The vampires came within a few feet of Caleb and stopped, their leader staring right at Caleb.
“We want to join you,” the leader said simply.
Caleb nodded, looking over their numbers, hundreds of them, and felt encouraged.
“We’re going to City Hall,” Caleb said. “The Blacktide Coven. We’re going to wipe them out for good.”
The leader nodded back, and slowly grinned. “That’s something I’ve been wanting to do for thousands of years,” he said.
Samuel smiled. “Then follow us!”
Caleb, Samuel and his men turned and flew into the air, and as they did, Caleb heard a massive fluttering of wings, and sensed the presence, right behind him, of hundreds of additional vampires.
Now they had an army. And they would take it right to City Hall.
FIFTEEN
As Samantha stood in the huge, chaotic chamber, thousands of vampires milling about, Kyle seated in his throne and Sam standing beside her, she thought of how quickly things had changed.
She had not anticipated any of this. She had imagined fleeing this place long ago, with Sam, and all of this being far behind them. But things had gone quite differently.
She knew that she took a risk by turning Sam that abruptly, and that anything could happen.
There just hadn’t been enough time, and she’d had to take her chances. Still, she hadn’t anticipated anything like this. Sam had arisen in such a fury, and with such power, it was beyond anything she had ever witnessed. He also seemed to carry some sort of blood in him, something she did not recognize. She had never— ever—seen such a young vampire so powerful. Maybe it was because he was of the same lineage as Caitlin. But in him, the blood seemed to run darker, more vicious.
She had not anticipated Sam’s being so out of control, his insistence on bloodlust, on revenge. It had completely taken her by surprise. He was like a wild, untamed creature.
And for that, she loved him even more.
Nor had she anticipated his bursting into the chamber like that, his killing so many of her own coven. Or his incredible, incredible strength. She felt honored that he hadn’t tried to kill her, too.
She also had not anticipated Kyle’s capturing him, or Kyle’s decision to let him live—and to make him one of his soldiers.
Her mind was reeling. Reports were streaming in from every corner of the city that the Blacktide Coven—now Kyle’s coven—was dominating the city. All sorts of vampires from neighboring covens were crawling out of the woodwork, streaming in to join the war. Everybody loved a winner, and Kyle’s numbers grew stronger by the moment. The Blacktide Coven’s time had come. There was no escaping it, or the ripple effect it would soon have throughout the world.
Samantha was starting to reconsider all of her plans. After all, where she was right now was the place to be, right in the seat of power, Sam was alive, safe and already turned, and Kyle wanted him as a soldier. He was no longer in danger, and neither was she. On the contrary, they were in a perfect position—in the right place at the right time, with an opportunity to rise to unimaginable heights of power.
Maybe she shouldn’t try to flee with Sam after all. The more she thought about it, the more she realized they shouldn’t. In the long run, she felt it would be best both for her and for Sam to ride the wave, to see where this went. There was no point in the two of them trying to fight off an entire army. And as long as they could be together, it didn’t really make a difference either way. She was a survivalist, an opportunist. This is what had kept her alive for thousands of years. And for now, at least, it seemed that the path of least resistance was to join Kyle’s war.
She and Sam stood together, close to Kyle’s throne. She looked in Sam’s eyes, and saw that they were still glazed, that he was still going through the transition. He didn’t seem able to register things clearly, and he seemed to ignore the other vampires who tried to speak with him. But luckily, some part of him seemed to still listen to Samantha. In fact, she seemed to be the only one he acknowledged. Maybe it was because she had turned him. Or maybe, somewhere, he remembered her. Whatever it was, she was grateful for it. She reached over and took his hand, and held it tightly.
Whatever should happen, she would guide him, and stay by his side.
At that moment, the huge doors burst open, and in rushed a contingent of vampires, bruised and bloody, looking very agitated. They marched right to the center of the room. Everyone parted ways for them.
Kyle stood, and Samantha could see the worry on his face.
Whatever this was, it would not be good.
*
Kyle looked down at the contingent of warriors rushing towards him. He did not like their expressions, and he could already feel the anger welling in him. He knew they would bear news of their first loss. Kyle had no tolerance for loss—no tolerance for losers—and if that was their news, they would pay for it dearly. If they thought that they would find sympathy in him, they were gravely mistaken.
The contingent of a dozen or so vampires reached Kyle’s throne, and bowed low before him.
They stood and the one in the center spoke, fear on his face.
“Our supreme leader,” he said, “we bear bad news. We have lost many of our brethren in battle.
Other covens have rallied and now stand in battle against us.”
An astonished gasp spread throughout the room.
“SILENCE!”“ yelled Sergei. He banged his staff repeatedly, and the room quieted.
Kyle stared down, feeling the rage overwhelm him. Pathetic warriors. Why could they not fight as he did?
“And what coven would dare do battle against us?” he asked slowly.
“My leader, I recognized but two of the vampires. One was Caleb, and the other, Samuel, of the White coven.”
Another gasp spread throughout the room.
“But that is not all,” the soldier continued, yelling over the din, “they carried weapons we did not recognize. An ivory staff, and a golden gauntlet. Against these weapons, there was little we could do. We outnumbered them, yet they destroyed nearly all of us.”
The room broke into a loud murmur.
“Worse still!” he yelled, “we saw other covens flocking to support them. Their numbers grow as we speak. And they are heading towards us!”
The room erupted into chaos.
“SILENCE!” yelled Sergei several times, banging his staff. After several minutes, the room finally quieted down.
Kyle stare down coldly at the soldier. He trembled, doing his very best to contain his rage. But it wasn’t working.
“So,” he began, icy cold, “you bring news of a loss. You bring news of your defeat. You bring news that you fled like cowards.”
The soldiers’ eyes all contorted in fear.
“My leader, we had to report what was happening. We had to warn you. We had to give you—”
Kyle held up his hand, and the soldier stopped mid-sentence.
“You know I have but one rule in my army,” Kyle said. “Never retreat. Never.”
And with that, Kyle suddenly grabbed the Sword off his throne, leapt down, and with one clean swing, chopped off the heads of the entire group of soldiers.
Their heads rolled to the ground, but the bodies stood in place for another second or two, before they all slowly leaned over and crashed to the floor.
The chamber became completely silent, save for the sound of the rolling heads.
Kyle was about to open his mouth and prepare his people for war, when the door burst open again.
In came dozens of humans, dressed in suits, strutting arrogantly down the center of the room, right towards Kyle. Kyle blinked twice, thinking he was imagining things. But he wasn’t.
It was them. The politicians. The ones who inhabited upstairs, who imagined that they ran this building, this city. They strutted with the arrogance typical of their kind, but as they walked deeper into the room, as they saw themselves crowded by thousands of vampires, as they saw the blood
on the floor, the freshly rolling heads, their confidence waned. Dramatically.
They looked up at Kyle, who was sneering back in rage, holding the Sword, dripping with blood, and now they didn’t look so sure of themselves.
“You dare to enter our chamber?” Kyle asked.
“You live beneath our building,” the lead politician responded. “We let you live under this chamber. Don’t forget that. At the snap of our fingers we could have the U.S. military blow you all out of existence.”
Kyle smiled widely. He liked the arrogance of this fellow. In fact, he liked him enough to kill him quickly.
“Really?” Kyle asked.
“We’ve tolerated you down here for all these years because you have always served our agenda,”
the politician continued. “But now, with this plague you’ve unleashed, innocent people are dying in the streets. We were never given any warning of this, and we never gave you our approval.
“Your days are over. Pack up, and get out. If not, we’ll bring in the National Guard, and if you’re still here by tomorrow, we’ll wipe all of you out.”
Kyle smiled wider, taking a few steps closer to him, and the other vampires crowded in close, too. Kyle was actually starting to enjoy this. If this poor human was a vampire, Kyle might even be friends with him.
“I must ask you,” Kyle began slowly, as he stepped even closer, and as the human’s eyes started to widen in fear, “for your military to come here and ‘wipe us out,’ wouldn’t they need to be issued an order?”
The human took a small step back. “Yes, of course,” he said, now sounding not so sure of himself.
“And who would relay this order?” Kyle asked.
“I would,” the man answered confidently.
Kyle smiled more widely. “As I thought.”
Kyle nodded to Sergei, who in turn nodded to someone else, and a second later, the huge oak doors closed behind the politicians with a bang.
The politicians looked behind them, then at each other, then back to Kyle, then at the vampires all around them. They now looked outright afraid.
“Well then,” Kyle said slowly, “I guess that order will never arrive, will it?”
Before the human could respond, Kyle pounced and swung his sword, chopping his head cleanly off his body.
Within just a few seconds, hundreds of vampires were pouncing on the remaining politicians, and feeding to their delight.
Kyle turned and stormed right for Sam and Samantha. He stood before them, glaring, his rage barely abated.
He looked into Sam’s eyes, and discovered a familiar rage shining back at him. He felt inside this boy a kindred spirit, and he liked him already. More importantly, he was impressed by his shape-shifting power. Exactly the kind of power he could use to throw his enemies off guard. This was the soldier he wanted at his side.
“This Caleb continues to be a thorn in my side,” he said to Sam. “As does your sister. Where there is one, there is the other. And as long as they are both alive, we will never have any peace,” he said. “I see that if I want the job done, I’m going to have to go and kill these vampires myself. More importantly, I will need to capture Caleb. With him in hand, your sister will follow. And then nothing more can stand in our way.”
He took a step closer to Sam. “I want you at my side in the upcoming battle.”
Sam glared back, rage exuding off him like a tangible thing. Kyle, oddly enough, found himself unable to read his thoughts. Clearly this boy was in another dimension.
“I am ready to kill,” Sam said, slowly. “Just point the way.”
Kyle surveyed him. It was exactly the answer he wanted.
Yes, he thought, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
SIXTEEN
“Caitlin? Caitlin, wake up! You’re late!”
The voice came incessantly, again and again, accompanied by a pounding on her door.
Caitlin finally opened her eyes, yanked out of a deep sleep. Lying in bed, on her stomach, she looked around the room, still disoriented.
The island. She was still here. Thank God. In her small room, at the top of the tower, on this new island she had come to think of as home, she felt secure. She looked over and saw Rose was still lying there, by her feet, looking at her patiently. She must be hungry, waiting for her to wake up, too.
Caitlin sat up and winced at the bright sunlight streaming in through the open windows. She quickly reached over, grabbed her eyedrops, and put one in each eye.
“Caitlin, Caitlin. Let me in!” came the voice again.
Polly. What on earth was she doing here this early? Caitlin didn’t have a clock anywhere—there were no electronics anywhere on this island—but she didn’t need one to know that the sun had barely crept over the horizon. It was way too early.
“Just come in!” Caitlin finally yelled back, “It’s open!”
The door flew open, and in ran Polly, excited, out of breath, as always, with a big smile on her face. She looked ready and excited to face the day. Caitlin wondered where she got all the energy.
Caitlin sat there, on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes and pulling her hair back. Her mind was full of cobwebs. It was not easy today. She had been up most of the night, hanging out with her covenmates.
Now it all came back to her. Today was her day. Guard duty. She yawned, exhausted. Well, at least she hadn’t had any more dreams of Caleb. Thank God for that.
Polly ran over to her, slipped an arm under hers, and yanked her to her feet.
“If you’re late, Aiden will kill you. You can never be late to guard duty. It starts in ten minutes.
And it’s a trek. This island is bigger than you think. Get dressed, let’s go,” she said, all in a rush.
Caitlin scanned the room and saw her clothes lying about the floor. Polly had been so generous, giving Caitlin several sets of clothes. Thankfully, they were the same size. Caitlin had expected all vampire clothes to be black—or maybe, different shades of black—and she was surprised to find that Polly’s wardrobe consisted mostly of purple and pink. Polly had smiled sheepishly, saying,
“Well, just because I’m a vampire, it doesn’t mean I have to be like all the others. There’s no rule, you know. I can wear any color I want.” It figured. If any vampire was to wear purple and pink, it would be Polly. She was the happiest person Caitlin had ever met, and she couldn’t envision her ever wearing black.
So, once again, Caitlin found herself decked out in a wardrobe that was not of her choosing. She got dressed quickly, and checked herself in the tall, standing mirror.
No reflection. Of course. She had forgotten. That was one aspect of vampire life she could do without.
Instead, she looked down at herself. All pink. She must have looked ridiculous.
“You look great,” Polly said. “Can we go now?”
Caitlin and Polly hurried out the room, Rose following. Rose was jumping on Polly, as always, and Polly reciprocated, stroking her head. Rose loved Polly, and the feeling was mutual. Caitlin was not surprised. Rose seemed to love anyone who was nice to Caitlin, and to hate anyone that hated her. Rose was always at Caitlin’s side. Always.
As they descended the circular, stone steps, twisting round and around, Caitlin looked out and took in the view of the sweeping blue waters of the Hudson River, lit up in the morning sun. It was beautiful. The cool water breezes struck her, and she felt like a princess in the sky, descending from her chamber. She felt so lucky to be here.
“I bet you don’t even know where you’re going, do you?” Polly said with a smile, shaking her head. “What would you do without me?”
Caitlin linked arms with Polly as they went. “Probably sleep,” Caitlin said wryly.
They entered the thick forest, beginning to bud with April flowers, and Caitlin followed Polly through the trails, weaving left and right, up and down.
“Well, so you know, I don’t have guard duty today,” Polly said. “In fact,
there’s nothing I would have loved more than to sleep in. But something told me that you would, too, so I got up early and yanked myself out of bed just to save you on this.”
Caitlin was touched by the gesture. “Thanks, Polly. I owe you one.”
“I know you do,” Polly said with a wink, “and I’ve been thinking about that Lily Pulitzer outfit you have up there. I never see you wear it, and I was wondering, well, if you wanted to do a girl a favor—”
“It’s yours,” Caitlin said, overjoyed. She wanted to get rid of those clothes anyway, which were all the wrong colors for her, and which so reminded her of Edgartown, of her time with Caleb. She was thrilled that Polly liked them.
Polly’s eyes opened wide. “Really? Do you really mean it? I mean, I didn’t mean to pressure you, I was just saying, like, I wasn’t being serious, you don’t really owe me anything—”
“Really. Please,” Caitlin said. “You’d be doing me a favor.”
“Why?” Polly asked, wide-eyed.
Caitlin didn’t feel like explaining.
“Uh…they don’t really fit me.”
It actually fit Caitlin perfectly.
“But we’re the same size,” Polly said, puzzled. Polly was too smart to get anything past her.
Caitlin thought quick. “What I meant was…the material, the fabric…it just isn’t…the type that I like to wear.”
“Great!” Polly exclaimed, thrilled. “Now I owe you. Big time. I’m going to talk to some of our covenmates and see if someone has a nice black outfit for you. I know you love black, and besides, you’re going to need something to wear to the concert tonight.”
“Concert?” Caitlin asked.
“Oh God, don’t you know?” Polly asked. “It’s the springtime concert. We have it every year.
Everyone brings a date. It used to be a bit awkward, because before you came, there were 23 of us.
But now with you, there are an even 24. One girl for every guy. Everyone’s so excited! It’s going to be an even match this year. And the only two people who don’t already have dates are you and Blake.”