A Shade of Vampire 32: A Day of Glory (13 page)

“What are you—?” Corrine demanded, anger, and undertones of pain, coursing through her voice.

Before she could finish her question Loira sent her hurtling toward the side of a building. Corrine crashed through the glass and disappeared from my view. My heart was in my throat as Loira zoomed after her.

What is that witch doing? Where did she come from?
I had never seen her before, and she certainly wasn’t a witch of The Shade.

There was no time for questions as I heard the sound of Corrine struggling. “Have you lost your mind?” she shrilled. “What are you gaining by siding with the IBSI?”

I dashed to the entrance of the building and began scaling the stairs. My finger closed around the trigger of my gun. Corrine was powerful. She shouldn’t need my help. But I feared the spell Loira had thrown at her while her back had been turned could have put her at a fatal disadvantage.

As their voices got louder and louder amidst crashing and smashing of glass, I had to bite my tongue to not yell out and attract attention toward myself, averting it from Corrine. If I was to stand any chance of helping Corrine, I needed an element of surprise on my side.

“I owe them a favor,” came Loira’s voice, surprisingly matter-of-fact. “It’s really nothing personal, Corrine.”

The two women shared a grunt as I imagined their spells clashing.

I reached their level, my blood pulsing in my ears as I stopped outside the door of the room they were in. I pressed my ear against it, trying to gauge the right moment to storm in. It was impossible. Although I could estimate their proximity from the door, it hardly helped me.

I just needed to barge in and do what I could.

Steadying my gun, I pulled down the door handle sharply and pushed myself inside. Corrine was clearly losing this battle. She was now pinned up against the wall by Loira, whose hands were closed around her throat. Hands that had begun to glow red, like hot iron.

Raising my gun, I aimed it at Loira’s back. She’d better stay put, or my bullet could go right through to Corrine. I held my breath and pulled the trigger. Loira screamed and jerked backward. She fell to the ground, leaving Corrine to slide down the wall, clasping her throat.

I didn’t know an awful lot about witches and their magic. For all I knew, Loira could quickly heal the bullet wound. As I locked eyes with Corrine, I was about to yell to her to finish the woman off while she could, but Corrine was already on the job. She staggered to her feet. I expected her to throw a curse down at Loira, but instead, she merely withdrew a knife from her belt. Leaping atop the woman, she slit her throat.

I hurried to her, staring down at the blood spilling from Loira’s throat. Corrine’s eyes glittered with anger as she rose, her hands soiled, her chest heaving.

She drew in a shuddering breath. “Thanks, Lawrence, I owe you one,” she said, wiping her sweaty forehead with her forearm. “This meddlesome witch can continue her meddling in Hell.”

C
orrine healed
herself before she and I returned to the scene of the battle outside. I abandoned my idea of attempting to assist at ground level and instead let her soar me to the roof of a building that was closer to the fight.

It was just as hard to see through the smoke as it had been earlier, perhaps more so now, even despite the breeze carrying much of the smoke away.

I spotted dozens of mutants along with hunters scattered on the ground. My chest constricted as I spotted a fallen dragon, too. By the looks of it, he wasn’t getting up again. Who had been atop that dragon? How many more members of our army had we lost?

I looked toward the area in the sky where I had spotted the press reporters who’d hung back earlier in their choppers. There were still some there now, but less than before. Most appeared too afraid to hover here any longer. And rightly so. The scene was descending into a massacre.

I didn’t think we could maintain this fight for much longer without risking too many lives. Especially when a massive explosion went off about half a mile away from us. I felt the heat of the blast against my skin, and it caused Corrine to retreat backward with me.

It caused the dragons to scatter. They could handle such heat, but their riders couldn’t. I wasn’t sure where Lethe was at this point—I couldn’t make him out anywhere—but I hoped he was staying a good distance away.

Even with our magic wielders, we were outnumbered. There were too many of the IBSI’s army for us to contend with, all of them darting through the sky in different directions at supernatural speed. More of their army had fallen than ours, judging by the sample of land beneath me now. But we weren’t invincible.

More than anything I wondered what we truly had to gain by staying here any longer. We wouldn’t eradicate the IBSI. We would only delay their reassertion of power over the city, and more lives would likely be lost in the process. Press were still watching, but I was sure that they would not be able to broadcast anything. It was looking more and more like an unnecessary endeavor.

I gazed at Corrine as the two of us grappled with what our next step should be. Now I saw doubt in the witch’s eyes, doubt that had not been there before, when she’d made her statement that we couldn’t leave. That we had to stay to assert our rebellion and not make reclaiming power so easy for the IBSI.

But now, it seemed that she was realizing what I had feared all along.

We had lost.

The two hours the authorities had given us to prove ourselves were up.

They had returned all power to the IBSI. TSL had been shut out. The golden window of opportunity we had so painstakingly opened up for ourselves had closed.

Our staying here longer seemed like mere stubbornness. And as much as I admired everyone’s courage, there came a point when stubbornness turned into stupidity. I did not want to witness more people fall. Enough had died already due to the IBSI.

We had to recognize when to step back.

“I think we should retreat,” I said, even as it killed me.

Corrine winced as though I’d slapped her. She pursed her lips tightly, her jaw twitching.

Maybe we would come upon another opportunity in the future to prove ourselves. But it wasn’t now. Our timing from the start had been all off kilter. Ultimately, in spite of our intentions, we had caused more harm than good. I could hardly bear to think how many innocent lives had been affected, not just here in Chicago, but elsewhere where my father had ordered the boundaries to be pulled.

Another massive explosion sounded, closer this time, causing the dragons and all of us to retreat further. Then came another, and another—blasts spurting up from the ground like fiery fountains—until TSL had moved back so far, we were almost at the border of the river.

We had, in essence, already retreated.

Corrine gulped. “It looks like you’re right, Lawrence.”

We rose higher in the sky to avoid the scorching heat. Now I spotted Lethe. He had positioned himself atop a skyscraper on the other side of the river. I caught sight of his hunched-over figure, gazing in our direction. At least he’d kept himself a safe distance away.

We arrived among the rest of our group. The horde of mutants encroaching further, we found ourselves backing away together. The witches put up a protective spell around our group, so that they could not get too close while we hovered in the sky.

I gazed around at the ashen faces of my fellow fighters.

Our group was not as small as I’d feared it might be. Everyone I recognized had survived.

“We need to cut our losses now,” I told them, raising my voice above the mutants’ screams. The beasts and the hunters were attempting to break through the protection. They didn’t just want to beat us back; they wanted to end us.

Everyone shared the same expression of deep reluctance. Of pain.

One of the dragons—Jeriad, I thought his name was—bellowed across the river to Lethe.
Crap
. The mutants had spotted the ice dragon again.

Corrine planted me on the back of Xavier’s dragon before quickly vanishing herself toward Lethe, who had already taken Jeriad’s warning and begun to flee. The witch reached him and put up a protective bubble around the two of them before returning and rejoining us beneath the main protective barrier.

“Are we all together?” Corrine croaked, doing a head count.

“Yes, we’re all here,” Rose’s husband spoke up, a vampire whose name I had forgotten.

“What’s the matter?” one of the hunters roared at us from outside. He had been so bold as to remove his protective mask, and now I realized that I recognized him. Oliver Hyatt was his name. He was one of my father’s right-hand men.
So the IBSI’s leaders are acting as foot soldiers after all.

“Scared now?” Oliver continued to taunt. “I wish you’d realized you were out of your depth before you began all this.” Gripping the reins of his mutant, he gestured to the destruction around us—the burning city, littered with bodies and broken buildings. “This is what your so-called holistic approach has led to.”

The dragons rumbled at his words. Everyone tensed. My throat felt tight. I wished that I could shout back a retort, but I wasn’t sure what could be said in this moment. His words were so twisted—completely ignoring the fact that the IBSI had been the ones to let down the boundaries in the first place—it was hard to know where to even start with such a man. Arguing or throwing back harsh words seemed utterly pointless. They’d only bounce off him.

“Go back to your little island and continue your pipe dreams,” Oliver snarled. “Our friends at the press over there have recorded your failure enough to make the
world
want to hunt you down for your stupidity. I suggest you think carefully before leaving your base again.”

As he pulled on the reins and moved to turn around—apparently realizing that there was no point in continuing to try to get at us with his men while we were protected—Rose called out, “Hey,
sir
. Where do you think you’re going?”

Oliver, along with the rest of his army who had also started turning to leave, resumed his focus on us, his eyes locking on Rose. His face took on an expression of utter disdain.

“To clean up this mess you have created,” Oliver shot back. “Unless you’d like to battle with us some more? We will oblige.”

Rose glared daggers at him. I frowned as I stared at Grace’s aunt. She had risen to her feet on the back of the dragon she shared with her husband to command Oliver’s attention. I had no idea what was going through her head, why she was even bothering to talk to this piece of crap.

“I would like to ask you a couple of questions first,” she countered. “Then we can talk about another battle.”

I frowned even more deeply.

“What?” Oliver snapped, clearly impatient now.

“What’s your name?”

“What?” Oliver replied, his face contorting with the same confusion as I felt.

Where is Rose going with this?

“It’s a simple question,” Rose retorted.

I half expected him to just turn around, continue on his way and ignore her. But apparently her odd behavior had piqued his interest in some small way.

“Oliver Hyatt,” he replied.

“What would you do if you weren’t working for the IBSI, Oliver?” she asked.

Oliver scoffed. “There is no other calling I would give my life to.”

A wry smile curved the corners of Rose’s mouth. Then she said in a soft voice, “I hope you’re prepared for unemployment, Mr. Hyatt.”

Her eyes rose above his head, and then I realized the cause of Rose’s behavior.

Sweeping toward us like a dark storm in the distance was a throng of Hawks so large it blocked the moonlight.

As the hunters twisted around on their mutants to see what Rose was staring at, their jaws dropped.

It’s not over yet, Father.

It’s not over yet.

I
brahim
, Horatio and I had an important journey ahead of us. We already had willing accomplices in the supernatural dimension—several species had pledged themselves to our cause, due to our freeing them from the hunters’ grasp a short while ago. Now the time had finally come for us to call upon them.

We needed to gather an army large enough to convince the world that we had the manpower—or rather, the supernatural power—to take over from the IBSI. Not only to protect them from the Bloodless, but also to root out other mischievous supernaturals that the IBSI had still not been all that effective in controlling.

This was possibly the most epic task I had ever faced. But burning within me was deep confidence that we could pull this off. Our day had finally come. As night had for the IBSI.

Our first stop was The Woodlands. With Ibrahim keeping a spell of shadow over me, it didn’t take us long to find a pack of werewolves who recognized me. We had spent a good deal of time here in helping them to drive out the IBSI, and I had met and spoken with many werewolves personally, from many tribes. We came across three members of the Turnfur tribe. We traveled by magic with them from pack to pack until we had gathered an army of hundreds of werewolves. Victoria was supposed to be hanging around somewhere here, with Mona and Brock. But we didn’t come across her. Ironically, our last stop ended up being Blackhall Mountain, where they informed us that Victoria and Bastien had already left for The Shade. We must’ve narrowly missed them. The Blackhalls had appointed a new leader and were in the process of mourning due to recently losing some pack members. But they would be the last to forget all that they owed us. They joined us, too.

Once we were finished in The Woodlands, we moved next to The Trunchlands. The werewolves agreed to wait on the shore of the ogres’ land while Ibrahim, Horatio and I ventured inside. It became apparent that the royal mountain kingdom that had previously been abandoned had been reoccupied. Thus we did not have to travel far or wide to find the king.

We entered the mountain and were met by some aggressive ogres who did not realize the deal we had made with their king, but once they had calmed down, they agreed to lead us to him. We followed them up through the mountain to the royal wing. Anselm Raskid emerged from his quarters, and on seeing us, his eyes instantly darkened. Apparently he had grown a tad complacent in the time that had passed since we had freed him and his people. He had probably been hoping that we would never call upon his help in the end. He’d been wrong.

“It is time for you to return a favor,” I told him, looking the tall, rough-skinned man seriously in the eyes. “I am certain that you remember your promise.”

He nodded, a slight grimace forming on his lips. “Yes, King Derek Novak. I have not forgotten.”

“Then you must come with us now. We need you to gather as many ogres as you think are capable of being… reliable around humans.”

I couldn’t deny that I felt nervous about having ogres join our army. I trusted the werewolves well enough, but ogres? I feared what would happen if even one of them lost control and went on a human-eating rampage when we got to Earth. That would be an absolute PR disaster for TSL. And the IBSI would try to milk the incident for all it was worth.

We had to prove the IBSI wrong in their belief that no supernaturals could be trusted, responsible beings. That they were incapable of helping solve Earth’s problems. In spite of all that I’d been through and all that I’d seen in my long life—all the times I’d been betrayed and all the evil I had witnessed in people—I still preferred to give people, be they humans or supernaturals, the benefit of the doubt. Thus I placed my faith in Anselm to pick out an army who would do right by us, and control their nature, given all that we had done for them.

Of course, if he or any of his ogres messed up, there was always the threat that TSL would come after them, just as we had come after the hunters. They knew that we had a fierce army of dragons… That alone should be enough to make them control their nature and deter any of them from taking a misstep.

Once the king had summoned his army, we headed to the beach to join the werewolves. It was interesting watching the werewolves and ogres interact, or rather not interact. Apart from Bella and Brett on our island, I didn’t think I’d ever seen how werewolves responded to the presence of ogres and vice versa. The two species stared at each other from across a stretch of sand, both of them apparently distrusting—particularly the ogres, oddly.

I cast my eyes over the ogres and set my gaze on the king, who was looking no more enthusiastic than his kinsmen about the prospect of joining forces with the werewolves.

“I suggest that you warm to each other,” I said pointedly. “Because soon you will be cooperating with many other species—including dragons.”

The king nodded, his lips forming a hard line.

Next, we headed to The Sanctuary. Although we had played no part in saving the witches recently, they owed us a lifetime of debt already. First, for ending the black witches practically single-handedly a couple of decades ago, and secondly, for my daughter having rescued one of the royal sisters. We’d had decent, amenable dealings with them ever since.

I experienced intense déjà vu as we arrived on the shore of the witches’ country. We had come to seek out Loira Sulvece only days ago to assist us in discovering the Hawk-vampire boys.

Ibrahim took the initiative to call out through the boundary for somebody to attend to us. A youngish blond warlock with shoulder-length hair emerged.

Ibrahim seemed to recognize him. “Coen,” he addressed the man. “We need to speak with the Ageless.”

“What is it about?” he asked. His eyes bulged as he took in the beach jam-packed with supernaturals.

“We need to borrow some of you,” Ibrahim replied before adding, “We need to speak to her urgently.”

“Hm, all right,” Coen said. His eyes traveled once again, up and down the beach. “It seems that it will be easier if I bring her to you. I will head to her palace at once.”

“So,” Ibrahim said, turning to me as Coen vanished. “How many witches do you think we should bring?”

I ran a hand through my hair, eyeing our army thus far. Witches were probably the most valuable kind of supernatural we could gather. “As many as possible.”

“Right,” Ibrahim muttered, nodding.

We waited for about fifteen minutes before the oldest Adrius sister arrived on the beach. The current Ageless.

She bowed her head to me courteously as she approached in a long silver gown, her fair hair trailing down her shoulders.

“Good day, King Derek,” she said, bowing her head slightly. “And Ibrahim.” Her eyes passed over the warlock. Although she looked at Horatio, too, and I was quite sure that she knew his name, she chose not to greet him. The witches of The Sanctuary still had some way to go to catch up with the witches of The Shade in regards to their relations with and prejudices against jinn.

Just like the ogres and werewolves, this was a prejudice they were going to need to snap out of fast.

“We require witches to accompany us to Earth,” I began. “As many as you can spare. As you can see”—I gestured to the supernaturals packing the sand—“we are building a multifaceted army. I’m sure that you are aware of the IBSI and their general dealings on Earth—and in the supernatural dimension.”

“More so in the supernatural dimension,” the Ageless replied, wetting her lower lip. “My people have not had many dealings with Earth recently, as you know.”

“Well, you are about to have a whole lot more.” I explained to the witch all that we planned to accomplish as quickly as I could, while giving as much detail as was required for her to bite.

Once I finished, she nodded slowly. “I understand your requirements… While I cannot guarantee you any specific number of my people, I will call an urgent meeting now, and I will gather as many volunteers as I can.”

White witches were not known to be the most selfless of beings. As she vanished, I had to hope that she could provide a substantial number. We had a staggering amount of work to do. And although I held out hope that, on seeing TSL’s growing army, some of the IBSI members would jump ship. Jennifer Thornton had suspected many in the IBSI weren’t happy in their roles within the organization and would welcome the chance to leave. Unfortunately, we could not pin our hopes on that. That would be a bonus.

It really would be a boon though if many IBSI members did join us. They would be extremely valuable in the early days, because they already had internal structures in place. We could learn from their systems while building upon and improving them.

When the Ageless finally returned, an uncomfortable amount of time had passed. To say that we did not have forever was an understatement. I had not been able to give Xavier or my son a specific time frame for when we would return, for that was impossible. There were so many variables on this supernatural side of the universe. All I could tell them was that we would do our utmost to return with an army as soon as physically possible.

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of witches and warlocks who arrived—over a couple of hundred. These would compliment our current group of magic wielders nicely.

It had occurred to me that more jinn would also be extremely useful, but unfortunately, those were not creatures we had any leverage with, and certainly not ones that we wanted to meddle with.

The beach was so packed now that the ogres had retreated into the sea in order to make room for everybody to stand
. Witches, ogres, and werewolves, oh my.

But we were not done yet.

We had two more ports of call—the next being The Hearthlands. That visit would not be challenging at all, given our friendly relations with King Theon. We had become like family over the years, even though we lived worlds apart. Theon had come to visit with his wife Penelope and brother Altair on occasion, staying in the dragons’ quarters in the Black Heights. And their invitation was always open to us; indeed, my son’s wedding had taken place there. Although The Shade and The Hearthlands were two nations, we were as good as one.

The ogres were understandably jittery about our next stop, but I assured them that it would be a good… exercise in trust for them. I promised them that none of the dragons would harm them, so long as they harmed no humans when we returned to Earth—and I trusted the dragons enough to uphold that assurance.

Thus, the witches transported us all to the verdant land of The Hearthlands. We landed outside the royal castle. Before entering, I took a moment to gaze about the town, nestled among rolling green hills and valleys. It was in moments like this that I wished I could be human again, enjoy the feeling of the sun on my skin. But henceforward, I would remain a vampire. I couldn’t keep switching; I’d done so too many times before. The body built up resistance to the cure—the last time I had tried, I’d almost died. Since then I had promised Sofia that I would remain as I was. Forever a vampire, like her.

I breathed in deep, relishing the fragrant air for a few seconds while clearing my head of the dizziness that sometimes accompanied magical travel.

Then, followed by Ibrahim and Horatio, I approached the front door and knocked. A guard opened the heavy oaken doors and, instantly recognizing us, his face lit up.

“Come in! Come in!”

“Thank you,” I told him, smiling in appreciation. “But first of all, please cast your eyes upon my fellow travelers.” I gestured behind me. The guard’s lips parted as he took in the supernaturals crowding the town. Particularly the ogres.

“You see, we have arrived with companions. I have come to speak to your king, but I need you to ensure us that no attempts are made by your dragons to snap at our ogre friends while we are inside the castle.”

I could practically see the hunger in the guard’s eyes as he gazed at the ogres, even in his humanoid form. He returned to his senses and looked back to me. “Of course, Your Highness. It shall be done.”

The guard looked over his shoulder and barked behind him, beckoning over more guards. He explained to them that the ogres were with us, and they agreed to stand outside and make sure that any other passing dragons were aware that the ogres were not to be touched.

Then the first guard who had greeted us led Horatio, Ibrahim and me into the magnificent castle. He seated us in a richly furnished waiting room. He offered us refreshments, which we politely refused. We had no time to indulge in the luxuries of the dragon kingdom.

We were waiting for only five minutes by my calculation before Theon burst into the room. His thick wavy hair grazing his shoulders, his chiseled face lit up in a brilliant smile that illuminated his golden eyes.

“Derek!” he boomed.

He crossed the room to greet me with a hearty hug and a slap on the back that practically knocked the wind out of me.

I returned the embrace before gripping his shoulders and creating a few inches of distance between us.

“Theon. The time has come where we need your help more than ever before.”

I was only a couple of minutes into explaining why we needed his help when he agreed unconditionally to provide us with as many dragons as we needed for our mission.

“Good man,” I said, squeezing his shoulders. “I suggest that every dragon who is willing to help us head to The Shade immediately.” I had to be mindful that the dragons were not ones to travel by magic. That meant that they would need more time. They could be traveling to The Shade while we finished up in our journey.

Theon escorted us to the castle exit before bidding us farewell—for now. Then he closed the door, hurrying off to begin giving orders.

Now it was time for us to head to our fifth and final destination.

Aviary.

Of course, there were many other supernaturals who could have come in use to us, but these five were the only ones we had leverage with for now. I hoped that in the future this would change, and we could turn still more supernaturals into forces for good. Into guardians, rather than threats.