Redemption (25 page)

I was standing outside of the
GTO, having turned off a back road in the middle of nowhere to find this place,
and there it had been, as plain as day in front of me, a white wonder world
hidden between the cracks in the human world. It was like looking through a
huge window, the world on this side warm with the approaching summer, the world
on that side something else completely.

I looked down at my watch, and
decided that if the trucker carting my Lamia didn’t arrive soon, I would have
to go in alone and search for my sister. I refused to believe that it was too
late already.

Just when I was about to head in
alone, the rumbling of a truck in the distance was followed by two pinpoints of
lights. I looked down the dirt road and shielded my eyes as it barreled toward
me, coming to a stop only fifteen feet from where I stood. The sound of metal
freeing from metal cracked through the air as the rear doors to the truck’s
trailer swung open, and some fifty Lamia spilled out, their skin and gowns as
white as the snow through the crack in the world.

Carianna came to me first.

She glided forward, all-black
eyes regarding me with a smile that didn’t reach her red lips. She had told me
that I would come back to her, and I could tell without Searching her that she
was thinking that as she moved toward me. I swallowed once. Being near her like
this was not the same as it had been when I had been lost to the dark side of
myself. When she looked at me now, I saw the hazel of my eyes reflected in the
onyx of hers.

“My Queen,” she said, her
terribly sweet voice caressing the word. “So pleased I am that you have
called.” Her head whipped to the side and her gaze settled on the truck driver,
who was sitting behind the wheel of the truck, dull-eyed, like a puppet. “Will
you allow me a drink? It was a most unpleasant travel.”

The other Lamia hissed their
agreement, and by the looks on some of their faces I could tell that they might
try to kill the man whether I gave permission or not. I took a deep breath, not
sure I really wanted to say what I was going to next, but not really sure I had
a choice, either. “Why waste your appetites?” I said. “Follow me into the
Silver City, and you can drink from the Warriors that are there.”

Carianna’s head tilted, and she
struck forward like a snake and planted a kiss on my lips. I had to swallow
again as a little bile rose in my throat. “We will follow you anywhere, my
Queen,” she said. “But the Silver City is ringed by a river. We cannot enter
there. How are we to feed from the Warriors?”

I turned on my heel, not able to
look into all those black eyes as words I never thought I would say came out of
my mouth. “Surround the city. I will send them right into your arms.”

The Lamia shrieked and hissed
their approval, and followed me into the white wonderland that would soon be
painted red.

Wolves in the Midst

He stood on a balcony three
stories up in Council Building, overlooking the people as they gathered below.
His hands shook as he gripped the icy balcony, but not because of the cold. He
was hopped up on Lamia blood, and though his mind was soaring out further than
it ever had been able before, with a strength and precision that was beyond any
he’d ever known, his body was feeling the effects of it. Like a twitching
tweeker who has figured out how to rule the world in their trip.

There were nearly twenty-five
thousand people here, counting his eight thousand Warriors, and he was able to
Search them by the thousand, picking out traitors and sending silent messages
to the Warriors below to pluck them from the crowd and do away with them. This
time, he would not do the cleansing in a single room, but right out in the
open, because it would not be wise to trap himself in a box that way with the
Sun Warrior so close to making her move. No, he would stand above them all and
watch them die their deserved deaths. And if things didn’t go as planned, he
would send out the orders to the Queens in the other cities to dam up the
rivers, and the Accursed ones would wipe the worthless souls out of existence
for him. Either way, those two little bitches would not get their happy ending.

On his third Search, as King
William was sweeping his mind over the crowd of people just entering through
the silver gates, he found them. Over a thousand of them, all thinking the same
thing; that they would see him dead on this night. The anger in him bubbled up
and boiled over, and he tried with all his might to pinpoint the Sun Warrior
among them, but it was impossible. The entire crowd was cloaked and coated and
covered in their warmest clothing, and even with the assistance of the Lamia
blood, a Sun Warrior’s mind was impenetrable.

No matter. He had known they
would come, and here they were. He opened his mouth to command the Warriors
he’d posted by the silver gates, gave the orders, clutched the icy railing of
the balcony, and waited for the fireworks to begin.

Alexa

The silver gates were just up
ahead, glittering like deadly icicles stuck into the snow. People were pressed
in against me from all sides, too closely, as the crowd bottlenecked to pass
through the gates. Kayden was on my right side, and his hand found mine and
clutched it tightly, and my free hand tightened around the sword hidden under
my cloak. I tried my best to keep myself calm as we entered the white lawn of
the Council Building, where what seemed like tens of thousands of people waited
already. I hated crowds. This crowd in particular.

I couldn’t risk looking around to
see where exactly all of my comrades were, as I needed to keep my hood pulled
down as far as it could go to conceal my face, but I did look up at the Council
Building itself. It was even more intimidating up close, with its jagged edges
and all silver and white exterior. Standing here at the foot of it, I felt like
a bug that could be squashed should a deity decide to take a careless step.

I could feel the fear that
radiated from the crowd, as if it was something like electricity that ran
through us all simultaneously where our shoulders and arms and bodies met. If I
concentrated, I could even
smell
it carrying on the cold wind that
abused the skin on our faces, an involuntary odor that rose off of people
whenever danger came too close. In that moment, I got the feeling, the terrible
feeling, that our arrival had been anticipated, and that everyone here knew
exactly what was about to take place.

Too late, too late, too late,
Warrior. Who cares if they know we are here. Let them know. Let them know as
they watch the blood of their King spill out and paint the white world Red
around them. I am sick of hiding, done with running. Today, we will end this
thing, and we will end it with the death of a King.

My eyes found him then, as if my
thoughts had led them to him. King William stood on a balcony thirty feet above
the ground, the jewels on his fingers glittering under the moonlight that
peeked between the clouds. I could tell by his stance, so proud and rigid, that
I was right. He had known we were coming. Somewhere along the way, I had been
betrayed.

I looked around for Tommy. He was
only a few people over to my left. His cool blue eyes met mine for only the
briefest of moments, but that was all it took to push any blooming thoughts out
of my head. Tommy was not the traitor. Tommy was the rare type of friend who
truly would die for those he cared about. A hero, not a traitor.

Who, then?

My eyes found King William again,
looking down at us all with an impervious look surely on his face, and my left
eye twitched.

“It doesn’t matter now who the
traitor was. Everyone here tonight will be a traitor to someone.”

The King shouted something over
the crowd then, just as my group was pushed through the silver gates and into
the box where many of us would meet our deaths.

“Close the gates!”

And the behind us, the silver
gates to the Council Building groaned, and slowly began to seal off any hope of
an exit.

I tilted my head back and let the
hood of my cloak slip off my hair and rest at my neck, and then my blade slid
out from my sword and someone screamed and my eyes glowed Wolf gold as they met
those of the King.

Such a Scene…

The Sorceress sat on one of the
top branches of an old pine tree, legs dangling freely in the air, looking out
over the vast whiteness toward the place known as the Silver City. The snow
storm allowed only glimpses of its enormous towers, but Surah did not need
clear skies to observe the happenings there. She had her Magic.

It was miserably cold in this
land, and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why so many people would
want to call a place such as this home. The wind this high up slapped harder
than an angry mother, making her dark cloak sway and swish and pull her. Her
purple eyes were all that were visible beneath her hood, and she stared hard at
the glowing orb she had Cast in front of her. She had infused it with a heat
spell, and held her hands under it now to steal some of its warmth. Then she
Cast a Sight spell, and the warm ball began to perform its primary function,
which was not heat, but birds-eye vision.

She saw the towers that scraped
at the night sky, surely leaving scars in the heavens somewhere beyond the
clouds, so tall they were. Below them was the city itself and all of its
patrons, Wolves and Vampires that had flooded from their snow-covered homes and
into the silver-paved streets. Huge Brocken Vampires dressed in all black
ringed the edges of the crowd, and seemed to be urging everyone in the same
direction. There had to be several thousand of them; men, women, children, all
fighting against the snow and the wind to head to some central place.

The tallest tower. They were
moving toward the tallest tower. Their King was getting ready to slaughter them
the same way he had in his previous territories, and though the Sorceress felt
no connection to these creatures, no allegiance or obligation to them
whatsoever, it was an oddly dark thing to be watching, like tuning into some
nightmare of a game show where all the contestants were headed into an
unspeakable horror, stomach-turning and eyes glued with sick curiosity.

The image in the orb now showed a
figure, smaller than most of those around it, clustered in the crowd with a
dark hood covering the head, and Surah could tell just by the lithe movements
that it was the Sun Warrior girl. She was moving in through the silver gates
that surrounded the tall tower. The tower was where
he
was, then, and
the Sorceress zoomed in on him where he stood on a balcony watching the crowd
gather below him, diamonds and rubies that were surely paid for in blood
adorning his fingers, his suit, his neck.

The image changed again. And now
she was seeing all white figures with soulless black eyes moving over the snow
at the edges of the land, moving like albino beetles scenting a picnic, heading
toward the city where all the people were gathered. They had milky white skin
and sharks’ teeth that jutted out over red lips, and they were being led by the
Sun Warrior’s sister.

Now the tall tower again, where
the thousands of people gathered into the cage made by the silver gates. The
King’s Warriors were easy to spot as they towered over most of the crowd around
its edges, holding silver swords in their giant hands and shoving at people who
had a little lead in their feet. Then the King, shouting something over the
crowd, and an almost visible ripple of fear from the people as the silver gates
began to swing shut behind them, locking them in.

Surah could go in any time she
wanted. Just a snap of her fingers and she could be on that balcony beside the
murderous King, sliding the tips of her Sais through his heart, but she seemed
to be frozen in place, thinking that she would go in just a minute, thinking that
she would just wait a little longer and see how this played out. After all, the
balcony was a terribly public place to take her revenge, and it was never wise
to get involved in Vampire politics. And this was just politics. This was
war.

Now the orb showed the Sun
Warrior again, her hood sliding off of her head to reveal her beautiful,
fearsome face, and her eyes lighting up a brilliant gold as she looked up at
the man on the balcony. A chill passed over Surah that had nothing to do with
the weather, and everything to do with the undeniable murder that burned in the
Sun Warrior’s eyes.

After that, everything happened
so fast. The images in the orb seemed to jump and skip and hop over the scene
that was taking place within the city in the distance, and the Sorceress could
do nothing more than just sit in the cover of the trees and listen to the wind
and the sound of her heart picking up in speed. And watch.

A woman in the crowd spotted the
Sun Warrior and screamed, and the gates that the King’s Warriors were sliding
closed began to swing faster. Wolves, hundreds of Wolves appeared from
seemingly out of nowhere. They tore out of the shadows and raced to the silver
gate–long, sharp teeth bared and dripping drool that fell steaming down to the
cold snow. A big black Wolf, muscles bunched, eyes rolling, leapt at one of the
Warriors closing the gate and tore out his throat with a spray of blood that
flew into the air in a shower of scarlet raindrops. More screaming. Panic now.
Warriors in all black brandishing swords and turning them on the people nearest
them. King William raising his arms on the balcony, like a conductor bringing
his orchestra to crescendo. Hoods falling off of the heads of the rebels,
flashes of metal and shoves and screaming, screaming, screaming. So much of it
that it carried on the cold wind and tinkled in the Sorceress’s ears like
funeral bells even from her distance in the trees.