We both snapped out of our bout of nostalgia and followed Mona out of the room. We hurried along the corridor, then took a right into a small chamber. Despite its size, everyone had piled in and was staring at the wall opposite the door. Kiev made his way to the front of the group and stared at the wall. Sure enough, it was covered with names.
“This is it,” he said, running a hand down the rough wall. “We need to try to find Magnus listed here…”
The next two minutes passed in silence as we all scanned the old, barely legible, etchings in the stone. It was Rose who was the first to call out, “I think this is it.” Squatting, she squinted at a name etched particularly low down on the wall. “Magnus Helios.”
“Helios,” Kiev repeated slowly. He stood up and leaned against the wall, raising a hand to his head and rubbing his temples. He closed his eyes, frowning in concentration. “Why is that surname familiar to me?” he said, more to himself than to anyone else.
We all waited with bated breath, watching as Kiev racked his brain. When he finally did look up, he appeared to be uncomfortable. He glanced at Mona.
She raised her brows. “What?”
“Long before I met you, I had a brief affair with a woman—a vampire—called Ernesta Helios.” He shifted on his feet. “It happened during a visit I paid to the coven in Amsterdam—The Underground. Given the Elders’ penchant for going after people of the same bloodline”—he nodded toward Helina and Erik across the room—“it’s no stretch of imagination to conclude that Magnus and Ernesta are related. Of course, at the time I had no idea. Talking was something Ernesta and I didn’t do much of.”
“She’s not listed here on the wall,” Derek said, frowning.
“No,” Kiev said, “she wasn’t a direct child of the Elders.”
“Ernesta Helios,” Matteo muttered.
We all turned to look at the Italian vampire.
“I knew that vampire, too,” he said. “She lives in The Tavern. Or at least, she did when I was there last.”
“The Tavern?” Derek asked. “What is The Tavern?”
“It is an island in the supernatural realm,” Matteo replied. “An island founded by a group of outcasts. Over the years, it has become a place of respite for all those in the supernatural realm who have either left or been rejected from their own homes.”
“Matteo,” Derek said. “What is the likelihood that Ernesta is still there on that island?”
Matteo shrugged. “She was a permanent resident there when I last visited. I don’t see a reason why she wouldn’t still be there now.”
We all exchanged glances. Mona looked more uneasy than ever.
“If we are seriously contemplating going all the way to The Tavern,” she said, “we had better hope that this doesn’t turn out to be a wild-goose chase.”
Chapter 4: Rhys
I stopped outside the red door. Reaching for the handle, I paused, taking a deep breath. I could hear sounds coming from within—Isolde and Julisse, no doubt.
“Come in, Rhys,” my aunt called.
I pushed open the door and stepped inside. The two women were standing around a giant vat fixed in the center of the chamber. It was filled to the brim with blood, and steam was billowing up from it. This was just a small portion of the blood we had collected over the last few days.
“We have enough for the first part of the ritual,” Isolde said.
I raised a brow. “Are you certain?”
“Yes,” Isolde said. “You should bring Lilith here now. We have finished draining the blood from all the humans needed for the ritual. This is the last batch. Go now. We are ready.”
I nodded and glanced once more at the blood before leaving the room. Closing the door behind me, I began walking slowly along the corridor.
Lilith. She had been furious that we had failed to take hold of The Shade. At least now, finally, we had some good news for her. I stopped at the end of the hallway and looked out of the window, watching the glistening waves crash against the island. Then I vanished myself.
A few seconds later, I was standing on a black pebble stone beach, facing the same dark ocean. I turned around and made my way up to the entrance of Lilith’s cave. I passed through the dimly lit tunnels and arrived in the circular chamber.
“Lilith,” I called, fixing my eyes on the still black pool in the center of the room.
No response. I reached the edge of the pool and continued to call her name. Still no answer. I was about to dip my hand in and disturb the liquid when a rasping voice called from behind me.
“Rhys.”
I whirled around to see Lilith’s skeletal body descending a flight of stairs. Her legs looked shaky as she made her way toward me. I bowed my head in greeting. I was surprised and anxious to see her out of her pool of liquid.
“I sensed you would be arriving any time now,” she said, her beady black eyes narrowing on me.
“We are ready to complete the first part of the ritual. It’s time for you to come with me.”
“Are you certain you have enough blood?”
“Yes, we are certain we have enough. We also tried to collect mostly females, because we know this is your preference.”
“Young or old blood?”
“Mostly young,” I replied.
She clucked her tongue, nodding slowly in approval. “Follow me then.” A second later she had vanished from the spot.
I followed quickly after her, unsure of what part of our castle she would reappear in. I manifested again outside the main entrance, but she was nowhere in sight. I transported myself to the spell room. She stood by the boiling vat of blood next to my aunt and my sister.
I exchanged glances with the two of them before addressing Lilith. “Allow us to take you outside. We need space.”
Julisse and Isolde stopped stirring the blood and gripped the vessel. The four of us left the spell room and reappeared outside the castle among a cluster of rocks. Julisse led the way, the vat of blood hovering above our heads, and stopped at the edge of a wide pool that had been dug into the ground, already almost filled with blood. Julisse and Isolde tipped the remaining blood into the pool and discarded the vessel, hurling it several feet away from us where it landed with a clatter.
Lilith’s gaze was fixed on the blood. Slowly she lowered herself to the ground, sat on the edge of the pool and slid into the liquid. She submerged herself completely, then surfaced again, her rotten flesh now tinged with red.
My aunt looked my way. “Fetch the others while I begin preparation.”
I transported myself back into the castle, appearing in the main entrance hall where all of our companions were waiting patiently, as instructed. I needed to give them but a nod before they understood. They vanished with me and we all reappeared back outside around the pool of blood.
Lilith’s eyes traveled around the crowd as we all formed a circle around her.
Isolde looked at everyone sternly. “You all understand your parts in this?” she asked.
Everyone nodded in response.
“Then we begin.”
As soon as my aunt had spoken the words, Lilith dipped back down into the blood, out of sight.
Isolde then began to chant. We followed her as she led, starting out slowly, then building in pace and volume until I could barely hear my own voice amidst the others around me. I closed my eyes in concentration, allowing no thoughts to enter, focusing only on the words coming from my mouth.
After an hour of chanting, I could feel heat beginning to emanate from the pool. I opened my eyes slightly to see that the blood was beginning to swirl and churn. Lilith was still nowhere in sight. I closed my eyes again, clenching my fists. Now was the most crucial part of this ritual. None of us could let up on our concentration.
I only opened my eyes once again when there was a loud splash and Isolde’s voice quieted. I took a step back, staring in awe at the sight unfolding before us. The figure of a woman was hovering in the air above the pool. She wore Lilith’s ra
gged clothes, but gone was any sign of the Ancient’s rotting corpse. The clothes hung off a young, shapely body, the body of a young woman with long dark hair and pale skin. Her eyes were shut tight as she whirled around and around in the air, her arms folded across her chest, her legs intertwined with each other.
By now, we had all stopped chanting. As she began to move toward me, I stepped aside, allowing her to float past me. She lowered to the ground. Her body was still and limp against the rocks as she touched down. Her eyes were still closed, a frown creasing her smooth forehead. Isolde hurried over and bent down over her, wiping away the blood from her face and feeling her pulse.
After a minute, she looked around at the rest of us. “Lilith has returned with the strength of her youth.”
Chapter 5: Rose
Mona consulted the map she had brought with us. She traced her finger along the various gate locations until she settled on one at a nearby shore.
“I’m not sure where this one leads,” she said, “but it’ll have to be good enough for now. Everyone, gather around Ibrahim, Corrine and me.”
“Wait,” I said. “Don’t you think we should return to The Shade and bring at least one dragon with us, just for good measure?”
Mona scowled. “Those beasts refuse to be transported by magic. It would take too long to fly to the gate. We will have to do without them.”
“Okay,” I mumbled nervously.
We made sure we were all touching each other. The room disappeared and a few seconds later, we found ourselves at the top of a mountain with a view of the ocean far in the distance. A volcano, I soon realized. There was a deep crater about twenty feet away from us and heat emanated from the rocks, seeping into the soles of my feet and warming my whole body.
We all looked toward Mona. She had a look of confusion on her face. We all moved closer to the crater to see a bed of molten lava beneath it. Steam billowed upward, scalding our faces. Mona stumbled back, looking back down at the map. “There’s supposed to be a gate here,” she said.
“There’s another hole over there,” Micah—in his wolf form—said, his eyes fixed on a spot in the distance.
We moved over to the hole—partially obscured by the huge crater in front of us—and gathered round it. Sure enough, there was no lava. Just the starry crater that indicated a portal into the supernatural world.
We didn’t delay in leaping through. Spiraling down through the vacuum, I braced myself to shoot out the other end and land on the ground—wherever it might be. But to my surprise, it wasn’t land that greeted me at the other end. I was thrust into a body of cool water.
I closed my mouth, kicking hard upward. I made it to the surface and looked around. Caleb appeared next to me a few moments later, as did the rest of the group. Surrounding us was nothing but open sea. Thankfully, it was nighttime. A full moon shone overhead, the sky glittering with thousands of stars.
“Strange,” Mona muttered. She looked back down into the depths we had just emerged from.
“What’s strange?” Aiden asked.
“That the Ancients should drill a portal right in the depths of the ocean,” she answered. “Oh…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the soggy map still clasped in her fingers. “I guess this map won’t be of much use this side of the gates anyway. We’re going to have to hope that either I can remember how to get back to the spot, or we find another gate to travel back to the human realm. Now, let’s try to get to The Tavern.”
We made sure we were all touching, and then the scene around us disappeared. We reappeared not in water this time, but on a sandy beach. Laughter and chatter filled the air. Once my vision came into focus, there was a high wall that stretched as far as I could see. An orange glow emanated from behind the wall, and occasional billows of smoke.
“It’s bizarre to be back here,” Matteo muttered. He looked toward Kiev. “You had better make him invisible,” he said to Mona. “If he is recognized, they will want his head.”
“Good idea,” Mona said beneath her breath. She vanished Kiev.
Mona and Matteo walked in front, and we followed them up to a tall wooden door built into the wall. Stopping before it, Mona knocked. We waited in silence, then footsteps approached. The door creaked open and a hideous-looking creature appeared behind it—an ogre. He had one eye missing and the other gleamed bright orange.
His jaw dropped as he laid eyes on Mona and Matteo before looking over the rest of us. “Where have you two been?” he asked.
“No time now, Ronan,” Mona said, “I’m afraid that we are in a rush. May we enter?”
He stepped aside, and we all piled in through the door, stepping into a small brick enclosure. “What are you here for?” the ogre asked, closing the door behind us.
“We are looking to speak to a vampire named Ernesta Helios,” Matteo said. “I believe she resides here?”
“Ernesta,” the ogre muttered. “Yes. We have a vampire of that name here.”
“Where does she live?” Matteo asked.
“The vampire quarters,” Ronan replied. “But I’m not sure that she will be home at this time of night. You might want to look around the town center for her before visiting her home. She’s usually out about now.”
“Okay, thanks,” Mona said.
The ogre’s eyes remained on us as we followed Mona up a flight of stairs. Climbing up the steps, we appeared out in the open—clearly the borders of a makeshift town. Shabby buildings made of logs and bricks lined a wide dirt street. The place was lit with lanterns hanging from trees that gave off a warm glow. Various creatures milled about: mostly vampires, werewolves and ogres, and some I didn’t even recognize. Quite a few of them looked like they had survived some kind of battle. They had physical impairments—some were missing legs or arms, while others looked unstable as they walked, being supported by walking sticks.
“As I said,” Mona said quietly, eyeing a werewolf with a missing hind leg sitting several feet away beneath a tree, “this is an island of outcasts—creatures who were rejected by their own kind. This is where they find their refuge. As for Ernesta, I suspect she came here because she was on the run from the Elders.”
“Makes sense,” a voice muttered a few feet away from me—Kiev’s voice.
I continued observing this strange town as we walked further into its center. Creatures stared back at us curiously, but nobody came up to speak to us, although Mona and Matteo did wave to some of them—old friends, I guessed.
We stopped outside a large stone building with a sign above the entrance that read “The Blue Tavern”.
“This pub is a good place to start,” Mona said. “You should all wait outside while I go in to see Elizabeth.”
Since the front door to the pub was in constant use, we stepped aside so as not to be in the way. Mona reappeared moments later shaking her head. “Ernesta is not in there. Elizabeth advised to try the main square. Apparently that’s where a lot of vampires gather at this time of night.”
We left the pub and wound our way along the streets until we reached a clearing where crowds of vampires were gathered—some sitting around on wooden benches, others standing in clusters talking. Mona walked up to the nearest vampire to us, a short man with a bald head. “Is there a vampire here called Ernesta Helios?” she asked politely.
“Ernesta,” he said, turning to scan the area. “She is over there.” He pointed toward a cluster of females in the far right corner.
“Which one is she?” Mona asked.
“The tallest among them,” he said. “Short dark hair…”
With that, he turned his back on Mona and continued his conversation. As I looked over at the group he had indicated, I could already spot a vampire of that description.
“Ah yes, I see her,” Matteo said. “Ernesta,” he said in a raised voice as we approached but a few feet away from the group.
The tall woman with short dark hair turned her blue eyes on us. They widened as she spotted Matteo.
“Matteo?
” she said. “What brings you here?”
He eyed the women surrounding Ernesta. “Could I have a word?”
“Uh, all right.” She looked curiously at each of us before turning to her companions. “I will see you in a bit. Where would you like to speak?” she asked Matteo.
“Your home would probably be best.”
“I doubt all of you will fit inside. You know how small it is.”
“That’s fine,” Matteo said. “We don’t all need to come inside. And hopefully, we won’t be long.”
No further words were exchanged. She led us away from the square and back along the narrow streets. She stopped outside a rickety-looking two-story cottage. Pushing open the door, she held it open for Matteo to step inside, followed by Mona—then the invisible Kiev—then my parents, grandfather, Caleb, me, Helina and Erik. The rest waited outside. Ernesta led us through the dark hallway into a small sitting room. There weren’t enough seats for all of us to sit down, so most of us remained standing.
“Well?” Ernesta said, folding her hands over her lap.
“You can remove the invisibility spell now, Mona.” Kiev spoke a few feet away.
Ernesta’s jaw dropped as Kiev appeared. “Kiev?”
The vampire took a seat between Matteo and Mona.
“What on earth are you doing here?” She looked toward the door, as if checking that it was shut. “You are considered a criminal here, you do realize that, don’t you? Do you have any idea the punishment that would befall me for abetting someone like you? I could be kicked out of this place.”
“As Matteo said, we won’t be long.” Kiev leaned forward in his seat. “We need to know where your brother is.”
“What?”
“Where is Magnus?” Kiev’s eyes blazed into hers.
“I have no idea where my brother is,” she said, exasperation in her tone.
“When was the last time you saw him?” Matteo asked.
She clasped a palm to her forehead. “My… it was many, many years ago. I can’t even remember how long it’s been. I’ve lost track. You see, my brother and I had a falling out. We parted ways due to… irreconcilable differences. “