Chapter 25 – Shade
SHADE
Iteleport into Lord Drac’s room and rush toward the crystal. My hands almost close around it when I’m yanked into someone’s arms.
“How long?” Lord Drac asks, his voice holding a threat, along with the blade at my throat.
“How long what?” I ask, trying to look back at the crystal.
Vampires are fast. No doubt the moment I took Cody out of the great hall Lord Drac’s guards rushed to my bedroom door where they know Elliot and Cody must be. They’ll begin to pound on the door. Within minutes the wood will split, and the gargoyles will be trapped and helpless.
I have to get the crystal. I have to get out. But am I fast enough to avoid the blade at my throat?
Channeling my powers, I try to hurt the vampire with my powers. But he doesn’t even blink.
Do my powers only work on the truly living?
Sweat rolls down my spine. I try again…and nothing.
“How long have you been planning to betray me?”
My heart races, and I know what I’m feeling. Fear. “I didn’t plan to betray you. I wanted this to be my home. But I left a life of death and violence and control, all I wanted was freedom here.”
“I gave you freedom!” he shouts, the blade lowering by an inch or two. And I wish I could see his face, so I could tell if he might be uncertain enough not to strike before I can teleport away.
“No, this isn’t freedom.” I say. “I don’t want to be your guard dog, sent to punish those you are angry at. I just want to give victims justice.”
“Think about what you’re doing, Shade. It’s not too late.
You’re innocent to this world. I don’t blame you for being corrupted by the gargoyles.
But realize the truth, they’re using you.
If you help them escape, the first thing they’re going to do is kill you.
” Lord Drac slides the blade down and turns me around to face him.
“They could never appreciate something like you. You’re a monster, like me.
You should be with your own kind. Not run away into the woods with them, only to find a blade in your back. ”
“Your blood humans. Are they here willingly?”
“I told you—“
“Don’t lie to me.”
His chin lifts. “They are lucky. They just don’t realize it.”
I feel my lips twist. “You and I are not the same. You’re a monster. I’m not.”
He digs the blade into my belly faster than I can process. “I didn’t want to do that.”
My head spins, but I grasp his wrist. We’re in the Underworld a second later.
Four shades appear out of the shadows. “We’ve had enough of the rebel Shade.”
I look at them, then back at Lord Drac. “I guess you can have me, or an immortal vampire who is probably the greatest catch of your lives. A killer of many.”
All their gazes go to Lord Drac, and I try not to think about which one of them will kill him and drag his soul from these dark tunnels to his life of torture.
One of them laughs. “Lord Drac, how nice to finally meet you. We couldn’t just take an immortal before. You know, the rules and all. But once you come to the Underworld…”
“No!” he shouts, his eyes wild.
I don’t need to see what will happen next. I already know. So I teleport away.
Back in Lord Drac’s bedroom, I stagger to the table, grab the crystal, and throw it as hard as I can onto the ground.
It cracks, and the faint glow fades. To my shock, from out of the shards of crystal, a tiny being flies fee.
She stays for a moment, inches from my face, and I realize that she’s a fairy.
A tiny being with shimmering wings and a delicate face.
One of the rarest creatures in our world.
“Thank you,” she whispers, and then her light darts toward the door, the door flashes open, and she’s gone.
I’m glad she’s safe. If I do nothing else in this life, I’m glad I could free a fairy from such a bleak existence.
Falling to my knees, I try to teleport back to my room, but I can’t. Looking down, I see the blade still buried deeply in my belly. Blood spills from it down my dress. But whether it’s adrenaline, or something else, I barely feel the pain.
I just feel…weak and tired. Like all I want in this world is to lie down on the cold stone and fall asleep for a long time. But if I do, will I die? Can shades die? Or will I just be reborn in the darkness of the Underworld? The truth is, I don’t know.
But I have to get back to the gargoyles…I have to get back or else they won’t…they won’t… Wait, even if I don’t come back, the gargoyles will go. Now they can all shift. They can be free.
Realization hits me. Lord Drac was an asshole, but he was right about something, I am a monster to the gargoyles. When they come to save Elliot and Cody, I have no doubt they’ll leave right after.
I also have no doubt that when the vampires discover me here, and put together what happened, I might find myself wishing for death. There are places I can’t teleport from, and I have no doubt Lord Drac would be just the kind of person who would have access to those kinds of places.
So that’s my future now…
But still, I have no regrets. This is what I was born to do. Save the innocent, kill the guilty. Even if no one sees me that way. Even if in the eyes of the vampires and the gargoyles I’m simply a killing machine.
I know what I am, and that’s all that matters.
All my strength fades away. Falling to my side, my eyes close. I have the sense that my blood is pouring from my belly, and that it’s strangely warm, and then the world goes black.