The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of Ash (24 page)

“He means,” Father says, “that he cannot penetrate any of the minds of the vampires, or humans, inside. We want to know why.”

I glare at them both. “That’s what you brought me here for? What gave you any indication that
I
would have any idea?”

“Your Mother trusted you. You would know her secrets.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but last time I saw
my
Mother
,” I snarl the words, “she cast me into an underground cell and sentenced me to eternity without blood. Somehow, I doubt
she would impart any of her secrets upon me.”

“So you’re telling me that I was right, and Beatrice was wrong. You are, for lack of a better term, utterly useless.” He beckons The Ancient forth. “Bring my son back to where we found him.”

“Whoa, whoa,” I say, holding up my arms. “Let’s not be hasty here.”

“Give me one good reason why.”

“Because even if I don’t know the answer to what you’re asking me, there are things I
do
. Such as…” I step toward him, “…where you’d strike first if you were to mount a successful attack.”

Father’s eyes suddenly glitter with greed. “Go on,” he says.

ELEIRA

Visions of death, of darkness, of destruction haunt my dreams:

I see The Haven burning. Great fires engulf not just the human settlement, but also all the trees. Villagers run from the blazes screaming. Vampires shriek as they burn, caught helplessly in the licking flames.

A small shadow, the size of a skunk or racoon, darts from place to place. Wherever it goes it leaves a trail of blood. And bodies. It strikes, and bodies fall, but all I see are their darkened outlines. Humans? Vampires? There’s no way to tell.

But I feel their fear acutely.

The ground shakes, the start of a great earthquake.

Disaster has struck! Disaster!
The thought is not my own, but it echoes in my head.
Disaster, disaster, disaster…!

The castle. I
must
go to the castle. I exist only as a spirit here, and I fly through the air, yet when I arrive, the whole structure is shrouded in black. It’s a black that’s deeper than night, a black that is infinite, a black that not even my vampire vision can pierce.

And flowing out from it, I feel such hatred, such menace and vitriol and malevolence and greed, and that echoing voice continues to wail in my head, crying out
disaster, disaster, disaster!

The Haven is in upheaval, and somehow I
know,
deep in my bones, that it’s my fault.

I come to with a strangled gasp. My throat is dry, parched. My body is soaked with sweat, and the moisture stains my night shift, the sheets...

Somebody is by my side in an instant. As my vision clears I see it’s Raul. Relief courses through me. He hands me a glass of blood, and says, “Drink.”

I grab it from him and eagerly place it to my lips. I inhale the whole thing in great, jealous swallows. When it’s gone, I immediately want more. Raul already has a second glass waiting for me.

I down that, too. With the blood in me I feel a little bit stronger. I take a moment to look around the unfamiliar room.

I’m in an enormous white bed. The sheets are white, the pillows are white, my shift is white—everything is white. The room is circular and sparsely decorated, but what furniture I see is finely made.

“We’re in Mother’s guest quarters,” Raul says, as if reading my mind. “You’ve been here nearly three days.”

Alarm ripples through me.
Three
days
?
No wonder I’m ravenous. I bring a hand to my forehead. All sorts of foreign aches and pains envelop my body.

“What… happened?” I manage to ask. My thoughts are slow and murky. My memories aren’t much better. “I remember you… and Phillip… and that
book
.”

I break off with a shudder. The moment I thought of the book my mind nearly shut down.

Raul takes my hand. “Do you remember anything else?”

I shake my head. “No. Why do I feel so… weak?”

“Three days is a long time to be unconscious for a vampire. It’s unheard of for one as recently transformed as you—for one who needs so much blood.”

“What happened?” I ask again.

“You were…
possessed
.”

I gasp. “What?”

“When Phillip poured human blood into the pages of the book, and added a drop of yours to it—somebody took control of your mind.”

“Victoria!” I exclaim. Panic sears through me and a confession tumbles out of me in a rush of words. “I haven’t told you this, but she and I have a link, she can speak to me telepathically. She did it on the plane here. I kept it to myself, but I should have told you, I’m sorry, but it—”

“No.” He cuts me off. “It wasn’t Victoria. Mother and I confronted her. It was somebody—or perhaps some
thing
—else.”

He picks up my hand when he sees my fright. “Do you truly remember nothing of what happened?”

I strain my brain and try to think. But all my memories are distant and blurred. It shames me, so I look away and softly whisper, “No.”

“You’re a witch,” he says patiently. “And also a vampire. Because you have the Spark, because you can do magic, you are exposed in ways I don’t understand.” He hesitates. “I shouldn’t be the one telling you this.”

“Then who should?”

“Me.”

Raul and I both look up to see Morgan enter the room.

“I heard you conversing,” she continues. “It’s about time you woke up.” She comes to the bed and frowns down at me. “You look weak.”

I feel weak
, I think.

Raul scowls at his Mother. “She’s been without blood for three days! What do you expect, after you hit her with that blast of magic?”

Morgan hisses. “You say that as if it’s my fault. The fool girl leapt in the way. If she hadn’t, the Narwhark would have been killed. Instead, we have to worry about it ravaging The Haven.” She shakes her head in disgust. “At least
that
hasn’t started yet.”

“Wait, what?” I manage. “I was struck by magic? Why? And what’s a…
Narwhark
?”

I butcher the unfamiliar word.

Morgan brushes her son aside and settles on the side of the bed. “A Narwhark is a type of demon,” she tells me calmly, “that you called forth from
The Book of the Dead
.”

“No!” I protest. But then a glimmer of a memory shows itself in my mind:

Magic flowing through me, magic being channeled to open a portal and loose one of the damned into this world…

“Ah,” Morgan’s eyes light up. “You remember.”

I shake my head to dispel the frightening imagery. “No,” I say. “Not in full.”

“That’s understandable,” Morgan sympathizes. “When you go through a traumatic event like that, your mind can curl up into itself and blank out the painful memories. It’s a method of self-preservation for your psyche.
You
do not want to be responsible for what you did. So you pretend not to know.”

“Mother…” Raul growls a warning. “This is not the time to scare Eleira more.”

“Eleira is not some delicate flower in constant need of your protection!” Morgan snaps. “She is both a powerful witch and a powerful vampire.”

“I’m not denying that,” Raul says stiffly. “I just think we should give her time to come to grips with the situation.”

“We don’t
have
time,” his Mother counters. “We need to find out who took control of her mind, and how they did it. Eleira is the only one who can help us discover that.”

“Let her feed in full, at least,” he says. “Give her a
few
minutes to collect herself.”

My heart warms at how Raul is standing up for me. But I need to show my strength—to prove I can handle this on my own.

I place a hand on his arm and whisper, “It’s okay.”

He doesn’t look entirely satisfied, but he relents.

I face the Queen. “Tell me what happened,” I say.

“You know parts of it. Here’s what I gathered. When your blood activated the book, you become like a beacon. Every witch within a hundred leagues would have sensed your presence. It’s how I found you in time. It is your affinity for magic that made the possession possible.”

“But I don’t
feel
an affinity.”

“No, but you have it nonetheless. Even if you don’t know how to control it, it’s there. It manifests itself in The Spark. Your body and mind are both open to the magic in ways that make you uniquely susceptible to others’ malevolence.

“That’s why you need me—a teacher to guide you. You need somebody who can show you how to protect yourself. You need somebody who will stop you from
killing
yourself by wielding too much magic, too soon.

“I was wrong to give you three days. I should have commanded you to begin lessons
immediately. But I wanted to give you the illusion of choice. If you came of your own volition, if you yourself saw the
need
for it, our relationship would be strengthened. You would be willing instead of hesitant. Trusting instead of suspicious.

“But now the choice has been made for us.” The Queen holds out her hand. “Do you remember what else I asked of you?”

Slowly, I nod. My chest constricts as I pull Raul’s ring off and place it in Morgan’s hand.

“What are you doing?” he exclaims.

“I’m sorry,” I say in a small voice. I don’t meet his eyes.

“Excellent,” Morgan says. She tucks it away in a fold of her dress. “The first lesson, which you will be given now, is how to shield your mind so you cannot be made vulnerable again.”

“Okay.” I nod and feel a growing determination. I push myself higher in the bed. “Tell me what to do.”

“
You
need do nothing… except open yourself to me.”

A faint blue-ish glow appears around the Queen’s fingertips. All the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I feel the energy she is channeling in the air.

She raises both hands and brings them to my forehead. “Lean forward,” she says. “I’m going to put a guarding spell on your mind.”

Raul watches us both tensely.

I start to move—then stop. “A guarding spell?” I ask. “I thought you were going to teach
me
how to protect myself.”

“That type of training will take weeks. For now, this spell will protect you. It’ll form a link between you and me similar to what you experienced with Victoria. That will give me warning if anybody tries to take control of you again.”

I look at her, and then at Raul. I’m having second thoughts.

Suddenly, I’m not sure how smart it is to let Morgan into my mind.

Especially if I don’t know how far I can trust her.

“Come, Eleira,” she says. “It’ll be quick.” She smiles in a serpentine way. “It won’t hurt, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“It will… link me… to you?” I ask.

“Yes, temporarily.” Morgan clicks her tongue in exasperation. “This isn’t a debate. We’re losing time.”

She grabs my head. I gasp as a torrent of energy floods into me. I feel a force descending upon my brain, almost like it’s being shrink-wrapped. My eyes roll back and all I see are alternating flashes of white and blue.

“Don’t fight me,” Morgan hisses. “Let your mind go. Let me in!”

“I’m not fighting!” I grind my teeth together. The pressure inside my head builds. It feels like all my powers, all my strength, are being bundled up and pressed into each other, in a space much too small to hold any of them.

My body fights back, pushing
against
the shrink-wrap,
against
the pressure…

A sudden flash of light explodes from my body. Morgan and Raul are both knocked away. The furniture near me is shoved away, slamming against the walls. A vase smashes and breaks.

And I’m left panting, even more sweat soaking my skin, as the feeling in my head slowly returns to normal.

“That,” Morgan hisses, picking herself up, “was
not
very smart.”

She launches herself at me, hands outstretched—

But Raul is quick. He knocks her aside, and they both crash to the floor.

“You will
not
harm her!” he says. “Eleira.” He looks at me. “Are you all right?”

I nod my head shakily. “I… think so.”

“What did you do to her?” Raul demands, pinning his mother to the ground.

The Queen makes no effort to rise. In fact, she seems to take a kind of perverse pleasure from being on the floor with him like that.

Raul grunts and picks himself up. Morgan does, too. Then she laughs.

“You think we’re still on opposing sides, don’t you, son?” She turns to me. “We’re going to try that again. But this time, you will
not
resist.”

JAMES

For the fifth time I go over all the defences of The Haven.

“You were smart to get Riyu to cloak the vampires’ abilities,” I say. “Otherwise our scouts would have sensed you. The Queen might have slackened in her vigilance, but it doesn’t mean she’s blind. Wards around The Haven keep humans from finding it. There are also wild, savage beasts drawn to our borders.” I smile, remembering the way I killed that wolf. “They shouldn’t be a problem for any of you, however.”

Father has called upon Dagan and a number of other vampires to hear me speak. From what I gather, these are all of Father’s most senior military commanders.

The Ancient is present, too, listening from a far corner of the room.

“The wards work differently on vampires,” I explain. “You know this. Dagan’s party was close. Vampires can
feel
there is something beyond the barriers. But unless we know the exact way in, it’s shielded to us.”

“You know these ways?” Dagan asks, sharing a look with my Father.

“Of course.”

The King nods. Dagan throws a large map on the table. “You recognize this?” he asks me.

My eyebrows go up. It’s a perfect depiction of The Haven—from the inside and from the outside. The human village, the vampire treetop homes, the castle, the fields—all of it is there, just as I remember it.