Katrina, The Beginning (31 page)

“Can you give me a breeze
coming from the west, Letta?”

“Of course.”

The light breeze came and I
took in a breath, knowing what I was scenting was going to be
painful.

“Let’s go,” I said, and we
ran together back to the forest behind the encampment. I turned
over the first body, tears streaming down my face. It was Gregor, a
gaping wound in his chest, his eyes still open in a lifeless stare.
The girls were all sobbing now, as I walked the few feet further to
the next one. It was Cedrik, the sweetest of the seven brothers,
and from the position of his neck, it was apparent it had been
broken. We heard a gurgling moan and seeking its source, found a
man slumped in front of a large tree. He was gravely
injured.

“Thomas!” I
cried.

“Oh no!” El screamed,
running to him. He was unconscious, blood was coming from his ears
and his nose, and he was barely breathing.

“El, we can save him, can’t
we?” Kate cried. “Please, we have to try.”

“Everyone! We have to
concentrate. I’ll put by hands on Thomas, and you all put your
hands on me. Please, everyone, take a deep breath, compose
yourselves, then concentrate, hurry” El said, tears still running
down her cheeks.

El put her trembling hands
on Thomas’s chest. When I saw her face go calm, I closed my eyes,
and put both my hands on her back. Rosa, Kate, and Letta followed.
I could feel energy flowing. This had to work; it just
had
to. After what seemed like ages, El moved, and I
opened my eyes to see El kissing Thomas’s forehead. His eyes were
open, but he didn’t seem to be aware.

“El, did it work? Is he all
right?” said Rosa.

“He’s better, but still not
good. I don’t think we should move him yet.”

“The guard should be here
any second. They’ll be carrying Crimson. We can replenish and try
again,” I said, looking desperately around.

We heard something behind
us and instinctively drew our swords and surrounded
Thomas.

“Damien, thank God,” I said
as he came closer.

He glanced around and
instantly knew the group was wild with sadness.

“I’m so sorry,” he said
softly, making an effort to hold back his emotions.

This made us all start to
sob again.

“Thomas is barely alive,
and we need to feed if we’re going to be able to save him,” said
El.

He looked puzzled. I had
forgotten he didn’t know we enhanced each other’s gifts.

“El’s gift is healing,
remember? That’s how she helped those villagers at the mission.
What you don’t know is if we concentrate together, we can enhance
our gifts and make them stronger. But right now we’re too weak to
try.”

“I passed the guard on the
way here. I’m sure they brought supplies, and I’ll go get them
right now.”

“Did you get the journal?”
I said.

“He was gone when I got
there and the journal with him. The Watcher had been knocked
unconscious. I found him rubbing the back of his head.”

“We’ll have to worry about
that later. Hurry Damien,” El said.

“Of course. I’ll be right
back.”

And in a flash, he was,
with a pack filled with dried meat, cheese, and several flasks of
Crimson. Damien handed each of us a flask, which we eagerly
emptied. Almost immediately the Crimson did its job. Once we felt
reinvigorated, we quickly knelt next to Thomas to try
again.

“Let me join
you.”

“Thank you, Damien,” El
said.

Once again she put her
hands on Thomas, this time on each side of his head, and closed her
eyes. The rest of us, including Damien, placed our hands on her.
When we closed our eyes, I could feel the energy was much stronger
this time, and in a few minutes, I was shocked by the loudest
blood-curdling scream I’d ever heard. It was filled with horror and
it was coming from Thomas. He was awake and leaning away from the
tree, his eyes wild, and I at once knew he was reliving the deaths
of his two brothers. El had broken away and was trying to calm him,
but he was having none of it.

“Thomas, please! You’re not
well,” she pleaded.

He pushed her away and got
to his feet, then immediately started to sway. Damien stepped
forward to steady him.

“There’s nothing you could
have done,” he said to Thomas.

“Nooo…”
Thomas cried.

Damien helped him to his
brothers’ sides, where he fell to his knees and pulled Cedrik to
him, cradling him in his arms like a child, wailing and rocking
back and forth.

We were each sobbing, not
knowing what to do. Damien put his arm around my shoulders and
pulled me close. I hugged him back, and as I looked up at him, I
could see tears rolling down his cheeks as well. The guard arrived
a few minutes later. El finally used a gentle, but powerful
strength to pull Thomas away and held him close, where they stood,
both quietly crying together. I my whole life, I’d never felt
crushing sadness.

The guard silently went
about their business, burying the dead and dismantling the camp, so
it looked as if it had never existed. Then they carefully wrapped
Gregor and Cedrik in linen and gently carried them through the
woods to a waiting wagon. Thomas and El followed and rode away with
them on their final journey home. The rest of us stood in silence,
tears still flowing. I sobbed, my head throbbed with
pain.

“You intervention saved
Thomas, remember that,” Damien said.

It didn’t help right now,
but later I was sure it would.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

I felt awful. I had many
questions, but I knew one thing for certain: this attack had
Luena’s name all over it.

“We forgot all about Eric,”
gasped Kate, hand over her mouth.

“Well, nobody is going
anywhere alone,” Damien was adamant. “Katrina and I can do this, if
you want to go back. The brothers are going to be beside
themselves.”

“Quinn is still away on
Watcher business, and he isn’t due back for a few days. I’ll have
to have Father send someone for him.” I said softly.

Kate advised, “I think we’d
better stay together. This might be another trap. It’s not far, so
it shouldn’t take that long.”

“Kate’s right, I think we
should stay together. That’s our strength,” Rosa added.

“Okay, let’s go,” I
said.

We streaked through the
forest and along the creek until we could see the old mill in the
distance.

“Let’s stop and take a look
around; see anything, Kate?”

“Nothing evil. How about
you?”

“There’s our Watcher and
Eric, but nothing else.” I said after using my sensing.

“Good,” said Letta. “But
stay alert.”

We slowed, as we approached
the Watcher. Familiar with vampire modes of travel, he was hidden
and in a defensive position when we arrived. We identified
ourselves and relieved, he told us no one had come all night and we
were the only ones to show up today. Damien assumed his post, told
him to get back to the castle and relayed the sad news we had lost
two Watchers, Gregor and Cedrik. The Watcher was shocked, but
didn’t ask any questions; then he silently slipped away. We walked
into the mill and up the stairs, where we knew Eric to be from the
vision. The door was right at the top.

“Eric, it’s all right.
We’re here to help you,” I called through the door.

The door was solid iron,
with two locking bolts and a padlock. Someone clearly wanted to be
sure no one got in or out.

“I’m strong, but I don’t
think I can break down this door,” said Damien.

“I have an idea,” I said.
“Letta, how about a little heat on the lock?”

She smiled, then stared at
the lock until we saw it engulfed in fire. It burned until it
turned red.

“Now, how about a little
cold?”

“No problem.”

Again she stared at the
lock, then opened her mouth and blew. We could feel how cold her
breath was, and as soon as it hit the hot metal the lock
shattered.

“Amazing, simply amazing,”
Damien’s face showed shock at the extent of Letta’s
gift.

“She’s been practicing,”
Kate crowed, filled with pride.

Once the lock was off, all
we had to do was slide the bolts out and open the door. Eric was
standing in front of the bed.

“It’s you!” he said when he
saw me.

“Yes, let’s get you out of
here,” I motioned to him.

He was weak, but didn’t
hesitate to follow us out of the mill and into the morning light.
Sunlight usually bothers made vampires, but Eric seemed fine,
probably because he was so glad to be free.

“Thank you,” he said,
seeming not to know what to do next.

“Here, drink this,” said
Damien, handing him a flask.

He took a whiff and then
gulped it down, draining every drop in just a few
seconds.

“You’ll come back with us
now. We’ll help you get your strength back and anything else you
need,”  Kate said.

“There are two of you,” he
said, looking a bit frightened.

“I assure you, there’s only
one of each of us,” I said. “But yes, we’re sisters.

“Twins,” Kate
said.

“Identical,” Damien
nodded.

“Mirror,” I
added.

Rosa and Letta rolled their
eyes.

Then Rosa broke in, “if
this comedy act is over, let’s go home.”

“What happened to the men
who imprisoned me?” Eric asked as we walked.

“All but one is dead,”
Damien ground out, his voice full of the hatred we all felt. “The
leader escaped. Someone must have warned him. He may be gone for
now, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.”

“We’ll find him,” I said
sternly, looking straight ahead.

“How do you feel, Eric?”
Rosa asked. “I think we have food in the pack.”

“I feel better than I have
for a very long time.”

“If you can run at vampire
speed, we’ll get back in just a few minutes,” Damien
said.

“Yes, I think I’m strong
enough.”

We ran until were close to
the front gate. It was a very solemn castle we returned to. El and
Thomas had stopped at the mission, we learned, in order to give El
a chance to heal the girl we saw in our vision and give Thomas some
time with Father Jonas in order to pray for his brothers and make
funeral arrangements. I felt a lump in my throat. Father came into
the courtyard a few minutes later; Kate and I ran into his arms and
started to cry once again.

 “
I’m so glad you are
all safe. We’ve been so worried,” he said.

“If only we would have
sighted this earlier,” I said.

“Don’t blame yourselves.
Whoever is making these fledglings is at fault.”

“It has to have been Luena.
I can’t think of anyone else who would do such a thing,” Damien
said.

“Who is the young man with
you?” Father asked, turning to Eric.

“Oh, of course. Father,
this is Eric. He’s the one the Volator had locked in the old Mill,”
I said.

“We’re all sorry you had to
go through such an ordeal,” Father said. “Let us get you to your
quarters, so you can wash up and rest. I know everything is very
confusing to you now, but there will be plenty time to explain
things once you get your strength back. Ah, here’s Andrew. Andrew
would you please show Eric to a room by Damien’s in the north wing,
and make sure he gets everything he needs? Thank you. We’ll talk
soon, Eric.”

“I just want to thank you
for saving me, and I don’t mean just today,” Eric said, looking at
me.

“You’re more than welcome,
Eric. Saving you actually means we’re all safe,” I said.

He went with Father’s page,
Andrew, leaving us to finish our earlier conversation.

“What of the leader of the
Volator?” Father asked.

Damien answered for us.
“After we took care of the fledglings, which didn’t take long,
thanks to the girls, I went to the village to finish our task. I
found the Watcher had been knocked unconscious and both the leader
and the journal were gone. Somehow, he’d been warned. But who
warned him or where he went I don’t know.”

“Damn,” Father said,
clenching his fists.

We recounted what had
happened, when we went to the encampment.

We told of our horror at
finding Cedric and Gregor, and how lucky we felt to have been able
to save Thomas.

“I’m proud of all of you.
Once again you have managed to avert a situation that could have
been disastrous; but it’s a sad day for us all. We lost two good,
loyal and honorable men. They were members of our family, and we’ll
miss the terribly,” Father said, sadness filling his
eyes.

“We have to find Luena,”
said Damien. “I can’t continue to live with the fact a member of my
family is putting us all in danger like this. And these fledglings!
They weren’t more than a few weeks old - starved, wild, and
untrained, with not a weapon among them. They were victims as
well.”