Chapter 16 #2
The wave grew bigger and came nearer. The water was pulling back from the beach.
Back and back and back. It exposed the sea floor.
Shiny rocks. Slimy seaweed. Flopping fish and other things that scuttled back towards the water.
There was the hint of alien ruins, nothing like the structures on land, that were revealed where dreadful things slept.
But the two Vampires didn’t notice. That had to be Balthazar’s doing.
How could they not notice this otherwise?
“Not this time.” The Eyros Vampire sauntered down further onto the beach. She was wearing impractical stiletto heels, but Vampire grace allowed her to walk on top of the sand without the barest imprint being left by her shoes. “Not yet. But while history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme.”
“He’s–he’s too strong for you!” Grayson was near to Fiona now.
He could reach out and touch her hand, but if he did, the Eyros Vampire would be able to slither inside his mind.
How he was so sure of it, he couldn’t say, but he knew better.
Balthazar was likely telling him this and he was hearing it subconsciously underneath whatever power this Eyros Vampire had. “You’re just–just girls!”
Oh, how foolish and idiotic that sounded! But it had the result he wanted. The two female Vampires looked between each other and tittered. They turned their heads back towards him as if they were one person. Their silver eyes shone.
They’re Kaly slices, Grayson realized. The sameness. The way they move. The way they talk. Not quite full people. Caemorn thought he had gotten every part of himself but Roan back. Was he wrong? Or did Roan slice himself into pieces, too?
“Weryn truly has struck gold with you, hasn’t he?” The Ashyr Vampire sneered. “So very smart, you are. We’re just girls. Just harmless girls. Are we not?”
“Oh, yes, we are,” the Eyros Vampire said.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” Grayson demanded, his voice commanding for a moment instead of shrinking.
“We don’t really want anything from you,” the Eyros Vampire sighed. “This is just payment for the services of another.”
“Payment? Who wants you to hurt me?” Grayson asked.
“I don’t know why they care about you at all,” the Ashyr Vampire said with a shake of her blond head. “You’re so not worthy.”
You’ve no idea…
“I suppose you’re pretty, but that’s hardly important,” the Eyros Vampire tsked.
“Even among the Immortals, pretty grows old very quickly,” the Ashyr Vampire nodded. “Though, I have to admit, Legion is quite an acquired taste compared to you. Compared to anyone really. But we can make them palatable.”
The Ashyr Vampire grinned. “We have all the gifts, you know? All of them.”
She held out her small white hands. They looked to be hardly larger than a china doll’s, but he could imagine the power that she held in them.
Kaly might not have all the powers in one body, but they had plenty of bodies to choose from.
Using different powers was as simple for them as changing a pair of shoes would be for him.
“Who is this Legion? What do they want from me?” Grayson asked.
“They are the Childe of Weryn’s Heart. But you’re distracting him from seeing that,” the Eyros Vampire explained with a wave of one hand.
Oh, gods, Legion is obsessed with Ryder. There isn’t hatred in their heart, but a twisted love. That’s so much worse.
The Eyros Vampire was just a few steps from him.
Not that it mattered. They could have lunged for him at any time and gotten there in seconds.
His power was still flowing out behind him to the wave, but he also had it pooling at his feet.
If they moved, it would slide up faster than they could lunge and block them.
It would be like slamming into a brick wall at 120 mph.
Balthazar, where the hell are you?
“Time grows short,” the Ashyr Vampire said. “We can’t dally any longer.”
Balthazar! I really need you!
“Should we take him with us?” the Eyros Vampire asked. “Legion did wish it to hurt. There’s hardly a moment to do that here.”
“They’ll be able to track him. Best to just get it done. There’s plenty of space for us to work.” The Ashyr Vampire actually yawned as if whatever evil they had planned for him bored her.
Balthazar!
The Ashyr Vampire stared back at the undulating mound of sand that kept the Marrowstalker from striking. A faint moue of distaste crossed her cupid’s bow lips.
“I really do want to know how this is happening!” She stamped one slender foot.
“It’s probably Daemon. He’s pulling himself back in from his communing. We really have no time,” the Eyros Vampire said.
And they were right. Well, about the time thing. Not about the Daemon thing. The moonlight began to dim as the wave rose so high that it blocked out some of the moons’ radiance. It was then that the Vampires saw it. Both their mouths opened as one as the tidal wave bore down upon them.
Grayson was about to curl his gift around him and Fiona to keep the water from crushing and smashing them. But the shock of seeing the one-hundred foot wave must have loosened their grip enough upon Fiona that she grabbed his wrist and teleported them away.
Between one blink and the next, they went from being on the beach to standing at an open-air shrine five hundred feet away and up high.
They had the perfect view as the wave thundered down upon where they had just been standing.
The Kaly slices and the Marrowstalker were subsumed under the water.
Quite a bit of the forest near the beach was consumed, too.
Trees were uprooted and washed away in the terrible tide.
The water kept going until it reached half a mile inland before it began to retreat, leaving destruction in its wake.
“Goodness, Grayson,” Fiona breathed. “You did that?”
He nodded, feeling a little bit lightheaded. There were stone benches around the circular shrine that he sat heavily down upon as both of them watched the water recede.
“It likely didn’t kill them. Just damaged them a bit,” Grayson said.
“Besides, I don’t think even if they’re capable of coming after us that they’ll do so now.
They had a deadline and they missed it. Though we’re still alone.
” He craned his head around to look for Balthazar or any other Vampires.
“This is the Shrine of Eternity, isn’t it? Where are the others?”
Fiona nodded. “The Order said that this was the place where Daemon’s spirit came and blessed the first ever Preceptor of the Order. Of course, then the location of the city was lost… conveniently.”
Grayson looked at the pale marble altar that stood in the very center of a round disk of matching marble that was five feet high and fifty-feet across.
The stone benches circled the entire thing.
There looked to be worn glyphs on the stone disk’s surface.
He vaguely remembered them glowing at one point and all of the Immortals standing in a circle around Daemon, but the memory faded.
“I think this may have been where we started the process for Daemon to go into suspension,” Grayson said.
“All these things you remember. Part of me wants to remember them, too but then–Grayson!” Fiona cried.
He’d slumped forward and was hanging his head between his knees. Exhaustion was flowing through him much like the tidal wave had. It had hit him so hard that it had taken his breath away. He hadn’t felt it before, but he did now. It seemed like his soul was scraped clean.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. Just used… used too much power,” he admitted.
“I would take you back to the dorm, but I can’t imagine water–even a tidal wave–will stop that Marrowstalker forever,” she said as she put a gentle hand on his brow and helped him sit up. “We should stay here until the others come.”
“No, I suppose it won’t stay away. This was where we were supposed to lead it,” Grayson said with a grimace. “I suppose that you can teleport us if it gets close again?”
“Don’t worry.” Her brows drew together in anger. “I won’t be caught off guard again.”
“I’m not worried. I know you can handle whatever comes.”
He sagged forward again. She rubbed his back.
All I want to do is go to bed in Ryder’s arms. But we can’t even do that. He has to shift to be safe around me. But I need him. I need him now!
Maybe wanting to be Weryn’s chosen one wasn’t that far off from how he really felt.
Balthazar? Can you hear me? We’re at the Shrine. Where are you?
“I’m not hearing Balthazar yet,” Fiona admitted. “I don’t sense that other Eyros Vampire, but–”
“It was Kaly. Both of them were Kaly,” Grayson got out. “That’s why they hold you for so long. If they were normal, they couldn’t have done that to you.”
Fiona lifted an eyebrow. “Now my pride feels better.”
“You were going to break free in a moment anyways,” he said.
“It wouldn’t have been enough if you hadn’t brought the tidal wave.” She looked over at the beach and forest and shook her head. “A tidal wave!”
“I had to do something they wouldn’t think was me,” Grayson admitted.
“No one would think a human could do that,” she admitted. “But you really do look–”
She didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence. The earth in front of the disk erupted as the Marrowstalker flew out of the earth.
Found you, it hissed.
Before Fiona could do anything, Christian was suddenly on the Marrowstalker’s back. He had two curved daggers in his hands. There were wicked-looking crystals at the end of the hilts that started to glow the moment that Christian thrust them into the Marrowstalker’s chest like twin fangs.
The Marrowstalker’s head arched back as it let out a scream. But that scream was cut short as the creature disappeared like smoke. Christian lightly landed on the ground. The daggers’ hilt stones burned.
“Christian!” Fiona gasped. “Hope’s End?”
It took Grayson a moment to remember the name of the magical daggers. They were a strange mix of Eyros and Kaly traits, which no one had believed anyone could truly wield.
Kaly knew. They knew because they were the creators of Vampires like Christian over the years. Speakers to the Dead.
“Christian, very well done!” Balthazar’s voice came from behind him.
“My brother did very well, very well,” Elgar spoke to the skull in his hands though he clearly meant Christian. “You were perfect.”
“Only because Sabine made sure to teleport me to just the right spot,” Christian said to a Wyvern Vampire Grayson hadn’t noticed who had landed lightly behind Christian.
“Sabine, Aurela, Sana!” Fiona cried, smiling broadly. “My sisters, you have done so well!”
The three Wyvern Vampires surrounded Fiona who hugged and kissed them all. Each of them must have brought the others.
“Grayson, are you all right?” Balthazar was kneeling down in front of him.
Though Grayson had wanted to get up, he couldn’t. He grimaced. “I sort of brought a–”
“Tidal wave,” Elgar said to the skull in his arms. “Ashyr is great. Ashyr is wise.”
“Ashyr is exhausted. Beyond exhausted,” Balthazar said gently as he touched Grayson’s knees.
“Yeah, but there are still some Kaly slices around that need to be dealt with if they haven’t already taken off,” Grayson said. “They were going to kill me in order to satisfy Legion. They’re–”
“Legion,” Elgar’s voice was soft, but it stopped Grayson from speaking.
Both of them looked over at the Eyros Vampire. He was not gazing down lovingly at the skull in his arms. Instead, he was staring back towards Nightvallen.
“What is it, Elgar?” Balthazar slowly rose to his feet.
Elgar looked at Balthazar straight on. “We must get to Daemon’s tomb. Death is waiting.”