Chapter Thirty-two
Sweet song
The fire faded and they smiled at me through perfect, red lips. They all shared the same auburn colored hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. I realized I had seen this scene before in my dreams.
“Visitors,” they said.
“Offerings, my ladies.” Gabriel’s voice sounded from the other side of the circle. I tried moving forward, and my father immediately stopped me.
“Don’t step into the circle, Jade.” He spoke quietly.
Their eyes pierced through my father.
“You will not speak again.” They hummed with serpent-like tongues.
My father bowed his head. “Yes, my ladies.” Obviously, they demanded respect.
“Come closer, mortal.” They summoned me.
I could not resist their call. Even against my will, my feet carried me forward.
Stephan tried to step in front of me. He instantly began to howl in pain.
“Please, let him go.” I cried. “Don’t hurt him. No one else will intervene.”
Stephan stopped whimpering and panted as he tried to stand but fell down again.
They hovered around me, like floating dark angels. “She is special…” one said.
“She is pure…” Another sang.
“She will feed us youth and beauty…” The third laughed.
“I have brought her here, my ladies.” Gabriel spoke. “I have brought them all for you.”
They turned to him and the girls, who were crying, at his feet.
“And what is your price, pale one?” they asked.
“I wish to walk under the sun, my ladies.”
“You have broken many rules to get them here, perhaps we should break you now…” They pointed out.
Gabriel’s eyes went wide. “I…”
“You dare deny it!” They hissed and the flames extended toward Gabriel and the girls.
“If I can give you what you want, will you let the girls go free?” I yelled.
The fire calmed again and they levitated toward me.
“You desire to sacrifice yourself to save these mortals?” They summoned.
“Jade…” My father growled.
“Silence!” They spat.
“Yes,” I answered, truthfully. “But you have to let them go to safety first.”
They laughed, and the sound carried like a melody through the darkness.
“How delicious…” They giggled. “Ah, and what about the beautiful boy?”
“What beautiful boy?”
I saw Seth’s pale body appear in the midst of the flames.
My heart sank. I sprang forward, but my father wrapped both arms around me and pulled me back.
“He saw us dance.” They sang. “He heard our song…he is justly ours, and he is the most delicious company to keep.” They grinned.
“Let him go, please.” I begged.
“You are demanding, power-absorber.”
“I’m worth it.” I stated with a firmness to my tone. “And you know it, you can already taste my magical blood.”
They licked their lips. “Indeed you are. Your blood will sustain us much longer than the mortals.” They chanted something amongst themselves after which they turned their attention to Gabriel.
“We have no use for you, pale one.” They hissed. “And the fact that you intervened with the natural progress of our bloodline offends us.”
Gabriel’s eye grew wide with worry. “Forgive me, my ladies.” He began to plead. “I just wanted to be prepared to give you what you want.” He glared at me. “She ruined everything.”
“What shall we do?” they asked one another. “For now, how about we just keep you where you are.”
Gabriel fell to his knees as if he was shoved down forcefully by an invisible hand.
They turned to me. “We accept your offering, girl.”
My father roared in protest.
They dropped him to his knees in a single glance. Suddenly he was silent, and his handsome face became disfigured. His mouth hung open on one side, while one of his eyes bulged and the other drooped. His cheekbones melted into a lopsided mess.
I gasped and yelled. “Daddy…”
“Any other protesters?” They questioned. “You can take the females. But we will not surrender the boy yet.”
“Stephan, get the girls to safety.” I ordered.
He whimpered and shook his massive head.
“Don’t argue, please. Just get it done.”
He stalked toward the girls and nudged them away from the fire and into the forest.
“We have only till the rise of the sun, girl. If we perish before then, you will perish with us, say your goodbyes.” They urged.
My father tried to speak but only managed a gurgling sound.
I touched his face. “Daddy, please stop. I’m so sorry for everything. I need Mom. Get her please. I know you can.”
A tear fell down his deformed face as he shook his head.
I grabbed his face, touched my head to his and used my power to reach my mother.
I felt her near.
“Jade,” she whispered. “What have you done?”
“It doesn’t matter. Seth and the girls will be free.”
“They have fooled you, Jade.”
I sighed. “Bye, Mom.”
I pulled myself away from my father to lose the connection to my mother before she could continue her protest.
Adrian walked to me and I touched my head to his. He whimpered and growled low in his throat.
“Don’t.” I cautioned. “Please.”
After giving him a kiss on his head, I walked closer to the fire with my chin up. “I’m ready.”
They began to dance with their arms up in the air.
My insides began to stir unnaturally. I felt ill. As if I wanted to vomit. The trees spun, and my head throbbed as they lifted me from the ground over the flames.
The closer I got to them, the worse I felt.
My skin began to feel tight around my bones. My eyes pulsed like they were being sucked out of my head. I wanted to scream, to cry, but for my father’s sake, I bit my tongue.
My vision grew blurry as the three women surrounded me and one kissed me.
It felt like my chest was being torn open as something thick poured out of my mouth and into hers.
The violent howls of the wolves around me were drowned out by the sound of my blood being manipulated.
Suddenly, lightning split the darkness and a gust of wind knocked me from her grasp. My feeble body hit the ground, and I felt bones snap.
I cried out, and Adrian was at my side immediately.
Bells jingled from the shadows – lots of bells – and then from under the trees, figures dressed in white and holding hands danced into view.
They chanted as they approached and glided toward the fire with expert footwork. A dozen men in white suits, tri-colored belts, black boots, and strange hats created a circle around the flames.
The ladies shrieked and the sound was deafening.
I put my hands over my ears.
The earth began to tremble and the ground around us cracked.
A hooded figure on a horse emerged from the blackness holding a torch up to the sky.
The air instantly smelled of sage, rosemary, and other herbs I couldn’t breathe past.
The dancing men sang in deep voices as the ladies huddled together.
The hooded figure leaped off the horse and pulled a long dagger from its cloak. He lumbered toward me, took my hand, and sliced my palm. Blood immediately poured from the wound which he collected in his mouth and then spit it into the fire.
The ladies screamed so loud that I thought my eardrums would explode. They were engulfed by the flames as the fire raged toward the sky.
“With this blood I command you!” I heard my mother hiss. “And you will return to darkness from which you escaped.” My mother had come to save me.
The ladies were expended by the growing fire and then, like an atomic bomb, everything erupted like an explosive volcano.
Instinctively, I dropped to the ground and turned my body away from the blaze. Adrian covered my body with his.
When I looked back up, they were gone, and in their place was a massive tree with a twisted trunk that resembled screaming faces and roots that emerged from the disturbed earth like the claws of the devil.
The men in costume remained unmoved. My mother stood amongst them with her arms up, and her head bent backward.
Near the base of the tree, Gabriel held my lifeless fiancé by his hair.
Seth was not dead. I could hear the faint beat of his heart.
“If I don’t get what I want, neither do you!” He snarled and then I watched him savagely tear through Seth’s throat before Adrian pounced on him and took him out.
“Get her out of here!” My mother ordered. “I am weak. I can’t contain the power here anymore and once it’s free, it will wreck her.”
“No, please.” I wept taking Seth in my arms.
“Jade, go.” She urged.
“No!” I refused.
Adrian touched me and grabbed a hold of Seth at the same time. The blue light that invaded him the night we met flared to life. It poured from his eyes and mouth and sank into Seth’s chest.
Adrian gasped and fell away.
Large arms came at me and tore me away.
“Mom.” I cried. “Fix him…please!”
Felix tossed me over his shoulder and took off faster than I could blink. The trees whisking past me made me nauseous. Shadows emerged from every corner, each one whispering and weeping. Each one taking a chunk of me, of my sanity and my peace.
So much loss and sadness. So much evil.
I wanted to shield myself, but I was broken. I was ruined. Ghostly hands clawed at me and tried pulling me into the abyss.
“Take us with you.” Voices cried in desperate pleas. “Stay.” Others whimpered. “She is ours…” The forest demanded.
It felt like my soul was being ripped out of me through every possible opening. I couldn’t fight them anymore. I wasn’t strong enough.
When we got to edge of the forest, Felix put me down.
“Jade.” He tapped my face. “Jade, don’t close your eyes.” He pleaded.
I didn’t want to, but I was having a hard time controlling the heaviness swarming in to swallow me whole.
I heard growling and the ground shook with heavy steps. A shadow sprang from the woods and landed on the balls of their feet in front of me. The earth shattered where he settled.
Covered in blood, he raised his face to mine.
I gasped.
Felix prepared for an attack.
“No!” I managed a strangled cry.
Seth glared at me through black, soulless eyes without a hint of recognition in them. No trace of a past we once shared.
Seconds ticked by.
Wolves were closing in.
“Seth…” I cried.
He snarled at me and bared white fangs right before my father, who was in his wolf form, sprang at him from the trees.
Seth leaped up into the air with ease and vanished into the darkness.
My mother made her way out of the trees moments later. She fell to my side and gave me a kiss on the forehead.
Adrian was there too.
“What happened?” I cried.
“Every pack has a healer, Carmen,” Adrian said. “Where is yours?”
“Right here.” A lady with lavender hair stepped forward and crouched beside me.
“Breathe, princess,” she whispered as her hands hovered over my body. She closed her eyes and narrowed her thin brows in concentration.
From her pale hands, an orange glow emerged and slowly swirled around me. After a few moments, the mist covered me.
I started to feel warm, my damaged bones rattled and mended. My heart palpitated, but I didn’t feel pain. I felt comfort and…strength.
“Don’t move yet.” She urged. “Relax a few minutes more.”
I nodded. “Mom, what happened with Seth?”
My mother sighed and took me in her arms. “Gabriel leaked enough venom and Seth had just enough heartbeat to transition. I’m sorry, Jade. He is lost. Newborn vampires remember nothing of their past lives. They are consumed by bloodlust.”
I knew that. “But…”
She shook her head and kissed my head. “There is no but, Jade. Even if he eventually remembers, he is one of them now. It is forbidden. They are our enemy. Your father will kill him before he lets that union happen.”
All of my hope.
All of my love.
Lost.
In. One. Poisonous. Bite.