stay right here, rocketeer
chapter fourteen
The cave led to a long corridor with rock and dirt on all side. It seemed to be carved right out of the hollow of the hill. As the last of us stepped through the entrance, all our silver boughs dissolved into nothing and the hill magically sealed itself shut until we were all surrounded by darkness, inside the unassuming-looking hill.
The total darkness was unexpected and put everyone on edge, but just a second later, a bright, greenish light filled the corridor. Vampire and werewolf eyes easily adjusted to the dim light, but where was Bella? It took me a while, perhaps too long, to realize that the source of the light was Bella. Her whole body cast off a glow that lit the way.
How does she do that? Everyone was wondering.
"Come on, this way," Bella pointed ahead. As she floated down the twisting path, hovering a few inches off the ground, we all followed, feeling quite claustrophobic with so many bodies in such a tight space.
"Are you sure this is the right way to the Otherworld?" Rosalie asked, looking around in disgust. "I always imagined it prettier. It looks like no one has been through here in years."
"It's probably a safety precaution to ward off the vampires," Bella answered.
We continued down the corridor. It was evident that this was in fact an enchanted pathway, since if it really was inside the hill, by basic spatial reasoning, one could easily deduce that we would definitely have walked right through the hill and to the other side by now. But this winding tunnel seemed to go on for miles. As we rounded a sharp corner, the smell hit us so strong, all the vampires had to stumble backwards a bit while Bella and the werewolves carried on like nothing happened.
"Yeah, this is the right way alright," Emmett said, making the show to pinch his nose. "I smell magic and fairy sweat."
We walked a bit longer, but at a much slower pace. The other vampires were not yet used to the smell like I was and it was affecting their cerebellum. Liam, Siobhan, and Maggie especially were lagging behind and stumbling. If the smell was already so bad to me, imagine how awful it must be to those who had never encountered it before. A few more steps and Siobhan collapsed on the ground, cringing in pain. Bella had already wandered far ahead with the pack of wolves, unaware that we had fallen so behind.
"Bella!" I called. Now the smell was so strong, I felt a deep burning all the way to my lungs, flaming up with every shallow breath I took.
She quickly flew back with a concerned look on her face. "What happened?" she asked, pointing at Siobhan.
"The burning," I explained, since none of the other vampires seemed even capable of speech at the moment. How did vampires even break into the Otherworld to steal the Danann Stone? How could anyone bear this torture? "Can you do that spell again to ease the pain?" I asked.
"Of course." Bella landed on her feet, closed her eyes, and muttered the chant, "Pian pian imigh sé teacht chun solais."
Immediately it felt like the blanket of burning was taken off and my mind cleared. There was still the dull pain in the background, but it was easier to ignore. Everyone else also seemed to gather their strength again. When Siobhan still looked rather faint, Jacob trotted over and let her ride on his back the rest of the way.
Refreshed and excited, we sped through the rest of the maze of the tunnel until we almost ran smack into a giant boulder. The round rock was jammed right into the corridor, just the right size to block it completely.
Sam and Paul went up to push the boulder out of the way, but it didn't budge. Then the rest of the werewolves, along with Emmett and me, joined yet the giant rock stayed firm. Jasper, Alice, Carlisle, and Liam piled up and we all heaved, yet it was pointless. No matter how hard we pushed, the boulder stayed exactly where it was. How heavy could that be that the force of all of us combined couldn't even move it?
Behind us, Bella was softly laughing at us. Maggie gave her a questioning glance, but Bella only shook her head and flew over to all of us gathered at the rock. She waved us aside and planted both feet firmly on the ground, a few feet away from the boulder. "Carraig bogaim teacht chun solais."
The insanely heavy boulder began to rumble. Under Bella's magic, it rolled to the left and melded into the side of the wall, leaving the open path where it had previously laid. Wide-eyed, we all stepped through and to our amazement, the boulder formed again from the wall and rolled back to block the path once more.
"Just another trap," Bella explained.
You've got to give it to the sidhe. They're damn creative.
We must have been getting closer, because the hallway was lit from a bigger glow than Bella. The Otherworld! Did we finally reach it?
We all sprinted around the final corner and there, in all its magnificence and utter glory, was the Otherworld.
It was like a massive underground cave, the ceiling too high to reach and the ground too low to see. The tunnel we had been traveling in was continuously winding down, which would explain why the Otherworld is an underground lair. And perhaps the most exquisite underground lair ever. Along the side of the cave walls were numerous doorways and windows, rooms and apartments for the fairies. Fairies big and small were hurrying about, flying in and out of the doors. Below, many other sidhe creatures were walking. The lowermost doors must lead to the homes of the elves and nymphs.
Farther beyond, there was what looked like a town square. Many sidhe were gathered there talking amongst one another. By the town square was the shore of a giant lagoon. The water was a clear sky blue and you could see mermaids swimming underneath. The Otherworld extended further beyond the lagoon, where a tall stalagmite-looking structure jutted out of the ground.
I looked at Bella and saw that she was also taking everything in. The whole place breathed of magic and people just like her. Entranced, she started to fly out lower to the ground when we heard a shout from above us.
"Hey!"
Looking up, we saw two male fairies descend upon us. They both wore a brown cloth shirt messily tied to the side with some pants made of a darker material. When they recognized that we were vampires, their eyes flared and flames shot out from their palms. Knowing full well what that flame was capable of, I opened my arms protectively in front of my family and pushed them back, farther into the tunnel we came from.
"No, no, no," Bella said, flying back to stand between the two fairies and us. "These are nice vampires."
"There are no nice vampires," the taller fairy said. He also had an Irish accent, but it sounded different.
"Go home, a chailín mo chroí," the shorter one said to Bella, "We'll take care of them."
A chailín mo chroí? Maggie thought, That term is ancient.
"No listen!" Bella cried. "They're my friends. They've come to help us."
Now the two fairy guards clenched their fists to extinguish the fires, but stared inquisitively at Bella. "Who are you?" I saw their eyes focus in on her necklace. I noticed that they were not wearing any necklaces yet were perfectly able to fly and have magic.
"My name is Isabella Swan," she introduced. Then, probably after realizing those fairies wouldn't recognize her, she added, "I'm Renee's daughter."
At the name Renee, both the fairies gasped. "You're Princess Renee's daughter?"
"Princess?" Bella asked.
Then the taller fairy noticed the werewolves for the first time. He smacked the shorter one, "Look! She found the werewolves too!"
Bella looked confusedly at the two of them. "So…does that mean you believe me that these are nice vampires?"
"Ye, ye," the shorter fairy said. He had a bright smile on his face. Now, he smacked the taller one again. "Go get the Queen. Tell her the last princess has finally returned! Or, her daughter, at least."
The taller fairy did a flip in the air and zoomed towards that stalagmite-looking structure, evidently the castle.
"My name is Damien," the shorter fairy introduced, "follow me." He started to fly downwards to the ground and Bella followed. The rest of us stepped to the edge, peered down at the ground far below, and jumped.
Once we landed on the ground, all the sidhe began to notice us. Some looked at the wolves in interest or relief, but most stared at us vampires in utter fear. When a tiny fairy girl began crying, Alice walked over to calm her but that only scared the girl even more. I also noticed that I couldn't read any of their thoughts down here.
"It's alright everyone," Damien announced, "these are not the intruders, but they are friends of the werewolves. They are on our side. It's going to be fine. The lost princess has returned."
The crowd of sidhe seemed to relax a bit after Damien's speech. We were all still very puzzled about the princess remark. As we followed Damien to a spot by the lagoon, Bella skipped over to my side.
"Renee was a princess?" I asked her. "You never told me."
"Because she never told me," she said.
"But if she really is a princess, then that means you're a princess too," I reasoned.
"She is indeed." We looked up to see a beautiful fairy before us. She was dressed in a gorgeous white dress that sparkled magically. Her hair was light and in soft curls and a tiara atop. She smiled tenderly at Bella. It was the queen. No, it was more than the fairy queen, it was—
"Queen Titania," Bella said.
The other vampires gasped. The crowd of Sidhe had formed around us, intently watching the interaction between us and the regal queen.
Queen Titania reached out and gently touched the necklace Bella wore, then went to give Bella a hug. It was endearing and heartwarming, but what was going on?
"Your mother never told you, did she?" Queen Titania said softly.
"Told me what?" Bella asked.
"That you're a princess of the Otherworld."
Bella gazed at the queen in wonder. "Renee…was your daughter?"
The queen nodded. "She was my youngest." From behind the queen, a train of twenty fairies followed, all wearing marvelous dresses.
It was hard to think of Queen Titania as Bella's grandmother since Titania looked so young. Fairies don't age past adulthood, so Titania, along with most of the fairy population didn't look much older than Bella.
Then we heard it. It was a loud crack that came from the direction of the tunnel we entered. The cracks got louder and a continuous tapping followed. Footsteps.
"I don't mean to cut this reunion short," Damien said, "But we should really set up defense now."
Damien and the taller fairy and the entire fire brigade of guard fairies flew into position facing the tunnel. All the other sidhe gathered to the side, in a clearing by the lagoon.
In blur and not quite understanding the circumstances, the vampires and werewolves lined up behind the guard fairies.
"Isabella, would you join us?" one of the princesses said, beckoning her to stand last in line. "Only the royal family has all elemental powers," the princess explained, "so none of the others have the power to make fire."
The footsteps got louder and the riot of vampires thundered through the tunnel. We were so unbelievably fortunate to arrive before they did.
"So they want the stone?" I said.
"Yes," Queen Titania answered.
"And where exactly is the stone?"
"In the deepest part of the lagoon, guarded by the mermaids."
"Do those vampires know that?"
"Yes."
The vampires were coming fast. Somehow, they were not affected by the fairy smell like we had all been.
"How come none of you are wearing the necklace?" Bella asked.
"You don't need it when you're in the Otherworld," Queen Titania explained. "As long as the Danann Stone is in the lagoon and powering this place, we all have magic here."
"And none of us are wearing it because we can't afford to cut off bits of the Danann Stone anymore; it's too small as it is," the princess next to Bella added. "We haven't made a pendant in years. Yours could very well be the last Danann Stone pendant in existence. It could very well be the only other gem left besides the one in the lagoon."
"What about Scotland's Otherworld?" Bella asked.
"They're gone. Attacked by vampires."
The boulder that had puzzled us before now rolled out the tunnel and down into the valley. Some guard fairies quickly rushed and slowed the boulder with magic before it destroyed the town. I stared in disbelief. They had pushed the boulder all the way down here? All of us werewolves and vampires combined couldn't even get it to budge, how could these vampires move it without the aid of magic? Even the sum total of all the vampires' brute force couldn't possibly accomplish such a task.
Unless there were hundreds of them.
The first vampire showed himself in the tunnel. The guard fairies in front five rows ignited the fires in their palms. The werewolves crouched down and prepared to attack. Along with the other vampires, I growled, bared my teeth, and concentrated on the enemy. Behind us, the last row of defense, Queen Titania and the twenty-one fairy princesses ignited their fires as well. There were at least sixty of us, plus the elves and nymphs and other fairies behind us who would help as much as they could.
We could hold them off. Hopefully.
The first lead vampire jumped off the ledge and landed before us. His clothes were dirty and ragged. Two more vampires jumped off to join him. Then five more. Then ten more. And the vampires kept pouring in, each one messier and crazier than the previous. I saw that they exited the tunnel with some sort of cloth in their hands that blocked the smell of the fairies.
"We don't have to fight," the leader of the vampires spoke. Even as he spoke, more vampires entered through the tunnel. To say they outnumbered us would be a comical understatement. "You can give us the stone and we can go in peace."
Damien flew up to the vampire with defiance. "As nice as that offer sounds…" Then Damien shoved his palm into the vampire's face, the fire burning him as he screamed.
The vampires roared and charged forward. The waiting fairy guard flew up to meet them. Flying well over their heads, they sprayed fire all over the vampires. The burning vampires cried out, then collapsed onto the ground, wincing in pain. It was effective, probably killed off nine in ten vampires. But more vampires kept coming from the tunnel. And even if the fairy guard killed ninety percent, the ten percent remaining was still a significant, destructive amount.
When the vampires got through the guards, the next line of werewolves howled and ran forward. Tearing apart heads and limbs, the wolves demolished every vampire that they could reach. But there were only six werewolves and the odds were still nowhere close to being in our favor. Like levels in a filter, the next stream of vampires, escaping the fire and escaping the wolves, charged at us.
Together, all of us leaped to meet them, vampire on vampire. I could tell these vampires were starved and weakened, for their eyes were pitch black and hadn't hunted in weeks. They seemed focused on one thing alone, to get that stone in the waters of the lagoon, and didn't really mind about anything else. That made killing them really easy. But there were just too many of them. Even more vampires jumped past the fighting and reached the royalty, the last line of defense.
The princesses and the queen did everything they could think of. Some vampires were tied down by fiercely strong stems and branches. Some vampires were levitated into the air and trapped there. Some vampires were blown back, all the way to smack against the wall. I saw Bella hurling rapid fireballs at approaching vampires.
Finally, I saw the last vampire jump into the chaos from the tunnel above. At least there weren't any more. But there were already so, so many. Countless bodies of burnt vampires lay unmoving on the ground. Some fairies also lay dead, alongside the vampires.
As I ripped the head off of a black-haired vampire and tossed him at Damien to burn, a killed fairy was tossed in my direction. The fairy was part of the guard and had been thrown by the vampire who had killed him to discard. To my horror, I saw a blade sticking out from the dead fairy's stomach. I punched the vampire who was trying to sneak up behind me then bent down to pull the blade out of the fairy's body.
It was exactly what I feared. It was made of iron.
As three blond vampires ran at me, I grabbed a hold of all three of them and slammed them to the ground. Emmett, who had been battling two other vampire nearby, turned to me and stomped down hard on the three blond vampires' heads. A princess quickly flew over and set the decapitated bodies on fire. I looked at their belts and sure enough, all three were carrying some blade or knife made of iron. Inspecting the vampires at large, I saw that nearly all of them had iron in their possession; they just hadn't thought to use them yet.
We were doing good so far; the death ratio was in our favor at least. But there had to be another hundred vampires still alive and still fighting, even though hundreds more lay dead. The Otherworld, so vast, was literally filled with dead bodies.
"Find the fairy with the red jacket and boots," the leader vampire was saying to five other vampires. They were standing pretty far away. I growled and venom flowed as I saw Bella's face in his mind. "She has a stone necklace on. If we can't get the whole stone, get hers."
Taking vampires and flinging them hard across the town square, hoping someone else will kill them, I sprinted to find Bella. Where was she? She was just here fighting a second ago? Where did she fly off to? Oh god, please be okay. Please be okay.
When I couldn't find her anywhere, I looked upwards and there she was, flying up in the air with Damien and two other fairies as they aimed fire at vampires. Another wave of vampires charged at the lagoon and I was momentarily distracted as I grabbed the closest vampire and threw him at all the others. They all fell like bowling pins and Bella set them all on fire. As they shrieked, I grabbed Bella's arm. When she turned around, I saw that her necklace was gone.
"Where is it?" I cried.
Before she could answer, I punched the head off two vampires and she levitated a third. She then put all three of them on fire.
"I gave my necklace to Carlisle," she said.
"You WHAT?"
"Look out!"
I ducked, having been too caught up in the fact that Bella would give her Danann stone to Carlisle, the least trustworthy vampire of us all. The vampire behind me had been aiming for my head, so when I ducked, he missed and punched Bella instead.
She fell down to the ground in a hard thud.
Outraged, I spun around and smashed the vampire's head to pieces. When I turned back around, two vampires were already over the fallen Bella. She writhed under their hold on her arms and then two huge flames shot out of her hand to the two vampires. I quickly stepped in to swoop Bella into my arms and ran to a quiet, relatively hidden spot.
"Are you okay?" I asked urgently.
"I'll be fine," she said softly. "I'm so sorry."
"Why are you sorry?"
"I dragged your family and your friends here. And now they're out there risking their lives."
"No, shhh, don't say that! We already went over this, you didn't force us into anything. We want to help. And besides, look at how good everyone is doing."
We looked back out at the fighting. Emmett was singlehandedly beating four vampires to a pulp. Rosalie and Queen Titania had a tag team thing going on where she would punch or kick a vampire and then Queen Titania would set it to flames. Alice, being able to predict the vampires' movements, dodged every shot and went in for the kill when they least expected it. Jasper, the trained killing machine, went around slaying vampires two are a time, with two guard fairies following behind to burn the victims. Esme, Siobhan, and Jacob were defending the lagoon alongside the angry mermaids. Liam was combating one big vampire who was already half on fire. Carlisle was cornered by three vampires with wild hair but was holding up. Maggie somehow found her way to Damien and now the two were back to back, fighting a whole group of vampires circling around them.
"But why would you give the necklace to Carlisle?" I asked.
"He knew the vampires saw me with it on. He knew I would be the first to get killed if they saw it on me, so I took it off and gave it to him. He was trying to save me."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "He wants it for himself."
The elves had begun to throw rocks at the vampires nearby. While the rocks do nothing to harm the vampires, they do distract the vampires long enough for a wolf to kill them.
"I trust Carlisle," Bella whispered. "Even if you don't."
An unearthly shriek was heard. Bella and I turned around to see that it came from the lagoon. A group of eighteen vampires seized the lagoon at once. Esme, Siobhan, and Jacob were able to hold off eight, but the ten others jumped off into the lagoon.
The scream had come from the mermaids who were now battling the vampires under water. After the mermaids, the Danann Stone would be utterly unprotected and vulnerable. One, two, three wet vampires were tossed out of the water, and dealt with by Jacob. All the other fighting around the Otherworld seemed to lax as more eyes focused on the battle under water. When minutes passed and only two more vampires got tossed out, a bunch of fairies ran and jumped into the water. On closer inspection, I realized they weren't fairies at all, but selkies, transforming into seals the second they touched water. The lagoon was becoming a whirlpool as vampires fought mermaids and selkies. One more vampire got tossed out. But one mermaid also rose to the surface, her dark blood spreading throughout the water.
Esme gathered the poor mermaid and set on her the shore. Looking at Siobhan, Esme jumped in followed shortly by Siobhan. Another vampire tried to sneak in while everyone was captivated, but I stepped out and ripped his arm off, Bella set him on fire, the elves chucked rocks at him, and we went back to watching the scene in the water.
Four evil vampires remain in the water. We all watched intently when, finally, one rose from the water. Her dirty blonde hair was dripping down her face, her torn clothes soaked, but she had on a wicked smile. The vampire raised her hand and produced the Danann Stone, or what was left of it. The shiny gem was now only the size of a fist, and ragged on the edges from previous vampire thefts. The vampire tilted her head back and laughed.