Cassandra Pendragon
“You knew that would happen,” I rasped while I wrapped Ahri tightly in a cocoon of silvery light, keeping her safe. She hadn’t yet opened her eyes and even though her injuries hadn’t been as severe as mine, it was going to take her a while to wake up. I felt the streams of her energy coursing through her, targeting broken bones and ruptured organs, but without help, she’d be out for at least a few minutes. Luckily she wasn’t alone. I simply didn’t know if I could risk focusing on her while the vampire hovered close by. Had he set a trap? Had I been played, once again?
While my gaze fell onto him with the weight of a small mountain, I gingerly used my changed wing to bolster her energy with my own, increasing her regeneration several fold. All I needed were a few moments and even if he was trying to kill us, that much time I’d be easily able to buy.
“Didn’t you,” I added, my voice already much more stable. I still felt like I had been put through a meat grinder but I wasn’t hurt anymore. At least I didn’t think so.
“I’m going to kill him, just say the word.” Layla’s whisper was barely more than a breath that tickled my neck, without the vibrations of her speech running through her body, I wouldn’t have heard her at all. I shook my head as if to clear it but she understood what I was getting at. Not yet.
“Are you going to answer me or just stare at us creepily? I can’t move right now, so if you want to kill me, you’re going to have to hurry. Time’s ticking. Don’t waste it.” He blinked, his eyes losing focus for a moment before he sighed and straightened. I tensed, ready to plunge my wings through his body as he came closer but to my surprise, he extended his hand and offered to pull me to my feet.
“I didn’t know and if I had, I would never have allowed for it to happen. I’m afraid you might have doomed us all. Are you better? For I fear there might be a fight coming for us, whether we like it or not.” Hesitantly I took his hand, clutching Layla to my chest with the other one.
“What do you…” instead of answering he pointed to the hole in the wall. Small cracks had formed around it like a spider’s web and at first, I didn’t see what he was getting at. I had just blown up a good chunk of it, a little damage was to be expected. But the longer I stared, the more I realised something weird. The cracks were growing, slowly extending downwards to whatever place he had been leading us to.
“Can you move?” I nodded. “If I have to.”
“Good, try to keep up. Leave Ahri and the girl here. I know you’re awake Layla. Stay here and if Ahri wakes, tell her to follow us but don’t you dare come with. You’re staying here or I swear, if the ancient one doesn’t get you, I will.” Ancient one? Oh hell no. Was he keeping his dear dad in the basement? I didn’t have the time to ask, he had turned into a blurred shadow of movement as he sped down the stairs. Groaning, I pushed Ahri against a wall and settled Layla down at her side.
“You heard the man. Stay here and protect her for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Her expression was a mixture of defiance, pride and fear but she wasn’t your typical run of the mill child. Despite her captivity, or maybe because of it, she pushed her emotions down with a visible effort and nodded, once. “If you’re not back within 10 minutes, I’ll try to carry her to my mum’s. She’s going to take us in. Now go. I’ll watch over her for you.”
I hugged her tightly and ruffled her hair. “Thanks. Whatever happens, I’m glad I found you, little one.” She tensed in my arms but pushed me away after a moment. “Go!” I obeyed. Energy crackled in the air around me while I spread my wings and flew down the tunnel like a stone shot from a sling, a storm of silver and blue that illuminated the darkness around me.
Unwilling to barge ahead blindly, I channeled energy towards my eyes, my mind and my muscles until it felt like I was chock full, my limbs trembling with suppressed power. Faster than the eye could follow I made my way downstairs, reaching the sprinting vampire almost instantly.
“An explanation,” I hissed, foregoing proper grammar in an attempt to save time. Instead of answering, he pointed straight ahead where the stairs ended at a door, huge, massive and black, made from the same material as the walls around us. The most remarkable thing though: it wasn’t barred from this side, erected to keep someone from entering, not locking the occupant away.
“Good, the fissures haven’t reached this part, yet. It’s easiest to show you.” Sliding to a halt in front of the towering gate, he pushed his fingers into a small crevice and with a groan and an explosive shout, a massive piece of dark bone thunderer to the ground on the other side. Before it could settle, Captain Dawn had pried the door open and slithered through the gap. Hesitantly I followed, nervous and weary, my wings wrapped around me as if I had been wearing an armour of light. I entered a surprisingly small chamber which contained nothing but the ancient statue of an exceptionally beautiful woman and an altar at her feet with a shrivelled up corpse placed upon it.
The woman I recognised immediately and based on everything I had heard, I’d have been willing to bet that the mummified piece of flesh was indeed the progenitor of the Dawn family. But then again, if Captain Dawn’s father was here, why would he need Layla’s blood? Why would he struggle against his sister if he had the source of their power in his grasp? It didn’t add up.
“Good, she hasn’t woken,” the vampire mumbled. Louder he added: “can you kill her?”
“Come again,” I replied eloquently, his words had caught me completely off guard.
“Can you kill that thing? I don’t care how, burn it, stake it, all hells, eat it, if you have to, but can you make sure it won’t rise again?”
“Maybe,” I answered hesitantly. “But… is it even alive? And what do you need me for? Tinder and a match or better yet, throw it over the cliffs. I don’t see what else I could do.” He inhaled deeply.
“Then we’re indeed doomed. She can’t be killed, by no means I know of. That’s the best we ever managed. A prison made from the sturdiest material known to our people and now it’s crumbling.”
“You…,” I groaned. “Why would you have let me even touch the walls? I assume this whole contraption is somehow balanced? A part breaks off and the rest follows? Why would you even lead us down here? Have you lost your mind over the course of the untold years you’re alive or were you born a blithering idiot?”
“No,” he snarled, his fangs protruding from his mouth. “I saw a chance and took it. If you hadn’t been able to damage the prison you’d have been nowhere near powerful enough to deal with the occupant. I just didn’t expect you to blow the whole wall out! That shouldn’t even be possible!”
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“You were testing me? You’re a lunatic! You…” I closed my eyes and exhaled deeply. “Fine, I can insult you later. Alright, the very basics. What’s going on, who is that and what can I do?”
“I told you, everything you see except for the statue is made of bones and… they’re still alive. But I think they’re dying and falling apart. That creature,” he pointed at the shrivelled up husk of a body, “is an abomination, a vampire who fed on immortal blood and lived, the very first of my line, the daughter of the sunrise. If she wakes, we die, simple as that. She’s insane, truly and utterly insane. Immortal powers aren’t meant to be wielded by mortal beings, even undead ones. She’s… in pain, nay, unbearable agony every waking moment and we can’t end her suffering. If you can’t, I fear we won’t see the sunset today. She’ll crush this world in an attempt to become whole.”
Not that I was feeling pressured enough as it was. A bit nauseated too, if I was honest. What I had told Lilith came to mind, my life playing out as a challenge ever since I had interrupted the fight on Boseiju. One with increasing difficulty. And as it seemed, I had finally reached a point where I was gradually forced to deal with immortals, one way or the other. Or maybe I was just that unlucky.
Whatever the reason, I, once again, had no idea what I was supposed to do. Sure, using my wings to try and burn the corpse was a given. I just didn’t believe that it’d turn out to be that simple, this time around. I still had to try, though.
The torrents of energy behind me swelled, filling the chamber with flickering lights and the smell of ozone. Cautiously I took a step forwards, gradually bringing my wings down while I simultaneously focused on the skeletal figure in front of me. Power roared through my eyes, flooding the room with a silvery light, banishing the shadows. But before I touched the dried up skin, I hesitated. Something was nagging at the back of my mind. It still didn’t add up.
Assuming everything Captain Dawn had told me had been the truth, he had the very first of his line tied up in his basement, imprisoned and immobilised, ready to be harvested. Why would he need Layla’s blood? Unless he couldn’t touch her without waking her up, but the way the thing looked to me, dead and shrivelled up, without a sign of life even when I used my second sight, didn’t fit. He had explicitly stated that their powers were tied to their blood, not their life or their magic. So why would he need a much less powerful lineage when he already had the source?
On the spot, I came up with only one idea. What if he had been trying to revive her? It would make sense, he wouldn’t have to fear his sister anymore he had the support of their progenitor and maybe, he needed more than his own bloodline to revive the slumbering relict. And now, he was possibly trying to get me to finish the job. If that creature had already been in contact with transcendent forces, it stood to reason that it had learned to feed off them. The thought brought a smile to my face. Even fully fledged immortals couldn’t deal with the corruptive energy I had made my own. It would be interesting to see how long it would take that thing to combust. My bet was on 3 seconds, give or take. And that was already plenty generous. If my conjecture was right, the poor vampire couldn’t have picked anyone worse. Even Ahri would have been better, probably not by much, but at least her power hadn’t changed visibly to mimic Corruption, in contrast to mine.
But one thing was worrying me. There was a chance, admittedly a small one but still a distinct probably, that a mortal wouldn’t be bothered. Maybe the problem with fusing demonic and angelic energies was tied to the strength of the respective forces. In that case, there would be no reaction in a mortal soul, well except for the usual trouble with integrating an eternal spark into an evanescent creature. As far as I knew, dragons were the only species who could survive, but there was so much I didn’t understand when it came to vampires. But… I could just ask, couldn’t I?
Stopping my wings a hairsbreadth from making contact I looked up at Captain Dawn: “I… I’m just wondering. Am I about to unleash the calamity you pretend you want destroyed?” While my words still hung in the air, I brushed against him with a couple of my wings, my concentration snapping to the nearly imperceptible currents of emotions and thoughts that spun through his mind.
And yet, when he moved, I wasn’t fast enough. I might have known that he was about to jump me before he did, but it didn’t do me much good. I had expected him to lunge for my throat or activate one trap or the other but he did neither. With a maniacal smile that revealed his glistening fangs he pushed himself into my wings. His skin immediately turned to ash around the wounds and deep cuts appeared, silvery blue flames breaking through his body. I almost gagged when the smell hit me, so very similar to barbecued dry aged beef that my stomach constricted. My surprise and the overwhelming smell made me lose my focus for the tiniest fraction of a second.
The next thing I knew, he punched me in the side, his claws easily piercing through my body. It felt exactly like one would imagine, an excruciating flared that lit up my nerves while the breath was knocked from my lungs. I coughed up blood, tumbling backwards, reeling from the sudden wave of pain. My vision swam, oscillating between the silvery world and reality. Damn it, that had been the last straw. Plans and pride, never again!
Even while I fell, my wings swelled even further, a river turning into an ocean. A silvery glared filled the chamber, the temperature spiked and I lashed out with reckless abandon. Bones, skin, stone and magics crumbled around me, ripped apart as a low keening sound started to build within the chamber. The wound in my side closed, even though blood was still gushing down my thigh and when my back hit the altar, the air was filled with ash, smoke and light, the vampire gone.
I took a deep, rasping breath, the bands of steel that had suffocated me gradually lifting from my heaving chest. The world spun but with each ragged, forced expansion of my lungs the maelstrom of colours settled while the fiery claw that ravaged my insides slowly disappeared. My legs were still shaking but with the slab of splintered stone behind me, I managed to keep myself upright. That was, until an unbelievably strong, sinewy arm was wrapped around my neck.
I smelled dust and age before my breath was cut off for the second time and long, ivory fangs punctured the side of my neck. A gurgling scream escaped me, and my knees gave out as I felt blood and energy rush through the hole in my skin and a sickening, slurping noise filled my ears.
Wrenching my thoughts from the spiralling darkness that threatened to claim me, I reached back with my wings, latching onto the first thing I encountered. The fire in my veins doubled and with an act of will, I cut through the wriggling creature that had risen behind me.
A low, echoing wail pierced my ears and the pressure around my neck vanished. Without thinking I turned into a shower of sparks to reappear in the half opened door, my hand clutched to my bleeding neck. Bleary eyed I stared ahead, willing the torn flesh to heal, to make me whole again. Translucent streams of power danced over my shredded skin, diving into the wound, but nothing happened. My blood kept gushing and I felt my body shut down while dread froze my insides. If I couldn’t stop the bleeding, I’d pass out any second now.
Grinding my teeth I shoved away my panic and focused on my heart, my organs and tried to replace what I had lost. If I couldn’t close the wound, I might be able to substitute my bloodstream with a river of energy. It worked, partly. I was still loosing more than I could compensate for but at least I was still standing. Rallying my thoughts, I forced the fog that threatened to swallow me back and took in the scene in front of me.
The room itself was a mess, gaping fissures ran along the walls, each one still glowing at the edges. While I watched the black material expanded, soaking in more and more of the energy that still sparkled within the cuts. Streaks of light, almost like a maze, appeared in the bone and I knew without the shadow of a doubt that the whole thing would blow within minutes.
Considering my current company, that might not even be such a bad thing. Where the altar and the statue had been, only smouldering stones and soot remained, but in front of the destroyed monument, a hunched over, emaciated figure stood. Shadows clung to its contours like water to a cliff, rolling off and dispersing into motes of gold red light that swirled around it like fireflies.
My blood, sticky and thick like silver syrup, covered a part of its bandaged body and dripped from the hood of darkness that obscured its features. It bubbled like tar and gradually disappeared into the creature. At the same rate it vanished, shrivelled up, darkened, shredded skin became vibrant and whole, sunken, dead eyes sparkled with newfound life and a pair of feathered wings materialised behind its back, golden and red like its magic. It slowly rose its head and smiled at me, the same way a slaughterer smiled at sheep before they were led to the chopping block.