Authors: Cege Smith
“What do you mean?” Angeline asked. “Your gift carries the sentence of immortality.” Another thought struck her. “Does this mean that I’ll be immortal too?”
Connor shifted and looked out into the night. “Perhaps you should get dressed, Prin—Angeline. I am sure Caspian has grown impatient, and if even half of the coven rumors about him are true, you don’t want him grumpy during your training.”
Angeline was going to push him but then heard a shout from below.
“What’s the holdup up there? I don’t have all night, you know!”
Caspian’s insinuation made Angeline flush. “I guess you’re right. Can you please excuse me?”
Connor nodded and then gracefully stepped off the ledge and was gone.
“To be continued…” she said as she turned her attention back to the rack of gowns.
Ten minutes later she stood on the edge of the eye and looked out into the night. At this height, she could see across the tops of many of the trees in the forest. The moon was full and bright in the sky and she almost swooned over how lovely it was. She felt like she had never truly seen it before. Her new eyes could pick out the smallest cracks and edges on the surface that she had never been able to distinguish before.
Then she saw the tree tops sway from miles away off to her left, moving almost like a snake in her direction.
What was that?
As if answering her question, she felt her mind reach out toward the movement. She hit a wall of icy cold. That thing inside her mind probed the edges but the wall was solid and unwavering. The movement through the trees stopped, and Angeline had the impression that it was now aware of her.
She felt a frozen tendril grab onto that little mental finger that she was using to probe it, and PULL. She cried out in pain. It was like the connection between her and it was creating a bridge, and the thing on the other side was reaching out across that bridge toward her mind.
Then there was a strong yank, and Angeline felt herself pitch off of the ledge and she was falling. She heard Connor shout and she knew the ground rushed to greet her, but she couldn’t think straight because of the thing mauling its cold fingertips through her mind.
Strong arms caught her just before she hit the ground and then she felt Caspian’s presence.
“What is it?” she heard Connor ask anxiously.
Caspian didn’t answer. Instead, he put his hands against Angeline’s head. Caspian’s hands were cold as well, but nothing compared to the frozen death creeping into her head.
Caspian whispered a few words and then suddenly she felt the grip on her mind loosen, and then it was gone altogether. Her chest heaved and she felt like she had been violated.
“Stupid girl.” Caspian spat on the ground as Connor gently set her on her feet. Angeline saw that the glob was spotted red. She felt a trickle down the side of her cheek. She reached up and felt a wetness coming from her ear. She pulled her hand away. It was bright red.
“What happened?” Connor demanded as he took her hand and stared at it.
“It has been a long time since I’ve encountered one like her,” Caspian said warily. “I’d forgotten. I should have known though. If nothing else, this confirms her bloodline more than anything else could have.”
“What are you talking about?” Angeline said. She was tired of the vague references and cryptic meanderings of this tiny vampire. She just wanted to know what was going to happen to her and if she’d ever be able to go home.
“You’ve attracted the attention of the Amaron ghosts. And it is a stupid, stupid thing to try to communicate with them. The likes of you is a siren song they cannot ignore. And if you fall into their grasp, they will sap your energy and leave you a shrunken husk,” Caspian said.
“The Amaron ghosts?” Connor said with a note of wonder in his voice. “I’ve been through this forest thousands of times. I’ve never seen a ghost. That’s a myth.”
“You wouldn’t have interested them,” Caspian scoffed. “It’s the same reason that I am able to reside here. They have no use for our kind and their memories are long, which is why they avoid us. Once upon a time those souls were the only sustenance that vampires had to survive. They usually give our kind a wide berth, in the event someone remembers that long forgotten secret.”
“Then why are they here now?” Angeline said slowly. “That was what I saw when I…woke up, right? Those things in the trees are the Amaron spirits.”
Caspian nodded.
“You said that I attracted them. Why?”
“Our time is much shorter than I realized,” Caspian said. “Now that they have your scent, I’m not sure how much longer my boundary spell will keep them at bay. Tricky bastards, they’ll figure out a way around it with the right incentive. And now they have it.”
“Answer her question,” Connor said, grabbing Caspian’s arm as the older vampire started to turn away. “Why her?”
“Revenge of course,” Caspian said.
“Revenge for what?” Angeline asked. “I have done nothing to them.”
“You’re a Robart,” Caspian laughed. “And it was Alair Robart who put them here.”
Angeline felt like she had been hit in the stomach. “That isn’t true. It was the vampires. The vampires killed them, and then trapped them here.”
Caspian almost doubled over from laughing this time. “Oh, you humans are so blissfully ignorant of your own history. It is quite comical actually. You walk around thinking you are so superior to every other creature here, when in all actuality you are not so different.”
Angeline raised her chin. “My great-great-grandfather was a hero. A legend. A wise man and a great king. He saved our people from the likes of you and yours.”
Caspian started to say something else when Connor cut him off. “Doesn’t seem like the time for a history lesson, Caspian. Is Angeline in danger here?”
Angeline wanted to know more about what Caspian thought he knew about her ancestor, but she grudgingly had to admit that Connor was right. They had to prioritize.
Caspian frowned. “For the time being. But they are multiplying out there at a much faster rate than I’ve ever seen. And now that they know she’s here, it’ll probably draw every single one of them to the clearing.” Caspian pointed in a wide arc around the clearing. “The boundary begins about ten feet inside the tree line. It was a rather rudimentary spell that I cast shortly after I took refuge here. Not that they had any interest in me, as I mentioned, but occasionally a guest would intrigue a few of them enough that they would try to come in for a closer look.”
“Why would they be interested in wraiths?” Connor asked.
Caspian scowled. “My work here is private. I won’t be divulging any details to the whelp of the one that I know hunts me in order to drag me back before the Master. I’m not going back there! He had his chance. Too bad for him that centuries later he decided that he wants what I have.”
Angeline wondered where the tirade had come from. She looked at Connor, who sighed and then shrugged.
“Let’s get on with it then, shall we?” Angeline said.
“Smartest thing you’ve said all day,” Caspian grumbled. “Connor. We are going to need to feed soon. While I’m working with the princess, why don’t you go find us something to eat.”
“What about the ghosts?” Angeline asked.
“They won’t hurt him,” Caspian said. “Vampires aren’t tasty to them at all. Go along, Connor, and be back before the sun rises. Even if you stay under the forest canopy, sometimes those tricksters do enjoy playing a game or two in the daylight, and I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
Connor stood at the edge of the tree line, considering. He sent his mind out to see if there was any danger, or rather, any danger besides the multitude of spirits gathering out there in the darkness. He did not have the same confidence in his safety that Caspian seemed to have. He heard a low buzz out there, almost as if there were many people talking in low voices, but he couldn’t make anything out of the hum.
So he could hear them if there were a lot of them in one place. That was helpful to know, although he couldn’t see a way to leverage that piece of knowledge quite yet. But it wasn’t the spirits he was looking for; he was looking for any trace of Searon.
Although Connor was fairly certain that they had lost Searon in the fields before they even entered the Amaron forest, he couldn’t be sure. Searon was sneaky, and if he had sensed Connor out by the ravine, he would have taken steps to hide his mind from him. After sweeping the area several times, it didn’t appear that there was anything out there other than the spirits.
Connor was reluctant to leave the clearing, and not only because of his personal safety. He was afraid that if he left Caspian alone with Angeline for too long, Caspian would embark on another history lesson and that could have disastrous consequences. There were too many things that had been secret for too long, and although in another time or place, Connor would have welcomed the opportunity to finally set the history books set straight, today was not that day.
Angeline was in a delicate phase of her development, and he knew that if she discovered the truth about her great-great-great-grandfather, she risked losing her grip on her dark side and then there was a chance that persona would take over forever. If the truth was too much to bear, she may even let go completely without a fight. Connor knew that he had no rights to her, but he couldn’t let her disappear from the face of existence either. What she brought to her people, her destiny, was too vital and too important to sacrifice.
He looked over his shoulder. Angeline was sitting on the ground by the fire with her eyes closed and Caspian was gesturing wildly. Connor had no idea what he was talking about, but for the moment things appeared to be focused on training and not on history.
He couldn’t delay any longer. He hoped that Caspian knew what he was talking about. He took a step into the woods. Immediately he felt the buzz hush and go silent. His next step faltered for just a moment. Then he steeled himself and pushed forward. Caspian said the spirits were gathering at the boundary wall, and Connor could see now markers of it that he had missed on the journey to the clearing. The trees along the boundary had trunks that were lighter and smaller than the rest and as he looked up, he could see that their leaves looked sickly. Nothing grew at the base of those trees, as if the ground itself was contaminated.
He couldn’t see anything. If he didn’t know better, he would have believed that he was completely alone. But there was something menacing in the air, and he felt his shoulder blades clench. As he approached the boundary, there was an unnatural chill in the air. He stopped just inches from the boundary and paused. They were there. And they hated and feared the likes of him, but they were willing to be this close for a chance at Angeline.
Connor understood the desire for vengeance. He had wished countless times that Monroe be struck down dead for stealing his life away from him. But then that feeling was counteracted by the knowledge that what Monroe stole had really been a life that wasn’t even worth living. He had brought shame and misery to his family. He had been penniless and a murderer. He had been nothing good in life, so why should his afterlife be so different?
“I wish you no harm,” he said out loud. “I am hunting living flesh today. If you give me no trouble, I will return the favor. If not, my friend Caspian shared a few secrets with me today. I have been feeling the slightest bit lethargic lately and could use a shot of energy. You understand what I’m saying, I’m sure.” Although he felt a bit silly addressing a thinly veiled threat to thin air, he felt it was necessary to ensuring that he was able to return without incident. He hadn’t cared for Caspian’s warning of “pranks.”