A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire, #21)

We jolted toward the howls, which seemed to only be growing louder and more desperate. Aiden took the lead—he didn’t even wait for one of the witches to quicken our travel. We all followed him, except for my father, who stayed behind to beckon the witches down from the ruined penthouse, where they had been ensuring that not a single burning ember remained.

My father and the witches caught up with us. My mother grabbed hold of Aiden and slowed him down so that the witches could transport us to the mountains using their magic. We vanished and arrived a moment later in the clearing on the other side of the woods, at the foot of the Black Heights.

“Oh, my God,” I gasped. My eyes traveled up the mountainside and fell on another blaze. A fire had completely enveloped a mountain cabin. Aiden and Kailyn’s.

“No,” Aiden breathed. He bolted forward up the mountain while we hurried after him. When we arrived outside the cabin, the intensity of the fire scorched my skin once again. I caught Caleb’s hand and pulled him farther back. His skin had suffered enough already.

The blood-curdling howls of Kailyn became strangled, and then halted.

“Kailyn!” Aiden yelled. He would’ve dove straight into the inferno before the witches had managed to extinguish it were it not for my parents holding him back.

The witches hurriedly emitted more water from their palms and poured it over the cabin.

Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay, I prayed in my mind. My grandfather couldn’t take another heartbreak.

I glared at the fire, even as its heat dried out my eyeballs. I hadn’t been able to observe the witches closely when they had put out the previous fire, because low-hanging branches had obscured many of the details of the scene. But here, out in the open, I was stunned by just how stubborn these flames were. Even as the witches flooded the cabin with torrents of water, more fire sprang up in its place. It wasn’t like I had much, or even any, experience in putting out fires—although before turning into a vampire, I’d sure had the ability to start them—but these flames just didn’t seem normal. They had wrecked my parents’ penthouse so thoroughly, and they fought so steadfastly, even against the witches’ magic.

And how did they even spark up in the first place?

I didn’t understand what my father was talking about when he mentioned that his and my mother’s chairs were missing, and I hadn’t had time to ask, but I didn’t need to be a genius to conclude that someone on this island was behind this. And as Corrine called to Ibrahim over the blaze, “There’s magic behind these fires,” my suspicions were confirmed.

Finally, they put out the fire enough for Aiden to race up the patio steps and kick open the door. We followed him in, gazing around at the devastation. Everything was scorched coal-black, and I could hardly spot a single recognizable piece of furniture. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could survive this—vampire, werewolf, or heck, even a dragon shifter in his humanoid form.

“Kailyn!” Aiden boomed as he ripped through the cabin, barging through doors and turning over crumbling furniture.

The cabin was small and, with all of us inside, it took us less than a minute to search it in its entirety. I found Kailyn first. I spotted her beneath the bed in the second bedroom. In her wolf form, she was curled up in a ball. Her beautiful glossy, honey-brown fur had turned as black as the rest of this place. And she was still. Too still.

I tried to find my voice to call out to the others, but it caught in my throat. I stood up and grabbed hold of my mother, who stood nearest to me, by the arm. I pulled her down to the floor and pointed under the bed. She cursed beneath her breath—one of the rare times I’d ever heard my mother curse—and yelled for the witches.

Everyone flooded into the room, Aiden at the lead. He lurched toward the bed and attempted to duck down and look beneath it, but I threw myself against his chest and forced him backward. I couldn’t bear for him to see Kailyn like that. I didn’t know what it would do to him.

He gripped my shoulders and tried to push me away, but I held on tight, and my mother soon hurried over to assist me in restraining him. With the witches gathering around the bed, even as they hauled the wolf out from beneath it, Aiden’s view was blocked.

“Let go of me!” he growled.

“We’re taking her to the Sanctuary,” Corrine said, even as her voice cracked.

“I need to see her!” Aiden demanded.

Corrine turned on him with anguished eyes. She swallowed hard. “Please, Aiden. Just give us some time to treat her. I promise you can see her after that.”



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