And the one thing I do not want to do is appear try-hard before the Forsaken Sisters.
Eleira told me what they did for her—how they saved her in her time of most pressing need. For that, I was supposed to give them my blood. Not Phillip. Eleira warned me to give them the least amount needed to start the transformation. Granting greater power to three witches who have been alive, while still human, longer than I have, is asking for trouble.
Yet Phillip has given them so much of his blood that they now surpass even me in strength!
Gruffly, I shake my head. There is no way that should be possible. The vampire gift does not work that way.
Yet somehow, there they are, three fledglings less than a day in the blood, holding more power than I.
There is another sort of discomfort. My perception of their strength is… hazy. It is not the laser-sharp knowledge that I’m used to having about other vampires around me.
It might be a manifestation of the same haziness affecting my body, I don’t know.
Soon we reach the exit of the cave. Night is turning to day out there.
This will not be a pleasant trek to the plane for the fledglings.
“Wait,” the witch who I woke to find by Phillip says. She stops on the threshold, tests the air.
She turns back to me. “The sun will harm you?” she asks.
“It will harm all of us,” I scowl, hating the fact that she picked me out as the weakest.
“Yes, but you in particular,” she says. She nods her head. “I see it in your eyes. You fear the rays.”
I take an angry step toward her.
“I fear,” I hiss, “nothing.”
She dismisses me with a little laugh. “Maybe once that had been true, but not in your current condition.” She motions for the other witches to join her. “Come.”
The three of them line up at the exit, looking outside.
I tense, waiting for something to happen…
In one coordinated move the three witches throw their arms forward. From them bursts a flame pillar—but the flame is night-black. It streams through the opening, over the valley, and far into the trees.
It does not burn or destroy anything it touches. Trees, bushes, shrubbery, all remain intact.
The witches plop their arms down. The pillar of flame vanishes.
But in its wake is a long column, inside which everything is… slightly darker… than the rest of the world.
“Now, you don’t need to worry about the sun,” the main witch says to me over her shoulder. “The residue of the rays is gone. Stay on the path and you’ll be safe. Come.”
They walk out into the fresh air. Phillip marvels at the land before him for a moment. “Remarkable,” he mutters, and then shakes himself out of the stupor and looks at me.
“Come on, brother. You don’t want to be late for your triumphant homecoming.”
I growl at him in response, feeling his words fuel my hatred, but go out without a word.
As we follow the path the witches made, the morning sun rises. I don’t even realize it until it is all the way up. The air the flame singed through is protected. The rays do not penetrate.
The few turns we have to make before reaching the plane are preceded by another casting of that mysterious flame.
I am pleasantly surprised when we clear the final bit of forest and the plane is revealed before us. With the way things had gone, I wouldn’t have been wholly surprised to find it missing.
“You remember that spot?” Phillip asks, pointing to the ground. “It’s where you slapped that collar on me, and everything went to hell for you.” He puts a hand on my shoulder. “Just think. If only you had trusted me, we could have both gone back to The Haven with you being in control of the three new fledglings. Now, they are mine, and your well-being depends on me. Even if you wanted, you couldn’t lift a finger against me.” He grins. “Quite a turn of events, wouldn’t you say?”
“Get out of my way, you goddamn bastard,” I mutter, elbowing past him and climbing into the plane.
I get in the cockpit. Phillip climbs in after me.
The three witches remain outside.
“What is that?” one of them asks.
I roll my eyes, annoyed at them. If I am the one who has to fly this thing, I don’t want them to be on edge around it.
“This is an airplane,” I say slowly, holding back my irritation. “It will take us to The Haven.”
“A teleportation device?” they ask.
“No,” I say, unable to keep the annoyance from my voice. “A flying device.”
“How does it work?”
“Not through magic, I’ll tell you that. Get in.”
Reluctantly, cautiously, they climb onboard. “This is a marvel of modern man,” I say, as I close the door and go back to the cockpit. “Take a seat in the cabin, and you’ll see how it works.”
“Why aren’t you in command?” they ask Phillip.
My brother shrugs. “Raul is the better pilot.”
“This thing will take us into the air? Without magic? How?”
“Propulsion and turbines and engines and stuff,” I mutter under my breath, slowly starting the plane.
A few minutes later, we’re in the air. The witches get over their discomfort quickly enough. They soon start muttering in their own language, one I’ve never heard before.
Except… it sounds suspiciously similar to the ancient language that is sometimes used to cast spells.
Phillip joins me in the cockpit. I ignore him for as long as I can. But his presence alone, even without him saying anything, is grating.
Finally, I snap. “What?”
He looks taken aback. I know it’s just an act. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
“I was just thinking--” he begins.
“The less you do of that, the better,” I interrupt.
He ignores me. “I was thinking of what we’re going to tell Eleira when we return. We achieved our purpose. We got her what she wants. That alone should be good enough. But…” he leans closer to me, “I can’t help but feel that you will decide to burden her with the tiresome details.”
“I intend to tell her exactly what happened,” I say flatly.
Phillip taps his lips. “Would that be so wise? After all, you come out of it looking the fool.”
“I would not lie to Eleira.”
“Oh, no,” Phillip mocks. “Lying is such a ghastly thing. Of course you wouldn’t do that to her.”
“What do you want?” I repeat, my patience growing thin.
“I propose we simply neglect to mention the set of circumstances that led me to give my blood to the witches, instead of you.”
“Why would I agree to that?”
He grunts. “Are you really so dense? Because it makes you look weak. You tried to trap me with that horrid collar. It backfired on you. Backfired badly. You almost died, in fact.”
“How else do you propose we inform Eleira of this… link,” I say in disgust, “that we have between us?”
“I propose we don’t.”
I look at him for a long moment. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No.” Phillip leans back. “How do you think your precious Eleira will react when she finds out the man she is promised to has failed her once more? I am only offering this as a benefit to you, dear brother.” He looks at his nails. “I am perfectly fine giving her the full truth.”
I eye him with suspicion. “And what do you get out of this particular arrangement?”
“Are you always so cynical?” Phillip smiles. “I get to have my stronger, older brother back. I get our family name to remain untainted. How do you think the other vampires will react, the Incolam, the Elite, when word spreads of how you almost died?” He tilts his head one way. “That would be almost as bad as your failure with Liana.”
I can’t help it. That taunt enrages me. I surge out of my seat, quick as lightning, and crash into Phillip, slamming him against the wall in the small, enclosed space.
“I warned you,” I growl, “not to mention her again.”
Phillip remains unfazed. If anything, he seems more satisfied.
“There’s the vampire I helped unlock,” he says. “Your eyes are storming, Raul. The miasma is taking hold.”
I shove him back. “What in the blasted hells are you talking about?”