“If you must do something… burn him!” Paul nearly yells. He is becoming frantic. “Listen to Victoria. She has the right impulse here. Burn him, expel him from this world. Don’t bring him back!”
I exchange a curious look with Victoria.
“What are you hiding here, Paul?” she asks softly, stepping toward him. “What does that vampire know that you don’t want revealed?”
“Nothing.” Paul sounds defensive. “But if you restore him, restore a prisoner who has been with us for generations, do you not conceivably see how it might backfire? We betrayed him after he gave us his trust. Victoria—you know the story!”
“I do,” she confirms. “But it was your ancestors who did that. Not you. And now, you are one like him. How could he possibly threaten you?”
“I’m not threatened,” he doubles down. “I just think it insanity! You want to not only free a prisoner, but set him loose amongst us?” He forces a choked laugh. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“Nothing, if you’ve been truthful,” I say. “And if you haven’t…” I spread my arms. “We will find out straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Paul shakes his head. “No. I refuse to do it. You can give him your blood, James, or you, Victoria. But I will play no part in this type of experiment.”
“You had no problem subjecting your own daughter to much worse,” Victoria says.
“That was different,” he hisses. “I was trying to give her the most precious gift!”
“Desires are empty if they are not backed up by action,” I say. “You will give this vampire blood, Paul. We are in the one place in the world where being a vampire does not imbue inherent advantage. Sharing your blood with an existing vampire does not create any sort of additional link. You will do it now because you are the lowest of us three in strength. No more talking. Go.”
Just to be certain my message gets through, I shoot a bit of influence at him.
Paul gives me a look full of seething anger but does as he is told. He enters the room with the vampire. He bites an incision in his wrist.
He brings the cut to the other vampire’s lips and lets a drop fall.
Then he backs away, shooting me another nasty look. “There. Satisfied?”
“That wasn’t a feeding, are you crazy?” I reprimand. “The drop you gave is still on his lips. You must make it go down his throat, and then you must offer up your whole wrist for him to feed.”
“James,” Victoria whispers. “What are you doing?”
“The vampire they’ve kept can tell us many things. We will use him to our advantage—and simply letting him decay down here does nobody any good.”
“Yes, but—” she looks at Paul, who is reluctantly forcing the vampire’s lips open so that he may drink his blood, “—why make Paul do it? His blood has only just been embraced by the essence. There are better candidates for this.”
“Until you’ve volunteered yourself,” I say, “I see no other option.”
“Give him human blood. It will restore him as well.”
“Yes, but not as quickly,” I note. “Father has The Ancient. This could be a vampire from the same era.”
Victoria gives me a fat look. “If you think that, you are a fool.”
“Am I?” I ask. “Who else would be strong enough to betray the trust of his coven, the natural hierarchy therein, to come work with humans?”
“He could have been a wanderer,” she says. “A lone wolf.”
I scoff. “Unlikely. If he was, the same reasoning applies. He was strong enough to resist the lure of safety offered by a coven.”
“And look where that has landed him,” Victoria says.
I smile, then watch on as Paul goes through the struggle of force-feeding the ruined vampire his blood.
“This will take a while,” I comment. “Let’s see the girl while we wait.”
“Be my guest,” she says. “I’d prefer to watch Paul.” She gestures at the door. “You know where she is.”
I walk over to the appropriate spot and peek through the small, raised window.
And there I see her, a small child huddled in on herself, rocking in place.
Immediately, I feel a virulent pang of disgust. All my instincts tell me this thing is an abomination and must be destroyed.
I tear my eyes away and turn back to the others.
Paul continues struggling with his task. The vampire’s lips remain shut, almost as if he’s rejecting the blood being given to him.
“Paul,” I bark.
He jumps. I notice blood sweat on his brow. “I’m doing as you asked!” he proclaims.
“Forget that a moment,” I say, my voice ghastly flat. “Come here.”
A look of relief washes over his face at getting a respite from the task. He comes toward me. I stay still.
“Closer. I want to show you something.”
The moment he’s within striking distance I pounce. My hand shoots out and wraps around his throat. I shove him hard into the wall.
“Explain to me,” I hiss, all sorts of vile emotions coming to life inside, “how you could even dream of a recovery for her!”
I fling my free hand out to point at the other cell. Paul’s face twists in consternation. He doesn’t answer fast enough, so I tighten my grip on his throat. He starts to choke.
“Tell me,” I say, bringing my face just inches from his. “How a father could ever do that to his daughter.” I spit to the side. “Victoria was right. A child like that deserves a mercy. Quick death by fire, it is the only way out of her hell.”
And suddenly, without warning, great blustering flames erupt inside her room. Their appearance is so sudden that it catches both me and Paul off-guard.
“No!” he cries out.
I spin back, letting the vampire go. “Victoria, what the hell are you doing?” I yell. “End it! End it now! I didn’t give you permission, God damn it!”
“It’s not me,” she says quickly. “I haven’t touched the Elemental Forces. James… it must be you.”
And with sudden realization, I find the great chasm open inside of me, somehow, activated from deep in my subconscious. I feel the flows of Fire shooting out from it, destroying everything in the other room.
I am helpless to stop it.
I try to force it closed, but the power inside is raging. No amount of concentration or will can help me here.
Paul is screaming at me in the background. The sounds are drowned out by the roaring chasm inside me. My vision becomes tunneled as the magic keeps lashing out in great, unrelenting waves.
With a supreme effort I manage to change the weaves of Fire into weaves of Water. The flames inside the room are instantly put out, replaced by excess humidity. The moisture condenses and starts to flood the room with water. It fills the room, more and more of it, the magic pulling and extracting the moisture from the air all around us to concentrate it in that spot.
Still, the open chasm fights to grow ever bigger. I lose all sense of reality as my whole existence becomes internally centered. If I do not shut off the source, it will consume me, it will swallow me whole.
And this time, I do not think there will be a way back.
I stagger into the wall. Victoria is screeching something panicked, but I do not hear. Paul’s daughter’s room is filled with water. Hissing geysers break through the cracks. Suddenly, the pressure inside is too much, and the door flies off its hinges as the dam bursts.
My magic is pulling moisture from everything around us. If I don’t stop it soon enough, we all will drown.
I’m thrown back as the first wave crashes into me. I do not know what to do. I do not know how to stop it. The magic rages on, uncontrollable, fighting to get out.
Last time this happened, I managed to divert it—but where can I divert it to now?
The chasm expands. It thrives on my essence, on the strength of my vampire gifts. It is a parasite consuming all my life energy, and it seeks to destroy the host.
I let out a soul-consuming scream as I try again to force it closed. The chasm fights me. Water keeps pounding into my body, into all of us.
Frantic, desperate, I search for a solution. I cannot contain the chasm inside me. My emotions are all over the place, the strongest one being stark terror that I might not be able to shut it off.
But then, amidst all the chaos, one thought, clear and strong, floats to the top of my consciousness.