The Zoey Chronicles: Discovery (Vol. 2) (5 page)

BOOK: The Zoey Chronicles: Discovery (Vol. 2)

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Zoey

The mountain looked bigger now that we were close. I’d expected a grand entran
ce, a big gate or something, but when I told Galahad he smiled. “That would be a tad too obvious, don’t you think?”

He led me up the side of the mountain. It was a tough climb, even for a vampire, and it dawned upon me why they’d chosen such an awkward entrance; there was no way in hell that a human would be able to make this climb. If a human attempted this climb they would die, I thought.

Small rocks fell down on us and we climbed, bouncing off our bodies. Even with my vampire strength, I found my muscles straining hard the further we got up. When we reached the small indent that was our target, I fell and panted like a dog. Galahad smiled down at me. “What’s wrong, Zoey, can’t hack a little climb?”

I stood up, gritting my teeth, just to spite him, and giggled when he jumped at me and tackled me to the ground. We made love then, but we had to be quick, Galahad said, because the Council was waiting for our signal.

When we’d finished he stared into my eyes. “I love you,” he said, and the sincerity of it made my heart ache. He said it honestly, like it was really true.

“I love you too,” I said.

My mind went back over the past few months, over the countless times we’d made love or watched the sun set or hunted together. It all seemed like a dream. At any moment I expected to wake up in my old house back in my human life and have to face my alcoholic mother.

I swallowed hard then as a realisation struck me. I would have to face her. She was here, and I would have to see her. What would that be like? I was no longer the timid little girl I had been growing up. Even my appearance had changed. I was taller now, and my breasts were fuller. My messy red hair had darkened to a light brown, and my snow-pale skin had tanned in the relentless sun. I was taller too, and instead of being skinny like a skeleton, I was lean and strong like an athlete. Vampirism agreed with me, I thought with a smile on my face.

He stood and faced a cave wall. As far as I could tell it was just a natural part of the cave, but he looked at it like it was much more than that. He nodded and mumbled to himself, and then turned to me. “The key, please,” he said.

I was shocked. The key? What was he talking about? He must’ve seen the confusion on my face. “You have it, don’t you? Your mother said you had it.”

I shook my head. “I don’t,” I said. “I really don’t.”

He cursed and spat, and then sat on the floor. He waited for a long while and then looked at me. “What is it you asked me a few months ago, something about a medal?”

“Oh yes,” I said. “I wanted to know why my father had won his war-medal. I remember being quite offended by how cold you were.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “My family were on my mind a lot, and I wasn’t really in the mood for questions. Can I see the medal?”

I brought it out from my pack. I hadn’t held it for a few weeks, but as soon as it was in my hand it felt natural. The weight was good, and each etching was familiar to my hand. He smiled. “This is the key?” I said, astonished.

“Yes,” he said, and his eyes were hungry. “I saw it the first time I saw you, the day you collapsed, but I wasn’t sure if it was or not. I’m so glad you have it. Give it here.”

I stopped. I couldn’t just hand it over. I had had it for far too long; for too long had it been the my only source of comfort. I couldn’t just give it to him. “What do you need it for?” I said, and there was a pang of accusation in my voice.

He stepped back like I’d hit him, clearly offended, and then he sat down. “I suppose you want me to fill you in on the details before handing over Benjamin’s medal?” he said.

I nodded.

“Well, first of all, it isn’t a medal, not really. The key can take any shape. It has existed for as long as vampires have existed, and it has always been the only way to get into the main Council chambers. When Mordrain took over, he closed the Council chambers while he tried to hunt down the old Council members. Benjamin sent me with a small force of vampires to steal the key. We succeeded, and we brought it back to him. We said that he should destroy it, but Benjamin wouldn’t let us. He said that whoever has the key controls the Council, and without it Mordrain was nothing more than a pretender. So that’s why Mordrain killed your father, to try to get the key and open the Council, but he was too late.”

I was silent for a minute or so, struggling to take it all in. “So where are the old Council at the moment?”

“Scattered,” Galahad said. “They will come when the Council is open.”

“Why wait? Why not just take the key from me when I was a baby?”

“Two reasons. The first is that we still had to hunt down the rebels, and we couldn’t risk having the key with us, just in case they gained control of the Council. The second is that Benjamin asked me to wait until you were of an age before I took it. He knew that the key was power, and he wanted to make sure that you weren’t left without hope.”

I thought about that for a long while, and felt a swelling in my breast at the thought of the man I’d never known. He was wonderful, I thought. He was a wonderful man.

“Wait!” I said. Galahad jumped back, startled, and then smiled a shy smile. “There’s another thing that doesn’t make sense. In my vision, the woman with the sword, she stood in a room, the . . .” I trailed off as the name escaped me.

“The Room of Judgement,” he said, smiling.

“Yes, where was that if not in the Council?”

“We have places all over the planet. This just happens to be the main Council. Now, any more questions, or can we get started?” He was grinning at me, and suddenly I didn’t care about vampire wars or Judgement rooms or any of it. I just cared about him.

I handed him the key, he turned around and placed it against the cave wall. He looked silly, and I was sure that it was going to drop, but then it stuck and started to glow. The dull green of it reminded me of the woman’s sword, the one from my visions, the leader of the rebels, as Galahad called them.

He started to mumble vampire words to himself, quick and incomprehensible. I lay back and watched him. His t-shirt was soaked in sweat, and through it I could see the muscles in his back tensing as the ritual went on. I longed to run my fingers over that back and feel his breath on my neck, but I knew that we had more important things to do at the moment.

It took around twenty minutes, and when he finished he collapsed and his breathing was ragged. I went to him and rubbed his back. “I’m fine,” he said, struggling to his feet. “I just didn’t realise that opening the Council would be so damned hard.”

I held him as he stood, making sure that he didn’t fall. The smell of sweat filled the cave, and I grinned. Being a vampire brought all sorts of strange things. I wondered if loving the smell of sweat was one of them, or if it just something that love brought.

Slowly, the cave wall slid to one side, creaking deafeningly as it did so. Galahad and I sat back on the opposite wall, watching in amazement. When the cave had opened, all there was was a gaping black maw.

Galahad stood. “Okay then, Zoey,” he stood. “Let me show you around the Council.” He turned and took my hands, and then lifted me to my feet. I laughed, and cooed as his warm hands ran down my body, but then they stopped dead and he
looked past me, at the entrance.

“Galahad, what is it?” I said, but I’d already turned around; I’d already seen her.

The woman, the one from my vision, the one with the sword with the dull green diamond set in the hilt, stood in front of me with a smirk on her face. “Well, isn’t this nice?” she said, and before either of us could do anything, she drew her sword and held it to my throat.

To be continued...

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