Darkling (37 page)

I wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but when it was gone, I stayed spread out on the sand for what seemed to be hours.  I was shivering heavily; it was like I was having a seizure that wouldn’t stop.

Chapter 25

The Awakening

When I finally reached my room, it was late and quiet. Under my blanket, still shivering from shock or fear, I took a pill. Dawn was slipping up the horizon when I finally calmed down enough to sink into sleep.

I tossed and turned a lot and the images seemed hazy, and later, when I opened my eyes, they felt too heavy. I lay there, trying to remember my dreams, but the only thing I could recall was a place that looked like the boiler room in “Titanic,” where I stood looking at the wall of interlaced red pipes that struck me as a labyrinth, or an awkward family tree. Then Doris burst into my room.

“Something’s happened!” she said in a high voice, sitting next to me on bed.

“What’s wrong?” I propped myself up on the pillows, feeling a light dizziness.

“I called you before but you didn’t pick up.”

“I just woke up. What’s going on, Doris?”

“I spent the whole night in a conference call, talking with Dad and David. It’s a . . .” Her tired eyes shot right through me.  “Sango’s awakened.”

Silence.

“What!? The first Elder, Sango? Like now??”

“Yes, Nika. Now.”

“He’s asleep from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century and now he’s walking, talking, thinking?”

“Sorta.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s awakened, but he’ll need some time to gain his strength.” Clearly I hadn’t understood, so she added.  “He, Udama, and Ixtab are each in a special sarcophagus with feeding mechanisms. They don’t feed regularly like us, but they do receive blood occasionally. So now, Sango’s body needs to recover. He gained his conscience for several minutes and then he lost it again.”

Oh My God! The First Elder had awakened after seven friggin’ centuries! I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. And Doris seemed pretty shaken by it as well; she looked afraid and confused and she seemed paler than usual.

“So how are you?” I asked awkwardly, not knowing what exactly to think about the whole thing.

“Weird. Scared too, I guess.” Doris lowered her gaze.

“When did it happen?”

“Last night. David’s assistant came with the news, and since then we’ve been in my cousin’s office handling the situation,” she sighed. “For the last several hours I’ve been swallowing down my panic and horror. I mean, they all were shocked, but nobody exactly fainted or anything, so I had to keep a hold of myself. It was expected of me, ‘cause I’m a Lazar. And by the way, you look like shit too.”

“Yeah, I feel like it,” I said, and she reached for my forehead.

“You’ve got a fever.”

“Maybe. Last night, I . . .” I didn’t know what to say had happened. It was a pain that had come out of nowhere; the most horrible thing had I felt in my entire life. Even the very thought of it made my muscles cramp in fear of its return.

“You should stay in bed. Want me to call a doctor?”

“I don’t think so. I had a complete checkup in Tromsø a few weeks ago, so it couldn’t be anything serious.” But still, the pain had been devastating. Oh, the hell with that—Sango had awakened!

“What does it mean, Doris?”

“I don’t know. But that’s not all.”

“There’s more?!”

“Sango awakened so he could tell us his new vision.” The tension thickened.

“He said he saw a birth of the Sixth Elder, and that things would grow darker. For all.”

I let out a breath that I wasn’t even aware I had been holding, and my heart seemed to be beating too loudly. That wasn’t good. A new Elder?  Things would grow darker for all? I swallowed hard. Only no prophecy was good prophecy.

“When?” I managed to ask.

“Soon, I guess. That was all he said, and now we have to wait for him to become conscious again to know more,” she answered. “Bad things are coming, Nika.”

“What do you mean ‘bad’?”

“Bad enough to bring dark times upon our races.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“No, that’s all.”

I covered her hand with mine. It was strange, I didn’t know how to feel exactly.

“What did your father and cousin say?”

“Dad was more composed, as if he was dealing with any other Council business. But David seemed pretty nervous. We mostly talked with people about spreading the information of Sango and his vision.”

“Is your dad still in Tromsø?”

“Yeah,” she said, arranging a pillow for herself, and spreading out on the bed next to me.

“What’re Baldur’s thoughts on all of this?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything of him.”

“Is Sango more powerful than the other Elders?” I asked, thinking of her cousin’s nervousness.

“He’s the most respected. He’s the oldest one . . . so I guess he
is
the most powerful vampire.”

“I have a new causality dilemma—who came first, Sango or
Homo sapiens
?”

“Huh, but not new. There are many philosophical dilemmas throughout our history.”

“Just kidding. But is it possible?”

“What? That we can philosophize?” Doris asked.

“No, that you’re stealing our ‘chicken-and-egg’ thing,” I said, and she poked me lightly in the ribs.

“Very funny. I see your fever is getting the better of you.”

I imagined human scientists debating the topic of Sango vs.
Homo sapiens
, and it was indeed pure science fiction. But it lightened our mood a bit. And the breakfast Doris had ordered earlier arrived, not that I was hungry.

Still, what were the bad things that had appeared to Sango?

“What is he like—Sango, I mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know, and to be honest the whole thing scares me. I always knew that they would wake up from their catatonic states, but I never gave much thought to it.”

“So, how does one become an Elder? At what age does transformation happen?”

“There’s no formula, it happens differently for everyone. Sango and Ixtab knew they were different since the time they could think. Udama’s transformation started at age six, Baldur was a few years younger, and Kyrill was twelve when it happened. The Elders are not like other vampires, they didn’t have a need for blood before their transformation. Even afterward, they still didn’t need it like the rest of us did. We were born with the vamp equipment, unlike them. That’s why the transformation was so painful in their case.”

“Yeah, but how does a human suddenly turn into a vamp—without the bite, that is?”

“Nobody knows how their changes happened, and what caused them. There was some research done, but no results to explain the most important questions. Kyrill has put a lot into solving the mystery. He’s invested in new technologies; but it’s hard to do anything without a real subject to work on. There are many theories on the issue, and the most common one is that the Elders are born as humans but with some different element that turns their bodies into vampires at some certain age.” Doris shrugged and I thought of mutation—of evolution as mutation—and if becoming a vamp is the destiny of the human race in the far future. The thought made me shiver. Who would they feed off of then?

“Did Baldur work on it too?”

“No, that was Kyrill’s project, I guess. Baldur had his own.”

Yeah, like raising the Vocati army for himself. I wondered why Baldur hadn’t shown more interest in researching the genetics of the Elders. Maybe fear of competition?

“I assume that research went through Gazini, Inc.,” I said, and Doris nodded. Had Kyrill hidden some of the results from Baldur? Bet Balthazar would know a thing or two about it.

“I know that nobody can kill the Elders, but is it possible for them to commit murder among themselves?”

“Is—what!?” She stared at me.  “Why would you ask something like that? It’s madness!”

“Crazy is not the same as impossible,” I said, meeting her glare. I was so sick of their brainwashed ideas about the Elders having the highest moral values. After what Baldur had done to me on my first day, plus his whole Vocati army “I want to rule the world” sinister plan—no one should ever use the word “moral” in reference to him! However, Doris wasn’t aware of the plan, and Balthazar had made it very clear that it should stay that way, for now at least. She dismissed my suggestion without elaboration.

Sango’s prophecy of dark times coming was filled my thoughts.

“How soon is soon? The vision, I mean. Did he mean like a year, or ten, or even one hundred?”

“I don’t know. But I think it’s sometime in the near future, not a decade or a century away.”

The thought of an apocalypse reminded me of the dream that we had shared. And of the brooch in my travel bag.

“Right. I’d almost forgotten,” I said, getting the bag so I could fish out the present I had found online for her.

“I got you something.” I gave her the burgundy brooch.

“The one from the dream!” she said, after inspecting it.

“Yep, the one from my version of it.”

“It’s beautiful, Nika! I love it!”

It always surprised me how genuine her reactions were. Her eyes—frustrated a second ago— now had a glow of happiness. She turned on her side and hugged me hard.

“The stone reminds me of something that Aidan gave me a long time ago.” Her voice cracked a bit.

“No call yet?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“No. Nothing.”

“You know, he might call soon,” I said, and she widened her eyes.

“Why you think that?”

“Whatever Belun had planned was probably interrupted by Sango’s awakening and vision,” I offered.

“Maybe they’ll return to Tromsø now. The both of them.”

It was hard to rain on her sudden parade, but I doubted that possibility. In Belun’s case, at least. “I don’t think the reason that Belun left is the same reason that he called his Warriors,” I said. I actually knew the reasons were different. He had left to find a Priest to heal him. But why had he changed his plans? That was yet another mystery. Maybe he had stumbled upon something during his trip.

“How come? I thought they were connected,” she raised, her eyebrows.

“Well, he’d have probably said something to Aidan before he left, and not stood him up for their meeting, as you mentioned before.”

“True. I forgot about that.” Doris jumped off the bed. “I have to check if there’s any change. I’ll be back in a minute. You rest.”

“I feel better now.”

Doris sent me an air kiss and left the room. I willed myself to stand up and take a shower. Even though I had told her that I felt better, it really wasn’t the case. I was probably coming down with something, I felt so languid.

There were several missed calls from Doris, and texts from Blake and Mom on my phone since last night. After speaking to my mom, I called Blake.

“Man!” he said, answering.

“Yeah. True shocker.”

“Did you know about him having visions?”

“Yeah, Doris told me recently. How’re things there?” I asked.

“It’s chaotic. We’ve been told not to come to the cells today.”

“You saw Baldur today?”

“No, we’ve mostly been staying in our rooms. Lyndon and Max are here.”

“What about Jules?”

“She left for Bristol two days ago. And Gustavo’s not yet returned from his trip.”

That struck me as odd. He’d left before I had. I wondered what he had been doing for a month away from his Vocati and Tromsø. Could it be connected to Belun somehow? I was probably clutching at straws.

“How will all this affect us, Blake?”

“I don’t see why it would. We’re part of Baldur’s Project.”

“You don’t think that the Elders could put a veto on what the others are doing?” I asked. Kyrill was already against the Project in Tromsø.

“I don’t know if it works that way. But still, I don’t see why they would want to shut us down.”

Unfortunately, I did.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. One of your team members has gone AWOL,” he said.

“What? Who?”

“The guy who trained with you and Belun.”

“Lee?”

“Yeah, him.”

“Since when?”

“A few days ago, I think.”

Okay, I was certain that had something to do with Belun. Maybe he was one of the Warriors Belun had asked Aidan to take with him.

“Okay, thanks,” I said to Blake, as Doris walked into the room.

“Sure, see you soon,” he replied.

Doris dropped onto my bed with a deep sigh.

“Any news?” I asked her.

“Not really. But David spoke with Baldur.”

“Oh? What did he say?”

“I don’t know. The call was private.”

“Is that strange?” I asked, and she shrugged.  Were David and Baldur allies? That wouldn’t be so surprising, and I actually could imagine them forging evil plans to take over the world. Baldur was mean enough, and
the cousin
was ambitious enough; they would make a perfect evil duo.

With another sigh, Doris fished an iPod out of her pocket.

“Could you find me that Massive Attack song?”

“You mean the Nika n’ Belun song?” she teased, shuffling through her music.

When I heard the first beats, a warm feeling overwhelmed me. Warm as all the nice moments I had spent with him
. Would I ever see him again? Was he thinking of me even a little bit?
My hand found its way to the figurine that was still in my pocket. It was real. I closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of us dancing that night.

Chapter 26

The Escape

Later that day, the memory of the pain still echoed through my body. I strongly hoped that it was a one-time thing—whatever it was. Bad food, bad host, bad day—you name it. I pulled my clothes out of the closet and started packing my travel bag. Tomorrow we would return to Tromsø, and I was still unsure of my destiny at that place. I was taking my jacket off of a hanger, when my phone rang.

“They’ve escaped!!”

“Hello?”

“Nika, can you hear me?! The Vocati—they’ve all escaped!!” Blake’s voice was barely audible among all the noise behind him.