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What was it about forests that made them so creepy at night? I had spent years of my life in graveyards, crypts, and cemeteries, not to mention deserted city backstreets, but something about these trees, silent sentinels in the dark, unnerved me in a way no mausoleum ever had.
Maybe it was the silence itself. Where was the hooting of owls? The scurrying of tiny feet? The music of night’s creatures was on mute, perhaps because the prowling of more powerful predators had already begun.
My fingers itched for the comfort of Baby’s hilt, but it wasn’t time yet. If the Damned really were watching me, I couldn’t scare them off before I made contact.
I tried not to think that I might be wrong. I’d been so thrown by Dad’s call. I had assumed he was connected to all this, that somehow I was connected, but there was always the chance I had jumped to conclusions.
According to our research, the city’s founding festival started at sunset. What if the second cult was there, not out here, choosing their victims even now? Or they could be at Ira’s party that he had mentioned. No doubt scores of drunken college kids would be an easy mark.
If two more people died tonight because I made myself paranoid, I’d never forgive myself. I’d never lost an innocent before, and I couldn’t start now.
Shivering, I missed the warmth of Evan’s embrace. It had always seemed so strange to me how summer days were so hot, but its nights so cold.
“Whose bright idea was this?” I muttered, but even that hushed tone shattered the quiet.
I froze. Mine wasn’t the only whisper in the woods. Faintly, I could hear it, more like rustling fabric than voices. Hissing, almost.
Sehhhhh-ethhhh
Yanking Baby free, I reached for my Spark. Spirit flooded my blade, lighting the trees in my inner vision. I was right, after all. The Damned were loose in the woods.
Fog was rolling in, carpeting the ground, but getting thicker and higher the closer it came. Unnatural, just by looking at it. They were coming.
The signal!
I tried to draw Baby through the lines of the form, but the air closed around my blade. Gravity itself turned to half-frozen syrup. This wasn’t like when she had vibrated out of my hands. I could feel her fighting against the force holding us still.
Sehhh-ethhh
Sehhh-ethhh
“No,” I practically whimpered. “Come on!”
But Baby was stuck fast. How was this possible? Glowing with Spirit, no powers of the Damned should have been able to touch her.
Sethhh…
Closer now, the fog was rising nearly as tall as a person. I tried to fall back, but I couldn’t move. The thickened air kept my hands wrapped around the hilt. I couldn’t have released her if I wanted to.
Seth…
Hooded figures rose from the mist in robes that even in the dark I could tell were ghastly white. Bone-colored masks covered their faces beneath the cloth, not hoods as I thought, but veils.
I took a breath to scream for the others, but no sound croaked out as my lungs seized. The same pressure around my hands crushed down on my chest.
Seth!
One figure began to glide forward, hand outstretched. The others weren’t whispering, I realized. They were singing, low and mournful. A requiem.
Come with us, Seth.
Every part of my body not frozen began to tremble. My heart was racing, struggling against the lack of air as much as the fear. I was helpless, caught in their powers like so many stupid humans I’d saved over the years. But there were no Saints coming to save me. Evan sat in the house, searching the skies for a signal that would never come.
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I’m sorry, Evan, I thought, tears wetting the corners of my eyes as black spots danced through my vision. I never got to tell you…
Which of my friends would sing to Cassiel over my body?
WHOOOOOOOSH!
Ribbons of light shot through the darkness, racing through the trees with a sound like rattling metal. Chains, I realized, as one snapped between me and the masked vampire like a whip. She melted back, throwing up her arms as the mist billowed outward in all directions.
The pressure lifted. Falling to my knees, I gasped for air. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Espy slicing her sword like a conductor’s baton.
Glowing blue, several lengths of thick chains twirled around her before shooting off after the Damned. They were the same kind of chains we’d used on Ira, and she was somehow channeling her Spirit through their vanadium the same way we could on a sword. Brilliant. I didn’t know how she was making them fly, but right then I couldn’t care less.
Beni appeared at her side, swinging her sword at vampires that tried to get too close, giving her aunt room to work.
“Seth!” Evan’s voice rang through the darkness.
“I’m here!” I shouted back, trying to stand on shaky legs.
A shaft of Spirit glittered through the trees as he charged toward me, sword in hand.
“Duck!”
I hit the ground without thinking twice, and his yatagan cleaved through the arm of a vampire that had misted up behind me. The shape of his saber was similar to my own falcata, and it hacked through her limb just as easily. The dismembered forearm ignited in blue, falling to the forest floor. As it burned away, she wheeled back, screeching--high pitched, almost unbearable!
Something about the sound made the others take up the call. Flitting like ghosts through the night, their singing turned to wailing, then screaming! Louder and louder, higher and higher!
Evan crouched over me, pulling me against his chest. “Cover your ears!”
I tried, but it didn’t really help. The screaming shook the forest, rattled leaves off trees. Some vampires had power in their voices, of course, but I’d never experienced anything like this. Even Espy was struggling, staggering backward like the sound was a physical force. Her flying chains wavered in the air, losing momentum, birds fighting an evil wind.
“We have to retreat!” Evan shouted at my ear.
“Never run from the immortal!” I hollered back. (It just makes them want to chase you.)
“We don’t have a choice!”
Damn it, but he was right. The fog was rolling in, surrounding us once again. Gritting my teeth, I nodded.
“I’ll cover you. Go!”
I shot to my feet and ran, swinging Baby before me.
“Run!” I shouted at Beni and Espy when I thought I was close enough they could hear me.
Espy let the chains drop and threw her arm over Beni’s shoulder. They made a break for it as fast as they could.
A masked face floated toward me out of the darkness, but she swirled away at a swipe from Baby.
I felt Evan’s presence at my back. “Keep going!”
There, through the trees, I saw a light. The windows of the safehouse. The wailing scream muffled, the mist thinned.
Beni and Espy stumbled out of the treeline, the gravel crunching beneath their feet. No mist whirled after them. The Presence worked.
“Hurry!” Beni yelled back to us.
“We’re gonna make it!” I said, then skidded to stop as a vampire materialized out of the darkness.
She was tall, and not just because of the column of vapor she rode. No others appeared at her side. I guess none of the rest could get so close to our protections. But this one...she was the same one who had reached for me before, I was sure of it.
Seth, why do you fight? Once again, she held out her hand.
I held Baby before me, ready for anything.
CAWW! CAWW!
Anything, but a thousand black birds descending at once. They swarmed us. I heard Evan grunt in surprise as he lost his footing. He rolled onto his stomach, throwing both arms over his head.
“Evan!”
I tried to reach him, but the crows or ravens or whatever they were kept pecking with their beaks, clutching with their talons. Even through my thick denim, I could feel the sting. Covering my head with one arm as best I could, I swung Baby around, trying to get them off us.
“Myrtha! NO!” The masked vampire screamed out loud for the first time.
Something in her voice stopped me cold. Not her power, something in the back of my mind, distant and faded. Almost a memory…
Azure fire roared to life all around me, turning the darkness bright as day in my true sight. I wasn’t afraid. Even as it burned around me, the heat was only pleasantly warm. The Seraphs’ Fire could never harm any Saint.
All the birds weren’t so lucky. Caws turned into avian screams as the crows dropped like flies. That singular scent of roasting meat filled the air.
The masked vampire floated back, turning her head.
“Richard,” she spat, and even through the sound of the flames I could hear the contempt in her voice.
Dad stepped from the treeline, sword flaming in his hands. I’d never seen him use Sariel’s gift like that. Fiery swords were rare, even among Saints. There was no way he could have made it here so quickly, but I’d never been so relieved to see him.
“Get away from my son.” I’d never heard Dad’s voice so cold, so hard.
“Did you think I would hurt him?” She turned back to me, and in the light of the fire I could see her eyes through the mask. “He’s my son, too.”
Baby fell from my suddenly lifeless grip.
“No…” I whispered.
For the second time tonight, it was impossible to breathe. Not because of the crushing weight of air, but because I was staring into blue-and-yellow eyes. The same hazel gaze I saw every morning in the mirror.
“I’ve missed you,” said my mother sadly.
Shaking my head, I staggered backwards. “No!” It was the only word floating through my head. No. No. This couldn’t be happening, couldn’t be real.
“Seth, please.” She reached for me, but snatched her hand back as the fire hissed.
“I said, get away from him!” Dad swung his sword like throwing a stone and a jet of saintly fire shot towards her.
She dissolved in a swirl of mist, and the fireball harmlessly struck a tree, staining the trunk bright blue. The stream of vapor parted around the pillar of flame I was standing in, heading straight to where Evan was struggling to stand.
“No!” I shouted, bolting toward him out of the fire.
“Seth, no!” Dad yelled, but I didn’t care.
She reformed, snagging Evan by the throat, but looking right at me. “Come to me.”
And then the mist melted away.
“Evan!” I reached for him, but empty fog eddied uselessly around my hand. Frantic, I darted around, trying to follow the trail. But there was none. The mist was lifting before my eyes.
“EVAN!”
There was no answer.