A Shade of Vampire 26: A World of New (2 page)

I
was
anxious to know what my grandfather had planned. He’d just called the League to the Great Dome. I had been in the middle of a shower, scrubbing away the unbelievable amount of grime that had gotten stuck in my hair and all sorts of other unexpected crevices over the course of our trip across The Woodlands.

When my mother knocked on the door to inform me of the call and ask whether I wanted to come, I quickly hopped out, dried off and got dressed before joining my parents in the living room.

On the veranda Caleb and Rose were already waiting for us with my human cousins, twelve-year-old Benedict and fifteen-year-old Hazel. They had their school backpacks slung over their shoulders. I guessed they had wanted to see us and their parents off on their way to school.

School. What a strange concept it was, that life in The Shade continued so ordinarily. It truly felt like we lived in a parallel universe to the world around us.

My parents and I joined them on the veranda after grabbing the backpacks we had prepared in advance. As we piled into the elevator, Benedict shuffled toward me and stood right in front of me, trapping me against the elevator’s wall. He lifted his head before slanting a sly glance at me. “How are you doing, Grace?” In spite of his question, there was no innocence in his monkey eyes.

“Okay,” I murmured, already steeling myself for what was to follow.

“That’s good,” he said, licking his lips, before finally springing it on me, “So has Heath asked you out yet?”

Oh. My. God.

Why does he have to do this in front of my parents?

“Benedict!” Rose chastised. “Enough already with the whole Heath thing. Leave Grace alone.”

The whole Heath thing.
I felt mortified.
Does he talk about me and Heath at, like, dinnertimes with his own parents? Who else has he been talking to?
I already knew the answer to that:
the whole island.

Not that it mattered, anyway.

Still, I kept my eyes firmly trained on the ground, avoiding my parents’ glances.

“You’ll both be old by the time you get together,” Benedict mumbled beneath his breath.

At this, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Thanks for your concern, Doctor Love.”

“You and Claudia should form some kind of helpline,” Hazel said, shoving her brother in the shoulder.

Benedict moved to shove her back before Caleb stepped between them, foiling their game of Who Can Have the Last Shove before it could commence.

I let out a sigh. Sometimes I wished that I had a sibling… and other times I didn’t. I had plenty of family to keep me busy as it was. In addition to my cousins and second cousins, I had three aunts, Rose, Dafne and Lalia, and two uncles, Jamil and Caleb, not to mention my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-aunts and uncles.

After a couple of minutes, we reached the path that would lead Hazel and Benedict to school in The Vale and parted ways. We continued toward the Dome. I hibernated in my own thoughts for the rest of the way through the forest. I found myself playing back our journey through The Woodlands. As nerve-racking as it was, I couldn’t say that I’d hated it. Being in such a tightly knit group, it felt like Heath and I had gotten to know each other better, something I’d never really gotten the chance to do until now because, well, he was a year older than me. He was in a different class at school and frankly, I was always too shy to go near him. Plus, I’d always assumed that he already had a girlfriend.

Arriving at the Dome, we entered to find that all the League members had already gathered here except Victoria. I guessed that after everything that happened, her parents had persuaded her to remain at home. I also noticed a lot of extra dragons who did not officially belong to TSL standing around the edges of the room, as well as five extra jinn. Whatever my grandfather was planning, it seemed like we would be going into this like gangbusters.

Arwen and Brock were, surprisingly, sitting apart, each with their parents. Brock glanced my way and gave me a smile, making me grin back.

I took a seat with my parents, along with Rose and Caleb. Then my grandfather stood and called for silence.

“Right,” he said, steely determination in his bright blue eyes. “We will be returning to The Woodlands, all of us this time. And the plan is simple. We rescue any wolves they may have taken hostage, then locate every single hunter base there and destroy them one by one. Loss of hunters’ lives will be a factor we cannot take into consideration.”

I blinked. This was certainly a very different approach to how TSL usually did things.

“That’s kind of heavy-handed,” Abby murmured.

It was my father who responded to her. “Nothing but brutality will get through to these people. Some evils should not be given a second chance.”

I smiled to myself at his latter statement. My father was paraphrasing advice an oracle had once given him.

“We need to send them a message,” my grandfather went on, “that invading the land of innocent civilians is no way to combat criminals who might reside there. Not that they are attempting to do the latter anyway,” he added with a scowl. “This is nothing but a thinly veiled excuse for more control. We need to cause them problems in the supernatural dimension. We cannot make this easy for them.”

“They could have invaded other realms by now, right?” Gavin spoke up.

“Yes,” my grandfather replied. “It’s possible. Currently we only know about The Woodlands, hence for now it will be our focus. Does anyone have any objections?”

Nobody raised a hand. I suspected that many in this room were relishing the idea of finally giving the hunters their comeuppance.

“Good,” my grandfather said. “Now, Victoria said that most of the packs she visited were still unaffected. By now, of course, it could be a different story. But whatever the case, it does not seem that the hunters have been there long. I’m guessing that the base we entered is their main base, while others are simply conquered lairs. Hence, we will start by targeting the headquarters.”

“So we have to go to the Philippines first?” Ashley asked.

“No,” my grandfather said, shaking his head. “We won’t take the risk of returning through that portal. The hunters will be on high alert now, not to mention the fact that they have full sanction from the authorities to kill us or do whatever else they please. There is no need, anyway,” he went on. “We will use the portal we traveled through to return to The Shade. That leads to exactly where we need to be—the mountain where the wolves were gathered. So, there will be more questions and details to answer along the way, but seeing that nobody has any objections… let’s go.”

T
he plan was
to travel in our helicopter-tank, Nightshade, to the portal in the middle of those fields that had bordered the enclosed city. The witches would make the vehicle invisible both during the journey there and also while we kept it waiting for us. My grandfather had already arranged to have the vehicle loaded up with ample weapons and supplies.

I walked by my parents as we all made our way to the clearing in front of the mountains, where our amphibious chopper was kept. While waiting in line, someone brushed against my right arm. To my surprise, it was Heath.

“Oh, hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

I hung back from my parents, letting them board first. Then Heath climbed up onto the ramp before extending a hand down to me.

“Thanks,” I said, uncertain of why he was suddenly showing me this attention.

To my further surprise, he kept hold of my hand as we moved through the aircraft. We passed Arwen and Brock, sitting together now. There were two seats free next to them, but as we approached, Brock splayed out his legs over them. Arwen and Brock glared up at us.

“These seats are reserved,” Brock said. “Move along,
traitors
.”

I chuckled, while Heath rolled his eyes. If they had really wanted to keep their relationship under wraps longer, they should have made themselves invisible in the woods so that Heath and I couldn’t pull off our prank.

We kept moving along. The seats were mostly filled up already, but as we neared the front, we spotted two empty ones in a row and sat down. As the helicopter took off, I gazed out through the window at our disappearing island. I always felt a bit sick taking off, so I was glad that Heath remained quiet.

About half an hour into the flight, however, he cleared his throat and said, “Do you mind if I talk to you about something?”

My eyes widened as I turned to him. “Of course you can,” I said. “About what?”

He looked uncomfortable as he scanned the seats around us. There wasn’t much privacy here. But what would he want to say to me in private?

He nodded toward the galley. “Care to join me in there?”

“Sure.” I might have jumped to my feet a little too enthusiastically.

We entered the galley, which was currently empty, and moved to the far end of the room. I realized now how hard my heart was pounding.
What does he want to tell me?

His navy-blue eyes locked with mine. “First, I want to say that it’s been great getting to know you better recently.” He hesitated, glancing furtively at the door. “I’m, uh, also aware of… how should I put it… certain rumors going around.”

I winced internally.

“Back in The Woodlands, when Brock made that comment about me asking you out, it got me thinking that I should be straight with you.”

I was hardly breathing at this point. “Straight with me about what?”

“Grace… I’ve sworn myself to a path of celibacy until I am twenty-three.”

Oh, wow.

I stared at him, speechless.

I never could have seen that coming. Although now that I thought about it, I’d actually never seen him with a girlfriend. It had been an assumption in my mind due to his, well, godlike good looks and swoon-worthy countenance.

“Um,” I stammered, “do you mind telling me why?”

He smiled. “Of course not. It’s been a tradition for the men in my father’s family for centuries. It strengthens a dragon’s character. But also, I will be leaving for The Hearthlands next year to pursue the occupation of a priest in the king’s court. Again, this was how my father spent his formative years.”

Oh, my.
“Will you ever return?”

“Until I am twenty-three, I may come back to visit occasionally. After that, I may return to live on the island full-time, or I may remain in The Hearthlands. I can’t say for certain. I should also tell you that you’re the first person I’ve told. I planned to wait until next year before telling my friends… You seem upset,” he remarked.

“No, not upset! I, uh, just had no idea.” His words were still sinking in. I thought back over all the times I’d pined for him over the last year. My thoughts and hopes regarding him. My fantasies… But spurred by Heath’s confession, I felt an unexpected surge of confidence. Like I could tell him anything now. Like I no longer had to feel awkward around him.

“I’m going to be totally honest with you,” I said. “I’ve had an embarrassingly huge crush on you for, like, at least a year.”

Heath chuckled, then nodded. “Yeah, I know. Benedict has made it hard for anyone under the age of twenty on this island to
not
know. He’d make a great newscaster.”

I smiled more broadly, feeling rather touched that Heath had chosen to tell me first of all people. I appreciated the gesture.

Before either of us could say anything more, my great-grandfather Aiden strolled into the galley and began helping himself to some juice. Heath and I took that as our cue to leave.

As we returned to our seats, I wasn’t sure if I would ever fully stop crushing on Heath. It was hard to not admire a man so fine. But I wasn’t stupid enough to not read the hint he was giving me: move on. Get on with my life. Find someone else.

Stop being a lovesick puppy
.

I felt strangely liberated throughout the rest of the journey. We spent it talking animatedly. Even Arwen and Brock broke their vow to ignore us and gazed at us over their seats. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Heath—the person beneath his intimidating, breathtaking exterior. He had a sharp sense of humor and struck me as an intelligent, collected person who thought much about the world and his future in it. I hoped that, even if we’d never be more than friends, this could be a friendship that would last.

W
e descended
in the field bordering the township and touched down. As the hatch opened and we piled out, I already knew something was wrong.

Where the gaping circular hole in the ground had been was simply a circle of dirt.

“Someone’s closed it off,” Ibrahim said, staring at the soil.

“Without a doubt, they have witches working for them,” Mona said darkly.

“Or some other supernatural creature with the ability to wield this kind of magic.” I looked to Aisha and Horatio. “Can jinn close off gates?”

They looked at each other before shrugging. “I’ve never been aware of a jinni doing that,” Aisha replied. “Possible I s’pose.”

I let out a slow breath. These hunters were not stupid. They weren’t stupid at all. When they had stormed the mountain, they must’ve discovered the portal and then closed the damn thing off. This was unfortunate because, at least from what Victoria had told us, they had closed off all the other known gates in the Woodlands too, except for the one right inside their compound.

Although we had witches and some jinn with us, I still did not feel comfortable about leading everyone back to that portal. The security would be battened down now more than ever, but more importantly, our arrival there could alert them of our plans. Even if we shot through while invisible, they had sensor technology to detect the presence of witches, vampires, and others. It would not take much guesswork to suspect that it’d been us.

We couldn’t alert them to our plans yet. The element of surprise was one of our main advantages, and we had to keep it that way.

I clenched my jaw. “All right,” I said heavily. “This just means that we will have to return to the supernatural realm via a different gate and then travel to the Woodlands on the backs of our dragons.”
Since they still won’t allow themselves to be transported by magic.
The dragons would play an important role in what I had planned. We could not do this without them.

“What about all our supplies? And our chopper?” my daughter asked.

“We will stick with the same plan. We will leave
Nightshade
outside the portal, and the witches can cast a spell of protection over it. It will take much more time to stock up on supplies, of course. Hence we need to try to find a gate that will lead us as close to The Woodlands as possible. We will need to carry with us as much as we possibly can.”

“So which portal do you suggest we travel through?” Ben asked me.

I looked to our witches. “What do you suggest?”

“Hm,” Ibrahim muttered. “I suggest that we go via the nearest gate to The Shade—leading to the ogres’ realm. At least we know exactly what is on the other side of that.”

Everyone agreed, and so we returned to the aircraft and took off again.

* * *

T
ouching down on the beach
, Kyle transformed the aircraft into a tank, and we went trundling into the jungle where we knew the gate to be—in the hollow of an old abandoned well. Once we reached it, Kyle drew the still-invisible
Nightshade
to a halt. We gathered as many weapons as we could manage before piling outside. After the witches had put up a protective barrier over
Nightshade
that only we could penetrate, we leapt into the portal in pairs.

At the other end, we landed on a familiar beach. Over the years, weeds and bushes had encroached on this area, being close to the forest that lined the beach. It had become overgrown, rendering the gate hidden to anyone who didn’t have prior knowledge of its location.

I moved onto the sand and looked up and down the long strip of beach. There were no ogres in sight.

We made a few more trips back and forth, carrying through more weapons, before the dragons shifted into their beastly forms, allowing us to load the heavy equipment onto their backs.

I climbed atop Ridan with Sofia, while others chose their own dragons and the jinn cast shadow over our group to shield us from the sun. The jinn opted to fly alongside the dragons.

We launched into the sky. The ground beneath us quickly became a distant sight. As I gazed down upon the landscape, I could see the mountain kingdom of the ogres sprawled out beyond the high skull-topped gates. Then I noticed something else. Something gleaming from a mountainside beyond the gated kingdom in the far distance. Gleaming like glass against the sunlight.

“Wait,” I called, causing everyone to halt in their travel. I pointed toward the shine. “Do you see that? Let’s move closer.”

I should have been able to see clearly what it was even from this distance with my vampire vision. But the sun outside our shadowy shelter was impairing my sight. I considered whether it might just be an optical illusion.

But as we drew closer, it was not. Brown oblong buildings with wide tinted glass windows came into view. Signature architecture of the IBSI.

My fear had been realized. The Woodlands was not the first land the hunters had touched. While the ogres were not exactly a species we wanted to help, given their penchant for human flesh—particularly that of newborn babies—hunters gaining control in any place within the supernatural world would be good for nobody.

I was half torn over destroying the hunters in this realm first, while we were here. But we would have to come back this way anyway for the portal. Our first priority had to be the werewolves—especially in light of the mutant attack. We didn’t know how many had survived, how many had managed to flee, or what the hunters were doing there now.

Thus, I instructed the dragons to continue forging ahead to The Woodlands.