Darque Wants (67 page)

She could hear her own breath echoing in the dense forest and feel her nerves trembling in her body. She needed to know what that thing could have possibly been. She knew of no gold creatures. The only thing that could ever be gold was an angel painted for battle… then it all made sense. Daman knew the vampires had a spy, that’s why they were so worried with sending Adelaide out there on her own. But why wouldn’t they tell her this? Either way, she wasn’t going to stick around for as long as it took for her to figure this one out. She launched herself back into flight, reaching her own record in speed, as she flew though the vampire night.

She had only made about half a mile before something flew right out of her blind spot, striking her in the torso. She lost her balance as she rammed into the trunk of a massive tree, her head yanking backwards at the impact. A yelp escaped from her mouth as she reached all round her, tumbling through the air at high speeds and struggling to grasp onto something. Her eyes opened just quickly enough for her to catch sight of the branch she was flying towards. She reached out in front of her for whatever was the angelic equivalent of a leap of faith. Her hands wrapped around the branch and she grunted, tensing up her body as much as possible to resist the force pulling her forward. Eventually she slowed enough to be able to perch herself on the branch.

Luckily, she did not have to wait very long to see what was right in front of her all along, another angel, a male painted in a deep gold, just like her. Her heart stopped. His muscles where massive and dense, like they had been carved out of marble and his wings spanned out at full two feet farther in both directions that hers did. She had met her match. Seeing as she obviously did not possess the advantage in strength required to actually fight him, she settled on running. She turned, pushing off the branch on which she sat with so much force that she sent it flying in back towards him.

He dodged the potential weapon with ease and raced towards her. He flew above her, his body almost perfectly aligned with hers, then kicked down at her. She grunted at the strike, her back folding in with the impact. She flew even lower, pulling herself to an abrupt halt before veering right. He followed her effortlessly, as if he could read her mind. This time, he reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair, yanking her to a stop. She squeezed herself away from his reach, but he was fast enough to snatch the ribbon out of her hair. She let out a deep sigh as her yards of hair came tumbling down around her, getting caught in her wings, covering her face.

He lunged himself at her one final time, catching another handful of her hair, then threw her to his right. She was, again, flying through the air, a dull ache settling in the back of her head, as she grew nauseously dizzy. Her arm slammed against a tree, and she screamed as she felt the bone shatter. She could see the ground fast approaching and had already braced her for impact before she felt something grab her underneath her arms and drive her even higher into the sky. She fought as much as she could, banging her good fist against his chest and trying to wrench herself out of his grip, but the pain distracted her and her strength was waning fast. Before she knew it, she was hundreds of feet in the air, even above the cloud cover that had descended over the camp.

Then he dropped her.

Her eyes went wide as the air seemed to drag her down towards the ground at a speed she could scarcely fly herself. She winced at the unbelievable pain as she contracted her abdomen, using sheer strength to turn herself against the air resistance, trying her best to get her wings working before….

As she got closer and closer to the ground, she felt herself falling faster and faster, making it even more difficult to maneuver through the air. 

Finally, she turned and grunted as she propelled her wings forward, but she was too close to the ground. Before she could get herself going again, her leg dragged into the soil, bringing with it a searing burn. That was almost too much for her to bear. Yet, even so, this had slowed her down far too much. When her wings failed, she went tumbling onto the ground; branches slapping her, ashes coating her dripping blood-encrusted skin. She sucked in shallow breaths, forcing herself to remain conscious, no matter how much it hurt to do so.

Eventually she stopped, slamming against the base of a tree. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stand up, holding onto the trunk for support until she could trust herself again. She had no idea where that male angel had gone, but it didn’t matter. She had to keep going. Her right ankle was sprained, a gash seared across her torso and left arm was completely shattered… but her wings were unscathed. She had the utmost faith that they were strong enough to carry her home.

So she broke into a slow run, forcing herself to keep going no matter how much it hurt.

“Not so fast!”

She could barely register that voice before she heard something snap behind her. Before she had taken another step, the weight of a heavy net drove her into the ground, pinning her there. She summoned what little reserve of energy she had left to left it, but her wings were weakest when they were out spread, and she was no match for an entire entourage of vampires.

Chapter Four

Adelaide awoke to the sensation of multiple tongues on her body. Her eyes flickered open and she flinched at the sight of four vampires liking and sucking at her wounds. With a gasp, her eyes darted over her body, looking for the bite marks that would mean that her life as an angel had already ended. Luckily for her, she found none. She laid there for another long moment, summoning all of the strength in her, searching her mind for that energy force. She couldn’t tell if it had been mere minutes, or many hours before she finally found enough energy to sit up.

The vampires, clearly just foot soldiers, seemed to have been frightened by that sudden movement, they jumped away from her, one of them even scurrying as far away as the concrete wall opposite of her. Adelaide’s eyes darted around the room, looking for a way to escape, but there was none. A seamless block of concrete wall surrounded her on all sides, and, knowing the vampires, she was probably miles underground. She sucked in a deep breath, her eyes darting around one final time before she truly allowed herself to accept the fact that she had been captured. She felt her gut sink at this thought. She knew what life she had chosen when she agreed to be a spy. Once caught, you were useless, corrupted. Her eyes stung with the promise of tears as she realized that even if by some miracle, she was able to escape, they would never take her back.

She let her eyes flicker shut, the image of Daman and the general, sending her off to her death all too fresh in her mind.

“Answers.”

The hiss wrenched her out of her moment of despair. Her eyes flashed open and she found herself staring right at a short vampire. His papery skin told her that he was at least a few centuries old, but she could tell by his old facial wounds and his awful posture that he was low-ranking. She let her frustration well up inside of her, scoffing at him. “No.” she snapped.

The vampire began to tremble; racing towards her at a speed she could barely perceive herself. In less than a second he stood a foot away from her, bathing her in his metallic breath. This was not the vampire soldier she had become accustomed to seeing in battle. “Who sent you?” He demanded in his breathy voice.

Adelaide clamped her jaw shut. She closed her eyes, feeling her muscles shake as they became suffused with her healing energy. She could feel it building in her chest, surrounding her broken and bruised bones and healing them. Her jaw clenched together and her eyes squeezed as much as they possibly could as she sat there, enduring the pain of her bones re-breaking and rebuilding, of her muscles ripping, tearing, reforming; torn ligaments re-attaching. Joint realigning. She could see nothing but white light in front of her, could hear nothing but white noise around her as she endured this pain, this pressure acting on her entire body at once.

By the time she opened her eyes again, she was more exhausted than she had ever been, but she felt brand new.

Somehow, the lone vampire that had been sent to question her turned into four more. They circled her, their faces brandishing the same sneer, their eyes showing the same deeply empty stare. “Who sent you?” one of them demanded.

And again. “Who sent you?”

Adelaide looked down to find that she had been tied down. A thick, leather belt bolted her midriff to the ground. Four smaller ones held her hands and feet together. Her wings were fanned out, held down with a large net for each one. Now that she had all but healed, the sensation of all six of her limbs fanned out was starting to get to her.

She clamped her jaw to prevent herself from crying out in discomfort. The vampires fed on that. “Who sent you?” they continued to demand.

Adelaide could feel her strength growing more and more the longer she sat there alone and unmoving. She had to play it just right. If she acted too soon, she would run out of energy before she could take all of them down, and if she waited too long, they would notice the change in her.

“Who sent you?”

Adelaide took in a deep breath, allowing the damp oxygen to fill her chest as her heart pumped boiling blood through her body. She was almost ready. She could feel it.

“Who sent you?” one of the vampires took the liberty of mounting her. She could feel his body pressing against her as his cold fingers traced her cheek. She winced at this, but did her best to ignore it, until….

She grunted as she contracted every muscle in her body propelling herself upward. The tension inside of her had built so much that it seeped from her pores as heat and light, the strong force blasting the vampires away from her. The thick leather straps that had pinned her down slipped away from her, melting like taffy, but her wings were not as strong, especially when fanned out on either side of her. Just when she was about to stand up, her wings caught, a flash of pain running up her spine as her entire body yanked backwards. She turned, groaning at her own mishap as she went to unscrew the nails that kept those nets on her wings.

That slight moment of hesitation was enough for the vampires to catch on. One of them jumped onto her back, digging his knee into her back. He pinned her down on her neck. She hissed in pain as she continued to unscrew her wings. However, another vampire caught on, stepping on her hand. A scream pressed out of her mouth as she wrapped her other hand around his ankle and pulled. He went tumbling down, his face hitting the ground with a gut-wrenching crack.

He was still.

She finally got one wing free and folded it, using that momentum to swing her upwards towards the vampire that pinned her. She swung her fist at him, wincing as it hit him square in the face. He whimpered as he scurried off of her, pressing his back against the nearest wall to her. She quickly untied her second wing and stood up, panting and glaring at every vampire that was still standing. She held her feet shoulder-width apart, holding her hands in front of her to protect herself.

Although they didn’t make another move, they wouldn’t take their eyes off of her. Adelaide knew that she had spooked them, and part of her, a very small and defiant part, was annoyed that whoever their general was, he thought four mindless recruits would be enough to subdue her. As her eyes darted from vampire to vampire and the walls that held them all there together, she realized that if she were going to get out of this, she would need to see the general. She’d have to make some sort of deal with him, to trick him somehow, because without his blessing, there was no way she was going to make it through the entire camp. “I need to see your leader.” She demanded.

They stared blankly at her at first, then at each other.

The vampire closest to her moved first, scurrying up the side of her holding cell. She followed him with her eyes until he disappeared up through a hole in the ceiling she hadn’t seen before. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the small entrance ten feet above her. As the rest of the vampires scurried up that small hole, she wondered if she herself could fit through it with her wings fanned out. She glowered up, watching them disappear and listening to the scratching sounds of their climbing. Eventually, they were gone, leaving her with nothing but silence.

Adelaide stood there for the longest time, recovering her strength, listening to her breathing, wondering what she could possibly say to the general.

She had only made it past, “hello,” when she heard a heavy disturbance from above, like large rocks being moved aside. She tilted her head up, the pounding of her own heart mixing in with the sound coming from above.

Then, all at once, a man came flying down through the opening. The force of his entrance created a whirlwind inside of the room. Adelaide stepped away, running her hands through her wild hair. The man landed on his feet, the sonic disturbance ringing through the concrete walls and leaving her stunned. As he stood, she got a good look at him. Her eyes took in everything from his head of bleached blond hair, his pale skin, red eyes and perfect lips. She caught his strong, tall frame, draped in a black cape and covered in black armor, his sizeable feet encased in knee-high leather boots. She could feel his presence beyond her five senses, inside of her. Only one other being had ever made her feel that way.