Magestorm: The Reckoning (12 page)

31

“Where are my usual guards?”

Heather looked suspiciously at the three men she didn’t recognize.  They stood silently, waiting, which only served to piss her off.  Finally a fourth man entered the room with an air of importance.  Clearly he was the leader of the group.

“My apologies, but the others were requested for an assignment.  We have been assigned as replacements for the upcoming mission.”

“What mission?”

“Elisabeth found out that you sent your guards to Hallow Falls, hoping to catch Dhane there.  While she’s confident you can find him, she is not confident in your guards and where their loyalties lie.  So now, we are going to Hallow Falls to lure Dhane out.  You caught him once, you can do it again.”

Suddenly Heather felt a trick was in play by Elisabeth.  The clever witch was trying to get the vampire to admit she had captured the mage and let him escape, intentionally or otherwise.  She wasn’t about to fall for it though.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.  If Elisabeth claims I captured Dhane, she’s mistaken.”

“That
’s irrelevant.  We are going whether you captured him before or not.  Else you will be evicted from the Grand Hotel and be exiled from Thauma.”

If daggers could shoot from her eyes, they certainly would have.  All things considered, it was best to play along with the head witch-bitch for now.  It was clear Dhane wasn’t going to be the new great wizard, as she had hoped.  Perhaps somewhere in all this chaos she would find the true heir.

“Very well, I’ll get my jacket.”

The car ride to Hallow Falls was quiet and uneasy.  These new guards assigned to her didn’t look at her
or speak to her, or each other, for the entire drive.  She was beginning to wonder if the others spoke at all.

Soon they were in the neighborhood of
Marissa’s home.  Heather had been here several times before, but not for a couple of years now.  The last time she came to visit Marissa, the house was locked up and a groundskeeper had been put in charge, waiting for Dhane.  Where the mage’s mother had gone was anyone’s guess now.  Perhaps she died, or moved far away.  Maybe she even moved into Thauma to watch her son, who would never have recognized her.

The lead vampire looked to the driver and nodded, and the car stopped a couple blocks away from the house.  All four guards exited the car silently and waited for Heather to do the same.  Suddenly fear gripped her as she wondered if this was an infamous drive, like you would see in mob movies.

Five go out, only four come back.

She shuttered at the thought, but at this point didn’t have any options.  Once outside, they walked through the darkness until the house was within view.  There, the
y waited in the darkness, and Heather wanted to scream to break the silence of these four.

“I haven’t seen you guys before.  Where have you been?”

“Shhh.”

“Look, who knows how long it will be before Dhane shows up…
if
he shows up.  We might as well pass the time somehow.”

They proceeded to ignore her and she gave up.  Instead, she passed the time sitting with her back against the wall of a house and glanced to her right, through a thin patch of bushes, towards
Marissa’s house.  At least if the vampires were going to kill her, they’d have to do it facing her.

A taxi pulled up across the street from the house they were watching and a man got out.  H
e was the right height and build to be Dhane, but there was no way he would just show up here the same night they came to watch for him.  That is, unless Elisabeth had gotten some inside information.  Considering the trouble with traitors in the old witch’s council, that was entirely possible.

Excitement made her forget her fears of the men she was with, and she concentrated on the man hurrying across the street and up the stairs to the front door.  He slid in a key and slipped inside quickly and cautiously.  It had to be him.

Heather started to get up when the lead vampire put his arm on her shoulder and shook his head.  Then he signaled to the other three and they made their way to the house.  Surrounding it, they cleared the area to ensure he was truly alone, and then peered through the windows to track the mage’s movement.

Completing their check, each of the three gave
the ‘all clear’ signal.  Heather and the lead vampire approached quickly.  Her heart raced to get her hands on him again, but then wondered if that’s why these new troops were here.

Was Elisabeth worried I can’t go through with it, can’t kill Dhane?  Come to think of it, am
I
certain I can do it?

These questions ran through her mind as they reached the house and the other three vampires headed for the back door.  Heather and the main vampire entered the front door after picking the lock and the first thing she noticed was the basement door, wide open, and a light coming from inside.

“Maybe you should let me go first,” she whispered.  “If I can talk him into surrendering, we can deliver him to Elisabeth to do with as she likes.  If not, I’ll yell and try to subdue him until you and your men can take him.”

A suspicious look came across the leader’s face, but finally he nodded and she made her way to the door.  Peering down the stairs, she could hear no noises coming from below.  What on earth would he be doing down there?

Patiently she maneuvered the steps, trying to limit any creaking that would signal Dhane that he wasn’t alone.  She reached the bottom and saw the open passage to Marissa’s torture room.

From the narrow passage, she could see light beyond, but still no sounds.  With a deep breath, she made her way down the passage and into the windowless torture room beyond.  She had been in the room only once before, but that was after all prisoners had left.

“Dhane,” she called quietly as she stepped into the room.  A lamp was hanging in the closest corner, to her right, and angled to keep shadows scattered through the room.  A sudden movement grabbed her attention and she prepared to flee.

“Hello, Heather,” Dhane stepped forward from a far corner so she could see him.  “Thank you for coming.”

“What?  You were expecting me?”

“Of course.  The vampires had very clear instructions.”

“The new guards?  They’re helping you?”

“Yes.  They are
not royal vampires; they are part of the outcasts.”

Suddenly she caught the scent of werewolves nearby and she ran back down the passage.  As she reached the stairs,
Terrance and Tyler had arrived at the top of them.  They headed down towards her, and she backed up and looked to the windows.  All of them were barred and secured.  She was trapped.

Hesitantly she went back down the passage and faced Dhane again.  He gave a sad smile and walked over to a chair against the wall.  Sitting down, he thought over his words carefully, knowing this was the last time he would ever speak to this woman.

“I’m disappointed with how things turned out between us, I really am.  There’s a darkness inside you, threatening to consume you and everyone around you.  You tried to play things out in the same way my mother did with my father.”

“No, I was just trying to make you see your potential,” she pleaded as she came over and kneeled in front of him.  Her hands on his knees, she looked him in the eyes so innocently, as though she didn’t see the poison in her own words.  “You could be something great, leader of all, second to no one.”

Dhane stood and stepped aside while moving Heather into the chair.  Kneeling before her, the sad smile he had before faded away, leaving a look of pity behind.

“You don’t even see it, do you?  I guess the darkness runs deeper than I imagined.  You are a danger to everyone around you, so I can’t let you interfere with innocent lives in the future.  Welcome to your new home.”

The snapping sound of latches echoed in the room as her wrists were confined to the chair by built-in restraints.  The fear she felt before, of being led to her death by the vampires she arrived with, returned violently.  She fought against the latches as the werewolves entered the room and helped Dhane secure her legs.

“You can’t do this!  You can’t leave me locked up in here!  There is no way your goodie little candy ass can go on knowing I’m here, left alone to die.”

“Normally, you would be right.  But I know how much worse I would feel leaving you free to prey on the world.  This is the lesser of two evils.”

He leaned in and kissed her, and then he turned and followed the werewolves to the door as Heather struggled against the restraints and called out to him.  Begging, pleading, cursing, nothing surprised him, and nothing
fazed him.  Instead he blocked her out completely, and hoped today was the last he would ever see or hear from her.

The passage began to close and Heather knew this was it.  He wasn’t coming back, and her best laid plans didn’t work.  The son of Algernon learned from his father’s mistakes, even though he never met the man.  Wasn’t that just her luck.

As the seal closed, one final scream of his name echoed through the house and gave Dhane pause.  It was bloodcurdling, and gave him a chill.  He looked back to see the passage seal and everything became silent.  The workers would arrive in the morning to seal off the rest of the basement with cement, and that would be that.

“It’s time to go, Dhane.”

He nodded to Terrance as they headed for the stairs.  “It is indeed.”

32

Charles arrived with the vampires at an old warehouse in the poor side of town.  Once a storage area for a local auto plant, the place was rusting and threatening to collapse.  It was a fine place to end the mage, he figured.

Signaling his soldiers to circle around the building, he sniffed at the air and found no signs of werewolves nearby.  He wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.  If the mage was indeed here, he would have assistance, right?
  Unless he was getting cocky after successfully killing off several vampire patrols that is.

The vampire prince strolled through the front door and glanced around the area.
  Darkness filled every corner, but towards the far wall was a chair, occupied by a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt.  The hood was covering the man’s face as his head hung.  The slow heaving of his chest showed he was alive.

“I didn’t really think you’d be here.”

The man didn’t respond, which made Charles uneasy.  That was the man’s intent, however, as he waited for his foe to step further into the trap.  The vampire’s troops began to file in through various doors and holes in the walls until nearly thirty vampires stood before the chair.

“Give up Dhane, and make this easier on yourself.”

Without a word, the man waved his hand in the air and other vampires began to flood into the room.  These were not Charles’ vampires.  These were rogues, violent and animalistic.  Teeth were bared and snarls came from them as they surrounded Charles and his men.  The prince just smiled.

“When it comes down to it, do you really think these vampires will follow you, a human, over me?  You are their food, not their leader.”

“Maybe.  Maybe not,” the man replied, smiling as he stood.  He pulled the hood back and flashed his own set of fangs.  “But I do know this.  You will die this day, die this day.”

Leaping forward, Demian
swung his fist and knocked Charles backwards and he skidded across the floor.  The signal was clear to the rogue vampires, and they began their attack.  Blood began to fill the room as they tore through the ‘civilized’ vampire troops.

Charles knew he was in trouble and tried to flee with his opponent in pursuit.  Every time he looked back, Demian was getting closer.  Through a hole in the wall and into the streets, he wondered if there was anywhere for him to escape.  Then he spotted an open manhole.

Demian stopped at the top and listened for the direction the prince had gone.  Quickly figuring out the likely direction the sewers would lead, he pursued above ground, knowing where each stumbling block was, and each dead end, which would put him ahead of his prey.

Some twenty blocks down the road, he stopped and dropped into the sewers.  Footsteps hurried towards him, and the soon Charles came into view and stopped.  Clearly taking to the sewers had been a mistake, and his fate was likely sealed.

“After all that happened with the great wizard, after all the things you went through, why do you now side with his son?”

“Dhane is not Algernon.  He is his own man and has always done right by me.  Besides, when
his father took power, where were the royal vampires?  They abandoned the rest of us,
you
abandoned us, in our hour of need.”

Anger rose inside of Demian as
he thought about all the horrors that came from that situation.  Perhaps, if the royal vampires had interfered, they would have discovered why Algernon was doing his deeds, and they could have stopped Marissa and her evil tricks.  Maybe they could have held off the madness that came to consume his friend, the great wizard.  Just maybe many people wouldn’t have suffered as they did.  His rage was beginning to boil over.

“
No, listen, it was out of my hands,” Charles sniveled desperately, “The king wanted us to stay out of it.  I didn’t have a choice.”

“You are the prince, you had a choice.  Your d
ecision was to not act.  For all who suffered because of it, because you wouldn’t help your own kind, you will not leave this sewer.”

With a roar, Demian l
unged at Charles and knocked him to the ground.  The prince kicked his opponent between the legs, but it only angered him.  Whatever civilized part was left inside Demian disappeared, and the animal inside of him took over.

Precise and swift, he beat down the prince and finally broke the number one rule among
all vampires: he bit him.  The screams from Charles did nothing to slow down the sucking at his wound, and eventually they faded away.  Limp, unresponsive, Demian stood and looked down at his fellow vampire.

“Good night prince
.  Save a spot for me in Hell.”