Part 6
The dark city seemed to be deserted. There was no sound or sight of people. The full moon glistened down on the wasted land around the two silent figures who moved slowly, looking for shelter. Azalea Wolf and his companion, Midnight Wolf had been travelling for days, studying the new world under vampire rule. It was the same everywhere.
Now they had made it to what used to be the city of L.A where the castle Black Lightning was situated, where the King and Queen lived. L.A. had once been a bustling, busy city. Now its streets were deserted. The stores that had once been there were knocked down, leaving wasteland in their place.
The castle loomed above it all, dark, frightening and forbidding.
"To tell the truth, I really don't want to go in there," Midnight said softly. She was small and dark skinned, her dark brown hair hung in hundreds of tight braids down her back. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit and was shivering in the deathly cold.
"We don't have a choice," Azalea said briefly. "We don't want to freeze out here. It's not like we're escaped humans. They should let us in."
Azalea lead the way to the castle and banged on the door loudly with a fist. A slit opened and two cold, unfriendly eyes looked out.
"Who are you and what's your business here?"
"I am Azalea of the Wolf Clan and this is my companion Midnight. We want in."
"What's Wolf Clan?" the voice said suspiciously.
"A new breed of Night People. A sort of development on werewolves. We're more powerful, smarter and we live longer." He took off his long black leather coat and pushed the sleeve of his dark shirt up to reveal a tattoo of a black poppy on his upper arm. Midnight showed an identical tattoo on the back of her slender dark hand.
"All right. Hang on." The two huge doors opened slowly. Midnight and Azalea were led inside to the front hall.
"I'll tell the Queen she has guests," the guard who'd led them in said and left.
The front hall was lit with electric lights and a fire burned in a large fire place. There were portraits on the wall of important Night World members. The heads of each species. There were portraits of King Redfern and Queen Black Lightning, also one of Darlinstia Tiarna, the head of the Circle Midnight witches, Jaquinlointyia Equistinoria, the Dragon Princess, head of the shapeshifters and even one of Lamia Wolf, the head of the Wolf Clan.
"I guess they have heard of us after all," Azalea said with a grim smile, seeing the portraits.
They both looked up when they heard the clattering of heels. They stared as the Queen entered the room, looking at them with a hostile, unfriendly expression, like so many of her subjects.
"What do you want?" Her voice was as cold as her expression.
"We just want shelter," Midnight explained.
"You're not even important Night World citizens, you're only shapeshifters, wolves at that. Not intelligent, not important."
Azalea could feel himself losing his temper. He spoke through his teeth. "It's freezing cold outside. We need somewhere to stay. We don't intend to infer with your house hold or anything. We'll be out of your way before you know it."
The Queen looked at him, an appreciative smile on her beautiful face. Her beauty was a contrast to the evil on the inside. "*You* can stay as long as you like," she said in a low, liquid voice.
Azalea stared at her. Was she really that shallow? He knew what she saw...someone tall, dark and handsome, who looked like a shadow and moved as silently, with blazing blue eyes.
"Midnight stays too," he snapped. "And I can see what you're thinking and you can stop right now. Nothing's gonna happen between us." If that was the wrong thing to say it was too late, it was said now.
She didn't say anything. She just looked at them for a while. "Oh all right," she said finally. "If you cause me any trouble you're dead. You're only wolves. You're as good as dead anyway," she added spitefully, before turning away.
"If that's what she thinks of us, I dread to think what the king thinks," Midnight muttered.
The Queen heard. "He doesn't think of anything anymore. I killed him," she answered, before leaving the room.
Midnight and Azalea exchanged glances. Azalea was fuming, almost shaking in fury at this snotty little bitch's callous attitude. How could she even think of killing her own love?
"Such a nice girl, isn't she?" Midnight said sarcastically.
"I think I'm gong to teach her a lesson she'll never forget," Azalea muttered under his breath.
* * *
"Who's Hannah?" Julia asked.
Both Poppy and Thea were staring at her. Poppy's eyes had widened. "Oh I'm so stupid!" she said. "Why didn't I see it? You're Hannah's next incarnation. Of course you are. You even have the same mark."
"This?" Julia pushed at the hair covering her cheek, revealing a birth mark slanting just under her cheek. It was as if she'd laid a rose against her cheek and the petal had left an imprint. But Julia had never seen a rose. Julia thought of the strange things she'd been experiencing recently. Th strange memories, like the ideas she'd had of how she'd known instinctively she could successfully plan a revolution. The feelings that if she had to, she could fight strongly. Other memories were lightning up now too. Memories of a young man with pale hair and endlessly sad dark eyes. Memories of the two of them, standing on a battle field with the other members of Circle Daybreak. They all stood there bravely, as the sky turned dark and fiery and the dark side showed up with their armies and their weapons and started war. She clearly remembered the violence of the battle, the blood shed, the pain, and the worst pain for her when Susan had staked Thierry in front of her. And then killed her. She clearly remembered the pain of sharp teeth, the unique agony of blood being drawn out against her will.
She remembered other things. She could see a hundred different versions of herself, all with different names, looking a little different, but always tall, fair haired and grey eyed, all with the birthmark on her cheek.
"Oh God," she muttered. "It's...I've had past lives. I..." She looked back at Thea who had come to stand behind the doors. She was clutching the bars with her pale thin hands. She was looking at Julia earnestly. "I remember you!" she said suddenly, everything flooding back. She knew now she had had a life as a warrior, that was probably why she was so sure she could win this battle. She also knew she had been a slave as well. She wasn't going to be any longer. Also, Winnie had overheard too, and was poking her small, dirty face up against the bars too.
"Hannah?" she asked.
"Uh, it's Julia now," Julia said. "But I remember everything. And I'm going to get you all out of here."
"What?" Thea said in disbelief.
"I had a dream. And Hellewise Hearth-Woman told me that I could start a revolution and turn the world back to the way it was. And now, I think I have an advantage. I was born a witch in this life."
"Here." Damien handed Julia a long, thin piece of metal.
"Where'd you get this?" Julia asked, amazed, as she took it and inserted it into the lock. She worked with the pick as if she'd always known how to do this. The lock sprang. Then Julia moved over to work on the door to Winnie's cell. She moved to the last cell, but it was empty.
"For now, let's just get these two out of here and back to our huts before we're caught and killed," Damien said, looking over his shoulder.
* * *
Julia led the small group back up the dark, winding passageway, trying to find their way back to the kitchens to get outside and back to their huts before they were caught.
Their flare had burned out, and there were no other lights here. This was the deepest, darkest part of the castle and it was almost impossible to see anything at all. They stood where they were, stumped, having no idea which way to go.
"Well I can't see a thing," Damien complained.
"Neither can I," Julia muttered. "Poppy, vampires can see in the dark, can't they? You're going to have to lead us back. Thea and Winnie had better stay at the back close..." She stopped and laughed.
"I don't see what's funny," Winnie said.
"I was going to say close to the shadows," Julia said with a grim smile that no one could see, "but shadows is all this place is."
"Okay, let's go," Poppy said, and came round to the front of the group. "Maybe we should hold hands and form a chain so we don't get lost. That way we can make sure no one is separated from the group."
Julia nodded. "That's a good idea."
The group held hands and began to make slow progress in the pitch blackness. Julia, who had grown up in the new world was used to darkness. But this was different. There as nothing at all less than black. She remembered something in her previous life, sitting trapped in a cave, deep in the earth, surely waiting for death. She remembered the sheer panic of waking up in complete dark, the feeling that the cave was going to crush her....she had that same feeling now, and couldn't wait to find light...any light...
"Here I think," Poppy said suddenly. There were the creaking sounds of a heavy door being pulled open. Then they were inside a strange room. Candles were burning, white candles and coloured candles, the floor covered in markings that looked strange. Julia recognised the pentagram, but she didn't recognise the other symbols. On a stand was an old book, open with strange words and more symbols.
"What is this place?" Julia asked, looking around.
"It looks like a black magic ritual," Thea said, walking over to the book and examining it. "This is a spell book." She looked down at the spell it was open to. "This is a ritual for raising the dead."
"Raising the dead?" Poppy asked. "Can you do it?"
Thea stared in disbelief. "What?"
Poppy was getting excited. "If we do that spell, then we can bring back Circle Daybreak. Or maybe just the Wild Powers and then we can have a real chance at fighting them."
Thea looked at the spell. "This one seems to be directed to bringing a specific individual back. If we did that for every member of Circle Daybreak it would take too long." She flipped pages, keeping the page the book was open to marked. "Wait...look at this. Here we are." Thea's voice was getting as eager and exited as Poppy's. "This one is for bringing back groups. It was used for war times back in old times."
"Well we're about to start a war," Julia said. She walked over to the spell and ripped it out the book.
"What are you doing?" Damien said, shocked.
"We need this more than they do," Julia answered. "Thea do you need anything else?"
"Candles and salt."
"Salt we can borrow from the kitchens, they won't rat on us. As for candles..." Julia looked around the room. She spotted a cupboard and opened it. Inside were boxes of coloured candles. "Looks like we're getting a run of luck."
Thea came over and examined the candles, taking out what she needed and putting them in a small box they found.
"Is that it? Can we go now?" Damien snapped as they looked around the room.
"Excuse me, Mr. Touchy," Julia muttered. "Yes we're done. Let's get out of here."
They opened the door and started to make their way back down the dark corridor when Winnie suddenly whispered, "Oh-no."
"What?" Julia hissed.
"I hear footsteps," Winnie whispered.
A second later, Julia heard them too, and saw light coming towards them.
"Double back," Julia hissed. And the group hurried back through the blackness the way they'd come.
She felt her way along the wall, trying to listen to which way the others were going but of course, they were being as quiet as they could to avoid being caught. Julia felt the passage turn and followed it. She came to yet another door and quickly pulled it open and ducked into the room. She closed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily in relief.
But her relief was short-lived.
"Well now what do we have here? Vermin in the castle? How revolting."
Horrified, Julia turned at the voice and found herself looking up at a tall man with blood red hair and amused golden eyes and she knew she'd doomed them all.
* * *
The dark city seemed to be deserted. There was no sound or sight of people. The full moon glistened down on the wasted land around the two silent figures who moved slowly, looking for shelter. Azalea Wolf and his companion, Midnight Wolf had been travelling for days, studying the new world under vampire rule. It was the same everywhere.
Now they had made it to what used to be the city of L.A where the castle Black Lightning was situated, where the King and Queen lived. L.A. had once been a bustling, busy city. Now its streets were deserted. The stores that had once been there were knocked down, leaving wasteland in their place.
The castle loomed above it all, dark, frightening and forbidding.
"To tell the truth, I really don't want to go in there," Midnight said softly. She was small and dark skinned, her dark brown hair hung in hundreds of tight braids down her back. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit and was shivering in the deathly cold.
"We don't have a choice," Azalea said briefly. "We don't want to freeze out here. It's not like we're escaped humans. They should let us in."
Azalea lead the way to the castle and banged on the door loudly with a fist. A slit opened and two cold, unfriendly eyes looked out.
"Who are you and what's your business here?"
"I am Azalea of the Wolf Clan and this is my companion Midnight. We want in."
"What's Wolf Clan?" the voice said suspiciously.
"A new breed of Night People. A sort of development on werewolves. We're more powerful, smarter and we live longer." He took off his long black leather coat and pushed the sleeve of his dark shirt up to reveal a tattoo of a black poppy on his upper arm. Midnight showed an identical tattoo on the back of her slender dark hand.
"All right. Hang on." The two huge doors opened slowly. Midnight and Azalea were led inside to the front hall.
"I'll tell the Queen she has guests," the guard who'd led them in said and left.
The front hall was lit with electric lights and a fire burned in a large fire place. There were portraits on the wall of important Night World members. The heads of each species. There were portraits of King Redfern and Queen Black Lightning, also one of Darlinstia Tiarna, the head of the Circle Midnight witches, Jaquinlointyia Equistinoria, the Dragon Princess, head of the shapeshifters and even one of Lamia Wolf, the head of the Wolf Clan.
"I guess they have heard of us after all," Azalea said with a grim smile, seeing the portraits.
They both looked up when they heard the clattering of heels. They stared as the Queen entered the room, looking at them with a hostile, unfriendly expression, like so many of her subjects.
"What do you want?" Her voice was as cold as her expression.
"We just want shelter," Midnight explained.
"You're not even important Night World citizens, you're only shapeshifters, wolves at that. Not intelligent, not important."
Azalea could feel himself losing his temper. He spoke through his teeth. "It's freezing cold outside. We need somewhere to stay. We don't intend to infer with your house hold or anything. We'll be out of your way before you know it."
The Queen looked at him, an appreciative smile on her beautiful face. Her beauty was a contrast to the evil on the inside. "*You* can stay as long as you like," she said in a low, liquid voice.
Azalea stared at her. Was she really that shallow? He knew what she saw...someone tall, dark and handsome, who looked like a shadow and moved as silently, with blazing blue eyes.
"Midnight stays too," he snapped. "And I can see what you're thinking and you can stop right now. Nothing's gonna happen between us." If that was the wrong thing to say it was too late, it was said now.
She didn't say anything. She just looked at them for a while. "Oh all right," she said finally. "If you cause me any trouble you're dead. You're only wolves. You're as good as dead anyway," she added spitefully, before turning away.
"If that's what she thinks of us, I dread to think what the king thinks," Midnight muttered.
The Queen heard. "He doesn't think of anything anymore. I killed him," she answered, before leaving the room.
Midnight and Azalea exchanged glances. Azalea was fuming, almost shaking in fury at this snotty little bitch's callous attitude. How could she even think of killing her own love?
"Such a nice girl, isn't she?" Midnight said sarcastically.
"I think I'm gong to teach her a lesson she'll never forget," Azalea muttered under his breath.
* * *
"Who's Hannah?" Julia asked.
Both Poppy and Thea were staring at her. Poppy's eyes had widened. "Oh I'm so stupid!" she said. "Why didn't I see it? You're Hannah's next incarnation. Of course you are. You even have the same mark."
"This?" Julia pushed at the hair covering her cheek, revealing a birth mark slanting just under her cheek. It was as if she'd laid a rose against her cheek and the petal had left an imprint. But Julia had never seen a rose. Julia thought of the strange things she'd been experiencing recently. Th strange memories, like the ideas she'd had of how she'd known instinctively she could successfully plan a revolution. The feelings that if she had to, she could fight strongly. Other memories were lightning up now too. Memories of a young man with pale hair and endlessly sad dark eyes. Memories of the two of them, standing on a battle field with the other members of Circle Daybreak. They all stood there bravely, as the sky turned dark and fiery and the dark side showed up with their armies and their weapons and started war. She clearly remembered the violence of the battle, the blood shed, the pain, and the worst pain for her when Susan had staked Thierry in front of her. And then killed her. She clearly remembered the pain of sharp teeth, the unique agony of blood being drawn out against her will.
She remembered other things. She could see a hundred different versions of herself, all with different names, looking a little different, but always tall, fair haired and grey eyed, all with the birthmark on her cheek.
"Oh God," she muttered. "It's...I've had past lives. I..." She looked back at Thea who had come to stand behind the doors. She was clutching the bars with her pale thin hands. She was looking at Julia earnestly. "I remember you!" she said suddenly, everything flooding back. She knew now she had had a life as a warrior, that was probably why she was so sure she could win this battle. She also knew she had been a slave as well. She wasn't going to be any longer. Also, Winnie had overheard too, and was poking her small, dirty face up against the bars too.
"Hannah?" she asked.
"Uh, it's Julia now," Julia said. "But I remember everything. And I'm going to get you all out of here."
"What?" Thea said in disbelief.
"I had a dream. And Hellewise Hearth-Woman told me that I could start a revolution and turn the world back to the way it was. And now, I think I have an advantage. I was born a witch in this life."
"Here." Damien handed Julia a long, thin piece of metal.
"Where'd you get this?" Julia asked, amazed, as she took it and inserted it into the lock. She worked with the pick as if she'd always known how to do this. The lock sprang. Then Julia moved over to work on the door to Winnie's cell. She moved to the last cell, but it was empty.
"For now, let's just get these two out of here and back to our huts before we're caught and killed," Damien said, looking over his shoulder.
* * *
Julia led the small group back up the dark, winding passageway, trying to find their way back to the kitchens to get outside and back to their huts before they were caught.
Their flare had burned out, and there were no other lights here. This was the deepest, darkest part of the castle and it was almost impossible to see anything at all. They stood where they were, stumped, having no idea which way to go.
"Well I can't see a thing," Damien complained.
"Neither can I," Julia muttered. "Poppy, vampires can see in the dark, can't they? You're going to have to lead us back. Thea and Winnie had better stay at the back close..." She stopped and laughed.
"I don't see what's funny," Winnie said.
"I was going to say close to the shadows," Julia said with a grim smile that no one could see, "but shadows is all this place is."
"Okay, let's go," Poppy said, and came round to the front of the group. "Maybe we should hold hands and form a chain so we don't get lost. That way we can make sure no one is separated from the group."
Julia nodded. "That's a good idea."
The group held hands and began to make slow progress in the pitch blackness. Julia, who had grown up in the new world was used to darkness. But this was different. There as nothing at all less than black. She remembered something in her previous life, sitting trapped in a cave, deep in the earth, surely waiting for death. She remembered the sheer panic of waking up in complete dark, the feeling that the cave was going to crush her....she had that same feeling now, and couldn't wait to find light...any light...
"Here I think," Poppy said suddenly. There were the creaking sounds of a heavy door being pulled open. Then they were inside a strange room. Candles were burning, white candles and coloured candles, the floor covered in markings that looked strange. Julia recognised the pentagram, but she didn't recognise the other symbols. On a stand was an old book, open with strange words and more symbols.
"What is this place?" Julia asked, looking around.
"It looks like a black magic ritual," Thea said, walking over to the book and examining it. "This is a spell book." She looked down at the spell it was open to. "This is a ritual for raising the dead."
"Raising the dead?" Poppy asked. "Can you do it?"
Thea stared in disbelief. "What?"
Poppy was getting excited. "If we do that spell, then we can bring back Circle Daybreak. Or maybe just the Wild Powers and then we can have a real chance at fighting them."
Thea looked at the spell. "This one seems to be directed to bringing a specific individual back. If we did that for every member of Circle Daybreak it would take too long." She flipped pages, keeping the page the book was open to marked. "Wait...look at this. Here we are." Thea's voice was getting as eager and exited as Poppy's. "This one is for bringing back groups. It was used for war times back in old times."
"Well we're about to start a war," Julia said. She walked over to the spell and ripped it out the book.
"What are you doing?" Damien said, shocked.
"We need this more than they do," Julia answered. "Thea do you need anything else?"
"Candles and salt."
"Salt we can borrow from the kitchens, they won't rat on us. As for candles..." Julia looked around the room. She spotted a cupboard and opened it. Inside were boxes of coloured candles. "Looks like we're getting a run of luck."
Thea came over and examined the candles, taking out what she needed and putting them in a small box they found.
"Is that it? Can we go now?" Damien snapped as they looked around the room.
"Excuse me, Mr. Touchy," Julia muttered. "Yes we're done. Let's get out of here."
They opened the door and started to make their way back down the dark corridor when Winnie suddenly whispered, "Oh-no."
"What?" Julia hissed.
"I hear footsteps," Winnie whispered.
A second later, Julia heard them too, and saw light coming towards them.
"Double back," Julia hissed. And the group hurried back through the blackness the way they'd come.
She felt her way along the wall, trying to listen to which way the others were going but of course, they were being as quiet as they could to avoid being caught. Julia felt the passage turn and followed it. She came to yet another door and quickly pulled it open and ducked into the room. She closed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily in relief.
But her relief was short-lived.
"Well now what do we have here? Vermin in the castle? How revolting."
Horrified, Julia turned at the voice and found herself looking up at a tall man with blood red hair and amused golden eyes and she knew she'd doomed them all.
* * *