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Lucius felt me tense so hard it felt like my bones would snap and the pain in my shoulder intensified.
“Easy, sweetheart,” he told me, making me grab onto his t-shirt, bunching it in my fist as I whispered,
“But this place...it’s...it’s,”
“I know where it is, love,” he told me stopping me from saying it and I looked to see if there was any pain in his eyes, where there seemed to be only deep rooted anger that was desperate to break free.
“Now put her down!” the witch demanded, and I looked over his shoulder to find a large arc of rogues all stood like silent sentinels, making me feel as if something wasn’t right with them.
“Lucius, all the Vampires, they seem...”
“I know,” he said with a tense lock of his jaw. Because it was as if he already knew where my thoughts were headed, and he shook his head telling me not to speak of it now.
“Put her down, Vampire!” the witch ordered again.
“No!” he snapped back on a growl, but then she started to raise her hand and said,
“Very well, another arrow should do it.” Layla clapped her hands as if this was the most fun she’d had in years...Gods, the bitch clearly needed to get laid if that was the case!
“NO! DON’T!” Lucius roared making the witch fold her arms and say expectantly,
“Well...”
“Fuck! Alright, alright just don’t fucking hurt her!” Lucius said, his panic clear to see as he started to lower my feet to the ground. Then he held me steady until I was able to stand on my own, something that made me feel lightheaded again.
“Now move away from her.”
“If I do that, she will fucking fall!” he snapped.
“Then she will fucking crawl to it! Now move it!” the witch demanded making him do as she ordered for fear I would get hurt again. He mouthed down at me,
‘It will be alright.’
“Now, walk towards the tree!” The witch ordered me this time and I had to say, I really didn’t fucking want to. The image of my nightmares coming back to me was enough to make me terrified to go anywhere near it. Lucius took one look at me and knew it. Which was why he started to argue,
“I fail to see the fucking point of all of this!”
“The Tree of Souls will show itself...you will see,” the witch replied in a certain tone.
“The Tree of Souls is a fucking Vampires’ fairy tale, it doesn’t fucking exist!” he snapped but I could see the witch’s grin from here, a flash of white beneath the hood.
“Don’t be so sure.”
“I have had my people searching for it for centuries, and nothing...trust me, I am fucking sure!” he snarled back folding his arms across his chest and looking as if he was close to splitting his t-shirt! He looked fit for murder and rage and total demonic execution. Meanwhile, I was left with no other option but to continue trying to make my way towards the tree I knew had taken Lucius’ human life. It was a haunting sight, that single dead tree all twisted and bare, looking more like the sun bleached bones of what used to be some Hellish beast reaching up out of the earth trying to escape damnation.
“Perhaps you weren’t looking in the right place,” Layla said getting in on the action.
“You think the first fucking place I looked wasn’t the place I fucking died and was resurrected...It’s. Not. Fucking. Here!” He growled forcing out each word and trying to make his point when releasing his wings as more of his demon erupted to the surface.
“Then, if you are right, no harm will come to her...now walk the rest of the way, Princess,” the witch told me, and I snarled myself at the name and cursed myself for stumbling as I did as I was told.
“Don’t you fucking move, Luc!” Layla snarled in warning as Lucius struggled to watch me trying to stay on my feet.
“Fucking foolish beliefs!” he snapped making her tell him,
“Or just the lack in them, for you will see, lover.” Now hearing her calling him this made me close to saying to hell with the rain of arrows, I wanted to rip her head off!
“The tree is nothing but a fucking relic!” Lucius’ demon was the one to respond this time.
“Then why is it still here, dead as it may be, but it is still here... even after all your attempts at destroying it...still here it stands,” the witch reminded him, letting me know just how Lucius had felt about it remaining after all this time. And he didn’t respond other than to growl at her because of it.
“No, it is your lack of faith that forced you to turn your back on your own past, and now you will see, all you needed was the right key...the blood of...”
“Shut the fuck up!” Lucius shouted, making the witch chuckle.
“What is she talking about?” I asked still making my way towards it and only a few feet away now.
“Nothing, she knows fucking nothing but lies!” he snarled, referring to the witch, but his tone suggested more panic than anger.
“My lies, oh Vampire...she has no idea the fucking lies you have told her...the same ones you have since the day she was born!” The witch snapped back making me frown in question just as I had no choice but to reach out for the tree trunk, as I fell into it.
“Lucius?” I whispered his name before asking,
“What is she...” suddenly I was cut off when he roared back at the cause of all our problems,
“SILENCE!”
But through his roar I stumbled back, falling further back against the tree, and looking up in horror as its large branches loomed above me, like twisted limbs of some monster trying to grab me, ready to tear out my soul and drag me back down to Hell. They were moving, swaying...or was that just me,
“Amelia?” I heard my name being called through the darkness of my nightmare, but I couldn’t see it. I continued to move, trying to free myself from whatever gripped me now, but it seemed useless!
“Amelia!” Lucius shouted my name this time, done so in panic and the second a blinding light erupted from beneath me, I screamed as suddenly I started to fall...no, not fall, but just like my fears, I was being dragged. Like the earth beneath my feet had started to crumble away, giving way to the roots of this tree that was pulling me under. They were like the hands of death wanting to claim its next victim and I was powerless to stop them.
Then I was screaming as I started to fall through the earth and beyond.
“NO!” I heard the scream of the witch in the distance above as I disappeared from sight and I closed my eyes as my heart dropped to my stomach! I continued to fall, screaming only one name,
“LUCIUS!” Then suddenly I felt a hand gripping my wrist as I was slowly being lowered to the ground. I wanted to ask myself who it was that gripped me so tight, but I was too afraid to open my eyes. But then my brain started to work past the fear of death and what I felt wasn’t bare flesh around my wrist...
But one of leather.
Lucius.
Lucius had caught me.
My eyes flew open to see him above me, my wrist in his hold with the great shadow of his wings above him. Then I felt my feet touching the ground and I looked down to see that he had lowered us into what looked like a giant underground cavern. Lucius followed me down until his feet were also on the ground and before I could ask what happened he pulled me in to his chest to hold m close.
“Gods, Amelia, my Khuba, my love... I could have lost you!” He sounded so torn and worried that I simply let him hold me, knowing that we both needed the comfort right then.
“I’m so sorry, Amelia...so, so, sorry.”
“What for, you didn’t...”
“For this,” he said and before I had time to react, pain exploded in my shoulder as he tore the arrow out, doing so in what I knew was most likely the kindest way possible. However, that didn’t stop me from screaming as the pain cut through me like a knife forged in the pits of Hell! I watched as he threw it to the side angrily, before taking hold of me once more. Then he started to shift my body around so he could reach my lips.
“Ssshh...calm, calm now, it is done, now here, I want you to drink.”
“But... I already ...took...” I slurred my words, feeling myself falling under and so close to giving way to the unconsciousness my body was craving. He had been right about the arrow, it had been slowing the blood loss.
“Ssshh, drink Amelia, it will make you feel better,” he said, and I soon found myself cradled in his hold where we must have slipped to the dirt floor. I heard the tear of flesh as he bit into his own wrist before I felt it being placed to my lips,
“Drink, Amelia,” he urged again giving me a little shake as my eyes had closed and my body started to slump in his hold.
“Drink!” This time when he shouted, he did so with panic in his tone which jarred me enough to do as I was told. So, I latched onto the opening in his wrist letting the blood gush into my mouth, doing so with so much flow I didn’t need to suck but only swallow. I opened my eyes briefly to see why this was as he was fisting his hand over and over again to get the blood pumping quicker, so I had no trouble feeding.
But then the moment I felt myself starting to heal came the next part that flooded my system. And with it a lot more than just fixing my body. It also became about the rush of my mind as it released a surge of dopamine, making me scream out as I came without even being touched. My brain continued to work overtime in producing a potent and effective recipe of different hormones and neurochemicals all creating a mind blowing experience.
I don’t know how many times I cried out his name or how long after I remained shuddering in his arms as my body came down from the high. But I felt him whispering tender words down at me as he stroked back my hair with his palm.
“And some say sex isn’t the key to a prolonged healthy life,” I said after I was feeling slightly less breathless. I felt him chuckle before scoffing an agreed,
“Fools.” I smiled before turning my head and shifting now so I could look at him. Thankfully, the colossal cave had a strange glow to it, as if something was reflecting off the rock walls I could see. We were both on the floor with me sitting in the spread of his legs as his back looked to be against a huge collection of boulders that reached up to the top of the underground cavern. It was like some naturally formed ladder or huge stepping stones up in a spiral.
“Ah, I see that was the safer route down then...as opposed to just falling.” He followed my gaze back up to the top and said dryly,
“Yes, so it would seem.”
“Lucius, all jokes aside here...what is this place?” Lucius looked around and took in the same space I did. It was a huge cavernous place and even though not exactly as big as The Son Doong, which was a cave in Vietnam and known as the biggest cave in the world...this would have been a contender for sure. Although, it was yet to be discovered how long it was, as Son Doong was over 5.5 miles long, had a jungle and river, and could fit a 40-story skyscraper within its walls!
This however was merely the first cave and up above was nothing but the roots of a tree that seemed too big and too plenty for what it had been above. They snaked and coiled over and over until it was a twisted mess of ancient roots all branching out in every direction. They then flowed down the walls of the far side, until you could only just barely see them beneath the tree.
“It was true, all this time,” Lucius muttered in awe.
“Lucius?”
“This is the Temple of the Tree of Souls,” he told me in a tone of astonishment, something rarely heard coming from Lucius.
“The place you said for centuries you have had people looking for?” He gave me a look that said it all,
“I might have lied slightly.”
“Only slightly?” I laughed,
“I have known about this place since my rebirth,” he admitted.
“Then why?” I asked with a shake of my head, relishing in the absence of pain in my shoulder.
“Because there was no way to access it, trust me, now that has been the centuries of trying part. I only knew of its existence.”
“So that’s why you never believed that this could be the place the map was leading us to?”
“Not until the blood proved it to be otherwise, for I knew it would be pointless. It was little more than a myth, and barely a memory for me. I am still unsure as to what it is exactly that is down here,” he admitted, and I would have pointed out that assumption was most likely leading to the possibility of a big tree of some kind. Which was why I asked,
“Then what is the Tree of Souls?” He released a deep sigh, rubbed a hand down his face and told me,
“The Tree of Souls refers to the tree you saw, the one that took my human life and changed history for all of Heaven and Hell and the beings born from such. Just as with Jesus’ death it changed humanity.”
“So, it’s symbolic, like the cross.”
“Of sorts, but there are those, like the witch, who believe the Tree of Souls to be a fable, a tale that speaks of unspeakable power for anyone who rules over it.”
“And that’s why she wanted access to this place, she believes it is down here?” I asked making him nod but then something said earlier came back to me, and I asked,
“Wait, you said barely a memory...you’ve been here before?” At this he looked awkward, as if he didn’t want to admit what he was being forced to. But considering our current circumstance, well he couldn’t really shy away from facts right now. He released a sigh and told me,
“It was where my body was brought after it happened.”
“What?!” I couldn’t help but screech, as he helped me off the ground.
“I don’t exactly remember much, Amelia, and that isn’t solely down to age, for try to remember that I was dying at the time.” I wanted to ask so many questions, but I didn’t know where to start, so he continued on for me.
“The witch, she didn’t know what would happen, for if she did then she wouldn’t have been ready as I was, as I merely remember rising through the ground, something I believed for years to be nothing more than dreams of warped history, twisted into something it was not. Now I know I was not only wrong, but I believe that those dreams were preparing me for this moment...so I would be ready and know what to do.” I thought on what he was saying and asked myself the same thing, if the dreams of him and the tree were somehow to prepare me?
“What did happen when I fell?”
“My blood combined with yours must have been the key and she knew it, which is why...”
“I didn’t really have to do anything but bleed under the tree...yeah okay, gotcha...so what now?” I asked looking back up at the rock formation that potentially we could climb, but there didn’t exactly look like there was a handy trap door up there and even if there was, the welcome party wasn’t of our choosing.
“I suggest we see where it takes us, look over to the far side, there seems to be a doorway.” Lucius nodded to a place too far away for me to see and my look said it all as he granted me a coy grin and said,
“Trust me, human, it’s there.” I elbowed him in the ribs for the comment, making him smirk. Then he took my hand and we started to cross the huge cave.
“Did you notice the rogues, how they all looked different?” I asked making him nod, now looking bleak when he said,
“She is more powerful than I thought possible in a witch.”
“What did she do to them?” I asked, hating that so far, she seemed impossible to beat.
“I don’t know how, but she has taken control over them completely, it is worse than we first imagined.”
“Oh great, more good news,” I grumbled in annoyance.
“Take some comfort in this, for if her plan has been to get down here all along, then she must be pissed now seeing as that didn’t happen. So, at the very least we had prevented what I assume to be the...”
“Grand Finale?” I finished off for him.
“Yes, or the part where she tries to fuck up the whole world by ruling over Vampires.” I shivered at the thought and forced myself to ask,
“You really think that’s her master plan...not to just kill them all?”
“After seeing how she has reduced the rogues to nothing more than mindless drones, then I am starting to lean heavily towards that conclusion, yes,” he said as he helped guide me over some of the bigger rocks. And as we got closer to the other side, I could see now what his vampire eyesight could see before mine.
There was an opening that looked to be man-made, but the details had long ago been lost due to the sides being consumed by the ocean of roots from above. It was almost like they were flowing down in waves, with the thicker roots entwined and coiled with the thinner vines. They all cascaded into the entrance now as if a vortex had sucked them through.
“Well, this looks welcoming,” I commented dryly, making Lucius grip my hand tighter in his as we passed through the doorway which looked at least ten feet tall. Then, just as the darkness started to consume our senses, flames erupted all around us as torches lit in carved holes. These were situated in the rock walls and each was framed by the root system, like little windows. The hallway was also the same height as the door, with the flickering light being closer to the root covered arched ceiling.
We continued down, both tense and ready for anything...however, like most things, when that ‘anything’ happened, neither of us was prepared for it. As the moment we walked through the opening at the end, something seemed to slam in between us both, forcing us apart and causing us to separate. I fell backwards landing on my ass with a grunt of pain that jarred my bones and I rose to my elbow, first having to shake my head to get my mind back into gear.
“Wh...what happened?” I asked, coughing first as the loose dirt had been kicked up around me from the compacted earth on the ground. I looked up to find Lucius on the ground which in itself set me into panic. So, I got to my feet and ran towards him, only to be met with the same invisible barrier that separated us both, slamming me back once more on my ass.
“No!” I shouted as I pounded a fist to the ground in my anger. And when I lifted my head, it was to find Lucius still on the ground, unmoving and,
For the first time...
Unconscious.