She couldn’t bear to see the blurry vision of her closest friend being cut down right in front of her. As that black blade descended, her eyes shut tight, tears escaping out of the corners of them. She wished she could close her ears, too, not willing to hear the gruesome crunch of metal through bones.
Except it didn’t come. She waited, but she didn’t hear anything in front of her.
Open your eyes. Even in her head, the voice had the sigh of disappointment. He obviously saw them as pathetic.
Letti cracked an eyelid. Then both popped open as she realized the knight was absolutely still, frozen in time. The scimitar was hardly an inch from the base of Carella’s neck. In a moment, she hopped up and yanked her friend out of the scimitar’s reach.
Her friend gave a shout at the tug. Letti clapped a hand over her mouth, fearful that the noise might suddenly startle the knight into action. She brought Relli’s face to hers. The other Prime’s
This is my only act of mercy. Don’t waste it.
Suddenly, Letti was tackled from behind, but it was a light force that hardly made her stumble. Warm arms wrapped around the two girls. Letti tensed up, but relaxed a degree when she heard sobbing and wetness soaking the back of her shirt.
Twisting her head, she spied Avelina’s brown hair burrowed into her back. The girl started blubbering out apologies. Letti looked at the knight, then the throne anxiously.
“It’s okay, Avey. We are both fine. Please, stop because we need to move now.” With that near-death experience, Letti’s nerves were wired so tight, she was about to implode. None too gently because she couldn’t care enough to be gentle at this moment, she grabbed both girls’ arms and took off like a rocket, speeding around the stationary knight.
Within moments, they reached the throne. Letti let go and sprinted up the white stone steps, trying not to trip in the darkness. As soon as she cleared the last step, she launched herself into that rather uncomfortable, elegant chair.
The effect was immediate. As soon as her butt made contact, the continuous clangs of metal on stone ceased. The silence was filled only by the snarls of Kole and Bront. A moment later, the torches, even the ones whose flames had been extinguished, lit the entire room. Their fire burned bright as if gasoline reenergized them. Letti couldn’t look straightly at the light they gave off.
She looked at the still battle scene before her. A strike of fear pierced her heart unnecessarily as she noticed two knights had been right on their tail.
Hunter and Bront were crouched around Tammy’s slump form, surrounded by half of the knights. Their chests heaved in a mixture of adrenaline and fatigue. Sweat wet Hunter’s brow, but he was unmarked. Letti gave a relieved sigh. Despite their lack of movement, the two Ferus’s eyes were trained on the knights.
Kole was not as well off. Three knights had completely encompassed him. He was already injured. The blood staining his hind leg was not quite masked in his black fur. In a matter of seconds, he could have been a dead wolf.
Just like the knight the mysterious man had saved them from, none of them moved. They were all stock-still in what position they’d been in when she’d sat down.
Abruptly, everyone tensed as all the knights moved as one. From their offensive position, they stood straight up in perfect posture. Their weapons rested at their sides, no longer poised to strike.
They turned away from Letti and her friends. The knights began a procession back to the statues, moving in absolute silence. Deep pants were the loudest sound in the room now.
When they reached their respective statues, each knight slid its weapon back into the statue’s grasp.
Then, they placed a hand on the statues. Immediately, the knights lost their form, disintegrating into a murky black haze. The next second, they returned home, being sucked into the statue.
As soon as the knights were all gone, all eyes in the room snapped to Letti. She blinked in awe.
“Is everyone okay?” Carella asked. Her eyes were bright and wide.
She didn’t get an answer back. From the perimeter of the ground around the throne, huge black walls erupted. The three girls’ view was eclipsed into more darkness. Letti’s ears rang as Avelina’s screamed seemed to echo agasint the walls in the small space. She couldn’t even hear Hunter’s cries for her, those walls acting like soundproof and bulletproof glass.
Suddenly, wind whipped her hair back as the throne disappeared beneath her. Avelina’s screams grew louder as the all three of them plummeted. That sick sensation of falling had Letti’s stomach flopping like a flounder.
It didn’t last long. Hardly three seconds went by before they hit the bottom of the pit. Fortunately, the ground was there to break their fall.
All tensed up from the unexpected dive, pain exploded in Letti’s back as it squarely collided with the ground. Reflex made her arch painfully, clutching her back with gritted teeth and tightly shut eyes.
She groaned, rolling around a little while she waited for the pain to subside. That must have been at least a ten-foot fall onto more lovely stone. Every breath pained her, but not as much as the last one.
From the other noises around her, Avelina and Relli weren’t much better off. From the sound of it, Avey was openly crying now in pain and fear. Carella was busy swearing under her breath at her injury.
“Are… you guys okay?” Letti wheezed, opening her eyes. She stared up at a dark abyss. Her eyes strained to look behind her. Light glowed at the edge of her vision. This must be the maze.
“I’m fine,” Carella grunted. “Avey?”
The other girl couldn’t respond. Sobs choked her already hysteric voice. Her nerves were as frazzled as could. She’d reached her limit.
Letti forced herself up, walking blindly towards the sound of Avey’s blubbers. Her outstretched arms encountered something warm and cowering. Letti bent down, feeling along Avey’s body until she came to her tear-slicked face.
“Carella?” Avey whispered.
“No, it’s me,” she replied just as quietly. “Do you guys have your flashlight?” The man had warned her it was going to get dark in a minute.
Both girls were a negative. Hers had been knocked out of her grip when the knight had tackled Bront. Letti grimaced, but forced herself to continue. “Well, there’s no going back from here. We have to go on. Get up, Avey. Please.”
The Prime obeyed, furiously rubbing her tears away as she stepped around Letti to have a look at the maze for herself. Letti stood up and peered towards the dim-lit labyrinth. It only went straight for a couple feet before it took a sharp left, light straining to reach farther than the hall. The walls were a sickly yellow of mold and grime. Just like all the other secret rooms in this house, this one was made of stone. Well, plaster didn’t give off the enter-and-die impression very well.
Letti didn’t notice her friends’ movements until they blocked her examining view of the maze entrance. Carella took a step into it, the light illuminating her pale face. Avey timidly followed suit, staying close to the other.
Alarmed, Letti lurched over and hauled the two girls back into the darkness. Avelina screeched in fright as she stumbled backwards. She spun the two around to face her. Panic and fear for her friends’ lives made her voice hard and adamant. “I always go first. Understand? That was a trap.”
Relli gave her a mean look. She opened her mouth to no doubt snap a retort, but a moment later, a heavy thud cut her off. Simultaneously, they were locked in absolute darkness. Avelina began to cry. Letti was about to try to soothe her when the voice gave an order.
Shut her up.
Immediately, she clapped her hand over Avey’s mouth. This seemed to work better than any words would have considering she quieted at once.
“See? That maze was a trap. Whatever just shut us out would have actually sealed us in there. There is no exit,” Letti explained to the darkness since there was now absolutely zero visibility.
“How would you know that?” Relli accused indignantly. “There is no way you could see to the end of the maze! Plus, where the hell are we supposed to go from here!”
“How did I see the door or know to go through the painting? I don’t know,” Letti lied, trying not to yell. “But I know we are not supposed to go in there. Now please, shut up if you want to get out of here alive.”
The Prime took up an uncomfortable silence. She tried not to be rude, especially knowing that some of her emotions were just overcharged from the coming of her Mutari, but Letti needed to focus.
Releasing the girls, she turned around, walking with outstretched arms until she felt the wall behind them. Studiously, she began running her hands over it.
“Letti?” Avey whispered to her.
“Hmm?”
“I don’t—I don’t want to go any farther.”
She felt empathy towards the other Prime. Hell, Letti would probably be in the same state of mind if it weren’t for the fact that progressing might save their lives. There was still no guarantee of ever walking out of this place. Their bodies may never be found. And it would be all her fault.
Hundreds of miles away, the Vampire watched through the Prime’s eyes and listened with the Prime’s ears. His shut eyes blocked out the torrent of the sea as it surged back and forced, constantly disturbing the sand. Only the highest grains were at peace of mind, out of reach of the clawing waves. That is, however, until one great effort pushed the water farther than those grains would have thought possible and dragged them under. The noise of the restless water was merely background noise to the earth-shattering events occurring hundreds of miles away.
All by a group of teenagers. The children were so close, almost finished with their little trial. Such a shame it would have been if they had died. They were so weak and fragile…
It was disgusting how much so.
“You have to Avey. Would you rather wait here? In the dark? By yourself?” the Prime named Letti pointed out as she still searched along the wall for the handle. Her right hand was merely inches away from uncovering the handle of the hidden trapdoor on the side of the wall.
The vampire’s face was absolutely stoic, wary of the spies hidden in the darkness. He could give nothing away until those kids had achieved his goal. How menial it was to rely on such weak people.
The Prime found it. A crevice behind the stone was gripped, and with a great heave, opened. Through her eyes, he could only see as much as she could. Therefore, he was blind. However, he did not need eyes to know where they were going.
Letti gave a warning before dropping the trapdoor to the floor, then another telling them where to step and to bend down as she stepped up first. An arm covered her head as she entered and stood on the dusty first step of the descending stairway to the final room.
The crying Prime went after her. The doomed one went last. Finally, they proceeded down the stairs at the pace of a baby’s beginning crawl, taking each step as if it were a sleeping crocodile. All the traps in this room, he’d shut off. They were the most extreme and nearly impassable. For this incompetent group, they were impassable.
The vampire’s heart had more force than a wolf’s bite when the three females finally made it to the ground. There was one last illusion that stood in their way. As his trump card for any intruders, he’d made it so powerful with the aid of three trusted Fathers it blinded even himself. Those Fathers had disappeared long ago.
Letti led the way through the short corridor into the deceitfully empty room. Empty save for the lone being at the end of the room. Two eternal torches illuminated her.
He knew every detail there was to know about the motionless creature suspended from the three girls. Eyes weren’t needed for him to describe the waves of flames threading in dirty clumps to the floor. They were still more vibrant than the real fires around her. The shoulder-cut deep-sea blue dress hung in rags around her bloodless, white body.
But what struck him hardest every time was the face. Head hung low, it was temporarily covered by overgrown bangs. They hid the gaunt and starved, pitiful face that had once been filled with life. Skin so dry it resembled the ground of a year-long drought.
He knew the surprise the Prime felt as it hit her that the woman in the door, the woman in the painting, and this woman trapped in this prison were all the same.
Eagerness was too impatient to wait for any theatrics. Anticipation painfully curled his long fingers into his thighs, nearly drawing blood. No doubt those spying on him did not miss the minute, yet uncharacteristic movement.
“Is that a woman?” the unstable Prime murmured. The chained female did not stir at the sound, mind already halfway to oblivion. “What is she doing here?”
Already the chatter and idling irritated him as he watched the three girls just examine the body. He encouraged their progression with another urgent threat of their demise. This one was a lie, though.
Regardless it worked.
Move or I’ll let her kill you, the voice growled.
Letti jumped into action as her stomach began to somersaults. As she crossed the room with her friends on her heels, she glanced around for a weapon as she spoke. “Guys, don’t freak out, okay?”
“About?” Relli asked. She didn’t sound a bit as anxious as Letti felt, merely calmly curious.
Her stomach started doubling those tumbles when she realized the room was void, except for the torches, chains, and the woman. Denial kept her looking at the emptiness, trying to find anything that wasn’t there.
But the room was impossibly kept clean. Not a stone was out of its place, packed together as if it had been done yesterday. For all she knew, the man had a maid whose sole purpose was to clean this room, though.
Glancing about the darkness, Letti felt nausea start to rise. As if anyone could pay a maid enough to descend into these creepy quarters. No, a slave would have to be forced.
Eventually, Letti was drawn towards the only source of light in the room. When she stood only a few feet away from the half-dead woman, she realized she never answered Relli.
“I have to kill her—,” she began quietly, sullenly eying the flames.
“What!” Avey squeaked out before she could get in another word.
“What are you talking about?” Relli hissed, outraged. “We have to get her out of here! It looks like she’s been chained up forever!”
Letti was about to explain why that would be a horrible idea when the chains rustled, clinking together ominously. She stared as the woman gave the slightest movement at first, barely moving her thin arms. Next, however, that rush of red hair waved as she lifted her head. Brown eyes met one misty gray. The other was shut tight, but by a dull red gash slashed across it. The only eye with any sight bounced around the room, unable to focus on any of the three girls.
“Free?” a listless voice whispered by a tiny crack of lips. Relli pushed past Letti, hurrying to the aid of the woman. “Please… please, help me. Before he gets here. Free… me…”
Her face told of a broken spirit left to wither away. The woe and smoldering hope in the woman’s broken sounded unmistakably authentic.
Relli reached towards the chains binding her wrists when Letti grabbed her shoulder and shoved her away. Before Letti could take a step towards the woman, Relli did the same to her, except rougher. Which was understandable since they believed she was actually killing an innocent woman. “Stop! Let’s help her!”
“No!” Letti screeched as Relli rushed to the chains. The Prime started fumbling around, looking for some way to break them. They were rusted, but not enough for a swift tug from a weak Prime to shatter the links.
Without hesitation, Letti tackled the girl to the floor, scattering up dust. Relli struggled to get up while Letti struggled to pin her to the ground to talk some sense into her. The school forbade the tutoring of physical violence for Primes. That privilege was granted only to Ferus.
A mere squabble between pups without the teeth or claws the big dogs possessed. Their scuffle was hardly a fight. However, Relli’s fists buffeted her friend’s arms and stomach several times. Letti grimaced with each blow, glaring back at a feral face.
One arm wrenched out of Letti’s grasp. A second later, she winced as pain seared under right eye. They both ceased moving. Relli stared at her with a transfixed horrified expression. With a free hand, Letti reached up and touched her cheek. Wetness spread across her fingertips. She didn’t bother looking at the blood on her hand. Letti stared at her friend whose gaze had moved from Letti downwards, staring at nothing in particular. Disbelief overcame horror. She looked as if everything had been abruptly taken from her and shock had left her numb.
Both gazes snapped around as a croak grabbed their attention. “Weaklings... Blood… Give me… blood. Free me…” The woman’s fangs had slid out at the smell of blood. They were large, predatory, and lethal.
Fury suddenly lit Letti on fire. In a heartbeat, she was off Relli and up on her feet. She saw Relli get up and reach for her, but hesitantly stop for some reason. Letti glanced at her when she said her name. An apology was in her eyes.
“Later, Carella,” she brushed off, reaching above the woman’s hand to grasp one of the torches. It was time to finish this. “I have to kill her because she’s not real. She is a corporeal illusion. And if you let her go, this place collapse on top of us. That’s after she slits our throats.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Relli screeched but made no move to stop her friend. “It’s one thing to create an illusion of objects, but a person? That’s impossible!”
“Please… don’t,” the vampire begged. The pleading in her voice made her anger diminish. From the solidity of her dirty form to the musty odor emitted from it to every pained emotion in her voice sounded all too real. An illusion of a person was the one of the most difficult illusions to pull off. What if the man had sent her to kill an innocent, trapped woman? What if he was just using her as a tool for a heinous crime? What if she was wrong?
But why would this same woman be chained up? From the lovesick tone in his voice, he obviously felt something for her.
Shit. What if he was one of those crazed boyfriends who killed their lovers because they wouldn’t return their love?
It’s your lives or hers.
Didn’t matter. If only Letti’s life was in danger, she doubted she could have done it. But there were five other lives in jeopardy down here. She could not be responsible for the death of her five closest friends.
So with a trembling hand as all the consequences put her mind through the worst terror, guilt, and pain, Letti dropped the torch on the vampire woman who may or may not be an illusion.
Letti’s head snapped around as Avey let out a bloodcurdling scream. She spun around just to see her friend fall to the ground.
He left her mind the second he saw those tendrils of red hair begin to burn with real fire. A small smile spread across his lips.
Every time he made the trip to that decrepit old House, he merely ran there with the knowledge that his watchers pursued him. At some point during the journey while he was still far from his goal, he made sure to slip away. Tonight, however, he had no intention of waiting to lose them.
He stood up on the edge of the stone tower overlooking the sea, seeing just tossing and turning water where he once could have drank in the salty sea smell and soothing murmurs to appreciate the monstrous beast that was a home to many. Little in his long life had evoked any admiration. The sun in his life had set long ago. The moon never followed. Life around him had oozed out all its color, leaving a melancholy drabness in everything aspect of his life. Perhaps, the cycle would begin again to bring beauty to the world he’d lost all love of and hope in.
It was a seventy-four drop to the ground. He was eager to leave, but not quite enough to break a leg, so he did not take the most direct route. From the highest point where he was on the castle, he hopped to lower towers to swing on windows to balconies until he made the twenty-foot fall to the ground.
About five and a half seconds to get down. New record.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was speeding off to the shoreline. When his bare feet was licked by the water, there was also a severely bleeding cut on his wrist.
All the magic in any Ferus was in their blood. The more magic required, the more blood it took. It was imperative for new Ferus to learn never to overstep their boundaries in magic. Once began, it was very difficult to stop. Improving magic did not necessarily mean stronger magic. Only less required blood.
What he was about to do would have killed three Ferus easily.
From his wrist, he will the blood to the water. A constant flow of the red liquid seeped out, hovering in the air as it trailed into the water. He was only weakened a little bit.
As the blood flowed into the water, it began to grow rough and unruly. The waters grew dark as if a poison had been injected. The tide went against the half moon, beginning to circle like a pack of ravenous wolves around meat.
Little whirlpools began to form in three different places. After a minute of swirling with more and more speed, all three suddenly let out mass jets of spinning water. Though he stood no more than ten feet away, no water touched him. All of it was sucked into the powerful vortexes of water at his control. They were the same height as the castle behind him.
A grin stretched his lips more as he sense the pandemonium he caused as the spies panicked on his extremely unusual actions. The roar of the tsunamis absolutely deafened him.
Feet made contact with water as he stepped on it. He didn’t sink as he approached the still tornado of water in front of him. He disappeared inside it, now getting drenched as he stepped through the shield of water. They were as blind to his doings as he was to theirs now.
He increased his odds, though. A very thick, very unnatural fog set in around the castle and the forest. Visibility limit? About three feet. This magic weakened him quite a bit. Sweat beaded his brow.
The other two tornadoes merged with the one he’d entered. Five seconds later, though, they split back into three. As soon as they were separated, they took off. Each went a different direction.
Not a moment later, nine Ferus slid into the water, dividing themselves to tail a manmade natural disaster.
None were looking for him as he slid out from under the water. He stuck close to the darkness of the castle as he ran past. He would not stop running till his feet were at the end of their journey.