The Vampire Flame (Vampire Sorceress Book 3) Page 2

  Lucius just stared at me in confusion. “Who’s Jane?”

  Realizing that Lucius didn’t understand a word I said, I said, in a much slower tone, “She’s my best friend and she got kidnapped by a sorcerer named Blake.”

  “Blake?” Lucius repeated. “Are you sure that’s his name?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what he told me, but I don’t know much else about him.” I gestured at the teleportation dust on the ground. “He just teleported away at the last second and I have no idea where he or Jane is.”

  “It appears that our troubles are connected after all,” said Lucius, stroking his chin. “Because I’m also after a sorcerer named Blake, full name Harry Blake. Was he a tall human of African descent wearing a pentagram necklace?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “Though I wouldn’t call him of ‘African descent.’ He’s black.”

  “What’s the difference?” said Lucius.

  I opened my mouth to answer, but then it occurred to me that I didn’t actually know, so I shrugged and said, “I don’t know. It just sounds kind of weird.”

  “I find it weirder that you’re more concerned with proper terminology than the fact that your best friend was kidnapped by a very dangerous sorcerer,” said Lucius. “I suppose you still have some of that human inability to grasp the big picture in your nature. Or maybe you’re just very stressed and are clinging onto minor points for your sanity.”

  “Does it really matter?” I snapped. “I’m sorry, but I just want to find Jane. Do you know where she is?”

  “Sadly, I do not,” said Lucius. “But I do know who Blake is. You’re lucky he didn’t just kill you outright.”

  I scratched my neck. “Who is he, anyway? And why are you chasing him? What makes him so dangerous?”

  Lucius’ expression became more serious. “Harry Blake is a rogue sorcerer, wanted for murder by the Sorcerer Parliament. He also used to be a vampire hunter, though he was never a very good one as far as I know. I think he may have killed only one or two vampires during his entire career.”

  “Doesn’t sound so dangerous to me,” I said.

  “Don’t be fooled,” said Lucius. “Just because he may not be the most powerful sorcerer in the world doesn’t mean he’s not a threat. He’s willing to kill anyone who comes after him. You’re lucky he decided that kidnapping your friend was more important than killing you.”

  I bit my lower lip, thinking about how crazy Blake looked. I could easily see him murdering someone he didn’t like, though that didn’t tell me much about him. “Why are you tracking him down? On a mission for the Vampire Council?”

  Lucius nodded. “As usual.”

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what your mission is, can you?” I said. “Or is that top secret?”

  “Oh, I can tell you about it,” said Lucius. “You might even be able to help me with it, given how we both are after the same man. You see, Blake has stolen a particular book from the Vampire Council’s Vault, a very ancient and important book that the Council doesn’t want to end up in the wrong hands. You didn’t see any books on him when he attacked, did you?”

  I shook my head. “No. I think he was more interested in kidnapping Jane than in reading books, to be honest.”

  “I figured,” said Lucius with a sigh. “I suppose it makes sense that he wouldn’t carry that book on him. Otherwise, he might lose or damage it, which I know that he doesn’t want.”

  “What is this book, anyway?” I said. “What makes it so important that the Vampire Council has sent you to retrieve it?”

  “That is top secret,” said Lucius. “I’m sorry, Tara, but that’s one particular detail that the Council stressed upon me that I’m not supposed to tell anyone. All I can tell you is that the information in that book is incredibly valuable, on par with the knowledge about how to open a portal to the Vampire Sword. It would be in the best interests of everyone if we could get the book back in one piece.”

  “I see,” I said, feeling a little disappointed that Lucius couldn’t tell me what the book was. “Well, we can still work together, can’t we? He has your book and my friend. If the two of us work together, we should have an easier time tracking him down, right?”

  “Right,” said Lucius, nodding again. He looked at the teleportation dust. “Tell me, Tara, did Blake mention where he might be going or what he was going to do next?”

  I shook my head again. “No. Blake didn’t say even one word about where he’s going. He just mentioned something about something called ‘the Fire,’ but—”

  “He what?” said Lucius, looking up sharply at me. “What did he say?”

  “The Fire,” I said. “He told my friend that soon it would just be him, her, and the Fire. I didn’t understand what he meant. Does he have a fireplace at his house or something?”

  Lucius’ expression grew darker. “Oh, no, he’s talking about something far worse than a simple fireplace, assuming he’s talking about what I think he is, though we vampires call it something different.”

  “What was he talking about?” I said. “Care to fill me in or is that top secret, too?”

  “It’s not top secret, though it’s also not very well known, either,” said Lucius. “The ‘Fire’ which Blake referred to is probably the Sorcerer’s Fire. At least, that’s what sorcerers call it.”

  “What do you vampires call it?”

  “Simple,” said Lucius. “We call it the Vampire Flame. But whatever you call it, it must not be allowed to fall into the hands of Blake. Otherwise, you can say good bye to all magic in the world, including your own.”

  “What is the Vampire Flame?” I said, looking at Lucius in confusion. “And how will it take away my magic if Blake gets it?”

  But Lucius did not seem me to hear me, because he was now pacing back and forth across the pavement, his arms folded behind his back as he muttered incessantly under his breath.

  “Hello?” I said. “Earth to Lucius? Can you hear me?”

  “I hear you just fine, Tara,” said Lucius, glancing up at me briefly before returning his gaze to the pavement upon which he paced. “It’s just that I’m ignoring you for now to think about what you just told me. It confirms a theory I’ve had, but at the same time, the implications are staggering and I still haven’t fully grasped what Blake is trying to do.”

  At least Lucius was honest about ignoring me, which was more than I could say for other men I’d dated before. And, honestly, Lucius was probably the only guy who I didn’t mind being ignored by, despite being as attracted to him as I was. He was just that handsome.

  “Well, I’m trying to understand the implications, too,” I said. “Only it’s harder for me because you haven’t explained jack to me yet.”

  Lucius stopped and looked at me. “I have a theory, but we need help. I need information and I know exactly where to get it: Richard.”

  “You mean my dad?” I said. “Why?”

  “Because Richard is one of the very few sorcerers to have ever seen the Vampire Flame,” said Lucius. “More than anyone, he may know where it is and how we can get to it. We might even be able to track down Blake and, by extension, your friend Jane as well. Is Richard home?”

  “I think so,” I said, glancing at my watch. “It’s after lunch, so his church has probably let out. I imagine he’s at home taking his afternoon nap, which he usually does after church ends.”

  “Excellent,” said Lucius. “You and I should go directly to the parsonage and speak with Richard. We should do it quickly, because Blake is likely moving forward with his plan and isn’t going to wait for us to catch up.”

  “But you still haven’t explained to me what the Vampire Flame is,” I said. “What is it and why is it so important that we have to ask Dad about it?”

  Lucius sighed, clearly wishing that we could just get a move on, but then he said, “I keep forgetting how little you know of our world, but very well. The Vampire Flame is an ancient, eternal fire that has been burning since the beginning o
f time. It has never gone out, even once, since the day it was first lit so many ages ago, and with luck, it never will.”

  “So the Vampire Flame is just a really old fire, then,” I said. “I don’t see what’s so special about that.”

  Lucius sighed again, this time with more obvious exasperation. “It’s more than that, Tara. It’s the source of the magical powers of vampires and sorcerers alike.”

  “It is?” I said. “How come I’ve never heard of it, then, if it’s so important?”

  “Because it’s been missing for centuries,” said Lucius. “There’s also the fact, of course, that you’ve been separated from the magical community for your whole life, so it makes sense you wouldn’t know what it is.”

  I folded my arms in front of my chest. “Hold on a minute. How can the Vampire Flame be the source of magic? Didn’t the Darkness and the Origin give humanity our magical powers?”

  “Yes,” said Lucius. “But the Darkness and the Origin don’t support our powers in the same way the Vampire Flame does. That’s why the Vampire Flame is also called the Sorcerer’s Fire, because it supports the powers of both species at once.”

  “Where did it come from?” I said. “Who created it?”

  “No one knows for sure,” said Lucius. “Some think that the first sorcerer and the first vampire created it, while others believe that the Darkness and the Origin created it together. Either way, it exists and it is deeply tied to our powers. Should the Flame ever go out, both sorcerers and vampires would cease to exist.”

  “Cease to exist?” I said. “Do you mean they’d all die?”

  “Not exactly,” said Lucius. He put a hand on his chest. “Us vampires probably would, because without the Darkness flowing through us, we are basically just reanimated corpses. As for sorcerers, they’d just lose their powers and become ordinary humans. In that sense, they would cease to exist as sorcerers, though continue to exist as humans.”

  “What would happen to half-vampires like me?” I said. “Would I die or just lose my powers or …?”

  I didn’t want to say it aloud, but I wondered if the Vampire Flame could potentially reverse my half-vampire transformation. Ever since I became a half-vampire three months ago, I hoped of a way to reverse my transformation and go back to being an ordinary girl who didn’t have to worry about the fate of her eternal soul all the time. I had reluctantly accepted that I would be a half-vampire for the rest of my life, but if Lucius was correct about the Vampire Flame and its abilities, then maybe there was hope for me after all.

  Lucius scratched the scar on his face. “I don’t know. And I don’t want to find out. That’s why we need to find Blake, and fast.”

  “Right,” I said. “But if Blake is trying to get the Vampire Flame, then why did he kidnap my friend Jane? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “There’s still a lot we don’t know about Blake and his motives,” said Lucius. “If I had to guess, I would say he’s using her as a hostage, maybe to make sure you don’t go after him. If he has your friend’s life under his control, then you might be less willing to fight him and get in the way of his plans.”

  I supposed Lucius was probably right, but at the same time, I didn’t find that explanation entirely convincing. There had to be something more to it than that. If he had been a vampire, I would have said that Blake had kidnapped Jane in order to drink her blood, but given how he was an ordinary human sorcerer, that meant he kidnapped her for an entirely different reason. And whatever that reason was, I doubted it was any good.

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll help you find Blake. Where should we go first?”

  “To your father, Richard,” said Lucius. “As I said, he’s the last person to have seen the Vampire Flame and may be able to tell us where it is, which may, in turn, help us find out where Blake is.”

  “Cool,” I said. “Then let’s hurry. I want to save Jane and make sure that she’s safe and I can’t do that if we’re just standing around here like this.”

  Lucius extended a hand toward me. “Then take my hand. We’ll take the Shadow Way. It’s the fastest way to get to your father’s house.”

  I didn’t want to go into the Shadow Way. Granted, I had had only one really negative experience in there, but it had been enough—more than enough, really—to turn me off from it forever. That’s why I tried to avoid traveling along it whenever possible, because I didn’t want to do a repeat of my first experience in there. Usually, I preferred to walk or drive everywhere, or even teleport.

  Nonetheless, knowing the seriousness of our current situation, I took Lucius’ cold but firm hand and followed him into the shadows. A second later, we emerged into the long stone hallways of the Shadow Way. They were quiet and dark, with nary a sound except for our own footsteps and breathing. I always found it odd how we rarely ever encountered other people in the Shadow Way, but Lucius had informed me once that the Shadow Way was so huge that it was possible for millions of people to travel along it at once and yet never actually run into each other. I suppose if the Shadow Way was that big, then it made sense that we’d rarely see other people.

  As Lucius led me down the Shadow Way, however, a thought occurred to me and I said, “Lucius, you said that the Shadow Way connects to every place on Earth, right?”

  “Right,” said Lucius, nodding without looking over his shoulder at me. “If you know the Shadow Way well enough, you can travel to literally any spot on Earth. You could even travel to the bottom of the ocean, though I wouldn’t recommend it, because even us vampires are not immune to being crushed by the depths of the sea.”

  I shuddered at the thought of emerging into the darkness of the sea, only to be immediately crushed by the water pressure. Somehow that seemed like a worse fate than merely having your head taken off your shoulders by a well-placed slash from a silver weapon. “Okay, but can the Shadow Way extend to other planets?”

  Lucius looked over his shoulder at me with the most confused expression I had ever seen on his face. “What?”

  “Other planets,” I said, gesturing at the ceiling above us. “Like, if I wanted to go from Earth to Mars, or even to the moon, would I be able to do that?”

  Lucius blinked. “Why would you ask such a question?”

  My face flushed with embarrassment, but I said, “I’m just curious, that’s all. It’s not a stupid question, is it?”

  “No, it’s not,” said Lucius, looking away from me. “I’m just surprised because no one has ever asked me that question before.”

  “Do you mean you don’t know the answer?”

  “No, I do,” said Lucius. “The Shadow Way can take you off Earth, but only to the moon due to its proximity to Earth. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever used the Shadow Way to go to another planet, except, perhaps, the Strangers, but only because one of the theories floating around is that the Strangers actually are from another planet connected to Earth via the Shadow Way.”

  I frowned. “Do you mean that the Strangers might actually be Martians?”

  “Or some other alien species entirely,” said Lucius. “But whatever their true origin, it’s not something I can say for certain. All I can say is that if it is possible to go to other planets, I wouldn’t recommend it. It would be similar to traveling underneath the ocean, if not worse because at least the ocean is still on Earth. In any case, I don’t think you should worry about it. We have more important things to worry about for now than the exact reach of the Shadow Way.”

  I nodded, but at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about the question. I wasn’t much of a science fiction geek, but the idea of aliens using the Shadow Way to travel to Earth—or vice versa with humans—captured my imagination nonetheless. And the idea that the Strangers were aliens captured even more of my imagination, though I considered it more likely that the actual nature of the Strangers, whatever it was, was probably even weirder than that.

  Lucius came to an abrupt stop. I was so lost in thought that I nearly walked into him, bu
t even when I stopped, Lucius forced me behind him.

  “Lucius?” I said, looking at his big back in surprise. “What’s the matter? Do you see something?”

  “No,” said Lucius. “But I sense something nearby, watching our every move.”

  A familiar childlike voice suddenly chuckled, the sound seeming to echo from everywhere at once. “You have very good situational awareness, Lucius Red, much better than the half-vampire you’re towing behind you. In all the years I’ve known you, I have never been able to surprise you even once.”

  A small child in tattered gray clothes stepped out of a nearby hallway onto our own. He looked to be about six, with pitch black eyes that made him look unnatural, but I had no trouble identifying him, because I’d seen him once before and wished I would never see him again.

  “Timmy,” I said. I drew closer to Lucius for safety.

  The Stranger known as Timmy (though that wasn’t his real name, just the one I knew him by) smiled when he saw me. “Hello again, half-vampire. It’s been a while since we last saw each other, but you seem to remember me nonetheless. I suppose we Strangers are hard to forget, aren’t we?”

  “You tried to trick me into following you into the Shadow Way and getting lost forever,” I said. “That’s kind of hard to forget.”

  “Good point,” said Timmy, folding his short arms in front of his chest. “But seriously, you didn’t believe I was actually going to harm you, did you? I just wanted to show you your mother again. That’s all.”

  That was a lie. Lucius had told me that Strangers liked to trick their victims into following them so deeply into the Shadow Way that they became lost forever. And that was the best interpretation of what Strangers did to their victims. Some people thought they did far worse things than doom their victims to an eternity of wandering the Shadow Way with no hope of ever escaping, but I didn’t like thinking about that.