How did he do that?
“In this time and place,” he began, “there exist stronger spiritual energies available to us. We are in less of a material world now, and more of a spiritual one. In future generations, the fights will occur mostly in the external world, with physical people and weapons and objects. But in this time and place, the greatest battles are unseen and unknown to us. They happen in the spiritual dimension. The good angels versus the bad ones. The forces of light versus the forces of darkness. They are battling all around us: we just can’t see them. This is what you have left to learn.”
He breathed deeply.
“Close your eyes,” he said, as he reached out his hand.
Caitlin closed her eyes, and moments later, felt his fingertips on her eyelids.
“What do you see?” he asked.
She tried to clear her mind, to see something. But nothing came to her. Was she supposed to be seeing something special? She felt embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I don’t see anything.”
“Your problem,” he began, “is that you’re still stuck in the physical world. You still see battle as between person and person, object and object. You’re missing the unknown. The unseen.”
He breathed deeply.
“Where do people come from? Where do our kind come from? How did it all begin? There is a deeper level. This is what you are missing. You are not at this level yet.”
After several moments of silence, Caitlin finally opened her eyes. She saw nothing. And Aiden was gone.
Caitlin spun in every direction, looking for any sign of him. But there was no trace whatsoever. For a moment, Caitlin couldn’t help but wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing, if he had never been there at all.
“You still can’t find me, can you?” came the voice.
Caitlin spun in the other direction, but she still couldn’t see him.
“Find me,” came the voice again.
Caitlin broke off into a sprint, running amidst the trees, looking on every side of the plateau, looking down every slope of the mountain. She even looked up. But she still saw no sign of him.
“That is your problem,” came the voice.
Caitlin spun, but the voice was not behind her.
“You’re still looking with your eyes.”
Caitlin spun again, but there was no voice there, either.
“You must close your eyes,” came the voice. “And look inside.”
Finally, Caitlin closed her eyes. She tried, again, to focus.
“Don’t concentrate with your mind,” came the voice. “Concentrate with your spirit. Your soul. Your nature.”
Caitlin closed her eyes tight, trying to understand.
“You’re trying too hard,” came the voice. “If you try, you will not find. Let go of trying. Let go of everything. Just let the universe be.”
Caitlin stood there, eyes closed, for several minutes. She was finally beginning to understand. She slowed, calmed down, forced herself to take a deep breath. To let go of trying. She just let the universe be, exactly as it was. She decided that whatever it was she was searching for, she could not find it: it would have to find her.
Slowly, Caitlin began to see something. At first it was just a glimpse. She felt her entire body relax, and as she did, the image became more and more clear.
Soon, it became more vivid, as if she had opened her eyes. All around her, she saw an image of the Mount of Olives. But now, in the air, she could see legions of angels and demons, wrestling with each other. It was incredible. It was as if the spiritual dimension had revealed itself to her. As if a window had been opened up to the universe.
“Yes…very good,” came Aiden’s voice, deep in mind.
“Now you are seeing. This is the real world. This is the world that is happening all around us, all the time—the one that we never see. Our physical world is but a manifestation of this world. We are puppets, all of us, in the physical realm.”
Caitlin tried to focus even more deeply. Hovering over her she saw several guardian angels. One of them had the face of Polly. Another had Aiden’s face.
“Yes…very good,” came Aiden’s voice. “Now tell me: where am I?”
“You’re here,” Caitlin responded. “You’re everywhere, and nowhere at once. If I look for you in the physical world, I will not find you. And if I don’t look for you, then I will see you.”
“Yes…excellent,” came the voice. “Now open your eyes.”
Slowly, Caitlin opened her eyes. She saw Aiden standing before her, just a few feet away, looking back, holding his staff.
In his other hand, he held another staff, a bronze one. He threw it at her.
Caitlin caught it just in time.
He suddenly charged, swinging his staff down for her head.
Their final sparring had begun.
Caitlin blocked the blow, just-in-time. It clanged under the sky, the gold against the bronze.
Aiden swung again and again, from every direction. Each time, she blocked it. She was beginning to feel a new power, a new sense overtake her. In the past, she viewed battle as a struggle. Now, she was focusing on becoming one with everything.
Aiden swung faster and faster, but each time she managed to dodge it, jumping, ducking, weaving.
He pushed her back until she was standing at the edge of the plateau, with no room left without falling off the mountain. At the last second, as she was about to take her final step back, she suddenly flipped up in the air, high over his head, and landed on his other side.
As she did, she brought down her staff, and to her shock, she managed to strike Aiden hard, right on the shoulder. He reached up to block it, but was a fraction of a second slower than her. Caitlin was amazed: that had never happened before, not in all the years, all the centuries, all the places, she had known him. She had never seen anyone get a blow in on Aiden.
Her blow hit him hard, and Aiden sank to his knees. As he did, he dropped his staff, and it bounced off the ground and fell off the mountainside. It hurled, end over end, as it plummeted, bouncing off the rock, clanging as it went. It was a loud, surreal clang, one which shook the entire valley.
Aiden slowly turned and looked up at Caitlin. She had never seen him look so amazed.
She herself was flabbergasted, not knowing what she had just done. And then, she felt overcome with remorse. She had beaten her teacher.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, extending one hand to help him up.
He shook his head, and slowly rose to his feet. As he did, his eyes filled with tears.
But, Caitlin could see, these were not tears of pain: they were tears of pride.
“The day has come,” he said. “Now, finally, you understand. Now, there is nothing more I can teach you.”
Aiden took two steps closer, held out his palms, and gently reached up and placed them on her forehead. He closed his eyes, and as he did, she could feel the incredible energy coursing through them, into her. She felt a transmission of power, a whole new energy, something she had never felt before. She didn’t know what was happening to her.
“Caitlin of the Pollepel Coven,” he slowly announced. “I hereby endow you with every power you will ever know.”
Caitlin closed her eyes, feeling the energy coursing through her like a tidal wave. As she did, she was suddenly overcome with a series of visions.
She had a vision of war. She saw the skies blackening, saw an army of evil vampires filling the air, racing towards the Mount of Olives. She saw Rexius at their head, and to her disbelief, Sam, her brother, by his side. She could hardly believe it.
She saw them inflicting wave after wave of damage and destruction. She saw Caleb fighting them off, and Aiden, too.
But she saw them losing. And then, to her horror, she saw Caleb get stabbed through the heart. Dying.
Caitlin opened her eyes with a cry.
She stared at Aiden, who stared back at her, grimly.
“What do you see?”
he asked, his voice somber.
“I see a coming war,” she said. “Here. On this mount. I see my brother. Attacking. I see….death. Caleb’s death.”
She opened her eyes, and Aiden nodded back gravely.
“You see much,” he said.
“Is it true?” Caitlin asked, afraid to know the answer.
Aiden turned away and gazed out, wordlessly.
“I won’t allow it to happen!” Caitlin insisted. “I will stay here. I will defend the mountain, with all of you!”
“This is not where you are needed. You, and Caleb, and I, each have our own destinies. You are needed to find your father. The shield. That is the only thing that can save us now. You are our last hope. If you stay here and fight with us, we will all surely die. That much is certain. If you go, then there is a chance, a small chance, that we can survive.”
Caitlin felt so torn inside, swirling with conflicting emotions. She didn’t know what to say. She felt more helpless than ever, like a puppet in the hands of fate. On the one hand, she knew she had the power to make choices, to determine her destiny; on the other hand, she clearly saw that certain things were fated. But how much, she wondered? How much was everything fated? How much of life was destiny? Could fate be changed? Or was she helpless, were they all helpless, to just sit back and watch destiny unfold? These thoughts tore her up inside.
“You receive two powerful new skills today,” Aiden continued. “Your final skills. The first is the skill to change properties: you can now change silver into an ordinary metal. Which means you can never be contained by silver. No other vampire has this skill. Only you.”
Caitlin felt a new energy tingling in her arms, and felt more invincible than ever.
“And your final skill is the most powerful of all.”
Aiden paused.
“It is the ability to choose your future place and time.”
Caitlin stared back, thinking.
“What do you mean?” she asked, perplexed.
“Up until now, you have only been able to travel back in time. Vampires can never travel forward. But today, with the completion of your training, one exception is made, for one time only. If you survive, if you find your father, then you shall have one chance to choose. A time and place. In all of history. You will be able to choose your destiny.”
Caitlin furrowed her brow, trying to process it all.
“Are you saying I can move forward, to the future?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not without the shield.”
“But with the shield?”
He looked back at her, noncommittal.
“When you have the shield, you will understand.”
Caitlin tried to understand, but it all seemed so mysterious to her. She wanted to ask more, but she sensed he’d already told her all that he would.
“But I still don’t know where to go next,” she pleaded, “to find my father.”
“You don’t know because you’re not seeing,” he said. “Now tell me: what else do you see?”
Caitlin closed her eyes again. This time, she was flooded with a vision of a magnificent temple, stretching hundreds of feet in every direction, in the center of Jerusalem. She saw a square within a square, and a chamber in its center courtyard. She sensed that this was the holiest place on earth, and her final destination. She saw herself entering it, carrying an ivory staff.
“I see a vast and holy temple,” she said, her eyes closed, struggling to make out the details. “I see myself entering it. And carrying a staff. An ivory staff. And in my head, I keep hearing a voice. It says: A square within a square.”
Slowly, Caitlin opened her eyes, and as she did, she saw Aiden holding out a staff. She could not believe it: it was the staff of her vision. It was a weapon that Caitlin recognized, but had not seen in years: a four-foot ivory staff, intricately carved, with a round circular head and mysterious etchings all over it. The last time she had seen it had been in the Cloisters, in New York City. The crozier that Caleb had once used, and one of the greatest weapons of their coven. It glowed like a thing of magic as Aiden held it out to her.
Slowly, her hand trembling, she reached out and grasped it. She could feel its ancient energy coursing through her.
“This weapon has been in safekeeping for thousands of years, reserved for the time of greatest war,” Aiden said. “But it is also a clue, the final relic on the road to your father.”
Caitlin surveyed it, in awe.
“I’m meant to bring it to the temple?” she asked. “The one in my vision? The one in Jerusalem?”
Aiden nodded back.
“And now, you must go. There is no time to waste. A war comes. Find your father, for us all. Go. Say your goodbyes to Caleb. Make it meaningful. It will be the last time you see him again.”
Caitlin’s heart stopped at his words, as she felt her eyes well up with tears.
“How can you say such a thing?” she asked, horrified.
Aiden stared back gravely.
“I only say that which you know yourself to be true. Sometimes our future is revealed to us, and it is one we must accept. I am sorry, but your destiny with Caleb has come to an end.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Scarlet stood in her cell, Ruth beside her, and looked up at the group of people standing before her. There must have been a dozen of them, and she could sense right away that they were different, like her. Vampires. Except, they were not like her. They had a very different energy—a dark energy. She sensed they had very dark intentions.
The guard opened the silver bars to her cell, and now they stood just a few feet away, staring down at her. The guard stepped forward and unlocked her silver shackles, and she rubbed her wrists, happy to have them free. She felt tempted to try to make a run for it, to dart past them, between their legs, and up the stone staircase. But she knew she wouldn’t make it. Ruth certainly wouldn’t, either. So she stared back at them warily, waiting to see who they were, and what they had come for.
As she looked them over, she suddenly thought she recognized one of them. She did a double-take: could it be him?
Scarlet couldn’t believe it. It looked just like him, although his face, the expression, seemed different. As if he were under a spell of some sort. And his eyes—they look older, meaner, lifeless. But otherwise, she was sure it was him.
Sam. Her uncle. Polly’s husband. The man she had met back in Scotland, and had grown to love. The man who had once looked out for her, protected her. What was he doing with these creeps?
Seeing him, Scarlet could even see some of her mommy in him. It made her heart race, pine for her mother more than ever. Seeing him, she knew that she should feel relief, that someone in her family was here, had found her, was looking out for her. Rationally, she knew she should.
But emotionally, when she looked up at Sam, she felt nothing like relief. Instead, she felt fear. She couldn’t understand why, but the way he looked down at her, it was as if he didn’t recognize her. As if he didn’t even care about her. As if he had not come here to help her, but rather to help this evil group of people. She couldn’t understand it.
“Sam?” she asked, as she looked into his eyes.
The rest of the group turned and looked at him. For a moment, just a flicker of a moment, she thought she saw his face flush with something like surprise. Or maybe, even recognition.
“Sam, don’t you recognize me?” Scarlet persisted. “It’s me. Scarlet. Your sister’s daughter.”
Sam stared back for several soft seconds, unblinking. He looked as if he were trying to figure it out, to remember.
But finally, after several seconds, his eyes did not fill with recognition. On the contrary, they continued to stare coldly down.
“I don’t know you,” snarled his guttural voice.
Scarlet shivered at the sound of it. It was a voice she did not recognize. It was not the voice of a human, but of a creature, of a cold, soulless person from hell. The tone of his voice, even more than his
words, told her everything: this was not the Sam she once knew.
Her heart fell. She knew at that moment that her mother had not sent him. That he was not here to help. And that she was still alone in the world.
To Sam’s side stood a woman with long red hair and large breasts, dressed in a tight black leather outfit, scowling down. Scarlet could see the meanness in her eyes, and she could also see the hold that she had on Sam, as if she had him in a spell. She wondered who she was.
On Sam’s other side was an evil looking man who seemed to be thousands of years old. From the way he stood, in the center of the group, she could sense that he was the leader. His pale blue eyes gazed down at her as if he were seeing right through her, and she felt a cold shiver run up her spine. She sensed that this man had come here just for her.
Ruth began to growl.
Scarlet wondered why these people had come here. Clearly, it was not to free her. And yet, she sensed, they weren’t about to hurt her either. Not yet, at least. She sensed that they wanted something from her.
The old, ugly man smiled down at her, his face collapsing into a million wrinkles. It was the most awful smile she had ever seen. She could feel the evil oozing off of him; more than ever, she longed for her mother, for any familiar face.
“You are a precocious little girl,” the old man said. “Just like your mother. You know that I tried to kill her once? Centuries ago? Or I should say, centuries to come. In New York City. I doused her in a bath of acid. But it didn’t work. Because, at the time, she was a half breed.”
The man stepped forward, and narrowed his eyes at Scarlet.
“But you are not a half breed, are you? No. You are the real thing. The union of two vampires. A very rare and special thing. Vampires cannot procreate, you see. You are the exception. The thread in the eye of the needle. The one exception in the universe.”
He paused, examining her.
“But why are you so special?”
He paused again, and as he did, Scarlet began to wonder. Was everything he was saying true? Did he really tried to kill her mommy? Would he try to kill her? Why?