The Awakening (5 page)

The Roman put their bags inside the trunk and
thumped it closed and went for the driver’s side before she could push him out
of the way. Getting in the opposite side she watched as he put the keys into
the ignition. "Do you even have a license?" she asked, eyeing
him suspiciously.

"I might've been born in thirteen AD,
Gabrielle, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to drive a car."

"Whatever, just hurry up."

"There's one thing vampires don't have and
that's a sense of urgency."

"Even hybrids?"

"Especially hybrids."

With a sigh, she punched Newgrange into the GPS and
it brought up the directions. "Brú na Bóinne is called Newgrange
now," she explained. "They do limited tours of the tomb during the
day and there's a small museum and farm nearby."

Without another word, Regulus backed the car out of
the lot and merged onto the highway, following the directions on the GPS.

"Do you know what we're looking for?" she
asked. "Would he have been buried with the human dead?"

"No," he replied, not once taking his
eyes form the road. "I suspect the human population built their structure
there as some kind of tribute in the centuries after. The Tuatha would never
mingle with them and especially not in death. Aoife wouldn't have hidden him in
such an obvious place."

"Then it's a smoke screen for something
else…"

"It's a burial chamber on the surface,"
Regulus explained. "They call them mounds. The Celts, the name you know
them by, built them so that grass and flowers could grow above. A tribute to
the dead."

"So, why hasn't anyone found the hybrid before
now?"

"What we're looking for is beneath. In the
earth."

"Caves?"

"Yes."

She didn't have to ask the next question. Nobody
knew they were down there because they would be warded. The Tuatha were as much
a dead race as the Celestines and her powers were born of the latter. She knew
nothing of fae magic and the likelihood of anyone alive knowing even a scrap
was non-existent.

As the car wove through the green fields, she watched
the countryside flash by. She'd always wanted to visit Ireland, and London for
that matter, but never really expected it to be like this. On the hunt for a
three thousand year old hybrid with mental issues. She wanted to see museums
and art, drink Guinness in a traditional Irish pub, and meet a hot Irishman so
she could swoon at his accent. Cursing her bad luck, she glanced at Regulus.
She didn't think she could hate him anymore than she did right now.

He returned her look, his lips curving into a sly
smile. Ugh. What an asshole. The air inside the car suddenly felt extremely
close.

When they finally reached Newgrange, they passed
the farm that was on the map and turned towards the burial mound. From a
distance it looked like any other hill they'd passed on the drive here, but
underneath it would be a warren of ancient chambers, full of ancient human
burials. Regulus pulled the car into the small lot and killed the engine.

Opening the door, she stepped out into the fresh
air and could instantly feel a buzzing sensation tickling against her skin. It
was different to the power she was used to, so she could only assume it was the
lingering signature of the Tuatha. Closing her eyes, she felt it out and within
she could sense the tinge of Celestine, which must have been Aoife's doing.
Maybe she had warded this place once she'd sealed Aed in his tomb.

"Gabrielle." Regulus beckoned, holding
out his hand.

"Do I really have to go down there with
you?" she asked, lingering by the car.

"I gather you can feel the magic around this
place," he said, pointing to the mound. "Your expertise is
required."

With a sag of her shoulders, she pushed past him
and walked towards the entrance. He was beside her a second later as they
approached the very deserted looking historical monument.

"It's closed," Gabby said, noticing a
sign near the entrance to the mound. "Guided tours by prior booking only.
No access."

"Good," the Roman said, walking up to the
modern door that had been set into the ancient structure. He ripped the lock off
and tossed it aside, pushing his way inside. Gabby had no other option
other than to follow him into the darkness.

As they made their way through the tomb, the air
stank of moldy earth and damp and it was colder than outside. She felt out her
way with her earth sense, the power around them thick and metallic.

"Here," she whispered, her voice echoing
against the rock. "There's a concealment in the wall."

Regulus grasped her hand in the darkness and
despite herself she shivered. "Lead on."

"Through the back of this chamber is an
opening," she said. "There are stairs."

Stepping forward, she passed through the ward,
magic pulling at her skin. Regulus came without hesitation, his footfalls light
behind her as they descended through heavy clay earth and then bedrock. A
strange shimmering light began to break up the darkness and she hesitated.

"Keep going," Regulus whispered behind
her. "Nothing lives down there."

Taking a deep breath, she continued on, the light
growing with each step towards the bottom. The staircase finally opened
out into a small chamber and she gasped as she took in the sub-terrain. The
chamber and adjoining tunnel was lined with smooth rock, like someone had
melted it into shape. She ran her fingers over the surface, studying the
strange blue hue that almost sparkled.

Regulus still had a hold of her other hand and
tugged her away down the tunnel. The whole network seemed to be lit with some
kind of natural phenomenon that had been enhanced with magic of some kind.
She'd never seen anything like it. She was content to let the Roman lead her as
her fingers trailed against the rock.

"I suggest you don't look, Gabrielle."

"What?" she asked, thoroughly annoyed,
but she looked anyway.

Ahead, bloody remains were strewn across the tunnel
and up the walls. Turning away with a horrified gasp, she closed her eyes
trying to will herself awake.

"I said, don't look." Regulus was at her
side. "Would you like me to carry you across?"

"Eat shit," she spat, glaring at him.
Turning back, she tiptoed her way through the remains, trying not to heave her
breakfast all over herself. It was Coraline and Max, or what was left of them.
Truthfully, she didn't know them that well. She'd met Coraline only through
mental link and one phone conversation. She hadn't met Max at all. Still, she
had been a witch and devoted to their cause, no matter her Coven heritage. No
one deserved to die like this.

It was only a few yards ahead that the tunnel
opened out into a large cavern. Stalactites hung from the roof, the blue hue of
the rock brighter here, but it wasn't the only thing that dangled from the
ceiling.

The body of a woman had been strung up like a star,
arms and legs splayed out, each limb impaled on the natural cave formations.
Gabby saw the sickly grey skin and instantly knew what the woman had been.

"Vampire," Regulus muttered, cocking his
head to the side.

"What's a vampire doing down here?"

"I've encountered them before with the others.
They're worshipers, followers created by the Coven long ago to watch over the
hybrids."

"Then why did they lose them?"

"Hundreds of years down here? Can you imagine
how mentally stable they'd be after a decade, let alone a few centuries?"

"Point."

The vampire, or what was left of her, was strung up
between stalactites and lit up with the eerie light that trickled down from the
surface. Reflecting off the blue rock, it made her hair a brighter almost neon
shade of red. The whole scene was macabre to say the least.

"Well," Regulus said, his voice echoing
around the chamber. "It's a little theatrical for my tastes."

Gabby shivered despite the coat she wore and
wrapped her arms around herself. She wanted out of here as soon as possible.
"Can you track him?"

"Give me a moment, dear one."

He ran his pale fingers along the tomb, before
pacing across the cavern, following the trail of blood. As he disappeared into
the tunnel, back toward the remains of her allies, she stepped up to the
hybrid's resting place and studied the rock. It was like the whole thing had
been melted in place and the heat that would've been needed to do something
like this would be mammoth. Regulus had said Aoife had imprisoned them. It had
been Celestine magic, then. Strange to think that she was touching something
that had been wrought thousands of years ago.

"He's been gone a few days. Two at most."
The Roman's voice echoed around the rock, making her jump.

"How do you know where he's gone, then?"

"I was made for this purpose, among
others," he said blandly. "You have an earth sense. I have a hybrid
sense."

"Is that how Caius found Aya? Arturius?"

Regulus snorted. "No. We could never track her
like that."

So, just Tuatha tracking then
, she
thought to herself.

"We must return to the surface."

"Where has he gone then, smart ass?"

"He's looking for the Celestines."

CHAPTER SIX

Aya made her way through the damp forest, climbing
over moss-covered logs, leaping over the little streams that fed down into the
lakes. It had changed in so many ways, but nature tended to claim back the land
in the span of a handful of years and it had been thousands of those since
she'd set foot here.

This forest marked the land around her home, the
field of white flowers and the little house she'd grown up in. It was a place
that was of this world, but apart from it. A safe haven for the last of the
Celestines…and the place that had marked their horrible end.

Despite the coldness around her, the air began to
thicken the further she walked. The boundary loomed and as if it sensed her
presence, it parted and she stepped through into warm summer air. Sunlight
streamed through the canopy, warm dots of light dancing across her skin.
Glancing back over her shoulder, the only sight she was greeted with was an
ever stretching forest, green and gold. It looked the same as it always had in
her childhood, but something was missing.

The further she walked the more she felt apart from
this place, like she didn't belong anymore. Nothing stirred, not even the air
or a birdcall reached her sensitive ears. This place was as dead as she was and
her heart sank.

Really, what had she been expecting? After
everything that had come to pass, would it still be brimming with the life she
craved to nurture and protect? Stopping at the edge of the clearing where she
knew the white flowers grew, her gaze ran over them, their yellow centers bight
and happy. They were the only things that lived here now.

Memories flooded her mind of the day she'd been
standing in the center of this very clearing, gathering the blooms for her
mother. She stood in the same spot where Regulus had once stood, watching her
go about her work. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she squashed the
memories deep within her and stepped out into the sunlight. The flowers seemed
to tilt into her as she walked through them, as if they sensed her presence. A
macabre welcome wagon, the one thing that could kill her and the one thing that
reminded her of her family. It would deliver her to them, but she no longer
wanted it. Not yet.

Finally, she laid eyes on the house through the
tress on the far side of the clearing. She almost expected to see her mother
standing on the porch, her impossibly long silver hair fluttering in the
breeze, her bright eyes and warm smile welcoming her home…but it was dark and
empty. The windows looked out onto the forest like soulless eyes, the front
door a portal to the abyss. The home she knew was long gone.

Glancing up at the trees where she'd last seen
Grant and Lance, the men that had helped tend to the family and the house, she found
the branches bare. They'd been hanging upside-down, blood running down their
lifeless arms, dripping from pale fingertips onto the earth below. She'd smelt
it before she'd seen them, but it didn't soften the blow. Closing her eyes, she
could almost see them as they'd been all that time ago.

Her mother and father had been placed together on
their bed, hands entwined, their bodies mutilated and their life force had
pooled over the floors and splattered on the walls. Her brother…her dear
brother had been the same. She had been pure and strong, but he was so
young…together they would have led the witches into the new age and died
together in peace. She couldn't do it without him.

"Aydrenn," she murmured, uttering his
name for the first time in two thousand years. It wasn't fair, but life never
was.

She'd come too far to stop now. Pushing open the
front door to the house, she stepped into the darkness. Spider webs clung
to the ceilings and dust clogged every surface. No one had been here since the
Coven had sullied it a thousand years before. There was no sign of her family’s
remains. There was no sign that her family had ever lived here. Their
belongings, her mother's books, her father's works, they were all gone.
Venturing into their rooms, it was all the same. Nothing.

A sob escaped her throat. What had she been
expecting to find? The bones of her family? The stains of their blood in the
wooden floors? Some kind of link to her past? Something tangible that she could
hold on to remember them by? She didn't deserve any of it, but she still hoped.

There was nothing here. Nothing that could help,
anyway. The Coven and been through the place and had taken anything that might
have pointed them in the right direction. Nothing about the Tuatha and the
hybrids Aoife had created. The only thing that was left for her to do here was
to make her peace until the day she returned to die her true death.

Emerging outside, her breath caught in the back of
her throat and her already dead heart sputtered and almost stilled entirely.
Her family stood a few paces away, hand in hand, smiling with all the power of
the stars behind them. But, Aya knew they weren't really there. They were an
echo, an apparition, merely left over energy waiting for the day she'd return.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, as tears
began to fall.

Her father nodded, his skin shimmering with it's
familiar glow, marred by his translucency. Her mother smiled kindly, a sadness
in her eyes that betrayed that she understood her daughter's fate. And her
brother raised his hand in a wave and she knew it was goodbye. As they
disappeared across the field, she raised her hand, tendrils of blue flame
licking at her fingertips.

She didn't belong here anymore. Her mere presence
was a blight upon the pureness of this place. The echo of her lost family
tugged at her heart, but it made her realize the inevitable.

Aya said her final goodbye and left the clearing
and back into the human world. She would never set foot here again. Not until
it was time to join her family in the afterlife. She still had things to do,
battles had to be fought and won in the name of the Celestines. She had to help
her friends and she had to see the Tuatha dead. She had to go back.

Aya smelt the blood before she found the source.
The air was thick with it and she instantly thought of Tristan. Emerging
from the forest, she stood by the road, glancing up and down the street at the
shop fronts that were still bright with Christmas decorations twinkling in the
darkness. A terrible sense of dread chilled her bones and her gaze fell onto
the pub.

The Tuatha were extinct by the time she was born,
but that didn't mean that she didn't know who was sitting inside waiting. There
was only one reason that the hybrid would be here and she was it. She had been
afraid of many things in her time, but now was not the time for fear. Now was
the time for facing things head on. Tristan would be counting on her.

Opening the side door, her eyes began to
change instinctively as the overwhelming scent of blood slammed into
her. That wasn't the only thing that gave her pause. Her friend was with a man
who oozed nothing but dread, death and destruction. It was so potent it made
her stomach squirm and her skin prickle.

Tristan's eyes flew to hers as she stepped inside
and she saw the worry in them. The knight sat at a table amongst the remains of
an unknown amount of humans, body parts and blood strewn around the room.
Opposite, sat the Tuatha hybrid. It couldn't be anyone else. He wore a dark
tailored suit and a white shirt that had been stained with dark spots of blood.
Sickly looking skin made his otherworldly eyes stand out like pits of fire. Red
eyes meant red death. The hybrid looked her over just as blatantly, a smirk of
satisfaction on his handsome face.

"You smell like death," she said as the
hybrid stood.

"Welcome," he drawled. "Why don't
you join us?"

Rather than show any weakness, she sat next to
Tristan, never taking her eyes off of the Tuatha for an instant.

"And whom do I have the pleasure of speaking
with?"

"You can call me Aya," she replied, her
head held high. This was one man she would never utter her true name to.
Whether he learnt it or not was of no concern, but he would never hear it from
her.

"I am Aed, prince of the Tuatha De Danann. And
who are you to be worthy of being the last of your kind?"

"I am not the last of my kind...I am the only
one of my kind. I am neither Celestine, or vampire."

A smile slowly spread across Aed's face.
"You're a clever little girl, are you not?"

"To a degree."

"And your kind suffered their end at the hands
of your own creations. You never learnt the first time. I was of the
understanding that stars were more self-righteous than that."

Aya's jaw stiffened, but she didn't rise to the
bait. "The Five were created human. They were never gifted with Celestine
powers."

"Ahh," Aed said, tapping the table top
with a pale finger, "but human's are as corruptible as any other race. So
easily manipulated. All you have to do is offer them a little power and they'll
eat out of the palm of your hand." He regarded her for a moment, letting
his strange red eyes rake over her body. "You were turned by one of their
human vampires."

"And you were turned by a Celestine," she
sneered. "Doesn't it burn you from the inside out knowing that you have the
blood of your enemies running through your veins?" She felt Tristan's knee
press against hers underneath the table and she let her hand curl around his
thigh. She had this.

"Aoife," Aed spat, slamming his fist down
on the table. "The woman who would call me son? That bitch cast off her
Celestine name and took one of ours, but she never meant any of it. She
betrayed us. She betrayed my father. The only thing I regret was not ripping
her apart myself."

"Shame. What's it like being stuck in a tomb
for three thousand years? Cramped?"

"Arrow," Tristan hissed beside her.

"Where are my sisters, Celestine?" Aed
asked, his eyes beginning to swirl.

"I would hope that they're dead."

The hybrid shot to his feet with a snarl, curling
his hands into the lapels of Aya's jacket, wrenching her out of the chair. The
wind was knocked from her lungs as he shoved her hard against the wall,
betraying just how strong he was. Fingers bit into her skin as he held her in
place and she watched his eyes swirl with a strange luster. Her's were the
silvery white of the stars when her vampire side took over, Aed's were a odd
shade of red, almost like they were filling with blood, brimming to the edge
with death.

"Oh, it's so romantic. The poor little
children of Lir, turned into graceful swans." He dragged his fingertips
along her face, his red eyes taking in every inch of her features. "Do I
look like a swan to you?"

"Then why don't you just kill me now and be
done with it? Isn't that what you want? Why else would you come here?"

His strange eyes searched hers for a moment and a
smile crept onto his lips. "Because you're like me. You cannot be
killed."

"We'll see about that."

"The last Original is gone. The spell is lost.
You have 
nothing
," he spat.

Aya suddenly realized why Regulus had been so
intent on getting into the Coven. He was hunting the Children of Lir, but why
did he care? He was dead. All the founders were, and there went their only
known chance at delivering Aed his true end.
They didn't know how to stop
him
.

The only thing she could think of doing was
reaching for her power. It began to boil up inside of her as she contemplated
her next move. She could kill the founding vampires her family crated, so it
stood to reason she could kill a founding hybrid, Tuatha or not. Before she
could think twice, she pushed him back with all her strength and he stumbled a
few steps before coming to a stop.

"Well," he sneered. "It seems we are
on equal footing, no?"

Tristan was on his feet and she held a hand out to
stop him from intervening. There was nothing the knight could do, not now and
especially not alone.

"What are you going to do, Aya?" Aed
began to edge towards Tristan.

Before he could take another step, she lunged
forward, her fingers outstretched. The familiar sensation of flesh cutting
through sinew and bone prickled across her skin as she plunged her hand into
the hybrid's chest. He let out a strangled roar of pain, eyes wide with
surprise. She let her power slam into his heart, blue fire lighting up the
room. The pop and fizz of every electrical circuit in the place shorting out
was the only sound for one sickening minute and she thought she'd
done it. His heart stopped in her hand and it was
over. She pushed Aed's limp body away and he fell to the floor with a
thud.