In The Shadows

Chapter Twenty-Three: In The Fire

It all happened so fast.

One second, Elowen stood only steps away from Henry and Julian and then Cadmus stood in front of her, and his hand wrapped around her throat. The world spun into a black hole and spit her back out some twenty feet away. Her stomach rolled sourly, protesting the unnatural action of teleportation. No one even had a chance to process what happened until Cadmus already had her.

Elowen thought of the first time she ever saw him up close on New Year's eve. If she had then been oblivious to the world of supernatural beings, of vampires and doppelgangers, something still would've pegged her as odd about Cadmus. Not the blacks of his eyes, or the black veins under his skin, or the mouth full of sharp teeth. It was deeper than that: when she looked into his eyes, there wasn't a person staring back. There was nothing there; no one, no soul there.

The chance to react had gone before it was there. Cadmus bared his teeth and then they were piercing her neck, slicing the skin open there in a hot burn of pain that ran deeper than when Henry bit her; it sprinted past her nerves, beyond the normal range of pain she'd ever felt. At first, it didn't even feel like pain and then it was excruciating and Elowen was screaming. It felt like a thousand tiny needles tipped with acid scraping against her skin and the sensation of her blood leaving her veins made it feel like her very soul was being pulled away, into the black hole behind Cadmus's eyes.

Then it was gone, he was gone, pulled away by a blur. Julian tackled Cadmus and they tumbled to the ground. Elowen crumpled to her knees with vertigo and pain, her throat throbbing with pain. The slick of blood on her hand when she touched her neck made her retch. In the dim light of night lamps, she could see Cadmus and Julian tumble until they rolled to a stop. Julian pinned him down, one hand on his throat. His nails pierced Cadmus's skin and black blood dripped onto the ground.

"Custos," Cadmus said in a sweet voice, smiling up at Julian as if he felt no pain. Elowen wondered if he did. "You fight so earnestly."

Julian reared back with his free hand but it was too late. Cadmus appeared behind him on his feet. Elowen had never experienced tunnel vision before but at that moment she knew what it was: the fight around them, the other vampires and the blood and the pain in her own body, it all fell away. The only things she saw were Julian and Cadmus and the world suspended when Cadmus grabbed Julian by the head with both hands. She saw the twist but the nauseating sound of his neck cracking didn't reach her ears until he lay on the ground, his head laid at an odd angle.

Someone screamed; a raging angry scream. Elowen thought it was herself until she looked up.

Kasper was dragging Drizella across the lot. Her wrists were bound in something made of light, a magical set of bonds Cleo must've made. The other vampires were either dead or gone, fleeing before they, too, were slain. Cadmus turned at the screaming and scowled. Elowen's blood still painted his lips and dripped from the corners when he snarled. She wanted to scream at him until his eardrums burst.

"Let her go," he said, moving toward them. Kasper raised a sparking hand, ready to stop him, but then Cadmus froze.

He stumbled over his feet as he lifted a hand to his stomach. A wet cough rose up and blood splattered the ground around him like specks of black ink. He straightened up with a frown and something akin to fear raced through his eyes before he moved. Only his silhouette moved though; nothing else, like he tried to teleport but couldn't and he began phasing in and out.

"No!" Drizella shouted and tried to pull away from Kasper.

Cadmus looked at her in disbelief. Then his knees buckled and he vomited blood onto the ground, black and lumpy, unnatural blood. He tried to teleport and get away, but his body faded out of existence and right back in at the same spot.