The Darkness That Hunts
Chapter 7

Her blood is warm as I drink. Acrid and syrupy, it burns mythroat like strong whiskey and leaves me buzzing with an incredible high. Ipass Gjinna the rawhide flask and she tucks it back into a compartment in herloops of belts.

“How do you feel?”

I stare at her for a moment, her words sloshing around in mypounding skull. It takes me a second to register her question.

“Yes--yes. It’s working.” Already my hearing has improved.The worse of my aches ebb. Her blood strengthens my reflexes and coordination.Power washes over me, transforming the opaque shadows of my prison into sharprelief. Thousands of complex shades in colors that have no names glitter beforeme.

Gjinna straightens from her squat and motions for me tofollow. For once, my movement is like hers: quick, agile, and silent.

The secret passageways, located in the bowels of theAndhakar’s fortress drift pass us, their dark, arched entrances like brokenribs. Gjinna takes us down into the very intestines of the earth until we rounda corner and are confronted by a spherical room the color of alabaster. Itstiered floors slant towards its middle. In the center of the room hovers aplinth upon which a gemstone of pure quartz spins. An eerily silent waterfallthat stretches from floor to ceiling surrounds the gem. I crouch beside Gjinnaas she peers at the crystal. Something in her tense posture tells me the jewelmakes her uncomfortable.

“What’s it do?”

“It is the negation of the crystal he wears,” she whispers.“It is the thing that can make his powers nearly ineffective. For a time.”

“How do I get it? Maybe we can use it to escape.”

She glances at me, her dusky face unreadable and cold asalways. “You cannot go in there. He senses any who try. When the time comes, Iwill use what power I can to block his sense so that the crystal can be removed.It must be brought to Divine.”

“You speak of him often. Who is he?”

“Come.”

We creep through the multitude of underground passages untilwe come to the last place I ever want to be, the one place I know not to be.

Unlike the first time I saw it, the audience chamber isfilled to capacity with his followers. As a general rule, the Aterians’ fur,skin and scales are a spectrum of slate, bone and basalt. Their dead bodiessport the look of emaciation and disfigurement. Limbs too long and sinewy,mouths crammed with too many teeth. On their foreheads they all bear his brandas if they are chattel.

Each group ostracizes itself into informal sections of thereceiving hall. Vampires and other such human-shaped creatures, their sneeringfaces twisted and grotesque, lounge on plush couches that rest against milkywhite pillars that jut from the ground like cracked fingers. Keeping guard andyet segregated according to pack, wolves stand on their hind legs, looming overall others. Their dull fur is matted and rotted from the inside out. Theireyes, like all eyes of the Aterians save a few, are a blue-white shade. Nopupils, no irises, just sockets of icy, glowing malice. Lining the shadows lurkwraiths, their chill causing the hair on my flesh to freeze, even though I hidesafely in the rafters. The wraiths’ wispy bodies blend in with the darkness,and they would be unnoticeable if not for their green-tinged aura and the headysmell of decaying flora.

The sissing chatter pauses as ornate granite doors swinginwards, their hinges groaning like a tortured creature. Three servants withtorsos like humans but the lower half resembling a snake slither inside. Bowingto the Andhakar, they speak, but the hiss of their voices escapes me. In theirwake follows a human male.

He looks at no one but The Darkness-That-Hunts and I suck inmy breath at the sight. In a room full of creatures that lurk in assortedstates of undeath, this mortal is color and vitality. Beauty amidst horror.

The lean muscles ripple beneath his brown skin as TheDarkness-That-Hunts, who slouches on a throne positioned high upon a dais,leans forward to watch the newcomer. I try not to look into my captor’shypnotic gold eyes or listen to his soft baritone. His body and his voice aretools for entrapment. A snake’s hypnotic sway before its deadly strike.

“You summoned me from the Onyx, Lord Andhakar?”

My attention locks on the man so distinctly human in a swampof monsters. The brand glimmers on his neck but he shows no signs of thedemon’s taint. His sandy hair hangs in matted locks across his broad shoulders.His beard, a curious russet shade, is braided with animal bones, beads, andfeathers. Human and alive. Even healthy. With Gjinna’s blood pounding in myveins, I can hear his heart pumping. From the rapt expressions of all thosecreatures who are dead, I know they hear it also and fantasize about feastingon the rare delicacy of living flesh.

“Have you linked the bridge yet?” Andhakar’s voice hauntsthe chamber, sliding across my body like a maggot.

“It does not last, my lord,” the man admits after a moment’shesitation. “I cannot bend it to my will, even as close to the Rift as I am.There must be stronger ingredients, a way to amplify the links.”

Dawning gnaws on my bones. A mage, more likely a druid. Inlife, the magic users sought power and domination. In Andhakar’s promise, manysold their souls for better control of the craft, each knowing the exact pricethe bargain would warrant. But how is he still alive?

“What is it you require?”

The druid does not respond. Instead he glances about theaudience chamber as if suddenly aware of his onlookers. His gaze lifts to therafters where Gjinna and I hide, lost in shadows and skulls that sway from ironchains. My breath catches in my throat when the man’s tangerine eyes lock onmine and he raises an inquiring eyebrow. How could he know--?

Gjinna slips her pencil thin arm around my waist and tugs meagainst her so that her rough lips lick my ear. Her breath feels cold againstmy cheek. “Don’t fear, Shari. He can’t penetrate my glamour and even if he did,he is one of the Blood Shield.”

Those who resist Andhakar, even as they serve Him. “That’s Divine?”

“He’s the only one who can open the Rift for you to go home.He is the only one who can help Us escape. Because of his power, he isinvaluable to The Darkness-That-Hunts.”

“--Very well then.” Andhakar raises a willowy arm, hisfingers tipped with black nails so long they are like talons. “Dismissed.”

Divine bows and exits the audience chamber.

My breath thunders in my ears as Gjinna and I stand in theforest flanked by withered trees that have never seen sunlight. The sky aboveis red as a blood clot, the drifting clouds like black tar. My eyes seedecently in the darkness, though there is not much color to things. A breezeruffles the dry branches, rattling them like dried beans.

“Will you?”

“What do I have to do?”

“Drink again.”

I meet Gjinna’s dull gaze. She looks awful. Tired. “And whatabout you? You’ve been so weak lately . . .”

“I’ll be fine. We’ll get to Divine together, but you musthurry, or--”

She goes still, cocking her head to the side much like ananimal does when it listens for predators. She moves so fast that I don’t seeor feel anything. Gjinna tosses me clear across the trees. I land on the groundbehind a row of black thorns. I roll down into a ditch where a broken boughbreaks my tumble.

Dazed, I lie in the dirt, my vision swimming before me in aswirl of red sky, black forest and tar-like clouds. I hear snarling and hissinglike angry tomcats. There is a yelp and then a triumphant cackle. My heartsinks to my knees and I haul myself to my feet. They don’t quite cooperate, butI manage to stumble up to the thorny bushes. Some eight leagues away I replaceGjinna on her knees, her head down and blood spreading in a pool from thecenter of her back. Before her straightens a lithe woman.

The woman grins, brandishing fangs. “Bitch. Thought wedidn’t know?” The blonde vampire slaps Gjinna before drawing a razor thinstiletto from her ankle boot. I recognize the deadly gait. Andhakar’ssecond-in-command, the vampire general they call the Steel Fang. Using the tipof her blade, she tilts Gjinna’s head back. “No last words? No threats or pleasfor your life?” The Steel Fang steps away. Her smile lacks mirth. “Howdisappointing.”

The vampire removes Gjinna’s arms first, then her legs,methodically hacking her way bit by bit. I want to scream, to run to my friendbut I only watch helplessly. Blood that is inexplicably like air rushes out ofGjinna’s severed limbs in a burgundy powder. At last the Steel Fang rams thestiletto straight through Gjinna’s mouth, the sharp tip jutting out of skulland bone.

At last I replace my voice and my scream rends the air. TheSteel Fang whips her head around, searching. Ice trickles down my backbone asone azure eye and one olive eye narrow.

“Damn banshees.”

The Steel Fang grabs Gjinna by the hair, ripping her headfrom her armless torso with brutish force. Inhaling deeply, she holds the headeye level and purses her lips. “Ugly thing aren’t you? Well. Task one is done.”

She vanishes as quickly as she appeared. The seconds trickleinto minutes before I dare to move. I try not to look at Gjinna’s body as Iapproach. I try not to think of her death, or the blonde vampiress with theweird eyes. The floor is damp with body fluids and already I know every undeadin the area will descend to eat and drink from her corpse like carrion.

The rawhide flask lays a few feet from her body. I gulp downthe last of its contents, needing the rush of blood and the strength it grantsme. A metallic glint catches my eye as I turn away. Taking a deep breath, Ireach into the stump of Gjinna’s neck and pull out a copper chain. Fingerstrembling and slick with blood, I stuff the chain into my back pocket and sprintdeeper inside the Onyx.

I must get to Divine. I mustget out of here.