A Shade of Vampire 7: A Break of Day (12 page)

“I’m warning you. I’ll count to three. One… Two…”

Before I could finish counting, a door unlatching echoed around the room. I whirled around to look up at the trapdoor, but from a different direction a deep voice I knew too well spoke.

“Oh, interesting. Very interesting.”

Arron emerged from a steel door in a far corner of the dungeon. My first instinct was to stand protectively in front of Sofia.

“So,” Arron said. “I’d actually come to put the girl out of her misery now, rather than make her suffer until the bitter end. But perhaps you’d like to do the honors yourself?”

He drew out a wooden stake from under his cloak and offered it to me. I knew too much about the Hawk to appeal to his better nature, for he had none. Just like all the other supernaturals we now found ourselves embroiled with.

Without hesitation, I shot fire at him. Black wings sprouted from his back and flew him out of the way, but he only narrowly dodged being burned.

“Don’t touch her,” I snarled.

“Derek, you must understand that your wife is long gone. She’s nothing but an empty shell. Can’t you see the symptoms of expiration? Even if you managed to expel the Elder, it’s far too late. She’ll never recover. Give her up.”

He’s lying. Sofia is still there
. If I believed the Hawk’s words I would start acting rashly and lose control over the powers I desperately needed to harness.

“Protect me, Derek!” Sofia’s voice squealed from behind me.

“You lie!” I shouted at Arron, lunging forward. He was now hovering above me, his head nearly touching the ceiling, and I managed to jump and grab hold of one of his feet, pulling him to the ground. I dealt a blow to his face that sent him skidding across the room.

He got to his feet and red fury sparked in his darkened eyes. I had never seen Arron in his full Hawk form before. Now he transformed in front of me. His mouth and nose became a black beak with a razor-sharp edge, and talons grew out from where his human feet had been.

“You’ve made a terrible mistake, Derek”—he flew at me and pinned me against the wall, his hands tightening around my throat and his feet forcing my palms away from him—“to cross a Guardian the way you have.”

He tilted his head back, preparing to dig the point of his beak right into my neck. Then he froze.

The steel door through which Arron had entered the room had just slammed shut.

Arron released me and we both looked frantically around the room. Open chains lay on the ground where Sofia had been. Next to them rested a cluster of keys. It must have fallen from Arron’s pocket when I’d hurled him against the floor.

“No!” Arron hissed.

He spread his wings and flew toward the door, pulling it open. I raced after him. Just as I had reached the door, he tried to slam it in my face, but I forced it open with all my strength. We’d entered a tunnel which was far too small to hold his outstretched wings, so he rushed ahead on foot like me. I was mere inches behind him. Sofia staggered up ahead, but she disappeared from sight.

She had reached the end of the passageway. Arron and I emerged a few moments after her. We’d entered a circular chamber with high ceilings and a shiny black floor. I charged forward, desperate to reach Sofia before Arron could.

She was now kneeling in the corner of the room leaning over what appeared to be a dark hole in the floor. She inhaled deeply. Panic overtook me. I believed she was taking in her last breath.

Everything that happened next was a blur.

Arron elbowed me in the stomach and reached her before me. He caught hold of her waist and dragged her back, away from the hole. He pinned her down against the marble floor, both legs either side of her, and began to strike her with his fists. One more blow and I was sure that would have been the end of my already dying Sofia.

I grabbed the Hawk from behind and hauled him off of her. We both crashed to the floor.

“Burn off his wings!” Sofia panted. “Kill him, Derek! Save me!”

I couldn’t afford to let Arron take flight again. I crawled onto his back, forcing his face against the floor. Grabbing hold of both wings, I let the heat rage up in my palms again. On feeling the rising heat, Arron began writhing beneath me more violently than ever.

“Wait!” he gasped out. I glanced up to see that Sofia had crawled her way back over to the hole in the floor. Her chest heaved in another strange inhalation.

“That is the last open gate to Aviary. Know that if the Elder destroys it, you will never be reunited with your son.”

What?

That split second of distraction became my downfall. Arron took advantage of my shock to squirm away from me. This time, the Hawk lost no time in grabbing Sofia and lifting her up into the air. He moved so quickly that I couldn’t latch onto him before he flew out of my reach.

“No!” I bellowed.

Arron grinned down at me from the lofty ceiling and laughed. “Watch as I rip her apart. You might even be able to catch some of her falling limbs. If you’d only cooperated, I would have made it quick. A stab through the heart was all I had intended, but you just had to go and make it so much worse for her…”

Sofia flailed in his grasp, her claws extended and trying to lash out at him. But she had no chance. He was a bird of prey and Sofia a snake in his talons.

I considered directing more fire toward him, but he deliberately held Sofia in such a position that the flames would completely engulf her before they even reached him.

“Derek! Help me!” Sofia screamed again. Arron had started running his sharp beak along the length of her shoulder blades, making his first mark on her. Etching out his first cut. Terror filled me as a few drops of her blood splashed onto the floor just a couple of feet away from where I stood.

Is this where our journey ends, Sofia?

After all that we survived together, all that we fought for?

Like this?

“Return the girl to the ground.”

A silky voice boomed through the room and echoed off the walls. Even Arron looked bewildered.

The witch with long silvery hair stood at the entrance of the chamber. The witch I had already sworn would never be welcome in my life.

Arron’s expression was of shock, but it turned to fury. “You dare give me orders, witch?”

“You heard me, Hawk. Bring her to me.”

“Has a fit of madness overcome you? Since when did a Hawk obey a witch’s command?”

The witch kept her steely glare on Arron.

“Since today. Return her to the ground. Or I will wipe out the final gate to Aviary myself.”

A deathly silence fell over the chamber. Both Arron and Sofia’s faces exuded the same astonishment. It was as though neither Arron or the Elder had ever seen a witch take a stand in this way.

The witches are giving up their neutral ground
.
There will be no going back for them now. This means outright war between all the realms.

The Ageless moved closer to the hole as if to signal that this was no bluff. Arron’s face contorted with rage, but he did as the witch asked. He soared back down and dropped Sofia to the floor.

The moment Sofia landed with a thud, she scrambled up on all fours and started crawling feverishly toward the gate. This time it was me who grabbed her before she could reach her destination. She howled, trying to maim me with her claws and dig her teeth into my skin, but I held on tight. I gazed up at the witch with desperate eyes.

The witch nodded, as if she’d read my mind. She held out her palms. A strong gust of wind rushed past my body and settled over Sofia beneath me.

“No! No, Derek! Don’t let her do this to me! Take me away from this place!’’ Sofia’s eyes were lit with anguish and I knew then that the Elder realized what was coming. She turned her face toward the Ageless. Her eyeballs turned black as night and her voice transformed into a hiss. “Exorcise this vessel, witch, and Cruor will not spare you. We will never stop until we have infected your entire realm and inhabited each and every one of your bodies like carnivorous worms—”

“You can loosen your grip on her,” the witch said, maintaining eye contact with me and ignoring the Elder’s horrifying threats. “I now have control over her limbs.”

I let go of Sofia and stood up, praying that the witch knew what she was doing. I willed all the heat I possessed in my body to well up beneath my fingertips. Sofia hissed and squirmed on the floor, still refusing giving up the fight. As soon as the witch began muttering beneath her breath, I knew that it was time.

I unleashed the fire all at once. It wrapped itself around Sofia’s body, engulfing her in a tornado of flames. Her screams could be heard for several minutes. Those minutes were the most torturous of my life—not knowing how many of those screams were Sofia’s.

Eventually she fell silent. Her body became motionless and the Ageless nodded at me, indicating that it was safe to relinquish the flames.

Beneath the billows of dark smoke lay Sofia’s worn body. She looked so fragile I was afraid that just picking her up would cause her to fall to pieces. I immediately ran to her side, showered her face with frantic kisses, and eased her into my arms.

Emergency room. I have to get to the emergency room.

I needed to see her eyes open again soon, or I wasn’t sure my heart could take it anymore.
What if Arron spoke the truth that Sofia’s body is spent now?
I placed my ear against her chest.
Thank God there is a small heartbeat, however faint.

“You can ruin this gate, witch.” Arron’s eyes glinted dangerously in the dim lighting. “Just remember that Aviary doesn’t forget. And Aviary doesn’t forgive.”

Then without another word, he dove through the hole in the floor. After he’d vanished from sight, the Ageless stared down at the gate and began muttering to herself.

Ruin the gate… but… my son…

“Wait!” I shouted. “Arron said that my son is in Aviary.”

“He had every reason to lie to you about that,” she snapped.

“I know. But it’s the only straw I have to cling to. We’ve hit dead end after dead end trying to locate my son. Even if there’s one millionth of a chance that Arron could have spoken truth, it’s the only lead I have.” Balancing Sofia over my shoulder with one hand, I grabbed the witch’s arm with the other and pulled her back from the edge of the gate.

“This is against the agreement I discussed with my council. They would never approve of this. Keeping this gate jeopardizes our entire strategy. I can’t, Derek. I’m sorry.”

“Please.” My eyes blazed into hers. “Please.”

From the Ageless’ impatient expression, I was sure that she was about to destroy the gate. But then her eyes softened.

“Go now, then,” she said. “You have four hours. I’ll eliminate the gate on the strike of the hour whether you have returned or not.”

“But I can’t leave Sofia in this state. Please, just give me a few days…”

“Out of the question! I’ve just offered you four hours. Take it or leave it.”

The choice was clear: act on the slight chance that I’d be able to locate my son in four hours, or tend to my wife. Leaving Sofia at this critical hour might mean leaving her forever. Even if I managed to return unscathed through the gate, Sofia might have passed away by then without me at her side.

“I can’t leave Sofia now,” I repeated, my shoulders sagging.

The witch returned to the edge of the gate.

Not wanting to witness the only possible clue to my son’s whereabouts fade away, I left the chamber and ran back through the tunnel.

I’d been so focused on my son that I’d only just considered that Aiden too was supposed to be in Aviary now.
Sofia never even got to bid farewell. And what if Vivienne and the others have been taken there too?

Silent tears ran down my cheeks as I gazed down at my wife’s unconscious form.

As we emerged from the trapdoor, the bright lighting in the Atrium showed the state Sofia was in even more clearly. My arms were already wet with her blood from the wound Arron had inflicted on her, and her skin was so dry it had started to flake off. Yellow skin had formed around her eye sockets and her eyes were shut tightly. Bruises and scrapes covered every part of her body and blood dripped from the corners of her mouth—a mixture of hers and my own.

With Arron locked out, I felt safer taking Sofia directly to the emergency room to see one of the nurses. I insisted upon the same one who had helped Sofia when I first brought her to Headquarters after her escape from the hut.

The nurse’s round face drained of all color when she saw Sofia.

“How in heavens…”

“Please,” I gasped. “She’s had an original vampire, an Elder, inhabit her body for far too long. Her heartbeat is weak. Please, hurry!”

I laid Sofia down on the nearest bed and looked up expectantly at the nurse.

“But… I have no idea what you’re even talking about. What is an Elder? I have no experience with this!”

“She’s an ordinary vampire now!” I said, looking around the room at shelves upon shelves of medication and equipment. “Immune blood. Try giving her some more immune blood. That’s got to help…”

“But,” the nurse stammered, “we have no more immune blood. It’s all been used up.”

“Check the cupboards again!” I yelled. “Or there must be some left in the lab from when they were carrying out their testing on Anna. Where is the lab?”

“It’s too late for immune blood.” A deep voice spoke from the entrance of the room.

“Ibrahim? What the hell are you doing here? How could you have left Rose and Corrine…”

“It’s all right, Derek,” Ibrahim said calmly. “My brother is there in my place. He’s just as capable of protecting them as I am. I left them for Headquarters because the Ageless called on me to assist with The Sanctuary’s orders.”

“What orders?”

“Do you want me to stand here talking or do you want me to help your dying wife?” He approached Sofia’s bed and looked down at her. “Only magic can help her body now…
maybe
. And I can’t make any promises as to her mental condition even if we manage to heal her physically. A lot will depend on how much she fended off the darkness while the Elder was inhabiting her.”