She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm her mind.
“I think she is,” she said finally. “I think she’s here somewhere.”
“Then we search,” Caleb replied.
He turned to leave but Caitlin grabbed his arm.
“I’m scared,” she said.
“Of what we might find?”
She shook her head.
“No,” she said, “of seeing the damage I’ve caused.”
Caleb reached out and squeezed her hand.
They stepped further into the castle. They walked carefully as the ground underfoot seemed unstable. When Caleb suddenly stopped short, blocking Caitlin’s path with an extended arm, she assumed there was some kind of obstacle ahead. But when she craned her head to look over his shoulder, her mouth dropped open with astonishment. A little way ahead of them were hundreds upon hundreds of men and women. Some of them were flying, others hovering, and all were facing a man who stood taller than any human Caitlin had ever seen. He was at least double the size of a normal man. Half of his face was burned red raw.
“What is he?” Caitlin whispered to her husband.
Caleb just shook his head.
Caitlin shivered. Finding her daughter seemed more imperative now than ever before. These strange people were disconcerting her, especially the giant man with his disfigured face.
“This way,” Caleb said in a hushed tone to her.
They crept away, keeping as silent as possible, sticking to the shadows where the crowd would not see them. Then Caitlin placed her hand on Caleb’s arm to stop him. He looked back.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Scarlet,” Caitlin said. “I can’t feel her anymore.”
“You mean she’s not here?” Caleb challenged her.
Caitlin shrunk back from the fury in his voice.
“I think she’s gone somewhere else,” she said quietly, feeling defeated and desperate. “I could feel her before, right by the place where we came in, but the further into the castle we go, the weaker it becomes. I think she left before we got here. She got out the way we got in.”
Caleb ran his hands through his hair in exasperation.
“I don’t believe this,” he muttered under his breath.
Just then, a strong light beamed into the castle from the helicopter above. It was lowering itself through the collapsed ceiling.
“It’s attempting to land!” Caleb cried incredulously.
The crowd in the great hall began to disperse, with people running and flying all over the place.
“We have to leave,” Caitlin said to her husband.
“I know,” he replied. “But how?”
“This way,” Caitlin said, tugging on his arm.
She led him across the great hall. Thanks to the descending helicopter, none of the strange people in the hall seemed to realize that the two figures racing across the room were strangers. The helicopter blades were creating a mini tornado in the room, whipping up plumes of smoke that added even more to the chaos.
Caitlin and Caleb burst out of the hall and into a gloomy corridor. The smoke was thick here and the light dim. Together, Caitlin and Caleb ran the length of the corridor until they reached a door. Caleb shoved it with his shoulder and it opened at once, revealing to them the outside world.
“Over there!” Caitlin cried, surveying their surroundings.
Caleb looked to where she was pointing.
Just ahead, down some stone steps leading from the castle, was a small parking lot with enough space for four or five vehicles. Amongst them was a motorcycle.
They ran for the bike. It hadn’t been locked up or secured in any way.
It took several attempts before he was able to kick the motor into life, but all at once the engine roared and spewed out fumes. By then, people from inside the crumbling church had begun filing out.
“Quick,” Caitlin cried, jumping on the back behind Caleb. “They’re coming.”
But before Caleb had a chance to accelerate away, the sound of police sirens began wailing out from nearby.
He took off, swerving to avoid the people darting from the castle. Streaming out of Boldt Castle after them came the police who had arrived by helicopter. Hurtling down the dark, winding pathway toward them came several police cars, their lights flashing furiously.
“Now what?” Caitlin cried.
Caleb looked over at her. He revved the motorcycle’s engine.
“Now you hold tight,” he said.
Caitlin just had time to loop her arms around his waist before the bike sped away.
*
The bike bumped along the road. Caitlin was exhausted. She rested her head against Caleb’s back, comforted by the steady thumping of his heartbeat, and gazed up at the black night. But she knew she couldn’t rest. Scarlet needed her help and there was no way she could pause for even a moment while she was in danger.
“Any ideas?” Caleb cried over his shoulder, battling to get his voice heard above the wind and the police sirens that tailed them. “Directions?”
Caitlin could tell he was trying his hardest to stay calm and composed but he was just as drained as she was.
“I can’t sense her,” Caitlin shouted back. “Not right now.”
Caleb said nothing, but Caitlin saw his hands tensed against the handlebars hard enough to make his knuckles turn white.
The bike flew onwards, gradually increasing the distance between them and the police cars.
The road was a narrow country lane. It began to wind up a hill. Soon there was a steep drop on one side and a cliff face on the other. Feeling queasy, Caitlin ducked down behind Caleb’s back for protection. The wind danced through her hair.
Just then, she felt something vibrating in her pocket. Surely it couldn’t be her cell phone. But when Caitlin reached inside her pocket she discovered that her cell phone had, indeed, survived the ocean plunge. She hadn’t had reception before but now suddenly it had sprung to life, flashing up to her that she had a voicemail.
Caitlin dialed her voicemail and listened to Aidan’s hurried voice on the other end.
“Caitlin,” he said. “Where are you? You need to call me back now.”
The message ended. That was it. She went to hit redial – but lost service.
“Damn!” she cried.
“What is it?” Caleb called over his shoulder.
“We need to pull over,” Caitlin replied, realizing as she glanced down at her handset that the battery was on one percent.
“I can’t pull over,” Caleb replied. “The police are on our tail. We have to get far away from this place first.”
Just then, Caitlin noticed a cave cut into the cliff side.
“In there!” she cried.
Caleb sprung to attention, twisting the bike’s handlebars with expert precision so that it swerved and skidded into the cave, kicking up dirt before drawing to a halt.
As soon as they’d stopped, Caleb turned to face his wife. “Can you can sense Scarlet?”
“No,” Caitlin replied. “My phone came back. I need to call Aidan.”
Just then, the police cars that had been on their tail went screaming past the small cave where Caitlin and Caleb were hidden.
Caitlin grabbed her cell phone and punched in Aidan’s number, praying that the battery would hold out. He answered on the third ring.
“You took your time,” he said.
“I’ve been a bit busy,” Caitlin replied, thinking of the plane ride and ocean plunge. “So what was it you needed to tell me?”
Caitlin listened to the sound of Aidan’s voice on the other end of the phone as he shuffled around and rifled through books and papers. She felt her frustration grow.
“Can you please hurry up?” Caitlin barked. “I don’t have much battery.”
“Ah, yes,” he said at last.
“What?” Caitlin demanded. “Tell me!”
“Tell me the chant again. Tell me the chant that is the cure.”
Caitlin fumbled in her pocket and pulled out the notes she’d made when studying the book. But they were soggy and the ink had run. She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the page as she had read it. The words began to appear in her mind.
“I am the sea, the sky and sand,
I am the pollen on the wind.
I am the horizon, the heath, the heather on the hill.
I am ice,
I am nothing,
I am extinct.”
____Caitlin opened her eyes and the words disappeared from her mind. There was a long moment where Aidan was silent.
Caitlin wanted to scream at him to hurry up.
“Caitlin!” he said at last. “I’ve got it. I’ve got it!”
“Tell me,” Caitlin replied hurriedly, feeling her heart race.
“We’ve been such fools! It’s not a chant at all.”
Caitlin frowned.
“What do you mean? How can it not be a chant? I don’t understand.”
“I mean that the chant isn’t the cure,” Aidan replied, fumbling over his words in his excitement. “The chant is a clue to the cure!”
Caitlin could feel her heart thumping with anticipation.
“So what’s the clue then?” she asked.
“Caitlin! Think about it. It’s a riddle. Directions. It’s telling you to go somewhere.”
Caitlin felt the blood drain from her face as she ran through the words in her mind.
“I am the sea, the sky and sand,” she repeated under her breath. Then, suddenly, it came to her. “No. You don’t mean – ”
“Yes,” Aidan replied. “S. P. H. I. N. X.”___
“The vampire city,” Caitlin whispered under her breath.
Of course. Before Scarlet had disappeared into harm’s way, Caitlin had been trying to find the cure, to find a way to turn her daughter back from a vampire into a human. She thought the words on the page needed to be read to Scarlet to cure her, that what she had found was the cure. But no. What she had found were instructions that would lead her to the cure. Caitlin had let her innate anguish as a mother override the sensible, logical scholar she needed to be right now, the one who would work out that the riddle was not a cure – but a map.
“Thank you, Aidan,” she said hurriedly.
Her phone went dead.
Caitlin looked up at Caleb’s expectant face.
“Well?” he said.
“I know where we’re going,” Caitlin replied, feeling a twinge of hope for the first time in a long time.
Caleb raised an eyebrow and looked over at his wife.
“Where?” he said.
Caitlin smiled.
“We’re going to Egypt.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lore stood on a mound of rubble amongst the ruins of Boldt Castle. The blades from the lowering helicopter made wind whip his torn clothes and ruffle his hair. He glanced around, surveying the damage the plane had caused. Hatred filled him to the brim.
He cried, shaking his fist at the gaping hole in the side of the ancient castle. Then he took a deep breath. There was no time to waste. His people would be dead, eradicated, by the end of the night. Their only hope was to find the girl who had stolen his cousin’s heart. And that meant killing anyone who stood in their way.
But the Immortalists were panicking, startled by the presence of the helicopter. They began zooming around the great hall, some streaming out of the castle altogether, running off to their inevitable deaths.
“What are you thinking, son?” a voice beside Lore said, breaking him from his reverie.
He looked down to see his mother gazing up at him. Though Immortalists experienced parent-child relationships differently from humans, Lore still respected the woman who had fed him, clothed him, and seen him safely through infancy. The thought of her death at the end of the night made his heart clench even more than the thought of his own.
“I’m thinking of Sage,” Lore replied. “We used him as bait before and the girl came.”
His mother frowned.
“You think there’s still hope?” she asked, quietly.
Lore could see that weariness had crept into her eyes. She was ready to die. Or at least, ready to stop fighting.
But Lore wasn’t. And neither were hundreds of the Immortalists still clinging to life in Boldt Castle.
“I’m not going to give up,” Lore told her fiercely. “We cannot let our people die just because my cousin has fallen in love with a vampire. He’s going to die anyway. What’s the point?”
Lore’s mother shook her head. “You don’t understand love.”
“No,” Lore replied. “But perhaps if I lived two thousand years more I would.”
His mother smiled and squeezed his arm.
“I want that for you, son,” she said kindly, “But I can’t help but feel that fate is against us.” She tipped her head up to the sky and the bright full moon shining in through the collapsed ceiling. “The stars are aligned. The wheels of fate are in motion.” She looked back at him. “Tonight is the night the Immortalists die.”
Lore balled his hands into fists.
“No it’s not,” he said through his teeth. “I will lead an army if I have to. I will bring chaos to the earth. I will destroy the whole human race before I let my people die.”
As he spoke, the Immortalists around him began to look over, roused by his speech and passion. He turned his back on his mother and directed his words to them.
“Who will stand with me?” Lore cried, shaking his fists. “Who will fight for their right to live?”
The small crowd began to mumble their agreement, and the noise attracted still more toward Lore. They streamed past the smoldering airplane fuselage to get a better look. Soon, Lore’s words were met not with mumbled assent but with cheering and clapping.
“Who amongst you has heard enough of fate and prophecies and stars?” he said. “I am not prepared to let our proud people die today!”
The crowds roared their agreement.
Lore noticed that Octal had joined the crowd and was standing at the edges. Lore beckoned to his leader, to the man he respected above all others. But Octal shook his head, as if communicating silently that Lore should be the one to lead the Immortalists.
Lore couldn’t help but frown. Could he really lead an army?
But he didn’t have time to ponder it, because the helicopter was touching down.
“Kill them!” Lore screamed. “Kill the humans!”
The Immortalist crowd followed his command immediately. They rushed at the helicopter. Lore heard the sound of desperate shouting as the police began drawing their weapons. But it was futile. There was no way the police could stand up to the Immortalists.
As they fought, Lore noticed several police officers were escaping from the castle.
“Block the exit!” Lore ordered his troops.
With the exits blocked, the remaining police had no other option but to take to the skies again in their helicopter.
But that wasn’t enough for Lore. He did not just want them driven away, he wanted them dead. As the helicopter began to rise, Lore’s murderous intent grew only stronger.
“Don’t let them get away!” he commanded his followers.
He watched as a group of Immortalists sprung into the air. The police on board the rising helicopter looked on in disbelief as the hovering Immortalists began swarming the helicopter, dragging it down. It begun to stutter under their weight and started to fall. The police inside began to scream. As the helicopter plummeted to the ground, the Immortalists leaped out of harm’s way.
A fireball plumed into the air as the helicopter hit the ground and exploded.
The crowds cheered, exhilarated by the death and destruction their actions had caused. They zigzagged through the air before finally landing and calming down. It was then that Lore realized they were all looking to him again, awaiting his instructions.
“What now?” one of them cried.
“How do we save our people?” another added.
They had been bolstered by the victory against the helicopter and the humans. Lore had awoken a desire to fight and live in them all. The crowd erupted into a rabble of worried exclamations.
This time Octal moved through them toward Lore. He was ready to command his people once again.
“The girl is in the caves,” he said, his voice booming out through the destroyed great hall. “She has Sage. They are together.”
Lore nodded and squeezed his hands into fists.
“To the cave!” he cried.
Together, the band of Immortalists followed Octal and Lore in the direction of the caves.
CHAPTER NINE
Vivian felt the air rush past her as she flew over the small town, her heart beating fiercely in her chest. She didn’t know exactly where she was going; she just had a compulsion to fly, to let the shackles of her old life melt away. She felt exhilarated, and the world felt suddenly so full of possibilities she could hardly contain her excitement.