleep. I tried to wake you up, but it was as if you were locked inside of your
mind, because no matter what I did you wouldn't wake up. I took you in my arms,
and you calm down instantly, you were still shaking slightly and whimpering so
I sat down with you in my arms. I must have fallen asleep because the next
thing I remember from there is that you woke me up because you moved out of my
arms," Kayden says, his eyes are intense as they watch me. He is
completely still, and for a moment we both allow that first morning to wash
over us.

After a long pause I pull my gaze away from Kayden
to Victor "Well it's obvious that none of us is the Skin-walker. If we
were we would have made a break for it by now," I say to my fiancé, he
nods his head in agreement.

"So if none of us is the Skin-walker, then who
is?" Shade asks, he has this harsh look on his face, and I'm not sure if
it's because he wants to kill the Skin-walker, or because of the memories that
Kayden and I had just shared in front of him and Victor.

"That's just it. It could be anybody, Kayden
you need to give orders to your men that we are on a man-hunt. That there is a
Skin-walker within the castle and that they need to keep their eyes open."
Kayden nods his head and goes to inform whomever that is still here of the
orders they now have.

"I'm going to go inform Astoria, Augustus and
Baron. They need to know of this as well. Shade make sure that Anna stays here.
I don't want her getting messed up in this," Victor says before leaving
the room as well.

I turn to Shade; he seems upset to have to babysit
me. It is clear that he wants to be out there where the action is. "Shade,
I think I know who it is. I mean why else would she tell me about the
Skin-walker downstairs?"

"Who is it Anna?" He asks me moving closer
towards me, a grin tugging at his lips. His eyes are focused and clear,
watching every little motion that is happening around him.

"I think its Meg. She sent me down to the
Skin-walker in the first place to discard any suspicion on herself," I
say, wrapping my arms around myself.

"Anna, if the woman has disguised herself as
Meg, than it is most likely that the Meg you used to know is dead. You need to
lay the memory of your friend to rest before we go and seek her out, I don't
want you to hesitate when you have to kill her," Shade says, resting his
hand on my shoulder, perhaps to give me some kind of comfort.

"I know, that's what I'm afraid of," I say
softly. I step away from Shade and place my hand upon the door handle.
"Come on Soldier, we've got a serpent to hunt down," I say, as I open
the door. I wait for Shade to catch up before we go hunting down the
Skin-walker who has taken the place of my best friend.

Finding Meg isn't a hard thing, she hadn't listened
to me when I asked her to remain in her room, instead I find her in the
kitchen, chopping up vegetables obviously meant for dinner tonight. The first
thing I notice is the butcher knife in her hands, moving with a speed that I
never thought that Meg would be able to posses.

"Oh, hello Anna, I wasn't expecting to see you
here," Meg says, waving the massive knife in way of greeting.

"Yes, well I just came back up from visiting
your boyfriend," I say and this makes her pause for a moment, her knife
hovering slightly over the vegetables. She only pauses for a fraction of a
second, barely long enough for her slip-up to be noticed but I hadn't missed
it.

"And what did he have to say for himself?"
She asks, faking the concern in her voice.

"Well he definitely didn't deny his race. He
told me something interesting though. He said that when he arrived that there
was a woman skin-walker with him. He also said that she escaped, and is now
someone very close to us, living the life of her prey. Do you know anything
about this?" I ask, Meg turns around with an incredulous look on her face.

"And you think it's me? Anna think about what
you're saying. You've known me your entire life! We grew up together. You really
think that
I
would be the Skin-walker in the castle," Meg says
pleadingly, begging me to think about what I am saying, but however much I want
to believe that this is Meg before me,
my
Meg asking me not to do this,
I know that it is all fake, and that my Meg is gone forever.