Blood And Fire

Chapter 16-Nakira's Flashback

CHAPTER 16

Nakira creeps along the dark corridor. She navigates the labyrinth of passages without hesitation. She comes upon a narrow inlet. Searching with her fingers along the concave section of the wall, she feels a metal latch and activates the mechanism. A dull grinding of stones sounds and she looks nervously from left to right. No one is approaching.

A cool, moist breeze sweeps up from the floor and Nakira takes a tentative step, her foot finding a depression in the ground. Slowly, she repeats the process with her other leg, careful not to lose her balance and go tumbling.

The opening in the ground is even darker than the unlit corridors of the catacombs. Her mind measures the steps she is taking until she moves with more confidence as the stairs follow regular intervals. She is submerged below the floor of the catacombs and the steps continue to descend.

Nakira touches the clammy stones of the wall and is aware of its curvature. She continues to descend for what feels like a very long time. Even with her vampire eyes, Nakira cannot penetrate the complete and utter darkness.

Her mind starts to reel as the lack of visual input makes her wonder if she is, in fact, in Hell. Is she condemned to forever traverse an infinite spiral, never to see light, never to reach a bottom?

She hears a faint sound in between the rhythm of her footfalls. What is it? Lower she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.

"Nakira, you're losing it," she cautions herself. The noise is growing louder. She knows this sound. She strains to hear it better. More steps. It sounds like something is moving, not footsteps, not wings beating. She goes lower still.

The movement she hears is some kind of rushing sound, powerful. It finally dawns on Nakira - the strong flowing noise is the underground river! She is almost at the bottom.

The moist breeze is refreshing as her foot finally rests on the stone banks of the subterranean river. It has been a very long time since Nakira had last been there.

Rayjlandic is a seaside city. The water table below the catacombs eventually drains to the Northern Sea. Nakira had discovered the passage years ago on a day she was quite bored and wanted to explore. She never told anyone about it.

Her mind keeps going back to last night's dinner with Vlad. He said he was going to visit another vampire clan's locale. He never leaves here. He must be up to something.

Nakira often worried for her son, Nickolas. He was so young when she had to send him away. She tried to keep Drake hidden. The dragon had just shown up one day. She had already suspected that it was just a matter of time.

It had been hard enough letting go of her old life. Nakira hated Vlad for what he had made her into - what he had made her only child into. However, he also had this indescribable power over her. After some time, it seemed like she was calming down, getting used to this strange family dynamic of her, Nick, and Vlad.

Her first worries started when she would hear Nick crying out for someone in his sleep. Instead of his first words being 'mama', they were 'Drake'. Then sometimes when he was awake, it appeared that he was having a conversation with someone who was not there. He would go on in his baby babble to this unseen entity; sometimes laughing, sometimes cooing.

Nakira had found this at first to be cute, but as it increased and Nick became a toddler, he began speaking real words to this Drake. It finally dawned on her.

"Oh God, no!" she had said in shock realization. "Please, this can't be!"

But sure enough, like Nakira in her life before Vlad, and like the real father of her son, Nick was also of Dragonkind.