“No, Corrine. But I need to speak to Ibrahim right away.”
I heard Corrine calling for him and he came on the line a few seconds later.
“Sofia still hasn’t returned,” I said. “And she hasn’t arrived at Headquarters either. I think you were wrong about the Ageless. She must have come for her again. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Derek, I’ve communicated with the Ageless. She didn’t come for your wife again.”
“Then she’s lying!” I shouted, punching my fist through a cupboard door.
“I’m not lying, Derek.” A cool voice spoke from behind me.
I dropped the phone. Whirling around, I found myself face to face with the witch who’d stolen my life from me. Fury boiled within me on seeing her standing there, so calm and collected. It took all my willpower to not lunge for her throat.
“You!” I spat. “What made you deign to appear now?”
“You haven’t been cooperating,” she said bluntly. “You’ve neglected your mission of gathering up immunes and helping restore balance.”
Is she insane?
The insolent tone of her voice made me lose all control. A blaze of fire shot from my palms and flew right toward the witch. It set the end of her long silver robe alight. She mumbled a few words and water gushed out of her own palms, extinguishing the fire.
My chest still heaving with outrage, I tried to steady the shaking in my voice as I said, “Listen, you bitch. If you wish to continue standing there with that long hair of yours intact, you’d better rethink your attitude.”
“I thought that you had understood the importance of maintaining balance between…”
“Balance! Pray tell, exactly what is this ‘balance’, witch? Because I haven’t seen any semblance of balance here. Now that I think about it, the only balance I’ve witnessed is in your heavenly realm. Is that just a coincidence?” Fire reignited from my palms, forcing her to douse the cabin with water.
This time, to my surprise, the witch cast her head downward. I’d hardly ever seen her face express emotions. But I could have sworn that I saw a flicker of guilt.
Finally she cleared her throat. “We had never intended for things to get this out of hand.”
“What are you talking about?”
The witch sighed and took a seat in a chair. She motioned that I do the same.
The Ageless leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. “What I’m about to tell you has never been revealed to anyone from this realm before. It’s part of our kind’s ancient history. But first, close your eyes.” When I looked at her untrustingly, the only reassurance she gave me was: “You’ll understand why soon enough.”
I didn’t trust her, but I was so hungry to hear what she had to say, I decided not to argue. As soon as I shut my eyes, a strange vision appeared in my mind. I was looking down upon a vast range of black mountains that stretched out as far as I could see. There was not a hint of vegetation in sight, nor any other life for that matter, just miles upon miles of shades of black and grey. There appeared to be no sun, yet the sky, which was speckled with dark clouds, had an eerie reddish tinge.
“Where on Earth…?” I began to ask.
“Not Earth,” the Ageless said. “That is Cruor, a dead realm. It’s devoid of life, save for the hapless souls that have been kidnapped there. The Elders live like spirits within the bowels of the mountains.”
“What kind of evil are these creatures?”
“They have no physical form of their own. They are like parasites. Their very existence depends upon sucking life out of others. Blood is of particular value to them. They store blood and—even when they are not inhabiting a vessel and thus cannot drink it—they gain sustenance from it simply by remaining in close proximity. The blood of immunes is particularly potent…”
“Immunes,” I said suddenly. “How is Sofia a vampire?”
“Immunes on Earth are no longer immunes once brought to Cruor. They become too affected by the atmosphere of that realm to resist infection.”
“What are immunes? How did they come to be?” I opened my eyes briefly to see the witch shift in her chair.
“That is a long story… Close your eyes again.” This time the vision of a very different realm appeared. “Behold, Aviary, realm of the Hawks, or ‘Guardians’ as they like to call themselves.”
A harsh sun beat down on dense jungles. I’d always thought that our redwoods at The Shade were magnificent, but the trees of Aviary were three times the width. Swarms of bees the size of small birds buzzed around giant flowers. The place seemed larger than life, almost Jurassic. Wild four-legged carnivores the likes of which I’d never encountered before raced through the vegetation. Massive predatory birds crowded the skies. Finally, I spotted the Hawks themselves, muscular men and women whose features would have looked almost human, had it not been for their sharp beaks and black wings. I recognized them from when Arron had arranged for some to accompany us during the storming of The Blood Keep.
“Cruor and Aviary,” the witch continued, “have been enemies since time immemorial. Legend has it that the Elders of Cruor attacked Aviary to extract its life source. And the Hawks… well, they don’t forgive easily. They’ve been at war with Cruor ever since.”
“All right. But you still haven’t answered my question. What are immunes?” I said.
“There was a time, before I came to power, when Cruor posed its first threat to The Sanctuary. We… we didn’t want this looming over us. We struck a bargain with the Elders that we’d provide them with access to sustenance and in return they would leave us in peace. My ancestors used their magic to create gates between the vampire realm and Earth. To make the deal more attractive for the Elders, we also created ‘immunes’. We arrived at a potion that could be injected into a human’s bloodstream. It made their blood sweeter, but most of all, they were immune to being turned into vampires while on Earth. Their succulent blood could be consumed without fear of turning them. We created only a few thousand immunes, but with time those blood strands were passed on through the generations.”
My mind was beginning to reel at the sheer scope of the witches’ deception. Perhaps sensing my rage, the witch moved on. “So… now that we had pacified the Elders, we thought our problems had been solved. That was until Aviary turned on us and threatened to storm our realm for assisting their enemies. In their eyes, we had given Cruor an unfair advantage. Thus, to pacify the Hawks, we agreed to create their own gates to Earth, in order to maintain a balance between the two realms.”