A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga (21 page)

She could see the same school of dolphins
gleefully playing in the crashing waves, while above, the seagulls
continued to circle the same current; and in the trees, she could
see the monkeys, each in hysterics over Emily’s bewildered
appearance. These animals were in tune with a higher understanding
among this blissful aperture, and the world saw their every need
fulfilled. And so, with no reason to ever feel fearful again, they
chose to stay in this paradise— everything, the same as it always
would be.

“
And as it should be
,” the breeze
carried forth, as if completing the thoughts tracing around in
Emily’s mind.

“Mother?” Emily asked, “Is it you?”

“
I’m here for you, my child
,” said the
breeze, streaming from inside the jungle. “
Come to me…
”

As Emily headed cautiously towards the
looming shadows, the monkey’s laughter turn to jeering and an
overwhelming sense of panic came over her. She wasn’t wanted here
and wasn’t to be trusted.

They started to throw rocks and other
miscellaneous objects at her; things best not given a closer look,
and she forced herself further into the ominous landscape. It was
all happening so fast, but Emily could feel the anger emanating
from the very ground below. It wasn’t just the monkeys that wanted
her gone; it was as if the plane’s collective entity was trying to
expel her from this universe, like an infested disease that needed
to be purged from its existence.

She rushed into the jungle without so much as
a second thought; headed for the direction she last heard her
mother’s voice. If this was the land of the summoners, long
forgotten and outside the realm of time and space, then nothing
would allow her to escape from their grasp and see her mother
again.

They didn’t want her here. She wasn’t to be
trusted.

“Mom, where are you?” Emily asked as she
stopped for a moment to search through the thick foliage. With
heart racing, sweat beading, and her breathing becoming
increasingly more difficult, Emily felt a panic attack strike when
she needed it the least. “Mother, I can’t do this without you!”

“
I have so much to tell you
.”

Her mother’s words gave Emily a new breathe
of life and she turned run into sprint, hopes of reaching her
mother, Amanda, once again fresh in her mind.

“
There’s so much that you’ll want to
hear
.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Emily said to
the cold breeze as it passed by with ferocity, “Where are you? Why
have you forsaken me?”

“
I miss you very much
.”

“And I you,” Emily replied, “Both Steven and
I have kept your memory alive… both you and father.”

“
My only daughter, you are wise beyond her
years and brimming with untapped potential. Why… why did you turn
your back on me?
”

“That’s not true!” Emily protested as she
continued deeper into the jungle. It was getting darker, but it
wasn’t the absence of light that hid the path from her, but
instead, it was growth of darkness, unbridled and allowed to seep
through the very soil below. The darkness was strong here, and it
was getting stronger with every step she took.

“This… this is my fault,” Emily said as she
slowed to a halt and dropped to her knees, “I’ve done this to you,
haven’t I?”

“
The fault is my own
.”

“What are you talking about?” Emily asked,
“
I’m
the one that betrayed their trust!
I’m
the one
that walks with vampires!
I’m
the one that fell from their
good graces! If their justice is so black and white, then let them
make attempt on my life, not yours!”

“
I’m getting so weak
.”

“I’m not afraid of you!” Emily screamed to
the sky above, now sheathed in a cloak of shadows and darkness,
“You bring a war down upon my mother’s head… you bring a war down
upon mine… and now you expect me to bend a knee to your power? I
will complete your mission… but only to see my mother’s death hold
meaning!”

“
It’s so dark… and I’m so very
weak
.”

“I’ll save you, mother!” cried Emily as she
called upon every fiber of her being to lift her from the darkness
and see the battle continued. Someone was counting on her, and she
wouldn’t see their suffering be in vain.

“
Getting darker…
”

Emily could feel the rage building from
inside her, waiting to explode upon anyone with the gall to dare
harm her mother. She would see her vengeance exacted, even if it
took everything she had left.

It wasn’t like her to let anger control her,
but something in this awful place permeated death and decay, and
seeped into her soul through the most violent of thoughts. She
struggled to keep a level head, but every bone in her body beckoned
for justice. She wasn’t going to lose her mother again.

“
Getting sadder…
”

The voice was getting louder now, and Emily’s
spirits rose with revelation that she might just make it through
this, after all. She wouldn’t have allowed herself to admit it,
here and now, but there was a moment when she thought this was
nothing more than a sickening game, played out by those with
interest vested in her demise.

“
No! Please, keep back!
”

Her words came with a forceful gust of wind
and threatened to knock Emily onto the ground. She pressed onward
in hot pursuit of her mother’s attacker. If it was a fight they
were interested in, then it would be a fight she’d be happy to give
them.

“
Get away from me!
”

Emily was getting close, but she feared it
may not have been fast enough. She could barely see her hands
outstretched through the darkness, much less whatever going on with
her mother. All she could do now was pray that her mother still had
a few tricks left up her sleeve.

“
Don’t you dare touch take a step
further!
”

Like a beacon of light, Amanda lay atop a
stone slab in the middle of a small opening, motionless, but very
much alive. Emily could see no one else there with her, but who
knows what lurked between the shadows? For all she knew, this had
been nothing more than a perfectly executed trap, orchestrated by
her malefactors.

“I’m here, mother!” cried Emily as she took
her mother’s hand and pressed it tenderly to her breast, “Please…
tell me that you’re okay.”

The only response Emily received was the dead
look in her mother’s eyes as she lay staring up to the non-existent
stars. Whatever had happened upon this alter, she had not been
privy to its knowledge.

The darkness was still encroaching, a
reminder that Emily had little time to learn the fate that had
befallen her.

“Not even those I seek could be so cruel!”
Emily called out to her unknown aggressors, tears streaming and
filled with the rage of her mother’s spirit, “You act like you’re
better than the monsters you created, yet here you are… acting
exactly like them! How do you expect me to see the light when
you’re all so clearly mad like the darkness that engulfs this
entire plane? I denounce you! I denounce every last one of
you—!”

“Foolish, little girl,” said her mother as
she woke from her catatonia and grappled onto the arm of her
daughter, “How very foolish of you to betray your own people… all
over the slightest misunderstanding.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Emily stuttered, in
shock from recent developments, and still not completely aware of
what was truly going on, “You’re not m-making any sense, mom.”

“M-mom’s not h-here right now, l-little
g-girl,” she mocked, “How easy it was… to bend you to my will.
You’ve no hope in defeating me, girl… no hope in the entire world.
Not even your summoner heritage can save you from the hellfire I’ll
unleash upon you.”

Suddenly, the darkness overtook them and tore
them from each other’s grasp. Emily could feel the hate and
resentment infused in the darkness’ mantle, clawing its way down
her throat and choking her off from the world she so carelessly
left behind.

The darkness seemed to gather the nourishment
it needed from Emily’s soul, and receded back to the nether realm
below, just as quickly as it had overtaken her.

“It’s good that we have this time to
ourselves,” said a voice’s voice from behind the shadows, “Step
closer… and let’s get a
good
look at you.”

As Emily shuffled closer, unsure of the fate
that had befallen her; a single white light seemed to shine down to
the ground below, where a beautiful young woman sat atop a golden
throne. Her beautiful brown locks cascaded down her lightly-bronzed
neck and shoulders, right down to the cleavage bulging out of her
black corset. She was a beauty, aged to perfection and wanting
everyone else to know it, as well.

Wherever Emily was, she wasn’t among the
summoners; and likely, she never had been.

She was in the vampire queen’s world now. A
land where Amata reigned supreme and all would fall upon her feet
in servitude.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to
introduce myself,” the vampire queen said, “It’s hard to believe
such a young girl could’ve evaded my grasp for so long, but here
you stand, rebellious as ever, ready to finish what your elders so
carelessly began.”

“You’re Amata, I assume,” Emily said with
little regard to the advantageous position the vampire had over
her, “You’re pretty… but then again, all of life’s cheapest
pleasures are.”

“Oh, there’s a fire in you, all right… I like
that,” Amata replied, her interests piqued, “I believe there’s much
in you that I would’ve found appealing… captivating… and maybe even
a little bit titillating… but alas, we come from different worlds—
far apart, yet closer than our creators would ever allowed
themselves to believe. It’s written in stone, Emily, long before
either of us was ever born. The war was predestined… a war that
cannot find closure without blood spilt in its name…. and it’s a
war I intend to win.”

“I’ll fight you!” Emily shouted in
defiance.

“I’m counting on it,” Amata replied, “You…
or
that little whelp, Xander. I’m going to make you watch as
I tear him limb from limb until that shriveled up heart of his
turns to dust.”

“You’ve threatened my friends and family,”
Emily said as she took a step closer, “No one threatens the people
I care about. I don’t care if your queen of the goddamn world… I’ll
never bow down to you. Everywhere you turn, I’ll be there to stop
you. You’ll never get away with this.”

“Oh, dear summoner,” Amata laughed, “I
already have.”

The darkness returned with truculence and
bombarded her with the forcefulness of the vampire queen’s
depravity; cold and calculating, where she knew it could do the
most damage— the psyche, where the emotional distress would run
rampant upon her exposed and unshielded soul.

The unnerving feeling of losing all grip on
reality was the last thing Emily remembered before it all came
crashing to a halt; and as suddenly as it began, her nightmare was
over.

Chapter Two

“…And so it begins,” said Lady Amata, opening
her eyes back to the world she had left behind, “The first move, my
dear summoner… shall be mine.”

She picked herself up from between the
candlelit circle of power she had been meditating on, a place to
channel the power necessary to see all her desires unfold. This
time, it had been desires to dislodge Emily of rational thinking
and drive a wedge between allies. Before that, it had been a false
prophecy to the summoner’s brother, all in the hopes of obtaining a
bloodless kill— the kind of kill she was expertly equipped to
give.

She folded back the opening to her tent and
was overcome with sense of purpose and honor as she stared at the
horde gathered in front of her tent, knees bent and paying respect
to their dark mistress. She was a queen, and like any proper queen
should, she now had an army at her disposal.

Everywhere she looked, werewolves and
vampires mixed with nymphs and even the occasional troll. Mages
chanted in circles to keep her army concealed from the world
outside and mask the vampires from the harsh sunlight that
threatened to send them all back into the ground.

The hordes were separated, isolated and
looking for a fight. They needed a leader to unite them, and
unleash them upon their unsuspecting enemies. She was that leader,
risen to power under the strength of steel and ruthless in the ways
of the lesser breeds. The hordes, they would follow a woman like
her into the depths of Hell.

“Come, my children,” said Lady Amata as she
signaled for the vampires hanging around her tent to come forth
with her. They followed her, without question, to the center of
camp where several trolls had erected a stage.

It was crude, simplistic and without any of
the creature comforts she was used to, but it served its purpose; a
place where she could reach out to all those in attendance and
strengthen their resolve to see the summoner’s will undone. Amata
had her army, now she just needed to unite them.

Trumpets rang out the moment she placed her
foot upon the stage and soon all the monsters were ushered forth
and out of the trees. Never before had they gathered together in
such number, where ageless blood feuds could once again take shape
and threaten to unravel everything they had worked for. In fact,
many of Amata’s own advisors had warned her of the danger such a
close proximity could have to the paranormal races. And yet here
they are, numbered in the thousands, a testament to the trust had
given her. Her advisors would’ve had to eat those words, if they
were still alive to do so.

“My brethren,” Lady Amata began, “I say that
not to the vampires in the audience, but to all of you that
answered the call of war. We were born under a tyrants rule, forced
to adapt to a way of life that we never desired. They threatened to
take everything we loved about the world away from us, lest we
repent and follow their will.”