Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (24 page)

The rest of the rebel
Fare continued to swim away from the dark beast. It would be ironic
if they abandoned Wyatt in his time of need and left him to die. If
they were true followers of Wyatt, they might have learned cowardice
as well as bullying from the master. If it had not been a life or
death situation, it would have served him right. And yet, they were
looking around as if trying to find a way to help him, so I guess
they weren’t truly heartless. One brave Fare began to swim away
from the nearest marker and towards the area where the larger group
had to be. He had to know that their best course of action was to be
in the company of Stewards.

The Fare collided with
the larger group and immediately started swinging as if he was being
attacked. It took three Stewards and a Fare to calm him down long
enough to get to an air pocket in a nearby cave. The closed caption
told us that he was explaining Wyatt’s situation and giving
directions to his location. The Fare were apprehensive, but the
Stewards, being predisposed to the service of others, sprung into
immediate action. Tyler took charge splitting their group. He formed
a rescue party with a few, while he instructed the others to continue
the labyrinth.

Large sea snakes turned
and followed as they swam away. From where I sat, t looked as if they
were thinning the herd. Rillae must have thought the same thing,
because she swam after them. The situation had the potential for
disaster, gaining the undivided attention of everyone in the arena.
The current moved so swiftly that the plants in the reef were leaning
sideways. I wondered if any of them would get out of there alive.

A loud noise made me
jump. I turned, along with everyone else in our viewing box, to see a
ceramic column collapse in on itself. The dust from the debris
quickly filled the air and everyone began to cough and sneeze. Zander
and Jordan were there in a flash, coming from the Miklos viewing box
to check on their family. Violeta’s twin, Dominic, and a few
other Miklos clan members were there holding up the stone canopy that
we were sitting under until the pillar could be reinforced. It turned
out that Chloe, Adrianna and I were pumping out too much unfocused
and untrained energy and were dangerously close to bringing down a
portion of the arena. Taking a deep breath and concentrating seemed
to help; the other girls did the same.

Stewards, it appeared,
were jacks of all trades. Within minutes there was a full crew of
carpenters building a scaffold around the pillar. They were quick,
efficient and extremely proud of their work. Watching them manage the
construction as well as the Vampires, made them less like slaves
building the pyramids and more like skilled craftsmen taking charge
of a project. Between the work they were doing and the lecture from
Rillae, my disapproval of the system was thinning. I had to admit
that the Coetus Essentialis might just be the best society Vampires
could have conceived.

While the Stewards were
securing the pillar, the three of us tried to get to the closest TV
screen to see what was happening to the participants of the Ludos. We
saw Rillae swimming after Tyler, Gretchen and two other Stewards
towards Wyatt, who looked panicked. As the five of them came to the
air pocket, the sea snakes attacked. Several of them went for Wyatt;
he was an easy kill being trapped and all. They bit deep into his
limbs until the water turned red with his blood. Blood in the ocean
was a beacon for predators. Rillae immediately went to work with a
small rock in her hand, hitting the snakes in the head. She kept this
up while Gretchen and Tyler worked on the rocks that pinned Wyatt’s
foot. The other two Stewards were taking turns breathing into Wyatt’s
mouth which was now an inch below water. If my guts weren’t in
a nervous knot I would have been awed by their ingenuity and
teamwork. Instead, I just sat there, terrified.

Gretchen was the first
to come up for air, leaving Tyler to continue to move the rocks. Her
face was strained with exhaustion but I could see determination in
her eyes. She waited just long enough to let one of the other
Stewards reassure her that Wyatt was getting enough oxygen and then
she returned to her twin’s side. He had almost gotten Wyatt
free and was using his left leg to push the final rock away when he
slipped and fell away. Since he was underwater he simply went
slightly sideways, but the large rock had begun to roll and had
landed firmly on his leg before he could move clear. Wyatt was free,
but Tyler was stuck and couldn’t reach the air pocket. It was
too much for me, so I ran to the railing that overlooked some bushes
at the rear of the viewing box and lost my lunch. My world began to
spin and darkness took me.

As my world turned
black, I fought it, only to loose against its power; darkness took
me. In the distance I saw a tall woman with long raven hair and
bright blue eyes. She was smiling at me with the familiarity of a
friend, but I had never met her. She extended her hand to me and we
walked through a wonderfully fragrant garden filled with deep purple
Angelonia, yellow and red Amaranthus, and pretty little white
Chrysanthemums. We walked until we came to a stone bench which sat
under an old Southern Oak tree with several feet of moss hanging from
its branches. I put my hands in my lap and smoothed silk and lace
fabric, not the pants I had on when I passed out. The mysterious
woman took my had and squeezed gently as she gestured to a young girl
who knelt at my feet. I felt a burning in my throat as I found a
throbbing vein and bit down, letting the wonderful warmth flow down
my throat.

“
Cheyenne?
Cheyenne, wake up, Sweetie.”

I opened my eyes and
saw Efia looking at me with concern. I was dreaming her history more
and more lately; as if she was waiting for me to discover some secret
that she was unable or unwilling to tell me herself. Every time I
looked at her with renewed curiosity and weariness. She was my
grandmother several times removed but I had to get to know her
through these inconvenient dream trances. Dream trances were
extremely rare inherited attributes that were coveted by all Vampire
clans. Quite frankly, I was simply annoyed by them.

With much effort, I put
the dark haired woman out of my mind and returned my attention to the
Ludos and Tyler’s precarious position. He was still trapped in
the area that had once held Wyatt. Wyatt, on the other hand, was
nowhere to be found. The cameras scanned the area until a few of them
focused on his retreating figure swimming away from Tyler and the
rest. The two Stewards who had been breathing for Wyatt continued to
do so for Tyler as Gretchen tried to roll the rock away. Rillae, not
being as strong as the Stewards, had surfaced to take a few breaths
in the air pocket before she returned to fight off the sea snakes.

The snakes were
attacking Tyler’s face and limbs and making it hard for the
Stewards to give him air. Rillae’s attempts in fighting them
off were failing and the rock was unmoved under Gretchen’s
efforts. The scene looked as bleak as it could possible get and I was
certain that Tyler would die in front of our eyes. Of all the
attributes that I was prophesied to acquire, not one could be used to
help Tyler from this distance. Regardless, I stood up and tried to
will him to live. This wasn’t the type of thing I had signed up
for; this wasn’t the life I wanted to live, where, at every
turn, someone I knew could die. I had to finally face it; I wasn’t
in Kansas anymore!

The blood from Tyler’s
snake bites had made it impossible to see the group clearly. Although
the cameras remained on the area, our screen changed to show Wyatt
swimming up into the air pocket that turned out to be a cave large
enough to fit him and the other 21 participants. He immediately began
to speak to the group who had followed him before and they began
their preparations for departure. It looked as if Wyatt was going to
lead them back to help his rescuers, but that was wishful thinking.
He was the kind of person who never thought of anyone but himself. He
was as selfish as they came and just as dangerous.

After a while, the
remaining 21 began to get antsy. One by one they slipped off and swam
away. They, no doubt, thought that Tyler and his group were too far
gone to save and had decided to save themselves before the tide rose,
filling their cave with water. The screens in the arena switched as
the first team emerged from the underground caverns. The trio was
wet, dirty and out of breath as they staggered to a patch of dry
land. The finish line was in the arena, so they still had about a
mile to go before they could rest for the night. Before the first
team could get their bearings, the second and third teams emerged.
Like the first team, they looked like they had been through a war.
Each of them stopped on the dry patch of land and turned to look at
the opening. Wyatt and his posse of pompous High Caste came next.
Though they were all a part of teams whose members were with Tyler,
they had decided to swim toward the finish instead of to the aid of
their teammates. Soon, there were remnants of ten teams standing on
the sand and it became apparent to the crowd that none of the teams
was willing to leave until they were certain that all of the
participants had made it out safely.

The Stewards from each
team seemed to be conversing about the next course of action.
Pointing and gesturing to their watches and pacing about, their
concern for the others made the spectators go silent as we watched
the screens for any sign of the last five participants.

After about 15 minutes,
the seven Stewards had started to move closer to the opening. They
were obviously calling out, even though we could not hear them and
the closed captioning was not able to read their lips. Having decided
on a game plan, the Stewards told the Fare to stay there until they
came back. With that, they disappeared into the dark cavern from
which they had just emerged.

Once they were gone,
Wyatt Robeson began speaking to the Fare. He had acted as if he were
left in charge in the absence of the Stewards. He gathered the High
and Middle Caste Fare to him. After a few moments, some of the Fare
moved away from him, not wanting to be a part of his plot. He
continued speaking until there were only four Middle Caste and three
High Caste Fare left listening. They were nodding their heads in
agreement and checking their small pouches for supplies. As soon as
they had taken inventory, the group of eight slipped into the
night…away from the cavern entrance and toward the arena.

The spectators in the
arena let out a collective breath. Some yelled at the screens that it
was unheard of for High Caste to behave in such a way. Others called
for the Governor to take action. I looked over at the Robeson seats
and was not surprised to see every last one of them empty. The
disgrace could potentially lower their cast standing.

It wasn't long before
eight wet and dirty figures jogged into the arena with their hands in
the air. They assumed that their arrival would be met with cheers and
applause, but they were wrong. Governor Ezekiel and several other
Stewards ushered them off of the track and into a covered reception
area. Efia and Pleasant were on their feet at this point, standing
near a smaller monitor with a video feed of the Governor's meeting;
and it had audio.

It turned out that
Wyatt had convinced the others that, being higher on the social
latter than the Lower Caste Fare and the Stewards, it didn’t
matter if they obeyed the rules or not. They were safe, Wyatt had
said, and Governor Ezekiel should be grateful.

A small noise escaped
my mouth before I could help it. Pleasant turned around and ushered
me away before Efia could say anything. She sat me down on the couch
and stared into my eyes.

“
I
know that this has been hard for you, the entire business of Vampires
and how we live. But this is the best society we could form with the
resources we have. What Wyatt and the others did…well, that is
not what we stand for as a people. Please be assured that they will
all be dealt with.”

And with that, she
kissed me on the top of the head and walked away.

Chloe and Adrianna
joined me on the couch. Both of them had tears streaming down their
faces and they told me that Nicole and Cameron were amoung the
missing participants. I hadn’t seen them slip away and didn’t
know what I would do if something happened to them. Vampires were
forbidden to aid the Ludos in any way, so we would just have to wait
and see. It looked as if this Ludos would claim its victims this
year.

Applause erupted when a
group of Stewards returned from the caverns. They had found the
missing participants and helped free Tyler. The last through the
cavern were Nicole, Cameron and Rillae; three Fare who had risked
their lives to save a Steward. The cheers died out, however, when we
saw a Steward being carrying between them. Her head had a huge gash
in it and blood streamed down her face. It was Gretchen and my heart
almost broke as the three Fare struggled with exhaustion under her
weight.

I looked at Chloe and
Adrianna, made my decision and jumped over the railing and onto the
field. The two of them followed suit and we ran full speed to the
arena entrance, waiting for the teams to come through. Finally, the
remnants of the first teams came walking past us. None of them were
in any hurry to get to the finish line; rather they were walking
backwards in order to keep an eye on the others. There were several
young Vampire Royals and clan members who joined us on the field and
we made a receiving line beside the finish line.

Approximately thirty
feet from the finish line, Gretchen groaned and lifted her head. Her
eyes were clear but unfocused as she looked at the trio carrying her
and then she hung her head and cried. I had learned enough to know
that she was probably crying out of some sort of failure on her part
for not protecting the Fare as she was trained. But I was angered by
the fact that such a burden should be placed on any one person. My
anger, however, subsided when Nicole, Cameron and Rillae simply
stopped and let her slowly fall to the ground. They waited for her to
compose herself and get to her feet before continuing. Gretchen rose
to her full height, slowly and purposefully and limped the 50ft to
join the rest.