“There’s two weeks-worth of chilled blood in this crate,” Rourke said as he put the box down into the trailer. “Should keep you going if you get lost up there.”

“And this is food for Ellie,” Mac said as he placed a box down next to it. “With the extra cans of fuel, you’re set for a few days at least.”

“Obliged,” Wraith said, eyeing up the steering wheel. He was more than ready to go, but everyone was so precious with him being prepared.

“This doesn’t feel right,” Natalie said. “I feel like we should come. I want to help.”

“No,” Wraith said, almost growling the words. “Just me. This fucker is too dangerous, and I think I have to solve this on my own.”

“He’s right,” Kara said. “Jack… or Wraith, has to face this alone. If we go, nothing good will come of it. This is the only way.”

“You’ve got three days Jack,” Rourke said. “If we’ve not heard something back by then we’re coming after you either way.”

“If you haven’t heard back from me in three days then I’m dead, so don’t bother.” Wraith climbed into the truck and turned the key in the engine, bringing it to life. A loud voice shouted in the distance.

“Wait!” Wraith rolled his eyes, rolled down the window and looked over to see a large red-bearded man running across to the truck. “Wait, Jack! Wait!”

“What does this bozo want?” Jack said to Kara.

“That’s Garret. Your employer. Just pretend that you remember him. I asked him to bring you something.”

“Sorry I’m running late,” Garret said, doubling over as he reached the truck. He held a small parcel up and handed it to Wraith. “That’s for you Jack. Kara asked me to give it you. I heard you were leaving town to get Ellie back. Figured this might help you.”

“What is it?” he asked as he pulled back the red cloth. A bright flash of silver winked up at him and he covered it again immediately.

“Pure silver dagger. Sure enough to do some damage in the right hands. Just hold it carefully. Shit like that is dangerous for our kind.”

“It’s an heirloom of an old family in these parts,” Kara explained. “Originally it was part of a set, but the location of the other was lost a long time ago… this half belonged to your family.”

Wraith looked down at the red leather pouch in his hands. His family? “You mean the Belmont’s?”

“That’s right.” She nodded. “And the second dagger belonged to the other family. I can explain it to your properly sometime when you come back alive.”

“If I come back alive,” he said.

“Come now,” the elderly woman said with a laugh. “You really mean to tell me you don’t intend to win?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to save her,” Wraith said. “Whether I live or not.”

He put his foot down and released the brake, pulling off from the track and away from the village. In the mirror stood the vampires that had helped him. He placed his eyes back on the road in front of him and put his foot down. The image of frozen stone came back to his mind, calling for him to come and find it. He looked up at the full moon ahead and gripped his hands on the wheel.

* * *

Wraith didn’t stop for the next few hours. When he got onto the open road he put his foot to the floor and pushed the truck to its top speed. The only sound in the cab came from the quiet hiss of the tarmac underneath. He drove at full speed until he burned through a tank of gas, pulled over briefly to fill up with the cans in the truck bed, and got back on the road again. His first proper stop came a few hours later, halfway through the middle of the night, a few hours until dawn was due.

“Mad Mike’s…” Wraith walked across the empty diner lot, eyeing the blood-stained windows all the while. Before he entered his senses told him that nothing was alive here, and upon entering he saw the bodies littered across the bright diner. Corpses lay asunder. Ripped open like toys. Shredded like paper. Whoever did this was a barbarian. They’d clearly taken joy in their work.

Didn’t we enjoy this once upon a time? Something whispered in his head. It was true. He knew before his blackout there were darker days. Maybe it made him the perfect person to hunt this son of a bitch down. He searched past the scent of blood and death and found something pleasant lingering on the air. Upstairs he found a small and featureless bedroom with a double bed. Ellie was here, there was no mistaking it. There was no sign of a struggle, and nothing to suggest that anything untoward happened, but the thought that another man lay beside her still boiled his blood.

Stupid son of a bitch must have run out of time and had to take shelter here from the sun. Jack hadn’t made that mistake. He travelled fast, and he wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Fists clenched, he made his way back downstairs and out into the parking lot. He fired up the truck, pulled onto the road once more and headed for the mountains. The sky on his right was still dark blue and stayed that wait until he hit the snowy mountain pass a couple of hours later.

This is it. He thought as he pulled his truck onto the pass and began the long ascent. The temperature dropped significantly. Snow started to fall, and the air turned white and hazy. The distant mountains were no longer far away behemoths, they were impossibly tall giants, standing overhead and blocking out the sky on all sides. He pressed on, driving further into the range, not sure where he was going.

He kept coming back to the image in his head. That image of frozen stone and snow. The anchor. The prophecy’s calling. That was where he and Ellie were meant to go, but how was he supposed to find it without her? Tires ground against ice, wipers glided fruitlessly against the torrent of white, he tapped his foot gingerly on the accelerator, mindful of the sheer drop to his left. Where was she? Where was he?

“Come on you son of a bitch,” Jack growled. The road straightened out and he put his foot down, roaring up it dangerously fast. His truck flashed by a red post at the edge of the road, invisible to his eyes, unbeknownst to him. He carried on up, the air growing thinner all the while, the engine whirring louder with each corner.

The entire world slipped into a void of meaningless white, and he found his eyes couldn’t focus anymore. He’d drive around until his fuel ran out, and then he’d get out and search for her until his legs gave out. “No stopping. No giving up!” He punched the dashboard and let out a roar of fury. He couldn’t stand to think that Ellie was trapped somewhere close by with that bastard. The mountains were miles across in every direction and finding Ellie would take a short miracle. She was a needle in a haystack, lost inside a snow storm. He still wasn’t giving up, he still wasn’t stopping. He’d search for her until he gave his dying breath. He’d—

Wraith’s focus was broken as a deer burst out onto the track, causing him to swerve at the last minute and veer off the road. He was going at full speed, and the truck vaulted up as it skidded round, flipping up into the air and turning over onto its side. The next few seconds were a confusing blur of sound and violent gravity. The truck rolled down the hill at the side of the road, bouncing down it with some speed as momentum rolled it to the frozen woods at the bottom.

Wraith tossed and turned with each violent flip, grabbing hold of anything he could to keep himself steady. The truck jerked his body and threw it around until it ended its acrobatic descent by slamming against a tree with a monumental thud. Metal crushed around wood, and the young tree shook free the thick layers of snow in its dead branches. Smoke came up from the truck. The world was silent again.

He lay there momentarily, hanging upside down in his seat, suspended by his seatbelt. A weary curse escaped his lips, followed by a series of pained groans. He unclipped himself, crashed to the roof—which was now the floor—and punched his way out of the broken window and into the cold snow.

An icy wind howled down from the road above. Jack blinked slowly, looking up at the track marks the truck had left on the hill on its way down. He pushed himself up onto tired legs and turned back to survey the truck. It was totaled, but the supplies in the back were somehow intact.

“Jesus Christ…” He stumbled away from the wreck, pulled his hand away from his head and saw it was bleeding. So much for finding Ellie with the truck. He’d have to make the rest of his way on foot. His body was still tapped from his last fight with the imposter. Every move was agony enough, and now the search would be even harder.

Something moved against the white up ahead and Wraith froze. A large doe stared back at him with glossy black eyes, standing perfectly still against the white snow behind it. “So, you’re the fucker that made me crash.” He had to laugh to himself. The doe probably had no idea what trouble it had just caused.

He was about to climb the hill back up to the main road when he noticed the doe was approaching him. He looked back again and saw that a black-haired woman now stood in place of the doe. She had brilliant white skin, sharp crimson eyes and a ruby dress that fluttered in the icy wind. Wraith had to do a double take as he noticed the woman. She walked bare foot across the snow until she was only a few paces from him.

“What are you doing here?” he gasped.

“What’s the matter Wraith?” she said in her nurturing voice. “Don’t you recognize your own mother?”

Tears brimmed in his red eyes. “Of course, I do, it’s just… y-you’re dead.”

She smiled. It was a warm smile. A smile that reminded him of caring and comfort. A smile that shouldn’t have been here. “It’s seems your memory isn’t as bad as everyone says. I knew my boy would still remember me.”

“What are you doing here?” he said. “How are you…”

“There are moments in time when we have a chance to come back. A chance to help. I’ve been watching you ever since I left, my love. Ever since I was taken from you so cruelly that night…”

“What happened?!” he asked. Desperation flared in his voice. His mother’s unexpected death had haunted their family for the longest time. Any answer he could find would go a long way in repairing the hurt that haunted him.

“Now is not the time to say. There are greater things at stake. The life of your chosen one, for example…”

“Ellie. You can help me find her?”

The black-haired woman nodded slowly, smiling to herself. “It has been some time since I was last here, but I still remember the way. Follow me. It’s not far.” His mother turned without warning and floated up the snowy hill with startling speed, back to the road which Wraith had tumbled off only moments before. He ran up the hill after her and followed at a sprint, keeping close as they went back down the road.

She led him to a spot at the side of the road where the trees broke apart, almost imperceptibly. “Look here.” She pointed down at the white snow and Wraith watched to see a red post fade in against the white. “It is a magic mark, visible only to the heirs of Snowstone. You see it now with my help. This family was a great ally of ours once. Together we stood to let vampires and humans live as one, but other forces intercepted our goals. It was the thing to end my life. It was the thing that destroyed this family.”

“Who?” he gasped. Rage boiled in his veins.

“That is not important now. If you follow this track it will lead you to the castle, and there you will find her. He is holding her there.”

“Tell me she’s okay,” he said, hoping, fearing the worst had already happened.

“For now, but I cannot say what will happen if you do not hurry.”

He surged forward to throw his arms around the woman in gratitude and passed through her like she wasn’t there. He turned around in the snow to face her again. She smiled with sadness in her eyes. “I’m afraid that’s not possible my dear, but it was grace enough just to see your face once more. You must go now, but before you do…” She turned her hand over and revealed the red velvet pouch from the truck. “Don’t forget my dagger. You might need it.”

Wraith took hold of the dagger and looked down at it, nodding to himself as he did so. “This was yours?”

“Once upon a time. Maybe you will learn the story someday. Your father could tell it quite well I expect. One last thing Wraith, do you remember how you survived the fall from the roof of Castle Belmont?”

He shook his head, his eyes searching into her own. The night was a distant memory in his broken mind. All he could remember was pain and the sound of rushing wind, followed by the ice-cold waters of the river below. The fall should have killed him. It would have killed any vampire. “I have no idea. Was it you?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No darling. It was you. You have to remember. You were born like your brother, both honored with a rare vampiric gift. It saved your life, though it seems even you are not aware you have it. It would do you well to try and remember it…”

He searched into the black vastness inside of him but saw nothing. “I can’t… I can’t remember.”

She looked back with a reassuring smile. “You will. Don’t worry. You will reclaim your secret. I promise. Until then I must go. And you should carry on with your journey. Goodbye Wraith…” Her image faded back into the shape of a small doe, which ran across the road and disappeared into the trees. Wraith’s attention came back to the current situation. He turned around in the snow to face the track between the trees and started down it.

He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the ache in his muscles, ignoring the burning in his bones. The snow only made it harder, but he carried on regardless. A thousand questions burned in his mind. What happened with his mother? Who was the family that were driven from this place? How did he and Ellie fit into it all? It seemed their families had once been great allies. Was it possible, in another life, that he and Ellie would have been together anyway?

Dawn bruised the dark blue sky ahead. Dark violet faded into a vivid indigo canopy. Wraith followed the track as fast as he could, his feet cramping, his lungs burning. After a few minutes the track opened into a large meadow, hidden between the peaks on all sides. He found himself surprised at the hidden space’s size. It was perhaps a mile across and double in length, curving round between the tall peaks that stood overhead. The track Wraith followed cut through the middle of the small valley. As it rounded it revealed the frozen castle sat against the mountain wall at the far end.

Wraith’s heart beat in his chest at the sight. It was the vision of frozen stone and ice. The vision that had been guiding him this whole time. Ellie was in there somewhere with the maniac that had stolen her. He picked his speed up, running as fast as he could, ignoring his body’s protests to stop.

It was time to save her. It was time to get his mate back.